Tiny Little Sunglasses and L.A. Fashion Trends

I attempt to understand the much younger, much more stylish people walking alongside me. Plus recs for Andrew Boryga's debut novel, Andrew Marantz among the AI doomsayers, and the truth about theft.

I have never been a particularly fashionable person. My style goal is that my clothes are neither so bad nor so good that people pay attention. I’m shooting for “unremarkable.” I wear a lot of neutral colors.

The biggest fashion risk I’ve ever taken was shopping alone as a colorblind man and returning home with what I thought was a truly middle-of-the-road blue button-down shirt only to discover it was actually “lilac,” a color I cannot distinguish and still don’t fully believe exists. To my horror, several people I saw that day said “Look at you, lilac!” and I immediately had to return the shirt. Do not look at me! Especially do not look at me, lilac!

But I live in Los Angeles, a city that is not known for neutral. It’s a city of big fashion CHOICES and STATEMENTS and ICONOCLASTS. It’s a city known for its style and for the unreasonably fit people wearing those styles. In particular, I live in Silver Lake. It’s the part of Los Angeles where everyone is “working on a new project” and where I once saw graffiti referencing a conflict between the Writers Guild and the talent agencies (“Down with packaging!!” spraypainted on a wall around the corner from a Whole Foods).

The sidewalks here are full of painstakingly curated outfits that tell a person’s “story.” There’s a stretch of Sunset Boulevard that could compete with the early 2000s Tumblr “Williamsburg or Halloween?” where you had to guess if a photo was from a Halloween costume or just a person walking around on a regular day in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Recently, I’ve been struck by two simultaneous fashion trends. The first is that people seem to be walking around with the top half of their body not matching the bottom half of their body. I saw a person wearing the baggiest cargo pants I’ve ever seen and then on top, a corset. Are we prioritizing comfort or style? Rugged apocalyptic survivalism or European Renaissance restriction? It blew my mind. I saw a guy wearing a leather jacket and mesh basketball shorts. He might have just gotten chilly after playing a game of pickup, but I doubt it! He was too perfectly coiffed to have been sweaty.

I would describe this style trend as “children’s wooden block.”

They’re just spinning that sucker at random and walking outside with whatever they end up with! That’s how we’re getting so many horse-lion-rhino situations.

Send her to the runway!

The other trend I’ve just noticed is tiny little sunglasses. I had no idea what these were even called so I googled it.

This article in The Cut seemed to answer my question. However…

It’s also alarmingly, from 2018. So I may be more than half a decade late in noticing this trend. They’re not New Tiny Sunglasses anymore. They’re old tiny sunglasses now.

I do have several questions about these sunglasses. One is: do they block the sun? Or do you need to wear a larger pair of non-tiny sunglasses over them while you drive?

My second question is: If you wear these sunglasses, are you able to see The Matrix? Or are you in The Matrix? Or are you only buying these sunglasses if you do not understand my reference to The Matrix, a film that came out in 1999, before many of the people who are wearing the cool tiny sunglasses were born.

At the end of the day, I love seeing people take big fashion swings. Or tiny, narrow fashion swings. Who am I to judge? I was once approached after performing onstage in a suit and offered by an audience member that they would start a gofundme to help me afford a suit that fit.

My projects and upcoming events:

PODCAST: How to Be a Better Human (TED/PRX) - What does it take to be believed? The author Dina Nayeri and I spoke about her research into why the truth is often not enough, especially when it comes to situations like the refugee crisis. Dina tackles challenging issues in a very nuanced and thoughtful way. We recorded this episode before I went out on parental leave, but it’s only become more relevant in recent months. Listen here (or wherever you get podcasts)

LIVE TALK: TED Conference 2024 - April 15-19, Vancouver. I’ll be giving a mainstage TED Talk at the conference this year. Info and details on attending here

This week’s list

GREAT:

Andrew Boryga and I first crossed paths performing on a Pop-Up Magazine show. At the time, I was struck by how grounded and mature Andrew seemed. He was talented and thoughtful. But he also had a very clear vision about the kind of writing that he wanted to be defined by. Now, after years of effort, his debut novel is finally out. Victim is “a fearless satire about a hustler from the Bronx who sees through the veneer of diversity initiatives and decides to cash in on the odd currency of identity.”

Victim is getting the kind of glowing reviews every author dreams of. “A thrilling work” according to The New York Times! I am so happy for Andrew and I’m so excited to read his book. Victim by Andrew Boryga

FUNNY:

I know this isn’t purely a comedy article, but Andrew Marantz is so funny. He somehow manages to tackle one of the biggest intellectual issues of the moment while also making me laugh out loud multiple times. “Some people think machine intelligence will transform humanity for the better. Others fear it may destroy us. Who will decide our fate?” Among the A.I. Doomsayers

INTERESTING:

Big dramatic allegations make headlines. Retractions rarely get anything close to the same level of attention. But the facts matter, especially when they affect public policy and legislation. We’ve heard so much about the rising cost of consumer goods and inflation. We’re heard a lot less about the way that large businesses have pushed that narrative to justify raising prices and generating higher profits at the expense of regular people. This is excellent reporting in the L.A. Times on how the “retail crime wave” of 2023 turned out to be… not a wave at all. How the retail lobby sold a $45-billion whopper about organized shoplifting

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That's it for this week. Thanks for reading! Please share Bright Spots with anyone you think might enjoy it.

Looking at you through a pair of tiny little sunglasses,

Chris Duffy

This has been Bright Spots, a newsletter.

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…wait, who are you?

I'm Chris Duffy, a comedian, TV writer, podcast host, and both a former fifth grade teacher and a former fifth grade student. I’m currently writing a nonfiction book about humor for Doubleday.