Errol Douglas MBE Launches Own Electrical Hair Tool Range

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Catherine Balavage

Legendary hairstylist partners with Corioliss on the first built in Keratin capsule system on high street. Not content with just giving you an exclusive interview with Errol Douglas, we also have the latest news about his new electrical hair tool range.

Errol Douglas MBE, one of the most influential hairdressers in the world, is to launch his own range of electrical styling tools in partnership with professionals’ choice Corioliss, including the first Keratin capsule system built into a hair styler available on the high street. Douglas, recently appointed President of The Fellowship For British Hairdressing with 30 years in the industry, has developed the tools with a focus on the maintenance of overall hair condition and achieving a luxury finish at home in between salon visits. These revolutionary styling tools are suitable to use with all hair types from fine European hair right through to Afro hair. Douglas led the design team that created the look of the tools, determined to create a feel that appealed to both men and women,given the increasing trend of men using styling tools at home. Of the designprocess, Douglas said: “I’m delighted with the look of the products. As with all good designs, the basis is simplicity and the matt black finish makes the products look slick and stylish, but also means they will last and lookgood over time. My clients want products to look beautiful but not at the expense of value and quality”

The revolutionary Errol Douglas INFRARED DRYER combines the benefits of infrared light, anti static and Ionic technology to deliver speed, shine and a frizz-free finish. Infrared light is known to penetrate the hair for more accelerated drying, aid blood circulation and reduce hair loss, whilst Ionic technology allows moisture to penetrate and rehydrate the hair. The anti-static technology finishes the combination by delivering a frizz-free finish on super smooth hair. “We’re all short on time, but it’s important that this doesn’t make the hair condition vulnerable to harsh drying processes in the daily race to get out the door. I wanted a dryer that combined that reduction in drying time with a unique combination of protective technology for a healthy, sleek finish”

The Errol Douglas TREAT & STYLE hair styler features the first ever Keratin capsule system built into the actual iron to become available on the high street. It gives mega-shine with a steam infused treatment that moisturizes and protects hair simultaneously. The vapour infused treatment capsules penetrate deep into the cuticle aided by an integrated temperaturecontrol mechanism, leaving the hair shiner and healthier. “What I love is the look and feel of the hair after using Treat & Style; that luxuryfinish without compromising on the overall condition” said Douglas. It’s really simple to use, making sleek gorgeous hair in between salon visits a reality”

The Errol Douglas INFRARED DRYER and TREAT & STYLE and will be available in Boots Stores nationwide from July 29th 2013, priced at £59.99RRP and £109.00RRP (includes12 Keratin capsules) respectively. Additional TREAT& STYLE keratin capsules are priced at £19.99 for 12.

Errol Douglas first stepped into a salon aged 11, and is one of a few hairdressers to enjoy a global following and reputation from his flagship salon in London’s Belgravia. Open since 1998, the salon has an established flow of high profile clients and has proven to be a hot bed for new talent. Errol was voted “Hair Hero 2013” by Hair Magazine and is the current President of the British Fellowship for Hairdressing.

London Gets Ready For First Ever Men’s Fashion Week(end).

Posted on June 14, 2012 by James Yardley

London is set to host the UK’s first ever Men’s Fashion Week(end). Also known as Men’s Collections, these three days will celebrate the rise in the profile, creativity and commercial success of men’s fashion in the UK. And nowhere is this more apparent than online.

The UK’s leading fashion site ShopStyle.co.uk is used to dealing with over one million users searching for the latest designer womenswear pieces or high street must-haves but the UK online fashion leader has seen a 300% year-on-year increase in sales generated for its top 5 menswear retailers, revealing that it’s not just women who are keen to be seen in the latest looks.

Leading the charge for ShopStyle are men’s brands like Topman and Mr Porter but the fashion shopping hub has also seen a number of new retailers such as Pretty Green entering the online race, as well as unisex brands such as Ted Baker, Next and My-Wardrobe.

The company believes the uplift is driven by the increase in mobile devices and shopping apps which enable men to shop on the go or pick-up an item they may have seen on the street or in a shop window, quickly and easily via their mobile phone. ShopStyle has seen 3x increase in mobile driven searches in the same May to May period and believes that men drive a substantial percentage of these searches.

Shannon Edwards, VP for ShopStyle Europe believes that new technologies are driving men online to shop for fashion. She says: “There’s been a real focus in the UK on improving men’s fashion and that has tempted many style-aware blokes to come out of the woodwork. But for these guys the prospect of spending Saturday afternoon in the changing room leaves them cold. For them, mobile allows them to shop for the big looks without having to spend hours at their computer or in the store.”

