03/12/2015

Adrien Brody’s Five Favorite Things

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Adrien Brody is best known for having won an Oscar in 2003 for “The Pianist.” But now the 42-year-old Queens native is making his mark in another genre: fine art. This week, as part of Art Basel Miami Beach, Mr. Brody will be showing his first series of paintings at Domingo Zapata’s pop-up gallery at the Lulu Laboratorium. Titled “Hotdogs, Hamburgers and Handguns,” the series, according to Mr. Brody, accounts for pop culture obsessions, including fast food and violence. Below, he shares five of his favorite things.

SWEATSHIRT I wear my Bonds gray hoodie almost every day. I got it as a gift, and it’s lightweight and kind of the perfect fit. It also fits in my nomadic lifestyle right now. I can throw it in my backpack at a moment’s notice.

SHOES A pair of Steve Madden black combat boots were part of my character’s wardrobe on a movie, and I basically took them home with me. They zip up the sides. I’ve bought a second pair since, though, because I like them so much. I’ll wear them with a suit or just with a pair of jeans while hanging out. I’ve worn them even with a tuxedo before. I’m sure some fashion critic has drawn a big red circle around my feet labeling it as a fashion faux pas.

JACKET I’m normally pretty monochromatic. It’s probably because of growing up in New York and just the ease of grabbing something and running out the door. But for some reason my purple Dolce & Gabbana motorcycle jacket works. I’ll layer it with the hoodie when I travel. If you’ve noticed, everything is zip-up. I can undress rapidly!

WATCH I’m a Bulgari ambassador, and I wear the Bulgari Octo watch. I like this particular one because it’s understated and elegant and, again, versatile. Before Bulgari, though, I’ve always loved elegant or well-designed mechanical things. I used to restore muscle cars when I was in high school. Then when I started making money, I bought watches. Some of them are wonderful to just marvel at.

CAP My favorite thing, and this is really the truth, is a “King Kong” baseball hat. It’s been with me since the premiere of “King Kong,” so it’s maybe 10 years old now. We had closed down several theaters in Times Square for the premiere, and there was this guy hawking “King Kong” merchandise. Here I am being ushered down the street and this guy saw me and ran over and gave it to me. It meant so much to me. Now it comes with me everywhere I go. It affords me a little anonymity when I have it on. It’s fallen into a lake when I was boating, and I went back and retrieved it. You could say it’s lived-in.Read more at:one shoulder prom dresses uk

01/12/2015

Kate Middleton's Head Covering Latest Trend in Synagogue Fashion

Prince William and Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, in Ottawa, Canada, July 1, 2011.
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The so-called “Kate Middleton effect” — by which anything the Duchess of Cambridge wears becomes an instant best-seller — seems to know no bounds.

She has graced the covers of countless magazines; entire blogs are devoted to what she wears. And, as it happens, the duchess is the perfect style icon for observant Jewish women.

“She’s modest, demure and modern,” says Adi Heyman, founder of the fashion blog Fabologie.

So it’s perhaps no surprise that one of Middleton’s signature style pieces — the fascinator — has caught on as a head covering in synagogues on this side of the pond.

In case you’re wondering, fascinators are headpieces attached to the head by clip or headband. They’re often ornate and are typically smaller — or at least cover less hair — than hats. And it’s not only the Duchess of Cambridge who’s made them fashionable.

Sarah Jessica Parker also helped popularize the style when she donned one that looked like a garden (with monarch butterflies, to boot) to the London premiere of the “Sex and the City” movie, Lady Gaga’s been spotted in fascinators, and the headwear selections of several guests at Middleton’s 2011 wedding to Prince William set social media abuzz. (Post-wedding, sales of fascinators reportedly climbed 300 percent — so much so that an inevitable backlash is underway.)

But for observant women, fascinators offer a fashionable take on a rule in the Mishnah Berurah — a 19th-century commentary on the Shulchan Aruch, a Jewish code of law — that forbids any blessing or prayers to be said in the presence of a married woman with her hair uncovered.

Today, some fashion-forward Jewish women now wear fascinators in place of a hat or lace doily during services at synagogue.

“It’s always great when Jewish law and fashion can coexist,” says Allison Josephs, the Orthodox founder of the website Jew in the City. “Fashion is one of the ways observant Jewish culture can grab pieces of larger culture, and women don’t have to feel cut off.”

More observant women wear fascinators atop their wigs.

“Women who wear wigs aren’t going to replace one with a fascinator, but they’ll add it,” Josephs adds. “It’s a fun accessory.”

