カテゴリー別アーカイブ: fashion

JAKARTA – Jakarta Fashion Week 2016, the main fashion week in Indonesia and the largest in Southeast Asia, will open on October 24 at Senayan City, Jakarta. The Fashion Week will be a landmark for Indonesian fashion, in which hundreds of Indonesian and foreign designers, including designers from Japan, Thailand, and South Korea, will celebrate and showcase their best work, with full international coverage.

In its eighth year, Jakarta Fashion Week is receiving full support from Senayan City, a complex dedicated to high-end shopping in Jakarta. Svida Alisjahbana, CEO of Femina Group & Chairman of Jakarta Fashion Week 2016, expressed gratitude to Senayan City for their support of JFW 2016, “Support from Senayan City is very meaningful to Jakarta Fashion Week as Senayan City is a premium shopping destination that represents high-end boutiques from Italy and France, as well as various other fashion brands from around the world.

“With the convening of JFW 2016 in Senayan City, Jakarta Fashion Week will have a value comparable to the fashion brands stationed there, and this is something that is very encouraging. It is time to introduce Indonesian fashion labels to the public so that they can understand and love the creativity apparent in our local products that is no less great than those in the products of international brands.”

Veri Y. Setiady, CEO of Senayan City stated, “For the third time, Senayan City warmly welcomes the presence of Jakarta Fashion Week as a barometer, and a means of welcoming new fashion trends in our homeland. Along with the celebration of Senayan City 9 Infinite Years, Senayan City will present an exclusive collaboration entitled Capsule Collection F/W 2015 which will feature designers DanjyoHiyoji, KLE, and Hunting Fields, with creations made specifically for JFW 2016. The Capsule Collection F/W 2015 and TIKprive X Stella Rissafashion show will present at the Fashion Tent in JFW 2016 on October 29.”

More than ready to welcome fashion lovers’ enthusiasm for JFW 2016, Senayan City will also present fashion shows featuring the latest collections from tenant brands, such as Bebe, Promod, and Debenhams.

Supporting the fashion industry in Indonesia, Jakarta Fashion Week is also sponsored by the National Craft Council / Dewan Kerajinan Daerah (Dekranasda) DKI Jakarta. “The collaboration between Jakarta Fashion Week and Dekranasda DKI Jakarta is a journey we’ve been taking for years. Together with Jakarta Fashion Week, Dekranasda aims to hone the creativity of members who have the talent and desire to move forward and expand worldwide,” said Svida.

IMAGE plum bridesmaid dresses

As an organization involved in developing handicraft products, Dekranasda Jakarta seeks to encourage quality crafts, which have become an icon of the capital. Jakarta itself is a metropolitan city that has become a melting pot of various cultures, and its dynamic city life works as a source of inspiration which is translated into a variety of creative products. Yet the translation into creative products, particularly crafts, has not been explored to the fullest.

Dekranasda attempts to present a variety of innovations in product development for Jakarta’s artisans by improving the quality, design, packaging and branding of crafts, facilitating access to finance for entrepreneurial initiatives, and organizing various promotional events such as exhibitions, curations, and competitions.

Recognizing the need for cooperation with various parties who have similar values in craft development, and especially in fashion, Dekranasda is delighted to collaborate with Jakarta Fashion Week. From June until the end of 2015 in collaboration with JFW, Dekranasda and the Wanita Wirausaha Femina program are providing a series of training programs aimed at improving the competence of artisans in production and business management. In addition, JFW supports Dekranasda in curating products that will be presented at JFW 2016, with an eye to international markets. Dekranasda also participates in the Indonesia Fashion Forward program, featuring creative fashion products that represent the city.

About Jakarta Fashion Week

Jakarta Fashion Week is a platform for Indonesian fashion industry movers. As the major fashion week in Indonesia, Jakarta Fashion Week aims to provide direction for Indonesian fashion industry and demonstrate the talents and creativity of the fashion workers in the country. Throughout the year, Jakarta Fashion Week also held a variety of capacity building programs in order to develop international industry players. Jakarta Fashion Week is organized by Azura Activation, part of Femina Group.

READ MORE lace bridesmaid dress

Sheer comes the bride.

The wedding dresses that were slinking down the aisle at New York Bridal Fashion Week left little to the imagination.

Transparent panels, thigh-high slits and plunging necklines guarantee that every blushing bride has her something nude.

“The old traditions have been broken. Brides are asking for sexy, so the designers are making it for them,” says Terry Hall, fashion director at Kleinfeld Bridal. “More than half of the brides who come into Kleinfeld every single day end up leaving with illusion (see-through material) on their dress in some capacity, whether it’s a little in the back or across the midriff or down the side.”

Long gone are the modest ball gowns and chaste veils dating back to Victorian times when marriage was seen as a sacred rite.

Today’s runway brides aren’t saving it for the honeymoon.

