Laying around your home in baggie sweat pants and a tracksuit top is becoming a thing of the past for many.  Why not pamper yourself and wear something stylish like  luxury loungewear?

Luxury loungewear, a new, discreet and trendy style that is bridging the gap between structured ready-to-wear and slouchy sleepwear, is quickly turning into the most appropriate sartorial solution in the current economic climate.

Luxury loungewear’s success is partly due to clever re-branding. No longer is the this casual market dominated by slouchy velour tracksuits, luxury loungewear (note the emphasis) is bigger, better and, dare we say it, dynamic.

Times are changing. Luxury loungewear is even now viable in the office. Oversized cardigan coats are steadily rivalling the cumbersome and costly overcoat and are just as smart; cashmere and merino are becoming ever sleeker and more decorous; while accessories such as lined leather boots combine formality with discreet comfort.

“There is no reason why something that you feel comfortable in at home can’t be worn outside, as long as the pieces are made in beautiful fabrics and cut in an interesting style,” says Moise Emquies, founder of the casualwear brand, Splendid.   Source: Financial Times

Diamonds have long been a status symbol of luxury. Is it true that there are diamond jewelry pendants for men? Do men love diamonds as much as women? For women there is a plethora of options.

Diamonds come in drops, hearts, and flower shapes. Then there is birds and geometric shapes as well, and that is just the beginning. But do men have all of these options?

Men should have the same options as women for designer diamond jewelry. Some of the most popular shapes for men are crosses, nuggets, and coins. However, there should definitely be some unique opportunities for men and designer jewelry as well.

Perhaps the best option is custom design. This allows the man to be as simple or as intricate about the design of his diamond pendant as he wants to be. His imagination and his ability to explain his design to the jeweler are the only limitations. Some designs that have been done are bezel settings and infinity symbols.

Trendy symbols can also be taken into consideration and altered to make them more personal and then into a custom piece of jewelry. Geometric shapes are popular as well as using more manly materials like stone. The options are truly endless. The custom jewelry created by men are an excellent way for them to display their style and be involved in the process as well.

There are always going to be some men who think that diamonds are too flashy or that designer jewelry is purely a feminine experience. However, diamonds do not always have to be their usual color. Diamonds are available in black, brown, and many other colors that may suit the more manly man better.

They are still the same as typical diamonds in their strength and durability and therefore remain a more masculine choice. Men can enjoy diamonds too without feeling like they are treading in thin ice with their manhood.

Designer diamond jewelry that is customized for men is an excellent way for men to enjoy diamonds as well. With the colors and shapes that are available, it is a great opportunity for men to display their style and personality as well. Sometimes trends dictate what is appropriate for men, but truth is, men can definitely make their own standards but also settings that are operational.

Men should visit a designer shop in their own cities so that they can start to make their creation today.

Jewelry is a great expression of personality and women should not be the only ones allowed to express themselves in this manner. However, it is important to also look at current trends so that it is not over done. This is of course a rule that women should follow as well.

Winter weather has arrived. Being fashionable in this season means sporting classic winter coats.

The pea coat is a classic men’s fashion garment, that is both traditional and always alluring.

Like most popular men’s fashion, the saga of the stylish pea coat can be linked back to military origins.

So if you want to look your best this winter and stay warm, condsider buying a luxury pea coat.

A recent episode on Vogue.com “TV’s Trend Watch”, hosted by beauty executive Olivia Chantecaille and New York Socialite Jennifer Creel share their list of favorite things. The hosts give holiday shoppers an insider guide to luxury clothes, jewelry, shoes and more.

Olivia Chantecaille presented her favorite unique gifts to give and receive, covering everyone on your shopping list this year. Gifting tip: Tuck away comments or mentions of things they say they like throughout the year.

Jewel tones are so wonderful for the holiday season. You can have jewelry in here as well as your makeup, things that you need right away and you want to have right at your side.

