Spring Awakening

Something about spring makes me feel alive!  Perhaps it’s because I was born on the first day of the season. It always gives me the feeling of a new beginning. And this year, it feels really special, especially after the long winter we’ve had … and I mean that metaphorically as well.  While things are far from perfect, this particular change of season feels fresh and my glass is more than half full.

With our spring issue, we wanted to fill your cup as well. We’ve done that by putting together a lineup of remarkable people who inspire and challenge us. We spoke with the incomparable Diane von Furstenberg ahead of her acceptance of the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Women of Leadership Award at the Library of Congress. She opened up about her lifelong feminist ideals, meeting RBG, and told us about her closet full of journals cataloguing a life well lived.  

As I dust off my passport and get back to globetrotting (my all-time favorite hobby), I’ll head to Firenze again, this time with Sade Awe, international luxury maven and founder of The Inner Circle Experience. Awe is bringing her ICE gathering–which caters to top luxury industry leaders–to Italy after a pandemic hiatus, and she let us in on her favorite places in Firenze. Of course, I’ll head back to Accra, my home, as we’re cooking up something pretty incredible for the diaspora (tell you all about it in the next issue). As many know, Ghana has long been a source of inspiration for me and a raison d’etre. In this issue, we get together with one of the hottest young Ghanaian artists of the moment, Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe, Teen Vogue’s Executive Editor Danielle Kwateng, also from Ghana, and Ngaire Blankenberg, the new Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, to discuss everything from identity, rewriting narratives, and regeneration.

Speaking of globetrotting, my family’s trip to Tokyo was canceled back in April 2020 due to Covid, however a special client has delivered a jewel of a concept to Washington, DC that was spectacularly designed in Japan …SHŌTŌ. We take you inside the buzzy new restaurant on a recent Friday night. On the fashion front, Balenciaga has entered the nation’s capital region, and Luxeicon takes a look at why this legacy brand is having a very modern moment. 

As we look forward to a collective spring awakening, I’ll be keeping these words from our interview with DVF top of mind: “I try to make a miracle every day. Everyday I try to connect at least one person to a person or a thing that they normally would not be able to do and that creates the chain of love.” 

Here’s to making miracles for each other this spring.

My best,

Aba Kwawu

President, TAA PR