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ComplexCon rolled through Long Beach California this weekend to wrap up 2023’s year in streetwear in a nice stylish bow. Maybe “bow” isn’t the right word… in a nice stylish workwear-inspired balaclava maybe? Let’s go with that! This year was an interesting one for streetwear, as now that we’re three years deep into the decade it feels like the 20s have an identity of their own rather than still being indebted to the fading trends of the previous decade.

The two-day extravaganza saw over 150 different streetwear brands cram into the Long Beach Convention Center for a pop-up market of bespoke booths and large art exhibits, giving guests access to exclusive drops of limited products and hot collaborations. We were on the ground both days of the festival scoping out all the brands and booths to help filter down the best brands in attendance so that you don’t have to. We filtered it down to a tight ten.

Here are the ComplexCon 2023 brands you need on your radar right now.

ADW

Why We Love The Brand:

ADW comes from the mind of Adriana Williams, a Howard University alum who taught herself how to sew and specializes in handmade clothing accessories. The Kensington Philadelphia-based brand is beloved for its attention to craft and detail and currently makes t-shirts, hats, jewelry, home goods, and bags.

We love the brand’s minimalist aesthetic and clean designs.

Shop ADW here.

B.B. Simon

Why We Love The Brand:

If you’re looking to bling out your belt buckle with an eye-catching statement piece, make it B.B. Simon. Every belt from the brand is handcrafted and made to order with Austrian Crystals.

The brand counts Doja Cat, Ice Spice, Sexyy Red, and Jim Jones as fans.

Shop B.B. Simon here.

Belacartes

Why We Love The Brand:

Belacartes’ vibe is gritty and industrial, with a sort of punk rock and nu-metal aesthetic. While the brand leans on the edgy side there is still a playful almost cute vibe to some of their pieces. For every studded belt and pair of jorts, there is a vibrant leopard-print Ugg-inspired boot or pink hoodie to help balance out the look.

Shop Belacartes here.

Chris Pyrate

Why We Love The Brand:

The brainchild of the designer and artist of the same name, Chris Pyrate makes beautiful pieces full of psychedelic and flowery imagery. Pyrate’s current collection is very small, right now it consists of streetwear staples like pants, shirts, hoodies, and a reversible bubble jacket, but each design feels like a genuine piece of art worth cherishing.

At ComplexCon he introduced his first sneaker, a Nike SB-style shoe that features his psychedelic floral designs.

Shop Chris Pyrate here.

Diva In The USA

Why We Love The Brand:

Diva in the USA is an Atlanta-based brand founded by rapper and producer Reese LAFLARE. The brand mostly deals in skatewear basics and staples but has a bright and playful aesthetic that is incredibly infectious and easy to love.

That’s probably why the brand has attracted the attention of Young Thug, Metro Boomin, A$AP Ferg, Hit-Boy, and Sexxy Red, all artists known for their playful sense of style.

Shop Diva in the USA here.

Garmette

Founded by Mexican-Peruvian designer Elliette Saavedra, Garmette specializes in handmade garments inspired by Saavedra’s upbringing in a Hispanic household. The brand’s big piece is the elegant and beautiful V-Maxi dress, but the brand came through ComplexCon with several moto-inspired pieces

The brand counts Becky G and Jorja Smith as fans.

Shop Garmette here.

Hello Angel Girl

Why We Love The Brand:

Hello Angel Girl is a California-based brand that takes inspiration from Japanese fashion subcultures like Gyaru, which itself is influenced by American fashion circa-2000 and filtered through a Japanese lens. It’s a fashion aesthetic that has been translated, and then translated again! The main aesthetic is bright, colorful, playful, and super cute.

If your vibe is Hello Kitty, pink, and ultra kawaii, Hello Angel Girl is your brand.

Shop Hello Angel Girl here.

Homme + Femme

Why We Love The Brand:

Founded by Drew and Andrew Evans, Homme + Femme is an LA-based brand that specializes in elevated luxury streetwear. The brand oozes the ‘90s and early ’00s vibes filtered through an LA hip-hop lens.

The brand just recently dropped a moto-inspired collection that looks seriously dope, whether you’re into super elevated pieces like the premium leather “Classic Moto Jacket” or more casual styles like the “Moto Thermal Long Sleeve.”

Shop Homme + Femme here.

The Incorporated Clothing

Why We Love The Brand:

The Incorporated is a Seattle-born Los Angeles-based brand started by designer Mark McGinnis. The brand likes to combine vintage and high-fashion silhouettes with streetwear aesthetics, resulting in a loud but highly stylish look.

The brand’s main focus is menswear, but unisex pieces have shown up in music videos for various artists, hinting at what the brand might have in store as it continues to grow.

Shop The Incorporated Clothing here.

Knorts Knit Denim

Why We Love The Brand:

Knorts Knit Denim is a brand that does denim, but elevated. The premium pieces from Knorts are knitted not woven and made on looms in Los Angeles with indigo-dyed yarn. The main idea behind Knorts is to offer denim fashion that is as comfortable and laid-back as possible.

It’s denim filtered through a laid-back LA lens, and we’re here for it. So are Cardi B and Latto apparently!

Shop Knorts Knit Denim here.

Ice Spice has been crushing it with the brand collaborations lately by seizing opportunities that are perfectly suited to her. First, there was the Ice Spice Munchkins Drink from Dunkin; Her stage name alone already sounds like it could be on the Dunkin menu, and the opportunity to include the chain’s Munchkins donut holes in the drink was too spot-on to ignore (Ice’s fans are known as Munchkins).

Now, she has another hit, and this time, she’s capitalizing on her distinct hairstyle: In partnership with Chicago lifestyle brand Living Product, Ice Spice has released her own Chia Pet. It’s currently available to buy via Amazon and chia.com, and will also be on icespicemusic.com starting this Friday, November 24.

Chia’s product description reads:

“Calling all Munchkins! The Ice Spice Chia Pet® is here and ready to add some baddie energy to your home décor! The superstar rapper’s iconic style is on full display as a terra cotta home planter, complete with pink jacket and her signature diamond chain. Just spread the seeds, water, and watch her grow leafy green hair! The Ice Spice Chia Pet comes with one packet of Chia® seeds good for three plantings, a convenient plastic drip tray, and planting and care instructions for chart-topping growth within two weeks. The princess of rap is now the perfect gift for the hip hop or music fan in your life and can be washed and replanted indefinitely! “

The rapper said in a statement (as Complex notes), “Like my lyrics say, ‘I’m breakin’ records and I’m breakin’ news.’ I’m not sure who stole whose look, but I’m into it and am very excited about this fun partnership. Chia Pet is an iconic brand with a dope jingle — so we have that in common.”

JB Brode, the Owner/Founder of Living Product, also told Complex, “My manager Tara is such a beast. She connected us to help design merch for Ice Spice. Ideating around that led us to this lightbulb moment like, ‘Damn, an Ice Spice Chia Pet would be crazy.’ It started as just an idea for a graphic, but we knew that the idea deserved its own moment. We pitched it to Spice’s team, who graciously let us pursue the official collaboration with Chia, and many months and negotiations later, here we are. It’s been a very educational process for us and we are so happy to see it come to life. The commercial really brought it full circle for us. Our guys at Pio Mio Studios executed our vision perfectly and it tied everything together beautifully.”

There’s also a vintage-style, 30-second ad for the product, so check that out below.

“There are fifteen hundred McDonald’s in France, a good enough place to grab 10 grams of protein for a Euro.”

Says Michael Fassbender’s titular killer six minutes into David Fincher’s The Killer, on Netflix. The Killer is a good film, Fincher does a great job reinventing his style and Fassbender is, as always, great. And yet… I couldn’t get the image of Fassbender dressed as a German tourist scarfing down a weird Ham McMuffin hack out of my mind for the entire duration of the film.

It’s little details and quirks that make fictional characters seem alive and real. But this fast food menu hack — which consisted of two slices of ham with fried egg sandwiched between them — filled me with questions to the point of distraction.

Why did he ditch the bun? Why would he order a Ham McMuffin over the sausage? Did he order the second piece of ham on the side or did he order two McMuffins, and combine them, in which case, where the f*ck is the second egg? What is he doing with all the bread? Do assassins not have time for cheese?! I don’t think it was Fincher’s intention for me to focus on a McDonald’s sandwich hack for the entirety of his film but also… how could I not?

With this week feeling a tad slow, I rolled up to McDonald’s, ordered two Ham McMuffins without cheese (even the person taking my order thought I was weird), as well as two sausage McMuffins with cheese so I could put my own spin on the hack. Here is what I discovered.

The Killer Ham McMuffin Hack

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

At first, I thought this sandwich might’ve consisted of two eggs but after seeing the way it looked stacked, there is no way Fassbender is eating two eggs in the movie; with two eggs this thing looks massive. So I went the one-egg route. As soon as I took a bite out of this reassembled sandwich I realized the genius behind Fincher’s choice — this is some psycho-killer shit.

You have to be a bit deranged to eat this sandwich. It is disturbing on so many levels. The texture is awful, without the bun a hot spotlight is put onto the weird mouthfeel of the ham. It’s incredibly rubbery, and the combination of sweet, thick ham and dry fried egg is legitimately one of the worst single bites of food I’ve ever experienced in covering fast food.

