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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

Don’t let those delicate Barbie-esque features fool you. Belying that diminutive build is a savvy star who knows precisely how to make the most of what she’s been blessed with. Pretty pastels are all well and good, until Disha Patani digs into her bag of tricks to channel her inner bombshell on the red carpet with come-hither smoky eyes and siren red mattes.

Always a fan of extremes, she made her presence felt on the Bollywood scene as a carefree spirit opposite Tiger Shroff in the music video, “Befikra” before making a straight-laced debut on the big screen with MS Dhoni: The Untold Story (2016). When she wasn’t ruling the billboards in 2017, she made an appearance at the international box office with Kung Fu Yoga. With her next project Baaghi 2 slated for a summer release next year, here’s following her beauty trajectory thus far.

Debut diaries

With her peaches-and-cream glow in place, the 25-year-old wisely placed her bets on pastels for her first round of public appearances in 2016. As the year wore on, she flexed her muscles and boldly juxtaposed her dreamy golden gown with tangerine matte lips at an awards function. And well, there’s been no looking back ever since. From messy curls to micro braids to orchid-hued lips, Patani kept her beauty kit on its toes through the second half of the year. Her off-duty aesthetic, meanwhile, had her giving her skin some downtime with the barest minimum hint of makeup and a tinted lip balm for rehydration purposes.

Beauty files

With a packed roster of social commitments, Patani started 2017 steadily with a range of nude makeup looks, before turning up the dial in summer and stepping out with a head full of devil-may-care ribbon curls. On the opposite end of the spectrum, her red-carpet appearances featured everything from faux retro lobs to marsala lips. Her curling iron was called upon service regularly through the year as she flitted between glam updos for award nights and a halo of lively spirals for events during the day. 2017 also called for her first major hair transformation moment as she allowed her precious mane under the scissors and walked out with a set of asymmetrical bangs framing her petite features. If you’ve been looking for some beauty inspiration to end the year on a high note, flip through the gallery above to learn from Patani’s best tricks.Read more at:bridesmaid dresses brisbane | vintage bridesmaid dresses

(Photo:black bridesmaid dresses)Cold feet, butterflies, anxiety, or pre-wedding jitters, whatever you call it, best believe it is real. Your wedding must be perfect, but the jitters can make your stomach crawl at the thought of getting married. Dr Sidney McGill, a relationship specialist, spoke with Flair about how you can deal with the uneasiness.

There is no single cause of the anxieties. However, “Doubts and fears from knowledge of marriages that have ended up in separation or divorce and experience in past relationships are some of the causes of the jitters,” Dr McGill told Flair.

Maybe you fear that you are not good enough for your partner or you will not be a great husband or wife, and there is nothing wrong with that. According to Dr McGill, the jitters are completely normal and are not necessarily red flags to call off a wedding.

“It is only a red flag when it gets to the extreme, like when you cannot sleep. This is when you should get help,” Dr McGill said.

There are several signs of wedding jitters, such as being constantly nervous, forgetful and irritable, feeling fearful, and even having insomnia. They may come anytime, even on your wedding day.

To overcome these challenges, Dr McGill has provided five tips for you.

1. Talking about your problems always helps. Your partner, a trusted friend, or a professional counsellor are some persons you should confide in at this time.

2. Eat properly and rest well. Sometimes a little rest is all that your body and mind need to relax and recuperate from the stress of planning a wedding.

3. Stick to your daily routine. Ladies, crash-dieting to squeeze into your dress two weeks before your wedding will not help. It will only cause added stress.

4. Accept your partner’s faults. By now you should have already done so, but if you have not, it’s now time. It makes no sense you expect a magical bliss after the wedding if you are not comfortable with your partner before you tie the knot.

5. Get a wedding planner. Delegating the responsibility to others to give you a splendid wedding usually helps. It means less trauma and anxiety.Read more at:wedding dresses

IN A CLASSROOM in southern England, a group of 17-year-old girls has just learned something extraordinary. The pupils are interviewing a couple, Jane and Graham Marshall, who have been sent to their school by the Students Exploring Marriage Trust, a charity that tries to promote wedlock by providing teenagers with real-life examples. Mr Marshall has mentioned that he has been married to Mrs Marshall for 48 years. “Aww,” say the girls. Then they stop to think, because Jane and Graham do not look terribly old. Hold on, asks one pupil after a few seconds—how old were you when you got married? Nineteen, says Mr Marshall. The pupils gasp. “Whoa!” says one.

It is a long cultural journey from half a century ago to the present. Out of every 1,000 unmarried adult women living in England and Wales in 1970, whether single, divorced or widowed, 60 got hitched. Women married for the first time at a median age of 21, to men who were two years older. One-third of brides under 20 were bounced into marriage, with a baby arriving less than eight months after the wedding. To have a child outside wedlock was almost unthinkable.

