haute couture

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Paris Revealed by Stephen Clarke

clean water, gentrification, haute couture, Honoré de Balzac, rent control, sexual politics, trade route

Soon, the rue de la Paix shop was turning clients away, and its reputation was sealed. In 1868, Worth was instrumental in the creation of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture Parisienne, and as we all know, once a French syndicat (union) gets involved, nothing will ever change again. Which is why all the Parisian haute couture houses, from Chanel to Dior to Yves Saint Laurent and beyond, have followed the same basic model—create a look, imbue it with Parisian exclusivity, and make people worship you. In short, Charles Worth invented not only haute couture but the whole concept of luxury branding, which has been as much a part of Paris’s appeal for the last century as the legs of its Eiffel Tower and those of its can-can dancers.

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8 Food For Parisians, food isn’t only about taste—they also have to squeeze, prod and sniff it to make sure it’s fresh. The problem is, they like doing all these things to the food that other people are about to eat. Includes the best food markets in Paris, and how to spot a good or bad restaurant. 9 Fashion Surprisingly, it was an Englishman who created the concept of Parisian haute couture. And even more surprisingly, the Parisians give him credit for it. But why exactly is Paris la capitale de la mode? A designer explains. 10 Cinema The city’s movie career is stage-managed just as efficiently as that of any Hollywood star, and it has an agent who fights to get Paris’s name up on the big screen as often as possible.

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Its aluminium walls and glass advertising display cases were, half a century ago, the height of avant-garde. These days, the dusty relics are boarded up and ignored by the crowds of commuters. Above ground, things are still trendy—the station’s Line 9 exit takes you to Avenue Montaigne, which is lined with haute couture stores. Porte de Montreuil—at the opposite end of Paris’s social scale, this station is one of the access points for the massive flea market on a Sunday. Ligne 10: Boulogne–Pont de Saint-Cloud–Gare d’Austerlitz A posh people’s line that goes through the Latin Quarter and out into the wilds of the 16th arrondissement, where it is used only by nannies, old ladies and rich schoolkids who haven’t yet been given a Vespa.

Hijacking the Runway: How Celebrities Are Stealing the Spotlight From Fashion Designers by Teri Agins

Donald Trump, East Village, haute couture, new economy, planned obsolescence, Saturday Night Live, Silicon Valley, Skype, Steve Jobs, Suez canal 1869, women in the workforce

Chapter Thirteen • • • • PARIS WHEN IT FIZZLES Lindsay Lohan and “Tragiqueistan” By the mid-2000s, with reality-show personalities elbowing their way onto the front row in New York’s Fashion Week, big-time American celebrities from stage and screen began to flock to Paris for their fashion-show fix, to see and be seen on the front row at Givenchy, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Balenciaga without any desperate Housewives mucking up the photo ops. Four times a year, Serious Fashion People converged in Paris in droves for the women’s ready-to-wear collections and the haute couture shows—still relatively untainted by D-listers. The avant-garde designs and unbridled creativity that were the signature of many French labels still created fashion’s loudest, heard-round-the-world buzz. Mounir Moufarrige, the chief executive officer of the rapidly fading house of Emanuel Ungaro, badly needed some buzz.

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He said the creative process was exhilarating but “full of suffering.” He was as old-school as it gets, having apprenticed for six years under Cristóbal Balenciaga, who everybody in fashion agreed was the most celebrated couturier of the twentieth century. Ungaro had one foot in the ivory tower of elite haute couture—made-to-measure handmade clothes for the world’s richest socialites—with his other foot firmly planted in the commerce that paid the bills: the merchandise Ungaro marketed through licensing contracts with manufacturers. Nearly all of Ungaro’s $280 million in annual revenue came from twenty-five licensees in America and Japan that he had nothing to do with.

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Given Kanye’s penchant for Parisian fashion houses, he was instantly in awe of the erudite, mid-fiftyish Rucci, one of the last modern designers to uphold the refined and restrained couture tradition and beloved by the world’s fashion elite. In 2002, Rucci became the first American since Mainbocher more than sixty years before to be invited by French fashion industry regulators to participate in the haute couture shows in Paris, and he showed there for three seasons to huge accolades. Kanye stopped by that day to get to know Rucci—and to see where that might lead. It was the end of the workday, so Rucci suggested dinner nearby at Mr. Chow in Tribeca. (Kanye contacted his secretary to arrange for the check to be paid in advance, a smooth move that impressed Rucci.)

Cultureshock Paris by Cultureshock Staff

Anton Chekhov, clean water, gentrification, haute couture, haute cuisine, Honoré de Balzac, independent contractor, indoor plumbing, Louis Pasteur, money market fund, PalmPilot, QWERTY keyboard, Skype, telemarketer, urban renewal, young professional

Several stores selling sporting clothes and equipment, including for bicyling. Good prices and service. Go Sport; website: http://www.go-sport.com. Chain of sporting equipment stores. Extensive selection of clothes at reasonable prices. 262 CultureShock! Paris SHOPPING Haute Couture Paris is, of course, the capital of haute couture. Haute couture may affect only a few men and women who can afford thousands of euros for a handmade suit or dress; nonetheless, the fashion industry occupies a prominent position in Paris and the world. Paris has always been known for its couturiers—Dior, Chanel, Givenchy, Hermès, Lanvin and Saint Laurent—but is now also feeling the presence of international designers such as the German Jill Sander, the Italian Giorgio Armani, the Japanese Issey Miyake and the Americans Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein.

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Nonetheless, city life after the war began to shine. Intellectuals once again rose to the forefront—Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and Albert Camus frequented the cafés on the Left Bank, foreign writers again found Paris as their muse and the film industry gained prominence worldwide. Haute cuisine and haute couture rose to their greatest heights and Paris became a tourist Mecca once again. Not even the explosive student unrest of 1968 could dent the reputation of Paris; today Paris is the most visited city in the world. Indeed, over the next several decades of the Fifth Republic (1958– ), under presidents from both the Right and the Left, Paris continued to build, restore and modernise.

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The old mansions are now occupied by embassies and offices, and the Palais de l’Elysée is the official residence of the president of France. Few of the old gems of apartments still exist, so when the corporate types go home for the evening, the side streets are left empty and dull. Contributing both to the commercialisation and elegance of this eastern edge is the Golden Triangle of the haute couture salons of famous French and international designers, high-class shops of other sorts and some of Paris’ finest purveyors of haute cuisine. Nonetheless, people live here and live very well. Around Place François-1er, tucked quietly toward the Seine and farther west at avenue George-V, graceful buildings house a privileged few—primarily older, wealthy Parisians.

Top 10 Brussels, Bruges, Antwerp & Ghent by Antony Mason

Day of the Dead, glass ceiling, haute couture, Mercator projection, walkable city

Jacky Ickx One of the great Formula One racing drivers of the 1960s and 1970s (born 1945). Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker A leading choreographer (born 1960) in the world of contemporary dance. Dries van Noten A celebrated fashion designer (born 1958) who has helped bring Antwerp to the forefront of haute couture. < Top 10 of Everything Festivals and Events Ommegang, Brussels Ommegang, Brussels In Brussels’ most spectacular parade, some 2,000 participants, dressed as Renaissance nobles, guildsmen, mounted soldiers and entertainers, perform an ommegang (tour) in the Grand Place. It’s a tradition said to date back to 1549.

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Biscuits and Pâtisserie It is hard not to drool in front of the ravishing shop windows of Belgian pâtisseries – and the mouth-watering offerings taste as good as they look. An alternative is to buy some of the equally famed biscuits (cookies) – from a specialist like Dandoy. Tapestry Tapestry was one of the great medieval industries of Brussels and Bruges. It is still made on a craft basis, but of course large pieces come at luxury prices. Haute Couture Over the last two decades, Belgium – Antwerp in particular – has shot to the forefront of the fashion world, with designers such as Ann Demeulemeester, Dries van Noten, Raf Simons and Walter Van Bierendonck. Many of the major designers have their own shops in Antwerp (For further details see Shopping around Antwerp), but there are plenty of outlets elsewhere, notably in the Rue Dansaert in Brussels.

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Cogels-Osylei In the late 19th century, this area became a showcase for opulent architecture – extraordinary. Maagdenhuis Quirky museum with some lovely old masters, in an old orphanage. Lange Gasthuisstraat 33 03 223 56 20 Open 10am–5pm Mon, Wed–Fri, 1–5pm Sat–Sun. Closed public hols Adm charge ModeMuseum (MoMu) A museum of haute couture. Nationalestraat 28 03 470 27 70 www.momu.be Open 10am–6pm Tue–Sun Adm charge < Around Brussels, Bruges, Antwerp & Ghent Shopping View map Meir The main shopping street is a broad pedestrianized avenue, fronted largely by high-street chain stores. Pelikaanstraat Wall-to-wall diamond and jewellery shops in the Jewish quarter.

The Runaway Species: How Human Creativity Remakes the World by David Eagleman, Anthony Brandt

active measures, Ada Lovelace, agricultural Revolution, Albert Einstein, Andrew Wiles, Apollo 13, Burning Man, cloud computing, computer age, creative destruction, crowdsourcing, Dava Sobel, deep learning, delayed gratification, Donald Trump, Douglas Hofstadter, en.wikipedia.org, Frank Gehry, Gene Kranz, Google Glasses, Great Leap Forward, haute couture, informal economy, interchangeable parts, Isaac Newton, James Dyson, John Harrison: Longitude, John Markoff, Large Hadron Collider, lone genius, longitudinal study, Menlo Park, microbiome, Netflix Prize, new economy, New Journalism, pets.com, pneumatic tube, QWERTY keyboard, Ray Kurzweil, reversible computing, Richard Feynman, risk tolerance, Scaled Composites, self-driving car, Simon Singh, skeuomorphism, Solyndra, SpaceShipOne, stem cell, Stephen Hawking, Steve Jobs, Stewart Brand, synthetic biology, TED Talk, the scientific method, Watson beat the top human players on Jeopardy!, wikimedia commons, X Prize

., Crusinallo, Italy Toyota FCV plus (No attribution required) Mercedes F 015 (No attribution required) Toyota i-Road Photo by Clément Bucco-Lechat Peugeot Moovie Photo by Brian Clontarf Mercedes Biome car Courtesy of Mercedes Benz Viktor & Rolf haute couture from the Spring-Summer 2016 and Spring-Summer 2015 collections Courtesy of Peter Stigter Pierre Cardin haute couture from the fashion show “Pierre Cardin in Moscow Fashion With Love for Russia.” Fall-Winter 2016/2017 © Strajin | Dreamstime.com – The Fashion Show Pierre Cardin In Moscow Fashion Week With Love For Russia Fall-Winter 2016/2017 Photo Antii Asplund “Heterophobia” haute couture at the Charity Water fashion show at the Salon at Lincoln Center, 2015 © Antonoparin | Dreamstime.com – A Model Walks The Runway During The Charity Water Fashion Predicta television (No attribution necessary) Lowe’s Holoroom Courtesy of Lowe’s Innovation Labs David wearing the NeoSensory Vest Photo by Bret Hartman Skin smoothing laser prototypes Courtesy of Continuum Innovation Office, 1937 (No attribution required) Cubicle farm Ian Collins An office in London Phil Whitehouse RCA advertisement “Radio & Television” (magazine) Vol.

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The goal of a concept car is not to be the next car. Instead, the idea is to focus on a far-reaching possibility. It allows one to refine the next step by examining what lies on the distant horizon – whether or not society ever goes in that direction. The Mercedes-Benz Biome car The same thing happens in haute couture, where fashion is stretched into the future. Haute couture by Pierre Cardin Antii Asplund Viktor Rolf No one is expected to wear this avant-garde clothing – not now, and maybe not ever. But the act of flying far from the hive refines one’s view of the possible. As the artist Philip Guston remarked, “Human consciousness moves but it is not a leap: it is one inch.

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Scott ref1 flag series ref1 Flag (Johns, 1967) ref1 Flag (Johns, 1972) ref1 Flag (Moratorium) (Johns) ref1 Flatlands (1970) (Guston) ref1 Flea Theater (New York) ref1 flexibility ref1, ref2, ref3 cognitive ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4 companies ref1 flight ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6 Floating Heads (Cave) ref1 Foer, Jonathan Safran ref1 Ford, Henry ref1, ref2 Ford Edsel ref1 Ford Motor Company ref1 The Founding Mothers (Eagleman) ref1 frangible masts ref1 Frankenstein (Shelley) ref1 Franklin, Benjamin ref1 Frazier, Bud ref1, ref2 Freckles (spider-goat) ref1 French Art Academy ref1 “funnel of ideas” ref1, ref2 futevolei ref1 future ref1, ref2 car industry ref1 predictions ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5 simulating outcomes ref1 what-ifs ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7 “Future of Parenting” ref1 Gagaku (music) ref1 Gajasimha ref1 Ganesh, Chitra ref1 Gardner, John ref1 Gauguin, Paul ref1, ref2, ref3 GBO Innovation Maker ref1 Gehry, Frank ref1 General Electric ref1 General Mills ref1 General Relativity, Theory of ref1 gene-sequencing ref1 Gertner, Jon ref1 Giacometti, Alberto ref1, ref2, ref3 Gnomeo and Juliet (animated film) ref1 Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von ref1 Google ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6 Google Glass ref1 Google Translate ref1 Gordiner, Jeff ref1 Graham, Martha ref1 The Grasshopper Lies Heavy (The Man in the High Castle) (Dick) ref1 Green, Barrett ref1 Gregorian calendar ref1, ref2 Grendel (Gardner) ref1 Greyhound Bus Lines ref1 Grosse Fuge (Beethoven) ref1, ref2 Groundhog Day (film) ref1, ref2 Guerin, Amy ref1 Guernica (Picasso) ref1 Guston, Philip ref1, ref2 Guy Fawkes ref1 Guys and Dolls (musical) ref1 H-4 “Sea Watch” ref1 habit ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5 Hack Week (Twitter) ref1 hairstyles ref1 Hamlet (Shakespeare) ref1, ref2 Harrison, John ref1 Haute couture ref1, ref2, ref3 Haydn, Joseph ref1 health crisis ref1 hearts, artificial ref1 Heisenberg, Werner ref1 Hellman, Lillian ref1 Hemingway, Ernest ref1, ref2, ref3 Hendrix, Jimi ref1 Hermès ref1, ref2 Hewlett-Packard ref1 high definition (HD) video ref1 high dynamic range (HDR) photography ref1 “Hills Like White Elephants” (short story) (Hemingway) ref1 Hilversum ref1 histories, alternate ref1 history, mining ref1 art ref1 design ref1 literature ref1 music ref1 H.O.

Frommer's Paris 2013 by Kate van Der Boogert

Airbnb, airport security, British Empire, Chuck Templeton: OpenTable:, clean water, eurozone crisis, gentrification, haute couture, Honoré de Balzac, housing crisis, Les Trente Glorieuses, music of the spheres, place-making, retail therapy, starchitect, sustainable-tourism, urban renewal

Neighborhoods in Brief The Right Bank Les Halles, Louvre & Palais Royal (1er & 2e) Home to some of Paris’s most important historical sites, the area around the Louvre and Palais-Royal is one of the most visited (but least residential) parts of the city. Whether you’re strolling through the Jardin des Tuileries or admiring the classic beauty of the place Vendôme, this is one of the most elegant neighborhoods in the city. It’s also one of the most luxurious, with designer boutiques filling the arcades of the Palais-Royal and haute couture lining the sidewalks of the rue St-Honoré. Rue de Rivoli, the main artery running through the 1st arrondissement, is one of the busiest streets in Paris, full of shops, cafes, and restaurants. For a little peace and quiet, head south for a walk along the banks of the Seine or take refuge in the gardens of the Palais-Royal.

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Champs-Élysées & Western Paris (8e, 16e & 17e) One of the most famous avenues in the world, the tree-lined avenue des Champs-Élysées is the embodiment of Parisian grandeur. While strolling along the Champs-Élysées may be something of a disappointment thanks to the fast-food restaurants, overpriced cafes, and chain stores, leading off to the south are avenue George V and avenue Montaigne, home to haute couture boutiques and several of Paris’s most luxurious hotels. The Champs-Élysées continues to be a rallying point for parades and festivities, and there’s a popular Christmas market here in winter. You’ll find similar levels of wealth and grandeur in the 16th arrondissement, which is full of embassies, diplomats, and exclusive residences.

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Known as The Golden Triangle, the Brasserie Lipp, Les Deux Magots, and Café de Flore were frequented by the likes of Hemingway and Picasso in the 1920s, and Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir in the 1950s. However, the neighborhood has lost a lot of its intellectual appeal in the last few decades and nowadays, you’ll find more haute couture (Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton, and more) than highbrow culture. Despite being one of the smaller arrondissements (in terms of both surface area and population) you can find a little of everything in St-Germain. It’s home to two of the city’s most famous churches, Eglise-St-Germain-des-Prés and St-Sulpice, as well as the Institut de France and former mint, the Hôtel des Monnaies.

The Words You Should Know to Sound Smart: 1200 Essential Words Every Sophisticated Person Should Be Able to Use by Bobbi Bly

Albert Einstein, Alistair Cooke, Anton Chekhov, British Empire, Columbine, Donald Trump, George Santayana, haute couture, Honoré de Balzac, Joan Didion, John Nash: game theory, Network effects, placebo effect, Ralph Waldo Emerson, school vouchers, Stephen Hawking, Steve Jobs, three-masted sailing ship

“The HAUGHTY sommelier, with his talismanic tasting cup and sometimes irritating self-assurance, is perceived more as the high priest of some arcane rite than as a dining room functionary paid to help you enjoy the evening.” – Frank J. Prial, former New York Times wine columnist haute couture (OAT-koo-TOOR), noun Highly fashionable clothing on the cutting edge of the latest design fads and trends. “HAUTE COUTURE should be fun, foolish, and almost unwearable.” – Christian Lacroix, French fashion designer haut monde (oh-MAHND), noun High society. “The literary wiseacres prognosticate in many languages, as they have throughout so many centuries, setting the stage for new HAUT MONDE in letters and making up the public’s mind.” – Fannie Hurst, American novelist hearsay (HEER-say), noun Information gathered from another that is not part of one’s direct knowledge.

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“No laws, however STRINGENT, can make the idle industrious, the thriftless provident, or the drunken sober.” – Samuel Smiles, Scottish author and reformer strophe (STROF), noun A stanza containing lines that do not conform to the type, style, or form of the poem in which they appear. Those not wearing haute couture stick out at our gatherings like STROPHES stick out in short poems. stultify (STUHL-tuh-fie), verb To cause to appear foolish or ridiculous. The out-of-date chapeau absolutely STULTIFIED Heather’s otherwise immaculate couture. stygian (STY-gee-an), adjective Eerily quiet, so dark as to be almost pitch black.

Frommer's Irreverent Guide to Las Vegas by Mary Herczog, Jordan S. Simon

Berlin Wall, Bob Geldof, Boeing 747, Carl Icahn, glass ceiling, haute couture, haute cuisine, Maui Hawaii, Murano, Venice glass, Saturday Night Live, young professional

(127) • Thumbs up from the galleries (128) •Rev your motors (129) • For your viewing pleasure (129) • Away from the Strip (130) • Head for the lake (131) • Par for the course (131) • Rockin’ it (134) • Parking it (134) Maps Map 10 Las Vegas Diversions 108 The Index 135 An A to Z list of diversions, with vital statistics 4 CA S I N O S 142 Basic Stuff 144 The Rules & the Odds 145 Gambling terms 146 Getting Comped 147 The Lowdown 148 Friendliest pit staff (148) • Cheekiest waitress costumes (149) • For nickel-and-dimers (150) • Casinos Royale (151) • Most witty theme (151) • Old-style flavor (152) • Over the top (even by Vegas standards) (152) • Don’t live up to their billing (153) • Worth leaving the Strip to see (154) • High-roller havens (155) • Best bets (156) The Index 157 An A to Z list of places to gamble, with vital statistics 5 SHOPPING 162 Basic Stuff 165 Target Zones 165 Bargain Hunting 168 Hours of Business 169 The Lowdown 169 Best for kids (169) • Tackiest tchotchkes (170) • Souvenirs with panache (170) • Campier than thou (171) • For collectors (171) • Books and record deals (172) • Retro-fitting (172) • Haute couture (172) • Clubbier wear (172) • To beautify your home (173) • Forbidden delights (173) Maps Map 11 Las Vegas Shopping Districts 164 The Index 174 An A to Z list of places to shop, with vital statistics 6 NIGHTLIFE 178 Basic Stuff 181 Sources 182 What It Will Cost 182 Liquor Laws & Drinking Hours 183 Drugs 183 The Lowdown 183 Big throbbing dance clubs (183) • Dancing cheek to chic (185) • Ultratrendy ultra-lounges (185) • Best people-watching (186) • Drinks with a theme (186) • Class lounge acts (188) • Tit-illations (188) • Sin is in (190) • See-and-be-scenes (190) • Vintage Vegas (191) • Love shacks (191) • Where to get intimate (192) • Rainbow nights (192) • Wildest decor (193) • Rooms with a view (193) • True brew (194) • Martini madness (194) • Cocktail culture (195) • Country roots (196) • Sports bars (196) • Frat parties (196) • Where locals hang out (197) • Cigars, cigarettes (197) • The piano man (198) • Singing a blues streak (198) • Where to hear local bands (198) Maps Map 12 Map 13 Map 14 Map 15 Las Vegas Nightlife 180 Strip Nightlife 199 Nightlife East of Strip 200 Nightlife West of Strip 201 The Index 202 An A to Z list of nightspots, with vital statistics 7 E N T E R TA I N M E N T 210 Basic Stuff 213 Sources 214 Getting Tickets 215 The Lowdown 216 What money does for the imagination (216) • And the Liberace award goes to (217) • The bare necessities (218) • Where the boys aren’t (219) • Presto!

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The prime class-monger is Steve Wynn, whose swan song as CEO of Mirage Resorts was the surface-exquisite Lake Como–style palazzo Bellagio. Highly refined (at least by Las Vegas standards), it strives to offer the best of the best, or at least the best that money can buy: world-renowned chefs/restaurateurs, haute couture shops, a spa offering no less than eight facials, the ACCOMMODATIONS casino-hotels, emphasis on the casino), seem more expensive on the surface, but have much less in the way of hidden costs—at other properties, you pay extra for health club access and other goodies, which add up fast. While there are still bargains on the Strip itself (especially on weekdays), many people on a budget prefer to stay Downtown, where you can hit 15 casinos in a four-block radius.

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For the ultimate in retro bijoux, scope out Tiffany’s and Gucci’s Via Bellagio neighbor, Fred K. Leighton, renowned for estate and antique jewelry, including items from the Duchess of Windsor’s collection and Art Deco masterpieces from Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels. At Buffalo Exchange you can find funky ’70s stuff like tan suede leisure suits and red platform shoes. Haute couture... The Armani boutique at Via Bellagio displays clothing fetishistically for maximum impact. Hunt down tiny Ice in the Forum Shops for one-of-a-kind delights from the owner’s various international forays— silver, shawls, sweaters, and hand-painted silk and cutvelvet scarves. Also in the Forum Shops you’ll find Shauna Stein, which sells hot looks from Oldham to Valentino, and the over-the-top sequined and beaded bags of Judith Leiber.

The Rough Guide to Toronto by Helen Lovekin, Phil Lee

airport security, British Empire, car-free, glass ceiling, global village, Haight Ashbury, haute couture, haute cuisine, indoor plumbing, Jane Jacobs, joint-stock company, Khyber Pass, Kickstarter, Marshall McLuhan, megacity, place-making, urban renewal, urban sprawl

Vintage clothing for men and women augmented with an eclectic selection of beads, amulets and buttons. The clientele ranges from high-school girls looking for funky prom dresses to fashion-magazine editors looking for cheap chic. The most venerable of the Kensington Market schmatta shops. | Clothing Designer/haute couture Who Lunch, Chanel offers dependable excellence at astronomical prices. I-cii 99 Yorkville Ave, at Bellair St, Uptown T416/925-3380. Subway: Bay. A gallery-like space that displays clothes as if they were sculptures. Regulars really know their stuff and appreciate the selection of Comme des Garcons, Junya Watanabe and Undercover.

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Fashion-forward local houses that have earned widespread success include Damzels in This Dress (Wwww.damzelsinthisdress.com) and House of Spy (Wwww.houseofspy.com), both found in various stores throughout the city, as well as Pink Tartan (Wwww.pinktartan .com), on sale at Holt Renfrew. 197 S HO P S A N D G A L L E R I E S Divine Decadence Originals 136 Cumberland Ave, 2nd floor, at Avenue Rd, Uptown T416/3249759. Subway: Bay (Cumberland exit). With its museum-quality accesories and stunning collection of vintage haute couture (Chanel from the 1930s; Dior from the ’50s; Pucci from the ’60s), it’s no wonder this store is a local favourite. Gadabout 1300 Queen St E, at Leslie St, Downtown T 416/463-1254. Streetcar: Queen (#501). Top-quality vintage, including linens, shoes, hats and jewellery, with an emphasis on items from the 1950s to the ’80s.

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At the very sharp point of cutting edge, this ’tween-to-teen emporium has shoes, clothes and accessories for today’s youth. Arguably the best place in town for items by Paul Frank and Emily the Strange, with recent additions of Dish and Second Company. Stay tuned for future trends. Jacadi 87 Avenue Rd, Uptown T416/923-1717. Subway: Bay. The Toronto branch of the haute couture Parisian chain, this is onestop shopping if you want your child to look like a character from the Madeline books. The clothes are very well made, very bon chic bon genre, and very expensive. Kol Kid 670 Queen St W, at Palmerston Ave, Downtown T416/681-0368. Streetcar: Queen (#501). This collection of clothing, books, toys and children’s accoutrements are almost as much for parents’ nostalgia about childhood as they are for the children themselves.

Lonely Planet Florence & Tuscany by Lonely Planet, Virginia Maxwell, Nicola Williams

Bonfire of the Vanities, call centre, car-free, carbon footprint, centre right, Costa Concordia, G4S, haute couture, Kickstarter, period drama, post-work, retail therapy, Skype, trade route

The work of the Florentine Macchiaioli school (the local equivalent of Impressionism) dominates the collection. Few visitors get as far as the Galleria del Costume MAP GOOGLE MAP ( 8.15am-6.50pm summer, shorter hr rest of yr, closed 1st & last Mon of month), a parade of fashions from the times of Cosimo I to the haute-couture 1990s. Giardino di Boboli GARDEN MAP GOOGLE MAP (Boboli Gardens; Piazza Pitti; adult/reduced/child €7/3.50/free; 8.15am-7pm summer, shorter hr winter) Behind Palazzo Pitti, the Boboli Gardens laid out in the mid-16th century to a design by architect Niccolò Pericoli are a prime example of a formal Tuscan garden and they are lovely to wander.

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Smaller and more manicured than the Boboli, it has all the features of a quintessential Tuscan garden, but not the crowds. Inside the villa, the Museo Roberto Capucci MAP GOOGLE MAP (www.bardinipeyron.it; Giardini Bardini; adult/reduced €8/6; 10am-9pm Wed-Sun Apr-Oct) hosts a collection of Capucci -designed haute couture and temporary exhibitions. A springtime stroll past artificial grottos, an orangery, marble statues and fountains is idyllic. Beds of azaleas, peonies and wisteria bloom in April and May, irises in June. The romantic summer cafe (open from 10am to 6pm April to September), set in a stone loggia overlooking the Florentine skyline, is a wonderful spot for a panino lunch, ice cream or afternoon tea.

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So if you want to shop like a star for a hat by Grevi, this hopelessly romantic boutique is the address. Hats range in price from €30 to unaffordable for many. Vintage di Antonini Alessandra FASHION MAP GOOGLE MAP (Piazza Piero Calamandrei; 3.30-7.30pm Mon, 10.30am-1.15pm & 3.30-7.30pm Tue-Sat) For Real McCoy haute-couture pieces – Chanel handbags, strappy 1970s Dior sandals – look no further than this stylish boutique off via delle Seggiole. Alessandro Gherardeschi FASHION MAP GOOGLE MAP (www.alessandrogherardeschi.com; Via della Vigna Nuova 97r; 10am-7pm Mon-Sat) Distinctive men’s and women’s shirts and blouses, short- and long-sleeved, in dozens of designs – floral, cupcakes, vintage cars, all sorts!

Only Americans Burn in Hell by Jarett Kobek

"hyperreality Baudrillard"~20 OR "Baudrillard hyperreality", AltaVista, coherent worldview, corporate governance, crony capitalism, Donald Trump, East Village, General Magic , ghettoisation, Google Chrome, Great Leap Forward, haute couture, illegal immigration, indoor plumbing, Jeff Bezos, mandelbrot fractal, microdosing, military-industrial complex, MITM: man-in-the-middle, pre–internet, sexual politics, Seymour Hersh, Skype, Snapchat, Steve Bannon, Steve Jobs, Telecommunications Act of 1996

Two practical matters arose. Celia pointed out that their clothes, the haute couture of Fairy Land, were going to attract attention. She cast a spell. Celia wasn’t well versed enough in contemporary American fashion to pick clothes, so she let the magic do the work of a personal stylist. The magic made the women look like recent transplants to Echo Park, which was a traditionally Latino neighborhood that had gentrified into a fashionable enclave of upscale dining and high-level annoyance. The women’s fur-clad haute couture transformed into designer denim, vintage metal T-shirts, Balenciaga sneakers, and Marni handbags.

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At least the genocide simulator of Wonder Woman gave some people at the Vista an opportunity to dress in goofy costumes. And it was those costumes that brought Celia and Rose Byrne to the premiere. The magic bullshit window had chosen well. Celia and Rose Byrne were clothed in Fairy Land’s haute couture, which over the last season had moved into animal pelts. Had they arrived anywhere else in Los Angeles, their outfits would have drawn a lot of attention. At Wonder Woman, they were just making a political statement. They arrived through the magic bullshit faery window, popping dead center into the lobby of the Vista, right in front of the concessions counter.

The Big Book of Words You Should Know: Over 3,000 Words Every Person Should Be Able to Use (And a Few That You Probably Shouldn't) by David Olsen, Michelle Bevilacqua, Justin Cord Hayes

Abraham Maslow, Alan Greenspan, An Inconvenient Truth, deliberate practice, gentrification, haute couture, haute cuisine, jitney, Lao Tzu, place-making, placebo effect, planned obsolescence, plutocrats, Rosa Parks, Upton Sinclair

fin de siecle (fahn-day-say-ECK-luh), adjective This French expression meaning “end of the century” typically refers to the fashions, art, ideas, etc. associated with the end of the nineteenth century, but in general use, the expression describes ideas, art, fashions, etc. considered modern and up-to-date. Martin prides himself on always being aware of FIN DE SIECLE philosophies, especially those that come from Europe. haute couture (OAT kyoo-CHOOR), noun High fashion. Haute couture is the most stylish and influential way of designing clothes at a given time. (Haute couture also refers to articles of clothing currently considered of the highest style.) Unfamiliar with the ways of HAUTE COUTURE, Wendell decided to pass up the fashion show. haute cuisine (oat kwi-ZEEN), noun Gourmet preparation of food. Haute cuisine can also refer to the preparation of meals as an art form.

Lonely Planet Pocket Florence (Travel Guide) by Planet, Lonely, Maxwell, Virginia, Williams, Nicola

G4S, haute couture, Kickstarter, retail therapy, urban planning

The cafe hosts everything from readings and interviews with authors – Florentine, Italian and international – to film screenings, debates, live music and art exhibitions. Its funky interior has vintage chairs and table tops built from recycled window frames. In summer everything spills onto the wonderful brick courtyard. Check upcoming events online. Shopping 21 Vintage di Antonini Alessandra Fashion Offline map Google map For real-McCoy haute-couture pieces – Chanel handbags, strappy 1970s Dior sandals – look no further than this stylish boutique off Via delle Seggiole. (Piazza Piero Calamandrei; 3.30-7.30pm Mon, 10.30am-1.15pm & 3.30-7.30pm Tue-Sat) Scuola del Cuoio GMFIRENZE/ALAMY © 22 Mercato dei Pulci Antiques Offline map Google map While prices are much higher than the name implies (mercato dei pulci means flea market), this outdoor market is nevertheless still worth a gander for patient pickers keen to bring home a piece of Old Tuscany.

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Most are also happy to pay what’s required (usually a considerable amount) to fare la bella figura (cut a fine figure). Fashion Florentines take great pride in their dress and appearance, which is not surprising given that the Italian fashion industry was born here. Guccio Gucci and Salvatore Farragamo got the haute- couture ball rolling in the 1920s, and the first Italian prêt-à-porter show was staged here in 1951. Via de’Tornabuoni and its surrounding streets – especially Via della Vigna Nuova, Via della Spada and Borgo SS Apostoli – are the city’s fashion epicentre, home to upmarket designers from Italy and abroad.

Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming by Anthony Dunne, Fiona Raby

3D printing, Adam Curtis, Anthropocene, augmented reality, autonomous vehicles, behavioural economics, Berlin Wall, Boeing 747, Buckminster Fuller, capitalist realism, Cass Sunstein, computer age, corporate governance, David Attenborough, en.wikipedia.org, Fall of the Berlin Wall, game design, General Motors Futurama, global village, Google X / Alphabet X, haute couture, Herman Kahn, intentional community, life extension, machine readable, Mark Zuckerberg, mouse model, New Urbanism, Peter Eisenman, RAND corporation, Richard Thaler, Ronald Reagan, self-driving car, Silicon Valley, social software, synthetic biology, systems thinking, technoutopianism, Wall-E

In Facestate (2011) Metahaven use the kind of strategic thinking usually applied to commercial corporate identity projects to critique the political implications of blurring boundaries between consumerism and citizenship, especially when social software is embraced by governments in the name of improved transparency and interaction. Metahaven, Facestate, 2011. Photograph by Gene Pittman. Photograph courtesy of Walker Art Center. In fashion it ranges from one-off haute couture pieces for the catwalk to mass-produced diffusion lines for sale in high street shops. In the 1960s, inspired by the space age, designers such as Andre Courreges, Pierre Cardin, and Pacco Rabanne disregarded practicalities to explore ideas about the future using new forms, production processes, and materials.

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Yet designers participate in the generation and maintenance of all sorts of fictions, from feature-heavy electronic devices meeting the imaginary needs of imaginary users, to the creation of fantasy brand worlds referenced through products, their content, and their use. Designers today are expert fictioneers in denial. Although there have always been design speculations (e.g., car shows, future visions, haute couture fashions shows), design has become so absorbed in industry, so familiar with the dreams of industry, that it is almost impossible to dream its own dreams, let alone social ones. We are interested in liberating this story making (not storytelling) potential, this dreammaterializing ability, from purely commercial applications and redirecting it toward more social ends that address the citizen rather than the consumer or perhaps both at the same time.

Fodor's Normandy, Brittany & the Best of the North With Paris by Fodor's

call centre, car-free, carbon tax, flag carrier, glass ceiling, happiness index / gross national happiness, haute couture, haute cuisine, Henri Poincaré, high-speed rail, Kickstarter, Murano, Venice glass, Nelson Mandela, subprime mortgage crisis, urban planning, young professional

Nonvintage Vintage Champagne is named for a specific year, on the premise that the grapes harvested in that year were of extraordinary quality to produce a Champagne by themselves without being blended with wine from other years. Cuvées de Prestige are the finest and most expensive Champagnes that a firm has to offer. What You’ll Pay Champagne relentlessly markets itself as a luxury product—the sippable equivalent of perfume and haute couture—so it’s no surprise that two of the top Champagne brands, Krug and Dom Pérignon, are owned by a luxury goods conglomerate (Louis Vuitton-Moët Hennessy). Sure, at small local producers, or in giant French hypermarkets, you can find a bottle of nonvintage bubbly for $15. But it’s more likely to be nearer $40 and, if you fancy something special—say a bottle of vintage Dom Perignon Rose—be prepared to fork out $350.

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Water is the second highlight here: fountains playing beneath Place du Trocadéro and boat tours along the Seine on a Bateau Mouche. Museums are the third; the area around Trocadéro is full of them. Style is the fourth, and not just because the buildings here are overwhelmingly elegant—but because this is also the center of haute couture, with the top names in fashion all congregated around Avenue Montaigne, only a brief walk from the Champs-Élysées, to the north. Top Attractions from the Eiffel Tower to the Arc de Triomphe Arc de Triomphe. Set on Place Charles-de-Gaulle—known to Parisians as L’Étoile, or the Star (a reference to the streets that fan out from it)—the colossal, 164-foot Arc de Triomphe arch was planned by Napoléon but not finished until 1836, 20 years after the end of his rule.

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If you’re here in the morning, Le Mouffetard Café (No. 116) is a good place to stop for breakfast (for about €8). For one of the best baguettes in Paris detour to the nearby Boulanger de Monge, which includes a scrumptious selection of organic offerings, at 123 rue Monge. Note that most of the shops are closed on Monday. Quick Bites: Cafés all over sell this haute couture brand of ice cream, but the headquarters of Berthillon (31 rue St-Louis-en-l’Ile, Ile St-Louis | 75004 | 01–43–54–31–61) is the place to come for this amazing treat. It features more than 30 flavors that change with the seasons, including scrumptious chocolat au nougat and mouth-puckering cassis (black currant).

Fodor's Dordogne & the Best of Southwest France With Paris by Fodor's Travel Publications Inc.

call centre, carbon tax, flag carrier, glass ceiling, happiness index / gross national happiness, haute couture, haute cuisine, Murano, Venice glass, Nelson Mandela, subprime mortgage crisis, three-masted sailing ship, urban planning, young professional

Water is the second highlight here: fountains playing beneath Place du Trocadéro and boat tours along the Seine on a Bateau Mouche. Museums are the third; the area around Trocadéro is full of them. Style is the fourth, and not just because the buildings here are overwhelmingly elegant—but because this is also the center of haute couture, with the top names in fashion all congregated around Avenue Montaigne, only a brief walk from the Champs-Élysées, to the north. TOP ATTRACTIONS FROM THE EIFFEL TOWER TO THE ARC DE TRIOMPHE Arc de Triomphe. Set on Place Charles-de-Gaulle—known to Parisians as L’Étoile, or the Star (a reference to the streets that fan out from it)—the colossal, 164-foot Arc de Triomphe arch was planned by Napoléon but not finished until 1836, 20 years after the end of his rule.

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If you’re here in the morning, Le Mouffetard Café (No. 116) is a good place to stop for breakfast (for about €8). For one of the best baguettes in Paris detour to the nearby Boulanger de Monge, which includes a scrumptious selection of organic offerings, at 123 rue Monge. Note that most of the shops are closed on Monday. QUICK BITES: Cafés all over sell this haute couture brand of ice cream, but the headquarters of Berthillon (31 rue St-Louis-en-l’Ile,Ile St-Louis | 75004 | 01–43–54–31–61) is the place to come for this amazing treat. It features more than 30 flavors that change with the seasons, including scrumptious chocolat au nougat and mouth-puckering cassis (black currant).

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George V,Champs-Élysées,8e | 01–44–43–00–44 | Station: George V | 6 Galerie Vivienne,Opéra/Grands Boulevards,2e | 75002 | 01–42–86–05–05 | Station: Bourse) first made headlines with his celebrated corset with the ironic i-conic breasts for Madonna, but now sends fashion editors into ecstasy with his sumptuous haute-couture creations. Designer Philippe Starck spun an Alice in Wonderland fantasy for the boutiques, with quilted cream walls and Murano mirrors. GIFTS FOR THE HOME Maison de Baccarat (11 pl. des États-Unis,Trocadéro/Tour Eiffel, 16e | 75016 | 01–40–22–11–00 | Station: Trocadéro) was once the home of Marie-Laure de Noailles, known as the Countess of Bizarre; now it’s a museum and crystal store of the famed manufacturer.

Eyewitness Top 10 Los Angeles by Catherine Gerber

Berlin Wall, centre right, City Beautiful movement, clean water, East Village, Frank Gehry, haute couture, machine readable, Mahatma Gandhi, Ronald Reagan, transcontinental railway

It’s fun peeking at the clothes, home furnishings, beauty products, and exercise gear favored by fashionistas. d Map C3 • Between 7th & 17th Sts, Santa Monica Boulevard £ Robertson Price tags are steep at the boutiques on this ultra-cool twoblock stretch, but you may be browsing next to celebrities such as Cameron Diaz or Jennifer Aniston. Part of the mix are cutting-edge LA designers. d Map L5 • Between 3rd St & Beverly Blvd shopping street (see p114) is a must. All the big names in haute couture have staked out their turf on Rodeo, including Armani, Chanel, Ralph Lauren, and Versace. For better prices, walk one block east to Beverly Drive. Avenue % Melrose Melrose puts the “fun” into “funky” (see p104 & p108). Tattooed 20-somethings pick up vintage clothing, eccentric clubwear, and jewelry in stores between La Brea Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue.

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And stars still come – Elton John celebrated his 55th birthday here in 2002. d Map J4 • 9641 Sunset Blvd • 310-2762251 • www.beverlyhillshotel.com Drive @ Rodeo Rodeo Drive (see p52 & p114) is one of the world’s most famous – and expensive – shopping streets, synonymous with a lifestyle of luxury and fame. Only three blocks long, it is essentially an haute couture runway, with all the major international players represented. Most people alive today have grown up watching television, one of the defining media of the 20th century. This center, housed in a striking building by Getty Center architect Richard Meier, was originally built to collect, preserve, and share nearly 80 years of radio and TV history.

Fodor's Rome: With the Best City Walks and Scenic Day Trips by Fodor's Travel Publications Inc.

call centre, Donald Trump, flag carrier, gentrification, glass ceiling, haute couture, haute cuisine, Honoré de Balzac, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, low cost airline, Mason jar, mega-rich, messenger bag, Murano, Venice glass, retail therapy, starchitect, urban planning, young professional

Cons: rooms are small; no individual climate control or refrigerators in the rooms. | Rooms from: €140 | Via Magenta 15, Termini | 00185 | 06/44363836 | www.yeshotelrome.com | 29 rooms, 1 suite | Breakfast. VENETO, BORGHESE, AND SPAGNA Though the glamorous days of dolce vita, when celebs and paparazzi packed the famed Via Veneto, are long gone, this area still houses haute couture shops—Gucci, Prada, Fendi—and loads of fine restaurants and luxury lodgings. It’s the absolute best place to do some serious shopping, and its dining scene and street caffè make for great people-watching. The American Embassy is here and so is the Hard Rock Café, and it’s convenient to Villa Borghese, the Spanish Steps, and Rome’s Metro stop—Barberini is at the bottom of the uphill-winding (and rather steep) street.

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Rome has been setting fashion trends since the days of the Caesars, so it’s little wonder that this is the city that gave us the Gucci “moccasin” loafer, the Fendi bag, and the Valentino dress Jackie O wore when she became Mrs. Onassis. While the famous double-Gs can now be found in boutiques around the world, the mother store is right here on Via Condotti, a “shopping mall” lined with Bulgari diamonds and Pratesi linens. A stroll along this concentrated corridor is as great for people-watching as it is for Italian haute couture and prêt-à-porter. The shops can be as intimidating as they are strikingly beautiful, but plastic is the universal equalizer so go ahead and indulge your inner celebrity. BEST TIME TO GO Visitors with a sumptuous sense of bella figura will want to time their retail therapy for just after lunch Tuesday through Friday afternoons or during the evening passeggiata when Via Condotti becomes one gigantic catwalk.

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Designer and owner Patriza Pieroni creates many of the pieces on display, all cleverly cut and decidedly captivating. | Via del Pellegrino 172 | 00186 | 06/6880242 | www.patriziapieroni.it. Le Tartarughe. Designer Susanna Liso, a Rome native, adds suggestive elements of playful experimentation to her haute couture and ready-to-wear lines, which are much loved by Rome’s aristocracy and intelligentsia. With intense and enveloping designs, she mixes raw silks or cashmere and fine merino wool together to form captivating garments that are a mix of seduction and linear form. Le Tartarughe can be found at two locations close to the Pantheon. | Via Piè di Marmo 17 | 00186 | 06/6792240 | www.letartarughe.eu.

Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else by Chrystia Freeland

"World Economic Forum" Davos, activist fund / activist shareholder / activist investor, Alan Greenspan, Albert Einstein, algorithmic trading, assortative mating, banking crisis, barriers to entry, Basel III, battle of ideas, Bear Stearns, behavioural economics, Bernie Madoff, Big bang: deregulation of the City of London, Black Monday: stock market crash in 1987, Black Swan, Boris Johnson, Branko Milanovic, Bretton Woods, BRICs, Bullingdon Club, business climate, call centre, carried interest, Cass Sunstein, Clayton Christensen, collapse of Lehman Brothers, commoditize, conceptual framework, corporate governance, creative destruction, credit crunch, Credit Default Swap, crony capitalism, Deng Xiaoping, disruptive innovation, don't be evil, double helix, energy security, estate planning, experimental subject, financial deregulation, financial engineering, financial innovation, Flash crash, Ford Model T, Frank Gehry, Gini coefficient, Glass-Steagall Act, global village, Goldman Sachs: Vampire Squid, Gordon Gekko, Guggenheim Bilbao, haute couture, high net worth, income inequality, invention of the steam engine, job automation, John Markoff, joint-stock company, Joseph Schumpeter, knowledge economy, knowledge worker, liberation theology, light touch regulation, linear programming, London Whale, low skilled workers, manufacturing employment, Mark Zuckerberg, Martin Wolf, Max Levchin, Mikhail Gorbachev, Moneyball by Michael Lewis explains big data, NetJets, new economy, Occupy movement, open economy, Peter Thiel, place-making, plutocrats, Plutonomy: Buying Luxury, Explaining Global Imbalances, postindustrial economy, Potemkin village, profit motive, public intellectual, purchasing power parity, race to the bottom, rent-seeking, Rod Stewart played at Stephen Schwarzman birthday party, Ronald Reagan, self-driving car, seminal paper, Sheryl Sandberg, short selling, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley billionaire, Silicon Valley startup, Simon Kuznets, sovereign wealth fund, starchitect, stem cell, Steve Jobs, TED Talk, the long tail, the new new thing, The Spirit Level, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, Tony Hsieh, too big to fail, trade route, trickle-down economics, Tyler Cowen: Great Stagnation, wage slave, Washington Consensus, winner-take-all economy, zero-sum game

Worth persuaded his initially hesitant employers to back his idea, and they opened a small dressmaking department. It became increasingly profitable, and Worth was made a partner in the firm. That success emboldened him to set up his own venture in 1858, financed by Otto Gustav Bobergh, a Swedish investor. Before long Worth had created a new superstar profession—haute couture—and become its first practitioner. Worth sewed his label into his dresses. Rather than sewing clothes created by his clients, he invented modern fashion design by presenting his own styles four times a year, then custom producing them for his clients. Worth was an avid adopter of technology. The first reliable sewing machine was patented in Boston by Isaac Singer in 1851, seven years before Worth opened his dressmaking shop, and his seamstresses used sewing machines wherever that was quicker and more efficient than stitching by hand.

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Billington’s earnings were limited by the number of people who could hear her perform in person, the six thousand to seven thousand gowns the House of Worth produced a year were each tailored to the body of a specific client. — But just as Charlie Chaplin’s superstardom dwarfed Elizabeth Billington’s since he could perform for the masses, fashion designers became exponentially richer when they expanded from the haute couture business to prêt-à-porter. That revolution happened in 1966, when Yves Saint Laurent opened his first Rive Gauche ready-to-wear store on the rue de Tournon in the sixth arrondissement of Paris, less than two miles away from the original home of Worth and Bobergh, where Charles Worth had gone into business just over a century earlier.

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Emanuel Ungaro wrote that the opening of Rive Gauche saddened him greatly. Pierre Cardin, who had experimented with, then abandoned his own foray into, ready-to-wear a year earlier, warned that by leveling and standardizing, we are going to fabricate a world where “we will die of boredom.” Before long, however, it became clear that by producing both an haute couture line and a prêt-à-porter line—offering very costly personal service to the super-rich, and using technology to scale their talent—the fashion designers at the very height of their profession could benefit from both Marshall and Rosen effects. In 1975, Yves Saint Laurent earned $25 million, a hundred times what Charles Worth earned at the peak of his career (when taking inflation into account).

The Cloudspotter's Guide by Gavin Pretor-Pinney

Albert Einstein, haute couture, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Isaac Newton, Lao Tzu, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Seymour Hersh

It is not uncommon for a plate to develop at both ends of the central shaft, so that it now looks as if the clumsy seamstress has dropped her spools, as well as her needles. The glittering secrets of ice-cloud fashion: from the finest ‘ice needles’ to the spool-shaped ‘capped columns’; from the classic haute couture of ‘stellar dendrites’ to the more street look of ‘rime’ deposits. The speed at which a cloud’s crystals grow depends on the temperature and humidity of the surrounding air, and appears to be the crucial factor in determining their shape. The faster they grow, the more complex and intricate their forms.

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No wonder, then, that snow is often in the form of a tangle of individual crystals, generally referred to as ‘snowflakes’. The shape of crystals becomes less regular as they fall through clouds of liquid droplets, which tend to freeze on to them as ‘rime’, roughening their sides or making them fur up, like the element of a kettle. It is more of a street look, compared with the timeless haute couture of elevated, pure crystals. Despite the stunning range of crystal forms, there is one theme that keeps appearing season after season –the number six. The arms of the stellar dendrites and the sectored plates, the edges of the hexagonal plates, the sides of the columns…when it comes to ice crystals, six, rather than three, is the magic number.

Worn: A People's History of Clothing by Sofi Thanhauser

Airbnb, back-to-the-land, big-box store, business process, business process outsourcing, call centre, Caribbean Basin Initiative, colonial rule, Community Supported Agriculture, corporate social responsibility, cotton gin, COVID-19, deindustrialization, Deng Xiaoping, Dmitri Mendeleev, Donald Trump, export processing zone, facts on the ground, flying shuttle, global supply chain, Great Leap Forward, haute couture, Honoré de Balzac, indoor plumbing, invention of the sewing machine, invisible hand, microplastics / micro fibres, moral panic, North Ronaldsay sheep, off-the-grid, operation paperclip, out of africa, QR code, Rana Plaza, Ronald Reagan, sheep dike, smart cities, special economic zone, strikebreaker, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, trade liberalization, trade route, transatlantic slave trade, Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, union organizing, upwardly mobile, Whole Earth Catalog, women in the workforce

DuPont was at the vanguard of this surge, boasting the largest marketing program in the fiber industry. To give their products a high-fashion sheen, DuPont set out to win the imprimatur of Parisian designers. Beginning in the early 1950s, DuPont established a mutually beneficial relationship with France’s Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, a trade organization for elite designers. French dressmakers would integrate synthetic fibers into their Paris collections, and in return DuPont would buy models of the couture originals, hire famous photographers to take pictures of them, and create enormous amounts of publicity. In 1952, the French designer Christian Dior traveled to Delaware to meet DuPont managers, study new synthetics, and tour laboratories.

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Givenchy, who got his start as a boutique designer for the avant-garde couturière Elsa Schiaparelli, borrowed the idea of “separates” from American sportswear and introduced it into evening wear. If Dior linked DuPont to high society, Givenchy’s inclusion of Orlon acrylic in its February 1954 collection worked to link the brand to younger consumers. To the female consumer in the U.S. the message was clear: if DuPont’s synthetics were good enough for haute couture, they were good enough for her. During the mid-1950s, polymer chemists created Lycra spandex prototypes, and in 1964 DuPont inaugurated the Stretch Corps, a group of 120 men and women who traveled around the country to promote the fiber. The Stretch Corps visited stores and interacted with shoppers to show the salesclerks how to explain Lycra’s features, dressed in uniforms made from blended fabrics of cotton, Dacron, and Lycra.

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., 165, 166, 169 bedsheets, 22–23, 24 Beguay, Mary, 282–83 Belt and Road Initiative, 95–96 Bemberg Corporation, 162, 162n Bequelin, Nicholas, 91 Berkeley, Busby, 144 Beyoncé, 133 Bien Hoa Industrial Zone, 197–98, 208n Biosyn-Vegetabil-Wurst, 154, 181 Birth of a Nation, The (Griffith), 56 Blacks attacks in Texas against, 54–56 as slaves and sharecroppers, 46–47 in unions in 1920s, 169 women in nineteenth century, 29 Black Thunder Mine, 228–29, 230 Blanc, Paul David, 160 Bland, Simon, 262–64 blankets, wool, 266–67, 271, 273, 277, 282 bleaching of linen, 25 Blinken, Antony, 94 boarding schools for Navajo children, 269–70, 285 boll weevils, 45 Bosque Redondo, 274–75, 276, 281 Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, 158–59 Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Le (Molière), 118–19, 121 Boursault, Edme, 125 Bowing, Emily, 180–81 Braasch, Gary, 228 Bramwell feeder, carding with, 235 brands, U.S. clothing Asian production of, 197–201, 204, 205–6, 207, 220–21 Caribbean and Central American production of, 203–8, 212, 214 and designer labels, 133, 134, 140–43, 145–48, 190, 206 exploitative complicity by, 92–96, 196, 203–4, 206, 207–8, 216–21 fast fashion, 218 global sourcing by, 218–22 with polluting microfibers, 217–18 Bray, Francesca, 110 Bread and Roses Strike, 162–63 breeds of sheep, see sheep, breeds of British East India Company, 59, 60–61, 69, 88, 114, 118 British islands, sheep in, 250, 251–57, 261–62, 264, 292–93 brocade weave, 108–9, 113, 116 Brownson, Orestes Augustus, 20–21 Bryn Mawr College, 171 Bt cotton, 54, 70–71, 72 Bucyrus 257 WS Dragline, 230, 237 Burch, Tory, 200 Burns, Robert Homer, 227 byssus (sea silk), 299–300 C Canahuati, Juan, 212 capitalism agriculture of, 11, 254–56 and clothing design, 142–44 consumerism and, 139–40, 145–46 carbon disulfide as chemical weapon, 181 discovery and first uses of, 157–58 inadequate worker protection against, 156–57, 161, 172n, 173, 173n, 182 in rayon production, 156–57, 160–61 in rubber production, 157–60 scientific research on dangers of, 157–58, 158–59, 160, 170–73 symptoms of exposure to, 156–58, 160–61, 170–73, 180–82 carbon emissions, xii, 231, 237 carbon sequestration, 250–51, 264 carding wool, 233, 235, 284 career wear, 194 Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI), 204–7, 218–19 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace report, 214 Carothers, Wallace Hume, 183 Carson, Christopher “Kit,” 274 Carter, Jimmy, 227–28 Cartwright, Edmund, 62 catalogs, shopping from, 138, 248 Cattlemart building (Woolfest), 259 Çayönü, Turkey, 7 Central America, 205, 207, 211–12 see also Honduras Central Asia, 82–86 Chacon, Raven, 275 Chambers, Lucinda, 146 Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, 190 Chari, Sharad, 79 Chayes, Sarah, 214 Cherokee removal, 45–46 Cherry Valley, N.Y., 247 children’s clothing, 129 China American denim in, 242 as communist threat, 185 cotton production in, 44, 83, 89–91, 92–96 designer knockoffs in, 147 forced labor of Uyghurs in, 92–96 rayon production in, 182 silk production in, 102–4, 105, 115 (see also silk fabric, Chinese) surveillance of citizens in, 92 see also Xinjiang China National Silk Museum, 113 chinoiserie, 117–18 Chiquola Mill, 177–80 Choloma, Honduras, 208–9, 212, 215, 216 Chrisman-Campbell, Kimberly, 121 Civil War, U.S., 46, 63, 85, 114 cleanliness, linen and, 24–26 climate change, 87, 229, 230–31, 237 Clinton, Bill, 208 Clinton, Hillary Rodham, 212–13 cloth in archeological records, xv, 5–8, 99–100, 252–53 cutting vs. stitching, 127 fibers for (see fibers) homemade, 9–10, 14, 58, 65–66, 85, 268, 295 making (see fiber production, revival of small-scale; textile production, factories for; weavers; weaving) metaphors related to, 295 as necessary for clothing, xiv reading, 293–94 storytelling and, 257–59, 288–89, 290–91, 292–94 clothing colonial control with, 269–70 colors, significance of, 192 consequences of manufacturing of (see environmental degradation; exploitation, labor) decline of durability of, x, 245 declining prices of, x–xi, 219, 245 diversity vs. uniformity of, xi–xii, 142–44 of early humans, 5–8, 229–30 of fictional utopias, 299 making (see garment industry; sewing) mass production of (see ready-to-wear clothing) of Navajo, 269–70, 277 political implications of, 143–45 solutions, small opportunities as, 295–300 U.S. retailers of (see brands, U.S. clothing) writing and, 297–98 coal, textiles and, 228–29, 230–31 Cockermouth, Cumbria, 251, 259 cocoons, silkworm, 102–3, 104, 105, 112 Cohn, Adele, 171 Coimbatore, India, 67–68, 74, 77 Coimbatore Spinning and Weaving Mills, 67–68, 74, 77 Colbert, Jean-Baptiste, 120–23 colonization of Central Asia by Russia, 84–86 cotton cloth and slave trade in, 40, 60 of India by Britain, 59, 60–66 of Navajo in U.S., 269–70, 273–74 of Xinjiang by China’s XPCC, 88, 91 “Color Riot: How Color Changed Navajo Textiles” (Heard Museum), 275–76 colors clothing, significance of, 192 in Navajo weaving, 271, 274–75, 280, 281, 282–83 see also dyeing, fabric communism clothing design and, 142–44 vs. consumerism, 139–40 perceived threat of, 185–87, 204 Cone Mills (Greensboro), 239, 242–44 cordage, 6–7 corduroy, cheapening of, 244–45 “Corporate Responsibility Code,” 220–21 corporations, U.S. and transnational, xii, 155–56, 198–99, 203–4, 210, 220–21 corsets, 30 cotton agriculture overview of, xv, 87 description of, 43 for earliest Navajo weavings, 273 as subsistence crop, 58 cotton gins, 18, 45, 56–57, 62, 72–73 cotton in India, 44, 58–80 at auction, 69, 71–72 British control of, 59, 60–65 chemicals used on, 70, 71 dyeing industry for, 77–78 ginning of, 72–73 home rule and, 65–66 industrialization of, 66–68, 73–74, 76–77 knitwear from, 74, 77–80 labor exploitation in, 63–64n, 63–65, 70–72 pre-1900s trading of, 58–61, 63–64n, 63–65 seed varieties for, 69–71, 72, 300 small-scale spinning of, 300 spinning mills for, 74, 75–77 water shortages and, 69–70, 72, 74–75, 80–81 cotton production in China (Xinjiang), 44, 83, 89–91, 92–96 environmental degradation from, 45–46, 48–49, 63, 78, 86–87, 89, 90, 94 first New England mills for, 18–19 global rates of, 44, 93, 188, 188n in India (see cotton in India) in Japan, post–WWII, 185 with labor by government force, 63–64n, 63–65, 85–86, 89, 92–96 in Russia/Soviet Union, 84–86 in Southern U.S., 46, 62–63, 85, 114 subsidies in U.S. for, 54, 185 U.S. trade policies for, post–WWII, 185–86, 188 water demands of, 87 cotton production in Texas, 44–56 Bt cottonseed for, 54 chemicals used in, 44, 48, 50–54 environmental degradation from, 45–46, 48–49 and ginning, 56–57 harvesting in, 43–45 labor exploitation in, 45–47, 52–53 origins of, 45–46 overseas markets for, 216 racism in, 47, 54–56 subsidies for, 54 cotton strippers, 43–44, 45 coverture, 27, 27n crafts, fiber communal nature of, 260, 268 in guilds vs. home production, 9–10 health benefits of, 267–68 humane infrastructure for, 295 internet presence of, 234 revival of, 232–34, 248, 259–60 Crompton and Knowles looms, 238, 246, 247, 249 Cumbria, England, 250, 251, 254, 256, 262–64 D Dacrons, 189, 190, 191 Davis, Edward Everett, 47 Davis, Lanny, 212 Davis, Luke, 240–41 debt, cotton farmers and, 46, 70–72, 85 Delaware Rayon, 180–81 Delpech, Auguste, 157–58 denimheads, 237–42 denim revival, 237–43 department stores, 137–38, 218 Derbyshire, England, 11, 62 designer knockoffs, 146–47 designer labels, 134, 140–43, 145–48, 190, 206 designers, 141–43, 190, 192, 197, 199, 206 Dhaka, Bangladesh, xvii, 220–21 d’Harnoncourt, René, 277 Dior, Christian, 141, 190, 207 disasters, factory, xvii, 175, 176, 220–21 domestication of sheep, 229–30 domestic code for women, 28, 29 Donghua University (Shanghai), 116 double knits (flat knits), 192 Draper looms, 238, 239, 242 drawers (knickers), 23–24, 39 Dumptique, ix–x duopoly market, 155–56 DuPont marketing by, 189–90 nylon creation and production at, 183, 189 rayon production by, 156, 173n, 189 synthetic fibers by, 189, 193 dyeing, fabric with aniline, 191–92, 275 in China, 113 in India, 77–78 Japanese indigo for, 239 in Navajo weaving, 271, 274–75, 282–83 with synthetics, 191–92 E East India Company, 59, 60–61, 69, 88, 114, 118 Eastland Bill (1948), 185 East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), 91 Egypt, Ancient, 7, 7n, 8 electricity, 67, 74, 76, 103, 230–31 Elizabethton, Tenn., 161–64 El Salvador, 207, 210 embroidery, 111, 257 enclosure, resistance to, 11, 254 Enclosure Acts (England), 11 endangered breeds of sheep, 236, 250, 257, 261–63, 264 endosulfan, 71 Engels, Friedrich, 29 England control of Indian cotton by, 59, 60–65 effect of factories in, 64 history of sheep in, 252–54, 256 environmental degradation of carbon emissions, xii, 231, 237 from cotton production, 45–46, 48–49, 63, 78, 86–87, 89, 90, 94 from dyeing fabric, 191–92 effects on silk production, 104–6, 113, 114–15 from microfibers, 217–18 from rayon production, 168 see also water Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 51–52 EPZs, see export processing zones Erskine, Lillian, 172 Erskine-Hamilton study (1938), 172 ethephon, 44 ethics debates about, 291–92 U.S. silence on, xvii, 220–21 ETIM (East Turkestan Islamic Movement), 91 Europe Asian influence in, 117–18, 145 corporate accountability in, xvii, 220–21 fashion in, 120, 122 history of cotton in, 59–63, 81 history of linen in, xv, 8–9, 14, 25, 59 history of wool in, 252–56 rayon production in, 154, 160, 162 see also specific countries European Age of Reason, 10–11 Ewen, Stuart, 39, 139 exhibitions of Navajo weaving, 275–76, 277–78 exploitation, labor in cotton production, 45–47, 52–53, 63–64n, 63–65, 70–72, 85–86, 92–96 in garment industry, xv–xvi, xvii, 92–96, 173–75, 187–88, 196, 200, 203–8, 210–17, 219–21, 293 lack of accountability for, 220–21 persistence of, 293 in rayon and rubber production, 154, 156–61, 170–73, 180–82 of seamstresses, 30–31, 34, 37–38, 136, 196, 293 in sheep industry, 231–32, 254–55 in textile factories, 17–18, 20–21, 28–30, 73–74, 75, 76–77, 162, 162n, 166–69, 167n, 186 export processing zones (EPZs) Caribbean Basin Initiative, 204–7, 218–19 company contracts with, 198–99 description of, 197–98, 208–9 as extraction zones, 214 in Honduras, 202, 203–6, 207–16 local infrastructure and, 205 local manufacturing in, 206–7 poverty surrounding, 209–10, 214 F Fables d’Esope, Les (Boursault), 125 fabric, see cloth; fibers factories, see garment industry; textile production, factories for fakes, designer, 146–47 family, bourgeois ideal for, 28 farming, see agriculture fashion designers, 141–43, 190, 192, 197, 199, 206 origins and seasons of, 121, 125 Paris and, 122, 132–33 publications, 121–22, 125–26, 146 see also France, prerevolutionary fashion in Fashion Garments Limited, 197, 198–99 Fashion Institute of Technology, 296–97 fashion plates, 122 fast fashion, xii–xiii, 218 Federici, Silvia, 11 feminists, industrial vs. neoliberal, 173–74, 200 fertilizer, wool for, 263 fiber crafts, see crafts, fiber fiber production, revival of small-scale by denimheads, 237–43 mechanized, 232–33, 234–37, 243–49 wool for, xvi, 232–33, 234–37 (see also Woolfest) fibers from animals, xiv, 5, 230 (see also silk fabric; wool) petroleum-based, xiv, xv, 183, 188–94 (see also synthetic fabrics) from plants, xiv, 6–7, 230 (see also cotton; linen) see also rayon Fibershed, 268 filatures, silk, 102–4, 105, 114–15 Fingerlakes Woolen Mill, 232–33, 234–37 fisheries, collapse of, 86 flax in archeological records, 6 domestication of, 7 for linen, 3–4 in preindustrial Europe, 8 in preindustrial New England, 12 tow cloth from, 12 Flügel, J.

