quiet paws.

It wouldn’t be too inaccurate a statement to say that I pretty much adore everything about this show. Apart from providing a fascinating insight into the world during the 1960s, Mad Men delivers consistently interesting plots played out by a fine cast of actors.

The visual authenticity of the show is achieved through a combination of impeccable costuming and set designs which are styled to absolute perfection. Everything looks right, and when scenes come to life with the presence of the actors, everything feels right.

I heard about this beautiful Vanity Fair editorial (The Ultimate Mad Men Summer-Break Album) some time ago, but only recently managed to find it within the September 2009 issue. The photographs are quite simply stunning! Despite the madness that seems to be Annie Leibovitz’s life, I absolutely adore her photography.

The photographs accompany a great article about the show’s creator Matthew Weiner, and the casting of Jon Hamm and January Jones as Don and Betty Draper.

If I was forced to choose a favourite character, it would be an easy answer for me – Don Draper would be the winner of such a contest. I love him for so many reasons, but perhaps this could best be said as, ‘I love him for the man that he almost is’.

Anyway, I just felt the need to share these beautiful images. Perhaps you’re a fan of the show yourself, or perhaps you adore finely styled photography… either way, I hope you enjoy!

PS. I’m laying much blame at the feet of Mad Men for my recent re-discovery and love of all things that are ‘the dress’…a happy curse to be burdened with indeed…

On a trip to Melbourne last year, I spent some time at MagNation, a heaven (and haven) for magazine lovers. I came away from there with a couple of purchases, which of course made me very happy indeed. As I was leaving though I spied an interesting looking magazine which caught my eye with it’s interesting design and beckoned with the hints of what lay within.

Being an import magazine it was a little more expensive than most magazines I buy, and while I was taken with the content, I decided that I had spent quite enough on that trip to Melbourne thank you very much!

Pretty much ever since that day I’ve regretted putting that magazine back on the rack. For some reason the glimpse I had been given stayed with me, but on my return to Brisbane I wasn’t able to find it in the local newsagents…no great surprise there.

And so eventually I pushed thoughts of the magazine to the back of my mind, especially when I had other great titles like Frankie to distract me. After a while I’d forgotten the name of the magazine and just had the description of that one issue to go on.

It was not until last week (some 10 months after that trip to Melbourne) that I was finally reunited with that magazine. I’ve been doing a lot of shopping around online to find the cheapest subscriptions for a few of my favourite magazines, when I found myself at the MagNation online store. They have this really cool feature on their website called a Magdentifier which is pretty much exactly what it’s name suggests – it identifies a range of magazine titles for you based on a short quiz. After going through this process one magazine which was suggested for me was Lula.

After doing a bit more research on this title I found that one of the back issues was that very issue I regretted placing back on the rack last year in Melbourne. I’m so happy to be reunited once more…my subscription was processed about one minute after discovering this.

Whenever ownership of an item is required or desired, people are encouraged to purchase such items from retail establishments. The transaction process generally involves the intended item owner exchanging funds in the required amount at a service point. The process concludes with the paid item changing ownership from the retail outlet to the paying customer. The customer thus becomes the proud owner of the item.

The majority of customers are honest people who always conclude the sales transaction in appropriate fashion. However, there are some people who feel the need to bypass the purchasing transaction and simply help themselves to items, leaving the store without paying for them. This lack of respect for the purchasing process has required stores to introduce a variety of security measures in an effort to limit stock loss. Such measures include:

• Posting security guards on the entrance and exit of the store;
• Attaching security tags to products so that if a person tries to leave the store without paying for them, an alarm will sound;
• Plains clothes security personnel patrolling within the store to ’subtly’ monitor store activities;
• Storing highly desirable and/or expensive items in secure areas behind service counters;
• Installing cameras to record surveillance footage; and
• Checking customer bags as they exit the store.

It is completely understandable that retail establishments will employ different methods and technologies to combat the loss of stock. However it is completely unfair to punish all customers because these methods and technologies are not being appropriately utilised by store management. The bond between customers and retailers is built on trust, and so treating all customers like they are stealing stock is embarrassing and more than a little insulting.

If stores have responsibly implemented reliable measures such as security tag systems and surveillance cameras, there should be no need for staff to check the bags of all customers leaving the store. Doing so only implies that the retailer believes the customer has taken something without paying. No one enjoys being accused of such things, no matter how indirectly the accusation is relayed.

If for some reason, despite the presence of more discreet security measures, retailers still insist on looking through customer bags, there is absolutely no need to touch anything in their bags to ‘get a better view’. Also customers should never have to wait in line for their bags to be checked at the store exit, particularly if they have not made a purchase.

It is logical for stores to make full use of the security methods they have in place. However, rather than use these methods as a passive deterrent, retailers should actively use security measures which impact as little as possible on the majority of customers. Honest shoppers should not be punished for the sake of a handful of less ethical consumers, nor should their shopping experience be marred by intrusive security practices. The message is simple – have faith in your customers and they will have faith in you.