Christopher John Rogers, a Brooklyn-based fashion designer renowned for his daring use of color, bold prints, and innovative textures, has dressed icons like Beyoncé, Rihanna, and Michelle Obama. Growing up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Rogers discovered his passion for fashion design in an unexpected way – creating comic books with his friends in the fourth grade. As he designed outfits for his characters, his interest in fashion began to take shape.  Further inspiration came through various sources, from the scanned pages of  fashion magazines he accessed online to the vibrant personalities of designers like Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood. His creativity flourished on platforms like DeviantArt and Tumblr, where he connected with other artists and developed his distinct style.

Candice Luter is an Iowa-based furniture designer and artist, creating furnishings and accessories for the home that are a perfect balance of beauty and functionality. Candice is using design as something transformative for herself, while also creating a safe space for women in the furniture design world to work together, build together, and create new lives together. For Domestic Violence Awareness Month we are proud to bring you a conversation that is authentic, real and open about surviving an abusive relationship and discovering one's voice through art and design.

For most of us, it was around 2010 that today’s trendiest houseplant came onto the scene. The ficus lyrata, better known as the fiddle leaf fig started a revolution, quickly replacing the old, outdated palm tree of virtually every home and office of the 1990s. While the fiddle leaf fig has enjoyed soaring popularity over the past decade — even getting recognized by The New York Times as the go-to plant of top interior designers — its history is much longer and deeper than that. In fact, this stylishly modern plant is millions of years old and traces its roots to West Africa, specifically modern day Cameroon and Sierra Leone.