Modeling the world

Ann Taylor has effectively turned itself from a staid, homely brand into a covetable one, even garnering comparisons in the Times to Dior and Balenciaga.

Recently, its sold-out $198 lace dress was selling for upwards of $300 on eBay, but all is not well in the brand’s online store, where models show to have been Photoshopped to scary proportions. Here we have a $119.99 dress on a girl with hips amazingly smaller than her shoulder span, maybe even her bust as well. Like Barbie!

At left, Ann Taylor helps the fashion model stave off muffin top by digitally sanding down her hips and thighs so as to avoid those realistic (heavens!) and scarcely unsightly fabric folds. Also incredibly smooth is the silk shirt on the right where it tucks into the model’s slacks, displaying no bunching or rippling.

So either Ann Taylor is the store with the unfeasibly smooth clothes — and isn’t that what our shapewear-obsessed culture is looking for? — Or they have a slight retouching scandal on their hands. On the other hand, in their quest to matter again, that they even have a scandal just more proves they do.

No look for Lady Gaga is ever quite absolute without a headpiece. So it comes as no revelation that the singer would be interested in millinery.

And who superior to learn from than legendary Irish hat maker Philip Treacy–the couture hat designer behind her memorable Grammys lightning bolt headpiece, Sarah Jessica Parker‘s famous green topper for the London Sex and the City premiere and a preferred of the late fashion icon Isabella Blow.

But whether or not Gaga pursues in the path of stars like Ashley Olsen in becoming a design intern remains to be seen. While nothing is set in stone, it is true that she has request an internship with Philip, corroborates a rep for the label.

Having collaborated with Philip Treacy on a number of her most-famous headpieces, we imagine this would be a match made in fashion designing heaven.

Peacocks, the cheap-chic value fashion retailer, is poised for a rock ‘n’ rolling high summer, with its latest collection by the singer-songwriter turned fashion designer, Pearl Lowe, the wife of Supergrass drummer, Danny Goffey.

Lowe, who is expecting her fifth child, took her motivation from the English countryside and her life with her husband and their three children in Somerset.

The collection is modeled by her eldest daughter, the young style leader, Daisy Lowe, whose father is Gavin Rossdale, and photographed by Mary McCartney, Sir Paul’s eldest daughter.

Summer is my favorite season and there is no qualm that every single item in my mum’s new collection is going to be well worn this summer by me and my girlfriends, said Daisy Lowe.

The new range, which follows Pearl Lowe’s victorious debut collection of party dresses for Peacocks last season, includes a full selection of accessories, T-shirts, cardigans, day-dresses and party-wear, with prices starting from £14.

Croatian fashion designer Igor Galas took the chief prize of $5000 and direct entry into the Mittelmoda fashion show in Italy at the iD Emerging Designer Awards in Dunedin last night.

It is the first time anyone from Croatia has pierced the awards. Galas, who have competed in fashion competitions in China and Europe, admired the Dunedin awards.

I believe this competition is so much better and much stronger. The other designers are all of a high superiority. He believed more designers from Europe would attend the awards because it was gaining such a good standing internationally.

Ryota Shiga, of Japan, won the $3000 second prize, though British designer Ichiro Suzuki took the $1000 third prize.

Auckland University’s Sandra Tupu ($2500) and Glenn Yungnickel won the sustainability and Pulp Magazine awards correspondingly. The jewellery honor was won by Australian Paula Kyle Walden ($1000).

Whitecliffe College of Art and Design graduate Brooke Fairgray won the three-month residency among the Dunedin Fashion Incubator.

International fashion designer and Judge Zandra Rhodes were also frightened with the standard. The fashion here is of a very high standard.

Galas’ range consisted of woollen headgear with long woven dreadlocks hanging nearly to the ground, and ruched backs, related to dinosaur ridges. Many of the ranges were reminiscent of the 80s, with pipe-leg pants, inflated shoulder pads, jodhpur pants, riding boots and lots of black and white.

VietNamNet Bridge – Nearly 100 designs in white will be pioneered by three famous designers – Nguyen Cong Tri, Truong Thanh Hai and Valerie Mc Kenzie on March 28, in a show for amateur models in HCM City.

The fashion show identified “White Impress” will take place on the longest glass catwalk in Vietnam in “street fashion” style.

I’ve made several collections, but this is the first time I will introduce a collection in all-white. This is a fascinating idea! , exclaimed designer Cong Tri.

Designer Thanh Hai said that he had to set away his own fashion show to participate.

The upcoming show is exceptional because it targets only amateur models.

The show’s director, Long Kan, who was victorious with the “Festival of Long-legged Girls” and “Asian Fashion Night”, revealed that a group of experts went to big shopping malls or famous cafes to recruit models for the show in Hanoi, HCM City and Can Tho.

Other contributors comprise famous fashion experts like photographer Pham Hoai Nam, Jundat, stylists Huong Color and director Long Kan.