Here is the video of the week about how fast Earth population is growing and how faster the internet revolution is taking control of the planet… Amazing.
LA
Here is the first live performance of Lady Gaga’s Judas. This new song will be released on her new album Born this way. The album is scheduled for release on May 23, 2011. In this video you can see Lady Gaga at The Ellen Degeneres Show in the US. Enjoy. http://bit.ly/judasjudas
Henri Julien Félix Rousseau was born in May 21st 1844 and died in September 2nd 1910 in Paris. He is more than a Pionnier, Henri Rousseau could be considered as a Rebel with a cause! Being totally against the classical influence of the 18th Century, he considered himself as a Post-impressionist painter in a Naive or primitive manner. http://bit.ly/henrirousseau
The big question on everybody’s mind going into the Thierry Mugler menswear show on the opening night of Paris Fashion Week was whether Lady Gaga would be present, because it was the debut collection for the new creative director, Nicola Formichetti, who has helped shape some of the entertainer’s more distinctive looks. http://bit.ly/MuglerMen
Ineke, after her studies at the prestigious Institute of Perfumery – ISIPCA, worked for this Fragrance House for 3 years. After this period, she moved to San Francisco where she founded her company and started to create her own fragrances in 2006. Her aim is to recover the elegant beauty of Artisan Perfumery. http://bit.ly/inekeperfume
She is very well known for her work on family (her own) and her home land, Virginia. Her work generated a lot of controversia because of the uncomfortable reactions the photos caused. http://bit.ly/sally_mann
When a luxury house believes that Art professions represent the richness of past heritage but also the future of creations, then we reach the sublime. We cannot talk about a product but about a masterpiece.
Vacheron Constantin launches this year the second chapter of their collection called Les Métiers d’Art – La Symbolique des Lacques. In the Horlogerie industry some brands are purely fashionable, others are considered as Watch makers and others, like Vacheron Constantin cannot be described. They are out of the frame. Between the sublime and the technical mastery, Vacheron Constantin is a unique swiss story. Vacheron Constantin was founded in Geneva, Switzerland in 1755 by Jean-Marc Vacheron. This makes it the oldest watch manufacturer in the world with an uninterrupted history. Besides being a young businessman, Vacheron was also a talented craftsman. In 1770 his company created the first complication, and nine years later he designed the first engine-turned dials.
By the age of 20, he was already a multi-talented watchmaker and had developed many diverse interests. After completing his apprenticeship, he found his way into the elite circle of Geneva’s cabinotiers. But he wasn’t entirely satisfied with the contemplative existence of acabinotier, so he opened a watch atelier of his own on 17. September 1755 in the old city of Geneva, the so-calledCite, where he employed one or perhaps even two apprentices. His timepieces naturally bore the name “Jean-Marc Vacheron”. At that time he was 24 years old and was one of many cabinotiers-watchmakers who specialized in the production of certain components, selling them to so-called etablisseurs. The watchmakers were called cabinotiers in honor of the well-lit cabinets on the top floors of the houses in Geneva’s Saint-Gervais neighborhood where they worked.
In the 19th century, the grandson of the founder, Jean-Jacques Vacheron, found a business partner in order to develop the company interests overseas. It was the arrival of François Constantin. The company was then renamed as Vacheron & Constantin. The 19th century also saw the arrival of Georges-Auguste Leschot, head of production and innovation. He leaded all the greatest inventions for the luxury house. He was the one who standardize a movement into a caliber. The 20th century brought the first Store of the Brand in 1906. This store can be seen today on Quai de l’Ile. In the 70’s the company dropped the “&” and named themselves Vacheron Constantin. Then in 1996, the entire capital went to the Richemont Group. Today, Vacheron Constantin produces around 20,000 Timepieces a year.
The new collection is called Les Métiers d’Art – La Symbolique des Lacques. This series is composed of 20 sets of 3 Timepieces limited edition. Each Timepiece reveals a special motif chosen for the dial. These motifs were made with the japanese art form called maki-e. This is an ancient japanese traditional lacquering technique.
The technique was developed mainly in the Heian Period (794–1185) and blossomed in the Edo Period (1603–1868). Maki-e objects were initially designed as household items for court nobles, they soon gained more popularity and were adopted by royal families and military leaders as an indication of power. To create different colours and textures, maki-e artists use a variety of metal powders including gold, silver, copper, brass, lead, aluminum, platinum, pewter, as well as their alloys. Bamboo tubes and soft brushes of various sizes are used for laying powders and drawing fine lines. As it requires highly-skilled craftsmanship to produce a maki-e painting, young artists usually go through many years of training to develop the skills and to ultimately become maki-e masters.
Vacheron Constantin dresses its magnificent ultra-thin 1003 caliber.
