Angelina Hazzouri is a New York City-based merchandiser for Coach and freelance writer for various publications. She writes Lunch on Friday, a series of essays based on self-reflection and meaningful conversations with friends and strangers. She enjoys reading, eating, outfit repeating, and wearing black boots during all seasons. Her love languages exist in the forms of handwritten letters, Spotify links, and baking cakes for her friends.
🎯 Current focus
I’m currently working on creating a dinner party series with my best friend Emily, who writes angel cake. I came up with the idea about a month ago after a successful dinner party I hosted for 12 of my girlfriends in my small Greenwich Village apartment. I had hired my friend Kelly who’s in culinary school to do the cooking so that I could properly host, and the night unfolded perfectly. Everyone texted me the morning after, saying how they enjoyed catching up with old friends and meeting new ones and how they wished we could do that more, and I thought why can’t we? Emily and I are working on hosting something in New York soon that will be closer to 35-40 people and will (hopefully) feel like we’re in my cozy living room—except we won’t be. More to come!
There are so many movies on my mind right now that I haven’t stopped thinking about since I left the theater. Most recently, I saw The Substance and thought it was brilliant. That will win the Oscar for best sound design—mark my words. (This is also a hint for one of my Halloween costumes this year.) On a more serious note—despite its unserious title—I saw My Old Ass by myself on a Sunday, and I think it may have changed my life a bit. The movie has mixed reviews, but it struck a chord with me that was very personal and had me crying in auditorium 6 row L of the Lincoln Square AMC. I went into the bathroom after the movie had ended, and there were women in there who were still crying. That made me feel better and made me laugh a bit. The Women’s Restroom is such an emblem of community, even at the movies.
This changes every day, but my favorite song right now at this very moment is “A Window” by the Radio Dept. It’s such a fall song—I revisit Pet Grief every year around this time. It just epitomizes October for me. Perfect album.
👀 How most situations are low-stakes if you want them to be
I’ve gone into this month with the idea that most situations in my life are low-stakes if I want them to be, and it’s been very eye-opening. I think there’s so much pressure to do everything right all the time, and I’m trying to operate under the mentality that I don’t have to force myself to do anything I don’t want to do. I’m a very busy person and have been trying to prioritize doing things that really matter to me, while saying no to things that might not add value. This is easier said than done, but I’m trying my best!
I couldn’t live without my pink KitchenAid mixer. I really couldn’t. Someone recently asked me how often I use it, to which I replied, “What do you mean? I use it every week!” I have a lot on my list of things I want to bake soon, not limited to but including, pumpkin muffins (requested by Sydney), flourless chocolate cake (requested by Anne), cinnamon rolls, my mom’s banana chocolate chip muffins, and Ruth Reichl’s jeweled chocolate cake.
💁🏻♀️ Not having TikTok
Favorite way to consume content these days? Reading books. Going to the movies. Going to the library (where I’m writing this from). Perfectly Imperfect. Byline. Substack publications. I famously don’t have TikTok, but I don’t ever feel like I’m missing out on anything because I’m informed by everything else that’s happening around me. I’m LIVING!!
I loved Steve Madden’s recent campaign that included several iconic New Yorkers of all ages. I thought it felt very relatable and fun and not too contrived like so many other marketing approaches I’ve seen recently.
I also loved Gap’s “Get Loose” campaign with Troye Sivan. The Rush choreography is something I think about a lot, and it deserves a million Gap ads and more. Sure, I’ll buy some baggy jeans now. Genius.
🛄 BÉIS luggage tray ads
I was going through security at LAX recently and noticed that BÉIS had ads on the luggage trays, which read on the outside, “We all have baggage, make yours BÉIS.” On the inside of each tray was a different slogan about having baggage. It was so subtle yet so brilliant.
THIS WAS SO FUN<3 thank you again for having me :)
🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