T LOunge for May 6th 2024

Pin

Pin

Pin

PinBrasserie Des Prés – Paris, France

Bonjour, it is MONDAY. The good news for us is that it’s the Monday of Gay Fashion Superbowl, aka the Met Gala. Posting will be on the light side as the stars are all too busy fasting and exfoliating to do any pre-game appearances, but we’ll have a podcast and a J Lo sighting for you, so pull up a cafe chair and order something extremely French while you wait.

Everything to Know About the 2024 Met Gala: Theme, Hosts, and More
We now know the most highly guarded details of the 2024 Met Gala, to be held on the first Monday in May. The 2024 Costume Institute exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, titled “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion,” will feature approximately 250 items drawn from the Costume Institute’s permanent collection, many of which have rarely been seen in public before. Ahead of the hotly anticipated event, Vogue is rounding up everything we know thus far.

How the Met Gala became the fashion Oscars
Turns out the first Monday in May is the perfect venue for celebrity image-making.
When the Met Gala was first instituted in 1948, it would not have boasted such an A-list roster of hosts, nor such a trendy corporate sponsor (albeit one currently in crisis). The Gala has always been glamorous, but it used to be a local event, primarily a showcase for the society ladies of the Upper East Side. It took decades of careful strategizing and alliance-building with Hollywood to make the Met Gala the pop cultural phenomenon it is today.
Now, the Met Gala shines because it is an unparalleled occasion for celebrity image-building. It is a showcase for both the illusion of accessibility and unreachable glamour at the heart of modern celebrity. Here’s how it got there.

Bernard Hill, Actor in ‘Titanic’ and ‘Lord of the Rings,’ Dies at 79
With a stout frame, bushy whiskers and a weathered visage, he embodied men of authority facing down danger with weary stoicism.
Bernard Hill, a British actor who incarnated a humble style of masculine leadership in three hugely successful Hollywood movies, “Titanic” and two films in the “Lord of the Rings” franchise, died on Sunday. He was 79.
His death was announced in a family statement sent by a representative of Lou Coulson Associates, a British talent agency. It did not say where he died or provide a cause.

Trust me, the seashell jewellery trend will be everywhere this summer
She wears seashells by the seashore (and beyond!)
If you, like us, are manifesting a summer holiday by the seaside, this Spring/Summer 2024 jewellery trend is just for you. Seashell jewellery has been all over our social media feeds this past couple of weeks, and we can’t get enough.
As far as everyday jewellery goes, this simple yet sophisticated version of sea-inspired jewellery is a multihyphenate in its own course. Perfectly paired with any occassionwear outfit, as seen on street style icons and social media creators alike, or as a means to elevate a casual minimalist outfit, you can’t go wrong.

What is coconut kefir, and can it really do anything for your gut health?
We asked experts if TikTok’s newest probiotic darling actually lives up to the hype.
Lots of folks have turned to probiotic products like kefir to try to ease their digestive woes, but as the “gut health” category in the supermarkets has continued to explode, we’ve seen some interesting offshoots come to the aisles too.
Take coconut kefir, a variation of the OG that’s drawing a lot of attention—it’s purported to offer the same benefits as the traditional stuff, but in a totally dairy-free way. That, of course, could make it extra attractive for the one in 10 Brits who are lactose intolerant, not to mention anyone with a dairy allergy or those on a vegan diet. So it’s not really surprising that creators on TikTok are touting it for everything from improving digestion to boosting immunity.