THEIA creative director Don O’Neill, who first raised nuptial industry eyebrows by designing crop top wedding gowns four seasons ago, is really pushing the envelope with his titillating new Fall 2016 collection.

His dresses include a completely see-through “Khaleesi” white tulle one-shoulder gown inspired by “Game of Thrones” dragon queen Daenerys played by Emilia Clarke, Esquire’s new “Sexiest Woman Alive.”

There’s also a nude tulle dress with a whispy geisha print, which O’Neill assures has a very sheer lining so that, “your grandparents aren’t going to fall out of their pews when they see you swagger past them in your dress.”

IMAGE long black bridesmaid dresses

That remains to be seen. Even the more modest gowns at Anne Barge and Monique Lhuillier risked bared shoulders or featured detachable skirts to convert the floor-length wedding gown into a flirty reception mini dress.

Designers credit celebrity exhibitionists with pushing more wedding day gowns toward wedding night lingerie, such as the mesh dress Bella Hadid wore for her 19th birthday on Wednesday, or the see-through skirt Kendall Jenner slipped into while partying in London last weekend.

And they can all bow down to the Givenchy naked dress that Beyonce wore to the Met Gala in May, where Jennifer Lopez also showed her famous curves in a very sheer, red-beaded Versace gown. Pronovias’ 2016 line of racy lace wedding gowns, which flashed plenty of cleavage and pevage alike, would be right at home on these provocative pop stars.

“A wedding is a woman’s red carpet moment,” explains Hall. “So Hollywood has such a huge influence on what the bride has in mind for her wedding day.”

O’Neill agrees that the A-list influence on brides-to-be is moving them away from traditional A-line dresses. “Girls are following [naked celebs] on Twitter and Instagram, and now it’s showing up on the Pinterest board of every bride,” he says.

So expect more engaged girls to sign up for bridal boot camp workouts once they lay eyes on Houghton’s full-frontal see-through gowns and corsets. There was even one very pregnant model in a Houghton dress that was transparent from the baby-bump up, similar to the sheer Givenchy gown an expecting Kim Kardashian wore at New York Fashion Week last month.

Inbal Dror’s nearly-naked Fall 2016 bridal collection paired high slits and transparent skirts with strategically-placed beading and floral embellishments to cover the lady bits.

Wedding couture queen Vera Wang even sent her women to the alter barely dressed in bodices with bold cutouts, and one lace floor-length lace gown that was even gauzier than the traditional bridal veil.

“Women are pushing the envelope,” says Hall. “They don’t want to look like what their best friend wore, or what their sister wore. They want to make a statement.”

And that goes for the mother of the bride, as well.

“We’re doing sexy across the board, even with mom!” says Jose Solis from David’s Bridal. “They’re playing with a sheer illusion sleeve, an illusion back, or even a slit up the skirt so that they’re not so matronly. There are different versions of sexy for everyone.”

READ MORE allure bridesmaid dresses

Last week, the Dancing with the Stars co-host, Erin Andrews, stepped out of her comfort zone in a sexy (and Backstreet Boy-approved) cutout gown. This week she’s pushing her style even further with a showstopping glittery gown. We caught up with her and her glam squad to find out the inspiration behind the bold maroon choice. (She almost chickened out and just went with an outfit repeat!)

The 37-year-old star chose a vintage YSL dress with Christian Louboutin pumps and Le Vian jewels, and though she looked super-confident in the body-hugging dress, she said she couldn’t take any of the credit. “This was all my team tonight,” she tells PeopleStyle. “Seriously: I don’t do updos. I don’t do sequin dresses. But when I put on the dress, my entire team said, ‘We love this.’ There was a debate whether I stay safe and do an outfit I’ve done before or mix it up.”

Sometimes, though, taking a risk pays off — and Andrews agreed that it did last night. “I love how it all looks,” she said. “My biggest fear is looking too old. Thank goodness I trusted my group tonight!”

Stylist Alyssa Greene gave the dress a few twists to help Andrews feel a little more comfortable in it, and they worked: “I loved how Alyssa made the dress current and edgy by simply pulling up the sleeves to give it that cool fresh look,” Andrews says. “Who doesn’t love a sequin dress with pockets?”

IMAGE black lace bridesmaid dresses

Greene says that (despite what Andrews might have thought) the look was a total no-brainer for the season and her stylish client. “Oxblood and burgundy is fall’s ‘it’ color. When I saw this dress I knew I wanted Erin to wear it,” Greene says. “The color is so rich and the sequins make it extra glamorous. The contestants always get to sparkle, so I wanted Erin to have a sparkle moment too!”

For her beauty look, her team (makeup artist Lisa Ashley and hairstylist Ryan Randall) played up the glitzy vibe, giving her a double cat eye, extra long lashes and a sexy textured updo.

Ashley tells PeopleStyle that fashion isn’t the only area that Andrews approaches gingerly. “When it comes to Erin and makeup, I have to take baby steps,” Ashley says. “In the past, dark eyes and deep-colored lips were a no no. Tonight she rocked both!” (The eye was achieved with a mix of eyeshadows, used both wet and dry.)

