Bloomsbury

The surprisingly punk fashion of the Bloomsbury set, including Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, September 28, 2023

Scrupulously researched and curated by fashion journalist Charlie Porter, Bring No Clothes: Bloomsbury and Fashion has opened at Charleston’s new spaces at Southover House in Lewes.

Key Points: 
  • Scrupulously researched and curated by fashion journalist Charlie Porter, Bring No Clothes: Bloomsbury and Fashion has opened at Charleston’s new spaces at Southover House in Lewes.
  • The exhibition brings together original garments, paintings, photography and spoken word to explore how the Bloomsbury set continues to inspire fashion more than a century later.
  • Charleston was once the home and studio of the painters Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, and a gathering space for the artists and writers who came to be known as “the Bloomsbury set”, including Virginia Woolf and Lytton Strachey.
  • Photos of Woolf from 1923 from the journal of Lady Ottoline Morrell display more fashion audacity.

Under the influence of Bloomsbury

    • The Bloomsbury group’s distaste for formality helped to set the foundations for how we dress today.
    • The exhibition positions the members of the Bloomsbury group as standing up against the military inheritance of the three-piece suit, cinched waists and constrictive undergarments.
    • These groups paved the way for the revolution in clothing championed by the Bloomsbury set.

The sandal-wearers

    • Her roomy brown corduroy gown, monumentalised in a portrait by Pablo Picasso, must have made an impression on Bell.
    • She purchased a similar dress after she visited her in 1913.
    • Not to mention other radically dressed figures from the era known to the group, like Radclyffe Hall, Annie Besant and Filippo De Pisis.

Olympic star Nadia Comăneci was a Romanian 'hero' who defected to escape her government. What do her surveillance files reveal?

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, August 1, 2023

These quotes, which would sit comfortably in a Le Carre thriller, come from Nadia Comăneci and the Secret Police: A Cold War Escape (2023).

Key Points: 
  • These quotes, which would sit comfortably in a Le Carre thriller, come from Nadia Comăneci and the Secret Police: A Cold War Escape (2023).
  • Translated from Romanian by Alistair Ian Blyth, this book sheds light on state surveillance, lived experience and sport in the Eastern Bloc.

The most famous gymnast in the world

    • Put simply, Comăneci, the first gymnast to be awarded a perfect score of ten in an Olympic event, was, as Olaru points out, “the most famous gymnast in the world”.
    • By the autumn of 1969, Comăneci had enrolled at her local gymnastics centre, where she received formal training.
    • In 1970, she became the youngest gymnast to win at the Romanian Nationals.
    • Comăneci shot to international prominence in 1975 when, at the age of 13, she dominated proceedings at the European Gymnastics Championships.
    • Comăneci’s name and score was on everybody’s lips and immediately started to wend their way around the world.
    • Read more:
      Friday essay: from delicate teens to fierce women, Simone Biles' athleticism and advocacy have changed gymnastics forever

Influential, abusive coaches

    • Béla and Márta Károlyi are two of the most influential and successful coaches in the history of gymnastics.
    • They are also extremely controversial - as viewers of Athlete A will already know.
    • Consider what Olaru has to say about the pair, who feature prominently in every chapter of his book.
    • Only when there was a need to manipulate them did he tell the young gymnasts he cared about them.
    • The depressing conclusion Oralu reaches is that the Romanian authorities chose to ignore the multiple warnings that came their way.

America’s gymnastics community knew

    • It matters because it’s clear the US gymnastics community was well aware of Károlyi’s reputation.
    • Take Joan Ryan’s Little Girls in Pretty Boxes, published in 1995, which exposed the abusive reality of professional gymnastics in the US.
    • USA Gymnastics continued to place its trust - and the bodies of its athletes - in Károlyi’s hands.

