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Our trusted sources have just sent us this byte– Italian fashion house Fendi is to launch a luxury property development in Dubai, joining the league of its Italian fraternity Armani, Versace, Missoni and Cavalli, who have all launched hospitality developments and luxury residences in the emirate. So now you can choose a condominium unit or a villa to go with your ‘it’ bag. How about Fendi apartment to go with the iconic Fendi Baguette?

While most of the Italian fashion labels are busy whetting Middle East’s voracious appetite for luxury and more luxury by designing the whole lifestyle for them, French brands such as Louis Vuitton and Chanel are taking a different approach towards expanding their horizons such as arts and culture. One exception is Italian brand Prada, known for its close association with the art world.

In 2006, Louis Vuitton unveiled plans to build an arts centre in Paris titled the Louis Vuitton Centre for Creation, to be designed by Pritzker Prize winning architect Frank Gehry, best known for The Guggenheim Bilbao and also the chosen architect for the upcoming Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. The luxury brand is also known for its collaborations with avant-garde artists such as Takashi Murakami and Richard Prince, both of who created a collection of handbags for Louis Vuitton.

Louis Vuitton Centre for Creation

Couture label Chanel too teamed up with Zaha Hadid to design a mobile exhibition space that exhibits artworks inspired by the exquisitely quilted Chanel bags. Chanel’s creative head Karl Lagerfeld himself is known to be a patron of arts and is also an avid photographer.

Chanel mobile art exhibition pavilion by Zaha Hadid

Besides being known for its association with ‘devil’, Prada is known and respected in the industry for its penchant for the artsy world. Miuccia Prada, a trendsetter on catwalks has worked closely with Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas to design her art-gallery like stores in the US. Now, she has sought the help of good friend Koolhaas again to convert a turn-of-the-century warehouse space in an inconspicuous neighbourhood of Milan into what will become home to the Prada Foundation. The foundation has in the past exhibited the works of Anish Kapoor, Louis Bourgeois, Steve McQueen and David Smith to name just a few. New York Times featured an interesting story on the subject, read it here

Slightly off the tangent, we read a story in the Times that talks about the fallout between Giorgio Armani and Anna Wintour- two of the fashion world’s most influential people. We don’t know what prompted Wintour to say that “The Armani era is over”; (we still like our sleek deconstructed jackets). To which Armani retorted that he is ‘indifferent’ towards Wintour.

Knowing Wintour’s weakness for Prada and the latter’s art connection, perhaps Armani, Cavalli, Versace and Co. need to induce a bit of art into their portfolio?