Webber survives horrific crash but Vettel wins in Valencia

What a day for Red Bull at the European Formula 1 Grand Prix in Valencia in Spain. An amazing victory for our driver Sebastian Vettel who bounced himself back into contention for the world championship with an easy win in Valencia.

Mark Webber suffered a spectacular accident as he ran on the back of Lotus´s Kovalainen in the early laps. His Red Bull car somersaulted backwards through 180 degrees and landed upside down, flipped back on to its wheels, and then speared headfirst into the tyre wall at very high speed. Fortunately he is absolutely fine, no injuries but his accident underlined not only the dangers of Formula 1 but also the incredible safety technology within each car.

Sebastian Vettel who brilliantly obtained the pole position on Saturday in an exciting qualifying session, led from the beginning and defended his position strongly during the whole race. After some bad luck recently, this victory should be a boost for this confidence.

It was an exciting day in Valencia. With everyone on the Pepe Jeans and Red Bull teams ecstatic over Vettel´s victory and relieved that Webber is fine after his accident.  We look forward now to Silverstone and the UK Grand Prix in just two weeks. Bring it on.

Behind The Scenes: Pepe Jean Spring 2010 fashion shoot with Alexa Chung

Ever wondered what it's like to be in the middle of a fashion shoot. Well, take a look at this behind-the-scenes footage shot during our latest spring 2010 shoot with Alexa Chung.

Thrust into the fashion spotlight aged just 16 Alexa carved out a reputation as an in-demand model long before turning her talents towards TV presenting. Gaining notoriety as much for her maverick take on fashion as her sharp-witted on-screen style, Chung quickly gathered a cult following through Channel 4’s Sunday music show, Popworld. And the rest, as they say, is history. 

Chung is the modern day It Girl, with handbags named after her and her very own rock'n'roll slice of arm-candy in the shape of Arctic Monkeys' Alex Turner. Last year, Chung was even awarded the trophy for Most Stylish Woman In The World by Vogue, and both the Glamour Magazine Award and Elle Style Award for Best TV Presenter.

Since Bruce Weber shot Jason Priestley for our infamous 1993 ad campaign, Pepe Jeans London has been as meticulous in selecting the hottest fashion photographers to work behind the lens as it has been in identifying the next big celebrity talents to appear in front of the camera. 
The latest ad campaign is shot by celebrated fashion photographer Tom Munro who since the mid-1990s has become renowned for his directional fashion shoots for the world’s most respected fashion magazines including American Vogue, Italian Vogue, L’Uomo Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar,Numéro and Details. Most recently, Munro played a pivotal role in the restructuring of US Elle.

The campaign was styled by sisters Alexa and Patti Wilson, with Alexa Chung appearing alongside two of today’s most recognisable male models, Tom Guinness and Boyd Holbrook.

Is Ed Westwick the new Jason Priestley?

If you're under 30 there's a chance you won't have heard of Jason Priestley, but back in the early 1990s few teenage bedroom walls escaped without a poster or two of the brooding star. Rocketed to fame on the back of the ballistic TV missile that was Beverly Hills 90210 (cast pictured below), the original incarnation of the LA-set teen TV soap, Priestley was the 1990's answer to Jimmy Dean.

Pepe Jeans has always had a knack of partnering with iconic faces for its campaigns and back in the day we linked Priestley up with one of the world's most celebrated fashion photographers of his time, Bruce Weber. 

The results were jaw-dropping but alas we've lost many of the original images in the passage of time. The shot pictured was just one in a set of around 15 images. Take a look at the picture at Priestley Mark II, Ed Westwick. This image of the star of Gossip Girl was shot for a recent issue of Arena Homme Plus.

We at Pepe Towers can't help but be reminded, in a misty-eyed kind of way, of that shoot with Bruce and Jason.

Summer 2010 Trends: Army Jackets

Still showing no signs of deserting the trends radar, the military look simply refuses to play dead. Backed by everyone from catwalk king Balmain to high street hit River Island, the one piece that no girl should be without this summer is the army jacket.

Reinterpreted in casual summer fabrics including cotton twills laundered for that lived-in look, the silhouette has to be super-lean and sexy. Balmain (pictured from www.vogue.com) embraced a dressed-up take on the look, mixing army jackets with sequin cargo pants, leather hot-pants and spray-on biker jeans, but this look works just as well mixed with a pair of vintage wash skinny jeans as modelled in the main picture by Alexa Chung, this season’s face of Pepe Jeans.

Inspired by a more regimental look, the Pepe Jeans army jacket is a cropped cotton style in stone with drummer boy details and antiqued brass buttons. Already a hit with the models pictured backstage in both New York and Paris, the army jacket might just have enough fire-power to knock the biker jacket off its popularity throne.

To find out where you can pick up the Pepe Jeans army jacket call 020 7313 3800. 

Vettel goes from pole to pain

In case you didn't already know Pepe Jeans is sponsoring the Formula One Red Bull team this season. So, you can imagine our groans of intense frustration yesterday when, after winning pole position for the second consecutive race of the season, we lost out for the second Grand Prix of the season due to mechanical problems.

In the first Grand Prix in Bahrain, faulty spark plugs led to Sebastian Vettel dropping from first place to fourth, while in Australia it was Vettel's brakes that failed. "I had some sparks coming up from the left wheel," said Vettel. "We didn't know what it was so I wanted to pit. A couple of corners before the end of that lap I had a huge vibration building up and, when I touched the brakes going in to turn 13, I had some sort of failure and ended up in the gravel. It breaks my balls not to win but there's a long way to go in this championship," added Vettel, who ran off the Albert Park track in 2009 while fighting for second with BMW's Robert Kubica.

It's clear that Red Bull has the fastest car on the track,but until the team irons out its reliability issues it doesn't look like Pepe Jeans will be sharing its place on a Formula One podium. 

Vampire Weekend takes preppy to the dancefloor

It may have been out for a couple of months now but here at Pepe Jeans HQ we're still getting our audio kicks from Vampire Weekend's second long-player, Contra.

Yes, we were hooked from the second we caught A-Punk back in 2008. And, little could have prepared us for the bouncy Senagalese-inspired pop that was to define the band's self-titled debut album. But, two years on we're just as stoked by the band's latest offer.

The African/Peter Gabriel-esque lilts may be less dominant but the new sound is no less intoxicating, with its melting pot of new wave, ska, synth-pop, punk, and even classical creating a bouncy self-deprecating pop personality with enough urgency to fill a dancefloor.

The band's thrift-store preppy sensibilities have also caught our attention. Lived-in chinos, lazy-day polo shirts and collegiate knits have rarely looked so hot. Preppy rocks.

Summer 2010 Trends: Blue on Black denim

Ignore traditional style advise - blue on black is definitely one of the hottest looks for the summer. It's been bubbling under for a while now and has been as relevant for dapper chaps combining black knits with inky blue suits, as it has been for catwalk queens mixing floaty black tops with sludgy blue peg leg pants.

The influence for Pepe Jeans comes straight from the streets of Camden where indie-rock urchins like T4 presenter Nick Grimshaw (pictured left), have been combining beaten-up, size-too-small denim jackets and shirts with black skinny jeans for the last 12 months.

Avoid raw denim or dark indigo jackets for this look, as it's all about getting the contrast right. So, go for a mid-blue denim top (whether it's a chambray shirt or a trucker jacket) and match it with a pair of black or slightly washed-out black jeans, the skinnier the better.

At Pepe we're loving this season's black Pixie jean (see main picture of Alexa above) which has all the proportions of a jegging but with the silhouette and detailing you'd expect from a five-pocket jean.