No such thing as bad weather in Norway ¡ª just poor clothing choices

Posted on 9/3/2010 at 2:35 AM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

ALESUND, NORWAY ¡ª The Norwegians are a practical people. They don¡¯t have a lot of sympathy when you shiver because the weather has turned cold; nor do they give a whit that you sweat torrents from the heat. Perfectly attired in any sort of weather, they can¡¯t believe that you aren¡¯t. They¡¯ll look up at the sky when its pelting rain, then turn back to stare, noting in their gaze the fact that you have forgotten to carry an umbrella or don a slicker. Pointedly, they¡¯ll shrug and say with indifference: ¡°There is no bad weather in Norway, only bad cheap clothes.¡±

I¡¯ve heard it over and over since I¡¯ve been here. And I hear it again, as I stand on a pier in Alesund, a question mark-shaped port on the far northwest¡¯s craggy coast. It¡¯s nearly midnight, so light outside I could read a book without a flashlight¡ªand I¡¯m freezing.

The Norwegians I know say something else, as well. They say it to express amazement¡ªsuch as when they witness the fact that I¡¯m poorly garbed, even after they¡¯ve already related the no bad weather axiom and I still haven¡¯t learned my lesson. ¡°I haven¡¯t seen anything like this since Alesund burned down.¡± Once baffling to me, this expression at last makes sense. Alesund, where I watch the breakwater clap against the rocks beneath a storybook lighthouse, once burned to the ground. In 1904, a clumsy cow kicked over a torch in an ocean-side factory. The winter winds whipped the polo ralph lauren flames with luge- like speed through the clapboard-house cluttered town. The light from the fire could be seen in towns miles away. People scurried to save lives. Even the warden released the jail¡¯s prisoners, calling out to them, ¡°Come back tomorrow.¡± (I wonder if they did.) By morning, ten thousand were homeless, some 850 homes devoured by fire. Miraculously, only one person died.

But that¡¯s just half Alesund¡¯s story. A village at the heart of the cod fishing industry, Alesund had world repute already. The outcry reached even Paris where Sarah Bernhardt¡¯s theater threw what might be the world¡¯s first relief concert. Funds and workers arrived from around the globe with the goal to rebuild and aid this fishing and boat making center as quickly as possible. The architects came from Germany, carrying with them the design rage of the early 20th century: Jugenstil ¡ª or Art Nouveau. In three short years, they rebuilt the entire town.

Rather than replicating the wooden houses that had stood from the sea to Mount Aksla, they chose to construct stone structures in the contemporary style of the era. The result: an in- the-vogue village, rich in Art Nouveau. Adopting the German form of the genre (less floral forms and more wavy lines that whiplash along exteriors like Christmas ribbon candy), they blended it with elements of Norwegian national Romanticism¡ªthat is, adding Scandinavian mythological figures and Viking motifs. Evoking the pre-Raphaelite tendency toward the True Religion Jeans quixotic, the buildings tend to have castle-like turrets, spires, gargoyles and roofs that suggest hand-cut sugar cookies. And yet, awash with pale or somber tones (butter yellows, Prussian blues, hues of wheat and curry, and sandy whites), the houses manage¡ªnevertheless¡ªto exhibit a demureness befitting a Lutheran country. Made from sturdy stone, the houses in this Art Nouveau town were anomalies that contrasted sharply with the colourful, weathered wooden houses in sister fishing villages along the coast.

I¡¯m a wimp though, so I do Trollveggen by train. That is, I look up at it (in awe) en route to Alesund when I ride the Rauma Railway. The Bergen Railway and its steep Flam line might be Norway¡¯s most highly touted rail trip, but locals I know swear by a little piece of heaven known as the Rauma Railway. ¡°This,¡± says Wenche Berger, ¡°is the most beautiful trip in Norway.¡± Along this rail line, they filmed Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince¡ªusing a vintage train. My train chugs from Dombas to Andalsnes, and even slows down to a near stop at exactly the place one wishes most to take a photo. Managing to include a bit of everything, this rail trip passes by waterfalls, rocky crags, peaks, glaciers, plateaus and an immaculate national park. Like a partner, the Rauma River follows the rail track¡ªsometimes volatile and raging, other times inexplicably pacific, it adds to the train trek¡¯s allure. Besides dynamic Trollveggen, a wall so massive and soaring it defies credence (as well as the belief that anyone would wittingly toss themselves over its side), the Kylling Bridge portion of the trip steals the show. The train undulates between precipitous walls and rocky peaks. All the while, ensconced in a comfortable leather seat, I take my risks by hanging out the window with my camera for shots. Too bad the guy next to me sleeps through it all.

I leave Alesund sadly at midnight when I board a Hurtigruten ship, one of Norway¡¯s famous fleet. Calling at more than 30 ports, going from Bergen to the Arctic Circle and back again, these ships take riders¡ªmany of them commuters¡ªalong what was once a dangerous, albeit stunning, coastline. I check in, snuggle into my sleeping quarters and hit the sack. After all, it¡¯s finally dark, I¡¯m no longer cold and I plan to be up at the crack of dawn to watch the captivating coastline pass by. And whatever I wear, will probably be wrong. But the weather in Norway will always be right.

I find my favourite spot in Molovegen, the section of Alesund nearest the sea, the only neighbourhood to escape the buy clothes online cheap devastating inferno. Here, original early-19th century wooden houses sit on rocky ledges that line the lapping water. In one such structure, dabbles local artist Ingrid Ulla, proprietor of Ingridsglassverksted, a fine glass atelier and glass blowing studio. Dressed in baggy jeans and a shirt festooned with a cartoon hero, she grabs her naughty kitten, an orange tabby intent on destroying her work. Humbly she points out her exquisite wares: voluptuous cobalt vases, ample platters, and cauldron-like wine glasses. ¡°It¡¯s inspiring to work here,¡± she says, gesturing to the boats gliding back from a day at sea.

Shopping for glassware is one thing, but the best way to do Alesund is energetically¡ªhiking the fjords, sailing the seas, skiing the nearby mountain peaks. Some people even dare to head to nearby Trollveggen, Europe¡¯s highest vertical rock face, to BASE jump¡ªmeaning, jump illegally in a freefall.

Vintage clothing shop gets new look

Posted on 9/2/2010 at 4:23 AM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

A decade ago, Ellie Mueller, then 14, began shopping at Oona¡¯s, the much-loved vintage and costume shop near Harvard Square. She remembers admiring the jewelry, pawing through the buy clothes online cheap coats, and, like many Oona¡¯s devotees, often emerging with something unexpected. Eventually, Mueller got her younger sister shopping there, too.

It felt like you were in-the-know to go there,¡¯¡¯ the Cambridge native recalled recently. ¡°There was stuff that was way older and funkier than you¡¯d be able to find at a church thrift store.¡¯¡¯ She remembers one of her early purchases: a hand-stitched Art Deco kimono that she hung in her closet as a prized possession.

Sarah Palin¡¯s Shopping Spree: Yes, There¡¯s More...

Posted on 9/1/2010 at 2:33 AM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

The clothes. Few aspects of polo ralph lauren have been more discussed than the $150,000 worth of clothing and accessories bought by the Republican National Committee¡¯s coordinated campaign fund on behalf of the candidate and her family in 2008. Yet interviews with campaign aides and internal campaign e-mails and documents obtained exclusively by Vanity Fair shed new light on the situation, revealing Palin to have been more innocent at the start of this shopping odyssey than has previously been reported¡ªand more knowing and more calculating as time went on.

Initially, Palin objected to the very idea of clothing being purchased for her to wear at the Republican National Convention. When she was first presented with a $3,500 jacket, an aide recalls, the True Religion Jeans price tag sent her into shock: ¡°I don¡¯t spend that much money on my clothes in a year,¡± Palin said. ¡°I will not do this.¡± Aides decided, in future, to cut off the price tags, so Palin wouldn¡¯t quite know how much was being spent. But eventually, they say, Palin grew accustomed to the privilege of a designer wardrobe¡ªnot only for herself but also for her family.

Police said the clothes included labels for brands including Stone Island, Armani and Ralph Lauren, and would have been sold at a fraction of the legitimate retail value for genuine items.

Det Insp Simon Harsley said: "This form of crime can be very lucrative for traders across the country, as well as undercutting and prejudicing the commercial success of legitimate business."

"But we also believe that they commit money laundering offences under the Proceeds of Crime Act."

Councillor Dee Simson added: "Many people think that counterfeiting is a victimless crime."

She added: "There is undisputable evidence that counterfeiting activity is linked to serious organised crime. It also damages legitimate traders who face unfair competition from these criminals."

On October 21, 2008, Federal Election Commission filings revealed the massive expenditures made on behalf of the candidate, her husband, and her children. As was reported at the time, the vast majority of the purchases¡ª$130,000¡ªwere made by Jeff Larson, a Republican consultant in St. Paul, Minnesota, where the 2008 convention was held. Other purchases were made by a stylist, a Dallas fund-raising firm, and campaign staff. In fact, shopping for the Palins involved many campaign staffers: at least eight of the candidate¡¯s aides requested reimbursement for clothing purchases for the Palins that they charged to their personal credit cards. The records of those purchases also reveal that Palin¡¯s later claims¡ªthat ¡°we had three days of using clothes that the R.N.C. purchased¡± (at the Republican National Convention) and that she understood the clothes to have been ¡°loaned to us during the convention¡±¡ªwere completely false. So was the spin of Palin¡¯s campaign spokesperson, who stated on October 22 that ¡°it was always the intent that the clothing go to a charitable purpose after the campaign.¡± On October 23, in a previously unpublished e-mail (quoted below), Palin wrote that she had no idea the clothes would eventually need to be returned, and suggested that she believed the items were being given to her and her family as gifts. And campaign documents show that, remarkably, the buy clothes online cheap spending continued into October. On the 20th, the day before the clothes-buying sprees were made public, a staffer paid $639.36 for clothes and a coat at Macy¡¯s and Ann Taylor in Reno.

