For Marie-Helene de Taillac, the designer largely credited with spawning the trend for less ostentatious and stone-centred jewellery design, the beauty of the stone is the important thing.

“Stones are quite magical,” she says. “When I choose a stone, it speaks to me. Suddenly, you don’t know why, but one attracts you.”

Ms de Taillac’s words perfectly encapsulate the trend sweeping jewellery design with the valentines jewelry now increasingly on the stone rather than simply on the design.

“Gemstones define the timelessness and value of a piece of jewellery,” says Rebecca Clarke, managing director of jewellery website astleyclarke.com, which was started six months ago.

Ms Clarke confirms that she has noticed an increase in the number of jewellery designers who put the emphasis on the stone and who make the right stone the starting point for design.

“We have four jewellery designers whose principle goal is to find beautiful stones and only then do they design the jewellery around them. When done properly, the stone’s innate beauty shines through and there is little need for further adornment.”

One label, Como Blonde, is, says Ms Clarke, “probably our best example of these ‘stone hunters’: if they don’t find the stones, they don’t make the jewellery”. Other names include Pippa Small, Flora Astor, and The Hudson Collection.

Jewellery designers who usually take a more strict design route have also been succumbing to the lure of the stone. “I normally imagine a design first and I then find the most appropriate stone,” says Victoire de Castellane at Dior Fine Jewellery. “Nevertheless, ‘Le Coffret de Victoire’ collection began because I had ‘love at first sights’ for particular one-of-a-kind stones and every time I find a new one I imagine a story around it. I find these amazing gems during my numerous trips and when I tell a story around it, the stone becomes a real character. “I love to create one-of-a-kind pieces with opals too because this stone is really magic. When I imagine a story around itit brings fairytale to creation.”

It is exactly this one-of-a-kind, more personal approach to jewellery that is driving the trend. “People are looking for individuality from jewellery,” explains Mary Brittain, editor of Jewellery in Britain. She also believes that the increased popularity for coloured stones helps to drive the trend, making stones “very much the tiffany pendants” in many pieces. Ms Brittain also, however, attributes “the opening up of the internet” and the resulting accessibility of stones to consumers as a factor in how they are “more aware of stones that are out there”.

For Leviev, the devotion to stones and the inherent and individual characteristics in each one are at the heart of what this new luxury brand is about. Founded by Lev Leviev, who controls the largest private diamond mines in the world and is the largest privately-held polisher and cutter of diamonds, the company’s focus is naturally on the rare gems it can acquire – so the majority of its pieces are one-off designs centred on these stones.

“We deal with the rare and the exceptional, it’s the nature of our business and very much our reason for being,” says Simon Williamson, the company’s UK managing director. “In terms of our clients, they are buying something unique. Ninety per cent of the stones in store are unusual by virtue of their colour, their shape or size or quality.

“So, with that, comes that ‘bespoke’ design. For us, it is all about simplicity of design to lend itself to a particular shape of stone or specifically to enhance a colour.”

Other houses take a different approach to romancing the stone. At Asprey, for instance, where jewellery sales make up 60 per cent of the business, even in many of the pret-a-porter collections there is an emphasis on stones and the house’s own “Asprey cut”.

“The stone buyers are always looking for the best clarity, best colour in diamonds,” explains Hakan Rosenius, creative director.

“This means that they can really work with very simple settings and create the necklace around the stone, and obviously there is the Asprey cut in diamonds and semi-precious stones. So we sort of create the look at Asprey through our cut,”

At Ritz Fine Jewellery, too, there is a focus on “precious and semi-precious stones of rare beauty and colour (that) have been sourced, and (for which) a special unique design is created,” says Paul Carter, managing director.

This includes a design called The Dancer ring featuring “an outstanding cabochon tanzanite” which has been set in white gold with a surround of briolettes, all of which move.

This focus on stones and the individuality they can offer in themselves provides a middle ground between ready-to-wear and bespoke jewellery – but the attention is also helping to reinvigorate bespoke creations.

Melvyn Kirtley, vice president of worldwide client development at Tiffany Group, says that the house has “tiffany earrings always thought about gemstones”.

But he confirms that, in the past three to four years, there has been a greater awareness of how consumers view stones.

“We show our customers some important coloured gemstones, and talk about what makes them so special and their attributes and then we’ll say we’ll work with you to create around it.”

Simultaneously, Tiffany has been working on building its coloured gemstone inventory. “It’s a cycle,” says Mr Kirtley. “For us, it’s always been an important part of our heritage. But it’s coming back round.”