Randall echoes his colleagues: “Erin is a great collaborative partner. That being said, for tonight’s show, she agreed to give up some control and let us have some fun.” That meant a sexy, messy updo to play off her glam dress. “One little problem: She doesn’t love an updo. I have to say, after talking her off the ledge, we came up with a twisted, knotted, textured situation that was absolutely stunning,” he says. “Fashion-forward, fresh and still age appropriate. And kudos to Erin for allowing us to push her limits. Love you!”

Dying for Andrews’s look? Round up Oribe Dry Texturizing Spray, Bumble and Bumble Thickening Hairspray and L’Oréal Elnett Hairspray and start pinning. “In the end, I think she felt sexy and empowered,” he says. “Trying new looks can be risky, especially on live TV, but this one paid off big time. You got a new Erin Andrews tonight, and we loved it!”

READ MORE plus size bridesmaid dresses

Whether you’re having an off day or you’re just looking for that last finishing touch, it’s a good idea to have an arsenal of pieces that will make you feel more put together in a snap. Think what a savior it would be to have at least five shining items in your closet that you know, no matter what, will instantly polish up your look and make you feel more fashionable and fabulous. It can cut down on a lot of stress (and a lot of clothes on your floor) during those mornings where nothing fits or feels right, making you reach for your trusty boyfriend jeans and declare you own nothing worthwhile. Or it can add that last touch to an outfit that takes it from a pretty look to something truly inspired.

Everyone has their own preferences and quirks when it comes to personal style, but there are a few staples out there that we can all agree really add a little summin’ summin’ extra to an outfit, no matter what your aesthetic. Here are seven pieces that will instantly make you feel more put together, with everything from obvious staples like blazers to not-so-obvious pieces like sunnies.

1. A Black Blazer

Whether it’s to dress up casual pieces like boyfriend jeans or flannel shirts, or if it’s to add the finishing touch to an elegant outfit, the black blazer is a sure-fire way to instantly feel more put together. Not only is it a staple, but it’s the quintessential item of class and polish. According to Alyssa Garrison at xoJane, “Whenever I want to look a little more serious and covered up, I always reach for a blazer… I have two styles in my closet at the moment: a loose, black crepe blazer that’s perfect for dinners and weddings, and a more classic suit-style tailored boyfriend blazer that works well in professional situations like interviews.” If you’re going out to grab dinner with friends or heading to an important presentation at work, a black blazer will do the trick to instantly feel more put together.

2. A Good Leather Belt

Belts are the epitome of finishing touches: Half the time you don’t really need one, but when you remember to put it on, it makes all the difference. Whether it adds a subtle pop of color, breaks up the line of an outfit, or contributes a subtle detail (like a tassel or a sheen of metal), cinching a well-made leather belt around your waist can instantly elevate your look to more stylish grounds. According to Joyann King at Harpers Bazaar, “Insouciance is something we’re always pursuing in the style department, but in the case of looking like you know what you’re doing, tuck in any shirttails or a baggy sweater hem and cinch your waist with a chic belt for maximum impact.” A small styling move, but it packs a punch.

IMAGE burgundy bridesmaid dresses

3. A Chic Scarf

A good scarf can make all the difference when it comes to elevating a look. Just think back to your lazy-girl outfits. Say you’re meeting a friend for coffee but you really, really don’t want to get out of your leggings and sneakers. How do you make your outfit not look like you were indoors watching Netflix all day? Shrug on your denim jacket and add a cozy knit infinity or a big, patterned scarf into the mix. In a snap it makes you feel more pulled together and stylish. According to Michelle Scanga of WHoWhatWear, “Pair an eye-catching scarf with your favorite blazer for a quick outfit update. We promise this trick will lend you a polished and cool vibe.” It’s a simple update, but it goes a long way in terms of polish.

4. A Button-Down Shirt

While button-downs have a tendency to make us think of meeting rooms and sensible office pumps, a good collared shirt can go a long way. Not only does it look very Calvin Klein tucked into jeans, but it adds a pop of polish when paired underneath dresses and pinafores, and balances out quirkier pieces like overalls and statement print skirts. And if you find one with a chic, strong-lined collar, than you’ll always look put together and classic.

And if you’re not quite sure you can pull off the serious vibes of a button-down? There’s always a work around when it comes to styling something to fit your style. According to Hannah Weil McKinley at POPSUGAR, “While a button-down can feel stiff, rolling up the sleeves gives it an easy nonchalance. It’s the easiest way to inject a little cool factor into even your most classic shirts.”

