Top: H&M’s Margareta van den Bosch and Jimmy Choo’s Tamara Mellon. Centre: Van den Bosch and Mellon with a model wearing items from the Jimmy Choo for H&M range. Above: Shoes from the range.
After collaborating with Stella McCartney, Karl Lagerfeld, Viktor & Rolf, Roberto Cavalli, Comme des Garçons and Matthew Williamson, Hennes & Mauritz has announced that Jimmy Choo will be next to design a guest collection for the mass-market retailer.
H&M says its Jimmy Choo range will be launched in 200 stores on November 14.
Jimmy Choo founder and CEO, Tamara Mellon, says there will be designs for women and men in the collection.
Margareta van den Bosch, H&M’s creative director, says in a statement, ‘We adore Jimmy Choo’s shoes and bags. They are glamorous and sexy, and they add instant style to the simplest of outfits. I like the way we have worked with clothes to accessorize the shoes and bags rather than the other way around. This collaboration is particularly exciting because it’s our first shoe designer collection. It’s a joy to be able to offer top-end designer shoes and bags of excellent quality to our customers.’
[Cross-posted] I never expected this a few years ago, but a few weeks ago, it was becoming more likely: Koenigsegg will buy Saab, says The New York Times. GM and Koenigsegg say there is now a memorandum of understanding, contingent on loans from the European Investment Bank, guaranteed by the Swedish government.
I am confident. Christian von Koenigsegg strikes me, in the conversation I had with him some years ago, as someone who is not afraid to answer questions directly. He is accessible, and he loves cars.
People also had doubts about how Jaguar and Land Rover would fit with Tata, which made subcompact cars and heavy trucks in India. Yet, Tata has shown a readiness to push forward new models that Ford never had the guts to do. We need to look at the management style and the national culture.
I think we might see information on a bunch of products inside Saab that the company was never permitted to do under GM ownership, either because they were too risky or that the funds were going to other brands. Saab fell into a GM-division funk like Saturn did. But new ideas have been bubbling under there, and while $600 million is nowhere near what it will cost to get some of them out—given that the funds have to cover everything from salaries to plant upgrades—the Swedish people are not short on ingenuity. Sweden has shown us that a little country can have leadership or near-leadership positions in so many things, from cellphones to defence technology to music. Once upon a time, the Swedish state even owned Absolut Vodka.
I know the economies of scale are not looking that good for Saab: it sold fewer cars in more territories last year than MG Rover in its final year (2004–5) before that fell into administration. However, could make the same argument about economies with many Swedish products before they took the rest of the world by storm.
And Christian has been thinking of a lot more than supercars. What the world seems to have ignored is that he showed a solar electric sports’ saloon at Genève this year, designed by our mutual friend Joachim Nordwall.
Could it be released with the Koenigsegg brand? Probably not. As a Saab? Most definitely: it is a natural fit for the brand.
GM, Honda and Toyota may have dabbled in solar energy but Koenigsegg may well outflank them all.
Most of us will agree that the GM ownership of Saab has not been that successful and the division has been starved of new product for years. GM’s great contributions have been a few Opel Vectra platforms, rejigging a Subaru Impreza for the US market and put Saab badges on it, and reworking a deleted Oldsmobile SUV.
When I was growing up, Saab was known for the Combi Coupé (a fastback, liftback coupé—not particularly common in the 1970s) and the early Turbos, then a great UK campaign connecting the car maker to the aircraft manufacturer. Stefan Engeseth says the company could have done quite well with a retro-modern version of the ur-Saab, the original postwar model with aircraft technologies incorporated. I am not so sure about now, but I agree that during the years of the New Beetle and the last Ford Thunderbird, a limited-edition ur-Saab could have been chic.
Logic tells us that things are not sorted with the new ownership. The numbers do not add up, the new products are going to be expensive to get out, and how many of those forward-thinkers that Saab was once known for are still in the firm?
But logic also told us that it was impossible for Sweden to be putting out a supercar that would take the world’s imagination. Christian has done that. Conventional thinking also says that a solar–electric car is too left-field. I beg to differ.
Saab quality with Koenigsegg innovation sounds like a pretty potent mix to me.
With hindsight, I wish I had made a few more calls then just so I could say I spoke to the boss of Saab, and show off that I do know a bit about automotive marketingstrategy. I say with a lean R&D model, Christian can take the risks with innovative, world-beating Saabs that make a decent leap ahead of the rest of the industry.
The All Blacks were getting plenty of announcements today: first, Telecom New Zealand said it would sponsor New Zealand’s rugby team through to the 2011 World Cup. Secondly, menswear brand Barkers announced its collaboration, with a Barkers Black line, inspired by Italian designer gear.
