THE fantastic miniature theatre we’ve created on the Malls had a very special premiere this week – with the help of some eager students from Warrington.
The class of eleven media make-up students were the first people to experience The Beauty Theatre, there to learn tricks of the trade from uber-cool cosmetics house Illamasqua.
Illamasqua come from a very theatrical background – its roots lie in club culture, and the alternative scene. This means Illamasqua make-up is brighter, bolder and a little more outrageous than other labels – and the perfect product to show make-up students how dramatic they can be.
Phillip, the talented artist from the Illamasqua counter at Selfridges, gave a great masterclass in the application of different colours and styles.
The course tutor Debbey told me afterwards the presentation was ‘inspirational” – which is exactly what Illamasqua aim for.
So if you fancy some top tips for creating a wow look, pop to the Illamasqua concession on the lower level of Selfridges – you’ll never look at make-up in the same way again.
YOU can check out my press release on this story here.
Did you know that the average human nose is able to recognise more than 10,000 different odors?
Or that aromas can effect our brainwave patterns, and effect mood, memory – and even your maths ability?
These are the amazing findings of neuroscientists who have spent years investigating how our sense of smell effects us – and it’s these findings that convinced us to try out a new technology at The Trafford Centre, starting next week.
A company called Brand Aroma will be setting up scent stations during our Beauty Theatre event, to pump the smell of summer across the malls. We hope these evocative aromas help people to feel relaxed, and contented – and more likely to enjoy the vast array of beauty experiences we have lined up for next week.
The Trafford Centre’s nose led us to a scent called “Summer” – a fresh, light, floral perfume that will trigger memories of cut grass, picnics and long days lounging in the sun. Our aim is to remind people of the changing of the seasons – and the need to change with them if we aren’t to appear dated, or old-fashioned.
Personally, I would prefer either the scent of a new car interior, or failing that, the aroma of my mum’s cheese and onion pie (the best in the world!). But I get the feeling that cheese and new leather seats won’t create the fashionable image The Trafford Centre strives for!
You can test out the theories for yourself next week, as hidden machines near to The Beauty Theatre on Upper Regent Crescent send out nasal messages to our shoppers.
When we first came up with the theme for this year’s beauty week at The Trafford Centre, a million ideas sprang to mind – and now the best of those ideas are turning into reality!
We chose the theme of “Beauty Theatre” – partly because the Centre is such a dramatic place, and partly in response to the cosmetics trends coming from the catwalks this season, which predict theatrical make-up in bold colours and styles.
DRAMATIC PLANS: How our Beauty Theatre might look...
One of our funkier ideas was to create a miniture theatre on the Malls, to host presentations for our customers. As you can see from the original drawings, we’ve gone all out to design a fantastic looking space that really makes you feel like you’re at the centre of something special.
The Theatre has a front-stage area which seats 30 people, each of whom will have pre-booked their tickets (hint, hint). Here, make-up mad shoppers will get to hear the beauty secrets of the rich and famous, every day from Feb 1st to 7th. All the techniques used by actors themselves will be explained, at set times through-out the day. (Download our Beauty Theatre Guide for full info).
BACKSTAGE: For one-to-ones...
Then, round the back, we have the back-stage area. This is the star’s dressing room, where customers will receive exclusive one-on-one sessions with consultants, helping you achieve that million-dollar Hollywood look – for FREE!
The Beauty Theatre will be dressed by the super-talented people over at The Royal Exchange Theatre (link), who will use curtains and props and lighting to great effect. I can’t wait to see the finished thing, and then see it in action.
The “premiere” of The Beauty Theatre is February 1st, and we expect it to be a sell-out show, so book your tickets now to avoid missing out.
And if you are lucky enough to get a seat, tell me all about it!
I had a really interesting meeting yesterday with the archivist from Boots the Chemist, who is planning to open a very special exhibition here at The Trafford Centre.
