カテゴリー別アーカイブ: beauty

Working in fashion can be hard on the soul. It’s not always the most thoughtful or kind industry, and it has more than its fair share of deeply rooted issues.

Top of the list of things that bother me? Diversity, or lack thereof.

Fashion has long been known as a homogeneous industry, championing mainly white, able-bodied women. The effects of this are widespread — it means that what we perceive as beauty is very singular. If you don’t look like this, you can feel completely unrepresented. Lack of representation has been a mainstay problem in fashion as long as memory serves, but Fashion Week tends to highlight the gross lack of equality . . . at least until recently.

The industry is (finally) starting to use Fashion Week to showcase its progress, rather than highlight its flaws. This past New York Fashion Week was the first time I felt like there might be real hope for true diversity and representation, thanks to certain pioneers. We’ve seen a surge in curve models on the runway, models of colour, as well as trans models and those with disabilities. Seeing this change is inspiring. It’s now becoming more obvious when brands aren’t inclusive.

Consider this: statistically speaking, this past season was the most racially diverse Fashion Week EVER. Harper’s Bazaar also reported that 33 transgender women and non-binary models walked in Fall’s shows — an all-time high. Cheers to that!

This Fashion Week, the always-amazing Christian Siriano featured 10 curve models on his runway, including Ashley Graham. Michael Kors and Prabal Gurung also featured Graham, who is becoming one of the most in-demand supermodels.

In part, we have to attribute the progress to amazing activist models like Graham and Iskra Lawrence. These women do a double duty, not only working tirelessly as models but also being crusaders and spokespersons for the cause. Though they’ve had to work twice as hard, their success and popularity is a testament to change being afoot.

But even beyond including a diverse range of models in a record number of shows, there has been a seismic shift in how brands are thinking about diversity, as well as which brands are getting the most attention.

I was lucky enough to hear Becca McCharen-Tran (above right), the founder of Chromat, speak about Fashion Week. Chromat was one of the most talked-about shows this season because of its modern, chic bodywear, but also because of the inclusivity shown on its runway. Chromat, which describes itself as “Future Forward Bodywear” had nine curve models on its runway, and Charen-Tran spoke about how obvious it was for her to feature a diverse range of models. Never once in her talk did I feel like she was hitting a desired ratio, but truly that she designs for everyone and anyone.

Though the industry is making progress, there is still much work to be done. Some races are still enormously under-represented, and brands need to include more curve models outside of the most popular faces. It’s up to big brands to cultivate new talent!

Still, this Fashion Week felt like a paradigm shift. It’s the new normal to be thoughtful and inclusive, and the brands that aren’t stepping up are looking old, out of touch, and totally boring. The ball is in their court: either start being inclusive or get left behind in the new era of fashion.Read more at:green bridesmaid dresses | Pink Bridesmaid Dresses

Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton never put a supposed wedding “on hold” to have a baby, despite a false report from a year ago. In February 2017, it was alleged the couple canceled plans to wed to instead focus on a pregnancy. But one year later, they still haven’t had a baby, proving Gossip Cop was right to bust the story.

The untrue narrative came from Life & Style, which has been pushing wrong claims about Stefani and Shelton since they got together in late 2015. This time, the untrustworthy tabloid announced the stars had “put their wedding on the back burner.” A so-called “insider” contended, “They’re trying to have a baby first… That’s their main focus right now.” This purported source maintained Stefani was “trying to get pregnant naturally,” as she was supposedly “determined” to “carry [the baby] herself.” However, it was further alleged that Shelton felt it didn’t matter “if they adopt or get a surrogate.”

Well, Shelton and Stefani neither adopted nor enlisted a surrogate. And she didn’t carry a baby herself, either. None of the outlet’s claims came to fruition because none of them were accurate. In fact, at the time, a rep for Stefani even told Gossip Cop the publication was “making things up.” Now, 365 days after we originally busted the article, time has shown just how wrong the tabloid was with its Stefani-Shelton wedding-baby story. But what’s also notable is that the magazine didn’t even stick to its storyline.

After insisting in February that Stefani and Shelton had abandoned plans to tie the knot, the outlet ran a cover story in July that claimed they secretly “married” in a backyard wedding at her home. Even crazier, that was then contradicted in January 2018 (just last month) with a cover that declared, “Furious Gwen Calls Off Wedding.” But wait, weren’t they already “married” six months prior? The inconsistencies underscore exactly what Gossip Cop was told: Life & Style is making things up.

