ISSUE 31 📒 – Tackling The September Scaries

It’s that time again. The time when we get excited about new beginnings and getting back to our routines and, in some cases, getting back to university, school, and reluctantly, our jobs.

You may find yourself feeling like your spaces could do with a little lift – maybe you are starting university and need some help bringing a little style to your dorm room, or are just moving into your first grown up apartment, or maybe (like me) you just feel like you’ve outgrown your interior style and art. It’s easily done, and much like style, it is ever-evolving and changing as we grow and age. Things we once loved become reminders of more youthful versions of ourselves, and we don’t always need those reminders around all the time.

So here are a few little tips to help update your spaces, whether you are a renter, or styling your dorm room.

• Be considered with your bedding. What kind of feeling do you want to evoke in your space? As your bedding takes up the majority of your bedroom, make sure you love your choice. However, remember that bedding is expensive, so choose options that are timeless. We love the striped cotton sheets from Piglet in Bed, (£89). However, if you prefer the clean, crispness of white sheets, then opt for a contrasting and fun blanket or quilt to have on your bed, like this one from Arket, (£85). For those who believe there should be no budget when it comes to bedding, BedThreads (bundles starting from £400) offers the softest flax linen options in a myriad of colours and styles.
• Lamps are non-negotiable. Turn on the big light at your peril. We do not believe in harsh overhead lighting at TRS, and much prefer the warm soft glow that lamps provide. Ensure you have at least two, with one next to your bed and another at your desk. Warm lightbulbs are essential and can make or break the cosiness of a space. We love this one from Ikea, £35, or for a pop of colour, this chargeable, dimmable lamp from John Lewis is great too, £65.
• Invest in a classic large wall mirror that will take you from your dorm room to your first flat and beyond. Nothing beats the Hovet mirror from Ikea, £129.
• When it comes to art, think about the colour palette you want to apply to a room and find art you like that fits into that palette. If not, you’ll end up with a mix that feels disjointed and more juvenile. A great way to figure out what kind of art you like is to spend time on websites, discovering what you like. Whether that’s Etsy, Minted, or small art galleries, get familiar with styles you like and build around that.
• Casey Lewis, aka After School, on Substack, talked about how parents are hijacking college dorms with highly curated dorm rooms and Pinterest boards to help design the spaces of their little darlings. In the US, the National Retail Federation estimates families will spend $12.8 billion on college furnishings in 2025, nearly double the $6.7 billion projected in 2019.

So while we are all for curating your space, let’s take it easy, and focus on bringing a sense of calm, consideration and warmth, leaving the highly interior designed spaces until later in life.

While we are on the topic of back to school, it seems like a good time to refer to our stationery needs and wants. Back to school, after all, is less about timetables and more about ensuring one’s jotter margins are as well kept as one’s hedgerows – fountain pens over biros, embossed notecards over email, and a proper leather sachet over anything nylon.

“Don’t you love New York in the fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address.”

― Nora Ephron

So on that note, here are some of our favourite school supplies, whether you are heading to university, going into your A-levels, or heading back to the office.

• For chic soft-sided notebooks that are reminiscent of school exercise books, but better, look no further than Zara Home, A5 notebook, 2 pack, £15.99.
• There’s something great about using a proper fountain pen; it helps make us feel like we are about to do important work, even if we are just writing out our shopping list for M&S next week. Kaweco Student 70’s Soul Fountain Pen – Fine, £52.99.
• Life & Pieces Drafting Pencil is the sort of tool that architects, artists, and avid list-makers dream of. Its 0.5mm lead ensures crisp, precise lines every time, £7.99.
• You’ll need a chic book bag, and we can’t recommend our Tenenbaum Tote more. Keep your eyes peeled for our restock, and even a new iteration, coming later this autumn.
• Because one notebook isn’t enough, we love this lined notebook from a little hidden gem of a stationery shop in London’s Covent Garden, Choosing Keeping, £12.
• Some blue light glasses – protect your eyes from all of the screens and stave off any potential migraines with these Meller blue light glasses, £49.
• You’ll be needing something to contain all of these chic pens and pencils. A chic enamel pen pot from Labour and Wait is just the thing, and has a fun splatter print, £36.
• Kick off the back-to-school feeling with a new mid-year diary, which will see you through until December 2026. Papier’s version comes in retro colour combinations, week-to-view planners, as well as monthly and yearly overviews for you to set some goals and mark your progress, £25.
• Ok, we got a little distracted on our search for the best stationery and found this clip – we’ll just leave this link here for you… Croissant Hair Clip, £18.50, Popham’s Home.

