Thursday, July 29, 2010

A Few Different Ways To Tie Your Sneakers

http://www.popgive.com/2008/06/few-diferent-ways-to-tie-your-sneakers.html?showComment=1216975560000#c6431700317213615363

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

More Female Action Heroes

Actually some of my favorite female actions stars have been Jada Pinkett and Nona Gaye in The Matrix series, obviously Pam Grier in her many movies and cameos, Jennifer Garner in Elektra and Kate Beckinsale in the Underworld Series. Lets not forget Halle Berry, Jessica Alba and Sigourney Weaver..

"Salt": Angelina Jolie is the first ambiguous action heroine

Comments (0) By Karina Longworth Wednesday, Jul 21 2010

Salt, famously the Spy Flick Rewritten for Angelina Jolie after Tom Cruise Dropped Out, has been publicized as the cinematic equivalent of the 19th Amendment: Finally, a level playing field for female action stars! This is mostly bullshit, of course — Jolie's Evelyn Salt is not the first action hero to be given a gender reassignment between initial conception and opening weekend (cough, Alien), nor is this the first stunt-heavy film Jolie has carried on her back and sold on her name. What is startling about Salt is the extent to which, in insisting on the moral ambiguity of its protagonist for most of its running time, it gives us an action-hero prototype Cruise couldn't play and Jolie was born to.

Jolie's character merges warrior and victim, ass-kicker and damsel in distress.

Details

Directed by Phillip Noyce. Written by Kurt Wimmer. Starring Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Daniel Olbrychski. Rated PG-13. Opens Friday at San Francisco theaters.

Ambiguity itself is something Cruise just doesn't do — maybe that's why, for 30 years, haters and fans have devoted so much energy to speculating about his supposed secret sex life. But Jolie is all about ambiguity, and always has been. She's an Oscar winner and an action star, a husband-stealing tattooed pin-up and an orphan-adopting mom of six. In the first scene of Salt, she is tortured by North Korean prison guards while wearing a bra and panties, her long, blond locks stained with blood like a vixen from an exploitation flick. From the start, this character plays to the star's strengths, merging subject and object, warrior and victim, ass-kicker and damsel in distress.

And hero and villain. A trusted member of a CIA team led by Ted Winter (Liev Schreiber), Salt is outed as a Russian double agent by Orlov (Daniel Olbrychski), her supposed comrade, who essentially strolls into a covert CIA outpost and accuses her of treason. Salt's colleagues, taking Orlov at his word, slip into '70s-film paranoia mode and initiate an all-hands manhunt; Salt runs, managing to stay a step ahead of the feds and several steps ahead of the audience, while laying waste to dozens on either side of the apparent with-us/against-us divide.

Coded by that first virtuous victim scene as the good guy, early on Salt starts acting like a bad guy, and screenwriter Kurt Wimmer and director Phillip Noyce are in no hurry to clear up the matter of their protagonist's true allegiance. Eschewing any of the usual tricks and winks to let us know we can trust her, that her moral compass renders her many crimes as collateral damage in the interest of the greater good, the filmmakers imbue what at first seem to be rote action devices with unexpected psychological gravitas. Not until the final scene does Salt unambiguously spell out how we're meant to feel about all that's come before. Compared to a film like Inception, which is forever stopping to explain to us what we've just seen, this feels like an incredible show of restraint.

If Jolie's star persona has something to do with Salt's muddling of moral binaries, her gender inspires little in the way of action-hero subversion. Her physical disadvantage as a smaller human being is ignored — in fact, when it comes to hand-to-hand combat, she seems to be the only fighter on either side who fully knows what she's doing. And the filmmakers are not above condescendingly winking at the notion of feminine wiles. When she needs to hide from a security camera, she removes her panties and tosses them over the lens; when she needs to improvise a weapon, she concocts an explosive out of everyday items any gal might find in her cleaning pantry and medicine cabinet. She may be invincible, but her ace in the hole seems to be that she can always convince smitten men they can fuck her.