But this isn’t the only tabloid to bungle such claims. Less than a week ago, Us Weekly tried putting its own spin on things by alleging the couple had put both wedding AND baby plans on hold, as they supposedly decided they’re happy with the way things are. As Gossip Cop pointed out, however, the singers never had such plans in the first place. It seemed the article was just a cover-up for why they hadn’t wed or had a child, since previous stories insisted they would.

The gossip media seems to like claiming the couple is putting things “on hold,” but maybe the tabloids should hold off on their untruthful reports. Stefani and Shelton just teamed up to celebrate her son Apollo’s birthday, and her kids remain the only children in their lives. That was always the plan, despite what the tabloids have wanted readers to believe.Read more at:wedding dresses melbourne | www.sheindressau.com

Lucrative as a performance art and entertaining as a spectator sport, the game of show and tell is symptomatic of our times. More so this year when privacy got royally damned. US President Donald Trump’s Twitter-trigger presidency, Lady Diana’s personal disillusionments turned into public chronicles to memorialise 20 years of her passing, the mythically ideal ex-couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt ‘breaking their silence’ on their marital split or Indian actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui having to withdraw his memoir An Ordinary Life within days of its release because he hadn’t considered seeking the consent of the women he had intimately described; these are different expressions of similar compulsions. Compulsions that have been polished to professional perfection by those whose name combos include Kardashian, Jenner and West.

The bevy of the cool-hot, attention seeking K girls — Kim, Kylie, Kendall, Khloe, Kourtney — who wear controversy like couture; their diversity-chasing parents, their babies, butts, boyfriends, brands, bodyguards and spouses have been living a very (weary?) public life for a while now. They have aced publicity stunts, amassing millions of social media followers with image magnetism and manipulation. According to Forbes, Kim Kardarshian alone makes 300,000 dollars per sponsored post on Instagram. Even three years after an erotically oiled Kim balancing a champagne goblet on her butt broke the internet with a Paper magazine cover that nominated the Desirable Derriere as a worthy peer of The Big Boob, the collective and individual lives of K Inc roll with roaring success. Out there for the world to like, loathe or lash out at.

This past year has seen a surge in their influence. Despite so many celebs, half-celebs and non-celebs making millions in the business of brashness, a bunch of Kardashians remained among those in top recall. Kylie as the youngest on the Forbes 2017 list of highest paid celebs, Kim there too at number 47 and for the launch of her new brand KKW Beauty, Kendall for her controversial Pepsi ad, Kanye for returning to the music stage this November after almost a year, Kris Jenner for signing another deal that will keep Keeping Up with The Kardashians on TV through 2019 and Caitlyn (formerly Bruce) Jenner for becoming a strong voice on LGBT rights.

‘Kardashian’ is officially the surname of only some of these breathlessly popular people. Its branding derived from the title of the reality TV show that the family stars and wars in. But it is a fat industry metaphor now. In promotional skills, ‘Kardashian’ stands for being starry and stand-offish, hardcore, gilded, strategically self-interested. Even embattled and emotional. Who would forget the crazy publicity of Kim as a victim of an armed robbery in Paris last year and husband Kanye West being hospitalised for exhaustion or Kendall tearing up while talking about her Pepsi ad — contextualised around Black Lives Matter — that drew a lot of flak.

In style, the Kardashians direct an entire fashion and beauty lookbook. If Kim sells the tan and the pout as her personal statement as well as the promise of her beauty brand, Kanye manages an unsmiling countenance as a rapper-designer. Kendall is a brand ambassador for Adidas and a Victoria’s Secret model. But besides their endorsements, the Kardashians have their own fashion politics. Boobs without bras in tiny crop tops, slinky bodycons, provocative lace corsets, sheer vests with nipples free to smirk or smile, leather minis with bralets, fishnet stockings, snakeskin boots, cage heels, latex, leather, lingerie, lunches at Nobu in LA, children in tutu frocks and net stockings, late nights in New York pubs. A pair of ripped jeans Kim wore this year was captioned The Most Ripped Jeans by Glamour magazine, while Kylie’s selfie on her bed in a black mesh bra and fluorescent nails this September got billed as the Sexiest Selfie by The Sun. Shortest LBD, wet hair, nude lips, tallest denim boots, all that is K fare. Kim K bleached her eyebrows blonde for the Met Gala last year — calling herself a ‘blingy sexy robot’ and this year for the Balmain show in Paris, she wore a crocheted dress by the brand without any underwear.

