Luxury Society’s selection of news articles that are not to be missed this week.
What We’ve Read: Chanel Marks its 30th Anniversary in Watchmaking, and Hermès Revamps its Website
Over the last decade, collaborations between luxury brands and contemporary artists have gone beyond mere artistic partnerships towards a new kind of luxury branding.
PARIS – Art and fashion have always developed side by side, for fashion, like art, often gives visual expression to the cultural zeitgeist. During the 1920s, Salvador Dalí created dresses for Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiapparelli. In the 1930s, Ferragamo’s shoes commissioned designs for advertisements from Futurist painter Lucio Venna, while Gianni Versace commissioned works from artists such as Alighiero Boetti and Roy Lichtenstein for the launch of his collections. Yves Saint Laurent’s vast art collection, recently auctioned at Christie’s in Paris, testified to his great love of art and revealed the influence of a variety of artists on his own designs.
In the 1980s, relationships between luxury brands and artists were advanced when Alain Dominique Perrin created the Fondation Cartier. In the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, a book marking the foundation’s 20th anniversary, Perrin says he makes “a connection between all the different sorts of arts, and luxury goods are a kind of art. Luxury goods are handicrafts of art, applied art.”
The Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemparain building in Paris
Luxury Society’s selection of news articles that are not to be missed this week.
1. The Swiss Watch Industry Shows Positive Signs In 2017 Year-End Data
Our in-depth look at the stories behind the numbers.
Read this on Hodinkee.
2. Chanel Celebrates Over 30 Years of Watchmaking Where Technique Is At The Service Of Beauty
Haute couture house Chanel has just celebrated its 30th anniversary in watchmaking with a complete offer demonstrating its main guiding principle: technique at the service of beauty.
Read this on Forbes.
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3. Hermès Seeks Growth by Outfitting Luxury Lifestyles From Afar
After last year’s luxury boom, Hermès International wants to maintain the momentum with a revamped website that lets well-heeled shoppers buy everything from $600 silk scarves to $6,000 jumping saddles without leaving the Jackson Hole ranch.
Read this on Bloomberg.
4. China’s E-commerce Giant JD.com to Take On Amazon in Europe
The company’s first European AI research centre to be in Cambridge, UK.
Read this on Financial Times.
5. Asian Upscale Travelers Are Creating a Luxury Tipping Point
One need not read seminal studies to see how Asian luxury travelers are growing in numbers and are increasingly impossible to pigeonhole as generic "upmarket" tourists.
Read this on Skift.
Cover image credit: Chanel. Image: Première Chanel watch designed in 1987.
Writer, Luxury Society
Before joining the editorial team at Luxury Society, Camille worked with a South African magazine, The Month, as well as a Swiss digital publication, Luxuria Lifestyle. She then went on to join the team at a leading business publication in Geneva, Bilan Magazine.