Archive for January, 2012
Louis Vuitton Pre-Fall 2012 Collection
“Disney’s “It’s a Small World” was playing at Louis Vuitton’s presentation. It’s a fitting message; few brands have the global reach of this powerhouse. For pre-fall, design director Julie de Libran opted to expand on the house codes established since Marc Jacobs moved in and began designing ready-to-wear for the company nearly 14 years ago. And she did that through the lens of Charlotte Perriand, the late architect and designer who’s as well-known in France for her personal style as for her prodigious output between the wars.
That meant that the clothes had a vaguely 1940′s feel, with menswear checks bonded to duchesse satin to produce the softened, slightly rounded shapes of car coats and skirtsuits. It also gave de Libran a reason to put a military spin on the proceedings. Trompe l’oeil frogging details dressed up both a baby-doll dress belted high on the waist and a princess coat. As for other house codes, the iconic Stephen Sprouse leopard print made an encore performance on a sharp mohair jacquard pantsuit. The charm factor was high here—see the studded and grommeted berets and the shoes with tufts of fur spilling out. Most important to the brand, however, is the reintroduction of the Papillon bag. Now in a mini size, the cylindrical tote came “debossed” with the LV logo. The world is full of embossed monogram bags, after all.” – Nicole Phelps, Style.com
Images via Louis Vuitton
Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2012 Bag Names and Prices
“We decided we wanted to do something very pretty, and very gentle, and very loving, and just fill it with pretty colors and beautiful light, luminous textures, things that were translucent and transparent. We wanted to define the body and to create shapes, but have air and lightness and softness,” said Marc Jacobs backstage after his Spring/Summer 2012 fashion show for Louis Vuitton
The season’s Leather Goods translate this light, airy spirit, in soft shapes and sorbet shades, and though – as with the ready-to-wear – there are echoes of the strict, fetish-inspired Fall/Winter 2011 collection, notably in the spotlight turned once again on the iconic Lockit bag, the result is quite different.
Monogram Transparent
The Spring/Summer 2012 fashion show opened with variations of the Lockit in sheer nylon voile. Three shapes – a dainty clutch, the classic Lockit and the stretched Lockit East-West – are embroidered inside and out with the Monogram pattern and trimmed with white leather, creating a pure white-on-white look that is one of the key directions of the season.
Monogram Transparent Lockit Clutch
Price: US$1880
Monogram Transparent Lockit
Price: US$3450
Monogram Transparent Lockit East-West
Price: US$3600
Basket
In a variation on the theme of transparency, and in keeping with the sweetly naïve spirit of the season, humble basket bags are elevated to luxury status in metallic patent calfskin, which is simultaneously perforated and embossed to create a three-dimensional effect. Just in case its owner has anything to hide, each basket contains a removable drawstring pouch in tonal jacquard woven with the Monogram pattern.
Mini Basket
Color: Reef
Price: US$2660
Basket
Colors: Rose, Nougat
Price: US$3150
Mama
An equally sweet, feminine theme has a neat day-to-night pochettes in sky blue or eggshell yellow lambskin swinging from dainty silver chains – bright silver having replaced gold this season as the finish of choice for leather goods and accessories. The butter-soft lambskin is embroidered with the Monogram pattern in tiny cross-stitches, and on the first of two limited editions, the motif is then re-embroidered by hand with translucent glass beads. For the second limited edition, the pochette is rendered in pale, whitewashed crocodile. In each case, the flap is fastened by a tiny silver S-lock – a miniaturized version of the one that has secured Louis Vuitton trunks since the 19th century – which is one of the season’s emblematic details.
Mama Broderie Pochette
Colors: Ivoire, Bleu, Jaune
Price: US$3800
Mama Perles Pochette
Colors: Porcelaine, Jaune
Price: US$6250
Mama Croco Pochette
Colors: Bleu, Jaune
Price: US$18,850
Bonded
A second pochette shape on a silver chain comes in two-tone bonded leather, a combination of deerskin and lambskin for a uniquely soft, supple feel. In each case, a strong shade is accented by one of the season’s ice cream pastels – coral with vert d’eau, navy with powder pink, ceramic with soft green – on the inside of the bag and on an outsize zipper pull, which clicks into a tiny silver S-lock on the side.
