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Pharrell Williams has high hopes for the Met Gala, the first to focus exclusively on Black designers, and the first in more than 20 years to have a menswear theme.“I want it to feel like the most epic night of power, a reflection of Black resiliency in a world that continues to be colonized, by which I mean policies and legislation that are nothing short of that,” he recently told Vogue.“It’s our turn.”Indeed. And welcome to the first Monday in May. How to watch the 2025 Met Gala Vogue will livestream the gala starting at 6 p.m. Eastern on Vogue.com, its YouTube channel and across its other digital platforms. Teyana Taylor, La La Anthony and Ego Nwodim will host the stream. Emma Chamberlain will also do interviews on the carpet.The Associated Press will livestream celebrity departures from the Mark Hotel beginning at 5 p.m. Eastern and will stream the gala carpet on delay beginning at 6:30 p.m. The feeds will be available on YouTube and APNews.com.E! will begin live coverage at 6 p.m. on TV. The livestream will be available on Peacock, E! Online and YouTube, along with the network’s other social media feeds. Who’s hosting the 2025 Met Gala? This year, the fundraising gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is hosted by a group of Black male celebrities, including Williams, the musical artist and Louis Vuitton menswear director, and Lewis Hamilton, Colman Domingo, and A$AP Rocky, with NBA superstar LeBron James as honorary chair. They’re joined by Vogue’s Anna Wintour, the mastermind behind the gala, considered the year’s biggest and starriest party.Also guaranteed to show up is a second tier of hosts from a variety of worlds: athletes Simone Biles and husband Jonathan Owens; Angel Reese and Sha’Carri Richardson; filmmakers Spike Lee, Tonya Lewis Lee and Regina King; actors Ayo Edebiri, Audra McDonald and Jeremy Pope; musicians Doechii, Usher, Tyla, Janelle Monáe and André 3000; author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; artists Jordan Casteel, Rashid Johnson and Kara Walker; playwrights Jeremy O. Harris and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins; and fashion figures Grace Wales Bonner, Edward Enninful, Dapper Dan and Olivier Rousteing.The gala raises the bulk of the curation budget for the museum’s Costume Institute. This year’s Met Gala dress code is It’s more like a firm suggestion. From Wintour. This year, it’s about tailoring and suiting as interpreted through the history and meaning of Black dandyism across the Atlantic diaspora. The theme is inspired by the annual spring exhibition, which this year is based in large part on “Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity,” a book written by Monica L. Miller. She is guest curator of the exhibit.“Historical manifestations of dandyism range from absolute precision in dress and tailoring to flamboyance and fabulousness in dress and style,” Miller writes in the exhibit catalog. “Whether a dandy is subtle or spectacular, we recognize and respect the deliberateness of the dress, the self-conscious display, the reach for tailored perfection, and the sometimes subversive self-expression.”How the dress code goes, in terms of taste and style, is anyone’s guess. Wintour has a hand in virtually all things gala, so the presumption is things can’t go too far off the rails. She recently knocked down the rumor that she approves all looks, telling “Good Morning America” she’ll weigh in if asked.The exhibit, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” draws on other sources beyond Miller’s book. It’s organized into 12 sections. Each symbolizes a characteristic of dandy style as defined by Zora Neale Hurston in her 1934 essay, “Characteristics of Negro Expression.”Among them: ownership, presence, distinction, disguise, freedom, respectability and heritage. Presumably, for gala guests who do deep-dive research (or have stylists to do it), some of these factors will play out on the museum steps that serve as the event’s red carpet. Who else is going to show up? The guest list amounts to about 450 high-profile people from tech, sports, art, entertainment and more. The mix, Williams said, is a must.“It’s so important to me to have successful Black and brown people of every stripe in the room: not just athletes and actors and actresses, entertainers, but also authors, architects, folks from the fintech world,” he told Vogue. “We’ve got to invest in each other. We’ve got to connect with each other, because it’s going to take everybody to coalesce the force of Black and brown genius into one strong, reliable force.” For full coverage of the Met Gala, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/met-gala Leanne Italie, AP Lifestyles Writer
Category:
E-Commerce
President Donald Trump is opening a new salvo in his tariff war, targeting films made outside the U.S.In a post Sunday night on his Truth Social platform, Trump said he has authorized the Department of Commerce and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to slap a 100% tariff “on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands.”