5. Statement Sunglasses

Whether it’s a cool and classic pair like wayfarers or aviators, or a bold and statement making set like cat eyes or colored frames, a great pair of sunglasses can make all the difference when it comes to feeling more put together. Say you’re wearing a slightly frumpy outfit — it’s plenty cute, but has the potential to cross over to grandma chic territories. Give it a boost in terms of polish and refinement with classic shades to keep it anchored in chic territories. Or say you didn’t have enough time that morning to go all-in when it came to pulling yourself together, and all you could manage was to pull on jeans and brush your hair. Sunnies can instantly help. According to Michelle Scanga of WhoWhatWear, “No time for makeup? Shield your ‘sleepy eyes’ with a pair of your favorite sunglasses and the issue is instantly resolved!” It’s a small accessory, but it really helps.

6. A Well Tailored Outer Layer

There’s nothing worse than putting on a lumpy, dumpy jacket around your shoulders when the weather cools. When it’s cold outside, 50 percent of the day your outfit will be your coat so it makes sense to find a sharp, tailored one to make you feel instantly chic. Just think of the difference: How do you look in a baggy, shapeless peacoat, and how do you look in a clean-lined, close to your body wool jacket? It’s like a before and after picture, and it instantly makes your outfit look more expensive and put together.

According to Joyann King at Harpers Bazaar, “A tailored jacket is an editor’s secret weapon. It elevates denim, polishes flow-y dresses, looks chic thrown over the shoulders and takes slim pants to the board room.” If you want to instantly polish your look, invest in and add a well tailored outer layer into the mix!

7. A Killer Pair Of Boots

All you could be wearing is a knit sweater and a pair of jeans, but if you throw in a pair of beautifully made boots into the mix, you look like an instant street style star. We all know shoes go a long way when making or breaking an outfit, and if you have a sharp pair of boots at arm’s reach, you can be certain you’ll always look put together, no matter how casual the outfit.

According to style blogger Audrey of Putting Me Together,”One thing I really appreciate about ankle boots is that they can add some grounding and character to an outfit that ballet flats can’t always do because of their texture. Leather and suede in a sturdy boot shape has a nice weight to it that a sleek ballet flat doesn’t have, you know?” While ballet flats and sandals always look nice with an outfit, there’s something about a well made pair of boots that take it to another level.

There’s no reason why you can’t feel your most stylish every day if you have a closet full of finishing touches.

READ MORE coral bridesmaid dresses

Saying extended days and sessions at nursery schools, increased competition on the children’s party scene and cultural shifts away from free play and toward programming all have affected her business, the owner of Let’s Dress Up on Cherry Street is closing at the end of the month.

Since Judy Famigletti opened the princess-themed creative play space in November 2009, scores of 3- to 6-year-old New Canaan girls have donned dresses, tiaras and slippers, sipped tea, outfitted dolls, climbed into tents, learned table manners and played with all kinds of toys in this bright, colorful shop, inventing and sharing their stories.

At the end of this month, Famigletti said, she will retire from the New Canaan business—one of the few that remains in town that operates on principles that include “no technology/gadgets allowed”—while an original shop on the Upper East Side of Manhattan continues to operate.

“I have had a wonderful time,” the spry 70-year-old, a Danbury native and New York City resident who graduated from Danbury State Teachers College and earned a master’s degree in education from Queens College prior to launching a career in early childhood education, said on a recent morning, standing by a stack of well-used pink and white dishes at Let’s Dress Up.

“I have loved the town. Loved the children.”

Yet the traditional business model couldn’t sustain, Famigletti said, amid expanding nursery school programs as well as changes to the way parents steer their kids through the pre-kindergarten years. Specifically, structured programs such as youth sports are starting far earlier in children’s lives than in the past, and in general the practice of free, open and creative playtime has given way to programming, Famigletti said.

“I think the community has changed. The needs have changed,” she said.

IMAGE black bridesmaid dress

“When I came here six years ago, I used to be packed in the afternoon with ‘Open Play’ and what has happened is the nursery schools have extended their time to 2 and 3 o’clock in the afternoon. And at 3 o’clock they pick up their kids and involve their children in sports.”

In addition, Famigletti said, parents now have an option to extend nursery school programs through June whereas they used to end at Memorial Day.

As a result, she said, “My business turned into days off from school, summer camp and birthday parties, which started cutting way back this spring. I had not done the volume of birthday parties I had been doing.”

Asked why she thought the birthday party business appeared to be declining, Famigletti noted that convenient “big open play spaces” such as Pump It Up in Norwalk “where you can put a lot of children in at once” have gained market share.

Even so, Let’s Dress Up has seen strong retention amid loyal fans of its summer camp. Even with parents turning toward a model where they choose specific “classes” for young children, the kids have helped the camp business grow.

I think the children have sold my camp—they beg to come back,” Famigletti said.

She launched the New Canaan location six years ago when she began spending more time in town after the birth of her second granddaughter. Famigletti would bring the older girl, then two, with her to the shop (her son and daughter-in-law still live in New Canaan and they now have three kids).

“I had her here every day until she went to full-time kindergarten,” Famigletti recalled. “This was even before she was in nursery school. I watched my granddaughter play.”

