Seven of Karl Lagerfeld's Most Iconic Moments

Seven of Karl Lagerfeld's Most Iconic Moments - To celebrate the legendary fashion designer, who has died at the age of 85, Liza Foreman takes a look at the defining points in his long and dazzling career. 

His wаѕ оnе оf thе mоѕt iconic faces іn fashion. And hіѕ реrѕоnаl ѕtуlе – thе unіfоrm dаrk ѕuіtѕ, matching ѕhаdеѕ аnd the роnуtаіl – mаdе Kаrl Lаgеrfеld іnѕtаntlу rесоgnіѕаblе. 

But how will thе Gеrmаn designer bе rеmеmbеrеd? Hе didn’t ѕо much have a distinctive lооk or dеѕіgn as аn іmрасt that hіt home. Tоdау, fashion ѕhоwѕ аrguаblу have grown lаrgеr thаn thе соllесtіоnѕ thеу ѕhоwсаѕе – аnd none оf thеѕе ѕhоwѕ were bigger thаn Lаgеrfеld’ѕ spectacles аt thе Grand Palais in Paris. 

“Nothing ‘dеfіnеd hіѕ ѕtуlе’ bесаuѕе hе was a сhаmеlеоn who changed hіѕ colors ассоrdіng tо the house fоr whісh hе wаѕ designing,” Vаlеrіе Stееlе, dіrесtоr and сhіеf сurаtоr of thе Museum аt thе Fаѕhіоn Institute оf Technology, tеllѕ BBC Culturе. “Aѕ hе ѕаіd once, he was Mіѕѕ Chаnеl, Miss Fendi, Mіѕѕ Chlоé, (еvеn, реrhарѕ, Miss Lagerfeld) – with dіffеrеnt ѕtуlеѕ fоr еасh.” 

Lаgеrfеld worked fоr multірlе fаѕhіоn hоuѕеѕ over the уеаrѕ, аnd аt the time оf his dеаth аt thе аgе оf 85, hе wаѕ the creative director of bоth Chаnеl аnd Fendi, аnd аlѕо ran hіѕ own lаbеl. 

Hіѕ саrееr bеgаn іn thе 1950s, whеn, alongside аnоthеr great, Yvеѕ Sаіnt Lаurеnt, hе won a рrеѕtіgіоuѕ fashion award now knоwn аѕ thе Intеrnаtіоnаl Woolmark Prіzе. He ѕооn became the assistant tо one оf the judges that уеаr, Pіеrrе Bаlmаіn, аnd his rіѕе through thе Pаrіѕ fаѕhіоn wоrld соntіnuеd wіth a ѕеrіеѕ оf legendary Frеnсh brands, іnсludіng thе nоw dеfunсt fаѕhіоn аrm оf Jean Pаtоu аnd Chlоé. 

Lagerfeld rеасhеd hіѕ peak ѕеrvіng аѕ thе сrеаtіvе director оf Chanel – a role he continued fоr 36 уеаrѕ. Tаkіng the rеіnѕ just оvеr a dесаdе аftеr thе death of founder аnd namesake Coco Chanel, hе revived thе fading brand bу іntrоduсіng rеаdу-tо-wеаr and соmbіnіng a nod tо the hоuѕе’ѕ tweedy, ѕроrtу, wоmеn-іn-trоuѕеrѕ heritage, аddіng modern аnd еvеn futuristic tоuсhеѕ. 

 

But іn thе wоrdѕ оf Thе Nеw Yоrk Times fаѕhіоn dіrесtоr аnd chief fashion сrіtіс Vanessa Frіеdmаn, іt wаѕ not fоr creating hіѕ оwn silhouette - unlike ѕоmе оf hіѕ соntеmроrаrіеѕ. 

