Halloween weekend is always a spectacle in Hollywood. The costume line-up this year has included a slew of memorable looks, from Lizzo’s hilarious take on Marge Simpson (which ignited a TikTok frenzy), to Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly’s eerily convincing cosplay as Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee. However, Hailey Bieber chose a more high fashion approach to the spooky season, pulling off an ode to a legendary runway moment.

In a post on Instagram, the 25-year-old model and beauty mogul paid tribute to Yves Saint Laurent’s acclaimed spring/summer 1999 haute couture collection. Hailey wore a look that was a replica of the outfit that runway veteran Laetitia Casta wore in the original show, which featured garlands of pink roses fashioned into a crop top, skirt and headdress. A floor-length baby pink train with ruffles that was worn off the shoulder and pink sandals with rose embellishments around the ankles completed the ensemble.

Typically, Halloween costumes are either overtly gory, or are recreations of popular culture highlights. But for Hailey – an industry darling who has fronted campaigns for Miu Miu, Versace and Saint Laurent – paying homage to a significant moment in fashion history felt appropriate.Read more at:black formal dresses | red formal dresses

As a writer, vintage clothing holds special value: there are stories embedded in the seams, memories stuffed into the lining, caught between the pleats, and hidden in the hems. Sometimes the previous owner has left evidence: a shopping list in the pocket, a coffee stain or a rip from an ecstatic night out dancing. An imperfection is an indelible detail of a second-hand garment’s charm. A tear or missing button might tell the story of the item’s provenance, and sometimes an imperfection explains how the item found its way to you, who will mend it and love it again. It’s true about people too – our marks and scars tell the stories of where we have been, where we fell, and how we’ve healed.

For thousands of years, people wore one another’s hand-me-downs, and bought and sold clothing second-hand because it was so costly to purchase things new. My grandmother sewed the dresses my mother wore to school, and then my aunt wore them and then they were passed down to a cousin. But at some point, this hand-me-down tradition stopped being so common. Buying new outfits was a way to present as having self-respect; the only people who wore vintage clothing were either poor or weird or both.

But then countercultures struck chords in fashion: the Diggers in the 1960s in San Francisco put together spectacular outfits out of discarded and donated clothing as part of their radical anti-capitalistic lifestyle. Then London’s punks transgressed even further, mixing clothing from all eras into a new aesthetic meant to make a person look like they just survived a trip to hell and back. The new look leaked into mainstream culture through television and movies. After that, goth and grunge invaded the Nineties. As a teenager in 1993, I saw Kurt Cobain sing live on television in a ragged green sweater, and my world changed forever. Cobain represented anti-conformity, strength in honest vulnerability, and beauty that could be ravaged by its own rage and passion and still be beautiful. Grunge spoke to the nihilistic artist in my little broken teenage heart. Everyone I’d grown up with wore clothes from the same stores: Umbro soccer shorts, canvas trainers. I wasn’t a normal person, and wearing vintage was how I affirmed that.

Most of what I collected came from a vintage clothing store in Cambridge, Massachusetts, called The Garment District. In the Nineties, you could still find Forties tea dresses and Seventies polyester print shirts in the mountains of clothes being sold for a dollar per half kilo. I’d sit in a pile and go through the clothes, getting a rush of adrenaline as I pulled at a sparkly sleeve and found a sequin gown, or unearthed from a heap of destroyed jeans a perfect pair of Levi’s 501s that had personalised graffiti all over the knees, reading ‘Class of ’76’. Back then, I wasn’t thinking about the ethical virtues of buying vintage. I was buying vintage to defy the status quo. And dressing in vintage was a visual art; I saw it as fashion collage. Sorting through the piles at The Garment District, I wasn’t looking for a quality basic that I could wear year after year: I was on the hunt for something singular that would feel as though I was fated to find it.

Wearing vintage clothing made me feel more at home and connected to the people of the past in this place in which my family were newcomers. I was born in Boston, the first in my family to call the USA my homeland. My ancestors are Croatian and Persian, but New England has always felt rooted in my bones. By dressing in the garments of the people who lived there before me, I was weaving their stories into mine.

The rise of vintage clothing in everyday dressing seems to be a recent phenomenon, one born out of privilege and nostalgia as much as it is out of necessity, but a different kind of necessity nowadays. Affordable clothing is ubiquitous, and toxic to the environment. Over its life cycle, a pair of jeans releases over 33kg of CO2, equivalent to driving about 69 miles. And if you try to throw that pair of jeans away, it can take up to a year to fully biodegrade – and that is only if it’s 100% cotton. Synthetic fibres only make matters worse. Getting dressed in the morning has never been so ethically loaded – and people will judge you for it. Head-to-toe fast fashion only looks good for a day. Then, what? Recycling your clothing is one way to clear your conscience.

