A painting by South African artist Marlene Dumas has sold for $13.6 million at auction, setting a new record for a living female artist. “Miss January” is Dumas’ “magnum opus” and stands 9.25 feet (2.82 meters) tall, according to a statement from auction house Christie’s on Wednesday. “We were thrilled with the outcome of our sale this evening,” Isabella Lauria, head of the 21st century evening sale, said in the statement, calling the price “incredible.” The painting had been expected to fetch between $12 million and $18 million, according to a separate statement from Christie’s published earlier this month. “Through its monumental scale and singular subject matter, Miss January is truly the magnum opus of Marlene Dumas,” said Sara Friedlander, deputy chairman of post-war and contemporary art at Christie’s, in the May 2 statement. “In this painting, Dumas triumphantly demonstrates a formal mastery of the woman’s body while simultaneously freeing it from a tradition of subjection, upending normalized concepts of the female nude through the lens of a male-centric history,” she added. Painted in 1997, the work sees Dumas revisit “Miss World,” an artwork depicting the forms of 10 models, which she painted 30 years prior at the age of 10. Today, Dumas is known as one of the most influential painters in the world, according to Christie’s, which said she “is known for her emotionally charged, psychologically complex portraits — often based on found photographs — which explore themes of sexuality, race, grief, motherhood, and the body.” While the sale of “Miss January” sets a new record price for a work of art by a living female artist, works by male artists have traditionally sold for much more. At Wednesday’s auction, a 1982 triple portrait by Jean-Michel Basquiat, titled “Baby Boom,” sold for $23.4 million, and the record for the most expensive artwork by a living male artist is the $90.3 million paid for US artist Jeff Koons’ “Rabbit” sculpture in 2019. And the gender gap in valuations is a systemic issue, according to 2022 BBC documentary “Recalculating Art,” which found that works by female artists sell for 10% of the value of those by men.

Apartment owners at a luxury New York skyscraper are suing the building’s developers over a “far-reaching fraud” in which they allegedly hid structurally significant defects — including “thousands” of severe cracks on the tower’s facade. The condo board at 432 Park Avenue, a super-skinny high-rise on Manhattan’s Billionaire’s Row, claims that real estate firm CIM Group failed to disclose the extent of damage that has resulted in flooding and impacted the value of their multimillion-dollar properties. Filed at the state court in New York in late April, the lawsuit also names architecture and engineering companies involved in the project. Condo owners are collectively seeking more than $165 million in damages, according to the complaint. Completed in 2015, the slender 1,396-foot-tall skyscraper has a 15:1 height-to-width ratio, putting it among the so-called “pencil towers” now dotting midtown Manhattan’s skyline. To protect against high winds, the building was designed with unoccupied floors that encourage airflow, anchors drilled deep into the bedrock and “tuned mass dampers” that act like pendulums to counteract swaying. Property developer Harry Macklowe — whose firm McGraw Hudson Construction Corp is also named in the suit — compared the tower to the Empire State Building, telling the New York Times in 2013 that it was “the building of the 21st century.” Pop star Jennifer Lopez and Chinese businessman Ye Jianming are among those reported to have purchased units there for eight-figure sums. But owners and residents have since complained of numerous construction issues, including more than 20 water leaks since 2017, according to the complaint. In 2021, the condo board filed a lawsuit alleging a range of defects, from malfunctioning elevators and poor energy efficiency to a trash chute that sounds “like a bomb” when used. The new lawsuit meanwhile claims that the tower’s facade is “plagued with thousands of severe cracks, spalling, and other forms of deterioration,” including a 10-inch-deep crack in the building’s core. As well as causing flooding, the damage has corroded some of the steel in the tower’s reinforced concrete columns, the complaint alleges. While the 2021 complaint also detailed “substantial cracking,” the condo board said it filed its most recent action after claiming it uncovered evidence that defendants had “conspired” to conceal the extent and seriousness of the defects. In statements provided to CNN, both CIM Group and SLCE Architects, the project’s architect of record, said they “vehemently” deny the claims and are moving to have the complaint dismissed. Engineering firm WSP declined to comment. McGraw Hudson Construction Corp did not respond to CNN’s inquiries. The lawsuit attributes cracking to the building’s “experimental” facade, which is made from white concrete. The material is, it says, “typically used for aesthetic purposes” and had to be strengthened to withstand the supertall building’s structural load — especially during high winds. Among the suit’s allegations are claims that CIM Group ignored concerns raised by various concrete consultants, as well as the project’s late architect Rafael Viñoly about the strength of the concrete mix. The condo board claims that mockup tests showed the material’s use would result in cracking. But CIM Group and its contractors “bulled forward” with “complete disregard for… the inevitable problems it would cause for the building and its future residents,” the suit adds. The condo board alleges that, despite having knowledge of the facade’s defects, SLCE Architects deceived condo owners by making “materially false” claims in its offering plan, a document disclosing important information to potential buyers. (The lawsuit cites an alleged change in the document’s wording, which went from claiming the concrete “will” prevent water penetration to saying that it was only “designed to” do so.) Additionally, the lawsuit alleges that McGraw Hudson and WSP misled New York City Department of Buildings in a letter that “misrepresented the nature, extent, and type of cracking.” It claims the letter failed to disclose the full findings of a survey that had discovered 1,893 defects. The complaint claims that developers then “repeatedly rejected” recommendations on how to address issues that arose. A suggestion that an opaque elastomeric covering could be applied to the facade to prevent air and water infiltration, for instance, was ignored because it would “significantly alter” the building’s appearance and make it less appealing to “the world’s billionaires,” the lawsuit alleges.

