#starch matching icons

[chemlr]

[fallofthecelestial]

[alaxamber]

Wanna come read a story??

Cooper knew it was stupid to look but when he flicked open his recording app ready to send another voice memo to Diane the small icon hidden in a folder called to him.

He twitched on the white sheets of the bed, his stomach still wrapped from the shot a few nights before, but he was feeling slightly better. He could just look… maybe run into the bathroom and have a small bit of shame tossed into the toilet. His upbringing and other things caused a war in his stomach souring the sweet pie; they now sat heavy.

Maybe with the Navy crew coming through, there might be an easy hookup or someone he could trade a few pictures of, and they could join in on the fantasy he would allow himself to half.

Clicking the app, he leaned back on the flat pillows over starched and irritating his back slightly. He sighed as he flicked off each of the new matches, his eyes flicked to his own picture, one of him from the neck down, a few years old, before the scar over his liver. Back down to the "matches," still more no's as he rolled his eyes. Each one is more of a turn-off than the last. Stupid poses, all to try and show off their best "asset."

A small notification went off 'match close'.. he cocked his head and sat up a bit higher on the bed. Perhaps this would be a lead, someone this close who could also be on an app like this? A reason to kill over?

He clicked it; it would either be navy or a local and by the look of a flannel open, showing off a bare chest covered in a thick nest of hair. Tight blue jeans hung open, showing a thick darker hair trail into the pants showing they were commando under the well-worn jeans.

Cooper swallowed thickly, licking his lips. He could imagine the scent of the other on the screen. The sweat mixed with freshly chopped wood. The smell of grass tinged with the smoky burn of a campfire. Cooper groaned as he felt his cock harden unexpectedly. He couldn't place the body, couldn't place the slip thin hips, but knew that the person was a local. He clicked the profile but frowned when it showed the last logged in a few months prior… around the time things started to happen in town. Perhaps the male was connected.

Cooper clicked "match," knowing the recipient would get a notification…. And maybe he could find out who the woodsman was.

[totalimagegroup]

Nursing Home Uniform

Few will argue that this describes our historical vision of the nurse. For most of us over the age of 30, crisply starched white nursing home uniform are the representation of the years of study and clinical training that is necessary to obtain a nursing license. It is the representation of knowledge and competence and this vision in white works to comfort and allay fears for those in need of healthcare in the hospital.

However, this iconic image is not without drawbacks. The austere, starched white uniform can be intimidating to some patients, especially in the pediatric units where it has been found that cheerful colors and child-oriented prints create a friendlier atmosphere that promotes healthcare uniforms and emotional well-being.

Another negative aspect of wearing a neatly pressed fitted white nursing home uniform, white pantyhose, and a starched cap is the lack of functionality in the workplace. Patient care requires that nurses be able to bend, stretch, lift and generally work among the various pieces of medical equipment squeezed into small patient rooms. Bending to retrieve a dropped bandage scissor that slides under the bed opens the nurse in a dress to "unwanted exposure". Keeping a healthcare uniforms on the head while working is a feat that fully defeats the age-old function of the bobby pin. In light of these problems it was only natural that nursing home uniform underwent a significant change in the 1980's. Uniform design focused on both comfort and function enabling nurses to work long shifts more comfortable and efficiently

Design Uniforms

The most widely used nursing home uniform garment is the design uniforms. Design uniforms are generally straight cut tunic style tops that are worn either tucked into branded uniforms or on the outside. Design uniforms are designed with double seaming and limited fashion details so that there are few places where dirt or bacteria can become trapped, thus becoming an important part of infection control in a health care facility. The material of design uniforms is often treated with antimicrobial agents to prevent staining or bacterial growth. Made from either 100% cotton or a 65/35 polycotton blended fabric, uniform scrubs are easily laundered in hot water to remove bacteria and other substances that collect on clothing during the work shift. Design uniforms are now available in a wide range of colors, prints and sizes. each hospital and health centers have their own rules and regulations that establish exactly what color and style of design uniforms their particular nurses can wear to work.

Branded Uniforms

The original branded uniforms was a loose-fitting unisex pant with a drawstring waist. They are lightweight enough to remain comfortable during work but still provide the necessary protection needed against potentially infectious materials. In order to accommodate the diverse body styles of the nursing community branded uniforms added elastic waists, petite and tall lengths, and an increased size range that extended from XS to 5XL. As uniform scrubs tuned into the fashion industry, low-rise and cargo pants were born. Also, like scrub shirts and jackets, branded uniforms are offered in a variety of different colors and prints, allowing them to be matched or contrasted to the other parts of the uniform.

The world of nursing home uniform is characterized by color, function and comfort. Uniform scrubs have taken over as the uniform of choice and are found in nearly every department of the hospital. Today's nurse can work comfortably and efficiently thanks to the practical changes in nursing home uniform and nursing shoes.

Find the latest nursing home uniform in fashion styles and colors at [https://totalimagegroup.com.au]

[thezodiaczone]

Sagittarius Compatibility

SAGITTARIUS + ARIES (MARCH 21 - APRIL 19) Chemistry and simpatico build fast between these two Fire signs, and you find a twin soul in each other. You're both independent explorers, driven by lust, joie de vive and a breathtaking moxie that others mistake for arrogance. That brio and derring-do is the badge of your spiritual kinship—a primal mating call that draws you together. You share a blunt sense of humor, and naturally understand the other's need for space and autonomy (at least at first). Thrilling conversations traipse expansive terrain: philosophy, art, human nature, science, spirituality, dreams. Together, the impossible feels probable, and your natural confidence soars higher. Caution: the view from your rosy lenses can be a bit myopic. Sagittarius is a gambler and Aries is a charging knight—neither thinks far ahead. You'll need crash insurance for the times that your grand schemes don't reach your projections. At moments, you both lapse into overthinking, which can kill the celebratory vibe. Aries also has a greater need to for coddling and personal attention. At times, the Ram may resent competing with Sagittarius' busy career, social schedule and hobbies—and Sagittarius gets impatient with Aries' needy spells. When angered, your burning tempers can raze a national forest to ash. Be careful not to unleash a spiteful spark, for that's all it takes to destroy this treasured landscape.

SAGITTARIUS + TAURUS (APRIL 20 - MAY 20) This is a curious match that demands adaptation, as you have vastly different temperaments and tastes. You're either wildly attracted to each other or completely repelled, and there's not much middle ground. Taurus is a traditional Earth sign who knows his tastes and sticks to a simple set of beliefs, social circles and experiences. Sagittarius is a wild, adventurous Fire sign whose anything-goes nature invites friends of diverse cultures and backgrounds. The Archer's global embrace can irritate Taurus, who doesn't feel the need to befriend every person he meets, or remain lifelong pals with his exes (though he can certainly rant about them). Jealousy can be an issue on both sides. However, you can make an excellent team if you respect each other's strengths. Taurus is practical and sophisticated, a grounding force that streamlines the Archer's expansive visions. Between the Bull's business acumen and Sag's charisma, you can build an empire—especially with your driven work ethics. You both have a ribald, lusty side to your personalities and misbehaving together can be a blast. With your hot tempers, you can go from zero to sixty fast, and arguments can be explosive. Your peace treaties should always take place at the dinner table. Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter, god of the feast; Taurus by Venus, planet of pleasure and love. Gorging your bottomless appetites awakens a primal instinct in you both—you'll be tearing each other's clothes off before the second course.

SAGITTARIUS + GEMINI (MAY 21 - JUNE 20) You're opposite signs that actually have much more in common than this label suggests. Gemini rules the so-called "lower mind": common sense, reasoning, facts, hard data and intellect. Sagittarius governs the "higher mind": wisdom, philosophy, consciousness, ethics, metaphysics. Together, you find sweet neurological nirvana. You're both restless adventurers who hunger for knowledge and experience. With Gemini's curiosity and Sag's nomadic nature, you get antsy in commitments unless there's a lot of excitement and variety. Boredom is simply not an option for your signs, and you're both involved in a billion projects. Scheduling issues are your biggest hurdle, but for true love, you allow nothing to interfere. Take globe-trotting Sagittarius Brad Pitt and Gemini Angelina Jolie, who traipse the continents with their ever-growing brood. As best friends and playmates, they make their own rules about love and family—and you will, too. Conventional coupling holds zero interest for your signs. Your main difference is in disposition. Air sign Gemini is cooler and distant compared to Sagittarius, harder to read emotionally. The fiery Archer has a hot temper and wears his heart on his sleeve. Still, you make each other laugh; you're both clever, entrepreneurial and quirky. You do best with a common goal that's a thousand times bigger than yourselves, and you'll dream up many. However, you may need Brangelina-sized paychecks to fund your lofty visions. Who has time to consider the bottom line when you're focused on reaching the top? Take time to consider the practicalities before leaping off the cliff. Knowing you, you'll jump anyway.

SAGITTARIUS + CANCER (JUNE 21 - JULY 22) ♥♥♥♥ You're cut from entirely different cloths and patterns. Sagittarius is neon polka-dot on stretch Lycra; Cancer is Burberry plaid on Swiss wool. You'll never be a match that makes sense to observers—which is why Cancer Tom Cruise and Sagittarius Katie Holmes are such a tabloid target. Is it true love, a train wreck, or a little bit of both? Let's examine. Domestic Cancer rules home, heart and family, and holds his loved ones in his vest pocket. Sagittarius is the restless world traveler who craves freedom and adventure. Sag can either feel smothered or totally nurtured by Cancer. The Crab loves to provide every security for his sweetie, and it's a relief to the Archer to come home to a hot meal, a drawn bath, an adoringly attentive partner. The trouble starts when Sagittarius stops coming home. Sagittarius needs sunlight, air and wide open spaces. Cancer keeps the shades drawn and burrows into his metaphorical Crab shell. When Sagittarius neglects Cancer's need for togetherness, starts hanging out with a rowdy crew of rebels, or traipses the globe alone, Cancer's insecurities are rankled. You have fierce tempers, and the combustion of Cancer's moodiness and Sag's anger can be downright destructive. What the Crab must realize is that a pretty bird in a cage will soon fly the coop—at least, if the bird is a Sag. He must open the windows and trust Sagittarius to come back to the nest, a real act of faith. Your strong sexual chemistry sweetens the pot, but you'll need to adapt to each other's rhythms through hard work and keen listening.