What a vintage-phile like me loves the most is seeing new fashion icons pull looks together from the past. I think of Kaia Gerber sporting her supermodel mum Cindy Crawford’s classic Alaïa leather jacket, making the Nineties new and chic again. Zendaya wore a black-and-white strapless number from Valentino’s SS92 collection on the red carpet, lifting the look from Linda Evangelista and making it all hers – no small feat. And day to day, we’ve got Emma Chamberlain’s ‘massive thrift hauls’, where she explains how pieces from the 1990s and Noughties can be readapted for a different time.

And although I think it’s important to clean out and reassess one’s wardrobe from time to time, there are certain items in my closet I will never part with: the blue hooded sweatshirt I was wearing when I met my husband, the dress my mother wore when she lived in Brussels in the 1970s, my late brother’s ‘I Climbed the Great Wall of China’ T-shirt.

When I wear anything vintage, I feel like a time traveller. The texture and weight of a garment on my body, the way it moves around me, the shapes it makes, all transport me back, as though I am acting out a memory: what it felt like to be me, or someone else entirely.

When I sat down to write the show notes for Proenza Schouler’s AW22 collection, I couldn’t let go of the idea of fashion as a means to move through time, as a way to reflect the values and fascinations of an era. Talking to the designers, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, about how they conceived of their collection was like speaking to a novelist or a filmmaker. They build worlds, imagine characters and how they move; they look at details from the past and revive them so that they say something different, as though creating a wardrobe for a woman who hasn’t yet been born. They seemed to be asking, ‘Where are we going? And how do the garments we wear reflect who we want to become when we get there?’

A few months later, I walked the runway for Maryam Nassir Zadeh, an Iranian-American designer I greatly admire. In addition to the nerves and sudden cluelessness about how to move my feet, I felt completely new on the catwalk. Nobody had worn these clothes, never even seen them. I was presenting them to the world for the first time. There was something magical about that. On a typical day, I go about my life as though when my clothes don’t look good, if they sag or ride up, it’s because there’s something wrong with me – my shape, my proportions. But acting as a model for future fashion, I felt no such insecurities. I didn’t need to gussy myself up to be the weirdo I am inside. Maryam didn’t want me to wear make-up. Simple hair. I felt bare and exposed, and beautifully myself. It was as though no clothes, of any vintage, were there to define me.Read more at:formal dresses online australia | formal dresses perth

Fashion may not be Denmark’s biggest export — instead, it’s pharmaceuticals, food and furniture — but that doesn’t matter to the brands and designers here, who are fast gaining traction in a saturated international market, promoting themselves as the stylish, sustainable and collaborative upstarts.

That famous Scandi aesthetic — a happy young woman in a breezy vintage dress sailing over cobbled streets on a bicycle — has now become so familiar, and aspirational, it’s almost a cliché, like the effortlessly chic Parisienne; the black-clad, sharp-edged New Yorker, or the slim Italian in soft-shouldered tailoring.

The Scandi look continues to bubble up from the streets of the serene Danish capital, where women of all ages love vintage, mixing high and low and adapting their clothes around their day-to-day lives.

Last season, designer Cecilie Bahnsen showed off dresses with uneven hemlines inspired by the way some of her fellow Danes tuck and fasten their dresses so that they don’t get in the way of pedaling their bikes.

Bahnsen is famous for her chic, baby doll dresses with puffed sleeves, and, during a collection preview at her sunny studio in the northeastern end of Copenhagen, described the Danish approach as “very playful, an effortless way of putting looks together.”

This season, Ditte Reffstrup, creative director of Ganni, said her spring 2023 collection was about conjuring that heart-pumping energy of cycling to work, “rolling through the city, and feeling the joy of a Copenhagen summer.”

Barbara Potts and Cathrine Saks, the designers of Saks Potts, said there’s only one question they ask each other in the studio: “Would we actually wear it?”

In the spirit of the week, and of the Danish love of vintage, the duo based their entire spring 2023 collection on Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark, before she married into the royal family.

“She was an ordinary girl, and her look was super-cool and sporty, with a bohemian twist,” said Potts. The designers staged the show in Kongens Nytorv square in the city center, where the Tasmanian-born Mary Elizabeth Donaldson used to take her lunch breaks, or meet friends, when she was working in town.

Taking that street style to new heights, the Saks Potts guests sat on park benches and watched models do a lap of the square before crossing the street to the backstage at the d’Angleterre Hotel.

The Scandi look was all over Copenhagen’s sunny streets during the week and on the runways of the spring 2023 edition of Copenhagen Fashion Week, which wrapped on Aug. 12.

The Danish have been working hard to fix Scandinavian fashion on the map, and to promote Copenhagen Fashion Week as the cooler, more progressive — and more whimsical — younger sibling of London, Paris and Milan.

Much of the credit goes to Cecilie Thorsmark, chief executive officer of Copenhagen Fashion Week, who’s determined to make the showcase synonymous with sustainability and who believes that fashion has a “moral duty” to take action on the environment.

She’s taking a holistic approach: all designers showing on schedule must adhere to at least 18 minimum standards covering areas including diversity and equality, sourcing, supply chain and the afterlife of clothing.

