Anna Ewers by Benny Horne in Hydra, Greece for Zimmermann Resort 2022 Campaign
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Rocio Ramos Seizes the Power of Cardinals for Marie Claire Mexico and LA
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Rocio Ramos Seizes the Power of Cardinals for Marie Claire Mexico and LA AOC Fashion
Photographer Rocio Ramos [IG] captures unadulterated-red, fashion passion in the October pages of Marie Claire Mexico and Latin America. Model Dalianah Arekion poses in primal, earth-goddesses elegance styled by Abraham Gutiérrez.
Most fashion media will promote the color red as symbolizing new energy and interest in living with the latest seasonal wardrobe. The message is consumption-oriented — which is understandable, especially if we are looking at the latest, earth-loving sustainable fashion buys.
We doubt that is the case here — that we are looking at sustainable fashion. But there are even higher principles at play in these images. AOC knows for a fact that artist and photographer Rocio Ramos is on our wave-length, and she likes the writing her images inspire.
So we will move out on red, into the fast lane.
Red Symbolism
The color red is most often associated with a passion for living and an embrace of love, but also carnal pleasures. Red is known as an emotionally-intense color that enhances human metabolism and increases respiration rate, while raising blood pressure. The impact of the color red on the human body has been seriously studied.
Culturally-speaking we are in a red-alert moment that transcends fashion runways and embraces the duality of competing narratives about our very humanity.
Red is the color of fire and blood, one often associated with energy, war, power and danger. Red is considered to be aggressive and fierce, but also grounding. In the world of 7 chakras, red is the root chakra, and while it’s easy enough to dismiss red as primitive with its positioning on the chakra chart, it is also responsible for our sense of security and stability.
When apes first stood tall and began walking into humanity, their root chakra was in high gear — literally. Rocks and caves were homes to humanity before we created mobile structures made of mammoth tusks. The setting for Rocio Ramos’ fashion story is perfect, because it embraces the necessities of security, survival and being rooted as the very foundation of our lives.
HTSI Magazine Adds a W for Wisely with Lena Hardt Posing in Sustainable Fashion
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HTSI Magazine Adds a W for Wisely with Lena Hardt Posing in Sustainable Fashion AOC Fashion
How To Spend It . . . WISELY is the cover message of the magazine’s October 23, 2021 The Green Issue. Model Lena Hardt models fall’s finest conscious fashion from Bethany Williams, Chloé, Hermes, Ulla Johnson and more. Photographer Sasha Marro [IG] captures the green fashion investments, styled by Isabelle Kountoure in ‘All Things Considered.’./ Hair by Marion Anée; makeup by William Bartel
AOC so agrees with HTSI editor Jo Ellison’s perspective when she writes:
“Finding garments that are 100 per cent sustainable is still an unexpected challenge.”
Ellison is so much more diplomatic than AOC, citing “this week’s fashion editorial, which sought to use only recycled, sustainably made or upcycled textiles. . . . Putting together a shoot in which such criteria were mandatory was still far harder than might have been expected, despite much noise in the industry about trying to make things better.”
As I revealed in a post last week, Anne is becoming more urgently angry over this same challenge. We will never become as aggressive as PETA because we will drive away some of the top voices and creatives in fashion who read AOC. But there is no doubt, that impatience with sustainability promises will become more obvious on our website.
Sanne Vloet Does a Sensual Simmer Lensed by Aicha Abdoun for Numero Netherlands
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Sanne Vloet Does a Sensual Simmer Lensed by Aicha Abdoun for Numero Netherlands AOC Fashion
Model Sanne Vloet wears Givenchy styled by Oumayma Elboumeshouli in Aicha Abdoun [IG] images for Numéro Netherlands October 2021, Editor Timotej Letonja and the fashion crew descended on The W Hotel Miami.
Binx Walton Covers Vogue Brazil in Images by Luigi & Iango
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Binx Walton Covers Vogue Brazil in Images by Luigi & Iango AOC Fashion
Top model Binx Walton channels her subversive inner persona, is styled by Pedro Sales in images by Luigi & Iango for Vogue Brasil Septemer 2021./ Hair by Tashana Miles, makeup by Georgi Sandev
Stella McCartney's Spring 2022 Collection Inspires a World of Fungi Research
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Stella McCartney's Spring 2022 Collection Inspires a World of Fungi Research AOC Muse
Designer Stella McCartney’s Spring 2022 fashion show was inspired by mushrooms. Quite frankly, life on Anne of Carversville has not been the same since I watched on Netflix the 2019 ‘Fantastic Fungi’ documentary that prompted McCartney’s deep dive into the world of mushrooms.
Mushrooms are the visible part of an organism called mycelium, and they are not plants, even though they have a plantlike form. Even more important, until recently, fungi have been part of the botanist’s domain, and they were classified — incorrectly — as plants, writes the American Society For Microbiology in an article Three Reasons Fungi Are Not Plants.
Fungi and Africans: Both Misclassified and Misunderstood by Carl Linnaeus
Fungi were classified as plants for centuries due to an axiom attributed to Carl Linnaeus: “Plants grow and live; Animals grow, live and feel.”
Linnaeus’ delineation of plant activity seems inadequate and overly simplistic, given scientific research on the way in which plants experience sentient activity. We know that plants sense danger and then communicate their information to other plants, seeming to contradict Linnaeus’ assertions around plant life. NOT knowing his connection to racial categorization — I muttered to myself “Oh, right. In the same way some white dudes classified people of color as lesser-quality humans, they managed to ignore the profound distinctive attributes of fungi and mushrooms by calling them plants.”
Eureka! Linnaeus was deeply involved in the science of racial categorization. Rather than taking a sharp right turn in this post, AOC will stay with the fact that fungi can’t produce oxygen via photosynthesis, a core attribute of the plant kingdom.
It’s interesting when fashion, mushrooms and the civil rights movement come together in a single, cohesive thought pattern. Then again, the world of fungi is so primordial and pervasive in our biosphere that mycelium — the network of fungal threads or hyphae that produces the mushrooms we eat — strikes us as the very root of existence.
Stella McCartney is leading the way in working on the development of luxury leather made from mushrooms. The designer wants all of us to become curious about mushrooms, and I am now her dedicated disciple at AOC.
Megan Fox, MGK by Daniella Midenge Talk Demon Sex in British GQ Style AW21
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Megan Fox and MGK (Machine Gun Kelly) made many headlines this week, and it was perhaps exactly as planned. AOC’s friend photographer Daniella Midenge [IG] called her images ‘provocative’. Indeed they are, as Fox is wearing nothing but a harness and pointing a gun at MGK’s crotch in the one below Fashion director Nicola Formichetti works on the shoot with styling by Hunter Clem for the British GQ Style AW21 issue.
Fox described their state of being in the time of the GQ UK interview on her Instagram as: “The tale of two outcasts and star-crossed lovers caught in the throes of a torrid, solar flare of a romance featuring: feverish obsession, guns, addiction, shamans, lots of blood, general mayhem, therapy, tantric night terrors, binding rituals, chakra sound baths, psychedelic hallucinations, organic smoothies, and the kind of sex that would make Lucifer clutch his rosary.”
That’s a lot of information, but I will say that those who condemn the couple’s first kiss as a bust, don’t know what they are talking about. As MGK explained: “We just put our lips right in front of each other and breathed each other’s breath, and then she just left.”
My suggestion is “Don’t damn a tantric kiss if you’ve never experienced one. “
All weekend starting Friday, WaPo’s article Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly are trying to be Hollywood’s hottest new couple, but instead are the most cringeworthy by Emily Yahr was in the top five reads. It’s also the lead right now in a Google search.
Positioned ahead of the actual GQUK interview “True romance: Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly are Hollywood’s new power couple “is not ideal. But there’s no doubt that all the controversy over these two lovebirds will not hurt anyone’s careers, especially their own — and, hopefully, Daniella’s.
GQ Writer Molly Lambert asserts that Megan Fox is the “ideal cool babe consort for a burgeoning superstar like MGK, a rapper rocker whose new album, ‘Born With Horns, is executive-produced by Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker.”
If you don’t know Travis Barker, he’s Kourtney Kardashian’s betrothed. Lambert writes that Fox believes she and her spiritual love MGK share what she calls the ‘combustible element’ of all celebrities like Kurt and Courtney or Mick and Marianne — except that she and MGK are “trying their damndest to make sure things don’t blow up.”
I’m not sure that they are Hollywood’s new power couple. We’re in a different moment, although eating mushrooms together on a January walk in Bora Bora is sublime. Then again, the Kardashians are in a much better position to confirm the probability of the Fox and MGK as Hollywood’s newest power couple than AOC. ~ Anne
Daria Strokous by Ned Rogers in Smashing Fashion Images for Puss Puss Magazine 14
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Daria Strokous by Ned Rogers in Smashing Fashion Images for Puss Puss Magazine 14 AOC Fashion
WOW! Just WOW! Russian model Daria Strokous covers Puss Puss Magazine 14, FW 2021. Andy Polanco styles Strokous in striking, fashion royalty vibe images by Ned Rogers and Andy Polanco. LOVE! / Hair by Ilker Akyol; makeup by Miguel Ramos
Karmen Pedaru's Style Artistry for Harper's Bazaar Czech 25th Anniversary by Kristian Schuller
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Karmen Pedaru's Style Artistry for Harper's Bazaar Czech 25th Anniversary by Kristian Schuller AOC Fashion
Top model Karmen Pedaru wears Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, Dries Van Noten, Erdem, Louis Vuitton, Miu Miu and more styled by Peggy Schuller. Photographer Kristian Schuller captures Pedaru in ‘Babylon Berlin’ for the 25th anniversary September 2021 issue of Harper’s Bazaar Czech Republic.
Karen Elson Brings Model Mastery to ELLE Russia November 2021 by Kat Irlin
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Karen Elson Brings Model Mastery to ELLE Russia November 2021 by Kat Irlin AOC Fashion
Supermodel Karen Elson joins forces with Dostoyevsky in a studio lesson around the creative talents employed by the most talented models in our fashion industry. Lilya Simonyan styles Elson in period-elegance lensed by Kat Irlin [IG] for the November 2021 issue of ELLE Russia.
Irene Blanch's Pastoral Reverie Lensed by Ana Abril for Mujer Hoy October 2021
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Irene Blanch's Pastoral Reverie Lensed by Ana Abril for Mujer Hoy October 2021 AOC Fashion
Model Irene Blanch is styled by Caterina Ospina Buitrago in ‘Land of the Dreams’, bucolic country style lensed by Ana Abril [IG] for Mujer Hoy October 2021./ Hair & makeup by Antonio Romero
Kiki Willems, Awar Odhiang Front Saint Laurent Winter 2021/22 Campaign by Juergen Teller
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Kiki Willems, Awar Odhiang Front Saint Laurent Winter 2021/22 Campaign by Juergen Teller AOC Fashion
Models Kiki Willems and Awar Odhiang front Saint Laurent’s [IG] Winter 2021 advertising campaign, lensed by Juergen Teller with art direction by YSL designer and creative director Anthony Vaccarello. The campaign was shot at Reynisfjara beach in Iceland, which was the site for the Saint Laurent fall-winter fashion show the luxury brand presented via video link.
Beegee Margenyte Prepares to Party by William Ferchichi for ELLE Arabia
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Beegee Margenyte Prepares to Party by William Ferchichi for ELLE Arabia AOC Fashion
Lithuanian model Beegee Margenyte gets her mermaid dance on in the pages of ELLE Arabia September 2021. Fashion and beauty editor Dina Kabbani chooses the frothy, garden party clothes lensed by William Ferchichi [IG].
Hyea W. Kang Captures 'The Way You Are' for Vogue Singapore September 2021
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Models Jiseop Lim, Seungchan Lee and Yoon Young Bae are styled by Desmond Lim and Eunnnnyoung Sohn in ‘The Way You Are’, lensed by Hyea W. Kang for Vogue Singapore September 2021. / Hair by Eunyoung Choi; makeup by Hyeryoung Park
Read MoreWill American Bees Survive Pesticides, Government Dysfunction and Other Killers?
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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.
Anita Pozzo in Cozy Elegance Lensed by Dan Martensen for Harper's Bazaar US
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Anita Pozzo returns in back-to-back fashion stories (with a look back by us to look at her work) in ‘Easy Does It’, styled by Camille Bidault Waddington. Photographer Dan Martensen captures Pozzo for Harper’s Bazaar US October 2021./ Hair by Ryan Mitchell; makeup by Siddhartha Simone
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Francesca Hayward Raises the Barre by Ekua King in Porter Edit October 18, 2021
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The Royal Ballet’s Francesca Hayward is known for her honest but also diplomatic assessment of life in the notoriously clubby world of ballet. There’s little pretense with Hayward — like her telling Porter Edit interviewer Kadish Morris:
“I don’t come from a dance family, so my whole career has been about just giving it a go and seeing what happens.”
Hayward credits Kevin O’Hare, director of the Royal Ballet, for seeing clearly her potential. “He plucked me out of the water very quickly and said, ‘You can do this.’”
