The North Face x Gucci Collab Includes 2020’s Most Popular Jacket In Maximalist Prints

After months of anticipation, Gucci and The North Face revealed their collaborative collection. While the partnership has reportedly been in the works since before the pandemic, the results — which see the Italian luxury house’s maximalist designs appearing on North Face’s beloved winter jackets — could not have come at a more perfect time.

The ’70s-inspired collection — that includes outerwear, like puffer coats, quilted jackets, windbreakers, and vests, as well as clothing like shirts, skirts, and jumpsuits, for women and men — celebrates the spirit of exploration. While the pairing of the luxury brand and the outdoorsy label may seem unexpected, there are some deeper parallels that make sense. According to the press release accompanying the campaign images and video, shot in the Alps by Daniel Shea, both brands cater to those who seek adventure: “It is a well acknowledged notion that travel leads to self-discovery, and in this conviction The North Face is aligned with Gucci, which similarly empowers people in their quest to celebrate and express their own characters and personalities.”

No surprise, the pieces are as gorgeous as they are cold-weather-proof. Matching shirt-skirt combos in bright floral prints, retro-esque jackets that could easily be taken on a Wes Anderson-inspired hike, and luxurious leather hiking boots all take glamping to a whole new fashion level. These pieces don’t look like they’re just for show. We fully expect to survive the elements in style — if we could bear to scuff up a beautiful pair of Gucci logo-bearing hiking boots or a puffer jacket trekking through the wilderness. 

This unexpected partnership doesn’t stop at clothing. The North Face x Gucci collab also includes sleeping bags and tents and backpacks that ooze retro funk. No need to leave any essentials at home for the sake of fashion. There are enough pockets for your water, snacks, and anything else you might need. When we think of our dream camping trip post-COVID, this is exactly the kind of ‘70s, dream-like world we envision. 

This collaboration is coming at a big moment for both brands. Earlier this year, North Face launched another collaboration with MM6 Maison Margiela that was an instant hit. North Face’s original designs have also seen strong sales this year: According to ASOS, the company saw a 300 percent increase in North Face puffer purchases this year. In particular, the demand for the Nuptse puffer has, according to fashion search engine Lyst, gone up 71% in November, making the jacket one of the most-viewed products from the brand on the site. 

Since creative director Alessandro Michele took the reins at Gucci in 2015, he has made headlines for his innovative shows, which most recently included a mini-festival, GucciFest, dedicated to showcasing the brand’s new collection, as well spotlighting emerging designers. While Michele has worked with other artists and designers, the North Face collaboration marks the first brand partnership he has done while at Gucci. 

The North Face x Gucci collection is set to launch in January.

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Tayshia Adams’ Engagement Ring Features 95 Diamonds

THE BACHELORETTE – “1613” – Season Finale – After a shocking rose ceremony, Tayshia is excited to introduce the remaining bachelors to her family. Will the men win over her family? Her father voices concerns that she might make a big mistake. When proposal day arrives, Tayshia is so overcome with emotion that not even Chris Harrison can read her tears. Will Tayshia bravely step into the future she has been dreaming of or will she be too scared of repeating her past? Find out on “The Bachelorette,” TUESDAY, DEC. 22 (8:00-10:01 p.m. EST), on ABC.” (ABC/Craig Sjodin) TAYSHIA ADAMS, ZAC C.

After many surprise twists and turns, Tayshia Adams, star of the 16th season of The Bachelorette, is engaged to Zac Clark. The reality show contestant popped the question during Tuesday’s finale and, true to Bachelorette form, the engagement ring is absolutely stunning.

According to E!, Adams’ ring features a 3.25-carat emerald-cut diamond, encompassed by a sparkling halo of 27 round diamonds. The band and edges hold another 67 diamonds. For those counting, that is 95 diamonds. The jewelry designer behind the ring, Neil Lane, told People that the engagement ring has a vintage 1920s feel which, according to him, is what drew Clark to it in the first place. It also features a hidden-halo, one of 2021’s top engagement ring trends.

