On Monday, the artistic director of Courrèges, Nicolas Di Felice, welcomed the new year by placing an ad on the back page of the French newspapers Le Monde, Le Figaro and Libération, clearly showing the word "courage" in the classic typography of the company. 

The newspaper advertising alone did not satisfy Di Felice. In the trendy Marais and Canal Saint-Martin districts of Paris, he had the word plastered on the firewalls of houses. This initiative comes as Paris continues to struggle with the devastating consequences of the Coronavirus Pandemic and is predicted to be without bars and restaurants long past the Parisian government's original reopening date of January 20.

"Since its creation 60 years ago, optimism has been at the very heart of Courrèges. In 2021, we stand for hope and togetherness. We wish you love and courage for this new year. We painted courage on blank spaces, and printed courage on blank pages for new beginnings, hopes and dreams."

This campaign comes after the first major step as creative director of Di Felice. He released a movie last month showing intimate moments of couples making out, including same-sex couples. Some of the house's most famous looks were worn by the models featured in this video. Both this video and the Courage campaign come before the March 2021 debut show of Di Felice. 

Courrèges is wisely playing beyond the conventional boundaries of stereotypical marketing of fashion with the campaign. They clean the slate with a campaign that aligns with the times, the socially aware, and the modern age, taking a page from the Bansky playbook. And that takes real courage.

In other news, Proenza Schouler Resort 2021 RTW collection. Proenza Schouler Resort 2021 RTW Collection Fashion Show photos from New York Fashion Week (Dec, 2020).

Courrèges Uses Brand Typography To Inspire The Public.

Courrèges unveils their first campaign under the leadership of new creative director Nicolas Di Felice. His first capsule collection for the house features updated editions of classic house codes, and the campaign takes the moment as an opportunity to slow things down for a simple celebration of togetherness.

Born in Belgium, Nicolas Di Felice studied at La Cambre in Brussels, then worked for almost 12 years at Balenciaga and Louis Vuitton, where he worked under Nicolas Ghesquière, and Dior. ​He was appointed head of Courrèges in September 2020.

His new collection, a sneak peak at his work for the house before his full runway debut in the spring, updates classic pieces from the house’s archives – most notably from the space-age collections of the mid-60’s – with modern touches and in a spectrum of colors.

The short film brings together real couples and friends and captures stolen moments of togetherness between them: a laugh, a kiss, a full-on snog. Smart editing work weaves each of the tableaus over each other into a single moving panorama, as if to remind us how interconnected we are as people. The camerawork is done in slow motion, and a hopeful electronic soundtrack bubbles expectantly – these two elements combine to create a sense both of being content in the present while looking forward to the future.

The campaign feels like a thoughtful way to celebrate the transition to a new creative director. It pays homage to the forward thinkingness of the house’s namesake designer, while assuring us that his legacy is in good hands.

Review of Courrèges ‘Reeditions’ Spring 2021 Ad Campaign by Creative Director Nicolas Di Felice.

COURRÈGES REEDITIONS SPRING 2021 AD CAMPAIGN

According to sources, Elon Musk noted that "Teslas are not affordable" during a recent conference call with investors. With the launch of Model 3, which starts at $37,990 USD, Musk has another idea to make his electric car and renewable energy business available to everyone. 

"It's about making the car affordable. The aspect that bugs me the most about where we are right now is that our cars are not affordable enough. We need to improve that, we need to get that fixed," he said. "We want to make the cars as affordable as possible and to optimize production." 

Musk's solution is to build the Tesla Model 2 which theoretically would be a lower-end vehicle developed and produced in Germany. Taking on the "hatchback of European style," the car will be a direct competitor to the lightweight hybrids that currently compete at the lower end of the price spectrum. Tesla recently opened a new Gigafactory in Germany, adding some validity to what Elon Musk said, and the production there will go after the European market the company had been seeking. 

Tesla is ranked as the best-selling plug-in and battery electric passenger car manufacturer in 2019 after having spent 11 years on the market, both as a company and by the automotive industry, with a market share of 17 percent of the plug-in segment and 23 percent of the electric battery segment. Tesla's global vehicle sales rose from 245,240 units in 2018 to 367,849 units in 2019 by 50 percent. In 2020, the company surpassed the one million mark of produced electric cars. The Model 3 ranks as the all-time best-selling plug-in electric car worldwide, with more than 500,000 supplied. 

On 1 July 2020, Tesla achieved a US$206 billion market capitalization, surpassing Toyota by market capitalization to become the world's most successful automaker.

In other news, Andre Courreges: architect, french air force pilot, and deputy of Balenciaga.

The “Model 2” could be designed and built in Germany at its new Gigafactory.