“The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death,” he wrote, complaining that other countries “are offering all sorts of incentives to draw” filmmakers and studios away from the U.S. “This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat. It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda!”It wasn’t immediately clear how any such tariff on international productions could be implemented. It’s common for both large and small films to include production in the U.S. and in other countries. Big-budget movies like the upcoming “Mission: ImpossibleThe Final Reckoning,” for instance, are shot around the world.Incentive programs for years have influenced where movies are shot, increasingly driving film production out of California and to other states and countries with favorable tax incentives, like Canada and the United Kingdom.Yet Trump’s tariffs are designed to lead consumers toward American products. And in movie theaters, American-produced movies overwhelming dominate the domestic marketplace.China has ramped up its domestic movie production, culminating in the animated blockbuster “Ne Zha 2” grossing more than $2 billion this year. But even then, its sales came almost entirely from mainland China. In North America, it earned just $20.9 million.In New Zealand, where successive governments have offered rebates and incentives in recent years to draw Hollywood films to the country, the film industry has generated billions of dollars in tourism revenue driven by the “Lord of the Rings” and “Hobbit” films, which featured the country’s pristine and scenic vistas. More recently, the blockbuster “Minecraft” movie was filmed entirely in New Zealand, and U.S. productions in 2023 delivered $1.3 billion New Zealand dollars ($777 million) to the country in return for NZ$200 million in subsidies, according to government figures.New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said he was awaiting more details of Trump’s measures before commenting on them but would continue to pitch to filmmakers abroad, including in India’s Bollywood. “We’ve got an absolutely world class industry,” he said. “This is the best place to make movies, period, in the world.”The Motion Picture Association, which represents major U.S. film studios and streaming services, didn’t immediately respond to messages Sunday evening.The MPA’s data shows how much Hollywood exports have dominated cinemas. According to the MPA, the American movies produced $22.6 billion in exports and $15.3 billion in trade surplus in 2023.Trump, a Republican, has made good on the “tariff man” label he gave himself years ago, slapping new taxes on goods made in countries around the globe. That includes a 145% tariff on Chinese goods and a 10% baseline tariff on goods from other countries, with even higher levies threatened.By unilaterally imposing tariffs, Trump has exerted extraordinary influence over the flow of commerce, creating political risks and pulling the market in different directions. There are tariffs on autos, steel and aluminum, with more imports, including pharmaceutical drugs, set to be subject to new tariffs in the weeks ahead.Trump has long voiced concern about movie production moving overseas.Shortly before he took office, he announced that he had tapped actors Mel Gibson, Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone to serve as “special ambassadors” to Hollywood to bring it “BACKBIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!”U.S. film and television production has been hampered in recent years, with setbacks from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hollywood guild strikes of 2023 and the recent wildfires in the Los Angeles area. Overall production in the U.S. was down 26% last year compared with 2021, according to data from ProdPro, which tracks production.The group’s annual survey of executives, which asked about preferred filming locations, found no location in the U.S. made the top five, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Toronto, the U.K., Vancouver, Central Europe and Australia came out on top, with California placing sixth, Georgia seventh, New Jersey eighth and New York ninth.The problem is especially acute in California. In the greater Los Angeles area, production last year was down 5.6% from 2023 according to FilmLA, second only to 2020, during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic. Last, October, Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, proposed expanding California’s Film & Television Tax Credit program to $750 million annually, up from $330 million.Other U.S. cities like Atlanta, New York, Chicago, and San Francisco have also used aggressive tax incentives to lure film and TV productions. Those programs can take the form of cash grants, as in Texas, or tax credits, which Georgia and New Mexico offer.“Other nations have been stealing the movie-making capabilities from the United States,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Sunday night after returning from a weekend in Florida. “If they’re not willing to make a movie inside the United States we should have a tariff on movies that come in.” Associated Press writers Gary Field in Washington and Charlotte Graham-McLay in Wellington, New Zealand, contributed to this report from Washington. Jill Colvin and Jake Coyle, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Youve probably heard of Charles and Ray Eames, the designers behind the iconic Eames chair and ottoman, and Georgia OKeefe, the trailblazing artist. But you might not know about how these artists were connected during their careersor the art that came from their camaraderie. Herman Miller, in collaboration with the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, is bringing that history to light with a new limited-run furniture line. The New Mexico Collection, set to be released on May 20, celebrates the Eameses, OKeeffe, and designer Alexander Girard, the founding director of Herman Millers textile division. Included in the launch are 300 special Eames Wire Chairs, retailing for $1,995, and 100 iterations of the never-before-sold Girard Snake Table, retailing for $895. Both of the items offer a look into the intertwined artistic legacies of