Erdem Moralıoğlu Is Photographer of 'Vintage' for Vogue Poland November 2021

Erdem Moralıoğlu Is Photographer of 'Vintage' for Vogue Poland November 2021 AOC Fashion

“It’s gone by extraordinarily quickly,” Erdem Moralıoğlu says about the 15th anniversary of his brand Erdem. “If I close my eyes, I can still imagine being a student at the Royal College putting together my graduate collection,” reflects the designer who has embraced a poetic femininity with deep roots in the strong, often renegade, women of history.

In fact, Erdem’s depth of historical context underpinning the collections — combined with an overarching respect or craftsmanship and artistry — is unmatched in the world of luxury fashion brands. A key element in the recent evolution of the Erdem brand vision is the extraordinary synergy emanating from Ibrahim Kamara, who has styled all of Erdem’s collections and shows since 2019.

New Vogue Poland editor-in-chief, photographer Ina Lekiewicz invited Erdem Moralıoğlu, accompanied by Ib Kamara, to create this visual masterpiece in the November issue. In a new role, the designer is the photographer for the fashion shoot on location at the 17th-century Southside House in London.

Models in ‘Vintage’ include Florence Hutchings, Lily Nova, Ngozi Anene, Sienna King and Wang Han./ Hair by Teiji Utsumi; makeup by Thom Walker

Celestial Grade Synergy

Now the Dazed editor-in-chief, Ib Kamara is extraordinary adept at upending reticence or plain ignorance in how to weave the visual narrative of race, colonialism and fashion together in a modern way. Gender and sexuality are also key undercurrents in Kamara’s work, but the visionary stylist’s brilliance is his emotional and intellectual willingness to take historical realities and weave them in a web of revised history.

The result is an unabashed modern and progressive vision of a better truth, if you think like we do. Others may shatter a mirror or two over the audacity of Erdem Moralıoğlu and Ibrahim Kamara revising colonial history in a shared vision. In another ironic twist, both talents admire strong women and they seek out unique and unconventional personalities as their seasonal muses.

Kamara makes no attempt to shun the often painful facts of history, being a son of the African continent. Rather, he reweaves them into new visual narratives that travel far beyond their original reality. This revised visual statement says “it didn’t have to be this way.”

Erdem Moralıoğlu is the beneficiary of Kamara’s insights and visual interpretations, and one imagines that the synergy between the two super-talents is nothing less than blinding at times. Born in war-torn Sierra Leone, Ibrahim Kamara benefits from Erdem’s insights as the son of a Turkish father and an English mother. Erdem was born in Montreal, Canada and shuttled between Montreal and Birmingham, England.

Ibrahim Kamara says about his relationship with Erdem Moralıoğlu:

“It’s very valuable to meet someone with whom you can perform a creative dance. “

To those of us watching, the tango is breathtaking. ~ Anne

Will American Bees Survive Pesticides, Government Dysfunction and Other Killers?

Will American Bees Survive Pesticides, Government Dysfunction and Other Killers? AOC Fashion

American [species] Bumble Bees Could Gain ESA Protection

AOC has followed the problem of dwindling bee populations for almost a decade. But we were shocked to learn this week that the American bumble bee population has dropped nearly 90 percent. These vital pollinators for wildflowers and crops have vanished completely in eight states: Idaho, Maine, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wyoming.

Presently American bumble bees have no protection. But an August 2021 petition for protecting the American bumble bee under the Endangered Species Act [ESA] was filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and the Bombus Pollinator Association of Law Students, an Albany Law School student group.

Sounds great you say. Finally we’re taking action to protect our bees. Yet the plight of another bee species shows us just how complicated it is to protect these precious pollinators. Passing a law or writing a new policy does not guarantee any improvement in bee deaths.

We must create spaces — land with controlled uses of pesticides — in which bees can thrive and regenerate their population. However, America still can’t agree on the science of pesticides. Any mandate meets countless political headwinds, as Democrats and Republicans generally loathe each other on plans — or no plans — to protect our environment.

Correlation Exists Between Lynching Events and Confederate Statues by US County

A map [middle image’ highlights the correlation between lynchings and Confederate monuments in America. The darker, redder colors indicate higher numbers of lynching victims; with each dot representing a Confederate monument (courtesy of the University of Virginia)

Republish via AOC at FeedBurner CC 3.0 License Attribution Required: Daily Fashion Design Culture News

Large numbers of white southerners have long argued that Confederate monuments exist exclusively as symbols of southern pride and a proud history of rebellion against America’s federal government.

