Wednesday, April 23, 2025



Style: The Moleskin

As the school year comes to a close and the warm sunshine replaces that harsh winter cold, we find ourselves asking the same frustrating question we’ve been asking every year. Now that’s warm, why can’t we enjoy it? Maybe it’s the springtime college paradigm: as the weather gets nice, the schoolwork gets harder. Finally, we can sit on the hill without dying of hypothermia but we’re sitting in the library instead. In that spirit, we decided to not jump at the opportunity to showcase incoming spring style and instead focus on something more…academic.

Behold the Moleskin: a notebook of the gods used by the likes of Picasso, Matisse, and Hemingway, and sold at Red & Black for your convenience. This wildly popular notebook around campus is identifiable and durable.

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Lexi Sturdy ’10 uses a large, cardboard cover notebook.

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Emmy Levitas ’11 painted hers with white acrylic paint.

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Nora Gilbert ’10 takes notes in hers in Olin.

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Jesse Coburn ’09, uses his for piano notes.

Comments

21 responses to “Style: The Moleskin”

  1. Alex Avatar
    Alex

    I find the whole moleskin thing kind of ridiculous. Behind the marketing is this assumption that if you are willing to shell 15 dollars or whatever for a notebook, then you clearly belong to this elite class of artistes: Hemingway et al. I’ll take my perfectly sturdy 2.99 notebooks any day. The glamor of carrying around a stylishly-marketed intellectual status symbol does nothing for me.

  2. Savage Henry Avatar
    Savage Henry

    lolhipsters

  3. Alex Avatar
    Alex

    Alas, I’m not a hipster–and I have the ill-fitting bootcut pants and lack of disposable income to prove it.

  4. Jon Avatar
    Jon

    I already saw this on “Stuff White People Like,” which apparently hipsters like.

  5.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    How about someone who wants a hardcover, no frills notebook with an elastic strap to hold it closed. That comes in several versions: ruled, nonruled, sketch, reporter style. That fits in a pocket. Or comes in bigger sizes. And isnt a hipster?
    Hmmmmmmmm kiddos

  6. Person Avatar
    Person

    This was on Stuff White People Like… essentially the same post but that one was written with some self-awareness.

  7.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    I remember the day when I associated Moleskin with that sticky-padded stuff you put on your skin to protect the ever-so-adventurous hiker from receiving blisters on the sides of his or her feet.

    Alas, my childhood days of wandering have been replaced with a brilliant marketing plan that tells me that I can be brilliant too if I write on the same type of paper as Hemingway. Does it come with a warranty? What is my time frame for hitting said greatness?

  8. Student Avatar
    Student

    Alas, shut the fuck up. Jesus.

  9.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    ?

  10.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    haha. moleskins are far past their prime

    “Your style’s played out just like a Osh-Kosh jumpsuit.”
    -Big L

  11. Concerned in Connecticut Avatar
    Concerned in Connecticut

    Not the first to point it out but — http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2009/02/24/122-moleskine-notebooks/

    for real? Either this is second degree self aware, in that it assumes the level of self-awareness of stuffwhitepeoplelike and is opting in to the cliche in an ill-advised attempt at dead-pan critique, with the humor lying in the fact that some people may take it seriously (Read: self-aware hipster cliche trolling), or it is really pretty sad.

  12.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    …it’s spelled with an ‘e’ on the end. Moleskine.

    oh, and I didn’t realize they were a style. I’m just more likely to take care of a $15 notebook than a $3 one.

  13.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    wow, like everyone didn’t already know about moleskins. terrible blog post.

  14. John Galt Avatar
    John Galt

    whhhhooooooo is aynnnn rannnnddd

  15. a mole Avatar
    a mole

    diggin in a hole

    diggin in my soul

  16. Jemaine77 Avatar
    Jemaine77

    the white one looks like anthrax gross

  17. Anti-Elitist Avatar
    Anti-Elitist

    these are so expensive. If you own one, it means you’re a snob. Go back 2 prep school

  18. Anti-Anti-Elitist Avatar
    Anti-Anti-Elitist

    Go back to your parents’ basement

  19. Carli Avatar
    Carli

    Hey where can I get one of these?

  20. @Carli Avatar
    @Carli

    They have them at stationary shops

  21. Carli Avatar
    Carli

    They didn’t have them at Staples. Would Wal-Mart have any?

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