When Fatma Al-Mohannadi founded De Trove jewelry, it was the fruition of a teenage dream. “I always had a passion for drawing jewelry, and I thought maybe I should just start my own line,” Ms. Al-Mohannadi, 35, said during a recent interview at her boutique in Doha’s Pearl neighborhood. “So I pursued my passion and…
Engineers and scientists have an enduring fascination with spider silk. Similar to typical worm silk that makes for comfy bedsheets, but much tougher, the material has inspired the invention of lighter and more breathable body armor and materials that could make airplane components stronger without adding weight. Researchers are even using examples drawn from spider…
The trappings of dressmaking — including thimbles, thread, scissors and measuring tapes — feature in a new 20-piece Couture O’Clock watch collection by Chanel, inspired by the house’s couture workshops on Rue Cambon in Paris. Arnaud Chastaingt, director of Chanel’s Watchmaking Creation Studio, wrote in an email that he had chosen to focus on the…
If Indiana Jones took a turn toward the elegant and developed an obsession with textiles, he might be a bit like Louis Barthélemy, the French illustrator and designer who travels to Africa and the Middle East to work with weavers and craftspeople who are skilled in traditional techniques. Ishkar, a London-based company that collaborates with…
The rainbow-check pattern is hard to miss. It can be spotted on scarves in cities across the world, including some where temperatures rarely approach freezing. Those scarves come in many palettes and they can be purchased for hundreds of dollars at department stores, or for tens of dollars from street vendors. They are worn by…
From last Lunar New Year to this one, my life has gone through challenges and changes, and I wanted to shield my kids from all of it. It turns out that, despite my best efforts, they in some way perceive what’s happening, so I instead try to give them what stability I can. When that’s…
It’s not every day that Francis Ford Coppola deigns to weigh in on a TikTok trend. But he made an exception for the so-called mob wife aesthetic — a louche amalgamation of fur coats, leather and leopard prints that are being presented on the platform as a kind of mafiosa cosplay. In a recent Instagram…
