Lifestyle
How did the universe become universal in fashion? A new collection taps into infinity
Mya wears Vassia Kostara bra, and pieces from Tiffany & Co.’s Tiffany Céleste collection.
The L.A. universe doesn’t start or end in Beverly Hills. Depending on who you talk to, it doesn’t even cross its path. But on a recent warm afternoon, a celestial kingdom existed inside a crisp room at the Beverly Estate, where the Tiffany & Co.’s new Tiffany Céleste collection was on display (and scenes of “The Bodyguard” and “The Godfather” were once filmed). The sun, moon and stars are reliable motifs that fashion has turned to again and again over decades. A universal inspiration in its truest sense. Tiffany & Co.’s new high jewelry offering is one of the latest collections to follow in this vein. Inspired by the designs of late, iconic Tiffany jewelry designer Jean Schlumberger, and his preoccupation with the cosmos, the collection is designer Nathalie Verdeille’s second with the house.
Tiffany Céleste is punctuated by six chapters: Wings, Arrow, Constellation, Iconic Star, Ray of Light and Apollo — all visual or spiritual themes that for Tiffany & Co. evoke the endlessness of the world around us. These are the kinds of pieces that shift the energy of a room. I stand in front of the Iconic Star suite — clusters of blue zircons, diamonds, aquamarines and mother of pearl designed to look like a smattering of stars in a constellation — and I trip on my words. I stare so long that it doesn’t feel real, so deeply that it feels as if I might fall into the jewels. I hover over them, careful not to breathe so that no precious stone gets fogged up. While touching them is not technically illegal, it feels as though it might as well be. Who am I to reach for a star?
Mya wears a full look by Ellaè Lisquè, By Anabelle shoes and the Tiffany Céleste collection. Eldric wears LABO.ART top and Weisheng Paris pants.
A ring from Tiffany Céleste’s Ray of Light chapter in platinum and 18 karat yellow gold with a red spinel of over 5 carats and diamonds.
Mya wears a necklace from the Tiffany Céleste Ray of Light chapter in platinum and 18 karat yellow gold with red spinels of over 48 total carats, a pink spinel of over four carats and diamonds.
Design inspired by worlds beyond our full comprehension is a tried and true tradish. Remember galaxy print leggings? A piece so ubiquitous in the early 2010s that it’s now part of our collective villain origin story. Looking back on the Tumblr archives, it seems destined, written in the stars, if you will. They weren’t always so tragically haunted, a reminder of how desperately we wanted to seem different, out there, or even worse, quirky. Because once, that ravenous desire for uniqueness — seen in our skin-tight lycra with a cartoonish depiction of what looks like the Milky Way, worn with studded Jeffrey Campbell Litas for good measure — was a vehicle powerful enough to launch someone into transcendence. Think of Christopher Kane’s 2011 resort collection, the galaxy print legging’s high-fashion cousin. Kane described his inspiration behind the collection, which utilized the motif of a nebula seen from the Hubble telescope, as “the idea of explosive outwards expansion,” Vogue reported back then. Chanel, Alexander McQueen, Gucci, Rodarte have all presented collections that take, in literal and symbolic representations, from the universe.
The Tiffany Céleste Wings suite, which symbolizes “flight and fantasy” as per the brand, utilizes layers of diamonds and metal jutting out in contrasting directions, resulting in pieces that look like mini angelic creatures. One of the signature pieces of the suite, the platinum and 18-karat yellow gold necklace with a 20-carat diamond at its center and diamond accents throughout, was worn by J.Lo on the Met Gala carpet earlier this year, paired with a sheer Schiaparelli gown. An angel from the block (the question still remains: which block?). At the Beverly Estate, the Ray of Light suite, worn with a yellow skirt suit by a model lounging by that famous turquoise pool, serves as a portal for the light to come in. The red spinel on one of the necklaces — which also converts into a tiara — acts as its own version of the black and white spiral patterns used by hypnotists, affixing the eyes.
Eldric wears a top by Tako Mekvabidze and pants LABO.ART. Mya wears Gaurav Gupta top, Gallery Dept. pants and By Anabelle shoes, along with a bracelet from Tiffany Céleste’s Ray of Light chapter in platinum and 18 karat yellow gold with pink spinels of over 10 total carats and diamonds.