Throughout October, staff members were still buying clothing and accessories for the Palins. That month¡¯s purchases, which totaled more than $9,000, would seem to stretch the boundaries of what constitutes a legitimate campaign expense. On October 9, a ¡°Jersey for Piper¡± was purchased at a store called I Love Cincinnati. On October 10, a $316.94 pair of Bose headphones were purchased for Sarah Palin in Pittsburgh. (Separate purchases that day were made for ¡°Intimates¡± and ¡°Workout Clothes.¡±) On October 16, a ¡°Jewelry case¡± purchased in Concord, New Hampshire, was charged to the campaign.

On October 17, the day before Bristol¡¯s birthday, after a senior Palin aide asked a junior aide, in an e-mail, ¡°Do you mind talking w/Bristol about getting an outfit for tomorrow & via the campaign. Thanks,¡± the response came back: ¡°Yep. I talked to her about it this morning and picked up a few dress options at saks during the event today. And a pair of snazzy shoes to wair on her bday : ).¡± That same day, the same junior staffer charged $1,312.94 at Saks 5th Avenue in Cincinnati. In campaign records, that expense was labeled as if it were made not for Bristol but for the candidate¡¯s appearance on Saturday Night Live. (The memo line reads ¡°Clothes-SNL.¡±)

And a Gallup Poll of consumers' self-reported spending in August showed that consumers estimated they spent $65 a day, less than in June and July and roughly the same as in August 2009. The estimates, released Tuesday, included restaurant and gasoline purchases as well as items like cheap clothing.

Total clothing sales rose 2.6% in August from a year earlier, MasterCard said, but they were buoyed by an 8.4% jump in children's wear. Sales of men's clothing fell 1.9% and women's clothing fell 2.7%, suggesting that parents were forgoing purchases for themselves. Clothes sales were still off 2.3% compared with two years ago.

The story was similar in electronics, where sales rose a modest 2.3% from the year before but were down 9.9% from two years ago.

On October 23, two days after stories about Palin¡¯s exorbitant campaign clothing budget first surfaced, Palin e-mailed aides in a fury: ¡°Ridiculous ¨C I¡¯ll try to be patient through this, but this is ridiculous and hypocritical in terms of my values, and prudent use of ¡®other people¡¯s money¡¯ ¨C It¡¯s puzzling, even infuriating, why the clothes issue is what it is now. My family was never told that all must be returned ... Not until two days ago when I read we may have a challenge in tracking down [her son] Track¡¯s very expensive sweater(s) (that he didn¡¯t request), as they¡¯re either on base at Ft. Wainwright somewhere, or perhaps even overseas ... I¡¯ve asked many, many times how this was all supposed to work with clothes that were presented me and the kids ¨C who was paying ¡­ ¡± (A close campaign aide says that this is untrue, and that Palin never asked any such questions.)

But in the very next paragraph, Palin was trying to figure out a way to hang on to some of the items: ¡°Do they want the nylons and other things that are pretty worn, returned?¡± (And she asked a campaign aide, ¡°Do they really want my dirty undergarments?¡± Indeed, Palin had something of a fixation on the handling of her undergarments, and insisted, when hotel maids did her laundry, that only campaign aides be allowed to touch those particular articles.) Attempting to wrest some control over the situation, she added, ¡°I want say in the charities these will go to.¡±

By the time she returned to Alaska, after Election Day, Palin¡¯s transformation was complete. An e-mail string dated November 7 includes terse directives to aides to search for particular items of clothing that she wanted to keep: ¡°Remember the five black leather Flyers bags w sweatshirts and jerseys and Flyers propaganda in each bag? Anyone know where they ended up?¡± One of the aides who were sent to Alaska to retrieve and catalogue the items purchased for Palin recalls that, during these days, mysteriously, ¡°all of a sudden, she couldn¡¯t find stuff.¡±

Muslim network helps growing number of Calgarians in need

Posted on 8/30/2010 at 8:39 PM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

Calgary Catholic Immigration Society volunteer Delayne Bean, right, helps nine-year-old Samia Abdulkadir try to find some clothes for back to school during a Muslim Families Network Society sponsored distribution event at the Falconridge Community Centre on August 29, 2010. The group was helping to distribute food, clothing and other items to underpriviledged individuals in Calgary during the polo ralph lauren holy month of Ramadan. About 1,200 people were expected to take part in the event.

Photograph by: Colleen De Neve, Calgary Herald

Nine-year-old Samia darts excitedly between tables piled high with clothing, pulling out whatever catches her eye and holding it up against her for a gauge on the fit.

She's starting Grade 4 this week and can hardly believe she'll have a closetful of clothes to choose from every day, instead of just one outfit and pair of shoes, like it used to be.

"My favourite colour is pink," says the little girl, who soon ended up with a cute, puffy white coat overtop her purple velour top.

Originally from Ethiopia, Samia came to Canada last February from Kenya with her mother, who is now nine months pregnant. The pair were among hundreds of other refugees, recent immigrants and less fortunate Calgarians to benefit Sunday from a clothing and food drive organized by the Muslim Families Network Society as part of Ramadan.

The holy month is a period of prayer, fasting, charity-giving and self-accountability.

"This is the month of generosity," said the society's Idrees Khan.

And generous they were.

Within a couple of hours on Sunday, the community centre in Falconridge was True Religion Jeans filled with donated clothing and food bought by the society.

In April, when the society held a similar event, 714 were helped.

"This time, we think that number is going to be double," said Khan, attributing the growing need to a faltering economy and an increase in the number of arriving refugees and immigrants.

Indeed, there was a long lineup Sunday to get into the community centre, where volunteers helped people comb through the piles of cheap clothing and other donated items.

"This is fantastic. I can't believe the amount of support these people will provide," said Delayne Bean, a volunteer who brought Samia and her mother from their home in the southwest.

"Once we're done getting the clothes, we have an opportunity to take big bags of flour, sugar and the halal chicken," she said, referring to the buy clothes online cheap meat that must be handled in a way prescribed by the faith.

Bean had already bought some $200 in new clothes for Samia, but it was all stolen when her car was broken into last week.

"Now, I can come here and replace all the stuff," said Bean.

"New or used, it doesn't matter to her," she said of the happy little girl.

One recipient, a mother of three, broke down in tears as she described a feeling of shame for having to turn to charity to outfit her children. "It's hard," said the woman, who came from Iraq a decade ago.

The woman, who didn't want her name published, said her husband has been unable to work since he was operated on for a spinal tumour after Christmas last year. The couple's home has gone into foreclosure and soon they will be homeless.

"When the bank throws us on the street, where will we go?" she asked.

Khan said there are many similar stories among those the Muslim network is helping -- both Muslim and non-Muslims.

"There are many people suffering. There are children in very tough conditions, so we are providing extra help."

Cheryl Cole's favourite designers are the real winners of X Factor

Posted on 8/29/2010 at 8:37 PM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

Since it first aired in 2004, audiences have primarily been drawn to  for the buy clothes online cheap value to be had from watching the most disastrous auditions: the tone-deaf no-hoper who performs an acoustic version of Michael Jackson's Billie Jean accompanied on the spoons, for instance, or the mother-and-daughter duo with an inexplicable faith in their non-existent singing abilities. Either that, or the show's 11 million viewers have simply been tuning in to monitor the fluctuating height of Simon Cowell's trouser waistband.It¡¯s nearly the end of the month and Kelly Brook has only half fulfilled her promise to make her way through August completely in the nude.

After her naked photoshoot with Playboy then LOVE magazine, Kelly has repeatedly flouted the rules of her no-clothes month by turning up to film events in her clothes. Shocking we know.

And the actress ended up disappointing her fans once again over the weekend by wearing a dress (albeit a scant one) to the premiere of her movie Piranha 3D in Paris. Only two days left of no-clothes month Kelly ¨C time to get cracking, nudge nudge wink wink etc etc etc

But this year, there is another, far more pressing reason to watch. It has nothing to do with the singing and everything to do with what True Religion Jeans is wearing. Since becoming an X Factor judge in 2008, the 27-year-old has transformed herself from a Geordie pop star with unexceptional clothes and an unfortunate reputation for punching lavatory attendants into a fashion sophisticate whose sartorial choices on Saturday night prime-time can make or break a designer's reputation.

"She's become a fashion icon," says Dolly Jones, the editor of Vogue.com which runs a regularly updated gallery of Cole's X Factor looks. "What she wears has a huge impact on the buying public because people relate to her. She's incredibly good looking but you also get the impression that she really enjoys fashion. There's a thrill about it for her, she doesn't look wooden ¨C she looks like she's enjoying the attention the clothes bring."

And the designers, too, feel the warm glow of the Cole Effect. Last season, Cole stepped out in an array of outfits designed by couturier Stephane Rolland, British designer Matthew Williamson and the late Alexander McQueen. It was quite a transformation for a girl whose signature look was once combat trousers, a sleeveless T-shirt and a scraped-back ponytail. If X Factor producers have allegedly been using Autotune to digitally enhance the singing voices of favoured contestants, perhaps Cole has benefited from a Fashiontune that magically smoothes out her style taste.

When, last November, she wore a £1,500 David Koma dress with two semi-circular discs emblazoned with metal piping over her d¨¦colletage, the same dress sold out in Browns boutique in London. This, in spite of the fact that the outfit was distinctly cutting edge ¨C some commentators rather unkindly referred to it as a "dustbin lid dress" ¨C and hardly anyone had heard of the designer.

Koma, a graduate of Central St Martin's, showed the dress as part of his first ever collection and was astonished by the attention he received after Cole's appearance. "It was a total surprise," he says. "I'm a big fan of the X Factor but I didn't even know she had bought the dress until a friend of mine called me to let me know he was seeing one of my designs on television."

The Georgian-born Koma, whose name was then little-known outside high fashion circles, suddenly found his clothes being discussed in tabloid newspapers. He went on to produce a further two collections and is hard now at work on his fourth. "If a beautiful woman is buying and wearing your dress it can only help," Koma says. "A lot of young girls look up to Cheryl Cole and so for her to wear my dress has a kind of impact that I can't describe."

In a precarious economic climate, many young designers can benefit hugely from a celebrity endorsement, especially if it brings their clothes within reach of a wider audience. "It's not a new idea ¨C Princess Diana probably started it off," says Dolly Jones, "but celebrities now are increasingly powerful. I do think Cheryl's really supportive of new British designers and she's pretty brave in her choices."

