Banana Republic Holiday 2022 by Richard Phibbs Connects Humans in United Experience
/The Banana Republic Holiday 2022 Campaign is terrific, as are the images by Richard Phibbs [IG]. I see the Polo vibe here, but it feels like sound ground Banana is standing on.
Note that as recently as August 2022, Fast Company was asking if Banana Republic will ultimately be forced to change its name. This question comes within a larger America’s public school’s movement whereby students, parents and some civic leaders argue they shouldn’t have to go to a school named after presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
AOC does not support the eradication of all references to America’s past, because our past is very complicated. Our role is to move forward.
The cast of the Banana Republic campaign includes Cherokee Jack, Chinchin Hsu, Louise de Chevigny, Nya Gatbel and Ryan Porter and the campaign was shot in Iceland.
Many in the cast have worked on other Banana Republic campaigns this year.
Read MoreActor Julia Butters Is Lensed by Emily Sandifer for a Grumpy Magazine Spirits Lift
/Actor Julia Butters is styled by Anna Schilling in a cover story for Grumpy Magazine, established in 2016 to challenge people to “get out of your grumpy mood.”
Julia Butters has received critical acclaim for her role as Trudi Frazer in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. From 2016 to 2020, she starred as Anna-Kat Otto on ABC's sitcom American Housewife.
The actor is interviewed by Maxwell Jenkins in Grumpy and photographed by Emily Sandifer [IG] grounded in Los Angeles and Scotland.
Read MoreCasa Degli Atellani in Milan, Once Home to Leonardo DaVinci, Purchased by Bernard Arnault
/Casa Degli Atellani has been purchased by Bernard Arnault the chairman and chief executive officer of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.
Built around 1490, the landmark was donated by Ludovico “Il Moro” Duke of Milan to Leonardo Da Vinci in 1498. The legendary artist was in Milan working on his masterpiece ‘The Last Supper’.
The 15th century townhouse hides a verdant courtyard that has been restored to its centuries-old status as home to Da Vinci’s vineyard. Casa Degli Atellani is presently the “only existing wine-producing estate in the center of a metropolis”.
Read MoreLouis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama Collab Debuts in Vogue Netherlands January 2023 by Koto Bolofo
/Vogue Netherlands gets the jump on fashion stories centered on the Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama collaboration, a sequel to the 2012 first project between the two global juggernauts.
Critically-acclaimed artist Yayoi Kusama has been breaking new ground for more than six decades and is now 93 years old. Known for her use of dots in multiple artistic media, do not think for one minute that Kusama’s art is created as a fashion statement.
Our earth is only one polka dot among a million stars in the cosmos. Polka dots are a way to infinity. –Yayoi Kusama
Drop Dates
The initial drop will launch on New Year’s Day, January 1 exclusively in China and Japan, followed by the rest of the world on the 6th.
The second drop of the Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama 2023 collab will only be available in Louis Vuitton stores from March 31, 2023.
Read MoreIs Kanye West on the Run As Commercial Eviction Looms, Creditors' Claims and Unpaid Taxes Spiral?
/Kanye West, legally known as Ye, seems to have gone underground, although TMZ reported a single Kanye citing in LA in December. A former business manager for the rapper Thomas St. John has filed a $4.5 million lawsuit against West but is unable to serve him with papers. St. John has requested an extension from the court.
Yeezy Rent Eviction Looming
Reports are that West’s Yeezy offices in California are on the verge of eviction after missing both November and December’s rent payments of $31,477.40 per month.
Read MoreGucci Opens Valigeria Luggage Store in Paris, Expanding Travel Category
/Gucci has opened its first permanent boutique dedicated to its Gucci Valigeria luggage and travel collection. Located in Paris at 229 Rue Saint-Honoré, the 2,900-square-foot-location was previously dedicated to Off-White.
“Gucci Valigeria is a powerful reminder of our Florentine roots and our timeless craft,” said Marco Bizzarri, the president and CEO of Gucci, calling the Paris store collection a “symbol of [the Gucci] legacy, reinterpreted through the ages for the travelers and modern-day explorers of every era.”
