Monthly Archives: February 2013

Dubai Eye Ferris wheel

Dubai to build world’s largest Ferris wheel

Dubai Eye

Dubai is once again set to add another record-breaking monument to their landscape with the largest Ferris wheel in the world.

Construction of the Dubai Eye is set to begin this spring as part of a larger development project located off the Jumeirah Beach Residence coastline that hopes to draw three million visitors to the area a year.

At 210 meters tall, the Dubai Eye would trump US plans to build what they declared was to be the world’s largest Ferris wheel in the word on Staten Island’s North Shore

The New York Wheel will measure 190 meters tall and is scheduled to open New Year’s Eve 2015. Currently, the largest Ferris wheel in the world is the Singapore Flyer, which stands at 165 meters tall.

The 1 billion AED Ferris wheel will be a major tourist attraction for the Bluewaters project that will feature a mix of retail, residential, hospitality and entertainment zones.

Riders on the Dubai Eye will get a sweeping view of the Dubai coastline, as well as a bird’s eye view of landmarks like the sail-shaped hotel Burj Al Arab, the Palm Jumeirah and the Burj Khalifa.

Vacheron Constantin 1972 Prestige

Vacheron Constantin 1972 Prestige

For the opening of Vacheron Constantin’s new Paris flagship boutique in Paris, the brand revisited a distinct model from its past to create the 1972 Prestige.

The new Prestige is part of the asymmetrical “1972″ collection and was inspired by the original from 1972. Though, this modern day version features the Geneva Seal and has the ultra-thin VC hand-wound caliber 1003 made of gold (same as in the Historiques 1955).

It will be offered in two variations — including a 40-piece boutique-only edition, shown above.  The Vacheron Constantin 1972 Prestige price is $40,000.

via perpetuelle

Louis Roederer Cristal champagne

Champagne Sales Down for 2012

champagne store

Sales of champagne fell by 4.4% in volume terms last year, but increased exports helped compensate for sagging European consumption and kept revenue flat at 4.37 billion euros ($5.86 billion).

The slide in annual sales to 308.8 million bottles in 2012 was primarily due to the sharp 13.3 percent fall in European sales and a 8.8 percent fall in France in December, the Champagne Wine Professionals Committee (CIVC) said Tuesday.

Exports of the high-end French sparkling white wine rose by 3.2 percent however to reach a record high of 61 million bottles.

“More than ever champagne has an international value, and other countries represent an essential conduit to growth due to their strong consumption of prestigious vintages,” said CIVC spokesman.

Longchamp Spring 2013

Longchamp Spring 2013 Campaign

Longchamp has presented the film of its Spring 2013 campaign. The French luxury brand puts the focus on models Liisa Winkler and Coco Rocha as they dance to the Bee Gees’ “You Should Be Dancing.”

Longchamp Spring 2013 Ad Campaign

“Coco Rocha is is the perfect embodiment of the Longchamp woman – a woman who is optimistic, dynamic, cosmopolitan, who loves fashion but is not a fashion victim.”

Longchamp Spring Summer 2013 Campaign

The video shows two women travelling from JFK airport in New York. While being frisked by customs officials, they hear the Bee Gees’ “You Should Be Dancing” and start doing exactly that.

Longchamp Spring 2013

In the ad campaign, shot by Max Vadukul, the focus is on the brand’s emblematic handbags for spring 2013 (Longchamp 3D, Gatsby Sport and LM Cuir) as well on its shoe and pret-à-pôrter collections.

Longchamp Spring 2013 Campaign

Le bristol hotel eiffel tower

David Beckham to live in luxury suite

David Beckham Paris Saint Germain

After much speculation as to where David Beckham will rest his head every night in Paris, it seems the newest player for Paris Saint-Germain has chosen the luxury Hotel Bristol, a five-star property that sits along one of the ritziest streets in the city.

Le bristol hotel eiffel tower

Beckham will be housed in the largest suite at the hotel at a cost of an estimated €17,000 a night. The hotel bill will be footed by his new team for the next five months.