It seems that polo ralph lauren Cole has become increasingly aware of her influence. According to Vogue.com, this year Cole is hoping to fly the flag for home-grown designers including Vivienne Westwood, Matthew Williamson and the up-and-coming Colchester-born Hannah Marshall. For the first X Factor of 2010, Cole wore a crepe dress by home-grown designer Richard Nicoll and sold exclusively by the website Net-A-Porter.com. It was a canny display of fashion nous ¨C the dress had sold out before the programme even aired.

How has a diminutive pop star yet to reach her 30th birthday become one of the most powerfully savvy figures in British fashion? As well as being able to pick up tips on photoshoots and music videos, one presumes it helps to have amassed a considerable fortune: Cole is thought to spend around £100,000 on her X Factor clothes each series. She also employs the services of the stylist Victoria Adcock, who has in the past worked with Girls Aloud, Victoria Beckham and Christina Aguilera. It was Adcock who initially approached the designer Hannah Marshall about a collaboration.

For designers such as Marshall, who are trying to make their name in a competitive industry where the cost of mounting a catwalk show can be exorbitant in the early stages of a business, an endorsement from Cole is like manna from fashion heaven.

"Models and celebrity are two quite different platforms for brand recognition; models are chosen by designers to help create a vision specifically for the fashion industry," says Marshall. "Celebrities such as Cheryl Cole provide that step closer to reality for the consumer to buy into a brand.

"It's also more of a compliment to me as a designer when the right celebrity wears your designs as they are choosing to wear them because they like the cut and fabric not just the label name."

On a broader level, as Marshall implies, Cole's influence seems to mark a shift in the way clothes are marketed. It is no longer enough for a designer simply to rely on a glamorous catwalk show peopled by improbably slim supermodels and attended only by the very wealthy or the very famous. In the increasingly egalitarian climate promoted by social networking sites and Twitter feeds, such displays risk exuding an uncomfortable sense of exclusivity. The economic downturn has also meant that the public is growing tired of visible excess. In order to survive, the fashion world arguably has to become less rarefied and more accessible ¨C X Factor, with its millions of viewers and prime-time, Saturday night broadcast slot, seems as good a place as any to start. Indeed, Cole's fellow judge Dannii Minogue has also carved out a reputation as something of a trend-setter and recently brought out her own line of dresses.

"Celebrities are getting more and more important for lots of brands," says Rebekah Roy, whose clients include Sophie Ellis Bextor, Kaiser Chiefs and Billy Idol. "Everybody wants someone like Cheryl Cole to wear their clothes. The key to her influence is that so many people like her: she manages still to be accessible and in the public eye." And she experiments, too, with cheaper, high-street options ¨C on one photo-shoot, Cole supposedly turned down the opportunity to wear an outfit by Chloe in favour of something from River Island.

It is not just pop singers and film stars who shape our fashion tastes: more recently, an assortment of political wives have taken to backing designers from their own countries to give a patriotic boost to the national fashion industry. The prime minister's wife, Samantha Cameron, often sports silk dresses by Erdem with Rupert Sanderson shoes, while Michelle Obama wore a Jason Wu gown on the evening of her husband's presidential inauguration and Carla Bruni-Sarkozy favours the quintessentially French Christian Dior.

Although the effect of such endorsements is most potently felt by the up-and-coming designers struggling to make a name for themselves, there are advantages for established labels too.

The collection which was a collaboration between Johar and designer Varun Bahl sported a palette of black and white with bursts of shimmer and colour.

"We wanted the cheap clothes to be the showstoppers at the show not a person," said Johar.

The 38-year-old filmmaker said that he decided to work with Bahl because they have a very similar aesthetic though there were plenty of arguments.

"Me and Varun often turned up at parties wearing the same shirt, our tastes are that similar. So doing a collection together was the next step and I have always wanted to be a designer. So he helped me fulfil my dream," said Johar.

Johar, who is gearing up for the release of his home production We Are Family, sported a black suit with geek classes but said that his first choice was shorts.

"Black is my colour, but I would have worn colourful shorts if I was fit enough for it," said Johar.

For the Paris-based haute couturier Stephane Rolland, Cole's decision to wear his dresses on last year's X Factor provided an opportunity for him to showcase another side to his already established brand. Before dressing Cole, he was best known as one of the preferred designers of Queen Rania of Jordan. Over the years, Rolland's clothes had gathered a reputation for being exquisitely tailored and a touch conservative. But when Cole stepped out on the X Factor stage in his tight gold minidress, she overturned that notion in one flash of a glittering strobe light.

"It would be hard to quantify Cheryl Cole's influence in terms of sales," says a spokesman for Stephane Rolland. "At the time we dressed her she was a huge star in the UK and the impact was mainly felt there rather than internationally but there is no doubt that celebrity association is very helpful in shaping the image of a designer."

But of course, it is a two-way street. For all that Cheryl Cole might be heightening the profile of a designer there is no doubt that by wearing the latest trends, she is boosting her own image too. The combat of past.

Bellevue Fashion Week hopes to spark sales on fall clothing

Posted on 8/27/2010 at 2:28 AM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

After two years of cutting back on unnecessary purchases, Sammamish resident Andrea Hakim considered the new leopard-print blouse and military-inspired skirt at Macy's a must.

"I haven't been shopping in a while, and I need so many things," she said.

Hakim spent $250 on the blouse, skirt and other purchases at Macy's this week in Bellevue, adding, "I need to feel good about myself."

Organizers of the Bellevue Collection's fifth-annual Fashion Week, which began Tuesday and runs through Sunday, hope to persuade others who made do with what they had through the recession to spend more freely on new fall looks.

A Saturday runway show presented by Vogue magazine promises the latest trends ¡ª cape-style coats, calf-length boots and leopard prints ¡ª from an array of stores, including Ann Taylor, Banana Republic and Nordstrom. Proceeds from the nearly sold-out, 600-seat show will go to The  polo ralph lauren Moyer Foundation, a nonprofit that helps children in distress.

Fashion Week takes place amid mounting fears of a double-dip recession. But Anne Vincent, director of special events and merchandising at Vogue, said she thinks many women are eager to splurge on themselves again, even if only a little.

Shoppers pulled Vincent aside this week at Bellevue Square to ask about her own stylish attire ¡ª a sign, she said, that "people are hungry to know about fashion."

"I don't think people are going out and changing their whole wardrobes," she said. "Instead, they might go out and buy a great investment handbag, or a couple pairs of shoes, or maybe a great coat."

Kuma Coffee became the first Seattle-area coffee roaster to publicly disclose how much it pays per-pound for all of the coffee it buys, part of a transparency effort that some roasters consider vital to gaining legitimacy for direct-trade coffee. Direct-trade coffee involves buying beans directly from farms, rather than going through certification systems like Fair Trade. Kuma Coffee owner Mark Barany said he put his prices online to show that True Religion Jeans buying direct is a sustainable business model, and to say, "Who else out there feels so good about their business practices that they could do the same?" Kuma roasts in Bellevue and has a cafe at 4110 Stone Way N. ¡ª MA

Stores are likely to promote clothes that can be worn day or night and for more than one season, said Sally Lohan, the West Coast content director for trend-forecasting firm WGSN in Los Angeles.

"I'm talking about core, classic colors ¡ª camel, gray and navy ¡ª and lots of traditional fabrics," such as tweed or wool, Lohan said. "Women are looking for timeless pieces that they can keep for years and years."

Lohan also predicts an emphasis on unfussy clothes reminiscent of the 1960s ¡ª A-line skirts, cigarette pants, tunic tops ¡ª and a 1950s-inspired look she calls "retro-prim," though it's seemingly a reflection of the popular TV show "Mad Men" rather than the tough economic times.

"It's a bit feel-good, and it makes you look pretty," she said.

Despite the economic doldrums, local stylist Sydney Chavez said she stays busy helping women update their wardrobes, including mid-career professionals and job seekers.

"I think people are ready to turn a new page," said Chavez, of Styled.Seattle. "They're just tired of wearing the same things."

Styled.Seattle charges $300 to $495 for a wardrobe makeover, not counting new clothes and shoes, so it caters to buy clothes online cheap women with at least some discretionary income. Still, many are on a tight budget and want clothes that flatter their figures and last a long time, Chavez said.

"In a lot of cases, that means shopping at a variety of retailers" ¡ª discount department stores, local boutiques and upscale clothing chains, she said.

New York-based retailer Ann Taylor said Thursday it plans to open a new Loft store in downtown Seattle where Adidas used to be at Fifth Avenue and Pike Street. The Loft, which already has a downtown store at Sixth Avenue and Union Street, is to close there in early October and open at its new location a week later, according to a store employee. It will cover 6,235 square feet over two floors, in what's being billing as a new prototype for the moderately priced cheap clothing chain.

Like Moon, the clothes¡ªstylish basics aimed at women in their 30s, 40s and 50s¡ªare mostly in black and grey, with a few hits of white, camel and red. There¡¯s the classic Beker black dress ($150), a boyfriend jacket with ruched sleeves ($150), a cape-like camel jacket ($195), wide-leg dress pants ($79) and, somewhat surprisingly, a pair of jeggings ($85).

It¡¯s not Beker¡¯s first foray into making clothes rather than reporting on them: she had a short-lived travel line at Eaton¡¯s before it was bought out by Sears, and for a time lent her expertise to a shapewear line. When Bonnie Brooks took over The Bay, the two started discussing the possibility of working together. Turns out that Brooks and Beker are old friends¡ªit was Brooks who introduced Beker as a columnist in Flare magazine while she was editor.

Local mom Brooke Castro, who works as a project manager on a contract basis for local businesses and nonprofits, recently asked Styled.Seattle to freshen up her wardrobe. She plans to spend about $3,000, including $500 for styling services.

"I don't shop a lot and never have. And I just found that from a work perspective, I needed to look a little more professional and be a little more fashionable," Castro said. "People sort of respect you more if you dress well."

As for the latest trends, Castro said she hears leopard prints are all the rage.

"I don't know if I can pull it off," she said. "But I'm not opposed to it."

Fashion savvy, regal poses giving Maine coon cat from Florida boost in modelling world

Posted on 8/25/2010 at 11:47 PM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

LOS ANGELES, Calif. ¡ª Not many cats have thousands of fans and a couple of museum exhibits under their belts.

