Italian Fashion Designer Roberto Cavalli Has Died at 83

Health Advice

April 16, 2024admin

Italian Fashion Designer Roberto Cavalli Has Died at 83

Roberto Cavalli, the Italian designer who infused the print-led boho look with sex appeal, has died at 83. His passing was confirmed by the brand. “The Roberto Cavalli company shares condolences with Mr. Cavalli’s family. His legacy remains a constant source of inspiration,” said Roberto Cavalli’s CEO Sergio Azzolari.

By the time shows started to go digital (circa 2000), Cavalli was a well-established golden name in fashion; an elder, even, enjoying a second round of renown. He exuded Hefner vibes (minus the robe) when he took his fall 2001 bow smoking a pipe. (The designer was in fact asked to redesign the Playboy bunny costume in 2005.) By then the leonine Cavalli was living the good life, something that he achieved with braggadocio and brain power—and against the odds. In the context of Cacvalli’s life story, the body worship and forthright sexiness of his work, could be seen more broadly as an affirmation of life itself, which, from a young age he understood to be fragile.

Born in Florence in 1940, Cavalli’s maternal grandfather was a member of the Macchiaioli group of Italian Impressionists. His father, an anti-fascist who is thought to have been a mine surveyor, was shot by the Nazi forces when Cavalli was just three years old. The psychological impact was expressed physically through a stutter. “It was not easy for me to speak, the shock,” the designer told Luke Leitch in a 2011 interview. To support the family, his mother started sewing at home, taking in seamstresses to help her. At 17, a confident Cavalli enrolled at the Academy of Art in Florence to study art and architecture. There he met and fell in love with his first wife and the mother of two of his children, Silvanella Giannoni.

In 1960, after hand-painting some sweaters

…

Health Advice

March 4, 2024admin

Mom’s fashion embarrassed me as a kid. After she died, her clothes were my most prized keepsakes

This is a First Person column by Melanie Chambers, who lives in Rossland, B.C. For more information about CBC’s First Person stories, please see the FAQ.

It was just days after my mother died when I saw them on Queen Street West in Toronto — tall white canvas boots patterned with pink and blue donkeys. Mom would have loved these, I thought to myself. They were ridiculous, outrageous and inexplicable — just like her. Showstoppers. I immediately bought the boots and wore them along with a strapless white frilly dress to her backyard memorial.

But there was a time when my mother’s fashion embarrassed me. Like the time I had just finished teaching a class at Western University in London, Ont.; she came to meet me at my local bar wearing an off-the-shoulder sweatshirt with red rhinestones. In front of my friends and the bar’s regulars, I called her out.

“What the hell are you wearing?”

Her face turned ash white as she looked away.

“Mel, that was harsh,” my friend whispered.

It was harsh. It wasn’t the clothes; it was what they represented.

I was 14 when my parents divorced. After that, my mother and I blossomed at the same time. I got my first boyfriend and went to the movies; she found a younger man with a black Dodge Shelby Charger convertible.

She’d always been stylish, but post-divorce, her skirts got shorter. Colours became brighter. She was a great mom and adored me. She always tucked me in, brought me home little gifts after work and praised me up and down. But even as a teenager, I felt like her parent.

A collage of two images. A teenage girl on the left and a woman in 1980s fashion lie on the ground and hug their knees. — Chambers, left, as a teen and her mom having fun together while practising Jane Fonda’s workouts. (Submitted by Melanie Chambers)

Getting ready for bed, sometimes I’d

…

Department Health

July 4, 2023admin

Health Sciences Centre ER had no monitored beds open when person died waiting for care: report

A patient who died waiting for care in a hallway at Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre was not transferred to a monitored bed due to lack of available space in the emergency department, according to a critical incident review into what could have prevented his death.

That review, released on Friday, was conducted after a patient died at HSC’s emergency medical services arrivals hallway on Feb. 27, about an hour after arriving at the hospital by ambulance.

He was assessed upon arrival, but his condition deteriorated and staff were unable to revive him, the report says.

His death was declared a critical incident, which is defined by the province as a case where people have suffered “serious and unintended harm” while receiving health care.

The review found that “patient flow challenges” prevented the man from being put into a monitored bed, which is a bed with a heart monitor attached, noting that the hospital was dealing with twice its usual number of critically ill or injured patients at the time.

This spike in admissions around the time the man arrived at the hospital exacerbated pre-existing challenges in the emergency department’s capacity, according to the report.

HSC — the largest hospital in Manitoba — has opened up six more medicine beds recently to help with overcrowding issues, and is planning to open up six more this summer depending on staffing, said Dr. Shawn Young, the chief operating officer at Health Sciences Centre, at a Friday morning news conference held to address the report.

The opening of a new treatment clinic for minor injuries this summer should also help people get more timely care, he said.

Ideally, the hospital would open more ER beds, but staffing presents a challenge, he said.

“Would I love to open 30 beds? For sure, but would

…

Tag: died