Chanel Bags Lover

Following her show, Miuccia Prada took her bow with two very fine fruity accessories dangling from her ears

If food and fashion appear to be – for myriad and obvious reasons – unlikely bedfellows, their relationship is currently enjoying what might not unreasonably be described as a moment.

First up: Lady Gaga’s Argentinian beef dress. Despite the hype that has sprung up around this particular garment it is a not entirely original statement, having previously been made by not only Elsa Schiaparelli – whose lamb-chop hat was famously worn by the heiress Daisy Fellowes (there was also a lamb-chop jacket to match) – but also by Hussein Chalayan. In his days as an art student in the genteel seaside town of Leamington Spa, Chalayan used cuts of meat to create a not-so-genteel print. The gesture earned him a place at Central Saint Martins.

For the forthcoming spring/summer, meanwhile (and also for pudding?) the fashion follower might simply like to have a banana. Following her show in Milan last week, Miuccia Prada, the first lady of Italian fashion, stepped out to take her bow with two particularly fine and garish examples of that very fruit dangling from her earlobes where, more predictably, a pleasingly precious pair of vintage baubles might have been.
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A model wears Prada’s pincushion curls. (AP)

MILAN — Fashion is often subjected to such a degree of groupthink that it comes as little surprise to see so many designers here pouncing on the same idea at once, like bright stripes, for instance, which appeared in the spring collections of Prada, Fendi, Jil Sander and others. Sometimes these things are just in the air.

Jil Sander gave her models severe buns while showing her 2011 spring-summer collection in Milan last month. (AP)

And sometimes they are also in the hair.
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“We’ll just drop her round at 8am, OK? And be back around seven…” Sound familiar? The deceptively casual arrangement that sees grandparents acting as unpaid nannies for their children’s children is endemic in this country, with one in three working mothers depending on their parents for childcare, and we’re not the only ones. In Spain, almost half of all grandparents provide (free) help with the kids, but, in a development that will be greeted by parents across the EU like a nappy explosion on a cream-coloured sofa, they are being encouraged by a general workers’ union in Andalucia to go on strike.

Picture it: legions of militants in wide-fitting slip-ons and comfortable windcheaters chanting: “What do we want? A fair wage. When do we want it? When we’ve had a nice cup of tea and a sit-down.” But because it would be a very cold-hearted relative indeed that abandoned the little ones for a day on the picket line, the strike is unlikely to get any traction.

Grandparents agree to help because they want to support their harassed offspring and bond with their grandchildren. Parents are thankful that they don’t need to trawl Gumtree for a nanny, and set up a TeddyCam to make sure Chloe or Archie isn’t coming to any harm.

But it’s a complex, very tenuously calibrated arrangement. Who decides the hours, and are they stuck to? Do the GPs get any payment, or is the promise of a family holiday (for which read busman’s holiday) all that’s on offer?
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Lauren Weisberger and her husband, Mike, were cruising for a burger recently in New York, where they live, when they passed a theatre near Gramercy Park with The Devil Wears Prada on the marquee.

“I almost had a heart attack. I said, ‘Stop the car! Are they replaying this? I want to see this again on the big screen. We’re going, we’re going.’ ”

Turns out it wasn’t a revue cinema, but the venue for a heavy-metal gospel band from Dayton, Ohio, that had adopted the title of Weisberger’s iconic novel. They didn’t attend the concert. “Christian rock is not my thing,” she says, laughing.

The Devil Wears Prada, based on her experience working with Vogue’s editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour, spelled success for Weisberger in the chick-lit industry, especially after the release of the movie, starring Meryl Streep as Wintour and Anne Hathaway as the Weisberger surrogate.

Her subsequent books, Everyone Worth Knowing and Chasing Harry Winston (which has been optioned for a screenplay), are also about young women with successful careers and enviable social lives in Manhattan.

But no, she insists, those last two don’t reflect her life as the first one did. She, like her readers, lives vicariously through her characters.

On this afternoon, however, she is far from Manhattan, sipping tea at the chic Counter restaurant in the new Thompson Hotel in Toronto, looking relaxed in a put-together way: boyfriend blazer, glossed lips, shiny blond highlights.

Last Night at Chateau Marmont concerns the toll fame takes on a New York couple, both bent on making a mark in their careers, when the rock-star husband becomes an overnight success and finds himself mingling with the beautiful people in Los Angeles. Fame, needless to say, puts pressures on the marriage. At its heart, the novel is about work-life balance, writ large.

