Its Christmas! And the timing could not be better for Ethos Watches, India's largest chain of luxury watch boutiques with 45 premium stores across the country, to have their first preview event in Surat - Ethos Summit. And the @LifeInSurat Team was there to cover the stupendous event :)

The event was held at Magdalla Plaza at VR Surat and VR Surat Team did not leave any stone unturned to make this event a big success. Everything was just perfect :)

The audience was delighted to hear from Mr Yasho Saboo himself the journey of Ethos from the very first store he and Mrs Anu Saboo opened in Chandigarh 12 years ago to this day, when Ethos is authorized retailer for 65 luxury watch brands from across the world.

Also the audience was treated with a live sand art demonstration! The artist depicted the whole Ethos journey via his art. We were all just spell bound watching him transform sand into a masterpieces.

The preview event was just superb! But the thing which was topping even such a superb event was the awesome WATCH COLLECTION they had for display. All of us present could not help but admire the collection!

We asked Mrs Saboo on what she actually had thought of the venture when they first started out. To which she candidly replied - “Honestly, I never thought it would be something so huge and grand. I thought we were opening just a retail outlet. But he (Mr. Saboo) was very clear on his principles like ‘No fakes’, ‘No smuggling’, ‘No refurbishing’ ”. And this simplicity and honesty has been core values for Ethos which has brought them this far.

Ethos is very positive about Surat. And thinks there is a great growth potential here. And teaming with VR Surat makes them very well positioned to ride on the Surat growth story.

The Team behind the event - from the left - Kapila Sengupta, Mrs Anu Saboo & Mr Yasho Saboo.

All in all a great team effort for the event which was a huge success.

And everyone was donning a big smile :)

A visit to the Zara Store in Palladium Mall (Pheonix Mills) Mumbai is a must must for all my Mumbai Visits. With all their refreshing colors, superb collection and courteous store staff, it is always a superb experience. So when i heard Zara was opening up a store in VR Surat, i was already looking forward to the launch. This interest turned into excitement when a few days back i got a call from them enquiring if i could document their 'yet-to-open' store in VR for them. I gleefully agreed. Here is the first look of Zara Store - Surat (VR Surat) :

When i first visited the Store i was pleasantly surprised by the fact that Zara Surat was actually as big as the store they have in Phoenix Mills Mumbai if not bigger! Also the collection they are currently displaying is actually at par with the metros (i hope this continues). The attention to details by the merchandizers who were setting up the displays just blew me away. Hats off to Hitesh and Team for the way they have set up the whole store from top to bottom.

Congratulations to the whole team, the store really looks neat and VR now officially is the hottest shopping destination in town. Some BTS images i made -