The Fédération de la Couture Française revealed on Monday that the upcoming haute couture fashion week in Paris will not only feature the usual clothing collections from designers but also stylish jewellery line for the first time.

Jewelry designers from Boucheron, Cartier, Chanel Joaillerie, Chaumet, Christian Dior Joaillerie, Mellerio dits Meller and Van Cleef & Arpels will all take part in this event where they have the chance to showcase their intricate jewelry designs to the public.

The haute couture week is considered to be the most anticipated fashion event of the year where most of the high profile designers such as Chanel, Givenchy and Jean Paul Gaultier feature their best designs to date.

The federation said that the inclusion of jewelry in the fashion week only signifies the luxury of clothes and jewelry which form a great combination. The fashion week will take place from January 24 to 28.

A premiere fashion show took place in the India’s capital of New Delhi on Sunday and the viewers were treated with the rare appearances of some of the country’s known Indian celebrity siblings walking down the ramp. The said event was organized for fashion designer Sanjana Jon, who’s featuring a new line that promotes unity in the family.

According to reports, Jon is the sister of convicted fashion designer Anand Jon, who’s currently serving a life term at a U.S. prison after being found guilty of sex-related crimes.

Among the popular siblings going down the catwalk are Sohail and Salman Khan, known Bollywood actors.

Jon stated that her brother is innocent of the charges filed against him. She continued that in India, each one stands together with brothers and sisters, which was the main theme of the fashion show.

The recently concluded Van Heusen India Men’s Fashion Week was a success, based on the massive attendance of both men and women who graced this historic event. This was after all, the first-ever men’s fashion week event in India. However, in a business perspective, the three-day event did not meet the financial expectations as lesser orders were recorded from clients.

A representative from retail giant Aza Men revealed that they gave their moral support for this event but stressed that they have gotten used to distributing garments from designers through their stores and lack of conflicts through the years led them to stick to the same scheme.

Despite this pronouncement, the representative said that the India Men’s Fashion Week was still a great avenue for aspiring young fashion designers to showcase their fashion and lingerie creations to the public. Most of the creations provided fresh insights in the world of fashion.

The London Fashion Week tool place last week and one of the most watched events was the fashion show of Dame Vivienne Westwood as celebrities flocked at the venue to see the latest fashion trends offered by the famous fashion designer.

Celebrities sighted in the event include Alexa Chung, Sarah Harding and Nicola Roberts of Girls Aloud and Boy George. The models featured in the catwalk were Pixie Geldof, former Big Brother contestant Lisa Wallace and Daisy Lowe.

Dame Westwood herself joined the models for the finale catwalk which was expectedly greeted with applause from the audience in the jampacked venue.

Westwood has been a fashion icon in this side of the world. She started her career in fashion design more than thirty years ago when she opened a small shop on the King’s Road in Chelsea. Since then her life has never been the same as the business flourished into a global one.

The recently concluded Copenhagen Fashion Week had a less than stellar number of audiences as compared to the previous years. The outcome did not surprise most of the organizers due to the fact that it is already expected due to the global financial crisis.

The three major shows held during the week reported declines in visitors. The Copenhagen International Fashion Fair held at Bella Center reported the biggest drop at 14.5 percent compared to last year’s figures. Gallery held at the Forum reported a four percent decline while the CPH Visitor has yet to release its figures but organizers have predicted a decline as well.

Peter Fenger Selchau, an organizer for CPH Vision, revealed that there were noticeably fewer visitors to the show as compared to last year. It was even more obvious during the weekend shows, where people have opted to go somewhere else.

Despite the lesser attendance this year, Selchau said that the sales are still positive with a number of companies reporting sold out performance in their lines within the day. He added that the downward trend of attendees in fashion shows was obvious in other Europe-based events such as in Germany.

The recession in the global market has affected high end business and latest fashion companies. This was the case for Asprey, a known fashion jewelry maker, which reported another drastic decline in revenues as affluent and rich clients have decided to tighten their belts through this economic ordeal.

For the first quarter of this year, revenues dropped to 9 million pounds compared to 27 million generated from the same period in 2008. The continuing decline has forced the company to let go nearly fifty employees to reduce operating expenses.

