Every awards show has moments that make us laugh, squeal, and even cry. From the SAGs to the VMAs, we've chuckled out loud and Tweeted faster than we even knew our fingers could type, all at the hand of our favourite celebrities. And still, despite an awards season that seems to be less of a season and more of a year-round thing, we have a special place in our hearts (and homes) for our television favourites. The men and women being honoured at Monday's Emmys are those we welcome into our hearts — and living rooms.

Television offers an entirely different level of fandom, adoration, and bonding, if you will — the same goes for the Emmys red carpet. We feel like we know Issa Rae and Elisabeth Moss personally, and we're cheering them on, screaming, 'You better work, girls.' It feels like we've spent hours of our lives with Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer, who are both presenting this evening, so we want them to show up and slay. We feel such a personal connection to the women of television that we just can't wait to see what they'll show up wearing.

Despite the fact that we're not actually BFFs, we're rounding up our favourite ladies in our favourite looks from the night, ahead. You can bet we'll be shouting " Yaaas " at our TV screen all red carpet long — because we know they'd do the same for us (or so we'd like to think).

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Over the past few years, fitness has taken over society. What once was the pastime of just a few, has now become a way of life for many.

For many people, however, fitness didn't initially feel like a welcoming space. The plus-size community, for instance, has been vocal about the backlash they've received for exercising. People on low incomes have been stung; as interest in fitness grows, so do the prices of classes, of fitness wear, and of gym memberships.

According to personal trainer Yemi Penn, another group that has been left out are women of colour.

Yemi runs the new F45 studio in Brixton. If you're not sure what F45 is, think an Australian version of CrossFit with the mentality of Soul Cycle. It's "community meets technology," Yemi explains. You work out with other people and with plenty of different exercises in play, you never get the same workout twice. Most importantly though, it's fun. "In my first class I was laughing as I was working out, even though I was struggling to breathe," remembers Yemi. "There were exercises that I’ve never done before, so I had aches that I never thought that I could have because the moves were so dynamic. And doing it with a friend made it more enjoyable."

Establishing her space in Brixton was important for Yemi, both because it's her home and because she wants to bring fitness to a community she feels has been left out of the fitness revolution. She feels women of colour in particular are underrepresented by advertising for gyms, health groups, lifestyle-based activities and much more due to "predominately Euro-centric advertising, assumptions and social pressures." Her mission is to make women of colour feel just as much at home in a fitness space as anyone else.

We spoke to her about the importance of getting everyone who exercises to feel like they belong.

Why was it important to you to open in Brixton?

It’s where I grew up and even through we travelled back and forth from London to Nigeria, Brixton has always been home. I know it has different meanings to different people but I love how somewhere that was previously stigmatised for its culture is now the place where everyone wants to be.

When did you first come to fully realise that the fitness space is failing to speak to women of colour?

I think it’s as far back as when I got into the fitness industry 16 years ago. I approach most areas of my life without trying to look and see if I’m the only one who’s 'different' – like whether I’m the only woman or something. My background is in engineering and I would always just go forth and do it. But with fitness I often found that I was the only woman of colour in the class, and when it came to teaching, I hardly ever found another counterpart who was a woman of colour.

What impact does it have, stepping into a gym feeling underrepresented?

To begin with it was a bit scary. I probably went in very timid. There’s a scene in a film I saw recently where the main character goes into a gym and she feels like she wants to disappear. It’s exactly how I felt going into gyms. A big part of why [I do what I do] is to create an environment where [women of colour] aren’t going to feel that way… You feel strength in numbers. And, as F45 has grown, there are definitely a lot more women now. So I feel positive. I think we are stepping into our own... I want to help black women who, like myself, have felt isolated and excluded from mainstream fitness communities to get fit and finally feel accepted.

What role has advertising played in making the fitness space non-inclusive?

It’s always difficult to get it 100% right – the role of social media is crucial – there just hasn’t been as much representation for women of colour. It’s so difficult to find someone who looks like you on social media. Lots of bigger brands – Nike, adidas – have actually showed diversity and I really applaud them for that.

Can you talk about the health issues that you think exercise can help with which specifically affect women of colour?

Mental health issues. I know we talk about colour a lot, but there’s also an element of culture attached whereby you’ve got different ideologies. Without speaking for every woman of colour, there’s this underlying pressure – whether it’s to have the kids, or be married by a certain time, by a certain age, or to look a certain way – nowadays there’s an extra urgency to do all of this and contribute to society, and things just haven’t caught up.

So there’s all that pressure and [it can lead to] mental health issues; anxiety and depression being some of the most common ones. People usually think when you’re physically ill you need to be physically decrepit, but I actually think that [mental health] is a silent killer, and societally it’s something that widely affects women of colour.

I have had my own struggles with mental health and have personally used physical exercise to overcome them. Exercise was one thing that actually allowed me to get up and function daily.

You're seeking funding for community classes – why is this so crucial?

I think the important thing is not to alienate a community further. I mean, just yesterday, two guys walked through and they asked how much it was and I’m nervous because I’m conscious that I’m in an area where not everybody has the means. You’re not just talking about people who are struggling financially and who don’t have a job but also people in caring positions; nurses, teachers, doctors, people who are educating and looking after people. I don't want them to feel left out. So for me, having some sort of community focus is critical so we don’t alienate people further than we already have.

What needs to happen to make more women of colour feel like fitness is a space for them?

I think it's the retraining of our minds on how we view fitness. I’m yet to meet one person who, after they’ve done any form of exercise, says that they don’t have a level of endorphins that makes them feel happier and more alive. We need to start to educate people so this won’t just be about physical exercise. Educating people on the benefits is the best way to change the mindset on how to, and who does, exercise regularly.

F45 Brixton is open now. Find out more information here.

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As the saying goes, three's a trend. But four? Well, that makes it legit. We're talking about the expert-approved hair trend that's currently taking London Fashion Week SS19 by storm – greasy, sweaty, wet-look lengths – and this time around, it seems more wearable than ever before.

Richard Malone

At Richard Malone, hairstylist Gareth Bromell was asked to create a look that complemented the sweaty, gym skin by makeup artist Pablo Rodriguez, and he sure delivered. Models had individual strands of hair adhered to their faces using Illamasqua's Hydra Veil, £34, with the rest pretty much glued to the crown and soaked to the ends using mousse, gel and shine spray among other products. Talking to Refinery29 backstage, Bromell called the look "sweaty, greasy and a little bit dirty," pinpointing a London girl who's just been for a run in the height of summer as his muse. Instead of water, he saturated hair in evo's Day Of Grace Pre-Style Primer, £21, to achieve the wet look before slathering the lengths with the Whip It Good Styling Mousse, £21, to give the impression of an oil slick.

Preen by Thornton Bregazzi

At Preen, hairstylist Eugene Souleiman worked with ghd and Wella to make the hair look like the models had been wandering the sweltering hot desert in a beanie hat and just taken it off. After fashioning a single "Gypsy-like" braid at the side, Souleiman blanketed hair at the crown with hairspray, then covered it with a hairnet and spritzed another couple of layers of hairspray over that. When he peeled away the hairnet, hair underneath was stuck to the head, as though fixed with sweat. Pinches of hair were picked out of the ponytail and adhered to the side of the face to emphasise the damp look.

Ashish

Hair at Ashish was just as sweaty and dishevelled but this time, the theme was a 24-hour rave, complemented by the neon, slightly melted-off makeup. Hairstylist Sam McKnight told R29: "It's nightclub hair. I used a combination of L'Oréal Professionnel's Tecni Art A-Head Glue, £15, as well as mousse and lots of oil and applied them all with my hands." He initially sprayed hair with lashings of water to give it that post-shower look and employed the rest of the products to completely saturate hair and to stop it from drying into frizz.

House of Holland

In a move away from the messy, dishevelled finish at Ashish and Preen, hairstylist Syd Hayes created this almost polished look at House of Holland. While it was more or less soaking, the severe side parting gave the hair a slightly more uniform, put-together feel. "The Henry Holland girl is about oomph and glamour but lots of cool, too," Hayes told R29, pinpointing Kate Moss as his muse. "She's just come out of the water and combed her hair back with her hands, looking really hot. We also carved out a deep side parting from left to right, spraying the hair with water and gel to keep it shiny." The rest of the lengths were a little more styled. "We used the BaByliss Pro Titanium Expression Curling Tong (25mm), £65 [to create a] wave [which] floated off of the face."

Markus Lupfer

According to hairstylist Tina Outen for L'Oréal Professionnel, the muse at Markus Lupfer was cool, modern and a little bit quirky. Oh, and she’s been to the beach. "It's a beachy texture that looks like it’s wet but it’s dry," said Outen. "It’s all about business on the top and party on the ends." Outen started with a strict centre parting, drenching hair with L’Oréal Professionnel's Tecni ART Hollywood Waves Siren Waves Defining Elasto Cream, £15, and then moulded the hair to the head using paper. Instead of mousse, Tina applied a gel-cream, L'Oréal Professionnel's Tecni ART Bouncy & Tender, £15, to the ends and diffused with a hairdryer, squashing the hair as she went to create a natural movement that looked "sea-dipped".

