As Wellington gears up to Africa Day this Saturday, with a 12-hour celebration at the Wellington Town Hall beginning at 11.30 a.m., there’s a distinctively non-African name behind the scenes doing the make-up for the fashion show on the day, as well as the smaller Taste of Africa event at Te Papa from 6 p.m. tonight (May 23).
Kareen D. Holland, whose business KD One recently opened at Morrison Kent House on The Terrace, is applying her extensive experience in film make-up to the community event.
KD One’s natural skin care and cosmetics stemmed from Holland’s years in film, working with such luminaries as Weta’s Sir Richard Taylor.
Working at Taste of Africa and Africa Day is Holland’s way of giving back to the community, something she was keen to do ever since KD One opened last month.
Africa Day showcases African culture through dance, music, arts, crafts and cuisine. It is the first major cultural event for African communities in Wellington.
KD One was mentored by Lucire publisher Jack Yan as part of his work with Business Mentors New Zealand.
Above From Starfish’s heyday: the summer 2010–11 collection, Free Radical.
The companies behind Starfish have appointed liquidators, according to public notices placed in metropolitan newspapers today.
Both Starfish Retail Ltd. and Starfish Wholesale Ltd. went into liquidation as of May 8, with creditors expected to make their claims with Price Waterhouse Coopers in Wellington, New Zealand by June 12.
Starfish has had a long history in Wellington, and is one of the labels most closely identified with the city. Founded by sisters Laurie and Miriam Foon, initially selling out of the boot of their car, the company soon became known for its commitment to corporate social responsibility and the environment. Laurie Foon was Lucire’s first feature interviewee in 1997, at a time when Starfish was behind a movement to stop the city motorway bypass. It was one of many social causes that the company stood behind in its 20-year history.
The companies that are in liquidation now were incorporated the year after, though the label itself started in 1993.
Starfish also launched a more premium label, Laurie Foon, in the 2000s.
Its fashion consistently ranked among this magazine’s picks for each season, and was a highlight of New Zealand Fashion Week for Lucire fashion editor Sopheak Seng.
Alongside Untouched World, Starfish was highlighted in Summer Rayne Oakes’s international guide to eco-fashion, Style, Naturally.
Throughout its history, Starfish remained passionate about the environment and stayed true to its ethos. On principle, it resisted offshore manufacturing when many of its rivals opted for cheap labour.
Starfish’s liquidation follows the closure of long-time label Ashley Fogel and another highly regarded Wellington brand, Alexandra Owen.
Top A Fast & Furious 6 tie-in from G by Guess. Above Madrubb, the Madrid Latex fashion company, launches its spring–summer collection.
The Fast and the Furious franchise might not be Lucire readers’ cup of tea, and our closest connection to it was when we featured actress and former Miss Israel Gal Gadot on our cover a few years ago.
However, Guess isn’t shying away from an opportunity, as its G by Guess brand is releasing a collection tying in with Fast & Furious 6, the latest instalment in the film series.
G by Guess targets a younger consumer, which the Fast & Furious films are aimed at.
The limited-edition capsule collection for men and women reaches stores on May 14, 10 days before Fast & Furious 6 hits US cinemas. The 15-piece collection has motor racing details, gritty prints and what G by Guess calls ‘destroyed styles’, with an emphasis on being ‘young, bold and sexy.’ Both the men’s and women’s lines have jackets, T-shirts and tank-tops, while the women’s line also features a tank dress. Accessories include aviator sunglasses, a men’s watch, and an embellished cap.
A sneak peek is available now at GbyGuess.com/Fast6, with events being held at 30 G by Guess locations on May 18. An online competition lasting 10 days appears on GbyGuess.com and via Facebook.
Madrubb, the Spanish Latex fashion label, has shown its spring–summer 2013 range, entitled Lxve to Lxve. It also débuts a new technique which it calls ‘Embroidery in Latex’, which it hopes will take its line into a ‘Latex haute couture’ realm.
Madrubb, based in Madrid, also emphasizes its brighter colours for the season, calling them ‘full of life and freshness’. The palette includes bubble-gum pink, mint green, orange and jade, while there is a cream dress with embroidered sequins and crystals. The company’s website can be found at www.madridrubber.com.
Avon, meanwhile, is launching its Anew Clinical Pro Line Corrector Treatment in Australia and New Zealand through its reps. The formula features Amino Fill 33 and claims to be a ‘game-changing innovation’. The British launch had a 60,000-strong waiting list, says Avon, and was its fastest seller.
Avon’s R&D senior skin care manager, Anthony Gonzalez, says, ‘A-F33 is potentially as game changing in the fight against wrinkles as alpha hydroxyl acids (AHAs) and Retinol were in the 1990s.’
