The Jewish global human rights organization Simon Wiesenthal Center released its Top Ten Worst Global Anti-Semitic Incidents 2022 on January 29. [see pdf].
Ye topped the list for “his continued anti-Semitic comments and leveraging his immense social media platform to weaponize hate, bigotry, and ignorance.”
The Banana Republic Holiday 2022 Campaign is terrific, as are the images by Richard Phibbs [IG]. I see the Polo vibe here, but it feels like sound ground Banana is standing on.
Note that as recently as August 2022, Fast Companywas asking if Banana Republic will ultimately be forced to change its name. This question comes within a larger America’s public school’s movement whereby students, parents and some civic leaders argue they shouldn’t have to go to a school named after presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
AOC does not support the eradication of all references to America’s past, because our past is very complicated. Our role is to move forward.
The cast of the Banana Republic campaign includes Cherokee Jack, Chinchin Hsu, Louise de Chevigny, Nya Gatbel and Ryan Porter and the campaign was shot in Iceland.
Many in the cast have worked on other Banana Republic campaigns this year.
Actor Julia Butters is styled by Anna Schilling in a cover story for Grumpy Magazine, established in 2016 to challenge people to “get out of your grumpy mood.”
Julia Butters has received critical acclaim for her role as Trudi Frazer in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. From 2016 to 2020, she starred as Anna-Kat Otto on ABC's sitcom American Housewife.
The actor is interviewed by Maxwell Jenkinsin Grumpy and photographed by Emily Sandifer [IG] grounded in Los Angeles and Scotland.
Casa Degli Atellani has been purchased by Bernard Arnault the chairman and chief executive officer of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.
Built around 1490, the landmark was donated by Ludovico “Il Moro” Duke of Milan to Leonardo Da Vinci in 1498. The legendary artist was in Milan working on his masterpiece ‘The Last Supper’.
The 15th century townhouse hides a verdant courtyard that has been restored to its centuries-old status as home to Da Vinci’s vineyard. Casa Degli Atellani is presently the “only existing wine-producing estate in the center of a metropolis”.
Vogue Netherlands gets the jump on fashion stories centered on the Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama collaboration, a sequel to the 2012 first project between the two global juggernauts.
Critically-acclaimed artist Yayoi Kusama has been breaking new ground for more than six decades and is now 93 years old. Known for her use of dots in multiple artistic media, do not think for one minute that Kusama’s art is created as a fashion statement.
Our earth is only one polka dot among a million stars in the cosmos. Polka dots are a way to infinity. –Yayoi Kusama
Drop Dates
The initial drop will launch on New Year’s Day, January 1 exclusively in China and Japan, followed by the rest of the world on the 6th.
The second drop of the Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama 2023 collab will only be available in Louis Vuitton stores from March 31, 2023.
Kanye West, legally known as Ye, seems to have gone underground, although TMZ reported a single Kanye citing in LA in December. A former business manager for the rapper Thomas St. John has filed a $4.5 million lawsuit against West but is unable to serve him with papers. St. John has requested an extension from the court.
Yeezy Rent Eviction Looming
Reports are that West’s Yeezy offices in California are on the verge of eviction after missing both November and December’s rent payments of $31,477.40 per month.
Gucci has opened its first permanent boutique dedicated to its Gucci Valigeria luggage and travel collection. Located in Paris at 229 Rue Saint-Honoré, the 2,900-square-foot-location was previously dedicated to Off-White.
“Gucci Valigeria is a powerful reminder of our Florentine roots and our timeless craft,” said Marco Bizzarri, the president and CEO of Gucci, calling the Paris store collection a “symbol of [the Gucci] legacy, reinterpreted through the ages for the travelers and modern-day explorers of every era.”
Adidas Is ‘Re-Evaluating’ its partnership with Balenciaga, “pausing” all co-created product launches “until further notice.”
The news came quietly, with customers supplying Sneaker Freaker with copies of emails they’ve received from adidas regarding the pre-order of Balenciaga/adidas Stan Smith trainers.
In a bit of irony, Balenciaga tells customers a different story, that the “trainers will be delayed in shipment” and that “We will notify you again once the item is shipped.”
