Makeup, ***Flawless.

Makeup and lip artist extraordinaire Jazmina Daniel recently recreated Beyoncé’s pregnancy announcement on her lips, and the result is mind-blowing. In an Instagram post, Daniel said the artwork took her over four hours to recreate.  

“I know I have a lot of Queen Fans out there! This one is for you! @beyonce Tag the Queen if you think she’d approve ,” Daniel wrote. 

The Beyhive is clearly crazy in love with the artwork. Fans couldn’t get over Daniel’s incredible talent, as well as the accuracy of the lip art. 

“OMG WHO IS SHE OMG OMG EVERYTHING,” one commenter wrote. Another added, “I can’t even apply lipstick properly like wtf?” 

Daniel, who is from Sydney, Australia, told The Huffington Post via email that her love for lip art started after she was diagnosed with a brain tumor.

“I was at home sick every day and would turn to painting to keep my mind off things,” she said. “Slowly that painting would turn into makeup (face painting) which then led me to experiment with drawing something tiny on my lips. That was 5 years ago now and I’ve continued to love and do it since.” 

She added, “I chose to recreate Bey’s pregnancy announcement because everyone was so excited about it. There were a lot of people recreating it in pictures and I know that a lot of my followers were Beyoncé fans so it just seemed right to do. I felt inspired in the moment to do it!” 

Check out more of her gorgeous creations below: 

And bow down to Miss Jazmina! 

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Sometimes the frustrations of being a parent become so much, all there’s left to do is cry it out. Tess Holliday certainly knows how that feels.

On Monday, the mom and plus-size model posted a photo of herself crying on Instagram. In the caption, she shared an emotional message about the dark side of parenthood.

“This is the reality of being a mom,” she wrote. “I’ve been up since 3 am, & every time I get Bowie to sleep & try to lay him down, he wakes up. He is teething & has no clue I have to work today, & most days I can work 15 hour days, take care of both boys & put some lipstick on & deal with it.”

Holliday is mom to 8-month-old Bowie and 11-year-old Rylee. She’s very open about her parenting experiences on social media, particularly when it comes to breastfeeding and body image. 

This crying selfie gets to the struggle to keep it all together in the midst of chaos and exhaustion.

“Most days I drink my coffee & smile at every little thing he does thinking it’s the best thing in the world, but not today,” she wrote. “I’ve reached my limit, exceeded it to be honest ... The pressure of ‘looking good’ for a living is too much today. When your face is breaking out from the hormones of breastfeeding + total exhaustion from lack of sleep, bags under your eyes, patchy red skin & to top it off no energy to work out or leave my bed.. how do you do it? How do you feel confident in your skin & feel like you aren’t letting the client down by showing up exhausted & disheveled?”

Holliday continued describing her experience as a mother raising a fussy baby while furthering her career in a looks-focused profession.

“As a working mom in an industry that’s as critical as mine, where is the line? The balance? The compassion?” she asked. “Is any career understanding when you show up at negative 10% because your kids wouldn’t let you sleep & you want to hide under your covers & cry?”

Answering her own question, she added, “Not many. I hope one day that changes & society views mothers as the flawed human beings we are that are just trying to keep our shit together like everyone else.”

Holliday’s post received over 73,000 likes, and the comments section is filled with encouraging messages from fellow parents who have been there. 

As many commenters wrote, “You are not alone!”

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All the moms at my son’s school have been gushing about the Cat & Jack line for kids since Target released it last summer. Now there’s an additional reason to love the brand: their “Strong Like Mom” T-shirts that are grabbing the attention of feminist moms everywhere. 

That’s right. Strong... Like Mom. Not like Dad or any other boy. Strong like a girl.

The shirt (and onesie) has even given life to a #stronglikemom hashtag on Instagram, where you can find thousands of photos of kids rocking the slogan, which comes in both boys’ and girls’ versions. 

The T-shirt is a breath of fresh air for parents amidst the gender normative “trucks for boys, ponies for girls” aesthetics we usually see in children’s clothing.

