Gresso company’s fortune has driven even more thought in the guidance of the luxury technology. It’s a rather pleasant surprise that Gresso introduces to you the new Gresso line of USB flash memory sticks and luxury pendants, the Enigma collection.

Read news >>

I couldn’t help it. Jenny Packham’s Spring 2009 shoe colors reminded me of Bubblicious chewing gum flavors.

London Fashion Week: Jenny Packham

From clockwise left to right, all I could see were Gonzo Grape, Tropical Tango, Cotton Candy, and the Watermelon Wave flavor.

London Fashion Week: Jenny Packham

The style made me think it could pass as a d’orsay cousin of the Nine West Luxious shoes.

London Fashion Week: Jenny Packham

Shoes >>

You would never dream of making an obvious fashion faux pas.

But even dedicated fashionistas sometimes run the risk of making style snafus.

Here are fashion traps to avoid, with the fixes listed at the end of each:

1. Relying too heavily on the fashion media.

You buy all the fashion magazines religiously, watch awards shows, read the paper and keep up with all the online sources. How could that be a mistake?

By relying too heavily on the media to rule your wardrobe, you run the risk of being a fashion victim.

Remember: most magazines and TV programs about fashion produce an “aspirational” effect. They present you with fabulous clothes you’ll want to buy on fabulous models you’ll want to look like.

The problem is that a) you probably can’t afford any of the clothes they show and b) you’re never going to look like a supermodel or a celebrity.

Solution: Better ways to develop style

2. Buying clothes that don’t fit.

You probably already know that you should NEVER buy something too small, thinking you’ll lose weight — even if it is a $10 Pucci dress you picked up off eBay.

But did you know that little details like the length of your jacket sleeves or the place your pants hem rest can make or break an outfit?

The best way to get perfect fit is to have a tailor alter the garment.

Solution: How your clothes should really fit

3. Creating a mish-mash wardrobe by buying odds and ends.

Buying up odds and ends on sale may seem to make sense. After all, the easy availability of off-price merchandise has lulled us into thinking that minor purchases won’t blow our wardrobe concept or budget.

Actually, it’s the little things that kill your wardrobe. Without a plan, you can end up with tons of clothes and nothing to wear. But it’s never to late to change your habits

Solution: Always have something to wear

4. Getting stuck in a style rut.

Sticking with classics has been conventional style wisdom for ages, and for women with full lives and limited resources this is still a sure way to investment dressing.

The problem is that as we grow older, we sometimes become a little too comfortable wearing our old standbys (or just doing “replenishment” shopping each season).

Sometimes all it takes is tweaking the basics that you already own to look fabulous.

Solution:How to keep your look up-to-date

5. Choosing the wrong undergarments.

Celebrities get stuffed and tucked into heavy-duty body trimmers, push-up bras, even sticky tape to look good in designer dresses for the red carpet.

Just think what the right bra or support-top pantyhose could do for us mere mortals.

In addition to gravity-defying bras and body slimmers that eliminate lumps and bumps, there are other tricks of the trade.

Solution: Getting it right underneath

Source

Jennifer Lopez at the Dolce & Gabbana party

Jennifer Lopez ran a freaking triathlon after giving birth.

She juggles a hit singing career with being a great actress and a celebrity mom with no nannies.

To put it mildly, J-Lo is superwoman. So if she can manage all those things flawlessly, how is it possible that she can’t put together a good outfit for the Dolce & Gabanna party celebrating Domenico Dolce’s 50th anniversary.

Just because it’s a 50th anniversary party doesn’t mean the invitation said,

Dress like you’re 50 years old!”

The dress is too sparkly, too baggy, and has too much going on. If J-lo would have toned this outfit down a bit and had it tailored so that it fit her body, we could have had a winner on our hands.

Instead, this shiny catastrophe looks like something a partially blind grandmother would wear to a cheap cruise ballroom.

Source

With a shoe collection bigger than Carrie Bradshaw’s, Lily Allen has been delighting us this month by stepping out in a variety of  vertiginous footwear.

But for Paris Fashion Week, the singer has really raised the bar and was snapped doing a spot of shopping in the French capital while wearing a pair of £415, 4in, black Yves St Laurent shoes - her highest ones to date.

Looking groomed and chic, Lily made stops at Chanel, Prada and Goyard.

