Swedish brand Lindex, owned by the Stockmann group in Finland, has launched the last part of its summer 2013 campaign, starring Penélope Cruz.
   The first part, which broke on April 15, saw Cruz in Hollywood mode, playing on her Oscar-winning persona. The second part of the campaign, announced at the end of April, had the actress in a relaxed home environment.
   The third and final part conveys a beachy, outdoors feel as Lindex pushes beach tunics, striped tops, shorts and maxi dresses.
   They hit Lindex stores, on- and offline, on May 20.
   In a release, Nina Starck, design manager at Lindex, says, ‘This is “the” holiday collection! We have continued the popular modern preppy style with a playful twist for our Holly & Whyte collection this summer. And I am convinced that it will be just as well appreciated by our customers as the earlier collections from Holly & Whyte.’
   The colour palette includes white and navy, along with red, green, orange and neon colours. Stripes and paisley patterns also feature, according to the company.
   Cruz won an Academy Award for best supporting actress in the 2008 Woody Allen film, Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Lindex currently has around 400 stores, including in Russia and the Middle East.

A Lucire special promotion

Many of our female readers are already sold on ASOS, so it’s great to see the online retailer give the men some consideration.
   It’s started on an item of clothing that most men should have no trouble ordering online: denim. The two new videos promoting the ASOS Menswear Denim range—which has over 600 styles—are cheeky and should appeal to most men. It’s asking men to send them challenges, and ASOS will respond to the best ones using items from the range.
   The first video is a humorous look at how one can become a drummer—with ASOS skinny jeans, of course—while the second, on how to save a football team from relegation, requires ASOS denim shorts.
   Netizens are asked to submit a challenge to ASOS at its Twitter account at ASOS_Menswear, hashtagging denimchallenge, or via an email form at the end of its videos.
   Challenges could include a request for help to meet a girl, or freezing jeans, as the company.
   ASOS says it will reply back to the best challenges, each using a product from its denim line.
   The idea behind the humorous campaign is to spark a conversation.
   ASOS has also launched a competition to tie in with the campaign, opening the morning of May 10, and closing at 4.30 p.m. BST. The winner is the one who Tweets the best denim challenge, as determined by the judges—with humour and imagination the two criteria they are looking for. The winner takes home a denim item of their choice. Full rules can be found at ASOS’s website.
   ASOS was founded in 2000 in the UK, and was floated on the AIM at the London Stock Exchange the following year. It now carries over 50,000 branded and own-label lines, with 1,500 new product lines being introduced each week.

Post sponsored by ASOS

Finnish-owned label Lindex has released imagery from the second push for its spring 2013 season, featuring actress Penélope Cruz.
   The first part of the campaign, which showed Cruz in casual and red-carpet settings, broke on April 24.
   This latest campaign sees Cruz wearing her favourite items in a home environment.
   The company says this part of the collection has a Latino inspiration, with neutral colours (khaki, black, grey, white) offset by pepper green and mandarin red. The patterns include animal and jungle prints, fringes and tie-dyes.
   There are the usual staples of dresses, singlets and shorts. Lindex’s design manager, Nina Starck, gives the example of shorts, knitted top and a bikini underneath for a boho-chic look.
   To emphasize a retro feel, Cruz can be seen in one image posing next to a turntable with an LP.
   This latest part of the Lindex spring collection hits stores, online and offline, on May 6.
   Cruz won an Academy Award for best supporting actress in the 2008 Woody Allen film, Vicky Cristina Barcelona. News of the Lindex spring campaign breaking first surfaced on April 15.
   While a Swedish-originated brand, Lindex was acquired by the Finnish retailer Stockmann in 2007. It currently has around 400 stores, including Russia and the Middle East.

As expected, H&M and Beyoncé have released their video jointly promoting the fashion brand and her latest music, entitled ‘Beyoncé as Mrs Carter in H&M’.
   The video follows the star’s release of a teaser promoting her Mrs Carter Show World Tour, which kicks off this month. It was first posted on her YouTube channel.
   The 90-second advertisement features Beyoncé in various swimwear and sundresses, beautifully photographed, showing off her figure as well as H&M’s summer styles.
   The advertisement was directed by Jonas Åkerlund, and complements the print campaign shot by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin in Nassau.
   Beyoncé moves to the sound of her song, ‘Standing on the Sun’, which will be available worldwide and via hm.com from May.
   Donald Schneider, creative director of H&M, summarized the campaign when we published the news last month: ‘H&M’s summer campaign starring Beyoncé is an epic fantasy, with glamour, drama and also a sense of paradise. It was amazing to watch her on the shoot make it all look effortless—a quality that makes her such an icon for women around the world. The campaign is the essence of Beyoncé, and also the essence of H&M this summer.’
   Ann-Sofie Johansson, head of design for the retailer, noted, ‘There’s the perfect bodycon dress, as well as a flowing sundress that makes a real statement. And of course there are the bikinis, especially the fringed bikini. What makes these pieces even more special is that Beyoncé herself had input into the design, and they are full of her own personal style.’
   The collection is available from May.

