Leandra Medine's Blog, page 691

In Theme: Lord of the Dance

“All She Wants to Do is Dance,” sang Don Henley in his 1980s trench coat, and he was right. I do want to dance. Vicariously. This week in MR themes, I’m all about ballet.

Rent: Center Stage 

Are you sitting? Good, because this movie came out fourteen years ago, and no one could take that news on their feet. But it holds up — big time. For those of you who have never seen it (and never experienced true joy, I gather), Center Stage follows an innocent girl as she gets into the grueling world of New York City ballet. I don’t know about you, but that was the first sex scene that made me blush. To be honest, it still does. For the high brow alternative, there’s always Black Swan, but I’d rather indulge in some good old fashioned nostalgia.

Wear: Blush

[image error]
Turn on your JavaScript to view content

You might not be able to walk to the kitchen without tripping three times, but you can approximate the grace of a ballerina by stealing her color scheme. For a 10/10, wear nude ballet flats as well.

Watch:  City.Ballet

This AOL-produced web series about the New York City Ballet (now on season 2) is narrated by Sarah Jessica Parker. It’s nuts. Each episode is about six minutes of glory and drama. I highly recommend it. Let me know if you teared up because I totally didn’t, not at all.

Try: A ballet-inspired workout

[image error]
Turn on your JavaScript to view content

The NYC studio, Ballet Beautiful,  is frequented by more than one Victoria’s Secret model. Miranda Kerr and Lily Aldridge’s Instagram have more proof for the success of this method than I could ever write. Lucky for us, Mary Helen Bowers, professional ballerina and founder of the method, has several DVDs available for purchase. Please try one and tell me if you get longer and leaner. Requesting for a friend. Also, if you’re the kind of person who likes to match her wardrobe to her workout (no judgement) Net-A-Porter sells the Ballet Beautiful line of leotards and other dance related things.

Do: A Ballerina Bun

If you need a refresher on what this says about you, we have your back. Look like the kind of person whose apartment is a study in beautiful beiges with this really polished ‘do. If the rest of you looks picked-this-shirt-up-off-the-floor sloppy, your hair will counter that, and people will marvel at your put-togetherness.

Look: Little Shao’s Ballerina Photos 

The Paris-based photographer’s series of ballerinas posing in city streets isn’t new, but it’s worth revisiting. Grittiness and grace, FTW.

If you need me, I’ll be practicing my Pirouette.

The Mindy/Tamra Project Is Back

After a two-week World Series hiatus ending in a championship win by the San Francisco Giants, The Mindy Project returned back to its regularly scheduled programming just in time for hibernation season.

“I’m in a cab,” Mindy texts Danny, who is waiting all by his lonesome outside of a movie theater that looks like it’s set in not-Manhattan. This is a lie we know well, considering it’s the go-to text we send with our mouths hung open in mascara application concentration.

She’s late, he’s mad, and that’s the theme of this week’s couple fight.

Their episode-long argument is, like most couples’ tiffs, fairly boring as it doesn’t really effect us, but it did send an important plot line into motion: in a juvenile attempt to make Danny late for once, Mindy messes with his watch. Mid-run he realizes what she’s done, flips out, refuses to be late and runs into work like a sweaty, gym-clothed mess. Danny somehow still makes it on time, then celebrates with a vaguely psychotic victory dance which involves the same finger BB gun “pew pews!” that a 6-year-old does when he’s sitting in the back of station waging facing out towards the highway.

You know who catches him, right?

Doctor Cop.

Dr. Jean Fishman already thinks Danny’s unstable from the last episode, and this is the final straw. She sends him to counseling for his dang emotions, and the workshop is led by none other than Professor Snape/whatever that holistic witch doctor’s name is. We’re supposed to care about this because Danny gets to the root of why lateness annoys him (his father issues), but here’s why I/you/we/us care:

1) The random creepy dude in chic safari scrubs who was sentenced to said workshop for stealing blood. I love a good non sequitur sidebar.

2) Morgan’s there too because his “female boss is in love with him,” and also because he’s addicted to cookies.

Let’s wrap up what you don’t care about and get to the good stuff: Mindy spends the day running errands with Danny’s mom while he’s chatting feelings with True Blood and co. Turns out Danny’s mom is even worse about punctuality than Mindy, and suddenly Dr. Lahiri feels compassion for her boyfriend who’s had to deal with this his whole life. They make up at the end in a truce of understanding and miraculously, there’s only a hint at the foreplay that’s about to ensue.

