Tag: Luxury Goods and Services

Phoebe Philo Finally Talks About Her Return to Fashion

The last time Phoebe Philo, who has been called “the Chanel of her generation,” gave a formal interview was a decade ago. The designer, whose work offered women respite from the limits of the male gaze, has never been all that interested in explaining herself. “I say most of what I feel, and most of […]

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Beauty Stores Like Sephora Draw Teens Driven by Social Media

Impelled in large part by TikTok to seek beauty products meant for adults, younger customers — teenagers and even preadolescents — are proving to be a mixed blessing for retailers like Sephora and Ulta. Retail analysts say that as the beauty stores attract a new generation of shoppers, they will need to make sure that […]

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Lamor Whitehead, the ‘Bling Bishop,’ Is Convicted of Fraud

Lamor Whitehead, a Brooklyn preacher known as the “bling bishop” for his flashy luxury possessions, was convicted in Manhattan federal court on Monday of defrauding a parishioner and trying to extort a businessman while boasting about his ties to Mayor Eric Adams. Mr. Whitehead, 45, was pronounced guilty on five counts, including wire fraud, attempted […]

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Comme des Garçons and Stella McCartney Make Some Noise

“I have anger against everything in the world, especially against myself.” Such was the explanation by Rei Kawakubo for a Comme des Garçons collection that was an explosion of chaotic femininity — bows and bustles and puffs and flounces — all in black, scarified by prints of barbed wire and chains, legs bound by ribbons. […]

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‘Grinch Boys’ Charged With Robbing Clubgoers to Fund Shopping Sprees

Manhattan prosecutors announced charges Tuesday against four people who they said targeted intoxicated clubgoers, stole their credit cards and phones and used them to purchase more than $400,000 worth of luxury goods. They called themselves the Grinch Boys, prosecutors said — and referred to their activities as “grinching.” Two people whom prosecutors identified as members […]

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The Quiet Luxury of South Korea’s Postpartum Care Centers

Four mothers sat quietly in the nursing room around midnight, breastfeeding their newborn babies. As one mother nodded off, her eyelids heavy after giving birth less than two weeks earlier, a nurse came in and whisked her baby away. The exhausted new mom returned to her private room to sleep. Sleep is just one of […]

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‘Barbie,’ ‘Saltburn,’ Vuitton: TikTok Sponsorship Is Consuming Our Culture

In today’s creative economy, the tail increasingly wags the dog. Marketing is driving culture as promotional campaigns overshadow the offerings they seek to elevate — in fashion, music, art and film. With fashion weeks taking place around the world and awards season well underway, the hype machine is operating at full throttle. But few products, […]

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TikTok’s Class of Palm Beach Showcases Style of the Ultrarich

As a personal assistant to a well-to-do retiree, Nora Szigeti is tasked with much of the usual fare: managing a calendar, booking travel, running errands. But after her 70-year-old boss recently came across an Instagram post shared by the account Class of Palm Beach, which documents outfits people have worn around that wealthy town, she […]

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Jussi Pylkkänen Steps Down as Christie’s President

He is the man who sold the world’s most expensive work of art, a face familiar to the millions who watch livestream auctions on their computers and phones. In November 2017, Jussi Pylkkänen, the global president of Christie’s, was on the rostrum in New York to sell Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi.” The ninth lot […]

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The Undoing of George Santos

White collar crime is often abstract and confusing. Tax evasion is not sexy. (Nothing about taxes is sexy.) It may get prosecutors excited, but the general public finds it boring. To be sure, the House Ethics Committee report, all 55 pages of it, went far beyond the juicy details of designer goods (not to mention […]

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Would You Pay $175,000 for a Luxury Bunker at the U.S. Open?

