Friday, 25 November 2011

MERCEDES-BENZ FASHION WEEK SPRING 2012 COLLECTIONS

Elene Cassis | Runway

Narciso Rodriguez | Runway

Sienna | Actress and Vogue Cover Girl - Speaks

After Sienna Miller gave evidence in the Leveson Enquiry in to press intrusion yesterday morning, the actress and Vogue cover girl headed straight to Paris for the Lancel Celebrates 135 Years Of French Legerete event, which she hosted last night. Although Miller herself seems to be moving on, this morning's papers are full of the evidence she gave yesterday, including one quote, reported in the Times.

"There was a very sick child that I was playing with in the corner of the room, who was pretending to shoot me and I was pretending to die," she told the enquiry. "The Mirror cut the boy out of the photo and said I was drunk...The fact they knew they would be sued and have to pay damages was not really enough of a deterrent."

Sienna Miller at the 135 Years Of French Legerete event in Paris last night © PA Photos

Interesting Fashion Show | Imitation of Christ

Imitation of Christ Spring 2012 Ready-to-Wear

There were two interesting developments this afternoon at the ballroom of the W Union Square. First, Tara Subkoff relaunched herImitation of Christ label, eschewing the ready-to-wear Imitation brand she's been showing for two seasons in favor of IOC's remade vintage. Second, Lydia Hearst got married in front of the fashion audience. Seriously. For real. The show was set up as a wedding processional, with models playing bridesmaids and groomsmen wearing IOC's suits and dresses. The prevailing look was dressed-up Depression-era, with lots of pastel lace bias-cut dresses and drop-waist chiffon florals, plus occasional forays into flapper silhouettes. On some items it was hard to discern what renovation had been done, while others, like a beaded flapper dress, looked made from scratch. Most of the legible work was embroidery, in particular flowers and birds that, depending on your mood, conjured either Miu Miu's Fall 2011 collection or the Portlandia skit "Put a Bird on It." (YouTube it.)
After the show, Subkoff said she was inspired to resurrect Imitation of Christ because she wanted to get back to handwork. "Hundreds of hours went into those dresses," Subkoff noted. "It's nice to work that way. And also, I feel like it's important that not every single thing that goes on at fashion week be about commerce. There should be some art, too." That's a sentiment a lot of designers would get behind. But what Subkoff is up to here isn't quite art for art's sake. It's more like craft for craft's sake, which is a perfectly noble pursuit, but one that didn't necessarily square with the pomp and circumstance of the presentation. At any rate, we wish the happy couple well.

Click here to find out more about this fashion show including the complete photo gallery.

Fashion Forward, London | Winners of this 2011

The Fashion Forward scheme supported by the London Development Agency, was established 5 years ago to provide funding to talented emerging British designers to show and develop their businesses in London.

London Fashion Week is the most creative and dynamic event on the international fashion calendar promoting established and emerging British design talent to a global audience. Fashion Forward is a key BFC initiative to promote emerging design talent. The award provides the winner with a cash prize to showcase their collection and access to knowledge to develop their business.

Previous Fashion Forward winners include Christopher Kane, Erdem, Giles Deacon, Jonathan Saunders, Louise Goldin, Marios Schwab, Richard Nicoll, Roksanda Illincicand Sinha-Stanic. Click through for profiles, exclusive interviews and collection galleries


Meadham Kirchhoff	Peter Pilotto	Todd Lynn
AW11 collection gallery	AW11 collection gallery	AW11 collection gallery

SS11 collection gallery	SS11 collection gallery	SS11 collection gallery

Updates from Paris Fashion Week | Louis Vuitton

NOTE to self and to anyone else who wants to go to a Louis Vuitton show – always arrive in plenty of time. At one minute to ten this morning, the doors were closed, no exceptions, leaving lots of bemused and cross and slightly bereft fashion journalists outside.

