Greetings from the end of August (and thank god for it.)

This month will go down in my personal history as one of the longest, workiest months of all time thanks to several weeks of shoots for my book (!), never-ending strings of 100-degree days, a weekend of full-body stress hives, and a Pasta Girlfriend event (tonight!) that I just casually decided to throw into the mix. I’m feeling creatively fulfilled, overwhelmingly excited, and completely exhausted in equal measure.

But even still, this summer has been so, so fun. I probably (definitely) haven’t taken enough time to slow down and appreciate how cool it is that I am writing a book about parties, working on it with my friends, planning a group inspiration trip to Italy, and spinning plates for about ten other dream projects at the same time, but I’m trying. It’s my nature to always be onto the next thing, but especially this week, I’m just feeling so grateful for all of it.

Subscribe now

Let’s get into this month’s Specials.

Special No. 1: A Few Recent Pre-Fall Purchases

I’ve come to terms with the fact that one of LA’s few downsides is that, while everyone else will be unboxing their boots and de-pilling their sweaters in just a few short weeks, we’ll be over here trying to make flip-flops feel autumnally appropriate. Over the last couple of years I’ve gotten in the habit of reseasoning my clothes—that is, wearing the same things I wear all summer into the fall, but restyled to trick me into thinking that a chill in the air is just around the corner. (It’s not.)

I just got the Margot Dress from Sonderhaus in the mail, and rather than lament that summer’s almost over and therefore so is my window to wear floaty white dresses, my first thought was that it’s kind of perfect for layering under a jacket or pairing with a riding boot, isn’t it?

I also ordered the Iris Moiré Top from Simon Miller so I can feel festive as the holidays approach while still keeping my literal cool. I imagine wearing it with my Silk Taffeta Simple Pants from Donni (which I don’t think they sell anymore?) and a pair of patent leather Prada oxfords I found on The RealReal years ago (here in a size 7.5, an 8, an 8.5, and a 9).

And lastly, I need cute shoes I can walk several miles in for my trip to Italy next month, and I’m not much of a sneaker girl, so I just ordered a pair of mary-janes from Camper that hopefully will do the trick. They have something called OrthoLite insoles, which sounds just podiatric enough to be exactly what I’m looking for. (I will be carefully removing that branded tag with a seam ripper.)

Special No. 2: Speaking of Italy…

My first (and hopefully not last) À La Carte inspiration trip is less than a month away! Our itinerary in Milan and Turin is pretty jam-packed, but I’m taking an extra week to bop around on my own in Venice and Rome afterwards, so if anyone has any spots to share I can’t miss, I’d love to hear them! I’m specifically interested in tiny shops that have been there forever, well-curated vintage that isn’t exorbitantly expensive, and whatever else you guys think I might like that isn’t an ancient ruin. (This isn’t my first Roman rodeo, so we can skip the obvious. You know the vibe!)

Leave a comment

Special No. 3: I Landed On a Carry-On

Last thing on the travel front, in last month’s Specials, I asked you guys for recs for travel bags that slip over the handle of a suitcase, and there were two clear frontrunners in the comments: the Loeffler Randall Dina Tote and the Baggu Cloud Carry-On. I ultimately went with Loeffler’s because I trust everything does, and let me tell you, it really is a great bag. So many pockets! So lightweight! Not clunky to carry! Fits a ton! Thanks for the rec, guys.

Special No. 4: Celisse Nails It Again (...Sorry)

I’ve talked about my love for nail care brand Celisse many times—I absolutely can not stand getting my nails done at a salon, and Celisse’s quick-dry polish is the only thing I have the patience to use at home. (This is not an ad—I love this brand, and I only became friends with the team behind it after I started using it!) So, I’m here to report that one of their new shades, appropriately named Celisse Red, is the perfect shade of red—not red-orange, not a holiday red, but a happy, somewhere-in-the-middle red that I think probably looks good on everyone.

(By the way, someone in my comments once mentioned that their Celisse mani chipped quickly and implied I was a total hack for saying mine lasted ten days. To that, I say How dare you!!!, but I also say, let each coat dry fully for 2–3 minutes before applying the next one—that really works for me.)

