You Can Stand Under My Umbrella
You Can Stand Under My Umbrella
Rihanna, Daisy Jones, NYFW, The Brits + more ✨
Hi hi hi.
Did this week fly by because a lot of us had fake spring for a moment or two, tricking our brains into thinking it wasn’t February, while we also avoided digging into whether or not our government was shooting aliens out of the sky?
Maybe. But I’ll take it.
Just as we were recovering from Rihanna’s super dope halftime show, her British Vogue cover dropped, gorgeously shot by Inez & Vinoodh. (Seriously, how many years of American Vogue being destroyed month after month by its UK counterpart will it take before something changes?!?)
Her halftime show—complete with a pregnancy announcement—was a STATEMENT. (It’s truly wild how many bangers she had to leave on the cutting room floor.)
This cover is a STATEMENT.
A$AP Rocky behind her, loving on their baby, as she takes the lead and his hand…I love everything about it. The image evokes real feeling and style the way mag covers used to do way more often. You can hear more about the halftime show on this week’s podcast with my friend Wynter Mitchell-Rohrbaugh. (We also talk Pamela Anderson and more!)
Also, let’s just revel in the cuteness of this chunk.
I can’t. He’s so squish. Yes, he does indeed have his own stylist credited in her cover post. Because of course he does.
I love her. I love her approach to pregnancy and pregnancy style. She truly is Mother. Maybe we’ll get an album one day, maybe we won’t. But I think it’s fair to say, we’ll all continue to stan either way.
Let’s get on to the rest of the non-Riri news, shall we?
PS: Vanderpump Rules did not deserve its own section this week. You must earn me, show. EARN ME. (But I must call out this perfect description in Brian Moylan’s Vulture recap: “Raquel, who I have grown to love even though she will always be a scam Instagram account that’s trying to get you to invest in crypto…” I still always just think of her giant hands, though.)
Speaking of…
Kenny took some heat this week because of this image on her Instagram which had a bunch of people screaming, “PHOTOSHOP”.
Hailey Biebs came to her defense on her own Stories.
Honestly, I love their friendship. Maybe Hails can help her with the cucumbers too.
Oh and paid subscribers got a lil Valentine’s Day post about some of my favorite angsty TV scenes—because that’s how I celebrate. Obviously Brenda and Dylan were involved.
Okay, now we’re really moving on.
Walk Walk Fashion Baby
For the first time in a minute, I’m feeling incredibly nostalgic for Fashion Week. It’s an exhausting time if you’re covering it hardcore for your job, but even at my most tired I always felt that rush when the lights go down and the show starts. I miss that. Also, New York was showing me a lot to love this season.
I certainly haven’t looked at everything yet. But there were some gorge standouts.
I’m a longtime Rodarte stan and this season it feels like the Mulleavy sisters captured both sides of my personality: the witch born on Halloween at 10:04 PM and the sparkly fairy who’s still kinda dark inside.
It was straight perfection to me.
Give me the green or the purple and transport me to Australia for Love On Tour Down Under, please.
The tops are just as good.
Riiiiiiiche ‘70s energy is gonna get me every time and I would love to put any of these creations on my body ASAP.
I could have posted every look. This show was heaven.
Prabal got groooooovy this season too. I dig.
Look at all this amazing structure and mix and match texture!
And Chloe Sevigny opened Proenza…is this the old cool days????
Sidebar: I mentioned this on the pod, but the way I loved the Poker Face episode that guest starred Chloe and had a major plot point involving the Benson theme song is on another level. I love us so much, Gen X.
I’m sure that show would be deeply problematic in many, many ways upon rewatching, but I loved it so and very much wanted to be the daughter living in the governor’s mansion instead of Katie—played, ofc, by Missy Gold, sister of Tracey Gold aka Carole Seaver from Growing Pains.
I absolutely still know that theme song.
But back to fashion…
We also moved on to London yesterday where Little Miss Flo opened the Harris Reed show. (The suit Harry wore on the red carpet at the Brits was a preview of what Harris will debut for Nina Ricci soon…and it’s coming up in the next section of this here newsletter.)
Lisa Rinna was also there, after attending Michael Kors in NYC. Credit where it’s due, she’s working this post-RHOBH situation and is finally getting a smidge of the fashion fame she groomed her daughters like Hadids in order to obtain.