This is the second ring Lane, the franchise’s longtime go-to jeweler, has designed for this season of The Bachelorette. Back in week four, he created the 4.5-carat ring containing a whopping 148 diamonds for contestant Dale Moss, to propose to the season’s original bachelorette Clare Crawley. Lane had his work cut out for him this year. Not only was season 16 filmed during lockdown but Lane had to quarantine before he could present the ring which meant that he wasn’t able to bring Crawley’s ring to her. He was able to be there for Adams and Clark’s engagement, though. (Lane also appeared during Adams’ date with Brendan Morais earlier in the season.)

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Just moments before Clark proposed, Adams told him, “That first night when I got here, I was extremely excited about the possibility of finding love, but also very nervous and scared, because I didn’t know if finding true love was possible.” She continued, “When I first met you, I thought to myself, ‘He’s different, and that man is kind. He shows gratitude, and has the biggest smile. He has been through a lot, but has never given up, but also has learned how to read me better than really anyone ever has, and knows how to comfort me when I’m down.’ There was one point in my life when I thought I would never get married, because of all the pain and the heartbreak I had been through, and I hit absolute rock bottom. And I know I told you that I love you, but… it’s more than that.” After saying yes to the proposal, Adams rode off with Clark in the New York City-inspired cardboard taxi that first made an appearance in their hometown date.

After the finale aired, Adams showed off her engagement ring on her Instagram story. Doing a little happy dance beside her new fiancé, Adams was all smiles as she captioned the Story with “2021 we ready for you baby!” Whether that is a hint at an impending wedding date or simply excitement for the year to come, Adams and Clark seem ready for whatever 2021 brings.

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On Bridgerton, Underwear Is Crotchless & The Corsets Are Divine

Shonda Rhimes’ Netflix adaptation of Julia Quinn’s historical romance novels, titled Bridgerton, is en route to becoming one of this year’s most memorable TV fashion moments. The series, which premieres on December 25, is essentially a 19th-century version of Rhimes’ long-running show Grey’s Anatomy. Only, instead of scrubs, McSteamy — in this case, Simon Basset, played by Regé-Jean Page — wears a period waistcoat, and Meredith — here, Daphne Bridgerton, played by Phoebe Dynevor — a beaded, empire waist dress with an equally intricate corset underneath. In other words, everyone’s wildly attractive — and incredibly well-dressed.

For the series, Bridgerton costume designer Ellen Mirojnick — who designed looks for Fatal Attraction, Showgirls, The Greatest Showman, and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil — sought out experts in fabric cutting, jewelry-making, and corset design. “I had to really build a costume house and create everything because there wasn’t anything in the world that would satisfy what we set out to do,” Mirojnick tells Refinery29. And while you’re sure to be wowed by the pastel-colored gowns and layers and layers of extravagant jewelry featured throughout the season’s eight-episode arc, it’s what’s underneath the dresses that really matters most. 

BRIDGERTON PHOEBE DYNEVOR as DAPHNE BRIDGERTON in Costume Department of BRIDGERTON Cr. LIAM DANIEL/NETFLIX © 2020

Like Rhimes’ other shows, including Private Practice, How To Get Away With Murder, and Scandal, sex plays a big role in Bridgerton. It is, after all, based on a pulpy romance novel. Because of that, an equal amount of focus was placed on the characters’ undergarments as the glitzy pieces worn on top of them. One member of Mirojnick’s team was renowned corset maker Mr. Pearl, who was the designer behind Kim Kardashian’s Mugler look from the 2019 Met Gala. “He is magnificent,” says Mirojnick. To remain accurate, Mr. Pearl designed corsets in line with those worn in the early 1800s. (The show is set in the year 1813.) 

“Women at that time were corseted women, even though their corsets were far less [intense] than they were in Victorian times,” says Mirojnick. In the early 1800s, women wore half-corsets, similar in length to a longline bra. During the Victorian era, in the mid- to late-1800s, women wore full-length corsets that created an hourglass figure, not unlike the one worn by Kardashian. “Their bosoms were to appear as though they were blossoming. It’s almost like the blossoms of your cheeks — rouged and desirable,” she says of the early 1800s. “The dresses are adorned so that women look beautiful [and catch the eye of a potential husband], but the focus is always on the bosom,” she says. 