John Henne was just feeling like things were back to normal at his Shadyside valentine’s day jewelry gifts store.

The display cases were repaired and inventory restocked after a midday robbery last week, in which a gunman and an accomplice wielding a crow bar smashed glass and took off with jewelry.

About 12 hours after locking up Monday night, Henne got word of another brazen heist.

“I’m kind of at a loss for what to say here,” said Henne, whose great-grandfather founded the business 123 years ago. Henne co-owns the business with his sister, Meg Henne Gibson. “I have no idea why this has happened twice in one week.”

A dark sport utility vehicle crashed through the front doors and plate-glass windows of the Walnut Street store just after 4 a.m. Tuesday. Surveillance video shows glass shattering and a man jumping from the driver’s seat, running through the store and apparently heading for a specific case.

He smashed the glass and grabbed 18 items, mostly titanium rings and necklaces, Henne said. Video shows the burglar running back to the SUV and backing out quickly, momentarily catching the vehicle on a portion of the smashed door frame before fleeing toward Negley Avenue.

Police don’t know if anyone else was in the vehicle, or if the incident is connected to the Jan. 11 daytime holdup, said burglary squad Sgt. Kevin Gasiorowski. Police made no arrests in the crimes.

Henne said damage from the first robbery was a few thousand dollars. As workers rebuilt the front door yesterday and prepared to replace the glass, Henne estimated this damage would be close to $20,000.

He said the jewelry stolen both times was “basically on the level of costume jewelry.” Pricey jewels are removed from the display cases and locked elsewhere when the store closes, Henne said.

Before this month, the last theft from the store was 42 years ago, when a gunman held Henne’s father, grandfather and customers in a back room while an accomplice ransacked the store.

Henne said while it was possible the incidents could be related to an unhappy customer or former employee, he doubts it.

“One of the things we strive for, and pride ourselves on, is doing right by our employees and customers, and I don’t know of anyone who would have a grudge against us,” he said.

What do you get when you cross an Oscar-winning dramatic actor with a talking squirrel? A multimillion dollar flop.

“The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle,” which opened during the Fourth of July weekend, has turned out to be one of the biggest financial disasters of the summer. It cost a staggering $80 million to make, and marketing costs pushed the total tab close to $100 million. But many critics panned it, and audiences stayed valentines day jewelry: So far, the film has taken in an embarrassing $17.6 million at the box office.

Ever wonder how, for all the millions Hollywood spends on market testing and talent, it sometimes manages to totally miss the mark? “Rocky and Bullwinkle” is a cautionary tale in how studios make decisions that reflect the instincts and occasionally erratic interests of filmmakers. The saga of how this 1960s cartoon became an extravagant motion picture involves a Valentine’s Day gift, the formidable leverage of Robert DeNiro and an almost blatant disregard for the tastes of the very audience the film was targeting.

A major problem was the fact that most of today’s kids just don’t know the dopey moose and flying squirrel, who were most famous during their initial TV run from 1959 to 1964. Yet, Universal Pictures, which made the movie, not only gave a greenlight, it put the film on the fast-track. It nabbed some big stars, including Jason Alexander and Rene Russo as well as cameos by Billy Crystal and Whoopi Goldberg. And it hired George Lucas’s Industrial Light & Magic, the most expensive special-effects wizards in the business.

So how did this doozy get made? It started eight years ago, when the then-boyfriend of veteran filmmaker Jane Rosenthal, Mr. DeNiro’s cufflinks partner, presented her with a set of old “Rocky and Bullwinkle” cartoons for Valentine’s Day. “It reintroduced me to cartoons that I totally adored as a kid,” says Ms. Rosenthal, 41 years old. “I immediately thought Rocky and Bullwinkle could be turned into a terrific movie.”

She soon won the support of Mr. DeNiro. Ms. Rosenthal says that for both of them, the impetus was partly to help broaden the image of their company, Tribeca Productions, known mostly for making gangster films. “We were really looking to prove to the community and to ourselves that we could do a different kind of movie,” she says. Then, Mr. DeNiro made a decision that added huge clout to the project: He would play the villain, Fearless Leader, himself.

With Mr. DeNiro’s blessing, Ms. Rosenthal went to Los Angeles and spoke to the daughter of late cartoonist Jay Ward, who created the characters. “She said, `I love Rocky and Bullwinkle, and Bob [DeNiro] wants to play Fearless Leader,’” recalls Tiffany Ward, Mr. Ward’s daughter. Ms. Ward was astonished, adding that she was told Mr. DeNiro’s interest had been sharpened by the fact that his friend Warren Beatty had played a cartoon character as the lead in “Dick Tracy.” Mr. DeNiro didn’t respond to an interview request.

