Latest news with #LightsonWomen'sWorthAward
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Together Group Acquires ‘Experiential' Agency Obo
Together Group, a London-based collective of marketing, communications, digital and events agencies, has acquired Obo, which has produced fashion spectacles for Victoria's Secret, L'Oréal Paris, Elie Saab and many others. Financial terms were not disclosed. More from WWD Helen Mirren on Cannes, Culture Shift and the Power of Visibility Viola Davis, Jane Fonda Spotlight Emerging Directors at L'Oréal's Lights on Women's Worth Award Lancôme's Françoise Lehmann Is Stepping Down René Célestin, who cofounded Obo 25 years ago in New York, later opening offices in London and Paris, is to remain its chief executive officer, while benefiting from the broader Together ecosystem, which includes PR firm Purple. 'Obo is the creative agency and supervising producer trusted by leading brands and destinations for their brand-defining experiential moments,' Christian Kurtzke, CEO of Together Group, said in a statement shared with WWD. He lauded Obo's 'exceptional blend of creativity and cultural insight, enhanced by a range of digital tools — including real-time digital rendering technologies that have been part of their process since 2015 — allows them to craft immersive, emotionally resonant storytelling experiences across both live and digital environments.' Founded in 2017, Together also recently added Dubai-based communications agency Frame Publicity to its portfolio. Obo's client roster includes Ami, Giorgio Armani, Bulgari, Celine, The Row, Saint Laurent, Toteme and Zimmermann. It is also one of the founding partners of Paname 24, which produced opening ceremonies for the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games. Célestin said he spied operational and strategic opportunities as part of Together's collective, which includes digital animation studios Imerza and Visualization One. Indeed, Kurtzke sees Obo as an integral part of Together's 'tech-powered immersive experiential platform to transform luxury for the experience economy.' According to Célestin, 'when it comes to fashion shows as well as to wider brand storytelling across all customer touch points and campaigns, luxury brands need to think in ways that overcome segmentation and beyond the past, in order to meaningfully engage next-generation audiences. 'Our mission is to further revolutionize guest experiences by weaving entertainment and cultural references seamlessly into every project,' he added. For example, Elie Saab's 45th anniversary show in Riyadh last November fused fashion, entertainment, choreography and a high-profile lineup of female musical talent woven together under a loose '1,001 Arabian Nights' storyline. Best of WWD Model and Hip Hop Fashion Pioneer Kimora Lee Simmons' Runway Career Through the Years [PHOTOS] Salma Hayek's Fashion Evolution Through the Years: A Red Carpet Journey [PHOTOS] How Christian Dior Revolutionized Fashion With His New Look: A History and Timeline Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Helen Mirren on Cannes, Culture Shift and the Power of Visibility
Helen Mirren makes a regular pilgrimage to the South of France for the Cannes Film Festival with both her own films and L'Oréal Paris. She's attended around 10 times — though she can't be precise — and revels in the surrealism of it all: a convention town with one of the most beautiful backdrops in the world, standing on her hotel balcony getting paparazzied while looking down at women in fantastic gowns 'looking like a flock of beautiful birds.' 'It's that juxtaposition of working town, the beach, the weather, the Mediterranean, and then this crazy, mad parade of beauty,' she says. 'In the middle of that is a very serious festival with serious art film. It's a sort of wonderful, strange cocktail.' More from WWD Viola Davis, Jane Fonda Spotlight Emerging Directors at L'Oréal's Lights on Women's Worth Award Elle Fanning Masters Off-duty Glamour in Giuseppe Zanotti's Angular Heels and Max Mara Shirtdress for Cannes Film Festival 2025's Final Day Paris Jackson's Dramatic Cannes Corset Dress Sparkles With Synergy in Christian Louboutin for 'Honey Don't!' Film Premiere L'Oréal's Lights on Women's Worth Award, which supports emerging female filmmakers, holds special meaning for Mirren. When she first started in the business, she was often one of only two women on set along with the 'script girl.' Now she sees progress and women supporting women. 'For me, it's not just the directors,' she says. 'It's the camera people, the sound people [and] all of those other roles that are available in the making of a movie. Whenever you have a female director, you have many more women on the set in general. They deliberately go out and find women to fulfill those roles.' She calls the award 'invaluable' for young female directors. 