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The Latest Digital: Cartier, Prada & Tod’s

On the spot LuxuryActivist - 18 January 2013

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An excerpt from Diane von Furstenberg’s Glossi

Montblanc teams up with Harrods to launch an in-store augmented reality experience, as Herms partners with Harper’s Bazaar to retail a limited collection online.

In the past month the digital luxury landscape has been dominated by the moves of the media and retailers. As the New York times announced restructuring measures to the tune of thirty senior journalists, Net-a-Porter announced its intention to launch a full-blown fashion glossy.

As Rupert Murdoch confirmed he will shutter The Daily – the iPad-only magazine he launched two years ago – social-shopping company ThisNext unveiled Glossi, a platform which allows users and brands to create their very own digital magazines.

But perhaps nothing was more surprising, than to hear that Herms will be retailing a selection of footwear on the eCommerce venture of fashion magazine Harper’s Bazaar. Digital may have muddied the waters, but never have the lines between brand, retailer and publisher been so blurred.

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Boucheron, Website

Jeweller Boucheron has relaunched its website in the colours of the new visual identity of the maison. Visitors can browse the portal in English, French, Japanese and Simplified Chinese, or take a virtual 360-degree tour through the Boucheron flagship store at Paris’s Place Vendme. For the first time, Boucheron is sharing the history of its founders and products, whilst boosting social connectivity with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube integration.

Website & Source: boucheron.com

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Cartier, e-Commerce

Cartier has relaunched its e-Commerce offering in the United States, with an enhanced e-boutique and 360-degree product display and videos. Alongside the online boutique, the site offers information regarding after sales service, product maintenance and store locations, as well as dedicated sections to heritage, CSR projects, events, savoir-faire and social media.

Website: cartier.com
Source: Luxury Digital

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Ferrari, App

Ferrari has launched an App for brand fanatics, offering users the opportunity to discover its rich history, simulate driving, wake up to the sound of a V12, take Ferrari-themed photos with RedCam or personalise devices with wallpapers. Built for the iPhone and iPad, the app comprises of photo galleries, videos and factsheets about current and classic models as well as selected Sports Prototype and Formula 1 cars.

Download: Ferrari Mania
Source: Luxury Daily

Georg Jensen Holition Gesture Experience from Holition AR on Vimeo.

Georg Jensen, Augmented Reality

Holition has created a unique application for the special launch of George Jensen’s ‘Fusion Ring Builder’ website. The website was activated to run in store using gesture to drive product selection, simply by selecting product with a hand gesture. The user can play and see the separate components of the Fusion ring come together from all angles using the iPad, or use one of Georg Jensen’s personalised iPads at Harrods, Selfridges London and Selfridges Manchester.

Website: georgjensen.com
Developer: Holition
Source: Retail Jeweller

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Harper’s Bazaar, Herms, eCommerce

Herms is set to debut some of its products on ShopBazaar.com, the eCommerce site powered by fashion glossy Harper’s Bazaar. In the first e-commerce channel outside of its own website, the French luxury house will retail six shoe styles. “We thought it would be great to expand the introduction of Herms footwear to Bazaar’s audience,” explained Herms CEO USA Robert Chavez.

Website: ShopBazaar.com
Source: Fashion United

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Luxure, iPad

Luxure has launched its inaugural iPad Edition, in a bid to showcase its existing magazine content in the most spectacular, insightful and explorative of climates. The iPad Edition of Luxure will provide insight into an array of photography complemented by the new retina display, alongside rich additional content via audio, video and animation.

Download & Source: Luxure

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Montblanc, Virtual Pop-Up

Harrods London and Montblanc UK collaborated to produce a virtual pop-up store, featuring an extensive selection of artworks from the Montblanc Cutting Edge Art Collection, permanently exhibited in Hamburg. By pointing a smartphone or tablet at the image displayed in one of the Montblanc Harrods windows, users could not only view the artworks, but purchase four exclusive Montblanc products through Harrods.

Website & Source: montblanc.com

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Prada, iPad

In celebration of its Fall Winter 2012 menswear show in Paris, Prada collaborated with fashion illustrator Richard Haines, to produce a limited edition book featuring 150 artworks based on the collection. In the final chapter of the project the Italian brand has launched an iPad application, allowing users to take an interactive tour of a virtual palazzo designed by James Lima, to discover both the artworks and collection.

Download: Il Palazzo
Source: Prada

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Shanghai Tang, App

In time for the holiday season, Shanghai Tang has launched apps on Facebook and Sina Weibo, allowing fans to create Christmas wish lists according to their Chinese zodiac sign and share it with their friends. The wish list is focused on Shanghai Tang’s Christmas collection of homeware, displayed in an animated kaleidoscope, and users can then personalise the products they want to include prior to sharing the final wish list with their friends.