For Mom: Who wouldn’t love to receive a piece of statement jewelry including House of Lavande vintage bracelets or a Faraone Mennella amethyst ring? “Jewel tones are so wonderful for the holiday season,” says Olivia.

To keep warm from winter’s chill, Olivia likes the Odessa Jacket by Moncler, great for stylish moms who are out and about.

For Sister: The “Sally” handbag by xury shopping is a chic handbag for fashion fanatics on the go!

For the Art Lover: The Assouline Vintage Art Crate is a great starter kit for someone who is just getting into the art world. When you can’t give a work of art, consider the next best thing – an art book featuring an artist like Cecily Brown.

For Your Holiday Party Circuit: For a festive holiday party dress, try one from a leader in women’s dresses, Oscar de la Renta shift in a bold color.

For the Man in your Life: Brunnello Cucinelli’s cashmere down vest makes an easy transition from country to city life and is definitely the type of gift you’ll be “borrowing” from that special someone.

Next, Jennifer Creel, who’s a self-proclaimed last minute shopper, shares her favorite beauty, travel and home gift ideas.

For the JetSetter: The Vulcan Fibre Globe-Trotter’s vanity case is the perfect holiday travel companion. “You can have jewelry in here as well as your makeup, things that you need right away and you want to have right at your side,” says Jennifer.
– Pack your shoes in luxury with one of Bally’s Annita Travel Bags, a great way to prevent broken heels and lost soles!
– Frette’s Alexandra ruby ballet slippers are a lovely indulgence.
– Bobbi Brown’s Luxe Makeup Brush Collection will help you keep all your makeup tools in one place when you’re on the road.

For the Home: Staying close to home this holiday season means a social calendar filled with holiday parties:
– Dazzle the hostess with the perfect gift idea, a Mrs. John L. Strong Goddess Box of stationary.
– Candles are always a favorite for men and women. Jennifer suggests Belle Fleur candles for their beautiful packaging and divine scent.
– Pratesi loungewear or a lush cashmere robe is a great way to stay cozy in your clothing this winter.

For the Vanity Tray:
– Olay Regenerist cream makes a wonderful Christmas stocking stuffer. This luxurious cream helps to regenerate shape, restore elasticity and hydrate the skin.
– For the woman looking to try new fragrances, Jennifer recommends:
Calvin Klein Eternity
Calvin Klein Euphoria
Vera Wang Look
Kapsule by Karl Lagerfeld an intriguing perfume trio with scents that include Floriental, Light and Woody.

Tiffany and Co. Jewelers was founded upon the idea of providing high end goods to people of discerning taste who demanded luxury and quality in the products that they purchased.

Tiffany’s products, which include things like beautiful diamonds, silver jewelry, handcrafted silver gifts, tableware and other fine goods continues to attract modern customers, just as they have done since the days Tiffany and Co opened its doors.

Charles Lewis Tiffany – The King of Diamonds

Charles Lewis Tiffany, nicknamed “The King of Diamonds” and business partner John B. Young set up shop in the first Tiffany & Young store in 1837. The famous store, located in New York City on Broadway, the store was original created to be stationary store. Tiffany took over the store, renaming it Tiffany and Co and moved the business towards the high end products with which it is associated today.

Silver Goods and Jewelry

The beautiful silver jewelry pieces from the early days of Tiffany are so classic in their craftmanship and design that many of the original pieces are still sold in some form today. Antique Tiffany pieces that are still in that famous, original light blue boxes can fetch huge money at estate sales and online auctions. The light blue color packaging continues to be the calling card symbol of jewelry from Tiffany & Co.

Some of the goods and products that could be purchased at Tiffany & Co. early in the company’s career include many different silver jewelry pieces, monogrammed sets for dressers, presentation bowls, silver cups and saucers designed for children, silver trays for business cards, men’s dressing sets and silver game pieces. One especially popular item from the late 1800s was the souvenir spoons made Tiffany & Co. and copied by many other manufacturers.

