Back in issue 24, which came out September of last year, I mentioned Sean Monahan (8Ball) while defending my new bob and its 80’s energy. Monahan is the guy behind K-HOLE, the trend-forecasting group that coined “normcore” back in 2013, and more recently “vibe shift.”
His current thesis, “Boom Boom,” argues that culture responds to instability and global chaos by swinging toward 80s-style excess: bold color, maximalism, glamour with teeth. Almost a year later, the evidence keeps stacking up. Past examples covered in Secondary include David Protein branding and Miley Cyrus’ album “Something Beautiful.”
Boom Boom has been all around us, but now it has arrived.
First on TV, The Shards, Ryan Murphy’s Bret Easton Ellis adaptation set in 1981 LA, premiered on FX and Hulu this month. It’s centered around ultra-wealthy students at a private high school based on The Buckley School. Easton Ellis is a real-life alum and I happen to know a few other graduates. I asked some what they thought about the representation of their high school, to varied response:
“Not a fan of horror,” replied a friend who is on the exec team at a big record label.
“I have not seen it, but I try and watch shows about our school,” a D.C. based lawyer replied.
The finance guy in Miami? Left the whole group chat on read.
Finally, one friend had actually seen it: “It’s SO well done,” she exclaimed. “Like the girls are SO glam.”
I asked her if she was seeing 80’s aesthetics reflected in events since she runs her own experiential marketing firm. “I didn’t think about it, but I bet it will have an effect.” She’s personally tired of the Instagram aesthetic, she confessed, and would welcome a disruption to the standard grazing table.
A smaller datapoint at the indie music level is Debbii Dawson’s new EP, Where Have All the Good Men Gone?; it’s my current obsession and it is distinctly 80’s-coded.
Core themes include:
Money (“I need more, more, more, Money”)
Greed (Put it on a payment plan (Oh man), Gotta, gotta pay that man, He never has enough”)
Wall Street (”They say stocks and bonds, stocks and bonds”)
Xanadu (”Now I finally found paradise, my own Xanadu”)
Cults (”I’d do anything that you say, I would drink your kool aid”)
There’s synth, there’s cowbell, there’s Kate Bush-esque vocals. And there’s the outfits.
In luxury fashion, we have the viral Saint Laurent Fall 2026 campaign. Connor Storrie, of Heated Rivalry fame, is intoxicating doing staccato dance movements to ‘I’m Gonna Miss You’ by Milli Vanilli (released 1988). I have watched it over and over and can confirm it’s thrilling every time.
One simply can’t look away from his statement sunglasses and double collar. His movements are bold, intense, unflinching. Then, a slow pan of Rose from BlackPink, looking down at you as she lounges in what feels like a power pose. Liu Wen, (widely regarded as China’s first supermodel) takes us home in an outfit clearly inspired by 80’s work wear, shoulder pads and all.
The talent choices in this campaign also show the buying power of the Asian market in luxury. Asia-Pacific is Saint Laurent’s largest and most dominant geographic market, accounting for roughly 35% of its total global revenue. Asia-Pacific alone generated roughly €910 million of Saint Laurent’s final 2025 revenue. North America followed closely, comprising 25% of the brand’s global footprint.
You may see more of this as North America increasingly begins to look more Asian, or more specifically, Wasian.
New York Magazine recently reported on their rise in visibility this year: Alysa Liu and Eileen Gu carried the U.S. through the Milan Olympics. Hudson Williams went from a supporting role in Heated Rivalry to ad campaigns for Peloton and Balenciaga within the same twelve months. Charles Melton picked up an Emmy nomination for Beef. Olivia Rodrigo spent weeks at the top of the Hot 100.
It’s not because the industry suddenly fell in love with mixed-race Asians, there are simply more of them in the talent pool.
The Census Bureau counted 26.4 million Asian Americans last year, the fastest growing racial group in the country. One in five is multiracial. Four in five of those are part white, or Wasian, including myself.
Are you seeing the 80’s everywhere? Are you noticing the rise of Wasian celebs? Let me know.
If you missed the last dispatch, I take you on a journey to Tavern Next Door:
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AI
New York is the new Silicon Valley. The city now employs more tech workers than the Bay Area, according to a new CBRE report. NYC's tech workforce grew 8.4% over the past three years while San Francisco's shrank 6% amid layoffs, and AI alone accounts for more than 20,000 of New York's new jobs since mid-2025. San Francisco's consolation prize? Better weather.
Harvey went from an $8 billion valuation to $15.5 billion in nine months. The four-year-old legal AI startup, run by a 30-year-old CEO, raised another $550 million this week, co-led by Diffusion and Lightspeed, pushing its total funding past $1.55 billion since 2023. It's now used by 80% of the top 100 law firms and half of the Fortune 10. Some of that money is going toward Tenet, Harvey's first in-house model, built so law firms rely less on OpenAI and Anthropic.
Dyson's newest toothbrush uses a camera to surveil your mouth. The new CameraJet toothbrush detects gaps between your teeth with a macro lens shooting 28 images a second, then fires a targeted burst of mouthrinse at them within 100 milliseconds. It also requires its own proprietary toothpaste, since regular foam blocks the lens. The device took 661 engineers to make and resulted in 38 patents, so if you think about it, $499 for a toothbrush actually seems kinda of cheap.
If you need a laugh after all of that I recommend this.
Culture
The foldable iphone is here. It’s called iPhone Duo, starts at $1,999 and arrives in stores Oct. 23. Obviously, it’s not a new concept. Samsung released the Galaxy Fold in 2019 and starts at $1,180.
It’s the U.S. Open. Naomi Osaka has the same stylist as Zendaya making her even more fun to watch. Frances Tiafoe won big after a five-set comeback over fellow American Alex Michelsen and surprised everyone when he celebrated by racing to the net and hugged a sobbing Michelsen for 25 seconds.
Boy Throb's entire reason for existing just resolved itself. I'm late on this, I know, but for those who may not have realized Darshan got his visa, it felt important to include. The band formed last fall around one explicit goal: prove to immigration officials that they were a real band so founding member Darshan Magdum, based in India, could get a U.S. visa and actually perform with them.
The modern will-they-won’t-they romance looks a little different. The LA Times just profiled FX’s “Adults,” which has drawn Friends and Girls comparisons for its five Queens roommates fumbling through their 20s. Recently released season 2 leans into the genre’s oldest holdup: Anton (played by Owen Thiele) and Paul Baker (Jack Innanen) clearly have the chemistry, but will they actually get together?
A great quote from Thiele:
“It’s rare for a queer Black man to be a lead with an emotional arc and a love interest. All the things a white girl gets to have. No shade; I love those movies and shows, too. But having that representation on ‘Adults’ feels really important.”
U.S. Feuds
The U.S. will ban imports of certain Canadian dairy, alcohol, and motorcycles starting Sept. 29. The move, announced late Tuesday, escalates a trade war that began last month when a trade deal collapsed and triggered 50% tariffs on some Canadian goods.
Will flight prices ever go down? Not while Iran and the U.S. are still exchanging fire over the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint that carries roughly a fifth of the world’s oil. Six months into the war, Brent crude climbed to $99.46 a barrel, jet fuel prices move with oil prices, and airlines pass that along.
Kelly Clarkson appreciation post.
Ok bye! 🍊
Thanks for reading!