Luxury Freebie (yes, really)

We all love receiving freebies every once in a while (okay, maybe more than once in a while), and if it's a luxury freebie, that's even more exciting. If there is also an occasion to celebrate, all the better.

It is in line with this spirit of sharing that Luxe Corp has decided to give away a glam evening clutch 'minaudière' by celebrated French designer Sylvia Toledano, to mark the re-launch of its corporate website on 30th March 2011. To participate in the competition and challenge your lucky star, click here or on the image above and follow the instructions. Bonne chance!

The Cyber-Resident Takes Center Stage at Club e-Luxe

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I don't know if anyone remembers this but in 2006, TIME Magazine’s choice of its annual “Person of the Year” was “You”, the online user. Four years later in 2010, the magazine chose the Founder of Facebook as its “Personality of the Year”,  following earlier nominations of world leaders,  reformers and personalities that have shaped the world and influenced the course of humanity.

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What does this mean in today’s online and offline worlds? Definite change!

It means that the online user otherwise known as the “Cyber-Resident” has emerged to be one of the key influencers of our world today. It also means that the state of the digital economy resounds in every aspect of the cyber-resident’s existence in both the physical and virtual worlds.  In short, the online user has become the winner of the world wide web, particularly in the context of the vastly connected social web.

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It means that the online user otherwise known as the “Cyber-Resident” has emerged to be one of the key influencers of our world today. It also means that the state of the digital economy resounds in every aspect of the cyber-resident’s existence in both the physical and virtual worlds.  In short, the online user has become the winner of the world wide web, particularly in the context of the vastly connected social web.

This also means a lot for the luxury sector. But luxury needs to get its homework straight. 

Photo taken at the Club e-Luxe Breakfast Seminar, 13th January 2011, The Ritz Hotel Paris

First, luxury has to take time to understand this audience, luxury must dig deep into their psyche and know what moves them and what makes them tick. In short, luxury must get into their skin and walk around it and feel the very beat of their emotions, psychology and actions online.

In addition, luxury must also master the tools that enhance their cyber-world and use these to delight them while ensuring that their evolution is respected. Luxury must also feed them through branded content and engage them through exceptional services and offerings. Then luxury must continue to evolve in order to lead them online as well as offline. 

Photo taken at the Club e-Luxe Breakfast Seminar, 13th January 2011, The Ritz Hotel Paris

This sounds like a lot of work. Can luxury rise up to this challenge? Well, I personally think so, but there are steps (perhaps strides) to be taken before luxury can get there.  These challenges will be dissected by practicing experts at the 5th edition of the Club e-Luxe International Summit to take place on Tuesday 31st May 2011 at the Ritz Hotel Paris. To find out more, click here.  

Here Comes HP's Wireless Pack!

As every tech and digital buff already knows, HP recently announced the launch of its tablet PC, aptly named the Touchpad and two smart phones, the Pre 3 deviced for work and life and its baby sister, the Veer, created for interactivity and experience.

In addition to the integration of the much talked about webOS intuitive system that powers all the three devices, they all have excellent navigation and multi-tasking features. For example the Pre 3 and Veer phones enable the viewing of multiple web and doc pages that can be alternated via simple light swipes of the finger. It's intuitive "Just Type" system is capable of pulling up a selection from the phone's contents including apps, messages, address book etc just by typing a word randomly. Above all, the data sync function is excellent. Content can be shared, transferred and experienced from one device to another by simply tapping them together. In other words you can begin watching a video on the phone and continue watching it on the Touchpad without interruption, by tapping them together. Does this call to mind a certain movie called Minority Report? It looks like future is here.

HP's Fashion Laptop Clutch designed by Vivienne Tam

The look and feel doesn't disappoint either. The pure and fine form of all three devices calls to mind objects that could perfectly fit in a contemporary art gallery. This is hardly surprising if we recall HP's delectable fashion laptop clutch series created in collaboration with Vivienne Tam, that marked the entrance of tech products on fashion runways. This is what excites me about technology - its multiple possibilities for exceptional experiences.

So while anticipating the launch of  the Touchpad, the Pre 3 and the Veer this spring, I can't help thinking that the James Bond girl experience isn't that far off. The HP trio will be previewed and experienced at the 5th Club e-Luxe International Summit to take place on 31st May 2011 at the Ritz Hotel Paris. More info will follow shortly.

Biometric Dunhill

Digital luxury has made yet another forward stride, this time with the launch of Dunhill's biometric wallet, one of the first digital (physical) products to make its way into mainstream luxury and fashion. With the exception of a few and far between examples like the Louis Vuitton Soundwalk and the much discussed but yet-to-be seen digital diary rumoured to be in development by Hermès in 2009, the luxury and fashion segments' recent  romance with digital media hasn't gone much beyond frantic Twitter and Facebook activities and most recently short movies, most of which are yet to reach high quotient rates in their conception, direction and entertainment (but this is another story for another day).

This introduction of a digitaly-powered "real" product drawn from an existing product portfolio and subsequently re-intergrated as part of the product vocabulary of a luxury brand is a first by all standards in luxury fashion.

Borderless Luxury at Club e-Luxe (Part 2)

The relationship between luxury and technology reminds me of a story I once read about two neighbours who famously disliked each other, only to find out several years later that they were half-sisters.

As everyone who is linked to both tech and luxury knows, the rapport between these two "neighbours" is peppered by friction to say the least. As mentioned in earlier posts and also in Luxury Online, luxury for a long time observed technology and digital media from a suspicious distance before eventually joining the digital gig. Despite this, luxury and technology still don't speak the same language and the dialogue remains challenging and almost non-existent. This is the "gap" that Luxe Corp strives to fill through Club e-Luxe; and the advancement of this dialogue between luxury brands (Chanel, Gucci, Boucheron, RémyMartin, Lanvin etc) and technology companies (Microsoft, Cisco Systems etc) was very much evident at the last Club e-Luxe Breakfast Seminar held on 13th January 2011 at the Ritz Hotel, Paris. 

As mentioned in the first part of this post, the theme of the event was Borderless Luxury with an emphasis on integrating interactivity in the luxury retail experience (both online and offline). The event brought together key players of both the luxury and tech worlds to dissect how luxury brands could benefit from several groundbreaking tools, applications and techniques that defines today's digital landscape.

The Vice President of Cisco Systems who flew in from California for the event, took the audience on an immersive journey of how Cisco's Borderless Networks could work magic across the entire value chain of a luxury business, from retail to client services, communications, operations, logistics, production and cross channel multi-media marketing. Microsoft's Global Digital Director gave an eye-opening presentation and DEMO of the power of Cloud Computing and its value as a multi-media tool particularly the across the tri-channels of offline, online and mobile. Its extended benefits through 3D (think of the movie Avatar, which Microsoft helped to develop by the way) were also explained and luxury brands were able to understand how these core technologies could be integrated within their operations.