Rising Chinese model Yilhan Hua fronted the Valentino 520 Campaign 2025. Francesca Cefis styled the young woman considered to be a future fashion superstar in images by Liv Liberg [IG].
Standing at 5’11” tall, Hua very much represents modern women in China: accomplished women who aren’t in any hurry to get married.
Many women are choosing to prioritize education and careers over traditional marriage and motherhood, and they are also contributing significantly to China's economy through their spending power. Read the details.
Today we return to Mesopotamia, asking about the rise of courtesans. Was it a worldwide role for select women, a role crossing many different global cultures but with compatible definitions?
In Mesopotamia Temple priestesses, often referred to as "sacred prostitutes," were involved in religious rites, highlighting a blend of the sacred and the secular that involved sexual service as part of worship. . . These practices are mentioned in the Code of Hammurabi, which provides one of the earliest written references to women who engaged in such roles.
In Greece The concept of the courtesan emerged more distinctly in Greece. . . In India Ancient texts in India also offer early textual evidence of courtesans, with references in ancient texts such as the Arthashastra and the Kamasutra . . . In China The origins of courtesans can be traced back to the Zhou Dynasty, which lasted from approximately 1046 to 256 BC . . . In Italy The origins of courtesanship can be traced back to a complex interplay of social, economic, and cultural factors that emerged during the Renaissance.
In America Yes, there is a record of courtesans in America. But AOC needs to catch up with the facts. After reading about white women courtesans in urban cities like New York and Chicago, we queried the story in New Orleans.
The findings were borderline extraordinary, and we will explain in our next deep dive into red lips women.
German-Ukrainian photographer Alina Gross [IG] knows that for thousands of years, flowers have been used as divine symbols in art and literature. In other eras of significant censorship, flowers thrived as unspoken symbols of erotism and sensuality.
In ancient Egypt, the white lotus was considered the original sacred lotus, existing as a transcendent symbol of creation, fertility and rebirth in the continuous cycle of life.
Similarly, in Greek and Roman mythology, goddesses like Aphrodite and Venus were frequently depicted with roses and other flowers, chosen not only to enhance their beauty but also as symbols of divine allure and sexuality.
Luxury brand Versace has often taken its inspiration from Mediterranean mythology, particularly Greek mythology, as evidenced by its iconic Medusa logo.
Making Medusa the symbol of Versace was a daring act, deeply embedded in ancient history and the takedown of women by a rising patriarchy, who sought to control every aspect of women’s lives.
Like Lilith, Medusa was portrayed as demonic — and that was a purposeful act by the ancient-world men in charge.
Donatella Versace’s ongoing involvement with Versace as a brand ambassador, post Prada’s acquisition, is a living — not archived — critical resource. Medusa sits atop the Versace story, and we hope to hear from her soon.
In April 2022, Republican State Senator Lana Theis claimed in a campaign fundraising email that State Sen. Mallory McMorrow wanted to "groom and sexualize kindergartners." On April 19, 2022, McMorrow took to the senate floor to defend herself against Theis's accusations, stating:
"I am the biggest threat to your hollow, hateful scheme.”
This week State Sen. McMorrow announced her run for the open Michigan US Senate Seat created by the unexpected retirement of Democrat Senator Gary Peters.
AOC can’t imagine a better Michigan Senate candidate than the forceful, inspiring white-lady ballbreaker Mallory McMorrow, emerging as a tour de force political candidate against MAGA and for Michiganders. McMorrow is a Michigan-based nutcracker in the tradition of ‘Big Gretch’, Michigan Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer.
Platinum-level model, influencer, businesswoman, mother, writer and proud feminist Emily Ratajkowski is styled by Sandy Armeni in sharply-tailored menswear in classic colors. Photographer Cass Bird [IG] is behind the lens, creating strong images of the platinum-level lady ballbreaker.
Looking at Ratajkowski’s images with respect, I said to myself “Emrata is a platinum level ballbreaker!”
The Zara ‘Corporate Cosplay S/S 2025’ drop for H&M, lensed Carlijn Jacobs [IG] captures the sophisticated, powerful approach to corporate dressing very popular in the 1980s.
Post-2024 election analysis shows that the biggest gulf in American politics lies between white, college-degree women and non-college degree white men. Never has a canyon like this one been so extreme.
Testosterone-dominance is fundamental to the American experience, although women had made significant progress for decades in creating a wider platform for success. In 2025, with bro culture ascending again in America, our future is filled with peril.
We were then and still are called ballbreakers, a woman, whose character and behavior may be regarded as threatening a man's sense of power. AOC has called for the rising of True Grit Women, and we are fearless ballbreakers.
