LUXURY once denoted stuff that was costly and hard to obtain. The noun bespoke well-upholstered and Gatsby-esque lives played out against a backdrop of mansions and servants and among others who, as Holly Brubach once observed in The New York Times, “ordered their trunks from Louis Vuitton, their trousseaux from Christian Dior, their Dom Pérignon by the case. ( Read More Via The New York Times)

A jeweled handbag Condé Nast’s wife had engraved with her home address (1040 Park Avenue)

Although they’ve been around for awhile now, the design duo behind DSquared2 – Dean and Dan Caten – have been getting a lot of attention as of late because of their racy costumes for Britney Spears’ Circus tour. Now comes news that the Canadian twin brothers will get their own radio program called Dean and Dan on Air: Style in Stereo. Slated to begin airing on May 5^th on Sirius satellite radio’s BPM channel, the program will play a variety of music (including soundtracks from select DSquared2 runway shows), along with celebrity interviews, fashion and political discussions. (Read More Via The Fashion Spot)

KARACHI, Pakistan — In Pakistan, a flogger is known only as the Taliban’s choice whip for beating those who defy their strict codes of Islam. But deep in the nation’s commercial capital, just next door to a mosque and the offices of a radical Islamic organization, in an unmarked house two Pakistani brothers have discovered a more liberal and lucrative use for the scourge: the $3 billion fetish and bondage industry in the West(Read More Via The New York Times)

In Pakistan’s commercial capital, Karachi, a company that makes 2,000 fetish and bondage products operates next to a mosque.

Conde Nast Portfolio, the very big and glossy bet on a monthly business magazine made by the very big and glossy magazine company touted in its title, was shuttered today. Editor In Chief Joanne Lipman informed staffers of the news at an all-hands meeting hastily called at 9:45 AM. Lipman had been informed of the company’s decision earlier this morning at a meeting with Conde Nast Chairman Samuel I. “Si” Newhouse.

A Conde Nast spokeswoman said essentially the entire 85-person staff of Portfolio and Portfolio.com, including Ms. Lipman and Publisher William Li, will be leaving the company. (Read More Via Business Week)