🎁 if miley comments on this
...we'll buy the lot
You are cordially invited to this week’s brew of High Tea, your dispatch of 🔥 internet culture served piping hot. This week: our ultimate 2020 gift guide for the Very Online™, including Chamberlain Coffee, D’Amelio ring lights and small biz TikTok aficionados.
Drink up 🐸☕️
what we’ve been sipping on:
💅 2020’s baddest bleep. It just wouldn’t be a piping hot High Tea dispatch without at least one tip of the hat to Addison Rae. Starting the year off at 11M TikTok followers, Addison has since catapulted her way to the second most followed person in the world at 70.9M (second only to Charli D’Amelio). With fame comes great responsibility...and a great opportunity to secure the bag. After all, Forbes crowned Addison as TikTok’s top earner back in August, with reported earnings of $5M. Not bad for a (then) teenager who swapped LSU for the Ivy League of influencer houses. From drop out to cash out, Addison is undoubtedly finessing her moment in the spotlight, juggling a juicy $ponsorship deal with American Eagle, extensive merch ranges (including collabs with Fanjoy and iamkoko.la) and a co-founded venture into the beauty world, ITEM Beauty (if you’re looking for Gen Z beauty aesthetics, you’ve found them).
For us, though, it’s still the tongue-in-cheek bad bleep drop that takes the TikTok biscuit. ICYMI: Addison’s ability (with the quickness, no less) to capitalize on her The Kid LAROI shout out and turn internet mockery into dollar dollar bills, y’all. While we proceed to checkout, to cop our ITEM Brow Chow (say less), we *stay* vibing to Addison’s second musical name drop, by way of Lil Yachty’s feature on E-ER.
I’d gift myself some time off. 2020 has been such an incredible year and I am so grateful for all the opportunities that I have had. But for Christmas, I’m asking for some time off. – Addison Rae, People
🤑 Keeping Up With The D’Amelios. Where do we even start with the most famous sibling duo to hit the zeitgeist since Mary-Kate and Ashley? With 147M TikTok followers between them and combined earnings of $6.9M, Dixie and Charli have taken this year by category 5 storm. Besides snagging yourself “The Charli” from Dunkin’ (which led to a 45 per cent surge in sales) while you bop to Dixie’s latest release, One Whole Day ft. Wiz Khalifa, the D’Amelio sisters have been busy working on their gift edit with Hollister, long-time brand partner (taking their July Jeans Lab campaign to 2.5B TikTok views in 6 days). Their holiday “vibe with charli and dixie” drop includes the limited-edition oversized faux tie-dye tee (with all the trappings of Gen Z’s continued search for imitation grunge with fast fashion execution). Emboldened with the slogan “FEEL GOOD GANG”, we are required (by law) to have a little chuckle at the pairing, since Dixie’s most notorious lyrics to-date include the lines “sometimes I don’t wanna be happy” and “one day I was really, really, really, really sad”. ᗷᕼᑌᗴᔕᒍYᗴᔕ.
The haters work hard, but the D’Amelio team works harder. – Zoe Haylock, Vulture
Our sad gurl in training has also been busy collaborating with her younger sister on several products, including their joint line with year old DTC nail-polish startup Orosa, whose #orosaxcoastalcraze sits at 183.9M views on TikTok. The good news: you can cop their coastal craze set for $75 instead of its usual $96 – it’s a Christmas miracle. The latest drop from the duo is also our pick-of-the-year: the Charli and Dixie ring lights, capitalizing on the persistent filming-TikToks-in-your-bathroom trend, which the NYT’s Taylor Lorenz described as “the stage set of the moment”, back in January. Available in 3 sizes (ranging from $29.99 to $99.99) with a limit on two orders per customer 👀, expect these to fly off the dropshipping shelves at the furthest thing from a snail’s pace (sorry, we had to).
🎙️Call Her Daddy. 2020 has been quite the year for Alex Cooper (our single father 🤰), host of cult sex advice and comedy podcast Call Her Daddy. Founded in 2018, it grew from 12,000 to 2 million listeners in the space of 2 months, thanks to investment from Barstool Sports (the unofficial influencer incubator of the year). As of May 2020 it was among Apple’s twenty most popular podcasts and most recently topped the charts for its episode featuring Tana Mongeau. The departure of former co-host Sofia Franklyn in April was one of the biggest scandals of the year, bringing the topic of tensions between creative talent and corporate platforms to the forefront of media discourse. TL;DR dispatches from The Cut, NYT and Refinery29 deep dive into *exactly* what toppled one of the most successful podcast duos in recent history.
The podcast relaunched in August with Alex as its solo host, and featured High Tea fave Miley Cyrus as the guest star (what a comeback, if we do say so ourselves). Operating at the helm of Barstool as the Holiday season fast approaches means one thing and one thing only: Christmas merch. We can say with certainty that we’ll be pulling up to the High Tea (Zoom) office drinks with matching “i am unwell” ugly sweaters and a “block him” bauble to match.
Honorable mentions:
🥊 Jake Paul: Knockout Hoodie ($45)
🖤 David Dobrik: Waffle Charcoal Hoodie ($40)
😵 Tana Mongeau: Pink Tie Dye Dizzy Thong ($14)
☕ Emma Chamberlain: Chamberlain Coffee Holiday Blend ($20)
🍒 Miley Cyrus: Cherry Blood Tank Top ($40)
💄Kylie Jenner: Kylie x The Grinch Collection ($16-$375)
best of small biz TikTok
☕️ Morgan drinks coffee...and now she makes it too! Morgan Eckroth, aka Your Friendly Internet Barista (4.9M followers on TikTok) is not only going back to being a part-time barista and (full-time content creator) but has also announced the release of her newest coffee line in partnership with none other than TikTok celeb Nick Cho, aka Your Korean Dad. A match(a) made in caffeine heaven no less, the two launched pre-orders this week for two blends: The Decaf – “to be enjoyed by itself or as a late night affogato 🍨” and The Duet (inspired by TikTok ✨) – “a rich chocolate-y coffee that shines on its own or pairs well with cream”. And yes, before you ask, despite our affinity with the tea leaves, we’ll be adding Morgan’s blend to our Christmas lists, no question.
👟 the custom movement. ICYMI, long gone are the days where your whiter-than-white AF1s sit expectantly in their box waiting for permission to pound the pavements. Now, if it ain’t custom,,,we don’t want it 💅. Gen Z are ditching the pristine aesthetic in favor of flavor 🌶 and it’s bringing out the artists (and $$$) in everyone. Check out Embody Design, a small biz with 142K followers on TikTok, and some of the greatest internet culture customs we’ve seen to date. Among Us AF1s are our personal fave, and they’re one shots, meaning only one pair will be made and once they’re gone, they’re gone. SHHHH...HURRY!
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Okay, you made it. Now get you one of those ring lights before they sell out.
ttyl,