No Nonsense #72 - All That Jazz, Non-Sense Fantasy and Smerz
Hi Dolls!
The Polyester team is back with a fresh roundup of our latest recs - look no further for your next obsession!!! <3
Gina Tonic - Senior Editor
Film: All That Jazz
In the mood for watching a masterpiece reflection on mortality from the greatest choreographer of all time? Get this watched.
Film: Idiotka
I was really blessed to get a screener for this really cute indie that spoofs Project Runway in a way that properly spears the toxic nature of reality tv, it’s out next year so keep an eye out.
Hatti Rex - Contributing Editor
Low-fi beats girl isn’t goth enough so the background music I use to concentrate has become extremely specific. Skip the first Main Theme track because it sounds like you’re on hold to the dentist but the rest of them give a perfect spooky ambience. I’d never actually played this game when it came out but I used to love Emily Strange as a teenager, had various t-shirts and figurines from the skate shop in Derby. She’s an alt legend.
Appreciate Avon is a grandma-coded brand and not cool at all but I was gifted a bottle of this at a Superdrug event over a year ago and now I’ve ran out, which means something. I spray it on at the drying end of an everything shower and it really does make your skin soft, I keep telling people it feels like being on holiday but I don’t know if that’s just because I used it on my last holiday. My Mum informed me that my Nan used to use it all the time which checks out. I’ll deffo be repurchasing.
Jenn Lehwald - Social Editor
I hate putting on lotion after I shower and I’m not afraid to say it. I’m inherently lazy and it’s a sensory nightmare. HOWEVER, this you can apply in the shower (I think you’re meant to leave it on but I rinse it off) and leaves your skin soooooo soft. Also smells really nice
Misha MN - Contributing Editor
TV Series: American Horror Story: Coven
I’m still deep in my Halloween cinema schedule of classic horror schlock, but with the announcement of Jessica Lange’s imminent return to Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story, there was one thing I knew I had to revisit; COVEN. Definitely my favourite season of the AHS multiverse, it’s a wild ride watching it with 2025 eyes. The clothes are a fashion tumblr blogger’s wet dream, the fish eye camera angles are extremely 2010s, and the story is bonkers. Its portrayal of race politics is jarringly direct (simplistic?) in a way that I don’t think TV could get away with now, but it gives us two perfect anchors for this bizarre, witchy, camp smorgasbord; Jessica Lange as Fiona Goode, and Angela Bassett as Marie Laveau. The good bits are still good, the bad bits are still bad, but it brings me a joy I haven’t felt since the era of pale blogs and the Surprise Bitch gif.
Film: Ocean’s 8
When I’m in need of a comfort watch, there is one woman who I always turn to, and it’s Sandra Bullock. I haven’t put this on my Letterboxd, but Ocean’s Eight might be one of my favourite films. It’s got everything you could want, Sandy being charming and sexily hyper-competent, Cate Blanchett being dykey and hot, computer hacker Rihanna, repressed housewife Sarah Paulson, a jewellery heist at the met gala, a tennis-based cameo from Anna Wintour, Sandra Bullock speaking German, appearances from the Kardashians, the Hadids, Andrew Bolton, Hamish Bowles, Zac Posen, Marlo Thomas (my fav character actress), everyone! The only bad things are Helena Bonham Carter being Irish for some reason, and James Corden turning up as a detective at the end, but that can be overlooked. Absolutely perfect trash viewing, five stars.
Song: House - Charli XCX ft. John Cale
I’m really sorry but I’m obsessed with this song. And the other one (fall in love again and again fall in love again and again). I don’t even like Charli, I was a brat denier, and I hate Emerald Fennell even more, but I fear I’m going to be a sucker for the Wuthering Heights soundtrack. At least House has the cultural cache of John Cale, from the legendary Velvet Underground, doing a lovely spoken word section which devolves into some very stirring drone sounds. Please let me keep some dignity.
Camille Mariet- LA Editor
Playing with what scents work well together to make your scent profile more ~ yours ~...one of my favorite combos is Hwyl by Aesop (yassified Home Depot) and Tempo by Diptyque (elevated Haight-Ashbury)
My roommate put me on to this crazy ass SNES game that was unbelievably hard and also unbelievably fun to look at. It belongs to a subgenre of ‘shoot ‘em up’ games called ‘cute ‘em ups’ that are basically freaked out versions of arcade classics. There’s big ladies blowing tiny babies at you, killer penguins, bubble bathers, flying pigs, a killer showgirl…and the cherry on top is its 8-bit classical soundtrack which I was very charmed by <3
Rob Corsini - Editorial Assistant
Game: Thank Goodness You’re Here
Played this joy of a video game a couple of months ago. You play as a salesman in a fictional town of Barnsworth in the North of England who goes around helping everyone out. The creators describe it as a “comedy slapformer” and it is very funny and easily digestible and a really simple game mechanically (you just have a button to slap). Whale of a time and it’s coming to Xbox next week.
I remain to this day a Little Mix stan, but I have to admit that Perrie’s album was a bit of a slow burn for me. But I have found myself listening to it a lot over the last couple of weeks save one track (Sand Dancer which I think is bad).
This video of two dogs interacting from car windows in a tunnel
Katy Cutbirth - Fashion Director
The Moth Club
such a sweet old-school venue, you feel like you’re stepping back in time as the stage curtains and bucket seats feel a bit like my elementary school cafeteria which was also the auditorium. It feels like it was last updated in the 80’s and hasn’t been touched since and I mean this in the best way possible. I could write a whole essay about the lack of institutions in London but this isn’t it because thankfully we do have the Moth Club.
The band I saw at the Moth Club, their latest album Big City Life EDITS just came out and its soooo good. It’s an updated version of their album Big City Life which came out in May this year. Similar to Charli xcx’s, Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat, the remixed album has features from some of the most exciting names in music (in my opinion at least), Fine, Elias Rinnnenfelt, haloplus+ and NEW YORK to name a few. The girls are just the coolest as well - outfits feel like something our fab older sisters would have worn in the early 2000’s think baker boy hat, low rise jeans, knee length dress with a fur lined puffer and bra straps on show. They’re sexy but not try hard, items could be designer but also could be from a charity shop.
Lauren O’Neill - Managing Editor
One of my worst habits is being extremely easily influenced by TikToks, which means I buy a lot of makeup, most of which is shit. However, let me put you onto my best find of the year: the One/Size Powder Melt Setting Spray. I am addicted to "dewy" skin to the point where to me, "beautiful" is synonymous with "looking slick like a fish", so this means that most makeup setting sprays, which dry down matte, don't work amazingly for me. The One/Size stuff, however, is a gamechanger: it locks the makeup in place for a genuinely long time, but it doesn't show up your pores or emphasise any powdery-ness - instead it melts yolur products together so you look blended and cute. It's also good for refreshing yourself throughout the day after you've been inside with loads of air conditioning, or outside battling against the elements: a little spray renews your whole makeup, which is great. I go through this like water, honestly, so when it recently sold out I was about two points less hot for a few weeks - but girls, I'm happy to announce we're so back. I am glowing like a freshly cooked French Fry, which is just how I like it.
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See you next time!
XOXO,
The Polyester Team