The Fashion Dilemma For Davos Women

I can streamline the issue into one question: Heels vs. boots?

Over the past three days, I’ve been observing the Davos dress given the unique fashion dynamic created when one gathers the world’s elite in a completely remote, snow and ice-ridden mountain town, where events are dispersed amongst neighboring venues and when each year brings the uncertainty of two feet of snow or just the occasional flurry.

It’s a packing puzzle where challenges are a given, albeit very different, for both the female delegates and the wives of the delegates—and you often can spot one versus the other with relative ease.

Davos Wives travel with their often glamorous wardrobe, and wearing the kind of heels that require the utmost dexterity and luck–not to mention the arm of their partner–to navigate the treacherous walkways. Their bag of choice is a clutch never intended for holding business cards or a BlackBerry.

Nothing wrong with any of that, and we all have our share of evening wear for our non-business lives. But Davos Women are here for–and mean–real business.

Here lies the conundrum of the female delegates. Some of the more high-profile women strike the balance between chic and occasion-appropriate. Others markedly less so, including one delegate sporting floral, brightly colored rubber boots.

Even as the crowd pretends to overlook a fashion “practicality” like rubber boots–or my Patagonia puffy down coat–the middle road of changing from big winter shoes and outerwear into heels and a sleek look at each venue is awkward. And it does feel odd to be with power players in your winter boots, not to mention changing out of them into heels shoulder-to-shoulder with a bold name.

Should it matter? No. But do people notice? Yes.

But this is par for the course at Davos, and far better than walking in spiky heels on ice.

It’s something our male counterparts don’t think about–a winter coat, pair of boots, scarf and the usual round of suits and they are good to go. But how a woman dresses, particularly when there are so few of us here at all, is something to think about.

What you wear is your public brand, particularly for the women power players. And as trivial as it seems, it does get recognized – even more so by those women than the men.

 

The couple publish Pittsburgh Fashion Magazine

Pittsburgh may not be considered a fashion-savvy town, but Nick and Robyn Bracco are hoping to change that.

The couple publish Pittsburgh Fashion Magazine, which they started in February 2010.

With articles such as "How to Support the Steelers and Still Dress in Style" and sections on high fashion and celebrity fashion, their goal for the monthly magazine is to reach readers with the message that fashion is accessible to everyone.

As the magazine nears its one-year anniversary, the couple said they originally did not intend for it to become a career.

"For Nick, it was a creative outlet. We weren't looking to start a business, but it seems like that is what's happening," said Mrs. Bracco, editor of the magazine, which has five full-time and seven part-time employees plus contributing writers and an office on Liberty Avenue, Downtown.

The Braccos believe the response has been favorable to the message that fashion is for everyone, not just tall, thin models.

"Every woman, regardless of size, style, age and budget, should be able to pick up the magazine and see styles that appeal to them," Mrs. Bracco said.

Her work with children in Kenya on her doctoral dissertation in international education gives both of them a very down-to-earth approach to fashion.

With girls of their own, Mrs. Bracco emphasizes "the last thing I want to do is create a magazine that perpetuates the stereotype that you have to be tall, thin and possess a large budget in order to look and feel good about yourself."

Instead, she hopes the magazine inspires women to be aware of their body type, style and what works for them and dress within those parameters.

In addition to general information on fashion and beauty that applies to all women, the magazine also speaks to specific audiences, with recurring features including sections for men, petites, plus sizes, those older than 50 and children.

"We try to run the gamut on price ranges and budgets," Mrs. Bracco said.

"We have a Celebrity Fashion section in the magazine each month where we include photos of what the national celebrities are wearing, everyone from Samuel L. Jackson to Katy Perry to Julia Roberts.

"We interviewed Heidi Klum for our holiday issue, and we have some more big-name interviews coming up, but our emphasis is really on 'real' people more so than superstars. Our 'models' are sometimes real, working models and sometimes are everyday people," Mrs. Bracco said.

The couple, of Upper St. Clair, often will spot someone on the street they think has a great look and feature them in the magazine.

Shopping locally is encouraged, and local stores are featured in the magazine.

"There is a perception that shopping at boutiques is expensive, but if you know the stores, it's really no more expensive that other places," Mrs. Bracco said.

"It's a fun read with a conversational tone," Mrs. Bracco said.

Mr. and Mrs. Bracco have different backgrounds but complementary talents.

Mr. Bracco, originally from Munhall, had a career as a fashion photographer in New York and Los Angeles and now works for First National Bank.

Originally enrolled in medical school at the University of Pittsburgh, Mr. Bracco left the program after six months to attend the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. He completed the program, specializing in photography, and moved to Los Angeles during the 1980s.

"I was nearly penniless, living in my car in L.A. and with my last $5, I bought coffee and a Danish for a photographer I really respected and waited on his doorstep to show him my portfolio."

When an assistant didn't show up for work, Mr. Bracco was given an opportunity to fill in. He shot the poster for the movie "Lethal Weapon" that day, which led to other projects, including work on the "Terminator" movie series, "The Grifters" and a video with Janet Jackson, among others. Interested in fashion photography, he moved to New York and worked for Vogue and Vanity Fair.

He left the industry in the late 1990s to complete an accounting degree at Pitt.

Mrs. Bracco was raised in the Scenery Hill section of Washington County and is a former English teacher who is working on her doctorate, researching girls' education in rural Kenya and developing a "distance learning model" to help girls continue their education when they cannot physically be at school.

She taught in the public schools in Brooklyn, N.Y., while working on a master's degree at Columbia University. She said it was her favorite teaching job. "It was challenging because the students often faced many difficult situations," she said.

 

The battle at the heart of French fashion house Hermès

In the autumn of last year, Bernard Arnault, founder, chairman and CEO of the world's largest luxury goods conglomerates, LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy), and among the richest men in France, set into motion what may go on to become the most spectacular and potentially long-drawn-out takeover battle of his career to date. Given that this is a man whose reputation for voraciously snapping up family-owned businesses precedes him, that's saying quite something.

Arnault already controls Fendi, Pucci and Louis Vuitton. Most famously, in the latter part of the 1990s, he was involved in a bitter struggle with arch-rival Francois Pinault, CEO of PPR (Pinault Printemps La Redoute) over control of the Gucci Group. In that case, Arnault was unsuccessful. But never one to let spirits be dampened, he today has his eye on Hermès, perhaps the grandest French status label of them all.

It all started with an announcement, three months ago now, stating that LVMH had amassed a 17.1 per cent stake in Hermès, taking family descendants entirely by surprise. Two months later, that rose to 20.2 per cent. "LVMH built the stake through cash-settled equity swaps with three banks that dated back to 2008 when the luxury industry was in deep crisis," reads the US edition of this month's Economist magazine. "The use of these derivative contracts allowed LVMH to skirt disclosure requirements and produced a nice profit for Mr Arnault, who had bet on Hermès' stellar rebound."

In fact, Arnault is currently facing an enquiry by French regulators over concerns that he may indeed have violated disclosure laws. In the meantime, it is perhaps only to be expected that the extended Hermès family – today comprising the Puechs, Guerrands and Dumas, all related by marriage – which owns more than 70 per cent of the business, is none too happy with what it clearly sees as an unwelcome attack, not only on its future, but also on a time-honoured heritage.

