Ruth Bader Ginsburg Film 'On the Basis of Sex' Draws Sold Out NYC Crowd With Clinton + Steinem

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Ruth Bader Ginsburg Film 'On the Basis of Sex' Draws Sold Out NYC Crowd With Clinton + Steinem

“She’s not a superhero; she’s a woman like many others of her generation,” Mimi Leder, director of the Ruth Bader Ginsburg biophic ‘On the Basis of Sex’ told the packed audience at New York’s Walter Read Theatre director on Sunday. The audience included Gloria Steinem (wearing an RBG-inspired Lingua Franca sweater that read “all rise”) and former Secretary of State and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Vogue writes that RGB received a hero’s welcome from an audience that gave her a standing ovation at every opportunity.

“She is an exceptional woman who changed the culture with her intelligence and her eloquence, “ Leder continued, emphasizing the reality that themes of her story are universal: “She didn’t go into the law to become a champion for equal rights. She went into the law because she thought she could do that job better than any other.”

“I ask no favor for my sex,” Ginsburg’s voice says at the end of the film. “All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.”

Justice Ginsburg’s nephew Daniel Stiepleman wrote the script for ‘On the Basis of Sex’, and her daughter Jane helped edit the movie script.

David Sims Captures Rebecca Leigh Longendyke In Alberta Ferretti Spring Summer 2019 Campaign

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Rising model Rebecca Leigh Longendyke showcases Alberta Ferretti’s Spring-Summer 2019 campaign. Aleksandra Woroniecka styles Longendyke with art direction from Heiko and images by David Sims./ Hair by Damien Boissinot; makeup by Hiromi Ueda

Alexi Lubomirski Captures Sean O'Pry In 'Who's The Daddy?' For GQ UK December 2018

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Alexi Lubomirski Captures Sean O'Pry In 'Who's The Daddy?' For GQ UK December 2018

Top model Sean O’Pry makes quite an impression in ‘Who’s The Daddy? styled by Luke Day. Alexi Lubomirski is behind the lens for British GQ’s December 2018 issue. The dazzling O’Pry sent Working Mother Magazine swooning. They wrote: British GQ’s December 2018 Issue Is All About Working Dads — and It’s About Time.

The issue challenges the traditional notion of what it means to be a man with a career and children. And GQ UK is not kidding around. An article on expectant fathers taking an antenatal class with the charity Working With Men is no fluff piece. And while these real-life dads to be don’t look like Sean O’Pry, we say “good work, guys!”

Five Reasons Why 2018 Was A Big Year For Palaeontology

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Five Reasons Why 2018 Was A Big Year For Palaeontology

By Julien Benoit, Postdoc in Vertebrate Palaeontology, University of the Witwatersrand. First published on The Conversation Africa.

A lot happened in the world of palaeontology in 2018. Some of the big events included some major fossil finds, a new understanding of our reptile ancestors and a major controversy whose outcome could rewrite human history. The Conversation Africa asked Dr Julien Benoit to discuss five important moments in palaeontology you may have missed during 2018, and what they mean – particularly for Africa and its place in the story of human origins.

Gisele Bundchen Wears Sensual Elegance By Nino Muñoz For Harper's Bazaar Australia Jan-Feb 2019

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Gisele Bundchen Wears Sensual Elegance By Nino Muñoz For Harper's Bazaar Australia Jan-Feb 2019

Supermodel Gisele Bundchen is styled by Kristen Ingersoll in Dior, Stella McCartney, Tom Ford, Reformation and more. Nino Muñoz captures Gisele in ‘The New Sexy’ for Harper’s Bazaar Australia Jan-Feb 2019.

Gisele is promoting her new book and Harper’s shares the excerpt about the rise of a serious condition of anxiety towards her life at age 23:

For 23 years, I've also been an image without a voice. I have this in common with lots of women. Haven't most of us gotten the message that our voices aren't worth hearing, whether we're being ignored in a meeting, or criticised online, or reduced to a bunch of body parts? Allowing myself to be open and vulnerable — not—her, but me, Gisele—is very scary. I won't be able to detach or hide anymore. At the same time, take it from me: nothing feels stranger than to be the object of someone else's projections. To be known but also unknown no longer feels right to me. Life is not always easy, nor is it a fairytale, and we all go through challenges, no matter who we are. By speaking up, I hope I can inspire other women to do the same, especially at a time when women need to support other women more than ever. After all, changes only come about when we are willing to stand for what we believe.

