Hatshepsut

I was floored to learn something today that will probably come as no surprise to every kid out there who is obsessed with Egyptology-- there were female pharaohs in ancient Egypt. It was rare, but it happened. 

One female ruler in particular, Hatshepsut, really intrigued me, not just because she successfully did the job men almost exclusively assumed, but because of how she was depicted in the art and sculpture of the time.  

There was a specific costume male pharaohs rocked to let everyone know they were important, including a striped head cloth with a cobra on it, a kilt type garment worn around the waist like an apron and a fake beard. In all official representations of Hatshepsut, she is shown donning the exact same uniform. As you can see from the images above, nothing about the way she is depicted communicates that she was a woman. Why? 

Even more intriguing is that her male successor did everything possible to remove her from historical records by defacing sculptures of her likeness and even go so far as to chisel images of her off stone walls. That wasn't a typical practice even for the most competitive and egomaniacal pharaohs.

So I have to wonder, was all of this because she was a woman? Fascinating stuff! Can't wait to learn more when Egyptian treasures from the Brooklyn Museum come to Tulsa this summer.

Chanel's Spring Couture Collection

For anyone who thinks fashion design is a joke, I highly recommend watching this video from Chanel’s haute couture collection for spring. For me, watching is a bit like how I feel when taking a yoga class- focused, controlled and slightly awkward! But the up-close and sustained shots are perfect for seeing the incredible detail, textures and craft involved in each piece. It’s a perspective you would never get from a runway. As an interior designer, there’s a lot to take away from this video. The collection is not about adding decorative, surface embellishments to make a piece interesting - it’s about the actual construction. That’s a really important distinction and a good reminder of what makes an interior space timeless and inspirational. 

Morris Arboretum

In my world, the city of Philadelphia is getting a lot of flack lately for the way it is portrayed in the biased but fascinating documentary The Art of the Steal. I happen to think Philly is a great city so I jumped at the chance to shed a more flattering light on it when I learned about a design project at the Morris Arboretum of U Penn. The name of the project sums it up perfectly: Out-on-a-Limb. It features an incredible canopy walk that gives visitors a bird’s eye view of the forest. I’ve been to a lot of amazing parks, but never had the luxury to experience it the way a squirrel might! Apparently 41% more people have visited the gardens since it opened last summer, which is remarkable when you think about it. The actual garden didn’t change, just the vantage point from which visitors experienced it. It’s got me thinking about possible applications to museums, how can we take the same old stuff we have on display and give people a new way to experience it?