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Interior designer and stylist Jonny Carmack has a fruit room in his Danbury, Connecticut, home. Colorful faux produce bedecks every inch, from the cherry-shaped ceiling fixture to a strawberry side table and a bunch of other juicy gems in decorative forms. He’s part of a trend: Love for fresh fruits and vegetables is showing up not just in the kitchen but in imagery throughout the home. Carmack sees it as fun escapism, and a cause for conversation and celebration. Design experts say it also reflects a cultural embrace of sustainability and an upbeat connection to nature. Theres a certain romance to the farmstand it speaks to the pastoral lifestyle everyones craving these days, says Rachel Hardage Barrett, Country Living magazines editor-in-chief. This gravitation toward produce motifs intersects with spikes in interest around gardening, wellness and antiques. Barrett sees the trend in everything from home decor to apparel. She notes the recent viral trend Tomato Girl Summer; along with the color red, and various iterations of tomatoes, the vibe was one of Mediterranean cafes, beach walks and lazy summer days. Tomato Girl Summer obviously had a good run, but now theres a whole bumper crop of produce to choose from, from cabbage and radishes to strawberries and peaches,” Barrett says. Nostalgia is in play, too Barrett sees a revival in interest around items with cabbages and lettuce, which were common motifs in the 18th and 19th centuries. Cabbageware and lettuce ware enjoyed a revival with the Palm Beach crowd in the 60s, with fans like Jacqueline Kennedy, Bunny Mellon and Frank Sinatra. Now, theyve found a new audience. It ties into the grandmillennial design movement that champions beloved heirlooms,” Barrett says. “Target recently introduced a cabbageware-inspired collection that garnered more than 15 million TikTok posts. Social media has helped drive the fruity décor trend. In 2023, TikTokers went wild over a lemon-shaped ceramic stool at HomeGoods. The piece sold out, but the popularity of tables shaped like citrus wedges continued to grow. This winters interior design, décor and lifestyles shows in Paris and Frankfurt, Germany, sometimes felt more like vibrant produce markets than trade fairs. Booths at Maison et Objet and Ambiente were full of planters festooned with 3D grapes and watermelons; mirrors encircled in peapods or pineapples; tomato-covered cups, glasses and tableware. Lamp shades and tablecloths wore artful imagery of berry baskets and carrot bunches. Cushions burst with juicy prints. Vases were peppered with well, peppers, in clay or papier-mache. Los Angeles-based design editor and author Courtney Porter was at Februarys Ambiente fair in Frankfurt and enjoyed seeing the playful directions that designers were taking the trend. Colors were supersaturated, shapes were exaggerated and cartoonish, she said. And she liked the obvious tie-in to healthy living. Theres an emphasis on sustainable materials and youthfulness with this trend, as well. People are nostalgic for natural abundance, she said. Designers just wanna have fun Carmack, whose social media accounts include @vintageshowpony, says the Fruit Room has been his most popular design project, “and its because of the cartoon references like Dr. Seuss and Animal Crossing. It just makes people happy. A fantastical fruit called the truffula shows up in The Lorax. And fruits in the Animal Crossing video games serve as trade tokens, village builders and currency. Carmack imparts a little personality to his favorite fruits. Cherries are flirty and fun. Strawberries are like their younger sisters, cutesier and sweeter in nature, he says. Cookbook author and food columnist Alyse Whitney has embraced whats sometimes referred to on social media as the Grocery Girl vibe. Her apartments got a wreath made out of metal mushrooms and a ceramic stool that looks like a cut lemon. Then theres all the banana-themed stuff: a platter, salt and pepper shakers, napkin rings. Whitney says shes been drawn to food décor her whole life, collecting fun pieces from discount retailers and thrift stores. But when she moved from New York to Los Angeles, she went to an estate sale. There, I got my first Murano-style glass produce a bell pepper, a peach and a pear. And a small ceramic soup tureen shaped like a head of cauliflower, complete with 3D leaves and a matching plate that looked like its root and greens. Those pieces got her on a full-fledged food collectible mission. Its a trend that spans decorating aesthetics, says Barrett. If your style is more retro or youthful, you can embrace a little kitsch. For a more sophisticated look, opt for fruit motifs in the form of wallcovering or fabric, she says. So, eat it or decorate with it; there are lots of ways to show your love for a favorite veg or fruit. Dressing your home with this aesthetic is an experiment in self-expression that so many people are connecting to, says Carmack, and I love to see it. Kim Cook, Associated Press
