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Nike does Lisbon

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Pedro Caldeira - Updated

Harvey Nichols

Spring/Summer 08 Key Trends

Put away your reservations and your boring old grey suits, because this season is all about bright colour, and lots of it. Red, green, blue, you name it, it's en-vogue. If sport's more your thing, then Olympic-inspired styles from Dries Van Noten's judo tops to DSquared2's racing driver jumpsuits, are also going to be key players. For a smarter tailored feel, choose one of the Summer's reworked and very modern blazers. Here's the full details...

A kithaus

Four Seasons - The Ship

The Four Seasons will launch a residential ocean liner from London with spa and concierge service, among others. Residences starting at $3.8 million. Sales began recently, and the ship is scheduled to begin service in 2010.CONTACT (877) 507-3393 or www.oceanresidences.com.

The Four Seasons — a 719-foot, 13-deck ship operated by the hotel company that will be filled entirely with residences — will begin construction next spring in Helsinki, Finland. Its 112 residences are described as nothing like standard cruise ship cabins. The one- to four-bedroom units, sold in whole ownership, will range from 800 to more than 7,000 square feet and will have full-length windows, walk-in closets, terraces and full-size kitchens. Each residence will be credited $12,000 a year for food, drinks and spa services. Amenities, other than the spa, will include a fitness center, a pool, a shopping promenade, four restaurants, a specialty food market, a wine cellar, a business center, putting greens and a driving range. Sailboats and motorized water scooters will be launched from the ship’s marina area, which will also be used for diving trips and shuttles to shore. Round-the-clock concierge service will be available to help arrange on-shore activities, and in-room dining will be offered. Plans call for the ship initially to follow a two-year fixed itinerary that will take it to Antarctica, the Amazon and the 2012 Olympics in London. During that time, it is expected that the ship will spend an average of 250 days a year in port.

Philippe Starck

Philippe Starck Wants You to be More Sexy

Internationally renowned lifestyle designer Philippe Starck has a dream to "make a place where people are more awesome, are more sexy, are more smart, more sparkling... " and he announced today a global partnership for a new ultra-luxury hotel brand, Starck Hotels, that he says will make people fall in love all over again.

Philippe Starck is the world's leading lifestyle designer with a self described 'tribe' of millions who covet his every concept, whether it is for a computer mouse, chair or hotel. It was Starck who redefined what a hotel could be nearly two decades ago and who now, in partnering with Geneva based F6, can finally realize his life long dream to infuse a luxury hotel with what he calls the "beauty of intelligence."

Starck said he is granting F6 an exclusive Master License Agreement (MLA) to develop, market and operate the brand with Starck providing all design and conceptual support. Starck Hotels will be a subsidiary of F6; formed to launch the brand, work with Starck to develop a new template for an ultra-luxury hotel and identify prime locations to work with partners towards the development of up to 35 hotels in prime locations around the world in the next five years.

Ivanka Trump

The Ace of Diamonds



"The first fashion show I attended was Valentino in Paris when I was six or seven," says the exceptionally poised Ivanka Trump, who sits across from me in her spacious Trump Tower corner office with a mega view, wearing Prada culottes, Asprey loafers, and a casual knit top. Her office walls are adorned with articles about herself and her family. "As long as I can remember I've always appreciated the finer things—whether they be jewelry or architecture." It is evident that if anyone has a keen eye for aesthetics it should be Ivanka, who undoubtedly learned about fashion and jewelry from her mother Ivana Trump. She says, "from a young age, I was exposed to a really amazing collection of fine jewelry, and I took my love of that from her."

Now 26 and very much a confident woman in her own right, Ivanka has just launched a diamond jewelry line that bears her name and is housed in a feminine, boudoir-inspired shop on Madison Avenue in New York. The line, which seeks to reinvent older Hollywood glamour by offering modern day interpretations of collections from the 1920s to the 1960s, includes engagement rings, earrings, necklaces and bracelets. A delicate diamond oval, accented with coral detail, is the signifying emblem of the collection and is discreetly designed into each style. Her favourite piece from the collection is a pair of diamond briolette tassel earrings.

Already bullish about the success of her line, the Wharton grad has high hopes for the future, with plans to open shops in Las Vegas and Japan. All the while, she continues her rapid ascension in her father Donald Trump's empire: She was recently named director of the Trump Gaming Company, serves as the vice president of development and acquisitions for the Trump Organization, and is a boardroom advisor on The Apprentice.