SAGITTARIUS + LEO (JULY 23 - AUGUST 22) This is a lively match of two compatible Fire signs, filled with fun and adventure. As lifelong learners, you both juggle many projects and interests, often running on fumes. While neither of you is around to keep the home fires burning, conversation and creativity are far more important to you than starched linens and home-cooked meals. You'd rather enjoy takeout from your favorite ethnic restaurant when the fridge gets empty, or sleep under the stars when you run out of clean sheets. Living on the edge is fun, as long as you don't fall off the cliff, especially with finances. During stressful times, you can exhaust each other, as you both can be emotionally demanding and dramatic. Leo needs more personal attention and praise than Sagittarius, but the truthful Archer doesn't give false compliments. He should learn to sing Leo's praises, if only to prevent time-consuming emotional meltdowns. Consider the benefits: a little acknowledgment keeps Leo purring for days, and gives Sagittarius uninterrupted time to read, start businesses, edit his documentary film. When life gets routine, mix it up with a spur-of-the-moment road trip, a long hike or a night at a decadent boutique hotel.

SAGITTARIUS + VIRGO (AUGUST 23 - SEPTEMBER 22) ♥♥♥♥ Virgo is an introverted Earth sign, Sag an extroverted Fire sign, but you can bring out lesser-seen traits in each other. On the outside, you look like an odd couple. Prim, preppy Virgo is a crisply tailored schoolmarm; Sag is a rumpled hippie in wrinkled jeans and weathered shoulder bags, more like a grad student during finals. Still, you're both brainy types who bond through long, intense conversations. Intellectual Virgo has a keen, organized mind; thoughtful Sagittarius is the zodiac's philosopher. Together, you'll ponder the meaning of life and psychoanalyze your mutual friends—behind their backs and to their faces. You can both be preachy and judgmental, and you're fascinated by the foibles of human nature.

Beyond the talk, you have different lifestyles, and those require adaptation. Virgo's monkish side can make Sag feel lonely, and the Archer's blunt remarks can hurt the Virgin's feelings. Virgo is great listener, but hesitant to bare his own soul. This frustrates Sagittarius, who craves more intimate sharing. Your habits are different, too. Virgo concerns himself with every niggling detail, irritating the impatient Archer, who thinks in broad strokes. Sagittarius must learn to sweat the small stuff a little more. Thank-you notes, birthday cards, flowers, presents—these gestures don't mean much to Sag, but they mean the world to Virgo. In turn, Sag can teach Virgo how to have fun and take risks instead of playing it safe.

SAGITTARIUS + LIBRA (SEPTEMBER 23 - OCTOBER 22) You're fast friends who make each other laugh, sharing a sharp, sarcastic wit. People watching is your favorite pastime, and you can amuse each other with clever observations all day. Romantic Libra brings poetry and flowers to Sag's gritty, profanity-strewn world, and active Sagittarius gets Libra's nose out of the rosebush. Still, your different paces could cause friction. Languid Libra likes to take everything slow, weighing and measuring possibilities on those iconic Scales before acting. Naturally, this frustrates impetuous Sag's text-message attention span. The Archer prefers to leap before looking, relying on luck and goodwill to save the day. Such gambling and lack of security throws Libra's delicate constitution into a tizzy. Sagittarius finds Libra's champagne tastes too snobbish and materialistic—why pay over $20 for anything you can get at a thrift shop or make yourself? Sagittarius' half-baked ideas and churlish outbursts rain public embarrassment on Libra's carefully cultivated rep. When Libra plays damsel or dude in distress, independent Sag flees instead of saving the day. So why stay together? At the end of the day, your friendship remains solid. There's no conflict you can't talk through after a time-out. Although you may drift in and out of platonic feelings, you genuinely care for each other—and that speaks volumes.

SAGITTARIUS + SCORPIO (OCTOBER 23 - NOVEMBER 21) Level with us: Would you really be interested in each other without the element of danger? There's always something that feels a little dirty here—and it's not because you share an aversion to showering (although the musky pheromones might play in…). Your combined willpower—enough to combust a small village—can yoke you together despite your own best interests. The issue is anatomical: Scorpio rules the crotch and Sagittarius rules the hips and thighs. From the waist down, a magnetic field pulls you into insatiable sexual attraction. Above the midsection, it's a love-hate drama as you battle for mental and emotional domination, one-upping and offending each other at every turn. You both love to have the last word, and deep down, you're pretty sure you're smarter than the rest of the population. As friends, this makes you smugly superior comrades, but in love, you tend to unleash your intellectual weapons on each other. Sag's sarcasm and Scorpio's acid-washed retorts will leave you both wounded and estranged. Yet, a good shag seems to erase your short-term memory between attacks. For best results, remain naked at all times, and only discuss problems in the afterglow. Grant each other your own turf and never cross the line of demarcation.

SAGITTARIUS + SAGITTARIUS (NOVEMBER 22 - DECEMBER 21) At last, you've found someone who's just like you! How refreshing. How…boring. You're the zodiac's Columbus, setting sail for India and landing on Turtle Island, a merry miscalculation you take in stride. Getting lost is part of the journey for your adventurous sign. Sagittarius is the restless Centaur, stampeding across the globe on a quest for wisdom, new frontiers and lands to conquer. It's predictability you fear, the white fence picket driven like a stake through your heart. For that reason, the similarities that attract you could be your relationship's death knell unless you take regular breaks from each other (separate vacations, interests, perhaps even apartments). Otherwise, the world feels hopelessly flat when you wake up to a First Mate you can read like a flimsy travel brochure. What's left to discover? Indeed, two Archers can have a riot while it lasts. You'll never laugh so hard or learn so much, and you'll remain spiritual siblings forever. Dedication to each other's lifelong growth is a big part of this union. You'll inspire and relentlessly coach each other to take that next life step or leap of faith. Yet, like the Nina and the Pinta, you invariably set sail on your own voyages once this mission is achieved. Will you meet in another port? That depends on where the winds take you.

SAGITTARIUS + CAPRICORN (DECEMBER 22 - JANUARY 19) ♥♥♥♥ The fate of this match rests in your ability to merge your strengths. Sagittarius is the visionary and the starry-eyed optimist; Capricorn is the master architect and builder, the ultimate realist. You each excel where the other is weak, and you make excellent business partners. However, your values and lifestyles can be vastly different, complicating romance. It's like the class clown dating the class president—an odd couple indeed. To Sagittarius, it's fascinating that anyone could possess such restraint. Stoic Capricorn cracks hard-won smiles at Sagittarius' antics and amusing insights. Yet, Sag optimism soon clashes with Cap pessimism, and here's where you reach your impasse. Restless Sagittarius needs a playmate to dream and scheme, but cautious Cappy shoots holes in the Archer's impetuous ideas, pointing out the foundational flaws. Yet, it's that grim, unvarnished realism that saves the day in a crisis. While Sagittarius freaks out and lapses into denial, Earthy Capricorn holds a powerful, Zenlike acceptance of "what is." Love truly blooms when you make it through a dire breakdown and realize your incredible teamwork turned the ship around. For the long haul, independent Sag must allow Capricorn to be the rock, and the Goat must learn to take a few more bold personal risks.

SAGITTARIUS + AQUARIUS (JANUARY 20 - FEBRUARY 18) Sagittarius and Aquarius are two of the most free-spirited signs, whose joie de vivre and starry-eyed idealism make you perfect playmates. The "best friends with benefits" label was practically invented for you. Finally, someone who cherishes independence as much as you do! Like Sagittarius Brad Pitt and Aquarius Jennifer Aniston (who shared a hair colorist), you may even look like siblings. It's all so beautiful—until one of you messes up the party by demanding a commitment. Strangely enough, you remain loyal while the terms of the relationship are vague, sneaking out of work for mid-afternoon trysts and leaving with carpet burn. You both love the feeling of "getting away with something," the adventure of the unexpected. Yet, once it becomes an obligation rather than a choice, your libido nosedives. You've now killed off the very thing that attracted you to each other: no-strings attached excitement. Instead of trysting the night away, you're hosting Scrabble tournaments and turning in early. Boring. Because you're so alike, you'll need to work hard to keep each other interested for the long haul. Mix it up by developing separate friends, hobbies and interests—then come back and share your adventurous tales with each other.

SAGITTARIUS + PISCES (FEBRUARY 19 - MARCH 20) ♥♥♥♥ What happens when the most sensitive, tender-hearted sign (Pisces) links up with the most insensitive, tactless sign (Sagittarius)? Disaster, unless you handle each other with extreme care. Romantic Pisces is a Water sign who craves deep emotional bonding, while independent Sag is a Fire sign who feels smothered by too much of the touchy-feelies. You'll need to balance your most distinctive traits and parcel them out in measured doses. Your communication styles don't work together naturally either. Sagittarius is honest to a fault, dishing the unvarnished truth and heavy-handed advice (usually unsolicited), then whistling while Pisces weeps. Indirect Pisces would rather flee to Katmandu than face conflict, but standing up to Sagittarius requires it. Pisces is prone to passive-aggressive tactics; yet, subtle cues and hints will sail right over Sag's head, while the Archer's arrow of truth spears the Fish's heart. What do you have in common? You're both skittish about commitment—namely, the terrifying idea of being "trapped." Since Pisces rules fantasy and Sagittarius rules adventure, you can neatly escape the daily drudge together—at least until reality comes crashing down. Still, life is always tinged with magic when you're together, and the bedroom remains an enchanting space of divine communion for you.

[brooklynmuseum]

On May 3, Liz Johnson Artur: Dusha opened at the Brooklyn Museum. The exhibit showcases Artur’s iconic photographs from her Black Balloon Archives that expands thirty years of documenting the lives of black people across the African Diaspora. Many of these photographs are framed, however, the artist also wanted to display some works less formally. There are two wall installations in the gallery in which the photographs are installed with neodymium magnets.

Neodymium magnets have been used for mounting textiles and works on paper since the late 1980s. They are often coated with layers of nickel and copper to prevent oxidization and are available in various sizes, shapes, and strengths While neodymium magnets come in many shapes and sizes, for installation purposes, it was best to use small circular magnets to minimize how visual they were against the art work.

Since the artist requested white magnets, the paper conservators designed a way to produce over 200 magnets that were both aesthetically pleasing, but also safe for the photographs. In order to do this, conservators, with the help of interns and their department assistant, wrapped the magnets in small pieces of Japanese paper adhered with wheat starch paste. Both of these materials are commonly used in paper conservation to mend tears, fill losses, and hinge artwork for display.

The face of each magnet was toned with white gouache to better match the tone of most of the photographs. A small piece of a polyethylene film was adhered to the back of the magnets as a barrier layer, to better protect the photograph. The strong magnets can attract metal-containing dust-particles from ambient air. The polyester also prevents contact with any wheat starch paste and makes it easier and safer to lift the magnet off the artwork when the photographs are deinstalled at the close of the exhibition.

Liz Johnson Artur: Dusha is on view until August 18. Come see these stunning photographs!

Posted by Maribel Vitagliani

[dongiovannitriumphant]

I'm in love with 1920s clothing but only own one piece because originals (AND proper replicas) are few and far between and extremely expensive. As someone who dresses in vintage on the daily, do you have any tips on finding cheaper pieces without sacrificing authenticity ?

