The latest on Corsets Salespersons

Source: Glasgow Daily Record ()

Dec 4 2007

By Lindsay Clydesdale, Women’s Editor

TWO women who left their accountancy jobs to sell knickers have beaten the biggest names in lingerie to be named the best in the UK.

Boudiche was opened in Edinburgh by Clare Thommen and Fiona McLean two years ago and they picked up the prestigious Drapers Award for best lingerie retailer last week.

Among the big names they beat were La Senza and Rigby & Peller, whose customers include the Queen.

“It was a bit of a shock, but it’s fantastic,” said Clare. “We thought it was only the big companies who won so we couldn’t believe it.”

Clare, 29, and Fiona, 32, were having an after-work drink which led to a discussion about their dreams. They then hatched a plan to leave their jobs and created Boudiche.

Clare said: “We worked together as finance managers and one day after work, while having a drink, we joked about what we’d be doing in five years.

“We both said we’d like to have our own business and we had the same dream of running a lingerie boutique. It seemed like fate.”

The next day the pair met to draw up a business plan and after winning financial help, they opened the doors of Boudiche 10 months later.

It was a world away from their previous jobs and the stuffy, business of accounting.

“That’s what drove us to get out because we were never typical number-crunching accountants,” laughed Clare. “But it was a huge risk leaving our well-paid careers.”

The shop quickly gained a reputation as one of the most fashionable and luxurious underwear retailers in Scotland and was a hit with both the shoppers and fashion magazines.

Although they currently only have one shop, in the capital’s Frederick Street, there are plans to open a new branch next year.

The women launched their company with support from the Scottish Youth Business Trust and Chief Executive Mark Strudwick was excited to hear of their success.

He …

Source: Stuff.co.nz ()

Reuters
KEEP YOUR CLOTHES ON: Keira Knightley doesn’t want to be known as a ‘nudist’, despite shedding her clothes in several films.

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Keira Knightley says she doesn't want to get a reputation for taking her clothes off in movies.
The stunning Atonement actress is quickly becoming known for her willingness to bare all in films, but insists it wasn't a conscious decision.
She told US chat show host Ellen DeGeneres: "I don't know why it happened this way. People ask me to pose naked and I just say yes! I find it vaguely liberating.
"I hope I don't become a nudist, but I'm definitely on my way!"
When she does wear period costumes in her films, Keira - who can soon be seen in drama The Duchess - still finds it difficult to breathe in stomach-restraining corsets.
She laughed: "At the end of the day, it took me 10 minutes to learn to breathe normally. The corsets are such a workout too - heavy dresses and all that!"
The Oscar-nominated actress also said she won't be doing her Christmas shopping in Britain's famous department stores, because they "terrify" her.
She told USA Today newspaper: "Department stores scare the hell out of me, they terrify me! This time of year, I can't handle it. I can't quite face the hordes people."
 

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Source: PR.com (press release) ()

Mira Loma, CA, December 19, 2007 –(PR.com)– T & A Lingerie is currently serving their client’s needs by providing plus size intimate apparel from sizes 1X-6X including but not limited to Babydolls, Corsets, Camisoles, Teddies, Fantasy Costumes, Leather & Vinyl. T & A Lingerie understands that the media often portrays sexy as stick thin often gaunt, waif and underfed looking women strutting down a catwalk or on the cover of a fashion magazine. T & A Lingerie understands that all women need to look and feel sexy that is why they offer lingerie in sizes that fit the average woman. "Many full figured women just do not feel comfortable going into a store to search for intimate apparel. Clients can now discreetly go on our site preview and price out what they are looking for and order and receive their products right to their door 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year," said Gary Martin, Operations Manager of T & A Lingerie. To preview the great all plus size lingerie collection go to www.tandalingerie.com. T & A Lingerie offers a $5.95 flat rate to all in United States, Alaska & Hawaii included. Stop by today to see what T & A has to offer you.

###

Source: Florida Times-Union ()

Inside The Jacksonville Landing, red is the new pink. The forces behind the new Mavericks Rock N’ Honky Tonk waged a color war on Club Paris’ sickly shades, with red velvet and rustic wood emerging triumphant. (Hopefully said forces also burned a few sage bunches to drive out any lingering bad spirits from the previous regime.)

A Texased-up facade built from unpainted wood perks up the club entrance across from the Landing food court. Wagon wheels, horseshoes and tin roof shingles complete the look. You get to walk through swingin’ doors to the club proper, a cutesy Old West delight you don’t see much anymore, save for the occasional video store that has a set leading into its “18 & up” room.

Inside, the saloon theme is developed to the hilt, from the cocktail servers in corsets and fishnets, to the pool tables, to the entire stuffed elk on loan from Toney Sleiman’s hunting trophy collection.

The upper level of the club has been dubbed Miss Ellie’s Bardello and is done up in crystal chandeliers, animal print furniture and framed black and white pin-ups of dust bowl-era ladies, some wearing nothing but pearls. The Bardello also holds the VIP sections, and I choose to assume the featured dance poles are for the ladies to do the can-can.

Part concert venue, part dance club, Mavericks roped me in twice already, for a lunchtime Trace Adkins concert for Gator Country radio contest winners and for its grand opening celebration featuring Lila McCann. The country-meets-rock theme seems a natural fit for Southern rock-loving Jacksonville. When you see couples twirling around the dance floor and so many people in the crowd singing along with the performer, it’s clear Mavericks found its niche.

Both performances sounded good enough that I watched every minute, despite a country music novice. And how nice to have a stylish yet casual downtown music venue …

Source: Times of India ()

Bipasha’s paisa
vasooli…

I have never used
the media

Nana and Anil speak
about Welcome

‘My Name is Khan’ or
‘Khan’?