Of course, not many cats could wear belts.

Lorenzo is a two-year-old Maine coon True Religion Jeans who happily models the latest fashions for his owner, photographer Joann Biondi.

His photos have won him thousands of friends or fans on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube. He's been in contact with Paula Poundstone, Yoko Ono follows him, Alanis Morissette tweets him and he has a "relationship" with Matilda the cat, the most famous guest at New York's Algonquin Hotel.

The six-kilogram cat currently can be seen hanging in the Little Critters exhibit at the Nave Gallery in Somerville, Mass. In October, a group of Lorenzo portraits will go on display at Cornell Museum of Art and American Culture in Delray Beach, Fla.

"Lorenzo is an amazingly beautiful cat and without clothes would still be hard to resist, but it was the clothes that really made him fit the theme of my show. His stoic poses and the way his little legs emerge from cloth just make me smile," said V Van Sant, curator of the Nave exhibit.

It proved to be an interesting month for a wide variety of people.

"We had an 11-year-old girl and we had a woman that buy clothes online cheap was in her 60s. We had people from all walks of life," says says Hackemer. "We had people from anywhere from Singapore to Dubai to London to Amsterdam, Brazil, all across the U.S. It just seems that a lot of people are struggling with their relationship with clothes and the way they consume them. That's why I think we had such a wide range of people participate.

Hackemer was surprised at how few people seemed to notice that she was wearing the same six items the whole month.

"I had a pair of cutoff shorts that I would wear on the weekend. And I had another item, a black blazer, that was very much about dressing up. I then mixed in other things like a black pair of pants and a black top and a skirt and a black dress."

Having fewer choices reduced stress in her life.

"I learned what's really important and what's really worth stressing over. I also found that this simplicity echoed into other parts of my life, you know just walking more or cooking more food. I realized that - you know what? This stuff we let come into our world, physical stuff that we allow into polo ralph lauren our world, really jams up our mind. And our mind can be quite a powerful and positive thing if we cleared up a little bit."

Although he "personifies south Florida's tropical fashion sense," attitude was more important than style to Gloria Rejune Adams, director at the Cornell museum.

"I think Lorenzo is a very special cat, with or without clothes, and he definitely would have made the grade as exhibit material either way. He is a gorgeous animal," she said.

The kitten was four weeks old and living in a foster home when Biondi adopted him and brought him home to her Coconut Grove, Fla., apartment.

Lorenzo used to steal Biondi's underwear from the laundry and run through the apartment. One day, while she wrestled some clothes away from him, she flipped a tank top over his head. He poked his nose through an armhole, held his head high and paraded around, staging his first fashion show, Biondi said.

A freelance journalist, Biondi started taking pictures of Lorenzo in different shirts and settings. She put them on MySpace and "he made friends with donkeys, birds and people."

She started getting emails from all over the world. Some wanted to know if she had Lorenzo on tranquilizers or was bribing him with steaks. One man insisted Lorenzo was stuffed. And she got a note from a woman who said Lorenzo was causing big problems at their house because her five-year-old daughter didn't understand why their cat, Shadow, wouldn't wear cheap clothes.

A flamenco singer wrote and said she was writing a song about Lorenzo. Biondi started selling the photos online.

The whole idea is to make people smile, she said, but she still tries to take pictures that "maintain his integrity. I don't want him to look silly. He always wears real clothes instead of costumes."

Lorenzo does have a couple of rules ¡ª no pants, no hats and the top button on a shirt has to stay open.

And he still has typical cat tendencies. A photo Biondi calls "Still Life With Cat" had fruit, vegetables and herbs in it. "Lorenzo played soccer with the grapes, ate the basil and knocked the oranges on the floor."

Back-to-School cool: Mixing and matching prints is in

Posted on 8/24/2010 at 8:20 PM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

Fashion for Flood Relief: good clothes for a good cause

Posted on 8/22/2010 at 8:07 PM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

* Designer clothes sold at slashed prices and receipts donated to flood victims
By Muhammad Aayan
LAHORE: In the past week, citizens have been busy collecting funds and items for flood victims. In this regard a special event was scheduled titled ¡®Fashion for Flood Relief¡¯ at the Royal Palm Golf and Country Club. Top designers displayed their collections at minimum prices, the buy clothes online cheap receipts from which were donated to flood victims.
Designer wear, furniture, make-up vouchers, jewellery and other items were on sale at slashed prices. The event kicked off at 4pm with people queuing up 30 minutes earlier. The entry into the hall was for Rs 300, which was being given by the wife of the Punjab governor, Amna Taseer. Moreover, T-shirts, which had ¡®Love¡¯, and Pakistan¡¯s map imprinted on them were being sold for Rs 400 each.
The event received great response True Religion Jeans with nearly 60 percent of the items being sold out in the first hour.

The Victory Christian Center's annual Back to School Party took place at the Edmonton Expo Centre on Saturday morning, with the goal of assisting less-fortunate families during an expensive time of year.

According to the organization, equipping a child with school supplies costs and average of $50-$150. When new clothes are factored in, the bill climbs even more.

"We want to be able to get them a step up so they can move on, so that they can get on the other side of the fence if you will," said BJ Brahmacharie with the Victory Christian Center.

"It's just a real great way to kick off the school year for some families."

An estimated 3,000 backpacks were up for grabs during the free event, as were an assembly line of supplies like notebooks, glue sticks and pens.

One mother says the hand-up will help her son and others feel good about their trip back to the classroom.

"The backpack alone for him is just exciting," said Lorie Oates.

"They get to bring home and take to school their new stuff and compare what they have - I mean it's self-esteem booster for the kids."

Other services offered included a pancake breakfast, the chance to sift through clothing donations and free haircuts from polo ralph lauren Marvel College.

"They are just so excited," said one volunteer.

"The smile on the kid's face when you are done the haircut is really heartwarming."

Another woman donating her time says she's paying it forward after she received help while raising four kids on a tight budget.

"Having clothes, haircut free, all that - it is good, it helps a lot," said Rose Figueroa, who came to Canada eight years ago.

And she's proof a hand-up can go a long way : two of her daughters have now graduated from university and another is in college.

"It's not only supporting them financially," she said of what the annual event provides recipients.

"It's emotionally giving them something that is fun for them, that is nice for them, that is love."

Since its inception, the Victory Christian Center has helped send more than 50,000 kids to school with the supplies and clothes they need.

Event organizers say it's a testament to Edmonton's community spirit.

"We really are the City of Champions," said Brahmacharie.

"The city gets behind us, businesses get behind us."

With Files from Kevin Armstrong
Rema, a graduate of the University College Lahore, and her friend Mehru who is studying fashion in the US, came up with the idea while discussing the country¡¯s flood crisis. ¡°We wanted to gather the fashion industry for this noble cause. We both started calling up designers who wanted to come aboard and the amazing thing is that no one backed out,¡± Rema and Mehru told Daily Times.
¡°We are aiming for 10,000 bags of relief items for flood victims before Eid. Each bag costs Rs 2,000 and weighs around 25 kilogrammes. We will start purchasing the bags as soon as we are done with the sales,¡± they said.
A buyer, Kazim, who bought a few clothes, said his mother was very eager about the event. ¡°We have been donating at different venues in the past few days, but I must admit that my mother had a personal interest in this event. Though she wanted to buy clothes at cheap rates, but at the same time we knew that the money would be utilised for a noble cause,¡± he said.
Also, with Eid being around the corner, residents seem to be not as enthusiastic as usual about celebrating it due to the flood crisis. ¡°I don¡¯t want to buy cheap clothes this year because the flood victims barely have enough food and I want to donate all I can to support them,¡± said Rashid at Liberty Market.
¡°Although my children are young, but still I will try and persuade them to donate all the shopping money for the flood victims because we have access to these things all the time,¡± he added.

Clothes steal show at jewellery show

Posted on 8/20/2010 at 2:40 AM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

Chico's beats with trendier clothes

Posted on 8/19/2010 at 2:41 AM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

Chico's shares rose 7.5 percent to $9.04 on Wednesday as the company also forecast further sales gains through the end of the year.

The company spent the past two years trying to reverse a longtime sales decline by improving its range of clothing and accessories aimed at women over 45. Its quarterly results lifted shares of Talbots Inc and AnnTaylor Stores Corp ,which cater largely to the same demographic, by nearly 5 percent and 7 percent, respectively.

"We think that this 45 to 65 or 70-year-old customer is underserved and we love her," Chico's Chief Executive David Dyer said on a call with  polo ralph lauren analysts. "That's who is responding."

Companywide sales at stores open at least a year, or same-store sales, rose 6.4 percent during the quarter, led by an 11.2 percent jump at the trendier White House/Black Market chain, which aims at a clientele between the ages of 30 and 50.

Chico's expects the companywide same-store sales gain to continue, rising by a "single-digit" percentage in the second half of its fiscal year.

Analysts also will want to know how Gap plans to lure customers away from its competitors in the final months of the year. They'll also want to know how Gap will cut more costs to offset weak sales and keep profits up.

Revenue from locations open at least a year rose 1 percent for July. That's better than the 0.1 percent increase expected by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. The comparison is a key indicator of a retailer's health because it excludes stores that open or close during the year.

By division, revenue from Gap's North American stores open at least a year sank 6 percent. At Banana Republic, the measure climbed 2 percent. The figure climbed 6 percent at Old Navy.

WHY IT MATTERS: Gap is the nation's largest mall-based cheap clothing chain, so its results provide insight into shoppers' willingness to spend.

Same-store sales at the Chico's and Soma Intimates chains, which account for more than two-thirds of company sales, rose 4.3 percent during the quarter. Dyer said the Soma chain is on its way to breaking even on a cash flow basis this year.

Chico's net income more than doubled to $30.5 million, or 17 cents per share, in the second quarter ended on July 31. from $14.9 million, or 8 cents per share, a year earlier.

Analysts on average were expecting 16 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Net sales rose 10.8 percent to $465.4 million, below analysts' expectations of $468.1 million.

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

The company's strategy of modernizing its image has included opening a summer store in the upscale seaside town of East Hampton, New York.

