THRIFTING LIKE IT’S 1999
SPRING LOOKS IN CMY2K STUFF HAPPENS
DECLUTTER LIKE A PRO
THE VITAL WAY FORWARD FOR MATERNAL HEALTH
INCLUDING:
RUNWAY TO REALWAY
HELLO GLOW BYE TO DRY SKIN
READING ON PAPER IS GOOD FOR YOU
HOW I LEARNED TO FORGIVE MY MOM
“YOU ARE SO MUCH MORE THAN YOUR SIZE” & OTHER WISDOM FROM CLOTHING DESIGNER AURÉLIE COHEN
HOW YOUR FAMILY AFFECTS YOUR RELATIONSHIPS
Spring is here, and for many women, it’s time to refresh or reevaluate our wardrobes. However, when perusing Spring runway looks, some looks can feel unrealistic to attain in real life. Despite what we see in runway shows, trends can be styled in a way that is still fashion-forward while also being functional, affordable, and attainable.
Three non-models from the Midwest, Ava, Arielle, and Corrina, joined Verily for a photoshoot in Detroit to model fresh runway trends with items that can be found at affordable prices or even in your own closet.
MODELED BY AVA MARCARELLI
The Spring 2023 runway made one thing abundantly clear: maxi-length skirts and dresses are back in a big way, and why not combine this trend with another one we saw across the runways: metallics.
While both of these trends were styled in various ways on the runways, from utility, goth, and Y2K, this feminine, “offduty ballerina” look from Akris perfectly combines romance with functionality (peep the white sneakers!).
An interview with Aurélie Cohen of Héroïnes.
BY MARY ROSE SOMARRIBA
Paris is often idolized. The city’s life and joie de vivre make it easy to understand why. But while Parisian style and poise may have defined the world’s view of chic, the risks of competition, perfection, and extremes underlie the world of fashion in Paris just as anywhere else.
Working in the fashion industry, Aurélie Cohen noticed that in this corner of Europe in particular, an obsession about clothing size has developed—even at the expense of style and beauty. But it doesn’t need to be this way. In response, Aurélie founded Héroïnes, a women’s clothing store with a mission to revolutionize how women try on clothing, find flattering styles that suit them, and see themselves as the beautiful women they are.
On its website, Aurélie describes Héroïnes as having started “with a simple idea: to offer each woman the most
beautiful version of herself, allowing her to express her uniqueness without bowing to the dictates of trends or thinness. A project aimed at everyday heroines, to offer them products in which we are ourselves . . . not the fantasized self, standardized and modeled to social requirements, but that of the full expression of our inner vibrato.”
I had the pleasure of sitting down and enjoying some chocolate with Aurélie in her home in Paris (“It’s the house of chocolate”) for an interview in Franglais. Over the course of our chat, I got to know a woman with the savvy of a luxury-fashion veteran, the heart of a Parisian girl uncorrupted by the industry, and the drive of a mom making a better world for her daughters. I think you’ll agree with me: Aurélie Cohen is a heroine for our times.
MARY ROSE SOMARRIBA: When did you realize the need to change how clothing is offered in stores to women? When did your inspiration for Héroïnes start?
AURÉLIE COHEN: At first, I started with a different brand when I was living in London. And I was in my shop on my own starting off, and I discovered many shape issues by trying other brands.
In 2018, it became complicated to produce in London due to Brexit. Ultimately I returned to Paris. I have others helping with the administrative and finance side, and I’m designing all the styles and training staff. And when working with all the staff in the shop to explain the process, which is to find a flattering design for each individual, we realized we need to be bienveillant. We need staff trained to have an eye for what is good for women. It is hard to find staff that understand this if they come from other brands, because this is not how it works in Paris. In Paris, many are hyper concerned
If cell phones were prescription drugs, they’d come with a black box warning. Teen girls are experiencing record levels of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation, and it’s hard to argue social media isn’t playing a major role. Social media competes with inperson time and friendships, and what it offers as an alternative gives us a warped view of ourselves and the world.
As a statistician, I care a lot about sampling frames. A sampling frame is how you determine which parts of the world become part of your analysis. More and more, our gaze and expectations are shaped by sampling frames chosen for us by Big Tech algorithms.
When Instagram shows us images, its algorithm isn’t designed to reflect the world back to us as it is. It’s not engineered to show us parts of human experience we know
Despite the fact that America spends $111 billion (yes, billion with a b) annually on maternal and newborn care—twice as much as other high income countries—we have the highest maternal death rate of the developed nations. Maternal death rates in the US have doubled over the last twenty years, despite newer technologies and increased health spending, while other affluent countries have
reduced their rates.
What is more alarming is that when you look a little closer, these numbers correlate with racial and ethnic disparities. According to Dr. Elizabeth Howell, MD, MPP, of The Blavatnik Family Women’s Health Research Institute, Black women are fourfold more likely to die from pregnancy and birth related causes than white women. In the same 2019 paper, Howell
showed that Native Americans, Asians, and Latinas also experience higher death rates than white women, though these numbers are not as drastic. The final gut punch? Sixty percent of these morbidities are thought to be preventable.
What has caused such drastic disparities? It is both simple and complex. Main contributors are bias (whether implicit or outright) about
Spring is coming in hot. Bright and neon colors are sprouting up in our looks and wardrobes, combined with a friendly flashback to the turn of the millennium. Trendy though these looks may be, we don’t have to resort to fast fashion to rock them. Curating these brilliant outfits entirely from ethically sourced brands or thrift stores, Brooklyn stylist Brynn Elliott Watkins reminds us we can explore styles that ring true to ourselves without breaking the bank or contributing to the global scourge of cheap labor. Now that’s something to celebrate.
STYLING NOTE:
“When styling prints, don’t be afraid of adding pops of brilliant colors and even extra details like a hint of shine to bring the look up to a different level.”
