Tullio M. Puglia/Getty Images

Kate Hudson and Naomi Watts dazzled in golden gowns at the Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia (Venice Film Festival), the oldest film festival in the world.
   Hudson, in Atelier Versace, was there for the première of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, in which she stars. The film, adapted from Mohsin Hamid’s novel, opened the festival.
   Hudson was joined by her fiancé, Matt Bellamy, while her co-star Liev Schreiber arrived with partner Watts, wearing Marchesa.
   Director Mira Nair was joined by British actor Riz Ahmed, who plays Changez, the “reluctant fundamentalist” in the title. Ahmed had previously read the radio version of the novel on BBC Radio 4.
   Ahmed plays a Pakistani man working on Wall Street who is radicalized after 9-11, and abandons the United States for his homeland.
   Nair told reporters that her wish was to show a modern Pakistan and break stereotypes.
   Polish actress and model Kasia Smutniak, as the host of the festival, was also photographed below.

Tullio M. Puglia/Getty Images

Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images

Adrian Hailwood has teamed up with Mi Piaci for a range of five designs, dubbed Hailwood for Mi Piaci. Ankle boots, courts and snake-print sandals are among the designs, with golds, blue, and ‘sand-washed raspberry’ among the colours.
   Hailwood says the decision to work with Mi Piaci was a ‘no-brainer’, adding, ‘The collection is fashion-forward and reflects the Hailwood æsthetic, with a refined touch. I was influenced by the late ’60s and early ’70s in a post-pop art America, as you’ll see with the likes of the Empire State heel and the patchwork suede Montana boot.’
   Each piece is in leather, bearing an ‘AH ♥ MP’ logo on the sole. The collection will be launched at Hailwood’s show at New Zealand Fashion Week on September 4, and the range will be available from September at Mi Piaci nationwide, and online at mipiaci.co.nz.

There’s been plenty on the main part of the Lucire website that readers may have missed over the last month. In the ‘Living’ section, publisher Jack Yan has tested the BMW X3 Xdrive20d and, perhaps more down to earth for the majority of our readers, the Renault Mégane 2·0 CVT—well timed as New Zealand readers can get the benefit of a few discounts on this value-packed, French-designed model.
   He also looks at the new Range Rover and why its design hasn’t grown on him the way the previous model’s did.
   For fans of Arjun Coomarasamy, Tania Naidu has interviewed him in a story that Arjun himself has Tweeted about, while, as usual, Lucire likes giving new talent an opportunity, profiling Lani Allanson, a talented teenage singer from the Hutt Valley in New Zealand. There’s fund-raising in southern California as new reporter Cheri Fox writes about White Light, White Night, with US west coast editor Elyse Glickman, and we finally get more into the thoughts of the mountain-climbing Sián-Pearl Going in an interview by Matt Malcolm.
   Rhonda Richford looks at new talent in Paris, with the first Emerging Designers’ Fashion Challenge to be held across the Pond, and fashion editor Sopheak Seng oversees a beautiful shoot with an Alice in Wonderland theme, photographed by Victor Huang.
   Elyse also travels to the Beresheet resort in the Negev Desert and Haifa, while London correspondent Elina Lukas meets designer Mary Franck. From the haute couture shows, Paris editor Lola Saab reports from Jean Paul Gaultier and Givenchy’s autumn–winter 2012–13 collections.
   And, don’t forget, you can download the entire contents of issue 28 as a PDF through Scopalto, available online for just €5 (check out the contents here), and shortly, you’ll be able to do the same through Fakeprint and Magzter’s Ipad apps.

The Body Shop Foundation has been helping grass roots’ charities since 1989, donating over £19 million, and its latest Moisturizing Dragon Fruit Lip Butter (only NZ$13·25) goes one better. You get deliciously zesty, super kissable lips and get to choose which charity you want to help!
   Customers who buy the lip butter can choose one of three charities that the profits go to, thanks to the Foundation: Connected Media, which promotes sustainability through media and is focused towards helping to grow a generation of sustainability storytellers; Look Good Feel Better, a free service offered to women undergoing treatment for cancer, with make-up, skin care and a positive attitude, transforming the look and outlook of over 3,000 New Zealand women with cancer every year; or Project Jonah, which has been saving whales since 1974, providing emergency aid to stranded whales through rescue teams and trained volunteers.
   The Body Shop has also launched the All-in-One BB cream, a masterpiece of make-up and skin care. The cream possesses a lightweight formula that provides 24-hour hydration and colour-adapts for a perfect match and a smooth, undetectable finish.
   The secret is the innovative formula featuring pigment-filled capsules that burst when in contact with the skin, releasing the colour. With light, medium and dark skin tones, you’re sure to find an All-in-One BB cream that suits you. It’s priced at NZ$39.—Brea Pothan

Top Mark Hunter shoots Huffer’s spring–summer 2012–13 campaign. Above and below Custo Barcelona previews its spring–summer 2013 collection at New York Fashion Week with teaser sketches.

As the fashion circuit nears, we’re getting a few teasers of upcoming collections. Custo Barcelona has sent us five sketches from Custo Dalmau, to preview its spring–summer 2013 collection at New York Fashion Week.
   Huffer, meanwhile, is celebrating its 15th anniversary and has released a teaser image from its spring–summer 2012–13 collection, dubbed El Summer. It’s on the New Zealand Fashion Week calendar as the finalé, on September 7.
   The new campaign has been shot by Mark Hunter, the photographer nicknamed ‘The Cobra Snake’, in Los Angeles. The collection is ‘a tribute to the dirty sub-tropics of Amexica,’ saluting ‘a life ensconced in the idyllic fantasy of the Amexican Dream. The result is a range of casual essentials featuring beachy Aztecs, stripes and Hawaiian prints.’
   Zara Mirkin styled the new campaign.

