Italian fashion designer Roberto Cavalli becomes the latest designer to take his talent to a hotel project in Dubai. The Fairmont Dubai will be the site of Roberto Cavalli's first Cavalli Club a new 'entertainment and night-life' concept. In Dubai, Cavalli is planning a two-story club with a separate entrance from the Fairmont Dubai. The floors will be done in shiny black quartz with reflective crystal dust and tall walls of Swarovski crystals create sparkling curtains. Want to shop late at night? The ground floor will showcase jewelry, watches and exclusive accessories from the Cavalli Maison. There will also be selection of refined food products chosen by Roberto Cavalli to express the best of 'Made in Italy."

Upstairs, an Italian restaurant is at center of the hall, while on either side of the Italian restaurant, there are are two large atolls in gold-colored glass and fur, suspended from the floor, which host a sushi bar and a wine bar featuring Cavalli Selection red wine. The upper floor also features a lounge bar with music and a suspended platform that will host the DJ and the dancers, as well as other entertainment and shows. The Cavalli Club Dubai will open in November 2008, with Cavalli set to take his party to Florence and Milan later.

(In this photo Cavalli poses with a plate portrait done by Julian Schnabel. Cavalli bought the plate portrait in 2007 at an AmFar auction).

In the latest addition to Dubai's burgeoning fashion scene, hip Danish eco-luxury label Noir plans to open its very first standalone store there rather than Denmark, Paris, London or New York.

Founded in 2005 by designer Peter Ingwersen with the intention of creating "meaningfulness in the luxury segment," the line focuses on ethical, environmentally friendly sources for its materials and supports ecologically sound principles and developing nations.

Ingwersen has also produced a collection of organic cottons in Uganda, and recently announced plans for a diffusion line. "We decided to go international with the first [store]," Ingwersen told WWD about debuting in Dubai. "It's brand heaven there."

As we reported previously, Donatella Versace and Karl Lagerfeld are among the designers with Dubai projects up their sleeves.

Ugh, isn't Dubai full up of celebrity hotels, resorts, and developments already? Apparently not, as the latest celebrity to join the fray of "I have a hotel in Dubai" is Pamela Anderson.

Her hotel will apparently be environmentally friendly, although how exactly we're not sure -- except that she was quoted as saying "It's built with no fossil fuel at all... in Abu Dhabi - where they have all that oil."

Pamela was first inspired for the project after traveling to the area this past June with the Make a Wish Foundation. No word on what her hotel will be called, or when it will open for business.

Of the various things that the first of Emirates' 58 Airbus A380s might be known for, the shower is perhaps the most dramatic. The doubledecker jet landed at Dubai international airport this week in grand style. His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airline and Group, was on board with a delegation of senior Emirates executives that flew in from Hamburg on the aircraft. Gulf News has a first hand account from a journalist on board.

Emirates' first A380 has 489 seats: 14 in first class suites, 76 in business and 399 in economy. The first class passengers on Emirates A380 will be the only ones with access to the shower. Emirates' first A380 commercial service is scheduled for 1 August and will operate between Dubai and New York.

[Thanks, Ben]

In Kuwait's plans for Silk City (Madinat Al Hareer), no one will ever be more than three blocks from water or gardens. A vast National Wildlife Refuge is in the works. And medical treatment along with fresh, healthy food will be accessible on foot for 80% of residents. The centerpiece of the hugely ambitious project will be the tallest building in the world, the Mubarak al Kabir Tower, at 200 stories and comprised of seven distinct "vertical neighborhoods." (Fun fact: the tower will reach to 1,001 meters, an imposing physical reference to the Arabian Nights tale.) Add to that the four main quadrants of the city: Finance City, Leisure City (I'm totally moving there), Culture City and Ecologic City, and what is ostensibly an architectural feat becomes an experiment in crafting entire ways of life. With government investment of $132 billion, London-based design firm CivicArts/Eric R. Kuhne are ready to break ground ... and continue its labors until the estimated date of completion for Silk City, 2023.

Investors in the project state that their hopes to renew Kuwait's cultural influence are highly motivational, and the idea is based on the crucial links established over a thousand years ago when Kuwait was a center on the silk trade routes. Now planning to link itself with cities like Damascus and Baghdad, stretching ultimately all the way to China, Kuwait intends to reestablish its connectivity in more than just symbolic measure.

