Posts from ‘October, 2009’

Carte Blanche Greetings was delighted to scoop the coveted Henry Cole Classic award at the recent greeting card awards, AKA The Henries, which are organised by Max Publishing and held each year in London.
Collecting the award for his company’s much-loved brand featuring grey bear Tatty Teddy, company founder and chairman Stephen Haines commented: “I was [...]

John Lewis has added fuel to hopes that this year will be a great Christmas for retailers by unveiling encouraging figures that show a 9.1 per cent rise in year-on-year sales.
The department store - viewed as a bellweather by the retail trade - reported that: “seasonal purchasing kicked off strongly in some parts of the country.” [...]

The owners of Camden’s Canal Market, which was gutted by fire last February, have revealed plans for a new covered market on the Regent’s Canal. The new design will include rooftop pavillions and walkways, 130 homes and possibly even a hotel. Developer Stanley Sidings has begun the consultation process and a planning application could be [...]

Designers and celebrities flocked to Selfridges last night for the launch of Project Pep, which is a new collection of Jimmy Choo shoes and accessories designed to raise money for South African rape victims.
Celebs. present included Madonna’s ex-husband, the film director Guy Ritchie, Claudia Winkelman, Martine McCutcheon and designer Melissa Odabash, who got into the [...]

Shop was encouraged to hear the latest research from the CBI which found that high street sales are growing at their fastest annual rate in two years, leading the Confederation to say that: “The retail sector seems to be finding its feet again.’
The distributive trades survey found 41 per cent of retailers, led by [...]

Home interiors have been all over it for ages now but it seems fashion has finally caught up with the Union Jack craze. Jan Constantine and Cake were doing it at Spring Fair 09 and I have to say Accessorize have had a lovely little sparkly purse out for some time now too. However it [...]

Shop was spooked to note that Halloween has been ‘cancelled’ in the Kent hamlet of Pluckley, which is well-known by ghost spotters as being Britain’s most haunted village.
Over-zealous witch hunters and the like have been flocking to Pluckley in droves, holding raucous October 31 celebrations and generally scaring the locals, leading the parish council [...]

John Lewis has reported record sales in it’s newly launched online clothing sector. Online sales for clothing have surpassed expectations with the retailer now expecting to reach its self set target of £8.5m by the early December instead of its initial prediction of the end of January. Pretty impressive stuff John! Although the site is [...]

To be honest I was a little disappointed by my visit to the Business Design Centre. The first annoyance was that the cloak rooms were full when we arrived, which meat lugging around jackets for the duration, not ideal. Secondly, it was ridiculously over crowded. It is very clear that this even has outgrown it’s [...]

As if the fact that it’s a Friday wasn’t exciting enough for you, we’ve been down to the newly opened Anthropologie store on London’s Regent Street to give you a first look. I know, we are too kind. To give a bit of background it’s an American store owned by Urban Outfitters (you don’t say!) [...]