As technology has improved, the humble garment steamer has become smaller, more powerful and more adaptable to daily use in a wider array of locations.

Below are a few of tips you may find useful when purchasing and using a steamer which are relevant whether you’re a retailer planning to promote your clothing on shop fittings or if you’re a home owner looking to save time on ironing.

5 Tips for Using Your Steamer

Choosing the right unit: We understand that not everyone purchasing a steamer has the same circumstances. This is why we offer steamers in a wide range of styles, colours, powers, sizes and designs. Choosing one that suits your personal needs is easy – simply choose either ‘commercial’ or ‘domestic’ and then use price, power and other attributes to whittle down your search

Descaling your steamer: Depending on the area you live, the water you use can vary dramatically in its overall quality. ‘Hard water’ poses a problem in many areas of the UK and can potentially be damaging to the inner workings of a clothes steamer. Using steamer descaler solution is a great way of prolonging the life of the unit.

Underside steaming: You may find that a few articles of clothing are better suited to being steamed from the opposite side. This is particularly relevant to any piece of clothing that has decorations on the front that may make it difficult to touch the material directly with the steam head.

Managing condensation: Water droplets and larger areas of condensation can sometimes collect on the steamer if the head is not presented in an upright position. It’s always worth keeping an eye on any condensation to help avoid garments getting wet if they were to come into contact with the liquid.

Traveller?: Making sure you’ve always got a steamer at hand, even when you’re on the road, is important for many of our customers. Investing in one of our growing range of hand-held travel steamers is a great solution for anyone who travels a lot but needs to have the instant ability to steam their clothing on or off clothes hangers.

We hope that these tips help you whenever you’re using your steamer or searching for a new one. For those looking for an all round steamer we tend to advise purchasing a Beststeam (code: GAR1500). We’re always looking to source the newest and best steamers to add to our hugely popular existing selection of units so make sure you check back regularly to ensure you don’t miss out!

Covering a wide range of sizes to suit everyone, these digital advertising display screens are high quality solutions for displaying promotional media to your customers and visitors.

Despite their superb quality, all of these LCD digital signs have been designed to be incredibly easy to use and feature a user friendly ‘plug and play’ system.

This means they require no server support, no complicated audio-visual networks, no advanced training and no previous experience in programming or setting up digital displays.

Anyone can enjoy the benefits of these ‘plug and play’ digital signage screens!

Upgrading from standard print poster displays to these digital advertising screens is a great way of keeping up to date with the changing face of retail shop fittings.

We’ll be adding more digital displays to the range in the future so keep your eyes peeled as we expand and improve the range.

As always we’d love to hear from our customers on what they think of our new ranges. Leave your comments, pick up the phone or leave a Displaysense review to let us know how we’re doing.

We’ve also got several other new ranges of display products to bring on board this year. We hope you’re excited as us to see what the future holds at Displaysense!

A report entitled ‘How Global is the Business of Retail’, published by property firm CBRE, asserts that London is now above Dubai with which it shared top spot last year.

The report states that London attracted more than half (55.6%) of all international retail brands surveyed.

The United Kingdom itself also retains the top spot as the “most penetrated global country” with 56.7% of retailers in the survey present in the nation.

Retail shop fittings throughout London have endured a tough year in the current economic climate. The news that it still remains a business hub will be welcome news to many.

This is the fifth year that the report from CBRE has been issued. It works by mapping the global footprint of 326 top retail businesses across more than 200 cities and then uses this data to identify trends in expansion levels.

A spokesman for CBRE, Peter Gold, was quoted as saying: “In the face of ongoing economic uncertainty… retailers have responded by seeking to de-risk their expansion activities, generally choosing markets like the UK that are regarded as safe havens.

“London is generally the first port of call for global retailers, but once they have established a presence in the capital, they are willing to extend their reach into other major UK cities as well…”

New York claimed third position (43.9%) with Moscow (43.2) and Paris (43.2%) in fourth position ahead of Hong Kong (40.5%).

