Fashion Five: Everything is an Accessory, Looking Chic on a Budget, Rajiv Surendra's Gold Bangles, Eddie Huang on Throwing Fits, the $87k Nike Sneaker, and Spring Fit Inspo
Every Sunday, I’ll share five ideas and content usually focused on fashion and menswear.
Hi all!
In case you missed it, last week was my 28th birthday, and to celebrate, I wrote a special edition of the newsletter!
It feels good to be back to the regular cadence this week.
Inspired by my good friend and roommate, Rishi, I've been thinking about how everything is an accessory.
Everything is an Accessory
My freshman year at Waterloo was 2015, right at the peak of the hackathon era. Looking back, college hackathon culture was crazy. You could travel all across North America for free because the hackathons would cover your expenses. We’d stay up for 24+ hours building apps, websites, and robots.
One clear sign that you were part of this culture was a laptop decked out in hackathon stickers. We collected them like Pokémon badges. If someone’s laptop was covered with stickers from UPenn’s PennApps, Stanford’s TreeHacks, Michigan’s MHacks, or our very own Hack the North, you knew they were a cracked engineer, you wanted them on your team.
Hackathon culture was quite the era, but it started cooling off by the late 2010s.
Lately, inspired by my friend Rishi, I’ve been wanting to deck out my laptop again. Right now, it’s completely bare, but I want to change that. I already have a few ideas: definitely a One Piece sticker, I gotta rep my company, a Toronto Raptors sticker. What’s my favourite movie? Ou how about a Studio Ghilbi sticker. I’m getting hyped just thinking about it.
What I love about fashion is that it’s a way to tell your story without saying a word, and it goes way beyond just your clothes.
I like to think that everything you carry is an accessory: your bag, your watch, your phone case, your laptop, even your water bottle. Each one is an opportunity to express yourself and tell your story.
Anyways, onto this week’s Fashion Five!
I) Looking Chic on a Budget
I came across this excerpt from Elsa Perretti for Photoplay Magazine from 1936.
The message resonates. You don’t have to drop racks to look good. Instead, buy high-quality, timeless essentials. And wear them often.
II) About My Gold Bangles - Rajiv Surendra
I first saw Rajiv Surendra in Mean Girls, where he played Kevin G, the rapping mathlete. Since then, he’s reinvented himself as a modern-day renaissance man.
His YouTube channel has become one of my favorites.
In this video, he shares the beautiful story behind the gold bangles he always wears, reflecting on his relationship with his mom and the cultural significance of gold in Indian and Sri Lankan traditions.
It’s a perfect example of why I love fashion; the pieces we wear aren’t just objects; they carry stories.
III) Eddie Huang on the Throwing Fits Podcast
I still remember the first time I saw Eddie Huang on an episode of Huang’s World on Vice. At the end of the episode, he cried over red-braised pork, talking about how he felt disconnected from his Taiwanese roots in America, and this dish was a symbol of home. I connected with him instantly. He was like an Asian Anthony Bourdain.
Eddie is a chef, writer, entrepreneur, and director, to name a few. The ABC show, Fresh off the Boat is actually based on his memoir of the same title.
Eddie quickly became one of my biggest inspirations. I read Fresh Off the Boat and later, Double Cup Love. He didn’t speak like the stereotypical Asian characters I’d grown up seeing. He carried himself differently. I had never seen someone who looked like me on screen, but also acted in a way that felt so raw and unfiltered.
Listening to him now feels surreal because I think about where I was when I first discovered him — my first year of college, back in 2016. I still remember visiting New York for the first time in 2018 — my first stop was BaoHaus, his restaurant. Now, nearly a decade later, I’m living in the same city. In some strange way, I feel like I’ve followed a similar path.
Recently, he appeared on the popular menswear podcast Throwing Fits. It was a fun listen — he talks about his upcoming documentary on the fall of Vice, and moving back to NYC after a few years in LA.
IV) You’re Not Supposed to Get It
In 2005, streetwear designer Jeff Staple was commissioned by Nike to design a “New York City” shoe.
His team initially suggested obvious symbols like the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building. But Jeff had another idea: base the design on a pigeon. His team pushed back as pigeons were seen as “flying rats.” Who would want to wear a shoe inspired by one?
But the idea stuck with Jeff, and eventually, the team came around.
When he pitched it to Nike’s executives, they didn’t understand it either. Why a pigeon? Jeff explained: They weren’t supposed to get it. If a room full of executives in Portland, Oregon did get it, then he had failed. The sneaker was meant to be an if you know, you know sneaker made for New Yorkers.
The Pigeon Dunk ended up selling out and even sparked riots and widespread media coverage across New York City when it dropped ushering in the era of the hypebeast sneaker.
V) Spring Fit Inspo from @thisguykirk
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I’d love to hear some quick feedback on what you enjoyed and what you would like to see more of.
See you again next week,
<3 James