GlamTribale Jewelry Captures Fall 2012 Botanica Erotica Trend

Fall 2012 Eroticism Embraces Flowers at Nina Ricci

Flowers, fauna and Mother Nature accompanied by model Kati Nescher star in Nina Ricci’s Fall/Winter 2012/13 campaign, lensed by Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin. Front and center are the new La Rue handbags made of alligator skin — a product objectionable to some AOC readers.

Nescher faces off against the contrasting botanical watercolor painting illustrated by artist Jo Ratcliffe.

Exotic Nature @ Florabotanica

The eroticism of nature makes any play for attention in Balenciaga’s new fragrance Florabotanica, due out in September.  Aimed at a younger audience than Balenciaga Paris, the scent was created by perfumers Oliver Polge and Jean-Christophe Hérault, who worked in collaboration with Balenciaga’s designer Nicolas Ghesquière.

Kristen Stewart is the face of Florabotanica, because she embodies the modernity of the scent with her unique sensibility and intelligence. The campaign is photographed by Steven Meisel.

Cleve West’s Brewin Dolphin Garden @ Chelsea Flower Show

Image by Martin PopeInnocence is deceiving writes The Financial Times about this year’s winner of top garden at the Chelsea Flower Show.

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David Austin Roses Inspire Our Humanity, Spirituality & Sensual Selves

Image Robert Rothschid; Styled by Anne EnkeCan you imagine if David Austin roses were on my doorstep this weekend, when sending a digital bouquet to AOC readers became a high priority!

Do not wince dear Superfresh grocery store flowers because your image — and message of intimacy and sensuality — went far and wide on Facebook this weekend. (See This Weekend, Please Take Time To Smell the Roses | Laduree Brings Macaroon Pleasure to New York.)

Except for my dear friend Scottish photographer Kate Scott — who is hard at work on perfecting her images of David Austin roses and also my FB friend Sherry Palmer, who grows them in British Colombia, Canada — most of my friends don’t know the complete knockout visual treat I could have created with David Austin roses.

Always a lover of erotic blooms in particular — my first retail venture was a plant store after all — I’m swept away by David Austin roses. Forgive me for being a tiny bit improper, but David Austin roses are a real bodice ripper, when the subject is heavenly, intoxicating blooms. 

If Eve had succumbed to a David Austin rose rather than an apple, I might believe her role in temptation story. Kicked out of the Garden of Eden, I only hope that Eve would have stripped the bushes bare with the knowledge that no matter what her and Adam’s suffering, her David Austin roses represented a sensual anchor that would last her beleaguered lifetime.

David Austin roses are a gift to humanity, one that inspires our best selves — flowers that elevate our spirituality and awe of the natural universe, all common themes at AOC.

I begged Kate Scott to share her David Austin work in process, as a prelude to showing you some favorite images of popular David Austin roses. Here are her images, and links to my other writing about Kate’s exquisite images.

Many of my digital journeys bring extraordinary rewards, and this David Austin rose excursion was no exception. I’ve discovered some extraordinary digital jewels this morning and will devote more writing space to sharing these wonderful blog treasures. Anne

Kate Scott work in process: David Austin roses

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Linda McCartney | Beatles' LOVE | India's Elephants | Chelsea Flower Show Vertical Garden

People

Linda McCartney Photographs

Linda McCartney: a life through the lens The Telegraph

Linda Eastman McCartney may have married a Beatle, but her big break came from the Rolling Stones. In 1966 Linda Eastman snared an invite aboard a yacht on the Hudson River, attending a publlicity event for the Rolling Stones. By 1967 she was embedded in the global rock ‘n’ roll scene, photographing her future husband Paul McCartney, at a ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ album launch party in 1967.

On May 11, 1968 Linda became the first woman to have a photo on the cover of Rolling Stone, with her portrait of Eric Clapton.

Linda McCartney: Life in Photographs from Taschen comes in two editions; a limited (250 copies) Collector’s Edition which includes a pigment print on Hahnemuehle paper numbered and signed by Sir Paul McCartney ($1800), and a Trade Edition ($69.99). 240 pages. Read on at Amazon.

