Get ready for the runway

Following the success of her debut collection at the inaugural Dubai International Fashion Week (DIFW) in April, internationally acclaimed Dubai fashion designer, Mille Rostock has again been selected to showcase her breathtaking new Spring/Summer 2008 collection on 23 October at DIFW in the One & Only Royal Mirage Hotel.

The Danish-born designer recently returned from Copenhagen International Fashion Week where her uniquely feminine and romantically-inspired collection caught the eye of numerous international buyers including one of the largest fashion houses in South Korea. Since launching her brand, Mille Rostock's designs have been bought into by many of the leading boutiques in Dubai and featured in numerous fashion shoots across the regions fashion press.

Commenting on what inspires her collections and what it means to be selected to showcase her latest designs Mille explained, 'This season I'm inspired by Hollywood glamour in the 1930s and 40s. Vintage inspired dresses are timeless and the daytime dresses the Hollywood starlets wore emphasize curves, drape elegantly and have a discreet sexiness.'

Key colours and flowing natural fabrics include dusted silver and rose with tonal colours in silk and chiffon mixed with black denim and jersey to create an interesting contrast. The nature of these delicate fabrics combined with the flattering cuts, allows for minimal embellishments and for femininity and elegance to flow whilst achieving a distinctively cutting edge look for today's sophisticated urban woman.

'I feel honoured to represent Dubai at this exciting and fast evolving international fashion week. I feel my collection reflects the diversity and cultural mix of the people and styles that makes this city so unique. Living within such a dynamic environment has definitely influenced my outlook and the way in which I design the cuts and use the fabrics to encompass the lifestyle and glamour of this region.'

Source: ameinfo.com

Fire injuries claim life of designer Suri

Fashion designer Mona Suri has died in New Delhi of injuries she suffered when two men attempted to burn her alive this summer.

The Times of India said Sunday the 35-year-old Indian designer, who was attacked by unidentified assailants at her home in August, suffered multiple-organ failure and died Saturday at a New Delhi hospital. Suri had been admitted to the hospital Aug. 12 following the horrific attack.

The designer had previously told police a colleague of her husband may have behind the attack, leading to charges being filed against the man. Yet the slow pace of the investigation has frustrated Suri's family, who demanded the Indian Central Bureau of Investigation become involved.

"The police investigations were on the right track in the beginning but later it lost direction and for the last 40-50 days, they could not manage to make any headway in the case. We want a CBI inquiry," said Taranjeet Bawa, Suri's brother.

Source: United Press International

A Safari themed Kevan Hall show at Mercedes-Benz Fashion

Born in Detroit, Kevan Hall attended Cass Technical High School in Detroit, where he studied fashion design. He won first place as "Designer of Tomorrow" - a scholarship sponsored by the Los Angeles-based Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising.

Hall graduated from the Fashion Institute with a Peacock Award for "Outstanding Fashion Design".

In 1982, Hall with his wife and partner, Deborah launched Kevan Hall Couture.

In 2002 he launched his signature Kevan Hall Collection.

The celebrity designer has a long list of Hollywood A listers who have worn his creations to the red carpet. Some of his clients among others are Celine Dion, Sharon Stone, Angela Bassett, Charlize Theron, Salma Hayek, Felicity Huffman, Vivica A. Fox, Virginia Madsen, Garcelle Beauvais, Debra Messing and Renee Zellweger.

Hall's recognitions include Life & Style magazine's "Stylemaker of the Year", The 47th Annual Gold Coast Fashion Award's "Designer of the Year", Peacock Award for "Outstanding Fashion Design" and NAACP's "Great American Designer."

Kevan Hall presented his Africa: A Safari themed runway show on the second day of the Mercedes Benz Los Angeles Fashion Week Spring 2008, Smashbox Studios Culver City, CA Oct 15 2007.

A long time supporter of Africa cause, the theme was chosen to inspire others to support Africa related charities. Celebrities seated on the front seat were Vanessa Williams, Jessica Colins, Alexandra Rose Rieger, Eric La Salle, Jimmy Jean-Louis, Rebecca DeMornay and Jennifer Beals.

Source: sawf.org

Designer's creations on show

An exhibition on the work of Irish fashion designer Neilli Mulcahy opens at the National Museum this week.

Mulcahy ran a Dublin shop producing haute couture garments in the 1950s and 1960s and also designed the Aer Lingus uniform in 1962.

The exhibition includes examples of her garments, fashion photographs, fabrics, accessories, hats and design drawings. The designer donated her archive to the museum's decorative arts and history campus at Collins Barracks.

Source: The Press Association

Nicky Hilton's casual chic

LA Fashion Week got off to a great start with the debut of Nicky Hilton's new ready-to-wear label, Chick by Nicky Hilton.

