A running out of time, love is deeply rooted in the hands of the Executive sub-second only to that moment, but the second from the beginning, wrist pointer on the link between the pulse from the pulse of the two fall in love, a record of love bit by bit. The emergence of the table, so that whether vigorous or mediocre Fanfan love have become so indelible. Colorful table, so that time to the most precise and elegant form of engraved love every second. People can find love with their perfect match couple of tables, to witness the eternal love.

Louis Vuitton Table

Left: Male large automatic dual time zone watch 18K gold (34 grams)

Right: Female Trumpet automatic watch 18K gold (21 grams)

Longines Dai Chuo Wiener series of steel sheet

Left: Male automatic movement watch, the number 12 on the surface at 6 pm, time and location of the outer ring of small stopwatch, with a steel strip

Right: Female automatic movement watch, steel case with flashing diamonds on both sides of

TUDOR

Left: male self-winding mechanical movement, not only improved the accuracy of time measurement, and more durable

Right: Women with a variety of rubber strap 31 mm Women’s Table Series

Piaget steel table

Left: Male steel sheet, quartz, multi-function chronograph, 100m water resistance

Right: Female steel sheet, quartz, 100 m water resistance

Van Cleef & Arpels steel sheet

Left: Men steel Automatic table, black strap

Right: Female Trumpet round steel tables, black strap

Cartier gold watch

Left: Male 18K gold Machine Diamond pointer table (Rose Gold)

Right: Female 18K gold Machine Diamond pointer table (gold)

Zenith rose gold table

Left: Male rose gold case, black crocodile leather strap, silver dial wheat grain

Right: Female Rose Gold with Diamond Case, brown crocodile leather strap, white mother of pearl shell dial

Chaumet steel table

Left: Male steel sheet, quartz, multi-function chronograph, 100m water resistance

Right: Female steel sheet, quartz, 100 m water resistance

Dior Watch Christal Rubber  sport  watch

Left: Male 38mm single-row diamond bezel blue sapphire crystal

Right: Female 38mm single-row diamond bezel sapphire crystal violet

Tag Heuer steel watch

Left: Male Carrera Cal.16Day series, 43mm

Right: Female Carrera Lady series, 27mm, with diamond

Tiffany & Co. Atlas series Steel circular quartz crystal watches

Left: Male 38mm ,black strap, roman numerals, silver dial

Right: Female 35mm, black strap, roman numerals, silver dial

Bulgari gold table

Left: Male black dial, after the vertical longitudinal grain processing, black crocodile leather strap, with polished 18K gold three-piece folding buckle

Right: Female Assioma watch, curved 36 mm 18K rose gold case, with high-tech satin strap and 18K rose gold watch buckle

Spinning Beauty - Van Cleef's Une Journee a Paris Ring

Technorati Code PR6ZRZYBZGZS

Congratulations to Van Cleef & Arpels on their recent success at the Grand Prix du Luxe awards. The luxury brand picked up the much deserved award for best mobile application.

The application – ‘a day in Paris’, developed by Paris based Heaven Conseil – takes users on various journeys through Paris, detailing places to visit, restaurants and cafes and other notable recommendations.

Yesterday Kenneth Green, Chairman of luxury fragrance and skincare distributor Kenneth Green Associates was welcomed into the Fragrance Foundation’s elite Circle of Champions. Truly passionate about fragrance, he is only the third UK recipient to receive this prestigious industry award (the other two being Sir Paul Smith and grande dame of British fashion Vivienne Westwood) and a more deserved recipient I can’t think of. Here he shares his insight  into the current state of the male fragrance industry and what reveals what makes a genius juice….

GG: What does it mean to you to be honoured by The Fragrance Foundation in this way?
KG: It makes me very proud for our company’s achievements over the past 20 years.

GG: So what’s your favourite male fragrance of all time?
KG: Definitely L’Eau d’Issey Pour Homme.  It’s clean, fresh and discreet and is housed in a beautiful, yet simple, classic package.  Designed by Mr Miyake who is a very involved icon – not just a name on a pack.

GG: Best male fragrance bottle of all time?
KG: Jean-Paul Gaultier Le Male.

GG: Why do you think fragrances like Le Male and L’eau d’Issey Pour Homme are still so popular, years after their launch?
KG: Great package and design, both of which were the process of creativity of the designer whose name is on the box.  They’re both fragrances that are original and that can be used time and time again.

GG: So what qualities make a male fragrance a ‘classic’?
KG: Quality. Creativity. Originality

GG: I’m terrible at hiding my feelings when I smell a new fragrance I don’t like. Are you honest  when you’re in a similar situation?
KG: Yes – if not it would cost of lot of time in wasted professional effort.  Taking a fragrance to market that does not work is criminal, not to mention a waste of  “my money”!