Ms. Rosenthal then went to Universal, which uses the characters at its theme parks and controls the film rights, and got them to agree to finance the movie. Because of the high cost of combining live action with animation, it was clear the movie would be expensive. But Universal went forward, betting Baby Boomers would like the film as much as their kids, and huge video sales would be guaranteed.

Still, people familiar with the situation say some at the studio were concerned about the tone of the movie and the script from the start. They worried that the film had too much sophisticated humor — the kind of stuff Jay Ward’s original TV series relied on — and not enough slapstick for the kids. One executive says the studio pushed the filmmakers to include more physical comedy between Mr. Alexander and Ms. Russo, who play Fearless Leader’s bumbling deputies Boris and Natasha.

Ms. Rosenthal responds that a lot of the shtick involving those actors got cut in order to trim the film to 87 minutes from an earlier version that ran more than two hours. She also says kids in test audiences seemed happiest when the animated stars were on the screen.

But they weren’t happy enough. “The audience really liked and enjoyed `Rocky and Bullwinkle,’ but apparently not enough that when they left to say `you gotta see this,’” says Stacey Snider, chairman of Universal. Now, the dismal box-office performance portends low returns in other markets, such as home-video and TV showings. And the film is expected to have limited appeal abroad, where the characters have even less recognition than they do here.

“In the movie business, there are sad, unfortunate times when you swing and miss,” Ms. Snider says. She remains bullish on the earrings for video sales and merchandising connected to the film.

For its part, Tribeca won’t lose money on the deal. In a fairly standard producer-studio relationship, it pockets a fee for having produced the movie. And the early buzz is good on the company’s next film — another partnership with Universal — a comedy starring Mr. De Niro and Ben Stiller that’s called “Meet the Parents.” It opens in October.

But Ms. Rosenthal is still pained over the company’s current misfire. “I thought there was a place for Rocky and Bullwinkle in the 21st century,” Ms. Rosenthal says with a sigh. “Obviously I was dead wrong.”

Entertaining Questions

Q. Why are only some movies shown as “sneak previews” about a week before their actual release date? What if the preview audience doesn’t enjoy it? Wouldn’t it be too late to make changes to the movie?

A. Typically, the only movies that get “sneaked” are ones the studios believe will be hits — but still need advance word-of-mouth to compete in a crowded market. Disney, for example, held a preview of “Disney’s The Kid” over the Fourth of July weekend, in advance of its debut last Friday. (The picture opened in fourth place, taking in $12.7 million.) DreamWorks, on the other hand, hasn’t had a sneak preview of “What Lies Beneath” because its preopening box-office polling indicates that awareness of the picture is already high. “You hold these so that all the hairdressers and dental hygienists out there will talk up the movie and tell everyone they see that a new movie they saw is incredible,” says Geoffrey Ammer, Disney’s co-president of marketing.

Fast-fashion specialty retailers with exceptional speed-to-market have outperformed department stores and less nimble specialty stores not only in their profit margins, but also in their pace of revenue growth, according to a study by The Sage Group LLC’s Apparel and Retail Group.

Surveying results from 47 retailers, all of them publicly held and the overwhelming majority of them based in the U.S., Sage found in the last 12 months, the five stores with the best EBITDA margin earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization as a percentage of sales were Hennes & Mauritz, at 23.4 percent; The tiffany jewelry Inc., at 22.5 percent; Zara operator Industria de Diseno Textil SA (Inditex), at 20.3 percent; Urban Outfitters Inc., at 19.8 percent, and Fast Retailing Co. Ltd., owners of Uniqlo, at 18.6 percent.

Other specialty retailers such as Gymboree, Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc., Aropostale Inc., Gap Inc. and American Eagle Outfitters Inc. filled out the top 10 rankings with marks ranging from 18 percent down to 13.9 percent, but Kohl’s Corp. distinguished itself as the best broadlines retailer with an 11th-place finish at 12.6 percent.

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (11.7 percent) and Limited Brands Inc. (11.6 percent) followed, before the first upscale department store appeared on the list, Nordstrom, whose 11.4 percent mark placed it at 15th. Macy’s Inc. was 18th with a 10.5 percent EBITDA margin.

The other stores in Sage’s retailing universe to finish with a margin above 10 percent were off-pricers The TJX Cos. Inc. and Ross Stores Inc. (10.1 and 10 percent, respectively) and two others with a 10 percent margin, Zumiez Inc. and Bebe Stores Inc.

