Rando Report: A Raunchy-Chic Bag From a Small Label, Batsheva Mirror Selfies, Shop Cartier Live
What makes a compelling accessories campaign?
The Rando Report is a weekly roundup of observations…some longer than others.
A Saucy Bag Campaign From a Small Label Is For Hot Babes
This past week, I received a message from artist Connor Marie Stankard, who asked me to do a bag dump for @autostudio.nyc, the Instagram account behind the brand Auto. Stankard, an artist, and Sarah Brown, a creative director and accessories designer, are the founders behind the label. The idea started as a conversation over drinks. The Auto Instagram promotes the label’s two bags. There’s the Model C, which boasts a phallic, tubular silhouette and excessively roomy loop handles. On the sides, there are delicious little useless buckles. Model C fits a bottle of wine. Naughty! The second bag is a slick leather piece reminiscent of a briefcase—something that would have been toted around the city by a cruel, alimony-thirsting woman from the late ‘90s. I have a vintage Tod’s bag in a similar shape, but the edges are sharper, and there’s no way to wear it over the shoulder with the stunted handles. Auto’s S bag is the modern version, more slender with elegantly rounded corners and fantastically large straps.
Now, there are two components of the Auto campaign. First, there are the aforementioned images of dumped-out women’s purses and itemized lists from subjects like writers Taylore Scarabelli and Nicolaia Rips, artist Ruby McCollister, and images from Auto. The photos include everything from several fat sardines, a random spoon, and a few passports thrown into the mix. I got the gist immediately: All hot girls lose their IDs in New York, so they use their passports as identification. A saucy symbol of risk and, yet, complete trust in one’s self. What’s hotter than that? Gorgeous women also love Omega 3s. The spoon, well, that’s both bizarre and endearing. It makes you wonder about the bag’s owner…why a spoon? This series is a curated mess of hot babe stuff.
The sprawling bag dump scenes are a dead ringer for Kate Spade Contents (2000), a book that chronicles the items in women’s purses and, like Auto, includes itemized handwritten surveys. You can read the researched piece here, in which I spoke with the creators behind the project. Kate Spade’s Contents is the blueprint for this era of “what’s in my bag,” TSA bin shots—and, of course, the Auto bag dump campaign.
The Most Iconic “What’s In My Bag” Story Happened in 2000
Aside from the purse-gutting moment, the accompanying Auto campaign stars a pretty brunette named “Ava” with a slightly tousled bob and pouty lips. In one shot, Ava flaunts a couldn’t-be-bothered expression as she gazes out the window of an Uber XL. The next slide is the still image of the cuntalicious C-suite bag, the S in “Oil”. In another in-feed post, there’s Ava again, now spitting water into a drink, looming over a married man’s hand. The caption: “Ava is such a bitch…..December 7th, noon.” Bad girl! Finally, there’s a shot of Ava in a trench coat in the park, with her legs splayed open in sheer knee-highs and a slice of underwear exposed. On her bench, there’s the sliver of the Model C bag in raging violet suede. The bag is not that visible.
Stankard and Brown wanted to make the subject, Ava, like a purse. Polished but with a freaky Pandora’s Box capacity. Sleek yet charmingly depraved. Is this concept not a reflection of our bags, after all? Zipped and buckled accessories with insides stuffed with packs of cigarettes, rolling papers, and panties? “We had her acting badly, as an exhibitionist, out in public. Sitting with her legs open in Central Park, lying on the floor of a busy restaurant—Michael’s New York—spitting in someone’s drink, stealing the cutlery. She's carrying her private behavior out into public,” they wrote to me.
The campaign is voyeuristically photographed and references Jill Magid’s security camera-documented Evidence Locker and Sophie Calle’s street shots in Suit Vénitienne. “Only in a few shots does she acknowledge the camera, so it’s as if she’s being stalked,” the two write. “Maybe she's caught on and likes it.”
The creators' perverted skew on the campaign is great. They nod to Isabelle Huppert in The Piano Teacher (2001), which nails the dichotomy of presenting as prim but with a nasty subversive bite. “The bags are slick and ladylike,” they write. We wanted to push against that propriety with our images.” Raunchy! Come-hither!
Half the time, the bag isn’t even in the image. It’s just Ava. But do you even need to see the bag to be sold? There’s simply this cool creature, Ava, who is cavorting around the city, unabashedly herself—sometimes good, sometimes bad. If we could only grasp that sort of unbridled freedom in our own lives! That spit-in-your-drink, devil-may-care attitude! Well, now you kind of can. Auto positions itself as that gateway.
