taylor.bennett

TO DO · 07/28/2015

Seeing Summer Better with the Sailing Collective

As you’ve heard, we’ve been on a quest to #seesummerbetter all season long—so, when our friends from the Sailing Collective invited us to join their journey to Sardinia, we happily hopped aboard (and brought a slew of sunglasses with us).

Who is the Sailing Collective? In their words, they are “sailing vacation specialists”. In ours, they’re a group of super-fun, extra-chill explorers who plan week-long sailing trips worldwide. And not to worry—the captains are trained professionals (pressure’s off), and fantastic cooks to boot.

Our days went a little something like this: morning laps around the boat (often in place of a shower), lounging on deck with a book in-hand, a game or two of backgammon, and open ocean crossing. When docked, we zipped around La Maddalena on scooters, explored an abandoned fortress, and climbed stairs along the cliffs of Corsica. And of course, we ate well, both on-board and at local eateries found by our captain.

Frankly, our recap doesn’t do the trip justice—just take a look below (and follow along with both of us on Instagram for more this week!).

Jennings in Beach Glass

Ripley in Whiskey Tortoise

Downing in English Oak

Bates in English Oak and Ripley in Whiskey Tortoise

Bates in English Oak and Jennings in Striped Beach

Downing in Walnut Tortoise

Photos by Stefan Wigand for the Sailing Collective

Tags: Sailing Collective, See Summer Better, sunglasses

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TO READ · 05/05/2014

Literary Rx: Pale Fire

Welcome to Jeopardy—the literary edition. 

This novel contains a 999-line poem, an exiled king, an assassin, and one reference to Sherlock Holmes.

What is: Pale Fire

Thanks to our friends at Flat Vernacular for the excellent backdrops behind these titles.

Tags: books, Pale Fire, reading, to read, Vladimir Nabokov

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@WarbyParker

See the latest from our Instagram feed

TO READ · 01/03/2014

Literary Rx: Portnoy’s Complaint

What is Alex Portnoy’s complaint exactly?

That he’s “living in the middle of a Jewish joke.” Come for the oedipal-inflected monologue, stay for the perverted use of a piece of liver.

Thanks to our friends at Flat Vernacular for the excellent backdrops behind these titles.

Tags: literary rx, Portnoy’s complaint

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TO READ · 12/27/2013

Literary Rx: The Left-Handed Woman

A terraced bungalow colony, a tragic-and-then-liberating epiphany, a friend named Fanzika, and the deluded notion that Brussels sprouts are the “one vegetable that children like.”

Thanks to our friends at Flat Vernacular for the excellent backdrops behind these titles.

Tags: left handed woman, literary rx, peter handke, to read

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TO MEET · 10/16/2013

Artist in Residence: Sidd Khosla

Following Nikki Lane, our next Artists in Residence series: Sidd Khosla of Goldspot

He’s been at a musical career for awhile now, ever since he was a kid attending temple on Sundays: “I remember being six or seven years old, and my mom gave me the lyrics to this Indian song to sing. I became that kid who sang at temple, and every Sunday, my parents and my parents’ friends would say ‘Sing that song!’ and I would be mortified.”

Stage fright aside, Sidd continued playing in a band in high school and decided after graduating college to pursue music fulltime. “My best friend from home convinced me to go for it, so I did it!” he told us. “At that point I realized there was nothing else in my life that I was going to do. If this is what I’m going to do, I better be really good at it.” (He is. Evidence below.)

For his residency, the musician hung out at The Standard, High Line, a deviation from his usual work routine. “Most of my writing is done in the same environment as where I live. Being able to go out somewhere to write and create is rare.”

For us, working so close to bed is a habit that leads straight to napping, but Sidd found the opposite: “If I was inspired in the middle of the night I could get out of bed and work. That happened a few times.”

Impressive work ethic and skills. Thanks, Sidd!

Previously: Nikki Lane | Teddy Thompson | Sophie Auster

Photos by Alden Wallace

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TO MEET · 10/14/2013

Back on the road

Road trip day today heading from Chicago to Detroit with our bus and Ford Escape.

Photos by Collin Hughes

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TO MEET · 10/03/2013

Sara Ridky

How does Sara Ridky describe her design aesthetic? “Clean and simplistic, with a mild explosion of happiness and magicalness.”

“With the things I put out into the world, I make it a point that they all evoke a feeling of happiness and enjoyment, like how you used to feel about pretty much everything when you were a kid,” Sara explained to us.

When it comes to keeping things simple, Sara tries to eliminate anything in a design that she doesn’t necessarily need—that mentality holds true for her daily life too. After a brief stint working for agencies, Sara opted for freelancing. “My idea of an amazing company are the ones that come from the heart, have so much quality and uniqueness to give and are typically very very small,” she said.

Above all, she loves her own personal projects—things that she makes for no reason at all, other than to just brighten up her day (and desk). The perfect example are here “What Lana Loves” cards. Living in a building full of older folks, she managed to meet her young neighbor across the hall. Dance parties with him and his friends to Lana are now a regular occurrence. At some point, they starting chatting about the things that Lana likes—diamonds, America, pale moonlight, Friday nights—which Sara then turned into pastel-colored note cards.