Latest news with #BelleÉpoque
14 hours ago
- Entertainment
Kenzo brings mischief back to Paris' iconic Maxim's with a riot of color and clash
PARIS -- Few Paris addresses conjure myth quite like Maxim's, the gilded Belle Époque haunt where artists and aristocrats once jostled for a seat at dinner, and a place immortalized in Cole Porter's lyrics and classic Hollywood films as the very symbol of Parisian chic. On Friday night, at Paris Fashion Week the renowned restaurant-turned-nightclub became the improbable stage for Kenzo's latest co-ed show — a riot of pop color, celebrity and cultural collision served tableside. Guests perched around white tablecloths as Nigo, the first Japanese designer to helm Kenzo since the late, great Kenzo Takada, set out to prove the house can still surprise. What unfolded was a knowingly playful mash-up of preppy classics and off-kilter eveningwear: eye-popping pink dresses loosely gathered and knotted, each one tossed with a Left Bank silk scarf; a slinky tuxedo jacket paired with a blaring urban-printed tee in wild color, topped with a cartoon bunny in intentional clash. Think cocktail hour by way of Shibuya street style. Tongue-in-cheek references ran rampant — a circus master's striped waistcoat here, sheeny tiger-motif pants there, all nodding to Kenzo's signature mix of high craft and subcultural wink. If the goal was to recapture the house's historic sense of fun, Nigo went all in. While the creativity on display was undeniable, the sheer abundance of ideas sometimes made it hard for a single vision to shine through. With so many bold references and layers echoing recent seasons' spirit of collaboration and eclecticism, the collection sometimes felt more like a lively collage than a focused statement. Still, there were moments where the craftsmanship and playful accessories truly stood out, offering glimpses of the distinct Kenzo spirit that Nigo has made his own. Since joining Kenzo, Nigo has brought a fresh spirit of collaboration and cross-cultural exchange, most visibly in his headline-grabbing work with Pharrell Williams at Louis Vuitton and his frequent partnerships with artists from across the globe. That outward-looking energy has helped pull Kenzo back into the pop-culture conversation, blending the house's playful legacy with new momentum. As part of the LVMH stable, Kenzo now enjoys the reach and resources of the world's largest luxury group, giving Nigo freedom to experiment, push boundaries and reawaken the brand's irreverent roots. It was a night that nodded to both past and future. After a string of worn years under the previous design duo, Kenzo seems determined to shake off old dust and reclaim its seat at Paris' most storied table. The show at Maxim's — equal parts fashion circus and cultural memory — was a reminder that Paris style is best served with a wink, a clash and more than a little mischief.
Winnipeg Free Press
18 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Kenzo brings mischief back to Paris' iconic Maxim's with a riot of color and clash
PARIS (AP) — Few Paris addresses conjure myth quite like Maxim's, the gilded Belle Époque haunt where artists and aristocrats once jostled for a seat at dinner, and a place immortalized in Cole Porter's lyrics and classic Hollywood films as the very symbol of Parisian chic. On Friday night, at Paris Fashion Week the renowned restaurant-turned-nightclub became the improbable stage for Kenzo's latest co-ed show — a riot of pop color, celebrity and cultural collision served tableside. Guests perched around white tablecloths as Nigo, the first Japanese designer to helm Kenzo since the late, great Kenzo Takada, set out to prove the house can still surprise. What unfolded was a knowingly playful mash-up of preppy classics and off-kilter eveningwear: eye-popping pink dresses loosely gathered and knotted, each one tossed with a Left Bank silk scarf; a slinky tuxedo jacket paired with a blaring urban-printed tee in wild color, topped with a cartoon bunny in intentional clash. Think cocktail hour by way of Shibuya street style. Tongue-in-cheek references ran rampant — a circus master's striped waistcoat here, sheeny tiger-motif pants there, all nodding to Kenzo's signature mix of high craft and subcultural wink. If the goal was to recapture the house's historic sense of fun, Nigo went all in. While the creativity on display was undeniable, the sheer abundance of ideas sometimes made it hard for a single vision to shine through. With so many bold references and layers echoing recent seasons' spirit of collaboration and eclecticism, the collection sometimes felt more like a lively collage than a focused statement. Still, there were moments where the craftsmanship and playful accessories truly stood out, offering glimpses of the distinct Kenzo spirit that Nigo has made his own. Weekly A weekly look at what's happening in Winnipeg's arts and entertainment scene. Since joining Kenzo, Nigo has brought a fresh spirit of collaboration and cross-cultural exchange, most visibly in his headline-grabbing work with Pharrell Williams at Louis Vuitton and his frequent partnerships with artists from across the globe. That outward-looking energy has helped pull Kenzo back into the pop-culture conversation, blending the house's playful legacy with new momentum. As part of the LVMH stable, Kenzo now enjoys the reach and resources of the world's largest luxury group, giving Nigo freedom to experiment, push boundaries and reawaken the brand's irreverent roots. It was a night that nodded to both past and future. After a string of worn years under the previous design duo, Kenzo seems determined to shake off old dust and reclaim its seat at Paris' most storied table. The show at Maxim's — equal parts fashion circus and cultural memory — was a reminder that Paris style is best served with a wink, a clash and more than a little mischief.