The following year, the girl started what then were regular nursery school hours (at the Y)—9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays as a 3-year-old, then Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9 a.m. to noon the following year. Within a few years, all of the nursery schools offered extended days, to 2 p.m., she said.

Asked what she felt was major attraction for parents in that type of program, Famigletti said that they have more freedom and more time.

“But it is a totally structured program, whereas this is play,” she said.

READ MORE lavender bridesmaid dresses

Dressing well in New York is easy. Everywhere you go, the streets are full of people in spectacular clothes. There are models, fancy ladies with Birkins, actresses, singers in cool bands, fashion people, bloggers, and people who are just really, really, ridiculously good at finding designer vintage on eBay. It seems like everyone is trying really hard to look like their best possible selves, and in that environment it is only natural to want to take part. But what do you do when the vicissitudes of life lead you away from the 24/7 fashion show that is the L Train and drop you in a tiny little village in the middle of nowhere?

(Related: Late to the Party: How I Finally Came Around to Fashion Sneakers)

It can be tough to motivate to get dressed up in a small town, especially one where things run very casual. Once, not long after moving to a new town, I went to dinner with some friends and I wore a blue silk Equipment blouse with some dark jeans and ankle boots. That’s a pretty low-key outfit for most cities, but my dining companions acted as though I had arrived in a Philip Treacy lobster hat. If I wore a maxi dress to the grocery store, creepy dudes stared at me as though I were running around completely naked. (I still don’t know what they were looking at. I’m not even busty or anything.)

IMAGE champagne bridesmaid dresses

As if that weren’t enough, my town was covered in beautiful, idyllic, old-timey cobblestone streets. They looked fantastic on Instagram, but they made it impossible to wear anything but flats. Considering that at the time I only owned one pair of flats, and those were sandals, that was infuriating.

I spent the next year or so feeling like it just wasn’t worth getting dressed in the morning because I had nothing to do but go out and wander around my tiny, extraordinarily casual little town. It was just a whole calendar year of jeans and T-shirts and unwashed hair, and not in a cool model-off-duty kind of way.

Dressing like that is just fine if that’s what you like, but for me it just made me feel crummy all the time. It was as though I were on hiatus, waiting for my life to start happening again. (I did not move to a small town because I wanted to be there, and I deeply resented every dumb cobblestone.) But that sort of thing can’t go on forever. I wasn’t on hiatus. Days were passing. Life is short. If I ever wanted to wear my cool stuff again, I figured I should just get to it now and ignore the people staring at me for wearing a vintage dress to the grocery store.

It’s still tough to motivate to put in a bunch of effort when nobody else is, but it can be fun to do it anyway. Instagram helps, but the real thing that did it for me was thinking that if I got hit by a bus tomorrow, what would I want my last outfit to be? If I must be hit by a bus, might as well have people say, “Man, that bus hit a lady who was wearing a whole lot of sequins.” (Heck, in this scenario maybe the sequins will make it easier for the bus driver to see me and thus spare me an untimely demise.)

Besides, if you treat an ordinary destination like an event, it does feel more like one. Just try wearing false eyelashes to the Starbucks and see if it doesn’t make that Frappuccino more fun.

READ MORE bridesmaid dresses plus size

I still remember when the class clown in fourth grade called me a dyke. I didn’t understand enough English to know what that word meant at the time, and I had to look it up in the dictionary.

I wasn’t terribly upset about that word at the time, but I knew I looked different from all the girls in my class. I had short hair cut like a boy. I didn’t care about fashion, and wore oversized jackets and loose grey pants, even on free-dress day at a Catholic school. I never wore skirts, and I didn’t care for jewelry.

The experience taught me about what it’s like to live as a woman in America.

I had just arrived in the US after leaving China, and while I was getting by speaking English after just a few months in fourth grade, I didn’t know there would be even bigger cultural hurdles to overcome:

American women celebrate femininity differently.

After being called a dyke, I realized how much American women are valued by their looks.

That’s not to say the average Chinese woman doesn’t care about appearance. Beauty and youth are prized in China, and if you’re not married by a certain age, you are called a “leftover.”

It’s not exactly a feminist country.

What I learned in America, however, was that women were proud to be women.

PHOTO http://www.kissybridesmaid.com/gold-champagne-bridesmaid-dresses

In China, there was always this undercurrent of women not being appreciated because families wanted to have boys instead of girls.

If you visit China, there are many women who rock the androgynous look with short hair and sporty outfits. Some women look less stereotypically feminine, and it’s a cultural norm.

I would like to assert I am not a lesbian, and I had no problems being called one. But after that incident, I realized how much the American woman had to measure up to in terms of femininity.

I realize the term was meant to offend, but I knew there was more to being a woman than just the physical appearance.

It’s okay to be the “unwanted” daughter.

My parents never got along when I grew up, and when my father left the family, I was incredibly angry and deeply wounded. I wondered what I had done to make him leave.

