On a catwalk by the Seine with the Eiffel Tower in the background, Kenzo chose this season to celebrate all things French.
In a Los Angeles kind of way.
Orange County natives Carole Lim and Humberto Leon, who to-and-fro between France and the US on a regular basis, thus took the classic Breton stripe — and created a funky cultural fusion.
They slashed it, broke it up and even blew it up on oversize coats, singlets and enviable tight segmented sweaters. This, all to pulsating house music that had guests tapping their feet.
The palette the designers amusingly describe as “akin to the contents of a box of macaroons” — pastels in pink, mint, tobacco and sky blue, all perfectly balanced by the master colourists.
And, to make sure every foreign French cliché in the book was covered, they knitted an image of Cosette from Les Miserables on a sweater, created stylish modernist-style bags based on the architect Le Corbusier, and plastered the Eiffel Tower on prints alongside oversized blue polka dots on a loose silk shirt or a wild double-breasted jacket.
Some exaggerated parkas that featured in the show could have come in useful for dripping guests, who were victims of an unexpected summer rainstorm.
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
WHAT ARE NFTs?
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are tokens that represent ownership of unique items. They allow the tokenisation of things such as art, collectibles and even real estate.
An NFT can have only one official owner at one time. And since they're minted and secured on the Ethereum blockchain, no one can modify the record of ownership, not even copy-paste it into a new one.
This means NFTs are not interchangeable and cannot be exchanged with other items. In contrast, fungible items, such as fiat currencies, can be exchanged because their value defines them rather than their unique properties.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
Company profile
Company: Rent Your Wardrobe
Date started: May 2021
Founder: Mamta Arora
Based: Dubai
Sector: Clothes rental subscription
Stage: Bootstrapped, self-funded
SPECS
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