What makes a good campaign? A well-known face? A killer product? Perhaps. But the biggest draw is creating a world that is everyday aspirational. I use this term to describe a world we are familiar with, but the fantasy lies in that this world is just a bit better than our own. The selling point behind the idea is that buying whatever product is being sold to us will get us to that elevated universe.
We are deprived of worlds right now. Brand dependence on celebrities is exhausting, and I hope the influence will wane. Everyone can agree that celebrities don’t wear many pieces that they are advertising unless a massive check is involved. (Do people care, though? I’m not sure.) The same goes for influencers: rampant gifting leads to a RealReal pickup. Don’t even get me started on product shots: there’s rarely any soul or essence. Now, more than ever, we need context and signs of life to understand—and buy into—clothing and accessories. Maybe Ava can get us there.
Note No. 1: This is more of a campaign dive. interviewed with the Auto ladies here last week!
Note No. 2: I love referencing a shot from Dockers when discussing a great campaign. The image reminds me of Ava and Auto. The yesteryear Dockers photo shows a woman perched on a radiator, wearing the commercial brand’s inexpensive pants and looking out into the city’s skyline as if she is dreaming of possibility. (The next few photos in the campaign show her having the time of her life on a date). The concept is that there’s a whole other world to be lived, which is touching and bursts with hope and freedom. Hitting the consumer over the head with the product is not necessary. This woman sells fantasy—and the pants come free with purchase.
The Power of the Mirror Selfie
I’ve been loving Batsheva’s mirror selfies. Call me biased: Yes, we did a NEVERWORNS Live! Shopping sale last week, but why would I work with someone who I wasn’t a major fan of? Anyway, I love Hay’s mirror selfies. This is who she is in real life. This isn’t dress up. These are her clothes—and she schleps in them. I’ve witnessed it! The looks are proof that you can live life and appear like a walking fantasy.
NEVERWORNS Live! Shopping x @Dimepiece 12/22 Sunday at 7pm: Get Your Cartier Tank
NEVERWORNS Live! Shopping will stream on Substack and Instagram at 7pm this Sunday, December 22 with
of the watch hub Dimepiece. We air twice a month on Sundays. (You can see the beta NLS we filmed with Batsheva last week).On this NEVERWORNS x Dimepiece episode, which will run roughly 45 minutes, you’ll be able to see watches, hear Wallner, a horological genius, explain them and their history, and figure out if you want to be the girl with a Cartier Tank…we will have watches at all price ranges. You can call in, shop, and claim.
Fun fact: I profiled Brynn way back when!
A Fab New Glove Brand
I love gloves, and lucky for me, there is a buzzy glove brand called Handsy. The leather appears luscious and comes in colors like brown, titled “Grizzly Brown” and green—or “Pine.” I love the silhouette of the glove: the wrist is lobbed off to create a curve that reveals a slice of bare skin. These are sexy gloves.
The “Deep Dive” Article on Vintage Barneys Private Label Is Free
I typically have locked these researched “Deep Dive” pieces for paying subscribers, but I figured…it’s the holidays, and department stores are always a festive moment. I talk about the boom of vintage Barneys made-in-Italy private label and speak to the original designers of the collection. Enjoy, if you haven’t already. It will be unlocked for a week.
Something New I’ve Been Wearing…Can You Believe It?
I am wearing these Still Here “Cool” jeans…still! (Yes, I know I have mentioned them before, but I swear by the jeans and think they are useful). I’m pregnant and expanding, and I don’t want to buy new clothes, but if I have to, I’d rather have things I can wear postpartum. (
tackled this in her most recent newsletter.) If you’re knocked up, I highly recommend these jeans: I unbutton one or two buttons and then use the drawstring to secure them so they don’t fall down. I have a pair in “classic blue” but I think I will get..the darkwash in “Indigo.”
NEVERWORNS: Marketplace
As mentioned, I’m introducing a new listing component to the once-a-week Rando Report for paying subscribers who want to list one GREAT item they want to part with.
Up today, a vintage Burberry scarf, or shall I say Burberrys. That “S” inclusion means this piece is vintage before the name change in 1999. You’ll be right in step with the cold weather—and the trend. Did you read last week that the Burberry scarf popularity is up…85%, at least according to @databutmakeitfashion. This fringed piece is going for $125, shipping not included. Dimensions: 41” by 25” inches.
Watch NEVERWORNS here! Note: The new rendition of the series is NEVERWORNS Live! Shopping airs every other Sunday at 7pm on Substack Live (and Instagram) This week is Brynn Wallner of Dimepiece. We will be selling WATCHES! Sunday, December 22…7pm!