Special No. 5: Kacy B [Croissant Emoji]

Are you familiar with the dulcet tones of food creator Kacy B’s cooking videos on TikTok? Kacy B is my new emotional support watch. Kacy B has the most calming voice of anyone on the internet. Kacy B makes whimsical snack plates that pair things like McDonald’s chicken nuggets and caviar. Kacy B loves a martini. Kacy B has a series called Pajama Pasta in which she makes pasta in her pajamas. Kacy B films every video she makes from the same spot in her kitchen each time. I’m not being facetious—I genuinely love watching Kacy B’s videos, one after another after another, in an effort to calm my brain and inspire my meals. It works! And my snack plates have never looked better.

Also, Kacy B just started a Substack, in case the written word is more your speed.

Special No. 6: Oh My God Shoes

I think I’m going to dive deeper into this trend next week, but have you noticed how many artists are making paintings of shoes lately? Adriana Gatagán, Lisa Larsson, Alli Conrad, Vivien McDermid, Meghann Stephenson… they’ve all semi-recently, and probably coincidentally, painted shoes. Maybe the Gnoli exhibit in New York this spring inspired a slew of artists to look in their closet for inspiration, or maybe it’s the rise of the artist-influencer (Anna Weyant made Vanity Fair’s Best Dressed List just this week) that’s brought us here. I’m not complaining—I’d love a giant pair of ballet flats on my wall!—but it’s just interesting, isn’t it? Maybe has something to say about it…

Special No. 7: We Need to Bring Back Bathroom Furniture

I’m always manifesting some version of my dream home—I genuinely believe it’s not an “if”, but a “when”—and my latest iteration involves antique furniture in the bathroom. I am really, really into the idea of storing towels in a beautiful old dresser, doing my makeup at a vintage vanity, or keeping a little wooden chair next to the bathtub for fun. Or better yet, completely enveloping the room in dark woodwork à la Jane Birkin’s Normandy apartment bathroom.

Special No. 8: Lip Service

I was already a fan of Eadem’s famous Le ChouChou Lip Softening Balm, but the real test was if it could get me through a dry, hot LA summer without chapped lips. And reader, did it ever. I can’t say enough good things about this balm, especially in the color Sakura Shaved Ice, which has the same pink tint as my forever favorite Dior Addict Lip Glow but with way, way more hydration. I’ve also been heavily spritzing their Mami Wata, a calming face mist, all over my face for weeks, and I really think it’s helped calm my extremely troubled skin.

Even better, Eadem shared the brand’s origin story on Instagram a few weeks ago, and it converted me from a fan to a loyalist. Founded by two best friends, both women of color who were let down by the beauty industry, Eadem was built with the belief that everything should be rooted in science, connected to their personal experiences, and tested on the full spectrum of skin tones so no one gets left behind. I think that intentionality shows through in everything they do, but specifically in their packaging—Le ChouChou uses an applicator typically used for undereye creams to get into the creases of your lips, and Mami Wata has the most satisfying atomizer that delivers a truly misty mist. (This isn’t an ad either.)

Special No. 9: Chessy’s Denim Shirt in The Parent Trap

I stumbled on this playlist called “Chessy’s Denim Shirt in The Parent Trap” the other day and, in an effort to pull myself out of a stress hole, I put my phone on DND, pressed “play”, and cleaned my kitchen. Do I feel better? A little. Did I feel like I was in a ‘90s rom-com, the part feat a montage of the workaholic female lead trying to reclaim her life? Absolutely.

Special No. 10: The True Originals

Like everyone with a heart, mine broke when I saw the news that Dolly Parton passed earlier this week. She was one of the last of the true originals, and every time we lose someone who shaped culture the way she has, we get closer and closer to a world without people whose taste wasn’t born from an algorithm. Dolly was a step ahead of everyone—she knew exactly what she was doing and why she was doing it, all while everyone around her made assumptions about her character and values based on her appearance.

“You don’t have to look like this—you’re very beautiful,” said Barbara Walters (eye roll) in an interview with Dolly Parton in 1978. “You don’t have to wear the blonde wigs, you don’t have to wear the extreme clothes, right?”

“No, it’s certainly a choice,” replied Dolly. “I would never stoop so low to be fashionable; that’s the easiest thing in the world to do.”

Sigh. Dolly forever.

If you’re coming to my party tonight at Silver Lake Pool and Inn, I’ll see you soon! Enjoy your weekend.

x

Ali

When I interviewed Annie in 2024, she was midway through construction on her Beverly Hills home, This Oak House. At that point in the process, her content on Instagram was primarily documentation of the zillions of tiny design decisions she was making every day, unboxing videos of antiques she found on her travels, and peeks at what would become the spectacular house she now lives in. Every Friday, Annie hosts an AMA to answer questions about everything from paint finishes to bedsheets to outdoor furniture and beyond, and over time, she’s become known as an open book of design references, sources, and hot takes. (As a fellow Very Opinionated Woman, those ones are my favorite.)