Our ‘Beauty Theatre’ event starts on February 1st, and to celebrate the festival of beauty and style, we are creating a free exhibition on the Malls – with some fascinating exhibits taken from the store cupboard at Boots!
Boots has been trading for more than 150 years, and in that time they’ve witnessed a lot of changes – not only in drugs, cosmetics and gifts, but also in the way they run a business and treat their staff.
Luckily, bosses there have had the foresight to squirrel away much of their history – including adverts, products and even staff training manuals.
The archivist brought some amazing old cosmetics to show us, from the famous Number 7 range, as well as postcards and clippings. Incredibly, the famous No7 line was launched in the 1930’s, and although it looks very different today it’s still a staple item on many a mum’s dressing table.
The Boots Exhibition will open for one week only (Feb 1-7) and will show a variety of documents that reveal the evolution of the brands – especially in Manchester, which boasted an enormous Boots long before this Mall Rat was even born.
Why not pop down during Beauty Theatre to see how many of the old products you can recognise? Keep an eye on our website for opening times, and where to find the exhibition.
HUGE snowfalls around the Northwest have created a winter wonderland at The Trafford Centre – but it is business as usual today as an army of snowploughs, gritters and people with spades managed to get everything moving again.
WONDERLAND: The roads are clear around the Centre.
Bus services are back up and running (though with some warnings of possible delays) and the major roads around the site are snow-free.
Yesterday, I was forced to run the press office from home – which was very easy thanks to my laptop and Blackberry.
And many of the journalists I spoke to were also working from their sofas – which was slightly bizarre, but shows how much less dependant some trades are on a fixed office!
We did manage to open more than half our retailers yesterday – but as the snow continued, we realised that getting our staff and customers home safely was our priority, so for the first ever time since we opened in 1998, we finished early because of poor weather.
Twenty tonnes of grit was a welcome delivery this week – and our teams have been out pushing snow from the car parks, and gritting the roads.
The Salford City Reds Media Day that was planned for tomorrow has been cancelled, as the rugby players have found it impossible to get out of their towns and villages. But you can rest assured that if you can get to The Trafford Centre, we have a warm welcome waiting for you here.
You can keep an eye on Trafford Centre updates on our main website, and I’ll update this blog with any more news.
I’ve just returned from my first visit as a paying customer to the brand new Kodak Express Print Lounge here at The Trafford Centre – and I have to say I think I’ve fallen in love with it!
FASHION: Easy print out with Kodak.
The concept is simple; the Lounge offers instant printing of your digital images, whilst at the same time serving delicious coffee, cakes and sandwiches.
I had some images from the recent Christmas Party Wear Fashion Shows which were lurking on my Blackberry. What a nice idea to have hard copies, I thought. And you already know how much I like coffee – so why not kill two birds with one stone?
The Lounge itself has been done out very nattily – it’s comfy, but with a reassuring edge of ‘tech’.
There is a terminal at each table, which takes your images in disc format, memory stick, floppy disc – whatever you happen to have. I had none of these, so instead I Bluetoothed my images across, and had them printed in colour, with added funky borders and text, within seconds. How 21st Century, with added cake!
The idea is novel, but it’s the ease of execution which really impressed me about this new retailer.
You could fill you camera’s memory card with great images of your visit to The Trafford Centre – pop in for a last coffee before home time, and be presented with a wallet of your artwork before you head for your car! Price-wise, it costs me only 30p for a colour print, which was less than I expected.
The great thing is that the whole process was really fun – and I’m already taking new images on my phone with a view to printing them out for the lovely staff here to see.
*Check out the World’s First Kodak Express Print Lounge on Upper Peel Avenue at The Trafford Centre. Open NOW.
We’re still coming down from the ceiling, after last night’s Christmas Lights Switch on with JLS.
ON: The moment JLS switch on the lights.
It was definitely the biggest event we’ve ever held at The Trafford Centre, and I’ve spoken to so many people who said they had the time of their lives.
