Louis Vuitton City Guide 2009 is beautifully-designed (with illustrations by Ruben Toledo) and apparently quite good. The European Cities Guide (available in French and English) highlights the best from 32 cities such Amsterdam, Prague, London, Rome, Madrid and Moscow, and at $145 for a set of 9 volumes, isn’t the most expensive of guides and definitely one of the cheapest things you can buy emblazoned with a (authentic) Louis Vuitton logo.

Dedicated guides for New York, Miami, Mumbai, Tokyo and Paris are also available at $38.

I unexpectedly spent nearly an hour going through the links at the very fun and colourful Hermès website yesterday. The website is filled with illustration by children book illustrator Alice Charbin.

It really does feel like reading a children’s book, except this one is telling a story with expensive scarfs, bags and other accessories.

If the idea is to get the customer to stay long enough to find something they like, then they succeeded because I left the website with a yearning for an Hermès Offrandes d’un Jour silk twill scarf.

Tiffany & Co. sterling silver 0.5″ Buy/Hold/Sell die takes risk-taking to a whole new level. An suitable gift for the investor dad, perhaps?