Le bristol hotel Luxury suite

At 322 square meters, the 4-room Imperial Suite includes a sitting room, 2 bedrooms and a dining area that overlooks the hotel’s French garden and can seat 12 people. Beckham will get ready for his games in a bathroom made of pink Aurora marble, which features a steam shower and bath.

Epicure gastronomic restaurant

The hotel boasts a triple Michelin-starred restaurant — Epicure helmed by chef Eric Frechon. The gastronomic experience, meanwhile, comes in at astronomic prices for many, with the exclusion of superstar athletes with a bevy of endorsement deals.

Epicure chef Eric Frechon

A first course of crispy asparagus velouté or sauce, light zabaglione and black truffle ice cream, for instance, will set you back €95, while macaroni and cheese with black truffle, artichoke, duck foie gras and mature Parmesan cheese costs €92.

Le Bristol Hotel

VertuTi

Vertu launches world’s costliest Android smartphone

vertu ti

Vertu, the world’s leading provider of luxury mobile phones, has launched Vertu Ti, a new contemporary smartphone powered by Android. The Google Android operating system is 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, which although isn’t the latest version, is upgradeable in the future.

The 8-megapixel camera can shoot 1080p video, plus there is a 1.3-megapixel video call lens above the screen, NFC, and 64GB of internal storage memory.

Based around a titanium case, Vertu Ti also uses leather accents as well as the largest sapphire crystal screen ever engineered at 3.7 inches.

The sapphire crystal renders the screen virtually scratch proof and it is tested to be four times stronger than other smart phones in terms of impact resistance

The handmade Vertu Ti starts at $9,600, with a more expensive rose gold-trimmed model that sells for a whopping $19,900.

Alila Villas Uluwatu

Condé Nast Traveller names best hotels for 2013

Hotel Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi

Editors of Condé Nast Traveller UK have released their picks for the best hotels of 2013, choosing properties across categories such as best beach, wilderness, design, city and country hotels.

From cocktail bars that hang dramatically over the edge of a Balinese cliff, to a Kenyan wilderness lodge embedded high within African conservation lands, and a quintessentially French countryside inn carved out of village rock and set in the heart of Provence, CN Traveller’s list of 25 best hotels for 2013 strays from the usual suspects of opulent, five-star locales in favor of roads less traveled.

Meanwhile, readers of Travel + Leisure helped the magazine curate their own list of top 500 hotels of 2013 which was released last month.

For the second year in a row, safari lodge Singita Grumeti Reserves in Tanzania was ranked No. 1 in the world. It features a cliff-top plunge pool, tennis courts, spa, a yoga center, and offers sightings of elephants, wildebeest, zebras and gazelles.

Otahuna Lodge

Here’s the full list of CN Traveller’s 25 Best Hotels for 2013

BEST BEACH HOTELS:

Alila Villas Uluwatu, Bali
Uxua Casa Hotel, Trancoso, Brazil
Shangri-La’s Villingili Resort & Spa, Maldives
Soho Beach House, Miami
La Sirenuse, Positano, Italy

Alila Villas Uluwatu

BEST WILDERNESS HOTELS:

The Walig Hut, Gsteig, Switzerland
Four Seasons Tented Camp, Golden Triangle, Thailand
Adrère Amellal, Siwa, Egypt
Tassia Lodge, Lekurruki Community Ranch, Kenya
Shakti 360° Leti, Uttarakhand, India

Shakti 360 Leti

BEST CITY HOTELS:

Hotel Sofitel Legend Metropole, Hanoi
Dwarika’s Hotel, Kathmandu, Nepal
Le Pavillon de la Reine, Paris
Mandarin Oriental Bangkok, Thailand
The Oyster Bay, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Mandarin Oriental Bangkok

BEST COUNTRY HOTELS:

Oustau de Baumanière, France
Hambleton Hall, Rutland, England
The Point, New York State
Otahuna Lodge, South Island, New Zealand
Miyamasou, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan

Hambleton Hall

BEST DESIGN HOTELS:

Conservatorium Hotel, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Playa Vik José Ignacio, Uruguay
Hegia, Hazparne, France
Southern Ocean Lodge, Kangaroo Island, Australia
The Upper House, Hong Kong

The Upper House Hong Kong

Godiva gold box

Sweet Gourmet treats for Valentine’s Day 2013

dalloyau Heart shaped cakes

Master chocolatiers and top luxury pastry boutiques have come out with another wide assortment of sweet treats for this year’s edition of Valentine’s Day.

