Happy Thursday, and for those paying attention—we are back! Fall kind of took us by surprise and due to boring excuses like 9-5 work and obligatory weekend warrior late nights, we were unable to publish for the past couple of weeks. However, we’re celebrating autumn as our “New Year,” and an opportunity to reset, with a “Fall Curriculum” including getting back to scheduled posts.

For anyone new here, welcome to The Skinny, which will take you three minutes to breeze through! This is a free weekly lifestyle newsletter designed to entertain and save you time—everyone’s most valuable resource—with a curated selection of news. As one of our subscribers told us: “You’re like my favorite magazine, without all the annoying pop-up ads.” 

What we’re covering: 

• Smart: the business of courtside/tailgate/19th hole cocktails

• Because we give a sheet about finding unique recipes: several easy ones to try for fall sheet pan cooking 

• Inspiration for your closet from the fall fashion landscape, including more on a color we might be warming up to: shades of brown

• Plus: the absolute best tops for the ‘well-endowed,’ a list of always must-buys at Costco, tourist fines, weight lifting for longevity, Japanese 7-11 items are finally here & wired headphones are back

💡Did you know: The Skinny editions are online and searchable—so you can easily find topics/links/recipes/items to shop. Bookmark this link.

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En vogue

Your autumnal wardrobe awaits

The Skinny: A short list of what you, and your closet, need to know heading into fall…despite it still being full-on summer here in NYC.

Lip service: ’90s makeup nostaglia, for those who love their Juicy Tubes, is still here and with it, a shades-of-brown supermodel pout. If you’re ready, and we almost are, don’t move too quickly without consulting these two guides: the seven best brown shades, from vampy to red-toned to chocolate-y, and Byrdie’s guide to wearing brown lipstick. 

Dressing like the landscape: Any loyal The Skinny readers know that we have expressed our distaste for brown, as “the new black” or otherwise. However, dare we say we might be warming up to it slowly, and only if it is the right shade (like Bronze Brown, or Hot Chocolate). Those, and the other greens, yellows and oranges of fall are here in this lovely-to-look-at report on fall’s fashion color trend report. 

Moc up: We miss our cherished white Minnetonka pair from the ’80s, and while in NH recently and passing by a couple “biggest moccasin store in the world” type destinations (sadly, without time to shop), we wondered if moccasin style shoes are back. Indeed, they are. 

For the guys: Great social content with inspirational color combos for fall—we like these (yes, even the brown/cream). Also, and most importantly, track pants are back (for men and women). 

Shopping your closet: We were inspired by a recent WSJ story about how you don’t need new items, you simply need to fix what’s missing with what you have. Meaning: the pants you never wear because you don’t have the right belt, the top you can’t wear without a special bra, the skirt that requires a certain type of tights. So for fall, dig out a couple of those items and figure out what it will take to wear them again.

Doubling down for double Ds: For all of you out there who are D+ sized, or have a partner/sister/mom who is, you need to know about clothing brand PerfectDD. We’re going to be testing some of these pieces, but founder Alice Kim started the brand to give busty women what they have been seeking for years, but which doesn’t exist: tops that are cut and designed for them (in a variety of sizes) and that don’t make them look 5 pounds heavier. She even has two patents for her designs, one of which is for the PerfectDD button-down shirt (goodbye, gaping buttons).

Pantry raid

Weeknight cooking, sheet-pan style

The Skinny: Make the switch in your kitchen: corn, berries and chilled soups are out, while root vegetables and sheet pan dinners are in. 

While looking for the best fall sheet pan recipes, what was strange is that every single one in our Google short video search (conducted over ~5 minutes that we will never get back) contained the exact same ingredients: sausage, brussel sprouts, sweet potato and red onion.

We’re sure those taste fine (this one with a maple tahini looks worthy) and everyone is duping them for a reason, we’re here to help find discoveries that are better and not so obvious. We’d rather make this Sheet-Pan Baked Feta With Broccolini, Tomatoes and Lemon Recipe from the NYT, or this Sheet-Pan Gnocchi Recipe from Bon Appétit which posits: is it a salad, or a pasta?

Couch side

Game, set, sip: the business of sporting cocktail culture 

The Skinny: Move over, cold ones: hard seltzer is hot for football Sunday. 

Hear us out. While beer will always be a football fan fave, it looks like hard seltzer is on the offensive in the pre-, during- and post-game lineup. According to this report—Which Alcohol Gets The Biggest Boost On Football Sundays?—hard seltzer was the most popular alcoholic bevvie to drink on football Sunday, with (wait for it) red wine also on the rise with a 23% increase. While a super cold beer (NA or otherwise) is irreplaceable in certain occasions, such as a football or baseball game, or during aprés, we love a hard seltzer during others, and per this entertaining Sporked writer, here are the 9 Best Hard Seltzer Brands They’ve Ever Had. 

The news continues to pour in as we are typing-and-searching:

• Can you guess which football stadiums have the cheapest, and most expensive, beer? 

• And this recent report reveals which football fans like to tie one on the most—with Arizona Cardinals fans taking the top spot for “heavy pre-gaming,” which probably led to an especially rough Monday a.m. thanks to their ugly blunders and huge loss on Sunday.

• For our teetotaling or moderation-minded friends, the availability of AF drinks at stadiums nationwide is rising—critical for your strategic game-day, zebra-striping toolkit—and the NFL has even created alcohol-free sections in some stadiums. 

Football aside, cocktail culture at sporting events is no longer just about drinking — it’s branded lifestyle marketing. Every sport has its fan rituals: baseball has Cracker Jacks and the 7th Inning Stretch, golf the 19th hole, and tennis with its signature cocktails. 

While the legendary Honey Deuce has long held court as the tournament’s official drink, a new challenger was making a racket: the Watermelon Slice. The U.S. Open has turned the Honey Deuce into what the Mint Julep is for the Kentucky Derby and, with margins like theirs, no wonder other sports events/franchises are watching. So, what’s the latest? 

The Mulligan, a refreshing Arnold Palmer-esque drink made with Elijah Craig bourbon. Debuting at the Ryder Cup, this cocktail has some wondering—can it take down the US Open’s overrated $17M Honey Deuce? We can only guess that trying to do so has become mission No. 1 for spirits marketers nationwide.

Last Licks

This week’s newsfeed 

• Speaking of your/our “Fall Curriculum,” another GenZ trend for potential inspiration this fall: The Great Lock In. 

• Italy is dreamy in the fall but if you’re headed there, here are the new and surprising tourist fines you may want to know about. Related, but not enforced: if shoe shopping in a luxury boutique, don’t pick up the shoes on display (Nicole learned that the hard way by getting her hand slapped.

• “Lifting for Longevity”: turns out that strength training might be the best way to age well. Here’s why. More on this in our next edition!  

• The news we have reported on before and now manifested into reality: Japanese 7-11 items are slated to arrive in 13,000 stores stateside. “Pillows of Love,” aka Japanese 7-11 egg sandwiches, here we come. 

• Nicole’s distaste for ear buds/Air Pods—and her inability to not lose them—means she’s been a tech accessory tastemaker for over a decade since the tangled mess of your nostalgic wired headphones are now “back.

• This Liquid Death pack goes to 11: another collab win for the canned water brand that, ICYMI, released a limited-edition “11-pack” as part of their partnership with “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues.”

• “Reddit knows best”: this story about what you should always buy at Costco caught our eye, and it deserves a pull quote to round out this edition. (For context, this was reportedly posted at the beginning of 2024.)

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