Welcome back to the Schneier newsletter, a new-old media outlet that publishes once a year and doesn’t ask for any of your money. (Management reserves the right to reconsider these policies in the distant or non-distant future.) I’m Matthew Schneier, a features writer at New York Magazine and The Cut. You can follow me on Twitter here, Instagram here, or find all of my New York Magazine work here, but if you just want the greatest hits of the chaotic year that’s drawing mercifully to a close, you’re in luck: Here they are.
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's Beige Ambition: Chaos and cashmere at The Row, the “Uniqlo of the 1%” (I’m paraphrasing, but only slightly). The Olsen twins, once America’s most popular, most tabloid-pestered child stars, grew up to make some of New York’s most desirable clothes. But can even perfection survive the pandemic? (One of The Cut’s top-ten most read stories of 2021, just below “An Interview with the Man Who Keeps Uploading My Feet to WikiFeet.”)
Keith McNally, Served Bloody: A stroke took his speech and Covid kept away his customers, but McNally, who at The Odeon, Balthazar, and Pastis helped define dining in Manhattan in the '90s and '00s, isn't going down quietly. He found a bully pulpit on Instagram, delighting and enraging customers at just the moment New York’s restaurants could least afford to lose them. Broke (in his own estimation) and looking for his next success, McNally is planning exactly what one once swore he never would: an empire outside of New York City. Bonus! Keith reviews the piece: “It's poorly written and quite skewed, but I'm not entirely unhappy with it. Maybe I should be.” (It was also one of Grub Street’s top-ten most-read stories of the year.)
The Return of FOMO: With the pandemic (briefly) in abeyance, nightlife kicked into gear and all of the attendant anxieties — is everyone hanging out without me? — came roaring back.
Gaetano Pesce, the Pope of Gloop: At 82, the godfather of the current boom in gloppy, organic furniture and design, isn’t slowing down. In the studio with the great philosopher of polyurethane as he prepares for exhibitions in New York, Genoa, Aspen, and Shenzhen.
Alexander Wang After Hours (with Angelina Chapin): After rumors bubbled up online, a number of young fashion-industry hopefuls came forward to accuse designer Alexander Wang of sexual assault in the queer bars and clubs of New York City. Two weeks after this story was published, Wang met with his accusers for the first time and vowed publicly to "do better."
“Art Sucks. No One’s Doing Anything Cool”: Bored of art-world proprieties, rising-star painter Jamian Juliano-Villani put down her brushes and opened her own grungy Gagosian, a gallery where "safe" is a four-letter word and, in her words, "taste is out the door." Who cares that they haven’t sold a piece?
More briefly:
In Memoriam: Virgil Abloh; six dispatches from the NFT art boom; and two scoops: alleging neglect from her agents and abuse on photo shoot sets, international supermodel Karen Elson decides to leave traditional representation and go it alone; and after 30 years, fashion industry legend Bridget Foley is ousted at Women's Wear Daily.
Plus, for the New York Times Book Review: Climate disaster and Hollywood bullshit in Alexandra Kleeman’s Something New Under the Sun.
For much more, you can find all of my work from 2021 here, or the highlights stretching back years at my fitfully-updated website, MatthewSchneier.com.
Thanks for reading, and the occasional compliment, complaint, or review. I appreciate them all. See you in 2022.