Jill Biden wore something. That’s usually not cause for alarm. The First Lady tends to dress stylishly, but covertly, and notoriously keeps the attention off of her clothes. But on April 1, while stepping off of an airplane at Andrews Air Force Base and heading home for the night, she happened to be wearing fishnets. And a leather skirt. And pixie boots. Cue the inflated outrage […]
Alaina Demopoulos
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A few weeks ago, an American expat living in London named Caroline Giovannucci noticed a new trend on her Instagram feed: vaccine selfies. She loves seeing her friends from back home in Boston getting their shots or showing off their inoculation cards. But Giovannucci can’t relate yet. As a 25 year-old living in a city that’s vaccinating older and more vulnerable people first, Giovannucci has yet […]
The cargo ship that has blocked the Suez Canal since Tuesday—and epitomized the mood of a battered and exhausted public—could be freed on Saturday night, some optimistic reports suggest. But, as the ship’s calamitous journey has so far indicated, there is plenty that could still go wrong. Yukito Higaki, president of the Japanese company that owns the Ever Given, said he hoped that a weekend high […]
A 20-year veteran teacher at Hialeah High School, just outside of Miami, has been arrested for sexually abusing underage students for more than a decade. Jeanette Valle-Tejeda, 41, was booked on Friday on a series of charges including sexual battery, child abuse, and lewd assault on a child under the age of 16. As NBC-Miami reported, one victim told school officials and the police that Valle-Tejeda […]
Have you missed Ivanka Trump’s frequent Instagram posts featuring glamour shots, MAGA propaganda, and snapshots from her children’s play time? Probably not. But the most image-obsessed of the Trump kids has been conspicuously silent on social media since her father left office. That’s not to say she’s gone completely: Ivanka, always her own best publicist, has been snapped by paparazzi dutifully camped outside her Miami home […]
Leon Neal/Getty The keychain was made of glitter resin and looked like something I would have owned in the ’90s: a sparkly cat face with big eyes and stumpy whiskers. Cute, I thought. Then its owner, a woman I met while volunteering, showed me how the sharp edges of the cat’s ears doubled as a self-defense weapon. “Kitty claws,” she offered in a peppy, friendly voice, […]
It appears that Alexander Wang would like the deluge of sexual assault allegations levied against him to end as similarly as the stories began: through a social media post. In December, Wang called accusations that he groped, exposed, and sexually assaulted numerous men inside New York clubs and parties “baseless and grotesquely false.” Since these stories were mostly anonymous, collected by Instagram accounts like @DietPrada and […]
For four years, roller derby player Zack “NoMad” Sherman lived and breathed Mota Skates. The Grand Rapids, Michigan-based company sponsored Sherman’s gear, and he worked the Mota booth at championships games and conventions. People saw him represent Mota so often that he would be mistaken for the company’s owner. In reality, that title belongs to a couple named Doug and Julie Glass. Sherman told The Daily […]
The vaccine selfie is both a flex and a work of art. While it’s disheartening to see, say, a SoulCycle instructor get to the front of the line under the guise of being a “teacher,” it remains endlessly warming to watch someone’s grandmother get her jab. A shot in the arm has become another social media rite of passage, and as access (slowly) trickles down to […]
This week, a broken, fractured America came together, united under a perennial truth: Kris Jenner, we really don’t need to hear from you right now. Actually, according to Kris Jenner, we absolutely do. As WWD first reported, the notorious puppet-master of the Kardashian universe has filed trademarks for “Kris Jenner Skin” and “Kris Jenner Beauty,” according to documents from the US Patent and Trademark Office. The […]
One year ago this week, the last “normal” New York Fashion Week just wrapped. For five days, overtired designers showed their collections in front of cramped audiences. Those who scored front row invitations were practically sitting in each other’s laps. There were no masks or travel restrictions; people flew from across the world to be there. The biggest drama of the week seems fairly quaint now: […]