Why is this a thing? Why did Alessandro Michele put spaceships on a dress in his fall 2017 ready-to-wear collection for Gucci? Or why did Schlumberger himself reference the brilliance of sun rays in his archival pieces or the all-powerful star in his old design sketches? There are ideas that feel too big to not try to distill in something like jewelry, art or fashion. The galaxy, the stars and their dust are a part of us, or we are a part of them, according to the outdated earnest memes on the internet. There is something inherently mysterious about celestial bodies, in such a way that it becomes scary if you think about it for too long. (I am of the belief that it’s none of my business.) But the truth is, we’d like nothing more than to be beamed up. We look to the universe for guidance, for understanding, for connection. See the way we reflexively ask about someone’s Big Three when the conversation needs resuscitation on a whack date, or the way we hang onto the every word of L.A. celesbian astrologer Chani Nicholas.
We’d rather turn something intangible like the stars, and all the mythology we’ve assigned to them since the literal beginning of time, into something so tangible that we can literally hold it in our hands. A piece in the Tiffany Céleste collection, part of the Constellation suite, is a boulder of a ring in platinum and 18-karat yellow gold. Over 25 carats of diamonds surround the band, and an unenhanced pink sapphire sits at its center. The sapphire, the color of ripe dragon fruit, is cut in such a way that it appears to contain multitudes. How do you digest infinity? Turn it into a one-of-one ring you only wear on special occasions.
Production: Mere Studios
Models: Eldric Barnes, Mya West
Makeup: Leslie Castillo
Hair: Adrian Arredondo
Production assistant: Mark Millner
Photography assistant: Kabir Affonso
Styling assistant: Neko Baker
On a 75-mile cliff-hugging stretch of highway in California, traffic is way up, despite soaring gas prices. And locals expect the busiest summer in years.
The road is Highway 1 in Big Sur, which reopened in January after three years of repair and reconstruction following a pair of landslides. Drivers can once again embark on the state’s most famous road trip, covering the 100 miles between Cambria to the south and Carmel to the north without leaving the two-lane coastal highway. And they’re heading out in big numbers.
Caltrans estimates that as of May, Big Sur restaurant and retailer guest counts are up 40% from last year, and that northbound traffic at Ragged Point, the southern gateway to Big Sur, has risen 900% year-over-year.
People pose for photos near Bixby Bridge. Monterey County’s Board of Supervisors voted to explore a 12-month ban on parking around the bridge.
Safety cones prevent parking along Coast Road near the Bixby Bridge.
“Take your time,” said Kirk Gafill, co-owner of the popular Nepenthe restaurant and president of the Big Sur Chamber of Commerce, offering advice to travelers. “You’re going to be sharing the road with a number of people.”
As travelers rediscover the road, the cost of driving has been shooting skyward. California’s average gas price ($6.11 per gallon as of May 26) is up 26% from the year before. In early April, rates hit $9.99 at the isolated gas station in the Big Sur community of Gorda.
For spring and summer travelers, these numbers would seem to pose a stark question: Stay home and save money, or head for the coast because the road is finally open and it’s still cheaper than flying?
So far, the latter answer is winning big.
Fog lingers off the coast of Highway 1.
“We are definitely seeing a huge uptick in our reservations,” said Megan Handy, assistant general manager at the upscale Treebones resort. She estimated that bookings are 30% or more ahead of last year, and rates are unchanged since then. But “it’s still not feeling super crowded, which is nice. Everything still feels kind of calm.”
But added traffic has raised some anxiety. On May 19, Monterey County’s Board of Supervisors voted to explore a 12-month ban on parking at Bixby Bridge, one of the region’s top photo spots.
Over the years, the number of cars parking near the bridge — often illegally, sometimes impeding emergency vehicles — has risen. The proposed parking moratorium won’t take effect until the supervisors discuss it further.
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Busy as things are, several business owners pointed out that many international travelers have not yet returned — perhaps because most make their plans more than six months ahead, perhaps because of global politics, perhaps a little of each.
The biggest challenge for businesses during this resurgence? “Restaffing and retaining,” said Handy at Treetops.
At Nepenthe, Gafill said his business has seen a 45% boost in guest volume since the road’s reopening. Gafill said he would have expected a 35% pickup, “simply by virtue of reopening the highway.” The additional 10%, he said, might be “all that pent-up demand,” aided by “a very beautiful and very dry winter,” followed by a mild spring.
A lunch crowd dines at popular restaurant Nepenthe.
Another possible factor: Nobody can be sure how long the road will remain open.
To cope with the influx of people, Gafill said, “everybody is trying to recruit and retain their existing staff.”
At the Ragged Point Inn, where rates dropped as low as $149 nightly last fall, rates are back over $200 and staffers are suggesting that customers book at least six months ahead. The inn has reopened its snack bar for the first time since early 2023, and management is investing in capital upgrades and staging live music on weekends throughout the summer.