Led by United Daughters of the Confederacy, supporters of Confederate monuments refuse to acknowledge that there is any psychological damage to nonwhite people living their daily lives in the shadows of these relics to the days of slavery.

Former slave families should also celebrate the honor of the Old South, say white southerners while waving their Confederate flags in their faces. If people of color are bothered by these towering monuments of famed Confederate generals, they should praise God’s creation of an ideal society and way of life. Otherwise, people of color can hop the first boat back to Africa. Easy peasy.

A new study by researchers at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville challenges the noble premise of Confederate monuments.

Led by Kyshia Henderson of UVA’s Social Psychology Program, who worked with data scientist Samuel Powers and professors Sophie Trawalter, Michele Claibourn, and Jazmin Brown-Iannuzzi at the university’s Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, the researchers documented a significant correlation between the numbers of Confederate monuments in an area and the number of documented lynchings from 1832 to 1950.

Published by the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers do not assert that the existence of Confederate monuments causes or provokes lynching. Their private beliefs — and those of the majority of researchers working in this area of study — do believe that Confederate statues are symbols of hate and also dominant power. But this study only concludes that there is a positive correlation between the two data sets: lynchings by county and Confederate statues by country.

“We can’t pinpoint exactly the cause and effect. But the association is clearly there,” Trawalter wrote. “At a minimum, the data suggests that localities with attitudes and intentions that led to lynchings also had attitudes and intentions associated with the construction of Confederate memorials.”

The researchers referenced another study associated with dedication speeches for Confederate memorials, finding that nearly half of the 30 dedication speeches reviewed involved “explicit racist language,” including phrases like “love of race” and “your own race and blood.”

Tech Giant Amazon Rolls Out Amazon Rainforest Carbon Offset Project

Read on: Tech Giant Amazon Rolls Out Amazon Rainforest Carbon Offset Project AOC Sustainability

By Juliana Ennes. First published on Mongabay.com

. First published on Mongabay.com AOC Sustainability

How do you get a small rancher to give up cutting trees for pasture and instead produce high-value and sustainable agricultural products without the requisite skills, money, or access to markets? A new initiative is trying to solve this problem in the Brazilian Amazon.

Called the Agroforestry and Restoration Accelerator, this nature-based carbon removal project aims to help small farmers diversify production and reach new markets, focusing on reforestation and regenerative agroforestry while also advancing economic development. The initiative, announced in early September by U.S-based tech giant Amazon in partnership with nonprofit The Nature Conservancy (TNC), will set up a project in Pará state, home to 9% of the world’s tropical forest area and 40% of Amazon deforestation — the highest rate of forest loss in Brazil.

But this isn’t a philanthropic movement. While Amazon will invest money and provide technical assistance to farmers — and TNC and other nonprofits will provide support on the ground — the tech colossus will receive carbon credits in exchange. Amazon executives and NGO representatives say this project is a win-win for forests, farmers, investors, and even for international carbon credit markets.

“The logic was to generate an alternative source of income so the small farmers wouldn’t have to expand their cattle production through deforestation. This logic, however, had always been philanthropic so far,” said TNC conservation director Rodrigo Spuri Tafner de Moraes in a phone interview.

Before the partnership with Amazon, TNC said it developed a pilot project in Pará over the last eight years named Cacau Floresta (“forest cocoa” in English) to help small farmers start producing sustainable crops of high market value, such as cocoa; Brazil is one of the world’s top cocoa-producing countries, but is still a net importer of the commodity.

According to TNC, this pilot project incentivized small farmers and ranchers to recover degraded or unproductive areas by planting cocoa trees in addition to other native species. This approach created low-carbon, small-scale agricultural production through agroforestry systems that recovered the forest while opening up a new income source for farmers, the nonprofit added.

Farmers peeling cocoa fruit in São Félix do Xingu municipality, Pará state. Image courtesy by © Kevin Arnold/The Nature Conservancy.

Now, through the partnership with Amazon, the investing model aims to generate carbon credits by scaling the project over time, with the possibility of bringing in other investors, the partners say. The goal for the first three years, they say, is to support 3,000 small farmers and restore around 20,000 hectares (nearly 50,000 acres), an area approximately the size of the city of Seattle. Amazon calculates that this would remove up to 10 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through 2050.

“We believe that there are more than 40,000 farmers who could benefit from a program like this in the region, and that would take a significant scale of investment,” James Mulligan, senior scientist at Amazon, told Mongabay in a phone interview. “We will set up the basic structure of the project and set up the program to scale. In order to scale, it needs additional investments which could come from different sources.”

