The following is an extract from Why Social Media is Ruining Your Lifeby Katherine Ormerod.
Stop Making Presumptions About Other People’s Finances
You are categorically not the only one struggling to make ends meet. As we don’t live in a Communist society, inequality is a fact of life. But social media can make everything seem even more unequal than it actually is. Yes, the Rich Kids of Instagram are probably spending your annual salary in an evening, but there are also those who attempt to imitate a wealthy lifestyle just for the 'gram. Ask any hotel concierge or boutique owner and they will tell you how many people come in just to take an image in the lobby or dressing room and upload the image to social media as if they were staying at the property or actually buying the things they’ve tried on. Even IKEA has its share of fantasists, who use the merchandised sets as if they were their own homes for social media shots (especially for Tinder apparently…). Products can be purchased, photographed and returned; just because someone posts a picture from an expensive restaurant doesn’t mean they ordered more than a coffee.
Of course, these are all pretty deliberate levels of Instasham, and most people will not be going to such lengths to inflate the material aspects of their lives. But the guiding principle of sharing the very best sides of our existence means many people consume in a conspicuous way – "it didn’t happen unless it’s on Facebook". But again, you have no idea how much it all goes on to plastic or, in the case of influencers, how much of this stuff has been gifted. Just as most people look more attractive on social media, so do their bank balances. Don’t let yourself be fooled – you’re under no pressure to keep up with anyone’s online presence, especially because it’s not even their real life.
Just as most people look more attractive on social media, so do their bank balances.
Once-In-A-Lifetime Experiences Don’t Happen Every Week
Knowing what "once in a lifetime" actually means to you is the first step to gaining back some control. Make time to consider and write an entirely personalised bucket list of things that you really want to do – things that actually mean something to you. It could be places that you’ve dreamed of travelling, physical challenges you’ve hoped to overcome or simply a quiet retreat somewhere (perhaps one with a no-phone policy!). Then, when other opportunities come up, you’ll be in a good place to know whether they are worth the investment or not. And keep in mind that people who seem to flit from one amazing experience to another cannot logically be passionate about all of them. Living for content is just no way to exist – especially if you want a financially secure future.
Nothing Worth Having Comes For Free
Again, depressing, but sadly true. While you may not see the work in action, every successful person will tell you that their success is built off the back of graft. You’re not getting promoted unless you prove yourself. Ultimately anyone can fail if they don’t put the legwork in. While you might roll your eyes at hearing social media stars talk about their workload, it’s worth remembering that if it were so easy to build a successful social media business, everyone would have quit their jobs and be running successful YouTube channels by now. Most social media mavens are workaholics, who don’t really understand the meaning of downtime, and the competition is fierce. As Victoria Magrath, the face behind the "Inthefrow" blog and YouTube channel, explains, "You could look at my social platforms and think I live my life in paradise. And, yes, I can physically be there. But wherever I travel will include hours of time spent inside my hotel room working. I remember one work trip my boyfriend Alex and I did to Mykonos, and it was absolutely beautiful. But we did maybe three or four photoshoots per day and when we weren’t shooting we were sat in a shaded area until the sun set, just editing, editing, writing, writing, shooting, shooting. Literally we arrived home and we’d just worked solid. When your business is content, everything is a picture opportunity." There are cons to the pros, just like any other job, and the pictures only tell one part of the story.
Keep in mind that behind every social media post there is some element of work. For every staycation I post about, I’ve also had days and days sitting at my desk working on copywriting or marketing text – some of which is not sexy or exciting at all. But that’s how I pay my bills, and you have to respect the work as much as the rewards. Also, people’s lives are much more ordinary than they look on social media – their parents probably don’t drive Porsches, they most likely didn’t grow up in a mansion. Keep your expectations grounded in reality and make decisions based on your long-term financial priorities rather than short-term FOMO issues. God, it sounds like a slog, doesn’t it? That’s because it is.
Final note: remember, if you marry only for money, you’ll be paying for the rest of your life. Just in case you were considering that option…
Influencers are called that with good reason. For better or for worse, they use their platforms to sartorially guide their followers – who may number anywhere between 10k and 3 million – from showing them the first drop of a designer collaboration to offering styling tips straight from the streets of fashion month.
Whether you see this as the death of originality or a hotbed of style inspiration, there's no denying their leverage. Just look at the pieces that fly off the (digital) shelves once Insta-famous women are spotted wearing them. Réalisation Par's leopard-print silk skirt was summer's best example, and we're awaiting Lyst's roundup of the most worn pieces at London Fashion Week, which will inevitably increase in value now that street style photos have flooded our feeds.
So what if you could buy directly from your favourite influencer's wardrobe? The Resolution Store, launching this Friday (21st September), provides just that: access to the sellout, hotly tipped, must-have pieces from some of the biggest influencers. Founded by Anna Sutton and Alicia Waite, who have a collective 20 years' experience in the fashion industry, the resell site will stock clothes sourced from both fashion influencers and insiders – but this isn't just about giving customers a slice of the personal style they see on the 'gram.
"I've worked brand-side for years, and seeing influencer culture grow exponentially, it is an inevitable part of the job that influencers are both gifted and buy a lot of clothes and have a huge amount of followers who would love to buy into their style," Anna explains. "I became both conscious and curious of what was happening to the huge amount of clothing that donned the backs of the stylish influencers." What's the impact of this short-lived cycle of trends?
"The bigger they’ve become, the more clothing they receive, buy and source, but once they’ve posted about a piece on Instagram, they have to move on to other pieces in order to stay fresh," Alicia says. "Just because a piece isn’t current season, doesn’t mean it hasn’t taken a huge amount of work – as well as water, energy, natural (or non-natural) fibres. It really bothers me that they might end up languishing at the back of someone’s wardrobe unwanted, when they could be having a life elsewhere."
And if they're not gathering dust and moth holes in the back of their wardrobes, there's the danger that pieces will end up in landfill, contributing to the fashion industry's already alarming impact on global warming. "Thus, The Resolution Store was born: a platform that offers a unique opportunity to buy into 'influencer style' directly, in a neatly curated and easy-to-navigate space, extending the life cycle of unused clothes," Alicia says. "We aim to recycle, revive, and reduce waste," Anna agrees.
What differentiates The Resolution Store from the likes of Depop and eBay is its aim to provide more of a boutique experience. The platform will stock 1,000 pieces over a four-week period, until the next batch is put on sale. As for the brands, drop number one will include mid-range contemporaries like Ganni and Réalisation Par, as well as vintage Gucci, Prada and Erdem. "For the influencers, we offer greater visibility, and for the customer, we give a clear edit of investment pieces for a fraction of their original price."
So how much can we expect to drop on a piece? "Discounts on items will be varied, depending on the level of wear," the founders explain, "however, everything will be less than RRP, and most things will be significantly less than RRP." Among the women whose wardrobes you can expect to shop are Camille Charrière, Lucy Williams, Pandora Sykes, Laura Jackson, Laura Fantacci, Shini Park, Lindsey Holland and Hedvig Opshaug, to name just a few. Hopefully, by the second drop there will be a more diverse list of insiders and influencers on The Resolution Store's roster but, Anna and Alicia say, "the website is expanding and we’re still gathering the final stock from our growing list of contributors, and will be right up to the launch date." In regards to sizing, the range so far goes from XS to L.
To get a head start on the shopping, subscribe to The Resolution Store 's newsletter for a two-hour preview of the site, nabbing all the best pieces first. Race you to the checkout!
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
After dealing with a major breach of user privacy in the first few months of 2018, Facebook made an unexpected announcement in May: The platform would delve into one of the most personal parts of someone’s life — dating.
While relationships have been an intrinsic part of Facebook since the early days — before there was Insta-official, there was Facebook official — the timing of the announcement seemed unusual. Why launch a dating feature now, while trying to get a handle on election interference, fake news, and regaining user trust? And, furthermore, does anyone want to date on Facebook when there are plenty of other, trusted (or, at least, known) apps that have long been devoted to the cause?
Facebook is banking on the answer to that second question being a firm yes.
“We’ve seen from almost the beginning that people have been using Facebook for dating, just in roundabout ways,” Nathan Sharp, a product manager for Facebook Dating told Refinery29. “Over 200 million people currently list themselves as single on Facebook and we think that a good percentage of those would be interested in dating.”
We’ll soon find out. Today, a test of the new service will launch in Colombia. (There is no timing yet for a release in the US, UK or elsewhere.) Ahead of the Facebook Dating's debut, here’s everything we know about it so far.
Where it's located
Facebook Dating will be accessible via the bookmarks tab within the main Facebook app. The service is not available as a standalone app (like Messenger is), and Sharp says there are no current plans to make it one.
Creating a new profile
Even though it's still within Facebook, Dating operates as a separate entity to ensure it doesn’t interfere with the sharing someone is already doing with their family and friends. In keeping with this thinking, you will create an entirely new profile for the service. The only information carried over from your main Facebook profile is your first name and age. It is also entirely opt-in — just because you’re on Facebook doesn’t mean you need to be on Facebook Dating.
Photo: Courtesy of Facebook.
Who You’ll See
You will never see people you are friends with on Facebook as potential matches in Facebook Dating. Instead, you will only see friends of friends and people you have no connection to you at all. If you so choose, you can opt out of seeing friends of friends as well.
Messaging, minus the matching part
Facebook Dating is not reinventing the online dating wheel: You’ll see “cards” for each person with their photo, name, and other facts, as well as answers to typical dating questions such as “what’s your perfect day?” (insert Miss Congeniality -related joke here) and “what’s your favourite book?” (This is similar to a format Hinge pioneered.)
However, there are a few distinct differences between the service and other dating apps out there. For starters, you will need to click on someone’s card and scroll past their photos and information before deciding to pass or show interest. Furthermore — and this is a big one — you don’t need to match with someone in order to send them a message expressing interest. “It seemed like an artificial barrier that we didn’t need to put in place,” Sharp says.
