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Added on the 18/05/2015 11:20:48 - Copyright : Reuters EN
Pierre Cardin has died. According to CNN, France's Fine Arts Academy announced the sad news on Tuesday. The legendary French fashion designer was also a success on the business side of fashion. Cardin became a popular household name with designs including clothing, perfume, and even frying pans. His breakout creation was the bubble dress designed in 1954. Cardin was 98 years old.
How is China's yuan devaluation impacting Europe's luxury markets? Sara Hemrajani looks at how companies like Swatch and VW are faring, amid expectations of falling Chinese consumer demand.
Cullinan built a new legacy for Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, shaped in collaboration with a bold and uncompromising generation of super-luxury consumers. Cullinan Series II evolves and builds on this motor car’s place in the brand, proving once more that the future of this marque will be shaped in partnership with its clients and characterised by exquisite contemporary crafts.The original Cullinan, launched in 2018, was the world’s first super-luxury SUV, fulfilling a unique and exacting brief. From a performance and engineering standpoint, it had to have genuine off-road capabilities equal to the most demanding and hostile environments on Earth. At the same time, it had to deliver the marque’s peerless comfort and signature ‘magic carpet ride’, regardless of the terrain. It had to be nothing less than the definitive super-luxury SUV – rugged yet refined, unstoppable yet serene: effortless, everywhere. Its success exceeded Rolls-Royce’s most ambitious expectations around the world, and today Cullinan is the most requested Rolls-Royce in the marque’s portfolio.Given the motor car’s extraordinary success, and incredibly positive reception from clients in every region of the world, shaping a new expression of the ‘Rolls-Royce of SUVs’ was undertaken with meticulous care. The marque’s designers, engineers and craftspeople drew on half a decade of detailed client feedback, the brand’s own intelligence gathering – including our Private Offices around the world – and a raft of new technologies to advance Cullinan. In its new guise, which represents the most extensive Series II development in Rolls-Royce history, it responds to changing codes of luxury and evolving usage patterns while remaining true to the essential qualities that underpin Cullinan’s unprecedented popularity.
Bentley Motors today reveals the third coachbuilt Bentley of the modern era - the Batur Convertible. Created by Mulliner, Bentley’s in house bespoke division and the longest standing coachbuilder in the world, the Batur Convertible follows the exquisitely hand-crafted Bacalar barchetta and Batur coupe. With the Batur Convertible, Mulliner continues its long tradition of crafting truly individual cars, tailored to the wishes of each of its extraordinary clients.The Batur Convertible furthers the innovative design DNA introduced by its coupe sibling that will ultimately guide the design of Bentley’s future cars. The Batur Convertible retains the most powerful version of Bentley’s iconic W12, with a 750 PS, hand-assembled 6.0-litre twin-turbocharged engine that has metaphorically and literally powered Bentley’s success for the last two decades. With the engine to finish production this summer, the Batur Convertible will be one of the last ever Bentleys to use this incredible powertrain.Bespoke two-seat grand touringBentley has a rich history of open-cockpit cars, from the very first Bentley of 1919, through the company’s foundation years in the 1920s, to the most recent - the Bacalar. The architecture of the Batur Convertible has allowed Mulliner’s designers to seize the opportunity to create a theme that not only blends the design of the Bacalar and Batur but includes the usability of a convertible. The designers also chose to highlight the two-seater character with a ‘wraparound’ cockpit inspired by the design of the Bacalar.The dramatic ‘airbridge’ behind the seats and tapered cowls at the rear hark back to the barchetta sports cars of old, whilst underlining the promise of a dynamic, driver-focused adventure in a cosseting, cocooned environment. The airbridge and tapered cowls are not only aesthetic, but also provide a semi-enclosed luggage compartment behind the two front seats.The convertible roof delivers an aesthetic of beauty as a modern, tactile alternative to a hardtop roof. A combination of insulation material, sealing system refinements and acoustic treatments create a cossetting environment in a system which can be deployed or stowed in just 19 seconds, with the car travelling at speeds of up to 30 mph (50 km/h), transforming the car from a luxurious coupe into an open-top Grand Tourer at the touch of a button.Personal and uniquely commisionedMulliner’s in-house design team will help co-create every Batur Convertible with its customer, working together through a specially created Mulliner visualiser that allows any part of the car to be customised in colour and surface finish. Endless samples of unique materials bring texture to the process, and the resulting designs will be truly individual and created by the customer – limited only by their imagination.Customers will be able to specify the colour and finish of practically every surface of the Batur Convertible, to create a car as individual as they are. Beyond the exterior form of the car lies an almost endless array of choices for each car’s future owner to make.
The LBX is the smallest model in the Lexus range and the luxury lifestyle brand’s first B-segment SUV, helping Lexus to expand its range to meet the needs of a diverse and growing customer base.The two-grade LBX range opens from $47,550 plus on-road costs for the LBX Luxury 2WD, providing strong value thanks to its highly specified standard equipment.Luxury grade is identifiable by 18-inch alloy wheels with a mixed dark grey and bright machined finish, LED headlamps with Adaptive High-beam System, rear spoiler and privacy glass, and a two-tone body finish including a black roof.Inside, the LBX Luxury has black NuLux7 upholstery for the seats, steering wheel, door and instrument panel trim, front and rear carpet floor mats, heated front seats, dual-zone climate control with remote function, Qi wireless phone charging pad, auto-dimming rearview mirror, ambient interior lighting, smart entry & start and a powered tailgate.Multimedia connectivity is enabled by a 9.8-inch touchscreen display with satellite navigation, paired with a six-speaker Panasonic audio system compatible with wireless Apple CarPlay and wireless Android Auto. Three front and two rear USB-C ports as well as front and rear 12V accessory sockets provide extra connectivity and charging options.The Lexus Safety System+ provides a comprehensive suite of safety features, which is designed to help provide protection for drivers, passengers, and other road users.Sports Luxury grade is differentiated from the outside by unique black 18-inch alloy wheels and a unique ornamentation film on the rear pillar which combines thin strips of gloss and non-gloss finish to create a stylish geometric expression.
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