{. . . }

Finally, things came to a crisis point. It was the weekend, and I was in my apartment in New York. I'd booked a massage to help me relax, aware that the muscles in my body were growing more tense every day. By now my panic attacks — that's what my doctors were calling them — had been going on for nearly six months. At the time I was living on West Eleventh Street and the West Side Highway, overlooking the river. My apartment was on the ninth floor. It was small but airy and full of light, with lots of windows and a big deck outside. But suddenly in the middle of my massage, I just couldn't be there anymore. I couldn't catch my own breath. Making some excuse, I got up, pulled my towel around myself and went outside onto the deck. It was a beautiful night. There was the water and the lights in the distance, and as much air as I needed, but I still couldn't find my breath. It felt like everything in my life was going to kill me. First it was airplanes, then elevators. Then it was tunnels and hotels and modelling studios and cars. Now it was my own apartment. Everything had become a cage, and I was the animal trapped inside, panting for air. I couldn't see a way out, and I couldn't stand another day of feeling this way. The idea swept over me then: Maybe it will be easier if I just jump. It will be all over. There's a solution. I can get out of this.

Simon Upton Flashes Nirvana Naves In 'Wanderlust' For Marie Claire Australia January 2019

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Model Nirvana Naves has ‘Wanderlust’, hitting the high seas styled by Jana Pokorny Simon Upton is behind the lens for Marie Claire Australia January 2019.

Adut Akech, Primrose Archer, Saffron Vadher + Stella Tennant By Steven Meisel For Vogue UK December 2018

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Adut Akech, Primrose Archer, Saffron Vadher + Stella Tennant By Steven Meisel For Vogue UK December 2018

Stella Tennant isn’t British Vogue’s only December 2018 issue cover girl. Adut Akech, Primrose Archer and Saffron Vadher share the honors, also lensed by Steven Meisel. Joe McKenna styles the trio in a separate editorial from Stella’s.

Celine Delaugere Communes With Nature In 'Grey Gardens' By Sam Wilson For Indie Magazine Fall 2018

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Model Celine Delaugere is styled by Samia Giobellina in ‘Grey Gardens’, lensed by Sam Wilson for Indie Magazine Fall 2018./ Makeup by Celine Exbrayat

Dalaugere’s tree-hugging embrace reminds me of a weekend Daily Om email by Madisyn Taylor: ‘Hugging a Tree’. On my own — but in conjunction with several Daily Om courses I was taking in 2017 — I developed a daily, significant relationship with a tree. In fact, I honor her while making my coffee in the morning, seeing her now without leaves out of my East Coast kitchen window.

The Taoist master Mantak Chia teaches students to meditate with trees, as a way of release “negative energies.” In his Cosmic Tree Healing Qigong method, Master Chia teaches how to align one’s body with the “aura” (or energetic field) of a tree. He explains that trees are natural processors that can help you transform your body’s sick or negative energy into positive, vital life force energy. As you connect your energy with the tree you facilitate your own physical and emotional healing. The Taoist theory is that because trees stand very still, they are better at absorbing the Earth’s Energy and the Universal Force from the Heavens. Trees and all plants have the ability to absorb the light frequencies and transform them into physical food; and they do the same with energetic food. The Taoist view of trees is to see them constantly in meditation, with subtle energy as their natural language. via

Stella Tennant Holds Court In Steven Meisel Images For Vogue UK December 2018

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Stella Tennant Holds Court In Steven Meisel Images For Vogue UK December 2018

Top model Stella Tennant is styled by Joe McKenna in lavish volumes lensed by Steven Meisel for Vogue UK December 2018./ Hair by Guido Palau; makeup by Pat McGrath

Soo Joo Park Poses In Chanel 2019 Resort Looks Lensed By Arseny Jabiev For Harper's Bazaar Russia

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Model Soo Joo Park poses in key pieces from Chanel’s 2019 Resort collection, styled by Ekaterina Tabakova. Photographer Arseny Jabiev is behind the lens for Harper’s Bazaar Russia November 2018.

EYE: Chinyere Ezie Educates Prada On Why Fat Red Lips On Black Bodies Are Not Good Trinkets In America

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EYE: Chinyere Ezie Educates Prada On Why Fat Red Lips On Black Bodies Are Not Good Trinkets In America

The best paragraphs in Robin Givhan’s WaPo commentary “Seriously, Prada, what were you thinking?: Why the fashion industry keeps bumbling into racist imagery” isn’t the narrative around Prada’s utter stupidity in their SoHo window display of items from their Pradamalia collection.

