Raakhee & Satya Tell Serena & Olympia That It's Ok The GOAT Momma Missed The First Wobbly Walk

Raakhee & Satya Tell Serena & Olympia That It's Ok The GOAT Momma Missed The First Wobbly Walk

In response to Serena Williams sharing news that she cried upon learning that her daughter had taken her first wobbly steps while Serena was practicing at Wimbledon, there has been a deluge of support for her and the impossible conflicts that working women with kids share.

ELLE US published a smile-worthy essay by Raakhee Mirchandani -- and I know up front that not all people will find her commentary amusing. Still, this is one family unit and this is their life. And if it works for them, who should judge?

I think Serena will probably have a life more like this one. And just imagine the wonderful story -- now that Serena is in the quarterfinals -- if she wins. (Update: On July 11, Serena advanced to semi-finals.) Even if she loses now, Serena has come miles in the last month.

She can weave a story that will bind the two humans for life, saying "Oh Olympia, I had been to hell and back trying to find my old GOAT self. I kept worrying about you and wanting to be with you every moment. But then I saw how glued you are to tennis on TV, (she IS) watching every serve, every volley, watching my practice videos and I just had to do this for us. . . . I was distraught when I missed your first steps . . . but then I felt such energy and power coming from my little girl, cheering me on, saying "go momma . . . you can win again . . . you are the GOAT . . . and I am the GOAT's little girl. We are a team. . . . so dry your tears and go out there and win."

I daresay that we might not be in such a political pickle if we had more moms like both these women -- radicals by American standards. European kids are raised much more within this perspective than that of the US supermoms. There is no one right way. But I believe Serena and Olympia will be fine. After all, it's not like Olympia isn't already carrying a star load of possibility with that name. Her momma will be cheering her on, just like Satya's mom is focused on her daughter's future.

Serena Williams Misses Baby Girl's First Steps, But Perhaps Olympia's Wimbledon Message Was GO MOMMA!

Serena Williams Misses Baby Girl's First Steps, But Perhaps Alexis' Winbledon Message Was GO MOMMA!

Serena Williams missed her baby girl's first steps yesterday. Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr, 10 mos, was close by at Wimbledon but not in Serena's presence, when she decided to take off in her first wobbly walk. Serena says she cried with frustration, but I think Alexis Olympia was sending her powerful energy and a "go momma" message.

Obviously healed from her French Open injury where she couldn't even raise her arm to serve, Serena is playing really well at Wimbledon, and anything is possible, writes the Boston Globe.

The GOAT has seven Wimbledon titles to her credit. Whatever happens, Serena is a winner, but we can't help hoping that she causes a major upset. GO MOMMA!!

Black Tomato Heads To Cape Town's Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art & Silo Hotel

Black Tomato Heads To Cape Town's Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art & Silo Hotel

CR Fashionbook hooks up with London and NYC-based luxury travel innovator Black Tomato in The Art-Lovers Guide to Traveling the World. 

Scanning co-founder Tom Marchant's enticing list, we paused in Cape Town, where the recent opening of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA), the largest collection of contemporary African art in the world. Located in the newly renovated Silo district, the impressive building (once a Grain Silo Complex) has been reinvented by renowned architect Thomas Heatherwick and is a totally unique space that fits into the African context.

The best place to sleep is at the newly opened Silo Boutique Hotel, built in the grain elevator portion of the historic grain silo complex occupying six floors above Zeitz MOCAA. Take a look at The Silo rooms, designed as a modern African feast for the eyes.

Halima Aden Returns To Kakuma Refugee Camp In Kenya, Films TEDX Talk, Becomes UNICEF Ambassador

Halima Aden Returns To Kakuma Refugee Camp In Kenya, Films TEDX Talk, Becomes UNICEF Ambassador

Model, beauty queen and humanitarian Halima Aden's life cup is overflowing with Gaia's bounty. 

"I was the first Muslim homecoming queen at my high school, the first Somali student senator at my college, and the first hijab-wearing woman in many places, like the Miss Minnesota USA beauty pageant, the runways of Milan and New York fashion weeks, and even on the historic cover of British Vogue," she explained in a recent (but not yet posted) TED Talk she gave at Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya — another first, both for her and for TED, as it was the first talk streamed from a refugee camp in the program's history. But the visit also held a special significance for Halima, as it marked the first time she had returned to Kakuma after moving to the United States at age 7.

