Guerlain Taps Aristide Najean To Honor Le Bouquet de la Mariée Fragrance

Guerlain Taps Aristide Najean To Honor Le Bouquet de la Mariée Fragrance

Renowned glassmaker Aristide Najean has collaborated with LVMH-owned Guerlain to honor the 170th anniversary of the luxury brand’s Bee Bottle. Najean created a fantastical Murano glass limited-edition flacon housing Guerlain's Le Bouquet de la Mariée fragrance.

Pierre-François-Pascal Guerlain created the first bee bottle to celebrate Empress Eugénie's marriage to Emperor Napoleon III on that date.

Napolean I — often called Napolean the Great as the military and political leader known to global historians — had personally chosen bees as a symbol of the French Empire because of their ancestral ties to resurrection, power, tenacity, and hard-work.

Guerlain’s 170th Anniversary Exhibit

Guerlain Director of Art, Culture and Heritage Ann-Caroline Prazan invites us to rediscover Guerlain’s iconic Bee Bottle, which celebrates its 170th anniversary in 2023 with a stunning exhibition at Guerlain’s flagship boutique.​

The House pays tribute to the iconic Bee Bottle by inviting eleven women artists to revisit the Flacon aux Abeilles in a 21st century artists update of Guerlain’s heritage.

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Guerlain #WomenforBees Project Led by Angelina Jolie in Yucatan for 2023

Guerlain #WomenforBees Project Led by Angelina Jolie in Yucatan for 2023

The partnership between Guerlain and UNESCO launched in early 2020, with the training of beekeepers with more than 50 hives based in Ethiopia, Rwanda, Cambodia and China. The five-year project has a goal of training 88 beekeepers from 44 biospheres maintaining 4.400 beehives, after which the partnership can be renewed.

In 2023, the program expanded to the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, in collaboration with the Fundación Selva Maya and Maroma, a Belmond Hotel.

To learn that the new LVMH Belmond Maroma Resort and Spa, re-opening August 3, 2023 is also a co-sponsor of the #WomenforBees project, gives Maroma a sense of purpose that has deep roots in ancient practices and traditions.

Reading Maroma’s IG description of its “place” is quite breathtaking and a tribute to LVMH’s approach to 21st century values in creating brand identity with real integrity and an embrace of ancient wisdom.

Maroma is a space of enchanting natural refinement, where ancient mysteries meet modern revelations. Our hotel is based on higher design—infinite and larger than the place itself. It was created originally by true believers of the Sacred Geometry, who aligned our white stucco buildings with the surrounding energy fields.

Understanding the respect that LVMH is giving to ancient wisdom and practices — writing about sacred geometry and the energy fields involved with the design of Maroma — had great impact on me, and I continue to process the many ways that LVMH is touching our lives in the world of luxury.

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Will American Bees Survive Pesticides, Government Dysfunction and Other Killers?

Will American Bees Survive Pesticides, Government Dysfunction and Other Killers? AOC Fashion

American [species] Bumble Bees Could Gain ESA Protection

AOC has followed the problem of dwindling bee populations for almost a decade. But we were shocked to learn this week that the American bumble bee population has dropped nearly 90 percent. These vital pollinators for wildflowers and crops have vanished completely in eight states: Idaho, Maine, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wyoming.

Presently American bumble bees have no protection. But an August 2021 petition for protecting the American bumble bee under the Endangered Species Act [ESA] was filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and the Bombus Pollinator Association of Law Students, an Albany Law School student group.

Sounds great you say. Finally we’re taking action to protect our bees. Yet the plight of another bee species shows us just how complicated it is to protect these precious pollinators. Passing a law or writing a new policy does not guarantee any improvement in bee deaths.

We must create spaces — land with controlled uses of pesticides — in which bees can thrive and regenerate their population. However, America still can’t agree on the science of pesticides. Any mandate meets countless political headwinds, as Democrats and Republicans generally loathe each other on plans — or no plans — to protect our environment.

Kate Middleton, Beekeeper, Delivers Her Own Honey to Urban Nature Project

Kate Middleton, Beekeeper, Delivers Her Own Honey to Urban Nature Project

The Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton may not be in the same league with her brother beekeeper James Middleton, but Kate fell into her own groove with a group of school children at the Urban Nature Project at London’s Natural History Museum in South Kensington, where Kate is the royal patron.

Beekeeping is a very romantic notion, especially in urban areas, where conscientious environmentalists are genuinely concerned about the dire assault of modern life on the world’s pollinators and guardians of the world’s food supply.

The Forward Thinking Museum in London — a virtual space for contemporary photography and videos —exhibited wonderful photos of urban beekeepers around the world. Images include Brian Mc Callum and his hives on the roof of Sir John Cass Primary School. Callum is a pro-bee activist trying to set up as many hives as possible in London.

What a lovely idea, we all exclaim! But wait one moment. Kate Middleton’s very patronage — London’s Natural History Museum, site of her bee honey visit with school children — issued a very alarming report in September 2020. I’ve heard this same call to action about beekeeping in other urban areas. Beekeeping in cities is harming other wildlife, writes the NHM.

Bees Can Learn The Difference Between European And Australian Indigenous Art Styles In A Single Afternoon

Bees Can Learn The Difference Between European And Australian Indigenous Art Styles In A Single Afternoon

We’ve known for a while that honey bees are smart cookies. They have excellent navigation skills, they communicate symbolically through dance, and they’re the only insects that have been shown to learn abstract concepts. 

Honey bees might also add the title of art connoisseur to their box of tricks. In part one of ABC Catalyst’s The Great Australian Bee Challenge, we see honey bees learning to tell the difference between European and Australian Indigenous art in just one afternoon.

Does this mean honey bees are more cultured than we are?

Perhaps not, but the experiment certainly shows just how quickly honey bees can learn to process very complex information.

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Managed Bees Versus Wild Bees? It’s Not That Simple in South Africa

Managed Bees Versus Wild Bees? It’s Not That Simple in South Africa

There’s widespread concern about the global decline of honey bees and the associated loss of pollination services.

The honey bee is the most important single species for crop pollination. This is because they are easily managed and can be moved around to perform pollination in different food crops. It’s estimated that one third of the food we consume each day relies on pollination. And this is mainly provided by bees.

Managed Vs Wild Bees

In parts of the world, there are two distinct groups of bees: wild populations that aren’t domesticated and that roam freely, and managed bees which are enclosed in hives and kept for honey production and renting out for commercial crop pollination.

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