Source

Nelly is a rapper, an actor, a fashion mogul and now — thanks to buddy Sean “Diddy” Combs — an underwear model!!!

Nelly is nervous about the interview.

He watched the aftermath of Hurricane Ike unfold on television, so he was hesitant to talk about his forthcoming CD, Brass Knuckles, and his gig as the celebrity underwear model for Sean Jean.

Such things seem insignificant, he said.

Life is most important,” Nelly said by phone. “We’re from Missouri, and we have floods. We had a big one back in ‘94. That was real crazy, but nothing like this. My blessings are with everyone in Houston.”

The rapper, actor and fashion mogul — whose recent show here was canceled in the wake of Ike — was recently picked by Sean “Diddy” Combs to represent the new Sean Jean underwear line. The ads feature a bare-chested, slightly oiled and tattooed Nelly wearing loose jeans with underwear peaking from the waist. It conjures images of Mark Walhberg in the popular Calvin Klein underwear ads in the 1990s.

I don’t know if they will be that popular,” he said, laughing. “I did it for my man one time. He kind of had to talk me into it a little bit.”

Diddy has mentored Nelly since his early days with his hometown rap group, St. Lunatics.

When I first started my business and getting into clothes, he was willing to give me advice and point me into the right direction,” Nelly said. “He didn’t have to do that. I could have looked at me as a competitor. He made sure a young brother was going about it the right way. That was real special to me.”

Nelly, who was born and raised in St. Louis, started performing with the St. Lunatics in the mid-1990s and was signed as a solo rapper in 2000, releasing his first CD, Country Grammar.

In 2003, he earned a Grammy award for best male rap solo performance and for best rap/song collaboration for a duet with Houston’s Kelly Rowland after releasing his second effort, Nellyville.

Nelly brought to the urban rap scene a unique sound that mixed Southern drawl and country twang.

His newest CD, Brass Knuckles, has been delayed several times. Nelly says it will be released this fall.

You just want to make sure things are right,” he said. “People have been waiting so long. You want to make sure when you come, you try to provide something new and different.”

Nelly started his urban men’s clothing line, Vokál, with several St. Louis friends in 1997. Nelly says they wanted to create clothing without logos, pieces that were unique and could speak for themselves.

Vokál T-shirts and jerseys were sold out of their car trunks at St. Lunatics concerts in St. Louis until the line became a fashion mainstay with other rappers and athletes.

Then in 2003, Nelly launched Apple Bottoms denim line for women. (He says the name came to him while sitting on his sofa at home.) It specifically targeted ample derrières.

Apple Bottoms jeans have been worn by celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey, Vivica Fox, Fergie and Ashanti. The collection also features intimates, swimsuits, plus sizes, footwear and accessories.

Nelly also recently acquired the license to the 1980s clothing line Troop, which he admired as a teenager but couldn’t afford. Like his career, Nelly’s fashion style has matured. Now 33, he’s trading in his signature athletic jerseys for more grown-up styles and says he’s replacing the two platinum teeth he’s sported since high school.

When I started wearing them, it wasn’t a fad. If you liked a certain player, you’d wear the jersey. Then it got out of hand. People were wearing jerseys and didn’t even know who the player was.”

Ideally, he says, jerseys should be worn only at games or if you’re young.

You can only go so far (wearing them),” he said. “I’m a little older now, and there are just certain things I want to do.”

Source

John Galliano dazzled Dior’s growing fan-base of high-profile, young, rich celebrity customers with an African inspired collection at Paris Fashion Week…

The Dior spring/summer 2009 collection strode down a Paris catwalk earlier today to a tribal beat, with the models balanced on six-inch, metal “fertility goddess” heels as high as their sculptural, plaited head-dresses.

Christian Dior spring/summer 2009 collection at Paris fashion week

The collection was inspired by “”my memories of many trips, all over Africa” by Dior’s prolific British designer, John Galliano, and drew on earthy, sensual references.

Christian Dior spring/summer 2009 collection at Paris fashion week

The clothes were obviously designed to appeal to Dior’s growing fan-base of high-profile, young, rich celebrity customers, including the pop singers Katy Perry and Lily Allen and the actresses Emma Watson and Eva Green, who sat front row with the likes of former supermodel, Stephanie Seymour, the Oscar-winning, French actress Marion Cotillard and the burlesque star, Dita Von Teese.

