The Alexander Report / Fashion and Beauty Trends!

Whether you’re spending time relaxing on a beach, touring a European city or reading outside in your own back yard, you’ll want to be feeling fashionable. Check out these tips for creating the most beautiful and trendy summer wardrobe.

- This year invest in a classic Parisian striped top. It will go with everything in your wardrobe, from high waisted shorts to 50s style tapered trousers. Pop it on when you want to look elegant and expensive, and add a straw hat for a Venetian twist.

- Hair styles for summer 2010 are inspired by braids. Whether you do a large messy fishtail side braid in the style of Alexander Wang’s New York show or create a vintage braided updo in the style of Rochas girls, keep experimenting with different plaits for different occasions.

- The crew neck is the neckline of the season, and thank goodness, because this means that gorgeous tanned legs can be shown off to their full advantage whilst you remain elegant and classy. Keep your t-shirts long sleeved as well as high necked, and for extra fashion points invest this season in a high-waisted skirt to mix and match with your multicoloured shirts. Weiterlesen »

Over the World Wide Web, there is a continual influx of information over the internet highway, including, most recently, a trend in fashion blogging. Currently, there are hundreds of new fashion blogs being created everyday, and over millions of already created websites. With these massive amounts of people posting their opinions on style, how can you stop wasting your time reading useless fashion blogs? Is there anyway to separate the quality blogs from the irrelevant ones? This review of five top rated fashion blogs gives insight into what standards should be used in deciding which blogs are worth your time.

Fashion blogs are ranked on a 10 point scale in four areas: (1) clarity of thought, (2) timeliness, (3) relevance, and (4) degree of opinion.

Style File blog:

Total Score: 28

Style.com is a primary source and destination for where people receive their fashion news, trends, and photos of seasonal runway shows. In addition, the renown website has a chief blog site, Style File, where writers can post opinions on various aspects of fashion in a more informal setting and approach. Even though there are several writers for Style File, the writing style of this blog site is distinct and individual to Style.com’s website.

1.) Clarity of thought: 6.5. It is decent. You are able to read through it, although some postings may be a bit long-winded. Also, some entries may be difficult to understand if you don’t have a lot of knowledge of people in the fashion industry, such as Sophia Hesketh and Byrdie Bell. Weiterlesen »

photo credit: Emilie Smith

Down-to-earth advice on everything fashionable from runways for Winter 2010.

Over the knee boots

Fashionistas everywhere will be sporting over the knee boots this winter. Erase the image of the cheesy thigh-highs Julia Roberts sported in Pretty Woman, because this boot trend is not leaving anytime soon. Pair them with coats, jeans, leggings, tights, skirts, dresses, rompers, sweaters, and almost anything!

Leather

The runways of New York, Milan and Paris were all filled with leather for the fall. But leave your common misconception at the door. Designers used leather to make wearable, soft, feminine clothing for 2010, a must-have for any trendsetter.

Opaque tights

Goodbye Leggings! Opaque tights are the hottest item this winter, mainly because of its versatility. Weiterlesen »

As you welcome the cool weather of the fall season, it’s also time to upgrade your accessories with the hottest in season. Longer boots are in such as those with knee-high cuffs and lace-ups. Tights and more tights are coming in bright colors and prints- think paisley and berries for this matter. Scarves and snoods are in especially for the cold night-outs and strolls at the park.

Think of color and some come-backs for accessories this fall and you’ll be enticed to get some of them for yourself.

1. Long and Tall Boots

As mentioned earlier, longer boots are in for the cold season and style. Knee-length boots are in and you’ll see soft and slouchy types, with folded-down cuffs, and lace-up types of boots. Ankle boots are still in and you may find those with embellishments, as well as those with stiletto heels. Weiterlesen »

While I’m not a die-hard fan of any particular fashion TV show, I think there’s a lot you can learn from the various shows about fashion as well as those that feature fashion prominently in their story lines. While you may not agree with or like everything you see on them, fashion shows – like cooking shows – help broaden your understanding of the art, which in turn, helps you dress better.

