Luxury brands make sure they look after their customers, at least in the high street. Online, it is another story.
A recent article in the Financial Times shows that some of the smartest names in retailing struggle to work out how to use the web to interact with their clientele.
On the whole, luxury brands have neglected the potential of the Internet.
Many luxury brands still prove poor at offering personalised custom service online, a keystone of what makes their brand high-end instores.
Are these brands underestimating how new technology and social networking tools can help build personal relationships and loyalty between visitors and the brand across global markets? Continue reading →
As we reported two weeks ago, the highly anticipated KEE Shanghai – the first overseas branch of the famous Hong Kong private members club that counts celebrities and royalty among its habituees – has now opened its doors to Shanghai society.
Elegantly located behind the grand stone entrance and cast iron gates of 796 Huai Hai Rd, past a beautifully cultivated garden, KEE Shanghai discreetly resides in the striking 1920s heritage maison Twin Villas.
A location it shares with the Richemont Shanghai headquarters, sitting above the flagship stores for China of distinguished brands such as Alfred Dunhill and Vacheron Constantin. Continue reading →
Secret Flawless is giving away ten whole one carat diamonds (worth $15,000 each) to ten lucky winners! If you use Secret Flawless deodorant and find a faux diamond in the bottom of the container, you win!
In addition to one of ten one carat flawless diamonds, when you purchase Secret Flawless deodorant you can enter your promotional code from your deodorant’s label onto the Secret website to win prizes like shopping sprees, five-star dinners and movie tickets.
That’s a creative ad campaign : a girl’s best friend might be in her deodorant ! Visit Secret.com for more information.
Situated on the northeast coast of the Adriatic ocean, Montenegro is home to some of the most fabulous beaches in the world. There is nowhere else that you can find, in such a small place, so much natural wealth, beauty, mild beaches, clear lakes, fast rivers and gorgeous mountains !
Just a few weeks ago, Luxist reported on some ambitious new plans for the seaside destination. Now comes news on one of the biggest projects on the the Montenegrin Riviera, Royal Montenegro Grand Resort.
The resort will include a five-star 220-room hotel and conference center, a casino, nightclub, yacht club, spa, villas and condo as well as retail and restaurant space. In total the project is divided into four distinct zones and will cover some 66,000 m2. It will offer its clients an exclusive lifestyle with the ultimate levels of glamour and sophistication.
The resort is being developed in partnership between Joud Real Estate Funds and Monte-Mena. Colliers International Montenegro in co-operation with Colliers Greece, is the exclusive consultant for the project and is opening sales of residential units which are comprised of three types : palatian residences, villas and condos.
Palatial Residences, sized from 756 to 855 m2, have their own private garden, swimming pool and Jacuzzi. Cascading Villas will be slightly smaller villas (305 to 480 m2) while Sea Front Condos with ocean views will be available in two or three bedrooms and one or two levels. They will all be constructed to the highest international standards and feature the greatest privacy and luxury.
Royal Montenegro Grand Resort will be constructed 8 km south of Budva and 4 km north of Petrovac, just 1km from Sveti Stefan, at Skocidjevojka, and will open in 2010.
Do you enjoy camping? If you want your family and friends to take pleasure in the great outdoor expeditions, you need to have a look at Action Mobil’s new Globecruiser, based on the MAN TGA 6×6 platform.
Designed for adventure seekers, the Globecruiser model gets its power from a 783ci turbodiesel and can hold plenty of fuel, with two tanks storing 219 gallons, which is great, although that also means that a fillup will run you about $800. Solar panels on the vehicle provide juice for the batteries.
But this military truck-ish looking vehicle has a soft side in its luxurious interiors as you can see from the photos below. Heated air-suspension seats, satellite navigation and the usual knickknack of gadgets find a comfortable place in the Globecruiser.
French aircraft manufacturer Dassault has introduced a jet that changes the playing field for business jet manufacturers operators and pilots. That jet is the $50 million Falcon 7X.
The Falcon 7X is perhaps the most coveted ultra-long range private jet in all of Europe and flies faster, further and higher than its predecessors.
It is the largest Falcon tri-jet business aircraft produced, and Dassault states that the Falcon 7X is the world’s first fly-by-wire business jet.
Located near Ludwigsburg in Germany, this building, designed by J. Mayer H. Architects, echoes the footprint of the original house built in 1984, duplicating and rotating it.
Lifted up, it creates a semi-public space on ground level between two layers of discretion. The skin of the villa performs a sophisticated connection between inside and outside and offers spectacular views onto the old town of Marbach, Germany.