My family told me he was disappointed I was born a female, and I took it to heart. For a very long time, I tried to be a son. I tried to be as masculine as possible with my appearance, subconsciously wishing for some sort of approval.

Everything I did screamed, “Look at me! I’m just as good as what you want! Look how hard I’m trying!”

But, I soon realized it’s okay to be a daughter. It’s okay to be a woman. In fact, the female identity should be treasured.

The term that was used to “offend” me by the class clown was another woman’s identity.

In subsequent years, classmates asked me if I was a lesbian, and a friend just told me to say no. I really had no strong issues regarding the question, simply because my definition of femininity was very fluid.

I learned I was not only defined by my femininity or sexuality, but also by my personality.

You can’t make everyone happy.

One of the biggest lessons I learned in recent years was that people will love you for who you are. But people will also hate you for being who you are.

No matter how much you dress up, put on makeup, talk like they do or walk like they do, people will inevitably have opinions. And the more vocal ones will try their best to bring you down.

It’s not their fault; they are simply triggered by some inner insecurity and projecting that onto you.

There’s no point in addressing the negativity. You simply have to move on, be who you are, embrace those you love and do your best to carry on being your badass self.

I am grateful for that little, naive kid in fourth grade who taught me some very important lessons about being a woman in America.

It’s a lesson I would have never learned in any textbook, and it helped me to adapt to my new homeland, with my crappy fashion sense, short hair and all.

READ MORE bridesmaid dresses plus size

LONDON — To paraphrase the Edwardian satirist H.H. Munro (better known as Saki, in one of English literature’s early feats of branding): They were good fashion shows, as fashion shows go, and as fashion shows go, they went.Hyped for days, previewed on Snapchat and mounted with the kind of pomp and security typically reserved for visiting dignitaries, the display of Burberry Prorsum’s spring 2016 collection on Monday was also a miniature concert, with a 32-piece orchestra clambering cautiously into a sunken pit at the center of the runway to back Alison Moyet, a former member of the 1980s synth-pop group Yaz, on four solo numbers.

Outside Kensington Gardens, the fans — but of what, exactly? — gawked and filmed and hashtagged through the transparent tenting as if it was their civic duty. Inside, the golden-haired princesses of Prorsum, Cara and Kate and Sienna and Suki, sat on their front-row throne-benches as the official cameras, one looming up like a periscope, captured footage for a live online broadcast to the commoners at 1 p.m. (That was 5 a.m. Pacific Standard Time, The Hollywood Reporter had breathlessly reminded its readers.)

Remembering with fondness being roused at such an hour as a young girl to watch the wedding of a real princess-to-be, Diana, to Prince Charles, I had no doubt this company and Christopher Bailey, its chief executive and creative director, would one day command a Tartan Jubilee.

The new rucksacks with gold monograms that bounced down the runway as Ms. Moyet sang were apparently a viral hit, the news of them transmitted by the iThings of the crowd, stacked half a dozen rows deep at its thickest point.

The Burberry raincoats remain relevant, as the London drizzle pelting the tent underscored. The black cage booties, so nervy-seeming when presented by Yves Saint Laurent seven years ago, also seem to have become a staple, despite the odd tan lines they must produce.

But will the ready-to-wear of Mr. Bailey and his creative team, sumptuous and well executed as it is, alter the course of fashion history, or even register in it? That deep-plunging dusty, nubby rose banded mini-dress, rendered again in café au lait? The aubergine bodysuit with Swiss-dotted cap sleeves and overskirt that would have coordinated so nicely with the red carpet at the Emmys the night before? (But hey, who needs a red carpet when you have the lush London grass?) That sleeveless black lace top worn, sans bra, over white silken skirt?

PHOTO bridesmaid dresses plus size

I doubt it.

You always know when nipples are coming down the runway, by the way, because an extra-excited clicking, like a percussion section, will suddenly emanate from the photographers’ pit. (Occasionally one of them even will shout out his appreciation.) And the clicking and yelps were prestissimo duringPeter Pilotto’s show in the humbler confines of the Brewer Street Car Park early on Monday evening, thanks to a profusion of sheer smock tops in cotton, macramé and tulle.

Though it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, as Burberry insists on pouring, this was a delightful and cohesive collection: Mediterranean-themed, with hues of white, blue and buttery yellow that summoned a villa kitchen in Greece with a breeze blowing through the window and a sturdy pitcher of retsina at the ready.

In recent seasons, the widespread promotion of culottes has recalled the ill-fated push of the midi skirt in the early 1970s, with women clinging to their “skinnies,” as they did then to minis. But Mr. Pilotto and his partner, Christopher de Vos, cut culottes with enough volume that they looked commanding, for madame to swoop into the kitchen on her way out. Safari-derived looks with geometric detail like children’s blocks and pocketed jackets were the only Pilotto pieces out of place.

