Well America, we finally have our first openly gay Miss America contestant.
On Saturday night, 23-year-old Erin O’Flaherty won the title of Miss Missouri, which she honestly didn’t see coming because as she told the Riverfront Times “progressive is not exactly a word people might think of when you think Missouri.”
O’Flaherty has been out since winning the title of Miss University of Central Florida as an 18-year-old freshman, which she says was “hard because you want it to be very private. The public access to that was very challenging because I wanted to protect my relationship and who I am and come to terms with myself before the rest of the world got a chance to.”
Even though O’Flaherty hopes her tenure as Miss Missouri, and possibly Miss America and/or Universe, will give her the opportunity to raise awareness for the LGBT community, “I don’t carry a rainbow flag with me everywhere I go, you know. It’s not going to be my focus, but I certainly hope my presence will help people open up a little bit more. I’m very open about it. It’s never going to be something I try to hide because I’m very proud to be a member of the LGBT community.”
What happens when the places you’ve been, the people you’ve met, and the memories you’ve collected become something you can actually touch? For Peruvian-born, Paris-based architect and interior designer Diego Delgado-Elias, the answer is OFRENDA, his debut collection of furniture and objects. Presented at the Embassy of Peru in France from October 19–21, 2026, the
Paris Fashion Week is getting a little more provocative. Tom of Finland Foundation presents Packed for Pleasure, a new group exhibition exploring nearly a century of art, desire and censorship—and the creative ways artists have continued to make and share work when society tells them not to. Curated by the Foundation’s Chief Curator Brooke Wise
Before understanding that she could work in fashion, Maria Braz already understood the power of an image. Music videos, movies, magazines, red carpets, shows. Britney Spears, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Rihanna. As a child and teenager, she watched, recreated, dressed up, invented characters, and turned her computer into a set for her own productions.
Fashion week, trend fatigue, relationship scheduling, accidental wellness, and the annual September identity crisis. Maybe nothing is wrong with us. Maybe we’ve just been online too long.