Pierre Herme pate de fruit

Pierre Hermé

A litchi and rose pâte de fruit, or fruit jelly, covered in a raspberry ganache.

dalloyau Heart shaped cakes

Dalloyau

Heart-shaped versions of Dalloyau’s signature offerings include the Macaron of Love, a raspberry-flavored cookie filled with a Madagascan vanilla cream and raspberry compote; a shortbread pastry filled with a Sabayon mousse and berries, and a choux-pastry filled with vanilla and raspberries.

Pierre Herme Ella Heart

Pierre Hermé

Made with a base of olive oil and lemon biscuits, the Ella Heart is an ode to red berries and is filled with a light lemon mousse.

La Maison du Chocolat bonbons

La Maison du Chocolat

Want to spice up your regular repertoire? French chocolate boutique La Maison du Chocolat has come out with special edition bonbons with interesting flavor pairings, such as a vanilla and Jamaican pepper-spiced praline filled with almonds and hazelnuts, and Galanga and lemon chocolates.

Herme Tarte Coeur Infiniment Jasmin

Pierre Hermé

Hermé’s Tarte Cœur Infiniment Jasmin, or Infinitely Jasmine Heart, is made with shortbread, jasmine–infused ganache, jasmine tea biscuit and Marscapone cream.

Godiva gold box

Godiva

Godiva’s signature gold box is an assortment of 36 milk, dark and white chocolate bonbons, pralines and ganaches.

Spot Painting Damien Hirst

Damien Hirst Redesigns Brit Awards Statuette

Damien Hirst Brit Awards 2013 Trophy

Damien Hirst has designed the 2013 Brit Awards statue. The artist is the third British creative to give the music prize a makeover, following Vivienne Westwood in 2011 and Sir Peter Blake in 2012.

Hirst’s statue is covered with bright multi-coloured dots – a signature motif of the artist. The trophies will be handed out during the ceremony on February 20. “I am honoured to be asked to design this year’s statue,” said Hirst. “It has become such an iconic award, I love the Brits.”

lacoste

Lacoste celebrates 80 with 12 custom polo shirt kits

polo shirt kit by Lacoste

As Lacoste celebrates its 80th birthday this year, it is launching a series of 12 limited edition kits that will allow Lacoste fans to customize the brand’s famous polo shirts.

The kits will be available on the L-80-Store, accessible via the brand’s Facebook page. All through 2013, Lacoste will offer a new polo shirt kit for customizing through color, sewing, embroidery or flock prints. Each kit in the series celebrates an aspect of the Lacoste world.

The first, which pays homage to tennis, is already available via Lacoste’s Facebook page. Each kit in the series is available in a limited edition of 12 and costs €300.

polo shirt kit Lacoste

Jean-Paul Hevin Chinese New Year bonbons

Jean-Paul Hévin launches Chinese New Year bonbons

Jean-Paul Hevin Chinese New Year bonbons

Jean-Paul Hévin has released a special range of bonbons for Chinese New Year that includes a Sichuan chili-peppered dark chocolate ganache as well as a new mandarin-flavored chocolate macaron.

Handcrafted in Paris before being flown to his Hong Kong boutiques, the limited edition chocolates have been created to help usher in the year of the snake.

The Boite Gourmande is a red faux snake-skin box wrapped in a gold ribbon that comes with 28 bonbons including the Sichuan chili chocolate, all adorned with the Chinese symbol for the word ‘lucky.’