Branded Beauty by Mark Tungate

augmented reality, Berlin Wall, call centre, corporate social responsibility, double helix, East Village, Fall of the Berlin Wall, Frank Gehry, haute couture, independent contractor, invention of the printing press, joint-stock company, liberal capitalism, placebo effect, Ray Kurzweil, Silicon Valley, stem cell

Chanel’s global CEO, Maureen Chiquet, said in a statement: ‘His larger-than-life personality, immense talents and unique vision have defined Chanel as the ultimate house of luxury, with an unparalleled global presence… He succeeded in bringing Chanel into the 21st century as a leader in the world of exclusivity.’ This might have somewhat wounded Karl Lagerfeld, designer of the brand’s fashion collections. But as Coco discovered when she emerged from her Swiss redoubt, the fashion industry is fuelled by fragrances. It’s no coincidence that, during the brand’s fall/winter 2009 haute couture show, the models stalking the runway were overshadowed by towering replicas of the Chanel No. 5 bottle. A FANTASY IN A BOTTLE Yves Saint Laurent knew all about the importance of fragrances to the fashion industry. The designer’s blockbuster ‘oriental’ scent Opium transformed the fortunes of his house; by its 30th anniversary in 1992 the company was earning more than 80 per cent of its income from fragrances and cosmetics.

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Consumers are not addicted to the result, but to the feeling. Imagining the opulent spa or the brave eco-scientist hacking his way through a tropical rainforest is part of that experience. Still, it’s worth bearing in mind that the main ingredient of most skincare products – from the cheapest to the most expensive – is water. BEAUTY TIPS • Haute couture fashion brands were quick to move into perfume and make-up, establishing a legitimacy in the beauty sector. • They followed up with creams as their consumers turned to combating wrinkles rather than simply hiding them. • They invested in research departments in order to compete with the likes of P&G and L’Oréal

Florence & Tuscany by Lonely Planet

Bonfire of the Vanities, call centre, car-free, carbon footprint, centre right, European colonialism, haute couture, Kickstarter, period drama, Pier Paolo Pasolini, post-work, retail therapy, sensible shoes, Skype, trade route, urban planning

Few visitors get as far as the Galleria del Costume (Costume Gallery; 8.15am-7.30pm Jun-Aug, shorter hr rest year, closed 1st & last Mon of month) , thus missing its absolutely fascinating, if somewhat macabre, display of the semidecomposed burial clothes of Cosimo I, his wife Eleonora di Toledo and their son Don Garzia. Considering their age and the fact that they were buried for centuries, Eleanora’s gown and silk stockings are remarkably preserved, as are Cosimo’s satin doublet and wool breeches and Garzia’s doublet, beret and short cape. In contrast, the sculptural 1990s haute couture pieces by Maurizio Galante look as if they’ve just been created – they’re guaranteed to impress. Giardino di Boboli PALACE GARDEN ( Piazza Pitti; 8.15am-sunset) Behind Palazzo Pitti, the Boboli Gardens laid out in the mid-16th century according to a design by architect Niccolò Pericoli are a prime example of a formal Tuscan garden and they are great fun to get lost in: skip along the Cypress Alley ; let the imagination rip with a gallant frolic in the walled Giardino del Cavaliere (Knights’ Garden); dance around 170-odd statues; meditate next to the Isoletto , a gorgeous ornamental pool; discover birdsong and species in the garden along the signposted nature trail ; or watch Venere (Venus) by Giambologna rise from the waves in the Grotta del Buontalenti ( guided visits hourly 11am-6pm Jun-Sep, to 5pm Mar, May & Oct, to 4pm Nov-Feb) , a fanciful grotto designed by the eponymous artist.

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Its somewhat idyllic, summer cafe terrace , set in a stone loggia overlooking the Florentine skyline, is a wonderful spot for a panino lunch, ice cream or afternoon tea. Inside the villa, the Museo Bardini (www.bardinipeyron.it, in Italian; adult/reduced €6/4; 10am-6pm Wed-Sun Apr-Sep, to 4pm Wed-Fri, to 6pm Sat & Sun Oct-Mar) hosts a collection of Roberto Capucci–designed haute couture and temporary exhibitions. Casa Guidi MUSEUM ( 055 28 43 93; www.browningsociety.org; Piazza San Felice 8; admission free; 3-6pm Mon, Wed & Fri Apr-Nov) It was here, on the ground floor of 15th-century Palazzo Guidi, across from the south wing of Palazzo Pitti, that Robert and Elizabeth Browning rented an apartment in 1847, a year after their marriage.

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A sense of style is vital to Tuscans, who take great pride in their dress and appearance to ensure their bella figura (good public face). Dressing impeccably comes naturally to most and for most Florentines, chic is a byword. Indeed, it was in their naturally beautiful city that the Italian fashion industry was born and bred. Guccio Gucci and Salvatore Ferragamo got the haute-couture ball rolling in the 1920s with boutiques in Florence. And in 1951 a well-heeled Florentine nobleman called Giovanni Battista Giorgini held a fashion soirée in his Florence home to spawn Italy’s first prét-à-porter fashion shows. The catwalk quickly shifted to Florence’s Palazzo Pitti, where Europe’s most prestigious fashion shows dazzled until 1971 (when the women’s shows moved to Milan).

Barcelona by Damien Simonis

Berlin Wall, call centre, carbon footprint, Fall of the Berlin Wall, feminist movement, Frank Gehry, gentrification, haute couture, haute cuisine, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Kickstarter, land reform, Murano, Venice glass, New Urbanism, North Sea oil, retail therapy, Suez canal 1869, sustainable-tourism, urban planning, urban renewal, urban sprawl

Documentaries on the civil war, the horrors of the Franco period and so forth abound, while investigative journalism on some of the dodgier sides of Catalan government since 1980 are noticeable by their absence. Return to beginning of chapter FASHION For years, Barcelona and Madrid ran competing haute couture shows but the end came in 2006 when the Generalitat pulled the plug on funding. Alternative shows were staged in 2007, but by 2008 it was all over. The shows may come and go, but Barcelona teems with its own designers. Names range from the ebullient Custo Barcelona to the international prêt-a-porter phenomenon of Mango.

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Barcelona is a style city and this is evident in its flagship design stores, such as Vinçon and Cubiña, whether you are looking for homewares, gifts or decoration. Even the souvenirs have flair. Fashion, in the broadest possible sense, occupies a sizable wedge of the city’s retail space. Local names such as Mango, Custo Barcelona, Antonio Miró and Purificación García jostle side by side with big Spanish names in haute couture and prêt-à-porter (such as Zara and Adolfo Domínguez). Almost every taste is catered to, with loads of youthful designers, club and street wear, grunge dealers and secondhand operators. For high fashion, design, jewellery and department stores, the principal shopping axis starts on Plaça de Catalunya, proceeds up Passeig de Gràcia and turns left into Avinguda Diagonal, along which it extends as far as Plaça de la Reina Maria Cristina.

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Encompassing anything from regal party gowns to kids’ outfits (that might have you thinking of British aristocracy), the broad range generally oozes a conservative air, with elegant cuts that make no concessions to rebellious urban ideals. Return to beginning of chapter ANTONIO MIRÓ Map Fashion 93 487 06 70; www.antoniomiro.es, in Spanish; Carrer del Consell de Cent 349; 10am-8pm Mon-Sat; Passeig de Gràcia Antonio Miró is one of Barcelona’s haute couture kings. The entrance to the airy store, with dark hardwood floor, seems more like a hip hotel reception. Miró concentrates on light, natural fibres to produce smart, unpretentious men’s and women’s fashion. High-end evening dresses and shimmering, smart suits lead the way. Or you could just settle for an Antonio Miró T-shirt.

Fodor's Barcelona by Fodor's

Albert Einstein, call centre, Frank Gehry, Guggenheim Bilbao, haute couture, haute cuisine, low cost airline, market design, Suez canal 1869, urban renewal, urban sprawl, young professional

Ever since 1990, when the International Olympic Committee announced that the 1992 Olympic Games were to be held in the Catalan capital, Barcelona has been booming with pride and confidence in its ever brighter future as (finally!) a bona fide European capital recognized on its own merits. Design, Architecture, Fashion, Style Now that the city’s haute couture status is increasingly seen as biting at the heels of more established design superstars such as Paris and Milan, present-day Barcelona more and more resembles a carousel of postmodern visual surprises, from “cool hunter” Brandery fashions to dizzying architecture—Jean Nouvel’s Torre Agbar gherkin, Norman Foster’s giant erector-set communications tower on the Collserola skyline, or Ricardo Bofill’s Hotel Vela (Sail), the W hotel’s nickname, looming over the waterfront.

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Colors follow this aesthetic, with cool tones in gray and beige. | Carrer Vidrieria 11, Born-Ribera | 08003 | 93/319–3561 | Station: Jaume I. Antonio Miró. With his Miró jeans label making major inroads with the young and fashionably adventurous, classicist Toni Miró is known for the very upper stratosphere of Catalan haute couture, with clean lines fortified by blacks and dark grays for both men and women. Miró’s look is, in fact, so unisex that couples of similar sizes could probably get away with sharing some androgynous looks and saving closet space. | Consell de Cent 349, Eixample | 08007 | 93/487–0670 | Station: Passeig de Gràcia | Valencia 272, Eixample | 08007 | 93/272–2491 | Station: Passeig de Gràcia | Vidrieria 5, Born-Ribera | 08003 | 93/268–8203 | Station: Jaume I | Carrer del Pi 11, Barri Gòtic | 08002 | 93/342–5875 | www.antoniomiro.es | Station: Liceu.

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Exploring Figueres Off the Beaten Path: Casa-Museu Gala Dalí. The third point of the Dalí triangle is the medieval castle of Púbol, where the artist’s wife Gala is buried in the crypt. During the 1970s this was Gala’s residence, though Dalí also lived here in the early 1980s. It contains paintings and drawings, Gala’s haute-couture dresses, elephant sculptures in the garden, furniture, and other objects chosen by the couple. Púbol, roughly between Girona and Figueres, is near the C255, and is not easy to find. If you are traveling by train, get off at the Flaçà station on the Barcelona-Portbou line of RENFE railways; walk or take a taxi 4 km (2½ mi) to Púbol.

Capital Without Borders by Brooke Harrington

Alan Greenspan, banking crisis, Big bang: deregulation of the City of London, British Empire, capital controls, Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty, classic study, complexity theory, corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, diversified portfolio, emotional labour, equity risk premium, estate planning, eurozone crisis, family office, financial innovation, ghettoisation, Great Leap Forward, haute couture, high net worth, income inequality, information asymmetry, Joan Didion, job satisfaction, joint-stock company, Joseph Schumpeter, Kevin Roose, liberal capitalism, mega-rich, mobile money, offshore financial centre, prudent man rule, race to the bottom, regulatory arbitrage, Robert Shiller, South Sea Bubble, subprime mortgage crisis, the market place, The Theory of the Leisure Class by Thorstein Veblen, Thorstein Veblen, transaction costs, upwardly mobile, wealth creators, web of trust, Westphalian system, Wolfgang Streeck, zero-sum game

Indeed, in this field, “personalization … increases proportionately as the size of the fortune to be managed increases.”88 Its commitment to individualized products and long-term relationships with clients distinguishes wealth management as a bit of an anachronism in an industry that is otherwise at the forefront of modernity.89 Like haute couture, wealth management operates on a business model in which low profit margins are counterbalanced—at least in theory—by high social prestige for the profession.90 But while wealth management may enjoy prestige in the larger scheme of occupations, its position is less well regarded by peer professions within finance.

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Erika, the German wealth manager based in Zurich, took a similar view. Echoing the observation of Mark, the English practitioner in Dubai who compared his work to the provision of “extra-special bespoke service, just like suits,” Erika said she expected that there would always be demand for wealth management, just “like there will always be a market for haute couture.” This is not to discount the global changes that affect the industry. For example, many of those interviewed for this study mentioned the decline in privacy and the increased costs of compliance as drivers of transformation in practice. Lynn, an Asian woman practicing in Panama City, said that “at the end of day, you’re not going to be able to hide anymore.

Revolution Française: Emmanuel Macron and the Quest to Reinvent a Nation by Sophie Pedder

"World Economic Forum" Davos, Airbnb, Berlin Wall, Bernie Sanders, bike sharing, carbon tax, centre right, clean tech, DeepMind, disruptive innovation, Donald Trump, Downton Abbey, driverless car, Erik Brynjolfsson, eurozone crisis, failed state, fake news, Fall of the Berlin Wall, Future Shock, ghettoisation, growth hacking, haute couture, Jean Tirole, knowledge economy, liberal capitalism, mass immigration, mittelstand, new economy, post-industrial society, public intellectual, rent-seeking, ride hailing / ride sharing, Second Machine Age, sharing economy, Sheryl Sandberg, Silicon Valley, Tony Fadell, Travis Kalanick, urban planning, éminence grise

In 2017 Bugatti unveiled a successor, the Chiron, which pushed the limits of physics and sleek design further still. The car reaches 100 kilometres (62 miles) an hour in two and a half seconds and has a starting price of €2.4 million. Christophe Piochon, head of the French plant, compares the exquisite craftsmanship that goes into the construction of a Bugatti car to haute couture. ‘Functional parts,’ he told me when I visited, ‘should also be works of art.’ Although France has a reputation for making life difficult for business, and struggles to hold on to low-end industries and jobs, it is in some ways well placed to carve out a competitive niche in the knowledge economy – if it can get its policy mix right.

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French high-end luxury – Hermès, Chanel, Dior, Saint Laurent, Louis Vuitton, Cartier – is unrivalled in the world, and envied these days even by the Italians. The design aesthetic is part of the national mindset. French culture delights in elegance, sensuality, quality and form: the exquisite hand-stitching on the haute-couture dress; the geometrically arranged tartes aux framboises lined up in the pâtisserie window. The aesthetics of daily life, the art de vivre, remains a source of both grand gestures and small stolen pleasures. It is no coincidence that the two biggest and most successful luxury-goods groups in the world, LVMH and Kering, are French.

The Pirate's Dilemma by Matt Mason

Albert Einstein, augmented reality, barriers to entry, blood diamond, citizen journalism, creative destruction, digital divide, don't be evil, Donald Trump, Douglas Engelbart, East Village, Firefox, Free Software Foundation, future of work, glass ceiling, global village, Hacker Ethic, haute couture, Howard Rheingold, Internet of things, invisible hand, Isaac Newton, jimmy wales, job satisfaction, John Markoff, John Perry Barlow, Joseph Schumpeter, Kickstarter, Lao Tzu, Marshall McLuhan, means of production, Naomi Klein, new economy, New Urbanism, patent troll, peer-to-peer, prisoner's dilemma, public intellectual, RAND corporation, RFID, Richard Florida, Richard Stallman, SETI@home, side hustle, Silicon Valley, South China Sea, Stephen Hawking, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Steven Levy, Stewart Brand, the long tail, Tim Cook: Apple, urban sprawl, Whole Earth Catalog

The 2-D design of a garment is protected, We Invented the Remix | 95 but the 3-D physical object is not, so copying is, and always has been, rife. Freedom to copy other people’s designs is taken for granted in the world of fashion, which makes it unusual, but it’s also the reason it’s so successful. Haute couture designs are copied, sampled, and modified, gradually trickling down until there are versions of last season’s catwalk designs in bargain basements everywhere. The view that remixing or sampling a design is a serious threat to business is not one held by the fashion industry.* There are rarely objections from design houses when an idea is copied; in fact, it’s almost encouraged.

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In the United States, hip-hop stars rap about buying jewelry and going platinum, while MCs in South Africa talk of exploited workers toiling in plat- 186 | THE PIRATE’S DILEMMA inum mines. Newsstands contain shelves of mass market glossy magazines that document excessive dreams of the lifestyle, while across the street a guy is selling subversive hip-hop literature from a makeshift table. Its contributions to fashion stretch from haute couture to hoochie mama, and it evolved into a scholarly pursuit as easily as it became violent video games and branded bathrobes. How can it constantly contradict itself without tearing itself apart? Credit Where Credit Is Due Once again, the answer lies in authenticity. Hip-hop has managed to make connections with several audiences in several different regional and national markets.

Le Freak: An Upside Down Story of Family, Disco, and Destiny by Nile Rodgers

Bob Geldof, delayed gratification, East Village, gentrification, haute couture, Live Aid, nuclear winter, Pepsi Challenge, Rosa Parks, Saturday Night Live, Stephen Hawking, the High Line, urban renewal

It made sense that I wasn’t treated like a star that first night, because no one knew what Chic looked like, and Studio was all about who you were and how you looked. Nefi was really into how to achieve the look; she was a stylist who could design and make clothing. It was she who taught me about high fashion. Before I met Nefi, I’d never heard of Fendi, Fortuny, or Fiorucci. I learned about haute couture and met many top designers, like Calvin Klein and Roy Halston, at Studio. I had many great nights in Studio, but none as important as the night I tried to get in without Nefertiti and failed: New Year’s Eve, 1977. BERNARD AND I rounded the corner at Eighth Avenue onto Fifty-fourth Street. The first thing I saw was a massive mob, herded like cattle onto a sidewalk that couldn’t possibly contain them, and spilling onto the street.

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She placed a tablet on my tongue and said, “You belong to me tonight.” I didn’t want to look like a chump in her eyes, because I admired her so much. She looked like an exotic cross between film starlets Dorothy Dandridge and Black Orpheus’s Marpessa Dawn, only more brown-skinned. She was impeccably adorned from head to toe in the latest haute couture, and she spoke perfect French and Italian, because she’d been a European runway model. As stunning as she was physically, it was her Mensa-level intellect that made her unique. Standing before her, I felt overmatched and somewhat afraid. “What did you just give me?” I asked. “X.” “Ecstasy?” “Yeah, ecstasy,” she said.

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg

Atul Gawande, behavioural economics, Checklist Manifesto, corporate governance, cuban missile crisis, delayed gratification, desegregation, game design, haute couture, impulse control, index card, longitudinal study, meta-analysis, patient HM, pattern recognition, power law, randomized controlled trial, rolodex, Rosa Parks, Silicon Valley, Stanford marshmallow experiment, tacit knowledge, telemarketer, Tenerife airport disaster, the strength of weak ties, Toyota Production System, transaction costs, Walter Mischel

Nelson and Winter’s routines—and the truces they make possible—are critical to every kind of business. One study from Utrecht University in the Netherlands, for instance, looked at routines within the world of high fashion. To survive, every fashion designer has to possess some basic skills: creativity and a flair for haute couture as a start. But that’s not enough to succeed.6.25 What makes the difference between success or failure are a designer’s routines—whether they have a system for getting Italian broadcloth before wholesalers’ stocks sell out, a process for finding the best zipper and button seamstresses, a routine for shipping a dress to a store in ten days, rather than three weeks.

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The literature started by Steven Klepper interpreted this aspect of routines as part of the reason why spinoffs are in performance similar to their parents. I use this same reasoning in the fashion design industry: fashion design entrepreneurs form to a large extent their new firm’s blueprint based on the organisational routines learned at their former employer. In my PhD research, I found evidence that from the start of the haute couture industry (1858 Paris), spinoff designer firms (whether located in NY, Paris, Milan or London, etc.) do indeed have a similar performance as their motherfirms.” 6.26 and found the right alliances Details regarding truces—as opposed to routines—within the fashion industry draw on interviews with designers themselves.

Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life by Steve Martin

Golden Gate Park, Haight Ashbury, haute couture, Saturday Night Live, telemarketer

My mother was the daughter of a strict Baptist matriarch who barred dancing, dating, and cardplaying, and she must have viewed her marriage to my theatrically inclined father as an exciting alternative to small-town life. But my father overpowered her easily intimidated personality, and she only escaped from one repressive situation into another. My mother in Waco, Texas, ca. 1933. My sister and me in haute couture, hand-sewn by my mother. Though I was just eight years old, I was, like most children in that benign era, allowed to walk alone the few blocks to my new school, Oak Street Elementary, which opened in the 1920s and is still operating today. It has a wee bit of architecture about it, featuring an inner Spanish courtyard with six shady ficus trees.

Lonely Planet Cape Town & the Garden Route (Travel Guide) by Lucy Corne

Berlin Wall, British Empire, Cape to Cairo, carbon footprint, Day of the Dead, gentrification, haute couture, haute cuisine, load shedding, Mark Shuttleworth, mass immigration, Nelson Mandela, New Urbanism, retail therapy, Robert Gordon, Suez canal 1869, tech billionaire, upwardly mobile, urban renewal, urban sprawl

Enmasse Thai massage the modern way, in a historic building tucked away in Gardens. The Luxe Life Status Luxury Vehicles Cruise Cape Town’s roads in a top-marque convertible, or have a chauffeur drive it for you. Prins & Prins Go shopping for diamonds and other precious jewels at this emporium based in a historic City Bowl house. Klûk & CGDT Haute couture from a former apprentice to John Galliano. Belmond Mount Nelson Hotel Not a guest? Come for afternoon tea or visit the Planet bar and restaurant. Sports Helicopters Hire a chopper and take some photos of the peninsula that will really impress your friends. Month by Month Top Events Cape Town Minstrel Carnival, January Infecting the City, March Design Indaba, February Cape Town Fringe, September Adderley St Christmas Lights, December January Expect packed hotels and restaurants, crowds at the beaches and traffic on main coastal roads.

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There are several more antique and curio stores on Long St if you can’t find what you’re looking for here. Klûk & CGDTFASHION ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; %083 377 7780; kluk.co.za; 43-45 Bree St, City Bowl; h9am-5pm Mon-Fri, to 2pm Sat; gLower Loop/Lower Long) The showroom and atelier of Malcolm Klûk (once an apprentice to John Galliano) and Christiaan Gabriel du Toit are combined here. Expect haute couture, with similarly haute prices, and some more affordable prêt-à-porter pieces. AVA GalleryARTS ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; %021-424 7436; www.ava.co.za; 35 Church St, City Bowl; h10am-5pm Mon-Fri, to 1pm Sat; gChurch/Longmarket) Exhibition space for the nonprofit Association for Visual Arts (AVA), which shows some very interesting work by local artists.

Lonely Planet Amsterdam by Lonely Planet

3D printing, Airbnb, bike sharing, David Sedaris, gentrification, haute couture, haute cuisine, post-work, QR code, Silicon Valley, trade route, tulip mania, young professional

The Red Light District is home to a wild assortment of adult and fetish shops, as well as 'smart shops' selling magic truffles. 7Medieval Centre oX BankDESIGN ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; http://xbank.amsterdam; Spuistraat 172; h10am-6pm Mon-Wed, to 9pm Thu-Sat, noon-8pm Sun; j1/2/5/13/14/17 Dam) More than just a concept store showcasing Dutch-designed haute couture and ready-to-wear fashion, furniture, art, gadgets and homewares, the 700-sq-metre X Bank – in a former bank that's now part of the striking W Amsterdam hotel – also hosts exhibitions, workshops, launches and lectures. Interior displays change every month; check the website for upcoming events.

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Not simply places to view the artistic designs, gain inspiration, or even pick up products for your own home or workplace (although they are all that), these accessible galleries frequently incorporate cafes where you can browse design magazines amid the wares (and where, often, even the chair you're sitting on is for sale). Design & Fashion As the Dutch furniture, product and interior designers were taking flight, so too was a generation of cutting-edge fashion designers. Amsterdam fashion house Viktor & Rolf, founded by Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren, is enjoying huge international success. From haute couture to ready-to-wear collections, their range now spans men's and women's apparel, shoes, accessories including eyewear, and fragrances. Collaborations such as with retail giant H&M have broadened their appeal. Dutch retail brands making a global impact include Amsterdam success story Scotch & Soda ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; www.scotch-soda.com; Huidenstraat 3-5; h10am-6pm Tue & Wed, to 9pm Thu, to 7pm Fri & Sat, noon-6pm Sun & Mon; j1/2/5 Spui), selling its own-label affordable designs for men, women and children, as well as the Amsterdams Blauw denim line and a vintage furniture collection.

My Misspent Youth: Essays by Meghan Daum

haute couture, Joan Didion, Norman Mailer, pneumatic tube, rent control, rent stabilization, Yogi Berra

I was a true believer in the urban dream—in years of struggle succumbing to brilliant success, in getting a break, in making it. Like most of my friends, I was selfish by design. To want was more virtuous than to need. I wanted someone to love me but I certainly didn’t need it. I didn’t want to be alone, but as long as I was, I had no choice but to wear my solitude as though it were haute couture. The worst sin imaginable was not cruelty or bitchiness or even professional failure but vulnerability. To admit to loneliness was to slap the face of progress. It was to betray the times in which we lived. But PFSlider derailed me. He gave me all of what I’d never realized I wanted. He called not only when he said he would, but unexpectedly, just to say hello.

Tuscany Road Trips by Duncan Garwood, Paula Hardy, Robert Landon, Nicola Williams

call centre, car-free, haute couture, low cost airline, Skype

Fattoria San Martino Agriturismo €€ (0578 71 74 63; www.fattoriasanmartino.it; Via di Martiena 3; r €140-180; closed Dec-Easter; ) Dutch-born Karin and Italian Antonio met when working in Milan’s high-velocity fashion industry, but eventually decided organic farming was more to their liking than haute couture. The homespun-chic rooms in this rebuilt 12th-century farmhouse and purpose-built annexe are sure to please, as will the all-vegetarian meals (dinner €35 plus wine), pretty garden, biological filtered pool and emphasis on sustainability. 5 Eating & Drinking Osteria Acquacheta Tuscan €€ (0578 71 70 86; www.acquacheta.eu; Via del Teatro 2; meals €25; 12.15-4pm & 7.30-10.30pm Wed-Mon) Hugely popular with locals and tourists alike, this bustling osteria specialises in bistecca alla fiorentina (chargrilled T-bone steak), which arrives in huge, lightly seared, exceptionally flavoursome slabs (don’t even think of asking for it to be served otherwise).

Quality Investing: Owning the Best Companies for the Long Term by Torkell T. Eide, Lawrence A. Cunningham, Patrick Hargreaves

air freight, Albert Einstein, asset light, backtesting, barriers to entry, buy and hold, carbon tax, cashless society, cloud computing, commoditize, Credit Default Swap, discounted cash flows, discovery of penicillin, endowment effect, global pandemic, haute couture, hindsight bias, legacy carrier, low cost airline, mass affluent, Network effects, oil shale / tar sands, pattern recognition, price elasticity of demand, proprietary trading, shareholder value, smart grid, sovereign wealth fund, supply-chain management, vertical integration

The result is often a pattern of steady small adjustments made routinely – updating systems or shifting to offshore locations – rather than bold reorganizations and grand master plans. Self-perpetuation Industries and companies tend to recruit people with personalities that fit the associated culture. Creative types are an asset for the design of haute couture, but are not the ideal choice to help build nuclear reactors. Similarly, a deep-rooted cost culture is more critical to a low-cost provider than for purveyors of premium brands. Cultures, as a result, tend to self-perpetuate. Companies with questionable practices are more in danger of attracting people unwilling to raise ethical issues or report wrongdoing.

The Rough Guide to Barcelona 8 by Jules Brown, Rough Guides

active transport: walking or cycling, bike sharing, centre right, Frank Gehry, gentrification, glass ceiling, Guggenheim Bilbao, haute couture, Kickstarter, sustainable-tourism, trade route, urban planning, urban renewal

Its layout was undecided at the time of writing, but the extensive collection presents selected items from late-Roman fabrics to 1930s cocktail dresses, while demonstrating the art and technique behind cloth-making, embroidery, lace and tapestry work. There are also pieces by Spanish and Catalan designers of the 1970s to the current day, like those of Pedro Rodríguez (1895–1990), the first haute couture designer to establish a studio in Barcelona, and Catalan designer Antonio Miró, who has recently donated pieces to the museum. Pavellons Güell A block east of the Palau Reial gardens, Avinguda Pedralbes heads north off the Diagonal up to the Monestir de Pedralbes. Just a couple of minutes up the avenue, you’ll pass Gaudí’s remarkable Pavellons Güell on your left.

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The out-oftown outlet mall is one for serious designer discount-hounds, with 100 stores selling designer gear at up to sixty percent off normal prices. It’s half an hour from the city centre and you can get there by bus or train – there are full public transport details on the website. Stockland c/Comtal 22, Barri Gòtic T 933 180 331; M Urquinaona. A bargain-hunter’s dream. Top-name haute couture from Spanish designers at thirty- to sixty-percent discounts. Shoes Camper c/Pelai 13-37, El Triangle, Dreta de l’Eixample T 902 364 598, W www.camper.com; MCatalunya; plus others. Spain’s favourite shoe store opened its first shop in Barcelona in 1981. Providing hip, wellmade, casual city footwear at a good price has been the cornerstone of its success.

After Steve: How Apple Became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost Its Soul by Tripp Mickle

"World Economic Forum" Davos, Airbnb, airport security, Apple II, Apple's 1984 Super Bowl advert, augmented reality, autonomous vehicles, banking crisis, Boeing 747, British Empire, business intelligence, Carl Icahn, Clayton Christensen, commoditize, coronavirus, corporate raider, COVID-19, desegregation, digital map, disruptive innovation, Donald Trump, Downton Abbey, driverless car, Edward Snowden, Elon Musk, Frank Gehry, General Magic , global pandemic, global supply chain, haute couture, imposter syndrome, index fund, Internet Archive, inventory management, invisible hand, John Markoff, Jony Ive, Kickstarter, Larry Ellison, lateral thinking, Mark Zuckerberg, market design, megacity, Murano, Venice glass, Ralph Waldo Emerson, self-driving car, Sheryl Sandberg, Silicon Valley, skeuomorphism, Stephen Fry, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Steven Levy, stock buybacks, Superbowl ad, supply-chain management, thinkpad, Tim Cook: Apple, Tony Fadell, Travis Kalanick, turn-by-turn navigation, Wayback Machine, WikiLeaks, Y2K

Its scuba-suit body flowed into a twenty-foot-long train topped by a gold foliate pattern and hand-stitched gems. Bolton explained that the train had required 450 hours of workmanship. “It’s haute couture without the couture,” he said. Ive chuckled at the play on words. Indeed, the dress was custom-made, as couture should be, but its use of a synthetic scuba suit broke with the doctrine that haute couture must be handmade. For nearly ten minutes, Ive examined the dress, marveling at its blend of familiar and unfamiliar, formality and informality. Lagerfeld’s creative vision left him inspired. The following day, Ive returned to the museum for a press preview of the exhibit ahead of that evening’s Met Gala.

1947: Where Now Begins by Elisabeth Åsbrink

Albert Einstein, anti-communist, British Empire, disinformation, Grace Hopper, Gunnar Myrdal, haute couture, illegal immigration, Mahatma Gandhi, Mount Scopus, trade route

Owing to the new law banning brothels throughout France, numerous women are seeking alternative employment. Christian Dior advertises for models in the press and is swamped by applications. Amid this plethora, he finds only one — Marie-Thérèse. The others — Noëlle, Paule, Yolande, Lucile, and Tania — are recruited from the world of haute couture. They are all extremely svelte, naturellement, so Christian urges them to acquire false bosoms. Now is now, and everything is to be different: curves, corsets, padded hips; a waist so slender that it can be spanned by a man’s hands. The New Look. Outside, the women wear state-approved gabardine, paint their legs brown to compensate for the lack of stockings, and finish off with a darker vertical line that stands in for a seam.

The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee by Sarah Silverman

haute couture, index card, Nelson Mandela, Saturday Night Live, Skype

"I have to tell you something," he said, gravely. I couldn't imagine what fashiony thing could possibly be so worrisome. Yuliy said, "I sent the picture of the final dress to the designers, and...well...they're opting to take their name off the dress." Truthfully, I didn't care. I'm not into the glamour of fancy designer names and haute couture shows. I thought I totally understood--this creation didn't look like the conservative kind of dress they made. It had become something else entirely. Something crazy awesome, that is! I did not falter in thinking this was the prettiest dress in the world. I told Yuliy, "I'm so happy now that when people ask who made this dress, I can say, 'Yuliy Mosk!'"

Fewer, Better Things: The Hidden Wisdom of Objects by Glenn Adamson

big-box store, Biosphere 2, blood diamond, blue-collar work, Buckminster Fuller, carbon footprint, Charles Babbage, crowdsourcing, dematerialisation, dumpster diving, fake news, Ford Model T, haute couture, informal economy, Jacquard loom, Joseph-Marie Jacquard, Kintsugi, Mason jar, post-truth, race to the bottom, tacit knowledge, TED Talk, trade route, VTOL, white flight

As he matured, McQueen continued to be unswervingly dedicated to craftsmanship, commissioning lavish featherwork, wood carving, embroidery, and innumerable other techniques to realize his ideas.5 The large-scale constructions of Heatherwick, the mass spectacles conceived by Devlin, and McQueen’s haute couture all share a common basis in deep craft training and practice. Chapter 3 THE PAPER CHALLENGE Having said all this, we should also remember that there is more to making, and more to material intelligence, than craft alone. Design writer David Pye suggested in his 1968 book The Nature and Art of Workmanship that we should distinguish between the “workmanship of risk” and the “workmanship of certainty.”

