Louis Vuitton Artful Petting Zoo | Nikolaj Hübbe | Sophia Loren Interview

Design

Luxe Leather Garanimals

Here’s a Louis Vuitton Monogram Canvas Grasshopper and a Vuitton Monogram Empreinte Leather Armadillo Racked National

Louis Vuitton has gone to the dogs … no the grasshoppers and armadillos. This amazing luxury accessories art ‘petting zoo’ was created to promote LV’s new personalized ‘mon monagram’ wherein one can get their monogrammed goods personalized with initials and colored stripes.

The Tokyo zoo was designed by puppet-designer Billie Acchilleos of the UK, and they join 20 other animals she has already done for the London and New York “maison” stores. See many more images at Tokyo Fashion Diaries.

Les Artistes

Dance Routines

Where the World Comes to Dance WSJ

The Mariinsky (Kirov) Ballet will bring its production of ‘The Little Humpbacked Horse’ to the Lincoln Center Festival in July. Image Natasha Razina The criticism of ‘Black Swan’ hasn’t died down. The WSJ reminds readers that on May 22, the Los Angeles Times ran an interview with New York City Ballet principal dancer Nikolaj Hübbe—who is now the artistic director of the Royal Danish Ballet—in which he said of the film: “It’s the worst piece of hideous crap I’ve ever seen. I just thought it was scintillatingly awful.”

For lovers of ballet who resent that the art form is ‘often treated like a dead language’, we read about five world-class ballet companies appearing in New York this summer: The Royal Danish Ballet; the National Ballet of Cuba; American Ballet Theater; New York City Ballet; and the Russian Mariinsky (Kirov) Ballet.

Royal Danish Ballet: Nikolaj Hübbe electrifies the Royal Danish Ballet LA Times

Royal Danish Ballet Alba Nadal and Tim Matiakis in Los on Slow. (Per Morten Abrahamsen / Segerstrom Center for the Arts)“I’ve been here 11 years and I’ve never, ever seen the level of technique higher or the atmosphere as charged,” said Amy Watson, a principal dancer in the Royal Danish Ballet, during a phone interview from Copenhagen. “Nikolaj is always searching, and that’s what makes him different. He doesn’t have that closed-minded, old-school ballet master feeling of ‘This is how it was done in 1955, and this is the way it’s going to be.’ He has made a huge difference.”

Watson says she was startled and initially concerned by the changes Nikolaj made in her role in Bournonville’s “Napoli.” Hübbe got rid of God and piety, introduced ‘the edge and roughness of Fellini into the production and told Watson to stop being a priss and act like Sophia Loren.

Nikolaj was like, ‘Hello! She’s Italian, she should be like Sophia Loren. She should be sexy and intimidating and know what her sexuality does to people.’ That was phenomenal to me.

People

Rihanna Gucci racism lawsuit Vogue.com UK

A lawsuit filed by former Gucci employee Josephine Robinson claims that the luxury brand paid Rihanna less money for modeling because she isn’t a US citizen.

Robinson is seeking $5 million in damages for what she calls “an unrelenting barrage of racist comments and jokes at her expense by Sherwood and others at Gucci”, the New York Post reports. She was dismissed by the company last year, she alleges, after she complained about the treatment.

Sophia Loren Interviewed by Billy Crystal at Academy Tribute: I Am Never Content Thompson on Hollywood

On May 4, The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences hosted a gala tribute to Sophia Loren, who will be 77 this September. Loren had asked for old friend Billy Crystal to host the evening. ‘Like John Travolta and most of the other American men that night, Crystal insisted on rambling on about her beauty, curves, body etc,’ writes Thompson.

It was director Lena Wertmuller — the rare women to be nominated for a directing Oscar — who got off Loren’s body, cutting to the chase, saying: ‘She was also great actress.’  (Note: this story has great videos and details from Sophia Loren’s career.)