Latest news with #ModaOperandi
Elle
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Elle
Nia Thomas Redefines Resortwear With Modern Elegance
Every item on this page was chosen by an ELLE editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy. Some people spend their entire lives trying to home in on their passions, but for Nia Thomas, it seems like her destiny was written from the start. Growing up on New York's Long Island, she spent her evenings assisting her aunts in their alteration shop, learning just as much about the world through the lens of design as she did in any classroom. Within the walls of her family shop, she traveled through eras of history via vintage sewing patterns and discovered different cultures through the textures and colors of endless bolts of fabric. Years later, all these lessons manifested in her eponymous resortwear brand. Restless and eager, she first hung out her shingle at age 23. Motivated both by a desire to travel and the hope of seeing more Black female designers rise to the mainstream of fashion, Thomas channeled ease and serenity in her early designs. 'Honestly, at the time I just wanted to feel like I was on vacation,' she jokingly confirms. Hand-crocheted dresses and bikinis, alongside seashell-embellished designs in shades of white and cream, quickly became staples and bestsellers for the young brand. From there, everything started to fall into place. 'It all happened so fast,' she says. 'I went from putting together a small fashion show to staying up until 3 A.M. creating a website so people could buy my designs.' Reflecting on her early days as a designer, she chalks up some of her fearlessness to naïveté. Nonetheless, her story motivates her to this day. 'You can do this at any age,' she says. 'You just have to be a little delusional and know that nothing can stop you.' It's a sentiment that also sums up the process of creating her fall 2025 collection. Regal tones of blue, purple, and red were a departure from her usual neutral hues. 'I have such an affinity for warm weather and traveling to places that are rich with culture and color,' Thomas says. But her lineup was also full of contradictions. Halter tops were hand-crocheted using leather cording, while long coats and bolero jackets made of paper raffia swept the runway—letting us know that resortwear is for everywhere and anytime. 'When people think of materials like raffia, they automatically think of a straw bag you take to the beach,' Thomas says. 'But I say, 'No, you can wear it in the fall as a coat,' because I want to challenge what people think these materials can be used for.' Thomas had a pop-up late last year at 'It' resort Palm Heights in the Grand Cayman, and her line is sold at Moda Operandi. Though her impeccable crocheted designs wouldn't be out of place at any of the White Lotus resort locations, she refuses to be pigeonholed. 'I want to steer away from solely being known for resortwear; I feel like it's just the thing that [resonated] with people. Still, I'm glad because there are so many designers who spend years trying to figure out their signature,' she says. 'Resortwear chose me; I didn't choose it.' A version of this story appears in the Summer 2025 issue of ELLE. GET THE LATEST ISSUE OF ELLE
Newsweek
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Newsweek
Sabrina Carpenter draws criticism with new song and album announcement
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Pop star Sabrina Carpenter has sparked debate online with the release of her new song Manchild and the artwork for her upcoming album Man's Best Friend. The 26-year-old singer is no stranger to turning heads with her playful lyrics and performances, and Manchild is no exception. While some fans are praising her signature tongue-in-cheek provocativeness, others say she has crossed a line by using language that they interpret as ableist. The country-pop tune, which was released Thursday, is a takedown of disappointing men and is widely expected to soar up the charts. Jason Hellerman, a film and TV writer, praised the western-style music video as an "homage to female empowerment cinema." But not all listeners agree. NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 03: Sabrina Carpenter attends the 'Moda Operandi' Pre-Met Gala cocktail party at The Twenty Two Hotel on May 03, 2025 in New York City. NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 03: Sabrina Carpenter attends the 'Moda Operandi' Pre-Met Gala cocktail party at The Twenty Two Hotel on May 03, 2025 in New York City. Aeon / Contributor/GC Images The song's pre-chorus includes the line: "Stupid, or is it slow? Maybe it's useless? But there's a cuter word for it, I know," before Carpenter lands the punchline: "Manchild." That particular lyric has drawn some criticism. Blaire Wilson (@blairewilsonproject), a 33-year-old disability advocate and independent journalist from Ontario, Canada said in a TikTok post that, as an autistic woman, she