The idea was to create a slick silhouette for the bulkier rugby player—but as with Barkers generally, there will be sizes across the board.
The range features suits, a wool coat and shirts, along with New Zealand-made merino knitwear.
All Blacks Josevata Rokocoko, Anthony Boric and Richard Kahui star in the campaign.
A “small” Rolls-Royce, the Ghost, will join the über-luxury Phantom model later this year. Rolls-Royce Motors says the new model, which takes its name from the Silver Ghost of the early twentieth century, will have exceptional ride and handling. ‘The car’s state-of-the-art chassis uses a four-corner air suspension system and multi-link aluminium front and rear axles,’ says the company.
Plug-in hybrids are getting a lot of news lately, and Volvo is the latest to make an announcement. Teaming up with Swedish energy company Vattenfall, the car maker plans a 2012 plug-in hybrid. Vattenfall itself plans to generate the electricity sustainably.
The companies say that the plug-in hybrids would cost €3 per 100 km for families, and fuel consumption would drop to 2 l/100 km (118 mpg). The battery takes around five hours to charge, and it is also charged when the brakes are applied.
Last weekend, 25,000 enthusiasts from over 40 countries attended the Mini United Festival at Silverstone to celebrate the 50th anniversary of an automotive icon. It’s hard to believe that the Mini celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, having cemented itself as one of the 20th century’s most significant cars and a style icon in its own right.
Footage includes various special editions (remember the plethora of these in the 1980s?), Mini fans gathered at Silverstone, driving shots of the new limited-edition Camden and Mayfair models, and commentaries from Ian Robertson of the Board of Management at Mini, rally legend Rauno Aaltonen, designer Paul Smith, and musician and “modfather” Paul Weller.
Mini celebrates its 50th birthday this weekend at Silverstone, England. It has come up with a fresh interpretation of George Harrison’s extravagant original Mini to coincide with the event, using the latest R55 model as its base.
The one-off model will be presented to Harrison’s widow, Olivia, at the Mini United event. She will accept on behalf of the Material World Charitable Foundation, a charity set up by George Harrison in 1973. The car will be auctioned in aid of the Foundation later in the year.
Four Minis had been presented to the Beatles in 1966 by their manager, Brian Epstein. George Harrison had had his painted in a psychedelic style and the car went on to star in the 1967 film, Magical Mystery Tour.
The unique Mini has been designed according to the wishes of Mrs Harrison and follows the 1966 models’ style.
On April 28, Kræftens Bekæmpelse (the Danish Cancer Society) launched a campaign against skin cancer, opened by Crown Princess Mary. Danish designers have created a fashion range high in UV protection made with sustainable materials. The clothes have been tested for ultraviolet radiation with the UV-801 test at the Institute of Technology, Denmark. The video shows the collection and views from the campaign launch.
Again I’m in second-to-front row, with a goody bag, at Arnsdorf. I look behind me this time, expecting this show to also be a mish-mash of hierarchy, but no, only the front two rows have the bags. I put on my dark glasses and pretend that I’m famous too.
Oh oh oh, crop tops again. Teamed with high waisted shorts in Lee SuperTubes colours (remember them?). And something we haven’t seen yet: clean denim. That’s right folks, not a distress in sight. There were elements of this show that were really ’90s: coloured denim belted high on the waist, and buttoned-down collared shirts. Let’s not forget the linen peg-legged high waisted trousers in a pale peach. But all was done well and the hair was gorgeous and simple, and even though most of us will deny our wardrobes the ’90s combo shown below, there are some of us who will not resist emulating.
The catwalk at the Bec & Bridge show was in the shape of a T with three entrances, proving the models’ professional skills as they negotiated each other at the intersection. They came out of each door at breakneck speed, and the nail-biting risk of their carefully choreographed routine seemed to emphasize the strong-woman atmosphere of the collection.
What followed was a presentation of sensual strength and prowess, full of flowing fabrics cinched in at the waist by dominating belts, body con dresses and gold fringe detailing. Of special note were the fantastic fringed cuffs, bold in gold and very gladiator-ish.
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Look out for crochet as a major trend next summer—in fact any sort of knit with a see-through element is going to be big. See Zambesi current collection knitwear and Kate Sylvester’s pink sweaters for inspiration.
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Finally, fringe detailing at Bec & Bridge.—Bronwyn Williams
Again I’m in second-to-front row, with a goody bag, at Arnsdorf. I look behind me this time, expecting this show to also be a mish-mash of hierarchy, but no, only the front two rows have the bags. I put on my dark glasses and pretend that I’m famous too.
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