My love affair with preppy style began with a sweater—a pistachio green, cable-knit, three-ply cashmere Ralph Lauren crewneck, to be exact. It had exquisite proportions—a skinny, slightly cropped cut, tiny armholes, and narrow sleeves that made your arms look like they went on forever—and the wool was so soft that it felt like a baby’s … Read more
My babysitter Noreen wore long acrylics in frosted pink that, to my five-year-old self, were the epitome of glam. I loved to watch her hands as she fried a grilled cheese, finger-combed watermelon-scented mousse through her bangs, or twisted the phone cord as she chatted to her boyfriend, Gene. Even when one broke and she … Read more
As a very young South Korean-born girl growing up in Utah, Anna Park fell deeply and permanently in love with drawing. “I just found it very seductive,” she tells me. “It made me feel good.” She still feels that way. Her fluent, immersive, black-and-white images, often 10 feet long, have put her in the forefront … Read more
On arriving at the show, visitors will first see a Brancusi bronze placed into dialogue with the Worth sleeping beauty. A contemporary garment that the Worth dress helped to inspire—an Alessandro Michele piece for Gucci—will be displayed nearby. Visitors will progress into a space filled with botanicals on painted silk—a Chinese technique imitated by Europeans … Read more
It was a sad, rain-tossed evening seemingly lit by candlelight and stars. When the cab arrived at John Galliano’s Maison Margiela show in January at the Pont Alexandre III—the last of the couture for that week—hundreds of kids were waiting and screaming for their own stars. I made my way through the crowds before realizing … Read more
When Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana first discussed celebrating their Alta Moda, Alta Sartoria, and Alta Gioielleria collections—the pinnacle of the body of work they’ve been building for four decades—an exhibition with a didactic parade of clothed mannequins wasn’t even an option, Gabbana says. “It’s not who we are.” Instead, they concocted an immersive takeover … Read more
When author and illustrator Beatrix Potter would trudge through England’s Lake District in her favorite wood-sole clogs and heavy tweed skirt (a piece of sacking added to fend off the rain), she often carried a walking stick with a magnifying glass in the handle—the better to inspect specimens of yellow cowslip or twisting meadowsweet. “I … Read more
As I join a video call with Johnny Valencia, the founder of Pechuga Vintage, I notice his attention split between two screens: his phone’s, where he’s talking to me from Los Angeles, and his computer’s, where he’s scrutinizing an online auction of Mouna Ayoub’s Chanel by Karl Lagerfeld collection. The French Lebanese socialite is doing … Read more
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The videos keep coming: armed fighters taunting men with their hands tied behind their backs, bodies piled in an open grave. The videos are from Sudan, where two generals began a struggle for power last spring that has killed more than 12,000 people, displaced 6.6 million, and turned the nation into a battlefield, one that … Read more
On a Thursday evening in early November, a pack of Steelers fans poured out from a bar in downtown Pittsburgh and trooped past the Benedum Center for the Performing Arts, a stately old movie palace turned theater and concert hall. As black-and-gold jerseys mixed in with the overflow from the venue’s box office, one of … Read more
