Aug - 2015
CONTENTS
Demur Magazine
04 - Editors Letter 23
05 - Editors Picks 07 - Fashion
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Mavatar – aiding your shopping experience.
10 - HOW TO LOSE WEIGHT Fussing over a diet
11 - DEMUR’S 5 TOP SUMMER makeup tips 13 - Shoes for Summer Potomac Shoes 15 - Corsi Shop 17 - MEN'S GROOMING 25 - Pure LONDON 26 - Africa Fashion Week London
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32- BOXPARK THE FUTURE 33 - Thora Jewels 34 - THE BEST BURGER BARS
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EDITORS LETTER
Demur Magazine
E D I T O R S
L E T T E R &Contributors
16th June 10:30am that final bell goes off to announce that the exam is over and to put your pens down. Every person in that room has a sense of relief that it’s all finally over! NO MORE GCSE’S EVER AGAIN!!... Unless of course we fail and have to retake them in college (but we will not think about that for now). The sudden realisation that High School is over and you are free for a whole 87 days, is somewhat a good feeling but at the same time a heartbreaking emotion. For the first couple of days you start catching up on your overdue lie ins and binge watching all the TV shows and movies that you’ve missed out on during the last couple of months. But then as the week goes by you realise you can’t waste your whole summer doing just that. You need a good summer story for when you start college to break the ice. So you start snapchatting all your friends saying how much you “miss” them and arrange plans to meet up during the week, but for some reason everyone already has their summer planned out whether it’s going on holiday or they’re busy working. You realise that it’s just you who doesn’t have your summer in order. How can I fix this? You ask yourself whilst binge watching Orange Is The New Black. It is crazy how much we look forward to summer, but when the time is upon us, we are frozen with no idea of what to do with ourselves. However my time here at Demur helps the time pass by. This is issue has been exciting to work on. We have tips on how to lose weight without dieting ( we love our food here!), we bring you the lowdown on Boxpark’s new venture and we take you to Augusts’ hot happenings, Pure London & African Fashion Week London. We hope you enjoy the issue and look forward to seeing you out and about as I continue to create my summer memoires. With love Nicole x Noreen Chada - Editor
Shirley Dee- Fashion Editor Kay Samuel- Features Editor Nicole Samoto – Social Editor Stella Dzingai – Contributing Writer Visit us at: www.demur.co Facebook: DemurMagazine Twitter: DemurMagazine Instagram: DemurMagazine TV:www.youtube.com/DemurMagazine Email: info@demur.co
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FASHION
Demur Magazine
EDITOR’S PICKS
Zara – Fringe Tri-color Sandal - £69.99
Harvey Nichols – Magicstripes -
Anya Hindmarch Ebury Maxi Smiley Perforated Leather Tote
Anya Hindmarch - Ebury Maxi Smiley Perforated Leather Tote
£950.00
£950.00
Lucas Hugh Nordica Printed Stretch Leggings
£280.00
River Island -Brown Faux-Suede Fedora Hat
- £25.00
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£18.00
FASHION
Demur Magazine
Forever 21 –Tropical Print
Mango – White Denim Shorts -
Backpack - £19.00
£29.99
TK Maxx – Tobacco Scented Candles
Selfridges – Grey Goose vx
- £9.99
Office – Nike Air Huarache Cinnabar Orange -
£89.99
Vodka 1000ml - £110.00
John Lewis - Lorus Rs929bx9 Men's Bracelet Strap Watch -
£59.99 06
FASHION
Demur Magazine
Mavatar – aiding your shopping experience.
Fashionistas, make way for Mavatar the e-commerce website that brings all your online shopping bags together. We all do it, spend time e-window shopping placing our items in the trolley until pay day or waiting for that all important sale. Mavatar is there to ease your busy lifestyle by saving you time and most importantly money. We caught up with co-founder and President of Mavatar ,Susan Akbarpour and she had a few words to say about Mavatar.