Victoria Beckham

The hair at Victoria Beckham, complete with comb marks, is arguably the easiest to create and wear. Hairstylist Guido Palau raked Redken's Fashion Work 12, £13.50, and Foreful 23 (which is currently out of stock everywhere, so try Pure Force 20, £13.50, instead) through the roots, slicking hair right back and choosing not to smooth out the stripes that the combs left behind. To finish, he applied Redken's Diamond Oil Glow Dry, £33.50, and Shine Flash 02, £16.50, through the ends.

The trick to nailing it at home is to start on hair that's two or three days unwashed, as it's much more likely to retain the style. And if you're using mousse or hairspray to create the 'slick', don't make the mistake of using a hair oil or a serum, as experts argue that they'll soften any structure given to the hair.

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On Sunday, after 10 years of presenting in New York, Victoria Beckham returned to London, joining the London Fashion Week schedule to showcase her SS19 collection and celebrate a decade of her brand. It was, as they say, a real fashion moment.

She’s come a long way since the brightly hued body-con and cinched-waist dresses she offered with her initial collections, the aesthetic intertwined with her personal style at the time. Gone are the structured jackets and high-shine fabrics, and in their place, a wardrobe belonging to a woman who is contemporary, confident and cool.

The showstoppers included a tomato red ribbed co-ord with cutaway back detail and pink rope belt around the waist; trousers with spliced ankles in pastel blues and deep burgundies, and oversized leather bags with playful drawstring fastenings. Model Stella Tennant opened the show, wearing a white trouser suit, soft silver booties and a delicate white lace cami, a look that fused the femininity and masculinity, seriousness and playfulness, that is now so inherent in both Beckham and her brand.

"I was feeling the pressure coming back to celebrate in London," she exclusively tells Refinery29 at a presentation of her collection at Annabel's the day after the show. "It was stressful and overwhelming but I feel very proud, very happy – I’m on cloud nine to be honest." Anticipation had been building since the news of her homecoming was announced, and everyone from her loyal fans to industry insiders have been reflecting on 10 years of Victoria Beckham: the brand, the designer and the woman.

For her, though, this season wasn’t about looking at what had gone before. "I looked back over the past 10 years, but not in a retrospective way at all, and I wasn’t inspired by a particular past collection." Instead, she identified the signature elements of her aesthetic that have become stronger over the years, and, ultimately, what her customers come to her for. "I recognised all of the strong codes that we had established, from the colour palette to the cut, and put together a collection I believe my customer wants."

While it’s obvious Beckham takes her role and platform very seriously, what people have come to recognise – and it’s been obvious all along to those who have worked with her – is that she doesn’t take herself too seriously. Take her first campaign in London, recreating the tongue-in-cheek shoot for Marc Jacobs back in 2008, the year she launched herself into the world of fashion. Shot once again by Juergen Teller, her legs are akimbo, sprawling from an oversized shopping bag. There are obvious plays on the nature of celebrity and personal brand as commodity here, but what comes through most is how fun she can be. "I think it’s always good to show personality and a sense of humour," she explains. "What better way to celebrate the 10th anniversary than by poking fun at myself and recognising where it all began."

A decade ago, when she first announced that she’d be moving from Spice Girl and footballer’s wife into the realm of fashion – taking on the mantle of creative director, no less – she was met with scepticism at best; derision at worst. While it’s vital to hold makers to task to ensure the bar is kept high when it comes to craftsmanship and vision, the way women’s magazines talked about celebrities at the time was pretty horrific. Still, Beckham bears no grudges. "I was very aware of it at the beginning – it wasn’t just the beginning, it was for quite a few seasons, but I expected that, and I wasn’t frustrated by it," she says. "I just kept my head down, worked hard, and always made it about the product and the customer, rather than about me as a celebrity. It was quite a few seasons before I came out at the end of the show, and my family didn’t attend the first few seasons. I really wanted it to be about the clothes and nothing else."

Aside from the sophisticated yet modern pieces she creates, what won the industry over was Beckham’s professionalism and humility. She meets clients straight after the catwalk shows, introducing herself to everyone in the room, and regularly talks press through her inspiration and motivation each season. This may not sound like much, but in an industry rife with egos, it casts Beckham in a really positive light.

Now the much-anticipated 10th anniversary show is complete (having received rave reviews), can Beckham put her feet up and enjoy the moment? Not likely. "We're going to launch a beauty brand as well, so I'm going to be developing makeup, skincare and fragrance – that's something that I'm very excited about." We can expect Victoria Beckham beauty some time next year – "I don't want to rush anything; I know, as a woman, what I want" – and it seems like she’s ready for the next challenge.

"It feels like the start of a new chapter," she says of 2018. "Having brought on investors, an incredible chairman in Paris, our new offices and return to London, and now Paolo [Riva] coming on as CEO, it just feels like the start of the next 10 years." Here’s to the next decade, VB.

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I blagged my way into my first fashion show when I was at college because that was the assignment for the week: blag your way into a show. For several seasons after that I worked at the British Fashion Council, directing press to shows and answering calls from frantic editors who were stuck in traffic and worried they would miss the start. Then for five years I worked as a writer and editor at a fashion magazine, which meant writing reports on every single show in London, Milan and Paris. I interviewed all the designers backstage, from Donatella Versace to Miuccia Prada, then wrote up the reports and uploaded them to a website, which usually took me until 5am. Those were, and were not, the days.

I used to get so anxious at fashion week, worried about not knowing anyone and not wearing the right thing. Now, after 10 years of going to shows, I've learned to enjoy it and my schedule is, thankfully, more relaxed. Here's my diary from day four this season.

7am

My friend who is a builder arrives to lay a new floor in my flat. We have a coffee in the lounge and I tell him I’m doing shows today. Turns out he knows more about each designer on my schedule than I do and we get into a 45-minute chat about the brands we were obsessed with in our youth and what it meant, as teenagers growing up around London, to look the part on the high street in front of our friends. Back then my only designer item was a £25 Dior snap bracelet. But I had aspirations.

8am

I leave the house and walk to the Tube station listening to Madonna’s "Like A Prayer" because I can’t get it out of my head since Alexa Chung’s party on Saturday night, where I danced for four hours straight with my best friends and had the time of my life. I smile as I remember how excited I used to get as a teenager about a new outfit. The right outfit has always given me a confidence that I don’t naturally have. I stop smiling when I realise I’ve forgotten to put a tampon in.

8.50am

Can’t see any fashion people at the location and then realise I put "103 Oxford St" into Citymapper instead of "103 New Oxford Street" which means I have to get a jog on to get there on time. I arrive sweaty and concerned about the tampon situ. I’m sat next to this fabulous woman called Mima who I worked with a bit many years ago, but I think she probably won’t remember me because I’m just another girl with long brown hair who works in fashion and I feel shy, so I stare at my phone instead of saying hi. I turn around and see another fashion editor I used to intern for over 10 years ago and we smile at each other. I remember a really fun day from that period assisting her on a Girls Aloud shoot. My job was to help them get dressed so I zipped them up and fastened their shoes and they were so lovely, I almost felt like one of the gang.

9.15am

The show (Rejina Pyo) starts. The opening track is "Creep" by Radiohead, my favourite emo anthem. The clothes are beautiful. This is immediately one of my favourite shows of the season. There’s one brown trench in a super lightweight plastic fabric that I start writing into my life.

9.30am

Bump into my friend Alice leaving the show and tell her about my tampon situ. She shows me an amazing video of Victoria Beckham dancing to a Spice Girls song at the Vogue party last night, and hands me a tampon. Alice is the kind of woman I’d want at my side if I were in labour. I get an Uber to the next show because it starts in 30 minutes and it’s not near a Tube.

10am

Arrive at the Serpentine Gallery for Roksanda Ilincic. Vogue Japan ask to take my photo outside and then ask what I’m wearing and I feel embarrassed because none of it is designer apart from my handbag and my tampon. I’m sorry, Vogue Japan.

10.41am

Kuljeet, my Uber driver, cannot get over how many "pretty ladies" there are waiting for taxis. I tell him it’s a fashion show and he says "Ooh, is it free?" I say "Sort of" and show him the video of the Roksanda finale on my phone and he thinks it is "very very nice".

11.20am

I was convinced I was going to miss the show (Erdem) but it’s running late thankfully. It’s at the National Portrait Gallery and I’m sat next to a freaky painting of a large Edwardian or Victorian baby dressed in a ballgown holding a crucifix. The show is gothic and exquisite, as all Erdem shows are.

12pm

Pop into the Pringle presentation at the ICA with Alice then to Pret for some lunch. The man behind the counter says he likes my earrings which are sparkly and dangly and because of this, he gives me a free sandwich.

1.15pm

I was worried about missing the Christopher Kane show because there was lots of traffic but once again, it’s all fine because everyone is always late. I sit next to Susie Bubble and we chat about giving birth. The first time I covered the Paris shows I was 22 and the biggest nobody and I got completely lost on the Metro and saw Susie Bubble who I’d never met but I went up to her and asked for directions and she said, "Don’t worry! Come with me!" I’ve loved her ever since. The show is beautiful. I want the metallic mermaid dress with big green jewels and the patent red boots but if I had to choose, I’d take the boots.