Bella Basaleli, who owns Bella’s Hats and runs hat parties in the New York metropolitan area, says nearly half the headpieces she sells are fascinators.

For women in the more liberal modern Orthodox synagogues, they’re a trendy alternative for those moving away from wearing the more traditional hats.

“A lot of these girls wouldn’t wear anything otherwise,” Basaleli says.

Most of Basaleli’s fascinators cost $40 to $120. She decided to start her business after paying “way too much” for a fascinator for her son’s bar mitzvah at a boutique on Long Island two years ago.

“I wanted headwear that was different than what I would normally wear to shul,” she says. “As it was a special occasion, I decided to wear a fascinator. Fascinators were becoming very trendy at our shul, and it was the first time I had ever bought one.”

Leah Zweihorn wears fascinators to her modern Orthodox synagogue in Queens with some regularity (when she first married, Zweihorn covered her hair all the time; now she only does it at synagogue). At a recent family wedding, she picked a fascinator to match her dress.

“They’re just more fun than hats,” Zweihorn says. “Also, I find it harder to talk to people — especially in a crowded room — with a hat, since it blocks some of my view. But even more significantly, many of them come down over my ears and it’s harder to hear.”

Zweihorn gets plenty of attention when she wears a fascinator, she says, and at shul she tends to opt for larger ones that cover more hair.

“My husband feels strongly about women covering their hair in shul, so I like to wear something a little bit more substantial,” she says.

Indeed, not all synagogues or rabbis agree on the legitimacy of the fascinator as a head covering. Some synagogues in England — where fascinators have enjoyed long-running popularity, even prior to the ‘Kate effect’ — explicitly state the headwear is not permitted.

For example, the website at the Borehamwood and Elstree Synagogue, just outside London, states: “All Jewish married ladies must wear a hat or other head covering (not just a ‘fascinator’) while in the Synagogue.”

But Rabbi Benjamin Skydell of Congregation Orach Chaim, a modern Orthodox synagogue in Manhattan, explains that a fascinator — even one on the smaller side — may be entirely kosher. The passages in the Talmud that deal with the standards of hair covering mention little about how much hair must be covered, he says. There’s even discussion as to whether wearing just a basket on one’s head is enough (remember, women way back when carried baskets).

“A fascinator may very well fit the minimum requirement,” Skydell says.

But the rabbi also recognizes that many women who wear fascinators to synagogue are less concerned about the Talmudic rules and see it more as a fashionable take on a long-held tradition.

“For a lot of modern Orthodox women, it’s a vestige of the past,” he says of these women covering their heads in shul.

For women in Conservative congregations, the emergence of fascinators is a sign of changing times. Johanna Ginsberg, who attends an egalitarian synagogue in New Jersey, says she’s seen them pop up in in recent years. She even held a hat party earlier this year where fascinators were among the pieces for sale.

“Older women in the Conservative community carry more baggage when it comes to head covering,” she says. “They see hats as anti-feminist and prefer to wear kippot,” which were traditionally seen as a necessity for men only, not women.

“But the younger women don’t feel the way because they haven’t had to confront this issue. Many of those women like hats and fascinators because they feel more feminine than the kippah.”

One downside to the look has absolutely nothing to do with modesty.

“It’s potchky,” Zweihorn admits, using the Yiddish expression to mean time-intensive.

Rather than a hat, which can be plopped on your head and fix a bad hair day, a fascinator requires perfect placement.

“I don’t like it to look like I’m wearing a headband, so I need to cover the band with my hair,” she explains. “It takes more time.”

The end result, though, is worth the trouble.

“They’re fun to wear,” Zweihorn says, “and I fully intend on expanding my collection.”Read more at:black prom dresses

28/11/2015

The ‘Kate Middleton effect’ on synagogue fashion

The so-called “Kate Middleton effect” — by which anything the Duchess of Cambridge wears becomes an instant best-seller — seems to know no bounds.

She has graced the covers of countless magazines; entire blogs are devoted to what she wears. And, as it happens, the duchess is the perfect style icon for observant Jewish women.

Sarah Jessica Parker also helped popularize the style when she donned one that looked like a garden (with monarch butterflies, to boot) to the London premiere of the “Sex and the City” movie, Lady Gaga’s been spotted in fascinators, and the headwear selections of several guests at Middleton’s 2011 wedding to Prince William set social media abuzz. (Post-wedding, sales of fascinators reportedly climbed 300 percent — so much so that an inevitable backlash is underway.)

But for observant women, fascinators offer a fashionable take on a rule in the Mishnah Berurah — a 19th-century commentary on the Shulchan Aruch, a Jewish code of law — that forbids any blessing or prayers to be said in the presence of a married woman with her hair uncovered.

