Nymphet Alumni

After a brief hiatus, the Nymphies are BACK!! In this annual ceremony, we honor 2025’s greatest achievements in fashion and culture with awards from us at the Nymphet Alumni Academy of Arts and Sciences, including categories such as Best and Worst Rebrand, Outfit of the Year, Best Sillyboy, and Best Brainrot Trend, featuring exclusive access to our careful deliberation process. We lay to rest dear...

In this episode, we’re joined (again!!) by Avery Trufelman, the grand dame of fashion podcasting, to discuss the latest installment of her podcast, Articles of Interest , titled Gear . In this meticulously researched series, Avery dives deep into the history of tactical/outdoor fashion and the ways in which the United States Military and the world of high-tech performance wear continuously influen...

In this edition of Study Break, we discuss the return of press tour psychodrama surrounding Wicked: For Good , the concerning midwittery of the Met Gala’s recent theme announcement, DLlegations in the highest office of the nation, and profiles in infidelity and iMessage confessionalism featuring Olivia Nuzzi and Lily Allen. We also review Vanity Fair ’s latest Hollywood issue while reflecting on t...

In this week’s episode, we develop a theory of Scientifica, a fashion aesthetic that borrows from the visual language of science, with influences ranging from Victorian taxonomy to Utopian Scholastic nostalgia to legacy science-fiction world-building. We examine recent manifestations of this impulse—runway shows that feel like scientific exhibitions or presentations, references to astronomical phe...

In this episode, we are honored to be joined by pop princess and fashion icon Kim Petras to discuss the world of inspiration behind her newest project, especially the Fashioncore anthem heard around the world, “I Like Ur Look.” Kim walks us through her formative fashion memories, from aspirational MTV programming to inaugural designer grails, and tells us about her latest archival obsessions, incl...

In this edition of Study Break, we discuss the ragebait spectacle of Paris Fashion Week, darksided news from Hollywood featuring Tilly Norwood and D4vd, lives of showgirls everywhere from Taylor Swift’s possible schizophrenia diagnosis to Addison Rae’s vintage scream queen moment to Zara Larsson’s sublime vocal talent, and the cultural warfare fallout of Bad Bunny’s road to the Super Bowl. Sam als...

This week on Nymphet Alumni, Biz is joined by journalist and author Marisa Meltzer to talk about her new book It Girl: The Life and Legacy of Jane Birkin — the first comprehensive biography of the actress, singer and myth-muse. The two get into the making of Birkin’s image and the unseen real life behind it, plus how aging, style and selfhood intersect. Also discussed: the horrors of Serge Gainsbo...

In this episode, Alexi is joined by writer, editor, and dear friend Olivia Kan-Sperling to discuss the aesthetic universe of her brand new novel, Little Pink Book , a lyrical and decadent romantic tragedy set in Shanghai. In unpacking her wide range of influences, we explore shabby chic Orientalism, avant garde florists, Chinese romantasy web novels, baroque bespoke beverages, the emerging field o...

In this episode, we welcome back none other than the “Freud of Fashion” herself, Dr. Valerie Steele, to discuss the Museum at FIT’s latest exhibition, Dress, Dreams, and Desire: Fashion and Psychoanalysis. Dr. Steele walks us through central theories on mirrors, masquerade, and eroticism, exploring the deep-seated fears and fantasies that drive what we wear. We dissect how the theories of Lacan an...

In this emergency roundtable report, we discuss how clownery has become a dominant mode of aesthetic and ideological expression, perhaps symbolizing the defeat of authenticity. Recent carnivalesque incidents include the chaotic spectacle of this year’s VMAs, the meteoric rise of the Savannah Bananas, Jay Guapo’s Italian Brainrot Block Party, the political role reversal of the troll and the trigger...

This week, we discuss the glamorous world of the Magazine Girl, dissecting the real and fictional lives of women who worked at glossy magazines during their heyday. Through profiles of icons including Diana Vreeland, Anna Wintour, Franca Sozzani, Carine Roitfeld, and Plum Sykes, we distill the shared qualities that made these women so foundational to high fashion media. Inspired by Anna Wintour’s...

In this edition of Study Break, we discuss the suspiciously overblown controversy of Sydney Sweeney’s AE ad spot, our box office takes on Ari Aster’s Black Lives Matter COVID Western and the new Superman , fascinating late night musical debuts from Pinkpantheress and Jessie Murph, the summer of female sexual aggression, our love of senior dating and romance, and more. Links: Sydney Sweeney Has Gre...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nymphetalumni.com This week on Nymphet Alumni, Biz interviews New York newsletter phenom and Feed Me founder Emily Sundberg. They discuss the West Village-ification of America, the curious case of Hamptons face and what’s aspirational to young people in New York in 2025. Plus, Emily shares her advice on how to find your voice and ho...