On January 31, Ashley Ancog dropped her daughter, Kytana, off at the Honolulu home of the 18-month-old’s father, Travis Rodrigues. Kytana has not been seen since. This weekend, police found and arrested Rodrigues on suspicion of second-degree murder. The news comes after two weeks of searching for Kytana and her father, according to Hawaii News Now. Scott M. Carter, who is 48, was also arrested on […]
Jason Wu Once again, New York Fashion Week—er, the newly renamed “American Collections Calendar”—is a mostly digital affair, with one exception: the opener, aka Jason Wu’s fall show. The designer turned an empty SoHo pop up into a socially-distant farmers’ market to showcase his fall lineup. There were 30 models and around 25 guests, per WWD. One of them was Pose‘s Mj Rodriguez, who showed up […]
Years ago, before she learned how to sew, appeared on Project Runway, and founded her own fashion label, Kimberly Goldson used to work for a jewelry company with offices near Rockefeller Center. Sometimes during her lunch break, she would walk one block east to Saks Fifth Avenue. She couldn’t afford to buy anything—though every once in a while she would “spend a paycheck [she] wasn’t supposed […]
If you spent your weekend trying to escape our hellish reality by hiding under a comforter, screaming into a pillow, or seeing how many Girl Scout cookies you can fit into your mouth at once, brace yourself: Ivanka Trump loves her new oceanfront Miami life. Since the day her father left office, Ivanka has self-imposed a strict social media blackout. There are no planned “candid” shots […]
A former digital strategist for the Senate Republican Conference, who also worked for pro-life groups and designed social media ads for Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, has been charged with distributing child pornography. D.C. Metropolitan Police arrested Ruben A. Verastigui on Friday after an investigation revealed he allegedly “distributed, received, and possessed images of child pornography” between March 2020 and February 2021. Jared Holt, resident fellow at […]
Dante M. Taylor was raised to respect the police “100 percent.” That was what was expected of him as a kid growing up religious and conservative in Philadelphia, especially since his grandmother worked as a crossing guard. Civility was encouraged not just for decorum’s sake, but because it could very well save his life as a Black man. “We knew we needed to be mindful of […]
At six feet tall, with long brown hair and impressively direct eye contact, Lillian House is a commanding presence—even on a Zoom call. She recently spoke to The Daily Beast from the home she shares in Denver with her partner, Ryan. Her rescue dog, Hermie, lay on a small bed right behind her. House is one of a group of socialist organizers in Colorado gearing up […]
In Twilight, the young adult fantasy series written by Stephenie Meyer and later turned into a blockbuster film franchise starring Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, the main character—a tortured, mysterious vampire named Edward Cullen—was transformed into a monster while suffering from Spanish Influenza in 1918. So begins the saga of Edward (played by Pattinson). Ever since the first film came out in 2008, Twilight has been […]
After days of staying silent amid multiple accusations of sexual misconduct, fashion designer Alexander Wang has released a statement, denying all the allegations made against him. “Over the last few days, I have been on the receiving end of baseless and grotesquely false accusations,” Wang said. “These claims have been wrongfully amplified by social media accounts infamous for posting defamatory material from undisclosed and/or anonymous sources […]
Alexander Wang is declining to comment on accusations of sexual misconduct from multiple anonymous victims, WWD reports. Stories of the New York designer drugging and sexually harassing or assaulting male and trans models were first posted by the industry watchdog Instagram account @ShitModelMgmt. “Instead of letting these occurrences be swept under the rug, it is time to do something about this,” @ShitModelMgmt wrote in a caption. […]
All quarantine, I’ve been playing a fun game called, “Do I Want Bangs, or Is Nicole Kidman Gaslighting Me?” The swoopy, straight-from-the-roller disco 1970s curtain fringe is certainly having a moment on screens (see: The Flight Attendant). Microbangs that leave half the forehead exposed work to evoke a certain period (Beth Harmon in The Queen’s Gambit) or attitude (every girl on my Instagram feed who pulls […]