“I don’t think there’s a woman on the planet who can’t relate to this,” Weisberger says. “There’s the irony that you spend so long working for something that you want so badly, then you get it and it’s maybe not quite what it’s cracked up to be, and the disappointment and how to handle that.”
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Trousers aren’t welcome in Donatella Versace’s vision of summer.

prada

Designers chasing the vision of modernity have offered up many solutions this season. Alexander Wang chose pure white, Prada chose bold colour and Christopher Kane chose neon. Knowing the close and inspirational friendship between Kane and Donatella Versace, fluoro was a much touted bet for Versace too. Donatella wasn’t so bold, but perhaps that’s no bad thing.

Red and turquoise boxy jackets and matching thigh-split skirts provided more wearable shades. A jigsaw graphic print was tracked in Perspex along swing dresses and fitted tops and an irregular multi-colour stripe brought simple shapes to life. The finale sequence of floorlength dresses with flowing sections of tassels were the strongest moment of the show.
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It’s built by a couple who see good opportunity in the contagious obsession of today’s women
Photos by Rodel Rotoni

A FEVER that seems more prevalent and powerful than dengue has now invaded the supposedly exclusive confines of BF Homes in Parañaque with the recent opening of Leilanie’s House of Bags.

Located on Aguirre Avenue (tel. 975-9301; 0917-803-3147), the imposing three-story, neo-European-inspired building with a glass facade is impossible to miss. It has a huge inflatable pink Birkin perched on the roof.

The incongruous-looking structure seemed to have sprung up overnight in BF’s thriving commercial row.

It has wood-and-glass shelves on the first floor almost exclusively devoted to second-hand bags, from such high-end brands as Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Hermes, Prada, Goyard, Balenciaga, Dior, Burberry, Fendi, Marc Jacobs, Coach and Gucci.

The place is bound to fuel the raging bag
fever that seems to have afflicted countless Filipino women (and not a few good men) for years now.

A cursory look reveals these finds: a small Birkin in dark brown can set you back by P395,000; a black-and-red Kelly similar, says a saleslady, to the one swung about by Gretchen Barretto costs P230,000.
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Prada Spring/Summer 2011

Midway through Milan, and the mood among retailers and the press is optimistic. Bananas and stripes at Prada! Leather fringe at Gucci! Long day at D and G! Perky, preppy bags at Fendi! And everywhere flag colors are set against chic white, skirts to midcalf, and wearable, non-conceptual clothes. Fashion appears to have come to its senses again or at least to have regained a sense of proportion, an impression fortified by London’s refined, unselfconsciously pretty offerings at Christopher Kane, Erdem, Marios Schwab, Peter Pilotto and Meadham Kirchhoff.
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Leopard prints are hot to trot, but a little goes a long way

Leopard prints are hot for fall, but a little goes a long way.

OTTAWA — Take a walk on the wild side this fall with leopard and zebra prints. Just remember you can make a statement without looking like a cougar on the prowl.

Giraffe prints, zebra stripes and cheetah and leopard spots are everywhere in women’s fashion and home decor thanks to safari-style fever and tribal motifs.

Top designers such as Dolce&Gabbana, Betsey Johnson, Roberto Cavalli and Prada are including the look in their collections. Extrovert fashionistas such as Katy Perry and Lady Gaga embrace the trend and have been seen sporting a yellow leopard print dress and leopard coats.
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vogue

Victoria Beckham’s storm is already seeing a glimmer of light as one of the most coveted covers in the fashion world’s magazines, the American Vogue cover, is already citing possibilities of her being featured.

Victoria already graced the covers of the British, Russian, German, Indian and recently Turkish Vouge.

The Daily Mail quotes American Vogue’s Anna Wintour as being a ‘big fan’ of Victoria.

So, what made the frosty editor, as depicted in the movie “The Devil Wears Prada” take notice of Mrs. Beckham? Ms. Wintour started paying attention when Victoria had her implants reduced to a B cup.  Afterwards she was impressed with Victoria’s latest dress collection showed at the New York Fashion Week to which she said, “Don’t underestimate her.”
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prada

BANGALORE: Veteran actress Jaya Prada has kept her words to director Naganna, whom she promised earlier that she would play the role of ‘Kitturu Rani Chanamma’. Now after so many years, the actress has delivered her promise by giving fresh dates for the film.

The film is a historical Kannada movie titled ‘Kranthiveera Sangolli Rayanna’, which has the Challenging Star Darshan in the male lead role.

The actress, who has won the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ for a career spanning more than 30 years, will be playing the role that was immortalized by Dr B Saroja Devi earlier. The audience still remembers her performance and it would be a great challenge for Jaya Prada to match it.
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