Born in the Italian town of Brescia, Roberto Beltrami grew up just a few hours’ drive from Venice and the island of Murano, world-famous for producing beautiful glassware. But it was nearly 4,000 miles away in Boston, Massachusetts, that he first came across the art of glassblowing. “I was just so struck by this material, the colors, the transparency, the shapes,” recalled Beltrami. It was 2011, and Beltrami, then a sophomore physics student at Boston University, was captivated by an exhibition of the work of American artist Dale Chihuly. Known for pushing the boundaries of contemporary glassblowing, Chihuly’s pursuit of his craft has taken him around the globe, including a stint in Murano in the 1960s. Beltrami visited the island on his summer break, taking up a class in glass blowing. That class turned into an apprenticeship, and the summer turned into a year. Beltrami quit university, trading lecture halls for roaring furnaces, sweating it out in centuries-old workshops, and studying under some of the world’s most renowned glassblowing masters. At one time, Murano was the global leader in glassmaking, renowned for unparalleled quality, style, and innovation, including the invention of “cristallo,” clear glass. But over its 700-year glassblowing history, Murano has faced numerous challenges, and in recent years, the number of factories has plummeted. While many in the industry say that young people are disinterested in pursuing hot, hard manual labor, Beltrami has a different perspective. With a long legacy of closely guarding their trade secrets, workshops in Murano are reluctant to welcome newcomers, said Beltrami, 34. “Everybody was afraid you were going to steal their job, and nobody wanted to teach you anything.” “It was really nightmarish, having this passion for this material, and then you can’t really learn anything,” he added. Frustrated by the lack of opportunities, Beltrami decided to strike out on his own. In 2017, the then-25-year-old started his own workshop, Wave Murano Glass. Now with a team of 20, many of them in their twenties and thirties, Beltrami — believed to be the youngest glass master in Murano — is ushering in a new generation of artisans. “We’re not all under the age of 35 but the average age is definitely under 35 — which is unheard of in Murano,” said Beltrami. Glass is formed by melting sand, soda ash and limestone at temperatures of up to 1,600 degrees Celsius (2,912 degrees Fahrenheit). With a texture similar to treacle, the molten glass mixture is held on the end of a hollow pipe, inflated with air, and then shaped swiftly by swinging, blowing, and rolling while the material is still hot and pliable. Once cooled, it takes on a hard, transparent form. In Venice, glass has been manufactured for over 1,000 years. To prevent fires from the hot furnaces and keep trade secrets from escaping the city, all the glass factories were moved to Murano in 1291, where they’ve remained since. In addition to the invention of cristallo, Murano became well-known for its ability to add vibrant color to clear glass. “It’s not so easy to have different colors of glass together and have them match chemically,” said Beltrami, explaining that each shade uses a unique element — such as cobalt for purple-blue, lead for pale yellow, or tellurium for a pink tint — which expand and contract at different rates when they heat and cool. “Being able to melt all these colors and have them match chemically so a piece doesn’t break at the end was one of the biggest strengths of Murano glass,” Beltrami added. A self-confessed pyromaniac who unwittingly torched a sofa before he could walk, Beltrami says glass blowing combines his love of fire with his passion for making things and working with people. “Glass blowing is kind of like a team sport, because it’s very physical, very intense. You need to work in a team because you can barely do anything by yourself,” he said. The size and weight of many of the glass objects require at least one person to hold the pipe and turn the molten glass, while another shapes it, and another person may be required to torch the glass to keep it pliable, or add embellishments. “It’s like a choreography,” Beltrami added. Making waves At its