New Fashion, Design, Jewelry Stories and Campaigns @ AOC
/ Anne Enke
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Brand News
LVMH Joins CFDA in Six Episode Sustainability Series | Louis Vuitton Flight Mode Drop Honors New Paris LV Flagship Renovation of Elysee Palace Hotel | Kim Kardashian’s SKIMS Swim Campaign Rockets into Brand Phenom | Meet Yevonde, the Revolutionary British Photographer Inspiring Miu Miu’s New Campaign | Is the Possibility of Hérmes Overtaking Louis Vuitton for Real? Or Too Much Psilocybin?
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LVMH and the Council of Fashion Designers of America launch ‘Voices of Impact’, a co-created video series of conversations about sustainability as it intersects with fashion and luxury.
The six-part series goes live on Tuesday, airing on cfda.com and CFDA’s YouTube channel, as well as lvmh.com. The series consists of six digital episodes with specific, sustainability topics: Powering a Just Transformation; Biodiversity; The Heart of Innovation; Circularity x Regeneration by Design; Creative Capital: Designing Purposeful Growth, and Climate Action: Fusion Energy.
Louis Vuitton introduces its Flight Mode summer 2024 collection for global travelers. The colorful collection is inspired by vibrant colors like yellow and also prints inspired by travel stamps connected to the famous Élysée Palace Hotel in Paris.
The newly-introduced Monogram canvas bags, like the Keepall and Side Trunk, are decorated with colorful Élysée Palace Hotel stamps. Built in 1896 in the Art Nouveau style, the Elysée Palace hotel — most recently the headquarters of HSBC Bank in Paris — is under a spectacular renovation as the first Louis Vuitton flagship hotel, scheduled to open in 2026. Read more details in our January 2024 post.
Apparently this ‘insider information’ about the reason Louis Vuitton is inspired in its Flight Mode summer 2024 collection by the Elysée Palace hotel was not in the LV press release. It’s not in their IG either.
SKIMS [IG] has pulled out all the stops in the new swimwear campaign shot by British fashion photographer Nick Knight [IG] founder and director of SHOWstudio.com. Knight is joined by stylist Carine Roitfeld [IG] the former EIC of Vogue Paris, founder of CR Fashion Book and its consulting agency.
Nick Knight and Carine Roitfeld together are as good as it gets, and we see the very visible results in these images.
Knight was the creative force behind the shoot, tasked with capturing the collection “in a style reminiscent of his classic and avant-garde fashion campaigns from the 2000s,” according to a press release from the brand.
AOC also raved about the Steven Klein ‘swimweat manifesto’ featuring Kim in the SKIMS June 2023 campaign. But the photography is very different in the two projects.
Read on at the AOC Body link. I compare the two campaigns from Steven Klein and now Nick Knight.
When the National Portrait Gallery, London, reopened in June 2023 following a three-year redevelopment closure, its first exhibition ‘Yevonde: Life and Colour’ centered on British photographer Yevonde Middleton [1893-1975]. The art event, which focused on the sixty-year career of a paradigm-breaking woman photographer, was sponsored by The CHANEL Culture Fund.
With the release of its new 2024 Leathergoods Campaign, Miu Miu [IG] is also inspired by the British photographer Yevonde Middleton.
An ode to color, to femininity, to fashion and to feminism, Miu Miu celebrates its signature matelassé in images by photographer legend Steven Meisel with art direction by Edward Quarmby. Starring Gigi Hadid as a modern reflection of the Miu Miu persona styled by Lotta Volkova, the images focus on the Wander and Arcadie bags. / Makeup by Pat McGrath; hair by Guido Palau
Writing for B of F, Kit Rees cites Citibank analyst Thomas Chauvet’s April 12 note making the case that “Hermès has potential to surpass LVMH’s flagship Louis Vuitton in the coming years.”
Chauvet is a Managing Director heading up Citi’s European Luxury Goods Equity Research team in London. He argues that based on Hermés, best-known for its Birkin bags, hitting the “symbolic” €20 billion ($21.3 billion) level by 2027 or before, they will be in a position to overtake Louis Vuitton, who reached that milestone in 2022.
