Finally, Bentley Motors revealed in Detroit the new Continental GT V8 in a brilliant and exciting presentation to the press.
Bentley reveals the new continental GT V8
Reading Time: 2 minutes
Sisley 2012 new exclusive launches – skincare
Reading Time: 3 minutes
Sisley Paris is launching in 2012 two very interesting skincare products: Phyto-Blanc Lightening Serum in February 2012 and Sisleÿa Concentré Anti-Age Fermeté Corps in March.
SISLEY PHYTO-BLANC INTENSIVE LIGHTENING SERUM
During the last ten years, Sisley laboratories seek to deepen the mechanisms of melanogenesis, to understand the pigmentation disorders and to explore the origin of skin radiance.
With seven existing products, Phyto-Blanc line now complete its offer with a new serum, consisting of active lightening complex, the most effective ever developed by Sisley laboratories.
The new Intensive Lightening Serum fits all kind of skin and all ages. According to the Brand, only 4 small weeks are requested to get the first results. The skin is clearer, softer and more flexible. The complexion is smooth, uniform and radiant. The skin texture is refined.
Brown spots due to age and aging photo-induced decreases significantly. The results can double in 8 weeks.
In terms of active ingredients, we can see the huge know-how of the Brand in terms of essential oils and vegetal extracts. The use of Vitamin C is very interesting but this one is very unstable in a formula. Asian researchers succeeded to stabilize this active by associating it with a glucose molecule. And the “Ascorbic Acid 2-glucose” is born.
In terms of ingredients, please note :
– Ougon extracts
– White Mulberry
– Lemon
– Flower Extract Cactus pear
– The Vitamin A Palmitate
– Essential oils of Lavender and Marjoram.
– Vitamin E acetate
– Alpha-Bisabolol
– Vegetable glycerin
SISLEŸA CONCENTRE ANTI-AGE FERMETE CORPS
The body is less exposed than the face to external aggressions. But, the skin of the body also suffers with aging. Why? Because of
– Hormonal changes
– Lack of exercise
– The repeated sun exposure
These problems result in a loss of density and firmness for the skin. From a certain age, skin tightening becomes a problem for all women, no matter their weight and profile.
Some areas are particularly affected:
– The internal faces of the arms and thighs.
– The belly and buttocks
– The “décolleté”
For all these reasons, Sisley launches “SISLEŸA Concentré Anti-Age Fermeté corps.” The first Global anti-aging skincare for the Body by Sisley. 19 active ingredients from the vegetal world in order to fight body-aging. A multi-sensorial experience in 3 steps.
Action one: A Global Strategy for anti-aging and firmness
– Dill seed extract
– Alkekengi Calyx extract and Soy
– Padina pavonica extract
– White Willow extract
– Einkorn extract
Action two: Moisturizing, nourishing and revitalizing
– Spirulina extract
– Caffeine
– Cédrol
– Red Vine extract
– Vegetable Glycerin
– Plum and Andiroba oil
– Shea Butter
– Lavender and Marjoram Essential oils
Action three: Immediate Smoothing and Sheathing action
– Oat extract
– Ratanhia extract
As you can see, Sisleÿa Concentré Anti-Age Fermeté Corps is one of the most complete skincare product in the market, capitalizing on Sisley know-how at its best.
With Phyto Blanc Intensive Lightening serum and Sisleÿa Concentré Anti-Age Fermeté Corps, the french Brand starts the year with 2 great products that will find naturally their respective places in the product offer.
Do not hesitate to connect to the Brand official website in order to keep updated on the products launch: http://www.sisley-cosmetics.com .
Wishing you all a great new year.
LA
info sourced at Sisley Press release, www.fashionmonitor.com and purebeauty.co.uk
All images copyrighted, all reproduction restricted without further notice.
SoundCloud, the myspace killer?
Reading Time: 2 minutes
One of the most fashionable words in 2011 was “cloud”. And it will continue in 2012. After Apple’s iCloud, another one growing very fast is SoundCloud. It is an online audio distribution platform which allows collaboration, promotion and distribution of audio recordings. Some people consider it is a myspace killer. Originally from Sweden, SoundCloud quickly got installed in Berlin-Germany in August 2007. It was founded by sound designer Alex Ljung and artist Eric Wahlforss. It had the intention of allowing musicians to share recordings with each other, but later transformed into a full publishing tool which also allowed musicians to distribute their music tracks.
