Gloves are back, and not just for women
After years of neglecting cold weather accessories and spurning gloves as a winter necessity, fur at your finger tips is back in fashion.

Romancing the stones
This season designers like Miuccia Prada, Donatella Versace, Dolce & Gabbana and Marni are incorporating metallic plaques, silver studs or faux gems into otherwise simple and streamlined dresses.

How Bauhaus was shaped into greatness
The Bauhaus, the German art and design school designed in the mid-1920s by the architect Walter Gropius in Dessau, became a technocratic, meritocratic and modern spirit. An exhibition at Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art in England tells its story.

Ballerinas! Jewels for dancing
The Royal Ballet is staging "Jewels," a revival of the George Balanchine production, at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. The ballet was first shown in New York in 1967 and was inspired by the Fifth Avenue windows of Van Cleef & Arpels. The jewelry house in turn has just created a new dance collection, called Ballet Précieux.

Viktor & Rolf to design bags for Samsonite
The Dutch design duo of Rolf Snoeren and Viktor Horsting have been tapped by Samsonite to create a Black Label collection for 2009 - following Alexander McQueen, who also created a collection for the iconic travel brand.

Laurence Graff: The king of diamonds
"The Most Fabulous Jewels in the World" tells the rags-to-riches story of Laurence Graff, who rose from being a 15-year-old apprentice to the seller of some of the most famous diamonds in the world, including the Idol's Eye and the Excelsior.

A Chanel home dazzles, again
After being shuttered for more than nine months, Chanel Fine Jewelry on the Place Vendôme in Paris has reopened with a new 450-square-meter interior that stays true to the brand without looking dated.

Japanese art crafts mix continuity and change
Take the profound Japanese respect for tradition, and add to it a mania for novelty. This dynamic has given rise over the last half century to art-craft pieces that are made using age-old techniques, adapted in ways that are unmistakably modern.

Rare book editions are unique collector's items
Often found at auctions, notable rare books include modern illustrated volumes illustrated by renowned artists or books that are distinguished by unique bindings.
- Booking in: some rare book sales coming up

Conscientious consumption: Ethical trend gains in luxury market
From jewels to chocolates, the shift is away from exploitation.
- Shopping with a conscience: debates and displays

It's a buoy, it's a boat... No, it's Stargazer
The floating supersculpture of the 64-year-old artist Robert Llimós could catch on as the latest must-have luxury accessory.

Vodka repackaged and marketed as a luxury good
It is being reinvented for a new in-crowd of drinkers as a luxury spirit to rival vintage cognacs and champagnes.
- Shaken, not stirred: Vodka cocktail hints

Jewelers find inspiration in India
Jewelry connoisseurs are again citing the country's 5,000-year-old design heritage, newly co-opted by a rising cohort of luxury jewelers besotted with traditional Indian craftsmanship and locally sourced precious stones.

In Japan, it's the men who want to be skinny and cute
The aesthetic ideal for Japanese women used to be one of fragility and slimness. But now, while women have thrown that out in favor of dressing for themselves and their own self-esteem, it's the men who are losing weight in hope of looking waif-like.

Beauty gurus define a bolder and brighter aesthetic
At Madrid's recent beauty convention, Look, the message for the image-conscious consumer this season was bolder, stronger hairdos, bright red lips and dark, matte eye shadows.

Not your grandma's shade of jade
Jewelers are increasing the use of colored jade in their contemporary designs to attract a younger generation of customers who view traditional green jade as old-fashioned.

Turquoise and gold: An Egyptian moment
Egypt is back in style, from an exhibition on Tutankhamun opening this month in London to a new version of "Aida" by the English National Opera, with designs by Zandra Rhodes. Meanwhile, the British designer Julien Macdonald has teamed up with the Cairo jeweler Azza Fahmy, whose filigree work and delicate calligraphy capture the essence of Egypt.

Suzy Menkes: Upgrading the softwear with chunky and shapely winter knits
This is the season across Europe and North America where thoughts turn to clothes in the comfort zone, especially knits as armor against the morning chill, before the full winter coat comes out of its dry-cleaning bag.

Lighting of the future
Compact fluorescent bulbs, or CFLs, the miniaturized versions of fluorescent strip lights that are are touted as energy-efficient alternatives have problems with the quality of their light. Though all of the other energy-efficient alternatives to the incandescent bulb are equally flawed.

High contrast hues turn on the lights in a dark handbag
With women finding themselves digging through their bags to unearth hidden treasures, luxury brands are coming to the rescue by creating accessories that pop in high-octane hues.

Harry Selfridge: The 'showman of shopping'
The story of Harry Gordon Selfridge is the tale of a remarkable individual who crossed the Atlantic from Chicago to found, in 1909, London's Selfridges store.

Claire Danes: Putting her faith in designers
Beyond scoring a free outfit, why do intelligent, attractive actresses need designers?

Greek designers turn classic accessories contemporary
Whether spectacularly chunky or elegantly fine, the creations of some Greek designers offer contemporary takes on classic forms.

Nicolas Ghesquière's autumn designs, inspired by samurai
Exploring the Balenciaga store in the Chesea neighborhood of Manhattan, there was in Nicolas Ghesquière's clothes a samurai influence in the riveting designs - and also a 19th-century French sailor, a 1920s flapper, a 1960s ski chalet and others.

