Category: Feature

Features and opinions on a range of topics from politics to technology.  Sometimes the features are serious, sometimes they are fun.  Check them out.

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Cinema entertainment news Feature

Tribeca Film Festival Reviews

Tribeca 2025

The 24h Tribeca Film Festival is underway. After many screeningsthere was funally time to write two reviews.

When there is Hollywood commercial weighted talent on the screen the expectations are high.  Bryce Dallas Howard, Orlando Bloom Ian McShane playing his normal menacing mobster in Tom Kingleys’s underworld fish out of water work Deep Cover never managed to click despite trying too hard.  From a script by Colin Trevorrow, Derek Connolly, Ben Ashenden and Alexander Owen, Deep Cover suffers from too many ideas in its brashy 100 min run.  Three misunderstood characters played by Howard, Bloom and Nick Mohammed get corralled into working for the London police as moles in the mafia. 

From improvision to a world of dark forces the trio confront Albanian drug lords, handle false grenades and guns all in the name of performing in character.

It’s difficult to combine the two elements as director Kingley attempts to weave a pace of comedy with risky tension.  There is the problem.  The failure of Deep Cover is the lack of both.

Are the Mitford sisters lives interesting or perplexing? Why did these ladies with the perfect pedigree make these choices?  Outrageous is the latest” Aristocraticplotation” from England complete with scenes in grand rooms, men dressed in black ties and ladies worrying about what to wear while toasting Champagne.   The lifestyles of the misunderstood gentry class. 

Outrageous on BritBox

A series from BBC’s BrixBox covers the book from Mary Lovell on the sibling’s chronicles in the 1930’s before the war.  Series creator Sarah Williams should be credited for trying to modernize the high society “rebels”.  Are the creative team behind Outrageous “Kardashianize” the Mitfords to appeal to a wider audience?  If reality tv existed eighty years ago these six offspring would have made great watching, each deserving her own season as a lead.  Yet, for some reason the latest tales of Nancy, Pamela, Diana, Unity, Jessica and Deborah in their dysfunctional aristocracy world is stale trying to disguise itself as modern mid-level art tv.

Screened online at the Tribeca Film Festival 2025.

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Feature

Liberation

Moet

As President Trump’s new Liberation Tariffs take hold on the global economy, expect price shocks in every category.  Long supply chains already under strain while recovering from Covid and wars now have a new threat, a tax on imported goods. For those accustomed to shopping for low priced goods, that may become an expensive past-time.   Those popular Influencer Shein Hauls will soon be out of fashion, dated content. Clothing prices from t-shirts, jeans and sneakers will jump because most are made in Asia. Down trade for that next celebration, grab a bottle of Prosecco, not Champagne. The French bubbly’s price may rise to $200 a bottle.

Even household name giant Apple expects a price increase of over 40% for its iPhone.  The cheaper models at a base price of $800 could go to $1200. 

As the American leader shows no signs of backing down, digging in his polished heels, buyers need to prepare themselves for a new shift in consumption.   

A crisis always offers a moment to rethink. Perhaps it is time to buy less, buy better, make it lasts.

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Feature

Polaroids

Helmut Newton exhibition

At the Helmut Newton Foundation in Berlin, a new series opened titled POLAROIDS. The exhibition centers on Polaroid pictures shot by many famed photographers. The once popular instant camera were a big part of the creative process for professional picture takers.

Helmut Newton exhibition
Helmut Newton exhibition
Helmut Newton exhibition
Helmut Newton exhibition

POLAROIDS runs from until July 25, 2025.

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Fashion Feature

It’s About The Leather

Lineapelle Milan

I was not familiar with Lineapelle, the Milan trade fair for luxury leather. For three days this massive gathering focuses on the real work of fashion, sourcing. Designers come here for the purpose of searching for the materials. The cavernous halls filled with suppliers big and small showing desired skins to clients.

A Leather Sofa
Hall
Lineapelle Milan
Leather Bag

After gathering my thoughts together, I had to hit the ground running.  The public sees the fashion shows, the glitz and glamour of the industry.  Lineapelle is where the real business starts. So many tanneries, different leathers, ways to stitch, number of pieces, quality of the skin.   In one day after speaking to attendees and exhibitors I had the equivalent of a one-year university course from the best fashion university.  Experienced professional colleagues explained many details involved in the transforming a skin component to a sought-after product.  For not only small items, interior design requires a high degree knowledge and skillset. For instance, upholstery leather gets wrapped in order fit a living room sofa or car seat.

Leathers have different characteristics, various suppleness, grades. The dying techniques used to color skins can range from simple to complex.   The process of pattern printing leather intrigued me. A designer used this practice to design a youthful collection shown on the Lineapelle runway.

Lineapelle Milan
Student Design
Lineapelle
LVMH Leather
Lineapelle Milan
Bag

Farmed animal skins are traced from beginning to finish. The sustainable aspects of using quality leather explained to me in one sentence, “A good leather endures.”  Quality controls employed by brands and producers for certain products.  I discussed the recent bag scandals. The “masstige” handbags made under questionable circumstances are not produced in the same factories as the more prestigious items.  Expensive skin handbags are put together in closely monitor controlled conditions by experienced craftsmen.  An alligator skin’s one-piece skin can cost thousand of dollars versus a cow skin which costs far less.   As mentioned earlier, the stitching methods used for exotic leathers are more intricate.

