Transitions

Lane Crawford probably doesn’t mean a whole lot to people outside of Hong Kong or who have never visited Hong Kong, unless you’re a designer hankering after a buyer from Lane Crawford to swoop in and buy up your whole collection.  I’d describe as the equivalent to Barney’s in Lane Crawford and probably in recent years, it has branched out in terms of being at the forefront of bringing labels exclusive to Hong Kong.  HK may be a shopper’s paradise but for those seeking out Western labels, there’s still not a wealth of stock out there…. Jonathan Saunders, Vanessa Bruno, Proenza Schouler and RM by Roland Mouret are some of the designers that Lane Crawford have exclusively…

I was more intrigued to find though, that Lane Crawford for the first time have launched an international ad campaign (US Vogue readers might have already seen the ads…) for SS08 entitled ‘Transitions’.  It’s certainly not a slap dash affair and you can tell from the microsite (why call it ‘micro’ when really it’s the opposite….?), Lane Crawford have built especially for the ad.  I am scratching my head a little thinking why a Hong Kong store is advertising in US Vogue but then if it is going to be thought of in the same context as Printemps, Selfridges, Barney’s, why not? 

‘Not slap dash’ would probably be an understatement seeing as the campaign was shot by Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin and styled by Camilla Nickerson in New York and more importantly the concept is quite thought provoking.  Featuring a fantastic array of China creatives (I use ‘creatives’ as opposed to ‘celebs’ because I feel THAT particular ‘c’ word cheapens them somewhat…), the ads presents two facets of that person and how their clothes represent that facet.  With a quote accompanying each ad, it makes it all the more personal and it’ a rare occasion where the person and clothes balance each other perfectly (as opposed to one outshining the other….).  Fashion as a transformation tool…. doh…. seems like such a fundamental thing, yet I’ve never seen it so literally expressed as it has done here…

So we have Du Juan, probably no introductions needed….but she’s a model… 

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Fu Jia, independent film producer…

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Maggie Cheung… again, needs no introduction…. (the few times when I get hold of HK gossip mags/newspapers, I smile when I see papped pictures of her as she always looks fantastic in whatever she’s wearing…)

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Tan Yuan Yuan, principle ballerina with San Francisco Ballet…

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Huang Jue, actor…

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28 comments

  2. I saw that!
    I was so surprised…like…”WHY are there so many Asian people I actually recognize?”
    I was wondering what Lane Crawford Beijing was and what it was doing in my US Vogue.

  5. susie, i believe there is another chinese actor featured in these ads….liu ye is his name…..and he is one fine actor indeed…

  6. actually, i have this petit issue of these ads(in chinese), it was in a chinese weekly journal. ps. i’m in beijing.

  8. Scratch that. The Beijing store is actually 80,000 square feet — pretty enormous, and almost the same size as the IFC flagship.

  9. I just saw this entire campaign in a magazine. I really liked how it looked, and was really thrilled with the photography.

  10. Carissa: You’re right – He is in the ad though I didn’t find his images as compelling as the others in terms of the theme ‘transition’ but you can see the ad on the website I believe!
    Ms. Spinach: Thanks for the FWD link….I’m so OUT of the Olympics fever loop (my family are going but I’m not….) that these things don’t even occur to me…. having a hard enough time dealing with the fact that this Olympics monster is coming to London!
    It is a fantastic department store though in terms of fashion forwardness so I’m glad they have started advertising in US Vogue…
    I’d love to check out the Beijing store though…. definitely a city for visiting POST Olympics fever me thinks….

  11. My family was originally going to go visit the mainland this summer, but determined it would be even more of a crowded mess than it usually is. I’ve yet to see Beijing (my last trip revolved around the hometown [Shanghai]), but the flagship will certainly make for an interesting stop in the future!

  12. maggie cheung looks gorgeous !! adding that to the fact that she’s uber talented. she’s truely amazing 🙂

  13. Got to love Maggie Cheung! I rarely go into Lane Crawford when in Hong Kong…might go and have a look when I’m back this summer…

  15. i flick through the observer 50 best blogs, i ponder to myself ‘hmm will style bubble be in here’and lo and behold you are. you are, you are, you are…ahem. congratulations

  17. I was so surprised when I saw the ad campaign, since I’d never seen advertising for Lane Crawford before but I fell in love with it. The pictures are beautiful and the subjects had such a cool attitude, better than any random models they could’ve chosen. It was a very strong statement.

  20. it’s great to hear about lane crawford in your blog (and in US Vogue)! it definately deserves a place up there with barneys & selfridges. i spend a day there everytime i go back to hk and the displays are, may i just say, a million times more amazing than selfridges 🙂

  21. My friends and I all have the complete opposite response to the above. We all think the adv. sucks. It’s not beautiful, lack of creativity, utterly commercial and it really is a waste of talents. I mean when you have Ines and Vinoodh, you shouldn’t get something like this, then you have Luigi Murena for hair and Camilla Nickerson for styling, com’on. LC is just paying for all these names to try to portrait themselves that they r upthere on international level. Honestly, the real tasteful highend shoppers would rather go to Joyce boutique and Maria Luisa than to LC. That’s why I am not surprised they included Maggie Cheung, whose red-carpet choice has gone down hill recently. I am more than happy to see her in Lacroix and Rykiel in Cannes, but she’s been following what’s hot lately, especially on the choices of Givenchy which I think is not for her, she looks okay in Balenciaga, but she and Givenchy really doesn’t work.
    Sarah R. is gonna be the jury for Hyeres this year? Bless her. We all know she’s someone as thick as possible and follow her *instinct* with US Vogue- a complete airhead. Gimme a break!
    I must emphasize that I am not being cynical, but noticed that most people in HK buy the whole LC image thing that they’ve been working so hard to portrait, and that’s sad.

  22. Fair point, stylepovist…. however I think it’s quite an odd thing to say the more discerning shoppers go to Maria Luisa/Joyce which might well be true…. in which case perhaps you’ve overestimated LC’s intentions. Perhaps there is nothing wrong with middle-of-the-road, uncomplicated, potrayal high fashion. Yes of course there is strategy behind hiring these names. Like you said, the more ‘discerning’ (a problematic term here….) go elsewhere so that leaves the rest of the supposed fashion ‘plebs’ to go to Lane Crawford in which case these ads are perfect for outreaching to those people… by your fashion consumer categorisation anyway….
    Just a niggling thought about classing oneself as a more ‘discerning’ fashion customer…. it just grated me a little…
    Regarding Maggie Cheung, I think she looks fantastic in Balenciaga and the Givenchy grey suit I saw her in also looks amazing… but that’s a personal opinion…

  23. oohhhhh i was actually in HK last week and stumbled into the official launch party of the campaign in lane crawford IFC mall. It was brilliant…..shame i was in a very embarrassing baby pink juicy tracksuit on my way to the airport to fly back to the UK!!!

  24. I almost did a post on this because I love the spread. It was great to see so many Asian faces in American Vogue. Can’t wait to check out the “micro” site.

  25. they’re all CHINESE. not simply asian. ugh.
    lovely post susie.

  26. I was really impressed with the ad. it was a surprising to see it in US Vogue but considering US Vogue has a huge international readership I think its quite a smart move. LC is more commercial than Joyce but whats so bad about that?

  27. I almost did a post on this because I love the spread. It was great to see so many Asian faces in American Vogue. Can’t wait to check out the “micro” site.

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