Monthly Archives: April 2013

Christie’s to start auctions in mainland China

shanghai tower

Auction house Christie’s has annouced plans to hold auctions in China’s largest city, Shanghai, from fall 2013, after having recieved a license to operate independently on the mainland.

“This development makes Christie’s the first international auction house able to directly conduct auctions in China under its own brand,” said Christie’s CEO Steven Murphy. “The art market continues to grow at a tremendous rate due to the burgeoning interest in art particularly in Asia and China.”

Fellow auction house Sotheby’s had gained access to Chinese art lovers by partnering with Beijing GeHua Art Co in September 2012, while Bonhams maintains an office in Beijing and, like Sotheby’s and Christie’s, operates a saleroom in Hong Kong.

Heart Media Magazines

Heart Media (luxury lifestyle magazines) acquired

Heart Media Magazines

Heart Media Group, a leading magazine publisher in Singapore, has been acquired by a new media holding company led by our friends Mr Olivier Burlot and Mr Julian Peh.

The new established company Heart Media Holding Ltd. will acquire Heart Media´s entire business, including its Malaysian and Indonesian entities, encompassing its stable of magazines which include WOW, Men’s FOLIO, FORM (Singapore) and ROOM (Malaysia) as well as digital properties.

Heart Media is currently present in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, and is planning to expand into other new territories over the coming 18 months, including China, Hong Kong, Thailand and India.

Olivier Burlot, the newly appointed CEO and publisher, told us that the magazine industry in Southeast Asia is growing and increasingly demanding.

Burlot pointed out that high-end magazines are not a struggling industry, as readers want to identify with a specific lifestyle, and magazines are one of the best ways to mirror their own aspirations.

“There is a also a strong need from fashion and luxury brands to keep on reaching affluent consumers and keep building on their brands,” he said. “Magazines are still the most effective medium to do such.”

Burlot previously launched car and female titles for Hachette Filipacchi in China, headed the Taiwan edition of fashion title ELLE and co-founded Adkom Media Group in 2001, which was later sold to SPH.

WhiteWave Media will also become a strategic partner to the new company, said Julian Peh. WhiteWave specialises in digital luxury media (Luxury-insider.com) and pushing publications in the digital space.

YSL La Laque Couture

Yves Saint Laurent creates tie-dye nail polish

YSL La Laque Couture

YSL’s La Laque Couture Tie & Dye Top Coat Collection is the first-ever nail polish that comes with three tones in one bottle. The collection of four new nail polishes features a fun twist — each polish is composed of three separate layers, for three different finishes in one application.

The sparkle, solid and clear gloss finishes sit in three layers in the bottle; you can either slide out the brush smoothly for a dip-dyed gradient effect, or you can shake up the mixture to create another look.

For now the limited edition collection comes in just four colors — Cool (watermelon), Pop (pink), Hip (lilac) and Ice (blue). The La Laque Couture Tie & Dye Top Coat Collection is set to hit stores and the web internationally in May, with the individual polishes retailing at $25 each.

Ruby Ground Falangcai Double Lotus Bowl

Chinese bowl sells at Sotheby’s for record $9.5 million

Chinese bowl Sothebys

A rare red “lotus bowl” from the Chinese emperor Kangxi period of 1662-1722 has been sold for an eye-popping $9.5 million at a Hong Kong sale, auction house Sotheby’s said.

The price set a new world record for any Chinese porcelain from the Kangxi period during the Qing dynasty after it was bought by a Hong Kong ceramics dealer for HK$74 million ($9.5 million) Monday.

The ruby-ground “falangcai” bowl decorated with pink, yellow and blue lotuses was originally expected to fetch HK$70 million at the sale, part of Sotheby’s six-day spring sale in Hong Kong.

The auctioneer said the bowl broke a previous Qing Kangxi porcelain record in 2006, when a blue and white “Dragon” vase was sold for HK$22.52 million.

red Chinese bowl

Maserati Ghibli

Maserati resurrects the Ghibli

Maserati Ghibli 2013

In the run-up to the Shanghai Motor Show, due to open its doors to the public on April 21, Maserati has released the first official images of its new Ghibli.

Not to be confused with the original Maserati Ghibli — the curvaceous 1960s sports coupe with movie-star good looks, the 2013 reimagining of the car appears to be as a four-door, four-seat executive sedan, though one with a very sporty character.