MAGA world has gone into total meltdown after the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed a bizarre Trump-endorsed lawsuit on Friday seeking to overturn the results of the presidential election. Many of the president’s staunchest supporters believed that the Supreme Court, with its Trump-appointed justices, would eventually come to the president’s rescue in his failing election fraud crusade. But, with their hopes crushed on Friday, “Stop the Steal” […]
Nothing bolsters the gender binary quite like holiday gift guide season. Since the dawn of consumer capitalism, department stores and designers have offered up ideas for “Him” (wallets, whiskey stones), and “Her” (purses, perfume samplers) with little room for fluidity. This year, Gucci shoppers were treated to a departure from the norm. When it comes to this year’s capsule, another category is offered: Them. New York-based […]
Two white women lip sync side-by-side on Tik Tok. Nearly everything in the shot is blue: their t-shirts, their coffee tumblers, their eyes, and the color of the text they have written over a TikTok video. The a capella opening of the pop song “Kings & Queens” by Ava Max plays, promising, “To all of the queens who are fighting alone, babe you’re not dancin’ on […]
In four years, the white pantsuit has become a wearable form of resistance against the Trump administration. Hillary Clinton wore one during a presidential debate. The Democratic women of Congress coordinated theirs for last year’s State of the Union. When Melania Trump put on hers in 2018, a spark ignited: had she chosen the Suffragette-aligning color to troll her husband? (Now, as she staunchly defends him […]
Ivanka Trump lives her life on Instagram; this year, her 7.2 million followers were privy to photos of her campaigning for her father. . .and also, for attention. In the lead-up to November 3, Ivanka(’s assistants) breathlessly posted pictures from barns in North Carolina, fields in Pennsylvania, and packed stages in Wisconsin. In her overcoats and pantsuits, she fashioned herself an avatar of inoffensive feminism, a […]
Vicki Fichter works as a dispatcher for Chicago Board Up Services, but lately she has also been asked to moonlight as a crystal ball. This week, around fifty businesses in the city have called requesting quotes for a disturbing scenario: they want to shutter storefronts ahead of election day. “Everyone asks me, what will the next couple of weeks bring? Will the unrest come next week?’” […]
Hours after Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows said the president is “not going to control” the coronavirus pandemic, Melania gave us a vision of Halloween that is equally unhinged. Let’s start with the good news, or what passes for it these days: Unlike last year’s White House Halloween party, it does not look as though there was any “Build the Wall” decor. So, the bare […]
Anna Wintour, the inimitable editor-in-chief of Vogue and ultimate fashion maven, might not be a bastion of relatability for the average person. But she has one thing in common with the rest of us: if recent reports are true, she’s a big Bill Nighy fan. According to the New York Post, Wintour split with her partner of over 20 years, the “telecom millionaire” Shelby Bryan (this […]
What is the color of ambition? Pink, if you ask Instagram. Specifically, ask the dozens of female celebrities and activists who have repped a shocking fuchsia suit by the clothing line Argent and they will let you know: “loud and proud” is the hue of this moment. Last week Argent launched its Election collection, which includes a $250 top and $150 trousers. (Both are currently backordered.) […]
Queen Elizabeth is no slouch at the whole keeping calm and carrying on thing, and that decidedly British spirit shines through her clothes. In her first public engagement since COVID isolation, the Queen stepped out in a positively delightful all-pink ensemble that has Fixed Everything. No, seriously. People really loved this look. “With a knack for picking just the right lipstick to lift the nation, Her […]
Amy Coney Barrett’s beet pink dress spoke before she did: it looked sensible, practical, and stoically feminine, an image she aims to project. It was a pretty dress, maybe even stylish by DC’s standards. A flat bow rested on her right shoulder, just underneath a string of pearls. The justice picked a very nice outfit for her first confirmation hearing. Too bad it was curated for […]
This year’s tedious “Is New York dead?” debate has a strong contender in Team No—Mary-Kate Olsen, fresh off her split from Olivier Sarkozy and a summer spent in the Hamptons, is back to her stomping grounds of Manhattan. Predictably, cameras have followed. According to an unnamed source quoted in Entertainment Weekly, “there is no shortage of things in [Mary-Kate’s] life that bring her joy” these days. […]
