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Fashion Value Chain
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Fashion Value Chain
Jaipur Rugs x Gurjeet Singh Launch 'Dreamers' Collection
Jaipur Rugs and Gurjeet Singh Unveil 'Dreamers': A Radical New Collection Rooted in Rural Voices Jaipur Rugs, in collaboration with acclaimed textile artist Gurjeet Singh, launches Dreamers—a genre-defying collection that transcends decorative design, offering bold, emotional narratives woven by India's rural artisans and Jaipur Jail inmates. Blending hand-knotting traditions with raw storytelling, the collection touches on gender, caste, queerness, and generational trauma—amplifying the voices of artisans like Pinki, Boogli, and Gajanand as co-authors, not just craftspersons. From the poignant 'I Want to Go Home' to the haunting 'Black Sun', each piece becomes a visual essay, crafted with over 600,000 knots and months of meticulous labor. The collection also features sculptural heads made from discarded fire-damaged rugs—symbolizing renewal, resilience, and environmental consciousness. 'This is not just craft—it's confession, memory, protest, and authorship,' says Rutvi Chaudhary, Director, Jaipur Rugs. 'Dreamers is handmade luxury redefined: ethical, emotional, and radically human.'
Yahoo
20-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Why Neo-Nazis Are Obsessed With the Occult
Deep in northwestern Westphalia, Germany, stands a twelfth-century castle conceived by Heinrich Himmler, leader of the paramilitary Schutzstaffel, as a kind of 'Camelot' for the triumphal knights of the Aryan race. The Wewelsburg Castle was also a fantasy nerd's dream come true. In its bowels lies an occult enclave straight out of Cecil B. DeMille: an Arthurian-style set of catacombs designed to look medieval but actually made of concrete. Above, in the Hall of the Supreme S.S. Leaders, there's a marble floor inlaid with a design of the Black Sun, or Sonnenrad—a circle containing swastika-like arms that epitomizes Nazi striving to create an idealized Norse-Aryan past for themselves. Himmler started renovations on the castle in the mid-1930s; the Nazi paradise he built was meant to host S.S. ceremonies, such as handing particularly distinguished murderers the Totenkopfring, a ring adorned with the signature S.S. skull but also a variety of quasi-Nordic runes and symbolic oak leaves, designed by Himmler's personal occultist, a purportedly clairvoyant mystic by the name of Karl Wiligut. The Nazis, in short, were obsessed with legend and magic. Consider the swastika itself: First written about in Germany by the archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, who discovered the symbol in the ruins of Troy in 1868, the swastika was seized on by Hitler—whose birthday falls on Easter Sunday this year—as emblematic of the idealized, quasi-mythical Aryan race he sought to recreate. More to the point, the Nazis were murder nerds, LARPing as wizards of racial superiority as they committed very real atrocities. And the same is true of their successors today. Partly aping their dead heroes and partly engaged in a similar delusion—self-mythologizing as the scions of an ancient white race—neo-Nazis are a remarkably myth-oriented bunch. This manifests in a lot of different ways, like engaging in werewolf-themed cultic neopaganism or dedicating themselves to Norse gods. Or, in a recent newsworthy example, following the Order of the Nine Angles, a late-twentieth-century neo-Nazi pseudoreligion that seeks to turn its adherents into racially pure Satanic wizards. Earlier this week, a Waukesha, Wisconsin, teenager and devotee of the Order of the Nine Angles, or ONA, was charged with murdering his mother and stepfather and plotting to assassinate President Donald Trump, in order to further the Order's goals of a world plunged into chaotic violence. 'Jewish occupied governments must fall. The white race cannot survive unless America collapses,' the 17-year-old, Nikita Casap, wrote in a manifesto. 