Fashion threads high-tech approach

What to wear when you’re the world’s first digital supermodel? A couture dress made on a 3D printer, but of course.

Coco Rocha, a 24-year-old Canadian who hits the covers of fashion magazines as often as she does the runway, launched her career from her own blog and now has 8 million followers on social media platforms.

Dressed in a custom-designed dress by Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen that was printed on a 3D printer and shipped from Paris especially for the occasion, she was the final speaker at The Australian Financial Review Magazine’s inaugural Bespoke, a summit exploring Australia’s place in the global fashion and luxury good industries.

Marion Hume, the summit’s host and international fashion editor at the Financial Review, said Australians often overlooked the surprising ways its natural resources inspires designers, from Australian crocodile skins that end up in Hermes Birkin bags to superfine wool in Paul Smith and Burberry suits.

“Australia’s laid-back image doesn’t suggest high-end chic,” she said. “We don’t have generations of artisans painstakingly crafting treasures by hand. Our history is challenging.”

Yet as the recent stake in RM Williams taken by French luxury goods giant Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey shows, Australia has the power to generate highly sought-after brands. And the potential prizes are great. Expenditure by Chinese visitors to Australia is expected to top $9 billion by 2020.

“Entrepreneurs are focusing not only on what we can do here, but on what they can buy here with a more sophisticated focus on tourism, entertainment and leisure aimed at top-notch Chinese visitors,” Hume said.

Speakers at the event, believed the first time the economics of the fashion and luxury industry has been considered at a conference in Australia, including J Brand founder Jeff Rudes, Mr Porter.com’s Jeremy Langmead, Perth-born Bollywood star Pallavi Sharda, Crown Resort chairman James Packer, Oroton’s creative director Ana Maria Escobar and fashion designers Karen Walker, Josh Goot, Nicky Zimmermann and Sarah-Jane Clarke and Heidi Middleton of sass & bide promoutfitters.

It was just today that I happened to drive past CR Park, New Delhi’s Bengali colony. At an intersection, when the light turned red, I brought my car to a halt and several people started crossing the road, walking past my car. I noticed that all of them without exception were dressed up… they all were heading towards the Durga Puja pandal (the fairground) as the festivities are on for the Bengalis.

While I saw some of them in their traditional attires, of ornate saris for women and kurtas on men, what surprised me were the young girls coming in their leggings and sexy spaghetti tops and guys in their jeans and tees. Most of them looked as if they were heading for a party. Indeed, it’s a party of sorts for everyone, not just the Bengalis, with the fair ground with its huge Durga idol along with a battery of food and recreation stalls dotting all across.

I liked the fact that everyone wanted to have a good time along with their prayers offered to the idol, but at the same time they also wanted to look stylish in their own ways. The best of Indian wear along with a variety of western wear on a traditional occasion was not something that I was familiar with.

Back in Kerala, during our festivals like Onam or Vishu, I see women only in their traditional attire. Men are always mixed with some in trousers and shirts while some in their dhotis and shirts. The best of silks or kasav veshtis (off white saris with broad gold borders) come out during these occasions. The occasions are so traditional that in some temples those who appear in western outfits are barred from entering the premises. That said, people come in their most stylish attires to celebrate the occasion.

Indian festive occasions are the best times for fashion designers here, especially in the North. They make their killings during these times. People splurge buying for themselves and for their relatives and friends. The end result is fashion in different forms and designs hitting the road. Some of course in their designer attire and most in their affordable, yet stylish (with of course a fair sprinkle of bizarre outfits appearing in the middle) come to eat, pray and of course to be loved… to be seen!

Well, Fashion Focus Chicago is winding down to a close. If you’ve found yourselves feeling left out of the fun due to a lack of full-figured fashion events during this week’s festivities, then BOY do I have GREAT news for you! Here are three events that are sure to have you leaping for joy… and spending money on some fabulous clothes!
Tamika Martell-Price, founder of A-Line Style Services and Dangerous Curves Ahead, released a book style guide earlier this year entitled “Standout Style: The Shopping + Style Guide for Real Women”. Tonight, she will be at The Limited in the Water Tower Place from 6:00 – 8:00pm! Feel free to drop by and meet her, get some GREAT style tips, and check out the Limited’s plus-size clothing line Eloquii.
Are you a fan of Monif C? If so, then this is the event for you! The dynamic plus-size fashion designer is coming to Chicago to host a trunk show downtown THIS SATURDAY! The event, which is being sponsored by Milwaukee’s own plus-size fashion staple, Boutique Larrieux. Famed Chicago-based blogger Afrobella will be your hostess for the evening. You MUST RSVP in order to attend this event. You will be provided with the location of the event after your RSVP has been received. Click on the flyer for details.

And last, but certainly not least, fashion giant AKIRA is teaming up with The ThYck Troupe of Chicago, a 501(c)(3) full-figured performing arts organization, to host an after-hours charity shopping event! The cost is just $5.00 and guests will receive a 10% discount on all items purchased that evening. You must RSVP/pay before attending.

I think that it’s GREAT that AKIRA is supporting this full-figured organization. My wish is that AKIRA will come out with a full-fledged plus-size clothing line for the curvaceous woman. I don’t know what their future plans are, but they are definitely taking a step in the right direction and showing the curvy community some love and I applaud them for that! If you cannot make this event, but still wish to donate to the ThYck Troupe, or to RSVP for this event.
**If you’ve enjoyed reading this article, please feel free to share with others and leave us a comment or two. Also, please “like” the Chicago Plus-Size Fashion Examiner fan page on Facebook.