Those who did get in were greeted with a set that was just as huge in terms of headlines, preparation and considerable spend as we saw in the Grand Palais for Chanel yesterday morning, and like Chanel, this was a pale wonderland – as if designers this season are letting us indulge our every fashion fairytale fantasy.

Of course, the dramatic showmanship reopened the endless will he, won’t he conversation about Marc Jacobs going toDior – as if we needed any proof that he and his team would do a good job there, this show was it. But we’re apparently no closer to knowing the outcome yet, so we just settled in to watch it happen.

Calling to mind Jacobs’ own show in New York over three weeks ago, he opened by unveiling all the girls at once, scattered beautifully across a white, glittering fairground carousel. That was enough to send us all straight onto Twitter – but we forced ourselves to keep watching because there was so much to see. "It's my biggest set, I could have never done this anywhere else.Very magical, it's like a magic box: very Paris," said Jacobs by way of explanation.

“It was a wonderful panorama of crisp pastels,” said Alexandra Shulman. The models’ hair was held in soft chignons by sparkling bands, to go with the soft, Fifties-influenced femininity of their floating, gauzy overskirts. Very intricate and absolutely beautiful, the collection carried on a theme of wonderful daywear pieces that’d really been worked on with couture ambition – the treatment on the collars, the cuffs and the transparent silhouettes boasting elaborate laser cuts and appliqué.

Dresses had puffed, full skirts and thick doily lace collars – macramé is confirmed as a trend as of this morning; drop waists too – and a little white dress is now on everybody’s list for next summer. Who better to prove that than Kate Moss, back on the show scene for Vuitton for the second season running – she closed the show in a white macramé shift that fell to a hemline of ostrich feathers. “Kate the great returns,” proclaimed Twitter.

The icy whites and silver was injected with candy pinks, yellow and pale blue accented with touches of navy. Accessories, as always, were key – next summer we’ll all want wonderful pointed shoes with pastel patent straps and silver toes. Open weave basket bags carried big daisy appliqués and came in pastel leathers – we can just see the window displays of the Bond Street store now. Meanwhile others, in sharper shades, worked to offset the sweetness of the overall colour palette. It was girly but not twee.

“It was like a big fashion wedding cake with all those clean, pale colours,” continued Alexandra. “Really beautiful.” With 2011 already confirmed as the year of the wedding, Jacobs apparently wants the celebrations to continue into next spring and this was very worthy persuasion.

Read the complete information about the show at Paris Fashion Week Website</a>.

- ADEKUNLE OLUMIDE | 25/11/2011

Topics covered at MMF textiles conference impress delegates

The first ever two-day ‘International Conference on Manmade Fibre Textiles’ held in Ahmedabad on 18 & 19 November, 2011, ended on a successful note.

The conference was hosted by Fibre2fashion the leading global B2B portal for the textile, apparel and fashion industry in association with the Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SGCCI) & Surat Art Silk Cloth Manufacturers Association (SASCMA).

More than 25 eminent speakers from the global and Indian manmade fibre textiles sector had lined up at the conference and kept the 300 plus delegates enthused with their informative presentations and panel discussions.

Topics lined up at the conference ranged on shortcomings of cotton fibre supply in the future to why manmade fibre textiles will dominate consumption in coming years along with presentations on latest global textile technologies.

Dr PR Roy - convener of the conference and also Director of fibre2fashion began the proceedings by saying, “One needs to keep eyes and ears open to the changes in the global textile scenario. Land to cultivate cotton is going to fall, with the same land competing with other remunerative food crops.

Out of Fashion | US Teen stabbed 300 times in Satanic sex ritual

Hey readers... I know this is a little out of line but you gotta read this... I was a little dramatic after reading through...

