Regular readers may remember Lintner, who heads up her own flourishing womenswear label while managing to hold down a tough job in hedge fund sales at GLG Partners. And now I hear that not only is she busy hiring people to help expand her business, but that she’s turned over record sales in January as well.
“We had a blow-out January – I don’t know if it’s because of everyone getting bonuses or because people are just a lot chirpier already this year,” she tells me.
“It did get to a point where it was getting harder and harder to juggle everything, so I raised some external capital and got a team in to help me. I knew I had to give it up or go for it, and I decided to go for it.”
Something tells me we haven’t seen the last of her yet.
SUPER U-TURN
A sore climbdown for City superwoman Nicola Horlick
yesterday, as her lawyers were forced to lift an injunction
against the press over a secret lawsuit raging against
eccentric former City diarist-turned-spinner Damien
McCrystal since last May.
Though the finer details remain secret, Horlick’s legal team
– incidentally from Schillings, the same firm which acted
for ex-England football captain John Terry in trying to use
a similar super-injunction to prevent alleged infidelities
becoming public – were forced to issue an apology to
McCrystal over the case after the pair settled out of court.
“Nicola Horlick has now discontinued proceedings against Damien McCrystal and is happy to accept that he did not and would not divulge any personal information and was not at fault,” a statement said. “Nicola Horlick is sorry for this misunderstanding, as is reflected in the terms of the agreed costs settlement…”
Sounds like an expensive U-turn indeed.
OSCAR STARS
Accountants aren’t exactly known for being associated with
the glitziest social events in the calendar, but I hear
PricewaterhouseCoopers has been bucking that trend now for
quite some time.
This year will mark the 76th time that the firm has counted the film industry’s ballots on behalf of the annual Oscars ceremony in LA, which is fast approaching on Sunday 7 March. And while there’s no doubt that much of the numberwork isn’t half as glamorous as it sounds, The Capitalist can think of two partners in particular who’ve landed themselves a pretty cushy job to complete on the night itself. Apparently, the pair – who can’t be named as a precaution – will be tasked with carrying a full set of winners’ envelopes each to the ceremony, via two separate, top-secret routes and under M.I.5-style security measures. Not exactly a day in the life of your average beancounter, is it?
DIZZYING HEIGHTS
Time for a bit of grooming up at the top of City landmark
the Gherkin, where I hear the time for the tower’s bi-annual
window cleaning has come around again.
For those who’ve been to the Searcy’s 40/30 restaurant at the top of the tower, it seems impossible that there should be any earthly way to clean the glass of the dome, 165m above street level. But the reality is far from it – and although I’m told that the method now used is to extend a crane arm with cleaner’s pod attached up to the top floors, until recently the Gherkin used to employ a brave soul to actually abseil down the outside from the very pinnacle of the tower. It’s quite enough to make your stomach turn.
TIDY PACKET
Calling all the gentlemen out there who have spent their
adult lives dreaming of looking like David Beckham in a pair
of his Armanis. Department store Debenhams has been making a
packet this week, if you’ll pardon the pun, as sales of
their “anatomy enhancing” men’s pants have swelled 76 per
cent ahead of Valentine’s Day. Apparently, said smalls work
by using an industrial-sounding “pioneering lift and holding
feature” on the front panel to boost gentlemen’s, ahem,
assets.
Beats a strategically-placed sock any day, doesn’t it?
CHARIOTS OF FIRE
Is there no limit to the stunts Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary
is willing to pull for the sake of some publicity? I only
ask after it emerges that the airline supremo has actually
challenged rival EasyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou to
a race around Trafalgar Square, after the two firms
exchanged a flurry of legal letters relating to a Ryanair
advertising campaign.
O’Leary claimed he wanted to settle the matter “man-to-man”, adding: “I am currently in rigorous training and believe that my daily regime of 40 cigarettes, 24 beers and extended sessions on the couch watching TV leaves me in perfect shape to beat Stelios in a 21st century version of the Chariots of Fire race around Trafalgar Square.” The cameras are going to have a field day…
