US pop star Gracie Abrams arrives in Sydney incognito
The American singer, daughter of director JJ Abrams and one of Taylor Swift's besties, landed at Sydney Airport ahead of her string of highly anticipated The Secret of Us Tour shows.
Abrams appeared keen on keeping a low profile under a baseball cap and face mask, and there was no sign of her actor boyfriend Paul Mescal to be seen.
Abrams was jetting in from New Zealand where she performed to a sellout crowd in Auckland.
She surprised the audience with a performance of one of their biggest music exports, Lorde, singing her hit song, Liability.
In clips shared by fans on social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, the hit maker named the heartbreaking track 'one of my favourite songs ever.'
Opening up about her reasoning for singing the ballad, taken from Lorde's album Melodrama, Abrams told the crowd: 'Obviously, being here, and also because she finally returned to save pop music again.'
Earlier this year, Abrams opened up about her friendship with Lorde sharing that the Kiwi star is an old soul.
'She's like 800 years old inside … whenever we're together, I feel my nervous system regulate differently,' she told Billboard.
Abrams is currently in the midst of her first-ever arena tour, and after visiting numerous cities including being one of the rare US stars to visit Perth, she'll be heading to Europe to finish up the latest leg.
She'll then return to North America for the second leg of her US tour.
The Secret of Us, Abrams' second studio album, was released on June 21, 2024, via Interscope Records. It was mostly produced by Abrams and American musician Aaron Dessner, with whom she first collaborated on her debut studio album, Good Riddance.
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7NEWS
7 hours ago
- 7NEWS
Remember when Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy's simple wedding gown changed bridal dress codes forever?
In 1996, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and John F. Kennedy Jr. got married outside a peeling white log cabin chapel on Cumberland Island, Georgia. With no paparazzi and no media present, it offered the pair a brief moment of normality before they re-emerged into the world as one of the most famous couples on the planet. Despite often being referred to as American royalty, Bessette-Kennedy didn't arrive to their big day in a frothy princess gown. Instead, she used the moment to set her own sartorial standard — by wearing a dress that upended traditional bridal trends and would continue to inspire for decades to come. Her simple white slip dress was made from silk and cut on the bias, with a scooping cowl neck as its only flourish. The look was finished with a silk tulle veil, crystal beaded Manolo Blahnik satin sandals and a pair of sheer elbow gloves. Her gown was designed by her friend, the fashion designer Narciso Rodriguez. To some, the decision was surprising. Bessette-Kennedy was a prominent publicist at Calvin Klein and an unofficial face of the brand on the New York circuit. And if Klein wasn't to design her gown, others wondered if it would be a rising star like John Galliano — a master of bias-cut slip dresses and then-creative director at Dior. 'For some reason she chose Narciso,' the author of 'CBK: Carolyn Bessette Kennedy: A Life in Fashion,' Sunita Kumar Nair said in a phone interview. 'I think the fact that she chose an unknown friend, as opposed to Calvin Klein, is just her all along: Championing her friends and wanting them to enjoy her new limelight.' Rodriguez was recruited to the task over drinks at The Odeon, a restaurant in the Tribeca neighborhood in New York City. It took him three months to design three versions of the wedding dress, which Bessette-Kennedy picked from. In an interview with the New York Times in 1996, Rodriguez called the final dress 'sensuous' — a direction he said he and Bessette-Kennedy were aligned on from the beginning. The dress, which Rodriguez ended up gifting, was reportedly worth around $40,000 at the time. 'I made that wedding dress with so much love for the person that I loved most in the whole world,' the designer told PBS in 2020. 'I never viewed it as a press event.' The understated, timeless column dress was fit for a small, laid-back wedding. But its simplicity soon sent reverberations through the wider bridal industry. 'There was a massive boom in this kind of very sleek silhouette,' said Nair. 'Everybody was like, 'I want to look like her.' Gone with the meringues.' Not long before, Janet Jackson had married fellow singer James DeBarge in a jacquard wedding gown with a full tiered skirt. Madonna's first wedding dress in 1985 featured several layers of gathered tulle, while in 1992 former First Lady Michelle Obama opted for a trailing floor-length duchess satin gown and dramatic sweetheart neckline. But it was the royal union of Princess Diana and then Prince Charles in 1981 that became the yardstick for wedding glamour. Diana's gown was defined by its many layers of opulence, from the bow-trimmed puffed sleeves to a 25-foot-long veil, which was hand-embellished with 10,000 micro pearls. Even in the '90s, many still looked to Diana's nuptials for fashion inspiration — including Mariah Carey, whose 1993 satin Vera Wang gown was modeled after the seminal dress — but Bessette-Kennedy wasn't one of them. 