Royal christenings have always been a big deal in the royal family, and today’s ceremony featuring baby Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor was no different—except for how private new parents Meghan Markle and Prince Harry decided to keep the day. Luckily, despite the strict 25-guest limit on the intimate event, the royals decided to gift the public with two portraits from the Saturday (July 6) ceremony. Not only did we see Markle stunning in Dior for the occasion, we also got a glimpse at her sister-in-law, Kate Middleton, looking equally elegant for the event.
In the first photos released from Baby Archie’s christening, Middleton is seated on the far right of a royal family portrait in a bright outfit. She’s posing in a pink pussy-bow dress and a very Blair Waldorf-esque headband, finished with a pair of magenta heels.
Chris Allerton/SussexRoyal via Getty Images
It didn’t take long for royal fans to hunt down the designer of Middleton’s look. Who’s responsible? None other than Stella McCartney, a designer previously worn by both the Duchess of Cambridge and the Duchess of Sussex.
And it’s not the first time Middleton’s worn the dress: Dedicated style blog What Kate Wore pointed out that Kate chose the same look for the Queen’s Christmas lunch in December 2018. There was one key difference between the dress’s first appearance and its styling in the royal christening portrait: The first time around, Middleton didn’t style it with one of her now-favorite padded headbands.
Using stylish accessories to update a dress? Looks like the royals are relatable in one more way. Here’s the look in December:
At this year’s Golden Globes, the biggest story wasn’t who was snubbed or which celebrities were dressed the best. (Although we do have thoughts on that.) No, the night was all about Kelleth Cuthbert, the 30-something woman caught photobombing several celebrities on the red carpet while holding a tray of Fiji Water. If you’ve looked at any red carpet photos from the 2019 Golden Globes, you’ve definitely seen her:
PHOTO: Stefanie Keenan
Dubbed “Fiji Water Girl,” the memes quickly came flooding in about the mysterious woman with the excellent photobombing skills. “If Bradley Cooper doesn’t bring the Fiji girl out on stage to perform ‘Shallow’ with him I’m turning this show off,” one new fan wrote on Twitter. “FYI: I have already written 200 pages of the Fiji Water girl’s inner monologue tonight,” said another. A star truly was born.
The memes were fun, but we had questions. Mainly, how did this all come together? And what’s Cuthbert’s story? What does it feel like to reach sudden Internet fame just for standing there?
We were able to track down Cuthbert after the red carpet, once she was off the clock and had changed out of her signature blue dress (to match Fiji Water’s bottle cap color, of course) and into jeans. Turns out, she’s a model and actress in her early thirties, married, and from Toronto but currently living in Los Angeles. Cuthbert used to be a social worker in Canada, specializing in mental health and addictions counseling, while modeling on the side. She was going to apply for grad school, but the modeling work was going so well she decided to take a year off and fully commit to it. She never went back.
In the years since, she’s done commercials, PSAs, short films, and worked modeling gigs at other award shows, but this is by far the biggest exposure. Cuthbert tells Glamour she’s confused and overwhelmed by all the attention, though she thinks it’s hilarious. “I do love a good meme, so I think it’s incredibly ironic and funny that I’m one now,” she says. “The first meme of 2019, apparently! My husband is laughing very hard about all of this.”
“This is something I would go viral for,” she jokes. “I feel like I’ve been photobombing people since I was a kid.”
Cuthbert says it took a while for her to realize something was happening. “A couple people came up to me and were like, ‘FIJI’s going viral,’” she says, but she assumed it was about all of the women there for Fiji. “I thought maybe I’m in the background of a couple shots.”
But more and more strangers started coming up to her to tell her she had become A Thing. Others asked for selfies (no celebrities though, womp). Hours later, when she finally went on break, she looked at her phone and saw hundreds of texts and DMs from people. Her Instagram following the morning of the Globes was 53,000; now, it’s at 76,300 at press time. “One of my print agents tagged me in a meme of myself,” she says, with a laugh. “I called my mom on my break, and she was already laughing when she picked up the phone. My parents are not very hip to things going on, so the fact that they had already received this information says a lot about how viral it already went.”
When Cuthbert woke up that morning, she certainly didn’t expect Internet stardom. This was just a side gig in between modeling and acting. She did her own hair and makeup before the event, though, “I wish now that I hadn’t chosen to sleep in a little longer. I thought, ‘I don’t need to put that much effort into myself…no one’s really going to see me.'” Yeahhh, that didn’t happen.
