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Nothing beats a good pair of shoes, one fashion graduate found recently.

Twenty-four-year-old Ganga Patel took out the 2016 Wellington Most Commercial Collection at New Zealand Fashion Tech’s end-of-year-show in November 2016.

More than 100 people had turned out for the show and it wasn’t just models going down the runway – Patel had to walk it too, a nerve-racking experience..

“I chose to wear flats so I wouldn’t fall off the stage!”

Her line of streetwear was judged the most likely to be sold out of the rest of her classmates’ designs.

It was only on the night Patel found out she had won.

“When I heard my name I was like, ‘Oh! Really?’. It was quite overwhelming.”

Patel has been making clothes for years and said when she was growing up she admired her cousin’s outfits and often black prom dresses uk up in them.

Her passion for fashion continued through high school where she took design classes before starting at NZ Fashion Tech, studying fashion technology for three years.

Last year was the final year of her course.

“I came out of it and I just loved it. It made me more confident about what I was making this year.”

The winning fashion line was one of her final projects. Working over six weeks Patel created her line, calling it Subtle Variance.

She created the clothes for anyone to wear and wanted the outfits to reflect the idea that variations in people, such as skin colour or gender, didn’t matter.

“With the models, I did stipulate for them to be as multicultural as possible,” she said.

As a bonus, one of the models even asked if she could buy the outfit she wore down the catwalk.

“So that was a compliment in itself,” Patel said.

For now, the fashion graduate is working at the Hill Hats factory to save to buy her own sewing machine and start off a brand.

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When she walked out of the White House to greet the Italian Prime Minster Matteo Renzi and his wife for her final state dinner she was stunning.

Dressed in a sleeveless, chainmail, rose-gold, Atelier Versace gown and sleek hair swooped over to one side, First Lady Michelle Obama solidified her fashion legacy.

Over the years, the first lady has wowed trend watcher with deeply personal style choices that were a decided departure from the traditional, conservative wear of first ladies of yesteryear.

“It’s like my music,” Obama said at a White House roundtable in 2011. “Everything in my closet is something that I love, so that I can make choices based on what makes sense, knowing that I’m going to love whatever it is. I think that tends to be my philosophy.”

She’s a first lady who felt equally comfortable donning sleeveless pink prom dresses uk with floral prints or wearing a Wes Gordon metallic houndstooth jacket and high waist skinny jeans.

Obama has a conservative style that appeals to the office, but also a trendy side that appeals to the masses, said Joiee Thorpe, fashion editor for Essence Magazine. As one of the first women in the White House with a statuesque figure, Obama knows and is confident about what works for her physique, Thorpe added.

“That’s the major key for women in America everywhere, to get it right,’ Thorpe said. “When you really get it right, that’s when you know how to dress your body and no one can tell you anything. She wears a dress and it sells out immediately.”

At President Obama’s final state of the union address, the first lady wore a sleeveless, marigold midi dress by fashion designer Narciso Rodriguez. The dress originally priced at $2,095.00 and on sale for $628 at Neiman Marcus, was sold out before the president finished his speech and set social media abuzz.

Obama’s penchants for rocking dresses that show her well-toned arms influenced dress trends.

And she’s even shown a little cleavage from time to time.

At the China State Dinner in 2015, she wore a long, black, off the shoulder, mermaid-style Vera Wang dress.

Speaking at the 2012 Democratic National Convention she was poised, yet fashionable wearing a sleeveless, pink and gold Tracy Reese green prom dresses and pink, suede heels from J. Crew. The shoes retail at $245 and are so popular they are hard to keep in stock to this day.

She has raised the fashion bar for other first ladies to follow, making room for them to play with their own style.

“First ladies will be comfortable making choices if they’re the type of person who likes fashion. They will no longer be afraid to make decisions that aren’t ultra conservative. They won’t be afraid to expose their shoulders or wear a pencil skirt or wear prints and patterns.”

She is not only a trendsetter with her wardrobe, she also set trends by changing up her hairstyle.

In August 2013, she rocked honey blonde highlights at a Washington D.C. movie premiere and wore the same highlight in layers in March 2014. But whether it’s long tresses with a bang or a bob cut with a deep middle part, her hair was always flawless for the occasion at hand, Thorpe said adding “how hair goes with an outfit makes a big difference.”