peak in the 16th century, more than 30,000 people were living on the 1.7-square-mile (4.6-square-kilometer) island of Murano. Now, it is home to around 4,000 people. According to Consorzio Promovetro Murano, a trade consortium that promotes and protects Murano glass, less than a third of them work at the island’s 105 glass-making workshops. The small factories struggle to compete on large-scale industrial orders, said Beltrami. Murano instead focuses on luxury and artistic glassware, although that too has been threatened by an influx of counterfeit goods: according to Consorzio Promovetro Murano, cheap imitation products are common in Venice’s souvenir stores. Not only do they divert profits from local glassmakers, but they also risk damaging the reputation of Murano glass. The industry has been further impacted by a series of crises, including the financial crash of 2008, the Covid-19 pandemic, and rising gas prices. But despite the challenges, Beltrami is optimistic about the future of the craft. A major problem he saw across the factories he worked in previously was antiquated equipment and inefficient processes. So, at Wave Murano Glass, he introduced a variety of modern technologies, including streamlining administrative workflows with AI-enabled software and introducing more energy-efficient furnaces. Designed in the US, these furnaces capture heat that is typically lost via exhaust fumes and reuse it to preheat the air going into the burner, reducing gas usage by 80% compared to furnaces of a similar size, said Beltrami. According to Beltrami, Murano’s factories have historically worked on small-scale industrial orders, with many rejecting commissions of less than a few hundred but unable to cater for those of a few thousand. Seeing a missed opportunity, he set up his furnaces to be flexible, allowing Wave to cover anything from one-off pieces, to a few dozen, up to 1,200 pieces. While the bulk of Wave’s output is white label products for brands, designers, and artists, up to 10% of the company’s turnover comes from classes and tours, which Beltrami hopes can share the art of glass blowing with a wider audience. His efforts have already paid off. Beltrami has made a point of offering internships to young, enthusiastic talent from around the globe, many of whom are now employed at Wave, including several women, who are underrepresented in the industry. For Beltrami, finding new talent is an essential step in preserving the craft he’s come to love — and continuing its legacy of artistry and innovation. “The craftsmanship, the tradition of over a thousand years of history, all make it very special,” he added.

The red carpet has officially been rolled out across the Promenade de Croisette, welcoming stars to the French Riviera for the annual Cannes Film Festival. Now in its 78th year, the event is a jewel in the calendar of both lofty cinephiles and polished fashionistas. Over 12 days, actors, directors, producers, influencers and the like will descend onto the carpeted steps — not just to promote their latest feature film at the high temple of world cinema, but also to turn a look. This year, the fashion stakes were upped before the festival even opened its doors — after a change in the official dress code just hours before kick-off. Nudity has been explicitly banned (presumably also prohibiting the current celebrity favorite ‘naked’ dress trend that has dominated the red carpet in recent years); as has “voluminous outfits” with large trains for the sake of traffic control. Some, like Halle Berry, dutifully obeyed the restrictions. “I had an amazing dress by (Gaurav) Gupta that I cannot wear tonight because it’s too big of a train,” the actor said at a news conference. “I’m not going to break the rules.” Others brazenly persevered with their original wardrobe plans. Heidi Klum and Wan QianHui were the first rebels of the year, arriving in high-octane frocks with defiantly cascading trains. Elsewhere at the opening ceremony, Bella Hadid wore a slinky Saint Laurent dress, debuting honey-blonde tresses. Jeremy Strong opted for a dusty rose tuxedo (the Jury photocall earlier in the day revealed he also owns a full tracksuit, and matching bucket hat, in the same color).

