Dubai

Those stories and more in our daily news roundup.

• Karl Lagerfeld has called French President Francois Hollande an "idiot" for the new tax he's set on high-earning French citizens. "It's a disaster," he says. "He wants to punish (the rich) and of course they leave and no one invests." [Reuters]
  

• Jennifer Lawrence may have been named the new face of Miss Dior, but she's still sharing the title with Marion Cotillard. The French actress has just finished a new episode of the brand's online documentary, called "Metamorphose." [Fashion Etc.]
  

• The world's largest shoe store, a 96,000-square-foot Dubai retailer called the Level Shoe District, opened today. The store will stock up to 15,000 pairs of shoes from over 250 brands. [The Los Angeles Times]
  

• Iris Apfel is adding shoes to her portfolio of products, which already includes handbags, makeup, and costume jewelry. [The Cut]
  

• Just after Kristina O'Neill left Harper's Bazaar to join WSJ. Magazine, Harper's accessories director Kate Davidson Hudson and senior accessories editor Stefania Allen left, too. Whether their departure is related to O'Neill leaving remains to be seen. [Fashionista]

The Burj Khalifa in Dubai doesn't do anything on a small scale: It's the world's tallest building, cost a whopping $1.5 billion total to finish, and features over 1,000 high-end and chic residential apartments (though many still remain empty due to the slumped real estate market). Residents and visitors can also now enjoy a unique, musical sculptural piece in the building's lobby, which is made from cymbals.

Contemporary Catalan artist Jaume Plensa and international water feature specialist Crystal collaborated to create "World Voices." The unique sculpture is comprised of 196 18-carat gold-plated cymbals that represent the 196 countries in the world. Titanium rods emerging from two water pools hold the cymbals. Water that drips from the lobby's ceiling falls randomly on the cymbals, creating a percussive, musical element to the piece.

"The residential lobby area of Burj Khalifa is a meeting place of diverse cultures and nationalities — a metaphor of the diversity of our global society. World Voices is homage to this diversity and a celebration of life," notes Plensa. Keep reading to see the sculpture in action.

Forget burqinis! These women bared nearly all on a beach in Dubai today. Though the Islamic country has jailed tourists for sunbathing topless, dress codes for foreigners are loosening in some areas. Last year Paris Hilton assured us there were no legal ramifications for stepping out in a bikini while filming her reality show in Dubai. Maybe she was right?

So you're willing to eat mushroom-flavored chocolate — but what about chocolate made from camel milk? Soon, chocolate addicts with adventurous palates will have the opportunity to try the world's first camel milk chocolate. Dubai confectioner Al Nassma, which claims to be the first chocolate made of the unconventional milk, announced yesterday that it plans to expand into other Arab markets, Japan, Europe, and the United States.

"We aim to be the Godiva of the Middle East," the company's general manager, Martin van Almsick, said. He rattled off the benefits of camel milk, including more vitamin C than cow milk, less fat, less lactose, and more insulin, which makes the chocolate a better option for lactose intolerant and diabetic consumers.

Would you try eating camel milk chocolate — or drinking the milk straight up? Is camel milk poised to become the next soy milk?

Source

Giles Deacon inked a deal with a large manufacturer and will be increasing his distribution from 38 stores to at least 120 stores. 

The full Tracy Feith for Target lookbook has been released with the collection launching in stores and online this weekend. 

Rachel Zoe will be designing a line of accessories for QVC, poised to launch this fall. 

Roberto Cavalli just opened a $30 million dollar club in Dubai, billed as the first designer club in the Middle East. 

J Crew intimates their choice for presidency by showing an outfit Michelle Obama wore on their front page. We had no idea Michelle Obama wore the yellow cardigan we included in yesterday's style spread, but that doesn't mean we were not making a suggestion...

The Dubai Mall opens today and will be, with 1,200 stores and 160 food outlets, the largest in the world. There are approximately 165 stores in the Dubai Mall who have not yet been represented in the whole of the Middle East. The mall will be comprised on ten mini-malls which will be curated by interest. The Fashion Avenue mall will have over 70 high fashion flagships.  

Later this month Teen Vogue is will open its first mall store where shoppers are encouraged to drink smoothies and charge their cell phones. No products will be sold at the pop-up space, the goal is said to simply 'encourage' people to shop in the mall. More than twenty Teen Vogue advertisers are participating in the project. 

Unfortunately, more magazine layoffs, this time...a lot. 

Proving that its always fashion week somewhere we have runway news from all corners of the world as we ponder the inevitable question of who buys all these clothes.

But before we get to the question of wordly fashion weeks our first stop is outer space as the spector of fashion and space tourism rears its perfectly coiffed yet protected against vacuum head.

Designers in Chicago showed in Millenium Park at the Fashion Focus Chicago.

Portland Fashion Week kicks off tonight. We certainly hope to see grand innovations in polar fleece design.

Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week, Spring/Summer 2009 gears up to showcase the work of 79 designers.

Splash Emerging Talent Showcase gives a platform for emerging designers in Dubai.

Karl Lagerfeld, Christian Lacroix, Elie Saab, Jasper Conran, Temperley London and Bruce Oldfield will all be showing wedding gown designs starting tomorrow at London's Designer Wedding Show