🌍 Pleasure with enough – when less can actually be more 🙏
Plus capsule wardrobe tips, tasty vegan shepherd's pie and an 80s 'Wet Look' playlist
Enough.
Funny how, when said on its own, that word sounds like a complaint. Probably uttered with hands on hips; like whoever’s said it has hit their limit, their patience is burnt down to the quick.
But what if we replaced it with ‘just right’ instead? Because ‘enough’ can mean that, equally. And is there anything better than just right?
In this week’s ’sletter, we want to reframe what that word means. Just like author of The Art of Enough, Becky Hall, has been doing for a while. "When we live knowing that we are enough, and that we’re allowed to do and have enough (not too much)… ” she says, “we move from the ever-hungry, never-satisfied state of striving to a state of fullness, from which we can thrive.” Which sort of sums it up.
Btw, we started this week with the theme of minimalism, but moved away from it when we thought more about its focus on the 'declutter' side of things. There are definitely amazing things going on in that sphere – we love this slightly whacky blog – the movement’s just been a little hijacked in places, as this visceral and excellent NYT piece lays out.
So we’re sticking with enough. Because it’s enough. Obviously. And bringing you cool stripped-back house renovations, cool simplified electric bikes and cool capsule wardrobes that each give us so much pleasure in their sheer enoughness.
The joyful abundance of ‘enough’ is also right at the heart of BRiMM itself – a word we chose (and embellished with an extra ‘m’) exactly because of how it can mean “as full as possible; also, completely satisfied". Because a lower-impact life, in tune with the earth’s needs, needn’t feel less, but actually much more, or – enough.
Tune in, team up and let's turn the tide.
Team BRiMM
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FROM THE COLLECTIVE
Matt’s loving this mesmerising film about the simple flow of energy in cities
Sam’s digging this museum designed purely to make you laugh in Zagreb
And Maia shared Inflatable Amnesty, which makes things from salvaged blow-up bits
We love to hear what the collective is finding. Share your links with Becky
Prolific planet-positive writer Rebecca Solnit notes in this Washington Post essay how people who experience disasters consistently seem to discover “a sense of meaning, of deep connection and generosity, of being truly alive in the face of uncertainty”. She suggests, then, that we all tune into these special, community-based powers, without waiting for personal tragedy to hit.
There’s a strategy involved when creating a capsule wardrobe – a concept first created back in 70s London and which has been seeing a resurgence in our recent years of consumption-quease. The best approach is shared step-by-step by fashion ed Maxine Eggenberger via the link below, or by all-time mens’ style masters, British GQ, here.
French folks DAB Motors’ low-key electric supermoto model, created with also-French agency Outercraft, is rewriting all the motorcycle design rules with its functional ‘objet d’art’ energy. Similarly, Swedish-born Ride Cake bikes, winner of masses of style awards and recently bought by Norwegian brand Brages Holding AS, has a uniquely pared-back but uber practical and highly re-configurable form that’s causing an electric vehicle-level quiet revolution in the motorbike world.
Natural materials, Nordic influences, insulation to within an inch of its Edwardian life and masses of light all add up to show how much impact a stripped-back, low-energy design can have at this North London renovation. If you dig this, you’ll dig this John Pawson interview – he’s the UK G on minimalist architecture – and we’ll throw in this super clever ‘lamp that can do anything,’ too.
This Jamie Oliver vegan version isn’t quick but it’s easy – and delicious. Tastes especially good in this cold/wet/whatever weather.
MUSIC FOR CLIMATE OPTIMISTS
We can’t decide if Andy’s 80s Wet Look playlist is silly or superb. What do you reckon?
WHAT’S BRiMM AGAIN?
We’re building a shop, journal and collective to prove that living within limits isn’t living less – and to put the profit to work for the planet.
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