Wine In A Handbag. French Wines In Chic Packaging. What A Great Idea.

Wine in a box is so tacky, despite the improvement in many of the designs. A fresh way to serve up wine in a box are these smart "Bag-In-A-Bag" white, red and rosé wines from Vernissage of Sweden. French wines packaged in stylish looking handbags - a fabulous idea for birthday parties, Bridal Showers, Fashion Shows, concerts, picnics, conferences and more.



Packaging French wines into a case that looks like a chic handbag, complete with tap or spout was such a clever design, it won the 2010 "Most Innovative" in the Carton Awards 2010 and a prestigious gold award in the Pentawards, the world´s largest packaging design competition.


The White: 2011 Chardonnay Viogner from France
Vernissage has a young, fresh and aromatic bouquet with hints of fruits such as apple, citrus, pineapple and vanilla. The flavour is dry, flowery and very fruity with the essence of pear, citrus, tropical fruits and vanilla.

Vernissage makes an excellent aperitif, but goes well with flavourful fish and shellfish dishes, especially with Asian influences of lime and ginger.


The Red: 2010 Syrah Cabernet Sauvigon from France
Vernissage Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon is a dark red wine. Inviting fruity scent with notes of spices, tones of ripe berries, black current, blackberries and herbs as well as chocolate and barrels. Goes well with red and white meat, pasta, poultry and aged cheese.


The Rosé: 2011 Syrah Rosé from France
The French Vernissage Syrah Rosé is a lively and fresh rosé wine from the region Pays d'Oc in southern France. With a hint of raspberries and blackberries in the flavor, it has a herblike finish. The generously fruity aroma has notes of wild red berries. Vernissage Syrah Rosé is perfect as an aperitif, but is also suitable for fish, seafood or light chicken salad.

The Bag-in-Bag wine Vernissage has taken both wine-lovers and the press by storm, in Sweden as well as internationally. The successful project was created by Takis Soldatos, Oenoforos, in cooperation with Sofia Blomberg Art Direction & Design. The result is elegant design combined with high quality wines from the French wine region Pays d'Oc.



The thought behind Vernissage is a playful approach to the curious and modern wine consumer. At the same time, a woman´s touch has propelled the Bag-in-Bag wine from the practical to the elegant.

Vernissage Wines

Pavé - The Luxury Liqueur Distilled Through Real Diamonds In Amsterdam.

An interesting unique luxury liqueur that is distilled through genuine diamonds, Pavé Amsterdam - The Luxury Liqueur™, had me intrigued from the start. I did as much research as possible and even contacted the owner multiple times for details, but I didn't learn much more than I had by poking around the internet. So, I will share with you what I can.



Nowadays the word "luxury" is tossed about quite carelessly. I've been guilty of doing so in this very blog. But when it comes to a luxury liqueur, Pavé claims to be the paragon. After all, it's said to be distilled and filtered through 500 carats of the finest grade earth-mined diamonds.



Pavé, the Luxury Liqueur, is described as an ultra premium, 60 proof clear fruit liqueur infused with a distinct blend of ripened citrus, tropical and passion fruits, hints of caffeine and delicate herbal notes. Distilled from organic fruits through genuine diamonds. It is said that Pavé is designed to be a standalone drink, though it can also be enjoyed with a splash of your favorite mixer.



The company says that Pavé’s finesse is in its elaborate creation process and secret family techniques that have been passed down for generations.



The bottle design:

From their website:

The ultra-lux liqueur is encased in its proprietary rectangular bottle. Standing strikingly tall and crystal-like, the bottle is fused with metal and Swarovski Crystals. The bottle was designed by founder Moghaddam* and inspired by the diamond distillation method used to produce the delicate liqueur. A 750ml bottle of Pavé weighs nearly 5 pounds.

The distillation process:


From their website:

Pavé is the first and only liqueur distilled with diamonds. For this “diamond-distillation” process, over 500 carats of the world’s finest genuine diamonds (category: IF/VVS1 – D/E) were examined and hand-picked by experts. After an elaborate distillation, Pavé is filtered through these flawless diamonds just before bottling, using a brand new batch of gems for every distillation. This enables filtration to 1.0 microns – conventional filters, on the other hand, only filter within a range between 30.0 and 15.0 microns. This fine, high-grade diamond dust makes this possible, removing even the most minute particles and impurities from the distillate. The sophisticated process gives Pavé its exquisite softness, exceptional clarity and clean, fresh finish - a liqueur of perfect purity and smoothness.