Designed by Denis Marleau and Stephanie Jasmin, the 30 animated mannequins have been achieved by projecting the faces of models onto them and syncronising audio with the facial movements.

This allows each of them to chant, speak and recite poetry and bring life to the stalwart of fashion displays – the humble mannequin.

It is reported that the Parisian designer wanted them to speak as a statement against what he described as “the misogynist view that women should be seen and not heard.”

The installation is part of a retrospective exhibition of Gaultier’s 40 years as a fashion designer.

Descirbed as a “dynamic multimedia exhibition”, it will feature 140 haute couture and prĂŞt-Ă -porter designs that graced the clothes rails of high end fashion shows between 1970 and 2010.

As well as displaying these celebrated pieces the exhibition also shows sketches, documents, photos and video clips that help shed light on the career of arguably one of the most influential designers of his generation.

The exhibit, entitled: “The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk“, is open to the public from 24th March – 19th August at San Fransisco’s De Young museum.

Clothes Rails for Retail

For retailers looking for a high quality clothes rails display we suggest using our best selling heavy duty clothing rail range. These superior quality rails are incredibly strong, resilient and able to hold a very large amount of stock.

The robust qualities of these garment rails means that they can be used behind the scenes for holding large amounts of stock or front and centre in your retail space to let customers view your products. We receive many compliments on the strength of the heavy duty rails we supply and are completely confident that they’ll meet or exceed your expectations.

Multi-arm, portable and even spiral style clothes rails are also available in our stock of garment rail displays. This huge choice of retail friendly rails means that any store owner can find the ideal solution for his store with Displaysense.

It’s also important to consider the orientation of your desired rail – do you require wall mounted or floor standing clothing rails? Again, Displaysense is proud to be able to offer our valued customers the best in versatile, affordable solutions that cover all eventualities.

Office Clothes Rail Choices

Anyone after a coat room or office clothes rail we advise looking at our popular selection of standard and wheeled rails. This wide ranging choice of rails covers a variety of sizes and finishes to choose from to suit the area in which it is being used. The majority of retail designed units that are mentioned above can also be used in offices. Those operating a busy cloak room would benefit from using the more resilient heavy duty range to help keep clothing safe and remove the possibility of collapse.

Domestic Clothes Rail Solutions

Home owners can feel the benefits of both the heavy duty and standard options of clothing rails. However we also offer a fantastic range of lower price options to choose from. These include our highly functional cardboard clothes rail boxes which are perfect for moving house or storing your clothes safely.

Complimenting Your Rail Displays

Add coat hangers to your order to create an instantly usable unit. For retailers we also suggest using garment steamers such as our best selling GAR1500 Beststeam clothes steamer to keep all garments being hung in crisp, clean and perfect condition.

We thought it would be helpful to share some of this knowledge with our valued customers and impart some words of wisdom when it comes to choosing your coat hangers.

There are 3 main types of hanger to consider for use in retail settings. This choice is between wooden, metal or plastic hangers. We also supply wire hangers although for the purpose of this guide we will leave them out as we feel they are generally not suitable for use in premium retail environments.

Wooden Hangers

We stock a number of wood clothes hangers to choose from. The main advantages of wooden coat hangers include the strength and capacity of the unit as well as the graceful, refined aesthetic that they all share. This classic visual appeal makes wooden coat hangers a great choice for fashion retailers stocking heavy garments like jumpers, other winter designs or more bohemian fashion items.

Metal Hangers

Metal coat hangers are fantastic choices for those operating up-market retail outlets that want to use their hangers as an extension of their store design and commitment to quality. The highly reflective qualities that metal hangers possess look especially good in highly lit areas. Modern, cutting edge clothing looks fabulous on these shimmering metal hangers and they’re often used for the display of higher value, top quality garments.

Plastic Hangers

Whilst not boasting the same level of prestige or strength that metal and wooden variations of hanger offer, plastic hangers are nonetheless a fantastic option for those seeking a solution for the hanging of a huge range of garments. Plastic varieties of hangers can be easily replaced at little cost but are also surprisingly resilient to everyday use in retail settings.