Sage also noted the fast-fashion subset has achieved strong growth as well, with the three-year revenue growth rates of Fast, Inditex and H&M far outpacing those of department store firms, several of which have had declines over the three years studied. American Apparel Inc. was first on this list with a compound annual paloma picasso rate of 39.8 percent, followed by Fast (24.3 percent), Zumiez (19.8 percent), Buckle (18.2 percent) and Urban Outfitters (16.3 percent). The bottom half of this top 10 were Aropostale (15.2 percent), The Bon-Ton Stores Inc. (14.5 percent), Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. (14.1 percent), Inditex (13.9 percent) and Jos. A. Bank Clothiers (14.1 percent). H&M scored 11th, with 12.1 percent, followed by J. Crew Group Inc. (12 percent). Bon-Ton’s growth rate can be partially attributed to acquisitions, including its purchase of Saks Inc.’s Northern Department Store Group in 2006.

Measured by gross margin in the past 12 months, Abercrombie & Fitch was best, at 65.1 percent of sales, followed by Jos. A. Bank Clothiers (61.5 percent), H&M (60.3 percent), Inditex (56.6 percent) and American Apparel (55.5 percent).

On a market-cap weighted basis, stock prices for the fast-fashion subset have gained 17.3 percent over the past year, trading at 11.3 times [EBITDA for the last 12 months], on average, Sage noted. By comparison, the department stores cited in the study Macy’s, J.C. Penney Co. Inc., Nordstrom and Dillard’s had seen their stock prices decline 17.8 percent over the last year and were trading at an EBITDA multiple of 7.9 times.

Among apparel firms, the EBITDA margin was highest among two brand management firms Iconix Brand frank gehry and Cherokee Inc., at 71.3 and 66.6 percent, respectively followed by Coach Inc. (33.9 percent), True Religion Apparel Inc. (27 percent) and Tiffany & Co. (21 percent). The top 10 included Guess Inc. (18.9 percent), Polo Ralph Lauren Corp. (16.9 percent) and Gildan Activewear Inc. (14.8 percent).

Frederick Schmitt, managing director of Sage, was lead editor of the study.

Maybe because of the way its bourgeois tendencies keep clashing with its elitist ambitions, the novel is a literary form that writers have never been able to resist reinventing. There are epistolary novels and those in the form of diaries, wordless picture novels, graphic novels and novels written as dictionaries and encyclopedias. The Serbian writer Milorad Pavic may win the prize: he has attempted novels disguised as a crossword puzzle, a tarot book and even a clepsydra, an ancient water clock (at least conceptually; the pages are dry).

That a work of fiction has now assumed the form of an auction catalog could be seen as a sign of the Valentine’s Day gift — deeply materialistic and, with a big recession on, increasingly for sale. But the artist and writer Leanne Shapton said that the idea for her novel, being published this week by Farrar Straus & Giroux under the unwieldy title “Important Artifacts and Personal Property From the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry,” came to her because she noticed how the lot descriptions in some estate catalogs added up to elliptical plots about the lives of the former possessors.

When Bonhams & Butterfields, the auction house, sold more than 300 items of Truman Capote’s personal effects in 2006, Ms. Shapton bought some of his clothing, including three of his raincoats and some scarves, which she gave as gifts. (“It’s really morbid, I know,” she said.) “It was in reading that catalog that it struck me that it was like reading a kind of autobiography of Capote’s later years, especially the last years of his life in California,” said Ms. Shapton, 35, who is a well-known illustrator and the art director of the Op-Ed page of The New York Times.

Her book tells the story of a hopeful young New York couple and their four-year relationship almost completely through their things, many of which end up unceremoniously, and improbably, under the gavel: books, pajamas, bedside lamps, a stuffed squirrel, an astrakhan coat, the winning half of a wishbone and lots of notes, inscriptions and e-mail messages that start out giddy and become slowly more complicated, angry and sorrowful.

If there were a real failed-relationship auction house named Strachan & Quinn, where the sale is supposed to take place on Valentine’s Day, the event might actually draw a modest crowd, if only because the fictional Hal Morris, a globe-trotting photographer in his early 40s, and Lenore Doolan, who is presented as a late-20s cake tiffany bracelets for The Times’s Dining section, are generally more meticulous than conspicuous in their consumption.

