Sew La Ti Embroidery [Search results for Red Square] 

As I'm sewing my 1950's Violet Wiggle Dress it reminded me of the set of photographs I once saw on the LIFE archives. A few of you know I've been to Russia a few times, once when I was 15 with my very adventurous father (Russia was his type of vacation) and then after high school with the intent to study Russian History. To make a long story short I ended up being very homesick and my stay was brief. Still, it's one of my favorite places in the world and I've had the privilege to see. Since then I love learning about Russian history, the good and the bad, and seeing it through art and photography are one of my favorite things to do.

Dior in Moscow

In 1959 the Soviet Union decided to get with the times and host some fashion shows. Does Yves Saint Laurent's Russian Collection ring a bell? Dior decided to bring their "New Look" straight to the people at GUM, which is like Russia's version of Galleria, located directly in Red Square. Back then it had more sensible shops for the working comrades, today it hosts over 200 luxury brands like Dior.

Red Square in Soviet Union

Dior had it their mind just to walk with the people at GUM, who by their expressions seemed horrified and curious all at the same time.

I'm kind of loving the floral dresses that nearly all of the women are wearing. Kind of wish I stuck around Moscow for a few days more just to do some vintage shopping. Wait while I add it to my bucket list.

Despite loving Dior... Well because it's Dior...

VIA Dior in the Soviet Union (Moscow City)

Emergency workers say thunderstorms are hampering efforts to find survivors as 1,500 rescuers search for missing
Family and friends of the missing post moving appeals for information on Facebook and blogs
Storm Prediction Center says more violent weather expected with further tornadoes through the middle of week
Devastation: Destroyed homes and debris cover the ground as a second storm moves in on Monday in Joplin, Missouri
Thousands of people were left without homes to go tonight after the deadliest single tornado to strike the United States in over 60 years touched down on Missouri, reducing the city of Joplin to rubble, ripping buildings apart and killing at least 116 people in a 6-mile path of destruction.
Authorities said they had rescued seven people alive on Monday, but emergency warned that the death toll could climb higher as heavy winds, strong rain and hail quarter-sized hail stones hampered the search effort.
Meteorologists issued a new tornado warning for the devastated city as forecasters warned large swathes of the country to brace for more big storms on Tuesday.
Path of destruction: No house escaped the wrath of nature in some of Minneapolis
A tornado watch was issued on Monday for Oklahoma and parts of southern Kansas due to an 'evolving tornado threat', said Russell Schneider, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Storm Prediction Center.
'We are currently forecasting a major severe weather outbreak for Tuesday over the central United States with strong tornadoes likely over Oklahoma, Kansas, extreme northern Texas, southwest Missouri,' Mr Schneider said.
The National Weather Service said the tornado packed winds of up to 198 mph.
The weather service's director, Jack Hayes, said the storm was given a preliminary label as an EF4 - the second-highest rating given to twisters. The rating is assigned to storms based on the damage they cause.
Hayes said the storm had winds of 190 to 198 miles per hour. He said survey teams from the National Weather Service are on the scene and will make a final determination on the rating Tuesday.
Missouri Governor Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard to help out after one of the worst disasters in the state's history.
Homeless: Ted Grabenauer sleeps on his front porch the morning after a tornado ripped off the roof of his home when it hit Joplin, Missouri
Ruins: A view of the devastation after a tornado blew the roof off the St John's Regional Medical Center, rear, where about 180 patients cowered and were eventually evacuated
Desolation: A residential neighbourhood in Joplin is seen after it was levelled by the tornado
President Barack Obama called Nixon and offered his condolences to those affected, assuring the governor that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) would provide whatever assistance was needed.
'Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to the families of all those who lost their lives in the tornadoes and severe weather that struck Joplin, Missouri, as well as communities across the Midwest today,' the President said in a statement sent from Air Force One as he flew to Europe.
Map: Infrared image of the powerful tornado that spun through a densely populated part of Missouri
'We commend the heroic efforts by those who have responded and who are working to help their friends and neighbours at this very difficult time.'
Caring for the injured was made more difficult because the main hospital, Saint John's Regional Medical Center, had to be evacuated after suffering a direct hit - the tornado ripped off its roof and smashed all its windows.
Cries could still be heard early Monday from survivors trapped in the wreckage.
Despair: A tree stripped of bark and leaves frames St John's Regional Medical Center
Eye of the storm: The tornado tore a 6-mile path across southwestern Missouri
Relief: Maggie Kelley and her husband, Trey Adams hug their dog, Saint, after finding him amid the rubble of her home in Joplin
Mr Nixon said he feared the death toll would rise but also expected survivors to be found in the rubble.
‘I don't think we're done counting,’ he said. ‘I still believe that because of the size of the debris and the number of people involved that there are lives to be saved.’
Crews found bodies during the night in vehicles the storm had flipped over, torn apart and left looking like crushed cans.
Triage centers and shelters set up around the city quickly filled to capacity.
At Memorial Hall, a downtown entertainment venue, nurses and other emergency workers from across the region treated critically injured patients.