The real hero of the episode is Tamra.

Wrong Tamra. This one:

Tamra sets Peter up on a blind date with her friend Abby. Long story short, Peter ditches Abby with a “baby emergency” excuse that he stole from a Hugh Grant movie (btw, where is Jeremy?) because he’s not attracted to her. Tamra gets mad and makes him apologize, facilitating more Tamra-time than we’ve had all season while resulting in such lines to Peter as:

“You need to go apologize to Abby tomorrow. She’ll be at the bookstore. What will you be doing? Eating pretzels off the floor? Yea, I saw it.”

And, “What do you think? Natalie Portman’s sitting in her castle like, ‘Oh, I wonder if there are any schlubs out there who wear a bathing suit as underwear?'”

To which Morgan added, “Natalie would throw up if she saw you.”

Peter listens to Tamra, goes to the bookstore to apologize (Abby writes historical romance novels; she was having a book signing that day) and gets a crush both on her book and also, Abby. He woos her by writing his own weird fan faction, which reminds me — have you submitted yours yet?

That’s all folk, see you next week.

Esther’s Picks: She Wore Blue Velvet Shoes and Cool Ass Socks

I call this look: “Wizard of Oz: A Wes Anderson Revival.” Because, really, how many women in the history of humanity have clicked their sparkly red heels together and gotten nowhere? I’d argue not that many. But these & Other Stories heels promise to take you Places with a capital P. Or to Bushwick at the very least.

The shoes were purchased on a whim last week from the & Other Stories’ recently-opened Soho outpost. They retail for $100 and because I have a thing for both Bobby Vinton and even, round numbers, I bought them. The red and blue sharpie lines encircling my ankles are actually sheer socks, which Nasty Gal purports, are having a moment.

When the two are combined, I look a little like Dorothy on LSD, which is never a bad thing. Here I am — ass down on a New York City sidewalk because I’d do bad things for good a GIF and pretty much anything for your HBO GO password — following the “Yellow Brick Road”:

Only it’s green and plastic. Again — LSD.

[image error]
Turn on your JavaScript to view content

And now, chew on this week’s Haiku, the type of poem that I purport is having a moment.

She wore blue velvet 

Not in Kansas anymore 

At least she has socks 

Cardigan Kids

Cardigans seemed pointless. The whole idea behind “regular” sweaters is that they’re the Betty Crocker cake mix of dressing: just add pants instead of water and you’re good to go. If you feel like it then you can add extra ingredients — a blouse, a jacket, a blazer — but a sweater is already one half of a finished outfit. No one’s ever worn a crew neck cashmere pullover and looked sloppy, or caused someone else to comment, “Rough day?” A sweater’s a safe bet, a sure thing. The thinking stops once your head’s through the neck and both arms are properly through their sleeve holes.

A cardigan, however, felt like work. A cardigan elicited the same kind of response that a teenager gives when asked to do something menial, like sweeping. A chore. It meant having to find a shirt — one that went with the second layer, and then a jacket that would fit over without getting all bunchy on the arms, and probably a scarf because with a cardigan, your chest is exposed. Oh the agony. Oh the extra steps. Oh the pain and the horror, and the planning.

Then one day something changed. Something that probably amounts to maturity and style trajectory at the hands of getting older and being exposed to different points of clothing views, like when Leandra predicted the return of cardigans, and the recent prevalence of fashion week photographers capturing dapper men in spliced-front knits. Maybe it had something to do with taking a look backwards to a different era of gentlemanly dressing — a time when our own grandfathers were looking up to their distinguished elders.

What really changed the game though, was when I saw this white shawl collared Everlane knit.

[image error]
Turn on your JavaScript to view content

Shawl collar cardigans are just tailored enough to pair well with button downs, minus the librarian look. They often have a little bit of weight to them; they’re substantial, and the thick ones can take the place of a jacket.

This opened the flood gates. Cardigans may not be a one stop shop if you consider they need under-pieces and a little bit more planning, but as a layering tool themselves, they’re gold.




[image error]
Turn on your JavaScript to view content

They also don’t come exclusively in navy or creme with a cut fit only for Diane Keaton. Not to sound like DK herself, but some cardigans can get pretty funky.




