The Women Behind Some Of Napa And Sonoma's Best Wines

In the male dominated wine industry, it's necessary to shine a spotlight on women in the business. While female winemakers and women owned wineries attract rightful attention, the axiom "wine is made in the vineyard" illuminates an ignored sector in this growing awareness. Although the number of female vineyard workers has increased in Napa Valley and Sonoma from 5% to 30% between 2013 and 2017, historically only about 25% of vineyard manager positions are held by women.

Meet five women who embrace dirt under their nails while bossing a tractor in muddy boots - all in a quest to grow top-quality fruit and make some of Napa and Sonoma's best wine.

Growing up in Napa Valley, Kathleen Inman's passion for the grape, specifically Pinot Noir, and gardening began early. However, working as an accountant in England kept her away from viticulture for almost two decades. "When I lived in England gardening was my hobby. I made my own compost, had a worm farm, used worm teas and did everything organically," she explains.

She returned to Sonoma, and launched Inman Family Wines in 2000, where she wears many hats—vineyard manager, winemaker, boss, farmer, and "grape groper." She oversees a small team including her sister, Diane, and assistant winemaker, Madelyn, who joined her last summer. While Inman enjoys mentoring women, she did not intentionally hire an all-female staff. However, she confesses to finding communication among women in the cellar easier, "We seem to know what is needed without many words, and often we finish each other's sentences."

Translating her English garden into commercial viticulture, Inman uses a "sensitive farming" approach, which she explains is non-certified organic—intentional sensitivity to the environment and the people working in the vineyard. Honoring acid "as the backbone of wine," she picks based on how the clusters "feel" (aka groping), taste, and how the skin reacts to saliva. Migrating away from "proper sampling," Inman selects her pick dates based on sensory perception rather than quantitative data. Taking sensitive farming into the cellar, she produces "natural" wines from organic or sustainable grapes by eliminating additives, utilizing ambient yeast, limiting sulfur dioxide to extended barrel aging and bottling, and cross-flow filtration; resulting in beautifully crafted wines that sell out quickly.

Lifetime Welcomes Travel Adventure Series Hosted By Scott Eddy

Scott Eddy’s job with an investment banking firm had him flying on private planes and helicopters heading to destinations around the world. Now, he is focusing on a new occupation, as the host of what is said to be the first travel focused show on Lifetime.

As the host of “Video Globetrotter,” airing its first episode Friday, May 22, at 7:30 a.m. ET/PT, Eddy’s time on screen has him taking viewers through the Caribbean.

The initial show kicks off in Trinidad, focusing on the history and culture of Carnival plus ziplining and tasting their iconic street food, “doubles.” In Antigua, Eddy interviews Julie Reifer-Jones, the CEO of Liat Airlines, who outlined the history of the airline. Scott ends his trip in Grenada, seeing vistas, resorts and beaches.

Eddy credits his previous career experience in introducing him to “the luxury side of travel” in what has become his full-time profession as a social media professional and luxury brand ambassador. “It changed my whole [life], now I know how different cultures live in real life, not from TV,” Eddy said. “It has taught me to appreciate the little things because the flashy things disappear very quickly, the little things take you through life.”

For business or personal travel, life has taken Eddy to many places. While Florida is now his home, he has previously lived in Thailand, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Spain, Portland and the United Kingdom. He credits these experiences in introducing him to, and interacting with people from, all walks of life. “[I’ve] made friends on both sides of the fence,” he said. “It has really balanced my thinking.”

Fashion Fights Against Coronavirus

With the fashion industry at a virtual standstill since coronavirus swept through Asia and all of the world’s fashion capitals, fashion companies are pivoting their efforts to help fight against COVID-19 in a number of ways, from mobilizing their seamstresses to create masks for healthcare workers and others in need of personal protective equipment to donating revenue to charities that will help make an impact on those in need due to unexpected loss of income because of the virus. Here is a list of what some companies are doing:

Vestiaire Collective Launches Celebrity Sale To Benefit Hospitals and Research

Vestiaire Collective, the French pre-owned fashion e-commerce retailer, is holding a charity sale to help support the fight against COVID-19. The reseller reached out to its high-profile network of celebrities and fashion influencers, including Kate Moss, Rachel Weisz, Thandie Newton, Anna Dello Russo, Carine Roitfeld, Charlotte Tilbury, Margherita Missoni, Bella Freud, Leia Sfez, Caroline Issa and more, and asked them to pull items from the closets to sell items that will raise funds to help support local hospitals and scientific research. All of the proceeds of the sale will be donated across a number of charities, including The World Health Organization, the Italian Lombardia Region Fundraising, France/Paris Hospitals Foundation and Madrid’s La Paz Hospital.