There were no glowing jack-o-lanterns on show but just a non-stop stream of garish outfits, over-the-top make-up and day-glo props that would not have looked out of place in the Rocky Horror Show.Welcome to the world of rhythmic gymnastics where the Olympic slogan of ‘faster, higher, stronger’ is replaced by ‘fantasy, hallucinatory, surreal’ as girls armed with hoops, balls, ribbons and clubs go into overdrive to show off their dexterity, grace and rhythm on a 12-metre square floor mat.

If prizes for fancy dress outfits were being handed out, top of the pops would have been Belarus’ Melitina Staniouta for her sparkling pumpkin orange and black ensemble or Australia’s Janine Murray with her shocking green and pink leotard.

The real medal contenders, though, did not need to resort to gimmicks to grab the attention of the judges, who hand out scores for difficulty, artistry and execution for each 75-90 second routines.

Former Soviet nations have ruled the roost in a sport that has enjoyed its day of reckoning at every Olympics since 1984 and so it proved on Thursday as Russian lady Daria Dmitrieva and 2008 Olympic champion Evgeniya Kanaeva grabbed the top two spots at the halfway stage of qualifying.

How to dress: the posh sweatshirt.

‘The dry clean-only sweatshirt, like the artisan bacon roll, is the new version of a once-common object scrubbed up to become a lifestyle statement’.

Today I am wearing a posh sweatshirt. It is expensive and has sequins on it. So, like I said, posh. The posh sweatshirt is a category that didn’t exist five years ago. The dry clean-only sweatshirt, like the artisan bacon roll, is the new version of a once-common object scrubbed up to become a lifestyle statement.

I could spin two stories about how the posh sweatshirt came to be. The first is the more classy: the posh sweatshirt is the next logical development in fashion’s makeover of utilitarian sportswear. Tracksuit bottoms, which for years were the definition of anti-fashion, became A Thing. They appeared on catwalk models wearing extraordinary make-up and very high heels, which made people look at them differently and wear them differently. It is now acceptable to wear posh tracksuit bottoms as smart daywear. And fashion, flushed with success in transforming the tracksuit bottom, has moved on to the top half.

There is another, rather less high fashion-minded interpretation, however. If you’ve come across any teenagers recently, you may have noticed that the humble sweatshirt isn’t that humble any more. The glam-yoof brands of Jack Wills and A&F put a hefty price tag (as well as a massive advertising slogan – seems a bit cheeky to me, that, but there you go) on their bestselling sweatshirts. But are those of us who roll our eyes at astronomically priced teen sweatshirts as immune from influence as we like to think? Could it be that the grown-up posh sweatshirt – which started out as reissued retro grey marl at Gap and has evolved into sequined, leopardprint and even fake fur – is about us grown-ups secretly wanting to get down with the kids?

To be on the safe side, I suggest we stay away from hoodies. What you’re wearing is still a sweatshirt, rather than a crew-neck sweater, even if it is in a fleece-lined cotton material, or has a raglan sleeve (so that seams run diagonally upwards and inwards, from underarms to collarbone) – or both. The non-hooded sweatshirt is less brash, more streamlined. Just don’t assume it is more grown-up.

Dressed in top hats and designer wear, several public service employees strutted their stuff at a fashion show to benefit the city of Port Hueneme on Thursday.

Hosted by Hueneme Beautiful Inc., the Bags to Riches Fashion Fundraiser was held to raise donation money to help fund various city improvements, according to Marilyn Miravete-Smith, the organization’s president.

“We wanted to highlight public servants or volunteer members and what they do for our community,” Miravete-Smith said. “Our main goal is to do large, yearly fundraisers like this so proceeds can continue to benefit projects in our community.”

Hueneme Beautiful Inc. is a nonprofit organization for the beautification and betterment of Port Hueneme. Projects the organization supports include the K-9 Patrol and the Boys & Girls Club.

Five city projects also are being considered for the money raised at the fashion show, including adding a tree to a Park Avenue median and sand to the Moranda Park sand box. Both projects are expected to cost around $500.

“We try to give a little here and a little there,” Miravete-Smith said.Clydia Richardson, 49, the owner of Bags to Riches, at 1942 Ventura Blvd. in Camarillo, provided the outfits for the show. The company is a new and resale designer boutique. The clothing was customized to the model’s body type and style, yet also uniquely put together to take each person a little out of their comfort zone, according to Richardson.

It was important to Richardson to participate in the fashion show because her son, Derek Decker, 23, is deployed as a Navy special warfare combat-craft crewman.

“I have a special kind of respect for people of uniform,” Richardson said. “I am really honored to be part of recognizing these people for what they do to try and make the city more beautiful.”

Richardson dressed 12 models and service members for the show.

Ventura resident Norma Thompson, 76, attended the event with a close friend to celebrate her upcoming birthday in May.

“I think it is really going to work,” Thompson said. “To learn about the people in uniform and see where the money is going, it is wonderful how they work to benefit the community.”

The fashion show, held at the Heritage Square Hall and Church, began with a crowd of more than 100 applauding the public servants, including Ventura County Fire Department public information officer Steve Swindle.”I think all of us do this because of our passion for the community so it is hard sometimes to be put in the spotlight,” Swindle said. “But they are part of our community, which we serve. It is great we get to interact with them.”After a few items were raffled off, the fashion began at noon. Paired with models, the public servants walked down the church aisle.After the fashion show, guests had lunch next door at La Dolce Vita Restaurant.Hueneme Beautiful plans to hold a similar fundraiser June 7 highlighting the K-9 Patrol.

Believe it! Designers are creating covetable polymer pieces, applying the forever-futuristic material to party clothes, accessories and even beachwear.

“I love Hollywood,” Andy Warhol once declared. “Everybody’s plastic, but I love plastic. I want to be plastic.”