While it would be nice if there were no difference between the “boys” and “girls” line at all from this brand, both include other inspiring messages and explore themes of space, technology, creating change, kindness, friendship, and athletics.  

For girls, the line includes T-shirts that say  “Future President,” “Future Astronaut,” and a “Genius,” written out with the periodic table.

For boys, there is a T-shirt that says the word “friend” in several different languages, “be the future,” and my personal favorite, which my son owns, “Kindness Matters.”  T-shirts reading “Smart and Strong” is available both in the girls’ and boys’ lines.

For babies, there are onesies (talk about a clothing option that doesn’t need to be gendered) that say “My Dad Reads To Me,” and “Boss Lady.” 

Oh, and it’s not too late to join the club and purchase the “Strong Like Mom” shirt ... for $6. 

As if moms didn’t love Target enough. (Seriously, what is it ABOUT that place? It’s got a power over me.) 

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In November, scores of women voters went to the polls wearing white, an homage to Hillary Clinton who often wore white while campaigning, most notably when she accepted the Democratic nomination. Though she never addressed it outright, Clinton’s embrace of the white pant suit was widely interpreted as a nod to the suffragist movement.

That tradition will continue on in primetime on Tuesday, as Democratic women in the House have pledged to wear white to President Donald Trump’s first address to Congress.

According to the AP, the heads of the Democratic Women’s Working Group wrote a letter to its members urging them to wear white to the address. The aim is to honor the suffragist movement and to “stand in solidarity with the women of our nation,” the AP reports.

It certainly appears to have traction.

On Tuesday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) posted a picture telling followers to keep an eye out as “#WomenWearWhite” in support of women’s rights.

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) also posted a picture of herself, saying she was wearing “suffragette white” in honor of generations of women who “marched and fought for our sacred rights.”

And then there’s Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), an outspoken critic of President Trump, who has opted for another symbolic move ... skipping the address altogether. 

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It’s about time.

Facebook, texting and GPS are commonplace tech that most of us use. But these apps, which help to bring many of us closer together, can be incredibly alienating for the visually impaired and blind.

Small font sizes and glitch-y text-to-speak functions make keeping up with the way society communicates increasingly difficult and frustrating to those who have visual disabilities.

But a South Korean company has invented a new smartwatch that promotes inclusivity and accessibility.

The Dot smartwatch, which one could connect to a smartphone via Bluetooth, has a touch display where rising and falling dots spell out words in Braille. This means that users can receive any text from any app or service on their smartphone and have it translated into Braille on their Dot smartwatch. 

 Users can also send simple messages using buttons on the side of the watch. 

Other smartwatches, such as the Apple Watch, have attempted to be more accessible to the visually impaired by utilizing sound to read information on the screen through a speaker, but this method often robs disabled users of privacy.

The Dot was the brainchild of founder and CEO Eric Kim. He had the idea while he was attending the University of Washington and noticed a blind classmate lugging large, bulky books to class while most students were using tablets. After learning that these were Braille textbooks, he was disheartened to learn that this student couldn’t take advantage of new technology.

Though the concept is novel, it does have its flaws.

Not all people who are visually impaired read Braille. Fewer than 10 percent of the 1.3 million people who are legally blind in the United States are Braille readers, according to a report by the National Federation of the Blind. The BBC also points out that because the watch face is small, reading long passages on the watch could be a pain.

Yet, because the Dot also has an open API, developers can constantly improve upon the technology and perhaps improve upon its technology.

The Dot smartwatch has been in the development for about 3 years, and will hit selected stores in the UK in March. The company told the Huffington Post that they hope to get units to the U.S. next and will hopefully have them available before April. They will retail for about $300 before tax.

The company is currently accepting pre-orders through their site with a 10 percent discount.

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Welcome to the Trump era, when billionaire Cabinet secretaries wear $500 velvet slippers to major presidential events.

At least this was the case Tuesday, when President Donald Trump’s newly confirmed commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, sported a pair of custom-made slippers to the president’s first address to a joint session of Congress. 

The slippers appear to come from the uber-preppy Palm Beach outfitter Stubbs & Wootton, where slippers start at $495 and a custom pair could easily top $600. 

Ross was wearing a pair that featured the logo of the Commerce Department on the toe. The logo is not one of the designs offered by the company online, strongly suggesting that these were made exclusively for Ross.  

Ross’ footwear choice was first spotted by IJR’s Hayley Byrd, who posted a photo of the shoes on Twitter. 

Ross is a billionaire who made his fortune investing in distressed companies, giving rise to his reputation as a “corporate raider.” Ross and his wife, Hillary Geary Ross, own a house in Palm Beach, Florida, not far from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, and he has known the president for decades.

During the Republican primary last year, Ross was one of Trump’s earliest supporters and fundraisers, a critical role that earned him a permanent spot in Trump’s inner circle.

And while velvet men’s slippers might seem out of place in a business-oriented city like Washington, D.C., in sunny Palm Beach ― where leisure reigns ― they’re the go-to kicks for dinner parties by the pool. 

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This is unlike the hundreds of other “100 years of...” videos you’ve seen before.

Buzzfeed Yellow released “100 Years Of Black American Fashion” on Monday, marking the close of Black History Month. The video features some of our most beloved and popular trends, showing how black fashion evolved since the 1920s with iconic styles inspired by jazz, Motown and hip-hop.

It also provides a look back through black history in this country using the lens of fashion.

Consider the 1940s, when black soldiers were “often given more labor-intensive service roles based on the belief that they were unfit to serve as officers,” the video says, or the late 1950s-60s, when civil rights activists were given more “credence” for dressing in their “Sunday best.” 

Today, the Black Lives Matter movement is deeply steeped in fashion, including political statements printed on clothing andr hoodies worn in honor of Trayvon Martin, who was shot and killed five years ago this week. 

The fashion is something to admire, but the history matters most. 

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Steve Harvey’s family knows how to work the runway.

Jason Harvey, who is the talk show host’s son, and his model wife, Amanda, recently opened Dolce & Gabbana’s show for Milan Fashion Week. They walked with their adorable kids, Noah and Rose, and absolutely nailed it:

Stunning!

And just LOOK at little Rose’s fierce face! 

Steve’s daughter, Lori, also walked in the show. Lori and Jason are Steve’s kids by way of marriage to his third wife, Marjorie. 

“Third times a charm ✨ Thank you so much @stefanogabbana and Domenico and the whole @dolcegabbana !!!!” Lori wrote in an Instagram post. “So honored to be apart of such an amazing show and to have walked alongside my mom, brother, sister-in-law, niece AND nephew! Forever grateful” 

Marjorie Harvey, a fashion blogger who is married to Steve, also walked in the show: 

We can’t wait to see more of this family on the runway.

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As Elle Woods once said, “What, like it’s hard?”

The year 2017 turned itself right around when Harvard University selected Rihanna as their Humanitarian of the Year earlier this month. On Tuesday, the “Anti” singer graciously accepted the honor with a touching and hilarious speech in peak Rihanna fashion.

After a handful of guest speakers spoke to Rihanna’s cultural and philanthropic impact, the singer took the stage and addressed her public. 

“So, I made it to Harvard,” she said, opening the speech with a grin and hair flip. Rihanna then went on to explain how watching commercials as a child that encouraged viewers to donate 25 cents to save a life informed her attitudes toward charity.

“I would say to myself, ‘When I grow up, and I can get rich, I’m gonna save kids all over the world,’” Rihanna recalled. “I just didn’t know I would be in the position to do that by the time I was a teenager.”

The Harvard Foundation, which annually honors prominent public-spirited leaders, named Rihanna as the recipient of the Peter J. Gomes Humanitarian Award for her charitable work promoting healthcare and education in the Caribbean. In addition to funding a state-of-the-art center for oncology and nuclear medicine in her home country of Barbados, the singer has set up the Clara Lionel Foundation Scholarship Program to help Caribbean students attending universities in the U.S. succeed. 

“All you need to do is help one person, expecting nothing in return,” Rihanna continued. “To me, that is a humanitarian. People make it seem way too hard, man. The truth is — and what the little girl watching those commercials didn’t know — is that you don’t have to be rich to be a humanitarian, to help somebody. You don’t have to be famous. You don’t have to be college-educated.”

