Lifestyle
A Pink Parade at the End of the World

Earlier this yr, whereas planning her fortieth party, Ms. Cohen determined she wished “iconic New York.” So she booked the grand ballroom of the Plaza Lodge.
“I stepped into, like, my dream mind,” Ms. Cohen mentioned. By which she meant that her February social gathering ended up having burlesque dancers, a confetti drop, musicians on stilts, truckloads of floral preparations, an opulent tablescape with 15 muffins (not all of them edible), a velvet-blazer-wearing husband studying poetry from a Juliet balcony, and an aerialist who, whereas hanging from the ceiling, poured champagne into coupes held on trays by servers in French court docket costume. All of this stuff, it ought to now go with out saying, concerned the colour pink.
The social gathering was meant to evoke “Versailles romance with a twist, gone dangerous a bit,” mentioned Ms. Cohen, who that night time wore an excessive high-low skirt constructed from a whole bunch of yards of tulle and silk organza flowers — once more, in shades of pink — and a lacy corset. Like all the lace utilized in LoveShackFancy designs, this cloth was classic, she mentioned, coming from Ms. Cohen’s “large assortment” of textiles sourced from the late 1800s onward, a lot of it from England and France.
“I really feel like I used to be British in my previous life, for certain,” Ms. Cohen mentioned. “And French.”
However this was not only a fortieth party. Whereas it started as a personal occasion, it turned LoveShackFancy’s unofficial New York Vogue Week social gathering, with the model inviting a number of influencers and reporters on the final minute (“some younger enjoyable folks,” as Ms. Cohen mentioned) and utilizing the night time as a type of high-budget picture shoot to introduce its new line of social gathering attire and night robes.
Ms. Cohen later posted footage from the social gathering to Instagram at the least 19 instances, together with one video captioned with a Carrie Bradshaw quote and one other with the declaration that “the Gilded Age is again.” Within the photos, her hair fell in beachy waves, and one arm was usually thrown to the sky — a signature pose. She wished her almost 70,000 followers (and 837,000 on LoveShackFancy’s account) to really feel as in the event that they have been there. “It was for everybody,” Ms. Cohen mentioned.

Lifestyle
U.K.'s foreign office cat Palmerston shows up for duty in Bermuda

Palmerston, the rescue cat of the U.K.’s Foreign Office, stalks past 10 Downing St. in front of the waiting media in central London on June 9, 2017.
Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images
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Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images
Retirement isn’t for everyone — just ask Palmerston the cat, who formerly served as chief mouser for the U.K.’s Foreign Commonwealth Office in London. After a few years enjoying a life of leisure, the diplo-cat — named after the country’s longest-serving foreign secretary — is back on the job, this time in Bermuda.
Three things to know:
- The former rescue joined the diplomatic service in 2016 and gained a large following online with his charming cat tales and for fulfilling his duty with charisma and a devoted work ethic.
- Since retiring in 2020, Palmerston has lived with his former coworker Andrew Murdoch and his family and shared the occasional online update on his leisurely country life.
- Murdoch, who was recently sworn in as the new governor of Bermuda, convinced Palmerston to leave retirement and join his administration as a feline relations consultant.
Listen to NPR’s Short Wave podcast for more discoveries, everyday mysteries and the science behind the headlines.
Creatures at work
Palmerston isn’t the only British cat in a public-facing government role.
Larry the Cat is the Chief Mouser at No. 10 Downing St., the residence and home office of Britain’s prime minister.
The 18-year-old tabby — a fellow rescue — has served in his role through six prime ministers, for a total of nearly 14 years.
Tensions between the bureaucracy cats have at times boiled over publicly — the felines have a history of catfights, but were ultimately united by a shared sense of duty, service and love of a good spot of sunshine for lounging in.
Dive deeper with NPR
Lifestyle
Plus-size fire evacuees struggled to find new clothes. This Burbank boutique lent a hand

