Maddie is wearing Exaggerated Floral Dress by MSGM, Meg is wearing the Bloom Midi Dress by Fuzzi, and Chelsea is wearing Plaid Wool Overalls by EVIDNT

Hey APW,

Every Friday we gather round the virtual… campfire? Group chat line? Lunch table? Bar? What’s the appropriate metaphor here? And enjoy each other’s company and support in the form of APW Happy Hour. And in the APW offices—both our real-live one in East Oakland, and our virtual one on Slack—we try to fit in the same kind of girl time on the regular.

But in the past few years, we’ve missed getting to do that in person with readers. (For those of you who’ve been around long enough to remember my book tour for my first book, the crowds and companionship and discussion were truly legendary.) And we’ve been itching to get back into it. So this fall we dreamed up ways to get the very best of the APW slumber party vibe, live and in person, in San Francisco.

And last Saturday we did just that! In partnership with Rent the Runway in San Francisco, we took over their retail location for Primpin’ Ain’t Easy (you guys, I live for word play). We got to meet a few dozen of you in person, give you presents (we’re also giving away a gift bag filled with over $500 worth of goodies below, so keep scrolling), get our hair and makeup done by STYLEBEE, eat the world’s best donuts from Donut Savant, and… oh yeah, give you advice while you got styled up in the dressing rooms.

With a day like that, it’s really hard to lose, but the humans in the room—from the readers, to the RTR team, to my own amazing team at APW—made Saturday a total and complete joy. We’re hoping to plan more of these events to meet you guys in person, so if you have ideas about what we should do, drop us a line. In the meantime, a huge thank you to everyone who made the event possible: the stylists at Rent the Runway who ran around all morning pulling sequin-covered outfits for y’all (because, duh), STYLEBEE for making us look and feel awesome (they do on-demand hair and makeup, and yes that includes weddings), and then of course our gift bag participants, because we really wanted to fill our gift bags with things we actually like, including:

• The Foreo Mini 2 face brush and Foreo ISSA Hybrid toothbrush. The fanciest exfoliator and the fanciest toothbrush you could ever ask for.
• Plates and napkins from Harlow and Grey, who are redefining the word lux.
• A mini party in a bag from our friends at Oh Happy Day Party Shop, my favorite place to have an accidental shopping spree.
• The coolest bar of millennial pink soap you’ve ever seen from Embla, complete with our “Primpin’ Ain’t Easy” logo. Embla is a small business local to San Francisco, and they make custom, modern soaps and candles using 3D printing (including wedding centerpieces.)
• 20% off your first month of Underclub, a subscription-based underwear service with really cute lingerie. (The founder baked underwear-clad cookies for the event, which is the first thing in my work life that’s thrown my husband in about five years. “Is this a cookie… with a thong?” Yes. Yes it is.)

So scroll down and enter to win all that goodness. As for me, I’m filling up my RTR Unlimited cart for my trip to New York next week, and riding high on lady vibes.

XO,

Meg

P.S. Speaking of the company of women, if you haven’t read Lindy West’s article on female rage in the New York Times this week, do that right now. Then come back and look at all these pretty pictures, of your fellow commenters looking hot as hell.

P.P.S. It’s your open thread. Hit it.

Colorblock Knit Dress by Cedric Charlier

Blanca Daffodil Dress by Erin Fetherson and Burgundy Krooger Dress by Jay Godfrey

Sequin..