Cindy Bruna's Inner 'Joséphine' and Chaumet's Latest Jewelry Glamour

Cindy Bruna's Inner 'Joséphine' and Chaumet's Latest Jewelry Glamour AOC Fashion

The House of Chaumet, based in Paris, releases its latest Joséphine collection, channeling the French empress and wife of Napoleon Bonaparte. The explosive — and very modern, even by French standards — love affair between Napoleon and Josephine is often cited as the most documented love story in history.

Empress Joséphine was the first eminent client of Marie-Etienne Nitot, Chaumet's founder. Learning his art as an apprentice to Aubert, court jeweler to Queen Marie-Antoinette, Nitot moved to Paris in 1780. After surviving the French Revolution, he was appointed jeweler to Emperor Napoleon, tasked with making jewelry symbolizing the power that Napoleon wished to convey.

An 18th century aristocrat, Empress Joséphine cherished memories of life on tropical islands like Martinique, where she was born. As Empress, she reinvented the codes of fashion and taste, popularizing her own vision of elegance on Parisian society.

Kanye West Can Save Face at Coachella and Bow Out By Blaming Billie Eilish for No Apology

Remove Kanye West from Coachella! Petition

Update: The petition has crossed 30,000 at noon today and should be 35,000 Wed. am 3/23. This is the best day so far, and it’s because of online media coverage. We’re still plodding along in a turtle and the hare story. Multiple well-written, well-reasoned articles were written today. See lots of new outbound links below.

We have watched it very closely and this is an American signing audience [very few through the night] and AOC estimates 70% female of every skin color, BUT today looks like more guys — like 65/35%. It could move to 60/40% — as it’s more guys’ names we’re noticing. Yes, Kanye, I can tell.

Why We Are Signing This Petition to Have Kanye Not Perform at Coachella

People who are signing this petition don’t trust Kanye West not to hurt somebody or start a riot at Coachella. What we have witnessed from him in the last 90 days is totally frightening. I am so concerned that for weeks I got up and the first thing I checked at 6am was whether Ye had harmed his now ex-wife.

Kanye has taken me back to all of my 2008-2014 work in Sudan, to stop the brutal flogging of women in the name of Allah.

For a few years, those videos of Sudanese women being brutally flogged were smuggled out to me, as the government enforcers always took them down on Facebook due to violent content standards. The women knew they could count on me to keep the videos alive, working with a male editor at Bloomberg who then got the New York Times to write the articles also.

Today, we’re all supposed to sit here like morons while Kanye gets up on stage at Coachella, with a high probability of going on some crazy rant against women, against his ex-wife Kim Kardashian, against Planned Parenthood and Pete Davidson.

We say NO! I’m not cancelling you, Ye. I am worried that you might start a total riot. Or harm yourself. And you’ve got an easy out, Kanye. Blame Billie Eilish who didn’t apologize to Travis Scott for caring about fans at her concert.

You told the world that if Billie didn’t apologize, you weren’t coming to Coachella. Billie was, of course, as gracious as she could be about your accusations. Keep your word, Kanye.

You cannot be trusted ever to keep your mouth shut, because nobody tells Kanye West what to do.

Tonight March 22, the Kanye Petition Gets Significantly More Media Attention

Petition to remove Kanye West as Coachella headliner receives nearly 30,000 signatures FOX News

The Grammys Canceling Kanye’s Performance Is Just Glorified Self-Preservation: The Recording Academy couldn’t afford to risk a Kanye performance. MIC

Petition Calling for Kanye’s Removal From Coachella Passes 30,000 Signatures Complex

Petition to Remove Kanye West from Coachella Lineup Gets 26,000 Signatures Billboard

Petition to remove Kanye West from Coachella lineup gains traction The Independent London

Petition to drop Kanye West as Coachella headliner reaches 25,000 Signatures Page Six

Kanye West vs the world: when abusive behaviour is called out The Age [Australia]

Kim Kardashian doesn’t deserve this CNN

Should GAP continue to bet on Ye? The Grio

Kanye West’s Stormy Relationship With the Grammys Erupts Again New York Times

Kanye Faces Grammy Ban, Coachella Petition Over Online Behavior Newsweek

Petition to have Kanye West axed from Coachella line-up passes 26,000 signatures Newshub NZ

What To Do About Kanye West

What Should We Do About Kanye West? Maybe Nothing by Ineye Komonibo Refinery 29

AOC has read quite a lot of materials about the situation around Kanye West, and the events that prompted the creation of this petition to keep West from appearing at Coachella.