MAJORITY OF WOMEN LIE TO THEIR PARTNERS OVER SPENDING

Posted on June 12, 2012 by Catherine Balavage

MAJORITY OF WOMEN LIE TO THEIR PARTNERS OVER SPENDING ON CLOTHES

Two thirds of women regularly fib to partner about real cost of new clothing

Survey by online fashion retailer Lovarni.com also finds one in 10 women keeps every new fashion purchase secret

The majority of women lie to their partners about the amount of money they spend on clothes, a new survey reveals.

Two-thirds admit they “usually always” tell a porkie about the real cost of a new dress, top or pair of shoes.

Most argue that a “little white lie” or a “harmless fib” is better than telling the truth — and starting an argument.

Incredibly, almost 10 per cent rely on their partner’s lack of observation and keep EVERY new clothes purchase a secret.

They only ever come clean if they are caught out by bank statements or hard-to-hide delivery parcels.

The figures were released yesterday by online fashion store www.Lovarni.com, which surveyed 1,000 of its female shoppers.

A spokesman for the site said women are spending up to 50 per cent more online than what they do on the High Street because there is a less of a tell-tale paper trail.

She said: “It’s clear from our research that men are totally clueless about the amount of money their wives or girlfriends are spending on new clothes.

“Our figures show that most female shoppers usually always lie, or tell porkie-pies, about the actual cost of new purchases.

“Indeed, a small number keep every new purchase a secret and almost all only spill the beans if they are forced to do so.

“The upshot of all of this is that between eight and 12 per cent of women admit spending one and a half times as much online as on the High Street – primarily to prevent arguments, but also because they are less likely to get caught.”

According to a recent survey by ecommerce company WorldPay, the average British women spends £315 online on fashion and clothing per year.

Shoes are the most popular fashion and clothing item bought online, with almost 50 per cent of women having purchased a pair in the last year, while the most money is spent on handbags — an average of £187.

The new poll of 18-40 year-olds found that 62 per cent of women in relationships feel guilty or embarrassed about the cost of their wardrobe, and find it easier to lie than to justify their spend.

Virtually all (78 per cent) believe it is better to tell a white lie than risk a row, while a tenth said “complete secrecy” was safer-still.

According to Lovarni.com, a small proportion of women are spending more online than on the High Street because hiding numerous bags can be “very, very difficult”.

“Put simply, online shopping allows consumers to purchase their guilty pleasures without worrying about hauling bags around town,” a spokesman for said.

“It’s also easier to arrange deliveries when he’s out of the house, and saves having to hide lots of shopping bags.”

Portas review gets government approval

Posted on March 31, 2012 by Catherine Balavage

The Government has accepted recommendations from Mary Portas that are aimed at reviving the high street.

Under the recommendations, dedicated ‘town teams’ will manage high streets, a £10 million high street innovation fund will bring life back to empty shops and a National Markets Day will be created.

Natasha-Rachel Smith, spokesperson for TopCashBack, said, “It’s extremely important that the UK’s high streets are productive as a competitive environment in today’s retail sector. Although the most attractive deals and savings will almost always be found online, consumers will always need the requirement to access goods on their doorstep. This is particularly true for essential products and services in situations where the items aren’t available online as immediately as shoppers need them.

“Consumers will always be lured by online bargains but they will continue to need the high street to be the background canvass of their communities.”

Retail Sales in Clothing and Footwear increases.

Posted on November 21, 2011 by Catherine Balavage

PEG- Retail Sales figures from the Office of National Statistics have been released.

Footfall has declined 1.0 per cent but the overall sales of textile, clothing and footwear increased.

Official figures today reveal promising news for retailers. Data from the Office of National Statistics show sales figures to be considerably higher than the same period last year. With the weather set to take a turn for the worse and more people feeling a pinch in their pockets, online shopping sales have surged as people look for good deals.

The value of retail sales in October 2011 showed an increase of 5.4 per cent compared with October 2010. The total sales volumes in October 2011 increased by 0.9 per cent, in comparison to the same time last year. Further figures revealed that small stores sales figures increased by 5.3 per cent while larger stores, sales figures decreased by 0.3 per cent. Once again, online trading increased its share of total retail, the average weekly spend on online retailing increased to £561.5 million up from £518.7 million in September 2011. Textile, clothing and footwear sales volumes fell by 1.0 per cent however sales value increased by 2.6 per cent over the same period. These figures bode well for retailers, giving them a much needed life line in the in the run up to Christmas.

