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Do Elite Universities Discriminate Against - New

Once we were going to do a survey, it became evident that we shouldn’t just focus on black students and issues of immigrant backgrounds. There were a whole bunch of other interesting things having to do with admissions and campus life, surrounding not just black students but [also] white, Hispanic and Asian. And then we decided that social class was an interesting aspect to look at. So it just mushroomed very quickly into a much, much bigger study. (Read “Inside the College-Admissions Process.”)

What is it about diversity that is so important? People take its value to be axiomatic, but why does it matter?
I think it matters in two respects. One has to do with opening up pathways to leadership for all members of society. This would be true whether we’re talking about the legal profession, the medical profession, Congress, whatever. We want to make sure that our society is creating opportunities, access to these elite schools and pathways to upper mobility for all groups in the population.

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How did you get interested in studying college-admissions practices?
What was originally intended to be a 12-month study grew to be a 10-year study. The original provocation was this: Two Harvard faculty members had observed that if you look at the black undergraduate students at Harvard,New Era, the majority were not what most people have in mind when you talk about the beneficiaries of race-based affirmative action. In other words, the majority of the black students at Harvard were not descendants of the American slave population but rather they were first- or second-generation immigrants with parents from the Caribbean or Africa or they were multiracial students. The majority of the black undergraduate students at Harvard were more like the Barack Obamas of the world than the Michelle Obamas of the world. [So we decided to] do a quick study and find out if what these faculty members observed at Harvard is true generally throughout selective schools.

Now, what are these career-oriented activities? Douthat mentions as possibilities, and I don’t deny it, that it could be participating in a 4-H club or Future Farmers of America, but those aren’t the only types of activities that might fall into that broader category. It could include Junior ROTC. It could include co-op work programs. It could include a host of things. And these aren’t necessarily rural types of activities. My interpretation is that [having leadership positions or winning awards in career-oriented activities] suggests to admission deans that these folks are somewhat ambivalent about their academic futures. (See pictures of a college for Native Americans.)

When the study came out in October, what findings did people tend to latch onto?
One of the issues that always concerns people is whether we still need affirmative action, because we have evidence that underrepresented minority students get a plus factor in the admission process, and there are some conservatives who find this very distressing. One of our chapters has a whole bunch of simulations where we look at a series of what if questions. One of the things we asked was what would happen if we did away with race-based affirmative action. Some people argue that all we need to do is substitute economic or class-based affirmative action and we’ll get the same results. Well, it turns out that we don’t get the same results. And after having done a whole bunch of simulations, what we concluded is that there really is no feasible alternative to race-based affirmative action if you want to preserve today’s [ethnically diverse] profile.

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Did you find any geographic bias?
I went back to the original computer output that we generated for this book, and we don’t actually measure rural residence … But what we do know is what state the students lived in when they applied to these top schools, and what we found is that once you know all these other things about an applicant - their gender, whether they’re recruited athletes, SAT scores, race, social class - in most cases it doesn’t really matter what state you’re applying from, but there are some instances where it matters a lot and in a positive direction. And those instances tend to be students who are applying from red states. So if you are an applicant from Utah and you are in all other aspects identical to someone who’s applying from California, your chances of being admitted to one of our elite colleges or universities are 45 times greater. We found the same advantages if you’re applying from Montana, from West Virginia, from Alabama.

Douthat cited your study to say that the gatekeepers of elite education seem inclined to exclude the poor of red-state America. You say those findings go beyond your study. How?
What I think he did was take a relatively minor finding and push an interpretation that goes beyond the bounds of available evidence. We have this finding that if students held leadership positions or won awards in career-oriented extracurricular activities when they were in high school, there was a slightly negative impact on their chances of being admitted to one of these top private schools. (Comment on this story.)