I feel you on 20s originals being expensive, I cry every day over amazing 20s pieces that I absolutely cannot have on my current budget OTL My general period tends to lean late 20s-mid40s for that reason, tho now that it’s summer I’m pulling out a lot of fin de siecle hot weather nonsense. In winter I get my more normal edwardian originals out because they’re hot n heavy nonsense and I won’t die just yet.

I am not entirely familiar with the women’s clothing, but I know for men I can scrounge up a pretty good 20s look with more recent pieces(60s/70s/80s even some non-replica modern stuff I have yet to replace) if I piece them right together, it’s all about knowing what shapes/colours/patterns/fit were in vogue, or having a general interwar vibe and then that one piece which will pull it all together(for 20s this is usually my sweatervests, collarless shirts and starched collars). For 20s my general vibes are getting some big colour in, knitwear is vogue, fitted&slimmer appearance of suits compared to later decades, vertical stripes and loads of accoutrements.

Here’s an early 20s look I attempted recently(sorry for looking massively uncomf I have no good pictures from this boat ride rip). A mix of originals(watch & chain, hat, glasses, collar, waistcoat(tho that one’s actually 10s but listen it’s valid)), more recent vintage(80s does 40s trousers, unknown shoes, 60s bowtie) and modern(suit jacket, collarless shirt(i desperately need sleeve garters rip))

Overall, I source pretty much all my clothes from charity shops, though I don’t find anything 98% of the time, the 2% is worth it. It’s mostly tenacity, honestly, and popping into one everytime I find a new one. Again, this is a question of training your eye not just for shapes but also fabrics, for example once you see old wool you will recognize it instantly. Also good practice to keep a tape measure with you at all times, you never know when you’ll find a charity shop.

Vintage shops are good for the community feel and for getting very iconic pieces(though I can’t afford them most of the time), it’s extremely worth it to familiarize yourself with the ones in the area and knowing what they generally get in/price points/knowledge base &etc I managed to purchase a waistcoat from 1850 at a discount due to being familiar w the owner, and she generally keeps an eye out for very small men’s clothing for me(I am of very edwardian stature in that regard..)

Honestly for 1920s originals are so hard to find, especially in usable condition for daily wear at any not absurd price, I’d really recommend getting somewhat familiar with sewing. I recently traced off the pattern of my much beloved and versatile 10s waistcoat and made another, as well as made myself a pair of puttees for bicycling & matching spats. It takes time, but it lends a lot of flexibility and fabric can also be found at charity shops(the waistcoat fabric I got from a fabric exchange spats & puttees from a charity shop wool skirt). In fact I’d highly recommend getting familiar with historical textiles in general to the period you’re wanting to wear/emulate, it won’t just help you acquire the right fabrics for your own replicas, it will also help you find possible originals & more recent pieces that can sub in for those.

I’m gonna tag in @tankerfraetgroedhoved cause she’s extremely good at mixing up her wardrobe for our interwar excursions and also works on a similarly shoe-string budget to me, she can prob give a good word on women’s 20s styles.

EDIT: I FORGOT JEWELRY, BUT JEWELRY IS A GREAT WAY TO ALSO DATE AN OUTFIT, and it’s generally easier + less expensive to find originals of for your desired period. If you’re doing a general 1920s silhouette paired w the right/original accoutrements, it’ll do wonders for the whole look. Also it’s fun!

[deathbyvalentine]

Larp + Other Prompts

A changeling child comes home

He wasn’t ours any more. I wasn’t sure what they had done to him, what they had changed him into, but he was irrevocably different. First of all, he barely spoke. When he did, words were picked extremely carefully, each given a weight and gravity that sat ill-fitting on him. His mannerisms too were erratic and unpredictable. He moved quickly, going from absolute stillness to movement in the blink of an eye. He seemed to watch us, always.

But he was still my son, even fractured, even changed. He wrapped his arms around my waist, and though his skin was cold, the intent was warm. He smelt of ice and wind, but he nuzzled into my neck, as if he was trying to rescent himself into home. 

It was our cat really, that cemented the decision. He was curled in a chair by the fire, bathed in flickering shadows, back to the door. She padded in, rain-damp and murder-happy. She took one look at him, the baby she had once protected, licked, bitten, and ran straight into his arms, purring as she had never done since. He held her, blinking, and pressed his face into her fur. I half think he was hiding some tears, but who knew if fae cried?

The thing is, he had to adjust to having a sister too. The baby that was left in his crib had grown. She was uncannily beautiful but astoundingly normal. She laughed loudly, blew on dandelions and chattered at a hundred miles a minute. In hindsight, perhaps we had all loved her a little too easily, but she had become ours, as moulded by us as we had been by her. I was worried about them meeting, about silver blooded rivalries and jealousies. 

I needn’t have worried. They were kin in a way I couldn’t understand. They looked completely different, him with pale skin and dark hair, and her with dark skin and pale hair, mirrors of each other. They called to each other, as blood calls to blood. As soon as they touched, something shifted. Something shared. He fitted in a little better, she a little worse, as if they were sharing the burden of being displaced.

At least the cat finally decided it liked her.

Cal’s Gun

I don’t know what was wrong with It. Usually It was a sure-fire shot, confident in holding me, often barely bothering to aim. That might have been because of the Wrong-Energy pulsing through It, admittedly. But It rarely missed, and rarely failed to fire.

But now It’s limbs were shaking, moisture seeping from It’s palms, my barrel pointing at the floor rather than at The Enemy. It’s oxygen exchange was going into hyperdrive. I wasn’t sure why. 

Was it The Enemy? I suppose they were different from normal. Not the Wrong-Creatures dripping with slime and that Energy, or the Flesh with their shouting and lofty ideals. Not some Wood Creature which It had been cooing to me about, promising a hunting trip where we could truly test my range in a way we hadn’t in far too long. 

They were Like Me but Not Like Me. Carved out of metal, at least partly. But they were not oiled, their joints rusted. They were Flesh shaped, and as one of It’s friends shot at it, blood and oil spilt. A judder of horror went through me however, causing a shot of las to hit the ground. They were Not Like Me and Not Like It. Their heads were empty and their Spirits were mostly silent. Me and my It recoiled as one. 

Later, It prayed to me, incense filling the air, my Brethren also resting on their altar, connecting to the Omnissiah. Not just the usual Thank Yous and Maintenance. There were promises. That It would never butcher me, never use me like that. That It would protect me as I protected It. I was lucky, I knew. Too many of my Brethren were neglected by those that used their service, lucky to get even a drop of libation. It was not like that. It had kept me well for many years and I would serve It for many more. Ours was a beneficial relationship, one of equal energy and exchange, the way it ought to be. And I had noticed the Motive Force within them growing stronger every day. 

We were One, but not like those Creatures earlier. Never like that.

A Day in the Life - Cal

They couldn’t sleep, but they could rest. And they rarely rested in their own bed nowadays. And unfortunately, they couldn’t stay in Nic’s room all night, watching holovids, not since the Cardinal had whipped up the psyker fear to fever pitch. But their armscrew seemed no more afraid of them than ever, and insisted they lay down in their dormitory for at least four hours.  It was somewhat soothing, being in a dim, warm room with nothing but sleeping people, their tired ache leeching into Cal. It did help, much to their disgruntlement to lie down, giving their broken body something like a break.

But soon they got restless, the loud voice in their head unable to be ignored or blocked out any longer. it was absolutely maddening, in the most literal sense. They’d rise, rubbing at empty eyes and coming away with gold palms. Their security would rise more reluctantly, and push them to have breakfast. From bitter experience, they knew more often than not if left to their own devices, Cal would forget. 

They received help putting on their naval tunic, fingers fumbling over the gold buttons, co-ordination out the window. Their sense of shame about it all had long since flew out the window. These officers had seen them in worse shape. The uniform still sat oddly on them, a little too big, the sleeves slipping over to half way down their palms. But they liked it, the dark blues rather than the bright reds they had lived in for so long. It was undoubtedly a officer’s uniform too, matching the rest of the Chaser’s. They had never looked quite the same as the Lord’s Confidence, colours too different, cuts too modern. 

The mess hall was a bit of a sensory overload compared to the quiet of the bunk room. So many buzzing thoughts, so much chatter, clattering plates, ration packs heated and consumed. Their security placed a bowl of hot porridge in front of them to pick at, and ultimately be consumed by somebody else. They generally got more mileage with some recaff. That, despite its lack of practical effect had quite the placebo effect on Cal, who seemed marginally more with it afterwards.

After that, they were all business. They swept through the corridor to their office, conveniently located close to the astropathic chamber. A few members of their choir would stand to attention before being waved off. First, the messages received while they were resting. To be sorted into if they were to be responded to or not, and if they were, levels of urgency. Then compiled into information to compile into a brief to make its way into Nic and Bridge’s desks. A servo skull assisted them, reading and writing, helping the otherwise painfully slow work. Cal wasn’t sure if any of their midshipfolk had realised quite how illiterate they were yet and they preferred to keep it that way. 

It was methodical work, the type that occupied the mind rather than being completely taxing. Cal didn’t have to fight off the haze that was constantly flickering at the edge of their mind, making concentration an aim rather than a given. They rarely stopped for lunch, time mostly confusing to them as a concept nowadays anyway. 

After their choir had came back from lunch, the real work began. It was the closest Cal got to connecting to the ship itself, and it required the sharpest wits possible. And casting took a terrifying amount of energy. Therefore, it had to be a finely run machine. Everything arranged and in order, everything ready for as soon as Cal needed it. And as soon as they were done, immediately dismissal so Cal could lie down in their office without being disturbed until strength came back to them. Yet another weakness they were hiding. But it did seem to be working. 

They were good at their job. They loved their job. They took a great deal of satisfaction in their job. None of their choir were openly hostile to them, and the other officers of their level seemed to be making an active effort to embrace them, despite all their weirdness making that a somewhat uphill endeavour. 

When they had downed some rehydration fluid, they decided to give an inch usually. Nic had pushed them to at the beginning, and now it almost seemed easy to go into the officer’s quarters, sip some recaff and even venture an opinion in one or two conversations. They still were eerily quiet, still not quite like the others, but they were clearly theirs. The mark of ownership was well and truly pressed upon them - the ultimate mark of this being the gift of the blue and gold blindfold. They still treasured it a truly disproportionate amount. 

Next, their favourite time of day. The security waited outside the doors, looming, heavily discouraging any passers by from entering. It was the smaller chapel they preferred, with the metal that shone enough to look like stained glass. The quiet calmed them more than anything else. Well. Almost more than anything else. They knelt at the front, close to the altar, close to the icon of Her. They could stay here for hours, lost in their thoughts and visions, feeling close to Him. Usually their first security officer came and retrieved them gently, knocking them out of a near trance. Usually to shove a corpse starch bar into their hand. 