© Holger Badekow

Dirk Messner

Top The Hamburg Ballet performs A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Above The Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra.

Brisbane has grown from strength to strength, ever since one of its mayors gave the city a fresh energy, involving the arts and youth in its progress. That energy has continued to fuel the city, and with it, Queensland state itself has become more confident in bringing it world-class acts and events.
   This winter is no exception. Queensland Arts Minister Ros Bates says, ‘I am delighted that the Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) is hosting Portrait of Spain: Masterpieces from the Prado until November 2, and the Hamburg Ballet, the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra and the Hamburg State Opera will début at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) as part of their first International Series from August 23.’
   The Australia firsts are a great way for locals and holidaymakers to enjoy Brisbane’s offerings, especially its arts and cultural precinct.
   ‘The Queensland Art Gallery’s Portrait of Spain is the first collection of work from Madrid’s esteemed Museo Nacional del Prado to travel to the Southern Hemisphere and a magnificent survey of the development of painting in Spain over the course of four centuries with works by Titian, Rubens, Goya, Fortuny and Velazquez,’ says the Minister. ‘Portrait of Spain is the most significant international exhibition the Prado has ever undertaken and one of the most important exhibitions ever to be shown in Australia.’
   Meanwhile, the ‘Hamburg Season’, where the Hamburg Ballet, the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra and the Hamburg State Opera will visit Brisbane, marks the first time the three arts’ companies have appeared simultaneously in an Australian city.
   ‘We’re privileged to welcome the inspiring and world-famous leaders of these companies, legendary choreographer and Artistic Director of the Hamburg Ballet, John Neumeier and Simone Young, Australian-born chief conductor of the Hamburg Philharmonic and chief executive of the Hamburg State Opera,’ says Bates.
   ‘Neumeier will bring his unique choreography in the Hamburg Ballet’s presentation of Nijinsky and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Young will conduct the Hamburg Philharmonic in three concerts with the Hamburg State Opera including two concert performances of Das Rheingold, the opening opera in Richard Wagner’s greatest work, Der Ring des Nibelungen (known simply as The Ring) and one performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 Resurrection, a work said to be composed by Gustav Mahler during his years as First Conductor of the Hamburg Opera.’
   For more information on tickets to the Hamburg Season or Portrait of Spain: Masterpieces from the Prado, visit www.qtix.com.au.

© Holger Badekow

Above The Hamburg Ballet performs A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Below The Hamburg Ballet performs Nijinsky.

© Holger Badekow

© Photographic Archive, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

Titian: Cristo con la Cruz a cuestas (Christ carrying the Cross), c. 1565. Collection: Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid.

© Photographic Archive, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

Francisco de Goya: El cacharrero (the pottery vendor), 1778. Collection: Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid.

© Photographic Archive, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

Peter Paul Rubens: Vulcano forjando los rayos de Júpiter (Vulcan forging the thunderbolts of Jupiter), 1636–7. Collection: Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid.

Kristin Cavallari has lent her name to a capsule collection for Chinese Laundry, featuring pumps, platforms, booties and flats, hitting retailers in December.
   The actress has designed the Chinese Laundry by Kristin Cavallari collection herself, according to the company, with colours including pink, green, paisley, purple, black and Kristin’s “new nude.”
   Cavallari has been Chinese Laundry’s web ambassador since fall 2011. The capsule collection will be priced between US$69·95 and US$149·95.
   Meanwhile, Björn Borg has expanded into China, with a space inside the Sogo department store on West Nanjing Road in Shanghai. It also has announced its presence on Taobao, the Chinese e-tailer.
   Björn Borg expects that the Chinese market will pick up on branded underwear, the core business of the label, according to its CEO, Arthur Engel. Its sportswear, footwear and accessories are also sold in China.
   Mishka boutique, meanwhile, has announced its New Zealand expansion, selling 12 of the site’s 16 labels in its new market, including Josh Goot, Ellery, Rachael Ruddick and Magdalena Velevska. Many of Mishka’s labels lacked much of a representation in New Zealand, something that its owner, Michelle Johnson, wanted to capitalize on.
   The online retailer begins its New Zealand sales with the spring–summer 2012–13 season.

A Lucire special promotion

Trust the Swedes to get engagement from their audiences. Volvo—which may have a parent in the Far East—is taking a decidedly Swedish approach to market research. From the home of relationship marketing, and numerous pioneering websites, Volvo wants to find out more about how people use their cars, and has sponsored this post.
   The You Inside Project invites people to upload images of their car interiors, and filling in some extra information, via a Facebook app. The app analyses the user’s personality, and sees just what sort of car owner you are: a comfort-adventurer, a messy life-enjoyer, someone who lives life to the full, or another kind? This app is a great source for global data about what people carry in their cars: just how many cars out there are homes to dogs and umbrellas? Does your car have a radio-controlled toy boat inside?
   Volvo says it has already made changes to its production models through similar research. The XXL one-size-fits-all cup holder and sunglass compartment were from Volvo research.
   The 2010s represent a new era for Volvo, which is trying to enhance its Scandinavian progressiveness. Having stagnated somewhat under Ford and seeing its domestic market decline by having no smaller models that might have conflicted with the parent company’s, Volvo is recapturing its roots under its new owner, Geely, which has no reason to stifle its European brand. In fact, Volvo is casting its net out widely and looking at cars that truly meet our current needs.
   Having launched some pioneering inventions while under Ford ownership—such as pedestrian detection and automatic braking—Volvo is now going strongly in social media, finding it one of the best ways to get information from potential customers.
   Check out the You Inside app at unr.ly/MA3Mvw.