Oprah Covers British Vogue August 2018, Lensed By Mert & Marcus For Interview On Race, Feminism, & Her Future

Oprah Covers British Vogue August 2018, Lensed By Mert & Marcus For Interview On Race, Feminism, & Her Future

Updated July 3 w/Edward Enninful's Editor's Letter

Powerhouse Oprah Winfrey is the cover star of the August 2018 issue of British Vogue. Lensed by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, and styled by Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful, Oprah wears a custom-made taffeta gown by Stella McCartney and white-and-yellow-diamond and emerald earrings by Buccellati.

Inside the issue, the media icon discusses race, feminism, her Royal wedding appearance, the loves and losses in her life – and speculation that she may go into politics in a rare one-on-one interview with writer Decca Aitkenhead. The issue hits newsstands July 6. 

British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful released his editor's letter on Tuesday. It's a lovely tribute to Oprah. 

Of course, I wanted to do her as an empress. She is so magnificent, so awe-inspiring, and she really went with the idea. We approached six stars of British design to make bespoke fashions for her: Erdem, Christopher Kane, Simone Rocha, Stella McCartney, Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen. How fantastic to be able to put this global icon in a context that is so celebratory of British talent. Aside from that, Oprah absolutely loves clothes.

GlamTribal Design Earrings: Free Shipping North America, Niobium Earwires

GlamTribal Design studio, featherweight polymer clay beads with 14K gold foil flecks. Woolly mammoth bone beads 10,000-100,000 years old. Hand-painted enamel beads. Twigs, pods, recycled glass wherever possible. Hypoallergenic niobium earwires and pewter posts by TierraCast. 

10% of price supports girls education in Africa and elephant conservation. Earrings shipped first class in a burlap bag with recycled tissue. 2-Day Priority Mail shipping available at checkout.

Asos Launches New Initiative With London College To Educate Its Design Teams On Sustainability

Asos Launches New Initiative With London College To Educate Its Design Teams On Sustainability

In mid-June, Asos, which sells over 850 labels including its own clothing and accessories lines, confirmed that it will ban  cashmere, silk, down and feathers across its entire platform by the end of January 2019.

"People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) applauds Asos for leading the charge for compassion in fashion," director of corporate projects, Yvonne Taylor, commented. "In response to PETA's campaigns, consumers are changing the face of the industry by demanding that designers and retailers ditch animal-derived materials in favour of cruelty-free alternatives that look great without causing suffering."

Asos joined over 140 brands, including Topshop, H&M and Marks & Spencer, by halting its use of mohair after PETA released a video exposé of mohair production in South Africa in May 2018.

Super-feminist Priyanka Chopra Goes Lip Gloss Only For Allure, Has Choice Words For Women

Super-feminist Priyanka Chopra Goes Lip Gloss Only For Allure, Has Choice Words For Women

Self-identifying 'super feminist' Priyanka Chopra covers Allure magazine's first digital cover package with a strong message to women about the need to change how they view themselves. 

Posing on the Greenpoint waterfront in Brooklyn, Chopra's only makeup was moisturizer and lip gloss, hoping to extend the conversation about how beauty impacts identity. 

“A lot of the things media has perpetuated have created false standards around beauty. People that have not grown up seeing themselves in the space have a harder time accessing self love and acceptance. That's something we really push,” Allure's digital editorial director Kelly Bales tells The Hollywood Reporter. “It's been a huge mission for Allure — how can we right some of these wrongs of the past, re-educate both ourselves and our audience to have a larger scope of what we consider beautiful?”

Chopra discusses how women have been conditioned to think about the need to constantly change themselves. "We’ve always been treated as second-class citizens. We’ve always been told that only one of us can win and only the best one will get the cutest boy … Can we for a second love ourselves and say ‘I do not need all of these magazines to tell me to how to lose the weight or how should I starve because I want to please a man?’”

Sen. Susan Collins Tells ABC 'This Week' That She Will Oppose Any SC Judge Nominee Who Would Overturn Roe v. Wade

Sen. Susan Collins Tells ABC 'This Week' That She Will Oppose Any SC Judge Nominee Who Would Overturn Roe v. Wade

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), is potentially a key swing vote  in passage of Donald Trump’s next Supreme Court nominee. And while the pressure on Collins will be enormous, the senator said on ABC's 'This Week' Sunday that she would oppose any individual who would overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision.