Under the mentorship of chef Joël Robuchon in Paris, Jean-Paul Hévin received one of the top honors in France for artisan craftsmanship, the title of “Meilleur Ouvrier de France.” Since opening his own chocolate boutique in Paris, he’s since exported the brand to Japan, Hong Kong, China and Taiwan.

The special Chinese New Year coffrets like the Boite Gourmande, which costs $560 HKD (€53), are available at the trio of Jean-Paul Hévin boutiques in Hong Kong.

Amy Adams Eau de Lacoste

Amy Adams is new face of Lacoste fragrance

Amy Adams Eau de Lacoste

Lacoste has launched a fresh new light fragrance for women designed for summer. The Eau de Lacoste will roll out in retail points this spring.

Eau de Lacoste has a variety of fruity and floral notes such as white pineapple, mandarin, bergamot, orange blossom and jasmine. These are coupled with notes of sandalwood, vanilla and vetiver.

The bottle’s design features many of Lacoste’s codes, from the crocodile engraved on the bottle down to the texturized cap in the brand’s signature stitched knit.

Lacoste has chosen American actress Amy Adams as the face of this new eau de parfum. “Amy has a natural grace and modernity that both women and men admire. She captures the mood of Lacoste in a truly engaging way,” explained Antoine Delgrange, the international marketing director of P&G Prestige.

Eau de Lacoste comes in 30, 50 and 90 mL eau de parfum sprays. Prices start at €39.

Laduree x Reed Krakoff

laduree reed krakoff

For the last couple of years, the famed French macaron maker Ladurée has been teaming up with fashion’s creative minds to make special macaroon sets.

Last year’s fashion week saw a partnership between Ladurée and Lanvin’s Director, Alber Elbaz. The result: a limited-edition bubblegum pink macaron and box.

This year, designer Reed Krakoff and Ladurée have collaborated to make all-black macarons that stand out from the usual pastel-colored meringue cookies.

In keeping with Krakoff’s aesthetic, the new Macaron is dark with black buttercream filing, wrapped in black paper, in a black box with black writing.

Called “Strange Love,” the macarons are available in a limited-edition black box throughout New York Fashion Week, exclusively at 864 Madison Avenue.

Via Time – Photo: Garancedore

Perrier-Jouet Claire Coles

Perrier-Jouët Belle Epoque by Claire Coles

Perrier-Jouet Claire Coles

Perrier-Jouët has unveiled the Perrier-Jouët Collection by Claire Coles, a series of limited editions and essential accessories created by the London textile designer.

Using fragments of vintage wallpapers, fabrics and scale, Coles produces layered botanical collages and creates bespoke handmade creations, transforming them into true works of arts.

Using Nature as a source of inspiration, the artist gave her own interpretation of Perrier-Jouët’s Art Nouveau philosophy with a Je ne sais quoi touch of haute-couture design, which was then applied to a limited number of bottles.

The Perrier-Jouët Collection by Claire Coles includes two limited editions of cocktail bags for the Grand Brut and Blason Rosé cuvees.

Made of a semi-rigid cooler bag, with a subtle satin effect finely decorated with the design, the cocktail bags are the essential accessory for taking a bottle of champagne with you and keeping it perfectly chilled for the party.

The collection also contains a new gift box for Grand Brut, and an exclusive Belle Epoque Deluxe case containing the legendary prestigious cuvee of the House and the two iconic anemone designed flutes.

Claire Coles

BMW K2 M ski

BMW and K2 unveil limited-edition luxury skis

BMW K2 M ski

BMW has just released a fresh crop of limited-edition luxury skis, designed in collaboration with K2 Corporation. Among the series of new skis is the new M edition, inspired by the brand’s M line, which means they’re optimized for world-class skiers who traverse double-diamonds, not bunny slopes.

They are a hybrid of camber and rocker, to boost turnability and versatility, and based on K2’s Baseline ski, offering an edge grip that promises to be second to none.

The limited-edition blades aren’t available for purchase, but will be one of the prizes in this year’s BMW xDrive Cup, an informal winter sports competition held at various resorts around the globe.

