When Marc Jacobs found himself in a meeting on a recent Monday morning to brainstorm about Louis Vuitton’s next fashion advertising campaign, inspiration struck. “I just blurted out, ‘I think we should do Madonna,’” said the designer, Vuitton’s creative director, mentioning he’d attended a concert by the pop icon the night before in Paris. “I was totally just blown away by it, and moved by her performance, by what she had to say, and her energy.”

As the meeting went on, Jacobs tapped out a message to Madonna on his BlackBerry, and within about five minutes came the reply: “I’d love to.”

The result is six atmospheric pictures of a smoldering Madonna by Steven Meisel that will break in a range of fashion magazines this February. “It’s a big change from what we were doing. It tells a story,” said Antoine Arnault, Vuitton’s director of communications. “This I think is an amazing coup, but more than that, there’s real logic behind it. It’s very linked to Marc’s fashion show.”

Although Arnault declined to give figures, he said media budgets for the fashion campaign would be on par with a year ago. And he dismissed as “absurd” reports pegging Madonna’s fees at $10 million. “It’s very far away from that,” he assured.

The campaign marks the end of Vuitton’s six-year collaboration with photographers Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, with the parting characterized as amicable, and another reunion for long-time collaborators Madonna and Meisel. Jacobs last worked with Meisel in his Perry Ellis days. (Arnault noted it’s “very probable” Vuitton’s association with Meisel will continue.)

The campaign takes the very Parisian theme of Jacobs’ hit spring Vuitton collection, with a smoky French bistro the setting, and the sepia-toned images evoking a Brassai atmosphere. “As cliché as they are, I love all these French references,” the designer said. (Although the restaurant, Figaro, is on North Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles).

“I still feel it looks like beautiful, gorgeous Madonna,” Jacobs said about the images. “Excepting the references and excepting the clichés, this still feels very today. And it didn’t feel so much like a fashion shoot, it feels like portraits.”

The shoot wrapped up in less than a day and without incident, although Jacobs said hordes of paparazzi literally “appeared out of the bushes” the moment Madonna arrived. “It went from a quiet street to complete chaos,” he said.

The designer also marveled at the singer’s incredible fitness that allowed her to recline, her back arched, on bentwood chairs, or shoot a leg straight up in the air, no sweat. “She’s so sure of herself as an icon and as a woman. It was her idea to do the fishnets,” Jacobs said. “What fascinates me the most about her is her never-ending energy, and the idea of becoming and changing. She’s an artist who’s unafraid to use her voice.”

Arnault said the fashion campaign would appear “very strongly” in February and March issues and with few changes in media placements. “We’re staying on target,” he stressed.

The first visuals will spotlight slouchy bags in monogram canvas and monogram-embossed leather, along with ethnic-inspired sandals, bangles and sexy ready-to-wear. In tandem, Vuitton will continue to run its “core values” campaign, with spots featuring Sean Connery, the latest celebrity spokesman, continuing into next year. Analysts have estimated Vuitton spends more than $250 million annually on advertising, most of it print-driven.

Joelle’s Picks:
The Video

The Cafe: Figaro Bistro 1802 N. Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA, 90027 – Tel +1 323.662.1587

Photos credits: Steven Meisel for Louis Vuitton All rights reserved

Men are always busy! They are busy even when they are given the special day for love – Valentine’s Day!

Agent Provocateur has recently produced the sort of a call or reminder for the strong half of mankind by the new ad campaign video “Love me tender… or else!” starring Rosie Huntington Whiteley.

The 21-year-old English model plays a girl who took revenge on her sweetheart after he’d left her alone preferring to stay at work instead of being with her.

Black stockings, suspenders and lace sexy lingerie from Agent Provocateur provoked the forgotten woman into radical measures.

