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When I was watching Rihanna's "You Da One" video, I was struck by two things: one was the incredible shot-by-shot similarity between Rihanna's work and an old Numéro editorial by Solve Sundsbo (which director Melina Matsoukas, who previously was caught ripping off an old David LaChapelle editorial for another Rihanna video, failed to credit). The other was her nails. Those nails, I thought, are pretty awesome. So I decided to try replicating them at home. More »
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If you've never made a purse before, this just might be the purse for you. My last bag, the envelope clutch, was a great opportunity to explain the basics of leather working and bag construction. But that project had six major seams and nine minor ones. This bag, on the other hand, has two: the bottom and sides are sewn in one long seam, and the zipper is attached to the top in another. And that's it! If you can sew two seams — and no, you do not need a sewing machine — you can sew this bag. It's a simple but versatile design, and if you haven't worked with leather, this would be a great project with which to learn. More »
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For me, a big part of the pleasure of giving a loved one a gift is in the wrapping. I'm not planning to give or receive many gifts this year — I have enough stuff, for real — but I get such a kick out of wrapping presents that the rest of my family tends to delegate all their gift-wrapping to me. With a few mugs of mulled wine and a podcast or two on the stereo, it's fun and an easy way to be creative on a small scale. And you don't have to spend a bunch of money on paper and ribbons, either. You can wrap great-looking presents with stuff you probably already have on hand. More »
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I love eyebrows. I love the variety of eyebrows people have. I love thick ones, thin ones, long ones, short ones. I love really dramatically arched ones and I love flat ones, too. I have always been into eyebrows. When I was a tween — not that we used that word back then — I used to stare long and hard at each new photograph of my favorite band, the Spice Girls, trying to determine who had the best eyebrows, the eyebrows that most suited her face (Posh). I still can't pass a movie poster or a magazine cover without giving the eyebrows of those featured a quick evaluation. I sometimes lurk on the Fashion Spot "Models With Big Eyebrows" thread. Good eyebrows, eyebrows that harmonize with their surroundings, enhance your face and bring out your eyes; bad brows can ruin an otherwise lovely appearance. And among the many things I truly believe in — universal single-payer health care, that all dairy products just taste better in New Zealand, the absolute and fundamental beauty of the fall-winter, 2011, Miu Miu collection — is this: everyone can tweeze their own brows. There is no reason — no good reason — to pay someone at a salon $20 every few weeks to do what you can do not only as well but better in the privacy of your own home. Some people argue that it helps to see a professional, if only to learn their methods — Dodai still speaks almost rapturously of her former eyebrow guy, a Peruvian named Sergio — and I can't say I totally disagree; eyebrow shaping is one of those things it's easier to take a practical lesson in. But even though trying to write about how to do eyebrows is sort of like trying to boil water in a paper cup, I did my best with this online instructional. Because frankly, being able to do your own brows will save you time, money, and most importantly, it will give you back control over one key aspect of how you look. So here, by reader request, is a post on how to pluck your eyebrows. More »
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It's getting mighty chilly up here around the 40th Parallel of the earth's Northern Hemisphere, leading some (okay, me) to turn our crafting imaginations to scarves and visions in bulky-weight yarn. This Burberry-inspired cowl is warm enough to wear under a blazer or a jacket on a brisk autumn evening, and — layered over a scarf — it kept my neck and ears warm last night during Occupy Wall Street's very cold Brooklyn bridge march. Best of all, the pattern is available for free online, and it only takes a few hours to make. Here's how. More »
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If you're not into wearing loud prints or bright colors, introducing those things in miniature doses can make for a fun change of pace. Mixed prints and colors were everywhere at the spring collections, which ended last month, and a few designers showed head-wraps and/or had their models' hair styled with bits of fabric woven through. Simpler than plaiting a piece of printed cotton into your bun, however, is making a jazzed-up hair comb or barrette that you can just stick on top. This week's DIY will show you how.

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Why not freshen up your nail game — and/or document your Jackson Pollock/Abstract Expressionism fandom — with this DIY manicure that mimics the effect of spattered paint? Like all the best things in life, it looks a hell of a lot more complicated than it actually is. All that stands between you and getting just the right amount of streaky spatter on your fingertips is a little nail polish and a drinking straw.

