This article is part of our special report on global shopping. BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Bogotá’s growing Colombia-only “concept stores” offer shoppers an adventurous twist on the retail experience, and a chance for emerging designers to get their goods noticed. In these variety stores, newer brands get an upscale setting to introduce new clothing, shoes, home…
This article is part of our special report on global shopping. BAYONNE, France — The Basque Country, a cultural and linguistic territory without formal borders, first evokes the tourist-choked provinces of northwestern Spain. But on the French side of the Pyrenees mountains is the less known and smaller Basque region with the Atlantic resort towns…
This article is part of our special report on global shopping. Sukeena Rao didn’t flinch when she picked up the phone. One of her clients was panicking. She had arrived at a luxury resort in Indonesia for a friend’s 40th birthday party, and realized how poorly she’d packed. Ms. Rao, 45, a two-decade, personal-shopping veteran…
This article is part of our special report on global shopping. WARSAW — Every day outside of a shop at 61 Mokotowska Street, an intriguing dance of sorts happens: A smattering of men and women of all ages walk out onto the sidewalk and smell the top of their hands or the inside of their…
Ms. Stanton spent time with building managers, learning about the commercial real estate sector and reviewing data. “I came to realize that we have enough real estate already in big cities,” she said. “We don’t need to build more buildings; we need to use them better.” The company’s technology is also being used to improve…
AUCKLAND, New Zealand — Auckland’s Indigenous Maori name — Tamaki Makaurau — translates roughly to “Tamaki of a hundred lovers.” But falling for New Zealand’s largest city, which spills over dozens of dormant and extinct volcanoes, can be a process. Auckland is naturally beautiful, fringed with native forest and two coastlines of strikingly different beaches.…
This article is part of our special report on global shopping. HONG KONG — In a brightly lit cubicle tucked under the staircase of a tenement building in Hong Kong’s Jordan district, Cheung Shun-king guided a chisel over a pearly white mahjong tile to form a groove of concentric circles. “I have been doing this…
This article is part of our special report on global shopping. Nestled in the rugged Calchaquí Valleys of northwest Argentina, in the province of Salta, is a generations-old community of weavers producing some of the best examples of the ponchos and other woven goods that are emblematic of the country. In the pocket-size town of…
SOMETIMES A FRUIT is just a fruit. But since the beginning of recorded human thought, we have insisted on fruit as a sexual metaphor. “Marry me, / give me the fruit of your body!” the goddess Ishtar commands the hero in the Sumerian epic “Gilgamesh,” which was inscribed in cuneiform, the earliest known writing system,…
Discuss Holiday Plans Early Experts stress the importance of communication, establishing firm boundaries, and, above all else, presenting a united front. “Ideally, couples will navigate the holidays by sitting down together and exploring what matters most to each individual,” Ms. Earnshaw said. “Often, this will require each spouse to talk to their prospective families about…