found the choice of adjectives—particularly "slow"—deeply problematic. She suggested non-ableist alternatives, including "reckless" for "stupid," "complacent" for "slow," and "selfish" for "useless." Newsweek reached out to Sabrina Carpenter's publicists for comment via email outside if working hours and will update this article if they respond. "The casual use of the word 'slow' in her new song Manchild is especially concerning to me given its history as an ableist slur against neurodivergent and intellectually disabled people," Wilson told Newsweek. "Language matters, particularly when used by public figures with large platforms. When such terms are repurposed casually or as a joke, even unintentionally, they reinforce harmful stereotypes and contribute to the erasure of marginalized communities." Wilson connected her concerns to other struggles within the autistic community, including opposition to U.S. health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s proposed autism database. "I think artists with significant influence need to consider how their work interacts with ongoing social struggles," she said. "Without that awareness, what may be intended as edgy or playful can unintentionally perpetuate harm and silence those who are already at risk." She clarified that her suggested word alternatives were not meticulously chosen but meant to demonstrate how easy it is to describe someone acting immature or ridiculous without resorting to harmful language. Wilson emphasized that as an autistic woman and the mother of a non-speaking autistic son, she sees firsthand the damaging impact words like "slow" can have. She argued that using such language, even ironically, reinforces harmful stereotypes that can have lasting consequences in education, healthcare, employment, and beyond. Not everyone shared Wilson's point of view. "Okay wait. I am autistic and I have personally no issue with these words being used, as the terms you provided on the screen are not synonymous with the lyrics," wrote a user named Em in the comments of the video. "I get what you're saying but that's not what SHES saying. She's literally talking about a grown man that cheated on her," another commenter added. Presley Cash (@hellomynameispresleycash), a 27-year-old artist from Missouri, also voiced concerns, calling the track "ableist – not feminist" in a TikTok video that garnered over 235,000 views and nearly 5,000 likes. "The song stopped me in my tracks when I heard her mocking tone as she listed off different digs, the one in particular that made my stomach church was 'slow'," she told Newsweek. Cash noted she was bullied throughout school for her learning disability. "Especially followed by the word 'useless' I thought, 'this is 2025 right??' She's using a known slur for the disabled in her 'song of the summer' right now? My immediate thought was how many disabled children that look up to her and admire her are going to hear this song and be crushed that she is using verbiage that has been used against them time after time. To hear their favorite artist singing that slur in a mocking tone—on the radio no less! Hitting number 1 overnight. In my opinion the lyric in particular 'slow' should be taken off the radio," Cash told Newsweek. Cash's video has comments switched off, but various other TikTokers have posted videos disagreeing with her argument, and pointing to a history of some male artists degrading women in their songs. In addition to the lyrical critique, Carpenter's artwork for her upcoming album Man's Best Friend has also come under fire. The image, posted to her Instagram Wednesday, shows the singer being dragged across the floor by her hair—a choice some say promotes regressive gender stereotypes. Kiera Dann (@ddiva444), a 21-year-old student from Brighton, UK, went viral with her commentary on the cover, racking up over 600,000 views. @ddiva444 What do we think of the new album? I'm excited to hear the music! Just not so keen on the cover #sabrinacarpenter #dating ♬ original sound - Kiera "I understand that Sabrina's music is often satirical and pokes fun at men's actions towards women, but without knowing her brand, it just paints women as an object used to serve men. If she had flipped the image so she was holding a man by his hair then that would be poking fun at the issue, but this just caters to the male gaze and normalises violence towards women," Dann told Newsweek. According to the comments section, viewers of the video remain divided over both the song and the visuals. Some disagreed with Dann, interpreting the image as satireical and subversive, or urging viewers to wait to hear the album before forming an opinion. Carpenter rose to prominence playing the starring role of Maya in the Disney Channel show Girl Meets World from 2014 to 2017. While she has been releasing music for 10 years, she found superstandom with her 2024 album, Short 'n' Sweet, which included the smash hits Espresso and Please, Please, Please.
