When Inspiration Becomes Instruction
June 26-28
Venice
Friday
Emi Jay Spritz Stop
Stop, spritz, summer. Receive a free aura hair + body mist of your choice while supplies last.
Friday
Chaotic Singles Love Island Party
Expect island cocktails, epic games, chaotic confessionals, and a moment where we'll gather 'round the firepit.
Saturday
Cuyana X Faherty Block Party
An afternoon of shopping, sips from Avaline x LEORA, and special experiences that take you through both locations, with exclusive surprises waiting at every stop.
Friday-Sunday
The Vintage Marché Trunkshow
A vintage trunk show with hundreds of vintage pieces from The Vintage Marché archive.
West Hollywood
Saturday
The Opening of The Patio on Sunset
Coffee, treats, music, and good company to celebrate the opening of The Patio on Sunset.
Saturday
Midnight Crafting
MSY Collective and Charmed LA are hosting a cozy evening of charm-making, crafting, and community.
West Adams
Sunday
Buji X Rep. Club
Celebrate Buji LA’s grand opening with Buji bevs, Stript + Buji merch, and all the vibes you’ve been waiting for.
Hollywood
Sunday
R&B and Ribs
R&B and Ribs is bringing its day party to Los Angeles at The Whitley, featuring good food by Swoops by Stella, dope DJ sets, and a laid-back no-VIP, no-table-service atmosphere.
Koreatown
Sunday
LA’s New Favorite Flea Market
Denada is launching its monthly flea market bringing together local vendors, pizza, coffee, DJs, clothing, dogs, and more.
Downtown
Saturday-Sunday
Fashion X Futures Pop-Up
A two-day curated shopping experience celebrating Fashion x Futures’ one-year anniversary in Los Angeles.
Saturday
333:Pottery & Jazz Night
A community-centered evening featuring live jazz, poetry, journaling, dancing, and performances from local artists.
Saturday
Good Boy & Friends
A big day-to-night festival with 70+ wine producers, food from LA restaurants, beverages, live music, art, dogs, exclusive partner activations, and an open-table game setup from Deuce.
Saturday
Hellstar X Amboy
Family Style Food Festival is bringing Hellstar x Amboy to LA State Historic Park for a day of exclusive merch, food, and festival fun.
Highland Park
Saturday
Songs, Spells & Storybooks
An event inspired by one of everyone’s favorite early 00’s movies, Ella Enchanted.
Frogtown
Sunday
Justine’s x Flourbelly Pasta Club
Justine’s Wine Bar and Flourbelly Pasta Club are hosting a pasta pop-up featuring fresh pasta, fine wine, and a little jazz.
Boyle Heights
Friday
Synoptico
A large-scale contemporary dance and video art experience performed atop a giant floor projection that transforms beneath the performers in real time.
Multiple Locations
Saturday
0627 Trailheads
A relaxed morning on the trail followed by light bites, beverages, exciting giveaways, and plenty of time to meet new people and connect with the community.
When Inspiration Becomes Instruction
It’s been four months since Love Story premiered, but if I had a dollar for every “How to Dress Like Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy” video that still crosses my feed, I could afford every authentic piece from CBK’s actual wardrobe.
Everywhere we look, someone is teaching us exactly how to become someone else. How to dress like Carolyn. How to decorate like Nancy Meyers. How to host like Ina Garten. How to build a Ralph Lauren-inspired home. How to order Nobu like a regular.
To be clear, I’m absolutely not immune. My Pinterest boards are as full as yours. My TikTok feed is a curated stream of “how to get the look,” “where to buy the look” and “five items you absolutely need to create the look” videos.And in all fairness, people have always pulled inspiration from outside sources: magazines, pop culture and even the people around them. I’m talking long before “Get Ready With Me” videos took over, if we can even remember that far back. The difference is that previous generations were given juuust enough inspiration. We, on the other hand, are given full-blown blueprints.
