Archive for April, 2007
Kate Moss’s Clothing Line To Stir London Sale Frenzy
LONDON: Security guards, stampedes and catfights over pairs of skinny jeans await British shoppers battling for a piece of this year’s hottest clothing collection, designed by supermodel Kate Moss for a British apparel chain.
Fashionistas will likely queue for hours at the flagship store of the Topshop group in London’s Oxford Street before the official launch Tuesday of a range which has received near-blanket media coverage here since it was announced last September.
The range, which Moss helped to design, features pieces costing between 10 and 200 pounds (15 and 293 euros, US$20 and US$400) and will be on sale at 300 stores in Britain, as well at Barneys in the United States, Colette in Paris and Corso Como in Milan, Italy.
Moss is not the first star to put her name to high street clothes - Madonna endorsed a range for Sweden’s H and M, David Beckham helped to design for Marks and Spencer and pop star Lily Allen’s New Look range is out soon.
But some of these have proved more successful than others - the Beckham tie-in received a lukewarm reception, while by contrast, analysts attributed a 17 per cent increase in H and M’s March sales to Madonna.
This suggests that, despite the British public’s voracious interest in celebrities, retailers cannot rely on recruiting just any star to endorse their goods - there must be a convincing “fit” between the product and the face.
PR experts say the massive interest in the Moss range came about partly because shoppers find it easy to believe that she herself would wear clothes from the chain.
“The thing about Kate Moss is that she has been seen in stuff she’s bought in thrift shops and vintage,” Sally Sykes, a board member at the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, told AFP.
“The point about good PR is that it does have to be grounded in reality.”
Despite the apparently strong match between model and brand, the retail chain did take a calculated risk in signing up Moss, who often attracts disapproving headlines in the British press.
Nicknamed “Cocaine Kate” by the tabloid media after photographs of her apparently taking the drug emerged in 2005, she has been widely criticised for her relationship with troubled pop singer Pete Doherty, a recovering drug addict.
Her modelling career seems unaffected by such claims, though - a situation underlined by her appearance on the front of British Vogue in March modelling a 55-pound black lame minidress.
Graham Hales, of branding consultancy Interbrand, said that Moss’s ability to emerge unscarred from controversy could actually have made her a more appealing figure to shoppers.
“She’s ridden these cycles and she’s been through tests. The whole nature of celebrity requires them to stay in the public eye but the difficulty is that people can disengage from that,” he said.
While Topshop looks set to benefit from its involvement with Moss, Moss will also likely reap the rewards of working with the group, he added.
“They’re such uber-celebrities that they almost want to demonstrate that they’re still in touch with the average man, woman or girl on the street so to a degree it restores their credibility,” he said,
Moss could also use the tie-in to open up other design opportunities for herself, Hales predicted.
And with Allen launching her New Look range and Australian singer Kylie Minogue fronting a swimwear range for H and M in May, the high streets will be dominated by more celebrity tie-ins in coming months.
Far from instilling a “fame fatigue”, though, experts say that the more stores that use starpower to sell their wares, the more persuasive the endorsements will become.
“Given all the noise of these marketing pitches, the clarity of the message becomes vastly more important than in the past,” said Richard Hyman, managing director of Verdict, a retail consultancy.
“You need to have a very focused message that gets across very quickly and I would say that celebrities are the fulcrum of that.” - AFP/yy
Channel News Asia
British, US Stars Call For Action Over Darfur
LONDON: Actors and musicians including Elton John, George Clooney, Bob Geldof and Mick Jagger have called on world leaders to take “decisive action” over atrocities in Darfur.
The statement was released to coincide with the Global Day for Darfur Sunday, marking the fourth anniversary of the conflict.
“The international community must end its stalling and take decisive action,” the group, which also includes Hugh Grant, Mia Farrow and Mark Knopfler.
“The perpetrators who carry out these atrocities must be challenged and stopped.”
The Global Day for Darfur was to be marked around the world by activists overturning 10,000 hourglasses filled with fake blood.
The event has been organised by a coalition including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
Protestors are to hold a march on Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Downing Street office plus a demonstration outside the Sudanese embassy in London.
The conflict in the western region of Sudan has led to 200,000 deaths and two million people being displaced, according to the United Nations.
Sudan contests the figures, saying that only 9,000 have died. - AFP/yy
Channel News Asia
Penangan Mawi Di Glory Beach Resort
Aksi Mawi, ketika menghiburkan peminatnya di Glory Beach Resort.
MAWI sana, Mawi sini. Tetapi yang satu itu jugalah yang dikejar-kejar. Bukan tidak ada yang lain, tetapi Mawi juga yang dicari. Namakan apa saja persembahan, kalau yang melibatkan raja SMS ini, ia pasti tidak akan merugikan penganjur.