Basically, you can record your original-sound and share it with your friends, ask them what they think about it or even share it throughout the social networks.
Of course, all records need to be original and you should be the owner (or have the official rights) to display it. So it is pointless to share your best singers, you will get censored or even banned.
SoundCloud is developing fast and they have the aim to become the biggest sharing platform around Music in the world. For that, SoundCloud got big investors: Union Square Ventures and Index Ventures joined the board.
In this beginning of the year, we heard they raised around 50 million US$ in order to “allow for further expansion and scaling for mobile and international markets”. This shows how serious they are.
Since they have created the mobile app, they won 1 million users in a couple of weeks.
Get the iPhone App here
2 interesting features that spices up SoundCloud. The first one is the Social Media sharing. You can share your sounds throughout the major social media platforms, which gives a huge power to the tool. The second point is about apps. In deed, within SoundCloud there are several apps that allow you to record, to improve, to modify, to edit sounds. There is also Developers resources, so everybody is able to propose new apps.
With these 2 features, SoundCloud gets in the path of rich media and social content production, basically the future of internet. So is Soundcloud a myspace killer? Not sure, at least their aim is to do with audio what Youtube did with videos.
Check the official website: http://soundcloud.com
Sounds great.
LA
info sourced at SoundCloud website, Wikipedia and socialtimes.com
image: Tungphoto
David Bailey, British rocks!
Reading Time: 2 minutes
David Bailey is a British photographer, born in 1938 and worked on the past 60 years for fashion magazines and rock stars. He influenced the British photography and he is our photographer of the month.
He started his professional career in 1959 as photographic assistant at the John French studio, and in May 1960, he was a photographer for John Cole’s Studio Five before being contracted as a fashion photographer for British Vogue magazine later that year. He also undertook a large amount of freelance work.
First Vogue cover by David Bailey – 1960
He was one of the artists leaders of the 1960’s Swinging London movement. According to Wikipedia, Swinging London is a term applied to the fashion and cultural scene that flourished in London, in the 1960s. It was a youth-oriented phenomenon that emphasised the new and modern. It was a period of optimism and hedonism, and a cultural revolution. One catalyst was the recovery of the British economy after post-World War II austerity which lasted through much of the 1950s.
The “Swinging London” scene was aptly reflected in his Box of Pin-Ups (1964): a box of poster-prints of 1960s celebrities. See here some of my preferred:
MICK JAGGER, Box of Pin Up’s – 1964
John Lennon, Box of Pin Up’s – 1965
In parallel of his fashion work, David Bailey was responsible for Music album sleeve art for : The Rolling Stones, Marianne Faithfull or Cat Stevens.
In the 90’s he directed some documentaries and TV programs for the BBC and of course continue his work as photographer.
In 2011 Jerome de Missolz released a documentary called “David Bailey: Four Beats to the Bar and No Cheating”. Check a small teasing here:
On his personal life he was married 4 times, and one of his wives was famous french actress Catherine Deneuve (divorced in 1972).
Brit’Rocks!
info sourced in wikipedia and David Bailey officials website and Facebook. All images are copyrighted, no reproduction allowed without further notice.
2011 Top 5 best luxury blogs in the world
Reading Time: 2 minutes
In 2011, luxury and internet were really well together. Here is the ranking of the top 5 best luxury blogs based on multiple settings: Page rank, back links, alexa ranking and social networks activity.
TOP 5
#1 – The Sartorialist
Founder/blogger/photographer Scott Schuman began The Sartorialist with the idea of creating a two-way dialogue about the world of fashion and its relationship to daily life.
http://www.thesartorialist.com
#2- Hypebeast
Hypebeast is a global media platform positioned as a major contributor to today’s lifestyle and fashion landscape. It was founded by Kevin Ma.
http://hypebeast.com
#3- Stylelist
See celebrity style trends, and read style tips, reviews and opinions on Stylelist.
http://www.stylelist.com
#4- Highsnobiety
HighSnobiety is the flagship site of the Titel Media network of fashion and product focused websites. With a solid staff of writers and bloggers working worldwide, HighSnobiety (and other Titel Media sites, Selectism and HighSnobette) remain some of the strongest resources in fashion news on the Internet today.
http://www.highsnobiety.com
#5- Fashionista
One of the largest independent fashion news sites, Fashionista is a finely curated collection of fashion news, criticism and career advice. Fashionista is published by Breaking Media.
http://fashionista.com
We can see that this ranking is totally dominated by US websites. There are few blogs around the world with an international impact. Most of the existing ones are influent in a country and/or region and/or city. If you have any interesting blogs to share, do not hesitate to share it here.
info sourced on http://www.signature9.com
image: Tungphoto
Plukka, jewelry e-shop
Reading Time: 5 minutes
Plukka is an online shop for jewelry in which they adopt a common purchase strategy. Prices get lower depending on how many people are committed to buy the item. Making fine jewelry available to everyone.
