Best Luxury news from 2013
Reading Time: 2 minutes Johnnie Walker Double black – The taste of black.
Luxury Activist takes the holiday season as an opportunity for thematic flashbacks on the most popular articles, news and reviews of 2013. In this session, find here the 5 most popular articles in 2013 in Luxury. Good reading.
Johnnie Walker Double black – The taste of black. 
Johnnie Walker launched an amazing Black label series in the pure tradition of the best whiskeys.
http://luxuryactivist.com/luxury/johnnie-walker-double-black-the-taste-of-black
When Luxury brands become the new cultural references
When brand stores get more visitors than museums or monuments, it means they became a cultural reference for the country or city in which they are established. Check out here how luxury brands became such references.
http://luxuryactivist.com/luxury/when-luxury-brands-become-the-new-cultural-references
Noël Joyeuse obsession by Prada – Printemps Department store
Every christmas, Printemps Department store in Paris surprises us and amazes us with great Christmas operations in partnership with luxury houses. This year, it is with Prada that they brought the magic of Christmas to Paris. Check out this amazing operation. Purely luxury.
http://luxuryactivist.com/fashion/noel-joyeuse-obsession-by-prada-printemps-department-store
Cartier winter tale 2013, the panther is out!
Cartier is doing an amazing work in terms of luxury communication. It is beautiful, inspiring and the story-telling is just magical. Check out the new chapter for this Christmas.
http://luxuryactivist.com/luxury/cartier-winter-tale-2013-the-panther-is-out
Victorinox Explorer Damast Limited Edition
Victorinox is known to manufacture the best qualitative products in the world. Here is the tribute to the memory of Mr Carl Elsener Senior who left us last summer. It is a beautiful Damascus limited edition. Check our review here:
http://luxuryactivist.com/luxury/victorinox-explorer-damast-limited-edition-2013
Happy holiday season
LA
Info sourced at luxuryactivist.com. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available.
The Art of Detail by Superdry
Reading Time: 3 minutes
What makes the difference between a nice outfit and a great outfit? It’s not only the fabric quality or the cut; it’s the attention to detail. This is what Superdry proposes to us by way of their collaboration with Timothy Everest.
Together they have reached new heights of style with their Men and Women lines. On one side is a British brand, well known for its unique urban clothing style mixing American vintage and Japanese graphics with the values of British tailoring. On the other hand is a bespoke tailor, trained by Savile Row icon Tommy Nutter, leader of the ‘New Bespoke Movement’ who is running an atelier in Spitalfields market and a store on Bond Street.
But what can a famous British manufacturer and a traditional bespoke tailor have in common?
“I knew of Timothy’s work,” says James Holder, Superdry’s design director. “But I suppose I hadn’t seen what we might have in common.”
“Timothy is all about that Savile Row tailoring tradition,” adds Julian Dunkerton, Superdry’s CEO, “whereas we’re known for hoodies, jeans and T-shirts.”
“The more we talked, the more we realised we had much in common”, says Everest. “Superdry’s inspiration, like mine, can come from a variety of stuff that has nothing to do with fashion, but plenty to do with style. And we both have a fervour for fit, detailing and impeccable quality.”
Both have an attention to detail, which is a traditional English tailoring heritage and also “a very Japanese trait” as remarks Everest. In the spirit of focus on detailing, they introduced coloured buggy linings, loops for trailing headphones, old-school flower stem holders, ticket pocket (another traditional English culture heritage), secret pockets in trousers or adjustable straps for changing the fit of jackets and trousers.
Timothy Everest brings his inimitable razor-sharp tailoring. The results are two stunning icons focused collections (icons from the Sixties for the men and versatile iconic looks for women) that propose stylish and sharp separates. Discover the mens suits line and the womens collection on Superdry TV.
The idea, Everest explains, was to create capsule collections that could be “cut with the existing Superdry collection of jeans and T-shirts”. About future plans with Superdry, he adds “I want tailoring to become more normal and accessible”.
We are looking forward to the next stage.
JC Verro
Info sourced by the author exclusively for LuxuryActivist.com. Sources: “Summit meeting” by Peter Howarth, published in Superdry newspaper #1, 2013 “Cut from the same cloth” by Fiona McAuslan, published in Superdry newspaper #2, 2013. Pictures courtesy of Superdry. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available.
Chanel, an icon of provocation? Please don’t.
Reading Time: 6 minutes
Some brands are associated almost forever with some stars. From Audrey Hepburn with Givenchy towards Gwyneth Paltrow and Prada. Some associations are for ever elegantly timeless. Unfortunately others should be avoid! And in this case, we should talk about Chanel and some pop singers. Frankly, some of them should be forbidden as it hurts so much the image of the brand. Check it out.
Rihanna, Sex sells.
