Alaina Demopoulos

Of all the return-to-normal rituals, not many felt as frivolous as award season’s comeback. After a debilitating 2020, did we really need to watch rich, beautiful people dress up? The answer surprised us. After we saw Lil Nas X in slinky, glittering Versace at the Met Gala, or Harry Styles in a Gucci feather boa, or just about anything the stylist Law Roach put Anya Taylor-Joy in, the answer was a resounding, if unexpected, “we missed this!” Lil Nas X surveys his red carpet kingdom at the Met Gala in a Versace robe. DIMITRIOS.KAMBOURIS@GETTYIMAGES.COM Harry Styles performs in Gucci at the […]

There are many things I would ask a young woman planning on attending the pro-Trump, creepily titled “AmericaFest,” which will be thrown by Turning Point USA this weekend. First off, why would you willingly put yourself in a room with Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager who killed two people and injured a third at a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and is now considered a conservative hero? And what does America have to celebrate during a week that’s seen an ominous boom in Omicron diagnoses, plus the somber marking of 800,000 dead from COVID? And if this conference is indeed, “the largest celebration […]

Most of us will admit to a few “nice things” about the pandemic. Life slowed down a bit. We walked more or spent less. We could take lunchtime showers—or even naps—and our bosses were none the wiser. New Yorkers enjoyed a particular perk: the cancellation of SantaCon, that dreaded yearly bar crawl where some 30,000 drunk Santas (mostly belonging to the bridge and tunnel crowd) descend on our city to black out, start fights, and pee anywhere but in toilets. The event, like so many others, was nixed last year, disappointing few of us. But a sign placed on subways earlier […]

Alessandro Cardoso, a 22-year-old makeup artist from Miami with over 840,000 followers on TikTok, has “a lot of feelings” about people who copy his work on the app without credit. One would imagine those feelings are not exactly positive. But that’s not actually the case. “It’s a copycat app,” Cardoso said, shrugging off the idea that he needs to be credited for every trend. “It wouldn’t be fun—it would almost feel like homework finding someone who made the biggest trend since everyone is doing it. It’s impossible to always be crediting someone, to make sure everyone’s getting their flowers, when people […]

Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour remembered the fashion designer Virgil Abloh, who passed away on Sunday after a private fight with cancer aged 41, by sharing one of her favorite memories of the Off-White designer and Louis Vuitton men’s artistic director. “There will be many tributes to Virgil Abloh’s design genius, but I would like to share a more personal memory of a wonderful colleague, humanitarian and friend,” Wintour wrote in a statement send to The Daily Beast. “Some years ago I heard about the French soccer team Melting Passes, whose players were all immigrants. The team had just won the FSGT […]

It’s that time of year again: the annual White House Christmas decorations reveal. What should have been a blip on the White House social calendar became an all-out culture war during the Trump administration when the then-first lady trussed up her home’s hallways with infamous blood-red trees in 2018 and got caught in a secret recording last year asking “Who gives a fuck about Christmas stuff and decorations?” Jill Biden has opted for a much less Scrooge-ian route, using her first year in office to celebrate “Gifts From the Heart,” the official theme of holiday 2021. 1356191171 An ornament of a […]

It’s less than 30 days until Christmas and Daphne Woolsoncroft has too many holiday murders to fit her programming schedule. Woolsoncroft, who co-hosts the true crime podcast Going West with her partner Heath Merryman, likes to cover grisly cases set during the cheerful season. “We think of the holidays as this cozy time, and when something horrible happens, that makes [a case] more interesting,” Woolsoncroft told The Daily Beast. “It just hits harder, because it is this time of joy.” Last year, the podcast featured the tale of the Martin family, who disappeared in 1958 while shopping for a Christmas tree, […]

Catherine Dugoni is a planner. She doesn’t rush to make decisions. That’s why, even months after speaking with her family and friends about wanting to quit her dead-end marketing job, she had yet to put in her notice. But there was someone who could convince her to resign: her all-time favorite artist, Harry Styles. It all began when Dugoni got tickets for a Syles show at the Golden 1 Center in her hometown of Sacramento. As SFGate first reported, the 23 year-old UC Berkeley grad decided to “splurge” on spots in the pit, right by the stage. This was back in […]