[image error]
Turn on your JavaScript to view content

Maybe Mr. Rogers had a point when he changed out of his sport coat and into a cardigan each day; perhaps he wasn’t one of those germophobes who hated outside elements being dragged around his home, as some of us five-year-olds may have speculated. Instead, Mr. Rogers was on to something. He knew style. His cardigans kept him just as put-together as his blazers — he was nothing if not notoriously pristine. But they were cozier. More casual. Like he could still appear on TV, but do it from his living

So what do you say? It’s November. Let’s wear cardigans. Be my neighbor.

If You’re Still Thinking About What to Buy For Fall, Consider AYR

Fall seems to initiate a flood of style resolutions that often begin with binding force but unfortunately snowball into a winter-fostered conundrum that leaves women with answers scattered all across New York City wondering: what should I wear? When I have found myself embroiled in this precise snafu, I have tried to relieve mysef by blaming it on the weather. It’s not my fault that the sleet won’t allow me to wear anything short of rubber shoes and certainly I can’t be held accountable for the dismal deluge of black cloaking my body, right?

Wrong.

And you know why?

Because fall, my friends, is a pressure valve. It is a breaking point and a compass and a fortune-telling stone setter that prepares you for the winter ahead. Buy black and rubber and you’ll see that what you wear is, uh, black and rubber. Think not about investment shopping and instead of pleasure shopping, at the hand of a retailer who has your wallet’s better interests in mind, and rest assured that you will find that there is a better way to cope with angry, depressing, boring winter clothing.

In a nod to approaching winter “in style” (I apologize for using this phraseology), why not look to Ayr, where the camel coats rattle like snakes in a desert, the silk wrap tops present the question of who really needs a sweater anyway, the shirts make you feel alive, and the denim majestically collaborates with the female fupa like a Kanye West, Kim Kardashian remix (or baby).

There is a 0% chance you won’t find at least one thing that microwaves your loins and then you can do you, I’ll do me, and we can reconvene in February to talk about how we have stuff to wear. Make sense?

Part 1 of 1 in partnership with Ayr; sunglasses from Asos, shoes by Valentino and hand bag by Mark Cross

Prada Will Let You Design Your Own Micro Soles

For the Spring/Summer of 2011, Miuccia Prada introduced a brogue like none that had walked before it.

Under the iconic wing tip would live a mille-feuille of support comprised of a thin layer of raffia and a double bed of orange and white foam Micro sole. For seasons past the shoe’s inception, the model would be made and remade until its unofficial induction into the Prada hall of fame. A totem of the brand’s identity and reliable investment for consumers cross-continent, the shoe would become the flatform that had heretofore inspired pseudo-protégés from neighboring houses, giving rest to the female calf while celebrating shin support.

And a definitive six seasons later, the Micro sole zealots of yore and today are being given an opportunity to tail0r-make their own shoe with a made-to-order project that alludes to a unique brand of trust one of fashion’s most important matriarchs seems to be instilling in her customers. It should be noted that the design process on the Micro sole doesn’t exactly provide a carte-blanche; though the shoe can be made in 32 different variations, that’s just it — sky is not the limit. But as it turns out, that’s a good thing.

While there is still substantial variety to choose from — shoe tops come in a range of two-tone and single colors that run a gamut from the brand’s indigenous tobacco to a more flamboyant mango as well gold, silver and several exotic skins, and the soles come in five different variations to compliment the respectively different shoe tops — it takes trying to construct the perfect pair of Prada brogues to realize that no one can do it quite the way Ms. Prada does.

Of course, there’s also the sense of triumph that comes with having decided on a combination. It almost feels like you’ve become an initiated member of a club called Prada, like with the mere inscription of your initials, embedded into the shoe, right next to the Prada logo, they’re vowing and you’re vowing that you’ll be in it for the long haul.

Prada’s Micro sole shoe project is at the shop’s Beverly Hills location and at Holt Renfrew Yorkdale in Canada this month. The program will move to the Miami Design District Prada location for the month of December.

Buyer’s Rejoice, Buyer’s Remorse

Rejoice! 

& Other Stories Loafers

I’ve always said that I’ll try anything once, blonde hair included, except preppy. Okay, I’ve never actually said that before, but I could have because I’ve lived by that maxim forever. I’ve worn kimonos, pastel fur, and flannel (which actually makes me feel more like a poser than either of the former items) but I’ve never worn a polo shirt or cable knit. Since joining team MR, I’ve purchased loafers and blazers galore. Perhaps it’s because my love for Fran Lebowitz has passed some sort of threshold and now I’m not only trying to copy her wit but also her style. Maybe I want everyone to know I’m employed. Maybe, just maybe Ralph Lauren Cape Cod My Little Pony Amelia with her shiny hair and tucked in shirts is rubbing off on me. Either way, I love these loafers. With high-waist jeans and a blazer they’re ‘90s mom off duty; with a mini skirt and crewneck sweater they’re school girl; with white socks and a leather jacket they become Michael Jackson-esque. Best of all, they make me feel pulled together.

