Ralph Lauren’s 2023 US Open collection is courtside on Monday, August 28 thru Sunday September 10 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, New York.
Skirts and/or Shorts for the Ball Crew
Ball girls made their debut at the US Open in 1977, an encouraging factoid until you learn that ball girls first ‘worked Wimbledon’ in 1920.
Ah yes. It’s a long road to women’s emancipation, even when you’re chasing balls around the tennis court in a grand slam event.
AOC finds the French much more emancipated for women than America these days. But the French Open didn’t get ball girls until 1984; and the Australian Open was also in the early 1980s.
Ralph Lauren, Team USA and the Road to Paris 2024
AOC expects LVMH to help deliver another spectacle for the ages, as a premium partner of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
I’m not sure how they will top the June 20, 2023 Pharrell Williams debut for Louis Vuitton Men — a night that rocked Paris with sounds of ‘Joy’.
Ralph Lauren will again be outfitting Team USA for the Paris 2024 games— giving us two global citizens companies, who share Anne of Carversville’s values.
Aussie model Aylah Peterson is one of two cover models for the summer 2023 issue of French magazine Numéro 239, an issue devoted to water.
Hence the sensual water drops all over Peterson’s body, otherwise adorned in Bulgari, Chanel, Prada and other high jewelry brands, styled by Charles Varenne. Photographer Ben Hassett [IG] is behind the lens.
Today’s release of a new Ferragamo Fall 2023 campaign, conceived by Ferragamo creative director Maximilian Davis, takes a spin on the Louvre’s success, confirming a new and very important, global-culture role for Ferragamo and Italian culture, via the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
The partnership between the Ferragamo brand and the Uffizi Gallery is not a one-off ad campaign. Details of its depth and reach will emerge in the coming months.
Lensed by American photographer Tyler Mitchell [IG], who was named to the TIME 100 list in 2023 and has a cameo in the images, the Ferragamo Fall 2023 campaign features top models including Anok Yai, Jessica Stam, Lina Zhang, Mona Tougaard, Paul Hamline, Taemin Park, and Vittoria Ceretti.
I asked my AI partner Lulu to research the history of the Uffizi Gallery, and she has delivered in a major way. Read on in AOC link top of post.
Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, known as Mert & Marcus, are top fashion photographers celebrated for their bold and provocative style. The duo remains very busy and relevant in fashion world in 2023, 15 years after their collaboration with W Magazine in 2008 for the editorial ‘Hammam’, featuring Kate MoKate Moss and Mert & Marcus at Charleston for British Vogue 2021
AOC revisited this 2008 Kate Moss by Mert & Marcus editorial Saturday for refreshing with large images, after The Guardian linked into AOC’s 2021 feature on ‘Charleston’ in Sussex, England. Kate was photographed by Mert & Marcus wearing Fendi Couture for British Vogue.
‘Charleston’ was home to the Bloombury set of writers, artists and members of the creatives set in England. While we write our own new article about ‘Charleston’ and the artists associated with this important place in European history — and also in America — you can visit the ‘living museum’ online.
Billie Eilish and Nike made sustainability news again this week, with the Tuesday [Aug.8] drop of the Nike x Billie Eilish - Nike Air Alpha Force 88 in Chicago Bulls colors.
Eilish is a devoted environmentalist and leverages her reputation always to move the fashion industry forward.
Billie’s New Kicks in Chicago
The mega-watt star wore her new kicks paired with a Chicago Bulls jersey at Lollapalooza 2023 Chicago last weekend. The scene was mega-watt, authentic Billie Eilish and the much-admired singer was generous with her kicks pics on her IG.
In total, her shoe is 25% recycled, and I’m sure Billie was begging for 35%.
In a clever headline, Vogue B wrote: “Algae is the new black: Nike sneaker swaps petroleum for sustainable ink. . . Other brands can take note.” This is news to AOC and we live close to the topic of sustainability.
Designer Ulla Johnson grew up in Manhattan but lived also ‘on the road’ as the daughter of archaelogists.
AOC immediately wants to know if Ulla traveled to the Cradle of Humankind in South Africa, a paleoanthropological site located about 50 km northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa, in the Gauteng province.
How about the Lake Turkana region of today’s Kenya, where the Leakey family discovered Lucy. Better yet, has Ulla Johnson been to the Omo Valley? Her clothes suggest ‘yes’.
As a mother to Soren, now 17; Asher, 13; Agnes, 11 and a vizsla named Daphne, and wife to Zach Miner, Ulla Johnson has travelled her own road out of Brooklyn and now to the opening of new store in West Hollywood.
Taking a quick look at other Angela Ahrendts’ videos on capitalism and leadership, her decision to join Kim Kardashian’s private-equity firm is a stunning and inspiring score for SKKY Partners.
Kardashian formed SKKY in summer 2022, joining forces with longtime Carlyle Group consumer head Jay Sammons.
Ahrendts’ primary role with SKKY will focus on identifying and assessing high-potential brands; determining if and how SKKY can add value to them; and to coach and mentor the companies in which SKKY invests for its portfolio.
Gathering before their Apple TV+ four-part documentary Vogue US and British Vogue’s September 2023 issues honor ‘The Greatest of All Time’ models, the ‘Supersonic Supers’. The interviews and shoot predated the SAG-AFTRA strike.
British Vogue EIC Edward Enninful styles the fashion story with supers Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, and Naomi Campbell.
Enninful will be changing his role within Condé Nast, where the March 2024 issue of British Vogue will be his last as EIC, while simultaneously overseeing the editorial content of Condé Nast-owned European issues.