Although the powers that be at LVMH claim they have no intention of attempting to acquire a controlling stake in the company, speculation is rife that, if the current generation of family members might be reluctant to sell their shares, their heirs may be more amenable. It's not without reason that Arnault, the man at the head of it all, is dubbed "the wolf in the cashmere coat" and his far-from-demure entrepreneurial style is well-known, not to mention entirely at odds with the more discreet and traditional values this proudly independent name represents.

And so Hermès fought back. In December, a holding company was created, grouping more than 50 per cent of Hermès' capital, thereby granting family members first rights to buy shares from each other should any decide to sell. This, too, is currently being looked at by French authorities at the behest of minority shareholders but, said Bernard Puech, chairman of Émile Hermès, the family management company, in an interview for Le Monde recently, the move is "further proof to all those people who do not believe us. We are a united family, animated by one spirit – to transmit to our descendants the unique jewel received from our parents."

The unique jewel in question was founded as a harness and saddle workshop in Paris in 1837 by one Thierry Hermès. In 1880, his son, Charles-Émile, took over, moving the business to 24 Rue Faubourg Saint-Honoré where it remains, albeit vastly expanded, to this day. Assisted by his sons, Adolphe and Émile-Maurice, Charles-Émile built up a discerning and cosmopolitan clientele across the globe. With the dawn of the 20th century, Hermès, then managed by the third generation and known as Hermès Frères, cemented its reputation as purveyor of leather goods to horsemen and women of style. Émile-Maurice furnished Tsar Nicholas II with saddles and the company introduced its first bag – the haut à courroies – designed to allow the world's most well-heeled equestrians to carry their Hermès saddle with them wherever they went.

As enamoured with craftsmanship as he was innovation, Émile-Maurice, on a trip to America during the First World War, experienced the impact of the car and mass production on a brave new world and with it the potential of the luggage industry to flourish. He returned with, among other things, exclusive rights to introduce the zip, or "American fastener", to his home country. Soon known about town as fermeture Hermès, it was quickly adapted to the purposes of fine leatherwork. At the same time, Hermès' production of fashionable items increased to include travel, sport and driving accessories, clothing, belts, gloves, jewellery and wristwatches. During the 1930s, and drawing on a by-that-time extensive personal collection of paintings, books, objets d'art and curiosities related to equine pursuits and travel, Hermès classics including a petit sac à courroie pour dame, later known as the "Kelly", leather diaries and printed silk scarves, also went into production.

In 1945, following Paris's liberation from German occupation, Marlene Dietrich, in full GI uniform, marched with General Patton's army, stopping off at Hermès to sign autographs on her way. Hermès orange, initially used more extensively than it might have been during the war because of dye shortages, was officially adopted for packaging post-war, all stamped with Le Duc Attelé, a drawing by Alfred de Dreux depicting a Parisian two-horse equipage and registered as the Hermès trademark not long after. The official naming of the aforementioned Kelly bag, meanwhile, came in 1956, after a photograph of the young Princess Grace of Monaco clutching hers to her belly to hide the early stages of pregnancy appeared on the cover of Life magazine.

By that point, and with Émile-Maurice's son-in-law, Robert Dumas, at the helm, anyone who was anyone shopped at Hermès: Christian Bérard, Jean Cocteau and Colette, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Bergman, Bogart, Bacall, Bardot and more. The spectacular success of the Kelly was followed, some 30 years later, by that of the Birkin, sketched, fashion folklore decrees, by Jean-Louis Dumas, a fifth-generation family member who took up the company reins in 1978, as he chatted to the actress on a flight between Paris and London. At a recent sale of vintage Hermès bags at Christies, nine of these dating from the 1980s sold for more than £30,000 apiece, four fetched just under £40,000. A 1998 Rouge Moyen alligator Birkin went under the hammer for £49,250. Birkin sold her own black calfskin bag to benefit the International Federation of Human Rights for a record €74,352 in 2009.

Given a culture that thrives on conspicuous consumption and a fashion industry that still, for the most part, decrees that what is in one season will be out the next, Hermès stands alone as a creator of entirely timeless luxury goods that are as understated as they are beautiful. Designers as diverse as the elusive, Belgian-born Martin Margiela and the extremely famous Jean-Paul Gaultier have worked their magic designing womenswear for the house, always ensuring that its history and unparalleled respect for fine workmanship is upheld.

Next month in Paris, a new name, Christophe Lemaire, will debut in this capacity. Since the late 1990s, Veronique Nichanian has been responsible for equally elegant menswear. Unlike the majority of fashion's big names, Hermès has never licensed any of its by-now formidable output, preferring instead to control its production first-hand in workshops on the outskirts of Paris.

Neither has the company ever paid celebrities to endorse its designs. And yet, everyone from Martha Stewart to Kate Moss and from Elle Macpherson to Victoria Beckham are all too happy to parade their allegiance to the Birkin in particular. The latter is said to own more than 100 Birkin bags. More extraordinary still: no amount of over-exposure appears to dent its allure.

If Hermès has always had an eye on experimentation and modernity, the manner in which everything from the most modest of wallets to a crocodile handbag studded with diamonds is made, is exclusive to the point of anachronistic. Even the tools involved in the creation of merchandise are handmade. Those who staff the Hermès ateliers are trained for between two and three years, then join the company as apprentices before being allowed to work unsupervised.

As for the legendary waiting lists – which mean that even those prepared to pay upwards of £4,400 (the starting price for a Kelly bag) and £5,700 (for a Birkin) might not actually get hold of either for months and even years – they are in place not as part of any canny marketing strategy, but because Hermès turns down more skins than it accepts, such is the rigour of its quality control.

Hermès scarves, equally, of which two collections are released each year, are sewn and printed entirely by hand, each one woven from thread produced by no less than 250 mulberry moth cocoons. The more classic, and still predominantly horsey, designs are favoured by Queen Elizabeth II and Hillary Clinton, but that's never stopped the more obviously fashionable likes of Madonna and Sarah Jessica Parker sporting them.

And therein, perhaps, lies the ultimate secret of Hermès' success. While the vast majority of luxury brands have an image that appeals to a distinct customer base, the only link between one Hermès customer and another is that they are in possession of perfectly good taste and, of course, a disposable income to match. Hermès may be worn by the lady of the manor just as it might a young fashion designer, dressed always in battered jeans but in possession of an Hermès belt, say. While other designer bags and accessories come and go, anything designed by Hermès really is for life, destined to be handed down from generation to generation, just as the business has been for more almost 200 years.

Throughout the Seventies and Eighties, Jean-Louis Dumas radically extended and reinforced the presence of the Hermès Group across the globe until, by 1990, annual sales were reported at $460m. Dumas died last year, although he had passed the Hermès baton to Patrick Thomas, the first-ever outsider, four years before that. While the family claims it is united, just as the descendants of the Louis Vuitton family did before it, there are many more members than there used to be, and there's no guarantee that the next generation will feel as bullish.

According to the Financial Times, as of October 2010, a mere 0.1 per cent stake in Hermès was worth in the region of €18m. The company posted €289m in net income in 2009. It's small wonder, then, that Arnault is keen to remain in the frame. Should the family eventually loosen its hold, it would be nothing short of humiliating for Arnault were it to fall into the hands of any competitor.

