Amman's Jordanian House of Art

via The Jordan TimesIn 2002, in honour of Amman’s selection as the capital of Arab culture, the Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) established the Jordanian House of Art in the building that once housed the famous school.

The House of Art, inaugurated by Her Majesty Queen Rania in May of that year, is part of GAM’s initiative to restore the city’s old landmarks and transform them into cultural institutions, and houses a collection of old Jordanian musical instruments as well as traditional Jordanian, Palestinian and Circassian clothing. The building also exhibits the original studios of Jordan Television and Jordan Radio.

Many local residents say that Wadi Seer Street and the Fatmah Zahraa School embody the very soul of Amman and serves as a historical lens for earlier life in the city. In what I admit is a romantic vision, many Circassian merchants used to come from Wadi Seer bringing various kinds of fruit, such as grapes and figs, to sell near the school.

The area was a prestigious one to residents lived here such as Hanan Toukan, the mother of the late Queen Alia, and Nasseriddine Assad, the prominent academician and former minister. I would truly love to visit! Anne

Calling It 'Practifashion', London Times Confirms Smart Sensuality Fashion Trend

The London Times style session notes that ‘practifashion’ is front and center in what’s hot and what’s not. I think the Times is clever like me, inventing new words in which they dominate SEO in the search term, because there’s no mention of ‘practifashion’ out there, except for the London Times.

Now this will change, as bloggers and other fashion writers jump onboard.

So kudos for being clever and summing up the style mood of a Smart Sensuality woman. (Note: I dominate the term Smart Sensuality, which sounds far more luscious than practifashion, don’t you think?)

Bottom line, we’re saying the same thing, and me first. Sorry, but this is Internet business here, my friends.

The London Times describes the new mood as ” us wanting to look less “I ordered from the look book” and more “stylish girl with a life”. There is an underlying practical agenda, but the fact is, in autumn 2009, it is cool to look like you’ve shopped your closet (or your boyfriend’s), picked up a bargain at Topshop and then splashed out on something that works for real life, rather than on something that makes you look like an oligarch’s wife from the 1980s. (These days, who wants to dress up like a kept dolly who’s never taken the bus?) Practifashion appeals to those of us who love fashion, but who also have to get around on a bike, pound the corridors at work, stop off at Tesco — and don’t want to pretend that we’re anything else. It’s the same instinct that made Havaianas as big in the Hamptons as they are at Greenpeace HQ. It’s why Alexa Chung is more of a fashion leader right now than Kate Moss.”

Alexa Chung