December 2010

On the Schedule: What’s Ahead for 2011

December 31, 2010

We’re heading into the new year way sooner than I’m ready for — where did 2010 go, anyway? I could swear we only launched into the thing two to three months ago! — but I wanted to wish all of you a very happy new year, and to especially thank you for supporting this site [...]

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Luxury & Fashion Biz News: Dec. 28th, 2010 (Arnault wants more Hermes; Jimmy Choo gets its man; Social Media expects some attention; and Retailers survive another holiday season)

December 28, 2010

1.) LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault Ups the Stakes with Hermes . . . Literally: “Luxury-goods rival LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA said it increased its stake in the Birkin bag-maker to more than 20 percent . . . ‘Hermes can’t be taken over, especially if the family sticks together,’ said Davide Vimercati, an analyst [...]

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Cooking with Moi (or “How I spend way too much time photographing food”)

December 27, 2010

I know I like to take photographs of perfume bottles, and architecture, and random still objects (people, not so much), but now I can add another photographic subject to adore — food! Which is probably a good thing, because #1) There’s just so darn much of it everywhere, and #2) I’m cooking all the time, [...]

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Our First Christmas Dinner in New Zealand (2010)

December 25, 2010

Because it’s our first Christmas in New Zealand, I wanted to try something I hadn’t done before, which was a leg of lamb. Halfway there! I marinated the lamb in a stew of ginger beer, olive oil, smoked salt and Italian herbs. I was a little worried that I may have gone too far overboard [...]

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Louise Sends Us a Christmas Cake

December 23, 2010

The doorbell rang this afternoon, which caught me just as I was gathering steam to pile a load of laundry into the washing machine. So I had a choice to make: A.) continue with the tedious drudgery of laundry or B.) hastily dump the entire carefully gathered armload of socks, t-shirts and jeans — some [...]

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Photos: Eau d’Italie Baume du Doge

December 20, 2010

Back in November of 2008, I did a trial run of Baume du Doge, a spicy-sweet homage to the city of Venice created for niche fragrance brand Eau d’Italie by seemingly ubiquitous perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour. At the time, I wrote that Baume du Doge was “sweeter than a wagon load of pre-schoolers on a field [...]

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The Artisan Series: Basil Racuk (Part 2)

December 17, 2010

“Luxury is about singularity not standardization.” — Thomas Erber “You can’t copy anybody and end with anything. If you copy, it means you’re working without any real feeling.” — Billie Holiday On the website WDYDWYD (“Why do you do what you do?”), Basil Racuk posted a photo of himself at his workstation, holding a piece [...]

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Luxury & Fashion Biz News: Dec. 14th, 2010 (Social Media Takes No Prisoners, Galliano Fakes the Interview, Rock & Republic is DOA and Lagerfeld Annoints His Successor)

December 15, 2010

1.) The Hope and Curse of Playing with the Social Media Strategy Fire: “‘Social networks, such as Facebook with its 600 million users, will have a dramatic impact on how affluent consumers make their decisions,’ Klara Glowczewska, editor of Conde Nast Traveler, told a conference at the (annual ILTM trade fair) event.” And this has [...]

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Mandy Aftel & Andy Tauer: Letters to a Fellow Perfumer (ep. 8)

December 10, 2010

Zurich, December 8, 2010 Dearest Mandy, I hope these lines find you well. Soon, the holidays are here and we can relax with our beloved ones and enjoy the season. I look very much forward to cooking for friends and family, and starting the new year with new ideas and enthusiasm. I hope you will [...]

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The Artisan Series: Basil Racuk (Part 1)

December 8, 2010

I love the discovery of independent, highly talented product designers, and as Berkeley based craftsman Basil Racuk just happens to be exactly that (independent + highly talented), it was inevitable that our worlds would eventually collide. That Racuk has an established presence on the internet, and is comfortable with 21st century modes of connection/communication (Twitter [...]

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