In the main part of the website, publisher Jack Yan looks at Dunedin’s Undone label, the stand-out at ID Dunedin Fashion Week, while Paris editor Lola Saab reports from Portugal’s fashion week, this season held in Lisboa and Porto.
Those of you using Chrome, and I understand some of you using Firefox, were unable to access this website because of Google misidentifying it as distributing malware.
As those who know this publication realize, Lucire would never do that and that readers should ignore such warnings.
What I can tell you is that on Saturday morning, New Zealand time, we were hacked. Hackers put code in to our ad server and, curiously, the code has Google’s name all over it. I haven’t had confirmation of this, but it could be Google Adsense code. I’ve posted the code at this page and you can view it in a screen shot here. That code linked to another site that they hacked, which did distribute malware unknowingly.
We found this, and deleted all the injected code as soon as possible—in our case, this took place within hours. We did this manually, literally going through every ad entry on our server. After a few more hours, our web experts had deleted every change the hackers made to our advertising server back-end, and locked it down. And, rightly, Google cleared our ad server of any problems.
Strangely, however, Google refused to clear any site that used our ad server, even though none of them were distributing any malware, or linked to any site distributing malware. Google labelled all of them ‘attack sites’. This is, of course, highly damaging to our reputation. For days, Google continued to misidentify clean code linking to a clean ad server as malicious. The great irony is that a lot of this clean code links to Google’s own Doubleclick banners.
It’s sad to say, but this is typical of our experience of Google. Once I helped a friend get his blog back but instead of the 48 hours Google promised, it took six months of a lot of arguing and the intervention of Blogger’s product manager. We’ve uncovered privacy blunders with its advertising network on behalf of netizens. If you were an Iphone user who opted out of Safari’s tracking, Google found a way around it, so we know it has some really strange ideas of what constitutes malware (if they engage in it, it’s OK). Their detection systems should be better, and people expect them to be excellent because it’s a multi-million-dollar firm. Unfortunately, this experience reminds us that they aren’t perfect, and somewhat hypocritical—and that honest folks can get hurt sometimes.
We even went to Google Plus to tell readers, but we discovered today that that status vanished from people’s feeds and from our Google Plus page (though we can still see it). It appears that you aren’t allowed to criticize Google on Google Plus.
I wouldn’t be publishing a statement about this if I didn’t have my facts straight. Today, out of frustration, I went to a forum dealing with badware, called Badware Busters. An expert in the area, Dr Anirban Banerjee, told me that Google can make these mistakes. Even though you have done everything and cleaned up your sites, Google can keep identifying a clean site as malicious. He suggests we remove all our ad server code from our websites for a few days, get the all-clear, and then put things back to normal. We followed that advice today, and I hope that the block will be lifted shortly. [PS.: After a manual review, StopBadware.org cleared Lucire after this post was originally published.]
Or, as I said on my blog today: ‘there may be a drunk driver swerving left and right at the wheel of the Google truck, so it’s your job to make sure that you build a nice road in front for them, rather than insist that they clean up their act and stay on the road.’
We apologize to readers for any inconvenience, especially if you were put off by the false warnings. Rest assured that apart from a brief moment on Saturday morning, this site is secure and your surfing would not have resulted in any harm to your computers. We surf it, too, and we see the same version of the site as you do, so we want things to work properly. We might not be as big as Google, but we do have good systems, and our readers’ best interests at heart.—Jack Yan, Publisher
You can follow a bit more about this saga as it unfolded on Jack Yan’s blog.
Lucire has had a private preview of Mardle’s spring–summer 2013–14 collection, Bisou, Bisou. And to show that Mardle is the thinking woman’s choice for stylish staples, each of the outfits is named after a Kiss song.
Designer Shiana Weir has put the emphasis more on evolution, rather than revolution, given her feedback from her customers. She recognizes that unlike Europe and the US, New Zealand customers tend not to favour huge changes between seasons.
Characteristic of the collection is the X panel, either through using complementary fabrics on the garment. Similarly, Mardle has used a script X on a print, signalling the custom of signing kisses with an x.
The I Stole Your Love relaxed T blends Modal and polyester, and brings in a light, sheer look for spring–summer. We also liked her Nothing to Lose jacket, with removable shoulder pads that are held in place inside the garment with Velcro. The Shock Me mini-skirt has a distinctive black-and-white pattern, while the Crazy Crazy Nights dress has sequinned sleeves and a nice blush and gold Lurex finish. The Mardle Lizzie leather belt completes the outfits. Weir has also a colour palette that includes black-and-white, gold, and gun-metal grey.
