Brands are redoubling their efforts to divert and entertain people living in quarantine all across the planet with activities designed to stimulate their creativity
Additional reporting by Andrea Saadan
Competitions, challenges, performances and line art to colour are just some of the pastimes that have been dreamed up to keep internet users busy while preserving a connection with the worlds of couture and ready-to-wear.
Now more than ever before it’s important to feel a sense of belonging and Salvatore Ferragamo believes that storytelling is a way to survive isolation. The Italian fashion house has launched Trivia, a digital project aimed at sharing the message to never give up, transcending physical barriers to tell stories through social channels, Instagram and Facebook. Fans of the luxury brand can rediscover its history in a new narrative form—a game. Look out for quizzes and anecdotes as well as iconic products and the most significant moments from founder Salvatore Ferragamo's life.
(Related: Calista Cuaca, Mae Tan and Friends Dance in Ferragamo's New Viva Shoes)
Prada has debuted a series of digital talks exploring culture, fashion and life via Instagram. Prada Possible Conversations is a series of live dialogues between thinkers, cultural arbiters and fashion figures across the world, bringing together individuals and thoughts, said the luxury fashion house in a press statement on April 10.
Like-minded personalities and creatives from five key and intersecting spheres of culture, comprising fashion, art, architecture, cinema and thought, will come together to touch on topics such as philosophy and psychology to literature. The first Prada Possible Conversation will take place live this evening at 6pm CET, between Pamela Golbin, author, curator and Artistic Director of Jacquard x Google Arts & Culture Residency, and Alexander Fury, fashion features director of AnOther Magazine and Men’s Critic of the Financial Times. Discussing the topic ‘Fashion in Times of Crises’, their dialogue will be broadcast via Prada’s Instagram.
Prada will also make a donation to Unesco with every Prada Possible Conversation as a way of showing their support for the organisation's initiatives across the globe and displaying the vital exchange between fashion and society.
As most of the world's population are invited to #stayhome, Loewe creative director Jonathan Anderson has created the concept Loewe En Casa. The new Instagram project, which is open in format and in content, unfolds as a series of online events, talks and workshops. It celebrates craft, innovation and artistic expression exploring the words and the work of collaborators involved in the Loewe cultural projects and the finalists of the Loewe Craft Prize. Along with fans, the Spanish brand will explore subjects such as metalwork, weaving, ikebana, goldsmith and ceramics to furniture-making, woodcraft, metalsmith and textile making. Other segments of the project include studio tours, craft demonstrations and Q&A sessions.
(Related: Meet the Singaporean Artist Shortlisted For The 2018 Loewe Craft Prize)
The Karl Lagerfeld label has announced the launch of "Together With Team Karl," an initiative involving the posting of content, and in particular Instagram Stories content, on the ready-to-wear label's @karllagerfeld account. All of the posts are proposed by long-standing associates of the brand, such as Karl Lagerfeld's former personal assistant and men's fashion ambassador Sébastien Jondeau, who is offering a home workout course, or design director Hun Kim's drawing course. Yoga sessions and live performances are also planned.
(Related: A Look Back At Karl Lagerfeld's Most Memorable Collaborations)
Under the leadership of its artistic director Olivier Rousteing, Balmain aims to give something back to its loyal public with the #BalmainEnsemble initiative. The luxury house is not only offering a look back at some of the most striking collections in its archives, there are also colouring sketches, weekly challenges and creative activities with members of the Balmain Army.
French luxury kids' clothing label Bonpoint has unsurprisingly aimed its lockdown entertainment initiative at infants and young children, inviting them to create their version of the brand's cherry logo. Once a week entries will be judged by a panel and winning designs will be printed on limited-edition T-shirts. All profits will be donated to the AP-HP Paris university hospital trust. To participate, simply post a drawing on the brand's Instagram with the child's first name, age and the hashtag #DrawaCherry.
(Related: From Gucci To Balenciaga: 15 Designer Kids' Collections For Your Mini-Me)
Kenzo and its creative director Felipe Oliveira Baptista have embarked on a drive to counter loneliness caused by the lockdown. The label's Instagram will be used to relay additional content and host live events with friends of the Kenzo community. Mondays will be devoted to music with specially created playlists, tutorial sessions are scheduled for Wednesdays, and there will be live concerts on Fridays.
The Italian fashion house has launched Bottega Residency, a new online platform that offers weekly live music performances, cooking shows and movies nights. Creative director Daniel Lee said in an interview with i-D, "Creativity and strength lie at the heart of Bottega Veneta. In this highly distressing time, we feel a responsibility to celebrate those values and ignite a sense of joy and hope in our community and beyond.” In fact, Lee was the first contributor when the initiative launched on March 24. He introduced three people who have inspired him: artist David Hockney, director Steven Spielberg and choreographer Maurice Bejart. Lee told Vogue magazine that future curators include some of the brand's closest collaborators and "some newer, younger artists, and some unexpected things".
The Fondation will be hosting 3 #FLVfromhome digital programs: digital exhibition tours on Wednesdays, a classical music concert on Fridays and a performance by the laureates of Classe d’Excellence de Vionloncelle, directed by Gautier Capuçon on Sundays. Look out for new content that will be uploaded to the Fondation’s Facebook page and YouTube channel.
And as many kids begin home-based learning this week, the Fondation also offers a selection of family activities and games echoing the exhibitions and the Collection displays, that can be easily recreated at home. This week, kids can animate the Fondation’s building through colouring a template and using the Blink Book application to bring the building to life. The animated drawing of the Fondation’s building is available for download from the website.
Artistic director of Celine, Hedi Slimane, has curated a selection of feature films on subscription-based streaming service Mubi. Featuring the hallmarks of Hollywood to cult classics and more, the content will be available on Mubi for 30 days, for free. Slimane has selected 10 feature films including Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979), Charade (Stanley Donen, 1963) Laurence Anyways (Xavier Dolan, 2012) and more, though they vary in each country. The collection will be available to watch from today until May 31, 2020.
Menswear e-tailer Mr Porter has released a new series of The Mr Porter Podcast, The Details. The new series, which started on May 1, focuses on the "little things that matter in the male wardrobe", and explores the history of garment fastenings such as zips and buttons, as well as stitching, pleats, collars and labels to tell a story about the evolution of contemporary menswear.
The Details will be held over the course of six 30-minute episodes, and listeners can look forward to travelling from the cutting rooms of London’s Savile Row to a factory floor in Nara, Japan, with stop-offs in New York, Paris, Naples and beyond with host Adam Welch, writer and Mr Porter Contributing Editor. Professor Andrew Groves of London’s University of Westminster will be on hand to provide a historical backbone as the series brings together interviews with collectors, enthusiasts, craftsmen and some of the most detail-obsessed names in contemporary fashion.
Interviewees for this season include some of the biggest movers and shakers within the fashion industry such as Margaret Howell, Thom Browne, Emily Bode, Olivier Rousteing, Luca Rubinacci, Messrs Michael Amzalag and Mathias Augustyniak of M/M Paris and Ian Bergin of Barbour and Gaku Tsuyoshi of FDMTL.