AOC readers know that we do not hop on the bandwagon of every alleged act of fashion industry cultural appropriation or racism. But Givhan is correct and we concur: what in goddesses name were you thinking Prada?

Let’s take a different approach here because Givan has done a superb job of also telling the experience of Chinyere Ezie’s reaction upon seeing the Prada store window in Soho. We will quote liberally in a moment, but let’s back up even further and introduce Prada to this woman. From her website:

Chinyere Ezie (Cheen-Yer-Ray Ay-Zee-Ay) is a nationally recognized civil rights lawyer and social justice activist who specializes in constitutional litigation and anti-discrimination work. In 2016, Chinyere was named one of the country's Best LGBT Lawyers Under 40. 

Chinyere is a Staff Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights where she focuses on racial justice, gender justice, and LGBT rights work. Chinyere previously worked as a Staff Attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center LGBT Rights Project, where she was lead counsel for transgender rights activist Ashley Diamond in her suit against the Georgia Department of Corrections. Chinyere also worked as a Trial Attorney at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission where she successfully represented employees who had been subjected to discrimination--securing a $5.1 million dollar trial verdict. 

Chinyere is a William J. Fulbright Scholar and a graduate of Yale University and Columbia Law School, where she served as President of Columbia Outlaws and Editor in Chief of the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law. 

She also clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and worked as an associate at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen, and Hamilton LLP in New York City.

In her free time, Chinyere enjoys photography, graphic design, and spending time with her wife and puppy.

Based on her stellar credentials, Chinyere Ezie more than qualifies as Prada’s target customer, although she is not one. Now, via Robin Givhan’s narrative, we share Ezie’s experience on meeting up with Prada’s SoHo window. Personally, I think all the great African goddesses were her spirit wings in this painful life episode, quietly hopping as invisible spirits on her shoulders when Ezie left DC’s National Museum of African American History and Culture for the return trip to New York.

Life In A Heavy Space

Hao Zeng Flashes Ange-Marie + Najiyah In 'Cool Kids' For L'Officiel Malaysia December 2018

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Models French beauty Ange-Marie Moutambou and New York-based Najiyah Imani are ‘Cool Kids’, styled by Jeffrey Yan in Marc Jacobs Grunge looks. Photographer Hao Zeng captures the duo for L’Officiel Malaysia December 2018./ Makeup by Deanna Melluso

LVMH Acquires Luxury Travel's Belmond Hotels | Will Bernard Arnault Help Save The Elephants

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LVMH Acquires Luxury Travel's Belmond Hotels | Will Bernard Arnault Help Save The Elephants

AOC awoke Saturday morning to news that LVMH has set in motion the acquisition of Belmond Hotels. “Belmond, a fast-growing company based in London, offers its wealthy customers some of the most opulent travel experiences money can buy in settings like the Hotel Cipriani in Venice, the Copacabana Palace in Rio de Janeiro and Orient Express trains connecting major European cities,” wrote The New York Times.

LVMH, the world’s largest luxury company based on revenues from brands like Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton and Fendi, offered to pay $25 a share for Belmond, a premium of more than 40 percent on the company’s closing price, in a deal valued at $2.6 billion.

The deal emphasized the limitless financial resources available to the world’s very rich customers. as well as the ongoing move away from buying ‘things’ and the growing appetite for ‘experiences’. This transition to the value of ‘experiences’ is pronounced among the entire younger generation, regardless of income, and dovetails well with their environmental concerns over accumulating more stuff.

Perhaps it was no coincidence that Friday’s Porter Edit had a sponsored post from Belmond Africa, based in South Africa and Botswana. The luxury hotel jumping off point gave us an opportunity to update the hot topic of the well-being of Botswana’s elephants, the largest elephant population in Africa and one that has been relatively stable until disputed reports of almost 90 dead elephants hit headlines in September.

Mitch Landrieu Launches E Pluribus Unum Fund For Racial Reconciliation With Backing By Emerson Collective

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Mitch Landrieu Launches E Pluribus Unum Fund For Racial Reconciliation With Backing By Emerson Collective

The removal of the statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis in New Orleans, was the second of four Confederate monuments scheduled by then New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu for relocation in advance of the city’s 300 anniversary. The larger-than-life image of Davis atop an ornate granite pedestal roughly 15-feet high was erected in 1911, nearly 50 years after the end of the war, and commissioned by the Jefferson Davis Memorial Association.