La Symbolique des Laques “Kame Kaéru Koi” – Carp & Waterfall Specificity: Black Maki-e lacquer “Carp & Waterfall” on both sides. Symbolizes perseverence and strength in Japan. The case is made in 18K white gold. The Case has a transparent case-back with sapphire glass. The stripe is in alligator.
La Symbolique des Laques “Kame Kaéru Koi” – Frog & Hydrangea Specificity: Black Maki-e lacquer “Frog & Hydrangea”. Symbolizes luck and patience in Japan. The case is made in 18K 4N Pink gold. The Case also has a transparent case-back with sapphire glass. The elegant stripe is made in alligator.
La Symbolique des Laques “Kame Kaéru Koi” – Turtle & Lotus
Specificity: Black Maki-e lacquer “Turtle & Lotus”. Symbolizes longevity and purity in Japan. The case is made in 18K 4N pink gold. As the other 2 editions, the case-back is with sapphire glass and the strip in alligator.
They are very limited editions with only 20 sets containing the 3 Timepieces. At these level of artistic execution, we could say that our time is well keeped. LA
Check here the most viewed posts of the week. This ranking is based on the most viewed posts in a period of 7 days.
#1 THE ROYAL KISS
Here are the two Royal kisses directly from Buckingham Palace balcony. Just beautiful. – 211 views
#2 VICTORINOX VISITORS CENTER OPENING
Victorinox, the makers of the Original Swiss Army Knife is finally opening a visitors center in Brunnen – Switzerland. – 128 views
#3 HENRI ROUSSEAU, PAINTER OF JUNGLE
At Fondation Beyeler in Basel, Switzerland, there is one of the most astonishing exhibitions about Henri Rousseau artwork – 39 views
#4 THIERRY MUGLER ANATOMY OF CHANGE The big question on everybody’s mind going into the Thierry Mugler menswear show on the opening night of Paris Fashion Week was whether Lady Gaga would be present – 37 views
#5 BALMAIN NEW ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OLIVIER ROUSTEING
Balmain might be one of the most elegant fashion houses of all times. Today we have the appointment of Olivier Rousteing as the new Artistic director of the Fashion House. – 36 views
What is more personal than a fragrance? Nobody wants to wear the same fragrance than one’s neighbour, boss or best friend. We tend to believe a fragrance is part of our invisible fingerprint, our personality. So when we enter into a perfumery chain store or a perfumery area inside a Department store, we might feel a little lost. Each year, there are more than 300 perfumes launched in the world and unfortunately they are not all masterpieces. The segmentation of the perfumery market and the increase amount of launches dilute the creativity of perfumers and brands become more and more low profiles. Most of the time, perfumery brands think they have too much at stake to risk being out of the box of conservatism. So, where is real creation? Well, since the 90’s people started getting interested on what we called “niche brands”. Names like Joe Malone, Fresh, Serge Lutens, Comme des Garçons or latelly By Killian, made their way inside an international industry dominated by groups like L’Oréal, LVMH or P&G. For the past 10 years we assume the launch of 100 niche brands per year and often, they disappear in the sands of failure after 3 years. The reason? Well, most of these forgotten brands placed creation more on the marketing/PR side rather than in the Products. Fortunately a new kind of Brands appeared. I would not call them niche, as this descriptor would link them to a kind of elitism, but I would rather prefer “Alternative Perfumery”. This means that if you do not wish to wear a “mainstream” fragrance, you might want to discover different alternatives born in the heart of passionate people.
I decided to talk about INEKE perfumes. When I started my apprenticeship in one of the most creative Fragrance houses in Paris, I was lucky to share an office with a creative perfumer called Ineke Rühland. I do not know if she still remember me as our “office sharing” was quite short but what is sure is that I followed her during all these years. Ineke, after her studies at the prestigious Institute of Perfumery – ISIPCA, worked for this Fragrance House for 3 years. After this period, she moved to San Francisco where she founded her company and started to create her own fragrances in 2006. Her aim is to recover the elegant beauty of Artisan Perfumery. According to Ineke, her fragrance line is refreshing and imaginative, provokingy our senses with its mixed-media stories. Cleverly packaged with a keen attention to detail, each eau de parfum introduces its own scented vignette through photos, art, snippets of verse, and the fragrance itself. Using lyrical titles that evoke stories of romance, nature, chemistry and courage, Ineke fragrances are rooted in her perfumery education and apprenticeship in France.
Her main inspiration is taken from: her beautiful garden and her sensitiveness as an accomplished artist. Lilac, Angels trumpets or Japanese white lilies are a great source of olfactive creation. Her Fragrance collection is called an “Alphabetical collection of Perfumes”; In french: Un Abécédaire de Parfums. It is a very original name for a fragrance range. It reveals the aim for these fragrances to be, in a way, simple to be understood and yet interesting storytellers. By clicking on each Perfume, you can discover more about it. Try and get into a poetic journey in a magical garden.