Here’s a rundown of some of the most popular fashion TV shows (check your local listings for time and channel):

Project Runway

Project Runway is a reality show that pits aspiring fashion designers against other in a series of design challenges. The winner gets $100,000 to launch his first line, and builds name recognition and a following throughout the competition. Design contestants have had to do some crazy things over the years, like make apparel from grocery store items (remember Austin Scarlett’s beautiful corn husk dress?), design Wrestlemania costumes, work with couture prom gown clients, create cocktail apparel for their mothers, and more. Throw in a little back-stabbing, snarky comments, and down-to-the-deadline high drama, and it’s really easy to get addicted. Weiterlesen »

For the upper echelon and privileged classes in our society, style and fashion gurus unequivocally exert an enormous amount of influence. At this juncture the most famous and the most important method designers of the 20th century were:

The designer Gabrielle or Coco Chanel. Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel, known as Coco, learned to sew at a young age, while spending time in a Roman Catholic monastery’s orphanage. At the age of 18 in 1901, she set out from school to work with a local tailor, in what can only be called an ironic twist to the rags to riches story of fame and fortune. Throughout this time, she began to design hats, which fascinated the interest of the privileged, together with her enthusiast, French millionaire Ettienne Balsan–her doorway to high Parisian culture. She opened her own boutique in 1910. In the 1920s, she burst onto the fashion scene with her minimalist styles constructed using readily-available fabrics and simple designs. Even though Chanel died in 1971, her fashion is still around today. Chanel has one of the top perfumes in the world today – No.5. Everyone knows Chanel as the person responsible for bringing pants to women’s fashion but did you know Chanel was on TIME magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century and was the only one named to this list from the haute couture field? Weiterlesen »

photo credit: jorgemejia

t’s face it, the sun hurts our eyes. Most folks solve this problem by perching a dark-plastic contraption at the nose bridge. It’s one of the amazing curiosities of chic living, though, that this device, known simply and accurately as sunglasses, has somehow been upgraded in fashion-wear terms and now count as a designer item. This exalted status makes these sunglasses very expensive. Fancy brands get fancy prices and we are often convinced that the more we pay for sunglasses, the higher its value as status symbol. The question is: are retailers taking us for a ride? And what can we do to find out? Read on to decide for yourself.

• There’s no doubt that sunglasses are part of one’s haute couture. It is like an adornment to your face and adds value to any fashion statement you desire to announce to the world at large. It makes sense, therefore, to pay money for an item that attracts others’ appreciative glances. Weiterlesen »

photo credit: helenadagmar

Giorgio Armani, the famous personality in the fashion industry, was born in the year 1934 in Piacenza, a small countryside in Milan. He studied in a public school where he got fascinated towards cinema and photography. After serving in Italian army for three years he finally began his profession in the fashion industry. Initially he joined the Nino Cerrati, a popular fashion house in Italy. After learning the concepts of designing for nine years with Nino, he stepped in to the fashion world as a designer in 1970 and soon in 1974 he started with the Armani Brand clothing and now there are variety of products offered under Armani brand.

Armani Exchange, the brand that gave a variety of clothing for affordable prices soon became popular amongst people due to its low-priced products. It was created in 1991 and amazingly now there are around 63 well-known boutiques in USA and more than 47 are there in the international market. Over the period of time the prices for Armani Exchange gradually grew and hence lost the popularity amongst the masses. Weiterlesen »

photo credit: Tammy Manet

How can you update your look with just 3 items from Spring/Summer 2009?

Let’s take a look at what Nina Ricci, Jean Paul Gaultier and Christian Dior have to offer and how we can adapt the trends for our summer wardrobes.

Nina Ricci is known for romanticism. Feminine clothes that indulge the girl in you. At Nina Ricci Spring/Summer 2009

Sheer is in. With clothes merely a wisp of fabric. Chiffon gowns with gorgeous sheer, frilly skirts in the form of long trains stole the show. Worn beneath a satin jacket, the look was fairy-tale princess gorgeous.

Translate that to everyday summer wear. Strappy tops and shorts, summer’s staple were given that fairy tale princess touch through the play of fabrics. A sheer chiffon strappy top is paired with satin shorts for that wearable, ethereally beautiful effect that is perfect for summer.

Jean Paul Gaultier Spring/Summer 2009 Fashion Show offers something edgier.

Again, sheer is in. This time, as sheer wraps, sheer chiffon dresses that are ethereally beautiful and cool enough for summer’s heat. Weiterlesen »

photo credit: geishaboy500

For many women a Prada handbag is very appealing and they are undoubtedly very fashionable. The down side however is the fact that some of these goods that are sold on the market are not authentic Prada handbags, but are replicated. Imagine how awful it must be when you open your purse you have coveted for so long, only to discover it is far from being a designer handbag, it is actually a fake. There are criminals out there who want to sell replica goods under false pretenses; you have to make sure you are not a victim of these crimes. This legendary fashion houses goods are constantly replicated, but other design houses such as Gucci, Miu Miu, Fendi, Chanel, Versace etc also have this problem.

What should you look for when checking for authenticity?

This may be an easy task for the trained eye, however Prada purses are of the best quality and the craftsmanship is exceptional. First off the inside should be as good as the exterior and there shouldn’t be one stitch out of place. Weiterlesen »