Tiffany Jewelry And Tiffany Lampshades

In 1902, the Tiffany Art Jewelry portion of the store was opened as a means for displaying the jewelry and enamel craftwork of Louis Comfort Tiffany, heir to the Tiffany throne. Louis Tiffany was also the brains behind some of the most famous Tiffany styles, including Tiffany stained glass lampshades. In 1940, Tiffany and Co moved from Broadway to its world famous modern location at Fifth Avenue and 57th Street in Manhattan.

The name Tiffany & Co. is associated with timeless and classic luxury items. Today, much of Tiffany’s business comes through catalog and Internet based sales, which have helped spread the Tiffany brand name around the world and made the dream of owning a piece of Tiffany jewelry realizable no matter where you live.

Author: Ernst Ralborg

EcoChic HK is an environmentally friendly fashion show and cocktail party promoting eco fashion and the concept that luxury living – from fashion to art, food and wine and financial investments – can be ecologically and socially sustainable.

It’s not everyday that Hong Kong’s glitterati are alchemized into green gems, but this was the case in October when celebrities Rain Li, Ivan Wang, Lisa S, William So Wing Hong, Ella Koon, Chau Kai-bong and Mrs Brenda Chau gathered at the hip new W Hong Kong for EcoChic HK – www.ecochicfashions.com

This eco fashion event, supported by UBS, showcased some of the hottest sustainable fashion labels currently on the scene from a host of international and local designers. These ready-to-wear labels wowed the most selective aficionados, serving as a celebratory, fashion-forward occasion to promote environmental sustainability.

Along with ready-to-wear, guests enjoyed vintage fashion – the grandest form of recycling – much of which was donated by Hong Kong’s high society, putting a new and glamorous spin on second hand clothing.

The finale of the show was the eco-couture section, where world-famous designers such as Diane von Furstenberg, Thakoon, Nathan Jenden, Arrogant Cat and Madame Marie made eco-couture dresses using eco-textiles or reconstructed clothing. Local designers Barney Cheng, Dorian Ho, Johanna Ho, Ruby Li and Cecilia Yau showed the enormous talent that Hong Kong designers have in highlighting the push towards a more sustainable fashion industry.

With fashion as the second largest industrial consumer of water worldwide, behind agriculture, and cotton responsible for 25 percent of all chemical pesticide use, designers and their followers are realizing it’s time to make a change. Designers in EcoChic HK used a variety of textiles, such as bamboo, organic silk, hemp and recycled textiles, such as saris and kimonos.

The Hong Kong event shows the positive influences that designers can make. With China, the ‘factory of the world’ on Hong Kong’s doorstep, there is perhaps no better place to exert positive moves towards sustainability.

Off the catwalk, guests enjoyed organic food, wine and cocktails, recycled art installations. Never a dull moment, the venue was decorated with over 50 mannequins clad in second hand clothing or eclectic recycled dresses ranging from lottery tickets to cling film.

As no fashion event can be complete without fashion, Sotheby’s conducted a live auction to raise funds for WWF HK – including a slinky pink bikini donated by Rain Li that resulted in heated bidding.

The star-studded event was organized by the Hong Kong non-profit, www.green2greener.com, and many of the looks in the show were available to buy online after the show.

EcoChic also encouraged guests to get into the spirit of the night by bringing with them items of their own clothing to donate, which will be sold on www.green2greener.com to raise funds for Hong Kong charities. Along with this, the site also sells for charity, luxury recycled tote handbags, designed by Kotur, that are made from table coverings from the Ritz Carlton Hotel.

EcoChic HK was the second EcoChic event – EcoChic Jakarta was in March 08. Following the great success of the event, organizers www.green2greener.com, are continuing to take the show on the road with EcoChic Shanghai taking place in January 09 and EcoChic Sydney in April 09.

There are many kinds of diamonds to choose for your loved one, especially for an engagement ring. You can actually choose different designs, shapes, sizes and colors.

Colorless diamonds are popular choices for engagement rings. A man can choose to give his bride-to-be a pink or yellow diamond engagement ring; which is preferred by a lot of women. So giving a black diamond engagement ring is not really a popular choice.

