Levi Strauss & Co Partners with Pakistan's Artistic Milliners Organic Cotton Production

Levi Strauss & Co Partners with Pakistan's Artistic Milliners Organic Cotton Production

Denim giant Levi Strauss & Co is now sourcing organic cotton directly from farmers in Pakistan as part of its membership of the Organic Cotton Accelerator (OCA) initiative.

Levi's is sourcing the organic cotton through Pakistan-based denim mill Artistic Milliners' Organic programme which involves 2,000 cotton farmers in the Kohlu region of Baluchistan.

The vast majority of cotton farmers and pickers are women, and the focus of Artistic Milliners is female empowerment. Founded in 1949 with a small factory of 22 women, the company now has a workforce of 18,000 employeess.

Read More

Activists Anya Taylor-Joy, Yara Shahidi Dior Forever Foundation Campaign 2023

Activists Anya Taylor-Joy, Yara Shahidi Dior Forever Foundation Campaign 2023

“Black-ish” and spinoff “Grown-ish” actor Yara Shahidi has exciting news. She will be joining American Ballet Theater principal ballet dancer Misty Copeland in Abu Dhabi for the Know Your Value and Forbes Magazine second annual 2023 Forbes 30/50 Summit, running concurrently with International Women’s Day from March 7-10.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is headlining the 2023 Forbes 30/50 Summit, that is organized by Huma Abedin, vice chair of the 30/50 Summit, along with Forbes editor Maggie McGrath and “Morning Joe” co-host, and founder of Know Your Value Mika Brzezinski.

Anya Taylor-Joy was named to the Forbes Europe 30 Under 30 List in 2019. She was honored last November by Harper’s Bazaar UK in their 2022 Women of the Year Awards.

Read More

Dior Beauty Mitzah Collection, Simone de Beauvoir and Animal Prints: Tensions in Women's History

Dior Beauty Mitzah Collection, Simone de Beauvoir and Animal Prints: Tensions in Women's History

No one has been more committed to use her fashion shows platform to tell women’s stories than Maria Grazia Chiuri.

Dior ambassador Anya Taylor-Joy has a life-long passion and fascination with animals. The star adores animal prints, making her the perfect face for Dior Beauty’s Dior Mitzah collection.

Christian Dior’s original muse Mitzah Bricard inspired him to recognize the leopard print as a reputable trend.

Mitzah’s advice was: “When a man wants to send you flowers, always say — ‘my florist is Cartier.’” “Madame Bricard is one of the rare people for whom elegance is their sole reason for living,” wrote Dior.

Simone de Beauvoir’s ‘The Second Sex’ was published in 1949, when the French existentialist philosopher, social theorist and feminist activist was age 41.

The lifelong partner and lover of Jean Paul Sartre wrote a piece for Vogue in 1947, arguing that “Femininity is a Trap”. Dior’s Chiuri used the 1947 statement in her Pre-Fall 2022 show.

Read More

Raquel Zimmermann by Ancestral Voices in Robin Galiegue Images for TTA21

Raquel Zimmermann by Ancestral Voices in Robin Galiegue Images for TTA21

Top model and ceramic artist Raquel Zimmermann is a fashion and culture focus for The Travel Almanac FW2022 issue. Clare Byrne styles the restrained, modest fashion silhouettes with Bottega Veneta on the cover.

The organic sensuality of Raquel Zimmermann’s ceramics is almost visceral to AOC eyes. There are artists and talents who are very focused on outward visualization, while others channel the unconscious mind and ancestral voices, compelled to go deeper into the human experience in a universal way.

Read More

Jessica Chastain in 'The Good Fight' Lensed by Jessica Chou for Marie Claire Holiday

Jessica Chastain in 'The Good Fight' Lensed by Jessica Chou for Marie Claire Holiday

With her own company behind the Showtime miniseries ‘George & Tammy’, out now, Chastain was determined to give her “Stand By Your Man’ country singer “main character energy.”

The actor takes issue with the idea that Tammy Wynette was a doormat, reminding us that Wynette was married five times.

The male character of George Jones is played by Michael Shannon, who has an excellent relationship with Chastain.

As scripted, the scene went something like:

DON (picture a pencil neck with an ego): You're going to fuck my wife, aren't you, George?

