T LOunge for October 3rd, 2023

PinÀ Terra Restaurant – Évora, Portugal

Good morning from Portugal, darlings! It is MONDAY and your manly hosts are off for a day of sightseeing in and around Lisbon and Sintra, but we sat in our adorable little hotel room this morning working on some posts for y’all out of the kindness of our hearts (and also the potential emptiness of our wallets, truth be told). Pull up a comfy chair in today’s soothing LOunge and chat about this and that.

Sofia Coppola Finds Her Latest Muse
With Priscilla, the famed director continues to plumb the depths of the female experience.
When Sofia Coppola was growing up, her father, Francis Ford Coppola, would take the entire family from their home in Napa Valley, California, to the location of whatever movie he was directing. Sofia was born in New York City, and was the baby in the baptism scene in The Godfather; she attended kindergarten in the Philippines during Apocalypse Now; she went to grade school in Tulsa, Oklahoma, while The Outsiders and Rumble Fish were shot back-to-back. “I was always around the set,” Coppola told me on a humid summer day in Manhattan. We were having lunch at Sant Ambroeus on the Upper East Side, and while most of the people in the crowded restaurant appeared wilted from the heat, Coppola, who was wearing a crisp white short-sleeve shirt tucked at the waist into loose, beautifully tailored dark navy pants, looked, as usual, perfect.

11 Of Zendaya’s Best Vintage Moments To Date
Of course, Zendaya championing vintage sends out a strong message on how we can reduce the environmental impact of our own wardrobes. “People forget that vintage is sustainable; it’s a way to reduce waste,” Law Roach, the image architect who masterminded the star’s wardrobe prior to his retirement from the role, previously explained. “And there’s always a story: who’s worn it before, who made it, what did it mean to them, where did you find it? That part of fashion has always intrigued me, and brings more life to whatever you’re wearing.”

The Best Of Sarah Burton’s Alexander McQueen, Seen On Celebrities
It’s safe to say that Burton has done just that during her time at Alexander McQueen. In 2011 she was awarded Designer of the Year by the British Fashion Council and in 2012 she was appointed Officer to the Order of the British Empire for her contributions to fashion.
While she’s remained a longtime favourite of the Princess of Wales, Burton has also dressed the upper echelons of Hollywood, Beyoncé, Timothée Chalamet, Lady Gaga and Zendaya among them. Below, take a look back at some of Sarah Burton’s most memorable celebrity looks during her residence at Alexander McQueen.

Jodie Turner-Smith Has Filed For Divorce From Joshua Jackson
Jodie Turner-Smith and Joshua Jackson are going their separate ways.
The Gucci muse and actor has filed for divorce after close to four years of marriage, according to multiple reports. She has reportedly also asked for joint custody of their three-year-old daughter.
The news may come as a surprise to some, as the couple recently made joint appearances during New York Fashion Week in early September, including at the J Crew 40th anniversary party. They were also captured by paparazzi celebrating Turner-Smith’s birthday on 9 September.

Konyikeh Is Ushering In A New Era Of Old Soul For Gen Z
Konyikeh’s gentle nature belies her powerhouse of a voice. It’s one so remarkable that, when Dave’s team stumbled upon the then unknown singer’s SoundCloud last year, she got an immediate invite to perform with the rapper at last year’s Brit Awards. “It was such a blur,” the rising soul star says of the show, her first ever gig, which could have been straight out of a Wattpad fan fiction. Naturally, life has moved at breakneck speed since.

Curtain Time! How To Dress Up Your Drapery This Winter
If you’re seeking inspiration, look no further than John Stefanidis’s long-awaited monograph, A Designer’s Eye, recently published by Rizzoli and full of delicious inspiration and endless ideas not just for your windows but your entire home. Of course, it does help a little to be a superstar interior decorator when it comes to sourcing the very best fabrics – but you don’t have to be one to create something spectacular, or even simple and elegant (which, believe me, is sometimes just as much work). All you need is a bit of imagination, and to carry on reading my column.

National Black Theatre Launches Its 56th Season With a Splash
The Harlem-based company has major projects on and off Broadway and a big performance at the Kennedy Center.
It has been a busy few weeks for National Black Theatre (NBT), the Harlem-based company founded in 1968 by Dr. Barbara Ann Teer (pictured above). Last week, a new Broadway production it co-produced of Purlie Victorious, the 1961 play by Ozzie Davis now starring Leslie Odom Jr., opened at the Music Box Theater to positive reviews. A few days earlier, NBT co-presented with Ars Nova (pray), a new work by nicHi douglas, at Greenwich House in New York City. And later this week, NBT will celebrate the topping off of its new space, a 22-story mixed-use building constructed on the site of the original Fifth Avenue headquarters Teer purchased for NBT in the 1970s.