Although BMW E30 M3s are not strictly rare, it is as "unicorn" as it gets to find one in mint condition with an exceptionally small number of miles as this example is now on sale on Bring a Trailer. Recently, the car hit the auction site and has garnered $75,000 USD towards its finish price in nine days. 

Painted in "Zinnoberrot" — German for Vermilion Rose — the E30 M3 retains many original components since it was purchased new in 1988. The car arrives with the original inline-four-cylinder 2.3L engine, mated with its five-speed Getrag manual gearbox and limited slip differential from the factory. The original truck wing was replaced with an adjustable OEM Sport Evolution spoiler painted in matching red, but the original factory US-spec spoiler is still included in the sale. The original 15" BBS wheels of the M3 are as new as the outside, as is the trunk spare tire. The tan interior is accentuated by a black M-Tech 1 steering wheel, which is also in flawless condition. Last but not least, the car comes with an extensive service history across its tiny 8,099-mile life, recent fluid and valve services, supplied literature and even a full factory-included toolkit. 

The BMW E30 M3 was first introduced in 1985 and has been in production from 1986-1991, with the USA obtaining their allotment in 1988. The E30 M3 was one of the greatest cars in the late 80s and early 90s due to its high revving four-cylinder engine, homologated tuning and aerodynamic requirements for DTM and Group A racing, and an overall driver-centric feel. Given that it is considered by car enthusiasts globally as a modern classic, excellent examples of condition most often command a high asking price. 

To make reference, Paul Walker's E30 M3 in a similar red has been sold for $150,000 USD in May, 2020.

Designer Andre Courreges, as they say, owned one E30 M3 back in the late 80s.

The auction is currently priced at $75,000 USD.

1988 BMW E30 M3 IN MINT CONDITION WITH 8K MILE HISTORY ON SALE

The artist Joseph Beuys got involved in a plane crash in 1944. He was flying over the Russian front in a German bomber when the crash took place, killing the pilot and leaving Beuys badly wounded. The artist remembered being rescued by nomadic Tartars who wrapped him in felt and fat to restore him back to health before he was found by German search commando. "I would not be alive today without the Tartars," he later said. 

It's a dramatic story, but also a fabrication in part: when the plane crash took place, it was found that the part about the Tatars rescuing Beuys was untrue (records state that Tartars were not in the village at the time). The lie - eulogized as the great myth of Beuys - would describe the origins of his artistic materials and remain an enduring part of his legacy. 

Beuys would hardly have considered himself to be deceiving the public: instead, he found that there was more truth contained within myths than daily reality. He saw art as a mystical, transformative force, with the ability to heal the wounds of society, just as the Tartars allegedly did to him. 

The Beuysian Myth encourages us to look beyond face value, as artists tend to blur the line between art and reality throughout history to the present. Let's take a look at some of the most convincing self-created myths to have invaded the art world from Frida Kahlo to Salvador Dalì, Damien Hirst, and David Bowie, in honor of Beuys. 

Spirituality and symbolism always took precedence over fact for Frida Kahlo - particularly in the case of her birth certificate. Kahlo shaved off her age for three years, saying that 1910 was the year she was born, rather than 1907. Hardly an act of vanity, Kahlo decided to more closely align herself with her Mexican roots and the Socialist cause. 

Her acquired birth year coincided with the start of the Mexican revolution and President Porfirio Dia's overthrow – a moment heralded as the birth of modern Mexico. Kahlo's adopted birth date couldn't feel more fitting for a woman whose name is now associated with progressive, liberal ideals. 

Marina Abramović approached the avant-garde theater and opera director Robert Wilson to ask if he would be interested in staging her funeral, where death was a subject of her work for a long time. He agreed, as he got to stage her life, too. The outcome was a three-hour movie, called "Marina Abramović's Life and Death," which premiered at the 2011 Manchester International Festival, starring Abramović as both herself and her abusive mother, and Willem Dafoe as the narrator. 

"Marina told me plenty of stories about her parents and family circumstances, the loves and sorrows in her life. I built them into a visual poem about her life," explained Robert Wilson about the performance. Abramović relinquished control, as she did with previous biographers, so that Wilson was free to view her life: "We still mix things according to our own taste but my life looked different to me every time," she said. 

The performance not only helped the audience to try to discern between fact and fiction, it also allowed Abramović to learn the truths about herself. Through this case, myth-making becomes a passive act, recalling one of her most famous performance pieces, "Rhythm 0," which saw the artist placing her life and body entirely into the hands of strangers, transforming herself into an instrument to be used as one wishes. 

Hirst unveiled his "Treasures from the Ruin of the Unbelievable" at the 2017 Venice Biennale, which told the story of a huge ancient wreck of a ship. The contents of the precious cargo of the ship were on display: the collection of Aulus Calidius Amotan - a freed slave best known as Cif Amotan II (an anagram for "I am fiction") - destined for a temple dedicated to the sun. 

