Lifestyle
Whose Face Is in That Lace?
Getting dressed for the Met Gala, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s star-studded yearly fund-raiser, is often a bit of a challenge. Guests want to impress, and need to attire themselves appropriately for the night’s theme — this year, the gala was celebrating “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” a history-making look at the Black dandy.
The idea is to nail the brief and, more important, not to be the person whose outfit prompts criticism online. Some worried that celebrities may find Monday night’s theme particularly tricky.
“I just really don’t want to see any floor-length durags or pimp canes,” Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, a stylist and Vogue’s former global contributing editor at large, said ahead of the event.
Lisa, the Thai singer from the K-pop group Blackpink and a star of the latest season of “The White Lotus,” found herself a focus of discussion on Monday night after the pattern of her skimpy lace ensemble — a black lace single-breasted blazer over a bodysuit paired with Louis Vuitton monogrammed tights — raised a question online.
Whose face is in that lace?
Eagle-eyed blue carpet watchers noticed that the lace composing Lisa’s pants-less outfit appeared to contain a pattern of tiny, intricate faces.
“The lace replicates elements of an artwork by the American artist Henry Taylor depicting portraits of figures who have been a part of the artist’s life,” Louis Vuitton wrote in a statement about Lisa’s outfit construction.
Mr. Taylor, who has portrayed figures including Barack and Michelle Obama and the artist David Hammons, recently painted a portrait of Pharrell Williams, the men’s wear creative director for Louis Vuitton, for one of the covers of Vogue’s May issue.
Mr. Williams collaborated with Mr. Taylor for his debut show in Paris, embroidering miniature portraits by the artist on suits, jackets and accessories.
The American Library Association’s list of the most frequently challenged books of 2025 includes Sold by Patricia McCormick, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky and Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer: A Memoir.
American Library Association
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American Library Association
The American Library Association has released its annual list of the most commonly challenged books at libraries across the United States.
According to the ALA, the 11 most frequently targeted books include several tied titles. They are:
1. Sold by Patricia McCormick
2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
3. Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe
4. Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas
5. (tie) Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
5. (tie) Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
7. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
8. (tie) A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
8. (tie) Identical by Ellen Hopkins
8. (tie) Looking for Alaska by John Green
8. (tie) Storm and Fury by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Many of these individual titles also appear on a 2024-25 report issued last October by PEN America, a separate group dedicated to free expression, which looked at book challenges and bans specifically within public schools.
The ALA says that it documented 4,235 unique titles being challenged in 2025 – the second-highest year on record for library challenges. (The highest ever was in 2023, with 4,240 challenges documented – only five more than in this most recent year.)
According to the ALA, 40% of the materials challenged in 2025 were representations of LGBTQ+ people and those of people of color.
In all, the ALA documented 713 attempts across the United States in 2025 to censor library materials and services; 487 of those challenges targeted books.
According to the ALA, 92% of all book challenges to libraries came from “pressure groups,” government officials and local decision makers. While 20.8% came from pressure groups such as Moms for Liberty (as the ALA cited in an email to NPR), 70.9% of challenges originated with government officials and other “decision makers,” such as local board officials or administrators.
In a more detailed breakdown, the ALA notes that 31% of challenges came from elected government officials and and 40% from board members or administrators. In its full report, the ALA states that only 2.7% of such challenges originated with parents, and 1.4% with individual library users.
Fifty-one percent of challenges were attempted at public libraries, and 37% involved school libraries. The remaining challenges of 2025 targeted school curriculums and higher education.
The ALA defines a book “ban” as the removal of materials, including books, from a library. A “challenge,” in this organization’s definition, is an attempt to have a library resource removed, or access to it restricted.
The ALA is a non-partisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to American libraries and librarians.
Promo image with Phil Pritchard, Alzo Slade, and Peter Sagal
Bruce Bennett, Arnold Turner, NPR/Getty Images, NPR
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Bruce Bennett, Arnold Turner, NPR/Getty Images, NPR
This week, Phil Pritchard, NHL’s Keeper of the Stanley Cup, joins us to about taking the cup jet-skiing and panelists Alonzo Bodden, Adam Burke, and Dulcé Sloan beef with the Pope and get misdiagnosed.
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