So, who is behind Pavé the Luxury Liqueur?



Well, this is not an easy one to answer. You may have noticed that the liqueur label and logo read Pavé Amsterdam, and when I asked owner Moghaddam*, I couldn't get a specific address nor pictures of the offices or distillation location. And from my own amateur research, I couldn't find any indication that it's created, owned, distilled or distributed in or from Amsterdam, so I am taking his word for it.

*Mehran Moghaddam, is named as the founder and President of the company, the designer of the bottle and as per his Linked In profile, a young entrepreneur who received a degree in Biochemistry at UC Davis in 1996 and a masters at UC Davis in Business Management in 2005.



The links to the "media" for Pavé on their site don't work, so I couldn't see any other articles about the trademarked "luxury liqueur". And when it comes to their social media presence, they are definitely a mess. On Facebook, one of their group pages calls it Pavé Vodka, but it is not a vodka and the marketing address for that is the Idol Music Group which is in New York. The business group page on Facebook lists Amsterdam as their location, but again, no working address or link. The myspace page for Pave is sparse and neglected and hasn't been updated in over a year.

This kind of makes me doubt the diamond distillation process. After all, 500 carats of Internally Flawless (IF) diamonds with D or E color would cost millions (unless they are chips, which is possible) and a new batch is used every time? Are there armed guards standing by during the process? And who are these 'experts' who hand picked the diamonds? Unfortunately, I could not find the answers to these questions.



Regardless of the veracity of its claims, the concept has an appeal and the bottle design is aesthetically pleasing. I can't comment on the taste because it's virtually impossible to locate in a retail location or online, with one exception -- it is available through Hi Time Wine. How did I even hear about it? Pavé seems to be most commonly present at music-related launches at the hippest events and parties.

all images courtesy of Pavé Spirits and Mehran Moghaddam

Luxury Pubs Continue To Grow- Offline.

For the Rich, Magazines Fat on Ads
By DAVID CARR for the NY Times

The rich will always be a good bet in publishing. First, they have the money, at least most of it. Second, they have the time, which is the by far the biggest luxury of our age.

So until the rich hire other people to read for them, a magazine is a good way to get their attention. Particularly now, it turns out.

Last week, a new Trump Magazine was announced by Ocean Drive Media Group. The week before, The Wall Street Journal announced Pursuits, a magazine supplement, which will compete with the baldly named How to Spend It from The Financial Times and the cryptically named T magazines from The New York Times.


Above: Trump at his magazine launch party, Sept. 25, 2007

Forbes, a publication that would seem to know a thing or two about rich folks, began publishing ForbesLife Executive Women last month.



Condé Nast Publishing is currently investing many millions in Portfolio, a business-inflected lifestyle magazine that suggests that the rich and powerful like to read about the rich and powerful.

Coming on top of magazines like The Robb Report, which is full of impossibly expensive goods, magazines like Gotham and Hamptons from Niche Media and the Modern Luxury chain of moneyed local publications, it would seem that while the rest of the industry is scrambling to fight off the Web and irrelevancy, there is a bull market in wealth.


Above:NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 15: Vanessa Trump and Donald Trump Jr attend the launch party for the holiday issue of Hamptons Magazine on November 15, 2006 in New York City. (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images)

During the 1990s, magazines like Money, Fortune and Red Herring got fat on wealth how-to’s, but the current crop skips that icky middle part about actually earning the money. Look for other publishers to cash in on the already arrived: maybe there’s still room for magazines called Lucky Stiff, I’ve Got Mine or Born on Third Base.

And it’s not just the guys. As reported in The New York Times, a recent study by a professor at Queens College pointed out that women in their 20s working full time in many American cities earn more than their male counterparts, creating a more gender-neutral wealth base that certainly has helped luxury women’s magazines. Pity the poor mail carriers who have to deliver Vogue, W, Elle and Harper’s Bazaar, which all put out huge September issues that seemed to weigh more than models in them. Vogue weighed 4.9 pounds and had 727 advertising pages, a 16 percent increase over last year; W was 4.5 pounds with 477 pages of ads.