Is Facebook for old fogies a log-off for youths?
It's no secret that Facebook, which started as a networking playground for college kids, is graying. The influx raises questions. For example, will the loss of the campus sensibility and the youthful gestalt dilute the Facebook experience?

On fashion runways, racial diversity is out
In today's fashion climate, it is more difficult to promote a black model than a white one. Of the 101 shows and presentations posted on Style.com during the New York runway season in September, more than a third employed no black models, according to Women's Wear Daily. Most of the others used just one or two.

Parisian antiquary finds a partner in traditional rival
The first time that you dare to push open the doors of the Galerie Steinitz, prepare to be dazzled by its splendid décors. Run by Bernard Steinitz and his family, the antique shop is one of the most eclectic in Paris.

Treading the earth with a heavenly cargo
Printed matter of almost any kind was a luxury when the Remondini launched their enterprise in the mid 17th century. The only pictorial materials available to most people were monochrome woodblock and copperplate prints.

The Louvre takes its shows on the road
The Louvre Museum is expanding its global reach, sending out expeditionary shows this autumn to spread the French cultural message to U.S. museums in Atlanta, Denver and Indianapolis.

Chinese bidders cool to the export market
Chinese buyers are making their presence felt at this season's auctions of Chinese antiques, but they remain highly selective about what they buy.

Aerin brings a sense of soul back to Estée Lauder
Aerin Lauder has taken up the mantel of her grandmother, Estée Lauder, as the family emblem of the cosmetic giant by using her own image to launch her first fragrance: Private Collection Tuberose Gardenia.
- Comme des Garçons builds niche perfume empire

This season, dangerous shoes make an impact
As much as the spring collections in Paris romanticized traditionally conservative notions of dress, something more sinister seemed to be happening beneath the surface. More precisely, it was happening on the models' feet, expressed in the design of shoes by Nicolas Ghesquière of Balenciaga, Stefano Pilati of Yves Saint Laurent and Riccardo Tisci of Givenchy, to name a few.

French Heritage Society fetes 25 years of French-American alliance
The French Heritage Society, which embraces French-American friendship, celebrated last week a quarter of a century, with visits to some of the most grandiose and glamorous of French sites, including to Château d'Yquem and a gala dinner at Vaux-le-Vicomte.

Valentino at 45: Painting the town in red
At the Roman Colosseum, with three dancers in red floating like puppets on a string and a golden shower of fireworks, Valentino celebrated more than four decades of fashion history.

Valentino in Ara Pacis
Patrick Kinmonth and Antonio Monfreda - the scenario's joint creators - have used the Richard Meier glass cube framing the Ara Pacis (peace altar) to show Valentino's dresses literally in a new light.

Armani, with attitude
It began with Giorgio Armani's "Rock Symphony" and ended at midnight Wednesday with a barefoot Courtney Love in a Givenchy couture gown belting out "Samantha" until even the wrought iron banisters of the august Paris fashion house were shaking.

Tailors on the prowl
A fashion king earned his crown on Wednesday as Jean Paul Gaultier gave his imagination a royal workout with princes as a theme. With the look of Ruritania or Rajasthan, the models strode the catwalk, crowned heads (and sometimes crown hairdos) held high, showing precise tailoring and artistic embellishment - often both at once.

Lacroix is sugar sweet
Christian Lacroix celebrated 20 years of couture with a collection that was charming, fresh and bonbon sweet. Yet the sugar came in calorie-controlled doses.

Lagerfeld again triumphs for Chanel
Karl Lagerfeld created a superb show for the Paris haute couture collections Tuesday.

A shot of frustration at espresso machines
There was a time, not so very long ago, when espresso machines were things of beauty - take the old Gaggia, for example. But the current crop, including most of the Nespresso and Illy designs, seem doomed to be blobby, bulbous and infuriatingly over-complicated.

The inspired past of London Transport design
The newly restored London Transport Museum shows how - once upon a time in the 1930s - a public transport system succeeded in getting all of its design right.

Wistfully pushing the boundaries of design and art
"Wouldn't it be nice..." is an exhibition exploring the blurred boundaries between art and design at the Centre d'Art Contemporain in Geneva. It includes works by Jürgen Bey; the London-based trio, Tony Dunne, Fiona Raby and Michael Anastassiades; Martino Gamper; and Ryan Gander.

The risks of playing with a brand's 'look'
With its redesign of the lobby of the Royalton Hotel in New York, the Morgans Hotel Group has committed the woefully common corporate design crime of replacing something wonderful - the show-stopping lobby dreamt up in 1988 by Philippe Starck - with something that isn't.

Artek: Designing for (sustainable) success
Sustainability is a weak spot for the furniture industry. But Artek, a Finnish design company co-founded in the 1930s by Alvar Aalto, is determined to be an exception.

Crafting instruments for the 21st century
The Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson, with the Norwegian architect Andreas Eggertsen and the Icelandic classical violin maker Hans Johannsson are developing a new stringed instrument. An early, lo-tech prototype was played for the first time last month at The Serpentine Gallery in London.