Most Happening Collection at Lakme Fashion Week ‘Tuk Tuk’ displayed

Hyderabad, June 13… For the first time, the Most Happening Solo Collection of Lakme Fashion Week by INIFD Student Designer Sabah Khan was displayed at the Inter National Institute of Fashion Design (INIFD) Hyderabad. Sabah Khan presented a rustic down to earth line quaintly titled ‘Tuk Tuk’ which is another word for the Tangewala or Rickshawala – a unique collection to watch out and see how a popular public transport inspired Designer Sabah Khan.

Taking forward her previous collection’s theme, ”No Class” inspired by the slums of Dharavi, designer Sabah Khan this time dedicated her new collection ”Tuk Tuk” to the ”rickshaw walas” at the Lakme Fashion Week held in Mumbai this March.

Sabah had taken the fashion scene by storm with her debut collection ”No Class” at the Lakme Fashion Week Summer and Resort 2010. The collection had earned her an appreciation letter from Prince of Wales.She had received encouragement and a personal acknowledgement from the Royal family of United Kingdom for her previous collection ‘No Class’ for highlighting this issue of poverty in an unconventional manner. Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall was touched and appreciated Sabah Khan for her fashion line based on Dharavi – the largest slum in Asia. Sabah’s collection ‘No Class’ was the most appreciated collection of Gen Next category at Lakme Fashion Week Summer/Resort 2010 which truly reflected the spirit of Dharavi, which was valued by the Royal Highness Prince of Wales.

Student of INIFD, Sabah’s Solo Collection ‘Tuk Tuk’ created magic on the ramp at Lakme Fashion Week this year. Bollywood actress Yuvika Chaudhary was the showstopper of the collection ‘Tuk Tuk’. Yuvika, co-star of Govinda in her latest release “Naughty at 40”, is famous for her role in ‘Om Shanti Om’ and ‘Toh Baat Pakki’. Yuvika danced down the ramp in a wired hand painted lehenga and racer back choli with the words “Keep Distance” written on it. Big Boss – season 4 fame and a Television actress Dolly Bindra gracefully adorned the Designer garment by Sabah Khan at Lakme Fashion Week.

INIFD Student Sabah displayed her designer collection at Lakme Fashion Week Summer/ Resort 2011 at Hotel Grand Hyatt Mumbai and was hugely appreciated by the national and international media, buyers, merchandisers and the glitterati. Sabah showcased her collection along with the top designers like Manish Malhotra, Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Satya Paul, Rocky S, Anita Dongre, Shantanu & Nikhil, Gauri & Nainika, Anamika Khanna who also appreciated the dazzling creativity and breath taking freshness in her work.

INIFD Brand Ambassador Sabah Khan has a passion for fashion and her institute INIFD has made it possible to accomplish her dreams as INIFD is the official knowledge partner to Lakme Fashion Week. INIFD has always taken steps to promote the young design talent and have made the dream come true for many of its students.

INIFD Student Sabah Khan is more experimental towards lifestyle and has explored the new trendy and funky thought of expression. Displaying a line of 16 outfits at Lakme Fashion Week, Sabah had a striking variety which ranged from cute bikinis to hot pants, dhoti dungarees, waist coats, T backs – all ideal for summer wear with many mix and match options. Mention has to be made of the very cute waist pouches, large colorful bags and neat flat sandals that matched the collection.

INIFD Student Sabah Khan commented on her inspiration and said, “As I travelled daily, the pastel uniforms of the drivers, the bright colored insides of the rickshaw walls, the typical curve of the vehicle made a creative impression on my mind. I strongly believe that fashion comes out of the most unpredictable places and perceive fashion as depiction of various aspects of life as they unfold. I am quite observant about things around me and love bringing creativity in it giving it a meaning and shape. All my designs are quite contemporary and go with people from all walks of life.”

Using cool linen in the pure and stretch forms with leggings and embellished with digital prints, the “Tuk Tuk” collection was a fun trendy look at summer gear- a unique collection, one to watch out for!

Authorship : By Fashionnews

Applied Facts Offers IP Security Tips

Sergio Robleto and Henry Kupperman, co-executive managing directors of Applied Facts, a Los Angeles–based corporate investigations firm, have seen online counterfeiting steadily grow over the last 10 years.

“Online [intellectual property] theft has been an issue right from the beginning,” Robleto said, for industries as varied as apparel, pharmaceutical, automotive, electronic, toy and accessories. “Once, we ran across a counterfeit BMW.”