This think piece by Ineye Komonibo at Refinery 29 is excellent.

GLC Defends Kanye West, Criticizes ‘Disheartening’ Media Attention: ‘We Should Lift Him Up’ Complex

Ye was temporarily banned from Instagram for violating hate speech policy. Experts warn that abuse isn’t only physical Today.com

Kanye West Barred From Performing at Grammys Due to ‘Concerning Online Behavior,’ Rep Says Variety

KANYE WEST’S INSTAGRAM BAN IS AN ‘UNWANTED DISTRACTION’ FOR GAP Ad Age

Cherokee Jack and Sam Mallos by Annemarieke van Drimmelen in WSJ Magazine Men SS-2022

Annemarieke van Drimmelen Captures Cherokee Jack and Sam Mallos in WSJ Magazine AOC Fashion

WSJ Magazine shares this spring 2022 men’s fashion story featuring models Cherokee Jack and Sam Mallos. Photographer Annemarieke van Drimmelen and stylist Giovanni Dario Laudicina traveled to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where they shot the fashion story at El Rancho de las Golondrinas, or “the Ranch of the Swallows.”

This historic ranch, now a living history museum, dates from the early 1700s and was an important ‘paraje’ or stopping place along the famous ‘El Camino Real’, the Royal Road from Mexico City to Santa Fe.

Van Drimmelen [IG] has close ties to New Mexico, since her father moved there nearly 12 years ago. “The light is absolutely phenomenal—the way it reflects on the earth. It brings this amazing warmth,” she says, noting that these qualities once drew artists such as Georgia O’Keeffe to the area.

Both models looks quite spectacular in the WSJ Magazine photo shoot. AOC’s complimentary link takes you to WSJ to review the product credits.

Cherokee Jack’s Heritage

Last year I had a totally visceral response to Cherokee Jack’s images by Richard Phibbs — his first ‘commercial’ shoot as an adult. He modeled as a child for years. Cherokee Jack by Richard Phibbs for Man of Metropolis | Minnesota History of Mankato Hangings AOC Fashion

The images caused me to reflect on our mutual Minnesota area upbringings, my writing a play about Minnesota statehood that was performed by my school, and the Mankato hangings — a devastating part of the heritage of my small Minnesota city that was unknown to me until then.

In trying to know more about the model, I learned a bit of agonizing Mankato, Minnesota history.

The Place of Women in Cherokee Society

The people of Cherokee Nation call themselves the Aniyunwiya, which means ‘Principal People’. The Cherokee society is historically matrilineal, meaning clanship is passed through the mother. Among the Cherokees, women were considered the head of household, with the home and children belonging to her should she separate from her husband. Women had an equal voice in the affairs of the tribe.

In writing about Bella Hadid’s references to the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet Tuesday evening, I referenced the demise of warrior goddesses, an end to female power and influence that was in its final phase in fifth century Greece. That statement is historically correct about Europe and the rise of Christianity.

But in the ‘undiscovered’ Americas, advanced indigenous cultures flourished and women held significant power in tribal affairs, generally enjoying far more power than the white Christian women who arrived in the Americas.

Alessandra Ambrosio Poses in Dundas Designs for Vogue Scandinavia by Amar Daved

Alessandra Ambrosio Poses in Dundas Designs for Vogue Scandinavia by Amar Daved AOC Fashion

Brazilian beauty Alessandra Ambrosio poses in Dundas designs for the new issue of Vogue Scandinavia. Photographer Amar Daved [IG] captures the sultry, bodycon fashion styled by Christopher Campbell.