Stamina In Motion Elliptical Trainer

What? Stop looking at me like that. This is the Laziest Girl’s workout. I can spend 2 hours reading old New Yorker articles (okay, and BuzzFeed) and when my frustrated boyfriend tries to get me to leave the house, I say, “Oh sorry, I’m almost done with my workout,” laugh at myself and all the llamas that do look totally stoned and continue on my merry way. On the real, I sit all day and when I get home, I unwind by continuing to sit. Now I feel less guilty about my sedentary lifestyle because I’m peddling (slowly, but that adds up over the course of a day) while sitting. I’m thinking about bringing it to the office but I know it would be stolen.

Remorse

Raw Chocolate Bar

If you like this stuff, I commend you. You are really committed to a healthy lifestyle and, no sarcasm, I envy you. This was the first chocolate bar I’ve ever purchased in my life that I did not finish, mainly because this doesn’t taste like chocolate. I know, I know, the truth is the crap I eat is what doesn’t taste like chocolate, because this is real chocolate, or whatever, but give me a Hershey bar any day. This chocolate bar was so traumatizing I’ve decided to include it in this roundup in place of a turtleneck mini-dress that was so small I looked like I was going as the sausage making process for Halloween.

I’ll be fine, I have my desk elliptical now.

Image shot by Michael Schwartz for Black Magazine

How Dangerous is Your Phone?

To go without a phone is paralyzing. You cannot cancel on someone five minutes prior to meeting, you cannot get lost, you cannot remind your contact list that you look the same as you did yesterday; you can’t wake up, get a date, use the bathroom or order food.

Honestly, it’s not surprising that the dinosaurs didn’t make it.

At the same time, these tiny vessels that contain our entire lives are arguably one of the most dangerous weapons we carry — not against one another, but against ourselves. Phones have the ability to turn on us in a split second; they are robots, after all. They don’t care about us.

The point here isn’t to make you doubt technology, though, but rather to encourage that you look at your “friend” in a new light. Much like those who think adopting a baby lion is a fun idea until the lion grows up and gets stung in the ass by a fat bee during a particularly hungry point in the day, phones can turn on you in a second. Snap your fingers once and Lil Jon appears. Snap them twice and your phone has just ruined your life.

Luckily, a test has been developed to determine exactly how dangerous your phone is, accompanied with strategies to disarm the ticking bomb.

1.  Shit Talking Meter

In your list of text messages, you’ll notice that there is a search option at the very top of the screen. One by one, type in all of your friends’ names, your bosses’ names, your siblings’ names, etc. This will pull up every text where you have mentioned them in some capacity. Consider how well you know yourself, who has made you mad within the last two years, who you think about when drinking and then, without even opening the conversation — just delete.

Other key words and phrases to S&D (search and delete): “no offense,” “honestly,” “the worst.”

2. Play Paste-Roulette

Open up a new text. Do not put a recipient unless you select yourself. Double check that you have selected yourself. Now double tap to paste. You might be thinking, But I haven’t copied anything yet! HAHAH. That’s what you think. Remember that time you copied an entire paragraph from your date’s LinkedIn two weeks ago? Exactly. Picture accidentally sending him or her that.

Save yourself now and become a frequent copier of the word “the.” Become compulsive about it, because accidentally sending someone the word “the” is always safe.

3. Browser Search History

Open your phone’s browser and you’ll see page after page ankle boots you’ve been considering. Clear. Clear. Clear. STOP. You’ve just landed on that time you searched, “Weird rash left butt check itchy doesn’t hurt nearest Chipotle.”

Clear your browsers twice a day.

4. Instagram Creep History

Open Instagram. Go to the user search bar. You will see a horrifying list of everyone you’ve stalked in the past day. This is fine and well until you forget, hang out with whoever you’ve been stalking, go to show them “this awesome account they just HAVE to follow,” and there it is: their name in your search bar.

Clear your Instagram after every search.

5. Scan for Screen Shots

Nudes are a terrifying thing to keep on your phone despite the fact that they remind you how fantastic your butt you looked last night for some reason. Arguably scarier than nudes, however, are screen shots of conversations that you have used as a tool to explain to your best friend the entire trajectory of your conversation with him. The chances of you accidentally texting said “him” this very conversation are far greater than someone finding a picture of your butt cheek among a deluge of selfies. If you’re going to screen shot, delete. It. Immediately.

