Marc Jacobs presents its “Dot” fragrance advertisement starring Australian beauty Codie Young. Captured by Juergen Teller, Codie shows off the flashy bottle made after the shape and color of a ladybug.
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Monthly Archives: April 2012
A Private Jet With Space for Both the Rolls-Royces
Airbus is about to deliver a luxury double decker A380 to the Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the chairman of Kingdom Holding Company, a major investor in Citigroup.
Ordered in 2007, it will be the most expensive personal jet, with a final price well in excess of $500 million, including the cost of outfitting it with one-of-a kind amenities.
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Karl Lagerfeld to design helicopters?
Karl Lagerfeld is collaborating with helicopter-maker AgustaWestland to re-design its line of VIP choppers, reports Women’s Wear Daily magazine.
The German fashion designer, who also designed bottles for Coke, will now redesign both interiors and exteriors of the company’s AW139, a twin-engine helicopter that can seat up to 15 people.
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World’s most expensive one-bedroom apartment
With an astonishing asking price of US$21.1 million, this Tokyo pad is the most expensive one-room apartment in the world.
Dubbed “The House”, the luxury penthouse is located in the most expensive neighbourhood in Tokyo, the Minami-Azabu district.
Featuring 4,434 square feet of living space, the owner spent the past 18 months renovating it to become a live-in masterpiece.
In the living room is an original art piece by Hiroshi Senju painted on-site. Most of the furniture in the home is custom designed by Ceccotti Collezioni, as well as Italian imported stone and wood used for many of the walls, flooring, and doors.
The dining room is designed for dinner parties in the special Japanese “Ryotei” syle where the chef can serve guests directly from the gourmet kitchen.
There is also a separate casual dining room with the Parisian-style terrace overlooking the peaceful Arisugawa Park. The bright and cheerful eat-in kitchen is fitted with all La Cornue appliances.
The one and only bedroom boasts an extensively fitted walk-in closet space and an extremely luxurious bathroom with hot tub and a 60 inch television.
Also, from the entrance down the long hallway, the walls open up as a massive shoe storage unit that holds up to 200 pairs of shoes.
The focal point of this amazing home is the courtyard garden. The corridor surrounding it is designed as a lounge space for guests to enjoy the charming seasonal garden. Source: Sotheby’s.
Alain Delon Luxury Watch Collection Auctioned
Chinese buyers showed their economic clout in Paris Thursday at an auction of watches owned by French film idol Alain Delon, with prices going through the roof.
Auction house Cornette de Saint-Cyr told AFP that the sale brought in a total of 443,875 euros ($590,300) as collectors and fans thronged the room while many buyers, especially in China, took part by phone.
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The smallest US town fetches $900,000 at auction
Billed as the smallest town in America, Buford, Wyoming, was sold at auction Thursday for $900,000 to a Vietnamese national who wants to remain anonymous.
Twenty-five bidders signed up for the auction, held online and on-site, of the town with its three-bedroom house, school, gas station and several other buildings.
Buford’s last inhabitant and the owner of the buildings, Don Sammons, 61, told AFP the package went to a Vietnamese man from Ho Chi Minh City.
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St. Regis Tianjin’s Presidential Suite
The new St. Regis Tianjin has launched its Presidential Suite, Tianjin’s largest luxury hotel suite with “extraordinary amenities, unparalleled views and uncompromising service”, according to the Starwood property.
The 450-square-meter Presidential Suite features a 70-square-meter master bedroom with a signature St. Regis king-sized bed, separate seating area, 55” flat screen HDTV and walk-in closet.
The master bathroom has his and her marble showers and vanities, a deep bathtub whirlpool, and a dry sauna, while the guest bedroom features a king-sized bed and a 46” flat screen TV.
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Valentino Eyewear Spring 2012 campaign
Bette Franke, Fei Fei Sun, Maud Welzen and Zuzanna Bijoch pose for Deborah Turbeville’s lens in the new Valentino eyewear campaign shot for the spring season.
Who will wear Chopard’s Monroe necklace?
Following the announcement that Marilyn Monroe is the icon of the upcoming 65th Cannes Film Festival, event sponsor Chopard has designed a one-off creation to be worn by one lucky celebrity — whose identity won’t be unveiled until May 16.
The late Hollywood actress famously sung about diamonds being a girl’s best friend, so for this year a necklace of heart-shaped diamonds and briolettes designed by Chopard’s co-president Caroline Scheufele will be revealed.
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BMW launches Mini Cooper in India
German carmaker BMW on Thursday launched its iconic Mini Cooper in India, the latest luxury auto maker to expand in one of the world’s fastest-growing car markets.
BMW established a presence in the country in 2006 and has since seen steady growth in sales in India where growing affluence is producing a new upper class with expensive tastes.