Maserati is understandably being coy on exact details but has confirmed that the car will come with two different turbocharged V6 engines, an eight-speed automatic gearbox, a choice of rear-wheel or four-wheel drive and, for the first time in the company’s history, a diesel derivative, albeit a V6 turbodiesel.

Conceived as a smaller, more agile brother to its Quattroporte, the Ghibli looks like it has been devised to compete head-to-head with the BMW 5-Series, Mercedes E-Class and the Audi A6.

And while there’s no doubt that Maserati can challenge each of those German cars in terms of speed, performance and attention to detail, there’s no indication yet if it can compete in terms of price too.

Maserati Ghibli interior

Comme des Garcons BLACK

Comme des Garçons reveals BLACK fragrance

Comme des Garcons BLACK

French-Japanese fashion label Comme des Garçons is releasing a new scent for the BLACK diffusion line. BLACK eau de toilette is described as “an emergency, guerrillalike, spiced-up new scent.”

The BLACK Commes des Garçons brand was born in 2009 at the nadir of the global financial crisis, as an attempt to inspire a little ironic cheer and counter some of what the brand calls the “general negativity engendered by the recession.”

The scent opens with Madagascan black pepper and Somali incense, while the heart is composed of leather, liquorice, birch tar, and pepperwood.All of this plays out over a base of cedarwood and vetiver

Comme des Garçons has created a matte black and white graphic design, screen-printed directly onto the glass bottle.

Available exclusively at the brand’s BLACK stores in New York, Paris and Berlin between April 2 and 15, the fragrance will be launched internationally on April 16 at all Comme des Garçons boutiques.

Patek Philippe Clock Fetches $2.3 Million

Patek Philippe The Magpie Treasure Nest Clock

An intricate Patek Philippe clock decorated with diamonds and rubies achieved $2.3 million at a Sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong this weekend.

Made in 1992, the 52-centimeter (20.5 inch) high clock weighs 15.1 kilograms (33.2 pounds), with 24.95 carats of diamonds, 6.02 carats of sapphires, rubies weighing 13.17 carats and one oval tanzanite weighing 104.75 carats according to the Sotheby’s catalogue.

Tissot Heritage Navigator 160th Anniversary

Tissot Heritage Navigator 160th Anniversary Watch

Tissot Heritage Navigator 160th Anniversary

For the its 160th anniversary, Tissot is issuing a “heritage” version of its 1953 Navigator world time watch. The original was itself created to celebrate the brand’s 100th anniversary.

The new version has been modernized a bit — most notably a 43mm case vs. 36mm on the original; but the dial retains the old Tissot logo.

Set the watch to the any one of the cities of your choice and the corresponding time zone is shown by the numbers engraved on the bezel! Source: Perpetuelle

dianekruger

Diane Kruger named new face of Chanel beauty

diane kruger

German actress Diane Kruger, who first represented Chanel’s Allure perfume in 1996, has been unveiled as the new face of a Chanel beauty campaign due some time this year.

Praising her “natural elegance and beauty” and her “cosmopolitan spirit,” Chanel will release the images later this year. This isn’t her first work for Chanel. In 2007 she appeared in ads for the Paris-Biarritz bag line, having made her Chanel debut back in the 1990s with a campaign for the Allure fragrance.

Famed for her appearances in Hollywood blockbusters “Troy,” “National Treasure” and Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds,” Kruger trained as a ballet dancer in London as a teenager before moving to Paris to pursue a career in fashion modeling.

Kruger is currently one of Chanel’s brand ambassadors and is regularly spotted in the brand’s clothing on the red carpet.

Diane Kruger in Chanel Resort 2013

Ayers Rock

Around the World with Four Seasons

Elephant riding Thai jungle

Luxury hotel brand The Four Seasons has announced an ‘Around the World’ travel itinerary aboard a private luxury jet that comes with a personal chef and onboard concierge.

Built around Four Seasons properties around the world, the 23-day itinerary for 2014 includes stops in Bali, where guests will take part in Balinese cooking classes and in Chiang Mai, where they’ll ride elephants in the Thai jungle.

Guests on the Around the World Tour will be shuttled on a Boeing 757 which will come with a private chef, a physician, and an onboard concierge who will help build personalized travel itineraries such as spa appointments, sightseeing tours, and dinners for couples celebrating a special occasion.

The price tag for this once-in-a-lifetime trip around the world? $87,950 USD for double occupancy and $8,950 USD for additional guests.

