Charlotte Gainsbourg for W Magazine Korea Vol.7 'Women In Motion' by Peter Ash Lee
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The Paradise of El Hierro: Maria Khan by Xavi Gordo for Bazaar Spain
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The Paradise of El Hierro: Maria Khan by Xavi Gordo for Bazaar Spain
Harper’s Bazaar Spain [IG] May 2025 devotes an issue to the theme of water, with model Maria Khan lensed by Xavi Gordo [IG] in ‘Acqua’.
The island of El Hierro embraces and awes, like the crystal-clear, dark-bottomed water that surrounds it. Among its volcanoes and extraordinary natural sculptures, model María Khan finds peace in this swimwear story, an ode to the power of nature in the most sustainable corner of the Canary Islands.
Over the past few decades, this island has embraced a pioneering approach to sustainability, driven by a commitment to renewable energy and environmental conservation and its UNESCO Biosphere Reserve status.
Read MoreMaison Keï Akai Presents “Damier” Exhibition Featuring Richard Bernardin until June 30, 2025
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Maison Keï Akai Presents “Damier” Exhibition Featuring Richard Bernardin until June 30, 2025
Maison Keï Akai is proud to unveil DAMIER, a striking new black-and-white group exhibition opening on Thursday, June 12th, in celebration of Grand Prix Montreal 2025 weekend. Drawing inspiration from the graphic elegance of the iconic checkered flag, the exhibition is a bold homage to the visual language of Formula 1 and the energy it brings to Montreal each summer.
AOC’s pleasure in sharing this Maison Keï Akai news flows from the intersection of multiple events, cultural issues and people who have touched my life in very positive ways.
Richard Bernardin: the Heart of Maison Keï Akai’s ‘Damier Exhibition
Breathing “life, sensuality and wisdom” [all Anne’s words] into the Montreal exhibition is internationally-acclaimed fashion photographer Richard Bernardin, whose evocative large-format black-and-white prints will be prominently featured.
Read MoreDeva Cassel in Dior for Re-Edition SS2025 | Anne's Thoughts on Nepo Babies
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Deva Cassel in Dior for Re-Edition SS2025 | Anne's Thoughts on Nepo Babies
The uber-talented, Dior ambassador Deva Cassel lands a Dior-story in Re-edition Magazine [IG] Spring/Summer 2025 issue 23.
When the NYTimes wrote ‘Nepo Babies Crowd the Runways’ in February 2024, there was some solid commentary from former casting director James Scully and two models we love, love, love.
“Kaia Gerber and Gigi Hadid would have walked into agencies and been signed, whoever their parents were,” Mr. Scully explained. “That said, the net is cast very wide now, and almost anyone will do. If you’re the average-looking daughter of a celebrity these days, then frankly you are as likely to be cast in a Prada show as if you are an actual model.”
Should Nepo Babies Be Banned?
Regarding Deva Cassel, she understands the ‘nepo baby’ label and doesn't view it negatively. Cassel believes that her own abilities and dedication will allow her to succeed beyond her parents’ names, which she agrees brought her to the industry’s attention, got her auditions, interviews and probably her initial small roles.
Read More'Edge of the World' Shot by Alasdair McLellan and Lessons of Ancient Rebellion in a Changing World
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'Edge of the World' Shot by Alasdair McLellan and Lessons of Ancient Rebellion in a Changing World
The May 2025 issue of Bazaar Italia adds a wonderful phrase in translation with a new twist. It inquires what beauty is for us, beyond a concept reduced to an “orgasm of the ego”.
Rather, this process illuminates the free expression of oneself, which evolves with our person and with the passing of time.
It’s possible — not probable — but possible in the world of fashion, that this focus could take hold not only under the umbrella of humanist thought, but now influenced further by Pope Leo and his beliefs as a member of the Augustinian order.
The Commitment to Educating Oneself: The Good, the Bad and the Indefensible
Augustinians have a deep commitment to the idea that each of us has the opportunity to embark on an inner journey towards understanding and cultivating a deeper relationship with God.
In America, where young white men are the primary drivers of a closer relationship to faith, the focus is regaining control, in my opinion.
There is a much richer vision for young people that is embedded in humanism — as expressed by designer Brunello Cucinelli. Remember that humanism came together in launching the Renaissance with both a secular wing and a religious wing. They were not identical but highly compatible in their views and values.