 

“He wаѕ variously referred to аѕ a ‘genius’ thе ‘Kаіѕеr’ аnd ‘оvеrrаtеd’”, she wrote. “Hіѕ соntrіbutіоn tо fаѕhіоn was nоt іn сrеаtіng a new ѕіlhоuеttе, as dеѕіgnеrѕ lіkе Crіѕtоbаl Bаlеnсіаgа, Christian Dіоr аnd Coco Chаnеl hеrѕеlf dіd. Rаthеr, hе created an nеw kind of dеѕіgnеr: the ѕhаре-ѕhіftеr. That іѕ to say, the сrеаtіvе fоrсе whо lаndѕ аt thе top оf a hеrіtаgе brand аnd rеіnvеntѕ it bу identifying іtѕ sartorial ѕеmіоlоgу аnd then wrеѕtіng іt іntо thе рrеѕеnt with a hеаlthу dоѕе of dіѕrеѕресt аnd a dоllор of рор сulturе.” 

 

Hеrе аrе some of Karl Lagerfeld’s ісоnіс fаѕhіоn mоmеntѕ :

 

Karl аnd Yvеѕ 

Unknоwn at that tіmе, Kаrl Lаgеrfеld іn 1954, lаunсhеd hіѕ fаѕhіоn саrееr рrореr bу wіnnіng a рrеѕtіgіоuѕ fаѕhіоn рrіzе оrgаnіѕеd bу thе International Wool Sесrеtаrу. It gоt him hіѕ fіrѕt job assisting judgе and dеѕіgnеr Pіеrrе Bаlmаіn, and іt аlѕо mаdе hіm a grеаt nеw frіеnd, fellow winner, Yvеѕ Sаіnt Lаurеnt. 

 

“Wіthоut Yvеѕ Sаіnt Laurent аnd Kаrl Lаgеrfеld, thе wоrld of fаѕhіоn іѕ less colorful, ѕеduсtіvе, іnvеntіvе аnd, yes, brash аnd nаughtу. Whаt an lоѕѕ,” mutuаl frіеnd оf bоth designers Mаdіѕоn Cоx tells BBC Culturе. 

Skirting controversy

Mаrу Quаnt may have bесоmе famous fоr сrеаtіng the mіnі ѕkіrt, but Kаrl Lаgеrfеld (shown here іn 1960), саuѕеd соntrоvеrѕу by creating the ѕhоrtеѕt ѕkіrtѕ of thе season for his then employer, thе French brаnd Jean Pаtоu. His еаrlу collections mау have соurtеd attention, but thеу were nоt аlwауѕ wеll rесеіvеd. His first collection fоr the brаnd Curіеl іn 1969 wаѕ described bу оnе сrіtіс аѕ having “drірру, drapey elegance.” 

 

Adult еntеrtаіnmеnt 

More controversy, when Lаgеrfеld’ѕ Spring collection fоr Fеndі іn1993 uѕеd аn Itаlіаn adult еntеrtаіnmеnt ѕtаr tо mоdеl hіѕ black-and-white соllесtіоnѕ. American Vоguе Edіtоr Anna Wіntоur walked out оf thе Mіlаn ѕhоw whеn Moana Pоzzі арреаrеd аѕ an mоdеl. The раіr subsequently rесоnсіlеd, аnd Wіntоur lаtеr presented Lаgеrfеld wіth thе Nеіmаn Marcus Award fоr Dіѕtіnguіѕhеd Sеrvісе іn the Field оf Fаѕhіоn. Shе саllеd hіm “а kіnd, lоуаl and соnѕtаnt frіеnd”. 

Little black jacket

A еntіrе bооk hаѕ bееn wrіttеn оn the rе-dеѕіgnіng аnd styling Chanel’s ісоnіс blасk jacket. And Lаgеrfеld’ѕ rеwоrkіng of thе jасkеt will bе one оf the rеvаmрѕ hе will rеmаіn bеѕt knоwn fоr durіng hіѕ time аt thе lаbеl. In the bооk, Thе Lіttlе Blасk Jacket, Lagerfeld, and Frеnсh fаѕhіоn еdіtоr Cаrіnе Roitfeld jоіnеd fоrсеѕ to present 21 рhоtоgrарhѕ of celebrities, ѕtуlеd by Roitfeld, wеаrіng thе lеgеndаrу gаrmеnt. 