Was 1999 a simpler time? With dumber phones and fuss-free styling, Y2K-era nostalgia has been strong, and its fashion is no exception. What was once a daring red-carpet look wouldn’t look out of place on the streets today — namely, the peek-a-boo cardigan Salma Hayek wore to the Cannes Film Festival that year. The actor, who had two films premiering at Cannes — the Gabriel Garcia Márquez adaptation “No One Writes to the Colonel” and Kevin Smith-directed fantasy-comedy “Dogma” — paired her baby-blue short-sleeve sweater (fastened suggestively with just two buttons and a bra peeking through) with a full, flowing satin skirt in a sister shade. Hayek wore the unconventional two-piece to the amfAR Gala at Cannes, and accessorized with a silver clutch and extravagant jewelry, opting for a matching set of sapphire and diamond earrings, necklace and bracelet. Later, she traded the necklace for an elephant-shaped pendant as she danced on stage with Ben Affleck, her co-star in “Dogma.” Voluminous satin silhouettes had a moment at the festival: Geraldine Chaplin wore an A-line maxi skirt in white with a plunging V-neck blouse and a dramatic stack of pearls around her neck, while Catherine Zeta-Jones went full prom queen with a halter-neck powder-pink gown. But Hayek stood out for daring to pair hers with the unexpectedly casual: a fuzzy knit. Hayek’s laissez-faire styling wasn’t contrived, either. Over 20 years later, the actor revealed that she had picked out the look herself. “It was taking a chance… I took a sweater that’s supposed to be (worn) with something underneath — because it only had two buttons — and a skirt, and made my own fashion style,” said Hayek in a video recounting some of her best fashion moments for Vogue, which called the Cannes fit a “look-at-me combination.” “Little did I know that Vogue one day was gonna say (it was) one of your iconic looks,” she added, explaining how the ensemble was a result of her “creativity” during a time when she didn’t have many resources to dress for the red carpet. At that point in her career, Hayek was no stranger to getting herself ready for the glitzy celebrity circuit. She told the fashion magazine that she struggled to find designers who would provide her with outfits for her earlier red-carpet appearances. “Nobody thought a Mexican would stick around, so why give me a dress?” she said. Early self-styling By the time Hayek stepped out in her breezy red-carpet-ready cardigan, she already had a number of innovative, self-styled looks under her belt. At the MTV Movie Awards in 1998, she accessorized a simple little black dress with a flutter of butterflies painted on her body — a nod to the era’s temporary tattoo trend, and a clever way to skip wearing expensive jewelry, she explained to Vogue. The year before, Hayek opted for a tiara at her first Academy Awards appearance, rebelling against advice from those who told her it would be “ridiculous,” she recalled. “Everybody started wearing a tiara after that and I never got credit for that trend,” she said in the video. Her suggestive, nothing-underneath cardigan has similarly become a throwback staple, popularized by brands like Reformation who advertise them styled with satin skirts. In 2019, Katie Holmes went viral for her equally slouchy and chic Khaite cardigan and bralette, while designers like Jacquemus, whose cropped, barely-there cardis have been a favorite of celebrities like Bella Hadid and Hailey Bieber. Though Hayek can’t get all the credit for pioneering cropped cardigans in the 1990s — the era saw Rose McGowan’s character in the cult flick “Jawbreaker” in a purple version, while Drew Barrymore, Christina Aguilera and Mena Suvari rocked them in various shades — it was a daring choice for Cannes, which is known for its strict dress code. (This week, the festival announced a ban on nudity, seemingly taking aim at the ‘naked’ dress trend, as well as voluminous dresses, from official events). While Hayek now has her pick of designer pieces to wear on the red carpet, her creative combination for Cannes remains timeless. Like all the fashion beloved from the decade, it’s easy, fun — and comes in baby blue.

The curator Koyo Kouoh, a giant of the contemporary art world who tirelessly championed African artists and became the first woman from the continent to curate the Venice Biennale, died on Saturday, age 57. Her death, in a hospital in Basel, Switzerland, was announced in a statement by the Biennale. While the official cause was not disclosed, her husband, Philippe Mall, said she had died of cancer following a recent diagnosis, according to The New York Times. Kouoh had been appointed in December to curate the next edition of the Biennale, the world’s most prestigious international art exhibition. In its statement, the organization said: “Koyo Kouoh worked with passion, intellectual rigour and vision on the conception and development of the Biennale Arte 2026. The presentation of the exhibition’s title and theme was due to take place in Venice on May 20.” It added: “Her passing leaves an immense void in the world of contemporary art and in the international community of artists, curators and scholars who had the privilege of knowing and admiring her extraordinary human and intellectual commitment.” Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, said in a statement: “I express my deep condolences for the untimely and sudden death of Koyo Kouoh.” Asked how her death might affect the next Biennale, a spokesperson told The Art Newspaper: “We’ll know on May 20.” The spokesperson clarified that the conference was still scheduled to take place on that date. The Biennale is scheduled to run from May 9 to November 22, 2026. The organization had cast Kouoh’s appointment as reinforcing its cutting-edge reputation. In December, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, the Biennale’s president, praised her “refined, young, and disruptive intelligence” in a press statement. In the same announcement, Kouoh called her appointment a “once-in-a-lifetime honor and privilege,” describing the Biennale as “the center of gravity for art for over a century.” She expressed hope that her exhibition would “carry meaning for the world we currently live in — and most importantly, for the world we want to make.” ‘Rewriting’ the rules Kouoh was born in Douala, Cameroon, in 1967, and moved to Switzerland at 13. After studying administration and banking, she worked as a social worker assisting migrant women before immersing herself in the art world and returning to Africa in 1996. In Dakar, Senegal, she founded RAW Material Company, an independent art center. In 2016, she joined the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) in Cape Town, serving as curator and executive director. There, she became a leading advocate for Black artists from Africa and beyond, curating, among other projects, a major retrospective of the South African artist Tracey Rose in 2022. Beyond Africa, she won acclaim for exhibitions such as “Body Talk: Feminism, Sexuality and the Body in the Works of Six African Women Artists,” which opened at WIELS Contemporary Art Centre in Brussels in 2015, and “Still (the) Barbarians” at the 2016 Ireland Biennial in Limerick, which explored Ireland’s postcolonial condition in the context of the 1916 Easter Rising centenary. “Kouoh did not leave a title for the Biennale, but she did leave a grammar: the urgency to rewrite the rules of the curatorial game,” wrote Artuu, an Italian art magazine, in its obituary. “Koyo Kouoh’s theoretical legacy… does not propose new aesthetic models to frame, but undermines the very foundations of cultural hierarchy. It does not offer easy solutions, but asks uncomfortable questions: Who decides what is ‘art’? Who has the right to tell? What is left to say when language itself has been historically colonized?”

