The moment AOC heard the sad news of the passing of architect Frank Gehry, Anne went to LVMH website. As expected, a message from Bernard Arnault was waiting for us all.
In 2016, Frank Gehry’s accomplishments were honored by President Barack Obama with the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
The presidential awards citation, read in part, “never limited by conventional materials, styles, or processes, Frank Gehry’s bold and thoughtful structures demonstrate architecture’s power to induce wonder and revitalize communities.”
Holiday Magazine [IG] takes us to Samarkand, in their FW 2025 issue No.396. Bibi Breslin is dressed by Emmanuel Alt in YSL for the cover, as the creative team heads out for a holiday in a key city on the original Silk Road.
Drew Vickers [IG] captures ‘Bibi’s Eastern Reverie’ in Samarkand, a UNESCO city in Uzbekistan, founded in the 7th - 8th centuries as the ancient city of Afrasiab.
For centuries, ancient trade routes - from Siberia to India, from China to Egypt - converged on this international oasis, now known as Samarkand. Greeks, Persians, Turks, Mongols and Arabs all made their way to the city in hopes of making good business.
Billie Eilish [IG] made a classic Ballbreaker move at Wednesday's WSJ Magazine [IG] 2025 Innovator Awards, where Eilish was receiving the Music Innovator Award in New York City on Wednesday, Oct. 29.
Eilish had platinum-level money in her sight with the best binoculars money can buy when she planned her acceptance award speech for last night. Now that we know that Dr. Priscilla Chan had already received her award before Billie, we have tempered slightly our euthusiasm over her performance.
Billie came after Dr. Chan in the awards order, and the Zuckerberg-Chan $45 billion donation to CZI was already acknowledged and praised in the audience when Chan received her award from Karlie Kloss.
Her short speech is playing well across the internet, and with the crisis that America is moving towards this weekend, Eilish will inspire our young people. Goddess knows, they need it.
C Magazine is celebrating their 20th anniversary, with a memorable October 2025 issue. Founder Jennifer Smith Hale has gifted us a spectacular cover story featuring supermodel Cindy Crawford, An Icon Reimaginied at Paramount Studios, lensed by Mathew Brookes [IG].
Beyoncé’s dancers Daniel Ralph Mfaya [IG] and Romeil Johnson [IG] are essential to the glory of these images. Yes, the lens is very kind to this trio. And yet, they do not become artifice.
Romeil Johnson shares his thoughts on his IG:
PINCH ME. I had the absolute pleasure of accompanying THEE @cindycrawford for C Magazines 20th ANNIVERSARY ISSUE. . . you’re a vision!!!!! It’s an honor to get to even witness you work this up close, let alone stand next to you. Forever an Icon, thank you for sharing your light.
It’s interesting that the ‘sharing of light’ becomes an expressed metaphor in this photoshoot with Johnson’s comments, as Pharrell led a crowd of 300,000 humans gathered in Rome in September, creating their own light show for humanity. This becomes the glue that binds like-minded people to look into the eyes of our fellow travelers in this spirit-infused journey of peace. ~ Anne
Mulberry [IG] has engaged British actor Cynthia Erivo to front its ‘The Mulberry Spirit’ Fall 2025 campaign, lensed by Tim Walker [IG] and styled by Kate Phelan.
Anne has experienced meteor showers all over her brain in the last week, after writing about Anok Yai’s Perfect Magazine #9 fashion story. I called her “a high priest for humanity” and meant it. You cannot imagine the psychological, spiritual, emotional roller coaster ride I’ve been on for the last week.
It’s another story — except that my Anok Yai-induced psycho drama dropped me off last week in the care of Cynthia Erivo and the November 2025 debut of ‘Wicked: For Good’. The trailer is stellar. It’s right up there with Pharrell’s Vatican City Concert 2025, discussed last night when I learned that Deva Cassell’s movie ‘Zero.A.D’ — where she plays the Virgin Mary — had been moved to 2026.
The Trump administration has ordered the removal of information on slavery at multiple national parks and other cultural institutions in an effort to end advocacy of corrosive ideologies in America.
At Manassas National Battlefield Park in Virginia, Trump officials told park employees to take down a sign that criticizes the post-Civil War “Lost Cause” ideology, saying that it romanticized the Confederacy and denied slavery’s central role in the conflict.
The National Portrait Gallery of Art in Washington houses the original version of “The Scourged Back,” also known as “Whipped Peter.” It’s also scheduled for removal.