Vogue Scandinavia profiles the Norwegian designer Peter Dundas and his partner longtime partner Evangelo Bousis, who became parents via surrogacy in June 2021. Besides a feature on the couple’s new family life [subscribers only], Vogue Scandinavia shares [open to public] Dressed in Dundas: The greatest sartorial hits from Norway’s most famous designer. Dundas has a huge glam squad wearing his clothes — from Michelle Obama to Beyoncé and Kim Kardashian.

Regarding his life in California and facilitated ability to become a family due to laws in the state, Dundas said at the time his son Alexios Peter Bousis-Dundaswas born:

"We are beyond grateful to our wonderful surrogate and her family who made this journey with us; to our wonderful baby doctors, the lovely midwife who delivered him healthy on his surprise arrival, our supportive friends and to California who let guys like us become Dads so smoothly," the 52-year-old commented. "Unfortunately, it's not the same everywhere and if you are hoping to have children in a place that doesn't support this journey PLEASE don't lose faith. God is good and the world is changing and it will for you too."

On his Instagram, Peter Dundas shares gorgeous images of his new family, but also a special image supporting Ukraine. The picture defines AOC’s target Smart Sensuality Woman: she is smart, sexy and has a tremendous heart. Simply stated, we are the warrior goddesses. And we are rising.

Vogue Portugal April 2022 Speaks to Our Shared Humanity in Lufre's Cover Story

Vogue Portugal April 2022 Speaks to Our Shared Humanity in Lufre's Cover Story AOC Fashion

Brazilian photographer Lufre [IG] shoots Vogue Portugal’s April 2022 cover story ‘Same, same, but different’, styled by Alexandre Dornellas. The model cast includes Alamada Bidiande e Guive, Beatriz Cortes, Camila Simões, Gabriel Neres, Lara Bawar e Mara Bawar, Luana Vintrin, Oda, Sara Rismo, Tau and Raiza Bernardo wear Burberry, Chanel, Hermes, Moncler, The Attico, Valentino and more.

Coincidentally, the yellow and aqua blue colors of the cover are the colors of Ukraine, and the magazine stresses this connection. The human suffering we are witnessing in Putin’s goal to level Ukraine and destroy everything in sight — its people, its babies, its economy, its heritage — takes us deep into the terrifying, deadly and destructive themes of humanity.

It’s the role of the warrior goddesses to stand against this global destructive impulse. Whether the impulse is more male than female is not subject to debate in my world. The global institutions — and especially religious institutions — do not agree with me.

In fact, the alleged irrational, hysterical, women running wild without male supervision and wisdom is the most universal theme of modern civilization.

GAP CEO Sonia Syngal's Big Bonus Rides on Ye -- Who Loves Putin & Laughs At Killing People

If I was GAP CEO Sonia Syngal, I would wake up in the morning worrying that my golden boy Ye had called for the execution of his ex-wife Kim Kardashian, her poor boyfriend Pete Davidson; and whoever else pissed Ye off most recently.

Clearly that could happen at any time and at any moment. And for all Kanye West’s peeps to say “He’s an artist! Men artists are like this. He’s a genius.” I remind us all that we’ve sunk to a very low place in America when the GAP celebrates a total megalomaniac, who is potentially dangerous to civil society.

Has it really not occurred to GAP CEO Sonia Syngal, in her leadership role, that Kanye West’s constant calls for violence — in the guise of his self-proclaimed, genius-level creativity — Kanye himself or a wannabe member of Ye’s posse could kill someone?

Perhaps GAP Thinks Ye’s Violent Threats Gives Them Street Cred?

Has GAP even had a conversation with Mr. West, legally known as Ye, about the escalating level of his violent social media posts? There is no doubt that West’s constant violent threats cast a pall over anyone who has suffered at the hands of a violent misogynist.