Apparently Warhol isn’t the only one with synthetic exuberance syndrome. The spring collections are having a decidedly celluloid moment, and designers have decreed that no part of the body shall go unadorned by plastic. From dresses to tunics to short shorts, this season’s garments and accessories are gleaming with acrylic, vinyl and cellophane. Warhol would have been positively giddy.

In Paris, Karl Lagerfeld went plasticus extremis at Chanel, sending several gleaming head-to-toe looks down the runway. One entirely plastic ensemble—a peach-hued pantsuit and green booties—had a distinctly shuffleboard-in-Boca-Raton flair. There was also a shorts and clear vinyl jacket look intended for the beach.

Balenciaga’s Nicolas Ghesquière has conjured up glamorous dresses and skirts that, at first glance, appear to be fringed in feathers. “They feature a unique celluloid material which was created specifically for Balenciaga—each sheet of celluloid has been finely cut to create the delicate fringe,” said Mr. Ghesquière, who found inspiration in a single fringed dress he discovered in the house’s archives from Cristóbal Balenciaga’s winter 1966 collection.

At the Maison Martin Margiela show, models trotted down the runway encased in large dry-cleaner-esque plastic covers. Marc Jacobs opted for polyurethane skirts and plastic cowboy boots and flapper dresses for his spring collection. Mr. Jacobs told reporters after the show that he “didn’t want it to feel real.”

This provocative idea may translate beautifully in the pages of fashion magazines, but is tricky to convert into sales. Plastic ready-to-wear can be “challenging,” said Tomoko Ogura, fashion director at Barneys Co-op. If retailers go to the shows and see “an allover plastic piece and we’re really drawn to the shape, they can develop it in another fabric,” Ms. Ogura said. The result: “a more commercial, salable piece.”

Yet some plastic designs do make the direct leap from catwalk to store rack. For example, shoppers at Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman can snap up the embroidered plastic mint-green dress and polyethylene coat from Mr. Jacobs’s spring runway show.

And, as everyone knows, the future is plastics. This has been the unwavering assumption of fashion designers for decades as they’ve anticipated the Jetsons-y existence we have yet to reach. In the 1930s, Surrealist designer Elsa Schiaparelli was infusing her revolutionary clothes with plastic. Daniel James Cole, a professor of fashion history at the Fashion Institute of Technology, points out that the 1939 World’s Fair—whose slogan was “World of Tomorrow”—showcased television, fluorescent lighting and a curious new substance known as nylon. “There was an exhibition of hypothetical clothes of the future, which included materials like cellophane and rhodophane,” said Mr. Cole.

By the 1960s, with the onset of the Space Age, the fashion industry went into plastic overdrive. In Paris, Paco Rabanne crafted wild dresses from chain mail and plastic; in ’66 he showed a collection of “12 Experimental and Unwearable Dresses in Contemporary Materials.” While it’s hard to imagine that era’s housewives warming up to these outré new looks, the aesthetic did manage to go mainstream. “There was an American company that advertised in Ladies’ Home Journal a kit from which you could make a plastic disc dress,” Mr. Cole said. “You could literally sit in your living room and make your own ‘Paco Rabanne’ tunic.”

In 2012, it’s unlikely that anyone will market make-it-yourself vinyl bustier dresses like those shown by Dolce & Gabbana, but what’s clear is that the market is feeling future-ish. Perhaps designers are interpreting the digital revolution that has been reworking our society for the last decade, or maybe it’s commentary on the unreal nature of reality television. We can only imagine what Warhol would have made of the plastic enhancements in “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”

However, the trend remains the same: those of the fairer sex dominated the ramp shows and stole the limelight.

Says model Shifin Haneef: “In Kerala, male models are better than female models, but the opportunities for male models are less here. People want to see more of women, and so designers prefer female models over men. “More fashion weeks should be hosted exclusively for men so that male models get equally exposed.”

Lack of opportunities in Kerala is sending male models in droves to bigger cities such as Mumbai and Delhi. Passionate about his modeling career, Malayali model Sujo Mathew, who recently shifted to Mumbai, says, “This is an extremely competitive field, and the opportunities are very few here. Mumbai and Delhi have many opportunities. If you have the confidence, right attitude and good physique, then opportunities are waiting there.”

Commenting on the opportunities for male models, Kochi’s own Nibu Joseph, who also walked the Lakme Fashion Week, says: “Generally, there is more demand for female models. But, in the North, a male model has many options and a lot of work. Modelling opens up doors for you in the film industry too, you get to do a lot of advertisements, get to socialise and meet filmmakers tas well.”

If our models have the right attitude and the passion, then what’s stopping the ad agencies from picking up our men? Model Shifin, who plans to move to Mumbai to gain a foothold in the fashion industry, remarks, “The advertisers feel that models from Mumbai and Delhi are more professional.

For any big budget advertisement, they prefer models from the North. And, if it’s a low-budget ad, then they approach us.”

Most of these male models say they earn peanuts in Kerala, prompting them to look for opportunities elsewhere. Clients in Kerala overlook the potential of male models in their own State, and pick up models from other cities.

Says Malayali model, Bumuel, “They want the exotic looks and fair-skinned models for their brands. Look at supermodel Tony Luke, he’s dusky but still attractive and worked with some of the leading agencies across the globe.”

“In the North, it’s about how different you are from the other models. Uniqueness matters, and you should be able to stand out,” adds Nibu.

A month later, from his Paris home, Arora keeps his promise. Shuttling between Paris and Delhi, the designer is currently working on the upcoming season’s collections for all his labels — Manish Arora Paris, Indian by Manish Arora and Fish Fry (an edgy collection launched in 2004 in collaboration with Reebok). “I am also working on our ongoing collaborations,” he says via email. Among them are the Manish Arora Home collection for Good Earth, eye-wear for Inspecs in the UK, bed linen for Portico and a range of socks for Swedish company Happy Socks.