Then, it was restless visiting time. To visit Gwyn, or Pip, or Anya depending on whoever was on shift at the time. Just so they weren’t alone, just so they could feel half-way normal. Just so they could feel like they were treasuring the time they had here, because Emperor knew it wasn’t going to be a long time. Cal tried to memorise all of these moments, clutch at them so they wouldn’t turn into water and slip through their fingers. 

And then, it was almost over. They drifted to the bridge, much to the chagrin of Nic’s security team. A quick moment of eye contact was enough to establish whether it was likely or not that he was going to be able to clock off in any reasonable time. If they were lucky, and he was, then it was mint ration pack hot chocolate  and dreadful holovid series time, curled up with the cats. 

It was the closest thing to happy they had been in a long time.

[asfeedin]

10 No-Churn Ice Cream Recipes, No Ice Cream Maker Required

[Photographs: Vicky Wasik]

As warmer days approach, ice cream is on the mind. Who wouldn’t want to devour a huge cone right now? But with stay-at-home measures in place and supermarket stashes in flux, grabbing a pint or bar of ice cream isn’t as easy as it once was. But fear not, my ice cream-loving friends: you can still make your ice cream dreams a reality, and you don’t even need an ice cream maker to do so. (Of course, if you do have an ice cream maker then the world is your oyster.)

We love ice cream for its smooth, creamy texture; its sweet and varied flavors; its many shapes and forms. But ice cream also brings with it a sense of nostalgia, a longing for the ease of childhood. While most of us are stuck inside and unable to fully enjoy these warmer months, we can still make new memories with ice cream, be it with our kids, our roommates, our partners, or all on our own. These memories may look different than other ones, but they can still spark moments of joy during times of hardship.

So go ahead and bring the ice cream truck to you. If there’s ever been a time to experiment in the kitchen, it’s now. From classic flavors like chocolate and vanilla, to frozen pies and pudding pops, we’ve got 10 recipes for no-churn ice cream that will surely bring out your inner child.

Vanilla Ice Cream

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

It doesn’t get much simpler than a scoop of sweet, sweet vanilla ice cream. Just five ingredients come together in this no-churn recipe to make a classic vanilla flavor profile that everyone will love. While many ice cream recipes use canned milk, this one opts for heavy cream in order to create a fresh dairy flavor. And thanks to Stella’s method of egg whipping, you won’t need as much cream to achieve a light and silky texture. Whether you eat it with a spoon or scooped over a slice of pie, the overall result is pure and simple—and sometimes that’s all you need.

Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe »

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Chocolate Ice Cream

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

Since the chocolate flavor in this recipe comes from cocoa powder alone, it’s important to reach for the good stuff. Dutch-process cocoa styles will give you a deep, dark flavor and color, while using natural cocoa will result in a lighter color and fruitier profile. Meanwhile, ingredients like instant espresso powder, brown sugar, and spirits or liqueur help create a complex and distinct flavor. If chocolate ice cream is your go-to, you’ll enjoy scoop after scoop of this creamy, custard-style dessert.

Chocolate Ice Cream Recipe »

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Mascarpone Ice Cream

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

Our no-churn vanilla ice cream recipe gets taken up a notch with the addition of mascarpone, which creates a complex dairy flavor and velvety texture. Just a small amount of brown sugar really helps bring out mascarpone’s distinct flavor. The ice cream is delightful on its own, but it becomes an even sweeter treat when paired with fresh fruit like strawberries or cherries. The mascarpone flavor also makes it a natural match for any Italian dessert, and we particularly like to serve it with a shot of espresso poured on top, for a riff on the affogato.

Mascarpone Ice Cream Recipe »

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Fruity Ice Cream

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

Freeze-dried fruit is always there when we need it most. Here, it comes to the rescue in creating an ultra-fruity ice cream with a beautifully vibrant color. This version uses blueberries, but any good-quality freeze-dried fruit can help you achieve your fruity ice cream dreams. Since the fruit contains zero moisture and can be ground into a fine powder, it achieves a more concentrated flavor and a creamier consistency than fresh fruit allows. So all that’s left to do is let ice cream be your blank slate and let the array of freeze-dried fruits open up your world of possibilities.

Fruity Ice Cream Recipe »

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Vanilla Ice Cream Pie

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

The flavor combinations for this ice cream pie recipe are truly endless. This version features a vanilla-flavored filling, but can easily be customized with other extracts like lemon, orange and mint. The filling is as light and fluffy as a cloud, thanks to a mixture of Swiss meringue and whipped cream. As for the crust? We went for a chocolate cookie crumb, but you can try making it with graham crackers or even Biscoff cookies instead. So why not try out different flavors together? Permission to play around with your food: granted!

Vanilla Ice Cream Pie Recipe »

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Lime Ice Cream Pie

[Photograph: Max Falkowitz]

Think of this as key lime pie’s cooler, more refreshing cousin. The filling’s smoothness comes from the use of sweetened condensed milk, while lime juice and zest give it a tart lime flavor. Once you pour the filling into your prepared pie crust, all it needs is a few hours in the freezer and then it’s ready to serve. How’s that for a low-maintenance pie?

Lime Ice Cream Pie Recipe »

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Homemade Klondike Bars

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik. Video: Serious Eats Team]

What would you do for a Klondike bar? Thankfully, you don’t need to churn ice cream for one. But what’s the secret to the fluffy filling inside the bar? Truth be told, it’s Swiss meringue! Cutting the meringue with milk and cream makes it light and airy enough to cut into squares before dipping. We turn to coconut oil for the milk chocolate coating, which makes it thin, glossy, and crisp. The result is a creamy and crunchy Klondike bar that just might be better than the original.

Homemade Klondike Bars Recipe »

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Homemade Chipwiches

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

The chipwich is arguably the best ice-cream sandwich in the game. A slick slab of ice cream between two tender chocolate chip cookies and rolled in even more chocolate chips? Iconic. Delicious. Incredibly easy to make at home. Best of all, you can assemble it with any cookie and no-churn ice cream combo of your choosing. Chocolate chip cookies (we have more than a few) with vanilla ice cream? Yes, please. Or how about fruity ice cream between two brown butter shortbread cookies? Go for it!

Homemade Chipwiches Recipe »

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Homemade Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream Bars

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik. Video: Serious Eats Team]

Perhaps one of the more iconic childhood treats, these ice cream bars are vibrant and flavorful. Swiss meringue once agains serves as part of the base for the filling, cut with milk and cream and flavored with both vanilla and freeze-dried strawberries. The coating consists of more freeze-dried strawberries and crispy puffed-rice cereal, which sticks beautifully to a thin glaze of white chocolate without turning soggy. It’s a delightful treat with an intense flavor that will surely bring a sweet smile to your face.

Homemade Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream Bars Recipe »

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DIY Pudding Pops

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

As the name suggests, this recipe calls for pudding (yes, we know, it’s not technically ice cream…but neither are the rest of these recipes if you’re being picky)—in this case, a simple mixture that incorporates tapioca starch in order to keep it silky and thick, even after spending some time in the freezer. If you prefer a simple pudding pop, you can enjoy them after about six to eight hours in the freezer. But the kid in some of us sees a plain pudding pop as a blank canvas. So whip out some homemade magic shell and let the pops go for a dip, adding some sprinkles for good measure. Just a little bit of time in the kitchen and a few patient hours of waiting will leave you with a rich and refreshing treat to relish in, and a fun project to make with those around you.

DIY Pudding Pops Recipe »

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Tags: 10, Cream, ice, maker, NoChurn, Recipes, Required

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[kentuckertv]

'Z: The Beginning of Everything': Zelda Fitzgerald As Fragile Icon

Christina Ricci plays Zelda Fitzgerald as an iron butterfly in Z: The Beginning of Everything, a new, 10-part series streaming on Amazon Prime starting Friday. The series is intent on proving that Zelda Sayre, who married the novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1920, was an important creative person in her own right, but the show demonstrates it’s hard to avoid the probable truth—that Zelda was more muse than creator.

“I have the most kissable mouth in town,” Zelda says, and that sets the tone for the series, which consists of snack-able half-hour episodes. Zelda is at once a flirt and an intelligent woman, an ambitious person and a socializer who could match the bibulous Fitzgerald drink-for-drink. A Roaring 20s proto-flapper, this Zelda—based on a biography of the same name by Therese Anne Fowler—is a hot-house powerhouse. You can see why Ricci wanted the role.

In the context of this series, the author of that masterpiece The Great Gatsby comes off as a co-conspirator, and in some ways weaker than Zelda in discipline. “I’m gonna be a famous writer some day,” says Scott Fitzgerald in the opening episode, and as the series proceeds, boy, does he ever. At first, the fame seems merely his due. But after a while, Fitzgerald—portrayed by David Hoflin—is swallowed up by the social life.

The show has Zelda and Scott swanning around with now near-forgotten big-names such as Tallulah Bankhead, Edmund Wilson, and Edna St. Vincent Millay. Jim True-Frost is excellent as the great book editor Maxwell Perkins. Too often, Z makes its actors look like kids playing dress-up, acting with their starched collars and the champagne glasses that seem permanently affixed to their hands. The story lacks much in the way of momentum other than the downward spiral of too much booze, too little creation of art. Z: The Beginning of Everything is a spiffy soap opera, but not much more than that.

Z: The Beginning of Everything is streaming now on Amazon Prime.

[tripstations]

A Lengthy Weekend in New York: What to Do?

from the tripstations archives: November 2017

The town was nonetheless buzzing and considerably in shock from the latest twin uptown and downtown Blue and Purple occasion sharing of election night time acceptance and condolence throughout our final November go to. It’s the weekend earlier than Thanksgiving: that each one American, parades of billowing balloons and black Friday purchasing. The unusually balmy climate provides the town some pre-holiday giddiness that solely provides to the standard New York Metropolis buzz. New Yorkers are speaking to strangers over shared tables at dinners (this occurred twice on our go to). What are you able to pack into 4 days within the metropolis that by no means sleeps? Rather a lot it appears. Tie on some cozy strolling footwear and be part of us as we uncover acquainted and never so acquainted issues to do over an extended weekend in New York Metropolis.

The Different Park

We had been fortunate to expertise some uncommon New York, late Indian Summer time-like climate, and hopped the F practice to Brooklyn, exited at Flatbush and entered into Prospect Park. We joined nannies with strollers, zealous joggers, and cyclists and fell in love with the numerous paths and forested walkways of this Brooklyn oasis. Take a detour into the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens or cease at BAM for a live performance or lecture in your means in or out of this lush and beautiful inexperienced area that Frederick Regulation Olmsted, the famend designer of Central Park, (that different park) regarded as his most profitable and achieved park design. Stroll down Carroll Road by way of Park Slope and expertise a few of the neighborhoods’ lovely Brownstones and a few 40 minutes later, end up on stylish Courtroom Road in Carroll Gardens/Cobble Hill, subsequent door to Historic Brooklyn Heights. Or maybe a bit additional north to the hip and gentrified Williamsburg.

