Candice Swanepoel's Business Savvy Takes Tropic of C Henna into Art Basel Miami
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Dior Magazine Delivers Niki de Saint Phalle Capsule, Lensed by Charlotte Hadden
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Models Gonzalez Corona, Majesty Mare and Sophie Dominique invite us to a resort-capsule, art-inspired getaway, deeply grounded in nature and whimsy for Dior [IG]. Artist Niki de Saint Phalle is in the house and also the new issue of Dior Magazine.
Niki de Saint Phalle and the House of Dior
Initially working as a fashion model for the esteemed fashion house during the 1950s, Saint Phalle became acquainted with influential figures in the art world. This exposure provided her with invaluable insights into the realm of aesthetics and design, as she garnered the support of several Dior clients who recognized her potential as a creator.
In 1967, the artist with a rapidly growing international reputation was invited by Marc Bohan, then creative director of Dior, to collaborate on a collection that would challenge conventional notions of beauty and femininity.
At age 37, Saint Phalle's bold and vibrant Nana sculptures became the centerpiece of this collaboration.
Read MoreLila Moss in 'My Roman Empire' Gucci Story by Theo Liu for British Vogue February 2024
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Model Lila Moss is styled by Gabriella Karefa-Johnson in a Gucci advertorial ‘My Roman Empire’. Photographer Theo Liu [IG] is behind the lens for British Vogue February 2024.
WSJ reflected on Gucci and the brand’s new CEO Jean-Francois Palus, writing that Palus “embodies the severity of the changes: A Frenchman at the head of a company that is as Italian as Chianti, he isn’t yet fluent in the native language, nor does he have a creative background.”
Palus began his career as an auditor and financial adviser with Arthur Andersen. He then ran the books for the timber division of the conglomerate that would go on to become Kering.
Read MorePrada 2024 Chinese New Year Campaign by Leslie Zhang at Prada Rong Zhai
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Prada’s new advertising campaign for the 2024 Chinese New Year celebrates the Year of the Dragon. Photographer Leslie Zhang [IG] captures the images at the Prada-restored Rong Zhai cultural center in Shanghai.
The 2024 Lunar New Year campaign stars supermodel and actor Du Juan and Zhao Lei, the face of Yang Fudong’s film ‘First Spring’, currently on show at the Pradasphere II exhibition in Shanghai.
Power of the Dragon
According to ancient Chinese mythology the dragon is closely linked to the creation and origin of the Chinese nation.
One prominent myth tells the story of the Dragon Kings, who were powerful and influential deities in Chinese mythology. According to this myth, the Dragon Kings were responsible for controlling the waters, including rivers, seas, and rainfall, and were revered as protectors of the land.
Read MoreVivienne Rohner Polished Modern Tailoring for Zara January 2024
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Top Zara model Vivienne Rohner poses in sleek, neutral-colors separates for the brand’s January 2024 drop, lensed by Hanna Tveite [IG].
Minor Anti-Zara, Atelier The Jacket Blowback
Stopping by Zara’s [IG], AOC notes that the FREE PALESTINE forces continue to punish the brand for allegations that it capitalized on Palestinian suffering with its recent Atelier campaign.
Reuters reports that Inditex posted a 32.5% increase in net profit to $4.42 billion, for the nine-months to end-October, 2023. In the six weeks ending Dec. 11, Inditex posted a 14% increase in holiday sales.
Read MoreK-Pop Louis Vuitton Ambassadors LE SSERAFIM in Seoul-Exclusive Bag Campaign
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The South Korean girl band LE SSERAFIM were the stars at the after party following the Pre-Fall Louis Vuitton show in April, 2023. Today they are ambassadors for Louis Vuitton, the largest, most dynamic and culturally-engaged luxury brand in the world.
Their debut act places LE SSERAFIM in a campaign for a bag capsule exclusive to the South Korean market, against a visual backdrop of Jamsugyo Bridge.
Vuitton enlisted "Squid Game" director Hwang Dong-hyuk to help build the scenography for the April 2023 show, the first-ever fashion production on the landmark Jamsugyo Bridge in Seoul.
Knowing Seoul as well as Anne does, the Louis Vuitton fashion show on the iconic bridge was surely was a landmark event and source of enormous cultural pride and good will for Louis Vuitton in South Korea.
Read MoreBurberry Lunar New Year 2024 Campaign Shot by Ryan McGinley in Chendu, China
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Burberry brand ambassadors Chinese actor Tang Wei and actor, singer, producer Chen Kun, along with models He Cong, Wang Xiangguo and Alex Schlab, front the Burberry Lunar New Year 2024 campaign.
The Burberry Prorsum knight rides on every piece, and has not been replaced in this Year of the Dragon. The Chinese celebration images were lensed by Ryan McGinley [IG] in the city of Chengdu, one of China’s fastest growing cities.