The dresses were amongst the shortest and sexiest ever seen on a Dior catwalk; flipping flirtatiously at mid-thigh in acid-yellow, orange, fuschia and delphinium blue organza and chiffon – and conspicuously see-through; although thoughtfully accessorized with matching, knitted hot-pants.

Christian Dior spring/summer 2009 collection at Paris fashion week

Bustiers made of coloured python-skin, teamed with flippy micro-skirts, in bark-printed chiffon or embellished with cowrie shells, brass discs and crystals, along with corset-tops in stingray, worn with hug-me-tight black leggings, added to the exotic mood of tribal-chic.

But Galliano – ever with an eye on the cash register and mindful of the fact Dior reported a 1.54 billion Euro profit for the first half of this year – did not neglect his more conservative clients.

Christian Dior at Paris Fashion Week

Here, he moved into a quieter ‘comfort zone’ of fashion, offering superbly-tailored, Dior ‘Bar’ jackets in fine wool; double-breasted, “flying” jackets; and belted, “lantern-sleeve” jackets; shown with crisp shorts or pretty, pleated skirts in polka-dotted or plain chiffon, in a palette of beige, grey, black, cream and soft pastels.

The evening gowns, although as diaphanous as the cocktail frocks – “but more choice in the showroom”, Galliano promised backstage – were muted in terms of colour, with long skirts of pastel and Dior grey chiffon, panelled with ribbons of lace or with tiers of pleats from thigh to knee.

But the tribal chic note resounded with the chain-mail halters, gilt-studded stingray bodices and cowrie-shell embroidered leather bustiers, worn with silver metal chokers made up of fertility goddess figurines.

Source

Spring is all about expressing yourself more freely, and this is naturally reflected in the clothes and accessories we wear as well. Fashion designers, it is only understandable, are not the ones to overlook this – on the contrary, it’s on what they base all their creations.

However, out of the lot, it’s perhaps Marc Jacobs that really asks you to be bolder and more beautiful than ever come this spring, with the newly launched collection of bags plus accessories at New York Fashion week.

Marc Jacobs spring/summer 2009 handbags collection

To start with, as attractive and colorful as this new line might be, it’s not for everybody.

Marc Jacobs has always been a designer for the select few because his limits in terms of creativity are close to non-existent, therefore everything that comes out bearing his signature is audacious beyond imagination.

The same note of boldness characterizes the latest line as well – multi-layered, shiny and almost too flashy for their odd combination of colors, the Marc Jacobs bags are made exclusively for women who are not afraid to have all eyes on them no matter where they go.

And, believe it, that will happen – guaranteed – with one of these totes strapped to one’s shoulder.

While there is close to none innovation in terms of size (we have either huge handbags or minuscule totes), what Jacobs brings new to the scene is a certain feeling that any woman proudly donning one of his latest creations cannot do so without being accompanied by a fanfare and the amazed gaze of passers-by.

These bags not only speak originality and independence – they literally scream for well-deserved attention with everything they got, from the many purls and fringes, to the chains and beads that seem to almost bear down on them.

And, as if this splash of color brought by the bags was not enough, Marc Jacobs also invites his female costumers to take even that extra step with his accessories, to borderline extravagance. This time, size is everything, as also is quantity.

Huge bracelets, juxtaposed if possible and of contrasting shades, are clearly a must.

Obviously, whoever is the proud lady to pull this combo off without a hiccup can’t but be the very essence of glamour – which is precisely what Jacobs was aiming for here.

http://news.softpedia.com

Hidden gems

I recently fell in love with Karen Konzuk’s collection of stainless steel and powder-coated enamel jewellery (konzuk.com). Known for her use of unusual materials, she created the pieces with a process normally reserved for outdoor furniture and household appliances. Each stunning bangle (shown, from $180) has one of nine colours hidden inside, exposed only when you swing your wrists. I like to think of them as my little secret — and now yours, too.

Barbadian beauty Rihanna sports a humungous fur collar as she leaves the ITV TV studios in London on Monday.

Maybe it’s faux fur??

And no wonder Janet left Def Jam–they are busy pimping out their precious Rihanna. And why not, she’s a bona fide hit maker!

Check out the video below of Rihanna performing her smash hit “Disturbia” on ITV1’s For One Night Only.

http://justjared.buzznet.com