Friday Link List: No frills. No bows. No bullshit(?)

The Wing, via Curbed. 

Things are officially quite hectic at the office, but I'm really excited to be fully integrated with a few big ongoing projects. Full speed ahead, and I learn more and develop more as an attorney when I'm busy!

One small detail about workflow in litigation, more than in some other practices, is that many high-profile or complex cases (or heck, many litigated cases in general) tend to last years and years. For instance, up to this day (and with no realistic end in sight, whether months or years from now) tons of lawyers are still working on cases related to the recovery of assets from Bernie Madoff's ponzi scheme, a process that began nine years ago. That's far longer than many people's stints at any particular law firm or other job throughout the course of a career! As someone who used to really enjoy that particular feeling of accomplishment that comes from finally closing the book entirely on a project so that I'll never see anything to do with it again, well, that's not something that comes along often, and I'll need to get used to that.

1. // Here's something fussy and nitpicky about how Everlane is marketing (affiliate link) their new line of women's underwear. Taglines include: "No frills. No bows. No bullshit." further explained by: "Underwear should be made for you. But for decades, it’s been designed with someone else in mind." I don't love this marketing, though it's not important enough for me to fuss much one way or the other. I'm largely content to shrug my shoulders and note that it's not a product I'm interested in. Those bras have absolutely no utility to me, but that's no surprise in the startups-making-bras context. They generally don't stock my size at all (Victoria's Secret also doesn't, so that's not even a huge deal) or if they do, I just don't trust them to do the job well enough to spend money on trying them out.

That being said, I have a question. Are Everlane's taglines for this new product line compelling to you? Does this marketing work? Personally, I'm entirely neutral on frills and bows and the like. 98% of the time, because the items are well designed and/or because of how my other clothes fit, what lace and bows that are present never cause any problem. I've never thought that the frills meant the items were "designed with someone else in mind." In fact, the items I wear are, er, specifically and definitely well-designed for my needs, mainly to hold certain things in place, to allow things like, say, high impact exercise, or even brisk walking around without discomfort. But I'm an outlier, so I'm so not the person to ask. 

2. // By now you've probably heard of a recent New York City Commission of Human Rights investigation of The Wing, a startup-y women's-only club and coworking space that was founded here in NYC and is constantly expanding, for possible violations of local public accommodations laws. Jezebel broke the story, and it's gone a bit viral.

Although the price point and general nature of The Wing means I'll likely never be a customer (the "all locations" membership is a year-long commitment of $2700 or ~$250/month, I know it's shocking, but at least keep in mind that an unlimited use WeWork membership also starts at $220/month and that's likely the competition they had in mind). At the moment, The Wing's main benefit over WeWork or other coworking space rentals is access to some pretty cool events, including, in recent weeks, one with Jennifer Lawrence (!), one at the Chanel couture showroom that they set up for NYC-based customers, and various other things, both big and small. A friend is a member and has been kind enough to invite me to a few things that allowed non-member guests, including a screening of this film with the director and a few actresses (Beanie Feldstein, of Lady Bird fame, is really cool!), and that's the only reason I know anything specific about The Wing. 

I don't know the laws at issue very well, so no real opining from me. Just because of other media I've recently consumed, my brain is primed to wonder if we're seeing another example of NYC city government entities engaging in inefficient use of their prosecutorial discretion, but well, that's a half-formed thought. 

3. // I  have a huge backlog of blog entries to read that I'll get to soon, when things ease up a bit at the office, but here are a few other things that I enjoyed reading about in recent days: A wedding post from Jess; a few thoughts about transparency and personal finance blogging at YAPFB (I rambled a lot there, possibly too much); and a post from Feather Factor about having help, whether hired or from family members, once kids are in the picture. That last thing is a topic I may need to start thinking about sometime in the next few years, but that I will totally avoid for as long as I possibly can. I've thought about it enough to know that I don't see any way around needing tons of help if I follow through on the very likely plan of going back to work as soon as my maternity leave ends (by far the most commonly done thing among my attorney peers).