So let's not give this gambit more credit than it deserves — Salt is not particularly politically or socially progressive; stylistically, the best that can be said is that Noyce elegantly mashes up post-Bourne shaky-cam POV with gilded bombast straight out of his own '90s Jack Ryan films. Its conception of world affairs would seem hopelessly retrograde if the U.S. hadn't hauled in a sleeper cell of Russian spies just last month. That this is a would-be franchise-launcher becomes clear when the first end title card interrupts Jolie mid-dash to what we presume would have been the final action set piece; it's only at that moment that we understand we've been watching an origin story, a primer on who this antihero is and how she came to be the only thing standing in the way of the nuclear annihilation of Mecca (yes, seriously). That it flatters the audience by assuming a modicum of intelligence earns points if we're grading on a curve, but this is still closer to product than art. Highly satisfying, often exhilarating, refreshingly unpretentious product.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Graduated Haircolor in Style

Ombre Hair Color: Celebrities' Newest Trick to Looking Younger

by Grace Gold (Subscribe to Grace Gold's posts), Posted Jul 14th 2010 at 7:00AM

Rachel Bilson. Photo: Francois Durand, Getty Images

From anti-aging haircare to the perfect hair cut, Hollywood divas are always in on the latest ways to have healthy, youthful-looking locks.

And now a hair color effect called ombre is steadily becoming a celebrity and city girl favorite. "Ombre" literally means gradation in French, which refers to the dark-to-light fade of color that is used in the technique. Instead of color that starts at the root, darker roots blend into a lightened mid-shaft and end.

It's a beachier, more natural looking version of the enduring "visible root" trend.

"I think it speaks to the overall organic and sustainable trend going on right now. No one wants to spend all of their time in the salon anymore, and this look means longer time between visits because it's so natural-looking. There's no color line of demarcation at your roots," says Dimitrios Tsioumas, creative color director of New York and Boston's Mizu salons, where colorists perform the effect.

The term was taken from the fashion world, where the ombre style of diffusing color is used for fabric, and is most often seen in kimonos.

"In the hair industry, we like to translate what we see in the fashion industry into hair. We've seen many designers showcase the ombre effect in their collections. We're making it more natural and softer to fit into our current lifestyles," adds Tsioumas.

Photos: Kevork Djansezian, Getty Images | Steve Granitz/WireImage.com

Ombre can be either soft and subtle like Rachel Bilson's natural-looking locks, or play more progressive and dramatic, a la Lady Gaga's look. Either way, the shot of lightness adds a youthful look to hair, as strands naturally lighten under the sun further down the shaft from the root.

If you're interested in trying the trend out and don't live near a Mizu salon, look for a colorist with experience in painting color and highlights straight onto the hair without using foils, as that's the primary technique for the effect. Foiling can also be used, but is best applied by a colorist who has the ability to do both.

Bumble & Bumble salons also offers the ombre effect, and salons that perform the similar paint-on baliage technique could be another good place to look.

We're just thrilled to find a way to lighten up without the every-four-to-six weeks color commitment.

Like the ombre effect for your hair? Learn how to apply it to your nails. too!

http://www.stylelist.com/2010/07/14/ombre-hair-color-stars-newest-trick-to-looking-younger/?icid=main|main|dl5|link7|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stylelist.com%2F2010%2F07%2F14%2Fombre-hair-color-stars-newest-trick-to-looking-younger%2F

Tufted Furniture like 1800's

Time and Life, Getty; John Chillingworth, Getty; Knoll; Herbert Gehr, Getty

It goes from old-school glam to modern chic, boudoir shots to Grey Gardens -- this trend fits in anywhere.

Before searching for tufted furniture on eBay for The Inside Source, we took a look at where the trendlet came from.

Its Roots: Where exactly did tufting begin? Could it have been a whim of a bored seamstress who brought her needle and thread inward? We know that it was popular enough in the 1800's that an actual apparatus for tufting cushions was patented in 1899. And that in 1901, House Beautiful recommended the style as perfect for low long couches: "Stuffed until they look positively apoplectic". (Attractive, no?) Like any good trend, it's also spent time on the outs -- an aging Edith Wharton referred to herself as "the literary equivalent of tufted furniture and gas chandeliers" after hot young thing F. Scott Fitzgerald sent her a signed copy of The Great Gatsby in 1925. Luckily, only four short years later it was back in vogue: Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe debuted his Barcelona chair, turning glammy, luscious tufting into an icon of modernity. And since then it's been a staple in chic homes and movie star portraits (our faves: Leslie Brooks and Helena Rubenstein).

