Latest news with #cocktailparty
Daily Mail
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Anya Taylor-Joy looks effortlessly chic in a red gingham skirt as she joins glam Diana Ross and her son Evan at a cocktail reception hosted by the music legend's family
Anya Taylor-Joy put on a stylish display as she posed with Diana Ross at an intimate cocktail party at The Dorchester's Vesper Bar in London on Thursday. The Queen's Gambit star, 29, was all smiles as she joined music legend Diana, 81, and the Ross family at the event in honour of Arne Naess. Jr. and Arne's Reserve Caviar. Norwegian businessman Arne was Diana's second husband and the father of her two sons Ross, 37, and Evan, 36. The couple divorced in 2000 after 14 years of marriage, and Arne tragically died in January 2004 at the age of 66 in a climbing accident. Ross and Evan attended Thursday's event with their respective wives Kimberley and Ashlee Simpson - who also brought her son Bronx Wentz - while Diana's daughters Chudney, 49, and Rhonda, 53, also joined the family. Posing alongside the Ross clan, Anya looked as stylish as ever in a white waistcoat and a red gingham skirt, which she styled with white slip-on heels. The actress accessorised her look with a simple pendant necklace as she posed alongside Diana and her son Evan. For the star-studded occasion, Diana cut a glamorous figure in a black tulle gown with a matching shawl, which she teamed with lace gloves. The singer added some glitz to her look with a pair of statement gold earrings and flashed a huge smile for the cameras. Meanwhile, Evan cut a dapper figure in a black suit and a red tie as he sweetly wrapped his arm around his mother. Evan's wife Ashlee looked elegant in a black slip dress as she posed next to her son Bronx Wentz, who she shares with her ex Pete Wentz. Diana's film producer son Ross also cut a suave figure in an all-black ensemble while his wife Kimberley oozed glamour in a black velvet dress. Chudney, who Diana shares with her music executive ex-husband Robert Ellis Silberstein, looked equally stylish in a black polka dot dress and heels. Rhonda, whose father is Motown legend Berry Gordy, cut a chic figure in a cream dress and a black blazer as she joined her extended family at the reception. Evan's wife Ashlee looked elegant in a black slip dress as she posed next to her son Bronx Wentz, who she shares with her ex Pete Wentz Diana also has another daughter Tracee Ellis Ross with her ex-husband Robert, but she did not appear to be in attendance. It was a rare joint appearance for the Ross clan just weeks after Diana opened up about her kids in a recent interview. She told The Mirror: 'My family is really my greatest joy and blessing. Rhonda travels with me on tour and will be at the shows, my five children really take care of their mum.' Diana also proudly showed off her love for her family as she made a rare tribute to them while walking the carpet at the Met Gala. Diana looked sensational in a floor-grazing white gown complete with a feather-boa-trimmed cape and hat as she made her first appearance at the fashion event in 20 years. Determined to pay homage to all her children and grandchildren at the event, Diana had all their names sewn onto her extravagant gown. 'My son Evan and a young designer, Ugo Mozie, and I collaborated on the gown and cloak that I wore, we wanted something meaningful,' she explained. 'The 18-foot train stretches across generations with the names of my adult children and grandchildren beautifully embroidered on it, it's beaded and has crystals— the details celebrate my family and our love.' Diana wrapped up her UK tour at London's O2 Arena on July 1 after performing in Birmingham, Nottingham, Glasgow, Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool.
TechCrunch
25-06-2025
- Business
- TechCrunch
Final StrictlyVC Event of 2025
Mix and Mingle – Cocktail parties with killer content. StrictlyVC events deliver exclusive insider content from Silicon Valley and the global venture scene. If you're an investor looking to mingle with your peers and watch some killer content, this event is for you. Get the inside scoop directly from sources you can trust. Previous events included interviews with Sam Altman (Open AI), Marc Andreessen (Andreessen Horowitz), Katie Haun (Haun Ventures), Hans Tung (GGV Capital) and many more!