In February 2023, Copenhagen Fashion Week will up the ante and add more sustainability standards — and goals — for the brands.

The five-day showcase takes conservation seriously: electric cars ferry show guests around town, water is served in cardboard cartons and the food (with a few exceptions) is vegetarian. There are no paper show tickets.

Thorsmark has also been working with Zalando, the week’s top line sponsor and strategic partner. For the past two years they’ve been handing the winner of the sustainability innovation award 20,000 euros, and the opportunity to work with Zalando on a collaboration.

This year’s winner was Ranra, a brand based between London and Reykjavik, Iceland, that focuses on the adaptability and longevity of its clothing, as well as on color and texture.

“Cecilie is talented and ambitious, and she’s been doing something quite special here,” Jonathan Hirschfeld, cofounder and CEO of Eytys, the Stockholm-based sneaker and ready-to-wear brand, said of Thorsmark. “She and the team have also been smart in choosing this time of year to show, when everyone’s in a good mood,” and the showcase isn’t squeezed between competitors such as London, Paris or Milan.

Eytys doesn’t show, or sell, in Copenhagen, but it did hold a dinner during the week to highlight its collaboration with the Paris-based couture label Sevali, which works with upcycled fabrics.

“Copenhagen Fashion Week brings people together; the bigger brands attract the buyers, and there’s a good mix of business and events going on. We wanted to take advantage of the opportunity,” Hirschfeld added.

Ulrik Garde Due, the fashion and luxury executive who is currently managing director of Mark Cross and chairman of Cecilie Bahnsen, said Global Fashion Agenda, the non-profit organization that stages the annual fashion summit and other events, has helped put Copenhagen back on the fashion and design map.

He added that the city’s annual design festival, 3daysofdesign, has never been more successful than it was in June, and the growing focus on sustainability is enhancing Copenhagen’s green credentials, “down-to-earth approach and authenticity. As a result, the fashion and design showcases are becoming ever more relevant,” he said.

On the eve of Copenhagen Fashion Week, Raf Simons, a creative who straddles the worlds of fashion and interior design, unveiled a new collaboration with Kvadrat: a storage and accessories concept for the home called The Shaker System. Simons and Kvadrat also opened a concept store in the Danish capital’s swanky shopping district to present the new collection.

Denmark’s, and Scandinavia’s, growing businesses are adding to the momentum of the week.

Many of these businesses, including Stine Goya, Saks Potts, Ganni and Holzweiler, are run by couples — siblings, husbands and wives or old friends — who make for powerful, collaborative teams.

Stine Goya, which showed a sparkle-filled, flower-print collection during the week, will be opening its first U.K. store on Beak Street in London’s Soho in September. The U.K. is now Stine Goya’s biggest market, followed by Denmark and the U.S.

The Norwegian label Holzweiler, which filled its collection with smudgy flower prints and upcycled parachute fabrics, has just taken investment from Sequoia Capital China.

Meanwhile, Ganni’s partners L Catterton are reported to be selling the Danish label, which it acquired in 2017, in a deal that could value the brand between $500 million and $700 million.

Buyers, who were out in force this week, said the Copenhagen brands are gaining traction because of their broad appeal, and wearability. They’re right. Copenhagen isn’t a cutting-edge, trend-setting showcase, but one that delivers aesthetically and commercially.

“There is always a realism about the brands that show this week — the clothes are wearable and accessible. They have a broad appeal to a wide demographic,” said Laura Larbalestier, fashion director at Harvey Nichols who’s been attending Copenhagen Fashion Week for more than a decade.

She said she’s seen it grow from a short and very laid-back series of presentations and showroom appointments into a full-blown, five-day showcase.

The prices here are appealing, too, with most of these brands playing in the contemporary space. Even the limited-edition couture pieces — such as Bahnsen’s short sugar pink dresses — cost no more than 2,000 euros, expensive but value when compared to the prices of luxury brands.

Larbalestier said the biggest trends and elements of the week included Y2K, sequins, a rainbow of pink, lots of knits and textures and the ongoing embrace of vintage looks.

Sequins and sparkle were everywhere, and meant for every day, from the hot pink skirts, halter tops and dresses awash in pajettes at Saks Potts to the short, shimmery mini resses at Stine Goya and the lavish, ruffled party pieces at Rotate.

Ganni and Baum und Pferdgarten offered up some cartoonish brights — including searing pink, aqua and Negroni orange — and a lineup of curve-hugging knits and breezy shirt-and-trouser combinations.

Ida Petersson, buying director at Browns, described Copenhagen as a “key investment market” for the store, and said there is a real aesthetic variety among the Scandinavian brands, meaning “there really is something for everyone. Alongside this, the price point is generally very considered, without compromising on quality, which also speaks to inclusivity,” she said, adding that budgets are up.

“We are seeing very strong performances with the designers from this market,” she said.