Hal asks Lenore to move in with him by sending her a case of 1989 Calon-Segur Bordeaux (auction estimate $55 to $95 for the remaining bottles); she informs him of her growing affection by altering the title page of May Sarton’s novel “Kinds of Love” to read, “I Kind of Love You” (estimate $55 to $75). Their first serious tryst happens at the St. Regis (estimate for Lenore’s handwritten note on hotel stationery, $10 to $20); they have great taste in clothes and bands and vintage paperbacks; and even their doodads, like a teapot in the shape of a dog (estimate $12 to $20), seem imbued with discrimination.

“It’s sort of about how reliant we are on our things to define us,” Ms. Shapton said, acknowledging that there is a strain of what she described as somewhat “suffocating discernment” running through the protagonists’ lives.

“But I wanted to balance that with a pretty genuine love of very private meaning,” she said, adding that most of the things put up for sale are “those kinds of things that mean everything to the person who owned them and nothing to anyone else.”

Ms. Shapton recruited two of her friends, Sheila Heti, a Toronto fiction writer, and Paul Sahre, a graphic designer who does work for The Times, to stand in for the fictional characters, posing elegantly together in pictures at fake parties and laughing arm in arm in various locations where Ms. Shapton shot them last summer as she pieced the story together.

As for the stuff, much of it came from secondhand stores or garage sales, though some of it — for example, 18 bras on a double-page spread, looking like something from a Victoria’s Secret catalog or a lost Ed Ruscha photographic project — was hers. This includes a vintage baby outfit that Ms. Shapton and an old tiffany cufflinks once bought together as an expression of their desire to someday make a family together and that appears in the book seeming to serve the same purpose for Hal and Lenore.

“There are just those relationships you think are going to go the distance but they don’t,” Ms. Shapton said in an interview over a cup of coffee. She added that her current boyfriend (James Truman, the former editorial director of Conde Nast) told her that he was worried when she started on the auction-breakup-novel project that it might lead to their own breakup. But instead he proposed over the holidays, and she accepted.

Lenore and Hal, sadly, never quite make it, an ending the reader begins to sense less than a few hundred lots in, when Sylvia Plath books start showing up and when, even amid the cans of designer house paint that evoke full-scale co-habitation, there is a Playbill with Lenore’s handwritten accusation: “Why go through my e-mail?” By the time you get to the Hermes watch Hal gave Lenore to apologize for his bad behavior when she told him she might be pregnant (she wasn’t), you know the end is very near.

But all hope isn’t lost. The auction house, perhaps trying to hook buyers with a bit of intrigue, begins the catalog with a recent note from Hal to Lenore in which Hal writes that he and his current girlfriend are taking a break. “Alone again!” he reports.

At least one possession-obsessed novelist, John O’Hara, would have approved: “For the sake of verisimilitude and realism,” he wrote, “you cannot positively give the impression of an ending: you must let something hang. A cheap interpretation of that would be to say that you must always leave a chance for a sequel.”

The gradual change of sentiment from the negative in the beginning of the year to the positive by the year-end should demonstrate the course some of these commodities have charted during the year.

Market fundamentals of demand and supply, changing inventory levels, currency fluctuations tiffany jewelry and investor interest have all had their say in impacting prices and provided a strong end to the year, least expected at the beginning.

Interestingly, crude is ending the year at a level that most producers are likely to perceive as benign.

Oil market balances are normalising. With improvements in underlying global demand, price aspirations are sure to move higher in the New Year. Sugar prices have set yet another fresh 28-year high (testing 26 cents a pound) with the fundamental backdrop supporting prices.

That brings us to the eternal favourite gold. Prices are up 30 per cent so far this year, despite the precious metal’s weak fundamentals. Expansion of mine supply, decline in jewellery demand, rise in scrap sales to a new high – almost everything was going against the metal, except of course investor interest.

Uncertainty in the financial markets and inflation expectation has fuelled interest in gold as a safe haven investment and hedge against inflation.

The official sector, seller for two decades, is now a buyer. This single factor has infused a bullish outlook to the precious metal.

With the dollar strengthening against the euro last week, gold suffered huge losses.

For the first time since November 6, prices fell below $1,100 an ounce weighed down by drop in equity tiffany accessories too. On Friday, London PM Fix was at $1,104.50/oz, down from $1,117/oz the previous day. Silver too fell in sympathy to $ 17.31/oz (Friday AM Fix) from $ 11.40/oz of the previous day. However, speculative interest in gold is still at elevated levels.

In the absence of fresh fundamental news-flows, short-term factors such as dollar strengthening is likely to pressure gold prices lower in the near term. Silver’s fundamentals are poor.

However, there is strong investor interest as a cheap proxy for the yellow metal.

So, silver is more vulnerable to downside price movement in the event the dollar strengthens.

