The Andaman and Nicobar Islands will soon have a sparkling addition to their luxury offerings—the Taj group is spreading its luxury net over the island, setting up a new resort at Havelock this year. The Taj Exotica Resort & Spa Andaman Islands will feature 75 villas—including an 8,000sq ft presidential suite—and a private beach at Havelock. The interiors and architecture draw inspiration from the island culture and are expected to imitate the low rise style of the Jarawa (local tribals) huts. Taj intends to focus on blending luxury with the area’s history and heritage.
Lamborghini’s much awaited Urus that was first showcased at 2012 Beijing Auto Show will finally begin production in April this year. The luxurious, high-performance SUV is Lamborghini’s major plunge into the SUV segment, and can be caught on display at the 2017 edition of the Beijing Auto Show in April. Production will commence with pre-series models at the manufacturer’s only facility in Sant’Agata Bolognese, which will be expanded to meet the production demands of the SUV. The manufacturer expects to ship approximately 3,500 models of the off-roader a year. Expect the Urus to be a brute off-roading beast with a specific setup for ice, snow, stones, and sand. It combines all the essential features of an SUV with the perfect Lamborghini DNA. Good news for Indians—Lamborghini intends to bring the Urus to our country too, and the tentative launch date is sometime in May 2017.
San Francisco-based designer Adriano Raeli has come up with the Ferari 480 Supercar concept that is jawdoppingly gorgeous and designed to carry a hybrid drivetrain with a twin turbo V8 gas engine and a kinetic recovery system. Weighing in at just 1,762 lbs, the vehicle is estimated to be able to develop 1,200 hp and do the 0-100 sprint in the blink of an eye—2.2. seconds to be exact. The supercar’s front grill encompasses huge air vents and widely separated headlights while the wheel arches are both tall and wide. This supercar concept was created by Raeli as part of an independent study for the Art Center College of Design.
Bombay Perfumery, a contemporary fragrance house which crafts experimental combinations of scents, is all set to woo Delhi with its first store in the capital. So gear up to experience uniquely Indian fragrances like the scent of fresh masala chai, the whiff of Indian cardamom or the unique amalgamation of earthy ginger oil and khus. The store has been launched in collaboration with Vayu Design Living, a lifestyle store at Bikaner House, New Delhi. The perfumes on display at the store include two unisex fragrances along with three for men and three for women, conceptualised by Manan Gandhi in collaboration with renowned international Noses Jacques Chabert and Alexandra Carlin. The brand also roped in perfumers Pierre Kurzunne and Tristan Rostain to create some special fragrances for them.
PASSPORT TO 50 | The ultimate experiential trip for the billionaire client with 50 friends and family, covering 20 cities in 20 days
Experiential travel and event boutique DreamMaker has designed a trip around the globe aboard a privately outfitted Boeing 767 for its ultra-high net worth clientele. Titled Passport to 50, this is the ultimate experiential trip for the billionaire client, with up to 50 friends and family flying in tandem on a second Boeing Business Jet. Offered at $13,875,000, the DreamMaker experience is slated for August 2017, covering 20 cities in 20 days.
ROUND THE GLOBE | A Boeing 767 outfitted for ultra-high net worth clientele
Passport to 50 is the first of its kind to completely circumnavigate the globe and cover 50,000 kilometers in the air. The trip includes a time ratio of 88% on the ground and 12% in the air. “Since 1988, we have been setting benchmarks in the experiential travel space worldwide,” says founder and experience designer℠ Gregory Patrick. “In 2017, we will be the first to introduce Experiential Aviation℠ as the pinnacle of private aviation.” Highlights in the air include a $500,000 charity poker tournament with the world’s top-ranked poker player, inflight yoga session, a fashion show, and a Master Sommelier.
DreamMaker has also appointed hypnotherapist April Norris to develop a holistic program that integrates cutting-edge wearable sleep technology with alternative wellness techniques such as hypnotherapy, Reiki healing, Ayurvedic medicine, and the attention of a Doctor of Acupuncture. “It is irrelevant how big and beautiful your private jet is if you are unable to relax comfortably or get the required amount of sleep on the plane,” says Patrick. To ensure the utmost comfort for its guests, Passport to 50 will boast a one-to-one ratio of guest to staff, with a cast of 50 hand-picked professionals, each experts in their respective fields.
And if all of this wasn’t enough to create the most unique travel experience, partner World Of Diamonds group has been commissioned to create a super luxurious amenity for the travellers—a set of 18-karat gold swizzle sticks set with white and blue diamonds worth a total of $1 million. “DreamMaker’s commission demonstrates our expertise in creating spectacularly bespoke pieces out of fancy colored diamonds,” said Director Karan Tilani. Crafted into a spinning globe atop the 50 swizzle sticks are 20 white sparklers, each representing every city landing of Passport to 50. One rare fancy blue diamond, a specialty of the diamond mining conglomerate, evokes the blue skies traversed on this trip.
EXCLUSIVE AMENITY | World of Diamonds created these 18-karat gold swizzle sticks set with white and blue diamonds worth a total of $1 million
And to enhance the ‘Passport to 50’ experience, London’s Hotel 41 will be the first in the world to completely rebrand its identity to “Hotel 50”. The hotel will chip out its marble tile in the foyer, commission newly monogrammed bed and bath linens, and raise a “Hotel 50” flag. Other ground highlights include 50 monks’ blessings amidst an inundation of 50,000 lotus petals.