Above: The UK's special Swarovski Studded Harper's Bazaar Magazine Cover

“Luxury continues to be a lush tropical island in a sea of complaints in the publishing industry,” said Reed Phillips, a media investment banker.

What gives? And, more important for the magazine business, will it last?

There is, as has recently been noted in The New York Times, no shortage of swells. The number of millionaires rose by 26 percent from 2000 to 2005, a total of more than 303,000, which is a lot of rich people.

America used to have a corner on wealth, but Russia and China are minting millionaires by the day, and they covet luxury in all languages. And it is worth remembering that much of the advertising that is jamming American luxury magazines is coming from foreign brands that find even the most expensive advertising buy can look mighty cheap given the feeble American dollar.

Part of the flight to luxury magazines is simple me-too, the most persistent trend of all in publishing, and maybe that alone should tell us the end of the boom is near. But luxury also represents one part of the business that will not succumb to the Web anytime soon.

Luxury is all about sensation, about touch, about look. Advertisers may look for efficiency in all of their buys, but in the publishing world, it is all about environment. They want to smell the money coming off the pages.

An aesthetic is being offered, one that suggests, as Mason Cooley did, that the rich are just naturally happier than we are because, well, they should be.

But it is not just about rich people. Luxury has been defined down any number of ways. “Sex and the City” is now in wide syndication, which means that most of the country now knows that Jimmy Choo is not a kind of beef jerky. BMW is introducing the 1 Series next year with a lower point of entry for the aspirant. Even if you can’t afford a baby Beemer, you can express your taste in finery in everything from coffee to chocolate. And while other teenage magazines folded, Teen Vogue proved that brand aspiration can be baked in at a very young age.


Above: the BMW Series 1 Coupe, set to launch in 2008

“It’s true that there is a small percentage of people who continue to become wealthier and wealthier, but just underneath that, there is a very large percentage of people who are completely enamored with luxury goods,” said Robert Burke, a consultant on luxury in New York. Mr. Burke said that the surge in desire for precious things is not unlike what happened in Japan 15 years ago. “People want those things that give them a feeling of luxury in all sorts of products and at all kinds of income levels.”

Even with the sub prime mess and question marks over big merger deals, the ferocious and fundamentally undemocratic concentration of wealth still seems unstoppable. But the French Revolution proved that it is difficult to preserve epic economic imbalance.

The skeptics might point to other cultural indicators that the luxury boom has topped out. The ka-jillionaire Mark Cuban appearance on this season’s “Dancing With the Stars” comes to mind, as does Damien Hirst’s $100 million diamond-encrusted skull, a totem of an excessive age that was snapped up at the end of the summer.


Above: Damien Hirst and his Diamond and Platinum Skull

Excessive wealth is providing fuel for an otherwise impoverished industry. Like fossil fuels, it is bound to peter out at some point, but no one knows exactly when. In the meantime, let them eat Coach.---DAVID CARR

Two Trippy Tubs For People and Their Plants from Libero Design.

Two organically shaped bathtubs, The Mother of Pearl and The Aurora, are complete with LED lighting, a place for you to soak AND a place for plants. Both designed by Libero Rutilo and Ekaterina Shchetina of LiberoDesign, they are created to be simultaneously stimulating and soothing.

The Mother Of Pearl Spa Tub:



A touch interface lets you create your own combinations of lighting, sounds and aromatherapy. Choose one of the available wellness programs (relaxing, energetic, fun, tropical pleasure) or create your own and memorize it.




Integrated pots allow you to have a glimpse of nature when indulging in the bathtub. You can create a blend of your favorite plants and flowers, such as orchids and ferns.



Hidden faucets and shower provide a feeling of perfect, all-in-one structure.


The Aurora Spa Tub:


The “Aurora” tub is part of the 3 element collection of backlit bathroom furniture, inspired by nature.