2.30pm

Head back to the office, eat a very large cookie (the kind you buy as a standalone item), a spoonful of vegan Nutella and seven Party Rings. I'd wager that I eat more biscuits than anyone else in fashion. I sort out my emails and then look through photos of the collections, trying to identify trends and themes. I just want to write about all the pretty dresses I saw today and I screengrab all my favourites and write two opening sentences, but then realise a story on my favourite dresses is too basic, so I abandon this idea and do something else.

5.20pm

Watch the Burberry show on a live stream at my desk. This is Riccardo Tisci’s debut collection for the British heavyweight. I interviewed him that time I was following Susie Bubble around in Paris and he was really lovely. The highlight of the show for me is Kendall Jenner’s full beige look, though I think I prefer the menswear to the womenswear in general.

8pm

Leave work and get the 243 bus to the next show: Maison Margiela. There are no seats, everyone is standing for this show, which makes it feel like a party and I wish I had a drink in my hand. I catch up with some old work pals while we're waiting for it to start, which it does at approximately 8.40pm. The clothes nod to Margiela's heritage of irreverent deconstruction. I particularly like a mint green jacket look and the footwear. It's cool, but I'm tired.

One more day to go in London, then our international editors will head to Milan and then Paris. Once all the shows are over, the team will get together to collate trends and brainstorm features for the next six months, profiling the designers we loved and working on fashion shoots and shopping stories. Fashion week is a month long but fashion content is all year. I tried to make that sound like the Yves Saint Laurent phrase: "Fashion fades, style is eternal". You get the gist.

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Last week, Apple CEO Tim Cook took to the stage of the company’s two-year-old Steve Jobs Theater for an annual event that has increased in hype, expectation, and spoilers over the years.

Compared to 2017's launch of the iPhone X, which revealed Face ID, ended the home button's reign, and introduced the world to Animoji karaoke, this year's event felt a bit lacklustre. For the first time in years, the Apple Watch was the most talked about device, not the new iPhones.

That's because the second-generation versions of the iPhone X — the pricey Xs and Xs Max, and the less expensive Xr — are very similar in look and feel to last year's model. There's no one gasp-worthy feature, although there are many useful and necessary improvements. (This is not unusual for Apple's "S" iPhone release cycle, but that didn't temper any of the excitement leading up to the event.)

Ahead, a full breakdown of what you need to know about the Xs as you decide whether to invest in the newest £999 phone or hold out for the Xr.

Note: The bulk of this review will focus on the Xs, the more affordable of the two new Xs models.

The Basics

Aside from the gorgeous new brassy gold exterior (you can also get space grey and silver models), it's hard to tell the Xs apart from the X at first glance. Both have a 5.8-inch edge-to-edge Super Retina display, a notch at the top of the screen, and no home button. However, you will start to notice improvements almost as soon as you start using the Xs.

For starters, Face ID is faster. Not only did the phone learn my face — with and without glasses; with and without morning bedhead — faster, it also unlocked more quickly. Where it would have taken two tries on the X, it usually took only one try on the Xs.

I also noticed that photos, especially ones in portrait mode, could be taken faster, and the lag time when opening apps was almost completely nonexistent.

Some other, harder to notice improvements Apple is touting on the new iPhone: better colour accuracy, tougher glass, and increased water resistance of up to two meters for 30 minutes. It's safe to say you can spill coffee, tea, or soda on the Xs and not have a panic attack thinking you've just ruined the £999 phone. (Maybe don't dunk it in a cup of coffee, though.)

As for that screen, the notch can still be annoying at times, but if you've gotten used to it on the X, you'll be used to it on the Xs, too. The screen on the 6.5-inch Xs Max (the largest iPhone display ever) is stunning and feels much more immersive. If you do plan on streaming a lot of videos, that would be one reason consider investing in the £1,099 phone instead of its slightly less expensive sibling.

The impressive, wider stereo sound adds to the experience, and makes it more feasible that you might use your phone as your go-to portable speaker instead of buying a separate one.

Charging Forward

After last December's battery controversy and constant calls for improved battery life, it was inevitable that Apple would announce some improvements in this area. And it did, saying last week that the iPhone Xs would have 3o minutes more battery life and the Xs Max would have an hour and a half more.

Unfortunately, I didn't notice a huge difference in my usual battery life when using the Xs compared to the X. Granted, 30 minutes isn't that much, but after a full morning of listening to music and checking emails on my way to work, texting friends, conducting interviews, and tapping through Instagram Stories, I was left hovering just around 50%. Again, this isn't bad, but I would love to see a longer lifespan.

I also didn't notice faster wireless charging — 15 minutes on the charging pad resulted in a 10% battery boost on both the X and Xs.

Picture Perfect

Compared to the camera advances in the iPhone X — portrait mode selfies and lighting effects — the improvements in the Xs are less noticeable. However, they are there. During last week's event, Apple said that a new camera sensor with larger pixels would improve photos shot in low-light conditions. The company also said that a new feature called Smart HDR would combine several photos taken simultaneously (all with just one press of the shutter button) to create a photo with more detail and make challenging shooting situations — for example, taking a photo where someone is backlit — easier.

I found all of these claims to be true.

In the iPhone X photo below (left), you can barely make out any of the figures in the stands and a lens flare creates an unwanted line of light across the scene. Meanwhile, the iPhone Xs photo (right) shows more detail behind the bases and gets rid of the lens flare.

The differences in photos shot at night are also subtle, but important. If you look at the string lights above the counter of this taco stand in the iPhone X photo (left), you can barely distinguish one light from another. In the iPhone Xs photo (right), you can, and it's also easier to see more structural detail behind the neon sign.

Blur Baby, Blur

Portrait mode is nothing new at this point, but it's been in need of some improvements. How many times have you taken a portrait mode photo, only to look at it later and realise half of the image that should be in focus in the foreground is actually blurred out and included in the background? Too many to count? Same.

The iPhone Xs has made some advancements in this area (although you will still see some strands of hair and flower stems blurred by mistake), as well as a new option to adjust the depth of field after taking the photo (i.e. you can decrease or increase the background blur).

In this portrait mode selfie you can see that the lighting across my face is much more even in the iPhone Xs photo (right) than the iPhone X photo (left), where the lefthand side of my face shines a little too brightly in the sun. You can also make out the floral details in my dress more clearly in the Xs shot.

Meanwhile, the increased colour in the background blur is especially noticeable in photos of bright flowers.

It's easy to adjust the depth control: Go to your camera roll, select the photo, tap edit, and move the bottom slider to the left to increase the blur, or the right to decrease the blur and see the entire background in focus. (Samsung users already know this feature well.)

There is also a useful improvement to portrait mode's lighting effects. Now, you can see how a photo shot with stage light or stage light mono will look in preview mode. This way, you can adjust the photo accordingly so that part of your subject isn't accidentally blacked out, becoming part of the background.

Final Take

If you are currently using and happy with the iPhone X and you're not on a carrier-specific upgrade plan or Apple's iPhone Upgrade Program, there's no reason to rush out to buy the Xs.

While the improvements are certainly there, especially when it comes to speed and photos, the phone still feels prohibitively expensive. That being said, if you're using an older model or are due for an upgrade, the Xs is a smart buy. But, if the price is throwing you for a loop or you want a more colourful phone, wait for the reviews of the less expensive Xr to start rolling in around mid-October, when the model is released to retailers.

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Midwives today called for new guidelines to be introduced on how much weight women should gain during pregnancy. Currently there are no official targets for how much is normal or healthy to gain, and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is considering reintroducing regular weigh-ins, reported the BBC.

Weigh-ins were phased out in the 1990s as it was believed they caused women needless stress and anxiety. But with a fifth of women in the UK now officially classified as "obese" when they start pregnancy, some health professionals believe greater clarity is needed to prevent potential complications in pregnancy.

Current advice warns against "eating for two" but also recommends not dieting during pregnancy and only eating an extra 200 calories a day during the last three months of pregnancy. A woman's weight and height are routinely measured at her first appointment but not routinely tracked as the pregnancy progresses.

But NICE today said it may adopt US-style guidelines, which recommend weight-tracking and set clear weight targets, in its new advice, which looks likely to be published in 2019.

The recommendations coincide with the release of a study in the journal Diabetologia, which found that gaining too much or too little weight during pregnancy was linked to adverse effects in children aged seven, including greater odds of higher body fat, high blood pressure and poorer blood sugar control.

The Royal College of Midwives and NICE may support greater clarity surrounding pregnancy weight gain, but many women have shared their concerns. Siri Egede, 31, who is currently 22 weeks pregnant, said she was weighed by a doctor at her first appointment but her weight hasn't been a topic of conversation since. She told Refinery29 she was worried about the potential impact of prescriptive weight guidelines on women.

"There are already quite a lot of rules to keep track of [during pregnancy] – what to eat, how to move, etc – that if I had been told to keep track of my weight as well I think that would have been a stressor," Egede added. "There's so much focus on the 'normal' pregnancy even though everyone seems to experience different things." The verdict was similarly negative among many women on social media.

