威廉婚期将至 英国王室面具热销

　　Costume masks of Britain's royal family are flying off the shelves nationwide ahead of Prince William's April 29 wedding to Kate Middleton. And with Britons taking no pains to, well, mask their excitement about the wedding, the bride-to-be's face has been popping up in the most unlikely places。

　　On the street. At the gym. In the office. And the stores? They're struggling to keep the masks in stock。

　　"They're flying out the door," said Tony Warner, assistant manager of London's Escapade party store. "They're beating (masks of) Simon Cowell, they're beating everyone else."

　　More than 120,000 royal masks have shipped already and Mask-arade, the company behind the phenomenon, is taking orders for 20,000 more each day, according to Ray Duffy, one of its founders。

　　"We thought they were going to be popular, but we underestimated just how popular," confessed Duffy. "It's gone absolutely wild."

　　Wills and Kate are the best-sellers of course, but the other royals on offer — Prince Harry, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, Prince Charles and his wife Camilla — are not far behind。

　　The success has stunned Duffy and his fellow mask men, forcing the Southam, England-based company to double in size and triple the number of contractors to meet the surge in demand。

　　"We're at absolute maximum capacity to get the orders shipped," Duffy said, adding that employees are logging 12-hour days and six-day work weeks. The company has already stopped taking large orders so it can guarantee delivery before the wedding。

　　And it's not just enthusiastic locals. Mask-arade is shipping British royal faces all over the world — to the United States, Australia, Scotland, even Vietnam。

　　The founders launched the business in 2008 to make personalized masks for parties, but when requests came in for celebrity faces, they were happy to oblige. The company offers about 100 masks total。

　　英国威廉王子和准王妃凯特•米德尔顿将于本月29日举行婚礼，有关英国王室的服饰面具近日在全英热销。戴上面具，英国民众就可以尽情表达自己对婚礼的兴奋之情，因此准王妃的面具突然出现在一些最出人意料的场所。

　　在大街上、在健身房、在办公室……随处可见戴着王室面具的人们。还有商场呢？商场正尽力确保面具供应。

　　伦敦“恶作剧”派对用品店副经理托尼•沃纳说：“王室成员面具‘飞一样’地卖出去，销量“超过西蒙•考威尔的面具，以及其他任何名人面具”。

　　英国王室面具目前已售出12万个。面具制造商“面具游行”创始人之一雷•达菲表示，每天接到的面具订单都会增加两万个。

　　达菲说：“我们料到这些面具会受欢迎，但没想到这么受欢迎。绝对卖疯了。”

　　威廉和凯特的面具无疑销路最好，但哈里王子、女王伊丽莎白二世、菲利普亲王、查尔斯王子以及妻子卡米拉等其他王室成员的面具销量也不错。

　　面具生意好到让达菲和雇员都非常吃惊，也促使这家位于英国绍瑟姆的公司规模翻番，并将承包商数量增至3倍，以应对需求的激增。

　　达菲说：“为完成订单，我们已经绝对满负荷运转。”他表示目前工人一周工作6天，每天工作12小时。这家公司已暂不接受大额订单，以确保在婚礼前交货。

　　并非只有英国人为王室婚礼疯狂。该公司的面具还销往美国、澳大利亚、苏格兰 、甚至越南。

　　公司创始人在2008年创业，为派对制作个性化面具，但有明星面具生意时，公司也非常乐意承接。该公司共生产大约100种面具。