Max Mara Kicks off Whitney Museum Celebrations

IN THE BAG: Max Mara kicked off its suite of parties to celebrate the new Whitney Museum building on Wednesday. The fete, held at The Top of the Standard, was thrown in honor of MaxMara’s pre-fall 2015 Whitney bag — which draws visual inspiration from the museum’s soon-to-open Renzo Piano structure in the Meatpacking District. The Whitney bag was displayed in a glass vitrine beside a diorama of the new Whitney building, exhibiting their likeness. Also befitting was the event’s sky-high location, overlooking the new museum, including its porch of multicolored block furniture — a design element that emerged as a critical darling in the structure’s initial reviews. “It’s a realization of a dream,” Max Mara creative director Ian Griffiths said of the symbiosis at play. “If you look at the bag you can see that the principle element is the skin that wraps around it and how reflects the ribbed sections of the building,” Griffiths added. “In order to achieve that our craftspeople in Tuscany had to develop new techniques – really pushing the boundaries of what they do.” Nearby Max Mara chairman Luigi Maramotti expressed his excitement for the museum’s opening. “I’m convinced that the Whitney Museum, with this new location, is going to

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Ardency Inn Expands Internationally

Ardency Inn is headed down under. Starting May 5, the eclectic color cosmetics brand rooted in the downtown New York music scene will launch exclusively online in Australia and New Zealand at Mecca Cosmetica, the country’s largest independent beauty retailer. “We’ve seen a lot of interest for the brand coming from overseas markets, especially those with major music scenes,” said Gilles Kortzagadarian, cofounder and co-chief executive officer of Ardency Inn. “Our rationale is that a good time [to expand] is when the brand is in demand.” And expansion couldn’t have come at a better time. According to the company, its retail business is very strong with online sales three times higher than last year. “We’re still relatively small but growing very fast,” said Stephane Siboni, cofounder and co-ceo of Ardency Inn. Additionally, the U.K. has also expressed a lot of interest for the brand and the founders are evaluating those opportunities. “We know Ardency Inn already has a following in Australia so it’s a great opportunity for mecca.com.au to attract a new customer,” said Jo Horgan, founder of Mecca Brands. “This will also be the first time we’ve launched a brand that’s exclusive to our digital platform, so while Australia will be a first of

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