Diesel Opens Doors To Fuel For Life Factory
October 22, 2007
Diesel, the world famous fashion brand, has finally launched the much-anticipated Fuel For Life Factory website today, October 22, 2007.
The Italian design house has opened the doors to the Fuel For Life Factory, a site that gives a limited 20,000 people the opportunity to create a personalized fragrance. You, personally, can take this chance to play Italian designer, and can design and dress a perfume after your own style and imagination.
âEveryone, man or woman, can now express their style by dressing the bottle which encases the sexy and energetic elixir. A way for Diesel to invite the internet user to express their personality and membership of the Diesel community, a generation of hedonists for whom anything goes,â a Diesel press release said.
Upon entering the site, youâll be asked first if the fragrance is Fuel for Life For Him, or Fuel for Life for Her. After making your selection, youâre given 10 colour choices for the leather pouch and strap, then are given the opportunity to select from a dozen logos to be laser engraved.
From there, your order is sent to the Parisian headquarters, where your pouch is assembled. Tucked away in the centre of the city of lights, your creation will come to life.
âAs always at Diesel, the object is a unique production where detail is everything. Nothing is left to chance in the creation process: with patience and great attention to detail, the craftsmen assemble the pieces according to the requirements of each user. And so that the creation becomes a legend, only 20,000 products will be customized in this short-lived hop.â
Hey, if anything is going to be your Fuel For Life, you should at least have it tailored to suit you. With 150,000 possibilities, it shouldnât be hard to do!
The limited edition fragrances are estimated to sell for $130 (80 Euros, 55 British pounds) beginning October 22, and will be distributed in the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria, Finland, Ireland, Portugal and the Netherlands.
Sharp AQUOS DMB cellphone with 480×854 display
October 22, 2007
I said before that I wasnât interested in paying a subscription for mobile TV, but one has to love this 3.2â 480×854 pixels display â yes, this is slightly beyond DVD resolution in the palm of your hand. The phone also has a 3.2 Megapixel camera and most importantly I donât expect to see it anytime soon in the U.S. Note that high-resolution displays are much appreciated in Asia because of the character set.
World’s Finest Shopping Hot Spots: Luxury Shopping
October 19, 2007
Last spring, tour operator Cox & Kings organized a two-week itinerary in India for 15 women pals celebrating a 60th birthday. The trip was, according to one in the group, âshopping galore.â They bought dhuri rugs in Madurai. They picked up jewelry in Chinai. And then they landed in Kochi (nee Cochin), an historic port city on the Malabar coast that also happens to offer an astounding array of colonial antiques. The women bought brass bowls and bronze statuettes. One, who was remodeling her house, snatched up tropical hardwood doors, gateways, columns, and furniture.
âThe tour guide was flabbergasted,â said one. âSheâd never seen a group buy so much.â
Of course, you donât have to travel farther than your local mall or Target Superstore to find global goods. And computer mice handle the traveling for Web shoppers, who are projected to spend $115 billion online this year. But according to the International Trade Administrationâs Office of Travel and Tourism Industries, Americans traveling overseas take their shopping seriously. Indeed, more than twice as many hit the stores than visit a cultural heritage sight or a museum. These shoppers seem to understand that the mall and the Web are unsatisfying substitutes for not only finding the right item, but finding it in the right place.
âThe best purchases have a good story behind them,â says Suzy Gershman, author behind the âBorn to Shopâ guidebook series, ânot only about the item itself, but what you went through to get it, how many cups of tea you drank, who you met along the way.â
Weâve rounded up 10 luxury goods (everything from pottery to precious metals) and identified the ideal place in the world to find eachâa place with a tradition of expertise, quality, and innovation (not to mention a pretty fun place to do business). To do so, we consulted a range of authorities, including shopping gurus, tour operators, and item-specific experts. Their responses produced a mix of expected and unexpected results. Itâs no surprise, for example, that Geneva is ground zero for fine watches or that Florenceâs leather artisans produce handbags as soft as silk. But who knew that Sao Paulo, Brazil has suddenly emerged as a locus of designer clothes? Or that you can pick up an oil reproduction of any masterpiece painting in Saigon?
Yet just because youâve found the right place doesnât mean that the challenges are over. You might even feel a little more put out. Consider a bespoke suit from Londonâs Savile Row, whose fastidious tailors have outfitted the likes of Winston Churchill and David Beckham since the 19th century. According to James Sherwood, author of âThe London Cut: Savile Row Bespoke Tailoring,â each suit consumes an average of 52 man hours and requires you to be measured, fitted, and consulted at least thrice. Tailors in Vietnam, on the other hand, can knock out a custom suit in one working day.