GG: What has been the most exciting new men’s launch of 2009?
KG:
 Paul Smith Man, created by our own British designer with much personal care and attention to detail.  Paul even took the advertising creative photos himself.

GG: As a male grooming writer I must say I have been very disappointed by the lack of inventiveness of the industry in the last few years. Nobody seems to be taking chances any more and it’s hard to see any of the new launches becoming classics. What are your views on this?
KG: There is a degree of banal and fast and dirty launches that do not portray quality or longevity, together with “copy cat” fragrances – i.e. ones that just follow the last successful smell instead of being creative.
We do see creativity and quality, though, coming from Classic brands, Terre d’Hermes for example.  Van Cleef & Arpels – Collection Extraordinaire, A-Scent by Issey Miyake, Paul Smith Man, Serge Lutens, Annick Goutal.  All have heritage and love and care in creation, together with quality in the package, bottle and juice.

GG: The last year or so has been a tough one in terms of the economy. How has the recession affected the male side of the fragrance industry?
KG: The Fragrance Industry has done well in recession and grown again.  It is not in decline.  The feel-good factor of a £400 new overcoat or a £5,000 wristwatch might not be appealing but a £40 bottle of your favourite pleasure is a wonderful and affordable “quick-fix”!

An excerpt taken from Andrea Klarin’s biography:

“At the age of 18 photography became my passion and I decided to make it my future career when I was 22. I studied photography for three years in Brussels (Belgium) at INRACI. Now I mostly live and work in Paris. I would describe my work as being based on the constant need to move and evolve! It is a continuous search for something that is “in the air”, something that cannot be touched but is contained in the world around us. I don’t try to represent reality but I try to filter it and through this imaginary world attempt to show its elegance, chic and glitter. I am very attached to my team and I consider their work just as important as my own! Working in a team for me means being surrounded by people that you appreciate not only as professionals but as people as well!”

Andrea Klarin has shot for the likes of Valentino, Lanvin, Guerlain, Rochas, Van Cleef & Arpels, Nike, L’Oreal, and been featured in Vogue, InStyle, Harper’s, Madame Figaro, Financial Times, Sunday Times, El Pais.  I really like that every photograph he takes has an air of sensuality to it.  He is AMAAAAAZING! Enjoy!

Avec un actionnariat majoritairement détenu par la famille allemande Benckiser, le groupe de parfums et cosmétiques Coty, de droit américain, aime à cultiver une stricte politique du secret. Créée en 1904 par le Français François Coty, cette société, qui réalise la moitié de son chiffre d’affaires grâce aux parfums Calvin Klein, vend les fragrances des griffes Cerruti, Chloé, Davidoff, Jil Sander, Marc Jacobs ou Lagerfeld… et des parfums de célébrités tels que Céline Dion ou David Beckham, qui font fureur aux Etats-Unis ou au Royaume-Uni.

Très implanté outre-Atlantique, le parfumeur a subi la crise de plein fouet. “En deux ans, les ventes de parfums s’y sont contractées de 18 %, malgré leur progression sur Internet”, explique au Monde Michele Scannavini, président de Coty Prestige. Ce qui a obligé le groupe à procéder à des licenciements. Les ventes ont fondu de 4 milliards à 3,7 milliards lors de l’exercice clos en juillet 2009.

M. Scannavini reste toutefois optimiste : “On commence à voir quelques signaux positifs, le grand phénomène de déstockage est presque fini et les ventes redeviennent régulières, en phase avec les ventes effectuées.” Il parie sur une amélioration des ventes, un peu par défaut, au premier semestre 2010, parce que la base de comparaison – le premier semestre 2009 – s’est révélée franchement mauvaise.

La crise, tangible surtout sur le marché américain, n’a en tout cas pas retardé ni reporté les lancements de nouveaux parfums. Le plus emblématique pour Coty sera Balenciaga Paris, en février 2010. Certains se souviennent encore des parfums mythiques de la maison comme Cristobal, Le Dix, Le Talisman ou La Fuite des heures. La licence des parfums Balenciaga est caduque “depuis quatre ans”, précise Isabelle Guichot, présidente de la maison de couture (filiale de Gucci, donc de PPR).

Artisan du renouveau de la marque, le designer Nicolas Ghesquière a renoué avec l’héritage des parfums. Après un apprentissage éclair aux rudiments de cet univers, le styliste a travaillé main dans la main avec le nez choisi par la maison, Olivier Polge. “Nicolas est arrivé avec une demi-savonnette, des souvenirs, des odeurs d’enfance comme l’encaustique et un attrait pour les fleurs fraîches”, dit-il. En huit mois, ce parfum a vu le jour : il est chypré, aux essences de vetyver, de cèdre et de patchouli, à base de violettes rehaussées d’une pointe de piment.

