Women shine like a true diva in tuxedos. Don’t they? Of course they do. Plus, there is no denying that they mean real business wearing their bossy tuxedos on any given day. After all, the innovative style they bring to it has forced fashion pundits from across the globe to admire how brilliantly they can add their own spark to it and in so doing outshine their male counterparts.
Its robust popularity among celebrities or women in general is proof that it can sometimes easily replace the usual gowns that they are more often than not expected to wear to big event galas. In a way, it’s a good second-to-none option as the Beirut-born, Paris-raised and London-based tuxedo designer Racil Chalhoub continues to tell loud and clear through her blissful designs. In fact, her tryst with designing tuxedos began when she couldn’t find one that fitted her well and reflected her sense of style.
In an exclusive interview with Arab News, we caught up with her to find out how she became what she wanted to be, why tuxedo matters so much to her and much more.
Chalhoub fell in love with fashion at a very young age. Growing up in a city like Paris with a very elegant mother did influence her tremendously as to what she would become later in her life. “My mother used to take me to boutiques and fashion shows and that is when I became highly mesmerized by the fashion world and dreamt to have my own fashion brand one day,” she says.
With this aspiration on her mind, she came to London where she studied fashion and marketing. Right after that, she went on to launch her own cool tuxedo brand because she knew it’s something that is timeless and ever so chic and more importantly she had knowhow of how a business is run. “It might be stolen from a man’s wardrobe but it gives a woman so much power and elegance as well as understated glamor,” she says. “In a tuxedo you are neither exposed as overdressed nor underdressed; you can wear it from day to night and vice versa. I love how easy it is to wear yet will never fail to turn heads.”
Just within a year since the launch of her label, it struck a chord with its customers who were hunting for a tuxedo that had a lively vibe to it as Chalhoub explains, “I think the reason my brand is by and large sought-after today is because it’s so focused. More and more women want to wear a tuxedo and now they sort of know where to look for it. The Racil tuxedo has a cool flair to it, it’s sharp but not stiff — it’s versatile and playful, it fits today’s lifestyle. I wear mine in the day and evening alike.”
Since Chalhoub designs the right fit tuxedo dresses for every type of woman out there (which she knows is not easy as everybody is different), it’s very important for her to draw a woman’s figure in her head first. “I design with real women in mind. I want to create pieces that women can wear easily and so I always tend to visualize them, how different they would wear their tuxedo and where to,” she says.
Her grand tuxedos are for every woman who thinks of becoming a Racil woman. So the individual experimentation with it is endless as it can be a 20-year-old’s first ever tuxedo, a working woman who packs it on all her work trips or a stylish girl who will style it differently every day. “That woman could even be my own mother who will wear it in the most elegant style the old fashioned way,” she says.
Inspirations behind what she does
While her inspirations can crop up from anywhere like a trip abroad or someone in the street or even the colors in a bouquet of flowers, she mostly looks at men’s vintage clothing with more enthusiasm and openness. “I love the freedom found in the clothing of the 1920s and 1970s. Bianca Jagger in her studio 54 days is always at the heart of my mood boards,” Chalhoub reveals.
Her mother has always been a main attraction because she taught her the basis of fashion and is by far the most elegant woman she knows today. Apart from her, there are lots of other women she looks up to solely for never letting their own style vanish. “One of my big time idols is Iris Apfel— I love how original and individual she looks. That freedom of wearing whatever you like is something I have a lot of respect for,” Chalhoub says.
There is definitely a cozy feel to her creations as they are made using men’s tailoring wool mostly as well as satin for the lapels and refined details. When it comes to color and the pivotal role it plays in her collections, let’s just say she breathes it all the time. “I love and live in color and so it was vital for me to have great colors and color combinations in my collection. My use of color is a way of breaking the rules for tuxedos. People obviously assume a tuxedo has to be black or midnight blue or white, but why does it have to be this way only,” she asks. “I think it can be made in as many colors as you want.”
With success steadily knocking at her door, Chalhoub wants her tuxedos to be worn by high profile celebs like Beyoncé and Rihanna. “I would also love to dress Meryl Streep and Bianca Jagger of course,” she says.
