Somewhere over the rainbow
Billionaires and their cash are a big draw for the luxury goods market, with gem-encrusted mobile phones and gold computer gaming machines among the extravagant goodies on offer to the super-rich.
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But many of these ultra-high-net-worth individuals have pretty straightforward tastes, and a luxury yacht still seems to come top of many “must-have” lists. Chartering a professionally crewed yacht costs up to a million dollars a week, so some billionaires prefer to buy their own.
Russian steel mogul and Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich has a fleet - Ecstasea, Sussurro and Pelorus among them, the latter stretching to 377ft - with luxuries such as helicopter landing pads and a cinema. Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen has the 414ft Octopus, the 302ft Tatoosh and the 199ft Meduse.
But the biggest thrill for voyeurs of excess is in reading about those who pump cash into one-off extravaganzas. Steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal spent what reports suggested was at least ?30m on his daughter Vanisha’s wedding in 2004. The wedding was a five-day event set at a chateau outside Paris, featuring a Bollywood-style drama depicting the romance between his daughter and her groom, written, directed and choreographed by some of the biggest names in the business.
Russia’s youngest billionaire, Oleg Deripaska, chairman of the world’s second-largest aluminium producer Rusal, is also comfortable with grandiose gestures. He took time off to learn English - by flying to London on a private jet for his weekly lesson.
Even more stellar, Microsoft’s Paul Allen was the sole investor behind the SpaceShipOne programme, which pioneered privately funded sub-orbital space flights. In June 2004, the craft was piloted high enough to achieve several minutes of weightlessness and became the world’s first private manned space flight.
In 2008 its successor, SpaceShipTwo, will accommodate six passengers at a ticket price of about $200,000 each. The whole experience will last just three hours and can promise only a few minutes of the “out of this world” feeling of being in space. Behind the venture this time is another billionaire, Virgin’s Sir Richard Branson. According to Will Whitehorn, president of Virgin Galactic, 220 eager flyers have already paid $16m in advance deposits. And they could be taking off close to home - Virgin Galactic is looking at RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland as a likely base for its project.
Business billionaires may have expensive hobbies and passions but they are essentially savvy and sensible. Few can compete with rich celebrities when it comes to fabulously pointless spending habits.
The world of glitzy jewellery - “bling” - is a perfect example. Rappers Cam’ron, Busta Rhymes and P Diddy are rarely seen without gold chains and diamond rings. And the newest trend is the “grill”, diamonds that cover your teeth. Leading the way in sales is Houston-based rapper and jeweller Paul Wall. He can coat your teeth in a “Money in your Mouth” grill, consisting of 14-carat gold and diamond caps, for $800 a tooth. A set of 10 teeth - the only proper way to wear a grill - would be $8,000.
The ultra-luxury goods market relies on novelty, and there is a relentless turnover of all-the-more seductive gadgets on offer. For example, there are only three diamond-encrusted Piece Unique mobile phones in existence, hand-crafted by Goldvish, based in Geneva. At a millionaire fair in Cannes earlier this month, this phone was officially pronounced the world’s most luxurious - and expensive - at �1m.
There’s even a market for luxury goods for hobbies. The homespun-sounding MacDaddy’s Fishing Lures of California offers a $1m Big Game Lure, made out of just over 3lb of gold and platinum encrusted with 100 carats of diamonds and rubies.
Aspreys once crafted a bespoke $25,000 Nintendo Gameboy, covered in 18-carat gold and with diamonds around the screen. New York toy store FAO Schwarz now has replicas of its famous dance-on piano, as seen in the 1988 film Big, for sale. With a 22ft keyboard, the piano costs $250,000. And Disney aficionados can rush to register bids for the ultimate Mickey Mouse memorabilia - a 2ft-tall, 100lb, 24-carat gold “Celebration Mickey” sculpture. Only one is available, and it is valued at $4m.
But enormous houses still have limited cupboard space, and sometimes even high-spending celebrities have to declutter. Earlier this year Sir Elton John and his partner David Furnish, in an event entitled “Elton’s Closet”, sold almost 10,000 personal items of clothing to raise money for Sir Elton’s Aids Foundation. The singer auctioned off a huge range of clothes, mostly menswear from top designers, and then topped this off by putting his red Yamaha piano up for auction on eBay. Cher is another celebrity keen to simplify her life - next month in Los Angeles, a two-day auction aims to sell 700 items from her collection, including paintings, furniture, artworks, jewellery, memorabilia and costumes. The sale is expected to bring in more than $1m, some of which will go to her charitable foundation.
