Shopping

Aldi has launched a new ‘high fashion’ Christmas jumper range

The range will hit Aldi stores nationwide this week.

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson - 15th November 2021

Budget supermarket Aldi has revealed its new ‘high fashion’ Christmas collection, with prices starting from as little as £1.49.

The Aldimania Winter Collection of jumpers, socks and onesies was launched over the weekend with an online catwalk event.

Strutting down the aisles of fruit and veg, models showed off the new festive clothes, which are plastered with Aldi branding for the first time.

The Aldimania Christmas jumpers / Credit: Aldi

The collection includes a white cropped jumper covered in reindeer and the Aldi logo, priced at £9.99.

The Aldimania hoodie previously worn by Tommy Fury is also coming back, for £14.99, which sold out in minutes when it went on sale in April.

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The ‘high fashion’ range will be in stores this week / Credit: Aldi

Shoppers will also be able to order fleece tops and trousers and Christmas socks from Aldi.

Julie Ashfield – Managing Director of Buying at Aldi UK – said: “Following the success of our Aldimania range earlier this year and huge demand from shoppers for more, we really wanted to take the collection to the next level by, not only expanding the range, but unveiling it with our very own high fashion catwalk.

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Read more: Everything you need to know about the Manchester Christmas Markets 2021

“We can’t wait for our shoppers to see it!”

The Christmas jumpers and socks from the collection will officially launch in store from November 21, with the onsie in stores from November 28.

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The rest of the Aldimania collection can be ordered online.

Featured Image – Aldi

Shopping

The GIANT £375 chocolate Easter egg that’s ‘too beautiful to eat’

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson

One of the north’s most legendary hospitality businesses has created an Imperial Easter Egg, and the effort that goes into crafting it is wild.

Coming in at 10kg, 22 inches tall, and £375, Bettys enormous chocolate treat shows off a whole lot of artistry.

The iconic tearoom, which has sites across Yorkshire, has shared the behind-the-scenes video to its TikTok page, drumming up almost half a million views.

The mouth-watering video shows first milk chocolate being hand-painted onto a chocolate egg-shaped mould to create the Easter egg’s beautiful textured appearance, The Hoot reports.

Then layer after layer of melted chocolate is poured in from a chocolate tap, before being trimmed and tidied.

Bettys, which has tearooms across Harrogate, York, and Leeds, uses the finest Swiss Grand Cru chocolate for its imperial Easter egg, and every bit that’s trimmed away is melted down to reuse elsewhere.

Then a pastry chef at the tearoom will spend up to an hour PER EGG piping on the ornate decorations, carefully piping on coloured white chocolate stems and ferns.

Then colourful royal icing flowers are placed on its surface, each one again hand-piped by their cake decorators.

The end result is a whopping Spring-time masterpiece covered in shades of green, yellow and purple.

@thehootleeds Just wait until the final result! 🤤 #easter #eastereggs #easteregg #chocolate #baking #learnontiktok #yorkshire #bettys #foodtok #fyp 📹: @Bettys ♬ original sound – Thehootleeds

Bettys Imperial Easter Egg weighs in at a massive 10kg and stands at 22 inches tall.

Bettys says: “Celebrating the creativity and craft that makes Bettys unique, our handmade Imperial Easter eggs continue a tradition stretching back more than a century, when our founder Frederick Belmont designed eggs which were ornately embellished with hand-piped icing designs.

“Containing over five kilos of Grand Cru Swiss chocolate made from prized Venezuelan criollo cocoa beans, the Imperial Egg is a true work of art, showcasing the highest skills of our chocolatiers and cake decorators.

“Each Imperial Egg carries an array of delicate, individually crafted spring blooms and foliage including primroses, narcissi and pansies, with hand-piped stems as a final perfect touch.

“Our Imperial Easter Egg is made to order and is only available for collection from one of our Yorkshire shops.”

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And if £375 is a bit out of budget, you can buy a miniature version that’s just as beautiful for a tenth of the price.

In the comment section on the video, one person wrote: “30 mins and a cup of tea and I’d polish that off.”

Another said: “A chocolate… tap?! I’m calling my plumber.”

Someone else wrote: “That’s just too beautiful to eat! A work of art!”

What a beautiful beast indeed.

Featured image: Bettys

Shopping

Inside Sports Direct’s new FIVE STOREY Manchester Arndale store, complete with gaming arena and sports challenges

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson The football area at Sports Direct in Manchester Arndale

Sports Direct has opened its brand-new, high-tech store inside the Manchester Arndale today – and it’s seriously impressive.

The five-storey flagship shop for the sports retailer is packed with interactive features, from fitness challenges to a bra-fitting studio.

The high-tech space has gadgets that will do everything from accurately measuring your foot size to testing your strength.

There’s even a bank of gaming PCs and consoles on the top floor, as a Belong Gaming Arena opens within the new Sports Direct shop.

Here, gamers can buy a single pass or sign up for unlimited play time for £15 a month, grabbing drinks from a slushy machine and snacks from a shop area.

Sports Direct has taken over what was once the BHS department store within Manchester Arndale, a 50,000 sq ft site that’s been largely empty since 2016. It’s moved across from its previous unit just around the corner.

The display at the entrance. Credit: The Manc Group

Shoppers are immediately greeted by a DJ booth, a mirrored ceiling and rack after rack of sportswear.

Brands including Adidas, Nike and Puma are all stocked, as expected, alongside other Frasers Group brands like Jack Wills and USC.

Game has a huge presence up on the top floor, where shoppers can also get their clothing purchases customised.

Sports Direct Manchester Arndale. Credit: The Manc Group
The bra studio. Credit: The Manc Group
The Belong Gaming Arena. Credit: The Manc Group
A wall of balls. Credit: The Manc Group
The putting challenge. Credit: The Manc Group
Diving mannequins. Credit: The Manc Group
Manchester City kits. Credit: The Manc Group
Another challenge in Sports Direct Manchester. Credit: The Manc Group
Game. Credit: The Manc Group
PS5s in Sports Direct Manchester. Credit: The Manc Group
Specialist boxing clothing. Credit: The Manc Group
You can get items customised in store. Credit: The Manc Group
Hockey equipment. Credit: The Manc Group
A strength challenge. Credit: The Manc Group
Jack Wills. Credit: The Manc Group
The women’s floor. Credit: The Manc Group

There’s kit on sale for every sport from hiking to running to skateboarding to hockey to cycling to fishing to boxing to tennis to rugby to golf to swimming, plus a huge astroturfed area dedicated to football.

In the football zone, you can try on a massive range of football boots while sitting in dugout-inspired seats, with rival mannequins dressed in City and United kits propped up on rotating plinths.

It’s not just about the shopping in here either. Sports Direct has brought a whole load of interactive games and challenges to Manchester.

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You can test your golf skills at a Putting Challenge, flex your footwork at a miniature sit-down football pitch, and show off your upper body strength by doing dead hangs from a bar for as long as possible.

The bra studio features a unique multi-brand bra finder tool, which can suggest the right size and shape for your sport, whatever brand you go for.

Sports Direct’s Chief Executive Michael Murray said: “Manchester is a significant location for the group, and we’re excited to be opening our next flagship in the city.”

The huge new Sports Direct store in the Manchester Arndale is open now.

Featured image: The Manc Group

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