Many of the 20th century’s titans of fashions had ties to the Nazis. Coco Chanel was an enthusiastic antisemite who infamously fell in love with German intelligence officer Hans Günther von Dincklage. Hugo Boss manufactured the Hitler Youth uniforms (the brand issued an apology for its involvement in the war nearly sixty years after it ended). The Vuitton family collaborated with the Nazis and maintained a decadent storefront in Vichy France. Now a newly rediscovered, and very unlikely, resistance hero is ready for her story to be told. Enter Catherine Dior, the kid sister of Christian, whose life and work in […]

“Let’s go Brandon” is not the sick burn Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) thinks it is. If someone wants to say “Fuck Joe Biden” (which is the “secret” meaning of the phrase) then they should come out and say it. Especially after the last presidency, where people were yelling “Fuck Donald Trump” at seemingly every opportunity (it even became the title of a popular hip-hop song), the impact of “Let’s go Brandon” fails to meet the hype its right-wing proponents want. Hearing someone say those three words sort of has the effect of a youth leader rewriting the words to a rap […]

Lacey is 37, lives in the Bible Belt, and speaks in a soft, lilting Southern accent. She has a warm smile and bouncy Kate Middleton waves. She could be the one nice mom backstage at a child’s beauty pageant, or the type of parent who always brings snacks to a JV soccer match. Lacey, who asked that her last name not be published, describes herself as “this sweet, innocent thing.” It’s how she hid her biggest secret for so long. Lacey swings with Dan, her husband of three years. They have sex with other single women (called “unicorns”) and couples, sometimes […]

Joan Marie Flaherty turned 21 in July, but before that the NYU theater student used a fake ID to get into bars around the city. There was just one problem in the waning days of her underage years: venues in the city began requiring proof of vaccination for entry. Flaherty’s vaccine card was real—she got the shot as soon as she became eligible—but her birthday on the document did not match her fake, which said she was a 25-year-old from Maine. “It was something I was always on edge about,” Flaherty told The Daily Beast. Once she and some friends, who […]

There are cool teens, and then there is Emma Raducanu. The 18 year-old is tennis’ new darling, having won the US Open women’s singles championship this summer. But her work doesn’t end off of the court—the champ has quickly become a rising fashion star, too, having walked the red carpet at the Met Gala and attended London Fashion Week parties. Raducanu declined to comment on her personal style to The Daily Beast, and so did her stylist Nicky Yates. She was a guest of Chanel at the Met Gala, wearing a white crop top and logomania skirt. The appearance came just […]

Before the pandemic, Kiri Anne Ryan Stewart worked as a graphic designer in an office where she was the only trans employee. Stewart, who uses she/they pronouns and also identifies as non-binary, had to learn how to dress to make her colleagues comfortable. “I was dressing and presenting myself in a way that was palatable to straight people,” Stewart, who is 35 and lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan, told The Daily Beast. “That wasn’t what I wanted to do, but it was what I had to do. I wanted to present in a way that made me feel good and signal […]

They distrust the media, rally against impeachment, and think the women are liars. But these are not Trump supporters—these are fans of Andrew Cuomo. The disgraced New York governor, who resigned last week after a state attorney general’s report alleged sexual harassment and misconduct in his office, became a COVID celebrity during the first half of the pandemic. Fans, many of them women, flocked to Facebook groups like the “Andrew Cuomo Fan Club” (40,000 members), “We Stand With Governor Andrew Cuomo” (1,000 members), and “Friends of Andrew M. Cuomo & People Who Support Him” (1,400 members). But as news of the […]

It was a sign of the times: after explaining away his sexual harassment as nothing more than a “generational” misunderstanding, a suited Andrew Cuomo strode into a helicopter leaving New York. Behind him, his 23-year-old daughter Michaela—wearing sneakers, with streaks of purple in her hair—placed a comforting hand on his back. The scene recalled the fallout of another political scandal: Chelsea Clinton holding both of her parents’ hands after her father announced his infidelity in 1998. A powerful man screwed up, and it’s up to his daughter, who’s around the same age as some of his accusers, to begin the healing […]

