ruben toledo

Louis Vuitton City Guide: 100 World Cities by Ruben Toledo

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Art

Louis Vuitton is honoring Ruben Toledo's twelve years of artistic work for their City Guides with a boxed set of 100 postcards, each featuring a different world city. Illustrated in black and white and accented with vibrant fluorescent colors, each image aims to capture the unique experience of the depicted destination. The collection contains images created by Toledo as far as back as 1998 and about them he says "My aim is to paint a portrait of a city and to draw out its special and eternal essence; to capture the unique tempo and character of each." AU$145

Gallery: 100 World Cities by Ruben Toledo for Louis Vuitton City Guides

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Tags: city guides, louis vuitton, postcards, ruben toledo, travel guides, vuitton

The Museum-Quality Cigar

by Amanda Gordon (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Cigars

For a certain type of man and woman, one of summer's greatest pleasures is puffing on a cigar on a steamy evening, gazing at the stars, reflecting (or not) on a day well spent at leisure. Now you can have that pleasure with some added panache. Cuban-born artist and illustrator Ruben Toledo -- perhaps you've seen his work in Vogue or Visionaire, or on the walls of the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the Momu in Antwerp -- has created a limited edition cigar box (only 2,000 were made) featuring La Flor Dominicana cigars from the Dominican Republic described as having a "full-bodied smoke" with "sweetness" and "complexity." The box is white lacquer featuring a Toledo illustration of a woman; another illustration, also of a woman, is featured on the wrappers.

These are some beautiful cigars, and for a beautiful cause, too: all profits of the project will be donated to El Museo del Barrio, the New York museum devoted to Latin American and Caribbean art. Toledo and his wife, Isabel Toledo -- who designed First Lady Michelle Obama's inauguration day outfit and is the subject of an exhibit at Fashion Institute of Technology on view now -- are major fans and supporters of the museum, and are responsible for turning the museum's annual gala into one of the most festive benefits in Manhattan. "This is a project with so much meaning for both my wife and I. El Museo is a symbol of pride for Latinos, and cigars are such a potent symbol of our heritage," Toledo said. The price is $782.10 a box (including tax). To purchase, call 646-243-2675.

Tags: cigars, la flor dominicana, LaFlorDominicana, ruben toledo, RubenToledo

New La Flor Dominicana to Benefit NY Museum

by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Cigars

A series of limited-edition cigars and boxes is being designed under the leadership of Litto Gomez to benefit El Museo del Barrio, New York City's only Latin American museum. To pull the project together, Gomez is working with artist Ruben Toledo and his wife Isabel, a fashion designer.

The end result, La Flor Dominicana El Museo Limited Edition is a Churchill-sized cigar. The filler and binder are from the La Flor de Palma farm in the Dominican Republic, and the wrapper is from other parts of the same country. The cigars are packaged in off-white lacquer boxes with designs by Ruben Toledo on both sides of the lid. Gomez says that the El Museo has a rich, smooth, full-bodied taste with both sweetness and complexity.

Gomez is making 2,000 boxes available, with each priced at $600. They will be available in May.

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Tags: art, cigar, cigar aficionado, CigarAficionado, cigars, dominican, dominican republic, dominican-republic, DominicanRepublic, museum, museums, new york, new york city, NewYork, NewYorkCity, nyc, ruben toledo, RubenToledo, tobacco

Nordstrom Moves to Recylable Shopping Bags and Boxes

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Green

Last week I mentioned that eLuxury was getting rid of their paper catalogs now another luxury retailer has taken an environmental step forward. Nordstrom has announced that they will introduce environmentally friendly packaging options for customers throughout 2008. They will offer fully recyclable shopping bags and gift boxes and will also sell reusable shopping tote. Over the next year the company's paper shopping bags will evolve to be 100 percent recyclable. Old boxes and bags that are not recyclable will be phased out and over the coming months new paper bags with recyclable cotton handles will be phased in and for the holidays the company will offer gift boxes made of 100 percent recycled paper stock that is 30 percent post-consumer waste.

The reusable shopping totes will have a cityscape illustration by artist Ruben Toledo. The metallic brushed linen tote will zip into a small rectangle case for easy storage. It will sell for $21.95.

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Tags: bags, nordstrom, recyclable, ruben toledo, shopping bags