In case you thought this might be a coordinated message between the two brands to the same customers, it obviously was not.
Top model and ceramic artist Raquel Zimmermann is a fashion and culture focus for The Travel Almanac FW2022 issue. Clare Byrne styles the restrained, modest fashion silhouettes with Bottega Veneta on the cover.
The organic sensuality of Raquel Zimmermann’s ceramics is almost visceral to AOC eyes. There are artists and talents who are very focused on outward visualization, while others channel the unconscious mind and ancestral voices, compelled to go deeper into the human experience in a universal way.
To celebrate her influence on American design and architecture, Mattel collaborated with the design magazine PIN-UP on a limited-edition art book, “Barbie Dreamhouse: An Architectural Survey.”
“Barbie’s house is infinitely more exciting than Barbie herself,” writes Elvia Wilk, a cultural critic. “The structures we live within — fantasize about living within — say more about our lives and dreams than plastic bodies ever will.”
The New York Times breaks down the Barbitecture story with A Six-Decade Tour of Barbie’s Dreamhouses and AOC gifts readers the link.
Wilk is one of many critics who contribute to the book’s analysis of Barbie’s huge influence on American culture.
Fashion world got a major wakeup this morning with a preview of the January 2023 Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama campaign.
Yayoi Kusama, Age 93, Rolls Again with Louis Vuitton
LV makes a big move putting Gisele Bundchen front and center in a second, historical collaboration with revered Japanese creative Yayoi Kusama, one of the world’s pre-eminent artists at age 93.
“One of the aspects of her [Yayoi Kusama’s] work is happiness, and we thought it would be really refreshing after the pandemic to have the worlds of Vuitton and the world of Kusama meet again,” Arnault explained. The successful first collaboration between the two global giants happened in 2012.
With her own company behind the Showtime miniseries ‘George & Tammy’, out now, Chastain was determined to give her “Stand By Your Man’ country singer “main character energy.”
The actor takes issue with the idea that Tammy Wynette was a doormat, reminding us that Wynette was married five times.
The male character of George Jones is played by Michael Shannon, who has an excellent relationship with Chastain.
As scripted, the scene went something like:
DON (picture a pencil neck with an ego): You're going to fuck my wife, aren't you, George?
GEORGE (Michael Shannon): Yes, I'm going to fuck her.
"[Michael] changed the line from, 'Yes, I'm going to fuck her'—excuse the language—to, 'I sure would like to," Chastain remembers. "The second he said, 'I sure would like to,' it was like, 'Oh, yes, this is happening. Because he sees her as someone who gets to make the decision. And that's working with an actor who's very aware he doesn't own me." Another perk of being producer? You get to pick your scenemates. "We were so in tune with one another," says Shannon, who first met Chastain on the set of 2011's Take Shelter. "The notion of sitting in front of another man and looking at a woman and proclaiming that you're going to fuck her, seems a little neanderthal to me. I mean, if I was the woman in question, I wouldn't enjoy that so much."
Spanish model Olivia Martin poses in Dior Beauty shots for the house’s core Miss Dior Fragrance.Lilly Marthe Ebener styles Martin in images by key Dior photographer Brigitte Niedermair.
Dior writes: “At Dior, we are dedicated to preserve biodiversity. For our Maison, this mission particularly resonates through our never-ending love of flowers. They are not only the beating heart of our creative vision, they are also the origin, present and future of beauty. In the context of COP 15, we are reminded ambitious actions are essential to preserve flowers from extinction.”
By 2030, 100% of Dior gardens and partner gardens will be operated in organic or regenerative agriculture. Additionally, Dior Beauty is committed to reducing their carbon emissions by 46% by 2030 in line with the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to +1.5°C.
Bruno Pavlovsky, president of fashion at Chanel, spoke openly with Vogue Business that now more than ever business cannot be conducted as it was in a prepandemic world.
AOC adds a pre-George Floyd murder-world as well, and Pavlovsky spoke candidly about Senegal’s reality as a former French colony.
Lying three miles west of Dakar, Gorée Island was the largest slave-trading center on the African coast. “We cannot go to other parts of the world just for 20 minutes. It is not enough. We have to have this dialogue,” the Chanel executive acknowledged.
