Europe Counts For Fashion

London Fashion Week has become one of Europe’s hottest fashion tickets over recent years, vying properly with Milan and Paris since the emergence of British talent over the the last couple of decades.

Naturally, the presence of Alexander McQueen is much missed but you can see his influence everywhere in the angular, elaborate stylings of some of the collections. Style cues from the 80s are, of course, still in evidence this year but already we discern a cooling in the enthusiasm for those trends. Slip-on loafers, worn sans socks were riotous last year, but already designers are moving on to mine more timeless looks – like a range of stunning 20s art-deco inspired dresses from Krystof Strozyna.

How much will this filter down onto the high street?

Well names such as Miss Sixty made hay with t-shirts drawing heavily on the 80s revivalist air of last year’s show and we think that the high street will persist with this trend for most of this year. The revival on the high street is as much led by nostalgia and music as it is by style, and history shows that those trends stick around longer than pure fashion statements.

All in all, it’s been a great show and we look forward to bringing you a proper round up later this week.

News reaches us of the hottest new product from the factories of the insane. Vagina Dye.

Yep.

If you’re one of the literally 6 people who are bummed out by the” loss of the youthful pink of your labia”, you can now “restore” it thanks to  ’My New Pink Button.’ Now, we’re mad for fashion and looking your best at all times and in all ways. But not even we can recall an occasion when our undercarriages have brought forth a comment about how old they look.

Anyway, if you ever do find yourself looking in the mirror and wishing that your lady parts had a more vibrant, youthful look about them, then you can buy the stuff from the link above.

On a more serious note, the confluence of ‘youth’ and ’sexiness’ is a trend that does disturb us on some level. We’ve already seen that companies like American Apparel are prepared to toy with imagery that teeters on the lolita-esque, and the catwalks are still full of skinny, flat-chested girls – often barely out of high school. With the relentless promotion of sexuality to a teenage audience and the incessant barrage of advice to women about how they can look younger than their years, surely the time has come for us as a society to celebrate women of all ages?

We blame Beyonce. She cleaned up at the Grammys last night with a record 6 awards, but she’s already been a massive influence in terms of fashion and style. After she broke cover with Crazy In Love everybody wanted the Beyonce look, but few are blessed with those killer curves (with specific reference, let’s be realistic, to that ass).

One aspect of her style that has got a lot of coverage is her hair. Obviously as an African-American, her natural style is for for curls and ringlets and indeed if you look at pictures of the young Beyonce that’s just what you see. Today, as often as not, her hair is pristine straight. And blonde. Of course, she has a veritable armoury of stylists who could make her hair into a walnut whip if she so wanted.

For mere mortal who are blessed/cursed with curly lock, the answer likes with hair straighteners. Now it’s not so long since they were the preserve of professional stylists, but now the high street is flooded with them – especially ghd straighteners. ghd straighteners are a cut above the rest of the high street brands, primarily because they use acrylic rather than metal elements.

These heat more evenly and quickly than metal elements and give a much better finish to your hair. Ghd hair straighteners can cost anything up to £100. If you see any that are much cheaper then they are likely to be Chinese knock-offs and you should stay clear. Just clip your hair up and straighten it layer by layer to get the best effect, and in no time you’ll look just like Beyonce. From a distance :p

Fashion is often used as a cipher for the ‘bad’ attributes of Western culture. Lumped in with crass commercialism, unsustainable manufacturing practices and the like, the industry has – ironically – attracted a bad image for itself.

Of course, the truth is wildly different, but a lot of fashion designers like to play up to the image of excess to gain column inches if nothing. We all remember the diamond encrusted bra, right?

As an antidote to the naked glitz of most fashion events, EcoFashionWeek is due to start in Geneva on the 21st January. This show highlights collections that are not only easy to wear, but also easy on the planet. Labels such as Annie Greenabelle specialise in sustainable fashions and ethical business practices (no sweatshops here!)

As supermarket chains move into the realm of copying high street fashions at a low price on the back of Indian child labour, eco fashion is a really interesting way for true fashion labels to differentiate themselves.

Research shows, time and again, that consumers are willing to pay a premium for ethical goods so a combination of high fashion and ethical values is sure to be a winning way forward for the industry as a whole. We can’t wait to see the things that tumble from the catwalk of this show, and look forward to bringing you some gorgeous stylings hot from the pens of these sustainably-minded designers.

Well the world might still be full of doom and gloom as the recession carries rumbling on but – as Cynid Lauper taught us – girls still just wanna have fun. While pallets are quite muted, in keeping with the general air of the season feminine lines and styles are back in vogue, suggesting that a riotous summer is coming up ahead.

Check out these great dresses from Republic to see what we’re talking about. This fabulously dotty number from their Miso collection might be muted in terms of colour, but it still fizzes with pretty patterns and layering that’s sure to make any girl feel the part.

Sure, the length might be a bit on the short side for this time of year with the arctic winds whistling around your nether parts, but combine this dress with some opaque black tights and open sandals and you’ve got something perfectly attuned to the vibe of early 2010.

Polo shirts are also less commonly known as Golf Shirts and Tennis Shirts, and they usually have 2 / 3 buttons. Often made from knitted cloth  over a common woven cloth style polo shirt.

Lacoste where the first to market a tennis shirt back in 1933, before this Polo players often wore long sleeved shirts. Polo shirts are often worn in the work place due to the strength of the knitted cloth, they are commonly made into promotional work wear advertising the company you work for and can be purchased for low prices.

If you ask someone to name a producer of polo shirts there usually one common answer and that’s Fruit Of The Loom, they make high quality low cost blank polo shirts for the use of promotion, whether its for concerts and gigs or work attire.
If you want a designer polo shirt then there’s only 2 names to look for Fred Perry and Lacoste, these are often picked up on the high street or on the Internet.

Polo shirts