How to make a lot of money selling your clothes online, even if you’re a novice
The tips and tricks from a former buying director.
The cost of living crisis is biting us all so if you’re looking at the designer clothes – or good quality high street clothes – in your wardrobe thinking now’s the time to sell them on to someone else, you’re not alone.
The secondhand market is set to nearly double by 2027, reaching $350bn, according to ThredUp, one of the world’s largest online resale platforms. Secondhand September has given us all an annual opportunity to stop and think about what we’re buying and why – and think about adjusting our spending habits to align more with what’s needed. Here are my top tips to getting the best price for your designer clothes…

Where to watch Miller’s Girl, the controversial age gap movie starring Jenna Ortega
Ortega plays an 18-year-old student who becomes romantically involved with her 49-year-old teacher.
A far cry from her bewitching role in Wednesday, Jenna Ortega returned to our screens earlier this year in the controversial erotic thriller Miller’s Girl, directed by Jade Halley Bartlett.
The film caused backlash when it was released back in February due to its subject matter, which sees Ortega play an 18-year-old student, Cairo, who enters into a relationship with her 49-year-old English teacher, Jonathan, played by Martin Freeman.

54 Unforgettable Met Gala Looks
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Benefit (commonly known as the Met Gala) has been a storied fashion tradition since 1948, when publicist Eleanor Lambert launched the event as a philanthropic opportunity for New York society. Celebrities like Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Cher, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Rihanna have all stunned on the red carpet, and their looks have been etched into fashion history (regardless of how closely they followed the night’s chosen theme). Take a look back through decades of daring and glamorous fashion that could only happen at the Met Gala.

Is Baby Reindeer season 2 happening?
For those obsessed with season 1 (so, all of us?)
The show is based on creator Richard Gadd’s real-life experience, but it’s not just a classic stalker-victim show. Instead, it explores the intricacies of why the stalking occurs, particularly through a mental health lens (again, if you haven’t already watched it, we implore you to).
Since it dropped, it’s been continuously discussed on social media and it’s gained a legion of fans. Even veteran horror author Stephen King chimed in on the discourse, writing only “Baby Reindeer: Holy s***”, as his two-word review.
Now, though, the question at the end of everyone’s Tweets (X’s? IDK) is whether we can expect Baby Reindeer season 2 to be dropping any time soon.

20 Of The Best Reality TV Shows To Watch
Reality TV is better than ever. These are the shows to fill that drama-filled hole in your life.
Whether you hate to admit it or are free about your love for reality TV, you can’t deny its pull. Ordinary people have gone from contestants on low-budget shows to some of the biggest names in the media industry. And of course, much of pop culture’s lexicon, trends and talking points all derive from reality TV.
Classics such as Big Brother, The Bachelor and The Real Housewives franchise caught the attention of viewers back in the early noughties, and have made way for newer shows such as Love Is Blind, The Ultimatum: Marry Or Move On and 90 Day Fiancé today.
Whether you like to indulge in the drama and gossip, or love the tension of high-stake challenges and jaw-dropping plot twists there’s something from everyone.

Bella Hadid And Selena Gomez Are Evidence Of Why Soft White Dresses Are A Summer Essential
As summer calls, a white dress is exactly what you need to step out in the new season.
Rather than reaching for the typical option of floral print this season, we’ve found even more reasons to go bold and wear the ultimate summer colour – white.
Not only is it more practical as higher temperatures arrive, but stylistically it’s a major must-have. No longer an option reserved for brides on their special day, white dresses are currently having a major comeback, if Bella Hadid and Selena Gomez’s looks are anything to go by.

Every Time Adele Served Bombshell Style On The Red Carpet
Back in November 2021, Adele starred on an iconic British Vogue cover. A true va va voom moment, Adele was photographed by Steven Meisel with exaggerated, bodacious locks (courtesy of Guido Palau), flawless make-up (by Pat McGrath), and her hourglass curves accentuated in slinky satin (styled by Vogue’s then editor-in-chief, Edward Enninful). It marked a seismic fashion shift for the star. Since then, the beloved singer – renowned for her relatable ballads of heartbreak and redemption, not to mention that voice – has wholeheartedly embraced this ultra-glamorous aesthetic. Now, Adele is living her best bombshell life. To celebrate her 36th birthday, revisit the singer’s most sizzling looks to date.