Megan Thee Stallion is no stranger to taking risks on the red carpet – from the sparkly Y2K-reminiscent dress she wore to the “Mean Girls” musical movie premiere in 2024, to the wave-like, body-hugging gown by Indian fashion designer Gaurav Gupta she opted for at the 2022 Oscars, to her three-tiered hairstyle at the Met Gala just last week, which channeled Black performer Josephine Baker. Saturday’s Gold Gala was no exception. The American rapper arrived at the Music Center in Los Angeles in a dramatic creation by New York-based fashion brand Quine Li. The look wove aspects of the traditional Chinese qipao, or cheongsam, such as the mandarin collar and a floral pattern, with unexpected flourishes – soft, puffy sculptures encircling the bust and hip, black lace and a thigh high slit. Megan received the One House Honor at the annual event put on by non-profit Gold House – a celebration of Asian Pacific talent across entertainment, fashion, technology and more – for her support of the AAPI community through creative collaborations. “I was so excited because I wasn’t 100% sure that she would wear it,” the brand’s 32-year-old founder Kuai Li told CNN in a phone interview, of seeing the star appear in her creation. “Normally (stylists) have backups – so I was so happy to see this come true,” she said, adding that she had less than a month to design it. The Chinese-born designer said the brief was to create a look that could be modern, reference Asian design and reflect Megan’s personality. The result was a sculptural qipao that had a sci-fi slant, as two curved rings framed Megan’s midriff — almost-exposed if not for the thin weft of lace — like the dress had been run through an X-ray machine. She used fabric from her recent collection of Swallowtail Butterfly qipaos and combined it with the geometric expressions seen throughout her relatively short, but budding career (celebrities such as Kylie Jenner, Michelle Yeoh and Julia Fox have already worn her garments for campaigns and magazine covers). In her wider portfolio, designer Li says she fuses her background in industrial design and fashion, “obsession” with architecture and 1980s “vintage vibes” to create futuristic looks. The qipao traces its origins to robes worn by Manchu nobility during the Qing dynasty, but the garment rose in popularity and the figure-flattering silhouette we know today is largely thanks to Shanghai tailors and the city’s glamorous nightlife in the 1930s. In recent decades, both luxury and fast fashion Western brands have been accused of appropriating the garment, while people of non-Asian descent wearing versions of it have either faced criticism for cultural appropriation, while others have argued it’s acceptable and celebrates Chinese culture. Li said while fashion designers should be aware of cultural appropriation she saw this as “a great opportunity to feel proud of Asian culture, especially in America,” and wanting “to try something very bold, (that would be a form of) cultural appreciation as well.” Many celebrities at the Gold Gala also wore looks by Asian designers or incorporated elements nodding to their cultural heritage. Icelandic-Chinese singer-songwriter Laufey wore a silver gown by Huishan Zhang, while “White Lotus” breakout star Tayme Thapthimthong accessorized his suit wearing a maroon sash with gold embellishments from Thai boutique The Phukaw. On accepting her award, Megan told the audience, “My respect and appreciation for the Asian Pacific culture extends far beyond music, and into other areas like fashion, cuisine and of course anime,” adding that she looked forward to visiting more places in Asia and working on future collaborations with the community. “Wicked” and “Crazy Rich Asians” director Jon M. Chu also took to the stage to accept the Gold Legend award and in a speech said, “We’re not just guests at the table anymore. We built the damn house, and guess what? It’s made of gold, and we’ve got more work to do.” “I’m ready, if you all are.”