Certainly West triggers me. His claim that God sanctions all of his actions triggers me even more so, considering that my priest sided with my disgusting rapist and denied me communion. They were drinking buddies. The boys club sticks together 99% of the time. That’s true religion.

It’s bad enough that one of the few female CEOs of a Fortune 500 company supports a Grade A misogynist who tells his followers that God came to him in the shower and told him to shut down Planned Parenthood. But now her golden goose, product development genius is not only a poster boy for threatening behavior, but he uses his admiration of Vladimir Putin as an example of how to get things done right.

The Boys Club: Putin, Trump, Ye [aka Kanye West]

“Rule number one,” reads KW’s Putin lovin’ post, while he was running for president in September, 2020. “Listen to Ye.”

We know the uber-right wingers from Trump world were running Kanye’s campaign. I assume such an erudite CEO as Sonia Syngal, knows that from WaPo to the NYT to Forbes, the evidence the right-wingers ran Kanye West’s campaign is indisputable.

Ye [then Kanye West] was in Russia in 2016

It’s also an absolute fact that Kanye West was in Russia two weeks before his first, pre-inauguration, 2016 meeting with then president-elect Trump at Trump Tower.

As recently as January 2022, major media including Forbes said Ye was headed to Russia for a meet and greet with Vladimir. Several of Kanye’s key people said Ye was bringing the gospel to Russia — with a retail conglomerate thrown in for good measure.

The trip never happened and whether it was the press jumping all over Ye’s Putin plan or Putin knowing he intended to level Ukraine and couldn’t make the meeting, Kanye didn’t go to Russia.

Then again, Putin was sitting alone at that 60’ table, talking to his generals, and was probably afraid Kanye would hug him or sit in his lap or something — being so excited to meet the man he admires deeply. I’ll bet Kanye would have put his MAGA hat on Putin’s head. What a scene!

Did Ye have to run that possible Putin Ye in Russia deal by GAP CEO Syngal? Or Yeezus is King?

I understand well all of GAP’s challenges, but with all the talented, men-of-color with a big following out there, they had to pick the biggest ego on the planet. Well, Kanye is in a three-way tie with Trump and Putin for the biggest ego on the planet.

Does GAP’s Ye Support Putin’s War on Ukraine?

Has GAP asked Ye if he supports Putin’s determination to eradicate the people of Ukraine? Cuz many of us are putting our foot on the gas, feeling that Ye is going to do some serious damage one of these days.

AOC has hardly been quiet on the topic of Kanye, but we’ve held back waiting for Black voices to take a stronger position. That is happening his week — from Trevor Noah to Charlamagne tha God, who chose his words carefully, but raised his voice in concern.

It was Ye’s racial slur response to Trevor Noah that got him banned from Instagram for 24 hours.

Forgive me for giving GAP advice, but they really need to have a sit-down with Kanye West. Unless they’re afraid of Ye, of course. Like he could put out a hit on Sonia Syngal. Look at all those crazies from Jan. 6. If Ye gives the creative-genius word, Syngal is toast.

Just don’t bring up #MeToo. Ye HATES anything to do with #MeToo or female empowerment. Most likely, he’s not to keen about you even sitting in that big chair. Ye prides himself in being a molder of women — sort of like Picasso. He fashions them in his own image from top to bottom, just like God the Almighty . . . or so the story goes.

Thank goddess Kim Kardashian got away — but it’s clear Ye intends to make her life hell. This saga is far from over. ~ Anne

Sabyasachi Mukherjee Shares Sabyasachi Jewellery Story in Vogue Arabia March 2022

Anne of Carversville has been a fan of Sabyasachi Mukherjee since 2017, watching India’s most prominent luxury design house bring the rich heritage of India to a global audience.

As Vogue Arabia notes in this new fashion story, beautifully-crafted jewelry is an integral part of the House of Sabyasachi’s unequivocally Indian brand heritage. As much as any element in Sabyasachi DNA, jewelry is integral to the brand’s main focus on authenticity and traditional Indian craftsmanship at the highest level.

