Golden opportunity for two Cape Breton companies

Michique Designer Handbags of Sydney and Galloping Cows Fine Foods of Port Hood both have products headed to Tinseltown for one of the biggest nights of the year for film and television. Michelle Newcombe and Monique Delisle, the twin sisters behind Michique Designer Handbags, are actually in Beverly Hills, Calif., this week as participants in the Golden Globe gifting suite where celebrities and their entourages get a chance to see and receive some of the hottest and trendiest items — from Fendi sunglasses to Gucci clothing, to exclusive lines of jewelry. And now Michique bags. Newcombe said the opportunity to be a part of the Golden Globes stems from their involvement in a website campaign organized by Nova Scotia Business Inc. That campaign caught the attention of a Los Angeles-based company who invited Michique to participate in the gifting suite at the Toronto International Film Festival last year. The same L.A. company is running the Golden Globes gifting suite, and offered the Sydney sisters another golden opportunity. “We were excited. It’s L.A., I mean come on,” Newcombe said laughing. “The opportunity to meet amazing celebrities and the exposure for our company is huge because the amount of press that go there and how huge the Golden Globes are anyway.” Newcombe and Delisle spent part of the day Wednesday setting up their display of handcrafted bags, in preparation for what’s sure to be a nerve-racking couple of days. “When we’re in the suite, it’s very professional. You can’t gush over the stars or ask for autographs or anything, so we’re just going to be ourselves but still be calm if someone huge comes in,” she said, noting they have a couple of minutes to prepare before each celebrity comes in. Then, they simply introduce themselves and their product. “Then it’s up to us. We decide whether we want to gift them or not and what we want to gift them,” said Newcombe, noting they have a brand new product, an evening clutch purse, for the event. A photographer will also be on hand to take pictures of celebrities holding a Michique purse in front of a large promotional sign for the Sydney company. All in all, it’s huge exposure for the Michique brand. “When we went to (Toronto International Film Festival) there was press from Germany and Paris and New York, and I mean how else would we contact these people in one place? So for us it’s a huge marketing campaign,” she said. “It’s a great opportunity for us. We’re excited.” The sisters will be documenting some of their experiences this week with video footage which can be found at www.youtube.com/Michiquebags. Meanwhile, Ron and Joanne Schmidt, the husband-and-wife team behind Galloping Cows Fine Foods, will be watching this Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards from the Port Hood Fire Hall, where they’ll be hosting a party in celebration of the fact that their marmalade is part of the gift bags being given to award nominees and presenters. Like Michique, the Schmidts also got their foot in the Hollywood door at TIFF, where they unveiled a specialty brandy cranberry marmalade especially for the gift bags handed out to the stars at that film festival. Given the product’s success at that high-profile event, they were invited to provide the same to the Golden Globes.

Wholesale Designer Handbags Epitome of Beauty and Elegance

The growing popularity of wholesale designer handbags has compelled women and men of all ages to buy them as it speaks volumes about the class and taste of the person. Though these bags are quite expensive, it is well worth the price as it is elegant and chic. Millions of women all over the world carry branded designer bags which exude poise and elegance. Handbags are considered one of the most essential accessories that complete the appearance of a woman. It is used to carry essential items and also prove to be a fashion statement. With the arrival of expensive bags designed by some of the most famous and reputed designers, carrying handbags have become a status symbol. Various Famous Designer Bags The growing popularity of Wholesale designer handbags has compelled women and men of all ages to buy them as it speaks volumes about the class and taste of the person. Though these bags are quite expensive, it is well worth the price as it is elegant and chic. Some of the most popular and craved designer bags include Prada, Gucci, Burberry, Coach, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Fendi, Hermes, Paul Smith handbags and so forth. The Prada bags are one among the most desirable handbags loved by women of all ages. It is exclusive and manufactured in colors including brown, red, black and so forth. It can be bought from online stores and is available in different sizes. Coach handbags are yet another most popular handbags available in both online and offline stores. Made of leather, these handbags are available in thirteen different colors. The colors vary from yellow to black and the designs include printed materials. These Wholesale designer handbags include a collection of over 16 varieties. It has a unique logo with two C抯 both crossed together. The LV or the Louis Vuitton is straight from the designer house of Paris. These handbags are very famous and flaunted by some of the most eminent Hollywood actresses. Available in black, grey and other colors, these handbags have a collection of around 14 different varieties. Most of these handbags are made of leather and are both scratch free and water proof.