View this article on Time.com

Princeton sociologist Thomas Espenshade got an unexpected bout of publicity last week when a New York Times columnist used a study he published in October, a 500-page tome on college-admissions practices at eight elite schools, to argue that working-class whites - as well as whites in rural areas - get the short end of the stick. As columnist Ross Douthat sparked a viral rebirth of the affirmative-action debate, Espenshade was quick to point out that the newspaper article had overreached with the data. He talked to TIME’s Katy Steinmetz about his 2009 work, No Longer Separate, Not Yet Equal, and detailed what this decade-long admissions investigation did and did not uncover. (See TIME’s special report on paying for college.)

It also matters in another respect. In the old days, going back to, say, the 1950s, if you looked at the Princeton campus and who came here, it was all white men, most of whom were from privileged backgrounds. Their perspectives on life didn’t vary that much from one student to another. So the learning that they did was largely book learning, but there’s another aspect of learning that one hopes takes place in college, and that has to do with expanding one’s horizons,Diesel, expanding one’s perspectives, coming into contact with people whose life circumstances are different than your own and broadening your outlook as a result of that. That can’t happen if there isn’t a diverse group of students. (See pictures of the college dorm’s evolution.)

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How long did it take you to put the study together?
Longer than I had anticipated. [In 1999] we first approached 10 elite colleges and universities and asked them to participate, and then we asked them for data: individual student information for all applicants for admission in 1983, 1993 and 1997. Then we also wanted to supplement that information with a student survey, so we took a sample of 18,000 students who had applied to or enrolled at one of these top schools and sent them a 16-page questionnaire, and it took a while to up our response rate. And we added other information to our database, from the Census Bureau, from the Department of Education and other places, so the actual writing of the book started in about June of 2005, and we finished it in about three years. It came out in October of 2009, about a decade after we originally conceived of this project.

Pakistan general balances all s - Abercrombie jack

In a country with a long history of military rule and weak civilian institutions, Kayani’s position as chief of staff gives him broad powers outside of strictly military affairs.

Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani’s critical role in the Afghan conflict was reinforced this month when the civilian government extended his term by three years. Kayani, 58, is known to be popular among U.S. and NATO generals who have sought to enlist his help in battling militants along the country’s border with Afghanistan.

And the Afghan Taliban are counting on him to limit the pressure they feel in their hideouts in Pakistan.

The Afghan government, meanwhile, appears to be seeking Pakistan’s good graces as well — at least publicly — in hopes the Pakistanis can encourage the Taliban to agree to talks to end the war.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has moved toward improving relations with Pakistan, visiting here last March and stating publicly that Pakistan has an important role to play in future peace talks.

President Barack Obama’s plan to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan in July 2011 raises the prospect that Taliban militants may someday share power in Kabul. So Pakistan can hardly afford to make enemies of various Afghan Taliban groups, analysts said.

Last fall, the U.S. prepared a $7.5 billion humanitarian aid package for Pakistan. But the army raised objections to provisions that encouraged civilian control over the armed forces. The incident shook Pakistan’s civilian leaders, who found themselves criticizing an aid package they could hardly afford to reject.

The deal came through after Pakistani officials said they had received assurances from the U.S. that Washington was not trying to intrude on Pakistani sovereignty.

Still, Kayani’s presence through 2013 may give comfort to some civilian politicians because he’s a known quantity.

Ayesha Siddiqa, a Pakistani military analyst, said Pakistan’s Western backers also are happy to see Kayani stay because they prefer the current power makeup in Islamabad to a government led by opposition politicians suspected of being too sympathetic to Islamists.

The Americans need Kayani’s cooperation to keep nuclear-armed Pakistan stable and allow U.S. missile strikes against al-Qaida in the country’s northwestern border area. The Afghans are cozying up to him with an eye on using Pakistan’s links to the Taliban — ties which the Pakistani government denies still exist — to facilitate possible peace talks with the militants.

