Month: January 2025

Marie Adam-Leenaerdt: Create the Surprise

In the heart of Brussels, nestled within a historic 1920s home, Fashion Designer Marie Adam-Leenaerdt is rewriting the narrative of contemporary fashion. Her collections, labeled simply as “Saisons” on her website, carry no name or year, existing in a state of deliberate timelessness. Unlike traditional fashion houses that chase the waves of passing fads, Adam-Leenaerdt’s work is unanchored to the present landscape of trends in fashion’s rapid cycle. 

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Aldis Hodge: Super Hero

When you take one look at Aldis Hodge, one word comes to mind: superhero. With a winning smile and imposing physique, thinking of him donning a cape to fight crime wouldn’t be a stretch of the imagination.

In the latest project from the 38-year-old American film star, this presumption isn’t too far from the truth. Hodge plays the lead “Alex Cross” in Amazon Prime’s new “Cross” series, which premiered on the platform on Nov. 14, 2024. The series is based on the Alex Cross books by James Patterson. Since Along With the Spider – the first book in the series, published in 1993 – the titular character has appeared in 33 separate titles. 

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The Blonds: Glamour, Fashion, Fantasy

In the iconic 2019 music video for “Paparazzi,” wolfish cameramen surround Lady Gaga on her way to the police station–after she killed her boyfriend. For her perp walk, she wears a leather bra set beneath an eye-catching corset made of dozens of extravagant gold and silver chains. 

The look is glamorous, on-the-nose, and over-the-top. It’s classic Gaga and it’s a classic The Blonds creation.

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Alex Idoko: Painting with Fire


Alex Idoko doesn’t wield your average artist toolkit. Instead of paintbrushes, Idoko has blowtorches. Instead of paint tubes, he has cans of gas. And instead of paint? Fire. 

Idoko is a self-taught pyrography artist based in Abuja, Nigeria. Pyrography, or the art of decorating or writing a surface with fire, has been around as long as humans have been making–and taming–fire. But Idoko has revolutionized the field with his self-titled technique called “pyro-fusionism.”

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A Birkin for the ‘Wirkin’ Class

In an August 2001 episode of “Sex and the City,” The fictional character “Samantha Jones” sets her sights on an Hermès Birkin Bag. 

Sure, the bag, named after French actress Jane Birkin, is practical and stylish. But Samantha is most interested in what carrying the world’s most difficult-to-get bag symbolizes: indisputable affluence and belonging to the cultural elite. 

But when she goes to the Hermès store, ready and willing to shell out $4,000 for the bag, Samantha is met with a five-year waiting list.  

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Mike Amiri: Hometown Luxury

Los Angeles, California may not be one of the traditional ‘’big four’’ fashion capitals–New York, Paris, London, and Milan–yet the “City of Stars” has long served as a muse for designers and brands across the globe. Perhaps fashion’s obsession with LA iconography results from its relationship with the Hollywood film industry, or a matter of catering to customers elsewhere eager to emulate their favorite movie stars. Or maybe the city has a magnetic, alluring quality designers often strive–and fail–to truly capture.

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