King Charles III, awaiting his coronation as king of the United Kingdom on May 6, 2023 at Westminster Abbey, was honored by TIME Magazine on their new TIME 100 Most Influential People 2023 list.
When the new annual list is released, the person chosen to write about the TIME 100 honoree, can be as interesting as the list itself.
The person introducing King Charles in the TIME 100 2023 issue is Edward Enninful, OBE, editor-in-chief of British Vogue and Vogue European editorial director. [OBE stands for Order of the British Empire.]
The high-achieving Enninful agrees that on the face of it, he grew up a young Black boy in Ladbroke Grove without understanding how intimately involved then Charles, Prince of Wales was with the Prince’s Trust. The charity had dramatic impact on the lives of Edward’s community, directed by the then Prince on many fronts.
Just as British Vogue’s EIC Edward Enninful seeks to humanize King Charles III in his commentary for the TIME 100, AOC was impacted by a story that broke last weekend by royal biographer Robert Jobson. As AOC drills deeply into the topic of mushrooms, mycelium, talking plants and future fabrics made of mushrooms and other natural materials, then Prince Charles pops up frequently in our research.
Mushrooms came to play a critical role in comforting King Charles in the final hours that would physically take his mother and Queen away from him.
Then Prince Charles returned to his estate at Birkhall for a walk in the woods, drawing emotional and psychological sustenance from the trees, the earth and the quiet sound of the River Muick. Charles made good use of himself, taking a wooden cane and a basket to forage for mushrooms along his walk.
Top model Edita Vilkeciviute is blessed to have a home in Ibiza, one featured in the July 2021 issue of Vogue Spain. We’re not clear if the top model swims in a natural pool on her property, but they are prevalent on the famous Spanish island in the Mediterranean.
In these images Edita poses in Mango swimwear from the 2023 spring/summer collection. The shoot takes place in San Andrés, Tenerife — part of Spain’s Canary Islands off the coast of southern Morocco and the disputed Western Sahara. Photographer Pepe Lobez [IG] captures the famous Lithuanian beauty — who is in high demand for sensual summer fashion stories and campaigns — styled by Rebeca Abad and Pili Álamo. Patricia Diaz Manzano provides the art direction.
A core way to experience the benefits of biophilia is through swimming, an activity that not only connects us with water, a vital element of nature, but also offers numerous physical and mental health benefits. Water is also key to Jungian psychology and the unconscious mind is symbolized by the vastness of the ocean and its crashing waves.
The partnership between Guerlain and UNESCO launched in early 2020, with the training of beekeepers with more than 50 hives based in Ethiopia, Rwanda, Cambodia and China. The five-year project has a goal of training 88 beekeepers from 44 biospheres maintaining 4.400 beehives, after which the partnership can be renewed.
In 2023, the program expanded to the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, in collaboration with the Fundación Selva Maya and Maroma, a Belmond Hotel.
To learn that the new LVMH Belmond Maroma Resort and Spa, re-opening August 3, 2023 is also a co-sponsor of the #WomenforBees project, gives Maroma a sense of purpose that has deep roots in ancient practices and traditions.
Reading Maroma’s IG description of its “place” is quite breathtaking and a tribute to LVMH’s approach to 21st century values in creating brand identity with real integrity and an embrace of ancient wisdom.
Maroma is a space of enchanting natural refinement, where ancient mysteries meet modern revelations. Our hotel is based on higher design—infinite and larger than the place itself. It was created originally by true believers of the Sacred Geometry, who aligned our white stucco buildings with the surrounding energy fields.
Understanding the respect that LVMH is giving to ancient wisdom and practices — writing about sacred geometry and the energy fields involved with the design of Maroma — had great impact on me, and I continue to process the many ways that LVMH is touching our lives in the world of luxury.
Almost like a fashion space rocket, China-based Shein [pronounced she-in, not shine] now owns almost a third (28 per cent) of America’s fast fashion market.
Few sustainability warriors saw it coming. And for all the convos about young people being passionate eco-conscious caretakers of our planet, at least in America, they have given a big hug to Shein.
In 2021, the Shein app became the most downloaded with over 17.5 million downloads across the Google Play and Apple stores.
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.
Loro Piana is also on an Italian grand tour in the cashmere brand’s Spring/Summer 2023 campaign.
Models Amar Akway, Mika Schneider, Rianne Van Rompaey and Leon Dame present an appetizer excursion of authentic Italian experiences that are in communion with nature, land and community.