While she acknowledges the potential of celebrity endorsement when it comes to strengthening one’s brand power, she favors more of bumping into someone she doesn’t know wearing one of her pieces or a friend of hers who ordered a special piece to wear on the day of her wedding! “That kind of support is much more important to me, as it’s more genuine and real, which is what we are all about at the end of the day,” she says. “I find it really rewarding.”
Chalhoub’s latest collection sheds light on the richness of the fabrics. It all resulted from a trip of hers to Venice which she says was a major inspiration as she immersed herself in the fabric shops that specialize in velvets and brocades. “I looked at men’s dinner jackets as that’s what a tuxedo is initially I found a lot more inspiration there. Men’s 1920s jackets and Oxford pants told the story of the shapes I designed,” she says. “I also got a lot of inspiration from constellations and had a special lining made for us to reflect that. Every piece is named after a constellation which I think sprinkles a little bit of magic over the collection.”
As the Racil Chalhoub brand takes its course in terms of making waves, there are already a few surprises up her sleeve that will unfold in the coming months.
In fact, all her creations are an embodiment of three cities (Paris, London and New York) she keeps traveling to quite often and she calls herself lucky that she is able to do so. “I get a different kick from each place and I love that. I love how elegant Paris is, how eclectic and homey London is to me and the madness and rush of New York,” she says.
It comes as no surprise that her style is quite eclectic as she puts it, “I would say it is modern bohemian-boyish yet very feminine at the same time.”
[email protected]
Racil Chalhoub adds a feminine twist to tuxedos
Racil Chalhoub adds a feminine twist to tuxedos
Meaty issue: German political party calls for €4.90 price cap on doner kebabs
- Die Linke appeals to government as price of national favorite hits €10 in some cities
- Scheme would cost taxpayer about €4bn
LONDON: German political party Die Linke has urged the government to cap the price of a much loved food item — the doner kebab.
The party has proposed providing daily vouchers to households that would limit prices to €4.90 ($5.28) and €2.90 for young people under an initiative known as Donerpreisbremse.
The scheme is projected to cost the government about €4 billion.
Introduced after the Second World War by Turkish immigrants who adapted the dish to suit local tastes, the doner kebab is a national favorite in Germany, with an estimated 1.3 billion consumed annually. But their soaring price has become a hot-button political issue.
Die Linke said the cost of a doner kebab had reached €10 in some cities, from €4 just two years ago.
“For young people right now it is an issue as important as where they will move when they leave home,” said Hanna Steinmuller, a lawmaker with the Greens party.
“I know it’s not an everyday issue for many people here … but I think as voter representatives we are obliged to highlight these different perspectives.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was famously confronted by a voter last year who demanded he “speak with Putin … I’m paying €8 for a doner.”
With public pressure mounting, Scholz recently acknowledged on social media that “everywhere I go, mostly by young people, I get asked if there should be a price cap for doner kebabs.”
Despite the appeals, the chancellor rejected the proposal, citing the impracticality of price controls in a free market economy.
Despite its humble origins as a street food, the doner kebab has become an unexpected point of political focus.
Last month, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier sparked controversy when on a visit to Turkiye he gifted 60 kg of kebab meat from Berlin to Istanbul in what some called a clumsy attempt to symbolize the strong cultural ties between the two nations.
A 98-year-old in Ukraine walked miles to safety from Russians, with slippers and a cane
- Describing her journey, the nonagenarian said she had fallen twice and was forced to stop to rest at some points, even sleeping along the way before waking up and continuing her journey
KYIV, Ukraine: A 98-year-old woman in Ukraine who escaped Russian-occupied territory by walking almost 10 kilometers (6 miles) alone, wearing a pair of slippers and supported by a cane has been reunited with her family days after they were separated while fleeing to safety.
Lidia Stepanivna Lomikovska and her family decided to leave the frontline town of Ocheretyne, in the eastern Donetsk region, last week after Russian troops entered it and fighting intensified.
