Established 1961 13 Lifestyle Features Monday, September 6, 2021

In this file photo models walk the runway at the Rodarte show during New York Fashion Week: The Shows in In this file photo taken on February 13, 2019, models walk the runway for the Michael Kors Collection Fall 2019 runway New York City. — AFP photos show at Cipriani Wall Street during New York Fashion Week in New York City.

fter a long hiatus due to the coron- Strada, Hillary Taymour, will confirm her banned from many countries, “there will American fashion world faced some major The week gets fully underway tomor- avirus pandemic, New York is environmentally conscious approach with be many of our normal international defections, with onetime tentpoles like row with Christian Siriano and Collina Aopening its Spring/Summer 2022 a show on a rooftop garden in Brooklyn. guests... not getting to New York,” Kolb , Calvin Klein and Tommy Strada. Also on the calendar are Fashion Week with the return of in-person “This is an important moment for New told AFP. But he insisted that he has “no Hilfiger dropping high-end lines or moving Liberian-American stylist Telfar Clemens, runway shows featuring big names like York, and we’re proud to support the city concern that the impact will not reach an their shows elsewhere. New York had whose vegan leather shopping bag cre- and Altuzarra. But COVID-relat- and the industry,” said Michael Kors. international audience. It’ll just reach also lost designers like Pyer Moss, ated a sensation, and Peter Do, the ed curbs will deprive the series of some of “We’re resilient,” added Steven Kolb. “And them” virtually. Rihanna and Victoria Beckham. This time, young designer who grew up on a small its usual international flavor as it rolls out we’re optimistic.” the CFDA has been touting the return of farm in Vietnam and is now taking part in this week. The pandemic overshadowed ‘Less routine’ Thom Browne and Joseph Altuzarra, who his first Fashion Week. The week closes the last two fashion weeks, in September The COVID factor Even before the pandemic, the earlier left New York for Paris. on Sunday with shows by big names 2020 and February 2021, as both were Fashion Week this year overlaps with Tory Burch, Oscar de la Renta and Tom dominated by virtual runway shows. the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s own Ford. Meantime, the pandemic, by at Steven Kolb, chief executive of the fashion extravaganza, a high point of the least temporarily de-emphasizing in-per- Council of Fashion Designers of America city’s social calendar, set for today. This son shows, has left some designers with (CFDA), says he sees room for both digi- year’s Met Gala has a distinctively youth- mixed feelings. tal and in-person shows. ful imprint, hosted by singer Billie Eilish, “I don’t think designers necessarily feel But “there is a real optimism and ener- actor Timothee Chalamet, poet Amanda the pressure to show every season, as gy and enthusiasm about returning to live Gorman and tennis star Naomi Osaka, some of them have maybe once felt,” said shows,” he added. “There is, of course, none of them older than 25. But in a city Cathleen Sheehan, a professor at the nothing you can compare to a live show.” that has been slammed by COVID-19 — Fashion Institute of Technology in New In New York, whose fashion shows pre- and again in recent days by historic flood- York. “It’s a tremendous relief for a lot of cede those of London, Milan and Paris, ing-the return to normal is coming slowly. brands, because shows are incredibly there is no shortage of iconic runway set- Fashion Week’s organizers have expensive. “It’s less of an obligation and a tings, as with ’s Apollo announced a strict protocol: All guests routine. There’s more freedom.” — AFP Theater show in 2019 or Michael Kors’ and participants must be vaccinated, Studio 54-themed event the same year. masks are recommended-though not for On Thursday evening, LaQuan Smith will runway models-and audience sizes are present his collection atop the Empire limited. According to the CFDA, “a large In this file photo taken on February 10, 2020, State Building, capping a day including percentage” of the 91 official events will a model walks the runway for the Proenza shows by Moschino, Sergio Hudson and take place outdoors, while some labels Schouler fashion show during February Carolina Herrera. continue to rely on digital presentations. 2020 - New York Fashion Week: The Shows On Tuesday, the founder of Collina And with travel to the United States still at the Spring Studios in New York City.