Four Seasons’s Rediscover the Americas itinerary, meanwhile, takes guests on a tour of the American west coast and South America with stopovers in Miami, Nevis, Buenos Aires, Carmelo, Costa Rica, Punta Mita and Beverly Hills. On the Americas tour, the travel itinerary may include a beachfront yoga session in Mexico, for example, or a horseback ride through the grasslands of Uruguay.

Double occupancy on the Americas tour is $62,950 USD while the single supplement is $7,650.

The Four Seasons Rediscover the Americas tour is scheduled for February 24 – March 13, 2014, while the Around the World tour kicks off March 14, 2014 for 23 days.

TVS BMW

BMW unveils motorcyle tie-up with Indian firm

bmw tvs

German top-of-the-range carmaker BMW, which also makes high-powered motorbikes, announced an agreement with India’s TVS Motor Company on Monday to produce small-engine motorcycles.

“The aim of the cooperation is to join forces to develop and produce motorcycles in the segment below 500 cubic centimetres,” the German group said in a written statement.

Stephan Schaller, who heads BMW’s motorcycle unit, said the group was expanding its product range “to tap into fresh growth potential” amid changing motorcycle markets, demographic developments and environmental demands. Small motorbikes are highly popular in emerging markets such as India.

TVS Motor Company is one of India’s largest motorcycle manufacturers, producing annually two million vehicles and with a turnover of more than $1 billion.

Jumbo Stay in Sweden

Unusual hotel stays around the world

Hotel im Wasserturm

In its list of unique sleeping experiences Hotels.com singled out properties around the world which the site deems to be as memorable as the trip itself.

Featherbed Railroad Company, in Nice, California, for instance, was named for indulging boyish, childhood dreams. Guests have the choice between nine railway cabooses with themes that range from the Orient Express, the Wild Wild West, and Casablanca.

featherbed railroad hotel

Jumbo Stay in Sweden also indulges traveler’s fantasies of joining the mile-high club with all the accoutrements of a plane, but on terra firma. Preserved in its vintage 1970s state, guests stay in one of 25 rooms — one of which includes the cockpit.

Jumbo Stay in Sweden

Sarah Cruise also offers couples the chance to spend the night on the Venetian canal, while Capsule Hotel and Sauna Cosmo Plaza Akabane in Tokyo offers guests an authentic Japanese experience.

Often used by busy Japanese commuters who need a place to crash overnight, travelers crawl into the futuristic, pod-like capsules, not unlike those seen in the Bruce Willis film “The Fifth Element.”

Nagakin Capsule Hotel

Here are other hotel destinations singled out by Hotels.com:

Hotel im Wasserturm, Cologne, Germany

Guests at the Hotel Im Wasserturm stay in a historic German landmark, the biggest water tower of the 1880s.

Hotel im Wasserturm Cologne

Madonna Inn Resort & Spa, San Luis Obispo, California

Rooms at the Madonna Inn take on a wide range of themes which include everything from Antique Cars, Crystal Room, Fabulous Fifties, Jungle Rock and Safari.

Madonna Inn Resort and Spa

Burj Al Arab, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Shaped like a sail standing erect in the desert, the building has become an instantly recognizable landmark in the city and offers extravagant accommodations and experiences for the deep-pocketed.

Aerial view luxury Burj Al Arab

Dream Cave Pension, Goreme, Turkey

This property capitalizes on the area’s natural rock formations, building rooms out of the region’s fairy chimneys.

Goreme Turkey

Azzam yacht

World’s largest superyacht launched

Azzam superyacht

German company Lürssen has launched Azzam, the world’s largest private yacht, eclipsing the previous record holder, Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich‘s 533-foot Eclipse.

Designed by Nauta Yachts in Italy, the $609 million Azzam is almost two football fields long and rivals the size of some cruise ships. It took four years to complete from concept to construction.

Azzam yacht

Amongst many other features the yacht has a main salon with a length of 29 m and a beam of 18m with an open plan and no pillars.

The interior decoration was undertaken by French designer Christophe Leoni, whose brief was to create “a sophisticated and luxurious interior in a turn of the century ‘Empire’ style”.

Azzam

The Azzam will travel in excess of 30 knots, powered by a combination of 2 gas turbines and 2 diesel engines with a total of 94000 horse powers; she will require a 50-person crew to maintain her.