Welcome biggest
comedy of 2007!

Source: Stuff.co.nz ()

SIZEIST: Charlotte Coyle runs a beauty contest for larger women.

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Charlotte Coyle is a plus-sized Irish model who organised a beauty contest for fat women in the hope that the world would change their sizeist attitudes toward tubby good-looking females.
I think that's the guts of what she was trying to achieve on Real Life: Fat Beauty Contest (TV One, 9.25pm, Wednesday). However, there's no getting past the fact that grossly overweight beautiful people are few and far between.
Coyle said she wanted plus-sized people to audition for the competition rather than the morbidly obese, but the wannabe fat beauty contestants who turned up were pretty much in the morbid category.
Coyle was lucky because her fat didn't go to her beautiful face. She didn't even have a double chin, whereas most of the tubs auditioning for the contest had more chins than a Chinese phonebook, and, with the camera adding four kilograms, it was sometimes hard to tell the contestants apart.
Even Coyle seemed to betray her own goal as she selected comparatively bantam-weighted girls who had the audacity to fit a size 14.
"I know she's a wee bit small but she has big hips and has shown more passion than anybody else today," Coyle said in defence of a skinny pretender to the throne.
When the list was read out, Coyle's dour, hefty female offsider threw a wobbly objecting to the relatively high representation of undersized models in the final dozen.
It was like watching an imaginary episode of America's Next Top Model where plus sizes made up more than the gamine.
The women who were size 22 and 24 who had turned up expecting a level playing field, felt betrayed and went into a huddle for a conference.
Coyle back-pedalled and you should have heard the scream delight when one very large and excited contestant yelped with delight down the blower, assaulting Coyle's …

Source: Houston Chronicle ()

A: Actively managed funds are run by professionals who try to maximize performance by handpicking investments. Investments in passively managed funds, on the other hand, simply mirror the components of an existing index (thus their more common name, index funds). For example, an index fund based on the Standard & Poor’s 500 will hold the 500 stocks in that index, in the same proportion as the index. The irony we love to point out is that the majority of actively managed stock funds underperform the overall stock market — and the index funds that match it. Perhaps the biggest reason is cost, since passively managed funds don’t need to employ lots of analysts just to mimic an index. Most investors are generally better off having at least some assets in index investments.

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The company recently posted third-quarter sales of $20.5 billion, up 83 percent over year-ago levels. Diluted earnings per share jumped 37 percent. Over the past nine months, rose 71 percent and earnings per share advanced 22 percent. Investors have noticed the stellar performance, …

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A: Imagine that you’re studying the financial statements of Librarian Supply Co. (ticker: SHHHH). It’s growing rapidly from quarter to quarter. Perhaps, for some calculation, you need to estimate its current annual level of sales. You could add up the last four quarters’ worth, but that would clearly understate sales, as each quarter’s numbers have been rising.

You need a run rate. Take the most recent quarter’s sales of $40 million (up from $35 million the quarter before and $31 million before that). Multiply that by 4 and you get the company’s current run rate for sales: $160 million. This is not a forecast or a measure of past sales – it’s a reflection of the current level of annual sales.

Ask the Fool: In general terms, what’s the best number of stocks to own? – F.T., Detroit

A: There’s no answer perfect for everyone. Ideally, your money should be concentrated on your best ideas – the companies you believe hold the most promise. If you think a certain 10 companies are likely to increase your wealth the most, why spread your limited funds over an additional 10 or 20 less-auspicious companies?

Spread yourself too thin, and it becomes hard to keep up with all your holdings, which you should aim to do at least every quarter. (Less often can be OK with some established, stable blue chips.) If you have 25 companies in your portfolio, that means 100 quarterly reports to read. Yikes.

Focusing your money on too few stocks is extra risky, though. You stand to gain or lose a lot. For most people, eight to 15 companies is a good total to shoot for.

My dumbest investment: I bought a cable modem maker in 1999 for under $3 per share in three accounts – one for me, two for my sons. In 2000, I sold it at $46 per share in one of my sons’ accounts. I remember being worried I had too soon. My other son and I were going to sell at $100 per share, but …

Source: Irish Independent ()

I HEAR You Calling Me may have been one of the songs that contributed to the vast sums of money that Count John McCormack earned over the course of his much-celebrated career, but it was answering the call of the horses and the lure of extravagant living that helped to relieve him of much of that fortune.

I HEAR You Calling Me may have been one of the songs that contributed to the vast sums of money that Count John McCormack earned over the course of his much-celebrated career, but it was answering the call of the horses and the lure of extravagant living that helped to relieve him of much of that fortune.

McCormack’s love for racehorses was to be his chief financial downfall, according to his grandson, John Count McCormack, who reveals that his grandfather lost a fortune on the horses.

“McCormack lost huge sums of money backing horses and keeping racehorses,” says McCormack’s biographer Gordon Ledbetter. “He was determined to have a winner, although the nearest he came was fourth, and he told his son Cyril that if hadn’t been for the horses, there would have been enough money to keep him and he probably wouldn’t have ever needed to go out to work.”

From humble beginnings in Athlone, John McCormack went on to become the greatest lyric tenor of his day, and was the youngest ever to sing a major role at Covent Garden. A true celebrity of his day, his earning capacity was huge, given that he filled Carnegie Hall and the Hippodrome in New York 12 times in one season alone.

Following a secret engagement, out of fear of parental disapproval, McCormack married soprano Lily Foley in 1906, and they had two children, Cyril and Gwen. Despite the opportunities that would have inevitably presented themselves to the dashing young tenor, he stayed faithful to Lily, and the marriage lasted right to the end.

As his Patricia Kelly reveals in a fascinating documentary, The People’s Tenor, which forms part of the recently …