These days the marriage rate in England and Wales is just 21 per 1,000 single women in any one year. The median age at first marriage has climbed to 30 for women and 31 for men. Having children outside marriage is almost the norm. Fully 48% of English and Welsh babies were born to unmarried mothers in 2016, up from 8% in 1970.

Marriage is no longer thought essential, even for raising children. Even so, Britons seem to idealise marriage more than ever. A once universal institution has become the mark of having made it, both romantically and economically. Among the privileged group of people who attain wedlock—call them the uxariat—marriage is becoming more egalitarian and more resilient. These changes are reflected in wedding ceremonies, in the division of housework and in bed.

NatCen Social Research, an independent institute, has been surveying Britons’ attitudes to sex and marriage since the early 1980s. In almost every respect, it finds that people are becoming more liberal. In 2016, for example, 75% of Britons declared that premarital sex was not wrong at all, up from 42% in 1983. With each passing survey, fewer people say that couples who want children ought to marry first. But there is an important exception to this easy-going rule. All Britons, especially young ones, now take a more critical view of affairs. Marriage seems ever less necessary but also ever more inviolate.

An ever-shrinking share of the population embarks on it. In the first quarter of 2017, 65% of top professional adults in Britain were married, according to the Labour Force Survey. For people in routine jobs the proportion was 44%, and for the unemployed and those who had never worked 40%. Among women with young children the social divide is even sharper. The Marriage Foundation, a charity, calculates that 87% of women in the highest-earning quintile with children under five are married, compared with only 24% in the lowest-earning quintile.

It is not quite accurate to say that in Britain the rich marry and the poor do not. Rather, marriage is favoured by well-off people and some ethnic minorities, especially immigrants and the offspring of immigrants from countries such as Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Somalia, which have strong marriage cultures. The part of Britain with the lowest proportion of births outside marriage, at 20%, is Harrow, a middle-class London suburb where less than one-third of the population is white British. The highest rate, at 75%, is in Knowsley, a poor suburb of Liverpool where 19 out of 20 people are white Britons.

Laura and Richard, a middle-class couple in their late 20s living in Leeds, will marry next year. Both are clear about the proper order: marriage first, then children. They are less clear about why they believe this. Laura is Catholic but Richard is not, and she does not ascribe her views to her faith. “It’s just how I’ve always thought I want my life to be,” she says. It is probably significant, though, that almost everybody she and Richard know has done the same thing.

As marriage becomes the preserve of such careful people, unions are growing more resilient. If you wanted it to last, the worst years to marry in England and Wales, statistically, were in the mid-1990s. Among those who tied the knot in 1996, 11% had split up by the fifth year of marriage and 25% by the tenth. Couples who married a decade later are faring better. Among those who wed in 2006, 8% had split by their fifth year and 20% by their tenth year. More recent cohorts seem to be even more steadfast.

Much the same is happening in other countries. Across Europe, except in Belgium, highly educated women are less likely to have children outside marriage. In America education and marriage go hand-in-hand, to the extent that marriage rates are now higher among women with PhDs than among women with bachelor’s degrees. At the age of 45, the average university-educated American man has led a fairly straightforward personal life. Fully 88% of such men have married, and three-quarters of those are still married to their first wives. Men who did not finish high school are less likely to have married and, if they have, more likely to have divorced.

The marrying classes have become ever better at picking partners who are similar to them. Three academic economists, Pierre-André Chiappori, Bernard Salanié and Yoram Weiss, have shown that white Americans are increasingly likely to marry partners of the same educational level. This trend is sometimes ascribed to the growing numbers of female graduates, but the economists control for that and still find evidence of growing selectivity. Other studies show that women tend to marry men who share their attitude to financial risk, and that people with similar levels of parental wealth tend to end up together.

These marriages of social and educational equals seem to be satisfying, especially for women—who, at least in Britain, drive divorce trends. Since 1979 British men have consistently filed between 38,000 and 48,000 divorce petitions per year. Women, by contrast, went from filing 96,000 petitions in 1979 to 118,000 in 1993, before dropping to 65,000 in 2016.

Perhaps husbands have become less objectionable. Academics at Oxford University have shown that although women still do more housework than men, the gap has narrowed everywhere. In 1974 British women cleaned, cooked and laundered for 172 hours a year more than men. By 2005 they were putting in only 74 hours more. In America, the difference between the time married working women and men spent doing housework each day fell from 38 to 28 minutes between 2003-06 and 2011-15.

Be fair

Not only are men behaving better; women increasingly prize better behaviour among men. Daniel Carlson, a sociologist at the University of Utah, has shown that couples (whether married or cohabiting) who share child care and housework duties more equally report greater satisfaction in their relationships and in their sex lives. In the 1980s and 1990s the opposite was true. Men and women used to be content to specialise—he paying the mortgage, she changing the nappies. No longer.

For those who achieve it, marriage increasingly looks like a triumph. More than in the past, it is a fulfilling union between two people who collaborate (if still rather unequally) in child care, housework and money-earning. Almost all couples now live together before they marry, so people are well aware of what their partners expect of them. Most will have several more years to fine-tune their behaviour before the arrival of children.