This could be disastrous (do you really want to receive messages from people you have no interest in whatsoever?), but Facebook is hoping that a couple of rules around messaging on Facebook Dating will keep them in line. The service prohibits users from sending any photos or links in messages — you’re limited to text and emoji. (Farewell, dick pics.)
Updating your location
If you’ve ever been on a dating app before, you know it can be especially annoying when you travel. Unless you’re in search of a vacation hook-up, you probably want to keep seeing potential matches in your home zip code, rather than the one where you’re currently located.
Facebook Dating offers a solution: It will not automatically update your location in the background, so you will continue seeing matches from your home zip code. You can manually update your location if you want to. (You need to confirm your location when creating a profile.)
There’s a practical privacy element at play here, too. “We do that so if you don’t want to disclose your location you don’t need to,” Sharp says.
Unlocking events
One part of Facebook Dating that is more innovative is the chance to meet with people who have expressed interest in the same events you have, as well as people who are part of the same groups. In both scenarios, you will never see people you are already friends with. You will also need to “unlock” an event in order to see — and be seen by — others with dating profiles.
Ultimately, Facebook is billing its dating service as an answer to the hookup culture present elsewhere on the internet. "We want to make sure that this stays about relationships," Sharp says. "The way we define relationships is a connection between two people who are at least open to getting to know each other in the longer term. What it’s not is a one night stand where people are not hoping to get to know each other afterward."
Whether millennials and Gen Zers who are currently using other dating apps will be open to using Facebook for this type of service is another matter entirely.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
One year ago, Puerto Rico faced its most catastrophic storm in recent history. Hurricane Maria came barreling through on the early hours of September 20, knocking out the power and all communications methods almost instantly across the US territory. And the massive storm, with its unforgivable rain and winds, was just the beginning.
Anyone who lives in Puerto Rico can tell you that life is divided in two chapters — before and after Maria. This summer, more than 50 women reached out to Refinery29 with their experiences surviving the storm. Among them is a young pregnant woman who drank water from fallen coconuts to survive, a mother of two who escaped through a window after the ocean flooded her house, and a woman who lost four family members after the storm.
Ahead, we are running a selection of the writings we received. These are the stories of Maria.
Editor’s note: Some of these interviews have been translated from Spanish and edited for clarity.
Angelicque Bautista, 25-year-old administrative coordinator, Canóvanas, 40 days without power
“We hadn't seen how complacent; how ill-prepared to survive without the empathy of those around us we'd become. We spent the days huddled around a battery-operated radio tuned to WAPA Radio 680 to get the news. Our evenings were spent gathering updates from returning acquaintances: seven bridges collapsed in the countryside, curved streets sloughed by mudslides, and thieves venturing into nearby houses.
The stories of displaced refugees in places like San Isidro, Campo Rico, and Cubuy left me jittery. We were lucky. Our cisterns had fallen off the roof, security windows leaked with water, and a power line had to be borrowed from a neighbour, but we were so lucky.”
Eimy Figueroa, 30-year-old visual merchandiser and photographer, San Juan, 38 days without power
“I spent the hurricane in a rehabilitation centre with my mom. About five days before the storm, she had a hip replacement due to a health condition. We felt the hurricane get stronger when we heard the zinc ceiling of the second floor of the rehabilitation centre fall next to our window. We were moved to a different room once we noticed that water was coming through the ceiling, completely flooding it. She could not receive her therapy right away due to not being able to communicate with her healthcare provider. When we finally were able to go, we had to be there two hours early in order to use the elevator and at times if we were back after noon, wait downstairs for more than four hours until the elevators were turned on again. This was our routine for three times a week.
On the days when there was no therapy, I would team up with my stepfather and we would go out and decide which line we would make that day. One day he did the eight-hours-long ice plant line, while I was a grocery store for three hours waiting to go in to ensure we got water and some food for a couple days. This very quickly became our new normal. Thankfully, the company I work for offered each of us the opportunity of a transfer to New York. I’ve been working since I was 16 years old and the thought of being left without means to provide for myself or my family was so strong I accepted the transfer with eyes closed.”
Maribel Vecchini-Bird, 66-year-old retired college professor, Luquillo, three weeks without power
“I’m from the town Guayanilla, but currently live in Wisconsin. I went to Puerto Rico to help one of my sisters after her farm in the town of Luquillo was damaged during Hurricane Irma. We didn’t think that Maria, then a tropical wave, would become the worst storm to hit Puerto Rico. We spent the night without sleeping because of the strong winds, the hits to the windows, the water coming in without mercy every time a window broke, the doors shaking. The terror lasted from midnight on Tuesday throughout all day Wednesday. When we came out of the house, we couldn’t believe our eyes: The mountains were naked without trees. The radio was our only way to get information. The news and listener calls were devastating.
Our flights to Wisconsin were canceled three times. In the meantime, we were without power, showering with cold water, waiting in endless lines to get gas, food and, water. We were unable to speak with our children in Wisconsin for an entire week. We’ve returned to Puerto Rico every couple of months since then. We’re committed to the rebuilding of our island.”
Jarelys Aguilar, 20-year-old retail employee, Ponce, four months without power
“When Hurricane Maria came I was six months pregnant. We spent the day in my mother-in-law’s house, where the windows were completely covered. We couldn’t see outside, just listen to the noise. When we came out the next day it was like waking up in another place. We couldn’t really leave since trees and lighting posts had fallen down and were blocking the road. My husband walked from the barrio Magueyes to Clausells to see if the rest of our family was okay. He was walking for hours!
The worst part was when there was a shortage of water. I had the idea of going up the mountain where the palm trees had fallen down and look for coconuts. Can you imagine drinking coconut water straight out of them in order to survive? On top of that, the canned food was obviously not healthy. We traveled to New York in January, where I was able to have my son on the 9th. We returned to Puerto Rico on the 14th, even though I had just given birth. The warmth of our island was calling me. That night the power came back.”
Yolanda Mendez Muñoz, 58-year-old teacher, Aguada, two months without power
“I spent the hurricane in a walk in closet with my two dogs. It was a terrifying experience. At 4 a.m. it felt like the wind would tear away the doors. On the 26th, I went to the school to help clean the debris. Our students came back on November 6, even though there was no power. I cried a lot and lost all hope that things would go back to normal. I spent two weeks without being able to communicate with my children. I would need to write an entire book in order to tell my whole experience: washing clothes by hand, looking for water, my family stateside not knowing if we were okay. Total desolation. But I survived. That’s what matters.”
Andrea Martínez, 31-year-old artist and professor, Bayamón, five and half months without power
“Our neighbours lost their home. One of them lived with us for six months. It was impossible to find potable water and the river’s was dangerous because of the contamination. Sometimes we would be in line six or seven hours to get inside the grocery store, just to find out there was no food left. There was scarcity everywhere, but still people supported each other. After our family’s situation somewhat stabilised after two weeks, we started going to neighbourhoods and towns where there was need. Sometimes we crossed rivers on foot just to get to those families. Everywhere we went they told us the government had not shown up.”
Emy Rosa, 29-year-old business owner, San Juan, five months without power
“During the hurricane, it was very concerning because I have two daughters and one of them needs medical care for a kidney condition. In terms of my professional life, I was also worried because I’m a business owner and this is my sole source of income. I kept wondering how to keep our ice cream frozen without power.
After the storm, I lost more than $1,000 in inventory, part of my house was flooded, and I saw how loved ones had to leave the island, how local businesses were closing. It was filled with moments of frustration and anguish. We were offered the opportunity of leave the island and stay with a loved one, but we decided to remain home and keep working to help the island through our platform.”
Irene S. Castillo, 15-year-old student, San Juan, four months without power
“The hurricane made me realise it was my time to step up as class president and as a citizen. The government wouldn’t give us the permit to open my school, even though there were barely any damages. There was so much miscommunication between the authorities and the schools, and we, the students, needed something to distract us from the destruction and the loss we had gone through. We wanted something to help us normalise the situation. Education was our coping method.
I researched and went to meetings trying to find out what was happening and what the school administration was going to do about it. I sent out messages to my classmates, planning a protest in front of the school. On the date, hundreds of students came, bearing signs and raising their voices. By the end of the day our school was reopened, and we would go back to our routine two days later. The hurricane may have affected us and destroyed our peace, but it also made me grow as a person and learn about raising my voice and fighting for what I love.”
Samara L. Nieves Báez, 19-year-old student, Dorado, five months without power
“My family lives in a wood house. Before the hurricane, we went to the house of other family members so we could be safe. Around 4 a.m. a giant tree fell on top of our house, destroying the roof. That’s how the water got in. We lost a lot of things. Our house is not even the memory of what it was before. We were able to return home in November, even though we didn’t have a roof yet.
We’re still facing some challenges caused by the hurricane, all of them related to the damage in our home. And that’s without mentioning the emotional scars.”
Maribel Rivera, 55-year-old family business owner, Manatí, 37 days without power
“After the hurricane, I had to take care of my father, who has senile dementia. We didn’t have access to essential services, generators, or water tank. The geriatric centre that he attends was closed for months. During the day we would go together to the funeral home our family owns to spend time. There we saw the death toll crisis up close. There was an increase in deaths, but there were barely any funeral homes functioning in the region of Arecibo and Manatí after the storm. It was a severe crisis.”
Celey Rodríguez Miranda, 28-year-old salesperson, San Juan, three months without power
“I’ll never forget the sound made by the strong winds. It was like hearing wolves. We were on a 22nd floor and still rainwater got in, flooding the apartment. We were able to stop it from coming inside and redirect the flow to the stairs. The building felt like it was shifting from side to side throughout. Afterwards, we had to make long lines for everything: food, water, ice, gas, and diesel. In the building, the elevators only worked from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in an effort to conserve diesel. Many times I walked up and down the 22 flights of stairs, sometimes with bags of ice and provisions.
