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Somsack Sikhounmuong Is Back—and He's Launching Affordable Womenswear at Alex Mill


If you shopped at Madewell between 2013 and 2015 or at sister company J.Crew between 2015 and 2017, you’ve appreciated the work of Somsack Sikhounmuong. The designer had a much-celebrated 16-year career at the company, serving as Madewell’s head of design before replacing Jenna Lyons as chief creative officer of J.Crew. But in September 2017, he left—and has mostly been out of the design spotlight since.

Though he did take some time to travel and not be the creative director of a major American fashion brand, Sikhounmuong has been working behind the scenes on an exciting new fashion project: the creative relaunch of Alex Mill, co-designed with the brand’s founder, Alex Drexler.

Alex Mill is a brand Sikhounmuong not only has a professional connection to—Alex Drexler, who cofounded it in 2012, is the son of former CEO and chairman of the J.Crew Group Mickey Drexler—but also shops at, personally. “I’d always appreciated the brand tenets, whether it was quality or [making] easy clothes for everybody,” Sikhounmuong says. He and the elder Drexler had kept in touch, even after both had left the company. (Drexler departed his position as CEO in 2017, before Sikhounmuong; earlier this year, he stepped down as chairman of the board, but remains an advisor for J.Crew Group.) “He called me up one day and asked if I’d be interested in meeting Alex of Alex Mill. I was like, Yeah, of course—I’d always been a huge fan of the brand, and I [thought I] probably should start looking for something soon,” Sikhounmuong remembers.

For his part, Alex Drexler was interested in Sikhounmuong’s background in women’s design—until now, Alex Mill has only offered menswear, but women have expressed interest in its pieces. It felt like a natural next step for the company, especially with Sikhounmuong on board. Alex Mill’s inaugural women’s collection, for spring 2019, offers “easy clothes, uncomplicated clothes—clothes that you look at and don’t have to think too much [about],” he says. Translation? Tons of pockets.

Courtesy of Alex Mill

Like its menswear, Alex Mill’s womenswear is made up of a laser-focused collection of pieces. “We were talking as a team [about how] people don’t really need more clothes—they just need the right clothes,” Sikhounmuong says. “It’s not five or six pairs of pants. You don’t need a lot to look good. You might just need these few pieces and every season you come back and collect a few more.” It’s a strategy he’s learned about and adopted since joining Alex Mill, and it’ll affect what you see with every coming season: “[Each collection] will be a buildup of the last season. It’s about taking things that we love and not abandoning them, but [rather] tweaking them. For spring, we have this short jacket; in the fall, you’ll see it in a new color and in denim. Sometimes we’ll look at something and [decide] we don’t tweak it—it’s okay to not have to change things every season, because it’s much simpler that way.”

Sikhounmuong’s time off after J.Crew has had an influence on how he approaches this collection too. “I remember thinking every single day how I loved how much time I had, and [thinking about] how to maintain that once I took a job,” he says. “The idea of these clothes is that, hopefully, they’ll save time—you don’t have to overthink what you’re going to wear, so you [can] do other things. You just get up, put it on, and don’t overthink it.”

Somsack Sikhounmuong Is Backand He's Launching Affordable Womenswear at Alex Mill
Courtesy of Alex Mill

In all of Sikhounmuong’s design work, his aim is to create pieces that are approachable and accessible. One of Alex Mill’s mottos is “uniforms for individuals”—the brand interprets “uniform” not as clothes that makes everyone look the same, but rather as outfits that simplify your life. Individuality comes in through small customizable elements incorporated into the design: pins that can be added or removed, hearts stitched between buttons on a blouse that can be revealed or hidden, ties on a trench coat that can be closed or left hanging. The pricing of the collection also aligns with that goal: Everything’s under $200, with most pieces between $35 and $175.

Fans of Sikhounmuong’s work will be happy to know that one of his signatures made it into his first Alex Mill collection. “It’s funny—every time I show this stuff to people, the shirts always come up,” he says. “I always love a great shirt, whether it’s vintage shirt or men’s or oversized.” The Alex Mill version of the classic button-down are pretty standard when it comes to the cut, but are set apart by “very subtle points of designs” (like the hearts between buttons) that bring an emotional element to them.

