Here’s a behind-the-scenes video from Hennes & Mauritz on its latest shoot, for its collection titled The Garden Collection, in Palm Springs, Calif. Natasha Poly—or, Natalia Polevshchikova to give her full name—is the model.

We have already tried the Volvo XC60 with collision avoidance—and in good Swedish tradition, the new Volvo S60 takes the safety idea a step further.
   Newly announced today, with its world première at the Salon de Genève on March 2, the S60’s pedestrian detection, using a camera and radar, has a full automatic brake. It can detect pedestrians who walk into the road in front of the car, warn the driver, and automatically apply full braking power if the driver does not respond in time.
   The car can avoid hitting a pedestrian at under 35 km/h. Over this speed, the car will reduce speed as much as possible to help minimize injuries to the pedestrian. The system will detect children over 80 cm tall.
   The new chassis includes new stability control and traction control measures. Below are videos of the S60 in motion and a full explanation of its party trick.

We have more footage from Stockholm Fashion Week by Berns, this time from the second day of events. Below are videos featuring Camilla Norrback, Lovisa Burfitt of Burfitt, and Roland Hjurt of Whyred. The last clip are general views from the autumn–winter 2010 event.

Camilla Norrback

Burfitt

Whyred

General views

We’ve seen the Mercedes-Benz cars driving about Stockholm with the ninth Fashion Week by Berns logo on the side. The event finally kicked off on February 1, with Cheap Monday and Dagmar showing.
   We have some of the first day’s footage from the event, along with the Cheap Monday show, feedback from Jean Paul Cauvin, senior fashion editor of Fashion Daily News, an interview with Dagmar’s Kristina Tjader, and some general thoughts from those attending.

Cheap Monday

Dagmar

General thoughts

Muna Abu Sulayman is today announced as the winner of the Medinge Group’s 2010 Colin Morley Award, given to an individual who has contributed to the betterment of society through sustainable, socially responsible and humanistic behaviour. The award is part of Medinge’s annual Brands with a Conscience list, now in its seventh year.
   ‘It is a great honour,’ a delighted Muna Abu Sulayman remarked, when informed of the award last night by Simon Nicholls, of the Medinge Group, who made the nomination.
   In giving this award, the Medinge Group recognizes Muna’s outstanding work in educational development, poverty alleviation and strategic philanthropy; as Executive Director of the Alwaleed Bin Talal Foundation, developing and implementing operations for humanitarian assistance across the globe; her role as the first woman in Saudi Arabia to be appointed by the United Nations Development Programme as a Goodwill Ambassador; and for exceptional reporting as co-host on popular MBC-TV social programme Kalam Nawaem, in particular her advocacy of rights for women. As a public and media personality, she speaks about issues relating to Arab society, media, building bridges of understanding between east and west.
   Since 1997, Ms Abu Sulayman has served as lecturer on American literature at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia. She frequently appears as a panellist at the Davos World Economic Forum, Jewish Economic Forum, C-100 of the World Economic Forum, Brookings Institute Conferences and other venues.
   Medinge, an international collective of brand practitioners, meets annually in August at a secluded location outside Stockholm, Sweden, and collaborate on the list, judging nominees on principles of humanity and ethics, rather than financial worth. The Brands with a Conscience list is shaped around criteria including evidence of the human implications of the brand and considering whether the brand takes risks in line with its beliefs. Evaluations are made based on reputation, self-representation, history, direct experience, contacts with individuals within the organizations, media and analysts and an assessment of the expressed values of sustainability.
   Three years ago the group added a unique category commendation, the Colin Morley Award, recognizing exceptional achievement by an individual or NGO. Mr Morley, a member of the Medinge Group, died in the London Underground bombings on July 7, 2005. The award commemorates his visionary work in humanistic branding.

Volvo showed an electric C30 some time ago. Still a concept, the company is showing more details, with a test fleet promised for 2010. The cars can run on electricity on a single charge for 150 km—which means it suits 90 per cent of European drivers.
   Our video below has comments from Volvo, as well as motoring media veteran Richard Bremner, who feels that desirable electric cars will be a hit.
   The Energimyndigheten, or Swedish Energy Agency, is supporting the project and contributing Kr 150 million to the funding.

Miss Sweden 2009, Azra Duliman, is presently in København to attend COP 15, after being chosen by Green Cross, the environmental organization founded by Mikhail Gorbachev.
   Duliman, a law student, was chosen as Miss Sweden earlier this year based in part on her record of working on human rights’ issues.
   Duliman says in a statement, ‘I am so excited to have received this mission. Global environmental issues have long been a major interest. There is so much I want to say, so much I want to learn, and so many genuine environmental activists I want to meet [including] Mikhail Gorbachev, and Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai.’
   She described Maathai as ‘A fascinating woman who has done so much, both for the environment and for women’s rights in Kenya and internationally.’
   Panos Papadopoulos, the founder and owner of the Nya Fröken Sverige pageant, adds, ‘At last the public seems to get what New Miss Sweden idea is really about. Young girls are able to make a difference in the world, using tools like intelligence, driving force and inner strength, and not by just exposing themselves. Not anyone gets a task like this. The whole world has their eyes pointed at København right now, and everyone who is participating must have something very important to say. Azra does.
   ‘The fact that organizations like Green Cross want Azra as their spokeswoman proves that the seriousness of our concept has reached out. It makes me very proud.’

Above Panos Papadopoulos, founder of Panos Emporio, and Michaela Savic, who won the first heat of the swimwear company’s model tour.

Like Hennes & Mauritz, which tended to employ celebrities before shifting to lesser known models, Swedish swimwear label Panos Emporio is taking the search for its next face to the people of Sweden with a national competition.
   The Panos Emporio Model Tour kicked off with an event earlier this month, giving young women the opportunity to be a potential model for the company’s 2010 range.
   The company has only today released images of the winner of the first night’s festivities, Michaela Savic, of Helsingborg. Chosen by the audience, Savic now qualifies for the final.
   The judges also picked Anna Stårbäck, who still has a chance to win the competition.
   In addition to the modelling contract, the winner will get a private make-up course and a make-up with products from Makeupstudion.