The Boat Business Is Booming

In April, when reality set in for the advertising executive Joseph Gordon — that his family’s spring and summer vacation plans were canceled, that his two kids’ camps would likely be canceled, too — he cast about for an escape. After a lot of research, Mr. Gordon, 40, of downtown Manhattan, located two 19-foot Yamaha…

What’s an Autonomous Zone?

ImageSeattle police and other workers in the protest zone on July 1, 2020.Credit…Ruth Fremson/The New York Times At first they called it the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone. In early June, protesters aligned with the Black Lives Matter movement took over six city blocks of a gentrified Seattle neighborhood. There, activists screened films, served spaghetti, painted…

My Other Car is a…Mercedes Camper Van?

Harley Sitner was in the Dumbo neighborhood of Brooklyn for a wedding in March, feeling as if he’d just been sprayed by a skunk. Mr. Sitner’s hometown, Seattle, where he owns a camper-van restoration, repair and rental business called Peace Vans, was the site of one of one of the first huge coronavirus outbreaks. “People…

Hydrangeas: Uncommon Varieties for Your Garden

Daniel J. Hinkley grew up in Michigan, a place with serious Zone 4 winters and a repetitive palette of two white-flowered varieties of hydrangeas. In many front yards, you could see Hydrangea paniculata Grandiflora, known as the peegee hydrangea and often trained like a small tree, or a wider-than-high mound of Hydrangea arborescens Annabelle, with…

Gucci Launches Off the Grid, Its First Sustainable Collection

Between rising consumer demands for sustainable practices and the secondhand clothing industry estimated to be valued at $64 billion by 2025, you can’t not practice eco-friendly fashion solutions. That’s the Herculean task that Gucci is taking on with Off the Grid, the Italian fashion house’s first environmentally-conscious collection heralded by creative director Alessandro Michele. “Gucci…