Zara creates a capsule collection THIRTEEN PIECES, designed for the woman who owns her own identity. These are timeless pieces that avoid any type of frill and act as a backdrop for the woman, whose elegance and attitude position her center stage.
Supermodel Rianne van Rompaey and Spanish actor Angela Molina, now 67, are the two protagonists in the campaign, shot by Mario Sorrenti [IG] with creative direction and styling by Elodie David-Touboul./ Hair by Kalle Eklund; makeup by Petros Petrohilos; set design by Mathilde Vallantin Dulac
Molina becomes the oldest model Zara has used to date.
Beloved Chinese supermodel He Cong covers Vogue China’s September 2023 issue, lensed by Shanghai-based fashion photographer Leslie Zhang [IG]. Vivienne Sun styles the photoshoot with creative direction by Matt McDonald.
Anne has written at length about this excellent fashion story and the many topics it touches in Part One of the Vogue China September 2023 fashion story. They include:
Fashion and Sport
Hangzhou and the Silk Roads
Fashion and Sport: Nike, Louis Vuitton, Ralph Lauren
An American fashion mega deal was announced today, August 10, in which Tapestry, the parent company of Coach, Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman, will acquire Capri Holdings, home to Michael Kors, Jimmy Choo and Versace.
The purchase price is $8.5 billion and is not subject to any financial conditions. Tapestry has secured $8 billion from the Bank of America and Morgan Stanley to finance the deal, which will not close until 2024.
Capri, which has a market cap of just over $4 billion, reported revenues of $5.62 billion in fiscal 2023, down 0.7 per cent on the previous year’s record $5.65 billion. This performance is very subpar in the high-end luxury market, which has had a strong rebound in a post-COVID luxury retail landscape.
Gigi Hadid returns to Self-Portrait in a FW 2023 campaign inspired by butterflies and shot by Tyrone Lebon in a private residence in Paris.
Glitter shimmers in abundance in the Self-Portrait campaign, both in the ready-to-wear pieces and the The Bow Bag, considered a signature bag for the brand.
Tom Ford Beauty shares a voluptuous new campaign and reformulation of its Café Rose fragrance. The scent was first introduced in 2012 and is worn today by top Dutch model Rianne van Rompaey.
In the new campaign, styled by Carine Roitfeld, master photographer Steven Klein [IG] follows a dreamy van Rompaey into a spare but sensual room showered with rose petals. The intoxicating atmosphere takes Rianne into a semi-orgasmic state as she is loved up by the petals, her body writhing in a state of sensually-aware semi-consciousness.
France’s former First Lady, supermodel and French singer Carla Bruni takes her turn in Messika’s Midnight Sun 2023 High Jewelry limelight.
Photographer Pierre-Ange Carlotti [IG] captures the nightlife the colorful 1970s in the Midnight Sun campaign, when cities like New York City and Paris crushed traditions, reinvented fashion, and redefined genres.
Model Jan Baiboon packs her suitcase with Pre-fall 2023 Saint Laurent and heads to Thailand under the fashion eye of Vogue Korea’s fashion editor Kihoh Sohn.
Photographer Songyi Yoon [IG]captures Baiboon out and about in Bangkok for the August 2023 issue.
Vogue Brasil calls Gisele the only übermodel, activist for environmental causes.
In her interview with EIC Maria Laura NevesIG], Gisele expresses her own view of her success: “I believe that it has a lot to do with my personality and the choices I’ve made. I was faithful to my values and my essence, always giving my best. I took the profession seriously and I was always very professional.”
“I am naturally more reserved and ended up choosing projects that I deemed more meaningful for me to showcase myself. Perhaps this has contributed to the longevity in a career that is typically so fleeting.”
AOC adds that like so many young models today, Gisele suffered from extreme anxiety, although she didn’t talk about it endlessly. The mother of Benjamin, 13, and Vivian, 10, has spoken for decades about the importance of mental health and her healthy-food, yoga-filled and martial arts, gratitude-to-the-universe lifestyle for decades now.
AOC is ALWAYS on the hunt for new information and research. Preparing to post Gisele’s new ad campaign shot by LUFRÉ [IG], I did a ‘wow’ over his Winter 23 campaign for Santa Lolla. We always review the photographer’s recent work before any post, to see what we’ve missed.
AOC is on the record stating that the world of psilocybin will again impact our creativity and way of looking at images — as long as both political parties agree about the benefits of psilocybin.
‘Ubuntu Brains’
The brains of psilocybin users — and I am one of them — are attached to much more expansive and universal values. We have a shared view of our universal human connections — the ubuntu vision that ‘I am because of who we all are’ or ‘We are all in this together’. I will share this medical info in much greater detail shortly, but this article in Body will get you started.
This evolving human vision existed for 10,000-25,000 years before so-called advanced-civilization people roamed the world looking to remold us into them. You know what I’m talkin’ ‘bout. Read on at top of article link.
Mango celebrates summer 2023 festivities with a strong dose of unadulterated glamour delivered by top model Felice Noordhoff. The collection of limited-edition garments lives at higher-price points, is designed in Barcelona and produced in Morocco.
The yellow crossed dress with bow neckline above is $400, for example. The asymetrical satin dress belowis $650. Current availability in the USA is in smaller sizes online and not in stores, but the Mango customer can request it in larger sizes.
Models Francesca Cobucci and Kylee Lou are styled by Ahmed Rashwan in ‘The Bigger the Better’, a modern style tableau fueled by imagination. Photographer Mazen Abusrour [IG] delivers the goods for Vogue Arabia’s Saudi Summer 2023 issue. / Makeup by Gianluca; hair by Maggie Semaan