Founded in 2004 by Robleto, a former member of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Metropolitan Forgery Section, Applied Facts specializes in intellectual-property protection, security and surveillance, due diligence and background checks, and internal corporate investigations. Lately, rogue sites—which sell counterfeit goods, often while masquerading as legitimate online vendors for brands—have figured more prominently in their caseloads.

“As e-tail has picked up, so has online IP theft. The increase parallels the market,” said Kupperman, who also acts as the firm’s general counsel. And, he said, counterfeiters have also become more sophisticated. “Twenty years ago, counterfeiters would just sew in a Levi’s tag. Now, they include design details and go as far as including authenticating tags and stamps. The result is that now the consumer, even the savvy consumer, is finding it more difficult to tell what’s authentic and what’s not.”

The company declined to name any of its apparel clients but offered suggestions for apparel makers and other business owners to protect their intellectual property before the problem gets out of hand—and grows costly.

• Know who you are dealing with all along your sourcing, production and distribution chain. “Do your due diligence for experience, track record, reputation,” on everyone involved with your brand, including distributors and licensees, Kupperman said. Ask around, visit the factories/businesses or hire someone to check up on them for you.

• Monitor your production and distribution chain. “Hop on a plane if you can and do an inspection,” Kupperman said. This, he acknowledged, can get pricey and time-consuming, but there are local firms and global firms that can do the legwork for you.

• Do your market research. “Scour the Internet to get a sense for who is selling your product,” Kupperman said. If Google isn’t your forte, there are firms you can hire. “A lot of times, companies don’t know how significant the problem is or isn’t,” he said.—Erin Barajas

Authorship : Apparelnews

Lady Killers

The fall 2011 collections ignited a return to decidedly chic, feminine dressing. But as Anne Slowey reports, there’s nothing fussy or frilly about the season’s sophisticated ladies

There was a moment at the Thierry Mugler show, just as Lady Gaga took the stage smoking a cigarette, when the entire season seemed to splinter into two starkly different halves: grandstanding showmanship ver­sus grandly elegant clothes. Onstage, the audience was treated to a stylist and a pop sensation’s purview of fashion—for them, a universe where looking interesting and avant requires extreme measures. Which stood in contrast to what we saw elsewhere, which was, to put it simply, everything that is right with fashion at the moment: the beauty and simplicity of elegance, done in a way that women can readily interpret.

Gaga’s fashion director, Nicola Formichetti, is the newly appointed creative director of Mugler, and he was determined to bring a little fantasy back to the catwalk with his first women’s wear show for the brand. But for all the buildup, the actual sight of Gaga on the runway in Formichetti’s creations—primarily bodysuits with sheer paneling and exaggerated shoulders—was a bit of a letdown. I mean, where were the clothes? It just reminds us how different “real” women and celebrities are when it comes to their relationship to fashion. Stars use it to build an image; the rest of us look for clothes that connect with some inner part of ourselves—we need self-expression, not a fan base.

In the end, Gaga at Mugler proved just an amuse-bouche in a season that would come to feel like a scene from The Tempest. Later in the week, Christophe Decarnin was a no-show at Balmain; he left the company because of “work differences” (widely speculated to be stress-related issues). John Galliano, as we all know now, had just brought his career to an end with a bigoted, drunken rant. His highly publicized fall from grace stunned the industry; editors played snippets of the now infamous YouTube exposé on their iPads in the front row. Dior CEO Sidney Toledano publicly and elegantly spoke of the difficult affair before the company’s subdued runway show in a tent at the gardens at Musée Rodin. The wrenching awkwardness gave way to heartfelt appreciation at the finale, when the entire atelier of “mains” (i.e., the skilled hands who create the clothes) was invited onstage to take a bow normally reserved for the theatrical Galliano. A few days later, at Galliano’s self-titled collection (in fashion, the show must go on, apparently) beautifully draped plaid silk jackets and elaborately embroidered robe dresses made the fall of one of fashion’s greatest showmen seem all the more senseless. The designer, said to have been struggling with addiction for some time, quickly offered a public apology and is rumored to have decamped to rehab.

Needless to say, the vacuum at Dior sparked endless speculation: Who would be Galliano’s replacement? That announcement might not be made until the fall. Ric­cardo Tisci of Givenchy is the most widely talked-about front-runner, although it is hard to imagine the house of Dior finding its full measure of elegance in the hands of someone whose dominant tropes are Catholicism and gothic themes. Certainly, other designers who haven’t worked in couture but who understand the complexities of running a giant company, such as Marc Jacobs, must be in the running as well. Haider Ackermann was also favored by those insiders who have always appreciated his moody, soulful sophistication—conjecture that was buoyed by one of his best shows to date. Ackermann’s low-slung silhouettes, exquisitely wrought in draped teal and plum silks, had an edgy, yet painterly, appeal. Dior, a house originally known for reshaping the body in excesses of fabric, could find a wellspring of ideas in someone so like-minded.

