0 - WELCOME

Welcome to 2025!

I hope you had a great time celebrating the new year, whether it was partying it up or going to bed early. This year for the holidays, I was in Toronto for Christmas as usual, followed by western Texas to visit Marfa and nearby attractions. Usually I go on a ski trip, but this year we opted for something warm. I had a great time in Marfa and highly recommend checking it out — I’ve also included a travel guide this month.

January should be pretty low-key for me. I’m finally not going to Toronto every two weeks, so I look forward to spending time in NYC. Later this month, I will also be heading to Jackson to ski. Last year when I went (travel guide here), the snow was just OK, so hopefully it will redeem itself.

As a friendly reminder, the new year is the perfect time to refresh your style. Reply to this email and we can get started!

1 - FASHION

Ski Season

Ski season is back and I’m excited to hit the slopes. Over the holidays, I took my nieces skiing — I can’t wait for them to become those crazy kids who rip down the mountain. They have a long way to go, but I’m crossing my fingers. Anyway, you know that I love a ski outfit, so here’s what I’m thinking of adding to my ski/après wardrobe this year:

Wishlist

For upcoming winter months, I am gravitating towards preppy clothes and more earthy colours. I still love an all black outfit, but I find myself wearing a lot of browns and greys now. Here’s what is on my wishlist:

Shopping/Wardrobe Guidelines

As a content creator, I often wrestle with consumerism and just having too much stuff. So, one of my 2025 goals is to work with my existing closet more and shop less. If you’re in the same boat as me, here are some guidelines that I’m setting for myself:

• Implement a one-in, one-out policy: I follow this for the most part, but whenever I buy something, I like to get rid of one or two pieces in the same category. If I’m selling, I typically use TheRealReal and Vestiaire Collective

• Track purchases by month and # of times worn: I’m going to try documenting my purchases and loosely tracking the # of times I wear them. As a fun exercise, I plan to also calculate the cost per wear and report back to you at the end of the year

• Document your wardrobe: I am an “out of sight, out of mind” kind of person when it comes to my wardrobe. I often forget that I own certain things (especially if I’ve put them away in storage for the season). With that said, I started documenting all the items in my wardrobe on Excel. That way, I can always reference my wardrobe and come up with outfits using what I already have. I know there are apps that do this, but for now Excel is my preferred method

• Keep a wishlist: I keep a running wishlist and add/remove items as time passes. I find it useful to reference the wishlist whenever I want to buy something, and to also let things sit on the wishlist for a while to build anticipation

Five Things I Bought

Below are five things that I bought and loved last month:

2 - TRAVEL

Marfa Travel Guide

For the holidays this year, I spent nearly a week in Marfa, a relatively remote town in western Texas that is 3 hours away from the closest airport (El Pas0). I’ve been describing it to those unfamiliar as “the place with the Prada Marfa store”. Of course, there is so much more to the town — it’s the home of the Chinati and Judd Foundations, as well as other cultural institutions like Ballroom Marfa. As a Donald Judd fan, I’ve always wanted to go to Marfa and I finally had the chance!

What to Do

• Donald Judd established an outpost here in the 70s, which evolved into the Chinati and Judd Foundations. Both foundations offer tours of the spaces/art, which I strongly recommend. I went on a 5-hour Chinati tour along with 2.5 hour tours of both the Judd Block and Studios tours

• McDonald Observatory is a 45-min drive from Marfa and offers many programs like stargazing. We signed up for a “Star Party”, which is essentially a night to look through the observatory’s telescopes. Unfortunately, it was cloudy when we went, but we were still able to see a few planets. Even without going to the observatory, most nights in Marfa are clear and provide amazing views of the sky. Be sure to look out for the Milky Way

• Marfa Lights are an interesting phenomenon at night, where lights seem to “dance” in the horizon. There is a viewing deck outside of town, where you can watch them

• On the shopping front, I liked Communitie and Raba. The former has a great selection of clothes/shoes, while the latter had a lot of vintage treasures. Stop & Read Books also had a unique selection of books

• Big Bend National Park is not too far away (2.5 hours), and we spent a day hiking. I would recommend getting there early, because we waited a long time for a parking spot

What to Eat/Drink

• Margaret’s was a dinner favourite, along with Bordo Italian Foods for sandwiches

• Marfa Spirit Co. had delicious cocktails (and mocktails). Bonus points because they also had hot chocolate with marshmallows!

• For coffee/snacks, we liked Bitter Sugar, Mutual Friends and The Sentinel

Where to Stay

• There aren’t too many hotel options in Marfa. We stayed at the Hotel Saint George, which is a nice hotel in the middle of town. I also considered El Cosmico, a hip hotel with a bunch of RVs/yurts, but we went with HSG

General Advice

• Unless you live close-ish to Marfa, I recommend spending more than a weekend for your first visit because there are a lot of things to do! It would be a disservice to spend only a weekend and cram in a bunch of activities

• A lot of places in Marfa are open Wednesday through Sunday, so plan accordingly

• As with desert weather, I would stick to sneakers and boots as it gets very dusty. I wore flats one day and deeply regretted my decision. A lot of people wear cowboy hats too — I wore this hat from Janessa Leone, which I love because it’s light and packable

3 - OTHER

4 - PARTING NOTE

I used to watch Korean dramas (Boys Over Flowers, anyone?), but haven’t for a long time. Recently, an Uber driver recommended Queen of Tears, and I decided to give it a go since I’ve been on holiday. Well, I finished it this week, and all I can say is that I am 100% back in a kdrama phase. I definitely also turned into the Queen of Tears based on how much I cried lol. Anyway, I’ll be watching Lovely Runner and Crash Landing next. Open to recommendations!