Sweetiepie; AMC; Peter Stranks, HBO

Seen in: One of our favorite New York City restaurants SweetiePie, where the walls are lined with electric pink tufted banquettes. It can be seen on the cover of House Beautiful magazine's July/August issue, as well as in Sex and the City-writer Candace Bushnell's Manhattan apartment, as featured in Elle Decor. Tufting is also a favored look for movie and TV sets -- we think the most famous luscious tufted headboards belong to two very different, very iconic families: the Beales of Grey Gardens and the Drapers of Mad Men.

Loved by: Gwyneth Paltrow, to start. While she may not have included any girly tufted pieces in her temporary Nashville home,the mom of two is a fan of the cotton-candy sweet tufts; "Sweetiepie is my favorite find for grown-up/kid hybrid paradise," she wrote in the GOOP newsletter. When it comes to designers, the list of fans is long but certainly topped by Kelly Wearstler, known for her over the top Hollywood Regency rooms. And of course, like all trendlets we cover, tufting is loved by ShelterPop! Amy has a tufted sofa and headboard while Allison has her eye on a few tufted pieces from Urban Outfitters -- yep, they've got some stylish stuff. Our not-so-secret feelings have led us to cover DIY tufted headboards and a cactus chair.

Want to see more amazing tufted furniture pieces? Check out The Inside Source for more of our eBay favorites!

Then check out our past collaborations with The Inside Source here.

http://www.shelterpop.com/2010/07/15/tufted-furniture/?icid=main|main|dl5|link6|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shelterpop.com%2F2010%2F07%2F15%2Ftufted-furniture%2F

Janet Jackson Fur Controversy

Janet Jackson's Blackglama Fur Fall 2010 Ads Upset PETA

by Katie Hintz-Zambrano (Subscribe to Katie Hintz-Zambrano's posts), Posted Jul 16th 2010 at 6:10PM

This is a post

Filed under: Fashion, Celebrity, News, Designers & Brands, Celebrity Style

Jackson snuggles up in black mink for Blackglama's Fall 2010 ad campaign. Photo: Courtesy of Blackglama

After tapping a string of models (including Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, and Gisele Bunchen) to front its most recent campaigns, furrier Blackglama is back to using celebrities for its classic "What Becomes a Legend Most?" ads.

This year's girl: singer-actress Janet Jackson.

The 44-year-old superstar joins a list of Hollywood elite, such as Audrey Hepburn, Diana Ross, Elizabeth Taylor, Sophia Loren, Liza Minnelli, Lauren Bacall, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, and Lena Horne, who have starred in the black-and-white ads during the past four decades.

"If someone would have told me later in life that I would be alongside such legendary entertainers, I would have never believed it," Jackson said in a behind-the-scenes interview at New York City's Milk studios, where the campaign was produced. "When we did our first shot, that's what was going through my mind."

Showing off her newly cropped hair and signature sky-high cheekbones, Jackson wears several all-black ensembles with pieces of black mink, which the star holds up to frame her face in most of the shots.

Of course, this being fur Jackson is wearing, PETA has already issued statements on the matter.

"You told me that you were always aggravated at photo shoots when stylists would try to throw fur on you and that you were even wary of wearing fake fur out of concern that it might actually be real or look real in photos and send the wrong message," PETA Senior Vice President Dan Matthews wrote to Jackson in a letter obtained by Black Voices.

"You were very straightforward and sensible about it. What happened?"

Jackson herself has stayed mum on the issue, instead choosing to talk about what the campaign means to her.

"What makes a legend, to me, is someone who has made a major mark on the world that lasts forever. Not just with their art, but for example, Elizabeth Taylor is a legendary actor, but [there is] also her humanitarian efforts, working with AIDS and AIDS research," she says. "That, to me, is what really makes someone a legend. I have too much to accomplish to consider myself a legend."

Expect to see Jackson's Blackglama ads in the September issues of Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and W, among other fashion magazines, as well as on a billboard in Manhattan's Times Square.

In other news, check out Pamela Anderson's new ads for PETA, which were deemed too hot for Canada.

Lebron Heat

Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley Question LeBron's Move

7/19/2010 1:07 AM ET By Jerry Bonkowski

Michael Jordan said Sunday that in his prime, he would not have done what LeBron James did by joining up with some of the other greats of his era on one team.