Read MoreTxema Yeste at Reiffers Art Center in Paris until May 31, 2025 | Txema Yeste Renewed on AOC
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Txema Yeste at Reiffers Art Center in Paris until May 31, 2025 | Txema Yeste Renewed on AOC
Spanish photographer Txema Yeste[IG] is one of Anne of Carversville’s favorite photographers. His style vision is boldly elegant, color-saturated and deeply committed to a sensual portrayal of a wide variety of strong women.
The AOC Archives for Yeste begin in 2011, and they number 120 entries.
Long before fashion was committed to a wider representation of women in marketing, Txema Yeste was regularly photographing women of color — EVERY skin color from South Sudan to Seoul, Korea.
Txema Yeste & Numéro are on view in Paris May 21 - May 31, 2025
Reiffers Art Center; 30 rue des Acacias; Paris 17, FR
Artsy shares an overview of all Yeste’s 41 works in the show. Here’s a sampling:
Read MoreHighgrove X Burberry Supports The King’s Foundation with 4th Capsule
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Highgrove X Burberry Supports The King’s Foundation with 4th Capsule
Burberry has launched its fourth capsule in partnership with Highgrove, the foundation dedicated to funding Highgrove Gardens, which surround the private residence of Their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla.
This ongoing collaboration with Highgrove also promotes the work of The King’s Foundation, a charity founded by then Prince of Wales in 1990 to support now King Charles III’s philosophy of Harmony: that by understanding the balance, order and relationships between ourselves and the natural world, we can create a more sustainable future.
The latest 28-piece Highgrove X Burberry collection has collaborated with British artist Helen Bullock [IG], who has created four artworks inspired by the Kitchen Garden at Highgrove. Bullock said in a statement: “The Gardens are so vast and rich it was hard to decide where to start. But I soon fell for the tangled sway of wildflowers and that special combination of dancing poppies and cosmos.”
Read MorePope Leo the 14th; The Augustinian Order; Renaissance Humanism; and Brunello Cucinelli
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Pope Leo the 14th; The Augustinian Order; Renaissance Humanism; and Brunello Cucinelli
The Catholic Augustinian Order, formally known as the Order of Saint Augustine, traces its origins to the early centuries of Christianity, inspired by the teachings and rule of Saint Augustine of Hippo. Saint Augustine, a pivotal figure in early Christian theology, emphasized a communal life dedicated to the pursuit of truth, charity, and devotion to God, principles that became foundational to the order.
America has delivered our 1st pope to the world community on this day May 8, 2025, and he is an Augustinian. In this moment, Anne of Carversville assures readers that this is a brilliant choice, one that does not surprise me at all, when I read his curriculum vitae over the weekend.
Read More'Superfine' Met Exhibition Catalogue May 2025 Dandy Images by Tyler Mitchell
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'Superfine' Met Exhibition Catalogue May 2025 Dandy Images by Tyler Mitchell
‘Superfine’ is the official catalogue published in conjunction with the Met Gala Monday night, May 5 and the ‘Superfine’ exhibition running from May 10-October 26, 2025. Rising star photographer Tyler Mitchell [IG],now represented by Gagosian, shot the ‘Superfine’ catalogue and this series of images from it.
In this presentation of catalogue story images, Mitchell works with top stylist Carlos Nazario [IG] to capture dandy-worthy images of artist Ike Ude and models including Abdou Ndoye, Craig Shimirimana, Lamine Seck and Mou Lam./ Hair by Dre Demry Sanders; makeup by Keita Moore; set designer Julia Wagner
Read MoreCardinal Tolomeo Gallio's Spirit Surely Enjoyed the Chanel Show at His Villa d'Este
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Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio's Spirit Surely Enjoyed the Chanel Show at His Villa d'Este
The Cardinal who originally built Villa d’Este in 1568 with architect Pellegrino Tibaldi — home of Chanel’s recent Resort 2025/26 show was Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio. The Cardinal was a self-made man by all reports, a thinker deeply influenced by the movement AOC continually calls out, thanks to Brunello Cucinelli. The philosophy is called ‘humanism’ and even ‘Christian humanism’.
As AOC noted in Anne’s recent post examining the religious views of the controversial US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and his embrace of Christian Nationalism and the Crusades, Arab world universities were instrumental in translating and preserving ancient Greek and Roman texts, which would later be transmitted to Europe and spur on the Renaissance.