An American teenager was allegedly stabbed more than 300 times while being held hostage by two women as part of a Satanic sex ritual.
Two women — Rebecca Chandler, 22, and Raven Larrabee, 20 — have been arrested and are held on $150,000 bond. Larrabee is being held on a $100,000 bond, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
According to a search warrant affidavit posted on The Smoking Gun website, the 18-year-old victim met Chandler online and traveled by bus from Phoenix to Milwaukee to meet her.
When he arrived, the young man told police, he was bound and stabbed for two days.
The unnamed victim suffered stab wounds to the back, face, arms, legs and neck when the sex "got out of hand," the affidavit said.
Police followed a trail of blood to the apartment after the victim called emergency services from a nearby intersection.
"I think you are here looking for me," Chandler told cops as they arrived.

Better known are its compatriots Black Friday (11/25) and Cyber Monday (11/28), the two bookends that begin the holiday-shopping season. But American Express’ Small Business Saturday (11/26), which returns for its second iteration this year to bring awareness (and hopefully, customers) to local businesses, may be the weekend’s best shopping bet. American Express is offering Rewards Points to its customers who shop small on Saturday; and many retailers are offering promotions of their own to sweeten the deal. One is Maria Cornejo, who is planning a gift for those who shake off the post-Thanksgiving haze to make it into one of her stores in New York or L.A. Spend $500 on your Amex card, and receive her hair-print (above) or book-print silk scarf. Small business is at the heart of Cornejo’s operation. The designer spoke with Style.com about the challenges and rewards of staying small.

—Adekunle Olumide

How important is it to you to be a small business?
It’s important for me, for my own creativity, to have our own point of view in the whole market. Being a small business, you’re offering a different a point of view that hasn’t been offered everywhere else. Having a so-called small business allows us to move quickly and respond to clients and what they need, rather than by trends. When things get too homogenized, everything [becomes] very corporate. You can find the same store in every major capital in the world.

By contrast, your three Zero stores don’t follow that corporate-store model.
Every [Zero] store looks different. The same elements are at play, but it’s not a standard shop-fit, like corporate companies have. It’s much more about fitting the area and having something that’s more personal to that space. Right now, people want a more personal experience, rather than something that looks…too standardized, especially our clientele. We compete by being more niche and more special. That’s our standpoint in the whole fashion business. To be quite honest, there’s 20 million collections out there—how do you differentiate yourself right now? That’s the only way we can: by being original.Continue reading ›

Nigerian Idol presents the Season II movie premiere

On November 27, all roads will lead to the Genesis Deluxe Cinema for an exclusive movie-premiere styled screening of the first episode of the continent’s biggest music reality show, Nigerian Idol.

The Nigerian Idol blue carpet will stretch out by 3pm at Genesis Deluxe Cinemas to welcome guests before they head into the cinema hall for a dramatic 90 minute premiere of the first episode of Nigerian Idol Season II.

Rihanna has partnered with Emporio Armani Underwear and Armani Jeans to create a limited fashion collection.
Rihanna's line with Armani features a bag, a biker jacket, t-shirts with Rihanna's face and R logo on them, two types of jeans (skinny and boy cut) and underwear.
Her Armani line will be available in stores worldwide in time for Christmas

The Overview of the just concluded Nigeria's Next Super Model 2011 - Season 5

Nigeria's Next Super Model, the 5th season got over 30 stunning girls for the screening and trimmed them down to 19 at the final screening. The 19 girls proceeded to the final contest which held atOriental Hotel at Lekki waterside, Lagos Nigeria.

The front part of the Grand Ball Room at Oriental hotel was filled with crowd eagerly waiting to enter the hall in order to locate the front-est seat for the best view achievable and at about 4pm the show commenced starting with various artist presenting and displaying their talents to the cheering crowd.
Then the grand arrival of the girls on a yacht and the colorful entry into the hall got the crowd the mindset of something big about to happen. This marked the beginning of the event with magnificent dress display from Aly Fawaz. Then we got other designers showcasing their clothes such as House of Jola, House of Farah, Berry Couture and so many others.

