Episode 75: To Couture a Mockingbird

This week's prompts: Paper White, 1962, Glasses

Neal takes 1962 straight to To Kill a Mockingbird, the landmark film adaptation of Harper Lee’s novel that somehow manages to be both gentle and devastating. He talks about Gregory Peck’s towering, quietly radical performance as Atticus Finch; why the movie still holds emotional power decades later; and how its moral clarity feels almost shocking in a modern landscape full of irony and cynicism. Neal also touches on the book’s long history of bans and challenges, why that still matters, and how the film’s restraint — its refusal to sensationalize — is exactly what gives it weight.

Meanwhile, Lauren unspools the life and legacy of Yves Saint Laurent, the fashion prodigy who permanently changed how women dress. From his early paper-doll designs and meteoric rise at Dior to the creation of ready-to-wear as a democratizing force, Lauren breaks down how Saint Laurent blurred gender lines, mainstreamed women in pants, and fused art, business, and rebellion into a single brand. She digs into his partnership with Pierre Bergé, his friendships and rivalries (Warhol, Lagerfeld), and the darker side of genius — addiction, burnout, and a career that flickered between brilliance and collapse. Along the way, we get couture history, fashion-week mechanics, and why Saint Laurent’s influence still shapes what hangs in our closets today.

PLUS:
📚 Why To Kill a Mockingbird still lands — and still gets banned
⚖️ Gregory Peck’s Atticus Finch as moral north star
👖 Yves Saint Laurent and the radical act of putting women in pants
🧵 Couture vs. ready-to-wear, and how fashion actually makes money
🎨 Genius, excess, and the cost of changing culture

Next week’s prompts: Peach, 309, Necktie

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