A month earlier workers dismantled an obelisk that was erected in 1891 to honor members of the Crescent City White League who in 1874 fought in the Reconstruction-era Battle of Liberty Place against the racially integrated New Orleans police and state militia.

Two other works were also removed in the summer of 2017: a bronze statue of Gen. Robert E Lee that has stood in a traffic circle, named Lee Circle, in the city’s central business district since 1884, and an equestrian statue of P.G.T. Beauregard, a Confederate general. 

Former Alabama Senator and Attorney General in the Trump Administration Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III bears the Confederate general’s name.

Protests on both sides of the Confederate statue debate were fierce, prompting Mayor Landrieu to make an eloquent, emotional and gifted speech on the subject of removing the Confederate monuments on Friday, May 19, 2017.

The full text of Landrieu’s speech was published by The New York Times. I consider it to be one of the best speeches I’ve ever heard — from its sweeping beginning to its soul-wrenching end.

Thank you for coming.

The soul of our beloved City is deeply rooted in a history that has evolved over thousands of years; rooted in a diverse people who have been here together every step of the way — for both good and for ill. It is a history that holds in its heart the stories of Native Americans — the Choctaw, Houma Nation, the Chitimacha. Of Hernando De Soto, Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, the Acadians, the Islenos, the enslaved people from Senegambia, Free People of Colorix, the Haitians, the Germans, both the empires of France and Spain. The Italians, the Irish, the Cubans, the south and central Americans, the Vietnamese and so many more. Read on.

Charlee Fraser Is Lensed By Jason Kim In 'December Beauty' For Vogue Arabia December 2018

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Model Charlee Fraser is styled by Daniel Edley in ‘December Beauty’, lensed by Jason Kim for Vogue Arabia December 2018./ Hair by Romina Manenti; makeup by Morgane Martini

Petrovsky + Ramone Flash A Glittering Michelle Van Bijnen For L'Officiel Netherlands December 2018

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Model Michelle Van Bijnen glitters in sheer elegance styled by Camille Josephine Teisseire. Photographer Petrovsky & Ramone are behind the lens for L’Officiel Netherlands December 2018./ Hair by Daan Kneppers; makeup by Kathinka Germant

Karolina Kurkova Covers Harper's Bazaar Russia January 2019, Lensed By Sonia Szostak

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Karolina Kurkova Covers Harper's Bazaar Russia January 2019, Lensed By Sonia Szostak

Czech beauty Karolina Kurkova covers the January 2019 issue of Harper’s Bazaar Russia. Ekaterina Tabakova chooses looks from Tibi, Victoria Beckham, Stella McCartney and more for images by Sonia Szostak.

Nancy Pelosi's Max Mara 'Fire Coat' Worn To Obama's Second Inauguration Will Be Reissued

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Nancy Pelosi's Max Mara 'Fire Coat' Worn To Obama's Second Inauguration Will Be Reissued

Nancy Pelosi's 2013 Max Mara ‘Fire Coat’ is about to make a comeback!! ‘Beale’ Street Director Barry Jenkins must be orgasmic.

On Wednesday evening, Max Mara announced that the jacket setting Twitter blazing was its "Fire Coat," which the Italian fashion house last sold in 2013. However, because the coat is drawing so much attention, the Italian fashion brand confirms that it will reissue it in 2019 in a range of colors, including Pelosi's red/rust shade.

Now all we need is 'Beale Street' director Barry Jenkins -- who really was the catalyst behind the red coat blast -- and Pelosi in a DC ad shot, and fashion has made history.

In a statement, Max Mara Creative Director Ian Griffiths said:

The FIRE COAT is a boule shaped coat with a funnel collar — which is very feminine — but it has a shoulder and sleeve that are cut quite sharply. So whilst the body is soft, the shoulders give it structure. That contrast between masculine and feminine gives it modernity. This coat was designed over 6 years ago; a good coat is a life companion so it should be designed not to date. Ms Pelosi wore this coat to the Presidential Inauguration in 2013, and again for her historic meeting at the White House in 2018, so it clearly means something to her. You develop an emotional relationship with a coat like nothing else in your wardrobe and Max Mara coats are much more than just clothes. They represent lasting values, they project personal strength and glamour. I can imagine why Ms Pelosi chose to wear the FIRE COAT for this important moment and I'm honoured.