As seen on the Look website Desire Clothing are currently offering readers 20% off their collection.
Simply enter 'lookspring' at the checkout to apply your discount.
You need to hurry though as the offer runs out Saturday 30th April!
Tuesday, 26 April 2011
Monday, 25 April 2011
Posh to launch clothing line?
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| Victoria Beckham |
Posh is rumoured to be in talks with a well-known high-street retailer and she is hoping to launch her range later this year.
According to Now Magazine, the former Spice Girl has been inspired by the success of American singer Jessica Simpson’s clothing line.
Monday, 7 March 2011
Fashion week: Blood, sweat and tears…
Fashion Week is one of the most anticipated events of the year in the fashion world. As it comes round again next month, our reporter Melissa Green looks at the history and secret world of the fashion industry.
The world-famous fashion weeks, in New York, Paris, London and Milan, known as the ‘big four’, are hugely influential, determining global trends, and what’s in our wardrobes each and every season.
The runway shows, held twice a year in the four cities, are the Holy Grail for any fashion magazine editor, celebrity, high street retailer and most definitely any aspiring fashionista.
Fashion week was founded in 1943 New York. It started off as a simple basic event, to provide an escape from the Second World War. Now the shows themselves are extremely glamorous events filled with celebrities, designers, ‘it-girls’ and anyone lucky enough to be invited. These days the shows are heavily commercialised and often companies have major bidding wars for the right to sponsor the events.
Even though the shows aren’t open to the general public, they are often widely reported in the media, so the world can keep up to date with all the latest fashion news and views.
The anticipation for the events grows year on year with shows held for all genres of fashion and design ranging from Miami Fashion Week to Rio Summer and even Bridal Fashion shows.
This year Burberry is set to make a big comeback in the London fashion week shows, as it is rumoured that they will be reviving some of their classic collections giving the a modern twist.
The London events are Hollywood inspired and are held in the decadent Somerset House building in the capital. New York Fashion Week, or as it is commercially known Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, is held in the prestigious Upper East Side of Manhattan and attracts tourists from all over the world who come to see the fashion festivities all over the city. Paris fashion week is held in the Carrousel du Louvre, alongside the world famous Louvre museum. Milan fashion week is seen as the renaissance on the runway, and is usually a very extravagant event held in impressive sites throughout the city. The shows are renowned for being very exuberant and flamboyant with lots of glitz and glamour.
New York kicks off the fashion season closely followed by London, Milan and lastly Paris. Each city has two shows for the major seasons, spring/summer in February followed by autumn/winter in September. But, there are also shows which run throughout the year as designers expand their lines. These shows are what determine what trends are ‘in’ and which are ‘out’.
The events include approximately 50 official, scheduled catwalk shows as well as another 50 unofficial shows. The runway typically showcases about 170 designers’ collections, some well known such as Chanel and some less well known, itching to make it big in the fashion industry.
Modern fashion, as we know it, owes itself in large part to the success of its previous trends and styles. Many styles have made comebacks throughout fashion history, with shoulder pads and flared jeans enjoying recent success.
It is almost guaranteed that the trends which you see in the high-street fashion stores have been individually handpicked from the catwalk by fashion greats. American Vogue editors Anna Wintour and André Leon Talley are seen as God like figures in the fashion industry with the power to bring trends to life.
Many critics question whether the trends showcased on the runway are achievable in everyday life or are merely just art, though most would say it is your own individual take.
Sian Hulse, a fashion student from Surrey believes that fashion is a very personal thing. She says, “Fashion has always been a major part of my life. Ever since I was young I used to dress up and try different combinations of outfits. I began getting really interested in fashion when I was a teenager, I used to just design clothes and draw them on people as I imagined they should be wearing them. It's always fun to take something completely abstract and make it work on the body. Fashion Week is extremely inspiring to me, I love seeing the new trends and each designer’s take on them.”
The fashion industry is now within reach of aspiring designers through graduate schemes as well as internships and competitions. “I try to get my work out there as much as I can,” says Sian. “I have my own website showcasing all my designs and I enter as many competitions as I can. I’m having so much fun right now preparing all my work for my graduate fashion show, it’s really exciting. I just can’t wait until I can actually get my designs recognised, then who knows where it could go from there. Maybe one day I’ll have my own spot on a London Fashion Week show.”
There are many competitions open to young designers hoping to get their big break. Graduate Fashion Week, established in 1991, is a yearly show, which displays works from university students. Recently, designer Christopher Kane shot to stardom in the fashion industry after being discovered showcasing his designs on the catwalk. The 24-year-old, who began his fashion career by creating his own line with his sister, found his break in the fashion industry after winning a similar Harrods design award. He has since become a well-known name in the fashion industry collaborating with the likes of shoe designing legend Manuel “Manolo” Blahnik Rodriguez.
The runway has attracted bad press down the years over the controversial model scandals. There has been a lot of criticism over designer’s choices of models, many saying that the fashion industry encourages a ‘size-zero’ culture after the investigation of several deaths of models in 2007. The shock stories in the media paint a bad picture of the fashion industry giving the impression that it is a world fuelled by image. Last February, stylists from the designer Mark Fast’s team controversially resigned from the London Fashion Week shows after they refused to showcase their figure-hugging designs on size 12 and 14 models. The British Fashion Council has since fought back, stipulating that only healthy looking models and over 16s can be featured in the London Fashion Week shows as they do not want to be seen to be glamorising anorexia or any other eating disorders or diets associated with being a supermodel.
Fashion has become a way of life for many young girls with magazines such as Vogue and Grazia making it more achievable than ever.
Thursday, 13 May 2010
It's back!
