Watchmaking is an Art old of several centuries. everyIn the heart of the art of watchmaking, the Tourbillon is not only a beautiful piece of human engineering but also a very useful one in the exactitude control.
The principle of a Tourbillon
As you can see here above, the tourbillon is a concentrate of ingenuity. It eliminate most of the errors of rate, especially in the vertical position, for a wrist or pocket watch. The principle, despite the fact that each watchmaker has been adding their own touch, is about a mobile-cage in which all components are inside. The balance spring and the escapement are usually in the center.
Some history
The invention of the Tourbillon, and its first patent was accomplished by Abraham-Louis Breguet.
The famous Swiss brand archives tells us that Breguet invented the Tourbillon idea in 1785 and only in 1801, after some improvements, that the first patent was registered. And the first Breguet watch equipped with the mechanism was finally sold in 1805. With this we can easily say that Mr Breguet is one of the fathers of modern watchmaking.
The invention of the Tourbillon came from the need to gain precision and exactitude in what we call mobile timepieces. This means the pocket watches for gentlemen and also, more specifically, the vertical position in airplanes and the oscillations in marine boats.
Because of these specific backgrounds, we need to talk about another important watchmaker and inventor: John Arnold. He was a English inventor who died in 1799. He is considered up to today as the most important british watchmakers in history. We can say that he was the first one to design a practical and accurate watch. This is probably what would be the first closest watch to the definition of modern chronometer.
John Arnold interested himself for marine timepieces and accurate chronographs. His late work brought him to imagine a mechanism that would provide a better accuracy to chronographs, especially in specific positions or situations.
John Arnold’s legacy provided the necessary inspiration to Abraham-Louis Breguet to finalize the idea of the Tourbillon. The pocket watch was the biggest challenge at that time for watchmakers. The watch would remain most of its time in the vertical position and moving all the time. So there was a big enemy called GRAVITY. In deed, gravity would then bring your watch to lose accuracy by the force it would produce on the watch mechanism.
So if we wanted to gain accuracy, we needed to find a way to counter-balance the effects of gravity in the mechanism. So his idea was to place the escapement and the balance-spring in a sort of circled-cage. the entire piece would rotate a full 360 degrees and its complete revolution would take generally a minute. This would then fight back the gravity influence and modern tourbillon was set up!
Today, several brands proposes amazing tourbillons, all made possible thanks to the legacy of the above story. Accuracy in Swiss watchmaking is by definition one of the foundations of everything. Isn’t it why do we need a time keeper?
Flying Tourbillon by Roger DubuisHarry Winston Tourbillon limited edition
Info sourced in wikipedia, Illustrated Professional Dictionary of Horology, tourbillonwatches.com and the above brands website. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available.
Remember flash-mobs? That is too 2000’s. Now the real cool thing is Zombie Walks. Never such a social phenomenon was so passionate. So if some people think we might get invaded by Zombies, well they are right. It is just not exactly the way they thought. With the support of social media, isolated events become worldwide phenomenons. so get ready to be scared, as this is the Zombie walk!
How Science fiction and B movies became a social inspiration
Since the rediscovery of Cyber Punk culture in the 90’s, many sub-trends became very popular among young and less young people. We can see that most of the time all these trends have one thing in common: self-expression. The more the world becomes grey and boring, the more people wished things were more exciting. It is proper to mankind to be entertained, and the more economic crises strikes, the more people wishes to be entertained, like if they could for a limited time to forget the problems of our daily life.
Since the 70’s science fiction literature and B movies developed an important source of inspiration for young generations. On that time, authors and artists dreamed of another possible version of reality, which made a very powerful anchor. From this decade we kept some sub-trends. We have:
Gothics-Vampire
The middle-age
Punk
Cyber-Punk
All these sub-cultures above, were basically living together side by side and recently even blending. Websites, social media pages started growing and hundreds of thousands of people started creating big online communities.
Probably online gaming helped a lot to maintain this sub-cultures alive and even spread. Games like Silent Hill or Resident Evil became huge blockbusters including in theaters.
With the years 2000, we got into the Vampire era. From books, novels, tv series, cartoons and films, everything was about vampires. This time, with a more romantic approach, motivated by a teenage story style. We would quote simply the Twilight saga films or the 2 tv series True blood and Vampire’s diary. Probably the front head of this trends was The Vampire Chronicles with Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Kirsten Dunst, Antonio Banderas and Christian Slater. The film was released in 1994 based on a novel of Anne Rice written in 1976. Since then, any teenage library section has at least 45% of its surface with books, DVDs and other goodies about vampires.