News.com.au
23-05-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
#richtok: Photo confirms shocking TikTok trend that's emerging
COMMENT It's nearly a century since F. Scott Fitzgerald slopped bootlegged gin on his trusty Remington and tapped out one of his most famous lines, 'Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.' And 99 years on since Fitzgerald wrote that after a busy morning getting cigarette ash on Zelda's furs and binning his bar IOUs, the rich are riching harder than ever and don't give a fig who knows. We are in the midst of what feels like a real tonal and vibe shift around ultra high net worth sorts. Take one of the hottest pairs of shoes in the world right now, which have all but sold out across the internet and of which one LA boutique owner told the Wall Street Journal, 'We wish we could have more.' They are The Row's Dune Classic Sandal, which luxury site Moda Operandi describes as a 'refined classic casual' which might conjure up the image of something produced by a storied Florentine studio that has been cobbling since the Medicis were getting their slippers there. They are $1266 a pair. They are rubber thongs. At the time of writing, Net-A-Porter has only one pair left in one, single size. If ever there was an item that truly encapsulated where we are now as a society and world - where finding normal eggs supplies on shelves is a matter of chooky's teeth and you need two high six figure incomes to buy the sort of mingily wee property that real estate agents will try and repackage as 'bijou' - then these shoes are it. The glaring disparity between the experiences of the hoi and polloi, or at least the middle bit of society, and those at the financial extreme peak has never been more painfully obvious. In Australia, the costs of things like bread, cereal and cheese have all jumped by more than 20 percent, according to The Australian, and yet you can't get your hands on a $1200 pair of plastic thongs for love nor a working black Amex card. The NAB reported last month that, in Australia, consumer stress is at an 18 month high, meanwhile, earlier this year Oxfam predicted the world will have five trillionaires by 2035. The organisation's Takers Not Makers report, out in January, found that, globally, billionaire wealth grew three times faster in 2024 and 2023. Last year, the wealth of each of the 10 richest blokes in the world grew by almost $154 million per day, on average. (If ever there was a stat that really called for the heavy use of italics, this is it. Double underlined.) Perhaps it shouldn't be a shock then that the uber wealthy have started doing their thing in full public view over on TikTok, where there are now 85,000 videos tagged #richtok. Last month society newsletter Airmail crowned Californian Becca Bloom, real name Rebecca Ma, 'the Queen of #richtok'. Ma only posted her first video earlier this year - some very average cat content of her Scottish Fold Oscar lolling around on a lot of heavy, monied wooden furniture - but she has accrued 65.4 million in only four months. So big has Bloom gotten that there are now accounts dedicated to identifying the clothes, jewellery and eye wateringly expensive objets her posts feature. Her most watched video shows her plating her breakfast which starts with her selecting silver chopsticks from a $3300 Christofle silver 'egg'. 'I like to add a little caviar for seasoning purposes,' Bloom explains while glooping spoonfuls of the inky black stuff on her plate. It's been watched 32.3 million times. The 25-year-old Bloom would make for an easy target if there was not something so soothing, if not wonderfully sedating, about watching her videos, like ASMR. (This story would have been filed 20 minutes earlier had I not fallen headfirst into her feed and found myself mesmerically transfixed by watching her do things like try on her $680,000 Van Cleef & Arpels wedding necklace.) Don't be fooled - things like #richtok and $1200 thongs represent what feels like a significant vibe shift about wealth. It's not about showing off but nor is anyone getting about in Uniqlo t-shirts and pretending to be just like the masses. Unlike the Succession-esque skulking of quiet luxury or the horrifically gauche exhibitionism of the rich kids of Instagram days; it is not about greed-is-good valorising or a covert sheepishness. It is neither shouty nor ashamed. It just is. Case in point, this month T he Wall Street Journal reported on the price of haircuts, including one New York salon where a trim and blow dry costs $1,944 as if this is nothing to write home about. Or take the fact that retailer LL Bean and cult brand Tibi collaborated to release a $733 plain cotton tote bag. Of course it has sold out. Why wouldn't you want the world to know you can drop the better part of a grand on something you carry drippy cartons of milk home in? Bloom's popularity and the advent of $1200 thongs reflect a world in which those with unthinkable fortunes are no longer a freakish species to be gawped at but a mainstream part of our culture, part of the public furniture of the moment. It feels like in 2025, what has shifted is that an adoption of matter-of-fact visibility without tipping over into the Trumpian conspicuous consumption of the 80s; of wealth detached from moralising condemnation and from finger-pointing or crass awe. There are at least 13 billionaires in the Trump administration. The most eagerly anticipated celebrity wedding of the year is of very rich thumb Jeff Bezos and his rocket-flying bride-to-be Lauren Sanchez. A decade after F. Scott wrote his famous lines, Ernest Hemingway was at a lunch with the critic Mary Colum. Hemingway said, 'I am getting to know the rich'. To which Colum shot back, 'The only difference between the rich and other people is that the rich have more money'. And now, some very bright red thongs.
