Candice Swanepoel Drops New Tropic of C Swimwear Style and Color Update

Candice Swanepoel Drops New Tropic of C Swimwear Style and Color Update AOC Fashion

Top of the list earth goddess Candice Swanepoel travels to fashion’s fav place Puglia, Italy to pose in new Tropic of C sustainable swimwear style and color updates. Eduardo Bravin [IG] photographs Tropic of C’s new metallic shade serpentine.

Harris Reed x Etro Collab Achieves Perfect Alignment Magic Carpet Fashion Ride

Designer Harris Reed of Harris Reed x Etro Collab via Etro IG.

All images courtesy of Etro.

A Star Is Born: Harris Reed

When the convo is focused on young, emerging, fashion designers, do not make an example of Harris Reed. Perhaps never in the future of fashion has a young designer woke on the day of his [her] first-ever runway show as the subject of a 5,000 word profile on said designer in The New Yorker.

On the morning of Harris Reed’s spring 2022 fashion show, the 25-year-old, 2020 graduate from Central Saint Martins, was living rent free in a perfectly-appointed studio suite at London’s Standard Hotel, a reward for his exceptional, creative status. Reed insists that the majority of this good fortune came in moments of serendipity, none more so than his chance meeting with celebrity stylist Harry Lambert. That encounter opened the perfectly-primed for Reed’s design-vision door to the world of Harry Styles. In the words of Vogue:

“The pop star’s 39 million followers kicked in, and just like that, a star was born. As his debut show demonstrated, Reed—who is the son of the Oscar-winning movie producer Nick Reed—thrives in the costume territory. He repurposed bridal and groom’s wear sourced from the British charity chain Oxfam into majestic hybrids of gowns and tuxedos, topping them off with enormous spherical headpieces that have become his trademark.”

Fast-forward now and who better for Harris Reed to collaborate with on a collection of genderless, sustainable, and colorful voluminous blouses than the house of Etro.

Harris Reed x Etro partnership

“When Harris Reed reached out to collaborate with us on this special project, I did not have doubts. Harris is a young and talented designer that conveys wonderful messages with his work and I was happy to have the chance to mix our textile research and archival fabrics with his innovative approach and taste. I also loved the idea of giving a new life to archival fabrics by transforming them into exclusive ‘one-of-a-kind’ creations,” said Veronica Etro, creative director at Etro Womenswear.

Veronica Etro and Harris Reed backstage at the spring 2022 Etro show in Milan Photo: Saskia Lawaks / Courtesy of Etro

House of Etro: Medici Mindset Meets Hippie Counter-Culture

Founded in 1968 by Gerolamo “Gimmo” Etro and his antiques dealer wife Roberta, the then textile company had amassed a collection of 300 antique shawls — a treasure that remains one of the largest private collections in the world today.

Etro was born in a global counter-culture moment, a configuration of now-aging minds capable of connecting well decades later with a human like Harris Reed. Gucci’s Alessandro Michele would easily have navigated the beards and long hair of the late ‘60s hippie movement.

The sexual revolution was in full bloom at the moment of Etro’s birth, and Yves Saint Laurent was hardly the only man to be found wearing a caftan. As some young people became global vagabonds, design inspo ran rampant in the streets and cafes. Young people were learning about different cultures — yes, defined by the colonial confinement of minds — but still with deep roots in ancient cultures like Mesopotamia, a region that includes parts of present-day Turkey, Syria, and Iraq, only men wore caftans and related flowing robes.

Young designers always fancy themselves inventing a new look, rather than circling back through history to reinvent, refresh, reintroduce in updated fashion styles for a new era. Harris Reed is no different in knowing when the moment is ‘right’ to plunge into what suddenly seems like a fresh and revolutionary new look and way of dressing.

Tianna St. Louis's Precious Pedigree Finds Treasure in British Vogue December 2021

Tianna St. Louis's Precious Pedigree Finds Treasure in British Vogue December 2021 AOC Fashion

Rising model Tianna St. Louis hails from Connecticut USA with family bloodlines that are a fantastic mix of Australian, German, Irish, Italian and Jamaican. The stellar visual results of St. Louis’ pedigree are obvious and visually arresting. And then there’s the name. Superb.

