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.

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.

Thomas Salme

Shooting in Milano with beautiful Italian model Fiorella Dominici, wearing a Basler Fashion dress from Germany designed by Scot Brian Rennie, by me, Thomas Salme from Sweden. A big international mix.
   Dominici is 22, a graduate in economics, Russian and English at Cattolica University. She is still studying in order to graduate in international management. Her slogan is: ‘positive thinking and … believe in your own skills and capabilities more than in social connections.’
   The designer of this beautiful yellow dress is Brian Rennie. He has been called the ‘designer with the Hollywood gene’ and the ‘king of couture’ by some. He outfitted Kim Basinger for the Academy Awards, designed a wedding dress for Jennifer López and counted Princess Diana among his clients, according to his official bio.
   Rennie studied fashion at the Royal College of Art, and joined Escada after completing his studies. He was there for over 20 years, and rose to the rank of head designer.
   As creative director of Basler Fashion, his clothes carry what the company calls a ‘distinctive design signature. Æsthetically outstanding and consistently feminine, they are primarily created to flatter women and to beautify them. Passion and originality characterize the designs of Brian Rennie.’—Thomas Salme

Thomas Salme

We recently mentioned that the Milano exhibition to accompany The Little Black Jacket: Chanel’s Classic Revisited by Karl Lagerfeld and Carine Roitfeld had new works, so that those attending in the Italian fashion capital would not feel they were getting a second-hand collection that had already done the rounds in Tokyo, New York, London, Paris and Berlin.
   To whet our appetites of the shoot Karl Lagerfeld did with Keira Knightley, Diane Kruger, Carla Bruni, Carole Bouquet and others in his studio in January 2013, Chanel has released a single image of Kruger reinterpreting the house’s little black jacket.
   Some 20 international celebrities and ‘close friends of the house’ participated.
   The exhibition, held at the Rotonda di via Besana (at the via Enrico Besana, 12), opens April 4, with entry free to the public from April 6 to 20. Opening hours are 10 a.m. to 7.30 p.m. At the same time, displays at Chanel’s via Sant’Andrea boutique will show jackets from the spring–summer 2013 ready-to-wear collection.
   Dubai is the next destination after Milano. More can be found at www.thelittleblackjacket.chanel.com.

April 25: Beyoncé releases ‘Beyoncé as Mrs Carter in H&M’—see her new video here

For years, Hennes & Mauritz hired spokesmodels who were familiar, but not instantly recognizable. There’s none of that these days as the retailer announces a partnership with Beyoncé, who will appear in print and TV advertising for its summer 2013 collection. Its last big name, promoting its autumn 2012 line, was Lana del Rey (see Lucire 28), as H&M ties in fashion with the biggest names in the music industry.
   Beyoncé kicks off her Mrs Carter Show world tour on April 15, and the new campaign ties in with that. The advertising features ‘Beyoncé as Mrs Carter in H&M’, with the company saying that it represents ‘the idea that all women can be all things: strong, vulnerable, sensual, maternal, fun, flirtatious.’
   The TV commercial, to be released online in full and edited for TV, features a new song from Beyoncé, ‘Standing on the Sun’. The song will be available worldwide and via hm.com from May.
   Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin shot the print campaign in Nassau, while the commercial was directed by Jonas Åkerlund.
   In a release, Beyoncé says, ‘I’ve always liked H&M’s focus on fun and affordable fashion. I really loved the concept we collaborated on to explore the different emotions of women represented by the four elements—fire, water, earth and wind. It was a beautiful shoot on a tropical island. It felt more like making a video than a commercial.’
   The famed Donald Schneider, now creative director at H&M, says, ‘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, notes, ‘In the campaign Beyoncé is wearing the key pieces from H&M you need for life in the sun this summer.
   ‘There’s the perfect bodycon dress, as well as a flowing sun dress 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, which includes swimwear and beachwear from the H&M for Water collection benefiting H&M for WaterAid, hits H&M stores, on- and offline, from May.

Images by Cat Soubbotnik courtesy Galerie Rue Sans Fraise

Top Strongylodon macrobotrys. Above Magnolia grandiflora ‘Galissoniensis’. Below Zantedeschia.

