Spooky Santa

I bumped into this glowing Santa yesterday while walking on Savile Row. I am sure the traditional tailors on the street are terrified, so spooky is this white bearded man.

Bento time

London is full of surprises. I was looking for a place for my Saturday lunch after visiting a Japanese department store Mitsukoshi's London branch. I was not too intrigued by the store, but I had the nicest lunch in their basement restaurant. All waiters Japanese and extremely friendly, it was a delightful experience from the beginning. Almost all the other customers were Japanese, that merely ever is the case at Yosushi!, Itsu or other overpriced London's Japanese restaurants. The Mitsukoshi restaurant itself was huge but still cozy and a bit worn out but well maintained. I chose a Mitsukoshi bento as my lunch followed by fruits and a pumpkin crème brûlée. I am a fan.

View Larger Map

Pattern Lab

I saw this store window in Soho on Saturday evening. It seems I am not alone with my love of patterns.

At hypermarket

I did my groceries at Carrefour Plaza Singapura today. I try to avoid Carrefour hypermarkets as their cashier system is quite frustrating.

Let me explain. At Carrefour they have different kinds of cashier points which handle only certain customer groups. These groups are based on how many items one is buying and which payment method one is using. If the customer knows how the system works, shopping at Carrefour gets easier. But if one does not, then it might get messy. I followed a middle-aged Ang Mo lady's shopping experience today. Take a look at the chart I made below.

Readers outside Singapore, you can read about POSB Everyday Card here here and about NETS here here.

I know, this lady who had hard time shopping at Carrefour should have paid attention to the signs that guide which cashier to go to. But still I find it very annoying to have this class system. I believe the whole cashier process would be a lot faster if there would be only one kind of cashier points with no hassle with the cards or contents of one's shopping basket.

Tigers are everywhere

It is hard to miss the coming Chinese new year. As the year of the tiger is starting soon, tigers can be spotted everywhere. Even the manikins at VivoCity shopping mall have tiger heads.

My sign in Chinese horoscope is the snake. I just heard today, that snakes will have a bumpy year in 2010. Yikes!

Glitzy Christmas!

Picture from The Swank's email newsletter

If you lack ideas for Christmas presents this year, here is one: Belvest mink fur coat from The Swank (Hong Kong), price only HKD399,995. I got this promotion email yesterday. In these times it sounds a bit ridiculous, but as quarterly results of top notch luxury brands show, they are doing very well.

So, Glitzy Christmas, as Singapore's this year's Christmas slogan says.

ION Orchard finally opens

ION Orchard facade with the MRT entrance in front.

Singapore's long anticipated shopping extravaganza ION Orchard opened it's doors to the public today. I went of course to check it out.

The architecture of the building is something different in Orchard road. The facade is formed of huge glass bubbles. The most prestigious labels like Louis Vuitton, Prada, Cartier, Dior and Giorgio Armani have shops on the Orchard road side. As far as I know Dior is a new comer in Singapore. They are going to house the women's line and some pieces from the Dior Homme line.

My first visit to ION Orchard was a bit of a let down. Many stores were still under construction. The official launch for the mall will be in October. Let's hope everything is ready by then.

I was a bit surprised of the scale of the ION Orchard. Although the mall looks huge outside, inside it doesn't feel so roomy. Compared to Pavilion in KL and IFC mall in Hong Kong which represent the same genre, ION Orchard feels a bit claustrofobic. Maybe it's the height of the floors.

There are also good things about ION Orchard. It has in addition to all the usual luxury brands a Dsquared2 store. I believe this is a debut for Dsquared2 in Singapore. It's quite a big start considered that Dsquared2 has only few stores of their own worldwide. The brand is often sold in department stores or at special retailers. I will definitely pay a visit soon.

I saved the best for the last. I read some time ago that ThreeSixty, a wide variety food store chain from Hong Kong will open an outlet at ION Orchard. And they did. Finally there is a premium grocery store in the heart of Singapore. I'm so happy!

Did someone mention recession?

These vuittonistas haven't heard about it. There was at least a 50m long queue today to the new LV store in ION Orchard in Singapore.

Maybe Steven Meisel's campaign photos of Madonna are luring the people in. In the photos Madonna has gone through Pierre & Gilles style treatment.

Below Madonna's interpretation of one time fashion icon Eva Perón. Christian Dior me!