Subscribers to the Blackbird Spyplane newsletter never quite know what’s going to arrive in their inbox. A post might be dedicated to business shirts found on eBay, an essay on the trend cycle in the internet age, an “auntwave mecca” in Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden or style interviews with the likes of Jerry Seinfeld, Rashida Jones, André 3000 and Nathan Fielder.
With its playful snapshots and crudely spliced Photoshop aesthetic – reminiscent of dial-up internet – the “sletter” describes itself as “your No 1 source for style, culture, & ‘unbeatable recon’”. The combination of ahead-of-the-game insidery insight, a goofball sense of humour and private language – a mix of streetwear slang such as “jawn” and “swaggy” and fighter jet lingo – has seen BBSP ranked highly in Substack’s culture newsletters. Its subscriber numbers are in the tens of thousands and include the likes of John Mayer, Lorde and Ezra Koenig. The Instagram account, meanwhile, is followed by Lena Dunham, Mark Ruffalo, Rashida Jones and Ella Emhoff.
