Laverne Cox Flies High, Lensed by Andy Jackson in ES Magazine February 2022

Laverne Cox Flies High, Lensed by Andy Jackson in ES Magazine February 2022 AOC Fashion

Actor and trans activist Laverne Cox plays a starring role in Netflix’s highly anticipated ‘Inventing Anna’, occupying the top spot on Netflix US in the week ending Sunday, Feb. 13. Anna Sorokin was a Russian native who identity-morphed into a Germany heiress named Anna Delvey.

As the focus of the nine-part series from Shondaland, the TV production company founded by writer and producer Shonda Rimes, Anna Delvey [played by actor Julia Garner] was a con artist who duped New York City’s top-echelon of beautiful people while trying to swindle millions from big-league banks during the 2010s.

Laverne Cox plays Kacy Duke, a celebrity personal trainer and life coach to people like Denzel Washington and Julianne Moore. Duke became deeply entangled in Sorokin’s web of grand-scale deception.

The Cut: Isaac Poleon Sculpts Avant-Garde Tresses, Making Art of Black Hair

The Cut: Isaac Poleon Sculpts Avant-Garde Tresses, Making Art of Black Hair AOC Fashion

‘Practise at Play’ is a new column debuting in the February 2022 issue of The Cut. The presentation exists as a showcase for emerging artists, imagined in the creative mind of Jessica Willis, style director at The Cut.

Practice at Play focuses on hair: Sculpting With Tresses: Hairstylist Issac Poleon’s avant-garde looks are more art than coif in its first feature with hair stylist Isaac Poleon.

Erica Smith writes the words with photographs by Campbell Addy [IG] of models Goy Manase and Nyibol Dok Jok./ Makeup by Bea Sweet; set designer by King Owusu

Two Big Engagement Ring Trends for 2022: Art Deco Emerald Cut and Lab Grown Diamonds

Two Big Engagement Ring Trends for 2022: Art Deco Emerald Cut and Lab Grown Diamonds AOC Fashion

For over 20 years, I’ve been focused on three major subsets of Americans: the traditionalists, the moderns, and the cultural creatives. Hearst’s Diego Gravinese Fractalia 5 is deeply rooted in the Cultural Creatives mindset. Most of us reading AOC are Cultural Creatives and/or Smart Sensuality women.

The latter are women who are sexy and smart; focused on achievement; and possessed with deep empathy for people and our planet. Often they are modern values women [you just can’t be rich enough or wear enough stuff on your back] who have crossed over to a much more progressive-values way of thinking. We are not show horses.

I’ve called us “lipstick liberals”, which the AOC crowd might deride. But AOC the Congresswoman has herself perfected the pouty red mouth.

Looking at Hearst’s Diego Gravinese painting Fractalia 5 brings other trailblazing women in this mold to mind, women we’ve written about for years at AOC. Think Beyonce, Amal Clooney, Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Lopez: They are all women who smash through the fractal panes of imaginary glass that keep them in check.

In a moment of serendipidity, I searched for information about the rings they wore. Among women I admire deeply, one shape — the emerald cut — emerges like a phoenix rising out of the ashes.

Zara ‘Bonsoir l’été’ Wedding Dresses Are A Nod to Strong Backbone Women

Zara ‘Bonsoir l’été’ Wedding Dresses Are A Nod to Strong Backbone Women AOC Fashion

Zara calls its new ‘Bonsoir l’été’ wedding dress collection “a fresh proposal for a contemporary woman who is longing for a bright future.” AOC has spent the last week in deep study of Art Deco design, triggered by the inescapable fashion and design references to surrealism and brutalist architecture that are everywhere in recent AOC posts.

Dior's Spring 2022 Ad Campaign and New Bergdorf Goodman Shop Explode with Optimism

Dior's Spring 2022 Ad Campaign and New Bergdorf Goodman Shop Explode with Optimism AOC Fashion

Dior releases its Spring 2022 campaign, with its show-stopping, jewel-like colors and sporty vibe. Marc Bohan’s 1961 ‘Slim Look’ wasn’t the only important heritage reference mined for Maria Grazia Chiuri’s spring 2022 show. Bohan’s Dior Sport line was also center stage.

The Dior design vision represents a 180-degree turn in the road from Dior’s Olympics Grecian goddess resort show. As opposed to enduring the pandemic, Chiuri chose to fight back with bold colored, contagious optimism and the ‘60s global spirit of female liberation.

Seeing the unity of dress among young women from America to Britain, Sudan and Afghanistan — YES, Sudan and Afghanistan — reminds us of the perilous, patriarchal attempts worldwide to deny women their own self-determination. The images from that time period are almost impossible to believe, and they certainly created a horrific backlash against women’s fashion integration into global public spaces, previously occupied by men.

Italian artist Anna Paparatti and the legendary Roman nightclub the Piper Club inspired Chiuri’s design direction, one that pays homage to 1960s pop style with a crayola-colors explosion of boundary-crashing, purposeful ‘60s design.

The Spring 2022 campaign is lensed by Brigitte Niedermair [IG] and is timed with the opening of Dior’s new boutique at Bergdorf Goodman New York. References to the new Dior Bergdorf shop — see end of post — are lensed by Francis Dzikowski [IG] courtesy of Bergdorf Goodman.

Music for the events is set to the beat of Daft Punk’s ‘Around the World’, with video by Fabien Baron and choreography by Matilda Fleberg.

The Campaign

Models include Maryel Uchida, Naomi Ekindi, Sculy Mejia and Steinberg. Performers Angela Arcueno, Ahtayaw Ea, Soleila Chaou, Nicolas Huchard, Shirwann Jeammes, Laureen Parruitte and Julia Spiesser also appear in the Dior Sporty runway and campaign images.

