Green Luxury

Salvatore Ferragamo has a fashion-forward New Year's resolution for 2009. The fashion house has created a line of eco-friendly handbags in an effort to help protect planet Earth. The environmentally efficient handbags are named Eco Ferragamo. All are made from a nontoxic tanning technique, are lined in handwoven hemp, plus, use dies only from natural elements like tree bark. The Eco Ferragamo collection ranges Ranging from small totes to maxi hobos in hues of tobacco brown, lemon yellow, and grapefruit pink.Thus, Eco Ferragamo handbags are luxe, biodegradable and water-resistant. Saving planet Earth will be a good look on you and won't ever go out of style. The handbags retail for between $1,200 and $2,000, they will be made available to you come February.

As we speak, resortwear is here to prepare you for December holiday. Warm weather get-a-ways break up the monotony of winter, so hopefully you are headed towards the beach. If you love winter skiing then you're a lunatic, because springtime is the best ski-time. Besides, resortwear is a fabulous excuse to expand the wardropbe. Designer Ralph Lauren is continuing his ultra-luxe collection, with his just released offering for men. Ralph-y's Garda Alligator Diver shoes are perfect for this coming winter-break. He's put five bright twists on the classic Italian driving shoe, Emerald Green, Cherry Red, Marine Blue, Purple, and Black. The Ralph Lauren genuine alligator skin shoe is $3,800 a pair.  Ladies this is a win, win situation for you. Check it, you can get him a nice holiday gift, plus ensure that he is excellently dressed on your vacation. A sophisticated man does colorful, genuine alligator loafers by day, not Nike pool shoes. Think about that.

Thanksgiving is this Thursday and will kick off a full-fledged luxurious holiday season. For those Americans who have forgotten, Thanksgiving is meant for giving thanks and being grateful. Thanksgiving should not be a prodigal holiday of gluttonous proportions but the world isn't perfect yet, so this year change it up. Like President-elect Barack Obama says, "yes we can!" This Thanksgiving can still be lavish and chic but by taking action to change a few things, your gratitude will be tangible. Host a "green" Thanksgiving holiday and you can feel good about helping your country rather than helping destroy it.

First things, first, go local! If you don't know what this means, no offense, but that's really pathetic. Find locally grown foods and find out what foods are in season around you. Locally grown is fresher and healthier sans the preservation checimcals for transport. If you live in the south use fresh pecans or peaches for pie and make more sweet potatoes. If you're in the northeast use more seasonal vegetables like beets, broccoli and Brussels sprouts and local apples. When it comes to the Turkey, look for the words organic, free-range and locally grown. Organic, free-range, local Turkey's have not been caged in horrendous, maggot infested conditions. If you don't give a crap about PETA then thats your prerogative but think of your family's health at least. That regular stuffed Turkey on your table was, just a few days before, rolling around in it's own feces while being injected with cancer-causing hormones, mmm eat up!

Next forego plastic and paper to reduce excess waste. Yes, it means more dishes but you can break out the good china, flaunt the expensive stuff. If you don't have fancy china then get some. Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus department stores have gorgeous chinaware collections. You might have more to wash but you have a dishwasher so pack it full and run it as little as possible. Plus, most of you have chefs, maids and or catering companies doing the dirty work.

Go green with your drinks and buy locally fermented booze. If you can't get locally made wine or beer, then the next best thing is to buy organic alcohol. Limit the bottled water and use tap water. No, tap water won't kill you and it looks more elegant in a glass pitcher with fresh fruit.

Then be really thankful and in exchange for the air you breathe every second of everyday, go out back and plant a tree or two. The winter season is one of the best times to plant trees or shrubs, it's an activity the kids will love, a good lesson to teach and you can feel better about helping to reduce your carbon footprint. Face it, pollution will continue unless we all play part and do our part. It's not about preaching, just don't be stupid this Thanksgiving, do the next right thing and make it greener.

The Sony Organic LED XEL-1 is the world's thinnest television and it has just been introduced to the States. The futuristic television is as thin as stacking just three credit cards together. The three millimeter width isn't the only reason to buy one.

 If you’re green, then know that Organic LED technology is 40% more efficient than LCD panels, plus there is no grotesque mercury used during the manufacturing process. The green luxury, light-emitting organic material eliminates the need for a backlight thus then end result is less energy. All the TV parts are organic, so when the set off, it uses absolutely no power as opposed to all older sets, which always have the backlight on.  We say buy and Organic LED and save a tree.

The price is totally reasonable at $2500 for an 11″ high definition screen. The new LED XEL-1's technology signifies the beginning of the end for old school LCDs and plasma screens. Buh bye older models, hello television of the future. By 2011 OLED's will most likely outsell LCD and plasma screens.