'It's the key that can open the door. It's so hard to get a film financed. If you can go with that little star on your shoulder, it's enormously helpful,' she says. 'I'm very proud of L'Oréal Paris for those kinds of initiatives,' she adds. 'As well as making a fortune selling us lipstick, they conscientiously support women.' Mirren has long spoken out about age representation on screen. 'There will always be a desire to see youth and beauty on the screen. I mean, I feel the same, quite honestly,' she says. 'But I think it's the broadening of the stories that we tell. Casting then follows. People are living longer, and as people live longer, they have stories to tell. Between 50 and 100 years old, there are obviously roles for men and women.' She doesn't wish to be younger for vanity's sake, only to see more of the changes she's long hoped for. 'The one reason I do wish I was younger is I would like to live longer to see, because I've waited 50 years for the changes to happen that I thought should happen when I was 16 or 17 years old.' Still, she remains wary of the backsliding of women's rights. 'My great fear is that with the overturning of Roe vs. Wade and what's happening in America in general, you realize that lurking in the back is always this need, this desire to repress women,' she says. 'You think of the way women were treated under Stalin, under Hitler. It was 'get back there, have babies, and shut up.' Be pretty, be sexy, have babies, and then shut up about everything else. 'I keep thinking it can't take over, because women have come so far,' she says, though she notes that women are often still sidelined in political spaces. 'For all of my life, up to like 20 years ago, if I went to the movies, I only ever saw a vision of the world and culture and human relationships and stories and romance and adventure that was seen through a man's eyes,' she says. 'Now we're seeing women's view of the world about us. I think it's really surprising a lot of people. I think they thought women would just make movies about romance and dogs or something. 'They are doing amazing, challenging, difficult, shocking stuff,' she says. 'It's great.' Mirren also highlights the overdue conversation around menopause. 'It's amazing. Just in the last three years, suddenly it was like, 'Oh my god, there's such a thing as the menopause,' and every woman goes through it,' she says. 'It doesn't happen when she's 80. It happens when she's 40, and so half of her life is going to be post-menopause. Why is nobody mentioning this?' She adds that she hopes beauty brands will create products specifically for menopausal women who still want to look and feel great. After filming several projects back-to-back, including 'The Thursday Murder Club,' '1923,' 'Mob Land,' and the forthcoming 'Switzerland,' based on the life of author Patricia Highsmith, Mirren says she's planning a break. It will be a 'big reset,' she says, including a return to her signature cropped hairstyle after growing it out during the pandemic. But it might not be for long. 'I work because I know if I don't work, I'm intrinsically very lazy,' she says. Best of WWD Celebrating Lenny Kravitz, Rock Icon, Actor, Author, Designer and Style Star: Photos Cannes Film Festival 1970s: Flashbacks, Celebrities and Fashion Highlights from WWD's 'Eye' Pages [PHOTOS] A Look Back at Cannes Film Festival's Best Dressed Red Carpet Stars: Blake Lively, Angelina Jolie, Princess Diana and More Photos
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Viola Davis, Jane Fonda Spotlight Emerging Directors at L'Oréal's Lights on Women's Worth Award
CANNES, France — Cannes was lit up by Jane Fonda and Viola Davis, who arrived on the final weekend of the film festival to honor the next wave of female filmmakers at L'Oréal Paris' Lights on Women's Worth Award ceremony, celebrated in a beachside ceremony. Fellow brand ambassadors Gillian Anderson, who joined the L'Oréal family in February, Simone Ashley, an ambassador since last year, and Elle Fanning were in attendance, after hitting the red carpet earlier in the evening. Cannes Film Festival president Iris Knobloch and Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode executive president Pascal Morand were also among the guests. More from WWD Elle Fanning Masters Off-duty Glamour in Giuseppe Zanotti's Angular Heels and Max Mara Shirtdress for Cannes Film Festival 2025's Final Day Paris Jackson's Dramatic Cannes Corset Dress Sparkles With Synergy in Christian Louboutin for 'Honey Don't!' Film Premiere Jane Fonda Goes Bold at Cannes in Caged Sandals and 3D Florals, Elle Fanning's Winning Look and More Closing Day Ceremony Style 'It's not young filmmakers, it's young women filmmakers, and that's what's important,' Fonda emphasized. 