Somsack Sikhounmuong Is Backand He's Launching Affordable Womenswear at Alex Mill
Courtesy of Alex Mill

“These pieces are built to fold into your own existing closet—a lot of these pieces are ones that are going to be in there forever, hopefully,” he says. “I think so much of this stuff is meant to bring joy. I get that that phrase has sort of been played a lot, but honestly, it’s so true; there are so many things out there that are serious, whether it’s clothing or whatever, and it’s always nice to see something that just makes you smile. It’s just that emotional connection that makes you want to buy something or participate in the brand.”

Alex Mill’s Sikhounmuong-designed collection drops today on the brand’s website, as well as retailers like Nordstrom, Barneys New York, and Goop. Check out the full lookbook and product offering below.



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Miley Cyrus Took Liam Hemsworth's Last Name, and Even He's Surprised


Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth quietly tied the knot at a private ceremony back in December. And even though things are already official, Hemsworth has revealed that Cyrus took his last name, surprising everyone—including him.

Hemsworth stopped by Live With Kelly and Ryan this week and received a quick congrats on married life. When Kelly Ripa started to ask about Cyrus, he adorably cut in and corrected her name, saying it’s “Miley Ray Hemsworth now, actually.” Immediately, the hosts leaned in for more answers and asked if the star had changed her name.

“She’ll still be obviously known as Miley Cyrus, but she did,” Hemsworth confirmed. “She took my name, which was great. I think that was honestly one of the best things about it. I didn’t ask her to take my name, and then she’s like, ‘No, of course I’ll take your name.’ And I’m like, ‘That’s awesome. That’s really good. Thank you.’”

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Hemsworth shared that it’s become more normal to refer to Cyrus as his wife, saying that “it’s only been a month and a half or something, but the first couple of weeks was really fun to be wife and husband.” He also revealed that he has her in his phone as “Wife.”

That energy seems to be carrying over into public appearances as well. When Hemsworth received an award at the G’Day USA Gala last month, he was quick to call out his “beautiful wife” in his speech. Miley’s reaction, of course, was priceless.

On Live With Kelly and Ryan, Hemsworth also provided a few details about how they approached their intimate wedding in Nashville. The couple, who has been together on-and-off for about 10 years, made sure the celebration felt sweet and straightforward.

“We never wanted to do anything too extravagant or big… We find the whole thing kind of embarrassing. We know how we feel about each other, but we just wanted to do something simple and organic, just basically with immediate family. But it was a really nice day,” he said.

Since the big day, the newlyweds have piled on the PDA. On Hemsworth’s birthday, Cyrus wrote him a heartfelt public letter, and the two shared pictures of a lovely snowy vacation they took just after they tied the knot.

For now, the two are happy to keep things just the way they are—Cyrus recently clapped back on pregnancy rumors and cheerfully let everyone they’re simply excited for their new chapter together.



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Ted Bundy Is Not Hot. He's a Serial Killer.


Ted Bundy, a serial killer, has somehow (from the grave!) landed himself a buzzy four-hour special, as well as his own full-length movie. Both will be on Netflix, offering different views of the same story: Conversations With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, available for streaming now, centers on what an evil genius Bundy was. The movie, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile, isn’t out yet but will reportedly focus on his life with his partner Liz Kloepfer.

And thanks to the timing of both, Bundy is trending right now. If you google his name, though, you’ll notice the conversations about him are largely centered on women. Not his victims—as it should be—but on the people, past and present, who think he’s so hot.

Why is this the thing about Bundy we’re all talking about? And does anyone actually know one of these women? (I sure haven’t met any.) Apparently, it’s so common that Netflix had to remind us there are plenty of non-rape-y fish in the sea:

Thanks for the warning, but I want to believe that the majority of women don’t fancy guys who confess to brutally raping and murdering 30 women.

