Jeremy Allen White Ads, Givenchy’s ‘Frozen’ Capsule, Boss Lobs Tennis – WWD

WOWS FOR WHITE: Calvin Klein’s latest underwear campaign featuring actor Jeremy Allen White is a hit. 

Released on Jan. 4, the campaign generated $12.7 million in media impact value for the brand in less than 48 hours, according to Launchmetrics. The brand, by itself, generated $3 million in MIV, with its top placement being an Instagram worth $859,000 in MIV. The post now has more than 1.4 million likes.

Shot by Mert Alas and styled by Emmanuelle Alt, the campaign quickly went viral on social media after its release. White’s name was one of the most talked about topics on X (formerly known as Twitter) on Jan. 5. The brand’s first video promoting the campaign on TikTok has now more than 4.5 million views. 

In the campaign, White is seen wearing the brand’s spring 2024 underwear collection, which comes with new logo treatments and materials for everyday comfort, including New Intense Power, Micro Stretch and Micro Mesh styles. The piece was shot in Manhattan to showcase the actor’s connection with New York, where he was born. 

On Sunday, White attended the Golden Globe Awards 2024. He was nominated as Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy TV Series for his role as chief Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto in “The Bear.”

In November, Skims bet on a similar strategy of inviting male celebrities to promote the launch of its menswear collection. The underwear campaign featuring Nick Bosa, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Neymar Jr. generated $4.5 million in MIV for the brand. — RENAN BOTELHO

ICING ON THE CAKE: At 10 years old, “Frozen” still holds youngsters in thrall. Now Givenchy has teamed up with Disney to mark the first major milestone of the hugely popular animated feature with a capsule collection for children.

The line for girls and boys is made up of seven pieces inspired by the beloved characters of Elsa and Olaf, rendered in a palette of black, white and blue. Priced from $249 to $1,529, the line is available at select retailers and globally at givenchy.com.

Would-be princesses might opt for an ice blue dress twinkling with Swarovski crystals that form Givenchy’s signature 4G logo on the bodice. Flaring out into a mesh skirt and a short train embellished with snowflake embroidery, it can be worn with sparkly silver ballet flats or with black-and-white high-tops for an edgier take.

The collection also includes black-and-white T-shirts featuring the silhouette of Olaf, the snowman with the carrot nose, and a pale blue T-shirt dress printed with an image of Elsa for super-fans of the character voiced by Idina Menzel, who famously sings “Let It Go.”

These are rounded out by staples such as shorts, skirts and pants, and accessories including baseball caps and bobs, and several sneaker styles, from tennis shoes to runners and high-tops.

It marks the latest chapter in the long-term collaboration between the entertainment conglomerate and the LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton-owned fashion house, which started in 2022. The initial capsule line, dubbed “The Wonder Gallery,” already included some items featuring Elsa and Olaf, alongside other famous cartoon characters such as Bambi, Perdita and Pongo from “101 Dalmatians.”

Since its release “Frozen” has become a pop culture phenomenon and is one of the highest-grossing animation films of all time. Disney recently opened its first “Frozen” themed land, World of Frozen, at Hong Kong Disneyland Resort on Nov. 20.

“Our latest collection with Givenchy is fun, fresh and celebrates our beloved characters from Disney’s Frozen, in honor of the film’s 10th anniversary. We work with global fashion partners to create unique and whimsical collections that are rooted in Disney storytelling and create something truly distinct in the market for families to enjoy,” said Tasia Filippatos, president of Disney Consumer Products, Games and Publishing. — JOELLE DIDERICH

SHE SERVES: As the Australian Open gets underway in Melbourne this week, German brand Hugo Boss is lobbing its first collection of tennis clothing for women.

Around the same time last year, Hugo Boss announced a multiyear partnership with Italian tennis player Matteo Berrettini. Although the company has seen its name on tennis competitions in the past — Hugo Boss sponsored the Davis Cup in the 1980s as well as various local contests — Berrettini was the first player it had ever sponsored. For the Boss line, Berrettini helped create a capsule collection of athletic gear and acts as an ambassador for the other clothing. The Berrettini collaboration launched last summer and another is coming this year.  

Now it’s the female athletes’ turn. Two brand ambassadors — Germany’s Noma Noha Akugue and Ella Seidel — will be appearing in the qualifying rounds in Australia sporting items from the new womenswear capsule.

The two players will be competing in Boss tennis dresses, skirts and layered shorts, all in the company’s low-key colors, cream and black.

Hugo Boss’ sponsorship of athletes is part of a growing trend in professional sports, where athletes have been swapping from more traditional sportswear makers like Adidas or Nike to the likes of Emporio Armani, Lululemon and Gap offshoot Athleta. The relationships also go the other way. For example, Berrettini is sponsored by shoemaker, Asics, and a special Asics x Boss x Matteo Berrettini shoe, with the Boss logo and colors, is also part of the new capsule for 2024. — CATHRIN SCHAER

FLOWER BOY: “Weekend essentials” is how Kris Van Assche captioned one of the many selfies on his Instagram account depicting him arriving at home cradling a spectacular bunch of fresh-cut flowers.

