The post-holiday sales are a good time to start thinking about what in your current closet can be updated (or better yet, upgraded), what you don’t need more of, and what you wish was in there. If this process extended into the new year, fear not: A bunch of stores saved their best deals to kick off 2019, whether that means additional discounts on sale items or simply slashing the prices of current merchandise. & Other Stories, the Swedish retailer beloved by our very own American Duchess Meghan Markle, just announced its new year sale, which has over 1,000 items ranging in price from $4 (for a two-pack of socks, down from $7) to $396 (for an oversized leather moto jacket, down from $495). It’s also got all of your winter bases covered: outerwear, boots, warm trousers, cozy knits…the kind of purchases that can easily be justified at this point in time. Below, check out 18 of our favorites from & Other Stories’ excellent sale.
If Taylor Swift’s Instagram has taught us anything, it’s that the girl knows how to host a party. She’s stolen the show on the Fourth of July in past years thanks to her red-white-and-blue blowouts and hosted what looks like a bomb AMAs afterparty back in October—but now, it seems, she’s upped her party game to throwing truly great New Year’s Eve celebrations, too.
She and her squad offered fans a glimpse via Instagram at the creative way she rang in the New Year: Swift had friends like Blake Lively and Gigi Hadid come over dressed as their childhood superheroes. Lively went for her best Dorothy Gale gingham; Hadid gave us Mary Poppins realness; and Swift showed off an under-the-sea Little Mermaid getup, complete with a bright red wig and a shiny green tail. The party also featured Ms. Frizzle (remember the Magic School Bus series?), Frida Kahlo, Audrey Hepburn, and Cinderella.
“Mary Poppins, Audrey, Ariel, Ms. Frizzle, Cinderella, Gwen, Mr. Toad, Avril, Nancy Drew, Posh Spice, Rizzo, Frida Kahlo, Steve Irwin, Dorothy.. This new year we decided to dress up as our childhood heroes. Sending you all love and hope going into 2019,” Taylor wrote on Instagram. She posted several shots from the bash, including one of the guests in their getups and one of her sharing a drink with Ryan Reynolds.
Stylist Mimi Cuttrell also posted a picture of Hadid in her excellent Mary Poppins costume.
Swift closed out 2018 by dropping a concert special from her Reputation tour on Netflix. She released a trailer for the film earlier this month, writing on social media, “You made this tour so insanely fun for all of us on stage, and I’m really excited that we will have this memento of the memories we all made together this year.”
And it seems like a casual screening of the doc was in the party plans last night, too: Gigi Hadid posted an Instagram Story showing a brief, slightly blurry moment from the Netflix special.
All of this came after Taylor had a headline-making 2018: She spoke up politically and got active in Tennessee for the first time since critics began urging her not to stay silent in the wake of Donald Trump’s election. But she seemed to be kissing a long year goodbye with this party—and has hinted that she has plenty in store, including new music, in 2019.
The Notorious RBG—that’s Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, of course—sent the world into a panic spiral after fracturing three ribs last week. Luckily, the 85-year-old is reportedly back in action and working from home like the boss she is—and on Saturday, SNL decided to pay tribute to her tenacity, releasing an epic rap parody that celebrates all the reasons why she’s known as the Notorious RBG.
The skit features SNL cast members Pete Davidson and Chris Redd rapping about the judge to the tune of rapper Sheck Wes’ “Live Sheck Wes.” As they bust out rhymes about RBG’s career and accomplishments, cast member Kate McKinnon comes out and reprises her hilarious version of the Supreme Court icon.
“You know there’s only like one lady holding the whole damn thing together, right?” Davidson says at the beginning of the sketch.
“You think some broken ribs are gonna keep her down? Hell naw and hell naw,” Jedd adds before the diving into the rest of the song, which covers RBG’s work for women’s rights and stance against Trump.
“Tell Trump to stay out her way/Don’t fuck with my Roe v. Wade/ Supreme Court’s a boys club, she holds it down, no cares given/Who else got six movies about ’em who’s still livin’?” the rap goes before hitting a chorus of “Live Ginsburg, and I ride for Ginsburg.”
Meanwhile, McKinnon shows off her muscles—a nod to the epic workout routine Ginsburg revealed to Stephen Colbert—and even gives us a glimpse of a Brooklyn tattoo over her six-pack.
PHOTO: Steve Molina Contreras/NBC
There’s also some truly incredible break-dancing and a scene with McKinnon downing some barbecue (“Survived the Depression and Twitter attacks from Trump/Broken ribs can’t even stop her, boy she eats that shit for lunch!”).
