Yves Saint Laurent will introduce a collector’s edition bottle of its classic, ever-popular fragrance Opium at the end of this month. Now celebrating its 31st year, Opium’s familiarly exotic and rich notes of mandarin, myrrh and amber will be housed in a new, red-lacquered bottle, decorated at the back with the infamous YSL signature. £51, at Yves Saint Laurent counters nationwide from the end of September.
“Unfortunately, it’s extremely timely,” Marc Jacobs said of his Yves Saint Laurent-inflected Resort collection. Nods to the master were evident in the piped robe-style pieces—offered in a deep, exotic palette of magenta, green, and royal blue—as well as in the outsize heart necklaces. (There were heart prints and appliqués, too: For resort, Jacobs is clearly a lover, not a fighter.) The collection wasn’t an homage per se, as everything was filtered through Jacobs’ sensibility, which is ever on the pulse and not without humor. “If Yves Saint Laurent designed Escada, it might look like this,” he joked.
Tags : Marc Jacobs
Chanel Cruise Venice 2009/2010 Teaser
Chanel Cruise shows are legendary for their exotic, vacation-worthy locales. Last year, Chanel showed its resort collection in Miami. Since then, it’s been rumored that the 2009/2010 Chanel Cruise show would take place in Venice but with the economy the way it is and with Uncle Karl declaring that “luxury is over” it was doubtful whether the show would go on. Lucky for us, it is!
Chanel released two trailers of the Venice show – they’re just teasers but I can’t wait to see more! This show will definitely not disappoint! View the trailers below.
Tags : Chanel, Collection, Style, Vogue
Today is Mother’s day in the United States, Canada, Brazil and other several countries around the globe. The modern Mother’s day is a holiday created by Anna Jarvis, as a day for each family to honor its mother’s.
Later in the life, Anna Jarvis had become soured on the commercialization of the holiday and once wrote “A printed card means nothing except that you are too lazy to write to the woman who has done more for you than anyone in the world. And candy! You take a box to Mother—and then eat most of it yourself. A pretty sentiment!”
Anna never married and had no children herself, but she created this holiday to remember us, about something we should naturally remember, that every single day is mother’s day.
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Tags : fashion
In Depth: World’s Most Powerful Luxury Brands
Even in the depths of a dark recession, luxury isn’t such a bad place to be.
While not entirely immune, the industry’s biggest names–including Louis Vuitton, Hermès and Chanel–continue to succeed. This is according to the annual Millward Brown BrandZ ranking of the Top 100 Most Powerful Brands, a list that covers 50,000 brands worldwide, released April 29.
In the luxury category, Louis Vuitton came out on top, with a brand value of $19.4 billion, followed by Hermès at $7.86 billion, Gucci ( PPRUF – news - people ) at $7.47 billion, Chanel at $6.22 billion and Rolex at $5.53 billion.
Behind the Numbers
To rank the brands, market research company Millward Brown used the BrandZ database of its parent company, WPP ( WPPGY – news - people ), which owns several marketing, advertising and public relations firms, among others. Some brands on the list are clients of WPP’s companies, but the database is the world’s largest repository of brand equity data, according to WPP, and includes interviews with more than 1 million consumers globally.
Consumers were asked about their loyalty to each brand and also about their attitudes toward the future of the brand (for example, whether or not its stock will increase in value or its sales will increase). The BrandZ ranking also considers the dollar values of the company. In 2009, Google ( GOOG – news - people ) topped the complete list with a brand value of $100 billion.
While the top three brands held their 2008 positions, high-fashion Chanel crept up one spot, while fine jeweler Cartier dropped from fourth place to seventh with a 2009 value of $4.91 billion.
Cartier’s somewhat dramatic fall has a lot to do with the fact that, while luxury handbags and shoes still seem to be selling, ultra-expensive investment items–such as $1 million, diamond-encrusted Cartier watches–aren’t faring so well.
“Brands that offer luxury treats–glasses, belts, handbags, etc.–are less vulnerable,” says Nikhil Gharekhan, senior vice president at Millward Brown.
Although the dollar value of most of these brands has decreased–Louis Vuitton’s, for instance, dropped by $6.34 billion from $25.74 billion in 2008–their standing on the overall list remains solid because luxury brands have weathered the financial storm better than their mid-market counterparts. It has a lot to do with branding positioning. In other words, right now, consumers want to shop, but not as much–even if they can afford to do so. That means that they’re buying one luxury handbag for $1,500 rather than five less-expensive handbags at $300 each.