Now that This Oak House (the house) is complete—and really, it’s stunning—the brand has lived on, most excitingly through the release of Annie’s first book of the same name, out this September. This Oak House (the book) is one part instructive guide to home renovation and one part catalog of her own journey, from mood boards and floor plans to finished photographs of the house in its final form. I suspect that the book and its pages of resources will be just as useful for anyone on their own home reno escapade as Annie is herself.

Subscribe now

I was thrilled Annie was willing to come back on À La Carte to show us around her museum, selfishly because I was desperate to know her answers. So without further ado, welcome to The Museum of Annie Meyers-Shyer.

Starting in THE ENTRANCE HALL, the first thing Annie wants you to see: a rendering of This Oak House.

“I think the Entrance Hall would have to feature a rendering of the exterior of This Oak House. This Oak House encapsulates this chapter of my life. What began as a renovation project has become so much more: it changed my career, introduced me to an incredible community, and ultimately led me to write my first book. More than anything, it’s a reminder that it’s never too late to reinvent yourself. I thought I was renovating a house. Instead, I ended up building a completely new chapter of my life. ” — Annie Meyers-Shyer

Deserving of a forever spot in THE PERMANENT COLLECTION: her coffee table book collection.

“I’ve always believed that coffee table books should actually be opened. I collect books on interiors, gardens, architecture, entertaining, fashion, and photography, and I return to them over and over for inspiration. Every time I flip through one, I notice something I hadn’t seen before, whether it’s a color palette, the way flowers were arranged, or a room that suddenly resonates differently.

In many ways, that’s exactly the kind of book I hoped to create with This Oak House: one that people live with, revisit often, and continue discovering something new inside. My dream is that people will dog-ear my book and return to it over and over.” — AMS

THE UNIFORM that best represents Annie’s style:

“A crisp button-down from Marie Marot (or Donni if I’m feeling more casual), vintage denim, leather sandals from The Row, a straw hat from Lack of Color, and a great watch. I’ve spent enough years working in fashion to know that getting dressed is much easier when you have a uniform.” — AMS

THE EVERYDAY OBJECT, something ordinary that deserves a spot in the museum: floral shears.

“I have them in multiple rooms because I’m constantly clipping something from the garden. I think flowers are probably the highest return-on-investment decorating purchase you can make. They don’t have to be expensive—a few branches from outside can completely change how a room feels.” — AMS

THE EARLY INFLUENCE, the signal of the beginning of Annie’s taste: her childhood home.

“Before I knew anything about design, I understood how a home could make you feel. Ours was warm, welcoming, and full of life. It especially sparkled at the holidays. I miss that house and I often thought of it while working on TOH.” — AMS

THE BEAUTIFUL THING, or something Annie loves purely for its beauty: pottery.

“I’m very drawn to handmade pottery, especially pieces by Frances Palmer, Amanda Moffat, antique pieces, and anything from La Tuile à Loup in Paris. I love that pottery is meant to be picked up, filled with flowers, served from, and lived with. To me, that’s the most beautiful kind of object.” — AMS

THE MUSE, Annie’s current fixation: the idea of intentional living.

“I’m in an incredibly fast-paced season of life. The days aren’t long enough, and I feel like I have whiplash half the time. The idea I’m most obsessed with right now is slowing down. Setting the table on a Tuesday, arranging flowers from the garden, lighting candles before dinner, opening the windows in the morning. None of those things are expensive or complicated, but they completely change how a day feels.

The older I get, the more I’m drawn to creating a life that’s a little slower and a lot more intentional. Taking a bath at night. Reading. Knitting. Working on a puzzle. Those are the things that fill my cup. But I’ve also realized that slowing down doesn’t mean doing less. My cup is fullest when it’s being filled by my family, meaningful work, creativity, and those quieter rituals too. It’s the balance I’m after.” — AMS

THE SENTIMENTAL ARTIFACT, or the piece in the collection with the most emotional meaning: her father’s handwritten notes.

“After my father passed away, I realized handwriting is almost like another person’s voice. They’re ordinary pieces of paper, but I’d choose them over almost anything I own. They remind me that the things we treasure most usually aren’t the most expensive ones.” — AMS

Stop by THE GIFT SHOP for something to remember your visit by: a small vase.