After apparently shooting his wife with a 12 gauge shotgun, Thomas Jarboe called 911 to explain what happened. “She has been abusing me, she is my caretaker, and is completely destroying me,” Jarboe said to the dispatcher, according to court documents first reported by KOMO News. “She hates all my kids, my kids all hate her.” The 75-year-old professor emeritus at the University of Washington said […]
Despite the fact that nearly everyone agrees that the first presidential debate was a disaster, Joe Biden still managed to come out of the night with a catchphrase. As Donald Trump spoke over him, Biden snapped, “Will you shut up, man?” It was both a retort and a plea. Now, it’s a t-shirt. In what felt like no time at all, the Vice President’s campaign mocked […]
After spending most of the first presidential debate shouting incoherently, Donald Trump finished it off with a crystal clear message. “I’m urging my supporters to go into the polls and watch very carefully,” he said, stoking fears of potentially violent election day interference. At home in Chicago, Kayleigh Glaza missed Trump’s comment at first. “There was so much yelling and other stuff happening,” she said. One […]
For years, executives at British retailer Fred Perry have tried to distance themselves from the Neo-fascists who love their clothes. Now, the brand has pulled one of the most recognizable Proud Boys uniforms from American stores. The same week that hundreds of Proud Boys marched in Portland, Fred Perry released a statement on its website announcing that the black and yellow-tipped polo shirt appropriated by members […]
We’re teetering on the brink of an unthinkable future. Our democracy hangs by a thread. “How are you doing?” feels like a useless greeting; everything is bad now. Americans are simultaneously fed up and burned out. We feel a fiery rage and debilitating grief. But hey: at least Katie Holmes is having a good time. The 41-year-old actress is, as the New York Post put it […]
Seven months ago, as most Americans began self-isolating to slow the spread of the coronavirus, many wondered what will this do to our mental health. Experts warned of psychological fallout; reports told of an increase in anxiety and depressive disorders. Social distancing restrictions have eased since then, or evaporated altogether. But the pandemic still rages, protesters take to the street most every night in major cities, […]
Kamala Harris did not step off of her private plane on her way to visiting the scene of a devastating California wildfire so much as she bounced. The Vice Presidential nominee did so in Timberland boots, drawing a wave of online cheers and boos, in what might be the first true sartorial scandal of the Biden/Harris campaign. On one side came the praise, heaped on by […]
When the coronavirus began ravaging New York City, Chenghui Zhang’s parents begged her to return to China. But Zhang, who is 25 and also goes by the adopted first name Helen, would not leave her adopted home of nearly seven years. “It was very scary, but I told them that it was better for me to not move for now,” Zhang told The Daily Beast on […]
I have never watched an episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians. I do not follow any of the five sisters on Instagram, where Kim, Kylie, Kendall, Kourtney, and Khloe have accrued over 550 million fans. I have never bought a product the sisters hawk online, not one box of Flat Tummy Tea or a tube of Kylie’s matte lipstick. Yet their influence is all around […]
The name of Joe Biden’s new designer merchandise line is “Believe in Better,” but the standard for campaign t-shirts is already abysmally low. Donald Trump’s reelection team sells “#BuildTheWall” tees and tops that quote Biden’s “You Ain’t Black” gaffe. Until recently, one could buy a “Baby Lives Matter” onesie for the low, low price of $18. (It has since been scrubbed from the site.) So Joe […]
As she was putting together her portfolio collection during her last year as a fashion student at Parsons School of Design, Najla A. Burt called her mother for help. She needed to come up with a name for her clothing line. “We had a conversation around why she should not make her label her name,” Cynthia Burt, Najla’s mother, recalled in an interview with The Daily […]
Gregory Marcinski is 43 and incarcerated at a federal prison in Otisville, New York. He has never met or touched his partner Eva, who lives nearly 4,000 miles away in Bavaria, Germany. But when Eva opens his letters and fingers the stationery she knows he’s held, too, the sensation feels “a bit like holding hands.” Marcinski has been in prison for almost 20 years, serving two […]