Please, no. There are so many ways in which pregnant bodies are dehumanised. Let's not weigh women like they're livestock for market.https://t.co/YyQdbjsko7

— Victoria Smith (@glosswitch) September 18, 2018

Monitoring pregnant women’s weights was phased out in the 90s due to the #stress it caused: why is there talk about retuning to it now?

Next we’ll be reading about soaring rates of anxiety in pregnant women due to unrealistic expectations.https://t.co/hUm9ReMgID #health

— Judith Johnson (@DrJTJohnson) September 18, 2018

Okay...I'm glad that's clear. Pregnant women shouldn't gain or lose too much weight; they should watch their weight but not fall into the habit of regular weighing. I think i'll file this under "all the ways women can't win". https://t.co/S1foVtSu7H

— Karen Throsby (@thelongswim) September 18, 2018

Pregnant women to face the regular weigh ins... As though I didn't have enough anxiety about my weight without having to worry about that every appointment 😭

— Samantha ❤️ (@Samanthafurnell) September 18, 2018

@loosewomen Why put more pressure on pregnant women by also forcing them to watch their weight? Pregnancy is uncomfortable and stressful enough. Could trigger all kinds of body image issues post natal. Give women a break!

— Natalie Reeves (@NatReeves91) September 18, 2018

However, some women support the guidelines and believe greater clarity would be helpful. Gina Lyons, 33, who is 27 weeks pregnant, said she was "not against tracking weight" and is keeping tabs on her own without scales. "I’m trying to keep walking, not eating 'whatever I want' and generally trying to not pig out in the excuse I’m pregnant."

She continued: "I’ve been an overeater all my life and was very nervous about getting pregnant and thinking I’d start eating for two. People overindulge while pregnant and it’s not good for the mother or the baby."

30-year-old Lauren Bird, who is nine weeks pregnant, also supports the proposed guidelines. She's been weighed during both of her appointments so far but would welcome more advice. "As well as distributing advice on what to eat, what jabs to have and how to stay active etcetera, there should be a recommendation on ‘standard’ weight gain – ideally a sliding scale of the range of weight you should aim to gain at each stage," she told Refinery29.

"While I don’t usually track my weight, I'll start to pay more attention to it throughout pregnancy because it will help me to stay healthy. It would be great to have some certified guidelines that will help guide me in this process."

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It’s Heathers meets The Purge when a town-wide data leak means four teen girls have to rise up against slut-shaming, hate, and toxic masculinity. Get ready for Assassination Nation , the first film in an exclusive partnership from Refinery29 and Neon.

“I can keep going,” Odessa Young tells the photographer at our late August shoot in a decrepit former rectory in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

She’s just about the only one. The temperature outside is pushing 102 degrees, and the room has no air-conditioning, only a dinky fan on its last legs. The rest of us are sweating through our clothes, standing as still as possible in hope of catching a stray wisp of lukewarm air. But Young, weighed down in what would be ideal late fall boho attire — brown suede jacket, cream lace peasant skirt, and over-the-knee patent boots — wants to nail the shot.

The 20-year-old star of Assassination Nation doesn’t half-ass anything. Not a precarious pose she adopts at the photographer’s request: perched, in heels, on the arm-rests of an old chair (“Yeah, let’s get on the chair!”); not our interview, where she considers every answer carefully and speaks until she’s clear her intended meaning has come across (“I’m taking this waaay too seriously, aren’t I?”); and not her career, which is taking off in ways she never could have anticipated.

The Sydney, Australia native has been acting since she was 11 years old. At 17, she dropped out of high school to pursue acting full-time. That same year, she was dubbed the “It Girl” of the 2015 Venice Film Festival, where she was promoting two feature films, Looking for Grace, and The Daughter. The latter earned her an Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Award, the country’s equivalent of an Oscar. At 18, she was the youngest-ever recipient. She’s starred in two Australian TV series, High Life, and When The Street Lights Go On. And now, she’s poised for a breakout in America, thanks to her performance in Assassination Nation, a modern take on the Salem witch hunt in the wake of a mass internet hack, directed by Sam Levinson. Later this year, she’ll co-star with Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Charlie Hunnam in A Million Little Pieces, director Sam Taylor-Johnson’s adaptation of James Frey’s controversial 2003 addiction “memoir” that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this month.

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She’s having a late dinner when we speak on the phone a week after the shoot, having just wrapped a day of filming Shirley, a movie about the horror writer Shirley Jackson, in upstate New York. Directed by Josephine Decker, the film boasts a cast that includes Elisabeth Moss (who plays Jackson) and Michael Stuhlbarg. Young plays Rose, a young pregnant woman who finds herself embroiled in dark, dramatic events that become fodder for Jackson’s next novel. It’s a hefty part, and speaks to Young’s desire for roles that push her out of her comfort zone. It’s the same trait that pushed her to take on the role of Lily in Assassination Nation, a film that opens with no less than 27 trigger warnings, including “homophobia,” “guns,” “racism,” and “toxic masculinity.”

“There was no other option than to try as hard as I could to do it, because it was so mind-blowing,” Young says in between bites of a “big, baaaad burrito.” “It’s just that feeling of ‘Oh, I know exactly how to do this, and I’m going to show them that nobody will do it as good as me.’”

Assassination Nation premiered at Sundance in January, and will be released in cinemas 19 October. With violence, gore, and graphic sexual content (although not much sex itself), it is not for the fainthearted. The film focuses around protagonist and narrator Lily (Young), and her three best friends, Bex (Hari Nef), Em (Abra), and Sarah (Suki Waterhouse), teenage girls living in the idyllic suburb of Salem, state unknown. They are a parent’s worst nightmare. They casually talk about oral sex, take hundreds of nude selfies, drink, smoke, and uniformly wear the kind of high-waisted short shorts that only Kendall Jenner can pull off — but so what? This is what society has taught them to do for approval. It’s not their fault they’re sexualized, so why not lean into it?

Like most Gen Z high school seniors, Lily doesn’t think twice about her online presence, including the secret affair that she’s been carrying on with an older married man via text. It’s all as natural as breathing. But when a hacker starts leaking Salemites’ information — dirty secrets, venomous words, porn histories, basically everything you most want to keep private — the town’s placid veneer of respectability dissolves into flames and gunfire. (And blood. Lots and lots of blood.) It’s Purge night meets #MeToo when the mob eventually turns their anger against Lily and her friends, who have to fight for their survival by any means possible.

Young’s performance carries the film. She’s raw and intense, skilfully depicting the anger, vulnerability, and confusion of a young woman who has been repeatedly told that she’s worthless unless she’s desired, but who is reviled when she takes ownership of that sexuality. And when she decides enough is enough, watch out.

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“You do shine a mirror on an audience when you bring their worst nightmares to life,” Young says. “Which is hypersexual teenage girls actually rising up against the shit that’s been put on them.”

Young and her co-stars shot the film in New Orleans in 2016 , before the presidential election, and before the #MeToo movement started gaining traction. But Levinson’s twist on slasher revenge films like Scream and Friday The 13th, a genre that has traditionally been harmful to women, resonated with audiences at Sundance midnight screenings, primed for a movie that reflected the fury they felt at the status quo. Neon bought the distribution rights for more than $10 million, one of the biggest deals at the festival this year.

“You could feel the audience loving the girls,” Young says. “And that was something that I only realised was really important to me during the screening. It hadn’t occurred to me that maybe the audience members won’t like these characters, you know? There was something really beautiful about the first cheer that we got.”

Still, Young admits she was initially hesitant about whether or not to take on the controversial project. “I remember being 14 or 15 years old and just feeling like the world was out to get you because every bit of media that you ever saw reflected how stupid the world saw you to be,” she says. “And when I got the script, I went ‘Okay, Assassination Nation is about four teenage girls who are obsessed with the internet, and it’s written and directed by a man.’ Like, ‘Oh, great. Here we go.’”

It’s only after she read through her audition scene, a frank and honest conversation about female sexuality and nudity (with some very explicit drawings) between 18-year-old Lily and her high school principal (played by Colman Domingo), that she was sold. “I loved feeling surprised at what the movie actually was, and what the script actually was,” she says. “It didn’t hate us, and it didn’t judge us.”

Still , the process of filming such an intense movie wasn’t without its challenges . Assassination Nation features the only scene that Young has ever had to stop shooting half-way through: a depiction of attempted rape that takes place towards the end of the film, when law and order has completely broken down in Salem.

“All of a sudden it got too real, and I needed a break,” she says. “There was a moment when I — not like I forgot where I was, but there was a moment where the anger and the emotion of the scene… It wasn’t real for me in the moment, but I could suddenly acknowledge how it could have been to someone else. And that just became so overwhelming that I had to stop. Poor [actor’s name redacted for spoilers] thought that he had fucked me up.”

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Sexual violence isn’t the only terrifying aspects of this film. Assassination Nation ’s take on internet privacy — or lack thereof — is frankly dizzying, largely because the events portrayed are completely plausible. I left the cinema in a state of hazy anxiety, and immediately changed every single password I could think of. But Young says the experience has given her an almost-freeing perspective on the subject.

“Maybe we do have to accept that privacy is dead,” she says. “Maybe we do have to accept that unless you completely remove yourself from it, it’s one of those things that can’t be half in or half out.”