The Kardashians push this formula even if it means being anti-trend. Kim’s unabated exhibitionism of her curves, nude-ish pregnancy images and appearances without underwear defy the normative beauty ideal, edging it towards a frothing-at-the-mouth sensuality that sometimes raises ire. In 2015, Refinery29, the American digital media and entertainment company, received a Change.org petition asking it ‘not to post articles about the Kardashians’. The portal ran an article explaining the relevance of the K brand.

K Inc is also relevant because of its commercial value. If Kim makes millions by democratising make-up across humanity’s diverse colour card with her new beauty brand KKW, Kylie Cosmetics that is now headed towards becoming a billion-dollar brand is intimately marketed by its founder’s puckered pouts, raunchy selfies and orchestrated confessions like the one to her therapist about her lip plumping due to personal insecurity on Life of Kylie, her solo reality show on E!

Besides an authorship on how to wear big butts, big boots, big boobs, big brands and big boyfriends in uncanny pairings, the Kardashian reality show airs in more than 160 countries. Besides beauty, they also own fashion brands — Kanye’s label Yeezy for instance. They have been on covers of a dozen glossies, have front-row seats wherever it matters and a 200 million-dollar revenue-making app called Kim Kardarshian: Hollywood.

But even all that money doesn’t dilute their ironical existence. Their fame and flamboyance are flanked by flaws. Materially, physically, psychologically, financially and fashionably, the family represents almost every nerve and crack of what is called a modern (American) life.

Consider this: a black rapper (Kanye), a new generation supermodel (Kylie), an Olympian gold medalist who chose a sex-reassignment surgery (Bruce became Caitlyn), a weight loss book called Strong Looks Better Naked (by Khloe K), divorce (Kris and Caitlyn, as well as Khloe are divorced), diabetes (Rob Kardarshian), drugs (Khloe’s ex-husband and NBA player Lamar Odom was caught in a drug overdose), basketball (Kendall is reportedly dating Blake Griffin, an NBA player) and cute, unconventionally named babies (North and Saint West). Where do you find so many variables sandwiched between two slices of bread — one called Jenner and the other Kardashian?

Or, as the New York Times put it in a 2015 profile of Kris Jenner, the self-declared mommager and architect of the Kardarshian brand: ‘The Kardashian/Jenner megacomplex…has not just invaded the culture but metastasised into it’.

The Kardashianisation of style is ostensibly about appearances but it has its roots in oversharing and overexposing. A style culturally unsuited to India where body display as well as personal revelations (and Nawazuddin Siddiqui may agree) are still at a half-virgin stage. In society and on social media, voyeurism and exhibitionism raise eyebrows. With ready-to-wear hypocrisy being our top trend, candid confessionals get labelled and shoved into jarring ghettos like the Bigg Boss show.

On the other hand, with their irrepressible posturing in beauty, fashion and passion, the Kardashians make privacy and the sparkle of individual mystery that authors lasting glamour, seem pointless.

The spectator then must decide what he or she should applaud and who he or she should emulate.Read more at:bridesmaid dresses australia | wedding dresses australia

Stevie Lee Hamby and Adam Edward Anderson were married July 15, 2017, at Sky Retreat in Purlear. The Rev. David Wellborn officiated at the 5 p.m. ceremony. C.J. Ballard, guitarist and vocalist, provided music.

The bride is the daughter of Wanda and Michael Casstevens of Mulberry Park Road, North Wilkesboro. She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and earned a master’s degree in occupational therapy at Lenoir-Rhyne University. The bride is employed as an occupational therapist with Kindred at Home Home Health Care, Wilkesboro.

The groom is the son of Rick and Pamela Anderson of Treadway Road, Moravian Falls. He is a graduate of Appalachian State University and earned a juris doctor degree at Charlotte School of Law. The groom is employed by the 23rd Judicial District of North Carolina as an assistant district attorney.

Given in marriage by her father, the bride wore a designer lace gown featuring a high neckline and cap sleeves. Delicate floral lace covered the fit and flare silhouette. Rhinestones adorned the beaded belt and edged the neckline, and a row of covered buttons enhanced the back of the gown. The bride carried a natural-style bouquet of eucalyptus, peach peonies, cream roses and hypericum berries.