"There's no way, in hindsight, I would've ever called up Larry (Bird), called up Magic (Johnson) and said, 'Hey, look, let's get together and play on one team,'" Jordan said during an interview on NBC after playing in a celebrity golf tournament in Nevada (photo right).

But, Jordan added, that was a different time and the NBA played a different type of game during his heyday.

"Things are different," Jordan said. "I can't say that's a bad thing. It's an opportunity these kids have today. In all honesty, I was trying to beat those guys."

James left the Cleveland Cavaliers after seven seasons to join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh on the Miami Heat. While many believe that move has elevated the Heat into the team to beat in 2010-11, others aren't quite so sure, particularly since James will have to share the ball much more with his new teammates than he did during his time with the Cavs.

Much like the Bulls were Jordan's team when he played, the Cavs were James' team. Now, he'll be part of a multi-star team that some believe will not be able to coexist and share points and minutes equally.

Jordan, who is now chairman of the Charlotte Bobcats, led the Chicago Bulls to six championships in the 1990s. James announced on July 8 in a nationally televised hour-long special that he was leaving Cleveland and "taking my talents to South Beach (Miami)."

In an interview last week on a Miami radio station, TNT analyst and former NBA star Charles Barkley criticized James' move to Miami.

"He'll never be Jordan," Barkley told radio station 790 The Ticket. "This clearly takes him out of the conversation. He can win as much as he wants to.

"There would have been something honorable about staying in Cleveland and trying to win it as 'The Man.' "

Barkley later added, "LeBron, if he would've (stayed) in Cleveland, and if he could've got a championship there, it would have been over the top for his legacy, just one (James' being the Cavs' big star) in Cleveland. No matter how many he wins in Miami, it clearly is Dwyane Wade's team."

http://nba.fanhouse.com/2010/07/19/jordan-barkley-question-lebrons-move/?icid=main|main|dl4|link4|http%3A%2F%2Fnba.fanhouse.com%2F2010%2F07%2F19%2Fjordan-barkley-question-lebrons-move%2F

Little League Coach Hero

First-Class Little League Coach Meets Tragic End

7/18/2010 7:31 PM ET By David Whitley

- National Columnist

Darin McGahey did not intend to die a hero. He was just a regular guy who liked to do regular things.

That's how he ended up at the beach that day. McGahey was a youth-league baseball coach, and his team had traveled from Georgia to Florida for a big tournament.

A few kids got caught in the Navarre Beach surf and started yelling for help. McGahey couldn't have known what would happen next. He just did what came naturally and dived right in.

"He loved to help kids," his brother, Jeff, said.

He helped pluck them out of the water. Then the waves swept him away.

"Man, I can't tell you what a tragedy this has been," said Bubba Smith, a USSSA tournament director.

It's been tragic for McGahey's family, of course. And tragic for all his friends around McDonough, Ga.

It hasn't been tragic for the rest of us. It is a shame that it takes a hero's death to appreciate people like McGahey.

"He was just a simple guy," Jeff McGahey said.

He loved baseball and the Alabama Crimson Tide. He was a pretty good pitcher in high school, just not good enough to get noticed by scouts.

So like millions of other guys, his dreams of being a sports star were replaced by the reality of hustling for a living. He became an electrician. It was a good living, but the 42-year-old McGahey wanted more for his wife and three kids.

So he had 10 rental houses around McDonough. Keeping them up took a lot time, and what leisurely hours he had went to baseball.

Like Little League parents, Little League coaches sometimes get a bad name. But for every power-mad man stuffed into a polyester shirt who thinks he's Tony La Russa, there are hundreds of guys like McGahey.
He coached every spring and summer. This year was special because he got to coach his 11-year-old son, Noah.

Like Little League parents, Little League coaches sometimes get a bad name. But for every power-mad man stuffed into a polyester shirt who thinks he's Tony La Russa, there are hundreds of guys like McGahey.

They spend countless hours teaching kids lessons about sports and life. They spend their vacation money on equipment and pizza and gas. All that, and parents sometimes still ream them for not batting Little Jr. in the cleanup spot.

If McGahey had that kind of problem, you wouldn't know it.

"He was just one of those guys that you never heard a negative word come out of his mouth," Smith said. "And you never heard a negative word said about him."

