New Fashion, Design, Jewelry Stories and Campaigns @ AOC
/ Anne Enke
Featured
Read on: Latest Fashion Stories and Ad Campaigns/Lookbooks
AOC Pre-2020 Curated Archives
Featured
Brand News
Brunello Cucinelli SS 2024 Campaign Is Gentle Luxury As Sales & Profits Soar | Erin Wasson Poses and AOC Drills Down on Aussie Brand Spell | Khaite Is on Fire; Read Catherine Holstein’s New York Story | Who Did Sweeney Road Trips Better? Jimmy Choo or Tory Burch | Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty Comes to China
Featured
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.
Marseille-based model Erin Wasson poses for Aussie brand Spell’s Bohème 2024 campaign. Photographer Jamie Green [IG] writes that Wasson rolled out of a cab 90 minutes from Marseille, saying “You’ve got me for 8 hours, babe.”
If you don’t know Spell, they have one store in Byron Bay and a global internet business. Sustainability has been at the heart of Spell for over a decade, and they lead with fibers that are circular, regenerative and renewable.
In spite of the brand’s ‘California Girl’ in Australia positioning, Spell uses words atypical for PR campaigns. On the topic of sustainability, Spell says they are ‘braver, clearer and frankly – gutsier’.
Nice . . . especially the gutsy part. Fashion needs more gutsy people. Less facade; more guts . . . PLEASE. And thanks, Spell for being a Certified B Corporation.
2023 was a banner year for Khaite with the brand opening a store in Soho, New York, and a second one in Seoul. Khaite popped into Water Mill, New York — at Holstein’s summer home — to show the pre-Fall collection. [See image above.]
In an amazing sequence Holstein sold another stake in her company to growth equity firm Stripes, after being launched in 2016 by brand incubator Assembled Brands. In 2023, as part of its Stripes presentation, Khaite announced plans to open 10 additional brick and mortar stores in the next five years.
In a well-written 2006 New York Times headline, ‘To Barneys, and Step on It’, Eric Wilson detailed the life-changing events for the 22-year-old Parson’s student Catherine Holstein, who had designed six sailor dresses.
Distilled to its essence, Holstein and Khaite is a wonderful New York story, filled with true grit determination and also the power of connections. Lots of them. AOC delights in sharing the details.
Actor Sydney Sweeney is behind the wheel of Jimmy Choo’s [IG] Summer 2024 campaign, ‘Road to Joy.’
In my life, AOC has never asked “Who did it better?” But after reading ‘Dazed’ describe Sweeney preparing for her Jimmy Choo roadtrip as packing up her stuff starting with a “few pairs of cunty stillettos”, I couldn’t help laughing and then reflecting on one of the sexiest roadtrip campaigns that I remember.
Jimmy Choo creative director Sandra Choi had to see the ‘Euphoria’ star in her scorching ‘old convertible breakdown in the Palm Springs desert’ June 2022 campaign for Tory Burch Miller sandals.
Clearly Choi decided that she could do it better, being a visionary for Jimmy Choo. This is a great decision, if you’re bringing plenty of prove-it ammo to the gunfight.
It’s close, as to which Sweeney campaign wins — because they are sisters.
Former Vogue China [IG] EIC Margaret Zhang delivered Rihanna on her final April 2024 cover story for the magazine. Rihanna takes two print covers and three digital ones in her story ‘Rihanna: Beauty In Individuality’, styled by Alvin Yu in images by Hailun Ma [IG].
Fenty Beauty, the beauty brand entered the Chinese beauty market on April 1 and is now sold at Sephora stores in China.
Western media is not inclined to report on or explore exactly where western luxury brands stand in China, beyond the economics of money to spend. The Chinese government is deeply involved in monitoring the tensions between China’s desire to be part of the global luxury market, while also protecting China’s identity and values.
Read On: Brand Analysis and Fashion News
Women’s News and Interviews
Kendall Jenner Covers Vogue June-July with Talk About Her True Feelings | ‘Rebel Rebel’ for Vogue Greece Channels Photographer Tina Modotti | ‘Love Lies Bleeding’ Actor Kristen Stewart for Porter Edit | Laufey On The Up And Up for Vogue China | Vogue Portugal Explores Ancient Women and Nature
Featured
The highest paid model in the world for the last six years is supermodel Kendall Jenner, and she is celebrating her 10-year anniversary in the fashion business on the cover of Vogue Magazine’s June/July 2024 issue. Jenner is interviewed by Rob Haskell in ‘Kendall Jenner Is in Her Feelings’ following her New Year’s trip to Barbados.