GEORGE (Michael Shannon): Yes, I'm going to fuck her.

"[Michael] changed the line from, 'Yes, I'm going to fuck her'—excuse the language—to, 'I sure would like to," Chastain remembers. "The second he said, 'I sure would like to,' it was like, 'Oh, yes, this is happening. Because he sees her as someone who gets to make the decision. And that's working with an actor who's very aware he doesn't own me." Another perk of being producer? You get to pick your scenemates. "We were so in tune with one another," says Shannon, who first met Chastain on the set of 2011's Take Shelter. "The notion of sitting in front of another man and looking at a woman and proclaiming that you're going to fuck her, seems a little neanderthal to me. I mean, if I was the woman in question, I wouldn't enjoy that so much."

Read More

Benjamin Franklin's Abortion Recipe Math Book Would Be Banned in Today's Red America

Benjamin Franklin's Abortion Recipe Math Book Would Be Banned in Today's Red America

For my international friends, Benjamin Franklin was an original drafter and signatory of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. The French adored him.

AOC is not making a joke of Benjamin Franklin’s beliefs. But to be lied to day after day by the pro-birthers, that abortion was not widely-practiced and legal in America insults our intelligence.

Read More

Karlie Kloss Has Grand Plans for Life Purpose: Teaching Girls to Code and PIE

Karlie Kloss Covers WSJ Magazine December/January 2022 Digital by Ethan James Green AOC Fashion

Supermodel, philanthropist, new mom and — adoring, best- buddy wife to Joshua Kushner — Karlie Kloss covers the December/January digital covers of WSJ Magazine. Who better than Karlie Kloss to launch the new year of 2022 in these turbulent times.

Karlie is styled by Charlotte Collet in images by Ethan James Green for Inside Karlie Kloss’s New Life. In Karlie’s own words: “I wanted to change how I was using my job and my platform as a model.”

Elisa Lipsky-Karasz conducts the interview, which is rich in new thinking about the modeling industry and Karlie’s desire to transform herself yet again by switching modeling agencies, joining The Society, which also represents Amber Valletta, Adut Akech and personalities such as musician Willow Smith and reality star–turned-model Kendall Jenner.

“I wanted to change how I was using my job and my platform as a model.”

Karlie Kloss Investments

Kloss has invested in W Magazine, as well as in companies including Therabody, a wellness via technology leader; Mirror, the New York-based startup known for selling interactive workout mirrors, with Lulelemon also an investor; and Reformation, the sustainable fashion brand that had a rocky 2020 in a post-George Floyd world.

Accusations of “traumatizing” racism from staff members and store management against Yael Aflalo, who founded Reformation in 2009, created deep division around the Reformation brand and general public resulting in Aflalo stepping down from her CEO role in June 2020.

Karlie Kloss Activist and Philanthropist

Kloss now works with Greg Propper, the co-founder of Propper Daley, a strategic social-impact and consulting agency that advises brands and philanthropists, including stars like John Legend.

Their joint objective is to develop Karlie and other clients as forces for progressive social change.

Through Propper, Kloss is now connected to philanthropies such as New Profit, an organization that puts together venture philanthropy funds—essentially donations that are granted to social-impact entrepreneurs.

I’m somebody who is not formally educated. I am a student of life.”

Karlie has openly discussed the reality that because she was scooped up at a young age into the modeling industry, she is not formally educated.

Today the superstar is working with New Profit on an ambitious new initiative, the Postsecondary Innovation for Equity (PIE), that creates career pathways for nontraditional job candidates via investments in organizations that provide skills training and mentorships. Kloss can relate: “I’m somebody who is not formally educated. I am a student of life.”

Kode With Klossy

AOC has followed the full trajectory of Kloss’s career and social activism, including her Kode With Klossy project —a program Kloss launched in 2015 offering free computer coding camps to female-identifying and nonbinary 13- to 18-year-olds.

This summer 2021, Kode With Klossy awarded 3,000 scholarships to students from 70 countries, and Karlie’s working to expand it further. “It is all interwoven… [even though] to somebody on the outside it might not make sense,” Kloss tells WSJ Magazine.

15 Years of of Karlie Kloss news and modeling work can be found in our extensive Karlie Kloss’ AOC Archives. And we pull out Karlie’s Kode with Karlie organization, whose work with girls in STEM benefits the entire world. There are Twitter activists and then there is Karlie Kloss.

