Month: September 2016

Up in the Air: Can Flying Commercial Be Luxurious?

Published by Pamela Thomas-Graham

In the highest echelons of wealth, the very idea of flying commercial is a non-starter. This would have been the case a decade ago, and today, it’s without question something that the ultra-high-net-worth crowd will take a hard pass on. The traffic, the security lines, the ground delays – almost anyone who can afford to buy their way out of the hassles of commercial air travel does. And who can blame them? The stress level involved only seems to get worse with each passing day (we’re looking at you, LaGuardia).

Is the Latest Re-Vamp Enough to Save an Iconic Luxury Store?

Published by Pamela Thomas-Graham

Most of us do our spring cleaning and tidying up in April and May, and then we head outdoors for summer fun. Some of the glittering department and luxury specialty stores of Manhattan, however, have been on a different schedule. They spent the long hot summer indoors, tearing down walls, putting in new light fixtures and flooring, and repainting (the retail equivalent of summer school). All so that as we shuffle back reluctantly from the beach, or the mountains, or wherever the summer took us, we’ll have bright shiny emporiums full of new fall merchandise beckoning us to abandon our computers and smartphones and shop retail.

Pain and Pleasure: How Far Will You Go to Look Good?

Published by Pamela Thomas-Graham

I bought a pair of the new Valentino Garavani flats on my last trip to Boston, and I wore them for the first time a couple of weekends ago. They are super-cute, black with a crisis-cross ankle strap and silver metal grommet details. The man who sold them to me at their store on Newberry Street raved about them as an upgrade to the Rock Stud flats that I already own in multiple colors. “These are so much more comfortable than the old version,” he assured me as he lovingly put them in their red box.

A Look Under the Hood: Inside the World of Luxury Automotive

Published by Pamela Thomas-Graham

One of the most important luxury events of the year is the annual Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance vintage automotive show (the name means “a competition of elegance” in French). It’s held on the California coastline the third week of August each year, on the 18th hole of the Pebble Beach golf course, and it attracts car owners, restoration experts and car buffs. Imagine your local annual auto show, at your city’s convention center. On massive amounts of steroids. That’s what this is like.