She then went on to hint that she might return to the university one day as a student, so we’ll just be over here quietly raising funds for a “Legally Blonde” (”Legally Rihanna”?) sequel. 

Watch the entire ceremony below and catch Rihanna’s speech at 1:14:00.

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I hate getting manicures. Scratch that—I love the experience: choosing a color, the always-too-brief massage, the resulting fancy hands. But the minute I do anything strenuous, like getting change out of my wallet, the chipping begins. Spending time and money on polish that will barely outlast a few trips to the grocery store? I figured I just wasn’t meant to have elegant paws.

But there’s a new kid on the beauty block: the dip-powder manicure, which involves minimal application time and can last up to—wait for it...and wait...and wait—five weeks. That crazy news got me in the chair fast. The process: A technician from Revel Nail filed my nails and painted them with a gluelike base. Then he dipped each nail into a silky, ruby-colored powder before flicking off the excess with a small brush. The final step: two types of topcoat, which dried in under a minute. The nails were so richly glossy, they looked like delicious little candies on the ends of my fingers. And several weeks later, they’re so chipless and pristine, I could pass for a woman who’s never interacted with dish soap.

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Kim Kardashian can be extra, in the best way possible. Given this knowledge, it isn’t too surprising she would try to play tennis in heels. 

Yes, heels. Though the biggest crime in this photo is that she’s trying to play a sport with her hair down: 

People on Twitter obviously lost it over the 36-year-old’s hilarious shoe choice: 

The U.S. Open Twitter account even got in on the action! 

We wonder what her good friend Serena Williams would think of this tennis attire... 

Luckily, it appears the reality queen and business mogul escaped her tennis outing unscathed, without a twisted ankle in sight. 

Game, set, match ― Kardashian. 

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President Donald Trump’s first address to Congress on Tuesday night didn’t say much about his plans for health care or immigration reform. But someone sure made some noticeable tweaks to his wardrobe.  

The president has been repeatedly scrutinized for his sartorial choices, consistently wearing impossibly large ties and ill-fitting suiting. 

Befitting an evening when he actually stuck to the script for once, it looks like Trump has been taking notes from the criticism and making some adjustments. The suit fit him well, his tie sat in a perfectly acceptable spot, and it didn’t even look like it might possibly be taped into place.

The shift was perhaps explained best by Washington Post’s fashion critic Robin Givhan. “The costuming fit the story line,” she wrote. “The script was not a fiery campaign rallying cry. It was a formal speech that had been fed into a Teleprompter and was being read live — in front of Congress, in front of citizens.”

And if the costume was strategically chosen to paint a different picture of the president, Givhan says the shift came through in his disposition, too. “The eye contact was off,” she said. “Trump seemed to be looking through people rather than at them. The head was tilted high and the neck looked strained. The resting expression remained more petulant than contemplative. Still, in a little more than a month after moving into the Oval Office, the optics are slowly taking shape.”

Trump wasn’t the only one in the room whose outfit made waves. Democratic women in the House showed up wearing white pantsuits in solidarity with the suffragist movement and “the women of our nation.” 

First lady Melania Trump, who has made few appearances over the past few months, made up for lost time in a $10,000 Michael Kors outfit (that, for what it’s worth, is nearly sold out online). 

If this new polished look is to become the norm, let’s hope the look translates into a more polished sense of professionalism, as well.

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Zara’s managed to keep itself out of the headlines lately when it comes to scandals like sewing mice into clothing or copying artist’s designs.

But a new advertising image that popped up in stores seems problematic. 

In what appears to be a photo of an in-store installation, two models with their backs to the camera are shown alongside the message “Love your curves.” There’d be no issue with such a body positive message if not for the fact that the two women in the photo are thin.

People shared their reactions to this seemingly out of touch move on Twitter.

While at least one person pointed out the possibility Zara is suggesting women who feel they lack the curves they want should love their bodies, too, we’re not really buying that. It seems, like Urban Outfitters before it, that Zara is missing the mark in an attempt to capitalize on the body positive movement and a market it does not serve well. 

