Ralph & Russo is announcing its arrival into Dubai, with its first pop up store in the region.
Level Shoes has partnered with the luxury brand to bring over a selection of shoes, to be showcased in a dedicated pop up store. For the uninitiated, this new space will provide an introduction to the label, while shoe buff’s will be happy to hear it also marks the permanent arrival of Ralph & Russo shoes to the UAE. The pop up will be open until October 1st.
Ralph & Russo, the first British brand to be accepted into the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, is known for its elegant, ladylike gowns. Favoured by the likes of Angelina Jolie, each couture piece is handmade to order.
With the aim of broadening its appeal to a wider audience however, Ralph & Russo has also launched an accessories line, offering shoes and bags that offer the same codes of luxury, but at less prohibitive prices.
The shoes are offered in a palette of blush and pink, and are simple save for the intricate, metallic foliage that encircles the heel. Coiled leaves and flowers are a recurring motif of the house, and are often to be found on its couture creations.
Ralph & Russo pop up store will be available at Level Shoes in The Dubai Mall until October 1.
Start-up hopes to end Japan's love affair with cash
Across most of Asia, people pay for taxi rides, restaurant meals and merchandise with smartphone-readable barcodes — except in Japan, where cash still rules. Now, as the country’s biggest web companies race to dominate the payments market, one Tokyo-based startup says it has a fighting chance to win with its QR app.
Origami had a head start when it introduced a QR-code payment service in late 2015 and has since signed up fast-food chain KFC, Tokyo’s largest cab company Nihon Kotsu and convenience store operator Lawson. The company raised $66 million in September to expand nationwide and plans to more than double its staff of about 100 employees, says founder Yoshiki Yasui.
Origami is betting that stores, which until now relied on direct mail and email newsletters, will pay for the ability to reach customers on their smartphones. For example, a hair salon using Origami’s payment app would be able to send a message to past customers with a coupon for their next haircut.
Quick Response codes, the dotted squares that can be read by smartphone cameras, were invented in the 1990s by a unit of Toyota Motor to track automotive parts. But when the Japanese pioneered digital payments almost two decades ago with contactless cards for train fares, they chose the so-called near-field communications technology. The high cost of rolling out NFC payments, convenient ATMs and a culture where lost wallets are often returned have all been cited as reasons why cash remains king in the archipelago. In China, however, QR codes dominate.
Cashless payments, which includes credit cards, accounted for just 20 per cent of total consumer spending in Japan during 2016, compared with 60 per cent in China and 89 per cent in South Korea, according to a report by the Bank of Japan.
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