A pair of gently curved bridges, a bronze oak tree and a lily pad-inspired walkway are among the standout features of five shortlisted designs for Queen Elizabeth II’s official memorial site in central London. The national memorial will be built in St. James’s Park, near Buckingham Palace in the heart of the British capital. The finalists, unveiled Wednesday, include some of the UK’s most prominent architecture firms, including Foster + Partners, which designed London’s City Hall and 30 St. Mary Axe (known as The Gherkin), and Heatherwick Studios, the firm behind New York City’s Vessel structure. A panel from The Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee, which was jointly established by the British government and Royal Household, will announce a winning proposal this summer, according to a press release. The memorial is expected to be unveiled in 2026, marking what would have been the late Queen’s centenary. The design brief asked for “an emotionally powerful place” that celebrates Elizabeth II’s “extraordinary life of service,” while providing the public with a space for reflection. “She was part of our national identity and helped to define our values, she gave us a sense of continuity through times of great change, she was integral to recognizing achievement and she exemplified service and duty, strengthened by faith and leavened by pragmatism, optimism and humor,” said committee chair Lord Janvrin, the late Queen’s former private secretary, in the press release. “The masterplan design needs to seek inspiration from all this,” he added. “The memorial must be — simply — a beautiful place, a place to visit with friends, a place to gather, to enjoy, and to reflect on an extraordinary life.” The public can view the finalists’ designs as part of an online exhibition and can provide feedback until May 19. Bridging together To honor Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, Heatherwick Studio proposed an entry with a lily-themed bridge at its heart (pictured top). In a video introducing the design, the firm’s founder Thomas Heatherwick said Elizabeth II’s values of “togetherness and unity” led his team to conceptualize a “Bridge of Togetherness” that would serve as a gathering place in the park. The design features a sculpture of the late monarch protected by a canopy of “sculptural lilies” at the center of a limestone bridge. The proposal also includes a pathway of 70 limestone “lily pads” signifying the Queen’s 70-year reign, as well as plants that held significance for her. “Like her legacy, it is quietly monumental,” reads the firm’s entry. “A memorial grown from the landscape, open to people throughout the world from every walk of life.” Another design looking to themes of harmony was proposed by Foster + Partners, which was inspired by British architect John Nash’s 1820s remodeling of St. James’s Park. The design consists of gardens connected by a network of meandering paths and linked by a “Unity Bridge” symbolizing the Queen as “a powerful force for bringing together people, nations, charities, the Commonwealth, and the Armed Forces,” the firm’s founder, architect Norman Foster, said in a video entry. The pathways will feature Elizabeth II’s words, both as audio installations and inscriptions on the path, including a quote from her 1953 coronation speech: “Throughout all my life and with all my heart I shall strive to be worthy of your trust.” Proposed sculptures include new figurative statues of the Queen and Prince Philip, as well as a “Wind Sculpture” designed by the British artist Yinka Shonibare, intended to serve as a place of “reflection and shared experience.” ‘The nation’s bedrock’ The proposal from landscape architecture studio J&L Gibbons centers on a vision of the late Queen as “the nation’s bedrock” by incorporating a bridge made of literal bedrock. Its layout also “invites forest bathing” in a series of glades surrounded by trees. In its proposal video, the firm said its design represents a quote from the Queen’s 1966 Christmas broadcast, in which she spoke to breathing “gentleness and care into the harsh progress of mankind.” Also borrowing from nature is landscape architect Tom Stuart-Smith, whose proposal incorporates a replica of a centuries-old oak tree from Windsor Great Park, once the private hunting grounds of the late Queen’s former residence, Windsor Castle. Stuart-Smith’s team would digitally scan the tree before casting it as a full-size bronze sculpture. Called “The Queen’s Oak” and situated beside a gently curved bridge, the sculpture would be the centerpiece of the site, its lacquered leaves appearing like a “golden mirage reflected in the lake” at night, according to the firm’s entry. Other features include bronze casts of flowers from various Commonwealth countries, as well as a “sonic soundscape” playing recorded memories from people whose lives were impacted by Elizabeth II. To create a contemplative experience, architecture firm WilkinsonEyre, which recently restored London’s Battersea Power Station, proposed pathways with “threads” symbolizing the Queen’s life. Visitors can follow each of the threads, which are built around seven themes, including family, nature and the Commonwealth, representing her seven decades of service. A pair of bridges, set on two different levels, would give visitors views of the park, royal palaces and the London skyline.