Business “is up over 100%,” said Diane Ramey, whose family owns the inn. “I know not all of our neighbors are having the same lift, but everybody is doing better.”
Traffic approaching Bixby Bridge.
A visitor poses in an oversized chair at Big Sur River Inn.
Even at the New Camaldoli Hermitage, a Benedictine monastery above Lucia, the road’s reopening and coming summer season have made a difference. Bookings are up an estimated 30% at the hermitage, which rent rooms and cottages (for two nights or more) to visitors who agree to its requirement of silence.
Big Sur business owners advise visitors to travel on weekdays for less traffic and the best hotel rates, and to get on the road as early as possible.
Since its opening in 1937, the highway has been vulnerable to landslides and shifting ground, operating on a longstanding cycle of landslide, closure, repair, reopening and then another landslide, or sometimes a fire. The U.S. Geological Survey has identified the Big Sur coastline as one of the most landslide-prone areas in the western United States. The 2023-2026 closure was the longest in the highway’s history.
Over time, road crews have used increasingly sophisticated strategies. In the most recent efforts, Caltrans said, it used drones to help survey the slopes and remotely operated bulldozers and excavators to reduce risks to workers.
During the closure, no traffic was allowed on 6.8-mile span from just north of Lucia until about a mile south of the Esalen Institute. Drivers detoured inland by way of U.S. 101.
Correspondents of CBS’ 60 Minutes pose for a portrait in 2023. From left to right, they are Sharyn Alfonsi, L. Jon Wertheim, Bill Whitaker, Lesley Stahl, Scott Pelley, Cecilia Vega, and Anderson Cooper. Former Executive Producer Bill Owens sits on the far right. Only Wertheim, Whitaker and Stahl remain at the program.
CBS Photo Archive/CBS via Getty Images/CBS
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When CBS fired Scott Pelley on Tuesday night, the new 60 Minutes executive producer, Nick Bilton, told Pelley it was for insubordination at a staff meeting the day before.
The veteran correspondent argues he was defending the DNA of 60 Minutes and the integrity of its journalism.
The battle royale over the network’s most prestigious and profitable news program is part of a broader fight over the direction of CBS News.
And given CBS’s acquisition by a billionaire family whose business interests have become intertwined with the political interests of President Trump, it reflects a larger war over control of the media in the current moment.
That father and son, Larry and David Ellison, bought CBS’ parent company, Paramount, last summer. In January, they became co-owners of TikTok’s U.S. operations. Now they’re seeking approval from Trump’s regulators to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of CNN.
A glamorous show shorn, for now, of most its stars
CBS fired Cecilia Vega, a correspondent, and Tanya Simon, the executive producer, from 60 Minutes last week. They are shown in this photo at the 2026 White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on April 25, 2026 in Washington, D.C.
Kristina Bumphrey/Variety via Getty Images/Variety
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Kristina Bumphrey/Variety via Getty Images/Variety
But the specifics of this individual episode matter — for 60 Minutes, CBS, its audience of millions, and even the news business itself.
The program has been the most glamorous post in broadcast news. The correspondents are the stars of the show. And now, there are just three of them.
Anderson Cooper left last month, concerned over the direction of the network’s coverage. Last week was a virtual bloodbath: correspondents Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi were fired. So were a producer and two show executives — including Tanya Simon, a longtime staffer who had stepped up as executive producer when her predecessor resigned in protest before the Ellisons’ takeover.
With Pelley’s ouster, only correspondents Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker, and Jon Wertheim remain. Now they are considering whether to resign, according to two associates with knowledge.
Their brand-new boss, Bilton, was previously a tech reporter for The New York Times and an investigative reporter for Vanity Fair. He executive-produced a documentary for Netflix about a couple accused of laundering Bitcoin and has been a producer on several other films.
Notably, he has no experience in television news.
Neither does Bari Weiss, whom David Ellison installed as the network’s editor in chief last October. The Ellisons also bought her center-right views-and-news site, The Free Press.
She has maintained that the network of Walter Cronkite needs a makeover for the digital moment. She has also contended for years that CBS, along with the rest of mainstream media, is too reflexively anti-Trump, anti-Israel, and too woke.
A rejection of CBS News executives’ overtures
The new executive producer of 60 Minutes, Nick Bilton, has been a tech journalist and documentary filmmaker, but lacks experience in broadcast news.
Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images/Getty Images North America
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Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images/Getty Images North America
Bilton attempted to set a conciliatory tone at Monday’s meeting — his first with the show. Pelley, a formidable veteran correspondent and former CBS Evening News anchor, wasn’t having it.
Pelley called Bilton unwelcome and unqualified. And Pelley said that Weiss was attempting to “murder” the program.
In firing Pelley on Tuesday, Bilton said the journalist had hijacked the meeting and rejected overtures to work constructively through their differences. (NPR obtained a copy of the firing notice.) Bilton wrote that Pelley’s “antipathy to the future of the show came through loud and clear.”
In his own statement late Tuesday evening, shared with NPR, Pelley accused CBS’s new news leadership of killing 60 Minutes‘ DNA and pushing him “to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story” and “to include assertions that are unverified.”
The accusations, to which CBS has not yet responded, echo those made by Alfonsi and Vega, the two correspondents fired last week.
Earlier this year, Alfonsi publicly complained after Weiss held one of her stories at the last minute, and kept it frozen for weeks, demanding an on-camera interview with a Trump White House official that never played out. It ran, unchanged from the intended version, with additional statements from the administration tacked on to the end.
After being fired, Vega said in a statement obtained by NPR that her team had “experienced efforts to insert political bias into our stories.”
“Let’s call this what it is: censorship, both censorship and self-driven” Vega continued. “It is dangerous for the show and dangerous for democracy.”
Weiss previously rejected Alfonsi’s and Vega’s allegations. (CBS said Vega’s claims, for example, were “not based in reality” while expressing appreciation for her work.)
Weiss and Bilton say digital threat requires a 60 Minutes overhaul now
In a meeting this morning, Weiss said that Pelley chose his own path — that is, to be fired rather than to find a way to work through his concerns, according to attendees. The network and Weiss have not yet publicly addressed Pelley’s accusations of interference.
Bilton and Weiss say they respect the show’s traditions, its accomplishments and its legacy of enterprise reporting, extended interviews and visual storytelling. It rose in the ratings 9% over the past season under Simon.
The two news leaders say, however, 60 Minutes needs to be overhauled before it becomes increasingly irrelevant in the era of streamers and other sources of news, information and entertainment in the digital age.
Interviews with 12 current and former CBS News staffers, from producers to executives, suggest great reservations and suspicions remain about Weiss’ judgment and her ability to handle the prominent and even famous journalists on whom her division relies.
Weiss had initially sought to reinvent the CBS Evening News, dropping a two-anchor format that had sagged in the ratings. Cooper turned down Weiss’ overtures to anchor it and left the network altogether, concerned about her approach, according to associates. (They spoke on condition of anonymity because Cooper has not chosen to speak publicly on the matter.)
David Ellison became chairman and CEO of CBS’ parent company, Paramount, after buying it last year.
Noam Galai/Getty Images for Paramount/Getty Images North America
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Noam Galai/Getty Images for Paramount/Getty Images North America
The ratings have continued to sag under new anchor Tony Dokoupil. And some CBS journalists, including producers who have left the Evening News, have publicly accused Weiss of making editorial decisions driven by politics. She has rejected those claims.
The decision to take on overhauling two key shows — one listing, one highly profitable, both high profile — carries significant risks for Weiss and the network, even apart from other considerations.
But the Ellisons’ presence cannot be ignored.
When Shari Redstone was negotiating the sale of CBS’s parent company, Paramount, to the Ellisons’ Skydance Media last year, the network announced the end of Stephen Colbert’s late night show. He had been one of the president’s most biting and acerbic critics.
David Ellison also made a series of concessions directly to Trump’s chief broadcast regulator, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr, gutting CBS’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and appointing a conservative ombudsman to field complaints of bias against its news reporting.
Carr and other regulators approved the Paramount deal last summer.
The accommodations echo those made by other media titans.
Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos remade the editorial pages of the Washington Post, which he owns, into a far more hospitable zone for Trump at the outset of his second term. So did Los Angeles Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, a noted medical device inventor. Amazon and Blue Origin have multi-billion dollar contracts with the federal government. Soon-Shiong’s medical research firm routinely has patent applications up for review with federal regulators. One was approved Tuesday.
The Ellisons are hoping to win approval from federal regulators next month for their purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery in a deal valued at more than $110 billion. It would include Warner Bros. Studio, HBO and CNN, among other properties.
As Weiss routs CBS News’ old guard, the question of what role she might play at CNN — and what changes that portends at CBS — hangs over journalists at the two networks. The fate of 60 Minutes serves as a high-stakes case study for both.
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