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Outfit Details:
Zara Dress, Carrie Forbes Sandals (on sale, beige version here)

My style has steadily evolved over time, but there are some fabrics and details that I’m consistently drawn to, year after year. Eyelet is a perfect example.  A longtime favorite for my warm-weather wardrobe, eyelet details add a fresh and feminine feel to anything from special occasion styles to casual pieces. I love the way they add interest to otherwise simple, solid-colored pieces, transforming them into the most charming summer staples. Whether you prefer allover eyelet (like on this dress or this top) or just a touch (like on this dress or this jumpsuit), find my favorite summer eyelet styles below.

Left Outfit: Mango Top, Citizen of Humanity Jeans, Celine Bag (similar, less expensive here), AERIN x Le Monde Beryl Mules / Right Outfit: Zara Dress, Vince Sneakers (on sale), Shashi Headband (similar here), Vivi et Margot Tote

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annika, Khareem Sudlow

#DMTBeautySpot #beauty

I’m lying under my silky blue sheets, and Harry Styles is spelling the word l o v e in my ear. No, it’s not a dream — it’s modern technology. The Fine Line singer partnered with the meditation app Calm to narrate a lullaby-like “sleep story,” designed to relax our anxious little minds to sleep during this trying time. It’s soothing, it’s surreal…

… And it’s packed with sexual innuendo. 

When I first cue up the story, it’s around midnight, and I have high hopes. “With all the business of your day, I know how hard it can be to get to sleep,” Styles begins his narrative in a honeyed and hushed tone. He gets me! “I wish you a wonderful night’s sleep. So make yourself comfortable.” I gladly oblige, giving my pillow a fluff and reaching over to my night stand for my vial of lavender essential oil so I can rub some on my neck.

Soon Styles is telling me to imagine we are “holding hands,” “snuggling on a raft,” and “lazing on the ground, succumbing to the charms of blades of grass we now caress with fingertips and palms.” Okay, Harry. If you insist.

As I listen, it seems as though Styles is channeling two separate spirits. Sometimes, I feel like a child being read a bedtime story, with Styles as my concerned caretaker, with only my best intentions at heart. Other times, though, I can almost see the mischievous smile of the Harry who suggestively ate a slice of fruit in his “Watermelon Sugar” music video. 

Truth be told, Style’s mantra has all the facets of a typical nighttime meditation. Deep breaths. Closed eyes. A clear mind. Visualizations. I could totally see how the recording could help someone nod off — if they didn’t know it was Harry Styles they were listening to. There’s something distracting about celebrity asking you to gaze in the ocean, that makes you want to look up “One Direction on beach” more than nod off. Maybe that’s just me?

Harry is certainly taking the project seriously. “Rest and recovery is as important as doing the work,” he said in a release from Calm. “Finding a balance has been endlessly beneficial to both my physical and mental health.” He added he was glad he could contribute to Calm when “the world needs all the healing it can get.”

I am as enamored by the sentiment as I am confused by it. What kind of healing is he talking about? I mean, this is something he literally says in his story: “Gravity caresses us and pulls you close to me.”

Styles isn’t the only celeb to read meditations aloud in a sultry manner, and you have to wonder if it’s becoming a trend — or, maybe, a sales ploy. In April, Chris Hemsworth recorded a “Sleep For Kids” sleep story that one of my colleagues called “a thinly veiled horny meditation for fans.” I thought briefly of Thor while I listened to Styles, but then was brought back into the moment when Styles said: “Deeper, gradually deeper… We drift and now transcend to unfamiliar places too surreal to comprehend.” Sure. 

All told, I would rate Styles’ story a seven out of 10 as a meditation. From that standpoint, I found myself wishing he’d start with a body scan and provide more direction for deep breathing. But if we’re looking at this meditation through the lens of soft porn, I’ll give it a 10 out of 10.

Particularly because at the end of the dream-like story, Styles made me feel like you’d want anyone who’d talked about “quenching needs” in your bed to make you feel. Styles said: “The tenderness we feel when we are close, two minds as one, surrounds us and connects us, but we’ve only just begun.” Oh, Harry.

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Molly Longman, Khareem Sudlow

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So, you want to keep yourself and others protected but you need a literal breather from your face mask? We get it — we're still adjusting to having our noses and mouths covered in fabric, sweating it out in the hot summer sun, too. Luckily, cloth masks (in some cases) aren't the only option for helping prevent the spread of the coronavirus. If you're looking for a fresh way to responsibly set the bottom half of your face free, meet: the shield.

There are more than a few benefits to swapping out your mask, breathable as it may be, for a face shield. In addition to being easy to clean and reuse, face shields allow us to see and react to one another's expressions. The protective alternatives can also help cut down on instances of touching our faces while wearing a mask — think anything from clearing off lens-fog from our glasses to readjusting our masks in order to sip a drink. However, it's important to note: according to a recent report from the Journal of the American Medical Association, in order for a face shield to act as an effective substitute, it should extend below the chin and out to the ears (with no exposed gap between the forehead and the headpiece). If your shield doesn't offer proper coverage for keeping respiratory droplets at bay, then it may be better served as an extra form of protection during instances where you may need to remove your mask in public.