Regardless of differences in national interests, Kayani developed a strong rapport with senior U.S. officials in both the Bush and Obama administrations. Since taking over as army chief in 2007, he has developed especially close ties to Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Analysts believe talk of dubious alliances shows Kayani’s desire to put Pakistan’s interests first, no matter what that means for Washington or Kabul. Pakistan fears that Indian influence in Afghanistan threatens to leave the country flanked by hostile powers — India to the east and Afghanistan to the west.

Kayani was not in former President Pervez Musharraf’s inner circle when the general seized power in 1999. But when Musharraf began negotiations on power-sharing with former premier Benazir Bhutto in 2007, Kayani acted as a go-between. Musharraf appointed him as the top commander in the garrison city of Rawalpindi in 2003, a sensitive position that has previously been a launch pad for coup plotters.

In recent months, U.S. officials have repeatedly praised Pakistan’s effort against Islamist extremists. That includes the army’s offensives against the Pakistani Taliban, a militant network that aims to overthrow the Pakistani state. It also is thought to include a deal allowing U.S. missile strikes against al-Qaida and Taliban targets on Pakistani soil.

Attempts by Pakistani civilians to assert control over the army have at times been rebuffed, including a short-lived proposal to put the ISI spy agency under the Interior Ministry.

In 2004, Kayani was named the head of the military’s Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan’s premier spy agency. It was a position he held around three years — years that saw the Taliban gain strength in Afghanistan.

Those who know him describe Kayani, an avid golfer whose hawkish face is marked by dark bags under piercing eyes, as more of a thinker than a talker. He rarely gives interviews. Born in the Punjab province district of Jhelum, Kayani used his smarts and savvy to escape relatively humble roots and rise through an army otherwise dominated by the children of the elite.

ISLAMABAD – As the U.S. searches for an exit from Afghanistan,Abercrombie jackets, it is increasingly relying on Pakistan’s powerful army chief to help pave the way — despite fresh allegations that spies under his command have long aided the Taliban.

“Pakistan’s and the United States’ strategic interests have remained divergent,” said Moeed Yusuf, a South Asia expert with the U.S. Institute of Peace. “So ultimately, what Kayani is doing from his perspective is entirely rational once you accept his starting premise,Juicy Couture jackets, which is Pakistan’s strategic interest.”

So crucial is Kayani to the American war effort that when classified documents were posted by Wikileaks this week suggesting that Pakistani spies led by Kayani had colluded with the Taliban, the Obama administration didn’t utter a word of opprobrium against him publicly.

Stella McCartney to design British Olympic k - Die

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LONDON (AFP) – Fashion designer Stella McCartney will oversee the design of the athletes' clothing for the British team at the 2012 London Olympics, it was announced on Wednesday.

The British Olympic Association said it was the first time in the history of the summer Games that a designer will work with a sports brand to design the team's kit.

McCartney, who has already designed a line of clothing for Adidas,Coach, said: "As a British fashion designer it is an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be creative director of Team GB as the host nation of the London 2012 Olympic Games."

The daughter of the Beatles singer Paul McCartney has been appointed creative director for Team GB at the Olympic and Paralympic Games and will help shape the clothing to be made by Adidas.

Olympic and world champion cyclist Victoria Pendleton said she was excited about the tie-up.

"I'm a massive fan of Stella McCartney and with London hosting the Olympic Games it is really important as the host nation to set the standards.

"To have a British designer inputting into the British kit is going to be very special."

Chavez beefs up border troops in Col - Ed hardy Sh

Venezuela's ambassador to the U.N., Jorge Valero, said he had rejected an offer from Ban to help resolve the feud.

"We said that those lamentable realities had to be treated bilaterally," Valero said, adding he hoped Santos would not lend himself to the warmongering plans of Uribe and the United States.

Santos has been muted about the latest rift with Caracas, but his incoming finance minister said on Monday that one of the new government's top priorities would be re-establishing trade. Juan Carlos Echeverry said the priority would be "re-establishing a major part of commerce in the shortest possible time."