Efforts: Rescue workers in lime-green jackets search for bodies and survivors inside St John's hospital
Re-united: A man carries a young girl who was rescued after being trapped with her mother in their home
Devastation: Emergency personnel walk through a neighbourhood severely damaged by a tornado near the Joplin hospital. There are are no firm details on the number of dead or injured, as the hospital is out of action
Memories: Evelyn Knoblauch looks at a picture in what is left of her daughter's house
At another makeshift unit at a Lowe's home improvement store, wooden planks served as beds.
Outside, ambulances and fire trucks waited for calls. During one stretch after midnight on Monday, emergency vehicles were scrambling nearly every two minutes.
On Monday morning, survivors picked through the rubble of what were once their homes, salvaging clothes, furniture, family photos and financial records, the air pungent with the smell of gas and smoking embers.
Others wandered through the wreckage with nowhere to go, their homes or apartments destroyed.
Kelley Fritz, 45, of Joplin, rummaged through the remains of a storage building with her husband, Jimmy.
Search: An emergency vehicle drives through a severely damaged neighbourhood in Joplin
They quickly realised they would never find the belongings they stored there, and that they had lost much of what was in their home after the tornado ripped away the roof.
Their sons, aged 20 and 17, went outside after the storm and saw that every home was destroyed.
‘My sons had deceased children in their arms when they came back,’ Mrs Fritz said. ‘My husband and I went out and saw two or three dead bodies on the ground.’

Soul destroying: Jean Logan surveys the damage to her home in Joplin after the tornado. She had taken refuge in her laundry room with her granddaughter
A total mess: Rachel Hurst picks through her belongings that were strewn about from her garage that was blown away in Minneapolis on Sunday
Mrs Fritz said she was surprised she survived. ‘You could just feel the air pull up and it was so painful. I didn't think we were going to make it, it happened so fast.’
Tornado sirens gave residents about a 20-minute warning before the tornado touched down on the city's west side.
Staff at St John's Regional Medical Center rushed patients into hallways before the storm struck the nine-storey building, blowing out hundreds of windows and leaving the facility unusable.
The hospital was among the worst-hit locations.
Emergency: Extensive damage can be seen at the St John's Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Missouri. An emergency agency spokesman says fatalities had been reported but was unsure of the exact figure
The Joplin twister was one of 68 reported tornadoes across seven Midwest states over the weekend, stretched from Oklahoma to Wisconsin, according to the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center.
One person was killed in Minneapolis. But the devastation in Missouri was the worst, eerily reminiscent of the tornadoes that killed more than 300 people across the South last month.
Residents said the damage was breathtaking in scope.
‘You see pictures of World War II, the devastation and all that with the bombing. That's really what it looked like,’ said Kerry Sachetta, the principal of a flattened Joplin High School.
‘I couldn't even make out the side of the building. It was total devastation in my view. I just couldn't believe what I saw.’
Emergency management officials rushed heavy equipment to Joplin to help lift debris and clear the way for search and recovery operations.
Governor Nixon declared a state of emergency, and President Barack Obama said the Federal Emergency Management Agency was working with state and local agencies.
Raised to the ground: Blocks of homes lie in total destruction after the devastating tornado
Unbelievable: Destroyed vehicles are piled on top of one another in the parking lot of the Joplin Regional Medical Centre