Nikki Janes of Roaring Gap was maid of honor. Bridesmaids were Raygan and Kelli Casstevens of North Wilkesboro, Katie Sexton of Jefferson, Lakyn Booker of Mount Airy, Ronda Boykin of North Wilkesboro and Jamie Tolliver of Wilkesboro.

Ring bearer was Grayson Casstevens, brother of the bride. Flower girl was Maloreigh Wade.

Rick Anderson served as best man for his son. Ushers were Nathan Handy of Boomer, Andrew Warren of Millers Creek, Cameron Waddell of North Wilkesboro, Ryan Sexton of Jefferson, Dan Sawyers of Hillsborough and David Richardson of North Wilkesboro.

Bridget Merritt directed the wedding ceremony. Kevin and Angie Anderson, cousins of the groom, attended the guest register.

Following a road trip through Germany, with stops in Munich, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Ulm and Fussen, the couple is residing in Wilkesboro.

Reception

A reception was held in honor of the bridal couple in the ballroom of Sky Retreat. Wildflowers entwined with mercury glass candles for a soft glow, adorned the tables. A large outdoor cross, also adorned with wildflowers, was a focal point for the wedding.

Guests were served chateaubriand with bernaise sauce, spinach-stuffed chicken, salad and seasonal vegetables.

Holly Brewer assisted with the wedding cake. Blake Sebastian and his staff assisted with the meal. C.J. Ballard provided vocal and guitar music during the cocktail hour and was disc jockey during the reception. Wildflower Florals assisted with the flowers for the wedding and reception. Amber Adams assisted with the photography.

Prenuptial events

The prospective groom’s parents, Rick and Pam Anderson, were hosts for a rehearsal dinner honoring the bridal couple.

Katie Sexton, sister of the prospective groom, was hostess at a bridal brunch at Tart Sweets Bakery in Winston-Salem.

Bridal showers were given in honor of the couple by Angie Anderson at Zion Hill Baptist Church and Nikki Janes, maid of honor, at Elkin Creek Winery.Read more at:Pink Bridesmaid Dresses | red bridesmaid dresses

(Photo:bridal dresses)In the advent of this new space age, people who wish to travel out to space should start thinking of how their lives are going to be like beyond Earth’s atmosphere. While aerospace technology is gaining ground with the recent SpaceXannouncement, there is one earthly aspect of life to consider in these endeavors: fashion.

Where people do not feel sunlight or the wind in their faces, “what would lifestyle be like in an entirely artificial environment?” Lee Anderson asked.

Anderson, the founder of the community Fashion and Aerospace for Advanced Realities and fashion brand Starkweather, asked this question in the presentation, “Interdisciplinary Future: The intersection of fashion and aerospace” at Pivotal Labs in Cambridge on Thursday.

As an interdisciplinary forum, the event was held to bring forth a dialogue based on FAAR’s goal: to join the forces of innovation between design and STEM to optimally project how interplanetary lifestyle and wellbeing will look like.

However, Anderson thinks the role of fashion in space wear will go beyond trendsetting the edgiest looks on runways and into technical collaborations.

“I can definitely see that happening in the near future, SpaceX partnering with Chanel, and these two logos launching off into space,” Anderson said in an interview.

This interdisciplinary future between space and fashion will anticipate an upsurge in the hybridization of roles and jobs. Standing at the forefront of their “hybrid jobs,” all four panelists invited to the discussion are interdisciplinary designers who meld multiple skillsets to invent sustainable and innovative products that solve problems.

One of the panelists, industrial designer Julianne Gauron said in an interview, “[interdisciplinary collaborations] should be a circular conversation that is supportive.”

A former New Balance apparel developer, Gauron has spent her career creating wearable technology by consulting between sports, health and fashion clients.

“There’s always going to be something you don’t know what to do, that makes you willing to learn,” Gauron said.

One of the risks, yet perks of being an interdisciplinary designer that she said is to learn to get comfortable with discomfort.

To get to the peak of their careers now, all of the panelists did not have smooth-sailing journeys.

“The path is not always linear,” Yuly Fuentes-Medel, who is the founder and CEO of Descience, said on the panel. Initially fascinated with the brain, Fuentes-Medel transitioned from neuroscience to “remaking the innovations happening” for a commercial space, she added.

For Danielle Ryan, another panelist, she said she grew interested in the functionality of fashion after graduating from Pratt Institute with a B.F.A. in fashion design. After kicking off her career with Reebok and New Balance, Ryan now focuses on “wearable robotics to mimic human walking,” she said to the audience.