Rihanna is definitely the one who started this Chanel mania. Not only she shows, as above, that she is a good customer of Chanel, but she adds several accessories from the Brand into her video clips. She is the young daughter of the Bling-Bling generation. It started with artists like Puff Daddy or Kanye West. The goal was to “possess” luxury. The more expensive, the more with Diamonds and the bigger the logos… the better. Rihanna is a second generation of Bling-Bling. She dreamed of the celebrity status of her “older brothers” and basically makes a superficial consumption of luxury. She would completely justify Alain Bourdieu’s conspicuous sign of wealth theory. She does not wear Chanel because of her lifestyle, she wears Chanel because she can afford it. Probably many people around the world do the same, the problem with Rihanna, is that you can see her on TV . Here below an image taken from one of her recent video clips. She is wearing a Chanel accessory to complete her look of…. well, I let you complete the sentence.
In the below image, we can say that there is no need to explain the shocking attitude and the Chanel logo… This different images places Chanel into the level of a overrated consumption style that is so cheap. Not so sure if the loyal Chanel customer would recognize themselves into it.
Miley Cyrus, from Disney to bitchy-land.
Many people criticize Miley Cyrus for erasing her image of Disney fairy to become more a Queen of provocation. In this article and at Luxuryactivist, we do not really care about this point as it is all about entertainment. But what we should highlight is the amazing usage of Chanel by her. It is almost a full sponsor as in almost her appearances and performances she wears something from the French luxury brand. Here above we can see a picture made at the Chanel store, basically, answering to Rihanna’s picture. It is like “I can also buy Chanel”. She probably has an inferiority complex towards Rihanna, because she is basically doing everything Rihanna does.
In every show she performs, she presents herself with a different Chanel accessory. And we cannot say it is all about good taste! Not really. Most of her shows are the reflexion of a “bling-bling-cheap” generation based on consumption and being a celebrity. Here below you can see Miley Cyrus wearing a white Chanel accessory and the second picture is even worse: She is smoking drugs and showing her Chanel bag. I do not know what true Chanel customers would say. By using Chanel, she is proving that she is a real successful celebrity with a lot of money.
Here in the below image, we can see another Miley Cyrus look. The Chanel bag would never be chosen by her if you could not see the big double C. It makes Chanel so cheap that you could think it is a fake one.
Lady Gaga, it is all about everything and its contrary.
Lady Gaga became a true phenomenon. She was elected as the most influential person in the world by Time magazine last year. We got used to her extravagance and frankly there is a lot of intelligence behind all her moves. She is well surrounded and plays her career as a true global brand. Everything is calculated and build to the success of her image. That’s fine, but look the outrage of her outfit here above. The Chanel logo is played as a carnival disguise. Again, a lot of Bad taste.
The Chanel logo became an Icon of provocation
Several companies and even stars uses the Chanel logo as an icon of provocation and contrast. Of course when the Brand itself makes surfboards of other snowboards with the big double C, it is more a “clin d’oeil”. But here, it is all about bad taste. By using the ultimate luxury brand in a provocative way, they have a kind of paradox that makes the exercise interesting. Interesting for who?
Here above. Do you recognize who it is? Get some help here: it is Justin Bieber. Now, we reach the level of middle-age darkness or just trying to make something not really defined. Fortunately this kind of images does not stay but it would definitely put me far away from the brand. Does the brand even knows about all these usages of its logo? Is Chanel ok with all of these? Hard to believe that the white Camelia brand would support all these initiatives. We can even find websites proposing very eccentric T-shirts with strange usage of the Chanel Logo. Not sure how far this is legal. As it is the case of this website: http://www.etsy.com. They have an entire section of products merchandised with the Chanel logo on it. Some of them have a very “specific” usage of the Chanel logo.
Can the Chanel brand allow this? Probably I am getting old, but surely that there is a problem here. Of course, Chanel cannot forbid people to buy products from them. Or it is completely forbidden to select who can enters your shop or not. All these stars can do whatever they want in their private lives. The problem here is that the Brand Chanel is used almost exclusively in these celebrities public lives. Miley Cyrus uses more Chanel accessories on stage than in her private life. The same for Rihanna, etc… So there is a commercial benefit based on a profitable activity that should represent a problem for Chanel. It is almost product placement strategies.
If someone from Chanel wishes to bring some light into this darkness, (s)he is more than welcome to let a comment here below. We know that there is a collaboration ongoing with Rihanna. Last june it was announced by Chanel, Anyway, what we can see is that money can buy many things but it does not buy “good taste”.
LA
Info sourced at fashionartandmusic.com, pmchollywoodlife.files.wordpress.com, handbag.com, etsy.com. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available.
Luxury Watches selection. The Christmas wish-list.
Reading Time: 5 minutes
2013 was an amazing year for the Swiss Timepiece industry. Between the SIHH in Geneva and Baselword in Basel, it was again, another great year for Swiss ingenuity. The holiday season is already taken place and Christmas is just almost here. So here is our watch wish-list, with some great masterpieces you do not want to miss. Did we miss something? Just add it in the comments.
Zenith Academy Christophe Colomb Hurricane Watch, a true journey
The first version of this watch was released in 2010. This year Zenith, fine watchmaker of Le Locle, launched an amazing version. It is always easily recognizable thanks to the big glass bubble placed at the 6 o’clock position. It is the position of the gyroscope-balanced regulator.