Joelle’s Picks:

Shop on line: Agent Provocateur

The Video:
Written and directed by Greg Williams
Starring – Rosie Huntington-Whiteley
Boyfriend – Charlie Speed
Cleaning lady Jean Brooks

Featuring music by Dirty Stop Out

Produced by Suki Hitchcock & Greg Williams
Editor Timon Mahony
Director of Photography Greg Williams
Additional Story Grant Tuohy
Musical Director Luca Mainardi
Make Up Designer Kay Montano
Hair Designer Johnnie Sapong
Gaffer Steve Jackson
Camera Operator Paul Swann
Focus Puller Stephen Nelson
Sound Gareth John and Grant Tuohy
1st AD James McGrady
Unit Photographer SimonTang
Colorist Timon Mahony
Flame Operator Alistair Ford
Dubbing Mixer Ian Gardham & Sam Rowland
Title Design Julia Staite

Madonna might be the face of Louis Vuitton’s spring 2009 campaign, Style.com reports. Rumor has it the ads have already been shot by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott.

And this qualifies as news we never saw coming. Louis Vuitton and Madge aren’t like Chanel and Madge, Christian Dior and Madge, or even Dolce & Gabbana and Madge. .

She regularly romps around in Chanel (who could forget her famous gun-heel pumps?), she’s worn her Dior Blue Angel pumps repeatedly,

and Dolce & Gabbana sponsored the premiere of her directorial debut in New York. But Louis Vuitton designer Marc Jacobs also attended that premiere and told us he was “close to a very good friend” of Madonna’s.

Later we saw them getting chummy in a booth, so maybe such a pairing was inevitable? However it came about, it’s a fine distraction from a giant divorce. We wonder if she’ll have to give up all her favorite non-Louis shoes now.

Joell’s Tips

The Source : New York Magazine Via  “Vuitton’s Best Star Ever? Style.com ”

The Store in New York: Louis Vuitton: 1 E. 57th St., New York, NY 10022  at Fifth Ave. – Tel: + 1 212 758-8877

Supermodel Helena Christensen is the newest face (and body) of hip British lingerie brand Agent Provocateur. The Danish siren stars as a sexy pirate in Agent Provocateur’s latest ad campaign (above), the story line of which involves her seducing the captain of a ship she’s attempting to plunder.

The Pirate-inspired lingerie also features in a video clip containing cryptic clues, along with pix of Agent Provocateur’s other new line, Witches. Agent Provocateur has big plans for expansion.

To celebrate the sizzling new range, Agent Provocateur is hosting an exclusive Pirate Party at London’s Koko nightclub on Thursday, November 13th. Guests of honor will be musical renegades Dirty Stop Out, who will be launching their much anticipated debut album Cuntro Classics Volume I.

Stop Out is a band created by Joe Corre and “Filthy” Luca Mainardi with The Clash’s Mick Jones and backed by a colorful band of vagabonds on a mission to revive the forgotten world of sexy, sweaty entertainment through an ever changing musical experience and interesting collaborations.

The album will be available exclusively on-line and in-store at Agent Provocateur from the 10th November.

Watch the streamy video

Watch the slide show

Send and E-card

Joelle’s Tips

Soho, New York Store
133 Mercer Street
New York NY 10012

Tel: (212) 965-0229

Mon-Sat: 11am-7pm
Sunday: 12pm-6pm

“We often say we are what we eat, or we are what we wear?” —Dana Thomas

McDonalds continues to surprise – and impress – us with its shameless and opportunistic ideas above its station…

Traditional luxury brand strategy depends on brands knowing their place, but increasingly the grammar of luxury brands is being used by brands far outside the luxury universe. Nobody is working harder than McDonalds to investigate opportunities here…
Last year, they began a $1B to update the look of restaurants in Europe — (via New York Times)

They recently took on a price war with Starbucks, whose hasty reaction with heavy discounting suggested that they had suffered a direct hit. Smelling blood, last week McDonalds launched their Unsnobby Coffee Intervention.

And now McDonalds appears to have upped the ante once again… British fashion designer, Bruce Oldfield, has just revamped the McDonalds uniforms, complete with Louis Vuitton-esque palate, and and an LV-ish logo…

It’s a particularly interesting ‘tribute’, since last year Dana Thomas described Louis Vuitton as the “McDonald’s of the luxury industry” in her book Deluxe.