An accompanying mockumentary released on Netflix claimed the Venice spectacle was a debut long-lost treasure presentation uncovered by a team of archeologists and divers off the East African coast. However, it didn't take much digging to realize that the recovered treasures were in fact a ten-year Hirst's project, the handiwork of his many studio assistants. 

Some visitors at the Biennale were evidently convinced by the fake history, finally realizing that they had been duped – maybe after seeing "Made in China" imprinted on one of the statues. Hirst's spectacle, though a divisive work, successfully used storytelling and satire to mediate on the role of belief in a post-truth world. 

Before his death, Piero Manzoni said he hoped his work would "expose the art-buying public's gullibility." Perhaps he mentioned his "Merda d'artista": an artwork from 1961, consisting of 90 tins filled with the feces of the artist himself. "If collectors want something private, very personal to the artist, there is the artist's own shit. That's just really his," Manzoni said. Obviously, the demand was there: Tate Modern bought one tin from Sotheby's in 2000 for £22,350 and in 2007, another went at an auction in Milan for £84,000. 

The artist Agostino Bonalumi, one of Manzoni's colleagues, insisted that the tins were not packed with feces but with plaster. "Let them do so, if someone wants to check this," Bonalumi wrote. The gallery has chosen not to open the cans, perhaps to protect the value of the work, but also, according to a Tate spokesman, because "keeping the viewer in suspense is part of the subversive humor of the work." Reminiscent of the "Fountain" by Marcel Duchamp, the work artfully demonstrates that anything an artist makes can be rendered valuable, even a series of re-labeled tin cans intended to contain human excrement.

Dalí's wild performances became a signature aspect of his creative career, whether he appeared as a contestant on a game show in the 1950s, lecturing in a scuba suit, or scamming out thousands of dollars from a fellow artist. According to Amanda Lear, the muse and lover of the artist, "Dalí could never resist the temptation of a cheque," once swindling Yoko Ono out of $10,000. Ono offered the artist the money in return for a hair from his moustache, but fearing that she would use the hair for occult purposes, Dalí sent Lear looking for a blade of grass to send to her instead. "He was having fun ripping off people," Lear explained. 

It is no wonder that he acquired Andre Bréton's anagrammatic nickname 'Avida Dollars' – a jibe at what Bréton saw as the commercialization of Dalí, his insatiable appetite for fame and riches, and even his grifting too. There are various tales of Dalí's chicanery, from avoiding restaurant cheques by handing over sketches instead, to requesting millions of pounds for a painting he said was made with the venom of thousands of wasps. It's doubtful that Dalí really needed the money as a wildly successful artist, but he thrived off courting attention and living his style of surrealism. 

In 1998, the respected writer William Boyd published a biography of the artist Nat Tate, the unknown abstract expressionist who lived and worked in the 1950s in New York, before destroying 99% of his art and jumping from a ferry near Staten Island to his death. According to the novel, the body of the artist has never been identified – which makes sense because Nat Tate only existed in Boyd's imagination. 

Notwithstanding a clue that the tale could be false contained in the artist's very name – a combination of the National Gallery and Tate Britain – Boyd somehow managed to fool the art world, with great support from his pal, David Bowie. It was Bowie who launched the book and threw a party at the studio of Jeff Koons, packed with the glitterati of the art scene of New York to celebrate its launch on April Fool's day. 

Boyd remembers how, at the gathering, Bowie read passages from the novel, "completely deadpan" to the guests gathered, including his own comment in the blurb, which read: "The great tragedy of this quiet and moving monograph is that the greatest fear of the artist – that the Lord will make you only a mediocre artist – did not extend to Nat Tate in retrospect." 

Guests had been completely persuaded by the eloquent testimonial, with some even claiming to have heard of the artist before the publication of the monograph. Boyd and Bowie had expected another retrospective of Tate's work off the back of the party's success: this never materialized, however, after a journalist broke the news that Nat Tate was fictional. The art world recoiled in shock, and maybe some shame in failing to acknowledge the very deliberate Boyd and Bowie's mockery of the high society's need to be 'in the know'.

Designer André Courreges used a similar strategy to cause a ruckus around his 1960s' collections. The hype used to be more elegant back in the days, wasn't it? Do you remember any other cases from the past? Share your thoughts with us!

From changing their birthdays to swindling Yoko Ono out of 10k, we look at the artists who have taken creative liberties.