Now he’s turned his passion for arrangements into a side hustle: At W China’s annual gala in Shanghai on Wednesday night, guests repairing to the 200-foot-long dinner table discovered as centerpieces more than 300 flower boxes by the Belgian fashion designer.

“I thought about what a shame it is these kind of dinners only last two hours and that all the flowers simply end up in the trash,” he said. “So I came up with an idea of flower boxes — three sizes and three different heights — and guests will be invited to take those boxes home after dinner, as many as they can carry.”

Van Assche concentrated on his go-to flowers — tulips, hydrangeas and orchids — and a black, white and red color story.

“It’s been a fun experience working as a florist for a day,” he said, while confessing there was more than three weeks of prep work in Paris in the lead-up to the event.

“Flowers and fashion are the same,” he mused at the Shanghai event, which marked his first time visiting China since COVID-19. “It’s not necessary. But it’s the extra plus that makes all the difference.”

W China’s editor in chief Mix Wei said his staff noticed Van Assche’s knack with stems on Instagram and approached him directly with the table decor assignment.

“It has an oriental touch, very poetic and zen, but also the opulence of Western floral arrangements, just like the menu today, a duet of Chinese flavors and fine dining,” said Chinese actress Zhu Zhu, who attended the gala in a red Proenza Schouler gown.

“Flower arrangement is a disciplined practice in our culture. I really saw his patience, his dedication to building a story around these three simple colors,” added Chu Wong, a Chinese model who also arranges flowers as a hobby.

Since winding up a three-year stint as Berluti’s artistic director in 2021, Van Assche has created a collection for Chinese kidswear giant Balabala, and published a book about his career so far, spanning 55 collections across his own brand, Dior Homme and Berluti. — MILES SOCHA AND DENNI HU

NEW AMBASSADOR: J.Lindeberg is kicking off the new year with a new brand ambassador.

The Swedish fashion label has tapped 27-year-old tennis player Christopher Eubanks as its latest brand ambassador. Eubanks will kick off the partnership at the upcoming Australian Open, where he will be wearing styles from J.Lindeberg’s PS24 tennis collection. 

“The combination of style both on and off the court is probably the biggest thing that drew me to J.Lindeberg,” Eubanks said. “Seeing how much time and effort they put into both elements of style and fashion made me feel like this is a great fit. Then when I met the team and I saw how much passion everyone has for this partnership, I knew it was the right decision.”

Eubanks has made waves in the tennis world over the last few years, starting his career playing the sport at Georgia Tech, where he was a two-time All-American and was named the ACC Player of the Year twice. 

“We are simply delighted to welcome Christopher Eubanks to our team, with his bold approach and dedication to the game and unique style of play, I can’t think of a better ambassador to represent the spirit of our brand,” said Hans-Christian Meyer, chief executive officer of J.Lindeberg. “We look forward to supporting him across sport and fashion in every way possible as he continues to take up more space in the world of tennis.” 

The appointment continues J.Lindeberg’s heritage in the sports world and bridging it with fashion. While the brand is primarily associated with golf in the U.S., J.Lindeberg has been growing its presence in tennis. Last August the label named Czech tennis player Markéta Vondroušová a brand ambassador. — LAYLA ILCHI

MARI’S MOMENT: The first solo U.K. exhibition of Italian modernist designer Enzo Mari is set to be held at the Design Museum from March 29 to Sept. 8.

Born in the 1930s in Novara, Italy, Mari’s communist upbringing played a key role in his design philosophy to create sustainably made art — which ranged from paintings and furniture to text.

Co-curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, artistic director of the Serpentine Gallery, and Francesca Giacomelli, Mari’s studio project assistant, designer, curator and researcher, the exhibition will examine the artist’s vast body of work, which spans nearly 2,000 objects. 

“Mari believed that ‘ethics is the goal of every project’. He didn’t want to create objects, he wanted to create models for a different society, for a different way of producing and living,” Giacomelli said.

“The aim was to have people become part of the project itself: to free the others from the passive role of consumer, because the project is not a form to contemplate or to be consumed, but an instrument of transformation that requires the active participation of a community, made aware by knowledge,” she added.

Pieces on display will include crisp prints of brightly colored apples and pears from Mari’s “Nature Series,” wooden jigsaw puzzles with animal-shaped pieces made as a part of “16 Animals,” and archival material research.

Specially commissioned tributes from artists including Virgil Abloh, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Mimmo Jodice and Dozie Kanu also will be on display, each reflecting on Mari’s life and impact. — VIOLET GOLDSTONE

A NEW EDITION: Two Highsnobiety alumni — Tom Garland, former senior director and head of strategy, and Christopher Morency, former editorial director at the now-Zalando-owned streetwear site — have joined forces to launch Edition+partners.