BRIDGERTON (L to R) NICOLA COUGHLAN as PENELOPE FEATHERINGTON, RUBY BARKER as MARINA THOMPSON and LUKE NEWTON as COLIN BRIDGERTON in episode 101 of BRIDGERTON Cr. LIAM DANIEL/NETFLIX © 2020

To remain true to the time period and give actors a costume that they could move and bend in, Mr. Pearl designed half-corsets for the series. “Of course, a corset will never be truly comfortable,” says Mirojnick. This is something that Nicola Coughlan, who plays Penelope Featherington on the show, confirms: “Taking off a corset at the end of the day just feels incredible. It’s a bra times 10,000. Your ribs are just like, Ah.”

In keeping with the times, Mirojnick also designed bloomers for the women to wear underneath their gowns — which were crotchless back in the day. Yes, crotchless. She goes on to say that, with the exception of corsets, the underwear worn in the time (which also included slips and petticoats) was quite simple compared to the lingerie worn today. “Sexiness came in real-life,” she says.

Though women were supposed to keep hold of their virtue until their wedding night, the fashion at the time was actually designed in a way that made it much easier for women to disrobe quickly — in the throws of passion, for instance — than men. “Men’s pants closed at the sides and had braces to keep them up. Women, however, just had to lift their skirts if they wanted to,” Mirojnick says. 

BRIDGERTON (L to R) REGƒ-JEAN PAGE as SIMON BASSET and PHOEBE DYNEVOR as DAPHNE BRIDGERTON in episode 102 of BRIDGERTON Cr. LIAM DANIEL/NETFLIX © 2020

According to Mirojnick, one of her primary goals for the costumes was to transport viewers to another world, one full of lavish parties, extravagant gowns, and, yes, luxury undergarments. “For all of us who love that romance novel type of sexy, Bridgerton allows our imagination to flourish — it transports you into a place that’s really very fun to watch, especially given the bleak times we’re living in,” she says. The designer, who’s worked with Rhimes on a number of different shows, was adamant about keeping with the “sauciness and sexiness” that the famed TV producer is known for. And after watching all eight episodes, one right after another, I can tell you with certainty that there’s no shortage of sauce in Bridgerton. With a wardrobe full of designer corsets and crotchless bloomers, how could there be? 

Watch Bridgerton in full on Netflix, starting December 25.

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Martin Shkreli’s “Life Partner” Wore A Dress By The Vampire’s Wife — & Twitter Has Thoughts

On Monday, Elle published a profile of Christie Smythe, the former Bloomberg News journalist who uprooted her “perfect little Brooklyn life” to start a new one with Martin Shkreli, a pharmaceutical executive known as “Pharma Bro.” Other nicknames for Shkreli include “the most hated man in America,” according to The Daily Beast, and “asshole.” Shkreli was convicted of securities fraud in 2017 and sentenced to seven years in prison where he remains to this day. Shkreli is infamously known for increasing the price of the lifesaving drug Daraprim by 5,000% in 2015, from $13 to $750. Smythe was the reporter who broke the news of the federal investigation that eventually led to his arrest. She later covered his trial, which is how her self-described romantic relationship with Shkreli began.

The Elle feature ran alongside a mini fashion shoot that took place in Central Park and Smythe’s apartment. And while the story alone is enough to make your head spin, Twitter users were quick to point out the dress Smythe wore in two of the photographs: a high-neck, puff-sleeve dress designed by Susie Cave’s gothic fashion brand The Vampire’s Wife. Coincidence? Twitter thinks not.

“The Vampire’s Wife” is the strongest, surest, most inflammatory phrase in this piece, and it’s part of a cutline.

— Dan Zak (@MrDanZak) December 21, 2020

“Styling Martin Shkreli’s ‘life partner’ in The Vampire’s Wife is almost too on the nose,” wrote Ilana Kaplan, a journalist for The Independent and Paper, among other publications. “’The Vampire’s Wife’ is the strongest, surest, most inflammatory phrase in this piece, and it’s part of a cutline,” wrote Dan Zak, a reporter for The Washington Post. Kayleigh Donaldson, a journalist for Pajiba, tweeted, “We love a subtle fashion burn.”

Given the way shoots like this work, we can say for certain that it was a stylist, not Smythe, who chose to put the former journalist in a brand that was named after the “Prince of Darkness,” Susie Cave’s husband Nick of the band Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Perhaps the stylist in question really didn’t make the connection between the dress — ironically titled The Confessional — the brand name, and the person wearing it. Accidents like this do happen, though, given that this was Smythe’s first and only time confessing her story publicly, it’d have to be one that occurred by the grace of god. 

