Bloomberg reports that Gianni Versace will shut down its stores in Japan as there is decline in the demand for luxury goods.

The fashion company has three stores in Japan, one in Osaka, one in Tokyo and one in Chiba according to the Versace website.

Versace, which entered Japan in 1981, isn’t the first brand to take this step. Last year Louis Vuitton scrapped its plans to open a store in Ginza, Tokyo.

Versace has just opened a new flagship store in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

With black granite marble for the floors, white lacquer effect work on the walls, and a clear blown glass curtain chandelier, the store is looking as luxe as ever.

It will house complete collections for men and women, including accessories, eyewear, watches, fine jewelry, fragrance and Versace Home

On March 23rd, online jewelry retailer Bidz.com will auction off a gold and diamond tiara designed by the late Gianni Versace to benefit the Aid for AIDS charity, with an opening bid of $699,000 US Dollars.

The one-of-a-kind tiara, which contains over 1,200 diamonds and is worth an estimated $3 million, has been worn by celebrities including Madonna, Amber Valletta and Donatella Versace.

The Versace Tiara, also known as the Tiara, won the prestigious De Beers Diamonds International Award in 1995.

Milan Fashion Week kicks off Wednesday in an atmosphere of gloom and doom with some 10 fewer shows in the lineup because of the global financial crisis.

While 95 fashion houses staged shows a year ago, this year’s programme has attracted only 79. A total of 93 brands showed their summer 2009 collections here last September.

Versace, the renowned fashion house, is to create the world’s first refrigerated beach so that hotel guests can walk comfortably across the sand on scorching days, reports The Australian.

The beach will be next to the the new Palazzo Versace hotel which is being built in Dubai where summer temperatures average 40C and can reach 50C. The swimming pool will be refrigerated and there are also proposals to install giant blowers to waft a gentle breeze over the beach.

The 10-storey hotel will have 213 rooms, several with their own internal swimming pools, plus 169 apartments. Fifteen more such hotels are planned.

Versace has just released a collection of tiles called Stone Palace in collaboration with the ceramic tile industry mogul Gardenia-Orchidea.

It is a eclectic collection that combines beauty with some technological features that were used to create the details in the porcelain stone.

The Palace Stone collection comes in two different surface finishes and can be used for your kitchen, in the garden, or living room.