The Art Apprentice

Lara Stone Playing Art Apprentice for Bruce Weber. Courtesy Vogue Ilalia. 

Romantically, I suspect there are still opportunities to learn the craft of beauty in parts of Europe (teasingly, UK site skillset.org confirms this), but in these grand States of the Americas, what happened to apprenticing outside of bricklaying and boilers? Yes, design is very much a lucrative business, but if you believe in beauty and the importance of its preservation and evolution, how can you trust the next generation to learn the craft of beauty without these young guns sitting first at the master's feet?

1896 Print of Sculptor Auguste Rodin in the studio with Assistant Henri Lebosse & Apprentice. 

THINK PINK & FIGHT!

Yes, some of my friends are white (tittle to a great book) and let me be the first to brag--MAD Talent. Bess Greenberg is Director of art gallery 25CPW and the fly chick who gets to play host to The Global Fashion Fight during cancer awareness week. If you are in NYC Oct 25-27, stop by 25 Central Park West for inspiring art, covet-worthy fall pieces (as pictured scarf, designed with cancer patients) and truly beautiful people. Go Ahead, Bess!

K'naan: A Love Letter

Courtesy G. A. Hussein, 2007. 

K'naan's New York Times op-ed is an open love letter for his homeland, for the thing that consumes it and most likely, for the best definition of his humanity as he so eloquently ties it to the life struggle in the Horn of Africa today. You will weep reading it and easily, weep even more if you ponder it's meaning first read. But the real challenge, I suppose, is how we bottle those tears into a bottle of something so tough to swallow, we don't stop at tears?

Song For A Lioness: Dr. Maathai

Ethiopian wisdom: "One’s name remains above the grave". I sing of you, Mme Wangari Muta Maathai and know my voice is strong as part of a loud and growing choir of prayers. Wangari Maathai. Your Name Is Alive.

EBONY Mag Gets Glossy

THEN & NOW. All Photos Courtesy Ebony.

I was just so delighted this w/e to revel in an absolutely freshened and re-spritzed for modern living EBONY Magazine. I grew up thumbing my way through the riots and struggles that connected my people to african-americans' collective experience. But that was some time ago...during apartheid! As we moved past that decade and trauma, it got harder to pick up a copy of EBONY and see my daily experience reflected in its pages. So you can imagine my pleasure being unable to put a copy of the magazine down at the store this w/e and of finding myself curled up at home with a revamped EBONY and glass of wine in hand. (Confession: like any good nerd I was tipped off about the hopeful comeback giant Johnson Publishing, by a great NPR story).

The Very Bold Black Beauty posing for EBONY, March 2011. Photographed by Ruven Afanador. Courtesy Ebony

BRAVO to the beautiful and brave Bellas broadening EBONY's definition and celebration of self--including Former White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers, now CEO of the publishing house and editorial powerhouse Amy DuBois Barnett. Amy sums it best, "It was (IS) time for EBONY to be the voice of the new black America: an empowered, informed and optimistic legion of folks ready to get things done". I love seeing women like me in any publication, but ultimately, I love a magazine that delivers on the reason I pick up a glossy in the first place--for a sting of gloss, glamour and today's culture! Thank goodness these power divas are injecting style and glamour back into a household black bible!

iWant: mustLUST

Courtesy Style Sight.

Inspired by Geekigirl Canadian blogger of IWantIGot, me been lusting nonstop for Peter Pilotto's spring/summer 2012 resort line. Sweet jesus in the fire bush them dresses is fine...remind me of true nyc love Boxing Kitten. And in other news, great green/style ethics Guardian article discovered by way of said geekigirl. Thanks Canada chick!

Courtesy Boxing Kitten

The Origin of Beauty: Ethiopia

Courtesy Raven & Lily. 

Ethiopia seems to seldom disappoint supplying us things (and people!) of inordinate beauty.  I am thinking of the sumptuous cup of something black and very Ethiopian I sipped from addicts' heaven, Blue bird. I am also thinking of the enchanting line of jewelry Raven & Lily (how cool is that name? Raven & Lilly. Lilly & Raven) sourced from Ethiopia. Being the soft sucker i am, love Raven & Lily even more for working with women artisans in countries like Ethiopia and India, for making modern must-have jewelry that brings Ethiopian women's stories of love, struggle, life and good coffee closer to our ears and thankfully chic necklines! To Ethiopia, with love.

Making Pretty Pieces. Raven & Lily.