Brand Analysis Oct-2022: Adidas Ends Ye-Kanye West Deal | Arnaut Is 21st Century Medici | Brands, Kant & 21st Century Humanism
/ Anne EnkeOctober 2022 Brand Posts with Excerpts
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French luxury powerhouse Chanel shares its Cruise 2023 campaign starring rising French model Loli Bahia and top model Vittoria Ceretti. Bahia first walked the fall 2020 Louis Vuitton show when she was still in high school.
The campaign, shot by Mikael Jansson [IG] pays tribute to Monaco and Karl Lagerdeld’s ties to the principality. Designer Virginie Viard highlights Monte Carlo’s cosmopolitan elegance, and glamour in her designs.
Coming on May 5 through July 16, 2023 ‘Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty’ will be on view — and the focus of — The Metropolitan Museum’s of Art’s Spring 2023 The Costume Institute Benefit [also known as The Met Gala®].
Adidas, the German sportswear giant had faced pressure from the public and its own employees to cut ties with Ye, who said on a podcast on Oct. 16: “I can say anti-Semitic things, and Adidas can’t drop me. Now what?”
Adidas said in a statement: “Adidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech. Ye’s recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness.”
“After a thorough review, the company has taken the decision to terminate the partnership with Ye immediately, end production of Yeezy branded products and stop all payments to Ye and his companies. Adidas will stop the Adidas Yeezy business with immediate effect.”
The New Medicis
My own takeaways from this extraordinary Dior Cruise 2023 show in Seville is the idea that LVMH, in particular, with its Arnault family really represents the 21st century House of Medici.
Dior is the leader of the pack, presenting a cruise 2023 show that celebrated flamenco artist Carmen Amaya, the first female flamenco dancer to wear men’s clothes, in the 1950s; and centuries of intellectual learning and advancement — much of it closed to women. Chiuri unleashes her history lessons always in her collectons.
The layers of cultural influence in the Dior show are staggering. But this visionary attitude is on display in many LVMH brands.
Their direct support of the artists and creative talent gives the Arnualt family enormous power. Given the alternatives, I am all for it, because the world of rich people is not going anywhere. AOC admits we try to influence this world.
It’s no exaggeration to say that luxury fashion has fallen in love with the countryside. The Sunday Times Style [IG] tells us to ‘Grab your Chanel wellies’ thanks to a fashion story featuring Ukrainian model Anastasia Netrebiuk.
Barbour does set the stage about this slow living, back to the land vision, humanistic-values, brand-integrity-rich clothing company — describing the ‘Barbour Way of Life’.
Creating Beauty As Purpose
Brunello Cucinelli’s landing page, a brand also featured in The Sunday Times Style fashion story, has a pre-entry message, one I was discussing this morning with my closest human friend: Kant’s philosophical observation that “Beauty is the symbol of the morally good”.
I’d say it’s very Ralph Lauren — especially now that Ralph Lauren is officially a cultural creative, and I’m loving him to death for it. But Barbour preceded Ralph by about 50 years.
Veronica Leoni has been the Genius vision behind womenswear since 2018, adding her sophisticated design eye to the confines of the puffer-centric codes of Moncler. The adaptation required by the design-vision fence in which the Jil Sander and Philo-era Celine alum had to create was challenging at best.
She perservered and now celebrates the fact that the fall /winter 2022.23 collection contains her “favorite puffer ever”. In a word AOC must credit to Luke Leitch, Leoni’s silhouettes are typically ‘unlumpen’. Perfectly stated!
Much of the materials used in the fall /winter 2022.23 2 Moncler 2 1952 is Como-warehoused deadstock. Additionally, Moncler will go fur-free after the fall 2023 collection
All of these advancements and learnings with Moncler help Veronica Leoni advance her personal project QUIRA, a brand apart from Moncler, named after her grandmother, the seamstress Quirina.
After removing all visible references to Ye, known to the world as Kanye West, from their own websites on Thursday — along with any products sold on third-party websites carrying an association beween Balenciaga and the rapper/creative marketer of all things Ye or Yeezy — Balenciaga has issued a statement Friday saying that the luxury label no longer has "any relationship nor any plans for future projects related to this artist.”