Kendall is styled by Tabitha Simmons with images by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott [IG], who shot the fashion story at the One&Only Mandarina on Mexico’s Pacific Coast./ Hair by Jimmy Paul; makeup by Mary Phillips
There is absolutely no joy expressed in Jenner’s decade of building a successful career that put her on top of the Forbes 2023 list, with estimated annual earnings related to fashion and style projects at $40 million.
The Power of Negative Thinking
Jenner’s biggest goal over these 10 years has been to prove people wrong about her — which AOC agrees doesn’t sound like much fun for such a successful person. We all know that haters online are not kind to women in the spotlight. But Kendall also agrees that she is not a positive person generally.
Model Africa Garcia is styled by Nicholas Georgiou in ‘Rebel Rebel’, lensed by Thanassis Krikis [IG] for Vogue Greece [IG] May 2024. / Hair by Christos Kallaniotis; makeup by Athina Karakitsou
Garcia’s summer wardrobe is inspired by the Italian-American photographer, model, actor, and activist Tina Modotti, whose retrospective at Jeu de Paume in Paris is closing Sunday, May 12.
The photographer’s young life took a dramatic turn in 1920, when Tina Modotti met Edward Weston.
The couple moved to Mexico City in 1922 and opened a portrait studio. They lived in the energized intellectual life of Mexico City in the interwar years, surrounded by a circle of friends that included Soviet film director Sergei Eisenstein and Russian revolutionary and Soviet politician Leon Trotsky, as well as Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.
‘Twilight Saga’ franchise star Kristen Stewart is styled by Bojana Kozarevic in a fashion story ‘Laid Bare’, a collection of sultry separates from Acne Studios, Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta, Dries Van Noten, JW Anderson, Saint Laurent, Tom Ford and more. Stewart covers Porter Edit’s May 6 issue, lensed by Zoey Grossman [IG]./ Hair by Adir Abergel; makeup by Jillian Dempsey
Billie JD Porter interviews Stewart, fresh off her press tour for ‘Love Lies Bleeding’, where she plays “Lou – a seemingly nihilistic gym manager, whose world is turned upside down when she falls hard and fast for a female bodybuilder.”
The actor has spoken multiple times about the challenges of bankrolling ‘The Chronology of Water’, the film she is about to direct and one she has struggled to finance until now.
Stewart jazzes up the descriptors, saying the movie "is about incest and periods and a woman violently repossessing her voice and body, and it is, at times, hard to watch ... but it’s gonna be a f---ing thrill ride."
Vogue China +[IG] May 2024 issue features a fashion story ‘Laufey On The Up and Up’, focused on the young talent Laufey, born in Reykjavik to a Chinese mother violinist and a Icelandic economist father, who was a devotee of Chet Baker.
Alvin Yu styles the singer in images by Arseny Jabiev [IG]./ Hair by Gonn Kinoshita; makeup by Mélanie Inglessis
Rolling Stone headlines their recent story ‘Laufey: Cozy, Classic Pop’. Vanity Fair’s says ‘A Celebration of Modern Girlhood, Laufey Brings Jazz to a New Generation’.
On February 4, Laufey won her first Grammy for Traditional Pop Vocal Album. Life is good for Laufey.
Mother-Nature, Gaia, Terra Mater, the “cult of the feminine” is center stage in the May 2024 issue of Vogue Portugal, writes Sofia Lucas.
The editorial issue overview opens with a quote from Aristotle:
“In all things of nature, there is something of the marvelous” - Aristotle
As educated women, we do not bow down to Aristotle, for clear and concise reasons.
There’s no record that Aristotle, the great philosopher and foundational contributor to Western civilization, saw significant value in women. He argued quite the opposite, and AOC contends that Aristotle was a creator of the misogyny and not merely reflecting his time in history.
Read On: Interviews: Models, Artists, Business
Jewelry News
‘Medal Ceremony’ for SCMP Style | Les Gaston Vuitton Fine Jewelry and Accessories | Emmanuelle Lacou’s Bold, Fiery Jewelry | Chaumet’s ‘Un Air de Chaumet’ Takes Flight |
Featured
Read On: More Jewelry News