Marc Jacobs Is Still Head-Over-Heels for Fashion
For four decades, he’s made clothes that feel personal, urgent, and era-defining. “Once I knew what I loved,” he says, “I just couldn’t get enough of it.”
Marc Jacobs, the fashion brand, has been in business for 40 years, but Marc Jacobs, the person, now 61, has been dreaming of fashion for much longer.
“You know how people say to count sheep in order to fall asleep?” Jacobs asks. “Well, I used to imagine myself folding this coveted red Lacoste corduroy shirt, literally putting it face down and folding it into thirds.” He mimics folding a shirt, recalling his bedtime ritual as a 12- or 13-year-old, when he was living on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with his grandmother Helen. “That was my vision in my head. That was my sheep.”

Everything We Know So Far About Call the Midwife Season 14
The midwives of Poplar are returning for another outing.
The dramatic 13th season of Call the Midwife is coming to a close, but fans of the nurses of Nonnatus House can breathe easy, because the midwives of Poplar will be returning for yet another outing. Way back in February 2023, the BBC confirmed that it had picked up the series at least through 2026, with an order for season 14 and 15, so there’s no need to worry about the possibility of cancelation any time soon. However, there’s still plenty of anticipation for what the future will hold for everyone’s favorite midwives.

Buckingham Palace Announces Major Review of Royal Patronages
Not all the organizations previously affiliated with the royal family have retained their royal patron.
Buckingham Palace said today that of the late Queen’s 492 organizations, 376 are being retained by a royal. More than 440 organizations affiliated with the King as Prince of Wales were reviewed and 367 have either been kept by him or passed to another royal. Of 100 organizations affiliated with the Queen as Duchess of Cornwall, 91 have been kept by her or passed to another member of the family. The Palace is not giving details of the relinquished organizations but emphasized that it was not possible to take forward every patronage considered.

Kate Beckinsale Says Never-Ending Claims She’s Had “Unrecognizable Surgery” is Taking a “Toll”
“…it happens constantly and it’s usually women that are doing it.”
“I hate talking about this because I hate adding to this conversation, but I’m doing it because insidious bullying of any kind over time takes a toll,” Beckinsale wrote. “These videos might be 20 years apart—maybe more. Every time I post anything—and by the way, this has been the case since I was about 30—I am accused of having unrecognizable surgery/using Botox, using fillers/being obsessed with looking younger, and it’s really such a tiresome and subtly vicious way to bully a person.”

The Art of Making a Kentucky Derby Hat
When looking around the Churchill Downs grounds, you’ll see a sea of extravagant and ornately designed hats and fascinators, many of which are Christine A. Moore creations. A veteran milliner, Moore has worked in the horse racing space for 19 years, creating over-the-top luxe pieces for the Derby and other annual race events. With a background in costume design and having worked on Broadway as an assistant to legendary theatrical milliner Rodney Gordon—designing hats and accessories for iconic shows like Phantom of the Opera—drama has always been an integral part of Moore’s design aesthetic.

Jean Paul Gaultier Considered Cinema His “Fashion Design School”
For Jean Paul Gaultier, asking what came first, his love for fashion or film, is akin to the classic chicken-or-egg debate. As a self-proclaimed “child of the TV” in the late 1960s, he grew up as mesmerized by specials dedicated to haute couture fashion shows as reruns of old movies. “I didn’t want to go out and play—I wanted to watch TV,” the French designer tells Vogue, adding that by 13, his sartorial calling was clear. “When I would watch 1940s movies, I understood what the vision of fashion was talking about, and I wanted to do that. This was also the moment André Courrèges’s graphic and artistic fashions were everywhere. I loved both—the classic and the modern.”
Rather than going to fashion design school, Gaultier considered idiosyncratic filmmakers like William Klein and John Waters his teachers. “Because I learned fashion from looking, I think I was more free,” says Gaultier. “I owe my vocation to the cinema.”