Over 150 years ago, rich women from all over the world came to 7 Rue de La Paix in Paris to be dressed by couturier Charles Frederick Worth, whose eponymous fashion house, founded in 1858, continued through three generations after his death in 1895. Widely credited by historians as the “father of haute couture,” Worth was the first designer to be known by his name, and not by who wore his clothes. He gained international acclaim and shaped the way fashion was marketed and worn. His legacy is now being documented in a new exhibition, “Worth: Inventing Haute Couture,” running until September 7 at the Petit Palais art museum in Paris. A collaboration between the Petit Palais and the Palais Galliera, it is the first retrospective of the House of Worth staged in France, and the second only in the world — the last being over 60 years ago at the Brooklyn Museum in New York — and coincides with Worth’s 200th birthday this year. The Worth family’s close ties to artists during the 19th and 20th centuries and the Petit Palais’s “flamboyant architectural testament to this period,” said the museum’s director and chief curator Annick Lemoine, made Petit Palais “the perfect setting,” she told CNN ahead of the show’s opening. The exhibition encompasses the house’s work from its inception to the 1920s — when famous actresses and singers, such as Sarah Bernhardt, Sophie Croizette and Nellie Melba, wore its clothes on-stage and off. Also on show are art and design items that belonged to the Worth family, including a black lacquer screen by French Art Deco artist and designer Jean Dunand and a series of nude photographs of Worth’s great-grandson Jean-Charles taken by American visual artist Man Ray. Fragrance has also been incorporated in the exhibition, where visitors can smell a recreation of “Je Reviens,” a light powdery, floral scent by Worth. While Osmothèque, the world’s largest scent archive, based in Versailles, remade the fragrance for the exhibition, the scent itself was relaunched in 2005 by perfumer Maurice Blanchet and continues to be sold. Original Worth perfume bottles designed by René Lalique are also on display. As some of the garments are too fragile, the show will not travel internationally, said Raphaële Martin-Pigalle, chief heritage curator of the Petit Palais’s modern paintings department. Designer knows best Worth was born in England in 1825, where he trained with two textile merchants before heading across the Channel to work for Maison Gagelin, a clothing store in Paris, as a salesperson and dressmaker, eventually working up to becoming a partner. He then went on to establish his fashion house — initially called Worth and Bobergh, named after himself and business partner Otto Bobergh, a Swede. Worth decided what women would wear, not by creating new silhouettes, but by changing the business model. Today, haute couture fashion shows take place twice a year as designers present the latest styles for clients to pick from. But this wasn’t always the way. Before Worth, “couturiers didn’t have much latitude to invent looks,” said Sophie Grossiord, Palais Galliera’s interim director and general curator in charge of the collections from the first half of the 20th century. At the time, aristocratic women brought fabric and ideas of what they wanted to wear to couturiers, who would then produce those garments. But that wasn’t how Worth operated; instead, he designed looks that customers, if interested, could buy — subsequently turning the role of the designer, as someone who would merely serve the wealthy, to one of authority whom clients would look up to and follow guidance on how to dress. “Women come to see me to ask for my ideas, not to follow theirs,” Worth notably said to Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, a literary and political periodical, in 1858. Worth “didn’t necessarily agree with what his clients wanted,” said Grossiord. At Worth and Bobergh, the clothes were already made, but embellishments — like woven borders, lace and fake flowers — could be added. The clothing could also be modular, with interchangeable parts such as different sleeve lengths for different times of the day, as seen in the “transformation dress” from the late 1860s. Belle of the ball The demand for Worth’s clothes was great: During the Second French Empire from 1852 to 1870, elaborate costume balls were all the rage — and paintings shown in the Petit Palais exhibition, including Jean Béraud’s “Une Soirée” (1878), depict Worth gowns at these events. Worth’s costumes ranged from the avant-garde — like an umbrella costume from 1925, which looks like a cross between waders and an upside-down closed umbrella — to those which referenced history, like the dress made for Madame Charles-Pierre Pecoul for Princess Sagan’s ball around 1893, modeled after a painting of the infant Margaret Theresa of Spain. The house only ever made one suit for a man outside of the family: It was for the Duke of Marlborough and the most expensive costume made. Supporters of Worth included Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III and one of the leading trendsetters in Europe, who learned of Worth through her close friend, Princess Pauline von Metternich, and Valérie Feuillet (who was married to the writer Octave Feuillet), according to the show’s catalogue. As the French Empress threw her support behind Worth, he soon became the go-to name in fashion. “Worth is an authority,” French news magazine Le Monde Illustré wrote in 1868, describing him as “the absolute power in the world’s royalties.” Worth’s atelier doubled from over 500 workers in the 1860s to over 1,000 in the ’70s, as he sought to cater to clients, several of whom were European royals from across France, Russia, Austria, Spain, Portugal and Sweden. Though, a majority of Worth’s business came from customers further afield, in India, Japan, Hawaii and Egypt. American high society, which included the Astor, Morgan and Vanderbilt families, also provided a large source of income — as was emphasized towards the