White Paper by - English Issue 5

Guillermo Martín Bermejo Guillermo Martín Bermejo’s drawings reference ancient painting and literature in the creation of a highly personalized romantic world. Drawn in pencil on pages of second-hand notebooks, his works are both charming and deceptively naïve. They feature stylized portraits of characters from history, compositions in bucolic settings or subtly altered sections of renowned works of art, and use the past as a poetic space in which to place the artist’s own life experiences and memories as if they were part of a longed-for legend or a chanson de geste. Ana Dominguez-Siemens Historian and veteran journalist specialized in industrial design with countless books and catalogues to her credit. As an art curator, she was the creator of the D-Espacio room for CentroCentro Cibeles (Madrid). Rubén Vega Rubén Vega has…

And here we are at our Nº 5, which also coincides with the celebration of the 100th anniversary of Chanel Nº 5, a perfume created by a designer who broke the mold and who also knew how to surround herself with great painters, writers, dancers, supporting culture and surrounded by culture and left us one of the best legacies, not only aesthetic but also fragrance. The admiration I feel for her, as a creative, as a woman, as a promoter and innovator, goes beyond any current feminist discourse, because more than with a speech, she demonstrated it through her talent and her attitude. For this special birthday, there is nothing better than to surround ourselves with an incredible artist who drew the cover of this enchanting issue, Guillermo Martin Bermejo,…

The good thing about reaching a venerable age is that there is always a lot to tell. Even more so if, as in the case of No. 5, its 100 years have been nourished by proven facts and suggestive legends in equal parts, combined with the exquisite care that the Maison has given it over the decades. Thus, we can call it mythical. In 1920, Coco Chanel was already a famous woman. Her fashion boutique in Paris had become a meeting point for women who coveted her new style—pants, sailor shirts, low waists, and shoes with low heels-fed up with dresses that prevented them from moving freely and victims of the perverse corset. At that time she decided to launch a long—cherished project: she wanted to launch a perfume and…

There is more than one way to approach the Fondazione Prada in Milan. One of them is from the outside. Take, for example, its Tower (with a capital “t” in the official designation of the spaces), which rises 60 meters high in exposed white concrete over Largo Isarco, a neighborhood in southern Milan. Just two decades ago, this area was a wasteland of old factories, warehouses, and workshops. Today, industrial remnants coexist with new luxury. You can look to one side and see a ghostly wasteland of the kind used for skidding by the punks in The Nebula, that nocturnal road movie that Pasolini never filmed. And, if you look to the other side, what you see is the building that encapsulates one of the most powerful images to emerge…

Since his appointment as chairman of LVMH, Bernard Arnault had the goal of creating an institution that would materialize his commitment to culture and art and to the values of creativity, emotion, and transmission of knowledge of the group. He was accompanied on this path from the beginning by Jean-Paul Claverie, his artistic advisor, and Suzanne Pagé, artistic director of what is now the culmination of this objective: the Louis Vuitton Foundation. We unravel with them the keys that govern the activity of this massive artistic catalyst. Today, the alliance between fashion and art is more than a fait accompli: the range of museums dedicated to legendary designers, artists collaborating with luxury brands on limited collections, and cultural management institutions created under the aegis of major fashion houses is growing…

THE HUMAN FACTOR Spain hit the jackpot in 2013 when the LVMH group appointed Jonathan Anderson as creative director of Loewe. It was to be expected that whoever was chosen would try to take advantage of the legacy of the firm, with a commendable tradition of good work, but Anderson has made a triple somersault by not only enhancing the value of Spanish craftsmanship that is in the DNA of the firm but in a much broader and more ambitious way by providing it with a whole culture that relates it both to the handmade and to design and other disciplines related to the world of contemporary creativity. The flagship project of this successful vision of the future, which also educates consumers and prepares them to embrace the past while…