This Picturesque English Coastline Is Where You Should Be Beach-Hopping This Summer
Even for locals, many of the tropical-looking beaches in South Devon—a seaside county about four hours by car from London—are word-of-mouth tip-offs. Some are sandy coves, washed out of the schist coastline by the English Channel, while others are tidal, emerging along estuary creeks and river valleys. Depending on your priorities—privacy, accessibility, views—you might favor one stretch over another on any given day. In a landscape of high green ridgelines and deserted combes, it’s hard to go far wrong.

American Truffles Are Right Under Your Nose and They’re About to Be Everywhere
Let’s get over the notion that luxury has to be imported.
Truffles are everywhere. That’s what I hear over and over from chefs, foragers, and cultivators across the country. Certainly there’s the ubiquity of imported truffles on the market, luxuries from France or Italy like those lusciously pungent Albas, Perigords, and Burgundies commanding hundreds of dollars per ounce. But outside of the restaurant, both cultivated and native American truffles are just under our noses.

You Can Travel Vietnam in a Luxury Train Car With a 3-Course Lunch
A new route opens in May.
In its heyday over a century ago, American rail travel might have been grand — or at a minimum exciting — but a recent turn on the New Jersey Transit felt anything but. On the way to Newark Airport to catch the first of several flights to Vietnam, I nabbed the last seat in a commuter-packed car. The carriage screeched as it lurched out of Penn Station at a worrisome pitch. A grimy film climbed the train’s interior like toxic black mold in a leaky house. Seated next to me, a British traveler shared his disdain with us all. “This may be the worst train I’ve ever seen,” he uttered with Notting Hill conviction. I shrugged, unable to muster a defense. So it was, with this recent memory of America’s crumbling infrastructure, that I boarded The Vietage by Anantara.

How Technology Replaced Service in Fine Dining
‘Fast fine’ restaurants are on the rise. Is that a good thing?
At first glance, John’s Food & Wine in Chicago looks like any other neighborhood bistro. But upon entering the elegant, warmly lit room on a bustling Thursday night, there’s no host to whisk me to a reserved table. Instead, I line up behind a dozen customers queued at the counter of this first-come, first-served restaurant. I gaze at the menu board of fancy coursed shareables, mind racing to piece together my meal as the line shrinks. A sommelier who’s also sometimes a cashier, server, bartender, and host takes my order — to which a 20 percent service charge is automatically added. He leads me to my table where I point my phone at a QR code, opening Toast to select a glass of wine that goes on my tab. Moments later, my drink arrives, when — finally — the experience starts to feel more like a traditional, nice dinner out.

The British Museum’s Blockbuster Scandals
While facing renewed accusations of cultural theft, the institution announced that it had been the victim of actual theft—from someone on the inside.
The British Museum has never been merely a trove of exquisite art works. It was also intended, through the depths of its holdings, to be an archive of the world—a library of things. It was established by eighteenth-century polymaths as an expression of the Enlightenment conviction that universal truths might be arrived at through intellectual inquiry and scientific reason. The museum’s wildly disparate collections could never be compiled today, which is both the institution’s strength and its point of weakness. Why should the sarcophagi of Egyptian kings or the fragments of ancient Greek architecture be housed in London, and claimed in some sense as British? Townley, Elgin, and the other men whose acquisitions filled the institution’s galleries would not have thought of such questions; today they are, rightly, unavoidable.

My daughter prefers going by a short nickname than her long name. I wish I had just named her that.
When it came time for school, the teacher (Ms. Elizabeth, who went by Liz), emailed me. What name did I want my daughter to go by? I decided school would be a perfect place to practice using Ella’s formal name. But three weeks in, my daughter asked with frustration why her teachers didn’t call her Ella.
At her request, teachers made the switch but continued to use the longer name for written communication and name-writing practice. But before long, “E-L-L-A” was scrawled across all the papers. I couldn’t blame her — what preschooler would want to spell out Elizabeth when Ella would cut it?