Leather retailer Coach ( COH – news - people ), for example, is suffering as a result. The mid-market retailer, positioned between Liz Claiborne ( LIZ – news - people ) and Kate Spade on the price spectrum, did not wield the brand power to make the list. In its most recent quarter, the company’s year-over-year sales decreased by 6.7% to $740 million. Earnings were down 24% to $123 million.
Unprecedented Resilience
The top two luxury brands–Louis Vuitton and Hermès–show resilience, says Milton Pedraza, chief executive of the Luxury Institute, a New York-based market research company focusing on the ultra-affluent, not just because of brand positioning, but careful business considerations. “[The executives behind] Louis Vuitton and Hermes absolutely control every single component of their business model, from retail distribution to discounting,” he says.
Indeed, even when Saks Fifth Avenue ( SKS – news - people ) went on a markdown rampage last fall, offering 70% reductions on several high-end brands, including shoemaker Manolo Blahnik and Prada, items at the Louis Vuitton shop within the luxury department store remained at full price. The only place shoppers can find discounted Hermès or Louis Vuitton is in outlet stores, which carry stock from seasons past. Current-season goods are not marked down–no exceptions.
The policy is reflected in both companies’ sales results. At luxury conglomerate Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, year-over-year sales in the fashion and leather goods sector–of which Louis Vuitton is a part–increased by 11% to 1.6 billion euros ($2.1 billion) in the first quarter of 2009. LVMH said that both Louis Vuitton’s new Damier Graphite and Stephen Sprouse collections sold particularly well. And while reports of LVMH selling off its wine and spirits brands to British drink maker Diageo ( DEO – news - people ) for 12 billion euros ($15.5 billion) may have been vehemently denied, even the whispers prove the company is willing to shed extra weight.
Not So Precious
While luxury fashion and accessory brands seem to be irrepressible right now, jewelry has taken a major hit. Cartier is still the most valued jewelry brand in the world, though its luster dulled a bit in 2009. Not only did its status slip in this particular ranking, but the brand’s parent company, Richemont, said year-over-year jewelry sales decreased by 12% to 800 million euros ($1.1 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2008.
Other high-end jewelers have suffered worse, though: Fortunoff, Doris Panos Designs and Fred Leighton have all filed for bankruptcy protection in recent months.
One brand that fell out of the top 10 in 2009 is Giorgio Armani, which ranked eighth last year, with a value of $5.12 billion. Today, that value has dropped by $2.02 billion to $3.1 billion. While Armani the man is still a billionaire–with a net worth valued at $2.8 billion, Pedrazza says the company’s multiple brand extensions, including Armani Casa, Armani Hotels and AX Armani Exchange, have stretched it a bit too thin.
Says Pedrazza, “It’s not unique and exclusive anymore.” Which seems to be the key to prospering–in good times and bad alike.
Photo By: Steve Eichner
Ashley Olsen
The ruby, gold and diamond “Taj Mahal” necklace that Richard Burton famously gave to Elizabeth Taylor, with stones that are said to have been owned by the maharajah. A blinged out watch from Elton John. And the 231 carat diamond from Steve Wynn that was heavy enough to sink a small ship.
All were on display Thursday night at the Cartier 100 year retrospective in New York, at a party attended by more celebrities than the Golden Globes. Kate Hudson, Rachel Weisz, Demi Moore, Jessica Biel, Justin Timberlake, and Anne Hathaway were just some of the boldfacers sipping champagne and craning their necks to get a peek at the various baubles on display. Even Patti Smith showed up.
“It’s not as strange as you might think,” said America’s most famous punk rock chick. “When I first signed with Clive Davis, my manager Jane Friedman gave me a Cartier watch,” Smith said. “They sponsored my art exhibit and my small film. And they gave me this beautiful watch.”
Some people weren’t so sure about the Wynn diamond (“It’s so big you almost assume it’s costume jewelry,” laughed one attending fashionista) but not Kate Hudson. She walked right up to the case and began caressing it. Then she took a picture with her BlackBerry. “I’m going to send it to my mom,” she said.
Hathaway said she wouldn’t have dared miss the event. “I have a relationship with Cartier,” she said. “They lent me my Oscar jewels.”
Tags : Vogue
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
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