A Night time on the Opera

On any go to to New York, one ought to absorb it’s many and splendid cultural establishments. In case you have by no means skilled the Metropolitan Opera and a glass of champagne in her luscious red-carpeted interval lobbies, then indulge your senses in Anna Netrebko’s Manon Lescault this fall within the Met’s breathtaking manufacturing, with Marcelo Álvarez as Des Grieux offering greater than a match for Ms. Netrebko’s over-the-top soprano. Set in occupied France within the 1940s, it’s a becoming setting for an opera about an unprincipled protagonist, prepared to do something to acquire her ends. The gorgeous set is ideal! Tickets start at $25; for costs, extra data, or to put an order, name (212) 362-6000 or go to www.metopera.org.

Two Museums: One Conventional, One Not So A lot

 The Metropolitan Museum of Artwork unveiled its new present, Masterworks: Unpacking Style on the Costume Institute simply days earlier than our arrival. The exhibition is an unbelievable story of the evolution of clothes over the past 200 or so years, in about 60 shows, and lets the viewer simply observe and perceive the “dialog”; consider the that means behind the cerulean lecture in The Satan Wears Prada, and you’ll perceive. Outfits on show embrace Price, Schiaparelli, Chanel, Vivienne Westwood, Dior and it’s a must-stop for the fashionista.

The Museum of the Metropolis of New York was opening their New York at it’s Core exhibition on the Saturday of our go to and was filled with dwell music and welcoming leisure. The exhibit follows the historical past of the town’s preliminary rise from a Dutch colony to right this moment’s metropolis. We additionally had been completely enthralled with Homosexual Gotham: Artwork and Underground Tradition in New York, till February 26, 2017, “brings to life the queer inventive networks that sprang up within the metropolis throughout the 20th century–a sequence of creative subcultures whose radical concepts had lasting results on the mainstream.” We encountered homosexual icons from Mae West to Leonard Bernstein and Andy Warhol, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Cecil Beaton; George Platt Lynes and Gertrude Stein.

Eats

A final minute reservation was made and with a lot anticipation we entered Pondicheri, chef, and restaurateur Anita Jaisinghani ode to lovely household based mostly Indian nosh. This Houston-based restaurant opened its New York doorways in July and had been receiving raves, together with two write-ups within the New York Instances alone.  We targeted on the Thali menu which we thrived on throughout our time in India: actually ‘plate’: large silver platters, divided into sections, quickly full of heaping helpings of no matter vegetarian wonders Anitaji has cooking in her kitchen that day. John scooped up the Vegetarian Vishnu: crimson beet soup, smoked eggplant, spiced okra, sautéed greens, candy potato peanut samosa. I opted for Earth: hen 25, spiced okra, smoked eggplant, sautéed greens, beet cashew raita, all washed down with chilly seasonal pints of draught beer. The meals gods, Vishnu included, had been smiling on us on our first night time in New York!

Eataly Flatiron continues to be a raucous, bustling, busy chew of Italy positioned at 200 fifth Avenue with entrances on 23rd Road between fifth & sixth Avenue. We loved their truffle and fungi impressed menu on the common Manzo earlier than heading uptown for our night time on the opera. I savoured splendid tagliatelle with Veal Ragout, shavings of Grano Padano and truffles and John was speechless together with his Farrotto: evenly toasted farro with whipped parsnips, wild mushrooms, and parsnip chips. Second-night rating, restaurant-wise!

The brand new Eataly NYC Downtown Italian market debuted at four World Commerce Middle this month and options tastings, a sit-down Southern Italian restaurant, bread bakery, Italian espresso bar and several other to-go choices. Ensure you ask for a window seat for spectacular views over the Nationwide September 11 memorial and the radiant reflecting swimming pools.

seventh Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn presents tons of takeaway choices from small storefront eateries that mix quick meals on the go together with a sit-down eating expertise that typically spills onto late November heat and sunny again patios. HANKI On a regular basis Korean brings loads of soul to their Seoul impressed genuine Korean meals. For meat lovers, the good Dak-Galbi ‘Hanki Set’: fire-grilled hen served with a spicy/candy sauce with slivers of inexperienced jalapeños warming the tongue and sides of veg japchae (chilly candy potato starch noodles) is a should. The Tofu Steak ‘Hanki Set’ is a vegetarian dream: easy tofu, shiitake mushrooms and onion ‘steak’ grilled in soy with 4 sides of banchan. A beneficiant facet of seasoned brown rice finishes each units. Wash it down with one in all their signature heat or chilly teas, and you might be prepared to complete your sunny November amble of Brooklyn.

Brunch or a Burger at The NoMad Lodge

Locals hail The NoMad Lodge Chef Daniel Humm’s Vegetarian burger as THE veterinarian burger to have within the metropolis proper now, and in response to the desk beside us, a reasonably rattling positive dry-aged beef burger as properly the place the lodge’s atrium is simply the place to seize sunny Sunday brunch or an intimate dinner underneath the cover of a twinkling metropolis. We selected the brunch choice, our final morning within the metropolis, and begin with a standard Bloody Mary, and John sips a Espresso Martini. Completely poached Eggs Benedict (sans contemporary crab meat, I’m allergic) offered on barely buttered cushions of house-made muffins draped with a tarragon-scented hollandaise. John opts for the spinach, chèvre and mushroom omelet, served with toast slathered with probably the most beautiful butter. In fact, there’s that well-known Veggie Burger: lentils, cremini mushrooms, and piquillo served fairly merely, letting all of the splendour of the burger shine by way of. Unobtrusive slick service provides to a beautiful final morning in New York.

The New New York

“Decrease Manhattan’s exceptional revitalization over the past 15 years is a cornerstone of the ‘new’ New York Metropolis,” mentioned Fred Dixon, president, and CEO of NYC & Firm. “With tourism reaching file ranges in New York Metropolis, guests and locals have extra selections to discover, store, keep and dine than ever earlier than on this newly reimagined downtown neighborhood.” And certainly it’s really new: enter your upscale purchasing expertise on the  $1.four billion Westfield World Commerce Middle purchasing advanced through Santiago Calatrava’s hovering Dove of a transit hub, the Oculus and 365,000 sq. toes of retail area. Up your purchasing sport at manufacturers that embrace Apple, Beneath Armour, Kate Spade, and Lacoste.

And naturally The Nationwide September 11 Memorial Museum on the World Commerce Middle. Take a quiet two hours to enter this solemn area of remembrance and reflection which attests to the triumph of human dignity over atrocity. Exit the museum and spend a while within the late November solar viewing the magnificent reflecting swimming pools that sit throughout the unique footprints of the Twin Towers. A difficult however inspiring morning.

Two Christmas Markets, Two Very Completely different Feels

The Union Sq. Vacation Market combines their inexperienced market with their Christmas market and makes for a much less company, extra natural seasonal expertise. wander the winding aisles and stalls of handicrafts and one-of-a-kind presents, or hand around in Market places like Little Brooklyn or Urbanspace Provisions. The youngsters can spend time in their very own craft studio whilst you heat up within the warming station.

Head uptown to Bryant Park, and do some early Christmas purchasing on the Vacation Outlets at Bryant Park.  Peruse the stalls of handcrafted jewellery, handmade soaps, scarves, hand heaters, distinctive small items of pictures and work and naturally, your requisite NYC memento. Or strap on some skates and take a look at the ice out on the Financial institution of America Winter Village at Bryant Park. There are many meals kiosks ringing Bryant Park must you or the youngsters want a mid-afternoon pick-me-up.

Ensure you go to NYC and Firm and choose up a few Metropolis Passes. Not solely will you save 40 p.c off common mixed admission costs whereas visiting a few of the metropolis’s most essential websites, however additionally, you will get to leap the road and take the VIP route. How nice is that?

Fall in love with New York my buddies! Focused on your personal Lengthy Weekend in New York Metropolis? Take a look at Skyscanner for any flight or lodge offers on your Lengthy Weekend away! Or searching for a dependable information? tripstations ALWAYS makes use of DK Books Eyewitness Collection: 

  The post A Lengthy Weekend in New York: What to Do? appeared first on Tripstations.

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[raynbowclown]

Bonus Bucks

Bonus Bucks - trying to win 300 dollars, Lucy and Ethel are fighting over a contest-winning ticket - - leading to Lucy taking a starch bath!

Bonus Bucks – I Love Lucy season 3, originally aired March 8, 1954

Bonus Bucks is one of the iconic I Love Lucy episodes that turns into one of the Ricardos versus the Mertzes battles.  It begins with Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball) and Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance) are trying to win a newspaper contest, matching the numbers on dollar bills to a number printed in the newspaper.  Despite their best…

[mikemortgage]

Chanel: Iconic couturier Karl Lagerfeld dies in Paris

PARIS — Karl Lagerfeld, Chanel’s iconic couturier whose designs had an unprecedented impact on the entire fashion industry, died Tuesday in Paris, prompting an outpouring of love and admiration for the man in the trademark white ponytail, high starched collar and dark enigmatic glasses who dominated high fashion for the past 50 years.

Although he spent virtually his entire career at luxury labels catering to the very wealthy — including 20 years at Chloe — Lagerfeld’s designs quickly trickled down to low-end retailers, giving him global influence.

Such was the enigma surrounding the German-born designer that even his age was a point of mystery for decades, with reports he had two birth certificates, one dated 1933 and the other 1938.

In 2013, Lagerfeld told the French magazine “Paris Match” he was born in 1935, but in 2019 his assistant still didn’t know the truth — telling The Associated Press he liked “to scramble the tracks on his year of birth — that’s part of the character.”

Chanel confirmed that Lagerfeld, who had looked increasingly frail in recent seasons, died early Tuesday in Paris. Last month, he did not come out to take a bow at the house’s couture show in Paris — a rare absence that the company attributed to him being “tired.”

“An extraordinary creative individual, Lagerfeld reinvented the brand’s codes created by Gabrielle Chanel: the Chanel jacket and suit, the little black dress, the precious tweeds, the two-tone shoes, the quilted handbags, the pearls and costume jewelry,” Chanel said.

“Thanks to his creative genius, generosity and exceptional intuition, Karl Lagerfeld was ahead of his time, which widely contributed to the House of Chanel’s success throughout the world,” the brand’s CEO Alain Wertheimer said. “Today, not only have I lost a friend, but we have all lost an extraordinary creative mind to whom I gave carte blanche in the early 1980s to reinvent the brand.”

Chanel said Virginie Viard, his longtime head of studio, will create the house’s upcoming collections. Chanel did not say whether her appointment was permanent.