Generation Y and the need of self-expression.
Another interesting fact is that the young generation, that we call generation Y or Millenials, has a strong need for self-expression. They want to show their difference and what makes each one of them unique. After the lost of all models in society (religion, politics, family model…) each individual feels the right to be what they want and to express their opinions out of any rule or pre-concept.
Of course, being a teenager is also, by definition, being against the older generations lifestyle and way of thinking. This new generation was the first generation being born with internet and social media, so the world is completely at their fingers (and computer screens). Moreover, mobile phone became their secret weapon to communicate with and to the world. It is by far their biggest expenditure, followed by fashion. They are connected 24-7 and the idea of a “public life” evolved a lot.
And technology only made it worse
With the creation of Social media, Internet got finally a purpose for many many people. They can easily connect together, share their passions and aims. All in a very simple way. Just need a computer and an internet connection. Facebook was the beginning but today hundreds of social networks allow you to become a potential heavy content producer just by sitting comfortably in your couch. If we consider Youtube for example, more than 100 hours of videos are uploaded every minute. Every month, people watch 6 billion hours of videos on youtube, this is more than any television channel in the USA. 25% of this is used via mobile (source: Youtube stats). If we consider another very popular social network, especially popular among teenagers, it would be Instagram. With its 150 million active users, the statistics are just amazing. Everyday there are more than 55 million pictures posted in Instagram. Every second, there are 8’500 likes and 1’000 comments. We could also talk about Twitter, that replaced the email and the SMS in people’s mind. So as we can see, texts were replaced in the internet by pictures and pictures by videos. Today’s technology allow us to create our own communication platform to the world and more than that, to become our own internet. Blogs, forums, groups, online communities are easy to build as any simple text page. With more than 99 million blogs around the world people can start sharing their lives and their passions. And thanks to technology, this can spread really fast.
From flash-mobs to Zombie Walks
As Facebook has now 1.2 billion users, we can say that almost every single person in this world with an internet connection is present in one or more social networks. If we think that internet was a revolution, think Social Media as the true Big bang! We experience worldwide phenomenon spreading massively and rapidly everywhere. People can get really creative and the cool thing about it? It is that millions of people will probably follow you in seconds.
Flash-mobs, people get creative
This social phenomenon was created in 2003 in New York. The purpose of it is to assemble as much people as possible in one unique location. Then, to perform an unusual and seemingly pointless act for a brief time, then quickly disperse, often for the purposes of entertainment, satire, and artistic expression. Many flash-mobs became cult like the tributes to Michael Jackson when he died.
Several types of flash-mobs were produced, from Ninja-fight, to pillow-battles and freeze-mode. All of them were made possible thanks to the power of social media and viral emails. Some companies tried to use the flash-mob as a new kind of advertising, especially to gain visibility in youtube. But most of the events are organized by people.
Project X, reaching the extreme
This is probably the limits of technology towards social behavior. Project X is another kind of organized event in which thousands of people are unofficial invited to a private event like a birthday. The most unfortunate event of all is the one from a young Dutch teenager and her birthday. She sent a invitation for her birthday to her closest friends and the invitation got viral on social media. The result: 3’000 people came to the party in her small village. And of course things got a little wild. Hollywood made a film, also called Project X, that tells a story of such events. Here is the trailer, you will understand right away the extreme downside of it.
Of course this kind of events are illegal and should not be presented as an example to follow. Naturally hollywood pushed it a little far but reality is not so far from it.
Harlem Shake, completely nuts
This is one of the recent internet phenomenons. The principle of the Harlem Shake is a 30 seconds video in which we see a group of people dancing on the Harlem shake by DJ Baauer, an American music producer. Normally the video starts with a regular and usual situation yet one person is dancing in a silly way. After 15 seconds there is a breakdown on the music and then the last 15 seconds are purely craziness. Check for yourselves in this chosen video.
Today thousands of videos with people “doing the Harlem Shake” is online. Millions of views and always the aim to innovate and surprise. The first original video has today more than 50 million views on youtube and it is still spreading.
Zombie Walks, creativity at the next level
After the vampire’s decade at the top trends in music, cinema and fashion, now the era changed. The It characters of the moment are… Zombies!
