Monthly Archives: March 2012

Prada Chengdu China

Prada Reports Best Profits Ever

Prada Chengdu China

Italian luxury design house Prada said Thursday its net profit soared 72.2 percent in the year ending January 2012, driven by strong retail sales especially in Asia.

Net profit rose to 431.9 million euros (575.29 million dollars) compared to 250.8 million euros previously, the company told the Hong Kong stock exchange where it listed last year with a $2.46 billion initial public offering.

Consolidated net revenues grew 24.9 percent to 2.56 billion euros, boosted by a 37.6-percent jump in retail net sales to 1.96 billion euros.
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Guess Inc

Gucci accuses Guess of copying their trademarks

Guess Inc

In 2009, Gucci filed a lawsuit against Guess for copyright infringement, seeking over $124 million in damages. Now the two companies are finally in court.

Gucci’s people say that Guess knocked off over $200 million in merchandise, with the “clear intent” to make people think what they were buying was “Gucci”

Gucci claims that the LA-based fashion brand infringed on its trademarks by imitating four specific Gucci signatures: the green and red stripe; the interlocking “G” pattern; the square “G” and the brand name’s delicate script font.
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Cartier joaillier des Arts

‘Cartier, Jeweler of the Arts’ exhibition in Paris

Cartier joaillier des Arts

The Fondation Cartier, the contemporary art museum of the luxury jewelry house, will present its latest expo, Cartier, Jeweler of the Arts, in Paris beginning April 3.

The exhibition brings together four artworks made by artists including David Lynch and Takeshi Kitano using precious and semi-precious stones no longer deemed suitable for the brand’s jewelry. Preview images of what they came up with here.
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Chinese wine professionals

China loves red wine

Chinese wine professionals

While China is drinking more and more wine each year it appears also that consumers are drinking more and more of the same type of wine.

According to a recent survey produced to help promote May’s Vinexpo Asia-Pacific event — the largest wine industry gathering in the region — 99.5 percent of wine drunk in China is still wine, and 91 percent of the still wine drunk is red wine.
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Masai Maara Kenya

Virgin joins other chains with new Africa hotel

Masai Maara Kenya

As African hotels continue to boom, Virgin has announced that it is to become the latest name to move into the continent.

Virgin Limited Edition, Richard Branson’s luxury travel brand, is set to open a 12-tented camp in the Masai Maara Game Reserve next year.

The Mahali Mzuri camp will hold double-occupancy tents, meaning a maximum of 24 people at one time, with fully inclusive services set to include meals, drinks and daily game drives around the area.
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sheraton macao hotel

Sheraton Maco Hotel to be World’s Largest

sheraton macao hotel

This fall, Sheraton will unveil the 3,863-room Sheraton Macao Hotel, which will be the largest Sheraton — and Starwood — hotel in the world.

Located on the Cotai Strip, the new hotel will boast three restaurants with poolside cafes, two outdoor swimming pools and 140,000 square feet of meeting space.

Sands Cotai Central also features a Conrad and Holiday Inn. The Conrad Macao features over 600 rooms and suites in a 39-floor tower, while the Holiday Inn Macao holds more than 1,200 rooms and suites.
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pagani supercar crashed

Chinese bus drivers asked to identify luxury car logos

pagani supercar crashed

In Jinhua, China, a local bus company has urged its drivers to learn to identify luxury cars to avoid any accident with them, as such accidents result in expensive compensation claims, website Zjnews.zjol.com.cn reported Wednesday.

A poster (pictured below) featuring more than ten luxury car logos, such as Bentley, Bugatti, Ferrari, Lamborghini and Rolls-Royce, was pasted in the office of the bus company to help all its bus drivers to identify these logos.
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james franco gucci

Gucci adds “Made to Measure” service in 11 cities

james franco gucci

The Italian fashion house Gucci is extending its menswear offerings to include Made to Measure, an in-store tailoring service that it is offering in 11 cities worldwide.

In addition to offering fabrics from an exclusive selection, the service provides for customizable options with finishes and details and allows for personal tailoring according to the client’s individual measurements.
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Virgin Atlantic Upper Class Red lip color

Virgin Atlantic launching lipcolor

Virgin Atlantic Upper Class Red lip color

After Chanel’s Spring/Summer 2012 Haute Couture show was staged on a Chanel-branded airplane, air travel has never seemed so glamorous, and now airline Virgin Atlantic is launching its first ever lipcolor inspired by the cabin crew’s uniform.