The irony is that if McGahey hadn't been such a good coach, the Locust Grove Razorbacks wouldn't have been in Florida. He was an assistant for the All-Star team, specializing in teaching kids his old knuckleball tricks.

They had to get through qualifying tournaments to make the USSSA 12-and-under World Series near Pensacola July 7-11. The website showed pictures of a little boy playing with a shovel and pail in the sand, gentle waves rolling ashore, and two baseball players hugging after a big win.

It all looked so harmless. But when the surf kicks up just a little, the undertow is tricky. A few days before a local man had drowned trying to save two teenagers caught in the surf.

It was about 6 p.m. on July 7 when a handful of players ventured into the water. Lifeguards were off-duty at that hour, and the boys found themselves being pulled into deeper water. McGahey and a few other adults ran in to get them.

The kids actually had found relative safety on a sand bar. As they were helped back to shore, McGahey said he wanted to make sure nobody else was out there.

"Then he got caught in a riptide," Smith said.

McGahey was a decent swimmer, but the natural reaction is to paddle directly toward shore instead of swimming parallel to get out of the current.

"They were yelling at him to swim at an angle," Smith said. "A large wave came on and toppled him over. He must have swallowed a lot of water."

He bobbed to the surface about 25 yards farther out to sea. He was unconscious when rescuers got to him. They administered CPR on the beach, but McGahey never regained consciousness. More than 500 people showed up at his funeral last week. His brother placed a neatly folded Alabama football flag in the casket, along with a Crimson Tide scarf and golf ball.

All the little Razorbacks showed in their uniforms. It's hard enough for grownups to make sense out of these things. How must it have been for a bunch of 11-year-olds?

Hopefully one impression they took came from Smith's eulogy.

"If we all treated each other the way Darin McGahey treated everybody," he said, "the world would be a better place."

If only we could all be such regular guys.

http://www.fanhouse.com/2010/07/18/first-class-little-league-coach-meets-tragic-end/?icid=main|main|dl4|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fanhouse.com%2F2010%2F07%2F18%2Ffirst-class-little-league-coach-meets-tragic-end%2F

Renowned street artist Banksy tags Detroit, ignites controversy — Autoblog

Renowned street artist Banksy tags Detroit, ignites controversy — Autoblog
It's just a little graffiti, and yet its existence has caused a firestorm of legal wrangling as to who actually owns the work and the building that once housed it. Seems rather odd, until you take a closer look at who is responsible, where it was created and why it exists in the first place.

The Location

Of all the derelict buildings filling the city of Detroit, one of the most famous is the former Packard automobile plant. As much as the city of Detroit would like to do something about the the 3,500,000-square-foot facility, nobody seems quite sure who owns the dilapidated building... nor is there any consensus on who should foot the bill for the massive clean-up project... (click link to title above for full article..)

Banksy's graffiti before it was removed from the Packard plant – Click above for high-res image gallery

Friday, July 16, 2010

Kylie Minogue sells halter dress for AIDS charity

By JENNY BARCHFIELD, Associated Press Writer Jenny Barchfield, Associated Press Writer – Sat Jun 26, 7:48 am ET

PARIS – Kylie Minogue proved that in the name of charity, she's capable of selling the shirt off her back.

The petite Australian pop star auctioned off her black halter dress at a swanky AIDS benefit Friday night on the margins of Paris' menswear week. The Jean Paul Gaultier number, which bristled with little plissed spikes, fetched euro20,000 ($24,770).

Other lots included a lambskin vest by California-born designer Rick Owens and a 1980 photograph by Robert Mapplethorpe titled "Leather Crotch."

The soiree raised $180,000 for the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), a nonprofit organization that supports HIV/AIDS research.

Held in Chez Maxim's restaurant and club in central Paris, the dinner auction attracted top names in the French fashion scene, including underwear designer Chantal Thomass, model Mark Vanderloo and Gaultier — the one-time enfant terrible who gave the world Madonna's pointy cone bra.

____

Online:

http://www.amfar.org/

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100626/ap_on_en_ot/eu_france_fashion_aids_benefit

Fluid shapes, liquid beauty at Stephane Rolland

By JENNY BARCHFIELD, Associated Press Writer Jenny Barchfield, Associated Press Writer – Tue Jul 6, 11:30 am ET

PARIS – Stephane Rolland looked to the ocean for a fall-winter 2011 haute couture collection Tuesday of sculptural gowns in deep sea blue adorned by oblong appliques that evoked the smooth, wave-caressed shapes of beach stones.