Odeur fétiche

Isabelle Guichot parie sur un retour sur investissement la deuxième année et des profits l’année suivante. Fabriqué en France, à Chartres, vendu cher (75 euros les 50 ml d’eau de parfum), il sera commercialisé dans un circuit très restreint, chez 15 % à 20 % des distributeurs sélectifs mondiaux. “On était très pressés, on aurait aimé le sortir plus tôt, mi-2009, mais bien nous en a pris, nous serions tombés au plein coeur de la crise”, explique la présidente de Balenciaga.

Selon Philippe Benacin, PDG d’Interparfums (Burberry, Lanvin, Van Cleef & Arpels, etc.), le marché français du parfum est estimé à 1,6 milliard d’euros en 2008. e janvier à juillet 2009, il a baissé de 1,4 %. “C’est un marché très mature, dont le potentiel de croissance ou de décroissance est faible (de + 3 % à – 2 %) “, dit-il. Un atout en période de crise. Avec une caractéristique, les consommateurs sont très attachés à leur odeur fétiche : les ventes de nouveaux parfums ne représentent que 10 % à 15 % du marché. Une compétition d’autant plus rude que les griffes sortent une trentaine de nouvelles fragrances par an sur un total de 500 nouveautés.

En France, le marché reste largement dominé par L’Oréal, Chanel et Parfums Christian Dior (LVMH). Selon une récente étude de Plimsoll sur les 329 sociétés françaises de fabrication de parfums et de produits cosmétiques, 125 ont atteint des “performances financières remarquables, avec une croissance des ventes de plus de 4 %, une marge de bénéfice moyenne de 9,2 % et un endettement inexistant”. Le cabinet d’études juge qu’en 2008, Interparfums, Jacques Bogart, Jean Paul Gaultier, Kenzo, Cartier, Christian Dior et Ted Lapidus affichent une note financière “forte”, là où Chanel, Guerlain, Mugler et Givenchy sont “bons”, tandis qu’YSL, Caron ou Nina Ricci sont “en danger” et Annick Goutal et Rochas dans une situation “préoccupante”.

Au niveau européen, le marché du parfum a très légèrement augmenté en 2008 (+0,4 %) à 10,7 milliards d’euros, selon le Colipa, l’association européenne des industriels du secteur. La France caracole en tête des ventes, devant l’Allemagne, le Royaume-Uni et l’Italie. La cible des consommateurs – largement dominée par les femmes – s’élargit aux adolescent(e)s et aux hommes. Comme dans les autres secteurs du luxe, le Colipa parie sur une croissance des pays émergents. Notamment le Brésil, qui, “d’ici à 2013, pourrait devenir un marché comparable à l’Amérique du Nord et au Japon”.

Nicole Vulser

Fonte: Le Monde

by Marc Hasenfuss, for Fin24, November 13, 2009.

Cape Town – Richemont chairperson Johann Rupert’s decision to assume the role of CEO at the Swiss-based luxury brands group as well has elicited contrasting responses from a shareholder activist and local asset managers.

Richemont announced on Friday that Rupert – who is also chairperson of investment companies Reinet and Remgro – would assume the role of CEO from April 1 2010.

While Rupert retains his chair of Richemont, the group did nominate Lord Renwick of Clifton (who sits on the SABMiller board) as lead independent director.

The appointment of Rupert follows the resignation of Norbert Platt as CEO for health reasons at the end of 2009. The development suggests Richemont could not find a suitable replacement for the well-regarded Platt, who was appointed in 2004…(continue reading)

חודש נובמבר הוא חודש נפלא והרבה דברים טובים מתרחשים בו. אני שמח כי בתחילת החודש משרד יחסי הציבור שבניהולי נבחר לטפל בפעילות יחסי הציבור והתקשורת של כרונוטיים, היבואנית הבלעדית של מותגי שעונים, תכשיטים ועטים יוקרתיים מהמובילים בעולם.

החברה, שהוקמה בשנת 1998 ע”י קבוצת ה.א.ס, משווקת את מותגיה ברשת חנויות כרונוטיים ופועלת בהתאם לקונספט של חנויות המותגים המובילות בעולם, שם מוצגים המותגים כפריטי אומנות בגלריה. בגלריות כרונוטיים ניתן דגש על שירות ויחס VIP לכל לקוח, לצד תצוגה מרשימה של שעונים, תכשיטים, עטים, סדרות מיוחדות, מהדורות מוגבלות ופריטים לאספנים.

בין מותגי העל המיוצגים ע”י כרונוטיים: IWC Schaffhausen, ULYSSE NARDIN, VACHERON CONSTANTIN, ORIS, Van Cleef & Arpels, GIRARD-PERREGAUX ועוד.

בבלוג זה אשמח לספר לכם על פעילות החברה, ועל שעונים מיוחדים, מהדורות מוגבלות, פריטים נדירים ועוד.