It’s an unusual perspective in Hollywood, which has seen its fair share of damaging internet leaks in the last couple of years. In 2014, the Sony Pictures hack exposed countless confidential documents pertaining to everything from innocuous details about upcoming projects to very private emails between studio executives. It was through this hack that Jennifer Lawrence realised she was getting paid far less than her male co-stars, resulting in her celebrated essay for Lenny Letter. Earlier that year, Lawrence was one of several actresses to fall victim to a nude photo hack targeting female celebrities.

Young’s own Instagram feed is candid. With 3,380 followers (up from 420 in October 2017), she’s not an “influencer,” like, say, her co-stars. (For reference, Nef has 309,000 followers; Abra has 134,000; Waterhouse has 1.3 million.) It’s an unretouched, unrefined look at whatever happens to pique her interest. Stills from Thelma and Louise sit alongside pictures of tarot cards, inside jokes, and promotional photos for Assassination Nation. It’s the social media reflection of someone who is on the cusp of fame, but still has an identity that’s entirely her own.

But her reserved social media presence doesn't mean that she doesn’t feel deeply involved in internet culture and its celebrity obsessions. She’s fascinated by Ariana Grande and Pete Davidson’s romance. “I LOVE it,” she gushes. “Everybody should fall in love in a week and immediately get married and move in together. That’s just how I want life to be lived all the time. It makes so much sense to me. Good on them! If they want to invite me to their wedding, I would never say no. I just want to put that out there.”

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During the shoot, Young sings along to the playlist — “Sweatpants” by Childish Gambino, “Win” by Jay Rock, “Barbie Dreams” by Nicki Minaj, “Faking It” by Calvin Harris ft. Kehlani & Lil Yachty — in between poses. She jokes around and scrunches up her face when she sings, eyes closed, head bobbing from side to side, the movie version of what a singing face looks like. But when the camera turns to her, she’s 100% on. Pretend to have a conversation with herself? No problem! She mouths lines she’s supposed to be learning for a scene as she strolls around the room. She moves with the confidence of someone who is thoroughly comfortable with their body. To the photographer’s surprise, she doesn’t even want to see the preview of the picture she’s just snapped. Once she’s in character, she stays there until she’s done.

But Young also knows how to take a break. “I’m a very lethargic person,” she jokes. “I’m really good at doing nothing. As long as I can be alone for at least an hour every day, I’m fine.”

Still, even her downtime is given the focused attention it deserves. She’s the kind of person who will read a book twice, back to back, underlining the ideas she wants to hold onto, and sit with just a little longer. She did that recently with 10:04 by Ben Lerner, and she takes the same approach with movies she likes. Her plan for the night after we hang up is to watch Bing Liu’s Minding The Gap for the second time. So, it’s no surprise that she’s taken the time to really ponder the meaning of her own roles, and the films she stars in.

Even before its theatrical release, Assassination Nation has emerged as a kind of symbol of female anger, of young women refusing to be boxed into the problems of the previous generation. As someone who is starting out in the industry during a moment of great upheaval and change, Young feels hopeful about where things are going. “I feel extremely lucky to have had the opportunity to witness one of the greatest political movements in the history of art,” she says. “And that’s due to the people who paved the way. It’s my idols: it’s Cate Blanchett, it’s Frances McDormand, it’s Viola Davis — it’s these people that I’ve watched for years and been enamoured with who are not only my performance ideal but my political ideal, my people ideal too.”

But it’s her mother who truly hammered home the meaning of #MeToo for her in a conversation they had in late 2017. “She made me realise how worried she was about me living in Los Angeles alone, and being in this industry, and how she couldn’t have any control over who I was to meet,” Young says. “She just said that she had less worry now, that men would be held accountable for their actions, and she could see that happening. I really fucking admire my mother.”

As for the feeling of an emerging backlash to the progress that’s been made in the year since #MeToo, Young says she’s not worried. “I hate to say this, but I knew that was going to happen,” she says about recent events such as Louis C.K.’s recent return to the comedy stage. “Things do get momentum, and then they lose it, and then there’s another political movement to become involved with, there’s another horrifying thing. But the fact is, the door has been opened on the conversation that will never ever, ever close again, despite the fact that it feels like it is. Whatever backlash happens is material backlash. There will always be those superficial waves that come in and out and wash old ideas away and bring them in again, but there is actually a really solid foundation.”

That sense of community, of women helping women even in the most dire circumstances, is what she hopes people take away from Assassination Nation. “There are many, many people who are angry about the situation that we find ourselves in all the time. And that anger can be channeled into something that can be powerful, and change-making,” she says.

Hopefully it won’t come to the drastic circumstances that unfold in Levinson’s warped version of Salem. But after having quite literally fought her way through a crowd of men screaming for her character’s blood on screen, Young is ready for anything.

”I just feel really lucky to be a woman in this world right now,” she says. “Finally, we get to celebrate being a woman, as opposed to defend[ing] it.”

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It brings us absolutely zero joy to report that Stormy Daniels' tell-all memoir, a copy of which was obtained by the Guardian, features a vomit-inducing description of Donald Trump's genitalia.

To quote one Twitter user: "Haven’t the American people suffered enough?"

Apparently we have so much more suffering to do.

Trump and Daniels met in 2006 at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, CA, where he invited her to dinner in his penthouse. In Full Disclosure, which will drill a permanent hole in our brains drop in bookstores October 2, she describes his junk as "smaller than average" but "not freakishly small."

"He knows he has an unusual penis," Daniels writes. "It has a huge mushroom head. Like a toadstool... I lay there, annoyed that I was getting fucked by a guy with Yeti pubes and a dick like the mushroom character in Mario Kart... It may have been the least impressive sex I’d ever had, but clearly, he didn’t share that opinion."

In her upcoming memoir, Stormy Daniels provides this description of her night with Donald Trump: "I lay there, annoyed that I was getting fucked by a guy with Yeti pubes and a dick like the mushroom character in Mario Kart" https://t.co/jmwfyBqFtJ

— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) September 18, 2018

Now that we have dutifully reported that information for journalism, we'd like to forget it as soon as humanly possible.

From what we can tell, there are also parts of Daniels' memoir worth paying attention to, from her childhood to the consequences of going public with her story.

One part we'd love to follow up on: The story about Trump receiving a call from Hillary Clinton in 2007 while he and Daniels were in a hotel room watching Shark Week on TV. At the time, Clinton was running for the Democratic presidential nomination against Barack Obama. (Why did she call him?)

"Then, to make it crazier, Hillary Clinton called," Daniels writes. "He had a whole conversation about the race, repeatedly mentioning 'our plan'... Even while he was on the phone with Hillary, his attention kept going back to the sharks."

Daniels also tells the story of her childhood, growing up in poverty and surviving abuse, working as a stripper while still in high school, and then becoming an award-winning writer, director, and actress in the adult-film industry.

"The deck has always been stacked against me," she writes, but, "I own my story and the choices I made."

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Going to the movies is billed as an experience everyone should be able to enjoy, whether they're getting tickets to a sappy rom-com, the latest Pixar tearjerker, yet another big-budget Avengers movie without a plot, or a sweet indie like Ladybird. But when Liat Kaver was growing up in San José — Costa Rica’s largest city and capital — this wasn’t always the case.

Kaver, who was diagnosed with profound hearing loss when she was a year old, often found herself restricted to seeing English-language blockbusters in cinemas, which she could count on for closed captioning. Meanwhile, any film in Spanish, her native language, would not include the narrative tool. This left her to guess at the plot unfolding onscreen, which defeated the point of going to the movies in the first place.

The predicament stuck in Kaver’s mind, and helped inform her decision to pursue her current role as a product manager at YouTube. In her position, Kaver spearheads the company’s efforts to expand automatic captioning, increasing video accessibility on a global scale. She sees the tool as a way to give everyone a voice that can be heard:

“I envision a future where everything will be automatically captioned and at high quality,” Kaver says. “That way, someone like me won’t have to be dependent on content owners and creators to provide captions on videos.”

This is an ambitious undertaking — especially when you consider over 400 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute — but one Kaver is poised to tackle head-on: She's used to creating an action plan and seeing it through from start to finish. Instead of letting the obstacles she's faced in school and her career sideline her success, she’s used them as fuel to move forward and enact change, fighting stigmas surrounding disability in the process. Her perspective is an important one in the tech industry, because, as she’s acknowledged, tech that is not built with accessibility in mind does a disservice to a large portion of the population, including those who are are blind or have limited motor skills, as well as others who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Although Kaver says she faced some tricky social challenges while growing up, she attributes her successes during high school (including being class president) to her own determination, a close group of friends, and her parents. Kaver says her mom and dad offered limitless encouragement, telling her she was able to do anything in life, so long as she worked hard enough to achieve it. It was an ethos she took to heart.

“That’s why I always work really hard,” she says. “I always had in my mind that I wanted to try to accomplish things [in my career] so we can start breaking [down] the stereotypes about people with disabilities.”