Supermodel Elsa Hosk looks like she walked out of a 1950s movie, filmed in the south of France. Elsa is wearing tailored must-haves from her new Helsa Collection — created in the mood of Katharine Hepburn and lensed here by Yulia Gorbachenko [IG]
Writing about the debut of Helsa last August, I said: “Hosk is keeping this launch like a quiet ebb. The Scandi beauty has always stressed the importance of sustainability and it would be shocking if she doesn’t create sustainable products.”
Many of the Helsa pieces are made with Recover, a recycled, heavy-duty cotton. Bravo. I love Elsa Hosk with my whole heart, but sustainability is not a strong message in Helsa so far.
Candice Swanepoel and her sustainable swimwear brand Tropic of C [IG] celebrate the brand’s classic styles with very modern cutouts, lensed by Eduardo Bravin [IG] .
Candice was an early user of econyl, a regenerated nylon product introduced in 2011 by Aquafil.
Econyl is made entirely from ocean and landfill waste, such as industrial plastic, fabric scraps from clothing manufacturing companies, old carpets and "ghost nets".
AOC believes that beautiful bodies live on a sustainable planet. We’ve always applauded Candice Swanepoel for building a brand from day 1, with sustainability beating beautifully in its heart.
Rolling Stone Magazine keeps up the blistering pace of their reporting on all matters related to Kanye West. In a new piece by Cheyenne Roundtree, Rolling Stone says that the rapper spoke of his admiration for Hitler during the making of 2004 Grammy-winning debut album ‘The College Dropout’.
West allegedly studied Nazi propaganda strategies and power-gaining tactics to formulate his own personal persona as a rapper, with the goal of using Nazi tactics to achieve his own fame and success.
Sharp Drop in Kanye West’s Republican Support December 2022 YouGov America Poll
In October, Republicans were split (45% favorable to 42% unfavorable) on their opinion of Ye in the You/Gov America poll. Now, just 26% have a favorable opinion of him and 65% have an unfavorable opinion.
Actor Lily Collins is everywhere in December media, given the phenomenal success of ‘Emily in Paris’. Porter Magazine’s Dec. 12 issue steps up for the latest feature with Collins talking toEllie Pithers about her alter ego’s unwavering positivity, new projects and the power of vulnerability.
Coco Cassiba styles “everyone’s favorite honorary Parisian” with season 3 on Netflix Dec. 21. Collins is so identified with Emily Cooper’s character that she responds to both names, and Paris tours devoted to the show drive by her apartment building. “People come up to me and say, ‘I packed my bag according to what Emily would wear.’If they saw me in character, it was very trippy.”
The actor is excited to share news of Case Study Films, the production company she launched in November with her husband Charlie McDowell and their partner, Alex Orlovsky.
Oliver Hadlee Pearch [IG] captures models Anyiel Majok, Felice Nova Noordhoff, and Malika Louback in the Emilio Pucci Holiday 2022/23 campaign ‘La Famiglia.
Imruh Asha styles a campaign the hugs Camille Miceli’s clear vision that “for me Pucci evokes a family of people spending time together, to enjoy life, parties, and well-being.”
Miceli wants the global enthusiasts, travel-loving, multi-generations Pucci ‘famiglia’ to embrace high-octane, dopamine-dressing as a form of spreading joyful optimism, self-confidence without a tinge of aristocracy [unlike Chanel] and a lust for life that reflects her own lifestyle.
Orion is facing the biggest test ever — a nailbiting, ‘will it work’ skip-entry return to Earth. The male mind is not the engine behind this scientific strategy. Mother Nature shows the way
In fact, the stone-skipping return is one of the most important examples to date of biomimicry or ‘science inspired by nature’. In the AOC link, is a fantastic TED Talk by Janine Benyus, founder of the biomimicry movement.
Orion will re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of 24,500 mph and then bounce off the Earth’s upper atmosphere like a stone skipping across water. This re-entry plan has several key benefits, including bleeding off speed and reducing the G-Force that Artemis astronauts in the future will experience.
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