Read MoreLes Gastons Vuitton Fine Jewelry by Francesca Amfitheatrof Is Not Only for Men
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“Men used to wear a lot of jewellery, and it’s now finally turning around,” Francesca Amfitheatrof, Artistic Director for Watches and Jewellery at Louis Vuitton, tells Vogue Business. “Men are much more adventurous and interested in jewellery.”
The men’s fine jewelry market remains a fraction of the women’s business, boasting revenues of about $7.3 billion in 2023 compared to an estimated $44 billion, according to Euromonitor. Its annual growth rate is 7.3 percent, however, compared to 7.3 percent for women.
The acquisition of Tiffany & Co by LVMH in 2020 and the arrival of jewelry-loving Pharrell Williams as the new creative director of Louis Vuitton Men in 2023 created a major appetite for the spectacular entrance of Louis Vuitton into Fine Jewelry for women, followed now by the introduction of a Louis Vuitton men’s [or unisex] 18 piece fine jewelry collection called ‘Les Gastons Vuitton’.
Read MoreFirst Louis Vuitton Hotel Will Open in Paris on Avenue des Champs Élysées
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The world’s largest luxury brand Louis Vuitton is opening a hotel in Paris in 2026. Located at 103-111 Avenue des Champs Élysées, the 6,000 square metres property will be located next to — and will absorb — the brand’s largest shop on the world-famous boulevard.
Instead of an ugly scaffolding construction site, the new Louis Vuitton’s hotel’s façade will be disguised as one of the brand's legendary trunks during construction. That is SO Louis V.
Read MoreSteffi Thaler in Dolce Gabbana Lingerie, Accessories for L’Beauté Mexico
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Spanish model Steffi Thaler invites us into the evolving world of Italian brand Dolce & Gabbana, featured in this expansive, lingerie-rich, sensual dressing fashion story in Mexico’s L’Beauté Magazine.
At the beginning of 2022, the Italian fashion house revealed that the brand intended to end its licensing deal with Shiseido, taking Dolce & Gabbana’s fragrance and beauty lines (founded in 1992 and 2009 respectively) in-house.
In September 2023 Dolce & Gabbana Beauty released a fragrance named Devotion. At the end of 2023, the brand carved out a space for its fragrance and beauty products in its flagship London store on 6-8 Bond St.
Read MoreWinter 2023.24 Armani Neve Ski Campaign by Brett Lloyd and St. Moritz Boutique
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Giorgio Armani launched Armani Neve in the mid-90s, long before ski collections became a trend. The Italian perfectionist’s approach to high-style design and ‘la dolce vita’ living on the ski slopes makes another decades-old bow with the new Winter 2023/24 collection.
Models Giacomo Cavalli, Ibrahim Idoow, Jiayun Xie, Tommy Vanden Meerssche, and Valerie Scherzinger are captured by photographer Brett Lloyd [IG] and styled by Mauro Demestria in retro feeling images perfect for a St. Moritz New Year’s. / Makeup by Arianna Campa; hair by Giovanni Iovino
Read MoreBanana Republic Winter 2023/24 Campaign Taps Josh Olins
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Banana Republic [IG] gathers models Mayowa Nicholas, Roberto Sipos, and Suvi Riggs Koponen for their winter 2023 campaign.
Shot in Norway by Josh Olins [IG] with creative direction by Remi Paringaux and Ryan Spacey, the campaign acknowledges — not only the majesty of nature — but indirectly, its fragility.
Banana Republic is introducing new cashmere items connected to this campaign, including this Caro Lightweight Cashmere Cardigan [website] in 12 colors.
Refusing to promote cashmere without clarity on its sourcing standards as verified by outside agencies, Anne of Carversville notes that Banana Republic cashmere is part of an initiative called The Good Cashmere Standard (GCS).
Read MoreGUESS Masters 'La Dolce Vita' with Holiday 2023-24 Campaign at Villa Alpebella
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GUESS returns to southern Europe for the Holiday 2023/24 campaign, lensed at the Villa Alpebella in Forte dei Marmi, Italy. In August, 2023 GUESS opened a store in Forte dei Marmi with a grand party at Villa Alpebella, owned by the Bocelli family, led by famous tenor Andrea Bocelli.
The Italian singer Matteo Bocelli, one of Andrea Bocelli’s three children, is featured in the new GUESS Holiday 2023/24 campaign, appearing with Albanian model and singer Oriola Marashi.
Ukrainian female duo Vicoolya [photographer] & Saida [stylist and art director] [IG] created the campaign. They are best friends who handle everything connected to a shoot: makeup, hair, styling, location, lighting, photographing, retouching... Vicoolya & Saida handle everything.
Read MoreWill Sotheby's Magazine Cover LeNell Santa Ana Camacho's Whisky Journey Red Hook to Birmingham?