PHOTO: Steve Molina Contreras/NBC
It’s a tribute fit for the baddest lady of the nation’s highest court, who has said that she plans on carrying out her appointment until she’s 90. Twitter has promised to protect her at all costs, and now SNL is backing her up—so it doesn’t sounds like we need to worry about the Notorious RBG going anywhere anytime soon.
The Big Bang Theory didn’t just go big for its final Halloween episode of the series, it went epic. From a Supreme Court justice to an ’80s cartoon character, the writers, actors, and costume department pulled out all the stops to propel the story forward while also paying homage to its iconic characters. Every costume was made in house in a matter of weeks; no easy feat when you’re talking about the Bill of Rights or a helicopter propeller. And the episode’s main story—Sheldon getting his feelings hurt when Howard dressed up as him for Halloween—was actually loosely based on a real-life event that happened to one of the writers. Given all the heavy lifting that went in to creating the episode, executive producer and showrunner Steve Holland gave Glamour.com the exclusive details on how it all came together.
PHOTO: Sonja Flemming
This episode was inspired by a real-life event. One of the series’ writers, Erik Kaplan, previously worked on Malcolm in the Middle, and one Halloween another writer dressed up as him. “I don’t think his feelings were hurt like Sheldon’s,” EP Steve Holland says. “But it was such a great jumping off point for a funny story that had real emotional repercussions for the characters. The thought of getting to see Simon Helberg do his Sheldon impression seemed really exciting, that led to the idea that Sheldon and Amy could get their revenge by dressing as Howard and Bernadette. The whole thing really started to take shape.”
Every costume in “The Imitation Perturbation” was custom made. Mary T. Quigley is Big Bang‘s costume designer; she and her team spent weeks creating each Halloween costume. “Working Inspector Gadget and U.S. Constitution costumes aren’t exactly things you can get off the shelf,” Holland jokes. “She did a ton of research, and we actually had long discussions about the Bill of Rights on the back of the Constitution costume. She had gone to the National Archives website to find what that looked like.” In fact, there were a lot of conversations about that image and if it was the proposed amendments or the ratified amendments. “That’s the level of attention—and pure nerdery—that went into everything.”
PHOTO: Michael Yarish
There’s a secret meaning behind Raj’s Kooth Bader Ginsburg costume. Perhaps one of the most timely costumes this season is Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who is the subject of her own documentary as well as an upcoming movie starring Felicity Jones. But Big Bang writers took it a step further and had Raj go by Kooth (from his last name, Koothrappali) Bader Ginsburg as a fun play on words. “It seemed very in character [for him]” Holland says. “Kooth Bader Ginsburg made us laugh.” The only thing the writers couldn’t decide on was whether to give Raj a bun or not. “In the end, since he was ‘Kooth’ Bader Ginsburg, we decided that he could go without a bun.” As for why the writers also wanted Raj’s new fiancé, Anu, to go as the Bill of Rights, Holland says they wanted them to have a couples costume to show that their relationship was progressing and were getting more comfortable with each other.
This surprising costume was the most time-consuming of all. From the outside looking in, Sheldon Cooper is a simple man. His daily wardrobe never veers far from a T-shirt over a long-sleeve thermal. So what could be that hard about dressing up as Sheldon? Turns out quite a bit. Holland says that having Simon Helberg dress up as Sheldon was the most time-consuming of all the costumes because of Sheldon’s matted, perfectly coiffed hair. “Simon had a blast dressed up as Sheldon, but he spent hours in the makeup chair because it was extremely time-consuming hiding his real hair under a bald cap and then laying Sheldon-hair on top of it.” And while Simon had easy access to Jim Parsons in case he needed any tips on how to play Sheldon, none was needed. “Simon is actually a really terrific impressionist,” Holland notes. “I love that his choice was not to do a straight mimic of Sheldon, but to exaggerate him to a caricature.”
PHOTO: Sonja Flemming
Here’s why Howard and Bernadette dressed up as Marry Poppins and Bert. “Howard and Bernadette are really playful together, so we wanted them to have something with a sense of whimsy and fun attached to it,” Holland says. “We wanted something that seemed appropriate for the characters and not random. And it seemed like Howard would love getting to do his best cockney—or worst cockney, as the case may be—accent.”
PHOTO: Michael Yarish
And why Sheldon and Amy were Doc Brown and Clara from Back to the Future III. Holland and the writing staff are huge fans of Back to the Future. (Hey, Michael J. Fox, now’s the time for a cameo!). But by coincidence, Holland and fellow EP Steve Molaro got to have lunch with Back to the Future director Robert Zemeckis after they wrote the script for this episode. “I tried not to gush,” Holland says, “but I was very excited to tell him that we were using Back to the Future in our Halloween episode.”
