Now Open On New York’s Lower East Side: An Enticing Food Bazaar

When urban neighborhoods go through gentrification, they usually lose touch with the trademark institutions that gave them their identity. But on New York’s Lower East Side, an area historically known as the neighborhood for immigrants from Eastern Europe that transitioned to a hipster hangout known for its cutting edge cafes and clubs, a development is underway to do exactly the opposite. Essex Crossing in the heart of the neighborhood that will comprise 1079 new residences, both rental and coop, over 350,000 square feet of office space, 100,000 square feet of green space and 400,000 square feet of retail space is anchoring its food outlets in the culture of the area. The relocated Essex Market, a collection of food purveyor stalls and restaurant outlets which first opened on Essex Street in 1940, moved to a sprawling space here earlier this year. Late last month, The Market Line, a restaurant complex opened a floor below. Both are designed to showcase vendors and cuisines associated with the neighborhood or other New York City locales.

The physical layout is spartan, industrial, with polished concrete floors and high gloss black ceramic tiles. The roster of Market Line opening vendors, though, is earthier. Among them: Ends Meat is an Italian style butcher and salumeria, a satellite of their main shop in Sunset Park, Brooklyn selling cuts of meat, cured meats and sandwiches, including one that reaches into another city: New Orleans’ muffuletta.  Nom Wah, a Chinatown stalwart dating from 1920, is selling dumplings, noodles and other items. The Pickle Guys, a classic in the neighborhood reflecting the Lower East Side Kosher pickle vendors who’ve been selling their wares since 1910 are selling their barrel cured trademark half and full sour pickles as they still do nearby on Grand Street. Pho Grand also maintains their restaurant selling their classic Vietnamese soup on Grand while opening an outpost here. Veselka, an East Village staple since 1954, is selling its Ukrainian specialties borscht and pierogi here.

Other vendors are new entrants into the restaurant market such as Essex Pearl, a seafood restaurant owned by the family that has run a seafood market for 30 years at New York’s Fulton Fish Market. And some have extended from restaurants to markets such as Rustic Table Shuk, a market selling North African and Mediterranean staple ingredients as well as salads and sandwiches that’s an offshoot of the Hell’s Kitchen restaurant Rustic Table.

Why Stylists Are Natural Fashion Designers

I've written quite a bit about how influencer clothing lines are a natural next step for many of the world's top social media stars, but there's another type of fashion expert out there who makes a great designer: the stylist.

Not only are these individuals dressing and beautifying taste-making celebrities of the world, but they're also experiencing firsthand the products from countless top brands in the fashion and beauty world. Stylists know how clothes are supposed to fit and the adjustments they need to make to make a garment flawless. Makeup artists and hairstylists have sampled hundreds of formulas and ingredients in the products that they use on their clients in order to know which ones are the most effective. Stylists have vast resources and knowledge on what makes a product successful, so when they set out to create their own line, they know how to make it right.

But don't take it just from me! I spoke with three different style professionals—makeup artist Dillon Pena, stylist Cristina Ehrlich, and hairstylist Ricardo Roja—to get their take on the stylist brand trend.

How has social media changed your industry and how you attract new clients?

Social media has given indie brands, like Leland Francis, a way to reach new clients without having to go the traditional route of spending thousands of dollars a month on advertisement placement. I'm able to attract new clients by sharing the brand's vision and personality.

Tell me about the process of developing Leland Francis. 

On set I noticed clients would look at ingredients in the skincare, so Leland Francis was developed because I needed a natural solution to help prime and prep the skin for a smoother application. It took over nine months to develop and test the first product, and four years later I am about to introduce my ninth.

I made many mistakes; some were costly, which I learned from, and others were happy accidents. When I was developing and through my first launch, I was a team of one. I spearhead everything from media outreach to graphic design, shipping to website design, and even sales. Four years in, I'm able to have people wear the hats I once had to wear.

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Not Forever 21...Why Zara And H&M Still Dominate In The Fast Fashion Relevance War

The news that Forever 21 is filing for bankruptcy protection is not a great surprise to anyone following their story and the fast fashion clothing category in general. While longtime, fierce competitors, Zara and H&M have continued to update their story, their purpose, product selection, quality and overall brand relevance, Forever 21 decided to stay 21, Forever.