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Since her birth 10 years ago, Mackenzie Holmes has rarely called one place home for long. There was the house in Houston owned by her grandmother, Crystal Holmes. Then, after Crystal lost her Southwest Airlines job and the house, there was the trio of apartments in the suburbsand three evictions. Then another rental, and another eviction. Then motels and her uncle’s one-bedroom apartment, where Mackenzie and her grandmother slept on an inflatable mattress. Finally, Crystal Holmes secured a spot in a women’s shelter so the two would no longer have to sleep on the floor. With nearly every move came a new school, a new set of classmates, and new lessons to catch up on. Mackenzie only has one friend shes known longer than a year, and she didn’t receive testing or a diagnosis for dyslexia until this year. She would often miss long stretches of class in between schools. Schoolchildren threatened with eviction are more likely to end up in another district or transfer to another school, often one with less funding, more poverty and lower test scores. They’re more likely to miss school, and those who end up transferring are suspended more often. That’s according to an analysis from the Eviction Lab at Princeton University, published in Sociology of Education, a peer-reviewed journal, and shared exclusively with The Associated Press’ Education Reporting Network. Pairing court filings and student records from the Houston Independent School District, where Mackenzie started kindergarten, researchers identified more than 18,000 times between 2002 and 2016 when students lived in homes threatened with eviction filings. They found students facing eviction were absent more often. Even when they didnt have to change schools, students threatened with eviction missed four more days in the following school year than their peers. In all, researchers counted 13,197 children between 2002 and 2016 whose parents faced an eviction filing. A quarter of those children faced repeated evictions. As eviction rates in Houston continue to worsen, there might be more children like Mackenzie. Falling behind on rentand finding a way to finish the school year Neveah Barahona, a 17-year-old big sister to seven siblings, started kindergarten in Houston but has moved schools half a dozen times. Her mother, Roxanne Abarca, knew moving can be disruptive. So whenever she fell behind on rent and the family was forced to move, she tried to let them finish the school yeareven if it meant driving them great distances. Neveah, a strong student who hopes to join the military, said the moves took a toll. It is kind of draining, meeting new people, meeting new teachers, getting on track with … what they want to teach you and what you used to know, Neveah said. Then there’s finding her way with new classmates. A spate of bullying this year left her despondent until she got counseling. Households with children are about twice as likely to face eviction than those without children, Eviction Lab research has shown. That’s 1.5 million children getting evicted every yearand 1 in 20 children under 5 living in a rental home. Still, much of the discourse focuses on adultsthe landlords and grown-up tenantsrather than the kids caught in the middle, said Peter Hepburn, the study’s lead author. Its worth reminding people that 40% of the people at risk of losing their homes through the eviction process are kids, said Hepburn, a sociology professor at Rutgers University-Newark and associate director at the Eviction Lab. Households often become more vulnerable to eviction because they fall behind when they have children. Only 5% of low-wage earners, who are especially vulnerable to housing instability, have access to paid parental leave. Under a federal law that protects homeless students, districts are supposed to try to keep children in the same school if they lose their housing midyear, providing daily transportation. But children who are evicted don’t always qualify for those services. Even those who do often fall through the cracks, because schools don’t know why children are leaving or where they’re headed. Evicted families navigate invisible school boundaries In the sprawl of Houston, it can be especially challenging for transient students to stay on track. The metropolis bleeds seamlessly from the city limits to unincorporated parts of Harris County, which is divided into 24 other districts. Its easy to leave Houston’s school district without realizing it. And despite the best efforts of parents and caretakers, kids can miss a lot of school in transition. That’s what happened in January, when Mackenzie’s grandmother, then staying in her son’s one-bedroom apartment with her granddaughter, got desperate. Fearful her son would get evicted for having family stay with him, Crystal Holmeswho had no home, no car, and no cellphone servicewalked miles to a women’s shelter. The shelter, where she and Mackenzie now share a room, is in another district’s enrollment zone. She worried about Mackenzie being forced to move schools againthe fifth grader had already missed the first three weeks of the school year, when her grandmother struggled to get her enrolled. Thankfully, the federal law kicked in, and Mackenzie’s school, Thornwood Elementary, now sends a car to fetch her and other students from the shelter. Houston Independent School District did not respond to interview requests. Millicent Brown lives in a public housing project in Houston, alongside