“First and foremost, I wear what I love,” she said in an interview in 2009 with Vogue. “That’s what women have to focus on: what makes them happy and what makes them feel comfortable and beautiful. If I can have any impact, I want women to feel good about themselves and have fun with fashion.”

Fashion arbiters the world over will be scrutinising the outfit Melania Trump wears on Friday, January 20 at the inauguration of her husband, US president-elect Donald Trump.

If history is anything to go by, the first-lady-in-waiting’s ensemble for the Inaugural Ball will be in a shade of red, white or blue, ­reflecting the American flag.

In keeping with tradition, an American designer will almost certainly purple prom dresses Trump, and Zac Posen (who has dressed Michelle Obama, Uma Thurman and Rihanna, among others) is a front-runner.

There are many big names, however, who are not so keen to be considered, including Marc Jacobs, who is no fan of Trump’s husband. Tom Ford has also said she should not choose his collections, because they are not made in the United States but in ­Italy. He added that a first lady should wear clothes “at a price point that is accessible to most Americans”.

Another dissenting voice is ­Sophie Theallet, whose ­independent label has dressed Michelle Obama since President Obama entered office in 2009.

“As one who celebrates and strives for diversity, individual freedom, and respect for all lifestyles, I will not participate in dressing or associating in any way with the next first lady,” says Theallet. “I encourage my fellow designers to do the same.”

Designers from the Middle East have rarely featured in the ­wardrobe of previous first ladies. “Fashion is boundless and it shouldn’t have political affiliations, nor should it discriminate,” says Dubai-based couturier to the rich and famous, Michael Cinco.

“It would be an honour and a pleasure to dress the incoming first lady. She has vowed to strengthen her advocacy for the welfare of women and children, and she’s a woman of intelligence and beauty – and at 5’11″ [180cm], one of the tallest first ladies. So, I would certainly love to purple prom dress her.”

In exchange for a first lady wearing their pieces, designers are likely to receive worldwide media coverage rather than the hundreds of thousands of dirhams the couture itself might cost.

The White House remains stubbornly tight lipped about how the first lady’s vast wardrobe is obtained, but it is believed most outfits for major events are either “donated” or borrowed.

For the other, day-to-day outfits, despite having no clothing ­allowance or a salary, some first ladies choose to pay for them, albeit for a nominal fee.

“Mrs Obama pays for her clothing,” says Joanna Rosholm, Michelle Obama’s press secretary.

“For official events of public or historic significance, such as a state visit, the first lady’s clothes may be given as a gift by a designer and accepted on behalf of the US government. They are then stored by the National Archives.”

January is a terrible time for buying clothes — don’t let anyone convince you otherwise.

The old season’s leftovers are on sale, the new season hasn’t arrived, and besides, who actually needs anything new other than a pair of wellies and a replacement umbrella in this hideous weather?

As far as I can see, it’s far better to put the wardrobe equivalent of dry January into action, a detoxification exercise where you consume nothing and get rid of excess rubbish to reveal a rationally streamlined you.

Thus, decks will be cleared, and by the end of it you’ll have directed your shopping hunger towards something which will really fill a gap and serve a purpose.

That, anyway, has been my plan: keep out of shops, stay off the internet and concentrate, ruthlessly, on sorting everything into ‘yes’ and ‘no’ piles.

And if you’re going to do sober fashion month properly then your wardrobe must be rationalised to the point where everything goes with everything and each item is deemed worthy of active service.

Frankly, like most women, I wear only a fraction of what I own so the ‘yes’ pile has turned out to be shockingly small — which is no bad thing when it all has to fit into a suitcase of a size I can haul onto the Eurostar. The fashion shows start tomorrow in Paris, so we’ll see if my editing has worked.

It’s been telling how many things I have in rotation this winter which are old favourites — some of them really old. These are the pieces that were well considered when they were bought and thus have stood the test of time. I don’t think anyone should have the slightest fear of recycling things or ‘re-wearing’.

I overcame the cringing worry about being repeatedly seen in the same thing by asking myself two simple questions. Number one, do I myself notice when colleagues do it? Answer, rarely.

