Steffi Thaler in Dolce Gabbana Lingerie, Accessories for L’Beauté Mexico

Steffi Thaler in Dolce Gabbana Lingerie, Accessories for L’Beauté Mexico

Spanish model Steffi Thaler invites us into the evolving world of Italian brand Dolce & Gabbana, featured in this expansive, lingerie-rich, sensual dressing fashion story in Mexico’s L’Beauté Magazine.

At the beginning of 2022, the Italian fashion house revealed that the brand intended to end its licensing deal with Shiseido, taking Dolce & Gabbana’s fragrance and beauty lines (founded in 1992 and 2009 respectively) in-house.

In September 2023 Dolce & Gabbana Beauty released a fragrance named Devotion. At the end of 2023, the brand carved out a space for its fragrance and beauty products in its flagship London store on 6-8 Bond St.

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Loro Piana Spring 2023 Campaign Grand Italian Tour by Inez & Vinoodh

Loro Piana Spring 2023 Campaign Grand Italian Tour by Inez & Vinoodh

Loro Piana is also on an Italian grand tour in the cashmere brand’s Spring/Summer 2023 campaign.

Models Amar Akway, Mika Schneider, Rianne Van Rompaey and Leon Dame present an appetizer excursion of authentic Italian experiences that are in communion with nature, land and community.

Inez and Vinoodh [IG] capture the quartet, styled by Aleksandra Woroniecka./ Makeup by Lisa Butler; hair by Eugene Souleiman

Writing about Loro Piana’s Fall 2022 collection and campaign, AOC shared highly-specific information about a decade’s worth of the brand’s processes and control over its cashmere production.

‘Transparency’ is a stake in the ground among today’s cashmere brands, including less expensive but very well-run cashmere labels. There is no “Don’t worry, be happy, I’ve got this issue under control so you don’t have to worry” in today’s cashmere business.

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Catherine McNeil Is Back! Married, Sober and Ready To Rumble in Vogue Australia

Catherine McNeil Is Back! Married, Sober and Ready To Rumble in Vogue Australia

Catherine McNeil covered the November 2022 issue of Vogue Australia, styled by Petta Chua in ‘Catherine McNeil’s Great Comeback’.

In Fall 2019, the top, top model walked out of the Burberry show, returned to New York, got off social media, put her furniture on the street — according to Vogue Australia — and bought a one-way ticket home to the country that would nurture her back to health.

Photographer Jake Terrey [IG] captures Catherine McNeil who has returned to the world of fashion modeling sober, married this month to former NBA American basketball player Miles Plumlee, and now possessed of an identity outside of fashion.

You must have guts to walk away and come back clear-headed and accept your fashion-model fate.

To do it twice? It’s called emotional and psychological depth and an absolute willingness to face the woman in the mirror head-on. Simply-stated, you become a warrior woman. ~ Anne

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Givenchy Spring 2023 Campaign Prompts a Fresh Look at Brand Strategy

Givenchy Spring 2023 Campaign Prompts a Fresh Look at Brand Strategy

Reviews for this new Givenchy Spring 2023 campaign have been very positive. It would seem that holding the line and trying to make this vision of Givenchy work has merit.

In October, the New York Times explored the evolution [or confusion] around Williams’ vision for Givenchy.

Reminding readers that Givenchy has no core house identity, the sequence of designers at Givenchy has further created murky waters.

As for the talented American creative director Mr. Williams, does a former Kanye West acolyte, have a vision capable of translating Givenchy in modern terms — especially when none of us knows anymore, what Givenchy is about?

Because it’s game over if Mr. West, legally known as Ye, gets anywhere near an advisory role to Mr. Williams to help sort out his quandary.

From all I’ve read about him, Williams can’t possibly share West’s ‘I’ve never read a book, because I don’t need to’ attitude.

As The Atlantic explained this week: “Identifying as someone who categorically rejects books suggests a much larger deficiency of character.”

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Vogue Celebrates the 'Year of the Rabbit' with Artist Cai Guo-Qiang and Plenty of Gunpowder

Vogue Celebrates the 'Year of the Rabbit' with Artist Cai Guo-Qiang and Plenty of Gunpowder

Models He Cong, Sherri Shi, Sora Choi and Yumi Nu are styled by Gabriella Karefa-Johnson in a celebratory, fashion-extravagance happening that was ignited by gunpowder.

New York-Paris based artist Theo Liu [IG] packed up his photography studio essentials, as the creative entourage assembled at contemporary artist Cai Guo-Qiang's studio in a ‘Year of the Rabbit celebration running globally on multiple Vogues, including in the US.

Under Cai's guidance, the models became his interns, hand-carving stencils using a utility blade and extinguishing the flying sparks of the gunpowder explosions with cotton pompoms.