At its height, Forever 21 was a $4 billion juggernaut, catering to young adults in the high growth, fast fashion category—smart, affordable, trendy of the moment—often setting the bar for the category and the competition. While Forever 21 has many challenges, the biggest may be that the 21-year-old target of today is totally different than the 21-year-old of a decade ago, when Forever 21 was at its height.

Many pundits, who have written about this topic, conclude the same thing. While it is easy to blame its bloated real estate strategy on its demise (it is the seventh most expensive real estate tenant in NYC), the real culprit is the brand's failure to stay up with the times, keep the brand modern, take digital to the next level and, most importantly, meet the expectations of their increasingly socially aware customer base. The brand's target consumers have many choices and will continue to make purchasing decisions that fit their values and belief systems, not just their lifestyles.

This was a major theme in Prophet Brand Relevance Index (BRI), now in its fifth year in the U.S., which tracks the brands that really matter to consumers. It's not just the ones they buy or use the most. It's the brands they see as indispensable, often paying them the highest compliment of all: "I can't imagine my life without it."

The brands that have caused a lot of movement in our Index are brands that score high on attributes such as "has a set of beliefs and values that align with my own," "lives up to its promises" and "makes me feel inspired." It is why other retailers we studied, like REI, Sephora, Etsy, IKEA and Ulta, all ranked in our top 100 brands overall and at the top of the list of retail brands and possibly why Sam's Club and Kohl's did not.

In fast fashion, rivals like H&M Zara, and others continue to see strong year over year growth as they strive to become "ethical players that are building in sustainability into their business model, while still maintaining their chief value drivers." There are other newer rivals, such as Rent the Runway, Reformation and thredUP, which are banking their brands, business models and overall relevance around promoting sustainability.

Brands that lean into being customer obsessed, distinctively inspired, pervasively innovative and ruthlessly pragmatic will become relentlessly relevant. But, building a relentlessly relevant brand takes hard work and maintaining a relentlessly relevant brand—by the very definition of the term—is even harder. Forever 21 forgot to remain relentless and now may become Forgotten 21 if they don't shift their relevance (and brand) strategy quickly.

                                                 Lange ballkjoler

Is Apple's Fashion Crown Slipping?

Apple, the first public company to be worth $1 trillion, has come a long way since college dropouts Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded it in 1976 with a vision to make computers more accessible and small enough to have in homes and offices.

Clearly business visionaries the pair set about changing the way people viewed the humble computer and then mobile technology by focusing on the design element of the products rather than merely their functionality. They understood that to drive consumer want and build a differentiated brand, they had to attribute desirability to products in a category (tech) that had previously competed on functionality alone, for them this was achieved by largely focusing on design.

Their focus on developing stylish and identifiable products which drove consumer want based on aesthetics and personal style aspirations took design thinking and design innovation to new levels. They even went as far as to drop the word computer from their marketing and branding back in 2007 as they focused on building their design-led brand...the term computer having never really been synonymous with style!

Whilst Apple is undoubtedly one of the most successful technology companies ever, to my mind, it can also teach many in the fashion industry a thing or two—fashion revolves around predicting what people want and designing and stocking these products before consumers even realize they want them.

Apple has remained at the forefront in terms of technology trends but, as someone who can remember a time before tech became trendy, their real strength is that their product design is fashion-forward and aspirational appealing to different customer segments with differentiated technology products which allow for personalization to reflect consumers' aesthetic affiliations.

                                                                   Robes de bal

Dominican Republic Travel: Is It Safe?

There's trouble in paradise. A string of suspicious deaths in the Dominican Republic is raising serious safety concerns about traveling to this popular Caribbean island, and with the news of yet another American traveler dying there while on vacation, travelers are skittish. Their fears are being compounded by other highly publicized incidents, including the assault of a female traveler and a subsequent attack on a male traveler at the same resort, the shooting of a former Boston Red Sox player and a multitude of reports about mysterious illnesses in the Dominican Republic, including that of Melissa Rycroft, a former contestant on "The Bachelor" who got sick after a vacation with her family in early June.