“I think every house should have one. You don’t need an elaborate arrangement. One branch from the yard or a single flower from the grocery store is enough to make a room feel alive.” — AMS

THE FUTURE ACQUISITION, something you’ll see in the museum someday: a new piece of art.

“I’m currently looking for a new piece of art, though I haven’t figured out exactly what it will be yet. I’m circling a few possibilities, including an interior by the French painter Anne-Françoise Couloumy and a landscape by the Australian painter Peter Boggs.

I never buy art to fill a wall. I wait until I find something I genuinely can’t stop thinking about. For me, the best pieces are the ones that pull you back every time you walk past them. Those are always worth waiting for.” — AMS

Annie, thank you for showing us around! For more from Annie, be sure to preorder her book, This Oak House, out next month.

For one-on-one consults with Annie (once she’s on the other side of her book tour), visit her website. And tune in on Fridays to This Oak House (the Instagram!) for endless inspiration, hot tips, and more from Annie’s beautiful world.

x

Ali

LA! I’m having a big party in Silver Lake on Friday, August 28th!
Pasta, cocktails, and sunset views. Details and tickets here.

Subscribe now

I think most designers (or just anyone aware of color trends) can relate to the fixation-to-visceral-rejection pipeline a color can take. It’s like when you eat Greek yogurt every morning for breakfast and then suddenly, without warning, your trusty 2% Fage is utterly revolting. Sometimes that shift comes from overuse, a negative association or memory, or the color’s place in the trend cycle at any given moment. For me, when it comes to pink, it’s all of the above.

I worked at a brand called ban.do from 2012 through 2020, where I started at 22 as a graphic designer and left at 30 as the creative director. (I could write essays about my time there, but I’m saving it all for the memoir, as they say.) If you remember ban.do in its heyday, you probably remember a brand bursting with color, quippy-now-cringey sayings (“Not without my coffee!”), and lots of things shaped like other things (pool floats shaped like soda cans, stress balls shaped like croissants, and so on). It was playful, tongue-in-cheek, and of-the-time. It was also very, very pink.

The Pantones we had on regular rotation are burned into my memory: 806 C, a cool-toned neon pink, for our packaging in the early days; 706 C, a powdery blush, for our first collection of yoga accessories; and 176 C—Millennial Pink at its finest—for just about everything else. By the time I reached my eighth year at the brand, I was over it. I got the color ick. So when I left my job, I left pink behind, too.

Which brings us to this year, when, as many of you know (because I won’t stop talking about it), I ended up with 8 by 10 feet of a hot pink rug beneath my feet after months of searching for just the right thing. It was a move that shocked even me—almost everything in my apartment is a shade of brown or cream, and I wasn’t sure it even made sense, but it felt right. I kept coming back to Luis Barragán, the famous Mexican architect whose homes were equal parts rustic folk art and surfaces painted in swaths of bright color. Barragán’s house and studio in Mexico City has stayed with me since I first visited in 2018, and I often think about how his wood tones and stone floors successfully coexist with a bright yellow ceiling and hot pink walls. Something about this pink rug felt aligned with a Barragán-ian sensibility, and that was enough for me to take the risk.

We all have those things—a color, a pattern, a scent—that remind us of something specific, like a distant era or a person or a place. But I think it’s in our best interest to open ourselves up to the possibility that we don’t have to ban something—even Millennial Pink—for the rest of our lives; we just have to recontextualize it. Color isn’t a binary thing—something doesn’t have to be either neutral or colorful, and you don’t have to be someone who wears color or doesn’t. If I can rehab my relationship with pink, the same is true for the pops of red you amassed in your closet two falls ago or the butter yellow duvet cover you bought on a whim.

A few tricks to undo the ick:

I surround the color with neutrals.

The simplest way to introduce a color into (or back into) your life is to choose just one instance for that color to exist in an otherwise neutral space. The pink rug is a good example of this—almost everything else in the room is wood or white linen, so it can peacefully breathe without needing to complement anything around it. I have a pair of pink Yuni Buffa flats that I love, but I only ever wear them with neutrals, like my J. Crew khakis or my Donni sheer cargos in black—it’s just how I feel most comfortable.

I think about texture.

Sometimes it’s the combination of a color and a texture—for me, shiny pink plastic—that’s the issue, and by being more intentional about that combo, you can break through the negative association. Pink is obviously so sweet, so by balancing it with something like leather or wood or mohair, it can be pulled into another tonal territory, one that’s a little more interesting. I bought a Valesque bag earlier this summer in a perfect petal-y pink (sold out, but more colors here), but the reason why I like it is because of its thin, black leather handle. If the handle were made of the same material as the body, or if it were something like silver metal or a gold chain, it would feel too girlish for me, but that contrast really works wonders.

