LONDON — Bella Hadid’s popular line for Chrome Hearts is making its U.K. debut with an exclusive introduction at Selfridges.
To mark the launch the model joined longtime friend and musician Jesse Jo Stark and her mother Laurie, Chrome Hearts’ co-owner, at the British department store on Oxford Street.
“This is such a beautiful space and the [accessories department] is brand new, it’s a new entrance to the store so it’s perfect, not only for my collection, but for Chrome Hearts as a whole. It all comes together,” said Hadid, who has been a frequent Selfridges visitor as of late, having also launched her new Dior mascara campaign in the store two weeks ago.
Chrome Hearts has its own shops-in-shop in Selfridges’ new accessories department adjacent to Gucci, Valentino and Balenciaga. It features both the Chrome Hearts x Bella collection, which was created as a collaboration between Jesse Jo and Hadid, and the brand’s core jewelry, handbag and ready-to-wear ranges.
For her part, Laurie Stark said that she was drawn to the boldness of a big London launch. “From there, the whole world can follow,” she said, highlighting plans to continue expanding in markets such as L.A. and Tokyo.
Each launch will highlight new pieces in

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KEEP ON SMILING: French collective Études is taking a political stand with a new unisex capsule named after and inspired by the iconic “Smiling Sun” logo. Created in 1975 and designed by Danish activist Anne Lund, the logo became a symbol of the anti-nuclear power movement and was translated into 50 languages.
Described by Études cofounders Aurélien Arbet and Jérémie Egry as “a collection celebrating the anti-nuclear movement that embodies the new generation’s environmental consciousness,” the capsule supports the nuclear power phase-out movement and features the logo revisited as patches and prints on denim, caps, T-shirts and sweatshirts. It grew out of a sprinkling of looks that featured in the brand’s spring 2017 show.
So far Germany, Belgium, Spain and Switzerland are the only countries to have committed to a nuclear power phase-out, following in the footsteps of Italy, which closed its last reactors in 1990 following the Chernobyl accident, as the first and only country in the world to do so.
The Smiling Sun capsule will enter the brand’s Paris store on May 18 as well e-commerce site Ssense.com, with other points of sale to be confirmed.

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FRIDAY, MAY 12

High School Art Exhibition: The annual event is a multimedia show featuring art produced by students from Irvine high schools. Through May 27 at Irvine Fine Arts Center. Free. 14321 Yale Ave. 949-724-6880 or cityofirvine.org

“Frida Kahlo – Her Photos”: Offers a glance into the life of the beloved artist. Kahlo’s collection of photographs depicts loved ones as well as scenes from Mexico. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday through June 25 at Bowers Museum. $20-$25. 2002 N. Main St., Santa Ana. 714-567-3600 or bowers.org

Gem Faire: Featuring fine jewelry, precious and semi-precious gemstones, millions of beads, crystals, gold and silver, minerals and more at manufacturer’s prices. Nearly 200 exhibitors from around the world. Classes and demos. Free hourly door prizes. Noon-6 p.m. today, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday at OC Fair & Event Center. $7 weekend pass. 88 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa. 503-252-8300 or gemfaire.com

“Harry Potter And The Chamber of Secrets in Concert”: This concert features the film “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” in high-definition, on a giant screen, while the Pacific Symphony performs John Williams’ unforgettable score. 7:30 p.m. tonight, 2 & 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Segerstrom Hall. Tickets start at $39. 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. 714-556-2787 or scfta.org

Rocky LaPorte: He has been performing on the road as a top-notch in-demand and enormously popular comedy club headliner accumulating a trunk full of TV appearances from “Cheers,” “Carolines Comedy Hour” and his very own “The Rocky LaPorte Show,” a pilot for CBS. Various times through Sunday at Irvine Improv. $20. 527 Spectrum Center Drive. 949-854-5455 or irvine.improv.com

Opera UC Irvine: “Our Town”: A Three-Act Opera: Southern California premiere of a classic American story. Based on the Thornton Wilder play, it is about life, love, and death in the fictional town of Grover’s Corners, N.H., early in the 20th century. Features the music of one of America’s foremost composers, Ned Rorem, and a libretto by American poet J.D. McClatchy. The production will be joined by the UCI Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Stephen Tucker. 8 p.m. tonight & Saturday at Irvine Barclay Theatre. $7-$17. 4242 Campus Drive. 949-854-4646 or thebarclay.org