The dial on this new limited edition watch is partially skeletonized. The 45 mm case is finished in rose gold with AR coated sapphire crystal and is attached to a brown alligator leather strap with 18k rose gold triple folding clasp. The biggest innovation here is the constant force mechanism which looks like a bicycle chain and a conical cam. Movement is the in-house El Primero 8805 hand-wound mechanical with 50 hours of power reserve.
Price: 280.000$ | Zenith
Parmigiani Fleurier Ovale Pantographe, detail matters.
The hands of the Pantographe are telescopic, flexing, that extend and retract, adjusting size to the oval shaped of the casing. A cam at the center of the movement determines a certain length, the measurement provides the information required to move the hand and adjust it as it moves around the dial. Powering the Pantographe is a hand wound in-house movement running at a frequency of 3Hz, with 28 jewels and 267 total components. Thanks to two-series coupled barrels, the maximum power reserve is 8-days (192-hours). The fully polished oval shaped case measures 45 x 37.6 mm by 12 mm thick and comes in either 18K white or rose gold.
Price: 95.000$ | Parmigiani Fleurier
Jaquet Droz Grand Heure GMT, less is more.
The amazing diamond of the Swatch Group, Jaquet Droz, always surprises us for the superficial simplicity of their timepieces. In deed, the more a timepiece looks simple, the more complex it is inside. According to the Brand: “the Grande Heure GMT pays tribute to Pierre Jaquet-Droz’s many travels with clean lines, a classic design and precious material. This latest model, featuring perfect legibility for two time zones, flawlessly meets the demands of the modern and stylish globe trotter. It offers a simple, precise way to read the time in two time zones.” As you can see, the arabic number indicators are placed from 1 to 24 in the beautiful Ivory Grand feu enameled dial. Each hand shows the precise time in 2 different cities. Never a GMT complication was so easy to read. The mechanism is the Jaquet Droz 5N50.4, self-winding mechanical movement, double barrel, 22-carat white gold oscillating weight. Based on a Frédéric Piguet 1150, it is an ideal mechanism, between weight and diameter. With its 68 hours power reserve, it is the perfect travel companion.
Price: 25,300$ | Jaquet Droz
Cartier Tank MC Skeleton Palladium Watch, tradition meets modernity
It is probably the most masculine version of the Tank collection. With this skeleton version, the Cartier Tank shows a more edgy and mechanical facet like a powerful luxury sports car. It is not the first time at all that Cartier manufactures skeleton versions of its best-sellers. We all remember the amazing Santos skeleton. On the Tank we can see a clear innovative design. In deed the bridges are cleverly shaped as Roman numerals, so it also indicates the hours. The new Tank MC skeleton houses the Calibre 9611 movement designed by Cartier.
With its Palladium case, this timepiece has a subtle elegant luxury touch. As allCartier timepieces with very precious materials, the crown displays a sapphire cabochon.
Price: 40,000$ | Cartier
Romain Gauthier Logical One Watch
Logical One features a triple patent-pending Romain Gauthier flat chain-and-fusee style constant force system with ruby chain links, ergonomic push button winding system, dial-side visible balance, mainspring barrel with sapphire inserts, plus a 60-hour power reserve indicator. Logical One is a limited edition of 20 pieces in both red gold or platinum.
Price: 130.000 $ | Romain Gauthier
Vicenterra Luna Part 1
This is the second creation of Vincent Plomb, independant watchmaker. As the first GMT-3, this timepiece will be appreciated by his fast growing community. Complications differs from the GMT-3 with an original 3D view of the Moon. The base movement is from the House Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier Seed VFM 3002. This calibre has a 42 hours reserve, two barrels in series and its landings contain 28 jewels. The exclusive additional module is developed by Vicenterra.
Price: 16,500$ for a Steel Version | Vicenterra
Arthur Oskar Stampfli The Wheels of Time
Roland Stampfli, a Swiss independant watchmaker, introduced in 2013 a new vision to convey the time. Display information is here similar to traditional Tibetan prayer wheels with a cylinder filled with mantras that freely rotates about an axis. In the case of the watch, the rotation displays the time.
Price: Between 50.000-100.000 $ | AOS Watches
MB&F HM5 RT
The new HM5 RT, build in red gold and titanium, is inspired by supercars of the 1970s. It introduced a new time display system which project the time at a 90 degree angle from a series of horizontal discs. This special timepiece is limited to 66 pieces.
Price: 82.000 $ | MB&F
If you are looking for more ideas, check one of our past reviews. You will find the appropriate watch to wear. Click on the link here:
http://luxuryactivist.com/category/watches
Wishing you all a nice Holiday season… on time!
Sebastien Eich
Info sourced at all brands website and official press releases. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available.
Cups n’ Cakes: Lausanne gourmand with style.
Reading Time: 4 minutes
Switzerland has cupcakes! Discover this family owned business called Cups n’ Cakes. In Lausanne this “sex and the city style” boutique will guide you into a journey of amazing delicacies. The concept behind is a completely homemade baked goods. Cups n’ Cakes is a small family business. Mother and daughter joint forces to highlight and bring a certain modernity to their grandmother’s book of recipes.