Passport to 50 begins in Koh Samui and continues through Siem Reap, Kathmandu, Agra, Florence, Siena, Cannes, Moulinet, London, Barcelona, Ibiza, Marbella, Marrakech, Havana, Knoxville, Kona, El Nido, A Secret Island, before concluding in Manila.
EXPERIENTIAL GIVING | The experience would be used to provide bicycles, clean drinking water and fun centers for children battling life-threatening illnesses
The best part of the whole thing, though, is that Dream Maker has partnered with organisations like Water.org, Starlight Children’s Foundation, Make-A-Wish Foundation, and Whole Child International to utilise the ‘Passport to 50’ experience directly for children around the world. Terming it Experiential Giving, Dream Maker would facilitate the distribution of 2,500 bicycles to enable rural children in Cambodia to attend school, the provision of clean drinking water for 50,000 at-risk children in the Philippines, as well as building “fun centers” for 50,000 children battling life-threatening illnesses in the United Kingdom. “Through this trip, we have a way to act as a conduit to positively impact children’s lives,” says Patrick. “It makes no sense to work so hard to please the most discerning of clientele without making the same effort to balance the decadence with an element of kindness that delivers higher levels of fulfillment.” We couldn’t agree more with that.
Mandarin Oriental Group has announced a new luxury hotel and branded residences in Honolulu on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. The project is slated for to open in early 2020. Mandarin Oriental, Honolulu will be the anchor of Mana`olana Place, a 36-story mixed-use tower with gardens and public plazas, currently being developed by Los Angeles-based Salem Partners. Located in the heart of the Ala Moana district, the hotel will have 125 contemporary guestrooms and suites with décor reflecting Hawaiian culture and the hotel’s oriental heritage. The Group will also manage 107Residences at Mandarin Oriental, located on the Mana’olana tower’s upper floors, which will provide some of the most luxurious private homes on the island. The design architects of the project are the Colorado-based firm, [au]workshop who envision the design as a modern, vertical urban resort epitomizing the Hawaiian tradition of the “lanai” with its seamless indoor-outdoor sense of place.
Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL), a unit of Tata Group, has decided to drop the Vivanta and Gateway brands from the group and rebrand all hotels with the ‘Taj’ name. The Vivanta and Gateway names differentiated IHCL’s four-star premium hotels from the rest of its five-star luxury portfolio which carried the exclusive Taj name. By the end of 2017, the former two brands would be discontinued. The Ginger brand name will, however, continue to be used for the budget hotels of the group. The rejig has come about as a result of discussions and feedback from all stakeholders including shareholders, guests and partners, all of whom indicated a stronger connect and affinity to the Taj name. Currently, IHCL has 101 hotels in and outside India, a legacy that began with the 114-year-old Taj Mahal hotel, Mumbai.
You would of course have heard of cigar humidors but this one’s a first: a humidor meant especially for tea, serving to preserve the exquisite flavours and aromas for that perfect cup. This unqiue humidor has been created by Asa Eriksson- Ahuja and her London-based interiors company Lotusier. Handcrafted from the finest of sycamore wood and enhanced with chrome settings, the humidor is priced at $ 8,750 and available in five different designs. Each of these can hold about 70 gms of loose-leaf tea. Four to six mouth-blown crystal containers nestled inside and special fitted channels evenly distributing the humility, all of which works to protect the tea from light, odor, heat, air, and moisture, keeping the flavors intact. That, presicely, was what drove the idea for this product: Eriksson-Ahuja’s tea-connoisseur husband complained of his collectible teas losing their flavour, and now she has come up with the perfect solution.
Bentley Fragrances’ vibrant new scent — Bentley Momentum, the third addition to the luxe carmaker’s masculine fragrance range. Available in two intensities, Bentley Momentum Eau de Toilette and Bentley Momentum Intense, the fragrance is the creation of master perfumer Nathalie Lorson. The perfume bottles are just as fabulous as the scent themselves and use the New York skyline as their muse. Made out of luxuriously heavy glass, the front and back of the bottle is printed with Bentley’s iconic “Flying B” logo as well as the name of the fragrance. Both bottles come in silver hues, with Bentley Momentum Intense sporting a darker shade.
Hindustan Motors, makers of the Indian car Ambassador, have sold the iconic brand to French car manufacturer Peugeot for a price of $12 million—800 million rupees. The C.K. Birla Group that owns Hindustan Motors said it had signed an agreement with Peugeot SA, an agreement that virtually signifies the end of an era in India’s motoring history. First manufactured in 1948, the Ambassador was the only luxury car available in India till the mid-1980s. By the early 1990’s, economic reforms had opened the country’s doors to many small car manufacturers. Hindustan Motors stopped making Ambassadors in 2014 after about 2,200 cars were sold in 2013. Peugeot has recently also signed an agreement with Birla to invest $107 million in a Hindustan Motors manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu. That deal includes hiking manufacturing capacity to 100,000 vehicles a year, to take advantage of the rapid growth in India, where car sales expanded 7 percent to 2.96 million cars last year. What the French car maker plans to do with Ambassador, though, remains a mystery.