To succeed, the project includes comprehensive steps, developers say, ranging from a platform to select eligible farmers, to training for the requisite skills, given that deforestation here is driven largely by cattle ranchers who don’t know how to produce cocoa. Smallholders will also have access to high-quality seeds, access to credit lines, logistics to support sales, and entryways to markets, they add.

Read on: Tech Giant Amazon Rolls Out Amazon Rainforest Carbon Offset Project AOC Sustainability

Farmer Deniston Dutra working on his family’s small farm in São Félix do Xingu municipality, Pará state. Image courtesy of © Kevin Arnold/The Nature Conservancy.

Mutts and Purebreds Both Can Save Us: America's COVID-Sniffing Dogs Arrive for Duty

Republish via AOC at FeedBurner CC 3.0 License Attribution Required: Daily Fashion Design Culture News

Coronavirus-sniffing Dogs Unleashed at Miami airport to Detect Virus in Employees Washington Post

Dogs have long been called "man's [human's] best friend." But their new role as COVID detectors is awesome. Some will surely be shot dead in the line of duty -- as men are not always dogs' best friend -- but this new role for our beautiful dogs is so inspiring.

AND there is no hierarchy from what I'm hearing. ALL dogs have the same capacity -- or at least pedigree dogs and mutt dogs -- have the awesome ability to detect COVID. They can also detect the variations among COVID strands and their accuracy rate is about 97%.

My mind works in unfettered ways. I think there's a lesson about race, humans and white nationalism to be learned from our beloved dogs. Can they heal America? Humans are failing.

Moving from helping veterans to the entire population of Americans, our dogs are stepping to show us how to roll under deadly pressure. ~ Anne

VA Supreme Court Says Dead White Men Do Not Rule: Remove the Damn Statue!

Republish via AOC at FeedBurner CC 3.0 License Attribution Required: Daily Fashion Design Culture News

The statue of Confederate military leader, anti-United States successionist General Robert E. Lee has loomed six stories tall over Virginia’s state government and its citizens in Richmond since 1890. After a never-ending series of court battles, the VA Supreme Court ruled definitively last Thursday that the state of Virginia may now begin to disassemble the infamous, 12-ton statue.

The court ruled that "restrictive covenants" in the 1887 and 1890 deeds that transferred the statue to the state no longer apply. In June 2021

Virginia Solicitor General Toby Heytens argued before the court for less than a minute last June, regarding one of two cases seeking to block removal of the Lee statue that “no court has ever recognized a personal, inheritable right to dictate the content of poor government speech about a matter of racial equality, and this court should not be the first one ever to do so.”

"Those restrictive covenants are unenforceable as contrary to public policy and for being unreasonable because their effect is to compel government speech, by forcing the Commonwealth to express, in perpetuity, a message with which it now disagrees," the justices wrote.

Gov. Ralph Northam said upon the announcement of the court’s ruling: “Today it is clear—the largest Confederate monument in the South is coming down.”

In its own legal documents before the court, the current state of Virginia wrote:

“Symbols matter, and the Virginia of today can no longer honor a racist system that enslaved millions of people. Installing a grandiose monument to the Lost Cause was wrong in 1890, and demanding that it stay up forever is wrong now.”

Related: Virginia Museum Will Lead Efforts to Reimagine Richmond Avenue Once Lined With Confederate Monuments Smithsonian Magazine

Dead Men's Property Heirs Argue Confederate Statue Rights in New VA Court Move AOC Eye

Black Cowboys From Inner-City Philly to Small Town Texas Continue to Ride

‘Legends’ by Ron Tarver

Republish via AOC at FeedBurner CC 3.0 License Attribution Required: Daily Fashion Design Culture News

Black Cowboys From Inner-City Philly to Small Town Texas Continue to Ride AOC Blackness

Nick Lehr, Arts + Culture Editor interviews Ron Tarver, Associate Professor of Art, Swarthmore College. First published on The Conversation.

In an interview, which has been edited for length and clarity, Ron Tarver, who is now a professor at Swarthmore College, explains how his photographs of Philadelphia’s urban riding clubs ended up becoming a broader project on the Black cowboy experience in America.

How did these riding clubs operate?

Well, there are a lot of groups. The Fletcher Street Urban Riding Club has sort of become the one that everybody knows, because it’s the one that was featured in [G. Neri’s young adult novel] “Ghetto Cowboy,” and now the movie.

But the one that I spent most my time with was this big one in Brewerytown, the Western Wranglers. They occupied an abandoned building called the White House that had been turned into the stables. It was big, with something like 15 or 20 bays of horses, and it was an operation. They would hold these impromptu parades through the city. Eventually the White House got turned into condos.