The idea for Mavatar came about… When I entered Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2009 at the age of 40, it didn’t take me long to notice that my closet was not configured for student life! No matter how hard I tried, I showed up to my classes overdressed. I didn’t have the time and the interest to go shopping. I knew that the moment I’d step into a mall, I’d end up buying the same brands and looks that I loved. So instead, I went online and purchased seven pairs of jeans in one sitting! Each around 30-50 bucks! To my surprise, all of a sudden, after that drastic shopping behaviour, I started receiving hundreds of emails from various retailers to buy even more cheap jeans!! Promotions were chasing me everywhere, online and offline. My browser was flooded with banners imploring me to buy more cheap jeans! It was a constant, unbearable reminder, screaming at me, “YOU BOUGHT SEVEN PAIRS OF JEANS IN ONE SITTING!” As I sat in the Data Modeling and optimization course taught by Professor Jeff Moore, who is now one of Mavatar’s investors. I was in awe with the power of data – fascinated by its potential and application. I tried to find everyday scenarios where these analytical techniques could be applied. So during the last semester, I found myself drawn to other two courses called Social Data Revolution offered by Amazon’s former Chief Scientist and Non-market to research further about my idea of disrupting e-ecommerce! Soon, I realized I needed a partner and paired up with Panagiotis Papadimiriou, a computer science Ph.D student who had numerous researches on user privacy and new advertising models. We founded Mavatar in 2011 along with Brom Mahbod, Ph.D. Oracle VP of e-business platform and the company
veteran of 20 years. My researches demonstrated what the consumers receive in return for sharing their personal data unwillingly is lots of noise, which makes our world and state of mind polluted, and, in fact, decreases our confidence in buying. So our plan was creating a consumer-centric platform to analyze data for consumers and make them smarter about their shopping decisions. We established the platform on pull model advertising that narrows down consumer choices, instead of widening them and making them feel overwhelmed and unhappy! Consumers are bombarded with lots of data they feel obligated to process as if they are robots! In 2012, 90 million Americans 2012 saved $4.6 Billion using coupons and promo codes, according to NCH Marketing, however for every dollar they saved, they spent one hour! So our goal was writing algorithms that find the answers of any question consumers may have on any given product or a selection of products in a fraction of time to save them money and TIME! At Mavatar we decided to make our business model
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FASHION based on performance marketing, rather than advertising. You don’t see a single display ad at Mavatar. We also consciously opted out of buying traffic, pooling our customers’ data for everyone to TARGET. That’s what targeting means—you use my users’ data and I use yours! So it took longer for us to build a user base, but now we are seeing our organic users have rewarded us with abnormally high user retention of over 60%! Mavatar is a selfregulated privacy tool for consumers! A private sandbox for them to make their shopping decisions communicating only with the seller. Susan had to go through some trials and tribulations to prove to investors that Mavatar was worth the money We started pitching angel investors I knew from my past ventures. This is today a norm in Silicon Valley. VCs and institutional investors don’t get excited about an innovative IDEA in inception anymore. They invest on growth even if they have to pay premium! They want to see team, users, customers, revenue and everything that makes you think, where is the “venture” part of these investments anymore!? I myself can’t pitch any idea or even a cause until I truly believe in it. Asking for help, money, or resource, when I can’t define the value for the other party—it seems like begging to me! No one likes beggars. You are and act stronger when you believe in what you do! So throughout our venture we always made sure that we had incrementally created enough value before asking for more from our current investors or even pitching new ones! Since beginning we had a straightforward & proven business model (CPA), we put together a team with over 200 years of accumulated experience which today leads to create a very powerful technology platform with 5 pending patents, meaningful fostered partnerships. Our investors were handpicked and are instrumental in our company’s success, connecting us not only to the source of capital but also their knowhow and network. Our concern was raising smart money as you can see from the list: Chris Kelly, Kelly Investments and Former Chief Privacy Officer of Facebook; Steve Westly, Former California Controller and eBay Marketing VP; Phil Schlein, former CEO of Macy’s California; Jeff