מוזמנים לבקר באתר של כרונוטיים: www.chronotime.co.il

ולסיכום, גלריית כרונוטיים הינה היבואנית הבלעדית של מותגי השעונים, תכשיטים ועטים המובילים בעולם. החברה שהוקמה בשנת 1998 ע”י קבוצת ה.א.ס משווקת את מותגיה ברשת חנויות כרונוטיים. גלריית כרונוטיים פועלות בהתאם לקונספט של גלריית המותגים המובילות בעולם שם מוצגים המותגים כפריטי אומנות בגלריה. בגלריות כרונוטיים ניתן דגש על שירות ויחס VIP לכל לקוח, לצד תצוגה מרשימה של שעונים, תכשיטים, עטים, סדרות מיוחדות, מהדורות מוגבלות ופריטים לאספנים.

סניפי כרונוטיים: תל אביב – כיכר המדינה וגן העיר (מרכז שירות). ירושלים – כתר דוד (מול מלון המלך דוד), חיפה -  MULLER.

 כרונוטיים: 03-5446446

www.chronotime.co.il

אשמח לענות על שאלות ולסייע בפרטים נוספים.

רונן הלל  

 www.ronenhilel.co.il

Today’s perfume sample is Feerie, from the famed jewelry house Van Cleef & Arpels. Again, I didn’t want to test it on myself and I wanted to avoid extra loads of perfumey towels, so I sprayed it on a Kleenex. So I can just chuck it when I am done, or if I decide the scent is awful. Easy enough. Anyhow, I needn’t have worried today. Feerie is a really nice scent. It is a delicate woody floral inspired by the company’s Midsummer Night’s Dream jewelry collection. Its top notes are violet, black currant and mandarin, with middle notes of bulgarian rose and egyptian jasmine. The bottom notes, the ones I pay most attention to personally, are iris butter and vetiver. Van Cleef & Arpels has managed to create a suitable counterpart to its jewelry: a scent that is sparkly and bright. And indeed, it is fairy-like with its airy and ethereal quality. This perfume would make a great gift, if you don’t mind shelling out the cash for it. It is somewhat more expensive than other perfumes I’ve come across. And that is too bad, if the cost is prohibitive, for I could see this scent as a great starter perfume, either for a young lady or someone who isn’t really into perfumes per se. I would notice this scent on someone else, and not in a bad way, but I would wonder what it was and think it was pleasant. I won’t be buying this perfume for myself but I will keep it in mind as something that would make a great gift, perhaps in its shower gel or lotion form. (Also, less expensive than the perfume.) Boyfriends out there, take note! This is a scent that would appeal to many people, I believe. It’s uncomplicated and gentle all around. I can almost hear the fluttering of little wings…almost.

Some posters on QVC’s online jewely forum this weekend were wondering what happened to supermodel and “Project Runway” host Heidi Klum’s clover-design jewelry line, which used to be sold on the home shopping network. 

FYI — Klum pulled the plug on her Heidi Klum Collection, which was very popular on QVC, after she was sued by high-end jewelry house Van Cleef & Arpels. It charged that her clover-motif wares too closely resembled their trademarked design.

Rather than battle it out in court this summer, Klum closed down her jewelry line. None of the pieces can be found on QVC.com.

Perhaps Klum didn’t have the stomach for more lawsuits, after being involved in nasty, lengthy litigation over “Project Runway’s” move from Bravo to Lifetime Television.  That mess was eventually resolved, and the hit reality show began airing on the women’s network.

Many a fine jeweller has looked to myth and legend for their inspiration. Van Cleef & Arpels have produced collections inspired by the fairies of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the lost city of Atlantis, while one of De Beers most recent collections, Amulets, is based on the imagery of African tribal totems. Stephen Webster, recently appointed as creative director of the Crown Jeweller Garrard, works with a very different kind of visual currency. ‘For me,’ says Webster, ‘it’s Mick Rock’s photographs of David Bowie and the Spiders from Mars in the 1970s that capture the essence of what I do.’ Webster’s work is utterly unique but also very much a part of the new school of luxury – a kind of modern luxury that looks, and feels, like classic rock and roll.

Renowned for a muscular and offbeat way with silver and diamonds, Webster’s first collection for Garrard, Fire of London, features 18ct white and yellow gold, white and black diamonds, orange sapphires, garnets and citrines all sculpted into rings, cuffs and earrings in the shape of blazing flames.  Webster’s imagery is essentially a bold but luxe redux of the skull and crossbones, and his stock in trade is jewellery that — while not exclusively for the kind of individual who fathered Garrard’s previous creative director Jade Jagger — is certainly aimed at the client who wants a little more 21^st century attitude in their jewellery box than comes with a tiara and pearl drop earrings.