Zombie Walk Paris 2012
It sounds crazy but it has become a even broader phenomenon than vampires, witches, or other kind of monsters. Why Zombies? Good question. Probably George A. Romero could not imagine that directing the film “Night of the living-dead” in 1968 would generate one of the strongest sub-cultures on the last 40 years. Since then, a passion for Zombie stories, movies, video games, tv series, websites, social networks and disguises. One of the big hits in video games and movies is Resident Evil. Probably the only big success as a movie based on a video game. More recently World War Z with Brad Pitt also brought to top of mind the Zombie trend.
Resident Evil AfterlifeWorld War Z
Another reference to be quoted is on television. Tv series or soaps became very popular in the past 10 years and even companies like Netflix were founded on this trend. Among the best-selling is Walking dead. According to Wikipedia, The Walking Dead is an American horror drama television series developed by Frank Darabont. It is based on the comic book series of the same name by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard. The series stars Andrew Lincoln as sheriff’s deputy Rick Grimes, who awakens from a coma to find a post-apocalyptic world dominated by flesh-eating zombies. He sets out to find his family and encounters many other survivors along the way. The series was launched in 2010 and it is an amazing success. The first episode in season one got around 5’500 viewers. Today we have season 4 that just started and the episode one of season 4 gathered more than 16’000 viewers. Here is the trailer for season 4 that just started.
So what is about this Zombie Walk? As the other social phenomenon, a Zombie walk is an organized public gathering of people. They all dress as zombies. Most of the participants meet in a urban city center and make their way through the city streets. Some of the zombie walks are purely for fun, others to claim a purpose (political, social, etc…). It started in the USA but now it is all over the world.
Zombie Walk Recife-Brazil 2012Zombie Walk Cannes 2013Zombie Walk in New Jersey – USA
The first Zombie walk happened in the USA in August 2000. During Gen Con, the biggest tradeshow for Tabletop games, an organized zombie-flash-mob was organized. One year later, a Zombie parade took place in Sacramento California. This event was initially to promote a film festival and now each year it takes place at the same moment. Last year the parade itself gathered more than 1’000 participants. Due to the strong popularity of Zombie movies and literature, Zombie walks became a huge phenomenon, not only in terms of people participating but also in terms of imagination, creativity and disguise. Up to today the biggest ever zombie walk in terms of participants was recorded by the Guiness Book of Records in the Twin Cities, Minneapolis-Saint Paul. A total of 30’000 zombies participated to the event in 2012. It is up to today the biggest of all.
The creativity and the high degree of execution in the disguise is simply amazing. Some people could play in a movie as the execution is beyond amateurism. Here below some pictures taken during the Rio de Janeiro 2013 Zombie Walk.
Is it scary? Yes it is. The amazing part is the organization and the vitality of the news. Thanks to social networks, people get organized, they have their meeting point and the street parcours. Several Facebook pages exist. Here is the one for the Rio walk:
So next time you are walking downtown, just be careful. Check the social networks before living your home, so you will know how many zombies your day will be made of.
Info sourced at wikipedia, Vogue, Gen Con website, youtube. Images from Nathalia A., Fabio G.C., Elisangela M.Nathalia V. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available.
This thursday, Le Printemps department store in Paris is revealing its new christmas windows in partnership with Prada. For the reveal, the parisian luxury department store invited Gwyneth Paltrow in person for the event. This will make a huge buzz and probably even national television coverage. To keep a coherent level of communication, they are also revealing a specific visual made exclusively for Le Printemps christmas’ activities: Press, advertising, CRM and Internet. To accomplish this new christmas visual, Le Printemps worked only with the best people at all levels. Check it out.
In a pure christmas tradition, completely revamped by the best people, we can see Eva Herzigova in the role of Mother Christmas, sexy and elegant. She leads a group of Santa Claus ready for … everything. By multiplying the symbols of christmas, Le Printemps presents a true generous and happy message for this holiday season. Christmas fairy tales are back for good. It’s been a while that we did not see Eva Herzigova in a big advertising campaign. She is a star above the stars and she makes her contracts choices in a very strict way. She only works with the best.
The campaign was imagined by Stephen Gan, the Creation director of V Agency. He is the famous founder of Visionaire magazine, Creation director of Harper’s Bazaar. Despite of the campaign creation, Stephen Gan gathered a dream team for this special photo shoot.
