FILTRE magazine
FILTRE august 4
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FE ARLESS FLUKE Powerhouse Sandra Fluke is back on the women’s rights scene and ready to take on Washington
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SAVE IT FOR L ATER
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THINKING BIG
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SECRET STAR
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UNQUIET RIOT
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PIONEER SPIRIT
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Sotheby’s S|2 presents work out of salvaged material in a new exhibit opening this month
Hadeel Ibrahim is the 30-year-old force of nature behind a planned Africa center in New York City
Chitose Abe has quietly taken her label Sacai from three pieces knit at home to a burgeoning phenomene influencing fashion worldwide
Luella Bartley and Katie Hillier lend their brilliant irreverence to the new Marc by Marc Jacobs
Blake Lively bring her unerring eye, Southern roots, and love of storytelling to her latest venture
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A LIFE FULL She forged an eduring visual and coal style in the nightclubs of the Left Bank, fell in love with Miles David, championed Serge Gainsbourg - at 87, Juliette Greco is still showing us how it’s done
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TALKING FASHION Tropical prints storm the street, proving no isalndhopping is required to find paradise
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CRIMSON TIDE When fashion’s most whimsical designer branches out into nail polish, would you expect anything less than the extraordinary?
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OUT OF THE BLUE
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RISING STARS
Jewelry insider Francesca Amfitheatrof lands Stateisde at Tiffany & Co.
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UNQUIET RIOT Makeup changed Charlotte Tilbury’s life - and with her new life, she wants to change yours
Claiborne Swanson Frank’s new book highlights fresh faces
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FEARLESS FLUKE
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Her website lists her campaign address as a post office box in Santa Monica. But on a somewhat obscure, untraveled city street in West Los Angeles, black and white paper cutout letters hang in the shape of a rainbow, spelling out: “Stand With Sandra.” In another window, on the other side of the unmarked door, a more festive neon version states (or rather understates): “Sandra Fluke for Senate.” You could easily walk right by and never know the campaign headquarters of Sandra Fluke are inside. This seems to be by design. As Ms. Fluke explained to me on a recent summer afternoon, she has privacy issues. Sandra Fluke, you may remember, was vaulted to instant political fame in 2012 after she testified in Washington, D.C. in support of health-care coverage for contraception, and Rush Limbaugh called her a “prostitute.” “She’s having so much sex she can’t afford her own birth control pills,” Limbaugh shouted across the airwaves. When Rachel Maddow responded to Limbaugh’s bizarre assault, Sandra Fluke became a household name on both sides of the aisle. At the time, Fluke was a Georgetown University law student living in West Hollywood (though she was a student in D.C.) with her then significant other of eight years, Adam Mutterperl. They have since married. And now Fluke, who is 33, is running for State Senate in California’s coveted 26th District. Albeit a bit quietly.
When I first arrive at her office, Fluke is wearing jeans and a T-shirt and carrying three neatly stacked take-out boxes. Even though it’s five o’clock, she hasn’t had time for lunch. “Jeez,” she says, “I haven’t changed yet.” She’ll soon be on her way to Manhattan Beach for a meeting at a local Democratic club. She emerges not five minutes later in a simple navy cotton jersey BCBG dress and matching flats. With her dark bobbed hair, matching dark brown eyes, and porcelain skin, she needs no makeup. There’s something very down-to-earth about Sandra Fluke. “I thought about telling Limbaugh,” she tells me, her voice barely above a whisper, “that I was in a committed relationship, but decided that wasn’t the point. I didn’t testify for me. I testified for all the other students attending colleges with religious affiliations.” And it wasn’t just Limbaugh she had to contend with. “Some of the mail I got from”—she hesitates —“people . . . was really terrifying.” Fluke considered a run for Henry Waxman’s D.C Congressional seat but opted for the local State Senate race instead. “I just don’t think D.C. is where we’re getting things done right now,” she says, citing the gridlock and endless fund-raising required in D.C. She then states softly, “The only way to effect change is on a local level. And as progressives, we’ve neglected our state legislatures.” The 26th District extends from West Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and
Beverly Hills to West Hollywood, Manhattan Beach, and the Palos Verdes peninsula. To win the State Senate seat, Fluke must beat the somewhat more conservative Democrat and seasoned political Santa Monica fixture Ben Allen, of counsel in a private law firm, and self-stated environmentalist who holds an elected seat on the Santa MonicaMalibu school board. Her headquarters are beyond pop-up. Folding tables and chairs are crowded into a downstairs off ice, giving the impression she could pack up her tent or move to bigger quarters on a moment’s notice. Upstairs, a similarly crowded and decorated space, young staffers and volunteers man a phone bank.
“I just don’t think Washington is where we’re getting things done right now.” Fluke was raised in a small coalmining town in Pennsylvania, but has been living in Los Angeles for seven years with her husband. They have a dog, whom she refers to as a puppy even though he is almost ten years old. The dog’s name is Mr. President. George W. Bush was President when
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