Described as the “ultimate in luxury fashion” by its designer, Stuart Hughes, the world’s most expensive suit is to go on sale.

Hughes has only made three of the suits, which each took more than 600 hours to produce, in a blend of silk, cashmere wool and diamonds.

The Sun reports that the first suit, a size 41 long, has been sold to a buyer in France. It’s priced at £599,000 ($890,000).

A self-portrait by Edouard Manet sold for 22.4 million pounds ($33 million) at Sotheby’s in London on Tuesday.

It was the highest price paid for a picture by Manet. The previous record for a Manet was 16 million pounds at a sale in New York in 1989.

The oil on canvas work is in somber tones and shows the bearded artist wearing a bowler hat with a paint brush in hand.

Macy’s has released the first images of pop star Madonna and her daughter Lourdes’s first fashion range for the US department store, called Material Girl.

Judging from the sketches, there will mainly be 1980s-inspired clothes, including flowery bustier dresses, fingerless gloves, star prints, and ‘jeggings.’

The new line relies on mixing unexpected items, “like a tutu dress and studded-combat boots, or an oversized boyfriend sweatshirt with a floral print miniskirt.”

Condé Nast Traveler magazine has revealed the results of its Fourteenth Readers’ Choice Survey, pinpointing the best golf resorts in the world.

The US magazine’s readers chose the Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea at the best golf resort of all 80 contenders, with a winning average of 96 percent.

Scores were calculated on the basis of thousands of readers’ votes for course design and access, golf staff and services, rooms, service, food/dining, location and overall design.

Sanctuary at Kiawah Island Golf Resort (pictured below) in South Carolina took second place, followed by the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai in Hawaii.

Prince Albert II of Monaco, long one of Europe’s most eligible bachelors, on Wednesday finally announced a long-awaited engagement to South African champion swimmer Charlene Wittstock.

A brief statement from the palace in the 52-year-old’s tiny Mediterranean statelet confirmed the engagement, but did not put a date on the eventual wedding, which courtiers will be hoping might produce a legitimate heir.

Prince Albert is the son of deceased Prince Rainier III and the late Hollywood actress Grace Kelly and has ruled Monaco, where he is broadly well-liked by his 8,000 subjects, since succeeding his father in July 2005.

Apple said Wednesday on the eve of the launch of the new iPhone that the white model would not be available for a month.

Apple said the white version of the iPhone 4, which also comes in black, was being delayed because of unspecified manufacturing difficulties.

White and black model iPhones had been scheduled to go on sale in stores in Britain, France, Germany, Japan and the United States on Thursday and Apple fans are already queuing up to buy the latest generation of the popular device.