Stephanie Sy-Quia’s grandparents had a secret. A really big secret. When they met, her grandfather was a Catholic priest — and her grandmother worked for him. She's now written a novel based on their love affair, "A Private Man," and I interviewed her about it! www.thetimes.com/us/news-toda...

I contributed to this excellent issue! I wrote about Eileen G'Sell's rousing, galvanizing "Lipstick," an ode to the most conspicuous and controversial cosmetic.

This is giving me life.

Mae Colburn inherited her grandmother's collection of 632 wool skirts. Now, she's sending them back out into the world - starting with a hit gallery show at Brooklyn's Sudestada. I LOVED talking with her and her mom about it! raquellaneri.substack.com/p/what-do-yo...

"In 1987, Andrea Dworkin wrote of Wuthering Heights that 'we have not yet faced what Emily Brontë knew & said & showed' about the relationship between race, gender, sadism, power, & justice. Fennell’s WH makes it clear that we are still not willing to go and look." lithub.com/emerald-fenn...

The internet is full of garbage. Support something real www.awritersnotebook.org/subscribe

Watching LOVE STORY? Here's a piece I wrote about Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy's clothes, the bizarre ritual of dressing for public consumption, and the tyranny of personal style, for my newsletter raquellaneri.substack.com/p/what-do-ca...

This news abt the Washington Post makes my blood boil. While the newsroom prepared to lose A THIRD of its staff, Jeff Bezos & Lauren Sanchez were at Paris couture week, shopping for million-dollar gowns. Wrote abt that & fashion's relationship w/ evil here raquellaneri.substack.com/p/bad-clothe...

I have thought about the extraordinary A FLOWER TRAVELED IN MY BLOOD basically every day since I read it this summer. It's about grandmothers who stood up to Argentina's fascist government & fought to find the grandchildren who were stolen from them. Read it raquellaneri.substack.com/p/the-argent...

Garish colors, tacky lace, flamboyant muscle tees and hairy trompe l'oeil bodysuits ... why is fashion so hideous right now, and is there a way to dress with dignity as the world around us collapses? raquellaneri.substack.com/p/ugly-cloth...

I have been thinking about how pointless getting dressed & thinking about clothes feels right now, with *gestures wildly* ALL THIS. But then I saw this painting of an 80s babe wearing a kitschy sweater and ... wrote this raquellaneri.substack.com/p/does-fashi...

Robert Redford, 1936-2025 📷 John Dominus, 1969

NO ONE wore a coat like Robert Redford!

Has anyone ever worn a movie costume better than Robert Redford in his navy pea coat in Three Days of the Condor?

“It’s not just about the cake,” she says. “A good partner doesn’t take a special moment and make you look stupid.” www.thecut.com/article/groo...

This biography of Amelia Earhart was complex, scintillating and delicious. Loved it!

he Aviator and the Showman: Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage that Made and America Icon in a fine story by @raquellaneri.bsky.social in the New York Post @newyorkpost.bsky.social - will go to my corner bodega and get a copy. @vikingbooks.bsky.social nypost.com/2025/07/12/l...

no more posting about any of those “writing routines of famous writers” unless it’s Edmund White’s

There are so many ways in which Edmund White was remarkable. I want to point out two. The first is that he wrote about sex more, and more avidly and explicitly, than any other major gay writer. It was core to his identity. He left nothing out. He dared you to flinch at it. (I flinched many times.) >

Fascinating, probing, beautifully written piece (I did not know that the term "closet" came from Confidential Magazine!) that also has new photos by THE GREAT 93-year-old(!!) legend Duane Michals?!?!?!?!?!!!!

I'm grading papers and I need some music recs!!! Bach OBVIOUSLY is best for writing, but feel like it's not hitting the spot right now!

RIP Pope Francis, the public servant who drove Vatican tailors crazy with his 'papal athleisure' (Plus: "The Two Popes" costumes and the history of papal vestments) raquellaneri.substack.com/p/rip-pope-f...

Interesting article ... have been thinking a lot about language & identity as I am attempting to raise my child bilingual ... and also allowing myself to speak Spanish "imperfectly" (whatever that even means) www.thecity.nyc/2025/03/24/p...

