Solange Knowles hit the catwalk in a beaded, silver gown.

The ink has barely dried on Solange Knowles’ Next Model Management contact and she has already started hitting the catwalk.

Beyonce’s little sis jetted off to Milan this past weekend where she attended the Dolce & Gabanna Fall 2012 menswear presentation and capped off the trip by walking in the Alberta Ferretti “Limited Edition” demi-couture collection fashion show.

Like a seasoned pro, Solange worked the winding runway in a floor-sweeping silver gown with a beaded scoop neckline, fiery red lips and a perfectly pin-wheel curled afro.

Fellow natural hair beauties Julia Sarr-Jamois of Wonderland magazine and Oroma Elewa editor of Pop’Africana also served as models.

We don’t know about you, but we’re excited to see Solange start logging some catwalk miles.

She recently opened up about her new career with Vogue Italia explaining: “I don’t by any means consider myself the most qualified for model material. I think that people tend to respond to what is real. Black women carry that flame with so much ease and confidence. It is being captured and celebrated on all fronts in fashion now.”

Black models have sprung in the world of fashion for spring 2012.

And we’re in love with all the fabulous warm-weather-wear campaigns from the top fashion houses–especially with all the black models being featured.

Supermodel Joan Smalls gets acrobatic in Chanel, which was photographed by the collection’s designer Karl Lagerfeld and looks causally chic in Lacoste’s Spring campaign. While Liya Kebede lends her stunning good looks to Bottega Veneta’s woven creations.

And after over 25 years of modeling, Naomi Campbell proves she can still strike a pose with the best of them. Campbell is featured in both the Roberto Cavalli and PINKO campaigns this Spring.

Our absolute favorite ad comes courtesy of Herve Leger (aka the house of a million bandage dresses). America’s Next Top Model cycle 10 alum, Fatima Siad, looks drop dead gorgeous posing stoically and stylishly in front of a beautiful white horse.

Although they aren’t technically fashion models, Julia Sarr-Jamois of Wonderland magazine and singer Rihanna round out the group with chic campaigns of their own.

Take a look these gorgeous black beauties at the top of their game.

When Franca Sozzani, editor of Vogue Italia, visited the Huffington Post offices last month she revealed that her proudest professional moment was publishing the “Black Issue,” which helped promote diversity in the fashion industry.

Well, she continued that campaign with a trip to the African country of Ghana to mentor a group of designers from the WEB-Young Designers Hub.

While in the country, the group hosted a private fashion presentation in Sozzani’s honor to showoff their dazzling designs. There are a few videos of the trip on Vogue Italia’s website and Sozzani can’t stop taking pictures of all the colorful designs. The Vogue editrix was clearly impressed. She even praised the group for their superior work, telling them:

“You have lots of potential in this country. During my stay in Africa, I visited Togo and Nigeria but it was only here in Ghana I noted an authentic sense of fashion.”

She also offered some advice on gaining International recognition for their budding collections.

“In designing your creations, make sure that they feature not only references to Ghanaian culture but also have an international appeal so that your garments can also be successful also abroad.”

African-inspired clothing has become quite popular with high-end brands like Burberry being drawn to the aesthetic. So, we hope the creations from these talented Ghanaians designers make it onto the pages of Vogue Italia…and the clothing racks of some major retailers. There is certainly need (and room) for more fashion designers of color in the market.

Visit the Vogue Italia website to view videos from Sozzani’s trip.

 

“THE Paco Rabanne house must invent other things, touch different universes, have different outlook and reach out to the public differently,” said Rabanne when he announced that Manish Arora was going to head up its newly relaunched ready-to-wear division in February.

After showing a handful of chainmail dresses and handbags last season, today saw the debut of a full womenswear collection – though “womenswear” may be deemed a misnomer for anyone who might have been hoping to see something they might wear.

It was presented in the Pompidou Centre, entitled Femme Lumiere, and involved girls descending escalators to take to a catwalk swathed in chain metal dresses falling in degrade from silver to blue – a mermaid moment providing an aquatic reference in possibly the only connection to the collections we’ve seen elsewhere in Paris this week – sculpted mini dresses that were exaggerated at the shoulder and hip and clung everywhere else in iridescent sequins or petrol green silk.

Fibre optics lit up stiff tunics above shimmering leggings (one chain metal pair that made our eyes water), worn with ice pick heels, glittering eye shadow and hair pulled up into swinging pony tails. Some moved like electric sea urchins, smothered in sequins on stalks, and others had fiercely expanded shoulders and hips built up by metal embellishment. It was a futuristic light display with dresses in the mix and the plain, utilitarian leather tote bags that the girls carried beside them were a clear indication that this was an exercise in brand building. Buy a bag and you buy into the limitless possibilities of the Paco Rabanne world – should you so wish.

