This week we ride the spirit of New York Fashion Week to discuss Eva Chen, whose career emblematizes the changing nature of fashion media in the past decade: from Condé Nast darling to Instagram mega-poster to VP of Fashion at Meta. Along with our guest Ashleigh Carter, we discuss Eva’s unselfconscious approach to the shifting media landscape, the late-2010s fascination with tech workplace culture-as-content (#evachenpose, Tiny Conference Room, team workouts, etc.), and how the well-intentioned “democratization of Fashion” is unfortunately swagless. Plus, we explore our original New York Dreams and the material and spiritual Ls we’ve taken in pursuit of a feeling of glamour.

Plus: My review of Wuthering Heights, Margaret Qualley-as-bombshell, and Addison Rae’s impending baddie era.

Ashleigh Carter is a writer, journalist, and content creator based in New York City. She has written for Teen Vogue, Glamour, Them, NowThis News and more, and has more than 185,000 followers on TikTok. Follow her on TikTok and Instagram!

Links:

• “Margaret Qualley on Substance, Surrender, and Life with Jack Antonoff” Marisa Meltzer in Vanity Fair (2026)

• “Margaret Qualley Manifested This Cover Story” Willa Bennett in Cosmopolitan (2025)

• Addison BADDIE ERA is happening!!! Omg so done with the gracious ingenue blushy tutu…

• #evachenpose on Instagram

• Example of late 2010s obsession with tech workplace culture feat. tiny conference room Refinery 29 (2019)

• “How Eva Chen Went From Pre-Med Student to Director of Fashion Partnerships at Instagram” Fashionista (2018)

• “How I Get It Done: Eva Chen” The Cut (2018)

• “Meet Fashion’s Coolest Girlboss Eva Chen” Glamour UK (2018)

• Eva on Work In Progress with Sophia Bush (2019)

• “How Eva Chen Gets It Done” The Run-Through with Vogue (2024)
  Tom’s Perfect 10 Granola (Go Tom lol!)