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Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Chanel Celebrates U.K. Centenary With a Picasso, Ballet and English Stars
LONDON — Chanel is celebrating its 100 years in the U.K. in typical Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel fashion. The French brand's centenary kicked off with an intimate 100-guest dinner and a ballet performance behind a Pablo Picasso stage cloth at the V&A East Storehouse in Stratford's Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. More from WWD The Fashion Crowd Take Over the Serpentine Summer Party Chanel to Hold Fifth Annual BAAND Together Dance Festival in New York City in July Psychoanalysis and Fashion Blended in Museum at FIT's Fall Exhibition Friends, executives and ambassadors of Chanel — including president of fashion and president of Chanel SAS Bruno Pavlovsky, chief executive officer Leena Nair, president of Chanel U.K. Elizabeth Anglès d'Auriac, Keira Knightley, Jenna Coleman, Ellie Bamber, Peter Saville, Bel Powley, Douglas Booth, Greta Bellamacina and Lily Allen — sat down for a meal surrounded by thousands of objects and artifacts older than 100 years. Knightley, who has been an ambassador for Chanel since 2006, was amazed by the vastness of the venue. The space could easily rival her personal collection of pieces from the house. She described her personal Chanel wardrobe as 'quite good, but it's not quite 100 years.' Her favorite pieces she's worn over the years is a 'purple '50s ballgown with a sheer T-shirt top, which was one of Karl Lagerfeld's that I wore to the Toronto Film Festival for the premiere of 'Atonement'.' The actress wore a long white shirtdress with an embroidered dress on top from the brand's fall 2025 collection. 'Thank God they do summer looks,' she joked. Knightley is in the midst of juggling work and summer with her children. She will start shooting the second series of the Netflix show 'Black Doves' soon and she's just been on a reshoot for her upcoming film 'The Woman in Cabin 10' based on a novel by Ruth Ware that Simon Stone is directing. 'It's a thriller set on a super yacht. [I said yes to the project] because Simon is a big theater director whose work I've loved and I thought it was so weird that he wanted to do a flashy thriller because he's a very serious theater director. It's such an interesting combination,' she said. Asked if this could be her foray into stage acting, she said, 'maybe, who knows?' The English actor Powley was also taken by the venue's charm. She took a few snapshots of the objects on her mobile phone before sitting down for dinner. Despite the hot British weather outside, Powley was committed to her Chanel short tweed dress with a ruffled feather neckline that she described as 'very bird-like and beautiful.' She has been climatized to hot weather after filming in Jamaica for the past month for her upcoming series 'Inheritance' starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Johnny Lee Miller. 'It's quite a dark, horror-inspired project and the overarching themes are racial identity and politics. It's split between two timelines, the modern day and 1760 in Jamaica about the legacy of colonialism and slavery. It's a really eye-opening, important and unique project that I'm really proud to be a part of,' she said. Powley has just been announced to join the cast of the HBO series 'Harry Potter' playing the role of Aunt Petunia. She fondly remembers reading all the books growing up. Fantasy, on and off screen, was the subject of conversations. Coleman was ready to talk about entering back into fantasy with the second series of the hit Netflix show 'The Sandman' coming out in July. She plays dual characters: Johanna Constantine, an occult detective, and Lady Johanna Constantine, an 18th-century aristocrat. '[My favorite part] is the Gothic-noir in nature and genre, also entering another realm. It's a very unique visual,' she said, wearing a black leather look from Chanel's Métiers d'Art collection. 'There's a nod to [the] character [of Johanna Constantine],' she joked. In contrast to Coleman's gothic look, Bamber was dressed in blue tweed to match the blue skies outside with a red velvet bag that outlined roses. 'I am very hot, but I don't mind because the color is absolutely amazing,' she said. Bamber is no stranger to fashion and has been working with Chanel for over five years, but soon she will be taking on the role of Kate Moss in 'Moss & Freud,' following the supermodel's relationship with the artist Lucian Freud, who painted her nude in 2002. She got into character by spending a lot of time with Moss, who is a producer on the film. 'I looked at so many images of her and I worked with people who helped me curate her within the film,' she said, adding that she even took on the model's native Croydon accent. The musician Allen is dipping her toes back into acting this summer as Hedda Gabler in 'Hedda' at the Theatre Royal Bath in a reimagining of Henrik Ibsen's classical play 'Hedda Gabler,' of a woman already bored of her marriage when she returns from her honeymoon. 