Anne of Carversville works really hard to find new twists and turns in historical stories for which we believe we have the facts. The role of the Arab world in intellectual discussion and debate about Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and more in Europe’s most valued and prominent universities in the early Renaissance is one of those stories.
Read MoreZara Introduces World to Chinese Artist Fanglu Lin in Her First Commercial Project
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Zara Taps Chinese Artist Fanglu Lin in Her First Commercial Project
The commercial alliance covers women, men, kids and home categories and represents the first time the artist has affiliated herself in a commercial venture.
In these Zara campaign images, models Chu Wong and David Yang are lensed by Chris Rhodes [IG] in Yangshuo, Builin [China], considered among the most beautiful locations in China.
Gaia’s Influence Dominates Fanglu Lin’s Artistic Universe
Fanglu Lin is known for her commitment to preserving and reinterpreting traditional textile craftsmanship through the ‘female’ [‘feminist’] eye and goddesses, especially Gaia.
Honoring the Yunnan-based Bai Minority
Lin’s artwork, ‘SHE’ [2016], spotlighting the sewing traditions of women from the Yunnan-based Bai minority ethnic group in China, earned Fanglu Lin first prize and a €50,000 purse in the Loewe Foundation’s Craft Prize 2021.
Zara is firing on all cylinders with this 5-stars collaboration. Learn more about it and Fanglu Lin’s artistry.
Read MoreBlack Enterprise Was a Key Part of New England's Whaling Industry, Including As Ship Owners
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Black Enterprise Was a Key Part of New England's Whaling Industry, Including As Ship Owners
At its peak, in the 1850s, the American whaling industry alone employed 50,000 to 70,000 workers who worked on an estimated 700 to 800 ships.
In the decades before cheap oil helped many industries truly take off, whaling played an important, but often overlooked, role in laying the groundwork for the antislavery movement.
Black sailors made up perhaps 20% to 30% of whaling crews. Of these sailors, some were enslaved and used their hard-won earnings to buy their freedom. Some of these sailors went on to finance abolitionist efforts. Others built houses of worship.
Read MoreUrsula Corberó Covers Vogue España May 2025 in Elizaveta Porodina Excavation
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Ursula Corberó Covers Vogue España May 2025 in Elizaveta Porodina Excavation
Ursula Corberó covers the May 2025 issue of Vogue Espana [IG], styled by Helena Tejedor in layered images that project her status as a female action hero player.
In her latest performance as Nuria, the unknowing wife of the mysterious assassin, ‘The Jackal’ [played by Eddie Redmayne], Corberó shifts from her usual intense-characters portfolio to one that is more delicate and emotional.
The type of intensity has transformed. Dare we say this reflection of women is more ‘complex’?
Who better to photograph a talented, female actor playing a ‘psychologically complex’ woman than Elizaveta Porodina? [IG] The uber-talented creator of wide-ranging visual portraits of women is comfortable describing the female terrain called ‘dark sorcery’, a term that takes many of us to the historical reality of ‘witch-burning’ — or hanging witches in America — directed primarily against women.
Anne asks: As humans, don’t we create some kind of storyline around the simplest observation we have of another person? What’s our storytelling accuracy rate with the real story behind actors and the life dramas they play out before our eyes? Perhaps 10%?
Porodina and her fellow players explore women’s layered selves with eyes wide open.
Read MoreApolline Rocco Fohrer Explores Dadaism As Art in Fashion for W Magazine China
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Apolline Rocco Fohrer Explores Dadaism As Art in Fashion for W Magazine China AOC Fashion
The January 2025 issue of W Magazine China Vol.1 The Art Issue, carried a story focused on Dadaism, with French model Apolline Rocco Fohrer styled by Austin Feng and lensed by photographer Nick Yang [IG].
Designers influenced by Dadaism began experimenting with deconstruction, tearing apart established shapes and reconstructing garments in playful, unexpected ways. They favored collage techniques, layering fabrics, textures, and prints in an almost haphazard manner, creating multidimensional garments that defied logic and expectation.
This transformative approach allowed fashion to become a canvas for political and social commentary, breaking down the barriers between high art and everyday wear.