BMW X4 concept

bmw x4

Ahead of its debut at the 2013 Shanghai Motor Show, German automaker BMW has unveiled its all-new 2013 BMW X4 Sports Activity Vehicle Concept.

The BMW X4 Concept is a smaller and more affordable approach to the bigger and more expensive X6 crossover and is aimed at the US and Chinese markets.

It is anticipated that the BMW X4 Concept will be powered by BMW’s standard turbocharged 2.0L TwinPower four-banger found in the 328i and 528i.

bmw x4 concept

Karl by Karl Lagerfeld

Karl Lagerfeld To Open Store in Amsterdam

Karl Lagerfeld store Amsterdam exterior

After launching his first concept store in Paris this spring, the German designer is set to open his second boutique, packed with cutting-edge digital technology, in the Dutch city of Amsterdam.

Karl Lagerfeld‘s new store is aiming to align the brand’s modern design with a host of digital treats. Featuring men’s and women’s ready‐to‐wear, footwear, eyewear, and accessories, the store will also be home to a specially curated selection of Lagerfeld’s collaborations, objets d’arts, and gift ideas.

Lagerfeld isn’t shy about mixing emerging tech, social media and fashion; even his cat Choupette has her own Twitter account, so it comes as no surprise that the new store will feature iPad minis on the clothes rails to let customers browse the collection.

More iPads will be available with a special ‘digital guestbook’ to let them surf the web, take photos in the store, and even leave personal messages for the designer.

Fitting booths will also be kitted out with touch screens which will allow shoppers to photograph their own look and apply a set of ‘Karl-inspired’ filters, before sharing the images via FB, Twitter and email.

Located in the hip 9 Straatjes (‘9 streets’) area of the Jordaan district, and set to open early May, Karl Lagerfeld’s second concept store is part of a global roll-out which will see the fashion brand appearing in additional European locations throughout 2013, before expanding into Asia.

German-born Paris-based designer Karl Lagerfeld is design chief of his namesake label, as well as creative director at luxury brand Chanel and Italian label Fendi.

Karl Lagerfeld store Amsterdam

venice grand canal

Benetton launches megastore on Venice’s Grand Canal

Fondaco dei Tedeschi

Venice has given permission for one of its most famous buildings on the Grand Canal to be converted into a Benetton ‘megastore’ amid fierce protest from conservationists. The Fondaco dei Tedeschi, a 13th century palazzo, was bought by the international clothing retailer for 53 million euros in 2008.

Despite promising to spend millions to restore the crumbling facade, the company faced strong opposition from heritage campaigners who claimed it would damage Italy’s ‘historical identity’.

According to the Dailymail, thousands of tourists stop every day to take photos of its magnificent facade, once painted by 18th century landscape artist Canaletto.

Benetton have enlisted the services of Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas to turn it into a shopping centre and public area inside the building’s 10,000 square metres of floor space.

fondaco dei tedeschi venezia

Les Colognes Hermes

Hermès launches two new masculine scents

Les Colognes Hermes

At the start of this month, Parisian luxury brand Hermès added two new scents to its Les Colognes Hermès line, the Eau de Mandarine Ambrée and the Eau de Narcisse Bleu.

Created by the brand’s exclusive in-house nose, Jean-Claude Ellena, the two new scents are available in eau de toilette in two different sized sprays 100ml (€89) and 200ml (€117).

Ellena has been working solely for Hermès since 2004, producing some of the brand’s best-loved fragrances including Terre d’Hermès and Voyage d’Hermès. Prior to that, he concocted scents for luxury brands including Van Cleef & Arpels, Balenciaga and Bulgari.

Described by Hermès as “cheeky yet gentle,” the Eau de Mandarine Ambrée captures the fresh acidity of mandarins, with some ambery complexity and a twist of passion fruit. The Narcisse Bleu scent combines orange blossom and galbanum with narcissus and finishes with a delicate woody drydown.

Hennessey Venom GT photo

Meet the new fastest production car in the world

Hennessey Venom GT

American supercar the Hennessey Venom GT has hit 265.7mph (427.6kph) to beat the Bugatti Veyron’s existing record on a technicality to steal the top speed crown.

The technicality in question is engine tuning. A standard production version of the Hennessey Venom GT managed to come close to 270mph along a 2.9 mile stretch of runway whereas the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, using Volkswagen’s 5-mile+ straight, got closer still, hitting 267.8 mph (431kph).