“A candidate for this important position who would overturn Roe v. Wade would not be acceptable to me because that would indicate an activist agenda that I don’t want to see a judge have,” Collins said “And that would indicate to me a failure to respect precedent of fundamental tenet of our judicial system.”

Collins, who is one of two pro-choice Republicans in the Senate -- the other is Lisa Murkowski from Alaska -- joined other 'swing' senators at the White House last week to discuss the vacancy. “I emphasized that I wanted a nominee who would respect precedent, a fundamental tenet of our judicial system,” Collins said in CNN’s State of the Union, adding that she asked the president to “broaden” his list of 25 possible nominees.

Tessa Thompson Clarifies Her 'Break The Mould' Convo Re Janelle Monae For Porter Edit June 29, 2018

Tessa Thompson Clarifies Her 'Break The Mould' Convo Re Janelle Monae For Porter Edit June 29, 2018

Actor Tessa Thompson is styled by Catherine Newell-Hanson in 'Break The Mould', an over-sized look at coming season, lensed by Nagi Sakai for Porter Edit June 29, 2018./Hair by Vernon Francois; makeup by Nick Barose

Thompson stirred up supporters, speaking about her relationship with Janelle Monae,  "It's tricky, because Janelle and I are just really private people and we're both trying to navigate how you reconcile wanting to have that privacy and space, and also wanting to use your platform and influence." For many people, that appeared to be an official confirmation of their relationship.

Thompson made it clear that she is bisexual, "I'm attracted to men and also to women. If I bring a woman home, [or] a man, we don't even have to have the discussion." She continued, "That was something I was conscious of in terms of this declaration around Janelle and myself. I want everyone else to have that freedom and support that I have from my loved one, but so many people don't. So, do I have a responsibility to talk about that? Do I have a responsibility to say in a public space that this is my person?"

With social media ablaze over her words, Tessa wrote on Twitter Sunday:  "Sometimes we cheer so loudly at someone speaking their truth, that we miss what they say. (Here’s looking at you media journalism). I didn’t say I was in a relationship. But I said lots of other things. All below. One thing I missed — Pride Has No End." 

Dem Women Pramila Jayapal, Tammy Duckworth & Kirstin Gillibrand Join Capitol Protest On Family Separation

About 2000 women came together in Washington DC on Thursday to protest the Trump administration's current zero-tolerance immigration policy, one that separates families and has three-year-old toddlers in immigration court, facing a judge alone and without legal counsel. 

The Thursday protesters marched from the Dept of Justice to the Hart Senate building, where they joined arms, sat down and chanted in an act of nonviolent civil disobedience. In response, about 600 women including Washington state Rep. Pramila Jayapal were arrested, writes ELLE. 

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill) rolled into the middle of the protest with her daughter in two, and always impeccably groomed New York Sen. Kirstin Gillibrand hit the pavement, joining arms with the protesters. 

Karlie Kloss Stands For Progressive Causes But Left Roasts Her For Kushner Ties

Karlie Kloss Stands For Progressive Causes But Left Roasts Her For Kushner Ties

Supermodel Karlie Kloss got roasted online for urging her fans to call politicians asking them to support a bill that would keep immigrant children together in the assault on them by the Trump administration. 

“Politicizing the lives of these defenseless children is heartless. We have to be the voices for these kids, and I support anyone standing up to do right by them,” the 25-year-old tweeted last week about the Keep Families Together Act. “Call your congressperson RIGHT NOW and support the bill, US – S 3036. Speak up. #KeepFamiliesTogether.”

The far left predictably rose against Karlie, because they are often just as mind-controlling as the far-right. I experienced that ire as recently as Sunday, in comments around the Sarah Huckabee Sanders incident at the Red Hen restaurant last weekend. 

In Karlie's case, critics pounced on her longtime relationship with Jared Kushner's younger brother Joshua. 

Ignoring the reality that Donald Trump does whatever the hell he pleases as president of the US, ignoring the advice of everyone around him, the hypocrisy-accusing tweets flew in Karlie's direction. 

Amanda Brooks 'Farm From Home' Book Honors New Life In Cotswolds, Cutter Brooks Shop

Amanda Brooks 'Farm From Home' Book Honors New Life In Cotswolds, Cutter Brooks Shop

Former Barney's fashion director Amanda Brooks is set to open Cutter Brooks, a lifestyle boutique that will bring a curated selection of international brands and artisan makers to Stow-on-the-Wold, an English market town nestled in the Cotswolds, writes WSJ Magazine.

