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The local 96th anniversary party for the founding of the Republic of China, held a tad early last night at the Wellington Club, was a very fun do, and probably the best diplomatic function I have had for ages.
While HE John Chen, the Ambassador (or Representative of the Taiwan Economic Office as the Truman–Kissinger–Nixon–Red China–Labour Party view might have it) gave a very enlightening speech, I must say that the Hon Peter Dunne MP, Minister of Revenue and leader of the United Future party, gave the address of the evening.
While being the first MP to speak gave Mr Dunne some advantages in that every later speaker referred back to him, I admired the Minister’s choice of words (very clever and both KMT and Democratic or DPP sides were satisfied) as well as his passion (which, like John Major’s, never comes through properly on telly). More...

Smart will begin selling its new model in the US in early 2008, which is old news but still good news. As a fashion item, it makes a lot of sense: it expresses anti-car sentiments very well and is as good a backlash against gargantuan SUVs as the original Volkswagen Käfer was against gaudy American cars.
   I just think the trend has passed, though I could be wrong. Honda introduced its Fit to the US later than most markets and it’s doing really well as a subcompact. And the Americans won’t be too price-sensitive, something that limited the Smart City-Coupé’s (ForTwo’s) appeal when a Volkswagen Lupo sold for less at the turn of the century. More...

I am getting a little bit of feedback today about Pavement magazine, which I partly expected after Herald on Sunday gossip columnist Rachel Glucina left a message for me on my answerphone. But I was worried her Mum would sue me so I didn’t call back immediately.
   Just kidding: I have had a hectic few days, with conference calls to the US at weird hours to put me out of kilter even more with daylight saving. Funny, I do have a life, and out of civility I refuse to call people too late at night. Besides, I understand Ms Glucina has grabbed bits from this blog before, so I am sure she can do the same again. More...

Had a great chat this morning to curator Donna Loveday from the Design Museum. Her exhibition, When Philip Met Isabella, a tribute to milliner Philip Treacy and the late Isabella Blow, is on at the New Dowse in Lower Hutt, New Zealand, after dropping by in St Petersburg and Melbourne, and I would seriously recommend it.
   It’s a bit of a pity that Donna is flying out to the UK today—literally in a few hours—because her lecture put the exhibition into context, as well as gave some good (tasteful) goss about Philip and Isabella. Even without it, however, you can marvel at Treacy’s creations. More...

I have not been a MySpace fan, ever, but I was interested to note that I received two messages from friends, neither of which had been sent by them. One got so worried now that she has changed her password. The other was in Milano and not near her computer when one arrived purporting to be from her.
   The messages were spam, and it may be worth reporting to the MySpace people—the Murdoch Press—if they don’t know about this. Luckily for them, I don’t fully recall the brands being advertised, but I have a funny feeling Macy’s was one (the Italian-based friend thinks so, too). I still worry, however: More...

I have been getting a few queries lately on the print magazine business from the American end and if I intend to grow it past one consumer title. The answer is: ‘Of course.’ While we do have the announcement of a special Lucire edition for Zinio (click here to download), we have been considering additional titles, including one for the 48 (US) states that we’ve begun name-dropping. Can’t say more since they are the ones doing more of the work than me(!), but it is a cooperative deal with two of our team on the west coast.
   The trick really is finding a good mixture between print and online. More...

Anyone been spammed on Facebook yet? I don’t mean signing up to a list or group and getting multiple emails. I do mean getting spammed with “friend” requests.
   People like Robert Scoble will be familiar with that, but some of us with only a fraction of his presence on the web aren’t quite as used to it.
   A few months back, I received a bunch of requests from strangers in the fashion industry. I won’t get more specific than that, but their timing was suspect. I did learn that most of the requests were orchestrated by one or two people and they were not actually sent by the persons named. More...

[Cross-posted] A designer, who shall remain nameless, recently said that Lucire was the only New Zealand magazine she knew of that had any real journalism in it. I was very happy to hear that feedback, and it seems the concern of fashion magazines lacking depth is something shared by others. Stevie Wilson, Lucire’s former US bureau chief and an editor with us for many years, wrote on her LA-Story.com blog how she has been chipping away at her subscriptions’ list as each magazine, in her opinion, becomes emptier.
   In particular, this quotation was interesting. Maybe celebs sell, but they are pissing more educated readers off: More...

[Cross-posted] From Creative Review (“hat tip” to Flypaper): Scott King has done a series of parody Vogue covers, in a “what if?” post-Wintour scenario. Have a glance by clicking on the pic below.
   This should (hopefully) be the last Vogue post for a while.



Tags: fashion, humour, parody, Vogue, fashion magazines, Scott King

[Cross-posted] In the 1990s, the geo-targeting of advertisements on websites was not very common. If a campaign went out—such as when Condé Nast’s style.com advertised here to get its word out to fashionistas—it went out globally. We were paid, of course, for delivering campaigns to everyone.
   Somewhere this century, advertising decided to take a backward step, since much of the ad world functions regionally or nationally. For the web, campaigns would be regionally or nationally targeted. If American Company X were advertising, then it sure didn’t want its ad to be seen by German Consumer Y. More...