Billed as a “creative growth company offering up-to-date strategic blueprints to help distinctively original creative projects launch, survive and thrive,” the duo said the firm, which was partially named after the location where they first brainstormed the idea — the Edition Hotel in London — aims to disrupt the creative sector just as A24 and XL Recordings have done for the film and music industries by learning from the old guard and doing things smartly and differently for the new era.

Garland said Edition+partners was born out of “our shared frustrations at the general lack of speed in the industry. As the companies we used to work for become bigger and bigger on a global scale, they just weren’t able to adapt quickly enough to changing consumer mindsets and behaviors.”

“At the same time, from the heart perspective, we started to get disenfranchised with just how difficult it was for young, independent artists in different cultural fields to get their incredible work up and running, which got us thinking, it doesn’t need to be that difficult,” he added.

“A big thing to add to why we started this was because we were in the boardrooms where we were able to see how these decisions were made,” Morency said. “But at the same time, we’re still out and about on that street level. We see this huge disconnect.”

“What we want to do is to bridge that gap between creativity and commerce, and supercharge brands’ creativity to enable the commercial success to be more culturally relevant and up to date with how today’s customer shops,” he added.

Launching with six clients, which include a Lagos-based culture festival, a Stockholm-based tailoring house, an iconic denim brand and a creator economy tech solution, the duo said Edition+partners is looking to “remedy the hardship that is felt by these young independent thinkers and help them reach prominence by voiding some of the missteps that are completely avoidable.”

During his time at Highsnobiety, Garland worked on cultural programs and campaigns for more than 100 brand partners such as Dries Van Noten, Moncler, Bayern Munich and Nike across the luxury, fashion, sports, retail and music industries.

Most recently the chief brand officer at Nanushka and Sunnei’s parent company Vanguards, Morency will also spearhead SOTA, or State of the Art, the content arm of Edition+partners that’s touted to be “a business card to showcase how we think without having any restraints.”

Coinciding with the company launch, SOTA will gradually release its inaugural research thesis “The Next Big Bang: The Brand Universe Solution to Growth” on Substack in the next eight weeks.

Six months in the making, the study included findings from a survey with 350 industry participants, and insights from more than 50 fashion brand founders and executives including Ledger’s chief experience officer Ian Rogers; Palm Angels’ Francesco Ragazzi; Yoon Ahn from Ambush; Charaf Tajer of Casablanca; Ami CEO Nicolas Santi-Weil; Ganni’s creative duo Nicolaj Reffstrup, and Ditte Reffstrup, as well as executives from Sephora, Adidas, On Running, Gymshark, Humanrace, Our Legacy, and emerging designers like Priya Ahluwalia, Alex Arsenault and Charlotte Knowles of Knwls, and Chet Lo.

“The report goes into great detail identifying four distinct pillars that make up a brand universe: horizontal expansion, a new approach to community segmentation, the erosion of the lines between marketing and selling methods, and being the first to embrace emerging technologies. In short, it’s a rallying cry for those who refuse to become laggards in an ever-changing world that is moving at a speed faster than ever before,” Morency said.

Equally contrarian to the company’s belief, LinkedIn will be the primary social media platform for Edition+partners to engage with its audience and promote its reports. There won’t be a dedicated Instagram account, the duo said. — TIANWEI ZHANG

THINKING BIG: Atelier E.B, the collective practice of textile designer Beca Lipscombe and the visual artist Lucy McKenzie, will showcase their new fashion collection Big Tobacco at the Lavery Studio at Cromwell Place in London.

Presenting a mix of fine knitwear, streetwear and accessories, the collection is largely inspired by women’s tennis, and was made in collaboration with other brands that are focused on making locally produced fashion collections.

Scottish heritage brand Alex Begg provided lambswool and cashmere for the scarves and blankets; Assembly helped with the cotton shirts, and knitted skirt suits were made with the assistance of Tweedvale Knitwear.

There are also accessories made by Atelier Elf, including woven ribbon bracelets, which were originally made for artist Marc Camille Chaimowicz’s recent exhibition “Zig Zag and Many Ribbons.”

Alongside the collection, Atelier E.B will also present “Faux Sport Shop,” an installation in a vitrine from artist Steff Norwood. The display resembles a shopfront with hanging items of clothing. The installation will be there from Feb. 14 to 25 as part of a new program being developed for Cromwell Place’s chief executive officer and artistic director, Helen Nisbet.

The “Faux Sport Shop” will then travel to the Z33 Museum in Hasselt, Belgium, in September.

Atelier E.B, whose initials stand for Lipscombe’s and McKenzie’s respective locales: Edinburgh and Brussels, have built a steady direct-to-consumer business using their fine art connections. Each of their collections are toured by the duo in showrooms and museum-like spaces. — HANA YAQOOB