Saturday, February 27, 2010
Average handbag weighs same as 15-month-old toddler
Researchers asked 5,000 people what they carried around with them and used their responses to calculate that the average bag weighs 10.5 kilograms (23lbs).A mobile phone was the most popular item with 85 per cent of women and 43 per cent of men saying they kept a phone in their bag.
Keys, pens, tissues, headache tablets, chewing gum, MP3 players, lip balm, a mirror and deodorant were also essential items to carry around, according to many of those questioned.
Some people even said they routinely carried a toothbrush, condoms, a bottle opener and a sewing kit.
One in 20 men (6 per cent) carry spare underwear, twice the number of women who pack an extra pair of knickers in their handbag.
Men were also more likely than women to carry their pet dog around in a bag. One in 20 men (5 per cent) said they had a dog carrier, compared with just one in every 100 women (1 per cent).
The What's In My Handbag? survey, commissioned by WindSetlers Gel Capsules, found 15 per cent of women and 10 per cent of men routinely carry an indigestion remedy.
5,000 people were surveyed online by OnePoll in January.
Some people even said they routinely carried a toothbrush, condoms, a bottle opener and a sewing kit.
One in 20 men (6 per cent) carry spare underwear, twice the number of women who pack an extra pair of knickers in their handbag.
Men were also more likely than women to carry their pet dog around in a bag. One in 20 men (5 per cent) said they had a dog carrier, compared with just one in every 100 women (1 per cent).
The What's In My Handbag? survey, commissioned by WindSetlers Gel Capsules, found 15 per cent of women and 10 per cent of men routinely carry an indigestion remedy.
5,000 people were surveyed online by OnePoll in January.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Telephone video, part 1: Telephone Hat
Here is the 1st chapter of the Telephone video fashion serie: “Telephone Hat”. the Lady Magic Hands behind Telephone Hat is Fred Butler.
Make sure you visit her blog. Visit and stay a while. And you’ll understand why I love her work so much.
Make sure you visit her blog. Visit and stay a while. And you’ll understand why I love her work so much.
Platform shoes were born in the 16th century as symbol of wealth
Impractically high heels, known as chopines, were worn by upper-class women in Italy and Spain during the late Renaissance era.The higher the heel, the longer - and therefore more expensive - the dress needed to cover them, and the more servants needed to support the wearer.
The exhibition at the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto features more than 60 pairs of rare shoes, the tallest of which is a pair of Venetian chopines measuring nearly 20 inches (50cm).
"Excessively high chopines in Italy offered the opportunity for more fabric to be displayed but it also offered the opportunity for servants to be displayed," said Elizabeth Semmelhack, the museum's senior curator.
"Women wearing excessively high chopines could not manage to walk without the assistance of at least two servants. In fact, the reason why men still offer women their arm today dates back to when women wore chopines and needed that little extra help to be able to go forward.
"We're lifting the skirts of these women and letting you see these accessories that link very closely to economics, gender and politics - not just high fashion."
While the Italian chopines were relatively plain, their Spanish equivalents were gaudier, Miss Semmelhack said. "Spanish chopines tend to be excessively decorated, very visible, very flashy - much more equivalent to a pair of Manolo Blahniks today."
Men briefly embraced heels in the 17th century, but the fashion did not last long, she added. "Except for horseback riding and a blip in the 1970s, heels have been a woman's accessory."
"Excessively high chopines in Italy offered the opportunity for more fabric to be displayed but it also offered the opportunity for servants to be displayed," said Elizabeth Semmelhack, the museum's senior curator.
"Women wearing excessively high chopines could not manage to walk without the assistance of at least two servants. In fact, the reason why men still offer women their arm today dates back to when women wore chopines and needed that little extra help to be able to go forward.
"We're lifting the skirts of these women and letting you see these accessories that link very closely to economics, gender and politics - not just high fashion."
While the Italian chopines were relatively plain, their Spanish equivalents were gaudier, Miss Semmelhack said. "Spanish chopines tend to be excessively decorated, very visible, very flashy - much more equivalent to a pair of Manolo Blahniks today."
Men briefly embraced heels in the 17th century, but the fashion did not last long, she added. "Except for horseback riding and a blip in the 1970s, heels have been a woman's accessory."
