CNN style Fashion | Covid canceled weddings around the world. It also influenced dress codes

The havoc wreaked by Covid-19 on the wedding industry was bound to leave its mark somehow. With 2020 ceremonies across the globe postponed indefinitely or canceled altogether, determined couples adapted as best they could: slashing guest lists by more than two-thirds and matching their outfits to mandatory face coverings. Some weddings even went virtual, with attendees dialing in to meeting apps to watch vows broadcast online.

Other lovebirds eloped, commemorating their private unions with small souvenirs mailed back to family and friends — a gesture that trend forecasting firm WGSN predicts is here to stay.

But the past year’s lasting impact on nuptials goes beyond keepsakes. As more people get vaccinated, “normal” life — including social gatherings — in some countries is beginning to resume. And with bridal parties and guests resurfacing, emerging sartorial trends reveal how the pandemic may have a lingering influence on wedding dress codes.  —read more— 

CNN BUSINESS | People are panic buying homes as prices skyrocket around the world

It wasn’t long ago that real estate experts were bracing for the worst.

The coronavirus pandemic had sent large parts of the world into lockdown, shuttering businesses, costing tens of millions of workers their jobs and putting the housing market into a deep freeze. The number of people asking lenders for more time on their mortgage payments surged as the global recession hit.

“This time last year we thought it was going to be 2008 all over again,” said Kate Everett-Allen, the head of international residential research at real estate consultancy Knight Frank.

The fear was that house prices would collapse, as they reliably had done in past economic downturns. An increase in bankruptcies and unemployment would squeeze disposable incomes and make it difficult for highly indebted homeowners to keep up with their mortgages.  —read more— 

CNN BUSINESS | Cannabis company growing weed in Colombia goes public in US

New York (CNN Business) – Most cannabis companies that list their stocks in the United States grow their products in indoor greenhouses, often in Canada.

But a company named Flora Growth that went public on the Nasdaq on Tuesday is taking a different approach. Although headquartered in Toronto, its agricultural operations are in Colombia. And it cultivates cannabis the old-fashioned way: outdoors.

Why? It’s a lot cheaper.  —read more— 

CNN BUSINESS | Coming this summer: Gas stations running out of gas

New York (CNN Business) – Millions of people stuck at home for more than a year are expected to hit the road for much-needed post-pandemic vacations this summer. Good luck finding gas.

Not that there’s a looming shortage of crude oil or gasoline. Rather, it’s the tanker truck drivers needed to deliver the gas to stations who are in short supply.

According to the National Tank Truck Carriers, the industry’s trade group, somewhere between 20% to 25% of tank trucks in the fleet are parked heading into this summer due to a paucityof qualified drivers. At this point in 2019, only 10% of trucks were sitting idle for that reason.  —read more— 

CNN BUSINESS | Jaleel White is launching his own cannabis brand, and yes it includes ‘Purple Urkle’

(CNN) – Actor Jaleel White is joining the growing list of celebrities who have launched a cannabis brand.

White, known for playing Steve Urkel on the 1990s sitcom “Family Matters,” is partnering with 710 Labs on his new line, itsPurpl. It’s set to launch in California on April 20, or 4/20, and includes variants of the strain Purple Urkle.  —read more— 

CNN Opinion | Are you ready for the Roaring ’20s?

(CNN) – There is a section of my closet — I live in New York City, so by “section” I mean a few hangers bunched together — packed with tulle and sequins and leather, increasingly over-the-top items that I bought during the pandemic as I dreamt of life after lockdown. The longer lockdown lasted, the more months without family gatherings or travel or nights out, the wilder my closet grew. And I know I’m not alone.

As vaccination rates have soared (even with all the new variants and surges adding some uncertainty to the mix) it’s become clear that when the lockdowns finally lift, Americans will be primed for a new Roaring ’20s, an exuberance expressed in fashion, art, music — anywhere we can display the kind of manic joy that comes after a year when the world became very small and quiet.

Our Roaring ’20s would arrive a century after the end of the last massive pandemic, which occurred alongside a devastating war. The end of these twin crises unleashed a decade of exuberance and experimentation — and a decade of growing inequality and deepening conservatism. “The war tore away our spiritual foundations and challenged our faith,” Ellen Wells Page wrote, as she explained why she embraced the flapper lifestyle. “We are struggling to regain our equilibrium.” As we enter the post-pandemic period, it’s worth reflecting on how Americans navigated their reentry in the 1920s, and the ways their newfound vitality fed the era’s dramatic cultural and political changes.  –read more— 

CNN style Arts | Miss art museums? The Louvre just put its entire art collection online

There is nothing like spending a rainy afternoon at a museum, soaking in the beauty and wonder of art and history. Now the Louvre, the world’s most visited museum, is letting you do that right from home.

The French museum has released an online platform featuring all of the museum’s artworks, consisting of more than 480,000 pieces, the Louvre announced Friday in a press release.

Art lovers and researchers alike will now be able to view the entire Louvre collection online for free.  —read more—

CNN BUSINESS | Jamie Dimon sounds the alarm on the future of American prosperity

New York (CNN Business) – Jamie Dimon is very bullish on the US economic recovery from the pandemic. And yet the JPMorgan Chase CEO is deeply concerned about the future of America.

In his annual shareholder letter Wednesday, Dimon wrote that the Covid-19 pandemic, the “horrific murder” of George Floyd and the painfully slow economic growth of the past two decades are all symptoms of a broader problem: “inept” public policy and broad government dysfunction.

“Unfortunately, the tragedies of this past year are only the tip of the iceberg — they merely expose enormous failures that have existed for decades and have been deeply damaging to America,” Dimon wrote, adding that the nation was “totally unprepared” for the deadly pandemic.  —read more—