A Brand That Keeps Trying for Cool

The Instagram posts began surfacing on a Thursday in November. The actress Lupita Nyong’o wore a knitted red and black midi-dress with a high neck and cap sleeves. Sarah Jessica Parker wore a full-length dress in black silk, with a plunging keyhole neckline and billowing sleeves slit down the sides. Both dresses came from the…

Shopping for Sofas

Choosing a sofa can be a daunting proposition. From cocktail parties to catnaps, it has to meet a wide variety of demands. And it’s probably the largest thing in the room, so it’s not inconspicuous. A sofa is “among the biggest and most important pieces of furniture in the living room or family room,” said…

Raf Simons Joins Prada as Co-Creative Director

In an unexpected move, Prada named Raf Simons as co-creative director joining Miuccia Prada. The powerhouse duo will share “equal responsibilities for creative input and decision-making.” The decision was announced on Sunday at a surprise press conference held on the last day of Milan Fashion Week. Prada joined her family’s namesake label in 1978, premiered…

Kanye, Out West

CODY, Wyo. — It’s surprising that a global celebrity who frequently self-identifies as the greatest artist living or dead has become an everyday presence in a tightly connected town of about 10,000 people. It’s more surprising just how much the town’s leaders want him to stay. There Kanye West is at the McDonald’s, the Best…

Christian Louboutin Explains Himself

A sprawling new exhibition devoted to — and imagined by — Christian Louboutin, the shoe designer famous for red soles, is opening this week at the Palais de la Porte Dorée in Paris. Less a retrospective of his 30-plus-year career than a highly personal tour through the twisting, expansive corridors of a creative mind, the…