The labels proudly bear the Mardle logo and ‘Made in New Zealand’, which will have plenty of appeal to its Kiwi customers. Mardle can be found online at www.mardle.co.nz, with its stockists (including Dunedin’s Salisbury Boutique and Havelock North’s Salsa) listed here.—Jack Yan, Publisher
Notch has scored another high-profile cover girl with actress Priyanka Chopra. Chopra talks about why she hates singing live and her concern for her father’s health, and gives advice to her younger sister Parineeti Chopra. The magazine can be found via www.notchmag.com, or through its presences on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
We’re absolutely loving One Luv’s latest jewellery collection, Through the Eyes of Yves Saint Laurent, comprising miniature glasses. They are a tribute to the late designer’s trade-mark eyewear, and actually open and close like real specs. The designs are available in 18 ct gold-plated, or can be had with rose gold, silver or black. They retail for A$70, come with a long belcher chain, and measure 45 by 40 mm when open. If you’re a discerning fashionista, or you know of one, then we think these are the cleverest jewellery item for discerning fashionistas that we’ve seen in ages. There’s more at www.oneluv.com.au.
In travel news, the Cranleigh Boutique has launched a distinctive boutique house in Bowness-on-Windermere in the Lake District, with appointments and gadgets galore. The décor is not what most of our non-UK readers might associate with Britishness—it’s more over the top of what you’d typically find in our pages.
However, the three-storey house, called the Hideout, impresses on the toys and amenities. It features a cocktail bar, a super-sized air spa bath for two with underwater lighting, a 65-inch hidden cinema screen, a three-dimensional smart TV with internet and Apple TV access, Sono’s music, and Netflix movies (with 150 DVDs). The first floor has a king-size four-poster bed and luxury bedding, while the third floor has an open-plan cinema lounge, fully equipped kitchen, a 55-inch Sony smart 3D TV with a Blu-Ray DVD player, Bose surround-sound system, mood lighting and balcony.
Cranleigh Boutique owner Stephen Hargreaves’ aim was to create the best accommodation experience for two people in the UK. It retails at between £400 and £500 per night, with a two-night minimum stay. It can be booked by the night all year except for weekends. Additional services including continental breakfast and daily maid are available, as well as free use of luxury leisure facilities. More can be found at www.thecranleigh.com/property/111/the-hideout.aspx.
Finally, in the main part of the site, we’ve gone Parisian: Lola Saab looks back at the prêt-à-porter collections for autumn–winter 2013–14, while Stanley Moss checks out two very different boutique hotels. Jack Yan writes about the BMW 3-series Touring launch between Auckland and Paihia, while Sopheak Seng checks out Wellington label Mondegreen’s latest collection. Elyse Glickman headed to the pre-Oscar suites, while Eva Mendes launched a collection for Vogue Eyewear in Los Angeles.
Today, Lucire has come full circle. One of the earliest stories on the web for our group was on the Renault Clio’s Nicole and Papa campaign, created in the early 1990s by Publicis. The Clio, which was the first Renault to hit the best sellers’ lists consistently in the UK, was sold with a cheeky campaign featuring two characters—Nicole, a young French lass, and Papa, obviously, her father. Those were the only two words uttered in the majority of the commercials, with the exceptions of ‘Maman’ and ‘Bob’, the final referring to comedian Bob Mortimer.
The last Nicole and Papa TVC, released when the Clio II was launched in 1998, saw Nicole finally walk down the aisle, about to marry Vic Reeves (a.k.a. Jim Moir) when she finally decides, at the last minute, to run off with Bob Mortimer instead.
It’s hard to believe that Nicole and Papa entered the British consciousness 20 years ago, in a series which also marketed French flair and the belief that the French have a better lifestyle than the British.
The Clio is still with us, but it’s much larger than before. Now on its fourth incarnation, the latest Clio is more expressive and sporty in looks, thanks to the work of Laurens van den Acker. It’s on the previous model’s platform, albeit heavily revised, and that’s a good thing. In the stories we did on the Clio—both publisher Jack Yan and travel editor Stanley Moss took Clio 3s around France and New Zealand—we found it one of the most capable superminis, a small car with a big-car feel. In fact, we found it better for cruising New Zealand’s South Island than the Holden Commodore, which we tried around the same time.
Clio IV features an 899 cm³, three-cylinder engine, but it’s turbocharged, developing more than 90 PS—those are the sorts of eco-friendly, yet powerful, specs that you can expect from the French these days. Renault claims a combined 88·3 mpg from the Energy dCi 90 engine. Archrival Peugeot similarly has three-cylinder units for its 208, the Clio’s closest rival at home, though the entry-level engine here is actually a 1·1 four which develops 75 PS. An RS model appears in 2013, getting 200 PS from a turbocharged 1·6, continuing the tradition of pocket rockets from Clio—Lucire photographer Doug Rimington once owned a Clio RS 182, which proved to be an able and taut sports hatch.