Lagerfeld was one of the most hardworking figures in the fashion world, holding down the top design jobs at LVMH-owned luxury label Fendi from 1977, and Paris’ family-owned power-house Chanel in 1983. He lost around 90 pounds in his late 60s to fit into the latest slimline fashions.

At Chanel, he served up youthful designs that were always of the moment and sent out almost infinite variations on the house’s classic skirt suit, ratcheting up the hemlines or smothering it in golden chains, stings of pearls or pricey accessories. They were always delivered with wit.

“Each season, they tell me (the Chanel designs) look younger. One day we’ll all turn up like babies,” he once told The Associated Press.

His outspoken and often stinging remarks on topics as diverse as French politics and celebrity waistlines won him the nickname “Kaiser Karl” in the fashion media. Among the most acid comments included calling former French President Francois Hollande an “imbecile” who would be “disastrous” for France in Marie-Claire, and telling The Sun British tabloid that he didn’t like the face of Pippa Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge’s sister.

“She should only show her back,” he advised.

Lagerfeld was also heavily criticized for sending out a negative message to women when he told France’s Metro newspaper that British singer Adele was “a little too fat.”

Despite this, he did have an under-reported soft side. He was known to be very kind to his staff at Chanel and was famous for giving journalists long interviews after each fashion show. He also shared his unmarried life in his Parisian mansion with a Siamese cat called Choupette.

“She is spoilt, much more than a child could be,” he told the AP in 2013, revealing that he took her to the vet nearly every 10 days.

Lagerfeld had little use for nostalgia and kept his gaze firmly on the future. Well into his 70s, he was quick to embrace new technology: He famously had a collection of hundreds of iPods.

A photographer who shot ad campaigns for Chanel and his own eponymous label, Lagerfeld also collected art books and had a massive library and a bookstore as well as his own publishing house. He was also an impressive linguist, switching between perfect French, English, Italian and his native German during interviews at fashion shows.

Although he spent much of his life in the public eye, Lagerfeld remained a largely elusive figure. Even as he courted the spotlight, he made an apparently deliberate effort to hide what was going on behind his trademark dark shades.

“I am like a caricature of myself, and I like that,” British Vogue quoted Lagerfeld as saying. “It is like a mask. And for me the Carnival of Venice lasts all year long.”

After cutting his teeth at Paris-based label Chloe, Lagerfeld consolidated his reputation in the 1980s when he revived the flagging fortunes of the storied Paris haute couture label Chanel. There, he helped launch the careers of supermodels including Claudia Schiffer, Ines de la Fressange and Stella Tennant.

In a move that helped make him a household name, Lagerfeld designed a capsule collection for Swedish fast-fashion company H&M in 2004 and released a CD of his favourite music shortly after.

A weight-loss book he published in 2005 — “The Karl Lagerfeld Diet” — consolidated his status as a pop culture icon. In the book, Lagerfeld said it was his desire to fit into the slim-cut suits by then-Dior Homme designer Hedi Slimane that had motivated his dramatic transformation.

The son of an industrialist who made a fortune in condensed milk and his violinist wife, Lagerfeld was born into an affluent family in Hamburg, Germany.

Lagerfeld had artistic ambitions early on. In interviews, he variously said he wanted to become a cartoonist, a portraitist, an illustrator or a musician.

“My mother tried to instruct me on the piano. One day, she slammed the piano cover closed on my fingers and said, ‘draw, it makes less noise,” he was quoted as saying in the book “The World According to Karl.”

At 14, Lagerfeld came to Paris with his parents and went to school in the City of Light. His fashion career got off to a precocious start when, in 1954, a coat he designed won a contest by the International Wool Secretariat. His rival, Yves Saint Laurent, won that year’s contest in the dress category.

Lagerfeld apprenticed at Balmain and in 1959 was hired at another Paris-based house, Patou, where he spent four years as artistic director. After a series of jobs with labels including Rome-based Fendi, Lagerfeld took over the reins at Chloe, known for its romantic Parisian style.

Lagerfeld also started his own label, Karl Lagerfeld, which though less commercially successful than his other ventures, was widely seen as a sort of sketchpad where the designer worked through his audacious ideas.

In 1982, he took over at over Chanel, which had been dormant since the death of its founder, Coco Chanel, more than a decade earlier.

“When I took on Chanel, it was a sleeping beauty — not even a beautiful one,” he said in the 2007 documentary “Lagerfeld Confidential.” “She snored.”

For his debut collection for the house, Lagerfeld injected a dose of raciness, sending out a translucent navy chiffon number that prompted scandalized headlines.

He never ceased to shake up the storied house, sending out a logo-emblazoned bikini so small the top looked like pasties on a string and another collection that dispensed entirely with bottoms, with the models wearing little jackets over opaque tights instead.

Lagerfeld was open about his homosexuality — he once said he announced it to his parents at 13 — but kept his private life under wraps. Following his widely known relationship with a French aristocrat who died of AIDS in 1989, Lagerfeld insisted he prized his solitude above all.

“I hate when people say I’m ‘solitaire’ (or solitary.) Yes, I’m solitaire in the sense of a stone from Cartier, a big solitaire,” Lagerfeld told The New York Times. “I have to be alone to do what I do. I like to be alone. I’m happy to be with people, but I’m sorry to say I like to be alone, because there’s so much to do, to read, to think.”

As much as he loved the spotlight, Lagerfeld was careful to obscure his real self.

“It’s not that I lie, it’s that I don’t owe the truth to anyone,” he told French Vogue in an interview.

——

Former AP fashion writer Jenny Barchfield provided biographical material for this story.

——

Thomas Adamson is at http://www.twitter.com/ThomasAdamsonAP

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Kid Yamamoto: a Hero's Hero

The bafflingly named Hero’s was launched in 2005 as an offshoot of the great kickboxing promotion, K-1. An ultra successful crossover event with PRIDE FC in 2002 had left the K-1 big wigs thinking that they had better start working their way into this mixed martial arts malarkey and so Hero’s became K-1’s MMA arm.

Revisiting the run of Hero’s events it is strange to realize that the company was only around for a couple of years—from March 2005 until December 2007. DREAM lasted longer, PRIDE had been going for almost a decade when Hero’s started up and ended the same year, and even the youngest Japanese promotion, Rizin, has outlasted Hero’s at this point. Yet in those three years, Hero’s gave us some of the more memorable moments in Japanese MMA.

Kazushi Sakuraba abandoned PRIDE—the house that he had built—in order to join Hero’s, returning from the brink of defeat against Kestutis Smirnovas and losing in one of the sketchiest bouts of all time to a greased up Yoshihiro Akiyama. Genki Sudo found a home in Hero’s and was able to employ more and more theater in his legendary entrances to the point that he eventually abandoned fighting altogether and formed a successful pop group. Theater and narratives are a large part of fighting, but in terms of raw talent there was one man who stood out from the herd in Hero’s and whose highlight reels could be pulled up on YouTube at any point to convince friends that there was a future to this MMA thing: Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto.

A Bolt from the Blue

By the time that Hero’s announced its first grand prix, Yamamoto had already established something of a reputation as Japanese MMA’s bad boy—hitting opponents late after having knocked them out and living a dramatic life outside of the ring. He had dabbled in kickboxing in 2004 with a victory over Takehiro Murahama and a surprisingly competitive and dramatic fight with the great Masato on New Year's Eve. But as far as MMA went, there was an awful lot of hype and fans just weren’t sure they had seen enough to justify it yet.

Yamamoto had competed successfully in Shooto but had never won a Shooto title—pretty much a rite of passage for a Japanese MMA prospect. Scouted by K-1, Yamamoto found himself in a similar position to Tenshin Nasukawa’s modern position in Rizin—the company liked him but weren’t finding him suitable opponents or building a division for him to compete in. Yamamoto went from fighting the formidable Jeff Curran (16-5-1) in Icon Sport in May of 2003 to taking three fights against opponents with no MMA record in K-1 through to 2005.

Kid was a potential star, but fighting nobodies wasn’t going to get him anywhere and he knew this. So when Hero’s announced their middleweight grand prix, Yamamoto decided to take a crack at Hero’s’s first belt. Hero’s followed the Japanese tradition of making up its own weightclasses that deliberately didn’t conform with anyone else’s, so middleweight was in fact 75 kilograms or 165 pounds. This meant that Hero’s could enlist the services of the excellent lightweights Genki Sudo and Caol Uno to legitimize their first tournament. The tournament would have been even better had Joachim Hansen not been poached by PRIDE just before it began. Kid Yamamoto, however, was not a respected lightweight—he was a bantamweight at best who floated up to featherweight to get fights.

As far as ballsy moves go, Yamamoto’s decision to enter the Hero’s middleweight grand prix was one of the ballsiest in MMA. Though he was 5'4" on a good day, the tournament quickly stopped being about Yamamoto being undersized and became about the rest of the fighters being underpowered.

The Yamamoto clan are now a wrestling dynasty: the father, Ikuei Yamamoto had competed in the Munich Olympics, the elder sister Miyuu is a three time world champion, and Norifumi’s younger sister, Seiko is a four time world champion who achieved a bronze in the ADCC no gi grappling world championships eleven years after her last world title in wrestling. While Norifumi missed out on a serious wrestling career, he was able to put his talent to use in learning the MMA game and also entered The Contenders, a grappling tournament wherein he bested judo submissions wizard Koji Komuro. Throughout the 2005 grand prix, fans were treated to numerous instances of Yamamoto throwing around larger opponents in styles that didn’t always make sense to the eyes. The sight of Yamamoto holding Royler Gracie’s toes about an inch off the floor in a standing guillotine will always be hilarious.

We can never pretend that Yamamoto was a striking savant—his game was the leaping right hook and some hard kicks and that was about it. But what Yamamoto did have was ridiculous speed. Almost everyone he fought would inevitably try to kick or knee him in the head and he would return with his right hook—often wound up from far behind him—before they could get their foot back to the ground.

On the first night of the Hero’s grand prix, Yamamoto knocked Royler Gracie stiff with a right hook to the jaw, then took on Japanese MMA legend Caol Uno in the second round, forcing a TKO due to cuts over Uno’s left eye from stiff right straights and hooks. Genki Sudo had worked through his half of the bracket, submitting Kazuyuki Miyata and Hiroyuki Takaya and this set up a Yamamoto-Sudo final at K-1 Premium Dynamite 2005. The bout headlined K-1’s year-ending show at the Osaka Dome on a card containing kickboxing legends like Ernesto Hoost and Semmy Schilt. After a very tentative few minutes, Yamamoto finally caught the grappling savant with a right hook as he came in and sent him to the mat. Flurrying for the finish, Yamamoto’s finest moment was somewhat undercut by a premature stoppage. Yet the accomplishment has never been replicated: a fighter going up two weightclasses to run through a tournament with two fights in one night, stopping each opponent.