I get weird with color combinations.

Millennial Pink is doomed when it’s paired with light blue, mint green, or lavender—2016 killed those color combos, and I don’t know that they’ll recover in my lifetime. But like texture, sometimes it’s the unexpected pairing of two colors that creates the contrast you need to make a color feel new again. Combining dark brown and hot pink has become a go-to for me, personally—it’s not something I would have done ten years ago, and now I can’t stop. Sometimes I like to think of a particularly “icky” color, like a yellowy beige or a trash green, and see if it works when paired with a non-icky color, like a bubblegum pink. I’m often pleasantly surprised.

I think it’s good to revisit our visual proclivities once in a while. Allowing art and design and passing trends to influence you a bit isn’t a bad thing—it’s what keeps things interesting. Who knows what innocuous thing I currently hate will become my entire personality next year! But if you too have gotten sucked into a color trend, or maybe you just went through a phase, hope is not lost.

x

Ali

LA! I’m having a big party in Silver Lake on Friday, August 28th!
Pasta, cocktails, and sunset views. Details and tickets here.

LA! I’m having a big party in Silver Lake on Friday, August 28th!
Pasta, cocktails, and sunset views. Details and tickets here.

A couple of years ago, on a solo trip to LACMA, I watched a toddler beeline it, sticky fingers first, towards David Hockney’s Mulholland Drive: The Road to the Studio (1980). The look on his mom’s face was equal parts horror and…

Read more

Subscribe now

Read more

The dream of a cookbook club all started three summers ago when I decided I wanted to learn to be a better, more at-east host. I had just added a (now dead) olive tree to my patio and was having fantasies of friends dropping in for a glass of rosé just as the sun was going down on a random Wednesday. But I also wanted to become a better cook (beyond my typical repertoire of vegetarian pastas); I think cooking for people is such an act of love, and I wanted to get more comfortable in the kitchen.

So I posted an Instagram story to Close Friends asking if anyone would want to start a cookbook club, and the rest is history. Every time I share photos from one of our dinners I get a slew of DMs from people asking how it works and wondering how they can start one too, and it’s happened enough times now to warrant a newsletter outlining exactly how it all works. And this is that newsletter!

Read more

Read more

This summer, I’m back with a new reality TV house many of us know like it’s our own: the Summer House house. I cannot think or talk about West and Amanda for even one more second, bu…

Read more

Read more

I spent the first half of this week in Saugatuck, Michigan, a place I had never heard of until I got invited on my very first press trip to Michigan’s “art coast”. Chicago-based interiors firm Soucie Horner purchased The Wickwood Inn in Saugatuck a few years ago, then completely restored and revamped it into this antiques-filled paradise for anyone who …

Read more

Come to Italy with me! I’m leading an inspiration trip to Milan and Turin in the fall, and I think you should come. More details here.

Welcome back to The Museum, a new-ish column on À La Carte that hands us a map to a gallery of the objects, ideas, and references that make up a person’s life, from the entrance hall to the gift shop. My next guest is som…

Read more

Read more

Read more

Read more

Subscribe now

Read more

So as a follow up, I’ve put together curated edit of items inspired by each of those themes. It’s a bit of a grab bag! There’s a selection of Prada-inspired taffeta (including a few vintage and secondhand Prada pieces under $300), an assortment of pre-internet interior design books that beat any Pinterest board, vases and baskets galore for all your unruly floral arrangements, and more. Some of my best-ever The RealReal finds are in there, too. It’s fun and a little chaotic—go wild.

Read more

Read more

Hi! I’m taking a week off from the newsletter this week (my first skip ever!), and while the unceasingly competitive side of me is bummed to break the streak, I need to buy myself some time to finish my book manuscript! So, as consolation, I’m giving everyone a free month of access to the À La Carte archives. That’s three years of newsletters to dig thr…

Read more

I’ve been making a little extra effort lately to look to things of the past—women with style, homes with history—for inspiration over what’s being algorithmically fed to me. It’s more interesting to me right now not to go straight to the Alexa Chungs and the Architectural Digests of the world and in…

Read more

Hey, do me a favor! There are so many (great! lovely! well-written!) newsletters out there, and I want to make sure this one’s the best it can be. Fill out this quick survey for me and I’ll love you foreve…

Read more