Style and Fashion
Beware the Fashion Flim-Flammers
Rose Madeline Mula writes: Don't you think it's strange that so many women are wearing jeans with gaping, ragged holes and frayed hems? Stranger still, they are buying them in that condition from high-end boutiques. Marketed as "distressed," these garments command much higher prices than their pristine, unstressed/well-adjusted cousins. Furthermore, women are being brainwashed into buying their jeans at least two sizes too small, requiring enough pulling and tugging to get into so as to distress them even more. more »
Dreams of the Kings: A Jade Suit for Eternity; "Humankind's Dream of Eternal Life is Enduring"
The centerpiece of Dreams of the Kings is a 2,000-year-old, life-sized jade and gold burial suit, meticulously assembled from more than 4,000 pieces of jade linked together with gold wire. Jade is China's most precious material and has been exalted in that country since the Neolithic period as having deep spiritual significance associated with the afterlife. It was only during the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.E –220 C.E.) that it was used to completely encase the corpse to reflect the belief that the body would not decay if encased in jade.
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Exhibition Extended: From New York City to St. Augustine, Florida: The Downton Abbey Exhibition and Dressing Downton
The Downton Abbey-themed experience has opened: The Exhibition opened in New York City on Nov. 18, and runs through the month of January before traveling throughout the US. It will connect fans with their favorite characters, costumes, locations and historic events of the era, as well as showcase never-before-seen footage. In the meantime, the Lightner Museum in St. Augustine, Florida is presenting a costume history of the period surrounding World War I, a period that changed the social fabric of Great Britain.
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Labor Day 2017: The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) Was Once One of the Largest in the US
Through the years the nation gave increasing emphasis to Labor Day. The first governmental recognition came through municipal ordinances passed during 1885 and 1886. From these, a movement developed to secure state legislation. The first state bill was introduced into the New York legislature, but the first to become law was passed by Oregon on February 21, 1887. During the year four more states — Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York — created the Labor Day holiday by legislative enactment. By the end of the decade Connecticut, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania had followed suit. By 1894, 23 other states had adopted the holiday in honor of workers, and on June 28 of that year, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the territories. more »