Valentina Sampaio's Soft Beauty by Lea Winkler for Vogue Scandinavia December 2022
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Body Positivity: How Celebrities Are Reshaping The Discussion Around Weight
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It’s only in recent years that the fashion industry from designers to media have moved beyond tokenism into real change on the body shapes and sizes celebrated on fashion show runways, branded ad campaigns, online and print fashion editorials and in the all-important world of social media.
There is a lot of debate on what body positivity stands for, but at its core, it seeks to create an inclusive environment where all kinds of bodies feel accepted, regardless of appearance. Lately, influences online have been vital in keeping the movement trending. With social media, celebrity is no longer confined to glossy magazine pages or TV screens; a star's online presence has made them more accessible and influential.
Rather than focusing on going down a dress size, modern weight loss plans focus on holistic health and wellness. The focus is now on cultivating healthy habits, using advanced nutrition and behavioral science insights so that weight loss is sustainable.
Read MoreKim Kardashian Is 'Formula K" Blonde Muse by Danielle Levitt for Allure Magazine
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“I have different energy when I’m blonde,” SKIMS founder Kim Kardashian tells Allure Magazine’s August 2022 interview with Danielle Pergament. Kim has been blonde for about four months now, after spending 14 hours dying her hair platinum blonde in advance of wearing the infamous Marilyn Monroe sequined dress to the 2022 Met Gala.
Photographer Danielle Levitt [IG]captures Kim in ‘Formula K’, saying that even though she had previously lensed a less well-known influencer, she literally screamed to photograph the blonde beauty now. Cooper Vasquez worked very hard on the set, which is beautiful and intellectual at the same time, with styling by Kyle Lu.
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EADEM's Smart Melanin™ Technology for Beautiful Women of Color
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Hyperpigmentation is the number one skin concern among women of color. Melanin plays a big role in how the skin functions, and it reacts differently to inflammation, UV light, hydration and even active skincare ingredients. What EADEM is wrestling with in the product development universe is far more complex than sunscreen products for women of color.
Read MoreFrédéric Malle’s ‘Portrait of a Lady’ Fragrance by Annemarieke Van Drimmelen
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Photographer Annemarieke Van Drimmelen [IG] shares her soft-mood ambiguity images and private journal composition for Frédéric Malle’s ‘Portrait of a Lady’ fragrance collection. Model Anna de Rijk is styled by Katelyn Gray in the fragrance birthed by Dominique Ropion in 2010.
Frederick Malle’s Portrait of a Lady is part of the Fragrances Without Compromise collection and is considered a unisex fragrance.
Read MoreAshley Graham X Knix Lingerie May 2022 Collab Issues Freedom Proclamation
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The message behind the new Ashley Graham X Knix Collection is clear.
Read MoreIt's time that all of us lived unapologetically free. Free from judgement. Free from self-doubt. Free to be yourself. That's why all our products, from the most comfortable wireless bras to super absorbent underwear, are designed to make you feel more comfortable in your own skin.
One of Candice Swanepoel's Earliest AOC Posts by Mariano Vivanco in Vogue Spain April 2013
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One of Candice Swanepoel's Earliest AOC Posts by Mariano Vivanco in Vogue Spain April 2013 AOC Body
One of Candice Swanepeol’s earliest AOC posts was this Vogue Spain April 2013 fashion story ‘Sexy Tan’. Belén Antolín styled Candice in sexy, hot summer fashion bits lensed by Mariano Vivanco. / Hair by Fernando Torrent; makeup by Maud Laceppe
Giving Candice Swanepoel a Worthy Home
This is the first of many Candice Swanepoel posts coming to AOC Body, as we conduct a major content renovation in its digital pages. This incredibly talented, beautiful, sustainability-conscious swimwear designer and businesswoman; mom of two boys, global citizen, daughter of South Africa, sensual woman blessed with a huge heart is the favorite of so many from Anne herself to AOC’s Candice fan readers.
Much of Candice’s modeling work is sensual from Victoria’s Secret to her own Tropic of C sustainable swimwear. Her non-sensual fashion posts will remain in the fashion pages. But all of her swim and lingerie work will be updated with larger images and installed here in AOC Body. And we will search far and wide for glorious images we have missed.