Sometimes, Kamala Harris wears pantsuits. Sometimes, Kamala Harris wears Converse. Sometimes, Kamala Harris wears pearls. And on Pride, Kamala Harris wears a bedazzled denim jacket. That’s not an excerpt from a sexist children’s book; it’s just an observation. Harris, the first woman of color to join a major party’s national ticket, owns a professional wardrobe fit for a longtime politician. Like most of her fellow male […]
Far-right militia, pro-Confederacy groups and anti-fascist counter-protestors faced off on Saturday in tense scenes at Stone Mountain, Georgia, home of the largest monument to the Confederacy. To prepare for the confrontation, park officials closed off entry to the giant rock carving of Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and Stonewall Jackson. The city suspended bus services and urged residents to avoid the city center entirely “out of […]
Since he was in elementary school summiting flagpoles, eating his lunch at the top of basketball hoops, and wriggling his way up the exposed seams of brick buildings, Kai Lightner has been a fearless climber. The 20-year-old professional from Fayetteville, North Carolina, has tackled some of the hardest routes in the world, ascending the formidable Era Vella in Margalef, Spain, when he was just 15. Still […]
For weeks I have attempted to enlist friends to come to the beach with me. Many have declined this invitation, not in the name of social distancing but for fear of another deadly threat lurking in the water: sharks. Visions of pointed grey fins cutting through waves have long been the stuff of summer nightmares, thanks to that forever-terrifying 1975 blockbuster, Jaws. This year in particular, […]
After months in isolation, British and European royal families have bravely emerged from their guarded estates to lift the spirits of their beleaguered countrymen one photo op at a time. In England, Kate Middleton has dyed her hair again; her honey-rooted strands and measured princess waves signal that she’s back to business. Queen Letizia of Spain, too, has embarked on a tour with her family, meant […]
This week, as federal agents assault peaceful protesters on the streets of Portland and the daily coronavirus death toll exceeded 1,000 Americans, one conservative pundit stood against the real enemy: a liberal woman with green hair. Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who is known for her joyful fashion choices, showed up to the Capitol on Tuesday in a dress with floral embroidery, a blue medical mask, and […]
Subjectively speaking, face masks are hot. The biggest trend of 2020 serves as a visual reminder that the wearer is civically minded, cares about their community, and isn’t some #Plandemic conspiracy theorist/truther. All attractive qualities. Maybe you do not agree with that subjective statement, but I think we can all get behind one objective fact: face masks are literally hot. It’s not quite breathable to stuff […]
InStyle magazine has a new cover star— Dr. Anthony Fauci. The Head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has spent most of this year serving as an avuncular figurehead for many Americans desperate for facts and dealing with a truth-adverse administration. In a special digital issue of InStyle, Dr. Fauci has been styled less as a kindly uncle and verges into all-out daddy […]
Out of the numerous scandals and secrets plaguing the royal family, one remains the most enduring, year after year: what is up with Kate Middleton’s hair? How does it stay so shiny? Who gave her the right to such great blowouts? Does she really change it up before each pregnancy to divert attention from a budding bump, per an infamous conspiracy theory? And this week, as […]
This week, the Supreme Court upheld Trump’s exceptions to the Affordable Care Act, which will allow universities and employers to deny insurers free birth control due to moral objections. The outcry from women’s rights advocates was swift. Many insisted that contraception is an imperative part of health care for women. On Twitter, former California congresswoman Katie Hill was quick to note that birth control does more […]
Fast fashion e-tailer Shein is best recognized for its cheap summer dresses, prolific clothing drops, YouTube videos, and now, a certain swastika necklace. On Thursday, @HereForTheTea2, an Instagram account which dutifully chronicles influencer drama, posted a screenshot from the brand’s website. It appeared to show a “Metal Swastika Pendant Necklace” available for the small price of $2.50. After the public call-out drew criticism on Instagram and […]
