Author: NY TIMES

Earlier this month Virginie Viard, the creative director of Chanel, the second-largest luxury brand in the world by sales, left the house. She had been in her job for approximately five years — ever since the 2019 death of Karl Lagerfeld, her mentor and the brand’s former designer, with whom she had worked closely for decades.Though critics (including this one) had generally disliked her work, which was awkward and seemed to equate shorts with fresh ideas, brand management had always declared its loyalty to her, and the revenue kept going up: to almost $20 billion last year. The break seemed…

Ric Shahin wanted to surprise his wife with a special trip for their 10th wedding anniversary, so he set up a secret bank account and began depositing $50 from his paycheck every two weeks. But he soon realized that although he had two and a half years to save for the trip, he wouldn’t have enough, so he increased the deposit to $150.“This went on for a while before my wife noticed that there seemed to be money from my paycheck unaccounted for,” Mr. Shahin said. That was 25 years ago, and the couple were working as teachers in the…

In a time of flux in Hollywood, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization that oversees the Oscars, placed a bet on continuity, announcing Monday that it would extend Bill Kramer’s tenure as chief executive through July 2028.Kramer’s contract, which was up for renewal in 2025, was approved one year early “due to his exceptional leadership and significant contributions,” the academy said.“He is the ideal person to continue to broaden the Academy’s reach and impact on our international film community and successfully guide the organization into our next 100 years,” Janet Yang, the academy’s president, said in…

In his nearly 15 months in Moscow’s infamous Lefortovo prison, Evan Gershkovich has plowed through Russian literary classics like “War and Peace,” and played slow-moving chess by mail with his father in the United States. He tries to keep himself in shape during the hourlong exercise period he is permitted each day.Friends who correspond with him describe Mr. Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter, as positive, strong and rarely discouraged, despite facing the official wrath of President Vladimir V. Putin’s Russia. He is scheduled go on trial Wednesday, facing up to 20 years in prison on an espionage charge that…

After a night of partying in South Florida, the superstar rapper Travis Scott ended his Thursday with two more charges on his record and one more product on his website than he started with.An established swag king who’s no stranger to brand deals, Mr. Scott, 33, turned a spotlight on what many would consider an embarrassing moment when he started selling T-shirts featuring his mug shot, just hours after his arrest in Miami Beach. The new merchandise reinforced the idea that for certain celebrities and politicians, brushes with the law can be easily recast as lucrative business opportunities.The rapper made…

Stephanie Loomis had hoped that the chaos besieging the global supply chain was subsiding. The floating traffic jams off ports. The multiplying costs of moving freight. The resulting shortages of goods. All of this had seemed like an unpleasant memory confined to the Covid-19 pandemic.No such luck.As head of ocean freight for the Americas at Rhenus Logistics, a company based in Germany, Ms. Loomis spends her days negotiating with international shipping carriers on behalf of clients moving products and parts around the globe. Over the last few months, she has watched cargo prices soar as a series of disturbances have…

Weaver went on to co-star in the sitcom “Smart Guy,” sing on Chingy’s 2004 hit “One Call Away” and steadily work in film and TV. But it wasn’t until the last few years, Weaver said, that he began to receive more recognition for his “Lion King” role.Disney is also keeping the fanfare around the film alive: In May, the studio filmed an anniversary concert, featuring Weaver and some of the other original voice actors, that will stream on Disney+. It has also announced a July theatrical rerelease of the original film, and a new live-action prequel, “Mufasa: The Lion King,”…

The Israeli military said on Friday that it had struck a missile launch site belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group that had been embedded in a shelter for displaced people in a “humanitarian zone” of Khan Younis, in southern Gaza. The claim could not be independently verified, but armed groups have used Gazans as human shields by keeping weapons and launching rockets from civilian areas. Local residents could not be immediately reached. The military said on Friday that before the strike, “various measures were taken in order to mitigate harm to uninvolved civilians.”Israel maintains it takes care to…

Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, received a hero’s welcome even before he was set to arrive back in his home country of Australia on Wednesday after pleading guilty to a felony charge of violating the U.S. Espionage Act.Australian politicians sprinted to publish statements supporting a plea deal that gained him his freedom. Kevin Rudd, the former prime minister who is now Australia’s ambassador to the United States, even joined him in the U.S. courtroom on the Pacific island of Saipan.That Mr. Assange’s case concluded in a distant outpost — the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, a commonwealth tied…

Piles of books, an entire topiary, a block of Stilton cheese, a pink flamingo — all these and more have appeared on the heads of attendees at Royal Ascot, the five-day British racing event that is as famous for its outrageous millinery as its stallions. Hats may follow horses around the world, from the Kentucky Derby to the Dubai World Cup and the Hong Kong Cup, but nothing tops the … well, toppers at Ascot, founded in 1711 by Queen Anne. They go together like strawberries and cream. Pimm’s and cucumber. Champagne and finger sandwiches.Perhaps it’s because of “My Fair…