Chinese New Year - China's Top Luxury Gifts

(Picture Source: http://www.learnthailanguage.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Chinese-New-Year-2012-Dragon-288x300.jpg)

We all know that the Chinese New Year is one of the biggest migrations there is, but it is also a time when commerce flourishes for some, because gifting is very important in the Chinese culture. The colour red has to be somehow included in the gift, and this year very valued are the Dragons, but what are the top brands to give gifts from for the Chinese?

According to the Hurun Report, these are the brands that get the most bought from the luxury industry:
1. Louis Vuitton 14,9%
2. Cartier 10,3%
3. Hermes 8%
4. Chanel 6,2%
5. Moutai 5,9%
6. Apple 5,7%
7. Dior 4,6%
8. Prada 3,9%
9. Rolex 3,6%
10. Armani 3,4%

Hermes Campaign F/W 2011 - by Nick Knight

(Picture Source: http://artrick-playground.com/static/images/2991/Hermes-AW-2011-campaign-by-Nick-Knight_410078_profile.jpg)

Sometimes a picture is worth more than a million words, and so are these by legendary photographer Nick Kight for the new campaign Autumn/Winter 2011 for Hermes. For me personally this is one of THE brands who stand for real luxury, for extraordinary quality and craftsmanship as well as beauty beyond imagination and the power of making dreams real. I dream of that Hermes item which I will own next, and so do other people too (maybe you?).

(Picture Source: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB9C36teT_gGixIs92M62gI-l_1TRPFavnijVSHilErVuHRRXa2iDJ0v_C8NoXMs-C9G3Y-uqxsK7ouee4vyDNTmcnGXbOHTi1KyjdocfvTzVLtqCaRJojHcySvoJGGkrB_grBuIl9DCQ/s1600/hermes-aw-2011-campaign-by-nick-knight-4.jpg)

(Picture Source: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7kH78JUBHYsiiBnv3L8idEv-4IG7tZK5C8m8Au4Me-NM3mVhY6KB5KCpjrPWtdpTCIB6OvYiQQgI9BvjgRD-381aJpH_q4PRU3LN1-DEnHwNBE9iHM7x71SotiuJpJzux63pocTMCmoo/s1600/hermes.jpg)

At the border between magnificent reality and fantastic dreams is also the video which opens new horizons on the collection of this season:

(Video Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akCxPijp4aI&feature=player_embedded)

DARE TO DREAM!

Stylish Blogger Award

Dear all,

yesterday I received an e-mail which made my day. It was telling me that I had been awarded the Stylish Blogger Award, which you can nicely admire on the right-hand-side of my blog now. Furthermore, there is a link behind it, letting you know that this award has been given to me by the wonderful Ada from classiq.ro.


Here's a quote from the e-mail: "According to the rules, you have to tell 7 things about yourself, link your post to the person who's given you the award, pick 10 blogs you love, pass the award onto them and let these bloggers know that they have received a stylish blogger award."

So here it goes:

(Picture Source: http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRAiCx7Bqnv2crid43VE3r6UOokdoWvDjD9fxEWhPmTWLQkowd5hg)

1. First thing about me is that I am surprised about this award. Not that I don't think that my style/blog etc isn't stylish enough, but rather because my blog has been more of a niche one and has less contact to fashion in general than all the other blogs I am reading or my readers are reading. Nor have I put many pictures of me posing in various clothes or pictures of my latest acquisitions. I find that all that is less relevant for me and that I want to know and share more on how beautiful, unique things are done and what their history/tradition is. Plus, I think that Coco Chanel was perfectly right when saying that fashion fades while style remains the same.

2. I love food. I love good food. And most of the time I prefer saying that we live to eat and not that we eat to live. Gastronommy is one of the finest arts for me...if well done. More on this subject soon on a London-Series episode.

3. If I could choose to have only one alcoholic drink in my fridge, it would be Champagne. It goes with almost everything!

4. One of my very strong connection to the big luxury houses is because I love doing equestrian sports. Most of the companies, such as Hermes, Louis Vuitton, A.Dunhill started from making harnesses and their craftsmanship into this field made them create reliable and durable leather goods. Hermes still creates saddles nowadays.


5. I love the summer and prefer te seaside, even in winter!

6. I love Greek music. I think it is so simple in the lyrics while the melody touches your inner chordes and even the most insensitive person could melt to these songs. I like them because they show that life is never easy nor is it as we would like it to be,...but we can sing our grief or sorrow and then still move on with a smile upon our faces,...because there are new horizons ready to be discovered.

7. I'm not someone who respects traditions by the book, but there are some small traditions which remind me of home. One of them is the offering of the "Martisor", and I know that being away from home and not getting it is sometimes a reason for sadness and thinking of home. Well, my girls abroad, this one goes out to you girls!

(Picture Source: rockeritza96iris.wordpress.com)

So now I must award this Stylish Blogger Award to ten other bloggers, which is a bit difficult for me, as most of the blogs I follow are on gastronomy.
So there it goes:
- Ada for classiq.ro , because, even if you awarded me this prize, I still adore your blog and find you should do carry on the work you're doing now!
- Arina from arinavarga.ro - because I like your work especially
- Ioana from Fashezine.com - because we all like your blog and work
- thestudentsguidetoaffordableluxury.blogspot.com - because style is not dependent on money
- micdejundebucuresti.blogspot.com - because style begins with breakfast
- Dana from danarogoz.onemagazine.ro - beacause even if she says she's a fashion addict, she's a style addict for sure

I know it's not ten, but as I said, I follow more gastronomy blogs and luxury blogs where there is a whole team behind the project, not just one stylish blogger.

It's the beginning of spring (altough it doesn't really look like it), so think happy thoughts! I will be back soon with some more on the London Series.

Luxury and Arts

A German saying goes like this "Papier ist geduldig", which means something like "paper is patient", as you can do a lot with it, write a lot on it (without it having to be necessarily true) etc.

Paper can also be transformed into art, and folding paper to create different forms (flowers, animals, objects) is an art of form called Origami. The classical origami uses mainly a square-cut paper without the addition of cuts or glueing. Before paper was known or spread, people used to fold material in various forms, then, as paper was scarce, it was used only for certain ceremonies for folding.

Nowadays you can find it in all types of colours and patterns, as well as sizes. So, in order to pay a tribute to their wonderful patterns on their silk scarves, Hermes presented the in a hand-stiched black saddle leather envelope a set with several origami papers featuring various patterns of their scarves. Presented in a black lacquer box, this final product is priced at around 600 €. I wonder how it will be sold in Japan.

(Picture Source: http://www.luxuo.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/hermes-origami.jpg)

Surprising news on boring day

Yesterday was a really boring day. Awfully boring! The type of days that does not want to end. Wonderful weather outside, but as usual, due to the behaviour of a mole which my boss sometimes adopts, there was no light coming into our office. Funny thing was that today there is a mole on the cover page of the Hamburger Abendblatt. They seem to be the destructive creatures tortureing the gardeners of this nation.

I even got bored yesterday by the news on the luxury industry. Louis Vuitton launches cases for Ipad in 2011. Nothing surprising! They had cases for the IPhone. Surprising is just the fact that they don't react too fast to the market development. But they can afford it. According to another item of news, the world's most valuable luxury brands were ranked, having LV at the leading position ($19.8 billion) followed by Hermes ($8.45bn), Gucci ($7,58bn), Chanel ($5.54bn) and Hennessy ($5.36bn). The study was compiled by reasearch firm Millward Brown Optimor.

The only not borig, but rather surprising news was the named best restaurant in the world. I am talking about S.Pellegrino World's Best 50 Restaurants list. The 47-year-old wonder chef Ferran Adria landed another blow when his restaurant ElBulli went from being first to being second on the list, just after a restaurant from Copenhagen, Denmark!!! I didn't believe it myself. Furthermore, there are NO French restaurants in the top 10 of this top 50 list. Still, in order to decide that, there were 800 international critics, journalists and food expersts on the panel. And they should know their job!

So who was this winner? In a converted 18th century shipping warehouse, 32 year old chef Rene Redzepi serves Nordic specialities in the winning restaurant Noma. His fame grew worldwide for his specific way of using local and seasonal ingredients to create strange dishes such as radishes in edible soil. if time allows me, I will travel soon there in search of this restaurant. Until then, I will be on a gastronomic quest this Saturday, as well as a cultural one. There is an exhibition which just opened on the 29th of April 2010, on Tutankamon. Promise to bring back pictures (if allowed)!

Two in One

Actually, today was supposed to be a day in I would talk about alcohol. What better moment to pick than this one, when I cannot touch any alcohol as I'm on antibiotics. But there are two topics to discuss.

Grey Goose, the French super-premium vodka which you get to enjoy especially on the French Riviera in clubs (I had it in Monaco), is co-Branding. And not for the taste, no no, but for the bottle. Chopard has designed for them the new bling bottle. The Swiss and French companies decided the magnum should have a glittering globe on which a goose figure is seated. Another way of making it more exclusive. You decide if you like it or not. It will be available until September 2010 in important grocery stores in Paris. The price? 350 Euros! Do the maths to find out how much this will cost in a Cote D'Azur night club.

Still, the second part of this entry is dedicated to a more shocking item of news I read today.
You all have heard about the Birkin bag, the status bag, THE BAG of all bags, THE statement bag. It sounds like the Birkin is my second religion, but how could it not be when I know what all it means. But the news today seemed to bring every stable pilar of this religion down. The bag for which you don't only need to have money, but you need to be accepted and seen as loyal and a good acquirer is said to have no longer waiting lists. WHAT??? So, the bag for which you previously would have invested thousands of dollars in other merchandise from Hermes, you would shop probably weekly at the brand, you would get a chance through a personal shopper to have your name put on a waiting list and would wait 1-2 years for a bag for which you could not even choose the colour, that bag should be now available on the spot to anyone who can pay more than 6500 dollars??? Can this be true? Can it be that even the empire of Hermes is not recession proof anymore? This statement was close to blasphemy in my eyes. I just imagined all the women who had invested in such beauties,...oh yes, you can invest in them just as well as you can in diamonds. But now? The market value would go down... What a hit this news was! The official statement of Hermes was that "yes, there is no more silly waiting list". Nevertheless, there was later a clarification: it can happen that you can find or two bags in a shop and buy them immediately, but there are still lists available for preferences. Ufff......what a relief! I had read once that there are really 1-2 bags available sometimes, also sold through personal shoppers, to special people. The day is saved! Now we can all sleep happily!

My favourite colour of a Birkin

The worst example of what can happen to the Birkin!

And to end this blog entry, here's some news for you: I had alcohol today, even if I should't drink while having antibiotics. But I didn't drink,...there's a better way to "cheat" in this way: a wonderful chicken in an onion-sour cream-white wine sauce. Mmmmmmmmmmmm!!!