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Rare golden snapper sells for $38,000 in Bangladesh
A Chinese businessman paid $38,000 for a rare golden snapper Thursday in the Bangladeshi port city of Chittagong, a leading fish trader said.
The unidentified Chinese businessman from Hong Kong bought the 37-kilogram (82-pound) fish “for its tasty bladder and succulent flesh”, Jahangir Saudagar, who sold the fish, told AFP.
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Porsche 911 becomes 2012 World Performance Car
An international panel of automotive journalists has voted the Porsche 911 the 2012 World Performance Car in New York.
The World Performance Car Award is presented by the World Car of the Year organization in recognition of a new car with ‘a specific and overt sports/performance orientation’.
The Porsche 911 was chosen from an entry list of 19 cars from all over the world and beat fellow finalists the Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 and the McLaren MP4-12C.
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Missoni x Four Seasons Resort Maui
Italian designer Missoni is lending its distinct style to Four Seasons Resort Maui for two of the property’s poolside cabanas that will feature Missoni furniture.
Missoni created floral fabrics that incorporate the brand’s traditional stripes and zigzags to mirror the beach setting of the property’s Serenity Pool.
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Swarovski Watch by Tokujin Yoshioka
Tokujin Yoshioka has designed “Lake of Shimmer” – Avant Time Nº3 for Swarovski. The bracelet of this watch is adorned with small hexagonal stainless steel that reflects the light beautifully. It is expected to be released in September, 2012.
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Peek inside Karl Lagerfeld’s apartment
After previously guest-editing publications including French dailies Libération and Metro, Chanel creative director Karl Lagerfeld has highlighted his interior design credentials as guest editor of the French edition of Architectural Digest.
The 220-page issue will reach French newsstands April 13, with Lagerfeld’s futuristic Parisian apartment featured on the cover and photographed by him inside.
There are articles on architects and designers Lagerfeld admires such as Zaha Hadid and Martin Szekely, as well as the creator’s picks of objects for the home.
In his editor’s letter, Lagerfeld makes parallels between the realms of fashion and interior design, explaining; “We are at the heart of a Russian doll: first the clothes, then the apartments and houses….Even the streets and the cities are part of the evolution of our preferences and our taste.”
Lagerfeld isn’t the only creator to venture into the realm of architecture and interiors, with Italian fashion brand Missoni recently announcing a project to lend its trademark aesthetic to a residential tower in Manila via its Missoni HOME line.
Fisker Automotive unveils the Atlantic
Fisker Automotive has unveiled its new plug-in vehicle at the New York International Auto Show, as it struggles to recover from setbacks with its Karma sedan.
The brand unveiled a prototype of the new Fisker Atlantic plug-in hybrid at the press preview of the New York show, promising that it would be less expensive and more fuel efficient than the $103,000 Karma.
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Saudi man splurges $136,000 on vintage bubbly
A Saudi millionaire splurged $136,000 on a bottle of champagneat Dubai’s glitzy Cavalli club over the weekend, a UAE newspaper reported on Tuesday.
“The Saudi Arabian and his friends guzzled” a bottle of Louis Roederer Cristal in the early hours of Saturday morning, the 7DAYS newspaper said.
The vintage bottle was “one of just three believed to be available worldwide,” the paper added. The other two were for sale at nightclubs in New York and London.
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Hainan Rendez-Vous 2012
The third annual Hainan Rendez-Vous, China’s leading superyacht and business jet show, will be held on the 5th-8th of April 2012.
The show is becoming a landmark event for China’s affluent and influential decision makers providing them with a platform for top level communication and collaboration.
The show’s fantastic turnout is due in part to the fact that Hainan is becoming a key yachting hub for China.
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Lincoln MKZ launches at New York Auto Show
Struggling brand Lincoln is set to burst back onto the luxury automaker scene this week at the New York International Auto Show (April 6-15), as it attempts to gain grounds on flashy rivals such as Lexus and Infiniti.
The Ford-owned make has struggled to attract important younger buyers in recent years and is now undergoing something of a makeover in a bid to become more associated with good design and luxury features.
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Imperial Chinese bowl fetches $27 million
An extremely rare Chinese porcelain bowl fetched nearly $27 million in Hong Kong on Wednesday, smashing pre-sale estimates by about three times.
The price sets a new record for a piece of ceramic from the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), according to Sotheby’s.
“The piece is possibly the greatest masterpiece of Song ceramic that we have ever offered in Hong Kong,” Sotheby’s Asia deputy chairman Nicolas Chow said.
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1.618 Sustainable Luxury 2012
Luxury and sustainable development may sound like polar opposites, but green pioneers gathered at a Paris show at the weekend were betting on a cleaner, fairer future for the industry.
Created in 2010, the four-day Paris event, dubbed “1.618 Sustainable Luxury”, brought together some 40 firms, inventors and foundations, that aim to reconcile luxury with ethics and environmental good practice.
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