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The Lamborghini of baby strollers is literally a Lamborghini. Luxury carmaker Automobili Lamborghini is getting into baby gear by partnering with the British nursery brand Silver Cross for a limited-edition stroller called the Reef AL Arancio. Just 500 of the strollers will be made and each comes with a numbered edition plaque. Silver Cross calls it a super stroller, and it retails for about $5,000. [Image: Silver Cross] The stroller’s design borrows from the Lamborghini’s foundations, Silver Cross says, with an automotive-inspired brake pedal, hand-finished handlebar, and high-performance suede with Italian leather details. It comes with a high-gloss polycarbonate carry cot, full suspension wheels, and a cup holder. Lamborghini badging uses the Italian company’s script wordmark, and its bull-and-shield logo is incorporated throughout. The design process for the Reef AL Arancio took more than two years and included meetings with the Automobile Lamborghini design and licensing teams and visits to Lamborghini showrooms to draw inspiration. The finished product is designed to mirror the intricacy and faceted nature of the vehicles, Silver Cross says. [Image: Silver Cross] While babies aren’t impressed by luxury brands, their parents increasingly are. High-end baby gear like smart cribs, electronic bottle warmers, and pricey strollers have proliferated as fertility rates have fallen and the age of first-time mothers has risen. With parents having fewer children at older ages, they have more to splurge on their kids; some, apparently, are even willing to drop $5,000 for a one-of-500 stroller. In 2020, Bentley Motors announced its own officially licensed kids bicycle and stroller tricycle brand called Bentley Trike, created in collaboration with Posh Baby & Kids. With the Lamborghini stroller, now your baby can travel in style with luxury car-branded gear all the way from the crib until the training wheels come off.
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E-Commerce
A bartender makes a Brandy Alexander, pouring equal parts of a Courvoisier V.S.O.P brandy, Marie Brizard crme de cacao, and fresh cream. He shakes it with ice, strains through a fine mesh strainer, and finishes it off with a neat pile of freshly-grated nutmeg. This imagery may seem to be out of a bartending documentary, but it’s actually a scene from an anime series, Bartender: Glass of God. Its this unavoidable, radical attention to detail in the animation itself that tells the story of a Japanese way of lifeputting extreme care into ones craft. During scenes inside the bar, the liquor wall features an elaborate selection of spirits, the labels of which are meticulously drawn. They include Makers Mark bourbon, Roku gin, and Laphroaig scotch, all of which fall under the portfolio of Suntory Global Spirits, which provided production support for the show. The show’s ability to combine real-life liquor brands with attention to detail helps it pull off a focus on craft that isn’t often seen outside of live-action documentary. The series portrays bartending as an empirical trade through the experience of each viewer watching on a screen. Not everyone watching will be a bartender nor will they each absorb every single nuance incorporated into the anime. But the care in the crafts of animation and bartending that Nakazawa meshed together with Suntory and other partners reveal a comprehensive and respectful illustration of the power of a cocktail. A reboot with emphasis on detailsand brands Bartender originated as a Japanese manga, or graphic novel, in 2004 to then be turned into an anime series in 2006. Last year, anime studio Liber released a 12-episode revival, with streamer Crunchyroll releasing episodes dubbed in English from July through October. Creatives behind the reboot said the goal was to be as accurate as possible with cocktails and vibes. We focused on creating an authentic bar ambiance that viewers could experience through anime, ensuring the movements and atmosphere retained a sense of realism, says Takaaki Nakazawa, the series lead producer. [Image: Araki Joh, Kenji Nagatomo/Shueisha, Bar hoppers] Nakazawa and his team pulled this off by consulting renowned Japanese bartenders Akihiro Sakoh of Sakoh Bar in Tokyos Shibuya district and Noriyuki Iguchi of Bar Gaslight in Tokyos Ginza district. Before production, we interviewed them and filmed their actionscocktail-making techniques and handling bottleswhich the animation team studied closely to replicate the movements, Nakazawa says. They also prepared all the cocktails featured in the entire anime series. [Image: Araki Joh, Kenji Nagatomo/Shueisha, Bar hoppers] Suntory’s involvement is integrated throughout the seriesmostly contained to brands behind the barbut the anime also takes its protagonist, Ryu, to the Suntory Whisky Yamazaki Distillery in Osaka, Japan. It looks precisely in the anime the way it looks on Google Maps street view, down to the shrubbery. Every glass of whisky is a coalescence of memorieslike history, distilled, Ryu says to his friends outside the distillery. And even if our guests know nothing about that history, isnt it better that we know the