Desperate: Amy Langford carries items from her house that she was in with her husband Mark when the tornado hit their home in Joplin
Jeff Lehr, a reporter for the Joplin Globe, said he was upstairs in his home when the storm hit but was able to make his way to a basement closet.
The storm tore the roof off his house, but he was safe. When he emerged, he found people wandering through the streets, covered in mud.
‘I'm talking to them, asking if they knew where their family is,’ Mr Lehr said. ‘Some of them didn't know and weren't sure where they were. All the street markers were gone.’
Justin Gibson, 30, huddled with three relatives outside the tangled debris of a Home Depot. He pointed to a black pickup that had been tossed into the store's ruins and said it belonged to his roommate's brother, who was last seen in the store with his two young daughters.
Mr Gibson, who has three children of his own, said his home was levelled and ‘everything in that neighbourhood is gone. The high school, the churches, the grocery store. I can't get hold of my ex-wife to see how my kids are.
‘I don't know the extent of this yet,’ he said, ‘but I know I'll have friends and family dead.’
In Minneapolis, where a tornado killed one person and injured 29, authorities imposed an overnight curfew in a 4-square-mile area, including some of the city's poorest neighbourhoods, to prevent looting and keep streets clear for emergency crews.
Levelled: Red Cross representatives say 75% of Joplin is gone - here, vehicles and houses in the vicinity of Twenty-fourth and Main Streets are a jumble of rubble after a the tornado swept through
Condolences: President Barack Obama talks on the phone with Missouri Governor Jay Nixon during his visit to Dublin, Ireland. The President extended his condolences to all impacted by the deadly tornadoes
Widespread devastation: Another tornado in Minneapolis damaged at least 100 homes, toppling hundreds of trees and injuring at least 29 people
Community spirit: Residents of Joplin help a woman who survived in her basement after a tornado tore a path a mile wide and four miles long destroying homes and businesses
Mayor RT Rybak said one liquor store was looted right after the tornado hit late Sunday and a few burglaries took place overnight.
He said it wasn't immediately clear how many homes were affected, simply saying: 'It's a lot.'
Though the damage covered several blocks, it appeared few houses were totally demolished. Much of the damage was to roofs, front porches that had been sheared away and fences.
The tornado left part of a garage door in a tree and many large trees were left leaning against houses.
Pat Trafton said her family escaped unharmed after a tree was left leaning against her house.
Mrs Trafton, 67, said: 'It's been a crazy day.
'They say it was a monster tornado. It all just happened so fast.'
It was the first tornado to hit the city since August 2009. 'There was no doubt right away,' the meteorologist said.
North Minneapolis resident Tiffany Pabich was taking a nap just as the tornado blew through.

Bettered streets: Debris is scattered about in Minneapolis. On Sunday night a tornado warning was issued for several areas in central states
Crushed: Vehicles were picked up and dumped across the city by the tornado which left 30 people dead and dozens injured
In the north-east Kansas, powerful storms spawned funnel clouds and hail that ripped limbs off of trees and shattered windows.
About 200 homes were damaged in and around Reading with the tornado sweeping through the small town around 9:15pm Saturday night, said Kansas Division of Emergency Management spokeswoman Sharon Watson.
A man was pronounced dead shortly after being taken to Newman Regional Hospital in Emporia, about 20 miles from where the tornado hit, hospital supervisor Deb Gould said.
Ms Gould said two other people were brought in with injuries but she had no further details.
Five people were injured in all, along with the person killed, said Ms Watson.
Reading, a town of about 250 people is 50 miles south of the Kansas capital city, Topeka.
Carnage: Rescue vehicles line up along northbound Rangeline Road in Joplin, Mo. after a fatal tornado swept through the city
Reverend Lyle Williams, who is a pastor for about 10 worshippers at the Reading First Baptist Church, said the church suffered extensive damage: 'Yeah, it's pretty bad,' he said. 'My daughter was out there and told me about it.'
'I'm not going to be able to have church today that's for sure,' he added, saying he's been a pastor at the church for 21 years.
In Jefferson County, a mobile home was destroyed with an elderly couple was trapped inside, Ms Watson told CNN. She said responders cleared the debris and rescued the couple unhurt.
Wreckage: A man stands amid the remains of a Wal-Mart store, after it was hit by the tornado, in Joplin
Power had been restored in the town by early Sunday and a shelter was being set up at a local school.
The National Weather Service confirmed that a tornado also touched down in Topeka and northeast of the city near Lake Perry, where damage was reported at a nearby campsite, Ms Watson said.
While many states have been struck by severe storms this spring, Kansas has been having one of its lightest tornado seasons in decades, according to the National Weather Service.
A taste of spring? Trees were stripped of branches and many were left resting against houses
Flattened: Reading - a town of about 250 people, 50 miles south of capital city Topeka
Twister tragedy

Joplin Missouri 2011 Tornado May 23rd 2011 Massive Monster Killer Twister Tornado EF 5 MO 2011

I WILL PRAY ~Joplin Missouri Tornado Tribute~ (5/22/11)

source:dailymail

VIA America's deadliest tornado for 64 years: Terrifying twister cuts six-mile swathe through a Missouri town, leaving up to 116 dead

In an area of Colombia so vast and remote that contact has still not been made with some tribes thought to live there, Mike Slee used a helicopter to film hundreds of paintings depicting hunters and animals believed to have been created thousands of years ago. He said: “We had crews all over the place and helicopters filming all over Colombia. As a photographer, Francisco Forero Bonell discovered and took the pictures for my movie.”