GLOBAL CELEBRATIONS BEGIN FOR BACK TO HOGWARTS

Retrieved on: 
Monday, July 31, 2023

Beginning as a fan celebration, Back to Hogwarts is recognised as one of the biggest days in any Harry Potter fan's calendar – marking the moment when students would board the Hogwarts Express on Platform 9 ¾ for adventure at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Key Points: 
  • Beginning as a fan celebration, Back to Hogwarts is recognised as one of the biggest days in any Harry Potter fan's calendar – marking the moment when students would board the Hogwarts Express on Platform 9 ¾ for adventure at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
  • Theatres around the world will be putting on special Harry Potter screenings for Back to Hogwarts.
  • Discovery, said: "Back to Hogwarts is a day cherished by Harry Potter fans of all ages, from all over the world.
  • Join the global community of millions of members following the fun on social and don't forget to sign up to the Harry Potter Fan Club!

'What does journey even mean?': Emily Perkins interrogates our obsession with wellbeing

Retrieved on: 
Sunday, July 16, 2023

The protagonist of Emily Perkins’ Lioness, she is instantly recognisable – and her story will engage readers who like to soak up a good psychological drama.

Key Points: 
  • The protagonist of Emily Perkins’ Lioness, she is instantly recognisable – and her story will engage readers who like to soak up a good psychological drama.
  • It’s the sort of store that promotes “rituals involving candles and incense […] affirmations, cleanses, arranging your desk, changing the cushion covers”.
  • Review: Lioness – Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury) From humble origins, she’s risen to a point where she and financier husband, property developer Trevor, have eyes on a central Sydney location.
  • She toasts her gratitude to Trevor at a Christmas party – to which many of their friends do not show.
  • And indulged, entitled Heathcote, “with his studied loucheness, as if the family money was acceptable as long as he wasted it”.

Flaccid sex and a bohemian siren

    • I am a little dubious about novels that open with a sex scene, flaccid as it is – but soon realised its flaccidity is the point.
    • Trevor is in his seventies and hides his Viagra; Therese is in her fifties and energetically manages her homewares empire.
    • There is something of the unreliable narrator in Therese’s naivety, which at first seems implausible.
    • But Claire, who lives in a downstairs apartment in their block (and tells Therese on the first day they meet of her fantasy sex dream with Trevor) offers a window into a more liberated, more bohemian, more alluring world.
    • While Trevor and Therese talk domestic logistics, each glued to their screens, Claire is a “conversational minefield” who is like a siren to Therese.
    • Therese knows only that Claire used to work on film sets, then in fundraising, and recently lost her job.

Becoming a lioness

    • Therese’s transition from “catalogue model blandness” to, well, a lioness, is the real page-turner.
    • When she speaks or even thinks honestly, from the heart, it feels like relief – for the reader as much as for Therese.
    • There is a lioness tattoo on the abdomen of the mother of Therese’s personal assistant, whose manifesto could be Therese’s:
      I don’t care now what I say.
    • She writes fiercely, lets the dialogue speak for itself and sprinkles the darkness with moments of biting, laugh-out-loud humour.
    • Lioness may be a queasy read – but it’s an intoxicating one.

The Museum at FIT Presents Food & Fashion

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, June 28, 2023

NEW YORK, June 28, 2023 The Museum at FIT (MFIT) presents Food & Fashion , an exciting and timely exhibition that explores the impact of food and food culture on fashion design.

Key Points: 
  • NEW YORK, June 28, 2023 The Museum at FIT (MFIT) presents Food & Fashion , an exciting and timely exhibition that explores the impact of food and food culture on fashion design.
  • The first four sections, presented as intimate tableaus, include "The Fashion Kitchen," "The Market," "The Fast Food Diner," and "The High Fashion Restaurant."
  • "A Feast for the Eyes" delves into how food, fashion, and art have collided in contemporary fashion design.
  • Food & Fashion has been made possible thanks to the generosity of the Couture Council of The Museum at FIT.

Cities are central to our future – they have the power to make, or break, society's advances

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, June 22, 2023

That has all occurred against a backdrop of dramatic technological changes that are fundamentally altering the way we work and relate to one another.

Key Points: 
  • That has all occurred against a backdrop of dramatic technological changes that are fundamentally altering the way we work and relate to one another.
  • First, they are now home to over half of the global population, a share that will rise to two-thirds by 2050.
  • As the book’s subtitle highlights, we need to ensure that we create more inclusive and sustainable cities if all our societies are to thrive.