After making her New York Fashion Week debut last month with her high-end Nicholai line, Hilton was poised and demure as she gave interview after interview about Chick, the casual-wear label she launched in 2004.

"It's my first clothing line," she said. "So it's my baby."

Aimed at girls and named for Hilton's childhood moniker ("My parents thought I looked like Tweety Bird"), the line features flirty minidresses, floaty tops, playful patterns and super-high hemlines.

"It's very cute, very girly, very feminine. It's very reflective of the LA lifestyle - laid-back, casual," she said. "Nicholai is definitely for the mature, sophisticated customer ... whereas Chick is just fun pieces."

Still, the line has evolved over its three years. "Before it was a lot of sweat suits, T-shirts and tank tops, but now I'm doing more denim and tops and dresses."

Punchy prints - delicate swans, glass slippers and bright red apples - define the spring collection. An apple-covered A-line dress is topped with a black belted trench coat. Swans decorate sundresses and slim-fitting shifts. Printed halters and tanks float over tiny shorts.

Solids also make a statement in swingy T-shirt dresses, high-waisted "sailor trousers" and skinny jeans. Some of the best offerings came in black, including a knee-length dress with ruffle sleeves, a scalloped hem and a white Peter Pan collar and an airy voile top worn with wide-leg pants.

Hilton's parents took a front-row seat for the show, as did actress Jaime Pressly and Petro Zillia designer Nony Tochterman, who is set to close Fashion Week with her show on Thursday night. Hilton's older sister, Paris, did not make an appearance.

Though the day marked Hilton's second fashion week in as many months, she is not done yet. She is set to show Nicholai in Mexico City and Moscow in the coming weeks.

The cameras are coming along, too. A crew from MySpace.com has been documenting the designer's work and plans to follow her on her international adventure for its fashion feature, The Fit.

Still, Hilton seems humble about her international success.

"I'm excited," she said. "I've never been to Mexico City or Russia, so just for me to be able to go there is fun."

Source: theage.com.au

Top designers to showcase collections at AusStyle 2007

A team of 10 top Australian fashion designers will showcase their latest collections to Middle East buyers in AusStyle 2007 at The Monarch Dubai from 4-7 November.

It's the third time the event has been held and represents double the number of designers who took part in last year's AusStyle which successfully matched buyers from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Jordan with inspired designs from ‘Down Under'.This year, buyer meetings will be held throughout the three day event titled ‘La Dolce Vita' (the beautiful life) - Australian style, which will culminate with cocktails and a fashion show for invited VIPs on November 7.

Organiser Milica Duric of the Australian Trade Commission says that while Australia and Dubai are miles apart geographically they have many similarities in climate and lifestyle that make fashion translate well between the two countries.

"We both have warm weather throughout the year with less defined seasons than many Northern Hemisphere countries, so the fabrics and styles our designers use are more compatible with the Middle East than many European collections," says Milica.

Access to top quality fabrics and fibres and an increasingly multicultural society also add to the creative inspiration of the Australian designers who will present unique collections of garments and accessories suited to a wide range of applications from trend-setting café culture to red carpet glitterati events.

"Dubai is renowned internationally as a shopping destination providing consumers with a global snapshot of the world's leading fashion brands. We hope to contribute to that reputation by sharing the latest Australian talents being recognised nationally and internationally," Milica says.

Each year AusStyle hand picks a new group of innovative and successful designers with proven commercial appeal to introduce to the Dubai market, providing an opportunity for UAE retailers to gain potentially exclusive regional access to fresh new looks at a competitive price point while giving the designers added exposure in a dynamic market.

"It's a win-win situation that's good for both the fashion industry and consumers," she says.This year's featured designers are Aurelio Costarella, Charlie Brown, Nina Maya, Verduci-Smith, Ghost & Lola, Bagtart, Gina Kim, Sacha Drake, Kimono Collections and Marniinako.

The continuing success of the high profile event has attracted backing for AusStyle 2007 from elite sponsors, The Monarch Dubai, HSBC Bank International, ModelCraft, Lexus, Cicero & Bernay and Harper's Bazaar, as well as Etihad, Quintessentially, L'Oreal Professionnel, Model Co, Aldo and Pinctada Pearls.

Courtesy: ArabianBusiness.com

Reliance Retail Announces Apparel Speciality Store

The Apparel, Luggage and Accessories division of Reliance Retail has announced the launch of their first Apparel specialty store "Reliance Trends" in Gurgaon. Reliance Trends store at Ambi mall offers some of the best (100+) Indian and International brands in 30,000 square feet of shopping area ,and has been designed and furnished by the best of breed international design agencies, to offer a high quality and lavish shopping experience to the Indian Consumer.

The store layout compliments the evolving tastes and preference of fashion savvy consumers, giving them an opportunity to view /shop with ease, along with an army of well trained customer service associates, to compliment the entire shopping process. Riding on the tremendous success at Reliance Mart in Ahmedabad, the apparel division of Reliance Retail is well on track to democratize fashion and make it attainable to the masses.

