SEQUINS VS SCHOOL BAGS

For us the choice is clear! Instead of giving you yet another back-to-school newsletter to push new
products, we'd rather share with you an exercise in style. This product isn't necessarily intended for sale, but is more of a self-imposed challenge we took on in our Loir et Cher atelier and the Lesage ateliers of Chanel’s Métiers d'Art.

Let's bring more glitter to September...

FROM MICHAEL’S GLOVE TO CINABRE’S BOW TIE

This week, Michael Jackson would have celebrated his 64th birthday. I wanted to both pay tribute to him and challenge my ateliers to create a crystal-studded bow tie that the King of Pop himself would have embraced.

Fun fact to sparkle at your back-to-school dinners :
It was in 1983 that Michael Jackson wore his legendary glove for the first time. The Motown label was celebrating its 25th anniversary and had organized a televised show for the occasion. When Michael Jackson took to the stage to perform “Billie Jean”  "cultissime", he wore a crystal-studded shirt and socks and, for the very first time, a single white glove embroidered with 1,200 Swarovski crystals, designed by celebrity costume designer Bill Whitten.

Passion paillettes

Fun fact to sparkle at your back-to-school dinners - bis repetita placent (“that which pleases is twice repeated” - Horace):
That day and that glove were a defining moment in Michael’s style. But Motown’s 25th anniversary was also a major event as it marked the advent of Michael Jackson’s Moonwalk, which he performed for the first time in public.

A certain Fred Astaire sent Michael congratulations for his dance moves.

Over the years, Swarovski has collaborated with Madonna, Beyoncé, and other superstars. But, according to Nadja Swarovski in a 2009 interview with Vanity Fair, working with Michael Jackson was particularly exhilarating: "Sewing the crystals by hand onto the glove took over 40 hours.".

Almost 40 years after the infamous glove first appeared, we have created « the Billie Jean bow tie ». It is embroidered with Swarovski crystals by the Lesage atelier in Paris, an artisanal member of Chanel’s Métiers d'Art. It took two days of embroidering to make the bespoke fabric with crystals that forms the bow-tie shape. The bow tie is then delicately assembled by hand in our in our Loir et Cher atelier. 

DISCOVER THE BOWTIE

A COLLABORATION WITH MAISON LESAGE

Created almost 100 years ago in 1924, Maison Lesage singlehandedly embodies the world of embroidery in France. Their craftsmen create the most extraordinary and detailed embroidery on the planet.

To celebrate this French savoir-faire that has lasted for generations, Cinabre has partnered with the Lesage ateliers. We are all very proud of the result: Two unique and exceptional pieces were made.

TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT THE BOWTIE

THE BIGGEST MOONWALK IN THE WORLD

Where is Charlie

Sunday, 28 June 2009. Paris. A few days after Michael Jackson's death, I lead a tribute rally under the Eiffel Tower, hoping to create the world's biggest moonwalk. The announcement was quickly made via Facebook (the ancestor of Instagram, remember?) and then relayed by the French TV presenter Claire Chazal on the 8 o’clock news on TF1.

That’s me arriving at the Eiffel Tower with all my sound equipment and a generator. Very quickly several thousand fans gathered. And danced. And vibrated. What an incredible memory and my only 5-consecutive hour-long concert (we only stopped because the generator ran out of gas!).

In 2009, at the beginning of the Inter-webs when we were still mixing on CD-ROM

REVIEW THE CLASSICS IN MICHAEL’S MUSIC VIDEO

Michael also loved the Cinabre red

“Liberian Girl” is not the most famous of MJ’s videos, but it’s one of my favorites. From the album “Bad”, the song was released as a single two years later with an official video. Watching it is like stepping back in time to the pop culture of the 90s. « Can you recognize all the actors, singers and celebrities » .who appear on screen? It’s a beautiful mise-en-abime of American show business where the ultimate star always ends up being…Michael. 

See you soon for a Moonwalk