Coincidental to the first day of spring, a début exhibition opening in Paris showcases a new and fragrant take on the art-viewing experience. Galerie Rue Sans Fraise, a vanguard multi-use space in the trendy Marais, opens Ecolosion, a hybrid hanami (the traditional Japanese flower-watching ritual) with a French twist and a breath of fresh perfumed air.
   The show features large-format wall-mounted limited-edition floral images by photographer Cat Soubbotnik, counterpoised with suspended mixed-media works on transparent Tibetan paper by Marie Piselli, accented with environmental fragrances created by Scentys, who produce signature olfactory events for high-profile clients. You haven’t seen or inhaled an art experience like this before, one which so joyfully tantalizes so many of the senses.
   Should you happen to be in Paris for the Vernal Equinox, drop into the gallery’s opening reception the night of Thursday, March 21, 7–10 p.m. Have a glass of wine and sniff around the interesting bi-level installation celebrating the world reawakening after a long winter.
   The show remains up through June 21—standard gallery hours or by appointment.—Stanley Moss, Travel Editor

Images by Cat Soubbotnik courtesy Galerie Rue Sans Fraise

Galerie Rue Sans Fraise
9 rue Française
75002 Paris
33 6 29-42-41-14
www.ruesansfraise.fr

With our server shift (great service from Xplosiv.ly) and all the fashion weeks happening through February, a few news items on our radar have been delayed—but we believe they are of interest to our readers, regardless.
   The first is Jameson Irish Whiskey’s new limited-edition bottle for St Patrick’s Day 2013 (right). Jameson had already sponsored the Film Independent Spirit Awards which Lucire reported on last week—it seems fitting that this proudly Irish brand celebrates a quintessentially Irish day with a bottle designed by glass artist David Smith.
   The bottle design was inspired by the glass etching and gilding that one might find in the great Dublin pubs.
   In a release, Smith said, ‘Being both a whiskey drinker, and a Jameson fan, it was an immense opportunity which I couldn’t refuse. It was a natural fit as we both preserve craft and tradition in a contemporary way. Having the opportunity to design an iconic bottle which has hardly changed in two hundred years was one that I’m not presented with often, so I am extremely proud to have stamped my signature style onto the bottle.’
   The limited-edition bottle is available in New Zealand from March 1 with a retail price of NZ$63·99.


   Boegli, meanwhile, has created a new Grand Opera watch, which is the first model with a round dial from the Swiss company. It is limited to 99 pieces, and features a musical mechanism that plays 17 notes from Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, K. 620 (The Magic Flute). The watch has an alligator leather strap with a butterfly buckle.
   Nespresso has introduced a stainless steel-panelled version of its Pixie machine (bottom), meaning that the machine suits even more décors. In terms of engineering, the latest model is identical to the previous one: it still makes a cup of Nespresso coffee in 25 to 30 seconds, has an alert for low water levels, and consumes 40 per cent less power than the best-in-class energy category of A-class machines.
   It comes bundled with an Aeroccino, and is released in April at the Nespresso Boutique in Newmarket, Auckland, selected retailers, through www.nespresso.com or the Nespresso Club in New Zealand on 0800 234-579. Nespresso also offers a cash-back reward for New Zealand customers of NZ$50 on the Pixie range from March 25 to May 19; retail price for the Pixie is NZ$499.
   Our friends at Chanel inform us that there will be an exhibition in Milano dedicated to Karl Lagerfeld and Carine Roitfeld’s new book, The Little Black Jacket: Chanel’s Classic Revisited.
   The exhibition, held at the Rotonda di via Besana (at the via Enrico Besana, 12), opens April 4, with entry free to the public from April 6 to 20. Opening hours are 10 a.m. to 7.30 p.m.
   While the exhibition has been shown at other cities, the latest has new works featuring Keira Knightley, Diane Kruger, Carla Bruni and Carole Bouquet. At the same time, displays at Chanel’s via Sant’Andrea boutique will show jackets from the spring–summer 2013 ready-to-wear collection.
   In the main part of the website, Elyse Glickman checks out the pre-Grammy suites for this year, while Lola Saab reports from the Sundance Film Festival, our first report from there since 2004.