This messaging proved especially important when Kaver started her bachelor’s degree at the University of Costa Rica. There, she faced an unexpected roadblock: another hearing loss, which left her hearing aid ineffective. Unable to make sense of sound, Kaver became reliant on lip-reading and note-taking assistance from peers, before she decided to undergo surgery for a cochlear implant.

“I became a bionic woman in that moment,” she says with a laugh.

Like other surgical procedures, getting a cochlear implant requires intensive rehabilitation — including multiple follow-up appointments and speech therapy — as the brain learns how to hear again. But Kaver, who wanted to graduate with her peers, decided to fast track her recovery: She returned to school immediately, and learned to hear again in less than six months. In retrospect, she believes this speedy return, though difficult, helped her progress more quickly: She was exposed to many sounds at once, instead of being in a quiet environment at home.

When she graduated, she headed to GBM, an IBM alliance company, where she worked as a business analyst and helped the company transition from its focus on hardware to an orientation in software. She was passionate about the tech management side of computer science, which was a perfect fit for her innate leadership skills.

Although she had heard about the obstacles facing women in tech, it never crossed her mind that shouldn't pursue a career in the industry: "My parents always challenged me to do the things people say women are not supposed to do."

After four years at GBM, Kaver embarked on another adventure in her career in 2013, when she came to the U.S. as an MBA student at MIT Sloan. There, she found herself tested once again. Even though she had learned English during high school, understanding in classes proved frustratingly difficult. For the first time in her academic career, Kaver needed to get an accommodation known as CART, a service that arranged for someone to accompany her to classes to provide real-time translation.

“It was the first time that I really felt powerless, in the sense that I couldn’t do anything,” she says. “I really needed this accommodation.”

Kaver found it difficult to accept the help, but was determined to find a way to improve the situation. Initially, MIT only offered CART as an in-person service, which required a huge amount of work on the user’s end to schedule sessions. In search of more flexibility, Kaver worked with MIT Student Disability Services and Sloan Technology Services to pioneer a remote version of CART, which let translators dial into classes from afar. The process was less time intensive, and made it easier to attend classes, something that improved her own experience but also paved the way for future students.

As her MBA graduation neared, Kaver knew she wanted to pursue work at Google. The company's global reach and gargantuan size was one she believed would enable her to have a larger impact on accessibility efforts. She made this goal a reality, joining the Cloud team as a product manager in 2015. Once there, she began networking with others who were working on accessibility at Google’s Mountain View headquarters. After just four months, she learned about an opening on YouTube’s video infrastructure team and transitioned to her current role as a product manager on the video platform’s caption experience. There, she’s able to bring viewers the kind of experience she always wanted as a young girl.

Last year, Kaver and her team achieved a challenging feat: automatic captioning for one billion videos. In a blog post she wrote announcing the news, she referenced her early years attending movies in Costa Rica, and called YouTube’s advancement "my dream." More recently, Kaver’s team unveiled live automatic captions, a technical accomplishment that lets creators easily caption live streams.

“Getting those captions to be accurate and in real-time during a live stream is even more difficult, especially as we want to minimise audio to text delay and make sure we don’t lose out on transcription quality,” she says of the challenge.

YouTube isn't the only platform putting a focus on accessibility. Efforts by other tech companies have multiplied in the past year: Microsoft earned widespread acclaim for introducing an adaptive controller for Xbox, and Airbnb announced new “accessibility filters” that make it easier for vacationers to find accommodations that work for them.

The importance of creating, improving on, and expanding these kinds of tools is not lost on Kaver. For her, the future is defined less by her pursuit of one specific career, and more by one overarching goal: To continue “working on products that make an impact," especially in the accessibility space.

Kaver’s Advice for Anyone Unsure of Stigmas They May Face In The Workplace:

Surround yourself with smart and positive people.
"Be an ally and empower people to be inclusive. Don’t let haters or ignorants define your path or diminish your achievements."

Don’t wait for people to advocate for you; become your best advocate.
"If you need something (i.e. accommodations for your disability, better work life balance), be upfront about the need and don’t be afraid to ask for it. Some people worry that requesting accommodations when interviewing, it would diminish the chances of getting the job. However, if that’s the case, then the company is not a good fit."

Share your own experiences to raise awareness of the importance of building accessible solutions.
"Be empathetic and open, so you motivate others to ask questions and learn about the potential opportunities."

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Well, there's a new comedy star in town, and its name is The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. While series like Atlanta, Barry, and Glow had quite a bit of buzz going into Emmys night, Amazon Video’s period piece newbie, about a wealthy 1950s housewife named Miriam “Midge” Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan) turning to stand-up comedy after her husband’s marriage-ending affair, performed an admirable coup. The Amy Sherman-Palladino-created series took home the coveted Outstanding Comedy award, along with the comedy statues for writing, directing, lead actress (congrats, Rachel Brosnahan!), and supporting actress (congrats, Alex Borstein!). Maisel also won two awards at the Creative Arts Emmys earlier this month: Outstanding Editing and Casting in the comedy race.

Maisel, a series about a 26-year-old mom finding herself, and unapologetically wearing gorgeous 1950s gowns and recommending lipsticks along the way, has literally been named our best comedy right now; it has the historic stack of Emmys to prove it. Although this decade has arguably been one of women-led comedies, Marvelous Mrs. Maisel ’s near Emmys streak suggests we’ve officially entered a new era of television.

In the Emmys' 70-year history, we’ve learned comedies about young women can certainly get recognition — they simply can’t also be light and fluffy à la Maisel. The Mary Tyler Moore show was groundbreaking in the '70s, giving television one of its first-ever true depictions of a single and thriving working woman, so it was invited to the Emmys party. It even made writer Treva Silverman one of the first women to ever win the comedy writing Emmy. Audiences didn’t get another series that both won major Emmys gold and was about a woman under 40 until Ally McBeal ’s 1999 win for Outstanding Comedy, followed by Sex And The City ’s win two years later. Both series, like Mary Tyler Moore before it, changed the way we looked as single women, sex, and relationships forever. They were unprecedented. And they were all created by men.

The fourth and only other comedy to join these ranks before Maisel is Tina Fey’s 30 Rock. The iconic NBC comedy was purposefully anti-fluff. The entire gag was how unfeminine Liz Lemon (Fey) could be in an industry that prizes blonde-haired fembots. The TV writer was cerebral, unexcited by sex 98% of the time, and far more interested in working on her night cheese than almost anything else. Neither 30 Rock ’s far lighter network sibling Parks & Recreation(carried by Amy Poehler), nor its weirder Tina Fey-created soul sister Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt(where Ellie Kemper and Jane Krakowski own the show), ever won Outstanding Comedy, or even a writing or directing statue.

Series about women that lack any kind of corresponding dark edge or revolutionary narrative have traditionally been written off as weightless confections not worthy of serious awards show consideration. While the middling Everybody Loves Raymond, about a guy and his family, has two Outstanding Emmy statues, series like The Mindy Project, Jane The Virgin, and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend never received nominations. One of the greatest casualties of this kind of television prejudice just so happens to be Amy Sherman-Palladino’s beloved, unabashedly fun and feminine WB saga, Gilmore Girls. The youthful mother-daughter series, which premiered in 2000, helped usher in the current era of women-led dramedies that includes everything from Orange Is The New Black to Glow.

But, during Gilmore's eight-year run, the fast-talking, coffee-slurping, women-powered series only received one Emmy nomination: Outstanding Makeup. Makeup. For a series that, like fellow famously wordy early aughts show The West Wing, would have monologues and chunks of dialogue that went on for pages.

The West Wing received 87 Emmy wins for is chatty ways and 227 total nominations. Gilmore Girls got that sole makeup nod — and lost. Although Sherman-Palladino was never recognised for her tireless work on a sunny series like Gilmore Girls, it’s difficult to imagine the WB dramedy wouldn’t even net a glancing writing nod in the day and age of the Marvelous Midge Maisel.

That is what makes Maisel so special — it is a confection, it is sunny, it is young, it didn't have the burden of changing the world, and it still went home with a truckload of Emmys. Yes, the series delves into some dark places — after heroine Midge's marriage crumbles, her first forays into standup are more like “public breakdowns” than crafted comedy, her portrayer told Refinery29 last November — it never actually becomes dark.

Rather, it’s a sumptuous series filled with classic Amy Sherman-Palladino staccato dialogue that will make you smile. The series has a rom-com heart with its exploration of Midge and her estranged husband Joel’s (Michael Zegen) marriage. Even the conceit of the series, a woman needs to accept a strings-attached offer from her wealthy, judgmental parents after life throws her a curveball, is pulled straight out of the Gilmore Girls playbook. The only difference here is, Midge and manager-turned-BFF Susie Myerson (Emmy-winner Alex Borstein), are the true love story of this tale, rather than the mother-daughter relationship of Rory (Alexis Bledel) and Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham). Finally, such lovable antics have been deemed award-worthy rather than labeled as eye roll-worthy drivel and forgotten.

As star Rachel Brosnahan pointed out to Refinery29 following the premiere of her series, Maisel 's ability to keep things breezy while remaining a prestigious series is one of its greatest strengths. “This show has an optimistic view of the world,” she said over the phone.

“I think hopefully it highlights … some of the battles [women are] still fighting today both inside and outside of comedy, it makes you think, and it also makes you feel hopeful about the future.”