Weddings have come to express this triumphant view. Now that couples are older and wealthier, gifts are downplayed: some ask for donations to a favourite charity. Brides and grooms splash out on lavish ceremonies that demonstrate their devotion to each other. Mathilde Robert, managing director of Planet Weddings, has been organising ceremonies for British couples in Cyprus and Greece since the early 1990s. In the early years, she says, most of her clients were middle-aged and marrying for the second time. They had money and wanted to treat themselves; most invited only a few guests. These days most of her clients are marrying for the first time and invite dozens of people. The majority pay for the wedding themselves.

There is, however, a cost to this kind of marriage. If you insist on a strong relationship and a healthy bank balance before tying the knot, and on piling up even more wealth before starting a family, your chances of having the number of children you want become slimmer. In most rich countries, the more highly qualified the woman, the more likely she is to remain childless. Many childless people are perfectly happy. But others endure expensive medical treatment and great disappointment.

Little wonder, then, that many people choose a different trade-off. In another paper, Mr Carlson examines what a mixed-race cohort of young Americans expected of life when they were interviewed in 1979 and what actually happened to them. Their aspirations were almost identical. Fully 98% of whites and Hispanics and 94% of blacks expected to marry, and all reckoned they would embark on parenthood at 23 or 24. White Americans hit the first target, more or less—90% ended up marrying—but were, on average, three years late in having children. Blacks and Hispanics, who in America are disproportionately working-class, came closer to hitting their ideal child-bearing age but fell far short of their marriage targets. Only 83% of Hispanics and 68% of blacks ended up marrying.

“Poor people and rich people want the same things,” says Kathryn Edin, who studies the romantic lives of impoverished Americans. If anything, she says, the least fortunate cling most tightly to a romantic marriage ideal. Faced with messy reality, though, people of different means prioritise different things. Poor women tend to put children above marriage, largely because the men they might marry are not up to much.

A lost world

For a glimpse of working-class life and love in the mid-20th century, there is little better than Stan Barstow’s British novel of 1960, “A Kind of Loving”. Its protagonist, Vic Brown, is dragged into a miserable marriage after he gets his 18-year-old girlfriend pregnant. If that seems like an account of a lost world, so is the labour market depicted in the novel. Characters walk out of stable jobs and into new ones with ease. At one point, a man who has been chastised by his boss for fighting calmly takes out a newspaper and runs his finger down the job advertisements.

These days a pregnant 18-year-old would probably not marry her boyfriend even if he asked. He may well be incapable of supporting her and the baby, and she has better options outside marriage than she did in 1960. Jobs for thinly educated men have become insecure and unrewarding. In America, wages for men who did not complete high school fell by 32% in real terms between 1979 and 2015; and men who finished high school but did not go to university earned 19% less than they did. Women fared somewhat better: pay for female school dropouts fell by 10%, whereas pay for those who finished high school was up by 4%.

That bleak economic reality helps to explain why attempts to promote marriage have such a dismal record. America’s federal government has given hundreds of millions of dollars to programmes that seek to nudge poor people into wedlock or teach couples how to resolve conflict. These programmes have been found to have hardly any effect.

Conservatives point out that none of the barriers to marriage in Western societies are insurmountable. It is not necessary to have a lavish wedding. A man who sometimes drops out of work might nonetheless prove a good husband and father. Poverty does not in itself prevent anybody from tying the knot—at least not in Western countries. In China it does.Read more at:wedding dresses | bridesmaid dresses

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

Amazon Fashion Week Tokyo is almost at an end, and the nation’s best-known designers have taken to the catwalks of the Japanese capital to showcase their vision for Spring/Summer 2018. Here are five of the strongest looks so far.

Meiking NG

Athleisure was given a high-fashion twist at Hong Kong label Meiking NG, where a neon yellow mesh vest was given a playful drawstring waist and tutu-style peplum and teamed with slouchy grey joggers for a low-key look.

Hanae Mori

At Hanae Mori the focus was on vibrant color and swirling pattern, with layers piled up for an eye-catching look. Floaty culottes and kimono-style dresses made for graceful silhouettes that contrasted with the bold color palette.

Elza Winkler

Things took on an abstract tone at Elza Winkler, where this structured ruffled dress struck a perfect balance between the severe and the whimsical.

Heaven Please+

Hong Kong label Heaven Please+ focused on clashing prints and colors, pairing artistic, illustration-style embellishments with vibrant and unexpected ruffle details for a fun yet accessible aesthetic.

Dressed Undressed

Barely-there nude hues and sheer fabrics contrasted beautifully with tailored formalwear or slouchy, statement outerwear at DressedUndressed, resulting in a sophisticated aesthetic that combined a delicate, feminine approach with an urban utilitarianism.Read more at:wedding dresses | wedding dresses 2017