The photographer is Mario Testino. We do not need to introduce him and his artistic work. He photographed Eva Herzigova a hundred times previously, so he knows her very well. Last year he directed a short movie for Vogue Spain called “Arrival” in which Eva Herzigova, among others, was present. It is a natural collaboration. In order to have a perfect result in terms of Style, Le Printemps asked Carine Roitfeld in person to take care of all details. Who else?
The top model Eva Herzigova had 3 mega artists around her. The result is sublime. Hair-dressing by Marc Lopez, THE hair-artist of all fashion weeks and fashion shows. Tom Pecheux was the make-up artist. He is behind Estee Lauder make up and also he is the make-up artist of many stars like Gisele Bundchen and many others. Final but not least, Jack Flanagan was the Set designer. He is used to work with Mario Testino as they collaborated together in many photo shoots for Burberry, Michael Kors or Chanel.
As the concept of Christmas by Prada is about a happy obsession (Joyeuse obsession), here are the words of Stephen Gan about the project:
” The idea of this campaign is to exaggerate the festivity of the season by having the luxury of multiple Santa Clauses. Iconic supermodel Eva Herzigova serves as the prefect cast for the joyeuse collaboration between Printemps and Prada”
Of course all done in a very elegant, sensitive and funny way. Children and Adults can dream about it and Eva Herzigova is the perfect match for a luxury house like Prada.
In order to create a true event, on the advertising, Eva Herzigova wears an exclusive red washed-out leather coat. The sleeves are embroidered with flowers and make the distinctive signature of the look. It was made exclusively for the campaign by Prada. It is Miuccia Prada‘s vision of Santa Claus.
Prada developed a series of Puppets dressed in the codes of the luxury brand. Each one is more cute than the other. Check them out:
Le Printemps also prepared a full presentation to the press to express this specific christmas ambiance.
Check the department store website for more information about christmas at Le Printemps: http://www.printemps.com. We can see that this campaign reflects the aim of Le Printemps to be the ultimate reference of luxury in France.
Every holiday season, we hope to see the magic of christmas to operate. And this Christmas, Le Printemps in Paris will reveal its amazing animated windows in presence with Gwyneth Paltrow in person. For the past years Le Printemps started a luxury strategy that is far beyond what other competitors are trying to do. In Paris you have Le Printemps and then there are others.
Le Printemps, luxury at all levels
In the world, Department stores became the key master pieces for all distribution strategies. Not only for Brands but for luxury clients. Sak’s 5th avenue in New York, Harrod’s in London or Takashimaya in Tokyo are priority destinations to all luxury shoppers. And for many years Paris was, lets put it this way, left behind. Galeries Lafayette was getting old, Le Printemps looking for a new positioning and Le Bon Marché… well on the other side of the river.
But from 2006, Le Printemps reviewed its positioning, identity and marketing strategy. After millions of euros of investments, they moved towards a center of excellence, competing today with all big names in the world. To accomplish this level of excellence, they are working with the best creative people around the world, the best photographers and the top luxury brands. Every detail counts and every detail is taken care. This is placing Le Printemps as a leading name in the worldwide luxury industry.
Le Printemps, Christmas is more than a celebration
Every year Le Printemps celebrates Christmas as no one. They create exclusive and unique partnerships with the best luxury brands in order to transform christmas into a luxury party. We all remember when they got a partnership with Chanel and that Karl Lagerfeld in person with Vanessa Paradis were present for the opening evening.
Again, there was the year when they celebrated christmas with Dior and even national TV came to admire a magnificent Marion Cotillard shinning during the famous windows reveal.
This year, Le Printemps will reveal a great christmas partnership with Prada. Again, they work with the IT brand of the year, so nothing is let for chance. And guess who will participate to the evening reveal? Gwyneth Paltrow in person.
Le Printemps shines and Galeries Lafayette sinks.
While Le Printemps was announcing the appearance of Gwyneth Paltrow for the window revelation evening, Les Galeries Lafayette announced they would invite Léa Seydoux and André Dussollier. Well, definitely one Department store plays first league and the other…. not. We are quite far from the good old times when Galeries Lafayette used to work with the best, that Laetita Casta had became a icon for the Department store. Now, it is an old regional clientele who comes every year to the department store that would require a little deep renewal too. Luxury customers are used to such a high level of luxury in stores abroad that they will basically move on to Le Printemps. So this wednesday at 18:30 you can attend to the Galeries Lafayette windows reveal and the day after, you have the big event at Le Printemps. If you are a journalist or a blogger traveling for the event, you will definitely choose your date.