"LVMH knows that it cannot do much without the approval of members of the fifth generation of about 15 people aged roughly between 65 and 75," HSBC analysts confirmed last month. "But LVMH is positioning itself for the sixth generation. While the fifth generation always said it wanted Hermès to remain independent, the sixth generation may think differently."

For his part, M Puech is unconvinced. "The sixth generation is extraordinarily committed and wants the maison to remain an independent, family-controlled firm." With aristocratic nostrils suitably flared, he said: "We are inheritors of values more than of money".

 

Dogeared this year is the launch of a limited-edition

Jewelry brand Dogeared, best known for its diminutive pendant necklaces accompanied by inspirational message cards, is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2011 and will be toasting the milestone with a year of special events and initiatives.

Since its founding in 1991 by designer Marcia Maizel-Clarke, Dogeared has been committed to supporting nonprofits, and for its anniversary, the company will increase its commitment to give back through a year-long giving initiative called "Karma in Action."

"As we approached 20 years in business, I thought a lot about who we are and what we do best," said Maizel-Clarke. "Part of that is creating beautiful things, and the other part is giving them meaning. The best way to do that is by taking action to improve the lives of others. Business and life aren't as fulfilling if you don't give back."

Karma in Action is a program designed to support education for women and children. Through the initiative, Dogeared said that it has pledged a significant contribution in 2011 to its nonprofit partners One Voice and Girls Learn International, to be realized through sales of Dogeared's bestselling "Karma" line of gold dipped and sterling silver pendant necklaces, bracelets and earrings.

The company will also continue to give back through its "GIVEbetter" program, which has, over the years, provided support to the above nonprofits, as well as to the nonprofits Stand Up To Cancer and Heal the Bay. A Portion of the proceeds from the GIVEbetter collection of necklaces will continue to raise funds for all four organizations.

Also on the roster for Dogeared this year is the launch of a limited-edition "20 Years of Good Karma" necklace, which will be introduced in August. Maizel-Clarke said the Karma circle design is about positive action and keeping the circle of good karma moving forward, and it will be hand cast in recycled sterling silver, with styles available dipped in yellow gold and rose gold. The piece will be priced at under $100 retail.

Additional celebratory events and initiatives will include the debut of special totes and other merchandise commemorating Dogeared's 20th year, plus the launch of a series of parties and special events to be celebrated with longtime retailers.

 

Abbey cashes in at the Paris end

It's not bad work if you can get it.

Two laps of the runway at Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week yesterday earned Abbey Lee Kershaw a cool $100,000.

The Melbourne model, 23, is the fifth highest-paid clothes horse in the world, according to website models.com, and pocketed the princely sum for an exclusive appearance for fashion house Chanel.

Kershaw, a former Flemington Macca's chick and Girlfriend CoverGirl Model Search winner, was joined on the catwalk by another Australian beauty with a Cinderella story.

Nineteen-year-old Julia Nobis also showcased the latest Chanel finery - a far cry from the baggy pants and skateboard she was first spotted with in Syndey's Bondi Junction by a modelling agent two years ago.

The pair sashayed past the most stylish and powerful people in fashion, including American Vogue's Anna Wintour, Kirsten Dunst, Diane Kruger, Alexa Chung, Lou Doillon and Johnny Depp's partner, Vanessa Paradis.

''Nothing is definite so I've always had plan B, which is going to university to study medicine or midwifery," Nobis said. ''Dad has been saving my whole life for uni but I guess now he doesn't have to worry any more.''

Chanel revealed its spring-summer collection in the French capital yesterday.

Tacoma-based fashionistas are watching India closely

Tacoma-based fashionistas are watching India closely as Lakme Fashion Week approaches.  The Puget Sound region now hosts thousands of foreign workers, and events back home are very important to many of them.  One woman, a native of India who was shopping at Tacoma Mall and asked to remain anonymous, sums it up well: "India has been behind the world in many things, especially fashion.  It is time for us to make a comeback."

Founded in 2000, Lakme Fashion Week's mission is to: "Redefine the future of fashion and Integrate India into the global fashion world."  All eyes will be on Mumbai for the 4-day event, with designers showcasing their summer and fall fashions on some of the most beautiful women in India.

The Hindustan Times is reporting today that "Gauri and Nainika Karan, who have designed for actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Deepika Padukone" may be the designers chosen for the grand finale.

What:  Lakme Fashion Week Summer/Resort 2011
Where: Grand Hyatt, Mumbai
When:  March 11th-15th, 2011
Follow Lakme Fashion Week on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/LakmeFashionWk
In Tacoma, be sure to visit Platinum Salon!  Be sure to ask for Brooke for world-class fashion styles and cuts.

 

spring/summer 2011 designer fashion trends

As promised, I am back to continue our discussion about spring/summer 2011 designer fashion trends. While at The Galleria Mall the other trends spotted were: long skirts and dresses, 70`s sophistication, and 50`s housewife skirts. So, lets start with the long skirts and dresses trend. The Just Cavalli line showcased the bohemian look.

The dresses were romantic, and pretty with a touch of hippie chic. This long, dress and skirt look is fabulous on anyone and gives you something casual and cute to wear on weekends besides just jeans. Speaking of jeans, jeans have gone back in time too. I am indeed saddened by the supposed end of skinny jeans. Bell bottoms, and wide legged, high waist jeans are making their presence known. Designers at the helm of this trend are Derek Lam, Marc Jacobs, Jason Wu, and Tommy Hilfiger.

Already I have seen many women in the Houston area already working it in there flared jeans. This is actually a trend that many women may still have in there closet, since flared and boot cut jeans were pretty popular around the early part of 2000-2003. But, remember the difference between now and then is that the waist of your jeans need not be low rise. Moving on to the 70`s sophistication look. I am loving the elegance of this trend. The rich fabrics, and the flow of the designs.

Hermes won me over with their line of wide legged suits, a must for the office. The low cut, sexy dresses are to die for. Fashion continues its ride on the time machine this season. 50`s style skirts, with fitted shirts on top are too cute. Victoria Beckham`s spring line was inspired by 50`s style, as was Louis Vuitton. I am loving this back to the past trend we have going on right now, it is a chance for us ladies to basically play a little dress up and feel comfortable with trying out some looks we always wished we could have worn. So as always, I am challenging you to have fun this season and every season with your look.

Spring accessories

Shoes

Be brave and bold in your choice of shoes this season.

Prada's stripy wedges in bright, summery hues are as strangely beautiful as might be expected. Charlotte Olympia's "fruity" shoes are simply strange – and all the more brilliant for it. Fuchsia pink is the colour of the season, meanwhile, as Christian Louboutin knows only too well. A gold-stem heel only adds to the impact here. For more practical souls, Stella McCartney's ultra-low wedge heels have the whiff of the school run about them.

Bags

Statement bags make their return this season, even if they are wonderfully minimal, such as the Céline "clasp" bag, which comes in an array of suitably chic, on-trend shades including brilliant white. More obviously high-impact are Miu Miu's sensibly sized bags in fluorescent hues of pink, yellow and lime and crafted in leather so fine that shoulder-ache will never be an issue. Chloé's bag nods to the Seventies in natural leather but a transparent PVC window ensures easy access at all times. Finally, the Jil Sander tangerine acetate carrier bag – a snip at £90 – is a witty twist on the "it" bag from the sartorially discerning working woman's label of choice.