The U.S. Open has long catered to tennis fans of all stripes, from hedge fund moguls and celebrities eating rock shrimp in luxury suites to boozy subway-riding fanatics screaming from the top rows past midnight. The future may see that gap widen even more. The United States Tennis Association is weighing a major renovation of […]

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Police Identify Rainbow Bridge Crash Victims and Details of Car

The car that exploded this week at a border bridge in Niagara Falls, N.Y., was a 2022 Bentley Flying Spur, the authorities said on Friday, an ultraluxury model capable of reaching a speed of 60 miles per hour in four seconds. The police identified Kurt P. Villani as the driver and his wife, Monica Villani, […]

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U.S. Airplane Food Is Getting Better, If You’re Flying First Class

Some of the 30 million passengers expected to fly domestically over this Thanksgiving holiday may be stunned by what’s available to eat and drink 30,000 feet up in the sky. To entice more travelers to pay premium fares and better stand out from the competition, major U.S. carriers have been significantly expanding their food and […]

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5 Concierges Recommend Luxury Gift Experiences

When Muchi Gubwe was a fledgling hotel concierge in Cape Town, he would often refer to his seasoned colleagues as “moving encyclopedias.” “Forget Google,” Mr. Gubwe, now the head concierge at the Mount Nelson, a Belmond hotel in the city’s Gardens neighborhood, said on a video call last month. “These are the people you need […]

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Ferragamo, OnlyFans and Botox: How Santos Spent Donors’ Money

George Santos was utterly triumphant. He had just flipped a Long Island congressional seat, improbably helping deliver Republicans a House majority. It was time for a post-election shopping spree. Over just a few days last November, Mr. Santos dropped $6,000 at Ferragamo, perhaps partly on the red designer sneakers he later wore to walk the […]

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‘Timepiece Gentleman’ Swindled Customers Out of $3 Million, U.S. Says

The businessman collected the luxury watches from customers, promising them that he would sell the watches on consignment and take no more than a 5 percent fee, the authorities said. Instead, they said, he sold the Rolexes and other high-end pieces to fund a lavish Los Angeles lifestyle — driving a red Lamborghini and a […]

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Inside the Private World the Richest New Yorkers Built for Themselves

It’s a great time to be rich in New York City. Everyday life is increasingly unaffordable for most New Yorkers, but a new class of private, members-only and concierge services is emerging as a kind of gated community within the city. Ultraexclusive clubs, laundry specialists, on-demand helicopter rides and services that allow users to bid […]

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The Fashion of ‘Selling Sunset’

“Selling Sunset” is anything but subtle. The Netflix reality show follows a cast of real estate professionals at the Oppenheim Group, a Los Angeles-based luxury brokerage. It features multimillion dollar listings and brief celebrity name-drops and appearances. Side eyes are even more abundant. But as viewers continue to binge the show season after season, chatter […]

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Top FTX Executive Says Sam Bankman-Fried Used Customer Money for ‘Excess’ Spending

Nishad Singh, a former top executive at the once high-flying FTX crypto exchange, testified on Monday that his former boss, Sam Bankman-Fried, used customer money to engage in large and extravagant spending sprees that “reeked of excess.” At Mr. Bankman-Fried’s criminal fraud trial, which has become a referendum on the crypto industry’s volatility and risk-taking, […]

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From LSD to I.P.O.

This may be a tale about the rise of a German sandal brand, but it is not a straightforward fashion story. After all, for a large chunk of its 249-year history, Birkenstock was synonymous with extremely unfashionable stereotypes. The sandals were often worn by hippies and off-duty hikers, eccentric aunts and science teachers with a […]

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In Rome, It’s Luxury vs. Squalor

On a recent June evening, guests in the magnificent dining room of the Palazzo Vilòn feasted on a Baroque-themed dinner amid centuries-old mirrors painted with cherubs, inlaid marble floors and a ceiling so lavish, the table’s surfaces were mirrored to savor the frescoes. The interior designer toasted the new hotel, calling it a temple to […]

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China May Ban Clothes That Hurt People’s Feelings. People Are Outraged.

In the 1980s, people in China could land themselves in trouble with the government for their fashion choices. Flared pants and bluejeans were considered “weird attire.” Some government buildings barred men with long hair and women wearing makeup and jewelry. Patrols organized by factories and schools cut flared pants and long hair with scissors. It […]

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Justice Clarence Thomas’s $267,230 RV and the Friend Who Financed It

The title history documents reviewed by The Times show that when the motor coach was sold for $267,230 to the Thomases in 1999, it had only 93,618 miles on it, relatively few for a vehicle that experts say can easily log a million miles in its lifetime. It came equipped with plush leather seating, a […]

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