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley's Blazing Sexy Images in Lui Magazine June 2015
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Rosie Huntington-Whiteley's Blazing Sexy Images in Lui Magazine June 2015 AOC Body
AOC updates Rosie Huntington-Whiteley’s June 2015 fashion shoot for Lui Magazine, swapping out larger images from our original post. These stunning images remind us that Luigi & Iango are among an elite group of photographers who truly understand female sexuality. To say that Rosie sizzles while maintaining a human connection in these images is an understatement.
This sexy fashion story broke after Rosie had a totally non-glam role in ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ into this smashing set of images styled by Deborah Afshani. Rosie kept all the bases covered, wearing a transparent raincoat, topless swimsuit and red lips from makeup artist Georgi Sandev.
Rianne Van Rompaey Honors the 1990s in M le Magazine du Monde | AOC Is Standing Guard
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Top model Rianne Van Rompaey covers the November 27, 2021 M le Magazine du Monde in a fashion story that honors the ‘90s. M’s IG describes the 1990s as a “decade of demanding style, of which the Japanese designers were the masters. A clean style, a little cerebral, overflowing with energy. For uncompromising elegance.”
The 1990s Were a Setback on Many Fashion Fronts
Some have pointed out that this decade of demanding style demanded size 0 bodies in fashion magazines. The size 4-6 supermodels were increasingly no longer the body types favored by fashion editors and the fashion business leaders who sought to disempower the supers.
Many of us are digging our feet deeply into the pavement, determined to NOT have any 90s redo in a literal sense.
AOC believes that an entire rollback to size 0 white women models tripping over each other for prime time exposure will not happen in the age of social media. Then again, AOC didn’t believe the January 6 insurrection at the US capitol was possible. And we never believed that Donald Trump would become president.
Read MoreZoe Kravitz in Saint Laurent by Collier Schorr for AnOther Magazine FW 2021
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Zoe Kravitz in Saint Laurent by Collier Schorr for AnOther Magazine FW 2021 AOC Body
Zoë Kravitz is “the cool kids’ cool kid,” writes Lynette Nylander for AnOther Magazine’s FW 2021 issue. As a fashion front row favorite, Zoë Kravitz is styled by Avena Gallagher in almost total Saint Laurent fall fashion head to toe in images by Collier Schorr [IG].
“I feel like me and Anthony [Vaccarello] inspire each other. We talk about inspiration pictures and send things back and forth. Me and Anthony are tight,” Kravitz says about the YSL designer and her four-years relationship with the luxury brand.
Anna Murphy's Critical Insights in 'Body Beautiful' for Harper's Bazaar UK
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Republish via AOC at FeedBurner CC 3.0 License Attribution Required: Daily Fashion Design Culture News
Anna Murphy's Critical Insights in 'Body Beautiful' for Harper's Bazaar UK AOC Fashion
Models Molly Constable and Seynabou [Zeyna] Cissé cover Harper’s Bazaar UK’s August 2021 ‘The Body Issue’. Shibon Kennedy styles the duo in ‘Body Beautiful’, a visual and written-word reflection on curves lensed by Pamela Hanson [IG] with words by Anna Murphy.
Murphy is fashion director of The Times and The Sunday Times [UK] since 2015. Previously she launched ‘Stella’ at The Sunday Telegraph, also London-based. She is unusually honest in sharing her thoughts about curves and female ‘flesh’ generally-speaking.
All women have paid a high price over body management by religious zealots, but women of color have paid the highest price. In every dialogue of this nature, we must take the experiences of white women and double-triple them for women of color.
Murphy only has a one-pager in Harper’s UK, but hopefully she intends to use her platform to amplify her message going forward on this topic.
Anna Murphy considers the origin of the so-called ‘thin ideal’ that has been in ascendancy over the last century.
In her book ‘Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body’, Susan Bordo argues that it’s about 'the tantalising ideal of a well-managed self in which all is kept in order'. That this has had a greater hold over women than men is because "throughout dominant Western religious and philosophical traditions, the capacity for self-management is decisively coded as male. By contrast, all those bodily spontaneities – hunger, sexuality, the emotions – seen as needful of containment and control have been culturally constructed... as female." Golly.