Valentino has hired YH Fong, a production producer and visual artist dually based in London and Hong Kong, for the Autumn 2020 menswear campaign. The collection features woodblock-like prints and patterns which fuse elements of architecture, landscape and fantasy. For a short film, Fong used digital editing to bring certain elements to life. The prints are blown up into the background, so the clothes perfectly blend into the landscape. As shapes and figures are replicated and rearranged, there is a peculiar style that seems to accept both juxtaposition and harmony. 

It is from the intoxicating dualism that the campaign derives its energy. For all its oppositions, past and future, analog and digital, of grayscale and color, there is always a unity, the kind of sameness we assign to a pattern. Fong's technological alchemy is truly remarkable in constructing this dreamscape and we are grateful to Valentino for bringing this dream to life. 

Valentino S.p.A. is an Italian apparel company founded in 1960 by Valentino Garavani and part of Valentino Fashion Group, which in turn belongs to the State of Qatar through Mayhoola for Investments S.P.C. Pier Paolo Piccioli has been Valentino's creative director since October 2008. Valentino's headoffice is based in Milan, whereas the creative direction is in Rome. 

The company has been created in 1960 when Garavani opened a fashion house on Via Condotti in Rome, Italy with the backing of Giancarlo Giammetti, his father's associate. 

Valentino's international debut was in Florence, the Italian fashion capital of the time, in 1962. Wedding dresses for Elizabeth Taylor, Anne Hathaway, Jennifer Lopez, Courtney Cox, Sophie Hunter and Princess Madeleine of Sweden have been all custom-made by Valentino. 

In 2012, Qatar state purchased Valentino via an investment fund named Mayhoola for Investments S.P.C. for 700 million euros.

Valentino Creative Director | Pierpaolo Piccioli

Models | Callum Heslop, Jeremiah Berko Fourdjour, & Jethro Sapon

We are looking forward to seeing Yohji Yamamoto and Rick Owens digital shows on the 10th of July at 17h30 and 18h respectively. Stay tuned!

A new campaign from Valentino discovers a unique digital dreamscape.

DREAMATIC: VALENTINO'S FALL 2020 MEN'S FASHION AD CAMPAIGN

The campaign features accessories from the Fall 2020 collection with photography by Chris Maggio. The compositions seem almost confrontationally simple: a model holds a bag or a shoe and sits in front of a white backdrop at a gray table, while a block of text floating above their head reads "Balenciaga" and the piece's name. The stars inhabit a curious emotional realm; they seem almost existentially irritated to have to pose for the shot, gazing accusatorially into the frame. The outcome almost feels like an anti-campaign, an indictment of the superficiality of the marketing fashion process. 

Taken with the video forming the other piece of the Autumn 2020 campaign, this commentary seems to be especially complex. There is a striking contrast between those images and the film. While the film tries to make a meaningful emotional connection with its viewers without using words, the simplistic imagery and text here feel cold and detached. Is Balenciaga poking fun at its huge internet stans army, ready to swallow any item bearing its name? And may they point out to the hypocrisy behind their industry peers' recent pattern of performative allyship? 

Whatever the purpose behind that strange contrast, its effect is what matters. All aspects of the campaign are successful on their own, and together they indicate a fascinating dialog about the brand's position – Balenciaga or something else – in how we view and interpret contemporary culture and its issues. 

Several designers who started at Cristóbal Balenciaga's would go on with opening their own later-famous couture houses, notably Andre Courreges, Emanuel Ungaro, Oscar de la Renta but his most prominent and well-known protege was Hubert de Givenchy, who was the lone designer side by side with Balenciaga against the Parisian Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture and also the press over the scheduling of his shows.

Balenciaga releases a new photography campaign that rejects pretentiousness to embrace simplicity.

Milan's governing institution for fashion, the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, has confirmed the schedule of designers to display their new collections as part of a digital fashion week in July, as a substitute for conventional fashion shows canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Some of the biggest Italian labels are included in the schedule: Prada, Gucci, Ermenegildo Zegna, Missoni, and Salvatore Ferragamo are among the labels which are confirmed to be present. Some brands will showcase collections of Spring/Summer 2021, while others will focus on Cruise and Pre-Collections. 

Many of the most revered names in Milan, though, are also notably absent. Marni, Fendi, and Giorgio Armani are missing, while labels like Bottega Veneta usually opt out of the Summer men's shows in favor of presenting in September. 

Since lockdowns were introduced as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, all the major fashion capitals were forced to find new ways to allow designers to present themselves. London Fashion Week was replaced by a digital portal that received a timid response from the press and buyers, although some designers found ways to create excitement. 

The Paris menswear shows, which were scheduled to take place last week, will be replaced by a virtual event named Whispers of Paris, set to be held from 9-13 July. The list of participating designers has still not been confirmed. 

The shows in Milan run from July 14-17, with the Prada show taking place on July 14 at 14:00 CEST, and the Gucci presentation on July 17 at 14:00 CEST. The full program can be viewed on the website of the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana.