Bill Jamieson: Life still sweet at luxury end of market

WHEN I succumbed to the great "shop hysteria" last week to buy a dinky PC electronic notebook for £279.99, I justified my surrender by reference to the huge VAT saving I would make. But the "saving" - less than £10 - was soon utterly lost amid all the peripherals: the operating system and anti-virus software, in-store installation fee, repair and theft insurance, mousemat, mouse and padded bag for safe mobility. "Buyers remorADVERTISEMENTse" kicked in like a mule long before I made a traffic-snarled exit from the congested hell-hole that is Edinburgh's Fort Kinnaird retail centre. What started out as a bargain hunt ended up feeling like a high-end luxury product purchase. Had I not just bought the male equivalent of the Gucci or Hermès handbag? Barely will I have got used to all its little ways than a new improved model will come along. Might not the 100,000-plus "slightly used" designer handbags now on sale on eBay be a clue as to the transience of so much modern consumer purchase? At the very least the experience rudely exposed the brouhaha and air of panic that has surrounded retail and consumer reaction to the raising of VAT. It has worked, not to crush essential household spending, but to spark a stampede for non-essential purchases. And, convenient though I'm sure it will prove to be, a PC notebook cannot, in all honesty, be counted as one of life's essentials, any more than a Gucci handbag. The "saving" is an illusion. In any event I suspect that, before long, the luring lingua franca of retailer bargain-promotion, discount incentives, two-for-one offers and special deals will erode our memory of life before 20 per cent VAT and bring us back into the shops. Yet hands are now being earnestly wrung over the prospects for consumer spending and the outlook for retailers in the course of 2011. I do not doubt that this will be a tough year for consumers, for reasons other than the VAT increase. But I am not convinced that this will be Year Zero for the big ticket, "high end" and luxury retailer. Indeed, one of the intriguing paradoxes of the past year has been the evident strength of the luxury goods sector in the face of this macro apprehension. Watchmaker Swatch Group got last year off to a flying start with "phenomenal" sales over a Christmas period overhung with worries over rising unemployment and approaching austerity.

LuxeDH, the Biggest Online Boutique for Authentic Pre-owned Designer Handbags

Want to fashion what celebrities are wearing, but for a fraction of the price? Want an affordable way to get your Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Gucci handbags on? LuxeDH now bursts onto the cyber scene to alter the landscape of an entire industry and to provide women what they desire – a place where they can shop for authentic designer brand name handbags with confidence and purchase dream bags at prices that are more than 50 percent off retail. LuxeDH http://www.tiffany-jewelry.co is an elegant, modern site that runs on an insatiable passion for luxury lifestyle brands. It embodies the essence of what woman of all socioeconomic backgrounds desire in luxury fashion accessories and what every man can utilize to find that perfect gift. A unique customer oriented approach with price-match guarantees, free shipping options, monthly payment plans and money-back no hassle return policies is building a tremendous, loyal online consumer base. Founded by local Miami residents Roberto and Margie Szerer, visionaries, who share a passion for luxury lifestyle brands, wanted a way to offer women an online, affordable boutique to buy that one product that never gets old: handbags become vintage. “A simple designer handbag can tell you a lot about someone.” – Roberto Szerer, CEO and President of LuxeDH Roberto and Margie have a proven track record developing worldwide distribution networks for consumer products with companies like Disney, Warner and Mattel, to name a few. The pair hired a team of highly skilled passionate professionals to make authentic luxury handbags available at affordable prices. Each member of the team dedicates their full effort to ensure that every single bag is certified authentic. Sabina and Kim – bag lovers and authenticity experts – have a combined fifteen plus years experience in the authentication process. Their ability to spot a fake gives customers the necessary assurance that they are buying the real deal. In addition, LuxeDH has an endorsement from MyPoupette.com, the Internet’s oldest and most recognizable designer handbag authenticator, as an approved seller of authentic merchandise. About LuxeDH: LuxeDH is the biggest online boutique offering Authentic Pre-owned Designer Handbags. Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Gucci, Prada, Dior, Chloe, Balenciaga, Fendi, Marc Jacobs, Yves St. Laurent and more! All of our designer handbags are guaranteed authentic. We work hard to ensure that all of our designer handbags are authentic. We employ a team of authenticators around the clock to check and double-check all of our designer handbags. We pride ourselves on offering the most amazing deals on authentic pre-owned designer handbags to our loyal customer base.