Despite the strong quarter, Dyer said the company did not respond quickly enough to a record-setting heat wave in much of the United States, shaving earnings by several cents per share. For example, Chico's ran out of shorts and short-sleeve woven tops, among other items.

"We missed quite a bit of summer business," Dyer said. "Some of our pain was self-inflicted." The sales lost to insufficient summer inventory carried into the first part of August, he added.

Chico's said gross margins, which rose 0.7 percentage points to 55.7 percent in the second quarter, benefited from the True Religion Jeans White House/Black Market sales surge and from a higher percentage of goods made exclusively for its growing chain of outlets.

The White House/Black Market chain won national attention in 2008 when First Lady Michelle Omaha wore a dress from the store during an appearance on the TV show "The View."

It¡¯s no mistake the popular jeans are called ¡°skinny¡±, says Shelly Russell-Mayhew, psychology professor and eating disorder expert at the University of Calgary.

¡°The fact they are using the word skinny is important,¡± says Russell-Mayhew, ¡°The child says, ¡®I must be okay since I fit into skinny jeans.¡¯ ¡±

While it is well known that self-esteem plummets in girls ages 11 and 12 because of puberty and new body-consciousness, Russell-Mayhew predicts tight clothing will force this awareness onto girls at a younger age.

¡°You can say it is just girls being girls when buy clothes online cheap she is 7 years old and wants to show her belly at school. But, when it impinges on social, emotional and physical development, that is a huge issue.¡±

Marketing is ¡°so clearly about making money, shock value, the rush to be the first and to be the youngest,¡± says Lyn Mikel Brown, who is establishing Powered By Girl, an media literacy website for teenage girls.

¡°It¡¯s getting boring, it¡¯s so predictable.¡±

Excluding merchandise earmarked for some stores set to open in the current quarter, inventory was up 1.4 percent in the second quarter. Direct-to-consumer sales rose 36 percent to $27.6 million.

In the last year, Chico's has opened 50 new stores, bringing its total to about 1,100. The company plans to open 35 stores in the second half of the year.

Hot advice: Keep your clothes on

Posted on 8/18/2010 at 3:11 AM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

It was a hot and sweaty SkyTrain ride Monday for Susan Morton and her daughter Deanna -- but it was still no problem compared with the trip a summer or two ago when another rider started stripping.

"They got pretty much down to their underwear," said Morton, recalling that steamy trip from Burnaby to Surrey and a passenger she believes might have been mentally ill. "People were just sort of looking at each other."

The nearly naked SkyTrain rider made it through several stations before attendants intervened.

'I think it says something about yourself and, whether you care about cheap clothes or not, what you wear reflects some kind of attitude towards style.'

Morton's story is an extreme example of what TransLink is trying to combat in the current heat wave.

The message: It may be so hot that you want to take off your clothes, but don't. Leave your shirt on. Please.

While there's no dress code on transit, TransLink is following the example of most restaurants by advising passengers that it's "no shirt, no shoes, no service."

In these times of torrid temperatures and rising rage, TransLink would prefer its customers would simply refrain from behaviour that can be irritating to others.

How so? Don't get on a bus or SkyTrain then block the entrance, TransLink's Drew Snider says. Don't open the True Religion Jeans window on an air-conditioned SkyTrain -- which includes all Canada Line cars and the new Expo and Millennium Line cars -- unless it's an emergency.

Barb Panter is visiting from Toronto and put the situation into perspective.

"This isn't hot," said Panter, 42. "You're right on the ocean here -- it's fantastic."

In Toronto, Panter says, "we're all just sitting there sweating our brains out."

Totally unconcerned about the situation was Zeus, a Giant Green Mexican iguana out for a walk with his human friend Mike Reeder.

"He loves the heat," said Reeder. Vancouver's typically cool fall and winter means the metre-long lizard spends October through May indoors in Reeder's Gastown apartment.

The duo don't take transit. "I like to walk," said Reeder.

- Nearly 250 wildfires were burning in B.C. on Monday.

Pelican Lake, about 110 kilometres west of Quesnel, is the largest of the Cariboo fires at 22,000 hectares. An evacuation order and alert were in effect Monday for parts of that area, as well as for Meldrum Creek, north of Williams Lake, and Tsacha Lake, west of Quesnel.

Smoke across parts of Vancouver Island triggered an air advisory for the Island's northern, central and eastern areas.

Parts of Highway 20 in the Bella Coola Valley closed Monday due to smoke.

Metro Vancouver issued an air-quality advisory Monday for Tsawwassen,

Jose Bautista is swinging with style

Posted on 8/17/2010 at 2:33 AM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

OAKLAND¡ªJose Bautista¡¯s locker is full of his baseball gear, but it¡¯s also a miniature haberdashery of some of the finest men¡¯s threads worn by any Blue Jay.

For certain, the Jays outfielder, who has rocketed to fame this year as the major-league home run king, is into nice cheap clothes.

Shopping is a turn on for Bautista. He¡¯s not a trend follower though. He won¡¯t go out of his way in New York for a suit you¡¯d find on a Wall Street stock broker. Shopping is more like a treasure polo ralph lauren hunt for him. A little Prada, a little Gucci, maybe some Gieves.

¡°I find items here and there but I don¡¯t have a favourite place or a favourite thing,¡± says Bautista, whose taste in clothes mirrors the man himself ¡ª smooth, stylish, but definitely not loud or ostentatious.

In fact, Bautista, while in Toronto for only two seasons now, strikes those who know him as a professional from a modest background in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, who enjoys his life.

¡°It¡¯s a hard question to answer though. ... What am I like? I¡¯m not good with that question. I¡¯m not good talking about myself. Yes, I¡¯m outgoing. I like being social. But when I think I should be quiet, I am. And I don¡¯t think quiet is the right word. Respectful is more accurate. I want to be respectful of people and their space.¡±

Bautista exudes that respect in the Jays True Religion Jeans clubhouse. Armed with an excellent command of the English language, Bautista is somewhat of an unofficial mentor amongst the Jays¡¯ Latin players, like newcomer Yunel Escobar.

¡°One thing that Jose has is a big heart,¡± Jays first base coach Omar Malave said. ¡°He will help you, he will go out of his way to help you. With Escobar, he tried to take him under his wing, he tried to show him things when the kid arrived in Toronto. Everyone (in the Latin baseball community) knows Jose is like this. I am very happy to see that he is doing so well now, he¡¯s worked hard for it.¡±

Bautista refused to elaborate on his academic abilities back in Santo Domingo, but he concedes to being good in math. He also excelled in biology, chemistry ¡ª ¡°anything that was visual, I was okay at,¡± he says.

Clothing comprises the largest share of these costs (with parents scooping up trendy  for their kids, as we reported last week). Electronics and makes up the second-largest category, the Federation says. One-third of 500 parents surveyed by AmEx say they will be buying a new computer or laptop, calculators or other buy clothes online cheap.

But some of the things that parents are shelling out for are, well, bizarre. Some 45% of the parents said they will pay for cosmetic services for their kids ¨C mostly haircuts, at an average price of $40. But 18% of those surveyed say they will pay for teeth whitening, and 9% for tattoos.

Some of the costliest line items in the AmEx survey are for extracurriculars ¨C with 12% of parents paying for music lessons, at an average $280, and 35% for sports, at an average $150 each. And 8% will be paying for tutoring or test preparation classes, at an average cost of $160.

I am doing my part for the economy, spending about 10% more this summer than last on supplies for my college-age students. No tattoos or teeth-whitening, though ¨C those items fall to my kids to finance.

Readers, what is the outlook for your back-to-school budget? Would you pay up for designer labels, if it made your child feel better on that first day back at school? How about a tattoo?

There was always a high level of guidance and support from his parents. When regular schools didn¡¯t appear to provide the kind of education they wanted for their son, they enrolled him in a private school.

It paid off with a scholarship to Chipola Community College in Florida, a junior college that led to the major league draft in 2000 where Pittsburgh selected him in the 20th round.

Bautista¡¯s mother, Sandra, worked as an accountant in his hometown while his father, Americo, operated a large poultry farm. When he wasn¡¯t in school, Bautista helped out with tasks like vaccinating and equipment set-up.

He always had a very close relationship with his brother, Luis. And growing up, there was a group of five or six friends, who remain close to this day, and who spent hour after hour playing soccer, riding bikes, or hitting the basketball courts.

Baseball was significant at an early age as well.

¡°I played Little League,¡± Bautista said. ¡°But I was always one of the smallest guys; that changed later on. But definitely I wasn¡¯t a power-hitting guy. I was a leadoff hitter and speedy.¡±

There is an undying sense of pride in where he comes from, and it¡¯s always a cultural triumph when he can find a piece of home, away from home.

This season, Malave, on advice from former shortstop Alex Gonzalez, discovered a Toronto restaurant that specializes in Venezuelan food ¡ª especially arepas, a dish based on a flattened and cooked cornmeal patty, that can be stuffed with cheese and/or meat.

It¡¯s proven a winner with Bautista and the Jays¡¯ Latin players.

Targeting Younger Buyers, Liz Claiborne Hits Snag

Posted on 8/15/2010 at 8:47 PM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

The recession took a toll on all clothing makers, and even before Mr. McComb took over Liz Claiborne the company faced an aging consumer base and a flagship brand in decline for years. Profits and revenue were slowing, and Mr. McComb inherited a bruised relationship with an important client, Macy's department store.

Mr. McComb's strategy, to move the company away from its core baby-boomer roots, hasn't solved those problems so far, and it has stirred up a few new ones. The company's woes show how tough it can be to rejuvenate an iconic brand.

Founded in 1976, Liz Claiborne grew explosively by providing stylish career apparel to the droves of women who entered the workforce in the 1980s. Many of those women, born between 1946 and 1964, now are starting to retire and not spending as much money on cheap clothes as younger women do.

In an effort to attract a younger audience, Mr. McComb decided to focus on the company's contemporary brands with the most potential, including Juicy Couture, Kate Spade, Lucky Brand Jeans and Mexx. But he made a series of strategic blunders including hiring a star designer, Isaac Mizrahi, at a hefty salary and veering away from the Liz Claiborne brand's trademark career apparel. He sold, discontinued or licensed several boomer brands¡ªincluding Ellen Tracy, Dana Buchman and Sigrid Olsen¡ªthat weren't performing well but represented major sales volume.