Cities as seats of populist revolt

    • The wave of populist politics engulfing many countries is often built on anger against cosmopolitan urban elites.
    • These populist revolts against dynamic cities are rooted in real grievances based on stagnating wages and soaring inequality.
    • It is in developing countries where most of the growth in cities and the world’s population is taking place.
    • Overcoming poverty, addressing the Sustainable Development Goals and addressing climate change, pandemics and other threats requires that we find solutions in cities around the world.

Dangers posed for cities in the developing world

    • And many of their cities are giant and overcrowded, with residents too often living in appalling conditions.
    • Appreciating what is happening in the cities of the developing world is essential if poverty is to be overcome.
    • From there, connectivity between the world’s cities, particularly via airports, makes them a catalyst for the global dissemination of deadly diseases.
    • That means that dreadful living conditions in many developing world cities are not only a pressing humanitarian and development issue, but also a matter of global public health.
    • While rich cities such as Miami, Dubai and Amsterdam are threatened, developing world cities such as Mumbai, Jakarta and Lagos are even more vulnerable due to the cost of developing sea walls, drainage systems and other protective measures.

Friday essay: what the migrant workers who made my iPhone taught me about love

Retrieved on: 
Saturday, May 27, 2023

They showed young rural migrant workers in intimate, though not overtly sexual situations: talking quietly, holding hands, kissing, embracing, or simply sitting close to each other with their limbs intertwined.

Key Points: 
  • They showed young rural migrant workers in intimate, though not overtly sexual situations: talking quietly, holding hands, kissing, embracing, or simply sitting close to each other with their limbs intertwined.
  • While some women in the photos wear casual or even sexy clothes, others wear factory uniforms.
  • As a cultural anthropologist who has spent 20 years studying rural migrant workers in China, I was immediately captivated by these images.
  • I wanted to know what rural migrant workers themselves would make of these images and these polarised responses.

The iPhone and iPad workers of Shenzen

    • In addition to these in-depth, one-off interviews, I also invited ten workers – five men and five women – to participate in my research over three years, so I could document the changes in their lives.
    • The main site of my fieldwork was Village Q, a “village within the city” enclave that lies outside Foxconn’s plant.
    • Spicy aromas of food from Hunan, Hubei and Sichuan fill the nostrils, ameliorating homesickness and gratifying the chilli-loving palates of large cohorts of workers from these provinces.
    • It’s all cheap and cheerful, catering exclusively to workers on a wage of around 3,000 yuan (approximately US$440) a month.

‘A very modest dream’

    • They are also in the construction sector, the service and hospitality sector, small businesses, and a wide range of other areas.
    • Chinese cities cannot function smoothly for a single day without rural migrants.
    • The China’s so-called economic miracle simply would not have been possible without the cheap labour they supply.
    • Nongmingong have become part of urban life since the start of the economic reforms of the 1980s.

‘Without betrothal gift, my family would be embarrassed’

    • WJ’s only brother had just gotten married and was expecting a baby, so he was living at home for the moment.
    • And to add the final straw, he may not have been able to afford a betrothal gift, even though the expected betrothal “fee” (caili) from the groom’s family in WJ’s hometown is not high.
    • Furthermore, S’s family could not afford to pay betrothal money – an amount of about 100,000 yuan (more than AUD$20,000) – in WJ’s hometown.
    • The practice of giving “betrothal money” to the bride’s family has survived in China from a much earlier era.
    • People may say that your daughter is so cheap she’s prepared to go without any betrothal money.

‘My daughter doesn’t want to talk to me anymore’

    • After MB married this way and their daughter was born, she and her husband came to work at Foxconn in Shenzhen.
    • At that meeting, MB told me she had not seen her daughter for a couple of years.
    • Social media platforms such as QQ and WeChat were useful to connect with her daughter, but only to a limited extent.
    • But she was sad that her daughter no longer wanted to talk to her.
    • They seldom saw each other in the factory – it was a huge complex and they worked in different departments.
    • Last year, MB told me via WeChat, 11 years since I first spoke to her, that she was finally divorced.

