Love both ways
A United States wedding-ring manufacturer looking for the next niche has developed a range of bands for same-sex couples wanting to display their love and commitment.
Produced by manufacturing and retail company Fabrikant-Tara International, LVOE is a new jewellery line offering "interesting, modern, same-sex wedding rings - a previously under-explored corner of the market", according to a release from the company.
The range comprises of 42 unisex designs in three categories: solitaires, diamond bands and colour bands.
It features modern shapes in yellow and white gold with authentic or lab-created diamonds and alexandrites.
LVOE is aimed at gay men and women, bisexuals, and transvestites - a demographic that has a buying power of over $US450 billion annually, according to the company.
But while the range is primarily marketed to same-sex couples, Fabrikant-Tara hopes it will appeal not only to its target consumer but to fashion-savvy buyers of all sexual orientations.
LVOE will be released in spring this year in the US.
Engaged again
Lucky actress Tori Spelling recently received another engagement ring, only this time the ring celebrates Spelling's wedding anniversary with husband Dean McDermott.
The three-stone, fancy-colour, diamond ring from jeweller Neil Lane represents just the first in a long line of rings coming to the Beverley Hills 90210 starlet as McDermott hopes to continue the tradition with each passing year. If only other men would follow his lead.
The sound of diamonds
It seems there is no end to the practical application of diamonds in daily life with one UK hi-fi company recently filling a line of audio speakers with diamond crystals for a clearer sound.
The luxurious speakers from Bowers and Wilkins contain tweeters encrusted with diamonds and housed inside black or white-marble casing that reportedly enhances the acoustics.
The Signature Diamond speakers come with a $AU26,000 price-tag, and there are only 1,000 available.
Golden skin
The demand for luxury skincare product in Australia is alive and well with the emergence of a new face cream priced at $930 for a 30ml capsule.
La Prairie's Cellular Radiance Concentrate Pure Gold serum contains 24-carat gold, a unique selling proposition that has made it the biggest-selling cosmetic at the David Jones department store since its recent launch.
Despite the cream costing more than gold itself, women joined waiting lists of up to two months to secure the precious vial with many even buying it unseen and untried via the phone.
"The price isn't the point any more," said La Prairie's Anna Barr. "Women want the latest, the greatest and the product with the best technology."
Myer's designer-cosmetics buyer Frank Cavanagh reported that sales of luxury skincare have risen by 70 per cent in 2007. "Demand for high-end face creams is insatiable," he said.
Myer plans to increase its range as soon as possible.
Expensive taste
Just around the corner from Bloomingdale's, where New Yorkers spend thousands on clothing, sits restaurant Serendipity 3, where they can spend thousands on dessert.
Standing out on this menu is the Golden Opulence Sundae, featuring Tahitian-vanilla ice cream covered in edible 23-carat gold, dessert caviar (infused with fruit essence), and the most-expensive chocolate in the world.
Pearls fetch premium price
A string of pearls dubbed "the most important pearls in history" have sold at auction for over seven million dollars, according to reports from prestigious auction house Christies.
The Baroda pearls broke the record for an amount paid for a natural necklace when they were purchased for $US7.1 million at Christie's auction house in New York.
"It more than doubled the last world record price of $US3.2 million for a natural pearl necklace, so we're absolutely thrilled," said Rahul Kadakia, head of jewellery, Christie's Americas.
The two-strand necklace with giant natural pearls as large as marbles was assembled for the Maharaja of Baroda in the 1850s and its history is embellished with mystery and controversy.
Being among the most valuable items in the treasury of the royal family of Baroda in India, ownership of the necklace is disputed by family members in the Indian courts.
Despite the current Maharaja trying to stop the sale, the auction went ahead as planned.
World's oldest jewellery
Oxford archaeologists have discovered what are thought to be the oldest examples of human adornment in the world.
The international team, led by Oxford University's Institute of Archaeology, has found shell beads believed to be 82,000 years old from a limestone cave in Morocco.
Institute director Professor Nick Barton said, "Bead-making in Africa was a widespread practice at the time, which was spread between cultures with different stone technology by exchange or by long-distance social networks.
"A major question in evolutionary studies today is 'how early did humans begin to think and behave in ways we would see as fundamentally modern?
"The appearance of ornaments such as these may be linked to a growing sense of self-awareness and identity among humans and cultural innovations must have played a large role in human development."
The handmade beads were found at the Grotte des Pigeons, Taforalt, Morocco during a five-year excavation in the region.
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