The company has teamed up with beauty brand bareMinerals for the shade Upper Class Red, which will be sold at the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse Spa at Heathrow, Gatwick and New York JFK airports, before reaching bareMinerals stockists later this year. It will also be available for pre-order on board Virgin Atlantic flights.
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restaurant Alinea

Elite Traveler ranks top restaurants in the world

restaurant Alinea

Elite Traveler, a magazine targeted towards the jet setting, “wealthy elite” has published its ranking of the top 20 restaurants in the world.

The recently launched issue of Elite Traveler’s World’s Top Restaurants magazine gave Alinea the top nod, calling it the best restaurant in the world for its “hypermodern, emotional approach to dining.”

British chef Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck, in Bray came in second for “pushing the boundaries of British gastronomy” and providing a dining experience that excites the senses and reinvents traditional British classics.
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Lanvin For H&M shopping bag

H&M to launch luxury brand?‎

Lanvin For H&M shopping bag

Swedish high street giants Hennes and Mauritz, who own H&M, COS, Monki and Cheap Monday, are rumoured to be branching into a luxury line.

Designer Behnaz Aram, who joined the company’s design team in August last year, is thought to be heading up the new luxury brand.

H&M spokeswoman Charlotta Nemlin refused to confirm the speculation but did admit the company is constantly working on new endeavours.
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vineyard Yunnan province

Moët-Hennessy to produce red wine in China

vineyard Yunnan province

Champagne maker Moët-Hennessy has invested in a vineyard in the mountains of China that will produce red wine for the domestic Chinese market.

Luxury brand LVMH has signed an agreement with a major alcohol, wine and spirits distributor in China, VATS, to develop 30 hectares of vineyards at an altitude of 2,400 m in the mountains of Yunnan, in southwestern China.

The luxury Champagne brand had previously acquired a Chinese spirits brand from the Sichuan area of China five years ago. Last year, Moët-Hennessy also began production of a premium sparkling wine in the province of Ningxia Hui.
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Hiroshi Sugimoto

Hiroshi Sugimoto for Hermès

Hiroshi Sugimoto

Following previous team-ups with the likes of French conceptual artist Daniel Buren, Hermès has announced its latest limited edition scarf collaboration will be with Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto.

The partnership is in honor of the third edition of the luxury label’s Hermès Editeur project, which intertwines the world of fine arts and crafts with the realm of textiles.

Sugimoto’s limited edition silk scarves have been inspired by his “Colors of Shadow” project, and will be presented at the Art Basel contemporary art fair this June.
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James Cameron submarine

Submarines — the ultimate toy for the super rich

James Cameron submarine

When director James Cameron descended to the bottom of the Pacific on Monday, he not only shed light on the world’s deepest ocean, but the world’s most exclusive hobby: private submarine voyages.

The phenomenally profitable director of “Avatar” piloted an ungainly looking, bright green, one-seat sub to an amazing 36,000 feet, or 11,000 meters, down into the Mariana Trench.
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Audi A6 front seat area

Indian drivers need extra strong horns: Audi

Audi A6 front seat area

German carmaker Audi makes special horns for its vehicles sold in India where local drivers hoot so much as they fight their way through chaotic traffic, the firm’s country director has revealed.

“Obviously for India, the horn is a category in itself,” Michael Perschke, director at Audi India, told Monday’s Mint newspaper.

“You take a European horn and it will be gone in a week or two. With the amount of honking in Mumbai, we do on a daily basis what an average German does on an annual basis.”
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Real Madrid Resort Island

Real Madrid to build $1billion artificial island resort

Real Madrid Resort Island

Real Madrid football club will spend $1bn to build a lavish resort island in the United Arab Emirates, complete with luxury hotels, marina and amusement park.

Executives unveiled plans for the “Real Madrid Resort Island”, featuring an oceanside stadium and hi-tech club museum in the northern Emirate of Ras Al-Khaimah, on the doorstep of the lucrative football-mad Asian market.

“Real Madrid Resort Island will be a major tourist and sporting centre of great dimensions and the highest level,” club president Florentino Perez said.
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Fujifilm Globe-Trotter suitcase

Fujifilm x Globe-Trotter X-Pro1 suitcase

Fujifilm Globe-Trotter suitcase

Fujifilm has teamed up with British luggage company, Globe-Trotter to release a limited-edition suitcase containing a complete Fujifilm FinePix X-Pro 1 system.

Exclusive to London’s world-famous Harrods, only 12 of the cases will be available – each costing a staggering £5,695 ($9,000).

The cases each contain a Fujifilm X-Pro1, the company’s one-and-a-half grand compact system camera, plus three lenses, flash and a filter.
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