Melania Trump sure cares a lot about her rose garden. The former first lady took some time away from her busy post-FLOTUS schedule of going to the spa and eating lunch at Mar-a-Lago to “fire back” at NBC News presidential historian Michael Beschloss, who dared to criticize her (hired hands’) decorating skills. A quick recap: a little over a year ago, as the second wave of the pandemic ravaged the United States and protests against systemic racism and police brutality hit the streets globally, Melania Trump decided that what the world really needed was an updated rose garden. Specifically, she added […]

What do you eat when you’re stressed? Jennifer Aniston will go first: exactly one potato chip. Perhaps it’s unsurprising that the wellness-obsessed star, who seemingly lives off of Smartwater, almond butter, and good vibes, wouldn’t be a bastion of binge-eating relatability. But her latest pull quote, from September’s InStyle cover, is truly very “annoying,” even according to Aniston herself. When asked by editor-in-chief Laura Brown, “What do you eat if you’re stressed?”, Aniston didn’t opt for the normal answer like “a whole pepperoni pizza” or “an entire sleeve of Girl Scout thin mints.” Instead, she poetically said: “A chip. Crunch, crunch, […]

The Olympics may be underway in Tokyo, but another equally athletic event is taking place in Rome, Italy: the days-long wedding of Kitty Spencer (Princess Diana’s niece) to multimillionaire Michael Lewis. Though the event was technically held on Sunday, the event remains ongoing. As the Daily Mail put it, Spencer is “a society bride with stamina” who has bravely partied for four days straight. The ceremony was held at the Villa Aldobrandini in Frascati, outside Rome, a baroque home that dates back to the 17th century. It was the perfect venue for Spencer to show off her five—yes, five—wedding dresses, which […]

Common sense suggests it’s never a good idea to get back with an ex, but if you must, be like Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, locking lips on a yacht on the French Riviera, using your PDA as a thinly-veiled advertisement for J.Lo’s superhuman abs. The pair, affectionately known as Bennifer, have been together for months, but broke through the summer news doldrums to become Instagram official this weekend, which also happened to be J.Lo’s 52nd birthday. Affleck was later snapped rubbing J.Lo’s bum while she lounged on a yacht. It was a tableau reminiscent of a scene from J.Lo’s “Jenny […]

Republican Reps. Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene hoped the third time might be the charm for finding a California venue to host their “America First” rally tonight. They were wrong: the alternate spot they picked, the M3 Live Anaheim Event Center, canceled on Saturday afternoon, just hours before the event was scheduled to begin. This came after two separate venues, the Pacific Hills Banquet & Event Center in Laguna Hills and the Riverside Convention Center, canceled on the pair after protesters flooded the respective owners with complaints. In Riverside, city council members also chimed in to voice their concern, with […]

Ugandan weightlifter Julius Ssekitoleko failed to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics this week. Then, on Friday, he disappeared. A note has been discovered, CNN reports, written by the 20-year-old insisting he went missing on purpose and does not want to return to his home country because life there is too difficult. Ssekitoleko reportedly asked that his belongings be sent home to his wife. His whereabouts are still unknown, but CNN and local reports confirm Ssekitoleko bought a bullet train ticket to the city of Nagoya after last being seen early Friday morning near his hotel. Nagoya is just under two hours […]

Have you missed seeing rich, privileged people make a big deal about enjoying themselves on the French Riviera, while you stare at their antics through a smudged phone screen? Probably not, but the Cannes Film Festival has returned from its pandemic slumber anyway. And remarkably, the red carpet looks pretty much the same as it did before. Timothée Chalamet wore things! He held hands with Tilda Swinton on the red carpet! Supermodels swept through events wearing feathers and tulle—and in Bella Hadid’s case, a gold lung-shaped chest piece. After more than a year of Zoom award shows and at-home step and […]

I got my COVID vaccine because of, you know, COVID. But some young people need more convincing; youth vaccination rates are reportedly lagging behind the general population. So maybe 18 year-old pop star Olivia Rodrigo wearing vintage Chanel and white platform sandals can sway the yet-to-be-jabbed. “It’s worth a shot,” said some person on Joe Biden’s press team, probably. So, on Wednesday, a certifiable Cool Teen braved humid DC temps in plaid wool and bunion-inducing pumps to try and sway a bunch of people who should already know better. Rodrigo reportedly met with President Joe Biden and Dr. Anthony Fauci to […]