Many people on Twitter posed another question: Did Smythe know about the brand of dress she’d be wearing for the piece — a piece that led Shkreli to “stop communicating with her”? Moreso, was Susie Cave aware of the fact that Smythe would be the person posing for Elle in a dress of her design? According to the brand, neither Cave nor anyone working at The Vampire’s Wife was responsible for the sample making it into the Elle shoot, though the brand confirmed that it was, in fact, The Confessional dress. Many suggested that Cave wouldn’t appreciate being aligned with Smythe, while others said the shoot only made them want a piece by The Vampire’s Wife more. As longtime fans of the brand, we’ve never not wanted a dress from the brand whose fans include Kate Middleton and Laura Dern. 

whose idea it was to do a styled photoshoot??? for the story about simping for martin shkreli?????

— joshua bote (@joshua_bote) December 21, 2020

Some people were perplexed about the existence of the styled shoot entirely. Joshua Bote, a reporter for USA Today, wondered whose idea it was to do a styled photoshoot for a story about the woman dating Shkreli? “Reading that story about the Shkreli simp in Elle and wondering when they plan on running their glossy profile and photoshoot of the women who get engaged to serial killers in prison,” tweeted Hannah Woodhead, an editor at Little White Lies. 

Originally, Stephanie Clifford, the author of the story, felt the same. “Coming from a news background, I was a little surprised,” Clifford told Intelligencer of the accompanying photo shoot. “It makes sense; it’s a fashion magazine in part. Reading the credits, it’s a little jarring to see the fashion next to a question about somebody dating someone in prison. But I get it.” She also told the publication that she purposely brought the story to Elle, as opposed to a newspaper like The New York Times, because she believed it to have a “really strong history of telling sensitive stories about women.” 

Fashion magazines like Elle also have a history of styling their subjects. The clothes, setting, and the photos are just as much a part of capturing a story in full as the words. According to Zak’s tweet, when said shoot includes a maneuver as artful as putting Smythe in a dress titled The Confessional and designed by The Vampires Wife, the photo portion can actually become the “strongest, surest” aspect of the entire story.

Below, read some of the most heated discussions happening on Twitter regarding Smythe’s story.

THEY PUT HER IN THE VAMPIRE’S WIFE. DID SHE KNOW??? DID SHE LET THEM, THINKING THAT WAS SO FUNNY???

— Charlotte A. Cavatica (@cavaticat) December 21, 2020

This entire Martin Shkreli + Christie Smythe story is bonkers but the fact that she is unironically posing in a Vampire’s Wife dress is what elevates it to high art. https://t.co/sq0xb1o1MG

— Zara Ahmed, DrPH (@ZarainDC) December 21, 2020

Shout out to the stylist at Elle who dressed Martin Shkreli’s ghosted girlfriend in The Vampire’s Wife for the accompanying photoshoot. We love a subtle fashion burn.

— Kayleigh Donaldson (@Ceilidhann) December 21, 2020

What about the dresses provided by the Vampire’s Wife(the designer, I believe, is married to Nick Cave)?

That was the detail that stopped me in my tracks. Extreme ’Cui bono?’ vibes.

— Geoffrey Rickly (@GeoffRickly) December 21, 2020

the martin shkreli story finally convinced me to buy a vampire’s wife face mask, AMA

— Amy X. Wang (@amyxwang) December 21, 2020

one of the dresses christie smythe was photographed in is from a brand called The Vampire’s Wife and the dress is called Confessional. i c u, snarky elle stylist pic.twitter.com/bCeyTEuKtN

— molly taft, a tall bitch (@mollytaft) December 21, 2020

Styling Martin Shkreli’s “life partner” in The Vampire’s Wife is almost too on the nose https://t.co/x5Gzw0iO3H pic.twitter.com/3vqgtQSxDL

— ilana kaplan (@lanikaps) December 21, 2020

My actual favorite part of the Martin Shkreli Elle piece is that his beloved Smythe is wearing a dress from — no joke! — “The Vampire’s Wife”

Just pure 😘👌 pic.twitter.com/5j1o8empyI

— Grogu? I hardly know you! (@thomdunn) December 21, 2020

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