Info sourced at Gala website, media2.onsugar.com, Le Printemps official communication release, Galeries Lafayette communication. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available.
Switzerland has amazing landscapes and the country itself holds amazing secrets and natural beauty. In order to visit the country, the tourism infrastructures are highly qualitative and easy to be organized. But sometimes we realize that the location is perfect but the hotel not so much. And it is the case of the Seehotel Waldstaetterhof in Brunnen. Here below the narration of our chief editor in this supposed 4 star hotel. Could be a novel but it is true.
Brunnen, a piece of Swiss history
1291 is probably the most important date for Switzerland. It sets the foundation of this amazing country. History tells that in the beautiful meadow of Rütli by the Lucern lake, 3 Swiss valley communities built the first idea of Switzerland.
The 3 rural communities were Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden. The idea was to get a first agreement that would manage common interests as well as the peace in the region. This first gathering is also called the Old Swiss Confederacy.
Since then, the Lucern lake is one of the most visited area in Switzerland. Not only by foreigners but also by Swiss people who come to the foundation place. The area is magnificent and you cannot visit Switzerland for the first time and not come to this area. Brunnen, the city facing the Swiss historical meadow, has a perfect place to welcome all tourists. Several hotels are available and at Luxuryactivist, we tried the well-know The Seehotel Waldstaetterhof Brunnen. And during 2 days the deception is quite big.
The Seehotel Waldstaetterhof, does not deserves the 4th star.
Being around quite often, I usually stay in Schwyz, in the beautiful Wysses Rössli hotel. Unfortunately this week, the hotel was full booked and for the first time I spent 2 days at the The Seehotel Waldstaetterhof in Brunnen. At the beginning I was quite excited because from the outside the hotel seems a beautiful place to be. But very fast, we can really loose the dream of a beautiful experience.
The illusion vanishes after the first minutes at the main reception desk. The hotel administration does not place enough people at the reception desk. And the employees are very young without so much experience.
After a trip of several hours to arrive in Brunnen, we expect from this amazing hotel to feel welcome. I would expect to be welcomed by the receptionist with a friendly “welcome” and basically NO. The receptionist checked my name in their system, found it and printed the little contact form. She tells me to sign the form. I realize that my email address is completely wrong, a hotmail address that I never saw before. I informed the receptionist that the email was wrong and she tells me to “just sign it and it is ok”. Then she gave me the internet connection and of course a satisfaction questionnaire. She just showed me in which direction was the lift and that was it.
The rooms are fine but definitely 30% too expensive for a regular 4 stars. You can feel that you pay for the location. When discovering the modern bathroom, we could see traces of the blue cleaning product in the shower, so we could see that they are also try to save on the bedroom personal as everything seems to be cleaned quite quick.
In the next morning, I took the lift to reach the ground floor. There I came accross more than 100 people. They all arrived by boat from the Lucern lake. So around 50 women of a certain age were queuing for the toilets. You can imagine that so many people passing by the toilets in such short notice, a terrible smell was flying around in the corridor, up to the breakfast room. In the breakfast room, it was the same story. Only one person to clean the tables, so when I got to the breakfast room, all tables were dirty. Only a stressed lady was running around trying to do her best. The first time she came accross me, I said good morning. She did not answer. Probably not enough time. So I finished by pushing dirty dishes of one of the tables and sit as best as I could.
Another lady came to ask if I wanted a warm drink. After having my black coffee, I realized that the breakfast buffet was not that great. Everything quite dry and not tasty.
After breakfast, I got to my car in the park place. I was blocked because there was a tourist bus blocking the exit. After buzzing the car horn several times, the bus driver came and moved away. So I could finally go to work.
In the evening, back to the hotel. I was saying to myself that probably it was just a bad day for the hotel. By arriving at the reception desk, I could already smell a very strong scent of cigar and tobacco. While walking the ground floor corridor to take the lift, the fumoir was definitely not well protected and a very strong cigar smell was all over the place. We could almost vomit as the scent was so strong.
When I got to my room, the first seconds after switching the lights I thought that the cleaning was not done. In the bathroom, the floor carpet was badly positioned, basically as I let it in the morning. On the office-table the bottle opener was let in the middle of the table as forgotten by me in the morning and the paper seal of the mini-bar (that I opened on the previous evening) was still there rather than in the trash bin (or elsewhere). So we could see that the cleaning was done fast, very fast.