Ahead, find a lineup of face shields that you can readily add to your COVID-curbing collection of protective accessories today.

At Refinery29, we’re here to help you navigate this overwhelming world of stuff. All of our market picks are independently selected and curated by the editorial team. If you buy something we link to on our site, Refinery29 may earn commission.

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Amanda Randone, Khareem Sudlow

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I’ve been writing about the novel coronavirus for months now. So much about the pandemic and the public reaction to it has surprised me. Most of all, the mask controversy. For a long time, I didn’t really “get” why people were refusing to wear face masks. After all, The Center For Disease Control and Prevention says they protect us from virus-spreading respiratory droplets. Donning one seemed like a public service and a no brainer to me. Until recently — and the sudden understanding of the “no mask” mentality came from a surprising source: a sexpert, who was comparing masks to condoms.

“If you want to know how we get people to comply with wearing face masks, ask a #sexologist — it’s not our first rodeo when it comes to convincing people they should wear a barrier for protection from a deadly virus,” wrote Jill McDevitt, PhD, a sexuality educator, in a Facebook post.

It wasn’t the first time I’d heard the mask/condom comparison. Just last week, Nate Favini, MD, told me: “Wearing your mask down around your chin is like having a condom and leaving it on the nightstand while you have sex.” In April, The New York Times posed the question: “Are face masks going to become like condoms — ubiquitous, sometimes fashionable, promoted with public service announcements? They should be.”

But something about McDevitt’s words finally made it click. I don’t know too many people who’ll admit that they’re refusing to wear a mask right now. But I do know hoards of people my age who’ll confide that they dislike condoms, and even avoid wearing them. When I was younger, a common joke among friends was that “Plan B is my Plan A.” Ha ha — but I always sensed that there some some truth to it. We laughed along when comedian Amy Schumer quipped, “You have to pretend like you want to use a condom.” We all knew better; but we still didn’t all wear them every time.

I wondered if people don’t wear masks for the same reasons they don’t wear condoms. At least one study found that “masculine ideology” was associated with “sexually risk behavior” like eschewing rubbers. According to the researchers, this ideology is associated with a few traits: status, anti-femininity, and toughness, as The Scientific American reports. The research on what makes people not wear masks is thinner, of course, but a Gallup Poll conducted in mid-April did find that more women wore masks more often than men.

When I reach out to McDevitt directly to ask more about her thoughts on the overlaps between condoms and face masks, she admits, “The condom analogy isn’t perfect, but my hope is that it can at least provide a framework for thinking about masks.” She also notes that we can use what we learned from four decades of condom research to help encourage people to don masks. She recommended the following steps, to start.

Lead by example

First and foremost: Wear your own mask. It may seem like a small step, but your actions have a bigger ripple effect than you might realize. McDevitt remembers being in a long line at her local post office towards the beginning of the pandemic. “Every single person was wearing a mask — [then] a man walked in without one,” she says. “After a few moments he said to the person who got in line behind him ‘can you hold my spot? I’m going to run out to the car to get a mask. I don’t want to be the only one without one.’ And that is how we normalize. The sign on the door of the post office saying MASKS REQUIRED didn’t make him do it. Wanting to fit in with the ‘norm’ is what made him do it.” 

Same goes for condoms: The more wearing them is seen as the norm, the more people get on board.

Empathize, then educate 

Guilting people into compliance does not work, McDevitt says. “As much as shaming people may feel satisfying to folks, if the end goal is wearing a mask, that tactic will fail,” she says. “People who aren’t complying may be ‘assholes,’ but telling them so won’t make them do what you want.” 

A better route? Try to understand where they’re coming from, then gently point out the errors in their perspective. For instance, recently McDevitt encountered someone who said they couldn’t wear a mask because they have asthma, and they worried it would trigger their symptoms. “Empathy — ‘My goodness, I don’t know much about asthma but it must be scary feeling like you can’t breathe’ — and problem-solving — ‘Here are the links to where to get face shields to wear instead of a cloth mask’ — go a lot farther than, ‘If you don’t wear a mask, you’re dumb and you don’t care about killing people,’” McDevitt tells me. 

The condom equivalent? “Oh, you’re allergic to latex? Have you tried the lambskin or polyurethane versions?”

Positive reinforcement

Give people plenty of reasons to keep wearing their masks. McDevitt says she makes a point to pay compliments to people on their masks when she goes out. She might point out the fun pattern or the pretty color. You can also just thank a person for helping to protect others from respiratory droplets. (“Thank you for having a condom,” is always a welcome compliment too.)

Accessibility

Keep extra masks on you to hand out to others in case they forgot. Don’t shame someone for forgetting; just say, “Oh here, I have an extra!” and pass it off. They may be genuinely glad you have their back. Just like your partner would be if you happened to have an extra condom or dental dam on you on the one day they ran out.

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Molly Longman, Khareem Sudlow