meaning contained within each glass, so we can serve something that transcends flavor alone? [Image: Araki Joh, Kenji Nagatomo/Shueisha, Bar hoppers] This statement sums up the overall message of Bartender, which highlights the longing to feel empowered through human connection. Creating these scenes, with all of the partnerships involved in settings where the Suntory brand is so prominently placed, gives the viewers a sense that they can too feel that sense of empowerment when sipping on its products. Focus on craft Nakazawa has been a huge fan of the original Bartender manga and felt emboldened to reimagine it, borrowing some plot lines but catering it to a new generation. When a customer visits a bar, they dont perceive everything in a straightforward way, he says. Their perception changes depending on their individual circumstances. It’s not what a typical, you know, Western audience would think of immediately, says Crunchyroll CCO Asa Suehira. We want to showcase anime more than just entertainment, but an art form that bridges cultures and tells a universal story. Crunchyroll currently has 15 million subscribers, most of whom are in North America, but the service has been working to expand globally, including into Southeas Asia and India. [Image: Araki Joh, Kenji Nagatomo/Shueisha, Bar hoppers] From an American perspective, the narrative may come across as cliché and over-exaggerated, but hospitality as an art form is taken more seriously in Japanese culture. The anime takes that reverence for craft and applies to a profession most American viewers might not think about much. When you have an excellent bartender, they’re able to connect with a lot of people, says Chris Leavitt, a Las Vegas bartender and cocktail content creator. That aspect was on par with what I experience as a bartender myself. It’s so important for someone who mans a bar to understand that’s the priority over everything. Neither Toho nor Crunchyroll commented on sponsorships other than Suntory. But dozens of other liquor brands, like Beefeater gin, Dolin vermouth and Heering cherry liqueur, are heavily featured in the show too despite not being Suntory brands. Leavitt commends the precise attention given to the animation, from the style in which Ryu holds his bar spoon through his fingers, to the motion of his Japanese hard shake, both in close-ups and wide shots. That’s exactly how these bartenders operate, he says. Nothing was inaccurate. Every drink recipe was on point.
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E-Commerce
Nearly 100 years ago, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. and Harland Bartholomew designed a master plan for the city of Los Angeles, drawing a ring around the river at its heart. The plan addressed their concern about the rapid urbanization of cities in the West, which was frequently pushing nature to the outskirts. By centering the river and allowing it to move freely amid fields and wetlands, the planners envisioned a public green space where distant neighborhoods could come together as one. But the plan was quickly dismissed as out of step with the industrialist vision of the 1920s and 30s. Then, in 1938, after a devastating flood, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began to build concrete channels that separated the river from its ecosystem and continue to confine it today. Copies of the original plan still exist, one of which sits in the Los Angeles Public Library, where it fell into the hands of the artist and video game designer Alice Bucknell. A still from The Alluvials [Image: courtesy Alice Bucknell] For Bucknell, the plan served as an essential bridge to the past, and it laid the groundwork for their visionary project, The Alluvials, a computer-generated, speculative fiction world, accessible through both a film and a video game. The Alluvials, which reimagines L.A. through the lens of water and the natural world, brings the lost dream of the Olmsted-Bartholomew plan to liferemixed as a private development known as Next LA, where the river has been transformed into a teeming wetland filled with iridescent beams of light. A series of ethereal voices guide the audience through a climate-stricken Western water system, from the dried-up basin of the Hoover Dam to the fire-torn Malibu coast. Like the plan that inspired it, The Alluvials issues a warning about where society is heading. In the midst of its eco-surrealist imagery, Bucknell offers a stark picture of the future: a deserted downtown, near-total drought, and corporate control over the remaining water resources. But by infusing this dystopian landscape with alternative histories, from the Olmsted-Bartholomew report to an Indigenous sacred site, Bucknell presents a compelling vision of what Los Angeles might have been and what it could still be. The film version of The Alluvials is divided into seven chapters, and the video game contains interactive versions of four of them. The film opens with aerial shots peering down into the city, which has become half desert, then cuts rhythmically through the regions aquatic ecosystems, each rendered in the digital universe with a neon tech-noir aesthetic. Along the way, viewers meet a cast of familiar