Contemporary ballbreakers include Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Gretchen Whitmer, Jasmine Crockett, and Nancy Pelosi. In my camp: WE NEED TO HUSTLE!
Maria Grazia Chiuri staged her Dior Cruise 2025 show in the gardens of Drummond Castle in Scotland, with bagpipes making the occasion. The winter Luxe issue of Grazia UK [IG] features top model Debra Shaw wearing key pieces from the Dior Cruise 2025 collection, lensed by Silvana Trevale [IG] at the Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire, Scotland.
Dior’s Maria Grazia Chiuri Always Finds the Unique Makers for Her Collections
In fashion we concentrate so much on shape Grazia said, but textiles are a big part of our job—what you can do with them, and the changes you can make through them.” So, Chiuri went to the traditional—the tartan and cashmeres, the tweeds and the Argyles—and deftly filtered them into a collection which variously drew on the geopolitics of fabrics.
Chiuri’s collection and brief history lesson took AOC on a breakthrough journey into the history of women in Scotland and beyond. Anne never intended to land in a deep-dive into the Middle Ages. In fact, that’s exactly where our Gleneagles Defender landed.
Actor Miriam Leone covers Vogue Italia’s[IG] February 2025 issue, styled in the total Prada cover by Elena Mottola, lensed by Maciek Pozoga [IG].
Oriana Fallaci: The World’s Fearless Journalist
The early years of Oriana Falluci’s career, the late 1950s, when she was still called "the girl from the movies" working for ‘L'Europeo’ are not exposed widely in Italy or globally. This history is the focus of ‘Miss Fallaci Takes America’.
The idea for the TV series grew out of Italian/British writer director Alessandra Gonnella’s short film ‘A Cup of Coffee with Marilyn’, filmed in London in 2019. That short was based on the true story about a young Oriana Fallaci, living in America and chasing Marilyn Monroe for an interview in the 50s. The short film received wide exposure and recognition, especially in Italy where it was awarded the best fiction short film prize in 2020 by the Italian Union of Film Critics.
W Magazine China’s [IG] end of year ‘The Great Performance Issue’ reports that American actor and producer Jessica Chastain is affectionately known as ‘Lady Model Worker’ by her Chinese audience. Widely-respected for her dedication to advancing projects with feminist themes, Chastain is surely touched by her Chinese moniker.
Chastain’s Oscar for ‘The Eyes of Tammy Faye’
W China honors Chastain’s 20 years in the spotlight and over 70 film, TV and stage credits. She took home a Best Actress 94th Oscar [2022] for ‘‘The Eyes of Tammy Faye’. Listening to her acceptance speech takes us into the mind, heart and values of Jessica Chastain, who is very comfortable speaking to her own challenging roots in America, as well as the women in her family who have been her rock.
Models Yasmin Wijnaldum and He Cong, as well as actor Clément Chabernaud, join new Moncler ambassadorWorld Cup champion slalom skier Lucas Pinheiro Braathen in the brand’s winter 2024/25 campaign. Photographer Mario Sorrenti [IG] shot the campaign after the impressive fall 2024 fashion show held last February in Saint Moritz at the Clavadatsch lodge and its forest.
The astonishingly grounded and successful supermodel activist, humanitarian, wife and mother, philanthropist, investor, and hands-on businesswoman Karlie Kloss covers the December 2024 issue of ELLE España [IG].
The Carolina Herrera ‘Good Girl’ ambassador is styled by Bárbara Garralda in three ELLE covers and a fashion story for the Carolina Herrera brand. Photographer Xavi Gordo [IG] captures the perfectly elegant looks for the holidays and resort getaways, as AOC dives into an examination of a Kloss-Herrera alliance that’s worth a Harvard Business School case study.
@KodeWithKlossy
The successful relationship between Karlie Kloss and Carolina Herrera the brand and their Good Girl fragrance is a thriving business/personal activist relationship founded in 2018.
Karlie’s philanthropy is centered around @KodeWithKlossy — her 2015-launched, summer camp initiative teaching teen girls ages 13-18 to code.
Karlie Kloss and Reproductive Freedom
Today Karlie’s fight is not at all glamorous, as she increases her activism around women’s health access. Kloss chooses carefully her partners in activism in ways that do no harm to Carolina Herrera.
Those partners include Melinda Gates and her daughter Phoebe Gates.
Dior’s 2025 cruise collection now comes to life in a new ad campaign lensed by Brigitte Niedermair [IG]. Models include Ali Dansky, Jiali Zhao, Sanija Dalecka and Tanya Churbanova, styled by Elin Svahn. Ryan Chappell provides choreography with Alice Schillaci as director./ Hair by Eugene Souleiman; makeup by Peter Philips
Anne has written extensive political commentary about Dior’s thriving brand relationship with women worldwide under Maria Grazia Chiuri and the criticism of her by our industry’s fashion mafia sideliners. The original article link in this post takes you to Anne’s analysis.
