One keeps hearing about how during the economic crisis even the wealthy are cutting down on their expenditures and how it is not chic to flaunt. Not that being chic has ever been about flaunting, au contraire…but that is a whole other subject.
I read recently the line “Conspicuous consumption is over and conscious consumption is starting,” on a WWD article. Well, I guess some companies have to go ahead with products they were probably working on for longer than a year, no matter what is going on.

For their 150th anniversary Boucheron, the French jewelry house, did a special commemorative phone with Vertu, the mobile company known for their luxury special edition mobiles. The ‘Vertu Boucheron 150′ made of ’solid gold’ took 1,000 hours to cut into shape, 700 hours to hand polish,and more than 500 hours to assemble according to the designer. The possible price will be $30,000 US dollars. I am curious about who would be interested on a gold commemorative phone at the moment, more over who would have the guts to be showing it off. I imagine someone saying: “Hey look what I got last week, a gold solid phone. Oh wait! You just lost how many million in the stock exchange?”
I like Boucheron but the timing of their anniversary phone it’s off track with the times.

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From engadget