Harmony Korine directs new wonDiorland film

Dior has teamed up with director Harmony Korine for a new short film for its Dior Addict fragrance.

The Alice in Wonderland-inspired spot features model Sasha Luss stepping through a mirror and into a luscious world of flora and fauna offset only by the heavy beat of Die Antwoord’s track, Enter the Ninja.

The film ties to a wider campaign referred to as wonDiorland, which includes a dedicated Facebook page filled with additional content, and a mobile activation referred to as a “sensorial experience”. That experience invites the user to connect their smartphones and desktops by entering a four digit pin on the latter – from there they can explore the content by touch, swiping through a variety of additional footage, insight on the inspiration and behind-the-scenes information.

The experience is designed to reflect the mirror Luss is seen stepping through, the page reacting as though pulsating to the user’s touch and activating dream-like pieces of content on the larger screen.

Korine was last seen in the fashion world directing somewhat of a controversial spot for Proenza Schouler.

Goddesses of beauty, charm and joy inspire Dior’s third Secret Garden film

Dior released its third Secret Garden film on Friday, garnering over two million views over the weekend alone.

Directed by Inez Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin and styled by Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele, it features Daria Strokous, Fei Fei Sun and Katlin Aas running through Versailles to Dépêche Mode’s track, Strange Love.

The trio of models are said to evoke The Three Graces – goddesses of antiquity embodying beauty, charm and joy, who inspired masterpieces by Raphael and Botticelli, says Dior. In line with this theme, the brand has proclaimed that this film showcases “the three faces of the Dior woman”.

Russian model Strokous enjoys the most exposure throughout the one-minute clip. She is shown walking down a corridor inside the palace, her clothes from the brand’s pre-fall 2014 collection changing as she walks. Later she is seen taking a hidden passageway and running through the gardens. At times she is pictured running away from her co-stars, while at others we see her running towards them.

As the camera cuts from close-ups of Strokous to Aas or Sun, as well as washed out flashes of them all together, the trio are pictured wearing a number of dresses in the same cut and print (see stills below). This leaves the viewer wondering whether Sun and Aas are figments of Strokous’ imagination or rather parts of her personality – or could all three women just be ghosts that are floating through the “elegant and dreamlike” Versailles grounds?

The film ends on a pose reminiscent of those ancient goddesses, and yes, it’s as enchanting and on-brand as the past two Secret Garden chapters before it.

See it below…

By Anna Abrell

Digital snippets: Fabergé, Dior, Gucci, Marc by Marc Jacobs, H&M, J.Crew and Kate Spade

A round-up of the latest stories to know about surrounding all things fashion and tech:

 

• Fabergé’s NYC Easter egg hunt marks the largest Beacon deployment ever in the US [Fashionista]

• Dior explores global flower sourcing with interactive map [Luxury Daily]

• James Franco directs video for Gucci (as above) [WWD]

• Marc by Marc Jacobs line crowdsources models with #castmemarc campaign on social [Vogue.co.uk]

• YouTube fashion viral: Miranda Kerr is selfie obsessed in H&M’s spring 2014 campaign [Fashionotes]

• J.Crew and Kate Spade to foster the next big fashion tech start-ups through new accelerator program [Co.Design]

• IMG Fashion’s partnership with Tencent aims to boost Fashion Week China exposure  [JingDaily] bit.ly/1ltgJFZ

• Fashion in the age of Instagram [NY Times]

• How iBeacon and similar technology will change retail [eMarketer]

• Five examples of how marketers are using iBeacons [Econsultancy]

• ‘Showrooming’ hits luxury fashion – lack of e-commerce presence means clients buying elsewhere online [WSJ]

• Luxury brands are stupid to snub the internet [BusinessWeek]

• Decoded Fashion founder: ‘Designers need to launch like start-ups’ [The Guardian]

• New app, Think Dirty, tracks the nasty chemicals in the beauty products you put on your face [Co.Exist]