Clearly imitative of nearby architectural playgrounds like Dubai and Abu Dhabi, Silk City and all its outrageous goals does come off feeling a bit more commercial than its underlying motives might imply. They're tossing around terms like the "Arabian Riviera" and plan to incorporate such enclaves as "Film City" and multiple "pleasure facilities." Maybe it's that the intentions aren't just outrageous but highly-regimented. The planners are busy designing 28 different "lifestyle zones" specifically branded by interest (sports, film, media, etc.). While all the bells and whistles sound pretty awesome (in the true sense of the word) the overly manufactured quality of every detail -- especially the neighborhoods, oops "lifestyle zones," which force homogeneity not diversity -- make this huge community appear rather disconnected after all.

I guess we'll have to reevaluate in 2023. But judging from a fairly recent visit to Dubai, a model of speedy construction and ambitious contemporary architecture, I'd be willing to bet Silk City is operational much before then. Those oil prices don't hurt the timeline, either.

Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld's already packed schedule is getting a little busier. The quirky fashion icon has signed a deal with Dubai Infinity Holdings to design limited edition homes on Isla Moda, the world's first dedicated fashion island, located on Dubai's The World project. Lagerfeld will design 80 homes total.

Lagerfeld has designed for Chanel and for his own lines for years, is also a photographer and has created campaigns for brands such as Dom Perignon. He has opened a bookshop on the leftbank of Paris and start a new venture as a publisher of art books with his publication house, 7L. He has designed his own homes but this is his first commercial residential project. In a press release, Lagerfeld described Dubai as "a fashion bud on the verge of blossoming into the next fashion hub of the world."

Isla Moda will include a fashion hotel and a variety of luxury residential villas. The Hotel Moda will have approximately 250 rooms and serviced apartments as well as boutiques representing the world's most prominent designers.. There will also be design studios and dedicated areas for fashion shows and project launches. Isla Moda is set to open in 2011.

Construction has been underway on the world's tallest building, the Burj Dubai, for a while now. But developer Emaar Properties has announced that the building is going to be even taller than originally planned. How tall? They aren't telling. The final height of the Burj Dubai won't be revealed until it is finished in September 2009. Why the secrecy? Likely so that no one else will try to build one that is taller until the building officially opens. The tower, which at 2,036.6 feet is already the world's tallest structure, currently has 160 stories.

The tower is also upgrading and redesign the interior to make it as attractive as possible and to make room for technological advancements that have occurred between now and 2004 when some of the building's interiors were planned. Right now around 7,500 people are employed on-site at Burj Dubai. The cladding work is nearing completion and they are working on the infrastructure. When completed the tower will be home to residences, office suites an Armani Hotel and Armani Residences and observation deck on Level 124 which will offer visitors sky high views.

Italian design house Gianfranco Ferre has signed multi-billion dollar deal to develop real estate projects with a fashionable flair. Ferre is partnering with Mideast-based GIO Developments on the deal, and the first project, called "Gianfranco Ferre Stresa," will be a mixed-use highrise in Dubai. The $1.2 billion tower will combine residential, commercial and hospitality spaces, and the partnership has dubbed it the first example of "concrete couture." Other similar projects are planned around the globe. Mr. Ferre himself, who was fittingly known as the "architect of fashion," died last year. The company bearing his name already has a strong presence in the region with existing stores in Dubai, Beirut and Istanbul and new openings planned for Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait within the year. Other design houses currently collaborating on Dubai developments include Versace, Christian Lacroix and Elie Saab.

Yet another amazingly ambitious construction project has been launched for Dubai. At the Plaza Hotel in New York Dr David Fisher of Dynamic Group showed off the plans for the Dynamic Tower in Dubai. The $700 million project is an 80-story building where each floor rotates so that everyone gets a 360-degree view (the full rotation takes between one and three hours). The tower will have 10 full floor apartments in which the owner can control the rotation. The rest of the floors will include a luxury hotel.

The structure will have a fluid look, sometimes sinuous and sometimes looking like a set of children's blocks. The apartments will start around $3,000 per square foot putting them in the same price range as Donald Trump's Palm Jumeirah project.

Each floor will be prefabricated in a factory in Italy, shipped to the site and then attached to the core. Fisher says that this could mean floors could go up as quickly as one every seven days and plans a 2010 completion date. He sees this type of prefabrication as the way of the future. The building will also have wind turbines between each floor to provide energy. Fisher plans a second tower for Moscow and hope to have a third in New York.

This is Fisher's first skyscraper project so many are wondering if this will ever be built. As a cynic who has seen a lot of flashy projects debut and disappear before construction, I'm tempted to agree with the skeptics.

This project isn't the only rotating tower planned for Dubai. Check out this project, which I first wrote about in 2006 when it was originally planned to be completed this year. The project calls for 72 units, many of which have been sold.