Poppy Kain styles Tianna St. Louis in ‘Treasure Seeking ‘, a collection of intricately-designed jewelry, lensed by Eddie Wrey [IG] for British Vogue December 2021./ Hair by Shiori Takahashi; makeup by Lynsey Alexander

We’re having visions of Tianna St. Louis meets Rafael Pavarotti and Ib Kamara and then Edward Enninful pops in to see how everyone is doing. Oh yes, put her in Erdem.

Oh wait — it’s coming into view. British Vogue can tell the famous story in which Queen Elizabeth & Ghana President Nkrumah danced a ‘Diplomatic Foxtrot’ in Ghana. It was a highest level mission that required the Queen to persuade Nkrumah to favor Britain and not make an alliance with Russia.

Her Majesty succeeded splendidly. Come ‘on. You guys love that idea and we can give the world a history lesson at the same time.

Perhaps you can borrow a royal tiara for Tianna St. Louis to wear as the Queen. This was a huge story for AOC when I investigated this segment from ‘The Crown’.

Queen Elizabeth II & Ghana President Nkrumah In A 1961 Diplomat Foxtrot Watched In Black & White

Lesley-Ann Brandt Will Star in New Series Set in South Africa District Six Ubuntu City

Brandt joins Morgan Freeman in Cape Town’s District Six

AnneofCarversville.com Women’s News.

Lesley-Ann Brandt Will Star in New Series Set in South Africa District Six Ubuntu City AOC Fashion

South African actor Lesley-Ann Brandt is lensed by Angelo D’Agostino [IG] with a digital cover, for Numéro Netherlands [IG] November 2021. The ‘Lucifer’ and ‘Spartacus’ actor is partnering with Morgan Freeman and Lori McCreary’s Revelations Entertainment on the development of a new drama series that takes viewers to Cape Town, South Africa’s District Six.

Brandt, who will star and produce with Adrian Cunningham of D6 Entertainment, said: “We are thrilled to have partnered with Lori, Morgan and the team at Revelations to bring the beauty and tragedy of District Six to life. It’s such a personal story to me, my family and the people of the Cape Flats. While the barbarity of the apartheid regime has featured onscreen before, Hanover Street will lean into the joy and solidarity that the community shared in the face of repression.”

Deadline explains: “Home to 60K residents of all ethnicities and creeds, along with a thriving LGBTQIA+ community, District Six in South Africa’s second-largest city stood as a symbol of defiance against everything that apartheid stood for. In 1966, the regime designated it a whites-only area. By 1982 its entire population had been forcibly removed, and the neighborhood destroyed.”

Kim Kardashian Covers WSJ Magazine November 2021 Innovators Issue with Kim Jones

Images: Annemarieke van Drimmelen for WSJ. Magazine

Kim Kardashian Billionaire

In Spring 2021, Kim Kardashian officially achieved billionaire status on the Forbes list. Unlike her sister Kylie who was dropped by the Forbes list in 2020 over the Trumpian move of inflating her assets, Kim Kardashian’s wealth was estimated by Forbes at about $1 billion, up from $780 million. Forbes estimated values of her stakes in KKW Beauty at $500 million and Skims at $225 million.

Being older and wiser than her younger sister, Kim Kardashian’s sober approach to life and business is well-articulated in her WSJ Magazine November 2021 Brand Innovator 2021 cover story, on newsstands Saturday, November 13th.

KKW poses with her friend, Fendi creative director Kim Jones, celebrating the early November release of Fendi x Skims, the underwear and cozy loungewear label Kardashian launched in 2019.

KKW: WSJ Magazine’s Brand Innovator’s Award

Kardashian West will be honored, along with 7 other cultural groundbreakers at WSJ. Magazine’s Innovator Awards virtual presentation on November 1st at 8:00 PM EST. You can register to watch online at … WSJ. Magazine's 2021 Innovator Awards Virtual Presentation

WSJ Magazine cites Skims alone as being valued at over $1.6 billion, and Kardashian is a majority owner. Kim’s beauty brand KKW is being rebooted but for good reasons and not lack of big-brand potential. Skims Sleep will soon be moving into the inner-lives of American women.

“I want to really launch an entirely new beauty brand,” she says. “I learned so much that I’m excited [to put out] a brand that has all the new information that I know. I feel like it’s going to be my baby, I’ll have my beauty brand and Skims. I can really nourish it and flourish it more if it [were] all condensed into one.”