three designers whose work continues to shape the art world today. [Photo: Mariko Reed for Herman Miller] An oft-overlooked network of friends Georgia OKeeffe first met Alexander Girard and his wife, Susan, when the couple moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1953. OKeeffe had already been living in the remote rural town of Abiquiú, New Mexico, since the 1940s, and was already a household name across the country at the time of their meeting for her lush and evocative depictions of the natural world, many of which were inspired by flora and fauna native to her local surroundings. [The Georgia OKeeffe Museum] can’t say for sure exactly when and how they met, but suffice it to say there weren’t too many world renowned artists and designers living in that area, and apparently they felt a real kinship, says Kelsey Keith, brand creative director at Herman Miller. For the New Mexico collection, Keith visited the museums archives, where she learned that there are records of 20 to 30 years of correspondence between the Girards and OKeeffenot just to advise each other on artistic projects, which they did plenty of, but also to trade the kinds of casual stories that maintain a decades-long friendship. They ended up traveling together all over the world, Keith says. Girard and his wife would go on these folk art collecting trips to Central and South America and to Japan, and [OKeeffe] actually accompanied them on some of those trips. I think you have to be pretty good friends with someone to take those kinds of trips together. It was through the Girards that the Eameses entered the picture. Girard was already close to the Eameses; in fact, the design duo had actually landed him his job. When the Eameses first began to design furniture for Herman Miller in the 40s (the company has now owned the exclusive distribution rights to Eames designs for decades), Charles and Ray asked for Girard to be brought on with them as a real design partner, not just someone to sort of decoratively apply fabrics after the fact, Keith says. Through this professional collaboration, the Girards and the Eameses became both close colleagues and friends. The Girards soon introduced the Eameses to OKeeffe. While their friendship wasnt as close, since the Eameses lived a state away from OKeeffe in Los Angeles, they also kept up a correspondence, and were known to attend the Girards annual Christmas parties. At the heights of their careers, the personal links between Girard, OKeeffe, and the Eameses informed the work of all four creatives. A new design and a revived prototype The new Eames Wire Chair Low Base and Girard Snake Table both serve as a window into this period of artistic cross-pollination. The chair is inspired by a wire chair originally gifted by Ray Eames to OKeeffe as decor in her Abiquiú home and studio. OKeeffes home and studio are now preserved as museum exhibitions, and for good reason: Her minimalist-yet-aesthetically pleasing and highly curated approach to interior design draws visitors to view her former residence year-round. Suffice it to say, OKeeffe had high standards when it came to outfitting her space. Rays chair surpassed them. [Photo: Mariko Reed for Herman Miller] Georgia loved [the chair] so much that she wrote a thank-you note and actually asked for another one just like it, which is hilariousthat someone sends you a gift, and you’re like, I love it so much, can I have one more? Keith says. But she could do that, obviously. The original chair has a little label on it that Ray hand-drew to Georgia. Instead of making an exact replica of Rays original gift to Eames, Herman Miller decided to create a product that would merge elements of the Eames design and OKeeffes interior decor. The New Mexico Collections wire chair is a classic Eames frame on a low base, an homage to the fairly low ceilings and smaller furniture in OKeeffes home. The chair is upholstered in a bikini style (think two inverted triangles stacked together) with an chre and sienna striped fabric designed by Girard and intended to match with the Abiquiú homes adobe interiors. While the new wire chair is a contemporary design made from archival elements, the Girard Snake Table is a close replica of a prototype made by Girard in the 50s that was never widely produced (though it occasionally pops up on auction sites.) The table features a splayed-leg aluminum base and steel top, printed with a custom illustration of a snake made by Girard. Snake imagery was a preoccupation of both Girards and OKeeffes. OKeeffe was so enamored with the snakes form, in fact, that when an archaeologist fan sent her a preserved skeleton, she had it encased in a bench in her living room. Today, visitors to the OKeeffe house will find the snakes final resting place, as well as an original pillow made by Girard featuring one of his snake drawings. [Photo: Mariko Reed for Herman Miller] This is New Mexico, so snake motifs are really prevalent, Keith says. I think what’s interesting about this is that Girard interpreted that motif in his own wayin a very graphic senseand then [OKeeffe] also took inspiration from the natural world, and had this snake skeleton embedded in the banco in her house. For Keith, the New Mexico Collection truly came together when she was able to see the final products arranged in OKeeffes home, overlooking the New Mexico landscape through sweeping glass windows. I will say, I think we hit it just right, because when we brought in the limited-run products to photograph in [OKeeffes] house, they fit so perfectly, it looks like they were meant to be there, Keith says.
Category:
E-Commerce
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