It's Hard to Be a Baby(doll)
on Sweet Charity, dry-clean-only short shorts, and an Englishman's allergy to the apostrophe
Your email client might truncate this one because I included too many screenshots and digressions - read in app!
I finally watched Sweet Charity last week. It had been on my list after seeing lots of clips of it in Marc By Sofia. I’m weird about musical theatre in that I only like it if it’s a bit seedy or sassy. What I’m coming to learn is that I only like musicals if Bob Fosse was involved - much like I only like Batman movies if Tim Burton was involved.
As I was watching I almost felt annoyed that we didn’t own this on VHS when I was growing up so that I could have based entire facets of my personality on it (like I did with Jan Pehechan Ho in the opening scene of Ghost World).
I missed the FX limited series Fosse/Verdon in 2019 so I am eating that up currently and it’s very satisfying to watch directly after having watched Sweet Charity.
It’s too damn hot right now so babydoll/nightie dresses are on heavy rotation. Around when I turned 30, opaque tights started to give me the ick and I declared that I would never wear a babydoll dress again. I couldn’t fathom flouncing around town in something that short without a protective layer of 70 denier black nylon from M&S covering my ass. It literally never crossed my mind to wear microshorts underneath one til last summer.
If you want to wear a babydoll without your bare ass touching the subway seat might I suggest these Los Angeles Apparel cotton shorts. It’s a favourite getting dressed hack of mine that wearing red under a white dress is less visible than wearing white or nude undergarments. I like to throw in a bright green mesh bra underneath to add some tension. Carry a Tide pen to avoid any mishaps with spilled matcha or melted chocolate ice cream. Good quality ice cream melts faster because it has less chemical stabilisers in it (is something I learned last week reading my neighbourhood’s subreddit where everyone was bitching about how fast the fancy ice cream place’s cones melt). If in doubt just get vanilla!
I am addicted to buying graphic tees. I think it’s because I worked in Urban Outfitters at a formative age. I’d be this guy if I had more space.
I am loving Emily Dawn Long’s t-shirt drops - she prints onto vintage blanks. It’s a story for another day but I somehow have started to collect vintage tees that feature animals or devils having sex (I know… I know…) so BUG ME! had to be mine of course.
I adore Laura Callaghan’s illustrations. I buy a tee whenever she releases one. I love this one with a little devil on her shoulder whispering C’mere to me - one of my fave pieces of Hiberno-English meaning something more along the lines of “listen to me I’m about to tell you something juicy” and not actually “come here”. Can be used interchangeably with “Wait’ll I tell you”. Irish people use contractions very heavily. We also say amn’t (pronounced ‘ah-ment’) as in “I amn’t going to buy another t-shirt with a pig having sex on it I promise!”
I once got put off when texting with an English guy because he never used contractions. He was allergic to the apostrophe and I thought it made him sound like a serial killer over text. Par exemple:
That would be nice
vs
That’d be nice
Is this why I’m still single? In fairness he did a lot of other things that contributed to the serial killer vibe so I went with my gut on that one.
When I’m not being frozen to death by office air conditioning, I will be in short shorts for the remainder of the summer. I wanted the Reformation short shorts to be bad because I think they’re overpriced and (LOL) … THEY ARE DRY CLEAN ONLY.
Unfort they fit really nicely. These Los Angeles Apparel ones and Umbro x Urban ones are a more affordable option but the Ref ones do have that i’m in gym class in the 70s look that I have fetishized since seeing Rock ‘N’ Roll High School.
Despite Zoë, Chloë, and Carrie being the ‘blueprint’ for the 2020s sporty short with a kitten heel revival, I am humbly adding myself in summer of ‘06 to my own moodboard.
You know it’s 2006 because of the absurdly large belt. I was obsessed with those airplane earrings which I got at Piedmont Boutique in the Haight for three dollars. I am famously not a gatekeep-y person but when I worked on Oxford Street in London people that worked for Topshop or H&M head office would often approach me (always in HMV for some reason?) to try to take pics of the earrings and I’d always say… ‘no’
At the top of this blog you’ll see some pics of my new favourite make up items. I’ve gotten OPI’s Mali-Blue Shore twice in a row at the nail salon this month. I’ll switch to Chanel Baigneuse nail polish when I take my prescribed end of summer gel break.
I also picked up 2 Anna Sui glitter eyeshadows at Powder. The glitter is really chunky and I feel like these are a contender to replace my long gone Glossier Play (RIP) Glitter Gelée pot. I’ll do a deeper dive in my next post.
Here’s a little playlist I made for ya…
🎧 spotify / 🍎 apple music
“Poupée de Cire, Poupée de Son” – France Gall (1965)
“Bam Bam” – Sister Nancy (1982)
“When I Grow Up” – Garbage (1998)
“Seether” – Veruca Salt (1994)
“Miss World” – Hole (1994)
“Nancy Boy” – Placebo (1997)
“Ready to Go” – Republica (1996)
“Wet Dream” – Wet Leg (2021)
“Are You That Somebody?” – Aaliyah (1998)
“1 Thing” – Amerie (2005)
“Pretend We’re Dead” – L7 (1992)
“Cool Schmool” – Bratmobile (1993)
“Fix Me” – Skinny Girl Diet (2016)
“Caught Out There” – Kelis (1999)
“Take It Off” – The Donnas (2002)
“Cherry Bomb” – The Runaways (1976)
“all-american bitch” – Olivia Rodrigo (2023)
“Fame is a Gun” – Addison Rae (2025)
“I Know What Boys Like” – The Waitresses (1982)
“Doo Wop (That Thing)” – Lauryn Hill (1998)
“Is That All There Is?” – Peggy Lee (1969)
It’s hard to be a baby
As a little treat if you made it this far, allow me to share this 1992 dance track “Dur Dur d’être bébé” (It’s hard to be a baby). Sorry to my neighbours who’ve been hearing this on repeat.