Members-only shopping community Ideeli.com has a bunch of treats planned for Cyber Monday. The site, which offers up to 80% off top brands is hoping that great deals will lure shoppers on the internet’s biggest shopping day. The site, which is famous for their contests is also courting new members with the chance to win the Balenciaga bag shown above which is worth $1,695. There are also a whole host of designer deals. Sales start Monday, December 1st at 11:00am for 1st row members (paid memberships), noon for 2nd row members and will run throughout the day. You can sign up here or use the invite code luxist. Happy shopping. %Gallery-37953%
With a December birthday I tend to receive winter-inspired gifts and yes, I’ve been given an ice-scraper in the past. But one look at Saab’s Funk-Is Ice Scraper makes mine look pretty sad. Designed in Sweden, the scraper sports frosted plexiglass in an angular shape padded by a sheepskin edge for a comfortable grip and even includes a notch to accommodate cleaning of the all-important wiper blade. Leave the gas station, plastic-form ice scraper at the counter and keep this compact, luxe-looking scraper in your car this season. ($72.50)
This might be a great time to enjoy a luxurious getaway in Ireland. The Times Online reports that rooms at many of the nation’s five-star establishments are going empty prompting some good deals. The Irish Tourist Industry Confederation told an Oireachtas tourism committee this month that as many as 20,000 of the country’s 50,000 hotel beds are vacant at any one time.
The Shelbourne in Dublin reopened last year after an expensive renovation with rooms that started at €315 a night. Now the luxury hotel is one of several luxury hotels in Ireland offering guests free nights as it attempts to ride out the recession. customers who spend two weekend nights at the Shelbourne earn a free third night, with rates starting at €229 a night per person double occupancy. The Four Seasons in Dublin is also offering a third night free with any two night stay between December and April, and rates starting at €225. At the Ritz-Carlton in Powerscourt, Co Wicklow, American Express cardholders who stay three nights in a row get the fourth night for free. The hotel was offering rooms for between €450 and €500 a night but now rates run at €275 for a weekend night and €215 midweek and the hotel is offering value-added packages.
Overall rates in Ireland are at a six-year low and it is believes that hotel occupancy will continue to drop as the global recession continues. The timing is unfortunate, Ireland’s recent tourism boom led to the addition of at least 8,000 new rooms overall in 2007 but now many of those hotels are struggling to pay the costs of rapid expansion leading to the discounted rates which will likely be in place for a while.
Sustainable design company Contexture was recognized at this week’s 2008 Design Exchange Awards for its handmade hanging mobile, As the Crow Flies, a dangling family of laser-cut crows.
Crafted from 30% post-recycled paper and found roadmaps, the mobile landed top honors in the Industrial Design category. It’s also likely to be a popular gift among the I-don’t-want-a-nursery-full-of-pink-puppies parenting set.
The mobile retails for just $49 (free shipping!) and is available through Contexture, the Vancouver-based partnership of Nathan Lee and Trevor Coghill, already well known for their reclaimed-material Coffee Cuffs and 45 iPod Cases.
We all know that some dog owners are a bit too attached to attached to their canine companions—bringing them to family gatherings, restaurants or even that unexpected visit to your place. So what happens when a person like that also happens to be a surgeon who can afford to drop nearly $400,000 on a whim? […]
Six years ago, Chris Whittle, founder of school-management company Edison Schools, decided to sell his Hamptons home. The Wall Street Journal Private Properties column reports that he tried to sell the entire estate for $45 million, then $36 million, but eventually took it off the market. Now he is offering a 3.7-acre property which is home to a classic shingled four-bedroom, four-bath guest house, designed in 1990 by architect Peter Marino. It is listed at $27 million which is a bit high but does include 403 feet on prized Georgica Pond and it is the Hamptons after all. The home has a large living room, country kitchen, master bedroom suite plus three guest bedroom suites and powder room. It is listed at $27 million. Experience more lush living in luxury homes and mansions or see the stars living large with celebrity homes galleries at AOL Real Estate.
If you like intricate, ornate decor on a tiny scale you’ll be impressed by the miniature architectural marvels by Mulvany & Rogers. Taking historically significant European and North American buildings and their interiors and re-creating them at one-twelfth of their size these little wonders include Hampton Court, Versailles and Buckingham Palace. They even recently sold a miniature version of Harry Potter’s Hogwarts! Their online store currently has two pieces for sale: Gothik House and Georgian Rectory for £10,000 and £9,000 respectively which gives you just a taste of their creative abilities. The gallery shows a variety of pieces so luxuriously crafted it is hard to imagine you can’t walk into them.