Sunglasses, hats and scarves

'Tis the season of novelty sunglasses and these angel-wing frames courtesy of Jeremy Scott for vintage eyewear supremo Linda Farrow look set to be a fashion insider's favourite. Wear them with a wide-brimmed hat that channels Bianca Jagger, which can only ever be a good thing. As for this classically elegant Yves Saint Laurent scarf: it's animal print, sheer and has the spirit of the Seventies about it, so what could possibly be more modish?

Jewellery

Shy and retiring is not on the agenda this season as far as jewellery is concerned. This Louis Vuitton necklace, dripping with costume jewels in the colours of boiled sweets, looks good enough to eat. Lanvin's insect cuff is suitably sauvage and will dress up even the most understated outfit. Those daunted by the fact that everything from jackets to handbags and even shoes will be finished with fringing this season might also like to invest in a pair of delicate Chanel earrings that pay lip service to the trend without following it slavishly.

Is the glamorous world of catwalk fashion

With Veronica Lake-style waves tumbling over fine features, the model who closed Jean-Paul Gaultier's Bond-themed show yesterday cut a truly stunning figure. Nothing unusual there, you might think.

This, after all, is the glamorous world of catwalk fashion.

But there was something out of the ordinary at play: this was no Bond girl, but Andre Pejic, the fashion world's androgynous model of the moment.

Other models also sported long, waved hair, but it was Pejic, a Serbian-Australian whose family fled the war-torn Balkans in the Nineties, who stole the show as he closed it in a tiger-print fur jacket, gold belt and high heels, and carrying a golden gun.

Gaultier is known for breaking boundaries, and for perfecting the art of androgynous tailoring, and the vision of Pejic in a perfectly cut tuxedo is up there with many of his boldest, and coolest, statements.

Gaultier's autumn/winter 2011 menswear collection played with conventional notions of the overt masculinity that the double agent usually represents – featuring more obviously macho men in dark, action-hero clothes such as leather jackets, alongside the glamorous Pejic.

Pejic is one of the hottest models around right now. He appears in the Marc by Marc Jacobs ad campaign, shot by photographer Jurgen Teller, as well as in the Gaultier campaign alongside supermodel Karolina Kurkova.

He is part of a trend for androgynous models alongside Lea T, a transsexual with flowing brown hair who appeared in a Givenchy ad campaign and is a friend of the label's designer, Riccardo Tisci. Lea T said she agreed to star in the campaign because "I thought this would be a nice message for another tranny: 'Look we can be the same as other boys and girls.'"

Fashion today is not so much about creativity

Roberto Cavalli insists he isn't in competition with other designers.

The flamboyant sartorialist - who counts Victoria Beckham, Jennifer Lopez and Beyonce Knowles among his celebrity fans - says he doesn't look at what his peers are creating as he believes he is his own biggest rival.

He said: "I don't judge what is going around me. Honestly. I don't want to see what the other designers do.

"I do what I like, I don't have any competition. Sometimes I say to my team, 'Why we do like that? Because Dolce & Gabbana and Armani do like that? What do I care?' "

The 70-year-old fashion legend also revealed his disappointment that a lot of creativity has been taken out of fashion.

He said: "Fashion today is not so much about creativity, like it used to be. I can shout about that. To start in the 70s was unbelievable, was different. That was fashion. London was the fashion capital at the time. The mini-skirt became big. Everything was fantastic."

Gucci is by no means the only house offering up a suave

Gucci is by no means the only house offering up a suave, ’70s sexuality, but the sharp edge of the designer Frida Giannini’s always rock-centric viewpoint means those wide lapels and flared pant legs have a cultural relevance centered in the here and now. It’s the small details that avoid the campy, retro danger zone, and these suits have them: you get that loungey, jet-set cool without feeling like a throwback.

Slick, patterned leather pants with a double-breasted? A trench belted by a studded harness? Not for everyone, maybe, but these are looks the Versace man is definitely after. And Donatella Versace, along with her young creative director, Martyn Bal, delivers. As with Gucci, the deftness of touch keeps this sort of overtness somewhere near the realm of practicality.

The bold pattern is not an easy proposition for most men. And Missoni is famous for its woven examples of just that. But somehow this collection stayed true to that heritage in an exciting, functional way. When color and pattern appeared, they did so often subtly, as flecks in a cable knit or as a faint pattern showing through finely woven fabric. The emphasis was on quietly layered, earthy pieces that, despite sometimes being stacked two or three deep (with a scarf and hat to boot), remained modern and unfussy, like you could just toss them on.

Pringle took its own soft woolen knits and imagined them on someone pretty tough — a vigilante roaming the heather, perhaps. In men’s wear, when you push a fantasy and find yourself still producing a wearable collection, it’s a very good sign. The leather pants, beat up and patched together, were pretty easy to imagine a lot of guys actually wearing — seriously. Same for the riding pants with leather knee patches. Equestrian is a common reference, often even a joke, but these were legitimately cool. Sadly, all this was partly marred by a distasteful opening film shot by Walter Pfeiffer.

The idea of this doll came from Barbara's mother

There are many years of history about this doll. In fact, she has been around for fifty one years. She celebrated her fifth birthday last year. The name Barbie originated from a little girl named Barbara. There are several collectible Barbie doll made each year.

The idea of this doll came from Barbara's mother. This was not only an American but also a business woman. The husband was co-founder of Mattel Toys.

She observed her daughter playing with dolls made of paper. Then she came up with this idea. In those days the dolls were more infant type dolls and paper dolls.

Barbara would give the dolls different rolls such as an adult figure. That is when the mother thought of making a doll more like an adult. There would be other clothes to play dress up with the fashion Barbie. The idea was taken to the directors of Mattel's toys. They liked the thought of this type of doll.

While in Europe on a trip with her children she saw a doll that had an adult figure. Purchasing several of the dolls, one for Barbara and the others were taken home. Then they were taken to the toy company to review. They changed the model of that doll to introduce Barbie.

She was first shown in New York in 1959 at a toy fair on March 9. This is considered her birthday. Barbie's first outfit was a swimsuit that was white and black striped. Her hair was placed up in a ponytail. Also there was the choice of brunette or blonde hair. Later the Mattel Company purchased the other doll that was from Europe. Soon after the purchase they stopped manufacturing that doll.

Barbie is made as a teenager but the breast is very noticeable. Because of the breast parents were displeased. So her outward aspect was changed several times throughout the years. One major change is the doll's eyes were sloping to the side. The eyes are now turned ahead.

There have been almost a billion Barbie's sold throughout the world. This is credited to her being of the first toys advertised on television. There also is a Boulevard in Time Square called Barbie Boulevard.

Andrej Pejic; Jessica Chastain; the British Library

Fashion: The new androgyny

After the billboard success of transgender model Lea T, comes the next gender-bending face of fashion, the Serbian-born Australian model Andrej Pejic. With his flowing blond locks and pixie pout, he's the androgynous face of Marc Jacobs' newly launched spring/summer ad campaign, and stars alongside female lookey-likey Karolina Kurkova for Jean Paul Gaultier. We don't know whether to fancy him or envy him.

