Italian Fashion Watch

Recently, it’s been rumored that L’Oreal is in talks with Giorgio Armani’s Firm to purchase about 25% of its stocks.

It’s debatable about the impact of such a deal on the fashion industry, but a spokesman from Giorgio Armani denied the rumor: “There has been ongoing speculation about L’Oreal and others and no talks are going on at the moment.”

L’Oreal is already of partner with Giorgio Armani dealing with the distribution of perfumes, cosmetics and beauty products.

Armani himself mentioned in a November interview last year that L’Oreal could become more implicated in the Armani business, but that no talks were yet in progress.

We’ll see what happens in the future, and I’m sure it will an important event for te fashion industry, with Armani being arguably the most important designer today and L’Oreal the biggest cosmetics firm. Time will tell.

It looks like most publications have gone wild after David Beckham has appeared in one of Giorgio Armani’s new jeans ads. Well, a lot has been written about how that’s so unappropriate and so on.

Well, see for yourself.

THE world’s elite are cutting short their Queensland holidays because their chartered super yachts cannot access beaches and reef touted on tourism websites.

The Crown Prince of Dubai and Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani, who paid more than $100,000 a week to charter the yachts, were among those prematurely cancelling visits.

One yacht owner has threatened to move his boat to Europe to avoid being regulated like a cruise ship.

Boats over 35m have limited mooring on the Great Barrier Reef and in the Whitsundays. Other countries regulate mooring according to weight, allowing greater flexibility for vessels under 500 tonnes.

Three weeks ago, Mr Armani told the captain of the 41m Seafaris he wanted to visit Tongue Point in the Whitsundays after seeing it on the Queensland Tourism website.

But the Seafaris could not get a state landing permit and Mr Armani abandoned his eight-day holiday after three days. He told the crew he was going to the Maldives where he could walk on a beach.

“It is embarrassing. These are the sort of people I thought we were trying to attract,” Seafaris captain Duncan Smith said.

“For someone to leave early on a charter is really unheard of unless there are mechanical problems.

“There really should be greater customising of access.”

The same thing happened when the Prince of Dubai was visiting the reef on the Seafaris and learned of all the places he was restricted from seeing.

Seafaris owner Jeff McCloy, who is considering shifting the boat to Europe, said millions of dollars were at risk because of regulations that “don’t have common sense”.

“We are just the kind of business that tourism agencies should be promoting – high yield and low impact – but we are being treated like we’re a nuisance,” he said.

Mr McCloy said neither the Seafaris, which weighs under 300 tonnes and anchors in 20m, nor its passengers created an environmental threat to the reef.

The super yacht industry was booming and the boats had easier access in the US and Europe, which were clamouring for their business, Mr McCloy said.

A Government spokesman said proposals to give super yachts greater access to the reef were being considered, but larger boats shouldn’t get preferential treatment.

Today, Giorgio Armani launches his first store in cyber space with a shop in Second Life. Visitors to the virtual Armani store, which is an exact replica of Armani’s concept store on Milan’s Via Manzoni, will be able to buy Armani virtually, with Second Life currency (that’s Linden dollars), or click through to the Emporio Armani website where they can shop for real.

The store is the second designer offering in Second Life, following Stella McCartney’s anti- fur animal rights protest, staged in Second Life earlier this year.

There’s also an Armani cafe within the virtual store (just like in real life shops) but here you might actually bump in to Mr Armani. “My alter ego will be present much of the time to check on how the store is doing” he has said about his new adventure.

Sounds thrilling…though we can’t help but notice Mr Armani has given himself some rather impressive pecs in Second Life. Ah! The wonder of the web.

While we are all buying our jumpers and winter coats, top designers are at least six months ahead of us, showcasing the must-haves for spring and summer.

One collection that certainly stood out was Diamond Seduction range which used underwear as outerwear

The London-born model strutted down the catwalk in the Luxe collection, which combines minimal bikinis covered in gold mosaic or coloured sequins with chiffon scarves, shawls and dresses.

