Balenciaga launches a soccer-inspired collection, Luna Luna extends its stay in Los Angeles, Prada reveals its new beauty collection and Barbie celebrates women in film.
Balenciaga releases a soccer-inspired limited collection
Balenciaga released a limited series of soccer-inspired, ready-to-wear items and accessories in advance of this summer’s UEFA European Football Championship. The collection includes wool scarves, brimmed caps, short and long-sleeved jerseys, tracksuits, sweatpants, poplin jackets, zip-up hoodies and socks with logos in the style of the uniforms worn by teams during gameplay and drills, as well as fan paraphernalia.
In place of the usual players’ names, the exclusive collection of products features the name of the city or neighborhood in which it is available: Aoyama, Barcelona, Beverly Hills, Dubai, Ipanema, Mayfair, Miami, Milan, Paris, Seoul, Shanghai, Soho and Tokyo. Some of the pieces also feature the number 10 in place of the players’ numbers, in reference to Balenciaga’s historic address in Paris at 10 Ave. George V.
The Soccer Series is available now in select Balenciaga stores worldwide and on balenciaga.com.
Costume designer Christy Cham’s namesake brand is one to watch
Costume designer Christy Cham, whose film credits include “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Peter Pan & Wendy” and Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune,” quietly launched her eponymous clothing line, Cham, in June 2023. One of the youngest designers ever accepted into the Costume Guild, Cham began her career under the legendary Jacqueline West’s guidance. It was while working on “Dune” that she first came across a stretchy, matte, deadstock fabric that she fell in love with, and it ultimately provided the inspiration for her brand.
“As a costume designer, the simplest things were often the hardest to get just right,” she told TheWrap. “There were so many times that my team and I were shopping around for really simple basics, the pieces that are the building blocks of any character’s style, but it was so hard to find something that reliably flattered and fit everybody.”
After two years of testing samples from factories around the world, Cham found a production partner in the South of France who was able to reproduce her dream fabric: a blend of polyamide and elastane with an airy and paper-thin effect that hugs the body while feeling like you’re wearing nothing at all. “It’s really all about the core elements of design: fabric, fit, silhouette,” she explained.
Her collection of 12 essential wardrobe staples, in a range of core colors and limited edition seasonal shades, is all constructed from this proprietary fabric and has already found an A-list fan base that includes Kendall Jenner, Jaime King, Sydney Chandler, Ashley Benson and celebrity stylist Mimi Cuttrell. The brand was recently picked up by Los Angeles-based retailer Elyse Walker and has some exciting partnerships planned for 2024. Watch this space.
Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy extends its stay downtown
Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy, the fantastical fairground conceived by Austrian artist André Heller and featuring attractions created by artists like Salvador Dalí, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, David Hockney and Roy Lichtenstein, has extended its stay in L.A. through the end of March.
The amusement park, which first debuted in Hamburg, Germany, in the summer of 1987, was locked away in storage for more than three decades until it was acquired by rapper Drake’s entertainment company DreamCrew in 2022. Nineteen of the original works have now been restored and carefully reconstructed in a warehouse in the Arts District.
The interactive exhibition includes a carousel made by Haring, a Basquiat Ferris wheel, a Dalí mirrored geodesic dome and a Lichtenstein designed glass labyrinth.
The Luna Luna Shop, meanwhile, offers a curated selection of both new and archival items including posters, merchandise and ephemera from the original 1987 Luna Luna, designed by artists including Haring, Hockney and Scharf.
Mattel unveils the Barbie 2024 Career of the Year
Following the smashing success of Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and the filmmaker’s recent accomplishments as the first female director with a billion-dollar movie and first U.S. female director to lead the Cannes Film Festival jury, Mattel launched “Women in Film” Barbie dolls as part of its Career of the Year collection.
Created to spotlight the unlimited possibilities available to young girls in entertainment, the 2024 Barbie set includes four dolls: one a studio executive, another a director, another a cinematographer and another a movie star.
The studio executive comes outfitted in a blue blazer, leather skirt and black heels, and is equipped with yellow sunglasses and a smartphone. The director is dressed in a denim jumpsuit and coral sneakers, with a viewfinder around her neck, yellow headset and script in hand. The cinematographer sports a purple “Chase Dreams” T-shirt, black leopard printed pants and white sneakers while carrying a clipboard and camera. And the movie star naturally steals the show holding an acting trophy while wearing a sequin floor-length gown with a beaded silver necklace.
The new Women in Film dolls join a collection of more than 250 Barbie career dolls. The 2023 Women in Sports Barbie collection featured a general manager, coach, referee and sports reporter.
Prada reenters the beauty market with skincare and makeup lines
After previously launching a skincare line in 2000 that was discontinued shortly after, Prada Beauty is back. On Monday, the Italian luxury brand unveiled their Prada Skin and Prada Color collections, which are described as “a free-thinking, avant-garde vision of beauty activated by tech and creativity.”
The skincare offering, formulated with proprietary Adapto.gn Smart Technology, includes a gel-to-balm day and night cream, a face and eye serum, a two-in-one toner and micro-peel essence and a cream-to-foam cleanser and makeup remover.
The color collection, meanwhile, features foundation in 33 shades, two matte lipsticks in 37 shades, six eyeshadow palettes and tools including brass-handled brushes and blending sponges bearing the Prada logo.
Across both categories, skin-conscious and potent formulas are encased in minimal yet sophisticated packaging that is unmistakably Prada. The products’ ability to be refilled and reused is a key pillar to their design, presenting a Prada Beauty experience that brings together codes of luxury, functionality and responsibility in its intention and execution.
Back in July, Prada appointed two official brand talents, global creative makeup artist Lynsey Alexander and global creative e-makeup artist Ines Alpha, to shepherd the launch.
Prada Skin is available online at the new, dedicated prada-beauty.com and Nordstrom, while Prada Color is also available online at Sephora.
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