'Women, for centuries, have not been a powerful presence in Hollywood. This is slowly changing.' Reflecting on her early days in the industry, Fonda recalled often being the only woman on set, forced to navigate complex on-set politics, as well as love scenes, without support. While she praised the introduction of intimacy coordinators and acknowledged growing representation, she insisted there is still a lot of work to be done. 'This is why it's important — we respond differently to everything. We respond differently to war, to poverty, to health. And so, if you leave our voices out of the media of the culture, then everybody's getting half the story. We're poorer because we're only getting half the story. So when you bring women in, then suddenly there's the full picture. And that's good for men as well as for women, and for boys as well as girls.' Fonda, who hasn't appeared on-screen in two years, has been devoting her energy to climate activism. She also admitted she's been turning down scripts. 'I get offered movies all the time and they're bad, they're not good. They're stereotypes — you know, the 'old woman.' And so I am waiting for a good project,' she said. In the meantime, the iconic actress is working on a memoir titled 'Before I Forget,' which she is still in the process of writing. For Davis, the juror for the award, the evening felt personal after screening the 13 eligible films from the short and student film categories. 'I feel like I have a front-row seat to all of these great female filmmakers' stories, [and] that I'm now a part of it,' she said. 'I have a front-row seat in congratulating them, celebrating them, spotlighting them, awarding them. And that's the gift that it gives to me.' She also praised the powerful narratives being told in women-led films. 'There's some extraordinary films that are out there. The thing that surprises me — but see, it doesn't surprise me — is the depth of storytelling. When you give a woman a story where the woman is in the center of the narrative and they control that voice, what you get is a level of truth that you haven't seen in filmmaking. It's a brutal truth at times and it makes you feel seen because it's so honest.' While progress is happening, Davis acknowledged that there is still a glass ceiling that exists in Hollywood. Still, more actresses are stepping behind the camera to direct, including Kristen Stewart, Scarlett Johansson, and Regina King among them. 'It's still very difficult, but what's happening now is, we're getting hip to the fact that we have to do it anyway,' she said. 'They're out there and they're doing it despite of [difficulty] and they're doing it on their terms. That's the future of filmmaking. I think that we've discovered the elixir.' One of the few actors to achieve EGOT status (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony), Davis admitted she rarely visits the room where her trophies reside. But recently she took some time to revel in a moment of celebration. 'I did allow myself, a few months ago, to sit in there for a couple of hours. And I forced myself to look at them so I can squeal, be proud of my story and my journey and actually, almost proudly say that I've had an interesting life.' At the ceremony, Davis presented the award to Heo Ga-young for her short film 'First Summer,' which was selected from the eligible films. The South Korean director's film follows a woman torn between attending a memorial service and her granddaughter's wedding. 'The depth of understanding the complexity of human loss is a mighty feat. Heo Ga-young through [main character] Yeongsun captures that desperate need for us to claim what makes us feel alive at all costs. Brave, bold and absolutely the story of what it means to be a woman,' Davis said. Delphine Viguier-Hovasse, global brand president of L'Oréal Paris, reflected on the award's significance. 'This fifth anniversary of the Lights on Women's Worth Award is a powerful reaffirmation of our enduring commitment to uplifting women in cinema. This mission is deeply woven into the fabric of who we are at L'Oréal Paris,' she said. 'For the past five years we have been committed to giving recognition and visibility to promising young female directors. I hope one day this award will no longer be needed — a sign that our women have finally claimed their rightful place at the heart of the cinema industry.' Best of WWD Model and Hip Hop Fashion Pioneer Kimora Lee Simmons' Runway Career Through the Years [PHOTOS] Salma Hayek's Fashion Evolution Through the Years: A Red Carpet Journey [PHOTOS] How Christian Dior Revolutionized Fashion With His New Look: A History and Timeline
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Elle Fanning's Valentino Couture Fairytale: Breaking Down Her Enchanting Red Carpet Look That Lit Up Cannes 2025