In this fashion story for Vogue Arabia, model Ylenia Minniti is styled by Ahmed Rashwan in images by Mannbutte [ IG ].

Today Sabyasachi Mukherjee has a growing exponentially following in much of India, the Middle East and parts of the western world with its designs and jewelry. Sabyasachi has installed shops at Bergdorf in 2020 and 2021 and also collaborated with H&M on a special collection.

In recent years [See Vogue India article after images] Sabyasachi Mukherjee is devoted to the restoration of lost craftsmanship across India.

Sensing a loss of direction for the art of creating Indian jewelry, Sabyasachi is reviving age-old crafts and techniques of jewelry making by modernizing and innovating, while creating an ode to the craft. Mukherjee has always been an innovator. “In my late teens I started a tiny side hustle where I made costume jewelry with beads and glass and feathers and stone,” he says.

Of equal importance is another Indian heritage piece that Sabyasachi holds dear to his heart. By launching Save the Sari [Saree] in 2009, Sabyasachi promotes a model of economic sustainability for local craftspeople and artisan communities in the designer’s hometown of Kolkata and beyond in India.

Related: Vogue India: The Sari Holds Our Secrets

AOC just wrote extensively about the history of the sari, featuring Lakshmi Menon in the March 2022 cover story of Vogue India. Lakshmi Menon Covers Vogue India March 2022 in 'The Sari Holds Our Secrets'

Our commentary flows from the exquisite writing of Bandana Tewari for Vogue India. We don’t typically ask AOC guests to read a related article, but this one is so very well done, and it digs so deeply into the thematic soil of universality in women’s lives.

Related Reading at Anne of Carversville

Lakshmi Menon Covers Vogue India March 2022 in 'The Sari Holds Our Secrets'

Lakshmi Menon Covers Vogue India March 2022 in 'The Sari Holds Our Secrets' AOC Fashion

Lakshmi Menon covers the March 2022 issue of Vogue India, ‘A Homecoming’, marking a return to part-time modeling after the birth of her daughter Gayatri with Suhel Seth, who she married in 2018. Megha Kapoor styles Menon in ‘Shapes And Drapes’, lensed by Ashish Shah [IG]./ Hair & makeup by Mitesh Rajani

Rather than an interview with Lakshmi Menon, Vogue India chooses to focus on the traditional sari that covers her body and those of Indian women across the continent. It’s impossible not to quote liberally from the exquisite writing of Bandana Tewari in ‘The sari holds our secrets’. Her words are among the most poetic and deeply probing ones I’ve read about women lives and women’s bodies in a long time.

For Indian Women Historically: Body and Sari Are Inseparable

Sari, or ‘strip of cloth’ in Sanskrit, is much more than a piece of clothing, explains Tewari.

It is the subcontinent’s collective dream of womanhood, of femininity, and a lifelong ritual of love and pleasure immersed in the shapes and drapes of our inner worlds. Mothers, whilst draping saris on their coming-of-age daughters, are known to gently whisper, “We are dressing not just our bodies but also our emotions.”

Body and sari are inseparable — “the sex-yard dance of our natural curves, the meandering metaphors of our lives, the contours of our thrills and the creases of our discomfort.”

We learn the story of the disrobing of Draupadi, a “powerful story of the sacred alchemy of weave and wearer. There is a much more in-depth probing of the story of Draupadi in The Hindu.

Personally I believe in the creative use of fantasy and allegory in the treatment of sexual trauma. In my own case I developed a metaphorical relationship with a tree representing Gaia and through meditation I gave her all my “crud” for composting and rebirth — the terrible residue of my own sexual assault. I visualized an umbilical cord relationship with my beloved tree.

Reading this story about Draupadi, it is so powerful and also there are healing purposes to it that could be employed in visualization techniques for survivors of deep sexual assault. I’m not speaking of an unwanted kiss or your butt being squeezed by a stranger in an elevator. I speak of deadly, vicious assault which often leaves women {or men] consumed with guilt and stain — and a sense of being the sinner herself, the wearer of the scarlet letter.