Interestingly, at a time when logos are more visible than ever at Louis Vuitton, the designer for McDonald’s was asked not to use the iconic ‘golden arches’ for the new uniforms…

The pattern bears more than a passing resemblance to the Louis Vuitton logo, but Mr Oldfield insisted it was not deliberate. “I wanted to use the golden arches but I was told I couldn’t because of company policy, so I had to have a re-think. I think it looks chic and modern, and the girls look really good. — (Via The Telegraph, UK)

These are the works of the Ukrainian Psyho Studio made for “Madagascar” travel agency.

The slogan of the agency was “Madagascar – a piece of the world”, so Psyho literally cut the planet into pieces, each symbolizing a different kind of vacation. That’s how the “pie concept” was born. Good appetite everyone!

See Photo gallery

Taking inspiration perhaps from Jackie O or even Audrey Hepburn, Mrs. Sarkozy chose to arrive in the London last week wearing a chic gray ensemble from Dior, which included a neat pillbox hat and full-skirted coat.

Dior accessories, including a narrow belt at the waist, black leather gloves and a hoop-handled handbag, completed the look. – Via Marie Claire

The Times theorizes that the choice of Carla Bruni to wear Dior last week in London was a piece of strategic luxury marketing worth $2M.

Political opponents of her husband believe they can detect the subtle hand of Bernard Arnault, France’s richest businessman with a personal fortune of £13 billion, in helping to give one of his companies a boost through his good friend, the president. — (Via The Times, UK)

In the evening, the couple attended a state banquet at Windsor Castle, where the President’s wife looked stunning in a midnight blue floor length gown, and chic chignon.

The Sarkozy’s continue their two-day state visit today, which is the first trip by a French head of state to the United Kingdom in over a decade.

It’s been ten years since the stars of Sex and the City first won over viewers with their cosmopolitan adventures in New York. With the help of computer technology, the four actresses have rolled back the years for photographs promoting a film version of their television show.

With Sarah Jessica Parker, back at the helm of her all girl pack, the stars posed for the promotional shoot ahead of the release of their big screen debut May 30. Sex And The City had a highly influential role in the relationship between pop culture and luxury brands. It helped boost sales of brands such as Dior and Balenciaga, and turned Manolo Blahnik into a household name.

The upcoming release of the movie Sex in the City will again feature a rash of luxury brands, but reflecting a growing cultural shift, some of them will be for rent, not for sale.

The movie has signed a deal with luxury lease company, Bag Borrow or Steal. The Seattle startup not only is mentioned in a scene in the movie, but the company plans to unveil a special “Sex and the City” online shop where customers can find accessories inspired by the popular cast of characters such as Samantha, Miranda, Carrie and Charlotte.

Bag Borrow or Steal also is hosting a “Sex and the City Style Profile” contest on YouTube and a “Sex and the City Purse-onality” sweepstakes in which grand price winners can win a trip for two to New York for the premiere of the movie in late May. — (Via Seattle Post Intelligencer)

Portfolio sees this as part of a recession trend. Luxury retailers may be on the ropes, their once-avid shoppers heading for the exits. But the economic malaise gripping the country could have a silver lining for a small but growing section of the luxury market, one that rents to women what they can’t afford to buy—or, possibly, keep. — (Via Portfolio)

Meanwhile, next month in London, the Fractional Life Expo will bring together all the elements of this growing shift in attitudes to non-permanent ownership…

From a strategic point of view, luxury brands need to understand the opportunities that are possible in an increasingly rental atmosphere.

“May the moment come when I attain enlightenment that my body. my soul,my spirit become like crystal; pure,transparent, and flawless.”

The Scripture of Primal Vow of Bhaishajya-guru-aiduruya-prabha-raja

Indulging in an art piece is like immersing yourself into a world created by the artist’s imagination. Such is the experience of seeing the glass arts of Liuligongfang. Caught in the light, the glass elements seem to dance a thousand dances and form a concoction of colors that journey into the deepest imagination of a human’s mind.

Liuli is the archaic Chinese word for glass. Twenty years ago, Liuligongfang’s founders, Mr Chang Yi and Mrs Loretta Hui-shan Yang had started to use liuli and perfected its craft to create art that embodied the beauty of Chinese culture and history. This season for New York Asia Week, galley Leo Kaplan Modern specialized in glass masterpieces is exhibiting Liugongfang 2008 art collection.