Bruce Pask, men’s fashion director of Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman, has been covering Copenhagen’s fashion week and trade fairs for a few years now, and said he’s always admired “Nordic style, which has historically influenced so much of the menswear world. The expansive creativity and inventiveness of designers here today has redefined what the Scandinavian aesthetic represents,” he said.

Pask added that for spring 2023, shapes continued to be “more exaggerated, looser, and more voluminous as we saw earlier in Paris and Milan and the relaxed, casual approach to tailoring continues.”

He believes that the Copenhagen showcase, and the CIFF and Revolver trade shows, have taken an increasingly global approach, recognizing the broad appeal that brands here have for the wider markets.

“They are astutely positioning the week less as a regional showcase and more as a vibrant addition to the other major cities’ fashion weeks with buyers and editors from across the globe in attendance,” he added.

At Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman specifically, Pask said there is a “rapidly growing awareness and importance of the Nordic-based collections for the American customer,” and pointed to “promising” menswear brands in Copenhagen.

All of the retailers interviewed flagged the emerging talents of the week who showed both on the runway and as a group at a dedicated New Talent space in town. Their presentations were part of a partnership with the Swedish Fashion Council with support from brands including Swedish Circulose, a fabric made from textile waste.

Among the standouts were Jade Cropper, A. Roege Hove, P.L.N., Latimmier, Main Nué, Diemonde and Rolf Ekroth. In addition to whipping together stylish collections, these young brands took a holistic approach to sustainability.

At the Swedish label Main Nué, designers Alva Johansson and Maja Freiman worked exclusively with vintage fabrics, deadstock, old tablecloths or furniture fabric headed for landfill. They reshaped knitwear; added new life to T-shirts and sweaters with bits of crochet or beading, and did the same to jeans by adding patchwork and collaging.

The labels dangling from their garments were old recipe cards that they’d found in the trash. “There is so much possibility out there — so much material and so much potential in people, too,” said Johansson.

Fellow Swede Angelo Da Silveira of Diemonde was also thinking about the potential of people. He’s been training, and hiring, refugees from Afghanistan, Syria and Somalia to work in his studio and put their craftmaking skills to work in his collections.

Larbalestier of Harvey Nichols said this is where the future of Copenhagen Fashion Week lies: In a 360-degree approach to ESG and DE&I, where brands are thinking about people as well as the lifecycle of clothing. The future also lies in regional cooperation.

She said that Copenhagen Fashion Week is a great example of inclusivity in that it embraces fashion showcases, brands and designers from fellow Scandinavian countries. “They work as a collective, which makes these markets unique,” she said.

That collective is getting bigger by the season.

The Budapest-based designer Eszter Áron, who makes high-end knitwear with low-waste production methods, said Copenhagen is the ideal match for her brand Aeron. “The city is peaceful and family-centric. We’re aligned with the aesthetic, and with the sustainability standards and we’re growing together,” Aron said.Read more at:long sleeve formal dresses | red formal dresses

The world has its fair share of environmental, social and economic problems. We are in dire need of social upliftment, medical treatment to fight diseases, solutions to climate change and more. There is clearly a need for creative solutions that are sustainable. This is where fashion and accessories can play a part.

Is it possible for people to look good and fashionable, while addressing some of these problems? Yes, very much so. Fashion can be good for the world and environment, as well as used for social change. And that is what Relate Bracelets aims to do.

Relate Bracelets is a not-for-profit social enterprise that makes and sells handmade beaded products to raise money for charities globally, while creating jobs for people in low-income areas. It gives township people dignity, companionship and earnings to support their families.

Fashion has always been about personality and these creatively beaded products not only allow people to choose designs that suit their personal taste, but the wearer is able to choose a cause close to their heart.

We live in a world of fast, unsustainable fashion. But it is known that this is not what the younger generation wants. As early as 2015 Nielsen reported that the majority of Millennials were willing to fork out more money for goods they thought to be sustainable and good for the environment. Forbes recently reported that 62% of Generation Z want to shop more sustainably. And brands have been responding with more environmentally friendly packaging, products that are biodegradable and fashion that adds good to the world rather than consistently taking from it.

Over the years, Relate Bracelets has used the sale of its bracelets to raise R68.8-million for social upliftment. The company has also affected well over 100 charities that are involved in a variety of credible causes, including better access to education, the treatment of diseases and providing clean water to villages, as well as organisations that help orphans, animals and the frail.

Fashion can be fun, trendy and have a positive effect on the world. We just need the right minds to think more creatively to make it happen. Relate Bracelets encourages customers to be part of the solution too. One small change or addition to how you spend your money can change the world — or someone’s world.

Corporate social investment (CSI) funds have decreased but the need for assistance has increased since the Covid-19 pandemic started, according to independent CSI research at the end of last year. The prediction for the short term is that South Africa’s CSI spend will continue to decrease. Relate Bracelets encourages companies to continue to allocate corporate social investment funds, even if it’s less than before.Read more at:formal dress | short formal dresses

Malta Fashion Week 2022 Edition will be held on July 20-22 in Valletta at the Grand Harbour Terrace, on the rooftop of the Mediterranean Conference Centre. Although the road to this event has been challenging after two years of limited opportunities for the local entertainment industry, the team behind Malta Fashion Week 2022, all the designers participating, makeup artists, hair stylists, photographers, fashion stylists and the entire backstage crew are as committed as ever to making this event the show-stopping success it has always been.

