Latest news with #Dupuy
The Star
19-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Star
She made fashion's weirdest footwear, now she's design director of shoes at Dior
Back in late 2018, a lifetime ago in fashion, a radical shift happened in footwear. Square-toed clunkers – sandals defined by exaggerated, spatula-like soles that jutted out from under the foot and pumps with bulbous stubbed toes – were shown in Daniel Lee's first collection for Bottega Veneta. At first sight, the shoes were hideous. Within months, they were on the feet of nearly every celebrity, editor, influencer and luxury VIC in the land. Retailers like Vince Camuto and Shein promptly issued dupes of the popular Lido sandal, a simple slide in a blown-up interpretation of Bottega's signature intrecciato woven leather. Lyst declared them the 'hottest shoes in the world' in 2019. 'It's funny what you can make people wear in fashion if it's done the right way,' said Nina Christen, the Swiss shoe designer responsible for the Lido. Christen's distinctive touch has quite literally been all over some of the most influential shoe design trickling down from luxury houses for the better part of the past decade. She has worked for Phoebe Philo at Celine, Jonathan Anderson at Loewe, Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen at the Row and Lee at Bottega Veneta. Last month, Anderson hired Christen as the design director of shoes at Christian Dior. It's one of the biggest jobs in fashion right now, and she is balancing it with a moonlighting gig, too. Read more: Era of the Frankenshoes: Why are hybrid footwear becoming so fashionable? Last year, Christen introduced her eponymous independent shoe brand. The first pure expression of her design identity came partly out of frustration. The shoes she designed for other brands were her taste, her take, she said, but they were never 100% herself. Opportunity arose when she met Paul Dupuy, an entrepreneur and a founder of Zoi, a health-tech company in the longevity space. Christen designed uniforms for Zoi's staff and clients, and Dupuy was so impressed that he offered to help her start her own brand. His mother was a fashion designer, and he has friends in the industry. He got it. 'When she told me she designed shoes for Loewe and Bottega, I was like: 'OK. This is solid,'' Dupuy said. Christen already had a complete vision for a brand beyond shoes: the perfect pair of Japanese denim jeans, the perfect leather jacket, even fine jewellery, the first piece of which is a diamond toe ring. All are prototyped and planned. She had the packaging, branding, logo and positioning in mind. Dupuy raised US$5mil (approximately RM63.6mil) in capital and helps with business logistics, including with the planning of a store in Paris slated for 2026. Christen shoes are produced in Italy by the same factories and specialists that work with big luxury brands. The prices – US$1,100 to US$3,650 (RM4,668 to RM15,485) – reflect Christen's uncompromising production standards and ambition to compete at the highest level. On a morning in late June, the raw cement floor of the studio below Christen's apartment in Paris was set with more than 30 examples of her designs arranged in a neatly art-directed grid. Three styles from Loewe's Spring/Summer 2023 runway collection stood out for their cartoonish, fantastical qualities. There were pumps embroidered with an explosion of deflated white balloons and sandals abloom with a giant, hyper-realistic anthurium. Red rubber pumps that looked fit for Minnie Mouse were particularly complicated. 'You can't wear this for more than two hours,' Christen said of the pumps. 'But Jonathan Anderson was very open to ideas that really crossed the line between art and fashion.' By comparison, the styles on display by Christen's brand appeared compact, sexy and razor-sharp. 'I love the space of geometric shapes,' Christen said, surveying the body of work at her feet. 'When I think of toe shapes, for example, it's all about that. Is it a square? Is it rectangle? Is it a circle? Is it oval? What is the degree?' Dozens of Nina Christen's shoe designs – Bottega Veneta, Loewe and Celine, among them – arranged in a grid in her home studio in Paris. Photo: The New York Times She wore a pair of white sandals by her brand that left the foot nearly naked, bisecting it with a single strip of leather like a strand of floss through the big and second toes. The sole was thin and slightly elongated under the toes, like an insole that was a size too big. The proportions of the shoes varied wildly, but a common thread was a certain offness. Christen thinks a lot about redefining standards. 