John Rigas, Asprey Chairman, took over the company three years ago in a bid to rescue it from insolvency. The company has then branched out to clothing and latest fashion trends as consumers are increasingly purchasing clothing including undergarments and lingerie online, in order to save money.

Rigas, a founder of Sciens Capital, was forced to pledge financial support recently to keep the company afloat. Despite this ordeal, he said that he’s optimistic about a turnaround in the near future. He specified that sales in Britain has increased from 13.8 million pounds to 15 million pounds thus showing signs of progress.

Asprey has been in the business for more than 200 years with 16 stores spread in major countries such as Japan, USA and Switzerland.

The Air New Zealand Fashion Week unravels its 2009 collection but with the global economic crisis, fashion houses are faced with the challenge of attracting its clients to buy their winter/autumn collections.

According to reports, the event’s managing director Pieter Stewart informed the fashion designers that there are a lot of changes and that there are challenges ahead in keeping New Zealand an attractive fashion Mecca in the export industry. He conducted the “Fashion Export Reality Check” seminar recently.

New Zealand Trade and Enterprise reported that the country’s apparel experts declined to $305 million in 2008 compared the previous which posted $321 million. These apparel goods include sport gears, lingerie, footwear and children’s wear.

Ian Webster, director of women’s fashion line Verge, said that the crisis brought about a change on consumer’s purchasing behavior. At this point, most of the consumers are likely to buy the necessary goods first before going for fashion outfits.

The prices of clothes are also noticeably higher than in other markets. Sellers have no choice but to increase the prices due to high production and freight costs.

The Air New Zealand Fashion Week takes place this week.

A Los Angeles judge recently upheld the ruling on the sexual assault case filed against Anand Jon Alexander, a Beverly Hills-based fashion designer. There were accusations that one of the jurors of the case communicated with the fashion designer’s sister before the verdict was given.

Alvin Dymally, one of the jurors of this high profile case, allegedly contacted Alexander’s sister. Defense lawyers stated that Dymally, an LA-based building inspector, seemingly contacted Alexander’s sister for a date.

When rejected, Dymally allegedly warned the sister that he will vote for the conviction of the fashion designer is she won’t go out with him. The juror said that the contact happened after the trial but refused to give more information following the emergence of a recorded phone conversation between him and the woman.

Alexander was found guilty of sexual assault charges filed against him. The prosecutors, when interviewed, said that they believe that the aforementioned juror did speak to the designer’s sister even before the verdicts came out.

However, they maintained that it did not affect the case at all. They added that the contact was simply “harmless flirting.”

Fashion for plus size women is not about to be ignored since there’s an ever increasing demand for the line. Full figured women are now being empowered by designers everywhere.

Last week, the Full Figured Fashion Week took place in New York which marked a first in history to hold a fashion event for plus size women. This three-day event featured the creations of some of the industries’ finest.

Plus size women came from different parts of the country to witness the fashion show. Thanks to the advent of the internet, updates were also given through social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Several plus size brand were present, for example Panache and Freya.

Aside from the flaunting of the latest designs for plus size women, there were also activities where attendees can simply mingle and introduce themselves and just have fun. Celebrities such as Susan Moses, Cassy McBryde and “Hairspray” star Nikki Blonsky took part in “The State of the Curvy Community” discussion which addressed issues such as challenges of a plus size woman.

The stunning success of this event led to another one being staged in Australia in the near future. Organizers are hoping for a worldwide reach of this awareness.

Clothing giant Polo Ralph Lauren has reportedly reached a lucrative deal with the United States Olympic Committee where the former will get to provide the official smart casual clothing for the American team at the upcoming Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada and the Summer Olympics in London, England three years from now.

The agreement was reportedly sealed last month. This served as an extension with the previous agreement between the two entities. It was also Polo Ralph Lauren who provided the clothes in last year’s Beijing Olympic Games.

The terms reportedly include paying a 10 percent royalty to the US Olympic Committee for every sale of merchandise with the Olympic seal. This was shared by unnamed sources to the media. Considering the expected increase in Ralph Lauren’s smart casua clothing line, the deal is as lucrative as ever.

However, the clothing giant has yet to release an official statement regarding the terms.
In the upcoming Winter Games, the clothing company will produce knit caps, parkas, snowflake sweaters and others. These clothes will be worn by athletes during both the opening and closing ceremonies. This gives much needed exposure of the merchandise to the viewing public.