'It's interesting to think about Princess Diana, that was the wedding dress of the 20th century,' Rachel Tashjian, fashion critic at the Washington Post, told CNN. 'It was this woman coming out of this fairytale horse and carriage in an enormous, richly embellished dress that was all about indulging fantasy and fairytales of royal life.' By contrast, Bessette-Kennedy, whose marriage to JFK Jr. placed her firmly in America's political dynasty, made sure her gown had 'no embellishment, no ruffles, nothing,' she said. 'She's sort of saying, rather than embodying some past fantasy or fairytale fulfillment, 'I am going to do a clean slate, and look forward to the future,'' Tashjian added. 'It was the biggest indicator Carolyn gave of what was to come for the global public as the new Mrs. Kennedy,' agreed Nair. 'Apparently Princess Diana was very jealous of that wedding.' Ironically, Bessette-Kennedy's trend-rebuking dress became the blueprint for brides all over the world. Today, simple ivory slip dresses remain a popular style and are sold everywhere from Victoria Beckham and Max Mara to Reformation and Rixo. Alexandra Macon, a wedding editor at Vogue, said she 'very often' sees women reference the Narciso Rodriguez gown. 'When writing a wedding feature, it's not uncommon for a bride to tell me she emulated Carolyn's bridal look,' Macon wrote in an email to CNN. Even Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, was besotted with the dress. Just a few months before she met Prince Harry in 2016 (and experienced the tumult of joining a pre-existing dynasty first-hand) Markle told online women's magazine Glamour her 'favorite celebrity wedding dress' was none other than Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy's. 'Carolyn's was just done to absolute perfection,' said Nair. 'Thats why we're talking about it today, 25 years on.'
7NEWS
7 hours ago
- 7NEWS
The latest fleeting TikTok beauty trend? Looking tired
Jenna Ortega's eyes are lightly smudged, framed by dark shadows. Her face is pale, and her cheekbones are accentuated by a dash of gray. Her lips are tinged purple. She looks exhausted, but that's the point. The latest Gen Z makeup trend, 'Tired Girl,' celebrates the look of not having been to bed. For as long as beauty standards have existed, people have collectively fought against looking tired. Concealer, eye cream and corrector sticks are, at least in part, designed to make us look fresh and alert. Historically, appearing fatigued has been associated with poor health, aging and unattractiveness. Tired Girl beauty celebrates the opposite; it's about embracing the imperfections we've traditionally tried to conceal. The modern poster girl for the trend is Wednesday Addams, the Addams Family's morbid and emotionally reserved daughter, who is the focus of Tim Burton's Netflix series starring Ortega in the role. Much like the first season, series two sees the actor showcasing shadowed under-eyes and pale skin, a look that she recently recreated on the red carpet for the show's premiere in London. Those born outside of the Gen Z age group will recognize earlier references — think Angelina Jolie in 'Girl Interrupted,' or a young Natalie Portman in 'Leon.' Other contemporary famous fans of the makeup trend include the actor Lily Rose-Depp, model and musician Gabbriette and influencers Emma Chamberlain, Danielle Marcan and Lara Violetta. As of late July, tired girl makeup is now a TikTok category, with numerous tutorials on how to achieve the sleep-deprived look, with some of the most popular having gained over 300,000 views so far. In one of her recent videos, Violetta — who smudges dark eye shadow under her eyes to create a 'moldy makeup' aesthetic — said 'eye bags are so chic because you actually have to work for them.' Overall, the look is messy and undone with a rebellious edge. 'It's a celebration of realness,' makeup artist and Glass magazine beauty director Kim Brown told CNN. 'The Tired Girl look has an edge and personality. It's tough and cool.' A fleeting trend Tired Girl is not to be confused with goth, a music-based subculture that spawned a moodier look involving much paler skin and heavier and pronounced dark eyes. It is also different to South Korea's viral aegyo-sal makeup trend, which emphasizes the puffy area of fat under the eyes to create a more youthful appearance. Grunge fashion, known for its disheveled, lived-in aesthetic and popularized by Courtney Love in the '90s, is perhaps the look's most recent relation. But, as with other fleeting TikTok trends, the roots of Tired Girl don't run anywhere near as deep. 'Grunge grew from anti-establishment values, music scenes and community solidarity, where aesthetic and cultural rebellion were inseparable,' said Dan Hastings-Narayanin, the deputy foresight editor at The Future Laboratory, a trend forecasting firm. The Tired Girl look, on the other hand, is part of the transient 'core' phenomenon, a word used to describe niche internet aesthetics, such as 'cottagecore' (nature-inspired, romantic) or 'Barbiecore' (playful and hyper-feminine). 