And so I’m calling bullshit on this whole “women want to sleep with a serial killer!” narrative, real or fictitious. This includes Netflix’s You, which has also reportedly seen a rise of women swooning over its murderous lead character.

Some women may have tweeted about their questionable attraction to Ted Bundy or Joe Goldberg, but there’s a bigger problem at play here: Hollywood’s relentless pursuit to explain, humanize, fetishize, and even glorify white men who like to hurt people—particularly women.

It’s not that I think stories involving murder or crime shouldn’t be told—though I am personally sick of seeing women stuffed into refrigerators or tortured by Quentin Tarantino. My issue is that men are still doing most of the telling, whether it be directing, writing, financing, or green-lighting the movies and series the world then consumes.

Matthew Bright, for example, is the person behind both Bundy projects. Considering how Bundy’s actions affected women, it would have been nice to see at least one be a female director’s take instead of a guy’s (the same one!). Maybe a woman would have handled the Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile trailer more thoughtfully, rather than cutting it with Zac Efron’s flirty smiles and winks over a “fun” soundtrack.

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In a recent interview, Bright said the criticism that he’s glorifying Bundy is a “naive and knee-jerk reaction.” To him, the backlash about the trailer is unfair because most people haven’t seen the movie yet. “I think telling filmmakers any subject is off limits is a very slippery slope that leads us to Trump declaring that the media is ‘fake news.’”

No one is saying he can’t tell Bundy’s story, but given the way he told the same story for the Netflix series, which is available, I’m not holding my breath that his film version is more thoughtful to Bundy’s victims. Bright could have chosen from a number of fascinating angles for Conversations With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, but the one he went with? A deep dive into how hot, smart, and “normal” everyone thought Bundy was.

The series interviews a few women, but it also gives a lot of attention to the women who supported Bundy, from his fans in the courtroom to the woman who accepted his marriage proposal during his murder trial, had his child, and even smuggled drugs for him while he was in prison. The rest of the story is told by men who go on and on about how clever and handsome this boy next door was. “He’s one of us,” one says. Another compares Bundy’s need to torture women to a child who’d been denied candy. Even the Mormon Church chimes in about his commitment to the church. To top if all off, we hear Bundy’s side of the story straight from the horse’s mouth.



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Melania Trump Responds to Kavanaugh Hearings: "I Think He's Highly Qualified"


Throughout the past two weeks, much of the country’s headlines have surrounded Judge Brett Kavanaugh as the Supreme Court nominee’s confirmation hearings have proceeded onward toward his final confirmation vote scheduled for this afternoon. On Thursday, September 27, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, a professor from Palo Alto University, testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee with an emotional, detailed account of a sexual assault, allegedly by Kavanaugh, in 1982. It’s an allegation that Kavanaugh has continuously, vehemently denied. Thus far, President Donald Trump has stood by his initial endorsement of Kavanaugh, taking to Twitter on the day of the Committee hearing to double down on his nomination.

Meanwhile, across the globe, First Lady Melania Trump has spent much of the past week on a solo international tour of Africa—her first since her husband took office—traveling to Ghana, Malawi, Kenya, and Egypt with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The White House has positioned this trip as an opportunity for the First Lady to learn more about “how the U.S. can play a role in providing assistance to help countries become self-sufficient” with a particular focus on “maternal and newborn care in hospitals [and] education for children.” While in Egypt on the tail end of her travels, Trump was asked by reporters if she agrees with her husband’s continued support of Supreme Court nominee Judge Kavanaugh.

“What I will say, if we’re talking about the Supreme Court and Judge Kavanaugh, I think he’s highly qualified for the Supreme Court,” she said. “I’m glad that Dr. Ford was heard; I’m glad that Judge Kavanaugh was heard. The FBI investigation was done, it’s completed, and [the] Senate voted.”

When pressed by the reporter as to whether she herself believed Dr. Ford’s allegations against Kavanaugh, the First Lady initially declined to answer but returned to the question with a general statement: “I think all the victims—we need to help all the victims, no matter what kind of abuse they had, but I am against any kind of abuse or violence.”