This is being made possible by the extraordinary design pool of Indian and International designers, integrating the international design trends and preferences of the Indian Consumers. The company is offering solutions to common maintenance problems through its state of the art innovative products like Ever White Shirts, Anti Stain Trousers, Wrinkle Free Range of garments, aromatic clothes for infants and quick- dry sports wear that ensures optimum moisture management.

Product Quality has been ingrained into the DNA of Reliance Trends and is integral to its mission of "Grahak Devo Bhava". The Quality system processes are designed, implemented and monitored as per international standards by a highly competent team of professionals. To deliver the customer the best value for their money, only those products that demonstrate an exemplary safety and quality meeting both implicit and explicit needs of the customer are approved for purchase.

Some of the quality standards that are being followed are American Association of Textiles, Chemists & Colorists, American Standard, ISO & BIS test methods. For the first time in organized retail, Reliance Trends is introducing a Made to Measure tailoring service, offering customized fits to all the customers buying fabrics from the store at prices comparable to their neighborhood tailors.

Reliance Trends is offering a homogeneous mix of private labels and brands across men's, women's and children's categories to fulfill every customer's requirement. The Network range of garments comprises of formal office wear collection for men and women, while the Netplay range, showcases a smart casual collection for the evolving workplace. The DNMX range has been developed with a clear focus on the youth of India, offering them exclusively crafted fashion garments like Denims, T shirts etc.

Sparsh range of Indian wear for women, offers the finest collection of Salwar Kurtas, Churidars and a fast evolving Mix n Match range of garments. An exclusive label, Panda , has been developed for infants and toddlers , while the Frendz range of garments would compliment the wardrobes the growing generation of boys and girls.

Apart from these private labels, the store is also offering some of the most renowned brands in the country like Lee, Wrangler, Peter England , John Players, Black berry's, Gini n Jony , Liliput , Indigo Nation , Biba and designer labels like AND either directly or through their sub brands, most of these exclusively for Reliance Trends.Continuing the tradition of reaching out to the middle class of the country, the current offering from Reliance Trends is easily affordable to the Indian consumer.

The specific private label called First Class, is designed to cater to a range of garments cutting across mens', momen's, and children's wear to deliver extreme value to the Indian consumers.Taking forward the vision of Shri. Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries Ltd.

Reliance Trends delivers unmatched affordability, quality and choice of products and services to the consumer. Reliance Retail continues to fine tune its offering by listening to the consumers and learning from them. This, as the Chairman envisions, will be the beginning of transforming Indian retailing with benefits for the Consumer.

Source: Business Wire India

Wild prints charming enough for every day

When an conceptualist designer like Hussein Chalayan – renowned for having once featured a wooden coffee table as a skirt and dresses illuminated with LED lights – shows a collection that includes plain handkerchief hem tunics, ordinary shorts suits and uncomplicated accordion-pleated dresses, as he did on Wednesday night, it neatly sums up the mood designers in Paris are projecting for next spring/summer.

Their modus operandi seems to be designing wearable clothes that will actually sell. Even the format of the Chalayan show – eschewing a runway altogether – was a simple video resentation in an art gallery showing a few models against a black background moving in and out of the camera lens for all of 10 minutes.

With Paris fashion week drawing to a close on Sunday and some of the big French fashion houses like Lanvin, Chanel and Louis Vuitton yet to show, the runways so far have featured a lineup of commercial clothes for real women – at least those with the high-rolling bank accounts.

It seems the City of Light has turned down the wattage this season and London, which seems to be having a fashion renaissance, is the capital that's churning out new ideas. British wunder-boys Christopher Kane and Giles Deacon seem to be the bright beacons on the horizon. But why the reality check here in Paris, the fashion capital the world looks to for flights of fancy when it comes to frocks?

It could be argued that with some of these houses turning out six or more collections a year, if you count menswear and resort, there has never been more pressure on a designer to come up with ideas. Even for the most talented, not every collection can be a mega-hit.

Or it could be that the men who control the purse strings are sending out their own memo to the design department: make clothes that will sell. Yes, fragrances and accessories are the cash cows, but why shouldn't the clothing be utilized to increase those profit margins?

Emerging markets like Russia, China and India have a voracious appetite for luxury labels but these newcomers to the fashion scene are looking for clothes, not with edge, but that they can wear with assurance that their outfits spell out status and wealth.

And perhaps that is why this week's collections, while safe and commercial, have also been in quintessentially classic Parisian good taste.

Even the ring leader of theatrics, John Galliano, toned it right down for Dior with pinstriped suits, bias cut dresses and flapper cocktail numbers.

If there was one big fashion trend that emerged it was a riot of prints and a bonanza of botanicals.

