Cherry Red Takes the Win; Colour of the Season

On scarfs, shoes and accessories this winter, one thing is undeniable – the prevalence of cherry red throughout our favourite stores. In the run up to Christmas and the holidays I’ve handpicked some of my favourite effortlessly cool pieces.

Scroll down below to have a look at this holidays’ favourites; If you’re looking to dress up with some flair, look no further than the H&M blazer and skirt combo, or if you’re looking to add a pop of red to your wardrobe the Free People Firecracker Flare jeans are a must!

Bow-detail satin blazer - Dark red - Ladies | H&M GB

Bow-detail satin mini skirt - Dark red - Ladies | H&M GB

BRA WITH CONTRAST TULLE TOP - Red | ZARA United Kingdom

Custom Fit Garment-Dyed Oxford Shirt for Men | Ralph Lauren® UK

We The Free Firecracker Flare Jeans | Free People UK

Retro velvet trainers - Shoes - BSK Teen | Bershka

Lost Cherry Eau de Parfum | TOM FORD BEAUTY

However you incorporate cherry red to your holidays, the Tom Ford Lost Cherry perfume is the perfect finishing touch to any look this winter!

The One That Got Away - Why We Root for Emily in Paris' Gabriel

On the snowy slopes of Megève, our heroine falls, defeated. Abandoned by her boyfriend and unable to ski, she lies in her chic, Audrey Hepburn-esque outfit, flush against the snow. Just as all hope is lost, a hand reaches out, and as the sun flickers, we catch a glimpse of a handsome stranger coming to the rescue. Just one problem—this isn’t our leading man. The hero of this story is Chef Gabriel, who followed his pregnant ex-girlfriend Camille down the mountain.

Since its introduction in 2020, Emily in Paris was first mocked, then beloved! But one thing has always remained steady: the audience’s approval of the hot chef. We first meet Gabriel in season 1 with his long-term girlfriend Camille in tow. Despite this, and the later introduction of Emily’s boyfriend Alfie, we watch the love and attraction between Emily and Gabriel grow in the midst of affairs, exes, and new loves. The finale of Emily in Paris season 3 finally gave our couple a chance. As Camille stands in her family’s church holding Gabriel’s hands, she is unable to take her vows because “it’s always been you and Emily,” and she tearfully leaves the church. And as the dust settles (and Emily’s boyfriend breaks up with her), we’re left with a shot of Emily and Gabriel overlooking a balcony, hoping they get together.

But after four seasons of “will they, won’t they,” aren’t we tired of this by now? The unattainable love interest is a long-beloved trope in rom-coms, often used to propel our heroine into a journey of self-love. Other media similarly glamorizes the unattainable love interest; Sex and the City glamorizes Carrie’s leading man, ‘Big,’ to such an extent that his name is only revealed in the Sex and the City finale (six seasons later!). Where Carrie had her chance to be with sweet, adoring Aidan, she chased after Big despite all the signs that he just wasn’t that into her.

Bridget Jones’s Diary had its Daniel, Bridget’s boss who dumps her after initially pursuing her, prompting her vow to “find a nice, sensible boyfriend and stop forming romantic attachments to any of the following: alcoholics, workaholics, sexaholics, commitment-phobics, peeping toms, megalomaniacs, emotional fuckwits, or perverts.” The Holiday had its Iris, who found herself heartbroken after her unrequited love, Jasper, got engaged, prompting her to go to LA and meet Jack Black’s sweet and admiring Miles. Legally Blonde produced one of the most important messages of the 21st century as we see Elle get dumped by her boyfriend, pursue law school, and realize her true potential. If all of these tropes see our heroines develop despite the heartbreak, then why does Emily in Paris refuse to let Emily move on?

No wonder it’s refreshing to see Emily end her relationship with Gabriel in Megève as she states, “You’re always gonna choose her [Camille]!” A sigh of relief runs through us—what if Carrie had made the same decision in season 1? And at what point does a hopeless romance become just hopeless? Gossip Girl similarly had its heroine in Blair Waldorf, a hopeless romantic who thought the show’s ‘bad boy’ Chuck Bass was her soulmate until she realized she deserved better (spoiler: they still end up together).

Time and time again, we see our heroines chasing their male leads, waiting for them to realize that they’re the one because “it’s just meant to be.” He’s Just Not That Into You was the first movie to try to dispel that myth. Following the lives of several couples, we see their different dynamics as Justin Long’s Alex explains that “If he's not calling you, it’s because he doesn’t want to call you. If he’s not asking you out, it’s because he doesn’t want to ask you out. If he’s treating you like he doesn’t give a shit, it’s because he doesn’t give a shit. When a guy is interested in you, he will act like it. And if he doesn’t, he’s just not that into you.”

