New men’s lifestyle brand, John Ferdinand, launched its men’s accessories collection today Tuesday July 17 2007 Hong Kong.

“There is a huge gap in the market. Men are being ignored. We decided to fill that gap,” said Mark Armstrong, co-founder and chief designer for
John Ferdinand.

The collection features solid silver accessories inlaid with ebony. The items are styled in modern lines combined with organic form symbolising our life journey.

“From day one in August 2006, we decided to build a brand with a soul.. a soul in the product design and a soul in human connection. We wanted to create a brand that would make Hong Kong proud. A brand worthy of the world stage which resonates with the essence of the modern man. And a brand which would showcase the power of compelling product design.

“Inside every man is a story, and the intent of the collection is to connect with that story. For some, its the yearning to enjoy the rewards of hard work.. an internal drive. For others, it’s a more external motivation, to feel attractive. It’s about desire. Men want to be attractive. It’s about letting modern men be men, freed from the constraints of the traditional man’s business attire. Men are poets and dreamers. Every man has a story.

“We started with a very simple concept. What would we men love? What would our friends love? We talked with them for months to understand what they wanted in their lives, and we fed that into our design process. It continues today. We’re still connecting with those same people and delivering on the ideas. It’s fascinating and a tremendously important part of what we do, and what makes us different.

“We realised our friends, like us, are global nomads. They’re happy where they are, but there’s something lacking in their lives. They’re not grounded in a place, they’re free spirits. We decided the collection should focus on creating symbols of man’s journey in life, their dreams, their hopes.. they’re life adventure. We want our customers to feel harmony — to feel they belong. We want to be grounded, to be individuals who can express their own sense of contemporary style.

“To us, good design is about restraint. It’s sort of zen. It’s about focus to create a compelling point of view. We selected materials with a meaning. We felt the harmony and balance between the ancient sensuality of wood, and the modernity of silver. There are modern flowing lines and organic forms in the collection. The pieces transport us to a higher plane, driven by the raw power and sensuality of the materials. They’re tactile. They demand to be touched.

“Wood transports us to a time of birth, to the East, in the season of spring. The beautiful fine grain from untreated ebony entrances you with its raw, earthy power. Ebony is a very valuable wood and, for centuries, has been admired for its hardness, beautiful fine grain and ability to hold a polish.

“On close inspection of the larger pieces in this collection, the wood grain clearly continues across the inlay areas, a beautiful flowing grain. The pieces are finished with incredible precision and attention to detail.
“Curving through and surrounding the wood is solid silver, symbolising maturity, the West and the season of Autumn, you are grounded by its strength. It demands order, and brings strength, stability and organisation to our lives.

“Men want a masculine and understated style. They want timeless pieces with high quality materials and luxurious textures.

“Not only do men tell us they want sophisticated and understated contemporary style, we found they want a dialogue. They’re fascinated by the materials, workmanship and textures. We’re avoiding traditional retail for the most part. We want to engage with our customers and create a community around the brand.

“We try to let our pieces speak for themselves. We let our customer hold them and explain the story, the materials, and how each piece is made. There’s a zen to our customer approach, its low key and intimate. We want the man to connect with the piece. It’s fascinating to watch, and something we’re learning from every day. It feeds back into our design inspiration for the collection ahead.

“We looked around at various stores and saw loads of skulls and daggers and other designs which made us shudder. We can’t imagine ourselves wearing that. It’s no surprise to us the products are today still sitting unsold and ignored. There’s no connection, no soul to the design. Men want jewelry that is masculine and yet beautiful. We’re determined to be different, unexpected and deliver a style which resonates with men everywhere.

“Design and creativity is inside all of us, we are exploring jewelry and its human connection to bring undiscovered, unexplored design to men’s lives,” said Mark.

Mia, check the youtube source. For some reason the vid is not showing. Looks way too long a code to me. I tried editing. Else, you have a real slow server at rcm-images.amazon.com. Thanks.

EDIT: Problem at youtube's end. Servers are slow.

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oh boy are the vids even showing up? its a really great ad campaign too showing a awesome asian male model