ETRO SS2015 @ Menswear Collection

  

ETRO SS2015 Menswear Collection just in time for Milan’s food-themed world Expo next year, the Puglia-based Etro tailors have been busy cooking up a Spring 2015 Collection that pays homage to Italy’s great culinary tradition. With a nod to Arcimboldo’s luscious 16^th century vegetable portraits as well as the classic Italian tavola imbandita (an endless banquet-style table piled with rich abundance), Kean’s latest men’s collection is fueled by food. Prints are packed with dancing pastas, swirling Etro home plates, and piles of raw crustaceans. Tomato sauce embroideries are poured over pasta prints. The distinctive check and striped patterns of traditional tablecloths, dish cloths and napkins are unfurled on chic men’s suiting.

The patterns this season are artful compositions that converse playfully with their culinary source material. Digital photographs of real design team meals are fractured into kaleidoscopes of food, while vegetables, lasagne and risotto Milanese are given a metaphysical touch. Patterns, including dense florals and swirling paisley, alternate between macro and micro formats, surprising the eye as they move back and forth into focus. A sunny palette of bright yellow, electric pink, turquoise speaks to the carefree summer mood.

The collection buzzes with new energy and brims with adventure, but the clothes are firmly rooted in the solidarity of Etro’s sartorial know-how. Double breasted jackets swing with case, pants possess a new relaxed shape.

Jackets and coats are beautifully lined in traditional silk with Neapolitan stripes or an Indian paisley. Bomber jackets, trackpants and trench coats fuse the collection with a sporty non-chalance.

The collection opens with five white jackets, each impeccably crafted from an unusual organic material. From bamboo, hemp, nettle, and even milk, the unorthodox woven natural fibers create a biodiversity of textiles and fresh textures. Also featured: boiled cashmere, cotton silk, silk linen, rustic cottons. 

The collection comes to a close with a silk track suit covered in Kean’s all-time favourite meal: spaghetti alle vongole. Accessories include bi-colour mocassians in hemp and leather, lace-up shoes in a patchwork of cork, hemp and real wood, and bowling bags printed with trompe l’oeil embossed paisleys and stripes.

The obsession with food this season reverberates further than the confines of fashion. Together with Carlo Petrini – President of Italy’s Slow Food movement, Kean has also embarked on an initiative to build 10,000 vegetable gardens throughout Africa.

 Entitled Terra Madre, the charity links with the theme of this season’s collection as well as next year’s Expo to create an homage to Italy’s excellence in food and fashion, and to the great potential and adventure that lays wait around bountiful tables throughout the world.

RK @ A New Haute Hand & Body Cream Moisturizer

RK reignes from an iconic spokeswomen of successful entrepreneurs who wield extreme influence in the beauty industry, renowned actress Rosamund Kwan and "New Era Beauty Queen" Helen Ma - both style icons and cosmopolitan beauties who inspire of demanding and successful careers possess delicate, fine skin that is timelessly exudes confidence and feminine charisma. Sharing the same devotion towards beauty and exploration of effective, high quality and easy-to-use products, they proudly introduces RK - a new beauty brand based on their brilliant beauty experience and dedication towards bring forward premium, affordable beauty products that can benefit all walks of women. Manufactured in Australia, all the ingredients used in RK products are delicate and natural, without contaning any harmful chemicals, colorants or preservatives. The co-founders take pride in sourcing the most effective natural ingredients for all RK products and strive to present women with honest solutions. RK's inaugural release - the Hand & Body Cream Moisturizer contains purified water, shea butter, Glycerin, Caprylic/capric, triglycerides, Macadamia ternifolia seed oil and Glycine soja oil is a pure rose essence to pamper and hydrate every inch of your body. For details, visit www.rkbeauty.com.hk

Ulysse Nardin Presents Lang Shining Limited Edition In Celebration of the 45th Anniversary of Elegant Watch & Jewellery

Ulysse Nardin presents Lang Shining Limited Edition in celebration of the 45th anniversary of Elegant Watch & Jewellery. 8 sets of 4 watches, with watch dials featuring designs inspired by the work of Lang Shining (Giuseppe Castiglione, 1688 to 1768), who served as a Court painter for 51 years, spanning the period of the three emperors Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty. Lang Shining was particularly skillful in painting birds and flowers, and the watch dial designs feature the essence from his masterpieces “Beautiful Spring – Pheasants and Flowers”, “Flowers and a Pair of Cranes” and “Album of Birds and Flowers”. Using the technique of acrylic painting on the mother of pearl dial, skilled master craftsmen from Ulysee Nardin spent over 40 hours hand painting the meticulous images inspired by Lang Shining’s paintings on the limited space dials, sharing the magical interflow of the East and West cultural currents with watch lovers and connoisseurs. Lang Shining was born in Milan, Italy. Endowed with great talents of Western painting techniques, he joined the Society of Jesus at Genoa as a Brother at the age of 19. He came to China in 1715 and was presented to Emperor Kangxi under the aegis of Father Matteo Ripa. He was asked to learn Chinese painting under the order of the Emperor. During the reign of Qianlong, Lang Shining’s talent was even more favoured. He was good at painting portraits, birds and flowers, and dogs and horses. Although his painting skill was fundamentally based on Western methods of chiaroscuro and perspective, he realized the essence of the Chinese artistic tradition and combined the two art forms successfully with his own original approach. According to historians focusing on the study of late Ming and Qing dynasties, Lang Shining was the main propagator of the Western influence on Chinese painting. “Beautiful Spring – Pheasants and Flowers”, “Flowers and a Pair of Cranes” and “Album of Birds and Flowers” are the works of Lang Shining during Qianlong period, deploying auspicious objects and settings as the background. Members of the royal family were fond of his work.