Malah boleh membuatkan poket penganjur kembung berbulan-bulan lamanya. Memang untung.
Bagaimanapun, mendapat keuntungan yang berlipat ganda barangkali bukan agenda utama Glory Beach Resort untuk membawa Mawi ke pantai peranginan Port Dickson.
Resort terkemuka itu membawa Mawi sebagai hadiah untuk disampaikan kepada peminat di sekitar Negeri Sembilan.
Jika selama ini hanya mereka yang di sekitar Kuala Lumpur sahaja menikmati persembahan sempena Minggu Setiausaha, Glory Beach Resort ini ingin mencipta kelainan.
Meskipun pada awalnya mereka sendiri bagai ragu-ragu dan bimbang dengan sambutan penonton, tetapi pada malam acara berlangsung Sabtu lalu, senyum simpul bermain di bibir.
Segalanya meriah, segalanya ramah dan An Evening Celebration With Mawi meninggalkan kenangan indah tidak terperi di hati setiap yang datang.
Membawa emosi yang sama ke Port Dickson, penyanyi popular ini menjadikan acara ini sebagai sesuatu yang cukup setimpal kepada mereka yang hadir. Kehadiran Mawi ditunggu seawal pagi lagi.
Ada tetamu yang datang dari jauh, sanggup menginap dan bermalam di resort berkenaan semata-mata untuk menyambut kehadiran Mawi.
Nyatalah acara ini bukan hanya dikongsi bersama orang Port Dickson saja. Malah banyak yang dari Kuala Lumpur dan Melaka juga sudi hadir, memeriahkan acara bersama Mawi ini. Glory Beach Resort dibanjiri orang ramai gara-gara jejaka yang mendapat tempat di hati orang ramai ini.
Tidak bersendirian, An Evening Celebration With Mawi ini menampilkan Raja Azura sebagai pengacara. Raja Azura yang sememangnya ‘gamat’ mampu menahan rasa penonton yang tidak sabar untuk menantikan kemunculan Mawi.
Acara ini kemudiannya turut diserikan dengan persembahan fesyen istimewa sebagai panduan kepada para setiausaha untuk memilih dandanan yang sesuai sewaktu ke pejabat dan sebagainya.
Tukang lawaknya, siapa lagi kalau bukan Saiful Apek yang muncul dengan persembahan lawak yang membuatkan tetamu bagai nak pecah perut.
Bergelak ketawa bersama dengan Apek di pentas ialah dua pelawak baru yang lahir dari pertandingan Raja Lawak di Astro.
Meskipun banyak antara lawak jenaka Apek bagaikan sudah pernah digunakan sebelum ini, tetapi mungkin tidak ramai yang perasan.
Jadi, Apek dengan penuh keyakinannya menggunakan buah fikiran yang sama, seperti banyak persembahannya sebelum ini di Kuala Lumpur. Tapi rasa-rasanya, elok juga kalau Apek membanyakkan lagi modal lawaknya, supaya tidak memberi kehambaran kepada penonton yang sudah biasa melihat lawaknya.
Mawi mengambil tempat ketika jam sudah melewati pukul 10 malam. Tak senang duduk mereka yang di belakang, terus meluru ke depan memberi sedikit gangguan tontonan mereka di bahagian hadapan.
Tetapi apa boleh buat, itulah penangan Mawi. Nasib baik Mawi bijak melayan peminat, dia kemudian turun dari pentas dan ke belakang bertemu muka dan bersalam-salam.
Mawi turut mengenakan sebahagian peminat dengan mengajak mereka menari dan menyanyi, selain ‘mengenakan’ mereka dengan beberapa permainan spontan di pentas.
Sekali lagi kehebatan bermain silap mata yang baru dipelajarinya turut dibawa ke Port Dickson. Orang yang kagum tentunya peminat yang pertama kali melihat kebolehan Mawi bermain silap mata, tetapi yang sudah biasa melihat mungkin kurang sedikit rasa teruja.
Dalam persembahan sempena Minggu Setiausaha di Kuala Lumpur sebelum ini pun modal yang sama juga.
Mawi tidak melepaskan peluang, terus menghiburkan khalayak dengan lagu-lagu merdu dari album terdahulu dan album terbaru, Satu Dalam Seribu. Pukul 11.30 malam, tidak banyak yang berganjak walaupun Mawi sudah menyanyi lagu terakhir.
Ketika artis lelaki ini bersama beberapa pengawalnya menyusur mahu memasuki kereta untuk pulang ke Kuala Lumpur, masih ramai yang berbaris menanti peluang untuk bersalaman dengan Mawi. Itulah penangan Mawi yang tidak ada kalahnya di Glory Beach Resort, Port Dickson.
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