New photo of Prince George released to celebrate 12th birthday
His parents, the Prince and Princess of Wales, published the photo taken by Joshua Shinner on Instagram with the caption: "Happy 12th Birthday to Prince George!" and the birthday cake emoji.
Their eldest child posed leaning on a wooden fence, looking relaxed and happy in a white shirt and a brown vest-style fleece.
A short video was also posted online of the future King walking and playing 10-year-old sister Princess Charlotte and 7-year-old brother Prince Louis in the same idyllic location.
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Watch the video of George with Charlotte and Louis on TVNZ+
For fans and followers of the monarchy, a new royal portrait traditionally released to mark birthdays and milestone events such as anniversaries or christenings is always a big deal.
The morning's headlines in 90 seconds, including Ozzy Osbourne dies, a worrying find on Rakiura Stewart Island, and new Coke coming. (Source: 1News)
They are often taken by the Princess of Wales herself, as she is a keen photographer.
George's birthday celebrations come just over a week after the prince and his 10-year-old sister Princess Charlotte, who is third in line to the throne, made an appearance at the men's tennis finals at Wimbledon, accompanied by their parents.
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NZ Herald
11 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Phone, lip gloss, condiments, cabbages: The claw grip takes hold
Some social media users have gone as far as displaying their hand-held necessities in disposable coffee trays. Others say that men could never successfully pull off this Jenga act; nor would they understand it. And these videos or photos of women clinging to their belongings are not polished; they are presented as the most mundane of girl experiences – the equivalent of posting your unaesthetic breakfast. They are also hilarious. 'I have seen my grandma do the claw grip all her life,' comedian Atsuko Okatsuka said in an email. 'Every grandma of every culture and race always has, like, a napkin or a piece of trash that they've been carrying around for a long time, maybe years. 'I have taken on the passed-down tradition of claw hands myself,' she added. 'Whether it's mayonnaise packets, or napkins or my cellphone, I am always holding stuff.' For Halle Robbe, personal experience with this tradition prompted her to create the GCS account on Instagram. In 2021, Robbe had run out to a nearby bodega. 'I just brought my keys, my wallet and my AirPods with me, and then I was going to get a Red Bull,' she said, noting that she did not bring a bag. 'I had it all in my hand so I took a photo and put it on my personal Instagram with some silly caption that was some version of, like, 'After hundreds of years of evolution, this is what I can do.'' Her friends responded to her post almost immediately, saying they do the same thing. Robbe created the GCS account that same day. She initially solicited photos from friends and co-workers, and now she receives more than 100 submissions a day. 'I think we've all been there when we have just, like, an assortment of stuff and we're running out the door,' said Abby Cox, 29, a fashion historian and a YouTube content creator. 'I need to make sure I have my glasses. I need my water bottle. Do I need to bring a snack? 'And so you're going out the door with your purse,' she added, 'and then the stuff that should be in your purse.' Purses? Pockets? Not necessary when you can palm a dozen items. Photo / Aileen Son, The New York Times A popular theory around the origins of the claw grip is that it is a reaction to Big Fashion's refusal to provide women with the functional pockets that are standard in men's clothing. It was not always this way. As far back as the Regency and Victorian eras, women had pockets in the form of bags that were tied around their waists underneath their big, flouncy skirts, Cox said. Their dresses had slits through which women could access these pockets, which could be as big or small as necessary. Alternatively, 'they would have pockets in the hems of skirts or they would have what we call butt pockets, because in the back pleats of gowns, you could hide a deep pocket,' Cox said. In one of her YouTube videos, in which she is dressed in Victorian clothing, she put an entire bottle of prosecco in such a pocket. In the late 20th century, as female clothing shifted toward narrower silhouettes and lighter textiles, substantial pockets became difficult to incorporate, so they were sized down or erased from garments altogether, she said. Perhaps in the quest for pocket parity, the claw grip is 'this weird thing of trying to go without bags and purses to prove a point,' Cox said. 'Are people, without fully consciously realising it, trying to prove we don't want bags anymore, we want pockets?' Several brands have managed to insert themselves into the claw grip chatter, offering products that enable carrying more stuff – think of the wallets or cardholders that attach to phones – which turns this act of making the otherwise invisible contents of a bag visible into a marketing opportunity. Among the products catering to the tendency of women to carry things in their hands is a phone case by Rhode that includes a lip gloss holder. Photo / Getty Images 'Unlike fashion, you don't generally see beauty brands because your products are in your bathroom or in your purse,' said Rachel Strugatz, a beauty correspondent at Puck. 