Russians have been advancing in the area, pounding Kyiv’s depleted, ammunition-deprived forces with artillery, drones and bombs.
“I woke up surrounded by shooting all around — so scary,” Lomikovska said in a video interview posted by the National Police of Donetsk region.
In the chaos of the departure, Lomikovska became separated from her son and two daughters-in-law, including one, Olha Lomikovska, injured by shrapnel days earlier. The younger family members took to back routes, but Lydia wanted to stay on the main road.
With a cane in one hand and steadying herself using a splintered piece of wood in the other, the pensioner walked all day without food and water to reach Ukrainian lines.
Describing her journey, the nonagenarian said she had fallen twice and was forced to stop to rest at some points, even sleeping along the way before waking up and continuing her journey.
“Once I lost balance and fell into weeds. I fell asleep … a little, and continued walking. And then, for the second time, again, I fell. But then I got up and thought to myself: “I need to keep walking, bit by bit,’” Lomikovska said.
Pavlo Diachenko, acting spokesman for the National Police of Ukraine in the Donetsk region, said Lomikovska was saved when Ukrainian soldiers spotted her walking along the road in the evening. They handed her over to the “White Angels,” a police group that evacuates citizens living on the front line, who then took her to a shelter for evacuees and contacted her relatives.
“I survived that war,’ she said referring to World War II. “I had to go through this war too, and in the end, I am left with nothing.
“That war wasn’t like this one. I saw that war. Not a single house burned down. But now – everything is on fire,” she said to her rescuer.
In the latest twist to the story, the chief executive of one of Ukraine’s largest banks announced on his Telegram channel Tuesday that the bank would purchase a house for the pensioner.
“Monobank will buy Lydia Stepanivna a house and she will surely live in it until the moment when this abomination disappears from our land,” Oleh Horokhovskyi said.
Amazon Purr-rime: Cat accidentally shipped to online retailer
- Galena was found safe by a warehouse worker at an Amazon center after vanishing from her home in Utah
LOS ANGELES: A curious cat that sneaked into an open box was shipped across the United States to an Amazon warehouse after its unknowing owners sealed it inside.
Carrie Clark’s pet, Galena, vanished from her Utah home on April 10, sparking a furious search that involved plastering “missing” posters around the neighborhood.
But a week later, a vet hundreds of miles (kilometers) away in Los Angeles got in touch to say the cat had been discovered in a box — alongside several pairs of boots — by a warehouse worker at an Amazon center.
“I ran to tell my husband that Galena was found and we broke down upon realizing that she must have jumped into an oversized box that we shipped out the previous Wednesday,” Clark told KSL TV in Salt Lake City.
“The box was a ‘try before you buy,’ and filled with steel-toed work boots.”
Clark and her husband jetted to Los Angeles, where they discovered Amazon employee Brandy Hunter had rescued Galena — a little hungry and thirsty after six days in a cardboard box, but otherwise unharmed.
“I could tell she belonged to someone by the way she was behaving,” said Hunter, according to Amazon.
“I took her home that night and went to the vet the next day to have her checked for a microchip, and the rest is history.”
What did people eat before agriculture? New study offers insight
- Analysis of forms — or isotopes — of elements including carbon, nitrogen, zinc, sulfur and strontium in these remains indicated the type and amount of plants and meat they ate
WASHINGTON: The advent of agriculture roughly 11,500 years ago in the Middle East was a milestone for humankind — a revolution in diet and lifestyle that moved beyond the way hunter-gatherers had existed since Homo sapiens arose more than 300,000 years ago in Africa.
While the scarcity of well-preserved human remains from the period preceding this turning point has made the diet of pre-agricultural people a bit of a mystery, new research is now providing insight into this question. Scientists reconstructed the dietary practices of one such culture from North Africa, surprisingly documenting a heavily plant-based diet.
The researchers examined chemical signatures in bones and teeth from the remains of seven people, as well as various isolated teeth, from about 15,000 years ago found in a cave outside the village of Taforalt in northeastern Morocco. The people were part of what is called the Iberomaurusian culture.