After setting its record, the production version of the car had its engine slightly detuned so that its top speed would be limited to a mere 258mph in order to guarantee the tires don’t disintegrate.

Therefore, though it is still technically the world’s fastest petrol engine car, the Bugatti is not the world’s fastest street-legal production car.

The Hennessey Venom GT was tested in February but the figures have only now been ratified. The car, which is loosely based on the Lotus Exige, is powered by a twin turbo-charged 7.0-liter V-8 engine.

It pumps out 1244 horespower and, as the car weighs exactily 1244kg, its power to weight ratio is 1000 horsepower per tonne.

In February of 2013, the Venom GT officially became the quickest accelerating production vehicle in the world as it ran 0-300 km/h in 13.63 seconds, thus establishing a new Guinness World Record.

The car also managed to go from 0-60 mph in 3.05 seconds and 0-100 mph in 5.88 seconds, and it ran the standing quarter-mile in 10.29 seconds at 158.83 mph.

Only 29 Venom GTs are scheduled to be built and each will cost their lucky owner $1.2 million plus shipping, not including options. Hennessey claims that the first 10 have already been sold.

gold bar photo

Zac Posen designs $1.5 million gold dress

Zac Posen

American fashion designer Zac Posen  has created a one-of-a-kind, 24-karat gold dress in honor of Magnum’s new Gold ice cream bar and its introduction in the U.S.

“Creating my first-ever 24-karat gold dress was a truly priceless experience,” said Posen in a statement. “I’m naturally drawn to luxury and love to push my creativity, so the design process of creating a couture dress made of gold was thrilling.”

The result is a gown made from more than 10,000 paillettes hand cut from gold sheets. It took the design team two weeks to hand-embroider the sequins into place.

The dress  – valued at $1.5 million – will make its debut at the Tribeca Film Festival for the premiere of a short film starring “True Blood’s” Joe Manganiello on April 18.

Titled “As Good As Gold,” the film stars actor Joe Manganiello as a gold thief who falls for “the beautiful but dangerous” actress Caroline Correa, who of course, is wearing Posen’s dress.

In addition to its debut at Tribeca Film Festival, the film will be simultaneously released to viewers around the world on Magnum’s Facebook page, facebook.com/magnum.

This isn’t Magnum’s first foray into the fashion world. The brand teamed up with Karl Lagerfeld in 2011 on Magnum’s U.S. introduction with a trio of short films directed by Lagerfeld and starring Rachel Bilson.

Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid

Porsche adds plug-in Panamera hybrid

Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid

Just before it presents its new generation saloon at the Shanghai Auto Show 2013, Porsche has unveiled its first rechargeable hybrid car, the Panamera S E-Hybrid.

The electric motor alone provides 95hp and it is powered by a new lithium-ion battery. If it is plugged into an industrial power source via the on-board charger, the car can reach full charge within two and a half hours. In a domestic mains socket, this charging time will not exceed 4 hours.

The Panamera S E-Hybrid goes from 0 to 100km/h, from a standing start, in 5.5 seconds and has a top speed of 270km/h. On average, it only consumes 3.1L/100k.

The Panamera S E-Hybrid and the Panamera Diesel are the only two new models within the range that have an eight-speed automatic Tiptronic S.

This new-generation Panamera will be launched in July 2013, and the Panamera S E-Hybrid is priced at 110,409 euros. The new Porsche Panamera Turbo S and Panamera Turbo S Executive will be on the market in 2014.

Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid

ulysse nardin stranger watch

Ulysse Nardin “Stranger” Musical Watch

ulysse nardin stranger watch

Swiss watchmaker Ulysse Nardin has released the “Stranger”, a timepiece which emulates a classical music box and plays Frank Sinatra’s “Strangers in the Night” either on the hour or on call.

This innovative timekeeper was done in collaboration with musician Dieter Meier. The Ulysse Nardin Stranger is a limited edition of 99 pieces.

It has a music mechanism that is conceptually similar to a wind-up music box, except here the music box mechanism is a rotating disc with 10 blades. Basically, the disc “pings” the fingers to create music.

The on/off pusher which enables the musical mechanism to be activated or deactivated is located at 10 o’clock. The melody can be programmed to play on the hour or not at all. To set the time, the crown function is activated by a pusher instead of pulling the crown out in the traditional way.

The case back of the watch features a medallion, while a black leather strap with a folding buckle keeps the watch secure to the wrist and completes the feeling of elegance.

Source: Perpetuelle