Berlin: Life and Death in the City at the Center of the World by Sinclair McKay

Albert Einstein, anti-communist, Berlin Wall, Bletchley Park, dark matter, Fall of the Berlin Wall, Fellow of the Royal Society, fixed income, Francis Fukuyama: the end of history, German hyperinflation, haute couture, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, Isaac Newton, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Mikhail Gorbachev, plutocrats, Prenzlauer Berg, uranium enrichment

The Osram lightbulb company, based in Berlin, meanwhile devised a range of new illuminations and there were plans in the 1920s for a spectacular architectural monument simply called the ‘House of Electricity’.28 But the hypnotic power of light in the darkness to seduce and ensnare, to tempt and persuade, found most vivid life in Berlin’s newest art form: that of the department-store window display. As the city underwent its pulsating artistic revolution, ‘it was the shop windows of Berlin that were most renowned worldwide’.29 In the 1920s, the grand shopping streets such as the Kurfürstendamm were transfigured in the twilight by the most elaborate staged tableaux: haute couture set against moving landscape backdrops, or draped upon jerkily animated mannequins, or sometimes even modelled by real women standing behind the plate-glass windows, and lit with the art and care of a theatre production, from the gaudiest orange to the richest violet. The vast Wertheim store on Leipziger Strasse composed displays on the scale of Old Masters, one slightly macabre example featuring dozens of children’s dolls dressed in white gowns, arrayed at different levels and sharply lit against a dark backdrop.

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Railway goods yards to the north of the city had been broken into, by citizens in search of canned food (and even tins of apple sauce were by that stage considered luxurious).4 Then there were moments of grateful surprise: the wine merchant in the wealthier west of the city who had begun simply to give his entire stock away, partly to deny all the fine bottles of Riesling and Côtes du Rhône and Malbec to the incoming Red Army and partly because there was now a cruel element of futility in keeping a wine shop so well stocked amid the bloodied streets. Meanwhile, the Karstadt store stood as a symbol to Berliners of all that their world had formerly been: a citadel of plenty, from food to furnishings to haute couture, spread up and down nine elegant floors. Even with the privations of the war years, Karstadt and its once delicious-smelling food halls retained a strong place in the popular imagination. Now, locked up and darkened, it had become a furious obsession to ever noisier and more famished citizens.

Humans Need Not Apply: A Guide to Wealth and Work in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Jerry Kaplan

Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, Amazon Web Services, asset allocation, autonomous vehicles, bank run, bitcoin, Bob Noyce, Brian Krebs, business cycle, buy low sell high, Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty, combinatorial explosion, computer vision, Computing Machinery and Intelligence, corporate governance, crowdsourcing, driverless car, drop ship, Easter island, en.wikipedia.org, Erik Brynjolfsson, estate planning, Fairchild Semiconductor, Flash crash, Gini coefficient, Goldman Sachs: Vampire Squid, haute couture, hiring and firing, income inequality, index card, industrial robot, information asymmetry, invention of agriculture, Jaron Lanier, Jeff Bezos, job automation, John Markoff, John Maynard Keynes: Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren, Kiva Systems, Larry Ellison, Loebner Prize, Mark Zuckerberg, mortgage debt, natural language processing, Nick Bostrom, Own Your Own Home, pattern recognition, Satoshi Nakamoto, school choice, Schrödinger's Cat, Second Machine Age, self-driving car, sentiment analysis, short squeeze, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley startup, Skype, software as a service, The Chicago School, The Future of Employment, Turing test, Vitalik Buterin, Watson beat the top human players on Jeopardy!, winner-take-all economy, women in the workforce, working poor, Works Progress Administration

The town diner has gone out of business because far fewer people could afford to eat out, and in its place stands a gourmet restaurant, frequented almost exclusively by the wealthiest twenty families in town. The shop windows that used to display galoshes now showcase designer pumps, and the haberdashery has become an haute couture boutique. What beautiful improvements— the townspeople must be so pleased! Unfortunately, what the visitor can’t see is that most of the residents never visit these stores. Instead they drive to a Walmart fifty miles away to pick up in bulk the weekly staples they can afford. Enormous disparities in living standards are a public disgrace, and we need to fix it.

Sweetness and Light: The Mysterious History of the Honeybee by Hattie Ellis

back-to-the-land, Gregor Mendel, haute couture, New Urbanism, the scientific method, urban decay

We passed ten minutes or so, discussing how the United States Department of Agriculture had classified light honeys above dark honeys, despite their rich flavors; about the gender politics of the hive (“all women love the bit about the drones being expelled,” he quipped ruefully); about the eucalyptus honey of California and the blueberry honey of Maine. It was an encounter that was part of the serendipity of the city, and of the subject. THE CITY is the place where humans gather and hum; the city is where we fly to get the pick of the crop from shops. La Maison du Miel, in the rue Vignon, just north of the haute couture near the Madeleine, is the longest established honey shop in Paris, opened in 1905, with the original mosaic bees still on the floor. The shop started as a cooperative of beekeepers who wanted to get their produce sold in the capital. It is still run by the same family; they now buy other honeys and have seven hundred hives of their own, which they move around the countryside to the best nectar sources.

Geek Sublime: The Beauty of Code, the Code of Beauty by Vikram Chandra

Alan Turing: On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem, Apple II, barriers to entry, Berlin Wall, Big Tech, British Empire, business process, Californian Ideology, Charles Babbage, conceptual framework, create, read, update, delete, crowdsourcing, don't repeat yourself, Donald Knuth, East Village, European colonialism, finite state, Firefox, Flash crash, functional programming, glass ceiling, Grace Hopper, Hacker News, haute couture, hype cycle, iterative process, Jaron Lanier, John von Neumann, land reform, London Whale, Norman Mailer, Paul Graham, pink-collar, revision control, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley ideology, Skype, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, supercomputer in your pocket, synthetic biology, tech worker, the Cathedral and the Bazaar, theory of mind, Therac-25, Turing machine, wikimedia commons, women in the workforce

The programmer and popular blogger Steve Yegge, in his foreword to a book called The Joy of Clojure, describes the language as a “minor miracle” and “an astoundingly high-quality language … the best I’ve ever seen,” but he also notes that it is “fashionable,” and that our industry, the global programming community, is fashion-driven to a degree that would embarrass haute couture designers from New York to Paris … Fashion dictates the programming languages people study in school, the languages employers hire for, the languages that get to be in books on shelves. A naive outsider might wonder if the quality of a language matters a little, just a teeny bit at least, but in the real world fashion trumps all.19 In respect to programming languages and techniques, the programming industry has now been through many cycles of faith and disillusionment, and many of its members have acquired a sharp, necessary cynicism.

Sweden by Becky Ohlsen

accounting loophole / creative accounting, car-free, centre right, clean water, financial independence, glass ceiling, haute couture, Kickstarter, low cost airline, mass immigration, New Urbanism, period drama, place-making, post-work, retail therapy, starchitect, the built environment, white picket fence

Exhibitions cleverly contrast the classic and the cutting-edge, whether it’s Josef Frank and Bruno Mathsson furniture or 18th-century porcelain and Scandi-cool coat-stands. Eastern treasures include Chinese sculptures and Japanese theatre masks, while the museum’s burgeoning fashion collection spans haute couture to ’80s politicised T-shirts. Temporary exhibitions often favour the offbeat – think skateboard art and denim. RÖDA STEN Occupying a defunct, graffitied power station beside the giant Älvsborgsbron, Röda Sten (12 08 16; www.rodasten.com; Röda Sten 1; adult/under 21yr Skr40/20; noon-5pm Tue-Sun, to 7pm Wed) is one of Sweden’s coolest art centres.

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If it’s sunny, take the tram to Saltholmen and catch a ferry to Brännö Click here. It’s one of the archipelago’s most beautiful islands and a lot of artistic people have moved there. If it’s raining, head to Röhsska Museet. The curator is a progressive thinker, expanding the fashion collection to include recycled clothes and not just haute couture. Varldskulturmuseet is also fantastic. Favourite places to eat? For lunch, head to Alexandras for delicious soups. For dinner, don’t miss Björns Bar. It’s a wine bar with good drops by the glass and fantastic staff who know a lot about food. Another favourite is Publik. How did DEM Collective come about?

Evil by Design: Interaction Design to Lead Us Into Temptation by Chris Nodder

4chan, affirmative action, Amazon Mechanical Turk, cognitive dissonance, crowdsourcing, Daniel Kahneman / Amos Tversky, Donald Trump, drop ship, Dunning–Kruger effect, en.wikipedia.org, endowment effect, game design, gamification, haute couture, Ian Bogost, jimmy wales, Jony Ive, Kickstarter, late fees, lolcat, loss aversion, Mark Zuckerberg, meta-analysis, Milgram experiment, Monty Hall problem, Netflix Prize, Nick Leeson, Occupy movement, Paradox of Choice, pets.com, price anchoring, recommendation engine, Rory Sutherland, Silicon Valley, Stanford prison experiment, stealth mode startup, Steve Jobs, sunk-cost fallacy, TED Talk, telemarketer, Tim Cook: Apple, trickle-down economics, upwardly mobile

Creating desirability through association with a famous person (desirability through identity) is the basis of celebrity endorsements and the reason why movie stars don’t pay for the dresses they wear on the red carpet at the Oscars award ceremony. Fashion from Paris catwalks and the red carpet at the Oscars makes its way into high street stores and big box retailers quickly because wearing something visibly similar to the haute couture clothes is aspirational. Given that people will emulate their idols, there is obviously a place for idols to endorse products online in more creative ways than just appearing in advertisements. Leveraging aspiration online has even extended to Twitter. Now, companies can pay celebrities to tweet 140 characters about their brand or latest campaign.

The Bend of the World: A Novel by Jacob Bacharach

Burning Man, disinformation, haute couture, helicopter parent, Isaac Newton, medical residency, messenger bag, phenotype, quantitative easing, too big to fail, trade route, young professional

I’m a little hard up in re: the matter of purchasing a ticket, and I figure your grandmother is one of the big Jews at the museum and can get us tickets. Lauren Sara and I are going. I can totally get you a ticket, though. Why is she going? She’s my girlfriend. And she’s an artist. And cetera. An artist. Misplaced affection has misplaced your critical faculties, brother. She is to an artist as Goodwill is to haute couture. You are gay, I said. Fuck off, Johnny said. I don’t want to go anyway. Museums are just massive institutions designed to provide scholar-backed social capital to the notion of art-as-commodity and to reify the artist as a separate caste rather than art as a fundamental human activity. I’d rather not.

Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle by Chris Hedges

Albert Einstein, AOL-Time Warner, Ayatollah Khomeini, Bear Stearns, Cal Newport, clean water, collective bargaining, corporate governance, creative destruction, Credit Default Swap, Glass-Steagall Act, haute couture, Herbert Marcuse, Honoré de Balzac, Howard Zinn, illegal immigration, income inequality, Joseph Schumpeter, Naomi Klein, offshore financial centre, Plato's cave, power law, Ralph Nader, Ronald Reagan, scientific management, Seymour Hersh, single-payer health, social intelligence, statistical model, uranium enrichment

The American oligarchy, 1 percent of whom control more wealth than the bottom 90 percent combined, are the characters we envy and watch on television. They live and play in multimillion dollar beach houses and expansive modern lofts. They marry professional athletes and are chauffeured in stretch limos to spa appointments. They rush from fashion shows to movie premieres, flaunting their surgically enhanced, perfect bodies in haute couture. Their teenagers throw $200,000 parties and have $1 million dollar weddings. This life is held before us like a beacon. This life, we are told, is the most desirable, the most gratifying. The working classes, comprising tens of millions of struggling Americans, are shut out of television’s gated community.

Primates of Park Avenue: A Memoir by Wednesday Martin Ph.d.

Anthropocene, delayed gratification, haute couture, McMansion, messenger bag, stem cell

Because she was so rich and powerful, the people who rolled their eyes behind her back were too petrified to actually confront her about her nasty antics. School administrators looked the other way because she made big contributions. Everyone else took her put-downs meekly and sat at her table at events, hoping for a scrap of I didn’t know what. Business? Money? A ruffle or ribbon of her haute couture? “Hi,” she said, sort of looking through me. My mind hopped and skipped. My head bobbled. “Oh, sorry, my son is—” I began, rattled, looking wildly from side to side for an escape route. She couldn’t have cared less that I was talking and broke in as if I had no right to respond to her salutation.

Blue Ocean Strategy, Expanded Edition: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant by W. Chan Kim, Renée A. Mauborgne

Asian financial crisis, Blue Ocean Strategy, borderless world, call centre, classic study, cloud computing, commoditize, creative destruction, disruptive innovation, endogenous growth, Ford Model T, haute couture, index fund, information asymmetry, interchangeable parts, job satisfaction, Joseph Schumpeter, Kickstarter, knowledge economy, machine translation, market fundamentalism, NetJets, Network effects, RAND corporation, Salesforce, Skype, telemarketer, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, There's no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home - Ken Olsen, Thomas Kuhn: the structure of scientific revolutions, Vanguard fund, zero-sum game

Today, twenty years out, it has nearly ten thousand clubs worldwide serving more than four million members.4 Despite bumps along the way, it has become the largest women’s fitness franchise in the world. Beyond Curves, many companies have created blue oceans by looking across strategic groups. Ralph Lauren created the blue ocean of “high fashion with no fashion.” Its designer name, the elegance of its stores, and the luxury of its materials capture what most customers value in haute couture. At the same time, its updated classical look and price capture the best of the classical lines such as Brooks Brothers and Burberry. By combining the most attractive factors of both groups and eliminating or reducing everything else, Polo Ralph Lauren not only captured share from both segments but also drew many new customers into the market.

Tomorrowland: Our Journey From Science Fiction to Science Fact by Steven Kotler

adjacent possible, Albert Einstein, Alexander Shulgin, autonomous vehicles, barriers to entry, Biosphere 2, Burning Man, carbon footprint, carbon tax, Colonization of Mars, crowdsourcing, Dean Kamen, Dennis Tito, epigenetics, gravity well, Great Leap Forward, haute couture, Helicobacter pylori, interchangeable parts, Kevin Kelly, life extension, Louis Pasteur, low earth orbit, North Sea oil, Oculus Rift, off-the-grid, oil shale / tar sands, peak oil, personalized medicine, Peter H. Diamandis: Planetary Resources, private spaceflight, RAND corporation, Ray Kurzweil, Richard Feynman, Ronald Reagan, self-driving car, SpaceShipOne, stem cell, Stephen Hawking, Stewart Brand, synthetic biology, theory of mind, Virgin Galactic, Watson beat the top human players on Jeopardy!, Whole Earth Catalog, WikiLeaks

It’s technically the tale of skydiver Felix Baumgartner’s attempt to break a world record, except that the record he’s set his sights on is actually an off-world record — it is a demonstration that our urge to play, interwoven with our need to push limits, has actually left the planet. In short, we have just added an entirely new level of meaning to the phrase “We got next.” 1. The balloon is a marvel, ghostly silver, as thin as a dry-cleaning bag. Partially inflated at the Roswell, New Mexico, launch site, it looks like an amoeba dressed in haute couture. In the lower atmosphere, at full height, it rises a majestic fifty-five stories. In the stratosphere, pancaked by pressure, it stretches wider than a football field. And it’s the stratosphere where skydiver Felix Baumgartner is heading. The date is October 14, 2012. The plan is for Baumgartner to ride that balloon higher than anyone has ridden before — some twenty-four miles above the Earth.

The Sellout: A Novel by Paul Beatty

affirmative action, Apollo 13, cognitive dissonance, conceptual framework, cotton gin, desegregation, El Camino Real, Gregor Mendel, haute couture, high-speed rail, illegal immigration, Lao Tzu, late fees, mass incarceration, military-industrial complex, Neil Armstrong, p-value, publish or perish, rolodex, Ronald Reagan, Rosa Parks, Skinner box, telemarketer, theory of mind, War on Poverty, white flight, yellow journalism

I almost didn’t break up with you because I kept thinking, Where am I going to get fucking cantaloupes that taste like a multiple orgasm?” We’d rekindled our childhood friendship on the bus. I was seventeen, carless and clueless. She was twenty-one and fine enough to make that ill-fitting seaweed-brown RTD uniform look like haute-couture fashion. Except for the badge. No one, not even John Wayne, can pull off a badge. Back then she drove the #434—downtown to Zuma Beach. A route that once you got past the Santa Monica pier was mostly riderless, except for the burnouts, bums, and maids who serviced the Malibu estates and oceanfront bungalows.

Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There by David Brooks

1960s counterculture, affirmative action, Community Supported Agriculture, David Brooks, Donald Trump, Francis Fukuyama: the end of history, George Gilder, haute couture, haute cuisine, income inequality, Jane Jacobs, Jeff Bezos, Lewis Mumford, means of production, Mikhail Gorbachev, New Urbanism, Norman Mailer, PalmPilot, place-making, public intellectual, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robert Bork, scientific management, Silicon Valley, The Bell Curve by Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Thorstein Veblen, Upton Sinclair, upwardly mobile, urban planning, War on Poverty, Yogi Berra

The Birkenstock sandal store around the corner will have a sign in the window pointing out that its wares make nice corporate gifts. As you stroll up the street, you see young parents pushing those all-terrain baby carriages that are popular with the outdoors set. The high-end fashion chain Ann Taylor has its Burlington outlet cheek by jowl with the Peace and Justice Store, nicely showing how haute couture now cohabits effortlessly with hippie thrift-shop eclecticism. The pedestrian mall is lined with upscale candy, muffin, and ice cream stores. There are any number of stores with playful names like Madhatter and Muddy Waters. Ironic allusions and oppressive wordplay are key ingredients to the Latte Town sensibility, where people are not shy about showing off the cultural literacy (the University of Vermont sits up on the hill in Burlington, looking down on the commercial center and Lake Champlain beyond.)

The Great Tax Robbery: How Britain Became a Tax Haven for Fat Cats and Big Business by Richard Brooks

accounting loophole / creative accounting, bank run, Big bang: deregulation of the City of London, bonus culture, Bretton Woods, carried interest, Celtic Tiger, collateralized debt obligation, commoditize, Corn Laws, corporate social responsibility, crony capitalism, cross-border payments, Double Irish / Dutch Sandwich, financial deregulation, financial engineering, haute couture, information security, intangible asset, interest rate swap, Jarndyce and Jarndyce, mega-rich, Northern Rock, offshore financial centre, race to the bottom, shareholder value, short selling, supply-chain management, The Chicago School, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, transfer pricing, two and twenty

to tax avoidance Star-struck onlookers gasped as she emerged from a chauffeur-driven midnight blue Jaguar, her floor-length rose pink and organza-sequinned Jenny Packham evening gown glittering in the paparazzi’s flashlights. He stylishly complemented his stunning new wife in a classic black dinner jacket. The date was 9 June 2011, the occasion the annual ARK gala dinner at Kensington Palace, the guests of honour Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and his Duchess, Kate. (I include the haute couture detail, courtesy of the ever-reliable Daily Telegraph, not just as a desperate corrective to the previous blokeish passage, but to show where real glamour is to be found in twenty-first-century London.)‌16 ARK stands for Absolute Returns for Kids, a charity established by Swiss/French hedge fund manager Arpad ‘Arki’ Busson, whose leonine looks and list of exes (Farah Fawcett, Elle Macpherson, Uma Thurman), make him no Compo in the glamour stakes.

A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby

haute couture, trade route

Mr Eric Newby, I have since learned, is the author of an exciting sea-log, The Last Grain Race, an account of how at the age of eighteen he signed on as an apprentice of the Finnish barque Moshulu, lived in the fo’c’sle as the only Englishman, worked the ship, rounded both capes under sail in all the vicissitudes of the historic and now extinct passage from Australia to the United Kingdom of the grain-carrying windjammers. His career in the army was heroic and romantic. The bravado and endurance which had briefly made him a sailor were turned to the King’s service. After the war he went into the most improbable of trades, haute couture. It would strain the imagination to picture this stalwart young adventurer selling women’s clothes. We are relieved of the difficulty by his own deliciously funny description, which immediately captivates the reader of the opening chapters of A Short Walk. One can only use the absurdly trite phrase ‘the call of the wild’ to describe the peculiar impetus which carried Mr Newby from Mayfair to the wild mountains of Afghanistan.

The Great Fragmentation: And Why the Future of All Business Is Small by Steve Sammartino

3D printing, additive manufacturing, Airbnb, augmented reality, barriers to entry, behavioural economics, Bill Gates: Altair 8800, bitcoin, BRICs, Buckminster Fuller, citizen journalism, collaborative consumption, cryptocurrency, data science, David Heinemeier Hansson, deep learning, disruptive innovation, driverless car, Dunbar number, Elon Musk, fiat currency, Frederick Winslow Taylor, game design, gamification, Google X / Alphabet X, haute couture, helicopter parent, hype cycle, illegal immigration, index fund, Jeff Bezos, jimmy wales, Kickstarter, knowledge economy, Law of Accelerating Returns, lifelogging, market design, Mary Meeker, Metcalfe's law, Minecraft, minimum viable product, Network effects, new economy, peer-to-peer, planned obsolescence, post scarcity, prediction markets, pre–internet, profit motive, race to the bottom, random walk, Ray Kurzweil, recommendation engine, remote working, RFID, Rubik’s Cube, scientific management, self-driving car, sharing economy, side project, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley startup, skunkworks, Skype, social graph, social web, software is eating the world, Steve Jobs, subscription business, survivorship bias, The Home Computer Revolution, the long tail, too big to fail, US Airways Flight 1549, vertical integration, web application, zero-sum game

We can rent cars by increments of hours now and have all the benefits of a private car on demand without the excessive cost of hiring or owning one. This is pretty significant given that the average motor vehicle spends more than 90 per cent of its available life idle in a car space. We can now gain temporary access to goods, from haute-couture handbags, to chainsaws, to private jets, to gardens, to office spaces, to bicycles. Anything that can be bought can now be accessed. The story of music All goods, even those that started as physical goods, are moving towards access, sharing and temporary interaction. Music is a classic example.

The Year That Changed the World: The Untold Story Behind the Fall of the Berlin Wall by Michael Meyer

"World Economic Forum" Davos, Ayatollah Khomeini, bank run, Berlin Wall, Bonfire of the Vanities, Bretton Woods, BRICs, call centre, disinformation, Dr. Strangelove, Fall of the Berlin Wall, falling living standards, Francis Fukuyama: the end of history, guns versus butter model, haute couture, mass immigration, Mikhail Gorbachev, military-industrial complex, mutually assured destruction, Prenzlauer Berg, public intellectual, Ronald Reagan, Ronald Reagan: Tear down this wall, union organizing

The paintings were of reclining nudes and cherubs, milkmaids frisking with lambs and little children. Upstairs, empty boxes of perfume and cosmetics littered the floor of Elena’s boudoir: Arpège, Nina Ricci, Mystère de Rochas. A can of Woolite rolled in a corner. Boxes of Palmolive hemorrhoidal balm crunched underfoot. Despite the closets full of haute-couture gowns, Elena Ceausescu seems to have preferred heavy woolen suits and metallic, stub-nosed shoes with square, no-nonsense heels. There were hundreds of pairs. Gauntly thin, she appears to have obsessed about her weight. Her pink-and-gold bath had four scales. A man in white athletic shoes and a leather jacket rummaged in the drawers of her nightstand.

The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance by Steven Kotler

Abraham Maslow, adjacent possible, Albert Einstein, Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, Clayton Christensen, data acquisition, delayed gratification, deliberate practice, do what you love, escalation ladder, fear of failure, Google Earth, haute couture, impulse control, Isaac Newton, Jeff Bezos, Jeff Hawkins, jimmy wales, Kevin Kelly, Lao Tzu, lateral thinking, life extension, lifelogging, low earth orbit, Maui Hawaii, pattern recognition, Ray Kurzweil, risk tolerance, rolodex, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), Sheryl Sandberg, Silicon Valley, SimCity, SpaceShipOne, Stanford marshmallow experiment, Steve Jobs, TED Talk, time dilation, Virgin Galactic, Walter Mischel, X Prize

This time twice as fast: finishing the route in one hour twenty-two minutes. 12 Flow to Abundance STRATOS The balloon was a marvel, ghostly silver, as thin as a dry-cleaning bag. Partially inflated, at the Roswell, New Mexico, launch site, it looked not unlike an amoeba dressed in haute couture. In the lower atmosphere, at full height, it rose a majestic fifty-five stories. In the stratosphere, pancaked by pressure, it stretched wider than a football field. And the stratosphere was where skydiver Felix Baumgartner was heading. The date was October 14, 2012. The plan was for Baumgartner to ride that balloon some twenty-four miles above the Earth, higher than anyone has ever ridden a balloon before.

Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism's Stealth Revolution by Wendy Brown

Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, bitcoin, Branko Milanovic, Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty, collective bargaining, corporate governance, credit crunch, crowdsourcing, David Brooks, Food sovereignty, haute couture, Herbert Marcuse, immigration reform, income inequality, invisible hand, labor-force participation, late capitalism, means of production, new economy, obamacare, occupational segregation, Philip Mirowski, public intellectual, Ronald Reagan, sexual politics, shareholder value, sharing economy, subprime mortgage crisis, TED Talk, The Chicago School, the long tail, the market place, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, Thomas Malthus, too big to fail, trickle-down economics, Washington Consensus, Wolfgang Streeck, young professional, zero-sum game

Adam Smith’s market creature, Gary Becker’s human capital, quotidian rational choosers — none of these are specified as male or presumed gendered, even as neoliberals recognize the possibility of gender-specific attributes on which certain kinds of human capital may be built, for example, football players or haute couture models. Indeed, the putatively generic character of rational choice and the putative advantages for all of a gendered division of labor between family and marketplace are the skillfully twinned arguments animating Becker’s remarkable book, A Treatise on the Family. However, feminists know well that when scholars presume their subject has no gender, this is far from the last word on the matter.

The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi

augmented reality, cognitive dissonance, deep learning, gravity well, haute couture, MITM: man-in-the-middle, music of the spheres, quantum entanglement

The momentum is gone, and the water swallows the skipping stone. His head feels heavy. In a world of perfect privacy, there are still analog holes, and publishing newspapers is one of the most lucrative tolerated crimes in the Oubliette. They have been after him ever since his first case with the haute couture thieves. But they have never managed to breach his gevulot. Until now. ‘Yes, I am. Adrian Wu, from Ares Herald.’ He takes out an old-fashioned camera from his bag – another trick to get around gevulot. The flash blinds Isidore for a moment. Isidore hits him. Or tries to: he leaps to his feet and swings wildly, failing to connect.

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell

affirmative action, airport security, Albert Einstein, Apollo 13, complexity theory, David Brooks, East Village, fake news, haute couture, Kevin Kelly, lateral thinking, medical malpractice, medical residency, Menlo Park, Nelson Mandela, new economy, pattern recognition, Pepsi Challenge, phenotype, Ronald Reagan, Silicon Valley, Stephen Hawking, theory of mind, young professional

Hush Puppies had suddenly exploded, and it all started with a handful of kids in the East Village and Soho. How did that happen? Those first few kids, whoever they were, weren’t deliberately trying to promote Hush Puppies. They were wearing them precisely because no one else would wear them. Then the fad spread to two fashion designers who used the shoes to peddle something else—haute couture. The shoes were an incidental touch. No one was trying to make Hush Puppies a trend. Yet, somehow, that’s exactly what happened. The shoes passed a certain point in popularity and they tipped. How does a thirty-dollar pair of shoes go from a handful of downtown Manhattan hipsters and designers to every mall in America in the space of two years?

Places of the Heart: The Psychogeography of Everyday Life by Colin Ellard

Apollo 11, augmented reality, Benoit Mandelbrot, Berlin Wall, Broken windows theory, Buckminster Fuller, carbon footprint, classic study, cognitive load, commoditize, crowdsourcing, data science, Dunbar number, Frank Gehry, gentrification, Google Glasses, Guggenheim Bilbao, haute couture, Howard Rheingold, Internet of things, Jaron Lanier, Lewis Mumford, mandelbrot fractal, Marshall McLuhan, Masdar, mass immigration, megastructure, mirror neurons, Mondo 2000, more computing power than Apollo, Oculus Rift, overview effect, Peter Eisenman, RFID, Richard Florida, risk tolerance, sentiment analysis, Skinner box, smart cities, starchitect, TED Talk, the built environment, theory of mind, time dilation, urban decay, urban planning, urban sprawl, Victor Gruen

To the alarm of the students who controlled the machines and managed the wires connecting the pieces of gear together, Beesley was soon running from place to place, crawling along the floor to get underneath things, lying on his back on the floor looking up at ceilings, consuming my simulation with happy, childlike curiosity while those around him scurried about trying to keep wires and computers in check. Beesley’s artistic works are both moving and thought-provoking, but they seem far-flung from the bread-and-butter design of buildings like schools, banks, offices, or homes. Like the haute couture world of fashion, in which we see models walking runways in outfits that most of us would not be caught dead wearing in the street, Beesley’s responsive sculptures can be thought of as a set of signposts to the future: the bleeding edge of what design in a wired world has in store for us, and one of the main subjects of this book.

Gray Lady Down: What the Decline and Fall of the New York Times Means for America by William McGowan

affirmative action, Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, corporate governance, David Brooks, different worldview, disinformation, East Village, friendly fire, haute couture, illegal immigration, immigration reform, liberation theology, medical residency, microplastics / micro fibres, New Journalism, obamacare, payday loans, postnationalism / post nation state, pre–internet, Seymour Hersh, uranium enrichment, yellow journalism, young professional

After the first set of weddings, which involved twenty-five couples, Mayor West told Crampton, “I am willing to go to jail to hold these marriages,” and added, “This is a stand any decent American should take.” Some of the weddings received cloying coverage. “Rushing Out of the Closet and Down the Aisle” described a retired U.S. Army major who was marrying a Dutch-born “sometime designer of haute couture accessories for pets.” The two had wanted more time to plan but decided that seizing the opportunity was wise. The Dutchman called his wedding day “the greatest day of his life.” He was grateful “to Mayor Jason West for permitting me to make a public declaration of my love for Jeff. Jeff and I sat down in the front of the bus for the first time and began a new phase of our lives together.”

Hothouse Kids: The Dilemma of the Gifted Child by Alissa Quart

affirmative action, Albert Einstein, cognitive dissonance, deliberate practice, Flynn Effect, haute couture, helicopter parent, knowledge worker, longitudinal study, meta-analysis, military-industrial complex, new economy, Norbert Wiener, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ronald Reagan, Stephen Hawking, The Bell Curve by Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray, the scientific method, Thomas L Friedman, Two Sigma, War on Poverty

Today’s overstructured, hardworking children are in a sense a strange echo of the idea of childhood in earlier centuries, except now it is the upper and upper-middle classes who labor so young, rather than the other way around. They are like Baruch Shemtov, a teen tie designer, who in 2004 had his first trunk show at a high-end department store, calling his ties, which he works on in addition to his hours of schoolwork, “haute couture.” (Baruch’s “career” started when he collected Gucci catalogs as a child. His first clothing line, designed at age eight, was named BYSH, after himself.) “Because I have school, I can’t expand as much as I’d like,” he told me. Parents of child professionals—and also some of the millions of American children with shrunken recess and play hours—don’t all think the reduction of play is such a terrible thing.

Squeezed: Why Our Families Can't Afford America by Alissa Quart

Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, Airbnb, Alvin Toffler, antiwork, Automated Insights, autonomous vehicles, barriers to entry, basic income, Bernie Sanders, business intelligence, do what you love, Donald Trump, Downton Abbey, East Village, Elon Musk, emotional labour, full employment, future of work, gentrification, gig economy, glass ceiling, haute couture, income inequality, independent contractor, information security, Jaron Lanier, Jeremy Corbyn, job automation, late capitalism, Lyft, minimum wage unemployment, moral panic, new economy, nuclear winter, obamacare, peak TV, Ponzi scheme, post-work, precariat, price mechanism, rent control, rent stabilization, ride hailing / ride sharing, school choice, sharing economy, Sheryl Sandberg, Silicon Valley, Skype, Snapchat, stop buying avocado toast, surplus humans, TaskRabbit, tech worker, TED Talk, Travis Kalanick, Uber and Lyft, Uber for X, uber lyft, union organizing, universal basic income, upwardly mobile, wages for housework, WeWork, women in the workforce, work culture , working poor

It all got me wondering whether the more staccato and dreary our real work lives are, the more we might depend on shows featuring a colorfully and darkly immoral overclass. One percent reality shows feature outrageously lavish weddings, maternity concierges, and planners for children’s birthday parties, ridiculously roomy mansions and glorious Los Angeles modernist homes, private concerts, elaborate wardrobes, and haute couture hairstylists. In one section of 1 percent TV sit the Kardashians and the Real Housewives, but also the 2011 show Pregnant in Heels, where an insanely wealthy “maternity concierge” came out about her infertility on air. “I discovered I had a heart-shaped uterus and after surgery didn’t ovulate again,” said the show’s star, Rosie Pope, in an interview.

Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Gail Steketee, Randy Frost

Asperger Syndrome, autism spectrum disorder, Berlin Wall, carbon footprint, dumpster diving, Ford Model T, haute couture, Honoré de Balzac, impulse control, McMansion

"But now I can't find what I'm looking for," he said, adding that it sometimes took him two hours to dress as he struggled to locate the right item in his mass of clothes and accessories. "I live as if it's a dressing room." Colin acquired nearly all his clothes for free. His designer friends and former colleagues regularly sent him haute couture for his personal use. These gifts were intended to gain his approval and pay him back for favors in the past. If Colin merely mentioned to a friend that he might need something for his travels, it arrived on his doorstep from London, Moscow, or Paris. Because his income was now fixed, Colin relied on these former colleagues and friends to support his "habit."

