The official promotional image for Cheryl Fernandez-Versini’s (formerly Cheryl Cole) new fragrance, Storm Flower, has been released, ahead of its on-sale date of August 27.
   The newlywed Geordie songstress—she married boyfriend Jean-Bernard Fernandez-Versini earlier in July—says she had long wanted a fragrance under her name but could not devote time to the project till recently.
   ‘For my début fragrance, I wanted to achieve two goals: to create something that both looks beautiful and smells gorgeous. The development process has been really intense but inspirational and I have absolutely loved being so involved in the creative process,’ said Fernandez-Versini.
   Fernandez-Versini’s new fragrance is meant to be refreshing, light, but long-lasting. The perfume opens with fruity notes of mandarin and nectar, leading to a heart of freesia and peach blossom. Basenotes are soft vanilla, white musk and sandalwood.
   The fragrance will be available from the Perfume Shop and Superdrug, priced at £23·50 for 30 ml, £29·50 for 50 ml and £39·50 for 100 ml. Body lotion with glitter and perfumed body bath, with the same notes, will also be available.
   The visual shows Fernandez-Versini’s hand tattoo but not her engagement ring. The photograph was likely shot before her wedding. The bottle itself has the script ‘Storm Flower’ and ‘Cheryl’, and is topped by a flower-shaped cap.

A Lucire special promotion

We are used to seeing L’Oréal Paris have the world’s most glamorous models and celebrities appear in their advertisements, so it makes a nice change when everyday people are asked to appear—as they do in its latest Elvive Fibrology thickening hair care promotion.
   Between January 22 and April 24, 2014, Boots UK, looking at its online and offline purchases, says one item from the Fibrology range is sold every 12 second on average, making it one of L’Oréal’s most popular lines.
   Having real people makes the advertisement more easily related, and L’Oréal builds on the initial promotion by having each woman in the ad—Zoë, Sarah, Priya, Jade and Lucy—elaborate even further on their favourite Fibrology hair care product.
   For Zoé, it’s the Thickness Booster serum; Sarah says she can feel the Fibrology shampoo ‘expanding’; Priya favours the Double Serum; Jade likes the Fibrology Thickness Booster; and Lucy names the conditioner.
   Each woman gives her tips on using the product and reveals her one secret based on her use of Fibrology.
   Their Q&As are made complete by their sharing thoughts on how their L’Oréal Paris TV shoot went—where they were treated just as one might see Eva Longoria, Cheryl Cole, Aishwarya Rai or Araya A. Hargate pampered on set.
   Each was auditioned beginning with a casual casting session, while the day of filming saw the women choose from a variety of outfits. Zoë says, ‘More importantly, my hair has never looked better!’ It does seem that the enjoyment they’re having in L’Oréal Paris’s promotional video below is genuine—and, after all, they are worth it.

Post sponsored by L’Oréal Paris

British luxury watch brand Christopher Ward has announced the development of its own watch movement, the Calibre SH21.
   Mike France, one of the co-founders, explains that the brand breaks the rules and ‘to be the masters of our own destiny.
   ‘Last year, the CEO of a major Swiss luxury watch brand heard rumours about SH21 and his—frankly, affronted—comment was, “What gives you the license to do that?”
   ‘We give ourselves license to do this. Ten years ago we launched the world’s first pure online business model for luxury watches; a new paradigm in blending supreme quality with unprecedented value that challenged the industry norm. Today, we are advancing to a new level of independence that strengthens the future growth of the business and enables us to develop a family of movements, the first of which is the beautiful C9 Harrison 5 Day Automatic, housing the Calibre SH21, which we also launched today.’
   France expects to see Calibre SH21 being the core of a whole suite of movements.
   The development was spurred by young watchmaker Johannes Jahnke, who examined medical industry tooling and car manufacture, thinking outside the square.
   Jahnke, along with industry veteran Jorg Bader. came with Christopher Ward’s merger with Synergies Horlogères.
   Chris Ward, the co-founder from whom the brand takes its name, calls the development of the new movement ‘probably the most significant watch industry development by a British brand in the past 50 years.’
   The new movement gives Christopher Ward independence from movements supplied by Swiss companies, with Swatch the largest player.

