Moet & Chandon Ice Imperial, Brand New Champagne for 2012.

For Summer 2012 Moet & Chandon, one of the worlds most respected Champagne houses and one Letter of arguably the worlds largest luxury goods company LVMH, have released a totally new Champagne.  And when we say totally new, we quite literally mean it, a common move by champagne houses is to release a vintage year, or old bottling, and pass it off as a new release, whereas the fact is it is no more than a good year laid down 20 years or more ago, packaged in a new way.  Rarely, if ever, do Champagne houses make the attempt to produce a wine that is more than this.

In a single release, Moet Chandon have re-invented the concept of Champagne, the new Ice Imperial is the first champagne in the world that is recommended to be served, not merely cold, but over Ice.  never befoe has the option of serving a Champagne over ice been more than a preference or convenience as the wine was not cold enough when served.  Not only is is recommended to be served over ice, but the unusual almost tropical flavours can be said to be enhanced by including different fruits in the glass, lime, lemon, cucumber, or grapefruit.

This new release truly is a Champagne for warmer climates, and gives those who prefer the lightness of a Prosecco in the brighter months pause for thought.  Not only have Moet & Chandon produced a new Champagne though, they have also tried to enhance the experience of enjoying it digitally, with special smartphone apps, and website destinations.  Visit www.moet.com for more information

Louis Vuitton Mens 2013 Spring Summer Catwalk.

Hot of the presses, Louis Vuitton's Kim Jones designed Mens collection for Spring/Summer 2013 debuted and was on the catwalk for the Paris Fashion Week, in evidence are a few completely new styles of bag, including a Damier backpack that appears to be side carried, a series of damier bags that seem to have soft pebbled leather accents, similar to the naxos leather, and some unusual seasonal options, such as damier infiniti bags in dayglo neon.

Although Accessories are always the stars of LV's collections, the clothes are important too, elegant and dark for the smarter collections, and ultra sporty fo casual, the message and inspiration seems to be some kind of rock climbing/urban samurai type character.

Bulgari Offialize the Save The Children Rings with the "Save The Children Collection"

Bulgari's philanthropic Save The Children collection has managed to become a popular mainstay of Bulgari, with a whopping £70 of every sale being donated to save the children, for the feel good factor, its easy to see why they would be such a popular choice.  The real secret to why this range has done so well, is its exceptionally low cost, each Silver ring costs only £350, and the Silver and Ceramic option costs just £390, certainly in terms of the material content, thats not a particularly inexpensive item, but from the perspective of purchasing a branded item of jewellery from a seriously high end marque, it's an absolute steal.

The selection of three is what this story is really about, what started as merely one ring and a concept back in 2009, has been now extended to a collection of three, two widths of solid Silver, and one b.zero type silver and ceramic, the b.zero type is the star of the collection, even featuring a pretty little save the children logo inside the ring.  

Jack Row Architect Collection Exclusive To Harrods London.

Designer & Goldsmith Jack Row has released a collection, the first from this award winner, will be available Exclusively from Harrods as of next month, and worldwide with Pianki, the Luxury Internet Retailer, and La courrone du Comte of the Netherlands.

The Debut Collection has all the dramatic turns that made Row stand out so much thus far, including his love of British Architecture and London.  The collection is inspired specifically by the City Of London building 25 St Mary's Axe, known colloquially as "the Gherkin".

The Collection includes a pen and a pair of cufflinks, each piece is a complex core of Yellow gold, wrapped in either Silver or Yellow gold filigree reminiscent of the Gherkin structure, they are available in two versions, either diamond studded, or sapphire studded, and each pen has a Columbian Sapphire on the tip of the lid.

The Cufflinks cost £3500 per Pair, and the Pens £27,500 and £35,800 respectively.

Jimmy Choo and Rob Pruit 2013 Cruise Collection Collaboration.

Jimmy Choo may be nothing more than a brand name, not evenly remotely connected to the man who gave it it's name, or Tamara Mellon it's famously glamorous co-founder, but the brand nevertheless marches on regardless, and releases collection after collection.  In line with the industry trend of releasing collections two collections before the current season, they have presented the Cruise 2013 Collection, and a collaboration with artist Rob Pruitt.

The Collection will include some 19 pieces, including shoes, bags and accessories, all utilising Pruitt's signature use of the Panda Print, flashes of colour, linings with angel and devil prints, glittery zebra print ballet pumps, and the top pictured Anouk shoe with vibrant colours, french Lace, and mirrored leather, the smaller accessories will also feature similar boudiuor style touches.  Additionally they have released 12 Minaudeieres, featuring the above picture, with 11,000 hand applied crystals, numbered and signed by Pruitt. 

The icing on the proverbial cake will be special boxes for each item in the capsule collection, will be bright pink boxes with degrade lining, sealed with an angel or devil panda sticker.

Hiroshi Sugimoto Polaroid Inspired Hermes Scarf Collaboration.

Hermes have collaborated with Hiroshi Sugimoto, the Japanese photographer famous for his vibrant and colourful photos, to produce a range of ultra large silk screen printed scarves, the series in isnspired by polaroid photos, and uses the process of taking long exposure shots of cinema screens, light passing through a prism or extreme of colours.

The scarves are strictly limited to 20 worldwide, and are huge, measuring the same size as Hermes California towels, and form part of the Hermes Editeur series, each scarf, therefore being in essence a unique work of art, will retail for £5000, and will be available from July.

Prada goes to Hollywood in a big way for Fall/Winter 2012 Mens campaign.

For Autumn/Winter 2012, Prada have decided to use not just one world famous Hollywod personality, but Four, they have enlisted the help of Gary Oldman, Willem Dafoe, Jamie Bell and Garrett Hedland.  In a campaign photographed by David Sims, the quartet have produced possibly one of the most star studded advertising campaigns in recent memory.

If that were not enough in itself, for the actual fashion show, used entirely Hollywood celebrities, including Adrien Brody, Tim Roth, Emile Hirsch, and Alex and Victor Carril.  A bold and ambitious move in these troubled times, to put famous and powerful men in Prada's strongly military inspired collections, it feels almost like a cross generational procession of some shadowy elite council that run the world behind the scenes.

The video below shows behind the scenes footage of the campaign, enjoy.

Remy Martin Xo Limited Edition Thomas Lyte Collaboration.

Remy Martin's entry level luxury spirit, their XO, has been released in a limited edition boxed set, the set includes a 70cl bottle of Remy Martin XO, a Thomas Lyte Flask, bound with leather, in a silk lined wooden box, the leather bound flask is embossed with the Remy Martin Centaur, and the XO legend.  

The price for this set is £295, and Thomas Lyte's website seems to suggest it is Silver, however, it is in fact Silver plated, which is fair enough considering the cost, a bottle of XO is £110 - £150 depending where you buy it, a standard hip flask in steel would be £45 - 60, and Silver Plated £60 - £100, so £295 for the set with the addition of it coming in a presentation box, and being limited to 30 worldwide, is not an unreasonable request.

Harrods Expands Room Of Luxury Louis Vuitton Boutique.

Louis Vuitton has expanded their presence within Harrods original room of luxury, meaning that within harrods they now have 4 mini boutiques in menswear, womenswear, womens shoes and one huge boutique in the Room of Luxury.

Anyone familiar with Harrods will recognise the space as the former plot of Gucci, essentially Louis Vuitton's boutique has completely taken over Gucci's old Retail space, who have moved to the Room of Luxury 2, and has left almost entirely grand French Luxury houses in the old luxury room, an interesting micro universe of the larger world of luxury, where with the exception of a few, French Luxury brands have taken over as supreme.

The new space will allow LV to have a separate area for scarves and a separate area for their monogramming service. The area has been open for the last few weeks, contrary to some reports that it just opened.

Bang & Olufsen Relaunch Website and Revamps Brand.

Bang & Olufsen appear to have made a huge step in revamping their brand image and product line up for 2012, and no doubt into the future.  The first stage of this is their website and online store, their website has been transformed, from the old dark tones with the basic left side product selection tabs, we have a new light and bright, super modern flash type layout, with three product areas to choose from, Picture, Sound & In Car Audio.

And within these category's B&O faithful will recognise some remarkable changes also, firstly they have discontinued certain products from their ranges, they appear to have gotten rid of the Beosound 3, Earset 2, and Earset 1 from their selections, however, on first look, they seem to have totally discontinued all the phones from their ranges.

