Godfather - is how many would describe the leader of a gangster or mafia organisation who are in charge of certain areas or cities committing crimes and killings.

So looking at the above sentence would you take offence if someone described you as being the Godfather of your profession?

I would describe Klaus Nienkamper as the Godfather of the furniture design industry; and I’ll tell you why. Yes a Godfather and his organisation may allegedly perform the above but they also show great qualities in the meaning of family. A Godfather will always put his family first and make every decision with their family in mind, constantly looking out for them and his customers [the extended family]. Klaus is a man very much like this and after forty years in the industry is still to this day always putting his workers and clients at the forefront of his mind. This may go somewhat to explaining just why this legend is at the top of his game with a company whose reputation is world renowned.

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‘Reassuringly expensive’ is the slogan one leading brewer marketed its premium product under for many years in the UK. This and a series of Jean de Florette-inspired TV ads sought to position the beer as a cut above the rest. Something not only to be drunk, but to be coveted, too. However, by 2007, the brew had become so associated with a less arty phenomenon - excessive or ‘binge’ drinking - that the tagline, and even the maker’s name, were dropped from its small-screen promotions. Today, the brand prefers to concentrate on the purity of its ingredients; hops, malted barley, maize and water, a seemingly less explosive concoction than alcohol and one-upmanship. None of which seems to have deterred the Carlsberg subsidiary Jacobsen Brewhouse, which earlier this year announced the arrival of its ‘Vintage Nr. 1′, the world’s most expensive beer.

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The masterminds behind fashion label Boudicca are Zowie Broach and Brian Kirkby. Both designers graduated from Middlesex Polytechnic and went on to establish the label in 1997. Their designs first debuted in London in a show in the fall of 2000, and ever since, they have guarded their reputation as an independent and avant-garde duo creating both couture and prêt-a-porter lines of clothing.

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Crowned with feathers and glittering with gold face paint, Bat for Lashes is a British singer-songwriter pedalling a whimsical line in alternative folk melodies with a sombre gothic edge. The woman behind it all is Natasha Khan, a talented musician and visual artist based in Brighton. She chose the band name because she liked how the words sounded together, and a similar method informs her debut album, Fur and Gold, which freely mixes eerie strings, autoharp and piano with electronic beats and tribal drumming. Natasha’s influences span decades and cultures - from growing up in the stifling Greater London suburbs, the exotic flavours of childhood trips to Pakistan, cult movies of the eighties and the empty highways of California road trips - resulting in a timeless, otherworldly music. In her own words: “I love the dark, ethereal things. But there’s an element to me that also loves Bananarama.”

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Published last month by Rizzoli, Valentino: Themes and Variations is a delicious dose of eye candy. The book celebrates the 45-year career of the fashion icon Valentino, born in May 1932 as Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani in the town of Voghera, Italy.

There are many reasons to publish and read this 300-page tome right now. Valentino presented his last couture collection this spring in Paris, so there will never be another chance to see a collection of new Valentino creations in real life. Until September 21, the famed costume department of Museé des Arts Decoratifs of the Louvre in Paris hosted an exhibition of 225 mostly haute couture pieces, also called Valentino: Themes and Variations. The book is an integral support feature of the exhibition and the book’s author, Pamela Golbin, is also the curator of the exhibition and the Curator in Chief of the costume department of the museum.

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