Celebration of Fools: An Inside Look at the Rise and Fall of JCPenney by Bill Hare

business climate, fake news, glass ceiling, haute couture, haute cuisine, McMansion, pneumatic tube, Ronald Reagan, shareholder value, vertical integration, walking around money, warehouse automation, women in the workforce

Nevertheless, in another part of the JCPenney world a menswear buyer soon noticed an odd spike in blue blazer sales, a curiosity for this time of the year. What could possibly be the cause? He would never have guessed that the reason was what would become known as "The Blue Blazer Convention." Blue Blazers and Haute Couture On the first morning of the convention, Seibert entered the green room before his keynote address. Always distracted before a speech, he sat at a table and leafed through his text making a few margin notes. The speech was titled "Highwire Act" in the printed convention agenda, and the chairman would be playing on the metaphor regarding the skill and courage required of every Penney DM.

You Are What You Speak: Grammar Grouches, Language Laws, and the Politics of Identity by Robert Lane Greene

anti-communist, British Empire, centre right, discovery of DNA, European colonialism, facts on the ground, Great Leap Forward, haute couture, illegal immigration, machine translation, Mahatma Gandhi, Mikhail Gorbachev, Nelson Mandela, Parag Khanna, Ronald Reagan, Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, Steven Pinker, Yogi Berra, zero-sum game

There would be no aperitifs or hors d’oeuvres—in fact there would be no restaurants. We should forget the table d’hôte; there is no question of the à la carte instead. There would be no left- or right-hand side of the menu and no nouvelle cuisine. Bon viveurs would be banned. One would not be able to shower one’s fiancée with bouquets, meet at a secret rendezvous, or buy her haute couture clothes. There would be great difficulties in having a ménage-à-trois. Crime passionel would be out of the question and negligée would make a liaison dangereuse a little risqué. After another member cried out “guillotine him!” Steen’s fines-for-French measure was duly put to a vote and rejected, 149–45.

My Life as a Quant: Reflections on Physics and Finance by Emanuel Derman

Bear Stearns, Berlin Wall, bioinformatics, Black-Scholes formula, book value, Brownian motion, buy and hold, capital asset pricing model, Claude Shannon: information theory, Dennis Ritchie, Donald Knuth, Emanuel Derman, financial engineering, fixed income, Gödel, Escher, Bach, haute couture, hiring and firing, implied volatility, interest rate derivative, Jeff Bezos, John Meriwether, John von Neumann, Ken Thompson, law of one price, linked data, Long Term Capital Management, moral hazard, Murray Gell-Mann, Myron Scholes, PalmPilot, Paul Samuelson, pre–internet, proprietary trading, publish or perish, quantitative trading / quantitative finance, Sharpe ratio, statistical arbitrage, statistical model, Stephen Hawking, Steve Jobs, stochastic volatility, technology bubble, the new new thing, transaction costs, volatility smile, Y2K, yield curve, zero-coupon bond, zero-sum game

(Since the Black-Scholes model is only a model, and since no model in finance is 100 percent correct, it is impossible for them to entirely cancel their risk.) Dealers charge a fee (the option premium) for this construction and deconstruction, just as chefs at fancy restaurants charge you not only for the raw ingredients but also for the recipes and skills they use, or as couturiers bill you for the materials and talents they employ in creating haute couture dresses. LIFE AS A QUANT The history of quants on Wall Street is the history of the ways in which practitioners and academics have refined and extended the BlackScholes model. The last thirty years have seen it applied not just to stock options but to options on just about anything you can think of, from Treasury bonds and foreign exchange to the weather.

Split-Second Persuasion: The Ancient Art and New Science of Changing Minds by Kevin Dutton

availability heuristic, Bernie Madoff, call centre, Cass Sunstein, classic study, cognitive bias, cognitive dissonance, cognitive load, credit crunch, different worldview, double helix, Douglas Hofstadter, equity premium, fundamental attribution error, haute couture, job satisfaction, Jon Ronson, loss aversion, Milgram experiment, Philippa Foot, placebo effect, Stephen Fry, Stephen Hawking, Steven Pinker, theory of mind, trolley problem, ultimatum game, upwardly mobile

So why not do some good with it for once?’ He smiles. ‘Or that’s what I told the minister anyway. That pompous prick would have swallowed anything if it made him look good in front of his flock!’ Barrett’s technique was unorthodox to say the least. It was also downright illegal. Jettisoning the sumptuous haute couture of the old days – the silk ties, the Gucci shoes, the Armani shirts, and the £2000 Savile Row suits – he began by dressing down. In jeans, sneakers and sport’s shirt: the epitome of shabby chic. Such a retrograde costume change as this (made, he points out impishly, against all his natural sartorial instincts) flags up the extraordinary attention to detail, the predatory, arctic acumen of the ultimate persuasion virtuoso.

Family Trade by Stross, Charles

book value, British Empire, glass ceiling, haute couture, indoor plumbing, junk bonds, land reform, Larry Ellison, new economy, retail therapy, sexual politics, trade route

He hugged her. “Tell me everything. In your own time.” ‘Time is the one thing I don’t think we’ve got.” She leaned against him. “Someone sent Olga an unwelcome gift—a rape-o-gram. Luckily for me, but unluckily for the thug concerned, Olga’s childlike enthusiasms include embroidery, violins, haute couture, and semiautomatic weapons. She found a commission in his back pocket, with my seal on it and a purse of coin sufficient to pay the kind of maidenprice Oliver might ask for someone he really didn’t like much. Roland, I didn’t even know I had a seal.” ” ‘A seal.’” He looked away just as someone knocked on the door.

The Rapture of the Nerds by Cory Doctorow, Charles Stross

"World Economic Forum" Davos, 3D printing, Alan Greenspan, Ayatollah Khomeini, butterfly effect, cognitive dissonance, combinatorial explosion, complexity theory, Credit Default Swap, dematerialisation, Drosophila, epigenetics, Extropian, financial engineering, Future Shock, gravity well, greed is good, haute couture, heat death of the universe, hive mind, margin call, mirror neurons, negative equity, phenotype, plutocrats, rent-seeking, Richard Feynman, telepresence, Turing machine, Turing test, union organizing

Where a terrestrial establishment would have a central bar area and booths around the periphery, this establishment has a kilometers-wide expanse of glassy floor and a central bar that features such nifty magnification features that stools spring up like self-similar leather mushrooms as you approach any given spot: in the distance, near the walls, gales howl among the hyperspace gates leading to the private areas (which feature planetary themes, so that the subsurface oceanic caverns of Enceladus adjoin the fiery sands of long-dismantled Venus). The dress code is similarly over the top, as Huw realizes when she notices the djinni is wearing an antique Armani suit. She’s no expert on haute couture: she realizes she probably ought to recognize the designer of the cocktail dress the scanner selected for her, but she’s too busy fighting with the insane footwear to care about such minor details. Mid-1980s: Greed is good. It seems a fitting context in which to discuss the identity of a person or persons who might be trying to steal a planet’s worth of computronium.

The Winner-Take-All Society: Why the Few at the Top Get So Much More Than the Rest of Us by Robert H. Frank, Philip J. Cook

accounting loophole / creative accounting, air freight, Alvin Roth, Apple's 1984 Super Bowl advert, business cycle, compensation consultant, Daniel Kahneman / Amos Tversky, delayed gratification, Garrett Hardin, global village, haute couture, income inequality, independent contractor, invisible hand, junk bonds, labor-force participation, longitudinal study, Marshall McLuhan, medical malpractice, Network effects, positional goods, prisoner's dilemma, rent-seeking, rising living standards, Ronald Reagan, school choice, Shoshana Zuboff, Stephen Hawking, stock buybacks, Tragedy of the Commons, transaction costs, trickle-down economics, winner-take-all economy

Unix, Macintosh, MS-DOS, Windows, and OS-2 have been the most important rival operating systems for personal comput­ ers. And digital technology battled analog technology in the race to bring high-definition television to market. Fashions, too, often compete in winner-take-all markets. In the world of haute couture, designers often stake their survival on con­ flicting hunches about hem lengths and lapel widths. And executives at General Motors likewise took a financial leap of faith when they brought out their 1 958 Chevrolet, the first American car in several years that lacked conspicuous tail fins. But probably no group is more vulnerable to the whims of fashion than the entrepreneurs who com­ pete in the market for trendy nightclubs in cities like New York.

Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth by Noa Tishby

An Inconvenient Truth, Ayatollah Khomeini, Bernie Sanders, Black Lives Matter, Boycotts of Israel, British Empire, Burning Man, centre right, COVID-19, disinformation, epigenetics, European colonialism, failed state, fake news, Ferguson, Missouri, financial engineering, George Floyd, haute couture, if you build it, they will come, it's over 9,000, Jeremy Corbyn, lockdown, post-work, psychological pricing, RAND corporation, Silicon Valley, Social Justice Warrior, Suez canal 1869, Suez crisis 1956, women in the workforce, Yom Kippur War

The Labor Party of the time ignored and dismissed thousands of years of other traditions, mainly North African ones. Their vision was idealistic, but the implementation was god-awful. Zohar Yakobson is my manager and sister at heart. She migrated from Morocco to Israel in 1967, right after the Six Day War. Back in Morocco, her father was a successful haute couture tailor, meticulously creating three-piece suits for the local elites from fabrics he personally sourced each season in Paris. They lived in the liberal city of Fez, where her mother managed the house, surrounded by help, and took care of the huge family like a roaring lioness. Life was full of love, music, food, and celebrations.

Ghost Road: Beyond the Driverless Car by Anthony M. Townsend

A Pattern Language, active measures, AI winter, algorithmic trading, Alvin Toffler, Amazon Robotics, asset-backed security, augmented reality, autonomous vehicles, backpropagation, big-box store, bike sharing, Blitzscaling, Boston Dynamics, business process, Captain Sullenberger Hudson, car-free, carbon footprint, carbon tax, circular economy, company town, computer vision, conceptual framework, congestion charging, congestion pricing, connected car, creative destruction, crew resource management, crowdsourcing, DARPA: Urban Challenge, data is the new oil, Dean Kamen, deep learning, deepfake, deindustrialization, delayed gratification, deliberate practice, dematerialisation, deskilling, Didi Chuxing, drive until you qualify, driverless car, drop ship, Edward Glaeser, Elaine Herzberg, Elon Musk, en.wikipedia.org, extreme commuting, financial engineering, financial innovation, Flash crash, food desert, Ford Model T, fulfillment center, Future Shock, General Motors Futurama, gig economy, Google bus, Greyball, haute couture, helicopter parent, independent contractor, inventory management, invisible hand, Jane Jacobs, Jeff Bezos, Jevons paradox, jitney, job automation, John Markoff, John von Neumann, Joseph Schumpeter, Kickstarter, Kiva Systems, Lewis Mumford, loss aversion, Lyft, Masayoshi Son, megacity, microapartment, minimum viable product, mortgage debt, New Urbanism, Nick Bostrom, North Sea oil, Ocado, openstreetmap, pattern recognition, Peter Calthorpe, random walk, Ray Kurzweil, Ray Oldenburg, rent-seeking, ride hailing / ride sharing, Rodney Brooks, self-driving car, sharing economy, Shoshana Zuboff, Sidewalk Labs, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley startup, Skype, smart cities, Smart Cities: Big Data, Civic Hackers, and the Quest for a New Utopia, SoftBank, software as a service, sovereign wealth fund, Stephen Hawking, Steve Jobs, surveillance capitalism, technological singularity, TED Talk, Tesla Model S, The Coming Technological Singularity, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, The future is already here, The Future of Employment, The Great Good Place, too big to fail, traffic fines, transit-oriented development, Travis Kalanick, Uber and Lyft, uber lyft, urban planning, urban sprawl, US Airways Flight 1549, Vernor Vinge, vertical integration, Vision Fund, warehouse automation, warehouse robotics

Most important of all, these deliveries stop me from taking a trip by car several times a month—and even after accounting for the diesel-spewing trucks that bring this stuff home for me, we all end up way ahead on the carbon counter. I tell myself this self-delusional story often, though I stop short of wrapping this remote-controlled retail extravaganza in labels like the sharing economy. It’s hard to imagine anything less communitarian than renting haute couture, outsourcing storage for a household hoard, or breaking down bulk foodstuffs into millions of little plastic pouches. And then the rebound effect enters the analysis, and blows away all these incremental gains in ecological efficiency. For every step toward conservation that continuous delivery takes us forward, we’ll take two steps back in added consumption, it seems.

The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls

East Village, glass ceiling, haute couture, index card, indoor plumbing

But I now had my job at The Phoenix. As for the learning itself, I figured you didn't need a college degree to become one of the people who knew what was really going on. If you paid attention, you could pick things up on your own. And so, if I overheard mention of something I was ignorant about—keeping Kosher, Tammany Hall, haute couture—I researched it later on. One day I interviewed a community activist who described a particular job program as a throwback to the Progressive Era. I had no idea what the Progressive Era was, and back in the office, I got out the World Book Encyclopedia. Mike Armstrong wanted to know what I was doing, and when I explained, he asked me if I had ever thought of going to college.

Lonely Planet France by Lonely Planet Publications

banking crisis, bike sharing, British Empire, car-free, carbon footprint, centre right, Charles Lindbergh, Columbine, David Sedaris, double helix, Frank Gehry, G4S, gentrification, glass ceiling, haute couture, haute cuisine, Henri Poincaré, Herbert Marcuse, high-speed rail, Honoré de Balzac, illegal immigration, Jacquard loom, Joseph-Marie Jacquard, Kickstarter, Louis Blériot, Louis Pasteur, low cost airline, Mahatma Gandhi, mass immigration, Murano, Venice glass, ride hailing / ride sharing, sensible shoes, Silicon Valley, Suez canal 1869, supervolcano, three-masted sailing ship, trade route, urban renewal, urban sprawl, V2 rocket

Exchange Rates Australia A$1 €0.79 Canada C$1 €0.79 Japan ¥100 €0.98 New Zealand NZ$1 €0.63 UK UK£1 €1.24 US US$1 €0.77 For current exchange rates, see www.xe.com Important Numbers France country code 33 International access code 00 Europe-wide emergency 112 Ambulance (SAMU) 15 Police 17 Arriving in France » Paris – Aéroport Roissy Charles de Gaulle Trains, Buses & RER – to Paris centre every 15 to 30 minutes, 5am to 11pm Night Bus – hourly, 12.30am to 5.30am. Taxis – €50–€60; 30 minutes to Paris centre » Paris – Aéroport d’Orly Orlyval Rail, RER & Buses – at least every 15 minutes, 5am to 11pm Taxis – €45–€60; 25 minutes to Paris centre In France to Shop! OK, so Paris is the bee’s knees for luxury goods like haute couture, high-quality fashion accessories (Hermès silk scarf, Madame?), lingerie, perfume and cosmetics. Lovely as they are, they most probably aren’t any cheaper to buy in France than at home. Time your trip right and pick up designer and street fashion for a snip of the usual price at France’s soldes (sales), by law held twice a year for three weeks in January and again in July.

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Je voudrais réserver une chambre. » a single room une chambre à un lit » a double room une chambre avec un grand lit » My name is ... Je m’appelle... » from ... to... (date) du... au... » How much is it? C’est combien? » per night/person par nuit/personne » Thank you (very much). Merci (beaucoup). What to Wear Paris, cradle of haute couture, is chic, so don your smarter threads (think Parisian, think accessories!). The further south you go, the more relaxed fashion becomes, although it’s still sassy, especially on the French Riviera. Avoid shorts and flip-flops unless you’re at the beach, and dress up rather than down at restaurants, clubs and bars – no jeans and trainers, unless you’re at the local village bar.

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The tower is also an ideal spot to board a river cruise (or the hop-on, hop-off Batobus) along the Seine, and float past Parisian landmarks like the Louvre and Notre Dame. Other vantage points perfect for acquainting yourself with the city include the rooftops of the Centre Pompidou cultural centre and the art nouveau department store Galeries Lafayette, as well as the steps of Sacré-Cœur basilica. Top Five Signature Splurges » Flit between flagship haute couture (high fashion) houses in the Triangle d’Or (Golden Triangle; bordered by avs Georges V, Champs-Élysées and Montaigne), St-Germain’s storied shops, and emerging designers in the Haut Marais (Click here ). » Feast on baiser Ladurée (layered almond cake with strawberries and cream) at Champs-Élysées patisserie Ladurée (Click here ). » Concoct your own personal fragrance at Le Studio des Parfums ( Click here ). » Sip a decadent hot chocolate at salon de thé (tea room) Angelina (Click here ). » Spend an evening at Paris’ oldest and most palatial opera house, the Palais Garnier ( Click here ).

The Deep Learning Revolution (The MIT Press) by Terrence J. Sejnowski

AI winter, Albert Einstein, algorithmic bias, algorithmic trading, AlphaGo, Amazon Web Services, Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, augmented reality, autonomous vehicles, backpropagation, Baxter: Rethink Robotics, behavioural economics, bioinformatics, cellular automata, Claude Shannon: information theory, cloud computing, complexity theory, computer vision, conceptual framework, constrained optimization, Conway's Game of Life, correlation does not imply causation, crowdsourcing, Danny Hillis, data science, deep learning, DeepMind, delayed gratification, Demis Hassabis, Dennis Ritchie, discovery of DNA, Donald Trump, Douglas Engelbart, driverless car, Drosophila, Elon Musk, en.wikipedia.org, epigenetics, Flynn Effect, Frank Gehry, future of work, Geoffrey Hinton, Google Glasses, Google X / Alphabet X, Guggenheim Bilbao, Gödel, Escher, Bach, haute couture, Henri Poincaré, I think there is a world market for maybe five computers, industrial robot, informal economy, Internet of things, Isaac Newton, Jim Simons, John Conway, John Markoff, John von Neumann, language acquisition, Large Hadron Collider, machine readable, Mark Zuckerberg, Minecraft, natural language processing, Neil Armstrong, Netflix Prize, Norbert Wiener, OpenAI, orbital mechanics / astrodynamics, PageRank, pattern recognition, pneumatic tube, prediction markets, randomized controlled trial, Recombinant DNA, recommendation engine, Renaissance Technologies, Rodney Brooks, self-driving car, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley startup, Socratic dialogue, speech recognition, statistical model, Stephen Hawking, Stuart Kauffman, theory of mind, Thomas Bayes, Thomas Kuhn: the structure of scientific revolutions, traveling salesman, Turing machine, Von Neumann architecture, Watson beat the top human players on Jeopardy!, world market for maybe five computers, X Prize, Yogi Berra

Something is stirring in the fashion world: “‘Many jobs are vanishing,’ Silvia Venturini Fendi said before her show: ‘Androids will take the old jobs, but the only thing that they can’t replace is our creativity and our minds.’”26 Now imagine generative adversarial networks that have been trained to generate new styles and haute couture with almost endless variety. The world of fashion may be on the brink of a new era, along with many other businesses that depend on creativity. It’s All about Scaling Most of the current learning algorithms were discovered more than twenty-five years ago, so why did it take so long for them to have an impact on the real world?

Discover Kaua'i Travel Guide by Lonely Planet

carbon footprint, Easter island, G4S, haute couture, land reform, Maui Hawaii, off-the-grid, out of africa, Peter Pan Syndrome, polynesian navigation, profit motive, union organizing, white picket fence

The surviving stores offer a mix of midrange island attire, jewelry, T-shirts and gifts. BAMBULEI Clothing Offline map (www.bambulei.com; 4-369-D Kuhio Hwy; 10am-6pm Mon-Sat) This irresistible women’s boutique is chock-full of feminine gear made for women who’ve outgrown the teenage surfer-chick look. The drapey sweaters, platform sandals and kimono-fabric accessories aren’t haute couture, but they’re affordable and unique. Also find vintage clothing and retro home decor. Getting There & Away Don’t look for a town center. Most attractions are scattered along Kuhio Hwy (Hwy 56) or along Kuamo'o Rd (Hwy 580), which leads mauka (inland). To get to Kapa'a or beyond, take the Kapa'a Bypass Rd, which runs from Coconut Plantation to north Kapa'a.

Structures: Or Why Things Don't Fall Down by J. E. Gordon

double helix, haute couture, pattern recognition, Suez canal 1869, Tacoma Narrows Bridge

Problems of this kind keep cropping up in biology, and it was most interesting to find that Professor Steve Wainwright of Duke University, who is concerned with worms, has derived, quite independently, just the same mathematics as we had worked out twenty years or so before for use in rocketry.* On inquiry, I find that in this case too the inspiration arose, via Professor Biggs, from the bias cut. The invention of the bias cut brought fame to Mile Vionnet in the world of haute couture. She lived to a great age and died, not long ago, at ninety-eight, quite unaware of her very significant contributions to space travel, to military technology and to the biomechanics of worms. Shear stress is only tension and compression acting at ±45° – and vice versa A very little further thought about plate webs in beams and lattice webs in trusses and about bias-cut nighties makes it obvious that a shear stress is merely tension or compression (or both) acting at 45°, and that, furthermore, there is a shear stress acting at 45° to every tension and compression stress.

Discover Greece Travel Guide by Lonely Planet

car-free, carbon footprint, credit crunch, G4S, haute couture, haute cuisine, low cost airline, pension reform, sensible shoes, too big to fail, trade route, urban renewal

Vathia (Click here) IMAGE BROKER/LONELY PLANET IMAGES © Athens Athens ( Click here ) is a magnificent mash-up of the ancient and the contemporary. Beneath the facades of venerable landmarks, the city teems with life and creativity. Galleries and clubs hold exhibitions, performances and installations. Trendy restaurants and humble tavernas rustle up fine fare. Ubiquitous cafes fill with cool locals whose styles run from punk rock to haute couture. Discos and bars abound and swing deep into the night. GEORGE TSAFOS/LONELY PLANET IMAGES © Ancient Architecture ACROPOLIS Visually arresting monument of the ancient world. ( Click here ) METEORA Mystical monasteries perched atop towering rock pinnacles. ( Click here ) ANCIENT DELPHI The atmospheric centre of the Ancient Greek world.

Western USA by Lonely Planet

airport security, Albert Einstein, Apollo 11, Apple II, Asilomar, back-to-the-land, Bay Area Rapid Transit, Biosphere 2, Burning Man, California gold rush, call centre, car-free, carbon footprint, Charles Lindbergh, Chuck Templeton: OpenTable:, cotton gin, Donner party, East Village, edge city, Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Frank Gehry, global village, Golden Gate Park, Haight Ashbury, haute couture, haute cuisine, illegal immigration, intermodal, Joan Didion, Kickstarter, Loma Prieta earthquake, machine readable, Mahatma Gandhi, Mars Rover, Maui Hawaii, off grid, off-the-grid, retail therapy, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley startup, South of Market, San Francisco, starchitect, stealth mode startup, stem cell, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, supervolcano, trade route, transcontinental railway, Upton Sinclair, urban planning, Virgin Galactic, women in the workforce, Works Progress Administration, young professional, Zipcar

Momentum HANDICRAFTS (www.ourmomentum.com; 1625 Pearl St; 10am-7pm Tue-Sat, 11am-6pm Sun) The kitchen sink of unique global gifts – Zulu wire baskets, fabulous scarves from India, Nepal and Ecuador – all handcrafted and purchased at fair value from disadvantaged artisans. Every item purchased provides a direct economic lifeline to the artists. Common Threads CLOTHING (www.commonthreadsboulder.com; 2707 Spruce St; 10am-6pm Mon-Sat, noon-5pm Sun) Vintage shopping at its most haute couture, this fun place is where to go for secondhand Choos and Prada purses. The shop is a pleasure to browse, with clothing organized by color and type on visually aesthetic racks, just like a big-city boutique. Boulder Bookstore BOOKS (www.boulderbookstore.indiebound.com; 1107 Pearl St) Boulder’s favorite indie bookstore has a huge travel section downstairs and hosts readings and workshops.

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Caesars Palace CASINO (www.caesarspalace.com; 3570 Las Vegas Blvd S) Quintessentially Las Vegas, Caesars Palace is a Greco-Roman fantasyland featuring marble reproductions of classical statuary, including a not-to-be-missed 4-ton Brahma shrine near the front entrance. Towering fountains, goddess-costumed cocktail waitresses and the swanky haute-couture Forum Shops all ante up the glitz. Paris Las Vegas CASINO (www.parislasvegas.com; 3655 Las Vegas Blvd S) Evoking the gaiety of the City of Light, Paris Las Vegas strives to capture the essence of the grand dame by re-creating her landmarks. Fine likenesses of the Opéra, the Arc de Triomphe, the Champs-Élysées, the soaring Eiffel Tower and even the Seine frame the property.

End of the World Blues by Jon Courtenay Grimwood

double helix, haute couture, hydroponic farming, Nelson Mandela

It was beginning to look as if British intelligence provided one of the biggest markets for crappy accommodation in the city. “This is Alan,” said the Brigadier, but Kit’s attention was on the neon girl. She was retro kitsch, the kind of icon that had begun to spring up all over East Shinjuku and the bits of Roppongi not yet colonised by haute couture and impossibly expensive estate agents. “What’s the latest?” asked Amy, sounding brightly professional. The one advantage of the SUV over the Volvo was that Kit and Amy had been able to sit with the suitcase flat between them. In the last hour Amy hadn’t spoken one word to Kit; hadn’t even looked at him, come to that.

Remix by John Courtenay Grimwood

clean water, delayed gratification, double helix, fear of failure, haute couture, Herbert Marcuse, Kickstarter, linked data, space junk

The higher the iron content the more virulent the viral attack. And the Institut Bonaparte had been walled with pure steel. Habit made her fold the black Dior skirt and drape it over the back of a Louis XVII chair. Just as habit made her slip her cloak onto an old-fashioned hanger. Too late, of course. There were clothes and then there was haute couture. Smart fabric or not, Dior had never intended that skirt to be worn in the needle’s eye of a thunder storm. All the same, Clare tried to smooth out the skirt’s creases before stepping out of her shot-silk slip. That got treated to a hanger, too. And then, stripped naked, Lady Clare stepped into a sonic cubicle, punching the setting up to maximum.

Cities Are Good for You: The Genius of the Metropolis by Leo Hollis

Airbnb, Alvin Toffler, banking crisis, Berlin Wall, Big Tech, Boris Johnson, Broken windows theory, Buckminster Fuller, call centre, car-free, carbon footprint, cellular automata, classic study, clean water, cloud computing, complexity theory, congestion charging, creative destruction, credit crunch, Credit Default Swap, crowdsourcing, Deng Xiaoping, digital divide, digital map, Disneyland with the Death Penalty, Donald Shoup, East Village, Edward Glaeser, Elisha Otis, Enrique Peñalosa, export processing zone, Firefox, Frank Gehry, General Motors Futurama, Geoffrey West, Santa Fe Institute, Gini coefficient, Google Earth, Great Leap Forward, Guggenheim Bilbao, haute couture, Hernando de Soto, high-speed rail, housing crisis, illegal immigration, income inequality, informal economy, Internet of things, invisible hand, Jane Jacobs, Jevons paradox, Kickstarter, knowledge economy, knowledge worker, Leo Hollis, Lewis Mumford, Long Term Capital Management, M-Pesa, Mahatma Gandhi, Mark Zuckerberg, Masdar, mass immigration, megacity, negative equity, Neil Armstrong, new economy, New Urbanism, Occupy movement, off-the-grid, openstreetmap, packet switching, Panopticon Jeremy Bentham, place-making, power law, Quicken Loans, Ray Oldenburg, Richard Florida, sharing economy, Silicon Valley, Skype, smart cities, smart grid, spice trade, Steve Jobs, technoutopianism, the built environment, The Chicago School, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, The Great Good Place, the High Line, The Spirit Level, the strength of weak ties, The Wisdom of Crowds, Thomas Malthus, trade route, traveling salesman, urban planning, urban renewal, urban sprawl, walkable city, white flight, Y2K, Yom Kippur War

There was also Pat, who wrote the subtitles for French films and was trying to get a novel published; Suzi, a South African architecture student who had spent the day in Montparnasse Cemetery; two sisters, Stef and Pam, who had been coming to Jim’s for over fifteen years and conducted tours for rich Americans around the ateliers of the leading haute couture designers and fabric shops. Throughout it all, Jim himself sat on his stool and surveyed the scene he had created. When I asked him why he still did this, despite one heart attack and another health scare, he admitted that he was still interested in people, still wanted to share with strangers and make friends, that this making of a community, for however brief amount of time, was a reason for living.

Unnatural Causes by Richard Shepherd

call centre, David Attenborough, haute couture, Piper Alpha

And, here we had a social life. We had always been too busy for this before but now we had friends. It mattered little that we were much younger than most of them. We simply slotted into the society that had been ready-made for us by Maggie. So what if she was ageing a little now? She was still at every party, a woman with haute couture dresses bulging from every wardrobe in almost every bedroom in the house. Something delicious bubbling on the stove, a gin and tonic always at the ready and she was never without an admiring circle of friends. It felt good to be among them, good to be part of a community. The children visited often.

Luxury Fever: Why Money Fails to Satisfy in an Era of Excess by Robert H. Frank

Alan Greenspan, business cycle, clean water, company town, compensation consultant, Cornelius Vanderbilt, correlation coefficient, Daniel Kahneman / Amos Tversky, full employment, Garrett Hardin, germ theory of disease, global village, haute couture, hedonic treadmill, impulse control, income inequality, invisible hand, job satisfaction, Kenneth Arrow, lake wobegon effect, loss aversion, market clearing, McMansion, means of production, mega-rich, mortgage debt, New Urbanism, Pareto efficiency, Post-Keynesian economics, RAND corporation, rent control, Richard Thaler, rising living standards, Ronald Reagan, Silicon Valley, Tax Reform Act of 1986, telemarketer, The Theory of the Leisure Class by Thorstein Veblen, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, Thomas Malthus, Thorstein Veblen, Tragedy of the Commons, trickle-down economics, ultimatum game, winner-take-all economy, working poor

Daniel Kahneman, Ed Diener, and Norbert Schwartz, New York: Russell Sage, 1998. Fronstin, Paul; Lawrence Goldberg; and Philip Robins. “An Analysis of the Decline in Private Health Insurance Coverage between 1988 and 1992,” Social Science Quarterly 78, March 1997: 44-65. Gabriel, Trip. “Six Figures of Fun,” New York Times, February 12, 1997: B1, B8. Gadomski, Nina. “Haute Couture; Harper College’s Fashion Department Turns Out Winners,” Chicago Tribune, March 2, 1997: 1. Galbraith, John Kenneth. The Affluent Society, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1958. Galbraith, John Kenneth. The New Industrial State, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1967. Gallup, George, and Frank Newport. “Time at a Premium for Many Americans,” Gallup Poll Monthly, November 1990: 43-56.

Machines of Loving Grace: The Quest for Common Ground Between Humans and Robots by John Markoff

A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace, AI winter, airport security, Andy Rubin, Apollo 11, Apple II, artificial general intelligence, Asilomar, augmented reality, autonomous vehicles, backpropagation, basic income, Baxter: Rethink Robotics, Bill Atkinson, Bill Duvall, bioinformatics, Boston Dynamics, Brewster Kahle, Burning Man, call centre, cellular automata, Charles Babbage, Chris Urmson, Claude Shannon: information theory, Clayton Christensen, clean water, cloud computing, cognitive load, collective bargaining, computer age, Computer Lib, computer vision, crowdsourcing, Danny Hillis, DARPA: Urban Challenge, data acquisition, Dean Kamen, deep learning, DeepMind, deskilling, Do you want to sell sugared water for the rest of your life?, don't be evil, Douglas Engelbart, Douglas Engelbart, Douglas Hofstadter, Dr. Strangelove, driverless car, dual-use technology, Dynabook, Edward Snowden, Elon Musk, Erik Brynjolfsson, Evgeny Morozov, factory automation, Fairchild Semiconductor, Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, From Mathematics to the Technologies of Life and Death, future of work, Galaxy Zoo, General Magic , Geoffrey Hinton, Google Glasses, Google X / Alphabet X, Grace Hopper, Gunnar Myrdal, Gödel, Escher, Bach, Hacker Ethic, Hans Moravec, haute couture, Herbert Marcuse, hive mind, hype cycle, hypertext link, indoor plumbing, industrial robot, information retrieval, Internet Archive, Internet of things, invention of the wheel, Ivan Sutherland, Jacques de Vaucanson, Jaron Lanier, Jeff Bezos, Jeff Hawkins, job automation, John Conway, John Markoff, John Maynard Keynes: Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren, John Maynard Keynes: technological unemployment, John Perry Barlow, John von Neumann, Kaizen: continuous improvement, Kevin Kelly, Kiva Systems, knowledge worker, Kodak vs Instagram, labor-force participation, loose coupling, Marc Andreessen, Mark Zuckerberg, Marshall McLuhan, medical residency, Menlo Park, military-industrial complex, Mitch Kapor, Mother of all demos, natural language processing, Neil Armstrong, new economy, Norbert Wiener, PageRank, PalmPilot, pattern recognition, Philippa Foot, pre–internet, RAND corporation, Ray Kurzweil, reality distortion field, Recombinant DNA, Richard Stallman, Robert Gordon, Robert Solow, Rodney Brooks, Sand Hill Road, Second Machine Age, self-driving car, semantic web, Seymour Hersh, shareholder value, side project, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley startup, Singularitarianism, skunkworks, Skype, social software, speech recognition, stealth mode startup, Stephen Hawking, Steve Ballmer, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Steven Levy, Stewart Brand, Strategic Defense Initiative, strong AI, superintelligent machines, tech worker, technological singularity, Ted Nelson, TED Talk, telemarketer, telepresence, telepresence robot, Tenerife airport disaster, The Coming Technological Singularity, the medium is the message, Thorstein Veblen, Tony Fadell, trolley problem, Turing test, Vannevar Bush, Vernor Vinge, warehouse automation, warehouse robotics, Watson beat the top human players on Jeopardy!, We are as Gods, Whole Earth Catalog, William Shockley: the traitorous eight, zero-sum game

In the late 1980s, anyone wandering through the cavernous Grand Central Station in Manhattan would have noticed that almost a third of the morning commuters were wearing Sony Walkman headsets. Today, of course, the Walkmans have been replaced by Apple’s iconic bright white iPhone headphones, and there are some who believe that technology haute couture will inevitably lead to a future version of Google Glass—the search engine maker’s first effort to augment reality—or perhaps more ambitious and immersive systems. Like the frog in the pot, we have been desensitized to the changes wrought by the rapid increase and proliferation of information technology.