'I said 'yes' to it because it seemed like a bad idea, in a way that it was really challenging, so I felt like throwing myself into,' she said. Allen has been working with the house of Chanel for nearly two decades and her look of the evening — a short strapless black-and-white dress with the CC logo — was inspired by how she used to dress back in 2008, a year before she became the face of the brand's Coco Cocoon handbag line. 'I have so many Chanel pieces, I reckon I have 100 pieces, including accessories, that's if you counted every shoe individually,' she said charmingly with laughter. Chanel, like its friends and ambassadors of the stage and screen, took the opportunity to show what they've been working on, a reimagination of 'Le Train Bleu' with the English National Ballet for their centenary. The one-act performance dates back to 1924 and was performed in front of a stage cloth borrowing Pablo Picasso's 'Deux femmes courant sur la plage.' Gabrielle Chanel costumed the performance that was based on a scenario by Jean Cocteau and choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska to music by Darius Milhaud for Serge Diaghilev's Les Ballets Russes. The ballet incorporates all things Chanel: the French Riviera, sports, flirtation and striped jersey knitwear. 'The ballet feels like a museum piece because it just captures the glamour and free spirit of the Roaring '20s, but there's also these chic looks that are similar to how things are now,' said Stina Quagebeur, associate choreographer at the English National Ballet. When the dancers started their fittings in Chanel lycra costumes printed with knitwear they naturally got into character. Quagebeur wanted the short ballet to spotlight the individual nine principal dancers instead of creating a big narrative. The dancers, some performing a duet, come on and off the stage locking eyes with each other and smirking, hinting at summer love affairs. In the lead-up to the original ballet, Nijinska and Cocteau disagreed on the direction of the narrative with Nijinska wanting a storyline, while Cocteau preferring an abstract retelling. 'I decided to focus more on the abstract side and incorporating the athleticism and pushing the virtuoso of the dancers,' said Quagebeur, adding that for one of the characters based on the 1920s tennis player Suzanne Lenglen, she wanted her to run instead of elegantly leaping across the stage. 'Le Train Bleu' fits with the Picasso stage cloth of two women with windswept hair running by the sea. Chanel has been supporting the conservation of the cloth, which is now on display in the David and Molly Lowell Borthwick Gallery at the V&A East Storehouse. Gabrielle Chanel's love affair with the English has been a well documented one and it's one that the brand continues to add to. Her romance with Arthur 'Boy' Capel and subsequently Hugh Grosvenor, the second Duke of Westminster, started long before the 1920s, but it was in 1925 that the designer went onto registering Parfums Chanel Limited in the U.K.; a year prior she had established Les Parfums Chanel in France. 'Everything goes back to Gabrielle and the U.K. still has this special place for the house because we still source tweed and cashmere from the U.K.,' said Anglès d'Auriac in an interview. In times of hard luxury, she calls the events of Chanel's U.K. celebrations serendipity. 'Things become evident and ideas bubble up when you start getting interested in your local environment, your clients and the culture environment. We always think about creation, creativity and craftsmanship — it's our heritage, but it's also in our present and future,' said Anglès d'Auriac. There are more surprises in store for the rest of the year. Anglès d'Auriac is honing on how to best show the brand's creation and craftsmanship in a culturally relevant way to their clients through Chanel's retail and boutique footprint. 'The beauty of working in the U.K. is that it's still a source of inspiration for the house and we've had our headquarters here since 2018, which shows its importance and close proximity to France,' she said. The brand has been on a high in the U.K. since 2023 when it staged 'Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto' at the Victoria & Albert Museum and a Métiers d'Art collection in Manchester. The slowdown in luxury spending may have shaken consumer confidence, but in the U.K. Chanel's bestsellers are coming out of its newly launched Métiers d'Art collection in stores; the Chanel 25 handbag that British pop star Dua Lipa is the face of and the jewelry line Coco Crush. Anglès d'Auriac also revealed that other in-demand products include the Les Beiges Healthy Glow Bronzing Cream; the Coco Mademoiselle purse spray and the Chance Eau Splendide, which had its own pop-up on Chance Street in Shoreditch. Gabrielle Chanel famously said, 'I have always succeeded with the English, I don't know why.' But perhaps her superstitions knew why. Best of WWD Fashion Meets Cinema: Jaws 50th Anniversary and Calvin Klein Spring 2019 RTW Show Retro Glamour: Giorgio Di Sant'Angelo's Summer 1973 Chic Straw Hat Statement The Story Behind Jackie Kennedy's Cartier Watch: A Royal Gift With 'Traces and Clues of Her Life' Revealed