characters: the celebrity mountain lion P-22; the Lassen pack of gray wolves from Northern California; and El Aliso, a sycamore tree that once served as a meeting place for leaders of the Kizh-Gabrieleo Tribe, the original occupants of the Los Angeles River Basin. Bucknell was walking the streets of downtown L.A., a few blocks from the design school SCI-Arc, where they teach, when they stumbled upon the plaque for El Aliso. The memorial was created by members of the tribe in 2015 to honor the tree, which had long served as a place of worship and gathering. Set into concrete by Highway 101, however, the story all but disappearsmaking it precisely the kind of the history that Bucknell felt was important to center in their work. In The Alluvials, El Aliso grows tall in the reforested earth of Next LA. The sycamore tells its own story to players: how it lived for more than 400 years, witnessing waves of colonization and shading lush wineries before it was felled to make way for commercial development. In front of the tree, the memorial plaque hangs, embossed as an enormous hologram, like a curators introduction to the work of a venerated artist. In this fictional world scarred by climate disaster, El Aliso appears like an oasis, a momentary glimpse into what a worthy burial might have looked like, and a reminder of the many stories that 400-year-old trees can still tell. Bucknell amplifies the power of El Alisos story by bringing this nonhuman being back to vivid life. Stills from The Alluvials [Image: courtesy Alice Bucknell] The artist also celebrates the long history of the yucca moth, which is often outshone by its iconic companion, the Joshua tree. In the dried-out upper basin of Hoover Dam, The Alluvials recounts the symbiotic relationship between the yucca moth and the Joshua tree, describing it as an entrancing love story that dates back more than 40 million years. The depiction is not only uplifting, as it casts a flurry of white moths like snow against red rock; it is also a reminder of how complex relationships can be sustained throughout many ages of the Earth. The Alluvials universe is at its most powerful when viewers are completely immersed in the ambiguity of time. Racing along the lush L.A. River, you can’t tell if you’re deep in the future, experiencing the artificial paradise of Next LA, or deep in the past, exploring the imagination of Olmsted and Bartholomew. By the same token, the spell is broken when the script too closely resembles the modern day. In a later chapter of the film, for instance, viewers learn that Next LAs private water developer puts mood stabilizers in bottled water to combat chronic anxiety over constant wildfires. Its a satire that hits too close to home. Zooming out, however, Bucknells signature cyberpunkfrom the beating electronic score to fluorescent animal silhouetteslargely erases time altogether. Staring up at the dense galaxy of animated stars, I almost wished I didnt find it so beautiful. Born in the mid-1990s, I remember the precise years when my peers began to diverge into those who spent more time offline, lacing up boots and heading outdoors, and those who found greater fulfillment in the community and self-expression found in cyberspace. Both worlds offer their own comfort and sense of control, and sometimes I dont know which I find more breathtakingthe natural cathedrals of mountains and oceans, or the technologica systems made possible by generations of human hands and minds. Throughout The Alluvials, particularly on the banks of the river, I felt grateful to live in this age of the Earth, when one person can so completely render their imagination into an immersive experience that others can enjoy. Whatever the limitations of the human world, whether bureaucracy or debate, artists can overcome them and create wonders that never made it into reality. This work goes hand in hand with advocacy; in the development of their game, Bucknell worked closely with the nonprofit Friends of the LA River, which for decades has worked to build more connected green space along the river. A still from The Alluvials [Image: courtesy Alice Bucknell] Some critics may be quick to dismiss The Alluvials for its style or poetic flourishes, but they cannot deny its broad appeal to a growing audience. The film and game have been featured at over a dozen exhibitions and festivals, from Los Angeles to Madrid, and Bucknell continues to offer access to both by request via their website. Computer-generated worlds are steadily eclipsing traditional storytelling formats like books and magazines. In this context, Bucknells work stands as a compelling contribution to Californias climate fiction, echoing the legacy of the speculative fiction of Octavia Butler, who first offered scenes of a fire-torn California to the popular imagination back in the 1990s. But times have changed; Bucknell and other artists of the 21st century no longer have to imagine what that future might look like. Their task is much harder: They remind us that, to paraphrase Butler, looking into the future is still, as much as it was before, an act of hope. This story was originally published by High Country News.
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