The Middletons in the spotlight str4

People and Lifestyle

worked part-time until January 2011 as a catalogue photographer, web page designer and marketing officer for her parents’ firm, Party Pieces. In 2008, it was reported that she had quit her job at Jigsaw to become a Professional photographer, intending to take pri-vate classes with photographer Mario Testino, who had taken several well-known photographs of Diana, Princess of Wales and her sons. Testino later denied that Middleton was going to be working for him. In fact, she continued at the family business, mostly being in-volved in designing and producing cat-alogues, marketing and taking photos.

Party Pieces

The Middletons’ family business deseryes morę attention, as it has been highly successful. Some malicious jour-nalists say that Kate’s marrying into the royal family has spearheaded its success and boosted sales. The royal marriage has definitely impacted on the business and has drawn morę publicity to it, but it would be a gross injustice to say that it had not been successful before. The idea of the business was bom ąuite by accident. Carole Middleton was looking for party paraphernalia for her own chil-dren’s parties. It was impossible to find anything easily in the shops, not to say something reasonably priced, so she de-cided to take the initiatiye and start her own business. It was a mail-order party company - started from a shed in the back garden in 1987. It went from a little start-up to a large family yenture. They currently employ over 30 people. Party Pieces sells eyeiything from balloons and bunting to cakes and confetti, but the most popular items are party boxes and party food box trays. In the late 1990s, they introduced the first in-house de-signed boxes. Kate and her sister Pippa have always been close to the business. Both of them used to model for the cata-logues, wearing t-shirts with their ages on them and holding cupcakes. Kate also madę her own contribution to the family brand - in 2008 she launched First

Birthdays, a junior brand to Party Pieces, a division that focuses on babies’ parties. She was also responsible for getting Party Pieces to support the Starlight Children’s Foundation charity, which helps host parties and proyides party bags for seriously ill children in hospitals. The youngest Middleton, James (23 years old), is no less entrepreneurial than his mother and siblings. He dropped out of his English degree course at Edinburgh University to start his own business. Now he owns a cake-making company called Cake Kit.

Kate’s Duties and Hobbies

Since her wedding, Kate has stepped down from her post at Party Pieces and handed over her work to colleagues. As a royal family member, she will be expected to be morę involved in charity work. The only official duties of the Duchess of Cambridge will be opening ceremonies, attending royal

1    part-time | w niepełnym wymiarze godzin to quit | porzucać

to intend | zamierzać, planować to deny | zaprzeczać to deserue | zasługiwać malicious | złośliwy to spearhead | zainicjować to boost | zwiększyć to impact on sth | wpływać na coś todrawsth | tu: przyciągnąć gross | tu: rażący by accident | przez przypadek paraphernalia | przybory, sprzęt reasonably | rozsądnie priced | cenowy

to take the initiatiue | przejąć inicjatywę

start-up | początkujące przedsiębiorstwo

venture | przedsięwzięcie

currently | obecnie

to employ | zatrudniać

bunting | flagi

tray | taca, paleta

to introduce | tu.wprowadzać

contribution | wkład

tolaunch | wypuszczać na rynek

2    division | sekcja

tofocuson | koncentrować się na, skupiać się na

engagements and charity events. Her official duties do not mean Kate will refrain from other activities she has always been fond of, though. She is known as a very sporty person. During her college years, Kate was a keen field hockey player. She also took a liking to cross-country running and skiing. Apart from sport, she has a very strong interest in fashion and good taste in clothes. She is even seen as a true icon of fashion and glamour. Famous de-signers such as Alexander McQueen think her a good model to present their new outfits.

It has not been long sińce Kate found herself in a new role, but she will need to embrace yet another new role ąuite soon - at the diamond jubilee of Queen Elizabeth, Kate announced she is pregnant. She came up to speed pretty well in the role of new princess. Let us wish her all the best for her futurę endeayour. ■

to support | wspierać

charity | instytucja charytatywna

to host | być gospodarzem, urządzać

to provide | dostarczać

seriously ill | ciężko chory

siblings | rodzeństwo

to drop out | porzucić, zostawić

to own | posiadać

duty | obowiązek

to step down | ustąpić

post | stanowisko, posada

to hand ouer sth to sb | przekazać coś

komuś

3 engagement | zaręczyny to refrain from sth | wstrzymywać się od czegoś

to be fond of sth | być do czegoś

przywiązanym

though | jednak, jednakże

sporty | lubiący sport

to take a liking to sth | polubić coś

cross-country running | biegi przełajowe

taste | fu: gust

outfit I strój

to embrace | objąć

pregnant | w ciąży

to come up to speed | przyspieszać

endeavour | przedsięwzięcia, dążenia

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