"People are scared to consult an image consultant," Perico explains, smiling. "They think it will be expensive or embarrassing. Yes, you need money – and beautiful clothes do cost more – but expensive fabric performs very differently from cheap fabric, and the outlay brings savings in the long run. Improving your look is an incredible help in life – and everyone can do it, whatever their budget." By this time, with my coffee growing cold, I am almost begging her. Tell me the rules, Margherita! How can we all look like Italians?
"So. The secret of Italian style is simple yet complex: fit, colour and fabric," she begins. "Every client, the first thing I tell them is 'Please, keep it easy, keep it clear, keep it simple'. The first rule is to know your body. Dressing well means time in front of a full-length mirror. Stand, turn, sit and lie like a Velasquez painting in front of a mirror. Analyse and accept yourself, good points and the bad. Otherwise, you will be dressing something you don't know. It will be like having a round table and buying a square cloth. It could be nice, but it also could not."
The second rule is to restrict the colours you wear. "Italians wear just two at a time," Perico advises. "They buy only four: black, blue, brown and white. In winter, black is king; in summer, white is black."
The third and most important rule is to pay close attention to fit. "Clothes should skim the body," Perico says. "Too tight, and it is as if you are exploding. Too big, especially if you are curvy, and people worry what is underneath."
So there you are. As we stand up – in front of a full-length mirror in the café – she gently grasps the back of my jacket. "You see?" she says. As I look at my new, waisted silhouette, I feel as if my eyes have only just opened. It's my favourite jacket, but how could I have been so blind? It doesn't fit!
Take me shopping, Margherita, I implore. The surrounding streets have to be the best trying-on territory in the world: Bottega Veneta, Chanel, Armani, Prada, Gucci, the DMagazine outlet at via Montenapoleone 26… She laughs. "Women go too crazy for the shopping. Start with accessories; be the diva with those. Study more before buying more. Women should be like men, and know that the most beautiful thing can be to go not to a shop but to a very good tailor. Then you must wait, but you get perfection." On behalf of the nation: thank you, Margherita.
When to go
Avoid Sunday/Monday: shops in Milan close from 7.30pm on Saturday to 3.30pm on Monday.
Where to start
Margherita Perico (00 39 348 493 8665, www.margheritaperico.com) charges from £580 for an image consultation, including photographs.
Where to shop
For costume jewellery at brilliant prices (£60 for a necklace Versace would sell for £300), try the tiny treasure trove Anna Tarabelloni & Co (00 39 02 760 21 169) at via Gesù 15. And for the ultimate sartorial treat, visit master tailor Gianni Campagna (00 39 02 77 88 11, www.campagna.it) at via Palestro 24, where Karl Lagerfeld and Valentino go for their own hand-made suits.
Where to stay
In the centre, close to the four most famous fashion streets (della Spiga, Montenapoleone, Sant'Andrea and Manzoni), hotel options include The Townhouse, Four Seasons, The Gray, Park Hyatt and Bulgari. Ten minutes away, the grandest of all is the Principe di Savoia (00 39 02 62301, www.hotelprincipedisavoia.com), where heads of state and fashion editors stay, with marble bathrooms, one of Italy's great bars, and a complimentary limo shuttle to the centre. Rack rates start at £630, so book through a tour operator. Abercrombie & Kent (0845 618 2213, www.abercrombiekent.co.uk) is offering two nights from £530 per person, b&b, with Alitalia flights and private transfers.
Where to eat
Busy Pasticceria Cova at via Montenapoleone 8 and chic Caffè Baglioni at via della Spiga 6 are good for a pre-shop cappuccino. At lunch, fashionistas still pack Nobu (00 39 02 6231 2645, www.armaninobu.it) at Armani's store on via Manzoni. In the evening, try the coolly dramatic, two-Michelin-starred Trussardi alla Scala (00 39 02 806 88201, www.trussardiallascala.com), by La Scala opera house, or Antica Trattoria della Pesa (00 39 02 655 5741) at viale Pasubio 10, full of atmosphere and flavour.
What to read
The tiny Luxe Guide to Milan (www.luxecityguides.com, £4.99) is fun.
Fantasicakes Offers Wholesale Bakery Goods and Pastries to Businesses across America - PRWeb
Triple Chocolate Bundt Cake
(PRWEB) May 23, 2012
Fantasicakes has been offering its full product line to its local wholesale customers in Los Angeles area for years. These include country clubs, high end catering companies and restaurants, retailers, cafes, food markets, banquet hall facilities, corporate cafeterias, and coffee shops. Fantasicakes is now offering its wholesale bakery goods to nationwide buyers and wholesale customers.