Unlike traditional colors of diamond engagement rings, a black diamond engagement ring is “unique if not an eccentric kind of ring to choose for a loved one.

There a probably a few women who would have a taste or penchant for this very odd color of engagement ring because often the color of black is associated with evil, darkness or even witchcraft. So it would be surprising if not scary to be given a ring especially a black diamond engagement ring.

But unknown to people, black diamonds are popular stone choices for male jewelries especially for Europeans. Usually black diamonds are included in wedding rings and bracelets. They are often combined with more lustrous or more colorful diamonds and other precious stones to enhance the brilliance of the colored gems or highlight the black diamond itself.

Men who offer to give a black diamond engagement ring also choose rings that are set in platinum or titanium to enhance the color of the black diamond or combine it with stones the color of their choice and have the design custom made to make it extra special.

The appearance of black diamonds may be in hues of green, gray or midnight black. The color can range from being dense or translucent in hue.

When buying a black diamond engagement ring, you need to go to an accredited jeweler because some people trick sellers by adding color to fancy stones and make it appear a true black diamond.

Be sure to ask for papers proving that you are getting the real deal on your black diamond rings

Authored by: Alice Sy

Last night, the annual Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show 2008 was televised. The heavenly Victoria’s Secret’s angels have descended upon Miami Beach and showcased their beauty.

Singer Usher kicked off the Victoria’s Secret show which actually occurred on Saturday, featuring 35 supermodels, some wearing angel wings.

Models including Heidi Klum and Adriana Lima strutted down the runway at the newly renovated Fontainebleau Miami Beach during the show, which coincided with the opulent reopening of the Fontainebleau hotel.

This year, Marisa Miller, Doutzen Kroes and Miranda Kerr were the newest models added to the show and given their wings by the lingerie giant.

They joined Heidi Klum, Karolina Kurkova, Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio and Selita Ebanks as the brand’s top models.

The luxurious lingerie brand Victoria Secret created a stunning fashion statement for its opulent target audience. With their latest glamourous offering, it was an amazing fashion show with a star studded audience including P Piddy, Martha Stewart, Paris Hilton, Seal and many more.

In the launch show, model Adriana Lima walked down the ramp wearing a sexy and expensive $5 million Black Diamond Fantasy Miracle Bra. The bra contains 3,575 black diamonds, 117 certified one-carat round diamonds and 34 rubies, for a total of almost 3,900 stunning gems.

Martin Katz designed the $5 million bra that comes decorated with white and black diamonds and rubies. Giving the perfect backdrop to the special fashion treat were two silver palm trees that has models sashaying in 68 kinds of lingerie’s in bold colour that were inspired by the garments of goddesses.

Gorgeous Heidi Klum wore a studding costume of red underwear that was connected by a web of diamonds and sparkling red wings. The luxury annual fashion show offered 35 supermodels to strut their stuff in the extravagantly fashionable affair.

Feathers, lace, sequins and luxurious jewelery were everywhere on the ramp. In fact, some models even wore gilded bras that were embedded with Swaroski crystals and a gold sculpted feather body piece that actually curved around the model’s body.

A diver glides through the water. He cuts an oyster off the base of a rock cropping. On the surface, he opens the shell and inside is a beautiful oyster. Although a great vision, this is not how most pearls come to be.

Pearls are an elegant jewelry, which is somewhat strange considering how they are made. They are the result, essentially, of a reaction to an infection. Foreign material enters an oyster and it surrounds that material in a ball of nacre to protect itself.

The nacre is the important part of the pearl. The thicker it is, the better when it comes to jewelry. Getting it started and the correct thickness is a very hit and miss affair in nature. Pearl cultivators leave nothing to chance.

A farmed pearl is known as a cultured pearl. No, it is not a snob or any such thing. Instead, it is a pearl that was created by shooting microscopic foreign materials into mollusks and oysters, which are then given optimal growing environments.