E-commerce became the new challenge for many brands and customers are today more and more willing to buy their goods online. Lack of time, change of purchase behavior, cheap prices or just good advertising are good reasons in why e-commerce became now a reality. Some products are easier to sell online than others but e-tailers find more and more creative ways to propose new products.
Electronics, books, hotel bookings or even flying tickets are currently the big sales online and some categories are more complex to sell like fragrances, watches or even jewelry. In the strictly elitist jewelry market, in which top luxury brands dominate, we can hardly find an e-commerce proposition. Most of the time, brands will tell you that their products are not appropriated for online sales, or that internet is a cheap media. Well, most of the time, it is more a lack of creativity and audacity… or simply a good overdose of conservatism.
Plukka is one of the answers to this historical conservatism. The principle is easy. Plukka proposes beautiful pieces of jewelry that are produced only when there are enough buyers for it. And the more buyers they have, the cheapest the jewel is.
But who is Plukka?
Plukka sells own-brand, extremely creative, original fine designer jewelry (18k gold, diamonds, gemstones) priced 70-90% off normal retail price, sold through a revolutionary social shopping process called the Plukka Value Proposition. Prices will range from $200 to $20,000, with an approximate median price range of $500-700. The name is a fantastical portmanteau name combining two English words, “pukka” (genuine, reliable, or good; proper) and “pluck” (“courage or resolution”).
It was founded in July 2011 by Joanne Ooi and Jai Waney. Joanne is the former creative director of Shanghai Tang and a leading environmentalist. In 2005, she appeared on the cover of Fast Company for turning around Shanghai Tand and was nominated to Time’s 100 Most Influential this year for her work on Hong Kong’s air pollution. Jai is an international businessman and investor with diverse interests including manufacturing, hospitality and art. Among his holdings are the Zuma/Roka international group of restaurants and the recently opened Arts Club in London. Whereas at the beginning, Waney and Ooi intended to apply the business model to fashion and garments, they quickly changed their mind after bringing on board Elle Hill, Plukka’s Director of Business Development who possesses 20 years of experience in the fine jewelry industry, including senior management roles at Dalumi and M. Fabrikant
At Plukka website, each online sale is called an event. You can easily scroll throughout the events and most interesting, you can see the incoming events. To be sure to participate, you can subscribe online and you get an email once the event is available.
One of the incoming events is the sale of this beautiful ring called “Citrine Square Rope”.
It is a black rhodium sterling silver ring featuring a 3.40 carat cushion-cut citrine surrounded by a decorative “rope” bezel. This understated modern classic adds polish to a pair of jeans or your favorite suit. The online sales starts on the 13th of January, so if you are interested, just click here.
Plukka is based in Hong Kong, the international crossroad for high-jewelry. They have their own internal designers team who create each piece of jewelry according to personal inspiration and trends.
One point of interest and originality at Plukka: a reward program. In times in which social media is a great deal, Plukka put in place a reward program to help you get up to -40% off. How it works? When you apply for a purchase, the more you share your purchase online throughout the social networks, the better price deal you get. From -10% up to -40%, social sharing becomes very interesting and for once, there is a real benefit for the “sharer”.
Prices goes from 200$ up to 20,000$ depending on the jewel piece. So the idea is to keep quality and design but with a fair price thanks to community purchase. Which kind of person will buy from Plukka? Difficult to say. Probably people who are not looking for “brands” and that appreciate beautiful jewels.
Check this video that explains well the Plukka experience:
Plukka also try to present original themes and uses the help of famous photographers to “put on stage” the designers team creations. Currently, they asked to Juan-Carlos de Marcos to photograph 2 collections, the 7 wonders and the bling one. Juan-Carlos de Marcos is a fashion photographer also used to shoot watches and jewelry. If you want to learn more about him, check his official website: http://www.jcdemarcos.com
So do not hesitate to connect to Plukka official website to learn more about the online sales and keep updated to future events: http://www.plukka.com.
info sourced from plukka press release, plukka and juan-carlos de Marcos websites.
http://luxuryactivist.com copyright
image: Tungphoto
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, Counter-Culture
Reading Time: 4 minutes
During the holiday season, I read the official biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. At the beginning I thought it was again another object to nourish Steve Jobs cult. Even though I like Apple products, I do not like the “guru” strategy that minimizes the creative teams behind. But I must say that this biographical work shows more than just the life of a “geeky hero”. It shows the life of a man, that was not proud of everything he did but more than that, it shows an interesting idea of Counter Culture.
