Pandora’s Marvel Tie-up, Dior’s New Book
JEWELRY, ASSEMBLE: Doctor Strange will be the first Marvel character to return on screen this May, but Avengers are already assembling — at Pandora.
The affordable jewelry brand and the publisher are teaming up for a collection featuring the superheroes, launching on Feb. 17.
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“These heroes excite, entertain and also encourage us to use our voices and powers, without hiding our weaknesses, to make the world a better place,” said Pandora’s chief product officer Stephen Fairchild, noting that “celebrating what you stand for and the things you love” as a shared trait between the jeweler and Marvel’s characters.
The 11-piece capsule, which is part of the jewelry label’s Moments core collection, will include a bracelet, an “Infinity Gems” ring and charms depicting the superheroes or a readily recognizable symbol, executed in metal and enamel.
Black Panther, Hulk, Captain America’s shield or the Infinity Gauntlet will also be engraved with a signature saying that epitomizes what the character is about, while the Avenger logo appears on the bracelet’s clasp.
In addition, fans will also be able to try their hand at saving the world — and winning a Pandora bracelet — through a dedicated mini-game which will launch concurrently to the jewelry’s release.
Rolling out online and in Pandora’s 2,600 stores worldwide, the Marvel x Pandora collaboration is priced on par with similar items from the brand, with charms between 39 and 79 euros.
The accessible jewelry label has been collaborating with The Walt Disney Company since 2014, with designs ranging from Minnie Mouse and Cinderella’s pumpkin carriage to Star Wars droid heroes.
This launch is part of an ambitious growth strategy unveiled last year, which includes doubling revenues in the U.S. and tripling sales in China by 2023, by improving conversion for core product lines thanks in part to a bigger focus on personalization and digital, as well as by recruiting younger consumers.
Pandora also relaunched its revamped Me line last fall, followed by a New York soirée with its faces Addison Rae and Charli XCX. — LILY TEMPLETON
AN EYE FOR COUTURE: The latest Dior coffee-table book offers an in-depth look at the decadelong relationship between the French couture house and Italian artist Brigitte Niedermair.
“Brigitte Niedermair photographie Dior,” scheduled to be published by Rizzoli New York in April, explores a decade of photography by Niedermair, from her early 2010s high jewelry images to the 2022 cruise collection by creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri.
“As I look at the images portraying many of my collections while this book was coming into being….I realize the extent to which those photographs fundamentally contributed to illustrate my intentions, to valorize my clothing, to convey those emotions that are a basic element in the fashion narrative,” Chiuri said in the book’s introduction.
Brigitte Niedermair/Courtesy of Dior
Known for her unexpected compositions and almost abstract takes on her subject, Niedermair has captured the creative director’s work since Chiuri’s spring 2017 debut for the house’s magazine, and later in advertising campaigns.
An artist photographer who rejects the “too narrow a category” of fashion photographer, according to Musée des Arts Décoratifs director Olivier Gabet, Niedermair also captured Christian Dior’s archives, photographing details — seams, linings, lapels — of the couturier’s from 1947 to 1957 as an homage to the house founder’s passion for architecture and the skills of its couture ateliers.
Throughout the 272-page volume, Niedermair’s elegantly sparse images are interspersed with texts by Chiuri, Gabet as well as contributions from photographers Brigitte Lacombe and Maripol, who called her work “images that are powerful in their sensuality.” Designers Martino Gamper and Marcello Jori likewise gave insight into the artist’s process.
Available in French or English, the hardcover book will retail for 100 euros, or $150. It will go on sale in early April in Europe, and internationally as of May. — L.T.
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