Acting a Smoochie
and Dressing in
Frog Shoes:
8 Cool, Smart,
and Interesting
Friends Review 2023
From the best-dressed person of the year to the guiltiest of purchases, the brightest minds in the SSENSE network review 2023.
- Text: Ross Scarano & Steff Yotka
Trying to present the year in any compressed, monolithic way, even within the more narrow confines of fashion culture and the adjacent areas it tentacles, is really hard. Better, then, to survey a variety of perspectives; that way, there are more ideas to argue with.
Think of this as a nightcap for a long year. A quick one before the last calendar page is torn off. Discussion of guilty purchases, fashionable individuals (not all of them celebrities!), books read, and TV watched. Selfies taken (and deleted). Slang. Scams. Restaurants. The stuff of life.
See you in 2024.
Photo Courtesy Of: Gia Kuan. Top Image: The It Girl of 2023, Ice Spice, photographed at the Dion Lee spring 2024 show by Adam Powell
Gia Kuan, publicist:
@giakuan
Best-dressed person of the year:
Blue Ivy, for all of her Renaissance Tour looks.
Unfortunate internet slang you couldn’t stop saying:
The resurgence of “slay”—but then is it really unfortunate?
Most exciting creative project of 2023:
Sukeban!!! We need more of fashion-not-fashion.
Guiltiest purchase:
No regrets really, but if there’s one it’s the multiple wedding dresses I’ve had in the year of 2023 lol—Puppets and Puppets, Bad Binch TONGTONG, Kim Shui . . . and all the accessories that came with.
Fashion trend from 2023 that teens will be re-creating in 2043:
I wonder if Ribbon Explosion will come back again in 2043, or when K-pop will become vintage.
Most binged reality TV series:
Single’s Inferno, the saucy Korean reality dating series that’s actually PG because nothing really happens.
Location where you took the most selfies:
My office, lol.
Most unexpected link up:
Kylie and Timothée, or Balenciaga and Erewhon.
Most underrated restaurant and most overrated restaurant:
Underrated, Spumoni Gardens in deep Brooklyn for the pizzas—great the next day—and randomly their seafood salads. Overrated, Scarr’s (oops). Not that it’s not good, I just can’t deal with the line; it’s not worth the stress.
Pair of shoes you wore the most:
Nike Martine Rose, like all the fashion gurlies, and a chunky pair of platform Uggs.
What’s the moral of 2023?
Time flies.
Scam of the year:
ChatGPT. I don’t know who’s writing to me as them anymore. Also, are people using ChatGPT to write press releases?
Photo Courtesy Of: Corey Stokes
Corey Stokes, SVP, creative, Essence Ventures
@coreystokes
Best dressed person of the year:
Me, Corey Stokes. Runner Up: Stefon Diggs
Unfortunate internet slang you couldn’t stop saying:
BFFR.
Most exciting creative project of 2023:
Guiltiest purchase:
AW23 Miu Miu leather suit.
Fashion trend from 2023 that teens will be recreating in 2043:
Ballet flats. What is old will always become new.
Most binged reality TV series:
Married to Medicine
Location where you took the most selfies:
Inside my car.
Most unexpected link up:
CAA x Kering.
Most underrated restaurant and most overrated restaurant:
Underrated: Cecconi’s; overrated: Caviar Kaspia.
Pair of shoes you wore the most:
Building Black Bed-Stuy x Vans.
What’s the moral of 2023?
The USA enjoys being on the wrong side of history
Scam of the year:
Sustainability in fashion.
Photo Courtesy Of: Willa Bennett
Willa Bennett, Editor-in-Chief of Highsnobiety
@willahbennett
Best-dressed person of the year:
A$AP ROCKY.
Unfortunate internet slang you couldn’t stop saying:
SLAY.
Most exciting creative project of 2023:
PRADA SLIME.
Fashion trend from 2023 that teens will be re-creating in 2043:
SMOKING CIGS.
Most binged reality TV series:
LOVE ISLAND.
Most underrated restaurant and most overrated restaurant:
UNDERRATED IS VERSAILLES IN MIAMI; OVERRATED IS LUCIEN IN NYC.
What’s the moral of 2023?
TIRED.
Photo Courtesy Of: Lawrence Schlossman
Lawrence Schlossman, Throwing Fits
@sartoriallyinc
Best-dressed person of the year:
Kendrick Lamar.
Unfortunate internet slang you couldn’t stop saying:
Drake voice Combination.
Most exciting creative project of 2023:
Our Legacy Work Shop x Emporio Armani.
Guiltiest purchase:
Drake concert tickets.
Fashion trend from 2023 that teens will be re-creating in 2043:
LEATHER.
Location where you took the most selfies:
Zipcars.
Most unexpected link up:
The New York Times (Jon Caramanica) x Beenslackin.
What’s the moral of 2023?
Shoot first, ask questions later.
Scam of the year:
TikTok man-on-the-street interviewers.
And finally, what happened at the end of The Guest?
I don’t read.
