Decadence: Just How Much Should We Indulge?

I adore wearing gems, but not because they are mine. You can't possess radiance, you can only admire it. ~ Elizabeth Taylor 

This post is in honor of the Elizabeth Taylor Legendary Jewels Evening Sale at Christie's tonight. Ms Taylor was a woman who understood indulgence and took part in it with pride and absolutely no apologies. She was married 8 times and was given the most incredible jewelry with each missed match.

Diamonds were more of Elizabeth's best friend than Marilyn's as can be seen by her exquisite 33.19 carat diamond ring mounted in platinum. The estimate is between $2,500,000-$3,500,000, but I'm expecting some withered up socialite to snatch it up in order to wear it around her cold, clammy, liver-spotted finger, perhaps having delusions of actually being Ms Taylor (a la Bette Davis in"What Ever Happened to Baby Jane"), for at least double the the high estimate.

Waiting for a spot on this hand... 

Onto another indulgence... 

Last night, I was flipping through stations and landed on a chocolate special TV show... (Aside: Perhaps scroll down enough so that the hand is out of view for this next part). The first portion of the show featured Karl Lagerfeld, who usually is not the first person that comes to mind when I think of chocolate. Yet the fashion designer was given 10 tons of chocolate to design a chocolate hotel room complete with a life-size chocolate model consuming a Magnum ice cream bar. Chanel designer Lagerfeld designed the hotel room in a deal with Magnum, the ice-cream company, not the condom... Though on second thought, both companies would have worked with this particular chocolate hotel room design... The male model on the bed seductively lying with his crotch in the air open for display, is Baptiste Giabiconi, Lagerfeld's most favorite model (how 3rd grade of him) and new boy-toy, I mean muse... This yummy hotel room is completely edible from the chair, to the carpet, to the bed spread, to Baptiste's fingers, and um, other appendages. I'd love to be in a room like that, but I would wind up homeless... 

And for a slightly, well, much creepier photo of the dynamic duo

I'll conclude with an Oscar Wilde quote "America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between." While Wilde certainly spoke in extremes, though witty ones at that. Whether we agree this is an accurate or false statement, it certainly seems more relevant today with the copious amounts of expensive jewelry and semi-under-age boy-toys sporting little skivvies in a room literally made of chocolate ... oh what a world we live in... 

And in true Elizabeth Taylor fashion the auction is 11 minutes late... Well, if you can't be on time at least have a good mantra... "Big girls need big diamonds." ~ Well, amen, Ms. Taylor, amen...