Face to watch: Jessica Chastain

She starred recently in Murder on the Orient Express, but no grey cells are required to deduce that this 29-year-old is primed for bigger things, with roles in Mossad thriller The Debt and Terrence Malick's long-awaited The Tree of Life.

Social networking: Match the tweet to the star

Bret Easton Ellis

Sarah Silverman

Paloma Faith

Hugh Bonneville

1 EXTRA! EXTRA! Wrinkles & lines are a great way to weed out the douchebags!

2 I'm floating up...I am quite high now and I look down at all the people racing about like fleas and they look very small and sped up

3 Just read somewhere that the massive bird deaths all over the world were caused by angry pigs

4 I'm reading a discarded MoS on SW Trains and am drinking a Kenco coffee. I'm not being paid to endorse any of them

Answers at the bottom of the page

App watch: #1 Treasures

The British Library brings its vaults of wisdom to the app eco-system with this new application incorporating more than 100 of its most prized possessions – from Leonardo's notebooks to Lennon's handwritten lyrics – alongside handy commentary from the experts. £1.19, from iTunes Store and Android Marketplace

Lexpionage: Oblication, n.

Those irritating things – ie. emails, texts, voicemails, blog updates, tweets, incompetent housesitters – that you are required to attend to even though you are SUPPOSED TO BE ON HOLIDAY!

On the radar: Because some things are still worth getting excited about...

Music: The Go! Team

Banish that back-to-school feeling with the schoolyard pop of these Brightoners, whose latest LP Rolling Blackouts (out 31 Jan) fuses cheerleader chants, hip-hop beats and bumptious brass to typically gleeful effect.

Television: Falling Skies

Sci-fi geeks are bristling in anticipation of Steven Spielberg's latest TV sojourn, an alien-invasion series emitting Close Encounters vibes. Launches in the US in June; catch the first trailer at tinyurl.com/6js7zo

Restaurants: Gallery grub

High culture just got more palatable thanks to gastro re-fits at the Whitechapel Gallery, where Angela Hartnett has taken over the dining-room, and the RA, where Oliver Peyton launches a tapas-style affair on Wednesday.

reinforced in steel come Golden Globes Sunday

Let's hope the Beverly Hilton Hotel is reinforced in steel come Golden Globes Sunday — each year the awards telecast brings crushing star power to Beverly Hills as film and television celebrate their best and brightest, and this year is no exception. As the telecast emanates from the Hilton, studios and media tend to also focus their parties there, making for a wild power vortex. The lineups are still evolving, but here's a guide to the best parties this weekend, from pre-game to the main event.

Awards appetizers: Friday and Saturday bring a surprisingly hefty lineup of pre-Globes celebrations, as Hollywood's top companies and agencies toasting their nominees and praying with other fabulous entities riding the wave.

BAFTA tea party: For partying during waking hours, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts will host their annual, tres civilized award season tea party on Saturday. Saucers and sandwiches will be had by Darren Aronofsky, Helena Bonham Carter, Kathy Griffin, Jane Lynch, Helen Mirren, Tilda Swinton and more at the swanky Four Seasons Hotel. The event is hosted by British producer-director Nigel Lythgoe, president of the L.A. BAFTA chapter.

W Magazine: The fashion-society mag will ring in its "Best Performances" issue with a Golden Globes penthouse soiree at the Chateau Marmont on Friday. Editor in chief Stefano Tonchi will welcome Matt Damon, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, Scarlett Johansson, Mila Kunis, Melissa Leo, the Coen brothers, Jennifer Lawrence, Darren Starr, Claire Danes and many more. Glimpses of the action on the famed patio may be had from Sunset Boulevard.

CAA: Later on Friday, power agency CAA will welcome their star clients for an exclusive cocktail party at West Hollywood's private members club, SoHo House. Agency honchos like Kevin Huvane and Bryan Lourd count among their clients Nicole Kidman (nominated for her performance in "Rabbit Hole") and James Franco. We're sure they're on the "just-drop-by" list.

Art of Elysium Heaven Gala: The folks at Art of Elysium, dedicated to pairing artistic mentors with children battling illness, will honor Franco at their annual black tie fete. Nabbing the Spirit award, Franco will be joined by luminaries like Nicole Richie and Joel Madden, Ben Silverman, Jeffrey Dietch, Kristen Bell, Rachel Bilson, new mom Ali Larter, Cameron Silver, Elijah Wood, Gerard Butler and Joy Bryant. The bunch will congregate at the California Science Center for the bash, where Vogue magazine will put on a fashion show after dinner.

Paramount: Saturday will see a private party from the peeps at Paramount. They've been very tight with info on this, but it is to be held on the patio at the Chateau Marmont. Sophia Coppola's "Somewhere" is so on the nose, with all this Chateau action.

Main event: Pool deck to plush banquettes, subterranean sushi spaces to the rooftop — on Golden Globes Sunday, the Hilton is saturated in soiree.

InStyle / Warner Bros: The fashion magazine and studio partner up for what promises to be fierce fashion and major Hollywood players in the Hilton's Oasis Courtyard. Expected attendees include the casts of "Inception" and "The Big Bang Theory.":The Weinstein Co. / Relativity Media: Mogul Harvey Weinstein and Hollywood mega-financier Ryan Kavanaugh host. Need we say more? French fashion mag Marie Claire also lends some invitation power. This party takes over Bar 210 and should feature Weinstein darlings like Jennifer Lawrence and Colin Firth, as well as casts from "The Fighter" and "Blue Valentine."

HBO: Counting a ton of nominations for original film and television this year, Home Box Office is bringing in a whole load of talent to party in the Hilton's poolside area. One would expect red-hot ensembles like the flesh-baring folks of "True Blood" as well as "Temple Grandin" sweetheart Claire Danes.

NBC Universal: The major entertainment conglomerate returns once again to the heights above Wilshire Boulevard for back-patting and toasting on the Hilton rooftop. Their party should draw deep from their comedy stronghold with folks like Tina Fey and her merry band of "30 Rock" gems, including pregnant Jane Krakowski and Senate hopeful Alec Baldwin.

Fox: This crowd is tenting up the parking structure in the rear garage (the old Robinson's May structure) adjacent to the Hilton to make beautiful music with its stable of bold names. Nothing like staking out your own territory, especially when hosting the bright young things of "Glee," repping the television side, and the cast from Fox Searchlight's big bragging-rights film, "Black Swan."

fashion houses to reimagine vintage styles

Stylist to the stars and mama-to-be Rachel Zoe debuted her eponymous collection yesterday during a top-secret fashion show.

But it wasn't completely under wraps. Teen Vogue editor Jane Keltner de Valle tweeted a picture of a black-and-white Zoe piece backstage...and pointed out it looked a lot like a frock the stylist used in the mag's October 2007 issue.

So did the mama-to-be copy someone else's work?

Well, sort of.

Turns out the piece from the Teen Vogue shoot was vintage, sourced from the boutique What Goes Around Comes Around in New York City. Rachel loved it so much she bought it and wore it to Marc Jacobs' runway show afterparty that Fashion Week.

And since the Rachel Zoe Collection looks very '70s-inspired, it's no big deal that she borrowed the design, right? It's common for fashion houses to reimagine vintage styles.