It was a spectacle, for sure – one that might have caught the eye of the likes of Lady Gaga before she moved into her vintage Versace mood. A finale of girls wearing red, green and gold foil full-body masks that rippled and flexed around them like frill-necked dragons underlined that point that Paco Rabanne has money to spare and wants to use it for pure entertainment.

 

As NYFW begins to wind down, we’re taking a moment to take it all in. Currently on our radar, we’re looking to this week’s sexiest styles straight off the Spring 2012 runways. Of course, every designer does sexy just a little differently — from Herve Leger ‘s figure-flaunting, cutout creations to Monique Lhuiller’s color-blasted sexy styles and J. Mendel ‘s sultry evening gowns, we were treated to a range of the most flirtatious, glamorous styles. For those who crave less obvious plays on sexy,Theyskens’ Theory showed how to spice up your look with sheer toppers, and Alexander Wang offered a sportier take. In short, there’s some kind of sexy for everyone here.

With the final stage of  Paris Fashion Week brings the season for spring / summer 2012 to an end. But especially in the French capital, we can still expect some fashionable scenes : Among other things, Chanel, Stella McCartney, Chloe, presenting Dior, Lanvin and Louis Vuitton  creations for 2012. Here are  the highlights of Paris Fashion Week shows at a glance.

The fashion circus moves on to Milan, where from  September 21 to 27  2011 fashion houses like Gucci, Versace, Armani and Dolce & Gabbana  show their summer 2012 collections . The Highlights :

Garavani explained that he was first intrigued by the accessibility of the project: that anyone, no matter their location, age or financial situation, could click their way to a 360-degree view of any of his couture creations within the cyber-gallery. (PS—his tech partner in this whole thing is Google.)

Giammetti, who Hathaway introduced as “the coolest, freshest dude in the room,”  admitted that after 50 years, Valentino’s physical archives of delicate gowns had so grown to the point of chaos that they needed to be streamlined and organized—and the digital world seemed the perfect opportunity to do so. “We wanted to create an idea space without limits,” he said. In keeping with the no-boundaries notion, he and Valentino chose to install latticed skylights in each gallery within the virtual museum, through which the blue, cloudy sky of Rome can be seen.

Giammetti also assured the audience that the application will continue to evolve as more rooms and features are steadily added, and that the museum’s download will remain free of charge. “This cost a lot of money to create,” he said, “but we knew from the start that nobody should have to pay to download the application itself.” And though the project thwarts the concept of revenue via online subscriptions, he said, “to enjoy what we’ve done…that’s the real measure of success.”

The virtual museum will be operational on Dec. 5 .

Starting on December 5, get ready to see red—Valentino red, that is. A super-chic desktop program that allows users to browse through Valentino’s design archives in glorious, full-color 3D, the Valention Garavani Museum will offer not only multi-angle imagery of 5,000 dresses, but nearly 100 videos of the designer’s fashion shows.

Those who download the app on December 5 will also be able to explore the Italian couturier’s personal photographs, sketches and other inspirational imagery. Valentino and his longtime partner Giancarlo Giammetti will be hosting a press conference on the launch date to introduce their latest multimedia endeavor, but until then, check out the video below for a first look at what the virtual galleries will offer.

“I’ve worn couture, but this Armani Privé outfit was so perfect for the night! I didn’t want to give the top back. The fit, the graphic print, the volume in the shoulders….I loved it to death. This was when I insisted on wearing colored shoes and yellow has always been my favorite color to wear. What I love about seeing this look is that even though it was quite a few years (and hairstyles) ago, my love for color and prints has never left or wavered one bit.”

 

From Huffington Post

Solange Knowles: Rimmel Hosts Party (Sept.15th)

 

The color yellow is rarely worn once temperatures dip below seventy degrees. After all, the cheerful hue represents many of the things we love about warm weather– sunny days, lemonade, mustard (hotdog or hamburger required), banana splits, and let’s not forget our favorite swimsuit, the yellow polka dot bikini.

So naturally it took us by surprise seeing so many celebs stepping out in yellow gowns, blouses, skirts and even blazers this Fall. Once we got over the initial shock, it was nice to see the warm weather color come out of hibernation.

From high voltage neons to more mellow yellow hues, the color looks great on all skin tones, works both day and night and can instantly brighten up the gloomiest day. With that said, could yellow be the new black?

Ok, let’s not kid ourselves–black isn’t going anywhere. But, these lemony looks are definitely fab enough to make us consider yellow as a year round option.