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Laraque NYC By Kerane Marcellus ·Updated April 10, 2024

Founder and designer Danielle Laraque’s latest Fall/Winter 2024 collection, “Dollhouse” draws inspiration from her childhood. Playing with American Girl dolls and Bratz dolls was a way she used to pass the time as a kid–she also began sketching designs and sewing clothing at an early age. Dress-up was another hobby for the budding creative. Danielle feels Laraque her eponymous brand was born when she was five. Some of her earliest pieces included mini-skirts and off-shoulder tops. As the designer grew older she spent time building upon the intrinsic design skills that seemed to come naturally to her.

The new collection features dreamy silhouettes with puffy tulle, lace skirts, ruffles, bows, and other whimsical touches. Danielle’s grown-up version of her dolls was born through this collection. The collection took on its highest form alongside her creative director Alani Noëlle, who assists in actualizing the designer’s sketches to reality with the meticulously chosen color stories and fabrics. Usually, the designer free sketches to keep herself inspired, and through sketching, she was transported back to her beginnings of drawing clothes as a girl. She knew that she wanted her customers to feel like life-sized dolls reminiscent of their girlhood days. 

Another main muse for this collection and every collection is the designer’s mother who loved fashion and >daniellelaraque.com.

The post Why Laraque’s Fall/Winter 2024 Collection Is Doll-Inspired appeared first on Essence.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was James Gunn’s latest and perhaps last work within the MCU, and it was an absolute blast. Warner Bros. Discovery subsequently hired James Gunn to help the company revive its DC cinematic universe, which left fans wondering whether the Guardians movies will continue and what exactly happened to the team following the ending of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Most specifically, the fans want to know what will happen to Star-Lord, now that he has left the guardians and returned to Earth.

Before we dive into what could happen in future narratives, let’s explore exactly why Peter has left the Guardians and went back to Earth to spend time with his grandfather. We promise it will make sense. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has its fair share of heartbreaking moments, and Peter Quill losing Gamora was one of them. Later on, he found Gamora again, but that was a whole different variant of Gamora, so he had his heart broken. Once again.

Despite all the humor and shenanigans surrounding Star-Lord, life wasn’t actually kind to Quill. He witnessed his mother dying right in front of him; he was kidnapped by Ravagers, who also behaved unkindly towards him, until Yondu, the leader of the Ravagers, decided to begrudgingly show Peter affection. He later left the Ravagers, and things started to look better for the Star-Lord, as he found friends in the most unlikely of places — a galactic prison — leading to the formation of the Guardians of the Galaxy team.

But then he got to meet his dad, Ego the Living Planet, who sought to use Quill as a battery to power his own expansion throughout the universe. If that alone wasn’t bad, Peter found out that Ego was the very source of the tumor that killed his mom, and upon defying his father, Ego tried to kill him as well. Fortunately, that didn’t work, and right when the Guardians saved the universe from one evil tyrant, another emerged. Of course we’re talking about Thanos, who deleted half of the population in the entire universe with a snap of his fingers, including Quill.

Upon coming back to life, courtesy of Iron Man (a scene we like to call “when grown people cried”), Peter learned that Gamora hasn’t returned, since she didn’t die in the Snap. He eventually found a version of her that’s now rolling with the Ravagers. However, that’s not the Gamora he fell in love with but a variant who doesn’t want him and doesn’t even want to know who he is. Then Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 happened, and both Rocket and Quill nearly died.

At the end of the movie, Peter realizes that he needs a break after experiencing the trauma of meeting and clashing with his father, failing to stop Thanos, losing Gamora, and almost losing Rocket. So, he decides to go back to Earth and try to make some new, better memories of his homeworld and spend time with whatever family he might still have left. As it turns out, his grandfather is still alive. This prompted fans to question what will happen to Quill now that he has returned to Earth. Is it time to meet the new Star-Lord?

Marvel’s strategy of introducing new characters to replace older ones, seen notably with the original Avengers, raises further questions about the original Star-Lord’s longevity in the MCU timeline. Well, as it turns out, the post-credits scene at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 offers some insight into the future of Star-Lord, as it hints (it actually outright announces) towards a possible “Legendary Star-Lord” movie, suggesting a future storyline in which Quill navigates Earth’s environment.

Chris Pratt, the actor portraying the iconic Star-Lord, has already confirmed that he would return to the role and the franchise even without Gunn being involved, considering that his character still hasn’t totally worked out his issues by the end of GotG Vol. 3, so that movie was hardly a definitive send-off. This, in combination with the post-credits announcement, raises the question of whether Pratt would return as Quill in a possible fourth Guardians movie or completely separate cinematic releases.

The only two major releases we have lined up right now are Avengers: Secret Wars and the movie that’s supposed to be Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. This film has slowed its development following the whole range of issues with the actor portraying the film’s Big Bad, Jonathan Majors. The former could be an interesting idea; with the appearance of Battleworld — a universe comprised of multiple universes — it’s not outside the realm of possibilities for us to meet several different Peter Quills, including the one who just returned to Earth and one who never left.

We might even meet a version of Peter Quill, who ended up marrying Gamora, or Kitty Pryde version of the character. Whatever the case may be, the multiversal nature of the upcoming Secret Wars, the whispered-about Nova project (in which Quill would fit perfectly) and the post-credits scene all point towards the fact that we haven’t seen the last of the Star Lord.