I was in charge of media and celebrities, so I have some great images of myself with Stavros Flately, Fe-Nix, Chris Fountain and even Gary Wilmott!
The press were blown away by how popular the event was, and I have to say once the lights went on I have never seen the Centre look so magical.
We did have some traffic issues, mainly because of two accidents that occured off site which blocked the roads. At one point, these jams even blocked our star act JLS – but luckily they managed to make it through on time, and stunned the Orient with a breath-taking version of Umbrella, plus their new single Everybody In Love.
The JLS fans were out in force – the hardcore JLS forum members all seemed to have “JLS” written on their faces, so they were easy to spot.
At one point I stood with my cameraman on the ship and waved at 7,000 people – and 7,000 people waved back. What a crazy feeling!
If you made it to the show, let me know what you thought of the acts. Send me your pictures too!
Construction has begun on the newest jewel in the Trafford Quays Leisure Village crown, and that’s the incredible Airkix attraction that’s taking shape next to the indoor ski centre ChillFactore.
DARING: TV's Bear Grylls enjoys an Airkix moment.
Airkix is an indoor skydiving experience, which uses enormous air-fans to suspend flyers above the ground, and give them the sensation of freefall – but without the need for an expensive airplane! The attraction is set to open in 2010, and we suspect it might just cause a stir amongst the daredevils of the region.
There’s a short list of things that can stop you from flying – for example, if you weigh more than 18stone, or are wearing a hard cast.
But for the most part almost anyone can have a go, and the Airkix people are also very experienced in helping those people living with disabilities to experience the joy of flight.
I remember seeing these things on TV years ago, but I would never have believed they would be created especially for public use. Celebrities have been queuing up to fly, including ace adventurer Bear Grylls (pictured) – and I can imagine a few Corrie stars taking the leap when the fans start spinning next year.
I hear on the grapevine that a large percentage of people who visit the first Airkix in Milton Keynes are real-life sky-divers, who use the facility for flying practice because it is so close to the real thing. How cool is that?
Watch this space for more news on Airkix as it happens, get your helmets ready for the ride of your life!
WILL you be taking a flight on Airkix? Tell me about it!
AWARD: (l-r) TV's Tina Hobley, TTC's Caroline Hall, The Mall Rat, and award presenter Anna Warrilow, from sponsors West Midland Safari Park.
I had a lovely evening in Birmingham recently, as The Trafford Centre picked up another award for our work on groups visiting the Centre from all over the UK.
We were at the Hilton Metropole near the NEC, taking part in a sparkling ceremony that bigs up the best destinations in the UK for coach parties.
Coach travel is big business in Britain, as more and more tourists opt for one-day, or short-stay vacations to explore the hot-spots.
We welcome hundreds of coaches throughout the year, and we try to ensure that we give each coach the same kind of personal service you can expect if you visit us on your own, or with family. These efforts were rewarded last week, when we won the award for Best Shopping Venue in the UK, from the readers of Group Leisure magazine.
It’s the second time in two years we’ve won the award, and that’s a tribute to all the hard work our staff do in welcoming huge groups to a safe and fun stay at the Centre. Because this award was voted for by readers, it’s extra special to us, and The Trafford Centre marketing team and I were only to eager to go and bask in the glory, and meet a few industry leaders along the way.
So a huge hello to everyone we met that night, including TV actress Tina Hobley who presented our award, and the folks from Charity on Wheels, who will be bringing a coach-load of people to see us in a few weeks time for a mega-shopping trip!
I was also bowled over by the amazing staff from Group Leisure magazine, who were so excited at this, their biggest event of the year. Their enthusiasm for the group travel market was so obvious, and I soon found myself looking at brochures for coach trips to the Highlands.
Now that’s marketing!
HAVE you visited The Trafford Centre as a coach party? What did you think?
