Tag: angels

  • Swarovski creates Victoria’s Secret Fantasy Bra

    Swarovski creates Victoria’s Secret Fantasy Bra

    Atelier Swarovski has partnered with Victoria’s Secret to craft this year’s 2018 Dream Angels Fantasy Bra. The bra, which will be modelled by Victoria’s Secret Angel Elsa Hosk at the 2018 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in New York, is crafted with more than 2100 Swarovski-created diamonds and topaz. Also, for the first time, the Fantasy Bra will place sustainability centrestage.

    Valued at US$1 million, the elaborate design took four craftsmen 930 hours to create, incorporating 71.05 carats of created diamonds with a pear-shape Swarovski created diamond centre stone weighing 2.03 carats. The bra’s casing is also set in sterling silver.

    Member of the Swarovski executive board Nadja Swarovski said the company was delighted to have been selected to collaborate with Victoria’s Secret on this year’s Fantasy Bra.

    “This stunning handcrafted Atelier Swarovski piece features thousands of Swarovski created diamonds set alongside responsibly sourced topaz. We hope it provides a bold new vision of luxury – mixing glamour and innovative materials – when it hits the runway at this legendary show.”

    Swarovski created diamonds are grown in a lab, yet have the same optical, chemical and physical attributes as mined diamonds – both are 100-per cent carbon and have the same hardness and brilliance.

    Elsa and the Fantasy Bra will walk the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show runway on December 2.

  • Victoria’s Secret to open mega store in Macau

    Victoria’s Secret to open mega store in Macau

    Victoria’s Secret will open a new mega store in Macau on April 27, as the US brand eyes further Asia expansion, following its China debut store opening last February.

    Under parent company L Brands, the 15,000-square-foot Macau full assortment store  — which not only sells its branded accessories and cosmetics but lingerie and sportswear — will bow at St Mark’s Square at The Venetian.

    In addition to the latest collections and pieces, the store will showcase five sets of Victoria’s Secret angel wings – all of which have featured on the runway of past Victoria’s Secret shows. The curate will be on display at The Venetian from April 26 to May 31.

    The news comes as the fashion lingerie conglomerate opened its first standalone store in mainland China in February. The four-story, 25,850-square-foot flagship opened in Shanghai, followed by a 12,294-square-foot store debut in Chengdu one week later. A Beijing store is coming later this year.

    Meanwhile, Victoria’s Secret’s Asia expansion is also taking on a flagship store in Hong Kong. The brand is reportedly taking up prime location in Causeway Bay, the former residence of Forever21. It is slated to open in Hong Kong next year.

    Fellow lingerie maker La Perla has already opened a four-storey flagship store in Causeway Bay in late 2015, located on the iconic, and expensive, Russell Street.

    More and more international retailers are renewing leases in the region as tents in Hong Kong continue to drop, especially in Causeway Bay.

    According to a recent report by Everbright Property Investment Consultancy. For the first quarter of 2017, major lease transaction records in Hong Kong’s high-traffic tourist areas — including Central, Causeway Bay, Mong Kok and Tsim Sha Tsui — featured drops in monthly rents of up to 72% in some cases.

    On average, Causeway Bay witnessed the sharpest rent price decline for the period, down 31%, the report said.

  • aCommerce serious about their Series B with new recruits and them joining shows confidence in our company

    aCommerce serious about their Series B with new recruits and them joining shows confidence in our company

    Veteran Cross-Border and Logistics Ecommerce Executive Leaves Arvato Bertelsmann to Join aCommerce as Group Chief Logistics Officer

    Mitch Bittermann to strengthen the cross-border and logistics capabilities of the growing end-to-end ecommerce enabler en route to Series B and arrival of ASEAN Economic Community

    Southeast Asia’s leading end-to-end ecommerce enabler confirmed the hire of Mitch Bittermann as their Group Chief Logistics Officer. Mitch joins aCommerce from arvato, where he was the General Manager for the Hong Kong branch and Head of arvato’s APAC Solution and Design team. As the Group CLO, Mitch will build and lead aCommerce cross-border initiatives to fulfill the increasing demand for easy intra-regional transactions in Southeast Asia as well as cross-border logistics with US, Europe and particularly, China. Mitch joins aCommerce at a time when eyes are increasingly on the region for both investment and ecommerce.

    “I’m excited to join the team at aCommerce. They’ve been at the forefront of driving ecommerce innovation in the region and are closely followed by many in the logistics space. The opportunity for cross-border in Southeast Asia is huge, with China outbound cross-border volume rapidly increasing as well as the upcoming ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) integration, the region will be a launchpad for new innovative distribution solutions,” said Mitch Bittermann, aCommerce Group CLO.

    With the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) just around the corner, intra-regional cross-border transaction volume is expected to increase rapidly as it will open borders and stimulate trade and commerce across Southeast Asia through better logistics capabilities.

    Companies like Amazon and London-based ASOS already count Southeast Asian countries like Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia as their fastest growing markets in Asia. Only last year, Amazon-owned Shopbop held a successful cross-border Black Friday/Cyber Monday campaign in partnership with Line and aCommerce. AEC will be a force-multiplier for this trend and allow more companies to extend their campaigns to the overseas audience.

    “With ecommerce in Southeast Asia heating up and the region being strategically positioned next to China, the world’s manufacturing and sourcing hub, there’s been a rapid increase in demand for cross-border logistics services across our client base,” said Paul Srivorakul, aCommerce Group CEO. “Having Mitch’s expertise in international logistics, we will be building out our next generation of cross-border logistics products and services to continue accelerating ecommerce in Southeast Asia.”

    Mitch helped set up Arvato’s cross-border operations in Singapore and Hong Kong serving customers in Asia and globally. With more than 10 years at Arvato, Mitch has worked on a multitude of international logistics projects including building up customer service operations in Canada, setting up distribution centers in Thailand and Europe and driving global freight optimization projects.

    En route to Series B fundraising, aCommerce has been strengthening its management team with recent additions of a new CEO and COO for Indonesia. Snorre Larstad (CEO) and Hadi Kuncoro (COO) joined aCommerce earlier last month to drive the next phase of growth of aCommerce Indonesia, which recently became aCommerce’s biggest regional operation in Southeast Asia surpassing Thailand and Philippines with 360 employees.

    “With our long term mission to make ecommerce easy in Southeast Asia, we’ve tackled the in-country logistics bottlenecks with our fulfilment centers, last-mile delivery solutions, and cash-on-delivery platform across Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Our next goal is to make intra-regional transactions as easy as possible too,” said Peter Kopitz, aCommerce Group COO.