A Lucire special promotion

Évian’s Baby & Me campaign, which launched on April 21, continues the brand’s cross-media approach to advertising. Its earlier Roller Babies and Baby Inside campaigns, which was shown to European readers on the Lucire website, are among the highly watched advertising videos on the internet. Roller Babies, in fact, holds the worldwide record for the most viewed advertising video online, according to the company, and Baby & Me attempts to tap in to the same audience.
   Already sitting on 28 million views since the video was uploaded on April 19, Baby & Me begins with a man encountering his baby self in a reflection. He begins dancing, to see his reflection follow suit. Others join him as ‘Here Comes the Hotstepper’, remixed by Yuksek, plays.
   The campaign is being backed up by a poster campaign. In France, Métro platforms will begin featuring portraits of the characters of various ages, discovering their baby selves, starting May 15. Maria Sharapova and Melissa Reid are two of the sport stars confirmed for this later stage.
   Even more cleverly, as Évian taps into the younger demographic, is an app that allows users to discover their own baby selves. BETC Digital and B-Reel’s app allows users to upload a picture of themselves, or someone of their choice. The app them “babifies” the image thanks to facial recognition software. This also begins in May, and will be available for Android, Iphone and Facebook.
   A similar technique is used in Babybooths located around Paris. They will also be mounted at the Festival de Cannes next month.

It’s the battle of the Scandinavian chains: as H&M gets high-profile names to market its range, Finnish-owned Lindex, part of Stockmann, has signed Penélope Cruz as its model for spring.
   There will be three campaigns featuring Cruz, says the company, showing Cruz in casual and red-carpet settings. In all three, she models offerings that will hit stores, on- and offline, on April 24.
   The first campaign shows Cruz on a Friday night, at a red-carpet party. The ‘Saturday’ campaign sees her relaxing at home in her favourite clothes, while the ‘Sunday’ one has her in a summer setting, at a Mediterranean villa for brunch.
   In a release, Johan Hallin, Director of Concept & Marketing at Lindex, says, ‘With her sophisticated elegance, Penélope Cruz adds a wonderful womanly and feminine feel to the campaign. The combination of her vivacious personality and a glamorous film-star life together with a sense of humour will also make the campaigns fun and exciting.’
   Cruz says, ‘I’ve had lots of fun being a model for a large international fashion company like Lindex. I like the clothes; they really suit my style’
   Cruz won an Academy Award for best supporting actress in the 2008 Woody Allen film, Vicky Cristina Barcelona.
   The new items can be purchased via www.lindex.com from April 24.

Look out for the Body Shop’s Mothers’ Day gift packages. Lucire tried the White Musk shower gel and body lotion, a subtle scent of one of the Body Shop’s favourites. It’s an attractively packaged duo with a matching shower scrunchy. This would be a lovely treat for a travel gift when you just want a bit of pampering that’s a bit more than the hotel freebies, retailing at NZ$23. (Custom wrapping paper for Mothers’ Day is also available.) If white musk isn’t your scent, try the Japanese Cherry Blossom, a floral fragrance. There are several gift packages in this range: shower gel, body lotion, and hand cream. Most of the Body Shop’s top sellers have a gift package to suit your budget and your nose; Madagascan Vanilla Bean, Moringa Flower and my favourite, the Shea Pamper pack—anything with pamper in the title works for me.
   The Body Shop is also all about eyes with the launch in May of 21 new eye colours. I particularly liked that they can be used both wet and dry, so when you want a defined line or depth of colour, use them wet; for that smouldering or smoky look, layer or blend them. There are shades in this range for all eye colours, moods and occasions. You can have the subtle hues of Caramel Flirt, which is much more than a nude—it has a lovely shimmer without being glitzy; or Sugar Gaze to give a lustrous highlight. Moonlight Kiss can be used as a liner or a smoky evening look, and for a young or more frivolous look, check out Berry Cute—think of a berry smoothy. Blueberry Night pairs wonderfully with Midnight Flirt. If you’re feeling earthy, the matte of Fig Leaf combined with the pearly Sweet Pea will fill the green tones beautifully.
   Retailing at NZ$21 per mono eyeshadow, the Colour Crush range is produced in Italy from high-quality pigments and Community Fair Trade Oils to the Body Shop’s high standard of sustainability and quality. The individual clear pack is compact and enables you to see exactly what you’re buying.—Linden Sprunt

Sebastian Professional has teamed up with fashion designer Mara Hoffman, which sees a Mara Hoffman for Sebastian custom scarf given away with its latest limited-edition designer gift set.
   The gift pack comprises the Sebastian Professional Volupt shampoo and conditioner, along with Hoffman’s scarf, which features bold colours and graphic prints, inspired by her own spring 2013 collection, which had a São Paulo theme. The scarf has a retail value of US$120.
   Sebastian Professional lead hairstylist Thomas Dunkin says the scarf suits current trends: ‘This print is bold, beautiful and inspiring. Combine this with braids for a cool urban look or leave hair down and very natural, and tie the scarf in a bow at the crown for a more ’50s vibe.’
   The choice of Hoffman, with her Brazilian-themed spring collection, ties in with Sebastian’s Urban Explorer promotion, which educates consumers on different hair trends around the globe. The gift set shows step-by-step styling tricks from Dunkin as part of the promotion.
   Dunkin himself had led Hoffman’s hair styling at her spring 2013 show at New York Fashion Week.
   The pack will be available from Sebastian salons across the US for US$25 from May–June 2013.
   Details of Sebastian salons can be found at www.sebastianprofessional.com.