Wear, Watch, Want #196: The Hooded 90s Driver Edition
Wear: Vuori Halo Performance Hoodie
I mentioned this hoodie in passing when I praised Vuori’s Jeffrey’s Pullover, but it’s time to highlight this perfect sweatshirt on its own. During the recent REI sale, I bought the heather gray and when I went to the store to pick it up, the person helping me said, “Oh, you’re going to LOVE this hoodie” and I said, “I probably will… this is my third one.” (I also have it in black and the maroony-red pictured above.) The REI sales rep with fabulous taste in sweatshirts was wearing one in a heathered forest green, which I had never seen before, and they said Vuori comes out with different colors fairly regularly. REI has pretty basic colors, but the Vuori site has more colors AND more sizes. These hoodies are the perfect weight, the fabric is soft and stretchy and they wash up beautifully. I own three, and I’m certain I will be getting more, especially when some new colors drop.
Watch: Cruel Summer
I am such an absolute sucker for a soapy Freeform show. Proof: I watched all of Guilt, an Amanda Knox-inspired show, and Dead of Summer, a (somehow sappy) summer camp slasher series. Neither of these shows were good! Now I’m hooked on Cruel Summer, which is incredibly popular and is actually pretty okay. I think the Freeform quality metric is more focused on “watchable” rather than “good,” and Cruel Summer is very watchable.
Each episode of the show takes place on the same day, across three years: 1993, 1994, and 1995. In 1993 Jennette (Chiara Aurelia) a sweet nerd, and Kate (Olivia Holt) is the popular girl… who gets abducted and held captive by the new assistant principal. In 1994, Jeanette has basically taken over Kate’s life - she’s now pretty and popular, dates Kate’s ex-boyfirend, and is BFFs with Kate’s old friends. Until Kate is found, and she accuses Jeanette of knowing she was being held captive and keeping it secret. In 1995, Jeanette is a depressed grungy loner who is hated by the whole town, and Kate has decided she’s not going to take any shit anymore - from anyone. Both girls are preparing for a big trial, and TWIST: It’s Jeanette who’s suing Kate.
Cruel Summer does a great job of unfolding the mystery, so just when you’re getting a little bored there’s a TWIST and you think, “Okay, I’ll stick around.” There are a lot of unanswered questions, both becasue it’s a mystery thriller show, but also because it’s full of anachronisms and nonsensical storylines. The kidnapper, Martin Harris (Blake Lee) is the new assistant principal, but the kidnapping takes place in the summer, before school starts. He’s at parties and gets invited on Kate’s family’s hunting trip and chaperones the fair and he’s yet to work ONE day at the school, with students? He’s also 1) An assistant principal at like, 30, and 2) Buys a house that looks like it could comfortably house a family of six, but he’s just one bachelor? I mean he does keep a teenager captive in his basement but there’s no sign he bought the house with that in mind. There are also a number of anachronisms involving the 90s setting, but they’re not too blatant. Every time a character mentions “trauma,” which is A LOT, I want to yell, “NOPE!” Because my friends, we did not talk about trauma in the 90s. It existed, sure, and maybe mental health professionals said it, but we did NOT use the word trauma like they do in Cruel Summer. Jeanette’s ugly necklace should have been a yin yang. Honestly, I feel so strongly about this necklace thing I could let everything else go if they just fixed that. No one, not even a massive nerd, would wear a necklace that has a HUGE pendant emblanized with “You Go Girl!” But she would have absolutely worn a yin yang, AND then you would have added SYMBOLISM (and cultural appropriation, but let’s be real, that was ALSO a huge part of the 90s).
Even though the show has some plot holes and anachronisms, it’s incredibly watchable and the two leads are fantastic at portraying their parts across three timelines (Olivia Holt in particular is amazing and I would like her to be cast as a young Julia Stiles immediately). The only part that is really tripping me up is that apparently these are three different people?? Honestly, which of these guys is which is the biggest mystery of all.
Want: Rothy’s Driving Loafers
Rothy’s, makers of my favorite flats, has come out with a line for men. Look, there’s no reason that men, or nonbinary folks for that matter, can’t buy the women’s Rothy’s, and there’s no reason I can’t buy the men’s driving loafers, which I will be doing some time in the future. Driving loafers are classic, and in that amazing Rothy’s fabric? Essential. They’re sold out of 7.5s in black, otherwise I’d probably have them already.