Dries Van Noten sent out a kaleidoscopic collection that deftly mixed several unrelated colourful graphic florals. Some fabrics mixed two or more clashing prints. But he made it look so easy, charming and feminine, that these were dresses, tops and soft pyjama-style pants that women will want to cherish forever. Bright and romantic, they will certainly hold a special place in a wardrobe.

Christian Lacroix, another mix master of prints, sent out an exuberant collection that featured broad, abstract, painterly brushstrokes.

But among the powerful prints and wild headwraps on models, were pencil slim skirt suits that resonated French chic.

One designer exiting his long and storied career on a high note was Valentino, who showed his last ready-to-wear collection this week. His label will continue under Alessandra Facchinetti, the designer most known for succeeding Tom Ford at Gucci until she was let go after a few seasons.
The show was not a melancholy affair but rather boasted a foot-tapping soundtrack of disco hits and a lineup of what he did best for the past 45 years came sashaying down the runway. Elegant column dresses, ruffles and bows, swirls of feminine polka dots and svelte skirt suits.

Here was a designer who built a stellar career and remained relevant and successful for more than four decades by giving women what they want; feminine, sexy, glamourous and utterly wearable clothing.

Source: Toronto Star

Funkshion starts on Oct 10!!

FUNKSHION: Fashion Week Miami is pleased to announce that on October 10 th will open with Harpers Bazaar MAGIA DE LA MODA Fashion Show at Paris Theatre to celebrate its 5 th anniversary. Please be sure to join us for this very special night.

OCTOBER, 10-14, 2007

FUNKSHION: Fashion Week Miami is pleased to announce the dates for its October ’07 shows. It should be no surprise that a leading trend markets like the City of Miami and the City of Miami Beach have proven a need for a fashion week to call their own. FUNKSHION: Fashion Week Miami Beach presented by Lexus, will fuse music, fashion and like no other city in the world could do. This is Fashion Week - MIAMI BEACH STYLE!

For the Spring/Summer 2008 Collections, FUNKSHION: Fashion Week Miami Beach will build a state-of-the-art event pod at the Paris Theatre, Hotel Setai and Ice Palace located in the heart of Miami Beach and Miami, October 10 th - 13 th , 2007. The Paris Theatre is a 1940 Art Deco landmark located in the heart of the world-renowned South Beach district. The former movie palace has been meticulously restored and transformed into a state-of-the-art production facility utilized by the world's most renowned photographers, recording artists and fashion advertisers.

Along with our more traditional runway shows, FUNKSHION: Fashion Week Miami Beach will also host a special show consisting of some of the country's hottest up and coming young designers. At this show, Perrier Sparkling Natural Mineral Water will award the best and brightest of these designers with the Perrier "Bubbling Under" Award recognizing excellence in emerging fashion talent. The panel of judges will be made up of media elite, trade industry VIP's, designers, celebrities and members of Fashion Group International. Perrier will award the winning designer with a cash prize to help further their design career.

FUNKSHION: Fashion Week Miami Beach is a four-day event (October 10 th to the 13 th ) that provides an intelligent, innovative platform for progressive, established, and emerging designers to showcase their collections to media, celebrities, international buyers, and select style makers. FUNKSHION: Fashion Week Miami Beach will celebrate the energy and substance of style across classes and cultures. The shows are geared towards designer diffusion collections and innovative lifestyle brands. Designers will integrate music into their shows, many personally selecting their favorite celebrity DJs to preside over their runway spectacles FUNKSHION: Fashion Week Miami Beach has harnessed the curiosity and support of established and emerging talent from the international fashion and lifestyle arenas.

This year we will feature new designs by designers such as True Religion, Adriano Goldschmied, Christina Ferrari and others.

On October 13th at 9pm, music and fashion collide at Mix N Mash — the official FUNKSHION: Fashion Week Miami Beach Fashion Show and after party fueled by Red Bull Energy Drink. Hosted at the Ice Palace Film Studio in Miami, Mix N Mash is a battle of music and fashion featuring five designers from top Florida-based Art and Design Schools competing against each other in a runway show while simultaneously a DJ battle ensues between Little Louie Vega with Annane, Dj Dummy, Dj Irie and Dj Tabu. Featured designers come from International Academy of Design and Technology (Orlando), International Academy of Design and Technology (Tampa), Art Institute of Ft. Lauderdale, and Ai Miami Intl University of Art & Design. Red Bull Formula One Race car driver Vitantonio Liuzzi will open the show, adding a little more “mix” to the “mash.”

“It’s great to be here and showing spring collection. Miami really is the fashion capital, they say that it is New York, but really all the of energy is here, and all the new ideas are here, so I think it’s good that we are here showing as well”, says Russell Simmons on Fashion Week Miami Beach.

Source: FUNKSHION