Here is the first live performance of Lady Gaga’s Judas. This new song will be released on her new album Born this way. The album is scheduled for release on May 23, 2011. In this video you can see Lady Gaga at The Ellen Degeneres Show in the US. Enjoy.
This month was launched a book called Vintage T-Shirt. It was written by 3 masters of Vintage T-shirt in Hollywood, Patrick and Marc Guetta with the help of fashion magazine editor Alison Nieder. Mr and Mr Guetta are the legendary owners of a store called World of Vintage T-Shirts. Their store is located at Melrose avenue in Los Angeles. The book collects more than 600 T-shirts, real masterpieces of the genre. The interest of such artistic expression is that a simple object like a T-Shirt can easily become a self-expression living billboard. Between nostalgia and political views, this book offers a trendy journey that reviews the 70’s and the 80’s. These 2 decades were very rich in terms of Pop Art and Street culture. From the “Do it yourself” to the “cutting edge designers, through Brands and corporations, T-shirts are witnesses of the past, of Society evolution.
Almost 400 pages of graphic design and urban culture. If you are interested to buy it, just Amazon-it here.
Marc and Patric Guetta have been working for the cinema industry. They also have launched different brands and right now they are working on the creation of Cartoon characters called Junglenuts. These characters appear on street walls, mailboxes, buidings or subways…
This month, BMW group announced the collaboration between 2 of their brands: Rolls Royce and MINI. The presigious timeless car manufacturer revamp the trendy MINI. Of course BMW ordered the collaboration between the 2 brands to launch MINI Inspired by Goodwoob edition at Shanghai Motor show. See here the story of the MINI by Goodwood. A 1,000 units production for a very exclusive and luxury limited edition.
This limited edition was created by Roll Royce ateliers based in Goodwood in England. At the head of this project : Alan Sheppard the Chief designer of Rolls Royce.
As you may know, BMW group owns both MINI and Rolls Royce. I wonder why british people were not able to keep such treasures under British flag? Nevertheless, the German brand respected both histories and concerning Rolls Royce they still have their historical factory in Goodwood, England.
So the collaboration between these 2 brands could be described as: “when british luxury meets cutting edge design”. So, the result is a beautiful hyper-luxury car.
In details, the entire dashboard, center console and seats are finished in Rolls Cornsilk leather and the dash’s wood veneers come from Rolls. The Rolls-Royce typeface is also used on the instruments. Under the skin, the Goodwood gets the 1.6-litre, twin-scroll turbocharged, 181bhp Cooper S engine and either a six-speed manual or a six-speed auto ’box. Adaptive xenon lights and a Harman Kardon hi-fi are standard. Pure luxury….
the current plastics from the standard model are replaced by a Walnut Burr finish on the dashboard and doors, with fine-grade Corn Silk leather covering most surfaces. Only the top of the dash is contrasting – it’s trimmed in black hide. The detail extends to the typeface found on the speedo and rev counter, which matches that of the Phantom and Ghost models.
Here some good views from the precious beauty:
Girard-Perregaux, the famous Swiss Haute-Horloger unvealed its new 1966 Blue Dial Chronograph. In order to celebrate the Brand 220th anniversary, they introduced to the 1966 collection a new Chronograph in white gold and with an elegant blue dial. The Brand named this collection as 1966 thanks to the Centenary prize they got from the Neuchatel Observatory. Their quest for perfection and precision brought them to Swiss Timepieces limelight.
In 1791, watchmaker and goldsmith Jean-François Bautte signed his first watches. He created a manufacturing company in Geneva grouping, for the first time ever, all the watch making facets of that time, which meant starting from the engineering of the watch all the way to the final hand assembly and hand polishing of each watch. In 1852, the watchmaker Constant Girard founded the Girard & Cie Firm in La Chaux-de-Fonds. He, then, married Marie Perregaux and the Girard-Perregaux Manufacture was born in 1856. In 1906, Constant Girard-Gallet, who took over control of the Manufacturer from his father, took over the Bautte House and merged it with Girard-Perregaux & Cie.Since then, the brand has pursued its activities by reinforcing from the 1980s its position in the domain of prestigious mechanical watches, Haute Horlogerie, under the lead of the Macaluso family (source wikipedia).
The new 1966 price is $29,700. It was built by Girard-Perregaux’s workshops.
REF : 49539-53-451-BK6A
Material : White gold
Dimensions / Diameter : 40,00 mm
Height : 12,05 mm
Case-back : Sapphire crystal, press-in
Water resistance : 3 ATM
The mecanism used is a GP030C0 from the Brand. It is a mechanical movement with an automatic winding, column-wheel chronograph.