A guy called Bumpsey – George Bullock was his real name – owned the White House with his sister. He seemed to sort of organize everything. He was so fit, and he looked like a cowboy, with the big bar mustache. Just an incredibly attractive guy.

I got a call from him last fall, completely out of the blue. I hadn’t talked to him in around 25 years. About a month later, he died of COVID.

Do you know the origins of the clubs?

A lot of [original club members] had grown up in the South and came up to Philadelphia, where there was already an infrastructure [for horses] in place.

Philadelphia used to have a lot of stables because there were food carts, and people would put the fruit and vegetables on the horse-drawn carts and then go through the street to sell their wares. That sort of tradition died out, but the stables were still there.

For those who joined the clubs, it was their life. Older members passed knowledge down to younger ones. I guess you could equate it to skateboarding. I mean, you look at skateboarding – there are older people that skateboard, there are young people that skateboard. It’s a lifestyle and a community, and it’s what they did, day in and day out.

‘The Basketball Game’ by Ron Tarver

MacKenzie Scott's HBCU Giving Contrasts Starkly With Historical White Funders

MacKenzie Scott's HBCU Giving Contrasts Starkly With Historical White Funders AOC Living

Novelist and billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has so far given at least US$560 million to 23 historically Black colleges and universities. These donations are part of a bid she announced in 2019 to quickly dedicate most of her fortune to charity.

Scott’s gifts, including the $6 million she donated to Tougaloo College in Mississippi and the $45 million she gave North Carolina A&T University, vary in size but nearly all of the colleges and universities describe this funding as “historic.” For many, it was the largest single donation they had ever received from an individual donor.

Scott, previously married to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is not making a splash just because of the size of her donations. She has an unusually unrestrictive get-out-of-the-way approach.

“I gave each a contribution and encouraged them to spend it on whatever they believe best serves their efforts,” Scott wrote in a July 2020 blog post.

She sees the standard requirements that universities and other organizations report to funders on their progress as burdensome distractions. Instead of negotiating detailed agreements before making a gift, she works with a team of advisers to stealthily vet a wide array of nonprofits, colleges and universities from afar before surprising them with her unprecedented multimillion-dollar gifts that come without any strings attached.

Scott is also supporting students of color through donations to the United Negro College Fund and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, which give HBCU students scholarships, and by supporting many other colleges and universities that enroll large numbers of minority students.

Her approach sharply contrasts with how many wealthy white donors have interacted with Black-serving nonprofits, including HBCUs, in the past. As a historian of philanthropy, I have studied the paternalism of white funders, including those who helped many of these schools open their doors.

HBCU Origins

The first HBCUs were founded in Northern states before the Civil War, including Cheyney and Lincoln universities in Pennsylvania and Wilberforce University in Ohio. After the war, most HBCUs were established in Southern states. These institutions were lifelines for Black Americans seeking higher education during decades of Jim Crow segregation that locked them out of other colleges and universities. (Disclosure: I earned my bachelor’s degree at Lincoln University.)

Although many white philanthropists made large gifts to these schools, their support was fraught with prejudice. Initially, white funders pushed for HBCUs to emphasize vocational training, then called “industrial education,” such as blacksmithing, printing and shoemaking, over more intellectual pursuits.

White philanthropists including Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller had poured millions from their fortunes into the proliferation of Black industrial schools by the early 20th century. The HBCUs Hampton University in Virginia and Tuskegee University in Alabama, which received donations from Scott, were leading models of industrial education for decades.

Black students during a class on the assembly and repair of telephones at Hampton Institute (1899). US Library of Congress.

The vocational curriculum at these schools was promoted as preparing Black students to be skilled laborers and academic teachers. During this era, however, most graduates worked as unskilled laborers or vocational teachers.

White Southerners overwhelmingly approved of this arrangement, which left many HBCU grads on the bottom rung of society rather than making them educated citizens. Emphasizing industrial education at HBCUs preserved the superior economic status of white Americans and the racist system of segregation. But African Americans’ educational aspirations required much more.

W.E.B. Du Bois, a prominent Black intellectual, was a leading critic of the funding HBCUs got from wealthy whites. He said: “Education is not and should not be a private philanthropy; it is a public service and whenever it merely becomes a gift of the rich it is in danger.”

Read on: MacKenzie Scott's HBCU Giving Contrasts Starkly With Historical White Funders AOC Blackness

Nominated for 3 Emmys, 'Misfits' Book Dropping Sept. 7, Michaela Coel Joins Black Panther

Michaela Coel Goes to Wakanda

Variety broke the news on July 21 that Micaela Coel has joined the cast of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’. Details of her character are in the lock box, but the actor as joined “director Ryan Coogler at Atlanta’s Pinewood Studios, where production began last month,” writes Matt Donnelly.

