Welcome to the T List, a newsletter from the editors of T Magazine. Each week, we share things we’re eating, wearingdo888, listening to or coveting now. Sign up here to find us in your inbox every Wednesday, along with monthly travel and beauty guides, and the latest stories from our print issues. And you can always reach us at [email protected].
Smell This
Scents Inspired by a Stylist’s Family MemoriesImageBy Sarah Durn
When the stylist Beverly Nguyen opened her Manhattan home and gift store, Beverly’s, in April 2021, she kept thinking of her grandmother who ran what Nguyen calls an “everything shop” in Vietnam. It carried snacks, drinks, beauty products and even refrigerators. “She transformed the space depending on what people needed,” says Nguyen, “and that’s exactly my ethos with Beverly’s,” which sells objects ranging from handcrafted ceramics to bamboo steamers. Now, a new line of three-in-one home, fabric and body sprays draws on Nguyen’s family history and her own early years in Orange County, Calif. One of the three scents, Dawn, which has hints of lemon, orange blossom and musk, is designed to capture the magic of 5 a.m. trips to the beach to watch the sunrise. Joy Ride, which has notes of sandalwood, white vetiver and leather, was inspired by excursions in the family’s Mercedes convertible. “My dad would be driving and my mom was in the front seat,” both dressed for work, says Nguyen. “Me and my sisters [were] in the back seat, messy and in T-shirts with the wind in our hair.” The final fragrance, Wedding, mixes frankincense and cedar and is intended to conjure, says Nguyen, “the ritual of going to church together.” Decorating the handmade Italian glass bottle is a wedding photo of her parents. For Nguyen, the collection is about “sharing more of my world with people,” she says. $65, available in-store at Beverly’s and online at atmosfragrance.com.
Go Here
The Resurgence of the Gay BookstoreImageLeft: the entrance to Charlie’s Queer Books in Seattle. Right: shelves at Hive Mind Books in Brooklyn are stocked with titles by LGBTQ+ authors.Credit...Left: Jo Sisodia. Right: courtesy of Hive BooksBy Melissa Kravitz Hoeffner
Gay bookstores — historically lifelines for the LGBTQ+ community before they were replaced by online booksellers — are back, with independent shops opening across the country. At Hive Mind Books, which opened in November in Bushwick, Brooklyn, customers quietly type on laptops at tables, surrounded by titles by and about LGBTQ+ people. A small cafe encourages lingering and community. In nearby Crown Heights, the Nonbinarian Bookstore, also established in November, sells donated titles exclusively by LGBTQ+ authors and also distributes free books. On the West Coast, the Seattle shop Charlie’s Queer Books, which opened in 2023, has romance shelves organized by queer identity flags, plus a range of queer fiction, nonfiction and kitschy souvenirs. Quotes from the author bell hooks and art with tag lines like “Be gay, read books” adorn the shop and a children’s corner features family-friendly LGBTQ+ picture books. Upstairs, a space with communal tables invites reading, writing and grass-roots organizing. In Florida, where there’s been a considerable uptick in book bans recently, Tallahassee’s Common Ground Books opened in August 2022, specializing in LGBTQ+ titles. Violet Valley, which opened in 2023, is a hub for queer and feminist titles in the town of Water Valley, Miss., while the author-owned Loudmouth Books in Indianapolis is centered around titles by queer, Black and Indigenous authors. In Washington, D.C.’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, Little District Books sells queer titles; the Little Fox Bookshop has been popping up around Portland, Maine; and soon, the Little Gay Bookstore plans to open in Columbus, Ohio.
Covet This
dafabet slotA Jeweler’s Take on the Stationery Box, Made in JapanImageLeft: an urushi stationery box designed by the jeweler Kim Dunham and made in collaboration with a Japanese box maker and urushi artist. Right: urushi at the artist’s studio in Yamanaka Onsen, Japan.Credit...Nik van der GiesenBy Jinnie Lee
Kim Dunham has long been infatuated with ancient handcrafted pieces. The jeweler founded her business eight years ago with gold signet rings — a style that goes back to the Mesopotamia era — that she engraved with mottos, monograms or symbols specific to her clients. The rings can also function as wax seal stamps, so when Dunham considered creating a complementary art piece, she ultimately decided on an urushi stationery box, released this week. Called the Ritual of Writing, the kit is made in collaboration with a traditional box maker and urushi artist, both based in Yamanaka Onsen, a Japanese town known for its hot springs and lacquerware. “I always travel with my notecards and envelopes and will often leave a note behind at a place that I’ve stayed, or with people that I’ve met,” Dunham says of her own writing ritual. Each box, hand-carved and coated in multiple layers of urushi (a lacquer derived from the sap of the urushi tree), takes four months to complete and is tied with a hand-braided silk rope known as kumihimo. Inside is a silver and onyx matchbox case designed by Dunham, wax sealing sticks and custom letterpress notecards and envelopes. “I appreciate that [the artisans] honor their craft and they don’t rush things,” Dunham says of the box-making process. “It’s all about taking a pause.” $5,900, kimdunham.com.
We are having trouble retrieving the article content.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Already a subscriber? Log in.
After all, how exactly can a pollster know who is “likely” to vote, and who therefore will be the focus of their results? There’s no one right answer, and every polling firm has its own strategy.
“I’m so grateful for this church,” Ryan Amodei, 28, told the congregation before a second pastor, Buck Rogers, baptized him in a tank of water in the sanctuary.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.do888
