Hi hi.
Agenda for today’s letter: frugal chic is a thing, creative director debuts, Demna’s Gucci and lessons in restraint.
I have real writing brain fog. A few months back, I decided I wanted to lean more into editorial work. I spoke about navigating career transitions at the time. Since opening myself up to opportunities, opportunities (surprisingly) have come.
I say, surprisingly because that isn’t always the way. My friend, the amazing fashion journalist, Divya and I have this conversation all the time. Sometimes, it can feel like desiring something somehow pushes it further away. I’m still trying to identify if there’s any rhyme or reason for this. Is there a correlation between how badly we want something and how quickly (or slowly) it shows up? Maybe.
Right now, it feels like what I’ve been wanting… might potentially want me back… (??) At least, that’s the story I’m telling myself as I pitch idea after idea. I’m genuinely excited about the pieces I’m working on, and I’ll share them with you once they’re published.
I’m also thinking of expanding on some of these themes here – they feel timely, and very Office-coded. Published work often leaves lots on the cutting room floor, whether by my own final edits or those of my editors. So, stay tuned for that one.
One last thing from me before we get into today’s letter: it’s that time of month again, where I record my monthly Ask Rach letter. So, if you have a question for me (ask-me-anything-style), or if there’s topic or theme you’d like me to cover, please ask way.
Okay, let’s get into things.
Have you heard, being frugal is chic now…
Well, I mean, here at the Office this has long been the case. I’ve been tracking the duplicity of our spending habits and the normalisation of over-consumption and luxury online for a while now (lest we forget Office fave Wealth Porn Woes from about a year ago).
But it seems frugality is finally taking centre stage in the cultural zeitgeist, thanks to TikTok creator Mia McGrath. Speaking to British Vogue last week, she described being frugal chic as “appearing very luxurious [but] underneath it all, she is very savvy about her money.”
For Mia, the frugal chic lifestyle centres around discernment and personal taste. Distinct from the usual messaging we get about money and saving, being frugally chic isn’t about not spending. It’s about spending with intention – aligning purchases with your values. In one TikTok, Mia shows how the frugal chic shop at M&S and Waitrose, but go for own-brand goods and whatever produce is on sale. “The frugal chic knows their quality is unmatched,” she quips.
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This is partly why the frugal chic aesthetic is exploding on TikTok right now. It reframes responsible spending in a way that resonates with Gen Z and millennial women. Of course, we like nice things. (We’ve all seen far too much of how the 1% live via #RichTok, luxury influencers and the like to be satisfied with a life of deprivation and restriction). Pair that with our collective hopelessness about the future and apathy towards personal finance, and the old adage “save for a rainy day” feels irrelevant.
And yet, there’s a turning of the tide. When asked for comment by British Vogue, Amy Francombe (Office fave) likened mass consumption to “the retail version of doomscrolling, bed-rotting or over-reliance on AI. It’s the pursuit of empty highs, quick hits with no actual satisfaction.” She elaborates more deeply in her Substack Amy Coded: “over-consumption is increasingly being seen as an inability to regulate your impulses.”
At a time when everyone is trying to sell us something, I’m very here for this wider conversation around discernment. As I wrote in my Klarna-maxxing letter:
“Our culture has equated wearing the right outfit, staying in five-star hotels, and dining out every other night with being cash-rich. But more often than not, excessive spending signals the opposite: a life abundant in goods but thin on actual liquidity.”
There’s a lot we can learn from Demna’s expert lesson in restraint…
We’re almost at the end of fashion month (Paris kicks off on the 29th). It’s been a big season for creative director debuts. Remember the designer musical chairs from late last year into this one? Many of those houses are now showing those first collections – from Bottega to Jil Sander to Chanel, Balenciaga, Versace, Margiela, Loewe, Mugler and Dior.
I’m never too deep in the runway lore, but apparently the vibes have been:
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