Bonded Pochette
Colors: Ceramique, Corail, Nuit
Price: US$2970
Monogram Denim
If the Fall/Winter 2011 collection was all about the Lockit, Spring/Summer 2012 brings the Speedy back into the spotlight, though always as a softer, plumper variation of itself. In a casual spirit, a pochette and two sizes of top-handle, all with a removable shoulder strap, come in a pale stonewashed denim woven with the Monogram pattern in silver thread.
Monogram Denim Speedy Squat Pochette
Colors: Jaune, Bleu
Price: US$2030
Monogram Denim Speedy Squat MM
Colors: Jaune, Bleu
Price: US$2820
Monogram Denim Speedy Squat GM
Color: Bleu
Price: US$3300
Monogram Bouclettes
This variation of the classic Speedy is reminiscent of the Fall/Winter 2011′s Monogram Fascination. Soft patent lambskin in pastel colors with delicate matte Monogram pattern embroidery creates an exquisite blend of textures.
Monogram Bouclettes Speedy
Colors: Mint, Rose, Perle
Price: US$4200
Suship
This curvaceous Speedy is rendered in supple clafskin in a classic summery combination of navy and white.
Suship Speedy North-South
Price: US$4700
Les Extraordinaires Crocodile
Reinterpreted with a flap and in precious crocodile with a vintage, whitewashed patina, the Crocodile Old Speedy Flap is also the first of the season’s two Les Extraordinaires, available in a strictly limited, numbered edition.
Crocodile Old Speedy Flap
Colors: Mint, Nuit, Jaune
Price: US$33,000
Les Extraordinaires Coquille D’Oeuf
The ultimate object of desire – and the emblem of the entire elaborately crafted collection – is a dainty minaudière, its Monogram mosaic painstakingly pieced together for over 600 hours from 12,500 fragments of eggshell. A metaphor indeed for the care and craftsmanship lavished on this collection.
Coquille D’Oeuf
Price: US$101,000
Images via Louis Vuitton
Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2012 Men’s Bag Names and Prices
The notion of the Louis Vuitton bag and luggage is a key theme throughout the entire collection and roots the overall approach to a sense of the Louis Vuitton legacy. This season sees the debut of a number of new, distinctive bag styles for men. But at the heart of this season is the new Nomade leather, softer and revisited in a rich palette of olive green, burgundy and tobacco.
Eponymous of the legendary savoir-faire of Louis Vuitton, this season its simple and classic construction in a variety of styles points to the spirit of the house and punctuates this collection throughout. It also features the most traditional and the most personal of all the logos in the classic “V”. It originally came from the steamer bag of Gaston-Louis Vuitton, one of the Maison’s very own iconic world travelers.
Nomade Leather
Nomade Cabas East-West
Colors: Tabac, Iris Noir (pictured), Acacia
Price: tba
Nomade Cabas North-South
Color: Tabac
Price: tba
Porte-Jumelles
Material/Color: Nomade/Tabac (left), Alligator/Marine (right)
Prices: tba
Nomade V Sérigraphié
Nomade Cabas V Sérigraphié
Color: Tabac
Price: tba
Monogram Kibo
Monogram Kibo Sac à Dos
Color: Écru
Price: US$10,500
Images via Louis Vuitton
Read All Your Favorite Blogs in One Place
If you feel like it’s a chore to keep up with all your favorite blogs, you can now read posts from all the blogs you follow (even the ones that aren’t on WordPress.com!) in one convenient place on the WordPress.com home page:
Your reader displays all the posts across all the blogs you follow in the order they were published, with the most recent content appearing at the top. You’ll see an excerpt of the introduction to each post, the first image in the post, and thumbnails of any other images that the post contains.