Hugo Burnand

Tim Griffiths

The Cartier Queen’s Cup Final was held on Sunday, marking the jeweller’s 30th year of sponsorship. Team Zacara beat Team Talandracas 10–7 in the match on June 15 on the Queen’s Ground at Guards Polo Club, Windsor Great Park.
   The Grenadier Guards performed before the match, parading in the shape of the figure 30 to mark the anniversary.
   HM Queen Elizabeth II and HM Queen Noor of Jordan were in attendance. HM Queen Elizabeth II presented the trophy to Zacara’s Lyndon Lea, the well known financier. Cartier executive chairman Arnaud M. Bamberger and managing director Laurent Feniou played host, and guests included the Marquess and Marchioness of Milford Haven, Sharlely Kerssenberg and Boris Becker, Stefanie Powers, Bianca Jagger, Michelle Dockery, Rupert Finch and Lady Natasha Finch, Kristin Davis, Jilly Cooper, OBE, Christopher Biggins, Astrid Muñoz, Frances O’Connor, Galen Weston and the Hon Hilary Weston, Eduardo Novillo Astrada, Lady Beresford and Caroline Beresford, best friends Greta Bellamacina, Amber Atherton and Poppy Jamie, Giorgio Veroni, Emily Tarrant, Garth Bearman, Urs Schwarzenbach, and Hugo Bamberger.
   At the reception, Cartier served its own brand of champagne with lunch by Mosimann’s, which consisted of Dorset crab and poached lobster, pickled cucumber, heritage tomato and radish salad, with a dill dressing for the starter. For the main, guests enjoyed fillet of Angus beef accompanied by warm summer vegetables and Jersey royals with herb vinaigrette and horseradish cream. Vanilla panna cotta with English strawberries and honeycomb alongside coffee and petits fours were served for dessert. John Carter supplied the floral arrangements, with red dahlia, red antirrhinum, deep pink peonies, artichokes, red rose plants and red gladioli.
   The two teams had begun the tournament in a field of 15, commencing May 20.

Tim Griffiths

Hugo Burnand

Tim Griffiths

Hugo Burnand

Tim Griffiths

Hugo Burnand

Tim Griffiths

Hugo Burnand

David M. Benett

Above Adriana Lima, appearing here for Victoria’s Secret, exemplifies the sensual Brazilian model who commands attention.

With the World Cup round the corner, the focus is on Brazil, including Brazilian models (it is the home of Gisèle Bündchen, Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Isabeli Fontana), and Brazilian fashion. Our series of videos from Brazil provide an insight into the country.
   The first, with Patrick Lemire, IMG Paris’s director of bookings, analyses what makes Brazilian models special. Lima, Ambrosio and Bündchen regularly take out the top-five spots in earning terms, according to Forbes, and Lemire believes it’s their power of seduction.
   In the translation, Lemire says, ‘In Brazil, there are two academies: you have football academy for the boys and modelling school for the girls. When we decide to go to Brazil to find new talent over there, our first impression is that we are quite taken aback, because instantly you are fully immersed in this amazingly relaxed, feel-good atmosphere.
   ‘She barely has to step into the room and she’s dancing the samba with you and within three seconds you are under her spell, which is great. I have never met a Brazilian who is morose, sad, who lacks passion or that desire to come, to fight and to conquer.’
   Twenty-nine-year-old fashion designer Barbara Casasola is the talk of the nation, after serving her earlier years at Roberto Cavalli, Lanvin, Sonia Rykiel and Chloé. Her interview below shows what drives her, how she mixes femininity with modernity, and how Brazil impacts on her design sensibilities.
   ‘A bikini and a pair of Havaianas’ is how one might describe Brazilian fashion, with a strong beach culture. Casasola and Havaianas France director Hervé Pinot both talk about this culture: how changing a bikini daily is part of the beach scene there, and how Havaianas have become cult. Brazil sells 350 million to 400 million pairs per annum.
   Finally, our fourth video examines some of the international labels hailing from Brazil: Osklen, Alexandre Herchcovitch (regularly covered by us at New York Fashion Week), Pedro Lourenço, Barbara Casasola, Filhas de Gaia, Animale, Espaço Fashion and Ausländer.

One indisputable thing about the Body Shop’s products is that the scents are delectable. This month’s jumbo-sized shower gel (750 ml, available in strawberry, moringa, olive, satsuma or pink grapefruit, retailing at NZ$36·50) and body butter (300 ml, in shea, mango, coconut, olive, strawberry or moringa, NZ$41·50) are incredible, value-for-money ways to get your favourite products from the Body Shop in an extra-large package. In stores now, the Body Shop cheekily included a promotional graphic (below) to make sure that we would notice and tell you about their latest specials.
   No such trickery was needed with its raspberry body collection (top), in stores from July 14 in New Zealand. But the scent—smelling of real raspberries—won us over. The Body Shop sources early-harvest raspberries, as this preserves their skin-boosting antioxidants, and they have been put into a range comprising body butter (200 ml, NZ$36), shower gel (200 ml, NZ$16), body lotion (250 ml, NZ$24·50), eau de toilette (30 ml, NZ$32) and body scrub (200 ml, NZ$34·75).
   We sampled the eau de toilette first, with its Ecuadorian Community Fair Trade alcohol, to get into the raspberry mood: it’s a sweet, pleasant, and, of course, fruity scent. That was a prelude to the body scrub, which exfoliates with its fruit extract and real seeds. Even the Body Shop says it has a ‘jam texture’: it’s not an inaccurate description and it does look good enough to eat.
   Finally, the body butter has a lovely, soft texture and helps hydrate skin while leaving you feeling pampered.
   The Body Shop will also retail its vineyard peach line in New Zealand from July 14, with the body butter, shower gel, body scrub and body lotion, priced as with the early-harvest raspberry range.

With summer officially arrived in the northern hemisphere, the stylish Instagrams out there are getting more social.
   Barbara Palvin, who is our latest model obsession, posted a shot from the Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc prior to the AmFAR Gala, coincidentally the same as the one we published through another source. The model appears alongside Lara Stone, Karlie Koss and Bianca Balti. There are more formal shots, but we love this one for its energy and candidness.
   Doutzen Kroes has also gone for a group shot of four as summer begins, sharing a photograph with fellow Victoria’s Secret Angels Candice Swanepoel, Behati Prinsloo and Lily Aldridge. Kroes, currently pregnant, is pictured with her fellow models holding her baby bump. Kroes, 29, is expecting her second child in July, with husband DJ Sunnery James.
   Heidi Klum is only posing with former Spice Girl Mel B, but has posted four images in one on her ’Gram, as the singer celebrated her 39th birthday in California. Klum, who turns 41 on June 1, gave Brown a shout-out with ‘Love U’ on her Instagram.
   Our other model obsession, Malaika Firth, has been hanging with two ‘Kenyan buddies’, Nellie Kim and Jesca, at Kenya Coffee House in Romford, a café which partners directly with coffee growers in Kenya, and claims to go further than Fair Trade. It’s great to see Firth support an ethical retailer, using her fame to do so.
   Isabeli Fontana, meanwhile, is promoting one of the brands she models for, Morena Rosa, based in her home country of Brazil. Fontana has modelled for Morena Rosa for some time, which she calls one of her country’s most beloved brands. The label reached the million-fan milestone on Facebook, giving Fontana a reason to celebrate on her ’Gram.
   It’s also a beachy scene for model Valentina Zelyaeva, as she gives a glimpse behind the scenes at her Piz Buin campaign, directed by Anders Hallberg with Peter Riis helming the photography. Similarly, influential Swedish-based blogger Kenza Zouiten shows off her figure on the beach in Barcelona in a bikini top by IvyRevel.
   Finally, Bar Rafaeli and make-up artist Moran Stavizki wish fans ‘Shalom Shabbat’ as the weekend begins.

Paula Sweet

Top Michael Schmidt’s winning installation. Above Stephen Barber and Kofi Annan during the award announcement.

A gala presentation ceremony at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London on the night of May 21 named Berlin-based photographer Michael Schmidt as the winner of the eighth annual Prix Pictet. The award endeavours to promote the message of sustainability to a global audience via the medium of photography. This year’s theme, Consumption, had a record number of applicants and was decided from a shortlist of eleven finalists. Schmidt’s assemblage of 60 photographs arrayed in a huge grid (finalists are given 21 m² of exhibition space), entitled Lebensmittel, engaged the tensions of food production and transport with a range of provocative images.
   The SFr100,000 award (US$112,000) was presented by Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the UN, and Honorary President of the Prix Pictet. Pictet Group, founded in 1805, is based in Genève. The award for Mr Schmidt, unable to attend due to illness, was accepted by Tate Modern director Chris Dercon.
   The finalists remain on exhibit at the V&A through June 14.—Stanley Moss, Travel Editor

Paula Sweet

Top The reception before the award announcement. Above Chris Dercon, Kofi Annan, Jacques de Saussure, Stephen Barber.