Question two, on the occasions I do notice a well-loved thing worn again and again, do I judge the wearer poorly for it? I do not.

On a more subtle sartorial note, when you edit down your wardrobe to the quintessentially right pieces, these become integral to you — your style, something above fashion. In fact, accumulating an archive is one of the great satisfactions of age.

Of course you must consider old stock in the light of where fashion is heading. This winter, I’ve figured out it all flows from having the right set of coats.

Last year and several before that, the knee-length crombie automatically went with skinny trousers and jeans, and that was that. Now, with midi skirts and marieprom dresses and wider trousers in the ascendant, crombies have suddenly stopped working.

If you can delve in the back of your hall cupboard and come up with a long, belted coat which has been languishing there unloved since the Nineties, bingo! I did. That’s the shape which ideally compliments all under-layers now.

As far as top halves are concerned, my ‘yes’ pile contains one retrieved Victoriana ivory crepe blouse with billowy sleeves, one blue cotton shirt with a frilled front by Bella Freud, an old argyle sweater (provenance forgotten), a black, silk, Forties blouse and long, slinky-knit jumper I bought from Prada three years ago.

In terms of trousers and skirts, I’ll be rotating a bias-cut midi and three pairs of tailored trousers which tend towards fluidity. All black. One way or another, the tops and bottoms all co-ordinate for day or evening.

Other than that, I’m packing two pairs of boots, some Christian Louboutin platforms (back in service from 2003), and a variety of scarves — silk ones to tuck into shirts and long woolly ones for the cold.

That’s about all the kit a woman should need to get through the next couple of weeks anyway, I reckon.

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Top aesthetic clinic EF MEDISPA is holding its first Bridal Beauty Show on Thursday 23 February, giving brides-to-be the chance to sample high-end beauty treatments ahead of their big day.

Located on Whiteladies Road, EF MEDISPA opened its doors last year and has become a favourite of local beauty bloggers thanks to its cutting edge treatment menu.

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Guests at the Bridal Beauty Show will be treated to Prosecco, canapes and luxury goody bags as well as taster treatments from beauty, skincare and cosmetics experts at the clinic. There will also be a host of local wedding suppliers offering exclusive discounts.

EF MEDISPA owner, Elena Hunt, said: “Your wedding day is probably the most important and photographed event of your life so to ensure you’re camera and aisle ready we decided to host an exclusive bridal event so our experts can give advice on beauty and skincare regimes, suitable bespoke treatments and offer free treatments and consultations.

“We are hosting the event in conjunction with national bridal magazine Wedding Ideas and we’ve handpicked some great local suppliers so that brides can not only plan their beauty treatments in time for the big day, but also meet other fabulous local businesses who can make their wedding dreams a reality!

“Some of the taster treatments on offer will be the LED facial, bespoke facials, skin analysis and custom make-overs by Young Blood Cosmetics.

“This is a bridal event with added wow-factor, offering brides and their bride squads a fun, girly night out and the chance to plan a wedding in style!“

Helen Applin, Sales & Event Manager at Hotel du Vin said: “As a popular venue for weddings and celebrations, Hotel du Vin & Bistro is delighted to attend EF MEDISPA’s Bridal Beauty Show, which promises to showcase some of the very best suppliers that Bristol has to offer.“

EF MEDISPA is a multi-award winning medispa group, frequented by celebrities and socialites, with four clinics in London and one in Bristol. Specialising in advanced technology to combat fine lines, acne, pigmentation, sun damage and other concerns, they achieve stunning results.

Using cutting edge technology and high-end luxury product lines including Biologique Recherche, Cellcosmet and Skinceuticals EF MEDISPA can help with all of your aesthetic needs before the big day.

The event is taking place at the Whiteladies Road clinic on Thursday 23 February from 6pm-8pm.

Guests will meet some of the South West’s top wedding suppliers including Hotel Du Vin, Neil Phillips Photography, Kieran Clarke Entertainment, Selfie Mirror South West and Mulberry Weddings and Events who will be offering exclusive discounts.

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Keeping up with her trend of minimalistic fashion, Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra wore a Ralph Lauren sequinned gown that took 1600 hours of embroidery to make, at the recently held Golden Globe awards at Beverly Hills, California. She paired the body-fitted gilded gown with a stunning diamond neckpiece by Lorraine Schwartz.