The “Aurora” bathtub has integrated LED lights which are cost efficient and friendly to the planet. The lighting diffusion effect is created by translucent material that allows light to pass through it, but in the same time doesn’t show clearly the light source inside the object. The intensity and colour of light can be controlled, creating a chromo therapy.



The washbasin has another particularity, like the Mother of Pearl tub – an integrated pot, that allows you to have your favourite small plants in your bathroom.

The “Aurora” design concept was honoured with a special prize in Cristalplant Design Concept 2013 organized in collaboration with Falper.



DesignLibero is a Milan based design studio, founded by Libero Rutilo and Ekaterina Shchetina. Its activity evolves in multiple directions, from interior to product design.

Showtime's Serial Killer, Dexter, Inspires Some Bloody Interesting Items You Can Own

This past summer, as part of a month long, groundbreaking print and television partnership, a celebrated group of designers transformed a beautiful Grammercy Park townhouse into a luxurious beacon of modernism inspired by the top six original hit series from Showtime.


Above: Showtime's Original series, Dexter, stars Michael C. Hall

This post is focusing on the wonderful DEXTER dining room created by Amy Lau design and DEXTER kitchen by Johnny Grey and the products now available for purchase as a result of that project.



The dining room features a table ready for a sit down dinner for twelve. All the items from the dishes to the lighting are inspired by the macabre tv show and were produced in limited editions.


Above: Amy Lau's sketch of the room for the project



Above: the completed room

Setting the mood are Amy Lau's chairs, elegant but wounded, walls splattered with 'blood' and place settings that might quell hunger rather than provoke it.





The table is surrounded by Steven Antonson’s candlesticks, reminiscent of vertebrae and filled with blood red candles. Wine and water glasses from Thomas Fuchs/Otium designed glassware have luminous 'blood -filled' stems and ominous fingerprints.



Savor the delectable dinner while challenged by Steve Butcher's dismembered flatware, a fascinating and disturbing set.



Nadeige Choplet's handmade ceramic plates celebrate the love of blood via an intricate pattern of blood splatters, veins and capillaries under a delicate porcelain skin; and finally dessert can be enjoyed on Klein Reid's fine porcelain, served with the fine trace of a fingerprint.



All this is presented under the sensual lighting by Grégoire Abrial of Amy Lau Design, a baroque cacophony of wine glasses and pure white; and surrounded by fantastic works as Jane D'Arensbourg's Coronal Section, the glass installation reminiscent of flowing organic cells and brain patterns; and Angelica Bergamini's elixir of life an airy curtain that truly gives life to the light that floods the room.



So, what can you own? All of the following macabre items:

DEXTER! chairs
dexter dining chairs designed by amy lau design



white lacquered wood frame upholstered in white ultraleather
hand-embroidered with blood design
10 side chairs each $ 2500
2 arm chairs signed by michael c hall, each $ 5000
manufacturer: martin albert interiors, inc

DEXTER! fingerprint glasses by Thomas Fuchs



A collection of hand-blown DEXTER inspired stemmed glasses, consisting of white wine, red wine and water goblets.



The glasses appear fairly benign but after closer inspection you will see the blood red glass running through the stem of the glass and then the subtle fingerprints on the bowl of the glass obviously left from the serial killer.


details: dimensions 8 inches tall, material clear mouth blown glass with a drop of red glass into the stem with sandblasted fingerprints, edition of 16, $137.50 each

DEXTER! fingerprint plates by KleinReid



KleinReid's are hand thrown and trimmed porcelain plates with unique tell-tale embossed fingerprints each plate is gloss glazed and high-fired in an special edition of only 17


details: dimensions approx. 9", weight approx. 1.5 lbs, each $250.00

DEXTER! Dinner Plates By Nadeige Choplet
he.ma.to.la.gnia - love of blood:



Above: The starter/dessert plate is a delectable combination of veins and broken capillaries under a layer of porcelain skin.


Above: The main course plate offers a refreshing splash of blood accompanied by the origin of the wound.


Above: The charger plates are a cross section of the human body.

one of a kind place setting chargers, dinner and dessert plates.
details: high-fired ceramic chargers 14.5" diameter $135
dinner plates 11" diameter $75
dessert plates 8" diameter $60
edition of 12, each piece is hand made and coloration, shape and patterning can vary.