Today, some fashion-forward Jewish women now wear fascinators in place of a hat or lace doily during services at synagogue.

“It’s always great when Jewish law and fashion can coexist,” says Allison Josephs, the Orthodox founder of the website Jew in the City. “Fashion is one of the ways observant Jewish culture can grab pieces of larger culture, and women don’t have to feel cut off.”

More observant women wear fascinators atop their wigs.

“Women who wear wigs aren’t going to replace one with a fascinator, but they’ll add it,” Josephs adds. “It’s a fun accessory.”

Bella Basaleli, who owns Bella’s Hats and runs hat parties in the New York metropolitan area, says nearly half the headpieces she sells are fascinators.

For women in the more liberal modern Orthodox synagogues, they’re a trendy alternative for those moving away from wearing the more traditional hats.

“A lot of these girls wouldn’t wear anything otherwise,” Basaleli says.

Most of Basaleli’s fascinators cost $40 to $120. She decided to start her business after paying “way too much” for a fascinator for her son’s bar mitzvah at a boutique on Long Island two years ago.

“I wanted headwear that was different than what I would normally wear to shul,” she says. “As it was a special occasion, I decided to wear a fascinator. Fascinators were becoming very trendy at our shul, and it was the first time I had ever bought one.”

Leah Zweihorn wears fascinators to her modern Orthodox synagogue in Queens with some regularity (when she first married, Zweihorn covered her hair all the time; now she only does it at synagogue). At a recent family wedding, she picked a fascinator to match her dress.

“They’re just more fun than hats,” Zweihorn says. “Also, I find it harder to talk to people — especially in a crowded room — with a hat, since it blocks some of my view. But even more significantly, many of them come down over my ears and it’s harder to hear.”

Zweihorn gets plenty of attention when she wears a fascinator, she says, and at shul she tends to opt for larger ones that cover more hair.

“My husband feels strongly about women covering their hair in shul, so I like to wear something a little bit more substantial,” she says.

Indeed, not all synagogues or rabbis agree on the legitimacy of the fascinator as a head covering. Some synagogues in England — where fascinators have enjoyed long-running popularity, even prior to the ‘Kate effect’ — explicitly state the headwear is not permitted.

For example, the website at the Borehamwood and Elstree Synagogue, just outside London, states: “All Jewish married ladies must wear a hat or other head covering (not just a ‘fascinator’) while in the Synagogue.”

Actress Helen Mirren sports a fascinator at the premiere of the film Trumbo, as part of the London film festival in London, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2015. (Photo by Joel Ryan/Invision/AP)
(Photo:vintage prom dresses uk)

But Rabbi Benjamin Skydell of Congregation Orach Chaim, a modern Orthodox synagogue in Manhattan, explains that a fascinator — even one on the smaller side — may be entirely kosher. The passages in the Talmud that deal with the standards of hair covering mention little about how much hair must be covered, he says. There’s even discussion as to whether wearing just a basket on one’s head is enough (remember, women way back when carried baskets).

“A fascinator may very well fit the minimum requirement,” Skydell says.

But the rabbi also recognizes that many women who wear fascinators to synagogue are less concerned about the Talmudic rules and see it more as a fashionable take on a long-held tradition.

“For a lot of modern Orthodox women, it’s a vestige of the past,” he says of these women covering their heads in shul.

For women in Conservative congregations, the emergence of fascinators is a sign of changing times. Johanna Ginsberg, who attends an egalitarian synagogue in New Jersey, says she’s seen them pop up in in recent years. She even held a hat party earlier this year where fascinators were among the pieces for sale.

“Older women in the Conservative community carry more baggage when it comes to head covering,” she says. “They see hats as anti-feminist and prefer to wear kippot,” which were traditionally seen as a necessity for men only, not women.

“But the younger women don’t feel the way because they haven’t had to confront this issue. Many of those women like hats and fascinators because they feel more feminine than the kippah.”

One downside to the look has absolutely nothing to do with modesty.

“It’s potchky,” Zweihorn admits, using the Yiddish expression to mean time-intensive.

Rather than a hat, which can be plopped on your head and fix a bad hair day, a fascinator requires perfect placement.

“I don’t like it to look like I’m wearing a headband, so I need to cover the band with my hair,” she explains. “It takes more time.”

The end result, though, is worth the trouble.

“They’re fun to wear,” Zweihorn says, “and I fully intend on expanding my collection.”Read more at:mermaid prom dresses uk