It is Paris Fashion Week, where the ultra-rich and influential bravely bury themselves in layers of tulle and watch haute couture parade down runways. But nearly 5,000 miles away, an even richer group of people are dressing up at the Sun Valley Mogul Conference. And for people whose extreme wealth represents America’s moral stain, they sure could pick better clothes. Let’s start with the obvious: there is a lot of Succession cosplay going on. It should not be surprising that a lot of power players are dressing like the fictional media scions in HBO’s hit show. The series’ costume design has […]

Jill Biden does not want to talk about fashion. It’s one of the few sticky moments in her recent Vogue profile: the writer Jonathan Van Meter asks about her style, and gets shut down immediately. Specifically, the First Lady “flashes a winning smile that says very clearly, ‘Let’s move on.’” Her communications director “looks uncomfortable,” but allows Vogue one small scoop. Biden doesn’t work with a stylist. “It’s all her,” she says. Biden seems uncomfortable when asked about the Instagram profile that documents her every outfit, @drjillbidenfashion. She rolls her eyes. She wasn’t aware of it. Pandemic-era austerity and a desire […]

Nothing reminds you of your own impermanence quite like watching Angelina Jolie’s children grow up. One moment it’s 2005, and Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are “Caught Together! On Vacation” (per Star magazine’s explosive cover line), with the actress cradling her infant son Maddox on a Kenyan beach. Next thing you know, it’s 2021, and Maddox is a grown adult, attending college, studying biochemistry, and executive producing a film with his mom. They grow up so fast. After a contentious divorce that has included domestic abuse allegations, Brangelina are no longer. Last month, a judge granted Pitt joint custody of their […]

Like a college freshman who just took an Intro to Gender Studies class, executives at Victoria’s Secret have finally learned about feminism. And they’re dying to let us know all about it. The lingerie company, for decades synonymous with its busty “Angels” wearing gravity defying push-up bras, has responded to years of compounding scandals with a marketing mea culpa. They are very sorry for all that “fantasy” talk, and for selling women underwear the way men wish to see it, all bombshell and softcore. They’ve ditched chief exec Les Wexner, infamous for his close personal and business relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. […]

Dissertations could be written about the life cycle of the infamous “I Really Don’t Care, Do U?” coat Melania Trump wore to visit undocumented children at the border in 2018. There was the initial, very warranted outrage and her team’s denial of any “hidden message” in the outfit. Then Donald Trump spoke of it being a shot at the “Fake News Media.” Later Melania would say it was directed at her “critics.” In the three years since, the slogan has been reappropriated as a liberal rallying cry. You can buy t-shirts and wine cups that declare: “I Really Do Care, Don’t […]

Until her son was born two years ago, Kym Chambers never thought she could wear all-white outfits. “I’m clumsy and make a mess of things,” she said. But during a postpartum shopping spree, Chambers stumbled upon a “really great white jumpsuit” that changed things. “After my son was born, I just started wearing white from head to toe,” Chambers, who lives in upstate New York and runs the online store Chambers Vintage, told The Daily Beast. “White is usually associated with virginity, but here I was with a child wearing virginal white. I really loved it; I embraced it.” It’s not […]

I realized why I hated Zoom parties at the last one I ever attended, around this time last year. Sure, the medium helped us feel connected, however tenuously, during the early days of the pandemic. But that night, as I pretended to stare at my friends (really just checking out my own face in the tiny box), I finally acknowledged what was missing: not enough gossip! I had long stopped caring about work-from-home domestic dramas. Someone walked into another person’s video call—big whoop. The juicier stories like who was breaking quarantine to go party didn’t make us feel good. Every single […]

Hillary Taymour, the designer behind the New York clothing label Collina Strada, spent the darkest days of the coronavirus pandemic making face masks. Every morning, she would walk her dog Powwow from her Brooklyn apartment over the Williamsburg bridge into Chinatown, where she has a studio. Anyone who bought her clothes received a free mask; people could also buy tie-dye ones. For each one sold, Taymour donated five to hospital workers. “Every person in the world needs a mask to go outside,” Taymour told The Daily Beast at the time. “Think about how much random demand I’m going to get with […]

