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MODULAR With the FlatPak system, you can build your own modern home in four easy steps. First, decide on a model. Your choices include a 2,800-sq.-ft. house dwellmag.com) a 1,200-sq.-ft., one-story L-shaped structure; and a 2,000-sq.-ft., two-story vacation home. Second, choose your “components for living”: wall type, finish, kitchen, bathroom, storage, built-ins and lighting. Next, Lazor Office (whose only existing prototype is Charlie Lazor's Minneapolis, Minn., residence, although the firm is building 20 more across the country) will customize them to fit your space, even taking into account climatic and solar conditions. Finally, the prefab firm Empyrean will piece it all together.
N NUDE AMBER Who'da thunk it? Tom Ford has teamed up with Estée Lauder. The result is a collection of lipsticks, bronzers, eye lacquers and a fragrance called Youth Dew Amber Nude, with hints of jasmine, grapefruit, ginger and, yes, amber.
O ORGANIC Forget rigidity. Home décor is going organic, at least in form. Jason Miller's ceramic Superordinate Antler chandelier imitates nature via incandescent bulbs. Lene Frantzen's felt cushion looks like a slab of tree trunk. Ted Muehling's porcelain vase “grows moss.” And Viva Terra bowls undulate like petrified petals and are carved from Chinese fir roots.
P PHONES The Nokia 7380 2-megapixel camera phone features voice dialing, an MP3 player and FM stereo. Motorola's PEBL sports a smooth oval form with a dual-hinge mechanism to open and close the device with one swift, delicate motion. The VTech i5871 5.8-GHz cordless phone is part of a system expandable to eight handsets using only one phone jack; other highlights include a digital answering device, color handset display and dual caller ID. And the Vertu Special Edition Ascent White has polished leather keys and soft backlighting, and can store up to 1,000 contacts and 150 texts.
Q QUIRKY The more cosmopolitan the contemporary palate gets, the more specific it seems restaurant trends become, to the point that some establishments are going so far as to limit their focus to only one ingredient. In Milan, fashion insiders are talking about Obiká (Via Mercato), a new restaurant located in the trendy Brera district and devoted solely to mozzarella. The mozzarella di bufala is flown in fresh from Naples every 24 hours. As any Italian cheese expert will tell you, after that it loses its taste.
R RESORTS Sun-loving fashionistas retreat to Le Sereno on St. Bart's to lounge in elegant interiors designed by Christian Liaigre. In the middle of the Indian Ocean in the North Male Atoll is One&Only Maldives at Reethi Rah. You can reserve the 109-acre island with 12 beaches for a price of $1 million for five days. The Wynn Las Vegas is secluded from the Strip by a 140-ft. mountain and 100-ft. waterfall and has a Ferrari Maserati dealership on the premises.