To spice up your summer in the city, The Royal Thai Embassy in collaboration with partners, are bringing a taste of Thai to Trafalgar Square. On Saturday 5th June, Trafalgar square will be transformed into a Thai stage, where delicious Thai treats and vivid cultural displays, will be showcased.

‘Thailand @ Trafalgar.Square’ will be a celebration of Thai cuisine and culture starting at 12 noon – 8 pm. The free event, will offer a selection of spice infused dishes from top London restaurants, including the acclaimed Mango Tree. On show will be traditional and contemporary Thai dancing as well as Thai puppetry and the fast-paced action of Thai boxing.

Mango Tree will be offering a carefully chosen range of affordable dishes, courtesy of Executive Chef Mark Read, to introduce and reacquaint visitors with the varying tastes of Thai food. Whether you prefer spicy or sweet treats, the carefully chosen menu ensures that there’s something for everyone.

www.tfsq.co.uk

Every time we open a magazine and stare at the image  of a beautiful model , we find ourselves falling very short of this idealistic look of perfection.  However, how much of what we actually see is real and how much is distorted, touched up and air brushed.  For as long as we can remember the fashion industry has been manipulating photography and preying on our own insecurities to sell.  Beauty sells.

Eleni Renton (Lenis’s Model Management), Jodie Kidd and Elizabeth Edwards (Associate Editor & Art Director of Conde Nast Brides) held a debate to discuss whether with improvements in modern technology, is  it right and fair to the consumer that images are manipulated and enhanced to this extent. Jodie Kidd said that ‘society has always had these aspirations’ and said she believed that in moderation , retouching a scar or skin defect wasn’t misrepresenting an image.  However all the panel agree retouching had gone too far with recent media furore over grossly distorted images.

Elizabeth Edwards said there was no way you could create a magazine without retouching, but she emphasized the importance of educating the public and young girls on body image, which was echoed by psychologist Gerard Chevalier who said there was an increase in patients with terrible self-esteem issues and depression . Jodie Kidd mentioned a friend whose 7 year old daughter said at dinner time, ‘I don’t want to have dinner, I’m too fat’.  Indeed cases of anorexia are on the increase. Eleni Renton argued that retouching is such an ‘instant gratification thing’ that it plays into society’s ‘quick-fix’ mentality. They concluded that there is a long way to go on retouching regulations (grading etc.) but that headway is being made and this debate will look set to run.

http://lenismodelmanagement.blogspot.com/

International luxury jewellery brand Stephen Webster is going from strength to strength. To mark the brand’s development, it has officially launched a new website, showcasing the famously glam rock jewellery brand in a fun and innovative way.

Webster explains; “Not content with simply designing jewellery, my creative team and I generated everything visual on the sight in our own studio. We are proud to present you with the result of months of wallpapering, frame making, inspiration boarding, film making and quirky bit generation. I hope you enjoy the experience”.

So what is the experience? Well, the site takes you into the Webster world where you can browse through the fine jewellery and silver jewellery collections for men and women. There are a number of different elements to the site, including a a jewellery box feature, which allows customers to create a wish list of their favourite pieces; a sneak preview into Stephen’s sketchbook; short films and an entertaining blog from Stephen himself.

Definitely worth a look.

www.stephenwebster.com

Brit-winning stars Florence Welch and Dizzee Rascal are to create window displays  at London store Selfridges, based on their songs in a project called Sounds of The Mind
Others involved in the project include Hot Chip, Empire Of The Sun and Paloma Faith, as well as hotly tipped bands The XX and Marina And The Diamonds. The project launches next month and  is intended to celebrate lyrical power. It has been timed to tie in with the start of the festival season.

Dizzee Rascal chose to build use hit song Bonkers as his theme while Welch, who fronts Florence And The Machine, chose to illustrate her track Cosmic Love.

“The concept behind this is crazy. I want people to be blown away, to see how creative we can be visually with my music,” Dizzee Rascal said.

They will be part of a themed sequence of displays which includes others by Selfridges’ own experts. Passers-by will have a chance to guess the songs which inspired the other windows at the London store and the Manchester branch through the company’s website to win £500.

The Four star Jolly St Ermin’s hotel in London has been sold by Spanish hotel chain, NH Hoteles, to a group of international investors for £65m.

The Jolly Hotel St Ermin’s was originally built as mansion flats in 1887. It wasn’t until 1905 that is was delevoped in to a hotel. Due to its proximity to the Houses of Parliament it became popular with members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords. It still has those links today though the hotel is more popular with todays visitor looking to explore the area that is not only the centre of the UK’s political life but home to some of London’s best known buildings

NH Hoteles acquired the hotel in Westminster in 2007 when it bought the Italian hotel chain, Jolly Hotels.  NH Hoteles  decided to get rid of the property as it they believed it was no longer strategic to its portfoilo of 393 hotels in 24 countries in Europe, America and Africa.

A spokesman for NH Hoteles said that a £27m refurbishment would need to be carried out at the St Ermin’s in order to bring it up to the standards the group offers its guests.

NH Hoteles now operates just three hotels in London.  As well as the Kensington and Harrington Hall, both in Kensington, it has also just added the 212-bedroom, four-star Hesperia London Victoria to its portfolio.

 www.nh-hotels.com