If you have never seen the US reality TV show, The Hills, then you're definitely missing out...
The series follows the lives of a group of friends living in the exclusive Beverly Hills, Hollywood. And as reality TV shows go, it surprisingly makes for very good viewing.
Since it was first aired on MTV in 2006, we were introduced to former Laguna Beach star, Lauren Conrad. The show is centered around the lives of her and her socialite friends, as they try to make it big in the Hollywood celebrity scene.
In the last series (series 5) we saw the departure of the main star, Lauren Conrad, as she decided that she would take time out from the hectic celebrity world in order to concentrate on her relationship with her mystery man.
Conrad's departure has left many critics wondering what is going happen to the quality of the show, but it appears that series 6 has a lot in store.
The series continues to follow the lives of the friends after the Speidi (Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag) wedding. We are shown the results of Heidi's shocking plastic surgery - she had ten major procedures in one day. And also the reactions of her friends and family - which will no doubt make good viewing.
It has been revealed on a Hollywood gossip site that Spencer and Heidi will be pulling out of the show before the series finale is produced, after rumours that they refused to 'fake' a divorce. This is also followed by rumours that Montag has accused show creator, Adam Divello of sexual harassment.
The new series of The Hills is set to return to our screens at the end of this month.
Tragic Lenoir's failed suicide bid
It has been revealed that French Supermodel, Noemie Lenoir has attempted to commit suicide.
Lenoir, 30, was found to be lying unconscious in a forest in La Celle-Saint-Cloud, Paris, by a dog walker on Sunday.
She is now recovering in hospital and being treated for a drugs overdose and alcohol poisoning.
It is believed that Lenoir has been struggling to cope with on-off boyfriend, ex-Chelsea football player, Claude Makelele's infidelity. And that her attempt to take her life was a cry for help.
There are rumours that the troubled model has been battling with depression for some time due to her modelling career taking a battering. A controversial advertising campaign in which Lenoir models for Marks & Spencers received several complaints claiming it was sexist. The advert which was featured on UK screens at Christmas, showed Lenoir dancing around a winter woodland in her underwear. Adverts were removed from broadcast shortly after they were seen to be demeaning towards woman.
It has also been revealed that Lenoir was having a secret relationship with Swiss millionaire, Carl Hirschmann, 29. He is currently facing sexual assault charges in Switzerland. It is alleged that Hirschmann used footage of sexual scenes to blackmail women that he had been involved with, as well as having sexual relations with a 15-year-old girl.
The 3 year old fashion wars
Lately, there has been a lot of negativity in the media, surrounding the tender issue of celeb tots following in their mother's fashion footsteps. There seems to be a growing trend of mums dressing up their little ones to look like their very own identical mini-me. Are they taking it too far though?
Katie Price, aka Jordan, has recently come under a lot of criticism for allowing her 2-year-old daughter, Princess Tiaamii, to play with make-up. A photograph was posted on Price's facebook site, of her daughter caked in make-up and false eye lashes. There have even been rumours that Price is looking in to getting Princess her own make-up line, understandably this has caused a lot of controversy amongst mothers, as well as the 2-year-olds dad, Peter Andre. Princess, a regular feature in the former glamour model's television show, What Katie did next, was shown with straightened hair and smothered in lip stick. Is this really an image we want to be seen promoting to young children? Price has previously been featured in the media spotlight for highlighting and styling her four-year-old son, Junior's hair.
This trend which inevitably began in Hollywood is also being copied by the Beckham family. Brooklyn, 11, Romeo, 7, and Cruz, 5, are rarely ever seen out of their designer clothes and are often the trend setters for many Hollywood child a-listers. All three boys follow in their dad's footsteps when it comes to hairstyles, they barely last a week, and are regularly highlighted. But what effect is this media coverage and criticism having on these children? It seems they are likely to follow the path of many celeb children before them, watch out Lindsey and Mary-Kate.
Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes's 4-year-old daughter, Suri, is another celeb tot who has been featured heavily in the media. Without a doubt, Suri is definitely the best dressed 4-year-old out there, but is it going a bit too far? Recently pictures of her were published in celeb gossip magazines wearing high-heeled shoes and clutching her beloved make-up bag like a teddy. It's all well and good children playing with make-up and dressing up, after all which girls didn't do that when growing up, but its worrying that its a major part of their day. For Suri, style seems to have become somewhat of an obsession, which is heavily encouraged by her mother, Katie, who boasts that her daughter is her fashion stylist and she only wears the clothes which her daughter picks out for her.
These kids all seem to be being pushed in to growing up too fast and far too heavily featured in the media spotlight. Their showbiz mums obviously seem to have big aspirations for their children, but don't they need room to have a normal childhood... In my opinion something is going to give eventually.
Wednesday, 12 May 2010
The end of an era
World famous department store, Harrods, has been sold for a staggering £1.5 billion.
It is believed that Mohamed Al-Fayed, 81, has decided to part from his beloved empire as he wishes to spend more time with his family, and put his businesses on the back-burner.
Al-Fayed bought the store in 1985, and has since turned it in to one of the City's major tourist attractions. The Knightsbridge branch, which was founded in 1834, began life as a humble groceries shop, and has since flourished to cater for the City's elite.
The new owners, the Qatari Royal Family, are intending to keep the traditional department store exactly how it is, although it seems that Al-Fayed will still have some say in the running of the store as he has taken the role of honorary chairman. So it seems he can't completely let go of his precious empire.
The future of Fulham Football Club, another of Al-Fayed's assets, has not been revealed yet, however, it is rumoured that it may also be on the market soon, as the 81-year-old enters long- awaited retirement.
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