The Dominican Republic’s minister of tourism insists that the country — which attracts 2.7 million American tourists a year — is safe. "The Dominican Republic is a safe country," Francisco Javier García told reporters on June 21. “There is no such thing as mysterious deaths in the Dominican Republic," he said. "There is not an avalanche of deaths.”

According to García, the number of recent deaths is not unusual and is actually lower than in some previous years like 2011 and 2015, when — through June — 15 tourists had died in the Dominican Republic. “We want the truth to prevail,” said García, who attributes all the deaths to natural causes. “There is nothing to hide here.”


García also pointed out that the U.S. State Department has not raised the threat level for the country, which was issued in April 2019 and remains at a two ("exercise increased caution"), the same level of countries like Spain and France. "Violent crime, including armed robbery, homicide and sexual assault, is a concern throughout the Dominican Republic," reads the advisory, which has not been revised to include health warnings.

But Ronn Torossian, CEO of 5W Public Relations and crisis management expert, tells ForbesWomen this is the wrong response. "Officials from the Dominican Republic have not addressed the issues and events in a constructive way. They have been very combative and defensive with their response," says Torossian. "These incidents have placed a dark cloud over the island. People are worried and have chosen to express their worries and concerns over social media, which spreads like wildfire. To dismiss these accounts as 'fake news' is a huge mistake — and they are ignoring the real problem. Multiple dead vacationers is about as serious as it gets."

How Endgame actors reacted to the movie's biggest moments

Of the many things that makes Avengers: Endgame stand out — not only from other movies but even other MCU films — is that in many cases, the stars were kept in the dark almost as much as the fans, and for almost as long. Some of the more blatant examples include Mark Ruffalo filming five different endings for Endgame, Tom Holland being denied a script for Endgame because of his penchant for spoiler-dropping, and Letitia Wright not finding out her own character, Shuri, died in Avengers: Infinity War until character posters for Endgame were released shortly before the film's theatrical premiere.

As a result, fans have a unique opportunity to learn the genuine reactions of the movie's stars to the same revelations the audience had to weather. The nature of Endgame meant — whether because of death, retirement, or something else — many of the film's heroes would experience a finality their comic book counterparts almost never get to see (e.g. dying and actually staying dead). With reactions ranging from the emotional to the irreverent, from actors who have walked alongside their character's exploits for a decade in many cases, we have the chance to see just how much these stars grew attached to their parts and how they feel now that — for many, at least — their journeys have either ended or changed drastically.

One of the most crowd-pleasing moments of Avengers: Endgame comes when Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) channels his inner Black Sabbath one last time and says "I am Iron Man" before snapping his fingers and using the Infinity Stones to wipe out Thanos (Josh Brolin) and his forces. It wins the day for the good guys — and it's a powerful sacrifice, as the physical toll of using the Stones is what kills Tony. It's a perfect moment, and one that wasn't in the script. At a Q&A, directors Anthony and Joe Russo said the line was editor Jeff Ford's idea that came up during a discussion about needing a response to Thanos' "I am inevitable." It was added during reshoots — but it almost wasn't, because Downey didn't want to do it.

The Russos brought Downey to dinner to pitch the reshoot, and producer Joel Silver tagged along. According to the Russos, Downey's reaction to his character's death was so powerful he was hesitant to face it again."I don't know. I don't really want to go back and get into that emotional state," they recalled him saying. "It'll take… it's hard." It was apparently Silver — an old friend of Downey's — who changed Downey's mind, responding to the actor's doubts with "Robert, what are you talking about? That's the greatest line I've ever heard! You gotta say this line! You have to do this!"

Say Hello To Neutron Stars, Your Worst Nightmare

Yes, black holes get all of the attention. They're mysterious, they lurk in the shows of interstellar space, they break the laws of known physics, they can trap you forever, they have a cool-sounding and easy-to-understand name. They've got great branding.

But some things are even weirder and scarier than black holes. And what makes them weirder and scarier is that they're weird and scary within the known laws of physics. Which means we understand them. Which means we can explain, in great and gruesome detail, just how awful they are.

Take, for example, the neutron star.

The neutron star is essentially a giant atomic nucleus. It's a whole bunch of neutrons all crammed together into an object just a few miles across. At first glance, that doesn't seem too scary. After all, neutrons are neutral, and how scary can neutralness be?