Donald Trump's project on the Palm Jumeriah development in Dubai may have quite the penthouse up for sale. Property developer Nakheel has announced that they expect to sell a penthouse in theTrump International Hotel & Tower on Palm Jumeirah for more than $30 million. Designer Kelly Hoppen has designed two penthouses in the tower which will have 399 residences and townhouses total.

Trump has released his standard hyperbolic statement, saying that he believes " Palm Jumeirah is on course to become one of the world's premier tourist destinations." He also said he is planning to reserve a property in the tower for himself. The 62-story, stainless steel and glass Trump International Hotel & Tower will be the tallest structure on Palm Jumeirah and should be completed in the summer of 2011. It will stand as the gateway to the palm-shaped development, straddling the center line of the Palm Jumeirah, making it the gateway to the heart of the development.

Lebanese designer Elie Saab, known for his red-carpet gowns, will become the next designer to have a luxury hotel. Saab will be creating a boutique style hotel at the Tiger Woods Dubai resort, which is expected to open in September 2009. The complex will include 14 bungalows, 89 suites and easy access to a golf course designed by Tiger Woods himself. The Tiger Woods Dubai is a golf community located in the massive Dubailand project that also includes a golf academy, a 60,000-square-foot clubhouse, a retail area and villas and mansions for sale.

There are a wide variety of designers from the fashion and jewelry worlds who have lent their name to hotel designs and brands, below are just a few.

Photo courtesy of teNeues; cover image courtesy Tugu Hotels & Exotic Spas

We've written before about German publisher teNeues's amazing Luxury series; you should know that their Cool series is equally impressive. The latest title in the line, Cool Restaurants: Top of the World, features over 100 incredible eateries scattered around the globe. teNeues selects only the best of the best for their "Top of the World" titles, such as Bale Sutra, the restaurant located in a majestic 300-year-old Kang Xi period temple at the exotic Hotel Tugu in Bali, pictured here on the cover. While New York City has the highest concentration of cool restaurants in any urban locale, and the U.S.A. the most for a single country, Europe has many more continent-wise. Dubai is putting itself on the culinary design map as well, with an admirable showing of four restaurants included in the book - as many as the UK. See the gallery for a tour of some standouts.

Brad (and his ever growing resume) has embraced a new project not on film, but with a hard hat in Dubai. He will be collaborating with an architectural firm there, Zabeel Properties, as well as the firm he currently consults with, LA-based GRAFT, to design a new hotel that will be built sustainably. Zabeel Properties is known for also being socially-responsible with its projects, considering the community's needs as well as its inhabitants seeing the development beyond the walls and through a larger lens. Lending his enthusiasm and expertise, after his experience with Make It Right which is still building homes in the 9th Ward of New Orleans, Brad certainly also creates added interest in any project he throws himself into. The primary fixture of this development project will be an 800-room five-star hotel with American themes and an environmentally-friendly structure. Once again, Dubai is on the cusp of both luxurious and current interests, going green with glamour.

Tomorrow London auction house Bonhams will host its 9th annual Aston Martin auction in Newport Pagnell, England, at the Aston Martin Works Service. Since 2000 Bonhams have sold over $27 million worth of Aston Martins (James Bond's vehicle of choice) and related automobilia, breaking several records in the process and establishing themselves as the leading Aston auctioneer. The star of the auction dollar-wise is a 2006 DBR9 GT1 Sports-Racing Coupé which triumphed at that year's FIA GT Championship in Dubai. The car is estimated at $700,000 - $780,000.

Other highlights of the sale include the 1969 DB6 Volante pictured here, est. $230,000 - $290,000; a 1965 DB5 Saloon, est. $270,000 - $310,000; a 1986 V8 Vantage Zagato Coupé that belonged to actor Rowan Atkinson, est. $135,000 - $175,000; a 1961 DB4 Series IV Saloon, est. $215,000 - $250,000; and a 1989 V8 Vantage Volante, est. $175,000 - $215,000. On the heels of the Ferrari auction in Italy we told you about the other day, this is definitely a good month to go classic car shopping. See the gallery for more.

Think the McMansion is just an American idea? We've definitely exported the concept. Check out today's home in the luxury Emirates Hills section of Dubai. This villa has seven bedrooms and 24,500 square feet of space. Some only in Dubai detailer include an underground garage and a room just for your driver, a professional service kitchen with Tandoori oven and a formal dining room with silk wallpaper and an ornate inlaid table. The home also has home theater, a gym and a a massage area with a Jacuzzi, a gym, cinema, sauna and steam room. This home is listed at $21 million.

[Thanks, Ben!]