On Oct. 17, the Kering-owned luxury label fashion giant announced that saying Kanye’s runway imagers was removed from Balenciaga’s Spring 2023 Paris fashion show and also from Vogue Runway, as well as the Balenciaga website.
Balenciaga’s severing of any association with Kanye West is due to his recent anti-Semitic statements and threatening behavior, as expressed on the podcast Drink Champs. Kanye has threatened to go death con 3 on Jews in recent days.
Additionally, West’s right-wing, conspiracy-theory assertion that George Floyd died of a drug overdose — and not because of the nine-minute, knee on his neck, no-mercy murder that the entire world watched live — was stated as a reason why Balenciaga has severed all connections to Kanye West, legally known as Ye.
Where Heritage Is Proud, Celebrate It
The Fall 2022 campaign with models Mica Arganaraz and Sam Mallos, shot by photographer Henrik Purienne in Palm Springs, CA was described by the Etro family creatives as “our road to nowhere towards faraway worlds, sun-drenched as far as the eye can see, strong in the nomadic and curious spirit that has always pushed us forward, because it is never the destination that counts, but the journey itself”.
There’s a rich taspestry of Italian DNA roots at play in Etro in this moment, even if the brand is now majority-owned by LVMH-backed L Catterton. So goodbye to the Etro family and hello to Marco de Vincenzo.
Given the times we are living in and the storied history of the Etro brand, including the legendary timing of its birth [and a quick Google search] give that brand DNA a big hug. Note that I’ve also learned that brands have made conscious efforts to wipe Google clean of certain aspects of their history.
But you, dearest Etro with your magic-carpet ride, global-nomad, people-loving history, you have riches in 2022. Honor them, because you look good to go, Etro.
Without naming her client, Bella did ruminate in a recent interview on the contained backlash she received this year about her new role as the Swarovski ambassador.
Bella’s pro-Palestinian, perceived as anti-Israeli posts on IG, created pushback by some Israeli jewelry stores and dealers against Swarovski.
Last week, Bella Hadid did not specifically call out Kanye West, but she noted on Instagram that it would be a “disservice” to herself and her loved ones if she did not “speak up.” She went on to specifically condemn antisemitism and the “things” that have been shared about it recently on “public platforms”.
“To allow any form of antisemitism to slip by, as desensitized as the world has become, it would be a disservice to my friends, the families I have grown up with, the people I love and work with, myself, and even the Palestinian cause as a whole,” she wrote.
She then emphasised that her Palestinian community does not stand for “hatred or violence,” adding that anti-Semitic social media posts “will never be okay”.
American poet, activist, Prada ambassador and UNICEF supporter Amanda Gorman; Dutch-Korean-Canadian singer, rapper and dancer Jeon Somi; and American actor and model Maya Hawke, daughter of actors Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke star in Prada’s 2022 launch of Eternal Gold, representing the luxury brand’s first forray into fine jewelry.
In addition to being made from certified recycled gold, every piece of jewelry in the collection will be fully traceable, thanks to blockchain technology. Every purchase will be traceable by logging into the Aura Blockchain Consortium.
The Prada Eternal Gold collection is very modern a 100 percent recycled collection that pushes category boundaries. Amanda Gorman came to Prada’s attention, not because of her 2021 Inaugural Poem, but because of her environmental activism.
This fashion story ‘Earth Angels’ from More or Less Magazine [IG] adds a fabulous new twist to the VS Angels saga. If you don’t know, the magazine is devoted to sustainability and our living with less. More or Less wrote:
Hallelujah! For our final cover, we assembled an all-star cast of Earth Angels, styling nine ex-Victoria's Secret models in faux-fashion label Kezako’s upcycled underwear made from aluminium wrap, dried-out loaves of bread, old newspapers, cuddly toys and then some.
We are looking at creativity on steroids here and a brilliant way to call attention to sustainability.
Models include Alessandra Ambrosio, Candice Swanepoel, Elsa Hosk, Lais Ribeiro, Leomie Anderson, Lily Aldridge, Martha Hunt, Sara Sampaio and Stella Maxwell.
