Personalized Pens: A Stylish Gift
Looking for a time honored gift to give the men in your life, but don’t want to make sizing mistakes? How about giving Cross Pens – Personalized Gifts that are going to last. It is apropriate for a proper gentleman, rather they are a high ranking business man, or just someone that has a little style, to have a good pen that is attractive, and well weighted in the hand.
Personalization will guarantee that no one will run off with it either. In an office I worked at, there was a coworker that had a habit of pilfering pens, claiming that they were all his. It could indeed be that he had a collection himself, but he was always caught when one spun the barrel around and looked at the name.
If you scurry over to GiftPens.com, they have free engraving on Cross Pens, as well as free shipping on orders over $69.00.
Future Gentlemen?
There was a recent article announcing the top word in the English language as selected by 7 year old boys in America. Of course, we all know the old nursery rhyme. Little boys are supposed to be made of snails and puppy dog tails. This must be true as, according to ABC, the favorite vocabulary word among seven year olds is “poop.”
“The 7-year-olds once again cited the word’s versatility, its utility and its sheer elegance,” said Francis Rothchild of Edelman Public Relations in a written statement. “It works as a noun, a verb, an adjective and, of course, an interjection. It’s a classic of the genre.”
Of course, I would like to know Rothchild’s methods. What was the sample group? One classroom, or a large cross section of thousands of seven year old boys? What about the kids in class who were “old” or “young” sevens. You know what I mean. Children who already turned seven and would turn eight at the end of the school year, versus children who would have their seventh birthday during this school year. Maybe it doesn’t make a big difference developmentally, but you never know!
For more on the story of the future gentleman of America, click here.
Uncategorized | Comment (0)More Shopping Seals and Endorsements
Online shopping has changed rapidly in the last decade, and even in the past couple years. Website giants have come and gone, or have gotten more diluted. Despite gas prices finally dropping, people are still being very conscious about their shopping excursions and it is speculated that this holiday season many more purchases will be made online. When it comes to buying online, I typically buy things that I cannot find in my local market or for convenience.
The buySAFE Shopping Advisor is a free took that points out which merchants are bonded up to $25,000, and in addition, you are provided with identity theft insurance. It may go a long way to reassuring people to come back into the online shopping fold, or converting people who have never bought online before.
What I wonder is what it is going to do to the “little guy.” Small scale mom and pop merchants may come under the radar of a service like this. In fact, upon reading the website it does not appear to be for companies that have monthly sales less than the five figure range. So, for smaller scale antique dealers this may not be something to sign up for. Not everything needs to be for everyone, but I wonder if it is more of an association versus implying merchants not a part of buySafe are not trustworthy.
On the other hand, if you are a buyer thinking of making a major purchase online, it may go a long way to creating additional confidence. The jury is still out with me.
Joe Famolare and the Platform shoe: Part III
Joe Famolare and the Platform Shoe – Part III in a Series
Part III Joe “Gets There”
Despite many naysayers who thought he was crazy, when Joe saw the “writing on the wall” at Marx and Newman, he didn’t cultivate his long list of business connections from all over the world. His business ethic and the personal commitment he made to the company just wouldn’t permit his conscience to.
He totally started from scratch with his new company. He had to start over with being the new guy and pitching his ideas to investors to get nickel one. But in the end, he charmed them with his ideas and his sense of showmanship.
An early product was a molded clog, for which he won a Coty award in 1973.
Even though the clog was a sensation in the fashion world from a design perspective, what really showcased Joe’s abilities as a self promoter was the “Get There”
The Get There took the world of platform shoes by storm.
The secret behind the shoes, while many platform shoes of the day left one teetering, the Famolare platform shoe was well balanced and practical.
The patented, 4 wave sole promotes posture and balance. Instead of having a main area of balance underneath the ball of the foot and then one under the heel, with a hollow at the arch, creating the “figure 8″ style foot print, the foot print is a series of waves that helps one “roll” and flow when they walk as opposed to the other two mobility situations with platform shoes.
The next ad appeared in magazines and newspapers everywhere as the “birth” of the Get There…featuring an implication that the Get There was carved out of marble like a masterpiece sculpture…
Not only did he use the traditional means of print advertising to promote his product, such as shown below, but he even choreographed the “Get There” dance, and ran a contest for an aspiring song writer to perform the “Get There” song on a 45 rpm record, and the record was released and it became the theme song for them.
Joe envisioned it as a yearly contest to find aspiring talent and spread the word about comfortable platform shoes that you could actually walk in! This didn’t turn into a yearly contest, but it was something that burned the Get There in everyone’s memory. They could read about it, dance about it and listen to it!
The shoes not only hold a patent but are on display in the Smithsonian museum, and is also featured at the Costume, Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. So next time you are in the neighborhood…pay the exhibit a visit.
To Be Continued…
1970s, famolare shoes, fashion history | Comments (2)Attention Procrastinators! Halloween is Nigh!
Some people start thinking about the next Halloween on November 1st of the preceding year. For the procrastinators, I would like to remind you that there are only ten days to get your thinking cap on and your fingers cracking at halloween costumes if that is the way your preferences lean. If you don’t believe me, just look at the calendar.
Sometimes, the best costumes I have ever worn came out of last minute procrastination. When I was a kid, I found an old box, a few magic markers and I went as a Rubik’s Cube. We had a parade through the different classrooms of the school, and I couldn’t make it between the rows of desks. Poor planning on my part, I know. In the years since, I thought that the last minute route was the way to go based on my prior success, but found that the creativity well often was dry now and again and I went to the store to look for the one or two elements of a costume I couldn’t find around the house and was sorely out of luck. I mean, you can’t exactly make a deerstalker’s hat with your limited 4th grader skills in a way that people could tell what it was.
In truth, I didn’t wear a Sherlock Holmes hat. That was just an example of something not easily made. After milking the Rubik’s Cube costume a few years, I used it as the basis of going as a dining room table complete with place setting.
I found that if you are totally desperate and can’t possibly milk the same costume again for a third year in a row, Halloween Adventure still has some last minute Halloween emergency shipping options, where you can still order up until a few days before depending on what state you are in. I will warn you though. This is the last call. If you order today with ground shipping, you’ll get it the 28th. You can shell out more for faster shipping if you want. Don’t wait until the day before Halloween because it is just not going to happen for you. In otherwords, drop what you are doing right now and get on the stick!
costumes, modern fashion | Comment (0)