'It's about creating things we are not used to yet,' she said. 'When I make something and I don't know if I like it, that's always a good sign.' Christen, 40, grew up in Bern, Switzerland, in her own words, 'obsessed with fashion without an explanation'. 'It was just in me,' she added. There she studied technical tailoring and pattern-making and practiced on the 'normal' garments she prefers to wear in her personal life. She never dreamed of being a shoe designer. Finding Switzerland to be a fashion void, she moved to Paris. While completing a master's degree at Institut Francais De La Mode, a shoe design workshop liberated her. 'I realised I could do all kinds of crazy things,' she said. Christen met Lee in 2017 when they were working for Phoebe Philo at Celine. Before that, Christen did the rounds consulting for less elite players, including Marimekko and H&M. Consulting for the traditional French rubber boot brand Aigle proved to be one of her most formative gigs. Read more: Jane Birkin's original Hermes bag sold for over RM42mil in an intense auction The platform rubber boots she designed for Philo's last collections at Celine, and subsequently the viral Bottega Veneta Puddle Boot introduced in 2020, were directly descended from what Christen learned at Aigle. 'I thought, 'Why not make it fashion?'' she said. 'Working with Nina was a special collaboration,' said Lee, who has been the creative director of Burberry since 2022. 'She's a designer that understands precision and refinement.' Rather than reference the work of a specific artist or architect, Christen draws from the worlds of science and spirituality. She cited CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, as a source of inspiration, the tangible effect of which is difficult to explain. 'It's more that I like to think about things that are impossible,' she said. 'From drawing shoes to the reality, there is this huge gap of things that you can do, things that you cannot do. I enjoy finding a way to do new things.' The power of the mundane, even the ugly, courses through Christen's work. 'Every day I see normal people wearing extremely interesting things that have nothing really to do with fashion,' she said. Orthopedic shoes for the elderly have been good source material. After Christen's first year in business, its most popular shoe is a grandpa-style slip-on bootee lined in goat shearling. As Christen said, 'Once you wear them, you cannot wear anything else.' – ©2025 The New York Times Company This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Astronomers hike up Mount Blanc for the view
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A team of astronomy-loving mountaineers, led by Cyril Dupuy, founder of the French smart telescope company Vaonis, recently hiked the icy slopes of Mount Blanc. There, they captured the highest photograph of the sun ever taken in Europe. From April 29 to May 1 of this year, the team ascended Western Europe's tallest peak, carrying with them their Vespera Pro smart telescope. Despite being blocked from the true peak of Mount Blanc by a hazardous snow bridge, the team succeeded in their scientific expedition, setting up their telescope to get unprecedented views of the sky. This photo was taken on Mount Blanc at 14,100 feet (4,300 meters) above sea level, a bit below the 15,780-foot (4,810 m) summit. From their position close to the summit of Mount Blanc, the team was able to capture high-altitude images of the sun with the Vespera Pro telescope. They were even able to observe Malin-1, the largest known spiral galaxy, which lies more than a billion light years from Earth. "Inspired by the Janssen Observatory built atop Mont Blanc in the late 19th century, I decided to follow in trailblazer Jules Janssen's footsteps and capture from the Alpine skies a unique image of the sun as well as the largest known spiral galaxy, a nod to Janssen's research — though this time armed with 21st-century technology," explained Dupuy in a recent statement. The trip was one of many that astrophotographers like Dupuy take to remote locations with less light pollution to photograph crisp, clear night skies. By combining long-exposure techniques and camera and telescope technology, astrophotographers can see details far beyond what the naked eye can see: star clusters, the Milky Way, and even the faint glow of other galaxies. You can read more about astrophotography, the best telescopes to get started, and more about capturing our night skies.
