Month: July 2020

Style
21 Jul 2020

Princess Beatrice Marries in Vintage

Princess Beatrice may not have gotten the media treatment Meghan Markle did for her wedding day, but she showed us why she deserves just as much attention. Over the weekend, Princess Beatrice married Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi in an intimate ceremony at The Royal Chapel of All Saints in Windsor. Wearing a vintage dress that once belonged to the Queen, Princess Beatrice was radiant. The tiara, beaded detailing and puff sleeves prove that vintage is, and always will be, timeless. The gown, made by Norman Hartnell, was worn by the queen on two occasions. Making its first appearance in 1961, the Queen chose this piece for a state dinner in Rome. The gown made its second showing at the premiere of “Lawrence of Arabia” the following year in 1962.

Similar to Meghan Markle, Princess Beatrice also “borrowed” her tiara from the Queen as well. Here’s a photo of the Queen wearing that same exact dress back in 1962. Princess Beatrice clearly made some alterations to the dress, but we can tell that it’s still the same foundation. We love the modern enhancements she took with it!

[Source]

Style
21 Jul 2020

adidas UltraBOOST in Pink Tint

I’m predicting by the end of the year we’ll have another pair of UltraBOOSTS in our possession, but the real question remains. Which pair is it going to be? In this latest eco-friendly sneaker, adidas uses yarn that was created in a collaboration with [Parley for the Oceans] – a non-profit bringing awareness to the fragility of the ocean. This UltraBoost is now available on the adidas website and retailing for $180 in “Pink Tint/Cloud White.” While we’ve been looking for a very classic and clean white, I love this off white. The pink is subtle, but it does add something and is the perfect every day sneaker.

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Design
20 Jul 2020

OffLimits Cereal

These aren’t like any other cereal boxes I’ve ever seen. I initially thought they were being used as props for another article piece, but they are the real deal. OffLimits is a new brand of cereal with flavors that you may have never imagined could be a part of your breakfast routine. If the packaging wasn’t enough to suck you in, the ingredients might. Arriving in just two flavors, Dash is made with Intelligentsia coffee and cacao. Zombie, on the other hand, is vanilla, pandan, and ashwagandha. Dash and Zombie may be interesting names for cereal, but they also happen to be the names of the respective characters on their box. Fun fact: Dash also happens to be the first female cereal character in existence.

For more on how this brand came to be, you can read this interview with the creator Emily Miller [here].

Design
20 Jul 2020

Zen Work Pods

While we’ve been in quarantine, I’ve been fortunate to not have to share both my work and living space with someone else. It makes video meetings and calls externally a breeze. However, I know friends of mine who can’t say the same. They struggle with noises that they can’t control and roommates that feel like they’re all on top of each other. [Autonomous] has created these new functional and very minimalistic zen work pods that are quite pleasing to the eye, but come at a steep price. These mobile work spaces give you the privacy you need and come with some basic office furniture like a desk and chair. The only caveat though is that you actually need to have the space for it and for those in the city, that might be hard to come by.

From the website, it looks like there are three different options with prices starting at $5,400.

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Life
19 Jul 2020

Sunday Check In

We were the ultimate couch potato this weekend and strangely enough, it was the first time in a long time. This was the first weekend where we stayed mostly off social – limited blog writing, story creating, and not trying to cram in as many TikToks. Instead, I felt pretty weightless. There’s not much that we can do in this climate, but on most weekends, I feel the need to overcompensate. On Saturday, I slept in, had breakfast and then promptly took a nap right after. That’s not a normal weekend day for us.

Since I’m an avid to-do-list maker, I tried to make up for that lapse in a Saturday by tackling as much as I could. Today, I was supposed to drop off two donation bags to Goodwill only to find out when I arrived that they don’t accept on Sundays. Nothing was falling into place, but at the same time I couldn’t be upset about it. The bright side was that I got to take a drive for a little bit, clear my head, and get some fresh air.

I’ve tried to avoid working on Sundays, but since I received extra time back from social, I got a head start on the week. Much of what I achieved this weekend feels out of order, but I’m ending it feeling like it wasn’t for nothing. Whether it was clearing my head space or getting ahead of the work week, time wasn’t wasted. It’s another thing off the list. As much as possible, I’m trying to find these little joys that I can appreciate at the moment. They range from having a soju cocktail in the evening to watching mindless series like Zac Efron’s latest travel sustainability show on Netflix.

Design
18 Jul 2020

Instagram to Release TikTok Competitor, Reels

While we await the fate of TikTok and whether or not it will get banned in the states, Instagram has announced the release of their TikTok competitor, Reels. Set to arrive in August, the feature will allow users to create short-form content that can be edited with a wide range of tools and set to music or audio. In addition to that, the reels feature will most likely be available on Facebook in the near future. The facebook reel download can be done by people using platforms similar to fdown.net on their phones or PCs. No one is really saying it’s the exact same thing as TikTok, but we all know it kind of is. Other countries such as Brazil, France, and Germany have already begun testing it.

Tiktok has become a great platform for those who want to showcase their talent, whether that be singing, dancing, acting, etc. they are able to do so whilst reaching people from across the globe. So it is no wonder that people have flocked to this area of social media and are doing what they can to engage with their audience as well as give them what they want. Social media can be hard to navigate around without the proper tools, that is why they will turn to social media managers as well as finding out where to buy TikTok followers to help them get noticed more so they can build on their brand and gain recognition.

Over the last few months, we’ve become huge fans of TikTok, but I’m also curious to see how Reels will compare. We know that TikTok also allows 60-second videos and that their “for you” page is iconic though we’ve still been given little information about Reels. We’ll soon be learning more in just a couple of weeks!

[Source]

Culture
17 Jul 2020

Aisha Dee Calls Out Her Series “The Bold Type”

As cheesy as it may seem, I am a sucker for television series that highlight strong female friendships. I’ve always been a girly girl, but a girl that knew how important it was to be surrounded by great girlfriends and strong women. When I watched the pilot of “The Bold Type,” I wasn’t yet convinced that this would be my show, but I came to love it. It even became a series that I recommended to other people in my network. Kat, Sutton, and Jane were career-driven, had strong beliefs in the world and love for each other.

Earlier this week, Aisha Dee, who portrays “Kat” on the series posted to her Instagram her thoughts on how Kat’s storyline was going in the season and her thoughts behind the scenes on the show. It’s clear that the show’s fourth season was missing the mark. I felt validated hearing Aisha’s words after the fact. The criticism is that Kat a woman of color and a bisexual was now “hooking up” with a conservative character named Ava who has a father that supported conversion therapy. Aisha nailed this one on the head in her post, “this is something Kat Edison would never do.”

As I watched this storyline play out this season, I was disappointed. If this was the director that the writers wanted to take then did I really know Kat Edison at all during this time? We know now that she didn’t agree with this. She opted to portray her character’s story honestly, but to me it wasn’t believable. Her post also mentions how the series missed the mark in several areas: including being without a BIPOC writer in the room for two seasons and without a stylist that knew how to work with her hair.

View this post on Instagram

for us ♥️

A post shared by Aisha Dee (@aishtray) on

Spoiler alert: after Aisha’s post, a change was made to the ending of the finale yesterday evening where Kat broke it off with Ava. It took guts for Aisha to do what she did, but I hope is that others will follow in her example. In order to spark change, you have to speak up about it. Upon writing this post, I read two other posts that I thought were well written following this story.

[Refinery29] [Vogue]