Sunday, December 13, 2009 LONDON: Slanket is the newest apparel that has become a craze this season.The dress, which seems to be a cross between a hospital gown and a blanket, can be worn like an apron.Lakeland, the kitchen and homewares store in America had come up with the item in September last year.Since then, the dress that covers the wearer from neck to feet, has sold nearly a quarter of a million.Even chat show hosts Jay Leno and Oprah Winfrey have worn it on their shows.Also, Bruce Willis donned it on the David Letterman show.“There is something very wrong about someone wearing a slanket. They are definitely not high fashion, but they’ve been an amazing phenomenon,” the Telegraph quoted Tom Dunmore of Stuff magazine, as saying.Lakeland is offering it for 29.99 pounds, while Firebox, an online gadget retailer, is selling them for 25 pounds.
Sunday, February 28, 2010 HAVANA: Hundreds of wealthy merchants and cigar aficionados from all parts of the world gathered in Havana this week to bid high stakes for humidors full of premium cigars. Cuba's annual Habanos festival ended on Friday night with an auction of ornate humidors of cedar and mahogany stacked with hand-rolled stogies that raised 800,000 euros ($1.09 million dollars). Habanos S.A. executives this month said cigar sales fell 8 percent to $360 million in 2009, so they have created the Julieta, a smaller, milder version of the Romeo y Julieta cigar, aimed specifically at female smokers. Women now make up only 5 to 10 percent of customers for Habanos. But even with the creation of the Julieta, Garcia said Habanos has only modest hopes for 2010 sales, due largely to a weak economy in Spain, the biggest market for Cuban cigars. The flavor of premium tobacco relies on the soil and climate in which it is grown. The western province of Pinar Del Rio, famous fo...
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