New York Times
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
The Best Romance Novels of the Year So Far
I'd like a steamy scorcher set in Belle Époque Paris Doctora Aurora Montalban, lonely and disdained by her male peers, is running an illegal women's clinic when she finds it impossible to resist the brash, beautiful Duke of Annan. Read our review. I want a big, splashy emotions bomb Ava Rodriguez is fresh off a painful divorce that a lot of her family members blame her for. So when a chance encounter leads to one night with Roman, a sexy hotel C.E.O. — and then another night, and another — she doesn't see the need to tell any of her friends or relatives about it. It's all a delicious secret — until the pair is formally introduced as best man and maid of honor in Ava's cousin's wedding to Roman's childhood best friend. Read our review. I love spicy, opposites-attract queer romances Flames are more than metaphorical in this joyful, messy, delightful Sapphic romance starring a fire science researcher and an ambitious, type-A professional firefighter who's hot both in and out of her gear. Read our review. Got a slow-burn historical romance? The drama of this lush, elegant historical about two childhood best friends turned high-society nobles is heightened by the looming specter of the French Revolution. It's a classic case of two people knowing each other well enough to read each other's emotions, but misinterpreting the causes to disastrous effect. Read our review. Give me forced proximity, fandom and werewolves When the washed-up former star of a teen werewolf soap finds himself suddenly transformed into an actual werewolf, he must turn to a former superfan for help. She's snarky and dismissive; he's an ego monster with a terminal lack of self-awareness; together they're a nonstop disaster of sore spots, misunderstandings and inconvenient but irresistible lust — and it is all such a good time. Read our review. Jane Austen meets 'Midsomer Murders'? Sign me up! Please believe me when I tell you to breeze right past the cover of 'A Bloomy Head,' because that's not what's important here! What's inside is a bold, quick-witted, earthy, deeply researched Gothic gem about the romance between a cheesemaker and a military doctor. I came for the cheese, but I stayed for the glorious prose and wonderful characters. Read our review.
CairoScene
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CairoScene
Cairo, Reimagined: A Digital Tribute to a City's Forgotten Glory
Cairo, Reimagined: A Digital Tribute to a City's Forgotten Glory We scroll past them daily — old balconies, faded cornices, tiled thresholds barely holding on. Cairo's layered streets carry the weight of centuries, but much of the city's architectural heritage has faded into the background of everyday life. Cairo Re-rendered, a digital art series by architect Mohamed Radwan, brings these stories back to the foreground. Shared widely across Instagram, Radwan's AI-powered project transforms archival images of four of Cairo's most iconic districts. The images aren't restorations — they're reimaginings. Part artistic prompt, part preservation manifesto, the series explores what it would mean to see the city not through the lens of decay, but potential. The journey begins where Cairo itself did: Fatimid Cairo. Here, AI styling draws from classical painting techniques to spotlight the historic district's timeless geometry. The arched doorways, intricate mashrabiya, and shadowed alleys are rendered with reverence, suggesting not just beauty but continuity — a living thread through history. In Khedival Cairo, the approach shifts. The lens sharpens into realism, echoing the district's once grand boulevards and Belle Époque façades. Through this clarity, Radwan doesn't idealise — he reminds. That these spaces existed, and in many cases still do, behind the noise of billboards and unkempt signage. Heliopolis, the early 20th-century utopia designed as a 'city of the sun,' gets bathed in photorealistic dawn. The result feels suspended in time — warm light on stucco walls, as if the neighbourhood is holding its breath between what it was and what it could be again. Finally, Maadi appears in a retro triadic palette. With its leafy streets and quiet mid-century charm, the district is reinterpreted with a nod to vintage travel posters — nostalgic, yes, but also forward-facing in its optimism. The colour treatment makes you feel like you could walk into the frame. What ties the series together isn't just the AI technique, but Radwan's underlying intention: to make memory visible again. Each image began as a vintage photograph, carefully researched and selected for its spatial authenticity. Through a mix of prompt engineering and stylistic layering, the transformation process was less about enhancement and more about storytelling. The resulting images feel intuitive, not manufactured — each mood, time of day, and texture chosen to evoke the emotional DNA of the neighbourhood. But Cairo Re-rendered isn't just a nostalgic exercise. Its impact is more than aesthetic. The project taps into something broader: a cultural craving to see Cairo clearly. Not as a backdrop, but as an identity. As an inheritance. As something we still have the power to shape. The series found an eager audience online — from architecture students to longtime residents, each bringing their own stories to the frame. In the comments, viewers didn't just react to how the images looked. They shared memories. And that might be the biggest success of all: turning passive viewing into active remembering. Radwan's experiment sits at the intersection of preservation, imagination, and public engagement. It's a quiet reminder that tools like AI aren't just about futures — they can be about pasts too. About holding on, and letting go, and seeing the city with fresh eyes before what's left becomes too faded to notice. Because sometimes, it takes a new render to remember what was always there.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