PHOTO: Sonja Flemming
Why dressing up as Inspector Gadget wasn’t as easy as it looked. The wardrobe department created that elaborate propeller that Leonard wore to play Inspector Gadget, but, according to Holland, it was “heavy and awkward.” That’s the because the blades were originally much longer, but it was “hard to walk around the set without hitting people.” It was also hard to balance, so the wardrobe team had to keep cutting them down until they found a length that worked.
PHOTO: Michael Yarish
The reason why Penny didn’t play Inspector Gadget’s niece, Penny. Die-hard I.G. fans know that Penny secretly does all of her uncle’s work during his missions, even though he (groan) takes all the credit for it after. So why didn’t Big Bang‘s Penny play her, which could have led to some interesting back and forth? “It’s funny, Johnny Galecki texted me when he got the script to ask why she wasn’t dressing as Penny from Inspector Gadget since they even share a name,” Holland says. “The truth is, when we were first writing it, she was Penny from Inspector Gadget, but since Penny is Inspector Gadget’s niece and Leonard and Penny were talking all about their first kiss, it started to cast a weird tone over the scene. So we changed it.” Good call.
PHOTO: Michael Yarish
The costume of all costumes: Mayim Bialik as Bernadette and Jim Parsons as Howard. I don’t know about you guys, but I could have watched an entire episode of Amy as Bernadette and Sheldon as Howard. Holland agrees. “Mayim looked so good as Bernadette! She actually had a really bad cold earlier in the week and was worried she wasn’t going to be able to get her voice up high enough to do Bernadette. Luckily she recovered over the weekend and was hilarious.”
After a show-stopping performance, four award wins that cinched her the record for the most decorated female artist in AMAs’ history, and urging fans to get out and vote on November 6, the “I Did Something Bad” singer capped off the evening with a massive after party alongside some of her best friends.
The guest list included Shawn Mendes, Jack Antonoff (who has collaborated with T. Swift on several albums), Hayley Kiyoko (who performed on Taylor’s Reputation tour) — as well as actor Ruby Rose and Taylor’s longtime hairstylist Riawna Capri. The Swift Squad took the opportunity to share some photos of the evening on Instagram, and needless to say you’ll be pretty disappointed your invites got lost in the mail.
Taylor herself also shared a carousel photo to the ‘gram of herself posing with some of her Reputation dancers, writing, “Getting to perform with people I love this much is a real mood.”
One of her dancers, Robert Green, also posted a photo from the evening along with a sweet tribute to the singer. “So…my #WCW obviously goes to @taylorswift! What a night!” he wrote. “Congrats on winning every single nomination at the AMA’s last night…and more importantly for being such a BOSS when it comes to standing up for what’s right. We need more fearlessness such as yours! It is always and honor working with you.”
It’s been quite some time since Taylor’s epic Fourth of July and birthday parties have graced our social media feeds, and it’s refreshing to see she and some of her squad back together. Even if the old Taylor is technically dead, it’s clear that her party planning skills most certainly are not.
As the first trailer for Dark Phoenix depicts, we have many reasons to be worried about Jean Gray (Sophie Turner) thanks to the aftermath of a mission gone wrong with the rest of her X-Men gang.
Serving as the catalyst for these superheroes, a routine rescue mission in space soon turns dangerous when a solar flair strikes Jean. For any other person, that would’ve meant death, but thanks to her extremely powerful mutant DNA, it means one thing and one thing only: unleashing within her an even more powerful mutant (the titular Dark Phoenix), one that wants to cause nothing but catastrophe and chaos, of course! It’s not ideal for this faithful team of do-gooders, but thanks to the help of her fellow X-Men — all your favorites, like a shape-shifting Jennifer Lawrence and a magnetic Michael Fassbender, are back — she might be able to squash away her second personality for good, much to the chagrin of Jessica Chastain’s new villain.
To better prepare for these dual roles, Turner rigorously studied multiple personality disorder and schizophrenia in the lead-up to filming. “So many scenes I have to go from broken-down Jean — that’s when she’s most susceptible to Phoenix infiltrating her — to this confident, arrogant, judgmental character within milliseconds,” she told EW earlier this year.
Watch the full trailer for yourself, below:
[embedded content]
Chastain, as the film’s antagonist, also noted the amusing inspiration for her character, who defies what we typically see in a superhero outing. “Simon [Kinberg, the director] and I were talking about the character and I said, ‘I keep thinking of the vet who tells you you need to put your dog down,’” she explained. “There’s something very clinical about it.”