With her spectacular outings at the international awards last year — a sensuous Zuhair Murad white prom dresses 2017 at Oscars 2016 and the twirling hot red gown by Jason Wu at the Emmy’s — both national and international media had their eyes on this diva. Though E! Online listed Priyanka’s look amongst the worst dressed celebrities at this year’s award ceremony, the Indian design fraternity feels the star rocked the chic look with class but could do better.

The detailing in the garment uplifted the look to the next level and Priyanka is definitely moving in the right direction, feels designer Urvashi Kaur. “She is becoming bolder and more confident of herself in terms of her fashion choices and has a more international appeal now. I have never noticed her before when she was in India as she never challenged the prototypes earlier and was missing the fashion quotient. Now she looks more modern and on trend,” Urvashi adds.

The actress who made her international debut with Quantico last year looks sexy and elegant, says designer Rina Dhaka and adds, “To stand next to fashionista Sofia Vergara and look as hot and sexy as her, I believe Priyanka did it with utmost grace and sensuality. Also, her look is very modern elegant and the gold works well on her skin tone.”

Talking about her previous red carpet looks, Rina states, “Her previous two red carpet looks (Oscars and Emmy 2016) have been more in the lines of romantic chic, but this one is more glam yet modern simplicity. The open neck adds newness to the whole look and the straight silhouette fits perfectly well with her figure. The open hair and strong lip colour added elements to the whole look.”

Urvashi feels the prom dresses 2017 is glamorous and Priyanka looks gorgeous, but from international standards she isn’t there yet. “Priyanka is yet to get it (fashion) like Freida Pinto does but she is working her way up to it. Her fashion taste is evolving.”

Adding to the point, designer Poonam Bhagat states, “I personally did not like the whole look and believe that Priyanka could have done much better. Instead of a plunging neckline, I would have preferred a deeper back. Also, the open hair is making her look broader. With oxblood lip colour, which gives a vintage feel, a 1930’s hairstyle would have looked better, more elegant and chic on Priyanka. Though she wore a beautiful diamond neckpiece, I think a choker would have looked better as she has many lines on her neck, which needs to be covered.”

A new beauty salon has opened in downtown Rochester, and the owner is offering discounts for those who help keep the community safe.

Freedom Beauty Salon, located at 7 Hanson St., opened in December. The salon offers discounted haircuts to veterans, those in active military duty, police officers, firefighters and first-responder EMTs, said owner Jenni Olson.

Olson, of Rochester, has previously been the area manager for the Great Clips hair salon in Rochester and Concord, and has also worked at Tresses in Rochester. In opening up her own business, she wanted to offer a place that offers not just haircuts, but full beauty service including hair coloring, waxing, a nail salon and hair styling.

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“I want customers to come in and be able to do it all in one facility,” said Olson.

After advice from a friend who works in real estate, she decided to open her own beauty salon.

“I decided it was time. It was now or never,” said Olson, 33.

Olson looked at several possible locations for her business, and the building at 7 Hanson St. seemed ideal.

“I fell in love with the building,” she said. “It’s an older building, I like primitive. This building has a lot of charm to me.”

The location is also desirable – the salon is located in downtown, but is tucked away from the main strip, she said.

Olson signed the three-year lease on the building in October. Although she may consider purchasing the building down the road, she will be taking her new business venture one step at a time.

Before opening, there were two months of renovations that included new flooring, repainting the walls, installing new plumbing and electrical work, and putting in the insulation in the basement.

So far, Olson has had business from many of her regular customers that she had gotten to know through her work at previous salons. Newer customers have been slower to get through the doors, and Olson hopes to see more veterans, active military members, and first-responders walk through her doors for discounted haircuts.

In a recent interview, Olson spoke about her decision to name her salon after the word “freedom.”

“‘Freedom’ came to me because I never worked at a salon where you could be who you are,” she said.

At Freedom Beauty Salon, Olson is striving to bring positive energy to her clients. She said she is an upbeat, happy person “and people feel that.”

As she spoke about her work in the beauty industry, Olson said, “It’s my passion. It’s my happy spot. I love making people feel better.”