Let's talk about the densities. Neutron stars are perhaps the most compact objects in the universe - just a hair's breadth away from collapsing into a black hole. This makes the gravity on their surfaces just a little bit extreme. The tallest "mountains" are just a bare centimeter high. Any taller and the supreme gravity just shrinks the heights down to size. If you were standing on such a mountain (I know, I know, but work with me here) and fell off, by the time you hit the ground - remember, just about a centimeter down - you'd be traveling a decent fraction of the speed of light.

That's assuming you could even get your bearings. All neutron stars spin incredibly fast, with the fastest topping out in the range of tens of thousands of revolutions per minute. That's faster than the blender in your kitchen.

Short-film festival returns to the screen

Lunafest has been around since the turn of the century, but the women's short-film festival was shown in Stratford for the first time last year.

It turned out to be a hit.

"Last year we sold out," said event spokesperson Jody Swan.

So it was an easy decision to bring it back. The city's second Lunafest, hosted by the Zonta Club of Stratford, will be held Thursday in the city hall auditorium. Swan, the local club's vice-president, said the festival focuses on films by, for, and about women.

"They're all women producers and filmmakers and editors and directors," she said.

A total of nine short films will be screened, Swan said. They range from about two to 13 minutes in length covering a wide range of topics such as women's health, body image, cultural diversity, and relationships, Swan said. The 2018 season includes Buttercup by American-based filmmaker Megan Brotherton, the boxing-themed Jesszilla by Emily Sheskin, and Last Summer, In The Garden by Canadian artist Bekky O'Neil.

Swan said the goal is to bring awareness to women's issues and promote the local club's work in the community such as its bursaries – namely the 14 Roses and Janice Bantle memorial funds – and birthing kits. It also acts as a local and international fundraiser.

"Non-profit organizations or groups trying to raise money for a cause, they can contact Luna and then Luna puts together this film festival and then ships it all over the world," Swan said. "Any proceeds from the event we have to give to charity or whatever our non-profit supports."

Doors open at 5:30 p.m. with the films beginning at 7 p.m. Despite the focus on women, men are welcome to attend, too.

"Last year we had a handful of gentlemen attend, so it was nice to see some in the crowd," she said. "Just because they're geared towards women's topics by no means excludes anybody."

The Rock says Daily Star fabricated 'snowflake' criticism

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has claimed the Daily Star fabricated a front-page story in which the film star appeared to criticise millennials as "snowflakes".

The story, which appeared on Friday's front page under the headline "The Rock Smacks Down Snowflakes" and was billed as an exclusive, was picked up by news outlets around the world.

The Daily Star piece implied the film star was offended by various incidents in the UK, such as the University of Manchester student union discouraging students from clapping in meetings and claims that a a bakery had renamed gingerbread men "gingerbread people".

The Star, which used the piece to assert that "the UK is mourning the death of comedy due to humourless crowds demanding no risky jokes", also said Johnson believed "whining snowflakes are draining positive change through their constant moaning".

It quoted the actor as allegedly saying that "generation snowflake or, whatever you want to call them, are actually putting us backwards" and "if you are not agreeing with them then they are offended – and that is not what so many great men and women fought for".

However, Johnson, a former wrestler who has become one of the world's biggest film stars, used an Instagram video to insist the quotes were fake.

"The interview never took place, never happened, never said any of those words, completely untrue, 100% fabricated, I was quite baffled when I woke up this morning," he said.

"You know it's not a real DJ [Dwayne Johnson] interview if I'm insulting a group, a generation or anyone, because that's not me."

The Daily Star is overseen by the Independent Press Standards Organisation, meaning Johnson could make an accuracy complaint to the press regulator. Last year the newspaper was sold to Reach PLC, which also owns the Daily Express and the Daily Mirror.

The Daily Star has yet to comment on whether the interview was fabricated, but has now taken it offline.

Staff at the newspaper suggested the supposed interview was provided to the Daily Star by a freelance journalist and then written up by the staff reporter whose byline appeared on the piece.

The unnamed freelance reporter is thought to be abroad and not responding to messages.