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Because they are independent current and former Amazon workers, the ALU leadership is not bound by an old-school union rule book. Additionally, these organizers know Amazon inside out — exactly how Amazon operates.
Read MoreCompared to other countries in Africa, Gabon has one of the lowest human population densities, and the 90% majority of people live in towns and cities. Researchers estimate that there may be one elephant for every twenty humans living in Gabon.
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How Emma Raducanu Won the Fashion World Over in 2021 . . . While Women's Tennis Shakes AOC Fashion
Before 2021, not even the most ardent of tennis fans would recognize the name of British star Emma Raducanu. Today, she’s far more than a sports celebrity, catching the eye of the red carpet press at events around the world.
The 18-year-old from Kent arrived in New York for the late August-early September US Open tennis tournament, having already captured hearts at Wimbledon, as the first British woman in 42 years to get to the fourth round.
Bets weren’t being placed that Raducanu would win the US Open, even though she was wearing lots of public good will on her back. And then lightening struck in tennis world. Days later publicist Mark Borkowski said Raducanu was poised to become “a billion-dollar girl”, scoring a raft of sponsorship deals.
“I think Emma will earn well over $100 million [in the next calendar year]. She’ll eclipse all the men,” said Jonathan Shalit, the chairman of InterTalent Group, a London-based talent management agency.
LOEWE X On Performance Gear Collab Lensed by Grey Sorrenti with Camila Morrone, Duckwrth AOC Fashion
LOEWE links up with Swiss performance brand On for a collaboration that represents LOEWE’s first venture into a performance gear collab. Model Camila Morrone, still going strong with Leo DiCaprio since late 2017, and South LA rapper currently touring with Billie Eilish Duckwrth, front the campaign shot by Gray Sorrenti [IG] in Big Sur, California.
Although LOEWE has established a track record of capsule collections with artists, turning to superb craftsmanship and innovation from 12-year-old On marks a new direction.
Founded by Olivier Bernhard, a three-time World Duathlon Champion, and two fellow running enthusiasts, David Allemann and Caspar Coppetti, On launched with a clear technical vision and objective.
The co-founders saw an opportunity to create a radically different cushioning technology for running shoes, a large category that had not experienced much product innovation in recent years.
Swiss tennis player Roger Federer, who invested an undisclosed sum into On in 2019, has his own ‘The Roger’ On shoe.
The collab featured here is LOEWE’s riff on ON’s popular Cloudventure ($390) and Cloudrock ($450) shoes, both of which feature the Swiss brand’s trademarked rubber outsole and liquid-injected thermoplastic mid-soles. The result is a shoe that is visibly grippy, lightweight and supportive.
The unique patented cushioning system is activated only when you need it — during the landing. AOC doesn’t pretend to understand it, but the logic is attractive.
See the entire LOEWE X On Running collection here.
The 'Unstoppable' Precious Lee Covers ELLE US April 2022 by Adrienne Raquel AOC Fashion
Rising model star Precious Lee covers the April 2022 issue of ELLE US, styled by the legendary Patti Wilson in AZ Factory, Bad Binch, Balaclava, Bottega Veneta, Christian Cowan, Eric Javits, Maison Atia, Michael Kors Collection, Mônot, Moschino [cover], Sinéad O’Dwyer and more. Photographer Adrienne Raquel [IG] is behind the lens for ‘The Unstoppable Precious Lee’./ Hair by Evanie Frausto; makeup by Raoúl Alejandre
AOC has told the Precious Lee story several times now. We are well aware that the Atlanta beauty has continually resisted external expectations of what she can and cannot do. Her glorious family was not only behind her efforts but cultivated a home life centered around the good life.
Most likely a few Atlanta bluebloods would raise an eyebrow over her cosmetologist, hair-salons-owning father wearing Versace and “silk shirts unbuttoned with gold chains.” But in this interview with Alexis Okeowo and others, it’s clear that Lee’s family nurtured her enormous self-confidence and comfort level with being in the spotlight.