'Huge amounts of violence will be required.' He called himself a 'niner' (a Nine Angles devotee) and encouraged his imitators to read a variety of extremist books. In doing so, Casap drew on nearly a century of blood-drenched legacy in his pairing of violent death with a potent dose of magical thinking. The symbol of the Order of the Nine Angles looks, more than anything, like a mutilated cat's cradle, just as their ideology is a muddle of inverted myths, profligate cruelty, and pure bigotry. It's a religion of shock and destruction, and as such, it has appealed particularly to young men—teens seeking to break away from their parents, and aimless mid-twenties men who want to blaze a path of dubious glory by blood. The movement was created in the 1970s by a British neo-Nazi named David Myatt, nicknamed the 'Cat Strangler' by his friends because of his affinity for torturing animals. His ideology reflects the charming sobriquet. In 1999, a 22-year-old man reportedly inspired by Myatt's book A Practical Guide to Aryan Revolution planted bombs embedded with nails in areas frequented by London's minority and gay communities, injuring 129 people and killing three. In Myatt's work and speeches, an increasingly elaborate cosmology is paired with direct calls to terrorist action, all in the service of ushering in an eschatological race war. Affiliated with the so-called 'Left-Hand Path' of magic—dark or black magic—the ONA offers such occult hokum as a world divided into the seven branches of the 'Tree of Wyrd,' a creator deity named Vindex, and individual cells called 'nexions.' It's a religion of edgelords who've cliff-dived over the edge into madness. The chief tenet of the Order of the Nine Angles, though, is chaos. It's a religion of edgelords who've cliff-dived over the edge into madness. The creation of chaos—ideally through violence, particularly murder and rape—is a form of magic, which, if enacted often enough and brutally enough, will destabilize a moral order dominated by 'Magian' (Jewish) and 'Nazarene' (Christian) morality. The ultimate goal of the Order is a climactic race war, which will usher in a new 'Aeon,' or age—in essence, a Thousand-Year Reich. With enough chaos magic unleashed on the world through acts of violence—the more spectacular the better, like Casap's would-be assassination of Trump—the 'Dark Imperium' led by evil wizards will commence. 'According to the ONA, Judeo-Christian morals, such as 'Don't rape and murder people,' and 'racial equality, human rights'—those are part of a worldwide illusion,' Barrett Gay, a threat-analysis researcher at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, told me in an interview. 'Part of becoming self-actualized and pursuing the eternal Imperium is to act out the taboos of that system, and by doing so you take away its power. They practice a more mystical form of accelerationism: They believe they can destabilize the entire moral fabric of our civilization through mystically boosted, but also very real, murder and rape.' They also, Gay added, 'get into some weirder stuff, like an Aryan empire in space.' The movement made the transcontinental jump from the U.K. to the United States by the mid-1990s, but took off in the early 2000s. One early and prominent American branch got the cheesily murderous name the Tempel ov Blood. The cult spread among neo-Nazis on the now-defunct white supremacist forum Iron March; according to Gay, until quite recently, information on the Order was hard to come by unless you already knew what you were looking for, deep in the fever swamps of Telegram. It isn't, in and of itself, a path to radicalization: It's a method of making murderers out of those already inclined toward white supremacist ideals; an instrument of self-justification and self-aggrandizement. It isn't especially innovative, either: The Ku Klux Klan wore robes and called themselves wizards too. All of the Order of the Nine Angles' seminal texts are written in a pseudo-elevated tone, larded with jargon that reads like a particularly depraved D&D campaign. Rites such as the 'Black Mass of Heresy' open with adulation of Hitler and include chants like: We believe in justice for our oppressed comradesAnd seek an end to the world-widePersecution of believe in the magick of our wyrdAnd curse all who oppose us. This is, to put it mildly, dorky; it's generally a social faux pas to chant loudly about the 'magick' of your 'wyrd.' It's also part of a murderous doctrine of total amorality. These two things go together better than you think; as events around us are illustrating all the time, things can be ridiculous and awful all at once. The 'Sevenfold Way' of the Order dictates an incremental increase in violence—with a particular focus on sexual violence, which is something of an obsession