The headlines were dire and the predictions gloomy. “London’s fashion businesses are on the brink and many brands are in crisis”, declared the London Evening Standard columnist, Kate Finnigan in the newspaper on 15th September, just two days before the start of LFW SS (Spring/Summer)21 (17-22 September). To highlight the point, she quoted the acknowledgement […]
“Everything has changed”. That’s how the BBC’s Health Editor, Hugh Pym views the impact of the pandemic both on Britain and the international community. Life will be very different from now on, for the high street, businesses, our work routine and and the way we meet friends, he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show on […]
“The daily tide of troubling news reports can be overwhelming, even for folks like us who have to read it”. It was with these words that Robyn Curnow, a CNN “anchor”, concluded her International Newsroom programme on 3rd April, thanking her viewers for their understanding. It was a rare acknowledgement that even trained professionals like […]
“They could save the world in the war against the coronavirus”. This was the unlikely headline of a press bulletin published on March 20th by Kaiser Health News (KHN), a non-profit organisation based in San Francisco, California. Unlikely, because many recent assessments of smartphones appear to have focused as much on the perceived harm that […]
The message was clear from the start of the latest LFW (14th – 18th February). “Now is the time for drastic change in how we do things. We’re in a different world, a world of emergency”. That was the view expressed by Lynne Franks, consumer lifestyle campaigner and fashion week co-founder”, cited by the Guardian’s […]
There’s a donkey advertisement which appears occasionally on Sky News TV. It begins by showing a skinny, bedraggled animal named Indar who is clearly finding it painful to stand on his overgrown hooves. A voice in the background then tells the viewers that Indar is just waiting for someone to rescue him and asks why […]
“People around the world expect and demand a lot more from their leaders than they receive”. That was the conclusion of Klaus Schwab, chairman of the World Economic Forum, following the survey conducted by Gallup International in 2004 which revealed that 63% of the 50,000 people questioned in more than 60 countries considered their top politicians […]
Is there a risk that the twice yearly London Fashion Week is becoming a bit too predictable and routine? The press release issued by the British Fashion Council (BFC) prior to the latest LFW (Friday 15th – Tuesday 19th February) – which emphasized that the event would feature the very best of both the […]
“Good night, Good Night: Parting is such sweet sorrow”. So declared Juliet to Romeo in Act II Scene II of the play by the 17th century English dramatist William Shakespeare. From her balcony in Verona, Juliet also expressed the hope that they would see each other the next morning. It didn’t of course, quite work […]
Is it really worthwhile these days becoming famous? The main advantage, the British rock singer David Bowie once observed, is that it guarantees you a good seat in a restaurant. In the film “Notting Hill”, the American actress Julie Roberts told Hugh Grant’s character that “ The fame thing isn’t really real, you know”, which […]