Beatles’ LOVE

Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono, Olivia Harrison and Beatles producer Sir George Martin will attend LOVE’s June 8 show at Las Begas’ Mirage Hotel and Casino. The Cirque du Soleil spectacle has had an enormously successful run in Las Vegas since it opened in 2006.

Guy Laliberté, Guides Cirque du Soleil NYTimes

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Jill Abramson Top Editor @NYTYimes | Tom Ford Documentary | Subversive Snow Globes

People

Glass Ceiling Shattered

Abramson to Replace Keller as The Time’s Executive Editor NYTimes

Former investigative reporter and Washington bureau chief for The New York Times, Jill Abramson will become the paper’s executive editor, succeeding Bill Keller, who will become a full-time writer for the paper.

Ms Abramson 57, said that a born-and-raised New Yorkers, she considered being named editor of The Times to be like ‘ascending to Valhalla’. The appointments are effective Sept. 6.

Ms. Abramson will be the first woman to be editor in the paper’s 160-year history.

The Man I Love

Must-See TV: Tom Ford Documentary Premieres on OWN June 24th Racked

Tom Ford with Carolyn Murphy at the Costume Institute Gala (Photo: Getty Images)In fact I don’t know him at all, but Tom Ford is my guy, a gay man who truly loves women and never causes me to lose an ounce of sleep over his intentions with my gender. Tom Ford has given what’s called an astonishingly honest and open portrayal of himself in an hour-long documentary set to premiere on the Oprah Winfrey Network June 24th. Without question, I will be watching. Note: Rescheduled to September.

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Zaha Hadid | Gardens of Marqueyssac | 'Dubai High' Book | Deer & Boxwood

Green Beings

Garden Woes | Natural Triumph

Boxwood: Loving What the Deer Don’t NYTimes

Deer hate boxwood — all 150 kinds in every size, shape, leaf form and colors. Boxwood contains alkaloids that are toxic to deer and humans both. Speaking of boxwood’s pungent odor, Oliver Wendell Homes described it as the ‘fragrance of eternity’. Its detractors say the fragrance is cat urine.

‘My plant palette is limited to what the deer don’t eat,’ says Andrea Filippone, 50 and an accomplished garden designer and antiques dealer.  With a degree in architecture from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard, she is partners with her husband in Tendenze Design, working on their property in Pottersville, NJ.

View a lovely slide show.

Natural Curves Ahead

The Beautiful Gardens of Marqueyssac in France  InspireFirst

My deep desire is to showcase the gardens of Marqueyssac in our new Sensuality News Curves Ahead blog. Curves are in abundance at Marqueyssac, but our subject in Daily Dose is boxwood.

The Château de Marqueyssac is a 17th century chateau and gardens located at Vézac, in the Dordogne Department of France. The chateau was built at the end of the 17th century by Bertrand Vernet de Marqueyssac, Counselor to Louis XIV, on cliffs overlooking the Dordogne Valley.

In the 1860s, the new owner, Julien de Cervel, began to plant thousands of boxwood trees - today there are over 150,000 - and had them carved in fantastic shapes, many in groups of rounded shapes like flocks of sheep. He also added linden trees, cypress trees, and stone pine from Italy, and introduced the cyclamen from Naples. Following the romantic style, he built rustic structures, redesigned the parterres, and laid out five kilometers of walks. Château de Marqueyssac  website.

Design

Womanly Architecture

The Greatest Buildings Never Built WSJ Magazine

Zaha Hadid’s proposed Dubai Performing Arts Center was a 2009 victim of the global economic slowdown.Before the global financial meltdown Dubai was on a course to make itself the global art center of the world. One of the architectural wonders in the dust heap (at least for now) is Zaha Hadid’s Performing Arts Center, part of the Saadiyat Island project.

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Female Sexuality Revealed Online, Marilyn Monroe & FBI, Bad Sugar

People

Marilyn Monroe

Bombshell Tapes Reveal New Marilyn Monroe Mystery AOL News April 26, 2011

Marilyn Monroe’s death on Aug. 5, 1962 remains one of the most mysterious and controversial ‘suicides’ in history.  Stories abound that Marilyn was taken alive to the hospital, then back home to die. Who knows what really happened?

Famous hair and makeup artist George Masters’ nephew turned over a set of tapes between them, prior to Masters’ — now destitute and drug addicted — death in 1998.