Rachel Zoe Debuts Fashion Line

WWD's new Style section caught up with Rachel Zoe, the "Mother of Invention," an apt title since the celebrity stylist-slash-designer will soon be a mom:

Beneath her white tuxedo jacket and black shift dress is her seven-month bump -- which on someone else could pass for a big lunch. If the physical evidence is hard to find, Zoe isn't shy about her impending motherhood. She initiates the conversation during a phone interview last week, though she stops short of divulging if it's a boy or a girl. Either something changed over the weekend or she is terrible at keeping secrets, because the pronouns fly on Monday. "It all depends on his arrival," she says patting her stomach. Not five minutes later Berman swoops down, kisses her belly and declares, "It's a little boy." A boy! Who will she dress up in her archive of vintage Lanvin?
Um, us? We nominate ourselves to be dressed up in Rachel's Lanvin, please.

Zoe's own, '70s-ish-chic clothing collection will be priced from $250 to $700 and includes shoes and handbags (upon seeing one, Rachel exclaimed, "I'm going to scream. Did I just scream?") Although no retailers have stocked up yet, she plans to have the duds on the shelves of specialty and department stores.

According to the fashion newspaper, all this and more (including Brad's replacement "Mandana, a leggy brunette") has been captured for season four of Bravo's "The Rachel Zoe Project." But don't expect to see Zoe at any fall 2011 shows:

"I've been asked to slow down," she says. "But to be totally honest, it's kind of next to impossible when you're planning your show and launching your collection, and in the middle of award season." Her idea of taking it easy is watching "Twilight" at night instead of working. Zoe claims she hasn't had a minute to shop for baby clothes, although, "I'm also Jewish," she says. "So I'm a little superstitious. I've been sent a lot of gifts and things and my team just hides them."

 

Fashion Family Finds a Kindred Spirit in Outsider Art

Like a madcap traveling circus of party people, the Missoni family descended on a cult private museum in London last month.
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But even fashion’s first family of pattern and color found competition from the extraordinary private collection of Peter Blake, the king of Brit pop art in the 1960s, whose album cover for the Beatles’s “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” defined a cultural moment.

The Museum of Everything’s exhibition of artifacts from historic fun fairs, old amusement arcades and folk art using taxidermy to create surreal scenes of human domestic life is the backdrop of Missoni’s latest fashion campaign — with their extended family and friends modeling the spring collection from the Italian house.

Angela Missoni, the creative director, first saw the Museum of Everything, in London’s Primrose Hill, during the Frieze Art Fair in 2009. “I thought it was fantastic and very close to my aesthetic — I don’t consider myself a collector — I am an assembler,” said Ms. Missoni, who believes she has inherited a magpie vision from her mother, Rosita, whom she took to see the exhibition when it traveled to Turin.

“The things that James Brett had in his collection, Rosita and I have in our houses,” Angela Missoni said referring to the founder of the museum and his inaugural shows of art by ordinary people with an urge for self expression.

And that is how the collaboration of the Missonis and the Museum of Everything came about.

“When I was ready to do a new project for the campaign, I was thinking about Peter Blake, who had an exhibition in Venice, and then I realized that he was doing an exhibition at the Museum of Everything,” she says. “I asked Juergen Teller to do the pictures — and we put it all together.”

So on a bleak winter day, the patriarch Tai Missoni with Rosita, daughter Angela, sons Vittorio and Luca and the vast cousinhood they have spawned, sat at long tables lunching, as if al fresco in Italy. To the mix were added various friends from Joan Burstein, the founder of Browns boutique, to the former Brazilian model Andrea Dellal, and Tatiana Santo Domingo and Eugenie Niarchos from the hip international set of Margherita Missoni and her sister Teresa.

“I said ‘no’ to every other fashion brand, as well as magazines,” Mr. Brett said. “I was afraid they would turn the museum into a film set and the art into a bunch of props. But this was different, with every member of the family modeling, from 19 to 80. It all made sense and has been more like an artistic collaboration than a traditional campaign.”

For all the energy of photographer Juergen Teller’s images, it is the face off between the family and the weird and wondrous art that creates the artistic tension. There are fairground games, line ups of meticulously painted (if now politically incorrect) Punch and Judy puppets, model railways or seaside boxes smothered in shells. Then there is the fascinating, but creepy, woodland dioramas from the Victorian Walter Potter, who used stuffed squirrels, mice and birds playing cards or cricket or holding tea parties, in scenes created in glass cases.

“It’s amazing isn’t it? When you see something separately it becomes extraordinary,” is one of Peter Blake’s comments written beside the objects.

But it is Mr. Brett who has made this strangely compelling amateur art into a genre, that will even be shown this year as an exhibition at the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture in Moscow. This will include a pan-Russian search for unknown “outsider” talent.

Outsider art was the starting point for Mr. Brett’s collection of work, which he describes at being “made by mediums and mystics or people with disabilities” and from environments “in the middle of nowhere.”

“I’d been looking at lots of Southern folk art from the United States — odds and ends found in nooks and crannies across the deep south — strange and brilliant, immediate and unpretentious,” Mr. Brett said.

“The best work seemed to be made by farmers and preachers and laborers — blue-collar folk,” he adds. “I guess what attracted me was the purity and directness. There was a connection to other homespun American art forms like jazz — not quite naïve, but vernacular — made by people without formal training and made for its own sake rather than for sale or career.”

Mr. Brett, a movie maker and property developer, found the empty industrial space, formerly a dairy and then a recording studio, and used it to test the idea that “people art” — unearthed from countries as diverse as Japan or Sri Lanka — might resonate today.

Mr. Brett aspires to catch the intensity and emotion of the artist at the moment of creation. He is now preparing an exhibition of art by people with physical and mental disabilities.

“The Museum of Everything is there to engage and entertain and take you on a journey,” Mr. Brett said. “I want people to experience something — to feel rather than think — and Peter feels exactly the same with his show.”

What are the stars wearing?

What are the stars wearing? Joan Rivers doesn't care anymore. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the comedy legend -- who's practically an awards-season institution on red carpets covering events in recent years for the E! and TVGuide channels -- says she and daughter Melissa Rivers want to move on from dishing about designer duds.

As Melissa explained at the Television Critics Association press tour on Friday, "We've done that. It's not fun anymore."

So the Rivers ladies have decided to launch a reality show about Joan moving in with Melissa. The series premiere of 'Joan and Melissa: Joan Knows Best?' will air Jan. 25 on WEtv.

But with so much experience chatting up celebs for the cameras (and taking them down for their fashion foibles later), why would the duo turn their well-dressed backs on the kinds of gigs they're famous for?

"When we were doing it, you could tell Julia Roberts, 'I hate your dress,'" said Joan, who added that thing have changed. She said publicists "ice you" now, if they feel style-related insults cross a line.

"It took all the fun out of it," added Melissa.

And after Lisa Rinna took over a TVGuide broadcast covering a crowded red carpet in 2007, morale slipped further. Joan recalls, "When I found myself literally pulling Nicole Kidman's arm away from --who's the one with the big lips? -- I thought, What am I doing? Take your stupid lips and take these movie stars."

As they start a new chapter as reality TV stars, the mom and daughter are hoping not to be compared to MTV-style reality television. "That's reality that I don't like," Joan says. "So I think 'Jersey Shore' -- Yuck!" But of course, she'd be welcome a PR opportunity if the right 'Jersey Shore' star came knocking during an episode of her new series.

