Rêver2074: French luxury dreams of the future

A curiously abstract future has been germinating among French luxury brands and institutions of Comité Colbert through a series of cryptic social media posts. It is “a utopia created by french luxury” called “Dreaming 2074”, culminating in a collection of science-fiction short stories, new vocabulary and music, which can be downloaded at www.dreaming2074.com

To back up a few steps, Comité Colbert, founded in 1954 by Jean-Jacques Guerlain, is an organization made up of 78 luxury houses and 14 cultural institutions in France to promote the concept of French luxury. Brands such as Cartier, Mellerio dits Meller, Veuve Clicquot, Lanvin, Givenchy, Guerlain and the Louvre (just to name a few) were part of this collaboration. The essence of the collective project “Rêver2074” (Dream2074) is designed to share, preserve and celebrate 60 years of French luxury and heritage… and live into and lead an inspiring future.

 

Curious Luxuries of The International Fine Art & Antiques Show

This evening was a wonderfully pleasurable one, surrounded by an array of beautiful and curious objects at The International Fine Art & Antiques Show at the Park Avenue Armory. What made it even more extraordinary was a tour through a selection of the exceptional exhibitors, hosted by Natalie Bos of Jewels du Jour and an engaging talk by esteemed historian and jewelry curator Clive Kandel. The evening culminated at the Hancocks space, where these amazing jewels were discovered! The show is up through the Thursday, October 23rd, if you are curious…

Treasures of La Biennale Paris 2014!

For the next 10 days, the Place Vendôme is host to arguably the most important event in the jewelry calendar: La Biennale Paris. While this curious mind remains stateside, the next best way to celebrate the beauty of such exquisite pieces is to curate a series of jewels that we admire. Each day from September 11 – 21, we will present a selection here, as well as on twitter @BeautifulCurio and Instagram @BeautifulCurious… stay tuned!

The ever lovely Maria Doulton, The Jewellery Editor, did journey to Paris for the occasion and her exclusive peek of Biennale treasures can be discovered below.

 

 

 

Image Is Everything

It is no surprise that in luxury, image is everything. Recent dialog between Franck Jehanne and Claire Adler of The Kalory Agency regarding this and the importance of luxury brands embracing social media was recently captured in the video below. One of the key points raised is the tremendous benefit of luxury brands creating and sharing beautifully executed visual content on various media channels – particularly if it is a special event or a capturing “behind the scenes” storytelling. Above is example of such work The Kalory Agency is producing for luxury brands the likes of Mikimoto, Cartier, Jaeger-Lecoultre, and Vacheron Constantin. Luxury consumers and bloggers alike are enthusiastic to tag and post polished imagery, particularly if it is higher quality than what they themselves can achieve.

Currently there are several luxury brands who are setting the gold standard by consistently publishing solid visual content: Burberry, Van Cleef & Arpels, Louis Vuitton, and Prada among them.

Without further adieu, below is the video commentary:

…

photographs & video © by The Kalory Agency

InstaGLAM Photo Shoot

When 2 very good things conspire – Instagram and Nick Knight – magical things happen. Sprinkle in a flash of Cartier here, a little Katrantzou there, along with a tender fluffy friend for good measure and Nick Knight’s first ever Instagram photo shoot materializes. The refreshing abandon of careful retouching in exchange for clever web tools results in what is a true “live shoot”: all images were posted directly from camera onto Tumblr accompanied by Tweeted commentary from fashion director Alexander Fury. Hello innovation sensation!

www.showstudio.com/projects/tag/interactive

Beautiful Decay

Beauty knows no boundary, nor does Peter Lippmann when he pairs fiercely stunning jewels with fruit rich in the velvety grips of decay. Immediately this editorial from September 2011 for Marie Claire France titled “Vanites” brings to mind the lushious, rotting fruit painted by Caravaggio. He might even be in awe of the irony here, as the jems from Van Cleef & Arpels, Cartier, and Dior Joailerie (among many others) burst forth out of the withering fruit. Curiously, their splendor is nearly eclipsed by the beauty of the languishing grapes… and is strangely inspiring.

L’Odyssée de Cartier

Spanning 165 stunning years of glamour and luxury, words fail to express what should be seen in motion without further adieu:

http://www.odyssee.cartier.us/#/film

Be Dazzled

Unless you’ve been under a rock (or maybe that rock sparkled so much that it left you permanently blind), you know the dazzling work of Laziz Hamani. He is trusted by the likes of Harry Winston, Chanel, Cartier, Swarovski and Dior to photograph their precious treasures with his special brand of curiosity and gift for capturing the beauty of beautiful objects. Above you see the memorable Harry Winston ad campaign followed by a delightful collage world of illustrated animals, insects and yes, more sparkling objects. His work is so worthy of exploring that I kindly suggest to begin here:

www.llreps.com/#/section=artists&type=photographers&artist=LAZIZ%20HAMANI&media=77