In this week’s episode, we explore the cryptic and chaotic world of Opium, the record label founded by Playboi Carti in 2019 that has since evolved into a full-blown subculture of chronically online and fashionably darksided super-fans. From botched merch capsules and vampire cosplay to early TikTok dances and baby mama drama, we descend the Opium iceberg and trawl the Cartinese dark web in attemp...

In this edition of Study Break, we discuss the mass psychosis of Love Island USA , major couture debuts at Dior and Celine, the sauceless hypergamy parable of Celine Song’s Materialists , Cate Blanchett’s chilling epilogue cameo in Squid Game , and current Latina affairs from Katseye’s “Gabriela” to the Sanchez-Bezos midlife nuptial extravaganza. We also review Addison’s stadium debut at Wembley a...

In this edition of Study Break, in which we subtly celebrate Sam’s birthday, we discuss a variety of women’s issues: the discourse meltdown brought on by Sabrina Carpenter’s chauvinist comeback and her aesthetic shift from pastels and pin-ups to Helmut Newton and Halston; the mass crisis of female reproductive unwellness; Addison Rae’s kaleidoscopic showgirl debut; and the upsetting regression of...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nymphetalumni.com In this episode, we oscillate between antebellum steamboat grifters and prosperity gospel televangelists to unpack the archetype of the American con man: a self-made myth-maker cloaked in charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent. We discuss itinerant preachers, LA hypebeast cyber-apostles, Herman Melville, identity t...

This week on Nymphet Alumni, Alexi interviews Angel Money, New York nightlife darling and visionary of beauty and commerce. Over the course of more than two hours, we discuss her past life as a Tumblr-famous pale grunge blogger, her balance between New Age spirituality and hedonistic abundance, her intimate knowledge of custom Chinese manufacturing, her fashion controversies from cultural appropri...

In this episode, we’re joined by the legendary Emily Segal: writer, artist, cultural clairvoyant, and co-founder of K-HOLE and Nemesis. We talk about her brand-conscious NYC upbringing and art school education-by-osmosis, AI and telepathy, the collapse of unified worldviews, and what it means to be a creative director when every pair of jeans is trending at once. Emily also unearths the lost downt...

In this episode, we introduce the concept of whimsimod to explain the recent trend of pattern-printed and adorably tailored fashion among sensitive indie starlets and Instagram baddies alike. In the process of unpacking this polished yet playful re-envisioning of femininity, we discuss the aesthetic shift from “kiki” to “bouba” over the past year, the history of girly youth diffusion lines like RE...

In this edition of Study Break, we discuss the emancipatory joy of Justin Bieber’s public glow-down, shocking displays of tactical romantic psychosis by girls online, the despair wrought by the all-female Blue Origin space flight, the self-titled musical bonanza of Addison and Jonatan , the subversive pots-and-pans earworm Gnarly by Katseye, reflections on Californian millennialism from HAIM to Me...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nymphetalumni.com In this solo debut episode, Sam introduces us to her fantastically anachronistic obsession: dinosaurs and their recurring impact on fashion and culture. From the “Bone Wars” of the Gilded Age to the fossilized postwar fantasy of The Flintstones to the mass Dinomania surrounding the release of 1993’s Jurassic Park ,...

In this very special video episode of Nymphet Alumni, we convene in Hell’s Kitchen to perform our first-ever mukbang. Filmed the evening after our tiki-themed Substack launch party, we attempt to recover with 30 Chick-fil-A nuggets, two Cokes, two large fries, one chicken sandwich, and six Crumbl cookies. Along the way, we unpack the economics of fast food franchising, explore the theological divi...

In this episode, superstar model-actress-writer and certified Tumblr icon Hari Nef joins us to discuss the electric energy of the mid-2010s New York fashion scene— VFILES, Hood by Air, Eckhaus Latta, and more— and the collision of early online content and the fashion industry that birthed some of the most brilliant creative personae of our generation. We learn about Hari’s cutthroat electioneering...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nymphetalumni.com In our first exclusive episode on Substack (yay!), we discuss the Ibiza fashion craze, unpacking the sparkling, sunset-hued resortwear fantasy that looms over the coming summer. Using our revolutionary theory of “trickle-down Ibizanomics,” we leave no sequin unturned, from the couture treasure trove of Annie’s Ibiz...