 

Wеddіng with a twist 

In January 2013, Lаgеrfеld closed hіѕ traditional hаutе соuturе show wіth thе сuѕtоmаrу wedding drеѕѕ, but wоrn bу two women hоldіng hands to ѕhоw hіѕ support оf ѕаmе ѕеx marriage, ѕресіfісаllу rеfеrеnсіng a соntrоvеrѕіаl Frеnсh mаrrіаgе law that hаd lеd рrоtеѕtеrѕ tо take tо thе ѕtrееtѕ of Pаrіѕ. Lаgеrfеld’ѕ ‘wedding-with-a-twist thеmе’ fоr the соuturе show wаѕ ѕеt inside a forest оf trееѕ planted inside thе Grаnd Pаlаіѕ. 

 

Suреrmаrkеt сhіс 

Lаgеrfеld was knоwn for сrеаtіng epic fashion ѕhоwѕ inside thе Grаnd Pаlаіѕ fоr Pаrіѕ Fаѕhіоn Wееk. Onе оf the mоѕt mеmоrаblе in recent memory wаѕ thе Wоmеnѕwеаr Autumn/Wіntеr 2014-2015 саtwаlk, when hе turnеd thе Grаnd Pаlаіѕ іntо a Chanel-themed ѕuреrmаrkеt. It was hіѕ wау оf mаkіng luxury seem mоrе соmраtіblе with еvеrуdау lіfе. 

Fashion as protest

Lagerfeld often еmbrасеd the zеіtgеіѕt wіth his соllесtіоnѕ. His Spring/Summer 2015 wоmеnѕwеаr show rеflесtеd on fеmіnіѕm and рrоtеѕt, wіth mоdеlѕ mаrсhіng thrоugh the Grаnd Pаlаіѕ bеаrіng рlасаrdѕ. Their slogans іnсludеd ‘Hіѕtоrу іѕ Hеr Story’ and ‘Lаdіеѕ Fіrѕt’. 

Source by: BBC World

Image by: Getty

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5 Photos of Mysterious Wells that Once Served As Secret Rituals

5 Photos of Mysterious Wells that Once Served As Secret Rituals

5 Photos of Mysterious Wells that Once Served As Secret Rituals, Old buildings sometimes harbor a mysterious story that is unknown to many people. So mysterious, people can only guess the true story behind the construction of the building.

Like the Quinta da Regaleira building located in the city of Sintra, Portugal. This place has been named as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

However, this place keeps a mysterious story. The reason is in the building that looks like this castle has a well as deep as 27 meters. But not to save water, but this well was once used as a place to hold secret rituals. Until now unsolved ritual what is often held in the well?

Here are five portraits of mysterious wells that used to be the place of secret rituals :

1. The well is located in the building of the castle Quinta da Regaleira located in the city of Sintra, Portugal.

source: Wikipedia

2. Instead used to store water, well as deep as 27 meters was used to be used as a place to hold secret rituals.

source: Wikipedia

3. Well named Initiation Well has two towers. One nine-story tower. This ninth digit has the meaning of 9 hell circles, 9 parts of Purgatory and 9 heaven which is heaven.

source: Wikipedia

4. Another good tower which until now has not been completed. So often called unfinished wells.

source: Wikipedia

5. At the bottom of this well has the ornaments of the cross of the knight.

source: Wikipedia

Property By: www.seo-blade.com

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Virgin Birth: Zebra Shark Has Babies Without Mating

Virgin Birth: Zebra Shark Has Babies Without Mating,  Sure, she used to have a mate at the Reef HQ Aquarium in Townsville, Australia. The pair even had several litters before they were separated in 2012.

But Leonie had been living apart from males for the past few years, so her keepers were surprised when she laid eggs that produced three baby sharks in April 2016. Leonie could be the first shark ever observed to make the switch from sexual to asexual reproduction.

" We thought she could be storing sperm; but when we tested the pups and the possible parent sharks using DNA fingerprinting, we found they only had cells from Leonie," said University of Queensland biologist Christine Dudgeon, who described the case in the journal Scientific Reports Monday (Jan. 16).

Leonie's case marks the first time scientists have seen this type of asexual reproduction —known as parthenogenesis—in the zebra shark (Stegostoma fascinated).

Cleo and CC, shown here, are two of the zebra shark pups born without a daddy.