CNA
11-06-2025
- Business
- CNA
Think your favourite cafe's too loud? Bad design could be ruining your dining experience
You're catching up with an old friend at a cafe. Or maybe you're at a networking lunch, or winding down after work over drinks at a restaurant. What is one thing that would, without fail, taint the entire experience? For me, it's noise. Not just obnoxiously loud chatter, but the kind of intrusive, inescapable noise made worse by poor acoustic design. Think the clang of cutlery, the screech of chairs dragged across bare floors, the shrill hiss and rumble of an espresso machine. Add in a couple's conversation from two tables away, their every word reverberating off hard surfaces, and I fight to hear even my own thoughts. This year alone, I've left several supposedly chill meet-ups with a frayed sense of calm and a bad taste in my mouth – that had nothing to do with the food. HUMAN BEHAVIOUR, INTERIOR DESIGN AFFECT NOISE I'm hardly alone in this. Whenever my friends and I are deciding where to meet, we usually land on one criteria: Somewhere conducive for conversation. But unless we retreat to someone's home, our seemingly basic requirement often feels out of reach, partly due to the Lombard effect, informally known as the cocktail party effect. This refers to the involuntary tendency to increase one's vocal effort when speaking in loud noise. For business owners, the effect is "not only unpleasant, but it also limits the capacity of the restaurant", explained Adrian Lo, founder of acoustic consultancy Soundzipper. "If you really want to fill your restaurant, you need that (acoustic treatment). It helps you fill your restaurant without causing undue unpleasantness," he believes. Noise and its psychological impact can also be exacerbated by a restaurant's interior design, often influenced by its target demographic and cuisine. A research paper from 2015 examined 112 restaurants in Singapore, with a focus on interior design materials, to understand how sound and environment affect the dining experience. Restaurants are "intensively social places", and their design is subject to "competing requirements", wrote the paper's author Dr PerMagnus Lindborg, now an associate professor at the School of Creative Media in the City University of Hong Kong. "Restaurants need to attract customers; and so they have large windows towards the street or open doors towards the shopping mall in which they are located, leaking in external noise. They need to give an impression of cleanliness; so floors and tabletop materials are hard and acoustically reflective," he wrote, referencing external research. "Managers and waiters need to scan the tables; so there are few wall partitions to absorb sound and provide lateral first reflections." In some cases, customers may also seek a "vibrant atmosphere" where appropriate music mixes with voices into an "agreeable din", while other contexts may call for a calm environment that allows greater privacy for a spoken conversation. Separate research also found that "contemporary restaurant interiors are dominated by hard surfaces and open-space architecture", causing noise from the kitchen and bar to spill over into the dining area, according to Dr Lindborg's paper. "They also noted a prevalence for bare surfaces, with few textiles such as carpets, draperies or linens." Dr Lindborg's own field survey similarly found that "jarring noise" tends to occur in open-design concepts. Such layouts may allow restaurant managers "visual control" in scanning the room, but acoustically, "it's a disaster", he said. He has observed "more compartments" in comparatively old-fashioned places, such as pillars in restaurants, private breakout rooms and high sofas, which are "acoustically more favourable to conversation". But it doesn't mean that these features are reserved for places of traditional luxury. Both Lo from Soundzipper and Dr Lindborg pinpointed McDonald's as a restaurant that is "acoustically remarkably good". "The reason, just from observation, is they typically have these perforated ceilings. The ceiling is a large part of the enclosure, and if you can just reduce the echoes from the ceiling, you get very good results," Dr Lindborg told CNA Lifestyle. "Then you can accept that the floor is hard, or that you don't have any soft parts on the walls, or bookshelves with irregular books. Those are acoustically good things, but it makes other parts of the design more difficult." PRIORITISING GOOD ACOUSTIC DESIGN In Singapore's food and beverage scene, prioritising good acoustic design in the average dining experience is key for at least one cafe. Sera Phua, the director and founder of Acoustics Coffee Bar, understands my discomfort with trying to hold a conversation while dining amid excessive noise. But instead of, say, investing in personal ear plugs to manage her own sensitivity to sound, the 31-year-old decided to start Acoustics Coffee Bar – so everyone could benefit from good sound. Both the Owen Road and Neil Road outlets share a simple goal: To create an environment where customers can enjoy proper conversations without having to strain their ears or vocal cords. 'My partner and I used to go to cafes and restaurants, where we wanted to have a chat or get-together … but we realised that we couldn't really have a good chat, to the point that we gave up talking to each other and started using our phones,' Phua explained. 'Having a comfortable conversation is in our subconscious, but people don't know they need a conducive space (that allows it), until they experience it.' In fact, I'd first heard about Acoustics Coffee Bar from people who struggle with sensory overload. But I only became a believer when I visited its Neil Road outlet for the first time earlier this year. Even the standard sputtering of a coffee machine in the background felt less jarring, with the cafe's acoustic treatments, compared with how a regular cafe would have made me feel: Slightly on edge. Phua asserts that even at their busiest hour – on a weekend around 2pm to 3pm – customers would still be able to 'feel the zen here'. For instance, she uses absorption and diffuser panels on the cafe's walls to reduce unwanted noise and break off the sound waves, respectively. But it's not just about having them in place; exact placement also requires "visualisation of how customers will speak and how noise will travel", she said. "We're trying to make something, usually deemed as luxury, accessible so anyone can enjoy it. Our goal is to create an intimate cafe where people can connect over coffee and meals, free from noise and distraction." In general, solid, smooth and hard surfaces – such as glass, metal and concrete – are more likely to make a space noisier and hence more uncomfortable. But as long as a space is conditioned "well enough", Phua believes cafes and restaurants don't have to avoid using these materials. Wood, on the other hand, is typically considered good for acoustics. But it has to be "a special kind of wood" with micro perforations, or it must incorporate sound-absorbing materials that are porous, advised Lo from Soundzipper. Some places also install a layer of such material on the underside of tables, he said. "You won't see it, but it helps with controlling the sound waves bouncing around." Yet, despite the clear benefits, acoustic design still tends to be an afterthought. Findings from Dr Lindborg's field survey of over 100 restaurants in Singapore revealed that there was more room for improvement of soundscape in restaurants than of the corresponding visual environment. "A reduction in ambient noise levels sonic quality is likely to lead to higher environmental quality ratings, both visual and sonic, and might at the same time be a justification for an increase in menu prices," his paper suggested. So acoustic design may not top the average diner's list of concerns, but I, too, reckon there's room for compromise. After all, restaurants already pour immense effort into their menus, service and visual appeal. It would be a shame to forget one of the most basic aspects of hospitality is to create an environment where people can genuinely connect.