DEXTER! dismembered flatware (classic, modern or antique) by steve butcher
Wonderfully disturbing flatware in classic, modern or antique styles, each 'silced and dismembered but still functional. Each piece is hand crafted and each setting has it's own character - numbered and initialed.


Above: antique - $500/place setting


Above: classic - $450/place setting


above: modern - $400/place setting

the details: 5 piece place classic silver plated setting - engraved knife, fork, salad/desert fork, spoon, coffee/desert spoon.

DEXTER! finn candlesticks by Stephen Antonson



The white resin candlesticks with red candles were inspired by human anatomy, specifically vertebrae. The scale is such that one’s fingers, or in this case case Dexter’s digits, fit perfectly into the candlesticks’ curves. details: materials resin candlesticks with red candles, edition of 12. The candlesticks come in three sizes; small - $125, medium - $250, and large - $375

DEXTER! Coronal Section installations by Jane D’Arensbourg
Even the various "Coronal Section" glass sculptures are available. This installation was inspired by cross sections of the brain. also vein patterns in the body. Jane has a fascination with blood and veins, as Dexter does. Her fascination is in nature, and pattern.




details: 12 ft x 10 ft. approx, 12 inches x 7 inches each individual piece., material: glass, edition of 23, each piece $750, whole installation of 23 pieces $17,000.00 approx.


The above items shown can be purchased here.

The Kitchen:

THE KITCHEN(above) by Johnny Grey

Harnessing the softer side of our serial killer, Johnny Grey draws his inspiration from Dexter’s South Florida lifestyle rather than his murderous profession. The artful kitchen reflects Miami’s tropical locale and famed Art Deco architecture. Finally a space where Dexter can focus on slicing and dicing veggies — and only veggies.



Part of a team renowned for its edgy kitchen design, Grey and Chuck Wheelock (design director for the U.K.-based firm, Johnny Grey Studios) have a worldwide client roster that includes rock star Sting and Apple founder Steve Jobs.

So many talented people were involved in the project, it's only fair to share with you more of their work, so below are links to most (not all) of the artists who created items for the Showtime Metropolitan Dexter dining room and kitchen:

Amy Lau Design by Gregoire Abrial
Light installation
www.amylaudesign.com
www.gregoire-abrial.net

Stephen Antonson
Consoles and mirrors
www.stephenantonson.com

Marcus Tremonto
Wall art sconces
www.treluce.com

Jane D'Arensbourg
Glass sculpture wall hanging
www.janedarensbourg.com

Aranda/Lasch for Johnson Trading Gallery
Cabinet
www.johnsontradinggallery.com

Gregoire Abrial
Taped floor installation
www.gregoire-abrial.net

Dustin Yellin
Resin art skull sculptures
www.dustinyellin.com

Amy Lau Design
Chairs
www.amylaudesign.com
Embroidered by Leah Picker
212.982.6000
Upholstered by Martin Albert Interiors
www.martinalbert.com

Otium Nyc by Thomas Fuchs
Glassware
www.otium-nyc.com

Steve Butcher
Flatware
www.spring3d.net

KleinReid
Commemorative plates
www.kleinreid.com

Nadeige Choplet
Chargers, dinner and dessert plates
www.choplet.com

Stephen Antonson
Candlesticks
www.stephenantonson.com

Also available for Dexter fans are these items designed by SCAD (the Savannah College of Art & Design) for the premiere and are available through their online store:

Above: Throw pillow, $75.00



Above: The Five Finger Discount Mug, $15.00


Above: Body Part earrings, $60.00


Above: paper Dexter monster coasters, $10.00
shop SCAD



The following items are available at the Showtime Dexter Online store:


Above: glass printed Dexter coasters in commemorative box.


Above: Shephard Fairey's Dexter Poster
Buy a shepard fairey signed version of the poster here.

UPDATE: New Dexter action figures, including a special one for this year's 2009 Comic-Con have just been released:

buy this limited exclusive edition here.


buy the Dexter Action figure here.


Above: The Dexter Bobblehead Doll, buy it here.



shop the Showtime Dexter online store.


The official Dexter site.