A spokesperson for Zara had “no comment” in response to an inquiry from The Huffington Post, but we think Irish radio host Muireann O’Connell, who originally tweeted the photo, pretty much sums it up.

“This is nothing to with the models,” she wrote. “It’s the marketeers that have distorted their image and fucked up.” 

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Supermodel Adriana Lima doesn’t have a specific plan in place to retire from the Victoria’s Secret runway, but she has a certain timeframe in mind. 

The 35-year-old VS Angel recently spoke about her eventual departure from the catwalk in an interview with Ocean Drive magazine. 

“My goal is to do the fashion show till I’m 40, at least,” Lima said. “Or [as long as] gravity is on my side.” 

The model, who first appeared on the runway in 1999 and has walked the show 17 times, is forgetting one major thing ― it’s more than possible to have a modeling career well beyond your 40s. 

Look at all of women opening the door for models beyond 40: 

1. 63-year-old Christie Brinkley working a bikini. 

The gorgeous model posed alongside her daughters Alexa Ray Joel and Sailor Brinkley Cook in the newest issue of Sport Illustrated’s Swimsuit edition. 

2. 72-year-old Jan de Villeneuve owning the runway. 

De Villeneuve, who first began modeling in the ‘60s, recently walked for Simone Rocha and Osman at London Fashion Week. 

3. 60-year-old Yazemeenah Rossi landing a major swimsuit campaign.  

Last year, Rossi posed for a beautiful swimsuit collaboration between The Dreslyn and lingerie house Land of Women.

4. 56-year-old Nicola Griffin’s golden Swimsuits for All ad. 

Griffin was a golden goddess in this Swimsuits for All ad in 2016’s Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue. 

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Democratic women wore white to President Trump’s first address to Congress on Tuesday ― a sartorial tribute to the suffragists who fought for women’s right to vote. It was also, perhaps, a nod to Hillary Clinton who frequently wore white in major moments on the campaign trail.  

But for congressman and self-appointed style arbiter Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), the powerful symbolic gesture just didn’t land.

In a radio town hall on Wednesday, Cramer criticized the women as “poorly dressed” and made fun of their “bad-looking white pantsuits.” The comments, Politico reports, were unprovoked, as Cramer veered off the topic of bipartisanship and offered up his unsolicited style critique. 

Per Politico:

Did you notice how poorly several of them were dressed as well? It is a syndrome. There is no question, there is a disease associated with the notion that a bunch of women would wear bad-looking white pantsuits in solidarity with Hillary Clinton to celebrate her loss. You cannot get that weird.

Seemingly lost on Cramer is the fact that white was one of the official colors of many of the parties that led the suffragist movement.

Or that it’s a color that has been embraced by a long line of women in politics, like Geraldine Ferraro when she accepted the vice presidential nomination.

Or that around the election, #WearWhiteToVote and #WomenWearWhite was all over Twitter to mark how far women in this country have come.

Or that the congresswomen themselves explained they wore white not to “celebrate Clinton’s loss” (whatever that means), but as “a reminder to continue the ongoing fight to attain equal rights for all women,” as Lois Frankel (D-Fla.), chair of the Democratic Women’s Working Group said in a statement.

Guess none of that matters, though, if some dude doesn’t like your outfit.

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Looking to Instagram for fashion and style ideas can be helpful: You’ll realize that occasionally you just need to look at your closet with fresh eyes. Other times you just need to add those booties to your online cart, you know? 

We rounded up our favorite style bloggers who influence our own wardrobe, convince us that thigh-high boots need a dose of body positivity, and tell us straight up which clothes and accessories will be everywhere next season. 

Many, if not all, dress in an affordable way (or least mix high-fashion accessories with low-price staples). Which makes them all the more our kind of girls. 

Nicolette Mason, @nicolettemason

Nicolette Mason’s style is inspiring for any body type, but especially for women who want to know more about where to buy and how to style plus-size. The style blogger and Marie Claire contributing editor’s Instagram feed doesn’t stop at fashion: Mason is openly gay and vocal about the current political climate.