The World’s Oldest Scotch Whisky Is About to Go Up for Auction, Here’s How to Place a Bid
If it’s good enough for a queen it’s good enough for us.
In 1844, a then 25-year-old Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, spent three weeks at a Scottish castle with her friend Anne Murray, the Duchess of Atholl. The Household Book for Blair Castle notes that the Royals drank whisky during their lengthy visit — and who wouldn’t need a drink if they had houseguests for three weeks? But just last year, the castle’s Resident Trustee found several dozen bottles of whisky tucked in an unassuming room in the cellar, and due to the whisky’s age, it’s believed that they could be the same vintage that Vicky and Albert drank 179 years ago.

Kelly Clarkson’s New Wayfair Line Is Inspired by Her Stunning Montana Ranch
Exuding a French-country style, the new line introduces hundreds of furniture and decor pieces.
Drawing on the calm and beauty of her family’s home in Montana, musician and television personality Kelly Clarkson hand-curated The Montana Collection for Wayfair, defined by a charming rustic style and vintage-inspired details. The exclusive home line offers furniture and decor for every space — think cozy faux fur throws for the bedroom, vintage-inspired lighting for the living room and distressed wood furniture for the dining room.

Tatler’s tiara of the month: the fascinating story of the staggering Bavarian ruby parure and its surprising link to Oktoberfest
What do Oktoberfest and this magnificent, four-piece tiara have in common? The celebrations of a fledgling Bavarian Queen
Celebrated across Germany this month, the annual Oktoberfest merriment owes its origins to a grand royal wedding of the 19th century. The young German bride was Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen, who was once considered to be the intended for Napoleon I of France, but on 12 October 1810 she married Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig instead.

Frans Hals and the Art of Laughter
His grinning subjects can be hard to take seriously. But a major exhibition argues that Frans Hals is an old master on par with Rembrandt and Vermeer.
A major retrospective of his work, now at the National Gallery, in London, and moving on to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, in February, hopes to bring back the laughter.
The show brings together some 50 works on loan from public and private collections, and some of them are leaving Haarlem, the city near Amsterdam where they were painted, for the first time. “The Laughing Cavalier,” arguably his most famous painting, is on loan from the Wallace Collection, across town from the National Gallery, for the first time since 1900. Together, they form the first survey devoted to Hals’s work in more than three decades.

How to Eat a Persimmon—and How to Know if Yours Is Ripe
You’ll want to make the most of these beautiful orange fruits that appear in the market in fall.
Heralded by Halloween and headed for Thanksgiving, beautiful persimmons appear at the market in fall, just in time to become the best holiday decorations: the edible kind. Perhaps you’re already a fan and wait all year for this seasonal treat. Or perhaps you tasted an unripe persimmon and experienced a shock of tannin on your outraged tongue—and have never tried one again. If so, we encourage you to give persimmons another chance. Their unique flavor and texture are worth it. Here, we show you how to choose a ripe persimmon—because it is key to falling in love with this beautiful orange fruit. And also learn the best ways to eat and enjoy the different types of persimmon.

7 Shrimp Dinner Ideas for Delicious Weeknight Meals
This fast, healthy, and versatile protein is always a great option—and, best of all, cooks quickly.
Shrimp is such a great weeknight dinner staple—it’s quick to cook, reasonably priced, healthy, and versatile. The recipes in this collection of shrimp dinner ideas hit all of those notes and then some. You’ll find salads, Mexican-inspired meals, pastas, curries, Southern classics, and more. All are satisfying and delicious.
Although the recipes here work well with fresh and frozen shrimp, frozen is actually preferred; it’s more likely that the shrimp were frozen within a very short time of being out of the water, which helps preserve their fresh flavor. Fresh shrimp may have been frozen at some point, and then thawed before you bought them.

Great News for Stargazers: Northern Lights Activity Is Officially on the Rise in the US
Auroral activity is expected to soon be stronger than it has been in the past 20 years.
While the Northern Lights are traditionally most visible near the North and South Poles, there have been recent sightings of the phenomenon reaching Minnesota and even Pennsylvania. The increased solar activity is only expected to continue, according to NBC News.
Sunspots—large areas of very strong magnetic fields on the sun’s surface—have increased dramatically in 2022. If sunspots are active, more solar flares occur and create an increase in geomagnetic storm activity for Earth, according to the National Weather Service. During sunspot maximums, Earth sees an increase in the Northern Lights (also known as the aurora borealis).

Our Best Storage Ideas for Small Bathrooms
Discover the untapped potential of one of the most frequently used rooms in your home with these smart storage solutions.
When it comes to organizing a small bathroom, there is one important rule: Find a rightful place for everything. Of course, that’s a lot easier said than done, and abiding by the rule gets even trickier when you consider that aesthetics are just as important as saving space. Even so, striking the right balance between form and function is not an impossibility. To help, we’re sharing our best space-saving bathroom storage solutions that will help you maintain a well-organized area.

[Photo Credit: evora.octanthotels.com]

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