Quantas have revealed their new first class deck in their A380’s. This has to be the definition of luxury aeroplane.
The double-deck A380 is the world’s largest commercial aircraft flying today and Quantas have now made this the luxury aeroplane of choice.
The first class cabin oozes extravagance and high end design, with a futuristic slant. Some commentators have already labelled it the ‘Star Trek Enterprise cabin’.
I haven’t got a problem with that, in fact I’m tempted to get my Trekkie uniform out and live the dream.
The Quantas first class cabin was designed by Australian Marc Newson. The cabin houses 14 individual portioned mini suites, with customers comfort being the highest priority.
Lounge chairs that transform into sheepskin upholstered beds, personal entertainment systems and private desks make these suites rather special.
The entertainment system comes in the form of a touch screen LCD monitor with 1000 on demand films and TV shows.
With the communal areas, the theme of luxury aeroplane is continued; Leather couches, plants (in a plane?!!) and overhead lighting that is designed to mimic the stars in a night sky.
With Quantas’s help the A380, Airbus’ 21st century flagship, has been transformed into THE luxury aeroplane.
And I do not own a Trekkie uniform.
A candle may not be perceived as a luxury item and is poles apart from the £6,000,000 iPhone we mentioned last week.
But forget price being the definition of luxury – it’s all about having the best of something – and in this case, I’m looking at candles.
Bake Boutique are a new concept in British-made luxury scented candles, which has just launched.
Its first collection is inspired by the scents of the kitchen - the heart and soul of every home. Bake Boutique has taken this concept and given it a quirky, modern twist by creating chic, yet fun, candles to bring the most scrumptious and enticing smells of the bakery into the home.
All Bake Boutique products are 100% made in England, including the packaging. Each luxury scented candles is hand-poured, with and only uses the purest soy wax, blending in the finest fragrance oils from around the world, with a lead-free cotton wick.
This ensures a long, clean, non-toxic burn. 45 hours to be precise.
The first edition comprises 5 different aromas, based on much loved baking classics, which really will scent the home. Scents include Almond coffee cake, Honeycomb Chocolate brownie, Cinnamon Gingerbread Man, Red Velvet Slice and Vanilla cupcake.
Bake Boutique’s luxury scented candles are available now and cost £32 each.
On Friday, we reported on two of the most expensive phones. One of them contained shavings of dinosaur bone and I wanted to explore this area further.
There is a showroom in Pimlico, London, that offers the most amazing bounty of luxury crystals, fossils and minerals.
Fossil hunter and adventurer Dale Rogers has taken years to scour the globe, seeking out the finest historical artefacts…aka an interior designers dream.
Dale Rogers Ammonite houses a collection that includes pieces dating back over 450 million years.
His collection of geological wonders have taken years to accumulate, and have taken him to The Atlas Mountains of Morocco, the USA, Japan, Dubai, as well as including some perilous moments in Afghanistan.
Starting with a modest stall in London’s famous Portobello Road, Dale Rogers Ammonite has exhibited across the globe from the UK and USA (Arizona) to Japan and Dubai.
With pieces ranging from a few centimetres to over 2 metres, there are treasures to suit every price point, ranging from a modest £50 to over £20K. Still a little better on the pocket than that £6,000,000 phone!
These incredibly rare fossils, minerals and crystals can be bought from the gallery on 77 Pimlico Road, London, SW1W 8PH, and viewed on the website.
A new trend in luxury is the humble bathtub. Tamara Ecclestone recently splashed out (sorry!) on a £1 million crystal bath.
Now, I present to you the World’s most bling bathtub, the limited edition Catchpole & Rye Swarovski Elements Crystal bath.
This bath took over 200 hours to apply the crystals by hand and is now in Harrods as part of the Swarovski xmas celebration. Compared to Tamara’s, this one’s a steal at £150,000.
There is also a baby bath version priced at 120K – Harper…tell your mummy!
The ‘Saracen’ is a classic Catchpole and Rye bath made in their Kent foundry in traditional methods and employing their experienced craftspeople at every part of the process.
The crystals are all white, of four different sizes and applied in random fashion which serves to emphasise the light refracting properties of the crystals and creates a truly spectacular sparkling effect.
This is the first time that Harrods and Swarovski have joined forces at Christmas and also the first collaboration between Catchpole & Rye and Swarovski.
You can find the World’s most bling bathtub on the second floor of Harrods in the bathroom department – take your shades!
Trinity House Paintings is an international art dealership specialising in Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, Modern British and 19th century works.
Although in the past, they might have been considered slightly nomadic, Trinity House Paintings have finally found a beautiful home to house their stunning stock. The new gallery is in the picturesque village of Broadway, Cotswolds.
The new gallery will open with a reception on the evening of 9th December 2011, 5:30-9 pm. The Broadway gallery will also manage the Trinity House Paintings galleries in New York and London.
‘The Broadway mother-ship will run the nuts and bolts of our three galleries and act as our hub for the research and cataloguing of the paintings,’ comments Steven Beale. The new gallery space used to be the furniture designer- Gordon Russell’s workshop and is perfectly suited for the display of their works. Simon Shore adds ‘Trinity House is eager to move into the heart of Broadway’.
The Broadway gallery’s stock includes a selection of British paintings spanning close to 300 years, including the works of Damien Hirst, John Constable, Alfred Munnings and George Stubbs.
In addition paintings by the Impressionist and Post-impressionist artists include Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and Eugène Boudin as well as many from the Fauvist movement, including Kees van Dongen. Their full inventory can be viewed on their website.
In December, at the new Broadway gallery you can also view the gallery’s latest collection from their Inaugural Exhibition in New York.
Highlights include “Préparation en dedans”, a charcoal on paper drawing by Edgar Degas (1834-1917) which at the request of the Royal Academy has gone on loan to be included in their autumn blockbuster show, Degas and the Ballet; Picturing Movement (17 September-11 December 2011), a pastel of Claude Monet’s ‘Waterloo Bridge’ and a gouache titled ‘Arbres’ by Paul Cézanne.
I bet the villagers of Broadway are proper chuffed!
