Etro Summer 2024 Campaign Shot by Raffaele Cerulo | L Catterton Etro Capitalization Update
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Versace's Fall 2024 Campaign Style Seduction at LA's Marmont Hotel by Mert & Marcus
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Versace [IG] celebrates Hollywood history, returning to Los Angeles and the Marmont Hotel for its Fall 2024 campaign. Mert & Marcus [IG] are behind the lens, capturing models Vittoria Ceretti, Fernando Lindez, Hedi Ben Tekaya , Lee Minseok and Loli Bahia.
Chateau Marmont officially opened its doors in February 1929, 95 years ago, just months before the stock market crash that heralded the Great Depression. It offered refuge for decades to celebrities, Hollywood stars and rich people engaging in frequent debauchery behind its secretive walls.
Read MoreDior Fall 2024 Campaign Channels Miss Dior's Second Wave Women's Rights Spirit
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Dior’s creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri was recently called the most modern couturier working today by Vogue’s Nicole Phelps.
In trying to explain her ‘design ethos’, while unintentionally drawing a line in the sand between herself and Christian Dior, Chiuri explained further. “Couture has historically been about ‘building the body’ with its corset foundations and highly-structured silhouettes. But I don’t want to build the body, I want to release it.”
For her Fall 2024 collection, Chiuri turned to the Miss Dior boutique, opened in 1967 to showcase a separate ready-to-wear collection during the tenure of Marc Bohan.
The designer explained: “I think he was really visionary for the time because the couture house was in difficulty. They had this relationship only with these couture clients—and women were changing. Not all the couture-house creative directors were so visionary to understand the new era, and new women.”
Read MoreHow Bella Hadid and adidas Are Making the SL72 Sneaker Summer's BFD
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Supermodel Bella Hadid’s latest street style moment sought to make the adidas SL72 sneaker summer-games supreme. Originally crafted for road runners, the SL72 was released in conjunction with the 1972 Olympic games back in the day, long before many AOC readers were born.
On Thursday, July 18, the American Jewish Committee spoke out against the campaign and called for Adidas to “address this egregious error.”
It makes far more sense to AOC that in a world of young people globally protesting in support of Palestine, and the SN 72 debut at the Munich Olympics that adidas — with or without Bella’s knowledge and cooperation — decided to turn up the global heat with this campaign.
AOC fears Adidas has bet that young people will rally around the shoe as a symbol of pro-Palestinian resistance, once Bella has been attacked by the Israeli press and numerous anti-semitism groups in America and Germany. How sad.
Read MoreJoy Is Building at the House of Chloé | Fall/Winter 2024 Campaign by Sam Rock
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Chemena Kamali could write a book about the history of Chloé, having worked there as an obsessed junior designer under Phoebe Philo and then again under Clare Waight Keller. Everyone says that Kamali understands the soul of the brand.
Chloé Fall/Winter 2024 campaign models include Jessica Miller, Kristine Lindseth, Liya Kebede, Ornella Umutoni, Saphira Krumhaar, Shuqi Lan and Suvi Riggs — lensed by Sam Rock.
Just three letters spelled out the new day at Chloé: J-O-Y! The world is in serious need of a bit of joy, and Chemena Kamali is here for the moment — along with her buckets of design and marketing talent.
Read MoreIf Chanel Had to Hug Deauville For Fall 2024, Why Not Celebrate the French Resistance?
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Deauville, a charming seaside town in Normandy, France, holds a special place in the history of fashion as the birthplace of modern Chanel fashion. It was here in 1913 that Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel opened her first boutique outside Paris. Deauville's affluent visitors and relaxed atmosphere provided the perfect backdrop for Chanel to revolutionize women's fashion.
Coco Chanel introduced a new aesthetic that embraced simplicity, comfort, and elegance — with menswear and the lives of men being a key psychological component in Chanel’s approach to fashion design for ‘liberated’, wealthy women.
Leisure as a signature of wealth surrounded Coco in her observations of Deauville's elite vacationers.
Read MoreBridgerton's Nicola Coughlan Launches SKIMS Soft Lounge Collection Long Dresses
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The Kim Kardashian SKIMS [IG] machine rolls into summer 2024, with Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan headlining the Soft Lounge Collection that includes the Long Tank Dress, Soft Lounge Tube Dress, Long Slip Dress in Celeste, Long Sleeve Dress — with styling by Aimée Croysdill.
