May 2010

Luxury Industry News: Are Luxury Brands Just Shuffling Deck Chairs on the Titanic?

May 28, 2010

The Urban Dictionary defines “shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic” like this: “Actions taken solely for the feeling (or the appearance) of doing something about an unavoidable situation; actions that not only accomplish nothing but *blatantly* accomplish nothing.” And as I was catching up on the several weeks of news in the luxury brand world [...]

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The Beautiful Mind Series Vol. 1: Intelligence & Fantasy

May 24, 2010

Despite its clunky hard plastic packaging, unwieldy bottle and retro 3-D label that gives me unpleasant flashbacks of 1970′s flared corduroys and digital print polyester shirts (which are, surprisingly enough, fashionable again, albeit only in arch, hipster circles), I’m a big fan of perfumer Geza Schoen’s first release under The Beautiful Mind Series moniker. Schoen [...]

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A Few Last Observations (re: Paris, Zurich and Shopping)

May 23, 2010

The weather in Zurich was even colder and rainier than it had been during our stay in Paris. Pair that up with a good case of sore feet, tired legs and exhausted tourist-syndrome and there wasn’t much in the way of Swiss sightseeing on our agenda for the couple of days we were there. Though [...]

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Comme des Garcons + The Brothers Quay: Wonderwood Ad Campaign

May 18, 2010

Running around for the past week in the cold Paris rain seems to have done me in, and I’m now collapsed in my hotel room in Zurich with only limited energy for brief explorations of the surrounding neighborhood, which leaves me lots of time for net-surfing. I know, poor me. Consequently, I ran across an [...]

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Wafting Through Paris: The Guided Tour (Part 2)

May 17, 2010

I received a message from Denyse on Friday morning: “If you’re interested in meeting on the Left Bank, we could rendez-vous at Le Bon Marché, métro Sèvres-Babylone, on the ground floor of the department store right by the By Killian counter … I could show you a little of St Germain, the famous cafés, stuff [...]

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Wafting Through Paris: The Guided Tour (Part 1)

May 16, 2010

If you visit the Grain de Musc website, you’ll see two links under the heading ‘PARIS PERFUME PILGRIMAGE’ that say “Right Bank” and “Left Bank” — these are GdM author Denyse Beaulieu’s guides to perfume shopping one’s way through the great city of Paris, and I had the distinct pleasure of Denyse’s company on Wednesday [...]

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Château de Versailles: A Lesson In Humility

May 14, 2010

If there’s one thing that palatial splendor and glory does well, it’s humble the observer. Which seems to be the point of the exercise, really, when walking through the halls and rooms of a palace like Versailles. One can’t help but experience the awe, shock, annoyance, outrage and spiritual transcendance that the palace staff must [...]

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More Cathedrals (and a lot of rain!)

May 12, 2010

The cool weather has been a pleasure during my stay so far, but yesterday the gods decided to toss several hours of rain into the mix — of course, those several hours being *exactly* when I was trudging about the city chasing that elusive cathedral high. Ah well, it can’t all be piping hot coffee [...]

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Notre Dame and the Louvre (or “Of Human Stench and Religious Exhalations”)

May 10, 2010

Today was about doing a couple of things that are, by seeming decree, necessary when one visits Paris for the first time: visiting the Louvre museum, and visiting the cathedral of Notre Dame. I’m not really big on huge crowds of people, so needless to say, both locations left me in need of a little [...]

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A Few More Random Pics from Paris: 05/09/2010

May 10, 2010

A Sunday morning street in Paris, lined by public use bicycles. The bicycles are available as part of a public sharing system. Commuters deposit a rental fee into an electric meter, and then take the bicycle to whatever neighborhood they need to go, dropping it off at another bicycle sharing stand for someone else to [...]

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