Ivanka is not just beautiful; she is decidedly sexy—and not shy about it. Case in point, her recent story in Harper's Bazaar in which she appears on a construction site as a "Drill Sergeant" in Dior by Galliano heels, and a low cut Eres bathing suit. What's more—in the photo, she's pumping a drill. "I think you walk a thin line," says Ivanka. "The Harper's Bazaar [piece] was certainly the furthest I've ever crossed it in terms of what I would consider appropriate but I have to think about the fact that I'm 26 years old. There is a time and a place to do that type of stuff and have a little fun and laugh about the duality of the young girl/business individual. I'm much more self confident in my abilities and skills now so I don't think that stuff undermines me."

To me, Ivanka demonstrates the qualities a post-feminist icon—feminine and powerful while visibly dominating a man's world. Not scared by the F word, she takes my observation as a compliment and remembers how hard it was for her mother's generation to break into "the club." She also laments how "80s powersuits with big shoulder pads" made women appear masculine. Today, Ivanka tells me that she would have no qualms about showing up to the office in a pink suit.

When she's not busy being a Trump, I see glimmers of the softer, private Ivanka. In recalling a time when she felt true embarrassment, she shares an amusing story of her first day at boarding school when her wrap skirt fell off. "I walked half way across campus before realizing my skirt was half a mile back – that was awkward." Describing herself as "pretty mellow," she enjoys spending time with school pals she's known her whole life, watching cheesy 80s movies and eating mozzarella sticks. Of her personal convictions she's passionate, and speaks freely of her disdain for the Iraq war. "A great social injustice is that we are in Iraq – I spend a lot of my time thinking about that."

When asked what Ivanka would change about herself, she confesses, "I'd probably take more time to reflect—it's easy to get consumed with everything that's going on." And then, without missing a beat, she was off to a board meeting.


I can't help but wonder how she does it all, and what her average day entails. "There is no typical day. I don't think I'd be as excited about what I do in life if there were." She does, however, admit that she doesn't sleep much and works long hours, often with periods of lengthy travel. On weekends, she comes into the office to attend to "non time-sensitive initiatives."

It's clear that Ivanka is a hard worker. About those who have judged for her being spoiled, she says, "I think that I used the prejudgment or condescension of others to motivate me to push myself harder to do more. It made me more defiantly ambitious, if you will. I expect a lot from myself but there is something extremely motivating about knowing that people are underestimating you."

On the flip side, being born a Trump does have its privileges. "I never really wanted for much growing up. I didn't have to worry if I could afford to attend the college I was accepted to, or if I had a roof over my head. These are things we should not take lightly."

www.indagare.com - A great idea!

Indagare arose out of my frustration. As the founding editor of an award-winning travel magazine, I planned trips often and felt that there must be a better way to do so. Thanks to the Web, I can do everything from shop for groceries to manage my music online, so why was researching travel so excruciating? I was tired of collecting torn-out pages, digging through notes and tracking down people who really do know a place and what’s happening there now.

I wanted a well-curated archive of sophisticated cheat sheets, but I also had to be able to customize them. And more than that, I craved the ability to tap into a community of worldly friends and trusted experts—people who understand my tastes and share my passion for authentic experiences—with whom I could exchange advice and addresses. After all, today luxury travel goes beyond staying at a five-star resort, and the recommendations that so often make a trip memorable cannot easily be found online or in books.

Whether it’s hosting a concert for your friends in a palazzo in Venice or touring the ruins of Angkor Wat with an archaeologist who protected them from looters, these are life’s unforgettable moments. When you join Indagare, the keys to experiencing them will be at your fingertips. Like you, I trust a tip from a friend more than one from any other source. Indagare’s reports are written by me and by journalists who are my friends, whose opinions I value and who understand my high standards.

Become an Indagare member and gain access to the ultimate directory, one that will steer you to the people and places that will make your journeys remarkable. Join a club for passionate, like-minded travelers so you can trade opinions and share discoveries.

Indagare is the premier resource for the world’s most discerning travelers. We hope you’ll join us so your journeys can be enhanced by ours—and so ours will be inspired by yours.

Madrid

Why am I investing in Madrid apart from being Spanish? Here is why:

1.Madrid is an economic, political and administrative hub with a solid and diversely structured economy, and a truly dynamic city. In 2005, Madrid's growth has reached 4.0 percent, the highest amongst all Spanish regions and 6 tenths over the national growth.

2.Diversity and differences co-exist with social harmony and institutional stability. Madrid is renowned for its generosity and hospitality. The political framework is peaceful and offers guaranteed growth and stability.