Into the next year, experts assert gold prices will continue to be supported by strong investor appetite and central bank buying. Central banks seem to show signs that they are switching from net sellers of gold to net buyers.

It is anybody’s guess what would happen over the coming months.

The year 2009 is the first year since 1989 when central bank sales and purchases are somewhat balanced. That is tffany keys year end news for gold bulls.

In the run-up to Christmas, retailers across the country are seeing an uptick in sales as shoppers, buoyed by the festive sentiment and rising confidence levels in a fast-recovering economy, feel emboldened to loosen their purse strings.

Several major retailers are seeing significantly higher sales year-on-year, with the increase tiffany pronounced in categories such as perfumes and jewellery, garments and apparel, toys and gifts, Christmas decorations and items such as confectionery, wine, liquor, cookies and imported foods.

In December, large retailers are on an average experiencing overall sales growth of around 22 percent year-on-year, with some categories seeing up to 60 percent higher sales, flattered by the so-called “base effect”. Christmas sales were subdued last year after consumer sentiment took a hit in the wake of the economic slowdown triggered by the recession in the developed West and the terror attacks on Mumbai.

Reliable data on retail sales are hard to come by in India, unlike developed markets. Organised retailers enjoy a tiny market share and even in that sector, there are no industry-wide data sources. Figures in this story are averages from respondents to a dipstick survey by ET.

Retailers say sales figures this year are likely to be around 15 percent on average, higher than even the boom levels of December 2007, further proof of momentum returning to the economy. India’s GDP growth slowed to 6.7 percent last fiscal after averaging more than 9 percent in three straight years, although for the quarter to end-September, the growth figure recovered to a respectable 7.9 percent. The results are showing, and retailers expect the upward momentum in sales, which started during the Diwali season, to last through early January.

“We are expecting a 35 percent rise in demand for diamond jewellery during the year-end tiffany bracelets,” said Mehul Choksi, group MD of Gitanjali Group, which owns diamond brands such as Nakshatra, Gili and D’Damas. For Gitanjali, it’s not all about Christmas. The company is a beneficiary of the high price of gold, which has dimmed its allure among shoppers and encouraged them to buy diamonds instead.

In Kolkata, Starmark, the Emami group’s books-music-gifts retail venture, has seen a 30-35 percent jump in sales since last Friday and the retailer expects this to pick up further on Christmas Eve.

“This year, sales have been extremely good after near flat sales last Christmas. Products like Christmas trees and decor, toys and gifts are moving off the shelves fast,” said Starmark CEO Gautam Jatia. Starmark, which has four stores in Kolkata, has seen sales in the past two weeks grow more than 15 percent, with lifestyle products such as apparel, gifts, jewellery and perfumes recording more than 20 percent growth.

Jatia has noticed a changing pattern in Christmas shopping. “Earlier we used to see Christmas shopping picking up at least two weeks in advance. Now, it typically starts from the weekend before,” he said.

Unlike in the West, Christmas is not a big sales season across much of India compared with festivals such as Diwali. However, together with the wedding season in north India and the rising spending over New Year celebrations, retailers are ending well what has otherwise been a muted year.

Some parts of the country are seeing more activity around Christmas than others, say retailers. “In cities such as Bangalore, Kochi and Delhi, where people are more upbeat about Christmas, we have witnessed good footfalls,” said Bijou Kurien, president, lifestyle, Reliance Retail. He forecasts a 15 percent sales growth this season, particularly in categories such as apparel, footwear, electronics, books and music.

RPG Group’s flagship, Spencer’s Retail, expects the bulk of its Christmas sales to come from bakery products followed by confectionery, wine, liquor, cookies and imported foods from its gourmet section. “We expect to clock additional business of about Rs 1.5-2 crore from the Christmas range of food and bakery products,” a senior executive at Spencer’s Retail said, adding that this represented a 50-60 percent jump in average sales for these categories.

Retailers including Marks & Spencer, Lifestyle and Shopper’s Stop say fragrances and tiffany cufflinks are most popular with Christmas shoppers, with bags and garments also jumping off the shelves.

Women are driving consumption in categories such as women’s western wear, cosmetics and bags, said Shoppers’ Stop CEO Govind Shrikhande. “The sales in the past two weeks… has been growing in double-digits,” he said, adding that the wedding season has added to the momentum.

Kabir Lumba, MD at Lifestyle International, which runs Lifestyle and Home Centre stores, says his company has seen double-digit growth across formats, on a like-to-like basis and across apparel, footwear as well as beauty products.