Summer 2012, 25 years old Vanessa Cabral invested herself in this family business, supported by her sister Samantha and her mother Tamara. With her diploma from l’Ecole Hotelière de Lausanne, she has everything ahead to create a delightful place for food lovers. Every day in the morning the baked creations arrive from their home kitchen in Mezières. From 3 to 5 different icing each day will develop wonders in your eyes and mouth. Vanessa Cabral has a heart preference for the small size. From mini cupcakes to mignardises, you can find different tastes each day. There is no plan for the flavors. They create them depending on their inspiration of the moment, seasons, events or simply pure creativity.
Saturdays you can enjoy their “special editions”, some of them get introduced afterwards in the regular catalog. It is their laboratory of flavors. After Figs and Blueberries, you might find Apple-Cinnamon, lemon meringue or Banana-Caramel. There is no limit to imagination when you are talented.
They have a website in which you can browse the catalog and even buy online. 2 possibilities: either you can place your order online and pick it up at the store, or you can buy online and get a delivery, under certain conditions of course.
The cupcake trend started already a couple of year a go and it is getting stronger and stronger. Creativity is the word and thanks to internet, people can find millions of recipes and inspirations. Everyone has one own recipe for the base and the toppings are the magical part.
And trust me, cupcakes are not that new. The first mention to cupcakes occurred in 1796 in American Cookery by Amelia Simmons. There was one annotation about small cakes baked in a cup. The name cupcake was not written and invented but the basic recipe was by then invented.
Almost a century later, in 1828, the term “Cupcake” was used for the first time in another book. “Seventy-five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes and Sweetmeats” by Eliza Leslie.
Cupcakes became very trendy. Why? Probably because the nostalgia trend is something very powerful and that somehow lost child memories are something we all want to retrieve. As the British also call them Fairy cakes, there is definitely a hint of “fairy tales” on it. We think easily on Alice in wonderland tea time. Recently series like Sex in the City until 2004 and Lazy Sunday in 2005, brought cupcakes back to trend and especially a new yorker bakery called The Magnolia Bakery. This bakery is well known for its amazing cupcakes and old-fashioned icebox cakes.
So you do not need to go to New York if you are in Lausanne or somewhere nearby. Cups n’ Cakes make amazing creations for all ages and all tastes. All Swiss made with the best qualitative ingredients. Visit the official website for more information: http://www.cupsncakes.ch
Cups n’ Cakes
Avenue du Tribunal Fédéral 2
1006 Lausanne
From Tuesday to Friday 12 am to 7 pm
Tel: +41 79 702 79 18
mail@cupsncakes.ch
This is definitely a “Do-Me-good” store and you need to taste one of their delicacies if it is not already the case.
LA
Info sourced at the brand official website. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available.
Marilyn Monroe – Chanel 1 x Dior 0
Reading Time: 6 minutes
When History and Marketing collides, there is only one who wins. And it is not Marketing. For this christmas Dior and Chanel are battling with one common weapon: Marilyn Monroe. The problem is that Dior features Marilyn Monroe perfuming herself with J’Adore during a Dior couture’s fashion show. This is what we call an anachronism which is fine as it is an advertising. The problem is that Chanel just stroke back with a true Marilyn Monroe talking about Chanel N.5. And here, it is history! Sorry Dior but you loose.
Chanel and Marilyn Monroe – the myth of ultimate femininity.
We are in April 1952, Marilyn Monroe is 26 years old and Life Magazine has her for the first time in the cover of the magazine. She is the new star in Hollywood. She just signed with the 20th Century Fox and already played in different movies. That year will be releasing 4 new movies and raised Marilyn Monroe to the rank of Super Star. In the Life Magazine interview, Marilyn declared that she wears only Chanel N.5 for sleeping. Basically it was a clever way to say she used to sleep nude. But the legend of Chanel N.5 and the ultimate femininity was founded.
2 years later, in 1953, American magazine Modern Screen had Marilyn Monroe in the cover and made a series of photos. The photo shooting was inspired by the famous sentence she said, meaning wearing nothing but Chanel N.5 to sleep. So the magazine shot Marilyn naked in bed and we could see a flacon of Chanel N.5 in all pictures just by the table bed.
In 1960, Marilyn Monroe accepts an interview for the french magazine Marie-Claire. The interview is done by Georges Belmont and the photographies are done by John Bryson during the making of the movie “Let’s make Love”. As this movie also had french actor Yves Montand, France got particularly interested for Marilyn Monroe. The interview was audio recorded and translated into text afterwards.
After years of archive researches, in October 2012, Chanel heritage and patrimony teams got the hand on the audio recording of that interview. What they discovered was amazing. An original recording of Marilyn Monroe’s voice explaining her sentence about Chanel No. 5. Magical. This part of the interview was never published as she talked about it in a very spontaneous way.