超级富豪的超级奢靡
亿
万富翁和他们手中的金钱，对奢侈品市场有着巨大的吸引力。从镶有宝石的手机，到金制电脑游戏机，都在面向超级富豪的奢侈商品之列。
但是，许多“超级富有”(ultra-high-net-worth)人士的品味其实非常简单，在许多“必有”物品清单中，豪华游艇似乎仍排在首位。包租一艘配备专业船员的游艇，每周的费用高达100万美元，因此一些亿万富翁宁愿自己买一艘。
俄罗斯钢铁巨头、切尔西足球俱乐部(Chelsea Football Club)所有者罗曼?阿布拉莫维奇(Roman Abramovich)拥有一个游艇船队，其中包括Ecstasea号、Sussurro号和长达377英尺的Pelorus号。这些游艇上有直升机停机坪和电影院等豪华设施。微软(Microsoft)的保罗?艾伦(Paul Allen)也拥有三艘游艇，分别为长414英尺的Octopus号、302英尺的Tatoosh号以及199英尺的Meduse号。
但是，对于喜欢打探奢侈行为的人而言，最大的震撼莫过于听说有人把钱像水一样扔到一次性的豪华场面中。有报道显示，钢铁巨头拉克希米?米塔尔(Lakshmi Mittal) 2004年在女儿瓦尼莎(Vanisha)婚礼上至少花了3000万英镑。婚礼在巴黎城外的一座城堡举行，整个过程长达5天，其中的一个亮点是一部宝莱坞(Bollywood)风格的戏剧，描写了他女儿和新郎之间的浪漫故事。戏剧的编剧、导演和舞蹈设计都是业内最知名的人士。
俄罗斯最年轻的亿万富翁、世界第二大铝生产商俄罗斯铝业(Rusal)的董事长奥列格?德里帕斯卡(Oleg Deripaska)也喜欢摆出大阵仗。他抽出时间学习英文，学习方式是每周乘坐私人飞机前往伦敦上一次课。
还有更引人注目的。微软的保罗?艾伦是“宇宙飞船一号”(SpaceShipOne)项目的唯一投资人，这一项目开创了私人资助亚轨道太空飞行的先河。在2004年6月的飞行中，该航天器达到了足以出现几分钟失重状态的高度，成为世界上第一次凭借私人力量完成的载人太空飞行。
2008年，其后继者“宇宙飞船二号”将以每张票20万美元的价格搭载6名乘客。整个过程的将只持续3个小时，而且承诺能够感觉到身处太空、“脱离现实世界”的时间只有几分钟。支持这次冒险的是另一位亿万富翁――维珍集团(Virgin)的李察?布莱信爵士(Sir Richard Branson)。据维珍银河(Virgin Galactic)总裁威尔?怀特霍恩(Will Whitehorn)透露，220名渴望参加飞行的人已经预付了1600万美元押金。而且，他们可能会在离家不远的地方起飞――维珍银河正考虑将苏格兰的RAF洛西默思(Lossiemouth)作为该项目的可能基地。
商界亿万富豪也许有昂贵的爱好和激情，但从本质上说，他们是精明而睿智的。而说起无意义到令人难以置信程度的消费习惯，几乎没人能与名人富豪相匹敌。
璀璨珠宝――“炫饰(bling)”――的世界，就是一个完美的例子。很少见到拉佩斯?卡梅隆(Rappers Cam’ron)、巴斯达韵(Busta Rhymes)和吹牛老爹(P Diddy)有不佩戴金链和钻石耳环的时候。目前最新的流行趋势是“钻石牙套”(grill)：包着牙齿的钻石。此类产品销量领先的是休斯敦饶舌歌手兼珠宝商保罗? 沃尔(Paul Wall)。他能给你的牙包上用14K金和钻石做成的“口中金钱”牙套，每颗牙800美元。10颗牙一组是戴这种牙套的唯一正确方式，价格为8000美元。
超级奢侈品市场依赖于新奇，更诱人的玩意总是不断推陈出新。例如，镶钻的“独一无二(Piece Unique)”手机全球仅有3部，由总部位于日内瓦的Goldvish手工打造。9月初，在戛纳的一个百万富翁展上，这款手机以100万欧元的天价被正式宣布为全球最奢侈、最昂贵的手机。
甚至还有一个满足业余爱好的奢侈品市场。美国加州的MacDaddy’s Fishing Lures名字听起来很朴素，但却提供一款价值100万美元的Big Game Lure鱼钩，后者用3磅多的黄金和白金制成，镶有重达100克拉的钻石和红宝石。
Aspreys制作过一款定制的任天堂掌上游戏机(Nintendo Gameboy)，价值2.5万美元，机身用18K黄金打造，屏幕周围布满钻石；纽约玩具店FAO Schwarz如今正在出售其著名钢琴的复制品，就像在1988年影片《飞进未来》(Big)中看到那样，可以在钢琴的琴键上跳舞。这款钢琴琴键长22英尺，造价25万美元；你是迪斯尼的狂热爱好者吗？赶快去登记竞购米老鼠(Mickey Mouse)的终极纪念品吧：一座高2英尺、重100磅、用24K黄金制成的“庆典米奇”(Celebration Mickey)塑像。只有一尊，价格为400万美元。
然而，豪宅再大，空间也仍然有限，即便是出手阔绰的名人有时也不得不清理其旧爱。今年早些时候，埃尔顿?约翰爵士(Sir Elton John)及其伴侣戴维?弗尼士(David Furnish)在名为“艾尔顿衣橱”(Elton’s Closet)的活动中，售出近1万件个人衣物，为艾尔顿爵士的艾滋病基金会(Aids Foundation)筹款。这位歌手拍卖的大量衣物多数是出自顶级设计师之手的男装，最后以在eBay网站上拍卖自己的红色雅马哈(Yamaha)钢琴而告终。雪儿(Cher)是另一位希望简化自己生活的名人，10月份她将在洛杉矶举办一场为期两天的拍卖会，出售她收藏的700件物品，包括绘画、家具、艺术品、珠宝、纪念品和服装。拍卖收入预计将超过100万美元，其中一部分将捐给她的慈善基金会。