For what has resonated most from the runways of London this week is not the Savile Row tailoring for which the city was so long known, but mishmash, bricolage: a crazy salad, to veer from Saki to Nora Ephron.

Though men can deliver the steak and sizzle, as in the piercing retro ofGareth Pugh, maybe women are better at making salad. You saw this in the almost painfully tactile frocks of Simone Rocha, assembled for the high-end Etsy crowd; in the clashing rose prints of the otherwise ladylike Emilia Wickstead; and in the complexly layered Starfleet uniforms of Mary Katrantzou. Lieutenant Uhura never had it so good.

And you saw it in the less-assured space age silhouettes from Thomas Tait, though unfortunately you — by which I mean me — saw those online, because of a long rain-induced delay in the schedule on Monday afternoon. Like Ms. Katrantzou, Mr. Tait favored a mod above-the-knee flare for skirts and tunics, punching out portholes at neck, shoulders and hem. On long trousers under the tunics the portholes were at the inner thigh or over the knee, where patches usually go, for more odd tan lines. Strips of synthetic fabric affixed here and there suggested an arts and craft project that could have used more craft.

Anya Hindmarch also went to outer space, tricking out one of the Royal Horticultural Halls with an origami puzzle of a set lined in mirrors on Tuesday morning. This offered the advantage of multiplying her graphic chevron handbags in triplicate. All the better to tweet you with, my dear.

Crammed into the front row, Maya Williams, a fashion blogger wearing fur and pink Wellingtons, who was covering the event for a magazine in Dubai, introduced herself to Natalie Massenet, the British Fashion Council chairman and departing founder of Net-a-Porter.

“I follow you on Instagram!” Ms. Williams said in a tone of worship.

“I have to come up with a new name for my Instagram,” ruefully replied Ms. Massenet, still @nataporter for now.

I imagine that leaving a company one founded, even with millions of pounds as cushion, must feel somewhat like losing a loved one, and the commemoration of such loss seemed unusually prevalent in London as well.

In her program notes, Ms. Katrantzou included a message to her and Ms. Rocha’s mentor, Louise Wilson, director of the Central Saint Martins’ masters program in fashion, who died last year. “I wish I could pop upstairs after the show and see you,” she wrote.Sibling’s show, though it proceeded with unnerving peppiness and leopard capri pants, was dedicated to Joe Bates, one of the label’s creative directors, who died at 47 of cancer last month.

And Christopher Kane and his sister, Tammy, continue to mourn the death of their mother this year, with a lurid collection influenced, Mr. Kane said, by John Chamberlain’s “car crash” sculptures and shown in the cloud-surrounded Sky Garden on Fenchurch Street.

“That can’t be comfortable,” I thought of the plastic zip ties closed tightly around the model’s necks; these also fastened some of the clothes. An orange shift dress was edged with a red Colorforms-like crumb catcher and different shades of neon lace were juxtaposed willy-nilly. Fringe and ribbons and jagged edges sailed by. Like the J.W. Anderson mutton-sleeved and airbag-bodiced collection earlier in the week, it was chaotic, and hard to imagine on the women striding over the streets below to their jobs or pub dates or children’s schools.

But outside the windows of the Sky Garden, 35 stories high, the thick gray mist blurring the edges of London felt very close to heaven. And the evidence suggested that heaven will not have Wi-Fi service.

READ MORE http://www.kissybridesmaid.com/gold-champagne-bridesmaid-dresses

If Joanne Hong wants a new sewing machine, the couch has to go.

Near Times Square Theater District in New York City, Hong lives and sews in a pricey, 600 square-foot apartment that is filling up with fabric, and fast.

“All this fabric is just accumulating, and I keep having to buy garment racks,” Hong said. “So my living room’s literally just like a sewing area.”

Hong, 31, is an Oklahoma State alumna and women’s wear fashion designer who has worked for big names in fashion such as DKNY, Marchesa and Elie Tahari. A year ago, Hong quit working for other designers and began working for herself full time, designing children’s wear under the company name Joanne Hong LLC.

Hong’s children’s wear line will be displayed at 7:30 p.m. on Friday during Tulsa Fashion Week.

“I think it starts at 7:30 p.m. just because my models are like five years old, so I guess I need to have them done by their bedtime,” Hong said.

In Hong’s research, she discovered there’s more of a niche for children’s wear because there are not as many children’s wear designers. She originally transitioned from women’s wear to children’s wear because she followed the life paths of her friends, Hong said.

“After college I was doing a lot of bridesmaid and evening (wear) because all of them were getting married,” Hong said. “Then eventually they started having kids, so I would make them kid’s clothes for baby showers and birthdays, and I just kind of fell in love with it.”

PHOTO http://www.kissybridesmaid.com/cheap-bridesmaid-dresses-under-100

Her clothing line is inspired by women’s wear and reflects street fashion trends in New York City, Hong said.