Arora isn’t one to brag. “I started showing internationally about seven years ago, so I have a long way to go before I can call myself successful,” he says. “But it is a great feeling to see my designs on some of the leading women in the entertainment industry!”

Fashion writer and consultant Meher Castelino describes Arora’s talent as “out of the box”. She still remembers his creation showcased at the Smirnoff Fashion Awards in 1994. “Even then, he was way ahead of his time,” she says. Graduating from NIFT with the Best Student Award, he launched his eponymous label, Manish Arora, in 1997. In 2000, Castelino attended his first show at the Lakme Fashion Week. “It was bizarre…The models’ hair was in dreadlocks and their faces were painted to depict blood streaming down their noses!”

Yet, Arora didn’t get off to a great start. The media scoffed at his outrageous designs, labelling his clothes unwearable. In 2003, Outlook carried one of his quirky creations on its cover and asked: “Who wears this?” His successful debut at the London Fashion Week in 2005 made the international market sit up and take notice of his talent. Three years later, Outlook chose Arora as the best designer for 2005-06. “Though Manish might create drama on the ramp, his clothes are definitely wearable,” believes Castelino. Acknowledging his much bigger market abroad, Castelino adds, “Though they might not be able to pronounce his name correctly, everyone knows it!” Despite his hectic schedule, Arora always responds to her mails and texts promptly, she adds.

In February, Arora made a grand return to the Wills India Lifestyle Fashion Week 2012, doling out his trademark shock value while showcasing his Indian wear collection —Indian by Manish Arora. His friend and “admirer”, Fashion and Design Council of India President Sunil Sethi, couldn’t be happier. “He may showcase his designs all over the world, but he is still an FDCI loyalist,” states Sethi. Arora was one of the few designers who supported Sethi when he took over as FDCI President in 2008.

Recalling one of Arora’s earliest collections in 1999, Sethi reveals, “I am one of the few who have seen his black-and-white line of clothing!” Arora was willing to break away from tradition at a time when “being a rebel wasn’t so common,” says Sethi who also happens to be one of Arora’s biggest buyers —Sunil Sethi Design Alliance bought three installations from Arora’s show, Kitsch Kitsch Hota Hai, in 2001 and sold them all at Selfridges in London. Since then, Sethi has bought and exported Arora’s works to various retailers such as Anthropologie in the US, Tsum in Moscow and The Conran Shop in London. “His futuristic vision makes him a hotseller everywhere!”

“The word unique was invented for him,” says Vogue India Fashion Director Anaita Shroff Adajania. “His clothes are wearable art,” she adds. Brushing aside misconceptions about Arora being too quirky for the Indian customer, she says, “There is something for everyone.” Former model and fashionista Feroze Gujral agrees. “Though I don’t have the guts to wear a Manish Arora creation from head to toe, I love his funky tee-shirts.”

“I don’t consider my designs as quirky but [they are] definitely unique,” counters Arora. The designer keeps a commercial version of his collection in his showrooms across the world. “And that is what translates into business for us.” Detesting clichés, Arora refuses to pander to the bandwagon of celebrity show-stoppers for his shows. “The concept of show-stoppers in India is an invalid one,” he clarifies. “A show-stopper is a garment which sums up the entire collection, a piece that leaves an imprint of the collection on the viewers. It is not the person wearing it!”

Arora knows what he’s talking about. For his clothes speak for themselves.

The documentary begins as Ashley Arbaugh (not to be confused with the co-director) arrives in Novosibirsk to review an auditorium full of pencil-thin girls. She is scouting for the Japanese market, where they want them new and “fresh” – young enough that we will eventually hear them being coached to lie about their ages. A former model herself, Arbaugh is dismissive of her work, claiming the ever-shifting aesthetics are based on nothing at all, while she dredges up concern for the girls that seems merely pro forma.

Getting lost in a strange land is bad enough, but the dramatic tension here depends on the viewer fearing far worse for Nadya and her ilk. The owner of the Japanese agency “really likes models” according to Arbaugh, and can give the filmmakers no clear answer as to why he imports inexperienced girls who mainly get rejected by potential clients. Perhaps they are merely suffering a tough initiation into modelling at their own financial expense – we are told Nadya did continue modelling in Asia, despite her horrible trip to Tokyo – but Arbaugh also admits that some of the unsuccessful take the short step to prostitution. Of course, she knows nothing about that side of the business.

Perhaps she is merely a cog in a large machine operated by society’s glamorization of youth, but still, she openly lies to prospective models, telling them nobody who goes to Japan runs into debt. Meanwhile, having been promised work that never materializes and signed contracts that can be terminated for any reason including the slightest weight gain, both Nadya and her roommate are sent home about $2,000 in debt.

Arbaugh yearns for a child, but one presumes she would never want to see it treated like this. The directors of Girl Model have said in an interview they are surprised by the media’s characterization of their documentary as an exposé, having intended it as a study of two characters whose parallel lives intersect only in the moment of scouting. Indeed, a scene where Arbaugh actually visits the models’ apartment appears as staged as her concern about the place. Typically, she takes no action. If the documentarians are not to risk consignment to the same ambivalent category, they should be embracing the notion their film is an exposé and be giving us more information onscreen about some of the allegations it implies.

“The skinny pant,” says Jeff Rudes, “is here to stay. No matter what else is happening on the catwalks, it’s a bestseller, year in year out.” Rudes is the American founder of J Brand – the cult jeans company that last year sold six million pairs, most of them skinny. You could say he’s narrow-minded.