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Miu Miu Spring 2023 Campaign Promises Deep Life-Enhancing Impact on Those Who Buy It

Miu Miu Spring 2023 Campaign Promises Deep Life-Enhancing Impact on Those Who Buy It

Note from AOC: The Spring Summer 2023 Miu Miu campaign is not for mere mortals. It is for the fashion rebels, “united in their courage and desire to challenge conventions” by wearing Miu Miu. You are now absorbing the meaning of meeting this deadly-serious assembly of warrior-women models and talents who understand that by choosing Miu Miu, the decision has a “deep impact on life, enhancing it more and more.”

Hopefully, their sartorial Miu Miu brand enlightenment can be transferred to us, if only we open our minds to these exceptional fashion prophets.

All bow down now and breathe deeply.

Good goddess, I LOVE Miuccia Prada. Lips zipped, because I am not worthy to speak of this campaign’s brilliance. Not one more word. xxxx ~ Anne

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Ajok Daing at 'Alex Kata: Gathering' Guggenheim Show by Alex Webb for Vogue US

Ajok Daing at 'Alex Kata: Gathering' Guggenheim Show by Alex Webb for Vogue US

The Winter 2022.23 Issue of American Vogue takes us to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum on upper Fifth Avenue in New York City.

Model Ajok Daing is our guide to view “Alex Katz: Gathering,” curated by Katherine Brinson. The show opened in late October, and you can view the Katz exhibit through February 20, 2023.

The fashion story “Go Big!” trends both the paintings and our spring 2023 focus on very large bags. Max Ortega styles this delicious fashion story lensed by Alex Webb [IG].

American designer Claire McCardell, deeply celebrated on an ongoing basis by designer Tory Burch, caught Alex Katz’s eye decades ago. Her spirit is a major muse behind the current exhibition.

Katz, who is not a fan of the superfluous or fussy in any art form, tells the New York Times how “unaffected” her designs were: “They’re perfect now because everything is so pretentious,” he says. “The idea was, you can spend the day welding and go home and cook some hamburgers outdoors and wear the same clothes.”

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Kaia Gerber Lights Up ELLE February 2022 in Malibu with Cass Bird

Kaia Gerber Lights Up ELLE February 2022 in Malibu with Cass Bird

Top model and ingenue actor Kaia Gerber, now 21, covers the February 2023 issue of ELLE US. Alex White styles the Celine ambassador in Celine, of course, with sprinkles of Ralph Lauren Collection and an American flag dress from Vaquera. Cass Bird [IG] is behind the lens at the beach in Malibu.

Kaia Gerber has never been “model light” in her interviews. Hyland asks her multiple times about her mental health — like don’t we ask every multi-million $$$$ model today about her mental health?

Kaia shrugs it off with a smile — the smile of plenty of loving, hard work on Kaia — not to fix herself or those around her. But to engage with and gain a young person’s understanding of life around her.

There’s really a lot to like about this young woman. REALLY a lot to like. ~ Anne

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Activists Anya Taylor-Joy, Yara Shahidi Dior Forever Foundation Campaign 2023

Activists Anya Taylor-Joy, Yara Shahidi Dior Forever Foundation Campaign 2023

“Black-ish” and spinoff “Grown-ish” actor Yara Shahidi has exciting news. She will be joining American Ballet Theater principal ballet dancer Misty Copeland in Abu Dhabi for the Know Your Value and Forbes Magazine second annual 2023 Forbes 30/50 Summit, running concurrently with International Women’s Day from March 7-10.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is headlining the 2023 Forbes 30/50 Summit, that is organized by Huma Abedin, vice chair of the 30/50 Summit, along with Forbes editor Maggie McGrath and “Morning Joe” co-host, and founder of Know Your Value Mika Brzezinski.

Anya Taylor-Joy was named to the Forbes Europe 30 Under 30 List in 2019. She was honored last November by Harper’s Bazaar UK in their 2022 Women of the Year Awards.

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Louis Vuitton FW 2023 Menswear with Colm Dillane Is Praise-Worthy

Louis Vuitton FW 2023 Menswear with Colm Dillane Is Praise-Worthy

I personally went back over Virgil’s older shows and the influence of the menswear design studio is strong in the Fall 2023 collection. This is not about radical change.

AOC remains a believer that Beccari and Arnault will take the menswear design group for an innovative spin — sort of a design laboratory that focuses on the future studio workplace.

But to hear in March that Colm Dillane gets his LV men’s position would not surprise us. AOC believes strongly that elegance is in the wind. I did keep asking myself “Would Jay-Z wear these clothes? Would the NBA players wear these clothes because the LV Men’s NBA clothes are fabulous.

We are positive that LVMH will make some kind of investment in Dillane. His whole story and his talent are pretty irresistable.