This advice may sound paranoid, or crazy or obsessive. But dinosaurs may not actually have died from climate change. Someone found a prehistoric iPhone, saw that T-Rex had been googling Pterodactyl on the reg, told Pterodactyl, and poor T-Rex died of shame.

Now: how dangerous is yours?

On Our Faces: What We’re Currently Using

Amelia will tell you that she has a zero four-butt-cheeks tolerance policy, which is fine, but sometimes you just need to let your ass do what it wants to and multiply. I’ve accidentally slept in thongs before — the following morning is awkward. I feel violated and like I’ve flossed between the wrong cracks. So instead, I wear all-purpose, full-coverage, call-them-heavy-duty-if-you-need-to underwear. To avoid forgetting to change before bed, I tend not to take them off regardless of how tight my pants are.

Hmmm.

I forgot where this was going but think it had something to do with a consistency among facial products and underwear, which is that they are both changed so frequently. That would have likely parlayed into a segue about the current products the girls at Man Repeller are using, followed by the below list, which as fate and the dutiful team would have it is, uh, right below. I would have inserted a punchy line here, followed by “here’s what we’re using,” and…here’s what we’re using:

Sausage making, my friends.

Leandra:

1) Ilia Lip Conditioner in Bang Bang: Remember that time Charlotte turned me on to a green lipstick that turned my lips a charming shade of fuchsia? I just came into a red lipstick that kind of does the same thing. If I smear it across my lips two times, I look like Lou Doillon. If I only apply one coat, I look like myself eating a cherry ice pop. I haven’t applied more but I will — then I’ll report back.

2) Tata Harper Rejuvenating Serum: Half cream, half serum, this product smells like olive oil and I swear-to-blog makes my face look like a baby’s ass when I wake up in the morning. My pores feel tight, my soul feels right and all is well north of the neck.

3) Clean & Clear Continuous Control Acne Cleanser: It smells nice and dries out my face in a way that I like. Does that make sense?

4) Olay’s Brow Groomer: My caterpillars can get pretty unruly. This brow gel keeps them in check. Sometimes I use it on my lashes before applying mascara too, which I feel like does the same thing a lash curler would, though I also understand this is more than likely not true by any means.

5) MAC Fast Response Eye Cream: Because the bags under my eyes, though heirlooms and beloved, are not physical products I think I should aim to hold on to forever and this cream seems to understand where I am coming from with that sentiment.

[image error]
Turn on your JavaScript to view content

Amelia:

1) Somme A-Bomb Moisturizer: I use it day and night. The entire line evened out my skin, but this step is the one I really feel the most when I skip it, so I never do.

2) Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer, SPF 20: I put it on then forget that I put it on, which means I can lie truthfully when people ask if I’m wearing makeup, and I say no.

3) Benefit Posietint: I use it every day to add color to my lips and cheeks (regardless of whether or not I wear any other makeup) so that I don’t look dead.

4) MAC False Lashes Waterproof Mascara: I switch mascaras every time I run out these days because I keep wanting to try new ones, and then I get hooked. This is my current tube. I watched The Fault in Our Stars AND a Google commercial with this stuff on, and had zero black streaks down my face.

5) Chanel Hydra Beauty Lip Care: It’s kind of a splurge, as I’m pretty loyal to Palmer’s Cocoa Butter for purpose of lip-hydration — BUT, a friend gave it to me and it’s addicting, I think because I’ve paired down my routine so much, little things (like a completely clear balm that tastes a little bit sweet) feel really luxurious. I don’t let people borrow it.

[image error]
Turn on your JavaScript to view content

Charlotte:

1) Dior Lash Maximizer Pumping Serum: It makes a visible difference in the length of my lashes and my mascara goes on considerably less sticky and clumpy then it would without it.

2) Le Labo Perfume: I do not feel like myself unless I am wearing it. I wear a limited edition fragrance that is a collaboration they did with AnOther magazine a few years back. However I am also a huge fan of Bergamote 22 and Santal 26 (which I have a candle of).

3) Aveeno Ultra Calming Foaming Cleanser: My skin feels very dry and sensitive and this face wash is so light that it gently cleans without leaving any residual irritation.