Tod's Post First 2021 Increase in Six Years Under Designer Walter Chiapponi

Tod's Books 40% Revenue Increase in 2021 under Creative Director Walter Chiapponi AOC Fashion

Italian luxury brand Tod’s defied financial analysts forecasts, booking a 40% increase in revenues to 883.8 million euros ($997 million) in 2021. This was the first increase in sales since 2015, boosted by strong fourth-quarter growth in Europe and the United States. This good news catches our attention because major sales increases in the luxury market aren’t being driven by Europe.

Walter Chiapponi at Tod’s

Analysts haven’t yet credited Tod’s creative director Walter Chiapponi for the sales performance, but the topic should be front and center in Tod’s talk. The Italian luxury market veteran — who showed his first collection for the House in February 2020 for fall/winter 2020 — is Tod’s first creative director to be responsible for men’s and women’s fashion as well as leather goods.

“I think it’s a matter of maturity,” the soft-spoken designer told the press about his Tod’s arrival. “When you’ve been creative in a very extreme way for so long, you want to do something more grounded, more elegant, more sophisticated. I’m in my 40s, and now I really detest seeing [fashion] that gets old in a few weeks.”

Tod’s Pre-Fall 2022 Lookbook

Walter Chiapponi’s pre-fall 2022 lookbook caught AOC’s eye. Model Kathie Lam is styled by Margherita Moro, then lensed by Anton Gottlob [IG]. / Hair by Massimo Gamba; makeup by Tanja Friscic

Chiapponi described his Tod’s assignment as one of updating traditional Italian casualwear with what he calls “a dirtier, more modern take on bon ton.” Tod’s gains an inner wild child and a bit of edge without disrupting their core identity of bourgeois propriety.

The new creative director supports strongly Tod’s commitment to responsible sustainability practices. Beyond using certified organic fabrics, Chiapponi presented “a new furry texture, lining an oversized sweatshirt/bomber hybrid. Made with a yarn woven from the upper and fluffier part of the fleece of the sheep, which is not harmed when shearing, it was extra-soft to the touch.” via Vogue

Amie Milne Photographs 'Ice Age' Bling with Heirloom Attitude for Harper's Bazaar UK

Amie Milne Photographs 'Ice Age' Bling with Heirloom Attitude for Harper's UK AOC Jewelry News

Models Chizoba and Jessica Luostarinen are styled by Holly Gorst in heirloom-inspired jewelry with laid-back bling. Photographer Amie Milne [IG] captures ‘Ice Age’ in the studio for Harper’s Bazaar March 2022./ Hair by Sam Mcknight; makeup by Lucy Gibson

Note: We can’t locate the shoppable data on HB.

Rita Ora Covers Vogue Arabia February 2022 in Conversation with Donatella Versace

Rita Ora Covers Vogue Arabia February 2022 in Conversation with Donatella Versace AOC Fashion

Singer, songwriter, actor, philanthropist Rita Ora covers the February 2022 issue of Vogue Arabia, styled by EIC Manuel Arnault in Dolce & Gabbana, Prada, Miu Miu, Roberto Cavalli, Versace and more. Jeremy Choh [IG] is behind the lens for ‘Truth and Dare: Rita Ora in Conversation with Donatella Versace’, with creative direction by Amine Jreissati./ Hair by Lok Lau; makeup by Stoj

The two women come together in common dialogue for “Rita Ora and Donatella Versace Discuss Their Coming of Age, Breakthrough Moments, and Living Their Passions With Purpose”.

Nigo Brought Varsity Style Embroidered Fashion to His Debut Kenzo Collection

Embroidery: The Comeback Fashion Trend For 2022 | GANT, Bode and ALD Show the Way AOC Fashion

Kenzo’s newly-appointed creative director, Nigo added a heavy-duty dose of nostalgic varsity style to his first presentation for Kenzo hosted at Galerie Vivienne in Paris. Nigo runs in a posse that is tight with Pharrell Williams and the late Virgil Abloh of Louis Vuitton Men’s.

Ignore what a particularly self-centered rapper tells you about how the beloved Virgil Abloh was appointed to the transformational role he assumed at LVMH [Said rapper says the position was first offered to him and has actually accused Bernard Arnault of going back on his word]. Factually-speaking, it was Nigo who introduced Abloh to Michael Burke of Louis Vuitton. and he also collaborated with the late designer twice on LV x NIGO capsule collections.

Nigo’s own urban clothing line is Bape [A Bathing Ape] and he is the DJ of the Japanese hip hop group Teriyaki Boyz.

Nigo’s choice of varsity jackets and other old-school styles in his debut collection for Kenzo are part of a much larger conversation at Anne of Carversville around the resurgence of embroidered fashion. As always, we combine fashion trends with larger political and lifestyle trends — and varsity style is center stage.

Varsity Style Rising

Now that hip-hop has subverted preppy into high-fashion, luxury street style, is it time to join forces with the Ivy League — in fashion and beyond?

This idea has been on my brain for months, since writing about the makeover of GANT by its owners, Geneva-based holding company Maus Frères SA

“I think prep has made a natural return,” GANT's Creative Director Christoffer Bastin explained to Vogue Scandinavia. Noting that Ivy League attire was very much a uniform, a favored look adopted by multi-hyphenate Pharrell Williams and the greater hip-hop community, Bastin concluded that “Balenciaga and Vetements came in with their streetwear influences and committed this mercy killing on prep.”

The AOC narrative goes in-depth on the topic of embroidered fashion and we concluded it with news of LVMH’s minority investor position in ALD, another varsity, old-school Queens, New York fashion brand. Not as polished as Kenzo, ALD has roots in a different immigrant experience and has a more working class vibe.