Here are the top five hottest news stories in luxury within the past days. Pursuitist chose these as they have the greatest depth and breadth, those that combine wide popularity and with trend possibility. Read on!
A Rose By Any Other Name….
JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts announced this week it will open its first Italian hotel on an island near Venice, in March of 2015. It will be a 266 room property, and is on Rose Island, an island in the Venetian Lagoon, within sight of of many Venetian canals, and churches. The Hotel was created in collaboration with Milan-based architecture firm Matteo Thun & Partners. They have been chosen to create a sustainable, modern, and elegant design within the historic buildings.
Bedrooms and suites, some with private pools, are decorated with locally made bricks, glass, and tiles to reflect the artisanal talent and styles of the region. The 16-acre space has numerous gardens, as well as fruit arbors, olive groves, and cultivated plots that provide the property’s four restaurants. There are also five bars, a cooking school, and a wine academy. Restored outbuildings scattered around the island include a function space in an old church and a 5,741-foot-spa—the largest, it is said, in Venice.
Expensive Weed
Jimson Weed is known by many names in the Southwest, and is also known to be a powerful hallucinogen. It took Georgia O’Keeffe to see the delicate beauty in its white flower and paint it. Unfortunate she could not see what happened, so many years after her death.
Sotheby’s made auction history during its American art sale this past week, when Georgia O’Keeffe’s Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1, 1932, sold for $44,405,000 (est. $10-15 million) to a bidder on the phone with North and South Americas chair Lisa Dennison. It was a new record for O’Keeffe, whose previous high, set in 2001 at Christie’s, was $5.6 million. The sale of Jimson Weed was a record price for a work by any woman artist.
The Perfect Skin
A few years ago in an interview with Robert Chavez, CEO and President of Hermès, he said the reason why the Brikin and Kelly bags take such a long time to create is because Hermès is always searching for the perfect skin. Skins have come and gone, but THIS alligator, appears to have taken the perfect skin to an astral plane.
The inaugural handbag and accessories auction of Christie’s Hong Kong proved a draw for many buyers, with the auction raising HK$13,801,250 (US$1,788,642) and 95% of the lots selling. A matte graphite Nilo Crocodile Birkin by Hermès, dating from 2012, sold for HK$562,500 (US$72,900), above its HK$350,000‑450,000 estimate.
Art Basel In Miami To Open December 4-7
Art Basel has been in Florida for the past 12 years. In those years, the growing art-fair phenomenon has evolved into more than 20 satellite shows, and last year, created a sales phenomenon — some $3 billion at Art Basel Miami Beach alone last year.
Since 2002, when designer Karl Lagerfeld hosted a private event that first year, the fashion industry has become a prime player, and with a reported 50,000 visitors coming to Miami. The city and its collectors have also responded. The Rubell Family Collection, the de la Cruz Collection, and the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation — offer public hours during the fair, and new museum buildings such as Herzog & de Meuron’s 2013 Pérez Art Museum Miami, will make the city an even stronger magnet for collectors and purveyors, especially during the first week in December.
The Best Ski Hotel In The World
It’s the Stein Eriksen Lodge, Deer Valley Utah. It is Utah’s only Forbes Five Star, AAA Five Diamond resort, and now has a new honor: World’s Best Ski Hotel by the World Ski Award’s 2014 Ski Oscars. The announcement was made last weekend at the 2014 Ski Oscars Award Gala Ceremony held in Kitzbühel, Austria.
Following a year-long voting process from leading ski tourism professionals worldwide, as well as millions of ski consumers from 127 countries, the Stein Eriksen Lodge first earned the title of United States’ Best Ski Hotel and then claimed the crowing title of World’s Best among finalists from 20 ski tourism nations. In addition to being named World’s Best Ski Hotel, the Lodge also received the prestigious title of United States Best Ski Hotel and United States Best Ski Resort (Deer Valley Resort.)