Inez and Vinoodh [IG] capture the quartet, styled by Aleksandra Woroniecka./ Makeup by Lisa Butler; hair by Eugene Souleiman
Writing about Loro Piana’s Fall 2022 collection and campaign, AOC shared highly-specific information about a decade’s worth of the brand’s processes and control over its cashmere production.
‘Transparency’ is a stake in the ground among today’s cashmere brands, including less expensive but very well-run cashmere labels. There is no “Don’t worry, be happy, I’ve got this issue under control so you don’t have to worry” in today’s cashmere business.
The story of Armani Beauty’s ‘My Way’ journey to market is deeply rooted in the sustainability values of the younger generation, many of their boomer grandparents and conscientious consumers of every age.
Photographer Dario Catellani [IG] photographs Sydney Sweeney in the 2023 campaign. The Italian visionary is known for his deep attachment to nature — beautifully expressed in the Etro FW 2020/21 ‘We Are All One’ Campaign.
Reading more information about Armani Beauty on the L’Oreal website — L’Oreal holds the beauty license — claims and certifications about sustainability are monitored and validated by the Sustainable Product Optimization Tool (SPOT) developed in 2013 to measure social and environmental impacts.
Based on 14 key sustainability criteria, it covers the entire process from production to the end of the life cycle, including the purchase of raw materials and the product’s use by the consumer.
Spanish model Olivia Martin poses in Dior Beauty shots for the house’s core Miss Dior Fragrance.Lilly Marthe Ebener styles Martin in images by key Dior photographer Brigitte Niedermair.
Dior writes: “At Dior, we are dedicated to preserve biodiversity. For our Maison, this mission particularly resonates through our never-ending love of flowers. They are not only the beating heart of our creative vision, they are also the origin, present and future of beauty. In the context of COP 15, we are reminded ambitious actions are essential to preserve flowers from extinction.”
By 2030, 100% of Dior gardens and partner gardens will be operated in organic or regenerative agriculture. Additionally, Dior Beauty is committed to reducing their carbon emissions by 46% by 2030 in line with the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to +1.5°C.
Supermodel Elsa Hosk looks like she walked out of a 1950s movie, filmed in the south of France. Elsa is wearing tailored must-haves from her new Helsa Collection — created in the mood of Katharine Hepburn and lensed here by Yulia Gorbachenko [IG]
Writing about the debut of Helsa last August, I said: “Hosk is keeping this launch like a quiet ebb. The Scandi beauty has always stressed the importance of sustainability and it would be shocking if she doesn’t create sustainable products.”
Many of the Helsa pieces are made with Recover, a recycled, heavy-duty cotton. Bravo. I love Elsa Hosk with my whole heart, but sustainability is not a strong message in Helsa so far.
Janine Benyus and the Biomimicry movement are gaining enormous respect in the world of product innovation and design. The biometric path is simple and described in four steps: quieting human cleverness; listening to life’s genius; echoing what we learn; and giving thanks.
Partnering with Nature is an eyebrow-raising metaphor for super-rational human minds coming to grips with understanding that human brilliance in innovation and scientific discovery may also kill planet Earth.
Men [and fewer women] should be partnering with Nature, not dominating her.
AOC returns to Prada’s Eternal Gold Collection in this fashion story ‘Now and Forever’ for Vogue Arabia’s November 2022 issue.
The new Vogue Arabia story features Tunisian model and actor Myriem Boukadida, styled by Eline Hoyois in images by Luka Booth [IG].
100 per cent of the gold used in Prada’s new Eternal Gold Collection is Certified Recycled Gold which meets the Chain of Custody’ standards set by the Responsible Jewelry Council.
The human desire for self-adornment is universal, and writing about copper jewelry trends should be a snap for most people. Not for Anne. I can make writing needlessly complicated, but in this case, the writing took me back to the continuously-revealing story of women’s history.
Only Anne of Carversville whips up a narrative around copper jewelry that takes us back to the dawn of human existence, and then out of Africa between 60,000 and 90,000 years ago into the Levant, a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia.
Background: in understanding the importance of human history and invention, jewelry was not very high on the list of primarily male researchers and scientists.
Frankly, jewelry as artifacts was considered inconsequential and frivolous in the story of human development. Copper jewelry was so frivolous that the existence of The Copper Age, dating from the mid-5th millennium BC, and ending with the beginning of the Bronze Age proper, in the late 4th to 3rd millennium BC, was barely worth mentioning in the scientific community.