With interdisciplinary design, lifestyle products should not prioritize the mechanics too much, but more to how people feel about it.

Another panelist Michael Lye, who is a professor and NASA coordinator at the Rhode Island School of Design approaches his projects through a “human-centered design,” he described to the audience.

Lye discussed how even NASA prioritizes human empathy over practicality by building windows for its spacecraft instead of replacing them with cameras to view outside.

“Technology is a mechanism, but it is not the role,” Gauron added in the interview.

Elizabeth Saint Germain, 23, of Medford, graduated from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and now works in an adhesives manufacturer company Bemis. She attended the event and offered advice for college students who aspire to become interdisciplinary designers.

“Don’t be afraid to take the risk, the worst thing that can happen is that you just have to do more research and try again,” she said.

All four of the panelists, as well as Anderson and Germain, are interdisciplinary designers who constitute the ideal workforce that the intersecting industry between aerospace and fashion is looking for.

Through this dialogue, Anderson aims for spacesuits one day to be esteemed as high-end tuxedos.

“When you put on that suit [spacewear], you feel awesome and you want to go into space,” he said. “We want to give that feeling to people to get them energized about this industry.”Read more at:wedding dress brisbane

Have you ever used castor oil to lengthen your lashes or to beautify your eyebrows? If you have grown up in India, chances are that you may have tried this old grandma’s remedy for hair growth. Prized for its supposed hair-growth properties, folk medicine commonly recommend using this nutritious oil to stimulate hair growth on bald patches and on eyebrows and eyelashes for thick, luxuriant growth. Whether they actually help in hair growth is open to debate. But the uses of castor oil doesn’t end there. There are other ways in which you could harness the benefits of this amazing oil for skin care and health. One of the lesser known uses of castor oil is for preserving the beauty and health of your eyes. It’s inexpensive and commonly available at most medical stores. But if you really want to optimise its benefits, use the chemical-free, cold pressed variety of the oil. Here are two tried-and-tested ways in which you could use castor oil to preserve the health and beauty of your precious eyes.

It cools the eyes

Castor oil is traditionally known as a gentle, effective oil brimming with health benefits. If your eyes are overworked and tired, try this quick castor oil massage. Take a few drops of the oil and gently massage your eyelids with it in a circular motion. Similarly, use the oil to massage your under eye areas in an outward motion. If the oil is too viscous for your liking, you can always dilute it with a few drops of almond oil. This also works well for those who wear eye makeup. But you can always massage your tired eyes with castor oil just before bedtime. If you work for long hours, staring at the computer screen, the cooling oil will soothe your eyes and restore its health. Apply it around your eye and under eye areas for best results.

It helps moisturise your under eye areas

Did you know that the first signs of aging almost always shows up around the eyes? Your under eyes are delicate areas of your facial skin that are prone to early wrinkles and damage. Crows feet and fine lines add years to your appearance, sometimes making you look older than you are. Here’s how your eyes are making you look older. And if you don’t moisturise the area well enough, the wrinkled appearance can worsen.You need to take utmost care to ensure that you don’t end up damaging this fragile skin. You can mitigate the situation to a certain extend by using castor oil. Castor oil is a moisturising oil which is also quite gentle on the under eye skin. Treating your eyes to a refreshing castor oil massage should be a ritual every night before hitting the bed. Since it is a viscous oil, you don’t have to worry about it spreading to the rest of your face.Read more at:www.sheindressau.com | bridesmaid dresses

With wedding season soon to be upon us, Pakistani brand Élan showed off its latest bridal offering, “Champs de Patchouli,” at a glamorous event this month.

Opting out of the traditional fashion week line up for the second year in a row, Élan, which has fans across the globe due to its ethereal and ornate take on bridal wear, invited the industry for what turned out to be an opulent yet intimate night of matrimonial glam.

The collection itself was true to Élan’s aesthetic, which ties in modern sensibilities of design with the reimagining of classic wedding silhouettes like the peshwas, lehngas and shararas we know so well. Ensembles embellished with pearls, thread work, and adornments of dabka and gota met with hand painted and 3D embellishments upon dreamy organzas, nets and tissues.

Models glided across a glass topped pool, with the backdrop of shelves filled with candles and hues of flora that complimented the color palette Élan has come to be known for.