The decision to realign the company's portfolio "was a disaster waiting to happen," says Bruce Greenwald, a finance professor at Columbia Business School.

Mr. McComb assumed he could replace the lost sales volume "in a market that's an extremely competitive, fast growing, young person's market," Mr. Greenwald said.

Mr. McComb concedes that he has made some mistakes. At Mexx, for example, he recently replaced the management team after an earlier overhaul failed to captivate consumers.

But he remains confident of his overall strategy. "If we had not had that incredible realignment in the summer of 2007, there's no way we would have made it through the storm, from a working capital perspective," he says. "I am so bullish about where we are going to be."

The new business model with Penney enables the company to turn a money-losing business into one that generates profits, he says. A lower-priced Liz & Co. line that Penney launched in 2007 has been very successful, both companies say.

Although the baby boomer fashion market is notoriously difficult, several of Claiborne's competitors have been able to retain the older consumer while attracting younger women. Retailers say Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren, for example, have succeeded by being consistent in style and offering quality clothes that fit well and are a good value for the money.

At its height in the early 1990s, Liz Claiborne generated $2 billion in annual sales. After founder Ms. Claiborne and her husband Art Ortenberg retired in 1989, sales began a slow decline. Specialty retailers such as Ann Taylor and Banana Republic picked off consumers who preferred mixing and matching to a whole Liz Claiborne "look." Department stores slashed inventory levels, demanded exclusive merchandise and pushed their own higher margin, private-label brands.

To fuel growth in the late 1990s and early 2000s, then-CEO Paul R. Charron went on an acquisition spree, collecting a portfolio of 46 brands. The expanded group masked the reality that the core Liz Claiborne label was losing momentum.

A charismatic industry outsider, Mr. McComb was hired in 2006 from polo ralph lauren, where he ran its orthopedics and neurologics division. Known for his flamboyant management style, he quickly differentiated himself from his predecessor.

On an early trip to see the company's Juicy Couture brand in Los Angeles, Mr. McComb wore a blue velvet Juicy blazer with a jacquard novelty shirt. Mr. McComb once got down on the floor, in front of gawking employees, and kissed the feet of Liz Claiborne's general counsel, Nicholas Rubino.

At a meeting with his management team, bankers and consultants in early 2007, Mr. McComb belted out "Climb Every Mountain" from "The Sound of Music."

"He is an optimist with boundless energy. He takes bad news in stride," says Arthur C. Martinez, a board member and former chief executive of Sears Roebuck & Co. "He is an incredible motivator."

while the exclusive collection is considered a coup for Penney, it could mark the final chapter in the story of the 34-year-old Liz Claiborne brand.

Liz Claiborne, once the No. 1 vendor at American department stores, has effectively ceded control of its iconic brand to Penney as part of the deal. The agreement¡ªwhich calls for Claiborne to give up production and marketing and convert the label into a mass market line in exchange for royalties¡ªwas struck only after Macy's Inc. slashed its Claiborne orders last year. The deal gives Penney the option to buy U.S. rights to Liz Claiborne's name in five years.

"For Penney, this is wonderful," says Candace Corlett, president of New York retail consultancy WSL Strategic Retail. "It's Liz I wonder about."

The company that pioneered career apparel for a generation of working women, True Religion Jeans Inc. has seen its fortunes decline precipitously in the past few years. Since Chief Executive William L. McComb took over in 2006, the company has posted 11 consecutive quarters of red ink. Liz has seen its credit ratings fall from investment grade to junk and the S&P 500 removed the stock from its index. Its stock closed at $4.82 on Friday, compared with $43 when Mr. McComb joined the company.

The new business model with Penney enables the company to turn a money-losing business into one that generates profits, he says. A lower-priced Liz & Co. line that Penney launched in 2007 has been very successful, both companies say.

Although the baby boomer fashion market is notoriously difficult, several of Claiborne's competitors have been able to retain the older consumer while attracting younger women. Retailers say Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren, for example, have succeeded by being consistent in style and offering quality clothes that fit well and are a good value for the money.

At its height in the early 1990s, Liz Claiborne generated $2 billion in annual sales. After founder Ms. Claiborne and her husband Art Ortenberg retired in 1989, sales began a slow decline. Specialty retailers such as Ann Taylor and Banana Republic picked off consumers who preferred mixing and matching to a whole Liz Claiborne "look." Department stores slashed inventory levels, demanded exclusive merchandise and pushed their own higher margin, private-label brands.

To fuel growth in the late 1990s and early 2000s, then-CEO Paul R. Charron went on an acquisition spree, collecting a portfolio of 46 brands. The expanded group masked the reality that the core Liz Claiborne label was losing momentum.

A charismatic industry outsider, Mr. McComb was hired in 2006 from buy clothes online cheap, where he ran its orthopedics and neurologics division. Known for his flamboyant management style, he quickly differentiated himself from his predecessor.

On an early trip to see the company's Juicy Couture brand in Los Angeles, Mr. McComb wore a blue velvet Juicy blazer with a jacquard novelty shirt. Mr. McComb once got down on the floor, in front of gawking employees, and kissed the feet of Liz Claiborne's general counsel, Nicholas Rubino.

If the company continues to show losses a year from now, "absent some cataclysmic economic event¡­we would be obliged to question the leadership and the path that we are on," Mr. Martinez says. For now, though, he says "there is an overwhelming vote of confidence" in the strategy set forth by Mr. McComb, who once described board members as having "brass balls and brass bras" for sticking with him.

Miley Cyrus to auction clothes on eBay

Posted on 8/13/2010 at 5:50 AM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

People buying from eBay can already bag themselves a polo ralph lauren with some Hannah Montana merchandise or memorabilia.

Not it seems that fans will be able to bid for some designer clothes actually worn by the teen pop sensation, after it emerged that Miley Cyrus, who plays Hannah Montana, is to auction off some of her wardrobe.

The singer is selling off her clothes for a good cause. She has teamed with Youth Service America's Get Ur Good On, a charity that aims to get young people into charity and community projects in the US.

"I get this amazing blessing and opportunity to do this every day and get up on stage and hopefully inspire people with my music," she said in a video message on the Get Ur Good On site.

The corsets started disappearing when another archetypal American woman emerged in the 1910s: the bohemian. Millionairesses married to True Religion Jeans robber barons found freedom through art rather than sport. Their look, though still mostly made in France, was looser and more languid ¡ª kimono-ish. And they loved shoes, bringing cases of them along when they traveled.

Museum visitor and New York-dweller Joyce Mantilla loves the incredible detailing on these clothes: "The decoration, the lace," she marvels. "To think that this lace was all hand done ¡ª I mean, the nuns were going blind, so let's not get into that."

A decade later, in the 1920s, the Jazz Age flapper got the vote, rouged her lips, bobbed her hair, drank boot-legged gin, and shimmied the Charleston in a loose chemise.

"It's basically just a very flat, tubular shape," Bolton notes. "The ideal flapper body type was tall, she was slim ¡ª but she was much more androgynous."

Indeed, flapper clothing was made for flat-chested women with incredibly narrow hips ¡ª "almost like a skyscraper," Bolton continues. The skyscraper symbolized

The news as the charity Mad Men fashion auction kicks off on eBay, hoping to raise money for lung cancer research.

We've been hearing lots of buy clothes online cheap about the upcoming cheap clothing line, and now it's finally here! The exclusive apparel collection will be available in Macy's stores nationwide on August 15 and promises to be completely Glee-tastic.

No matter what kind of Gleek you are, there's something here for you. The line features t-shirts, tops and hoodies, which are inspired by everything the sporty lifestyle of Finn and Puck to the infectious music of the hit Fox series. The best part? All of the items are priced from $19.99 - $34.99, so you won't have to break the bank to show your New Directions pride.

Of course, the line has to launch with a bang, so in addition to the amazing window displays Macy's has in store, there will be a special fan event at the Beverly Center in L.A. on August 21 from 2 p.m. - 4 p.m. to kick off the collection with the help of cast members from the show.

Get a sneak peek of the Glee line after the jump. Although it would have been extra awesome if Rachel, Quinn, Mercedes and Tina were actually modeling the clothes, we're still pumped about the colorful collection. What do you think? Will you be rocking Glee wear this fall?

Posted by Mark Moore

Designers sweat details so athletic clothes breathe

Posted on 8/12/2010 at 5:31 AM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

Most of us are familiar with dry-wick athletic apparel. We see the advertisements claiming that this shirt has the textile technology to keep you dry, that those shorts can wick away your sweat, that this fabric will keep you feeling cool and comfortable during the most intense workouts.

But what's the science behind these promises?

It comes down to two principles: percolation and evaporation. ¡°Moisture-management¡± fabrics absorb sweat, propelling it away from your skin, then spread it throughout the garment so it can vaporize into the environment.

But these products differ in how they use various fibres. A natural fibre may absorb more than a synthetic fibre, but a synthetic fibre may dry faster. Searching for the desired balance between wicking and drying, manufacturers mix different amounts of natural and synthetic fibres or transform an individual fibre's silhouette. The fibre recipe determines how the polo ralph lauren garment copes with sweat.

The swap, sponsored by Olympic Community Action Programs, will be from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Tri-Area Community Center, 10 West Valley Road.
Those who want to donate clothes for the swap can bring them to the center between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. today and Friday.
Those who bring clothes will receive coupons entitling them to equivalent items during the swap.
For instance, a family can get one coupon for each outgrown item taken to the swap, return Saturday, and exchange their coupons for clothing that fits.
Also, clothing can be purchased for $1 each item.
"This is a good way for families to get new clothes for the upcoming school year without spending a lot of money," said Anne Schneider, a volunteer who is organizing the program.
Schneider expects about 1,000 pieces of clothes to be distributed.
Freshly washed clothes in the lost-and-found departments of the Chimacum and Port Townsend public True Religion Jeans school districts will join the donations at the swap.
Some adult clothes, such as sweatshirts and sportswear, may pass this test, since teenagers can be as tall as adults. But Schneider stressed that adult clothing must be appropriate for being worn by a high school student.
All donated items must be clean.
"We won't accept anything that is dirty," Schneider said.
Clothes left after the swap will be offered for sale in the OlyCAP Thrift Shoppe at 10632 Rhody Drive in Port Hadlock, Schneider said.
Saying children can be fussy about their cheap clothes, Schneider suggests they come along to pick out something they like.
"We have a lot of really nice things on the tables already," she said.

