Working on your outfit and bubbly choices yet for New Years? Considering your options for handbags? The Surly Couture Zebra Clutch presents a perfectly sparkly package to match your fun personality and celebrations ahead. Covered in Swarovski crystals available in custom colors to suit your palette, the Zebra clutch could be the perfect accessory to usher in 2008 for $1,000. Now all you need are shoes, earrings, and a great party to attend!

[via Luxury Launches]

It's a good thing that Paris Hilton gets paid so much to do appearances, she just might need the cash. On Wednesday, her grandfather, Barron Hilton announced that he's pulling a Warren Buffett and plans to donate 97 percent of his $2.3 billion fortune to charity. That number includes the $1.2 billion Barron Hilton stands to earn from both the recent sale of Hilton Hotels Corp. and pending sale of the world's biggest casino company, Harrah's Entertainment Inc. The money will be placed in a charitable trust that will eventually benefit the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, bringing its total to around $4.5 billion. it has been rumored that the senior Hilton has been embarassed by the hard-partying ways of some of his grandchildren like Paris and her sister Nicky.

The Hilton foundation supports a variety of projects. Conrad Hilton established the foundation in 1944 and left most of his fortune to it when he died in 1979 but Barron Hilton challenged the will and after a long legal battle he agreed to split ownership of the shares in the Hilton hotel empire with the foundation. The Conrad N. Hilton Fund for Sisters, established in 1986, is the principal beneficiary of the Conrad N. Hilton Fund. It operates under the auspices of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and supports the apostolic work of sisters around the globe. Projects focus on health care, education and social service. According to the Hilton Foundation website, in order for projects to qualify for funding, they must directly serve the economically disadvantaged, and at least one vowed member of an officially recognized Roman Catholic congregation of women must be directly involved with the project in a full-time capacity. The Sisters' Fund also awards emergency grants in response to natural disasters and political crises. Most of the grants from the Sisters' Fund are small and have gone to projects such as helping sisters in Uganda to begin poultry raising projects and in Vietnam, grants for sewing machines have helped sisters to establish vocational training programs for young, rural women. So far the Conrad N. Hilton Fund for Sisters has awarded over 3,600 grants totaling more than $38 million dollars.

You may have invited a crowd over for New Year's but how many people do you think it would take to drink a 490-liter bottle of wine! Dubbed the largest bottle of wine in the world, Austrian winemaker, Kracher, holds the title in the Guinness Book of World Records with its 2005 Grand Cuvee TBA NV No.7 equivalent of 69,000 glasses of wine. Recently on display in the Swiss town of Rehetobel it certainly grabbed visitors' attention. Now, who else wants to come to the party...

It seems that Christie's is seeking a new way to connect with the younger collector and decorator. It have rebranded its House Sales (which are often an intriguing mix of a variety of objects, often at lower price points than other sales) as a new feature called Christie's Interiors. The Interiors sales will be held at the New York, London and Paris salerooms beginning in 2008, and will give decorators, collectors and newcomers the chance to acquire one-of-a-kind
objects and collectibles, offering attractive price points and an ever-changing repertoire of fine and decorative arts. All will be available via online bidding. Each sale will also have a large scale magazine-style catalogue, and Christie's specialists will be available to advise buyers and sellers.

I suspect that Christie's has stepped up its game in order to compete with popular antiques/design sites like 1st Dibs which help people easily access a world full of vintage design finds without combing through antique stores.

Today's home has me pondering the problems associated with older homes. Here we have Up Holland, a nice nearly 20-acre spread near St. Michaels, Maryland. The historic home is believed to date from the late 1700s and is part of a land grant patented ca. 1667 . The six-bedroom home has been added to and modified over the years and now has a Greek Revival facade with a two story porch. The home has a formal living room and library with fireplaces and nine foot ceilings. The dining room is believed to be the oldest part of the house and has wood floors, wood-burning fireplace, old doors and a back stairway. The country kitchen has a brick fireplace and a table. The home is in need of a major overhaul, I just wonder how much can be done to bring it into the modern age. In its current state the home seems to be a patchwork of its various additions and renovations. I might direct potential new owners to Tusculum, a former estate of the day that is an older home that has been elegantly recreated. The home also has a carriage house that has two garage bays, a greenhouse/potting shed and a second floor studio. The land includes a swimming pool and pool house and a wide pier on Broad Creek provides anchorage for several boats. The home is listed at $3.485 million.