The Joy of Clojure by Michael Fogus, Chris Houser

cloud computing, Dennis Ritchie, domain-specific language, Donald Knuth, Douglas Hofstadter, duck typing, en.wikipedia.org, finite state, functional programming, Gödel, Escher, Bach, haute couture, higher-order functions, Larry Wall, Paul Graham, rolodex, SQL injection, traveling salesman

The authors blaze through many of the classics of both functional programming and industry programming in a whirlwind tour of Clojure that feels at times more like a class-five tropical storm. You’ll learn fast! Our industry, the global programming community, is fashion-driven to a degree that would embarrass haute couture designers from New York to Paris. We’re slaves to fashion. Fashion dictates the programming languages people study in school, the languages employers hire for, the languages that get to be in books on shelves. A naive outsider might wonder if the quality of a language matters a little, just a teeny bit at least, but in the real world fashion trumps all.

What's Left?: How Liberals Lost Their Way by Nick Cohen

"hyperreality Baudrillard"~20 OR "Baudrillard hyperreality", anti-communist, Ayatollah Khomeini, Berlin Wall, Boycotts of Israel, British Empire, centre right, critical race theory, DeepMind, disinformation, Etonian, failed state, Fall of the Berlin Wall, Farzad Bazoft, feminist movement, government statistician, Great Leap Forward, haute couture, kremlinology, liberal world order, light touch regulation, mass immigration, military-industrial complex, moral hazard, Naomi Klein, no-fly zone, plutocrats, post-industrial society, profit motive, public intellectual, Ralph Nader, road to serfdom, Ronald Reagan, Scientific racism, sensible shoes, the scientific method, union organizing, upwardly mobile, Yom Kippur War

Looking back to the America of the early Sixties, two sharp English writers noted that George W. Bush’s grandfather was a Republican who would never have described himself a conservative. Meanwhile: the Kennedy administration wore its civilised European values on its sleeve (literally so in the case of the haute-coutured first lady). The president liked to point out that he had spent a year at the London School of Economics as a student of a prominent Marxist, Harold Laski. ‘These without doubt are the years of the liberal,’ John Kenneth Galbraith wrote, somewhat smugly, in 1964. ‘Almost everyone now so describes himself.’

Moscow, December 25th, 1991 by Conor O'Clery

Anton Chekhov, Berlin Wall, central bank independence, Dissolution of the Soviet Union, Donald Trump, Doomsday Clock, Fall of the Berlin Wall, Francis Fukuyama: the end of history, haute couture, It's morning again in America, land reform, Mikhail Gorbachev, military-industrial complex, Ronald Reagan, Sinatra Doctrine, The Chicago School

In Washington she discussed world affairs with prominent American women at the Washington home of socialite Pamela Harrison. Woman’s Own magazine in the United Kingdom made her “Woman of the Year” in 1987. The masses inevitably resented her celebrity. The Russian women who endured harsh living conditions and had no access to haute couture disliked her as much as the Russian men reared in the domestic tradition of domostroi, the practice dating back to Ivan the Terrible under which husbands dominated and wives obeyed. Her elegance was a reminder of the existence of special shops with luxury clothes that were inaccessible to ordinary citizens.

Targeted: The Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower's Inside Story of How Big Data, Trump, and Facebook Broke Democracy and How It Can Happen Again by Brittany Kaiser

"World Economic Forum" Davos, Albert Einstein, Amazon Mechanical Turk, Asian financial crisis, Bernie Sanders, Big Tech, bitcoin, blockchain, Boris Johnson, Brexit referendum, Burning Man, call centre, Cambridge Analytica, Carl Icahn, centre right, Chelsea Manning, clean water, cognitive dissonance, crony capitalism, dark pattern, data science, disinformation, Dominic Cummings, Donald Trump, Edward Snowden, Etonian, fake news, haute couture, illegal immigration, Julian Assange, Mark Zuckerberg, Menlo Park, Nelson Mandela, off grid, open borders, public intellectual, Renaissance Technologies, Robert Mercer, rolodex, Russian election interference, sentiment analysis, Sheryl Sandberg, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley startup, Skype, Snapchat, statistical model, Steve Bannon, subprime mortgage crisis, TED Talk, the High Line, the scientific method, WeWork, WikiLeaks, you are the product, young professional

It was about two feet tall, shaped in the likeness of Trump, with a big head of bright yellow hair and a face more sour than celebratory. It was said to have been made out of hundreds of pounds of marzipan, and the woman from New Jersey who had whipped it up from scratch stood next to it with pride. Throughout the room was a varied display of haute couture, cheap cocktail dresses, and a sea of MAGA hats. People carried signs that read, “Women for Trump” or “Hispanics for Trump” or “Bikers for Trump.” Soon, the highboy tables became littered with empty beer bottles. VIPS such as Alexander were still at Trump Tower with Donald, the Mercers, Kellyanne, and anyone with a Trump last name, plus Jared Kushner, but in the ballroom and at the cash bar was a motley crew of high and low Trump staffers, political demi-luminaries, and big-ticket donors.

The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers by Richard McGregor

activist lawyer, banking crisis, corporate governance, credit crunch, Deng Xiaoping, financial innovation, Gini coefficient, glass ceiling, global reserve currency, Great Leap Forward, haute couture, high-speed rail, hiring and firing, income inequality, invisible hand, kremlinology, land reform, Martin Wolf, megaproject, Mikhail Gorbachev, military-industrial complex, old-boy network, one-China policy, Panopticon Jeremy Bentham, pre–internet, reserve currency, risk/return, Shenzhen special economic zone , South China Sea, sovereign wealth fund, special economic zone, Upton Sinclair

The annual debutante ball traditionally features the offspring of European royalty, multinational industrialists and Hollywood movie stars. That year, the ball was also graced by a representative of the globe’s newest power player, the Chinese Communist Party, in the form of Ms Chen. All the debutantes were decked out in haute couture loaned to them for the evening. Ms Chen wore an Azzedine Alaia pink cotton dress, which, if she had had to pay for it, would have cost as much as her father’s official cash salary for a few months. Her appearance at the ball nonetheless neatly symbolized the trajectory of her family, and of the Communist Party along with it.

When Einstein Walked With Gödel: Excursions to the Edge of Thought by Jim Holt

Ada Lovelace, Albert Einstein, Andrew Wiles, anthropic principle, anti-communist, Arthur Eddington, Benoit Mandelbrot, Bletchley Park, Brownian motion, cellular automata, Charles Babbage, classic study, computer age, CRISPR, dark matter, David Brooks, Donald Trump, Dr. Strangelove, Eddington experiment, Edmond Halley, everywhere but in the productivity statistics, Fellow of the Royal Society, four colour theorem, Georg Cantor, George Santayana, Gregor Mendel, haute couture, heat death of the universe, Henri Poincaré, Higgs boson, inventory management, Isaac Newton, Jacquard loom, Johannes Kepler, John von Neumann, Joseph-Marie Jacquard, Large Hadron Collider, Long Term Capital Management, Louis Bachelier, luminiferous ether, Mahatma Gandhi, mandelbrot fractal, Monty Hall problem, Murray Gell-Mann, new economy, Nicholas Carr, Norbert Wiener, Norman Macrae, Paradox of Choice, Paul Erdős, Peter Singer: altruism, Plato's cave, power law, probability theory / Blaise Pascal / Pierre de Fermat, quantum entanglement, random walk, Richard Feynman, Robert Solow, Schrödinger's Cat, scientific worldview, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, selection bias, Skype, stakhanovite, Stephen Hawking, Steven Pinker, Thorstein Veblen, Turing complete, Turing machine, Turing test, union organizing, Vilfredo Pareto, Von Neumann architecture, wage slave

Narrowly escaping, he managed to get to London during the Blitz and served as a sergeant for the Free French and then as a technical expert for the British air force. While pursuing pure mathematics and logic during the chaos of the war, Robinson also did brilliant work for the military in aerodynamics and “wing theory.” After the war, Robinson and his wife, a talented actress and fashion photographer from Vienna, could be found attending the haute couture collections together in Paris. Following teaching stints at the University of Toronto and Hebrew University, he was given Rudolf Carnap’s old chair in philosophy and mathematics at UCLA at the beginning of the 1960s. Attracted by the lure of Hollywood, Robinson and his wife lived in a Corbusier-style villa in Mandeville Canyon, becoming friendly with the actor Oskar Werner.

Sardinia Travel Guide by Lonely Planet

car-free, carbon footprint, centre right, haute couture, Honoré de Balzac, Kickstarter, low cost airline, Skype

Antica Enoteca CagliaritanaWINE ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; %070 66 93 86; Scalette Santa Chiara 21) Wine buffs will enjoy exploring the racks at this specialist wine shop off Piazza Yenne. You can have orders sent anywhere in the world except the US (customs difficulties, apparently). Sorelle PireddaFASHION ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; %334 21 57 266, 349 55 00 528 ; www.sorellepiredda.com; Piazza San Giuseppe 4) For haute couture with history, visit this oh-so-stylish Castello boutique. It’s graced with the imaginative designs of the Piredda sisters, whose slinky evening dresses, capes and intricate shawls are inspired by ancient Sardinian motifs and traditional costume. Loredana MandasJEWELLERY ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; Via Sicilia 31; h9.30am-1pm & 4.30-8pm Mon-Sat) For something very special, seek out this jewellery workshop.

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe

Asilomar, Bonfire of the Vanities, Buckminster Fuller, edge city, Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, Golden Gate Park, Haight Ashbury, haute couture, Menlo Park, Ronald Reagan, stakhanovite, Stewart Brand, strikebreaker, the scientific method, Thorstein Veblen

But of course!—the feeling—out here at night, free, with the motor running and the adrenaline flowing, cruising in the neon glories of the new American night—it was very Heaven to be the first wave of the most extraordinary kids in the history of the world—only 15, 16, 17 years old, dressed in the haute couture of pink Oxford shirts, sharp pants, snaky half-inch belts, fast shoes—with all this Straight-6 and V-8 power underneath and all this neon glamour overhead, which somehow tied in with the technological superheroics of the jet, TV, atomic subs, ultrasonics—Postwar American suburbs—glorious world!

The Science of Fear: How the Culture of Fear Manipulates Your Brain by Daniel Gardner

Atul Gawande, availability heuristic, behavioural economics, Black Swan, Cass Sunstein, citizen journalism, cognitive bias, cognitive dissonance, Columbine, correlation does not imply causation, Daniel Kahneman / Amos Tversky, David Brooks, Doomsday Clock, feminist movement, haute couture, hindsight bias, illegal immigration, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), lateral thinking, Linda problem, mandatory minimum, medical residency, Mikhail Gorbachev, millennium bug, moral panic, mutually assured destruction, nuclear winter, Oklahoma City bombing, placebo effect, precautionary principle, public intellectual, Ralph Nader, RAND corporation, Ronald Reagan, social intelligence, Stephen Hawking, Steven Levy, Steven Pinker, the long tail, the scientific method, Timothy McVeigh, Tunguska event, uranium enrichment, Y2K, young professional

And since our brains really make us what we are, the conclusion to be drawn from this is unavoidable and a little unsettling. We are cavemen. Or cavepersons, if you prefer. Whatever the nomenclature, we sophisticated moderns living in a world of glass, steel, and fiber optics are no different, in a fundamental sense, than the prehistoric humans for whom campfires were the latest in high tech and bison hides were haute couture. This is the central insight of evolutionary psychology—a field that came into prominence only in the last thirty years, although Darwin himself saw the implications of evolution for the study of human thoughts and actions. Our minds evolved to cope with what evolutionary psychologists call the “Environment of Evolutionary Adaptation.”

The Edifice Complex: How the Rich and Powerful--And Their Architects--Shape the World by Deyan Sudjic

Ayatollah Khomeini, Berlin Wall, bread and circuses, British Empire, call centre, colonial rule, Columbine, cuban missile crisis, dematerialisation, Deng Xiaoping, Dissolution of the Soviet Union, Donald Trump, Frank Gehry, glass ceiling, Great Leap Forward, Guggenheim Bilbao, haute couture, haute cuisine, megastructure, Mikhail Gorbachev, Neil Armstrong, new economy, New Urbanism, oil shock, Peter Eisenman, Ronald Reagan, Socratic dialogue, urban planning, urban renewal, V2 rocket, Victor Gruen

He had a romantic vision that, had he lived, might have encouraged others in an exploration of these issues. When he died, his career cut cruelly short at just 45, he was on the edge of becoming a major figure, but without having yet completed the Edinburgh parliament that would demonstrate that he offered much more than promise. This is haute-couture architecture: every door, every handle, every window, every light fitting has been designed as if it were a one-off, and it was almost as difficult to build as a Gaudí cathedral. Miralles designed spaces that surprise you as you move from one to another, and where you can suddenly find yourself looking up at the sky, or across another part of the parliament complex to see the landscape beyond.

Backstage Passes & Backstabbing Bastards: Memoirs of a Rock 'N' Roll Survivor by Al Kooper

cuban missile crisis, David Brooks, gentrification, haute couture, Maui Hawaii

As I mentioned previously, I was touring quite a bit at this time. One particular scenario comes to mind: We were in some town, early seventies, and I lost control and took some wild-looking-dreadlocked-ring-in-her-nose young woman back to my room that night. This was in the days when one in six hundred young women opted for this particular haute couture. We were scheduled to leave at eight the next morning and drive to the airport. I tried to sneak this young woman out without the other musicians seeing her, but it didn’t work. They were giggling like girlie-men! As we got into the station wagon for the half-hour-haul to the airport, the giggling continued and I turned around to them and said: “I don’t want to hear one word from you guys on this trip, okay?

The Future Is Asian by Parag Khanna

3D printing, Admiral Zheng, affirmative action, Airbnb, Amazon Web Services, anti-communist, Asian financial crisis, asset-backed security, augmented reality, autonomous vehicles, Ayatollah Khomeini, barriers to entry, Basel III, bike sharing, birth tourism , blockchain, Boycotts of Israel, Branko Milanovic, British Empire, call centre, capital controls, carbon footprint, cashless society, clean tech, clean water, cloud computing, colonial rule, commodity super cycle, computer vision, connected car, corporate governance, CRISPR, crony capitalism, cross-border payments, currency peg, death from overwork, deindustrialization, Deng Xiaoping, Didi Chuxing, Dissolution of the Soviet Union, Donald Trump, driverless car, dual-use technology, energy security, European colonialism, factory automation, failed state, fake news, falling living standards, family office, financial engineering, fixed income, flex fuel, gig economy, global reserve currency, global supply chain, Great Leap Forward, green transition, haute couture, haute cuisine, illegal immigration, impact investing, income inequality, industrial robot, informal economy, initial coin offering, Internet of things, karōshi / gwarosa / guolaosi, Kevin Kelly, Kickstarter, knowledge worker, light touch regulation, low cost airline, low skilled workers, Lyft, machine translation, Malacca Straits, Marc Benioff, Mark Zuckerberg, Masayoshi Son, megacity, megaproject, middle-income trap, Mikhail Gorbachev, money market fund, Monroe Doctrine, mortgage debt, natural language processing, Netflix Prize, new economy, off grid, oil shale / tar sands, open economy, Parag Khanna, payday loans, Pearl River Delta, prediction markets, purchasing power parity, race to the bottom, RAND corporation, rent-seeking, reserve currency, ride hailing / ride sharing, Ronald Reagan, Salesforce, Scramble for Africa, self-driving car, Shenzhen special economic zone , Silicon Valley, smart cities, SoftBank, South China Sea, sovereign wealth fund, special economic zone, stem cell, Steve Jobs, Steven Pinker, supply-chain management, sustainable-tourism, synthetic biology, systems thinking, tech billionaire, tech worker, trade liberalization, trade route, transaction costs, Travis Kalanick, uber lyft, upwardly mobile, urban planning, Vision Fund, warehouse robotics, Washington Consensus, working-age population, Yom Kippur War

In the world of fashion, Asia is now holding its own and expanding—both alone and through smart partnerships with European incumbents. The Japanese icon Issey Miyake began his career with Givenchy in Paris before launching his own labels, which brought Eastern styles to global prominence. Today Asian fashion is prominent from streetwear to haute couture. Uniqlo is a widely known Japanese label that has earned a large and loyal global following, while Shanghai Tang, which revives Chinese styles from a century ago, was bought early on by the Swiss luxury group Richemont and carried worldwide. Superdry is a highly successful British brand that uses gibberish Japanese characters on its clothing to enhance its unique appeal.

Culture and Prosperity: The Truth About Markets - Why Some Nations Are Rich but Most Remain Poor by John Kay

Alan Greenspan, Albert Einstein, Asian financial crisis, Barry Marshall: ulcers, behavioural economics, Berlin Wall, Big bang: deregulation of the City of London, Bletchley Park, business cycle, California gold rush, Charles Babbage, complexity theory, computer age, constrained optimization, corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, correlation does not imply causation, Daniel Kahneman / Amos Tversky, David Ricardo: comparative advantage, Donald Trump, double entry bookkeeping, double helix, Dr. Strangelove, Dutch auction, Edward Lloyd's coffeehouse, electricity market, equity premium, equity risk premium, Ernest Rutherford, European colonialism, experimental economics, Exxon Valdez, failed state, Fairchild Semiconductor, financial innovation, flying shuttle, Ford Model T, Francis Fukuyama: the end of history, George Akerlof, George Gilder, Goodhart's law, Great Leap Forward, greed is good, Gunnar Myrdal, haute couture, Helicobacter pylori, illegal immigration, income inequality, industrial cluster, information asymmetry, intangible asset, invention of the telephone, invention of the wheel, invisible hand, John Meriwether, John Nash: game theory, John von Neumann, junk bonds, Kenneth Arrow, Kevin Kelly, knowledge economy, Larry Ellison, light touch regulation, Long Term Capital Management, loss aversion, Mahatma Gandhi, market bubble, market clearing, market fundamentalism, means of production, Menlo Park, Michael Milken, Mikhail Gorbachev, money: store of value / unit of account / medium of exchange, moral hazard, Myron Scholes, Naomi Klein, Nash equilibrium, new economy, oil shale / tar sands, oil shock, Pareto efficiency, Paul Samuelson, pets.com, Phillips curve, popular electronics, price discrimination, price mechanism, prisoner's dilemma, profit maximization, proprietary trading, purchasing power parity, QWERTY keyboard, Ralph Nader, RAND corporation, random walk, rent-seeking, Right to Buy, risk tolerance, road to serfdom, Robert Solow, Ronald Coase, Ronald Reagan, Savings and loan crisis, second-price auction, shareholder value, Silicon Valley, Simon Kuznets, South Sea Bubble, Steve Jobs, Stuart Kauffman, telemarketer, The Chicago School, The Market for Lemons, The Nature of the Firm, the new new thing, The Predators' Ball, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, Thorstein Veblen, total factor productivity, transaction costs, tulip mania, urban decay, Vilfredo Pareto, Washington Consensus, women in the workforce, work culture , yield curve, yield management

The end of Jean-Marie Messier came first, however, and a new management team was appointed to dismantle his empire and repay its crushing debts. A more successful model of international diversification is the oil services company Schlumberger, which probably also provides any smart card you have in your purse or pocket. Other global companies based in France-such as L'Oreal and LVMH distribute the productsfragrances, wines, haute couture-traditionally associated with France. Carrefour is, after Wal-Mart, the world's second-largest retailer; Aventis makes many of the pills in the bags with the green cross; St. Gobain makes glass and other construction materials for a global marketplace: look at the label etched on your car's windshield.

Framing Class: Media Representations of Wealth and Poverty in America by Diana Elizabeth Kendall

"RICO laws" OR "Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations", AOL-Time Warner, Bernie Madoff, blue-collar work, Bonfire of the Vanities, call centre, content marketing, Cornelius Vanderbilt, David Brooks, declining real wages, Donald Trump, employer provided health coverage, ending welfare as we know it, fixed income, framing effect, gentrification, Georg Cantor, Gordon Gekko, greed is good, haute couture, housing crisis, illegal immigration, income inequality, junk bonds, Michael Milken, mortgage tax deduction, new economy, payday loans, Ponzi scheme, Ray Oldenburg, Richard Florida, Ronald Reagan, San Francisco homelessness, Saturday Night Live, systems thinking, telemarketer, The Great Good Place, The Theory of the Leisure Class by Thorstein Veblen, Thorstein Veblen, trickle-down economics, union organizing, upwardly mobile, urban planning, vertical integration, work culture , working poor

Fans and friends of Becca—a group ranging from Princess Napoleon to Charlie Rose— flew in from Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., New York, Toronto, Paris, and all over Texas to raise funds and glasses of Dom Pérignon in her spectacular 20,000-square-foot, glass-walled home. The highlight: a recreation of last month’s Christian Lacroix Haute Couture show that was presented on a mirrored runway built on top of an indoor swimming pool. Said Becca: “I had to take out a wall of my house to accommodate everyone!”58 The privileged women who frequently plan these social or charitable events for the wealthy and well connected also believe that this sort of media coverage is crucial for the success of the event.59 Evidence of this is found in columns like “Boldface Names” in the New York Times, in the lifestyle sections of local newspapers, and in neighborhood newspapers (such as Park Cities People in Dallas) and on numerous websites (such as Style.com).

Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes by Mark Penn, E. Kinney Zalesne

addicted to oil, affirmative action, Albert Einstein, Alvin Toffler, Ayatollah Khomeini, Berlin Wall, big-box store, Biosphere 2, call centre, corporate governance, David Brooks, Donald Trump, extreme commuting, Exxon Valdez, feminist movement, Future Shock, glass ceiling, God and Mammon, Gordon Gekko, haute couture, hygiene hypothesis, illegal immigration, immigration reform, independent contractor, index card, Isaac Newton, job satisfaction, labor-force participation, late fees, life extension, low cost airline, low interest rates, low skilled workers, mobile money, new economy, Paradox of Choice, public intellectual, RAND corporation, Renaissance Technologies, Ronald Reagan, Rosa Parks, Rubik’s Cube, stem cell, Stephen Hawking, Steve Jobs, Superbowl ad, the payments system, Thomas L Friedman, upwardly mobile, uranium enrichment, urban renewal, War on Poverty, white picket fence, women in the workforce, Y2K

In the crafts marketplace itself, there is likely to be a growing demand for richer colors, jazzier patterns, and “fashion yarns,” which are fuzzier, furrier, lacier, and more metallic than the ones that composed your old gray crew neck from L.L. Bean. According to the Craft Yarn Council, between 2004 and 2005 alone, fashion yarn purchases rose 56 percent. Within the world of fashion, we should expect more knits on the runway, and more handmade looks in haute couture. I, for one, didn’t know they could make hand-knit bikini tops—but then, until recently, I also didn’t know that ten new Knitting “Meet-Ups” were forming per week in cities all over America. However, the real significance of Teen Knitters is that techie clichés notwithstanding, many of today’s kids have longer attention spans than we give them credit for; and they are passionate about creating—not just cyberprofiles, but also tangible, useful products that mark their presence in the world.

Jennifer Morgue by Stross, Charles

Boeing 747, call centre, Carl Icahn, correlation does not imply causation, disinformation, disintermediation, dumpster diving, Dutch auction, Etonian, haute couture, interchangeable parts, Maui Hawaii, messenger bag, MITM: man-in-the-middle, mutually assured destruction, operational security, PalmPilot, planetary scale, RFID, Seymour Hersh, Silicon Valley, Skype, slashdot, stem cell, telepresence, traveling salesman, Turing machine

He's playing some kind of endgame and you don't like the smell and neither does the Black Chamber, which explains me and Ramona. Am I right so far" Angleton nods minutely. "I should remind you that Billington is extraordinarily rich and has fingers in a surprising number of pies. For example, by way of his current wife — his third — he owns a cosmetics and haute couture empire; in addition to IT corporations he owns shipping, aviation, and banking interests. Your assignment — and Ramona's — is to get close to Billington. Ideally you should contrive to get yourself invited aboard his yacht, the Mabuse, while Ramona remains in touch with your backup team and the local head of station.

The Fire and the Darkness by Sinclair McKay

Berlin Wall, Bletchley Park, Fall of the Berlin Wall, German hyperinflation, haute couture, women in the workforce

Meanwhile, matching this sophisticated feel in the old town – the Altstadt – near the railway station was the elegant and sumptuous Prager Strasse, a shopping street that, even in the vice-grip of the total-war economy, still exerted a strong pull on the imaginations and desires of many local people. In a curious way, the windows of Prager Strasse’s shops in earlier years had not only afforded glimpses of flashing beauty – richly coloured silks of indigo and emerald, chic haute couture, voluminous luxurious furs, the hard dazzle of jewellery – but also suggested a form of social stability: exquisite assets that unlike the cruelly inflationary German currency of the 1920s would keep their value, thus also buying their owners security and safety. There was no such security for many store owners, though; since the passing of the 1935 Nuremberg Laws forcing anti-Semitism deep into the constitutional heart of German life, business people had learned bitterly that such assets could be snatched – expropriated by the state.

Southwest USA Travel Guide by Lonely Planet

1919 Motor Transport Corps convoy, Albert Einstein, Apollo 11, Berlin Wall, Biosphere 2, Burning Man, carbon footprint, Columbine, Day of the Dead, Donner party, El Camino Real, friendly fire, G4S, haute couture, haute cuisine, housing crisis, illegal immigration, immigration reform, indoor plumbing, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), low earth orbit, machine readable, off grid, off-the-grid, place-making, SpaceShipOne, supervolcano, trade route, transcontinental railway, Virgin Galactic, walkable city, Works Progress Administration, X Prize

When it debuted in 1966, this Greco-Roman fantasyland captured the world’s attention with its full-size marble reproductions of classical statuary and its cocktail waitresses clothed as goddesses. Bar girls continue to roam the gaming areas in skimpy togas, and faux-ancient Muses guard the high-roller rooms. The Colosseum showroom hosts mega-concerts featuring international icons like chanteuse Celine Dion. Don’t skip a stroll through the curious mix of haute couture and cheesy Roman spectacle at the Forum Shops. Mirage CASINO (www.mirage.com; 3400 Las Vegas Blvd S) With a tropical setting replete with a huge atrium filled with jungle foliage and soothing cascades, the Mirage captures the imagination. Circling the atrium is a vast Polynesian-themed casino, which places gaming areas under separate roofs to evoke intimacy, including a popular high-limit poker room.

…

REGIONAL IDENTITY For the most part, residents of the Southwest are more easygoing than their counterparts on the East and West Coasts. They tend to be friendlier too. Even at glitzy restaurants in the biggest cities (with the exception of Las Vegas), you’ll see more jeans and cowboy boots than haute couture. Chat with a local at a low-key pub in Arizona or Colorado, and they’ll likely tell you they’re from somewhere else. They moved out here for the scenery, unpolluted air and slower pace of life. Folks in this region consider themselves environmentally friendly. Living a healthy lifestyle is important, and many residents like to hike, mountain bike, ski and ride the rapids.

Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order by Parag Khanna

Abraham Maslow, Admiral Zheng, affirmative action, anti-communist, Asian financial crisis, Bartolomé de las Casas, Branko Milanovic, British Empire, call centre, capital controls, central bank independence, cognitive dissonance, colonial rule, complexity theory, continuation of politics by other means, crony capitalism, death from overwork, Deng Xiaoping, different worldview, Dissolution of the Soviet Union, Donald Trump, dual-use technology, Edward Glaeser, energy security, European colonialism, export processing zone, facts on the ground, failed state, flex fuel, Francis Fukuyama: the end of history, friendly fire, gentrification, Gini coefficient, global reserve currency, global supply chain, Great Leap Forward, guns versus butter model, haute couture, Hernando de Soto, illegal immigration, income inequality, informal economy, invisible hand, Islamic Golden Age, karōshi / gwarosa / guolaosi, Khyber Pass, Kickstarter, knowledge economy, land reform, Londongrad, low cost airline, low skilled workers, mass immigration, means of production, megacity, meritocracy, military-industrial complex, Monroe Doctrine, Nelson Mandela, no-fly zone, oil shale / tar sands, oil shock, oil-for-food scandal, open borders, open economy, Parag Khanna, Pax Mongolica, Pearl River Delta, pirate software, Plutonomy: Buying Luxury, Explaining Global Imbalances, Potemkin village, price stability, race to the bottom, RAND corporation, reserve currency, restrictive zoning, rising living standards, Robert Solow, Ronald Reagan, Silicon Valley, Skype, South China Sea, special economic zone, stem cell, Stephen Hawking, Suez crisis 1956, Thomas L Friedman, trade route, trickle-down economics, uranium enrichment, urban renewal, Washington Consensus, women in the workforce

And most fundamentally, both people and nations obey Abraham Maslow’s “hierarchy of needs,” prioritizing deficit needs (the physiological demands of satisfying hunger and thirst), then security needs (shelter and stability), and finally being needs (the sense of belonging, love, respect and recognition).34 Democratic governance falls into this latter category, for meeting basic survival and economic needs is what gives people the means to participate actively in democratic politics.35 Pure democracy is like haute couture: One can admire it, but it is not practical for everyday use. The world’s most compelling ideology is neither democracy nor capitalism nor any other ism, but success. All societies pursue the one goal Adam Smith identified in his 1759 Theory of Moral Sentiments: “bettering our condition.” Lacking absolute knowledge, people think relationally: What is the next best thing or status one can achieve?

Civilization: The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson

Admiral Zheng, agricultural Revolution, Albert Einstein, Andrei Shleifer, Atahualpa, Ayatollah Khomeini, Berlin Wall, BRICs, British Empire, business cycle, clean water, collective bargaining, colonial rule, conceptual framework, Copley Medal, corporate governance, creative destruction, credit crunch, David Ricardo: comparative advantage, Dean Kamen, delayed gratification, Deng Xiaoping, discovery of the americas, Dissolution of the Soviet Union, Easter island, European colonialism, Fall of the Berlin Wall, financial engineering, Francisco Pizarro, full employment, Great Leap Forward, Gregor Mendel, guns versus butter model, Hans Lippershey, haute couture, Hernando de Soto, income inequality, invention of movable type, invisible hand, Isaac Newton, James Hargreaves, James Watt: steam engine, John Harrison: Longitude, joint-stock company, Joseph Schumpeter, Kickstarter, Kitchen Debate, land reform, land tenure, liberal capitalism, Louis Pasteur, Mahatma Gandhi, market bubble, Martin Wolf, mass immigration, means of production, megacity, Mikhail Gorbachev, new economy, Pearl River Delta, Pierre-Simon Laplace, power law, probability theory / Blaise Pascal / Pierre de Fermat, profit maximization, purchasing power parity, quantitative easing, rent-seeking, reserve currency, retail therapy, road to serfdom, Ronald Reagan, savings glut, Scramble for Africa, Silicon Valley, South China Sea, sovereign wealth fund, special economic zone, spice trade, spinning jenny, Steve Jobs, Steven Pinker, subprime mortgage crisis, Suez canal 1869, Suez crisis 1956, The Great Moderation, the market place, the scientific method, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, Thomas Kuhn: the structure of scientific revolutions, Thomas Malthus, Thorstein Veblen, total factor productivity, trade route, transaction costs, transatlantic slave trade, undersea cable, upwardly mobile, uranium enrichment, wage slave, Washington Consensus, women in the workforce, work culture , World Values Survey

The results of were published in 1941 as USDA Miscellaneous Publication 454, Women’s Measurements for Garment and Pattern Construction. Standardized sizes allowed civilian clothes, as well as uniforms, to be mass-produced and sold ‘off the peg’ or ‘ready to wear’. Within a matter of a few decades, it was only the clothes of the wealthy elite that were tailor-made: men’s suits from Savile Row and women’s haute couture from Paris and Milan. In the post-war United States the consumer society became a phenomenon of the masses, significantly diminishing the sartorial differences between the social classes. This was part of a generalized levelling up that followed the war. In 1928 the top 1 per cent of the population had received nearly 20 per cent of income.

Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth? by Alan Weisman

air freight, Albert Einstein, Anthropocene, anti-communist, Ayatollah Khomeini, Berlin Wall, biodiversity loss, Bretton Woods, British Empire, call centre, carbon footprint, clean water, colonial rule, David Attenborough, degrowth, demographic transition, Deng Xiaoping, Edward Jenner, El Camino Real, epigenetics, Filipino sailors, Garrett Hardin, Great Leap Forward, Haber-Bosch Process, happiness index / gross national happiness, haute couture, housing crisis, ice-free Arctic, Ignaz Semmelweis: hand washing, illegal immigration, immigration reform, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), land reform, liberation theology, load shedding, Louis Pasteur, Mahatma Gandhi, Mahbub ul Haq, megacity, Menlo Park, Michael Shellenberger, microdosing, Money creation, new economy, ocean acidification, oil shale / tar sands, out of africa, Pearl River Delta, planetary scale, Ponzi scheme, race to the bottom, rolling blackouts, Ronald Reagan, Satyajit Das, Seymour Hersh, Silicon Valley, South China Sea, stem cell, Stephen Hawking, Stewart Brand, unemployed young men, upwardly mobile, urban sprawl, Whole Earth Catalog, WikiLeaks

They are further undermined by hundreds of stores selling hair extensions, makeup, wigs, hair clasps, and lingerie—the latter is even sold in the gift shop at the Ayatollah Khomeini’s tomb. Smuggling networks widely assumed to be run by the Ayatollah’s Revolutionary Guards help keep stores stocked with European and New York haute couture—sluiced, like the BMWs and Lamborghinis of north Tehran, through portals like Dubai. Even during sanctions, Tehran, like Havana, thrums with energy. But it lives on time borrowed from mountain springs recharged by rain. In 1900, they easily supported the 150,000 Tehranis. Counting the 3 million workers who commute here daily, 15 million drain that water today, a hundred-fold increase in just over a century.

The China Mission: George Marshall's Unfinished War, 1945-1947 by Daniel Kurtz-Phelan

anti-communist, Bretton Woods, British Empire, Charles Lindbergh, classic study, clean water, Deng Xiaoping, disinformation, facts on the ground, failed state, Great Leap Forward, haute couture, Kwajalein Atoll, land reform, long peace, South China Sea

Reporters in need of copy relished his potent and articulate analysis, which no matter how misleading still contrasted favorably with the also misleading banalities of officious government spokesmen. Even when you knew he was lying, it was said, you could not help liking him. Officers gave him the code name Mainbocher, after a French-American line of haute couture; Mao was Moby, after the white whale. Over dinner, Zhou talked about books, world events, Paris, dropping French phrases into his tentative English conversation. He was a good dancer and drinker. Liquor brought out a flirtatious streak, but he never seemed to get drunk. Americans slapped him on the back and called him Joe.

Rewired: The Post-Cyberpunk Anthology by James Patrick Kelly, John Kessel

back-to-the-land, Columbine, dark matter, Extropian, Firefox, flag carrier, Future Shock, gravity well, haute couture, Internet Archive, Kim Stanley Robinson, military-industrial complex, Neal Stephenson, pattern recognition, phenotype, post-industrial society, price stability, Silicon Valley, slashdot, Stephen Hawking, technological singularity, telepresence, the scientific method, Turing test, urban renewal, Vernor Vinge, wage slave, Y2K, zero day

“You’re no trader,” said Soma, or started to, but heard the words slur out of him in an unintelligible mess of vowels. One spring semester, when he’d already been a TA for a year, he was tapped to work on the interface. No more need for scholarships. “Painter!” shouted Japheth. Soma looked up. There was a Crow dressed in Alley haute couture standing in front of him. He tried to open his head to call the Tennessee Highway Patrol. He couldn’t find his head. “Give him one of these yellow ones,” said a monkey. “They’re good for fugues.” “Painter!” shouted Japheth again. The grip on Soma’s shoulder was like a vise. Soma struggled to stand under his own power.

The Companion Guide to London by David Piper, Fionnuala Jervis

British Empire, cakes and ale, Edward Lloyd's coffeehouse, Ford Model T, gentrification, haute couture, Isaac Newton, Jarndyce and Jarndyce, Nelson Mandela, South Sea Bubble, V2 rocket

The establishments that deal in these commodities are, in comparison with the huge stores that fringe Mayfair along Regent Street and Oxford Street, relatively small-premised, select and specialist, though some, like the car shops in Berkeley Square or fashion shops like Fenwick, have long threatened to bloom into emporia. And now there are others jostling for more than a discreet door and window, forcing dealers away or at best upstairs; the flagships of haute couture, Versace, Prada and their like, in spacious sparse palaces. Yet an air of exclusivity persists. In Oxford Street you may at times feel that you are merely a permutation of a range of standard measurements; if your particular permutation cannot be matched – be fitted – this will not be due to any failure in the supply offered by the shops – it will be your fault; in fact, you may feel, you are a freak, abnormal.

Rentier Capitalism: Who Owns the Economy, and Who Pays for It? by Brett Christophers

"World Economic Forum" Davos, accounting loophole / creative accounting, Airbnb, Amazon Web Services, barriers to entry, Big bang: deregulation of the City of London, Big Tech, book value, Boris Johnson, Bretton Woods, Brexit referendum, British Empire, business process, business process outsourcing, Buy land – they’re not making it any more, call centre, Cambridge Analytica, Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty, Cass Sunstein, cloud computing, collective bargaining, congestion charging, corporate governance, data is not the new oil, David Graeber, DeepMind, deindustrialization, Diane Coyle, digital capitalism, disintermediation, diversification, diversified portfolio, Donald Trump, Downton Abbey, electricity market, Etonian, European colonialism, financial deregulation, financial innovation, financial intermediation, G4S, gig economy, Gini coefficient, Goldman Sachs: Vampire Squid, greed is good, green new deal, haute couture, high net worth, housing crisis, income inequality, independent contractor, intangible asset, Internet of things, Jeff Bezos, Jeremy Corbyn, Joseph Schumpeter, Kickstarter, land bank, land reform, land value tax, light touch regulation, low interest rates, Lyft, manufacturing employment, market clearing, Martin Wolf, means of production, moral hazard, mortgage debt, Network effects, new economy, North Sea oil, offshore financial centre, oil shale / tar sands, oil shock, patent troll, pattern recognition, peak oil, Piper Alpha, post-Fordism, post-war consensus, precariat, price discrimination, price mechanism, profit maximization, proprietary trading, quantitative easing, race to the bottom, remunicipalization, rent control, rent gap, rent-seeking, ride hailing / ride sharing, Right to Buy, risk free rate, Ronald Coase, Rutger Bregman, sharing economy, short selling, Silicon Valley, software patent, subscription business, surveillance capitalism, TaskRabbit, tech bro, The Nature of the Firm, transaction costs, Uber for X, uber lyft, vertical integration, very high income, wage slave, We are all Keynesians now, wealth creators, winner-take-all economy, working-age population, yield curve, you are the product

‘Outsourcing’, says Beyazay-Odemis, ‘allows [international oil companies] to use resources when needed and reduce costs through mutualization of the capacity.’ Today, she notes, only ‘essential activities’, relating to ‘understanding of the subsurface and knowledge of the reservoir’, are kept in-house. She cites an industry expert: ‘Haute couture is made internally; the standard services and products are outsourced.’ BP has pushed the limits of outsourcing further than any other oil major: In the 1990s, certain [international oil companies] such as BP and Shell started disengaging from execution activities and focusing on asset management.

A Life in Secrets by Sarah Helm

anti-communist, Bletchley Park, British Empire, clockwatching, haute couture, large denomination, old-boy network

Over the first five months of 1943, 240 containers of arms and explosives were dropped to Prosper's cells by aircraft flying from England. By late May 1943 Vera was preparing two further women to join subcircuits of the Prosper network. One, a Frenchwoman named Vera Leigh, who before the war worked in an haute couture hat shop in Paris, had proved an excellent trainee. “Dead keen” and “the best shot in the group,” said her instructors. However, the second woman due to join Suttill was causing Vera some anxiety; this was the young WAAF officer Nora Inayat Khan. So large was Suttill's network by now that he had urgently requested a further wireless operator (he already had two) to work with a suborga-niser and to act as backup to his own wireless man.

Lonely Planet Colombia (Travel Guide) by Lonely Planet, Alex Egerton, Tom Masters, Kevin Raub

airport security, call centre, car-free, carbon footprint, centre right, colonial rule, Columbian Exchange, Downton Abbey, El Camino Real, Francisco Pizarro, friendly fire, gentrification, glass ceiling, haute couture, land reform, low cost airline, off-the-grid, race to the bottom, sustainable-tourism, urban sprawl

January could be considered ideal for its dissipating holiday crowds coupled with lingering festivals and parties. zCarnaval de Blancos y Negros Pasto's uproarious post-Christmas bash, originating during slavery times, sees drunken crowds throwing grease, talcum powder, flour and chalk on each other until everyone is coughing up powdery mucus and doused in gunk. Leave the haute couture at the hotel. February The Andean region remains pleasant and Cartagena almost drought-stricken, making February a great time to beach-hop along the Caribbean coast. With kids back in school and domestic merrymakers returned to the grind, Colombia is tranquilo. zFiesta de Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria A solemn procession is held in Cartagena on 2 February to honor the town's patron saint at the Convento de la Popa, during which the faithful carry lit candles.

Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece by Michael Benson

Alistair Cooke, Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, British Empire, Dr. Strangelove, en.wikipedia.org, haute couture, index card, Internet Archive, Jon Ronson, low earth orbit, Marshall McLuhan, mutually assured destruction, RAND corporation, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

The messages crystallized something of the ongoing transition from the old-school Hollywood way of doing things, in which hired-gun directors simply followed orders, and the emerging new paradigm of freelance directors and production companies making distribution deals with studios that granted them unprecedented levels of control. Other personnel were being signed on as well, and on September 30 Victor Lyndon—a man well known in British film circles for his snazzy attire—informed Caras that Savile Row haute couture designer Hardy Amies was going to create the film’s costumes. Famous as the dressmaker to the Queen, Amies was something of a queen himself but, as acting head of the Special Operations Branch for Belgium during much of World War II, had acquired a reputation as a cold-blooded plotter of assassinations, responsible for numerous successful schemes to kill Nazis and their sympathizers.

Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice From the Best in the World by Timothy Ferriss

"World Economic Forum" Davos, 23andMe, A Pattern Language, agricultural Revolution, Airbnb, Albert Einstein, Alvin Toffler, Bayesian statistics, bitcoin, Black Lives Matter, Black Swan, blockchain, Brownian motion, Buckminster Fuller, Clayton Christensen, cloud computing, cognitive dissonance, Colonization of Mars, corporate social responsibility, cryptocurrency, David Heinemeier Hansson, decentralized internet, dematerialisation, do well by doing good, do what you love, don't be evil, double helix, driverless car, effective altruism, Elon Musk, Ethereum, ethereum blockchain, family office, fear of failure, Gary Taubes, Geoffrey West, Santa Fe Institute, global macro, Google Hangouts, Gödel, Escher, Bach, haute couture, helicopter parent, high net worth, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, income inequality, index fund, information security, Jeff Bezos, job satisfaction, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Kevin Kelly, Lao Tzu, Larry Ellison, Law of Accelerating Returns, Lyft, Mahatma Gandhi, Marc Andreessen, Marc Benioff, Marshall McLuhan, Max Levchin, Mikhail Gorbachev, minimum viable product, move fast and break things, Mr. Money Mustache, Naomi Klein, Neal Stephenson, Nick Bostrom, non-fiction novel, Peter Thiel, power law, profit motive, public intellectual, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ray Kurzweil, Salesforce, Saturday Night Live, Sheryl Sandberg, side project, Silicon Valley, Skype, smart cities, smart contracts, Snapchat, Snow Crash, Steve Jobs, Steve Jurvetson, Steven Pinker, Stewart Brand, sunk-cost fallacy, TaskRabbit, tech billionaire, TED Talk, Tesla Model S, too big to fail, Turing machine, uber lyft, Vitalik Buterin, W. E. B. Du Bois, web application, Whole Earth Catalog, Y Combinator

“You can be a juicy ripe peach and there’ll still be someone who doesn’t like peaches.” Dita Von Teese TW/IG/FB: @DitaVonTeese dita.net DITA VON TEESE is the biggest name in burlesque in the world since Gypsy Rose Lee (born 1911). Dita is credited with bringing the art form back into the spotlight. She is renowned for her iconic martini glass act and dazzling haute-couture striptease costumes adorned with hundreds of thousands of Swarovski crystals. This “Burlesque Superheroine” (Vanity Fair) is the performer of choice at high-profile events for designers such as Marc Jacobs, Christian Louboutin, Louis Vuitton, Chopard, and Cartier. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller Your Beauty Mark: The Ultimate Guide to Eccentric Glamour and has a namesake lingerie collection available internationally at prominent retailers.

Frommer's Cuba by Claire Boobbyer

Albert Einstein, cuban missile crisis, Easter island, Ford Model T, haute couture, Maui Hawaii

One good place to shop for a guayabera is El Quitirín, Calle Obispo and San Ignacio (& 7/862-0810). For a more upscale selection, head over to Miramar and shop at La Maison (see below); Le Select, Avenida 5 and Calle 28 ( & 7/207-9681); or Joyería Quinta y 16 (see “Jewelry,” below). La Maison This minicomplex in an old M iramar mansion is the home of C uban haute coutur e, but that ’s not saying much. S everal stor es spr ead ar ound the rambling 09_345429-ch05.indd 122 11/20/08 8:37:10 PM converted home featur e a limited range of men ’s and women ’s fashions, je welry, and 123 accessories. There’s a nightly runway fashion show (CUC$10/US$11/£5.40), as well as a modest cabar et sho w, combined with the fashion sho w on w eekends.

Switzerland by Damien Simonis, Sarah Johnstone, Nicola Williams

"World Economic Forum" Davos, Albert Einstein, bank run, car-free, clean water, financial engineering, Frank Gehry, Guggenheim Bilbao, haute couture, haute cuisine, indoor plumbing, Kickstarter, low cost airline, Nelson Mandela, offshore financial centre, the market place, trade route, young professional

TEXTILMUSEUM St Gallen has long been an important hub of the Swiss textile industry, and the Textil- S T G A L L E N C A N T O N • • S t G a l l e n 253 museum (%071 222 17 44; www.textilmuseum.ch; adult/ student Sfr5/2; h10am-noon & 2-5pm Tue-Sat, 10am-5pm Sun, plus 10am-5pm 1st Wed of every month) is its most interesting. It traces the history of clothmaking in the town, but isn’t all linen and old lace. Every season, there’s also a selection of the latest fabrics waiting to be snapped up by haute-couture houses in Italy. Sleeping St Gallen is a business town, and frequent exhibitions and conferences can make beds scarce and prices high. Busy times are usually April and October. SYHA Hostel (%071 245 47 77; www.youthhostel.ch /st.gallen; Jüchstrasse 25; dm Sfr27, s/d/q per person Sfr46.50/36/31, r per person Sfr34; hreception closed 9.30am-5pm, hostel closed mid-Dec–Mar) Signposts mark the 15-minute walk from the Old Town to this modern, quality hostel.

Lonely Planet London by Lonely Planet

Boris Johnson, British Empire, car-free, carbon footprint, centre right, Charles Babbage, congestion charging, Crossrail, death from overwork, discovery of the americas, Dr. Strangelove, East Village, Easter island, Edward Jenner, Etonian, financial independence, gentrification, haute couture, haute cuisine, Isaac Newton, John Snow's cholera map, low cost airline, Mahatma Gandhi, market design, place-making, post-work, Russell Brand, Skype, trade route, transatlantic slave trade, urban renewal, Winter of Discontent

Smith also does womenswear with its sharp tailoring for an androgynous, almost masculine, look. Lucy in Disguise Vintage Offline map Google map (www.lucyindisguiselondon.com; 10-13 Kings Street WC2; Covent Garden) Opened in 2010 and owned by singer Lily Allen, Lucy in Disguise is a high-end vintage boutique. The collection is a mix of haute couture (Yves St Laurent and Chanel numbers are not unusual) and unbranded garments. The large number of 1980s outfits can sometimes make you feel like you’ve walked into the dressing room of a Dallas or Santa Barbara filmset. Space NK Beauty Offline map Google map (www.spacenk.co.uk; 32 Shelton St WC2; Covent Garden) Space NK specialises in skincare products and stocks such brands as Dr Hauschka, Eve Lom, Chantecaille, Kiehl’s and Phyto, as well as anti-ageing products from the likes of 24/7 and Dr Sebagh.

An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood by Neal Gabler

Albert Einstein, anti-communist, centralized clearinghouse, Charles Lindbergh, company town, half of the world's population has never made a phone call, haute couture, Louis Pasteur, Norman Mailer, power law, security theater, Upton Sinclair, working poor

“Louis likes slim girls, and its left me like this.” Mayer blamed her for a provincialism that he thought compromised his status. “He felt she didn’t grow with him,” was how his daughter Edith explained it. (Once, Mayer enlisted gossip columnist and fashion plate Hedda Hopper to accompany his wife on a shopping expedition and introduce her to haute couture, but Maggie kept finding fault with the stylish clothes Hopper showed her. She returned with only a girdle.) “On an emotional level, he never lost his ties to Maggie, as he called her,” said Danny Selznick. “But he had to have other kinds of things going on. It wouldn’t have surprised me if he never remarried, but he seemed to want a younger partner and a more contemporary style of living.”

Colorado by Lonely Planet

big-box store, bike sharing, California gold rush, carbon footprint, Columbine, company town, East Village, fixed-gear, gentrification, haute couture, haute cuisine, Kickstarter, megaproject, off-the-grid, payday loans, restrictive zoning, Steve Wozniak, Timothy McVeigh, trade route, transcontinental railway, young professional

Chelsea WOMENS CLOTHING ( 303-447-3760; www.chelseabella.com; 2088 Broadway St; 10am-6pm Mon-Sat, 11am-4pm Sun; 208) A touch of New York style off the Pearl St Mall, this women’s high-fashion boutique has been bringing labels like James Perse to Boulder for 10 years, and it still has some of the sweetest, if priciest, threads in town. Common Threads VINTAGE CLOTHING ( 303-449-5431; www.commonthreadsboulder.com; 2707 Spruce St; 10am-6pm Mon-Sat, noon-5pm Sun; 205, BOLT) Vintage shopping at its most haute couture, this fun place is where to go for secondhand Choos and Prada purses. Prices are higher than your run-of-the-mill vintage shop, but clothes, shoes and bags are always in good condition, and the designer clothing is guaranteed authentic. The shop is a pleasure to browse, with clothing organized by color and type on visually aesthetic racks, just like a big-city boutique.

Jim Henson: The Biography by Brian Jay Jones

Asilomar, clean water, corporate raider, financial independence, gentrification, haute couture, Menlo Park, rolodex, Saturday Night Live, streetcar suburb

In the months leading up to the December release, Jim was determined to build a buzz about the film, making a presentation at the World Science Fiction Convention in Chicago, producing a behind-the-scenes documentary, and opening Dark Crystal–related exhibits at the Craft Gallery in Los Angeles and at New York’s Lincoln Center Library. Most ambitious, perhaps, he had also asked the costumers in the London workshop to create a Dark Crystal Clothing Collection—described by its designers as “dramatic haute couture”—to be sold exclusively through four high-end boutiques, including Jim’s favorite, Liberty’s of London. The fashion line ended up being more notable for its flashy window displays, which used puppets and props from the film, than for its sales—but for Jim, who appreciated craftsmanship and design, the fun had been more in the doing than in the selling.

Pauline Frommer's London: Spend Less, See More by Jason Cochran

Bonfire of the Vanities, Boris Johnson, British Empire, congestion charging, context collapse, David Attenborough, Easter island, electricity market, Etonian, Frank Gehry, glass ceiling, Haight Ashbury, haute couture, Isaac Newton, John Snow's cholera map, Kickstarter, low cost airline, Multics, Nelson Mandela, Skype, Stephen Fry, urban planning

It has also opened a second branch in Soho (58-59 Great Marlborough St.; Tube: Oxford Circus). Dover Street Market 5 (17-18 Dover St., W1; % 020/7518-0680; www.dover streetmarket.com; closed Sun; Tube: Green Park) is a trendy, fashion-first multidesigner concept, heavy on pretentious industrial architecture, that fuses haute couture (Comme des Garçons, Boudicca) with multimedia art installations, all in a six-story department store–like space with an organic cafe on the top floor. The third floor hosts an outpost of L.A.’s famous vintage store Decades. One of the first boutiques to move into Upper Street, Diverse (294 Upper St., N1; % 020/7359-8877; Tube: Angel) keeps stock changing even as it spotlights white-hot labels such as Marc Jacobs and Paper Denim and Cloth.

Merchants of Truth: The Business of News and the Fight for Facts by Jill Abramson

"World Economic Forum" Davos, 23andMe, 4chan, Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, Alexander Shulgin, Apple's 1984 Super Bowl advert, barriers to entry, Bernie Madoff, Bernie Sanders, Big Tech, Black Lives Matter, Cambridge Analytica, Charles Lindbergh, Charlie Hebdo massacre, Chelsea Manning, citizen journalism, cloud computing, commoditize, content marketing, corporate governance, creative destruction, crowdsourcing, data science, death of newspapers, digital twin, diversified portfolio, Donald Trump, East Village, Edward Snowden, fake news, Ferguson, Missouri, Filter Bubble, future of journalism, glass ceiling, Google Glasses, haute couture, hive mind, income inequality, information asymmetry, invisible hand, Jeff Bezos, Joseph Schumpeter, Khyber Pass, late capitalism, Laura Poitras, Marc Andreessen, Mark Zuckerberg, move fast and break things, Nate Silver, new economy, obamacare, Occupy movement, Paris climate accords, performance metric, Peter Thiel, phenotype, pre–internet, race to the bottom, recommendation engine, Robert Mercer, Ronald Reagan, Saturday Night Live, self-driving car, sentiment analysis, Sheryl Sandberg, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley ideology, Silicon Valley startup, skunkworks, Snapchat, social contagion, social intelligence, social web, SoftBank, Steve Bannon, Steve Jobs, Steven Levy, tech billionaire, technoutopianism, telemarketer, the scientific method, The Wisdom of Crowds, Tim Cook: Apple, too big to fail, vertical integration, WeWork, WikiLeaks, work culture , Yochai Benkler, you are the product

Suzy was an old-school newspaper star whose upturned forelock was her trademark. I had a cartoon of her drawn to add visibility to her articles. She was extremely knowledgeable about many things, an eccentric treasure, the kind of older savant being tossed out by other news organizations. I accompanied her to a Chanel haute couture show at the Palais Royale in Paris, a display of gilded excess worthy of Marie Antoinette. Golden told me that Suzy was responsible for 25 percent of the revenue of the International New York Times, but no editor had paid homage. I called this aspect of the job “diva management,” and I quickly learned that it would require tending to divas and gods of both genders.

I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution by Craig Marks, Rob Tannenbaum

Adam Curtis, AOL-Time Warner, Bernie Sanders, Bob Geldof, Chuck Templeton: OpenTable:, crack epidemic, crowdsourcing, financial engineering, haute couture, Live Aid, Neil Armstrong, Parents Music Resource Center, pre–internet, Ronald Reagan, Saturday Night Live, sensible shoes, Skype, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Steven Levy, Tipper Gore, upwardly mobile

Although Donny was one of the most unlikely MTV artists imaginable, they agreed to support a “Sacred Emotion” video if it worked for their audience. My objective was to erase the perception of Donny as a cheesy pretty boy. A talented young woman named Paula Walker started to make a great video featuring a troupe of exotic models in haute couture lingerie. Donny’s manager came in from Utah with a colleague who was introduced as a production adviser. The adviser said, “I know sexy, and this isn’t it.” I said, “You’re an expert on sexy?” He said, “I’m a Mormon with six kids. We have more sex with beautiful women than anybody.” Things got tense enough that I had to cancel the shoot.

The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century by Steve Coll

American ideology, anti-communist, Berlin Wall, Boeing 747, borderless world, Boycotts of Israel, British Empire, business climate, colonial rule, Donald Trump, European colonialism, Fall of the Berlin Wall, financial independence, forensic accounting, global village, haute couture, high-speed rail, independent contractor, intangible asset, Iridium satellite, Khyber Pass, Korean Air Lines Flight 007, low earth orbit, margin call, Mount Scopus, new economy, offshore financial centre, oil shock, Oscar Wyatt, RAND corporation, Ronald Reagan, Saturday Night Live, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley startup, urban planning, Yogi Berra

Afterward, Don Sowell told Jim Bath, “It’s either an Alice-in-Wonderland thing, or it may be the biggest opportunity of a lifetime.”2 The oil embargo transformed America into a shopping mall and vacation resort for many wealthy Saudis. Europe might be fine for skiing, yachting, jewelry shopping, and haute couture, but if you wanted to play in open spaces and find the latest in electronics and toys, there was no substitute for America. Salem, of course, did not initially know—and as the years passed he would never seem to care—that Panama City was not a particularly fashionable destination. If anything, he seemed drawn to its lack of pretension.

Italy by Damien Simonis

active transport: walking or cycling, airport security, bike sharing, Bonfire of the Vanities, call centre, car-free, carbon footprint, centre right, clean water, company town, congestion charging, dark pattern, discovery of the americas, Frank Gehry, haute couture, high-speed rail, illegal immigration, Kickstarter, Kinder Surprise, large denomination, low cost airline, Murano, Venice glass, pension reform, period drama, Peter Eisenman, Pier Paolo Pasolini, retail therapy, Skype, spice trade, starchitect, sustainable-tourism, trade route, urban planning, urban sprawl, women in the workforce

The majority of domestic and a handful of European flights use the more convenient Linate airport (www.sea-aeroportimilano.it), 7km east of the city centre. For flight information, call 02 7485 2200 (both airports). * * * FASHION CAPITAL Milan outflanked Florence (and Rome) to become the country’s haute-couture capital in the late 1960s. Nowadays, the world’s top designers unveil their women’s collections in February/March and September/October, while men’s fashion hits the runways in January and June/July. Where there are fashion shows, there is shopping. Gucci moved to town from Florence in the 1960s, and its flagship store ushered in what is now known as the Quadrilatero d’Oro (Golden Quad; Map), a quadrangle of pedestrian streets bordered by Via della Spiga, Via Sant’Andrea, Via Monte Napoleone and Via Alessandro Manzoni.

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Its charming Belvedere Caffé (coffee €3, tea with biscotti €5, panino €3), which is set in a loggia overlooking the Florentine skyline, is a wonderful spot for a light lunch or afternoon tea. Inside the villa is the Museo Bardini ( 055 263 85 99; www.bardinipeyron.it, in Italian; adult/concession €6/4; 10am-6pm Wed-Sun Apr-Sep, to 4pm Wed-Fri, to 6pm Sat & Sun Oct-Mar), home to a collection of Roberto Capucci—designed haute couture and host to other temporary exhibitions. From here, you can return to the Boboli Gardens on the same ticket or exit at Via de’ Bardi. PIAZZALE MICHELANGELO Turn your back on the bevy of ticky-tacky souvenir stalls and take in the soaring city pano­rama from Piazzale Michelangelo (Map), pierced by one of Florence’s two David copies.

Lonely Planet China (Travel Guide) by Lonely Planet, Shawn Low

Albert Einstein, anti-communist, bike sharing, birth tourism , carbon footprint, clean water, colonial rule, country house hotel, credit crunch, Deng Xiaoping, G4S, gentrification, Great Leap Forward, haute couture, haute cuisine, high-speed rail, income inequality, indoor plumbing, Japanese asset price bubble, Kickstarter, land reform, mass immigration, off-the-grid, Pearl River Delta, place-making, Rubik’s Cube, Shenzhen special economic zone , Skype, South China Sea, special economic zone, sustainable-tourism, trade route, upwardly mobile, urban planning, urban renewal, urban sprawl, women in the workforce, Xiaogang Anhui farmers, young professional

Dragonfly (Youting Baojian Huisuo MAP GOOGLE MAP ; %5403 9982; www.dragonfly.net.cn; 206 Xinle Road; massage per 60 mins ¥188; h10am-2am; mSouth Shaanxi Rd) Green Massage (Qinglai Yangshen GOOGLE MAP ; %5386 0222; www.greenmassage.com.cn; 58 Taicang Rd; massages & spa treatments ¥198-318; h10.30am-2am; mSouth Huangpi Rd) Cinemas Cathay TheatreCINEMA (Guotai Dianyingyuan MAP GOOGLE MAP ; 870 Middle Huaihai Rd; tickets from ¥40; mSouth Shaanxi Rd) This 1932 art deco theatre is one of the cheaper and more centrally located French Concession cinemas. If you want to know if the film is in the original, ask if it's the yuanban version. 7Shopping From mega-malls to independent boutiques and haute couture, Shanghai is once again at the forefront of Chinese fashion and design. The Bund & People’s Square oShanghai Museum Art StoreGIFTS (Shanghai Bowuguan Yishupin Shangdian MAP GOOGLE MAP ; 201 Renmin Ave; h9.30am-5pm; mPeople’s Sq) Attached to the Shanghai Museum and entered from East Yan’an Rd, this store offers refreshing variety from the usual tourist tat.

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HONG KONG MUSEUMS The Hong Kong Museum Pass (www.discoverhongkong.com/eng/attractions/museum-major.html), which allows multiple entries to all museums mentioned in this chapter, is available from participating museums. Museums are free on Wednesday. Hong Kong Island Central is where high finance meets haute couture, and mega deals are closed in towering skyscrapers. To the west is historically rich – and increasingly hip – Sheung Wan, while Admiralty with its few but excellent offerings lies to the east. The 800m-long Central–Mid-Levels Escalator ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; hdown 6-10am, up 10.30am-midnight), which begins on Queen’s Rd Central and finishes at Conduit Rd, is useful for negotiating the slopes of Sheung Wan.

France (Lonely Planet, 8th Edition) by Nicola Williams

active transport: walking or cycling, back-to-the-land, bike sharing, British Empire, car-free, carbon footprint, centre right, Charles Lindbergh, Columbine, company town, double helix, flag carrier, gentrification, Guggenheim Bilbao, haute couture, haute cuisine, Henri Poincaré, Herbert Marcuse, high-speed rail, Honoré de Balzac, illegal immigration, industrial robot, information trail, Jacquard loom, Joseph-Marie Jacquard, Kickstarter, Louis Blériot, Louis Pasteur, low cost airline, Mahatma Gandhi, means of production, Murano, Venice glass, pension reform, post-work, QWERTY keyboard, ride hailing / ride sharing, Saturday Night Live, Silicon Valley, Skype, Sloane Ranger, Suez canal 1869, supervolcano, three-masted sailing ship, trade route, urban renewal, urban sprawl, V2 rocket

Many larger stores hold nocturnes (late nights) on Thursdays, remaining open until around 10pm. For Sunday shopping, the Champs-Élysées, Montmartre, the Marais and Bastille areas are the liveliest. Winter soldes (sales) – during which many shops extend their hours – start mid-January; summer ones, in the second week of June. Clothing & Fashion HAUTE COUTURE & DESIGNER WEAR Most of the major French couturiers and ready-to-wear designers have their own boutiques in the capital, but it’s also possible to see labelled, ready-to-wear collections at major department stores such as Le Printemps, Galeries Lafayette and Le Bon Marché. The Right Bank, especially the so-called Triangle d’Or (Map; Franklin D Roosevelt or Alma Marceau, 1er & 8e) formed by av Montaigne and av Georges V, rue du Faubourg St-Honoré (Map; Madeleine or Concorde, 8e) and its eastern extension, rue St-Honoré ( Tuileries), place des Victoires (Map; Bourse or Sentier, 1er & 2e) and the Marais’ rue des Rosiers (Map; St-Paul, 4e), is traditionally the epicentre of Parisian fashion, though St-Germain (Map; St-Sulpice or St-Germain des Prés) on the Left Bank can also claim a share of boutiques.