Colombia's office of the presidency said in a statement on Monday that the government was studying ways to help affected areas, including reducing requirements for free-trade zones and alleviating taxes.

Colombia's trade ministry said Bogota was studying ways to help affected areas, including making requirements for investing in free trade zones in four frontier states more flexible, and temporarily reducing the IVA tax.

Colombia's central bank estimates that exports to Venezuela will fall to $1.2 billion this year from $4 billion in 2009 and more than $6 billion in 2008.

(Additional reporting by Nelson Bocanegra and Jack Kimball; Writing by Stuart Grudgings; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and Stacey Joyce)

"A rise in troops levels on the border isn't justified; it is only hurting the residents here," said Cesar Perez Vivas, the opposition governor of Tachira. "We have reports that 20,000 jobs have been lost because of this breaking of ties with Colombia."

About 1,000 National Guard soldiers arrived in the border region over the weekend and were reinforcing posts along the 1,375-mile (2,200-km) long frontier, said Franklin Marquez, a regional commander for the National Guard.

Chavez, a leftist former soldier whose popularity has been slipping ahead of legislative elections next month,Ed hardy Shoes, called the charges a "hoax" and an excuse for Colombia to launch a U.S.-backed invasion he says would start a "100-year war."

The United States on Monday said it had no intention of taking military action against Venezuela. Venezuela met with United Nations' Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to explain its position.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez broke off diplomatic ties with Colombia last week, bringing the countries' troubled relations to a new low after Bogota alleged that his government allowed leftist Colombian rebels to operate bases there.

President-elect Juan Manuel Santos will take over from Uribe on August 7 and is expected to work to salvage trade and diplomatic ties, although he shares the current president's conservative views and suspicion of Chavez.

"We have no intention of engaging a military action against Venezuela," U.S. State Department spokesman Phillip Crowley told reporters on Monday. "Rather than posturing, it would be much more constructive for Venezuela to engage directly, answer these questions."

SAN CRISTOBAL, Venezuela (Reuters) – Venezuela said it beefed up its troop presence along the border with Colombia as its neighbor's incoming finance minister vowed on Monday to restore trade between the feuding Andean nations.

Bilateral trade with Colombia, once at $7 billion annually, has plummeted since Chavez ordered a freeze on trade last year to protest a deal allowing U.S. forces to use Colombian bases.

The border region has remained calm and most analysts believe a military clash is unlikely between the nations, which have often squabbled over border security and guerrillas. But border skirmishes are possible in a volatile region plagued by clashing ideologies and drug trafficking.

Chavez responded on Sunday by threatening to cut off Venezuela's oil supplies to the United States if Colombia attacks. But analysts say that would be a devastating blow for Venezuela's economy, which is already shrinking and suffering from 30 percent annual inflation.

The United States urged Chavez, an outspoken standard-bearer for socialism and anti-U.S. sentiment in Latin America, to address Colombia's charges that 1,500 Colombian rebels are camped out in Venezuela.

BORDER TRADE HIT

"We have a reinforcement of 980 to 1,000 troops for the protection of the border, but there are no unusual operations; we are staying on alert," Marquez said.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and other regional leaders are due to visit Caracas prior to Santos' inauguration, which Chavez will not attend.

Jose Rozo, the president of a business group in the border state of Tachira,Iceberg, said cross-border trade in several frontier towns had plunged by about 60 percent in the past three days.

Outgoing Colombian President Alvaro Uribe triggered the latest spat with his long-time leftist foe Chavez when he accused him of allowing outlawed Colombian guerrillas to operate bases inside Venezuelan territory. Colombia presented photos, videos and maps to the Organization of American States to back its charges.

Blagojevich defense attorney clashes with j - Iceb

As Niewoehner described the sometimes profanity-laced language on FBI wiretap tapes, Blagojevich showed little emotion, sometimes biting his lip or rocking slightly in his defense table chair.