in the creed—along with personal asceticism and the military or paramilitary training common among neo-Nazi groups of all stripes. To put it another way: The rigmarole of the order is an occult support structure for the endgame of creating a decentralized army of racist rapists and murderers. And it's been quite successful. There's been a lot of murder, and a great many terror attempts and attacks, inspired by this ideology. There's been a lot of murder, and a great many terror attempts and attacks, inspired by this ideology. It's been taken up by a number of neo-Nazi groups as their chosen niche sub-ideology, and has inspired lone gunners like Casap, along with multiple rapes and widespread dissemination of child pornography (in keeping with its doctrine of sexual depravity). In 1997, members of a Swedish affiliate group murdered a gay Algerian man in a Gothenburg park, as part of a human sacrifice (which ONA literature refers to as a 'culling'). In 2008, eight young Russian Satanists killed four teenagers in the Yaroslavl region, fried their hearts over a bonfire, ate them, and buried the bodies in a peat bog; an ONA cult dedicated to their deeds sprang up in the region. The pace picked up in the 2010s and 2020s; affiliates of the Order were charged with possessing child pornography, planning terror attacks, multiple child rapes, and murders. In 2022, a U.S. soldier and Order member was caught plotting to ambush members of his unit in order to cause 'the deaths of as many soldiers as possible.' The same year, an 18-year-old in London murdered two sisters in a park after signing a pact with a demon in blood, promising to 'sacrifice only women.' Why are murder and magic so intertwined for these adherents? Whether you wear Crusader gear, don a skull ring bedecked with runes, chant black masses, or sacrifice to Odin, it all serves the same goal: It's a process of bonding and becoming. Neo-Nazis lean so heavily on myth because their ideology is prima facie absurd; the purported oppression of whites needs tortuous, even mythological explanations to ring remotely true. Hence the dorky architecture propping up all that manic violence. It serves social and psychological purposes too: The commission of crimes in service of an ideology binds one tighter to it. Embracing a faith that is repugnant and outlandish to outsiders shuts one off from the rest of the world. And the profession of belief in concert with others is one of the most ancient, and simple, forms of human communion. It's also a big confidence booster, at age 17, to think you're at one with the underlying forces of the cosmos. Even if you're not one hundred percent sold on the 'magick' of your 'wyrd,' it's exciting to be part of a secret scary movement that does scary things, and know you can scare or impress people just by being part of it. It's one thing to post racist things online from the comfort of your home; another thing entirely to embrace the notion that you are a master of magic, a powerful wizard whose bloodletting will usher in an 'Imperium' of racially pure enlightenment. To wield that kind of power is to be wondrous; to stride atop multiple planes of reality. In other words, the appeal of evil wizardry is, on some level, the same as the desire to be Harry Potter: to be the most special boy in the world. These ideologies dangle just that promise, convincing people around the world that shooting your mother will make you a wizard, instead of just another killer. That's what creates murder nerds, and the myths and legends that support them: the urge to achieve a great apotheosis and to do so via the blunt instruments of the knife, the gun, and the pain of others. In Westphalia, the Wewelsburg Castle is now a museum of the horrors of the S.S. Despite Himmler's grandiose desire to drench his murders in myth and mystery, the elaborate occult ceremonies he and his pet clairvoyant hoped for didn't materialize; there were unfathomable atrocities to commit. Less than a kilometer from Himmler's faked-up magic playground stand the remnants of a concentration camp where over a thousand people died, conscripted as slave labor to build ever-grander extensions to the castle. The tombs in the great S.S. catacomb are empty; they always were. But the graves are full, the only true monument to the small, sadistic men who dreamed they were the kings of legend. All they ever made was a heap of bones.