Traditionally, fashion weeks are a hustle and bustle of chaotic energy from the red carpet to the war zone which is finding your seat; heading backstage only ups the ante with the tangible anxiety of months and months of hard work being laid out in a mere few minutes with only one chance to really get it right. Élan’s Khadijah Shah removed the havoc of juggling one’s own vision amidst so many others and honed in her own style.

“One of the main reasons I started doing solo shows was so I could have more creative control over the ambience and atmosphere of the show,” said Shah on why the design house chose to break away from showing at fashion week.

“The bridal attire we create is opulent and magnanimous in terms of design, detail and embellishment and they reflect best in an atmosphere that is more sophisticated and elegant than fashion week run-ways,” Shah continued. “This allows me to execute my vision in terms of set, ramp and choreography, creating a scene that was a manifestation of the Élan vision.”

It was a sentiment that was celebrated throughout the evening by guests — which included celebrities, designers, editors, friends and family — the solo show allowed the brand to present their clothes, their way. Similarly, those that attended seemed to be in agreement that the singularity of the show and the comfortable set-up removed the obligatory feel of attending fashion weeks where one wants to race to the end.

The show’s atmosphere, though ornate and polished, achieved a vibe that felt relaxed. Guests mingled before and after the presentation and closed out the event in high spirits with a night of dance, a benefit to hosting one’s own show on one’s own terms: “I love to have people around me and generally love to host my friends, family and colleagues. Having my own show allows me to do that; showcase a collection yet also host an evening that is pleasant and enjoyable for everyone. It gives me immense pleasure to know that attendees at my shows had a great (night), enjoyed the installation and went home happy.”Read more at:wedding dresses | wedding dresses melbourne

In the Calvin Klein store on Madison Avenue, the company’s fresh design image swings from the rafters. There are twisted ribbons, mannequin dummies and all the colour and artistic imagination the fashion world now expects from the collaboration between Calvin’s Belgian designer Raf Simons and the American artist Sterling Ruby.

The clothes on sale are modern, streamlined and appealing; luring in from the street outside those in search of sleek tailored coats, impeccably cut trousers, wispy chiffon blouses and references to vintage patchwork quilts from rural America’s past.

Above all, the collection seems appealing, even joyous: a colourful new dawn for a designer who founded his company in 1968 as ‘Calvin Clean’.

How chic to see that early minimalism transformed by Simons into an ode to America today.

But these clothes are the fruits of a show held six months ago for the winter season. The spring/summer 2018 presentation this week was familiar. There was the same rendezvous in the Calvin Klein New York headquarters; same concept of decoration with ribbons – mostly blood red or sunshine orange, put up as overhead decoration. And an even more impressive line-up of famous faces, on the performing arts side from Lupita Nyong’o and Kate Bosworth to Jake Gyllenhaal.

But what’s this? Over my head is hanging, like the sword of Damocles, an axe swinging from red distressed cheerleader pompom fabric. The merry exuberance of Sterling Ruby seemed to be turning into a horror movie.

“For me, it’s about speaking about America – and Calvin Klein’s America,” said Simons backstage. “I think of it as a mighty trilogy, with something that is needed to bring the whole company together. For me, it’s about speaking about America – Calvin Klein’s America.

The show notes were far more specific. “An abstraction of horrors and dreams,” read the introduction under the ironic headline ‘Sweet dreams’. The show, it explained, “takes its inspiration from cinema, from the dream factory of Hollywood and its depictions of both an American nightmare and the all-powerful American dream.”

“The ‘clues’ of horror, but also of dreams, inspire the collection,” the story behind the fashion show continued. It was played out on the runway in innocent, mid-century silhouettes given a dark tinge with the use of nylon and rubber. Andy Warhol, who defined the culture of 15 minutes of fame, was also part of the equation, which tipped towards suggestive images of shattered innocence.

The movies quoted as inspiration to Raf Simons and his right hand Pieter Mulier included Knives (1981-82), Electric Chair (1964-65) and Ambulance Disaster (1963-64) – all chosen from Warhol’s Death and Disaster series. The uncomfortable irony was that references might appear on a floaty nightdress as a symbol of young female innocence, or played out in the cowboy boots that the designer had introduced in his debut season. One ongoing reference was to Amish quilts; another to wild west-style fringing that hung and swung from and across the body. These skinny streams were even made into bags as well as creating layers of silken fringes on the body.