Yamamoto’s career peaked with his victory in the 2005 grand prix, but injuries and strange matchmaking left us with a great many unanswered questions. There was occasional talk about a possible match up between Yamamoto and PRIDE’s lightweight king, Takanori Gomi. Others wanted to see Yamamoto in with Urijah Faber, a trailblazer in the featherweight class in the United States. But while those match ups were complicated by the fighters being under different promotions, Hero’s did a bad job of finding Yamamoto opponents even under the same banner. The Genki Sudo rematch never happened and Sudo retired in 2007, but perhaps more surprisingly Gesias ‘JZ’ Cavalcante won the two subsequent Hero’s tournaments in Yamamoto’s division and that eagerly anticipated fight never materialized. Yamamoto had proven that he was the star and after starching Kazuyuki Miyata with the finest and quickest flying knee ever to grace MMA, Yamamoto wanted to return to his natural weight class.

Try to take note of where Yamamoto’s right foot last touches the mat before the knee, and then where it lands afterwards. There are some who attest that Yamamoto might have been the greatest raw athlete to ever compete in MMA. Watching Yamamoto hammer the heavy bag is one of the more impressive sights this writer has seen in the gym.

Hero’s best efforts were pretty bad. At featherweight, Yamamoto was matched against the 0-0-0 wrestler, Istvan Majoros in a fight so lopsided that he felt bad about punching the guy.

Another interesting quirk of Yamamoto’s game, he was a murderer with knees to the body out of the double collar tie, even against much taller opponents like Caol Uno.

Then on the same night that JZ Cavalcante won the 2007 grand prix, Yamamoto fought the 1-1 Bibiano Fernandes in the co-main event—his first fight at bantamweight. Fernandes went on to become something very special indeed over the coming years, but it was a truly weird piece of matchmaking at the time.

The last great showing Yamamoto had came against the formidable Rani Yahya on the last night of 2009. Yahya then had a 12-3 MMA record, had won gold at ADCC earlier in the year, and was fresh off a decision loss to Chase Beebe for the WEC bantamweight championship. Yamamoto, looking more polished and thoughtful, set to work with hard kicks and counter punches. He dug body shots with his left hand and dipped out after his right hooks. It was one of Yamamoto’s smoothest performances in the ring, and he handed Yahya his first knockout loss in the second round.

A surprisingly smooth and measured Yamamoto.

Then Yamamoto injured his knee and was out for two years. The Kid of old never came back. He fought Joe Warren in the opening round of the DREAM featherweight grand prix (back up a weight class) on his return in 2009 but lost a split decision to the American wrestler. A decision loss to the unremarkable Masanori Kanehara followed wherein Yamamoto was dropped on his face. His feet were so much slower and it was becoming clear that his chin was not up to it any more. In almost all of his remaining fights Yamamoto’s chin looked shaky and he just didn’t seem to have that electricity that made him impossible to look away from in 2005. In a passing of the torch moment, Yamamoto—MMA’s most notorious little man—met Demetrious Johnson in February 2011 and was handily outworked. The men Yamamoto was struggling against by the very end of his career likely wouldn’t have laid a glove on him at his best, but that is the nature of fighting.

In truth, to many fans Yamamoto remains a case of untested potential similar to the late Kevin Randleman but with a far more successful run in the fights he did have. But even as his abilities waned, Kid Yamamoto impacted the future of Japanese MMA even as it was entering a sleepy, post-PRIDE hibernation. Yamamoto had built his own gym to train on his own terms and as his own career wound down, successful youngsters began to trickle out of the small Yamamoto Sports Academy: the respectable Issei Tamura, the wily Kotetsu Boku, and the hot young prospect Yusuke Yachi to name a few. Kyoji Horiguchi was a quiet gym rat at the YSA through his teens, often found behind the front desk or teaching the kids wrestling classes, and now he is the best fighter Japan has perhaps ever produced. If you have any doubt of Yamamoto’s direct influence on Horiguchi, watch Horiguchi’s Shooto run wherein he looks the spitting image of Kid, leaping in behind lead hooks over and over again. Even years before Horiguchi began competing, Killer Bee gym (as it was in its previous incarnation) was the training grounds of the fearsome Akira Kikuchi—often regarded as one of the big “what ifs” of Japanese MMA. Yamamoto’s elder sister Miyuu and her son—Kid’s nephew, Erson, also fight out of the YSA. Rizin undoubtedly has a lot to thank Norifumi Yamamoto for, even if he never fought under their banner.

As he became more of an occasional competitor, Yamamoto also continued to explore his love of art and tattoos, coming into each bout more beautifully decorated than the last, with stunning shorts to match. In a sport full of atrocious ink with almost half of the fighters you see having their own name tattooed across their back lest they forget, Yamamoto’s ink stood out as genuine art. Strangely enough Yamamoto also began working on a curry restaurant in his semi-retirement, hilariously named Curry Shower, but just as the Kid was starting his second act he was cut down by cancer.

For the past few years, we have all been writing about Kid Yamamoto as an old man because in the fight game he was. One of the guilty pleasures of any fight writer is cracking wise about "old timers" and then being forced to eat crow if they can turn back the clock for one night. That’s the way it is supposed to be: 40-year-old men aren’t supposed to be able to keep up with 25-year-old kids. The heartbreaking thing is that in any other way of looking at it, in any other aspect of life, Kid Yamamoto was not an old man. He wasn’t even middle aged. The name ‘Kid’ had started to seem silly by the time Yamamoto hit 30, but to Miyuu Yamamoto he was still just her little brother, and to Ikuei Yamamoto, I’m sure Norifumi was still his baby boy.

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[hauteculturefashion]

Possibly one of the most fascinating, recognizable and most iconic traditional dresses in the world is the Huipil Grande, from Istmo of Tehauntepec, Mexico.

Made famous to foreigners due its appearance in two of Frida Kahlo’s paintings, Self–Portrait as a Tehuana (Diego on My Mind), 1943, and Self-Portrait, 1948,  and made famous to nationals due to the matriarchy society, the Istmos of Tehuantepec, from where it originates, this garment can not help but captivate the attention of everyone in its eyeshot. From head to toe, like the women who wear it, it is a force of fashion embedded with a strong cultural identity that demands respect and is not to be reckoned with.

Huipil grande of the Istmo de Tehuntepec worn in the Toca style, which is still worn today when entering churches during religious festivals.

Standing shy of a meter in height the Huipil Grande is headdress made from a combination of pleated and starched white lace, commercial lace and satin ribbon. Unlike a traditional huipil, that’s construction is made from a rectangular piece of fabric which has been folded at the shoulders, the Hupil Grande’s construction is based on that of woman’s blouse, only with non-functioning sleeves. Essentially it is one accessory worn two ways, the Huipil Grande Toca and the Huipil Grande Traje de Gala. The Huipil Grande Toca is the style that hugs the face line, this style is used during traditional Tehuana religious events when the wearer must enter a church. The Huipil Grande Traje de Gala is the style that fans out over the top of the head and behind the back creating a sunray effect, this style is used for civil festivals and civil wedding ceremonies. The huipil grande is also known as “Resplandor” meaning “Radiate” in Spanish.  

The Huipil Grande is worn with the traditional Tehuana Gala dress, which is an outfit consisting of a large A-line skirt that has been hemmed with white starched and pleated lace, and a traditional rectangle shaped huipil. Both garments are made from matching fabric, typically commercial satin or velvet and embroidered with flowers by hand that graduate in colour.

 Suggested Further Reading THE TEHUANA & THEIR SHOWSTOPPING TRADITIONAL DRESS or MEXICAN EMBROIDERY TECHNIQUES FROM THE ITSMO OF TEHUANTEPEC.

The word Toca in Spanish means touch. The Huipil Grande worn in this way literally touches and hugs the face, whilst covering the breasts of the wearer, who prior to the colonization only worn wrap skirts. Tehuana women were required to cover their breasts if they wanted to enter a church.

From the back of the Huipil Grande Toca, we can see the false sleeve hang from the top of the head.

A few theories follow as to how the Huipil Grande came into fashion.

In 1524 the Spanish conquistador Pedro de Alavarado and his troops arrived in Tehuantepec. It wasn’t long before Catholicism was enforced and churches were erected. Native women who only worn wrap skirts until that time were strictly instructed cover their exposed breasts before entering gods house. 

One theory tells the tale of how a ship from Europe sunk off the coast of Tehuantepec and a cargo of white lace blouses washed up on shore. No knowing what they were the women put them on over their heads incorrectly, but the trend stuck. A similar theory according to Fernando Sanchez Marquez in the book, Oaxaca Stories in Cloth, by Eric Mindling, reads,

“One Sunday a indigenous women went to mass wearing her long skirt but was otherwise bare breasted. The priest stopped her at the door. “You cannot enter the church like that!” he said. He somehow acquired a girls Sunday dress. “Cover yourself up with this, and then you can come to church.” And she did. And it caught on.” 

Until the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914, Salina Cruz (only 17 km away from the town of Tehuantepec) was one of the major seaports in Mexico.  Sailors, traders and diplomats from that sailed from Europe to Asian and then across the Pacific coast to Mexico brought with them fabrics, fashions and sewing materials from almost all corners of the world. Due to its strategic location, the Istmo of Tehuantepec became a confluence of cultures. According to Historian and Author Mario Mercott Francissco,

“Spanish, French, English, Polish, Italian, American and Chinese families lived in the Istmo around by the mid 19th century. Tehuana women were very good at taking inspiration from the various cultural fashions that came to Tehuantepec and making it their own. The flowers on the dresses were inspired by the Manilla Shawl from the Phillipines, the white lace ruffles from Elizabethan collars worn by the Spanish conquistadors, and the silk threads they did their embroidery with most likely came from China or Vietnam.” 

Francissco shows us a variety of illustrations made by the Italian lithographer Claudio Linati (1 February 1790 – 11 December 1832) who arrived in the Istmo in 1826 and documented the traditional attire of the natives for the first time ever on record. His illustrations show a rebozo style garment hemmed with lace but no sleeves.  Francissco believes that the sleeve was added much later purely for aesthetical reasons to help finish the corners of the rectangular fabric that would have otherwise been protruding out.

Evolution of the Tehuana dress

Illustration by artist and ethnographer Miguel Covarrubias

Prints made by lithographer Claudio Linatia around the mid 1820s show no sleeve down the centre front of the women’s Huipil Grande

Unlike fifty or more years ago the Huipil Grande is no longer worn for attending church on a Sunday. The remarkable accessory can only normally be seen during festivals such as the Guelaguetza, held in Oaxaca city on the last two weeks July, and Paseo de los Estandartes, held in Santo Domingo Tehuantepec on the 5th August. If you are heading to Mexico and love cultural fashion and textiles as much as we do, seeing the spectacular Resplandor worn in all it’s glory is an opportunity not to be missed. Scroll down to find out how you can visit Tehuantepec or why not join Haute Culture on our annual textile tour, MEXICO: FRIDA, FASHIONS, FABRICS & FIESTAS.