SATURDAY, MAY 13

Rocket Launch: Blast off at DiscoveryCube’s annual event. Featuring activities for all ages and a competition in which guests can design, build and launch their own rockets using 2-liter bottles. Rockets with the longest “hang time” will be awarded prizes. 9 a.m.-2 p.m. at Boeing Co. Free. 5301 Bolsa Ave., Huntington Beach. discoverycube.org

Bunnies and Books for Kids Festival: Featuring a bunny-themed story time, face painting, arts and crafts, games and outdoor activities. 10 a.m.-1 p.m. at Newport Beach Library. Free. 1000 Avocado Ave. newportbeachlibrary.org

THURSDAY, MAY 18

“Mozart & Don Quixote”: The esteemed and internationally celebrated pianist Orli Shaham takes center-stage in Mozart’s sunny “Concerto No. 17,” with the famous third movement theme inspired by the composer’s melodic pet starling. Ravel’s “Morning Song of the Jester,” incorporating Spanish musical themes, opens the program. Closing the evening is Strauss’ tone poem inspired by the Cervantes novel, with the solo cello – Pacific Symphony’s own Timothy Landauer – starring as Don Quixote de la Mancha. 8 p.m. Thursday-May 20 at Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. Tickets start at $25. 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. 714-556-2787 or scfta.org

Gov. Jerry Brown’s revised budget proposal, released Thursday, contains too much spending and not enough fiscal discipline.

The proposal calls for $124 billion in spending from the general fund, and $183.4 billion in total state expenditures. Though this would be a slight 1.4 percent increase from last year’s general fund budget, it nevertheless represents record spending levels.

“Over the past four years, we have increased spending by billions of dollars for education, health care, child care and other anti-poverty programs. In the coming year, I don’t think even more spending will be possible,” Brown said in a press release. “We have ongoing pressures from Washington and an economic recovery that won’t last forever.”

“Make no doubt about it, cuts are coming in the next few years, and they’ll be big,” Brown added later at a news conference.

Brown deserves credit for taking some measures in recent years to build up rainy-day funds, pay down the “wall of debt” he identified and push some pension reforms, though even these have been modest steps. Dealing with a spendthrift Democratic majority in the Legislature may have diluted some of these efforts.

Changes since Brown’s initial budget proposal in January include adding in the first $2.8 billion of the 10-year, $54 billion gas tax hikes passed last month, providing $400 million of the $600 million additional annual cost to counties stemming from the end of a state health care program, restoring rate increases to child care providers that the previous proposal had planned to postpone for a year, and providing another $6.5 million to the Justice Department to fight the Trump administration over sanctuary cities and other issues.

Under the proposal, K-14 education funding would increase by $3.2 billion over last year, for a total increase of $27.3 billion (58 percent) since fiscal year 2012-13. Yet, has the quality of education increased by 58 percent over the past six years?

Bright spots in the governor’s budget proposal include a much-needed $6 billion supplemental payment to the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and a boost in the state’s rainy-day fund, from $6.7 billion last year to $8.5 billion — which would be about two-thirds of the way to the constitutional goal of 10 percent of tax revenues.

And though the governor’s budget projects a relatively small $400 million deficit, it is incredible that there is any deficit at all, given all of the tax increases Californians and the Legislature have passed in recent years (and still more tax/fee increase and bond proposals on the horizon).

Brown’s concerns over the next inevitable economic correction come just one day after State Controller Betty Yee issued a warning over a shortfall in state revenue.

“April is usually the state’s biggest tax filing month, so lower-than-expected personal income tax receipts are troubling,” Yee said in a statement. “[T]his is another signal that we may be inching toward an economic downturn, and we must tailor our spending accordingly.”

Yet, the state continues its big spending. Hopefully, it will not take another recession to force lawmakers to see the error of their ways and take away the punch bowl from their spending party.

Dancers typically begin a sequence of movement by counting 5-6-7-8 to mark the tempo and phrase of the music, but what if there was no music? What if the familiar rhythm and melody of a song were replaced instead by spoken words?

For the beginning/intermediate Dance 1 class at Laguna Beach High School, these questions were answered as the dancers prepared movement to accompany a student-written poem.

“It was a bit daunting because in order to dance with a poem, we sort of had to forget what we know about dance when it comes to keeping in time with the music,” said sophomore Gabriela de Moraes. “There are moments when the choreography matches up with specific words, but for the most part we have to create our own flow and tempo.”

The poem, written by seniors Bayley Thomas and Ryane Zipstein, was originally composed to help the Laguna Beach Unified School District’s SchoolPower foundation raise money for new staff positions that will focus on supporting students’ emotional and mental well-being. The text of the poem was meant to attract donors as it illustrates the stress, anxiety and more serious mental health issues that students experience.