Across the six Soft Lounge Collection dresses, lensed by uber-talented photographer Elizabeth Porodina [IG]. the Instagram Likes run 65,000 to 1 million per image. / Makeup by Neil Young; hair by Halley Brisker
Read MorePre-Fall 2024 Lauren Ralph Lauren Campaign and 1st Quarter RL Financials
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Ralph Lauren and all its subbrands from Lauren Ralph Lauren to Polo Ralph Lauren love life in horse country. In this new Pre-Fall 2024 Lauren Ralph Lauren campaign with models Blanca Padilla, Alicia Burke and more, western-inspired, polo club glamour takes the limelight.
Read MoreEmily, Gigi, Paloma, Tina in Victoria's Secret Very Sexy 'Escape to Summer 2024'
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Victoria’s Secret [IG] launched its Very Sexy ‘Escape to Summer 2024’ campaign starring Emily Ratajkowski, Gigi Hadid, Paloma Elsesser and Tina Kunakey on June 11th.
Former EIC of Vogue Paris [now Vogue France] Emmanuelle Alt styles the campaign with a French mix of sexy corset tops, lace teddies and bras in intoxicating summer colors. Add statement jewelry to the sensual Victoria’s Secret collage, lensed by Mikael Jansson [IG].
Read MoreBella Hadid’s Orabella Opened Door to Panpsychism and Humanism
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Anne of Carversville hasn’t posted Elizaveta Porodina’s images of Bella Hadid’s Orabella ‘skin-nourishing’ fragrances campaign until today.
Given the cosmic energy of these two uber-creative humans — Bella Hadid and Elizaveta Porodina — Anne had every confidence that we would get to now.
Reading an Apple News article ‘Human Consciousness Is an Illusion, Scientists Say‘ became the door that opened posting Bella’s Orabella images this morning.
Many scientists and thinkers believe the entire universe may have an internal mind, and the phrase ‘we are all connected’ is meant to be taken literally.
Read MoreMeet WASTE.Paris: Valentine Hotton's Chic Clothes Born of Textile Waste
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Seeing images from WASTE Paris [IG] on Models.com just now, Anne said “This brand with the terrific name better be sustainable.”
Paris-based, Ukrainian female photographer/videographer Julia Romanovskay [IG] is behind the lens, capturing model Jildou Lisa.
WASTE Paris co-founder Valentine Hotton launched the brand in 2022, defined by her experience as founder of COLLECTIF CHIFFON, a consulting agency in 2019.
Read More'Margiela Artisanal' Couture Story for W Magazine China June 2024
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W Magazine China’s [IG] June 2024 icon issue shares a fantastic fashion story featuring the ‘Margiela Artisanal’ 2024 couture collection starring model He Cong lensed by Zhong Lin. W also makes high-impact points in their commentary about creativity.
Creative Directors Examined
For the second time this week, my own brain has been interrupted externally with the reinforcement of thoughts already playing out here on AOC.
In preparing this W Magazine China fashion story over the course of two months, six sets of haute couture fashion traveled across the seas. The magazine “exclusively” documented this fashion moment, along with its fascinating behind-the-scenes story.
Read MoreConspiculous Luxury Consumption in China Challenges Growing Income Inequality
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Top model He Cong graces the pages of Marie Claire China’s [IG] June 2024 issue. The Hunan-region beauty is styled by Austin Feng in red-inspired, fashion elegance lensed by Zhong Lin [IG].
China’s Monitoring of Flaunting Money on Social Media
This month [May 2024], China’s new ‘Clear and Bright’ campaign swung into action on social media. The campaign vows to crack down on influencers who create "ostentatious personas to cater to vulgar needs, and deliberately display extravagant lifestyles filled with money".
Jing Daily weighed in this morning, writing that across Chinese social media platforms like Weibo, Tencent, Douyin, and Xiaohongshu all reflect suspended accounts this week.
China Tackles Its Growing Income Gap Culture
The drive to reduce ostentatious displays of wealth [or internet cleanup, as Jing Daily calls it] “is part of a larger effort by Chinese authorities to curate and control social cultures to tackle China’s widening income disparity and wealth inequality.”
Read MoreChanel Coco Beach 2024 Campaign Drifts in Calm Waters As Chanel Changes Course
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Luxury brand Chanel [IG] delivers a fresh and modern summer Coco Beach 2024 campaign starring Danish model Olivia Vinten lensed by Cass Bird [IG].
At Chanel, Let the Good Times Roll
Chanel is riding high off a 16 percent revenue increase in annual sales over 2023. Price increases alone drove up sales by around 9 percent, according to BoF.
Chanel CFO Philippe Blondiaux praised Virginie Viard’s contributions to Chanel’s major growth in his BoF interview. Days later, the artistic director was escorted out the door.