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For French postcodes, see www.france-codepostal.fr/en or www.codeposte.com (in French). The notation ‘CEDEX’ after a town name simply means that mail sent to that address is collected at the post office, rather than delivered to the door. Return to beginning of chapter SHOPPING France is renowned for its luxury goods, particularly haute couture, high-quality clothing accessories (eg Hermès scarves), lingerie, perfume and cosmetics. However, such goods may not be any cheaper in France than at home. Soldes (sales) – held, by law, for three weeks in January and July – offer significant discounts and can be a gold mine for fashionistas.

Spain by Lonely Planet Publications, Damien Simonis

Atahualpa, business process, call centre, centre right, Colonization of Mars, discovery of the americas, Francisco Pizarro, Frank Gehry, G4S, gentrification, glass ceiling, Guggenheim Bilbao, haute couture, haute cuisine, high-speed rail, illegal immigration, intermodal, Islamic Golden Age, land reform, large denomination, low cost airline, megaproject, place-making, Skype, trade route, upwardly mobile, urban planning, urban renewal, urban sprawl, Winter of Discontent, young professional

It’s funky, grungy and filled with more torn T-shirts, black leather and silver studs than you’ll ever need. Sadly, it looks likely to be shut down and moved to Valencia in 2009. Check the web for more details. Camper (Map; 91 578 25 60; www.camper.es; Calle de Serrano 24; 10am-8.30pm Mon-Sat; Serrano) Spanish fashion is not all haute couture, and this world-famous cool and quirky shoe brand from Mallorca has shops all over Madrid. The designs are bowling-shoe chic, with colourful, fun styles that are all about comfort. There are other outlets throughout the city. Sara Navarro (Map; 91 576 23 24; www.saranavarro.com; Calle de Jorge Juan 22; 10.30am-8.30pm Mon-Sat; Velázquez) Spanish women love their shoes and, perhaps above all, they love Sara Navarro.

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You’ll find small galleries and designer stores around the Macba art museum (Click here) on Carrer del Doctor Dou, Carrer d’Elisabets and Carrer dels Àngels (Map). The classiest concentration of galleries is on and around the short stretch of Carrer del Consell de Cent between Rambla de Catalunya and Carrer de Balmes (Map). Fashion Antonio Miró (Map; 93 487 06 70; www.antoniomiro.es; Carrer del Consell de Cent 349) Mr Miró is one of Barcelona’s haute-couture kings. He concentrates on light, natural fibres to produce smart, unpretentious men’s and women’s fashion. Custo Barcelona (Map; 93 268 78 93; www.custo-barcelona.com; Plaça de les Olles 7) Custo bewitches people the world over with a youthful, psychedelic panoply of women’s and men’s fashion.

USA's Best Trips by Sara Benson

Albert Einstein, California gold rush, car-free, carbon footprint, cotton gin, Day of the Dead, desegregation, diversified portfolio, Donald Trump, Donner party, East Village, Frank Gehry, gentrification, glass ceiling, Golden Gate Park, Haight Ashbury, haute couture, haute cuisine, if you build it, they will come, indoor plumbing, Kickstarter, lateral thinking, McMansion, mega-rich, New Urbanism, off-the-grid, Ralph Waldo Emerson, rolodex, Ronald Reagan, side project, Silicon Valley, the High Line, transcontinental railway, trickle-down economics, urban renewal, urban sprawl, white flight, white picket fence, Works Progress Administration

* * * Aspen’s handsome, historic red-brick downtown is full of unique boutiques, classy saloons and gourmet eating establishments – no other Colorado town (not even Denver) can boast stand-alone Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada and Chanel stores. In early 2010 Aspen’s attitude was considered glamorous enough to merit its own reality show, the locally controversial Secrets of Aspen. Most of the haute-couture shopping is found on Galena St, Aspen’s version of Rodeo Dr. Visit Hopkins Ave, dubbed Restaurant Row, for posh eateries like Jimmy’s, the perfect place to bid your Colorado ski trip goodbye with top-shelf tequila. Aspen’s top spot for dinner and dancing, Jimmy’s is a steak and crab shack with an attitude, attracting a very A-list crowd.

The Rough Guide to New York City by Rough Guides

3D printing, Airbnb, Bear Stearns, Berlin Wall, Bernie Madoff, bike sharing, Blue Bottle Coffee, Bonfire of the Vanities, Broken windows theory, Buckminster Fuller, buttonwood tree, car-free, centre right, Chuck Templeton: OpenTable:, clean water, collateralized debt obligation, colonial rule, congestion pricing, Cornelius Vanderbilt, crack epidemic, David Sedaris, Donald Trump, Downton Abbey, East Village, Edward Thorp, Elisha Otis, Exxon Valdez, Frank Gehry, General Motors Futurama, gentrification, glass ceiling, greed is good, haute couture, haute cuisine, Howard Zinn, illegal immigration, index fund, it's over 9,000, Jane Jacobs, junk bonds, Kickstarter, Lewis Mumford, Lyft, machine readable, Nelson Mandela, Norman Mailer, paper trading, Ponzi scheme, post-work, pre–internet, rent stabilization, ride hailing / ride sharing, Saturday Night Live, Scaled Composites, starchitect, subprime mortgage crisis, sustainable-tourism, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, the High Line, transcontinental railway, Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, uber lyft, upwardly mobile, urban decay, urban planning, urban renewal, white flight, Works Progress Administration, Yogi Berra, young professional

Bag lovers note: it is also the only department store in the world to house a vintage Hermès shop. Mon–Fri 10am–8pm, Sat 10am–7pm, Sun 11am–7pm. Bergdorf Goodman 754 and 745 Fifth Ave, at E 58th St 212 753 7300, bergdorfgoodman.com; subway F to 57th St, N, R to Fifth Ave-59th St; map. This venerable department store caters to the city’s wealthiest shoppers. Haute-couture designers and salons fill both buildings, one for men, one for women, though it’s the fairer sex that gets to shop within the former Vanderbilt mansion on the east side of Fifth. During lunch hour, it’s speculated that the maître’d makes $500 in tips seating guests at BG Restaurant, which has stunning views of Central Park – patrons want to see that view, and be seen seeing the view.

Jerusalem: The Biography by Simon Sebag-Montefiore

anti-communist, Ayatollah Khomeini, British Empire, California gold rush, Etonian, facts on the ground, haute couture, Khartoum Gordon, Mount Scopus, place-making, plutocrats, sexual politics, spice trade, Suez canal 1869, trade route, urban planning, urban renewal, urban sprawl, white flight, Yom Kippur War

Not to be outdone, the mufti built his own hotel, the Palace, using Jewish contractors, on the site of the ancient Mamilla cemetery. When an American Jewess, a former nurse, opened the first beauty parlour, peasants stood and stared, expecting the mannequins in the window to speak. The best bookshop in town was run by Boulos Said, father of the intellectual Edward, and his brother near the Jaffa Gate, while the finest haute couture emporium belonged to Kurt May and his wife, typical German Jews fleeing Hitler. When he created the shop - the name 'May' was emblazoned above the door in Hebrew, English and Arab - he imported all the fixtures from Germany and soon it attracted the rich wives of Jewish businessmen and British proconsuls - and of Abdullah of Jordan.

Coastal California Travel Guide by Lonely Planet

1960s counterculture, Airbnb, airport security, Albert Einstein, anti-communist, Apollo 11, Apple II, Asilomar, back-to-the-land, Bay Area Rapid Transit, bike sharing, Burning Man, buy and hold, California gold rush, call centre, car-free, carbon footprint, company town, Day of the Dead, Donner party, East Village, El Camino Real, Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, flex fuel, Frank Gehry, gentrification, glass ceiling, Golden Gate Park, Haight Ashbury, haute couture, haute cuisine, income inequality, intermodal, Joan Didion, Kickstarter, Loma Prieta earthquake, low cost airline, Lyft, machine readable, Mason jar, military-industrial complex, New Journalism, Northpointe / Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions, off-the-grid, Peoples Temple, ride hailing / ride sharing, Ronald Reagan, Rosa Parks, Saturday Night Live, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley startup, South of Market, San Francisco, starchitect, stealth mode startup, stem cell, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Stewart Brand, trade route, transcontinental railway, uber lyft, Upton Sinclair, upwardly mobile, urban sprawl, Wall-E, white picket fence, Whole Earth Catalog, women in the workforce, working poor, Works Progress Administration, young professional, Zipcar

oSan Francisco OperaOPERA ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; %415-864-3330; www.sfopera.com; War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Ave; tickets $10-350; g21, 45, 47, 49, ZCivic Center, mVan Ness) Opera was SF's gold-rush soundtrack – and SF Opera rivals the Met, with world premieres of original works ranging from Stephen King's Dolores Claiborne to Girls of the Golden West, filmmaker Peter Sellars' collaboration with composer John Adams. Expect haute couture costumes and radical sets by painter David Hockney. Score $10 same-day standing-room tickets at 10am; check website for Opera Lab pop-ups. San Francisco BalletDANCE ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; %tickets 415-865-2000; www.sfballet.org; War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Ave; tickets $22-141; hticket sales 10am-4pm Mon-Fri; g5, 21, 47, 49, mVan Ness, ZCivic Center) The USA's oldest ballet company is looking sharp in more than 100 shows annually, from The Nutcracker (the US premiere was here) to modern originals.

Lonely Planet Greek Islands by Lonely Planet, Alexis Averbuck, Michael S Clark, Des Hannigan, Victoria Kyriakopoulos, Korina Miller

car-free, carbon footprint, credit crunch, Easter island, eurozone crisis, G4S, haute couture, haute cuisine, low cost airline, Norman Mailer, pension reform, period drama, restrictive zoning, sensible shoes, sustainable-tourism, trade route, transfer pricing, urban sprawl

Beneath the majestic facades of venerable landmarks, the city teems with life and creativity – and Athenians love to get out and enjoy it all. Galleries and clubs hold the exhibitions, performances and installations of the city’s booming arts scene. Trendy restaurants and humble tavernas rustle up fine, fine fare. Ubiquitous cafes fill with stylin’ locals and moods run from punk rock to haute couture. Discos and bars abound…and swing deep into the night. GEORGE TSAFOS / LONELY PLANET IMAGES © Santorini Sunsets 3 There’s more to Santorini (Click here) than sunsets, but this remarkable island, shaped by the nuclear fire of prehistoric eruptions, has made the celebratory sunset its own.

Northern California Travel Guide by Lonely Planet

Airbnb, Apple II, Asilomar, back-to-the-land, Bay Area Rapid Transit, big-box store, bike sharing, Burning Man, buy and hold, California gold rush, California high-speed rail, call centre, car-free, carbon credits, carbon footprint, clean water, company town, dark matter, Day of the Dead, Donald Trump, Donner party, East Village, El Camino Real, Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Frank Gehry, friendly fire, gentrification, gigafactory, glass ceiling, Golden Gate Park, Google bus, Haight Ashbury, haute couture, haute cuisine, high-speed rail, housing crisis, Joan Didion, Kickstarter, Loma Prieta earthquake, Lyft, Mahatma Gandhi, Mark Zuckerberg, Mason jar, McMansion, means of production, Northpointe / Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions, off-the-grid, Peoples Temple, Port of Oakland, ride hailing / ride sharing, Ronald Reagan, San Francisco homelessness, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley startup, South of Market, San Francisco, stealth mode startup, stem cell, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Stewart Brand, the built environment, trade route, transcontinental railway, uber lyft, Upton Sinclair, urban sprawl, white picket fence, Whole Earth Catalog, women in the workforce, working poor, Works Progress Administration, young professional

oSan Francisco OperaOPERA ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; %415-864-3330; www.sfopera.com; War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Ave; tickets $10-350; g21, 45, 47, 49, ZCivic Center, mVan Ness) Opera was SF's gold-rush soundtrack – and SF Opera rivals the Met, with world premieres of original works ranging from Stephen King's Dolores Claiborne to Girls of the Golden West, filmmaker Peter Sellars' collaboration with composer John Adams. Expect haute couture costumes and radical sets by painter David Hockney. Score $10 same-day standing-room tickets at 10am; check website for Opera Lab pop-ups. San Francisco BalletDANCE ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; %tickets 415-865-2000; www.sfballet.org; War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Ave; tickets $22-141; hticket sales 10am-4pm Mon-Fri; g5, 21, 47, 49, mVan Ness, ZCivic Center) The USA's oldest ballet company is looking sharp in more than 100 shows annually, from The Nutcracker (the US premiere was here) to modern originals.

Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus by Rick Perlstein

"there is no alternative" (TINA), affirmative action, Alan Greenspan, Alvin Toffler, anti-communist, anti-work, antiwork, Berlin Wall, bread and circuses, Bretton Woods, business climate, card file, collective bargaining, company town, cuban missile crisis, desegregation, distributed generation, Dr. Strangelove, Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, ending welfare as we know it, George Gilder, haute couture, Henry Ford's grandson gave labor union leader Walter Reuther a tour of the company’s new, automated factory…, Herman Kahn, index card, indoor plumbing, invisible hand, Joan Didion, liberal capitalism, Marshall McLuhan, means of production, military-industrial complex, mortgage debt, New Journalism, Norman Mailer, plutocrats, Project Plowshare, road to serfdom, Robert Bork, rolodex, Ronald Reagan, Rosa Parks, school vouchers, the medium is the message, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, transcontinental railway, union organizing, Upton Sinclair, upwardly mobile, urban renewal, War on Poverty, Watson beat the top human players on Jeopardy!, white picket fence, Works Progress Administration

But as one of Manion’s friends reminded him, “It is all too obvious there is only one Arizona.” 2 MERCHANT PRINCE The story was told again and again, in a ribbon of biographical profiles as sunny and unchanging as a stretch of desert interstate: how Barry Goldwater’s grandfather “Big Mike,” one of twenty-two children, emigrated from Poland rather than face conscription in the czar’s army, learned haute couture in Paris, steamed to Panama, crossed the isthmus by mule and by foot, got to gold-rush San Francisco and found it full up with dry-goods provisioners, whereupon, helped by a network of fellow Yiddish-speaking Jews, he opened a saloon—which doubled as a brothel. Then he made his way to a wide spot in the road—Phoenix.

Gorbachev by William Taubman

"World Economic Forum" Davos, Able Archer 83, active measures, affirmative action, Albert Einstein, anti-communist, Berlin Wall, British Empire, card file, conceptual framework, Deng Xiaoping, disinformation, Donald Trump, Fall of the Berlin Wall, fear of failure, haute couture, indoor plumbing, Korean Air Lines Flight 007, means of production, Mikhail Gorbachev, military-industrial complex, Neil Kinnock, Potemkin village, RAND corporation, Ronald Reagan, Ronald Reagan: Tear down this wall, Saturday Night Live, Stanislav Petrov, Strategic Defense Initiative, trade liberalization, young professional

Actually, Gorbachev insists, he would have preferred to celebrate his eightieth quietly “in the company of family and close friends.” But his family persuaded him to go public, and his older granddaughter, Ksenia, who had studied public relations, entered European high society at the prestigious Crillon Haute Couture Ball in Paris in 1992, and married in style in Moscow in 2003, coproduced the London extravaganza. She and Gorbachev’s other granddaughter, Nastya, who studied journalism, appeared at a 2007 party in Moscow with Donatella Versace in gowns chosen by the designer. Ksenia and Nastya, like their mother, Irina, inherited Raisa Gorbachev’s elegant taste in clothes—but also her attachment to a close-knit family.

USA Travel Guide by Lonely, Planet

1960s counterculture, active transport: walking or cycling, Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, Albert Einstein, Apollo 11, Apollo 13, Asilomar, Bay Area Rapid Transit, Bear Stearns, Berlin Wall, Big bang: deregulation of the City of London, big-box store, bike sharing, Biosphere 2, Bretton Woods, British Empire, Burning Man, California gold rush, call centre, car-free, carbon footprint, centre right, Charles Lindbergh, Chuck Templeton: OpenTable:, congestion pricing, Cornelius Vanderbilt, cotton gin, cuban missile crisis, Day of the Dead, desegregation, Donald Trump, Donner party, Dr. Strangelove, East Village, edge city, El Camino Real, fake news, Fall of the Berlin Wall, feminist movement, Ford Model T, Frank Gehry, gentleman farmer, gentrification, glass ceiling, global village, Golden Gate Park, Guggenheim Bilbao, Haight Ashbury, haute couture, haute cuisine, Hernando de Soto, Howard Zinn, illegal immigration, immigration reform, information trail, interchangeable parts, intermodal, jitney, Ken Thompson, Kickstarter, license plate recognition, machine readable, Mars Rover, Mason jar, mass immigration, Maui Hawaii, McMansion, Menlo Park, military-industrial complex, Monroe Doctrine, Neil Armstrong, new economy, New Urbanism, obamacare, off grid, off-the-grid, Quicken Loans, Ralph Nader, Ralph Waldo Emerson, retail therapy, RFID, ride hailing / ride sharing, Ronald Reagan, Rosa Parks, Saturday Night Live, Silicon Valley, South of Market, San Francisco, starchitect, stealth mode startup, stem cell, supervolcano, the built environment, The Chicago School, the High Line, the payments system, three-martini lunch, trade route, transcontinental railway, union organizing, Upton Sinclair, upwardly mobile, urban decay, urban planning, urban renewal, urban sprawl, Virgin Galactic, walkable city, white flight, working poor, Works Progress Administration, young professional, Zipcar

Momentum HANDICRAFTS (www.ourmomentum.com; 1625 Pearl St; 10am-7pm Tue-Sat, 11am-6pm Sun) The kitchen sink of unique global gifts – Zulu wire baskets, fabulous scarves from India, Nepal and Ecuador – all handcrafted and purchased at fair value from disadvantaged artisans. Every item purchased provides a direct economic lifeline to the artists. Common Threads CLOTHING (www.commonthreadsboulder.com; 2707 Spruce St; 10am-6pm Mon-Sat, noon-5pm Sun) Vintage shopping at its most haute couture, this fun place is where to go for secondhand Choos and Prada purses. The shop is a pleasure to browse, with clothing organized by color and type on visually aesthetic racks, just like a big-city boutique. Boulder Bookstore BOOKS (www.boulderbookstore.indiebound.com; 1107 Pearl St) Boulder’s favorite indie bookstore has a huge travel section downstairs and hosts readings and workshops.

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Caesars Palace CASINO Offline map Google map (www.caesarspalace.com; 3570 Las Vegas Blvd S) Quintessentially Las Vegas, Caesars Palace is a Greco-Roman fantasyland featuring marble reproductions of classical statuary, including a not-to-be-missed 4-ton Brahma shrine near the front entrance. Towering fountains, goddess-costumed cocktail waitresses and the swanky haute-couture Forum Shops Offline map Google map all ante up the glitz. Paris Las Vegas CASINO Offline map Google map (www.parislasvegas.com; 3655 Las Vegas Blvd S) Evoking the gaiety of the City of Light, Paris Las Vegas strives to capture the essence of the grand dame by re-creating her landmarks. Fine likenesses of the Opéra, the Arc de Triomphe, the Champs-Élysées, the soaring Eiffel Tower and even the Seine frame the property.

Hawaii by Jeff Campbell

airport security, big-box store, California gold rush, carbon footprint, centre right, Charles Lindbergh, commoditize, company town, creative destruction, Drosophila, Easter island, G4S, haute couture, land reform, lateral thinking, low-wage service sector, machine readable, Maui Hawaii, off-the-grid, Peter Pan Syndrome, polynesian navigation, risk/return, sustainable-tourism, upwardly mobile, urban sprawl, wage slave, white picket fence

Amid midrange island attire, jewelry, T-shirts and gifts is one worthy stop: Ship Store Galleries. Bambulei (823-8641; www.bambulei.com; 4-369D Kuhio Hwy; 10am-6pm Mon-Fri, to 5pm Sat) This irresistible women’s boutique is chock-full of feminine gear made for women who’ve outgrown the teenage surfer-chick look. The drapey sweaters, platform sandals and kimono-fabric accessories aren’t haute couture, but they’re affordable and unique. Also find vintage clothing and retro home decor. Tin Can Mailman (822-3009; www.tincanmailman.net; Kinipopo Shopping Village, 4-356 Kuhio Hwy; 11am-7pm Mon-Fri, noon-4pm Sat) Brimming with rare books and antiques, this jam-packed shop will delight Hawaiiana collectors, with vintage LPs, aloha shirts, maps, photos, postcards, jewelry and other fascinating artifacts.

Surfaces and Essences by Douglas Hofstadter, Emmanuel Sander

Abraham Maslow, affirmative action, Albert Einstein, Arthur Eddington, Benoit Mandelbrot, Brownian motion, Charles Babbage, cognitive dissonance, computer age, computer vision, dematerialisation, Donald Trump, Douglas Hofstadter, Eddington experiment, Ernest Rutherford, experimental subject, Flynn Effect, gentrification, Georg Cantor, Gerolamo Cardano, Golden Gate Park, haute couture, haute cuisine, Henri Poincaré, Isaac Newton, l'esprit de l'escalier, Louis Pasteur, machine translation, Mahatma Gandhi, mandelbrot fractal, Menlo Park, Norbert Wiener, place-making, Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, Silicon Valley, statistical model, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, theory of mind, time dilation, upwardly mobile, urban sprawl, yellow journalism, zero-sum game

Thus we English speakers occasionally have déjà vu experiences that give us a frisson, we try to avoid faux pas (they make us feel so gauche), we indulge in hors d’œuvres, soupe du jour, apple pie à la mode, and even sorbet, and once in a while we wear décolletés (as long as they’re not too risqué), we sometimes take in avant-garde films, read an article about coups d’état caused by fin-de-siècle decadence while en route to a secret rendezvous whose raison d’être is to engage in a tête-à-tête, enjoy ogling a femme fatale who’s petite but very chic and all decked out in haute couture duds, we always seek the mot juste par excellence, have an idée fixe of one day having carte blanche to hobnob with the crème de la crème, and of course if we are nouveaux riches, we seek out objets d’art (not likely to be made of papier mâché) to decorate our pied-à-terre while indulging ourselves in dernier cri technology.

The Rough Guide to Ireland by Clements, Paul

Berlin Wall, bike sharing, British Empire, Celtic Tiger, Columbine, country house hotel, digital map, East Village, haute couture, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Kickstarter, Murano, Venice glass, plutocrats, Ronald Reagan, sustainable-tourism, the market place, three-masted sailing ship, trade route, urban planning, urban renewal, urban sprawl

Retaining its original eighty-year-old shell, the museum now incorporates a bold modernist design and sheds light both literally and figuratively on subjects ranging from the North’s troubled history to Ireland’s geological past. The grand, open-plan ground floor, which also features a much-improved café, includes everything from an impressive dinosaur skeleton to contemporary haute couture. From here, the curators recommend heading up to the third floor to explore the art exhibits. The undoubted highlights here are the modern art collection (featuring Francis Bacon’s macabre Head II, Bridget Riley’s unnerving Cataract IV and Stanley Spencer’s thought-provoking The Betrayal), and the stunning landscapes and rural scenes by painters such as Belfast’s Sir John Lavery, plus Turner’s highly symbolic Dawn of Christianity.

Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War by Robert Fisk

airport security, Ayatollah Khomeini, Berlin Wall, Boeing 747, British Empire, colonial rule, friendly fire, haute couture, mass immigration, Mikhail Gorbachev, open economy, Ronald Reagan, Suez crisis 1956, the long tail, Yom Kippur War

Even the placidity of Tyre – or, as it was momentarily called by its tinpot rulers that autumn, the ‘People’s Republic of Tyre’ – had its deceptions. The lighthouse keeper had been without work for more than a year. True, the Lebanese government was still paying his salary. During the summer, he had been stitching dresses for his one-room shop round the corner where a faded sign proclaimed in white letters: ‘Haute Couture de Paris’. But there were no supplies of acetylene gas coming down from Beirut for his lighthouse, and besides, there were few ships. He was an approachable man who happily showed us the squat little red-painted lighthouse outside his front door. When we had climbed to the top, he made a point of telling us that it was possible to see the columns of the ancient Roman city just beneath the sea.

Frommer's Hawaii 2009 by Jeanette Foster

airport security, California gold rush, Charles Lindbergh, Easter island, glass ceiling, gravity well, haute couture, haute cuisine, indoor plumbing, machine readable, Maui Hawaii, off-the-grid, place-making, polynesian navigation, retail therapy, South China Sea, sustainable-tourism, urban renewal, urban sprawl, white picket fence, Yogi Berra

It’s a good sign that 95% of the beauty and bath products sold are made on Maui, and that includes Hawaiian Botanical Pikake shower gel, kukui and macadamia-nut oils, Hawaiian potpourris, mud masks with Hawaiian seaweed, and a spate of rejuvenating potions for hair and skin. Aromatherapy body oils and perfumes are popular, as are the handmade soaps and fragrances of torch ginger, plumeria, coconut, tuberose, and sandalwood. Scented candles in coconut shells, inexpensive and fragrant, make great gifts. 505 Front St. & 808/661-1178. Maggie Coulombe Finds A haute couture store with the unique designs of Maggie Coulombe in the midst of Lahaina. You’ll find Maggie’s latest couture, jersey, linen, pareu, and shoes, plus accessories, jewelry, purses, and a few surprises. 505 Front St. David Lee Galleries & 808/662-0696. www.maggiecoulombe.com. Old Lahaina Book Emporium What a bookstore!

Greece Travel Guide by Lonely Planet

active transport: walking or cycling, Airbnb, capital controls, car-free, carbon footprint, credit crunch, haute couture, haute cuisine, illegal immigration, indoor plumbing, Kickstarter, low cost airline, pension reform, period drama, sensible shoes, trade route, urban sprawl

And Athenians love to get out and enjoy it all. Galleries and clubs hold the exhibitions, performances and installations of the city’s booming arts scene. Trendy restaurants and humble tavernas rustle up fine, fine fare. Ubiquitous cafes fill with stylin’ locals and moods run from punk rock to haute couture. Discos and bars abound…and swing deep into the night. Peter Adams / Getty Images © Top Experiences Santorini Sunsets There’s more to Santorini than sunsets, but this remarkable island, shaped by the fire of prehistoric eruptions, has made the celebratory sunset its own. On summer evenings the cliff-top towns of Fira and Oia are packed with visitors awed by the vast blood red canvas of the cliff face as the sun struts its stuff.

Kissinger: A Biography by Walter Isaacson

Alan Greenspan, Apollo 13, belling the cat, Berlin Wall, Charles Lindbergh, cuban missile crisis, deep learning, Deng Xiaoping, Dr. Strangelove, Great Grain Robbery, haute couture, Herman Kahn, index card, Khyber Pass, long peace, Mikhail Gorbachev, Monroe Doctrine, Norman Mailer, oil shock, out of africa, Plato's cave, RAND corporation, restrictive zoning, rolodex, Ronald Reagan, Seymour Hersh, Socratic dialogue, Ted Sorensen, Yom Kippur War

During the three years she spent living in Washington, Nancy never learned to like the town, which she regarded as rather provincial and swamplike. She dutifully attended the embassy receptions and large parties, but her preferred form of entertainment was hosting dinner parties for eight or so friends. Her spirit was more attuned to the New York City scene, especially the haute-couture crowd. Among Nancy’s great strengths were her intellect, her deeply held views, and her sure grounding in the subject of foreign policy. Often she would read Kissinger’s speeches, analyze them, and make suggestions. But after their marriage, when she was forced to give up her work coordinating foreign policy research for Rockefeller’s Critical Choices program, she began to take herself less seriously and—or so it seemed to her friends—shed her intellectual image for one that was more socially frivolous.

Frommer's England 2011: With Wales by Darwin Porter, Danforth Prince

airport security, Ascot racecourse, British Empire, carbon footprint, centre right, Charles Babbage, Columbine, congestion charging, country house hotel, double helix, Edmond Halley, gentrification, George Santayana, haute couture, high-speed rail, Isaac Newton, James Watt: steam engine, Murano, Venice glass, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ronald Reagan, Skype, Sloane Ranger, spinning jenny, Stephen Hawking, sustainable-tourism, the market place, tontine, University of East Anglia, urban planning, urban renewal, urban sprawl, young professional

Althorp is open to the public only from July 1, Diana’s birthday, to August 30. Diana was buried on an island in an artificial lake on the property. Visitors do not have access to the island but have a clear view of it across the lake. A museum celebrates Diana’s life, complete with schoolgirl letters, her stunning silk wedding dress, and some of her haute couture clothes. The museum also shows poignant films of her as a carefree child dancing in the gardens and later as a mother riding with her sons, William and Harry, plus videos that include the moving footage of her funeral. The museum makes no mention of Althorp 560 19_615386-ch16.indd 56019_615386-ch16.indd 560 8/24/10 2:14 PM8/24/10 2:14 PM A1(M) Sheffield 0 SCOTLAND Buxton Gainsborough Worksop M1 A61 Peak District Chesterfield National Park Bakewell A515 North Sea Irish ENGLAND Sea Area of WALES A516 Sherwood Forest Matlock Detail A57 Mansfield A52 London Lincoln A1 D ERBYS HIRE DERBYSHIRE E n g li A60 Ashbourne A38 A50 M1 A46 Ashbyde-la-Zouch Sleaford A606 Loughborough A46 A50 A17 Grantham A60 A38 LINCOLNSHIRE LINCO LNSHIRE A1 A52 East Midlands A515 A17 Nottingham A52 nel A15 Hucknall Derby han sh C Newarkon-Trent NOT T INGHA M S HIRE NOTTINGHA A52 100 mi 0 100 km Boston A52 Melton Mowbray A16 A607 Tamworth A1 Leicester M42 A15 Oakham A5 Spalding LEICESTERS LEICEST ERS HIRE Nuneaton Market Harborough M6 Coventry Rugby Warwick A423 Stamford A6 M1 A5 A47 A43 Peterborough A427 M45 A6 A1(M) NORTHAMPTONSHIRE NORTHA M PTONSHIRE Wellingborough A5 A43 Althorp WARWICKSHIRE WA RW ICKS HIRE A605 Corby Kettering A6 A508 CAMBRIDGESHIRE A141 A14 Huntingdon Northampton M40 B645 A14 A428 Sulgrave A5 M1 Cambridge BEDFORDSHIRE A6 A11 A10 A1 Milton Keynes A41 A428 Bedford A43 Banbury A44 A10 St.

Germany Travel Guide by Lonely Planet

Airbnb, Albert Einstein, bank run, Berlin Wall, bike sharing, Boeing 747, British Empire, call centre, capitalist realism, car-free, carbon footprint, centre right, company town, double helix, Dr. Strangelove, eurozone crisis, Fall of the Berlin Wall, Frank Gehry, gentrification, glass ceiling, Gregor Mendel, haute couture, haute cuisine, high-speed rail, Honoré de Balzac, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johannes Kepler, Kickstarter, low cost airline, messenger bag, Mikhail Gorbachev, Neil Armstrong, New Urbanism, off-the-grid, oil shale / tar sands, Peace of Westphalia, Peter Eisenman, post-work, Prenzlauer Berg, retail therapy, ride hailing / ride sharing, Ronald Reagan, Ronald Reagan: Tear down this wall, sensible shoes, Skype, starchitect, three-masted sailing ship, trade route, upwardly mobile, urban planning, urban renewal, V2 rocket, white picket fence

In 2006 the city won a brighter place in sporting history when it hosted the opening game of the FIFA World Cup. Today, Munich’s claim to being the ‘secret capital’ of Germany is alive and well. The city is recognised for its high living standards, with the most millionaires per capita in Germany after Hamburg, and for haute couture that rivals that of Paris and Milan. In 2008 the whole city took the summer off to celebrate the 850th birthday of this great metropolis. Sights Munich’s major sights cluster around the Altstadt, with the main museum district just north of the Residenz. However, it will take another day or two to explore bohemian Schwabing, the sprawling Englischer Garten and trendy Haidhausen to the east.

Germany by Andrea Schulte-Peevers

Albert Einstein, bank run, Berlin Wall, Boeing 747, call centre, capitalist realism, car-free, carbon footprint, centre right, company town, computer age, credit crunch, Donald Trump, Fall of the Berlin Wall, Frank Gehry, gentrification, glass ceiling, Google Earth, haute couture, haute cuisine, Honoré de Balzac, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johannes Kepler, Kickstarter, low cost airline, messenger bag, Mikhail Gorbachev, New Urbanism, Peace of Westphalia, Peter Eisenman, place-making, post-work, Prenzlauer Berg, retail therapy, ride hailing / ride sharing, sensible shoes, Skype, trade route, urban planning, urban renewal, V2 rocket, white picket fence

In 2006 the city won a brighter place in sporting history, when it hosted the opening game of the FIFA World Cup. Today, Munich’s claim to being the ‘secret capital’ of Germany is alive and well. The city is recognised for its high living standards, with the most millionaires per capita after Hamburg, and for a haute couture that rivals Paris and Milan. In 2008 the whole city took the summer off to celebrate the 850th birthday of this great metropolis. Return to beginning of chapter ORIENTATION The Hauptbahnhof (central train station) is less than 1km west of Marienplatz, the heart of the historic Altstadt (old town).