He’s also right.

Over the coming weeks there will be no shortage of advice on the key trends for spring and summer – but swathes of women will, as they have for the past 10 years, carry on wearing drainpipes, with a variety of tops (baggy or tight) and jackets (cropped or blazers).

Social historians looking back on the early 21st century will conclude that flares, lace, digital prints, metallic and all the other transient headlines were just a side dish.

The dominant silhouette is long, lean and built for speed. Its exponents – and there are many – include Liz Hurley, sipping green tea in Gloucestershire in her white 7 For All Mankind jeans; the Duchess of Cambridge walking her cocker spaniel along the beaches of Anglesey in J Brand’s navy 811s; Rosie Huntington-Whiteley conducting a master-class in modern aviation glamour in black leather drainpipes; Rihanna giving text-book degenerate diva-style a whirl in cut-out leather Rodarte hold-ups; Mary Portas bestriding the high street in cropped Houlihans (the J Brand style that caused a waiting list sensation in 2010); Fiona Bruce, Kate Silverton and fellow BBC presenters singing All The Single Ladies in their slim black trousers and military jackets on Children in Need in 2009… These women represent the north-south-east-west of taste, yet whether they’re on the Waitrose run or the red carpet, they’re united in their choice of quotidian uniform.

How did such ubiquity occur? For two extremely pragmatic reasons: it works internationally and across weather fronts.

Bill Cunningham , The New York Times ‘s indefatigable octogenarian chronicler of street style, remarked last month that the skinny-covered leg, anchored by a solid ankle boot and some kind of oversized, furry coat, was the dominant look on Manhattan’s freezing sidewalks. As the days warm up, the caterpillar-soled high-heeled boots will make way for flat velvet slippers and statement sandals, while the animalistic coats will be replaced by feminine broderie anglaise tops. This is one of the few catwalk trends destined for mass adoption, not least because broderie anglaise is the perfect play-off against a tough jean. There seems to be unlimited mileage. J Brand, widely regarded as a market leader, has coated snake-prints, florals and even multi-coloured tie-dye in the pipeline for summer.

On some level, designers instinctively know that whatever they put on the catwalk, its success depends on how compatible it is with skinny jeans. This is especially true of footwear, 98 per cent of which is now designed to work with a drainpipe leg, hence the enduring popularity of the high-heeled ankle boot and shoe-boot.

Yet viewed objectively – i.e. not through the prism of habit – the skinny is a highly suggestive, unforgiving item of clothing. In extreme cases, a tight jean gets gynaecologically explicit.

It was Alexander McQueen, in the early Nineties, who reshaped trousers, elevating them from a safe also-ran fashion garment to something much more provocative and subversive. The late Eighties had been all about the sexy power suit, the star of which was a mini-skirt; not a trouser to be seen. The McQueen bumster was masculine and outrageously low-cut on the hips, hence its soubriquet, and narrow. An ocean of whale tails (the evocative name for the visible G-string that was the inevitable result of wearing such a low waistband) was the result, as scores of “premium” denim brands launched to take advantage of the hipsters revival.

Rudes went one further when he launched J Brand in 2005. Its first design was a skinny leg – in dark denim. “I wanted something completely different from all those other Californian premium denim ranges,” he says. From the start, J Brand was conceived as an aspirational fashion label that would ride out the denim craze.

By increasing the rise on his jeans to nine inches, Rudes created a silhouette that elongated the leg, held in the tummy and, by ending just above the navel, created the illusion of a slimmer waist. Kate Moss gave them her blessing and J Brand became a worldwide phenomenon. Niche companies such as Kova&T, a leggings business part-owned by Russian socialite Dasha Zukhova, began selling leather and sequinned leggings on net-a-porter.com for £400 – £500, prices that seemed ludicrously high, but sold out.

Even if most women won’t be spending £1,500, the leather, pleather (fake leather) or coated (shiny) drainpipe – once a staple of the hoary old punk rocker and, before that, a sub-section in the sex shop catalogue – has become a modern classic, from Topshop’s £32 line to Joseph’s yummy-mummy £600 versions. There’s no sign of demand abating. Before Christmas, Zara and Topshop did a brisk trade in metallic jeans – a trend that looks set to last well into 2012. The effect may not always be subtle, but they’re unarguably alpha-female. Elle Macpherson’s silver leather skinnies and soaring Louboutins caused much abrasive internet discussion last autumn, most of it, predictably, focused on her age – 47.

But the point about the skinny is that it works for across generations, because, unlike mini-skirts, it reveals shape while concealing skin. In this, it offers an ageless proposition of skinfinity. “Modern fabric technology means any woman can wear them,” affirms Rudes. “Power stretch, which is what drives our brand, means a pair of jeans now acts in the same way that a girdle did in the Fifties. And it works for every occasion. Wear it with a jacket and it takes you to the office or dinner.”

Actually, skinny trousers may not be the best choice for every body, but on the right woman, they look almost super-humanly impressive. “So many women look better than they ever have, what with all that gym and looking after themselves,” observes Mary Quant, whose championship of the mini-skirt 50 years ago represented a similar marker of female emancipation.

Some carp that teaming an almost gymnastic-looking lower half with tailored or feminine tops sends out mixed messages, and that skinnies make younger women look like a praying mantis and older women like cougars (the skinny leg has inspired numerous bestial analogies). But perhaps it’s the contradictions that make it the perfect staple for our times. That and the fact that jacked up on to a pair of four-inch heels, or grounded into a pair of biker boots, a pair of stretch, streamlined jeans makes you feel you’re ready to take on the world.

Working mum Jessica Alba is adding entrepreneur to her many titles, shifting from movie star to businesswoman with a venture that provides parents easy access to eco-friendly natural products for babies and homes.

