My Latest Snag: The Best Laundry Detergent.
Magpies: what is your favorite laundry detergent? I used Mrs. Meyers for years, and then more recently tested Puracy (I love their other products) and I feel that neither leaves clothing clean enough, especially when it comes to stain-riddled toddler wear. The Laundress detergent is lovely (I adore and continue to buy their baby detergent for micro — it scents clothes beautifully, washes them thoroughly, but does not fade or in any way deteriorate the quality of the fabric) but a bit pricey for the vats of laundry we go through in a given week. The Wirecutter recommended Tide Ultra Stain Release FREE, so I’m giving that a whirl next.
Any other hidden favorites?
P.S. Dreft stain spray is the best and how beautiful is this laundry basket?!
You’re Sooooo Popular: The Long-Sleeved Knit Dress.
The most popular items on the blog this past week:
+This LS knit. Equally perfect with Supergas/GGs or pointed-toe flats!
+This ultra chic faux fur stole (such a cool gift).
+My leopard trousers, which many of you probably saw me wear on Instastories this week.
+This darling plaid dress (ordered this for mini! only $20!)
+Pretty Christmas wrapping paper.
P.S. More reader favorites here.
#Turbothot: Kacey Musgraves.
I tuned into Kacey Musgraves’ Christmas special on Amazon Prime earlier this week and found it delightfully kitschy, often overdone to the point of cloyingly cheesy, and determinedly escapist. My first reaction was that it felt out of sync with the times, devoted as our generation tends to be to authenticity and “realness.” In fact, I was just thinking the other day, as I started watching the wildly popular show Succession, how many modern narratives focus on the fact that no one is all the way good or all the way bad. How many contemporary films and novels have investigated the villain or constructed “anti-heroes” or unlikely heroes or heroes with backstories, flaws, addictions? And here we have Kacey parading around in elaborate, Barbie-like outfits, skin botoxed within an inch of her life and hair so straight and shiny it could be a wig, telling us “You shake me up and turn me upside down // Just like a snow globe.”
And yet.
There is something intriguingly, appealingly self-aware about her that does fit with the times. Her set, her instrumentation, her glitzy costumery, her loony skits, even her semi-wooden dancing all call attention to her performativity.
“Here I am, performing my gender! Performing my music genre! Performing my class! Performing, performing, performing!” It’s not ironic, but almost? Because though she seems to be enjoying herself, there is still a discernible distance she establishes between herself and the bubblegum lyrics she’s singing.
This is not a vibe I get watching other pop stars — for example, when I watch Katy Perry perform “Firework” or Selena Gomez perform “Look At Her Now,” I feel as though they believe the words they are singing and there is an earnestness to the presentation.
In short, you can’t watch Kacey without noting the manufacturing of the performance, and that self-awareness leaves space to contemplate the blurry line between artifice and reality.
Where does the performance end and Kacey begin?
Post-Scripts: Holiday Napkins and Discounted Flats.
+A fun add-on to a holiday bottle-of-wine when visiting with friends.
+Goop has a great sale running, and how incredible are these flats and this trench?!
+A chic flush mount for a powder room or children’s bathroom.
+Adore this fur-trim jacket!
+This dress is SO Audrey Hepburn!
+Love this $50 sequinned skirt for the holidays!
+We had snow earlier this week! I already had mini’s snowboots, but scrambled to buy her a new pair of snowpants and some thermal underwear.