Analysis of forms — or isotopes — of elements including carbon, nitrogen, zinc, sulfur and strontium in these remains indicated the type and amount of plants and meat they ate. Found at the site were remains from different edible wild plants including sweet acorns, pine nuts, pistachio, oats and legumes called pulses. The main prey, based on bones discovered at the cave, was a species called Barbary sheep.
“The prevailing notion has been that hunter-gatherers’ diets were primarily composed of animal proteins. However, the evidence from Taforalt demonstrates that plants constituted a big part of the hunter-gatherers’ menu,” said Zineb Moubtahij, a doctoral student in archaeology at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany and lead author of the study published on Monday in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.
“It is important as it suggests that possibly several populations in the world already started to include substantial amount of plants in their diet” in the period before agriculture was developed, added archeogeochemist and study co-author Klervia Jaouen of the French research agency CNRS.
The Iberomaurusians were hunter-gatherers who inhabited parts of Morocco and Libya from around 25,000 to 11,000 years ago. Evidence indicates the cave served as a living space and burial site.
These people used the cave for significant portions of each year, suggesting a lifestyle more sedentary than simply roaming the landscape searching for resources, the researchers said. They exploited wild plants that ripened at different seasons of the year, while their dental cavities illustrated a reliance on starchy botanical species.
Edible plants may have been stored by the hunter-gatherers year-round to guard against seasonal shortages of prey and ensure a regular food supply, the researchers said.
These people ate only wild plants, the researchers found. The Iberomaurusians never developed agriculture, which came relatively late to North Africa.
“Interestingly, our findings showed minimal evidence of seafood or freshwater food consumption among these ancient groups. Additionally, it seems that these humans may have introduced wild plants into the diets of their infants at an earlier stage than previously believed,” Moubtahij said.
“Specifically, we focused on the transition from breastfeeding to solid foods in infants. Breast milk has a unique isotopic signature, distinct from the isotopic composition of solid foods typically consumed by adults.”
Two infants were among the seven people whose remains were studied. By comparing the chemical composition of an infant’s tooth, formed during the breastfeeding period, with the composition of bone tissue, which reflects the diet shortly before death, the researchers discerned changes in the baby’s diet over time. The evidence indicated the introduction of solid foods at around the age of 12 months, with babies weaned earlier than expected for a pre-agricultural society.
North Africa is a key region for studying Homo sapiens evolution and dispersal out of Africa.
“Understanding why some hunter-gatherer groups transitioned to agriculture while others did not can provide valuable insights into the drivers of agricultural innovation and the factors that influenced human societies’ decisions to adopt new subsistence strategies,” Moubtahij said.
Palestinian prisoner in Israel wins top fiction prize
- The mask in the novel’s title refers to the blue identity card that Nur, an archaeologist living in a refugee camp in Ramallah, finds in the pocket of an old coat belonging to an Israeli
ABU DHABI: Palestinian writer Basim Khandaqji, jailed 20 years ago in Israel, won a prestigious prize for Arabic fiction on Sunday for his novel “A Mask, the Color of the Sky.”
The award of the 2024 International Prize for Arabic Fiction was announced at a ceremony in Abu Dhabi.
The prize was accepted on Khandaqji’s behalf by Rana Idriss, owner of Dar Al-Adab, the book’s Lebanon-based publisher.
Khandaqji was born in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Nablus in 1983, and wrote short stories until his arrest in 2004 at the age of 21.
He was convicted and jailed on charges relating to a deadly bombing in Tel Aviv, and completed his university education from inside jail via the Internet.
The mask in the novel’s title refers to the blue identity card that Nur, an archaeologist living in a refugee camp in Ramallah, finds in the pocket of an old coat belonging to an Israeli.
Khandaqji’s book was chosen from 133 works submitted to the competition.
Nabil Suleiman, who chaired the jury, said the novel “dissects a complex, bitter reality of family fragmentation, displacement, genocide, and racism.”
Since being jailed Khandaqji has written poetry collections including “Rituals of the First Time” and “The Breath of a Nocturnal Poem.”
He has also written three earlier novels.