Michaela Coel’s 3 Emmy Nominations

The Michaela Coel show continues to roll on, with the news that the actor, director, screenwriter received three nominations for ‘I May Destroy You’. Broadcast on Sunday, September 19 on CBS, Coel has been nominated for Outstanding Directing For A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie - 2021; Outstanding Lead Actress In A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie - 2021; and Outstanding Writing For A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie - 2021.

In December 2020, Michaela Coel was part of an impressive creative presentation by The New York Times Magazine, with its focus on today’s best actors. The magazine writes: “With ‘I May Destroy You,’ she set out to disturb, first by making us laugh, then by going to all kinds of extremes.”

‘Misfits’ Book Out September 7

The talented creative’s book ‘Misfits: A Personal Manifesto’ is due out September 7, 2021 in British and American bookstores.

The book will focus on topics covered in Coel’s MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh Festival in 2018. In her speech, which drew audible gasps from the audience, Coel spoke in astounding clarity and factual detail about the barriers and racism she had experienced as a young black woman working in the television industry, as well as her own sexual assault.

A video of the speech is embedded in AOC. The Guardian quotes British publisher Ebury saying that in the book [Coel] “makes a compelling case for radical honesty”. It will be a rousing and bold case against fitting in and a powerful manifesto on how speaking your truth and owning your differences can transform your life.”

New Series in Work for BBC UK Drama Unit

Lastly — for the moment — the BBC UK said in May that Michaela Coel is working on a new television series.

“It’s truly in Michaela’s head and it’s not for me to second guess that too much at this point,” the network’s drama chief Piers Wenger responded to questions about the plot’s potential ties to ‘I May Destroy You."‘ “It’s at relatively early stages, but I wanted to let the fans of ‘I May Destroy You’ know that there is a new show coming along…What relationship that show will have with the original series, [is for Michaela to decide].”

Cherokee Jack by Richard Phibbs for Man of Metropolis | Minnesota History of Mankato Hangings

Republish via AOC at FeedBurner CC 3.0 License Attribution Required: Daily Fashion Design Culture News

Cherokee Jack by Richard Phibbs for Man of Metropolis | Minnesota History of Mankato Hangings AOC Fashion

Ford model Cherokee Jack [IG] — home agency Ignite Models in Minneapolis —covers the current issue of Man of Metropolis magazine, edited by Seth Travis. John Moore styles Cherokee Jack in images by Richard Phibbs [IG].

Anne is totally derailed by these images. 110% derailed.

Anne of Carversville rarely gets behind new models, except for the refugee models out of Africa. We are their biggest champion in a collective sense.

Once AOC opens the Pandora’s box of featuring new models, it’s a potential onslaught of inquiries and unsolicited portfolio links. My daily reality will be double trouble — worse than requests for free-ride posts on AOC linking out to paying clients for the writer. We deny them all.

However, within the context of this moment — how my brain is operating on July 15, 2021 — it’s impossible for me not to comment on the visceral response I’m having to the ‘take my breath away images’ of Cherokee Jack by Richard Phibbs.

1. When high-integrity images are so beautiful that they move me to tears, I must respond to the gift.

2. When through its exquisite beauty, a fashion story quietly addresses the brutal facts of American history and the suffering meted out to native peoples in America, my words cannot possibly do that fashion story justice.

3. When images prompt me to apologize on behalf of OUR [Cherokee Jack’s and mine in 2021] country to his ancestors, the pictures have impact way beyond their initial exposure in a high-quality, men’s lifestyle magazine.

The editorial serves as a reminder of how a model and a stylist and a photographer can work together in perfect synchronicity — with an editor who shares the same vision. It also helps that the photographer has the technical and artistic vision of Richard Phibbs.

Peony Girl Told Me I Was Needlessly Harsh

My three-year-old alter ego Peony Girl gave me a lecture last night — suggesting that perhaps I was needlessly harsh regarding the new Gigi Hadid editorial in the August issue of Harper’s Bazaar. To be honest, my three-year-old self had me wavering in her argument, and I considered an apology.

No more. I am moving Gigi’s editorial next to this one, and rest my case. Once I saw Hadid’s video and the joy in her eyes, I felt the emptiness of the Harper’s fashion story. These images reaffirm my written response.

Gigi Hadid and Cherokee Jack both feel to me like people of awareness. There is nobility in Cherokee Jack’s images that Gigi doesn’t exude, but I know she understands and would appreciate my commentary.