Zipstein, who also performed the poem, explained her view on this need for support.

“I know being a student doesn’t sound like the most stressful situation in the world, but at this point in our lives, the stress is the most we’ve ever handled. I think about the ratio of pressure to our age, and sometimes we’re not equipped,” said Zipstein. “The angsty teen stereotype is really prevalent, but I don’t think that makes it any less serious.”

Thomas and Zipstein’s spoken word was used in a video that was screened at SchoolPower’s 32nd annual Dinner Dance on February 11 and helped generate more than $158,000 in donations for the Student Well-Being Initiative.

Because the poem was so well-received, Thomas and Zipstein’s drama director passed the original version of it on to dance director Estee Carrizosa, who was looking for opportunities to collaborate with students of other arts disciplines.

The 15 dancers in the piece dissected the poem stanza by stanza and created movement based on the emotions of the text. The resulting piece, “Resilience + Perseverance = Grit,” was presented at the school’s spring dance concert at the end of April.

Sophomore dance student Katie Palino said she was excited to try dancing to words instead of music.

“I think our dance brings the words alive and gives it this in-depth feeling so you feel the sadness or the anger even more.”

Zipstein agreed with Palino, saying that dance “fills in the gaps” that poetry creates.

“I think of dance as being on the other side of the spectrum from poetry,” she said. “It’s that contrast between mind and body. What you see and what you hear.”

Between the poem and the choreography, “Resilience + Perseverance = Grit” ended up being an entirely student-created piece. This made the final product even more symbolic of the theme, the students said, because it offered an honest look at the struggles felt by a student.

“People are fascinated by seeing through the eyes of another perspective,” said Thomas. “I think it promotes the idea that people should consider other points of view when navigating through life.”

Thomas described the collaboration as “explaining a simple struggle in an elegant, complex way.”

“As someone deeply blessed to live in an area like Laguna, I can really appreciate art that allows the audience to depart from everyday life and experience extraordinary emotion,” Thomas said. “I feel honored to be a part of the dance show.”

CONTACT VARSITY ARTS: 714-796-2258 or varsityarts@ocregister.com

American universities ought to be bastions of free expression, but as we too often find out, many have become inhospitable toward those with unpopular ideas. From college-imposed “free speech zones” to acts of force by activists and students to shut down speaking events, the free exchange of ideas is increasingly restricted and suppressed.

In the past week, state lawmakers across the country have introduced similar legislation to push back against this trend and protect free expression on college campuses. California Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez, R-Murrieta, was among those who introduced the Campus Free Speech Act as a constitutional amendment.

Among others things, it seeks to nullify restrictive speech codes, prevent college administrators from disinviting controversial speakers, and set disciplinary sanctions for students who interfere with others’ free speech.

“Liberty cannot live without the freedom to speak and nowhere is that more important than on college campuses where we educate the leaders of tomorrow,” Melendez said in announcing the introduction of the bill, which is based on model legislation drafted by the Goldwater Institute. “The institutional silencing of individuals because of differing political ideology threatens the very foundation upon which our country was built.”

As shown by recent events at the University of California, Berkeley, involving Milo Yiannopoulos and Ann Coulter, and the shutting down of a talk by conservative commentator Heather Mac Donald at Claremont McKenna College, free speech is apparently seen by many ideologically motivated students as a problem.

This trend benefits and protects not the majority of students, but empowers and reflects the worldview of a minority of activists who see it as their obligation to control and dominate the exchange of ideas. This should not be tolerated, especially on campuses that receive public dollars.

The stifling of free speech through force, threats or bureaucratic obstacles not only directly impairs the free expression of individuals but undermines the ability of Americans to civilly engage with ideas different from their own.

Melendez’s introduction of the Campus Free Speech Act should inspire discussion of cultural and policy changes needed on college campuses.

It was implausible that FBI Director James Comey was fired in May 2017 for actions committed in July 2016 — the rationale contained in the memo by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

It was implausible that Comey was fired by Donald Trump for having been too tough on Hillary Clinton, as when, at that July news conference, he publicly recited her various email misdeeds despite recommending against prosecution.

It was implausible that Trump fired Comey for reopening the Clinton investigation 11 days before the election, something that at the time Trump praised as a sign of Comey’s “guts” that had “brought back his reputation.”

It was implausible that Trump, notorious for being swayed by close and loyal personal advisers, fired Comey on the recommendation of a sub-cabinet official whom Trump hardly knew and who’d been on the job all of two weeks.