Maisel ’s ability to remain light while being thoughtful may be the reason the comedy dominated in its first awards show. “It’s a show filled with a lot of joy,” Brosnahan continued. “The world is so terrible right now in so many different ways. That this show is one piece of what we need, it’s certainly something I’m craving.”

It’s something apparently a lot of people in the Television Academy were also craving. And with Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 2 set to premiere this fall, we’ll see if voters continue to crave it with a hunger worthy of yet another year of Emmys domination in 2019.

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You know that feeling when you’ve been called out or you’re really nervous about something, and your first instinct is to laugh? That’s how awarding institutions have been responding to Hollywood’s lack of diversity and a glaring overemphasis on content driven by white people and white voices. The 70th Primetime Emmys did it again, using the same recipe we saw at last year’s ceremony, and even at the Oscars. The show was chock full of jokes about the industry-wide struggle to get diversity right, soliciting chuckles from the audience, and even some viewers. But the dismal number of people of colour who actually won awards during Monday's broadcast is no laughing matter.

If true inclusivity was a matter of visibility alone — to be clear, it’s not — then the 2018 Emmys certainly got it right. In nearly every category, people of colour were included either among the nominees or as presenters of the award. Michael Che, a comedian and writer for Saturday Night Live!, even co-hosted the event. In a satirical opening number called “We Solved It”, entertainers of colour like John Legend, RuPaul, Tituss Burgess, and Ricky Martin — all of the women in the number were white — danced and sang about how TV had figured out the solution to inclusivity. They even had a “one of each” dance ensemble where different identities were presumably represented. They bantered that Sandra Oh’s historic nomination for Best Actress in a Drama Series — she’s the first Asian actress to receive the nod — helped them solve their issues because they “got one.” Interestingly enough, “We Solved It” eerily foreshadowed how the rest of the evening would play out.

Taking the stage after a tribute to Betty White, James Corden quipped, “Let's get it trending: #EmmysSoWhite;” a clear play on White’s name that also alluded to the hashtags that are critical of the white privilege at these kinds of events. At this point in the show, nine awards had been given out, all of them to white people. Che later appeared in a comedic segment called the Reparations Emmys, where he sought out and awarded Black actors ( The Jeffersons’ Marla Gibbs, Family Matters’ Jaleel White and others) who never received the accolades they deserved in the prime of their careers. This bit, too, was a bittersweet moment, as the time has long passed for the Black shows that Reparation Emmy recipients appeared in to win any actual awards.

Over the course of the telecast where everyone — including a bunch of people of colour — stewed in their awkward laughter about white privilege, only 5 of the 26 awards (Darren Criss, whose mother is Filipino, is included in this number) actually went to people of colour. This dissonant experience could explain the utter disbelief on Regina King’s face when she won Best Actress in a Limited Series or TV Movie for her role in Seven Seconds; or Thandie Newton’s emotional surprise when she won for Supporting Actress in a Drama for Westworld. I was shocked, too, as I had already prepared myself for Insecure to be snubbed again even though co-creator and star Issa Rae’s character speaks to a generation of women. Tracee Ellis Ross and Anthony Anderson left us shook with the divorce story arc on the most recent season of black-ish, but neither of them took home awards, either. After so much buzz pre-ceremony, Killing Eve’s Sandra Oh, the first-ever Asian woman to be nominated for the Best Actress in a Leading Role category, lost to The Queen’s Claire Foy. None of these losses surprised me.

White people and institutions may be the butt of all those jokes about the lack of inclusivity, but the material itself comes at the very real expense of creatives of colour who work just as hard as everyone else. They rarely see the same payoff as their white cohorts. In the case of Emmys, people of colour can show up for appearances, but most of them don’t get to relish in the actual glow of the event that proclaims many, many times over, to celebrate their work. It’s a problematic dynamic that is reflected even in the leadership of the Television Academy itself. Hayma Washington became the first African-American to hold the position of Chairman & CEO of the Television Academy in 2016. He went onstage Monday night to salute the 70th run of the Emmys and commend the Academy for its diversity initiatives. It was disappointing to know that only a couple of the night’s winners looked like him.

Following 2016’s #OscarsSoWhite controversy, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science made a big deal about restructuring their voting body by inviting more people of color to join their governing ranks. Perhaps it’s time for the Television Academy to feel some of that same pressure. Change doesn’t happen overnight. The road to true equality, in any industry, is turbulent and full of detours that take us out of the way and sometimes backwards. People of colour have been on the side of the road for too long, being ogled, addressed, but ultimately passed up. It’s time to wipe the stupid grins off of our faces and do more about it.

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It's been a little while since we've had to think about the drama plaguing the former cast of Sex and the City. Of course, it's not that we forgot it was there; it's just that life got busy. Cynthia Nixon ran for New York Governor, Sarah Jessica Parker just starred in a new film, and Kim Cattrall is working on a new film project in the UK. But after months of relative calm, Kristin Davis reignited the great SATC feud, and all it took was one Instagram post.

On the surface, the picture in question — a lovely throwback photo of the SATC cast at an Emmys afterparty in 2004 — seemed harmless. But upon further examination, it's easy to understand why people freaked out: Cattrall is noticeably absent from photo.

Does this mean that Davis cut Cattrall out? Unlikely, as she reposted from a fan account, and there doesn't seem to be any Photoshopped modifications. Was the posting malicious? Now, that's less clear.

View this post on Instagram

Emmy flashback - super happy memories and wishing joy to everyone tonight . We are all so incredibly lucky to get to do what we do !

A post shared by iamkristindavis (@iamkristindavis) on Sep 17, 2018 at 6:26pm PDT

On one hand, you could argue that Davis just really enjoyed the sweet memory from 14 years ago. On the other, you could, reasonably, say that the 'gram was a deliberate move by Davis to further assert her loyalties to SJP. We already know how badly she wanted that third SATC movie, and that she'd probably have it if it weren't for Cattrall's refusal to jump on board. It's not unlikely that she might still hold a bit of a grudge about the missed opportunity to cash in big time.

Was it the right move? Fans are mixed. Some have called the post "tasteless and cruel" and asserted that the women are "real life mean girls," while others strongly defended Davis' right to post whatever she wants on her personal account. Though many fans seemed divided into teams (#TeamSJP and #TeamKim), there were a few scattered throughout who just wanted to remember the series for the good times.

"I love Kim buy [sic] honestly if she doesn't want any more part of SATC, what are the rest of them supposed to do? Not post or talk about the show or awards etc?" one fan wrote in the comment section. "That's not fair to the other 3 who do still care. Love all 4 of the ladies!"

If only life could truly be that simple.

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Casual sex is supposed to be fun and easy, but when you start having sex with a friend with benefits it might not feel so simple. Everyone from your friends to random websites will list the "rules" you're supposed to follow — no cuddling, no sleepovers, and no texting unless you're sending a booty call. All of the hubbub around rules is meant to keep both you and your sex buddy from catching feelings, which is apparently the death knell to any casual relationship.

But the rules you set the first time around might be even more important when you revisit a fwb after some time apart. After all, circling back to the same person (even if it's just for casual sex) has to indicate that you care about them, right? At least, that's what many people might think. And starting to care for someone leads you into tricky waters. So what's the deal? Is it always a bad idea to ask an old fwb if they'd be down to start sleeping together again? Are you only allowed to circle back once? Or can you revisit the relationship whenever you want?

Just like any other relationship, the "rule" about circling back to an old hookup partner isn't hard and fast. "There's no limit on how many times you can revisit a play partner," says Lia Holmgren, a relationship and intimacy coach based in New York City. What's most important is that both people are clear about what they want from the sexual partnership, with themselves and each other, and that they make sure their boundaries are clear every time they start sleeping together again. "If they're both on the same page and they're having a good time and have no expectations, why would you limit your good times?" Holmgren says.

So there's no strict number of times it's okay circle back to a fling when you're in-between relationships, but there are still times when reaching out to an old friend with benefits isn't the best idea. If it's clear that your fwb is starting to have feelings for you (because they're asking you more private questions and trying to learn about your life and what you want in a partner), then it wouldn't be kind of you to ask for casual sex. Maybe the first time you slept together several years ago you both agreed that the relationship wouldn't be anything serious, but over time your fwb has started to want more.

"So the rule should be that every time you reconnect, you have to have an initial conversation, and say, 'Hey, I really want to see you again, but just for fun. Is that okay for you?" Holmgren advises. Don't just dive back into the casual sex assuming that everything will be the same as it was before.

And if your ex-fwb does confess to having feelings for you (feelings that you don't return), then it's best to stop seeing that person altogether. "It might sound harsh, but not seeing someone is much better than breaking someone's heart," Holmgren says. If that's the case, then it might be time to find a new sex buddy.

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Since joining Burberry earlier this year, Riccardo Tisci has slowly but surely been adding his own touch to the British heritage label. In August, the designer introduced the first major shift in brand visuals: a new logo created in collaboration with British graphic designer and art director Peter Saville. Then, earlier this month, he announced that Burberry would no longer burn £28 million worth of excess clothing and cosmetics (a baffling concept in the first place). Finally, though, came the moment the industry was waiting for: his debut collection as creative director.