Alyssa Coscarelli, @alyssainthecity

As a fashion editor at Refinery29, a love of clothing is written into Alyssa Coscarelli’s job. Followers will get plenty of cool-girl outfits such as in the photo above, to DIY creative ideas. A recent posts gives instructions for how to make earrings using supplies from a hardware store.

Karen Blanchard, @karenbritchick

Karen Blanchard’s street style mixes high end pieces with accessible fashion, proving that looking good doesn’t need to mean head-to-toe designer. The style blogger and photographer sells many of her items on her site, Where Did You Get That? So if you fall in love with her shoes, there’s a chance they could be yours.

Aimee Song, @songofstyle

Aimee Song has 4.4 million Instagram followers and for good reason: Her feed provides endless images of fashion inspiration and wanderlust. You might want her faux fur coat, her bathing suit or a pretty ruffle shirt she wore. You might want all three. 

Katie Dirks, @styleontarget

Katie Dirks lives in Indianapolis and it’s safe to say that Target is her favorite place to shop. Every outfit she posts includes a garment, accessory or shoe she bought from the store, proving that you don’t need to spend loads of money to look right on trend. 

Paloma Elsesser, @palomija

Paloma Elsesser is a plus-size fashion model and muse to makeup megastars like Pat McGrath. Follow her Instagram for creative ways to mix athletic pieces such as Nike shorts and sports bras into everyday, enviable outfits. 

Carly A. Heitlinger, @carly

People with a love for preppy style will find their inspiration from Carly Heitlinger, the woman behind the blog The College Prepster. 

Frédérique Harrel, @freddieharrel

Freddie Harrel’s fashion philosophy is one we can get behind: “You are not only one person! But dozens, hundreds of personalities,” Freddie writes on her blog. “I use style as a tool to bring them out.”

The popular U.K. blogger is the founder of SHE Unleashed, a series of confidence workshops, and Big Hair No Care, a hair extension company. 

Jeanette Johnson, @jseverydayfashion

Fashion lovers and responsible budgeters rejoice. Jeanette Johnson is committed to styling cute outfits without running yourself into credit card debt. Johnson runs the blog J’s Everyday Fashion, in which she shows her followers how to recreate trendy celebrity outfits, such as Olivia Palermo’s, above, but for way less money. All of her ideas are searchable under the hashtag #lookforless. 

Katie Sturino, @the12ishstyle

Katie Sturino is dedicated to showing women sizes 12, 14 and 16 how to dress. These sizes can be unavailable in most stores, but the people who need them often do not quite fit into plus-size clothing. Sturino shows this cohort where to find the clothes they need, and just how to style it. 

Our favorite bit of Sturino’s advice? Before you put your outfit on, put your confidence on first.

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The most emotionally charged moment of President Donald Trump’s speech to Congress on Tuesday belonged to Carryn Owens, the wife of Chief Petty Officer William (Ryan) Owens, the Navy SEAL killed in a commando raid that Trump authorized in January. The bi-partisan standing ovation that she drew lasted for several minutes as the widowed mother of three wept openly and, with eyes turned toward heaven, mouthed the words “I love you” to her dead husband.

Her husband’s sacrifice and her reaction broke through the partisan rancor that plagues Washington ― as well it should have.

But as a recent widow myself, I cringed on her behalf. By inviting her there, Trump exploited her and her husband’s death to score political points and to insulate himself from criticism about the raid in Yemen. Just earlier in the day, Trump ― the commander-in-chief ― shifted responsibility for the tragedy to the military. “They lost Ryan,” said the President, straight out of the blame-someone-else-on-the-playground handbook. Bill Owens, Ryan’s father, would have none of it. He has called for a full investigation into his son’s death and flat-out accused Trump of using the tragedy for political gain. 

But putting politics aside, the rawness of Ms. Owens’ loss caused that now-familiar knot in my widow’s gut to pull tighter. I recognize grief when I see it and hers was on full display in front of Congress, America and the rest of the world.

It was genuine, authentic, and very, very real. What wasn’t any of those things was the reason why she was there in the first place.