3.Situated in the heart of the Iberian Peninsula, Madrid has a privileged geo-strategic position and is the natural link between Europe, Latin America and North Africa. Naturally, the top foreign companies setting up in Spain have chosen Madrid as the base for their head offices.

4.The hospitable administrative, fiscal and political environment encourages investors and the availability, price and quality of land and offices are amongst the most competitive in Europe.

5.At the forefront of scientific and technological innovation, Madrid has one of the most advanced regional networks of science and technology in Spain, and indeed Europe.

6.Madrid offers a highly qualified work force yet considerably lower labour costs than cities such as London, Paris or Amsterdam. It is an ideal space for creativity as its young, vibrant and intellectually inclined population is coupled with an extremely dynamic and consolidated business culture.

7.It has modern, high-quality infrastructure where innovation is the common denominator.

8.Its cultural heritage is among the most important in the world in terms of art, culture and monuments.

9.It is a cosmopolitan city embracing new cultures, where visitors quickly feel at home and where more than six million people from 172 different nationalities live side by side harmoniously.

10.Madrid is not only the gateway to the South American, North African or European markets, but also the largest local market in Spain.

I Love My Job, I Love My Job, I Love my Job...

Dan Flavin meets Versailles

Diane Von Furstenberg

Well-regarded fashion designer and former Austro-Italian princess Diane von Fürstenberg became a powerful fashion icon in the 70s when she created the influential ‘wrap dress’, an example of which hangs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Institute. Born Diane Halfin on December 31, 1945 in Brussels, Belgium, the famous socialite and entrepreneur was raised in a well-to-do Jewish family. Her Greek mother, Liliane Nahmias, was a Holocaust survivor.

Fürstenberg’s society life began while studying economics at the University of Geneva in Switzerland, where she met the Austro-Italian Prince Egon of Fürstenberg. The couple quickly fell in love and married, and had two children together after moving to New York City in 1969. An aspiring designer and businesswoman, the stunning Manhattan socialite quickly rose to fame when she introduced the ‘wrap dress’ in 1973. The popular design, which began a women’s fashion trend due to its revolutionary versatility, is notable for its dual status as comfortable business wear and elegant evening dress. Suitable for the changing roles of busy urban women in the 70s, the dress became a sensation and Fürstenberg sold over five million of them before market saturation and over-exposure killed its popularity while new trends took over the 80s.

Divorced from Prince Egon and losing control of her fashion empire, Fürstenberg fled bankruptcy by selling most of her licenses and moved to Europe in defeat, a temporary victim of the highly volatile women’s fashion industry. In Paris she began her comeback by starting the moderately successful French publishing house Salvy, and in the early 90s re-entered the American fashion scene with Silk Assets, an early home-shopping QVC clothing line. Fürstenberg has since described her work for QVC as follows: “It was tacky, but it gave me confidence”. The legendary designer has never lacked talent or ambition, and was soon back on top with the founding of the Diane Fürstenberg Studio, which aimed to provide more affordable items to high-end department stores. The popular line, which is featured at elite stores including Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, and Bergdorf Goodman in addition to her website, has recently began turning profits and has returned Fürstenberg’s signature styles to the forefront of women’s fashion. In addition to her triumphant return to fashion, she published her autobiography in 1998, titled “DIANE: A Signature Life”.

Fürstenberg remarried for the first time in 2001 to Hollywood powerhouse Barry Diller, the former Paramount executive who helped usher in today’s crop of entertainment moguls. One of the most important designers of the 20th century, Fürstenberg remains a powerful entrepreneurial and creative voice in the fashion industry.

What is a Kelly Bag? (Para a Amélia )

Em versão bolinho para a minha Amélia.

Senhora Dona Graça. Gracinha – Para as mais intimas.


The classic Hermes handbag, known as the "Kelly" since 1956, was joined in the early 1980s by the "Birkin."

"The Kelly is a touch more formal, a little more appropriate for an evening out, a business dinner, as a more refined look. The Birkin is more sporty, more casual. Often people use it as a briefcase, throw in a change of shoes," says Trina Sams-Manning, manager of the Hermes shop in Fairfax Square, which recently reopened after a major facelift.

Inga Guen, who sells gently used Kellys and Birkins at Inga's Once Is Not Enough, a high-end consignment shop in Northwest Washington, is even more emphatic about the difference. "A woman who is going to wear the Kelly is of very erect stature, she comes from money, very good background, is extraordinarily educated, and life to her is one where she will be very inconspicuous," says Guen, an avid Kelly carrier. She cuts a bit of slack for the Birkin femme, who "wears Manolo mules, a pair of jeans, a little Chanel jacket. She is the younger woman."