I love the luminosity of the place and the futuristic shapes and I would love to live in this house! The flow of space just inspires so many possibilities for personalizing and living, but of course, this is extremaly minimalist and if you are looking for the toys, the mess, the half-eaten yoghourt on the table and the newspaper wrapped on the floor, this house/exposition hall is probably not meant for you :)
Best known for his unique frozen sculpture portrait, ‘Self’, British contemporary artist, Marc Quinn, rose to the challenge of producing sculpture on a wearable scale. This project was intended for a niche gallery market.
His strawberry jewel piece was studded with 600 diamonds representing a textured iced, diamond pip surface, and was worked in 18K white gold. The design was made in a limited edition of 10 strawberries, each priced at £28,200 ($56,400 – approx). Continue reading →
NEC today announced in Japan it has teamed up with Sanrio (the company behind the Hello Kitty brand) and French fashion designer Courrèges to develop a girls-only notebook for the Japanese market.
Moving away from the obvious looks and concentrating on what lies inside, the notebook is powered by an AMD Athlon QL-60 processor (1.90GHz), a 13.3-inch WXGA screen (1280×800 resolution), a DVD drive, 2GB of main memory and a 160GB hard disk.
The so-called “NEC LaVie G Hello Kitty Courrèges†will be available online and in selected Sanrio shops only. The Nippon-only notebook will be available from October 25 (price: $1,100 without MS Office).
The Eden is a luxury motoryacht concept by Daniel Hahn, a German design professional who studied product design. It is drool-worthy owing to its sleek lines and luxurious silhouette.
The design of the Eden is an interpretation of classic motoryachts. The aim of the project was to create a luxurious, desirable design which relied on its aesthetics more than technical innovation. The “Eden” name is intended to evoke “desirability, freedom and personal space”. The result is a sleek, generously proportioned, luxury watercraft with unique styling elements.
The 21 meter (72 foot) fast motoryacht is powered by a pair of 1,250 horsepower inboard engines. The yacht features a single-piece windshield to keep the overall shape as slippery as possible. Even the anchor is integrated into the body.
The interiors are crafted with fine wood and with a carbon body work for the other half of the boat, it forms a contrasting union. The interior of the speedyacht has room for 3 guests and a single crew member. The proposed range at maximum speed (40 knots) is 360 miles.
Hopefully Daniel’s concept design will soon hit production and then we can see the price tag that comes with the lavish ecstasies.
At a time when the Asian business jet market continues to heat up, the 2008 Macau Business Jet Rendez-Vous is only one week away. This is a very exclusive invitation-only event for the asian elite !
With exclusive partners such as Bulgari, Maybach and Longfor, this year’s event organised by Asia’s leading private jet magazine Jet Asia-Pacific and hosted by the exquisite MGM Grand Macau Hotel & Casino promises to be more exciting than ever. The highly anticipated third edition of Jet Rendez-Vous will take place in Macau from the 24th until the 26th of October.
According to Walter Wang, Editor of Jet Asia-Pacific Magazine, the event organizer and media partner: “An essential ingredient in the recipe for success of the annual business Jet Rendez-Vous is its exclusive dimension, representing sophistication in lifestyle and a unique focus on business aircraft for high net worth individuals.â€
“Whilst there is an enjoyable itinerary planned for Jet Rendez-Vous, we believe one of the highlights of the event is the opportunity to spend time and deepen our relationships as business associates and friends.â€
The number of VIPs, sponsors, industry leaders and trendsetting enthusiasts attending this year will exceed last year’s event. After flying exclusively to Macau via private jets, the VIPs will attend the event’s “Jets and Art” opening cocktail party and dinner on 24th October. On the second day, an impressive collection of business aircrafts will be on static display, complemented by the popular Private Jet Workshop given by the most renowned operators in the field.
Apart from sampling impressive private aircraft and learning the latest news during the Private Jet Workshop, guests will also be dazzled by jewellery and watches from Bulgari. The event will finish with a Celebrity ‘Jets and Jewel’ Gala Dinner in the lavish Grand Ballroom of the MGM Grand Macau
An Event You Won’t Want to Miss !
More info on jetrendezvous.com
The W Hong Kong, the first W in Greater China, has been up and running for a couple of weeks, and the hardware looks absolutely spectacular! All 393 guestrooms have stunning Hong Kong skyline views thanks to its prominent location on a small peninsula adjacent to the epicenter of high end Kowloon shopping and entertainment.