Well, we can’t say we’ve suffered as much as other areas of the country this week with the great swathes of snow which have come sleeting in from the Antarctic Circle (I imagine.) (See BBC News)
It’s been many years since since large amounts of snow fell on Britain, and many schools and councils have been caught short in preparation. We face issues of salt shortages just like everywhere else in the UK, with mile after mile of road around The Trafford Centre site requiring gritting during weather like this – tonnes of the white stuff getting thrown down every day, it’s a mammoth task. Luckily, it’s worked for us so far and we’ve had zero traffic issues over the snowy days.
On a lighter note, my colleague Paul went a walking around the site yesterday, so I asked him to take his camera and snap a few pictures of the Centre in the snow. I might turn them into next year’s Trafford Centre Christmas card!
Snow at Wildespool Wood
Fir trees by The Orient
View from our management suite
An icy pond at Wildespool (no ducks)
Just needs some baubles and lights!
Icy Barton Square from the campanile
Snow around the ski slopes - with much more inside!
WE’VE been enjoying a new look of our own at The Trafford Centre this week, as the long-awaited changes to the lighting system in the Main Dome were finally switched on.
Engineers have replaced the old sodium lighting with sparkly new LED lights, controlled by a central computer. Much like your blog page options, the digital RGB system means we can now make the lights any colour we want! The new wardrobe looks incredible – I was at a friend’s flat near to the Centre last night, and the clear cold Manchester evening was lit up by the red dome in the distance.
This is the Dome in it’s usual blue – like the other two domes on the boulevards of The Trafford Centre, it’s been shining in this rather arresting blue for more than ten years. The colour has become a signature of the kind of outre architecture of the Centre.
Then for Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day last weekend, we turned the colour of the Dome to red, and for the first time the profile of the Centre (which is seen by literally millions of eyes in the course of a month, as the cars fly by on the nearby M60 motorway) changed completely.
And on St Patrick’s Day on Tuesday, we turned the Dome green – to match the traditional colour of the festival of the Emerald Isle. (I have to say, the Green Dome is my favourite so far, it looks proper space age!)
Take a gander at the other colours we’ve tried out so far in my Dome gallery, and if you want to read more about it, read this newspaper article.
Before you ask, the scheme cost about £40,000 to create – but in the long run it will save us money, as the new lights are much more environmentally-friendly. They only use a fraction of the power of the old lights, and have to be replaced once every ten years or so – rather than once a year like the old system. So we’re saving on those leccy bills, and helping the planet look better, for longer.
I was lucky enough to be given a guided tour of the new MediaCity that’s currently springing up at Salford Quays – and what a massive project it’s turning out to be!
Hundreds of doozers are crammed onto the various building sites around the place, as they construct studio facilities, shops, and residential towers in preparation for the arrival of various BBC departments.
HUGE: Media City UK
The owners of The Trafford Centre also own the land over at the Quays, and my colleagues there have been busy for months arranging one of the biggest emigrations of BBC staff the organisation has ever seen. I was particularly impressed with the idea of ‘waxies’ – or ‘water taxis’ that will ferry people along the canal from the city centre, and out to the Quays.
That same canal reaches right up to The Trafford Centre – which leaves me with the tempting idea of grabbing a boat after work to get to one of our team building nights out in town. Life jacket anyone?
If you haven’t seen the works at MediaCity recently, do take a look. The bricks are stacking up with at a great rate of knots, and in three months time it will no doubt look completely different to how it appears today.
If you were listening to Radio Wave on the Fylde coast last weekend, you might have heard a reference to The Trafford Centre Girls, taking part in the 5k Race for Life.
BRAVE: Ann, left, and Sue do us proud.
My two brave colleagues Ann Sullivan and Sue Mullally ran through wind and heavy rain in an amazing time of 45 minutes, raising more than £500 for vital cancer research along the way!