The Sun
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Boohoo is selling dupe of House of CB's iconic dress for £150 less – and it's perfect for flattening tummies
WE'VE all fallen hook, line and sinker for House of CB's bandage dresses. But with a hefty price tag of £150 or more for each one, we've found a dupe of their iconic dress that's perfect for flattening tummies. The Boohoo Bandage Double Strap Midi Dress is made in a figure-hugging bandage fabric and looks rather similar to House of CB's viral The HourGlass dress. It's form-fitting silhouette accentuates your curves, while the sweetheart neckline and double strap detail add a dash of sophistication. It is simply perfect for a cocktail party or a night at the club, and designed to turn heads - at only a fraction of the price. The dress is currently only available in Chocolate and Rose. But the best part is that the Boohoo dress is currently on sale for just £20 - a huge difference to The HourGlass dress which costs £169 - giving you a massive saving of just under £150. But if you still feel like splashing out for a very special occasion you better be quick because House of CB say their bandage Collection is a limited edition. Whichever you choose - team yours with big hair, high heels, bold lip – and you'll feel like a million dollars. Meanwhile, a popular supermarket has launched a £20 dupe of the £11k Birkin bags that Victoria Beckham & Olivia Attwood love – and it comes in 2 colours. And if you're not willing to fork out for a Labubu - which can fetch a whopping £70 online - there's a budget-friendly alternative you can get in your local B&M. The cost of hotels and flights is already expensive, so we know you want to save cash when it comes to luggage too. Primark adds brand new Sol De Janeiro dupes to its beauty aisles and they're perfect for keeping you smelling sweet on holiday too And people are rushing to Tesco to pick up their new suitcase & it's a dupe of pricey Rimowa but more than £1,000 cheaper. We also have the perfect Crocs dupe for your summer- as a discount supermarket's Summer Clogs sell for a mere £3.99. This is an eye-watering £46 less than what shoppers would find on the Crocs website. Plus, Aldi's new Japanese-inspired skincare brand is said to be a dupe of Tatcha – it's 90% cheaper but was it as good? How to look chic on a budget Fashion stylist Gemma Rose Breger, and beauty journalist Samantha Silver revealed how you can make your outfits elevated without spending hundreds of pounds. Don't ever spend on designer denim: River Island ''always has such a great selection of fashion-forward jeans that follow the current trends''. The high street retailer offers a great range of sizes to fit UK 6 - UK 18, and three leg lengths - and prices start from an affordable £25. There are no rules for jewels: ''Pick up something at a car boot sale, or charity shop, scroll on Vinted & eBay, snap up something from the clothing section in your local supermarket when doing the food shop or check out high street clothing stores.'' Don't forget the pre-loved sites: With a rising number of second-hand sites, such as Vinted and Depop, there's no excuse for not buying - or selling - pre-loved garments. Gemma, for instance, has managed to get her hands on chic Chanel sunnies for a mere £17.
The Herald
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald
Nathi Mankayi to headline Eastern Cape's 'Music In The Snow'
This year marks the show's fourth year. Music In The Snow has consistently sold out its shows, attracting visitors from around the country. Founder Mlindi Ntloko attributes this success to the event's unique blend of music, nature and adventure. 'We're thrilled to build on this momentum in 2025 with an expanded programme that offers something for everyone.' This year's event kicks off on July 18 with a cocktail party and whisky tasting experience at a separate venue, offering attendees a range of styles to enjoy. The popular hiking excursions will also be expanded to include mountain biking trails led by experienced guides. 'We're committed to making Music In The Snow an inclusive and immersive experience that showcases the full range of Hogsback's offerings,' said Ntloko. 'From music and nature to adventure and relaxation, we invite visitors to join us for an unforgettable weekend in one of South Africa's most breathtaking destinations.'