Handling the sandwich is also really off-putting. The ham is fleshy, and instantly holding this sandwich makes you feel like you’re doing something wrong. Something that should be illegal. Maybe not as bad as murder but also…kinda close.

After two bites I was done, I couldn’t handle this sandwich anymore. Let’s move on to what I hoped would be a better version, the same build but with sausage and cheese.

A Much-Less Disturbing Version Of The Same Sandwich, With Sausage And Cheese

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

For this alteration on the hack, I essentially built the same sandwich but with sausage patties and cheese instead of ham. As I built this sandwich I became convinced that The Killer did get cheese after all, it’s just impossible to remove the cheese once it’s been melded onto the English muffin top. I tried to carefully peel the sausage patty from the top bun but I was only able to get some of the cheese removed.

Biting into the sandwich I tasted black pepper, a meaty slightly sweet sausage flavor, a hint of salt from what was left of the American cheese, and a neutral dry egg flavor. I’d like to say that this keto-friendly hack was a huge improvement over the ham version but it’s not. Note really, at least. It’s only slightly better but still a sad comparison to eating the sandwich as it’s intended with the bun.

Turns out most of what makes a McMuffin good is the muffin. Who knew?

The Bottom Line:

This hack and any alteration of it that involves removing the bun is only for the disturbed. Even if you’re living that keto lifestyle, there has to be a better option than this! Now replacing the bun with a hashbrown in its place… that might be a hack worth trying.

Find your nearest McDonald’s here.

There appears to be a growing trend on TikTok: heartbreaking slice-of-life stories, told as a slideshow. These usually mimic a text conversation between two people caught in a vulnerable moment, showcasing something quite moving and profound in the mundane.

Take for instance the “orange peel story” which went viral only a couple of weeks ago. It follows two college students post break-up, one of whom still has feelings for the other. A tender exchange encourages them to believe that they will find love again.

Now, there’s a new story making the rounds, and it’s every bit as touching.

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This one is called the “lemon pie” story (it’s unclear if all text-based TikTok stories should have a fruit theme), and it was written by @sappoop, who reminds us in their bio to not get too depressed by their stories, since they’re fiction.

Regardless, people are having real feelings after reading it.

It all begins with the straightforward line, “hey, we need to break up.” Presumably from the girlfriend in the relationship.

The boyfriend must have not seen it coming, because he asks if he did something to make the girlfriend upset.

“no, you’re perfect,” she replies. “it’s me.”

Blindsided, the boyfriend writes, “please tell me what’s going on,” using the pet name “lemon.”

He is only met with more cryptic answers as she writes: “My heart is in no condition to love right now.”

The girlfriend then asks if the boyfriend remembers the night they first met. She recalls that night, when she had been caught stealing lemons out of the boy’s lemon tree by his mother. The boy convinced his mother to let it all go, sparing the girl from getting into trouble. That was the night he gave her the nickname “lemon.”

To thank the boy, the girl had made him a lemon pie—which they both reminisced about being terrible.

But that nostalgic feeling is cut short when the girlfriend requests that the boyfriend not contact her again. She then blocks his number.

Only one day later, the boyfriend uses a burner phone to reach out. This doesn’t exactly go well, since his ex informs him that she will be blocking this number as well. But before she does, she makes an unusual, somewhat foreboding request:

“will you promise to regularly contact my number, even with both of your phones blocked?” she asks. “update me about your life? even if the texts don’t go through, at least i’ll have some hope in heart that you didn’t forget about me? ask me how my day was and pretend I’m responding back. will you promise to take my heart and claim it as your own?”

The boy continues trying to contact her throughout the years, all to no avail. Until one day, he does get a response from. Not from his beloved “Lemon,” but her mom, informing him that her daughter had passed away due to heart failure.

The boy’s life goes on, but he keeps his promise. He texts “Lemon” from time to time, telling her when he meets someone else, when he gets married…and finally, when he gets diagnosed with heart cancer.

“Maybe our hearts are linked after all,” he writes.

The story ends with the boy telling the girl that he picked some lemons from his mom’s house, and plans to make her a lemon pie, just as “horrible” as he remembered it.

Click here to read the full story.

Over 6.2 million people have read this story, with several calling it even more tragic than the popular orange peel story.

@finney_frog @🌷 <<<<< literally crying rn #lemonpie #sad #sadstories #hehim #gay #Igbt #lgbtq #achillean #trans #transgender #t4t #transmasc #nonbinary #ftm #queer #mlm #foryou #fyp #fypシ #dontflop ♬ interlinked – jacob¡

“i’m on the toilet at school sobbing rn,” wrote @zombehcorpse in the comments.