Elle Fanning made her latest appearance on the 2025 Cannes Film Festival red carpet on Friday. The actress attended 'The Mastermind' premiere alongside the film's stars Josh O'Connor, Alana Haim and more. For the film's red carpet premiere, Fanning opted for a custom design courtesy of Valentino Haute Couture. The long-sleeve gown featured a plunging neckline to Fanning's waist. The look included a flowing skirt with a short train. More from WWD Cartier Unveils High Jewelry Collection and Gemma Chan as Ambassador Viola Davis, Jane Fonda Spotlight Emerging Directors at L'Oréal's Lights on Women's Worth Award Elle Fanning Masters Off-duty Glamour in Giuseppe Zanotti's Angular Heels and Max Mara Shirtdress for Cannes Film Festival 2025's Final Day The gown was crafted with a cinched waist for added silhouette definition. All over the dress were crystal embellishments and sequin detailing. An embroidered diamond shaped pattern was featured on the sleeves, bodice, and top half of the skirt. The ensemble carried a whimsical and feminine effect with contemporary design and detailing. Along with the dress, Fanning wore shoes courtesy of Le Silla. She accessorized with jewelry pieces from the Cartier vaults. Fanning's hair was styled with a slight side part courtesy of stylist Jenda Alcorn. Her makeup featured soft elements with bold brows and a light pink lip by artist Erin Ayanian Monroe. Fanning's look was curated by stylist Samantha McMillen, who also put together Ana de Armas' look for the Oscar-nominated actress' red carpet appearance at the 'Ballerina' premiere in London. Prior to her latest Cannes red carpet appearance, Fanning attended the premiere of 'Sentimental Value,' in which she stars alongside Renate Reinsve and Stellan Skarsgård. For the special occasion, Fanning wore a custom strapless gown courtesy of Armani Privé. The dress included such design elements as a plunging sweetheart neckline with a formfitting silhouette and allover ornate sequin detailing. The 2025 Cannes Film Festival concludes on Saturday. Films premiering at this year's festival include Wes Anderson's 'The Phoenician Scheme,' Julia Ducournau's 'Alpha' and Lynne Ramsay's 'Die, My Love.' Berry and Jeremy Strong, among others, serve on the 2025 jury alongside jury president Juliette Binoche. View Gallery Launch Gallery: Cannes Film Festival 2025 Red Carpet Fashion: Viola Davis, Elle Fanning and More Photos, Live Updates Best of WWD Princess Charlene's Monaco Grand Prix Style Evolution at Full Speed: Shades of Blue in Louis Vuitton, Playful Patterning in Akris and More Princess Charlene of Monaco's Grand Prix Style Through the Years: Louis Vuitton, Akris and More, Photos Kate Middleton's Royal Rewears Through the Years
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Laetitia Toupet-Delon Is to Lead L'Oréal Paris
NEW YORK — L'Oréal Paris, the world's largest beauty brand, has named a new chief: Laetitia Toupet-Delon, who will start in the role this summer. She is to succeed Delphine Viguier-Hovasse, L'Oréal Paris global brand president who, as previously reported, has just been appointed L'Oréal's chief innovation and prospective officer. It's a newly created position for the group, which Viguier-Hovasse will begin on July 1. More from WWD Fragrance Sales Are Softening - but by How Much? Where to Beautify During the Cannes Film Festival L'Oréal Paris Celebrates Fifth Anniversary of Its Lights on Women's Worth Award Since 2023 Toupet-Delon has served as global brands general manager of L'Oréal's Dermatological Beauty Division, which encompasses brands including La Roche-Posay, CeraVe, Vichy, SkinCeuticals and Skinbetter Science. She formerly was global brand president for La Roche-Posay for eight years. Under her leadership that brand put a medical focus back at its core, was the leading dermocosmetics label recommended by dermatologists and became a billion-dollar brand. Toupet-Delon has also held roles at the Active Cosmetics Division, Sanoflore, Vichy, Garnier and L'Oréal Paris, where she began her career at L'Oréal in 1998 in international marketing for skin care and makeup, according to her LinkedIn profile. L'Oréal Paris is taking a spotlight at the Cannes Film Festival, which opened Tuesday. There it will mark the fifth edition of its Lights on Women's Worth Award that was conceived to elevate the role of women in cinema. This is the 28th edition of the festival for which L'Oréal Paris has officially partnered. There, a host of L'Oréal Paris ambassadors, including Jane Fonda, Helen Mirren and Simone Ashley, will attend. The brand will also honor the anniversaries of its long-standing ambassadors Andie MacDowell, who has been a spokesperson for 40 years, and Eva Longoria, marking her 20th year, during a gala dinner on Wednesday. Best of WWD The Best Makeup Looks in Golden Globes History A Look Back at Golden Globes Best Makeup on the Red Carpet, From Megan Fox to Sophia Loren [PHOTOS] The Best Hairstyles in Golden Globes History