Boston Globe
13-07-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Mexico, EU tariff threats send uncertainty rippling through Boston's shoppers and small business owners
'Everything comes from Mexico ‐ avocadoes, cilantro, radishes ‐ a lot of whole foods,' she said. 'Something that seems small to billionaires could really affect people.' If the tariffs go into effect on August 1, consumers forced to pay more for daily groceries will spend less elsewhere in the economy, experts warn. In addition to future price hikes, Trump's tariff threats will cause Americans to feel more economic uncertainty, according to financial experts. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The tariffs would cause prices to rise in the 'global food supply chain,' and the import taxes likely wouldn't bring manufacturing jobs back to the US, said Scott Clemons, chief investment strategist for Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., a global firm founded in 1818. Advertisement Over the past several decades, the US has strengthened its exports of legal, tech, accounting and other services, Clemons said. Despite Trump's agenda, the balance of global trade favors US service exports and goods imports, he said. 'If these tariffs go into effect and last, we're going to find out viscerally how much of our food supply is imported,' Clemons said. Advertisement If Mexico and the EU negotiate more favorable trade terms with the US in the next couple of weeks, the 30 percent tariff Trump threatened won't go into effect, according to letters the president posted online. Caroline Aiello, a co-owner of DeLuca's on Newbury Street, said Sunday that she felt a little bump in prices when the first tariff scare took place earlier this year. DeLuca's did not adjust prices at the time, and she said if tariffs do come into effect, there isn't a set plan in place to offset the cost. 'We're already competing with huge stores, and we don't have the buying power that they do,' Aiello said. At JP's Streetcar wine shop, about 80 percent of the bottles on shelves are imported from Europe, said owner Mike Dupuy. Prices on all the wine at the shop ‐ domestic and European ‐ will certainly go up if the tariff is imposed, he warned. After importers pay the 30 percent tariff on European wine, they'll pass off the increased costs to distributors, many of whom sell both US and international wine, Dupuy explained. The distributors, who sell cases to shops like Streetcar, would likely raise the price of all their products, including wine produced in the US, he said. Furthermore, American wine makers in California, Oregon and New York rely on equipment ‐ and even wine bottles ‐ imported from Europe, Dupuy said. 'It's kind of immeasurably bad news,' said Dupuy, who opened his shop 13 years ago with an intent to focus on wines from France, Italy, Germany and Austria. Jordan Garry, store manager at Tropical Foods in Roxbury, said the store has not experienced any price increases following the Trump administration's tariff announcement. Garry has seen minor price changes but the store, which specializes in Caribbean and African products and produce, has absorbed some of the cost to stay competitive Advertisement 'I'm personally more worried about January when they cut the food stamps. You know, that's gonna be a wake-up call for a lot of people,' Garry said. Denise Korn, a South End resident who regularly shops at South End Food Emporium, said that she likes to buy her morning newspaper at the store, which serves a diverse community. As a first-generation American, Korn said that Trump's proposed tariffs will not serve the American people, especially those struggling with food insecurity. 'There are unforeseen consequences to people that are already struggling with putting food on the table,' Korn said. The tariff threat alone is a harsh symptom of the political and economic unpredictability Trump wields, said Clemons, the chief investment strategist. The same uncertainty that will cause moms to stress about bills will also prevent business owners from investing in new capital, he said. 'It makes it very difficult to plan,' Clemons said. 'What I worry about is that if you aggregate all of those spending decisions, or more precisely, non-spending decisions, you wind up with a recipe for an economic slowdown.' Santiago said her two-income household will probably be able to handle grocery price increases with only a bit of economic discomfort. She already uses services like Misfits Markets, paying less for oddly shaped fruits. Her corner of JP is vulnerable to a more unique economic slowdown ‐ one where neighborly generosity is taxed at a higher rate, she said. When Santiago had the flu in February, Pimentel Market cashier Juan Campos gave her a shot of his herbal brew made with raw vegetables. He also recently shared the drink with cooks at a nearby restaurant, who all came down with the same illness. Advertisement 'I'm just thinking of how this could influence someone who does something out of the kindness of their heart,' she said. Claire Thornton can be reached at
