23 October 2009
Below is one of my first holiday gift guides from 2007. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed re-reading it. Oh, the opulence! This will be gift guide number uno, but I hope to do ten this year and make them fun. Please feel free to comment and leave some gift suggestions!
This past year has been so much fun at Design Crack. Over the last year, I’ve featured several hundred products from the insanely clever to the fabulously opulent. Today, I’ve decided to focus on the opulent ones and pull out ten from the archives that just made my jaw drop when I saw these. Seriously, if any of you own one of these items and want to share your experiences with the product please contact me. I’d love to know if the product gives you as much pleasure now as when you had first bought it.
1. Refrigerator by Gorenje – $10,000
This may be one of the flashiest, most insanely gorgeous, and at the same time functional gadgets I have ever seen. A Few minutes after I spent time with this refrigerator, I immediately thought of Angelina Jolie.
2. Muon Speakers by KEF- $145,000
Recently, I’ve come upon the Muon speaker. Muon speakers are, quite frankly, the most opulent speakers ever made at an unreasonable price of $145,000.
3. Wally Power Yacht- $25,000,000
This is the Wally Power 118 super yacht. The boat at first looks as if it’s a high speed cigarette boat used for racing, and in a sense it is a racing boat at it’s core. But don’t let the shape fool you. Inside the boat are three modern staterooms.
4. Maybach- $250,000
The Maybach- So what’s so special about this car? First, it’s built like a custom home. The buyer goes to the design studio and chooses dozens of options for the car…
5. Tramonto by Fisker- $150,000
The Tramonto by Fisker is one of those things that comes around very rarely in a lifetime. That is, how often do you have the opportunity to buy one of 150 of the finest designed, finest built cars in the world?
6. Seitz Digital Wide Format Camera- $18,000
The Seitz 6×17 digital large format camera is something that needs to be seen to be believed. It is, quite honestly, the most amazing digital camera ever made. Where do I start?
7. Louis Vuitton $42,000 handbag
Maybe I watch too much crappy television? I don’t know. But, I was watching the Preview Channel – you know, the channel that scrolls the TV guide at the bottom while washed up child actors talk celebrity gossip- the other day when the woman on the show started barking on and on about Louis Vuitton’s $42,000 handbag.
8. Vividus Bed Hastens- $50,000
I’ve been looking at Hastens beds for the past year or so ever since they started their latest media campaign in the design magazines. In this time frame, I’ve actually experienced one of these beds, and there is no doubt that they are unrivaled.
9. Henk Suitcase- $15,000
HENK is absolutely one of the most beautiful rich people’s items I have ever seen. It’s incredibily customizable, richly detailed, superbly functional.
10. Diorette Collection- $42,000
Victoire de Castellane is the queen of enamel and jewels, and her new Diorette collection for Dior shows off her skills better than ever. The rings are huge, bold, chunky. It’s like wearing a little forest on your finger.
November 7th, 2009 at 7:36 am
Hastens beds are great. I was the first to sell them in the US nine years ago and my customers are very happy with their selection. But I am now in the process of phasing out of Hastens and I am carrying Carpe Diem Beds of Sweden instead. I own a shop called Svenska Beds in Norwalk, CT and I have literally grown up in the bed business as my family used to own Kleinsleep, and currently owns Sleep etc. a pioneering company. Although Carpe Diem is new to the US, their mattresses are rated number one in Sweden and are very well known there. They have been rated higher than Hastens for each of the past five years by the Swedish Furniture Industry Survey and my customer’s tend to prefer them. In my opinion, they are the same quality as Hastens, but they have some definite advantages. Many of the components in both Carpe Diem and Hastens are made by the same suppliers including the pocket spring support system. Carpe Diem beds were designed by a chiropractor to be more conforming to the shape of the spine than other beds, this helps to eliminate the pressure points that cause a person to toss and turn. They are upholstered with natural materials like cotton, wool and natural latex making them more breathable. Carpe Diem also uses organic fire retardants like wool, cellulose and salts. This is important as many brands use harmful chemicals instead. Carpe and Hastens are the only two brands that I know of that have been certified by both Svan and Oeko Tex. These are Scandinavian and EU organizations that have certified that the beds contain no harmful materials and that the beds are not harmful to the environment from the manufacturing process to the point when they are disposed of. It’s hard to compare apples to apples, but Carpe Diem beds tend to run about 20% to 30% less than Hastens for models that are pretty comparable. They also have better edge support and they don’t settle the way Hastens beds settle, so they don’t require all the maintenance that is a Hastens turn off to a lot of people. I am happy to provide info on Carpe Diem Beds, Hastens, or other European brands that I am very familiar with including Duxiana, Vi-Spring, Hypnos, Savoir and few others. Feel free to email me for advice even if you are not dealing with my company. I’m truly happy to pass on info and opinions. Jeff Klein jklein@svenskabeds.com