It may be the case that B&O need to update their brand new site with the existing products, however, it does seem a little odd, to design and release a website before it is completed, almost like it is designed to mislead, so perhaps these products are still all very much available, or perhaps they are not, but if not, it would be a huge step for B&O, they have dropped the odd product range in the past, the non performing Mobile phones, a hi-fi here and there, but if this is true, they have discontinued a product range that has been with the brand since the very beginning, home phones, and massacared some 15 products from their brand.

Watch this space for more info, and check www.bang-olufsen.com to see the new site.

Chanel Release Plain Tennis Balls for the 2012 Olympic Year.

2012 is set to be un tres sportif year, with the 2012 Olympics, Euro 2012, and various other smaller competitions.  The Wimbledon Tennis match is also set to start in the next few months.  Chanel Have been producing Tennis rackets and balls for the last couple of years now, their racket range now has a selection of 6 different variations, and the ball were previously available in pink and white in a chanel branded tube.

For 2012 they have released a plain white Chanel branded tennis ball set with a quilted leather pouch to carry them in, chances are, if anyone is inclined to buy these, the balls will be used, and the pouch re-used in another form, as its far too nice a product to waste on tennis balls, Chanel branded or not.

The white Chanel branded tennis balls are available now, in a set of four with the pouch, and cost £980 per set.

Jimmy Choo 2012 Summer Mens Shoe Selection.

Pictured below is Jimmy Choo's selection of Men's Shoes for the 2012 Spring/Summer season.  It seems less than a year now since the announcement of Jimmy Choo's Decision to release a mens collection again, and now we are into fully functioning mens seasonal collections.

This collection is a cautious one, nothing here is particularly daring or unusual, which makes alot of sense since it is only their second full collection, they don't want to scare away people already!  We see here classic mens shoe styles done with slight twists to make them more current and appealing, and all with solid names of London areas to give a sense of permanance to products that will be unlikely to last more than 6 months before being discontinued, such as the "hoxton", and the "balfour".

The styles are as stated all quite safe, including suede tassel loafers, penny loafers with an "actual penny", monk strap half boots, and luxury trainers witha  nod to Jimmy Choos luxurious ladies collections, with touches of crocodile leather here and there.

shoes start from £295 for the slip on croc effect espadrille, and go up to £550 for the boot, and are available now from Jimmy Choo stores and boutiques.

Creme De La Mer World Oceans Day 2012 Jar Release.

Every year around this sort of period Creme De La Mer commemorate the Ocean Heritage of their brand with a special release Jar of their famous moisturiser, limited to 10,000 jars worldwide and in a 100ml sixe not previously available, each jar is packaged in a special edition jar and box.

This years release features a far more vibrant and colourful jar than in previous years, as usual the date stamp is quite bold, leaving no uncertainty as to its year of origin.  What makes these releases unusual is not the jar itself, but rather the size of the jar, Creme De La Mer only release 30ml, 60ml, 250ml, and 500ml, and the larger you buy the cheaper it is, they measure the value on the 100ml size, from £300 per 100m for the 30ml size, up to £230 per 100ml for the 500ml size, and this limited edition 100ml World Oceans Day jar costs only £255, meaning only a £25 premium over the top rate, but in fact if they did sell an actual 100ml size, it would probably be around £270 - £280, this release therefore represents actual good value, an unusual concept in a limited edition release.

Goyard Re-Releases 1970's Woven Jaquard Canvas Material for 2012.

The Bag above is Goyard's Voltaire tote, a model which has existed for some years in Goyard's portfolio in their classic canvas, the story is not about the Voltaire tote, rather the fabric from which it is made, this particular bag is made from a woven Jacquard Canvas, rather than the standard Waxed Canvas which Goyard's products are made from.

This woven material is not in fact a new issue for Goyard, it was made for Bugatti by Goyard in the 1970's for their fitted in car luggage, the material was developed to be hard wearing and versatile, and was discontinued in the 80's prior to the car makers acquisition and rebirth.

At present the Woven Jacquard print is only available in the Voltaire tote, but hopefully will be released in other models soon.