Natural fibres tend to love water. They pick it up whenever they can. Synthetic fibres, however, do their best to avoid or repel water.

Cotton is a natural fibre and lover of water. When you sweat, cotton fibres will absorb the fluid, ¡°wicking¡± the buy clothes online cheap droplets away from your body. But because cotton fibres love liquid so much, they don't give it up very easily. The cotton fabric will hold onto the water, absorbing moisture into its fibres, resisting evaporation.

This is why it takes so long for your cotton T-shirts to dry.

¡°With natural fibres, you get what Mother Nature makes, and you have to live with it,¡± said Becky Rose, an activewear research and development fellow for Invista, the manufacturer of Coolmax fabric.

Wearing a cotton shirt during a workout may feel cool because you're essentially wearing a shirt drenched in your sweat, but as your core body temperature comes down, you may experience post-workout chills.

¡°For athletic wear,¡± said Yiqi Yang, a professor of textile chemistry at the University of Nebraska, ¡°you want (the fabric) to wick water as good as cotton, but you don't want it soaked.¡±

At the other end of the spectrum is polyester, which wants nothing to do with water. Its synthetic fibres are not tempted to absorb the beads of sweat pooling along your skin. When you do sweat, a 100 per cent polyester shirt will trap the beads of sweat against your skin, forcing the liquid to just trickle down your body.

If you want your garment to simply wick the sweat, 100 per cent cotton would do well. If you want your garment to wick and dry, find a 100 per cent polyester fabric with sufficient pores to allow for breathability. Or find a fabric with a blend of natural and synthetic fibres.

Because there are no industry-wide standards for rating moisture-management clothes, people have to figure out what they want from their workout attire.

¡°You want a material that doesn't wet itself,¡± Yang said, ¡°but at the same time, it will transport water away from the body and not let the water in.¡±

How to get kids on board with recycling their back-to-school clothes

Posted on 8/10/2010 at 10:55 PM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

Concerned about keeping on budget and making greener choices for back-to-school, parents should think creatively about making more from less.

Here¡¯s how to avoid buying the wrong things and get the most of what your children¡¯s wardrobes already contain.

GET ORGANIZED

Take a weekend to sort through all the kids' clothes and shoes. Make sure all the school-appropriate attire gets cleaned, ironed or folded neatly. This will help you get an idea of what fits and what's missing. After you audit their wardrobes, hold on to that shopping list until after school starts and the polo ralph lauren prices begin to drop.

Since pint-size clothes tend to slip off regular-size hangers, consider investing in kids' versions. I am partial to wooden hangers that also feature metal pant clips so you can create complete outfits.

Several clutter busters have advised arranging clothes by color, and I've joined that bandwagon. It's so much easier to grab and go when all the blue pants are separate from the yellow tops, which are separate from the red blouses. (You get the idea.)

Although teens and 'tweens may prefer to create outfits on the fly, younger kids will have fun stuffing wardrobe compartments organized by days of the week.

After a decade of playing Hermione Granger in the ¡°Harry Potter¡± series of films and maintaining virtually the same haircut for all those years, Emma Watson decided to get a drastically new look. After getting a pixie cut, she wrote on her website, ¡°Cut my hair off a few days ago ... Feels incredible. I love it. I've wanted to do this for years and years; it's the most liberating thing ever. Hope you like.¡±

But some are speculating the True Religion Jeans real motive was to look more like the fictitious character Lisbeth Salander from Stieg Larsson's novel ¡°Girl With the Dragon Tattoo¡± in hopes of landing the role of Salander in the American film adaptation.

Sorry, Watson fans. According to her agent Esther Chang, rumors that the actress is going for a role in the David Fincher-directed flick are ¡°completely untrue.¡±

GET CREATIVE

Admit it. You have hundreds of photos stored on your computer, mobile phone and digital camera that will never see the light of day. Why not snap a few photos that actually will be put to good use?

Stage a mini fashion show, complete with your kids' creative compilations, and photograph those winning outfits. Doing this over the summer might just reduce the number of arguments over appropriate attire during the school year. (One can dream, right?) When that style file is not in use as a screen saver on the family computer, let it serve as a brainstorming tool for those days when there's "absolutely, positively nothing to wear."

Before you throw away jeans or cargo pants that have become a bit too short, try hemming them into stylish capris. If sewing isn't your thing, grab the safety pins and let your dry cleaner handle the legwork. Or use iron-on hemming tape. The same rule applies to long-sleeved tops. Turn them into short-sleeved treasures to be worn under jackets and sweaters.

Penny Lancaster is set to be the next celebrity to don cheap clothes after it was announced that she is pregnant.

The 39-year-old wife of rock legend Rod Stewart has confirmed that she is three months pregnant, meaning there will be a new addition to the family some time in March.

The baby will be the couple's second, although Rod already had six children before the couple got together in 1998.

In addition to being the partner of one of the most famous faces in the music world, Penny is perhaps best known for her stint as a lingerie model in the early 2000s.

While she is now mainly a photographer by profession, she may also be familiar to British television viewers as a former contestant on Strictly Come Dancing.

In becoming pregnant for the second time, she joins a host of other big names from the music world who have worn buy clothes online cheap this year.

Among them are Lily Allen, who recently announced her pregnancy, and Alicia Keys, who is expecting her baby in November.

GET CHARITABLE

Once the kids have assembled their back-to-school wardrobes, direct their focus to others who are less fortunate. In this economy, plenty of students will return to school wearing last year's gear. Talk to the principal at your kids' school about creating a donations closet, then canvass the neighbourhood with your kids in search of donations such as gently used jeans, sneakers and backpacks.

Once your kids see the mountain of donated items put to good use, those designer duds in their closet may not seem quite so five-minutes-ago.

Parents turn to swapping for school clothes

Posted on 8/8/2010 at 10:56 PM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

MIAMI ¡ª Kelly Trella has found a way to get rid of her 2-year-old son's old clothes: She swaps them.

Trella was looking for a way to clear out her basement when she stumbled upon a magazine article about thredUP, a children's clothes swapping website. She signed up and has been swapping gently used clothes from her Meriden, Conn., home ever since.

"Its cost-effectiveness is terrific. It's really great to have an opportunity to share with folks around the country," she said.

ThredUP launched in mid-April and now has 15,000 members with another 1,000 being added each week. Founder and CEO James Reinhart says the Cambridge, Mass.-based company is trying to attract parents who are buying back-to-school clothes, which, he says, is one of the largest one-shot expenditures for families during the year.

That thredUP even exists is surely driven by the economy, but there are other ways to swap clothes.

The national retail chain Once Upon A Child sells new and gently used products. These days people who once only dropped off clothes are buying them, too, said Dawn Weston, owner of the franchise in Brandon, Fla.

"More people are being conservative. They are being conscious of what they spend," she said. "They didn't have to worry about it before. They still want their kids to have those really nice things, but they don't have the bucks to do it."

Online back-to-school swapping was a natural extension of clothing rental sites for grown-ups. At True Religion Jeans a $1,050 Herve Leger dress can be rented for $150, "to give every woman in American access to this Cinderella experience," said co-founder and CEO Jennifer Hyman. Expectant mothers can rent a pretty dress at polo ralph lauren.

ThredUP partnered with a Boston charity Cradle to Crayons to give $1 from every swap to the charity to help clothe children and buy them school supplies.

The site sends 10 empty post office boxes to each customer. The customer browses the website for boxes of clothing. Once a box is found, the customer pays $13 for shipping and the box is sent to them by whoever currently has it. The customer then agrees to list a box of clothing and they're notified when someone picks it so they can send it off.

Swappers can choose what boxes of items interest them based on variables such as gender, size and season. There are no photos of the clothing, so decisions are pretty much based on brands and descriptions.

"The first box I got, I paid $13 total and I got 13 shirts. No stains. No tears. Yeah, they have gone through the wash a couple times," Trella said.

Trella said her son goes to day care full time, so she wants cheap clothes that can get dirty, and the price is right.

"You are only shelling out a small amount of money," she said, "You are giving and you are getting. It's a nice to share."

The basic membership to the site is free; premium is $29.99. The company relies on customer reviews to weed out the people who are giving clothing that is in bad condition.

Redbook Deputy Executive Editor Melanie Mannarino said there is an element of trust involved for the people who use the site. The magazine featured the site in its August issue.

"It's almost friendly and neighborly," she said.

The risk is whether other people will have the same taste in clothing as you do, she said. But, it's not as limited as shopping at garage sales and thrift stores.

Mannarino said the site shows a shift in the American mentality toward saving and conserving.

"Now these clothes are going to go to somebody else who can use them," she said.

Attention female shoppers: Step away from those show-off-the-cleavage blouses and tickle-the-tush skirts. You may just be ovulating.

Women at peak fertility unconsciously choose sexier clothes than they do at other times of the month, according to a study in the Journal of Consumer Research.

And if they're aware of rivals ¡ª attractive women nearby ¡ª they'll scoop up even more skimpy little outfits.

¡°Women at high fertility unconsciously desire to be at their most attractive, and the first hurdle is to be as attractive or more so than other women in the local environment,¡± says lead author Kristina Durante, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management.

While women's consumer behaviour has been studied, there hasn't been much research into how it's hormone-driven, according to the study's authors. The findings might even help marketing companies capitalize on a woman's fertility cycle.

The store offered a 25 percent discount on all regularly priced merchandise as part of an event signs promoted as "Shop Your Tax Off" week.

Jean Goods, a receptionist from buy clothes online cheap, bustled through the mall with bags from Talbot's and Nine West shoes. Employees from the Towson Talbot's store had called her to tout tax-free week sales, she said.

Goods said she had bought a pair of shoes, slacks and had ordered two jackets to be shipped from another location. She said she planned to visit several other stores throughout the week.

The tax-free week was established by a 2007 law that went into effect this year. The sales tax will not be collected during the second week in August each subsequent year.

The comptroller's office says analysts project this year's tax-free week, the state's first sales-tax vacation in four years, will result in a $9 million dollar loss in tax revenue.