The great thing is that Clio IV has the looks to match its ‘va-va-voom’ nature. The new model’s styling conveys everything that Nicole and Papa tried to do: that when you get a Clio, you’re getting a dose of French flair. But wait, there’s more: ‘va va voom’ includes a sense of passion, something which van den Acker’s styling attempts to do. This isn’t a dull little hatch in the domestic appliance mould: Clio IV is emotive, and even sexy. They’re not words you tend to hear in the B-segment.
To show just what Renault means, the company has come up with two videos, one for unsuspecting male test drivers who come to a corner and are surprised at what happens when the ‘va va voom’ button is pressed, and the other for female test drivers.
And to bring things full circle, Nicole and Papa make an appearance, uttering the lines that made them famous. It does seem that the years have not been kind to Nicole and Bob, because there’s no sign of Mortimer, as Nicole has found herself a new man.
But isn’t that just what we expected?
Find out more from or book a test drive at the Renault website. Renault’s Twitter account can be found here, and its Facebook here.
Wellington artists Tai and Kaaterina Kerekere have just opened their latest exhibition, My Culture Is Not a Trend, at Thistle Hall, on the corner of Cuba and Arthur Streets in New Zealand’s capital city.
The couple’s paintings take pride of place, expressing personal aspects of Māoridom, culture, womanhood, family, and identity, relevant not only to a Māori audience but to any in living in New Zealand.
Of greater interest to Lucire readers, however, is the launch of their jewellery line. KE Design, as the Kerekeres’ company is called, has launched what it calls The Heritage Collection 2013, which features unique hand-crafted jewellery featuring simple motifs founded on, as the name suggests, their heritage and whakapapa. The designs are clear, eye-catching and modern, and have an internationalist flavour while proudly steeped in New Zealand’s own culture. Prices range from a very reasonable NZ$100 for earrings to NZ$400 for a pendant set in silver and garnet.
The Kerekeres, no strangers to exhibiting their art internationally, are showing in Hawai‘i in January 2014, and will launch another jewellery collection there. They will also take 33 works of art to the 50th US state. My Culture Is Not a Trend runs from March 27 to 31 at Thistle Hall, open 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. KE Design can be found at kedesign.co.nz, with the site developed by Adrian Owen of SweetChilli, and on Facebook at facebook.com/rina.taiart.
Another New Zealand artist showing abroad is Darryn George, of Ngāpuhi descent, who has been invited to the Biennale di Venezia, showing at the Palazzo Bembo. The Christchurch-born artist recently gave a talk at Wellington’s Caffè L’Affarè about his plans to transform room 15 into a Wharenui-like space with highly reflective black surfaces, with the concept based around filing cabinets representing the lives lost in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake.
The work, consisting of 3,510 mm-high MDF boards painted with high-gloss automotive paints, is being made in New Zealand and will be shipped to Venezia, but George requires help to raise the funds to get to the Biennale. An impression of what the finished work will look like is shown below.
He has already completed a work at the Connells Bay Sculpture Park at a smaller scale, and has exhibited in Paris, as well as throughout New Zealand.
The freight will cost some NZ$110,000, and donations of NZ$2,500, NZ$5,000 or any amount are sought. More information can be sought either from John and Jo Gow at Connells Bay Sculpture Park (info@connellsbay.co.nz, or John on 64 21 363-613, or Jo on 64 21 963-613) or Rebecca Hamid, Director, RH Gallery (art@rhgallery.co.nz, 64 21 393-970). Donations to the Connells Bay Sculpture Trust are tax-deductible, with the Trust set up as a registered charity.
We’ve further good news where readers can help the future of one of our subjects directly. With the success of their début at last year’s New Zealand Fashion Week as part of the Miromoda show, the lovely ladies behind Surface Too Deep (see Lucire issue 29) have been asked to showcase their brand at Mercedes-Benz Australian Fashion Week.
As with any small start-up, business finances are tight and the need for sponsorship is crucial. It has long been a dream of the brand to showcase their wares on an international platform to reach international media and buyers. With this opportunity, they are hoping to garner more brand recognition as well as gain more stockists.
Co-designer Sarah-Jane Abraham says that Surface Too Deep has planned a ‘pretty special’ range but needs the help of supporters to make sure that the label can show at Sydney.
This will be an amazing opportunity for both these young women and you can help them fulfil their dreams by pledging at www.pledgeme.co.nz/845.—Jack Yan, Publisher, and Sopheak Seng, Fashion and Beauty Editor
Above Jewellery from KE Design and artwork by Tai and Kaaterina Kerekere, showing currently at Thistle Hall, Wellington. Below An image from Surface Too Deep, as shown in Lucire issue 29. Louise Hatton
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