Hadid processes images like these and feels them deeply, too. In her own words, she is less overtly emotional on issues of justice than her sister Bella. But it’s always been clear to me that Gigi Hadid feels deeply, even if she is more guarded than Bella [who has also learned to button up attitudes and emotions in the glare of a public life.]

None of this human capacity for ubuntu came through in Gigi’s images. Nor did the joy she expressed in the video. The final product was dour, dour, dour, as I wrote.

Gisele Bundchen Joins DraftKings As Environment and Social Goals Adviser | Brazil Cuts Environment Budget 24%

Gisele Bundchen Joins DraftKings As Environment and Social Goals Adviser | Brazil Cuts Environment Budget 24% AOC Sustainability

Supermodel, environmentalist Gisele Bundchen as joined sportsbook operator and daily fantasy player DraftKings as ESG adviser to the CEO.

Bündchen and DraftKings have already collaborated on a project in which the company will plant 1,000,000 trees by Earth Day 2022. 

"It is very important for successful corporations to make the necessary shifts in ESG initiatives to truly make a difference on a global level," Bündchen said in a release announcing her hiring. "In today’s world, in my opinion, it isn’t enough for companies to just be successful financially. Companies have to be successful in ALL areas, including social impact and sustainability initiatives that impact the future for all of us around the world.”

Gisele Covers Vogue Hong Kong Sustainability Issue

Gisele Bundchen's Vogue Hong April Sustainability Issue Cover Story by Kevin O'Brien

Supermodel, eco-warrior Gisele Bundchen covers the April 2021 ‘Sustainability’ issue of Vogue Hong Kong. Bobette Cohn styles the prominent environmentalist in images shot on location in Costa Rica by Kevin O’Brien [IG] Bundchen’s home is on the Nicoya Peninsula, near the beachside town of Santa Teresa./ Makeup by Jenna Anton

In our earlier article about Gisele’s Vogue Hong Kong cover story, we noted the very sad reality that the supermodel with the biggest voice on climate change and especially saving the Brazilian rain forest is losing her battle.

Angelina Jolie on Burning the Eggs in Life and Saving Bees in British Vogue's March 2021 Cover Story

Angelina Jolie on Burning the Eggs in Life and Saving Bees in British Vogue's March 2021 Cover Story AOC Eye

Superstar activist, humanitarian, multi-talented creative Angelina Jolie covers the March 2021 issue of British Vogue. Jolie is interviewed and styled by British Vogue EIC Edward Enninful with a styling assist from Dena Gianini. / Hair by Lorenzo Martin, Jacklyn Martinez; makeup by Rachel Goodwin

Photographer Craig McDean captures Jolie and her six children at her historic Los Angeles estate tucked away in the historic Laughlin Park quiet corner of Los Feliz and formerly owned by Hollywood legend Cecil B. DeMille. The home is just five minutes away from the children’s father Brad Pitt.

Angelina Jolie on Mothering

Confirming that while she wanted to have a brood of kids, Jolie shares that she always saw herself as the Jane Goodall type, “travelling in the middle of the jungle somewhere.” She is not an inherently skilled mother — depending on one’s criteria, of course.

I feel like we’re such a team. It may sound clichéd, but you love and you try, and even if you burn the eggs, that doesn’t matter in the end. But also, you’ve met our kids. They’re pretty capable.

Pierpaolo Piccioli Was Woke Before Naming Zendaya As New Brand Face

‘Euphoria’ star Zendaya has joined the Valentino stable of celebs and voices representing the brand. The star shared the news, saying that she is “honoured to have been chosen as the face of Valentino,” and “so excited to begin this amazing collaboration with Pierpaolo and the entire Valentino family.”.

WWD delivered the message that Valentino creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli wants “to make the brand more in sync with the times and more inclusive, while maintaining its storied codes.”

From his perspective, Piccioli wants “to resignify the brand and how it is generally perceived. It’s like a different take on a familiar landscape.” Zendaya “embodies and represents what Valentino is and stands for today,” Piccioli explained to the press. “She is a powerful and fierce young woman that uses her talent and her work to express herself, her values and her generation as well.”

As an actor, the recent Emmy Awards youngest winner of Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for Zendaya’s role in ‘Euphoria’, joined Viola Davis as only the second Black female actor to win an Emmy in the high-profile category.

Valentino Isn’t New to Supporting Black Creatives and Culture

Valentino haute couture, spring 2019.Credit...Valerio Mezzanotti for The New York Times

Valentino and Piccioli are walking a needlessly treacherous balance beam in AOC’s opinion.