“I’ve wanted a shop since I was 23,” says Brooks, now 44. “I love selling. I love sharing my point of view and my passion.” Set in a 17th-century building, Cutter Brooks (the moniker combines her maiden and married name as wife of artist Christopher Brooks) will capture Brooks’s take on the English countryside aesthetic: “A little bit bohemian, a little eccentric,” she says. “But more farmhouse than stately home.”

Brooks' journey to the Cotswolds began in 2012, when Westchester-raised Brooks and her family left New York for a yearlong sabbatical in the English countryside. Their time was spent at her husband's home Fairgreen Farm.

Michelle Obama Says "Making Mistakes Was Not An Option For Us . . . We Had To Be Outstanding"

Michelle Obama Says "Making Mistakes Was Not An Option For Us . . . We Had To Be Outstanding"

Our beloved former First Lady Michelle Obama talked openly about race and the expectations and pressures that came with being "the first" black couple to occupy the White House. Michelle was speaking at the American Library Association's annual conference in New Orleans on Friday.

“Barack and I knew very early that we would be measured by a different yardstick,” Obama said of her husband’s tenure as the nation’s first black president during a conversation with Librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden. “Making mistakes was not an option for us. Not that we didn’t make mistakes, but we had to be good — no, we had to be outstanding — at everything we did….When you’re the first, you’re the one that’s laying the red carpet down for others to follow.” 

Michelle's conversation came in advance of the November release of her upcoming memoir 'Becoming'. She spoke particularly on the subject of race, saying: "It's just a shame that sometimes people will see me, and they will only see my color, and then they'll make certain judgments about that," she said. "That's dangerous, for us to dehumanize each other in that way. We are all just people."

Updated: Gigi Hadid Covers Vogue Australia July 2018, Reflecting On Privilege And Social Media

Gigi Hadid Covers Vogue Australia July 2018, Reflecting On Privilege And Social Media

Supermodel Gigi Hadid covers the July 2018 issue of Vogue Australia, lensed by Giampaolo Sgura.

"There is no handbook for being in the spotlight."

Interviewed by Zara Wong, Gigi Hadid channels the same self-reflective thoughts expressed by Kendall Jenner. As a fast-rise Instagirls, Hadid knows that she is the product of a love/hate social media echo chamber, one "as unreal as Donald Trump's hair",  wrote VICE.

Hadid has learned that this echo chamber can turn on a girl quickly -- like when a 3 second video of Gigi doing what models, assuming the pose in eating a fortune cookie sent the Internet into apoplexy, got her condemned as a racist and the subject of demands that she be banned from the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in Shanghai. 

CEO Alison Ettel, AKA #PermitPatty, Throws Her White Woman Weight Around With 8 Yr. Old Black Girl Entrepreneur

CEO Alison Ettel, AKA #PermitPatty, Throws Her White Woman Weight Around With 8 Yr. Old Black Girl Entrepreneur

In Oakland #PermitPatty met a strong wall of resistance to her domineering, white ways with 8 yr. old Jordan, who was selling water on the street on a hot day.

This is public shaming of the best kind, and CEO Alison Ettel will surely wish that she had just stayed in bed that day. Better yet, she should have used one of her own products to chill out. This is a good read about social justice with a bad ending for #PermitPatty!!!

Whole Foods Markets Wipes Instagram Clean To Support Honeybees & National Pollinator's Week

Whole Foods Markets Wipes Instagram Clean To Support Honeybees & National Pollinator's Week

EcoWatch explains why it's critical to protect endangered species, citing, for example, the rusty patched bumble bee species that has declined by 87 percent in the last 20 years,  disease, climate change, pesticides, habitat loss and intensive agriculture.

“We launched the Give Bees A Chance campaign because kids are often taught to be afraid of bees, but the role they play in our ecosystem is imperative and deserving of our respect and protection,” explains Nona Evans, president and executive director of Whole Kids Foundation. “One of the best ways we can teach kids about bees is through educational beehives at their schools, where they get an up-close look into the world of pollination.”