Francesca Hayward is styled by Jenny Kennedy in luxe fashion from Alaïa, A.W.A.K.E, Bottega Veneta, Dries Van Noten, Erdem, Molly Goddard, Saint Laurent, Simone Rocha and more. Ekua King [IG] captures the rising star in ‘Raise the Barre’ for Porter Edit’s October 18, 2021 cover story.
Read MoreCorrelation Exists Between Lynching Events and Confederate Statues by US County
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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.”
Featured
Selma - Montgomery March #3 1965
A powerful and recently rediscovered film made during the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march for voting rights. Stefan Sharff’s intimate documentary reflects his youthful work in the montage style under the great Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein. The film features moving spirituals. Marchers included Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife Coretta Scott King.
2015 Oscar Winning Best Song ‘Glory’ From Best Picture Nominated ‘Selma’
History of Selma to Montgomery Marches 1965
The Selma-to-Montgomery March for voting rights ended three weeks—and three events—that represented the political and emotional peak of the modern civil rights movement. On “Bloody Sunday,” March 7, 1965, some 600 civil rights marchers headed east out of Selma on U.S. Route 80. They got only as far as the Edmund Pettus Bridge six blocks away, where state and local lawmen attacked them with billy clubs and tear gas and drove them back into Selma. Two days later on March 9, Martin Luther King, Jr., led a “symbolic” march to the bridge. Then civil rights leaders sought court protection for a third, full-scale march from Selma to the state capitol in Montgomery.
Federal District Court Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr.,weighed the right of mobility against the right to march and ruled in favor of the demonstrators. “The law is clear that the right to petition one’s government for the redress of grievances may be exercised in large groups…,” said Judge Johnson, “and these rights may be exercised by marching, even along public highways.” On Sunday, March 21, about 3,200 marchers set out for Montgomery, walking 12 miles a day and sleeping in fields. By the time they reached the capitol on Thursday, March 25, they were 25,000-strong. Less than five months after the last of the three marches, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965—the best possible redress of grievances. Source: US Natl Park Service
President Barack Obama’s Address In Selma March 7, 2015
Photos March, 1965
President Barack Obama embraces Congressman John Lewis in Selma, March 7, 2015
March 7, 1965 march aborted at Edmund Pettus Bridge.It is a rare honor in this life to follow one of your heroes. And John Lewis is one of my heroes.
Now, I have to imagine that when a younger John Lewis woke up that morning fifty years ago and made his way to Brown Chapel, heroics were not on his mind. A day like this was not on his mind. Young folks with bedrolls and backpacks were milling about. Veterans of the movement trained newcomers in the tactics of non-violence; the right way to protect yourself when attacked. A doctor described what tear gas does to the body, while marchers scribbled down instructions for contacting their loved ones. The air was thick with doubt, anticipation, and fear. They comforted themselves with the final verse of the final hymn they sung:
No matter what may be the test, God will take care of you;
Lean, weary one, upon His breast, God will take care of you.
Then, his knapsack stocked with an apple, a toothbrush, a book on government – all you need for a night behind bars – John Lewis led them out of the church on a mission to change America.
There are places, and moments in America where this nation’s destiny has been decided. Many are sites of war – Concord and Lexington, Appomattox and Gettysburg. Others are sites that symbolize the daring of America’s character – Independence Hall and Seneca Falls, Kitty Hawk and Cape Canaveral.
Selma is such a place.
Congressman John Lewis lead the first Selma, March and was severely beaten in the head and body on March 7, 2965And because of men and women like John Lewis, Joseph Lowery, Hosea Williams, Amelia Boynton, Diane Nash, Ralph Abernathy, C.T. Vivian, Andrew Young, Fred Shuttlesworth, Dr. King, and so many more, the idea of a just America, a fair America, an inclusive America, a generous America – that idea ultimately triumphed.
As is true across the landscape of American history, we cannot examine this moment in isolation. The march on Selma was part of a broader campaign that spanned generations; the leaders that day part of a long line of heroes.
We gather here to celebrate them. We gather here to honor the courage of ordinary Americans willing to endure billy clubs and the chastening rod; tear gas and the trampling hoof; men and women who despite the gush of blood and splintered bone would stay true to their North Star and keep marching toward justice.
'The Fall Lands' Lensed by Effy Yu for The New York Times Travel Magazine Fall 2021
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'The Fall Lands' Lensed by Effy Yu for The New York Times Travel Magazine Fall 2021 AOC Fashion
Model Yan Wenjing is styled by Jiacheng Wu — who is also fashion editor at WSJ Magazine China — in ‘The Fall Lands’, lensed by Effy Yu [IG] for The New York Times Travel Magazine.