Credit: The Economic Times, India

Delhi Police issued the following news release:

Anti Snatching Cell, West District has busted a gang of notorious cheats who used to win tiffany over the victims, divert their attention and take away their jewellery articles. More than 7 cases of such cheating have been solved. Total 4 gang members have been arrested.

RECOVERY MADE

Two gold chains, One gold ring & One gold Kara.

NAME AND PROFILE OF ARRESTED ACCUSED PERSONS

1. Ashu s/o Hira Lal R/o Tankiwali Jhuggi, Raghubir Nagr, Rajouri Garden, Delhi, Age- 30 yrs. Previous paloma picasso involvement- 2. Ravi @ Bada S/o Shanker R/o Tankiwali Jhuggi, Raghubir Nagr, Rajouri Garden, Delhi, Age- 20 yrs 3. Daya Nand S/o Bhikajie R/o Regarpura, Karol Bagh, Delhi, Age- 40 yrs, (Receiver)

4. Sakir Khan @ Shakil @ Tinu S/o Fariyad Ali R/o Tanki Wali Jhuggi, Rajouri Garden, Delhi, Age- 21 yrs. (Receiver) Previous involvement -02

INFORMATION/OPERATION :

Secret information was received by the team of Inspector Rajkumar, Anti Snatching Cell, West District tffany keys about a gang of notorious cheats. The gang used to indulge in cheating ladies by showing hand made bundle of currency notes, divert their attention and take their jewellery and other valuables. On this information, sources were deployed and information regarding these criminals was gathered. Specific information was received that one member of this gang will be coming near Balaji Action Hospital, A-4 Block, Paschim Vihar. On this information a raiding party under the supervision of Insp. Rajkumar, consisting of SI Naveen Kumar, HC Rajinder, HC Sanjeev, Ct Rajkumar, Ct. Surender and Ct. P. Tirky was constituted and deployed near Action Balaji Hospital, Paschim Vihar, Delhi at about 05.45 PM. One man came who was apprehended on the instance of secret informer. He disclosed his name as Ashu S/o Hira Lal R/o Tanki Wali Jhuggi, Raghubir Nagar, Rajouri Garden, Delhi. On interrogation, he disclosed about commission of various cheatings with his associates. He was arrested in case FIR No. 147/09 u/s 420/411 IPC PS- Hari Nagar. On his instance one receiver namely Dayanand S/o Bhika Ji R/o 50/46/51, Regarpura, Karol Bagh, Delhi was also arrested and gold chain wanted in the case was recovered. Thereafter on further investigation other two gang members namely Ravi @ Bada and Sakir Khan @ Shakeel were arrested and pair of golden bangles, golden chain and one golden ring were recovered. These jewellery items were found to be wanted in similar case of PS Punjabi Bagh.

INTERROGATION/MODOUS OPERANDAI:

During interrogation, Ashu disclosed that he is residing in jhuggi cluster, Raghubir Nagar and came in contact with one Ravi @ Bada who lives in neighbourhood. Being a youngster and attracted with the western life style, Ashu dreamt to make instant money. They used to target ladies above 40 yrs old standing either on Bus stands or near religious places. Both Ashu and Ravi used to win over their target by telling her stories about their poverty and problems at home and thus gain sympathy of the victim. They used to show bundles of fake currency and frank gehry persuade the victim to hand over the jewellery articles and other valuables in exchange of currency bundles which are fake in reality. It is only after a while when the victim used to open the bundle of currency notes, she will realize that she has been cheated of her jewellery articles and other valuables. Both of them used to dispose the jewellery items to Dayannandand Shakir Khan @ Shakil.

Further investigation of the case is in progress. The staff involved in good work will be suitably rewarded.

Nelson Peltz, the US activist investor, last night filed with US regulators to raise up to Dollars 750m from stock market investors for a large shell company that will pursue acquisitions.

Trian Acquisition I Corporation will have until late 2009 to identify an acquisition target and take control of it using at least 80 per cent of its assets.

Trian Acquisition I plans to sell 75m units in itself for Dollars 10 each.

The addition of a “special purpose acquisition company”, as such entities are known, follows Mr Peltz’s decision three years ago to raise a dedicated fund for activist investments, known as Trian Partners.

He is also chairman of Triarc, the publicly traded holding company for Arby’s, the sandwich chain, and Deerfield & Company, the Chicago-based asset manager.

The Trian Spac prospectus says no industry has yet been identified for the acquisition and there is no deal in mind.

Spacs have been used to acquire Navios, the shipping company, and Jamba Juice, the fruit juice chain.

