Nigerian Fashion Moves Beyond the Catwalk

LAGOS, Nigeria — For the past decade, Nigeria’s best-known ambassadors have, arguably, been its musicians: Burna Boy, WizKid, Davido, Tiwa Savage Asake and Tems, who have popularized Afrobeats beyond West Africa. At a moment when music, literature, visual art and food from across the African continent continue to gain global popularity, fashion designers, particularly those…

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These Perfumes Come With Notes of Blood, Latex and Floorboards

Nearly two decades after the release of Sécrétions Magnifiques, similarly unorthodox formulas aren’t just becoming under-the-radar favorites. “We’ve seen the audience for many experimental perfumes swell in the last couple of years,” says Steven Gontarski, 51, who manages the Scent Bar stores, which sell niche and independent fragrances in Los Angeles and New York. The…

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HYT Watches Aims for Another Comeback

There will be all manner of watchmaking stories at the Watches and Wonders trade show this week — from heritage and throwback narratives to female-led ones — but HYT is hoping to add a comeback chapter. Known for its disruptive timekeeping technology that mixes liquid and mechanics, HYT — for Hydro Mechanical Horologists — burst…

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Watches and Wonders Geneva Opens in a Time of Uncertainty

TAG Heuer Monaco Split-Seconds Chronograph TAG Heuer’s early 21st-century flirtations with haute horlogerie produced some memorable watches that were not always mechanically infallible. The madcap belt-driven Monaco V4 and the Carrera Mikrogirder, with its exposed linear coupling beam, spring to mind. But the watchmaker best known for its consumer-favorite Carrera and Monaco chronographs insists that…

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What Should I Wear for the Eclipse?

I am going to an eclipse watching party, but aside from the viewing glasses, which I already have, what should I wear? Dressing in theme seems silly, but I want to acknowledge the event. — Susan, Rochester, N.Y. It’s human instinct, when celebrating a total solar eclipse — a moment of real darkness in the…

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Small Watches Seize the Limelight

In early December, Nicolò Villa, a jeweler from Milan, was in Manhattan for a trunk show when he spotted a pre-owned Rolex Lady-Datejust with a blue-green opal dial in a shop on West 47th Street. At 26 millimeters in diameter, the watch’s two-tone case was only slightly larger than a 25-cent piece. Mr. Villa bought…

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Raúl Pagès Details His Next Watch Projects

“In the beginning it was not the goal to be independent, to create a brand,” the independent watchmaker Raúl Pagès said in his two-room hillside atelier in the Swiss hamlet Les Brenets, overlooking the Jura Mountains. “It was just to design a movement, to create something from scratch.” It is here, in a house that…

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Virgil Abloh’s Legacy Reaches a New Stage

Many companies, including fashion companies, may be going silent about their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the face of political change. The last round of major designer appointments may not have included a single creative director of color. But at least one group is doubling down on its commitment to broadening the style-talent pipeline….

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