For the first time, he was joined in court by his two daughters — Amy, 14, and Annie, 7. His wife sat a few feet to his left holding their youngest on her lap, sometimes handing her pieces of candy.

Blagojevich,Iceberg, 53, has pleaded not guilty to scheming to trade or sell Obama’s old Senate seat and illegally pressuring people for campaign contributions. If convicted, he could face up to $6 million in fines and a sentence of 415 years in prison, though he is sure to get much less time under federal guidelines.

The former governor’s brother, Nashville, Tenn., businessman Robert Blagojevich, 54, has pleaded not guilty to taking part in the alleged scheme to sell the Senate seat and plotting to illegally pressure a businessman for a campaign contribution.

Robert Blagojevich’s attorney, Michael Ettinger, said in his closing argument that jurors never heard any testimony linking his client’s fundraising to demands for anything in exchange.

“Raising campaign funds is not illegal. It is not against the law,” he said.

Earlier Monday, prosecutors dropped one of five counts against Robert Blagojevich, a count of wire fraud. They said the count pertained to a Dec. 4, 2008 phone call that he did not take part in directly.

Adam, who was credited with helping win the acquittal of R&B singer R.Kelly two years ago on child pornography charges, had been expected to deliver a booming closing argument uncommon in Chicago’s staid Dirken Federal Courthouse. Before his clash with the judge, he said that the defense’s message to jurors would be simple:

“First and foremost, the government has proved nothing,” he told the Associated Press said over the weekend.

“That dirty scheme was the culmination of years of dirty schemes,” he said.

“My job as a lawyer is to do everything I can for my client, and if (going to jail) is what it takes, if it’s necessary, in a heartbeat,” Adam said, recalling that his attorney father once went to jail for a client.

Niewoehner described Blagojevich as desperate for money, in large part because of his own lavish spending on himself and his wife and his mounting legal bills. That desperation showed in late 2008,Christian Dior, the prosecutor said, when Blagojevich saw the Senate appointment as a way to get himself an ambassadorship to India, a seat in Obama’s cabinet or another high-paying job.

The prosecutor argued that Blagojevich indeed profited from a scheme in which his wife, Patti, was paid by Rezko for real estate work that she allegedly did not do. He said the payments stopped soon after the FBI began investigating one of the governor’s confidants.

“You don’t have to be a successful criminal to be a criminal,” he said.

The judge said he was giving the defense attorney the night to rework his closing arguments, and said Adam could designate another defense attorney to give the closing Tuesday if he could not follow the rules.

“You will follow that order because if you don’t follow that order you will be in contempt of court,” Zagel told Adam, known for his theatrical courtroom style.

CHICAGO – Rod Blagojevich’s defense attorney clashed with the judge Monday over his planned closing arguments, pledging to go to jail if he is prohibited from telling jurors about witnesses that prosecutors never called.

“I’ve got this thing and it’s (expletive) golden,” he recalled Blagojevich saying on one of dozens of phone calls secretly recorded by the FBI. “I’m just not giving it up for (expletive) nothing.”

Prosecutors spent the day hammering the message that U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald voiced from the day Blagojevich was arrested in December 2008: That the governor of Illinois was involved in a “political crime spree.”

Neiwoehner also told the jurors that that Blagojevich need not have made money nor gotten a high-profile job in order for his alleged schemes to be illegal — a pre-emptive shot at the arguments Blagojevich’s attorneys are sure to make, that he did not make any money or turn the appointment into a new life for himself.

“With all due deference, I have a man here fighting for his life,” Sam Adam Jr. angrily told Zagel outside the presence of the jury. “I can’t effectively represent him. I can’t follow your order … I will go jail on this.”

Hours after prosecutors summed up their case against the disgraced former Illinois governor, Judge James B. Zagel sent the jury home early after attorney Sam Adam Jr. complained the judge was gutting his closing arguments.