Both bags have made their marks on the cultural landscape. In "Le Divorce," a red crocodile Kelly was a sure sign that young Isabel was having having an affair with someone rich enough to buy her this five-figure confection.
The Birkin became an intense object of desire on "Sex and the City," when Kim Cattrall's Samantha told Hermes she needed one instantly for a client. Yes, it was a big fat lie, but morally defensible in social circles where owning a bag that can cost as much as a car is, like, truly, seriously important.

Conversely, a Birkin may have worked against Martha Stewart, who schlepped her well-worn Hermes to court during her 2004 insider trading trial, to the derision of critics who thought the super-expensive bag might not play well with a middle-class jury.

For the uninitiated, these bags, which start at about $7,000 and can top $25,000 depending on hide and hue, are named for a duo of beautiful actresses.

Philadelphia-born Grace Kelly -- so blonde, so patrician -- had been wed less than a year to Prince Rainier of Monaco when she deftly obscured her royal pregnancy with a structured, crocodile Hermes purse on a 1956 Life magazine cover. Created in 1892 as a large saddle carrier -- the French fashion house started out as a saddlemaker -- the bag was downsized for daywear in the 1930s. But after its moment in Life, it was dedicated to Her Serene Highness, and, as legends often do, lives on after her.

By contrast, it was during a 1981 airplane flight that the effluvia in British-born actress-singer Jane Birkin's overstuffed purse spilled in the vicinity of Jean-Louis Dumas-Hermes. Three years later, the venerable firm introduced a bag for Birkin's more bohemian lifestyle based on an 1892 design. In a splendid bit of irony, Birkin recently confessed she barely used hers because it had proved hazardous to her health.

"I told Hermes they were mad to make it. My one was always full, and it ended up giving me tendinitis," she told the Scotland on Sunday newspaper in March.

Like the Kelly, the Birkin is crafted entirely by hand by a single artisan from start to finish, and embellished with a petite padlock, keys and gleaming hardware made of white or yellow gold.

Tom Ford - A God

Dover street Market

Concept and Direction by Rei KAWAKUBO

"I want to create a kind of market where various creators from various fields gather together and encounter each other in an ongoing atmosphere of beautiful chaos: the mixing up and coming together of different kindred souls who all share a strong personal vision."

My New Toy - iPhone

Loving it...

Belvedere Vodka

GLAMOUR IN THE HOUSE
Get some glamour and culture delivered straight to your door with Belvedere Private View. This brand new entertaining concept brings film directors, producers, actors or writers straight to your house to talk to you and your guests about the film world, while a professional Belvedere vodka bartender is on hand, mixing killer cocktails.

Choose the evening's theme from a list that includes 'A Bluffer's Guide to Cannes', 'Hollywood versus Independent Cinema' or 'A Night of Horror - from Hitchcock to Blairwitch'. A Belvedere Private View 'fixer' - a producer with access to a medley of the biggest names in the UK film industry - will then match the film talent to your theme and help run the evening with along with the host. So there's no excuse for giving deadly dull dinner parties any more. Belvedere Private View is a modern, culturally stimulating way to entertain your guests.

Louis Vuitton

Louis Vuitton. Chic or tacky?

For my 18th birthday my mother gave me my first Louis Vuitton travel bag. A vintage suitcase my father bought her when they got married in 1971. I use it every time I go somewhere more than a week and when not travelling with a low cost airline (even empty it weighs more than the baggage allowance!)

This Christmas, I am thinking of treating myself to a couple of new bags and maybe a trolley. But the reality is I am not 100% sure about it. Many people say that having new LV's bags are tacky and “Nuovo rich”. Is it? So let me get this straight, if they are new, its bad. But, if they are or look old it is ok. What is the logic on that? Should I buy them and kick them around till they look vintage? Or should I just buy an old one in ebay? Don’t think so…

True, old money have old bags and new money have the new ones - and then of course there are the millions of fakes. But how are they suppose to look vintage if they are new at some point? And, isn’t it possible to have new LV baggage and not seem nouvo?

Am I going crazy? Is my partner not being very logical? Or is it just too much to travel with Louis Vuitton when you are only 27?

What is tacky about wanting to have the best?

Instead, I could buy Hermes. But for THAT… I can’t afford. Yet!