A look back at the lovely ladies that graced Chanel No. 5 print ads through the years.
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- Coco Chanel, 1937
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- Lauren Hutton, 1968
Tags : Chanel
Archive for April, 2009
Photo: Courtesy of Warner Bros. France
Audrey Tautou, the new face of No. 5, gets into character for Coco Avant Chanel
A woman with glossy cinnamon-brown skin lies beside a jewel-bright swimming pool in a backless black maillot. The shadow of a passing airplane crosses her body, just as an equally tan man, clad in nothing but a tiny Speedo, materializes out of thin air on the other side of the pool and dives in. Over a delicate vibraphone melody, a breathy female voice says, “I am made of blue sky and golden light. And I will feel this way forever….” The man emerges from the water and disappears; the woman turns to face the sun; a new voice issues an unforgettable invitation: “Share the fantasy. Chanel No. 5.”
The first time I saw those images flash across a TV screen was on a snowy Christmas night in the early ’80s. I was only nine years old, but that commercial blew in on a hot wind from some previously untapped tropical zone in my imagination: All of the things I hoped to experience as a grown-up came to me in a giddy rush—glamour, romance, mystery, luxury, a place that obviously was not Kansas.
I’d never smelled Chanel No. 5; I’d never even heard of it. I had no idea that Ridley Scott directed that particular commercial (as well as an equally memorable Fountainhead-reminiscent follow-up that involved a skyscraper, a train, a woman in a red dress, and a rendition of the Ink Spots’ “I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire”), that the haunting music was by the same composer who scored Chariots of Fire, or that it was a prime example of the kind of advertising alchemy that has long defined the brand. All I knew was that No. 5 stood for something I couldn’t define but very much wanted. To paraphrase Liz Lemon, I wanted to go to there.
Model Stephanie Naumoska, who is 1.8 m tall and weighs 49 kg, poses in a bikini in Sydney. Australian health experts are worried that the Ms Australia Universe contestant is sending out a wrong message. (Agencies)
France has by far the highest proportion of clinically underweight women in Europe, but only half of them think they are too thin, according to a new study.
In other European countries the opposite is true: the number of women in Britain, Spain and Portugal, for example, who see themselves as seriously skinny easily outstrips the number who actually are.
“This shows that what people consider an ideal weight in France is lower than in other countries,” said the study’s author Thibaut de Saint Pol, a researcher at France’s National Institute of Demographic studies, which published the study on Wednesday.
“If a French person who feels fat were to go to the United States,” – which has much higher rate of obesity – “he probably wouldn’t feel fat anymore,” he said.
The study also reveals a big gap, both objective and subjective, between sexes.
In western Europe, the mean weight of men in every country except France and The Netherlands tips the scales into the “overweight” category, according to World Health Organization (WHO) standards.
By contrast, in only three nations do women join the men in crossing that line: Britain, Greece and Portugal. And only among the Dutch does one find more overweight women than men.
France is the one country in which both sexes are solidly in the “normal” weight bracket, and the only one in which more than five percent of women are officially “underweight”.
The universal standard introduced by the WHO for assessing weight is the Body-Mass Index (BMI): one’s weight in kilograms divided by the square of one’s height in meters.
A BMI of 25-to-30 indicates being overweight, while above 30 means one is obese. The range of normal weight is 18.5-to-24.9.
The proportion of overly thin women in France has long been the highest in Europe, but has shrunk from 8.5 percent in 1981, to 7.8 percent in 1992, to 6.7 percent in 2003, according to once-a-decade national surveys.
In that same period, the proportion of underweight French men held steady at just under two percent.
Tags : fashion
Eighty-eight years ago, on 05.05.21, Gabrielle Chanel launched her first fragrance – Chanel No.5. Today, Chanel No.5 is still the world’s best selling fragrance and, according to Chanel, “a product in the Chanel No. 5 portfolio is sold every six seconds.” Because of this legacy, Chanel No.5’s advertising is always the pinnacle of ad campaigns.
It’s been several years since Baz Luhrmann and Nicole Kidman teamed up for the Chanel No. 5 mini film. As we’ve previously reported, Audrey Tautou will be the face of the new Chanel No. 5 campaign – and very fittingly, since she is also cast as Gabrielle Chanel herself in Coco Avant Chanel. Directing Ms. Tatuou is long-time collaborator Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who directed her in her breakthrough film, “Amélie.” Tautou admitted that she has refused offers to represent other fragrances, she stated, “I needed to have a connection with the product.”
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Tags : Chanel
SEOUL — Perhaps the only Korean celebrity missing from Prada’s party Thursday night to mark the launch of the Transformer project was Kim Jong-il. But the North Korean leader, a noted film buff, no doubt would have enjoyed a soiree full of actors on the grounds of a 16th-century Korean palace. Celebrities rubbed shoulders and clinked Champagne glasses with designer Miuccia Prada and Prada’s chief executive Patrizio Bertelli.
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Tags : Prada
PARIS — Fendi enlisted 13 industrial designers to live, breathe and sleep design during “Craft Punk,” an event that began Wednesday during the Salone del Mobile in Milan.
