Jewel & Jewel

There’s a hemline theory of economic cycles on Wall Street which predicts the severity of recession’s by how much skirts rise above the knee, a curious method given the financial district’s macho culture and historical domination by men. Why analysts don’t attempt foretell the future by watching men’s collections is something of an anomaly, especially after attending the Burberry spring men’s collection in Milan, a drab affair of muddy colors, featuring young lads who appeared to have retreated to the country after their losing their jobs in town.

The whole affair was an abrupt about turn from recent seasons, where the UK label’s creative director Christopher Bailey has filled his runway with shiny finishes, posh aristocrat military dandies, metallic trims and colors. On Saturday, the opening day of shows in the Italian men’s wear spring 2009 season, the collection he showed featured askew cashmere sweaters, deliberately badly ironed and crumpled jackets of guys whose career straits had forced them to lay off their cleaning lady.
 

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Model display creations from the Andre Lima Spring/Summer collection during Sao Paulo Fashion Week.

Italian designer team Dolce & Gabbana kicked off Milan’s fashion week in a relaxed style, taking inspiration from oriental kimonos to kit out men in silk evening pajamas next summer.

Asian-style prints such as dragons or butterflies decorated robes and shorts in black, white, grey, sepia or ivory for the duo’s signature line, with Naomi Campbell modeling one of their designs as part of the spring/summer 2009 menswear collections.

Evening jackets, teamed with black trousers, also sported the prints in the collection which overall was said to reflect “the relaxed lifestyle of the modern man.”

The look was colored by a variety of light and dark blues, as well as natural hues from beige to brown for both formal striped suits and casual wear, topped with models wearing dark-rimmed glasses.

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Looking alluringly beautiful in a single-shoulder long dress, Bollywood yesteryears diva Sridevi wowed the audience as she walked the ramp at the Lakme Fashion Week.

“It was a good experience and I was comfortable. The collection was very beautiful,” Sridevi told IANS after the show, that was also attended by her husband Boney Kapoor and daughters.

Sridevi, 44, walked the ramp for designer duo Prriya and Chintan in a golden hued dress with a corset bodice that was attached to a flared skirt.

The audience reaction showed that the reigning queen of the ’80s and early ’90s had not lost her magic. Known as the female Amitabh Bachchan, Sridevi has given super hits like Chandni, Chaalbaaz, Lamhe and Mr India.

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In Lakme Fashion week india 2008 57 desingners participate and show their best autumn/winter creations. Models were sizzling on the ramp wearing lovly pinks, Mint Greens, Peaches blues and browns. Here is lakme fashion week at a glance.

Guzel, the Turkish word for “beautiful” was the name of Puja Arya’s fall 2008 collection at India Fashion Week . An appropriate name for the collection, as it took its main inspirations from Turkish patterns, fabrics and design.

Models swished down the runway in an array of light chiffons and cottons. Though the collection was for fall and winter, the outfits were obviously meant for Mediterranean wear. Short dresses with large yoked necks were one theme of the show. Cotton off-white fabrics embroidered or printed with large, black flowers were predominant. Babydoll dresses with flounced skirts were also a favorite on the runway. The color palette for these was turquoise blues mixed with creams and blacks.

A few long, chiffon dresses were also in vogue, a particular favorite being an airy green dress with a wide black belt. Another range of items came in a burnt orange color with all-over gold printing or embroidery.

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Govind kicked off her collection with a series of short dresses all made from traditional Indian silk sari patterns. The solid black with red and white prints were absolutely reminiscent, as her show title said, of pigeons and kites, especially with her Gujurati dyes and Ikkat weaves. The textures of the several different types of saris Govind blended made for a truly inspired contemporary Indian look, particularly when she paired a babydoll-like kurta in the same Ikkat weave with a bright red churidar.

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Gothic Lolitas and tribal snow princesses strutted down the runways at Tokyo fashion week on Friday, showing how local designers are trying to find a niche between Japan’s global brands and its anarchic streetwear scene.

As one of the world’s biggest luxury goods markets, Japan should be every emerging designer’s paradise. But its famously enthusiastic shoppers and fashion-crazy schoolgirls tend to either buy global brands or underground labels that revolve around the latest teenage fad, leaving little space for new, upmarket domestic designers.

“My brand doesn’t completely fit the Japanese market, because the market is ‘easy to wear’ or the big brands — Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada. They don’t care about Japanese designers much,” said Tamae Hirokawa, who launched her label, Somarta, in 2006.

At Hirokawa’s show, long-haired models with sparkling tiaras were wrapped in bohemian knitted coats and jackets, or dresses in frosty blue and white with silver embellishments.

Hirokawa said she designed her clothes for an imaginary tribe living in a cold country — cue an electric blue yeti coat, silver feather capes, and a shrug resembling a cluster of icicles.

Somarta is now being sold in Tokyo boutiques that used to only feature foreign luxury brands, something Hirokawa described as a small revolution.

Other Japanese designers that started small have moved to overseas catwalks, following the examples of Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto. Flamboyant label Dress Camp, for example, debuted at Tokyo fashion week, which was launched in 2005, but is now shown in Paris.

While most designers here still aspire to a global career and a big break in Milan, Paris or New York, some are shifting their focus to new markets, closer to home.

“We’ve been thinking about Europe and the American market, not about Asia, even though we’re Asians,” said Takashi Mori, who designs a menswear range, Molfic, and also collaborates with Hirokawa on the music for her show.

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