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You know what I have too many of? T-shirts. There are t-shirts in my closet that I've had for years and never worn. Band t-shirts, random promotional t-shirts, fun-run t-shirts, hand-me-down t-shirts — whether scoop or V or crew, t-shirts basically go to my wardrobe to sit around in neatly folded piles, collecting guilt. One day this summer, I was "talking" with Lux Alptraum, the proprietor of our wonderful sister blog Fleshbot [which is thoroughly and definitely NSFW] on IM, which is how I communicate with all of my colleagues because I am antisocial and that way nobody has to know when I'm not wearing pants, and she told me she'd recently turned a t-shirt into a pillow. The shirt had a cool design on the front, but it was too big for her and she never wore it. The pillow looked really cool. Probably a lot cooler than the original shirt had. And there is probably not much that's easier than turning a t-shirt into a pillow! You cut it out, you sew it, you stuff it, and you're done, folks. I thought 'We have to turn this into a DIY!' So, one recent Saturday, Lux came over and we made t-shirt pillows. The shirt I used bore the name of the college I graduated from. I believe my parents bought it for me at one of those ubiquitous Made In China school-memorabilia shops in 2005 or 2006; when I pulled it out of my closet, it still had tags on. This is a vastly better use. More »
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My mum had a cookbook called Half A Can Of Tomato Paste And Other Culinary Dilemmas that sat on our kitchen bookshelf when I was a little kid. (I remember her explaining to me what a dilemma was one night while she was microwaving me some Milo.) If someone were to concoct a book on crafts and pitch it at my particular tastes, it wouldn't be one of those books full of elaborate projects that take nineteen balls of wool apiece. It would probably be called Half A Skein Of Yarn And Other DIY Dilemmas. This week's DIY is one project that comfortably takes care of that kind of leftovers. More »
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New York fashion week wrapped up yesterday after nine days of designer shows and presentations, and intrepid photographer Arianna Reiche did the backstage rounds for Jezebel. Read on for tips from makeup artists, models making faces, actually fewer cigarettes than one might expect, and painful footwear.

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I guess it's no real secret that I'm into doing my nails. Having manicured hands stops me from biting my nails, for one thing, and I am lucky enough to be in a profession where I can rock all kinds of weird nail art. That wasn't always the case; I sometimes think that my interest in nails is just one more after-effect of having first a high school and then a job where anything but clear polish was verboten — kind of like how I still don't own a single pair of brown leather shoes because those were the shoes I had to wear, with white socks, every weekday from ages 12-17. That and as a writer I spend a lot of time looking at my hands, I suppose. More »
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Much unlike many a magazine editor who recommends you buy all sorts of crap that they most likely got for free, your Jezebel staff doesn't get jack shit (other than books, unsolicited). And that's how it should be. But on our own time, in our personal lives, we still buy stuff. So this is Worth It, our daily recommendation of random things that we've actually spent our own money on. These are the things we buy regularly or really like, things we'd actually tell our friends about. And now we're telling you. More »
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I was looking through some old Corinne Day editorials the other day when I came across an image Day shot of model Rosemary Ferguson for The Face in August, 1993. The story, called "England's Dreaming," was styled by Melanie Ward and it's pretty much amazing (at least based on the bits and pieces I could find online). But a particular t-shirt Ferguson wore in it really drew me. I couldn't tell if it was ugly or not, but I liked it. And I wanted to make one. More »
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This week's DIY comes to you with a hat-tip to Sarah Palin. Please don't stop reading: the thinking woman's least favorite half-governor has a pretty fearsome nail game. Don't imitate Palin's politics: bite her nails (steez). More »
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Oh, handbags. Next to underwear, shoes, and swimsuits, it's hard to think of a fashion item with a less attractive cost-per-square-inch. But if you have a few hours, a few beers, some leather and a needle and thread, you too can make a gorgeous, top-quality bag of your own. No sewing machine required. More »
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If you've always wanted to learn how to knit but haven't known where to begin, you're in luck! Author, DIY maven, and BUST co-founder Debbie Stoller just recorded her first-ever DIY knitting instructional video, and she decided to share it with us. Watch as Stoller shows how to hold the yarn, how to cast on, and how to do your first rows of stitches. (If you already know how to cast on, you can skip ahead to 2:40.) "Knitting is really just a matter of pulling one loop of yarn through another loop of yarn," she says. "It's really not that different from what you do each morning when you tie your shoes." More »
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Back in the era of Deco and Depression and FDR, ladies who did paint their fingernails didn't generally paint their fingernails the whole way. Wouldn't you like to know their secrets? More »
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Did you ever make those elastic and safety-pin bracelets at YMCA camp? With the beads on? Those were fun. Well, I have some good news: ordinary safety pins — shiny, sharp safety pins of the type that sell in 100 count bags for $2 — can improve the coolness factor of almost any article of clothing by up to 78%. Here's how. More »
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Leopard-print nails are fun, and one of the easiest "fancy" manicures to DIY. All the painting is freehand, and you can work quickly because the more uneven your leopard spots are, the better. With three chords, you can write a rock song. With three polish colors, you can do your nails all leopard-y. More »
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Ever wanted to dye your own stuff? It's actually a lot easier than it sounds, it (miraculously) doesn't take any special equipment, and the results can be a million times cooler than the basic tie-dye t-shirts the counselors made 9-year-old you do at YMCA camp. More »
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Making a necklace out of hardware store gleanings isn't exactly a brand new idea — in fact, there's a whole book dedicated to hardware store jewelry projects — but it is easy, satisfying, and generally cheaper than making a necklace out of regular old beads. (Or maybe the bead stores in my city are just overpriced.) And best of all, you can finish a necklace in about five minutes flat. More »