“If you look at my collection, my aesthetic is very girly, feminine,” Hong said. “My taste goes into my designs. Lace and bows are literally almost on every single design. I guess I just naturally want to put lace on everything.”

When Hong graduated from Stillwater High School, she thought she would be a marine biologist. Hong was a self-proclaimed tomboy who didn’t enjoy dressing up in dresses or skirts, and her closest experience to sewing was watching her mom quilt.

“It’s funny because a lot of fashion designers, like you hear that when they were 5 years old, they were sketching or making clothes for their Barbie dolls,” Hong said. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do until freshman year of college.”

When a friend in the OSU apparel design program told Hong her homework assignment was to make a quilt bag, something clicked for Hong.

“Ever since I took my first sewing class with Diane, my professor, it kind of just fell into place,” Hong said. “It was just really natural for me. It was just kind of weird, because I really didn’t know I wanted to do this until I took my first class. I was like ‘Oh this is so much fun,’ and then I was like good at it.”

Diane Limbaugh, clinical instructor in the Department of Design, Housing and Merchandising, taught Hong in Basic and Intermediate Construction and Sewn Products Analysis.

“In the construction courses they learn how to use an industrial sewing machine and how to put together garments using these machines,” Limbaugh said. “She (Hong) was a very good student and was always concerned with perfection. She was a very driven student.”

Since Hong’s graduation from OSU, Limbaugh said Hong has been a guest speaker for several classes. Katherine Williams, apparel design senior, interned for Hong during the summer of 2013 and sees herself following a similar career path.

“We have very similar design aesthetics and I love designing children’s wear,” Williams said.

Since Hong began working for herself, she spends her days sketching designs for children’s wear, sewing custom garments, creating look books for her fashion lines, maintaining her website and networking to build clientele.

In the next couple of years, Hong hopes to sell her children’s wear line in numerous boutiques and potentially department stores.

“Both of my parents are entrepreneurs, so I think just being surrounded by that, it kind of just motivated me to really want to run my own business, at least try it,” Hong said. “If I didn’t try it while I was in New York City, I would regret it.”

READ MORE kissybridesmaid

Pity the poor designer who shows at the beginning of New York Fashion Week. There’s so much competing action around — in culture (the Venice International Film Festival), sports (the United States Open, the start of football season) and national memory (Sept. 11) — that a label has to work very hard for attention.This isn’t necessarily bad. To justify their presence on a runway or in a wardrobe, clothes should offer something more than just a new print. They should offer a new take on female identity; a coherent and unadulterated idea about how women may want to define themselves next. The expectations should be high.Yet one of the strange realities of New York Fashion Week is that it starts awfully slow, with many of the “promising” American labels that are still groping their way toward a point of view. It makes for a weirdly tentative beginning, one that feels more like a warm-up act than the main event.New York Fashion Week is that it starts awfully slow, with many of the “promising” American labels that are still groping their way toward a point of view. It makes for a weirdly tentative beginning, one that feels more like a warm-up act than the main event.

Case in point: Creatures of the Wind, a label perennially on the shortlist for one or another of the big fashion prizes but whose ideas are still fuzzy around the edges. According to the show notes, the designers Shane Gabier and Christopher Peters were exploring “the cycles of time,” and “creating a new language out of discordant components,” which sounded kind of provocative, but in practice looked mostly like a vintage mash-up.

PHOTO plus size bridesmaid dresses with sleeves

There were punky fishnets under proper tea dresses, silver roses appliquéd on an Army green peacoat, and black leather rocker trousers paired with a square-shouldered little black dress, all in a palette that veered between monochrome and the 1970s (think burgundy, mustard and brown). It was all nice enough, but it also didn’t go far enough in embracing its own dissonance.The clash was more like a minor clang, as was that at Wes Gordon, another oft-nominated next-gen designer (twice a finalist for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund) trying to push his way out of a ladylike box, who roughed up his Le Cirque-ready linen trenches and chiffons with frayed seams and ropes of cording.

It was a subtle contrast, done with a certain finesse — unlike, but more successful than, a disco-ready silver chain-embroidered sheath (what’s that doing there?) paired with an office-appropriate black and white jacquard car coat. Not to mention the off-key mix of cutesy asymmetric ruffled hemlines with seductive cold-shoulder cuts.At least Jason Wu, who has been there, vaulted out of that “up and comer” category (thanks in part to a second job as artistic director of Boss women’s wear, not to mention Michelle Obama’s patronage) and displayed a certain consistency of line in his panoply of forest green, black and peach featherweight linen frocks, waists nipped in, skirts cascading into ruffles at the sides, short sleeves generously sized. Sweaters were small and cropped, as were silvery raffia suit tops, and slip dresses sheer and layered with lace and ostrich feathers.

Though Mr. Wu’s show was titled “Glamour,” his hand was lighter than usual, and the result had a surprisingly seamless sci-fi prettiness. It’s something of an oxymoron. But at least the combination made it harder to look away.

READ MORE gold bridesmaid dresses