Another statement came with rubber used as cloth, helping to create the unsettling vibe of the show.

But what did it all mean in terms of clothing? I could see references to the Raf Simons heredity in voluminous skirts that he had presented as a silhouette in his time as designer for Dior. A series of rain coats for both sexes showed the designer’s faultless cutting and captured a hint of the clean, clear lines from the original Calvin Klein collections. But strong colours – green, blood red, golden yellow or sky blue ­– mostly had splodgy black markings to enhance a sense of discomfort.

The American Dream has always been particular to the United States, the idea of an achievable goal that no other country feels so deeply. But whatever political trauma the big country is going through currently, it seemed awkward to translate it into clothes, especially by a designer who comes from outside the continent.

Edited through and placed in the Calvin Klein Madison store, this collection will look like what it is: cleverly cast garments with an intriguing artistic feel. But like horror movies, there is an underlying feeling of discomfort that left a question mark on the show itself.Read more at:wedding dresses australia | simple wedding dresses

White Nationalist Uniform of Polo Shirts Takes Center Stage in Charlottesville

At the horrific events in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend, where white nationalist, neo-Nazi and Ku Klux Klan members turned the college town into a deadly ideological battleground with their racist taunts, many of the participants wore a distinctive uniform — white polo shirts and khakis.

It was jarring to see their young faces, twisted with hate, and their outfits, more Verizon customer service agent than redneck. Unlike previous generations of racists, they didn’t cover up in hoods, they were front and center for the cameras, wearing a onetime emblem of preppydom, the polo shirt, also known as the tennis or golf shirt, that has in recent years become the uniform of the everyman of any color, worn by everyone from Def Jam Recordings co-founder Russell Simmons to president Barack Obama.

In media accounts, the white polo shirt and khakis look has been described as the uniform of Vanguard America, the neo-Nazi group founded in Charlottesville that was among several hate groups protesting the city council’s decision to remove a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee and rename Lee Park. The Southern Poverty Law Center calls it the “premier organization when it comes to street demonstrations in the alt-right.”

If you go to the organization’s website, there is a section labeled “store,” but it directs to the message, “We are currently working on our website.” One imagines the polo shirts, featuring the organization’s neo-Nazi emblems, will one day soon be for sale there — today’s version of Adolph Hitler’s brown shirts.

Hollywood imagemakers took notice of the look. Stylist Karla Welch (Justin Bieber, Lorde, Tracee Ellis Ross) Instagrammed a photo of the rally with the caption, “the face of #MAGA, aka total losers.” And stylist Jeanne Yang (who has worked with Robert Downey Jr., Matt Bomer and many other Hollywood leading men) directed me to a Vice story citing a blog post by white nationalist Andrew Anglin in the Daily Stormer schooling those heading to Charlottesville on the importance of fashion. “The core of marketing is aesthetic. We need to look appealing,” he wrote. “We have to be hip and we have to be sexy.”

White nationalists’ and neo-Nazis’ embrace of the polo speaks to the fact that that they are trying to appear mainstream, organized and well-to-do, which it seems from demographic reporting on these racists, they are. Many of them are college-educated and employed.

The whole ugly mess made me start thinking about the politicization of the polo shirt, and whether the style might fall out of favor among the mainstream as it becomes more strongly associated with fringe hate groups.

The pique polo shirt was first popularized by tennis player René Lacoste in the 1920s as an alternative to traditional tennis clothing he found too constricting. He put a crocodile emblem on the shirt in 1927, after the American press had started calling him “The Crocodile,” and he turned the concept into a clothing brand in the 1930s.

In the 1940s, British tennis player Fred Perry launched his own version of the tennis shirt, using a laurel wreath for a logo, based on the original symbol for Wimbledon. In recent years, alt-right group The Proud Boys, has adopted black-and-yellow Fred Perry polos as its uniform, following a tradition of the politicization of the brand that started in the 1960s, when skinheads wore polo shirts as a subversion of British elitism. The Southern Poverty Law Center includes Fred Perry in its glossary of racist skinhead terms.

Fast-forward to the 1970s when fashion designer Ralph Lauren, born Ralph Lifshitz in the Bronx, made the polo shirt (emblazoned with a polo pony) the cornerstone of his WASP (White Anglo Saxon Protestant)-aspirational lifestyle brand, which sold the idea that any American, even a Jew from the Bronx like Lifshitz, could attain an aristocratic lifestyle.

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