But for all of the industry’s current unease, even high-octane drama couldn’t overshadow the beauty of the clothes themselves. Once again, this season, American designers held their own against their European counterparts. Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez of Proenza Schouler continued to shine, for fall exploring computerized jacquard prints in a renewed take on American Indian blankets and macramé skirts. Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte also used computers to reframe Americana, casting photorealistic images of wheat fields reminiscent of Willa Cather’s My Ántoniaacross their prairie dresses. Michael Kors celebrated 30 years in the business by rocking out to his own greatest hits: ’70s-inspired halters and slim trousers in jersey. And many relative newcomers—such as Prabal Gurung and Joseph Altuzarra—followed suit, offering their own strong visions of the season’s return to elegance. Shapes were softer and less strict, though still exuberant. In New York, as well as Paris and Milan, the patrician, razor-sharp edges that have dominated the last few seasons gave way to softer shoulders and longer below-the-knee lengths that at times had a retro quality—whether it was ’90s grunge (Richard Chai Love); Depression-era prints (Louis Vuitton) and shirtdresses (Jason Wu); or postwar ’40s padded shoulders (Miu Miu). Other, more jocular details from each of those eras—puffers, parkas, metallics, feathers, bugle beads—made appearances, too. Even the LBD (Ralph Lauren, Giorgio Armani) reemerged on both sides of the Atlantic.

The menswear moment is still holding steady, with stiff, mannish coats at Jason Wu and Céline, plus dusters, cutaways, and oversize boyfriend sweaters worn over flowing skirts and pin-straight pants elsewhere. Another ’90s staple, the perfecto motorcycle jacket, is back, with variations seen at Junya Watanabe and Marni. And fur sleeves (Peter Som) along with sleeve-and-collar combos (Burberry Prorsum) seem to be a common answer to the question of how to handle fur—back, this season—in a modern, relatively price-conscious fashion.

Come fall, pants, while still a major trend, will have some competition in the form of skirts. These came in every iteration from peplums to kick pleats; many, like those at Louis Vuitton and Givenchy, have sheer linings playing peek-a-boo beneath their hemlines. Delicate chiffon layering at Narciso Rodriguez and Gucci was a big statement, reminding one of how elegant seductive dressing can be in the right hands. But for all its refinement, the season was not without its novelties. On the lighter side, dots and paillettes offered playful counterpoints to hourglass shapes in lace at Marc Jacobs and simplified silhouettes at Stella McCartney. Meanwhile, Rick Owens and Giambattista Valli played on more monastic notions of outerwear with cropped and full-length capes. Elsewhere, long panels flowed off the backs of coats, conjuring a mood of ancient nobility. And speaking of medieval, in her fourth women’s collection, Sarah Burton has stepped fully into the shoes of Alexander McQueen, with a mouthwatering collection that had the audience all a-Twitter (literally) about whether one of her feathered-fur or frayed-organza gowns would make its way down the abbey aisle April 29 on Kate Middleton.

Perhaps one of the most exciting trends this season was a return to classic couture shapes of the late ’50s and ’60s. Junya Watanabe showed finely crafted leather jackets over full skirts, while at Jil Sander, Raf Simons mined the cocoonlike shapes of Cristobal Balenciaga in a lineup of voluminous padded dresses and coats, hooded ski sweaters and cigarette-slim stirrup pants. Meanwhile, at Balenciaga, Nicolas Ghesquière reworked the skirt and oversize fishnet lacing to create a new, relaxed silhouette that was one part schoolgirl, three parts bourgeoisie. He finished off the effect with Pierre Hardy’s rococo-detail shoes and bags, which looked as if they could have been unearthed in the models’ grandmothers’ closets, somewhere on Avenue Foch. The result was a phenomenal group of simple shapes that had a youthful spirit, perfect for any woman in search of easy clothes that will make her look good without standing out. In my book, that’s the epitome of chic

Authorship : By ANNE SLOWEY

This Week's Hottest Stories

From beauty must-haves to red-carpet style, check out the biggest fashion, beauty and celebrity happenings of the week...

The week began with the CFDA Awards in New York. The industry hurrah honouredProenza Schouler, Alexander Wang andMarc Jacobs, but we were more interested in the designers’ model dates than the acceptance speeches.

