Yoga, pens, rollerskates and vomit bags feature in a round-up of recent luxury brand extensions
#1 BMW launches a yoga fashion line — (Via CanWest)
#2 Davidoff expands into watches pens and luggage — (Via ClassicDriver)
#3 Rather unexpectedly, Lamborghini releases a vomit bag — (Via MotorTrend)
#4 Armani’s roller-skate — (Via Emporio Armani)
Chanel exploits the growing trend of architecture as luxury brand communication as its UFO pavilion begins its two year global tour in Hong Kong…
This UFO may be mobile, but it doesn’t yet move at hyperspeed. The 2,300-square-foot Hadid structure was built in Yorkshire in the United Kingdom. It weighs 180 tons and was shipped to Asia in 700 pieces, each no bigger than an inch or so thick and about seven feet wide, then assembled in Hong Kong over the course of a month. Organizers predict that it will take two weeks to disassemble and about three weeks to ship to the next stop - Tokyo. From there it will continue on a six-city tour that runs until early 2010, traveling to New York, London, Moscow, and, finally, Paris. — (Via ArtInfo)
The Times theorizes that the choice of Carla Bruni to wear Dior last week in London was a piece of strategic luxury marketing worth $2M .
Political opponents of her husband believe they can detect the subtle hand of Bernard Arnault, France’s richest businessman with a personal fortune of £13 billion, in helping to give one of his companies a boost through his good friend, the president. — (Via The Times, UK)
After days of speculation about the new Marc Jacobs New Enthusiasm campaign, the new Jurgen Teller-esque campaign is reveals as a ‘tribute’ from a creative agency, Hart + Larsson. Fashion industry, meet viral marketing…
For the last two days, legions of Internet fashionistas have been abuzz with reports of an online spoof of Marc Jacobs’ Jurgen Teller-shot print advertisements. The Jurgen/Jacobs collaboration recently made news with shots of Victoria Beckham, also known as Posh Spice, in compromising positions.The Flash images at Thenewenthusiasm.com feature two wigged men dressed in late-1970s-style tennis gear reminiscent of the Richie Tenenbaum character in Wes Anderson’s 2001 film The Royal Tenenbaums. One shot features a man in a floral dress that looks as though it belong in a past Jacobs’ collection. — (Via Forbes)
Luxury fashion brands have taken steps towards democratizing their appeal to consumers; suggesting that the collaborative relationship between brands and consumers is beginning to spread to the luxury sector; where brands have often felt that collaborating with consumers risks breaking the spell of aspiration…
The new Gucci store website allows consumers to upload photos of themselves with a Gucci accessory and thier favorite NY location and explain why its special… (Via GucciLovesNY.com)
And Yves Saint Laurent, under the Stefano Pilati is to continue its combination of print advertising and a booklet ‘manifesto handed out directly to people on the street.
Pilati sees the booklet as the continuation of Yves Saint Laurent’s legacy of using a democratic approach to deliver luxury branding to the consumer branding. The designer was always known for his original approach to fashion marketing, being the first major label to use a black model and showing at the Stade de France in Paris. — (Via The Telegraph, UK)
The YSL manifesto initiatives begin simultaneously in London and Milan on 23rd February, moves to Tokyo on 24th February, and finish in both New York and Paris on 27th February.
Meanwhile, Selfridges and Agent Provocateur use that most democratic of strategies, putting naked models in the store windows facing consumers as they walk past… *WARNING NOT SAFE FOR WORK* (Via The Sun, UK)
The Murakami exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles has created a spirited and enthusiastic debate on the relationship between commercial and curated art.
To advertise the exhibition a billboard was put up on Melrose Avenue - but was then tagged by a street artist known as Revok. After two days, the billboard disappeared, to the disappointment of everyone that had seen it. At the time it was thought that MOCA was responsible for removing the ‘defaced’ billboard, or that Murakami himself had protested.
Now, via LA Weekly, comes the answer.
“It turns out, was Murakami, whose Kaikai Kiki studio found the evidence via the Internet and had the billboard surreptitiously removed. Murakami buffing billboards all the way from Japan? On the contrary, according to his representatives, he found it “so wonderful, he had to have it for his collection.” Our billboard is now on its way to Tokyo.”
– (Via LA Weekly)
Marvellous.
Luxury hotels in Paris are taking a distinctly un-luxurious approach to guest service innovation - in the form of bicycles. The Dorchester Group have created hotel-branded guest bicycles for their two Paris locations; Plaza Athenee and Le Meurice.
It’s a retro-chic idea which fits well with the spirit of contemporary Paris and is a surprising, but imaginative approach to new luxury. The bicycles are manufactured by Comete, a new prestige French bicycle brand.
The trend takes off from the runaway success of the Velib last Summer, and a two month exhibition at Colette which launched Paris’ first bicycle film festival.
We’re seeing a growing trend of brands using external collaboration to create ‘mobile’ strategies for alternative brand communication. Here are some examples…
EVISU - Japan’s cult denim brand Evisu is sending luxury raw selvedge jeans on a year long trip to create the authentic natural wear that fascinates denim obsessives. The project is called Dirty Dozen + 1 (Visit the DD+1 Blog)
CHANEL + ART - Chanel’s vision of mobile art is a “contemporary art container”, a futuristic traveling art pavilion designed by Zaha Hadid. Launches February in Hong Kong. (Visit website)
HERMES + THE HERMES-COPTER - Towards the end of last year, the designers at Hermès teamed up with Eurocopter to create a luxury helicopter to underline their new ‘travel’ strategy (See video of Hermes-copter)
HERMES + THE H BOX - Hermès has also sponsored a touring video exhibition, which has just closed at the Pompidou Center in Paris before beginning a Europe-wide tour. (Details Here) (List Of Video Artists Involved)
