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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ye [then Kanye West] was in Russia in 2016

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sabyasachi Mukherjee Shares Sabyasachi Jewellery Story in Vogue Arabia March 2022

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Related: Vogue India: The Sari Holds Our Secrets

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

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

Related Reading at Anne of Carversville

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

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

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

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

For Indian Women Historically: Body and Sari Are Inseparable

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cara Delevingne Activist Talent Fronts 7 For All Mankind Spring Summer 2022 Campaign

Cara Delevingne Activist Talent Fronts 7 For All Mankind Spring Summer 2022 Campaign AOC Fashion

7 For All Mankind premium denim brand joins forces with British actor, activist, entrepreneur, philanthropist and model Cara Delevingne for its Spring Summer 2022 campaign.

“Denim is a fantastic, enduring style statement and an essential part of how I express my style,” says Delevingne.

7 For All Mankind Sustainability Update

The brand maintains an extensive website update on their progress in sustainability, with the stated goal that 80% of 7 For All Mankind products will have sustainable properties by 2023. Note that AOC hates this statement, because it can be interpreted quite loosely. Other premium denim brands that AOC covers are further along on their sustainability mission. However, honesty is the best policy in this journey and 7 For All Mankind appears direct and honest about what they have achieved and what they haven’t in their newest update.

Cara Delevingne and the Cara Delevingne Foundation

Cara Delevingne has an extensive list of activist and philanthropy projects. Cara and her friend Christabel Reed have launched a powerful campaign to end climate change called EcoResolution. The website is impressive.

In a current project the actor will play a daredevil climber in ‘The Climb’, the story of six ordinary women who join a Greenpeace-led protest against Shell Oil’s plans to drill in the Arctic. The activists climbed the Shard, the tapered glass tower next to London Bridge station in 2013. The Shard remains remains the tallest building in the UK and the seventh-tallest building in Europe. Read the original story on The Guardian and a pic of the Shard climbers on Greenpeace UK Twitter.

Also related to the environment and saving our planet is Project Zero. Cara has created unique designs and content for Project Zero to help raise funds and awareness for the ocean.

She is actively involved in the Elton John AIDS Foundation to fund “frontline partners to prevent infections, fight stigma and provide treatment with love, compassion and dignity for the most vulnerable groups affected by HIV around the world”.

In the case of Cara Delevingne, the activism list goes on and on. Read more: Cara Delevingne Activist Talent Fronts 7 For All Mankind Spring Summer 2022 Campaign

Charles Dennington's 'Natural Phenomenon' and a Plantiful Plea for Fashion Symbiosis

Charles Dennington's 'Natural Phenomenon' and a Plantiful Plea for Fashion Symbiosis AOC Fashion

Models Ploy Rida & Yixin Zhao capture our reflective style selves in ‘Natural Phenomenon’, styled by Melissa Levy. Photographer Charles Dennington [IG] flashes the fashion designed to mimic the colours, textures, vibrant movement and hues of nature. / Hair by Rory Rice; makeup by Isabella Schimid