Michelle Obama Is Schiaparelli Goddess of Strength and Energy at Smithsonian Fundraiser

Michelle Obama with Schiaparelli Creative Director Daniel Roseberry. © Paul Morigi/Invision/AP/Shutterstock via British Vogue

Michelle Obama loves yellow, and she achieved true goddess stature wearing a custom Schiaparelli gown to the American Portrait Gala. Obama attended the event to support her friend Lin-Manuel Miranda, now a permanent fixture on the wall of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, in artwork by Mark Seliger.

“What I love most is that [Lin] believes it’s his duty to lift up those around him, especially the next generation,” the beloved former First Lady said of the ‘Hamilton’ creator. “He’s someone who has, in melody and rhyme and connection, painted as honest a portrait of our country as I’ve ever seen. Love this guy.”

Speaking of Michelle Obama’s dress, Schiaparelli Creative Director Daniel Roseberry commented on the design: “The inspiration for the shape originally came from the crinoline which is often found underneath couture gowns, but the real starting point for the overall look was the colour. The acidic tone echoes Elsa Schiaparelli’s signature shocking pink, and we also felt that it matched the strength and energy of Mrs Obama. It was such an honour to make this special gown for her.”

Roseberry waxed lyrical about Madame Schiaparelli when he took the creative reins at the house in April. “She was a master of the modern; her work reflected the chaos and hope of the turbulent era in which she lived,” he said. “Today, we find ourselves asking similarly big, identity-shaping questions of our own: What does art look like? What is identity? How do we dress for the end of the world?” via British Vogue.

Besides Lin-Manuel Miranda, other honorees included Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, Nobel Laureate Frances Arnold, Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee band Earth, Wind & Fire, former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi.

The event raised more than $2 million in support of the Smithsonian museum’s endowment for exhibitions, with more than 700 guests in attendance. The Washingtontonian provides photos galore.

Smithsonian Acquires Tyler Mitchell's Beyoncé Portrait for Vogue US September 2018

Smithsonian Acquires Tyler Mitchell's Beyoncé Portrait for Vogue US September 2018 AOC Style Photos

Photographer Tyler Mitchell shares a spectacular piece of news about an image from his September 2018 Beyoncé cover editorial. In an embarrassing acknowledgement of racism in the fashion industry, Mitchell became the first African American photographer to shoot the cover of Vogue in its 125-year history.

Clearly, positive energy infused Mitchell’s editorial from every direction, so much so that one of his Vogue images has been acquired into the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery’s permanent collection in Washington, D.C.

The selected photo sees Beyoncé on location just outside of London, wearing a sequin-covered Valentino dress and exuberant Philip Treacy London headpiece.

“A year ago today we broke the flood gates open,” Mitchell wrote of the news on Instagram. “Since then, it was important to spend the whole year running through them making sure every piece of the gate was knocked down.”

As a concerned photographer, who is socially and politically engaged, Mitchell sees the Beyoncé shoot as an empowerment opportunity

“We’ve been thingified physically, sexually, emotionally. With my work I’m looking to revitalize and elevate the black body.”

We share the entire editorial in celebration of Mitchell’s growing success, Queen Bey herself, and the New Day society global citizens desire.

Boys Club | Cosby-Funded Smithsonian Art Exhibit Under A Cloud As More Damning Cosby Deposition Details Revealed

Boys Club | Cosby-Funded Smithsonian Art Exhibit Under A Cloud As More Damning Cosby Deposition Details Revealed

Bill Cosby’s Damaging 2005 Philadelphia Deposition

Bill Cosby, in Deposition, Said He Used Fame and Drugs to Seduce Women New York Times

With the release of Bill Cosby’s 2005 Philadelphia deposition , details about his eventually settled sexual assault case with Andrea Constand — and other young women, too — are jaw- dropping.

Simply stated, there is very little difference between Cosby’s statements in the deposition and the claims of as many as 50 women who allege that Cosby drugged them and assaulted them under the pretense of mentoring and befriending. 

Cosby — and now his wife Camille — insists that all sexual acts were consensual, that the women willingly took the drugs to relax and engaged freely in sex-related activities with him. It’s revealed in the deposition, though, that when asked if Ms. Therese Serignese, who Cosby met at the Las Vegas Hilton in 1976, was able to consent to sex when he gave her quaaludes in 1976, Cosby responded “I don’t know.” Cosby offered Serignese money for good grades.

As we reported a week ago, Bill Cosby acknowledged acquiring seven prescriptions for quaaludes which could be used to drug his targets. The 78-year-old comedian and chief moralizer about good behavior to America’s African American community admitted only to giving Benadryl to Constandin an effort to relax her.

Smithsonian Stands Firm On Cosby-Financed Exhibition

Smithsonian To Post Sign At Exhibition Featuring Bill Cosby-Owned Art NPR

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art in Washington has refused to curtail its current exhibition ‘Conversations: African and African American Artworks in Dialogue’, posting instead a sign telling visitors that the exhibition including art owned by Bill Cosby and his wife, Camille, is “fundamentally about the artworks and the artists who created them, not Mr. Cosby,” representatives for the Smithsonian Institution say.

The museum acknowledges that it has received $716,000 from the Cosby family — an amount that totally funded the entire exhibition that opened in November 2014 —, and the family’s views are heavily woven into the fabric of the show’s online publicity, wrote The Guardian’s Jonathan Jones.