Watch the full video for yourself, here below:

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Trump's Executive Order Means He Won't Separate Families at the Border, but He's Still Detaining Children


After days of public outcry around the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy that allowed for the separation of immigrant children from their parents at the border, President Trump signed an executive order that ends that separation.

However, the “zero-tolerance” policy that created the recent crisis remains.

“We are keeping families together and this will solve that problem. At the same time we are keeping a very powerful border and it continues to be a zero tolerance, we have zero tolerance for people that enter our country illegally,” Trump told the White House pool reporters present in the Oval Office, per CBS News.

“I didn’t like sight or the feeling of families being separated,” Trump said.

The executive order notes that it is “the policy of this Administration to rigorously enforce our immigration laws” and that they will initiate proceedings to enforce laws about “improper entry.” But this section also allows for families to be held together during the prosecution process: “It is also the policy of this Administration to maintain family unity, including by detaining alien families together where appropriate and consistent with law and available resources.”

The order further stated, “It is unfortunate that Congress’s failure to act and court orders have put the Administration in the position of separating alien families to effectively enforce the law.”

It is important to note, that according to experts who spoke with Glamour, the separation policy is not a law. It was also up to Trump himself to make the call on ending the family separations.

Earlier today, the New York Times reported that sources close to the president said he believes his immigration policies are “appropriate and necessary,” but that he was frustrated by the criticism he’d been receiving.

Many news outlets report that there could be legal battles ahead for this order due to a 1997 consent decree from a federal court, called the Flores settlement, that says children can be detained for only 20 days, even if they are with their parents.

It is unclear at this time what will happen to the families that are currently separated and being held in detention facilities—or how long detained families can be held.

Trump spoke earlier this morning about the possibility of an executive order. “We’re meeting right now on immigration and we are very strong at the border, we’re very strong on security. We want security for our country,” he said at the White House. “The Republicans want security and insist on security for our country, and we will have that.”

ABC News reports that First Lady Melania Trump may have played a part in the president’s decision to sign the order. She has been pressuring her husband to end the child separation policy, according to a White House official. Their source also claims that Ivanka Trump has shown the president images of children in detention centers and urged him to end the policy.

As of Wednesday afternoon, she had not made any public statements on the issue, although she did tweet after the signing of the executive order.

We will update this story as new details around the policy and executive order emerge.

Related Stories:

Here Are the Facts About Trump’s ‘Zero Tolerance’ Immigration Policy

Here’s How to Help Immigrant Families Who Have Been Separated at the Border





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'The Big Bang Theory' Season 11 Episode 15 Recap: Sheldon Finally Realizes How Selfish He's Been


It only took 15 episodes into season 11 of The Big Bang Theory, but the Sheldon Cooper redemption tour is finally underway. This season Sheldon has been remarkably different from seasons 9 and 10 in terms of tone, behavior, and growth. For a character that’s already extreme in his ways, it’s been a bit jarring. That bewilderment has extended to his fiancé Amy Farrah Fowler as well, who has seemingly compromised any self respect by putting up with Sheldon’s insensitive and, frankly, sexist behavior this season.

Of course, these were never two characters known for their tact, so to expect them to parade around Pasadena (or their apartment) with the social graces of Prince William and Duchess Kate was never going to happen. But after all the growth that took place the last few seasons, I thought at the start of this season that Shamy was more than ready to enter into marriage and a life together…until that all fell apart.

But in tonight’s episode, “The Novelization Correlation,” Sheldon was forced to look hard at his behavior when Wil Wheaton’s version of the Professor Proton show debuts. For context, this was Sheldon’s favorite show growing up, and Professor Proton was his idol. When the series was rebooted, Sheldon wanted nothing more than to get the gig—but it went to Wheaton instead. Cue feelings of anger, disappointment, and disbelief. In Sheldon’s defense, who wouldn’t feel that way?