Sienna Miller and Tamara Mellon's T-shirts for charity
Fresh from joining forces with supermodel, Natalia Vodianova, to host the starry, fund-raising Love Ball last night, Harper’s Bazaar editor, Lucy Yeomans, has persuaded some key British designers to create a range of stylish T-shirts in aid of the Women for Women International charity.The 11-piece “Women for Women” collection includes designs by veterans Nicole Farhi, Betty Jackson and Amanda Wakeley; actress Sienna Miller, who showed her and her sister, Savannah's label, Twenty8Twelve, last Sunday at London Fashion Week; and new design sensation, Holly Fulton, renowned for her prints. As befits its rock-chic aesthetic, Jimmy Choo’s Tamara Mellon has opted for a punky, thunderbolt motif, while hearts and swallows adorn Alice Temperley’s whimsical tee. The remaining designers are Bella Freud, Charlotte "Olympia" Dellal, Claire Waight Keller of Pringle, and Pam Hogg. Singer-turned-photographer Bryan Adams shot the camProceeds will go to the charity, founded in 1993, which helps women whose lives have been shattered in war-torn countries including Afghanistan, Iraq and Kosovo. The organisation aims to provide financial and emotional support, and jobs and business skills training.
Says Yeomans: “I’m thrilled at the amazing and heart-warming response from each British designer to support [this] incredible charity.
“There’s something quite powerful and poignant about top British female talent using their creativity to raise money for a charity that helps other women, and I’m extremely proud that Bazaar is at the heart of this campaign.”
The collection will be launched on March 8, which coincides with International Women’s Day.
“Women for Women” T-shirts, all £30, net-a-porter.com paign.
Carolina Herrera opens new store in London
The first thing Carolina Herrera Junior does when she arrives at the new CH lifestyle boutique on Mount Street, in Mayfair, is to rush to the childrenswear she designed for her mother’s eponymous brand. “It’s the first time I’ve seen it in a shop,” she enthuses, refolding a boy’s striped jumper. Carolina Herrera Senior joins in, picking up a girl’s dress. “It can be worn by real children,” she says in her thick Venezuelan accent. “I’ve seen children dressed up as old ladies, with bows and high heels.” To which Herrera Jnr confides: “When I was young, she dressed me in white, with bows everywhere. I’m more likely to dress my children in Boden.”Mother-and-daughter duo, the Herreras, are super-relaxed. Starting the interview, we walk and talk, rather than sit. “Wandering is more amusing and it’s less formal,” says Carolina Snr brightly. This wasn’t the vibe I’d been expecting from America’s fashion royalty. The Carolina Herrera brand is major in the US – its mainline is worn by Anna Wintour, Penélope Cruz, Meryl Streep, Renée Zellweger and Park Avenue princesses. It was Jackie Onassis’s favourite label.
Outside the US, the name is synonymous with its stable of fragrances, a success they’re hoping to emulate in fashion by opening CH Carolina Herrera lifestyle boutiques. “This is our fourth CH boutique,” explains Herrera Snr of the brand’s first London shop, “and we have another 18 opening around the world this year. We’re going global.”
The boutique feels right for London, especially the den-like downstairs area, which hosts CH menswear, womenswear, childrenswear and accessory lines. All are more contemporary than the Carolina Herrera mainline or couture, which are not sold in CH boutiques. The womenswear is a sweetshop of colourful, fresh designs. A green printed blouse, a canary-yellow belted shirt-dress, a cute white blouse with gold buttons are reminiscent of urban-cool labels, such as Paul & Joe.
“It’s important to do separates now because the idea of a total look is not creative,” says Herrera Snr, now in her late sixties and wearing a grey Carolina Herrera skirt, CH blouse and a grey fur stole.
“Mount Street is so chic. I waited and waited until there was the right spot for us. I’ve been coming to London all my life and I always loved this area.”
Carolina Snr moved to New York from Venezuela in 1981 and soon established her label. She had been brought up in a society whirl, friends with everyone from Diana Vreeland to Andy Warhol. Carolina Jnr started working with her mother in 1997.
“She came for an internship in New York, and we loved the way she did things,” says Herrera of her daughter. “I launched the 212 fragrance and it was a success, so the project expanded,” says Herrera Jnr, 40, who is also in a grey Carolina Herrera dress, but with her brown wavy hair loose and unkempt. Today, Herrera Jnr is in charge of all nine fragrances and the childrenswear, with the fashion lines strictly her mother’s domain.