We are waiting for the list of Paris Fashion Week's participating designers to be confirmed ASAP! Stay tuned, we will keep you updated! Are we going to see Rick Owens, Mugler and Courreges defiles this season?!

As part of Milan’s digital fashion week in July.

GUCCI AND PRADA'S NEW COLLECTIONS AS VIRTUAL SHOWS

If it wasn’t for the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, right now, thousands of people would be waking up in their tents at Glastonbury’s 50th-anniversary festival. The sun would be shining, your head would be pounding from last night’s bonfire at the Stone Circle, and you wouldn’t be stuck inside your living room working from home.

But, you are! And so, this weekend, instead of moping about how sad you are, most Londoners were heading to the V&A’s website and would transport themselves to the festival with soundscapes, archive imagery, memories, and more.

The museum has been working on a Glastonbury archive with the Eavis family since 2014, and, in honor of this year’s canceled event, has launched a new online collection featuring some of the items it’s acquired over the years. These include archive posters and photos, details about the festival’s history, fashion and stage design, as well as immersive soundscapes taken at the 2014 event.

The V&A is also asking for festival-goers to add their own contribution, sharing their memories of Glastonbury’s gone by – this will be part of a bigger project mapping the festival’s history – and contributing to a playlist made up of the public’s favorite sets.

According to the V&A, the ever-growing archive currently includes posters, programs, designs, interviews, film, photographs, correspondence, t-shirts, and tickets, as well as personal accounts, maps, and press cuttings.

Speaking to The Guardian, V&A curator Kate Bailey said: “Generally each year we are acquiring new material. One couldn’t just create the Glastonbury festival right now. There is something special about the natural way in which it has developed from that moment from the first festival.”

Glastonbury’s Emily Eavis urged past attendees to share their memories with the museum. “The festival is witness to years of creative, social, and political change,” she said, “and your souvenirs are an integral part of this story.”

The French fashion designer Andre Courreges has attended the Glastonbury festival once in the early 80s.

The 50th anniversary of the iconic festival was supposed to take place this weekend before it was canceled due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

SUBMIT YOUR PERSONAL MEMORIES FOR V&A’S GLASTONBURY ONLINE ARCHIVE

"Stranger Than Kindness: The Nick Cave Show" is an unprecedented look into the artistic world of the artist, storyteller and cultural icon Nick Cave. With more than 300 items gathered or created by Nick Cave, put together in large-scale installations over six decades of his artistic and private life, the exhibition is a work of art in itself. Created in Copenhagen for The Black Diamond of The Royal Danish Library, and with Cave as co-curator and co-designer, the show is an unorthodox combination of history, memoir, and literature, asking what forms our lives and makes us who we are.

The work of Nick Cave encompasses a wide variety of media and modes of expression, with narrative forms at the heart. The exhibition invites visitors to follow the development of Cave as an artist – and gain insight into the overarching themes of his work, his working methods and the many inspirational sources that underpin it all. There is an equally interesting artistic process behind each piece, not initially intended for public viewing; the show opens up the innermost sections of Cave's imaginative world and provides a tale of its own. It shows how the life, music, archives and fictions of Nick Cave continue to interweave, educate and inspire one another.

Once I was approached by the Royal Danish Library with the idea of a "Nick Cave Show" I was hesitant to participate. Obviously I'm not sentimental and I didn't have time for a ride down Memory Lane. But the library team is obviously serious people with great infectious enthusiasm and they pulled me in! We created an exhibition that in its audacious scope feels unparalleled, its feet rooted in the past while stretching into the unknown future. We were able to put together an extraordinarily detailed exhibition which commented on the fragile and vulnerable nature of identity. I am incredibly proud to be part of the special unorthodox show -a  fractured past we've called Stranger Than Kindness. 

Considering their tendency to creative collaboration and stylistic fascination with the antique and the mysterious, Gucci's sponsorship makes perfect sense. It seems that Nick Cave is exactly the sort of artist in whom creative director Alessandro Michele seems to find a kindred spirit. An analysis of the connection between designed object and constructed narrative informs the show, an idea that strongly parallels Gucci's approach to their own brand. For Gucci, it is a generous way to help the creative scene they love, while smartly giving their name an even wider scope.

We were thinking of organizing several exhibitions based on the lives of either Hedi Slimane, Thierry Mugler, Andre Courreges or Rick Owens. We will keep you updated, stay tuned!

In celebration of the life and work of the musician.

STRANGER THAN KINDNESS: GUCCI SPONSORS NICK CAVE EXHIBITION

Following the cancellation of men's fashion week earlier this year due to the Coronavirus pandemic, regular scheduling is set to start again in September. Paris Fashion Week will return in September for the Spring/Summer 2021 women's shows, according to a statement issued by the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode. 