Mr Chang Yi was a prominent film director who had won several prestigious awards including the Golden Horse and the Asia Pacific Film Festival Awards for Best Director. Mrs Loretta Yang was also in the film industry, and was known as a reputable actress who won several Best Actress awards, also in the Asia Pacific Film Festival. Both were born in Taipei, Taiwan and at the peak of their careers, they both decided to leave the film industry and devoted themselves to the creation of contemporary glass arts. Not only was their career shift unexpected, but a shift into glass art was pretty much incomprehensible.

After struggling for years and perfecting their techniques – they later settled on using the pate-de-verre or lost-waxing method – the couple finally find a place for their art. Liuli art first appeared in China about 2000 years ago and was subsequently forgotten. But today there are hundreds of liuli brands in Asia, creating a new niche in the cultural industry. As pioneers and innovators, Liuligongfang stands at the forefront of the market, creating art pieces that became permanent collections of many museums in the world, including the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Beijing’s Palace Museum, and the Bowers Museum in Los Angeles. Liuligongfang also held exhibitions in Japan, United States, Italy, Germany, and South Africa, and its name and art quickly became synonymous with Chinese style and culture.

The first step in creating liuli art is the liquefaction step where you take a solid substance from its original form and melting it under extreme heat to create a new substance. In this case, Silica is the material chosen to undergo the process, being exposed to 1,400 degrees Celsius of heat, to become a crystal clear opulence universally known as crystal glass.

The clarity of liuli and the impermanence of bubbles have become Mrs Yang’s trademark in the world of liuli art. In her amazing piece, “Wish of a Lifetime”, Mrs Yang turned the two-dimensional image of goddess Guan-Yin’s mural found in Dunhuang’s third grotto into a three-dimensional piece, rendering it four metres high. The conceptual beginnings have been on display in Taiwan and Singapore to over 300,000 visitors where many have been moved to tears upon seeing the sculpture. Her “Formless, but not without Form” collection has also been shown in many internationally renowned museums and galleries to great acclaim. Mrs Yang delicately manipulated the fickleness of temperature to create the desired effects, bringing to life the Buddhist scripture and lotus leaves. The pieces reflect growth and changes in her Buddhist work in liuli.

One of Liuligongfang’s recent endeavours was the Museum , TMSK (Tou Ming Si Kao) Restaurant in Shanghai’s Xin Tian Di Plaza. The TMSK Restaurant became a place to feature the TMSK collection of dinner ware and wine glasses, and also became a platform to unveil Liuligongfang’s breadth and depth of art. From the arched ceilings to the tiled floors, from the furniture to the utensils, all are designed to contain liuli elements. TMSK focuses on liuli, using it to expand into TMSK Lifestyle, culinary design, architecture and interior design, music, publishing, and many more. And it has become the mass elevation of design.

Today Liuligongfang has become the world’s largest brand in the industry. Their workshop expanded from Taiwan to China and employs over 1,700 personnel and owns and operates 62 showrooms. Liuligongfang

With a beginning purely in liuli art, the workshop has since expanded to include metalwork (Guan Nian Pei Shi), cuisine (TMSK Restaurant), music (New Folk Sounds), lifestyle (TMSK Lifestyle) and even digital animation (a.hha). Mr Chang and Mrs Yang hopes to forever create art good for the human heart and hoped that Liuligongfang can not only educate, but also exhibit a respect that will touch people from around the world.

Joelle’s Tips:

The Gallery:
Leo Kaplan Modern
41 East 57th Street
7th Floor
New York, New York 10022

Gallery Hours:
Monday – Saturday
10:00 am – 5:00 pm

Phone. (212) 872-1616
Fax. (212) 872-1617
E-mail. Info@lkmodern.com

Source: Via Indonesia Tattler by Grace Gunawan 2005

The Restaurant: Tou Ming Si Kao (TMSK)
Unit 2, House 11
North Lane Xintiandi, Lane 181, Tai Lang Lu
Shanghai
Telephone:
00 86 21 6326 2227
Hours:
1:30pm-midnight