If there’s any one woman who embodies that 21^st century attitude, it’s dishevelled grunge queen turned Hollywood icon Courtney Love. Love recently appeared at London-based designer Todd Lynn’s catwalk show at the Pacific Design Centre in West Hollywood and is one of his most faithful customers. She can, on occasion, rock a look that might suggest she’s appeared on the red carpet via a backwards-facing hedge, but it’s always done with confidence and sophistication. ‘She always looks fearless,’ says Lynn, who is currently working on his spring/summer 2010 collection which he says will combine ‘something slick with something tattered…  a style adjustment that fits the new world attitude.’ Suzy Menkes of the International Herald Tribune, and the world’s most powerful fashion writer, commented of his autumn/winter 2009 presentation in February: ‘This is a show that seemed modern.’

Although Lynn has designed for Marilyn Manson and Keith Richards, continues to create U2’s tour wardrobe and cites as influences ‘The Cramps and Sisters of Mercy’, his collections combine leftfield edge with a sense of things haute and a wearability. He’s a sharp tailor, first and foremost, and works almost exclusively in monochrome. There are often black leather or fur touches, and there’s an obvious toughness to his work, but at the heart of his collections there is often The Perfect Black Jacket, or the most wonderful 21^st century Power Suit, all catwalked on custom made Louboutin heels. The quality of his menswear and womenswear, assured by top-level factory production in France and extremely limited runs (each item is numbered), is near couture standard.

Fashion and rock culture have, since the 50s, made for a passionate, if rowdy, bonding. In recent years the American designer John Varvatos has used leftfield rock stars (Franz Ferdinand, Ryan Adams and Cheap Trick) in the ad campaigns for his pared down, contemporary tailoring. Last winter’s Comme des Garçons Homme Plus collection was themed on the Sex Pistols, borrowing from a punk history that had already fused Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm Mclaren’s early sartorial exploits with the sounds of the Silver Jubilee. For this spring, rap star Kanye West collaborated with Louis Vuitton’s menswear designer, Paul Helbers, to launch a range of single-coloured sports shoes geared towards the Miami lounge bar more than the tennis court.

Other designers who are consistently inspired by rock style but interpret it in a very grown up, luxury, wearable way include Paula Thomas of Thomas Wylde, and John Richmond. For this summer Thomas showed soft layered dresses reminiscent of Ossie Clark, but with a skull print in the chiffon and press stud shoulders – feminine but dramatic. John Richmond started out in the 80s as one half of the wild, Taboo-era label Richmond Cornejo, and now shows his own label men’s and women’s collections in Milan. His palette, like those of Lynn and Thomas, includes lots of black. ‘I come from Manchester where everything is dark anyway,’ he says. ‘Versace grew up in Mediterranean light so colours look wonderful, but to me colour looked grim.’ Richmond, one of Stephen Webster’s favourite designers, describes himself as a ‘frustrated musician’, and takes most of his inspiration from ‘glam rock and punk.’ ‘Seeing David Bowie on Top of the Pops was like Paul on the road to Damascus,’ he says. His collections feature whisper-thin, angular noir sur le noir suits, but there are also sensual draped and folded liquid-silhouette evening dresses and gold sequin shifts – echoes of the glam rock of the 70s that offset the darker rock and roll era of CBGB and assorted fatalities within the confines of the Chelsea Hotel in New York City.

Rock and roll luxe blends together the magpie with the goth. Damien Hirst’s For the Love of God, a now iconic human skull covered with diamonds valued at £12mn, is a paradigm of the style: outre; dark and expensive. Frivolous too. It doesn’t so much flirt with bad taste as lift up its skirt and goose it.

It’s also a style that’s crossed from fashion into interiors. The bedrooms at Sanctum, the Soho boutique hotel opened earlier this year by music manager Mark Fuller, feature a mix of plush dark textiles and lurex-like flash details, including door handles encrusted with crystal. Room service includes amps and guitars. Fuller believes that rock and roll style isn’t so much a ‘look’ as a ‘state of mind.’ ‘I think rock and roll is what you feel,’ he says. ‘Sanctum is a hybrid of the best hotels in the world, including the Mondrian in Los Angeles, which is entirely white, so not what you could imagine as being rock and roll. But you have to couple it up with the social side of things, which is why there’s a hot tub for 8 people on the roof of Sanctum. It’s about hedonism.’

After Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood – who knows a thing or two about hedonism – left his wife Jo last year, Jo decided to launch a wedding business in the ample back garden of their rambling gothic Richmond Park mansion, Holmwood. She also set up a pop-up restaurant in her dining room with the not so much arresting as banged-to-rights name of Mrs Paisley’s Lashings. She announced that it would run through the mid-summer months, with a menu by Arthur Potts Dawson of Acorn House. Wood’s pop-up enterprise was intended to echo her main business, the Jo Wood Organics cosmetics range – the 21^st century rock chic doesn’t OD and nod off, she has an organic allotment and the keenest business sense.