A week after the hurricane, I found out I was pregnant. I left for Miami where my sister lives, to obtain the prenatal care I needed and wasn’t available in the island. What me and millions of Puerto Ricans live through — I don’t wish that on my worst enemy. Despite all the horror, it was a gift to see how communities came together.”
Ilianis Tirado, 22-year-old data clerk, Vega Baja, three months and a half without power
“The day after the hurricane tried to drive to the highway, to see if we could get some sort of phone service. What I saw was so devastating, I started to sob. When you live in a place all your life, it’s part of who you are. At that moment, I didn’t see any hope. I only saw destruction in a place that was already economically devastated. Some of my loved ones lost their houses and even today I can’t find the right words to comfort someone who lost everything. We spent a lot of our days helping others. In several occasions I cooked with the World Central Kitchens and Chefs for Puerto Rico, which helped distribute food to evacuees in shelters.
After a month I returned to college, to what would be the last semester of undergrad. We would take classes in tents outside. I don’t know how, but I was able to finish the semester and graduate without even having power. We spent Thanksgiving Day in darkness, the Christmas season was bitter. Still, I can say I’m grateful for the resilience and brave spirit of my fellow Puerto Ricans. I can’t say the same about the local government or the president.”
Gloria M. Colom Braña, 37-year-old architect and PhD candidate, Arecibo, 15 days without power
“I was staying with my parent-in-laws while I conducted dissertation-related fieldwork when Hurricane Maria struck. The three of us spent that long dark day shuttered in a midcentury concrete building, listening to the radio as each station went off air and hoping that the roaring winds wouldn’t blow out the windows. The true ordeal began after the winds subsided. Arecibo lacked a stable source of clean water in the urban area in the first few weeks so verbal communication between neighbours became crucial for survival.
In the most extreme occasion we ended up searching for water in the men's bathroom in the city's ruined basketball stadium, mired in foul-smelling mud and darkness in order to fill our water canisters. Helping out other people in line fill their tanks and receiving help from community members made the experience bearable. It took a week before I was able to contact both my mother in Aguadilla and my husband who had stayed in Indiana. It took months before I stopped seeing the looping image of buildings flying away wherever I went and crying over small things such as a cup of ice water.”
Xiomara Luccas, 33-year-old professor, Guayanilla, 75 days without power
“Before the hurricane, we secured everything in our house. Our two children stayed with our family members, while me and my husband relocated to the radio station Radio Antillas in our town where he is the technical director. It was required of him to spend the emergency there. During the storm and afterwards, we stayed on-air. Even when the station began flooding and we were trying to save the equipment. The two most impactful moments were these: First, going out to report right after the river had overflown its banks and hit the town. Second, helping a desperate father who was searching for ice because his son’s medicine needed to be refrigerated. We went on air and told our listeners about the situation. Within five minutes, the parking lot was full of people bringing ice for the father. We spent 75 days practically living inside the radio station. We didn’t really need anything there, so we helped everyone who we could.”
Alejandra Ruiz, 21-year-old student, Ponce and San Juan, around three months without power
“When we opened the doors for the first time to go outside, my grandmother had a panic attack. Everything was destroyed. Her neighbour’s wood house was on the ground. We all went out to clean the debris and mobilise. There was no way to communicate with the rest of our family to know if they were okay; there was no power, no gas, no water. The hardest part was trying to eat everything in the fridge before it went bad. Then, we had to rely on canned food. We spent gas making long lines to get the bare necessities. There was a curfew, so we couldn’t really go anywhere. We’re still recovering.”
Dellymar B. Bernal Martínez, 36-year-old animal shelter director, Cabo Rojo, eight months without power
“I spent Hurricane Maria surrounded by nearly 300 pets who at the time were at the sanctuary shelter Santuario de Animales San Francisco de Asís. Because the sanctuary is near a river, we moved to the second floor of the main building. Even though we took precautionary measures, we never thought the hurricane would strike with such force. I was frustrated during the storm because there was no way to communicate with anyone. I always thought that when water starts flooding places it would make some sort of noise, but it wasn’t like that. I was on the first floor looking for newspapers to cover the floor near the animals upstairs when the river’s water started getting out of the banks. At that point, I was scared for everyone’s life. It was nearly 5 p.m. and it kept getting darker, to the point we couldn’t see how high the flooding was. It was terrifying. Fortunately, the flooding stopped before the second floor.
When I finally came out the next day, I thought we had lost the sanctuary shelter. We lost thousands of pounds of food, materials, fences, the office, the playgrounds. I was without being able to communicate with the outside for seven days because there was no access to the Santuario. We were able to start from zero, thanks to the support of the community, volunteers, and international organisations.”
Keishmary Santa Hornedo, 21-year-old student, Barceloneta, one month without power
“Two days before Maria came I was at the doctor's office with my mom terrified that my Lupus was getting worse. Nothing could have ever prepared me for what came after Maria was done with us. When I first opened the door all I saw was destruction and I knew nothing would be the same. The radio was filled with worried doctors urging the public to be careful and safe. That filled my mom with worry and I tried my best to reassure her that I would be fine even if saying it felt like a lie. I spent the upcoming weeks worrying about where to get food, water, batteries, and medicine for our family. I felt defeated every time I couldn’t do more to protect the ones I loved most.
I realised that in order for me to not get sicker I had to leave my island, my home. I never wanted this, I had a plan to finish my degree, that was my dream. I didn’t want to leave but in order to survive I had to leave my family, friends, and home behind. My brother and sister-in-law opened their house in Ohio to us and I will forever be grateful for the months I spent with them. I’m back in Puerto Rico now. A lot of people called me crazy for coming back, but they just don’t understand how there’s nothing like home. I’m now happily in remission for the first time since I was diagnosed 10 years ago, by the grace of God.”
Athena N. Español de la Cruz, 28-year-old currently unemployed, Añasco, two months without power
“I was living in Mayagüez and in grad school at the time of Hurricane Maria. When it became clear that the storm would hit us, I went home to the town of Añasco. My mother, brother, and me spent nearly 24 hours together and feeling the wind hit the house. We were lucky that our house wasn’t damaged. We only saw some water come in through the back when our backyard flooded. We were without water for about three weeks and we got power back in mid-November. The financial and social catastrophe forced me to leave school and move out of the island. I’ve been part of the diaspora since June.”
Diana Ríos Santos, 28-year-old doula, Manatí, three months and a half without power
“Every day it was the same: looking for water and food. I sometimes thought, ‘What if the store runs out of food?’ I tried to be optimistic anyway and even when we were in need, I was grateful my daughters were okay. We slowly got used to living in prehistoric conditions, but we did it with love and laughter. It wasn’t until we started considering leaving the island that I struggled. Our only fixed income source was my husband’s job, but there were problems there after the hurricane. So he left first to Tampa, FL on December 1, while I waited at home. I cried every day.
We spent the Christmas season without power, preparing to move, and in funeral homes. I lost four family members, all of them in the hospital: Tío Gilberto on December 8, Tío Pedro on Christmas’ Eve, Abuela Liona on January 15, and Tío Danny on January 20. It was so painful and confusing, but I had to put a smile on my face because I couldn’t fail my daughters. I moved stateside on January 27. As soon as I reunited with my husband, I could cry and mourn the hurricane and its aftermath. I’m in the diaspora now and even though it sounds terrible, I wish I was with my people — even if that meant not having water or power.”
Daniela Victoria Arroyo González, 19-year-old student, Moca, five months without power
“As a transgender woman, after the hurricane I was scared I wasn’t going to be able to have access to my hormones, which I have been using for several years and are very important for my health. I was lucky that they were available in certain pharmacies and my mother was able to help me get them. We didn’t have potable water, so we would collect rainwater to clean the house and to shower. The water would make our skin itch. The lack of power, particularly at night, made me feel alone and vulnerable. As the days passed, it felt like we were stuck. I was privileged, however. We had a roof, food, and a little water. We were alive and together.”
Daritcia Rivera, 36-year-old freelance writer, San Juan, four months without power
“My experience dealing with both hurricanes as a single mother of two daughters was quite daunting. I was very lucky, my house is a very well built structure, but we did not get electrical power until late January. So I moved out for December and January; having no electrical power for so long in an urban setting and with small children is quite depressing and hindering. Since I am my own boss and I also make and sell ice cream, financially speaking, this experience left us struggling, which was already happening before the hurricanes hit us.
Luckily, a friend of mine has been staying with us ever since, and he took it upon himself to make the six-hours lines at gas stations and to take care of any complicated situations that could be to difficult for me to take care of. Almost a year later, I can say that we are still suffering the effects of Maria as if it just hit us. The deaths, the PTSD, those first days of not recognising what was left of my beautiful island and not even knowing if we could get food… We are still struggling.”
Teresa Córdova Rodríguez, 28-year-old translator, San Juan, three weeks without power
“I was bleeding nonstop for a month after the hurricane. I would lie down in excruciating pain. No one knew what was wrong. Doctors eventually told me I was having hormonal flare-ups because of my poor diet. There were no vegetables, no fruits. In the first few days, you could barely find canned food and bottled water. It wasn’t until December that they were able to operate on me, after the first try went amiss because the blackouts led to damages on the medical equipment. I was privileged to have access to a private hospital with a generator.
It wasn’t until May that they confirmed an endometriosis diagnosis. This is a place where medical services were precarious. Now, it’s even worse. The storm has not ended yet. We lost 2,975, many of whom we don’t know their names. The anger we feel because of their deaths is what is leading us to fight for an island that has more solidarity with the lives of its citizens than the rich and powerful.”
Elisela Rivera Montañez, 38-year-old medical technician, Humacao, seven months without power
“We spent Hurricane Maria at home. The last thing we thought was that the ocean would get inside our house, which is located far enough from the coast. During the early hours of the morning, the water started coming inside nonstop. I had to wake up my three children and figure out how we would escape. We broke a window in the back of the house so we could get out and we ran towards the second story of our neighbour’s house, which was empty. This was all happening as the hurricane raged on. When the storm passed and we came home, we saw we had lost everything, including our cars.”