Preppy season is here. Not only do we tend to shift into collegiate style mode once the autumn leaves start to fall, but we have Jonathan Anderson to thank for a renaissance of the 2000s prep styling with his work at Dior.

Get ready for the double shirt layering, tucking trousers into striped sport socks just so, and topping it off with a pair of perfectly beaten-up loafers.

Then by way of Prada, we have dressing gowns and pyjamas for daywear, which might lean a little too on the nose for the university students among the club, but for those of us who remember the comfort of those days fondly, we shall we logging into our place of work on a Monday morning in the closest thing to pyjamas we can get away with…

Speaking of Prada, with a little hint of The Row, I have been thinking about a speckled two tone knit, preferably with a roll seam finish. Imagine the sort of thing your grandfather would have worn circa 1981.

Finally, there’s a little haphazard adornment going on, especially in the world of Chemena at Chloe, where models looked like Victorian heiresses draped in the wares from their attic and finished with a furry flourish and a bag in the nook of the arm.

September Scaries

We asked our community to share their quandaries with us ahead of the changing seasons, and have been putting our heads together to compile the best advice.

Here are the results.

Feel stuck at work now summer holidays are over?

Hollie at TRS – Embrace the changing seasons and plan some fun things in for the next few months to help keep you going. Maybe you can do a weekend away, or plan a fun night with some friends. That way it won’t feel so bleak looking into the abyss of winter.

I’m starting my masters and am scared I might have made the wrong decision?

TRS Member – As someone who is finishing their PhD, I would say I think it’s incredibly fun to work in an academic environment and have that touch-point with what’s going on in the research side of your chosen field, whilst also making connections with other people.

If you can afford it (time and money) I think a masters is never a mistake to make, just an intense 1 year experience. If you’re scared about the workload, I would say be pragmatic, pick modules based on the assessment methods that you know you do best with that align with future goals. Practically, I would say it is not particularly harder than undergraduate if it’s a taught masters in terms of function, but the subject matter is denser and can become more abstract.

Enjoy it! It’s fun! Learning is a skill you can do forever, and education is a privilege that billions are unable to access. Don’t let fear get in the way of what more than likely will be an amazing experience for you! Good luck!

TRS Member – Adding to this as someone who’s moving to their 2nd year of PhD (creative STEM) but has experience of both taught and research masters – both courses (assuming UK) tend to lean heavily on the independent and you might find yourself easily lost in the crowd. But this is where you have to really take advantage of speaking to and even becoming friends with staff (most of us really like this!) – from my experience this isn’t common at the bachelor level so many students don’t try. I do think that the taught route is heavily influenced on whether the university treats it as practical vs continuing academics as well, and knowing which of the two you want will help make sure you pick the right modules.

Personally, I spent much of my MSc course, and a little after too, regretting it. I didn’t do that much research into the university or the course and ended up feeling like I got a really good looking certificate but didn’t feel I learned much. I mostly was just scrambling to find a course that would accept me (I was switching fields so it was complicated). However, the biggest thing to come out of it was understanding how the postgraduate system functioned and how to self-learn. My masters was much better because I did research this time but it was also more of the “right” choice as it helped me get my PhD spot at the same university. Even if you don’t know what you want after the masters, at the very least knowing if you want to continue in academics or not will absolutely help make things clearer. One of my masters classmates didn’t want to go on to a PhD but finished the course with a really great portfolio/work experience, which she wouldn’t have completed without the course’s lab/material access, and it opened a lot of doors for her. Sometimes even if the course isn’t perfect, there might be a lot more to gain from the university that’s outside of your course.

Tips on how to remain graceful whilst on the verge of crashing out over school/work?

Time management – law school is hard and I have my first memo due?

TRS member – I think the first thing is to make a plan / schedule that helps keep things day by day. Once you know how much you have to do each day, you can then see what gaps and space you can give yourself. It is really hard to balance everything, and really easy to get overwhelmed. But once you start, it tends to feel easier. Also make sure in that schedule you have enough rest / recovery time. No matter how much you have to do, if you are exhausted, that work won’t be good and you most likely won’t retain it either. So give yourself the chance to succeed by balancing that and giving yourself some time off.

Joining film academy and scared that everyone is going to be better / more passionate than me?