‘You never get ahead by working hard’

    • Younger people, those born in the 1990s, tend to have a more casual approach when it comes to girls.
    • That may not be a problem if you’re loaded with money; your money can talk on your behalf.
    • But what chance do you have if you have no money, you look ordinary, and you don’t know how to talk to girls?
    • Most of the men you see here fit that description, especially those born in the 1980s.
    • That’s why you see so many lonely souls here – starving for love, sexually frustrated, and feeling lost.
    • Younger people, those born in the 1990s, tend to have a more casual approach when it comes to girls.
    • When I first met him in 2015 in Shenzhen, he was working 12 hours a day, six days a week at Foxconn plant, assembling iPhones.
    • Now, he is adamant that “you never get ahead by working hard.”

      Read more:
      Pity China's 'bare branches': unmarried men stuck between tradition and capitalism

Love doesn’t conquer all

    • One key message I got from my conversations with workers is that love does not conquer all, as we are often told.
    • For instance, I talked to both young rural migrants and their educated urban counterparts about how they made decisions about wedding photography.
    • The love lives of the workers are not only personal and individual matters; they are closely related to how the Chinese state governs.
    • Wanning Sun’s new book, Love Troubles: Inequality in China and its Intimate Consequences, is published by Bloomsbury, May 2023.

2023 Indie Book Award Winners Announced

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, May 24, 2023

CHICAGO, May 24, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group (IBPPG) has named the best indie books of 2023.

Key Points: 
  • CHICAGO, May 24, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group (IBPPG) has named the best indie books of 2023.
  • The books are winners of the 2023 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, the largest international book awards program for independent publishers and self-published authors.
  • The Next Generation Indie Book Awards are judged by leaders of the indie book publishing industry, including many with long careers at major publishing houses.
  • According to Catherine Goulet, Founder and Co-Chair of the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, "Like other independent artists, many indie book publishers face challenges that the industry giants don't experience.

Caveat emptor: a new book on the best lines in Latin misses the bigger picture

Retrieved on: 
Monday, April 17, 2023

The mosaic depicts a chained dog accompanied by the Latin words, CAVE CANEM (“beware of the dog”).

Key Points: 
  • The mosaic depicts a chained dog accompanied by the Latin words, CAVE CANEM (“beware of the dog”).
  • Latin is perhaps most familiar today as the language of practical short-cuts (etc, e.g., i.e.)
  • and quotable lines, beloved by creators of school mottos and political speechwriters alike.
  • The Best Latin Lines Ever – Harry Mount and John Davie (Bloomsbury) Mount and Davie take the easy way out.
  • Yet there is no discussion of why Catullus uses such shocking obscenities or of the purposes of sexual invective in Latin.

Glossing over women’s stories

    • This is admittedly, partly the result of the fact that most surviving Latin literature was written by men.
    • One cannot but helped be moved by Perpetua’s account of her separation from her baby, whom she was still breastfeeding.
    • The resonance of these heartfelt words only increases when Perpetua abandons her child, and her life, for her Christian faith.
    • The poetry, panegyric, and pilgrim’s tales of the vibrant world of Late Antiquity are all but absent.

The Museum at FIT Presents "¡Moda Hoy! Latin American and Latinx Fashion Design Today " May 31-November 12, 2023

Retrieved on: 
Monday, March 27, 2023

Latin American and Latinx Fashion Design Today examines the work of 21st-century Latin American and Latinx fashion designers.

Key Points: 
  • Latin American and Latinx Fashion Design Today examines the work of 21st-century Latin American and Latinx fashion designers.
  • A section on Indigenous heritage highlights the influence of native cultures on the Latin American fashion of today.
  • The exhibition is accompanied by a companion book published by Bloomsbury titled Latin American and Latinx Fashion Design Today ¡Moda Hoy!
  • Latin American and Latinx Fashion Design Today is organized by The Museum at FIT's Tanya Melendez-Escalante, senior curator of education and public programs, and Melissa Marra-Alvarez, curator of education and research.