Niewoehner opened his remarks by repeating the most famous phrase of the seven-week trial, a quote that will be forever associated with Blagojevich.

In methodical tones, Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Niewoehner laid out the government’s allegations of how Blagojevich tried to “shake down” everyone from a racetrack owner to a children’s hospital executive to President-elect Barack Obama, whose vacated Senate seat he allegedly sought to exchange for money or a job.

After court adjourned, Adam told reporters that prosecutors did not call dozens of potential witnesses, including now-convicted influence peddler Antoin “Tony” Rezko, and “the jury should know that.” He said he did not know what he would do on Tuesday.

Monday’s action came just five days after Blagojevich announced he would not testify in his own defense, despite months of promises. His defense team promptly rested without calling a single witness, accelerating a seven-week trial that had been expected to last all summer.

Coronation Street cat ashes fetch 844 - Louis Vuit

Frisky died in 2000, aged 14,Louis Vuitton, after appearing in the credits of the world's longest-running soap for 11 years.

Dominic Winter auctioneers expected the cat's remains to fetch between 100 and 150 pounds.

LONDON (Reuters) – The ashes of Frisky,Burberry, the cat who starred in the opening credits of soap opera Coronation Street, have sold to a British buyer for 844 pounds ($1,279), the auctioneers told Reuters.

As well as Frisky's ashes in a wooden casket, the lot included a cremation certificate and publicity shots with Coronation Street actors.

(Reporting by Nina Chestney; Editing by Steve Addison)

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The lip color was paired with a rich golden brown on lids, winged out for a fabulous Glamazon effect, and a dusty pink blush on cheeks.

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By Gwen Flamberg for UsMagazine.com. To read more of the Beauty Trend Watch blog, click here, and follow Gwen on Twitter!

As a redhead who happens to collect vintage Vargas Girl prints (only the redheads, except for that one blonde I found along the West Bank in Paris), I couldn’t love Christina Hendricks more. I love her copper locks, creamy skin and her unapologetic pin-up figure. For the Mad Men premiere in L.A. on July 20, Hendricks wore gorgeous golden nude makeup with her black lace gown.

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“Christina’s sultry Dolce & Gabbana dress inspired a softer version of the ‘La Dolce Vita’ makeup look,Rock Republic,” she tells UsMagazine.com. Scali used a matte rosy nude lipcolor to give the look a modern twist.

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Brooklyn Decker’s Bikini Bod Beats Je - John Galli

Sorry Jen, Carrie and Kim: this summer’s most slammin’ bod belongs to Brooklyn Decker.

PHOTOS: Other hot bikini bods of the summer

“All of this year’s finalists have a deep commitment to working out, staying fit and eating smart,” David Zinczenko, editor-in-chief of Men’s Health and editorial director of Women’s Health said.

“They have a variety of workout regimes from Pilates and yoga to boxing and weight training, kayaking and hiking to training for marathons. They’ve worked hard to achieve and maintain their amazing bodies.”

Decker (married to tennis hunk Andy Roddick), 23, tops the inaugural top ten. Newlywed Carrie Underwood (recently seen frolicking in a two-piece on her Tahitian honeymoon), 27, charted at number 6; Jennifer Aniston, 41, placed at 9; Kim Kardashian, 29, rounded out the top ten.

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PHOTOS: Celeb couples making out on the beach

Tell Us: who do you think has the best summer bod?

Also on the “Best Summer Bodies” list: Jessica Alba, Ashley Greene,John Galliano, Vanessa Hudgens, Jessica Biel, Katy Perry and Lauren Conrad.

PHOTOS: Jen Aniston’s bikini bod over the years

Twilight hunk Kellan Lutz was the number one body on the Men’s Health’s list, with Matthew McConaughey, Taylor Lautner,NBA, Zac Efron and Mario Lopez also charting.

Women’s Health has crowned the Swimsuit Illustrated swimsuit model — and Jennifer Aniston’s sexy costar in the upcoming Just Go With It — as 2010’s Best Summer Body.

