Month: February 2021

Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli sailed to victory in the 2021 Prada Cup Final

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    Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli team won the PRADA Cup over INEOS Team UK with 7-1. The 2021 Prada Challenger’s Trophy is a sailing competition held to determine the challenger in the 2021 America’s Cup. The races are being held from January 15 to February 21, 2021 in Auckland, New Zealand and were preceded … Read more

Aston Martin is pairing supercars with a new range of high-end Swiss watches

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@Aston Martin x @Girard-Perregaux Watches

In the relentless pursuit of speed, time is the overriding concern.

Girard-Perregaux has been announced as Official Watch Partner of luxury British automotive manufacturer Aston Martin. The Swiss Manufacture is one of the oldest names in watchmaking, known for making peerless exemplars of Haute Horlogerie. The two brands will collaborate on upcoming limited-edition timepieces.

The two companies create highly desirable luxury products that are beautifully designed, deliver a powerful performance and exhibit flawless execution.

2021 is an important year for both Girard-Perregaux and Aston Martin. Girard-Perregaux is celebrating an astonishing 230 years of watchmaking, whilst Aston Martin celebrates its return to Formula 1 as a works team for the first time in over 60 years.

“We have much to celebrate so uniting our worlds to create something special is the perfect way to acknowledge and appreciate these milestones.” – Patrick Pruniaux, Girard-Perregaux Chief Executive Officer.

Girard-Perregaux branding will feature on the Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team cars at the start of the
2021 F1 season in Bahrain while the first timepiece to be borne from the collaboration between Aston Martin and
Girard-Perregaux will be revealed later this year.

@Aston Martin x @Girard-Perregaux Watches

Both Aston Martin and Girard-Perregaux were founded by visionaries with an innate passion. Aston Martin was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford while Girard-Perregaux can trace its origins to 1791, when Jean-FrançoisBautte, aged just 19, produced his first watch. But most notably, it was a love story which led to the birth of one of the greatest names in watchmaking when Constant Girard married Marie Perregaux in 1854.

The now-legendary Aston Martin DBR1 (1956), a car made for competitive racing, was a precursor for some of themarque’s most well-known heritage ‘DB’ road cars. It was styled in-house by a highly talented designer, Frank Feeley, and represents what is unquestionably his ‘finest hour’ – indeed the shape of the DBR1 remains one of the most beautiful and graceful of all time. Moreover, the design incorporates a key functional attribute – the side air vent – which debuted on this car and remains a key functional and visual characteristic of Aston Martin’s road-going sports cars to this day. This functional element has become a key aesthetic detail that imbues the marque’s models with their distinctive personality. In fact, one glance at an Aston Martin car immediately reveals the identity of its maker.

Similarly, when Girard-Perregaux released its now-famous Tourbillon ‘With Three Gold Bridges’ in 1867, it transformed three functional components, often hidden from view, into attractive aesthetic features. Indeed, with the advent of this watch, the once invisible was deliberately made visible.

“Formula One and Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team in particular will prove themselves to be respectively a fantastic promotional platform and a brilliant marketing partner for Girard-Perregaux, whose timepieces lead the way in terms of quality and desirability.” – Otmar Szafnauer, Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team Chief Executive Officer and Team Principal.

@Girard-Perregaux Watches

Two rival yacht builders form a Joint Venture to rescue the bankrupt Perini Navi

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@perininavi.it

This is an alliance of historic importance for the yachting industry. Ferretti Group and Sanlorenzo form a Joint Venture to rescue Perini Navi, one of the world’s most iconic luxury sailing brands.

Ferretti Group and Sanlorenzo, two rival Italian motoryacht builders, announced the creation of a 50:50 Joint Venture NewCo to take over Perini Navi, declared bankrupt by the Court of Lucca on January 29. Perini Navi is an Italian shipyard based in Viareggio, Tuscany, Italy. Perini Navi‘s largest project to date was the 88m Maltese Falcon for repeat client Tom Perkins. Other owners include Rupert Murdoch, Silvio Berlusconi, Turgay Ciner, Gerhard Andlinger, Larry Ellison, George Economou, Massimo Moratti, Bertram R.C. Rickmers and Kenneth P. Weiss.

In 2021, an Italian court declared Perini Navi bankrupt. It had made a loss of €80.87 million at the end of 2019, and a debt exposure of nearly €100 million by the first quarter of 2020. It employed about 100 employees at the time.

Through the NewCo, world leading players of Italian yachting excellence Ferretti Group and Sanlorenzo have expressed their interest in making an offer to acquire the trademarks, assets and Italian operations of Perini Navi, if necessary with a business unit lease agreement, in order to ensure a swift recovery of production activities and the maintenance of employment levels.

“It is fair to say at this point that the loss of the Perini Navi brand would be a sad day for the superyacht market. However, the strength of the business’ brand, location and portfolio make it a fascinating opportunity for the potential investors and with three major shipyard groups already announcing their interest in the brand, one can assume that this does not signal the end of Perini Navi,” commented superyachtnews.com.