Kevin Flood, CEO of social shopping leader Shopow (www.shopow.co.uk) said, “Retailers that were desperately in need of a reversal of their fortunes have found that they now have an encouraging platform on which to build in the run up to Christmas. High street stores have had to pull out all the stops to make their shops attractive by reducing prices early and creating imaginative promotions to increase footfall and more activity at the tills. It is still far from plain sailing and there is still a lot of pressure on retailers. As long as business and consumer confidence remains low, the battle will continue to persuade shoppers to return in their droves.

“Online activity has emerged as a vital area that will only continue to grow in importance over Christmas. We are expecting a significant amount of Christmas activity online and those who have introduced innovative shopping tools that make shopping easier and more cost effective will capitalise.”

Social shopping has emerged as an exciting trend in online retailing as many high street stores look to engage consumers. It involves the use of social networking to share recommendations, share discounts, post reviews and ask for advice on products before purchase.

Mike Harty COO of Shopow said “Regular web shoppers are now empowered to talk about their purchases in an honest way. Social shopping with Shopow enables shoppers to use their trusted networks to make informed decisions but also makes online shopping more interactive and enjoyable.”

Londoners Life 16 – by Phil Ryan

Posted on June 30, 2011 by Phil Ryan

I’m sorry but I have to say it. The Olympics are coming to London. And just as an example of how great it’s going to be, I thought I’d tell you my experiences with the ticketing system. Briefly, here’s an overview of how it works. Initially you had to apply for a password and set up an account. Then you found you could only buy London Olympic tickets with a Visa card. Then you found you could only actually ‘bid’ for tickets. Not buy them. Huh? This meant that you had to effectively gamble just like buying a lottery ticket – and try and buy (gamble) thousands of pounds of Olympic tickets to get any chance of getting any.

BUT then you didn’t know exactly what tickets to what events you would be sent (if any), you didn’t exactly when or where you’d be going (if you went at all) and then finally the prices jumped from £20 to £400 in the blink of an eye. So effectively, you could ‘bid’ for £3000 worth of tickets only to find, instead of seats at the Opening ceremony or the 100m final, you’d actually ‘won’ two £95 tickets to the pigeon scaring finals in Kidbrooke!

With me so far?

But then as you entered this baffling surreal world of not knowing what, how much you were paying or where you were going – the website continuously blocked you doing anything at all! Half the time, nothing was available apart from the 100m Female Drag Queen Arguments bronze medal qualifiers from Putney. It seemed all the main events in the Olympic stadium were suddenly mysteriously all unavailable. Apart from if you chose to buy tickets in Germany, for example, where you could buy any tickets you wanted!!!

Naturally I didn’t get offered any tickets. I’m not German.

BUT then came the second gambling round for the ‘unlucky’ ones. So with a sense of foreboding, I entered the site to find even less choice of events at £300 ticket, all nowhere near the Olympic Park. Examples: Olympic FOOTBALL? Olympic TENNIS? What’s that all about? So I gave up. What’s the point? It’s simply a fat cat corporate junket we Londoners are sadly paying for.

To recap – I’m a Londoner so some of my taxes (yes, Londoners are the only people paying Olympic tax) go towards the games and my chances of going are clearly zero. Only London could create such a ticketing system. I’ve decided to not be in London those two weeks. There is no point. Ho hum.

Wimbledon is here. And so unsurprisingly is the rain. But this year they’ve got that roof from Thunderbirds so they’ll be able to presumably play on. However, I noticed they hadn’t used it much – preferring instead to have TV coverage full of Sue Barker talking endlessly to various elderly tennis stars of yesteryear. Weird.

And I love the Londoners’ attitude to Wimbledon. I heard radio coverage of the public’s thoughts. Was it excitement at the thought of days of stunning world-class tennis? No. Mainly the thought of more traffic congestion and less places to park. Apparently, the traffic wardens outnumber the strawberries this year.

We Londoners are hardy folk though. In the face of adversity we just carry on. And yesterday, I saw the brilliant sight of a crowd of tube passengers exiting Baker Street into the pouring rain all lifting their Metro newspapers above their heads at the same time. It looked like a modern dance company. You could have set it to music. Of course it didn’t work, but it was great to see them all copy each other in the who can make the ‘most papiere mache first’ game! Best of all, however, right next to the exit, there was a little smiling Indian bloke flogging umbrellas from a bicycle. He was yelling: “Umbrellas, umbrellas, best in town’. What a star! He’ll probably end up being Mayor. He’s got my vote.

