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
Bottega Veneta Summer Solstice 2024 Campaign | Required Skills for the Next EIC of Vogue China | Brunello Cucinelli SS 2024 Campaign Is Gentle Luxury As Sales & Profits Soar | Erin Wasson Poses and AOC Drills Down on Aussie Brand Spell
Featured
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
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.
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.
Read On: Brand Analysis and Fashion News
Women’s News and Interviews
Kim Kardashian Talks Deeply About Robert Kardashian in GQ | Charlize Theron Sensually Scalding Activist and Dior Ambassador | Actor Diane Kruger in Cannes Talks ‘The Shroud’ | Jourdan Dunn at Scotland’s Castle of Mey for Bazaar UK | Rosie Huntington-Whiteley Severs Ties with Rosie Inc, Joins The Equity Studio
Featured
AOC sharing Kim Kardashian’s December 2023 cover story for GQ’s Men of the Year Issue — just in time for Father’s Day.
KK wears the crown of Tycoon of the Year, and appropriately so.
Photographer Jack Bridgland [IG] captures the many sides of Kim Kardashian for this GQ mogul spread, with an interview by Sean Manning.
AOC shares the Kardashian expectation that she wil take the California Bar exam late in 2024 or early 2025. In every article written about Kim, the topic of her self-discipline and very organized mind is the headliner.
The woman is amazing.
Actor Charlize Theron was scalding, an absolutely over-the-top fire goddess in W Magazine’s May 2015 cover story ‘Mad Beautiful’, styled by Edward Enninful in images by Mert & Marcus.
Whatever fashion empress Theron was playing in the 2015 W Magazine fashion story, photographers Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott rendered Anne breathless, inspired and ready to follow the activist actor anywhere.
Charlize Theron is AOC’s ideal woman: smart, sensual and born with great heart and commitment to activism. She is driven by South African ‘ubuntu ‘principles that place her as a member of the interconnected global community.
The actor’s UN work brought her to the Congo in 2010 to meet with 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Denis Mukwege, founder of Congo’s Panzi Hospital for Raped Women and a close advisor to nearby ‘City of Joy’. Since that time AOC has followed Charlize Theron far and wide — and now into a vastly expanded ambassadorship with Dior.
Actor Diane Kruger is private poolside, covering the June 2024 Summer Style issue of ELLE Spain [IG]. Barbara Garralda styles Kruger in relaxed, polished black and white sporty pieces lensed by Xavi Gordo [IG]. Bulgari jewelry exclusively. / Makeup by Ivan Gomez; hair by Laura Carrillo
Kruger is in Cannes, where her new movie ‘The Shrouds’ is in competition and she shares the screen for a second time [back to back] with Vincent Cassel. The film debuts Monday night June 20.
The plot of ‘The Shrouds’ is fascinating and controversial. Karsh, played by Vincent Cassel in a storyline experienced by director Cronenberg with the death of his wife, is inconsolable in the same situation.
He invents a technology that enables the living to monitor their loved ones in their graves.
Supermodel Jourdan Dunn made major fashion waves in February 2015, when she became the first woman of color since Naomi Campbell in August 2002 to cover British Vogue.
This week Jourdan Dunn owns a worldwide, fashion first; and it’s her own crown-worthy moment in the spotlight. Harper’s Bazaar UK [IG] travels to the ancient Castle of Mey in Caithness, Scotland for its June 2024 cover story.
Dunn reflected about her global-first photography shoot with Richard Phibbs [IG], when she met Lydia Slater in Bloomsbury for the followup Bazaar interview, which is part of today’s fashion story ‘Queen of the Castle’.
“All seals, and water, and sands – it was a wonderful escape. I understand the attraction, to be so far away from everybody. My gran loved the Queen Mother – they shared the same birthday – so this would probably have been her proudest thing.”
An Emotional Interview That Inspires . . .
AOC is deliberately underscoring this earnest statement from Dunn, about her gran’s likely response to the supermodel’s honor as muse of the fashion shoot.
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley has closed the book on her involvement with Rosie Inc. and has now joined The Equity Studio, a new firm providing funding and strategic advice to beauty, wellness and lifestyle companies.
Led by investor Anna Sweeting, Huntington-Whiteley has partner status. The Equity Studio will invest in growth-stage consumer companies in the early to mid stages of development in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Europe.
Huntington-Whiteley launched Rose Inc. with biotech darling turned incubator Amyris, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August 2023.
Read On: Interviews: Models, Artists, Business
Jewelry News
Swarovski ‘Beneath the Surface’ for Numero NL | Bulgari Riches in Harper’s Bazaar Brazil | High Jewelry by Carlijn Jacobs D Magazine | Jacquie Aiche Rebel Heart Campaign
Featured
Read On: More Jewelry News