This season, Malta Fashion Week supported the appeal of Ukrainian Fashion Week and invited the Ukrainian designer NADYA DZYAK to form part of their lineup. Since due to the severe war in Ukraine, the 51st season of UFW will be held in an unusual format – on the international catwalks.

At Malta Fashion Week NADYA DZYAK will present the Seasonless Collection 2022. Each collection of the Ukrainian brand has its own unique features, the brand’s commitment to pleated details, translucent fabrics and multi-layered decor is recognizable throughout the world. The brand is appreciated by world-famous celebrities and influencers: Kylie Minogue, Maye Musk, Jamie Chung, Xenia Adonts, Kelly Rowland and is widely featured in the world’s most popular fashion magazines: Vogue, L’Officiel, WWD, Harper’s Bazaar and many others.

The collection turned out to be “international” also because part of it was sewn in Ukraine, and some pieces were created by designer Nadya Dzyak in Vienna. Seasonless Collection 2022 will be presented at Malta Fashion Week on July 22.

Malta Fashion Week 2022 is organised by Adrian J Mizzi, supported by a Partnership Agreement for Large-Scale Events and Initiatives with the Valletta Cultural Agency within the Ministry for National Heritage, the Arts and Local Government. It is also supported by the Malta Tourism Authority that believes that Malta Fashion Week can be an important gateway to position Malta as a destination for arts and culture.Read more at:brisbane formal dresses | evening dresses melbourne

On an evening in Paris, guests invited to preview Ganni’s new store admired the terrazzo-effect cash till made of recycled plastic and perused the Copenhagen brand’s youthful dresses. But it was the profiterole tower that created whoops and cheers when it was wheeled in. Created by Zélikha Dinga, a Paris-based cook, the “croquembouche” cone of assembled choux pastry balls measured just shy of a metre high, sprinkled with edible nasturtium flowers and three sparklers. The days of fashion events comprising a staid (low-calorie) steamed-fish-and-vegetables dinner are over; sculptural, playful and hearty set-piece feasts are in. For Ditte Reffstrup, creative director of Ganni, the focus is on fun: “It’s important that our guests have a proper meal before hitting the dance floor!” she enthuses. Surrealist food installations by chef-cum-artist Laila Gohar for brands including Dover Street Market and Simone Rocha have wowed on Instagram, and a new breed of “food creatives” are creating visually dynamic spreads at meals hosted by luxury brands. And rather than being stuck in a sweaty back kitchen, the new culinary crowd are co-hosting stylishly, interacting with guests and lending brands their cultural cachet in the process.

Zélikha Dinga’s speciality is sweet treats that look as intriguing as they taste. “Food is an icebreaker,” she says. “You see this strange thing, and you think, can I eat that? And you start talking.” Partly motivated by a childhood where sugar was banned, in 2017 the 33-year-old Paris native abandoned a publishing career to attend cooking school, work in restaurants and bake cakes. Now her focus is on whipping up imaginative spreads with her company Caro Diario, founded in 2019. Highlights include mini mousse-and-jelly bites for Nina Ricci, biscotti lunch boxes for Gucci and baby-pink-glazed doughnuts for a breakfast celebrating a collaboration between sneaker brand Véja and accessories label Mansur Gavriel. She thinks food has dovetailed with fashion’s move towards inclusivity. “I’m a black woman, maybe 15 years ago I wouldn’t have been asked to appear as a chef at fashion events. And I’m not tall and skinny, or model size!” Her greatest joy is watching people enjoy her creations. “If it’s like an art installation that nobody touches, then that’s a waste. It’s got to be something both visual and delicious.”

Marie Méon knows luxury aesthetics better than most: she spent almost a decade designing store interiors for Chanel and Dior. Having grown up in Tokyo to a Japanese mother and French father, the forty-something credits Japanese culture with fostering her obsession with food, which she describes as “like a religion”. However cooking was always just a weekend hobby until in 2010, she began throwing pop-up dinners in her Haussmannian apartment in Paris with two friends.

Today she describes herself as a “food creative”, operating under the name Manger Manger with clients including Hermès, Cartier and Paco Rabanne, and has her own line of kitchen ingredients and Murano glassware. “I used to think: space, colours and finishes in my previous work. Today, my tools are ingredients — that’s the only difference,” she says. “All these fashion decision makers see that food is maybe the greatest method of communication. Nothing is more powerful than putting people together and having them share a polysensorial moment.”