Apps: Facebook, Sina Weibo

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Whitewall, Website

Whitewall is pleased to announce the launch of the new beta version of Whitewallmag.com, which will continue to cover contemporary art, luxury lifestyle, fashion, and design, and how these industries intersect. Debuting on the eve of Art Basel Miami Beach (ABMB) 2012, the site will focus exclusively on pre- and day-to-day coverage of the fair.

Source: whitewallmag.com

For more in the series of The Latest Digital, please see our most recent editions as follows:

- The Latest Digital: Balmain, Yoox & Mandarin Oriental
- The Latest Digital: Versace, Balenciaga & Ritz-Carlton
- The Latest Digital: BMW, Maserati & Salvatore Ferragamo

Shooting gallery

On the spot LuxuryActivist - 11 December 2012

Just a few blocks over from the violence-heavy Overtown district in Miami, Asif’s Guns greeted visitors in Wynwood with a giant striped balloon on the roof that held the name – something you’d find at a fireworks tent somewhere in the deep, deep south. Neon signage, American flags, and shooting targets belied the true contents of Asif Farooq’s Art Basel exhibit: 300+ meticulously handcrafted cardboard guns. Walking in, you’d have seen happy moms and exuberant children handling .44 Magnums and M16 Assault Rifles made from cereal boxes and packaging matter.

Asif Farooq, a Miami-born visual artist and musician, started making the guns as Christmas presents, which he sent to friends that were spread across the United States. Though the guns are models, they contain every single working mechanical piece of the actual pistol or automatic. They cock back, lock into place, and still even intimidate – they do everything but shoot. When Farooq first started making them I’d see him at bars where the bartender’s eyes would go anxiously wide until they recognized their artifice and then hold the ersatz gat like a giddy little kid.

Primary Projects, a gallery based in the Design District, represents Farooq and helped put together the pop-up shop. The guns are composed with fine-art precision and impressive replication due to Farooq’s tireless work ethic and enthusiasm. He – along with a veritable assembly line composed of friends and family – created the hundreds of guns over a period of nine months and 7,000 hours of labor all in his mom’s garage. Asif’s Guns was, as he said, a “real gun store,” with each fake gun selling for around the same price as a real one (i.e. around $300 for a revolver and $2,000 for a rifle).

It wasn’t easy getting the store approved; pushback from authorities was intense. The store and all the guns therein serve as an “open letter” to Farooq’s father as well as his close friend William Stuart Watkins, both of whom are deceased. About Watkins, Farooq said that "He really loved guns and we loved guns together." The works, though representative of literal killing-machines, actually castrate the objects they epitomize. By making guns you can play with and “art that people can touch,” Farooq is taking the allure of violence and transforming it into a display of respect for creation.

The guns still are not monuments to peace. Farooq, a natural entertainer rife with melancholia and dark humor, places the practice of making and selling fake guns in a larger political context. Specifically, he calls out the idea of the social contract – the implicit agreement by the members of a society to give up some freedom for greater social protection – as something that “no one ever really sat down to write.” He applauds the right of people to own guns but criticizes the senseless violence that comes with them. Whether one finds this contradictory or not, there must still be a certain reverence for the sheer toil that went into the making of so many perfect facsimiles.

Some of the proceeds from Asif’s Guns are going to Stop Handgun Violence, a non-profit organization dedicated to ending the maiming and slaughtering of people through education and sensible gun laws. Farooq sees the necessity of laws that regulate the sale and use of guns, but also the obligation of governments to respect the public’s right to protect themselves. With Asif’s Guns, there exists a form of art that decries the savagery of firearms, while also heralding their beauty and deadly virtuosity.

The beauty spot: modern toners

On the spot LuxuryActivist - 20 May 2012

Grime buster: Origins' United State Balancing Tonic sweeps the debris away.

Whatever happened to toner – the tingly watery stuff we used to dab on our faces? I rediscovered an old bottle recently. It got me going. "Toner!" I said (I'm not in the habit of anthropomorphising potions in my bathroom cabinet). "I had forgotten you, what with serum and BB cream." And so I found Origins' United State Balancing Tonic (17, origins.co.uk) to sweep away pore-clogging debris and rebalance dry or oily areas. I pressed it on and remembered that satisfying moment toner brings: the cotton wool ball with the grime your cleanser missed. But toner has moved on, too. These days there are mists and pump-action formulas that tighten and lift. Perricone MD's Firming Facial Toner (35, perriconemd.co.uk) smells like spas and is perfect for mature skin.

Alternatively…

Nivea Visage Pure & Natural Cleansing Toner 3.36, nivea.co.uk Sisley Botanical Floral Toning Lotion 64, 020 7591 6380 Crystal Clear Revitalising Tonic 20, 08705 934934 Lancme Tonique Douceur 21, lancome.co.uk