“Who makes these…I’m sobbing at 6:20 in the morning,” one person wrote.

“Yoinks this one’s got a little kick to it,” added another.

These types of stories might leave us emotionally wrecked, but we can all admit that shedding a tear over a fictional scenario feels really good once in a while. And it can be pretty good for us too. So keep these devastating TikToks coming!

Fans have been shocked as news broke that Hall & Oates have actually split like seeds, making plans to never see each other again. Daryl Hall filed a lawsuit against John Oates in Nashville Chancery Court, as Philadelphia Magazine noted that a business trust dispute was the cause of the filing. It has also been reported that a temporary restraining order was issued for Hall against Oates on November 17.

While details of the case or the restraining order’s reasoning are still pretty unknown, they might be for a while. According to Axios reporter Nate Rau, “At least for now, all of the filings in the litigation are under seal.”

Although the duo hadn’t been releasing music together for a while, they had seemed pretty cordial in recent years.

“We get along just fine,” Hall previously shared in a 2014 interview with The Guardian about their relationship. “We weren’t — and aren’t — very much alike: we have different interests. But the differences aren’t important, what’s important is what we share — and that’s music.”

“Daryl and I are more like brothers than actual friends,” Oates added. “We’re very different as people, but we have this incredibly strong musical bond. He is creatively unsatisfied and that drives him forward. He’s very smart, and, in my opinion, has one of the greatest popular voices of all time.”

Here’s hoping the two give some more insight into the lawsuit.

Fans are noticing that one of Rod Wave‘s signature songs sounds similar to an old Jay-Z song. Earlier this week, music fans took to Twitter to express their disdain toward Wave, as he supposedly borrowed a few bars from Hov. That said, some are arguing that this is simply a case of interpolation — something that’s been a component of hip-hop since its birth 50 years ago.

Did Rod Wave steal Jay-Z’s ‘Song Cry’ lyrics?

On Wave’s song, “2019”, which was originally released in 2021, he raps “We was so happy poor but when we got rich / That’s when signals get crossed and we got flipped / Read her mind, I don’t know what made me leave that sh*t / Made me speed that quick, let me see that’s it.” This particular verse is bar-for-bar with Jay’s 2002 song “Song Cry.”

This particular set of lyrics has left fans divided, with some noting that Jay-Z had interpreted Biggie lyrics early on in his career.

“When Jay-Z did it y’all said he was just ‘paying homage,’” said one Twitter user. “This just shows us that Rod Wave is a master student of the game.”

Some also pointed out that Wave has previously interpolated bars by Boosie Badazz and Drake, but maintains an air of originality throughout his craft.

Wave has since denied stealing lyrics from other artists.

AI tools are relatively new when it comes to being widely accessible on a consumer level. Despite that, a lot of them are already pretty dang good. In terms of impersonation via audio or video, AI tools are producing some convincing results, and here we have a case where they’re not being used for good at the expense of Cardi B.

An online ad for an entity called USA Wellness Wave (about which there appears to be virtually no information online) features an AI-generated voiceover that bears more than a passing resemblance to Cardi, although some of the vocal rhythms and other nuances give away that it’s not the real deal. The video uses unrelated videos of Cardi speaking to give the impression that it’s actually her talking, and the voiceover promotes a supposed “stimulus-style program” that promises free and easy money to applicants.

The clip was shared on Twitter recently and Cardi caught wind of it today. It would seem she’s not a fan, as she re-posted it and wrote, “AI is crazy smh….another lawsuit that fell right on my lap…I love easy money.”

Meanwhile, Cardi recently cleared up rumors that suggested she was quitting music.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

In a matter of clearly grave national importance, there’s been a lot of focus on Jon Hamm sporting nipple rings for his Trump-loving sheriff in Fargo Season 5. The actor reportedly went so far as to work with a “nippleologist,” which is apparently a real thing and a sign of Hamm’s dedication to his craft.

However, Fargo fans were greeted with more than just painstakingly accurate nipple rings during the two part Season 5 premiere. During a pivotal scene where the FBI is questioning Hamm’s Sheriff Roy Tillman about his discretionary application of the law, the character emerges from a hot tub giving everyone a full-on view of Hamm’s backside.