Mr Peltz and his team, including long-time associates Peter May and Edward Garden, have campaigned for change at several big companies in recent years.

These include Wendy’s International, the US hamburger chain, Cadbury Schweppes, the UK drinks and confectionery group, HJ Heinz, the ketchup and baked beans group based in Pittsburgh, and Tiffany, the jewellery group.

However, these moves have involved taking minority stakes in large companies and putting pressure on management to adopt certain changes in strategy. With a Spac, Mr Peltz will have to take full control of a business.

Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch and Maxim Group are underwriting the initial public offering, according to the prospectus.

In development for four years, the Victoria & Albert Museum’s Jewellery Gallery opened last month. It was a considerable challenge for the designers, but an innovative approach has resulted in a show-stopping space, says Henrietta Thompson

The sheer quantity of diamonds in this room is enough to make anyone woozy. The sponsors, William and Judith Bollinger of the champagne dynasty, are most likely used to having that effect on people, but you’ve got to feel for everyone else involved in the Victoria & Albert Museum’s new Jewellery Gallery. For the curator, the exhibition designer, the conservators, the museum staff and security, the task of displaying 3500 items of eye-wateringly important genuine bling – items that range from two to 2000 years old – in a very small space, where a very large number of people want to see them, must have been daunting.

Talking to those people, you get the impression the process has not been easy, but it has been worth it. The William and Judith Bollinger Jewellery Gallery, which opened at the V&A on 24 May, has been in development for the best part of four years and is, to use a rather obvious turn of phrase, a new jewel in the museum’s crown. Designed by Eva Jiricna Architects, the walls of the gallery tell the story of European jewellery over the past 800 years. For the refurbishment, EJA has connected what were previously three galleries to make one, with a central mezzanine floor, creating 30 per cent extra space. Glass cases line the walls and a series of curved glass cabinets wind through the centre.

EJA has previously worked on other galleries in the V&A’s FuturePlan developments, including the Dorothy and Michael Hintze Sculpture Galleries on the first floor and the main museum shop, which also contains a significant amount of jewellery to buy. The architect has also designed many a jewellery shop over the past ten years or so – from watch retailers on Bond Street to a jewellery market in Dubai. But while it is hard to imagine a better-suited designer for this show, it has been a challenge, nonetheless. Putting jewellery on display in a museum environment is very different to building a shop, explains Eva Jiricna.

‘There are fewer conservation issues for a start. And fewer security issues. In a shop the objects will be taken out of their cases in the evening and stored,’ she says. And, of course, people are navigating the space in an entirely different way. In a shop they can browse randomly, whereas this gallery has (at least) 3500 stories to tell. ‘Some people will treat the exhibition like a study book and check everything, while others just wander through for the visual experience.’

A more glorious space than you would usually find in a museum, you almost feel like donning a black tie to swan around the gallery, peering into the cases with your nose up against the glass like Audrey Hepburn in the opening scene of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. This has a lot to do with the sheer abundance of glittering diamonds, but is also a result of the dramatic dark lighting. This, says Jiricna, was one of the biggest challenges of the project. ‘I am extremely fussy about lighting; the subjects can only live under the right kind of light. You need different levels for different things – especially in these circumstances, where some objects can’t be exposed to very bright light, for conservation reasons. The light itself needs to be invisible, but diamonds need to be lit from the front. The object must sparkle, but the light must not then be blinding when you turn a fraction.’

Jiricna went to every single jewellery display she could think of, looking at the lighting, in a quest to find the best solution. Nothing would do. Eventually, the designers made it work using fibre optics outside the top of the case and directional LEDs on the ceilings of the case interiors. An almost imperceptible slant to the vertical mount angles the jewels towards the source so they remain lit – as much as is possible – from the front. ‘We made it work, step by step, mock-up by mock-up, discussion by discussion,’ explains Jiricna. ‘We were improving it constantly. In the end, I believe the result is better than anything that has ever been done before.’

Most of all, however, the designer is proud not so much of the final design – though she should be – but of the way in which the team of people working to make it happen pulled together. ‘Everybody had a different agenda. The sponsors were very generous but also very involved, and the conservators, the museum and the curator all had their own vision for the galleries. The architect often comes in and turns everything on its head – we wanted to put all these small objects in huge cases of a peculiar shape and, as simple as it sounds, in practice it was a continuous process to understand one another. Everyone was very nervous about losing sight of their dream. In the end it was our job to provide them with options and then help them to select the best one. We all learned how good people can be when they lose their egos and work together to find the best solutions.’