bal harbour

Bal Harbour Shops, The Changing Face Of Shopping

These days luxury retail isn't just a store, it's a whole identity. We've seen retail brands from Barney's New York to Net-a-Porter get deeper and deeper into the content arena offering articles, photography and videos that aren't just ads they are separate editorial experiences. Shopping destinations that host a variety of shops are also getting in on the action too.

Bal Harbour Shops, an upscale destination in Florida's affluent village of Bal Harbour isn't just a destination shopping area with stores like Neiman Marcus, Brooks Brothers, Gucci and Versace, fine dining restaurants, cafes and more, it also has its own luxury magazine with glossy fashion layouts. The Shops at Bal Harbour website isn't your old-fashioned mall directory, it's packed with profiles of fashionable folks like Ines de La Fressange and pieces on the latest fashions and on local socialites. The event calendar reveals a busy schedule of designer trunk shows, meet and greets with designers and more. Shown above is the video for the cover shoot for the latest issue of Bal Harbour magazine.

Palm Beach's Worth Avenue has a similar website initiative that promotes not just the shops but a luxury lifestyle. Today's high-end shopping destinations are more than just a place to buy clothing or other goods, they are also a brand unto themselves.

Tags: bal harbour, bal harbour shops

Bal Harbour, Estate of the Day

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates

Today's home in Bal Harbour, Florida has a tropical feel that seems almost more Hawaiian in style. The seven-bedroom home is on over an acre wither bay and ocean views. The home's many features include a billiard room with an exotic fish aquarium, garden room with access to the pool, a chef's kitchen with two pantries an a master suite with his and hers bathrooms and walk-in closets. The outdoor space boasts an infinity pool that overlooks the bay. A Tiki hut has a built-in barbecue, under-counter refrigerator and built-in seating. The property also has a half court basketball court and a two-bedroom, two-car garage guest home, a fully equipped home gym, and a massage room. There is also boat dockage. This home is listed at $17 million.

Gallery: Bal Harbour

Tags: bal harbour, BalHarbour, estate of the day, EstateOfTheDay, florida, florida real estate, FloridaRealEstate

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Audemars Piguet Adds "Watch Maker" Charm To Their Bal Harbor Boutique

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches

Those people familiar with the shops at Bal Harbour knows how each luxury brand situated there feels the need to one up each other. This makes sense given the locations ability to attract the wealthiest Floridian buyers, as well as those who travel to the shopping center from around the world. Over the last few year Audemars Piguet has been playing with a new type of marketing campaign dedicated to enhancing the artisan-like feel of the brand. This essentially means that they want you thinking that watch makers time traveled from 1875 to the present day, and are hand-making Audemars Piguet watches in candle light somewhere in the heart of Switzerland. Most of this is true - save for the candle light.

Selling ultra luxury watches is as much about selling the final product as it is about selling how they were made. For this purpose, the Audemars Piguet Bal Harbour boutique has been temporarily transformed to include watch movement sketches, work tables, tools, and other items of traditional watch making construction. The good news is, that if you visit an actual Swiss watch making factory, all of these same tools are pretty much used - though maybe modernized a bit. Audemars Piguet does take much pride in the fact that they practice "traditional watch making" techniques. The display is a good idea , because it attempts to show a manufacture made mechanical watch in its natural element. If you are in the area, check it out. The window display will be up through the end of the year at the Audemars Piguet store at the Bal Harbour stores in Miami, Florida.

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Gallery: Audemars Piguet Bal Harbour display Nov 2009

Tags: audemars piguet, AudemarsPiguet, bal harbour, BalHarbour, boutique, florida

The St. Regis Introduces Itself to Bal Harbour

by Jonathon Ramsey (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Spas, Real Estate Developments

The third tower of The St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort is expected to be finished next February, and the resort will open its heavy glass doors to early adopters in 2011. Sitting on 1,000 square feet of sable blanc at the north end of Miami Beach, the three 27-story towers will house 511 rooms in various sizes and flavors of sumptuousness. The move south, like a snowbird from that biggest of apples, is intended to be a relocation of the New England grandeur that Colonel John Jacob Astor IV inaugurated when he opened the first St. Regis in NYC in 1904.

Think: mirrors. Lots of them. The Yabu Pushelberg interior scheme (from the firm that has lent a helping hand to Prada, Tiffany, the Mandarin Oriental, and so on) will naturally focus on textures and materials: Movingui hardwood walls, marble and travertine flooring, and etched plaster walls will abound upon entry. Guests and residents are no less looked after, with spa-like bathrooms, enclosed walk-in showers, and overflow soaking tubs. Granite makes its necessary appearance for the kitchen countertops, and the cutlery drawers will even be pre-slotted, so you'll never mistake your butcher for your cleaver.

Residences come in one-, two-, three-, and four-bedroom sizes, range from 1,777 to 6,868 square feet, and start at $1.9 million. If you need more convincing -- and proof that that this St. Regis has left behind most of its New York City roots -- the balconies alone start at 455 square feet, larger than a fair number of Manhattan apartments. Amenities will include white-glove butlers, 24-hour room service, a 12,000 square foot spa, and someone to do your grocery shopping for you. Because, you know, you'll be hungry when you finally roll in from Nikki Beach...

Gallery: St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort