The art of a good year-end list
+ Kotn is expanding across Europe and the Middle East.
Good afternoon everyone.
Every December, my feeds start filling up with lists—the business decisions, cultural shifts, and global currents that shaped the year. This is helpful at a time when reading the news can feel like drinking from a firehose, with one headline bleeding into the next. There’s always more to read, more to scroll and click, and more tabs sitting open than brain cells to make sense of it all.
A good list cuts through that noise, showing what managed to stick, and what actually mattered. The TIME Year in Review hit newsstands this week, Strava released its Year In Sport trend report, and Vogue’s Best Dressed of 2025 list is out. Then there are predictions, different yet also so satisfying, from The World Ahead by The Economist to Pinterest Predicts to Skift’s Megatrends.
For news outlets, lists are a moment for editorial reflection. For companies, they help shape a narrative of identity and progress. And for me, they’re a (rare) pause. Though it would keep me out of a job, I admit I have fantasized about a life where I could turn on the internet for only a few days over the holidays, get caught up on what I missed, and unplug until the next year.
But until then, here’s the news:
WestJet is pausing its plan to install non-reclining seats, and then charge people extra for seats that do recline. Usually not a good sign when Complex and People Magazine write about your company news.
Kotn is planning to open stores in Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Dubai and cities in Saudi Arabia in 2026. The Toronto-based label was founded by Rami Helali, Benjamin Sehl, and Mackenzie Yeates in 2015, and is known for clothes made with Egyptian-sourced cotton (I have their classic tank in almost every colour). The Business of Fashion wrote about the brand’s success in community-based marketing efforts this year, which involved heading to Egypt to shoot “Don’t go to Basteen at Night,” a campaign that reframes Cairo at night as a place of gathering, this insane dinner, and campaigns with actor Danny Trejo and Kareem Rahma (Subway Takes).
Via Rail says the Canada Strong pass contributed to more than 50,000 trips sold over the summer. The pass is now back until January, offering free or discounted tickets for national parks, museums, and galleries.
So far the reviews for Rogers v. Rogers at Crow’s Theatre are very good.
Calvin McDonald is stepping down as the CEO of Lululemon in January, after seven years. The company’s annual sales have more than tripled in that time, but criticism over a lack of innovation started mounting after a slowdown in North American sales last year (Chip Wilson took out a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal to blast leadership and propose a new path forward). Lululemon’s America head Celeste Burgoyne also left the brand in November. Whenever I read about the ‘lost market share’ to Alo Yoga and Vuori I have to remind myself that Lululemon is still on track to sell US$11 billion this year, while competitors will sell a fraction of that.
The Michael Kors holiday campaign was shot in Banff this year. With the Canadian Rockies looking every bit as chic as the Swiss Alps.
Friend of the newsletter Mac Bauer beat the Finch LRT by 18 minutes.
If you needed more proof that Summerhill is the new Ossington. Simon Bower, Richard Renaud, Eamon Clark are opening a seafood restaurant.
A Bota Bota-type sauna opened on the Toronto waterfront. I’ve been to a few of the saunas set up on Lake Zurich and have dreamt of something similar coming to Toronto, but it’s a shame you can’t jump in the lake.
The Financial Post came up with one good reason to set your dating profile to 45+. Gen X households saw their wealth jump 11% to $1,331,538 this year, making it the generation whose wealth has grown the fastest. Interesting to note that over the past five years, millennials have more than doubled their average net worth, but those gains are pretty much isolated to those who got in on homeownership early.
The pastry team at The Algonquin Resort in New Brunswick built a giant gingerbread house in the hotel lobby. I can’t get on board with Christmas-themed pop-up bars, but it’s fun when hotels get really into the holidays. Festive content from the Ritz Carlton Toronto, Fairmont Royal York and the Four Seasons has started coming up on my feeds.
Montréal and Ottawa will get high-speed rail first, then Toronto.
Westdale Properties will “wait out” the terrible condo market before building the second tower at Forma. The development on King St W is the last Canadian project of the famed architect Frank Gehry, who died earlier this week at 96. Some of his best-known buildings include the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA.
Occurred to me after reading this New York Times piece that I also haven’t seen anyone drinking Veuve Clicquot in a while. But maybe it’s because I’m writing a newsletter instead of being out at the club.