Huipil Grande, when worn in the Traje de Gala style, resembles sun beams similar to that of Mexico’s beloved Virgin Guadalupe. 

Huipil Grande Traje de Gala requires the women wearing it to stand tall and proud. 

The view from the back shows the head opening when worn in the Toca style and the two false sleeves hanging on either side.

Haute Culture would like to say a huge thank you to our translator Fernando Toledo Cruz and historian and author Mario Mercott Francissco for volunteering their time to share the history of the Huipil Grande with us.

Mr Fernando Toledo Cruz and Mr Mario Mercott Francissco

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  Getting to Tehuantepec

The easiest, safest and most popular way to get to Tehuantepec is by taking the ADO bus from either Oaxaca city or San Cristóbal de lass Casas in Chiapas. Click here to check the times and book online. 

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Suggested further reading

THE TEHUANA & THEIR SHOWSTOPPING TRADITIONAL DRESS or MEXICAN EMBROIDERY FROM THE ISTMO OF TEHUANTEPEC  

  Are you going to Mexico? Why not pin this post and save it for later?

  The Huipil Grande From The Istmo Of Tehuantepec: Mexico’s Most Fascinating Fashion Accessory Possibly one of the most fascinating, recognizable and most iconic traditional dresses in the world is the Huipil Grande, from Istmo of Tehauntepec, Mexico.

[caveartfair]

The Stories behind 7 Objects That Made up Frida Kahlo’s Iconic Look

Frida Kahlo with Olmec figurine, 1939. Photo by Nikolas Muray. © Nikolas Muray Photo Archives. Courtesy of the Victoria & Albert Museum, “Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up,” 16 June – 14 November 2018. Sponsored by Grosvenor Britain & Ireland.

Frida Kahlo’s face has been printed onto everything from tequila bottles to throw pillows, but how did she groom those famous eyebrows? What brand of lipstick did she use? Where did her clothes and jewelry come from?

Revered for her beguiling look as much as her searing paintings, Kahlo was her own constant muse: She created 55 self-portraits in her lifetime, and was the subject she returned to most. A new exhibition at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), “Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up,” explores the objects that made up Kahlo’s inimitable look—from the colorful traditional Mexican garments she wore to her customized prosthetic legs—and expressed her personhood. It’s a three-dimensional self-portrait of the artist that celebrates Kahlo’s multifaceted life and style through personal possessions that are being shown for the first time outside of Mexico, in addition to several of her beloved paintings.  

Over 200 objects have arrived from the Casa Azul, Kahlo’s former residence and the home where she was born, raised, and eventually died, which is now a museum dedicated to her life and work. The belongings retell Kahlo’s well-known life story, but with new insights: There’s an album of photographs of churches taken by her Hungarian-German father, Guillermo, and the medical braces and bodices embellished with symbols that she wore following the horrific accident that would haunt her for the rest of her life. Kahlo’s own telling of her physical suffering after the accident and her subsequent miscarriages is well-documented in the diaries she left behind, as well as a biography, but these bodices illustrate the ways that she found solace and healing through art, in a very direct way.

The objects also collectively serve as a rumination on the power of creativity. The way Kahlo dressed was not only representative of her artistic panache, but a bold means of expressing herself as a woman, as a Mexican, and as a disabled person.  

As the show opens to the public, we take a look at some of Kahlo’s most coveted possessions and the stories behind them with the exhibition’s co-curator, Claire Wilcox.

Resplandor

Frida Kahlo’s resplandor. Courtesy of the Victoria & Albert Museum, “Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up,” 16 June – 14 November 2018. Sponsored by Grosvenor Britain & Ireland.

Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait, 1948. © 2017 Banco de México, Fiduciary of the Trust of the Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Museums. Courtesy of the Victoria & Albert Museum, “Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up,” 16 June – 14 November 2018. Sponsored by Grosvenor Britain & Ireland.

This starched, lace headdress was typically worn by women of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec region in southern Mexico in the 18th and 19th centuries for festive occasions like weddings, saints days, and processions, Wilcox explained. In the town of Juchitán de Zaragoza, it was known as resplandor. Kahlo’s version is made of three kinds of white lace trimmed with pink ribbon, and could be worn two ways: framing the face, or as a cape.  

“Frida frequently dressed in Tehuana dress, but there are few examples of Frida wearing the resplandor, also from the Tehuantepec region in southern Mexico,” Wilcox explained. “This suggests that these rare moments were particularly significant,” she added, noting that the artist painted herself in the resplandor twice.

Plaster corset

Frida Kahlo, 1926. Unknown Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A)

Frida Kahlo’s corset. Courtesy of the Victoria & Albert Museum, “Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up,” 16 June – 14 November 2018. Sponsored by Grosvenor Britain & Ireland.

Kahlo’s medical issues date back to childhood, when she contracted polio, which caused her right leg to be shorter than the left. But at age 18, she nearly died while riding a bus home from school. The vehicle collided with a streetcar and Kahlo was impaled by a handrail; her spine, collar bone, and several ribs were fractured, her pelvis was shattered, and her foot was broken. She endured several major operations, but the severe injuries would leave her bedridden for much of the rest of her life. Her medical records suggest that the accident also left her infertile.

After surgery, Kahlo was obliged to wear orthopedic corsets made of plaster or leather. “Kahlo transformed these medical corsets into items of great beauty by painting them,” Wilcox noted. On this particular corset, Kahlo painted the Communist symbol—an expression of her political sympathies—and carved a hole, which is thought to allude to her inability to have children. “She did physically rely on these items, but her rebellious nature turned them into a form of art,” Wilcox said. There are seven of Kahlo’s corsets on display at the V&A, and they are among the rarer objects in the exhibition—part of a collection of items only discovered in 2004.

Prosthetic leg with leather boot

Frida Kahlo, The Love Embrace of the Universe, the Earth (Mexico), Me, Diego, and Señor Xolotl, 1949. © 2017 Banco de México, Fiduciary of the Trust of the Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Museums. Courtesy of the Victoria & Albert Museum, “Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up,” 16 June – 14 November 2018. Sponsored by Grosvenor Britain & Ireland.

Prosthetic leg with leather boot, . Unknown Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A)

Kahlo’s right leg was amputated in 1953, but three months later, she learned to walk again. This highly decorative prosthetic leg, with sumptuous appliqué and dragon motifs, is another example of how Kahlo empowered herself in spite of her medical problems. Rather than hold her back, the prosthetic leg became a treasured part of her identity and sensuality. “Kahlo commissioned these boots of red leather decorated with bows, bells, red laces and Chinese embroidered silk,” Wilcox said. She added that 45 years later, Alexander McQueen had paralympic athlete Aimee Mullins walk the runway in beautifully carved wooden prosthetic legs.

Huipil

Cotton huipil with machine-embroidered chain stitch; printed cotton skirt with embroidery and holán, . Unknown Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A)

Frida on the bench, 1939. Nickolas Muray Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A)

Kahlo’s interpretation of traditional dress continues to influence the contemporary image of Mexican women. Taking an avant-garde approach to honoring the history of her native culture, Kahlo wore items from different regions across Mexico. This huipil is typical of the Tehuana style, while the wide lace flounce on the skirt, known as holan, comes from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Printed with floral designs and lined with polka dots, some of the cloth is believed to have been imported from Manchester, England, adding another layer of cultural hybridity.

“These huipils were very typical of the time,” Wilcox said. “Kahlo would wear these as everyday items—she even painted in them. They were loose fitting and often adorned with embroidery.” The garments were not only comfortable, they also covered her medical corsets, but in a way that proudly embraced her culture and femininity.

Pre-Columbian jade beads

Self-portrait with necklace, 1933. Frida Kahlo Art Gallery of New South Wales

Frida Kahlo’s pre-Columbian jade beads. Courtesy of the Victoria & Albert Museum, “Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up,” 16 June – 14 November 2018. Sponsored by Grosvenor Britain & Ireland.

Wilcox notes that Kahlo “had her own striking and distinctive style, which was a blend of traditional Mexican and European fashion”—another way in which she was ahead of her time. Though there is no record of where she acquired these jade beads, they signal Kahlo’s ongoing interest in pre-Hispanic art; her husband and fellow artist, Diego Rivera, was also a collector of these objects, and may have helped her acquire them. This necklace—which would have been very heavy to wear—appears in many photographs of the artist. There are even traces of green paint on some of its stones, suggesting that she would mix paints to match its green hues for some of her canvases.

Revlon compact and powderpuff with blusher, Revlon lipstick, emery boards, and eyebrow pencil

Revlon compact and powderpuff with blusher in “Clear Red” and Revlon lipstick in “Everything’s Rosy”; emery boards and eyebrow pencil in “Ebony,” before 1954.  © Diego Riviera and Frida Kahlo Archives. Photo by Javier Hinojosa. Courtesy of the Victoria & Albert Museum, “Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up,” 16 June – 14 November 2018. Sponsored by Grosvenor Britain & Ireland.

Frida Kahlo in Blue Blouse, 1939. Nickolas Muray Bentley Gallery

A fundamental element of Kahlo’s iconic look, which she painted in her self-portraits, was her make-up. Her strongly defined brow and her rouged cheeks, lips, and nails were important to the artist as symbols of vivacity. Revlon was her go-to brand, as the makeup company opened a factory in Mexico in 1948.  

Her blusher shade of choice was Clear Red; her go-to nail polish was Raven Red; and for her lips, Everything’s Rosy. On her famous monobrow, she used Revlon’s eyebrow pencil in Ebony. “Diego Rivera recalled of his first meeting with Kahlo, ‘Dark and thick eyebrows met above her nose. They seemed like the wings of a blackbird, their black arches framing two extraordinary brown eyes,’” Wilcox explained. “They were a standout signature even then.”

Ex-votos

Ex-votos in Casa Azul. Courtesy of the Victoria & Albert Museum, “Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up,” 16 June – 14 November 2018. Sponsored by Grosvenor Britain & Ireland.

One of the standouts of the exhibition is Kahlo’s remarkable collection of devotional paintings on tin, known as ex-votos. A wall at the V&A recreates the interior of the Casa Azul where Kahlo and Riviera’s collection hangs, displaying these paintings in the same manner they would have been hung in a traditional church, where they are typically found.

“These items were used to offer thanks to the Virgin or saints after an accident, injury, or illness,” Wilcox said. “Kahlo did emulate their style in some of her paintings, but never [in those] about her specific accident.” She did, however, collect paintings of road traffic accidents, including one depicting a man whose legs are trapped under a car, echoing Kahlo’s own accident.

from Artsy News