She looks great in this, I cannot lie. I really wish she hadn’t been such a fucking evil pill the past few seasons of that show so I could relish this moment for her more.
I did very much enjoy this, though. Of course Florence watches Housewives…
…and is a low-key contortionist. She is truly the coolest and I would like to hang out with her at every party ever. (The below is from the new Vanity Fair Hollywood Issue shoot and she also likened herself to a Cullen on it…she’s the best. It’s also a great fold-out cover like the days of yore.)
Before we leave the sartorial realm, I’d also like to say that this Brad Pitt look is absolutely working for me. No lie. I’d honestly like to own every piece to wear as I saw fit, if not necessarily all at once.
There’s No Place Like Home
The British man took my notes after the Grammys—and nobody can tell my silly little brain otherwise. Anyway, Harry swept all his categories at the Brits on Saturday and appeared to have a much more relaxed and fun time than he did at that other awards show…with good reason.
Plus, he was wildly more prepared for his acceptance speeches! The wins were extremely unsurprising as no British artist had a bigger year. Really, the fun wasn’t either because the Brits are typically a raucous good time, in general, and it was his home court. (Beyoncé did win the two international awards and sent a video acceptance.)
He wore four spectacular looks. (Note: I know that pooling hemlines are problematic for some but I hold that it’s a super chic look and not just because I like to wear it regularly myself. A certain segment of talls love this vibe, and I am one of them.)
I would also like to thank whoever threw a dark rinse on the curls (and, boy, the curls were really doing their thing all night). “HIS HAIR” was trending on Twitter (like, over 92K tweets lol) and it’s really nice to be reminded that that I’m never alone in my mania.
No technical glitches for the show opener. Bless.
The fandom spiraled as he thanked “Niall, Louis, Liam, and Zayn”. SPIRALED, I SAY. Tears were quite literally shed across the globe to hear him utter those names in the year of our lord 2023. I was doing a LOT of wellness checks on Saturday afternoon.
The Brits, quite problematically, didn’t nominate a single female in the Artist of the Year category—and this time, H called out his own privilege and named each of the women that should have been in the mix. He also thanked his mum and his family and was generally adorable.
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He kissed Lewis Capaldi.
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Also, I think this SHOULD be the rule. Get on it, Lewis.
He was very cute with his sister, Gemma, and showed off a lot of little brother energy.
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He loved on Stanley Tucci, as one should.
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He drank a lot of tequila (including a shot on stage) and partied at The Box until the wee hours with Lizzo and others. We love to see it. It’s the life he should be L I V I N G.
This witch also recently started following Amelia Dimoldenberg on IG and if we get a Chicken Shop Date soon I’m gonna lose my shit, in a cool way.
He just might giggle me to death.
This fucker 😛.
Did We Unravel a Long Time Ago?
The full trailer for Daisy Jones & the Six arrived on Tuesday and sent an electric shock through my entire body that I’ve yet to recover from. As I mentioned in the pod opener, I have a friend who has seen the entirety of this series and she has informed me that she is deeply concerned for my well-being. Like, it’s gonna be a SITUATION. I already knew. I KNEW. But now it’s confirmed. Fuck me. But also, FUCK YES.
You can also listen to two tracks from the band’s album, Aurora, wherever you do your streaming—and, people, they’re great. I mean, ‘70s California rock bands are extremely my jam in general, even if they’re fictional. I just know Daisy Jones & the Six is going to end up on my top played artists for the year. Like, I would fully go on tour in support of this fake band. Just tell me where to be and when.
But the people behind this show really did pull in the best of the best to make the album come to life. For example, the songwriters credited on “Look At Us Now (Honeycomb)” are Blake Mills, Jason Boesal, Jonathan Rice, Marcus Mumford, and Stephony Smith.
Mills told Rolling Stone in 2020, “There’s an opportunity to subvert and create a guitar personality that could have been present in the Seventies, and wasn’t. People just loved guitar at that point. So I’m trying to find an appreciation for the instrument and try to bend it to my will a little bit. Revisionist history.”
IT IS ALL SO EXCITING!
(I’m an Apple Music girlie, but Substack doesn’t support those embeds yet. Thus, you’re getting the Spotify links. But everything’s over on Apple, too.)