Why was she invited to watch the speech from the First Lady’s box, seated next to First Daughter Ivanka, whose polished coolness stood in stark contrast with the widow’s struggle to stay in control? Shouldn’t the first step in honoring her husband and recognizing her loss have been respecting her enough to not turn her into a spectacle?

I know that presidents since Ronald Reagan have given speeches where they spotlight individuals to make a point, vignette-style. But Carryn Owens was used, paraded out to deflect attention from the man who some hold responsible for her widowhood. It was a move Trump has used in the past. Remember when he lined up women who had accused Bill Clinton of rape after the “I grab their pussies” audio surfaced? As HuffPost’s Jessica Samakow pointed out at the time, Trump doesn’t care a whit about the sexual assault of women. And I’d be highly suspect that he cares a whit about Carryn Owens or her suffering. 

What he did to Carryn Owens was gross and manipulative. There is such a thing as a Widow’s Card ― when the inherent sympathies directed toward widows are used for someone’s gain. And while Owens may not have played that card, the President played it for her.

I know this because I have spent the past eight weeks watching how people respond to the news that my husband died. They want to show me kindness, give me things, help me. It’s human nature perhaps. I’ve seen it happen repeatedly. My plumber went out and bought me my very own toilet snake ― gratis, because you know, I’m a widow now. The mobile car detailing guy quoted me a price, but dropped it when he heard this was my dead husband’s car that I’m getting ready to sell. 

Nice gestures, yes, but quite honestly it makes my skin crawl a little. I’m not comfortable being on the receiving end of pity, and that’s what the Widow’s Card buys you. In the case of Carryn Owens, her card bought a round of applause born from sympathy. But it also bought praise for a man who cares very little for any human life outside of his own. 

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Chances are you’re aware that silk comes from silkworms. They have the word silk in their name, for crying out loud. But did you know that silk ― luxurious, expensive silk ―  comes from inside a worm’s mouth? 

Yes, that’s right. Silk is produced from a worm’s salivary glands.

Tom Turpin, professor of entomology at Purdue University, explained how it all works to The Huffington Post. “Their glands produce it, it’s extruded out in the salivary gland and when they get ready to pupate, once they are done feeding, then they spin the cocoon,” he said.

Silkworms feed on mulberry leaves for 42 days, after which, Turpin explains, one worm can spin up to “3,000 yards of silk,” all in one strand. That’s why, he said, killing the silkworms is a necessary part of the silk making process.

Yes, killing the silkworms.

“Once the caterpillar is done spinning, it will literally release a chemical that will sort of dissolve the silk so the moth can get out,” he said. “If they extrude the chemical it will dissolve one end, leaving you with 3,000 one-yard pieces of silk rather than one piece of silk 3,000 yards long.” 

The silkworms, once fully wrapped in their silk cocoons, are poured into boiling water, which kills the worm and binds the silk together. “You pick off the anchor strands, which are just knots of silk and then you pull out the two lines of silk and start running it around a wheel,” Turpin said.

While Turpin said the boiling water method is commonly used on a small scale for silk-making hobbyists, the practice can also be done by steaming or putting the cocoons in the sun, as a video from Vox explains.  

There are, however, ways to produce silk in a more humane way. Aurora Silk, a company that calls itself the “#1 source for eco-friendly, organic, fair-trade, natural dyes and fabrics for over 45 years,” makes “peace silk,” made from empty cocoons. Phoebe Holland, one of the Aurora Silk’s employees, explains that even though the fibers will have come apart from the moth breaking the cocoon, the silk fibers are pulled apart, twisted and spun, rather than reeled, as they are when it is one continuous fiber. 

So why wouldn’t more producers go the humane route when it comes to making silk? In part, it comes down to aesthetics. “Reeled silk makes that shimmery satin look and feel you associate with silk, while spun silk is harder,” Holland said. 

On the other hand, when asked about people who take issue with killing the worms to get the silk, Turpin said there is “a long range of attitudes people have about these sorts of things,” and that he believes “everyone can believe what they want.” 

Whatever your stance on the production, one thing rings true: Silk is way more complex and fascinating than we ever imagined. 

