the trend of clothing designers making women's apparel available in sizes below a zero

In a development that appears to challenge both common sense and the laws of nature, there is now a clothing size that is--seriously, people--less than zero. Banana Republic began offering its "00" duds on its Web site in the spring. Next fall, designer Nicole Miller will intro-duce a size tentatively called "subzero," for women with 231/2-inch waists (about the circumference of a junior soccer ball) and 35-inch hips. The company, which introduced a size 0 (with a 251/2-inch waist) 15 years ago, decided to go smaller when it learned women were taking in their 0's.

The less-than-zeros arrive as Americans are getting bigger. The average woman is about 155 pounds and 5 feet 4 inches, according to SizeUSA, a 2003 survey by industry research group [TC]2. That's about 20 pounds heavier than the average woman of 40 years ago. But don't assume today's woman is wearing a bigger size than her mother. "According to standard size measurements, that average 155-pound woman should be wearing a size 16, but thanks to vanity sizing, she's probably buying a 10 or 12," says Jim Lovejoy of the SizeUSA survey. "Most companies aren't using the standard ASTM [American Society for Testing and Materials] sizes anymore. Sizes have been creeping up a half inch at a time so women can fit into smaller sizes and feel good about it."

http://www.mltailor.com/products__teresa-palmer-in-a-sheath-party-dress_12335.html

It is entirely natural to want to look good after childbirth

After my daughter was born, it didn’t take me
long to get back into some sort of shape and back
into smart, fashionable clothes: only about a year
or so, maybe two. For some women, however, it’s
a point of pride that they do it as soon as possible.
A few weeks ago a woman walked into the café
where we were having Sunday breakfast. She
was fully made up, she had beautifully coloured
hair, and she was wearing really tight trousers,
atop which sat a cropped leather bomber-type
jacket with Mongolian fur collar. The length of
the jacket was evidently really important because
it showed her tummy, which was pretty
darn flat. Behind her trundled her husband carrying
their tiny baby, and what turned out to be
her sister-in-law.

The woman proceeded to undo her jacket,
but the Mongolian fur had caught in the zip. The
sister-in-law looked on in some discomfort – as
did we all, because we knew that a very carefully
chosen top lay underneath and I for one couldn’t
wait to see it. In the end the woman decided she
couldn’t take it off, and she sat down. Her baby
cried, but her leather jacket was so tight that it
was pushing her shoulder blades together
and she couldn’t make her hands meet. So
the husband hung on to the baby.
Then there was the friend who wore
Christian Louboutin skewer-thin heels
within hours of giving birth. She had
wanted to wear them during the birth
as she heard Posh had done – though this
vicious rumour has never been substantiated.
Seven days post-partum, she
showed me around her garden holding
her son, despite sinking three inches into
the earth with each step. That’s commitment
to motherhood, I thought.

http://www.teenloveme.com/tencel-ball-dresses-one-shoulder-corset-prom-dress.html#.UWYbeLKcH1s

the lines between sportswear and activewear in the U.S. fashion are blurring

As the country gets more casual and gym rats get more fashionable, the lines between sportswear and activewear are blurring.

As sportswear companies enter the athletic arena and customers look to active companies to dress them outside the gym, athletic apparel companies are having to reexamine the balance of performance and fashion.

"It would be foolish to think that performance gear can't be fashion-forward and that fashionable pieces can't be functional," said a Nike spokeswoman.

Paiva, a high-end women's athletic store, began four months ago to fill what it perceived as a consumer need by offering stylish activewear options. According to Jeff Pofsky, Paiva's vice president and general merchandise manager, Nike, Adidas, Fila, Puma and Under Armour are all making lines that smartly combine function and fashion.

"These companies are becoming much more savvy in the ways they are putting the lines together," Pofsky said.

One way is enlisting big-name designers from the fashion world.

"There is no doubt we have pushed boundaries and created something that had not been out there," said Heike Leibl, head of product for Adidas by Stella McCartney (for more on this collection, see story, this page). "It's like a wave that starts somewhere and brings a lot of people into motion."

Adidas by Stella McCartney launched in 2005 and has brought cachet and attention to the athletic company, while also influencing the way it thinks about fusing fashion and performance in its other lines, including the new Fuse and Adilibria. Adidas has three divisions: sports performance that includes the McCartney line, sports heritage and sports style, which includes Y-3, the sportswear collaboration with designer Yohji Yamamoto.

"Fashion and performance are not separate anymore," Leibl said. "Our consumer does not have to compromise one for the other."

Meanwhile, Adidas executives have said they want Reebok, which Adidas bought in January for $3.8 billion, to focus more on performance, saying the brand has been too centered on fashion fads in the past. Reebok is also promoting its relationship with the National Football League for an ad campaign. At the same time, Reebok is collaborating with actress Scarlett Johansson to create the "Scarlett [Hearts] Rbk" lifestyle fashion line, which is "about how Scarlett attaches to the brand, which affects not just her line," Reebok chief executive officer Paul Harrington said in announcing the collection last month.

"When we emphasize performance, it's not at the expense of lifestyle," Harrington said. "We feel we can play in both fields."

http://www.teenloveme.com/low-v-neck-evening-dress-short-sleeves.html

was given the confidence to pursue a career in design when he was in high school

Wilkerson, the Lafayette 148 designer who grew up in New York, was given the confidence to pursue a career in design when he was in high school. "My teachers were really a big force in my life," he recalls. "I learned draping in high school. And by my sophomore year I had a part-time job at Anne Klein." Wilkerson's teachers urged him to enroll at Parsons. Reese's teachers at Cass Technical High School in Detroit also directed her to Parsons. "I didn't consider fashion as a career until I did the Parsons summer program for high school students," she says.

Without such teachers to encourage them, many students don't see design as a viable career. And neither do their parents. "They look at fashion as a career path that is out of their vocabulary," says Gunn, who now works as chief creative officer for Liz Claiborne. "In urban magnet schools, lots of students are the first in their family to go to college," he adds. "Their parents want them to have a traditional college experience." The scarcity of high-profile African-American designers may only heighten prospective students' fear of stepping into a world that seems foreign, daunting and lacking in friendly Black faces.

But there is some promise in the story of Veronica Miller. As a high school student, the Pittsburgh native was steered toward engineering, which her family thought would be lucrative, or journalism, in part because her father had built a career in broadcasting. Her mother was a banker. "I had very supportive parents, but they didn't know how secure a career in a creative field would be," Miller says. " The stereotype of the struggling artist? Their attitude was: We struggled so you wouldn't have to."

So Miller majored in broadcasting at Howard University. She spent about six years working at National Public Radio in Washington, D.C. But at 27, she began reassessing her career path, asking herself, Is this what makes me happy? She resigned from NPR and enrolled in the design program at Drexel University with the goal of owning her own company.

Star power: 5. Music producer Pharrell Williams is behind the upscale streetwear label Billionaire Boys Club. 6. Fashion mogul Kimora Lee Simmons raised her personal brand's profile with a top-rated reality show. 7. Sean Combs was nominated four times before winning a CFDA award in 2004 for Menswear Designer of the Year. 8. When she isn't making music, Beyoncé and her mother, Tina Knowles, helm the ready-to-wear line House of Deréon.

http://www.teenloveme.com/ivory-formal-dresses-v-neck-beaded-belt-sleeveless-lowest-price.html

the most buzzed about Black designers were those boldface names who came to fashion from the music industry

Until recently, the most buzzed about Black designers were those boldface names who came to fashion from the music industry. Editors and retailers were enamored with the rise of celebrity designers because they arrived with barrels of cash, a built-in fan base and a publicity machine that churned night and day. These entertainers had the resources to hire design teams to make up for their lack of experience. Folks like Russell Simmons, Pharrell Williams, Beyoncé and Sean Combs put on splashy runway shows and were feted with lavish parties. All the attention thrown their way gave the false impression that there were far more Black designers out there than there really were. Black designers who had come up the traditional way, studying draping and pattern making, apprenticing in ateliers--and who didn't have a hit CD to fall back on--were hard-pressed to compete. "I always say I did it the wrong way," jokes Edward Wilkerson, who designs Lafayette 148, a department store brand of fashion-tinged, career-oriented sportswear. "I should have become a singer first and then a fashion designer." Even now, as the infatuation with celebrity labels has waned, it is still a struggle.

In June at the CFDA annual awards show, the industry equivalent of the Oscars, the only Black person on stage at New York's Alice Tully Hall, save for a single model in a presentation honoring designer Marc Jacobs, was rapper Kanye West. The consummate fashion fan, West was there to introduce designer Phoebe Philo, from minimalist label Celine. Indeed, since the CFDA began keeping records in 1981, the only Black person to be honored with the prestigious Womenswear or Menswear Designer of the Year trophy was Combs, who won for his Sean John menswear line in 2004, after being nominated four times.

The shortage of Black designers is nothing new. There have been only a handful of success stories. African-American Ann Lowe designed Jackie Kennedy's wedding dress in 1953. And innovative sportswear designers Willi Smith and Patrick Kelly rose to fame in the 1970's and '80's. The next generation of Black designers was almost as small. Today, diversity isn't the issue, as there is a host of young designers of Asian descent. African-Americans, however, seem hindered by a confluence of circumstances. Perhaps the most significant barrier is lack of capital. It can cost upward of $50,000 to launch a small collection, and that does not include mounting a runway show or having a padding of cash for production and overhead. Most young designers don't start a company by going to a bank. They turn to friends and family. "For many people of color, the money isn't there," says Veronica Miller, a Black design student at Drexel University who aspires to have her own line someday. "I don't come from institutional wealth.

http://www.teenloveme.com/ivory-formal-dresses-v-neck-beaded-belt-sleeveless-lowest-price.html

it is only natural that tastes change and improve in time and the need of decoration

 It seems we
have lost any distinction between good and evil, pretty and ugly, and
things are determined entirely by the competitive "Mode" in its worst
provincial urban form. We should be honest and admit that the problem
exists mainly among female members and girls, rather than among male
members and boys. The writer stressed that she was not moralizing
and was not sorry that the old days of poverty and patches are over;
it is only natural that tastes change and improve in time and the need
of decoration, rooted in feminine nature, did not pass over the women
of the Kibbutz. She herself is not immune to the "weakness" of vanity,
but she feels offended by what she views as extreme forms of vanity.
How can long and manicured fingernails fit in the hands of a working
woman? How can a female member who grows such nails work with
the Kibbutz children? Do we want our children to imitate such a style?
A few female members, continued the writer, wear on Sabbath evenings
huge long necklaces. This sort of jewelry is probably worn by women in
"high" bourgeois society, so the phenomenon reflects a lack of taste and
discloses a longing for a way of life that the Kibbutz initially negated
and contradicted. Thankfully makeup, another unneeded accessory, has
not yet taken root in the Kibbutz. General public pressure should put
an end to any extreme forms of petit-bourgeois vanity. But in addition
to eradicating undesirable forms of dress, more effort should be put
in developing a unique dress suitable for Kibbutz ideas and lifestyle.
Without such intentional efforts by Kibbutz assembly and institutions,
dress will inevitably be dictated by alien urban modes.^"
The article was answered two weeks later by another female member.
Life flows onward and changes constantly, she wrote, so there is no
point in pining for the so-called "beautiful past." Once the Kibbutz
determined even the names of the newly born children, rather tban
leaving this private decision to their parents; a female member was
328 Anat Helman
almost voted out of her membership because she owned a private pair
of stockings. Thankfully, things have changed and today such extremity
seems ridiculous and pathetic. When we first moved from a general
clothes distribution to marking clothes for each member, some objected
to the change as heretic, but now everyone agrees that it was a just and
efficient move. Once Kibbutz members had no private clothes; now each
one of us is a "private owner" of some clothes and does not regret it.
Our clothes are similar to those worn by other workers in Israei, perhaps
slightly more modest. What exactly are those "extreme manifestations
of vanity" that enraged the former writer? Why should groomed
fingernails set a bad example to our children? Isn't a groomed hand
better than one yellow hued from excessive smoking? Necklaces, like
color preferences, are a matter of taste and should bother nobody. The
writer announced that she will treat any female member not according
to what she wears, but according to her personality, and according to
the way she performs her work and duties in the Kihhutz.
As to the claim that it is only female members who suffer from the
weakness of vanity, what about beards and mustaches? Are they too
not a matter of fashion? And what about shirts from nylon and silk,
checked and striped, suits, white sweaters and cardigans, all which some
of our male members wear on Sabbath evenings? Is that not vanity?
Perhaps male members are exempt from criticism just because we do
not envy them...? We are a free society and pressure should not be used
in private issues. None of us wants the Kibbutz to turn into an "army
camp" where everyone is dressed exactly the same. Our dress should be
comfortable and modest, as befits workers, but its details should not be
dictated by the general assembly. Instead of dealing with marginal issues
such as dress.

http://www.teenloveme.com/tencel-ball-dresses-one-shoulder-corset-prom-dress.html#.UWUFox3vtc1

adults cannot be changed and therefore their needs should be satisfied by a clothing personal allowance

 The small details of the everyday,
including dress, play an important role in members" level of satisfaction,
especially the female members., probably indicating a regrettable
waning of ideological and spiritual pursuits. However, adults cannot
be changed and therefore their needs should be satisfied by a clothing
personal allowance, not as a revolutionary act but merely as another
"step in our natural development." Another member disagreed and
described tbe Kibbutz as being torn between two poles: "the aspiration
to change the world and build it upon new principles, and the aspiration
for normalization." He determined that the Kibbutz should not give in
to total normalization. The whole world, he wrote, has been losing its
values during the last thirty years, and it is the duty of the Kibbutz to
uphold higher standards, even on tbe expense of a supposedly "natural
development" such as a personal clothing allowance. A third member
stressed that the Kibbutz was still in the making. Collectivism should
not reacb absurdities and constrain the members within a rigid system
of committees and communal institutions, and hence a personal clothing
allowance would be merely an organizational change, but not a betrayal
of Kibbutz original principles.'^
Kibbutz ideology promoted material ascetic values and early Kibbutzim
took pride in their poverty. Pioneering entailed sacrifice of
personal material comfort for tbe sake of the community and the whole
nation, but Kibbutz secular asceticism was never bleak, nor did it sanctify
pain, sorrow or suffering. It was not about denying pleasure as much
as it was about identifying with collective values. Moreover, austerity
was not merely a personal sacrifice but also a means of guaranteeing the
members' spiritual freedom and their peace of mind. Still, as the Kibbutz
grew and changed, equality was moderated and members expressed new
and increasing material demands (Talmon-Gerber 2006: 401-6).
Supporters of the personal clothing allowance in different Kibbutzim
wrote that, "From each according to his ability, to each according to
his needs" was part of a socialist revolution and an attempt to eradicate
extreme capitalist inequality, but the intention was not to create a group
of paupers; on the contrary, achieving a universal higher standard
of living was part of the revolutionary target, as long as wealth was
distributed fairly. The "essential minimum" keeps changing through
time and fulfilling increasing needs does not entail inequality. As long
as the allowance is distributed equally, its various uses by the members
pose no threat to Kibbutz life.'" Champions of the personal allowance
also claimed that collectivity and equality were only means for achieving
socialist justice, not ends by themselves. Uniformity was the result of the
pioneering age, not an inherent part of socialism. People have inevitably
different needs and cannot be squeezed into one norm. Assuring that
all members will receive their various needs might prevent them from
324 Anat Heiman
seeking these needs through unauthorized external sources and hinder
them from bitterly leaving the Kibbutz and attaining their unfulfilled
wishes elsewhere."
While the personal allowance could potentially increase diversity,
another factor was markedly threatening sartorial equality in the
Kibbutz: gifts. Storehouse keepers, especially in older and more established
Kibbutzim, complained that presents, received and worn by
Kibbutz members (in particular by female members and young female
natives of the Kibbutz) were violating the intended equality set by
the norm.^" Clothes distributed by the storehouse within the limits of
the norm were not the members' private property: their wearers were
holders rather than owners. Clothes purchased or sown within the
limits of the personal allowance were semi-private: they belonged to
the members but were bought under an equal and agreed budget.

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the physical constraints of tight dress and its accessories as signs of their commitment

whereby a man might hold love and serve love well and loyally. Ovid's book, the one in
which he instructs lovers how to contnil their love, was being thrown by Venus
into a fire, and she was excommunicating ail those who ever perused this book
or followed its teachings.)
VCIiile this often quoted passage does not consider tight dress specifically, it does
illustrate Marie's interest in expressing the positive effects of tightness in a way
that contrasts with Ovid's. Critics are largely in agreement that Venus burns die
Remedia amotisf a text which promotes love as a restrairiing force that encumbers
the lover. In order to assuage physical pain, Ovid teaches men how to 'control
ruinous passions' and free themselves from the restraints of love by rejecting
It altogether.*' In a prelude to persuade the lover to abandon pains caused by
love, the Remedia amnris repeatedly draws attention to metaphors t)f burdening
- whether by yoke, chain, or rod - and to the reprieve upt)n freeing oneself
from love's excruciating hold on the body.''- Ovid highlights the lover's pleasure
in escaping metaphorical chains of love: 'opdmus Ule sui vindex, laedentia pectus
/ vincula qui rupit, dedoluitque semel' (lines 295f.; 'he best wins freedom for
himself whi) has burst the bonds that hurt his soul, and once for all o'ercome
the smart"). Ovid's lover, bridled with emodonal discomfort, learns first to loathe
what he initially desired and then to seek Hberadon from his bonds. In this case,
the classical poet employs the language of restraint, which invites infidelity in love.
Marie, too, expresses lovesickness in a similar way, but she ultimately understands
the by-products of restraint differently. Instead of rejecting feelings of selfdiscipline
and doing away with love, Guigemar and his lady adopt the physical
constraints of tight dress and its accessories as signs of their commitment.
104 MEDIUM JEvxm LXXVII.j
Like Ovid, Marie draws upon language that describes psychological pains
of love that act upon the body in visible ways: Guigemar's physical appearance
betrays internal suffering when his lovesickness registers externally as 'la dotur
/ dunt il ot pale la colur' (lines 423f.; 'pain that drained colour from his face").
Likewise, the !ady feels 'cum Amur la destreineit' (line 420; 'how love constricted
her"), a point first made clear by the couplet 'senteit' (line 419; 'felt") and
'destreineit' (line 420; 'constricted'), and then reiterated when Marie explains
that the lady 'Veill  aveit, de ceo se pleint; / Ceo fet Amur, ki la destreint' (lines
429f.; 'had been awake all night; that was her complaint. It was the fault of love,
pressing her hard'). The lady's anguished physical demeanour, which results
after 'amur la destreineit' (line 420; 'love oppressed her'), reveals her passion
for Guigemar as a constrjctive force and encourages the commonplace reading
that links interior love wounds with physical oppression.

Marie adopts and adapts Ovid's binding metaphors to her own purposes,
thereby modifying convention in order to propose that lovers should incorporate
control uito courtship. Her elaboration suggests that erotic love can exist for
a couple if the individuals remain estreitement hende' (line 373; 'tightly bound') in
dress, unUke Ovid, who wishes to manage love by eradicating it entirely. She
affirms her kind of love, which is controlled and restricted but still erotic, in the
rhv-ming couplet 'tenir' and 'servir' that describes Venus teaching 'cumcnt hom
deit amur tenir / B lealment e bien servir' (lines 237f.; 'how a man should hold
love and serve it well and loyally"). Love holds ('tenir') the body in a way that
should convey the commitment between the lovers to serve ('servir') each other.
Marie's immediate turn to ' I ^ livre Ovide, ou il enseine / Comment chascuns
s'amur estreine' (lines 239f.; 'rhe book of Ovid in which he teaches how one
should control love*).

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Spring/summer 13 women’s clothing trends: 60 s VS a doll’s house

Although printing and colors bring us a pleasant visual enjoyment, but more like is the black aura that actress convey. To have a look the Europe and the United States actress performing big brands style, upermodel cool black suit, is the most attractive.

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The costumes of the splendid imperial concubine(倾世皇妃)

” the splendid imperial concubine ” is hit on the mainland, the costume has five dynasties and ten states recognized characteristics, strong color, the gold, heavy and complicated silver accessories, make everybody in the opera more harvest some kind of visual enjoyment. So beautiful

Pack can only exist in TV series is not too bad? Actually costume pattern, color and jewelry collocation has considerable guiding significance.

Fur, silk and velvet are more costly material, the two actors are chose the purple and blue collocation, such strong color collision with luxurious feeling to the person, you can use the purple dress with a dark blue one fur, or blue dress collocation, a delicate purple scarf and silver jewelry is able to make such a dress up to add the effect of some feeling of Cold Rock.

the modelling of Ruby Lin

 in the play make us dazzling, the costumes are very gorgeous, in fact red and pink color you can also try in reality, only on the choice of accessories is as far as possible don’t use gold or other bright color, with black silver ornaments and shoes bags are the good choice with no flaunt.

The patterns of ancient Chinese costume is very attractive, you don’t have to choose beautiful flowers and plants, but the collocation of design is indeed a big trend this season, as long as the color uniform, don’t be afraid tops and bottoms pattern is different, adorn article geometry design, choose as far as possible to increase the integral collocation.

The collocation of blue and purple is watching you “pour the imperial concubine” after must try, this is a elegant and noble color, if you feel confident about their skin color, you can also add a dark green earrings. Not only conforms to the trends of this year’s colours, also is Chinese classical aesthetic feeling.

http://www.510.me/blog/the-costumes-of-the-splendid-imperial-concubine%E5%80%BE%E4%B8%96%E7%9A%87%E5%A6%83/

the most beautiful ornate costumes of A Dream of Red Mansions

http://www.510.me/blog/the-most-beautiful-ornate-costumes-of-a-dream-of-red-mansions/

“Anna karenina” won the Oscar for best costume design

The 85th annual Academy Awards on February 24 night dolby theatre in Los Angeles in the United States, best costume design consists of “Anna karenina” Jia Kuilin, duran, she once in “pride and prejudice” won the nomination.

In this version of “Anna karenina”, all the costumes appear to restore ancient ways and fashion beautiful, seize person eyeball. Crew for the film, two men and women protagonist specially tailored for a set of 19 th-century style clothes and accessories. Lots of Russian customs fur was the heroine in body appear in each big moment, fur using embroidery, jacquard, wool felt, etching traditional techniques, such as the orthodox art deco on the cuffs of gorgeous, appear elegant and magnificent.

 http://www.mltailor.com/blog/?p=96724

Spring/summer 2013 cool color shirts, self-identify as fresh and cool style

Hot weather can visually the most cultivated the fashionable element of estimates is cool color to move, so this spring to each brand is grandly launched the spring/summer cool shirt, not only are they color is very fresh and beautiful, but also special style vogue is novel, beautiful in summer.

Light blue as the sky, serene, use it as a commuter particularly appropriate. Climbing-inspired cut details add a quilt make garment body very cultivate one’s morality show thin.

Like the deep blue is very comfort and pleasing to the eye, stereo clipping the neckline and creates elegant aesthetic feeling, can roll over the activities of the cufflinks is more fashion and handsome.

Shiny fabric out of the gorgeous texture, tailored, cultivate one’s morality, sense of style is both formal and casual.

Color matching is cleverly make double led effect, deep sea blue also gives it a piece of quiet cool and refreshing feeling.

Rape the green comfortable able to bear or endure look, like front organ plait style is elegant.

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