It was a pared-down collection for Rolland, who last season delivered dresses that bristled with mosaics of plexiglass spikes, like a dinosaur's armor. Where that collection was all hard lines and edges, Tuesday's was about fluidity and liquidity.

Floor-length capes that were built into the long-sleeve sheath dresses fluttered like gently running water as the models walked. The train on a slate-colored evening gown jiggled like liquid mercury.

A short navy dress covered at the hemline and the cuffs by glinting black oblong shapes — made from rhinestone-studded plexiglass — looked like the deep blue sea washing up on a volcanic beach.

Rolland, who is among the most artistic of Paris couturiers, said he looked for inspiration to dancer Martha Graham and to the rounded, hermetic creations of Indian-born sculptor Anish Kapoor, as well as to memories of a youth spent on France's Cote d'Azur.

"As a kid, I collected everything, and I used to come back from trips to the beach with my pockets full of these round stones, whose smoothness I really liked," he told The Associated Press in a preview in his atelier.

Asked if a recent trip to the sea had brought back the childhood memories, Rolland responded. "It's in me, so deep inside me that I don't need anything to jog my memory."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100706/ap_on_en_ot/eu_france_fashion_stephane_rolland

More In Berlin Fashion Week

Giorgio Armani Prive' Fall 2010- Classic Movie-Star Fashion in Women's Wear.. "Elegance, with an amber tinted vision."

Christian Dior- "Tulip Couture" at Rodin Musuem in Paris

Frank Sorbier

Jean Paul Gautier

Valentino

Givenchy

South Africa moves on from World Cup.. Into Fashion

Boss Black Big in Europe

Boss Black's Big Top Moment

Godfrey Deeny Godfrey Deeny – Fri Jul 9, 9:36 am ET

Berlin – Hugo Boss, Germany's biggest fashion label, staged a mammoth runway show in Berlin Thursday, July 8, building a runway and a restaurant for 1,300 in two massive circus marquees.

The double big tops were a fitting symbol for Boss, by far the most important luxury brand in Europe's biggest economy. Completely white outside, the two tents were entirely black in their interiors, aptly so since the large crowd had gathered to witness the spring 2011 collection of Boss Black, the house's top line, featuring both men and women on the enormous catwalk. And, in a curious example of symmetry, the show marked the first by Boss Black's new creative consultant Graeme Black, who previously worked for Giorgio Armani prior to launching his own signature label in London.

The models rolled out in a collection where, at least for women, the key was fluid use of volume. Using a print-free choice of fabrics and focusing on soft mono-color hues like coral, beige and cobalt, the collection largely waved aside recent global runway seasons, which have been dominated by floral and abstract prints.

What worked best were the Japanese style pants in subtle checks, volume and dimpled skirts, and long, sinuous caftans.

"To my mind, Boss creates clothes that flatter a lady. This collection certainly does," said Jessica Alba, the American actress on something of a European fashion tour. On Monday, she sat front-row at Christian Dior and on Tuesday attended Chanel, both in Paris, then winged into Berlin for this huge event.

For guys, Boss Black wants to see them next spring in a newly proportioned suit. Cut with a short jacket and large back vents, yet also with large shoulders and forgiving pants, the look played with the modern micro jacket, yet gave it a more plausibly commercial twist. Made in some great powder blue seersucker, and off-the-moment ginghams, the choice was conventional but also cool.

Post-show, Boss wined and dined its guests in the second charmingly lit marquee, in rough-hewn tables placed around old olive trees.

"I have to say I enjoyed the evening immensely," said Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit. "The show and party were both chic. Berlin is on the move in fashion terms, which makes us happy."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/fwd/20100709/en_fashion_fwd/bossblacksbigtopmoment

Conservationist Theme Michalsky fashion line 2010

Michalsky: Conservationist Chic

Godfrey Deeny Godfrey Deeny – Sun Jul 11, 11:04 am ET

Berlin – Local fashion star Michael Michalsky staged Berlin's biggest bumper fashion event on Friday, July 9, with a multiple runway show, opera performance and mini sketch from the local equivalent of a Broadway show.

It's highlight was the spring 2011 collection by Michalsky, who showed both menswear and women's looks on a circular runway in Tempodrom, a massive, tepee-shaped concrete concert hall.

