Good afternoon cool kids,

I've been preparing to re-emerge into the world, which means that I've been thinking a lot about fashion and new pretty dresses. It's been fun! I suppose I'll let you know how the re-emerging into the world goes but at least the new pretty dresses are great. Here's a Fem Fri that's all about fashion and looking nice.

One really important part of the Fem Fri rubric is steering away from the genre (fairly huge, I guess) of articles that have the basic form THAT THING YOU LIKE: IT'S BAD. You might think that this article on Kate Winslet's hair in Mare of Easttown, but it's absolutely not – it's a really great invite into different ways of thinking about that show and standards of white female beauty:

It seems, from the photo in the Register (which features Mare’s face, not her famed basketball shot) that Mare was blond in high school (sun in?), so it could be that since then she’s either maintained or recreated that look; she’s pretty blond when Kevin and Carrie corner her in the bathroom. I think of Mare as someone not great about roots at the best of times — defining herself against her mom, who clearly gets her hair “rinsed” on the regular — but that just makes the blond more interesting. We could ask Brianna for her read on Mare’s hair, maybe; since Brianna’s post-crime back-up plan is to go to cosmetology school and do the hair of “rich main line women” and since she is mean, Brianna could likely generate some pointed observations about Mare’s grooming.

http://avidly.lareviewofbooks.org/2021/06/10/mares-hair/

Of course, I'm talking about going out into the world like that's a cause for non stop excitement and joy, OBVIOUSLY I'M FEELING AMBIVALENT TOO, I'M NOT A ROBOT. Reductress has a guide to nude lipsticks that addresses ways through some of the things we might be feeling, for example, how can I maintain the alluring mystery that a face mask offers?

If you’ve gotten used to always wearing a mask such that technically no one knows if you have a mouth or not, and you want to keep that mystery going, then try this nude lip crayon.

https://reductress.com/post/4-nude-lipsticks-that-will-have-them-saying-where-is-her-mouth/

Finally, it's a dress, but it's also Excel? Be still my fluttering heart:

https://twitter.com/sailorsct_mars/status/1393282136346566658

Have a great weekend, fashionistas!

A xxx.