The House of Moschino has appointed Davide Renne as creative director. The Tuscan-born designer spent more than two decades at Gucci, where he served as the label’s head of womenswear and worked under both Frida Giannini and Alessandro Michele. He succeeds Jeremy Scott, who exited the brand in March after more than a decade. Renne will present his first collection during Milan Fashion Week’s fall/winter 2024 season in February. In other fashion news, Eva Vidal Dans was named chief product officer of Calvin Klein.
Ann Philbin, the transformational director of the Hammer Museum, recently announced she will retire from the institution after 25 years of leadership that included overseeing a sweeping renovation by Michael Maltzan Architecture. She’ll continue leading the museum for the next year, culminating with the fall 2024 exhibition “Breath(e): Toward Climate and Social Justice” in collaboration with the Getty-funded initiative PST ART. A committee led by the museum’s board of directors will kick off a search for her successor in early 2024. —Ryan Waddoups
Rendering of the Shirley Chisholm Recreational Center in East Flatbush. Image courtesy of the New York City Department of Design and Construction…
Studio Gang’s Shirley Chisholm Recreational Center is breaking ground in Brooklyn.
Shirley Anita Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress and the first African American to seek a U.S. presidential nomination from a major political party, is being honored with the construction of the Shirley Chisholm Recreational Center in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. The project, designed by Studio Gang, will be situated atop existing basketball courts and a soccer field at the Nostrand Avenue Playground. The center, with a $141 million budget, will feature a public gymnasium, fitness, strength, and cardio rooms, an indoor swimming pool, a media lab named after Dr. Roy Hastick, and a teaching kitchen. Construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2025 and is being overseen by McKissack & McKissack, a minority- and women-owned construction and design firm.
Amazon Pharmacy has introduced a prescription delivery service using drones in College Station, Texas. Customers can receive their medication in under an hour after placing an order. The drones operate within 130 to 400 feet above the ground, avoiding obstacles and utilizing on-board software to identify objects. Amazon received clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration in 2020 to use drones for deliveries, despite some turbulence in the rollout process, with allegations of wrongful termination by a Prime Air manager.
Paul Smith, who started by selling T-shirts to bands, is returning to his roots with a collection of limited-edition T-shirts and album artwork to celebrate The Rolling Stones’ new release Hackney Diamonds, their first album in nearly two decades. As a longtime friend of the band, Smith crafted two new designs: one featuring the Rolling Stones tongue adorned with his signature stripes, and the other with a photoprint of shattered glass, a nod to the album’s title.
Francisco Costa has submitted a bid to repurchase Costa Brazil, the skincare, haircare, and fragrance brand he established in 2018. The offer, outlined in court documents filed recently, proposes $350,000 to Amyris, the former parent company, in exchange for Costa Brazil’s intellectual property rights, trademarks, website domains, and social media accounts. Costa Brazil, along with other Amyris portfolio brands like Purecane and Onda Beauty, was closed in August, leading to employee layoffs and Amyris filing for bankruptcy. Competing offers for Costa Brazil will be considered until November 1, with a decision expected by November 12.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is undergoing extensive changes with more than a quarter of its galleries being revamped as part of ongoing capital projects. Despite constraints, including its location in Central Park, the Met is investing in several large projects totaling $2 billion, and more may follow. Jhaelen Hernandez-Eli, the Met’s vice president of construction, manages these projects with a focus on design sensitivity, sustainability, and collaboration among various stakeholders, emphasizing the merging of aesthetics and performance. These efforts include reducing the museum’s carbon footprint through energy-efficient systems and repurposing existing materials to minimize waste.