Demur Magazine Moore, Professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business; Paul Deneve, Apple Special Products VP and former CEO of YSL, Lanvin, and Nina Ricci; Mike Walsh and Jillian Manus, partners of Structure VC (original investor for Uber and Salesforce); Triton Systems; Monjeri Investment; etc. The vision for Mavatar is… Democratizing the e-commerce! Creating an ecosystem for all three constituencies of the product: consumers, influencers, and retailers, for a win-win-win experience. Mavatar is a B2B2C omni-channel SaaS e-commerce platform where data, content, and e-commerce meet. It is the convergence of Pinterest, Retailmenot, Amazon and Uber for retail sales. We started from consumers to know their pain, and then moved to address influencer pains, and now we can white label it to any enterprise business. Our motto is “Save and Make money shopping”! Mavatar is an Uber for retail sales that allows: 1- Smart shoppers to carry one shopping cart store to store, mobile to web, offline to online and see the 360 view of the products (deals, popularity and features stories) all in one window, in a fraction of time. and 2Influencers to publish these carts behind any type of offline event or content (print, digital, social, video) shoppable, using our zero-integration technologies. Was there something missing from an online shopping experience before Mavatar? Privacy is increasingly becoming an important issue for online shoppers. Marketers collect large amounts of user’s personal information after every purchase or on simple search inquiries she makes. Following this mostly surreptitious capture of private data, marketers bombard the user with direct and indirect purchase recommendations and advertisements. More often than not, the real-time need of the shoppers or theirs evolving shopping habits are missed.
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MAVATAR
Demur Magazine
"Marketing landscape becomes increasingly complex and fragmented. Therefore the consumer purchasing journey spins through a labyrinth of iTV, Hollywood, print & social media, paid, owned and earned media channels’ influence on the final transaction that makes the margin of error in quantifying the contribution of involved touch points in performance bigger! This means wasting marketing dollars on tools that morph the marketing efforts to a useless Guess Work!
using our tools with zero technology integration! We will be soon white label our marketplace, store agnostic smart personal cart technologies and other technologies to other enterprises and platforms to create such ecosystems for their respective industries such as service, travel, car, imagery, applications among others.
Industry doesn’t have to focus on users’ data. In fact they picked the easier route because aggregating and optimizing product data is complicated! Mavatar is an efficient ecosystem for products’ constituencies; Consumers, retailers and influencers that allows influencers to create and aggregate their shoppable content in Mavatar and shoppers to optimize their shopping decisions variables (price, deals, features stories, alternatives, ...) in one window. This omnichannel experience for shoppers and influencers enables retailers to easily track and measure their products influencers’ effect and pay them for their fair share of the final transaction. My experience as an inventor who is not only an avid consumer but also has experience in retail, media and advertising and my team’s strong background solved these industry problems with creating a winwin-win situation for all three constituencies of the product without skewing result for only one party can be very valuable to this panel!" If Susan could be any fashion item she would be… A suede burgundy open tow pump! They go with any outfit! Such practical shoes for every occasion! However if you ask me about a specific brand, I recently fell in love with Sophia Webster shoes as you will see in one of my recent carts! I always loved MacKenzie-Childs designs. I feel Sophia Webster is following the same idea! What the future holds for Mavatar Allowing a fashion blogger in China to promote a Russian designer product listed by an American retailer to be sold to a Japanese shopper! Removing walls in e-commerce and realizing efficiency and transparency for all three constituencies of products
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HOW TO LOSE WEIGHT WITHOUT
FUSSING OVER A
DIET
We all struggle with it. We set ourselves a target to lose a few inches to fit into that dress for that one special event, as if there are no other sizes. We plan our diets and somehow we give into temptation. It’s a common struggle. Fear no more. There is a way of losing weight without having to diet…apparently. Everyone knows that dieting can be hard, especially when everywhere you go you are tempted by your favourite calorie raising food. But what if we told you there was a way you could lose weight without dieting? Surely that’s impossible you say, but in actual fact it’s doable. Firstly you need to consider the reasons why you are gaining weight. You may be gaining weight from eating too much and not balancing it out with exercise, or even from the prescription drugs you have to take for your health. Whatever the reason is as you grow you inevitably gain weight. Unfortunately there is no quick mend to losing weight even if you resort to drugs or surgery. So the only way to lose weight and keep it off is to change the way you eat, but not to the point where you food is not enjoyable anymore, after all food is meant to be enjoyed. You need to
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find a way of eating where you can still enjoy meals out with your friends and family without worrying about what you are eating. When it comes to your dietary changes you need to cut out all sugar and artificial sweeteners. Become a label reader to make sure you know what you’re eating and how much of it you are consuming. You should also think about removing foods containing white flour and white sugar and also avoid refined foods where the fibre has been taken away. Most importantly you need to understand what you are eating and ensure that you balance it all out. This may also include exercising every once in a while. For those who don’t enjoy exercising as much or don’t have enough time in the day, your exercise could be as little as just having a 15 minute walk or jog. Or instead of catching that 10 minute bus or tube journey you could walk to your destination instead. Lastly it’s all about building up to the change; losing weight isn’t just going to happen overnight it’s going to be a gradual change with a whole lot of commitment. But surely having that beach perfect body will be worth it all in the end right?