You can even like and reblog WordPress.com content directly from the reader (we’re working on bringing reblogs back to the toolbar!) using the icons in the top right corner of each post:
Whether you’re at the computer or using the WordPress app on an Android or iOS mobile device, having all the posts from the blogs you follow in one place makes it easy to find the updates that are important to you, and skip over the ones that aren’t.
Click 
in the toolbar at the top of any WordPress.com site (you must be logged in to see it) to add new blogs to your reader. For directions on adding blogs from Tumblr, Blogger, and other services to your reader, check out the support document on managing the blogs you follow.
Discover New Blogs, Too
To find some awesome new WordPress.com blogs you might like, check out the Recommended Blogs section of the reader:
Right now you can browse blogs in twelve different categories, and we’ll be adding more very soon.
Use WordPress.com as a Real-Time Information Network
If you want to see what people are saying about your hometown, favorite sports team, or a concert you attended last night, add any topic to your reader to create a stream of all posts published with that tag.
You can add as many topic streams to your reader as you like. You’ll notice frequent updates being published under general topics like “art” and “books,” but you can also add more specific topics like “Picasso” or “J. K. Rowling.”
Want less email?
Each time you follow a blog, new posts from that site will appear instantly in your reader, and you’ll also receive them by email. If you prefer to receive email notifications on a daily or weekly basis, or not at all, you can change your default email settings from the bottom left corner of your reader. You can also change your email notification preferences on a per-blog basis.
Find Friends on WordPress.com
Want to see if any of your Facebook and Twitter friends are on WordPress.com? Give the Friend Finder a try:
So, how will you use the reader, and what can we do to improve it?
Join Our Censorship Protest!
Have you been paying attention to all the hubbub online about the proposed U.S. legislation (SOPA/PIPA) that threatens internet freedom? I wrote about it last week over on WordPress.org, but the gist is this: there’s a bill in the U.S. Senate that if passed would put publishing freedom severely at risk, and could shut down entire sites at the whim of media companies. Fight for the Future created this nifty video to sum it up better than I can.
On January 18, 2012, sites all over the internet will be blacking out to protest and try to mobilize more people to speak out against this bill coming up in the Senate next week — S. 968: the Protect IP Act (PIPA) — in an attempt to let U.S. lawmakers know how much opposition there is. WordPress.org, Wikipedia, and even WordPress.com VIP I Can Has Cheezburger? will be participating in the blackout to raise awareness and spur you to action.
Here on WordPress.com, we want to participate as well. Freshly Pressed will be blacked out during the strike.
Sorry to take away your daily fix of yummy web content, but this bill threatens to do that on a much wider scale. You don’t want that, do you?
More importantly, we are making it possible for you to participate in the protest. There are two options: a “Stop Censorship” ribbon and a full blackout. The blackout portion will be in effect January 18 from 8am to 8pm EST, while the ribbon will be displayed until January 24. Here’s how to join in:
- Go to Settings → Protest SOPA/PIPA in your dashboard.
- Select if you want to join the blackout or show a ribbon.
- If you choose to join the blackout, you can edit the message that will be shown on your site during the blackout.
- Preview what your protest will look like.
- Click “Save Changes” button to activate your protest.
That’s it! Easy-peasy activism right at your fingertips.
The “Stop Censorship” ribbon will display in the upper corner of your site and links to americancensorship.org. It will display until January 24, 2012 (the Senate vote date).
If you choose to do the blackout in addition to the ribbon, then we will black out your site from 8am to 8pm EST along with the official strike. You can customize the message that will appear on your blacked-out site to tell people why this issue is important to you. Your site will return to just displaying the ribbon after the strike is over.
I hope that a significant number of you on WordPress.com will join in this protest. Publishing freedom is a right we must protect.
And one last pitch: whatever you decide to do about your site, please take a few minutes to head over to americancensorship.org and take action. It only takes a few moments of your time to be an agent of change!
Taïga: Made-to-Order
The Maison Louis Vuitton revisits the business bag, offering two new elegant and contemporary styles for men in iconic Taiga leather: the Néo-Igor and its big brother Néo-Alexander.