We all have those friends who continue to live their lives online, sharing their brunch and July 4th cookouts, ignoring the disastrous backdrop of a global pandemic and nationwide protests. Count Melania and Ivanka Trump among such social media showboats. Echoing Trump’s new strategy for handling the coronavirus crisis—“we need to live with it”—both women used the holiday weekend to parade some flashy clothing after months […]
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty The archetypical Karen has ruined countless cookouts and lemonade stands, and she’s made a mess of a few telltale accessories. Close your eyes and think of the kind of privileged woman who might call the cops on any slight, perceived inconvenience: spiky bob haircut, chunky highlights, oversized sunglasses from Nordstrom Rack propped upon her head to communicate a self-bestowed […]
Chelsey Drapeau, a hair stylist in Brooklyn, bought an avocado-printed dress for her first appointment since the New York shutdown began. “I was like, ‘What to wear?’” Drapeau told The Daily Beast. “The season has changed since I last worked [in March]. I went through my closet and got rid of stuff during COVID. So I got something new!” Hairstylists know much about the restorative power […]
Donald and Melania Trump may not sleep in the same bedroom, as has been reported time and time again, but Washington Post correspondent Mary Jordan reveals one thing the first lady shares with her husband: “modeling tips.” If the president looks disheveled and bloated in every photo and walks with a rickety gait, it is not for lack of Melania trying, Jordan writes in the new […]
United Skates, a 2019 documentary film highlighting the history of black roller skating rinks, opens with a shot that is all-too-prescient for this summer of Black Lives Matter demonstrations: police sirens. As black families, many of them with children, wait to enter a roller skating rink, they are monitored by officers. Even at a recreational space long associated with nostalgia and good clean fun, the cops […]
Another fashion brand reportedly preaching inclusion online has been called out for its allegedly real-life racist practices. Anthropologie, the retailer owned by Urban Outfitters known for its overly dainty selection of candles and cardigans, has been accused of profiling customers and not paying black content creators for their work. As first reported by the Instagram fashion watchdog account @DietPrada, Anthropologie’s June 1 Instagram post—a Maya Angelou […]
Jessica Mulroney, the Canadian stylist, Good Morning America correspondent, and close friend of Meghan Markle, has been fired from her Canadian TV gig after black influencer Sasha Exeter dubbed her an “Amy Cooper.” Equating Mulroney to the white woman who called the cops on a birdwatcher in Central Park last month, Exeter took to Instagram to tell a story of alleged online bullying at the hands […]
It sounds a full-time job, and then some. “Pretty much all my time is dedicated to this,” one of the reporters behind the NYC Protest Updates 2020 (@protest_nyc) Twitter account told The Daily Beast. “I wake up and open my laptop. If I’m on the streets that day, I eat and then fall asleep as soon as I get home. If I’m not, I’m on the […]
Beleaguered Americans long to return to their favorite restaurants and other non-essential neighborhood spots as soon as it is safe to do so. We are ready for late weekend mornings spent over a cup of diner coffee, or calendars booked again with familiar rituals like haircuts or color appointments. Something we might not be prepared for: the lines outside those businesses, which will undoubtedly have new […]
You might think of Tim Kaine as a fairly vanilla figure in national politics. He has bushy eyebrows, an “aw shucks” grin, and plenty of red and blue ties. He is non-threatening and mild-mannered with hobbies like “reading or jamming on the harmonica.” He was dubbed “America’s stepdad” during the 2016 election. You might imagine Tom Hanks playing him in an inevitable Hillary Clinton biopic. But […]
Mario Tama/Getty For the past two months, Katie Holliday has been cooped up alone in her Brooklyn apartment thinking longingly about an unlikely erogenous zone: the lower half of a stranger’s face. “I remember joking to my friend before all of this started, ‘Imagine if someone’s face becomes their most coveted body part?’” Holliday, who is 31, told The Daily Beast. “‘When someone removes their mask, […]