No other details have been released re the schedule or its participants but the shows shall take place between September 28th and October 6th. The statement of the Federation goes on to add that the event "will comply with the recommendations of public authorities for its implementation." The physical fashion week will run alongside a specially created online platform. 

The Coronavirus crisis has led brands to search for new and innovative ways of showing their fashion weeks collections. London staged an online-only event earlier this month, while Burberry has announced their plans for a show in the "British outdoors" in September. Also in September both Pitti Uomo and Milan Fashion Week are set to go ahead. 

Although New York hosted the first Fashion week, the event itself derives from "salon shows" ("défilés de mode" in French, literally "fashion parades") in couture salons in Paris. 

A fashion week consists of events showing collections of multiple designers. Before this event has been recognized in New York City, fashion showings were held in Paris as early as the 1700s. These early collections have been shown on mannequins only to customers purchasing products. Showings began to change during the 1800s. Charles Frederick Worth, noted for haute couture, started to show many pieces together with a higher style. Jeanne Paquin was the first designer to publicize her shows, and after her events, Paul Poiret was the first to host parties. 

In the mid-1800s, an Austrian princess and wife to the Paris Ambassador, Mme Pauline von Metternich, saw one of Worth's sketches and employed him to make her a gown. Through his powerful clients he gained much recognition and in 1858 he opened his own haute couture house in Paris which would sell luxury fashion to women of the upper class.

In September, we will be publishing footage from Rick Owens, Mugler, Courreges Parisian shows to name but a few. Stay tuned!

The womenswear shows will run from September 28 to October 6.

Chanel S. A. is a privately held company owned by Alain Wertheimer and Gérard Wertheimer, grandsons of Coco Chanel's early business partner Pierre Wertheimer.

Throughout World War II, Coco Chanel shut down her boutique at Maison Chanel — leaving only jewelry and perfumery for sale — and moved to the Hôtel Ritz Paris, where she lived with her partner, Hans Günther von Dincklage, a Nazi intelligence agent. After invading France in June 1940, the Nazis set up the Parisian occupation headquarters at the Hôtel Meurice, on Rue de la Rivoli, next to the Louvre Museum, and just around the corner from the trendy Maison Chanel S.A., at 31 rue Cambon. 

Meanwhile, in mid-1940, considering the official anti-Semitism of the Nazi occupation, Pierre Wertheimer, an early business partner of Coco Chanel,  and his family had fled France to the U.S. Later, in 1941, Coco Chanel attempted to take charge of Parfums Chanel's company but was blocked by an administrative committee that disallowed her sole disposition of the perfumery. Having foreseen the Nazi occupation policy of seizure and expropriation of Jewish business and assets in France by Germany, the majority partner, Pierre Wertheimer, had earlier, in May 1940, appointed Felix Amiot, a French Christian industrialist, as the "Aryan" proxy whose legal control of the business of Parfums Chanel proved politically acceptable to the Nazis, who then allowed the perfume enterprise to continue operating their business. 

Occupied France was full of rumors that Coco Chanel was a Nazi collaborator; her clandestine identity was Abwehr's secret agent 7124, codenamed "Westminster." As such, by order of the Sicherheitsdienst's General Walter Schellenberg, Chanel was sent to London on a mission to get in touch with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and discuss the details of a separate peace" which was a plan proposed by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, seeking to avoid surrendering Soviet Russians to the Red Army. 

By the conclusion of War, after France's Allied liberation, Chanel was arrested for collaborating with the Nazis. In September 1944, Chanel was summoned by the Free French Purge Committee, the épuration, for interrogation re her collaborationism, yet without documentary evidence or witnesses of her collaboration with the Nazis, and due to Churchill's secret intervention on her behalf, the épuration released Coco Chanel from arrest as a traitor to France. After being liberated by Churchill's political grace, the severity of Chanel's Nazi collaboration allegations made it difficult for her to live in France; so Coco Chanel and her German husband, Hans Günther von Dincklage, went to Switzerland for eight years in exile. 

In the post-war period, during the Swiss exile of Coco Chanel from France, Pierre Wertheimer returned to Paris and regained formal administrative control over the business holdings of his family — including control over Parfums Chanel, the perfumery established with his venture capital, and successful because of the name of Chanel. 

In Switzerland, the news aroused Coco Chanel's anger at having been exploited by her business partner, for only ten percent of the money. So, she set up a Swiss parfumerie to manufacture and sell her "Chanel perfumes." In addition, Wertheimer, Parfums Chanel's majority capital stock owner, saw his business interests threatened, and infringe on his commercial rights because he had no legally exclusive rights to the name of Chanel. Nevertheless, Wertheimer avoided a lawsuit against Coco Chanel for trademark infringement, lest it harms the business image and the creative integrity of his Chanel-brand perfumery. 