For the very first time, the Maison is offering the opportunity to customise not only the exterior of your bag but also the interior to match travellers’ needs. For the Made To Order program, Taiga, the first men’s signature leather created in 1993, is proposed in a rich palette of four colors –Ardoise, Grizzli, Boréal and Glacier. Each of them can be associated with one of the four new colors of lining – burgany, brown, navy and black.
The Maison also offers the freedom of arranging the interior of your bag to correspond to your personal use, with a choice of four pockets designed to hold the business essentials such as a laptop, smart phone, iPad, documents, business cards or a clean spare shirt. The Louis Vuitton Taiga Made To Order service offers the possibility to add or remove the outside leather strap for attaching the bag to the Pegase suitcase and/or a shoulder strap.
In order to offer an unique bag, each owner can have his name laser-engraved on a leather patch in the inside. Totally in tune with modern man’s needs, thanks to more than 2500 combinations, the Néo-igor and the Néo-Alexander are the perfect expression of the Maison’s desire to meet the invidual needs of the most demanding travellers, whether city dwellers or globetrotters.
The Taiga journey continues.
Taïga Néo-Igor (left) & Taïga Néo-Alexander (right) in Ardoise
Video via Louis Vuitton
New Theme: Fresh & Clean
Today we’ve got a new theme for you that is so fresh and clean that it’s called…Fresh & Clean. Designed by AJ Clarke, Fresh & Clean is a responsive, spick-and-span theme that lets you put your best content forward with minimal frills.
Fresh & Clean utilizes Featured Images to help you to easily transform your blog into a stylish online portfolio. There’s a featured slider on the front page that highlights Sticky Posts that have large Featured Images. All other Featured Images appear as prominent thumbnails next to their respective posts.
Not looking to build an online portfolio at this time? No problem, Fresh & Clean is great as an all-purpose blogging theme! Take a moment to read more about Fresh & Clean and its features on the Theme Showcase.
Get Married With WordPress
One of the most important events of your life might just be your wedding. It also might be one of the craziest, disorganized, mixed-up times of your life too. We’d like to help with that a bit with a free wedding theme we call Forever. Along with a handful of cool features we’ll get to below, Forever makes it easy to wrap your wedding up in a neat little blog on WordPress.com. You can show off every one of your best photos and highlight every important detail leading up to the big day and beyond.
Forever makes it easy to welcome your family and friends to your blog with a dramatic personalized home page. The design is bold and clean with lots of room for large, colorful photos of the happy couple (that’s you!) in an optional featured post slider and home page excerpts.
You can also easily customize the color scheme and get Forever to match your wedding colors with only a few clicks. You can update the background color (or add your own pattern) from the custom background page in your blog dashboard and even change the color of the all the links from the Forever Theme Options page.
We also built in a special Guestbook Template that lets your guests take over a page of your choice with their best wishes for you … and maybe a few embarrassing stories 
… as comments.
And, of course, Forever works seamlessly with all the other WordPress.com features you love; emails sent to your blog followers every time you post, contact forms (perfect for RSVPs), custom domain names (like robandlaura.com instead of robandlaura.wordpress.com), customized fonts and CSS with the Custom Design upgrade (great for changing your blog title to a handwriting font), and everything else.
Forever with a custom background, custom font, and custom link color
And it works especially well with our new Milestone Widget.
Save The Date!
Forever also sports a custom design for a new widget we call Milestone. You can find it in your blog dashboard at Appearance → Widgets and it’s pretty easy to use. Just pick a title for your event, a date and time, and a special message for the big day, and you’re ready to go. Now you have a special save the date widget for your Wedding on every page of your blog.
The Milestone Widget in Forever
If that sounds pretty awesome and you want the Milestone widget available for your non-Wedding blog too, you’re in luck. We’re also making the milestone widget available to every theme on WordPress.com right now.
Enjoy Forever
To find out more about our new Wedding Theme, Forever, check out the demo site and visit the Forever theme showcase page. Or just go ahead and activate it on your brand new Wedding blog.
Here’s to your wedding and your wedding blog on WordPress.com. Cheers! (That means you have to kiss now.)