As fashion feted its highest achievers, the industry also boosted its youngest entrants. A crop of young London designers received NEWGEN sponsorship, and the industry crowned its Graduate Fashion Week winners. Congratulations to all the honourees, particularly the sweetly deer-in-headlights Gold Award winner Rory Longdon.

And continuing her campaign to boost the increasingly regal British high street, Kate Middleton wore another Reiss dress (we almost wore this style to a wedding last week—Kate, let's be shopping buddies!) to the races. She kept with the pale tones but amped up the glamour with a Jenny Packham gown at a charity gala last night.

Elegant and refined though the gown may be, it just won’t do in a muddy field. Our editor made way for the Isle of Wight Festival with tent, sun cream (optimistic, we know) andfestival hair guide in tow. ELLE’s newly launched Travel channel told us about the best rural summer festivals, where that sun cream might actually see the light of day, and Beauty Writer Amy Lawrenson shared her picks for the top festival beauty items. No, Wet Ones are not included...

By Emily Cronin Posted: Fri 10 Jun 2011

Authorship : Elleuk.com

Photo: Miss USA 2011 Arrival Ceremony

Miss USA 2011 update:

Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino Welcomes The 51 Miss USA 2011 Pageant Contestants To Las Vegas. Miss USA 2010 Rima Fakih attends the arrivial ceremony for the 2011 Miss USA contestants at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on June 6, 2011 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

(Photo by David Becker/FilmMagic)

Authorship :

Miss Universe 2012 sets eyes on Panama

The 2012 Miss Universe pageant would be held in Panama, according to Trump Ocean’s Club project manager Roger Khafif. Ivanka and Eric Trump gave a press conference on Wednesday at the spectacular building’s atrium to talk about its grand opening.

The global real estate slump has not soured Donald Trump’s flavor for grandiosity. He’s merely going global with it. In Panama.

This week two of his three children, who all serve as executive vice presidents to The Trump Organization, traveled here to unveil the first international building in their family’s real estate empire: The Trump Ocean Club, not just the largest building south of the border, but the world’s first Trump tower outside America.

“This building is a very important bridge for us as we begin to expand internationally, not just through South America, but the world,” Ivanka Trump, and executive vice president of development and acquisitions, told the Monitor during an interview in the hotel’s partially finished “sky lobby” looking out over the ocean bay and city skyline.

But why Panama? The Trump family’s first exposure to Panama came in 2003, when Panama City hosted the Miss Universe Pageant, which is owned by Mr. Trump. His daughter says she was immediately taken by the vibrancy, culture, and climate in Panama – a city on the rise, where skyscrapers stretch and twist upwards like concrete plants competing for sunlight. The team saw a potential opportunity to trump their opponents.

At a cost of $400 million, the nearly completed 70-floor, sail-shape building overlooks the Pacific on Panama City’s crowded Punta Pacifica neighborhood. With 2.8 million square feet of construction space – complete with five-star hotel, luxury spa, casino, restaurants, office space, and residential units – The Trump Ocean Club has already sold 95 percent of its units to wealthy buyers from more than 40 countries.

“We are building landmarks. And this one is going to be one by which all the others are judged,” says Eric Trump, the other executive vice president of development and acquisitions of the family business.

Roger Khafif, who is in charge of the project in Panama, mentioned that the building will start functioning in March, and that the hotel will open its doors in July. Donald Trump will travel to the country in August for the official inauguration. Then Khafif added that the Trumps talked about having the Miss Universe pageant back in Panama in 2012, -a project that has been mentioned in local media for a while- and of course, the beauty competition would serve as a perfect marketing tool for the newly completed Trump Ocean Club.

It would be the third time the Central American country hosts the event; the previous times were 1986 and 2003.

Athena Mae Imperial wins Miss Earth Philippines 2011

Athena Mae Imperial of Casiguran, Aurora was crowned Miss Philippines Earth 2011 during the coronation night on Sunday, June 5, 2011 in Puerto Princesa, Palawan. Athena, a mass communication student of the University of the Philippines-Diliman bested 49 other candidates in the prestigious pageant.

Athena will represent the country in Miss Earth 2011 in Thailand.

Miss Philippines Earth 2011 Winners:

Miss Philippines Earth 2011 Athena Mae Imperial - Casiguran Aurora

Miss Philippines Air 2011 Jonavi Raisa Quiray - Puerto Princesa

Miss Philippines Water 2011 Murielle Adrienne Orais - Cebu City

Miss Philippines Fire 2011 Michelle Gavagan - Las Pinas City

Miss Philippines Eco-Tourism 2011 Tarhata Clio Shari Rico - Makati City

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