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For President Donald Trump’s first address to Congress on Tuesday, first lady Melania Trump wore a black, belted Michael Kors outfit that retailed for $10,000.

Though some news outlets were shocked by the color, sequins and the price tag of the outfit, others pointed out that Kors was actually a major Hillary Clinton supporter. On Wednesday morning, Kors politely pointed out in a statement that he did not dress Melania for the event: 

“Mrs. Trump has been a longtime client at our New York boutique,” he said, according to the New York Times. “She has a keen understanding of what works best for her and her lifestyle. My embroidered black suit reflects the streamlined glamour that she is known for.”

Dressing the first lady of the United States is a contentious issue because of her husband’s policies and actions, before and after he was elected president. Many designers have made it clear that they will not dress Melania, including Derek Lam, Marc Jacobs, Phillip Lim and, perhaps most outspokenly, Tom Ford and Sophie Theallet. 

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Zohra Opoku was 12 years old when she first started sewing her own outfits, bored by the options available to her in East Germany, where she lived.

The budding artist, of Ghanaian and German descent, realized then the transcendent power that fashion possessed. Clothing could communicate cultural allegiances and familial traditions, personal style could serve as a sort of hybridized autobiography, and rebellious ensembles allowed one to break free ― at least, somewhat ― of circumstances and heritage, giving fantasy physical form.

“I actually created my first winter jacket out of scraps of jeans with neon yellow pieces,” she told i-D. “Expressing myself with individual style seemed to me to be the only way to escape from the grey reality of the GDR [German Democratic Republic].”

Now, Opoku lives Accra, Ghana, where she works as a multimedia artist practicing in installation, sculpture and photography. Though she does not identify as a fashion designer, African textiles and the spirit of dress-up play a major role in her work. She’s composed large-scale installations made from second-hand clothes, imported materials from Germany to Ghana, and often transfers her screen-printed photographs onto bedsheets to evoke childhood memories of laundry hanging out to dry. 

Opoku’s ongoing fixation with fashion is rooted in its ability to render one’s interior state onto the body and beyond it. “Textiles feel like the perfect vehicle with which identity can be performed,” she told the website Omenka. “It is the outcome of my research on how fashion, trends and clothes traditions are related to a cultural identity that I then perform in my photographs, video, sculptures and installations.” 

A series of Opoku’s photographic self-portraits are on view this week at The Armory Fair, exhibited by Somali-French gallerist Mariane Ibrahim. The images feature Opoku in the forest behind her Ghana home. In the early morning light, Opoku captures herself ― adorned with striking ensembles and jewelry ― partially submerged in her natural surroundings. The foliage and its fruits become improvised accessories, natural jewels that both complement and mask their wearer. 

This gesture refers to the experience of moving to a new environment and trying to fit in, one Opoku underwent when relocating from Germany to Ghana. She has compared the feeling of blending in with a new habitat to the West African tradition of masquerade ― in which citizens pay homage to guardian spirits, while poking fun at religious and spiritual leaders, by dressing up in elaborate, handmade disguises that turn the world topsy-turvy.

For Opoku, who both relocated across continents and switched fields from fashion to fine art, identity is something textured and hyphenated. Clothing, photography and disguise all offer up a stage on which she can consciously perform certain aspects of herself while hiding others. In this realm, where trees become improvised outfits and photos conceal as much as they reveal, the lines between make-believe, camouflage, hiding and invisibility tend to blur.

In Ghana, Opoku is moved by the abundance of nature, which constantly yields artistic inspiration and potential new getups. Yet there is no opposition between the domains of fashion and nature, which might otherwise appear at odds. Rather, the two bleed into one another, just as a twig becomes a veil in one of Opoku’s photos.

“I love the sound of nature and the smooth movements of leafs in the wind,” the artist said. “These sequences remind me of a dream or a mystic appearance, which refer back to ideas of invisibility and masquerade.”

See Opoku’s work this week at Mariane Ibrahim Gallery, Booth P02, at The Armory Show in New York. (Piers 92 & 94 at 711 12th Avenue between 54th and 52nd Sts.) 

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