We are happy to report that what you saw in the premiere was the real deal. Fargo creator Noah Hawley confirmed to Vanity Fair that those cheeks are 100% Hamm:

That’s all Jon. Don’t forget the nipple rings! Tillman is deeply invested in religious traditions but also wears nipple rings. It’s Tiger King America, which manages to mix conservative and what would be called liberal values in a way that is fascinating. It was really great to explore that with Jon’s character, because he’s not your father’s Christian lawman. It’s a more unexpected, more unfamiliar guy who is basically saying, I am the law. That’s what we saw with our previous president—whatever he was, that’s what the law was. And there’s a sort of unsettling carnality to Jon’s character, you know, where he wants the moral high ground but he’s also got a sex trunk. So where does the line get drawn, and who gets to draw it? That really is the thing.

The two-part Fargo Season 5 premiere in all it’s Hamm-butt glory is available for streaming on Hulu.

(Via Vanity Fair)

Last night, Dancing With The Stars held a special Taylor Swift-themed night, where each of the teams performed a routine to a selection from the pop star’s catalog.

One of the groups, Jason Mraz and dancer Daniella Karagach were shocked when they received a perfect score (40/40) for their tango to “Don’t Blame Me,” from Swift’s 2017 album, Reputation (as People notes).

“I was more nervous tonight than I was on the first night because I have that experience of forgetting moves,” Mraz told the judges after the performance, as he felt he had struggled in the previous weeks, but was now fueled by the power of the Swifties. “I went home and pet my cat, I cried a little bit, I meditated, I did my yoga and I’m here,” he added.

Even the judges had some Swift jokes prepared, as Bruno told Mraz, “Reputation restored! You are back with a massive hit!”

Mraz had practiced with Karagach, but it’s also worth noting that he’s also been a duet partner with Swift herself — giving him some confidence when it came to the competition. Way back in 2011, he joined Swift on stage during the Speak Now tour stop at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The two did a duet of his hit 2008 song, “I’m Yours.”

Revisit Mraz and Swift’s duet below.

When Thanksgiving is done right, families evenly divide the labor so that everything gets done and nobody works too hard. Someone takes charge of roasting the turkey, others contribute with sides, somebody is on dishes, and there’s always one family member happy to mix up some cocktails.

While most families shouldn’t have to resort to aggressive tactics to ensure this balance, Colleen Rast Cederberg, 31, has created a unique solution to keep the labor duties in her family. She made a “Thanksgiving Draft.”

“My sisters were spending all day cooking, and my brothers were spending all evening cleaning and I was just kind of hearing from both sides that there was kind of an imbalance,” Rast Cederberg, the middle child of 5 siblings, told Fox News Digital.

Rast Cederberg explained how the draft works in a TikTok video that has been seen 650,000 times.

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“This is how I do Thanksgiving so that my siblings and I don’t kill each other,” Rast Cederberg opens her video. “We give every dish a point value from one to three. The cranberry dish is a one and the turkey is a three.”

Thanksgiving Draft 2023 

@crcederberg

Thanksgiving Draft 2023 #thanksgiving @gregrast0

In the weeks leading up to the holiday, the family jumps on a video call to choose their particular dishes, just like NFL general managers do during their annual draft. They also decide who’s on cleaning and dish duty.

“We all draft what dishes we want to make,” she says in the video. “We also do this thing called ‘flex kitchen,’ which means you basically hang out in the kitchen for an hour and our job is to keep the kitchen clean – so unload the dishwasher if it’s ready, helping out the people cooking, whatever it takes to keep the kitchen moving.”

While some family members think it’s a little too rigid to outline of “rules and responsibilities on Thanksgiving,” Rast Cederberg says everyone happily participates in the system.

The Thanksgiving Draft has received a lot of love in the TikTok comments section from people who love organization. “My type A personality is obsessed with this. Dear lord, I wish my family was like this lol,” Nicole A Gaskins wrote. “I have never desired hanging out with people as much as I do right now. Omg the organization, the spreadsheets. It’s all so beautiful,” Buzzsaw408 added.

One big question in the comments inspired a quick follow-up video from Rast Cederberg. “I wanna know the root fight that happened where this was the solution?” Optimistic asked.

“I had older siblings that were doing all the cooking and younger siblings that were doing all of the cleaning and this was my solution to kind of smooth everything between the two factions because everyone should do a little bit of both,” Rast Cederberg said in a subsequent TikTok post.

Once you thought that Rast Cederberg’s draft was taking Thanksgiving organization as far as it can go, she dropped this nugget: An AI-generated schedule for cooking the holiday meal. She fed ChatGPT all of the recipes she is going to make on Thanksgiving, and it created a detailed cooking schedule for the entire meal.

More Thanksgiving planning hacks this one complements of @bjc6109 

@crcederberg

More Thanksgiving planning hacks this one complements of @bjc6109 #thanksgiving #chatgpt #planning #holiday