ACCIDENTAL? BRILLIANCE? ACCIDENTAL BRILLIANCE?

SPOTTED - Last night I attended the launch of the Hermès pop-up store in the Rochelle School Of Art. The aim of the store is to show people how versatile the iconic Hermès scarves can be. In addition to the pop-up store Hermès has created a Fanzine in collaboration with photographer Matt Irwin. Irwin took four models around the world to capture the ways you can wear the Hermès scarf.

As part of the festivities the incredible LA based band Warpaint played a few songs from their debut LP The Fool [Rough Trade Records].

Before Warpaint came on stage I noticed what must have been a Hermès employee tying a scarf to the bass drum [that's the big one in the middle]. I thought to myself, that's quite subtle, a nice little branded touch. When Warpaint came on to play, this all changed, it soon became a stroke of absolute genius or complete luck. As the drummer [Theresa Wayman] began to beat the bass drum it caused to Hermès scarf to flutter elegantly to the beat, it was mesmerising.

Now, cast your mind back to December 2009, when Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka had an installation in Maison Hermes in Japan. The installation was a window with an image of a woman projected on to a monitor. It would appear from the outside that the projected face was gently blowing a Hermès causing it to flutter in the wind.

Was this tie in a piece of marketing genius, or sheer good luck?

It would make sense for Hermès to create a campaign based on the beauty of the flowing movement of their iconic scarves. Imagine a campaign where you see a close-up of the fluttering scarf which then panned out to an iconic moment. The image that springs to mind when I think of the Hermès scarves is a chic woman driving a 1985 convertible Mercedes SL with the top down, on a hot summer's day in the south of France. Imagine the shot; close up of the scarf flowing in the wind [possibly in slow motion], then a soft zoom out to the striking, powerful woman driving the car. Formidable!

joes[a]fiend

NIKE SPORTSWEAR PRESENTS… 1948

Besides the spectacular opening ceremony for the Olympics on the 8th August, another spectacular launch was happening in another corner of Beijing that day. The new Nike Sportswear line was previewed; featuring items such as the hi-top patent dunks in block colourways [reminiscent of the Also Known As x Nike iD 'wet paint' pack], and has since been launched across the globe in several new pop-up retail spaces dedicated to the collection.

joes[a]fiend check out the launch of the London chapter last Thursday, and was impressed by the temporary store located on Bateman’s Row in Shoreditch. The space is not just home to some fly kicks, but also graffiti artist Mode2’s twenty foot tall interpretation of some of Nike’s greatest Olympians.

The Nike design team have outdone themselves on the space - one half is a futuristic black and neon installation, and the other a mock gymnasium. Pull yourself away from watching the Olympics on TV and get yourself down there.

joes[a]fiend