The most stunning display was made by Monami who expressed Africa in her deepest culture.

The words of one of the international press - Sholar "I've been to many fashion shows all around the world and got many experiences but this one in Nigeria is the most fantastic. It is mind-blowing, deep and awesome."

THE WINNER OF NIGERIA'S NEXT SUPER MODEL 2011 GOES HOME WITH A BRAND NEW CAR, ROUND TRIP TICKETS FROM VIRGIN ATLANTIC TO LONDON, ROUND TRIP TICKET FROM STUDIO 24 ABUJA TO DUBAI AND A ONE WEEK STAY AT THE HILTON HOTEL ,A ROUND TRIP TICKET TO LONDON TO AFRICA FASHION WEEK LONDON FROM RUKKIES CONCEPT, ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS WORTH OF DRESSES FROM RUKKIES,COMPLETE PHOTO SHOOT FOR DARK AND LOVELY , 3 NIGHTS AT THE PENTHOUSE AT HARDLEY APARTMENTS IN VICTORIA ISLAND LAGOS. ,A BOOK BY HAKEEM SALAAM, A PHOTOSHOOT IN DUBAI WITH TOP DESIGNER ALY FAWAZ AND SO MUCH MORE

Miss Nigeria 2011 | 21-year-old Feyijimi Sodipo was crowned the new beauty queen and ambassador

Image Credit: Empexy

The event started with a rendition of the National Anthem by Kaline, after which the show opened with the Miss Nigeria contestants in white shirts, black pants and bow ties doing a dance performance of Maroon 5's "Move Like Jagger".

The host, Wunika gave the opening speech. She welcomed guests and acknowledged the presence of the 1st lady of Lagos State, Abimbola Fashola.

The 5 Judges for the competition were Prof. Ebun Clark, Mrs Wunmi, Tony Akiotu, the General Managing Director of Daar communications, Catherine Ifejika, Derin Osoba and Dr Bello Osagie.

The finalists returned on stage for the parade of traditional wears. There was a solo performance by Tuface(Tubaba); a rendition of 'Implication' with a mix of 'African Queen'. Wunika returned on stage, thanked all the sponsors of the pageant and then ushered in the 20 finalists in their evening wears designed and manufactured by Vlisco. The Vlisco collection was brilliant with lots of asymmetrics, long flowy, edgy sleeves, and frills. Miss Delta was decorated Miss Congeniality, while Miss Anambra was awarded Miss photogenic. Miss African Hostess was given to Miss Akwa Ibom and the best traditional wear was won by Miss Benue.

The Top 5 contestants, Miss Anambra, Miss Bauchi, Miss Edo, Miss Benue and Miss Rivers, were called up to answer questions. "Is beauty skin deep?" Miss Edo State was asked. Miss Anambra was asked which 3 historical people she would spend the day with if given the chance. She listed Flora Shaw, Mary Slessor, and Nelson Mandela. Miss Rivers revealed plans to tackle unemployment if she was crowned queen, while Miss Benue said she would look into the state of orphans in her state as statistics show that Benue has the highest rate of orphans in Nigeria. Miss Ogun was asked the big one; "what is global warming?" She gave a fluent, well thought-out answer on encouraging the use of biodegradable materials. There was a lot of suspense leading up to the announcement of the winner.

After much deliberation, Miss Edo was awarded 2nd runner up, then Miss Benue, 1st runner up. Finally, Miss Ogun, Feyijimi Sodipo, a 21-year-old student was crowned Miss Nigeria 2011.

Sodipo will be the Queen Ambassador and, during her reign, will to implement several projects in collaboration with the Federal and State governments, and also private organisations. Sodipo, in her acceptance speech, thanked the organisers of the event, Chief Nike Osinowo-Soleye, sponsors, her family and finally, God.

Rip the Runway 2009

Thursday, 24 November 2011

Hey al, my name is Adekunle Olumide and I start this fashion attics blog today.

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