In Cannes, It All Happened at the Carlton
If the Cannes Film Festival were a building, it would be the Carlton. The iconic hotel, with its Belle Époque balustrades and twin cupola domes, its combination of old world elegance and over-the-top extravagance, is a manifestation — in limestone, stucco and pink marble — of the Cannes festival brand. 'I often hear people compare the Carlton to the Eiffel Tower,' says Carlton Hotel general manager Pierre-Louis Renou. 'On one hand, it's gigantic, but on the other so immaculate. It's kind of a monument to the glamour of Cannes.' More from The Hollywood Reporter 'Splitsville' Director Michael Covino on Making Bawdy Comedy That Looks Like Arthouse Cinema: "It Can Be Both" Cannes: 'Corsage' Director Marie Kreutzer Wins Investors Circle Prize for 'Gentle Monster' London's Raindance Film Festival Unveils Lineup for Its Biggest Post-COVID Pandemic Edition The first-ever Cannes festival was held at the Carlton Casino in 1946 — well before they built the Palais — and the Carlton has played a supporting, occasionally starring, role in the history of the festival ever since. The first Cannes celebrity photo-op? The best promotional stunts? The biggest backroom deals? They all happened at the Carlton. The Cannes Festival Launches in the Carlton Casino (1946) A year after the first VE Day, the Carlton welcomed the world's press (a total of 8 journalists!) to the first-ever Cannes Film Festival, held at the Carlton Casino, with a lineup that included Jean Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast, Billy Wilder's The Lost Weekend and David Lean's Brief Encounter. Bridget Bardot's Bikini (1953) They may look quite modest today, but in 1953, photos of 18-year-old French actress Brigitte Bardot posing on the Carlton beach in a tropical-print bikini were a shock sensation. It's unclear how much the photo op helped the box office for Bardot's film Marina, the Girl in the Bikini (which had been shot in Cannes the year before), but it made the skimpy swimsuit mainstream and launched a thousand imitators, including the creators that continue to swarm the Carlton beach today, posing for selfies. Alfred Hitchcock Films (1955) The Carlton, notes Renou, is 'probably the most photographed hotel in the world' but film cameos are rare. 'We get a lot of filming requests, but we have to be very careful, because were are a hotel, not a film studio,' he notes. But Hitchcock got the green light to send Grace Kelly and Cary Grant clambering over the Carlton rooftop. George Lucas Pitches on the Carlton Terrace (1977) George Lucas, in Cannes on his own dime for the screening of THX 1138 in the Directors' Fortnight, wrangled a 10-minute lunch meeting with UA CEO David Picker on the Carlton terrace. Picker liked Lucas' idea for a 1950s teen drama about drag racing (American Graffiti), so Lucas awkwardly pitched him on 'this space opera thing. Sort of an action adventure film in space.' Picker optioned it. For $10,000. (He'd later drop both options, and Alan Ladd Jr., at 20th Century Fox would score big in a galaxy far far away.) Elton John's Musical Video for 'I'm Still Standing' on the Steps of the Carlton Hotel (1983) Elton turned the Carlton terrace into a technicolor dance floor filled with bondage-geared concierges, aerobic French mimes and inspired pastel knitwear for this early MTV era touchstone. Elton himself did not dance. (His moves, he admitted, terrified the choreographer.) And the video, disrupted by an Elton booze-a-thon with Duran Duran, barely wrapped. But it stands as a 3-minute distillation of the Cannes brand of Mediterranean glam. 'We still keep a strong relationship with Elton John,' says Renou. 'And would be delighted to welcome him back soon.' Jerry Seinfeld's Stunt (2007) The festival has played host to many a wacky promotional photo op, from Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jason Statham rolling up the Croisette in tanks for Expendables 3 to Sacha Baron Coen posing in a neon green mankini for Borat. But for pure memorable silliness, few compare with Jerry Seinfield, jammed into an oversized bee costume, strapping into a harness and zip-lining off the top of the Carlton down to the beach to promote the Paramount animated feature to which he'd lent his voice. The great era of the Cannes promotional stunt may be behind us. Speculation that Tom Cruise might revive the austere festival tradition came to naught when, instead of abseiling off the Palais or parachuting in, he and crew of Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning sedately walked the red carpet for the film's May 14 premiere. Red Granite Pictures Shoots a Million-Dollar Party on the Carlton Beach (2011) Speaking of the end of an era, Red Granite's soiree, a coming-out party for the would-be mini-studio, was one of the last Cannes blowouts, with a guest list that included Leonardo DiCaprio, Pharrell Williams, Jon Hamm and Bradley Cooper, free-flowing booze and food and a Coachella-worthy duet by (pre-scandal) Kanye West and Jamie Foxx performing 'Gold Digger.' The bash, which reportedly cost a cool million, became a cautionary tale when Red Granite became embroiled in the 1MDB scandal — and dissolved in 2018. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Goonies' Cast, Then and Now "A Nutless Monkey Could Do Your Job": From Abusive to Angst-Ridden, 16 Memorable Studio Exec Portrayals in Film and TV The 10 Best Baseball Movies of All Time, Ranked