Like her mentor Christy Turlington, Karlie Kloss puts a capital ‘A’ on the word activism. To think that Karlie moved from 20 scholarships when she launched in New York in summer 2015 to over 3000 scholarships in 2021 is a tribute to women who get things done.

Yes, Kode With Klossy, along with the Malala Fund, was honored by Apple on International Women’s Day 2020.

Starbucks COO Rosalind Brewer Becomes CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance

Starbucks COO Rosalind Brewer Becomes CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance

Former COO of Starbucks Rosalind ‘Roz’ Brewer will become the new chief executive officer of Walgreens Boots Alliance, making her the only Black woman to lead a Fortune 500 company. In December 2020, Catalyst reviewed women holding CEO positions on the S&P 500 list.

The Detroit native is a graduate of Spelman College and was elected in 2006 to the college’s Board of Trustees. Brewer has advanced studies degrees from the Advanced Management Program of The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of the Director’s College at the University of Chicago/Stanford School of Law.

The pre-Starbucks CEO and President of Sam’s Club, owned by Walmart, Brewer arrives at Walgreens at a time when the Walgreens partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is “off to a rocky start”, writes WWD.

Read More

Ethan James Green Captures 'We Are Family' Life-Loving Women in Fendi for Vogue Italia

Ethan James Green Captures 'We Are Family' Life-Loving Women in Fendi for Vogue Italia

Models Alva Claire, Ashley Graham, Jill Kortleve and Paloma Elsesser convened in September in Milan to be part of the Fendi show. The quartet then joined forces at a later date to discuss big and small conquests in the battle for body positivity, interviewed by Michele Fossi (IG) for Vogue Italia’s December 2020 issue.

Patti Wilson styles the four beauties in the ‘We Are Family’ Fendi tribute for images by Ethan James Green.(IG). Hair by Jimmy Paul; makeup by Dick Page

Harry Styles' Vogue Cover by Tyler Mitchell Creates Second Issue Run, 40,000 New Subscriptions

Harry Styles by Tyler Mitchell Vogue US Dec 2020 (6).jpeg

Harry Styles' Vogue Cover by Tyler Mitchell Creates Second Issue Run, 40,000 New Subscriptions

English singer, songwriter and actor Harry Styles is partial to gender-bending attire, much as Mick Jagger, Kurt Kobain and David Bowie were back in the day. We’re talking 50 years ago.

For people of a certain age Harry Styles being the first man to go solo on Vogue’s December cover — or any American Vogue cover — was not worthy of breaking the Internet. Wrong.

Harry Styles is considered to be a fashion provocateur, given his status as major muse to Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele. For fashionistas, Harry Styles wearing a dress or two for Vogue was not a big deal, but even Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez felt compelled to come to his defense.

“Perhaps for some people it provokes some anger or insecurity around masculinity/femininity/etc. If it does, then maybe that’s part of the point. Sit with that reaction and think about it, examine it, explore it, engage it, and grow with it, “ the all-knowing beyond her years, pundit-politico advised Twitter-world.

In fact, the Harry Styles interview with Vogue’s Hamish Bowles is quite good, so read it. Camilla Nickerson styles the shoot with images by Tyler Mitchell. Move onto Vogue to see the product credits and read Playtime With Harry Styles’.

“Clothes are there to have fun with and experiment with and play with. What’s really exciting is that all of these lines are just kind of crumbling away,” Styles says. “There’s so much joy to be had in playing with clothes. I’ve never really thought too much about what it means—it just becomes this extended part of creating something.”

Christy Turlington Burns Talks Activism, Maternal Health with T Style Magazine Singapore

Christy Turlington Burns Talks Activism, Maternal Health with T Style Magazine Singapore

Supermodel Christy Turlington covers the April 2020 issue of New York Times Style Magazine Singapore, styled by Jack Wang and Jumius Wong in Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta, Givenchy, Saint Laurent, Salvatore Ferragamo and more. Photographer Chris Colls is behind the lens, with Renée Batchelor conducting the interview: Christy Turlington Burns Finds Her Voice.