Read MoreAdidas Pauses Balenciaga Partnership "Until Further Notice" In Pre-order Customer Messages
/Adidas Is ‘Re-Evaluating’ its partnership with Balenciaga, “pausing” all co-created product launches “until further notice.”
The news came quietly, with customers supplying Sneaker Freaker with copies of emails they’ve received from adidas regarding the pre-order of Balenciaga/adidas Stan Smith trainers.
In a bit of irony, Balenciaga tells customers a different story, that the “trainers will be delayed in shipment” and that “We will notify you again once the item is shipped.”
In case you thought this might be a coordinated message between the two brands to the same customers, it obviously was not.
Read MoreRaquel Zimmermann by Ancestral Voices in Robin Galiegue Images for TTA21
/Top model and ceramic artist Raquel Zimmermann is a fashion and culture focus for The Travel Almanac FW2022 issue. Clare Byrne styles the restrained, modest fashion silhouettes with Bottega Veneta on the cover.
The organic sensuality of Raquel Zimmermann’s ceramics is almost visceral to AOC eyes. There are artists and talents who are very focused on outward visualization, while others channel the unconscious mind and ancestral voices, compelled to go deeper into the human experience in a universal way.
Read MoreAll Barbie's DreamHouses Constitute Barbitecture | Like a Paleolithic Goddess, Barbie Teases July 21, 2023 Opening
/To celebrate her influence on American design and architecture, Mattel collaborated with the design magazine PIN-UP on a limited-edition art book, “Barbie Dreamhouse: An Architectural Survey.”
“Barbie’s house is infinitely more exciting than Barbie herself,” writes Elvia Wilk, a cultural critic. “The structures we live within — fantasize about living within — say more about our lives and dreams than plastic bodies ever will.”
The New York Times breaks down the Barbitecture story with A Six-Decade Tour of Barbie’s Dreamhouses and AOC gifts readers the link.
Wilk is one of many critics who contribute to the book’s analysis of Barbie’s huge influence on American culture.
Read MoreLouis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama 2023 Campaign Preview with Gisele by Steven Meisel
/Fashion world got a major wakeup this morning with a preview of the January 2023 Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama campaign.
Yayoi Kusama, Age 93, Rolls Again with Louis Vuitton
LV makes a big move putting Gisele Bundchen front and center in a second, historical collaboration with revered Japanese creative Yayoi Kusama, one of the world’s pre-eminent artists at age 93.
“One of the aspects of her [Yayoi Kusama’s] work is happiness, and we thought it would be really refreshing after the pandemic to have the worlds of Vuitton and the world of Kusama meet again,” Arnault explained. The successful first collaboration between the two global giants happened in 2012.
Read MoreJessica Chastain in 'The Good Fight' Lensed by Jessica Chou for Marie Claire Holiday
/With her own company behind the Showtime miniseries ‘George & Tammy’, out now, Chastain was determined to give her “Stand By Your Man’ country singer “main character energy.”
The actor takes issue with the idea that Tammy Wynette was a doormat, reminding us that Wynette was married five times.
The male character of George Jones is played by Michael Shannon, who has an excellent relationship with Chastain.
Read MoreAs scripted, the scene went something like:
DON (picture a pencil neck with an ego): You're going to fuck my wife, aren't you, George?
GEORGE (Michael Shannon): Yes, I'm going to fuck her.
"[Michael] changed the line from, 'Yes, I'm going to fuck her'—excuse the language—to, 'I sure would like to," Chastain remembers. "The second he said, 'I sure would like to,' it was like, 'Oh, yes, this is happening. Because he sees her as someone who gets to make the decision. And that's working with an actor who's very aware he doesn't own me." Another perk of being producer? You get to pick your scenemates. "We were so in tune with one another," says Shannon, who first met Chastain on the set of 2011's Take Shelter. "The notion of sitting in front of another man and looking at a woman and proclaiming that you're going to fuck her, seems a little neanderthal to me. I mean, if I was the woman in question, I wouldn't enjoy that so much."