Mahoney Fashion

Archive for January, 2011

No matter where you go in the world, if there’s a city, there’s bound to be a historic shopping location that pulls in the posh and precise customers alike. Located on the famed Brompton Road in Knightsbridge, London, Harrods is one of England’s most popular department stores.

Of course, in this day and age, businesses and brands expand rapidly, hoping to share in various aspects of the marketplace. Harrods, once a lonely – yet thriving – department store is now a bank, real estate service, aircraft manufacturer and air travel provider.

The extensions of Harrods name turn the store into a legitimate conglomerate, but on its own, the London store takes up over 4 acres of prime real estate and the store has a robust size of over 1,000,000 square-feet of space with well over 300 separate departments.

Behind Macy’s of New York, Harrods is the world’s largest department store. People make the trek from far and wide to simply walk the expansive aisles. Folks also travel to see Harrods world-famous Christmas department and eat at the popular Food Hall.

Harrods was first established as a wholesale grocery store. Situated on London’s impoverished and crime-laden East End, store owner Charles Henry Harrod decided to move the location and subsequently purchased a small shop in Knightsbridge and underwent the task of transforming it into a reputable store.

With his son’s help and a lot of hard work, Harrod turned this small business into one of the most thriving ventures in all of London. The store first opened up its doors to the public in 1849, and from that day, Harrods prided itself on providing excellent goods and services.

From one employee in the mid 1800s, Charles marketed his store and expanded the name exponentially. By 1880, he had purchased the adjoining buildings and was employing 100 people. Charles Harrod had triumphed in his decades-long venture, but in 1883, tragedy struck when the store caught fire and burned beyond recognition.

Facing this seemingly insurmountable obstacle, Harrod never wavered from his commitment to excellence. As promised, he made good on the Christmas deliveries his customers were expecting, and after earning record profits, he built a new store on the exact same site.

The new store was an even bigger hit than the previous store. Charles Harrod passed away in 1885 and his son, Charles Digby Harrod, took over operations. He retired in 1889 and the store’s shares were floated on the London Stock Exchange.

Almost a century later, after different owners and more expansions, Harrods was larger than life and the Fayed brothers purchased the store in 1985 for 615 million GBP. Today, Fayed’s son Omar is in line to take over the brand.

The store offers an extremely wide range of goods and services. From sporting gear and clothing to electronics and jewelry and even pet accessories, Harrods has something for everyone. On busy days, over 300,000 customers flood the store, most of which, undoubtedly, are just there to check out the store.

With the strong emphasis placed on healing the planet these days, even fast food restaurants are attempting to “go green.” This watching of one’s carbon footprint is a direct result of a heating planet – or global warming. As mankind is faced with the threat of mass extinction (as a worst-case scenario), millions of people have banded together in an attempt to reverse these potentially dire effects. Ferragamo, a famed fashion brand, has even jumped aboard the trend and introduced a new line of environmentally-friendly handbags: Eco Ferragamo.

The Ferragamo line of fashion was introduced in the early 1900s by Italian shoe designer Salvatore Ferragamo. Salvatore worked with and designed fashions for many of the United States’ most rich and famous during the 1920s. He then returned to Italy where he founded the eponymous company, which specialized in designing unique hand-made footwear. Ferragamo’s approach to fashion was more science-driven, as he made many innovations in the world of fashion, such as the wedge and cage heel. As more and more film stars continued their love affair with Ferragamo’s fashions – even after his death – the Ferragamo line became a fashion empire that now spans the entire globe.

As becoming personally responsible for the fate of the globe became such a trend, various fashion brands have increasingly tried to do more to cut back on their usage of harmful and eco-damaging materials. Ferragamo’s version of going green is a concerted effort by the powers that be in upper management to take a stance for all of fashion, not just the Ferragamo name. They hope to be the example in the world, awaking the well-off and famous people to the fact that eco-friendly material gives the same results as the old fashions they once purchased.

The tanning techniques of the new Eco Ferragamo handbags are nontoxic. The eco-friendly bags are also lined in hand-woven hemp, and their usage of natural dyes – such as their tree bark dye – prove to be cutting-edge in terms of environmental healing ingenuity. The handbags do not suffer from any of these eco-conscience techniques, however. If anything, they’re even more carefully constructed. The durability and style blends perfectly, and the handbags are among the finest ever produced by a high-fashion designer.

These luxurious bags are not only eco-friendly; they’re also water-resistant and totally biodegradable. Eco Ferragamo has a collection that ranges from small tote handbags to maxi hobos. The various colors of bag include tobacco brown, grapefruit pink, lemon yellow, and more. You can grab one of these new eco-friendly bags from $1,100 to $2,000. Although they’re not slated for release until February, these handbags are still receiving very high acclaim and people seem to be ordering them by the thousands.

As Ferragamo moves into the realm of environmentally responsible, they hope that other fashion names will follow their lead and design their products using some of the only techniques. After all, Ferragamo isn’t doing this to be original; they’re doing this to be conscientious.

Missoni is often considered one of the most beautiful fashion houses in the entire world. Although every design they put forth may not be cutting-edge, the style is always there. They are one of the only fashion brands to carry a reputation for consistent beauty. Missoni’s powerful tradition of creating new products has trickled down to their competitors. The business has meager beginnings, starting in 1953 to little acclaim and eventually building a lavish and luxurious fashion empire. The Missoni name has come a long way since the days of a basement studio in Sumirago, Milan.

Rosita and Ottavio Missoni met during the 1948 Olympic Games in London, England. Carrying on a relationship for the next five years, the two wed in 1953 and decided to take the plunge into fashion designing. They started a very small knitwear operation in the aforementioned Milan basement, and after much hard work and meager sales, the line started to take off in the 1960s.

It was during this time that the brand Missoni began to turn heads due to the colorful palettes, unique textures and a wide range of fabrics. The Missoni’s definitely had more than one ace in the deck, proving time and again that they could produce chic originality on demand.

Although Missoni picked up a head of steam in Italy, their brand was relatively unknown around the world. This all changed when Diana Vreeland of American Vogue took a liking to one of Missoni’s fashions and mentioned them in a 1970s edition of the magazine. Of course, Vogue was the bible to fashionable American women in the 1970s. If it was printed in those crisp, clean pages, it had to be right. After the article ran, Missoni was on the forefront of the American woman’s mind, and their fashion sales exploded.

The family business started to grow tremendously. There was no possible way that the couple, juggling children and work now, could keep up with the demand – even with a few employees. Suddenly, the small family brand had become a conglomerate.

Many employees were hired and a large factory was built to handle the demand. Missoni was now found in some of the world’s most selective markets, and the sale numbers were huge. Over the years, the Missoni’s children have stepped in to help keep the line young and modern, appealing to younger women.

When the line started, the husband and wife couple created a unique logo that is their trademark: colored strips on all their clothing. With the fashions Missoni releases today, it’s like playing “Where’s Waldo?” when locating the stripes on some of the items, but they are still there.

This tradition is something the younger Missoni’s have kept alive and well. The tradition of Missoni is what makes them so unique in their clothing. While a lot of brands have drastically changed with the times and become unrecognizable, Missoni has modernized beautifully, never losing their originality. This is one of the many reasons they’re still sought after today.