The designer said his inspiration was concern for extinct species, so a striking puffin print was used in great jersey material, featured in guy's street-style "hoodies" and clubbing tops, while a big cat lynx print starred in a couple of swirling dresses that climaxed the show.

For women, what worked best were a series of glove leather biker jackets paired with wrap pants that had poise yet also punch; and delightful flowing djellaba-style overalls with gold cuffs.

Primarily made in mono-colors of ecru, black, deep blue and orange, the collection also had great injections of gold sequins, used in boyish military pants and stacked heels on women.

But the standout image was a great bright orange overall outfit with gold brocade cuffs and breastplate, which drew a burst of applause led by Berlin's Mayor Klaus Wowereit.

The Michalsky-organized evening had opened with a militarist inspired collection by Mahirishi, the famed party label, continued with a one-tune operatic slot and finished with three numbers performed by a troupe of dancers from Friedrichstadtpalast theatre, where Michalsky had staged his runway show one year ago.

"The deal with the Friedrichstadtpalast was they lent me their space last year and I created their costumes, which was fun and a challenge. Plus it got a lot out of my system - wigs, feathers, whips, chains, you name it," said Michalsky, who has a deserved reputation as Berlin's best fashion showman.

Though Michalsky has always been great at staging shows, his signature collection underlined he is no design slouch - sending out a slick and sophisticated take on modern dressing. This was very much a growing up moment for the man.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/fwd/20100711/en_fashion_fwd/michalskyconservationistchic

Doggie Fashion Show for Charity

China Tycoon Buying Prada Shares

China tycoon bids to be Prada's biggest shareholder

Mon Jul 12, 3:24 am ET

SHANGHAI (AFP) – A Chinese tycoon has been quietly buying up shares in Italian fashion house Prada SpA in a bid to become its largest shareholder, his company confirmed Monday.

However, Lu Qiang, chairman of Shanghai-based fashion factory outlet Foxtown may abandon the plans, saying Prada had raised its price for the additional stake after learning of his involvement.

Lu's bid was reported by China's Economic Observer newspaper on Monday.

"We had not planned to make the bid public. But somehow one media got the news and had a report on this. The price then became very high and therefore we are considering dropping the idea," FoxTown spokeswoman Irene Dou told AFP.

She confirmed Lu gave an interview to the Economic Observer and did not dispute its report.

The newspaper said Lu had indirectly acquired 13 percent of Prada over the past two years and aimed to become its biggest shareholder with the planned acquisition of an additional stake of up to 20 percent.

Lu had been buying shares through an unidentified Italian consulting firm, which he acquired for 20 million euros (25 million dollars), the newspaper said.

But Prada has since upped its price.

"(Prada thought) handing over the company to the Chinese will hurt the quality and taste," Lu was quoted as saying.

Lu's acquisition team had planned to invest 450 million euros (566 million dollars) in Prada by buying shares from the Italian fashion icon's creditors, the newspaper said.

But the cost of the acquisition had risen between 600 million and 700 million euros, the newspaper said.

He was quoted as saying he would sell his existing Prada shares if he fails to buy the additional stake in the coming week.

"I would sell all my current holdings," Lu was quoted as saying.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100712/bs_afp/lifestylechinaitalyfashioncompanypradainvest

Moomah- New Kids Entertainment Space in Tribeca

Best Playspace

(Photo: Courtesy of the Vendor)

Moomah

161 Hudson St., nr. Laight St. 212-226-0345

Moomah offers a killer parent-kid recipe: It’s part café (pouring Counter Culture coffee), part gymnasium, part art gallery, and part ecoexploratorium, all housed in the old Wetlands rock club in Tribeca. Kids go especially crazy for the Funky Forest, an interactive virtual ecosystem with infrared motion projectors that make imaginary trees grow and water ripple. In glow-in-the-dark-yoga (gloga?) classes, white-clad young yogis are illuminated by black light. Birthday parties come in three themes: princesses in space, superheroes go camping, and on the farm. The brainchild of Tracey Stewart (wife of The Daily Show’s Jon), Moomah invites drop-ins and keeps entrance rates relatively affordable. A new art playdate is $40, including supervision, lunch, and materials.
http://nymag.com/bestofny/kids/2010/playspace/

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