“I know nothing about fashion, really,” giggles Alice Moireau. “I like to dress well and wear fun outfits, but I’m not following fashion weeks, I don’t know who is cool right now!” Scouted as a teenager, 26-year-old Moireau has modelled for Mango, Fendi and the French it-girl label Rouje, but food is her thing. She spent her childhood accompanying her father to the market and helping him cook well-loved French recipes for her family. When lockdown hit, she hunkered down in her family home in Olivet, a picturesque town two hours south of Paris, cooked pots of comfort food and posted her recipes on Instagram. Soon she had a book deal. Today she plans events for lifestyle brands, models occasionally (for a recent Rouje campaign, she cooked a photogenic Christmas banquet then starred in the accompany imagery with her friends), and runs her tableware brand Table. She turns down jobs where brands prioritise visuals over taste. “Often these dinners look good but they don’t taste so good.” The exception? Her homemade strawberry tarts.Read more at:short formal dresses | white evening dresses

Fashion

The African art of attitude

London’s Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) is devoting a major retrospective to African fashion. From 2 July 2022 until 16 April 2023, the ‘Africa Fashion’ exhibition will show the worldwide impact of the versatile and varied African fashion industry.

Ranging from the mid-20th century to today, its highlights include photographs of pieces by the pioneering Moroccan designer Naima Bennis (1940-2008), to the outfits designed by Kofi Ansah for the 2014 wedding of Ashley Shaw-Scott and David Adjaye, to examples of Nigeria’s famous indigo-dyed cloth, adire.

The exhibition aims to present African fashion as an ‘art form that reveals the richness and diversity of African histories and cultures’, according to the V&A. The showcase will bring not only the work of individual designers to the forefront, but also that of stylists, collectives and fashion photographers. It aims to give an insight into how global digitalisation increased the expansion speed of an already fast-growing industry.

Christine Checinska, a designer and fashion historian, is the curator behind ‘Africa Fashion’. In a blog post announcing the exhibition, she said it would tell ‘a story of fashion as a self-­defining art form; a kind of movement culture that goes beyond individual garments to encompass attitude, gesture, style.’

Oil and gas

On 1 July, the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) became a fully regulated private company.

This forms part of a raft of reforms to improve the oil and gas sector made possible by the Petroleum Industry Act that was finally signed in 2021.

Literature

The multi-award-winning Chinelo Okparanta, author of Under the Udala Trees, inhabits a white man’s skin for her second novel. After a trip to Tanzania, Harry Sylvester Bird, from Edward, Pennsylvania, becomes resentful of racism in small-town America. But when he falls for a Nigerian woman, he is forced to look more deeply within himself. “In [Okparanta’s] hands, humour is a weapon, a tool, and a salve,” says fellow writer Tayari Jones.

Honey and Spice by Bolu Babalola, the popular British-Nigerian author of Love in Colour, is a new novel about the impressions that we make and the love that some people fake, through the experiences of two university students who develop an unusual relationship.

Health

Ghana gets a vaccine boost

Construction of Ghana’s first manufacturing plant for Covid-19 vaccines is due to start in July. The consortium leading the project includes Germany’s BioNTech and local firm DEKS Vaccine. The Ghanaian government has put $25m into the plant, and the German Development Corporation $5m. The German firm Glatt is in charge of the first phase of the plant’s development.

The plant will be a ‘fill and finish’ site, which imports components of mRNA vaccines for processing and packaging. The vaccines will be distributed across Ghana and the sub-region. The main building will be 7,000 square metres, and at full capacity, the plant should be able to fill at least 100m doses per year.

The government’s goal is to begin production by January 2024, as a first step to making the country self-sufficient in vaccine production within the next 10 years. The wider plan includes supporting the private sector and creating a national vaccine institute. BioNTech also plans to ship modular mRNA manufacturing facilities to Africa so that countries can begin their own end-to-end production.

Quote

‘Covid-19 has created a historic opportunity to build a new public health order that makes health for all a reality across the continent. Together, we can build health systems and manufacturing capacities to effectively respond to multiple health threats.’

John Nkengasong, the outgoing director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, announced that the AU entity will get the status of a public health agency in July.Read more at:red formal dresses | formal dresses

To sit in a car with Alex Fury during fashion week is to take a deep dive into a fashion obsessive’s mind. No sooner have the doors closed and the vehicle began to speed off to the next show on the schedule, AnOther’s fashion features director and self-proclaimed fashion nerd is reeling off obscure reference points and influences from throughout fashion history and name-dropping specific looks from specific collections – all while barely looking up from his phone.

He’s also a great person to live vicariously through, as he disappears off to meet fashion dealers, or for appointments in hidden-away vintage stores, before arriving back and detailing the fabulous old Lacroix, or Galliano, or Westwood pieces he’s just managed to score for his growing archive.

Though Fury has mostly kept this archive, which now boasts over 3,000 pieces, under wraps, lending select pieces to exhibitions around the world, or otherwise to various magazines for editorial shoots, during this season’s Haute Couture shows in Paris, the writer and editor opened it up for a small exhibition.