On Monday, Tisci presented his first offering for the label — a collection that felt more old school Burberry with classic trenches, ladylike pencil skirts, and pussy-bow blouses. It was demure and, frankly, a little stuffy, a stark departure from the plastic raincoats, oversized statement earrings and rainbow capes that came just a season or so ago. “That’s what fashion should be” Tisci said backstage, according to The Cut. “You can dress the mother, dress the daughter. We have so many stores. Why give just one identity?”

But who exactly then is the woman Tisci is trying to dress? One guess is whomever will buy the product. The collection veered so commercial it's hard not to wonder if that's the sort of design direction he received from the powers that be. Still, it's hard to judge the complete vision of a creative director after just one season, and while we may not be totally sold on Tisci for Burberry just yet, we are optimistic he'll find his footing. The foundation for a well-rounded direction is there — suiting, separates, sportswear — all it needs is a little finessing.

Curious what we mean? Ahead, find seven important takeaways from Riccardo Tisci's big Burberry debut.

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Mere months after Coca-Cola announced that it was experimenting with an alcoholic drink in Japan, the beverage giant is hinting that it might enter the CBD market, too. According to a report from BNN Bloomberg Television, Coca-Cola is having "serious talks" with the Canadian cannabis company Aurora Cannabis about producing CBD-infused drinks. Wellness influencers, ready your SponCon posts.

“We are closely watching the growth of non-psychoactive CBD as an ingredient in functional wellness beverages around the world,” Kent Landers, a spokesperson for Coca-Cola, told Bloomberg News. "The space is evolving quickly. No decisions have been made at this time," he added. Bloomberg also reported that a spokesperson for Aurora mentioned the company's interest in joining the increasingly trendy CBD beverage space, which already includes such brands as Dirty Lemon and Beboe.

For those of you who aren't already riding the CBD (aka cannabidiol) wave, this chemical compound naturally occurs in cannabis and, unlike its fellow compound THC, won't get you high. Instead, it's thought to offer a range of health benefits, some of which have more research backing them than others. For example, the FDA approved a prescription drug containing CBD meant to treat certain forms of epilepsy last spring and studies suggest it may also help ease the symptoms of chronic pain. But, not enough research has been done to know whether CBD overall is the cure-all it's often claimed to be.

Regardless of the condition you're hoping to treat with CBD, it's important to remember that the FDA doesn't regulate CBD at the moment — and, as is always the case when trying a new substance, talk to your doctor before giving it a try. But since it seems as if ultra-chill cans of Coke won't be hitting shelves any time soon — neither Coca-Cola nor Aurora have confirmed that they're actually partnering up yet — you'll have plenty of time to figure what you want to get out of your Cola-and-CBD experience, or if hopping on the trend is actually even worth trying.

Refinery29 in no way encourages illegal activity and would like to remind its readers that marijuana usage continues to be illegal under UK law.

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On Tuesday, the Los Angeles City Council, led by council members Paul Koretz, Bob Blumenfield, and Mitch O’Farrell, unanimously voted to ban the sale and manufacturing of fur, making it the largest city in the world to go fur-free.

The city joins some of the world's largest luxury retailers, including Gucci, Jimmy Choo, Michael Kors, and Burberry in the fight against fur. According to PETA, "this decision will spare countless animals the horror of being beaten, electrocuted, and skinned alive for environmentally toxic items — items that compassionate shoppers don’t want and top designers won’t use."

Before the vote, PETA rallied in front of LA's city hall to remind the council members what was at stake, including longterm supporters like actresses Alicia Sliverstone and Mena Survari. Each of the women tweeted rallying cries to bring awareness to the day's events. Both Silverstone and Suvari each wrote: "Exciting news The # LA fur ban is going before the council Tuesday, September 18th at 10 a.m. at City Hall! Join @PETA and other activists to show your support for the ban. Let’s make Los Angeles #FurFree."

According to a press release on PETA's website: "Today’s decision was a powerful one. When Los Angeles speaks, the world listens, and it’s now the largest and most notable city to tell the world that 'fur is dead' — but it’s not the only major city to take a stand. In March — following appeals from PETA and activists who attended numerous committee meetings and held a rally at city hall — the San Francisco Board of Supervisors also voted to ban fur sales."

As issues of sustainability move to the forefront of the industry, it's great to see that more and more brands and cities are willing to get involved in order to truly enact positive change.

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Some might say that predicting the beauty looks at London Fashion Week is easy. But while pared-back minimalism has reigned supreme for the past couple of seasons, SS19 is shaping up to be a melting pot of vibrant colours, textures, finishes and vibes.

Thanks to makeup artists and hairstylists like Val Garland, Sam McKnight, Syd Hayes and Pablo Rodriguez for shows including House of Holland, Ryan Lo and Halpern, perfect skin and cool girl waves have made way for '90s rave party lips, Tim Burton-inspired eye makeup, mohawks and Renaissance-esque up-dos.

Simplicity is still there, of course, but experimentation is back in a big way, with makeup artists ditching nude shades for neons, creating prosthetics and employing all manner of tools and accessories – from glitter-splashed bows to bold wigs – to serve up some seriously Instagram-worthy trends.

Click through to find the best beauty looks from London Fashion Week SS19.

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If you scroll through Instagram for all of five minutes, you're likely to be bombarded by images of expertly painted cut creases, painstakingly defined eyelashes and eyeliner sharp enough to do some damage.

But makeup artists at London Fashion Week SS19, including Val Garland, Isamaya Ffrench and Lauren Parsons, made a bold move away from picture-perfect eye makeup, instead embracing haphazard application, lively shades and unusual techniques.

For Erdem, makeup artist Val Garland told R29 that she garnered inspiration from the story of Fanny and Stella, two young Victorian men who dressed as women to quell the suspicion that they were living under the same roof. The theme of the collection was gender neutrality, so Garland wanted this to be reflected in the makeup by NARS. "It's painterly and the colour is more intense, rather like velvet," she said, before explaining that she pencilled the eyes first to give them a waxy base, so that the powder pigment would adhere to the skin.

Garland ditched fingers and even brushes for a ball of cotton wool, which she plunged into the pigment and pressed onto the eye area, almost like a powder puff, so that the colour swathed the lids, lashes and undereyes. "It's actually a gimmick I thought up on the spot," Garland explained. "You get a maximum amount of colour onto the wool and can then easily transfer it onto the eye. Little drops of colour are meant to fall below the eyes and to be dispersed throughout the lashes, too." The blue eye look was created using NARS' Eyeshadow in Baby Jane, £16, but yellow (eyeshadow in Douro, £16), pink (Gaiety Blush, £24), white (Pandora Duo Eyeshadow, £25) and green (the Moskova Eyeshadow Quad, £39.60) also beamed from the catwalk.

At Ashish, makeup artist Isamaya Ffrench wanted the eye makeup to look like it had been sweated off at an all-night rave. She mixed MAC's Lipglass Clear, £15.50, with various shades of MAC's Chromacake, £22.50, a water-activated pigment, and used her fingertips to hand-paint the glossy formula into the corners of the eyes and a third of the way onto the lids. It took seconds to achieve the look – the key is to go with the messy, slippery vibe and to keep skin minimal, so that the lively shades do most of the talking.

The eye makeup at Peter Pilotto was a little less reckless, yet nowhere near perfect. Makeup artist Lauren Parsons created "painterly eyes" against glowing "pre-Raphaelite skin" by using MAC powder pigments in rose gold, peach or mint, depending on the model's skin tone, to create "flashes of colour" across lids. The final look wasn't too blended or rounded and brush marks or smudges were still visible at the inner and outer corners of the eyes when models took to the catwalk.

When it comes to haphazard eyeshadow, there's more or less no rulebook and zero skill involved (lazy girls, rejoice), but the trick to nailing it is to keep the rest of your makeup as muted as possible. At Erdem, Garland dressed models' lips in a slick of nude lipstick – NARS' Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Roman Holiday, £21 – but at Ashish and Peter Pilotto, lips were kept bare, save for a touch of clear gloss. After the eyes, the second focus was on skin. Either a daub of concealer or foundation was applied to areas that needed it, such as around the nose and under the eyes, to cancel out any red, green or purple tones and any highlighter was used sparingly, concentrated to the top of cheekbones only. Brows weren't defined, just groomed using either a spoolie brush or a swipe of brow gel.

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Whenever we see exciting new outfits cascading down the runway, we have to remind ourselves of the harsh truth: You can't afford that full look, babygirl. But, what's our consolation prize? Accessories, of course. Because while shelling out thousands of dollars on a complete, straight-off-the-runway ensemble isn't exactly accessible, splurging on a pair of shoes or a timeless bag is a lot more justifiable.

Accessories are the perfect entry point to any designer label, and that's why we can't help but get our (figurative) binoculars out to spot what pair of sunglasses or what type of hat we'll be wearing next season. With Fashion Month well underway, the 11 accessory trends ahead are worth adding to your arsenal by next season (if not sooner). Even if you're on a tight budget, these little add-ons have endless potential — and will hold you over until you (one day) CAN buy the whole damn show.

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