Perhaps because we follow the fashion industry so closely, we know Valentino and Piccioli himself have existing credentials in their support of Black creatives and models. I would have positioned that existing pedigree as part of their new announcement about Zendaya.

Piccioli’s relationship with Black models is at the top of luxury fashion houses. In his spectacular January 2019 couture show, the creative director and designer featured a dominating majority Black models extravaganza, reflecting a historic commitment to Black model representation. Vanessa Friedman reported that of 65 models, 45 were Black.

“As a designer I have a voice,” Piccioli said in the moment. “Hopefully a loud one. I want to use it.”

Fine — we are accustomed to marketing manipulation — but when Roberta Flack’s ‘The First Time’ hit the runway, tears welled up in more than one set of fashionista eyes. The beauty of the January 2019 moment existed in the reality that Pierpaolo Piccioli’s gesture was not tokenistic.

Joining Naomi Campbell were Aaliyah Hydes, Adut Akech, Ajak Deng, Akiima, Alek Wek, Alyssa Traore, Annibelis Baez, Anyelina Rosa, Assa Baradji, Ayak Veronica Bior, Blesnya Minher, Duckie Thot, Eftagine Fevilien, Grace Bol, Hannah Shakespeare, Hiandra Martinez, Janaye Furman, Judy Kinuthia, Karly Loyce, Litza Velloz, Lineisy Fatou Liya Kebede, Jobe, Lisette Moriello, Mayowa Nicholas, Miqueal-Simone Williams, Montero, Naomi Chin Wing, Nichole Atiero, Rouguy Faye, Niko Riam, Nyara Aboja, Saba Koj, Sana Diouf, Selena Forrest, Shanelle Nyasiase, Sompra Antonio, Tami Williams, Ugbad Abai, and Veronica Cabral.

Valentino’s Moncler Collab with Liya Kebede

Image courtesy Moncler.

Pierpaolo Piccioli’s collaboration with Lemlem’s founder Liya Kebede on puffer gowns for Moncler also comes to mind. Kebede’s Ethiopian artisans created colorful borders on the gowns, like those found on the ‘habesha kemis’ traditional Ethiopian dress.

AOC’s only point is that there’s no need for Valentino to communicate a message that’s it’s a luxury brand jumping on the Black representation bandwagon.

Valentino was ‘woke’ on this issue before most other luxury brands. They don’t deserve an award for being among the first to take a leadership position around Black beauty and creativity. But Valentino could have celebrated their ongoing commitment to racial justice and Black representation by announcing Zendaya as a next step in this long-overdue journey.

It would be like Anne of Carversville announcing our commitment to Black models, when we’ve been fighting for them for a decade. Nobody deserves a bow on this issue, but Valentino is not new to this long-overdue party. It didn’t take a summer of widespread protest and discontent to prompt Valentino to action. Nor did it take embarrassing condemnation from Black leaders and racial justice activists pointing out the obvious racism in their product offerings — as experienced by Gucci and Prada. ~ Anne

Book: Jane Fonda Tells Us How to Join Young People as Climate Activists

Activist Sophia Kianni (right) with actress Jane Fonda at 2019 Black Friday climate strike before the United States Capitol building. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

Now that her ‘Fire Drill Fridays’ protests on the steps of the U.S. Capitol Building in support of climate change are over, Jane Fonda has written a new book about her emergence as an eco-warrior. “What Can I Do?: My Path from Climate Despair to Action” is available on September 8.

Everybody’s interviewing Jane, and we share comments that got our attention. TIME’s Justin Worland asked Fonda about working with today’s activists. “Did you see parts of your activist self in them?”

Fonda: “Oh my God. They’re so much better than I was! I’m blown away. They are really smart. They’re also very depressed—these young people are carrying grief.”

Jane is pictured above with Sophia Kianni, 18, an American climate activist and writer specializing in media and strategy. She is the founder and executive director of Climate Cardinals, an international youth-led nonprofit that works to translate information about climate change into over 100 languages.

Greenpeace explains Jane is launching a project to join 10 virtual American book clubs devoted to the climate crisis. Book clubs are asked to post their own short videos explaining why she should join their book club.

Throughout the book Fonda weaves her personal journey as an activist together with climate talks with leading climate scientist on the state of the crisis. The book also discusses specific issues, such as water, migration, and human rights, to emphasize what is at stake. 

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd — she of a lifetime loathing Hillary fame — interviews Fonda for Jane Fonda, Intergalactic Eco-Warrior in a Red Coat. Only Maureen Dowd would not edit four “I”s — as in me, me, me — in the first three short paragraphs.