DEMUR’S 5 TOP SUMMER Makeup Tips
Summer has come about and with the hot weather hopefully approaching us wearing a full face of makeup seems like a myth now. But fear not Demur is here to make the summer makeup experience less daunting just follow our top 5 makeup tips! Tip 1: Try a tinted moisturizer: For those of you who aren’t fully confident going out completely bare, we suggest you go for a tinted moisturizer that will help even out your skin tone, add radiance and make sure your face doesn’t feel too heavy in the heat. We recommend: Benefit you Rebel Lite Tinted Moisturiser
Tip 2: Get a safe bronzer: When choosing your bronzer, you should go for a bronzer with a slight shimmer preferably in a peachy pink tone. Apply this over the apple of your cheeks, across the bridge of your nose and on your temples to show an outline of where the sun hits your face. We recommend: Max Factor Bronzing Powder Tip 3: Shine bright like a diamond! To keep your summer makeup glowing to a minimum, blend in a touch of liquid highlighter on the tops of your cheekbones, brow bones and down the bridge of your nose. This however takes a lot of practice but as they say practice makes perfect! We recommend: No7-Skin-Illuminator-RadianceBoosting-Beauty-Fluid
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DEMUR’S 5 TOP SUMMER Makeup Tips
Tip 4: Experiment with your makeup Experimenting with your makeup is always a lot of fun. Whilst experimenting with your makeup, you may find that your satin long last lipstick may also be useful to tint your cheeks for the whole day! We recommend: Chanel Rouge Allure Luminous Satin
LIP COLOUR Tip 5: Make your mascara last A simple trick we found was to use a clear mascara on your top lashes before applying your main black mascara. We recommend you only apply clear mascara to your bottom lashes this will help your lashes last longer and look a little longer. We recommend: Max Factor Clump Defy Water Resistant Mascara
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Shoes for Summer P o t o m ac Shoes 1. What is about your shoes that make them different from all the others?
At Potomac we design simple, current footwear, made with sustainable and ecofriendly raw materials and manufactured traditionally, so that every pair of shoes has its own unique and special character. And so it is always a job well done. 2. What would be your ultimate shoe no no?
Personally, I hate when I find a shoe that is trendy and fashionable in design, but not comfy. That is probably, one of the most annoying things that can happen to a shoe designer 3. Do you have a favourite shoe from your latest collection?
I love this one. 4. Where does your shoe inspiration come from?
We are a team of three designers, so we get inspirations from many places, such as magazines, stores, shoe fairs, etc. But what really makes you different is your own life experiences and imagination. For example, in our next Summer collection, I was inspired by trip that I personally took to Africa a few months back 5. What further developments can we expect from Potomac?
We have been in the shoe business for more than 40 years, we are actually starting from the bottom as a brand, so our primary objective right now it’s the satisfaction of our customers to become a well-know brand all over the world
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Corsi Shop 1.
Tell us about Corsi Shop?