” … they ask you questions, just an example, what do you wear in bed? You wear a pajama top or the bottom of the pajama, or a Nightgown? … So I said Chanel No. 5… because it is the truth! I don’t want to say nude you know. But it is the truth. …”
And from this own, Marilyn Monroe and Chanel No. 5 were bounded together in probably the most beautiful, timeless and over-feminine story! In the recording you understand how Marilyn was actually. She did not have the idea of how powerful she was thanks to her beauty and seduction. She was more a kind of “Woman-child” very spontaneous and natural. It was the eyes of men who pushed her to the rank of the ultimate Glamour icon. Marilyn is the truth and the innocence at the same time. She would probably have deserved another destiny but it contributed to her legend of timeless beauty and glamour. This sentence became the icon of beauty, femininity and glamour all over the world. It crossed time and space and today is stronger than never.
Chanel finally gave back to Marilyn what she gave to them, the truth! This recording is magical because it is true and there was no marketing, no concepts or trends to support it. It is basically just the simple truth. Chanel does not need to see beyond that because there is nothing more powerful than the truth. This is universal, easy for each women to relate to and make dream all men. This is a great timing for Chanel to come up with the Marilyn campaign. After the failure of the Brad Pitt campaign, they needed something strong for the Holiday season. Also, Dior has been stepping into Chanel’s feet as their recent campaign for their fragrance J’adore used Marilyn as many other celebrities. Check here the video:
By using Marilyn Monroe with a J’Adore Flacon in the hands, Dior probably crossed a line that did not put Chanel very confortable. What we understand from Dior is they wanted to describe this ultra-femininity represented by J’Adore. For the French couture house, J’Adore is the modern ultimate fragrance for a woman. So we can see that in the TV advertising, they took all the iconic symbols of femininity and placed them in the story. So while we see Charlize Theron running as she is late for the show, she meets Grace Kelly or Marlene Dietrich and also Marilyn Monroe. With Marilyn, they created the illusion that she was manipulating the J’Adore flacon. We must say the result is really impressive as we cannot see the difference between new images and old images. It is very well done. See here below the amazing extracts:
As Marilyn Monroe does not have an exclusivity contract with Chanel, of course that Dior can use her image by paying the rights of it. The question is more about how marketing can create stories and how these stories can replace the real story. Dior is a very respectful house, they have amazing fragrances from Miss Dior, to Diorissimo and J’Adore is definitely the ultimate feminine fragrance of the past 10 years. And as Chanel was not at all using this amazing connection they had with the American actress, why not. We can see that Chanel stroke back with the real story in an advertising for Chanel No. 5. So this Christmas you have Marilyn Monroe twice in each advertising time on french television. I am not sure that I would have used Marilyn at the Dior’s advertising. Now, compared to the beautiful Chanel story, Marilyn looks cheap at Dior’s. Sometimes you can write history but you should never re-write it. What was done was done. Dior has such an amazing story that I would rather stick to their own DNA.
Sorry Dior, but in the Marilyn Monroe game, you lost against Chanel.
Info sourced in chanel.com, dior.com and respective youtube channels. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available.
Food trends 2014 – The Birthday cake
Reading Time: 10 minutes
Food lovers, gourmands or simply people looking for an amazing experience in the fine art of cooking, will be astonished by what you can do today with passion, love and a lot of skills in the kitchen. Check here how fooding is one of the biggest trends of the century and how people share their passion for what thy cook. It is also the opportunity to discover 2 amazing Chefs-virtuosas who transform a perfect cake into magic. Meet M-elicious by Mélanie Müller and Sweet Heart by Sarah Willer. But before presenting the amazing work of these 2 food-artists, here is a little background on the Food trend. It will help understand today’s horizon and how the food industry is evolving. It is all about the sharing and at LuxuryActivist we say: “the more we share, the better”.
Food lovers and fooding is a major trend.
When you work on trends or futurology (frankly I hate this word but anyway), there are long term trends and short term “fashionable themes”. Fooding is definitely something deep and long-lasting in society. With the arrival of internet and more precisely Social Media, it is not a couple of good chefs you can find in town, there are millions of them you can find just by google it. Every one can become a famous chef just by sharing your work. Of course you bet being talented otherwise it will not be of any good.
What is interesting with Food is that it reflects completely the evolution of society and also it is a brilliant way of self-expression and transmission. A sort of common cultural heritage that contributes to the feeling of belonging to a family, a city, a country or to the human species. Culinary tradition was something that we would transmit from mother or father to son or daughter. Every generation would get the heritage of the family and in our case, cooking is one of them. Families have secret recipes or traditions respected by each generation.
Nevertheless, the 70’s and the 80’s saw the change of many social institutions. Marriage, family, army, politics or religion are not any more the foundation of your own identity. So the heritage and the transmission is something that you need to find somewhere else. And this is where Internet plays a role. Transmission and heritage is not anymore 2 exclusive concepts within your private family circle. You can have these from anyone in the world by engaging with them via internet and social media. And when we know that in 2014 there will be more content produced and published for internet than in the entire human history, we can see that people have a strong need for sharing. Sharing is definitely part of our humanity and transmission is a strong feeling and need. So Social media somehow is just a reflection of our human status. And in our case here, food is a super huge topic.