“We work well together because she lives in Spain and I live in New York. She’s my daughter, so I cannot fire her,” says Herrera Snr, and they both laugh. Herrera then pats her daughter’s shoulder as she speaks: “She complements me. We have the same style, but in a different way. Carolina has a very modern eye.”
Usually, the pair speak Spanish together, and they say their relationship is family-focused. “I’m not one of those people who likes to talk about what I’m doing. There are so many other things to talk about,” says Herrera Snr, who is married to Reinaldo Herrera Guevara, an editor at Vanity Fair. As well as Herrera Jnr, Carolina has three other daughters, 12 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. During the holidays they all meet up at the family estate in Caracas.
Along with her friend Anna Wintour, editor of American Vogue, Herrera attended the Burberry show at London Fashion Week yesterday. “I like what Christopher Bailey is doing there, and I love Vivienne Westwood. Usually I wear my own designs, but sometimes I cannot resist other peoples’.”
Herrera’s style tip is that “women should wear something that goes with their personality and not because it’s fashionable” And her beauty tip? “Don’t wear excessive make-up as you grow older. Young women can wear whatever make-up they want, but if you are older you will regret it.” On hearing this, Herrera Jnr says: “You tell me the opposite. I don’t wear a lot of make-up, but you tell me I should.”
To which Herrera Snr replies bluntly, as only a mother can: “Sometimes you’re very pale, that’s why I tell you.” And they both laugh, showing that, however successful, the mother-and-daughter relationship is always the same.
The boutique feels right for London, especially the den-like downstairs area, which hosts CH menswear, womenswear, childrenswear and accessory lines. All are more contemporary than the Carolina Herrera mainline or couture, which are not sold in CH boutiques. The womenswear is a sweetshop of colourful, fresh designs. A green printed blouse, a canary-yellow belted shirt-dress, a cute white blouse with gold buttons are reminiscent of urban-cool labels, such as Paul & Joe.
“It’s important to do separates now because the idea of a total look is not creative,” says Herrera Snr, now in her late sixties and wearing a grey Carolina Herrera skirt, CH blouse and a grey fur stole.
“Mount Street is so chic. I waited and waited until there was the right spot for us. I’ve been coming to London all my life and I always loved this area.”
Carolina Snr moved to New York from Venezuela in 1981 and soon established her label. She had been brought up in a society whirl, friends with everyone from Diana Vreeland to Andy Warhol. Carolina Jnr started working with her mother in 1997.
“She came for an internship in New York, and we loved the way she did things,” says Herrera of her daughter. “I launched the 212 fragrance and it was a success, so the project expanded,” says Herrera Jnr, 40, who is also in a grey Carolina Herrera dress, but with her brown wavy hair loose and unkempt. Today, Herrera Jnr is in charge of all nine fragrances and the childrenswear, with the fashion lines strictly her mother’s domain.
“We work well together because she lives in Spain and I live in New York. She’s my daughter, so I cannot fire her,” says Herrera Snr, and they both laugh. Herrera then pats her daughter’s shoulder as she speaks: “She complements me. We have the same style, but in a different way. Carolina has a very modern eye.”
Usually, the pair speak Spanish together, and they say their relationship is family-focused. “I’m not one of those people who likes to talk about what I’m doing. There are so many other things to talk about,” says Herrera Snr, who is married to Reinaldo Herrera Guevara, an editor at Vanity Fair. As well as Herrera Jnr, Carolina has three other daughters, 12 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. During the holidays they all meet up at the family estate in Caracas.
Along with her friend Anna Wintour, editor of American Vogue, Herrera attended the Burberry show at London Fashion Week yesterday. “I like what Christopher Bailey is doing there, and I love Vivienne Westwood. Usually I wear my own designs, but sometimes I cannot resist other peoples’.”
Herrera’s style tip is that “women should wear something that goes with their personality and not because it’s fashionable” And her beauty tip? “Don’t wear excessive make-up as you grow older. Young women can wear whatever make-up they want, but if you are older you will regret it.” On hearing this, Herrera Jnr says: “You tell me the opposite. I don’t wear a lot of make-up, but you tell me I should.”
To which Herrera Snr replies bluntly, as only a mother can: “Sometimes you’re very pale, that’s why I tell you.” And they both laugh, showing that, however successful, the mother-and-daughter relationship is always the same.