Alba, who wed husband Cash Warren in 2008, has taken motherhood to heart and mind, focusing on being a hands-on parent to her two daughters, four-year-old Honor and newborn Haven.

“Motherhood has affected me greatly and in so many ways,” the Fantastic Four actress said.

“I didn’t know that I would feel so comfortable and so at ease and so natural. When I became a mother, I felt the most comfortable in my own skin than I had ever felt in my life.”

While preparing for motherhood four years ago, the 30-year-old actress found her biggest challenge was trying to find eco-friendly natural products for her baby and her home.

“There are a lot of toxic chemicals in baby products, and these toxic chemicals are linked to not just allergies and asthma, but also autism and ADHD and lots of childhood cancers, and I was horrified that products that were made for babies and children would have these toxic chemicals,” said the actress.

Alba founded The Honest Company along with Christopher Gavigan, former CEO of non-profit group Healthy Child Healthy World, after discovering that toxic chemicals were often disguised as “fragrances” on product labels and finding that not all eco-friendly and natural products worked efficiently.

Together, they came up with an online business model to launch an eco-friendly range of baby and household products, tried and tested by themselves and their own babies. They are toxin-free and aesthetically pleasing, and can be delivered straight to your door.

“I really wanted to make a company that was for parents, by parents,” said Alba, adding that Honest Co. was “one company parents could go to that had household products and products to clean your kid with, and also fulfill diapering needs.”

The actress took her fight against toxic products to Washington D.C. in May 2011 while pregnant with her second child to lobby on behalf of the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families coalition that supported the Safe Chemicals Act.

“Even government officials aren’t aware that chemical companies don’t have to test their chemicals before they sell them to product companies. They can just put them in there, and we are the guinea pigs,” said the actress.

While Alba’s energies are focused on her children and new business, her fans will be glad to know she has no plans to retire from acting. She voices a role in animated film Escape from Planet Earth due out next year.

“I’m excited to get back into movies and I feel more adult and more grownup and ready to get back into it. And my mentality is different,” she said.

A new website promises to be your virtual stylist – and always get your size right – but I say… nothing beats real shopping!

A decade ago, I went to a fashion conference in Paris. Glenda Bailey, then editor of U.S. Marie Claire and now editor of Harper’s Bazaar, gave a lecture.

She had lots of whizzy slide shows to demonstrate that, one day, women would buy their clothes online, even click on an internet page of a magazine and voila!

We heckled, we laughed. Bah! It will never, ever happen. But it did, of course, and buying clothes and accessories online is the fastest growing sector in the marketplace.

It’s easy and almost instantaneous. We can shop late at night or at work. We can browse through thousands of clothes when, on the real High Street, we would have long since given up.

So shopping online can work. But there is one huge drawback: often, the clothes arrive and they are not quite right. They don’t fit, are too long or the colour is not quite what we expected.

This is where online retailers, even super-sophisticated ones, lose money — in the numerous returns. They lose loyalty, too. And often the shopper loses out, as a not-quite-right garment languishes in the wardrobe (I was too lazy to return a too-long Alberta Ferretti wool cocktail dress).

To address this problem, there are fashion websites that offer styling advice. Fairly new is Stylistpick, launched by Juliet Warkentin, former Marie Claire editor.

You answer a quiz, choosing which outfits and celebrities most appeal — and get your verdict (I am elegant, classic, sophisticated). The fashion editors then create a showroom, which takes seconds.

The problem with this site is it offers only own-brand bags and shoes, all at £39.95. It feels too quick and sketchy.

There is a more sophisticated rival,a bespoke digital dressing service that promises a solution to the minefield of buying the wrong size online.

One retailer’s 12 is another’s 14, so the website’s founders — Sarah McVittie and Donna North — have used software that matches a user with their correct size, according to their height and weight, chest-to-waist and shoulder-to-hip proportions. You can also search via price, colour, brand, likes, dislikes and shape.

So, does it work? First, I enter my weight (9st) and my height (5ft 8in). Next, I am asked whether my shoulders are wider than my hips, of equal proportions or are my hips wider than my shoulders.

Um, I am pretty much straight up and down. My chest is small and my waist is undefined to the point I can’t even say where it is.

I then have to give what size I am in different shops: I’m an eight in Jil Sander, which always comes up big, but a 12 in H&M, which is a bit tight round the hips.

Then, I have to choose which photo represents my personal style. Here, the site converges with Stylistpick, though is much more thorough: there is Alexa, Rihanna, Kate Middleton and Helen Mirren.

I don’t want to dress like any of them, frankly, so opt for Kate Moss because she’s shown in a mannish tuxedo.

Then, how do I spend my weekdays? Am I an at-home mum? A student? I choose the woman in a music studio. Though I am often in a field (there is a photo of a woman standing by a gate), I always wear jodhpurs and riding boots.

On a girls’ night out, do I wear a tarty mini-dress, big old sack or tuxedo suit? It’s the last one.

When buying clothes, I tick ‘very confident’. And how into fashion am I? I tick ‘obsessed’.

But the fashion site won’t take me to the next step no matter how many times I click. Noooooooooo! I have to start the whole process again! I tell the site my favourite colours, plus my skin, hair and eye colour.

Next, I must name which brands I love most. I choose Reiss and Uniqlo, Seven For All Mankind, Cos, Jaeger London, Prada and Bottega Veneta.

It tells me I am understated, contemporary, polished. Great!

It then asks my age. Oh dear, I hate this. I’ll be given winceyette nighties from Per Una.