So, if Emily and Gabriel are meant to be, why does it take so long for them to get together? And why do they then break up so easily as Gabriel leaves her behind? The underlying understanding of rooting for your favourite couples is that, despite the ups and downs they might face, there’s comfort in knowing they will end up together. But what if they don’t? What if Carrie and Big never got married and Carrie spent years chasing after him? What if Chuck never realized Blair was the one for him? When we are so obsessed with waiting for the “ones that got away,” we miss the Marcellos of the world—the ones ready to be in our present. And as Marcello takes Emily’s hand, we hope for a new era in Emily’s life; we hope for Emily in Rome.

Are Stable Relationships the New Status Symbol?

It’s Sunday night in a cosy Greenwich apartment and the football game we’re supposed to be watching goes unnoticed. Instead across the room I hear talks of wedding planning and engagement parties. Amongst weaving conversations of relationships, and our friends’ relationships and their friends’ relationships, I realise I am the only single one. It was a feeling I was familiar with and had never really minded before, after all I am only 22 and fresh out of university, but the stark contrast was already clear. Those with a partner were seriously planning their future – marriages and mortgages in tow, and those of us without, felt the pressure to keep up.

My own love life, uni days filled with short term flings and excited texts, couldn’t compare to this new adult world I’d been thrown into. Of course, I noticed the subtle change – more and more of my friends were getting into relationships, and more of their friends were too. Suddenly I took a second look at the world and now people came in pairs, they lived together, took holidays together, and almost blended into each other; this new world was suited to couples. Restaurant experiences for two, romantic getaways, even matching bathrobes. Most intriguing of all was the wedding planning, where I still planned my wedding with the same casual optimism and grandeur of a 10 year old, people around me were considering venues and budgets and a million other details I never would have thought of.

I wondered when everyone in my life had flipped a switch and decided to get into long term relationships (relationships in uni had the same lifespan as a fruit fly!); suddenly instead of crazy drunk stories and one night stands we talked about anniversaries and the dreaded ‘meeting the parents’, suddenly those milestones became markers of success, and serious relationships became aspirational. So how did this happen? In my generation of tinder and situationships leaving broken hearts in their wake, is being in a serious, stable relationship the newest and shiniest status symbol? A 2021 UK census found that 37.9% of adults (18.4 million) had never been married or in a civil partnership, stacked with average divorce rate being 42% found in the same census, you start to wonder if serious relationships become more and more hard to come by, and to keep.

You don’t have to look far to see the subtle changes everywhere – your perpetually single friend now in a serious relationship, the girl who had sworn off men now calls one promising (gasp!) not to mention the countless movies, films and tv shows where the heroine – a romantic or not – ends up the person of their dreams. Consider Miss Congeniality or 10 Things I Hate About You, both Grace and Sam start off happily single until someone comes along and changes their mind. Or worse, possibly the biggest mistake in Sex and The City history was having happily single Samantha end up with Smith, until she famously calls it off with a line I’m sure many people (including myself) have quoted over the years: “I love you, but I love me more”. I can’t help but feel that these movies we grew up with while sweet and romantic, are served with a tone of condescension when you announce you’re happily single.  

Combined with the onslaught of reality shows aimed at finding ‘the one’, it becomes hard to ignore our society’s fascination with coupling up. Love island at the height of their success had 3.3 million viewers, while newer shows which debuted in 2020 like Love is Blind and Too Hot To Handle quickly rose in popularity. While each show initially only seem to be about watching attractive people fall in love, Love Island has had its contestants sharing beds since 2015 while Love is Blind and aims to have its contestants fall in love before even seeing each other, with weddings taking place only a few weeks later. Too Hot to Handle similarly towed an interesting line in the reality tv show world, encouraging their contestants to slow down their physical relationships in favour of emotional intimacy. In just 5 years the media we consume has shifted drastically, and the message is clear; short term flings are out, long term relationships are in.

In a society that treats couples as the default and singles as anomalies, is it any wonder that we look at stable healthy relationships in awe, especially in this day and age when its so hard to achieve? In Chiara Wilkinson’s ‘in defence of party women’ she charts a subtle change in people’s attitudes towards clubbing, my own worldview seems to have shrunk even smaller as I notice people grasping for straws with their dates, wondering when their time will come, or if they’re going to be the last single friend. More worryingly still was that with all the time invested into romantic relationships, are the friendships in our lives taking a back seat to our partners? And in our desperation to hang on to the idea of love, are some of us staying in relationships that would better be left behind?

Even at my age I find my single friends torn, surrounded by couples and perpetually being the third wheel, they yearn for their love lives to pick up. As my single friend told me over iced chai one evening “you can control your job, where you live, but you can’t control your love life”. And the lack of control is perhaps what makes it so frustrating, not the idea that we’re single, but the idea that everyone else isn’t; like with our careers and houses, when it comes to our romantic relationships, we scramble to keep up with those around us.