Ta’Naja Barnes is a familiar name in Springfield, Illinois. The reason why is tragic. The 2 year-old child was killed by her mother, Twanka L. Davis, in February 2019, mere months after the Illinois Department of Family Services closed an investigation into reported abuse and neglect of the child. There’s even a reform law named after Ta’Naja, which requires more safety checks for a child to be returned to their family after foster care. Still, a civil suit filed this week alleges that the Springfield Police Department “desecrated and spilled out the ashes” of Ta’Naja while her father, Dartavius Barnes, begged […]

CNN finally fired Rick Santorum, nearly a month after the former Pennsylvania Senator made racist, pro-colonization comments about Native Americans at an event for young conservatives. The Huffington Post first reported this news. “We birthed a nation from nothing, I mean nothing was here,” Santorum said on April 26. “I mean, yes, we have Native Americans, but candidly, there isn’t much Native American culture in American culture.” His words were swiftly condemned by the National Congress of American Indians and Illuminative, a nonprofit that challenges harmful stereotypes of Indigenous peoples. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American to serve as […]

The pandemic has made me softer, I tell myself. I want to be kinder to people, and more empathetic. We’ve all shared the collective tragedy of the past 15 months. We’ve all felt loss. Now we are returning to a “normal” world, but we’re bruised and slightly broken. Why wouldn’t I show compassion to everyone I see? I think this as I leave my apartment on May 19, the day of New York’s grand reopening. Then I step on the sidewalk. Almost immediately, a man mere feet away leans over and hocks a loogie, right in front of me. Another woman […]

Jeriana San Juan is not sure how many costumes she made for Halston, Netflix’s new miniseries about the famed disco-era designer starring Ewan McGregor. “At least 1,200 pieces,” she said. “But no one really keeps track when you’re running around like a maniac all of the time.” San Juan, who is 40 and spoke on a Zoom interview from her “quarantine purchase” home in Rhinebeck, New York, only had about two months to prepare costumes for the series. No small feat. The show tracks the designer’s life from his beginnings as a Bergdorf Goodman milliner—whose first brush with fame was designing […]

Vaccinated Americans have been promised a summer of abandon, a once-in-a-lifetime bacchanalian return to partying, hedonism, and tongue kissing the first stranger in sight… or at least having the chance to see the lower half of their unmasked face. Though the pandemic is far from over—India’s devastating second wave reached its peak this week—its hold on the this country’s attention span certainly seems to have wavered. Whether its New York Mayor Bill de Blasio tearing into a Shake Shack hamburger on camera promising free fries to those who get their shot or Joe Biden ceremoniously addressing the press, face uncovered, the […]

After a year of virtual shows and trying to figure out the meaning of “phygital” events, New York Fashion Week is back to its pre-pandemic proportions come fall—and then some. IMG, which runs New York Fashion Week: The Shows announced on Wednesday new changes that will impact the event, which is set to run in-person at Spring Studios from September 8 to 12. A lot of money is at stake: as Leslie Russo, president of IMG’s fashion events and properties said at a press conference, NYFW generates around $900 million for the city every year when factoring in the tourism, local […]

I have been to Sephora twice during the pandemic, both in-and-out drive-bys to refill the one skincare product I still use after the coronavirus gutted my beauty routine. I no longer wear most makeup; if I want to feel fancy I might swipe on some old, crunchy mascara. What I definitely have not put on since March 10 of last year: lipstick. Why waste the stuff when my face is covered by a mask? But when the CDC announced that it would endorse easing up on outdoor face coverings for the vaccinated this week, I allowed myself to imagine a summer […]

Another sign that time has lost all meaning: the Oscars are this weekend. Remember the Academy Awards? It’s both an event and industrial complex—Hollywood honors its best and brightest for their work over a year, and in turn sponsors, fashion designers, and stylists get paid. The Oscars may have been pushed from the normal February slot to late April, but it appears the drama will not be dulled. Unlike the Golden Globes, SAGs, and Emmys, the Oscars will not be a virtual affair. The night will air live from Union Station, rather than its usual home, the 3,400-seat Dolby Theater. This […]