though 2020 was a quiet year due to the Do tourist boats pandemic. More than 360,000 whale watchers were registered in 2019, three times the number a decade ago. Almost a stress out whales? third of them began their whale watching tour in the Husavik harbor, heading for the Researchers find out chilly waters of Skjalfandi Bay. Feeding disruptions Previous studies on tourism’s impact ust off the northern coast of Iceland, on whales, which were based on behav- scientists are collecting data from ioral observations, concluded that tourism Myanmar photographer won the whales’ breath to find out if they get J caused only minor disruptions to the top award Saturday at photojour- stressed by whale-watching boats, an mammals. The most recent study, from nalism’s biggest annual festival for industry that has boomed in recent years. A 2011, found that whale-watching excur- his coverage of the troubled nation’s pro- Researchers from Whale Wise, a marine sions were disrupting minke whales in the democracy protests and bloody military conservation charity, are studying the Faxa Bay near Reykjavik, in the south of crackdown. The photographer, who whales’ stress levels in their hormones. the country. “We found that the minke remained unnamed for security reasons, From their small sailboat, a drone lifts off. whales were disturbed in their feeding, scooped the Visa d’Or for News, the most After six hours of waiting, the scientists but it was only a short-term disturbance,” prestigious award handed out at the “Visa have finally spotted a humpback whale. one of the authors of the study, Marianne Pour L’Image” festival in Perpignan, Attached to the flying device are two petri Rasmussen, director of the University of southwestern France. Mikko Takkunen, dishes-transparent cylindrical containers- Iceland Research Center in Husavik, told the Asia photo editor for The New York that will collect water droplets from the AFP. “It didn’t affect their overall fitness.” Times, collected the prize on behalf of the whale’s spray. The method used by Whale Wise this photographer. summer has been used elsewhere by Myanmar has been in turmoil since the biologists but this was a first for military seized power in a February 1 researchers in Iceland. coup, with near-daily protests and a huge “From the samples, you can look at civil disobedience movement. “He is prob- hormones such as cortisol, which is a ably the strongest photographer in the stress-related hormone, and then you can country. He is extremely happy and hon- determine the physiological stress levels ored to win this prize,” Takkunen said. Visitors look at photos displayed at the exhibition ‘Documenting India’s Greatest Healthcare Crisis’ of these whales,” said Tom Grove, Whale Takkunen said the photographer dedicat- by Indian Reuters photographer Danish Siddiqui during the 33rd edition of the Visa pour líImage Wise co-founder and a PhD student at the ed the prize to his peers in his country international photojournalism festival, in Perpignan, southern France, on September 3, 2021. University of Edinburgh. Since 2018, 59 who are working under extremely difficult samples have been collected. While a conditions. His photographs portray civil- was “on the streets every day since after devastating fires. Also nominated minimum of 50 are needed for a proper ian protesters armed with stones, soldiers February 1. “I encountered many difficul- was American Erin Schaff from The New analysis, he hopes to collect around 100. firing live bullets and grieving families ties, working between bullet shots, tear York Times for photographs depicting the This summer, some of the samples were mourning their dead. gas and deafening grenades.” storming of the US Capitol in Washington. collected together with French environ- Across Myanmar, more than 1,000 “On the ground, we stopped working Indian Danish Siddiqui from Reuters was mental group Unu Mondo Expedition, civilians have been killed in the ongoing with helmets marked PRESS as we real- nominated for his work on the health crisis which travelled to Iceland for a month- military crackdown, according to an advo- ized the soldiers were targeting photogra- following the coronavirus pandemic in his long expedition to study climate change cacy group. The press has been phers,” he said. Among the others nomi- country. Siddiqui was killed in July while issues. “The whales are important to us, squeezed as the junta tries to tighten con- nated was Greek photographer Angelos covering fighting between the Taliban and for our lives, because they are part of the trol over the flow of information, throttling Tzortzinis from AFP for his work on the Afghan forces. — AFP ecosystem on our planet,” said Sophie internet access and revoking the licenses last days that migrants and asylum seek- Simonin, 29, the organization’s co- of local media outlets. The anonymous ers spent at the Moria refugee camp on founder. photographer said in a message that he the island of Lesbos, which was cleared This aerial picture shows a humpback “They also absorb enormous amounts whale diving in Hestfjorour (Westfjords), of carbon dioxide,” she added. According Iceland. — AFP to a December 2019 study by the International Monetary Fund, a large whale The timeframe to collect the sample is captures an average of 33 tons of carbon short-the duration of a whale’s breath. dioxide. While whales are a tourist attrac- This time, the drone flies over the whale tion, they are also hunted in Iceland. The carefully, crossing through the spray com- International Whaling Commission banned ing from the whale’s blowhole... and mis- commercial whaling in 1986, but Iceland, sion accomplished. It returns to the sail- which opposed the moratorium, resumed boat, delivering its precious cargo to the its hunt in 2003. Iceland only bans the hunt researchers. Once wrapped in paraffin of blue whales. But while the country has and frozen, the samples will be sent to a established an annual quota of 209 fin laboratory for analysis. The researchers whales and 217 minke whales until 2023, aim to collect samples before a whale no whales were hunted this year for the watching boat arrives and then after- third straight year, as whalers say it is not wards, then compare the two samples to financially viable. — AFP determine the direct impact of that encounter on stress levels. Tourists have been increasingly flock- ing to the waters of the North Atlantic off French photographer Jerome Gence tells the stories behind his pictures French photographer Agnes Dherbeys of the agency MYOP for the Iceland to admire the majestic creatures, displayed at his exhibition ‘Telework’. European Commission tells the stories behind the photos at her exhibition “Crisis Upon Crisis - Refugees and the Pandemic”.— AFP photos