The New Pompidou

Paris's centre Georges Pompidou has gone into the franchising business recently and opened its first spin off museum, which is situated in the North-eastern French city of Metz.

The gallery opened its doors to the public in May and was designed by Japanese/French architect duo Shigeru Ban and Jean De Gastines, who also delivered on a budget (10 million euros) and in a record time of 3 years after construction began.

I have previously visited the original Pompidou centre in Paris which looks slightly like a fun house from the outside but this new franchise appears to have a minimalist and European feel to the design.

The beauty of window shopping

Each year I am just as excited to go window shopping in the city than buy presents for my loved ones. And London, along with cities like Manchester and Birmingham, is no exception being the centre of extravagance in the window dressing department for Christmas 2010.

-Georgina Goodman chose golden cats for her window display on Old Bond Street.

-Ralph Lauren decided on traditional colours and pieces for their window displays. Green foliage and twinkly lights played home to a perfect Christmas scene.

-Selfridges always go a bit wacky and this year have gone for a theme loosely based around a dolls house, there was also felt creatures looking out in some windows whilst doing their Christmas shopping at Selfridges.

-Harrods decided on a fantasy Christmas, using the Peter Pan fairytale due to supporting Great Ormand Street Hospital Childrens Charity in the process.

Add some festive cheer to your post

Its that time of the year again which some people dread, but personally I love, to sit down and take some time writing your Christmas cards to the special people in your life.

And this year The Royal Mail are getting in to the spirit by collaborating with the nations favourite animated characters, Wallace and Gromit, producing a small collection of stamps for the Christmas season.

Royal Mail designers worked closely with Wallace and Gromit creator, Nick Park and an animations company for the scenes of the stamps. The scenes include usual festive acts like posting cards, putting up the tree and carol singing.

Royal Mail spokesman, Philip Parker explained that the festive stamps are one of the finest sets ever produced. The stamps which went on sale from November 2nd 2010 range from £60p for second class to £1.64 for first.

Mango Appoint Mindshare

Mango have appointed the marketing group Mindshare to its estimated £1m media planning and buying account. This is after M2M have held the business previously since 2006.


Mindshare will no be responsible for managing all media for the fashion chain with significant focus on social, events and content development.
Betsaida Fernandez Gomez, head of area media planning at Mango said "they have the ability to deliver creative, grounded in insight and have shown they have a strong focus on client service and team work".

Jo Lyall, Mindshare partner, explained "Mango is a fantastic client addition, we have the opportunity to do some really innovative work together".
Mango currently employs Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson as its face for campaigns, has nearly 1,500 stores in 92 countries, with around 20 based in the UK.

Harry Potter goes dark

On Friday night it was the global release of the new film Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows-part 1, and it was brilliant.
With reading the J.K Rowling novel about a year ago I couldn't wait to watch the film, and with all my suspense it wasn't a let down. As the characters have grown up, along with the storyline, the filmmakers had to make a decision whether to stay safe or portray the real imagery in its fullest. And so as the film unravelled I was pleased to see the sometimes funny, jokey and cuteness has passed on to reveal a darker side to the wizarding world.I also read this morning that the film has beaten the previous opening record for the franchise in the U.S and Canada. The film took $125.1m (£77.9m) at the weekend box office, taking it straight to the top of the chart.
The first of the two part film has now made $330m (£205.5m) in global ticket sales.
I now cant wait till Summer 2011 for part 2!! Hurry up!!

Debenhams Edition

Debenhams are launching a new designer fashion concept called Edition to build on its own brand fashion offering, as it reports an increase in full year sales and profit.

The launch of Edition is the next step in Debenhams' strategy to shift its focus to own bought product ranges to boost margins. Edition will include fashion collections from designers Jonathan Saunders, Preen, Jonathan Kelsey and Roksanda Ilincic who will work with the retailer for a minimum of 4 seasons.

The range will launch in Spring 2011, with a 'gallery style' area in stores. Rob Templeman, Chief Executive of Debenhams says "we remain concerned about the general retailer environment, but we are encouraged by the start to the new financial year".

Fragrance-at new heights

Olfactorialist.com is a blog/website which explores the world of fragrance with scrutiny. A relatively new blog, online since March 2010 and written by Berlin-based editor Lena Brombacher whose interest in sophisticated perfumery transcends in fashion and major brands by giving an insight into some of the best niche perfumes on the market. "A lot of big brands try to sell their products as the most amazing stuff ever, I try everything on the market but I don't write about the mainstream".

Brombacher explains that she has a hyper-sensitive nose- I smell everything perfume, flowers, food, people, apartments, streets, cities....I smell if a person is already in the office or smell fire before anyone else does. Lena's friends once told her that it is impossible to write about smell, but there are many perfume blogs and people love to communicate and get inspired. What Lena tries to do is create an image of the fragrance.

Recently Olfactorialist.com was the official media partner of the famous perfume fair Pitti fragranze.