I think I’m going to reread the book this weekend even though I have an extremely looming stack of things I have yet to dive into. It feels like the right thing to do in preparation for all that is to come. I’m thinking about doing a full album pod on Aurora as I’ve done for Midnights, Harry’s House, and Red (Taylor’s Version)…what do we think?
One last thing on the musical front: The new Caroline Polachek album—Desire, I Want To Turn Into You—is fantastic. It’s dark, melodic pop at its finest and we know I love this vibe.
Extremely Online and Incredibly Disregulated
Just some things I gathered up from around the internets this week.
It’s truly fascinating and high-key hilarious to watch idiots get so bothered by women doing what they want.
I’m more intrigued by the Extrapoloations budget for this level of cast—but I will also watch this, duh. Imagine pitching it like, “So I’m thinking Meryl, Edward Norton, Sienna Miller, Kit Harrington, Tobey Maguire, Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys, Marion Cotillard, Diane Lane, Heather Graham, Gemma Chan, David Schwimmer, Forest Whitaker, Murray Bartlett, Eiza González, Daveed Diggs, Cherry Jones, Yara Shahidi, Ben Harper, Judd Hirsch, and a handful more people whose names you sorta know. Cool? Cool.”
I can’t wait to see how mad Fox News gets at this climate change series filled with famouses.
Tom Cruise looks so insane. I love it. And Angela Bassett would have no problem handling that tiny Scientologist if she needed to.
Yes, Tia’s new novel is coming.
So is my old Cosmo colleague Jessica Knoll’s…I forgot to include this last week.
THE NOSTALGIA THIS EVOKED. I also have my college reunion in April so I’ve been up in those feels and I think we all had a version of that couch circa ‘97. I know we got ours at a thrift store senior year and it looked like a cousin of the one in this video. I need to dig up some pics.
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The 1975 is doing SNL and I’m both terrified and excited by what Matty Healy might try to do on live American television. He also might just give a normal excellent performance…but you JUST DON’T KNOW.
I Do Be the Prettiest, Prettiest Girl
Well played, HBO social team. Because I saw this Reel in my feed, reposted it, tagged my friend Tia (who is equally obsessed with Gia), then immediately (re)watched Gia within a few hours.
This was a VERY important movie to me when it first aired on HBO in January 1998. Models were truly one of my first obsessions and remain so to this day. My god was Gia Carangi something else—which Angelina really sunk her teeth into. Plus, you’ve got Faye Dunaway as the iconic Wilhelmina Cooper, Mercedes Ruehl as Gia’s mom, Elizabeth Mitchell (well before she was Juliet on Lost) as Linda, and bebe Mila Kunis as young Gia.
I absolutely still remember everything about Angie’s Globes look and speech too.
And I’m still aflame for Gia + Linda on that fence.
It’s streaming on HBOMax in case you’ve never watched or want to revisit, which I very much recommend.
Oh, and…
Yes, Joe Biden should bring back SOAPNet. Priorites, sir … Ted Lasso is officially returning on March 15 and, wow, we are going to be FED next month … RIP to Trugoy the Dove of De La Soul. This makes me so sad. I was just writing about how exciting it is that their catalogue is finally about to be available on streaming. My friend Bonnie wrote a really great post about him and their music too … Go ahead and creep yourself out reading this conversation with Bing’s AI Chatbot … While I’ve yet to write a piece for the NYT (it’s on the manifest list + always has been), many of my friends are contributors. Lots of them signed this letter out of concern about the biased way the paper of record has been reporting on transgender, non-binary, and gender nonconforming people + issues. As a reader/subscriber, you are free to add your name. I sure did. At the very least, I’d give it a read if you’re less familiar with some of the bothersome issues with coverage of late … Ugh, this Bruce Willis news is just so sad … Ryan Seacrest is leaving Live with Kelly and Ryan, which will become Live with Kelly and Mark (Consuelos, her husband) I used to watch this show every single morning but left it sometime in the pandie and never went back. Oh well.
Until next week, here’s the new single from my second favorite member of One Direction. “Heaven” is a lovely lil bop and I think this is gonna be a big year for Nialler. I can’t wait. The full album—The Show—drops on June 9th.
xA