BECKHAM’S GCDS TURN: Nicola Peltz Beckham is the latest addition to the inner circle of GCDS creative director Giuliano Calza — an increasingly packed group including bestie Dua Lipa and fellow designers such as Amina Muaddi and The Attico’s Gilda Ambrosio and Giorgia Tordini.
The American actress and daughter-in-law of Victoria and David Beckham is the latest muse of the hip Italian brand, and was tapped to front its spring 2023 advertising campaign, which will be officially unveiled Wednesday.
Photographed in Los Angeles by Zhong Lin under Calza’s artistic direction, Peltz Beckham is portrayed in sculptural poses against essential interiors and props — a velvet curtain here, a pink beach chair there.
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In one image she seems to do a lunge wearing a slip dress splashed with a SpongeBob SquarePants print and styled with fang-heeled vinyl boots; in another, she lies on the floor channeling a girl-next-door look pairing a white tank top with a denim miniskirt and logoed sweat socks. In her hand, an iridescent rendition of the brand’s Comma Bag, which also comes with matching statement platforms, in another picture.
“She embodies the GCDS woman: playful, hot and deadly sassy,” said Calza to WWD.
“I met Nicola years ago at a dinner and was captivated both by this huge velvet bow on her ponytail and the jokes she kept cracking all night. Since then we shared many fun adventures between L.A., London and Paris while never leaving the dance floor,” recalled the designer. “One day we started discussing something creative to work on together and that turned into a global campaign idea. A wedding, many parties and phone calls later, we were on set in L.A. with [her husband] Brooklyn and the dogs and it was exactly like the first time we met.”
The reunion on set offered a teaser of the collaboration, as both the designer and the actress shared a behind-the-scenes moment from that day in early January on their respective Instagram accounts.
In particular, Peltz Beckham posted a picture with the designer, followed by one with her husband covered with the marks of her fire-red lipstick. Among her 2.8 million followers, Calza commented under the picture with hearts and “make Brooklyn gelly.”
Created for the campaign, the seductive beauty look matched her red lips with long nails and was completed by a black cat-eye liner. It was conceived by makeup artist Kate Lee and nail artist Emi Kudo, while hairstylist Adir Abergel coiffed the brunette hair Peltz Beckham debuted in August on the red carpet of Variety’s Power of Young Hollywood event.
As a GCDS face, Peltz Beckham joins the likes of Elsa Hosk, Pamela Anderson, Caroline Vreeland and “Élite” star Arón Piper, who all fronted campaigns for the brand in the past.
This is not her first fashion campaign. In 2021, she joined her at-the-time fiancé in fronting a Pepe Jeans campaign.
Daughter of billionaire businessman Nelson Peltz and former model Claudia Heffner, the “Transformers” actress tied the knot with Brooklyn Peltz Beckham, the eldest child of the former Spice Girl and the English football legend, last year. Ever since the lavish ceremony in Palm Beach, Florida, which was attended by nearly 600 guests, the couple have had a busy social calendar of events, ranging from red carpet appearances to attending Victoria Beckham’s Paris Fashion Week debut in September.
An acronym for “Giuliano Calza Design Studio,” GCDS was founded by Calza and his brother Giordano in 2015. Debuted as a digital project, it evolved into a fashion company, with its first runway show held in June 2016 in Milan. At the end of 2020, Italian private equity firm Made in Italy Fund, managed by Quadrivio and Pambianco, acquired a majority stake in the label. — SANDRA SALIBIAN
GRACE AT HARRODS: The Grace de Monaco luxury fragrance and silk accessory collection is landing in the U.K. at Harrods on Wednesday, as part of an international rollout plan for the luxury house founded in 2021.
Grace de Monaco, which sells fragrance, homeware and accessories, describes itself as a “luxury-for-good maison” and a “new model” for high-end brands. All profits from product sales are destined for the Princess Grace Foundation USA, which supports emerging artists in theater, dance and film.
Harrods will launch with the brand’s signature Promenade Sur Le Rocher collection, which includes white floral notes, bergamot, rose centifolia, ylang-ylang and jasmine.
Sur Le Rocher was developed by Olivier Cresp of Firmenich, and the perfumer Veronique Gabai. The bottles, sculpted candles, porcelain diffusers and packaging were made by the designer Jérôme Faillant-Dumas.
The scents come as a parfum and an eau de parfum, in ceramic diffusers and as scented candles.
In the next months, Harrods will also sell the Danse Étoilée Collection, which features top notes of citrus, rhubarb and cassis blended with lily of the valley, geranium, freesia and roses.
The collection’s silk scarves were also designed by Faillant-Dumas and hand-screened in Italy, with Princess Grace’s signature on the borders. Their designs are inspired by elements of Monaco such as the floral displays and casinos.
Fragrance prices range from 560 pounds for a 30-ml bottle of Promenade Sur Le Rocher Parfum, to 425 pounds for a silk scarf, to 110 pounds for a 250g scented candle with the Sur Le Rocher scent.
