The Face Shop: An International Korean Name in Cosmetics

The Face Shop – the name alone says it all. This South Korean company has built a reputation for itself in skincare and cosmetics since its initial launch in 2003, not only in its home country but on an international scale as well. A subsidiary of LG Corporation, The Face Shop headquarters are in Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea with Jeong Un-ho as CEO, and is currently ranked as the country's third-largest cosmetics company.

The Face Shop sells make-up, bath and body care products for both men and women. The company prides itself on using natural ingredients in their products, using science and technology in their manufacturing processes and vast research regarding subjects such as product to skin compatibility in order to bring the highest quality to customers. The Face Shop has 930 stores in 22 countries, including Australia, Canada, the United States, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Jordan, the UAE and the rest of the countries in Asia.

HBO: The World's Leading Cable Channel

Cable channels have been highly popular for decades, as they provide services that regular channels and other forms of entertainment cannot and do not: showing previously released theatrical motion pictures, creating original television series and made-for-cable movies, showing documentaries and sports events as well as concerts, variety shows and other live events. Such has been the role of cable giant HBO, or Home Box Office, since it was first launched in 1972. HBO has launched some of the most successful television series, including “Sex and the City”, “The Sopranos”, “Six Feet Under”, “True Blood”, “Entourage”, “The Wire”, and the blockbuster, widely-acclaimed “Game of Thrones”.

The groundwork for HBO and cable in general was laid out by Charles Dolan in 1965. Dolan built a cable system in New York City, called the Sterling Manhattan Cable, in order to better transmit television signals. This became America's first underground cable system for television and Dolan's “The Green Channel” idea was bought by Time Life. The channel changed its name to HBO and in 1972, aired its first film, “Sometimes a Great Notion”, jump-starting the cable television era. Soon, HBO was able to expand its area of availability, transmit signals via satellite and operate from its original 9 hours a day to a full 24 hour-run. In 1983, HBO broadcast its first original movie and its first show for kids and the rest, as the saying goes, is history.

Originally a venue for subscribers to be able to watch movies from the comfort of their homes and catch up on television series, HBO has now become one of the most prominent cable channels in the world, reaching an estimated 30 million viewers in the United States alone. HBO broadcasts to more than 150 countries with a worldwide viewership of some 114 million subscribers, and has spawned international versions in Brazil, the Caribbean, India, Mexico, the Netherlands, Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia. It continues to be a dominant force in the entertainment industry and has a subscribership to support its massive success.

Fuqi International: Luxury Goods in China

The world's most populous nation isn't far behind when it comes to luxury goods, and no wonder. Fuqi International, a jewellery company aimed at China's luxury goods market, is living proof of this. Based in Shenzhen, China, Fuqi designs and manufactures jewellery items that contain precious stones such as diamonds. Founded in 2001, Fuqi is the country's leading source of such high-quality jewellery, with products made of platinum and gold, created by the company's team of designers and crafted by skilled workers.

Fuqi boasts a factory measuring 53,000 square feet in its Shenzhen headquarters, with 69 jewellery retail counters across the country, 31 provincial distributors, 840 direct sales agents and more than 1,200 employees. Together with several other private companies, Fuqi is a member of China's most prestigious organizations in precious stones, jewellery and metal-working, as well as associations for quality inspections to ensure only the best in their products. Fuqi has received several awards for its jewellery and for good business practices, too.

Kangol: Popularizing the Beret

Headwear have been a popular form of clothing since ancient history. Utilitarian in that they provide protection from the harsh weather elements, headwear have also long been considered fashion statements, reflections of a culture or creative expressions. Plain and flat or large and trimmed with plumery, hats and similar head coverings have come a long way in the centuries they have existed. Since 1938, Kangol has been a word-recognized brand in hat manufacturing, having made popular the iconic beret that is still seen and worn today.

Kangol was founded in 1938 in Cleator, Cumbria, England by war veteran Jacques Spreiregen. Spreiregen initially entered the business importing berets from France in 1918. In the next 20 years, he became increasingly interested and involved in the hat business, marketing berets as a post-war fashion item. Spreiregen came up with the name Kangol as a combination of silk, angora and wool, and began producing berets for golfers, workers, civilians and of course, soldiers. Kangol soon became a favorite hat brand, and was the leading supplier of berets for the armed forces during World War II, famously gracing the head of General Bernard Montgomery.

