There are limits to how far a luxury company can diversify its operations without diluting its brand or confusing consumers, experts said this week.
A jeweler might successfully launch a perfume but a handbag maker might not and it is easier for a jeweler to look credible producing watches than it is venturing into making handbags, they said.
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Luxury groups are finally warming to the Internet, lured by surging sales and a wider audience for their brands, though lingering suspicions could limit the level of online penetration compared with the wider retail sector.
High-end brands have been slow to embrace the Web, worried that universal access will destroy their aura of exclusivity and wary of a medium which has also fueled a proliferation in the trade of counterfeit goods.
But executives and analysts at the Reuters Global Luxury Summit this week suggest attitudes are starting to change as shoppers show a willingness to buy even the most expensive products from the convenience of their homes.
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Luxury Italian hotel brand Elisabetta Gucci is to focus on building its top-end boutique hotels in developing countries.
Elisabetta Gucci Hotels & Resorts will aim to build 40 hotels over the next 15 years in countries such as Russia, China and Brazil.
Elisabetta Gucci is the daughter of Paolo Gucci and the fourth generation of the Gucci dynasty that has spawned a global fashion empire.
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Apple unveiled a next-generation iPhone on Monday that features video chat, can shoot and edit high-definition quality video and has a crisper resolution screen.
“We are going to take the biggest leap since the original iPhone,” Apple chief executive Steve Jobs said as he showed off the “iPhone 4” at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference here.
The iPhone 4 will go on sale on June 24 in Britain, France, Germany, Japan and the United States and will cost 199 dollars for the 16 gigabyte model and 299 dollars for the 32GB version.
The touchscreen smartphone, which comes in black and white versions, will be available in 18 other countries in July and 24 more in August.
S.T. Dupont has worked with jewelry designer Philippe Tournaire to produce a series of writing instruments based on the world’s greatest structures.
Called “Architectural Masterpieces,” the series is inspired by three iconic monuments of the contemporary world—Paris’ Les Invalides, Russia’s St. Basil’s Cathedral, and China’s Pagoda of the Sun.
The roofing of the structures is made of solid 18 karat gold while the pens’ cylinders are manually plated and polished in bronze.
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As happens every year, lunch with Warren Buffett is being auctioned off on eBay with the proceeds going to charity.
Last year Salida Capital Corp, a Toronto-based wealth management firm, won the right to dine with the world’s third-richest person with a $1,680,300 bid.
That was below the record $2,110,100 bid in 2008 by Hong Kong-based investor Zhao Danyang.
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Studio Aruliden designed this Ping Pong table for Puma with a chalk surface for keeping score, and a level underneath for placing all your items during play.
The table will be for sale at the Conran Shop in New York on June 3. The table will also sell online for $3,900.
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A rundown garage block in London has been placed on the market for £1.25 million, in what is believed to be Britain’s most expensive lock-up.
The 224 sqm garages, on Elsworthy Road, have same asking price as a ï¬ve-bed-room detached house currently on the market in Wilmslow, Cheshire.
The estate agent, Knight Frank, said the garages don’t have planning permission but do have free title, meaning any building work could be easily sought.
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Asia Pacific’s leading spa, wellness and travel magazine AsiaSpa has just released its first Philippines supplement.
The supplement details and lists the hottest spas and newest travel trends associated with the Philippines – one of Asia’s hottest new destinations.
The new supplement was written by Catharine Nicol who travelled the country to research and interview local personalities in the spa and wellness industry.
“The spa industry in the Philippines has boomed since my first visit five years ago,” says Catharine.
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An engraved Guerlain bottle from 1870 fetched the record sum of €45,600 at an auction in the city of Arcachon, in the southwest of France.
The flacon, engraved with the house’s original address, Rue de la Paix, was initially expected to fetch €20,000 to €30,000.
Organized by Arcachon auction house Toledano, the sale took place in the presence of French fragrance expert Bernard Gangler.
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World-renowned Spanish chef Ferran Adria on Friday announced he would open a new restaurant in Barcelona with his brother, although it would be less sophisticated than his emblematic eatery ElBulli.