'It's much harder for beauty items to become a status symbol in the way that fashion does with sneakers or shoes or handbags or literally anything else where you know what the brand is.' In February 2024, Hailey Bieber's brand, Rhode, released a phone case with a built-in lip gloss holder that generated a wait list of more than 200,000 interested customers. Now the case and the lip gloss have become immediately recognisable, partly because of how many times they're seen peeking through women's hands. Particularly Bieber's hands. This month, Glossier – which from its earliest days had packaged items in pink transparent reusable pouches – released a pair of terry-cloth shorts with a sliver of a pocket that fit only lip balms. There are also side pockets, which could fit a phone, and a single belt loop, potentially for key rings. When designing the shorts, Glossier did not set out to meet this phenomenon, but 'there was an unconscious knowing' that things are now more likely to be photographed out there, in the wild, 'especially something that would be otherwise hidden in a bag,' said Kyle Richardson, a senior designer at Glossier. (The morning of our interview, she carried her phone, office badge, wallet case and a bag of rice in one hand.) There are also theories that the claw grip reflects the chaos of the minds of women who are thinking through to-do lists and mentally writing text messages and running errands all at the same time. 'I think holding things in our hands actually is our need to keep something in control,' Okatsuka said. 'I started getting submissions that were like, 'Oh, I'm carrying XYZ and the weight of the world' or something metaphorical like that,' Robbe said. The claw grip, she added, could be seen as 'an extension of or in parallel with the mental and emotional and spiritual burdens that women carry'. In 2023, Robbe started a print magazine called Pinky to explore the 'metaphysical' things women also carry. It is an idea that artist Maira Kalman started to explore three years ago. 'One day at a farmers market, I saw a woman carrying an absolutely gigantic cabbage,' Kalman said in a 2023 TED Talk. 'It made me think of all the things women hold, literally and metaphorically.' Yes, they hold cabbages, balloons, phones. But also 'the home and the family and the children and the food. The friendships, the work, the work of the world and the work of being human. The memories and the troubles and the sorrows and the triumphs and the love. Men do as well, but not quite in the same way.' She turned her observations into a book of paintings. It is called 'Women Holding Things.' This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Written by: Alisha Haridasani Gupta Photographs by: Aileen Son ©2025 THE NEW YORK TIMES
NZ Herald
2 days ago
- NZ Herald
Sydney Sweeney's provocative new ad campaign leans into retro sexiness — and it's sparking debate
Shane O'Neill: Well, the imagery is pretty scattershot, and so is the messaging. We have Sydney Sweeney looking kinda femme and kinda butch. We have her 'auditioning' for the commercial and also holding a camcorder, recording herself. RT: There's a narrative in these images of that small-town gal moving to the big city, hoping to become a star. I found the audition video really strange – Sweeney is a mega-actress and superbly talented, and she seems very confident and savvy about how she chooses roles. To see her in that uncomfortable setting – where a guy off-camera is asking to see her hands?! – is unsettling. A large part of her success is her ability to appeal to men and women. And that seemed to be the first point of controversy here: Many of the images and videos, like her filming herself with a camcorder or that audition moment, seem tailored for the male gaze specifically. SO: The most provocative part of the campaign is when she's talking about offspring and genes. (She says, 'Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair colour, personality and even eye colour,' and the camera pans to her blue eyes. 'My jeans are blue.') Sweeney also has softer copy in the press release. She says of American Eagle, 'They have literally been there with me through every version of myself.' There's a message about mutable identity there. And that could be extended into a vision of America as a place where you're NOT bound by who you are at birth. But they went the full opposite of that. RT: I love what you're saying about the potential of this ad versus the direction it ran toward. Jeans are really fertile ground for fashion brands to explore identity and are almost always marketed with provocation: I'm thinking of the Calvin Klein ads, but also smaller labels like Eckhaus Latta. Or the Diesel ads from 2010 that declared 'SEX SELLS! Unfortunately we sell jeans.' SO: To be honest, I think the ad campaign didn't exactly know what it wanted to be. If we just had these images without any supporting text or dialogue, I don't think they'd really merit a second glance. RT: I think what's getting people talking – or rather, why everyone was watching these TikToks obsessively over the weekend and picking them apart – is how regressive the ads seem. The line about her having great jeans – several people are suggesting in the comments on