Alexandra Ramos, 45-year-old clinical psychologist, Dorado, 85 days without power
“During the storm our home was hit by a flash flood. Scared of drowning, my husband and I made the decision to ride out the storm on the roof of our home. We spent five hours under a two feet ledge and covered in picnic blankets with our 15-year-old daughter Sophia, 11-year-old son Diego, dog, and bunny. Because we were so cold and wet, the idea of spending the night on the roof was not an option. We grabbed the ladder and waded in waist-deep water, climbing our neighbours walls until we reached my sister's house that was on higher ground.
When we returned to our home, there were bananas, coconuts, dead fish, frogs, and even a car tire in our home. There were fish and turtles in the pool. We lost 90% of our furniture. Our home was uninhabitable for about a month but we were incredibly grateful that our family was unharmed. Our family and community provided lots of help and support. Being without power for so long, the difficulties finding food and gas, the uncertainty of when we would return to some sort of stability, and the devastation around us was heartbreaking. But, that's the thing, Puerto Ricans are incredibly resilient and that is what we witnessed. The storm brought out the best in people. The multitude of acts of kindness got us through the long days."
Ivy Méndez, 52-year-old teacher, Las Piedras, two months without power
“Hurricane Maria broke our island and our spirit. The day after it struck, it was a nightmare. I had to go to the hospital with my parents because my father fell in the bathroom as he was taking out the water flooding it and my mother had cellulitis on her leg. The hospital was filled with people. We saw people whose fingers got amputated because they had accidents during the storm, among many other things. In the days after, we dealt with eternal lines looking for gas and provisions.
The most painful moment was when my two daughters and their husbands decided to leave Puerto Rico because of the storm’s aftermath. They’re okay now, thank God. The island’s recuperation has been really hard. There’s no day we don’t mention Maria. But we’re still standing.”
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
When was the last time you got through something you needed to do without taking out your phone and scrolling through Instagram? If it's been a while, don't worry — it's not really your fault (well, at least not entirely).
"These days, we are bombarded with so much stimuli," says Sanam Hafeez, PsyD, a neuropsychologist and teaching faculty member at Columbia University. "Look at how we converse with our loved ones, half-listening because we're reading messages and scrolling in our phones. There's a need to keep up with the information as it comes and the brain becomes wired to flip from one thing to the next just as we would TV channels with a remote."
It makes sense: Think about how many times you pick up your phone during the day, just to see what's happening on Instagram or to keep up with your group chats. Nowadays, we almost expect that behaviour from each other — you might expect a friend to respond to your Instagram DM, or feel the pressure to respond to someone's DM, lest they see that you've "seen" the message and get offended.
"We're not the same as we were 20 years ago," Dr. Hafeez says. "We're doing more mental multitasking."
Still, that doesn't mean it's impossible to stay focused these days. It just might take a little more effort, and if you have a hard time staying on track, Dr. Hafeez says not to get frustrated with yourself. Instead, take a look at your surroundings and see if there's anything you can change — if, say, you're distracted by noise in an open-plan office, trying ducking somewhere more private to buckle down, or putting on noise-cancelling (or even regular) headphones.
These days, we are bombarded with so much stimuli.
"Eliminate other distractions and think sensory," she says. "For example, if you know you need to focus on driving to a new place, consider turning off the car stereo. If you're cooking, turn off the TV."
It could also help to give yourself a chunk of time to do whatever you need to, and tell yourself, I'm allowing myself to focus on this for the next 15 minutes or however long. And then after those 15 minutes have passed, see if you can try focusing for another 15 minutes, and so forth. Dr. Hafeez says that eventually, that'll help train you to be able to focus for longer.
If you want to improve your focus overall, she recommends practicing meditation, which she says is essentially exercise for the brain. If you hate meditation, don't worry — there are plenty of ways to get into that state of calm and mindfulness without sitting cross-legged and focusing on breathing.
"One can even enter meditative states during a shower, driving, riding a bicycle, jogging, painting, colouring, or hiking," she says. "Anything you can do to silence the mind and focus on being present will help."
If you have a hard time focusing to the point that it's affecting your life (for example, you lose your job because you can't get anything done, or you get into an accident because you couldn't focus on driving), that's when you might want to see a doctor to check if you have a more serious attention disorder.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
For its latest exhibition, Milan's Fondazione Prada is celebrating Black culture through vintage photographs. Curated by Theaster Gates, an American social practice installation artist and visual arts professor at the University of Chicago, the foundation worked with the archives of the Johnson Publishing Company, which founded Ebony and Jet magazines in 1945 and 1951, respectively. Since their debut, the titles have remained committed to creating content that touches Black culture, from the March on Washington in 1963 to the accolades of Black celebrities, athletes, artists, and more. Now, some of the most brilliant photos found in their archives are being put on display.
Starting today through January 14, 2019, The Black Image Corporation is on view at Prada's cultural complex. Italy may sound like a trek, but we promise it's worth it. The pictures of Moneta Sleet, Jr. and Isaac Sutton are a must-see if you catch yourself stopping in Italy's fashion capital anytime soon. Of the exhibition, Gates says he hopes to "tease out the creation of female iconic moments by Sleet and Sutton and also offer small forays into the lives of everyday people through never-before-seen images from the Johnson Collection." For Gates, the archives symbolise beauty and Black female power. "Today it seems to be a good time to dig into the visual lexicon of the American book and show images that are rarely seen outside of my community. I wanted to celebrate women of all kinds and especially Black women."
A unique exhibit for Prada in several regards, the installation is interactive, with the framed images displayed in a structure conceived by Gates in which viewers can see the fronts and backs of photos (which usually contain more contextual, chronological information) and select which images they admire and want to display on the outside of it for others to see. It'll also contain original furnishings from the Ebony/Jet Building, which is now a designated Chicago landmark.
It also reminds the world that, especially in fashion, designers, casting directors, editors, and more — i.e. those at the top — haven't done justice to the Black community throughout history. It was just last month that Vogue allowed a photographer of colour to shoot their cover, the first in its 126-year history. And when it comes to diversity on the runway, it's no secret Fashion Month has a long way to go. But exhibitions like The Black Image Corporation prove that Black culture has been as much a part of fashion history as anything else; the industry just chooses to see what it wants to.
Click through to see a few images from the show, from Eartha Kitt to Martin Luther King Jr., and more.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
There are lots of enviable things in everyone's new favourite TV show Killing Eve. Sandra Oh's hair, for starters, Jodie Comer in that Molly Goddard dress, Fiona Shaw's ability to look down her nose at anyone who displeases her in the most magnificent manner.
But the thing I want most in the whole wide world? Like, would sell my firstborn, an arm and probably a leg for? That apartment in Paris.
Villanelle (Comer), international assassin and millennial psychopath, may spend most of her time travelling around Europe murdering all sorts of powerful people but in between jobs, she returns to her stylishly decaying apartment in Paris. Think: peeling wallpaper, high ceilings, incredibly tall windows with shutters that open to reveal views of Montmartre and the rooftops of Paris beyond. It's incredibly chic, but also incredibly eclectic. There's no IKEA here.
Amazingly though, the apartment isn't actually real. It's really a studio set built in the UK. The view of Paris is an amazingly detailed backdrop, lit as if it were in daylight.
Photo: via Youtube
"We wanted to create space for [Villanelle] that was both real, but also a fantastic space, a grandiose apartment, but without being showy," production designer Kristian Milstead told Apartment Therapy back in April (despite only debuting here last week, the show premiered on BBC America in the States in the spring). "We don't want her to live like a supermodel. She needs to have some darkness to her world."
Photo: Via Youtube
Just because the apartment isn't technically a real space isn't to say that everything in the apartment was crafted from scratch too. The old-but-expensive looking fixtures and furnishings? All sourced from days gone by. Even the bedspread - the one Villanelle asks about during a kill, and then orders for her own home later - is antique or second hand.
Photo: Via Youtube
"If you go to most people's houses, the furniture wasn't all bought at one time, it's acquired over time," says Lee Morris, executive producer. "So we've tried to give the impression of something that has organically developed."
This look is no doubt helped along by the vast amount of objects in the house. Every surface, shelf and wall is covered in eclectic ornaments, posters and eccentricities - from a gold cast skull to a Soundgarden poster, empty Champagne bottles to a decades-old radio. Jodie explains: "There's loads of little knick-knacks that just don't look like they belong in the same room. But I feel like she's collected them all because she travels a lot."
Photo: Via Youtube
For Phoebe Waller-Bridge (creator of Fleabag and responsible for bringing Killing Eve to the screen) the apartment perfectly sums up Villanelle. "I said [to Kristian] she has style but she also doesn't completely know who she is and he managed to crash those things together so beautifully. So you walk into this gorgeous flat that does feel like [it belongs to] a young woman in her twenties who just so happens to have wigs and guns in her drawers."
And Jodie Comer, Phoebe says, was the perfect actor to express this mishmash."You'll make the mistake of falling in love with her," she laughs. "And then she'll kill you!"
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
One thing that your birth chart doesn't reveal in much detail, however, is the direction that the rest of your life might take (and how the cosmos may factor into it). For that, you're better off looking up your progressed birth chart, also known as a secondary direction chart.
Using the same info that goes into your birth chart (your birth date, time, and place) plus the present date, a progressed birth chart calculates how far the planets have moved from their spot on your birth chart. For example, it's believed that the sun moves one degree forward on the Wheel of the Zodiac for every year after your birthday. And every sign occupies 30 degrees of the Wheel, so, by the time you hit your 30s, if not earlier, the sun could very well have moved onto the next sign on your progressed chart. By comparison, the moon will move on from your natal moon sign much sooner, as it changes signs about every three years in a progressed chart.
Before you calculate your progressed chart and start to question everything you learned from your regular birth chart, let's make something very clear: This doesn't mean that all of your planetary signs irreversibly change after you reach a certain age. Rather, it reflects the subtler, beneath-the-surface changes you might experience as you age.
