HTSI editor’s letter: stories that bring us together
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And so we have reached the final issue of HTSI 2023. First, a thank you. Every week we are encouraged by your amazing feedback: it’s an absolute pleasure to have got to know so many of our readers, both old devotees and new subscribers, over email and via social media, as the magazine has grown. Thank you for your ideas, your support and occasionally your criticisms: HTSI is the result of an ongoing conversation and we (mostly) love to hear your thoughts.
This week, the mood is nostalgic, excited and optimistic. We’ve focused on stories that bring us all together, from tree-decorating to toys and board games, alongside stories that celebrate the pleasures of escaping into our own private worlds. Lulu Guinness was always obsessed with needlework and embroidery, but she only developed the confidence to try sewing in her 60s and has since become a full convert. As she tells Aimee Farrell, embroidery has helped with her mental-health issues and a personal tragedy: “I’ve found the repetition of sewing a very good way to switch off my brain.” One of the greatest luxuries today is finding stillness in what can seem a manic schedule, and Guinness’s description of listening to audiobooks while stitching 3D flowers sounds like a meditative heaven at this point in the year.
When I need to switch off I go walking. And next week, I am planning to do a bit of hiking in the Hope Valley, in the Peaks. Thankfully, I’ve got Fergus Scholes’ compendium of walking accessories to choose from, should I decide to turn my country amble into something more ambitious. Maybe I should pack the GPS system he has recommended and go totally off-grid?
Our cover star Yusra Mardini is a beacon of optimism. I sat beside her at a Bottega Veneta show last February and it took me a minute to work out that the chatty student Yusra, who loved fashion and getting her nails done, was the same person whose extraordinary journey from Syria to the Olympics had just been captured in a massive Netflix-distributed film. Mardini was blithely casual about her newfound celebrity, hungry for new experiences and eager to make the most of all her options. The news that she was launching a foundation in the summer to offer sports to displaced children made total sense: Mardini sees opportunity, not boundaries. As she tells Rosanna Dodds, she sees herself as being a “symbol of hope”.
It’s not all lofty purpose, however. May I direct you, for example, to the HTSI-created spin-the-bottle game – a cut-out-and-keep roulette wheel of starry spirits. We were inspired to create this boozy board game when we realised how many dozens of celebrity drinks had launched this year. Rather than try to approach each one individually, we thought we’d celebrate all of them on one page. Featuring everything from Kendall Jenner’s tequila blanco to Cameron Diaz’s pinot noir, from Michael Bublé’s whiskey to A$AP Rocky’s Mercer + Prince, whenever you get stuck for ideas on what to tipple over Christmas, all you need to do is spin the wheel.
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