Models Lucy Rosiek and Naomi Apajok are styled by Glen Mban in ‘Red Kisses’, lensed by Johan Sandberg [IG] for Vogue Greece [IG] October.
Red Lipstick In Ancient Mesopotamia
In the annals of ancient history, the use of red lipstick finds one of its earliest origins in Mesopotamia, a cradle of civilization that flourished in the regions of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The people of ancient Mesopotamia, notably the Sumerians and later the Assyrians and Babylonians, were among the first to transform the act of adorning one's lips into an art form.
Lip Color and the Divine Feminine
Beyond social stratification, lip color also conveyed aspects of femininity and allure, playing a role in rituals and rites associated with love and attraction. The divine feminine was celebrated in Babylonian mythology, where goddesses were revered for their beauty and grace; by adorning themselves with lip color, women could symbolically align themselves with these powerful deities.
Dior’s creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri was recently called the most modern couturier working today by Vogue’s Nicole Phelps.
In trying to explain her ‘design ethos’, while unintentionally drawing a line in the sand between herself and Christian Dior, Chiuri explained further. “Couture has historically been about ‘building the body’ with its corset foundations and highly-structured silhouettes. But I don’t want to build the body, I want to release it.”
For her Fall 2024 collection, Chiuri turned to the Miss Dior boutique, opened in 1967 to showcase a separate ready-to-wear collection during the tenure of Marc Bohan.
The designer explained: “I think he was really visionary for the time because the couture house was in difficulty. They had this relationship only with these couture clients—and women were changing. Not all the couture-house creative directors were so visionary to understand the new era, and new women.”
Deauville, a charming seaside town in Normandy, France, holds a special place in the history of fashion as the birthplace of modern Chanel fashion. It was here in 1913 that Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel opened her first boutique outside Paris. Deauville's affluent visitors and relaxed atmosphere provided the perfect backdrop for Chanel to revolutionize women's fashion.
Coco Chanel introduced a new aesthetic that embraced simplicity, comfort, and elegance — with menswear and the lives of men being a key psychological component in Chanel’s approach to fashion design for ‘liberated’, wealthy women.
Leisure as a signature of wealth surrounded Coco in her observations of Deauville's elite vacationers.
Vogue Philippines July 2024 covergirl Bianca Bustamante has been burning rubber since age three, when she did laps in a go-kart under the watchful eye of her motorsport-obsessed father.
Today, Bustamante is on Louis Vuitton’s radar, sponsor of the Vogue Phillipines cover story styled by Caterina Ospina, working with fashion director Pam Quiñones.
In the cover image, Bianca stands in front of the legendary McLaren MP4/8, the car Brazilian champion Ayrton Senna drove during his 41st and final Formula One career victory.
Photographer Sharif Hamza [IG] was thrilled to take his camera to the Bustamante fashion shoot, writing on IG: “As a long-time F1 fan, this was one of the most exhilarating shoot days I’ve ever experienced.”
Mother-Nature, Gaia, Terra Mater, the “cult of the feminine” is center stage in the May 2024 issue of Vogue Portugal, writes Sofia Lucas.
The editorial issue overview opens with a quote from Aristotle:
“In all things of nature, there is something of the marvelous” - Aristotle
As educated women, we do not bow down to Aristotle, for clear and concise reasons.
There’s no record that Aristotle, the great philosopher and foundational contributor to Western civilization, saw significant value in women. He argued quite the opposite, and AOC contends that Aristotle was a creator of the misogyny and not merely reflecting his time in history.
The Louis Vuitton Leather Goods Campaign Spring-Summer 2024 returns to the high seas with an extension of their Louis Vuitton Nautical Summer Capsule that focuses on Vuitton’s best handbags.
Lensed by Ethan James Green [IG] against the ancient backdrop of Mediterranean world waters, the campaign steps into AOC’s earlier Louis Vuitton Nautical campaign discussion of women in the world of Olympic sailing.
Today models Chu Wong, Ida Heiner and Sacha Quenby inspires a deeper question by AOC.
Did Women Sail in Ancient Waters?
Based on our best AI, Phoenician women were known to be skilled sailors who played a crucial role in the maritime trade network of the ancient world. These women were involved in various aspects of seafaring, including navigation, trading, and ship maintenance. Their expertise in sailing and trading helped establish Phoenicia as a dominant maritime power in the Mediterranean.
The scarcity of direct historical records makes it difficult to paint a complete picture, yet through the analysis of artifacts, writings by ancient historians, and mythological tales, we begin to see indications of women's participation.
