Weekend Edition #20: Is the baseball cap the new handbag?

(And hi to new subscribers!)

Hello!

I’d like to welcome the new readers who found me via

Sarah Shapiro

. I’m so happy you’re here! Sarah’s newsletter about the latest retail, merchandising, and fashion trends is one of my favorites, and I was thrilled when she shared my post about the unexpected red theory.

A bit about me: I studied the history of dress at the University of Virginia, combining courses in the drama, art, and history departments, and then joined the merchandising training program at Abercrombie & Fitch as my first job after graduation. I’ve worked for big apparel companies ever since, trying to figure out what to make that people want to buy and wear :)

In this newsletter, I write weekly about how art, design, and fashion function in the world. If you’d like to explore some of my previous dispatches, check out Weekend Edition #16, where I explore whether shopping could be considered a modern-day religion, Weekend Edition #15, about a tale of two sweatshirts, and Weekend Edition #13, about the history of the ban…