“While the acquisition of Perini Navi’s physical assets perhaps represents the most obvious benefits for the superyacht businesses that are interested in the acquisition, the market would do well to remember the historical strength of Perini Navi’s brand,” added superyachtnews.com.

@perininavi.it

“This is an important day for the Italian yachting industry, for the employees of Perini Navi and for their families, ensuring in this way that their passion, experience and unique skills will continue to be protected. As will the Perini Navi supply chain, which is made up of numerous suppliers who will be reassured and whose peace of mind will be restored by today’s safeguards,” said Ferretti Group CEO Alberto Galassi.

“At Ferretti Group we are always on the lookout for excellence and capabilities to integrate with our own. And often we find them in Italy, as is the case today. We are confident our commitment will translate into further growth that benefits the local area and raises the profile of the Italian yacht industry still further. I would also like to emphasise the historical importance of the alliance with Sanlorenzo, reflecting the new spirit of collaboration sweeping through Italy: a positive broadening of our horizons that will let us seize even more opportunities and deliver even more success”.

“I began my professional career in the yacht industry in Viareggio, in the same place and year in which Perini Navi was starting life a short distance away,” said Sanlorenzo Executive Chairman Massimo Perotti.

“That was back in 1983 and since then I’ve always had great admiration for the business model adopted by this remarkable brand: boats with outstanding qualities, built exclusively to order for a limited number of expert owners and connoisseurs. These are the same unique features I found years later in Sanlorenzo. Because of these similarities and with a strong determination to rescue an Italian brand with an unparalleled history, in the interests of the local area, all stakeholders and first and foremost employees and suppliers, I have from the outset confirmed the willingness of Sanlorenzo to contribute to the brand’s relaunch. Today I am pleased to be able to do so jointly with Ferretti Group. It is an alliance of historic importance for our industry, one which I am convinced will continue to develop and set an example for other initiatives aimed at strengthening our world leadership in this sector”.

perininavi.it

Bethany Williams gender-neutral capsule coat collection dives into antique wool blankets

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@Bethany Williams Capsule Collection @Selfridges

This London Fashion Week, Bethany Williams will present her gender-neutral capsule coat collection, exclusively for Selfridges.

As with every collection and project Bethany Williams works on, the social and environmental issues go hand in hand.

“This particular project was inspired by our ongoing work with The Magpie Project, a charity that supports women and children under five in temporary, unsuitable or no accommodation. The Women’s Institute community creates a personal blanket for every baby born into the Magpie Family. A blanket is so much more than a piece of fabric, it is a feeling of comfort and shelter and I wanted that feeling to be at the heart of this capsule collection.” – Bethany Williams

Drawing on her inspiration, the collection saw Bethany dive into the historical heritage of vintage and antique wool blankets from across the UK. All the blankets are carefully sourced from vintage sellers, whether that’s Antiques Markets or car boot sales.

Steeped in history, each blanket sourced tells a story from the textile and weaving techniques to the county, town or village it was made in. One of her favourite pieces sourced for the collection was found on a pitch-black frosty morning at Sunbury Antiques Market at Kempton Racecourse. With her phone touch as her only source of light, she came across a rare and usually very expensive Welsh, patterned wool blanket with brightly coloured pink and orange patches.

With this collection, the story continues, as each blanket is given a new lease of life through Bethany’s artistic vision and mastering of design-led upcycling techniques, which created this capsule collection. Shapes for the details on each garment come from historical research into childrenswear that she explored with the V&A Museum of Childhood. The complimentary colour palettes, slightly oversized fit and skilful patchwork techniques all create a unique, bespoke-feel to each garment.

Handcrafted in London, the nine upcycled blanket coats are available in three different jacket styles.

Each garment is conceptualised by allocating a specific blanket to each style of jacket based on its weight, thicknessand colour. The outer material is the blanket wool for optimal insulation with a 100% organic cotton lining, sourced from Wales.

This collection is part of Selfridges sustainability initiative, Project Earth, committed to putting sustainability in the heart of the business and reinventing the way we shop.

“We are so thrilled to be continuing our partnership with Bethany Williams. Bethany joined the Selfridges menswear editas part of our Bright New Things programme, and we are so excited to now be launching this collection straight from her LFW presentation. She was a clear choice to be included as one of our key Project Earth partners due to her innovative approach to sustainable and socially conscious work – Jack Cassidy, Head of Menswear at Selfridges.

@Bethany Williams Capsule Collection @Selfridges
@Bethany Williams Capsule Collection @Selfridges

Why do you need an essence for skin?

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  What does face toner do, and how is that different from an essence? Is toner for oily skin only? Why do you need an essence for skin? Lancôme skincare experts are here to help. While both are often used as a prep step, face toner and essence are two different formulas that offer respective … Read more

Bombardier will stop manufacturing the iconic Learjet aircraft brand

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    The Learjet aircraft brand will end production at the end of 2021. Bombardier announced it will end production of Learjet aircraft later this year, allowing the aviation company to focus on its more profitable Challenger and Global aircraft families and accelerate the expansion of its customer services business. Bombardier’s 2020 revenues from Business … Read more