The area is right on the commercial waterfront, so instead of luxury yachts you are more likely to look out onto imposingly large freight and cargo ships. Continue reading →
Everyone knows Chanel for their purses, make-up, fragrances, skin care and couture, but what you may not know is that famous french fashion house also makes some very luxe sporting equipment and work out gear.
Here is a list of items that you would definitely want to own !
Graphite tennis racquet complete with matching CC balls, $255
Rosewood fiberglass and aluminum parabolic snow skis
Resin, wood and fiberglass Snowboard, $2,750
Fishing rod with Double C flies in quilted case, $18,000
Fishing rod with Double C flies in quilted case, $18,000
Grand Terminal 3 at Dubai International Airport opened on October 14. Built at a cost of $4.5 billion, it is also the largest terminal in the world.
Catering to passengers for Gulf countries and the US, movement around the airport’s six floors, most of them underground, has been facilitated by 157 lifts, 97 escalators, 82 moving walkways and 27 truck lifts and eight Sky Trains that can handle 47 people each. For a project of this scale, the car park itself is equivalent to 33 football fields, while the departures area at Level 3 is more than 51 hectares in size, the size of 94 football fields !
A sales assistant in the Dubai duty free shop in the arrivals area, said: “It’s a very beautiful terminal compared to the other ones – very spacious and more like a temple than an airport terminal.â€
With just six departure flights and nine arrivals at T3, the 1.5 million sqm glass and chrome building was hardly bustling on day one but T3 is opening in phases and will eventually handle 17,000 passengers at any given time. Emirates Airline will move its entire daily schedule of 250 flights over to the new terminal by December.
Detailed gallery of this awe inspiring structure on luxurylaunches
Cleopatra’s palace sank long ago into the Mediterranean, but visitors to Alexandria, Egypt, may eventually view the complex’s remnants via the world’s first underwater museum.
A site for the museum has been proposed near the New Library of Alexandria, where the famed queen of Egypt is believed to have sheltered herself with her lover Marc Antony before taking her own life.
In early September the United Nations cultural agency, UNESCO, announced it is funding a team to determine if such a museum would damage the submerged artifacts. Continue reading →
The Serpent Clock Egg costed 2,160 rubles to the Czar. The serpent winds around the pedestal of the egg and serves as the clock’s hand. The head and tongue point to the hour. The time can be read on the upper eggshell, which has a rotating clock face. The egg is similar to the “Duchess of Marlborough Egg” (ca. 1902) which is interesting because Faberge had a rule of not repeating a design.
This beautiful Faberge creation, which has not left Monaco in over 30 years, was unveiled yesterday at the Consulate General of Monaco in New York City. The Egg will be traveling to Cleveland, Ohio, where it will be on display with six other Faberge wonders in the Artistic Luxury exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art through January 2009.
Launched in May, Geneva-based LunaJets helps travellers to purchase empty leg flights at substantially reduced prices. Empty legs are private jets returning home empty, and LunaJets offers them at prices as low as 50 to 80% off full private jet fare.
Its purpose is to offer passengers who currently fly business class, first class or the ex-Concorde passengers an affordable option to “upgrade†to the many advantages of business aviation travelling.
On lunajets.com you find a list of empty legs within Europe but also transatlantic, to and from Russia and the Middle East. Once you find the one that suits you, logon and buy your flight with your credit card.
LunaJets will call you to confirm your flight and organise your departure schedule. Registration is free, includes a personalized card, email alert on your favourite routes as soon as an empty leg is posted, but also offers an on-demand customized flight quotation service, and very soon a Jet Share forum where you can find other members willing to share a flight with you.
“It is the first time jet operators†explains LunaJets CEO Eymeric Segard, “have the option, for free, to offer and sell their empty leg flights directly and transparently to passengers, who in turn benefit from greatly discounted faresâ€.
LunaJets has developed a pricing structure that is fixed, and for the first time in the industry, open for all to see. “We calculated prices that are low enough for passengers to pay that extra premium to fly private but high enough to make it interesting for the jet operators.â€
He adds “The prices are calculated on the flight time independent of cabin size, and allows passengers to compare our prices with commercial fares and discover the amazing value offeredâ€.
Passengers can buy individual seats on flights shorter than 2h30min such as London to Paris or London to Geneva, or the whole cabin (8-14 passengers) for longer flights such as Dubai to Moscow or Dubai to London
LunaJets works with jet operators who have all their licence and insurance certificates up-to-date and only use aircraft that are younger than 15 years.