Most guests booking for an evening of Mrs Paisley’s Lashings were, of course, primarily interested in a poke around Holmwood. A visit reveals a classic rock star pile: vast velvet sofas; wood panelled rooms and hallways; scores of oil paintings; suits of armour and a snooker room lined with gold discs aplenty. ‘That’s a Grayson Perry above the bar,’ says Jo, gesturing to a panoramic framed sketch above the fully stocked centre of the saloon. ‘It was a gift from Mick.’ Holmwood is a prime example of a shamelessly louche aesthetic that implies many a visit to an auction house or Clignancourt with a ‘fuck it, I’ll take the lot’ attitude, and a bank balance to match. It’s the kind of house that demands a party, which is another aspect of rock and roll luxe. It may be brash at times, but it’s certainly out for a good time.

There is a part of the new, post-maximilast tendency in interiors that embraces those good times, even if they’re apparently in short supply elsewhere. Mogul, a design company based in Los Angeles, has recently carved a niche for providing ‘fashion for your home’, and the brand’s aesthetic is absolutely in tune with the likes of Holmwood – particularly the Mogul Rock and Roll Bed, with a huge hooded headboard in distressed black leather with Chesterfield-style buttoning. Elsewhere there are sofas with Italianate chrome backs and a dramatic, perhaps even demonic, finely crafted black leather canopy chair with a carved skull at the top of its frame; a piece of furniture that would be splendid as a single dark accent in a space with theatrical scale.

Not all rock and roll interiors are so obvious. Molteni & C Dada, the Italian furniture company which started out life 45 years ago with a selection of Aldo Rossi pieces and now showcases designs by Jean Nouvel at its recently opened flagship stores in London and New York, launched a range of textile pieces with Vivienne Westwood last year. Westwood’s Squiggle print, which has also been used to great effect by the Rug Company on its products, appears on their Freestyle sofa, Glove chair, Domino pouf and on two sizes of cushion, in five different colourways. It’s an elegant, graphic print, inspired in part by the luxury-infatuated French Merveilleuses, but it has a darker, subcultural rock pedigree: the print was launched as part of the Pirates collection, Westwood and McLaren’s first real London catwalk presentation in 1981 under their World’s End label. Although it was a billowing, new romantic U-turn from their previously spiky punk work, it was still fashion for the young and the wildly rebellious; the pair were dressing the same urchins – or at least those that had survived the 70s – but in different clothes.

Just as Westwood’s work passed from underground to overground, so the late Stephen Sprouse – famed for dressing Blondie and the Warhol set – took his fluoro and graffiti style into interiors. Before his untimely death in 2004, he produced a range of textiles for Knoll, including Techno Tweed and a variety of prints based on the dayglo Warhol camouflage patterns he’d used for his mens- and womenswear previously. They are still available today – all of the seating at the rooftop lounge at the LES hotel in New York, which opened at the end of last year, is covered in the orange Graffiti Camo print – and earlier this year Jeffrey Deitch staged a retrospective of Sprouse’s work in fashion and on canvas at his SoHo New York gallery. At the same time as the Deitch Projects show, Louis Vuitton debuted a limited edition collection featuring Sprouse’s distinctive scrawl, which sold out within days.

The overgrounding of rock and roll style, an inherently underground movement, continues apace. It’s now a part of the fabric of modern luxe. As Stephen Webster says, ‘The luxury consumer in the 21st century tends to make more emotional choices that fit with their own lifestyle rather than wanting something because it is expensive or an investment. My “rock and roll” pieces sell well as they tend to make an emotional connection with our customers.’

If further evidence was needed, it was seen at the Governors Ball at the White House in February. The First Lady, Michelle Obama, made an entrance wearing a just-the-safe-side-of-avant-garde jumble of pearls by Tom Binns, a rock and roll jeweler through and through who started his career with the aforementioned McLaren and Westwood in London and whose last collection included a necklace with faux pearls and gold tone safety pins called Rhythm of Cruelty. With tough times ahead and ‘a new world attitude’ in place, it seems only fitting that there’s a bit of rock and roll style and spirit in the White House.

STOCKISTS/CONTACTS

www.garrard.com

www.jowoodorganics.com

www.johnrichmond.com

www.johnvarvatos.com

www.knoll.com

www.louisvuitton.com

Mogullife.com

www.molteni.it

www.sanctumsoho.com

www.stephenwebster.com

www.therugcompany.info

thomaswylde.com

www.toddlynn.com

www.tombinnsdesign.com

www.viviennewestwood.com

Dù cuộc khủng hoảng kinh tế vẫn còn bao phủ, nhưng các công ty kinh doanh mặt hàng thời trang cao cấp trên thế giới vẫn chưa thực hiện biện pháp sa thải nhân viên trình độ cao.

