AI Fitness Trainers Are Here. Are They Useful?
A.I. fitness trainers are here, at a fraction of the price of human coaching. But how useful are they?
Designers and Duchesses Like the Taste of Her Cakes
Claire Ptak first learned about Meghan Markle through Ms. Markle’s former lifestyle blog, The Tig, a so-called hub for the discerning palette that she started in 2014. After Ms. Ptak, the owner of Violet, a cafe and bakery in London, published “The Violet Bakery Cookbook” in 2015, she sent a copy to Ms. Markle, who…
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Why Is My Boyfriend Pursuing Other Options After Planning a Summer With Me?
My boyfriend and I planned to live together this summer in the town where he goes to college. I lined up a job there months ago; he was going to take classes. But I just discovered he also applied for an internship at NASA in Washington. (He made the first cut.) I’m happy for him,…
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Pleats Please Is the Ultimate ‘IYKYK’ Label
Here’s a fashion riddle: Name a brand that’s just as desirable to a Gen Z fashion lover as it is to a septuagenarian retiree. Pleats Please Issey Miyake, celebrating its 30th anniversary this month, has become exactly that—a line of amorphous, finely pleated, colorful garments that offer intergenerational appeal to creative types, young and old…
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6 Podcasts for the Fashion-Conscious, and Curious
Starter episode: “A Dressed Guide to Dressed, Part 1” “99% Invisible,” the long-running radio show-turned-podcast, considers the hidden or unappreciated role of design in our everyday lives, often focusing on architecture and physical structures. “Articles of Interest,” hosted by Avery Trufelman, started out as a clothing-focused mini-series within “99% Invisible” but spun off into an…
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How to Grow Dahlias? A Ceramist Has Some Advice for You
It’s time to unpack the dahlias, and Frances Palmer finds herself surrounded by 25 sizable cardboard cartons full of tubers that she dug up and then stored last fall in the frost-proof cellar of her barn. To complete the coals-to-Newcastle scene: Several boxes of new tubers she ordered have just arrived, too. Who could have…
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Florence Pugh on Her First Met Gala and the Truth About Brand Ambassadorships
Florence Pugh has never been afraid of fashion controversy. Last July she set off a viral brouhaha when she appeared at the Valentino couture show in Rome in a sheer pink gown that showed her nipples, then posted on Instagram defending her choice and her body. She followed that with an appearance at the Venice…
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Bears, Binoculars and Bucket-List Birds: A 15-Day Tour in Ecuador
We spent five blissful days at Sani Lodge, which is owned and operated by the Indigenous Sani tribe. We watched the sun rise over the jungle from a 120-foot-high metal platform — Mr. Gualinga helped build it when he was 14, he said — in the crown of a 900-year-old ceiba tree, and waited for…
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Cheesecake Fit for a Maestro
In late winter of last year, Maria Kitsopoulos, a member of the New York Philharmonic since 1996, arrived for rehearsal with a cello on her back and Rubbermaid container in hand. Inside, she had tucked little squares of homemade cheesecake, the luscious filling held together by two layers of flaky pastry. “Musicians love free food,”…
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The Design Fair Off the Beaten Path of Salone del Mobile
At this year’s Milan Design Week, the world’s largest design festival, held each April, one outlier to the typical venues — and “typical” has meant palazzos, villas and theaters, as well as a desacralized church, a tennis club and an outdoor pool — was a former slaughterhouse. This is where Alcova, an annual independent fair,…
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