Being tired, I called for room service. Wrong move. When the lady arrived with my meal, she brought with her the bad smell of cigars. My entire room was filled with this disgusting smell of cold tobacco. I was obliged to open the window of my room for at least 30 minutes as it was almost impossible to eat something.
To summarize, do not come to the Seehotel Waldstaetterhof in Brunnen. Or just for a lunch. You will dream about an ancient time of Grand hotels and elegant people. Unfortunately this hotel lost its prestige because they expect that people will come for the location and they do not care about the service. So the location is a 4 to 5 stars location but the hotel, merely a 2 to 3 stars in an ancient building. It is a pity because the place could revive the spirit of a Grand Hotel but they lack probably of ambition. If you check tripadvisor, you will see that almost 2o% of the reviews about the hotel is from average to poor and terrible. It is definitely the last time I stay in this hotel.
Info sourced at the luxuryActivist chief editor experience. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available. Images sourced in the hotel website, itaste.com, wikipedia here and here.
The world of luxury is sheer dynamic in nature. Every new minute it undergoes some elegant and ineluctable changes.
Everyone struggles to keep up with such phenomenal changes in day-to-day life. Okay, if we talk about the sources from where one can fetch such information about ever-changing styles and fashion would be different lifestyles magazines released monthly. Most of the time for the trends listed in it has already become stale. No one wishes to sport a look which is already a passé!
To avoid such disaster, one must stream to a good fashion webzine (web magazine) that keeps you in the loop while acknowledging about every minute detail happening in the luxury world. Though your lifestyle magazine is doing its best to keep your style update but a fashion website can acquaint you with all-new hottest Luxury News just about every minute.
Luxury news constitutes different genres likes of lifestyle, fashion, beauty, arts, high-tech, designs, timepieces and many more. At the portal, you even get to read about various luxurious watch news and fragrance reviews. It introduces the customers with all new arrivals in the market. Thus, it keeps you style-alert in all the possible ways!
Fragrance reviews make you aware about the spirits worth, spraying before it reaches to your skin. A perfume or cologne is regarded to be the most powerful sense stringed to memory, so make sure to wear the best fragrance before stepping out!
If you keep up with some good and informative fashion portal that offers luxury news then only you will be able to sense the odor of new fragrance, opulent watches, lavish wardrobe, bright beauty products, durable furnishings et al. It helps to keep both you and your domicile cool and trendy.
Easy internet access makes it even easier for reading, purchasing and ordering things online with just a single click.
Being a fashion prodigy, you will like to incorporate every possible fashion thing in their lifestyle. Tweaking into some fashion website regularly helps meeting your luxury needs. It informs you about all the fashion things which are ‘IN’. If you are in a dilemma on what clothes to wear then do read some fabulous tips mentioned on the luxury news website.
The watch news will help in deciding how can you accessorize your ensemble when moving out for some occasion or otherwise. Fashion webzine keeps you updates with what all lightning up in trend circuit. It would feel great when you return home after receiving all those beautiful compliments!
Seek all the luxury info at one place and become a symbol of panache and élan. Huge collection and selection of luxury items world-wide is presented on the website to well-verse the clients sitting in any part of the world.
Getting left behind in fashion makes it difficult to cope. If you’re a true devotee of fashion, you wouldn’t really want to be remembered for wearing a month out-of-date trends. So following a style website is a must-do!
Top models are not only about glamour and beauty, it can also be a juicy business too. Here is the official 2013 top 5 ranking of the world’s highest paid female models. Source: Forbes magazine.
#1- Gisele Bündchen – $42 million per year
Brazilian hips don’t lie… Gisele Bündchen is 32 years old and again she is number one most paid top model in the world. This year she basically kicked out Beyonce from H&M, Rihanna from Chanel and Kate Moss from David Yurman. Any questions? Of course all this in addition of her new second child birth. started here career in 1997. Despite of a unusual look for the standards, Alexander McQueen was the first one to give her a chance and since then, she is a super star. With already 11 covers for Vogue, 3 of them in the same year, she is the ultimate top model today. Marketers calculated that having Gisele Bündchen on an advertising, can easily triple your sales. So the investment is worth. Depending on the size of your campaign ambition, you might need to pay between 3 to 5 million dollars just for one photo shoot. Just compare the difference in terms of revenues between Gisele Bündchen and Miranda Kerr, who gets the second position. Unbelievable.