Fonda got two direct mentions, one “we” and Dowd snuck in a “me”. Score 5 Dowd; 2 Fonda; 1 draw. Dowd moves far beyond climate action, getting Jane to offer up juicy revelations about Marlon Brando and Marvin Gaye. Better than a hemp shake.

Serena Williams Steps Up For Vital Voices; Alexis Ohanian Sr. Resigns Reddit Board

Serena Williams Steps Up For Vital Voices; Alexis Ohanian Sr. Resigns Reddit Board

Tennis legend, black activist, fashion designer — and yes, now venture capitalist — Serena Williams became the global spokeswoman for Stuart Weitzman in early May. Photographer Ethan James Green captures Serena in campaign images that present her fierce power and beauty unbowed.

The power of the project for Serena lies in Stuart Weitzman’s alliance with the Vital Voices Global Partnership  Tapped to choose two women leaders to participate with her in the campaign, Williams tapped Ashlee Wisdom and Sage Ke’alohilani Quiamno. Wisdom is the founder of  Health in Her Hue, a platform that connects black women to culturally competent health-care providers. Ke’alohilani Quiamno, founder of Future for Us, a civic organization that gives women of color the tools to succeed in the highest levels of corporate and social-sector careers.

Alexis Ohanian Sr. Resigns from Reddit Board

It’s Serena Williams’ husband Alexis Ohanian Sr.that made the big news today — June 8 — as word of his resignation from the board of directors of Reddit traveled through media channels. The co-founder of Reddit recommended that his spot be filled by a Black candidate amid activists’ calls for more representation of BlPOC in positions of power in global companies.

"I co-founded Reddit 15 years ago to help people find community and a sense of belonging," Ohanian wrote across his social media channels, pulling from a blog post on his site. "It is long overdue to do the right thing. I'm doing this for me, for my family, and for my country." Along with the statement to the public, Ohanian embedded a video message from his Instagram account onto his blog entry, and in it he reiterates his original statement.

There’s a Complex History of Skin Lighteners in Africa and Beyond

THE WEST AFRICAN NATION OF LIBERIA IS ALLOWING VENDORS TO ERECT HUGE BILLBOARDS ADVERTISING BLEACHING PRODUCTS IN AND AROUND MONROVIA. SIMULTANEOUSLY, RWANDA HAS BANNED SKIN BLEACHING PRODUCTS, WHICH THE GOVERNMENT DESCRIBES AS UNHEALTHY. VIA

There’s a Complex History of Skin Lighteners in Africa and Beyond AOC Body

Somali-American activists recently scored a victory against Amazon and against colourism, which is prejudice based on preference for people with lighter skin tones. Members of the non-profit The Beautywell Project teamed up with the Sierra Club to convince the online retail giant to stop selling skin lightening products that contain mercury.

After more than a year of protests, this coalition of antiracist, health, and environmental activists persuaded Amazon to remove some 15 products containing toxic levels of mercury. This puts a small but noteworthy dent in the global trade in skin lighteners, estimated to reach US$31.2 billion by 2024.

What are the roots of this sizeable trade? And how might its most toxic elements be curtailed?

The online sale of skin lighteners is relatively new, but the in-person traffic is very old. My new book explores this layered history from the vantage point of South Africa.

As in other parts of the world colonised by European powers, the politics of skin colour in South Africa have been importantly shaped by the history of white supremacy and institutions of racial slavery, colonialism, and segregation. My book examines that history.

Yet, racism alone cannot explain skin lightening practices. My book also attends to intersecting dynamics of class and gender, changing beauty ideals and the expansion of consumer capitalism.

Jane Fonda -- Our Fav 'Outlaw' -- Talks Climate Activism With Who What Wear

Jane Fonda -- Our Fav 'Outlaw' -- Talks Climate Activism With Who What Wear

Wow! We’re in ecstasy with this Jane Fonda editorial lensed by Tiffany Nicholson for Who What Wear. Tracy Taylor styles Fonda in Gabriela Hearst, Warren, Frame Le Plazzo Jeans, Lingua Franca ‘Outlaw’ cashmere sweater — PERFECT for Fonda — and more.

Jane celebrated her 82nd birthday in handcuffs, arrested for a fifth time at a climate change protest in Washington, DC. Jane makes it clear in her interview that clothes do not inspire her. And yes, Tracy Taylor whipped up largely sustainable pieces for the Tiffany Nicholson photo shoot. Jane is on the record saying that her red protest coat —not the Nancy Pelosi red Max Mara coat — is the last item of clothing that she will ever buy.