We buy collections and personalise some of them. We are 2 brothers who both studied at Polimoda , and work on Buttero Man collection. Two seasons ago we made a capsule collection with a tattooist Giovanni Cipolla and Buttero. We mixed the style of the iconic sneakers of Buttero and the art of tattoos. 2. What are you guys up to at the moment? We have some new projects developing but it’s all a secret at the moment. Regarding new style for the Fall Winter collection, we are have a OXS Tattoo and other new brands that we selected for our customers to purchase from our shop. 3. Where did your shoe inspiration come from? We take inspiration from all the city and fairs that we go to. We like to mix classic with rock.
We take a look from the tradition of local artisans and our work takes strength from these collaborations. 4. Where did your shoe inspiration come from We take inspiration from all the city and fairs.. globalization,there is not a clear direction, pop fashion caused a freedom choose of style. We like to mix classic with rock. We take a look from the tradition of local artisans and our work takes strength from this collaborations. 5. Lastly where do you see Corsi in 5 years? Our goal is to show our customers our passion for a quality service and careful selection of products. We want to carry on the tradition of the store that has been running since 1948 and has now come to the third generation. We would also like to increase our presence on the European market.
MEN'S GROOMING THE TERM FOR BARBERING
MODERN
Men’s grooming covers all aspects of hair and skin treatments and services, following through to tailoring and self presentation. A man has got to what he has to do to look good. The Victorians first made this service fashionable for men. The military were the first to start barbering to ensure all soldiers were clean and all Barbers in the military were the onsite doctors. Hence nowadays you see, the white and red pole outside barbershops meaning, an emergency doctor is available. These days it has become fashionable to groom facial hair and have skin treatments once again! Horse hair brushes and cream for clean shaving. A hot towel service to open, steam and unclog the pores therefore stopping in growing hairs and skin rashes. These are all services that are making men spend hours at the barbershops. Not to forget to go with the grooming, a man has to maintain a dapper look at all times. Dapper means that all clothing items are matching. From the handkerchief, tie and to cuff links and for some even a walking stick. These grooming essentials are all making a comeback and they are making our men what they are today.
Credits Photographer Donald Linderyd - www.dlinderyd.com Model Gustavo Romano Make Up Artist Sita Gill Stylist Deigh Alexander smith Location 12 Barry Parade, Barry rd. East Dulwich, London SE22 0JA Creative Direction and Hair Karen Windle
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PURE LONDON
August is here and we all know what that means, PURE LONDON is back! For those who don’t know what Pure London is, Pure London is the UK’s leading fashion trade show which takes place twice a year in London. This year their theme is ‘Electric Beach’ and you can definitely expect everything to come alive with live DJs and celebrations to help you discover the latest collections. There are hundreds of brands to discover over 3 days, with brands selected from all over the world. With inspirational cat walks from exclusive brands only exhibiting at Pure London, you will be sure to find your next style. Pure London doesn’t only suit your business needs but they also provide an inspiring and fun place to be and meet new people who share the same passion for fashion as you. If this isn’t enough to make you want to go then we don’t know what is! Make sure you do not miss out on all the amazing styles they have to offer this year. See below to find out when all the excitement starts and grab your tickets now whilst you still can! Sunday 2nd August: 9:30 – 18:00 Monday 3rd August: 9:30 – 18:00 Tuesday 4th August: 9:30 – 16:00 www.purelondon.com/
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Africa Fashion Week London This summer, London Olympia will be transformed into a stunning showcase of African-inspired design. Highlighting a unique and fashion-forward catwalk collective; daily eye-catching runway shows and vibrant exhibitions, this 2-day event brings together fashionistas and industry professionals from around the world to Europe’s largest and most important African-inspired fashion event. Since debuting in 2011, AFWL has gone from strength to strength; championing new and emerging designers who are inspired by the rich culture of Africa and incorporate this heritage into their contemporary design. We had the opportunity to interview some of the brand’s showing at AFWL. KILUMBA, an African inspired fashion brand of choice, symbol of quality, style and comfort internationally. KILUMBA was created in late 2013 by the designer, Luciana Peres. Luciana took time out of her busy schedule to talk through the brand with us. How did you land into the world of fashion? Creativity and a natural sensibility for fashion, style and aesthetics have always been an immediate tendency and calling/ vocation throughout my life. The innate drawing and artistic ability, a family trait (other members are also talented drawers),
helped make this dream a real project. And while fashion design, for various reasons, has not been a primary profession, as per this early acknowledgement of my true vocation, I managed to create the right conditions to recently launch KILUMBA. What's the most fashionable item in your closet? This is rather subjective. While a certain item may be deemed fashionable for me it may not be perceived as such by others. Also I believe in a good balance between classic/tradition and dynamism/evolution in life and in fashion. Thus if I have to pick/select a signature piece/item (there’s a number of them) I would base it on this premise, nothing beats a good old fitted belt to accentuate one of female’s great asset, her waist. So I try to keep my belts updated. What is your biggest fashion faux pas? This is also subjective and in my opinion irrelevant, particularly in fashion. I don’t believe in mistakes in fashion, rather in different points of views. This may not be classified as right or wrong and solely as different. But for those less inspired days maybe the rule rather than the exception may help to feel more comfortable with your fashion choices (“less is more”; “keep it simple”; the LDB…). If you could design a red carpet outfit for one celebrity who would it be and why?
