Roberto Cavalli Opens First Nightclub in Florence, Italy

Designer Roberto Cavalli opened his first nightclub in the beautiful city of Florence in Italy this past week. Cavalli chose a 15th century deconsecrated church as the location of the club which was in a desperate need for a restoration. The church, and now his nightclub, is near the 13th-century Basilica di Santa Maria del Carmine, and it is adorned with Renaissance masterpieces by artists such as Masaccio and Masolino. “I feel I helped recover a real jewel,” says Cavalli of the recovered church which is now turned into a luxurious nightclub. Cavalli along side with architect Italo Rota took full advantage of the high ceilings of the original building and also added additional level. A lounge bar is located on the ground floor; a stage with a piano is placed in a niche where the altar used to be, and a 50-seat restaurant is on the upper floor. The decor is greatly nature inspired including steel leaves decorating the columns, a huge twisting steel snake on the side of the bar, an aquarium, an oversize shell on one wall, and seats with the designer’s infamous animal prints. Cavalli will open two more nightclubs in the upcoming year, one in Dubai at the end of January 2009, which will have a “a huge stairway” and plenty of glittering Swarovski crystals, and the other in Milan in February 2009. The designer is also working on renovating Milan’s former Just Cavalli Café and turning it into a Club.

Sarah Palin’s “Real Women Hunt Moose” and Brigitte Bardot Comments

I really do not like to discuss politics. However, when it comes to animals, my sensitive animal lover nature speaks aloud. Sarah Palin was photographed on her way to meet with John McCain yesterday in Allentown, Pennsylvania. She was wearing a tote handbag with the phrase “Real Women Hunt Moose” written above the picture of moose head. Real women? Really??? I have no words to express how disgusting this statement is, let alone how ignorant and just plain stupid.

French film legend and great beauty Brigitte Bardot, who is by far the definition of a true lady and a real woman, said that Palin was a disgrace to women. In an open letter, Bardot wrote, “By denying the responsibility of man in global warming, by advocating gun rights and making statements that are disconcertingly stupid, you are a disgrace to women and you alone represent a terrible threat, a true environmental catastrophe.” On the note that Palin supports Arctic oil exploration which could jeopardise animal habits and dismisses the protection measures for polar bears, the French icon wrote, “This shows your total lack of responsibility, your inability to protect or simply respect animal life.” And Palin, please do not compare yourself to a pitbull with lipstick. Pitbulls and any other dogs and animals are by far much sweeter (and intelligent,) so comparing yourself to any of them is very disrespectful to the animals.

Here is a photo of Brigitte Bardot in her earlier days and this is one of my favorite pictures of her! Also featured are a couple of pictures of cute baby moose.

Model Faints at Alexander McQueen Show in Paris

The Alexander McQueen fashion show for Spring 2009 in Paris started out really refreshing and fun, especially when the designer showed up at the end in a bunny suit along with his animal friends, like the polar bear, the cute tiger and the deer (you can look at the picture below.) The show wasn’t all fun as unfortunately one of the models fainted on exiting the stage at the end of her catwalk and did not even make it out for the final catwalk closing the show. Reportedly, the model was Abbey Lee who looked extremely pale and distressed while on the runway. Although, the cause is not yet known, the corset she was wearing looked dangerously tight and one might speculate whether it had something to do with the collapse. One thing is for sure, we all hope that she is doing well!

Gisele Goes Green to Support the Atlantic Forest with Ipanema Sandals

Supermodel Gisele Bundchen has launched an Ipanema 2009 Sandal Collection in support of the Atlantic forest. The Brazilian beauty with an even more beautiful heart has teamed up with Grendene, which is the mother company of Ipanema, to develop a special project with SOS Mata Atlântica. SOS Mata Atlântica is a program that supports the gallery forest which is the vegetation surrounding the rivers and streams and which also helps in the protection of water. Each Ipanema sandal sold will help to plant 25, 500 saplings from the 100 different species of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest.

Sadly, only 10 percent of the Atlantic Forest remains as more than two dozen Critically Endangered vertebrate species are barely surviving. The Atlantic Forest or Mata Atlântica stretches along Brazil’s Atlantic coast, from Rio Grande do Norte to Rio Grande do Sul. It has an extremely diverse and unique mix of vegetation, forest types and bird and animal species, including the red-billed curassow, the Brazilian merganser, and the southern muriqui (pictured left) which is one of the most threatened primates in the region. You can visit here for more detail on the unique biodiversity which is greatly endangered.

Below are some of the photos of Gisele and the video for the ad campaign.

Gisele Bundchen - Sementes

Paris Spring 2009: Christian Dior

Very atypical collection for the extravagant John Galliano as the clothes were so femininely wearable. Short beautiful dresses with sheer skirts, exotic python and animal prints and fire colors like orange and pink were among the favorite standouts. Although, the collection may have seemed a bit too conservative for the creative talent of Galliano, it certainly showed a softer, younger side of the designer. And I literally cannot take my eyes off these hot short dresses!

Christian Dior Paris Spring 2009 Part 1

Christian Dior Paris Spring 2009 Part 2