The designers, who hail from as far away as Japan, South Korea and Slovakia, will take up temporary residence in the space where Fendi stages its fashion shows, and have been given carte blanche to create design objects using discarded materials from the Italian brand’s handbag factory in Florence.
Also at their disposal will be 10 Fendi artisans who are bringing their sample-making prowess, having spent years transforming the sketches of Silvia Venturini-Fendi into three-dimensional objects by draping, forming, stitching, stretching and finessing fine leathers.
Tags : Fendi
TOKYO — Chanel opened its first freestanding beauty store here Friday in a bid to make buying lipstick just as luxurious as shopping for a quilted handbag.
The 1,506-square-foot store, designed by Peter Marino, features interiors in Chanel’s signature hues of white, black and beige; plenty of mirrors, and tweed upholstered chairs.
Located on the ground floor of a new shopping and entertainment complex in the trendy Aoyama district, the Chanel store carries the French brand’s full range of fragrance, cosmetics and skin care items.
Chanel Beauty store in Tokyo.
Photo By Courtesy Photo
Photo By Courtesy Photo
Tags : Chanel
MILAN — Valentino Fashion Group forecast an uncertain and difficult year ahead, after operating profits fell 7 percent in 2008, but remains confident in its medium-term growth prospects.
The group, which owns Valentino and Hugo Boss and operates under license Marlboro Classics and M Missoni, said on Friday that operating profits for the 12 months through Dec. 31 decreased to 248.3 million euros, or $365.3 million. VFG did not disclose net earnings.
Consolidated turnover for the year rose 3 percent to 2.21 billion euros, or $3.25 billion. Earnings before interest taxes depreciation and amortization fell 3 percent to 320.4 million, or $471.4 million, adjusted for one-off costs related to management changes at Hugo Boss and group reorganization.
Tags : Volentino
LONDON — Londoners can now get a peep into the kooky, colorful world of Marc by Marc Jacobs. Earlier this month, the label opened its first British store on South Audley Street, nearby to Mount Street, where a Marc Jacobs unit opened in 2007.
The 3,896-square-foot store is located in a space that was once a bank, and boasts parquet wooden floors, high corniced ceilings and bank vaults in the basement — one of which has been converted into a room to display bags and shoes. Shelves of fluorescent T-shirts and jeans line the walls; rucksacks hang from the ceiling, and chrome stands filled with chunky bubble rhinestone rings, red heart-shaped mirror compacts and plastic lipstick pens greet customers at the door.
“I love the heights of the ceilings and I love the space, but I love to fill space with stuff,” said Robert Duffy, president and co-founder of Marc Jacobs International. “And I like it to be entertaining. I love to watch people come in and go through all the nooks and crannies trying to figure out what is in here.”
Marc by Marc Jacobs store in London.
Photo By Tim Jenkins
Photo By Tim Jenkins
Tags : Marc Jacobs
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A model displays an outfit by Ogodor during the Audi Joburg Fashion Week in January, 2009. [Agencies] |
JOHANNESBURG – Designers defied the global economic crisis at this season’s South African fashion week by showing off vibrant outfits with hints of tradition inspired by a golden era of African civilisation.
Stoned Cherrie, South Africa’s best-known black design label, closed fashion week in Johannesburg with bold colors and fabrics reminiscent of royalty, influenced by the ancient Mapungubwe civilisation from southern Africa.
“Stoned Cherrie is about abundance,” Nkhensani Nkosi told Reuters after the show, which featured models bedecked in brightly colored dresses covered with frills, mixing fabrics such as mesh, lycra and a delicate silky cotton.
“Inspired by the curiosity around Mapungubwe, we basically tried to imagine what it would have been like in the present day,” she added.
Mapungubwe is believed to have developed into the largest kingdom in sub-Saharan Africa before it was abandoned in the 14th century and may have boasted sophisticated trade links with India and China as far back as a thousand years ago.
Fashion in post-apartheid South Africa reflects the country’s journey from pariah state to a multiracial democracy, as young designers like Nkosi mirror the country’s diversity and growing cultural confidence.
Not so long ago, designers — both black and white — would often simply mimic European trends. But in recent years, new labels like Stoned Cherrie have combined indigenous African fabrics with sleek modern lines or funky streetwear.
Stoned Cherrie, known for its T-shirts adorned with iconic prints of political leaders like Steve Biko, also has global ambitions, and recently held its first show in New York to what Nkosi said was a “fantastic reception.”
The show in Johannesburg at the weekend was packed.
Nkosi said she was determined not to let the global financial crisis, which has dulled demand for haute couture from Paris to Tokyo, temper the optimism at the heart of her collection.
Fellow designer Uyanda Mbuli, who exhibited her Diamond Face Couture label at fashion week, echoed Nkosi’s sentiments.
“Just because there’s an economic meltdown doesn’t mean that consumers aren’t buying clothes,” Mbuli said, adding her one-year-old business had not been affected. “It’s just that their buying decisions are now backed by intellect. They seek value.”
–article from chinadaily.