Our gourmet Coffee Cakes, Bundt cakes, and Tarts are currently available for nationwide delivery. There is a variety of great flavors to choose from. Our coffee cakes come in seven flavors: Cinnamon, Cinnamon Walnut, Pecan Cinnamon, Apple Cinnamon, Chocolate Chip, Marble, and Chocolate Mocha. We offer our Bundt Cakes in eight different varieties: Triple Chocolate, Red Velvet, Rum, Chocolate Rum, Lemon, Orange, Blueberry, and Walnut Raisin. Our Tarts come in five flavors: Apple, Apricot, Blueberry, Cherry, and Raspberry. All our products are available for mail order online at Fantasicakes.com. Our cakes and tarts are made fresh everyday with only the finest gourmet ingredients available in the market. The result is the most flavorful Bundt cakes, coffee cakes, and tarts you will ever have the pleasure of tasting. Visit fantasicakes.com today to view all of our wholesale pastries and bakery goods.
"Our products are very well suited for bulk purchase by culinary distributors, gourmet food online stores, online marketplaces, wholesale clubs, and membership clubs." Van Keshish, owner of Fantasicakes, said. "We can drop ship our cakes and tarts for our wholesale customers, or we can do private label and ship them to their retail customers in individual packages, therefore eliminating the need for storing, wrapping, packing, and shipping hundreds or even thousands of items. Based on the order volume we offer special discounted prices for our wholesale customers."
About Fantasicakes:
Founded by Van Keshish, Fantasicakes began as a pastry shop in the Los Angeles area, supplying pastries and bakery shop goods to corporate and celebrity events, as well as local restaurants. Fantasicakes pastries are individually and carefully handcrafted using the finest gourmet ingredients. The fascinating designs and exquisite flavors of Fantasicakes creations enhance the quality and beauty of the events they are served at, leaving a lasting impression. "When I began Fantasicakes, we started out by catering corporate and celebrity events, as well as supplying local restaurants with our distinguished selection of pastries," Van Keshish, owner of FantasiCakes, said. As the bakery business grew, Keshish looked for new ways to expand. Finding the offerings of other online pastry shops lacking, Keshish brought Fantasicakes online for everyone to enjoy their mail order cakes and tarts anywhere in the United States. Fantasicakes is now offering its wholesale bakery goods to nationwide buyers and wholesale customers. Visit our website and simply fill out the wholesale request form for more information regarding wholesale prices and free product samples shipped to your store!
For more information, visit http://www.fantasicakes.com
Or click here to view our wholesale product request form
Qatar: Shopping and Phones Permitted! - Global Voices Online.org
Netizens in Qatar have responded indignantly to an article published on the Sydney Morning Herald website, which claimed that Qatari women were not allowed to go shopping, and did not have easy access to technology.
The article, published on May 23 and called “Tech tea parties help women stay in touch with the world”, addressed the difficulties women in certain countries face in accessing technology.
Qatar was the first country to be mentioned; journalist Matthew Hall wrote:
The seemingly simple act of buying a phone can come with stigma in some countries if you're a woman. In Qatar, women can usually communicate only with men who are family members. Going to a shop is mostly off limits. This has prevented women from joining the technology revolution their counterparts enjoy so freely in other places. The solution? Tech Tupperware-type parties, in one case by Vodafone, hosted by female sales agents in women's homes across Qatar's capital Doha.
“Cultural issues come to play in a number of ways,” said Ann Mei Chang, a senior adviser for women and technology at the US State Department, and an advocate for women's right to benefit from technology. “Husbands or brothers or fathers are concerned that if the women and girls in their lives have access to mobile phones or the internet they will become promiscuous. So they don't want them to have access, even though there are a lot of benefits.”
Villaggio Mall, Doha, Qatar. Image by Flickr user Frédéric Gloor (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).
At the Doha News blog, Shabina Khatri responded to the Sydney Morning Herald article. She said:
In the latest example of how journalists egregiously, woefully, incorrectly report on Qatar, Hall includes the country as an example of places where women miss out on technological developments because men hold them back. Qatar is mentioned only in the first few paragraphs of the article, mostly because female sales agents working for Vodafone do house calls here. But the assumption behind why these agents hold tech tea parties in Qatar is just plain wrong. […] More than likely, Vodafone visits Qatari women’s homes because it’s well worth their while, not because these women can’t go out and buy themselves a nice phone (or two, or three). The rest of the article goes on to state very real examples of countries in which women are being left behind in terms of their access to technology, a legitimate problem. But as anyone who has spent even five minutes in a mall here can attest, Qatar - which recently launched a national women’s basketball league - is not one of those places.
Reactions on Twitter varied from disbelieving and sarcastic to offended.
Jennan asked:
@Dalla3ah: What era do they think we're living in?!!!
VelvetinQatar tweeted:
@VelvetinQatar: Seriously? I read it and was like “Qatar Qatar? As in, the Qatar where I live? I must be missing something!”
Sybil Knox said:
@SybnDoha: Poor poor Qatari women…are those just TOY Blackberries they hold to their ears?! I'm so confused.
She added:
@SybnDoha: They [the Sydney Morning Herald] are in need of some serious “calling out”. #ignorance
Sarah commented:
@quizzy_mj: Ridiculous. They should know every single Qatari owns at least one Blackberry or iPhone and goes shopping pretty often.
Meanwhile, Vallath imagined the subject of the next article about Qatar's women:
@Vallath: At least they're getting creative. Next up: Women-only internet to be launched in Qatar.
No comments:
Post a Comment