You’ve heard of The Stone Age and the Bronze Age. But few of us — including me — knew about The Copper Age. The REAL history of copper jewelry starts to upset several thousands of years of assumptions around women’s lives.
American poet, activist, Prada ambassador and UNICEF supporter Amanda Gorman; Dutch-Korean-Canadian singer, rapper and dancer Jeon Somi; and American actor and model Maya Hawke, daughter of actors Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke star in Prada’s 2022 launch of Eternal Gold, representing the luxury brand’s first forray into fine jewelry.
In addition to being made from certified recycled gold, every piece of jewelry in the collection will be fully traceable, thanks to blockchain technology. Every purchase will be traceable by logging into the Aura Blockchain Consortium.
The Prada Eternal Gold collection is very modern a 100 percent recycled collection that pushes category boundaries. Amanda Gorman came to Prada’s attention, not because of her 2021 Inaugural Poem, but because of her environmental activism.
This fashion story ‘Earth Angels’ from More or Less Magazine [IG] adds a fabulous new twist to the VS Angels saga. If you don’t know, the magazine is devoted to sustainability and our living with less. More or Less wrote:
Hallelujah! For our final cover, we assembled an all-star cast of Earth Angels, styling nine ex-Victoria's Secret models in faux-fashion label Kezako’s upcycled underwear made from aluminium wrap, dried-out loaves of bread, old newspapers, cuddly toys and then some.
We are looking at creativity on steroids here and a brilliant way to call attention to sustainability.
Models include Alessandra Ambrosio, Candice Swanepoel, Elsa Hosk, Lais Ribeiro, Leomie Anderson, Lily Aldridge, Martha Hunt, Sara Sampaio and Stella Maxwell.
NASA space agency will try again to launch its Artemis 1 mission moon rocket— the most powerful ever — on Saturday pm September 3. Complications continue.
Looming weather and hydrogen-loading issues cancelled Monday’s Artemis 1 launch.
Will the new heat shield withstand a searing 5,000 degrees?
"We are stressing Orion beyond what it was actually designed for, in preparation for sending it to the moon with a crew," said Cabana, last week. "And we want to make sure that it works absolutely perfectly when we do that."
Orion is the space capsule traveling on a 32-story rocket, and NASA intends to push it beyond every possible limit. With this mindset driving the mission, the team will take chances not possible with humans on board. One assumes that the dummy data will tell scientists if they lived or died.
Top models Edie Campbell, Mona Tougaard and Leon Dame pose against rocky but fecund terrain of Brittany, France. LVMH brand Loro Piana unveils its Fall-Winter 2022 campaign, lensed by Mario Sorrenti [IG], with art direction by Heiko Keinath.
As always — and especially on the subject of a mostly cashmere-driven collection— AOC turned our attention to Loro Piana’s sustainability efforts. Our usual sustainability pit-stop at Good on You was operating just now.
Supermodel Gigi Hadid is styled by Camilla Nickerson in ‘Well Worn’, fashion story for American Vogue September 2022. The title suggests that Gigi’s story is part of the growing resale market or pieces made of recycled fabrics. Or the fashion story is a mix of old and new, which would at least be progress. I’m seeing that more frequently these days.
Theo de Gueltzl [IG] photographs Gigi, and while he doesn’t have her images yet, his own IG has a wonderful vibe and hits some of these AOC notes.
‘Stranger Things’ Star Priah Ferguson has a message for you. She is not going to make you feel badly about yourself. No. Priah is on your side, and so is AOC. She is not shaming you. Rather, Priah is giving you a big hug and begging you to take action not words.
The new ThredUp and Priah Ferguson “Fast Fashion Confessional Hotline” is meant to encourage Gen Z shoppers to stop shopping fast fashion and embrace more sustainable options.
Supermodel Candice Swanepoel and her eco-lifestyle brand Tropic of C [IG] launch a new collaboration with Alo Yoga [IG] for a swimwear capsule collection that also embraces yoga movements.
Center stage are the crochet swim pieces and accessories made by hand by Quechua and Mochica women across 3 regions of Northern Peru: Pacasmayo, Cajamarca and Huamachuco and in nine communities.
Balenciaga shared really exciting news on the sustainability front, including the brand’s shift to using ‘fourth choice’ leathers. These hides have been rejected for some imperfection, and the term ‘fourth choice’ is theirs.
“Everything we buy is made from leftover skins that would otherwise be burned. If you can make it into a skirt or a jacket, why not? You can find a lot of this, all over the place. We’ve been doing this for a while.”