ALREADY beloved of hipsters and fashionistas, Melbourne is now making a name for itself as Australia’s headquarters of vintage glamour. From faux speakeasy bars to full skirts and cut-throat barbers, the city it seems is adrift on nostalgia.

Typified in the immaculately cut, full-skirted ’50s and ’60s-style frocks worn to such effect in TV’s Mad Men, the vintage look (roughly spanning 1920 to the mid-’60s) may even be going mainstream. ”A couple years ago it was almost taboo to buy second-hand but now it’s cool to mix second-hand fashion with new fashion,” says associate professor Karen Webster, co-program director of fashion in RMIT’s school of Architecture and Design.

And while the vintage phenomenon is a worldwide trend, she says, it ”may be stronger in Melbourne than elsewhere. Melbourne has had a creative spirit for a long time and has been perceived as a style city since the turn of the century.” Vintage is also considerably cheaper here than in Paris or New York, she says.

Tourism Victoria, recognising that vintage tourism is a drawcard, is harnessing the trend to build upon the city’s reputation as Australia’s favourite shopping destination, promoting vintage clothing, markets and even tours on its site. ”Melbourne is recognised as the home of vintage within Australia,” says Tourism Minister Louise Asher, ”and there are a growing number of tour operators, retailers and hospitality venues leveraging these credentials, which in turn broadens awareness and furthers the vintage trend.”

Roy Morgan research quoted by Tourism Victoria shows that 59 per cent of people already believe Melbourne is the best place for shopping in Australia, leading Sydney at 36 per cent. And with Melbourne also recognised as the city with the most interesting cafes, bars and nightclubs, retailers are keen to push home this advantage.

”I think Melbourne is the best place in the country for vintage style in general,” says Nicole Jenkins who runs Circa Vintage, a Fitzroy clothing store. ”It’s a Melbourne look to have 1950s table in cafes and the clothing thing is part of the whole phenomenon. We have a high acceptability, especially in the inner city, of people wearing vintage clothes. I get a lot of customers from Sydney; some come straight from the airport to the shop.”

Red lippie, beehive hairstyles and recycled clothing are standard uniform on a ”Vintage Outing” hosted by 1950s characters Betty and Miss Shirley for tour company Hidden Secrets. The four-hour tour in old Fiats visits vintage boutiques and has attracted tourists from New Zealand, interstate and country Victoria.

There is even a new vintage foodies tour, scheduled to start in late November, that pays homage to the Italian food legacy inherited by Melbourne. It will include visits to old cafes and lunch with a nonna who will share her family recipes.

”Vintage is as much about the way we serve our food as anything else,” says Fiona Sweetman who runs Hidden Secrets. ”There’s currently a real flavour for taking a step back in time.”

RMIT’s Karen Webster says trend forecasters say this ”blurring of boundaries” is the way of the future.

”The vintage phenomena around the world is embedded in the push for sustainability. There’s a culture of people buying recycled. People are starting to question how we purchase things and are caught up with this notion of disposability. The vintage thing has no age boundaries. It is people reconsidering the way they wear clothes and buy other products.”

Men, too, are embracing the city’s burgeoning vintage fashion scene.

Thom Grogan’s Captains of Tourism Victoria Industry in the city is a ”gentlemen’s outfitter and cafe” that picks up on vintage style. It provides everything from homemade ginger beer, to cut-throat shaves in the barber’s room, bespoke suits and hand-stitched made-to-measure shoes that start from $1000.

”The interest in vintage and the vintage way of making things is strong,” Mr Grogan says.

Vintage style has also taken hold in some of Melbourne’s newest bars, such as South Yarra’s deco-style Red Bennies which hosts cabaret, circus and burlesque shows. Other bars in the mould include 1806, Madame Brussels, The Estelle, The Butterfly Club, Lily Blacks, 24 Moons, and The Everleigh which specialises in classic cocktails in a so-called speakeasy setting (speakeasy bars were illicit drinking clubs during America’s Prohibition era in the 1920s and ’30s).

In vintage style, ice at The Everleigh is hand cut to suit the drink. The recipes come from a library of first-edition cocktail books, some dating back to the turn of the century, that are on display near the bar. ”Our most popular cocktail is the Manhattan [rye whiskey, bitters and sweet vermouth],” says Lauren Schell who runs the Fitzroy bar with husband Michael Madrusan.

”We’re keen to retain the speakeasy style,” says Ms Schell. ”The darkness of it, the table service, the romance.”

Nicole Jenkins of Circa loves the vintage aspects of The Everleigh, but, she admits, ”it’s so dark I tell my friends to wear lipstick so we can see each other”.

Kelly Osbourne is set for a starring role as a judge on Britain and Ireland’s Next Top Model.

The famously outspoken star is reportedly joining the hit series’ panel as part of a show “shake-up” that is also set to see current style critic Grace Woodward depart.

Model-and-fellow judge Charley Speed may also leave the series.

“Charley and Grace have been on it for two years and producers are looking at how to change the line-up. The plan is for Kelly Osbourne to come on board and shake things up. She is a massive fan of fashion and has good pedigree working on fashion shows,” a source told British newspaper The Sun.

“Crucially, she is also young and the whole point of the show is to find the next big thing.”

Elle Macpherson and Julien Macdonald are the Sky Living programme’s two other judges and are expected to remain, according to the publication.

Kelly Osbourne is no stranger to the fashion industry. The 27-year-old star has previously hosted Sky TV’s Project Catwalk. She is also a regular Fashion correspondent for the E! Entertainment Channel and stars on the network’s Fashion Police show alongside Joan Rivers.

Kelly is the face of Madonna’s Material Girl line, and in 2006 represented high street chain Accessorize.

In June this year Kelly Osbourne also presented the Miss USA pageant.