Thậm chí một số công ty còn tuyển thêm nguồn nhân lực này nhằm đón đầu cho việc kinh tế thế giới khởi sắc trở lại.

Một cửa hàng túi xách của Hermès tại Paris, Pháp

Tính đến nay, các công ty kinh doanh các mặt hàng cao cấp như công ty nữ trang Van Cleef & Arpels, đồng hồ Thụy Sĩ Parmigiani Fleurier, xe hơi Rolls-Royce… đang tìm mọi cách để kiểm soát chi phí trong điều kiện thị trường sụt giảm. Thế nhưng, biện pháp cắt giảm nhân sự thường ít được nhắc đến do họ thường phải mất nhiều năm đào tạo để có một nhân viên lành nghề.

Patrick Thomas, tổng giám đốc Công ty Hermès chuyên kinh doanh hàng cao cấp trên thế giới, cho biết vẫn tuyển thợ và nhân viên cho các cửa hàng mới của công ty. Trong năm 2008, Hermès đã tuyển thêm 50 – 100 chuyên viên ngành da để đáp ứng nhu cầu hàng túi xách làm bằng tay.

Theo dự kiến, Hermès sẽ tiếp tục thu nhận nhân viên làm việc cho tám cửa hàng mới mở trong năm 2009. Tại Pháp, khoảng 2.000 thợ thủ công về da vẫn có việc làm ổn định tại Hermès.

Van Cleef & Arpels, một trong những nhãn hàng Thụy Sĩ nổi tiếng trong lĩnh vực kim hoàn trên thế giới, chọn phương án không tăng lương thưởng cho bất kỳ nhân viên nào cũng như không tuyển dụng thêm nhân viên trong năm 2009 để đổi lấy việc duy trì việc làm cho các nhân viên hiện hữu. Theo các công ty kinh doanh trong lĩnh vực kim hoàn, việc tuyển thợ kim hoàn khá khó khăn, khi mà thế hệ trẻ ngày nay không còn hứng thú với lao động tay chân mà chỉ muốn làm việc với một máy tính xách tay.

Công ty sản xuất đồng hồ Thụy Sĩ Parmigiani Fleurier khẳng định tay nghề giữ vị trí chủ yếu trong chi phí sản xuất các đồng hồ chất lượng tuyệt hảo, bởi cần phải có 3-4 năm đào tạo cho một đội ngũ có khả năng sản xuất 4.000 chiếc đồng hồ/năm. Vì vậy, việc cắt giảm nhân viên là điều không thể xảy ra tại công ty này.

Đa số các công ty kinh doanh mặt hàng cao cấp tin rằng suy thoái kinh tế rồi sẽ qua đi và nhu cầu hàng cao cấp sẽ tăng trở lại, vì vậy với đội ngũ nhân viên lành nghề, họ lại sẽ nhanh chóng trở lại thời hoàng kim trước đây nên không thể mạo hiểm chọn kế sách cắt giảm việc làm!

ĐAN THY (Theo Reuters)

A edição de agosto da Vogue Paris é um presente. Em uma edição magnífica, dessas que se fazem obrigatóriamente necessárias. A revista trás um editorial  com as 64 marcas mais importantes do mercado de moda atual, compostos por imagens icônicas de a cada uma delas, fotografado pela dupla do momento: Inez Van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin.

A referência aos anos 80 pode ser claramente percebida na diagramação, no estilo das fontes e na produção de alguns editoriais, como no editoril com a modelo Iris Strubegger,  fotografado por Patrick Demarchelier com  as principais marcas de jóias do momento. Tudo impecável!

‘ADN de la Mode‘
Fotógrafos: Inez Van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin
Modelos: Lily D., Iris, Eniko, Dree Hemingway, Anna J., Daria, Edita, Isabeli Fontana, Sessilee Lopez, Lara Stone, Raquel Z., Anja Rubik, Garrett Neff, Natasha Poly, Shalom Harlow plus more.

[imagens: reprodução]

Une fois de plus, j’ai été invitée à vivre une expérience unique chez Van Cleef & Arpels, en découvrant les dernières collections de Joaillerie Créative et de Haute Joaillerie Oiseaux de Paradis et California Rêverie. Suivez-moi…

Pièces de Joaillerie Créative “Oiseaux de Paradis”

Une légende raconte que l’Oiseau de Paradis flotte dans les airs et ne redescend jamais sur terre. Il se nourrit de la rosée du ciel. Amoureux accompli au plumage flamboyant, il parade avec grâce et raffinement. Libre et insaisissable, l’Oiseau de Paradis inspire aujourd’hui Van Cleef & Arpels qui retranscrit sa beauté majestueuse et délicate dans une collection lumineuse, stylisée et aérienne.

Silhouettes graciles, volutes de plumes, arabesques, cascades de pierres exceptionnelles aux couleurs éclatantes et subtiles composent un univers à la fois figuratif et abstrait,  empreint de mouvement, de raffinement et de subtilités techniques propres à la Haute Joaillerie.

Depuis sa création, la Maison tente de retranscrire la beauté imperceptible d’une Nature qui suit son cours, libre et spontanée. Insaisissable, affranchi des contraintes de la gravité, l’oiseau est l’incarnation même de cette Nature mobile et légère.

Bracelet Oiseaux de Paradis, diamants, saphirs roses

Moi, rêvant de posséder le sublime collier asymétrique “Oiseaux de Paradis” en or blanc, diamants et pampilles de saphirs roses… Merci à Christian a.k.a le Modalogue pour cette photo !

Bague entre-les-doigts Oiseaux de Paradis

 Bague entre-les-doigts Oiseaux de Paradis, portée

Bague entre-les-doigts Oiseaux de Paradis, portée

Collection Joaillerie Créative Oiseaux de Paradis

Bague avec deux oiseaux asymétriques, or rose, diamants blancs et diamants roses, émeraude de 2,67 carats.

Pièces de Haute Joaillerie ”Oiseaux de Paradis”

Motifs d’oreilles Oiseaux de Paradis, saphirs roses et diamants, dégradé de saphirs calibrés allant du bleu au mauve. Yeux faits de saphirs jaunes. Deux saphirs poire exceptionnels, l’un rose (2,06 carats) et l’autre bleu (3,60 carats), sertis sur des chatons mobiles.

Collier couple d’oiseaux de Paradis, émeraudes calibrées, saphir rose, 5 saphirs de couleur. Les ailes des oiseaux sont en Serti Mystérieux de saphirs suiffés en dégradé du bleu au mauve.

Paire de motifs d’oreilles asymétrique, deux oiseaux en plein vol, diamants, saphirs de couleurs, émeraudes et  saphirs roses.

Pièces de Haute Joaillerie ”California Rêverie”

Van Cleef & Arpels vient de révéler en avant-première à Paris et Los Angeles sa nouvelle collection thématique de Haute-Joaillerie 2009 : California Rêverie. Cette collection fait la part belle aux sautoirs colorés et aux bagues cocktail festives. Forte d’une expertise gemmologique reconnue, la Maison centenaire introduit de nouveaux gemmes exceptionnels et joue d’audacieuses combinaisons de pierres précieuses, fines et dures.

Quelques pièces emblématiques…

Une pierre dont les feux peuvent à eux seuls représenter la richesse du coucher de soleil californien est une pierre de caractère sélectionnée par la Maison. Il s’agit d’une opale d’Ethiopie. Mise en majesté sur le clip Paysage d’Opale, cette pierre double face, caractéristique exceptionnelle, pèse 48,09 carats. Serti sur un océan de saphirs parfaitement appairés et rehaussé de deux palmiers en diamants à l’avant, ce clip révèle également à l’arrière un troisième palmier et un ceinture de diamants jaunes : le souci du détail chez Van Cleef & Arpels.

Clip Paysage d’Opale

Le clip California Poppy représente la fleur emblématique de l’Ouest américain autour d’un ensemble exceptionnel de saphirs jaunes poire et d’un saphir vert poire de 6,52 carats. Aérienne et poétique, cette précieuse interprétation de la nature californienne n’est reste pas moins onirique, reflet d’un choix de pierre audacieux.

Clip California Poppy

Associant des motifs de calcédoines taillés sur œuvre, des grenats mandarins, des saphirs bleus et roses et des perles de culture, la Maison réunit un véritable florilège de pierres et de perles pour sublimer le cactus en fleur que l’on trouve dans les déserts californiens.  Pièce ludique et unique, le clip Desert Flower exprime le détail d’une nature émouvante, saisie dans ses moments de délicatesse.

Clip Desert Flower

Et pour prolonger le rêve californien … Quelques créations de Haute Joaillerie tout simplement somptueuses

Collier Gingko

Parure Hibiscus d’Opale

Parure Hibiscus d’Opale

Sautoir Joyful California

Clip Flamingo

Un grand merci à la maison Van Cleef & Arpels…

Article similaire : Une journée à Paris chez Van Cleef & Arpels – 4 juin 2009

I saw an article on shefinds.com about Van Cleef & Arpels and how everybody is copying their Alhambra clover design (starting from Heidi Klum…), and that is why they want to claim the design for themselves. Well, I thought this was a funny comment somebody left on that mini article:

“…Anyone who whines about designer knockoffs is a brand whore who needs the ’status’ association with designer brands in order to validate themselves.”

I don’t know about the “validate themselves” part, but I guess I am a whore, too…sometimes.