The phrase cultured pearl refers to a pearl that is farmed. It is not an entirely accurate terminology, however. Why? Well, there are really four different types of cultured pearls.

Big pearls are often the ones that get the most attention, so we need to talk about South Sea cultured pearls. They can be as large as 13 millimeters in size, which is huge. They are usually close to perfectly round and are priced based on their luster.

Tahitian cultured pearls run a close second when it comes to size. They tend to be in the 10 to 12 millimeter range. They tend to be dark green in color with a high luster. They are fairly rare. This makes their price the highest on average among the cultured pearls.

Some people prefer the classics. With pearls, this means the white Akoya cultured pearls of China and Japan. In the 7 millimeter range, these pearls are beautiful, but common enough that they will not wipe out your bank account.

Last, but not least, we have our freshwater cultured pearls. They are farmed in rivers and lakes in China and tend to be white. They are the smallest of the cultured pearls, coming in at 4 to 7 millimeters. They also tend to be the easiest on the wallet.

Now that you know the choices, you just have to choose the one you want. The right answer is really a matter of taste. Personally, I like to go big. That makes the South Sea cultured pearls the choice for me.

Author: Arsene Gibson

The Apricot Lane Fashion & Gift Boutique in Lake Tahoe offers affordable fashion jewelry, handbags, accessories, branded apparel, shoes and other great gifts.

Apricot Lane Fashion & Gift Boutique
Factory Stores @ the ‘Y’.
South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150
(530) 542-1363

Wendy Brandes lives in New York City and is a fashion jewelry designer. She is strongly influenced by the stories of fascinating women, whether they lived in the 16th century or the Swinging ’60s.

The Wendy Brandes line has a wide-range of exciting themes – from literature and history, to pop culture, and nature.   The craftsmanship and mechanical workings are of the highest quality.  Wendy has also sold to many famous celebrities including Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears.

Wendy also consults for designers Zang Toi and Christian Francis Roth on their accessories and jewelry lines.

Wendy originally designed for her own company Gigi Caron, which was launched in 2004 as a partnership between Wendy and a New York-based gemologist.

Wendy creates jewelry pieces that are bold and eye-catching, yet feminine and organic. Mechanical pieces that open and close, unscrew or twist are her specialties.

Her main collection, Vivat Regina, is Latin for “Long Live the Queen.” Each jewelry piece is named for a royal lady. Lockets and poison rings are an important part of this collection, because naughty royal ladies are the most interesting.

The It Girls collection covers other notable women, ranging from fabulous friends and family members, to a Stone Age redhead, to a legendary female pope.

The Eden collection is inspired by the highest-ranking woman of all: Mother Nature.

Wendy Brandes only uses precious metals, conflict-free diamonds and precious gemstones to masterfully create her clever jewelry designs.

As previously mentioned, Wendy began designing jewelry in 2004. Brandes spent fifteen years in media and marketing, including key positions at the Wall Street Journal, CNN, People.com and investment banking firm Lehman Brothers. Her first jewelry designs were of her engagement and wedding rings.

View all of Wendy’s collections at:
WendyBrandes.com

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Special Notice:
The Wendy Brandes Fine Jewelry Trunk Show –
Benefits The Young Survival Coalition

Wednesday, November 19th 6:30 – 10pm
The Pink Elephant
527 West 27th Street Between 10th – 11th Avenues

Celebrity jewelry designer, Wendy Brandes has a beautiful line with a wide-range of exciting themes – from literature and history, to pop culture, and nature. The craftsmanship and mechanical workings are of the highest quality.

Click here: Wendy Brandes

Designs range from $400 – $15,000

A portion of the proceeds will be donated to The Young Survival Coalition, (YSC) the premier international, nonprofit network of breast cancer survivors and supporters dedicated to the concerns and issues that are unique to young women and breast cancer. www.youngsurvival.org

RSVP – Nathana Josephs Productions
Nathanajpr@aol.com (212) 769 -2198

Guests must be registered, to attend.