When Iceland installed Johanna Sigurdardottir as Prime Minister last February, newspapers around the globe printed variations of the same headline: ICELAND APPOINTS WORLD’S FIRST GAY LEADER. Everywhere, that is, except Iceland. The Icelandic media didn’t mention Sigurdardottir’s sexuality for days, and only then to point out that the foreign press had taken an interest in […]
Sometime past 10 p.m., on a dimly lit street north of Bucharest’s Gara de Nord train station, a dozen prostitutes stake their ground in front of an abandoned building. When a van pulls up to the curb, a Roma teenager quickly puts out her cigarette, straightens her miniskirt, steps inside the vehicle and slams the […]
In the aftermath of last year’s BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, Franca Sozzani did more than ruffle feathers. She drenched them in oil. For the August 2010 issue of Vogue Italia, the audacious fashion editor interpreted the crisis by dousing model Kristen McMenamy in crude. Body splayed on a polluted beach, McMenamy gasped […]
As the countess of Highclere Castle, the grand home that is also the set of the lavish Edwardian TV drama Downton Abbey, Fiona Carnarvon needs to demonstrate grace under fire. In the spring, about 120 crew members descend on her 6,000-acre (2,400 hectare) estate. They drag miles of black cables across her lawns, place hot […]
Last May, Ell & Nikki, an obscure duo from Azerbaijan, won the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest. The country’s President, Ilham Aliyev, treated the musical win like a military triumph, describing it as “a victory for the people of Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijani state.” By winning the pan-European singing contest—which, kitschy as it is, unites the […]
Is Grindr Turning You Into a Wanker? Attitude, December 2012
On Nov. 16, 2010, just minutes after the announcement that Prince William would marry his longtime girlfriend Kate Middleton, British Prime Minister David Cameron delivered a statement of congratulations, helicopters circled Buckingham Palace, and news channels were looping footage of the young couple sharing intimate moments at a garden party. The nonstop chatter of royal […]
In November 2006, as ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko lay dying of radioactive poisoning, his wife Marina held a bedside vigil. At first doctors at his London hospital blamed an E. coli infection for Litvinenko’s yellowing skin, sunken eyes and dramatic weight loss. But Marina sensed something more sinister. “We asked many times for them to check […]
When Maria Sharapova sank to her knees on the red clay of the Stade Roland-Garros in Paris on June 9 after winning the French Open singles final, her emotional celebration marked the completion of a long comeback. In 2008 reconstructive shoulder surgery sidelined the Russian prodigy, who had won three Grand Slam titles by the […]
In Patpong, Bangkok’s most notorious red-light district, go-go girls count their livelihood by the number of sex tourists they entertain. “Three inches, three minutes, 3,000 baht ($87),” laughs Goy, a 25-year-old bar girl. Last summer, she and her fellow pole dancers at the Camelot Castle entertained scores of men every night — first in the […]
In 1920s Rhodesia, leopards and snakes roamed the bush. Yet for 6-year-old Doris Lessing, this inhospitable environment offered a welcome refuge from her parents: Alfred, a soldier whose leg had been shattered by shrapnel in World War I, and Emily, a wartime nurse who helped to amputate it. Crouched in a patch of brush, Lessing […]
Blond, statuesque and wearing an elegantly draped megacheck cashmere scarf, Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts looks as if she has just stepped out of a high-end fashion spread. Sitting in her London office, a few blocks from the Houses of Parliament, she dispels any suspicion that she might possess the haughty airs that can accompany such […]
Can Fashion Save the Coliseum? Newsweek, June 10, 2014 Trends may come and go, but for Europe’s most famous fashion houses, philanthropy is always in style. In March, the jewelry and accessory house Bulgari announced it had committed $2 million to help restore the Spanish Steps in Rome. Fendi, the house behind Baguette and Peekaboo handbags, […]
It took 140 years to build up the House of Reeves furniture store, but only a few hours to destroy it. On Aug. 9, the morning after arsonists left the Croydon landmark in ruins, its owner put on a brave face for reporters. “It’s been there since 1867, survived two wars, a depression. Yet the […]
Emma Hill, creative director of British fashion house Mulberry, prefers quirky over austere, and friendly over froid—characteristics that shone through at her London Fashion Week show in February. Inspired by the furry critters of Maurice Sendak’s children’s book Where the Wild Things Are, she dressed her models in fulsome coats made of long-haired Mongolian goat fur […]
The grand dame of British fashion doesn’t do small talk. But I don’t know that when I see her gawking at a 10-ft. high urn of flowers, delivered to a private dinner party to celebrate her runway show at London Fashion Week. “Are you into flowers?” I ask, naively expecting a smile from a woman […]
How you feel about Kim Clijsters doing a split in a frilly orange skirt probably depends on your reaction to a well-oiled Caroline Wozniacki serving a tennis ball into a wind machine. Then again, these provocative scenarios, which form part of the Women’s Tennis Association’s new Strong Is Beautiful advertising campaign, seem tame compared with […]
A Kids’ Singing Contest That’s a Geopolitical Proxy War for Adults. For the handlers of Junior Eurovision contestants, there’s a lot more at stake than music. The Atlantic, December 5, 2012 Nurturing aspiring pop stars requires a lot of patience, especially when Hamas is firing rockets over your border. Daniella Gardosh Santo of the Israeli Broadcasting Authority […]
Wispy and delicate, Charlotte Gainsbourg rushes into the lobby of Paris’ Hotel Montalembert looking like she might collapse under the weight of her enormous fur coat. Seeing two representatives from her record label, she delivers four decidedly froid air-kisses. “No more interviews,” she says, clearly exhausted from the weeks she has spent promoting her new […]
Circus performers can twist themselves into pretzels and somersault through rings of fire, but even they are struggling to jump through new hoops set up by the U.K. immigration authorities. In November, the British Home Office introduced a points-based system to crack down on illegal immigration and create what its website describes as “a significantly […]
For nearly a hundred years, the Hôtel le Bristol and five other so-called Parisian palace hotels — the Crillon, George V, Meurice, Plaza Athénée and Ritz — have seen themselves as the guardians of French tradition and grand service. Their flagship restaurants serve only French haute cuisine, and their historic buildings remain as iconic today […]
On a typical weekend afternoon, Beijing’s Silk Street Market buzzes with the sound of tens of thousands of tourists haggling over antiques, jewelry and knock-off Gucci handbags. Rickshaw drivers normally scoop up these marketgoers, pedal them to their hotels and return with pockets full of foreign currency — a lucrative cycle drivers can repeat dozens […]
When western diplomats seek concessions from Iran, they typically dish out tough rhetoric and threaten sanctions. Neil MacGregor, the cherub-faced director of the British Museum, uses a more refined arsenal: cultural relics and priceless artifacts. In January, MacGregor traveled to Tehran to finalize the loan of treasures from eight of Iran’s best museums. In exchange, […]
Sometime past midnight at London’s Crystal Night Club, the lights dim and the DJ drops a mellow beat. Right on cue, Julia Theresa Heller, a leggy 19-year old, struts across the stage in her bid to become Miss King’s College 2008. “I’m originally from Germany and I love chocolate,” she says to the judges, flashing […]