Daily French Roast

Anne is writing …

Anilez Silva ‘Africa’ by Daniel Bracci Delves Into Women’s Collective Unconscious AOC Rebel

Looking at Daniel Bracci’s magnificent images of Anilez Silva entitled ‘Africa’, my rational mind says “don’t go there, Anne”. Our politically correct world only sees stereotypes where you see art and connection.

After all, Anilez Silva is fiercely tribal, sensual, erotic, impenetrable, dangerous, ancestral, aboriginal and ancient. She is ferocious, native, natural, primeval and primitive; turbulent, unbroken and proud.

My friends at Jezebel would probably hate her. We tend not to see eye-to-eye on a few issues, and this is one of them. Are Bracci’s images stereotypical? Racist? I’m not an African American — or African woman — or African Parisian woman, so I can only speak to how these images affect me personally.

When the subject is Africa, I have a visceral response that another person might have with India. Most Americans have no visceral response at all, in terms of connection with “foreign” imagery, but this is not the case for me.

Wandering through Paris on a creative mission for Victoria’s Secret, my affinity for African art brought me a small museum in Paris called Musée Dapper, located then in a small townhouse at 50 Avenue Victor Hugo. I went there after the breakup of a serious love affair (again), wanting to escape current reality for an hour.

Thankfully, when I entered the almost colonial feeling townhouse of the old Dapper, it was mid-afternoon and raining, leaving the museum empty. Drawn immediately to a room of mounted masks, I sat down on a bench, alone with ancestral voices, personifications of good and evil, oracles from the spirit world, and witnesses to history. Almost instantaneously, I was overcome with an intense sorrow.

Anne of Carversville

Eye | Givenchy ‘Dahlia Noir’ Fragrance | Kate Scott Dahlias | Phoebe English AOC Style

MariaCarla Boscono fronts Givenchy’s ‘Dahlia Noir’ fragrance campaign by Mert & Marcus.

Givenchy creative director Riccardo Tisci loves dahlias, comparing them to his vision of beauty, danger and women. His creatures are mystical and mysterious, both male and female, strong and fragile — a vision of a modern goddess, says the Dahlia Noir website.

‘Opus in Red’ by Kate ScottGivenchy’s ‘Dahlia Noir’ Woman Is A Freja Goddess GlamTribale

Granted, most of the goddesses enjoyed powerful personas. But writing about the Givenchy woman, GlamTribale’s Freja Goddess collection came to mind, and also the dahlias of my dear friend, photographer Kate Scott.

Kate’s erotic, deeply-sensual dahlias express the feminine strength expressed in the design of our Freja collection.

GlamTribale.com Freja Ribbon Hoop Pierced Earrings