Entertainment
A Week of Outfits: Kirthana Ramisetti
“For most of my life, I had no relationship with clothes,” says author Kirthana Ramisetti, whose novel, The Other Lata, came out last month. “Trying them on always made me feel bad. But fashion plays a central role in my latest novel, and while writing it, I realized I deserve to find clothes that make me feel good.” Today, Kirthana shares five colorful looks, plus a mother-and-daughter ritual and style tips from the Girls5Eva costume designer…
Dress: Siempre Más. Earrings: Haru Baru. Purse: Stardusted Studio. Necklace: Grand Bazaar NYC flea market. Flats: Seychelles, similar.
“For the longest time, I dressed for utility, even to the point of looking shapeless. A small part of me always thought, ‘One day, I’ll figure clothes out when I’m a smaller size.’ Then while writing my third novel, I realized I don’t want to wait anymore. I got this dress last summer but never wore it. I recently got it tailored and realized, Oh, it does work on me. I’m excited to slip it on for date nights.”
Cardigan: Cable & Gauge, similar. Dress: Siempre Más, similar. Boots: Kelly & Katie, similar.
“I’ve lived in New York City for 20 years. I thought about the reason so many people, including myself, move to this city: to reinvent ourselves. So, I decided to give that to my character, Lata, in The Other Lata. She starts using the email address of someone who shares her name, and attends parties and gallery openings in their place. She uses fashion as a passport to enter these circles.”
Top: Serena&LYN. Pants: BBJ Los Angeles, similar. Loafers: DSW. Purse: Lola Mae. Scarf: gift, similar.
“I really admire the costume designer Matthew Hemesath and his work on Girls5Eva. I actually sent him a cold email about how I wanted to write about a forty-something woman finding her personal style. He was so lovely and gave me great advice. His #1 tip was to embrace pattern clashing and wear unexpected color combinations. Matthew says brighter colors naturally make you feel confident, and pattern clashing works because then they act as neutrals.”
“Matthew’s tip makes me think of The Mindy Project, where Mindy Kaling’s character always wore eye-catching designs that clashed but worked well. This orange top isn’t something I would’ve worn in the past. Pairing it with black pants makes me feel grounded, but one day I will work up the confidence to wear it with a colorful skirt.”
Top: Shirt + Trend, similar. Overalls: Serena&LYN. Shoes: Converse.
“My other strategy is to find a mentor whose style you admire. They don’t have to look exactly like you, but maybe they have a similar shape and skin tone; then you can try to emulate what you like about their style. I love the way Natasha Rothwell dresses, especially the pieces she wore during her press tour for How To Die Alone and her costumes in The White Lotus. To me, the combination of these colorful overalls and sneakers sing Natasha Rothwell.”
Kurta: Diza via Westside, similar. Jeans: Macy’s. Purse: Adrienne Vittadini, similar. Scarf: Meliflous. Flats: DSW.
“I pull on a kurta with jeans whenever I want feel comfortable, and I’ve been wearing them since high school. My mom passes hers down to me, which I love. I always tell my friends that my mom and I trade two things: book recommendations and kurtas. One of my favorite memories is when we both listened to the audiobook of Prachi Gupta’s They Called Us Exceptional and afterward had a really meaningful debrief.”
“I’m still figuring out clothes, but this whole experience made me understand why people get so much joy out of putting outfits together. I’m excited to experiment with more looks that push me out of my comfort zone, and give myself the freedom to wear pieces that I shied away from in the past.”
Thank you so much, Kirthana! Congratulations on your new book.
P.S. More people share their weeks of outfits, a pastry chef with the best jumpsuit, and a plus-sized babywearing advocate with five pretty looks.
(Photos by Julia Robbs for Cup of Jo.)
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Entertainment
Light Flip is a minimalistic, cheap flip phone that wont distract you
Remember Light, the New York-based company that builds super-simple, distraction-free, cheap smartphones?
It’s back with a new device; its first-ever flip phone called the Light Flip.
Once again, this is a cheap phone designed to free you from endless scrolling and social media addiction, while still offering the basic tools you need for everyday life. To do this, the company has built an Android-based, minimalistic operating system called LightOS that’s mostly textual and displays everything in just two colors. You do get access to music, messages, alarms, and other basic apps, but you don’t get to scroll the flashy new TIkTok video; that’s what your other phone is for.