#2 – Miranda Kerr – $7.2 million per year
Miranda’s career got a huge boost when in 2007 she became one of the Victoria Secret’s angels. Of course she is also the wife of American actor, Orlando Bloom, but definitely Victoria secret was the big booster. She is also a business woman, as she launched her own cosmetics brand called Kora Organics. Today, she is not anymore an “angel” but she got important advertising contracts with brands such as Mango, David Jones, Lipton or Quantas. The Asian market also got interested to Miranda Kerr and she got several contracts. With her $7.2 million of revenue, she is still far away from Queen Gisele but definitely she is a big star.
#3 – Adriana Lima – $6 million per year
Another Angel, this time a brazilian one. Adriana Lima is a brazilian top model. Her career started in 2000 when Victoria Secret contracted her as one of the “angels”. Since then, she became the face of many brands. Guess, Swatch, Versace, Bulgari, De Beers, FCUK and also Maybelline. In 2005 she participated on the Pirelli calendar. Mother of 2 children, she is back on Haute Couture in 2009 for the french brand Givenchy. With her $6 million revenue she is one of the most well paid super models today.
#4 – Kate Moss – $5.7 million per year
Kate Moss is not only a super model, she is also a super-shelf-life career of modeling. Discovered the first time in 1988, the top model is today 39 years old. She is still a fashion muse with dozens of magazine covers per year. It was definetely Calvin Klein, the master of minimalism, who launched her career by making her the face of the unisex trend in the 90’s. Since then, she works regularly for Chloé, Gucci, Marc Jacobs, Karl Lagerfeld, Yves Saint Laurent or Versace. She is a fashion goddess and also was the face for several fragrances like Opium by Saint Laurent or Bulgari. Next january she will pose topless for Playboy magazine in order to celebrate the magazine 60th anniversary and her 40th anniversary too. Cannot way!
#5 – Liu Wen – $4.3 million per year
Liu Wen is the first Chinese fashion model to operate at the international level. She was also the first Eastern Asia model to catwalk for Victoria Secret. She started her career in 2005 after being spotted in a national modeling contest. Since then she was in the cover of several magazines like Vogue or Harper’s Bazaar. In 2007 she did her first fashion shows for Karl Lagerfeld and Viktor & Rolf. Today she is in all top shows from London to Paris, New York and Milano. She is also interested in style, so she might open her own fashion label in the future. For now, she is 25 years old and very successful.
As we can see, female modeling really pays big. If we take the example of the most well paid male model, Sean O’Pry, he earned only $ 1.5 million this year. And he worked as much as any of the female models. So for once, women are better paid than men… by far!
L’Occitane opened this year their first Spa in Switzerland. The prestigious french brand picked up one of the best addresses to install their first location. The L’Occitane Spa is located in the Hotel Royal Crans Montana. A 5 stars hotel in the heart of Crans Montana, one of the important mountain destination in Switzerland. In winter times, the hotel is at the ski slopes entries and in summer, Golf is just a few foot steps away. Discover this amazing Spa where you can relax and enjoy a beautiful experience in the heart of the Swiss alps.
The Hotel Royal Crans Montana is a beautiful chalet style luxury hotel with only 51 rooms. Very exclusive. It was built in 1932 and completely renovated in 2012. The spirit is about “Mountain chic”, meaning a fusion of wood and noble materials for a mountain chalet atmosphere.
Check here a video made by the hotel to promote the elegant ambiance of the place:
Hotel Royal Crans Montana offers a true lifestyle experience in the heart of Swiss Alps and L’Occitane is the perfect partner for such a luxury environment. You will discover a beautiful place, filled with caring details that will transform your journey into an awakening for your senses.
10 different treatments are available, from relaxing massages to body scrubs up to duo massages, you find all the richness of L’Occitane. Essential oils, aromachology and their best selling formulas. Here below the list of treatments.
Relaxing aromatherapy Massage – 60mn
Lavender soothing massages – 60mn
Energizing aromatherapy massage – 60mn
Intense relaxation – 60mn
Almond flavored exquisite curves – 60mn
Shea nourishing scrub – 60mn
Detoxifying almond body wrap – 60mn
Shea ultra-rich softening body wrap – 60mn
Relaxing aromatherapy massage for the back – 30mn
Purity back care – 30mn
MASSAGE FOR TWO – 120mn
In the Spa, you have 4 complete cabins, a hamam and a sauna. Moreover a splendid swimming pool will highlight your experience there.