For a woman who voted against raising the federal minimum wage, leaving servers across the country underpaid, Kyrsten Sinema sure seems to love brunch. Or at least she appeared to be enjoying a carefree #SundayFunday this weekend, made evident by a post to her Instagram page. In the screenshot, Sinema sips from a bendy straw, her eyes looking off into the distance as if she just recognized a friend. She wears pink glasses and a raspberry newsboy cap that match her drink. Thick hoops containing pressed flowers dangled from her ears. But the focal point of the image, nearly dead center […]

The queen has a brooch for every occasion—even the funeral of her husband, Prince Philip. The queen’s mourning clothes, though a stark contrast to her usual pastel ensembles, came accented with a special accessory that paid homage to her partner of 73 years. According to Express, the queen wore her Richmond Brooch on Saturday. It’s one of the largest in her collection, the paper reported, and was a wedding present for her grandmother Queen Mary’s nuptials in 1893. Usually the Queen wears the pin, made of diamonds, with a hanging pear-shaped pearl drop. But that feature was removed for the funeral. […]

Last week Christine White, a 25-year-old motion designer who lives in Brooklyn, tried her luck with the walk-in vaccine line at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center. When the coronavirus ravaged the city last year, the hospital was an early epicenter of the pandemic. (One of its veteran nurses, Amy O’Sullivan, was picked as one of Time’s persons of year for 2020). But as access to the shot grows, Wyckoff Heights bustles with a brighter kind of energy. It was around 6:30 in the morning. While White waited her turn, she noticed a man who she calls “Cute Beanie Boy” queued up behind […]

Ivanka Trump broke her post-inaugural social media silence with some personal news: she’s vaccinated. The former presidential advisor announced via Instagram, Twitter, and a statement sent to the AP that she had received her first Pfizer jab. “Today, I got the shot!!! I hope that you do too! Thank you Nurse Torres!!!” Ivanka captioned a photo. In the snap, she wears a tie-dye face mask, white t-shirt and jeans while a nurse in pink scrubs administers the dose. Per the AP, Ivanka received the vaccine in her adopted home state of Florida, where she moved with Jared Kushner and her children […]

Rumors of a pandemic baby boom may have been exaggerated, but 2021 has given us something else: the model baby boom. For instance: Gigi Hadid and the singer Zayn Malik had a daughter, Khai, last September. Emily Ratajkowski welcomed her son Sylvester Apollo in March. And the world has a new Kushner: name and gender unknown, courtesy of Karlie Kloss and husband Joshua, the brother of Jared. These growing families all live in New York. Each one has become something of a paparazzi darling in the past few months. Check the tabloids any Monday morning, and you’re sure to see images […]

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 from Conservative voices. “Good God, she looks like Madonna’s grandmother,” the talk radio host Wayne Dupree tweeted, ignoring the fact that at 69, Biden is only seven years older than the Queen of Pop. “Jill, […]

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 to receive her shot. She says she wants to “celebrate” those who have done their part to stop the spread, but she still feels a sliver of envy, too. “I know that not every disability […]

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 tide and the dislodging efforts already underway would help to refloat the ship, NBC reported. He also apologized for the multi-billion dollar mess. “We apologize for blocking the traffic and causing the tremendous trouble and […]

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 began molesting her in 2009, when she was a 14-year-old middle school student. Arrest documents viewed by local news outlets say that Valle-Tejeda “groomed” the student and gave her “financial assistance.” She slept over the […]

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 ever since she moved to a shiny $3.2 million waterfront condo. These photo opps allow Ivanka to do her thing—look busy while accomplishing absolutely nothing. She jogs on the beach with Jared. She takes her […]

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, before miming how she’d stab an attacker, no hesitation. Since I was a teenager, my attempts to stay safe have looked like that cat keychain—sweet, creative, maybe a little frivolous. Read more at The Daily […]

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 @ShitModelMgmt, they were easy to deny. Nothing had been fact-checked yet. But after numerous exposés in The New York Times, The Cut, and The Guardian seemed to confirm the online chatter, it looks like Wang […]

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 Beast he “really considered Doug and Julie family” during his time with Mota. That ended abruptly when Sherman cut ties with the brand after it posted an anti-Black Lives Matter statement on Instagram last summer. […]