But quality always trumps convenience, avows Sherwood. âComparing those suits is like comparing an original Raphael Madonna with a chalk drawing on the flagstones outside the Ufizzi Gallery,â he sniffs.
A well-stocked district doesnât always guarantee a good deal, either. Silom Row in Bangkok, for example, has been teeming with gems since Thailand began to aggressively buy stones from the mines of Burma, Sri Lanka, and Madagascar, according to Richard W. Wise, a Massachusetts jeweler and author of âSecrets of the Gem Trade.â Yet Wise admits that bargains here can be few and far between: âIâd love to say go to Bangkok because the gems are cheaper, but the truth is that there are just more of them.â
When itâs time to buy, say experts, even the most well-informed buyer doesnât always have an advantage. For example, it certainly pays to know about knot counts and thread materials before haggling with the hundreds of rug sellers among the 4,000-odd stalls of Istanbulâs Grand Bazaar. But even John B. Gregorian, who comes from a family of carpet sellers and recently authored âOriental Rugs of the Silk Route: Culture, Process & Selection,â concedes that it isnât always easy to determine a carpetâs quality.
âAt some point,â he says, âyou have to treat it like a painting: you buy it because you love it.â
And then thereâs the final challenge, too: getting all that stuff back home. Some of those 60th birthday shoppers paid hundreds of bucks to ship their purchases from India. The more prudent simply stuffed their suitcases to the breaking point. âWe all had major overweight on the flight back home,â one said. âBut it was worth it.â
Expensive Food: Golden Opulence Sundae
October 19, 2007
First dates looking to impress or sweet-sixteens in search of something special strike gold, quite literally, at Serendipity 3, the legendary New York City eatery where celebs are often spotted.
The restaurant’s golden opulence sundae is covered in 23-carat edible gold leaf and is also rich in flavor thanks to Tahitian vanilla ice cream infused with Madagascar vanilla beans and chunks of rare Chuao chocolate from Venezuela.
In lieu of Hershey’s syrup and a maraschino cherry, this sundae is drizzled with one of the world’s most expensive chocolates, from Amedei Porcelana, and then adorned with candied fruits, gold covered almonds, chocolate truffles and marzipan cherries.
The dish also features a dollop of sweet Grande Passion caviar served with a mother of pearl spoon and a gilded sugar flower.
The whole shebang looks as good as it tastes, served in a Baccarat crystal goblet (yours to keep) with an 18-carat gold spoon (not included).
Wedding dress bearing 9,999 karats of gems
October 19, 2007
We have already seen expensive jewel-studded outfits, including the $12 million wedding gown, swarovski Dirndl dress, and the £2.4m diamond dress. Pictured above is salesgirl showing a wedding dress adorned with 9,999 karats (about two kilograms) of gems at a jewelry store in Shangrao in eastern Chinaâs Jiangxi province. Designed by a famed Hong Kong jewelry designer, this gem-studded wedding dress costs 999,999 yuan (US $132,902)
Maverick Jets Solo Personal Jet Debuts
October 3, 2007
Maverick Jets has released the Top Gun of personal jets. Itâs called the Maverick Jets Solo and it runs for $900k. If you want room for your friends, youâll need to pop an extra $350k to purchase the Maverick Jets SmartJet, which holds 5.
Maverick Jets has many firsts to its credit but one “FIRST” that Maverick is most proud of is producing the world’s fastest personal jet. The Pratt & Whitney JT-15-5, at 3190 lb of thrust fires the sleek single engine Solo Jet through the skies at 472 kts. That’s why some call it the Rocket. The Solo Jet also climbs faster than any other personal jet at almost 8000 ft/ min. If you are in a hurry you won’t get there faster in any other personal jet in the world. Yet there is no sacrifice for room and comfort. With its roomy cabin 5 adults will be very comfortable with all forward seating or club seating, their choice. It is truly the Top Gun executives’ jet.
Opulent Vodka is a Chilled Treat This Season
October 1, 2007
With a name like Opulent Vodka, it’s hard to ignore the latest launch to the absolutely over-stuffed vodka market. This latest entry is made from Midwestern corn (as if you weren’t getting enough corn in your diet already) and is distilled five times. The corn is from various Midwestern farms and is available in Minnesota and South Dakota. The quilted look of the bottle is rather posh though. The vodka is $27.99 for 750 milliliter bottle.