Caliber : 10½”’
Height : 6.28 mm
Frequency : 28,800 Vib/h (4 Hz)
Jewels : 38
Power reserve : min. 36 hours
Functions : Hour, minute, column-wheel chronograph, small second
photo Girard-Perregaux
To finalize a gentleman’s elegant timepiece, Girard-Perregaux chosed a classic Alligator strap.
What do you think? Tempted?
LA
founded in Geneva, Switzerland in 1755 by Jean-Marc Vacheron. This makes it the oldest watch manufacturer in the world with an uninterrupted history. Besides being a young businessman, Vacheron was also a talented craftsman. In 1770 his company created the first complication, and nine years later he designed the first engine-turned dials.
In the 19th century, the grandson of the founder, Jean-Jacques Vacheron, found a business partner in order to develop the company interests overseas. It was the arrival of François Constantin. The company was then renamed as Vacheron & Constantin. The 19th century also saw the arrival of Georges-Auguste Leschot, head of production and innovation. He leaded all the greatest inventions for the luxury house. He was the one who standardize a movement into a caliber. The 20th century brought the first Store of the Brand in 1906. This store can be seen today on Quai de l’Ile. In the 70’s the company dropped the “&” and named themselves Vacheron Constantin. Then in 1996, the entire capital went to the Richemont Group. Today, Vacheron Constantin produces around 20,000 Timepieces a year.
colours and textures, maki-e artists use a variety of metal powders including gold, silver, copper, brass, lead, aluminum, platinum, pewter, as well as their alloys. Bamboo tubes and soft brushes of various sizes are used for laying powders and drawing fine lines. As it requires highly-skilled craftsmanship to produce a maki-e painting, young artists usually go through many years of training to develop the skills and to ultimately become maki-e masters.
What is more personal than a fragrance? Nobody wants to wear the same fragrance than one’s neighbour, boss or best friend. We tend to believe a fragrance is part of our invisible fingerprint, our personality. So when we enter into a perfumery chain store or a perfumery area inside a Department store, we might feel a little lost. Each year, there are more than 300 perfumes launched in the world and unfortunately they are not all masterpieces. The segmentation of the perfumery market and the increase amount of launches dilute the creativity of perfumers and brands become more and more low profiles. Most of the time, perfumery brands think they have too much at stake to risk being out of the box of conservatism. So, where is real creation? Well, since the 90’s people started getting interested on what we called “niche brands”. Names like Joe Malone, Fresh, Serge Lutens, Comme des Garçons or latelly By Killian, made their way inside an international industry dominated by groups like L’Oréal, LVMH or P&G. For the past 10 years we assume the launch of 100 niche brands per year and often, they disappear in the sands of failure after 3 years. The reason? Well, most of these forgotten brands placed creation more on the marketing/PR side rather than in the Products. Fortunately a new kind of Brands appeared. I would not call them niche, as this descriptor would link them to a kind of elitism, but I would rather prefer “Alternative Perfumery”. This means that if you do not wish to wear a “mainstream” fragrance, you might want to discover different alternatives born in the heart of passionate people.
I decided to talk about INEKE perfumes. When I started my apprenticeship in one of the most creative Fragrance houses in Paris, I was lucky to share an office with a creative perfumer called Ineke Rühland. I do not know if she still remember me as our “office sharing” was quite short but what is sure is that I followed her during all these years. Ineke, after her studies at the prestigious Institute of Perfumery – ISIPCA, worked for this Fragrance House for 3 years. After this period, she moved to San Francisco where she founded her company and started to create her own fragrances in 2006. Her aim is to recover the elegant beauty of Artisan Perfumery. According to Ineke, her fragrance line is refreshing and imaginative, provoking
y our senses with its mixed-media stories. Cleverly packaged with a keen attention to detail, each eau de parfum introduces its own scented vignette through photos, art, snippets of verse, and the fragrance itself. Using lyrical titles that evoke stories of romance, nature, chemistry and courage, Ineke fragrances are rooted in her perfumery education and apprenticeship in France.
This month was launched a book called Vintage T-Shirt. It was written by 3 masters of Vintage T-shirt in Hollywood, Patrick and Marc Guetta with the help of fashion magazine editor Alison Nieder. Mr and Mr Guetta are the legendary owners of a store called World of Vintage T-Shirts. Their store is located at Melrose avenue in Los Angeles. The book collects more than 600 T-shirts, real masterpieces of the genre. The interest of such artistic expression is that a simple object like a T-Shirt can easily become a self-expression living billboard. Between nostalgia and political views, this book offers a trendy journey that reviews the 70’s and the 80’s. These 2 decades were very rich in terms of Pop Art and Street culture. From the “Do it yourself” to the “cutting edge designers, through Brands and corporations, T-shirts are witnesses of the past, of Society evolution.
Photos: AutoExpress