With such a simple concept and such an user-friendly website, LunaJets is making flying on private jets accessible to many more, and bringing to the industry new valuable investors.
By offering benefits to both travellers and jet operators LunaJets’ model offers a win-win proposition that could therefore prove to be more sustainable than creating a brand-new airline, particularly during difficult economic times.
The famously avant-garde Japanese label, spearheaded by design powerhouse Rei Kawakubo, will provide a range of both men’s and womenswear, as well as childrenswear, accessories and a new unisex fragrance for the retailer. In honour of its Japanese roots, the collaborative line will launch exclusively at H&M in Tokyo in November before being rolled out worldwide a few days later.
“I have always been interested in the balance between creation and business,” said Comme des Garçons’ founder and head designer Rei Kawakubo. “It is a dilemma, although for me creation has always been the first priority. It is a fascinating challenge to work with H&M since it is a chance to take the dilemma to its extreme, and try to solve it,” added the 65-year-old.
Margareta van den Bosch, creative advisor for H&M, said: “Rei Kawakubo has been at the top of our wish list for a long time and we are thrilled that she has chosen to collaborate with us.”
Kawakubo is the latest in a long line of celebrities and fashion designers who have collaborated with H&M. Stella McCartney, Viktor & Rolf, Madonna and Roberto Cavalli have all teamed up with H&M in recent years.
Brought to you by nitrolicious, here’s the collection preview from Hong Kong’s Ketchup magazine! It looks very promising ! I was on a recession shopping ban but this definitely merits breaking it !
Ultra-luxury Swiss watchmaking house Audemars Piguet has launched two new stunning watch and necklace sets.
There are two sets of matching 18K white gold and diamond watches and necklaces for women, the Coup de Theatre and Carnet de Bal. Both watches use the AP calibre 2046 movement with manual winding (18 jewels) that beats at a frequency of 21 600 vph and provides 42 hours power reserve.
The “Carnet de Bal” series (above) was inspired by flower arrangements, creating a glittering floral spray of diamonds along the wrist and around the neck. The 18-carat white gold timepiece includes 481 gems of varying cuts totaling 59.53 carats. The matching necklace has 1,039 round, brilliant, marquise, pear, and baguette-cut diamonds.
“Coup de Theatreâ€is a more modern design with 853 brilliant cut diamonds for an astounding 123 carats in the watch. The gorgeous choker is dripping with 1,673 gems weighing in at 204 carats.
Words cannot describe how glamorous the effect is !
A tower of jagged and jutting glass-faced apartments, “stacked†nearly 800 feet high, will rise like a giant game of Jenga over Tribeca.
The Alexico Group, developers of the $650 million project at 56 Leonard Street, at the corner of Church Street, released renderings of the long-anticipated designs. It is the first residential tower by the celebrated architecture firm of Herzog & de Meuron, whose work includes the redesign of London’s Tate Modern museum and the Beijing National Stadium in China.
The Switzerland-based architecture firm breaks down the old image of the high-rise as a sleek, hermetically sealed urban object to propose instead a thoughtful and daring new alternative – the iconic American skyscraper re-envisioned as a pixelated vertical layering of individually sculpted, graceful private residences opening to the atmosphere.
56 Leonard Street will be a 57-story residential condominium building in the Tribeca Historic District of downtown Manhattan, where it will rise above cobbled streets and historic 19th century neighbors. The tower will house 145 residences, each with its own unique floor plan and private outdoor space, in a veritable cascade of individual homes that the architects describe as “houses stacked in the sky,” blending indoors and outdoors seamlessly together.
The building’s 145 condominiums, due for completion in fall, 2010, will be priced from $3.5 million to $33 million.
Developer Izak Senbahar claimed he is confident that they will sell, despite Wall Street woes and the downturn in the economy. “It’s a big world,†he said, “and there’s a lot of money in the world, still.â€
James Bond films are never complete without the high speed chases. James Bond: Quantum of Solace will have one of the one of the biggest ever boat chases in a Bond film.
Three high performance yachts from UK company Sunseeker are featured in the film, including the Superhawk 43 and the 121-ft (37 m) M4 behemoth (above), the largest semi-custom production motoryacht ever to be built in the UK.
Bond also rides in a classic vintage Sunseeker Sovereign 17 motorboat from 1970 at one point during the film. The James Bond: Quantum of Solace release will be the fourth consecutive appearance for Sunseeker luxury yachts. Continue reading →
Luxury brands make sure they look after their customers, at least in the high street. Online, it is another story.