Time of India
30-06-2025
- Health
- Time of India
Consuming a cup and a half of THESE veggies regularly can prevent blockage of arteries
A cup and a half of THESE veggies can protect the heart, according to experts Heart disease is on the rise and has become the leading cause of death globally. Lifestyle factors, especially diet, play a crucial role in preventing these diseases. What you eat has a significant impact on heart health. A new study has found that eating certain vegetables can protect the heart and also prevent chronic disease. A new study led by researchers at Edith Cowan University (ECU), the University of Western Australia, and the Danish Cancer Institute found that eating a cup and a half of these veggies can significantly improve heart health. The findings are published in the European Journal of Nutrition . Veggies for the heart The vegetables in question are the leafy greens and cruciferous vegetables such as spinach, kale, and broccoli. The researchers found that a cup and a half of leafy green vegetables could go a long way to addressing atherosclerotic vascular diseases (ASVDs). What is ASVD Atherosclerotic vascular diseases are a subgroup of cardiovascular disease, which are currently the leading causes of death worldwide, primarily due to heart attacks and strokes. In Australia, cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) claim the life of one person every 12 minutes, ECU PhD student Ms Montana Dupuy noted. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Dermatologist: Just Add 1 Drop Of This Household Item To Any Dark Spot And Wait 3 Minutes Undo Greens can go a long way The study led by Ms Dupuy has found that leafy greens could reduce the risk of ASVD, due to its Vitamin K1 content. 'Leafy green and cruciferous vegetables, like spinach, kale and broccoli, contain Vitamin K1, which may assist in preventing vascular calcification processes that characterise cardiovascular disease. The great news is that these vegetables can be easily incorporated into your daily meals,' she said, in a statement. Along with its potential benefits on improving vascular health, Vitamin K may also improve musculoskeletal health through its impact on bone strength. What a cup and a half of veggies can do ECU Senior Research Fellow Dr Marc Sim confirmed that a cup and a half of such vegetables is an easy way to increase our daily vitamin K intake and may lower our risk for cardiovascular disease. 'This research found that women who consumed approximately 30% higher intakes of Vitamin K1 than currently recommended in the Australian Dietary Guidelines had a lower long-term risk of ASVD. Of importance, when we examined the blood vessels in the neck, those with a higher Vitamin K1 intake also had less thickening of these blood vessels, a marker of atherosclerosis,' he said. The researchers looked at the impact of Vitamin K on vascular health, as well as musculoskeletal health. Ronnie McDowell RUSHED to Hospital Mid-Show; Sudden Health Crisis STUNS Fans | WATCH 'This research has provided key evidence to support our future studies. We are now creating new foods that pack more leafy greens that are rich in Vitamin K1. These novel foods can be used in communities with special nutritional and dietary requirements, such as aged care residents. We are consolidating all our epidemiological data and converting that into a tangible product that would benefit the community,' ECU Post Doctoral Research Fellow Dr Liezhou Zhong added. Clear your arteries: 7 tips for preventing heart blockages naturally So if you want to keep your heart in good shape, eat a cup and a half of leafy greens and cruciferous veggies.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
'He believed in local news': Former KSFR news director brought dedication, passion to job
William "Bill" Dupuy's love of local news started early. Growing up in Baton Rouge, La., Dupuy was just 11 or 12 when, according to family lore, he convinced his father to put an antenna on the roof of their house so he could pipe in straight to the neighbors' radios. Bill Dupuy Bill Dupuy "He'd find something to say," said Dupuy's wife, Ellen Dupuy, laughing in a recent interview. "He'd do the news or something." Dupuy landed a job in radio a few years later, and while his career took him from broadcast to the worlds of the military, scientific research and big business, he eventually made a return to the airwaves, taking a job as news director of Santa Fe-based public radio station KSFR. "It was kind of a ... dream role for him," son Max Dupuy said. "He got a lot out of the people working at KSFR, and also I think contributed a lot." Dupuy, who stepped down from that position in 2013, died April 12 following a stroke at his Santa Fe home. He was 84. Communication was a through-line for Texas-born and Louisiana-raised Dupuy, who worked at a Houston radio station out of college before joining the U.S. Air Force and serving as a public