“I want to run a salon the right way,” she said. “I want to have a positive experience, with morals that I know are true. I always want to be true to who I am and always be true to my employees.”

So far Olson has one employee, who is the lead stylist. But Olson will soon also have an apprentice and additional employees down the road, she said.

“It’s a great start. I’m more than lucky with what I have,” said Olson.

The salon also features a playroom for kids. Olson said she wants her clients to be comfortable bringing their children.

“When mothers get their haircuts the children have somewhere to go,” said Olson.

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This past July, Leslie Jones was preparing to make the leap from Saturday Night Live cast member to legit movie actress, costarring alongside comedy’s biggest names in the hotly anticipated Ghostbusters. Jones should have been elated. Instead, she was stressed out. Not only was she under a daily siege of highly pub- licized, baldly racist attacks by social media trolls, but about two weeks before the movie’s premiere—the single most photographed night of her career—she had nothing to wear, and no prospects in sight. In desperation and disgust, Jones took to Twitter, calling out designers for not offering to help. Surfing above the hate mail came a reply: two “waving hand” emojis from Christian Siriano—his way of saying, “Come over here, girl. I’d love to celebrity dresses you.” (Her response: “yaaaaaassssss.”) At the premiere, Jones stepped onto the ectoplasm-green carpet in a regal, off-the-shoulder red Siriano. The designer Instagrammed her photo with the hashtag #prettywoman. Jones raves, “We are now friends for life! I love this man. He saw the beauty in me, in every woman.”

Fourteen days later, at the Democratic National Convention, Michelle Obama—the best thing to happen to American fashion since the Singer sewing machine—strode onstage to de- liver the most stirring speech of her political life in a simple, cobalt-blue full-skirted dress. Its designer? Christian Siriano.

Finally. It has taken nine long years for the arbiters of fashion to give in to the indisputable reality that Christian Siriano—the hair-gelled, finger-snapping alum not of Parsons or FIT but of Project Runway, season four—has the talent, focus, and obviously the perseverance to be a viable and, for a rapidly growing circle of wom- en, welcome force in American fashion.

It’s not as if Siriano has lacked for recognition. But fame, especially for a reality TV star, does not equal respect (see: Kardashians, Hiltons, Bachelorettes, et al.), and in an industry in which sharp- eyed insiders often compete for the self-satisfaction of anointing unknown talent, Siriano’s instant, unmistakably mass appeal following his Runway win was long cause for disdain. You can’t claim credit for “discovering” someone millions of viewers already chose. It didn’t help that the show’s sly editing had shaped Siriano into a cartoonish persona complete with crowd-pleasing catch-phrases like “Fierce!” and “Hot tranny mess!” (Runway host Tim Gunn nicknamed him “Woody Woodpecker.”)

Siriano grew up in Annapolis, Maryland, the son of two teachers who divorced when he was five. He loved musical theater, and studied ballet alongside his older sister until he became more taken with the costumes than dance itself. By age 13, he was designing clothes, a passion that intensified in high school at Baltimore School of the Arts. After being rejected by FIT, he moved to London, earning a degree in fashion design at American InterContinental University while interning at Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen. In New York after graduation, he made wedding red carpet dresses for private clients and briefly interned at Marc Jacobs. A friend told him about Runway. “I figured, I had no money; I just needed a job, so why not audition?,” he says. “People did warn me about the stigma attached to reality shows, but winning got me on Oprah, and Amy Poehler played me on Saturday Night Live. That was fun. But I also realized quickly that this wouldn’t last, so I decided early on to figure this thing out for myself.”

When Siriano, then 21, “walked in to audition, my first reaction was, ‘He’s just out of design school, not fully baked, so why are we seeing him?’ ” Gunn recalls. “He was in the room for half a minute when I turned to the judges and said, ‘I’ve been teaching for 30 years and have never met a fashion prodigy until today.’ If I had any worries, it was that Christian came equipped with such confidence he could have turned into an egomaniacal diva.” On that count, Gunn is “delighted but not surprised to be wrong.”