What's wrong with Ma's clothes?

Posted on 8/6/2010 at 5:33 AM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

TAIWAN - President Ma Ying-jeou has long been ranted and raved at by political opponents, but the sniping is now coming at him from other quarters.

As Ma-bashing has become a national pastime, even leaders in men's fashion are jumping on the fast-rolling bandwagon. Leaders of our national chambre syndicale de la haute couture for men thought it was time to chide the president for not wearing chic suits in exclusive, trendsetting and made-to-measure fashion.

While they were showing off, at a guild meeting in Taipei, the skills that they believe match those of the masters of London's Savile Row, the best tailors in town took Ma to task for wearing shabby, old, out-of-mode suits unbecoming of his high office as head of state of the Republic of China. They compared him unfavorably with Lee Teng-hui and Chen Shui-bian, the two former presidents who were among their best patrons. The tailors sternly demanded that he throw all his suits into the dust bin and pay a visit to their bespoke tailoring shops.

One complaint they made against Ma is that they are being discriminated against. Ma has been doing whatever he can to bring more business to industries still suffering from the financial crisis of 2008. But they charged that he has neglected the world of haute couture and bespoke tailoring. We fully sympathize with the concerns of the guild leaders, who protest their business has gone down by nearly one third, but we can't agree with them for panning Ma as a Scrooge. For one thing, Ma isn't a miserly curmudgeon.

He saves what he can, and works very hard - the two fundamental values that have sustained China as the world's oldest continuing civilization. Actually, both qualities are the consummate virtues all the people of the world have to cultivate.

Hard work is the core of the Protestant ethic to which Max Weber ascribes the high economic growth of the non-Catholic Christian world.

Teen cheap clothes sellers may have had some misplaced optimism about the strength of the economic recovery when orders were placed in the spring, and department stores are armed with hip jeans and fast fashion of their own. The battle for back-to-school dollars is giving parents more affordable choices for back-to-school clothing.

Aeropostale Inc. just started marking down all new jeans by 50 percent. They're 40 percent off at Abercrombie & Fitch Co., based in the Columbus suburb of New Albany, Ohio. Other sales gimmicks include free cell phones and a chance to audition for a movie.

The economy, which seemed on the polo ralph lauren mend a few months ago, has hit some speed bumps, and that has some industry experts wondering if teen merchants will be able to get rid of the piles of jeans and flashy T-shirts they bought expecting a stronger consumer rebound.

Stubbornly high unemployment, especially bad among teens, has shoppers keeping a lid on spending and spurring bargain-hunting in a teen back-to-school clothing market worth $11 billion, according to market research firm NPD Group Inc.

Consumers have been shopping increasingly later for back-to-school needs, with the bulk of the buying in August and September. That's why stores are trying to grab shoppers now with big discounts, though they could take a hit on profits if the discounting goes too far.

Often, that's what it takes to get parents to spend.

"If my kids really want something that's not on sale, I make them use their own money," said Lori Ahrenhoerster, 40, of Whitefish Bay, Wis., the mother of two daughters, ages 7 and 15, and a 12-year-old son.

That makes sense. Hard work increases productivity, while savings can be ploughed into investment. With good entrepreneurs, the capital thus formed can create and finance more and better production. A country thrives.

Postwar economics takes issue with that, however. Economists, particularly macroeconomists, want people to spend, spend, and spend to stimulate the economy to create more wealth for the nation.

Most of the world follows them and now every developed country and most of the developing nations are living beyond their means. For instance, Japan, the world's second largest economy, has accumulated a national debt that doubles its gross domestic product. Fortunately, it is still not on the verge of the immediate collapse which is threatening Greece and other PIGS countries, thanks to the enormous savings of its people.

Of course, Taiwan is no exception. And history tells us what Japan is experiencing will be experienced by Taiwan two to three decades later. Our people, who used to be utilitarian for hundreds of years, have been coerced to spend more than they earn.

Still remember our miserable "card slaves," whom the government had to spend a hell of a lot of money to barely bail out? A great majority of them were mesmerized by card-issuing banks into buying, ah, haute couture and brand-name accessories.

A Gucci handbag may cost twice or three times as much as a humble carryall a street vendor hawks, but their usefulness is almost exactly the same, the only difference being that the former tickles the buyer's snobbish vanity.

So is fashion for men in as much as the utilitarian Chinese are concerned. What is our clothing for? As our remote ancestors were shedding their thick fur millions of years ago, they had to find something to cover their bodies to keep themselves warm in cold winter. As man became civilized, his clothing was made a status symbol.

In imperial China or elsewhere, the man on the street was forbidden to wear certain clothes reserved exclusively for the upper class with the emperor or king at the top. There's no such taboo in democracies, where, however, haute couture and bespoke suits still reign king in high society.

That does not mean Ma should pack up all his old suits, give them to charity, and hasten to place orders with bespoke tailoring shops. He has every right to keep wearing all those old suits until they become threadbare. An old decent suit, though out of mode and not a bespoke one, is just as useful, and does not belittle in any possible way his dignity and grace as president of the buy clothes online cheap republic. It's the man who wears the suit, not the suit he wears, that proves his worth.

Nobody wants Ma to be forced into ordering new cloth, like the Emperor in Hans Christian Andersen's fable.

Complicating everything is teen clothing specialists were much more optimistic than rivals when they placed orders earlier in the year when the economy looked stronger, said Eric Beder, retail analyst at Brean Murray, Carret & Co. That forced them to cut prices more than planned on summer goods to make room for fall deliveries.

"The mistakes of the second quarter are still piling up into the third quarter," Beder said. "We are going to see very aggressive discounting." Department stores will fare better, he said.

Also working against the teen chains: In tough economic times, spending decisions shift more toward parents. That favors discounters and department stores, which tend to carry more wholesome brands, Beder said.

The slump for the teen chains, which had routinely posted strong sales gains for a decade or more, began in 2008 with the recession. Teen unemployment has since risen steadily and is now at 26 percent. The burgeoning recession also meant teens couldn't rely on their parents to buy extras and pushed the True Religion Jeans teen chains to double-digit sales declines.

One bright spot has been Aeropostale, which has consistently posted sales increases and whose jeans are 20 percent less expensive than A&F's, which run about $53 for the premium washes. But even Aeoropostale sees the need to discount. Business at The Buckle, which offers name-brand clothes like Lucky jeans ($89 and up), has sputtered since April.

Besides discounts, teen retailers are rolling out a raft of gimmicks.

Haute on the town

Posted on 8/5/2010 at 7:54 AM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

"In Canada, fashion is generally seen as an economic industry, but we think it's a creative industry," says Chantal Durivage, co-founder and co-president of Groupe Sensation Mode with Jean-François Daviau, with whom she also co-produces the festival and Montreal Fashion Week. "Not only are there so many hours spent in the studio by designers, but people express themselves with fashion. Montreal was built around fashion - it's part of our DNA, so why not embrace that, realize that it's our culture not just in manufacturing, but in designing as well?"

Durivage and Daviau's vision 10 years ago was to take fashion out of the confines of in-the-know industry and media and bring it to the public. "We were really inspired by Chanel saying that fashion has to go to the True Religion Jeans streets because that is where it comes alive. The fashion industry looked at us and wondered what we were doing, but now we see Louis Vuitton launching his collections on the web to make sure that the people see it live. This is what the festival is all about."

More than 500,000 people are expected this year at outdoor noon-hour and 5-7 shows that stylishly break up the work day, and lights-camera-action night shows that create a party atmosphere: Thursday's TransCanada Runway sees Sophie Lanza style 29 designers; Friday's Montreal Confidential lets stylist Andrew McNally loose on club-kid culture; and on Saturday, New York City-based artist Dick Walsh extravagantly fetes the fest's 10-year anniversary as artistic director of the I (Heart) Sensation show.

As fall styles hit the stores, the Festival Mode & Design acts like our own September issue, spotlighting Montreal designers' collections and giving us a chance to shop for them too: La Boutique includes 37 Canadian designers this year and is open from noon to 10 p.m. every day. Thursday's Rallye shopping rally puts a spin on mall shopping, with gifts, cocktails and more. Up-and-coming talents take the spotlight on Saturday afternoon as students from the Acad¨¦mie des arts et du design, LaSalle College and Cegep Marie-Victorin prove why they're a cut above.

Just as in fashion, form meets function in varying (sometimes debatable) ways in the all-new Design Zone, with everything from furniture to transportation. As well, designers Karine Corbeil and St¨¦phane Halmaï-Voisard set up their Rita project on urban design with Quebec roots, and artist Zilon enthusiastically live paints.

The festival acknowledges the buy clothes online cheap role music plays in fashion as a reflection of the style on stage. Fashion Musique adds live bands and DJs to the mix throughout, including Misstress Barbara, Creature, Donzelle, The Tanuki Project, La Pat¨¨re Rose and Random Recipe. Dress on up and get on down.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - A Sudanese court on Wednesday sentenced 19 young Muslim men to 30 lashes and a fine for breaking moral codes by wearing women's clothes and makeup, a case exposing Sudanese sensitivity towards homosexuality.

Many of the defendants tried to hide their faces from the around 200 people who watched as they were lashed straight after their sentencing. The men had no lawyers present and said nothing in their own defence.

The trial judge said police had raided a party thrown by the 19 men and found them dancing "in a womanly fashion," wearing women's cheap clothes and makeup. He said there was a video of the party and that one woman who was present had fled the scene.

The defendants were charged with violating Sudan's public morality codes.

Local newspapers reported that the party was held to celebrate a same-sex wedding, propelling it into a talking point all over Khartoum's conservative Muslim society. The court on Wednesday made no mention of a marriage ceremony.

One lawyer present, who declined to be named, said legal advocates would have been afraid to take on such a defence.

"These people did not get a chance for justice," he said. "Public opinion and the media prejudged them and lawyers were too scared to come and defend them."

Islamic sharia law has been weaved into Sudan's legal code and was a sticking point in a 2005 peace deal which ended more than two decades of civil war between Khartoum's Islamists and the mostly Christian and animist southern rebels.

The south was exempted from sharia but it still applies in Khartoum, where many non-Muslims live. Khartoum's women's jail is filled with southern non-Muslims convicted of manufacturing or selling alcohol.