information officer, according to his obituary. He was a captain by the time he left the military in the 1960s. That was about the time he first met his future wife, during a night out on the town in San Francisco, Ellen Dupuy said. bill dupuy 3 Bill Dupuy, former news director at KSFR public radio station in Santa Fe. Ellen Dupuy's roommate at the time was about to return home to England. Inspired by an article about the "swingingest spots" in various cities, the two decided to go for a farewell drink — only to find the place packed and themselves "immediately surrounded by some nice gentlemen." But it was another gentleman who caught Ellen Dupuy's eye: the one walking back and forth through the bar. "Brazen me, I put my hand across the bar and I ... said, 'If you go by one more time, you're going to have pay a toll,' " said Ellen Dupuy, who at the time had just stepped away from her job as a flight stewardess. "... He looked at me, I looked at him, and here we were 57 years later." It was a spark, but it lasted through decades, multiple moves and career changes, two children — son Max and daughter Nikki — and, eventually, three grandchildren. "The way he was with his wife, you would have thought they were newlyweds for 50 years or however long," said Zélie Pollon, a former colleague from KSFR. Bill Dupuy's post-Air Force job for Kaiser Industries took him to New York City — a lively chapter for the young couple as they "wined and dined" people on behalf of the company. "We were in our 20s with a nice large expense account," Ellen Dupuy said. "So we'd go out to all the great restaurants and theater." Eventually Dupuy moved on to a job doing public relations for Plymouth State College — now Plymouth State University — in New Hampshire. From there he took another communications job even further up the coast of New England, at The Jackson Laboratory, a cancer research institute on Mount Desert Island in Maine. The time in Maine was fulfilling, Ellen Dupuy said, but eventually came to an end. "After years up on Mount Desert Island, we decided it was probably time for Bill to get back into corporate life again, because ... we had kids going to college, things like that," she said. Bill Dupuy took a job in Cleveland, Ohio, at Edward Howard, a large public relations firm, and later another job as a senior executive at a regional bank, his obituary said. It was a friend from Cleveland living in New Mexico, according to Ellen Dupuy, who eventually paved the Dupuys' way to Santa Fe in about 1999. The friend wanted to come back to Ohio to see her children, and proffered a house swap vacation. Bill Dupuy was unenthused. "I dragged Bill out here kicking and screaming," Ellen Dupuy said. "But the minute he got out here, we both fell in love with it." So much so, she said, that by the end of the vacation, they'd fulfilled the ultimate vacation fantasy. "We purchased a little house on Delgado at the end of the two weeks," Ellen Dupuy said. "... It's one of the best choices we ever made." Bill Dupuy opted to take an early retirement at the time of the move to New Mexico, but it didn't suit. At his wife's urging to "do something," he took a science writing job at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Then, Ellen Dupuy said, he spotted a notice in The New Mexican for a volunteer role at KSFR and decided to go see about it. "That was it," Ellen Dupuy said. "No more laboratory. Total dedication to KSFR." During Bill Dupuy's years as news director, Ellen Dupuy said, he built KSFR's news team into a force, albeit a volunteer one. bill dupuy 4 Bill Dupuy, former news director at KSFR public radio station in Santa Fe. "People were going out interviewing," she said. "We had people at the city meetings. We had people at the Legislature. I mean, he believed in local news." Steve Terrell, a KSFR host and former longtime newspaper writer for both The New Mexican and the Albuquerque Journal, said in 2004 when he was sent to the Republican and Democratic national conventions as a political reporter, Bill Dupuy recruited him to record short features to bring the events to life for local listeners. "He took his job very seriously," Terrell said. "He was very serious about the news." Dupuy's second retirement went about as well as his first one. When he departed KSFR, Ellen Dupuy said, he converted a closet in the garage into a studio and began auditioning to narrate audiobooks, which he intoned in his classic radio broadcaster voice. He helped facilitate Journey Santa Fe events, bringing panels of speakers on a wide array of topics to the Collected Works Bookstore & Coffeehouse. Together the couple took to delivering food during COVID-19 for local nonprofit Kitchen Angels. Son Max Dupuy, who lives in Washington, D.C., said for the last two decades, his father was driven above all by a passion for his final adopted hometown. "He loved Santa Fe, he really did," Max Dupuy said. "I know it's easy to say that, and a lot of people say that, but he loved it and contributed to it."
