Happy Tuesday, everyone. I know I promised RPS would officially be back on its Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule after Labor Day. I am asking for one final week of amnesty. September has staged something of a hostile takeover of my calendar, and getting back into the swing of things has been a little more humbling than planned. Starting next week, you’ll have more RPS in your inbox than you will know what to do with, ideally at the same time every day, because even newsletters should have some standards.
First, thank you to everyone who came to Café Commerce this morning to celebrate the launch of its breakfast service, which starts tomorrow. I moderated a conversation with Lila Raicek about her debut novel, The Plunge, a psychological thriller about a grieving young woman who gets pulled into a seductive and increasingly dangerous New York love triangle, with stops on the East End and in Lake Como. In other words: fairly obvious RPS reading. And in true RPS fashion, we really went there with the conversation. Lila was an open book in ways she hasn’t even been for interviews yet, which made for a very fun breakfast.
It was such an impressive room, with power players from real estate, hospitality, publishing and the arts, plus multiple authors and chefs. And if you haven’t read The Plunge yet, I suggest doing so now. An adaptation is already in the works.
Now, to today’s actual business: privacy. This is not a new prediction. The idea that privacy is becoming a luxury has been kicking around for years, and lately it seems to be everywhere. In May, Vogue Business asked whether privacy was becoming the new luxury, looking at wealthy consumers who are increasingly reluctant to hand over their personal data just because a brand asks for it. Last month, A Luxury Travel Blog made the same case from a different angle: wealthy travelers are choosing privacy over prestige, looking for smaller hotels and fewer people.
The point is the same. The more of our lives that can be tracked, photographed, posted or turned into someone else’s content, the more valuable it becomes to go somewhere and be left alone.
Meanwhile, we are building an entire economy around doing the opposite. Arizona State University now offers a B.A. in Content Creation, with electives including “How to Become an Influencer.” Morning Consult found that 44 percent of Gen Z adults said their ideal career includes being a professional content creator. For a generation that grew up watching people turn their closets, vacations and, yes, workouts into businesses, the old nine-to-five can look financially claustrophobic.
But the new cool, the new luxury may not be having a massive follower count. It may be not needing one at all. Content creation has become its own version of hustle culture, and for people who do not need to monetize every part of their lives, there is some status in not needing the attention
This applies to where we work-out more than ever. Some of New York’s most expensive and private gyms are drawing a much harder line around phones. If you have ever looked up mid-workout and realized someone’s iPhone is pointed vaguely in your direction, you understand why.
Today, we’re looking at a recent email from one of those gyms and the policies at several others. Maybe the hottest amenity is no longer another cold plunge, infrared sauna or eucalyptus towel (although honestly, I do love a eucalyptus towel). Maybe the amenity is the phone ban.
Also in today’s letter: there are now 590 American billionaires who are too broke to make the Forbes 400, Goldman Sachs is sending their clients’ kids to making-money boot camp, Loro Piana is deliberately selling fewer loafers to keep them exclusive, Café Charmant opens today on Bleecker Street, Switzy debuted at No. 9, Rolex did a surprise-drop today, and Mario and Cait Bailey Carbone threw the kind of wedding reception that made everything else happening in New York that night feel beside the point.
