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 […]
Read MoreTag: Luxury Goods and Services
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 […]
Read MoreMy Goldendoodle Spent a Week at Some Luxury Dog ‘Hotels.’ I Tagged Along.
By the time my goldendoodle, Steve, and I pulled up to our resting place, I was tired from the long drive and already second-guessing my plan. I felt a little better when we stepped inside the Dogwood Acres Pet Retreat. The lobby, with its elegant tiled entrance, might have passed for the lobby of any […]
Read MoreLamor 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 […]
Read MoreComme 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. […]
Read More‘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 […]
Read MoreThe 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 […]
Read More‘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, […]
Read MoreTikTok’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 […]
Read MoreGucci’s Reboot Brings Back Old-School Cool
The headline was Gucci. The headline was always going to be Gucci, in the same way the Ever Given was destined to dominate the news cycle when the mammoth vessel, one of the largest container ships ever built, got stuck in the Suez Canal back in 2021. Gucci is, in a way, the Ever Given […]
Read MoreJussi 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 […]
Read MoreThe 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 […]
Read MoreWould 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 […]
Read MorePolice 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, […]
Read MoreU.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 […]
Read More5 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 […]
Read MoreFerragamo, 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 […]
Read More‘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 […]
Read MoreInside 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 […]
Read MoreThe 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 […]
Read MoreTop 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, […]
Read MoreFrom 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 […]
Read MoreLVMH’s Bernard Arnault Is the King of Luxury, but Who Is Next to the Throne?
One afternoon in July, not long after being named the wealthiest man on the planet by Forbes, Bernard Arnault, the head of the LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton luxury goods empire, took his place on a stage with a view of the Eiffel Tower before a packed crowd of French dignitaries and reporters. In the […]
Read MoreIn 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 […]
Read MoreChina 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 […]
Read MoreJustice 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 […]
Read More