Campbell is now using her charm to promote her Fashion for Relief campaign, which raises money for victims of the UK floods.

She was sporting a sparkling sequinned swimsuit and chiffon cover-up from the collection.

One collection that certainly stood out was Diamond Seduction range which used underwear as outerwear.

Around 80 designers showcased their collections on the catwalk this week. They include big names such as Giorgio Armani, Versace and Dolce and Gabbana.

Armani phone (SGH-P520) from Samsung Mobile has shown up during the Dutch’s mobile phone distribution event.

This is Samsung’s first mobile phone developed with an international fashion leading brand.

I assume this mobile phone was developed without plans to join Armani in the first place. However, this changed because LG came out with the Prada Phone and received a great deal of attention and feedback from consumers all over the world, becoming one of the best mobile phones in 2006.

This situation has made Samsung find a way to compete against LG to keep its high-end market customers.

Now, let’s check out the some of specs that have been revealed during the event. It has a touchscreen in the front with a Send and End (Power) key as the only buttons available.

Thickness is only 8.9mm and Croix touchscreen UI is included. It’s Samsung’s own touch UI.

The Armani phone has a 3-megapixel camera and 50MB built-in memory with a microSD expandable slot. It also supports Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

Finally, the price mentioned is about 400 euros for the Russian and European markets. The Armani phone will available at end of this year.

Armani Jeans has officially announced that Massimo Bulleri extended his contract for two more years, until the end of the 2009-10 season. Bulleri (188, 29) joined Milano in summer 2005, when he inked a three-year deal with his current team.

He averaged 8.4 points, 2.3 assists and 1.5 steals in 35 Italian League games last season. Bulleri has also played for Ozzano, Mestre and Benetton Treviso in his native Italy.

He helped Benetton to win two Italian Leagues and three Italian Cup titles between 2000 and 2005, as well as making it all the way to the 2003 Euroleague final.

Bulleri is also a regular member of the Italian national team. He helped Italy to win the bronze medal at EuroBasket 2003, as well as the silver medal at the 2004 Olympic Games held in Athens, Greece.

The 25-year-old pop superstar has become the face of Emporio Armani’s new perfume, ‘Diamonds’ and stars in the company’s new ad campaign.

The songstress has also added her own take on the Marilyn Monroe song ‘Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend’ for the advert.

The new fragrance features notes of lychee and raspberry.

The singer says she has learnt from experience to be prepared when she goes to photo shoots.

She carries three pairs of sunglasses (black, gold and brown) in her bag and not one but two pairs of Christian Louboutin heels, in nude and gold, in case she needs to glam up an outfit at a moment’s notice.

A favourite with the paparazzi, who follow her every move with their cameras, she says she’s not worried about them taking shots of her from unflattering angles.

And she says she loves fashion and shopping far too much to give it up because of a few photographers.

Giorgio Armani has been commissioned to design Chelsea football team’s new suits.

The fashion legend was asked to create the official suits for the premiership team ready for the start of the new season.

The team and management have been kitted out with a lightweight gabardine suit, a classic three button cashmere coat and a single breasted knee length nylon raincoat-all in a toned down navy version of the club’s blue colours.

“It is an honour to have collaborated on a new look for the Directors’ Suite at what is certainly one of England’s most historic football grounds,” Armani said. “José has been a long-time enthusiast for my designs and was personally involved in reviewing all of the sketches and fabrics.”

The designer will also decorate an area of their home ground Stamford Bridge through Armani’s Casa Interior Design Service who also created the club’s Armani Lounge director’s suite.

It seems like the high fashion mobile phones, designed by the worlds top designers are in these days. After Dolce and Gabbana collaborated with Motorolla to create the shiny Gold MOTORAZR V3i handset and Prada worked hands in hands with LG to and released another ‘designer phone’, Armani also looks to enter this market.

He’s got a previous a previous collaboration with Samsung on the Samsung Ultra Edition 6.9 phones, but this time he wants to hit it big. According to some sources, the new handset will sell for about 1600$, but that’s still unconfirmed.

I can’t wait to see the new release.