Social Media is a shockwave
With the arrival of social networks like Instagram, Vine, Pinterest and of course Facebook and Twitter, the food industry need to review completely the way they communicate. Not only because people wishes to communicate with them via social media, but because potentially anyone can communicate about food! The evolution of internet showed that texts were replaced by images and images are now being replaced by videos. That’s the way of things. Fooding is a big trend. We know that. Never in modern history people spent so much money in their interior at home and in their kitchen. Cooking is one of the most popular hobbies. People enjoy taking the time to cooking, alone or with friends. And of course, when you successfully baked or cooked the perfect meal you want to tell that to the world right? So you post it on Social media. A picture or video on Instagram, a mention on Twitter or even a full review with the recipe on your blog.
A recent study made by the Hartman Group reveals how our food habits are chancing thanks to Social media. You can discover new things easier and faster. You can engage with people that you would never meet and you can even participate in projects related to food that you would never do without the social networks. While asking questions to food lovers, some interesting answers came on the study. 82% of people, interesting in food as a topic, visit social network sites monthly. 49% of them declared to learn regularly about food via social networking. More interesting, 32% of people in the study have either texted or used a social networking site/app in the last month while eating and drinking. You can see the study here if you wish to learn more.
Facebook is for sure a great way to connect to people but it is true that Instagram and Pinterest really brought the food experience to another level.
Instagram and #FoodPorn
Because 1 person out of 3 takes a picture and share it while eating and drinking, the food topic became quite popular in social networks like Instagram. It is easy to do it as today’s smartphones are more than capable to help you getting a decent picture from your sandwich or pasta or own amazing recipe. By doing this, you become what we call a “content producer”. And the ultimate aim of a content producer is for his content to be found! And for that, social media gods invented the Hashtag ! By tagging correctly your content you can be found easily in the social networks and even you can be part of a trend! Probably the most popular hashtag of all for food is #foodporn. The word itself was Invented by the Center of Science In Public Interest in Washington DC. Now it became a mega-trend in social media and you have even a websites for it.
The idea of food porn is to translate the idea of a picture in which we see a big closeup on a meal or food. It is aesthetics and reflects a submission of a meal to the eyes of everyone who wishes to see it. So there is a kind of relation with the approach of classic porn in which we see more or less the same approach of closeup and submission but of course with naked people :-).
So every day, new trends are bursting your screen and we see more and more people sharing their own recipes. From tapas ideas to thanksgiving alternatives towards amazing desserts you would dream to cook and to eat… the internet is an amazing creative field. After Cupcakes and other Cronuts, now the hot topic of the moment is baking amazing birthday cakes with marzipan decoration. And despite the fact it sounds simple, some people out there are true artists and food-virtuosos. Another interesting fact is that Birthdays are more and more celebrated as part of your social connection. It is a privilege moment for you with your friends and family. So people also give more and more importance to birthdays and birthday’s cakes. So to illustrate these trends we are honored to present 2 amazing food-artists: Melanie Müller from Switzerland and Sarah Willer from France.
M-elicious by Melanie Müller
Meet Melanie Müller. She is Swiss, born in Schwyz, one of the founder-cantons of Switzerland. She has a passion for gastronomy and especially cakes. She tells about herself 
that her passion about cakes came from her travels. Everywhere she would go she encountered different types of cakes and desserts. So her passion for cakes started to become bigger and bigger and now she is sharing her passion not only with close friends and relations but online too. And that is what her website is about. You can see most of the cakes she creates and her specialty is definitely the Marzipan Birthday cake. As a sculptor and alchemist, she will transform the raw material into shapes, colors, formats and patterns in order to make your dream of the perfect cake come true. Being Swiss, you can imagine that the quality and the sense of perfect details are part of her philosophy. A true Swiss-made cake. She is getting more and more popular in Switzerland as she got several articles in the swiss-german press. She usually has her close network of people so she can already start her business there. She works also for one of the most reputed Hotel-Restaurants in Central Switzerland called Wysses Rössli in Schwyz, which makes her definitely in the gastronomy business. She also create cakes for companies, one of her latest creations was a fragrance flacon for Victorinox Swiss Army Fragrances. The cake was to celebrate the birthday of the Victorinox division CEO. So here are a short selection of amazing cakes made by Melanie Müller. Some of them are truly sculptures.
So, if you wish to know more about Melanie Müller’s work, you can see her website here:
http://www.melicious.ch. Please note that the website is in German only but if you have any requests, you can contact Melanie Müller also in english.
Sweetheart by Sarah Willer
Putting a smile on people’s faces is what motivates the most Sarah Willer when she is cooking something. She is french, living in Paris in France – the country for gastronomy and luxury cuisine. Food is not only about eating, it is also about sharing a pleasant 
moment with someone we like, or to surprise your friends and family with something you cooked. It is like taking care of them. Sarah Willer is a very passionate person. She loves to share her passion and knowledge and she is also a very talented food-artist. Today she shares a lot of recipes and pictures on her website but also in Instagram and Facebook. Her website is like her personality. She is friend, generous and will do everything in her power to offer a great moment of gastronomy sharing! The way she presents her creations is stylish, modern, very new york style and still plenty with humour. You definitely need to follow her on social media in order to keep tracking of everything she is doing. She also proposes workshops for kids, so children can discover the “magic” of food recipes. One of her specialties is the Birthday cakes! She has a dedicated area in her website about it and from sparkling princesses to action heroes, everybody would be happy with such amazing cakes. She completely influences the choice of the cake style by understanding what would please the most the person whose birthday is to be celebrated. Here below a short selection of her work.