Lineapelle Milan
Student Project for Fendi
Lineapelle Milan
Lineapelle Milan
Sustainable African Bags

After attending my first Lineapelle, I have a new appreciation for well-made leather products.  Buy better!

Printed Leather
Tracking Tag
Lineapelle Milan
Skins
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Feature

Keeping Is Getting Harder

Today another creative head departed from a big house. Keeping up with who is where, for how long is getting harder. This time Sabato De Sarno “quit” Gucci after only two years. It is no secret the Italian Fashion House has struggled in the past years. Sales have fallen to the point of panic for parent company Kering as buyers turn to other labels.

Kim Jones walked away from Dior. The shocking news came right after presenting his latest collection in Paris for menswear week. The British born designer made a mark at the top of the heritage house with a modern interpretation of tailored pieces.

Kim Jones
Kim Jones

There was a time in the fashion business when longevity matter, not anymore. Taking the job as a head designer should come with a stylish 48 hour bag.

Categories
Feature Technology

Giants Can Fall

Nokia

Once upon a time Kodak was one the largest companies in the world.  Digital cameras hit the market.  General Motors controlled 60% of the US auto market.  The Corolla came along.  Nokia sat on almost 40% of global mobile phone sales.  iPhone was released. AOL had 30 million users in 2000, by far the largest in the world. Customers switched to broadband. MySpace was the social media site. Suddenly young people moved to Facebook. These giants fell, some faster than others.   They were unable to adapt to changing times.  As the shockwaves continue to pulsate throughout the global tech sector. Could this David slay the giants? That is the question.

Brazen

DeepSeek, the Chinese start-up founded in 2023 scaled the walls of success to become a conversation.  AI was supposed to be the terrain of the giants, not anymore.  A brazen newcomer crashed the scene.  Even President Trump weighed in saying “It’s a wake-up call.”   A new competitor arrived, one that cannot be bought or suppressed.

MySpace

Not only did DeepSeek beat the US giants, the young Hangzhou young upstart did it cheaper and faster than expected.  While Silicon Valley sat back raking in investment for the AI, High-Flyer, DeepSeek’s parent company, outflanked the Goliaths.  In one day, tech stocks dropped $1 trillion in value.  Maybe Wall Street knew had a premonition of what is coming.  In the past it took years for companies to fall from the top.  For the hyper connected age where change comes fast, within twenty months a once household brand could be regulated to the graveyard, then forgotten. Technology is an unforgiving field that moves forward, stomping over stumblers.

 For the first time, The United States tech platforms must change to a catch up plan in a field they dominate.  A nightmare could become a reality, a decline to irrelevancy.  So significant is the threat, Fortune Magazine reported Meta head Mark Zuckerberg has convened a war room to counter DeepSeek’s new Chatbot.

The well-known expression from the Chinese philosophy Taoism:  What goes up, must come down.  These words are resonating in Silicon Valley.

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Feature

2025 Begins

Wishing you a Happy 2025 and may the New Year bring success.

2025 New Year
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Feature

Have A Merry Christmas

Hopping you have a Merry Christmas and Seasons Greetings during the holidays.

Merry Christmas
Categories
Fashion Feature

Christmas Guide 2024

Amazafit

2024 is the year where less is more, nothing over the top. This gift guide is about keeping it down to Earth with style. Do not spend a fortune to give something nice this Christmas.

Beatrice Baron Champagne
Purificación García
PURO Set
Puro Smartphone set
Lars Nysom
Lars Nysom Designer Kitchen ware
Book of the Year
Leopold Vienna Martini Set
Leopold Vienna
Categories
Fashion Feature

Again in Prato

Another day another fashion accessory scandal hits the airwaves.  Once again Prato finds itself at the center of suspect labor practices.  This time Aljazeera uncovered more shoddy production in the Tuscany city.  Major fashion brands employing contractors, sub-contractors and sub-sub-contractors engage in cat and mouse games in order to circumvent Italian Labor laws.

As luxury increased prices on one end, they sought out cheaper production on the other.  Capitalism rewards those who exploit more efficiently Workers earning as little as 3 euros an hour work a twelve-hour day, sometimes six days a week manufacturing glamorous leather pieces that sell for as much as 3400 euros in high-end shops.   

There is nothing wrong having a labeled expensive handbag.  But the dilemma is the hidden or not hidden mechanics of the product coveted.  An expensive leather handbag is a sought of trophy. However, what if the prize comes from an unscrupulous source?  The most convenient human emotion to access is denial.

The brazenness of luxury brands and producers to almost flaunt their less than ethical ways is baffling. Supply chains are easily traceable in 2024.  Everyone has a camera and a social media account with potential to post a brand damaging image.

A big leather factory with illegal sweatshop labor wouldn’t go unnoticed. Yet, why are the companies relaxed about sourcing products? Because executives know consumers will forget a scandal. Certainly the outrage will be hot and loud at the beginning, then back to normal.

While watching the investigative report, the saying “It is morally wrong to allow a sucker to keep his money” came to my mind.   When a factory owner details the nebulous agreements then the manufacturing price of a handbag, the world of luxury accessory is a sucker’s desire.  One item made with a third party inflated added cost of 84 euros in Italy, retails for 2800 euros in soft lite carpeted outlets around the world.

Now when I see a person with a designer handbag proudly walking down the street with an air of style superiority. I will have to hold back my snigger.