At Siriano’s no-nonsense, sketch-lined workrooms in New York City’s Chelsea, the designs-in-progress are neither directional nor needle-moving. But what they lack in editorial urgency is made up for in an effusive love of color, an obsessive workmanship, and a knack for the kind of camera-ready glamour that elevated Grace Kelly to a screen goddess—all in line with the designer’s ultimate goal of, as he puts it, becoming someone “all women can trust in when they want to be beautiful.” Recent red-carpet arrivals indicate that stars as varied as Jennifer Lopez, Kerry Washington, Lady Gaga, Coco Rocha, Ariana Grande, Tina Fey, Shailene Woodley, Sia, and Angela Bassett are believers. As are Neiman Marcus shoppers, who snap up his petal-appliquéd and floral-printed gowns for $3,000-plus.

A former beauty queen from Bulgaria is being accused of accidentally killing her husband after a rough sex session.

Anita Meyzer and Nikolai Dimoy were having a moment that seemed right out of “Fifty Shades Of Grey” and practicing BDSM, that includes acts like bondage and masochism. During one of their latest fantasies, things got out of hand with the latter losing his life when things got out of control.

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Anita explained that she was a wife that needed to satisfy his man and would always record their sessions, according to Peru.com. She added that her husband had strange fetishes and one night he asked her to tie him up with plastic ties around his arms, neck and legs.

During the bondage session, her husband tried to break free and remove the ties, but ended up tightening them and strangling himself to death.

Where this story takes a turn is that Meyzer initially lied to police saying that she was out shopping and when she returned home she found her husband dead. To make matters worse, she tried to hide the cable ties and attempted to bribe a cop as well so the truth about his accidental death wouldn’t come to life.

Now Anita Meyzer has to face the consequences for her actions. She will spend three years in jail.

She said: “I’m sorry for what happened, for 4 months I have been locked up and wondering how can this happen to me – I’m the cause of death of the person I love most.”

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With Inauguration Day less than three weeks away, Melania Trump has made a point of keeping a low profile — but the first-lady-to-be’s choice of a Dolce & Gabbana cocktail dresses for New Year’s Eve in Palm Beach at Mar-a-Lago has kicked off an online firestorm.

After Melania — a longtime client of the Italian brand — wore a black Dolce & Gabbana cocktail dress with bows on each shoulder, Stefano Gabbana thanked her via Instagram with “#madeinitaly” and called her a “DG Woman.” Gabbana’s post had generated more than 13,000 likes and 1,129 comments as of Tuesday afternoon. Among other things, the designer called her “a beautiful woman,” and chided her critics as “ignorant.”

In response to one Instagrammer’s comment — “No! Whether she’s beautiful or not, would you be proud to dress Eva Braun? So wrong,” — an apparent reference to Adolf Hitler’s companion and wife for 40 hours. Gabbana responded with “Who is Eva Brown? Sorry….” perhaps mistakenly translating “Braun” from German to mean “Brown.”

A spokeswomen for Dolce & Gabbana declined to comment Tuesday and a spokeswoman for Melania did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Thus far, such enthusiastic endorsements of Melania’s sartorial selections have been scarce among designers. That could all drastically change once the First Family is officially installed (regardless of when they are ensconced together at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue). With former New York Fashion Week and Costume Institute Gala frontwoman Stephanie Winston Wolkoff playing an instrumental role in orchestrating the inaugural festivities, the January 20 celebration is expected to be very different than in years past.

At the first presidential debate this fall, Trump showed her former model status, wearing a black ruched off-the-shoulder Dolce & Gabbana dress from the fall runway. As was the case with most of her election season wardrobe choices, Trump bought the dress herself at the company’s New York boutique. Known not to be a nationalist when it comes to fashion, the future first lady favors an assortment of both American and European labels. Some of her other designer choices were bought online, including the $3,669 virgin wool coat with embossed buttons that Olivier Rousteing designed for Balmain that she bought via Net-a-porter for Election Day.

In November, Sophie Theallet asked other American designers to follow her lead and not dress or associate with Melania Trump. While the proposed boycott may not have transpired into the call to action that Theallet imagined, some big-name designers such as Tom Ford and Marc Jacobs have said they will not cocktail dresses uk the First Lady. Others, like Tommy Hilfiger, Diane von Furstenberg, Thom Browne and Carolina Herrera, have been more receptive to the prospect.