Skiers and snowboarders can compete against one another on a variety of events and post their own SkiMovies in 10 of the 13 race locations. You can also earn badges in order to be entered into a monthly drawing for a pair of the limited M skis.

BMW also announced its BMW X1 Edition Powder Ride skis designed to match the orange and black color scheme of the brand’s new Concept K2 Powder Ride, an X1 all-wheel-drive “sports activity vehicle” that comes equipped with roof-mounted speakers and a roof rack for skis.

BMW X1 Edition Powder Ride skis

Chanel store Rue Cambon

Chanel to expand historic store

Chanel store Rue Cambon

French luxury house Chanel is set to start work on extending the famous Rue Cambon store for a 2016 opening, while two new temporary boutiques on the rue St Honoré serve the brand’s growing fanbase.

Rue Cambon is an iconic location in the history of the Chanel brand. The site of Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel’s first independent store ‘Chanel Modes’ opened a century ago in 1913 and was financed by her lover Arthur Boy Chapel.

The brand’s rue Cambon premises are set to be expanded and the extension to the store will take it almost to the corner of Rue St Honoré.

According to Chanel president, the location combines “two of the most prestigious shopping streets in Paris, if not the world, which explains the high traffic and our need for expansion in order to offer the best shopping experience to our clients.”

Chanel sees huge numbers of customers arrive in Paris from around the world, especially from Asia. In 2013, nearly a third of Chinese luxury shoppers will buy their goods in Europe.

To meet this rising demand, on March 4, at the tail end of Paris fashion week, Chanel will open two temporary stores on Rue St Honoré to house accessories, shoes and beauty.

Chanel previously expanded the Rue Cambon store in 2003, and added 3,400 square feet of retail space. The work on the Rue Cambon space will start in 2014 and will take up to two years to complete.

coco Chanel rue cambon

BR PW1 Argentium Minute Repeater

Bell & Ross launches argentium pocket watch

BR PW1 Argentium Minute Repeater

Bell & Ross launched the PW1 Argentium last year but has now updated the model with a minute repeater complication, called the PW1 Répétition Minutes. Alongside the tourbillon and perpetual calendar, the minute repeater is one of the three finest complications in watchmaking.

The Bell & Ross PW1 (pocket watch) minute repeater marks time like the clocks of the past: the hour is not read, it is heard.

The complicated caliber also indicates the hours and minutes musically on request — a low-pitched sound for each hour, followed by a series of double low-pitched and high-pitched sounds for every five minutes elapsed.

The PW1 Répétition Minutes has been designed in the tradition of period watches with a barleycorn guilloché caseback that opens to reveal the mechanism.

Rainbow Bridge

World’s Most Expensive Cities to Live In 2013

Rainbow Bridge

Tokyo and Osaka have topped an index of the world’s most expensive cities to live in for 2013, familiar positions for the Japanese megacities which have traditionally dominated the list prepared bi-annually by The Economist.

The Worldwide Cost of Living report put the Japanese capital at the top of the index after comparing more than 400 prices across 160 products and service such as food, clothing, household supplies, rent, utility and recreational costs.

Since 1992, with the exception of six years, Tokyo has been the world’s most expensive city to live in, toppled only by Zurich, Paris and Oslo. Asian cities dominate the index, with 11 of the world’s priciest cities coming from the east, and eight coming from Europe.

Tokyo’s inauspicious reign on the list, meanwhile, comes despite a fall in the relative cost of living in Tokyo that comes with Japanese deflation, a weaker yen and rising prices elsewhere in the world.

Notably, Australian cities have also risen quickly through the ranks due economic growth, ensuing inflation and currency swings, making them more costly to live in.

Here’s The Economist’s 10 most expensive cities to live in for 2013:

1.      Tokyo, Japan
2.      Osaka, Japan
3.      Sydney, Australia
4.      Oslo, Norway
5.      Melbourne, Australia
6.      Singapore, Singapore
7.      Zurich, Switzerland
8.      Paris, France
9.      Caracas, Venezuela
10.   Geneva, Switzerland