“Album of Birds and Flowers”

The album contains 16 different studies of plants and flowers, painted mostly for the emperor’s consorts. The paintings displayed flowers for the four seasons, highlighted by huge rocks, birds and scattered sward. Lang Shining applied Western techniques of chiaroscuro and perspective, fully exhibiting the luxurious realism of the European Renaissance.

“Beautiful Spring – Pheasants and Flowers”

Employing Western painting techniques, Lang Shining drew the two very lively pheasants with brilliant and intensive colours. Yet the background of this painting contains rocks and flowers that Lang Shining applied with traditional Chinese painting skills.

“Flowers and a Pair of Cranes”

In the Chinese culture, cranes are considered as birds from heaven, symbolizing longevity. This painting is an expression of peace and eternity. The cranes that Lang Shining painted looked slim and elegant, their feathers seemed white and soft, particularly the black feathers on their tails. The flowers around them were painted gracefully and charmingly, and also smelled good!   

Maison Margiela @ SS2015 Mens Collection

Maison Margiela SS2015 Mens Collection looks upon the garments and questions them, enciphers them. Spontaneous and radical, a style manifesto ensues. Clothing is studious yet playful, reinterpreted & reworked. The allure is rendered undefinable, dismantled, purged. Classic suits, bonded linings, faded or nude tones. Trompe-l’oeil body suits cling like second skin, effacing the figure under the suit. Sartorial textures evaporate, disseminate. Loose knits, open edges, treated sponge, overdyed. Typical constructions hide under a monochrome cloak: shirts, jackets, coats in clumps of materials and colours are superimposed.

 Traditional lines are disordered. Materials and volumes are deconstructed then replaced. Symmetry is displaced. Trousers and jackets are cut into strips and reassembled; shirts are divided and reunited by zips. University jackets are ripped apart, interchanged and sewn back together, revealing mismatched fabrics. Nude body suits appropriate embroidered university symbols.

 Oversized trousers and graphic, airy trench coats are cut from two parachutes. Thoughts hang in the air like an extension of the garment. Fabrics and shapes contort. Collars are detached from their counterparts by transparent margins. Boots and trainers are torn apart and stuck back together.

ARMANI Aqua @ Infinity Brunch

Hong Kong has a plethora of places to have that special brunch on a Sunday, but there is always the question of “how much bang do I get for my buck?” Well ARMANI Aqua has the answer for those of you that like a more signature approach with their ‘infinity brunch’, a combination of Japanese and Italian semi-buffet dishes, as well as infinite hot dishes brought to your table, with a choice of signature main courses and a crustacean bar. I think that must whet your appetite, right? To quench your thirst and heighten the Sunday ritual, there is an option of free flow Veuve Cliquot champagne, custom made Bloody Marys and Bellinis which is hard to pass up in such a chic venue.

The ambience is a little different from the usual brunch venues, as the dining room is enclosed with no real outside view, so in the heat of the summer, you are blessed with a cool and subtly lit dining room that encourages a more pleasant and less noisy experience (we were fortunate to be there on a quiet day with the absence of children and large families, you won't like to see children running around while you are stylishly sipping your champagne). Despite the ambience lacking of the background music and furniture show its age, the service staff were rather in sleep walking at all times lacking of attentiveness and attention paying towards table services.

They do have a lot of choices covered for those that are both seafood and carnivorous focused. At the Japanese end of the spectrum, there is a decent range of sushi and sashimi, the aforementioned crustacean bar, some beautiful Italian cold cuts, Scottish smoked salmon, to mention but a few things from the buffet selection.

A cheese platter for your selection

The buffet salad bar

Main courses are a plenty, depending on whether you will stay with the normal selections, or choose some very special up-market offerings for an additional cost with even more selections to whet the appetite.

The buffet was sensibly presented in small portions, so replenishment was quite frequent and the ingredients always tasted very fresh. We loved the variety and the fact that the food on offer represents two different styles of preparation (Japanese and Italian) to really create an appetite for a varied clientele.

The dining room are furnished with Armani Casa furniture, of course.

Our favourites for the brunch were the simple wishes like the Scottish smoked salmon and the hot dishes brought to the table, such as the clam pasta, veal fillet and the Japanese platter consisting of tempura prawn, yakitori chicken skewers and deep fried sweet potato and corn balls.

Tried & Tested:

Location: 4/5

Ambience: 2.5/5

Design & Decor: 3/5
Food & Beverage: 4/5

Service: 2.5/5

Highlights :

Food

Flaws:
Service
Ambience

ARMANI Aqua

2/F Landmark Chater (Chater House)
8 Connaught Road
Central Hong Kong
Tel:+852 3583 2828