When Debbie Henry evacuated her Altadena home in early January, she packed about enough clothing for a weekend getaway.
It’s what she’d done the last three times she evacuated due to wildfire threats; on each occasion, she returned home within a few hours. But this time was different.
Overnight, the Eaton fire decimated residential Altadena, including the stretch of Fair Oaks Avenue where Henry lives with her husband and granddaughter. A heroic next-door neighbor saved her house, but weeks later, she still waited on an insurance assessment and the green light to go home — and she desperately needed more clothes.
Henry tried several donation centers, but at each one, she had to dig through piles of clothes until she found anything in her size. Even then, most pieces were stained, ripped or otherwise unwearable.
Then a friend told her about Qurves Boutique.
Kelly Fluker, who lost her home in Altadena in the Eaton fire, tries on clothing at Qurves Boutique.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
The plus-size clothing store, nestled among a cluster of auto shops in Burbank, normally specializes in affordable fashion for sizes 10-26. In early January, affordable became free as store owner Olivia Pyle began fielding clothing donations to help plus-size fire victims restore their wardrobes to their former glory.
“I saw a need,” the 25-year-old entrepreneur said. Shopping as a plus-size person is hard enough; add necessity to the equation, and suddenly you’re left buying from the bottom of the barrel. Pyle wanted to give people a different experience, one where they could choose from clean, fashionable options they knew would fit them.
“People lost their homes, not their dignity,” she said. “They should be able to pick.”
Windfall donations enabled Pyle to be selective with the items she accepted. Once she quality-checked and sorted them by size and type, she added her picks to a display so well-curated that when Henry came into Qurves in late January, she could hardly discern where the donations ended and the store’s regular stock began.
Henry told Pyle she was shopping for her 14-year-old granddaughter Amyiah, who trailed shyly behind her. “But if you have something for me too,” she smirked.
While the pair browsed the metal racks, Henry pausing now and then to ask Amyiah to read her a price, Pyle reminded them — as she had reminded dozens of other customers — that they needn’t be modest. She had more than enough donations.

Olivia Pyle has set up a donation center at her shop, Qurves Boutique in Burbank, for victims of the L.A. County fires looking for plus-size clothing and shoes.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
In the end, Henry left with pajamas, two shirts and a pullover sweater, and Amyiah with a T-shirt and distressed denim jacket. Once things calmed down, they promised Pyle they’d be back.
Pyle received the same promise a week prior, after an hours-long visit with Debbie Milley and her daughters Amanda and Sarah Milley.
The Milleys lost the Altadena home they had been renting for more than two years in the Eaton fire. Having received no emergency alert, they rushed out of the house after they saw their neighbors fleeing, taking with them only Uno cards (Sarah’s), a laptop (Amanda’s) and their three pets.
They reasoned that they’d be back in a week. On Jan. 18, L.A. County Public Works conducted an inspection of their property, declaring it a “total structure loss.” Government documents, clothes, Amanda’s hearing aid supplies — they were all lost to the flames.
Debbie and Amanda had some luck getting clothes at local donation centers, but Sarah, who has Down syndrome, struggled to find items that suited her plus-size 4-foot-10-inch frame.
In her early Instagram messages with Pyle, Amanda flagged Sarah’s proportions, adding that her little sister loved bright colors. When they visited Qurves a few days later, they were greeted by an entire rack of pieces Pyle and her mother, Stacey Pyle — who flew in from Utah to help with donations — had picked out just for Sarah.
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1. Jeans on display at Qurves Boutique. The Burbank store normally specializes in affordable fashion for sizes 10-26. 2. Various shoes at Qurves. Owner Olivia Pyle said she wanted fire victims needing clothing and shoes to be able to choose from clean, fashionable options they knew would fit them. 3. A fire victim fills a bag with clothing and selects a pair of shoes at Qurves. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
“They were pretty spot-on,” Amanda said, which made sense given Pyle’s professional styling experience. Each time Sarah tried on a new ensemble, “it was like a little fashion show. She’d, like, twirl and everything.”
Since they evacuated, Sarah kept talking about how much she missed her old things: a butterfly ring, a red dress, an Olivia Rodrigo T-shirt, Amanda said. She struggled to understand that they were truly gone.
Now, “she has new things to be attached to,” Amanda said, including a bright red dress that looks much like the one she left behind.
Pyle plans to keep offering free shopping to fire victims through Feb. 15, she said. After that, she’ll focus on giving her surplus stock a new home — possibly at Quirk, an L.A. vintage store that launched a similar initiative to Qurves’ in early January.
Or maybe she’ll spread the pieces out, she said, “to make sure that there’s plus sizes everywhere, especially with places that can be up a little bit more permanently.”
Then, come late February, she’ll celebrate Qurves’ first anniversary in Burbank, also her birthday. She hopes to be joined by many repeat visitors.
Lifestyle
A Stradivarius violin could sell for a record sum at auction. Is it worth the hype?