Cuthbert says that the report her moves were calculated isn’t true. “I never said that. I just stand where I’m told, wherever there is an opening.” Cuthbert tells us she simply moved from spot to spot and passed out water as she tried to keep a neutral-but-pleasant face. “Everyone has their work or event persona,” she explains. “You try to look at least somewhat pleasant and not have too much resting bitch face. You have to look somewhat friendly and happy to be engaging with people.” She wasn’t trying to photobomb everyone, she says: “Sometimes you’re caught between a lot of cameras, so there’s a lot of photographers at different angles. You’re just kind of trapped sometimes. See that’s the thing: I feel like I was looking away, but sometimes I was looking so I could move out of the way.”
PHOTO: Stefanie Keenan
So what’s next for Cuthbert now that she’s a star? First up, processing it all. “I haven’t even had the time to sit down and think about what could come from this, but truly anything would be exciting. I would love to get an acting role. That would be amazing.” Before all of this happened, her goals were to get a theatrical agent to shift away from modeling. More doors might be open now, but Cuthbert is taking it in stride. “I definitely think I’m ready for [the fame], but such is the nature of the Internet that these things just go by in a flash,” she says. “No one will find this funny in a week. We’ll see! I think all of this stuff is very fleeting. I enjoy the craft of acting, but all the other stuff around it is just noise. It’s light and fun, and I think it’s meant to be taken that way. Not too seriously.”
That said, “I saw a good [meme] of me that said, ‘Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.'”
Ten years ago today, television changed forever when The CW first introduced audiences to Cecily von Ziegesar’s cast of Upper East Siders. Yes, the premiere of Gossip Girl officially happened a full decade ago—and though we often think about the Manhattan-centric (and occasionally, Brooklyn-based) plot lines, love triangles, and other OTT events that capped nearly every episode in its six-season run, we’re still reeling from some of the series’ instantly-iconic fashion moments. Blair Waldorf gained a preppy-cult following for her capes, coats, and signature headbands; Serena van der Woodsen took the opposite route in free-spirited dresses and tangly bohemian jewelry.
It didn’t take long for viewers to become obsessed with each character’s signature style. So many designers contributed pieces to the show that former Gossip Girl costume designer Eric Daman told Fashionista earlier * this year: “Blair never repeated a headband in six seasons, and Serena never wore the same pair of shoes or carried the same bag.” Now that’s commitment to the look—and in the pre-Instagram age, no less.
As with all fashion, some looks have aged better than others. (We can’t see ourselves marching down Fifth Avenue in rainbow-bright tights anytime soon—sorry, Blair and fellow Constance girls.) Even ten years later, though, some of the gala gowns and tricked-out school uniforms worn by this very privileged group of New York teens still feel fresh today. In honor of one of the most stylish of television anniversaries, check out 18 Gossip Girl outfits that would look as chic on the Met steps today as they did ten years ago. XOXO!
With the beloved Gossip Girl recently celebrating its 10-year anniversary, the Internet has been flooded with a constant stream of little-known tidbits about the show. But instead of harping upon the very fashionable past, why not look into a more diverse future?
Issa Rae, the creator and star of HBO’s breakout comedy Insecure is doing just that. She’d like nothing more than to see a Gossip Girl-type show aimed at a young black audience, pitching her idea to The New Yorker in a new video in connection with the magazine’s television issue. Unsurprisingly, the idea she has in mind is nothing short of fantastic.
“I would like to pitch you a new show about black teenagers. Think 90201 or Gossip Girl for black kids,” she explained. “Maybe we call it Ladera Heights 90041…. It could be Potomac, Maryland 20854. That’s the real shit.” She even has a few characters in mind—and boring archetypes need not apply. “My main character would be Lil’ Richie. He’s, you know, a young black rich teen. He’s tired of the access and the excess,” Issa continued. “I’m Lil’ Richie, I’m so tired of being rich, there’s more to me than this. I just created a song. That’s the theme song. I would definitely have a ho character who’s always on her ho shit. Just thirsty. No goodie-goodies over here. Not in this show. Nobody was watching 90210 for Tori Spelling.”
But most importantly, Issa says the sheer lack of teen and young-adult programming aimed at a black audience is what’s encouraging her to pursue her pitch. “I don’t think since, I would say, Moesha have we followed the lives of black teens,” she concluded. “So, like, where’s our Gossip Girl? This Gossip Girl is black, bitch…. That’s the tagline!”