Lee admits that she hasn’t spoken to the fact that her sister Charisma died in a car accident when she was young. Checking a couple earlier articles, we haven’t talked about this tragic event in Lee’s young life.
“It was so much pain at that age from losing the brightest light,” Lee says. “I actually never talk about this in interviews, but it’s just really important to because I’m starting to realize and understand how transformative that age was for me in being able to tap into things that were creative as an outlet for healing for me.”
Precious Lee needs to develop this story in a TED Talk. It should inspire us all. Lee was no different than many young women about pursuing competitive cheerleading. I have to believe it’s even more competitive in the South. Precious Lee believes that mastering ‘healthy competition’ is key to success in the modern world.
Early in practice, the coach began organizing the physical structure of the cheerleading squad. She assigned Precious a base position, at the bottom of the pyramid, because of her height and size, leaving Lee hurt and confused. Today popular culture calls it a “micro-aggression” and people carry these perceived insults for years.
Precious Lee wasn’t having it. Read on to learn how Precious Lee carried the day. The 'Unstoppable' Precious Lee Covers ELLE US April 2022 by Adrienne Raquel AOC Fashion
Prior Precious Lee Interviews: Precious Lee by Tyler Mitchell Is Committed to Uplifting Us in i-D No. 363 Summer 2021 AOC Fashion
Georgia's Queen Precious Lee Delivers Self-Love Power Punch in Harper's Bazaar May Beauty Issue AOC Fashion
Stella McCartney's Mushroom Rich SS 2022 Campaign by Mert & Marcus AOC Fashion
The Stella McCartney brand, defined by its sustainability commitments and credentials, is now so firmly entrenched in the minds of luxury consumers, that we can look at her Spring-Summer 2022 campaign as pure fashion. Stella is more committed than ever to now cultivate a larger message of people’s relationship with nature.
Photographed by Mert & Marcus [IG], the creative entourage captures the new Stella McCartney campaign with supermodel Natalia Vodianova center stage. The fashion shoot happened at France’s Marqueyssac gardens, one of France's listed 'Jardins Remarquable' sitting high above the Dordogne river.
Additional photography from the Stella McCartney’s Spring 2022-Summer 2022 campaign took place at the Espace Niemeyer in Paris, the site of Stella’s runway show. “The space gives the sense of being in a mushroom cap, an iconic nod to Oscar Niemeyer’s artistic expression and openness,” says the Stella McCartney website.
Spring 2022 mushrooms, center stage at Stella McCartney’s runway show in fall.2021, got a fresh boost two weeks ago. Sarah Burton stepped into the mushrooms and mycelium creative romp with her post-Paris, mid-March Alexander McQueen Fall 2022 runway show in New York City.
The womanly synergy of Stella McCartney, Sara Burton and Gabriela Hearst leading the discussion around our relationship to nature and organic processes cannot be ignored.
Is sustainability primary a ‘woman’s thing’? The dynamic has changed in the last decade with women now much more likely than men to be green activists and financial contributors to environmental causes. Be sure to set Google search time parameters when exploring this topic, because the current data delivers very different results from total Google results.
Committed to making mycelium a big topic in fashion world, Stella works with mycologist and ‘Entangled Life’ author Merlin Sheldrake to host summer events paying homage to mushrooms. Activities include cooking sessions with globally renowned chefs, synthesizer music created from the sounds of fungi growing by Cosmo Sheldrake and this season’s hand-drawn print, emblazoned on luxury wallpaper by British heritage fabrics house Cole & Son.
Related: Stella McCartney's Spring 2022 Collection Hugs Shroom Power Sustainability AOC Fashion
The Times’ Vanessa Friedman is not entirely fair — or her memory failed her — when she wrote that sustainability finally made its full-throated entrance in the spring 2022 shows with Stella McCartney’s collection.
