SEOUL — Perhaps the only Korean celebrity missing from Prada’s party Thursday night to mark the launch of the Transformer project was Kim Jong-il. But the North Korean leader, a noted film buff, no doubt would have enjoyed a soiree full of actors on the grounds of a 16th-century Korean palace. Celebrities rubbed shoulders and clinked Champagne glasses with designer Miuccia Prada and Prada’s chief executive Patrizio Bertelli.
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PARIS — Fendi enlisted 13 industrial designers to live, breathe and sleep design during “Craft Punk,” an event that began Wednesday during the Salone del Mobile in Milan.
The designers, who hail from as far away as Japan, South Korea and Slovakia, will take up temporary residence in the space where Fendi stages its fashion shows, and have been given carte blanche to create design objects using discarded materials from the Italian brand’s handbag factory in Florence.
Also at their disposal will be 10 Fendi artisans who are bringing their sample-making prowess, having spent years transforming the sketches of Silvia Venturini-Fendi into three-dimensional objects by draping, forming, stitching, stretching and finessing fine leathers.
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TOKYO — Chanel opened its first freestanding beauty store here Friday in a bid to make buying lipstick just as luxurious as shopping for a quilted handbag.
The 1,506-square-foot store, designed by Peter Marino, features interiors in Chanel’s signature hues of white, black and beige; plenty of mirrors, and tweed upholstered chairs.
Located on the ground floor of a new shopping and entertainment complex in the trendy Aoyama district, the Chanel store carries the French brand’s full range of fragrance, cosmetics and skin care items.
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MILAN — Valentino Fashion Group forecast an uncertain and difficult year ahead, after operating profits fell 7 percent in 2008, but remains confident in its medium-term growth prospects.
The group, which owns Valentino and Hugo Boss and operates under license Marlboro Classics and M Missoni, said on Friday that operating profits for the 12 months through Dec. 31 decreased to 248.3 million euros, or $365.3 million. VFG did not disclose net earnings.
Consolidated turnover for the year rose 3 percent to 2.21 billion euros, or $3.25 billion. Earnings before interest taxes depreciation and amortization fell 3 percent to 320.4 million, or $471.4 million, adjusted for one-off costs related to management changes at Hugo Boss and group reorganization.
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LONDON — Londoners can now get a peep into the kooky, colorful world of Marc by Marc Jacobs. Earlier this month, the label opened its first British store on South Audley Street, nearby to Mount Street, where a Marc Jacobs unit opened in 2007.
The 3,896-square-foot store is located in a space that was once a bank, and boasts parquet wooden floors, high corniced ceilings and bank vaults in the basement — one of which has been converted into a room to display bags and shoes. Shelves of fluorescent T-shirts and jeans line the walls; rucksacks hang from the ceiling, and chrome stands filled with chunky bubble rhinestone rings, red heart-shaped mirror compacts and plastic lipstick pens greet customers at the door.
“I love the heights of the ceilings and I love the space, but I love to fill space with stuff,” said Robert Duffy, president and co-founder of Marc Jacobs International. “And I like it to be entertaining. I love to watch people come in and go through all the nooks and crannies trying to figure out what is in here.”
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A model displays an outfit by Ogodor during the Audi Joburg Fashion Week in January, 2009. [Agencies] |
JOHANNESBURG – Designers defied the global economic crisis at this season’s South African fashion week by showing off vibrant outfits with hints of tradition inspired by a golden era of African civilisation.
Stoned Cherrie, South Africa’s best-known black design label, closed fashion week in Johannesburg with bold colors and fabrics reminiscent of royalty, influenced by the ancient Mapungubwe civilisation from southern Africa.
“Stoned Cherrie is about abundance,” Nkhensani Nkosi told Reuters after the show, which featured models bedecked in brightly colored dresses covered with frills, mixing fabrics such as mesh, lycra and a delicate silky cotton.
“Inspired by the curiosity around Mapungubwe, we basically tried to imagine what it would have been like in the present day,” she added.
Mapungubwe is believed to have developed into the largest kingdom in sub-Saharan Africa before it was abandoned in the 14th century and may have boasted sophisticated trade links with India and China as far back as a thousand years ago.
Fashion in post-apartheid South Africa reflects the country’s journey from pariah state to a multiracial democracy, as young designers like Nkosi mirror the country’s diversity and growing cultural confidence.
Not so long ago, designers — both black and white — would often simply mimic European trends. But in recent years, new labels like Stoned Cherrie have combined indigenous African fabrics with sleek modern lines or funky streetwear.
Stoned Cherrie, known for its T-shirts adorned with iconic prints of political leaders like Steve Biko, also has global ambitions, and recently held its first show in New York to what Nkosi said was a “fantastic reception.”
The show in Johannesburg at the weekend was packed.
Nkosi said she was determined not to let the global financial crisis, which has dulled demand for haute couture from Paris to Tokyo, temper the optimism at the heart of her collection.
Fellow designer Uyanda Mbuli, who exhibited her Diamond Face Couture label at fashion week, echoed Nkosi’s sentiments.
“Just because there’s an economic meltdown doesn’t mean that consumers aren’t buying clothes,” Mbuli said, adding her one-year-old business had not been affected. “It’s just that their buying decisions are now backed by intellect. They seek value.”
–article from chinadaily.
Pregnant Heidi Klum wants to have a girl.
The German model – who raises daughter Leni, five, and sons Henry, three, and two-year-old Johan with her musician husband Seal – would love another daughter to add to her brood.
She told Us Weekly magazine: “We would be happy with either. But it would be a lie if I said we all weren’t hoping for a little girl – especially Leni, because she would love to have a little sister.