London Fashion Week: Stylist walks out as Mark Fast uses size 14 models
Designer Fast, known for his tight knitted dresses used both slender and curvier women for his show. He included three plus size models from the agency 12+ UK- Hayley Morley, 21, a size 12, Laura Catterall, 20, a size 14, and Gwyneth Harrison, 25, a size 12-14.Amanda May, managing director for the Canadian designer said there were “creative differences with regards to the casting of those girls. There was a team change and we’re glad we stuck to our vision.”
May insisted that their selection of larger models was neither politically motivated nor a publicity stunt.
“The decision to use the fuller girls is something we have been talking about. There’s this idea that only thin and slender women are able to wear Mark’s dresses and he wanted to combat that," she said,
She added: “We wanted women to know they don’t have to be a size zero to wear a Mark Fast dress- curvier women can look even better in one.”
In recent years, the fashion industry has been criticised for its parading of extremely thin models. Psychologists and health experts are worried that designers have gone too far in pushing a dangerously slim image that women, and younger girls, will try to emulate.
Professor Ulrike Schmidt, chairman of the Institute of Psychiatry’s eating disorder team voiced his fears about the use of tiny models.
He said: “We are very concerned that the lack of medical checks of models at London Fashion Week, coupled by an environment where being underweight is the norm, prevents those with eating disorders into gaining an insight into their condition”.
Sarah Watkison from agency 12+ said: “Every time I think things are progressing, they end up going back to how they’ve always been. I hope this has sparked lasting changes”.
Fast has also been involved with the exhibition All Walks Beyond the Catwalk. It features models aged 18 to 65, from sizes to 8 to 16. The launch party was attended by British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman.
Shulman wrote to top designers earlier this year, criticising the designers’ size zero garments: “We have now reached the point where many of the sample sizes don’t comfortably fit even the established star models”.
“The decision to use the fuller girls is something we have been talking about. There’s this idea that only thin and slender women are able to wear Mark’s dresses and he wanted to combat that," she said,
She added: “We wanted women to know they don’t have to be a size zero to wear a Mark Fast dress- curvier women can look even better in one.”
In recent years, the fashion industry has been criticised for its parading of extremely thin models. Psychologists and health experts are worried that designers have gone too far in pushing a dangerously slim image that women, and younger girls, will try to emulate.
Professor Ulrike Schmidt, chairman of the Institute of Psychiatry’s eating disorder team voiced his fears about the use of tiny models.
He said: “We are very concerned that the lack of medical checks of models at London Fashion Week, coupled by an environment where being underweight is the norm, prevents those with eating disorders into gaining an insight into their condition”.
Sarah Watkison from agency 12+ said: “Every time I think things are progressing, they end up going back to how they’ve always been. I hope this has sparked lasting changes”.
Fast has also been involved with the exhibition All Walks Beyond the Catwalk. It features models aged 18 to 65, from sizes to 8 to 16. The launch party was attended by British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman.
Shulman wrote to top designers earlier this year, criticising the designers’ size zero garments: “We have now reached the point where many of the sample sizes don’t comfortably fit even the established star models”.
London Fashion Week focuses on bras
Catwalk models have often been described as ‘ironing boards with legs’. Very few have been renowned for their cleavage. The newest trend emerging at London Fashion Week, however, is giving even the most flat-chested of the breed the kind of uplift and silhouette more normally acquired by a visit to the plastic surgeon.Not since Jean Paul Gaultier designed the now-legendary ‘rocket cone bra’ for Madonna nearly 20 years ago, has the brassiere been such a fashion fixation.
Louise Goldin, the young designer showing under the Topshop-sponsored NewGen scheme, was directly inspired by the Madonna rocket cone to create her own ‘twin peaks’ in pastel organza and gold and silver lame, bristling with Swarovski crystals.
The models wore her bras with matching organza bloomers or micro-kilts.
Antonio Berardi, making his catwalk return to LFW after ten years’ showing in Milan and Paris, made corsetry the foundation of his skin-tight, sculptured look. Hand-crafted brassieres and bustiers were seamed and contoured to maximum effect and worn with strong-shouldered jackets and micro-skirts with ‘winged’ hips.