We hope this short guide has been useful. If you have any further questions regarding our coat hanger range or any other type of display products we offer then don’t hesitate to pick up the phone and talk directly to a member of our highly trained customer service team.

Entitled ‘Designing 007: 50 years of Bond style’, the new exhibition will feature several instantly recognisable pieces of clothing from the films.

Although we’re not sure whether they’ll be displayed in display cabinets or on mannequins, the show is rumoured to feature the blue trunks that Daniel Craig wore in Casino Royale.

Also in the exhibition will be the orange bikini that Halle Berry was wearing in Die Another Day.

Pieces from the older films such as the white bikini famously worn by Ursula Andress in Dr No could also go on show, although this has yet to be officially confirmed.

‘Designing 007: 50 years of Bond style’ will also show pieces form the forthcoming Skyfall, the Sam Mendes outing that is due for release this year.

Stunts, unseen artwork, exotic locations, storyboards and other production design pieces will also be featured.

This James Bond exhibition display at the Barbican runs from July 6 to September 5.

London’s world famous department store already resells some of the American company’s products but the new store is thought to be a fully functioning extension of their flagship Covent Garden premises.

There is also further speculation that the new store would coincide with the release of the much anticipated Ipad 3.

If the rumours are true then it would be safe to assume that the store would use similar shop fittings and interior design to that of the Covent Garden outlet.

The Covent Garden store is currently the largest Apple store anywhere in the world.

Apple’s unique approach to retail displays always garners a huge buzz of excitement and opening days are often flooded by eager fans.

Opened 163 years ago, Harrods boasts a staggering 5 acres of floor space in which a large number of top retailers trade.

Some 300,000 people can pass through the doors of the Brompton Road building over the course of a working day.

Able to display items of clothing designed for women size 12 and above, this range of mannequins was one of fastest selling products over the start of 2012.

This growing interest in curvier mannequin designs seems to coincide with some high profile incidents involving celebrities such as Adele.

The recent in which Karl Lagerfeld reportedly called the ‘Rolling in the Deep’ singer “a little too fat” has seemingly reignited the debate on the portrayal of women in the fashion industry.

Displaysense spokesman Jim Moody said: “Curves are back and set to stay this spring/summer. We believe the trend is partly due to vintage fashions being back in style, particularly from the 40s and 50s, which suit the hourglass figure. Window displays must reflect this to appeal to all of their customers. As a result our sales of size 12-14 mannequins have risen by 16% this year.”

He concluded: “Lagerfeld may want size 0 on his catwalk but the commercial viability of the growing plus-size clothing market is being seized by high street chains and independent retailers alike. Staying relevant to your audience is essential and our order books show that sales of larger sized and bigger breasted mannequins, wider coat hangers for heavier garments and other ‘plus-size display products are undoubtedly on the rise in 2012.”

Research from last year, revealed that around one in five people in the currently wear ‘plus-size’ clothing.

It estimated that the plus-size women’s wear market increased in value by 47% over five years. In the same period plus-size men’s wear market has grown by 7%.

Engineers in the United States have crafted a display cabinet that is specifically designed to preserve it and keep it in a viewable condition for future generations.

Filled with the inert gas Argon for increased preservation, the incredibly high quality display cabinet is made from aircraft quality metal

It is also resistant against damaging ultraviolet rays and designed to reduce glare from nearby lighting.

The new and improved cabinet will replace the old one that was used to display the 700 year old document after it was bought for $20 million in an auction at Sotheby’s in 2008.

Despite being an English historical document, the Magna Carta is also important to American history and law after it inspired later constitutional documents including the United States Constitution.

David Rubenstein, the owner of this copy of the Magna Carta was quoted as saying “it is my privilege as an American to be able to give this back to the Archives and let them preserve it, as they have done, and to let them display it as they are going to do.”

There are just 17 copies of the document in existence. The version used in this case is the only one in private hands.