After World War II, Kangol saw a rapid increase in popularity as berets became a fashion staple. Kangol was the supplier of berets for the English Olympic Team in 1948. Throughout the 1950s and 60s, Kangol reinvented the original beret design to accommodate newer hats such as the stiffer Carricap and the Kangol seamless cap. Popular designers Mary Quant and Pierre Cardin contributed to Kangol, which began seeing growth abroad. In the sixties, Kangol was able to secure a deal that made them the sole manufacturer and distributor of headgear featuring the Beatles, which greatly benefitted both the band and the hat company. By the time the 1980s came, Kangol was in full swing, with the likes of Princess Diana of Wales wearing a Kangol hat on the cover of a 1983 Vogue magazine. Soon, Kangol caps began to gain footing among American rappers such as LL Cool J and in the hip-hop industry.

Now owned by Sports World, Kangol has remained an iconic hat brand, with popular celebrities such as Samuel L. Jackson still sporting them in photos and press events. Kangol now produces a wide range of headgear, all made with the same quality and heritage that the company has been loved for all these decades.

Grubwithus: Bringing Good Food to Everyone

Meals are supposed to be enjoyed with conversations. Grubwithus was developed from the idea of a “social meal experience” that Eddy Lu and Daishin Sugano had. It would appear that the social meal experience interests a lot of people because in just one year Grubwithus was able to raise $1.6 million from investors and handled 7,000 restaurant reservations.

Grubwithus works like this: it somewhat follows the same model that group buying sites use but instead of offering savings, it provides people with a new means of socializing. This drives traffic to restaurants so establishments are very willing to participate. Grubwithus takes people back to their roots in a world where virtual relationships are the norm. Good food is also a plus. To use Grubwithus, users look for meals available in their area and reserve a seat at the table. Groups are kept small (10 at the most) to keep it cozy.

Those who reserve early get to pay less as a small way of rewarding signing up before knowing who they’ll be sharing their meal with.

Carlton Hobbs: A Carefully Cultivated Collection of 17th-19th Century Fine Arts and Antiquities

Since 1983, Carlton Hobbs LLC, Antiques and Fine Art, has served a discreet clientele of individual collectors and public and private institutions. The firm’s carefully curated gallery collection includes Continental and British pieces of distinguished provenance and merit from the 17th to 19th centuries. In addition to furniture, artwork, and sculpture, the gallery offers a full range of glass and decorative arts that includes mirrors and lighting.

Elaborately designed pieces currently featured on the gallery website include a pair of gilt-bronze late Louis XVI five-light candelabra, and a giltwood and opaline glass-painted lantern. Likely French in origin, the latter 19th century item is in an attractive geometric polygonal form. The opaline glass is painted with foliate patterns that derive from designs discovered in homes excavated in the mid-1700s. Those patterns had wide appeal among neoclassical applied arts designers of the following century.

A hallmark of Carlton’s approach to collecting involves intensive research, with a library encompassing several thousands of scholarly books, papers, and documents. The office and gallery are housed in a Upper East Side Manhattan Vanderbilt mansion, with pieces arranged in a museum-quality setting. Carlton Hobbs and longtime partner Stefanie Rinza take pride in unearthing “inscrutably obscure” pieces of high design content. Notable items recently displayed include a Russian strongbox set with (unloaded) pistols designed to go off when the box is not opened properly. Reflecting the idiosyncratic, handpicked nature of the collection, Carlton Hobbs at times acquires exceptional items of recent vintage, up through the 1960s.

Blurb: Making Dreams Come True for Aspiring Authors

Publishing a book is a romantic notion for many people. Everyone wants to do it but few actually get around to doing it. Some fall prey to distractions while those who actually get around to completing their material are snubbed by publishers for not having enough commercial appeal. But what if you’re not out to dominate bestsellers lists? What if you just want to come out with a book you can call your own? Whatever reason you might have, as long as you have something you wish to publish, Blurb is here to help you out.

Blurb started out as a means of addressing Eileen Gittins’ own needs. She wanted to publish 40 books for 40 people as a token of her appreciation but there was no one willing to accommodate her. You don’t just print a handful of books, after all. You make dozens and thousands of them because you’re supposed to sell them. Finally, Gittins just decided to publish her book herself, thinking how hard could that be, right?

Publishing your own book is pretty hard, apparently. In fact, Gittins realized it was near impossible. But she saw the opportunity in her predicament, integrating desktop publishing systems with print-on-demand digital technology. The idea came to her as a result of her previous experiences working for various companies and Blurb was born.

In a time when the craze is all about going digital, Blurb was peddling the power of print. And the company was successful at it, what with over 750,000 customers, more than 50% of which are repeat purchasers and bookmakers. Creative professionals are the targeted market and thousands turn to blurb for printing marketing pieces such as catalogs and portfolios. In 2011, the company saw the printing of at least two million books. Even more press runs are anticipated as Blurb grows and innovates printing to address needs.