The folks from Marilyn Wines, the brand emblazoned with the image of Marilyn Monroe, have released a new sparkling wine for those who want to celebrate New Year's Eve with a bubbly blonde. The Blonde de Noirs 2004 is a sparkling blend of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier from California's North Coast. The lightly pinkish wine is described as having delicate fruit and a persistent sparkle. They have produced 1,000 cases of the wine and it sells for $30.

[via Avenue Vine]

In the world of megayachts the race to be the biggest is generally defined by one thing, length. While the length of yachts is often disputed (especially right around the time Power Boat & Motor Yacht launches their list of the biggest yachts each year), it is not generally argued that length might be an inaccurate measure of which yachts are biggest. The writers and editors of The Yacht Report have decided that length is a one-dimensional measure of yacht size and that two yachts of equal length might seem quite different in size from the inside. Their measure of size, and the way they have ordered the 2008 Yacht Report, is to list the yachts by gross tonnage. I haven't seen the list yet so I don't know how much this system changes the list of the world's biggest yachts but it certainly is an interesting new twist on the age-old size debate.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy has a lifestyle most celebrities would envy. Not only does he have a gorgeous model girlfriend who used to date rock stars, he also spent his Christmas holiday in Egypt. The French are notoriously tolerant of the leaders' foibles but Sarkozy found himself in a spot of trouble for flying to his getaway on the private jet of a billionaire businessman. Once again, Vincent Bollore is the billionaire in question. After his election in May, Sarkozy celebrated on Bollore's private yacht off Malta. Opposing political parties are concerned that the president's love of the jet set life may lead him into falling under the influence of rich men like Bollore. What's even more interesting is that Bollore, in addition to running a business empire with interests in freight, plastics, energy and logistics, also owns two free newspapers in France and has expressed interest in taking over the French domestic operation of US news agency AP. Sounds like Sarkozy should fly commercial next time.

With airline miles the rewards are pretty clear, more miles generally equals free trips or the highly desirable first class upgrades, but what do you get for hotel reward points? The answer is more complex than you might think. The Wall Street Journal recently chronicled some of the more extravagant offers available to those with a large amount of hotel points. For example, Michael and Georgia Soares used their huge amount of Starwood Hotels & Resorts points to spend one night with John Travolta and the cast of the movie "Hairspray" at the film's New York premiere.

Loyal hotel chain customers sitting on a stack of points are in a good position as major hotel companies such as Starwood, Global Hyatt Corp., Hilton Hotels Corp., and InterContinental Hotels Group now offer customers enrolled in their loyalty programs the option to spend their points on "unique experiences" rather than just getting free nights or room upgrades.

Why are hotels offering these types of programs? One reason is that they want to create more loyalty and good publicity for their programs. Another reason may be that these once-in-a-lifetime offers often use up a lot of points. As customers rack up more points. hotels lose more money on points programs. As the WSJ article explains it, hotel companies often don't own many of their own properties, an independent party owns the building and manages the property under the hotel brand. The independent party must be paid for all of those free nights . A special fund is set up to pay the costs of potential redemptions of points and a hotel brand must make sure that the fund has enough money if all points get cashed in. Of course the VIP experiences also cost the hotels money.

The Starwood program is unique in that they have an online auction system that lets members to bid for experiences in online auctions. It's a pretty clever gimmick since it combines the "something for nothing" feeling of redeeming points along with the competitive thrill of online bidding. These types of experience trips also may help lure the traveler who earns his points on business travel into spending his points and his vacation time with the same hotel chain.

The rising euro and the falling dollar have had a wide variety of effects in the world of luxury goods. For the holiday shopping season, Europeans headed to the U.S. to take advantage of the lower prices. An AP article brings up the fact that the prized "Made in Italy" label on luxury goods may cost us even more in the coming year. Italian brands such as Gucci, Armani, Fendi and Versace are finding that it is becoming more expensive to produce goods in their native land. In the article Diego Della Valle, founder of Tods leather goods says that those who produce in Italy are at a disadvantage because it will cost them more to produce the same goods. Currently, most designers are absorbing the increased production costs, especially since consumers in the U.S. seem to be cutting back on their consumption of many luxury goods.