Jasper Conran showed flesh-tone bras and corsets under matching ‘prom’ dresses. Betty Jackson put little floral bras over shirts. Margaret Howell unbuttoned classic white shirts to reveal navy bras. And Nicole Farhi reintroduced that 70s staple, the 'boob tube'.
London Fashion Week, celebrating its 25th anniversary this season, continues today with major shows by Pringle, Jaeger, Christopher Kane, Marios Schwab, Paul Smith and Luella Bartley, among others.
The models wore her bras with matching organza bloomers or micro-kilts.
Antonio Berardi, making his catwalk return to LFW after ten years’ showing in Milan and Paris, made corsetry the foundation of his skin-tight, sculptured look. Hand-crafted brassieres and bustiers were seamed and contoured to maximum effect and worn with strong-shouldered jackets and micro-skirts with ‘winged’ hips.
Jasper Conran showed flesh-tone bras and corsets under matching ‘prom’ dresses. Betty Jackson put little floral bras over shirts. Margaret Howell unbuttoned classic white shirts to reveal navy bras. And Nicole Farhi reintroduced that 70s staple, the 'boob tube'.
London Fashion Week, celebrating its 25th anniversary this season, continues today with major shows by Pringle, Jaeger, Christopher Kane, Marios Schwab, Paul Smith and Luella Bartley, among others.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Chanel's transfer tattoos
"For this story, you will be wearing Chanel,” promised my editor, words I have been waiting to hear since I first ventured into journalism. An impeccably cut tweed suit, perhaps, or couture evening frock? Alas, when the delivery arrives it comprises a minuscule bag containing a sheet of rather manky-looking stick-on tattoos, not unlike the versions in chewing-gum wrappers.For spring’s most coveted micro-trend is the haute tattoo. Chanel’s catwalk heroines sported them at garter length à la coquette meets chav. Minxish Daisy Lowe has been brandishing them still further up the thigh, teamed with a risqué gingham Christopher Kane frock. Californian label Rodarte daubed models’ arms in black tribal emblems, while Jean Paul Gaultier sprayed models’ names on to their bodies. Why, even nice, sensible Anya Hindmarch offered Valentine’s tatts at her Ledbury Road store in the run up to February 14.
Gaia Geddes, executive fashion and jewellery editor of Harper’s Bazaar, explains. “The tattoo has long lost its tacky associations. Wearing a fashion tattoo is the ultimate fix for label-lovers: they can literally brand themselves in double Cs. It’s a sort of extreme, conspicuous consumption – tongue-in-cheek, of course. Karl Lagerfeld is the master of the quirky must-have and he’s managed to make the tattoo look cool in a way that makes the label accessible. Coco probably wouldn’t approve – but, then, isn’t that the point?”.
I’m with Coco. The top-drawer transfers that bear her name are £49 for 55 designs. However, my ineptitude at applying them means a colossal wastage rate, with blackened bits of logo curled about me like dead flies. It is not until the photographer takes charge that matters improve. “Dunk them in water until saturated. Wait a bit. Then press on really hard,” exhorts Andrew, a former king of the playground-tattoo scene. We decorously eschew thigh for neck and wrist adornment. Finally, something adheres: tight, itchy and shiny as a scab, with a rather dubious love bite-type rash developing around it.
This may be the moment to point out that I am 38. I get that this is witty. I get that it is very street of me to be emulating the double Cs that rappers so enjoy festooning themselves with. I even get that this is trompe l’oeil and thus terribly modish in the manner of Lily Allen’s two-tone tights masquerading as stockings. But does it have to be so very borstal? A friend eyes me archly: “You can take the girl out of Birmingham…”
I attempt a change of mindset. This is skin jewellery: I will wear it Coco-style and team it with conker-sized plastic pearls. This is definitely preferable, not least as my pearls obscure the effect. However, later, in an amorous moment, I am horrified to discover that one of my chains has attached itself to my partner-in-crime’s upper lip in the manner of a crazed Hitler-moustache.
To misquote Meat Loaf: I would do anything for Chanel, but I won’t do that. Admittedly, late-30s flesh is probably not the ideal canvas. Were one the right age – six, say – doubtless it would look très branché, if not bon chic. “It probably is a trend best left to young girls,” says Geddes. “Although, there are plenty of high-profile, older tattoo fans out there, Samantha Cameron being the most obvious. So, who knows?”.
Les Trompe L’oeil de Chanel (£49) will be available from March 1, 020 7493 3836
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