The company had been wrested out of the family’s hands, but their history nevertheless remained a key ingredient in the allure of Gucci, a brand that understood the importance of myth-making from the start. Hence Guccio Gucci‘s decision to advertise his early products as ‘English-style leather goods’ – giving them an international cachet – and Aldo’s invention of the story that their ancestors had been tack- and saddle-makers.

As the new Gucci book reveals, ‘This legend was supported by the new [post-war] crest, a mildly ironic depiction of a knight in armour carrying a suitcase in one hand and a handbag in the other.’ The liftboy was replaced by the knight, a faux-medieval heraldic shield that nevertheless seemed not altogether removed from the original image of the hotel porter.

Under Frida Giannini – creative director since 2006 – Gucci has been clearly identified as ‘Made in Italy’, its design studio in Rome (the city of her birth), and its artisans, ateliers and workshops resolutely Italian.

True, it is now owned by the French company PPR (whose founder, François Pinault, led a battle against an aggressive takeover bid by Bernard Arnault, the chairman of LVMH). But the logo revived by Giannini for this year’s 90th anniversary collection is that of the founder: g gucci firenze 1921 engraved upon metal tags, embossed into leather, or printed on silk scarves.

All this is entirely fitting for a company in which patterns repeat themselves – the Flora motif (also reinstated by Giannini), the double-G monogram (for the founder’s initials), the geometric rhombus design, used on Gucci products from the 1930s, the miniature horse-bit, decorating loafers and purses, including those carried by Grace Kelly and Jackie Kennedy.

Take any one of these, and the details tell a story – for example, in the photograph of Lauren Bacall with her Gucci bag in hand, standing beside Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn on the steps of a private plane in 1951; or Diana, Princess of Wales in Rome the year before her death, at the peak of her beauty, in a white shift and with a Gucci Bamboo bag; or – one of my personal favourite images of the century – Samuel Beckett snapped on a Genoa street corner in 1971, his Gucci Hobo bag slung over his shoulder.

Add these details together, and you have the stuff of legend. True, legend is an overused phrase in fashion – and elsewhere – but when it comes to Gucci it seems appropriate. As to what is next for Gucci, best to quote Giannini: ‘a stylistic marriage of past, present and future’. Presumptive or prescient? In the finest Gucci tradition, a little of both…

By the time Guccio dies in 1953 his grandchildren are also working for the company; one of them is Aldo’s son Paolo, who uses the now-iconic Flora pattern in a range of women’s clothing, sold under his name.

The family are enraged, and order Paolo either to sell his shares in Gucci or stay on and give up his own line. When he refuses to do either he is sued by his family, and forbidden from using the Gucci name in business. In revenge, Paolo testifies against his father on a tax-evasion charge in America; Aldo is found guilty, and sent to jail.

From then on the family drama is as remorseless as a Greek tragedy. Rodolfo’s son, Maurizio, seizes control of Gucci, but is himself finally ousted, and in 1995 (the year after Tom Ford’s appointment as creative director) he is murdered by a gunman in the street.

“No liquids at all so you dry out, sometimes you can lose up to eight pounds just from that,” she says.

“It’s like they’re training for a marathon,” says Sophia Neophitou, the British fashion editor who is chief stylist for this year’s show.

“Adriana works really hard at it. It’s the same as if you were a long-distance runner. They are athletes in this environment – it’s harder to be a Victoria’s Secret model because no one can just chuck an outfit on you, and hide your lumps and bumps.”

Miranda Kerr reveals her $2.5million Victoria’s Secret ‘Fantasy Bra’

The body type they are looking for when casting for the show harks back to the Eighties, says Neophitou, to the golden age of the original supers: Linda, Christy, Cindy, Elle and Naomi.

“It isn’t about being a waif, it was about being empowered and you can achieve that,” Neophitou says.

Lima has been an Angel since 2000. She has since had a baby. Two of her fellow Angels walking the runway this year, Doutzen Kroes and Miranda Kerr, have each recently given birth, too.

The preparation is all worth it, says Lima, because the show is the highlight of her year.

Read all the latest news about Victoria’s Secret and the ‘Angels’

“Actually, the Victoria’s Secret show is the highlight of my life. Becoming an Angel, once I achieved that, it was a dream come true for me. And I know that after all this is done, when I sit down with my daughter one day, we are going to look back and it’s going to be very special.”

What does being hand-picked to represent the brand do for a model’s career (not to mention her income)? “It opens up so many doors, everyone knows your name, the whole world knows you now,” she says.

“Any model in this world would love to be an Angel.”

In pictures: the story of a Victoria’s Secret fitting starring Adriana Lima

Adriana Lima is disarmingly frank about what it takes to prepare for the Victoria’s Secret fashion show – watched by eight million people, reportedly – in which the world’s highest-paid models wear barely-there lingerie as part of a production that costs $10 million.

So here’s what it really takes to be an Angel: Lima, 30, has been working out every day with a personal trainer since August. For the last three weeks, she’s been working out twice a day.

Behind the scenes at the Victoria’s Secret fitting with Adriana Lima

“It is really intense, it’s not really the amount of time you spend working out, it’s the intensity: I jump rope, I do boxing, I lift weights, but I get bored doing that. If I am not moving I get bored very easily.”

She sees a nutritionist, who has measured her body’s muscle mass, fat ratio and levels of water retention. He prescribes protein shakes, vitamins and supplements to keep Lima’s energy levels up during this training period. Adriana Lima drinks a gallon of water a day. For nine days before the show, she will drink only protein shakes – “no solids”. The concoctions include powdered egg. Two days before the show, she will abstain from the daily gallon of water, and “just drink normally”. Then, 12 hours before the show, she will stop drinking entirely.