'It's a quick way to show who you are or what mood you're going for,' said Hastings-Narayanin. The challenge, he argued, is that it is 'fleeting, commodified and poised for replacement by the next viral moment.' The trend has a distinctive Tim Burton energy, so it comes as no surprise that it appeared on both seasons of Wednesday. 'The core principle was to achieve a polished but natural look using minimal products and highlighting Jenna's natural features,' said hair and makeup artist Tara McDonald, who created Ortega's look in season one. As Ortega's foundation was lighter in color than her natural skin tone, and McDonald 'didn't want to conceal her natural under-eye area with makeup,' the darker circles around her eyes stood out more than usual, McDonald explained. 'The eyeshadow was dark, but it was only ever a light application, and the illusion of naturally flushed lips — almost like they've been gently bitten — was key,' she added. Kicking back against perfection Like with any pronounced beauty look, there is a message in Wednesday's makeup. 'The intention was always that she's not going to be the kind of girl who spends hours doing her hair and makeup,' said Nirvana Jalalvand, who was behind Ortega's beauty look for season two. 'She's just not that kind of person. She has cases to solve and important places to be. Putting her face on isn't going to be high on her priority list.' In that regard, Wednesday's nonchalance about her appearance serves as the antithesis to traditional, polished, fresh-faced beauty ideals, and a subversion of femininity. It is a clear departure from the 'clean girl' aesthetic, a fresh-faced look that involves flushed cheeks, radiant skin and minimal makeup, popularized by Bella Hadid, Hailey Bieber and Kendall Jenner over the last few years. 'It's not just the makeup though; it's part of something wider,' said Jalavland. 'Even the way people post their Instagram photos now has shifted with photo dumps and blurry images. We've all grown tired of overly curated, perfectionism. This messy culture is a fight against that clean girl aesthetic. Tired Girl is a different way of presenting yourself. It's almost like we went so far into perfection that people are going back on it.' This is also true of its execution; applying concealer and blush requires little effort. 'Most people can do this makeup,' said McDonald. 'You don't necessarily need to be a great makeup artist. You don't need a steady hand. You can achieve this look without makeup brushes.' While Tired Girl may be unlikely to make a lasting cultural impact, its origins might say something deeper about the challenges that young people face. Hastings-Narayanin views Gen Z's embrace of the Tired Girl trend as a return to vulnerability and relatability amid 'relentless pressures' that include juggling academics and extracurriculars, managing student debt and navigating a fragile job market, all while striving for personal goals like saving the planet. 'Flaunting vulnerability and dark humor becomes a coping mechanism that proclaims, 'I am exhausted and uncertain about my future, and I will laugh through the gloom,'' he said.
ABC News
10 hours ago
- ABC News
A young skater caught in a police crackdown is back in the spotlight, 50 years later
For Jean Hopcraft, this was all quite familiar. The interview, the camera crew and the questions about the rollerskates. The 69-year-old has been living a quiet and hidden life in Melbourne's inner suburbs. But in the late 1970s, she was turning heads. Almost 50 years later, her dormant fame has returned after an old video of her went viral. Loading Instagram content The ABC republishes archival stories on social media to revisit the best stories about Australians from the past. Over the past few weeks, more than a million people have watched a social media post showing a young Jean rollerskating through Melbourne. While many dream of having the kind of fame brought on by the likes of TikTok and Instagram, Jean was not after that at all. "It's bizarre that they've clicked on it," she said. "Who would have thought anybody would be interested in somebody on rollerskates from all those years ago?" Rolling to fame In 1977, ABC reporter Terry McMahon interviewed a young woman who was quite popular on the city streets of Melbourne. She travelled around on rollerskates despite an active police crackdown that saw officers confiscating them from those they caught. Skateboards and rollerskates were regarded as a public nuisance at that time. Jean was 21 when she was interviewed about her rollerskating by the ABC in the late 1970s. ( ABC archive ) Jean was a 21-year-old college student whose studies and work revolved around the CBD, and a pair of rollerskates was her chosen mode of transport for 14 years. With worn-out skates strapped onto the feet and her best outfit on, she zoomed past pedestrians, catching attention as she glided. McMahon: What about when you're out on the street? Do people stare? Jean Hopcraft: Yeah, they stare most of the time, but I don't take any notice of them. McMahon: What about police? Jean Hopcraft: No problems. Few years ago, with the skateboards, they clamped down, told me to take them off. But I put them on when I got around the corner … I won't give them away yet. Looking back, she never expected her playful antics to turn her into a public figure. "There was quite a bit of press because I [skated] for a long time, so they were very familiar with this girl just skating around the city," Jean said. "Little snippets in the paper … newspapers reaching out to me. "I just became part of the fabric of Melbourne." This was the first time Jean watched the TV story produced by the ABC in 1977. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica ) About the same time, Jean also featured on a daytime current affairs television program presented by Mickie de Stoop, which featured stories of pioneering women. Yet underneath the energetic but nonchalant persona portrayed in printed columns and black-and-white photographs, Jean faced significant societal drawbacks. Not fitting the mould The 1970s were a very different time for women. It was a period when career options were slim and freedom of expression, especially by clothing, could be frowned upon. "I actually wanted to be a painter, a decorator like my dad but, in those days, women weren't allowed to do those sorts of jobs," Jean said. "It was deemed not suitable for women." Roller skating was a cheap and easy mode of transport for young Jean Hopcroft. ( Supplied ) Rollerskating was a cheap and easy mode of transport for a young Jean Hopcraft. (Supplied) Despite a police crackdown, Jean was spotted roller skating in popular spots in Melbourne's CBD. ( Supplied/ABC News: Danielle Bonica ) Despite a police crackdown, Jean was spotted rollerskating in popular spots in Melbourne's CBD. (Supplied/ABC News: Danielle Bonica) The local newspaper writes about Jean travelling through the city on a pair of roller skates. ( Supplied ) The local newspaper writes about Jean travelling through the city on her rollerskates. (Supplied) Instead, she studied fashion and textile at the Emily McPherson College, which was known for its cookery and dressmaking courses. Even within university walls, Jean didn't always stick to the status quo. The queer community was her clique, and she wasn't afraid to break a few college rules — including the skating. "I guess you'd call me a freak … because I didn't fit the mould," Jean said. "Women couldn't wear trousers way back then. We had to get a petition together to see if women could wear pants and trousers. "I got pulled over at school and almost expelled because they didn't like the idea of a woman skating. "I stood up for what I believed." 'Classic Jean' Over the phone from New York, Jean and her husband Peter Hoyland's daughter, Eliza Hoyland, wasn't surprised about her mother's sudden return to stardom back home. "She's a very interesting person, my mum," Eliza said. The ABC post was the first time Eliza found out her mother had ever been interviewed by the news outlet. "I'm watching and I'm like, 'What in the world is this?'" "I think I watched it like 20 times in a row." Eliza Hoyland said she is in awe of Jean, who she thinks is the "best mum ever". ( Supplied: Eliza Hoyland ) For Eliza, a huge chunk of her mum's youth has been like scattered puzzle pieces waiting to be put together. She said Jean had always assured the family that "there'll be nothing about her" on the internet. "I googled her and this photo of her came up in her rollerblading look, and she's in this leopard skin suit," she said. "My mum is very private and very timid, but then she has this huge life that [Dad and I] are always trying to creep in [on]." One of Eliza's absolute joys was watching Jean rollerskate during a birthday celebration in 2023. In 2023, Jean put her rollerskates back on in a rink in New York. ( Supplied: Eliza Hoyland ) At the Rockefeller Center, the rollerskater flaunted her self-taught skills like she never left the rink. For Jean, it was all muscle memory. "She was zooming around the rink and doing laps on my friends and like, 'Get out of the way!'" Eliza recalled. "It's classic Jean. She's an icon." Peter Hoyland said he's met strangers who recognise Jean from the viral clip. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica ) Peter Hoyland, whose career in the music industry has introduced him to several notable artists, said it had been "fun" and "fantastic" to meet people buzzing about his wife's renewed popularity. "I said, "Now you're the most famous person that I know,'" Peter said. A friend even warned the couple about the possibility of Jean becoming an internet meme. "Yes, I'm waiting for that," Peter said. Jean Hopcraft enjoys reading books and gardening in her inner Melbourne home. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica ) Jean will soon turn 70 and is now living a quieter life, enjoying her retirement. She gardens, travels to the US to visit her daughter, and reminisces about her earlier days on her trusty skates. "I didn't care," she said. "I couldn't afford a car. I had my own ideas of what was right and wrong." Always in awe of her mother and the hidden stories of her past, Eliza described Jean as a "wonderful human" with an amazing story waiting to be told. "She's always going to be standing up for herself and the people around her," she said. "I was just like, 'You haven't changed a bit. Yes, you might only wear black now, but you really are exactly the same.'"