exhibition finale, where scenes from HBO TV series “The Gilded Age” are projected. (HBO and CNN share the same parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery.) Changing tastes As the Second Empire came to an end, so did Worth and Bobergh’s partnership — the company’s founding documents say it was intended to last 12 years. There is little known about Bobergh, so the exact reasons behind his departure are unknown. But Worth carried on, with the help of his wife, Marie, and later, his sons Gaston and Jean-Philippe. With the shift in French regime to the Third Republic, tastes changed — in fashion, crinolines were out, bustles were in. Worth adapted by bringing down the flamboyancy of his clothes. But another challenge soon emerged: In the 1890s, the US significantly raised its customs duties, creating the most consequential tariff of the 19th century and Worth’s clothes became extremely costly to export. That created an opportunity for copycats in the American market to create similar-looking pieces, for cheaper prices. “The copying phenomenon was a problem for all couturiers,” Grossiord said, noting: “the copiers pillaged their ideas.” In response, in 1868 Worth founded the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture (it later became the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode and remains France’s governing fashion body) to protect the designs of French couture houses from copying and to promote the status of Paris as the fashion capital of the world. Worth also established practices that are now regarded as standard in fashion, such as using live models (Worth’s wife, Marie, was his first model) and runway shows to present new collections. Worth also photographed each of his looks and registered it by name or number. All of these were efforts to reduce the forgery of his designs. “There was a clientele we can’t even imagine,” Grossiord said, noting that while Worth’s own order books have largely disappeared, some records still exist from the early days of Louis Vuitton (whose trunks were used to transport Worth’s clothes) and Cartier (with whom the Worth family had two marriages). Among some of the most sumptuous dresses that feature in the Paris exhibition include those belonging to Countess Élisabeth Greffulhe, who was the inspiration of the Duchess of Guermantes, a character from Marcel Proust’s literary masterpiece “À la Recherche du Temps Perdu.” Worth himself was such a grand figure that he, too, has been immortalized in fiction: In his book “La Curée” (The Kill), French novelist Émile Zola based the character Worms on Worth, calling him, “the genius tailor, before whom the Second Empire’s rulers took to their knees.” Over 100 years later, thousands continue to marvel at Worth’s clothes. His legacy lives on.

New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art came alive with tributes to Black history, culture and style as the annual Met Gala got underway Monday evening. The rain did little to dampen spirits on fashion’s big night out, where designers, models and stylists ascended the Met’s iconic — and for the night, blue-carpeted — stairs alongside A-list names from sports, arts and entertainment. This year’s hotly anticipated dress code, “Tailored for You,” was inspired by the Costume Institute’s accompanying exhibition “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” which explores the history of Black dandyism. The Met says its annual theme is designed to “provide guidance and invite creative interpretation.” It did both, with many attendees putting a contemporary spin on zoot suits, the wide-shouldered, high-waisted suits popularized by African American men in the 1940s. Speaking to CNN ahead of his arrival at the gala, fashion designer Dapper Dan said “real dandyism” began with zoot suits, jazz and the Harlem Renaissance movement. “It’s when Black artists and creatives began to dress the way they felt,” he added. This year marked the first Met Gala dress code centered on menswear, challenging designers to reinterpret tailoring traditions for their female clients. The red carpet was awash with exaggerated suiting, from the broad shoulders of Doja Cat’s 1980s-inspired Marc Jacobs blazer to the wide-lapeled jackets sported by everyone from actor Tessa Thompson to rapper Doechii. Janelle Monáe wowed with a suit-within a suit — an outerwear jacket, printed with a blazer and necktie, that she removed to reveal an actual suit (she completed the look with a bowler hat and a clock monocle with spinning hands). Other standout tailored looks included Zendaya’s Louis Vuitton three-piece and Lupita Nyong’o’s all-aquamarine Chanel look with a matching chiffon cape and hat. The evening’s men also embraced colorful, theatrical suiting: “Bridgerton” actor Regé-Jean Page in all red, Henry Golding in — fittingly — gold and musician Bad Bunny in a loose-fitting brown two-piece paired with a Puerto Rican pava hat. Elsewhere, attendees used the theme to pay homage to individual Black icons. In the first of two red-carpet looks, Oscar-nominated actor Colman Domingo, one of the Met Gala’s co-chairs, arrived in a blue Valentino cape that evoked Vogue’s former editor-at-large André Leon Talley. Formula 1 driver (and fellow co-chair) Lewis Hamilton said his patent leather shoes were also a reference to the late fashion journalist — as was Anne Hathaway’s white-button down shirt and Carolina Herrera column dress. Others looked closer to home, with “The Bear” star Ayo Edebiri telling Vogue that her Ferragamo look nodded to the dandy men in her life, including her father. Supermodel Gigi Hadid’s Miu Miu dress was inspired by Zelda Wynn Valdes, a pioneering Black fashion designer who dressed the likes of Josephine Baker and Ella Fitzgerald, while Jodie Turner-Smith channeled equestrian Selina Lazevski. And then there were the Black icons themselves: Diana Ross, making her first appearance at the gala since 2003, arrived in a 60-pound, 18-foot-long train embroidered with the names of all her children and grandchildren.