To discover more about Sarah’s work you can connect to her website here:
http://sweetheartbysarah.com. Please note that the information is in french. Or you can also connect with her via social media and follow weekly all the recipes.
Food is a very inspiring topic and as we can see it inspires millions of people every day. So you should probably get also inspired as we never know. Some super star chef might by sleeping deeper in you and just need to be awaken.
Info sourced at all websites quoted in the article. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available.
Victorinox Explorer Damast Limited Edition 2013
Reading Time: 5 minutes
Victorinox, the makers of the original Swiss Army Knife, is launching a new Limited Edition. It is called the Explorer Damast Limited Edition 2013. It is a beautiful tribute to Mr. Carl Elsener Sr. who left us last summer.
Carl Elsener Sr. – A Swiss visionary leader
The Victorinox family lost its Patriarch. He was an inventor, a visionary leader and a great entrepreneur. His son, current CEO of the company, said about him: “He always used to think with his heart and act with his smile“. He had a strong personality and a big charisma. Carl Elsener Sr. took over his father in the 50’s and since then, he made the Swiss company from Ibach to become the multi-national company that it is today. He helped to bring the little red wonder to all the people around the world. He had a vision that became reality.
Today Victorinox sells millions of knives every year. With more than categories within the Knife division, Victorinox proposes different Pocket tools for different usages. From hunters, gardeners and Firemen towards the passionate camper and the relaxed weekender, you can find the perfect tool for the perfect situation.
Carl Elsener IV, builds the future.
Since 2007, the 4th generation of the Elsener family is at the head of the company. Carl Elsener IV has been pursuing the vision of his father to keep the Swiss Army Knife brand as a state of the art in terms of company. Excellence at work, quality, innovation, functionality and iconic design are in deed the philosophy of the company. Victorinox is an example in the world how many aspects of the business can be treated. His CEO works very hard every day to cultivate this company culture at its best.
He is the one who brought the traditional Swiss company to the Digital era. The Victorinox.com is a place where customers and fans can find the best product, the best information about Victorinox and connect with the brand via Customer support and Social media. Millions of people every year browse the company website and get in touch with the brand. Because of his vision, passion and human skills, Carl Elsener IV was appointed Businessman of the year 2013 by the magazine Handelszeitung. Last year he was already rewarded with the Swiss Award of best Businessman. This shows how outstanding his work is. Congratulations.
It was also under his initiative that Victorinox also took the opportunity to develop several limited editions, in order to surprise and to explore different fields of expertise. One of the Limited editions series is the Damascus steel .
The Explorer Damascus Steel Limited Edition 2013
With the lost of Carl Elsener Sr last summer, Victorinox decided to make a tribute to his memory as a visionary leader and entrepreneur. He had a long standing affinity with his Swiss army Explorer. The Explorer is the Swiss officer’s knife made for explorers and travelers. A compact and amazingly useful toolbox that you can carry everywhere. The functions specifications are:
- Large blade
- Small blade
- Can opener with
- Small screwdriver
- Corkscrew
- Reamer, Punch
- Phillips screwdriver
- Key ring
- Toothpick
- Tweezers
- Multi-purpose hook (parcel carrier)
- Cap lifter with
- Screwdriver and
- Wire stripper
- Scissors
- Magnifying lens
So this year Victorinox is relaunching the Explorer in a very limited and precious edition. Only 7’000 unites were produced in the world.
The Damascus steel – state of the art.
There is a lot of legends and stories around the Damascus steel. Still today we do not really know exactly how sword-smiths from middle-age would really produce such specific blades. The earlier descriptions found by historians and archeologists are dated from 300 BC in India. A blade made of this steel is characterized by distinctive patterns of banding and mottling reminiscent of flowing water. Such blades were reputed to be tough, resistant to shattering and capable of being honed to a sharp, resilient edge. Today it represents a luxury item as only Sweden is capable of producing such steel at an industrial level. The big blade of this knife is manufactured from stainless high quality Damascus steel, 60 HRc.
The special oakwood handles
In order to give the Swiss Army Explorer a different dimension and an outstanding look, the knife body is made of wood. Manufactured of the best Oak wood this new handle gives a very authentic look yet very noble. 2 important details are to mention. The first one is the signature of Carl Elsener Sr engraved in the heart of the wood thanks to the finest laser marker. This provides a true redemption of the real signature. The second detail is the company’s logo – the Swiss Cross & Shield. In this special edition, it is made of fine stainless steel and embedded in the wood itself. The quality of these details are amazing and make this product a true collector.
The beautiful limited edition display
With such a beautiful Limited Edition, the outer-packaging needed to be also very beautiful. And Victorinox knows how to highlight their creations. With a black soft-touch box, the new Damascus Explorer Limited Edition has a magnificent place, completely highlighted by the front transparent window. It makes the perfect display for your collector.
Each item is serial numbered and the edition is strictly limited to 7’000 pieces worldwide. So you better hurry and contact your preferred dealer in order to get one! If you need some help from Victorinox in this topic, do not hesitate to connect to victorinox.com and search for the Customer Service area in the site. They will be able to help you.
What is the secret of Victorinox success? Excellence at work at its best (always).
Info sourced at Victorinox website, wikipedia. The Limited Edition is a courtesy of Mr Sebastien Eich for LuxuryActivist.com. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available.
Credit Suisse will target the ultra-rich people.
Reading Time: 5 minutes
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Swiss banks were never shy to talk to rich people. This month Credit Suisse, the second Swiss bank in terms of wealth, declared having a new specific strategy to target the ultra-rich people. Interesting as we know they are more and more in the world.
Switzerland, rich people are a common tradition.
Switzerland is also a perfect country that attracts the wealthy happy people in this world. A good example is Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of IKEA who used to live in Switzerland since 1976 and just recently went back to Sweden at the age of 87 years old.. His fortune was evaluated at 33 billion Swiss Francs. Or the example of Italian business man Ernesto Bertarelli with 10 billion Swiss francs.
Switzerland top 9 most rich people, according to Forbes magazine. They own in total 36.3 Billion CHF:
- Ernesto Bertarelli & Family – 10 Billion CHF
- Hansjorg Wyss – 6.4 Billion CHF
- Thomas Schmidheiny – 4.8 Billion CHF
- Walter Haefner – 4 Billion CHF
- Stephan Schmidheiny – 2.9 Billion CHF
- Sergio Mantegazza – 2.9 Billion CHF
- Jean-Claude Gandur – 2 Billion CHF
- Esther Grether & Family – 2 Billion CHF
- Thomas Straumann – 1.3 Billion CHF
Despite of a very low tax policy, Switzerland offers a great quality of life and a high level of infrastructure. These 2 elements being key to the choice of residence location for a very wealthy person. It is also a quite low profile country, so not many scandals and buzz around in general. People are also quite respectful about private life, so the ultra-rich can enjoy a pretty relaxing life here.
According to LeMatin.ch, St.Morritz, Gestaadt and Verbier are 3 Swiss ski stations listed on the top 20 holidays location for the ultra-rich people behind the South of France Côte d’Azur, the Caribbean or Monaco and Sardinia. Many of them buy luxury chalets in these Swiss ski resorts for their winter holidays.
There are more and more ultra-rich people in the world
An interesting fact to note is that the world has more and more multi-millionaire people. According to an annual study done by UBS/Wealth-X, the world has 2’170 people with a personal fortune over 1 Billion CHF.
If we take the category of the “Ultra-Rich”, this means people with at least 50 million CHF of personal fortune. And they are around 100’000 people in the world. This represents an increase of +10% in the past 12 month. We also call them the “Ultra High Net Worth Individuals”. Forbes magazine also explained that the top 5 most money waiste for multi-millionaires are:
- Luxury Real Estate
- Transport (private jets, flying tickets)
- Luxury sport cars
- Gambling
- Luxury goods / Shopping
Credit Suisse’s strategy is simple: Target people with big money
According to the Credit Suisse, the Ultra-rich people having an account at Credit Suisse represents around 44% of the 812 Billion CHF that the private bank is managing. Thanks to the economic health of Emerging markets, new fortunes are rising and Credit Suisse believes that they can reach an increase to 50% of this client segment. As published by the Boston Consulting Group, people with more than 100 million CHF will annually increase by 9.2% until 2017.
So in order to attract these wealthy people, Credit Suisse decided to expand lending, as credits will be a catchy product to propose. In order to build a solid lending power, Credit Suisse will put aside, from its financial result, between 15 to 20 Billion CHF. This this new strategy wants to lend billions of dollars for clients invest in movable or immovable property and complex financial products.
This is a great advertising to Switzerland that tries to open the field of possibilities to the very wealthy. This new strategy arrives only several month after the scandal of American citizens trying to escape from US taxes in Switzerland. Despite the fact this scandal was connecting to UBS, Swiss banks are at stake.
Credit Suisse also explained that the aim of the Bank is to focus more and more on their richest customers and get rid of the less interesting clients. They declared that in the past 5 years, private banking has suffered of different pressures as it became more and more popular.
This strategy is interesting because during economic crisis times, many companies tried to open more their reach and tried to target more people. In the case of Credit Suisse, they take the opposite, they target even more exclusive people. Let’s see how this is going to evolve and if Credit Suisse were right or not to bet into this elitist strategy.
Someone said – anonymous – that “ The real measure of your wealth is how much you’d be worth if you lost all your money. ”
Info sourced at Credit Suisse official communication, 24heures, LeMatin.ch, Swissworld.org, celebritynetworth.com, Forbes magazine and UBS-Wealth-X study. Images souces are here, here , here and here. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available.