Read MoreAriana Grande by Elizaveta Porodina in 'Pure Fantasy' for Vogue Italy March 2025
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Ariana Grande by Elizaveta Porodina in 'Pure Fantasy' for Vogue Italy March 2025
Top talent Ariana Grande gets the Elizaveta Porodina [IG] treatment, styled by Max Ortega for Vogue Italia’s March 2025 issue.
Ariana Grande’s fashion story ‘Pure Fantasy’ ignites marvels among many of her fans, who have never seen her look so ethereal, so mystical, so lovely and other-worldly./ Hair by GaborK; makeup by Michael Anthony
Elizaveta Porodina specializes in transforming her subjects, who have never appeared in images like hers. It’s as if she’s doing a psychological excavation of people’s inner selves — especially women — prompting them to look differently at the human in the mirror.
Read MoreGustav Klimt Painting of Prince William Nii Nortey Dowuona Forces Reflection on Human Zoos
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Gustav Klimt Painting of Prince William Nii Nortey Dowuona and ‘Human Zoos’
A potentially lost forever, early artwork by renowned Austrian artist Gustav Klimt, missing since the 1930s, is now being exhibited after its recent recovery. The painting portrays Prince William Nii Nortey Dowuona, a leader of the Ga people from what is now known as Ghana in West Africa. Created in 1897, the portrait shows the prince in profile set against an abstract floral backdrop. Measuring just over 2 feet in height, the compact artwork is being showcased by the Viennese gallery Wienerroither & Kohlbacher (W&K) at the TEFAF Maastricht art fair in the Netherlands, with an asking price of €15 million (approximately $16.3 million).
The Rise of Ethnographic Showcases or ‘Human Zoos’
According to W&K, the painting was created by the artist amid the 1897 Vienna Völkerschau. These Völkerschau exhibitions were ethnographic showcases — also called human zoos — from the colonial era. These widely-attended exhibitions across Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries were often businesses created for financial profit.
Read MoreWhen LOEWE’s Jonathan Anderson Was Inspired by The Glasgow School
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AOC is reviewing the totality of Anderson’s work for LOEWE, including work we’ve not shared before. These fashion images capturing the 2018 Loewe x Charles Rennie Mackintosh capsule collection are a perfect example of Anderson’s enormous respect for Arts & Crafts movements worldwide.
The handsome Felix Sueur joined with models Fran Summers and Giselle Norman in the Loewe x Charles Rennie Mackintosh capsule collection lookbook lensed by fashion photographer Craig McDean with styling by Benjamin Bruno. /Hair by Anthony Turner; makeup by Lynsey Alexander
Read MoreJonathan Anderson Departs LOEWE | Where He's Headed Is Hardly a Secret
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Designer Jonathan Anderson Resigns As Loewe’s Creative Director After 11 Years
The news was confirmed Monday, March 17 following months of speculation about the evolving chess game supporting creative talent at LVMH. The question is whether all players will be in place in a day or two, or the completion wait goes on.
After spending hours revisiting Jonathan Anderson’s body of work, taking the reins at Dior would be absolute perfection for him. Both Anderson are Chiuri are humanists, with a profound attachment to craft and human artistry. Both designers embrace the entire international community at large and are devoted to honoring history in fresh, new ways.
To seal the deal for AOC, watching the LOEWE Pre-Spring/Summer 2025 Campaign video, Lilith’s name appears as 1800 BC in the upper left hand corner of the art studio segment. That love note to feminists and Jewish women nails it for Jonathan Anderson at Anne of Carversiville.
Read MorePharrell Williams Carries the Olympic Torch Onwards to UNESCO for Louis Vuitton Men
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Pharrell Williams Carries the Olympic Torch Onwards to UNESCO for Louis Vuitton Men
The Louis Vuitton Men Spring 2025 campaign, lensed by Stef Mitchell with Gabriel Moses [IG] as photographer and director, The visual effects continue the major themes Louis Vuitton Men creative director Pharrell Williams introduced at his fashion show held in Paris at UNESCO House.
This season Vuitton Men teamed up with Air Afrique in Paris, a consultancy inspired by those glorious years when all things seemed possible, and a multicultural youth quake took hold around the world.
After his recent role representing Louis Vuitton and his adopted country of France at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Williams was feeling the love of his own humanrace [Pharrell’s skincare brand] family.
Read MoreGigi Hadid Covers Vogue April, Inspiring a Jazz Age Dive into the Harlem Renaissance
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