4) Maybelline Fit Me Foundation Stick: I don’t wear foundation but I grabbed this at the drug store in a pinch because I thought it was concealer. I now use it as under-eye concealer and actually really like it because it is not shiny or sticky and is very lightweight.

5) Healthy Origins 100% Natural Coconut Oil: I alternate between whichever brands my local grocery carries and use it on my skin in the shower and it makes my skin feel great now that dry season is upon us. It also smells kind of like cookies so that’s cool.

[image error]
Turn on your JavaScript to view content

Kayla:

1) Anastasia DipBrow Pomade: Like a cream blush for your eyebrows. I’ve tried ‘em all: powder, gel, pencil, and this one is the best and easiest to use. I never wear any base makeup so having great eyebrows anchors my face

2) Benefit High Beam Highlighter: Looking awake is one of my goals. Faking cheekbones is another one.

3) Raw Coconut Oil: While paying for my groceries, I told the cashier she had the best skin I’ve ever seen. She recommended it. Also works as a deep conditioning treatment and is under $10.

4) Clinique Black Honey Eyeshadow: This shade looks good on a lot of people and is much easier than learning how to do a smokey eye. It reminds me of the Gucci red eye makeup from a few seasons ago that should not have looked as good as it did, but is much more wearable.

5) Bobbi Brown Art Stick in Harlow Red: Red lip + bold brow + bare face, good to go.

[image error]
Turn on your JavaScript to view content

Esther:

1) NIA 24 Skin Strengthening Moisturizer: It smells really fresh and gives a flushed tint to the skin immediately after application. It’s also available on da Amazon!

2) Bumble and Bumble Mending Masque: My ends tend to look really fried and dry. I slap this baby on once a week for five minutes and have really noticed a change in the texture of my hair

3) Smith’s Rosebud Salve: My best friend during winter’s dry months. It lasts forever and works wonders on chapped lips. I also rub it on my knuckles and elbows when they’re feeling dry.

4) Maybelline Great Lash Waterproof Mascara:  I hate spending money on mascara since I throw them out every other month. I’ve been using this one since I started wearing mascara; it’s inexpensive, widely available and good.

5) Dermalogica Special Cleansing Gel: It’s refreshing and cleansing without being to abrasive on the skin. I use it morning and night.

[image error]
Turn on your JavaScript to view content

Krista:

1) Josie Maran Argan Oil Cleanser: This has made my skin glow. It’s perfect to massage on right before the shower on dry skin, because I’m lazy and hate washing my face on its own.  It’s a miracle for my super sensitive skin too.

2) Bentonite Aztec Clay Mask: this starts to sting when it dries and makes my face look like I’ve just had a chemical peel, so it’s not a mask to do with friends. But my pores get so cleaned out and it gives me even more of a glow than the cleanser. Be warned: the apple cider vinegar also smells.

3) Eyeko Liquid Making Eyes Automatic Gel Eyeliner: So I may have all Eyeko products because of Alexa Chung, but they’re the best of each product that I’ve tried. The mascara makes my lashes longer and fuller and doesn’t make them fall out like other drugstore brands. The eyeliner stays on for days and the brow gel is miraculously the perfect color for my blonde brows. They are all perfect; I don’t want to pick just one to talk about.

4) Rodin Lip Balm: This makes my lips subtly pink and sparkly and moisturized. I use it only for special occasions because it’s so pricey, but totally worth it.

5) MAC Lipstick in Ruby Woo: Red matte lips are my obsession and this one takes the cake.

[image error]
Turn on your JavaScript to view content

What are you using?

Watch a Preview of “Girls,” and Hear Blood Orange Sing for Gap

While you’re super busy swearing off candy and alcohol forever, check out these links. (They’re kind of like candy, but at least you can’t eat them.)

Anticipate: GIRLS is coming back soon

This preview might tide you over until the premiere…or it will make you even more desperate for the new season.

Celebrate: BadGirl RiRi is back on the ‘ gram

It’s like she never left. [@BadGalRiRi]

Mourn: Taylor Swift has a new ex

And it’s Spotify. She removed all of her albums from the streaming site — the hardest part of break ups are getting your CDs back, right? Maybe she’ll write a good song about it. [Rolling Stone]

LOL: A new account to follow

… and make fun of. TinderNightmares is exactly what it sounds like. Maybe that guy who called you “bb doll” isn’t so bad?

 

Watch: Blood Orange for Gap

Not that one can ever get sick of stripes, but Dev Hynes makes them look better than usual, mostly because they’re lighting up, also because he’s singing near them while it rains confetti. [Paper Mag]