Celebrities such as Lupita Nyong’o and Emily Blunt sparkled in the heat at Christian Dior’s vivid couture show set in a timeless conservatory in Paris. It was the highlight of Monday’s autumn/winter 2015-16 Paris Fashion Week shows, which also included Schiaparelli.
Fashionistas hold court
Lupita Nyong’o looked ravishing in a short, cherry-red Dior couture dress on Monday, and was at a loss for words on entering Christian Dior’s “The Garden of Earthly Delights” show set inside the Rodin Museum. Guests ventured with trepidation on entering the huge, abstract-painted conservatory garden that featured myriad multicoloured panels – and some even tripped on the giant coloured fruit scattered around the floor.
“It’s really cool,” the actress said, looking around in amazement from her spot next to American Vogue Editor Anna Wintour. “It’s so incredible. I think I need to take a moment.”
Emily Blunt – in a simple, white knee-length Dior dress – was equally amazed.
“This is just extraordinary. This is kind of why I would walk from London to Paris to see this show. I’m so excited,” she said.
The only thing she regretted about her trip was a lack of sufficient planning for France’s soaring temperatures, which have recently hit 40°Celsius.
“I mean, I fry like an egg,” she said. “So I’m feeling like I should have put on more sunscreen. Or a higher factor.”
Dior’s sweltering conservatory decor may well have contributed to the overheating.
A veritable time machine
In a surreal garden setting, Dior designer Raf Simons wove his creative needle in and out through different centuries. That produced an imaginative time-travel of a couture show, which riffed on the styles of the Flemish Masters, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
The large fruit props on the runway conjured up scenes from historic still-life oil paintings.
Long diaphanous column silhouettes in chiffon, like medieval undergarments, floated by elegantly alongside gowns with high-cinched waists and wide, billowing sleeves that mirrored the old Flemish styles. Some bejewelled net gilets were worn on the torso, evoking chainmail in a beautiful touch.
The sense of chic time-travel was further heightened with delicate dots and patterns on the fabrics – designs that evoked the French Impressionists and the technique of Pointillism associated with artists like Georges Seurat.
The coats were the highest point of this strong collection, with one standout: a flame-red coat with beautifully large tubular cuffs.
Theatrical delights at Schiaparelli
Celebrity guests including Meg Ryan were swept away to the glamour of 1930s theatre life at Bertrand Guyon’s debut collection for Elsa Schiaparelli.
And what better a setting than to start exploring the theatricality of the great couturier? Famed for inventing shocking pink and having collaborations with Surrealists like Salvador Dali, Coco Chanel’s hated rival Schiaparelli was one of the greatest and most colourful Parisian designers of the ‘20s and ‘30s. The house was recently revived.
In an impressive recreated theatre, Guyon’s models harked from another era.
Fastidiously embellished 1930s Orientalist satin jackets had softly square shoulders. Silk “jabot” collars and voluminous “Duster” coats wafted by with exaggerated pockets, alongside bejewelled eye, star and keylock decorations.
Guyon even referenced the mania for Grecian looks in Schiaparelli’s heyday in a couple of diaphanous column dresses with flashes of gold.
Not all the theatrical exuberance worked, especially one overly clashing multicoloured mink coat. But Guyon is certainly moving the house in a welcomed, more coherent direction since the departure last year of designer Marco Zanini.
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
more from Janine di Giovanni
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The specs
Engine: Dual 180kW and 300kW front and rear motors
Power: 480kW
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh359,900 ($98,000)
On sale: Now
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Brief scoreline:
Wales 1
James 5'
Slovakia 0
Man of the Match: Dan James (Wales)
Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup – Sep 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.
Zones
A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full
The National Archives, Abu Dhabi
Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.
Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en
