Maje's Qixi 2025 Capsule Collection Marries French Flair With Eastern Romance
This limited-edition collection tells a love story that bridges cultures, blending traditional Eastern symbolism with Parisian refinement.
The collection explores a dreamy palette of soft pink and deep black, brought to life with delicate lace, sheer tulle, and exquisite floral embroidery. Inspired by the romance of a Provençal countryside picnic, each piece is filled with natural details like wildflowers and daisies.
Every motif is crafted using traditional thread-by-thread embroidery techniques that echo the gentle charm of Southern France.
Ethereal tulle skirts stand out with their three-dimensional blooms, capturing the feeling of love in motion. Every silhouette is light, romantic, and artfully composed, reflecting a cross-cultural celebration of emotion, artistry, and timeless beauty.
With the Qixi 2025 Capsule, Maje offers more than fashion. It presents a poetic expression of love, where French craftsmanship carries Eastern sentiment through every thoughtful detail.
The capsule is now available in Maje boutiques and online.
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The Star
a day ago
- The Star
This menswear savant gets paid to travel the world and buy cool vintage pieces
For more than a quarter century, Doug Bihlmaier has held a mythic position in the world of men's fashion, especially among those who prize vintage style. Matt Hranek, the founder of the men's fashion magazine WM Brown , first heard about Bihlmaier in the mid-1990s. At the time, he noticed that Double RL, a Ralph Lauren spinoff brand, had the best versions of the vintage military clothing and watches he sought for his own collection. 'You'd say, 'Who finds this stuff?'' Hranek said. He soon learned of the man whose job sounded like a fantasy: he travelled the world on a Ralph Lauren corporate credit card to find and buy cool old stuff. One day, while waiting in line outside a vintage show, Hranek met the man himself – a shy, bearded figure in faded denim. From then on, whenever they spotted each other at fairs, Bihlmaier would smile beatifically and give Hranek the peace sign. 'It was like the pope putting up his hands,' said Hranek, 58. 'For somebody like myself who really loved vintage, Doug was the benchmark of what to be looking for.' Read more: 'Just regular people': Vintage fashion no longer caters to a niche market Though Bihlmaier remains largely unknown to the wider world, his profile has been rising in recent years, especially among young vintage collectors and online fashion influencers. TikTok creators proclaim him a 'low-key style savant' and regard him as the spirit, if not the uncredited architect, behind Double RL, whose Americana aesthetic has shaped trends. Cameron Ross Steiner, a 31-year-old podcaster, spent two years emailing Bihlmaier before persuading him to appear on his show, Collectors Gene, and talk about his life's work. Bihlmaier, 71, lives in a funky cedar-shake house in a wooded part of East Hampton, New York. When he greeted me on a recent afternoon, he was dressed in baggy canvas shorts and a loose white T-shirt. His small dog, Ziggy, circled his bare feet. With his full beard and ponytail, he may look like an ageing hippie or beach bum, but his life has been fairly conventional. He married his high school sweetheart, Kathy, and they raised two daughters in Darien, Connecticut. Now they live in the Hamptons full time. As their home makes clear, Bihlmaier has collected not only for his employer, but for himself: the closets are stuffed with vintage chambrays, French work clothes, old flannels, distressed military leather jackets. In the bedroom, dozens of Navajo silver rings and bracelets were arranged on the dresser, and the arm of a beat-up leather club chair was piled with early 20th-century Pendleton blankets. Native American rugs of an older vintage covered the floors. Such items are in high demand in today's vintage market, in part because Bihlmaier, through his work with Ralph Lauren, helped popularise them. A bedroom at Doug Bihlmaier's home in East Hampton, New York. Photo: The New York Times On the patio over lunch, he talked about how he fell into his singular career. He was born in Osborne, Kansas, a farming town. A great-uncle taught him to ride a horse, milk cows and feed chickens. Once a year, the family would drive four hours to Kansas City to go Christmas shopping. Like many boys in the 1950s and 1960s, Bihlmaier liked to dress up as a cowboy. Even as a teenager, he noticed that the quality of the denim was slipping, and he started buying up old pairs of Levi's. 'I loved wear and patina,' he said. 'I loved my grandfather's old pickup rather than my father's new one.' His father, an insurance agent who became the owner of three small banks, was a sharp dresser. While Bihlmaier attended Kansas State University, his father arranged to get him a job at a local men's store, Woody's. Some of the clothes in the shop came from a young New York designer, Ralph Lauren. In the early 1970s, Bihlmaier was sent to the airport to pick up a sales representative from the label. The man stepped off the plane dressed in a brown corduroy suit, red plaid shirt with a yellow club tie and argyle socks. 'I'd been dressing in what I called my Neil Young look – old jeans and flannels,' Bihlmaier said. 