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Ever have a moment of acute designer covetousness that coincides with the realization that you have, like, $67.16 to last you through your next paycheck? The things we see on the runway and in magazines might as well for most of us exist in another universe. But if you consume designer collections more with your mind's eye than with your wallet, and you have some basic crafting skills, making your own at-home versions isn't always too hard. Last week, I took an idea Prada had — making handbags out of knitted leather — and translated it into a purse of my own. If you can knit, you can knit this bag. More »
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I feel like this happens to me all the time: I'm browsing the racks at the SalvA, skipping past unfortunate housedresses and schmattas of little significance when I spy something astonishing. Something really gorgeous. And this something only costs a few bucks, and I simply must have it. Only problem is, it doesn't quite fit. The dress is too long, it's too short, it's too big, it's too small, the arm holes are too high or they're too low, the waist gapes or the hips are tight, or maybe it just doesn't generally sit "right" — whatever the problem is, the astonishing dress is just not quite wearable as-is. More »
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Let's just say you have a crush. A huge crush. A massive crush. You can't stop thinking about this person. You're distracted, daydreamy, completely unproductive and totally unfocused. What do you do? How do you channel your energies? Below, you'll find ten easy steps that may or may not help. More »
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To write a tea instructional is to wade into darkly tannic waters long ago claimed by giants like Orwell and Douglas Adams. That hasn't stopped Christopher Hitchens, who writes an open letter on the subject. Nor shall it stop me. More »
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Model Jenna Mourey is the creator of this video, in which she explains "how to trick people into thinking you're good-looking," by doing things like bleaching the shit out of your hair and crying over your Master's degree. More »
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Want to learn how to draw a perfectly-coiffed Justin Bieber? Of course you do! Impress your tween cousins (or weirdly obsessed middle-age coworkers) with this illustrated four-step guide. [BuzzFeed] More »
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Yesterday, I asked our commenters if there were any beauty basics they felt they just couldn't master. The response was overwhelming, so I've decided we're going to tackle one of these beauty basic bummers each weekend. Lesson #1: Eyeliner. More »
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Some parents are raising their boys to be gay — but how to ensure Junior comes out all fierce and fabulous? Buy him some Baby Legs, because apparently a toddler in leg warmers is the Next Gay Thing. [MomLogic] More »
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Did you see our posts yesterday outlining the commenting process or our (fairly) new reader forum, #groupthink? If not, we have links! To learn more about commenting on Jezebel, go here. Information on our forum, go here. More »
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So, uh, if you've always wondered how to make your very own leggings out of all that sheet latex you have lying around...here's the dish! [BoingBoing] More »
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Jenna and Barbara Bush have written an open letter to Sasha and Malia, telling them what to expect in their years at the White House, what they should seek out and what they should avoid. More »
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Confused by how to dress for winter? One blogger has a tremendous idea: tucking in some sort of "tank top" underneath your top. An undershirt, if you will! For warmth! Next: Pants — Which Leg First? [FabSugar] More »
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Everyone needs a New Year's party trick. Long before mine was saying the most outrageous thing I could think of, it was tying cherry stems in a knot with my tongue. More »
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You may have already heard, but today, things will be changing in a big way for Jezebel commenters… and those on every other Gawker Media website: after months of hard work and dedication on the part of our design and tech department, we are introducing - wait for it - threaded comments. What's a threaded comment, you ask? More »
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The spine of Allure reads "The Beauty Expert." That's the mag's claim to fame. Nowhere does it say that the publication is for the mentally handicapped, three year olds, those recovering from spinal cord injuries or Neanderthals. (Or Cro-Mags, heh.) So it is impossible to comprehend why the glossy felt the need to publish a step-by-step charticle on how to take a shower. And yeah: It's illustrated. We suspect that they have just. Run. Out. Of. Ideas. Click the cover to see the piece in question. More »
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You may have noticed that some things have changed around here. And it's not just us: You, dear readers, will be changing as well. We want this site to be a happy place where we can discuss the positive aspects of what it means to be a woman: A sparkling personality! Having a great man in your life! Shopping! Career! And so you, the readers, will be expected to comment properly. There are new commenting rules, which will insure that the site has the correct tone, one of not only positivity but proper etiquette. Think of Jezebel as an incredibly chic tea party: You must look great and watch what you say. The new rules, after the jump. More »
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Want to weigh in on Jezebel? Don't have a commenter login? To become a commenter, you need to audition. To do so, click on the "New User?" link at the bottom of any individual post page. On the next screen, type a substantial, amusing or highly opinionated comment into the text field below the post, then enter your desired username and password. Click the "submit comment" button. Your comment won't show up until — and if! — we approve it. More »
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Want to weigh in on Jezebel? Don't have a commenter login? More »
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A note to our geekier readers: Now that you've discovered Jezebel, our RSS feeds make it easy to follow along. Jezebel offers both a full-content RSS feed (with advertising), or a partial-content RSS feed (sans ads). You can also subscribe to feeds for individual tags, so one can track all Jezebel stories tagged, for example, "Vogue". And if information overload is an issue, consider subscribing to our "Top" feed, which serves up just our best five or six stories each day. More »
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