Karl Lagerfeld opened his pre-fall 2009 Chanel show last week with a ten-minute silent short film about Coco Chanel — his directorial debut!

Last year, Karl Lagerfeld brought Paris to London, and this year he brings Moscow to Paris, highlighted by his silent film presentation. He shied away from the subtle, with elements of Russian folklore tying the collection together, including elaborate headdresses, thick fluffy knits and sparkly gold boots.

One of the most exclusive champagnes you’ll ever find has been reserved in cold sea water and rocked by currents.

Indeed, over two hundred bottles of champagne matured by the ocean tides and the waves in the dark for over 80 years are being sold at the Carlton Ritz in Moscow for $300,000 a bottle.

According to Russian newspaper Komersant, the 1907 vintage bubbly had been sent to the Russian Royal Family in 1916 from the Heidsieck vineyard but the ship carrying them sank off the Finnish coast.

The wreck was only discovered in 1997 when divers found the undamaged bottles which were later bought by the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Moscow, which charges over $20,000 per night for a room.

The Wealth Bulletin (a Dow Jones site) has come up with a list of the 10 most expensive streets in the world. The survey revealed that the prices for the top homes in the best locations appear to have decoupled from the gloom and doom being felt in the wider property market.

If you want to live in the best accommodation in these streets you will need to be a billionaire, or not far behind !

Avenue Princess Grace in Monaco has been named at the top with a price tag of $190,000 per square metre. It is followed by Hong Kong’s Severn Road with a price of $121,000 per square metre (sq mt) at second and New York City’s Fifth Avenue at third place ($80,000 per sq mt).

Here is the complete list, with some sample property prices as tallied by Wealth Bulletin:

Mercer has just released its top 50 most expensive cities in the world based on cost of living.

Mercer’s Worldwide Cost of Living Survey 2008 is used to help multinational companies and governments determine living costs for their expatriate employees, who usually demand a relatively high quality of life.

Mercer’s survey covers 253 cities across six continents and measured the relative cost of over 200 items in each place, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment.

To mark the launch of the all-new 7 Series, BMW presented its flagship model with a unique installation on the Red Square in Moscow, Russia. For two days, a real-life 2009 7-Series was hidden in 180,000 silver balls that filled a giant glass-and-acrylic hourglass, at almost twelve meters high (40 feet), that had been built right in front of the Kremlin on the Red Square of Moscow.

Before the car was officially unveiled, BMW’s all new 7-Series pictures were leaked out on the internet last week. Also, the official day of presentation was supposed to be the 7th of July - 7th day of the 7th month - but it eventually came one day later on the night of the 8th, in an extravagant ceremony !

As 400 invited guests watched, the shiny balls gradually fell down, one by one, thus revealing the BMW’s flagship model, in blue, in its full glory !

At 1500ft (450m) high, the Crystal Island project won’t be the tallest piece of architecture on the planet, but covering 27 million sq ft (2.5 million sq. m) of floor space, it will be gimungeous.

Basically, the structure in Moscow will be a city within a building and will have its own weather system. London’s prestigious Foster + Partners have designed the mega-structure incorporating solar and wind energy systems, making it eco-friendly.

The $4 billion dollar structure that looks like an enormous crystal Christmas tree will have 3,000 hotel rooms and 900 apartment units. Other amenities include an international school, a theatre, cinemas and a sports centre.

For comparison, the Burj Dubai, the structure that holds the record for world’s tallest building (810+m) for the foreseeable future will contain about 3,595,100 sq ft (334,000 m²) when completed. So, the Crystal Island project will have 7.5 times the indoor space.

It’s expected to be completed between 2012 and 2013.