The book was written by Walter Isaacson, an important media personality as former CEO of CNN and the managing Director of Time magazine. He also wrote the biography of Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin and Kissinger. In a way by adding Steve Jobs to his bibliography, Walter Isaacson generates a sort of historical retrospective about Counter Culture throughout out the ages as all these greatmen were the perfect ambassadors of this idea.
According to Wikipedia, Counterculture (also written counter-culture) is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, orsubculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. Counterculture can also be described as a group whose behavior deviates from the societal norm. It is a neologism attributed to Theodore Roszak, author of The Making of a Counter Culture. Although distinct countercultural undercurrents have existed in many societies, here the term refers to a more significant, visible phenomenon that reaches critical mass and persists for a period of time. A countercultural movement expresses the ethos, aspirations, and dreams of a specific population during an era—a social manifestation of zeitgeist. It is important to distinguish between “counterculture,” “subculture,” and “fringe culture”.
Countercultural milieux in 19th-century Europe included Romanticism, Bohemianism, and the Dandy. Another movement existed in a more fragmentary form in the 1950s, both in Europe and the United States, in the form of the Beat generation, followed in the 1960s by the hippies and anti-Vietnam War protesters.
The term came to prominence in the news media, as it was used to refer to the social revolution that swept North America, Western Europe, Japan,Australia, and New Zealand during the 1960s and early 1970s. We can see that Steve Jobs was raised during this period. It is not surprising that for many years the slogan for Apple was: “Think Different”.
42 chapters, 630 pages, from his childhood, to the birth of Apple, the NeXT episode until the latest years. It is interesting to see how Counter-Culture can be part of the main strategy of a company, if you are a genius outsider. I like the chapter 25, in which we discover the birth of the 1997 famous campaign “Think Different”. Basically, it came from the assumption that “Apple is about creative people who think outside the box, who want to use computers to help them change the world“.
This gives us a great key to understand partially the success of such company. While most of the big computers builders, like IBM, SONY, TOSHIBA or HP always tried to prove how great their computers were, Apple was always about THE PEOPLE. Computers are just wires and electronically components. It is what we are capable to do with it that makes the world better or different. So while all the computer sharks were fighting with each other in a sort of bloody red ocean, Apple went to the big blue ocean, meaning, to a new model in which competition was not interested. Please note that Apple always talked about people, not only about customers but also their own employees. You do not buy a brand, you join a community of cool and creative people. In a decade in which Social networks and community are important words, Apple built its own since the 70’s.
So, if you missed this book last year because you could not find an interest, you may want to check it out in this beginning of 2012.
LA
info sourced at Walter Isaacson book and Wikipedia.
image: Stoon
Classical music, too expensive?
Reading Time: 3 minutes
The music industry evolved much more in the past 10 years than in the past 50 years. In deed Internet changed a lot the way we buy or listen to music. Of course it also developed the piracy around exchanging music illegally. And this would be another subject. If we focus on the “legal”channels, we can see that there are different prices for different sort of music and unfortunately Classical music is much more expensive than other categories. In deed, if you compare for example different kind of music in the iTunes store, we can see that classic music is much more expensive in general than Pop, Rock, Folk or even than world music. A good classical album can cost between 15$ up to 50$ depending on the artist and the orchestra. At the contrary, a Pop album will cost between 7$ up to 20$. So this makes things hard if we want people to listen to what we call the “Great music”. Fortunately, more and more resources are available, some of them for free and others for soft prices.
Let’s start with one of the biggest database for classical music online. It is called http://public-domain-archive.com. It is a great music database containing public domain recordings from classic music at least 50 years old. You can listening to the files online or download the music files in MP3 format for free. Most of record files are from 1930’s to 1950’s recordings, so quality is not always available but it is a great FREE source for classical music. It has some precious treasures like the 1955 Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor by Herbert von Karajan and the Philharmonia Orchestra. It is a great source for discovery and exploration of different composers. More than 60 different classic composers from Beethoven, to Mozart, Paganini, Wagner… The website is quite simple in terms of navigation and layout but the essential is there.