I’m told that Ann in particular ran the course ‘like a whippet’ – which is no surprise, as our limber receptionist is well used to exercise thanks to her dancing regime in various amateur dramatics productions. The local Blackpool radio station spotted the pair clad in Trafford Centre red, and pointed them out to the audience at every lap.
It seems even being associated with The Trafford Centre is a short-cut to fame – and in this case, a very welcome fortune.
I’ve just been looking at our YouTube Channel, and trying to work out which of our videos is the most popular (the things you have to do for a board report!).
For ages, the lead video was the massive Ricky Hatton promo we held in The Orient – and thanks to a little widget in YouTube, we were able to tell that most of the many thousands of people who watched that vid were from the Philipines, and were Manny fans, rather than local people logging on to see their Mancunian hero! Just goes to show, you never can tell.
But what’s this, as I peruse the figures for last month’s YouTube audience – the biggest hit at the moment is clearly George Sampson’s Christmas Message. Now, for those out of towners who might not know, George Sampson was the winner of Britain’s Got Talent, when he was a local schoolboy from Warrington who danced for pennies on Market Street before finding fame. He turned on our Christmas lights last year. (I looked after him for part of the day and he’s a lovely lad, but he never sits still.)
Far be it from me to wonder why people want to watch a Christmas message in the middle of summer, but they certainly do – more than 7000 views, and peaking.
In case you are wondering, that’s his sister with him in the video, who danced with him on stage here at TTC, and was like a mini-George.
I know this hyper-active dancer has film projects in the pipeline, and we loved his debut single when he showcased it here at The Trafford Centre, so I can only imagine that with the loyal fanbase he clearly has, that anything this talented local lad touches will turn to gold.
I got the shock of my life when I arrived for work this morning, to see this enormous red hot air balloon floating outside our offices at The Trafford Centre!
GIANT: The Redrow balloon
It’s our 11th birthday today, so my first thought was: Someone’s got us a birthday balloon!
Of course, I had been warned that the homes specialists Redrow were bringing a hot air balloon – but I’ve never seen one up close, and had no idea they were so large!
I met some customers out in the car park at lunch, who told me excitedly that they’d just been up in the balloon.
‘Did you get a good view of the Centre?’ I asked.
“Nah!” they sniffed – “We only went up about eight feet!”
Health and safety clearly applies as much in the air as it does on the ground…
The eye-catching behemoth will be promoting first-time buys and part-exchange deals on homes for the rest of the day – so if you fancy a go in a hot air balloon (just not very high!) then get yourself down to car park Regent 13 now!
THE builders are busy this week, preparing for the grand opening of the new Kro Bar, in The Great Hall.
If you are a local, you can’t help but have noticed this award-winning Danish dining and drinking experience, as it already has high-profile branches in the city centre.
We knew it wouldn’t be long before their bold, contemporary and stylish bars were headed our way to The Trafford Centre – and lo and behold, they have taken the last empty space in The Great Hall, behind The Orient. This luxury dining space has really put itself on the gastronomic map, with it’s Carluccio’s Italian spot, and the incredibly popular Las Iguanas.
CHIC: The Piccadilly Kro Bar.
The newcomer will create 60 jobs here at the Centre – so if you fancy your hand as a Kro member of staff, why not pop down to our Jobcentre near the bus station for an application pack?
Diners can expect a delicious range of Danish-inspired foods, and the great draught and bottled beers for which the brand has become famous, all in a super-chic atmosphere. The other Kro bars I know also stock newspapers, so I hope that’s something the new place adopts too.
The property team here at the Centre are over the moon to have secured this new deal, especially as Kro is truly a local firm, and really fills out The Great Hall with a funky new offering.
The venue is set to open next month, and your Mall Rat will be one of the first over the threshold to sample their Nordic wares!
This is the Dome in it’s usual blue – like the other two domes on the boulevards of The Trafford Centre, it’s been shining in this rather arresting blue for more than ten years. The colour has become a signature of the kind of outre architecture of the Centre.