How this argument of Hérmes overtaking Louis Vuitton by reaching $21.3 billion in 2027, when Louis Vuitton compounded at +10% 2023-27 gives us $34.3 billion in 2027 is absolutely a key reason why I don’t have Thomas Chauvet’s job.
But read me anyway.
Read On: Brand Analysis and Fashion News
Women’s News and Interviews
Anok Yai Torches Harper’s Bazaar May | Dua Lipa Talks Radical Optimism | Nylon Magazine Returns to Print with Gwen Stefani on Cover | Monica Belluci Talks Aging in ELLE Spain | Cate Blanchett on Innovation, Legacy and Proof of Concept
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Egyptian-born, American model of South Sudanese descent, Anok Yai covers Harper’s Bazaar US May 2024. Anok is styled by Carlos Nazario and lensed by Ethan James Green [IG] — and what a fashion ride the team delivers.
Understand that Anok Yai — the disciplined, knife fighter with moxie and rock-solid backbone — is also expressing her creative side as an artist. Writer Kaitlyn Greenidge meets the top model at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, in the presence of Kerry James Marshall’s ‘Untitled’ (Studio) painting.
AOC has followed Anok from Day one — literally —and I am so proud that she’s one of our own — a superstar American. ~ Anne
Top talent Dua Lipa [IG], also identified as a 2024 TIME 100 artist, covers the May 2024 issue of ELLE US — The Music Issue. Writing her TIME 100 bio, music legend Patti Smith described her as a ‘Ringmaster’ who is “driven, independent, and possesses a desire for knowledge”.
Patti Wilson styles “the queen of the dance floor’ in images by Dan Beleiu. Suzy Exposito conducts the interview.
Dua Lipa’s 3rd studio album ‘Radical Optimism’ is out May 3, 2024.
My own radical optimism has been renewed with deliberateness in 2024 — not only in response to Donald Trump and the Republican War on Women — but in response to absolute binary thinking among progressives.
What in the world is radical optimism? AOC explains.
NYLON Magazine [IG] has landed, publishing its first print issue since 2017. Landing with a BOOM, NYLON put pop star Gwen Stefani, now 54, on the cover of their new Spring/Summer 2024 issue.
The pop star is styled by Jan-Michael-Quammie in images by Domen & Van de Velde [IG]. / Hair by Suzette Boozer; makeup by Anthony H Nguyen
Today, Nylon is available at Barnes and Noble bookstores and online. My copy via Amazon is on the way. I see no subscription offer on the Nylon website or send option on the Barnes and Noble website. This could be good news.
This story of a return to print in a digital world is gaining major momentum, triggered perhaps by the growth of book clubs led by people like Kaia Gerber. Book club event listings grew 24% in the United States in 2023 annually, according to ticketing platform Eventbrite; and Meetup saw a 10% increase in book club listings, according to CNN.
Actor Monica Bellucci [IG] covers the May 2024 issue of ELLE Spain [IG]. Bellucci is lensed by JUANKR [IG]. who also photographed the star for the January 2024 issue of Esquire China.
Now age 59, Bellucci continues to look spectacular, but tells ELLE she is a peace with aging and accepts the inevitable transformation. 'I'm like everyone else: I tell myself that going against something that is more powerful than me is useless. And if time passes it means that you are lucky to still be here. “
In October 2022, Bellucci presented ‘Edward Scissorhands’ director Tim Burton with a lifetime achievement award at the Lumiére Film Festival in France. They did not go their separate ways this time, as happened in 2006.
Actor Cate Blanchett takes the spotlight, covering the May 2024 issue of Vogue China [IG].
Before VOGUE China‘s May 2024 Issue cover star landed in Shanghai for Louis Vuittton’s Nicolas Ghesquière’s Pre-Fall 2024 collection show, LV’s high jewelry ‘Spirit’ ambassador spoke to Georgina Graham from her East Sussex home.
Vogue China explores the idea of legacy in the May issue. What is the balance between legacy and innovation? What begets legend status?
The interview moves to Proof of Concept Accelerator Program founded by Cate Blanchett and Coco Francini, who are partners behind Dirty Films. Blanchett acknowledges that the program is probably headed for a big fight with Republicans arguing that projects like this one have now been declared unAmerican and illegal by our US Supreme Court.
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 |
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