THE GATES, Christo and Jeanne-Claude's monumental public art project in Central Park, opened 20 years ago. These two superfans obsessively documented the installation as it morphed and changed through its 16-day run. I talked with them about it: raquellaneri.substack.com/p/i-have-bee...

Daughter is very glad "the cat movie" aka FLOW won. (I am as well!)

This whole post is *chef’s kiss* but I nearly spit my drink out when I read “As a No Sabo Kid myself”! As the daughter of a Cuban mother who grew up speaking Spanglish … how have I never heard this? Brilliant - gonna start using all the time now. Also now I kinda want to see this movie? Lol

Wrote about Marianne Faithfull - singer, poet, sage, survivor and style icon who imbued everything she wore and touched with her "beautiful, wretched excess" raquellaneri.substack.com/p/marianne-f...

Ohhh! One of my greatest inspirations ... her music, her writing, her style, her honesty, her incredible strength, her beauty ... RIP, my queen!!!

It also seemed somehow simpler, pettier than that. What do these clothes say? I’m pretty. I’m popular. I’m rich. I’m a movie star (like Audrey Hepburn), a celebrity, and I have my pick of the finest clothes in the world. On the fashions at the inauguration raquellaneri.substack.com/p/it-creates...

We are living through Republicanism boiled down to its essence: Everyone should be deprived of everything, because otherwise, somebody I don't like might get something I don't want them to have. We call it an ideology, but it's really a personality: Greedy, withholding, suspicious, angry, cruel.

God help me I wrote about the fashions of the inauguration raquellaneri.substack.com/p/it-creates...

This is beautiful www.vulture.com/article/mary...

"I like Lays — original style — potato chips with the chicken sandwich. The chips are optional with the other sandwiches.”

As someone who binged the first two seasons of TWIN PEAKS and nearly lost my mind: listen to Mark!

❤️ 🥪💔

Also I once met David Lynch when I was a young scrappy assistant editor at Forbes. I asked him if I could interview him, and he said he would like to discuss his favorite sandwiches, and I said, "whatever you want!" Amazingly, Forbes let me publish it www.forbes.com/2009/12/21/f...

Underrated Lynch movie ... a beauty!

A man who loved & adored his actresses!!!!

He was singular, great, unflinching in his portrayals of societal rot & evil, & YET: so empathetic, generous w/ his characters, so attuned to the beauty & wonderful weirdness in the world. His films made me laugh, scream, cry. He astonished me. Even his weather reports were works of art. RIP 💔

Wait, Léa Seydoux wears a Fortuny gown in THE BEAST??? (Or at least a replica?) How did nobody tell me this??? @szacharek.bsky.social did you see this???

same

Rose Hartman has made a career chronicling the beautiful people (she snapped the iconic photo of Bianca Jagger on a white horse). Now, she photographs mannequins. I wrote about her photos of shop windows, and why these tantalizing displays hold such power raquellaneri.substack.com/p/dreams-on-...

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Saw MARIA ... gosh, Angelina Jolie is beautiful. That's about all I have to say about that!

I interviewed actress Kate Capshaw about ... painting! Her portraits depict the homeless, the marginalized, and the overlooked with clear-eyed empathy. She has a show at the Pérez Art Museum in Miami right now & was absolutely lovely to speak with news.artnet.com/art-world/ka...

Just a little reminder that the South Korean president who just declared martial law was elected two years ago on a wave of anti-feminist backlash. Misogyny is routinely part of the authoritarian package. www.bbc.com/news/world-a...

I met Armia Khalil for a story I did about the Met's employee art show. But this security guard actually has work in TWO current Met exhibits. I asked him about his monumental wood bust, "Hope," part of the show "Flight Into Egypt" on view through Feb. 17 raquellaneri.substack.com/p/the-met-se...

"But finally, it seems, women are coming to occupy the center of their own stories, even in the absence of verbal self-disclosure. Audiences are being asked to listen not just to what women have to say but to the complexity of the conversations they may be having only with themselves." Love this!

My story about the Met employee art show in print! 640 staffers from across all departments (security to conservation) contributed work to this dazzling show (I interviewed 7 of them). Up till Dec 1!