an elevated highway so noisy that she had to buy a louder doorbell. She and her daughter, Nova, 5, were forced to move last year when Novas father threatened to hurt Brown. Nova had attended a charter school. But when she moved, the school said it could only bus Nova from her new home if she waited on a street that Brown said was too dangerous. Instead, Nova missed a month of school before enrolling in a nearby public school. Brown grew up bouncing between schools and wants better for Nova. But she may have to move again: The state has plans to widen the highway. It would wipe out her housing projectand Nova’s new school. Nearly three years ago, Neveah and her family settled into a ranch-style home down a country road in Aldine. It’s brightly lit, with four bedrooms and a renovated kitchen. Neveah adopted a neighborhood cat named she named Bella. Her sister Aaliyah painted a portrait of the home that’s displayed in the living room. When we were little, we always kept moving, Aaliyah said. I dont want to move. I already got comfortable here. Then, last year, her mother once again egan to fall behind on rent. Ultimately, Roxanne Abarca received an eviction notice. The mother was lucky. At the courthouse, she met an employee tasked with helping families stay in their homes. The employee connected her with a nonprofit that agreed to pay six months of her rent while Abarca got back on her feet. And she did, working from home as a call operator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But the siblings’ dream of a forever home” may still come to an end. Abarca learned this month the home’s owner hopes to sell to an investor, displacing them once again. ____ The Associated Press education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. Moriah Balingit, AP education writer
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Dōen and Gap are teaming up for a second time following the success of the brands collaboration last year, which went viral on TikTok and sold out within a matter of days. This years collection will focus on California vintage-inspired classics, according to a release, and include some customer favorites from 2024, as well as some new additions, including several menswear pieces. This marks Doens first foray into menswear. The 38-piece collection, launching at 12pm ET on May 2, ranges in price from $34 to $158. Dōens dresses normally start closer to $250, so the opportunity to own one of their iconic styles at a more approachable pricepoint had customers running for the racks last year. The brands this year arent expecting anything different. [Photo: Gap] Our first collection with Dōen set a new bar for how a collaboration can infuse a fresh perspective into Gap essentials, creating covetable pieces that left our customers wanting more, said Mark Breitbard, President and CEO of Gap. California natives Katherine and Margaret Kleveland describe the collection as rooted in Dōens feminine interpretation of iconic Gap styles, but it also expands into both menswear and baby this year, key cohorts of the Gap audience. [Photo: Gap] The sisters collaboration with Gap builds on bestsellers from the collection drop last year, including eyelet maxi dresses in new iterations, with different colorways and mini dress options. The collection is nautical-inspired, with notes of red, white and navy blue running throughout, a difference from the 2024 collab. [Photo: Gap] Gingham and collegiate prep are also making a return as strong features of the new collection via matching sets, sweatshirts featuring a hybrid logo along with DŌENss wordmark, and baseball caps. Another essential aspect of the collection is its denim staples: customers can opt for the oversized denim jacket, new denim trouser shorts, or a sailor mini dress. [Photo: Gap] Alongside these items is the mens Pleated Denim Trousers, one of several pieces designed with men in mind. In addition to the other masculine-inspired and gender-neutral pieceslike the baseball cap and sweatshirts featuring a combined Dōen and Gap logothere are five menswear options. A first for Dōen, the pieces include the Organic Cotton Poplin Big Shirt, the Eyelet Shirt, and the Pocket T-Shirt. The menswear was inspired by customer testimonials, as Dōen buyers husbands, brothers, and boyfriends made Dōens knitwear or jackets their own, Margaret Kleveland told Womens Wear Daily. In the first collaboration with Gap, the sisters watched men adopt the collections popular crewnecks. This year, were expanding the conversation, and continuing to drive brand relevance by reintroducing customer favorites, said Breitbard of the Gap x Dōen collection. We also are giving Dōen a platform to debut mens styles at scale, delivering something fresh and unexpected for both brands communities. The Gap X Dōen collection was produced in factories that participate in RISE, or Reimagining Industry to Support Equality. Founded in 2023 by four members, including Gap, RISEs mission is to empower women workers, embed gender equality in business practice and catalyze systems change. Gap cardmembers will receive early access to the collection online on May 1. If you missed last years Gap x Dōen collection, nows your chance.
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