Read on: Lakshmi Menon Covers Vogue India March 2022 in 'The Sari Holds Our Secrets' AOC Fashion

Louise Wong Plays Anita Mui in Wing Shya's Homage to Hong Kong for Vogue UK March 2022

Louise Wong Plays Anita Mui in Wing Shya's Homage to Hong Kong for Vogue UK March 2022 AOC Fashion

Thanks to the success of ‘Anita’, the lavish biopic of Canto-pop superstar Anita Mui Yim-fong, Canto-pop is sweeping across mainland China, wrote SCMP.

Model Louise Wong, featured in this Vogue Hong Kong March 2022 fashion story, made her feature-film debut as an actor — and what a debut it was. Even before the film’s release in November 2021, Wong was a favorite of global luxury brands, wrote Vogue Hong Kong, long before the movie.

Louise Wong appears occasionally with male model Noise Wong in the fashion story, styled by Sean Kunjambu. Photographer Wing Shya [IG] captures the duo in color-drenched imagery that captures the energy of Hong Kong./ Makeup by Pinky Ku; hair by Kolen But

With zero experience in acting, dancing or singing, Louise Wong won the role of playing Anita Mui, cast through social media after a three-year search by Edko Films. Over 3000 actors were considered for the role.

Louise Wong was offered the opportunity to play Anita Mui “after moving the production team to tears in an audition where she sang the late singer’s ‘Sunset Melodies.”’ Wong then went into intense training to play Anita Mui, whose own biography is tragic on many levels.

No, Mui didn’t commit suicide, but she did die of cervical cancer at age 40. Watching a 5-minute presentation on her life, there is no doubt that tragedy stalked magnificent talent from her childhood.

Adot Gak, Aleya Ali, Sydney Acker and Wayne Booth by AB & DM in Pyer Moss Couture

Adot Gak, Aleya Ali, Sydney Acker and Wayne Booth by AB & DM in Pyer Moss Couture AOC Fashion

Models Adot Gak, Aleya Ali, Sydney Acker and Wayne Booth are styled by Antoine Gregory in Pyer Moss Couture. Photographer AB & DM [IG] are behind the lens for Black Fashion Fair February 2022./ Hair by Susy Oludele; makeup by Ernest Robinson

Left to right: Models Adot Gak, Aleya Ali, Sydney Acker and Wayne Booth

Previously: Metal Magazine Highlights Pyer Moss' Kerby Jean-Raymond's 'Wat U Iz' FW 2021 Couture Show

Jean-Raymond became the first Black American designer invited to show Haute Couture during Paris Couture Week last July. After a 48-hour delay due to torrential weather associated with Hurricane Elsa’s arrival in the Northeast, Jean-Raymond stepped into the history of couture spotlight at Villa Lewaro in Irvington, New York.

The Fédération de la Haute Couture extended their calendar so that Pyer Moss could still be listed on the couture calendar and have Kerby Jean-Raymond be the first Black American designer to show for couture.

The 34-room, 20,000-square-foot mansion was the intellectual gathering place for leaders of the Harlem Renaissance. Even more relevant to the couture conversation Villa Lewaro was home to Madam C.J. Walker, the country’s first African-American woman millionaire, a renowned businesswoman and philanthropist.

Curbed wrote about the residence: “Named after her daughter (LElia WAlker RObinson), Walker’s “Dream of Dreams” home was designed by the first licensed black architect in the state of New York, Vertner Tandy. Madam Walker was the first person of color to own property in the area around Lyndhurst. Her townhouse in Manhattan on 136th Street, also designed by Tandy, was built "without regard to cost but with considerable regard for good taste," according to a 1917 Literary Digest interview, which estimated her annual income at $250,000 a year (roughly $4.7 million in today’s dollars).”

Villa Lewaro is now home to New Voices Foundation, devoted to cultivating entrepreneurship among women of color.