Paris Fashion Week in January 2009 featured models walking the runway at a Christian Dior haute couture fashion show.  The ever popular Dior’s ‘New Look’ curvilinear silhouette relies upon padding of the bust and hips, as well as cinching of the waist.

John Galliano, British dress designer born in Gibralter in 1960, takes a typical Dior dress and alters it beyond recognition, in what is called a Surrealist displacement.  One example, called “Creation” Ensemble is a dress that looks as though it is waiting to be finished.

Other celebrated designers such as Vivienne Westwood find beauty and inspiration in the past and certainly the 1950’s French haute couture look.  A typical dress of Westwood’s from the Autumn/Winter 2005-2006 collection was draped, fitted and spiralled around the body using one unbroken length of fabric.  The exquisite, fine tailoring and dressmaking incorporated into such a beautiful dress bears little resemblance to her early work of the 1970’s with her partner Malcolm McClaren (1946-2010).  Punk style, ‘bondage’ jackets, torn T-shirts were their trademark.

Alexander McQueen is remembered for his dresses of dramatic visual representations.  One such creation called ‘Oyster’ dress is made from ivory silk organza, crafted into hundreds of graduated layers attached to a fitted and boned corset.  It is based on the idea of a shipwreck at sea and is a superbly tactile dress.

A student owned boutique is fast gaining attention not only among University of Southern Mississippi students but from outsiders as well. This is partly because the boutique carries designer clothes.

USM student Macie Malone opened her boutique “Mostly Macie’s” recently and she says that her store offers a new way to shop in Mississippi, which is considered the land of liquidator stores as well as vintage shops.

The boutique, which carries designer clothes, opened September 3 in Turtle Creek Suite, located behind Turtle Creek Mall. Malone says that she has been receiving a lot of good feedback about her store as well as the items that she sells.

Malone, a senior marketing major, said she opened the consignment shop because she has had a “passion for fashion” since a young age.

“My mom always said I always talked about opening a boutique when I was a child,” Malone said.

Mostly stocked with designer clothes for women, men as well as children, “Mostly Macie’s” aims to target various demographics. Malone says that her boutique carries items from well known brands such as Seven for all Mankind, Citizens for Humanity, Gap, Guess, Steve Madden, Alice + Olivia, Juicy Couture, Ya Ya and BCBG. The variety lets customers buy items from various brands so it lets the customer save time.

Oshkosh Public Museum features high couture

The Oshkosh Public Museum has begun featuring high couture pieces. In an exhibit dubbed as “Bling! 100 Years of Over Embellished Fashions” launched Saturday, Oshkosh women will proudly show to the rest of the world that they, too, have a great sense of high couture fashion.

More than 50 dresses from the Oshkosh museum’s collection of historic high couture dresses from local families covering the 100 years from 1869 to 1969, along with lots of accessories, will be displayed through March 4. The high couture exhibit will be placed in a special multi room area.

Museum curator Debra Daubert says that the high couture exhibit will be “a bling show and tell” type of show.

Apart from the main exhibit, there will also be a fashion show at Becket’s. Interactive events will also be showcased at the said museum. There will even be one event whereby women can have the opportunity to put on the bling they own and come to the museum.

Daubert herself was spotted wearing five large high couture pieces on her own jacket when she greeted early guests on the second floor of the Oshkosh museum Tuesday.

Daubert has been working on the exhibit since early in the year, selecting the dresses and preparing them for display.

“You can’t really iron these dresses. You have to hang them to get the wrinkles out,” she said. “We have so many wonderful dresses. How do you pick which ones? These dresses are an art form, some are over the top. Bling was a good name,” Daubert said.

The Royal Wedding that took place last Friday, April 29th became the center stage of fashion as some of the world’s most recognizable celebrities and royal figures converged to witness the union of Prince William and Kate Middleton – who are now the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge following their marriage.

The two standouts among the TOTAL fashion flops were Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie. Both royal figures have always been known for experimenting with their fashion. However, as has been the case more recently, their efforts were derided especially the headpieces that they chose to wear.

Princess Beatrice’s hat caught the attention of the public rather than the dress she wore. A Facebook group named “Princess Beatrice’s Ridiculous Hat” was created as a “tribute” to the hilarious headpiece she wore, in addition to some hilarious photoshopped pictures.

The same case happened for her sister Princess Eugenie. Even though she wore a Vivienne Westwood creation, her hat stole the thunder. Despite being created by celebrated hat designer Philip Treacy, insiders believe that this was one of his worst creations.