Charlee Fraser Probes Road to 'Nirvana' by Txema Yeste for Numéro France #122 April 2020

Charlee Fraser Probes Road to 'Nirvana' by Txema Yeste for Numéro France #122 April 2020

Top model Charlee Fraser — who is having a terrific fashion season — is styled by Bernat Buscato in ‘Nirvana’. The vivid imagery by Txema Yeste makes a splendid impression and a feast for the eyes in Numéro #122 April 2020. / Hair by Jordi Fontanals; makeup by Victor Alvarez

Hinduism is rich in symbolism and the color blue — especially in one’s skin— is a symbol of the infinite and immeasurable. Many gods in India are shown as blue-skinned. They include Shiva, Krishna, Rama and more. They are referenced as blue gods because they have attained a blue aura.

I’m not keen on commenting on fashion editorials without having been part of the convo around their creation. I’ve actually had some real run-ins with men in India’s Hindu community over fashion editorials they consider to be blasphemous. These total right-wing nationalists love Donald Trump, so that’s telling you everything you need to know. Women have no real relevance in their world view, and they burned effigies of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Cate Blanchett Talks Phyllis Schlafly and Producing 'Mrs. America' for Harper's Bazaar UK

Cate Blanchett Talks Phyllis Schlafly and Producing 'Mrs. America' for Harper's Bazaar UK

Australian actor Cate Blanchett covers the December 2019 Harper’s Bazaar UK ‘Women of the Year’ issue, dressed exclusively in Armani Privé . Blanchett is lensed by Tom Munro and interviewed by Lydia Slater about her work as a “powerful advocate for the rights of women around the world, be they underrepresented film-makers or refugee mothers.”

Read More

Fresh Drive To Close Gaps on Health Issues Facing Africa's Women and Girls

Fresh Drive To Close Gaps on Health Issues Facing Africa's Women and Girls

In Africa today women still die needlessly during childbirth. They also fall pregnant when they aren’t ready, and don’t want to get pregnant. And there are still many obstacles on their path to living full and fulfilled lives.

Sexual and reproductive health and rights are fundamental to people’s health and survival, to economic development, and to the well-being of humanity. Several decades of research have shown that investment in sexual and reproductive health produces measurable benefits.

Governments have made major commitments to getting this right. But progress has been stymied because of weak political commitment, inadequate resources, persistent discrimination against women and girls, and an unwillingness to address issues related to sexuality openly and comprehensively.

This was the conclusion of a report on sexual and reproductive health produced last year by the global health research and policy organisation, Guttmacher Institute, and the academic journal, The Lancet.

A fresh effort is under way to close these persistent gaps. These are centre stage at a special summit in Nairobi being convened by the United Nations Population Fund along with the governments of Kenya and Denmark. Among those attending will be heads of state, ministers, parliamentarians, thought-leaders, technical experts, civil society organisations, grassroots organisations, and business and community leaders.

Read More

Valentina Sampaio Shoots Pink Campaign for Victoria's Secret, As Ed Razek Steps Down from L Brands

Valentina Sampaio Shoots Pink Campaign for Victoria's Secret, As Ed Razek Steps Down from L Brands

We have the welcome news that Victoria’s Secret Chief Marketing Officer Ed Razek has retired in the wake of growing fallout around Jeffrey Epstein’s connections to L Brands chief and major stockholder Les Wexner. The plot has thickened so deep that even I — who worked in the business for a decade and knew both men well — am waiting for the next shoe to drop.

Read More

Cate Blanchett Will Play Phyllis Schlafly In Nine-Part Series On FX 'Mrs. America'

Star actor Cate Blanchett is set to play the indefatigable anti-ERA activist Phyllis Schlafly. It remains one of the most astounding realities of modern life that one American constitutional lawyer. born in St. Louis, Missouri with a law degree from Washington University, a large family and conservative husband, hit the road and brought the Equal Rights Amendment to a grinding halt.

Arguing for traditional roles for women in American society, the self-described activist housewife Schlafly went to battle against Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, Shirley Chisholm, Bella Abzug and Jill Ruckelhaus. And she beat them.

Cate Blanchett is executive producing ‘Mrs. America’, in the upcoming limited nine-episodes series for FX, which is written and narrated through the lens of Schlafly’s feminist opponents. ‘Mrs. America’ is being written by Dahvi Waller, the Emmy-winning writer and producer of ‘Mad Men’, another show deeply rooted in evolving gender dyhamics in 20th century America.

