Maximalist E*MO*TION
Dames Nationals, this will be a shorter than usual issue. Dame Sophie had to take last minute (non-emergency!) medical leave, so Dame Margaret is flying solo. Luckily, however, an Honorable friend decided to drop by this week just in time to be our lead subject: namely, Miss Phryne Fisher, whose upcoming feature film released a stunning full-length trailer that is, 100%, screaming “JAMES BOND WHO?????” as loudly as it can. Revel in its myriad delights:
If you somehow missed the joys of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries while they were available on Netflix a subscription to Acorn TV, its new streaming home, is only $60 a year, making it an excellent present to either request for yourself or buy for a British TV-loving person in your life.
And, for a chaser, can we heartily recommend the trailer for the upcoming movie adaptation of Lin Manuel-Miranda’s other Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, IN THE HEIGHTS:
Directed by John M. Chu, who previously brought us the delights of CRAZY RICH ASIANS, this looks extremely promising. Hopefully, you all enjoy these trailer treats as much as we have.
Dame Margaret’s Glamorous Aspirations
Your Maximalist future is waving hello.
Long-time #Damesfav Rachel Syme published two utterly essential pieces in The New Yorker last week. First: her delightful profile of KNIVES OUT star Jamie Lee Curtis, which is somehow where Yours Truly first learned (1) that Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh were married and (2) that Jamie Lee Curtis was their daughter?? Even better, I learned that Jamie Lee Curtis was also Bette Davis’s condo-board president, which is a sitcom I would certainly watch. And then, in an apt thematic pairing, Rachel also published a glorious shopping guide for women, like herself, looking to “dress like an eighty-five-year-old woman who is long past the point of caring what others think.”
This description of course reminded me of a favorite Blog of Yore: Advanced Style which, it turns out, still slaps.
It also inspired me to put together my own miniature maximalist gift guide, which is as follows:
As all of it is on sale at present, please let me heartily endorse Uniqlo’s cashmere sweaters. Whether it’s a $70 crewneck in one of 18 dazzling colors or a $50 Eileen Fisher-esque cocoon cardigan, there is not a bad choice in the bunch.
Also at Uniqlo presently is a gorgeous capsule collection from legendary Finnish design house Marimekko, which has me contemplating, for nearly the first time in my life, the virtue of owning a puffer coat.
eShakti, one of my very favorite retailers, just did something unconscionable: they debuted a high-end line of dresses and jumpsuits, one of which I have already fallen utterly in love with. $159 is more than I would normally spend on a single garment, especially one I have nowhere in particular to wear, but this pine-green jumpsuit is just so elegant! It has such Kate Hepburn swagger! And, if you’re someone who’s had a hard time finding an off-the-rack jumpsuit because of your unique proportions, it could be just what you’re looking for, as eShakti can custom-make garments to your measurements. If this is your first time shopping with them, my name (margarethwillison) will work as a coupon code entitling you to 35% off and free customization.
I bought this velvet camisole from J. Crew for all my holiday party needs and, honestly, I have rarely been complimented on a garment more. I got it 50% off on Black Friday and recommend you wait for similar discounts post-Christmas to snap it up. Your New Year’s Eve plans can benefit. The chances of me getting a second one are… not slim.
And finally, friends, let me introduce you to my newest dangerous addiction: Poshmark, the secondhand clothing shopping site where you can, for example, browse all the J. Crew shoes in your size until you find the perfect glitter heels you’ve always dreamed up, and then you can make an absurd low-ball offer and sometimes, just sometimes, the seller will agree and you’ll get your perfect shoes for $30.
Continuing in the theme of fabulous women, I wanted to take a moment and recommend two podcasts. First: Dolly Parton’s America from WNYC, which I have mentioned in the newsletter previously, has continued to delight me. It’s not perfect-- its production, for example, is a bit fussier than I prefer, but the Dolly stories it relates are wonderful, as are the Dolly-adjacent topics into which it delves. Second: from the WBEZ Chicago team who made my long-time favorites Making Oprah and Making Obama comes: Making Beyoncé, and it’s just what it says on the tin-- an in-depth look at how Beyoncé became who we know her as today. So far, we’ve made it up through the formation of Destiny’s Child. I am eagerly awaiting the rest of the story.
Completely unrelated to any of the above, I had my socks charmed almost entirely off by Katie Heaney’s essay for The Cut on The O.C.’s Christmakkuh episode on and the profound impact it had on her adolescent sexual identity.
And somewhat related to that: thanks to NPR Music’s Lyndsey McKenna, I learned today that there’s a Boston-based group called Something Merry whose preferred fundraising method is gathering a bunch of great indie-rock bands and having them cover iconic pop albums, with all proceeds going to charity. I am not yet emotionally strong enough to listen to this year’s album, ReRed, which covers all the songs from Taylor Swift’s Red (proceeds to benefit the Equal Justice Initiative), but I was shocked by how much I loved last year’s: a tribute to Carly Rae Jepsen’s E*MO*TION (proceeds to benefit Immigration Equality). Given how attached I am to the original, I expected to find the covers lacking, but they were all really interesting and great. And they all seem EXTREMELY like something Seth Cohen would put on a mixtape for one of the two women competing for the right to be his girlfriend.
And they put me in mind of this favorite rendition of a favorite song:
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