How lip gloss became the answer to Gen Z’s problems
In times of economic uncertainty, small luxuries reign supreme.
We all know that beauty trends are cyclical. The popular matte trend of the 2010s has been overtaken by the recent desire for ultra-shiny lips, an obvious resurgence of the makeup looks from the ’90s and early 2000s, when Lancome’s Juicy Tubes and Mac Lipglass were all the rage. For many lip-gloss enthusiasts, purchasing and reapplying these products has become its own sort of obsession, resulting in unnecessary — although, it depends on who you ask — large collections.

Madonna performed her biggest concert ever for 1.6 million fans at free Copacabana show in Rio de Janeiro
The Queen of Pop closed out her Celebration Tour in grand fashion.
Forty years into her legendary career, Madonna played to her largest audience ever with a free concert at Copacabana beach Saturday night in Rio de Janeiro that drew 1.6 million people.
The concert was the pop diva’s final show of her Celebration Tour, which kicked off in October and wound its way through 81 dates and 15 countries.

7 Ways to Cook Artichokes—Plus Tips for Trimming and Prepping
They can be intimidating, but with these tips from Thomas Joseph, you’ll soon enjoy prepping and eating artichokes.
Growing up, I always looked forward to artichoke season in the spring, and my favorite way to eat them now is the same way I loved them as a kid: stuffed. Fresh artichokes, which are very different from jarred artichoke hearts, can be intimidating to prep and prepare, but it’s well worth the time it takes to learn. Here, I’m sharing simple methods for preparing artichokes, along with some of the best ways to eat them—from raw to steamed to fried, and of course, stuffed.

7 Pretty Flower Arrangement Ideas That Show Off Your Spring Blooms
Kevin Sharkey shares his favorite ways to arrange spring flowers, including tulips, peonies, hydrangeas, and more.
Bringing in fresh flowers is one of the easiest ways to make any space more beautiful. Flowers add living color, texture, and fragrance to your décor—and are especially welcome in spring after a long winter.
Whether you have your own cutting garden or buy flowers at the grocery store, it all comes down to how you display them. I have some tried-and-true ways that I like to arrange different types of flowers. For some varieties, that means letting them go a little wild; for others, it’s all about isolating individual blooms. The main thing is to pay attention to the flower’s shape, color, and natural tendencies—and work from there to create an arrangement that fully complements the character and beauty of each type of flower. Here are some of my go-to approaches that I know will always work to bring a little extra beauty to a room.

6 Ways to Decorate Cakes and Cookies With Flowers
Sarah Carey offers tips for giving your baked treats a pretty, seasonal look.
Spring is the perfect time of year to incorporate flowers into your baking, and there are a number of ways to decorate cakes, cupcakes, and cookies with everything from fresh edible blooms to frosting. Whichever method you choose, your decorated desserts are sure to make someone smile—and that’s one of the best reasons to bake.

6 Homemade Ant Killer Sprays That Actually Work—Without Harsh Chemicals
These expert-recommended DIY solutions banish ants using common household ingredients.
Nobody likes finding a trail of ants inside their home. Depending on the type you have, they might simply be a nuisance—or, worse, a destructive force. But not all of these unwanted visitors need to be eliminated with harsh chemicals. There are several homemade ant killer options that can stop these critters in their tracks, experts say. And as an added bonus, you probably have all of the ingredients you need to make them on hand.

8 Incredible Hotels Where Famous Authors Have Lived and Worked
Any one of these luxe options is a great place to write your next chapter.
One of the most magical travel experiences is watching the setting of a favorite book come to life: Think reading The God of Small Things in India, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil in Savannah, or A Room with a View in Florence, seated by your own window overlooking the piazza. But there’s a way to step deeper into a story — by staying in a hotel where an author you admired once lived and wrote. If you’re imagining spartan hovels inhabited by ink-stained wretches, stop now. The eight options include coastal villas in Greece and along the Riviera, an island idyll in the Caribbean, an ornate former convent in South America, and a private game reserve in South Africa. Cast yourself as the protagonist of a page-turner, skim the selections below, then go ahead and book a trip.

[Photo Credit: lanouvellegarde.com]

• T LOunge