Frequent WSJ Magazine photographer Annemarieke Van Drimmelen captures KKW for the cover story, styled by Giovanni Dario Laudicina. written by Christina Binkley.

True Grit, Serious Hustle. Major Intelligence and a Micromanaged Life

Achieving a business status that puts Kim Kardashian in a prime spot in WSJ’s annual Innovators Issue takes some serious hustle and intelligence.

Kim Kardashian has both — even if the totally engaged mother of four and supportive soon-to-be ex-wife of Kanye West — has failed some of her recent bar-exam preparation tests. Simply stated, Kar Kardashian powers on with marketing savvy and human connections that are currently too valuable to put a price on them.

“My days are completely micromanaged to the minute,” she says. “In order to get away from the kids, I will go into my office at my house and study. And then working on beauty and rebranding and Skims, constantly, I’m always in fittings and fabric meetings. My days are pretty full…. And that’s it. I love to be home; I love my weekends at home.”

Speaking of home, KKW just paid Kanye West $20 million for their Hidden Hills, LA home and $3 million for the furniture, art and other contents. Kim now owns the house outright.

Images: Annemarieke van Drimmelen for WSJ. Magazine

Kim Kardashian Captains Her Ship with a Steady Hand

People can heap all the hate they want on Kim Kardashian. She is a superb businesswoman, and Kardashian knows it. There’s nothing wrong with self-confidence, sincerity and an earnest approach to living.

In contrast to how the public imagines the life of Kim Kardashian West, her closest humans describe her as a non-partier and a low-grade control freak. By her own admission, she is a workaholic who reads sales numbers in bed late at night.

“I have never liked drunk people,” Kardashian West says. “I never like to be out of control. I never like to not know what’s going on.” (“I didn’t go [away] to college because of [the partying],” she says.)

Images: Annemarieke van Drimmelen for WSJ. Magazine

Kim Kardashian: Someday Matriarch

She now weighs in on most of the family’s deals jointly with Kris Jenner. “If there’s a deal, it’s always my mom, me and our attorney talking it over,” Kardashian West says.

The expectation is that Kim Kardashian will take over the reins, when Kris, 66, one day retires. “We’ve talked about it. I would assemble a team of people to take over,” Kardashian West says. “I hope it doesn’t happen for a really long time, because I’m really busy.”

The possibility that KKW will lead a Kardashian-Jenner conglomerate empire built around the fashion, cosmetic, liquor and media enterprises that her family has launched over the past decade is a real one.

Images: Annemarieke van Drimmelen for WSJ. Magazine

WWJ Magazine references the fact that the rebound fortunes of Victoria’s Secret; the pulsating growth of Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty lingerie [with indirect backing from LVMH] and now Skims soaring puts a lot of pressure on the already-stressed VS. There’s no doubt that both Rihanna and Kim Kardashian know how to play hardball, even if they do it grace and a smile on their faces.

Kate Moss modeled in recent Skims campaign images. A special Skims pop-up opened in Paris in time for Paris Fashion Week this September at the famous Galeries Lafayette department store. Skims is sold by retailers such as Nordstrom, Ssense and Net-a-Porter. “The inclusive sizing, sharp price point and comfort are just a few reasons why the brand has been so successful,” says Lea Cranfield, Net-a-Porter’s chief buying and merchandising officer, by email.

Rihanna hasn’t weighed in on this trifecta undergarments competition, but KKW reminds us that her grandmother only retired in her early 80s. “I think I’ll always feel good when I’m working,” Kardashian predicts.

“I don’t see me floating on a yacht.”

In fact, Kim Kardashian’s life plan has her as a member of the California bar, and she currently studies about four hours a day to achieve this goal. “Hopefully one day I can start a law firm where we can help people pro bono and hire people who were formerly incarcerated,” she says of her longer-term goals.

Kim’s goal is no act, in spite of the heat she’s taken for working with former president Donald Trump on prison reform. KKW marches to her own drum with four kids and a big family in tow. One wonders what Kanye West actually thinks of his uber-talented wife. R-E-S-P-E-C-T would be appropriate.

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

Rocio Ramos Seizes the Power of Cardinals for Marie Claire Mexico and LA

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.