"I like to think of them as a 'behind the scenes' birth chart," Mecca Woods, astrologer and author of the upcoming book Astrology For Happiness & Success, tells Refinery29. "A progressed chart shows you what's happening for you in terms of your personal development; the changes happening for you on an internal level."
Members of the astrological community on Reddit have reported looking up their progressed charts only to find that they're surprisingly illustrative of their current state of mind. One user described a change in their romantic priorities when Venus moved from noncommittal Aquarius to lovey-dovey Pisces in their progressed chart, while another described the period when their progressed moon was in Pisces as a deeply healing and creative time for them.
No one underwent a complete change in personality, but many could link a transition in their lives with the movement of the planets. "A progressed chart is a good way to map out the different stages of life that a person may go through, while predicting significant events along the way," Woods says, alluding to these sorts of smaller shifts that a progressed chart might indicate.
Your progressed birth chart doesn't spell out your destiny and it's totally fine if it doesn't resonate with you. Much like your solar, Venus, or Saturn return charts, it's simply another way to check in with yourself as you continue to grow as a person. Or, maybe wait a few years and look it up again — by then, the chart may have caught up to you.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
Seven years have passed since Amy Winehouse tragically died, but there's no sign of the now legendary singer being forgotten any time soon. Fans still gather to commemorate her unrivalled talent, the media still reports on her father's antics, and her fascinating life still inspires filmmakers.
Case in point: an upcoming documentary, Amy Winehouse – Back to Black, follows her as she recorded her final studio album, which catapulted her to international superstardom and icon status.
Released by Eagle Vision, the film features previously unseen footage of the singer and interviews with musicians who worked with her on the 2006 record, including Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi, who share their take on her once-in-a-generation voice. It will also likely touch on her rollercoaster relationship with drugs and her former partner Blake Fielder Civil, if the trailer (below) is anything to go by.
“I wrote an album that I’m really proud of about a bad situation that I got through, and that’s pretty much where it begins and ends for me,” says Winehouse, who was 27 when she died and would have celebrated her 35th birthday last week, in the short trailer.
It also features bonus footage of ‘An Intimate Evening In London’, a never before seen private concert for a small group of friends, family, and music industry figures that was filmed at Riverside Studios in West London in February 2008.
Unlike Amy, the devastating 2015 documentary directed by Asif Kapadia, the new film will only be available on DVD, Blu Ray and digital from 2nd November and won't get a cinema release. If you saw and weeped over Kapadia's critically acclaimed film, which won the Oscar for Best Documentary in 2016, this new release is a must-see.
Watch the trailer below.
Amy Winehouse – Back to Black is out on DVD on 2nd November.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
It may be cruel to end a relationship by simply refusing to answer any of the other person's messages or calls, but ghosting, as we call it, has become fairly common. A study from earlier this year published in Journal of Social and Personal Relationships found that out of about 1,300 study participants, 25% had ghosted people, and 20% of respondents had been ghosted themselves.
"When we are ghosted, we don't really know why, and there is nothing to hold on to," says Carolina Castaños, PhD, founder of MovingOn, an online healing program. "Then we start filling in the blank with the worse-case scenarios, making the whole experience all that more painful."
Because the nature of ghosting means that you usually don't know why someone has suddenly cut you out of their lives, it's hard to know what to do or how to react.
If you're able to reach out to that person and actually get a response, the best case scenario is that there was just a misunderstanding, and the two of you get a chance to clear the air. You might even find out that they didn't intend to ghost you, or that they've been withdrawn because they're dealing with some extenuating life circumstances.
We start filling in the blank with the worse case scenarios, making the whole experience all that more painful.
The worst case scenario, however, is that they don't respond to you at all, and you just end up even more frustrated and hurt. And trying to get answers will likely be fruitless if they've already decided to cut off all communication in the first place. But as cliché as it sounds, when someone's reaction to a conflict is to cut off all communication, it usually says more about them than it does about you.
"There might be many things we do not know about this person, but there are some we do: We know that this person shuts down and cuts off relationships," Dr. Castaños says. "This tells us that this person is scared of getting hurt (and most likely has in the past), has difficulty trusting and being vulnerable."
With that in mind, you might be able to get closure by reframing how you think about the situation, instead of trying to get an explanation that might never come.
"When this is the go-to way of responding of an individual, and if they do not work on themselves, this will most likely not change," Dr. Castaños says. "This tells us that this individual has difficulty establishing relationships that are too close and that have a degree of intimacy. Think about what you want, what you want in a relationship with your partner or a close friend."
Chances are, you wouldn't want someone in your life who can't communicate with you when they have a problem. And while that probably doesn't lessen the pain of being ghosted (at least not initially), you're probably better off in the long run.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
There's an odd contradiction at play when it comes to vaginas: on the one hand, you can't watch porn without being confronted with doll-like vulva (the external, visible bit). But on the other hand, the taboo surrounding female sexual and reproductive organs and how they work means that a worrying proportion of women don't know their own bodies.
The result? A warped perception of what a "normal", healthy vagina looks like. Women and girls are seeking unnecessary surgery (labiaplasty) to get a "Barbie pussy" and are being vagina-shamed by ignorant people with a narrow conception of female bodies.
Earlier this year, however, a team of Swiss researchers published a landmark study supporting what should have been clearer all along: the external female genitalia come in a huge range of shapes and sizes, and there's no such thing as "normal".
Published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, the study was the largest of its kind to date and was based on data from 657 white women between the ages of 15 and 84. By measuring their patients' genitalia (including the clitoris, labia majora (outer labia) and labia minora (inner labia)) during routine appointments, they found that focusing on an average measurement is virtually useless because the range is so wide.
The average labia minora was found to be around 4.3 cm long, but lengths ranged from between 5 mm and 10 cm – a significant variation of 9.5 cm. There was also a huge difference between the participants' outer labia – while the average was 8 cm long, they ranged from 1.2 cm to 18 cm; and the same could be said for their clitoris'. The average was close to 7 mm long but they ranged from 0.5 mm to 3.4 cm in length.
It was amazing how many women had never heard of the word 'vulva'.
One of the researchers involved in the important study was Dr Inês Vaz, an obstetrician and gynaecologist at Lucerne Cantonal Hospital in Switzerland. She said she and her team were largely motivated by the increasing normalisation of this often unnecessary surgery. "We had many incidents of patients wishing to have cosmetic surgery and with insurance companies trying to avoid any kind of costs," Vaz told Refinery29. "For example, we had an 18-year-old girl who came with her father wishing to reduce the size of her labia minora, and the father gave it to her as an 18th birthday present."
The study was far from perfect – it only analysed white women who had come in for routine consultations, because "we don't have many women of colour in Switzerland, so we were unable to perform such a study," Vaz explained when we asked about the lack of diversity. But the findings certainly provided reassurance to many, and can now be used as a reference by doctors with patients concerned about the appearance of their labia. (A 2017 report by the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery found that the number of women who underwent labiaplasty increased by 39% between 2015 and 2016.)
Vaz recalls a huge proportion of women voicing insecurities about the appearance of their vulva during the study. "Many of them didn't dare to talk about it at first, but as soon as we started talking about their relationships and sexual satisfaction, and when we examined their vulva with a mirror, they started explaining their concerns. Many of them had never done it before! They had no idea what they looked like down there."
Vaz was also shocked by the participants' lack of anatomical knowledge about their own bodies. "We asked the patients how they usually refer to their genitals and it was amazing how many women had never heard of the word 'vulva'. They just mixed it up with 'vagina'." (It's a similar picture among women and girls in the UK, where sexual health charity Brook recently launched an online resource to educate them about their anatomy.)
Being asymmetrical is normal, each vulva is different. The concept of 'big' and 'small' was created by the media.
Vaz hopes the findings will highlight the diversity of the female body and encourage women to think twice before developing an insecurity about their intimate parts. "Being asymmetrical is normal, each vulva is different. The concept of 'big' and 'small' was created by the media. Women should think twice before they categorise themselves as 'abnormal'."
Accurate and detailed descriptions of female genitalia are rare even in 2018, Vaz believes, because of the way patriarchal Western culture refuses to budge. "The appearance of female genitalia is still a social and religious taboo. Throughout history there were many pieces of art and literature reporting the virility of men, and related to the dimensions of their genitals," she explained.
"Even nowadays there are lots of publications about male genital dimensions and close to none about women. The clitoris, for example, was first described by Maria Bonaparte less than a century ago. Many patients, even the younger ones, don’t know what the word vulva means. But of course everyone knows what penis means."
Western culture's focus on youth doesn't help either, Vaz explained. "The vulvas of porn stars or the so-called 'wonderful vulvas' in our culture are almost like a teenager's vulva. Women have problems accepting how their bodies change: the dark coloration of the vulva, the labia majora losing fat, and the labia minora that seem to be more prominent. After giving birth too, some struggle to accept their changing weight. But it is just normal!"
Women's sexual and reproductive health is crying out for more research, Vaz believes, and her team's next line of inquiry will be surgery that helps women who experience painful sex. "The whole of female sexuality requires further research. It's still a big mystery for many."
For more news and reporting on cosmetic and non-cosmetic procedures targeted at women's vaginas, visit our#YourVaginasFinemicrosite.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
Eminem and Machine Gun Kelly are currently embroiled in some rap beef and fans are starting to get upset. The two white rappers have been calling each other out on their respective tracks (Eminem called out MGK's man bun, while Kelly called his daughter "hot"), but this mild feud isn't what has fans mad. Instead, it's a lyric from Eminem's MGK diss track"Killshot" that mentions Rihanna and her neck. Specifically, the hickeys he allegedly left on her neck.