'I thought, 'Wow, I want to look like this guy.'' In 1979, Bihlmaier moved to Dallas, where an acquaintance from Kansas was opening a Polo Ralph Lauren store. In the era of JR Ewing and Urban Cowboy , the place became a hot spot for young businesspeople. Bihlmaier flourished as a salesperson and designer of display windows. He got the call to go to the New York headquarters in 1984. He bought old cowboy boots and other items to make the showroom come to life. He spent hours in the Bettmann Archive, researching images of 1920s tennis clothes or gold miners for inspiration. He helped develop the look of the Polo Country store, which opened in East Hampton in 1989 and had elements of a time-capsule general store Bihlmaier had seen in Kansas. In 1993, Lauren started Double RL, the brand named for his 'RRL' ranch in Colorado. It sold selvage denim, sportswear, accessories and an assortment of vintage pieces, a novel idea in fashion retail at the time. Read more: From the fashion archives: Vintage designs stand out at red carpet events Originally, Double RL was tucked like a secret within the Ralph Lauren store on Madison Avenue. Bihlmaier was part of the team that gave the brand its identity. He installed new wooden floors that squeaked like old ones. 'It had to squeak on purpose,' he said. To find the stuff to fill the showrooms and stores, he went on shopping excursions to the Brimfield Antique Flea Market in Brimfield, Massachusetts, and the Rose Bowl Flea Market in Pasadena, California. The merchandise was plentiful and cheap. 'You'd find the coolest 1920s hunting coat for $20,' Bihlmaier said. He worked with another Ralph Lauren employee, Bob Melet, and the two of them would hit vintage fairs from Santa Fe to Paris like Vikings, only instead of swords and axes they had business cards and discerning eyes. 'If Doug and I walked into an antique venue, we could eviscerate a show as quickly and with quality as anyone,' Melet said. Dealers gave them nicknames. 'They used to call Doug 'Eagle Eye' and me 'Wandering Eye',' Melet added. Bihlmaier, who speaks with deference and caution about his employer, said his taste and Lauren's were 'almost perfectly aligned'. He added that his boss taught him that when hunting, 'mint' wasn't the goal. Rather, scuffs, dents and age made a vintage item special (Lauren declined through a representative to be interviewed for this article). Lauren also trusted him. 'He told me, 'If you don't want it, I don't want it,'' Bihlmaier said. In those years of constant collecting, Bihlmaier had to keep a low profile so as not to alert competing buyers. He was also mindful that the brand's vision ultimately belonged to Lauren. Melet left Ralph Lauren in 2003 and opened Melet Mercantile, a showroom where designers, art directors, editors, decorators and stylists inspect his finds for inspiration. Bihlmaier continued on as Ralph Lauren's best-kept secret until he reached his late 60s and decided to scale back his duties. He is now a consultant for the brand. He never had the deep pockets of his boss, but he lived – and collected – with style. While shopping for work, he would pick up inexpensive items for himself, like the patchwork Boro textile he found in Japan and hung above his bed, or the concho belt he bought at a cowboy show out West. Over the years, it has added up to a distinctive collection. These days, his globe-trotting sprees behind him, Bihlmaier has been collecting shells from the beach along Gardiners Bay. He has arranged them on tables and benches around the house. 'When you're a shopper, you just find stuff,' he said. 'You can't stop.' – ©2025 The New York Times Company This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
The Star
2 days ago
- The Star
Hong Kong Ballet to debut The Butterfly Lovers in NYC
HONG KONG: This August, in a breathtaking fusion of East and West, the Hong Kong Ballet premieres its award-winning The Butterfly Lovers in New York. This ballet redefines classical storytelling with innovative choreography, all brought to life by the live accompaniment of the New York City Ballet Orchestra. Originating from the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420 AD), The Butterfly Lovers has been around for over 1,700 years. It is recognised as one of China's four great folktales and is often referred to as the Chinese version of Romeo and Juliet. Zhu Yingtai, a young woman from a wealthy family, disguises herself as a man so she can attend school, where she meets Liang Shanbo, a fellow student from a humble background. Zhu falls in love with Liang over time. During a visit, Liang discovers Zhu's true identity. He hopes to propose to her, but her parents have already arranged for her to marry a wealthy man. Liang eventually dies from grief. On Zhu's wedding day, her bridal procession passes Liang's grave, and a storm stops them from passing. Zhu runs to the grave, and it miraculously opens. She jumps in, and moments later, two butterflies rise from the grave together, representing a symbol of their eternal love. The ballet show made its debut in Hong Kong on Oct 18, 2024, and received several major awards at the 26th Hong Kong Dance Awards 2025, including Outstanding Choreography, Outstanding Performance by a Female Dancer (Xuan Cheng as Zhu Yingtai), Outstanding Music Composition, and Outstanding Ensemble Performance. The performance was envisioned by Hong Kong Ballet artistic director Septime Webre, a Cuban-American who previously worked with The Washington Ballet. Webre said he wanted to serve the audience with tailored content that reflects the ballet company's