Meaning, there used to be space between seeing something you loved and recreating it. Space to interpret it, make it your own and add your own personality. Now, we’re handed exact outfit links, products, paint colors, restaurant orders and routines. It’s like the internet became one giant answer key. Instead of inspiring us, it’s prescribing us, and it makes me wonder if somewhere along the way we stopped developing our own taste.A few weeks ago, we talked about the difference between building a life and performing one. About whether you’d still wake up early to run, write, volunteer, train or pursue the thing if nobody was watching. This feels like the natural next question: When was the last time you discovered something before someone recommended it to you?
Just the other day, I had to stop myself before swiping my card for an expen$ive handbag (emphasis on the $) and ask myself if I loved it or if I’ve just seen it so many times that my brain eventually surrendered to it. And while we’re at it, do I genuinely like this couch, or has my algorithm just shown it to me seventeen times a day for the last six months?
I obviously believe that the things we gravitate toward reflect our taste to some degree. But, maybe the better question is: What would we choose if people on social media didn’t choose it first? What would your wardrobe look like if there weren’t a million videos warning you that your skinny jeans and ankle socks are outdated? What would your home look like if you couldn’t search “Old Money Coastal Grandmillennial Nancy Meyers Ralph Lauren Summer House”? Would you still buy art from Anthropologie, or would you hang a watercolor painting you bought in Prague because it reminds you of a magical week you’ll never forget?
And before anyone points out the obvious: businesses in Los Angeles are practically built on recommendations (like ours). But the problem with imitation is that eventually everybody ends up eating at the same places, wearing the same things, decorating with the same inspiration pics and taking the same trips.
This is why we’ve never been about just handing you another instruction manual. Yes, we recommend a lot of things on here. Restaurants. Hotels. The occasional Neutrogena product. But we’re a Friend sharing only what works for us, not a formula for you to follow.
Our hope is to give you interesting places to start based on experiences we’d share on our Friends’ couches over Love Island. The rest—the places you return to or skip, the hidden gems you find on your own, and opinions you form—that part belongs to you. We want our recommendations to spark curiosity, not replace it.
Which is why a Friend’s recommendations hold so much value over online influence. One tells you what you should love, while we say “I think you’ll like this”, then let you decide for yourself.
Because recommendations were never meant to replace your own taste. They’re an invitation to help you discover it. And thank the Erewhon angels for that, because how boring would it be if we all liked exactly the same things?And while super well-intentioned, I’ve even found that our attempts to become more interesting have become formulaic. Our Friend Tinx famously encourages her followers to read articles. Not self-help books or blogs. Real magazine features...op-eds...long-form journalism, current events...stories outside our own lives. Her explanation is simple: reading widely gives you more to think about and more to talk about. And she’s right, but some of the responses she’s shared have both amused and terrified me. There’s a lot of: “Love this! What topics am I supposed to be looking for?”
Even curiosity has become something we want instructions for. Becoming a more interesting person has become another “aesthetic” to optimize with a checklist. (Read these five publications + Consume each day = Become interesting).
But that’s not really how interesting people become interesting. They don’t read because somebody told them it would improve their social skills. They read because something catches their attention and they’re genuinely curious.Becoming more interesting is just a side effect.
In a world of endless influence, we’ve lost some of our ability to sit quietly with our own curiosity. So the challenge becomes figuring out how to become more yourself. How to cultivate preferences and opinions that didn’t come from an algorithm. How to buy art because it moved you and get dressed without consulting online trends.
Even longtime style influencer, Arielle Charnas joined the Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy style conversation with valuable insight rather than another outfit breakdown: her style worked because she wasn’t chasing an aesthetic or outfit formula, she was simply wearing what made her feel confident with pieces she naturally loved to move through her days in.
I think that’s actually the thing worth copying: the confidence to decide for yourself.And as for spots in Los Angeles that are genuinely great (not just currently popular)? Don’t worry, we’ve always got you covered there.
And if you’ve caught us saying a place was just okay lately... also intentional. We’d rather be the Friend who tells you our truth than add to the internet noise insisting every meal was life-changing.
And, of course, the final verdict is always yours.
— Your Friend