• The camera-wielding boyfriends behind fashion’s most famous bloggers [Fashionista]

• How LiketoKnow.it is changing Instagram by monetising your photos [Pinetop Group]

• Op-ed: The companies with the best software will lead fashion [BoF]

2013: a designer meets digital year in review

What a busy year it’s been…

From 3D printing taking its first trip down the New York Fashion Week catwalk, to the launch of Vine and Instagram videos, not to mention the continuing debate about the role of bloggers as influencers, the increased focus on the potential market size of wearables, and Oxford Dictionaries’ word of the year as ‘selfie’, one thing after another has rapidly impacted the role of innovation in this niche fashion x digital space.

Below then, are 10 of the posts you loved the most on F&M this year. It’s an interesting collection, nodding to familiar ideas like storytelling and crowdsourcing, as well as higher quality content, and a general reassessment of what it is that actually works in this space. Video content does of course also have its place, as does the continuing power of celebrity.

Thank you for reading and see you in 2014!

• Why and how fashion brands should be on Vine: Meagan Cignoli creative interview

• Press may have pushed “tech” angle of new H&M store, but less than a week since launch, nothing seems to be working

• Literal window shopping with Kate Spade Saturday’s digital, touchscreen storefronts

• Latest Topshop innovation will see #LFW content shared via sound

• Robert Pattinson’s Dior Homme film storms in 24-hours, #diorrob hashtag takes off

• Net-a-Porter calls for shopper content with #TheNETSet social campaign

• Burberry and Google bring emotion to digital with virtual kissing campaign

• Dolce & Gabbana: #MFW’s social media winner

• All the interactive elements accompanying John Lewis’ #bearandhare Christmas ad

• Live streaming fashion week: is it worth the cost?

• And a bonus post as a thought-starter for the New Year: An inspirational note, fashion needs to take risk

Dior leverages Robert Pattinson campaign with additional video content

Dior has released another series of short videos revealing extended scenes from its Dior Homme fragrance film starring Robert Pattinson, which originally launched on September 1.

Six 30-45 second spots have aired in the past week, including The Pool, The Piano, The Elevator, The Bedroom, The Beach and The Ball (as below).

They’ve each received anywhere from 8,000 to 18,000 hits to date, joining the nearly 15 million on the full film’s uncensored official director’s cut.

Robert Pattinson’s Dior Homme film storms in 24-hours, #diorrob hashtag takes off

Dior Homme’s new film starring Robert Pattinson has already received a total of 2.2 million views on YouTube in the 24-hours since it launched.

The black and white campaign, directed by Romain Gavras and for the brand’s fragrance of the same name, includes a 60-second spot with a million views, and an uncensored director’s cut version at one-minute-and-46-seconds with over 1.2 million views.

The release was a much-anticipated one, as evidenced from the social mentions using #diorrob. It also stars model Camille Rowe and Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” soundtrack.

See the uncensored version below, as well as a behind-the-scenes video and interview with Pattinson.

 

 

 

An outdoor ad has also gone up in Place des Vosges in Paris:

Dior returns to Versailles with second Secret Garden film

 

Dior has released its second Secret Garden of Versailles film, once again shot by Inez Van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin and already well on its way to viral success.

Less than 24-hours since release, and the 60-second spot from creative director Raf Simons has over 3.5 million views on YouTube. That follows hot on the heels of the first film’s 24 million views to-date for both its short and long formats combined.

The latest one sees model Daria Strokous moving from the marble hallways of the grounds’ Grand Trianon into its accompanying parkland where a bevy of other “flower women” are waiting to join her. The result is an altogether more sinister, yet equally ethereal piece of creative to last season – silhouettes among centuries-old trees, autumnal picnics surrounded by layers of heavy mist and a doubtless sense of surrealism in an enchanted forest befitting the Secret Garden title.

“Versailles hums with well-kept secrets,” reads the write-up, referencing the idea of “an extraordinary world of poetry and colour” and inspiration pooled from Marie Antoinette on the one hand and Edouard Manet’s 1863 painting “Le Déjeuner sur l’Herbe” on the other.

