Carly is back with the latest installment of Carly’s Cut. I can’t believe we’ve been doing this column for over a year now. You can read her last one here. If you are new here, Carly is The Stripe’s Creative Projects Manager. She has such great taste that I wanted to give her a monthly column. Think of her as our younger buddy, telling us what we should know about.
I was a woman about town in August! And by about town, I mean anywhere but Charleston. Grace and I have joked that we’ve barely seen each other this summer. Between her writing retreat, getaways to New York and LA, and family vacation, we’ve been living on opposite schedules. August kicked off a slew of travels for me, which is something I love to do in theory but inevitably find myself stressed by in practice. I booked back-to-back trips to New York, Mallorca, and Seattle, and while I’m incredibly grateful for the flexibility to see the world, I’m already thinking longingly about fall in Charleston and the comfort of settling back into a steady routine.
I’m making the most of these final remnants of summer, but I’m ultimately think I’m ready to say adios to this endless heat wave and the long, lingering days that come with it.
Carly’s Cut, Vol. 13
Shopped //
I’m writing this from the nail salon the night before my week away in Mallorca (!!) and, as a shocker to absolutely no one, I still haven’t packed. I’ve shopped, I’ve organized piles, but nothing has actually made it into my suitcase yet. The hesitation comes from my sheer anxiety about fitting a week’s worth of clothes, shoes, accessories, and toiletries into a carry-on suitcase. I’ve never managed to do it before, and I blame my mother. Overpacking is genetic, right?
Even so, I’m excited to flaunt around in slip skirts and bathing suits all week. For someone who loves to layer, I’m oddly drawn to the idea of a beach-adjacent vacation. Maybe it’s because I don’t elect for them often, but when I do, I go all in. I’ve been saving outfits for weeks (because everyone else on the internet is apparently also traveling to Mallorca this summer) and am really looking forward to styling some pieces, new and old, in ways I wouldn’t dare in Charleston. In the last volume of Carly’s Cut, I shared some pieces I was eyeing, along with a few that I had already bitten the bullet on. This volume includes a roundup of the honorable mentions: the pieces I’m really excited to wear and the ones that were ordered at the final hour.
I was really hoping to score a pair of Thistles sunglasses, but unfortunately, they’ve been sold out everywhere for quite some time. After some Google reverse-image searching, I stumbled across this pair from new-to-me brand Jimmy Fairly. Sadly, they wouldn’t have made it in time, so I landed on this pair from Zara instead. When I bought them, I couldn’t stop imagining how cute they’d be with a vintage crochet cover-up that I just snatched from Shop Vintage Collection (close to this one) and these flip-flops from Tory Burch that are currently on major sale.
I’ve been dreaming about strutting around in this ruffled bikini top from Oddli paired with the matching swim shorts during the day, then trading them in for this pointelle skirt at night. Can’t you see it with these PVC wedges from Maryam Nassir Zadeh? Sadly, my Nu Swim board shorts won’t arrive in time, which is such a shame because I was really hoping to pair them with this woven top from Zara and a little bag I’ve had that looks similar to this mini tote.
Watched //
I would consider myself the luckiest girl in the world to have gotten the chance to see Meg Stalter star as Mary Todd Lincoln in Oh, Mary!. Regardless of who is cast in the lead, this play is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Cole Escola, the show’s writer and original Mary, has crafted some of the most singular humor I’ve encountered onstage, and it was a genuine privilege to bear witness to their masterpiece.
Unfortunately, if I share any information about the plot, I would completely ruin it for anyone who still hasn’t had the chance to see it. Just know that I truly have never laughed harder in my entire life. If you’re debating seeing it soon, you absolutely cannot miss Meg Stalter in her Broadway debut… or, if you need a little more convincing to plan ahead, Bowen Yang!
Read //
I’ve mentioned it before, and I’ll always preach the sentiment that being passed down a book by a dear friend will forever be one of my greatest love languages. This one was a hand-me-down from one of my best friends, Pippa, who is notorious for falling deeply into the most random selection of thrillers. Pippa rarely purchases a book (she’s a devoted library renter), so when she does, I know two things to be true: it’s that good, and it will likely find its way into my hands within the coming months.
Her latest read Girls with Long Shadows, which has now become mine, is a Southern Gothic novel about identical triplets in small-town Texas. What hooked me most was the way the novel was likened in mood and style to The Virgin Suicides and Where the Crawdads Sing. While I haven’t finished it just yet (I plan to soak up the rest on my plane ride to Spain), I’m hanging on to every page that oozes teenage angst, weaponized insecurity, and tangled love stories. Updates to come, but for now, I’m absolutely eating it up.
Saved //
If there’s one thing I desperately miss since moving into my latest apartment, it’s having a dining table. More importantly, I miss hosting. I miss the feeling of cooking for friends and lingering over a meal together. When I scrolled past this picture during my nightly peruse of Pinterest, I felt that spark again. I’ve always had mixed feelings about mismatched chairs, but there’s something about this collection that really calls to me. I’ve been daydreaming about bringing my vintage patchwork quilt out of the bedroom and framing it against a large wooden dining table, much like the one you see in the photo.
This year, I’ve really fallen in love with using wall hangings to fill vacant wall space. There’s something so nuanced about the texture of a textile hanging alongside a standard framed piece of art, and the dimension it brings to a room is hard to replicate. Between scouring Etsy and eBay, there will never be any shortage of good finds, but my recommendation is to head to your local antique store and dig through the piles of fabric and embroidered pieces they’ve folded away to sell as scraps or table linens. Get creative. You can even frame the textile if it doesn’t feel grand enough to hang on its own.
Ate //
Ahead of my trip to Mallorca, where I will presumably eat as much cured meat and seafood as humanly possible, I snuck away to New York and made my way through all of my favorite spots. Potentially my favorite of the weekend, spent sweltering against the asphalt, was Thai Diner, a welcome refuge from a thunderstorm that nearly swept me away.
My friend Schuyler and I could have ordered everything on the menu had we really let ourselves get carried away. This meal came immediately after our showing of Oh, Mary! and was the perfect end cap to an already perfect day. We sat outside, tucked away at a two-top that was barely big enough to accommodate the three dishes we ordered. Among them was a whopping plate of mussels frites, the lettuce wraps with fried chicken, and the green curry fried rice with prawns. I could sit for hours at Thai Diner, dining endlessly while taking in the rush of chaos that envelops the restaurant, otherwise known as the streets of SoHo and Nolita.
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