The Berlin Fashion Week started with a blast in January with the German capital suddenly turning into a fashion destination. The 2012 winter collections were unveiled at the runway shows, showing knit dresses, skirts and tops and in this year. A lot of fashion designers showed up at the Berlin Fashion Week to present their unique designs. Up and coming fashion designers were also in the attendance to show off their first collections with the hope of getting massive support from potential retailers and buyers. A streetwear trade show called Bread and Butter also took place at the event.
Ready to wear knit dresses designed by Filip Arickx and An Vandervorst of Belgium officially launched the Berlin Fashion Week. The duo’s label, more popularly known as A.F. Vandervorst, received appreciative applauses from the audiences with each piece created with bright red thread materials.
Organizers revealed that the Berlin Fashion Week was a huge success.

The Jimmy Choo brand never lags behind when it comes to current fashion trends. After all, its beauty and fashion line always go hand in hand when it comes to redefining modern women’s lifestyle. In a bid to reach out to more consumers, Jimmy Choo announced that it is expanding its product line – which includes selling of fragrance as one of its newest accessories.

The announcement came in time for the company’s 15th anniversary. Jimmy Choo is famous for its shoes and is usually endorsed by popular celebrities and has been referenced in hit fashion television Jand reality shows.
Aside from adding perfumes in its newest portfolio, the company is planning to add more products in the future. The newest fragrance line is simply named Jimmy Choo. Though the brand is known for expensive shoes, the perfumes only cost $95 which is affordable for most consumers. The items will be sold exclusively at Sak’s Fifth Avenue later this month.

You can hear the sirens in the distance. Celebrity fashion is, a subject heavily debated and critiqued by the masses, is not an easy topic to centre a TV programmer around unless the host is particularly thick skinned. WIth such a programme, critics will inevitbale glance their judging eyes on what the host is wearing during their numerous TV appearances.

In the case of “Fashion Police” host Joan Rivers, she’s on the receiving end of some caustic advice on what to wear herself.

The show, which focuses on catching celebrities with good-looking and worst-looking dresses, is gaining a massive following, thanks to the mean yet witty comments by Rivers. However, in a recent photo, it was seen that Rivers need some advice herself.

The photo showed Rivers arriving at the John F. Kennedy airport in New York earlier this week with daughter Melissa and the host wore a black warm up suit with a fur coat and gold chain. She looked like someone who’s aspiring to be a hiphop star – celebrity fashion faux pas has been noticed for this latest wardrobe choice.
Rivers has yet to comment on these criticisms.

A fashion blogger is taking another step further by designing her own collection and will be sold via high-end fashion clothing retailer Hennes & Mauritz (H&M).

H&M, a Swedish clothing retailer, has worked with high profile celebrities such as Madonna. This time, the store announced that Swedish fashion blogger Elin Kling will now be part of the family and her collection will be launched on February 3.

H&M Sweden Marketing Manager Sofia Jegerborn said that Kling has made herself a fashion icon in Scandinavia and as such she can serve as a model among fashion-conscious audience that the store wants to target.

Kling’s blog, called Style By Kling, has garnered massive following. The stylish fashion blogger has created nine items plus two accessories, with talk of a potential range of lingerie.

The news was met with positive response by her fans and that several bloggers have greeted Kling via social networking sites to congratulate her on this new endeavor.

The blind will now get to have an idea of the latest fashion trends especially those sexy lingerie. Thanks to one of the latest fashion trends set up by an artist.

Toronto-based artist Lisa Murphy came up with an idea of creating this particular art for those who lack the sense of sight.

Earlier this year, Murphy released a handmade book that’s titled “Tactile Mind.” The book features raised, 3-dimensional images of naked people with private parts ingeniously sculpted on thermoform plastic pages. These materials are the same ones used for Braille.

The artist was quoted as saying that the main goal behind this project is to give the blind a chance to “feel their way” through the human body. She added that adult magazines and films don’t cater at all for the visually-challenged individuals.

The project has garnered media mileage and interest from the public.

New York is always updated with the latest fashion. No wonder the $55 billion fashion industry in this city will get additional six projects from the government to ensure that grown is in place. These projects were announced by Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Robert K. Steel on Tuesday.

The programs will reportedly focus on the production financing wherein emerging fashion designers will have the opportunity to showcase their work and even improve their craft with advanced business training.

A retail competition will be set in place wherein the winner gets the chance to have the top mentoring and support to executive his or her store concept.

In a statement, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that the city is the fashion capital of the world and the factors that made the city as such have encouraged competition from other leading fashion cities and that encourages him to come up with better projects for the industry.