Instagram and TikTok that this is a 'pro-eugenics ad'. Whether or not that's the case, it is part of a wave of imagery of influencers, pop stars and musicians that feels tethered to the values of another time. SO: Yes. The first thing I thought of when I heard the tagline 'Sydney Sweeney has great jeans' was the DHS Instagram account, which posted a subtly racist painting a few weeks ago and an explicitly racist painting last week. The latter depicted a gigantic blonde buxom woman chasing away native people to make way for white settlers. When this is the imagery being promoted by our Government, a pun about 'genes' hits differently. RT: The tagline is simply bizarre. Are they trying to say that what matters is not what you look like but what you put on your body? Or that you are assigned a denim style at birth and you must never waver from it? Also: is Sweeney the every girl or the only girl? For the past five or six years, it seemed like fashion and pop culture were very interested in – even dedicated to – body positivity. Now we're being fed a lot of images of thinness, whiteness and unapologetic wealth porn, what with this campaign, influencers like Alix Earle, and Sabrina Carpenter's album cover. Sabrina Carpenter's 'Man's Best Friend' album cover. Photo / Instagram SO: I found that album cover really disturbing. The fact that it looked exactly like a Terry Richardson shoot from the early 2000s, the fact that it came when people are hiring him again, and when Dov Charney is releasing Los Angeles Apparel ads that look exactly like the American Apparel ads he made in the early 2000s, is very freaky to me. RT: It's unclear where the irony is. SO: But that arguably makes it a meaningful and successful image. RT: Look, you know I'm a fashion fanatic. Images that make you stop and think – whether you're disturbed or delighted or, even better, have no clue what to make of what you're seeing – are really exciting and too rare in this era. But it is strange to see a brand like American Eagle go in this direction. Should teenagers be served a vision of sexuality and fashion that feels so regressive? SO: Seeing these images with no accompanying text, I don't think I would have guessed 'American Eagle in 2025.' I will say that the far right's embrace of Sweeney – and the gleeful reaction from right-wing creators to 'woke' backlash to the campaign – lends credence to my initial alarm when I saw the ads. RT: She is someone appreciated across the political spectrum. Recall in 2022 that she was called out online for a picture of a family birthday party in which an attendee was wearing a Blue Lives Matter T-shirt. And her own TikTok page pitches her as a car obsessive, not afraid to get under the hood though her hair looks perfect. She is also a Hollywood powerhouse who is producing movies and starring in iconic Gen Z movies and TV shows. How does she do this? SO: There's something about her giant sleepy eyes and slightly flared nostrils that evokes distance and disaffection. RT: As our colleague Sam pointed out, she codified the Gen Z stare on the first season of White Lotus. SO: Yes! But there is something so deeply unattainable about what Sweeney serves. RT: I'm gently pushing back on that. As a woman, I find her combination of sex appeal, smarts and strong but surprising instincts really inspiring. She is able to create these truly oddball characters. And I'll always be fascinated by someone who can capture attention so broadly in our fragmented pop culture landscape. But let's get back to the ad. Are the jeans good? SO: They seem to want to have it both ways: dark blue classic American girliness and a stonewashed sloppy guy's girl. RT: I thought the jeans were cute! But it's still funny that they are very sexually promoting … a baggy jean with a little adorable butterfly on the back? SO: Enter the Möbius strip of outrage, dismissal of the outrage, outrage at the dismissal of the outrage … and eventually a huge bump in stock for American Eagle. RT: Up 18 per cent this morning! SO: In a time of prolonged economic uncertainty, I think other brands will learn the lesson that it pays to lean into controversy and trigger snowflakes like me. RT: Absolutely. The only thing we can say for sure: the 'success' of this ad – stirring controversy and conversation and the big stock jump – will inspire more brands to try the same.
NZ Herald
2 days ago
- NZ Herald
Destiny's Child reunites for Beyoncé's last tour show
The cameo was the first time the trio has performed together since 2018. Photo / Instagram/beyonce. Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech. Already a subscriber? Sign in here Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen. The cameo was the first time the trio has performed together since 2018. Photo / Instagram/beyonce. Beyoncé has ended her Cowboy Carter tour with a bang as she brought back 90's girl group Destiny's Child for a cameo performance. It was a Millennials dream as the trio of Beyoncé, Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams performed some of their biggest hits including 2001 track Bootylicious and 2005 song Lose My Breath to wrap up the 32 show United States and European tour. They also stuck around to take part in the song Energy from Beyoncé's 2022 album Renaissance. The performance was the first time the group has performed since US music festival Coachella in 2018.
