#SoftGirls and Angelllboys
after school weekend edition
Welcome back to After School Weekend Edition. Think of the Monday-Thursday letters as the CliffsNotes; this is the extended version for paid subscribers. Thanks for reading — your support makes this possible! 💫
Good morning from Greece! Cannes was a blur of meetings and emails and espresso (and if I’m being honest, rosé), and I didn’t make it to as many activations and panels as I had hoped. I did make it to Pinterest Manifestival, which felt thoroughly Gen Z, with tiny tats, piercing stations, and DIY tote bags.
I didn’t see many Gen Zers at Cannes, nor did I expect to, but I did see all of the most important Gen Zers: Emma Chamberlain (twice!), Alex Cooper (technically a cusper, but Gen Z-presenting), and Yara Shahidi.
I actually chatted with Eli and Clara, my buds who work at Day One, about one of my Emma sightings. You can listen to me fangirl here, but the tl;dr is that I’ve seen a lot of celebrities in the wild and I’ve never seen someone so gracious and kind as Emma. She talked to a fan for 25 minutes while her dad stood to the side, patiently waiting. It was incredible.
I also saw A$AP Rocky and Rihanna — shout out to Spotify for letting me crash the party. I’m a massive Rocky fan and he performed a tight lineup of all of my favorite songs (“Sundress,” “Lovesick,” “Everyday”) and was even better than I’d expected. Or maybe I was just blinded by his astonishingly gorgeous skin. Saying “drop the routine!” is cringe, but I am sincerely curious to know what he’s putting on his face because he does not have the complexion of a 34-year-old.
Rihanna, for her part, also has gorgeous skin (and gorgeous everything); they must share products. Are they using Fenty? Do I need to be using Fenty? She was wearing a magnificently pregnant and wearing “a sheer vintage Jean Paul Gaultier dress layered atop a sequined Oséree bikini,” according to the New York Post. She looked like a goddess, and I mean that in the absolute least hyperbolic way.
I somehow managed to capture the single best moment of my life on camera. The grin. The wave!
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Apologies for the sporadic sends this week. Hopefully these 4,000+ words will make up for it. Today we’re talking about:
Back-to-school spending trends (already? already!)
The dorm dècor industrial complex
Shein’s influencer trip
The finance app with the most brilliant TikTok strategy I’ve seen
Reformation’s new SoHo flagship
Staud’s new pickleball collection
Frankies Bikinis’ #softgirl summer
The return of Y2K-era handkerchief hemline dresses
Bridal swimwear is trending among young brides
Fisherman sandals are the shoe of the season
Natural wine summer
Angelllboys
#PrivateChefTok
Beer tans
Cake renaissance
And everything else that happened this week in brands, trends, and internet culture. As always, scroll to the end for everything I’m reading, buying, listening to, etc.
Before we jump in, please watch my favorite TikTok of the week.
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