The extraordinary art includes images of jaguar, crocodiles and deer. They are painted in red, on vertical rock faces in Chiribiquete national park, a 12,000 square kilometre Unesco world heritage site that is largely unexplored. There are also paintings of warriors or hunters dancing or celebrating. “It is the land that time forgot,” Slee told the Observer.

There had previously been only vague reports of rock art in the area, which is known as Cerro Campana, he said: “There’s no information, maps or communication. It’s such a massive central part of Colombia.” Though some paintings had previously been found and photographed elsewhere in Chiribiquete, this Cerro Campana art has never been filmed or photographed, Slee said: “It was an absolutely stunning moment to be able to get the footage.”

Slee used a helicopter to gain access to the area, as the terrain is impenetrable – thick vegetation, forested rock peaks and valleys, sheer cliffs and giant rock towers soaring through a rainforest canopy.

Professor Fernando Urbina, a rock art specialist from the National University of Colombia, was struck by the “magnificent naturalism” of the depictions of deer when shown the photographs.

“They reveal the hand of a master of painting,” he said, adding that the paintings could be up to 20,000 years old. He was particularly interested in a human figure in a seated position whose arms appear to be folded over his shoulders, a ritual position in Amazonian cultures. “A seated man has special significance as the sage of the tribe,” he said.

The art may have been painted by the Karijona tribe, a few of whose members still live in the region. The seated position might suggest a prisoner or slave, Urbina said.Jean Clottes, a French prehistorian, and author of Cave Art – a book covering key sites such as Lascaux in France – described the images as exciting and well-preserved, but said it would be hard to determine their age because radiocarbon dating could not be used, as they were painted with mineral-based materials derived from iron oxide rather than the charcoal used in European rock art.

The species depicted are thought to include capybaras, snakes and anteaters. Slee described the art as a wildlife chapel. “The peoples who once lived here have left in pictures testimony of their awe and respect for the wild,” he said. “When I saw the images, I honestly felt an affinity with the artists. They were attempting to capture the power, grace, spirit and essence of the animal in pictures. Perhaps it was to make the hunt better next day, but there is clearly careful observation in their art. It’s what contemporary photographers, painters, film-makers set out to do when they create a wildlife project.”

Slee made his name making natural history films and directed the movie Bugs! 3D, about two rainforest insects, narrated by Judi Dench. In 2012, the Observer reported that his Flight of the Butterflies 3D had captured butterflies in unprecedented detail, moving scientists to tears at an early screening. Over the past three years, Slee has been exploring Colombia to make Colombia: Wild Magic, which will be in cinemas next year. Through spectacular footage, it portrays “a majestic tropical wilderness” – but one he said was threatened by humans who are “taking more than they are giving”. With swooping aerial footage and detailed close-ups, it reveals a landscape of canyons and caves, lakes and lagoons, rivers and rock masses with “the largest varieties of living things on the planet”, including unique species of hummingbird and endangered jaguar.

Drawing on the expertise of a dozen scientific advisers, the film warns of threats from the world’s “craving” for natural resources such as gold and emeralds. Slee said: “We’ve got illegal gold-mining polluting the rivers, we’re overfishing the seas, the habitat destruction is massive. We’re taking out the rainforest, we’re losing species every week. We have the most beautiful country on Earth and we are in danger of destroying it. There are places that no Colombian has been. It’s mainly because, when you think of Colombia, you think of kidnapping and drugs.”

Bonell, a Colombian conservationist and photographer, was inspired to become executive producer of the film, describing the region as “one of the few areas on our planet that still remains unspoiled and unexplored”.

The film has been produced by British company Off The Fence, and will be distributed free in schools in Colombia, as well as cinemas, “spreading the word about what their country has and the need to protect it”, Slee said. Slee hopes to return for another large-scale expedition focusing on the rock art. “We’ve probably only scratched the surface,” he said. “There are believed to be many hundreds of these cave paintings dotted throughout that central region.”

Author: Dalya Alberge | Source: The Guardian/Observer [June 24, 2015]