Monthly Archives: February 2010

First Superman comic sells for $1m

A rare copy of the first Superman comic book, Action Comics #1, sold for $1 million on February 22, a record price for a collectible comic.

Meanwhile, a Batman book waits in the wings. The auction for Detective Comics #27, the inaugural Batman comic is now open for bidding and could climb close to its fellow action hero as the highest figure ever paid for any comic.

Monday’s private transaction was conducted by ComicConnect.com and Metropolis Collectibles, with neither buyer nor seller releasing their names.
Continue reading →

El Bulli restaurant to become culinary academy

The famed el Bulli, the Spanish restaurant repeatedly crowned the world’s best, is to become a non-profit foundation from 2014, its avant-garde chef Ferran Adria announced Monday.

The Michelin three-star restaurant will become a “foundation for all avant-garde gastronomy lovers.., a breeding ground for new ideas and for new talents,” he told a news conference at a culinary fair in the city of Santiago de Compostela.

The private foundation will grant between 20 and 25 scholarships annually for chefs and other industry professionals and one of its long-term aims will be to compile an “exhaustive and detailed” encyclopedia of contemporary cuisine.
Continue reading →

70 Sunreef Power Sea Bass Yacht

The 70 Sunreef Power Sea Bass is making its U.S. debut this month at the Miami Yacht and Brokerage Show.

This luxury-latent catamaran was made for high seas with its spacious interiors and plentiful deck space.

In-house teams handled both the naval architecture and interior designs of the70-foot yacht.


Continue reading →

Louis Vuitton Cosmic Blossom Collection

The latest collaboration from Louis Vuitton and Takashi Murakami for Spring Summer 2010 is the Cosmic Blossom Collection.

On a bright, block colour background, Louis Vuitton’s iconic Monogram flowers jostle playfully with smiling flower faces, a recurrent theme in Murakami’s art, which famously fuses manga graphics with traditional Japanese pictorial motifs.

Serigraphed onto the fabric, it will come in rose, bleu and violet and will be released on April 15, 2010.


Continue reading →

Oscars show includes Swarovski crystal curtain

For the second consecutive year, designer David Rockwell has created the Academy Award’s set, evoking “classic but modern glamour” for the 82nd Oscars.

A model and renditions that reveal the stage’s various looks were unveiled February 17 in the lobby of the Kodak Theater.

Crystals, mirrors, lights, and action are the key elements in his design.
Continue reading →

Dom Perignon Wedding

Dom Perignon Wedding was inspired by the magnums of Dom Pérignon Vintage 1961 which were poured at the 1981 wedding of Lady Diana Spencer and Prince Charles.

Each bottle was inscribed with the Royal’s names and the date of the most viewed wedding in history.

SEE ALSO: DOM PERIGNON X IRIS VAN HERPEN

Motivated by this celebrated day, Dom Perignon will, for the first time in 3 centuries, allow their iconic shield to bear a similar inscription for weddings everywhere.

Dom Pérignon Wedding contains 12 bottles of Dom Pérignon Vintage 2000 along with a sleek and beautiful white lacquered box which holds an additional bottle of Dom Pérignon Vintage 2000.

This 13th bottle has a unique precious silver label which can be personalized by engraving a bride and grooms name and wedding date.

Dom Pérignon has unveiled at the same time a never before seen image that Karl Lagerfeld snapped years ago of Claudia Schiffer and Sebatien Jondeau.

This archival image (below) will be used for the Dom Pérignon Wedding international ad campaign.

Bell & Ross for Peugeot

The Peugeot SR1’s dashboard clock was designed by Bell & Ross to be in perfect harmony with the spirit of this avant-garde Concept Car.

The timepiece designed by Bell & Ross offers an innovative integration concept and features a unique style and materials.

The watch and its band fit neatly into the dashboard to become a temporary on-board timepiece.
Continue reading →

Legendary Ginza district loses some of its lustre

ginza

All along what has for decades been Japan’s most fashionable and up-market shopping street, the luxury brands are moving out to be replaced by cheap chic.

As the country struggles to raise itself out of the global economic downturn, companies such as LV and Gucci are downsizing or leaving Ginza, their former properties quickly snapped up by the growing trend of “fast fashion” houses.

Now the throngs that still visit the district are shopping with a vengeance at places where their cash goes a little further; Uniqlo, Abercrombie & Fitch, H&M from Sweden and the Spanish chain Zara have all opened stores within the last year.
Continue reading →

China goes gourmet with foie gras

China’s ever-growing taste for luxury goods is extending into the culinary world — and that’s good news for Jean-Marie Vallier, who runs a duck farm and foie gras factory outside Beijing.

Two years ago, French group Euralis — the world leader in foie gras production — invested 2.7 million dollars in the facilities, aimed at producing the delicacy for high-end restaurants under the Rougie brand.

As the tastes and budgets of China’s growing middle class expand, so does the demand for upmarket Western fare served in chic venues, and Vallier is well-placed to profit from the fledgling gourmet revolution.
Continue reading →

Club Med to open ski village in China

Upmarket French leisure group Club Med said Thursday it will open a Club Med ski village in China, its first venture into the huge and booming Chinese leisure market, in November.

Club Med reached agreement with Melco China Resorts to run the ski village at the Mountain Yabuli resort, developed by MCR since 2008 in Heilongjiang Province, northeastern China, under a 10-year management contract.
Continue reading →

Are the days of business class luxury over?

There has been a severe drop in the number of people flying premium, business or first, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), prompting some to ask whether the days of champagne and free toiletries are behind us.

For most travelers, reclining into a leather seat and sipping champagne at 35,000 ft is the epitome of frequent flyer sophistication.

From the introduction of “premium economy”, to the advent of the fully flat bed, to the new Emirates on board shower, it seems that there’s something we just can’t resist about luxury in the skies.
Continue reading →

Cigarette Racing Inspired By AMG 46′ Rider

Speed boat makers Cigarette Racing have partnered with Mercedes tuning division AMG to release a speed boat inspired by the new Mercedes SLS AMG.

With 2,700 horsepower on tap, the knife-hulled 46-foot boat is almost five times as powerful as its road-going counterpart.

The power for the Cigarette Racing boat comes from a pair of twin-turbocharged 552 cubic inch 1,350-horsepower Mercury Racing engines.
Continue reading →

Phenomenon: World’s Fastest Speedboat

The fastest speedboat in the world, the Phenomenon, made its debut at the Miami Boat Show this month.

This 56-foot watercraft can accelerate to more than 220.5 mph (the current world record). Its four turbine engines give it a whopping 12,000 horsepower.

Engineers from NASA and Boeing as well as former US Naval architects and professional powerboat builders collaborated on designing the Phenomenon.
Continue reading →