The fashion house’s autumn 2013 collection is front and centre, as is its Diorissimo handbag in a variety of colours seen tightly embraced by Strokous. Best of all, however, Depeche Mode provides the soundtrack again, this time with Behind the Wheel from 1987.

Below are some of the shots from its print campaign:

Digital snippets: Louis Vuitton, Victoria Beckham, Dior, Shazam, Amazon

Some more great stories from around the web surrounding all things fashion and digital over the past week:

 

• Louis Vuitton promotes “prostitution chic” in controversial short film (as above) [BrandChannel]

• Victoria Beckham enters e-commerce [Vogue.co.uk]

• Dior parades exclusive lip colours via one-day Twitter activation [Luxury Daily]

• Shazam creates fashion ID app [Telegraph Fashion]

• Amazon’s confused foray into fashion tries to please too many women [Pando Daily]

• Stefano Gabbana’s Twitter tirade after tax evasion ruling on sale of D&G [Daily Telegraph]

• Mira Duma: finger on the trigger of social media [South China Morning Post]

• Augmented reality, intelligent mapping: fashion and tech collide in China [JingDaily]

• That’s So 2012: have Pinterest, Foursquare and Groupon peaked? [Inc]

Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence features in making-of Miss Dior handbag ad

 

In case you hadn’t heard enough about Jennifer Lawrence this week (be sure to watch this and this by the way), here now is a video from the behind-the-scenes of her debut Miss Dior handbag ad.

Shot by Willy Vanderperre, it shows the new Oscar-winning actress posing for the spring/summer 2013 stills shots, all the while speaking over the top about her love of Dior and the timelessness of the bags in question.

“Dior represents beauty and strength in women and that’s how I feel when I’m wearing his clothes, they just make you feel so confident,” she says.

Kudos to Dior for adding her to their Academy Award-winning line-up: Marion Cotillard, Charlize Theron and Natalie Portman included.

On that note, Portman’s latest Miss Dior fragrance film, directed by Sofia Coppola, is also just out. “La vie en rose”, as it’s called, is a beautiful spot, and well worth the watch…

Infographic: #Oscars best-dressed according to Twitter sentiment

There’s nothing quite like the live commentary you get over Twitter when the #Oscars takes place, as everyone and anyone has some sort of say on the looks hitting the red carpet.

Fortunately then, there’s an infographic just landed (as below) from social media monitoring service, Sysomos, that sums up the sentiment of the evening when it came to the fashion.

Over 400,000 tweets were posted during the live arrivals of the Hollywood crowd, with Silver Linings Playbook stars Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper winning the titles of best dressed female and male for their respective Christian Dior Couture and Tom Ford looks at these 85th Academy Awards.

Lawrence, who went on to win best actress for her role (tripping up the stairs as she did so, which was instantly made a GIF of course), is also highlighted as the viewers’ favourite from the night with over 32,000 tweets. Anne Hathaway, who was wearing Prada, was labelled worst dressed by the tweeting public, despite stealing the number one spot on Vogue.com’s list.

The infographic also highlights US fashion brands deemed particularly “good at social media” (outside of the Oscars) by Sysomos, including Kate Spade, Tory Burch, Rachel Zoe, DKNY and Oscar de la Renta.

When it came to the big designers from tonight’s awards, however, there’s no doubt that winners lay in Dior, as already mentioned, but also worn beautifully by Charlize Theron, as well as Armani Privé who dressed best actress nominees Jessica Chastain and Naomi Watts. Nine-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis also wore Giorgio Armani.

Versace was another noteworthy label worn by Halle Berry as well as Jane Fonda, who presented on stage with Michael Douglas. But it was perhaps Naeem Khan who truly stole the night, not for the stunning AW13 column dress seen on Stacy Keibler, but for that of First Lady Michelle Obama, who was the suprise presenter of the best picture award live from the White House.