The collection sells in the U.S. at Neiman Marcus online, and the plan is to roll out to Neiman’s physical stores later this year. It is also sold online at the brand’s site, GDmonaco.com. Additional partnerships are pending in the U.K. and Asia, according to principals.
While Grace de Monaco initially launched with fragrance, silks and home, the plan is to expand into other categories including fine jewelry, accessories, sunglasses, handbags and color cosmetics.
Kevin Thompson, the brand’s chief marketing officer, said The Princess Grace Foundation USA launched Grace de Monaco as “an extension of the foundation’s mission, and an important new funding stream.”
The foundation operates under the patronage of Princess Grace’s son, Prince Albert II, “who is dedicated to the enduring legacy of his mother, and to the important mission of supporting excellence in the arts. He continues to take an active role in building the foundation in partnership with the board, CEO and staff,” Thompson said.
He added that Prince Albert was “a deciding voice” in the launch of the Grace de Monaco brand.
Asked about the fragrance ingredients, Thompson said that Cresp worked initially with florals that were favored by Princess Grace herself. “He then built a thoroughly modern rendition capturing her strength and beauty, combined that with the quintessential French Riviera joie de vivre.”
The brand operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Princess Grace Foundation USA, with all proceeds directly supporting the Princess Grace Awards program.
The Princess Grace Awards identify and support extraordinary emerging artists in the arts through career-advancing grants. Over the past 39 years, the foundation has handed out more than 800 awards.
Previous beneficiaries include Jon M. Chu, who directed “Crazy Rich Asians”; the actor Oscar Isaac; principal dancer Tiler Peck of the New York City Ballet, and the Tony Award-winning Broadway actor Leslie Odom Jr., who played Aaron Burr in the Broadway musical “Hamilton.” — SAMANTHA CONTI
WHITE MILANO’S NEW DESIGNERS: Ready-to-wear and accessory trade show White Milano is gearing up to host 300 brands and several projects in the Tortona, Italy, fashion district, running Feb. 24 to 27.
The title of this year’s campaign to communicate the trade show, which was entrusted to photographer Arash Radpour, is “Facing the New.”
Radpour was inspired by the genome map, recently completed by experts, which records the unique characteristics of each human being. For this reason, he chose four unknown individuals whose images in the video change and morph into one another to represent global society.
In fact, a key element in the White Milano concept is the enhancement of the brands’ and designers’ ethnic and cultural diversity included in the edition. For example, the Secret Rooms project that promotes the work of international designers will once again take place at the fair, thanks to the scouting carried out by the White team and president and founder Massimiliano Bizzi.
During a press conference held Tuesday, Bizzi referred to the event as a venue where there will be a strong international brand mix, underscoring the importance of innovation and “a selection [of designers] that focuses on quality and uniqueness.”
Among the brands and designers bowing at White Milano are Romeo Hunte, the American luxury brand, and Olubiyi Thomas, a Scottish designer with Nigerian origins.
The presence of six North American Indigenous designers will also be of note, presented thanks to a collaboration with the Canadian embassy and the IFA — Indigenous Fashion Art program.
Innovation Norway, in a collaboration with Norway Fashion Hub for the Expo White section, will present five brands from Norway. The focus will be on creativity and sustainability, both environmental and to promote a better lifestyle for employees.
After the easing of restrictions by the Chinese government in December, organizers are also hoping buyers from China will return to White Milano, allowing smaller brands to connect with the Chinese market. — ANDREA ONATE
PRESERVATION ACT: Louis Vuitton is pushing forward on its biodiversity strategy by joining forces with People for Wildlife.
The French luxury brand will embark on a five-year conservation partnership based in Queensland, Australia.
Louis Vuitton will support the conservations group’s work in preserving a 400,000-hectare area on the Cape York Peninsula, which includes tropical forests, woodland, fresh-water ecosystems and coastline. People for Wildlife’s scope of activities includes scientific field research, monitoring of wildlife and support of land-management initiatives with local communities, as well as creating sustainable businesses.
People for Wildlife was founded by Dr. Daniel Natusch in 2020, who has long been a supporter of using exotic skins in luxury goods as a means to promote habitat conservation.
“Seeking to scale-up efforts to preserve the environment and regenerate biodiversity, the partnership with People for Wildlife was a natural choice for Louis Vuitton given their many shared environmental values. Moreover, the partnership offers the opportunity to better understand the sustainable use of nature-based materials, which are the essence of luxury goods-making,” the company said in a statement.
The project helps parent company LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton reach its conservation target goal of restoring 5 million hectares of land by 2030, laid out in its Life 360 environmental program. It targets regenerating habitat and ecosystems, as well as supporting regenerative agriculture. In total, various programs have resulted in 657,000 hectares preserved or regenerated, according to LVMH numbers released in December 2022.
People for Wildlife is a market-based conservation group that seeks to create partnerships with businesses and Indigenous communities to create sustainable supply chains. — RHONDA RICHFORD