Besides just being ultra- thin the LED XEL-1 has a tilt screen for viewing from any angle. The Organic LED XEL-1 has a built-in memory stick slot, which means you can display and browse through your own photoes.The optional BRAVIA Link Modules make for compatibility with any of your digital devices. What's more, the award-winning Xross Media Bar menu navigation system allows for even the technologically-challenged to switch between expanded devises and setting with ease.  The picture contrast ration is 1,000,000:1 which make for the deepest black levels on the market today.

Thin is always in, jump on the trend so you're not outdated. T.V of the future, very cool, but the name not so much. The Sony Organic LED XEL-1 is just something else to keep in mind this holiday season, it will add a little something extra to any room.  

A flying version of the Ferrari’s 599 GTB called the Autovolantor is, kind of, in development. The bananas concept is being developed by Moller International, the same Moller International that has been promising to turn out a flying car since 2000, in existence since the 1980's with no production yet. Targeted towards the affluent, obviously, the Autovolantor would be a desirable sports car that could sometimes fly.

Designer Bruce Calkins has fitted the flying Ferrari supercar with a specially designed hybrid fuel and electric power system to run the eight thrusters that would give lift to the car, a system that Calkins believes would give the futuristic machine 800 horsepower. Translating to a top speed of 150 miles per hour in the air and altitudes of up to 5000 feet, for an air travel distance of about 75 miles.  Why a Ferrari you ask?  Well, apparently, the 599 chassis was picked by Calkins because of its distinctive shape and natural born aerodynamics. The airworthy Ferrari 599 GTB will conceptually have Back To The Future-like hovering capabilities for vertical take-off and landings, as well as wings and stabilizers for forward flight. Once airborne the car maneuvers like a helicopter, rolling to turn and changing pitch to move forward or backward, ummm we almost have a heartattack just thinking about some joe shmoe flying a helicopter.

Rumors suggest that Moller is hurting and needs new investment backing to take the Autovolanter to the next stage of development. Unless you feel like donating upwards of $5 million, don't expect to see a fleet of flying Ferrari's anytime soon.A production version of the Autovolantor, as unlikely as it may be, will cost something like $800,000 per vehicle. Worth the price of flying over bumper to bumper traffic, yes, but not worth the price of a crash, blow-up or crash landing.  We applaud the green efforts of a hybrid engine but are hoping this air-born vehicle never takes to the skies, leave flying to the professionals.

Rolls-Royce CEO Tom Purves is down to make an electric Phantom. For the internal combustion engine (ICE) people dependent upon gasoline, an electric car is an alternative fuel car that utilizes an electric motor. An electric motor is usually run on a rechargeable battery pack. Electric is just one of the waives of the future and it is environmentally friendly which we always applaud.

The thing is that the first round of electric cars, although the effort was applaudable most were downright ugly. It's almost hard to look at a hybrid Prius. Recently many higher end car companies have been pushing to get hybrid and electric vehicles to market, there's the new Cadillac Escalade and now the BMW Mini E. This brings us to BMW's subsidiary company Rolls-Royce, CEO Tom Purves, and the Phantom.

In an interview with Car Magazine, Purves said that an electric Rolls-Royce would fit perfectly with the Rolls brand, and expects the car to appeal to city dwellers who are Phantom customers. "Many of our customers do small mileages exclusively in the city," said Purves, who is now the driving force behind BMW-owned Rolls-Royce since July. "For these customers, an electric Rolls-Royce would be ideal."

Purves just drove the new electric Mini, which will premiere next month at the Los Angeles auto show. The CEO said," It is superb: quiet, fast and fantastically fun." The Mini E uses lithium ion batteries and has distance range of about 150 miles. The Mini E’s top speed is 95 miles per hour and it does 0-60 miles per hour in 8.5 seconds. Purves believes that by using the experience from the electric mini project, the electric urban version of the Phantom is a very reachable goal.

Tom Purves also believes that an electric Phantom would be the perfect addition to the Rolls-Royce marque. A properly engineered electric motor is quieter, less cumbersome and would keep in line with the unmatched refinement that we all know as Rolls-Royce. Plus, an electric engine delivers maximum torque instantly.   

Cities with hugh CO2 levels better stay up to date on hybrid and electric projects especially. There may come a time in the not too far off future when legislation is passed to limit Carbon Dioxide pollution and your cars might be first to go. A battery-powered Rolls-Royce would come into good use then. Obviously, the petrol V12 Phantom would still be made available. Honestly, though, who doesn't want to splurge on a Rolls-Royce Phantom and then be able to keep feeling good about it, the more you are chauffeured around town. 

This Thursday October 30th though November 3rd is the 49th Annual Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show. As we reported a couple months back, the World renown exhibit will be docked throughout six sites in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Upwards of $3 billion worth of mega-yachts, yachts, electronics and accessories will be available throughout the three million square foot space.

This year the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show is putting an emphasis on going green. We are ecstatic to see the environmental trend growing into the sea.  This year we will see electric and hybrid boats, chemical-free boat cleaners, plus safer building materials and other environmentally friendly innovations. We will also see the debut of the Calypso 23e yacht. Propelled by the Whisper XT electric outboard, it is the World's largest electric yacht and requires no gas. You don't have to imagine going without gas anymore.

We applaud the going green push but the essence of the International Boat Show has always been glamour and luxury on the water. We will be present for all the parties, private tours, over 200 mega-yachts, and, of course, the drama. We will tell all about the billion-dollar exhibit, so stay here with us through the show.

A little love nest on the beach is just what architect Takao Shiotsuka Atelier of Japan has constructed. The white, more glass, beach house is just 237 sq. meters and 2 floors with an elevator. Don't underestimate the elfin house though, there is something incredibly intriguing about its minimalist design. Made mostly of huge glass walls, the house offers fantastic natural sunlight and views in. We appreciate the artful design. Its not for everyone but if you did want to live in this beach house it would be a pretty liberating life experience, when we said all glass we meant all glass including the bathrooms. Oh and not frosted glass, just the pure see through kind. At least you'll feel like one with nature but in a more luxurious space. Our only complaint is this mediocre beach, we would have loved to see this house built on some fierce tropical island full of palm trees and white sand.
   

With an all new design, features, and technologies, the re-engineered MacBook Pro is surpassing standards that don’t even exist yet. Until the new MacBook Pro, all notebooks were designed by assembling multiple parts to create a single enclosure. Thanks to the bright minds at Apple, the new Pro design uses just one part, which is a seamless enclosure carved from one piece of aluminum. Thus, the MacBook Pro is now thinner, lighter and more durable than ever before. Perfect for life inside a briefcase or backpack of the next generation.  

An added edge-to-edge, uninterrupted glass display not only looks elegant but adds more structure to the LED display beneath it. There is also no click button below the mousepad anymore. The entire trackpad is the button, so you can click all over. Without a separate button, your hands have 39 percent more room to move,  two fingers scrolls up and down a page. Pinching your fingers will zoom in and out. Rotate an image with your fingertips, swipe with three fingers to flip through your photo libraries, swipe with four fingers to show your desktop, think iPhone touch screen.

The internal architecture has also been completely overhauled from the silicon up. The GeForce 9400M processor is an integrated power saver. Inside the new MacBook Pro is the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processor running at speeds up to 2.8GHz, b on groundbreaking 45-nm process technology and advanced Core microarchitecture. The MacBook Pro hard drive has up to 320GB2 and up to 4GB of RAM. Plus, faster 1066MHz DDR3 memory, so you can run more applications at once and instantly access even more of your stuff. There’s a new logic board, chipset, and graphics architecture.

Wherever you go, the wireless capabilities go too. With the latest 802.11n wireless technology built in, you’re always seamlessly and effortlessly connected to the wireless world. If a Wi-Fi network isn't available, your Pro will connect to the internet on a cellular network. Now that is on par with the 21st century, thanks.

Besides all the above greatness, Apple is hitting the green hard with conscious environmental approaches. How commendable?  The new MacBook Pro LED-backlit screen is both mercury and arsenic free unlike other displays, great for the environment but probably better for you. Backlit technology also conserves energy by using 30% less power than other laptops. This Pro meets government standards for energy efficiency, and earned EPEAT Gold status, the highest standard for environmental performance in the electronics industry. Besides, the new MacBook Pro is shipped in packaging that’s 37% smaller than any previous generation, which translates into fewer trees used for boxes and less fuel used to transport more MacBook Pros on fewer planes. The genius' at Apple are just too good, we applaud everything about you!

If you don't have an Apple Mac then get one. If you're already part of the Mac club, you're part of the cool kids club and are probably drooling over the new MacBook Pro. Go upgrade and don't even feel bad, your old MacBook is recycle-able and your new one will help save the environment everyday you use it. You're going to be impressed and fall in love, just imagine the capabilities now.

The Trident Iceni is a luxury sports car that goes the distance. The Iceni can do a legit 2,000 miles, and hit 200 miles per hour on just one tank of gas. That would be London to Venice and back again on a single tank, a.k.a some serious fuel efficiency.

The engine on this exotic sports car runs on biodiesel and uses a new technology called torque multiplication, which holds down revs.  FYI: Which equals less fuel. The powerful sports car frame is built with stainless steel which won't corrode and the body of composite metals will never rust. Fuel efficent, fast, and rust-proof, better days are ahead.  This is the perfect luxury sports car for any car enthusiasts.