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Burberry’s Daniel Lee Era Is Underway
The past year has been a tumultuous one for creative leaders in fashion. Daniel Lee, who ascended to Burberry’s top creative job amid the industry’s recent round of leadership musical chairs, has given us a peek at the British heritage brand’s next chapter with a new campaign. There’s a lot to unpack.
A new royal-blue logo features a redesign of the brand’s signature knight on horseback—and signals the end of an era where many of the major fashion houses adopted lookalike, block-letter logo styles. Rapper Shygirl and soccer star Raheem Sterling are among the fresh faces tapped to signal the brand’s desire to resonate with contemporary Britain. Along with this new swath of ambassadors, the campaign also features a curious number of roses and, inexplicably, an archival tartan bikini worn by model Liberty Ross amid a mix of otherwise seasonally appropriate styling. Lee’s first pieces for the brand, however, are conspicuously absent from the promotion and are set to debut during London Fashion Week. —Jenna Adrian-Diaz
Gansevoort Peninsula in Manhattan. Image courtesy of James Corner Field Operations…
Manhattan will welcome Gansevoort Peninsula, its first public beach, this summer.
Manhattan is set to welcome its first public beach with the opening of Gansevoort Peninsula in summer 2023. Designed by James Corner Field Operations, the beach is located on the shores of the Hudson River near Chelsea and the Meatpacking District. The new public amenity offers a place for Manhattanites to relax and sunbathe, with a large sports field, picnic tables, and walking paths. Swimming, however, will not be permitted in the Hudson River, which has improved its water health but still cannot be considered safe for swimming. “People want a place to lay down and to take their shirt off, and that’s what they’re gonna have here,” Cricket Day, a designer involved in the project, told the Daily Beast.
Storm King Art Center is embarking on a major overhaul to improve accessibility.
Storm King Art Center, a 500-acre sculpture park in New York’s Hudson Valley, is undergoing a renovation to make it more accessible to visitors and protect its landscape. The museum, which saw a sharp increase in visitors during the pandemic, is embarking on a $45 million capital campaign to improve accessibility and biodiversity on its campus. Beka Sturges, a landscape architect involved in the project, said the park’s approach to landscape as art was “exceptionally rare,” and the renovation would be a “quietly radical way to demonstrate forward-thinking cultural values.” Among the improvements are adding tram rides, elevators, and adjusting the grading of pathways. Josh Safdie, a disability advocate, also recommended “lily pads” where visitors can plan a continued route through the campus’s rolling hills.
“Déplacé∙e∙s” (2023) by JR. Image courtesy of JR…
In Turin, JR’s latest public art performance is shedding light on the refugee crisis.
JR is bringing attention to the global refugee crisis with an audacious public art performance in Turin, Italy. More than 1,200 participants carried five large canvases depicting images of refugee children as part of the French artist’s DÉPLACÉ·E·S project. Over the past year, JR and his team traveled to Ukraine, Rwanda, and Colombia to partner with local communities to unfurl images of refugee children on 148-foot-long tarps. The performance marks the opening of a solo exhibition at Turin’s Intesa Sanpaolo museum that reveals the harsh realities faced by refugees due to conflicts, war, famine, and climate change. Drone footage of the performances will be shown in the exhibition, which opens today through July 16.
A panel of experts is evaluating Bruno Stefanini’s art collection for Nazi looting.
When the Swiss real estate magnate Bruno Stefanini died in 2018, he left behind a collection of more than 100,000 pieces of fine art, historical memorabilia, and buildings, including 6,000 castles and oil paintings. Many of the properties and items were neglected, contaminated, and even contained hazardous materials. Stefanini’s Foundation for Art, Culture, and History, led by his daughter Bettina, is now cleaning up the collection, including evaluating its art for any association with Nazi-era looting. An independent panel of experts, led by Andrea Raschèr, will make binding decisions on whether to return any items deemed lost due to Nazi persecution. “You have a bigger moral obligation to do things right if you can afford it,” Stefanini told the New York Times.
Invisible Solar terracotta roof panels. Image courtesy Dyaqua…
An Italian company is embedding photovoltaic cells in terracotta roofing tiles.
Dyaqua, a family-owned Italian company, is producing “Invisible Solar” roofing tiles that resemble terracotta but come with a hidden twist: each tile contains solar photovoltaic cells. Each tile contains a polymer compound that lets sunlight flow inside to a layer of photovoltaic cells in the middle. Otherwise, the panels are virtually indistinguishable from regular terracotta tiles and make for easy installation. Though the tiles are slightly less efficient than traditional solar panels, Dyaqua founder Giovanni Battista Quagliato says the same approach can be used to embed photovoltaic cells in materials like stone, concrete, and wood.
The Philadelphia Police Department’s former headquarters faces an uncertain future.
The city of Philadelphia is set to release a report outlining the fate of the Roundhouse, a concrete building that served as the city’s police headquarters for more than six decades. Some residents have advocated for repurposing the Roundhouse into a community hub that acknowledges its history of police abuse, while others believe the building’s complicated past merits demolition. Despite the building’s imposing nature, its circular design was intended to bring a new era to the Philadelphia Police Department and foster transparency with locals. Today, the Roundhouse is better known for the painful experiences people endured within, including illegal detention, physical abuse, and intimidation by corrupt detectives.
(FROM LEFT) Courtesy of Givenchy. Courtesy of Puppets and Puppets…
Today’s attractive distractions:
Critics are questioning whether or not “Impostor Syndrome” holds any weight.
“Clowncore” is gaining steam on the runway and TikTok. Color us frightened.
Australia approves using MDMA and psilocybin as medicines for the first time.
This conniving couple made millions fooling the art market with their forgeries.