Friedman wrote: “Well, hello sustainability. Wondering when you’d show up.” The fashion industry expert must have slept through Gabriela Hearst’ Chloé show: Gabriela Hearst Takes Chloé to Bugatti Speed in Redefining Purpose for Luxury Brands
Within this creative atmosphere, the fashion crowd heard the voice of American mycologist and entrepreneur Paul Stamets, who is considered an intellectual and industry leader in everything associated with fungi. In only a few seconds, Stamets summed up the future of fashion with his admonition: “In fashion, mushrooms are the future.”
Cindy Bruna's Inner 'Joséphine' and Chaumet's Latest Jewelry Glamour AOC Fashion
The House of Chaumet, based in Paris, releases its latest Joséphine collection, channeling the French empress and wife of Napoleon Bonaparte. The explosive — and very modern, even by French standards — love affair between Napoleon and Josephine is often cited as the most documented love story in history.
Empress Joséphine was the first eminent client of Marie-Etienne Nitot, Chaumet's founder. Learning his art as an apprentice to Aubert, court jeweler to Queen Marie-Antoinette, Nitot moved to Paris in 1780. After surviving the French Revolution, he was appointed jeweler to Emperor Napoleon, tasked with making jewelry symbolizing the power that Napoleon wished to convey.
An 18th century aristocrat, Empress Joséphine cherished memories of life on tropical islands like Martinique, where she was born. As Empress, she reinvented the codes of fashion and taste, popularizing her own vision of elegance on Parisian society.
Annemarieke van Drimmelen Captures Cherokee Jack and Sam Mallos in WSJ Magazine AOC Fashion
WSJ Magazine shares this spring 2022 men’s fashion story featuring models Cherokee Jack and Sam Mallos. Photographer Annemarieke van Drimmelen and stylist Giovanni Dario Laudicina traveled to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where they shot the fashion story at El Rancho de las Golondrinas, or “the Ranch of the Swallows.”
This historic ranch, now a living history museum, dates from the early 1700s and was an important ‘paraje’ or stopping place along the famous ‘El Camino Real’, the Royal Road from Mexico City to Santa Fe.
Van Drimmelen [IG] has close ties to New Mexico, since her father moved there nearly 12 years ago. “The light is absolutely phenomenal—the way it reflects on the earth. It brings this amazing warmth,” she says, noting that these qualities once drew artists such as Georgia O’Keeffe to the area.
Both models looks quite spectacular in the WSJ Magazine photo shoot. AOC’s complimentary link takes you to WSJ to review the product credits.
Last year I had a totally visceral response to Cherokee Jack’s images by Richard Phibbs — his first ‘commercial’ shoot as an adult. He modeled as a child for years. Cherokee Jack by Richard Phibbs for Man of Metropolis | Minnesota History of Mankato Hangings AOC Fashion
The images caused me to reflect on our mutual Minnesota area upbringings, my writing a play about Minnesota statehood that was performed by my school, and the Mankato hangings — a devastating part of the heritage of my small Minnesota city that was unknown to me until then.
In trying to know more about the model, I learned a bit of agonizing Mankato, Minnesota history.
The people of Cherokee Nation call themselves the Aniyunwiya, which means ‘Principal People’. The Cherokee society is historically matrilineal, meaning clanship is passed through the mother. Among the Cherokees, women were considered the head of household, with the home and children belonging to her should she separate from her husband. Women had an equal voice in the affairs of the tribe.
In writing about Bella Hadid’s references to the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet Tuesday evening, I referenced the demise of warrior goddesses, an end to female power and influence that was in its final phase in fifth century Greece. That statement is historically correct about Europe and the rise of Christianity.
But in the ‘undiscovered’ Americas, advanced indigenous cultures flourished and women held significant power in tribal affairs, generally enjoying far more power than the white Christian women who arrived in the Americas.
Alessandra Ambrosio Poses in Dundas Designs for Vogue Scandinavia by Amar Daved 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.
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?
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.
“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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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
Read More“There is a word in South Africa — Ubuntu — a word that captures Mandela's greatest gift: his recognition that we are all bound together in ways that are invisible to the eye; that there is a oneness to humanity; that we achieve ourselves by sharing ourselves with others, and caring for those around us.”
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
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.
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