It was implausible that Trump found Rosenstein’s arguments so urgently persuasive that he acted immediately — so precipitously, in fact, that Comey learned of his own firing from TVs that happened to be playing behind him.

These implausibilities were obvious within seconds of Comey’s firing and the administration’s immediate attempt to pin it all on the Rosenstein memo. That was pure spin. So why in reality did Trump fire Comey?

Admittedly, Comey had to go. The cliche is that if you’ve infuriated both sides, it means you’re doing something right. Sometimes, however, it means you’re doing everything wrong.

Over the last year, Comey has been repeatedly wrong. Not, in my view, out of malice or partisanship (although his self-righteousness about his own probity does occasionally grate). He was in an unprecedented situation with unpalatable choices.

Never in American presidential history had a major party nominated a candidate under official FBI investigation. (Turns out the Trump campaign was under investigation as well.) Which makes the normal injunction that FBI directors not interfere in elections facile and impossible to follow. Any course of action — disclosure or silence — carried electoral consequences.

Comey had to make up the rules as he went along. His downfall was making up contradictory, illogical rules, such as the July 5 non-indictment indictment of Clinton.

A series of these, and Comey became anathema to both Democrats and Republicans. Clinton blamed her loss on two people. One of them was Comey.

And there’s the puzzle. There was ample bipartisan sentiment for letting Comey go. And there was ample time from election day on to do so. A simple talk, a gold watch, a friendly farewell, a Comey resignation to allow the new president to pick a new director. No fanfare, no rancor.

True, this became more difficult after March 20, when Comey revealed that the FBI was investigating the alleged Trump-Russia collusion. Difficult but not impossible.

For example, just last week Comey had committed an egregious factual error about the Huma Abedin emails that the FBI had to abjectly walk back in a written memo to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Here was an opportunity for a graceful exit: Comey regrets the mistake and notes that some of the difficult decisions he had previously made necessarily cost him the confidence of various parties. Time for a clean slate. Awkward perhaps, but still dignified and amicable.

Instead we got a political ax murder, brutal even by Washington standards. (Or even Roman standards?) A blindsided Comey ends up in an O.J. Bronco ride, bolting from Los Angeles to be flown, defrocked, back to Washington.

Why? Trump had become increasingly agitated with the Russia-election investigation and Comey’s very public part in it. If Trump thought this would kill the inquiry and the story, or perhaps even just derail it somewhat, he’s made the blunder of the decade.

Whacking Comey has brought more critical attention to the Russia story than anything imaginable. It won’t stop the FBI investigation. And the confirmation hearings for a successor will become a nationally televised forum for collusion allegations, which up till now have remained a scandal in search of a crime.

So why did he do it? Now we know: The king asked whether no one would rid him of this troublesome priest, and got so impatient he did it himself.

Charles Krauthammer is a columnist for The Washington Post.

FLOWER POWER: For the entire month of May, Proenza Schouler’s boutique at 121 Greene Street in New York is decorating its windows with displays from Emily Thompson Flowers. The windows have ever-changing arrangements, and on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, Proenza Schouler will sell small and large bouquets to customers. A petite hand-tied bouquet is $45, a large hand-tied boutique is $75 and a grand hand-tied bouquet is priced upon request.
Each week, Thompson and her team frame a piece of the Proenza Schouler collection with foliage and flowers. Emphasizing textures, contrasts and lines, the living designs reflect the aesthetic nature of both Proenza Schouler and Emily Thompson Flowers. The first installment, which was on display this week, illustrated an undersea/outer space adventure. A new window display goes in Friday, but  Thompson wasn’t revealing details, except to say it will be  “particularly luxurious” in honor of Mother’s Day.

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Stella McCartney is bullish on the retail front, opening four new stores in major markets in the next two months, while introducing a new design concept.
McCartney’s second Paris location opened earlier this week with a two-floor space at 231 Rue Saint Honoré in the 1st arrondissement. She first opened in Paris in 2009 at Galerie Valois of the Palais-Royal gardens. By July, there will be additional stores in Florence on Via Dei Tosinghi, South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, Calif., and a second store in New York at 929 Madison Avenue, bringing the brand’s store network up to 51 freestanding boutiques. McCartney’s original New York store is on Greene Street in SoHo.
“Some of these cities are so personal to me,” said McCartney. “It’s a dream to have a store on Madison Avenue. You know, I’m half-New Yorker and uptown is kind of the part of the city that I understand from a family point of view, so to finally arrive there is absolutely a dream come true. It feels like such an achievement for us, I’m so proud of all of us that we have that store. And it feels right for us to be there. We looked for a long

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