Details emerge of a trip not previously known about the day before Marilyn died, returning again on Frank Sinatra’s private jet to Lake Tahoe at the Cal-Neva Lodge. She was there with Sam Giancana, who was the head of the Mafia.

It’s alleged that Marilyn was about to talk about her relationship with the Kennedys, that she was given an enema with Nembutal. According to Masters, he believed that the FBI took Marilyn down.

Gwyneth Paltrow

Too Much Gwyneth Paltrow! The Daily Beast

Gwyneth Paltrow lensed by Peter Lindbergh is new ambassador for Coach

Given her enormous talents, why does Gwyneth Paltrow struggle to get respect in America? Tricia Romano speculates about why so many people are down on the upper-crust, blue-blood, blond Hollywood actress who just became an ambassador for Coach brand.

Crystal Renn

Anorexia in Thirds | 1/3 Die, 1/3 Relapse, 1/3 Recover AOC Daily Musings April 26, 2011

The NYTimes wrote a very sobering and scholarly article on recovery from anorexia, prompting us to declare our concern that the media and bloggers are getting major advice on anorexia from Crystal Renn.

We’ve been unsettled by Crystal’s recent conversations and comments before reading the NYTimes piece. Anorexia is a tremendously complicated disease, very similar to alcoholism.

We are wrong to keep focusing on Crystal Renn, who is a long way from a full recovery, based on facts about anorexia.

Sensual and Superyoung

Human Sexual Desire

The Online World of Female Desire WSJ April 30, 2011

Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam have written a new book ‘A Billion Wicked Thoughts: What the World’s Largest Experiment Reveals about Human Desire. 

Our Internet searches reveal much about us and so does neuroscience and brain scans. Understanding these facts gives us a much better understanding of sexuality and especially female sexuality where what we say and what we do are frequently at odds with each other.

One of the most interesting topics I’ve covered in my consulting work on female sexuality is that semantics mean everything. 

2006 Internet search stats confirm that women hate  the word porn, hitting the return key only 4% of the time in the 23 million searches for the word porn.

Having spent more time researching adult sites than I ever want to admit to, I understand totally why women detest the word porn. It’s gross out there.

The astute researcher digs deeper into women’s habits in the Internet’s erotic arena. If I told you that in 2006 women executed 50% of the 75 million searches for the word sex and 56% of the 14 million searches for teen sex, are you surprised? Read on: Sexy Doublespeak | American Women & Sexual Honesty.

Bad News Sugar

Is Sugar Toxic? NYTimes April 13, 2011

Researchers like Robert Lustig believe that being fatter isn’t the primary driver causing insulin resistance and the complications of disease. An in-depth NYT magazine article asks in it’s sugar that causes insulin resistance leading to cancer and other diseases. It’s dramatic to ask if sugar is poisoning our bodies, and the article doesn’t draw a firm conclusion.

But smart people like Anne, who are following the sugar story eat as little of it as possible for over a decade.

Nature

Flower Power in America

Lowe’s, Home Depot Locked in Annual Arms Race WSJ April 27, 2011

America not only goes to war over cupcakes but now gardening. Gardening is big business in America.

‘For Home Depot, the world’s largest home-improvement chain with $68 billion in annual revenue, and Lowe’s, the second largest with $49 billion, the stakes are large… . The National Gardening Association estimates that 28% of all U.S. households planted flowers last year … An industry rule of thumb is that for every $1 customers spend on plants, they spend about $3 on accessories like watering hoses, shovels and gardening gloves.’

J'Adore: The Gardens of Versailles

I’ve spent a lot of time this past week learning to “Think Different.”  My daily life and business strategies have been dictated by the need to “do something” and “do it fast”.  The technology forces dictating my response are out of my control, leaving me to complain in gloom and doom, or get clever to find a solution.

Alain Baraton has a far large life assignment than mine. Monsieur Baraton is charged with maintaining the magnificant gardens of Versailles. At the same time that French farmers in Lyon seek to preserve agricultural/horticultural patterns that are centuries old, Alain Baraton is defying the traditionalists and turning his back on centuries of horticultural practice.

Life in the land of Sun King fountains and Marie Antoinette fountains is under assault. The culprit: climate change.

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