Carolyn Murphy Unveils Detroit's Shinola's Lois Tote As Ford Motor Announces Plans For Michigan Central Station

Carolyn Murphy Unveils Detroit's Shinola's Lois Tote As Ford Motor Announces Plans For Michigan Central Station

Supermodel actor Carolyn Murphy and made-in-Detroit success story Shinola introduce us to Lois, the perfect summer tote at just $495. Named after Murphy's late grandmother Lois, the bag brings back countless memories. 

“My Nana, whom I was inspired by to create the bag, we’d always do these road trips in the Oldsmobile from [Washington], D.C. She’d put her bottle of vodka, her carrots, her hard-boiled eggs and her Scrabble in this big bag, and the goal was to get to our annual reunion in Nags Head, [North Carolina]. I always remember that tote,” Murphy recalled.

"I lost my Nana, and three days later, my agent called and said, 'Bruce Weber wants to shoot you for Shinola in Detroit,'" Murphy said. "So I like to think she brought us together. It was a match made in heaven."

Murphy was featured in last Friday's Porter Edit, with news about her longstanding commitments to sustainability and protecting our oceans -- a potentially losing battle. There are now six-- count them six --  large garbage patches swelling in the ocean, making Gaia weep. (Note that a brand new and accidental discovery of an enzyme that is capable of breaking down plastic bottles offers us a ray of hope.)

AOC covered Carolyn Murphy's Shinola partnership in the September 2017 issue of InStyle.  The entire brand story behind Shinola (yes, that name of shoe polish) is so inspiring in terms of what CAN be accomplished in America to fight decay, create jobs and inspire design in America's forgotten inner cities. Detroit received a HUGE bouquet of urban development flowers with big news from Ford Motor Company. 

Diet Prada Dishes With British Vogue On Using Their Instagram Account For Fashion Industry Changes

Diet Prada Dishes With British Vogue On Using Their Instagram Account For Fashion Industry Changes

British Vogue informs us about the lineage of Diet Prada's infamous Instagram account by Tony Liu and Lindsey Schuyler launched in December 2014. The duo was outed in October 2017 by The Fashion Law but silence reigned. 

“The time was going to come that we’d need to own it, eventually,” Schuyler told the Business of Fashion in May 2018, during Diet Prada’s official unmasking. Their quest for authority, and to establish themselves as two people with an opinion that matters, has granted Vogue an email interview with “DP” in between their day jobs and the industry events that their exposed identities now affords them.

“We weren't at the point then that we are now,” DP explains of playing down the hype around the account – an amalgam of two fashion addictions: Miuccia Prada and Diet Coke – a year ago. “Now that our work is having a real impact that's often positive, we're excited to own it.”

Owning it involves using Diet Prada as a platform for conscientious conversation around topics like diversity, equality and cultural appropriation. 

Colin Dodgson Eyes Karolin Wolter In 'I Dreamed of Africa' For T Magazine May 20, 2018

Colin Dodgson Eyes Karolin Wolter In 'I Dreamed of Africa' For T Magazine May 20, 2018

Model Karolin Wolter is styled by Suzanne Koller in 'I Dreamed of Africa', lensed by Colin Dodgson for T Magazine May 20, 2018.

The accompanying article by Thessaly La Force 'A Solo Sojourn Inspired by Edith Wharton's 'In Morocco', published in 1920 when she traveled the region with Hubert Lyautey, who served as the resident general of French Morocco from 1912 to 1925. By the end of the First World War, Morocco was still a colonial entity, divided between French and Spanish powers (the country would claim independence in 1956). There were no English-language guidebooks and few accounts from those who had traveled past the international port city of Tangier (“frowsy, familiar Tangier, that every tourist has visited for the last forty years,” Wharton complained in her book). 

Like most rich and successful people with the means to travel, Wharton observed that Morocco's beauty was is vast decay, without ever observing or considering once the damge colonialism may have caused throughout the African continent. Wharton writes: “Overripeness is indeed the characteristic of this rich and stagnant civilization. Buildings, people, customs, seem all about to crumble and fall of their own weight: the present is a perpetually prolonged past.”

In this aspect of her observations, Wharton was trapped in her white privilege. Nevertheless, writes La Force, Wharton possessed a blunt understanding of "the devastating truth that women, no matter where in the world, were trapped by their own society. Wharton may have had grave blind spots, but she knew very well that her own freedom — as an educated woman unencumbered by children, with a great inheritance and a greater intellect — was rare." Read on at T Magazine.