Stella McCartney's Spring 2022 Collection Inspires a World of Fungi Research

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

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

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.”

T Magazine's Fluffy, Furry Ancestral Creatures by Toby Coulson with Cherokee Jack and Briana Michelle

T Magazine's Fluffy, Furry Ancestral Creatures by Toby Coulson with Cherokee Jack and Briana Michelle AOC Fashion

Modern-day nomads are slowing down, honoring traditions and the roots of our culture. This T Magazine fall 2021 feature on ‘Winter’s Fluffiest and Furriest Outwear’ highlights not only whimsical textures in which we are one with furry creatures in an animistic, psychological relationship.

Presented by models like Briana Michelle and Cherokee Jack with close, ancestral ties to the land, we are all invited to pay our respects to cultures and a biosystem eons older than the prevailing patriarchal, white-man’s so-called Christian vision of dominance over the the earth and its peoples.

AOC isn’t suggesting that all references to indigenous cultures belong to ‘the good guys’.

Consider the Arizona man Jacob Chansley, known as the QAnon Shaman, who led an insurrection against the US Capitol on January 6. We must not be naive about men wearing big, furry hats with horns. They can kill you.

Adele Covers Two Continents: Here in American Vogue US November 2021 by Alasdair McLellan

Adele Covers Two Continents: Here in American Vogue US November 2021 by Alasdair McLellan AOC Fashion

On the British side of the Atlantic, Adele signals the return of va va voom dressing. Not only has Adele walked out of the shadows and into the light — but her new-found roar is heard on both sides of the Atlantic in the first-ever cover star collab between American Vogue and British Vogue.

In America, Adele is much more subdued, compared to her Steven Meisel images in British Vogue. She looks fabulous on the cover, wearing a green Valentino Haute Couture gown. Photographer Alasdair McLellan [IG] captures the star, who is styled by Tonne Goodman./ Hair by Frankie Boyd; makeup by Akki Shirakawa

Vogue writer Abby Aguirre catches up with Adele at Heart & Hustle, a private gym in West Hollywood.

We learn that Adele has been doing rigorous weight-lifting and circuit-training sessions every day for three years and counting. Sometimes, Adele works out twice in one day if her anxiety is running high. The world agrees on very little at this point, and women who lose weight are slammed regularly on social media for betraying the sisterhood and our core argument that all bodies are beautiful.

Marcin Tyszka Flashes Magic Powers 'Flora & Fauna' for Harper's Bazaar Germany November 2021

Marcin Tyszka Flashes Magic Powers 'Flora & Fauna' for Harper's Bazaar Germany November 2021 AOC Fashion

Model Silje Lorentzen plunges into what is presented as a surreal world of ‘Flora & Fauna!’, but is it? Kerstin Schneider styles Lorentzen in fantastical patterns and prints from Alaia, Alexander McQueen, Dior, N21 by Alessandro Dell’Acqua, Max Mara, Richard Quinn, Tory Burch, Undercover and more.

Photographer Marcin Tyszka [IG] captures the artistry for Harper’s Bazaar Germany November 2021 issue / Hair by Emil Zed

There’s no arguing that the mushroom props are fantastical. But after further exploration of Stella McCartney’s Spring 2022 collection — also inspired by mushrooms — the facts of fungi may set us free in the real world.

Travis Scott by Joshua Woods Talks Dior Men's Cactus Jack x Dior, Cactus Jack Foundation

Travis Scott by Joshua Woods Talks Dior Men's Cactus Jack x Dior, Cactus Jack Foundation AOC Fashion

American rapper Travis Scott is a very busy man. These images of Travis Scott lensed by Joshua Woods [IG] for Another Magazine’s Fall/Winter 2021 issue showcase clothes that he designed in collaboration with Dior’s Men’s Kim Jones for Spring 2022. Ellie Grace Cumming styles Scott with art direction by Marc Ascoli. / Hair by Mideyah Parker

Speaking to Emma Hope Allwood, Scott and Jones discuss their deep-rooted, far-reaching collaboration.

Travis Scott is the first celebrity since Michael Jordan in 1992 to create a McDonald’s meal. Scott’s creative collective Cactus Jack encompasses a record label, a publishing arm and an array of merchandise with graphics devised by him.