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As KILUMBA and my presence in fashion aims to and caters for the everyday woman, with great enthusiasm to perform, succeed and make a difference in the society, irrespective of its hierarchy level in her field of activity. In this sense, I/we would hope to be inspired by that side of the celebrity/personality. It’s almost impossible to choose from a pool of great woman known and unknown to the general public KILUMBA would be honored to design for. But one that immediately comes to mind from my generation is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie as a great female artist and opinion maker, a proud and key representative of the African culture and a positive and constructive globalization promoter. What can we expect from your collection at Africa Fashion Week London 2015? At the AFWL and because it’s our debut presentation in such a great platform, we will attempt to show a good sample of our work, that covers all the main fashion segments: Woman, Men, Kids,
Shoes and Accessories. Aiming to have a strong presence we will both showcase and exhibit. For the exhibition we expect to have a variety of exclusive pieces from our currently running 2015 Winter Collection (titled “African Tales”). As for the shows (we will have two, on Day 2 – August 8th) we are planning great surprises with the exclusive unveiling of some pieces of our upcoming 2016 Spring/ Summer Collection, inspired by tropical flowers and titled “AfroFloweirsm”. We take the opportunity to invite everyone to come enjoy our work and the “new way of wearing”! How can we keep up with you and the brand's developments? We welcome all fashion lovers to visit us on: Facebook/Instagram/Twitter: kilumbafashion; Weblink: www.kilumba. com Our Facebook page also offers the chance to shop our items through our online facestore. Look out for our new and upcoming vending po
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Tumisola Ladega, is the young designer behind Tumiila. Growing up whenever she was told, she would soon grow out of wanting to be a fashion designer and she would find it hard to succeed. Now Tumisola has a few words to say to her “motivators�
How did you land into the world of fashion? I landed in the world of fashion at the age of 12 at my first fashion competition in London. I came 2nd in the competition and received a lot of press and attention due to my creative innovative designs.
What's the most fashionable item in your closet? I would say my oversized black felt coat by Alexander Wang
What is your biggest fashion faux pas? I think it would have to be the infamous fake designer accessories like the fake Gucci and Louis Vuitton belts and side bags.
If you could design a red carpet outfit for one celebrity who would it be and why? I would say Kylie Jenner because I love her style and the designers she wears particularly inspire me as a young designer.
What can we expect from your collection at Africa Fashion Week London 2015? Expect a lot of variety, things that are not only for the catwalk but can be styled differently, like high fashion.
How can we keep up with you and the brand's developments? Follow the Instagram page @tumiila, my blog www.tumisolasnotebook.blogspot.com and my official websitewww.tumisolaladega. com as well as the Facebook page tumiila by tumisola ladega for regular updates.
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BOXPARK THE FUTURE Croydon is a town that is up on the rise and to add to its expenditure, Croydon Council have announced, the Boxpark Marketplace will be coming to Croydon.