Tamsin – The fact that you’re actively joining a film academy means you’re already as passionate as anybody there! You are just as worthy and your opinions are just as valid…besides, the whole point of an academy is to learn, and so everyone else there will be doing just that, so you are all in the same proverbial boat. One of the most beautiful things about film is how the same piece of work can stir a variety of opposing thoughts and feelings from its viewers, evoking some brilliant conversations, making it a medium open to interpretation. There’s no right or wrong, no ‘good or bad’, as long as you go in with an open heart and mind, willing to learn and take chances, you can’t go wrong!

Starting online university super scared about how I’ll look on zoom?

Hollie at TRS – Everyone is too busy looking at themselves when on Zoom, they aren’t focused on you. However, having worked through the pandemic after being with the same business beforehand, I can relate. I think the key thing I implemented is to use a bit of the face filter tool (not the full way across as it makes you look blurry), just to take the edge off, then work on your lighting – having a desk in front of a window is great, so you look light and bright. Think a bit about your background and what you do or don’t want to show, and adjust from there. I also really found comfort in wearing blue light glasses when on Zoom. Somehow, it gave me more confidence and felt a bit like a barrier between the Zoom presentation of myself and the actual me. I used to find it really embarrassing to speak on Zoom, especially when the frame then highlights you as the focus of the call, but that really helped.

Moving to London for a masters, need best recs for making friends and good coffee?

Hollie at TRS – Get a routine going, explore different coffee shops in nearby neighbourhoods or in places you’d like to spend time, maybe near a park, and start going there often. After a few weeks, you’ll start recognising people and they will recognise you, and you can start chatting. Sometimes just having the courage to say hi is enough to make a friend. Then I would also recommend finding a community of like-minded people around a hobby of yours outside of your masters. Whether that’s going to film screenings, or playing a sport, etc, you are likely to find people you have things in common with, and then you can take those positive interactions outside of your hobby and go from there.

Coffee-wise, there are so many amazing coffee shops in London. We love Hagen, and there are lots all over London, but my personal favourite is Nostos. They have one near Battersea Park and another in the Victoria/Westminster area. The owners Edison and Damon are so friendly and have created a wonderful community of like minded people and the best coffee in London (in my opinion). Pophams and Jolene are also great, as is the food.

What to wear always / New job wardrobe?

Hollie at TRS – New job – I wouldn’t get too carried away with buying loads of clothes beforehand and stick with some classic favourites as you begin the job, and then slowly add to those with more personal pieces and things that become more important as you learn about the requirements of your role. Go for a classic look at first, think crisp yet oversized shirting with some smart denim or trousers (depending on the dress code) and some flats, maybe a little Mary Jane, with a knit (could be a cardigan or jumper) over the shoulders in case the aircon is blaring. Then add some jewellery and any accessories that make you feel like yourself. The most important thing when making a first impression at a new job is that you look appropriate, clean and professional.

What to wear always – I think the general conversation around dressing and personal style has become a bit too in-depth and convoluted. When we get down to it, it’s about self-expression, mixed with practicality, and ultimately not that serious. Not that I want to belittle the confusion and frustration around true self expression through clothing, as I have spent many many hours, days and likely weeks (I have worked in fashion for a decade so maybe that’s actually years…), but I do think the reminder that it isn’t that serious takes the pressure off and helps bring some fun and exploration to the task for getting dressed. I think trial and error is a key, and really tapping into the way things make you feel is really important. But ultimately, try not to worry or stress too much over it. If you want to go for a deep dive, please take a look at our previous newsletter when I really go into how to shape your style.

How to brace for the change in weather / mood? The lack of sunlight and change in seasons?

Hollie at TRS – Ok as an autumn and winter lover, I have the opposite problem and cannot wait for the change in the seasons as the summer months are tough for me. I think the lack of sunlight gets to all of us, but one key thing to work on is making sure you get outside in the sun / daylight everyday. Then interiors wise, make sure you’ve got your lighting situation down – warm white lightbulbs only, lamps, and no overhead big light is key. Then some non-scented little candles create such a warm and cosy vibe that feels like sunlight. These things should keep you feeling brighter, even if the weather and daylight isn’t playing along.

Merit Badges

How could we talk about back to school without the much-loved Merit Badge? Keep your eyes peeled this September, as we will be releasing six badges for our members to collect.

HOW TO STYLE THEM

• on your Tenenbaum tote bag
• attached to the lapel of your blazer / jacket
• added to your shirt collar
• on your cosiest jumper
• on your breast pocket

Ensure you are signed up as a Private Member to receive early access to the launch of the merit badges.