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Everyone is excited—justifiably so—for Phoebe Philo’s new Celine ready-to-wear. But as Nicole Phelps notes in her review, it’s hard not to notice all those accessories. For Resort, Philo is expanding the entire line. There are new styles of shoes and bags,Wholesale Versace clothing, of course, but what really got my attention were the variations on the themes Philo’s already established. The Luggage bag is now coming in this super-tiny version—imagine borrowing your daughter’s doll bag.wholesale clothing. (Luggage for a short trip, I guess.) The much-photographed.brand clothing, editor-adored Classic bag, on the other hwholesale and, has been super-sized (above, top). And for those who’ve bought deep into Philo’s neutral tones wholesale and need something to jazz up all that camel, it’ll also come in neon (above)—totally in step with the prevailing neon mood—for a jolt of color.

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Dubai’s bottomless appetite for superlatives—biggest this, best that—makes it an entirely appropriate venue for a significant first from Giorgio Armani. On Tuesday night,Wholesale john richmond, the designer cut the ribbon on his first hotel. It takes up ten floors of the Burj Khalifa, at 2,717 feet the tallest building in the world. To make sense of a numeral like that, simply note that the offices of Mohamed Alabbar, chairman of Emaar Properties, the developer behind the numbingly massive Downtown Dubai project, are on the 158th floor. Vertiginists can still their cold sweat, however. The Armani Hotel—wholesale and the residences that make up the rest of the Armani real estate—are at the base of the building (although, on this scale, 39 floors feels down to earth).

Armani admitted he was unsure when Alabbar first approached him five years ago how his less-is-more ethos would gel with what he saw as Dubai’s more-is-never-enough thrust, but the hotel leaves you feeling that the designer’s sensibility was actually quite compatible with local traditions. His own love of the private and the discreet is reflected in public spaces that seem to unfold endlessly like a labyrinthine souk. And if the curving walls in the rooms mirror his own unstructured fashion ideal, they’re also very typical of Islamic architecture. Armani claimed his own favorite detail was the arch in the lobby, with its echoes of a mosque’s dome. “You know right away where you are,” he said. If I had to pick one thing, I might opt for the shoehorn hanging in my closet. Sure, every hotel room has one, but the chocolaty, textured luxury of this particular one announced that there wasn’t a detail—however small and hidden away in the dark—in the whole place that hadn’t been scrutinized and transfigured by the designer himself. His always-obsessive attention to detail took on added urgency last year when he staved off a serious illness. Now,Wholesale Diesel jeans Jeans, he says the hotel represents “a way of being remembered beyond the present.” Bricks and mortar leave a more substantial legacy than fashion’s six-month cycles. So there’ll soon be Armani hotels scattered across the globe, with the next one opening in Milan next year.

In the meantime, the man himself arrived in Dubai with niece Roberta and a handful of his ever-present intimates, but significantly without any of the celebrities who are often flown in for such events. Armani wanted the spotlight to stay on the building itself. Anyway, he was his own best ambassador, tirelessly working the crowd at lunches and dinners that emphasized the range of the hotel’s eight restaurants, from Indian to truly spectacular Italian alta cucina. There was also a presentation of Armani haute couture (Mrs. Alabbar looked suitably chuffed when the gown she was wearing made its stately way down the catwalk) and an after-party at Prive, the dark, glossy night spot with a 120-square-meter LED screen that is “the biggest in the Middle East.wholesale clothing.” Guests at the hotel will find they have been assigned a “lifestyle manager” to facilitate their stay, but anyone watching Armani’s palpable delight in the heaving Prive crowd might conclude that what it really takes to manage the lifestyle he’s proposing is a prodigious amount of energy and a boundless sense of the possible. A small fortune, wholesale and a staff of 12 or so.brand clothing, would probably help, too. In fact, that kind of describes Dubai itself.