The Spa is opened every day from 10h00 to 20h00. In Summer, the spa is opened from June to September and in winter from December to March. In case you would like to make a reservation, just visit the Spa website here:
http://www.hotel-royal.ch/en/wellness-space/
L’Occitane has Spas within leading hotels in 13 countries: Brazil, Cambodia, China, Dominican Republic, France, India, Indonesia, Israel, Macau, Portugal, Spain, United States and Thailand.
This winter or next spring, just come to Switzerland and enjoy the Swiss relaxing lifestyle in an amazing place such as the L’Occitane Spa in Crans Montana.
A while ago we discovered an amazing jewelry brand called PietraDura. This fall, they launched a great collection called “Clair Obscur” which in french means “Clear Darker”. When art meets jewelry, the result is always outstanding.
With this fall collection, PietraDura is loyal to its DNA and provides an unique signature between excellence in know-how and modernity.
Clair Obscur plays once more with Rainbow stones that are set in black jewelry. Looking at this amazing collection, the effect is, as the brand says, like a sfumato. Playing with shadows and light, certain details are revealed and others hidden, just for the pleasure of our eyes.
PietraDura Manchette Taboo
This amazing piece is a yellow Gold and blackened silver bracelet. The central cabochon contains a beautiful Aquamarine and the other secondary cabochons are made with tourmaline and set with yellow gold. It is an unique piece.
PietraDura Bonbon rings
This limited edition of 3 rings is made with yellow gold and blackened silver. They are all hand-hammered which makes ech piece different from each other. Amazing. The central cabochon are made with sunstone and the side one with tourmaline. All set on yellow gold.
PietraDura Crocodile Dandy rings
These 2 rings made with blackened silver and tourmaline cabochons, have an incredible effect. By wearing them, nobody will be indifferent to it’s charm. Limited edition.
PietraDura Kaa rings
These amazing rings are like temptation red eyed snakes that will conquer your heart. They represent an outstanding craftsmanship made with blackened silver and set with yellow gold. Cabochons in tourmaline st with yellow gold. Limited edition.
When art meets passion, the result is always “out of this world”.
Tons of gorgeous and opulent items comprise a big branded and luxurious world. Adding such dazzling articles in your lifestyle anyway helps you outshine among the lot!
But where to attain this scoop about such luxurious things is a big question? Try our luxury magazine what deals with meeting fashion needs in all the ways. It introduces the customers with different kinds of elegant pieces of art, designs, clothes, beauty, accessories, timepieces and much more.
Fashion keeps on changing and to cope with its pace is a task! Luxury online magazine makes it possible to acquaint you with myriad of latest and hottest happenings in the fashion market on just a single click. People ought to follow such luxury blogs in order to get some cool yet hottest stuff what adds up a spark to their personality!
The Swiss website hosts an online magazine that includes the important and precious information on all the new-arrivals, accessories racking up the market. Also, the international news shares the reviews and essential info about the things popular across the world.
Generally any online magazine might keep you up with popular items in one specified area of the globe while the Swiss website acknowledges the customers with the popularity of fashion in other nations as well that can leave a wonderful impact at home and in your personality.
The pro and potent bloggers behind our luxury blog ensures to bring in each minute detail of the rapid-changing scenario of luxury. You will always be able to know what is in-demand or in-trend at the particular moment through the website.
As soon as the newest luxury articles hit the market, luxury bloggers make sure to include it. You will never be out-of-trend till you keep up with luxury magazine. As it is an online portal you can access it from any place and any time with your smart device. Thus, it enables fashion at your footsteps!
To check some new piece of style, just hop online and look out what all booming on the Swiss website. Even if you’re enduring to look for some international news for luxury, you can stream into the website instantly.
If everyone follows the same fashion news you do, then it is actually hard to separate yourself. At often times, it is noticed that several people end up ordering and wearing similar ensembles which they saw in a luxury blog.
The only focus, here is to trace out the things that will make you shine among the crowd. It gives you the international news on various current and hot fashion trends dominating the markets. The luxury magazine will take the fashion lovers up with all-new and exciting level. Luxury information will help to decorate your house at its very best. Seek best of the tips from luxury blog to escape the tag of ‘fashion copycat’.
A luxury magazine assists you with much more useful things apart from latest styles. Efforts are teemed in adorning the best of your personality and domicile.
Be a style diva and get yourself everything to lead the most luxurious and lavish life with luxury magazine!