With Viard seeming out-of-touch with the world at large at times, and given Coco Chanel’s own delicate political history in Europe, AOC is on the record saying we’re watching the brand like a hawk. We continue to write today from that updated perspective.
Read MoreKarolina Kurkova News: Ford Models US, Fisher Island Condo Listing, Victoria's Secret Losses Mount
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Czech supermodel Karolina Kurkova is now a Ford model in New York.
AOC backtracked to pick up Kurkova’s Miami-based fashion story for Harper’s Bazaar Turkey’s December 2023 issue. AOC has now learned that the supermodel and husband since 2009 Archie Drury are selling their home on Fisher’s Island in Miami for about $7M. The about 2500 sq ft property was put on the market in May.
The former Victoria’s Secret Angel [named in 2005] Kurkova appeared in nine VS fashion shows between 2000 and 2010, and wore her Fantasy Diamond Bra in 2002.
Read MoreMona Tougaard in Beyond Noise Launch Issue 'Art of Alaïa' by Larissa Hofmann
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Top model Mona Tougaard poses in the inaugural issue of Beyond Noise [IG], styled by co-founder Sarah Richardson and creative director Pieter Mulier in The Art of Alaïa. Photographer Larissa Hofmann [IG] is behind the lens, capturing Tougaard in the elevated print project, scheduled to start shipping in the USA and EU/UK on May 31, 2024.
The biannual magazine Beyond Noise is a project of stylist Sarah Richardson and her photographer husband Richard Bush. Investor Stefan Ericsson also was key to launching the project.
Beyond Noise targets America as its core market, then the U.K., Europe and the rest of the world. Richardson calls America an ‘optimistic country’ [ask me in November, Sarah] but one in need of a women’s voice beyond American Vogue.
Read MoreBottega Veneta Summer Solstice 2024 Campaign by Louise and Maria Thornfeldt
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Bottega Veneta's [IG] Summer Solstice 2024 campaign and new capsule collection highlight resortwear essentials that embody the brand's commitment to quality and craftsmanship, offering luxury pieces ideal for summer adventures.
The campaign features models Anok Yai, Badhiel Lony Nyang, Haroon Sherzad, Isaiah Zacarias, Pasquale Nappi, and Penelope Ternes. The visuals were photographed by Louise and Maria Thornfeldt [IG] with creative direction by Bottega’s design visionary Matthieu Blazy. / Hair by Duffy; makeup by Hiromi Ueda
Read MoreLiu Wen Covers Vogue China June 2024, Margaret Zhang's Finale. What's Next?
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Luxury brands and thoughtful fashion writers like AOC are studying this last issue of Vogue China under the signature and vision of departed EIC Margaret Zhang.
The June 2024 issue features supermodel Liu Wen on three covers. The towering-influence Chinese model is styled by Vivienne Sun, with creative direction by Matt Mcdonald and images by Hong Kong based Wing Shya [IG].
What Vogue China watchers are analyzing is how ‘New China Style’ — and AOC adds the ‘thoughtful expression of Chinese government values’ — is expressed by luxury fashion and media going forward.
Expressing China’s 21st century modern identity through the lens of traditions thousands of years old is key for the next EIC of Vogue China.
Issues Around Gender Identity, Masculinity and Feminism in China
Generally speaking, ‘male identity’ has been under the microscope in China, even more than ‘female identity’ and feminism itself. There is a statistical problem with China’s birth rate created with its old one-child, government policy.
Additionally, the Chinese government has not hesitated for one moment to demand changes and shut down media that projects images of men through the LGBTQAI+ lens. Many readers may not know that the Chinese government banned effiminate men on TV in September 2021.
Whether luxury brands acknowledge this topic or not, it’s on their minds, given the importance of the Chinese market in future growth plans.
Read MoreBrunello Cucinelli SS 2024 Campaign Is Gentle Luxury While House Sales & Profits Soar
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Lachlan Bailey [IG] and Brunello Cucinelli [IG] make perfect sense together. We find Bailey behind the lens for Brunello Cucinelli’s May 2024 drop.
The cast includes Cate Underwood, Lucky Blue Smith, Nour Rizk and Ryan Porter with styling by Michela Buratti. / Hair by Werner Amort; makeup by Pedro Pianto
While much luxury retail has stumbled in the first quarter of 2024, Brunello Cucinelli posted a 16.5 revenue percent increase through March 31. Based on current orders, the gentle luxury house is projecting revenue growth of 10 percent in 2024.
Read MoreErin Wasson Poses in Aussie Brand Spell's 'Bohème 2024' Campaign
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