Conceptualised in partnership with OG luxury resale destination Re:SEE, Fury pulled a selection of black and white pieces from the vaults – namely a full-to-bursting room in his East London home, and a decidedly non-glam storage unit a few miles away – to herald the launch of a new column dedicated to vintage fashion on the site.

Landing every month, Behind the Seams will revisit iconic collections, hone in on legendary garments, unpack historic fashion references popularised on the runways of today, and, more pragmatically, detail how to start your own archive, should you be into that sort of thing.

“It’s going to be very instinctive,” explains Fury of the column. “I’d probably say it’s obsessive for other obsessives, talking about the passion for collecting and trying to open up the stories that I think inspired people like myself to start collecting. I think when you think about vintage you can look at it in so many different ways. There will be ones based on specific designers, ones on eras, and so on.”

Given its debut coincided with the AW22 couture shows, unsurprisingly, the first edition discusses the excitement to be found in slipping into some of fashion’s most grandiose, exquisitely made garments.

With Fury sticking to a theme of ‘black and white’ for the launch exhibition (“There was no deep and meaningful there, it just felt quite concise – I could have just as easily done pink, or denim”), a vintage Westwood bustle and corset from the designer’s AW95 collection stood alongside that SS97 Gucci thong, while a cocktail dress by “criminally overlooked” British designer Antony Price rubbed shoulders with a coat from Gaultier’s controversial ‘Chic Rabbis’ show of 1993.

But it’s John Galliano who features most heavily within the small edit, with a selection of looks spanning the course of the 90s, including Fury’s own holy fashion grail, on the line-up. “When people ask me what would I save if the house was burning down, I always say it’s the black and white Galliano dress from AW95 [worn by Carla Bruni, of which only six were ever made],” he says.

“For me, it was the start of this journey into fashion as something magical and transformative and transporting, which is why I also love fashion and why I think fashion’s important and why so many kids fall in love with fashion. It’s always my counterargument when people talk about fashion being elitist and for the chosen few. The images are available to everyone. They can make all kinds of little kids dream.”Read more at:formal dresses online australia | red formal dresses

Fashion in Africa is as diverse and creative as the continent itself. Now, Africa’s many talented designers, models, photographers, illustrators, makeup artists and other professionals are in the spotlight as part of the United Kingdom’s most extensive exhibition of the continent’s fashion to date.

“Africa Fashion,” on view through April 2023 at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London, celebrates the “irresistible creativity, ingenuity and unstoppable global impact of contemporary African fashions” through the lens of 45 designers from 20-plus countries, according to a statement.

More than 250 objects make up the exhibition, including garments from the personal archives of some of Africa’s most iconic mid-20th century designers, including Nigerian fashionista Shade Thomas-Fahm; Chris Seydou, the “father of African fashion”; Ghanian innovator Kofi Ansah; and Alphadi, “the magician of the desert,” to name a few.

Through photographs, video footage, editorial spreads, sketches and other artifacts, the exhibition also tells the stories of more contemporary designers and creatives, like Imane Ayissi, IAMISIGO, Moshions, Thebe Magugu and Sindiso Khumalo. Marrakech-based Maison ArtC designed a new work specifically for the exhibition titled A Dialogue Between Cultures.

While fashion from Africa is the umbrella theme for the exhibition, the show goes much deeper than that, encompassing the “inner spirit” of Africanness that’s not restricted by geography, according to Christine Checinska, the museum’s senior curator of African and African diaspora textiles and fashion.

Starting with Africa’s independence era, which spanned roughly the 1950s through the mid-1990s, the exhibition explores the role that fashion has played in the continent’s cultural renaissance, alongside art and music. It also examines how social media, digital technology and celebrities have helped bring African fashion to a wider, global audience in more recent years.

“[African designers] are shifting the whole language of fashion,” Checinska tells Artnet’s Christine Ajudua. “The fashion world is turning toward Africa, and African creatives are doing things in their own way.”

Founded in 1852, the V&A’s history is intimately linked to British colonialism throughout Africa. Colonizers stole many of the most valuable items in the museum’s collection—and in the collections of other prominent British museums—from African communities; in 1868, for instance, British soldiers looted the so-called Maqdala treasures during an invasion of Ethiopia.

More broadly, African creativity has been largely “excluded or misrepresented in the museum, owing to the historic division between art and ethnographic museums arising from our colonial roots and embedded racist assumptions,” Checinska tells Agence France-Presse. But as Lauren Cochrane writes for the Guardian, the exhibition “could be seen as part of a wider move to acknowledge these histories, and to bring a more diverse range of voices into the institution.”

Checinska agrees, adding that the exhibition is long overdue. Museum staffers spent two years consulting with designers, external experts, young people from the African diaspora and a multi-generational community panel to make sure they got the exhibition right.