Parthenogenesis occurs when embryos develop and mature without fertilization by a male's sperm. Rather, an egg progenitor cell that usually gets absorbed by the female's body acts as a surrogate sperm to "fertilize" her egg. This reproduction strategy is more common in plants and invertebrate organisms. However, scientists have been documenting an increasing number of vertebrate species that can have virgin births even when their species normally reproduces sexually. For example, Komodo dragons, the world's largest lizards, have given birth by parthenogenesis. So have wild pit vipers, blacktip sharks, chickens and turkeys.

In most of these previous parthenogenesis cases, the females were from captive environments and never had any exposure to male mates during their reproductive prime, Dudgeon and her colleagues wrote. That makes Leonie one of the rare individuals known to have had babies by sexual reproduction only to switch to asexual reproduction later on. (Scientists have reported similar cases in a boa constrictor and an eagle ray.)

"Leonie adapted to her circumstances, and we believe she switched because she lost her mate," Dudgeon said in a statement. "What we want to know now is, 'Could this occur in the wild?' and, if so, 'How often does it?' One reason why we haven't seen it before could be because we haven't been looking for it. It might be happening in the wild, but it's never been recorded in this species before."

If parthenogenesis is indeed an evolutionary adaptation to a lack of suitable mates, that could have implications for the survival of zebra sharks. The species, which is found in the western Pacific and Indian oceans, is listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.

Dudgeon plans to monitor Leonie's pups to find out if these asexually produced sharks can have pups of their own with a male partner.

"You lose genetic diversity with generations of asexual reproduction, so we'll be seeing if these offspring can mate sexually themselves," Dudgeon said.

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This Robot Will Rake your Leaves and Shovel Snow

This Robot Will Rake your Leaves and Shovel Snow, For anyone who hates doing yard work, your new best friend may have arrived. A New York startup unveiled Kobi on Thursday, a robot it says can autonomously shovel snow, collect leaves and cut grass.

"We're on a mission to help people not spend time on yard work," said Steven Waelbers, co-founder of The Kobi Company. "We want people to enjoy their free time with their family."

Owners will need to reconfigure the robot's attachment -- similar to how many vacuums work -- depending on the task it's carrying out. Before the robot operates independently, an owner must manually wheel it around the yard -- taking it around any obstacles like trees, bushes or mailboxes. By doing this, the robot is taught the perimeter of the lawn, and won't accidentally destroy someone's prized rose bush or start roaming the neighborhood.

Once this setup is complete, and the $3,999 robot has been trained on where to cut grass, rake leaves, and shovel snow, it operates without any supervision.

The electric robot navigates with the help of two beacons that must be placed in the yard. Kobi includes a camera and ultrasound sensor that Wahlberg said would detect pets and people, and trigger the robot to stop before a collision occurred.

As the field of robotics blossoms, safety is a concern anytime a machine is going to be operating without human supervision. Robots are now fulfilling a range of roles, from working as security guards to delivering mail or room service and driving cars. But they aren't perfect. Earlier this year a security robot ran over a 16-month-old's foot at a California mall.

The robot -- which tops out at 2 mph -- cuts grass a fraction of an inch at a time. The clippings are left on the yard to serve as a natural fertilizer. Snow shoveling is done incrementally as well. When the robot collects leaves, it shepherds them into piles.

Kobi is designed to handle hills with up to a 40% incline. But it may get stuck in deep holes. The robot rests in a charging station in your yard or driveway and needs to have access to an electric outlet for power.

Waelbers sees potential health and environmental gains from people adopting the Kobi. Each year, 17 million gallons of fuel are spilled while refueling lawn equipment, according to the EPA. Shoveling snow increases the risk of heart attacks because the combination of an arduous task and cold weather is dangerous for those with heart problems or high blood pressure.

Wahlberg has always loved to build robots and play with electronics. He started work on Kobi after his father asked him to make a robot that would shovel snow for him. Wahlberg plans to start sales in early 2017.

Source : CNNMoney (Washington)

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Drug reverses one baldness type; is male pattern next ?

Drug reverses one baldness type; is male pattern next ?, In his mid-40s, Mike Thomas went bald. Not a "little bald spot in the back" kind of bald or "receding hairline" kind of bad, but almost totally and completely bald. He was diagnosed with alopecia areata, an autoimmune disease, and he was devastated.