AOC shares the life of Peter Gordon, aka ‘Whipped Peter’. His story and photos jolted northerners who had no idea that slavery could be so cruel.
In Rome, Pharrell will co-direct with Andrea Bocelli the ‘Grace for the World’ closing celebration of the third World Meeting on Human Fraternity. The “landmark cultural and spiritual event” will take place in St. Peter’s Square and will stream live on Disney+, Hulu, and ABC News Live on Sept. 13 at 3 p.m. ET.
According to a press release, the concert will “bring together music, reflection, and visual storytelling in a singular live experience,” and feature live performances by Bocelli, Williams with the Voices of Fire Gospel Choir, Teddy Swims, John Legend, a 250-person international choir and more talents. There will also be an aerial drone and light show by Nova Sky Stories, including imagery inspired by the Sistine Chapel.
Pharrell called the upcoming gathering “a rare cultural moment where the world stops and collectively tunes in. It is a message of unity and grace for all of humanity”.
Givenchy designer and creative director Sarah Burton grabs media focus for her Fall 2025 Campaign and its embrace of humanist values. In a quiet, elegant, modern strategy, Givenchy sends a signal to Burton’s clients old and new, that they are welcomed with a warm embrace by the maison. Thank you, Sarah Burton.
Burton happily embraces a wide spectrum of women in new ways, breaking the mold with a unique campaign message that Humanism 101 chief Brunello Cucinelli will love.
“The beauty of all women inspires me — including my team,” Burton said. “I wanted to capture the brilliant women I work with amongst the cast — real moments with everyone working together.”
Humanism 101: Polo Ralph Lauren x Oak Bluffs: A Portrait of the American Dream
Writing about the Ralph Lauren Pre-Fall 2025 Campaign in early July, I noted that the Ralph Lauren name — and especially Polo Ralph Lauren — carries great symbolism and respect in the Black community.
Two Humanists: Cucinelli and Lauren
My retraction comes from this early July 2025 statement in this post:
No one articulates humanist values like Brunello Cucinelli, but Ralph is way up there delivering major marketing changes but without a visual bullhorn.
With the release of Polo Ralph Lauren’s new Oak BluffCollection, its second collaboration with Morehouse College and Spelman College and their research and archival teams, I’m ending the competition in my mind between the two designers, great brand builders and global good guys. They are equal in my mind as global humanists after today.
Momentum is building around model Bibi Breslin, who first walked the runway in support of the September SS2024 runway collections. Poppy Kain styles Breslin in ‘Dress Like the Renaissance Woman You Are’, choosing Akris, Celine, Chanel, Chloé, Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, JW Anderson, Loewe, Loro Piana, Jil Sander by Lucie and Luke Meier, Louis Vuitton, McQueen, Molly Goddard, Moschino, Prada, Rokh, Vivienne Westwood .
Photographer Théo de Gueltzl [IG] is behind the lens for WSJ Magazine [IG] in a beautiful fashion story that calls to mind the energy of the Renaissance./ Hair by Ramona Eschbach; makeup by Cécile Paravina
King Charles III, awaiting his coronation as king of the United Kingdom on May 6, 2023 at Westminster Abbey, was honored by TIME Magazine on their new TIME 100 Most Influential People 2023 list.
When the new annual list is released, the person chosen to write about the TIME 100 honoree, can be as interesting as the list itself.
The person introducing King Charles in the TIME 100 2023 issue is Edward Enninful, OBE, editor-in-chief of British Vogue and Vogue European editorial director. [OBE stands for Order of the British Empire.]
The high-achieving Enninful agrees that on the face of it, he grew up a young Black boy in Ladbroke Grove without understanding how intimately involved then Charles, Prince of Wales was with the Prince’s Trust. The charity had dramatic impact on the lives of Edward’s community, directed by the then Prince on many fronts.
Just as British Vogue’s EIC Edward Enninful seeks to humanize King Charles III in his commentary for the TIME 100, AOC was impacted by a story that broke last weekend by royal biographer Robert Jobson. As AOC drills deeply into the topic of mushrooms, mycelium, talking plants and future fabrics made of mushrooms and other natural materials, then Prince Charles pops up frequently in our research.
Mushrooms came to play a critical role in comforting King Charles in the final hours that would physically take his mother and Queen away from him.
Then Prince Charles returned to his estate at Birkhall for a walk in the woods, drawing emotional and psychological sustenance from the trees, the earth and the quiet sound of the River Muick. Charles made good use of himself, taking a wooden cane and a basket to forage for mushrooms along his walk.