In the song, Eminem raps "Rihanna just hit me on a text / Last night I left hickeys on her neck.” And, as The Cut points out, Rihanna fans are A. calling bullshit, and B. pissed he'd use her celebrity status to rope her into this hip-hop shade-fest, which is male fragility at its finest.
so eminem bragged about giving rihanna a hickey, which he almost certainly didn't do. the only logical conclusion that he thinks giving hickies is really, really cool
Rihanna and Eminem worked together on their very popular ( and very overplayed) song "Love the Way You Lie," but the two have never been linked romantically.
Chinese actress Fan Bingbing has been missing for over two months. But, fans and tabloids have been speculating that she could be in the custody of the Chinese government or hiding out and seeking asylum in the United States, per The Hollywood Reporter.
Fan, 36, China's most recognisable actress, hasn't been seen in public since July, going dark on social media roughly at the same time. Reporters from state-controlled media accused the actress of tax evasion over the summer, leaking the actress' personal documents. A recent report from a government-backed agency has served to further smear Fan's reputation.
As China's highest-paid actress, Fan has made recent headway into Hollywood, where she has landed movie deals with tinseltown's most venerated actors. This just makes her radio silence all the weirder — she should be busy promoting her work. Los Angeles-based representation for Fan did not immediately respond to Refinery29's request for comment.
Ahead, we break down the numerous conflicting reports since news of Fan's disappearance came to light.
Is Fan a popular pop culture figure in China? Have I seen her in anything?
Popular is an understatement. Fan is the highest paid actress in China, with films and endorsements from luxury brands like DeBeers, Montblanc, and LouisVuitton. The actress' image is ubiquitous in China and the fashion world beyond.
In addition to dozens of Chinese-language films, the actress also starred as Blink in 2014's X-Men: Days of Future Past. This past May, the actress was seen in Cannes where her involvement in the upcoming spy-thriller 355 was announced. The film, produced by Jessica Chastain's Freckle Films, also stars Penelope Cruz, Lupita Nyong'o, and Marion Cotillard. The film is in pre-production. Refinery29 has reached out to reps for Chastain, Nyong'o, Cruz, Cotillard, and Freckle Films and will update this post should we hear back.
According to THR, Fan hasn't been seen in public since July 1, and her social media went dark July 23.
Has her family commented on the disappearance?
Fan got engaged to Chinese actor Li Chen, 39, on her birthday September 2017. This past August, the actor was seen sans a ring he wore to mark his relationship with Fan. He has not commented on his fiancée's disappearance or whereabouts. Some Chinese news reports speculate Fan might be with Chen in the United States, where he is currently shooting.
The actress' brother, singer Fan Chengcheng, broke down into sobs at a promotional stop for his boy band Nine Percent where he also revealed he wouldn't be attending a series of events, including one in Thailand. Fans speculated he was emotional because of his sister's disappearance, and that perhaps he was not allowed out of the country because of his sister.
“Hopefully that when we meet next time, I’ll become more mature," he said to his fans, adding, "I’ll be able to protect you guys, and have the power to protect my family.”
What was Fan accused of?
The New York Times reports disgruntled television anchor Cui Yongyuan leaked two contracts for one of Fan's upcoming movies, Cell Phone 2, in May of this year. The actress was accused of "yin-yang contracting," a common and illegal practice in which production companies provided two contracts to actors, with the one showing a lesser salary then submitted for tax purposes. The documents Yongyuan released — which Fan later said were fake — revealed the actress' salary to be $1.56 million, to be reported for tax purposes, while her actual salary was closer to $10 million.
Fan accused Cui of slander, but the move motivated the State Administration of Taxation to get involved, announcing an inquiry into the Chinese entertainment industry to "investigate and verify online allegations that TV and film actors evaded taxes by signing two contracts." Previously, the government had made a motion to prevent movie stars from making too much money. In 2017, the China Alliance of Radio Film and Television suggested via its official guidelines that stars should only be allowed to make 70% of the sum total of the cast's salaries.
THR reports Chinese state media publication, Securities Daily, reported the actress was "placed under control" by Chinese authorities and will "accept the legal decision." Hours later, the report was retracted without any explanation or correction.
According to the Washington Post, a September 11 report from Beijing university and a government think tank gave Fan a rating of 0 — out of 100 — in their annual “China Film and Television Star Social Responsibility Report.” The report ranks Chinese celebrities by their "professional work, charitable actions and personal integrity," the BBC reports.
The Guardian notes Fan has yet to be accused of a formal crime.
Where is Fan now?
Confirmed information is difficult to find, but an August 31 tabloid report from Hong Kong tabloid The Apple Daily, claims the actress was seen in a Los Angeles immigration office , adding to rumours that she is seeking asylum in the U.S.
Fans are also speculating the actress could be in the custody of the Chinese government, but her location remains a mystery.
Is Fan the only star targeted?
No. During a September 16 Beijing screening of filmmaker Zhangke Jia's film, Ash Is Purest White, a scene featuring actor and director Xiaogang Feng was glaringly absent, THR reports. The film, which had premiered in Cannes just months earlier, had been edited amid reports the government was targeting Feng for possible tax evasion. The outlet also reports Feng, like Fan, is "missing in action."
Fen directed Fan in the film Cellphone. This year, it was announced that Fen would direct a sequel titled Cell Phone 2.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
Update: September 20, 2018: The GIFs you know and love in Instagram Stories are coming to Direct. Starting today, you can tap the new GIF button in a DM to see trending GIFs and search for your own. There's also an "I'm feeling lucky" element to the experience — tapping "random" will send a random GIF related to the ones you have searched.
Courtesy: Instagram.
This piece was originally published on January 23, 2018.
Your Instagram Stories feed is about to be taken over by crying Drakes, flying wads of cash, and squirrels waving pom poms in the air. Starting today, you can access all the quirky, animated wonders of Giphy on Instagram with new GIF Stickers. The news arrives following last week's reports that Instagram was testing the tool.
Using the new GIF stickers is easy: Open Instagram Stories and take a photo or video. Tap the stickers icon on the upper righthand toolbar. In the second row, you'll see a new sticker, showing a search bar with the word GIF fittingly spelled out in animated letters. Tap that, and you'll see a screen with trending GIFs you can choose from, or you can type a keyword into the search bar to find a more specific GIF in the GIPHY library.
If you want to find text-based GIFs, look for "word art." Searching for "effects" will provide sparkles and fireworks you can use to decorate your Story scene, while "accessories" will pull up bunny ears, lip-licking mouths, wagging tongues, and other appendages you can use animate someone's face. A personal favourite is the search for "peekers", which produces GIF stickers that pop up and disappear or dangle over an edge, like the legs above.
When you find the sticker you like, tap to place it on your story. You can add multiple GIF stickers to a single Story and resize them as you would any other stickers. Tapping a GIF sticker once reverses its direction. To remove it, simply press and hold to drag it to the trash.
In addition to today's news, Instagram announced another, more practical change that will roll out in coming weeks. Soon, the app will support photos and videos of any size in Stories, meaning you'll no longer have to worry about landscape or portrait images being cut off or distorted. A colour gradient matching your image will appear in the space surrounding images that don't fill the entire screen.
Stay tuned for that rollout, but in the meantime, enjoy playing with the new GIF stickers at your disposal. We know we sure will be.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
There are a few things both "fashion people" and "non-fashion people" can agree on: a love of denim, the need for a good white tee, a desire for quality that will outlast just one wash. But fashion week is the time the industry likes to make everyone, well, a little mad — or, at least a little skeptical. It's a time when fashion doesn't hold back, and the weirder, the better.
Though we've seen a couple sleek takes on classics that everyone can love (and wear!) — see: Jason Wu, Mansur Gavriel, Gabriela Hearst — we're personally far more interested in the less expected. Over the last week, we've seen a healthy amount of weird, totally off-kilter trends that we have a feeling will pop up at Zara and Mango in no time. They may be divisive, but isn't half the fun of fashion breaking the rules — even just a little bit?
From bucket hats to Teva's (yes, really) to slits that rise all the way up, click on for the stand-out Fashion Month trends that you'll soon see everywhere — and be sure to check this space for updates as London, Milan, and Paris commence.
'00s Rewind We hate to break it to you, but everything you love to hate about the style from the early-2000s is coming in hot: low-rise pants, micro-minis, and flip-flops are all threatening to make a comeback.
Christian Cowan
LaQuan Smith
Prabal Gurung
Sies Marjan
Vaquera
Roland Mouret
Bermuda Short-Suits How to take your beloved two-piece into spring and summer? Swap the trousers out for a pair of long-line shorts, of course.
Dion Lee
Matthew Adams Dolan
PH5
Sally LaPointe
Tibi
Emilia Wickstead
Grandma's Knits Perfectly imperfect, these chunky sweaters have that handmade feel but don't require you to know how to knit. (Though if that's a hobby you're into taking up, we full support it!)
Calvin Klein 205W39NYC
Eckhaus Latta
Carolina Herrera
Tory Burch
Victoria Beckham
Super -High Slits Holy Angelina Jolie! It's time to embrace slits that bare it all (or at least come close). They're not just for nighttime either.
Bevza
Carolina Herrera
Hellessy
Jonathan Simkhai
Rosetta Getty
Fashion East: ASAI
Ashish
(More) Logo Comebacks Following in the steps of Fendi, Diors, and so many other fashion houses that have slapped their logo on every piece of clothing imaginable, labels like Coach and Escada have decided that the branded, the better.
Coach
Escada
Pyer Moss
House Of Holland
Biker Shorts, With A Twist Thought biker shorts were only a temporary thing? Think again. Not only are they not going anywhere, but they're amping up their impact with bright colors, loud prints, and sheer textures.
Area
Collina Strada
Cynthia Rowley
John Elliot
Toga
Safari Hats In this season's iteration of the bucket hat, it's safari vibes all the way. Whether you're cruising through the deserts of Africa or just walking down Broadway, don't be caught without one of these on your head come spring.
Anna Sui
Rosetta Getty
Rejina Pyo
T Is For Tevas Chunky sandals are proving to be a go-to and, according to the shows in New York, these utilitarian, sporty styles (like Tevas) are the perfect match for all of your midi dresses.