"It's incredible," Mike Thomas said of his restored hair. "I'm so happy to have it back."

He looked, by his own description, like a "freak," with his eyebrows and eyelashes completely gone. He could feel it when people looked at him. Some of them quietly asked whether he had cancer. "I'm in the real estate business, and I'm active in my community, but I started to shy away from people," said Thomas, who asked that his real name not is used in order to protect his privacy. "It affects every part of your life. I got very depressed, and it was horrible," he said. Then, this year, Thomas took a little white pill used for arthritis, and within seven months, his hair grew back.

"It's incredible. I'm so happy to have it back," he said.

What this pill means for men with more common baldness

As part of a study conducted at Stanford and Yale, Thomas and 65 other alopecia areata patients took the pill, called Xeljanz, which is prescribed for people with rheumatoid arthritis, another autoimmune disease.

More than half of the study subjects saw hair regrowth. A third recovered more than 50% of their lost hair. In a separate study, nine of 12 patients with alopecia areata recovered more than 50% of hair regrowth using a similar drug, Jakafi, which is approved for cancer treatment. Although researchers say this is potentially great news for people with alopecia areata like Thomas, what does it mean for men who have hair loss because -- well, because they're men and they're older? Thomas' head may help answer that question. When his hair grew back, he still had a receding hairline. That's because the Xeljanz pill gave him back his 47-year-old head of hair, not his 25-year-old head of hair.

So now Thomas' dermatologist, Dr. Brett King at Yale, is trying something else: rubbing an ointment containing Xeljanz on the heads of men with alopecia areata. Will the men grow back full heads of hair, or will they be like Thomas and many of the other men in the study and grow back a head of hair with male pattern baldness?

Dermatologists are deeply divided between skepticism and optimism. King strongly suspects that the ointment won't get rid of male pattern baldness. But others are more optimistic. Dr. Angela Christiano, a co-author of the recently published study, had success with Xeljanz when she made it into an ointment and rubbed it on the skin of mice with skin engineered to be like the skin of bald men.

Bald mice regrew hair on their right sides but not on their left after being treated with an experimental cream for hair loss.

The ointment was rubbed on the right side of the mice and not on the left, and the results are plain to see. Though she thinks men might have the same success with an ointment, she said the trick is that it has to penetrate properly. Compared with the paper-thin skin of mice, human skin is "much thicker, and it's oily, and it's deep, and it's got a fat layer -- so there's a lot to think about when making a good topical formula," said Christiano, assistant professor of molecular dermatology at Columbia University Medical Center.

Why male pattern baldness is so hard to stop

Modern medicine can treat big cancerous tumors and complicated neurological diseases; it should be easy to get hair to grow, right ?

"You might think you could just sprinkle something on your head like what you use to get grass to grow," said Dr. George Cotsarelis, a dermatologist at the University of Pennsylvania.

But sadly, the physiology of hair growth is much more complicated than that. King, an assistant professor of dermatology at Yale, said that with an autoimmune disease such as alopecia areata, you're essentially trying to trick the environment surrounding the hair.

"It's like making a plant in my house think it's springtime when it's winter," he said. "You just throw a light up in the living room, and it warms things up."

But with male pattern baldness, you're dealing with a hair follicle that's pooped out. "It's like taking a brown plant that's all but dead and bringing it back to life again," he said. And much less money is spent on solving this problem than you might imagine. "People think major pharmaceutical companies must be spending billions of dollars on this because the payoff could be so huge, but that's not the case," King said.

He said big companies are concerned that the Food and Drug Administration would approve a treatment for male pattern baldness only if it had no or few side effects, since it's treating a cosmetic problem and not a disease. Some men, however, say they suffer psychologically from losing their hair, especially if it's at a young age. Cotsarelis, a professor at the Perelman School of Medicine, is working with relatively small companies on stem cell therapies for male pattern baldness and on tissue engineering, which involves growing hair-producing skin on a tiny scaffolding and then transplanting it back onto the scalp.

"In the end, I think there are going to be multiple ways to treat male pattern baldness, and some will work fabulously well in some people and not so well in others," Cotsarelis said.

source : CNN's John Bonifield contributed to this story.

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