When Sheldon actually watches (OK, hate watches) the new version of Wheaton’s Proton, he surprisingly likes it—until Howard shows up on the show. When Sheldon asks Amy why Howard didn’t tell him he’d be making a guest appearance, Amy guesses that Howard was probably worried Sheldon would be a big baby about it. (Truth.) Later, Howard tells Sheldon he’s going to have to apologize to Wil if he wants to be on the show, and Sheldon obliges.

In a moment of actual sincerity, Sheldon—with a reluctant Howard in tow—shows up at Wheaton’s to say he’s sorry. Just when it seems his apology worked, Wil says he’d like Amy to come on the show because he’d like to feature more female scientists. Preach.

Of course, Sheldon is taken aback and tries to negotiate himself as part of a package deal with Amy, telling Wheaton that “wouldn’t it be nice to have us both on to show that female scientists can land a man?” (This is still Sheldon we’re talking about, after all.) Howard’s dumbfounded reaction perfectly summed up the correct response to such nonsense. And if Sheldon had any hope of getting on Wheaton’s show following his “apology,” this certainly drove the nail right through that coffin.

When Sheldon returns home and asks Amy if she wants to be on the new Professor Proton, Amy tells him she’s not really interested. “I’m all for promoting women in science,” she says, “But…I know you have strong feelings about Professor Proton, and I don’t want to get in the middle of that.”

There’s so much wrong with that statement—namely, the fact that Amy is going to bypass touting her own achievements (again!)—to spare Sheldon’s feelings. Not only would this be a great showcase for her, but, as Wheaton pointed out, it would draw attention to more female scientists. Season 9 or 10 Amy would never have thought twice. But just as I was about to give up with Sheldon and Amy, we had a breakthrough:

Sheldon: “So, you’re not going to do something because you think it might upset me?”

Amy: “It’s tricky, because answering that question honestly is one of the things I tend not to do because it upsets you.”

Sheldon: “Well, that’s very upsetting.”

Amy: “Like I said.”

Sheldon: “What other things don’t you do because of me?”

Amy: “Remember last week when we went to that dueling piano bar I was so excited about?”

Sheldon: “No.”

Amy: “Well, now you’re getting it.”

Later, Sheldon tells Howard and Raj that he’s upset Amy often doesn’t do things because she’s afraid of his reaction. Howard points out that it’s not sometimes, it’s “always.” Raj says it’s not just Amy that doesn’t do things because of Sheldon, it’s “everybody.” Howard adds that this is nothing new—everyone feels this way. Sheldon is shocked and questions if everyone walks on egg shells around him to spare his feelings. For the first time all season, it seems as though Sheldon finally has begun to understand the magnitude—and consequences—of his ways. “I don’t want my relationship with Amy to be like that. I can change,” he says. The guys doubt it, but Sheldon is determined to prove them otherwise.

PHOTO: Michael Yarish/Warner Bros. TV

After a childish game of chess at home that night (Sheldon’s doing, of course), he finally tells Amy he’s sorry. “I’m trying to show you I can change,” he says. “I don’t want you to miss out on things because of me. Maybe somewhere out there, there’s a little girl who will see you on Wil’s show and realize that she too can grow up to be a brilliant, amazing, successful scientist.” (Where has this Sheldon been hiding?!)

It’s not the most perfect apology—Sheldon naturally throws in some jabs about Amy’s chess game, because, well, he’s Sheldon—but it’s the most sincere words to come out of his mouth all season. It’s also proof that he doesn’t have to be a jackass to create story. I’d much rather watch this Sheldon than whoever was spoon-fed to us lately.

When Sheldon and Amy gather around their laptop to watch Amy’s appearance on Proton (apparently she did it after all), Sheldon tells Amy that she’s glowing and he’s so proud of her. Amy’s proud of him as well, and in classic Big Bang fashion, Sheldon asks if it’s because she can’t tell how jealous he is. “No, no, I can,” she says. “But I can tell how hard you’re trying to keep it in.” Really hard, Sheldon replies. She then gives him a kiss, says she’s going to bed, and Sheldon tells her he’s going to scream on the roof. It’s fine, Amy’s fine, and I’m fine with it, because he’s honest, sincere, and it’s still in line with who he is.



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