John Elliot
Sandy Liang
Collina Strada
Aluminum Foil Call it futurism or just an affinity for metallics, but it feels like every show had at least one silver look. Shockingly versatile, consider it the new neutral.
Coach
Jill Stuart
Priscavera
Proenza Schouler
Rodarte
Ashish
Put It All On Display Trending both on the streets and on the runways this season, sheer dresses are having a can't-miss moment. Whether you're game to free the nipple or just want to show off some seriously cute undergarments, these pieces aren't for those who don't want to grin it and bare it.
Beaufille
Christian Cowan
LRS
Marina Moscone
Sid Neigum
The Row
Alexa Chung
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
For Prada's spring 2019 womenswear show, the trek outside of Milan's city limits — which would be the equivalent of that trip to Brooklyn during New York Fashion Week we told you about — was worth it. Held at the Fondazione Prada, the Italian fashion house's namesake museum, the show made it clear that the meeting of two art forms, fashion and architecture, was about to ensue. The latest collection also introduced 'Prada Invites:' a for women, by women project that fosters collaborations between the brand and female visionaries to "expand Prada's ongoing fascination with multifaceted representations of femininity." It was as strong as it was sensitive — opposing emotions many male heads of design houses tend to keep separate in their collections; feelings that only Miuccia Prada can make feel like fashion osmosis.
A trio of leading female architects — Cini Boeri, Elizabeth Diller, and Kazuyo Sejima — lent their ideas to the vision of Miuccia Prada for a collection that embraced all aspects of womanhood, from shapely silhouettes to more structured ones. Boeri, who also designs furniture, made a functional black bag for next season; it has removable modules and can adapt to different sizes. Diller made a garment bag that turns into a dress (and is functional in both forms) out of Prada Nylon, the brand's ubiquitous, durable textile; she also made a clutch that resembles a life jacket but is actually fully practical. Sejima, meanwhile, had a little more fun; she played with shapes, colors, and sizes to create pool float-style bags called the 'daln' and the 'yooo.' It was youthful but carried a vision of the future — that fashion, especially at luxury prices, has to be worth it.
Prada also sent several all-black looks down the runway, a colour trend we've seen several times this Fashion Month (from Max Mara to No. 21 and more), which makes us wonder if some designers are ready to go dark for a second (or just in need of a blank slate)? Either way, the pops of colour that were included in the collection — cherry red, Pantone's Greenery, pink, and navy tie-dye — were just the touches of the (albeit heteronormative) femininity warmer seasons often offer up. The fact that Prada is investing in its nylon capabilities is a good sign, too, considering how much leather and PVC we've seen across the spring 2019 runways — neither of which are breathable fabrics. Miuccia Prada, alongside some of the most enthralling female voices in 21st-century design, proved that women — nay, all of us — are stronger together. What better foot to start a new season off on than that?
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
Imagine you’re straddling someone. Bum out, legs spread and giving your best "Yes, I'm having a really good time" face. You’re in the moment. You’re feeling it and then suddenly: "Cut!" There was a shadow and the camera can’t see your eyes properly. This, my friends, is not so much of a buzzkill but rather standard procedure. You pause, reset and once again try to recreate one of the most passionately intimate moments in the history of human activity. This is what it’s really like to film a sex scene. No, it’s not as hot as it looks on TV.
We’ve all wondered what it’s like. We’ve done the squinty eyed head tilt to try and get a proper look at what’s really going on. And though what we see is often steamy enough to ruin Saturday night telly with your parents, the reality of putting something like that together is actually pretty clinical.
"Oh it is," actress Rebekah Wainwright insists. She's worked on a variety of TV programmes over the last 10 years, so obviously I quizzed her on what it was like to pretend to have sex as part of her job. "Yeah it’s a weird thing because you’re intimate with somebody and you’re creating this passion and then you’ve got all these people… it’s quite funny I guess, because the crew and the director are looking at it in a different way. They’re looking at the angles, the light, how your hair is falling, and how much of your body we can see, or are allowed to see."
Chatting over Skype, Wainwright tells me that her first sexy scene was for The Tudors(the BBC Two show with Jonathan Rhys Meyers from Bend It Like Beckham), which was the first programme she booked after finishing drama school. "That one was a weird one. It was quite a sexy show to put it mildly," she laughs. "I was sort of thrown in the deep end. My first scene was with my co-star Henry Cavill and it was basically a scene where I was literally getting into bed beside him. It wasn’t even a big crazy passionate sex scene. It was leading to that, but that wasn’t going to be shown."
I'm always conflicted. Is it gratuitous nudity or a sex scene for the sake of it?
"They closed the set and got a skeleton crew present, but it’s still a substantial number of people, you know? I had to whip off my dress, put on another dress, arse out for all to see. At the time I was quite young, I was about 21 or something," she adds. It must've been a weird feeling. Wainwright explains that self-consciousness sets in, of course, when you realise that once it's filmed it'll be out in the world forever, but on the other side of that concern, it's just a component of a wider story. Real life often involves sex in some respect, so it's no surprise that we see so much of it in entertainment. That said, there's always a balance to be held between a sex scene with a purpose, and a sex scene because one of the producers fancied throwing a boob shot in there. "I'm always conflicted," Wainwright adds. She has to consider: "Is it gratuitous nudity or a sex scene for the sake of it?"
But what if you're on set and you're uncomfortable with a scene, a move or how exposed you are? Sex makes us all feel a little vulnerable at the best of times, not to mention when you're trying to re-enact it in front of a load of people with cameras. So how do you deal? "That’s actually something I’ve learned over the years, that you can put your foot down," Wainwright explains. "When I was young, way back in my early 20s, I was quite sheepish and I was quite shy and I was sort of grateful for the opportunity to be there and to have these roles and whatever, it took me time to realise that I could say no if I’m not comfortable with something."
Thankfully, she tells me that directors have always been very aware, understanding and accommodating in her experience, however it can't help but feel like murky territory in the context of #MeToo and the troubling conversation around Hollywood at the moment. "There are a lot of grey areas within the industry, that’s for sure, and there’s a lot of shit going on that isn’t really talked about."
"When I started on The Tudors for example, before I got the part that I got they had offered me another role. It was quite literally the part of a prostitute. I think it was recurring from what I remember, but I ended up turning it down because I was like, you know what, this is my first job out of drama school, and that’s not the road that I wanna go down." Though sticking to her guns and saying no to the part worked out in her first show – she was instead considered for a bigger role that she was more comfortable with – Wainwright explains that this level of understanding isn't concurrent throughout the industry: "There was another series that I was invited to audition for and it was a similar kind of card. It was a sexy sort of part and I ended up saying no, I don’t want to go down that road, and then they wouldn’t see me again for any other part – so it can go either way I guess."
When it really comes down to it, there are practicalities to consider alongside the emotional aspect of it all, of course. To be explicitly clear, despite how convincing it may seem, it's not actual sex. There are no real ins and outs (sorry) but smoke, mirrors and cleverly placed pouches instead. "There’s all sorts. Oh god, it’s awful when you actually think about it!" Wainwright jokes. "There was one sex scene I was doing and basically, my bum was exposed. Costume came into my dressing room and put a flesh coloured thong on me. They then came at me with the scissors and cut the back of the thong, so there was literally just this triangle [on the front] which they then Sellotaped to my skin – there was nothing glamorous at all about it. And then the male had to eventually put a sock on his dick. So I’m there with half a thong stuck on me and he’s got a sock on his cock."
No, it doesn't sound very secure and yes, in that scene, Wainwright remembers that both of their little covers fell off. "They're not going to last [when you're being physical]. It's one of those things, then you've just got to be like 'Fuck it, here we are, it's a bizarre situation'; just try and laugh it off really."
Some things aren't as easy to be discreet about. Like periods, for example. How on earth do you spend a day performing a sex scene wearing nothing but a triangle of material when you're on your period? "Oh girl, this is the thing that men don’t understand and this is where it gets brutal," Wainwright tells me. Sadly, I'm not remotely surprised. "There was one job I was doing, I literally took tablets to delay my period because you just can’t. You’re not going to have time to run to the toilet and whatever, you can’t hold up a day's filming. So, I’ve done that in the past and gotten a prescription to delay my period for a few weeks."
Orienting your period around an almost-nude TV shoot is far from ideal and another step of admin that none of us would readily anticipate as just "one of those things" you have to think about as an actress. So all things considered – the anticipation, the awkwardness, the pressure, the hilarity and the straight-up vulnerability that comes with creating realistic-looking sex for screen – can you ever really get used to whipping your clothes off for an intimate session in front of the camera?
"I kind of am more comfortable with it now because at the end of the day we are telling stories. I mean, it obviously depends on the script – if it's just tits out for the sake of it I’m like 'Meh, does that really need to be… could I wear a bra instead maybe?' But I guess the older you get, maybe more accustomed to it and it doesn’t feel like such a big deal. But it's always going to be a big deal at the time when you’re actually there." Just like when you're having sex in real life, I suggest. "Yeah you’re always conscious of your own angles, am I right?"
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
It's safe to say that Anastasia Soare knows a thing or two about eyebrows. Founder of Instagram-famous beauty brand Anastasia Beverly Hills, she was one of the first to garner huge success from expert brow shaping, and is the brains behind a number of cult brow products which professional makeup artists, celebrities and beauty editors alike can't imagine their beauty kits without: Dipbrow, Brow Wiz... you know they're great.
So when I received an invitation to meet the queen of brows herself to celebrate Anastasia Beverly Hills' launch into Selfridges, I couldn't turn it down, especially because Anastasia has been with me (figuratively speaking) through my brow journey over the years, from bushy slugs to pencil thin and everything in between. In a room full of editors and influencers, I was lucky enough to get a seat next to the brow pro herself, which meant I could pick her brains before anyone else had a chance. And to highlight just how brilliant she is, she pushed her fancy Annabel's lunch to one side and showed me exactly where I've been going wrong with my brows all this time. Here are the insanely clever tips and tricks I learned in that one hour.