Photo Courtesy Of: Emily Sundberg
Emily Sundberg, writer
@emilysundberg
Best-dressed person of the year:
Ms. Charli XCX seemed to have had a lot of fun, and Kylie really ended the year with a bang.
Most exciting creative project of 2023:
Sofia Coppola’s book.
Guiltiest purchase:
A $300 set of tiny potions from my facialist. They worked!
Fashion trend from 2023 that teens will be re-creating in 2043:
Gabbriette’s skinny eyebrows.
Most binged reality TV series:
Housewives forever.
Location where you took the most selfies:
My bathroom mirror and the 15th Street subway platform.
Most underrated restaurant and most overrated restaurant:
Under is McDonald’s, over is American Bar.
Pair of shoes you wore the most:
Black AF1s.
What’s the moral of 2023?
You have to choose one: money, control, power, or status.
Scam of the year:
OceanGate.
And finally, what happened at the end of The Guest?
That girl was about to get escorted OUT, and dropped off at the East Hampton LIRR station stat.
Photo Courtesy Of: James Harris
James Harris, Throwing Fits
@doctortaco
Best-dressed person of the year:
Unfortunate internet slang you couldn’t stop saying:
Ah hell.
Most exciting creative project of 2023:
The return of independent brick-and-mortar retail in NYC.
Guiltiest purchase:
Diamond rings (for myself).
Most binged reality TV series:
Vanderpump Rules.
Pair of shoes you wore the most:
Oakley Chop Saw Mules.
What’s the moral of 2023?
Enjoy things simply as they are instead of consuming solely through the lens of online performance and documentation.
Scam of the year:
Threads.
And finally, what happened at the end of The Guest?
She dead ah hell.
Photo Courtesy Of: Emilia Petrarca
Emilia Petrarca, writer
@emiliapetrarca
Best-dressed person of the year:
The Pope wearing that white puffer jacket. It’s not AI.
Unfortunate internet slang you couldn’t stop saying:
“Delulu is the solulu.”
Most exciting creative project of 2023:
Gwyneth Paltrow’s ski trial.
Guiltiest purchase:
That millennial-ass filtered showerhead advertised all over Instagram.
Fashion trend from 2023 that teens will be re-creating in 2043:
We will have reached the end of the “jorld.” (The world will be just one big pair of jeans.)
Most binged reality TV series:
The Great British Baking Show; if Klonopin were a Netflix series <3.
Location where you took the most selfies:
They’re all in the trash now.
Most unexpected link up:
Ariana Grande and that theater kid I went to college with.
What’s the moral of 2023?
Delulu IS the solulu.
Scam of the year:
Okay, fine, the Pope’s puffer was AI.
And finally, what happened at the end of The Guest?
Stopped reading on page 78.
Photo Courtesy Of: Emily Kirkpatrick
Emily Kirkpatrick, writer
@yungkirk666
Unfortunate internet slang you couldn’t stop saying:
Delulu (although highly applicable to way too many people and things).
Location where you took the most selfies:
The elevated subway platform of the M train.
Most unexpected link up:
The Boston Police Department and that metal playground slide.
Guiltiest purchase:
A COVID test and a Glacier Cherry Gatorade I postmated to my apartment in a hungover moment of sheer terror.
Scam of the year:
The American health-care system—this year and every year.
Fashion trend from 2023 that teens will be re-creating in 2043:
Julia Fox’s chastity cage and metal pasties, fingers crossed.
Photo Courtesy Of: Sami Reiss
Sami Reiss, writer
@samisreiss
Best-dressed person of the year:
My friend Michael Del Campo. I don’t entirely know what he’s going for—Nigel Barker circa 2002, a pill dealer, a bookie from a few years after that. A gambler? In any event, I trust Michael, who was the first person in the mix I recall to have worn leather pants—Helmuts in 2016 or so, sized up—and 2-inch cuffs, yakuza ties, chains, Everlast, Lonsdale, much more . . . a list of advancements that is too long and organic to remember.
Most exciting creative project of 2023:
A few. Killers of the Flower Moon to me was the single best piece of political art about America, maybe ever? Crushing, hideous . . . as overpowering and dominating as Casino or Wolf . . . fully subjective and brutal. Many friends disagree, but what can you do? Steady behind is the new Mystic 100’s LP—listened to it twice in a row every day for like two months straight; the new E.Town Concrete song, “Level Up”—breathtaking; Varathron live at The Meadows in Brooklyn in July—the first time I stood by the stage and watched a band set up since high school; Prada Look 11 from men’s S/S 2024; “Letter to Big Dump” by NBA YoungBoy; and the “1997 Fashion Big Bang” exhibit at Palais Galliera in Paris this past spring.
Location where you took the most selfies:
Paris 10e, took a handful there in spring.
Scam of the year:
ollagen skin care; you can get 90% of the results and healthier and more vibrant skin after a diet 180. Just ingest the same/main products in these creams in a nontopical way . . . through the right foods. Which will be more bioavailable and will work better than cream you rub on. But it’s not something I lose sleep over, it’s just an emollient.
- Text: Ross Scarano & Steff Yotka
- Photography: Adam Powell
- Date: December 27, 2023