Talking of our glorious Mayor for London, I see the campaigns are now seriously starting. Ken is back and so are the other usual pointless candidates. Most of them so bland that when they stand in front of a beige wall they simply disappear. I saw a Liberal Democrat being interviewed and even the interviewer lost interest. She kept glancing past him – clearly hoping a tourist or a drunk would interrupt.

For those of you unclear about things – the London Mayor and his office are yet another level of bureaucracy we pay through the nose for. They spend much of their time meeting about things that don’t ever happen. And when they do make things happen, we just get a bigger bill. A classic case are the fantastic BLUE cycle highways. Millions of pounds of blue lanes painted onto the road. Very safe for cyclists. Clearly cars can’t cross the blue paint – oops yes they can. Doh! But we do provide employment for Boris and his hangers-on currently, up until he tries to take over the Conservative Party. But right now he’s doing his best to mess about with London. And when he’s not screwing things up we have our local councils.

My favourite current example of London madness at official level is a fantastic new idea for local high streets. London councils are creating pop-up shops to give the illusion that our high streets aren’t dying – although of course they are. These pop up shops are usually local artists flogging their work, which I admit is nice, but on the other hand, after a long day, few Londoners go home thinking’ if only I can get a graphic representation of the Queen as a chimpanzee playing the banjo locally’.

The other madder idea is to put plastic coverings on the empty shop fronts. In other words, either stick ugly advertising for Mcdonald’s or some other corporate monster that destroys high streets (no sense of irony these councillors) or in some cases, pretend shops. Yes really. Pretend shops! They look like a flower shop or a grocery shop, but they’re not real! It’s great to watch bemused locals trying to walk in. Bang. They bounce off the locked door and then realise it’s just a big graphic poster with a 3D effect. Seriously, they are out there! You couldn’t make it up really. But it is the London way. We are innovators.

But seriously. Do we care about being ripped off over the Olympics? Is the Mayor going to make the slightest bit of difference to anything? And will it stop us enjoying the summer? No. It’s just a London thing.

BBC turns back the clock on high street stores {TV}

Posted on October 22, 2010 by Aidan

High streets across the UK are going back in time this autumn as part of an exciting new BBC Learning Hands On History project and landmark BBC One series.

Across weekends in October, November and December, an empty shop in 11 different towns will be transformed into a Thirties grocer store, giving today’s shoppers the chance to travel back in time and experience living history.

The project, which is set to visit Armagh, Bradford, Chatham, Clacton, Louth, Paisley, Poole, Stockport, Sunderland, Truro and Wolverhampton, will give communities the chance to learn more about their local history in a fun, exciting and hands-on way.

Visitors will be able to touch, hear and even smell what life was like on their local high street around 80 years ago, as well as share their own memories, photographs and mementoes.

With the help of local history groups, museums and archives the BBC Learning team aims to explore the past of other shops in the towns using documents such as posters, ads, bills and letters, all helping to create a high street time line.

Communities can also help create a photographic “Now and Then” archive of their area with the project’s dedicated Flickr group, or download a special guide to researching the history of their high street at the BBC History website.

The shops are part of the new six-part BBC One series Turn Back Time – The High Street, which takes four empty shops back to the 1870s and propels them through 100 years of change.

Turn Back Time will see a group of shopkeeping families from a variety of trades travel back in time where they’ll face the challenge of living and working in six very different eras of British history, from Victorian Britain right through to the Seventies, all recreated in Shepton Mallet, Somerset. Turn Back Time starts in November.

And to bring the High Street history strand right up to date, BBC English Regions TV current affairs series Inside Out will be examining how our modern day High Streets are coping with the challenging economic climate across each of its 11 regional programmes. The films will be broadcast on BBC One across England in early December.

Launching the Turn Back Time shops, BBC Learning campaign executive Nina Bell said: “This is a fantastic opportunity to bring history alive and give everyone a chance to celebrate their high street. And it’s not just about the high streets with pop-up shops – BBC Learning is working with local history partners right across the UK to develop engaging, hands-on events to bring the history of their local area to life and encourage Britain to fall in love with its high streets again. You can find all the details on our website at bbc.co.uk/history/handsonhistory.”

Monsoon Lingerie – Winter Blossom AW10 {Style}

Posted on September 13, 2010 by Aidan

Just because it’s winter, doesn’t mean that we should shroud ourselves in black or cover up. Monsoon agrees whole heartedly and has brought to the high street their Vintage Collection – a feminine winter blossom lingerie and sleepware range.

With muted blue-grey tones and blush pink satins it’s the perfect antidote to winter blues.