You should use not one but two products to achieve great eyebrows
If you think about it, a full, natural eyebrow has actual hairs, but then there’s a slight shadow behind that on the skin – that’s why you should use a lighter colour first, Anastasia told me. Try Dipbrow Pomade, £19, as a base, but this has to be a lot lighter than your actual hairs. Then, go in with a darker colour, creating strokes of hair to achieve the natural but believable 3D brow look with an angled brush. You can use pomade and pencils, but brow powders usually come in two shades for this very reason.
Don't pencil in your eyebrows without this one tool to hand
Whether it's pencil, pomade or shadow, if you apply product and don't groom your brows with a brush as you go, they won't look as great as they could do. Why? Well, a brush will not only push the hairs into a more uniform shape but it softens any harsh lines, clumps or intense pigment left behind by the product, making your brows look like, well, hair, not 'fake' or 'drawn on'. "You know I invented the double-ended pencil, right?"
Don’t trim your eyebrows unless it’s completely necessary
If you have thick, long brows, you might need to trim them occasionally, Anastasia told me, but whatever you do, don't go too far, because they could start to grow downwards instead of upwards and this could alter the shape of your brow completely. If you do want to groom them, simply brush them up with a spoolie brush and trim with care and caution using clean nail scissors, like the Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Scissors, £20. The angled blade snips unruly hairs without snagging.
If you've made a mistake, simply feather out the product with a brush rather than messing everything up with a wipe or a cotton bud. According to Anastasia, it'll save time and look far more natural.
A clever tip for big eyes
If you have big eyes, Anastasia suggests taking your arch higher, as it opens up the space further and really accentuates them. The opposite goes for a lot of lid space – you can get away with bringing your brows lower when you’re filling them out. She told me not to be afraid of pencilling in underneath. "Thick eyebrows beautifully shaped – that’s all you need."
This is why one eyebrow always looks different from the other
Anastasia mentioned that one eyebrow is always higher than the other because of the muscles in your face – it's rarely to do with how the hairs grow. But instead of trying to fix it by going overboard on product, she recommends embracing the difference. Remember, sisters not twins.
Unfortunately, eyebrows aren’t like the hair on our head, Anastasia told me. "It’s fun to experiment like Rihanna, but if you start tweezing brow hairs excessively, I can guarantee they won’t grow back," she said. That’s whether you have a lot of hair or if you’re fair and have hardly any to begin with. This is because pulling the hair in this way destroys the hair follicle at the root and it’s not as strong as it once was. "Thin eyebrows are purely editorial. I wish I could say hey, for this season, let’s do thin eyebrows, but hardly anyone wants them. If you want to go thinner for one reason or another, cover them up with makeup – concealer works a trick."
How to hide brow stubble when you're between appointments
If you have thick, coarse hair and suffer with stubbly growth or shadows, don’t squeeze or dig at the hairs, simply mask them with a slick of concealer. This way, you won't damage the skin or cause scarring. Try the Pro Pencil Highlighter and Concealer Pencil, £18.
Anastasia Beverly Hills is available at Selfridges London and Selfridges Manchester Trafford.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
This time around the collection is made up of thicker soles, richer fabrics, and vibrant colours - all the sartorial markers of a cold British autumn - with bowling-style shoes and green rain-proof booties sat alongside sumptuous suedes and velvets.
Chung has worked with the brand since 2011, when she became an ambassador for Superga. “To work with Superga was an amazing experience," she explains. "Now, for the second time, I’m launching my collection. I really enjoyed creating for the brand and adding a piece of myself into the designs. I hope that everyone loves them as much as I enjoyed making them.”
Launching today, we’ve chosen our favourite styles and compiled get-ups that’ll see you through from the last days of summer to the peak of winter. Click through to see how we’re styling Alexa Chung x Superga round two.
Florals and pastel may be two of spring's best trends, but don't move them to the back of your wardrobe just yet. This Ganni dress brings the print into autumn, while Charles & Keith's lilac bag perfectly compliments the purple suede of these trainers.
Charles & Keith Grommet Detail Strap Bag, £59, available at Charles & Keith
Ganni Floral-Print Silk Crepe De Chine Wrap Dress, £550, available at Net-A-Porter
Superga x Alexa Chung Silver Lake Low Top, £99, available at Alexachung
Important announcement: corduroy is your go-to fabric this autumn, in everything from blazers to mini skirts. This electric blue Mango suit has a touch of David Bowie about it, and we're pairing with Staud's newest update on it's cult transparent bag, and some box fresh trainers to make the look more casual.
Staud Shirley PVC and Leather Tote, £175, available at Matches
Superga x Alexa Chung Malibu Low Top, £80, available at Alexachung
The ideal Sunday get-up consists of a loose white shirt, easy jeans and a hold-everything bucket bag. This crisp number from H&M brings the classic white shirt into 2019, while Calvin Klein denim is a no brainer. Match your burgundy bag to your Alexa x Superga kicks.
Calvin Klein High Rise Straight Jeans, £80, available at Topshop
Matt & Nat Bini Rio Bucket Bag, £98, available at Matt & Nat
Superga x Alexa Chung Hollywood Oxblood Low Top, £90, available at Alexachung
Rainy days are 100% certain in the Uk in autumn, but we still struggle with what to wear when the heavens open. These sweet booties will keep your feet dry, while Rains have made the biker jacket weather-appropriate. Just add a fail-safe striped T and black jeans, and you'll be rainy day ready.
Topshop Black Cropped Kick Flare Jeans, £40, available at Topshop
Superga x Alexa Chung Patent Alipina, £152, available at Superga
Note snakeskin as the print du jour, but make a statement and nab it in an acid-hue - this Chloe bag is top of our wishlist. These canvas trainers are our new wear-anywhere staple, while an indigo jumpsuit ties the whole look together - think 'contemporary Farah Fawcett'.
Chloe Roy Mini Snake-Effect Leather Bucket Bag, £1,345, available at Net-A-Porter
Mango Belted Denim Jumpsuit, £69.99, available at Mango
Superga x Alexa Chung Silver Lake High Top, £105, available at Alexachung
These chunky-soled trainers require some attitude. We love Fred Perry's update on its classic polo neck, and this Katharine Hamnett silk bomber is best worn oversized. Just add '70s bleached denim and you're good to go.
E.L.V Denim The Twin Bleaches High-Rise Straight-Leg Jeans, £350, available at Net-A-Porter
Katharine Hamnett London Oversized Silk-Satin Bomber Jacket, £692, available at Matches
Superga x Alexa Chung Griffith Park Low Top, £145, available at Alexachung
Cosy knits and loose-fitting trousers were made for colder days when leaving the house seems nigh on impossible. This camel &Other Stories knit will make it feel like you never left bed, while COS's jersey trousers will work anywhere from the office to your sofa. Just add resin earrings to lift the look, and classic black kicks for ease.
& Other Stories Wool Blend Cable Knit Sweater, £69, available at & Other Stories
ASOS Design Swirl Tortoisehell Stud Earrings, £6, available at ASOS
COS Elastic-Detail Jersey Trousers, £69, available at COS
Superga x Alexa Chung Leabrush, £115, available at Superga
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
Is nothing sacrosanct? Evidently not when it comes to Halloween costumes. Every year without fail a company somewhere will shock the internet with its tone deaf wares. The latest "fun" outfit to miss the mark? A "sexy" Handmaid's Tale outfit, complete with a thigh-high red minidress and white bonnet.
Yes, an online retailer really did not notice the irony in creating a sexed-up version of the modest red clothing worn by the handmaids in Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel (and award-winning TV show) to highlight their oppression in a cruel totalitarian society. (Where, we might add, they are forced into sexual slavery to procreate with high-ranking men.)
Online lingerie and costume retailer Yandy described the outfit as a "Brave Red Maiden Costume". “An upsetting dystopian future has emerged where women no longer have a say,” read the description. “However, we say be bold and speak your mind in this exclusive Brave Red Maiden costume.”
I can't decide if this misses the point of The Handmaid's Tale, or encapsulates it completely. https://t.co/nSDeKpJN8T
It was on sale for $64.95 until it was removed following an inevitable social media backlash. In a statement, the company said its "corporate ideology is rooted in female empowerment, and gender empowerment overall."
Yandy said it was aware the costume had been interpreted "as a symbol of women's oppression, rather than an expression of women's empowerment," which had not been the intention. Instead, it was apparently inspired by how the costume had been "use[d] in recent months as a powerful protest image".
Because modelling a racy outfit on real-life examples of women's oppression is A-OK!
But with the removal of the sexy handmaid costume from the internet, you might be struggling for ideas this Halloween. Here are some other feminist figures you could channel for even greater impact. Just don't forget to sex them up!
Emmeline Pankhurst
If we've learned anything from the world of beauty pageants, it's that sashes = hot. And remember: sexiness is all about your deeds, not words. It's been 100 years since women got the vote, it's time the Suffragettes got saucy.
Marie Curie
She may have been the first woman to win a Nobel Prize but, sadly, the trailblazing physicist and chemist was also a pioneer of modest fashion. Go for a long, high-neck black dress but radiate some sex by adding an Angelina-esque thigh-high slit.
Amelia Earhart
Pour your curves into a pair of tight Jodhpurs, team with a 1930s-style bomber (pull that zip right down) and you're good to go as the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.
Rosa Parks
Rosa doesn't get enough appreciation for her superb glasses collection, and, fortunately, hipster frames are HOT. Pick some up and go as the first lady of civil rights.
Marina Abramović
Red is the colour of lust (hullo, scarlet woman!) so Marina's signature red robe is already pretty risqué - you might have to take some scissors to it though (not enough leg). Then just stare into space while crying, à la the fearless performance artist this Halloween. Death is coming for us all eventually and is there anything scarier than that?
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