The Joachim-Ma Stradivarius violin is on display at Sotheby’s in New York City on Monday.
Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images
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Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images
This week, a violin made by famed Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari could become the most expensive musical instrument ever sold at auction.
Sotheby’s is estimating that a Stradivarius made in 1714 could fetch $12 million to $18 million on Friday. The upper end of that range could beat the previous record of $15.9 million, set by another Stradivarius in 2011.
There’s plenty of hype around these instruments, and plenty of people who downplay it.
But for many violin players and restorers, Strads are incomparable to even the best modern violins.
“It’s not just what the audience hears on a sort of ‘taste test,’” between an old and modern instrument, says violinist Joshua Bell, speaking to NPR before a concert. “It’s what it does to the player. A Stradivari is like being a painter and having access to thousands of colors to paint from rather than dozens of colors.”
Bell says the 300-year-old violins offer subtle “sound colors” not found elsewhere.

“I can’t explain it, but it’s kind of the overtones and the way once you get to know the instrument, you can find these tonal varieties that are very difficult to find in a modern instrument,” he says. “It’s not just for the name. It’s something very, very special that it does to the player.”
Bell has owned a 1713 Stradivarius for over two decades. (Hear it in his 2016 Tiny Desk concert with Jeremy Denk.)
Christopher Reuning, an expert on violins and owner of Reuning & Son Violins in Brookline, Mass., puts it bluntly: “Stradivari was the best violin maker who ever lived. I think that’s really beyond debate.”
Stradivari made instruments between 1666 and 1734 in Cremona, Italy, with his sons assisting him for part of that time. Reuning says about 600 violins remain today. In addition to violins, Stradivari made cellos, violas, guitars, mandolins, harps and other instruments.
“Normally the best Strad is going to outperform a modern instrument in subtle ways,” Reuning says. Violinists will notice “the complexity of the sound, the shimmering beauty of the sound, the comfort of the musician to play that instrument and feel the feedback that he or she is getting to help them give their best performance.”
Stradivari’s prized “Golden Period”

Violinist Joshua Bell plays his Stradivarius violin from 1713 in Oakville, Calif., in 2010. Bell tells NPR there’s something special about a Strad.
Eric Risberg/AP
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Eric Risberg/AP
The violin up for auction was made during Stradivari’s “Golden Period” between 1707 and 1717, which experts consider the time period when he produced his finest work.
Sotheby’s is calling the violin the Joachim-Ma Stradivarius. It was owned and played for decades by Joseph Joachim, one of the most famous violinists of the 19th century. Violinist Si-Hon Ma acquired it in 1967 and performed on it until his death in 2009.

Joachim’s tenure with the instrument is what makes it particularly attractive to collectors, Bell says.
Bell is one of the few musicians who owns his Stradivarius. The instruments are often owned by wealthy collectors who lend them out to musicians to perform on.
Three types of people would typically want to buy a Stradivarius, Bell says. First, there are the players, though “most of us can’t afford” one, he says. Second, there are collectors who have a genuine appreciation for the instruments and “really appreciate their beauty and are intoxicated with the idea of a Strad.”
And third, some people might buy a Stradivarius simply as an investment, “the same way you would buy Bitcoin. But we try to keep the violins away from that crowd whenever possible,” he adds, laughing.
Si-Hon Ma’s estate donated the Joachim-Ma Stradivarius to the New England Conservatory in 2016 on the condition that it eventually could be sold to fund student scholarships, according to Sotheby’s. The school says it’s now planning to use proceeds from the sale to “establish the largest named student scholarship program in the history” of the New England Conservatory.
The auction begins Friday at 11:15 a.m. ET.
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