“She’ll say, ‘I hope it’s a girl so she can be in my room, and I’m going to help you and I’m going to change the diapers and I’m going to be a really good sister!’ “
Seal announced Heidi’s pregnancy while he was performing in New York earlier this month, following days of speculation.
He told the audience: “The topic of debate outside our hotel is, ‘Is Heidi having another baby?’ Heidi and I are having another baby! I mean, Heidi is doing all the work!”
article from chinadaily.
Tags : Vogue
Meester matches her Chloe dress to her ruffled $1850 Christian Louboutin heels.
LOUBOUTIN PUMPS
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As the deputy director of a county tourism bureau in Guizhou province, A Xiang-yi’s job is to attract as many people as possible to her home region.
The underdeveloped Leishan county is home to people of various ethnic groups, of which Miao people account for 83.5 percent of the residents.
But in the past week, the 26-year-old ethnic Miao has found herself at the center of national attention as a poster girl on the Internet.
She has attracted more than 146,000 hits in less than a week after her photos were posted on the Internet by a photographer and blogger who goes by the name “Yuan Xing Bi Lou”.
The blogger was reportedly so enamored of her beauty when he visited the region that he posted five pictures of A Xiang-yi in traditional Miao costumes.
Netizens have left hundreds of messages for China’s “most beautiful tourism director”, marveling at her beauty and dubbing her “a lotus surfacing above crystal-clear water”.
“You can’t find such natural glamor in an office employee,” a netizen wrote.
A Xiang-yi works at her birthplace, a 1,000-household Miao village in Xijiang town famous for its ancient ethnic architecture.
She told China Daily on Thursday that she had “mixed feelings” over the sudden rise to fame.
“I’m very happy that people like me, but I’m also worried that some people might think it was a marketing gimmick,” she said.
She added that she felt a little uneasy with the sudden change of role from a government official to a national celebrity.
“What I really wish is for more people to come and know my village and its people.”
Professor Mao Shoulong at Renmin University of China said A Xiang-yi’s sudden rise to stardom can be seen as an “unexpected opportunity”.
“Even deliberately crafting a celebrity requires much manipulation and a positive outcome is not guaranteed”.
“It would do no harm to the image of the local government,” he said, comparing her with former US vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who he described as “beauty meeting politics”.
Professor Xia Xueluan, from the department of sociology and anthropology at Peking University, disagreed.
He said that pictures of a civil servant circulated online in the name of beauty is “inappropriate”.
Xia suggested that tourists focus on the scenic and cultural attractions of Xijiang, instead of just a beautiful face.
A Xiang-yi sees it differently.
“Every villager is an ambassador of Xijiang,” she said. “Besides, you can find girls much more beautiful than I everywhere in the village.”
A Xiang-yi said she has more important tasks to concentrate on for now – with the May Day holiday approaching, she has to get ready and train dozens of staff members for a tea-tasting fair.
“It will be three hectic days,” she said.
article from chinadaily.
Tags : Style
John Woo’s Chinese historical epic, a biopic of Bruce Lee’s kung fu master and a documentary-like look at a working-class neighbourhood are the top contenders at the Hong Kong Film Awards on Sunday.
The nominees reflect the past and present of Hong Kong’s movie industry – once a major Asian filmmaking hub known for its local stories, but now increasingly geared toward the Chinese mainland market with historical and kung fu blockbusters.
Woo’s $US80 million two-part epic Red Cliff, based on an ancient Chinese battle by the same name, is a prime example of the recent trend of films made with an eye toward mainland viewers. Wilson Yip’s action-filled biography of Bruce Lee’s teacher Ip Man is another example, portraying the late martial arts master as a patriot who resists the Japanese occupation of his southern Chinese hometown.
Hong Kong Film Awards
But another top contender harkens back to the locally flavoured fare made in the former British colony known for its mix of Chinese and Western cultures.
Veteran filmmaker Ann Hui’s The Way We Are, which follows the life of a single mother in Hong Kong’s Tin Shui Wai district, is a contender for best film, best director, best screenplay and best actress.
The other best picture nominees are Hong Kong comedian Stephen Chow’s sci-fi movie CJ7 and Gordon Chan’s ghost thriller Painted Skin.
Woo and Yip are also up for best director, competing against Benny Chan for Connected and Johnnie To, who was nominated for Sparrow, a playful look at a pickpocket gang.
Former Cannes winner Tony Leung Chiu-wai received a nod for best actor for playing a Chinese general in Red Cliff. He faces off with action star Donnie Yen, who played Ip Man; Simon Yam in Sparrow; Nick Cheung from the police thriller The Beast Stalker; and heartthrob Louis Koo, who portrayed a gangster who struggles to give up a life of crime in Run Papa Run.
China’s Zhou Xun, the lead in Painted Skin, is the biggest star in the best actress competition, but she faces stiff competition from Hong Kong’s Prudence Liew, who won the Chinese-language equivalent of an Oscar at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards in December for playing a sex worker in True Women for Sale.
The other nominees are Paw Hee Ching from The Way We Are, Barbie Hsu from Connected, and Karena Lam from the romance Claustrophobia.
![Japanese actress Chie Tanaka arrives at the Hong Kong Film Awards April 19, 2009. [Agencies]](http://www.stylelead.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/20090420_2.jpg "Japanese actress Chie Tanaka arrives at the Hong Kong Film Awards April 19, 2009. [Agencies]")
Japanese actress Chie Tanaka arrives at the Hong Kong Film Awards
![Hong Kong actress Monica Mok arrives at the Hong Kong Film Awards April 19, 2009. [Agencies]](http://www.stylelead.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/20090420_3.jpg "Hong Kong Film Awards")
Hong Kong actress Monica Mok arrives at the Hong Kong Film Awards April 19, 2009. Agencies
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Tags : Vogue