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 the rest of us, trends are born. While sweatpants—the mac and cheese, comfort food of fashion—came to represent the need for comfort amid a crumbling society, we need a new piece of clothing to represent […]

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 so-called momager of her five daughters has yet to comment on any potential brand. A representative for her company, Jenner Communications, Inc, did not respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment. However, she did […]

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: the presentations held that Sunday evening overlapped with the Oscars. Some editors had to choose which star-studded event to cover—the indignity of it all. Now, of course, the fashion world has been gutted by a […]

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 second-degree murder charges. Hawaii PD told KITV that “foul play” was involved in the disappearance of Kytana. Her body has still not been located. According to KITV, “An incident occurred in the time frame of […]

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 in a blue monochrome ensemble and bedazzled face mask. Unlike the audience, models did not wear masks, signaling an unsaid promise (or maybe jinx)—by the time these clothes hit stores in the fall, maybe we […]

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 to spend” on Miu Miu shoes. “I would just walk around and dream,” she told The Daily Beast over Zoom. Last month, the dream came to life, when Kimberly Goldson (the label) landed front-and-center in […]

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 of Jared and the kids, no tweets about “female empowerment” or whatever it was she did for the past four years other than gaslight and obfuscate her way into a government job. That kind of […]

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 the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, first reported Verastigui’s arrest on Twitter. Verastigui, who posted a photo of himself at the White House just two months ago, now works as a communications manager for […]

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 how we act, how we presented ourselves, and how we spoke,” Taylor, who is 41, told The Daily Beast. Even that didn’t always help. In the late 1990s, a bike cop frisked Taylor as he […]

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 for a lengthy and—as one of her co-accused puts it—“traumatic” legal battle, after peacefully protesting at the city of Aurora’s police station on July 3, using their own bodies to block 18 officers inside. Three […]

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 a success, raking in $3.3 billion at the box office and selling 120 million copies. In 2020, as another devastating pandemic relegates many of us congealed to our couches, the fictional Edward Cullen has enjoyed […]

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 with zero evidence or any fact checking whatsoever. Seeing these lies about me being perpetuated as truths has been infuriating. I have never engaged in the atrocious behavior described and would never conduct myself in […]

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. The post came after the model Owen Mooney posted a TikTok alleging that a “really famous fashion designer” groped him at a club in 2017. “I could not believe that he was doing this to […]

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 off the tough style, despite it all—I see you and respect you). But what about classic, straight-across bangs? Chalk it up to the fact that I came of age at the height of Anne Hathaway’s […]

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” protesters spilled into D.C. streets and some of the wackiest sycophants took to Twitter and alt right-friendly app Parler to call for civil war or secession—all because their guy lost. “If the Supreme Court can’t […]

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 fashion and culture commentator José Criales-Unzueta noticed Gucci’s addition during his annual research into the gifting trends of various fashion houses. This is the first time he has noticed a third option separate from men’s […]

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 your own.” The women raise their mugs, pantomime a toast, give an all-knowing nod to their sisterhood of followers. Welcome to #CopWife TikTok, a community on the video sharing app made by and for police […]

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 on Twitter, the answer is: probably no.) There is no easier or faster way to communicate a popular feminism than the white suit. So it made sense that Kamala Harris wore one to accept her […]

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 “woman who works” doing. . .something. (Just trust her!) But after ballot counting began and the shine of Ivanka’s Election Day began to wear off like gilded flakes on the elevator in her father’s tacky […]

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?’” Fichter told The Daily Beast. “I’m like, ‘Don’t ask me. I’m not going to be the judge of anything political.’” The week before Election Day, social media filled with images of major cities seemingly closed […]

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 minimum level of decency was met—no small feat in this administration. This year’s event, hosted by the first lady, appears to have a theme somewhere along the lines of pumpkin-spiced abyss. Donald and Melania Trump […]

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 breakup allegedly occurred some time ago). He’s back in Texas and she remains in New York. The last time they were photographed together was the 2018 U.S. Open, where they looked bored and rich together […]

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.) Some of the profits will benefit Supermajority, a women’s advocacy group. The brand, which has dressed Kamala Harris, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Hillary Clinton, enlisted celebs like Kerry Washington, Amy Sedaris, and Marisa Tomei to model […]