roots. Webre said that The Butterfly Lovers sparked his interest as it explores a remarkably progressive theme — a woman seeking education in a time when it was forbidden for females. Webre described it as "a compelling contemporary theme in many parts of the world", which deeply resonated with him. He stated that the elements of modernity and themes of gender and class are still important today. Lead choreographers and writers, the couple duo Songwei Hu and Jingwen Mai, said the piece not only highlights the great love story at its core, but also weaves in themes such as the oppression of the old feudal system and patriarchal society. This ballet blends contemporary and traditional styles in a unique and expressive way. Drawing from their deep experience in Chinese classical dance, choreographers Hu and Mai said they brought in traditional movement elements to challenge and contrast with the upright, structured posture of ballet. "We incorporated more Chinese dance into the upper body," Mai explained. The dance and story were backed by Academy Award winner Tim Yip, who designed both the costumes and the stage. He is known for his art directing work on Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon. For this performance, Yip designed 12 moving screen panels. He said those 12 screens help to slow down certain elements of ballet, pushing them into a more ethereal, virtual state. Yip said he wanted to emphasise the idea of "fluidity". He said that unlike Western art, Chinese art emphasises atmosphere and poetic resonance. Instead of laying everything out, it sets a mood that pulls the audience into the feel and flow of the Chinese aesthetic and way of thinking. In partnership with China Arts and Entertainment Group and the Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office in New York, the Hong Kong Ballet will present The Butterfly Lovers for the first time from Aug 22 to 24 at Lincoln Center in New York. "As a Chinese myself, it brings me great joy to share our unique perspective on love. I hope audiences in New York can see that China, too, has its own version of Romeo and Juliet, and feel how Zhu Yingtai, even in that era, was willing to defy her family and fight for love and freedom," Hu said. For his next "ambitious" project, Webre said he has spent years researching and making. It will be a ballet based on the life of Hong Kong's legendary martial artist Bruce Lee. Mixing kung fu and ballet, Webre hopes the performance will premiere in 2027. - China Daily/ANN
The Star
3 days ago
- The Star
US theatre and opera legend Robert Wilson dead at 83
Celebrated US director Robert Wilson, who revolutionised stage and opera, died on Thursday at the age of 83, his management said. "Robert Wilson died peacefully today in Water Mill, New York, at the age of 83, after a brief but acute illness," said a statement issued on his website. It said he worked right up until the end. Wilson's productions of original works as well as traditional repertoire pieces were hugely popular wherever they were shown. But it was in France where he was best known. It was the French who gave him a "home," Wilson told AFP in 2021. It was in 1976 that Wilson was propelled onto the international stage with Einstein On The Beach, a nearly five-hour opera staged several times since its creation, with music by Philip Glass. Einstein On The Beach broke all the conventions of classical opera - there is no linear narrative but rather it draws on themes related to Einstein's life. It does not aim to explain the theory of relativity but to convey the upheaval introduced by the notion of space-time, notably through dance. Wilson's trademarks included minimalist aesthetics, body language influenced by Asian theatrical forms, and lighting effects evoking dreamlike worlds. Avant garde admiration His love affair with France began with Deafman Glance (Le Regard du Sourd) - his first success - a "silent" seven-hour show presented at the Nancy Festival in 1971, and later in Paris. The show was born out of a real-world incident when in 1967, Wilson saw a 13-year-old Black teenager, Raymond Andrews, being beaten in the street by a police officer. He realized the child was deaf and mute and eventually adopted him. Wilson, also a visual artist, had a string of collaborations including with choreographer Andy de Groat, Tom Waits, Isabelle Huppert for Orlando by Virginia Woolf, Lady Gaga for video portraits of her at the Louvre, and ballet legend Mikhail Baryshnikov. "While facing his diagnosis with clear eyes and determination, he still felt compelled to keep working and creating right up until the very end," the website piece announcing his death said. "His works for the stage, on paper, sculptures and video portraits, as well as The Watermill Center, will endure as Robert Wilson's artistic legacy." Memorials will be held for Wilson at time and locations yet to be announced. Born to a lawyer in October 4, 1941, in Waco, Texas, Wilson was performing his own plays in the family garage by the age of 12, but recalls being bottom of the class at school. He was cured of a severe stutter thanks to a psychotherapist who worked with dance. In his 20s, he landed in New York but hated what he saw in theatres and instinctively gravitated toward the American avant garde: Andy Warhol, John Cage, choreographers George Balanchine, and especially Martha Graham. He relished nurturing emerging talent, and in 1992, created the Watermill Center near New York. - AFP