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When former editor in chief of WSJ Magazine Kristina O’Neill departed her position in April 2023, the luxury fashion and style world knew she was going somewhere important.
Kristina O’Neill has been named editor in chief of the new Sotheby’s Magazine, starting Jan. 8. She will report directly to Gareth Jones, Sotheby’s chief marketing officer.
In perhaps the best story of all, Sotheby’s recent American whisky auction set new records with two big blockbusters. LeNell’s Red Hook Rye 23 Year and Rathskeller Rye, each sold far beyond their highest initial estimate ranges. The LRHR 23 year scoring $56,250 (est range $20,000 – $30,000) and RR grabbing $37,500 ($18,000 – $24,000).
Read MoreMassimo Dutti Take Us to the Cotswolds Winter 2023.24 | AOC Gives a History Lesson
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Spanish premium clothing retailer Massimo Dutti tags model Luly Tenney for a December 2023 trip to the Cotswolds. Brits can be notoriously practical about their weather, and Massimo Dutti delivers a new winter into spring lesson in how to face abrasive weather elements in style.
The history of the Cotswolds dates back thousands of years, with evidence of Neolithic settlements and ancient burial mounds dotting the landscape.
Cotswold History Currently Dates from 4000 BC
The Neolithic period of human history, typically dated 7000-1700 BC — is so important, because it signals the beginning of a settled human lifestyle. People learned to cultivate plants and domesticate animals for food, rather than relying solely on hunting and gathering practices.
Read MoreMissoni FW 2023.24 Images Come As Italian Luxury House Explores Full Sale
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Models Liv Walters, Maty Fall and Yang Ling deliver recognizable Missoni spirit to fall/winter 2023/24 imagery at a time when the Italian heritage house has retained Rothschild to explore a full sale of the company.
In 2018 Italian investment fund FSI injected 70 million euros into the house, for 41% of the business, with the remaining shares held by the Missoni family.
From AOC’s angle of vision, the Italian heritage brands have never been so desirable — and from a cultural-creatives, values-based proposition, not modern values which say “s[he] who wears the most wealth on her back wins.”
Read MoreZara Ad Reminds Me: Christians, Jews, Muslims All Believe in Weeping Angels
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Jackets Without a Good Fit
Zara has removed this controversial advertising campaign from the front page of its website after pro-Palestine activists called for an international boycott of the retailer.
Inditex, the company that owns Zara, said on Monday that the photos were taken in September 2023, before the current war erupted between Hamas and Israel. The creative brief was approved in July — which makes sense to AOC.
However alert to perceptions gone wrong, I myself was in the process of writing about my night at the Louvre in Paris 20 years ago, marveling over the jazz-evening setup with the statuary in seeming disarray, strewn like these images but with blue strobe lights for extra effect.
Only when I went to Zara’s IG did I realize that something was very wrong with the campaign.
Read MoreTom Ford SS2024 Campaign Launches Zegna-Lauder March to Top 10 Luxury Brand
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Tom Ford’s codes, “of glamour, sexiness, elegance, and beauty,” are embraced by promoted Tom Ford Creative Director Peter Hawkings as well, the designer told Vogue in advance of his September 2023 Milan Tom Ford runway debut.
In the just-released Spring 2024 Tom Ford ad campaign, the visual impact is Zegna with edge. Stars of the Tom Ford Spring 2024 campaign are Alaato Jazyper, Dara Gueye, Eva Komuves, Ilias Loopmans, and Jeanne Cadieu, lensed by Robin Galiegue [IG].
Tom Ford does not need fixing in the minds of Estee Lauder, the business tean at Zegna or Hawkings himself. In that case, who is better than Peter Hawkings to inherit the Tom Ford design mantle and not be obsessed with turning a design vision inside out to make it “his own.”
Read MoreHTSI Magazine Celebrates Nicolas Ghesquière and 10 Years at Louis Vuitton
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As Louis Vuitton artistic director Nicolas Ghesquière [IG] celebrates his 10-year anniversary with the brand, as well as the renewal of his contract for another five years, HTSI Magazine [IG] launches a huge celebration around the designer, the label and the muses.
Ethan James Green photographed Ghesquière himself for a HTSI [Financial Times How to Spend It] interview with the designer ‘First, we have fun’: Nicolas Ghesquière on a decade at Louis Vuitton.
Bibi Cornejo Borthwick with WeFolk [IG] agency photographs the 10 models, talents and ambassadors for these remaining images, styled by Isabelle Kountoure.
Models and talents expand on HTSI’s IG comments quoted on AOC in a separate online article. They appear in chronological order of their first project with Nicolas Ghesquire for Louis Vuitton.
Read MorePrada Privatesphere Holiday 2023 Campaign Triggers Our Reflection on Elon Musk
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