The question for the long run is whether or not consumers will be willing to pay more for something that is made in certain place. Currently makers of goods created in both the U.S. and Europe are at a disadvantage compared to those who produce their items in China and other places where costs are lower. But the recent recalls of toys and other products made in China has made some consumers more aware. For the last few years the designer name has been enough of a reassurance of quality for consumers no matter where the products is made. I think however, that we are at the start of a trend where all consumers and particularly those at the higher end of the spending spectrum will be paying more attention to where products are produced. If not, that "made in Italy" label might end up becoming a bit of a rarity as costs force designers to chose economy over tradition.

Despite the ruching, this large bag still maintains a pleasing shape and looks sharp with the contrasting top stitching. A casual toggle detail cinches the top, just above a tiny stitched stick figure, a Beguelin signature touch. Several leather 'leaves' dangle from the side adding another dash of whimsy and the whole thing hangs comfortably from a single shoulder strap. Handmade in Italy, the bag sells for $1640.

If you have an appreciation for creative architecture and want an excuse to travel to Austria consider Aiola Island. This destination highlights a man-made island built in 2003 which bridges the Mur River in Graz, Austria. Allowing travelers a chance to go from one side of the river to the other, while stopping for a drink at the coffee shop or bar or the sunbathing area, this amazing structure is certainly worth seeing. Add a stop in the Alps and a tour of Mozart's home and your trip is complete.

If you are anything like me, you may have found yourself completely burned out on perfume. Lately I've found that many fragrances have seemed to be too synthetic and sweet, bubblegum scents that hit the skin and quickly dissipate. It turns out that I am not alone, the Wall Street Journal has a great piece on the changing fragrance world. Many high-end brands who have, in the past few years, been catering to the masstige market by creating fragrances at the lower price point are now taking a different approach because the sales of the perfumes have been dropping off. Instead, companies like Chanel and Prada have launched ultra-exclusive scents that use pricey ingredients and have richer, more evocative fragrance profiles.

A quick sampling:
--Tom Ford created his Private Blend, a line of 12 fragrances that run from the frankly floral to more masculine smells like tobacco and cedar.
--Chanel created their Les Exclusifs line of six signature scents that had perfume lovers raving.
--Hermès has a new line of unique perfumes called Hermessence, like the other designer lines, this one moves into new ground with scents like the lavender-and-licorice-smelling Brin de Réglisse.
--Giorgio Armani's Privé line costs $185 a bottle and lures purchasers not just with ingredients bergamot, neroli and vetiver but with those sexy bottles made of African kotibe wood and caps that look jade, moonstone, amethyst and other gemstones.

These scents aren't exactly making big profits yet but the companies are hopeful that they will have more staying power with consumers than some of the cheaper, more forgettable designer brands. One thing that the WSJ article doesn't mention but which I would guess is also a factor is that each of these lines isn't just one signature fragrance, but a set. And the idea of owning a complete set, especially that looks as pretty as the Armani line shone above, may lure scent lovers to collect the whole line rather than just one bottle.

The Red Dragon from Alloy Yachts is one sleek sloop.This 170-foot yacht was begun by Alloy Yachts Auckland New Zealand in March 2006 and was launched on December 13. It was created for Guy Ullens and his wife Myriam. Ullens, a Belgian industrialist, who is an avid collector of Chinese art. Ullens is quoted as referring to his new aluminum sloop as a work of art as well. The yacht has an owner's sutite, three guest suites and five cabins for ten crew. The yacht has been designed to cruise for long periods at sea without outside assistance. Red Dragon also has a carbon fiber mast with a large mainsail and has a C32 1400hp caterpillar engine and two 90kW Northern Lights generators. We haven't seen any interior shots yet but the Wilmotte & Associates is said to have a light contemporary timber interior. If the interior is anything like the exterior I'm sure it's gorgeous.

Real estate in the States may be having tough times but in Canada things seem to be booming and we are seeing more amazing estates all over the country. This one in Metchosin in Greater Victoria, British Columbia is one of the most expensive. The home was finished in 2006 and sits on 67 acres. The design received a National Canadian Architect Award. The design is a mix on interior and outdoor design that includes pools of water which are part of a geothermal heating and air conditioning system that pulls water from the ocean and runs through the house. The water also divides the living and bedroom areas. The home is quite striking, if perhaps a bit chilly looking and I love the giant red sofas in the living room area. The estate includes a guest house, boat house, covered pool, and a tennis court. It is listed at $24 million Canadian.