Wisely, Pierre Wertheimer settled his business- and commercial-rights quarrel with Chanel and, in May 1947, they renegotiated the 1924 contract establishing Parfums Chanel — she was paid $400,000 in cash (wartime profits from the No. 5 de Chanel perfume sales); assigned a 2.0 percent running royalty from the No. 5 perfumery sales; assigned limited commercial rights to sell her Chanel perfumes in Switzerland and granted a monthly regular fixed sum that paid all of her expenses. Gabrielle Chanel closed her Swiss perfumery business in exchange and sold to Parfums Chanel the full rights to the name "Coco Chanel."

Would you prefer to read the history of Maisons Mugler or Courreges creation next time? Or maybe both - please let us know?

In her youth, Gabrielle Chanel gained the nickname Coco from her time as a chanteuse.

Today Dior's Women's Artistic Director, Maria Grazia Chiuri, and the house's CEO, Pietro Beccari, revealed through a live conference that Dior's Cruise 2021 collection would be seen digitally on live models without an audience on July 22nd in Lecce, Italy. The move comes in response to the annulment of the originally planned show due to the Covid-19 pandemic on May 27th. 

Through explaining the reasons for the rescheduling and live models at Piazza del Duomo in Lecce in the Puglia area of Italy, Beccari opened the meeting. 

Luxury is emotions for Maria Grazia and I, and when it comes to fashion there's nothing that holds the emotion of a true fashion show, a live performance where art is performed without a safety net. 

Beccari went on to express how supporting fashion on a local and global scale is important for Dior's house. The Cruise collection focuses on the artisans who produce the clothes and accessories, as well as on the "gang" that showcases the collection, i.e. the production team, from models to photographers. "We think this opportunity will be auspicious for the future, a good incentive to continue with a certain optimism," Beccari explained. Beccari shared, moreover, that the collection allowed himself and Chiuri to pay homage to their Italian roots. "For both of us, support for our country is important, (as is) support for the Puglia region, which has been so badly hit by the crisis and on the brink of bankruptcy, but with a strong will to fight." 

Chiuri, whose father had come from Italy's Puglia region, went on to share: 

What was very important to me - to convey how much craftsmanship value there is in Puglia, and how important it is to invest in this especially for younger generations. We are a company that works with people all over the world, so many people depend on our work. It's a collective project involving many people and I found a great sense of sisterhood and brotherhood among those people who decided to work with me anyway despite all the difficulties and this general sense of unknowing and uncomprehending. 

– Maria Grazia Chiuri, Women's Creative Director at Dior 

While other design houses choose virtual experiences to take them off the calendar, Dior has adapted its standard resort show to capture the delicate balance between old and new. The town of Lecce serves as the ideal model for the series, as it shows the animation of modern life inside frameworks of the old world. The series is also inspired by tarot cards, which were used in the mid-15th century, as enjoyed by the founder Christian Dior himself, yet another way of looking back on history when moving forward. 

While speaking to the future shows of Dior, Beccari indicated that July's couture 2020 show will not be live, as for the plans of the house for the September Spring 2021 RTW series, "we hope to have some audience, if not a full room," Beccari said.

Rick Owens, Alexander Wang, Mugler, Courreges show are going to take place later this year. Stay tuned! We are going to keep you updated!

Dior Will Go Ahead With a Cruise Show in Puglia — Sans Audience.

DIOR’S CRUISE LIVE SHOW WILL BE HELD IN LECCE, CAPITALE DEL BAROCCO

Last week, Apple leaker Jon Prosser reported that the upcoming augmented reality glasses of the tech giant would support prescription lenses at various price points, but a new patent granted to Apple this week now suggests that due to its auto-adjustment technology, the device may not need prescription lenses at all. 

Last Tuesday, the US Patent and Trademark Office granted the patent for a "head-mounted display device for retaining the portable electronic device with display." Although patents for a device had been filed numerous times before, the latest filing focused on the ability of its lenses to adjust automatically according to the user's eyesight. "The optical subassembly consists of at least one dynamic optical component and where the processor is setup to adjust the dynamic optical component based on the prescription information," the patent read. "For instance , if a user is myopic in one eye, the optical module associated with that eye may modify the displayed image to correct the myopia of the user," it continues explaining. “The system can determine the correction required for each eye, if any, using any suitable approach. For example, the user can enter a prescription for glasses or contact lenses which indicates the correction needed."

Of course, the device is still in its patent stage, and so far everything related to the Apple Glass has been just rumors, as the tech giant has yet to announce their intentions for introducing AR glasses, so brand fans should certainly stay tuned for more updates to come.

