Swiss brand Laurastar collaborated with fashion designer Germanier on gadget said to half ironing time
What do you buy for someone who has everything? The answer, one suspects, is not an ironing board.
But for the big spender who, let’s face it, almost certainly never folds their own laundry, there is a new bougie appliance: a £3,999 ironing board.
Continue reading...Weaker Christmas spending amid cost of living crisis and fewer shops opening cut visitor numbers by 30% on 2019
Retailers have recorded a small pickup in Boxing Day footfall, but visits to stores remained well below pre-pandemic levels as several high street chains stayed shut.
Retailers have been braced for weak spending over the Christmas period as the UK economy stagnates amid the cost of living crisis.
Continue reading...Egyptian businessman and self-made billionaire dies almost 26 years to the day after his son was killed in Paris car crash
Mohamed Al Fayed, the Egyptian-born businessman who owned the department store Harrods, has died aged 94.
His death comes almost 26 years to the day after the car crash in Paris that killed his eldest son, Dodi, and Diana, Princess of Wales, on 31 August 1997.
Continue reading...Protesters take to luxury beds and sofas in London store to call for action on ‘sky-rocketing’ energy bills
Just Stop Oil activists tucked themselves into a Harrods display bed as part of a national day of action on fuel poverty in the UK on Saturday.
Footage of the “warm up” demonstrations also showed security guards confronting protesters lying on sofas inside the shop in Knightsbridge, London.
Continue reading...On one of firm’s biggest shopping days of year, employees demand better wages and conditions
Amazon warehouse workers in the UK and 40 other countries are to strike and stage protests timed to coincide with the Black Friday sales, one of the company’s biggest shopping days of the year.
Employees in dozens of countries, from Japan and Australia to India, the US and across Europe, are demanding better wages and conditions in a campaign called “Make Amazon Pay”.
Continue reading...Once There Was a Bear by Jane Riordan and Mark Burgess will channel the original books’ voice and pictorial style using details from Christopher Robin’s real life
The story of how Winnie-the-Pooh went from a Harrods toy shelf to the home of Christopher Robin and the Hundred Acre Wood is set to be told for the first time, in an official prequel to AA Milne’s original stories.
Winnie-the-Pooh: Once There Was a Bear has been written in the style of Milne by children’s writer Jane Riordan, with illustrations by Mark Burgess emulating the original drawings of EH Shepard. It is the first prequel to Milne’s books and poetry about the bear, and has been authorised by the estates of both Milne and Shepard.
Continue reading...US label Judith Leiber’s depiction of the god on £6,340 leather clutch criticised as ‘demeaning’
Harrods has stopped selling a luxury handbag after the accessory caused offence among the Hindu community.
The bag, from the New York label Judith Leiber favoured by Beyoncé and Jennifer Lopez, sculptures the Hindu god Ganesha into a leather clutch. Many Hindus saw the image of the god on a handbag as demeaning and commodifying their religion. They believe in non-violence against animals, so the use of leather is considered insensitive, especially in this context.
Continue reading...Read the list of super-rich claimants, from Saudi princes to Dubai monarchs, tax exiles to the UK’s richest
Glympton Park is a sprawling, 2,000-acre estate featuring an 18th-century stately home, nestled in the verdant Oxfordshire countryside near Woodstock.
It was bought for £8m in 1992, by Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud, the senior Saudi royal whose past roles include ambassador to the US. He is said to have spent £42m on renovations, including a pheasant shoot and bullet-proof glass on the driveway to thwart would-be assassins.
Continue reading...Investigation into hacked bank files reveals £100m business empire owned by family of former Azerbaijan minister Eldar Mahmudov
A string of luxury properties, including a £17m home near Harrods, were acquired by the children of Azerbaijan’s former security chief, an investigation has revealed.
Eldar Mahmudov was dismissed as national security minister by a presidential order in 2015. No official explanation was given for his removal.
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