"We hope Snooki will come visit us," cracked Joan. "Are you kidding? We're whores!"

lips offer an easy entrée into the trend

The biggest fashion story for spring/summer is bright colour. However, it takes a particularly joyful dresser to brave head-to-toe acid-yellow clothes in January, so bold lips offer an easy entrée into the trend.

The look is about hot pops of colour that stand out on the face and make an outfit look instantly modern. At Jil Sander, where Raf Simons' designs came in felt-tip-pen brights, the clothes were complemented with a matte fuchsia lip and an almost bare face. When Kate Bosworth wore a pale pistachio skirt with a white T-shirt from the collection recently, she stayed true to the look with her hair scraped back and Schiaparelli pink lipstick.

The most modern way to wear the look is to keep the face and eyes looking bare, ideally even without mascara. "Allow the lip to be the focus of the face," says MAC Senior Artist, Neil Young. In reality, most make-up wearers are loathe to relinquish mascara, but do keep the rest of the face as low-key as possible. Young says, "a full, luscious brow is the perfect partner for a bright lip as it naturally belongs to the face and therefore won't compete with colour. Always start with the lip and build the make-up around it". Good, natural-looking bases include Chanel's Pro Lumiere foundation and Bobbi Brown's Natural Finish Foundation.

The Green, Green Luxury of Home

Even in a world where green has become the new black and words like "sustainable" grace everything from food packages to corporate mottos, the notion of building an eco-friendly luxury home can seem like an oxymoron.

IndigoPR Co
The luxury carbon-neutral home concept—in which properties attain a net zero carbon footprint—has been labeled "a conscience salve," "greenwashing" and "a complete misnomer" by critics.

"You think of a £30 million mansion built with the finest imported materials, the heated pools, the electrical gadgets, the air conditioning, the six-car garage and of course the private jet journey to get there. That can appear at odds with the environment," says Peter Mackie, managing director of HSBC-backed Property Vision, a U.K.-based estate agent.

The luxury carbon-neutral home concept—in which properties attain a net zero carbon footprint—has been labeled "a conscience salve," "greenwashing" and "a complete misnomer" by critics. Despite that skepticism, developers are hoping to turn a seemingly contradictory phrase into a 21st-century success story, laying plans for prime deluxe carbon-neutral property all over Europe. New homes in the U.K, Portugal, Italy, Morocco and Switzerland are being marketed to wealthy individuals around the world, with developers reporting strong demand.

In Morocco's Atlas Mountains, Anwar Harland-Khan, co-founder of green architect group Sustain Worldwide, is behind a carbon-neutral luxury development called L'Amandier. Construction of the project began last year and the villas are expected to be completed this year. All water will be drawn from on-site wells, and rainwater will be harvested for irrigation. Mr. Harland-Khan, who is also working on a Swedish carbon-neutral ski resort, says industry standards in Morocco are stringent and there are certificates provided to clients at each stage. Interiors, designed by U.K. and Moroccan architects Nick Gowing and Hicham Belhouari, have a flavor of Marrakech. Each villa has its own pool shaded by Bougainvillea and almond and citrus trees.

IndigoPR Co
Andermatt Swiss Alps, a major development overseen by Orascom Development Holding AG, which includes six luxury hotels, some 500 apartments and luxury villas and an 18-hole championship golf course.

Half of the sixteen villas, which are priced up to £425,000, have been bought before completion of construction. "Sustainable luxury is about providing for the needs of discerning people today, without compromising the needs of future generations," says Mr. Harland-Khan. "It is well within our grasp."

In the U.K., property developers John Hitchcox and Philippe Starck have launched the Cotswold's first carbon-neutral gated community, the Lakes by Yoo. The 160-villa development offers interior design by Jade Jagger and Kelly Hoppen. Villas are built using sustainable timber. There is an option for owners to purchase bolt-on solar panels, rainwater harvesting and wind turbines on their homes, with eco-packages priced up to £45,000. Properties cost between £800,000 and £1.5 million.

Meanwhile in Switzerland, the vision of Samih Sawiris, a billionaire Egyptian-born property developer, is taking shape. He is spending €1 billion to transform the sleepy village of Andermatt into a car-free community with over 500 apartments priced from around €1 million. Estimated completion is 2020. Half the energy for heating will be provided by wood fires, while the other 50% will come from geothermal energy.

Mr. Sawiris believes age and social conditioning can change perceptionswhen it comes to sustainability. "We are building with the well-educated next generation in mind. Carbon neutral will be important to them." He says he is footing the bill for the eco-credentials, which add a 10% premium to the project. "I feel I am setting an example," he says. "It is worth earning a bit less to have peace of mind. Reducing carbon should be everybody's goal."

Zero-carbon communities have been around for years—for example, the car-free neighborhood of Vauban in Freiburg, Germany, which was built in the mid-'90s and is characterized by rows of so-called "Passivhauses." The temperature in the homes is maintained through 30-centimeter thick insulation, airtight sealing and a heat recovery unit.

The problem is the aesthetics aren't everyone's cup of tea, says Property Vision's Mr. Mackie. Many carbon neutral homes take the form of prefabricated housing blocks built to a uniform height with little character. Buyers at the top end of the property market are rarely willing to sacrifice comfort and design for what they perceive to be unproven technologies in low carbon living.

"The eco-property movement has been hijacked by the 'woolly jumper brigade,' those that interpret eco-friendly as anticonsumerism, rather than reality," says Thomas Lipinski, an award-winning Polish architect and founder of Green Structures, a building firm. "The idea that these houses have to be ugly and badly designed is wrong."

Mr. Lipinski reckons that demand for well-designed luxury eco-homes will soar as carbon reduction will likely get more press and political attention. High demand will push prices higher. The resale value of a carbon-neutral property over 10 years could be 20% higher than a comparable "fossil build," he says.

His team is building a £400,000 zero-carbon country mansion in Hertfordshire for a client who initially contracted them for a standard home. When they suggested zero-carbon, he was skeptical. "He didn't like the idea of having to pay an extra 10%. But when I showed him how much he would save in the long run, and how much more he could sell it for, he soon agreed." Thermal and energy-efficiency related payback will take four years from occupation for an average home, taking into account new feed in tariffs on eco-homes in the U.K., says Mr. Lipinski. The mansion has a solar thermal heating system that can store up to 100 kilowatt hours of heat, a rainwater harvesting system and a heat recovery ventilation system.

But others believe technological innovations have a way to go before carbon-neutral luxury becomes standard. Charles McDowell, an estate agent in central London, points out that few top interior design firms are fully briefed on sustainability codes set by LEED (an internationally recognized green building certification system) or BREEAM (a voluntary measurement rating for green buildings established in the U.K.) Alex Michelin, director of Finchatton, a high-end interior design and development company, says: "The products out there are still far behind the labeling requirements set out under LEED and BREEAM. The whole supply chain—handles, fabrics, timber suppliers, electronics—all need to sign up to these codes before designers will have the information required to make informed decisions."

Although there are products that are both aesthetically pleasing and eco-friendly, there isn't as wide a selection on offer, and some of the products are one-time items, such as Lee Broom's Decanterlights, light fixtures made from lead crystal drinks decanters sourced from antique markets. "There are still major challenges in aligning the high-technology design features sought by buyers in the luxury market with sustainability, says Mr. McDowell. "With lighting, for example, most of the low-energy lighting systems are just not up to the standard demanded in this market."