Another option is the iTunes store. I must say that if you look well, Apple tried to make a lot of efforts to make Classical music available at a soft-price. In some countries the offer is not available. In Switzerland for example, the iTunes store does not propose cheap prices for classic music. Maybe Apple thinks swiss people are rich 🙁
But in another countries, you can find very interesting offers. I took the example of the US and the French iTunes stores.
In the US, we have an offer called “50 of the Best…Classical music”.
It represents a large choice of albums at 5,99$ by composers like Chopin, Debussy or Beethoven, Verdi and Handel. It is a great way to discover the great classics. The price is even cheaper than in Europe.
In France, they have a more “ironic” offer name, called “Classique pour les Nuls” which in french means Classical music for dumbs, like the famous collection of books.
Also, Apple proposes a quite interesting catalog in the french store, in which you can discover all the classic compositors but also, “Maria Callas for Dumbs” or “Opera for dumbs”. These albums are great introducers to the big classics.
So, there are no reasons to not discover classical music. To learn more about contemporary artists, one of the best places is the official website of the Deutsche Grammophon. A part of being a historical great institution, the Deutsche Grammophon presents a great choice of new contemporary singers and composers. Do not hesitate to take a tour there.
info sourced at iTunes, Deutsche Grammophon
image: Danilo Rizzuti
Visionaire, larger than life
Reading Time: < 1
Let’s start the year with something greater than usual. It is the last edition of Visionnaire magazine. It is called the Larger than life special edition.
According to Karl Lagerfeld, “Life should be larger than life”, which means that life should be greater than normality. So the Visionnaire magazine made a special edition that is literally larger than life. This means 2 different Extra-over-sized magazines.
The biggest one is 79h x 57.8w inches (2 meters high x 1,50m large) and was edited in 250 copies. It entered the World guinness book of records for the biggest magazine. The edition costs around 1,500$ which finally is not that expensive when you see how big the magazine is! Another version, slightly smaller is also available (49.5h x 36w inches) and was edited in 1,500 copies. The Cover reveals Lady Gaga, shot by Inez and Vinoodh. We can see her as an amazing “oily” mermaid. As surprising as sexy it can be 🙂
Here is the promotional video about the giant version:
So, for this year, just be BOLD.
LA
image: Tungphoto
Info sourced at visionaire.com
Lubin, making history in Perfumery
Reading Time: 2 minutes
Perfumery is an Art since the ages of times. Some names are for ever connected to Perfumery history and one of them is Lubin. One of the oldest Perfumery houses in the world, still in activity since 1798.
Pierre François Lubin founded the company at the end of the 18th century. Very fast, the Fragrance house became one of the most fashionable brands at that time. In deed, by producing scented ribbons, rice powderballs and masks, Lubin seduced women called at that time “Les Merveilleuses”, “the wonders” in French. Les Merveilleuses were part of a trend in France characterized by a certain dissipation and extravagance, in response to the Terror period.
They were the trendsetters of the time and Lubin their preferred brand. The fragrance won over the Imperial Court, and was worn by the likes of Josephine and Pauline Bonaparte. When the Bourbons were restored, Lubin dedicated his fragrances to Queen Marie-Amelie. Eventually, Lubin’s perfumes were worn by all the crowned heads of Europe, and were imported to America in 1830.
Lubin was still a major perfumery in the 1940s, but abandoned high-end perfume making in the 1980s. A financial reorganization took place at the House of Lubin in 2001. Its wares and antique documents can be found displayed in Musées de Grasse’s International Perfume Museum in Grasse, France.
Olivia Giacobetti is the current fragrance designer and today the company is also very present in the USA where the relaunch of the brand was a great success.
In 2011, Lubin (re)launched Marie Antoinette’s fragrance called Black Jade. Historically, it was created by the Queen’s personal perfumer, Jean-Louis Fargeon. Now it is relaunched under the Lubin brand.
For more information, you can visit the brand official website: http://www.lubin-parfum.fr
I find important to keep alive what made history possible and especially when this means keeping great fragrances alive. I still have in mind Lubin’s Vetiver… just amazing. You can also rediscover IDOLE, in a re-invented version by Olivia Giacobetti, the current inHouse perfumer.
Tempted?
LA
Info sourced in Wikipedia and www.lubin-parfum.fr