Turn of the Century in a Skewed View

What has defined the last 20 years in fashion? Celebrity? Girls gone wild? Designer handbags? Visible lingerie? Platform shoes? Or none of the above, if you take a cerebral approach and trace the rise of minimalism, the Belgian and Japanese counterculture and the surviving splendor of haute couture. Fashion history is selective, and nothing proves it more than the second part of “The Idealized History of Fashion,” an exploration of how we have looked from the 1970s to today. The current exhibition, which is at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs and covers 1990 to the present, is as much a failure as the first installment was a triumph. Maybe distance makes the eye grow sharper. While the curator Olivier Saillard distilled the essence of the 1970s and ’80s, bringing fresh information with forgotten videos of early Yves Saint Laurent shows, his vision of these more recent years falls flat. Where is the fashion tension that pitted Prada’s sly sensuality and prim uniforms against Gucci’s sexual grand slam? Just one single dress — although it is a stunning white column with a keyhole cutout at the hip — illustrates Tom Ford’s renaissance of Gucci in the 1990s. Helmut Lang has a fair showing, but not of the designer’s signature multi-straps. Whereas there might have been a compare-and-contrast involving Lang and Martin Margiela, both of whom ultimately left their fashion houses, they do not occupy the same space. Of Jil Sander, one of the most powerful forces in 1990s minimalism, there is nothing at all. But this uneven exhibition is not entirely the fault of Mr. Saillard, a fine fashion historian, who has recently been tapped to head up the Musée Galliera in Paris, and where, from that museum’s enormous archives, he will put together an exhibition this year on Madame Grès. Ironically, it is the awareness of the importance of heritage by the major houses that is making the situation so difficult for museums. Mr. Saillard was refused any loans from Gucci or Jil Sander. He borrowed the keyhole dress from a Spanish museum. And Gucci gives a simple reason for its reluctance to take part in the Paris show: Its archive is going on display in a dedicated Gucci museum that will open in Florence this year — and its current donations are to a Chinese university.

Brown Should Look to Virginia, Not Unions, to Solve Budget Shortfall

California's governor is facing a dire budgetary situation and has proposed a 10 percent pay cut for all nonunion public employees in the state. This drastic move is needed, claims Governor Jerry Brown (D), in order to keep the state financially solvent and whittle away at the projected $25.4 billion shortfall. In addition to cutting pay of non-union state employees, Brown has proposed cuts to the state's social programs and proposed extending tax hikes for an additional five years. The reaction to Governor's plan has been lukewarm among legislators, many of whom realize the need to balance the state's budget yet are wary of deep cuts. Like California, the Commonwealth of Virginia also finds itself with a budget deficit, albeit not nearly as large. Virginia's Governor, Bob McDonnell (R), has proposed a series of measures to close a budgetary shortfall, including privatizing the state's liquor stores and shifting mandatory pension contributions to individual state employees. If state employees are forced to contribute to the state's pension plan, they would see a 2 percent pay reduction. Governor Brown's proposal to cut state employee pay is likely long overdue, as the average salary of a state employee in California is $57,563. Yet Brown's failure to extend pay cuts to unionized employees reeks of cronyism. California's unions spent nearly $25 million to get Brown elected, and if his plan is approved, it appears to be money well-spent. True reform would include the renegotiation of union contracts to levels more inline with their private and nonunion counterparts. Unlike California, Virginia's proposal is equitable and extends to all state employees regardless of their union status, and will therefore be more likely accepted by state legislators and the public.

Weather service forecasts mixed bag of precipitation Tuesday

It's not going to be pretty, folks. Tuesday's weather forecast has all the makings of a big wintry mess. A low-pressure system over the Gulf Coast is moving toward Virginia, and light snow is expected to start falling in the Richmond region around midnight tonight. By dawn Tuesday, the snow will turn to sleet, which will progress into a mixture of sleet and freezing rain by late morning or early afternoon, said Mike Montefusco, a forecaster with the National Weather Service Office in Wakefield. The finicky weather will likely make for bad driving conditions. "Travel is not going to be the most easy thing Tuesday morning," Montefusco said. He was predicting 1 to 3 inches of "a mixed bag of precipitation" before the storm moves north by nightfall Tuesday. The Virginia Department of Transportation began preparing roads with anti-icing chemicals Sunday in preparation for bad weather around rush hour tonight, said Dawn Eischen, spokeswoman for the Richmond district. She said crews would be working through the night. She said the brine solution prevents snow or ice from sticking to the road, which doesn't keep cars from slipping if they hit ice but makes it easier for crews to plow snow off the roadway. "When the storm starts, our crews will start working 12-hour shifts until the storm clears or we have the major routes cleared," she said.