“There will be a place to eat by Ferran and Albert Adria in Barcelona,” he told the TV3 channel in Spain’s northeastern Catalonia region.
The new establishment with his brother, a pastry chef, “will be a place to go with friends,” the avant-garde chef said. He gave no indication when it would open.
But he said it will have little in common with elBulli, which Adria announced earlier this year is to close in 2012 and then reopen as a non-profit foundation in 2014.
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In order to market Brazil’s best-selling men’s fragrance Kaiak, a local ad agency came up with an interactive scheme that had potential customers trying it out through scented banners that appeared while they were browsing the web.
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Acer‘s latest entry in the smartphone category is a special edition fiery red Android-powered Ferrari-branded device.
The 3.5 inch capacitive touchscreen is encased with Ferrari’s distinctive crimson red and branded with the distinctive “Scuderia Ferrari” shield.
Specifications are the same as Acer’s Liquid E device: a 768 MHz Snapdragon Processor, Android 2.1, 5 megapixel autofocus camera, WiFi, and GPS.
The handset will be available in August but no pricing information has been released.
LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton was the first big luxury firm to release an iPad-specific case, designed by its flagship Louis Vuitton brand, for $320.
Now, with two million iPads sold by Apple , Gucci jumps into the iPad game too!
Designed by Gucci’s creative director, Frida Giannini it`s available in black leather and neoprene rubber Guccissima GG.
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The engines on a French Concorde are to be examined as the first move in a $22m project aiming to get the supersonic passenger jet back in the air.
The Rolls Royce engines of the former Air France Concorde will undergo an initial examination to see what work needs to be done to start the engines.
Concorde was retired seven years ago, but it is hoped the jet could return to flight in a heritage capacity.
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A painting of water lilies by French impressionist Claude Monet is expected to fetch up to 40 million pounds when it is auctioned off in London.
The painting, will star among dozens of modern masterpieces this month in what is being billed as the most valuable art auction ever held in the city.
Painted in 1906, the work is part of the French Impressionist’s iconic Nympheas series and was included in his historic exhibition in Paris three years later.
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The famous Swiss brand just announced a new deal with well-known female golfer Suzan Pettersen to be the brand’s newest ambassador.
Pettersen, who is only 29 years old, holds the No. 2 spot of a professional golf player in the world and won the CN Canadian Women’s Open in 2009.
In 2008 the Norwegian division of TAG Heuer featured Pettersen in their campaign advertisements in Norway.
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French fashion house Louis Vuitton has unveiled an elegant leather-bound case that it produced to carry the trophy to South Africa on Tuesday.
This case has been unveiled in the presence of Patrick-Louis Vuitton, Yves Carcelle (CEO of Louis Vuitton), and also the supermodel Naomi Campbell.
From the tournament’s beginning in 1930, the World Cup trophy has always been transported in an armored metal case — largely for reasons of security.
But as Louis Vuitton spokesman Antoine Arnault put it: “There was no reason why security couldn’t be synonymous with elegance.”
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Jeff Koons has unveiled his Art Car at the Centre Pompidou in Paris ahead of its participation in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France on June 12-13, 2010.
On June 1, Koons unveiled and signed his BMW M3 GT2, making him the 17th BMW Art Car artist, following in the footsteps of Warhol, Lichtenstein and Stella.
Three hundred VIP guests watched him unveil the design in the exact same spot that Roy Lichtenstein presented and signed his Art Car back in 1977.
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Fairmont hotels has opened its second property in South Africa, with just over a week to go before the World Cup tournament kicks off June 11.
The 154-room Fairmont Zimbali Resort is a short drive away from Durban, one of the main host cities of the tournament.
Offering ocean views from verandas and luxurious soaking tubs, the guestrooms have been styled with stone and the natural materials of the African environment.
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A huge collection of diaries, letters and even a pristine cigar belonging to Winston Churchill was up for auction in London Wednesday.
The sale, which is expected to raise around one million pounds, is being billed by Christie’s as part of the most important private Churchill collection in the world.
It features his engagement diary for 1939 to 1945 which records meetings with leaders including US President Franklin Roosevelt, Joseph Stalin of Russia and Britain’s King George VI. It could fetch up to 120,000 pounds.
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