Prada Goes Into PPE Production

Prada shifted its Montone factory’s capabilities, promising to produce 80,000 medical overalls and 110,000 masks for healthcare personnel in Tuscany after the region made a request. The PPE will be delivered daily, and production will be completed on April 6. 

Mango Provides 2 Million Face Masks To Spanish Ministry of Health

Mango delivered 2 million face masks to the Spanish Ministry of Health. The face masks arrived at Saragossa airport. It also will make its logistics capabilities available to Spanish authorities in order to curb the social, economic, and public health consequences caused by coronavirus.

Trouwjurken

UK Magazine Puts Forward A Positive Message In 2020 Fashion Shows

With the fashion world under increasing scrutiny, one UK publication is shifting mindsets following a heart-warming catwalk show during London Fashion Week last month. Goldie, a magazine and editorial platform launched in 2018 to discuss aspirational ageing for over-40s, has evolved, attracting a rapidly growing and diverse audience. Now operating as a hub for inter-sectional conversations, the team is seeking to break down boundaries and barriers in a bid to create a more accepting and inclusive society.

Goldie's founder, Rebecca Weef Smith, set out on a personal mission to portray to a wider audience that style can be ageless and how fashion can be used as a catalyst for positive change. Building a community of devoted readers, the publication is also interacting with readers through physical installations and experiences, following on from their first event which took place on 15th February.

The show, 'Andy's Catwalk', came to fruition after a real-life experience Weef Smith encountered during London Fashion Week Mens in 2019. "I was dashing to a presentation on the last day of fashion week when I grabbed a coffee in a café in Soho." Weef Smith recalls, "A rather dashing chap complimented me on the coat I was wearing, one thing led to another and after the menswear event, I returned to the café and spent a few hours talking to him, learning all about his life." The gentleman, Andy Palfreyman, had been homeless for over thirty years but in surviving this ordeal he had maintained a love for fashion throughout this time. He realised his desire to dress well had helped towards his wellbeing during those tough years.

Following on from this initial introduction, Andy mentioned an idea which had come to him for a fashion show which showcased charity shop clothes and how it could be used to dress those living on the streets of London. Thinking over the concept, Weef Smith made it a reality, resulting in the catwalk show which took place in The Swiss Church on Endell Street in Covent Garden.
 

Bridesmaid Dresses

How Data Helps Fight Fashion Waste

Geeks and fashion don't usually mix. Software engineers and other technology professionals are known for their reliance on t-shirts, sandals (often worn with socks) or sneakers and a predilection for wearing shorts in the freezing rain and snow. A bold fashion statement for most software engineers is making the decision to dye their hair green or blue.

But putting techie stereotypes aside for a moment, a new intersection point between the tech community and the fashion industry cognoscenti could be surfacing. The fashion industry is notoriously bad at product waste… and technology wants to come to the rescue.

Just hanging around

The BBC has reported one recent example where a fashion designer has helped to develop recyclable clothes hangers. Data analytics applied across fashion industry supply chains has shown the scale of waste in the business; designer Roland Mouret suggests that single-use clothes hangers are the 'plastic straw' of the fashion industry.

Working with scientists, Mouret and his team have developed a new hanger constructed from 80% recycled 'recovered sea plastic' and 20% recyclable plastic. The hanger problem is not just down to customers discarding them after purchase; apparently some fashion companies ship clothes on cheap hangers (which are then thrown away) before they transfer products to 'fancier' hangers in store.

Hanger recycling company First Mile says that hangers take 1,000 years to break down in landfill. Clearly we need smarter supply chains, smarter city distribution networks, smarter adoption of recycled products and smarter hangers if we are going to combat this waste.
Formal Dresses