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Natalie Portman Delivers Janis Joplin and a Call to WAKE UP for Miss Dior Fragrance

Natalie Portman Delivers Janis Joplin and a Call to WAKE UP for Miss Dior Fragrance

At first glance Natalie Portman’s new Miss Dior Blooming Bouquet campaign seems straightforward enough. The floral scent features notes of bergamot essence, Damascus rose, and peony with the tagline: “Love is a bouquet.”

The music to Natalie Portman’s new Miss Dior Blooming Bouquet campaign is Janis Joplin for heaven’s sake. I thought I was going to lose my mind.

When Natalie Portman looks straight at me in a Janis Joplin music commercial and says WAKE UP, she has my undivided attention.

AOC wrote in 2019 about Natalie Portman’s human connection and deep respect for Catherine Dior. The Miss Dior fragrance was named for Christian Dior’s sister who was a member of the French resistance during WWII. Catherine was sent to multiple concentration camps in Germany.

In the 2019 interview for Harpers Bazaar UK, the Hollywood star had sober words for progressive optimists:

“I think it’s a mistake to think of humanity as evolving,” the intellectually-accomplished Portman explains. You want to believe it, for sure, but it’s more like cycles of violence. Yet we’ve had an extraordinary lifetime of peace, too, so it’s allowed us to live in this belief that progress is being made.”

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Tiffany Blue Is Star of Fendi X Tiffany Winter Campaigns by Johnny Dufort

Tiffany Blue Is Star of Fendi X Tiffany Winter Campaigns by Johnny Dufort

Technically-speaking this fashion campaign is about Fendi’s x Tiffany winter-drop two weeks before the holidays. Yet the power of a color — Tiffany Blue — defines it’s larger message and impact. The campaign is promoted almost solely by Fendi.

Trademarked as a color in 1998, and added as an official color to the Pantone system in 2001 [use governed exclusively by Tiffany], the color was trademarked in every classification.

Maverick artist Stuart Semple dared Tiffany & Co to sue him, when he liberated Tiffany Blue in 2021, creating Tiff.

Most IP lawyers agree that Tiffany would have won a lawsuit against Semple. The question was if they really wanted to sue artists — famous and not famous — the audience who bought the soldout Tiff acrylic paint at once.

The answer is no.

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Wild Romance Denim Nicola and Brooklyn Style for Vogue US Winter 2023

Wild Romance Denim Nicola and Brooklyn Style for Vogue US Winter 2023

The Winter 2023 issue of American Vogue [IG] declares a love affair with wide-leg jeans. Glam couple Nicola Peltz and Brooklyn Beckham front the fashion story and the 1970s vibe that inspired so many changes in American society.

Remember, we are in the dawning of ‘The Age of Aquarius’, so it makes sense. Speaking of wild romance terrain and wide-leg jeans “worth falling for,” Vogue is mum about married couple Peltz and Beckham’s intense friendship with Selena Gomez, called a ‘throuple’ by Selena. Media is eager to define the lifestyle of ‘Gopeltzham’.

If Brooklyn and Nicola hadn’t sold their home recently, moving into Selena’s Encino estate before Christmas, the big news would be that Peltz and Gomez have matching tatoos.

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Dior Beauty Mitzah Collection, Simone de Beauvoir and Animal Prints: Tensions in Women's History

Dior Beauty Mitzah Collection, Simone de Beauvoir and Animal Prints: Tensions in Women's History

No one has been more committed to use her fashion shows platform to tell women’s stories than Maria Grazia Chiuri.

Dior ambassador Anya Taylor-Joy has a life-long passion and fascination with animals. The star adores animal prints, making her the perfect face for Dior Beauty’s Dior Mitzah collection.

Christian Dior’s original muse Mitzah Bricard inspired him to recognize the leopard print as a reputable trend.

Mitzah’s advice was: “When a man wants to send you flowers, always say — ‘my florist is Cartier.’” “Madame Bricard is one of the rare people for whom elegance is their sole reason for living,” wrote Dior.

Simone de Beauvoir’s ‘The Second Sex’ was published in 1949, when the French existentialist philosopher, social theorist and feminist activist was age 41.

The lifelong partner and lover of Jean Paul Sartre wrote a piece for Vogue in 1947, arguing that “Femininity is a Trap”. Dior’s Chiuri used the 1947 statement in her Pre-Fall 2022 show.

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Florence Pugh Covers Vogue US Winter 2022, Talks Her Radical Self-Acceptance

Florence Pugh Covers Vogue US Winter 2022, Talks Her Radical Self-Acceptance

Colin Dodgson [IG] is in the kitchen with Pugh as she talks ‘Florence Pugh’s Radical Self-Acceptance’ with Chloe Schama. / Hair by Akki Shirakawa; makeup by Fara Homidi. 