“It is a moment of transition that marks the commitment that we have to celebrate African creativity across the board,” Checinska tells the Guardian.Read more at:pink formal dresses | purple formal dresses australia

着こなしには高度な学問がありますが、上手に着こなし、色づかいで自分の魅力を高め、元気な状態をつくることができれば、女性から伝わってくるイメージは間違いなくきちんとしています。若さを手に入れたいなら、若い人のようにコーディネートを少し変えるだけで、同年代よりも確実に若々しく見えるはずです。

シャツのマルチコーディネート

あらゆる年代の女性のニーズや好みをカバーするアイテムを探すなら、ワイシャツは外せません。コーディネートの多様性を保ち、女性がその場に合ったスタイリングをしてくれる。

このシャツは、主に晒(さらし)として使用され、中に細身のタンクトップを重ねてお母さんのふっくらとした曲線を際立たせます。シンプルだが、こざっちりしたスタイルからほのかな色気がにじみ出ている着こなしは、ブルージーンズと合わせて、カジュアルで気前がよく、快適で単調ではない。

年増ママはシャツを活用して多様なコーディネートを提案することができます。小さなタンクトップと組み合わせたり、肌見せの大きいキャミソールスカートを利用して、控えめで日焼け防止のコーディネートをすることもできます。

この淡いカレー色のキャミソールのワンピースは、シルエットがゆったりとしたデザインなのでスタイルには好き嫌いがありません。しかも、突き出たお腹やすっとしない脚のラインをカバーするのに効果的です。アウターは、色のバランスが取れている白いシャツ。フォーマル感を演出したり、カジュアルなスタイルをいっぱいキープしたり、裾をまとめてウエストラインを高めたり、バランスよくアレンジしたり。

年配のお母さんたちは、着こなしのスタイルが決まっていないので、シャツを使って絶対にかさかさない着こなしができます。もちろん、シャツの色は多様なスタイルを演出するカギになりますが、ベースの白でもいいですし、人を選ばないブルーでもいいです。

このブルーのシャツは、特に暑い時期には肌を包み込みすぎず蒸し暑さを感じさせる半袖のデザインにするといいでしょう。下半身にはボリュームのあるショートパンツを合わせると、セクシーさが増し、気前がよくて窮屈ではない。

おしゃれ上手な年上ママは、年齢を理由にしておしゃれ嫌いを隠そうとはしません。実際には、服を着るには多くの労力を費やす必要はありませんが、いくつかの固定された公式を着て、いくつかの特定の形は、女性は非常に適切な外観を提示することができます。

女性の中には、派手すぎるショートパンツを好まない人もいます。彼女たちは、いろんな色のラフなパンツを身につけることで、颯爽とした細身の着こなしをしています。この組み合わせでは、ライトブルーのシャツに白いパンツを合わせることで、清潔感が伝わってきますし、おしゃれな年配のお母さんは首元にスカーフを合わせて、コーディネートを完璧にしています。

年増ママはスカートの着こなしを絶対に見逃さない

年齢を重ねていくと、女性の全体像は少し変わってきますし、若いころのようにすらりとした体つきにはなりませんし、肌もすべすべしていないかもしれませんが、愛美心が変わらなければ、着こなしによって魅力や気品を保つこともできます。

ワンピースやハーフスカートなど、さまざまなドレスアイテムを見逃すことのない年配ママは少なくありません。この白地のプリントのワンピースのように、それは中国風の感じを出すことができて、更に古典的な味わいがあって、白または黒の上着を合わせて、高級で煩雑ではありません。

素材選びも同様に重要ですが、ワンピースの素材がムスッとしていたり、くぐもっていたりすると、さまざまな不快感を醸し出します。今年の夏は、光沢感のあるアセテート素材のワンピースが流行しています。

たとえば、このカフェオレ色の酢酸スカートは、形のつくりが地味すぎず、ベルトを上手に使って、違うシルエットを作ることができます。ベルトが垂れ下がることで、より自然な服装になり、ベルトが引き締まり、体型がはっきりします。

様々なワンピースの中から、私達はそれが伝える味と風情を細かく考えることができて、いくつかのワンピースがあって、様式の構造は大胆で珍しい、特色を増加することができて、しかし年齢の高いお母さん達の服装の標准と好みに符合しません。

この白地のプリントのワンピースのように、それは上品な風格を表出すると同時に、千編一律の造形を構筑することができます。色の使い方も比較的簡単で、ベルトの形成は更に便利で女性がバランスを美化します。結髪に合わせたり、肩掛けに合わせたりと、エレガントさを損ねないアイテムです。

服装はシンプルだが,地味ではいけない

年配の女性の多くは、自分の着ている服をシンプルにしたいと思っていますが、ものさしをきちんとコントロールしていないと、とても地味に見えてしまうことがあります。白を多用している人は、黒やグレーばかりではなく、なるべく色を変えてみましょう。

このように、純白のノースリーブTシャツにカジュアル感のある紫色のスリットパンツを合わせると、スリット丈が目立たず、アクセントになります。白と紫のコンビネーションもよく、ゆったりとした服装でラフ感を出し、存在感のある着こなしに。Read more at:green formal dresses | grey formal dresses australia