I lost my sexy pen. The slender writing utensil was from the Japanese brand Monobi with ink that skated through my planner. I bought the 15-something-dollar piece at Goods for the Study in the West Village, a cornucopia for all notebooks and pens.
When I began writing with the sleek black pen, there was a mind-body connection—as if I had more spiritual intention behind my writing. As if those few extra ounces of heft would help me manifest my thoughts into actions! That such an instrument might render my to-do lists suddenly, well, doable!
Now, the Monobi is lost in the nether regions of one of my bags, maybe in some drawer, or perhaps worse, marooned on a subway seat or abandoned on the floor of a coffee shop. Currently, I am writing with a searing blue Chase Bank freebie pen. I feel not chic. I feel light and cheap as I dawdle in my planner in that Kool-Aid aqua ink. It’s as if my pen, along with my thoughts and aspirations, will blow away in the wind.
Pens matter. People write zillions of articles about what pens successful people use. According to eagle eyes on Reddit, Bill Gates writes with a simple fine point Uni-ball Deluxe. Former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama used the Cross Townsend Felt-Tip Rollerball pen, a zaftig piece with gold accents. Joan Didion wrote with Pilot Precise V7, which you can buy at any pharmacy or on Amazon in a pack of five for less than $10. Boldly choosing to wield a pencil, Vogue writer Plum Sykes told me she writes with a century’s-old Graf von Faber-Castell pencil that hails from Germany and has a rose gold cap. It costs $323. (Note: Sykes once recommended I buy my husband a triple-digit Montblanc pen for my husband’s birthday.)
My friends and colleagues prefer far less expensive writing utensils that are still stylish. Writer and podcast host of the New Garde Alyssa Vingan raved to me about ROYGBIV Poketo x Headspace, which were recommended to her by Marta Mae Freedman of the creative agency Milkshake. “They don’t smudge, the ink doesn’t blot, I write pretty light and small and these just work well…for that,” she says. “You don’t have to press too hard.” Model and writer Allegra Samsen swears by the Paper Mate which is a no-frills ballpoint stick pen with a charming retro logo. “Perfect grip and great line shape never bleeds,” says Samsen. “The ink hits the paper gracefully and also with respect.” Some people go the more chaotic route. Fellow writer Sami Reiss, who runs the Substacks SNAKE and SNAKE Super Health, scrawls with a variety of cheap and chic pens, which includes a Louvre gift shop pen with a painting of a bodacious Renaissance woman’s body splattered across its shaft, an “I Voted” pen, and a Fanelli Cafe souvenir. The pen is a Lilliputian expression of style; like merch for the hand that says: “I came, I saw, I was there!”
As for me, I miss my Monobi pen. I felt like a boardroom woman of the ‘80s in a Vogue spread, who armed herself with killer silver pens like a sleek weapon, ready to slice a signature into a check. In the magazine’s pages, balanced between her thumb and forefinger, the gleaming pens are gorgeous and expensive. These Tiffany & Co, Cartier, Dunhill pens fetched well over $200. The look–and weight–is enough to inject some glamorous oomph into anyone’s to-do list. In the meantime, I’ll settle for a pared-back Paper Mate. Or maybe, an Elsa Peretti for Tiffany pen snagged from eBay. Let’s just hope I don’t lose either.