Gilbert Flores/Billboard via Getty Images; Prince Williams/WireImage By Elizabeth Ayoola ·

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The annual Season of the Force event has been taking place at the Disneyland since 2015. Nine years in, this celebration of all things Star Wars continues going strong. This year Season of the Force at Disneyland will run from April 5, 2024, through June 2, 2024. Nerdist and others were invited to preview this year’s Season of the Force offerings at the Disneyland in Anaheim, California. Among them is a return of Hyperspace Mountain, the Star Wars overlay of Space Mountain, plus tons of Star Wars-themed food, beverages, and merchandise. Read on for all the details, young Padawan.

Welcome Star Wars: Ahsoka’s Sabine to Galaxy’s Edge

New characters are wandering around Black Spire Outpost in Galaxy’s Edge starting with Season of the Force, including Star Wars Rebels and Ahsoka hero, Sabine Wren. The Mandalorian-turned-Jedi apprentice will be seen for a limited time wandering the Outer Rim planet, looking for fellow rebels to join the fight. Joining her are a pair of truly adorable BDX droids, straight from the game Jedi: Fallen Order.

Star Tours: The Adventures Continue

The two main highlights of Season of the Force this year are the debut of a new destination for the classic Star Tours attraction. During Season of the Force, park guests will travel to the planet Seatos from Ahsoka. C-3PO will pilot the Starspeeder 1000 through a pack of purrgil, the space whales seen in Ahsoka. Star Tours riders will also now receive transmissions from Din Djarin and Grogu, Cassian Andor, and Ahsoka Tano herself. If you look carefully, you may even see a familiar droid with her.

Fire of the Rising Moons Galaxy’s Edge Fireworks Show

The other highlight is Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge’s new fireworks show, Fire of the Rising Moons, on select nights. It’s a display that finally showcases John Williams’ iconic music along with spectacular fireworks. Fans have long wanted to hear the classic themes from the Star Wars films in Galaxy’s Edge. Now, they’ll be able to experience them as if they were at the Endor celebration in Return of the Jedi.

Season of the Force Food and Beverage Offerings

At Docking Bay 7 at Galaxy’s Edge, folks from Walt Disney Imagineering and Lucasfilm shared details on the Season of the Force limited-time merchandise and food and beverage offerings. New this year is the Celto Slush, a nod to the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special. Also new are the Wookiee Parfait, the Watermelon Slush (with a Death Star glow cub), the Fried Chicken Baos, and the Bantha Burger. We can attest to the Wookiee Parfait being especially delicious.

At the Grand Californian Hotel, guests can see a showpiece called the Galactic Creation. It’s made with edible ingredients and shows the Millennium Falcon arriving in Black Spire Outpost. Created by the Disney culinary team, it’s made with 300 pounds of powdered sugar, 80 pounds of crisped rice cereal, 60 pounds of marshmallows, and 100 pounds of dark chocolate.

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Season of the Force Merchandise 2024

This Season of the Force sees the introduction of the all-new Jabba the Hutt popcorn bucket, featuring a Salacious Crumb keychain. Other items include the return of the Millennium Falcon bucket and an abandoned stormtrooper helmet. Additionally, the park has several new Star Wars pins and apparel. These include a new Star Tours hoodie sporting the ride operator’s classic color scheme. You can get a Darth Vader Stainless Steel Tumbler at the Galactic Grill in Tomorrowland. Then at Oga’s Cantina, you can find the Acid Spitter/Orb Sipper.

Click To View Gallery

As for the changes to Star Tours, we spoke to Tom Fitzgerald, Senior Creative Executive at Walt Disney Imagineering who was fielding questions about Star Tours – The Adventure Continues. Given that Ahsoka only premiered recently, we asked if bringing the purrgil from that series into Star Tours was planned from the start. Here’s what he had to say:

That’s the beauty of having a relationship with Lucasfilm that they can say, “Hey, we think there’s going to be something really exciting for you in this new series. Come have a look.” And so we have a look. We look at the scripts. We start to look at what’s in there. And from our perspective of what do we think would make a great star to our sequence, which might be different than what would be a great sequence in the film or a series. It’s like what would be good with [an] emotional base and our storyline put together. So that’s how we start.

We also asked Tom Fitzgerald about how Imagineering incorporated Cassian Andor as one of the holographic messages in Star Tours—especially given how much more serious his story is than the likes of baby Grogu.

We treated it as a darker moment. So when you do get to see it, you’ll see that he comes out of the shadows and you don’t see the face. And there’s a moment where with the music and everything together, you’re like, “Ooh, is this a friend or a foe?” And then when he takes it down, it’s like, oh, it’s Andor. The music shifts. And so we got to have fun with that. And then Ahsoka, because she knows Artoo, we treated that as friends reuniting. Each one is a slightly different tone just to mix it up and also to keep each one unique. So you feel like when you see each one, oh, they’re all different.

With so many offerings for fans, Season of the Force remains a can’t-miss event for the Star Wars aficionado. If you find yourself in California from April through early June, then be ready to ignite your lightsaber, because you can’t pass up a trip to Disneyland to celebrate the Season of the Force.

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