Boxpark, was the world’s first pop-up mall when it opened in 2011, based in East London, Shoreditch. There are various projects going in on in Croydon including new homes and the shopping centres being revamped. Boxpark Croydon is set to open next summer. Boxpark in Shoreditch is current made up of stripped and refitted shipping containers. The Croydon version will have 80 units which small independent retailers can take up giving consumers a unique shopping and dining experience. This will certainly bring a new flavour to Croydon, drawing in crowds from London and surrounding areas. Boxpark’s founder and CEO Roger Wade said of the new venture: “Croydon is one of the last London boroughs to be developed. Stratford, White City and Nine Elms have all seen recent new developments. I want everyone to re-think their view of
Croydon. It’s the home of Kate Moss, Tracey Emin, and now Boxpark! “ So far Boxpark have played a big part in helping small businesses by offering flexible leases and affordable rents, especially during the economical downturn. The Croydon branch will continue to give small start ups the same benefits.
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Thora Jewels
is a bespoke handmade jewellery and accessories line. All pieces are made from gemstones, crystals, pearls, fabrics, leather, vintage finds. These unique pieces are inspired by fashion, culture and life’s daily experiences. Thora Jewels create strong and bold wearable statement pieces for fashion lovers who are not afraid to stand out from the crowd. How did you land into the world of fashion? I started designing as a hobby for myself and decided to turn it into a business when family and friends started ordering pieces I was wearing. What's the most fashionable item in your closet? A black striped jacket from Dolce and Gabbana. What is your biggest fashion faux pas? Years ago I had a cut on my big toe and wore a very high Gucci sandals to a function because they matched my outfit. I was in so much pain that I had to take them off and walk barefoot to my car. Learnt my lesson. Now I dress for comfort. If you could design a red carpet outfit for one celebrity who would it be and why? Angelina Jolie! She's gorgeous, her slim neck is built for gorgeous necklaces and her work and support for charities inspires me. What can we expect from your collection at Africa Fashion Week London 2015? Bold and elegannce. How can we keep up with you and the brand's developments? www.thorajewels.co.uk thorajewels@yahoo.com Credits: Photography - Ernest Simons Photography. Model - Abeo Model. Make Up Artist Jill Kenloch
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THE BEST BURGER BARS IN TOWN. Boom Burger - 272 Portobello Road, London W10 5TY 020 8960 3533
Boom Burger brings you an all year round and weather festival. The burgers at Boom leave your mouth exploding with flavour. Notting Hill seems like the perfect location for Boom for its Caribbean cuisine. Everybody is welcome at Boom. It is the perfect place to grab a bite and shake a leg to live performances. The menu is made of jerk chicken burgers, signature sauces and cocktails all made by Head –Chef and founder Josh De Lisser's. Get down to Boom for an exciting reggae reggae experience.
Mother Flipper – Various locations 07903661071
Mother Flipper comes in the form of a burger van serving up some delectable patties right on the street. The Candy Bacon Burger served up by ex insurance salesman Manuel , has been causing some chaos around London. Only because it comes with 100% Black Angus beef burger, with caramelised bacon in maple syrup. At the moment you can grab a burger from Mother Flipper at Brockley Market on a Saturday between 10am -2pm. You can also check out their Twitter page to find out about their other locations @ MotherFlipperuk
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MEATliquor - 74 Welbeck St, London W1G 0BA 020 7224 4239
Meat Liqour hit the spot with their American Style and chilli burgers. The portions are huge and decently priced. When we heard some customers have had to queue up for almost two hours, we just had to find out what all the hype was about. During your visit you are ought to try the Chicken Buffalo burger, dripping with juicy, luscious flavour, you will certainly thank us later.
Patty & Bun - 54 JAMES ST, London W1U 1HE 020 7487 3188 Imagine the annoyance of seeing a burger advert showing a juicy desirable burger and then walking into the restaurant and being served with some slop. Not with Patty & Bun. What you see is what you get. The burgers look as good as they taste. This is Gourmet burgers at their best served in sweet, soft brioche buns. Patty & Bun, real authentic food where you can actually taste the meat in your burger.
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