Business Journals
06-05-2025
- Business
- Business Journals
Moda Operandi takes distribution space in Queens
Moda Operandi, a New York City-based e-commerce platform for designer fashion, has signed a lease at the Pearl Building in Queens. The company will occupy a 30,000-square-foot space, located at 58-30 Grand Ave. in Maspeth, that is on part of the third floor. Moda Operandi is expected to move in later this month and will use the space as a distribution center. PW Shoes and Much Better Perfume previously occupied the space. GET TO KNOW YOUR CITY Find Local Events Near You Connect with a community of local professionals. Explore All Events JLL's Owen Hane represented Moda Operandi on the deal. Cushman & Wakefield's Rico Murtha, Helen Paul, Joe Hentze Jr. and Sonny Singh represented building ownership, The Davis Cos. "Moda Operandi's growth and scale led them to the decision to take their distribution needs in-house," Hane said in an email statement. "The Pearl Building offered an ideal location with close proximity to all major transportation outlets and access to Manhattan and a large portion of its customer base." 'The demand for well-located, high-functioning industrial space in New York City remains strong, and properties like the Pearl Building are ideally positioned to meet that need,' added David Allen, senior vice president of asset management at Davis. The Pearl Building, which recently underwent a multimillion-dollar capital improvement program, is a three-story, 157,000-square-foot property that is home to tenants Fly E-Bike and Stronghold East LLC. There is 22,000 square feet of space available for lease on the third floor of the property. Sign up for the Business Journal's free daily newsletter to receive the latest business news impacting New York.
Daily Mail
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Sabrina Carpenter wears no bra or underwear in VERY sheer dress with huge slit ahead of the Met Gala
Sabrina Carpenter attended a pre-Met Gala party over the weekend and looked absolutely stunning. She went braless in a glittering sea foam green gown from Versace while attending the Moda Operandi pre-Met Gala cocktail party at The Twenty Two Hotel in New York City on Saturday, May 3. The Espresso singer, 25, is the face of Versace and she looked every bit a muse in the sheer gown that clearly revealed the outline of her breasts and coloring of her areola and nipples. The skin tight dress clung to every curve of the Girl Meets World star's body and featured ruching on the sides of the gown. The gown was a tank-style dress with a slit that ran all the way up to her hip, showing off her great legs. Sabina wore tan platform Christian Louboutin sandals, carried a matching green and kept her blonde hair down and parted in the middle. Sabrina is expected to attend the 2025 Met Gala on Monday, May 5, with the theme Superfine: Tailoring Black Style and the dress code Tailored for You. The the concept of this year's gala comes from the Costume Institute's spring exhibition highlighting Black dandyism. Sabrina celebrated Valentine's Day this year by releasing a deluxe version of her hit album Short N' Sweet, which included a new version of Please Please Please featuring Dolly Parton, 79. The country music legend made it clear to the pop star that she would only join a duet version of the song if Sabrina agreed to clean up her language on the tune. 'Of course, she can talk a little bad now and then,' the Jolene singer admitted of her vocal partner while chatting with Knox News in March, before laying out the rules she had for the two to work together. 'I told her, I said, "Now, I don't cuss. I don't make fun of Jesus. I don't talk bad about God, and I don't say dirty words, on camera, but known to if I get mad enough,"' she stated. In order to make the new version of Please Please Please clean enough for Dolly's tastes, it was necessary to change a lyric in the original version: 'I beg you, don't embarrass me, motherf***er, oh, please, please, please.' For the newer version, the line was redone with a sensible change: 'I beg you, don't embarrass me like the others, oh, please, please, please.' The skin tight dress clung to every curve of the Girl Meets World star's body The original Please Please Please music video featured Carpenter starring opposite her then-boyfriend Barry Keoghan. Sabrina, who was linked to Barry back in late 2023, starred in the music video as a woman who is swept up into her new love's life of crime, which includes dangerous interactions with the mob and bank robberies. Sabrina and her actor boyfriend later split in December of last year, reportedly to focus on their careers, that he was swept up in infidelity rumors. Fans later speculated n social media. that the Please Please Please remix was meant to take a swipe at the Killing Of A Sacred Deer actor. In the video, Sabrina and Dolly are seen fleeing from police in black-and-white footage of the two driving a pickup truck. But the Thelma & Louise–inspired music video ends with the two revealing that they have a man tied up and struggling in the truck bed, and he has on the same outfit that Barry wore in the original music video. Some fans even wondered if a recent TikTok Sabrina reposted was meant to be read as a dig at her ex, though she hasn't confirmed if that was her intention. Sabrina is the face of Versace's latest La Vacanza campaign, following the footsteps of Lady Gaga, Madonna and Dua Lipa, who've all done campaigns for the Italian luxury fashion house over the years. In a statement via the brand's website, Carpenter said, 'I have always felt empowered when wearing Versace. 'That is what Versace means to me: amazing clothes which empower individuals to express themself in so many different ways. 'This La Vacanza collection is exactly that and feels so free and exciting to wear.' Per the site, the fresh collection is 'centered around La Vacanza 2025' and 'captures the its transformative pool-to-occasion spirit in a poolside atmosphere imbued with the classic language of Hollywood.'