Jon Prosser suggested that Apple would call the smart glasses "Apple Glass". That would be an unusual choice of name given the similarity to Google Glass, a product that existed long before the start of Apple's work on AR glasses. 

It is said that the glasses will look identical to normal glasses, with both lenses to feature displays that may communicate with gestures. There will be an opportunity to get the glasses at a potential starting price of $499 with no prescription lenses. 

Ming-Chi Kuo, a well-respected Apple analyst, expects the AR glasses to be marketed as an iPhone accessory and will primarily take a display role in offloading computing, networking and iPhone positioning. Apple will sell the AR glasses as an accessory to keep them sleek and lightweight. Prosser claims the glasses will look identical to those of Ray-Ban Wayfarers or the glasses Tim Cook wears.

A report from DigiTimes suggests Apple's AR glasses will be launched in 2021, and Ming-Chi Kuo expects a 2022 launch at the earliest. Leaker Jon Prosser claims that in March or June 2021, Apple will announce its product, which may mean that the glasses will be shown in 2021 and released later in 2022. Hoping to see fully digital 3D Rick Owens, Mugler and Courreges shows by that time through Apple glasses, as if you are inside the Palais de Tokyo or by the Canal Saint-Martin.

Doing away with the need of prescription lenses.

NEW PATENT GRANTED TO APPLE: AUTO-ADJUSTING LENSES FOR AR GLASSES

YouTuber Funk Turkey produced a new fake Nirvana song with A.I. programming. This is the latest Turkey's endeavor after a flurry of other mock tracks mimicking the likes of AC/DC, Metallica and Nickelback, to name a few. 

The song is called "Smother," a three-minute concoction of Nirvana-esque tropes that tries to mirror the distinctive personality of the legendary band. Turkey notes in the description of the video, "using lyrics.rip to scrape the Genius Lyrics Database, I made a Markov Chain write Nirvana lyrics." Generating lines like "I could eat your heart-shaped box for food" and "You never lost control," lyrics reappropriate familiar keywords from some of Nirvana 's greatest hits. 

Next, Turkey used "cheap" equipment to mix the music and vocals to resemble that scratchy Seattle grunge sound of the 1990s. "All the music/vocals I recorded, mixed, and mastered in my kitchen, on a sparkly red cheap Stratocaster, a lousy mic and an old copy of ProTools," the YouTuber explained. "The vocals are doubled, compressed slightly and run through an emulated reel-to-reel and tube saturation for a bit of extra warmth and grit."

"All lyrics provided by Hal 9000 (AKA lyrics.rip). Guitars are the aforementioned Stratocaster bounced hard left and right. Flanged Stratocaster through a Fender twin is dead center in the mix. Bass is a no-name bass run through amp emulation. Percussion is Superior Drummer 2. I know Dave Grohl hates computer drums but it's the best thing I got, so sorry Dave. I still love you."

Kurt Cobain was an American singer-songwriter and musician, best known as the Nirvana rock band's frontman. Through his fear-fuelled songwriting and anti-establishment persona, he was often heralded as Generation X's spokesperson. Cobain's compositions broadened the mainstream rock music thematic conventions. 

Born in Aberdeen, Washington, in 1987 Cobain formed the Nirvana band with Krist Novoselic and Aaron Burckhard and established it as part of the music scene in Seattle which later became known as grunge. Nirvana has achieved worldwide success with "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from their critically acclaimed second album Nevermind (1991), having signed with major label DGC Records. While Cobain was hailed as Generation X's voice following the sudden success of Nirvana, he resented this, feeling that the public had misinterpreted his message and creative vision. Significant works of Nirvana written by Cobain include "Come as You Are," "Lithium," "Polly," "Something in the Way," "All Apologies" and "Heart-shaped Box" to name a few.

Cobain has struggled with heroin addiction and chronic health problems such as depression during the last years of his life. He also suffered from the personal and professional pressure of fame including tabloid attention to his 1992 marriage to Courtney Love. Cobain has been found dead at his home in Seattle at the age of 27 on April 8, 1994; police concluded that he had died on April 5 from a self-inflicted shotgun wound. 

During their first year of eligibility during 2014, Cobain was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame alongside Nirvana's bandmates Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl. Rolling Stone included Cobain in their lists of the 100 Greatest All Time Songwriters, 100 Greatest Guitarists and 100 Greatest All Time Singers.

With the help of AI in the future, will we be able to create Rick Owens, Boris Bidjan Saberi, Mugler and Courreges collections by ourselves? Will they be as good? What do you think? Share your ideas with us!

YOUTUBER CREATED FAKE NIRVANA SONG WITH AI

Archive

Tags