Engineers and scientists have an enduring fascination with spider silk. Similar to typical worm silk that makes for comfy bedsheets, but much tougher, the material has inspired the invention of lighter and more breathable body armor and materials that could make airplane components stronger without adding weight. Researchers are even using examples drawn from spider…
When I got married, I chose a dress by Simone Rocha. As a nonbinary person, I didn’t want anything conventionally feminine, but I did want a spectacular piece of clothing. The dress I picked was from the spring 2018 collection—Elizabethan in its shape, with leg-of-mutton sleeves and a huge skirt. It was gothically black, covered…
A STRIPED SWIMSUIT Hunza G Square Neck One Piece Swimsuit Credit: Courtesy of Bloomingdale’s “Hunza G has always been the best swimsuit in my book. This one-size-fits-all silhouette is perfect for all your summer plans.” A LIGHT LAYER Free People Quinn Quilted Jacket Credit: Courtesy of Bloomingdale’s “I love the handmade, heirloom feel of this…
As a teenager, the Viennese food stylist and baker Sophia Stolz, 29, was often befuddled by the fancy, prim desserts served at her friends’ birthday celebrations. Despite all the money spent on outfits and party décor, the cakes tended to be “so boring!” she says. Now, she’s baking cakes that are, in her words, “a…
Dear Tripped Up, In September 2022, I booked a 17-day Arabian Sea cruise through Vantage Travel Services to celebrate my 80th birthday with my wife. The cruise was to set sail in October 2023. I used my credit card to leave a $2,000 deposit and paid the remaining $17,905 shortly afterward by bank transfer. I…
On a quiet weekday evening inside a restaurant in Brooklyn, a dog under a table announced its presence with a single pronounced yap. At a scoop shop in downtown Manhattan, a large white poodle was spoon-fed what appeared to be vanilla ice cream. In the dining room of a chic Midtown restaurant, a teacup Pomeranian…
Rooms With a North Sea View Last year, when Micha Pycke, 40, and Albane Paret, 39, bought an apartment in Ostend — a once run-down Belgian seaside town that, in recent years, has become a favorite of artists and designers — they knew they wanted the place to be, says Pycke, “something more than an…
In 2014, Fie Isolde’s future husband wrote her a 28th birthday card that, she said, was “full of dreams about all the things we were going to do.” “When I got the card,” the Danish jewelry designer recalled last month during a video interview from her boutique in the Sycamore neighborhood of Los Angeles, “my…
Justin Noggle, who owns a power washing business in Marysville, Wash., was struggling with anxiety and depression last summer as he navigated some financial challenges with his company. A counselor suggested that Mr. Noggle, 37, try jotting down what he was grateful for each day. For a while, he did, using the notes app on…
The black-dappled white panther, sometimes curling around the wrist as a bracelet, sometimes crouched low as a brooch or glaring from a choker, is Cartier’s most emblematic animal. But it is not the only one. Tigers striped with black spinels and emerald-studded crocodiles gripping dials in their teeth were among the many animal-inspired timepieces Cartier…