The Light Flip is available in six colors: Black, Navy, Red, Pink, Yellow, and Light Gray.
Credit: Light Phone
The Light Flip doesn’t stray far from the formula, but approaches it with the body of a flip phone. In many ways, it’s far more simple than the company’s previous phone, the Light Phone III, which has an OLED touchscreen. The Light Flip is basically your flip phone of old, with a plastic body, a numeric, T9 keypad, some function buttons, and a 2.8-inch, non-touch display.
Mashable Light Speed
Numeric keypad? That’s right, but at least it supports T9 predictive input.
Credit: Light Phone
Inside, it’s powered by a MediaTek MT8873 chip, 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and has a 50-megapixel camera and a (replaceable) 1,800mAh battery. Other amenities include a headphone jack (nice!), a USB-C port, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and 5G connectivity.
The camera on the back has a 50-megapixel sensor but takes 12-megapixel images.
Credit: Light Phone
The numeric keypad might be a tough sell to folks that are used to touchscreens or at least QWERTY keyboards. Fortunately, the Light Flip does support voice-to-text and audio messaging, too.
The phone is available in six colors: Black, Navy, Red, Pink, Yellow, and Light Gray.
The Light Flip retails for $299 or $39 per month with the Light Service plan. It starts shipping in April 2027.
Entertainment
The Ecovacs Goat 01000 RTK robot lawn mower is on sale for under $700 at Amazon
SAVE $301: The Ecovacs Goat 01000 RTK robot lawn mower is on sale for $698.99 at Amazon, down from the standard price of $999.99. That’s a 30% discount.
$698.99
at Amazon
$999.99
Save $301
Not many people consider the chore of mowing the lawn to be enjoyable. It’s a task we often hand off to the neighborhood kids or a professional landscaping crew. But if you’d rather take matters into your own hands, we have a great solution these days. Plus, an affordable model is on sale.
As of July 21, the Ecovacs Goat 01000 RTK robot lawn mower is on sale for $698.99 at Amazon, marked down from the list price of $999.99. That winds up being a savings of $301 from a 30% discount.
By now you’ve probably seen a robot lawn mower rolling around someone’s yard, but it’s still an abnormal sight. Just like the rollout of robot vacuums, we’ll slowly start to see more and more robots take over mowing the lawn. As someone with allergies, I’m totally cool with never touching a lawn mower ever again.
The Ecovacs Goat 01000 is designed to maintain lawns that span up to 0.25 acres in size. You don’t need to worry about a wire perimeter because it maps your yard and stays on course thanks to LiDAR RTK navigation that even works in the shade or under trees. It can even avoid obstacles when mowing in dark conditions.
Mashable Deals
The small mower body that measures 2.3 feet means it can mow in tight areas like between raised vegetable beds or small walkways. Plus, it has an IPX6 waterproof design. You get to decide on your ideal cutting length between 1.2 and 3.2 inches.
Today’s Amazon deal on the Ecovacs Goat 01000 applies to the robot mower with a care kit which includes 36 blades and an RTK AC adapter. Since the mower and the care kit are on sale for under $700, today is a great day to wave goodbye to the heavy and loud push mower and make the upgrade. Spend the rest of summer perfecting homemade slushies instead of doing yardwork.
Entertainment
Amazon has my favorite Bissell carpet cleaner marked down by 25% right now
SAVE 25%: As of July 21, you can get the Bissell Little Green Max Pet SmartMix carpet cleaner (38572) for $119.99, down from $159.99, at Amazon.
$119.99
at Amazon
$159.99
Save $40.00
I used to have a Bissell Little Green machine, and it worked right up until I poured liquid into the wrong compartment. But before my little mishap, this little thing was a lifesaver (I seldom use that word, but in this case, it’s true). With two beagles running around my apartment, having a carpet cleaner is a necessity.
And right now, you can get your own Bissell Little Green Max Pet SmartMix carpet cleaner for $119.99, down from $159.99. That’s a 25% discount or $40 in savings.
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It comes with a specialized Pet Hair Removal Tool designed to grab embedded fur and debris from your upholstery, and once you’re done scrubbing, the Self-Cleaning Tough Stain Tool rinses out the leftover dirt and residue from the hose with the touch of a button (my machine didn’t have that feature).
Another major upgrade on this specific model is the SmartMix Technology, which automatically mixes the water and cleaning formula together for you so you don’t have to measure anything. Just be sure you pour it into the correct tank!
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