"I am extremely excited about delving into the material as there couldn’t be a more appropriate time to peel back the layers of this recent period of history, which couldn’t be more relevant today," Blanchett said in a statement.

As Saudi Women Activists Suffer Horrific Torture, Kingdom Puts Women In Cockpits + Main Cabin

YASMINE AL-MAYMANY IS AMONG THE CERTIFIED SAUDI WOMEN PILOTS WHO TOLD ALARABIA IN AUGUST 2018 THAT SHE HOPED TO SOON BE IN THE COCKPIT WITH A JOB SANCTIONED BY THE SAUDI GENERAL AUTHORITY OF CIVIL AVIATION.

As Saudi Women Activists Suffer Horrific Torture, Kingdom Puts Women In Cockpits + Main Cabin

The kingdom of Saudi Arabia is promising to not only put women in the cockpit as co-pilots but to train them as flight attendants as well. In January, 2018 Eqbal Darandari, a member of the Saudi Shura Council, called on national airlines to empower women by creating jobs. “We’ve seen Saudi women piloting aircraft outside the kingdom. Now it’s time for [Saudi Arabia’s aviation authority] to take the initiative. Saudi women deserve to find work in their own country,” he said at the time. 

The magazine’s website writes that Flynas will also hire women as co-pilots. “The move aims to enable Saudi women to have a greater role in supporting the Kingdom’s economy,” stated Bander Al-Mohanna, CEO of Flynas.

This is good news for Saudi women, but what about the important voices of resistance in Saudi Arabia?

Those arrested included Loujain Alhathloul, a leading figure in the movement to lift the driving ban; and Samar Badawi, an internationally recognized campaigner against Saudi Arabia’s discriminatory male guardianship system, under which women require the permission of a male relative to travel, marry, or work in certain jobs.

Samar is the sister of liberal blogger Raif Badawi, who in 2015 was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for his writings and languishes in a Saudi prison.

Will Jailed Saudi Women Who Led Driving Campaign Also Get a Vogue Arabia Feature?

Will Vogue Arabia's June 2018 Celebration Of Saudi Women Speak To Current Arrests & Imprisonment Of Saudi Women Who Led Driving Campaign?

Vogue Arabia's June 2018 issue celebrates the TRAILBLAZING women of SAUDI ARABIA, featuring HRH Princess Hayfa bint Abdullah Al Saud on its cover. The image is meant to celebrate the and of the Saudi kingdom's ban on women driving that will take effect on June 24, applying to women of all nationalities. 

The entire June 2018 issue of Vogue Arabia will be dedicated to Saudi Arabia. HRH Hayfa bint Abdullah Al Saud, an artist, mother of three and the daughter of the late King Abdullah, who was the ruler of Saudi from 2005 until his death in 2015, sits behind the wheel of a vintage red 1980s Mercedes 450 SL, making it clear that she will join the new movement of Saudi women drivers.

Boo George shot the cover in the desert outside Jeddah.

There is a negative side to the celebrations around the new women drivers campaign in Saudi Arabia. In what feels like a giant contradiction to the new freedoms for Saudi women, the activists who made the movement happen are being arrested. 

Over the past two weeks, about 13 women's rights activists have been arrested. Including Loujain al-Hathloul, an activist with a large social media presence; Eman al-Nafjan, a blogger and activist; and Aisha al-Manea, a veteran driving activist. All three women were public leaders of the campaign, which AOC has long supported.

Conservative Writer Kevin Williamson's Call For Lynching Women Who Have Abortions Ends Gig At The Atlantic

Conservative Writer Kevin Williamson's Call For Lynching Women Who Have Abortions Ends Gig At The Atlantic

Large numbers of liberals -- progressives with an open mind -- really do want to hear and read intelligent dissent from the opposition. But when in-the-know folks learned that conservative writer Kevin Williamson had been hired by The Atlantic, there were gasps.

I -- for one -- am not keen to read anti-abortion views calling for the mass lynching of women who have abortions, a public stance Williamson has taken more than once. 

Conservative pundits went crazy, arguing that contrary opinions were being silenced in liberal media. I left a comment on The Washington Post in their article Kevin Williamson loses Atlantic job after controversy over abortion rhetoric:

Read More