The fact that most parts must be imported from Germany and Scandinavia is slowing progress too. Shelagh McMullan, a retiree living near Dublin, had a geothermal heater dug into her garden and solar panels fixed onto her roof. The implementation was arduous. "They sent the wrong size pipe from the company in Germany. We had to return it. It added another three months onto the process during which time my garden looked like a freshly ploughed field." But she wouldn't change the results. "Around 90% of my energy comes from the earth and the sun, my bills are next to nothing and my conscience is clear."

Lithuania launches national perfume

Lithuania is pioneering a new type of national symbol to convey the character of the ex-Soviet Baltic state in a fragrant way with a bottle of perfume.

Lithuania's foreign ministry has already sent bottles of the new fragrance to all ambassadors accredited to Vilnius.

The project with olfactory appeal is "a good example of how to communicate Lithuania to the public in an innovative way," according to a foreign ministry statement.

"We wanted to create something special, representing Lithuania and the Lithuanian character, " Mindaugas Stongvilas, an expert in emotional communication behind the project told the Lithuanian daily Vilniaus diena.

The perfume "Lithuania" is a blend of sandalwood, cedar and musk intended to connote the Indo-European origins of the Lithuanian language as well as Lithuanian strength of character, its designer says.

"For Lithuanians to identify themselves with this perfume, we've added the smell of wood fires that can be associated with pagan rituals, as well as moss and wildflowers," Stongvilas said.

The creation of the perfume has been entrusted to France's Galimard perfume from Grasse on the Riviera which has been in business since 1747. The first thousand bottles were produced for more than a 100,000 litas (28,900 euros, 38,792 dollars).

Lithuanian soldiers deployed in Afghanistan have also received samples. Soon it will be the turn of Lithuanian embassies, hotels and airports.

Scented "Feeling Lithuania" candles are also to go on sale next month while an entire line of products is being designed.

The Bearded Dandy of Brooklyn

OUIGI THEODORE, the founder of the Brooklyn Circus, a retro-urban fashion boutique and label, has heard it all before: dandy, preppy, Anglophile, fop. Still, he was flummoxed when a customer walked into his boutique a year ago, took one look at the bow ties and straw boaters for sale, and declared it the height of “steampunk.”
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Mr. Theodore, 35, had to Google the word to find out that it referred to a neo-Victorian style built around gas-lamp-era suits, starched collars and gold watch fobs.

“It’s a mix of old and new, so I guess that’s the comparison,” he said as he took a break from chatting up customers in his boutique on a recent Friday. He wore a pair of Mark McNairy red-and-black wool trousers and a newsboy cap, accessorized with a Balinese scarf, silver Navajo rings and a camouflage German military jacket. The look was Jelly Roll Morton, channeling Hendrix.

Whatever you call it, Mr. Theodore has cultivated a unique style that has won him applause not only among the fashion pundits of Brooklyn, but also from streetwise fans as far away as Europe and Japan.

His fashion quest, besides making a buck, is to elevate a side of black urban culture that goes beyond the baggy jeans and sneakers that still define hip-hop. “Our goal is to refine the image of urban America,” Mr. Theodore said. “My dream is to see guys hanging on the corner in suits.”

He’s making strides. The original Brooklyn Circus store, which opened in Boerum Hill in 2006, has become a must-go for tourists in skinny jeans from places like Seoul, Berlin and Johannesburg.

Since then, he’s opened a second shop in San Francisco; a store-within-a-store at Sir & Madame in Chicago; and a pop-up shop in Stockholm. He also sells to 25 specialty shops in Japan. And the man behind the brand? He has become a recognizable figure on the streets of Brooklyn and has established himself as something of a trend forecaster for advertising and marketing companies looking for what’s next. Mr. Theodore has consulted on campaigns for Hennessy, Toyota and Casio G-Shock, he said. And last spring, he was a featured speaker at the PSFK Conference, a trend-forecasting summit in New York.

Whatever the setting, his message remains the same: open your mind about what youth-oriented black street fashion can be.

“Urban always had a style to it, a swagger,” Mr. Theodore said. But it came with baggage, too — “overuse of the ‘N’ word, the pants sagging,” he said. “It just created this stigma. When I travel overseas, people see the way we dress and say: ‘You guys don’t listen to hip-hop. You’re not urban.’ Yes, we are.”

Growing up, Mr. Theodore himself had the kind of swagger that was noticed. When he was 8, his family moved from Haiti to Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where he quickly became known as a neighborhood fashion plate. He cited James Brown, Liberace and Fred Astaire as fashion influences, and would set off to Brooklyn Technical High School wearing a Ralph Lauren cashmere sweater around his shoulders one day, a ski suit and goggles the next.

Along the way, he sloughed off his first name, Quincy (“Quincy Jones already did his thing,” he said) and went by his middle name, Ouigi, which is pronounced “Wee-Gee,” like the photographer or the board. He also developed the coolly detached verbal patter of a hipster — that is, in the 1940s daddy-o sense, not the 2011 Williamsburg sense.

After graduating from the State University at Stony Brook with a degree in history, he studied graphic design at the Fashion Institute of Technology. He worked as a graphic designer by day and club promoter by night. But his high-wattage personality did not lend itself to a desk job, so he scraped together $8,000 and opened his shop. Although he originally helped design the clothes at Brooklyn Circus under the BKc label, Mr. Theodore now farms out the designing, casting himself more as an idea-generator and curator. Meanwhile, he took on a strategic partner, Gabriel Garcia, to handle production and wholesale.

The collection became more dandified and genre-busting each year, befitting the label’s name. “Circus for us is just that chaos, that orchestrated, organized confusion,” Mr. Theodore said. “It’s not for the old, it’s not for the young. It’s not black, it’s not white.”

Certainly, Mr. Theodore’s vision of retro — which carries more than a trace of Harlem Renaissance, not to mention André Benjamin from the hip-hop duo Outkast — did not arise in a vacuum. In recent years, independent men’s-wear brands like Freemans Sporting Club in New York and the Stronghold in Los Angeles seeded a downtown trend for American tweeds, vests and flannels that paved the way for retail powerhouses like J. Crew to jump on the heritage bandwagon.

Nevertheless, Mr. Theodore has given this fashionable old-time look a modern, polyglot twist, appropriate to the melting-pot borough where he was raised, particularly now that it has become a street-style capital.

And, with his own peacock tendencies, he’s his own best model. Never mind that he now lives in Manhattan. When he walks the streets of Boerum Hill, it’s hard for locals to miss him, in part because of his trademark horizontal beard, its architecture seemingly inspired by the horn of an anvil.

This wedge of whiskers, which he grooms fastidiously with a pick, has inspired an alter ego, the Bearded Man, which is also his handle on his popular style blog, thebkcircus.com. The character has also been featured in print ads for Bushmills Irish Whiskey and Citizens Bank, and a television spot for Tide.

“I haven’t seen my face, my actual face, in five years,” Mr. Theodore said. “What’s odd is that people run into me in the streets and are like, ‘Yo, the Bearded Man, right?’

“I’m not cutting this off, I guess.”