Appearances are always deceptive, what we see isn’t always how it’s meant to be. Similarly, this speaker setup made in glass isn’t at all fragile like the glass itself. Made in heat-resistant glass cones, called the “Harion”, the $167,500 (16…
Festive season is perhaps the time when people don’t mind digging their pockets deep to buy gifts for their family and friends. With Christmas around, the BC Liquor Store is all set to vend off its limited edition bottles of Remy Martin Louis XIII…
We’ve covered Florida’s Indian Creek Island before. This private enclave in Miami-Dade County is one of the most exclusive communities in America. It is home to just 33 homes, each on the water on the edges of the island while a 180-acre golf course and the Indian Creek Golf Club make up much of the real estate in the middle. The island has its own 24-hour police force and marine patrol. This level of security has attracted many celebrities including Julio Iglesias. Today’s home has six bedrooms and is located on an enviable two-acre landscape plot with 234 feet of deep bay frontage and view of downtown Miami. The style of the home is a bit staid with a reliance on draperies and traditional furniture but the location couldn’t be better.
German tuners Supersport have a “jewel” of a car on display at the Essen Motor Show. The word jewel is pretty much in the literal sense, as the Mercedes SL 65 AMG stands decked with 250,000 Swarovski crystals to create a dragon that wraps…
Proof that an expensive handbag isn’t always a pointless extravagance can be found at Christie’s where several upcoming sales show that Hermes bags can be an investment. On December 9 during the Jewels sale at South Kensington, London, Christie’s will auction off 23 Hermes handbags including the Mini Kelly bag in forest green and the Sac Malette style in brown which, gilt with metalware, once belonged to Charlie Chaplin’s wife. Shown at right is a rare Haut à Courroies bag. The bag was first designed by Hermes circa 1900 to carry equestrian gear but quickly became a popular travel bag. Hermes produces no more than five crocodile bags of this size a year. It is estimated to sell for £15,000 - £18,000.
Christie’s is also offering Hermes bags during the Interiors sale in New York, December 18-19. A bright orange Hermes Kelly bag is estimated to sell for $4,000-$6,000. The Kelly bag has been a prized classic for decades and never goes out of fashion.
Simmons, as in the infamous Simmons Family which includes lines such as Kimora Lee Simmons for Hello Kitty, Simmons Men’s Collection, Brown Sugar by Justine Simmons, and the iconic Green Malachite bracelet which gives back to the Diamond Empowerment Fund. The bracelet, above, comes in three sizes at $125 and has a little gold diamond charm containing a small rough diamond - very classy, chic, and perfect for your environmentally conscious friends and relatives.
The Diamond Empowerment Fund, to which 50% of all Rough Diamond and Malachite Green bracelet profits go, is an international non-profit organization which raises money for educational programs in Africa. Feeling green? Click here to learn more and find out how you can help.
Starting December 3, Moss will present Studio Job’s latest collection, Bavaria, at this year’s Design Miami. Bavaria is the collection of marquetry furnishings, crafted from Indian Rosewood and featuring laser-cut inlays of various country images: barns, horse corrals, silos, farm animals.
The group of pieces is the juxtaposition of age-old marquetry, which cuts veneer in intricate patterns to be placed on furniture or other objects, and modern laser-cutting technique. The sought-after furniture has been produced in a limited edition of six pieces per model, exclusive to Moss. The Rosewood bench, above, will be available through Moss, price upon request.
Studio Job was last in the news at Christie’s Post-war and Contemporary Art sale, where an ebony and laser-cut maple bench from its Perished Collection reached a final price of over $95,000. The auction house said the piece “yield[ed] an expressionistic symbolism superimposed upon an absurdist, semifunctional monumentalism.”
Genoa Boat Show the biggest in Europe and even in the world took place in October and had broken its own records again. This year the number of yachts on the water reached 600, the number of participants exceeded 1,500, the number of visitors - 300,000 and the number of the new models - 600.
If you think the gorgeous Luna Desk by Pininfarina is the Ferrari of office desks, what would you say about the real Ferrari F40 Office Desk? While the Pininfarina Luna desk looks to be the smart choice for trendy executives, the Ferrari F40 office…
It can be hard to find the right wine to give your favorite wine lover so how about a gift that helps them enjoy their hobby. Hinckley Cellars has created The Note Wine Label Saver. The tool peels wine labels from bottles so they can be saved in an accompanying leather journal. The Note Wine Label Saver is made of stainless steel with a leather blade cover and it comes in a wooden keepsake box. It can be purchased on its own for $64 or with an Italian leather wine journal for $98. Check out how it works in the video below.
After the $250 million Seabourn Odyssey luxury cruise ship, Yachts of Seabourn has announced its next hotly awaited ultra-luxury yacht dubbed Seabourn Sojourn. Announced as Odyssey’s new sister, the Seabourn Sojourn will be shown at a ceremony in…
The other day I mentioned custom perfumes but for a lower price point you can give (or get) a custom home fragrance from Saint Parfum. Saint Parfum says they maintain the largest in-house fragrance note palate of any home-fragrance brand in the world and offer 101 home fragrances as well as custom blends. Custom blends cost a $175 one time fee plus the cost of products which include candles and reed diffusers. You can select for your recipient or go the gift certificate route.
Wondering what to get your loved ones this Christmas? Amosu Alexander has the answer. The luxury product company has already impressed us with a range of one-off blinged creations, including the diamond encrusted Nokia N95 8GB, Blackberry Pearl…
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