Otago Daily Times
02-07-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
A&P shows get funding boost from government
A boost from central government will give volunteer-led A&P shows the gift they need to keep on going, Southern organisers say. Gore A&P Association president Martin Powley said the government funds will be helpful in attracting a younger audience and in keeping people coming back. "We're struggling and that's an exceptionally nice present," he said. Royal Agricultural Society Southern District chair Rob Hall said the money works out as $1000 a year for four years, for each of the 94 shows across the country. He said the money has been earmarked for the many volunteers that help with the show. "We're all volunteers," Mr Powley said. "Everyone that puts stuff up, puts stuff down, comes to meetings every month, does the ram shows, they're all volunteers." Mr Powley said the money could also be used for advertising and entertainment to attract the younger audience and to keep them coming back. In the Gore association, only the secretary and the show secretary were on a wage, because they do "a heck of a lot" of work, Mr Powley said. They charge vendors a minimal fee for power, and the rest of the money is earned from admission. "We make money out of our gate and that's the only way we make money to keep the wheels going," Mr Powley said. Wyndham A&P Society president Mike Henderson said they were lucky in that their show was one of the bigger, stronger ones. "I say we're lucky, but I don't think we are, we work really hard to get those people on the gates," he said. "Lucky is not the right word for it, but we do have a good following." Mr Hall said it was the smaller, and therefore smaller budgeted, shows in the district who needed more help and were more volunteer-led. Mr Henderson said the Wyndham show had a "really, really good", young, enthusiastic committee which made their show a little stronger than the others. The Wyndham president said they were happy with the funding, as it recognised the importance of A&P shows in the rural sector. Minister of Agriculture Todd McClay said he had seen first hand the tireless hours volunteers put in to these shows. He also said he had seen how the much the small town committees had struggled to stretch a dollar, and wanted to ease some of the financial strain. "In every part of the country I've visited, people have told me the same thing — A&P shows are a fixture on the rural calendar, and they want their local show to keep going, but organisers have told me even small costs add up," he said. 'This funding sends a clear message: we see the work of rural New Zealand, we value your contribution, and we're making practical investments that are felt on the ground.'
Yahoo
09-02-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Daniel Boone's Gavin Pearce 300th student to solo fly with the F.L.I.G.H.T. Foundation
GREENEVILLE, Tenn. (WJHL) — High School senior Gavin Pearce completed his first solo flight Sunday at the Greeneville Municipal Airport, marking the 300th successful student solo flight made possible by the non-profit F.L.I.G.H.T. Foundation. Pearce, a senior at Daniel Boone High School, completed the common student-piloting milestone in which he was completely alone in the plane during an entire flight— what many call earning his wings. His family, instructor, friends and teachers from Daniel Boone watched on as he boarded, took off and landed the plane. Pearce told News Channel 11 that he sees learning to fly the same as riding a bike. Two local middle school teams make TMSAA State Tournament 'It's like anything,' he said. 'You study, you learn, you just learn from experience, I guess. And after that, I mean, it's like a piece of cake, really.' Pearce noted that piloting an aircraft is no simple feat, and his instructor and founder of the F.L.I.G.H.T Foundation, Lt. Colonel Bill Powley, made things as easy as possible. 'I mean, it's luck of the draw (being the 300th solo flyer), but Colonel Powley is amazing. There's no reason in my mind that he shouldn't have more than 300. So if anybody's watching this and you know, you're thinking about it, Colonel Powley would be the way to go if you want to get into this career.' The non-profit was founded by Powley in 1992 and has since gone to be an instruction hub for students at more than 30 schools. The foundation provides instruction to teenagers through grants. Pearce officially marked the 300th student in the foundation's solo flight program to earn a certification. The next step for Pearce is to attend Averett University to study aviation and play basketball for the school. He said he hopes to turn aviation into a career. For more information about the F.L.I.G.H.T. Foundation and how to get involved, visit or call (423) 502-1605. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