Schama describes Florence Pugh as somebody who exudes “a let’s-go gameness.” It was on full-display in summer 2022, when Pugh wore a sheer Valentino dress that was transparent and showed — goddess forbid — her nipples.

“. . . we were always naked as kids,” Pugh says. “We are human, we are bodies.”

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LVMH Moves: Pietro Beccari Will Lead Louis Vuitton | Delphine Arnault At Helm of Dior

LVMH Moves: Pietro Beccari Will Lead Louis Vuitton | Delphine Arnault At Helm of Dior

LVMH made major news this morning with significant executive suite moves at motherlode brands Dior and Louis Vuitton.

Pietro Beccari, the chairman and CEO of Christian Dior Couture, has been appointed chairman and CEO of Louis Vuitton, succeeding Michael Burke.

Delphine Arnault, the executive vice president of Louis Vuitton, who oversees all of its product-related activities including the blockbuster January 2023 Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusame collaboration, has been named chairman and CEO of Christian Dior Couture.

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Kindred Spirits Welcome 'Aquarius' Lensed by Kapturing for Vogue Czech January 2023

Kindred Spirits Welcome 'Aquarius' Lensed by Kapturing for Vogue Czech January 2023

Models Bente Oort, Enzo Kobayashi, Ismael Savane, and Teo Bates are styled by Jan Kralicek in Dior, a brand truly focused on a future world governed by ‘Aquarius’.

The Age of Aquarius predicts a time of major female empowerment. Is it an accident that in 2022 the definition of ‘woman’ was the most searched word in 2022 on dictionary.com?

Major progressive organizations in America are writing the word ‘woman’ out of their vocabularies. We blame anything anti-woman on Republicans in America.

AOC argues that writing women out of our laws, because a small number of trans men with intact ovaries and a uterus might be capable of bearing children in the future is a topic for national conversation.

If one even asks the question, we are called bigots. For years we’ve spoken of breast cancer not only being a women disease. It also claims men. What was wrong with that approach?

This is only a Dior fashion story for the January 2023 issue of Vogue Czech, lensed by Florian and Sebastian [IG]. Take a chill pill, Anne.

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Brooklyn KidSuper Founder Colm Dillane Co-Creates Louis Vuitton AW 2023 Menswear

Brooklyn KidSuper Founder Colm Dillane Co-Creates Louis Vuitton AW 2023 Menswear

KidSuper founder Colm Dillane, Brooklyn’s homegrown superhero, will return to Paris Fashion Week, as the luxury fashion equivalent of an ‘artist as residence’ in the creation of the Louis Vuitton Autumn/Winter 2023 menswear collection.

Mr. Dillane, 31, is considered to be a great storyteller. In 2021, the prestigious LNMH Prize awarded him the runner-up Karl Lagerfeld prize with two other designers. Dillane thrives on collaboration, as did Abloh, and his commercial partners have run the gamut from Puma to SpaghettiOs.

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Charlie Hebdo Drops the Gauntlet in Paris As Iran Resumes Brutal Hijab Crackdown

Charlie Hebdo Drops the Gauntlet in Paris As Iran Resumes Brutal Hijab Crackdown

Arab News Tehran reports that Iran’s judiciary has ordered police to “firmly punish” people who violate the country’s hijab law, a news agency reported Tuesday, January 10.

France’s Charlie Hebdo magazine, a French satirical weekly magazine, has again provoked the Iranians, publishing cartoons mocking Iran’s ruling clerics and their aggression against the protesters.

Two French-born al-Qaida extremists attacked the newspaper’s office in 2015, killing 12 people in Paris on January 7, 2015. Today the irreverent publication operates from a secret location with round-the-clock police protection, continuing its refusal to bow down to right-wing, religious zealots of any ideology, not only Islam.

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Natalia Vodianova on Sisterhood, Activism, Philanthropy in Vogue Beauty Paper

Natalia Vodianova on Sisterhood, Activism, Philanthropy in Vogue Beauty Paper

Supermodel Natalia Vodianova covers Vogue Beauty Paper, January 2023, a media project of Vogue China. Natalia is styled by Michelle Cameron, with creative direction by Matt Mcdonald. Photographer Hugo Comte [IG] is in the studio.

Natalia Vodianova’s stratospheric rise has been breathtaking, as she increasingly turns her attention to her work as a philanthropist, impact investor and UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador.

In Nepal and India, large numbers of women do not have the right to touch food or crops while they are menstruating, because they can cause bad luck to their families. A 2019 study found that 77% of west-central Nepali girls and young women actively practice menstrual exile, even though it is now illegal in India.

Girls in Bolivia are still told that their period blood causes illnesses like cancer in other people.

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