And so, to follow Bordo’s argument, modern women – or at least those in "late modern Western societies" – have used their bodies to demonstrate to others that they can do, be, live as men do; that they can subjugate their "domestic, reproductive destiny".
I told you the essay is provocative!! ~ Anne
Karmen Pedaru's Quiet Summer Getaway by Xavi Gordo for Harper's Bazaar Spain
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Karmen Pedaru's Quiet Summer Getaway by Xavi Gordo for Harper's Bazaar Spain
Top model Karmen Pedaru turns to solitude and wellness in ‘Desconectar’, lensed by Xavi Gordo for Harper’s Bazaar Spain July-August 2021./ Hair by makeup by Kley Kafe
Fake Poser Plants vs the Health and Wellness Benefits of Real Plants
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Biophilia in Our Lives
Plants are one of the most effective health and wellness essential supplements in our lives. Whether in the park or purifying air in our bedrooms, nature’s greenery delivers tangible, well-researched benefits to human wellbeing in the form of house plants.
Yes, fake plants can add a pop of color to your indoor interior, if you can get beyond the fact that most plants are made of plastic and create serious questions about sustainability. Yes, there is progress on the Stella McCartney-approved fake plant front, but most poser plants have no sustainability cred.
You will not find Anne of Carversville promoting the benefits of living with fake plants. And very few people actually have a “black thumb” and are unable to care for low-maintenance varieties of live plants. You should consider your empathy quotient and connection of nature generally, if every plant dies in your presence. Perhaps you are just too busy to keep anything alive.
Read MoreYSL's Aylah Peterson Sizzles in Images by Nicole Bentley for Harper's Bazaar Australia
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Rising Aussie model Aylah Peterson is styled by Naomi Smith in sizzling looks from Saint Laurent. Creative director Anthony Vaccarello used Aylah exclusively for the spring 2020 show, where she wore three outfits and closed the October 2019 show with Naomi Campbell under the Eiffel Tower. Nicole Bentley captures Peterson for the new issue of Harper’s Bazaar Australia./ Hair by KOH; makeup by Linda Jefferyes
Read MoreChristy Turlington Burns Talks Activism, Maternal Health with T Style Magazine Singapore
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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.
There’s a Complex History of Skin Lighteners in Africa and Beyond
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THE WEST AFRICAN NATION OF LIBERIA IS ALLOWING VENDORS TO ERECT HUGE BILLBOARDS ADVERTISING BLEACHING PRODUCTS IN AND AROUND MONROVIA. SIMULTANEOUSLY, RWANDA HAS BANNED SKIN BLEACHING PRODUCTS, WHICH THE GOVERNMENT DESCRIBES AS UNHEALTHY. VIA
There’s a Complex History of Skin Lighteners in Africa and Beyond AOC Body
Somali-American activists recently scored a victory against Amazon and against colourism, which is prejudice based on preference for people with lighter skin tones. Members of the non-profit The Beautywell Project teamed up with the Sierra Club to convince the online retail giant to stop selling skin lightening products that contain mercury.
After more than a year of protests, this coalition of antiracist, health, and environmental activists persuaded Amazon to remove some 15 products containing toxic levels of mercury. This puts a small but noteworthy dent in the global trade in skin lighteners, estimated to reach US$31.2 billion by 2024.
What are the roots of this sizeable trade? And how might its most toxic elements be curtailed?
The online sale of skin lighteners is relatively new, but the in-person traffic is very old. My new book explores this layered history from the vantage point of South Africa.
As in other parts of the world colonised by European powers, the politics of skin colour in South Africa have been importantly shaped by the history of white supremacy and institutions of racial slavery, colonialism, and segregation. My book examines that history.
Yet, racism alone cannot explain skin lightening practices. My book also attends to intersecting dynamics of class and gender, changing beauty ideals and the expansion of consumer capitalism.
Fresh Drive To Close Gaps on Health Issues Facing Africa's Women and Girls
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