Axios
13-02-2025
- Axios
The most romantic walks and low-key date spots in Seattle
You don't have to spend a fortune on romance in the Emerald City. Why it matters: Love can bloom on winding park paths, under the glow of streetlamps that shimmer on wet pavement, and plenty of other places in Seattle that don't require fancy shoes or advance reservations. With that in mind, we've compiled a list of some of our favorite romantic walks in the city, along with a few places where we like to stop to admire art and pretty views. Olympic Sculpture Park/Myrtle Edwards Park For a greener and less crowded waterfront walk than the area by the aquarium, you can wander through Myrtle Edwards Park abutting Elliott Bay. Stop for a picnic amid the public art at Olympic Sculpture Park, which sits just high enough to offer majestic views of the bay and the Olympic Mountains. The sculpture park closes a half hour after sunset, but the Myrtle Edwards trails are open 24 hours a day. Volunteer Park Catch the panoramic view by the Black Sun sculpture. You can also duck into the Volunteer Park Conservatory — or sit on a bench and get lost in conversation, preferably while enjoying coffee or food from the nearby Volunteer Park Cafe. Discovery Park Bundle up and head toward the West Park lighthouse at Discovery Park for one of the most peaceful beachfront walks in the city. You can take the paved path or wander the beach, holding your partner's hand for balance as you step over rocks and logs. Kubota Garden There are no restrictions on picnicking at the Japanese-style garden in Rainier Beach, where you'll find bridges and waterfalls tucked amid colorful arrays of trees and plants. Fremont Canal Strolling the portion of the Burke-Gilman Trail between the Aurora Bridge and Phinney Avenue yields views of houseboats, Lake Union, the Fremont Bridge and Mount Rainier. Mount Baker Ridge Viewpoint Another stellar spot for looking out over the city, complete with cozy benches. Post Alley Parts of picturesque Post Alley can still feel secluded and undiscovered by tourists, despite the Pike Place Market crowds. After enjoying the quaint street, you can stroll down to the new Overlook Walk for sweeping views of Elliott Bay. Smith Tower Observatory For $10, you can ride an ornate, old-school elevator up to the observatory on the 35th floor. After taking in the 360-degree views of the city, sit and continue to admire the scenery from inside the speakeasy-inspired bar, which boasts big windows and creative cocktails. Chihuly Garden and Glass It's not cheap, with a single ticket costing close to $40, but wandering through Dale Chihuly's glittering glass creations is worth doing at least once with a partner. Occidental Square Day or night, Pioneer Square — the oldest neighborhood in Seattle — is serving up looks. Enjoy the pedestrian plazas and Occidental Square while sipping a coffee at Caffe Umbria or getting a bite to eat at Darkalino's. You may also want to stop at Dead Line, one of the city's best cocktail bars, while you're exploring.
Sharjah 24
10-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Sharjah 24
Xposure to showcase AED 12 million in visual art and storytelling
Xposure 2025 will also offer art lovers, collectors, and investors an exclusive opportunity to take home a piece of this extraordinary festival, with an impressive collection of fine photographic prints available for purchase. Ranging from AED 3,100 up to AED 890,000, this collection of exhibitions will show the true diversity of visual mastery on display, catering to all walks of life, from first-time buyers to seasoned collectors and serious art investors. A showcase of unparalleled talent Xposure 2025 will present a range of photography genres, from Documentary and Photojournalism to awe-inspiring Fine Art and Creative Expression. Nature and Wildlife enthusiasts can explore breathtaking images capturing rare landscapes and endangered species while Travel and Adventure Photography will transport audiences across the globe through the visual medium of photography. The festival will also spotlight stunning Portraiture and Cultural Photography, revealing powerful human stories, alongside Urban and Street Life Photography that captures the vibrancy of cityscapes. Fans of action-packed Sports and Action photography and evocative Night and Low-Light Photography will find compelling and visually striking works on display. The world's most prolific visual storytellers Among the most distinguished names exhibiting at Xposure 2025, Sebastian Copeland, an award-winning photographer and environmental activist, presents 'The Vanishing,' a compelling look at climate change, with one of his most famous prints being available for nearly AED 900,000. Søren Solkær, best known for his striking portraits of musicians and his mesmerising depictions of bird flight, will be showcasing 'Black Sun,' with prints available for approximately AED 550,000. Meanwhile, Andrea Belluso, a legendary fashion and beauty photographer, explores sustainability in his exhibition 'Arts for Future,' with prints available for AED 627,100. Xposure 2025 ensures that anyone with an appreciation for photography can own a unique, high-value artwork that will also be framed by experts on site. These prints not only serve as personal collectibles but also as lucrative investments in the art world. A festival unlike any other Beyond its vast array of solo exhibitions, Xposure 2025 will feature renowned group showcases, including winners of the Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contest, 'The Road to Xposure' by the Union of Arab Photographers, and 'Sharjah Women' by Sharjah Women's Sports. The event will also honour excellence through exhibitions featuring entrants for the Global Focus Project (GFP) — featuring a selected male and female photographer from six different continents — and the Independent Freelance Photojournalist Award (IFPA), spotlighting the best in contemporary and news-making photography. Xposure 2025 offers an unmatched opportunity to experience and acquire works from some of the most respected visual storytellers of our time, accompanied by talks, workshops, film screenings, a trade exhibition, and more. For more information, visit:
