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Wearing Today’s Fashions The Right Way

Image Source: klearchosguidetothegalaxy.blogspot.comIf you can afford to change your wardrobe with each fashion season, then you are very lucky. However, just having the latest clothes, jewelry, and other things isn’t going to do you a bit of good if you’re not wearing them properly. This is where finding blogs that help you find your own fashion sense of what looks good on you can help.

What Should You Buy?

Even if you can afford to buy everything new that comes out, you should still ask yourself if you really need to. Instead of spending your money on all new clothes, can you buy a couple of good, basic pieces in this year’s styles then spend the rest on accessories that will update your last year’s wardrobe? If you can, you might want to consider doing this. If you see clothing by designers that you like and would really like to have, check to see if you already own accessories that can go with them. You can get some ideas on how to wear them with your new clothes.

Ask yourself, too, if a new fashion style really looks good on you. Media influence can play a big part in what is considered fashionable, but just because it looks good on the runway model or celebrity doesn’t mean it will on you. This is where you may Image Source: klearchosguidetothegalaxy.blogspot.com                                have to be brutally honest with yourself. Finding a style that fits you isn’t always easy, but is worth the effort put forth.

 

 


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Media’s Influence On Today’s Childrens Self Esteem

Kids learn by the old adage, “Monkey-see, Monkey-Do.” And Today’s Media often adds to the problems of Child-bullying.

Many Children who have poor self-esteem are 50% more likely to be vulnerable to becoming bullies or prejudiced against classmates or friends that are of a different race or look different from themselves. Bullies try to make themselves look better to a group or feel better about themselves by “dipping out of someone’s bucket to add to their own” meaning that they find another kid or group of kids to put down in order to make their own image better.This type of bullying offers a sense of validation and power to the bully.

Children are at risk for being bullied or becoming bullies because they may think it is the “popular” thing to do. All kids want is to fit in with their peers, weather it be by owning the same toys that are new on Tv, or Having the right kinds of Clothing that are the most expensive or in the magazines. Bullying can start as early as kindergarten, and can continue on into teenage years and even sometimes adulthood.

The media offers images of Thin, pretty, clear-skinned people as the “right” way to look. If the child differs from that image, even in the slightest, they can be prey to being bullied and even hurt by violence. All children notice differences, and this only poses a problem when the “differences” of others are construed as a negative image.” While today’s media is working towards discouraging bullying and prejudice, much of the media still offers images of violence and an image of unattainable beauty or riches.

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Media Influence On Fashion And Style Trends

The media has always had a major say on the fashion industry, from when Marylin Monroe wowed the industry to the “Rachel haircut” from the friends era. Media has had a major stake in fashion trends and has also helped “make or break” several fashion designers. Many Celebrities from movies, magazines and even TV can influence the type of clothing we wear, to how we cut our hair. People want to look sexy and glamorous, so they tend to emulate the style icons they idolize. Some Fashion designers can even say that they got their start by being influenced by greats like Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn. Sonny and Cher were big style icons back in there day, and the Beatles started a wave of Euro-enhanced fashion that to this day still has a following.

When Charlie’s Angel’s first made it’s debut, Farrah Fawcets waves were a huge hit, inspiring women to feather their hair for years. Even figure skaters inspire fashion looks from the blunt bob of Dorothy Hamel to the wild, fun looks of recent figure skating Olympic star Evan Lysacheck. Elizabeth Taylor was one of the most successful Hollywood stars to produce and sell a signature sent that is still popular with women today. Classic looks that are sexy and glamorous are at the for-front of fashion today, and many women model their looks after it. For example, hit TV show Mad Men has started a 60′s era housewife style craze that has women wearing dresses and pearls with heels to cook, and men wearing suits and slicking back their hair.

Happy Days and the Mary-Tyler-Moore era also inspired looks in their day from leather jackets and hair like the Fonz to dresses with floral prints and aprons. We often want to imitate those who have a better lifestyle than ourselves, and for some people, imitation is the highest form of flattery. Fashion industry has blossomed into even forming it’s own tv shows like “Top Model” or “Project Runway.”

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Fashion Trend Forecasting

Models on the runway for Ed Hardy Fashion show...

Image via Wikipedia

Have you ever wondered how fashion trends are determined or even how they are predicted? Well most fashion trends are actually predicted through a process called fashion trend forecasting or analysis.

Fashion trend forecasting is a process through which fashion experts or forecasting companies analyze fashion history, current trends, and consumer and retail trends. This information is complied and used to analyze as well as predict fashion trends.

Additionally, some fashion forecasting involves seeking out new styles, techniques, and color schemes created by designers and determining based on consumer purchases and fashion history whether these new styles will be successful.

Fashion forecasting is typically completed over a year in advance and is used by many fashion industry experts or by designers and retail businesses to determine new fashion lines, what to purchase and carry in retail stores, or to consult when designing new lines and accessories.

Fashion forecasting focuses on predicting clothing styles, popular colors for each season, and determining what types of accessories consumers will purchase. This process can influence fashion trends and fashion selections available in retail stores.

So how are these services accessed? Usually fashion forecasting is provided by companies who specialize in this and other fashion services. However, fashion trend reports can be purchased from some online companies. These reports are provided to individuals based on the same process and analysis which is then used to predict future fashion trends.

Research has indicated that fashion forecasting is still a relatively new field, but one that is developing quickly and being utilized extensively. This indicates that this field will continue to be utilized leading to its own influence on fashion trends and the fashion industry.

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Spring Makeovers For Your Inner Spaces

Spring is coming!  The air is fresher, the sky is bluer, and the hint of warm days and gardens hover as we walk outdoors.  Make your interiors as sunny and blissful as the outdoors without spending a lot of money.

Several interior designers were asked for ideas to bring spring without breaking the bank.  Dee Elms, of Terrat Elms in Boston suggests, “The best thing to do right away is open your windows to let the fresh air in.  Get rid of the heavy down-filled comforter and buy a new duvet in a cool spring color or light woven cottons for the bed.  Add beautiful new shams for your pillows–on the bed and in your living areas.  Change out all the dark colors and prints that go well with winter and make you feel cozy.  Paint your walls and change up the accessories around the house by adding a lighter, brighter color to your surroundings.  Bring fresh flowers indoors and add new plants to your living space.”

Michael Crowley, of Venezia Design in Boston, adds, “Like my grandmother said, do a good spring clean.  Sweep away winter!  Rearrange the furniture, get a new accessories, like a new rug.  Change the appearance of a room with brand new lampshades.  Change the white silk shades to something colorful, or with a funky trim. One of my favorite tricks is to buy ornamental curtain rods, and place them close to the ceiling.  I have a 10 by 10 room at home and the room has much more height and presence now.  You can elongate and deepen any room this way.”

Another really great lift for a room, according to Crowley:  “A white ceiling is a waste.  If you add colors to your ceilings, the light changes in the room.  If you don’t use your ceilings to create (a glow) inside, it’s a lost opportunity.  Paint is so inexpensive.  For $30, you can give a room a new appearance.  If you don’t have time or money, paint an accent wall. You’ll create something new and exciting.”

Filed Under: Fashion Dos and Donts, Hottest Trends Tagged With: , ,

Finding the Best Clothing Deals Online

Online retailers make it possible for consumers to purchase high quality designer clothing at low prices. Getting the most for your money, however, means knowing how to find the best fashion deals online. Follow these guidelines to help ensure that you have a good online shopping experience.

Compare Prices

The Internet makes it very easy to compare prices. Instead of driving all over town to determine which store has the lowest price on an item, you simply open your browser and compare prices side-by-side. Comparing prices is one of the best ways to ensure that you get a good deal on the items you buy.

Compare Shipping Prices

The price of clothing sold online isn’t always the final price that you end up paying. That’s because many online stores charge shipping fees. Note, however, that some online retailers offer free shipping. This can make a big difference when you purchase several articles of clothing. Include the price of shipping and handling when you compare prices to make sure that you are really getting the best deal.

Review Return Policies

Reviewing the site’s return policies will ensure that you understand whether you can return items easily. If the clothes don’t fit well, then you will want to return them without much hassle. Some online retailers make this process much easier than others. Some even pay for return shipping.

Use Reliable Websites for the Best Deals

Using reliable websites will help you find the best deals online. www.offers.com, for instance, gives consumers up-to-date information about the best deals on the Internet. You can also use the site to find coupon codes that will save you a lot of money on orders from popular retail sites.

When you follow these guidelines, you are certain to find the best deals on the Internet. By shopping online, you not only get to compare prices easily, but you also get to save time and money by avoiding crowded retail stores.

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Easy Recipe Makeovers

According to Chef Barbara Lynch of Boston’s No. 9 Park, start with a light stock (unroasted) of chicken, veal or beef, and add thickening agent, called roux or fine flour mixed with clarified butter.

“Blend equal amounts of fats and flour, measured by weight,” recommends a sous chef intern at New York’s La Grenouille.  “Add salt and pepper to your taste.”

Using the right pans and tools make for more successful home cooking. Whether you use a gas stove or not, using the right cookware will make the difference in sauces.  Making thick, lumpy or grainy sauce is avoidable.  The silky, light, smooth texture of perfect sauce is achievable at home if you avoid an overly hasty whisking of the sauce at high heat.

The flavor of veloute’ sauce usually refera the stock used.  Use this basic sauce to make many others, recommends a chef at Maman in Escondido, California. Add white wine and cream to fish veloute’ for creamed seafood dishes, such as Coquilles St. Jacques or a pasta.

Make Bercy sauce by adding tiny amounts of minced, sauteed shallots and parsley with white wine and lemon juice to taste.  Broiled salmon is delicious when served with this sauce.

To make Allemande sauce, add lightly whisked egg yolks, cream and a spritz of lemon juice to meat-based veloute’:  serve with the best chateaubriand and braised endive for a delectable meal.

For Poulette sauce, take chicken veloute’ and add sauteed mushrooms and chopped parsley to whisked egg yolk, then serve with almost any compatible entre.

Watch Julia Child cook or purchase “Larousse Gastronomique, considered by many chefs as the go-to book for making ideal mother sauces.

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Fresh New Styles in Nail Color for Spring

An example of a French Manicure, acrylic nails...

Image via Wikipedia

Spring nail colors offer a world of possibility. Think of your nails as natural accessories. Colors from a butterfly’s papillon palette—bright yellows, greens, oranges and pinks—shot with cool tropical turquoise and aquamarine, punctuate our dark winter color fix.  These colors feel like warm sunlight filtering through sugar eggs in your spring basket.  Nail color for spring continues to include dark, gray and edgy looks—but sunglasses-bright colors take center stage.  Spring hues, with scarcely a demure or old-fashioned pastel–without neon–are what we want.

This spring, coat your nails with the brightest orange and take a drink of sunshine. For extra zest, use nail pens—little dots, watermelons, ladybugs, daisies and updated French manicures will let everyone know your gloves are off!  Nail art pens create anything you can imagine: Lady Ga-Ga poker-face hearts or Bollywood Wedding styles.

Moon manicures, combined with Blade Runner–like fantasy forms allows futuristic perfection while echoing the Manchurian opium den or trekking through Tibet.  Use clear bright pink stains of color as base, using accent colors of navy, persimmon, grass green and yellow.  Or use your imagination:  you will be inspired by new styles and shapes and the possibilities for elongating your already beautiful hands.

The look of talons, too beautiful to maim, with bright colors and precise geometry is now, and you are the chicest chic:  Buffy-the-Vampire-Slayer fashion returns.

1980s “over-the-top” and “Time After Time” glamour is fresh and updated.  Skin is soft, moisturized and well-tended.  Tousle your hair a bit and wear moonstones in silver!  Nails that aren’t your mother’s airbrushed are peeking out from long sleeves, wishing for spring fashion and weather.  Using foils and up-to-the-second nail techniks, you can create incredible new styles: lacy, mandala-like art, muraly-looks, a montage of modern or “biker chic”!

Matte nail polishes and metalics—along with nudes like you’ve never seen them before—continue to sell from last season fashion.

Natural nails are always chic, and the look of strong, healthy, buffed to sheen keratin is something that Jessica Vartoughian, “the first lady of nails” recommends to everyone.

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Diamonds steal the show at the 2011 Golden Globes

Some of the finest diamond jewelry in the world, though without a will of its own, manages to find a way onto the red carpet every year in Hollywood. The 2011 Golden Globes were a perfect example of this, where the diamonds worn by different celebrities practically stole the show. If you were a diamond and you were beautiful, wouldn’t you want to show off too?

For starters, there was former American Idol and current country music starlet Carrie Underwood. She was looking beautiful as usual, though the real star of her outfit were the 18 karat white-gold earrings she was wearing. The earrings were designed by Jonathan Arndt of the Diamond Drop Chandelier style, and in them were set two, beautiful, sparkling 4 karat diamonds.

The Golden Globes were not without their diamond-related controversy, either. Stunning ‘Mad Men’ star Christina Hendricks showed up on the red carpet wearing an $850,000 Chopard diamond bracelet, only to find that the bracelet had slipped off somewhere between her car and her seat inside. For a few minutes, the bracelet (loaded with a total of 200 karats of diamonds) was nowhere to be found, though someone eventually recovered it and returned it to her in one piece.

Other stars, like Emma Stone, were lucky enough to wear their diamonds free of distress. She went with a classic pair of diamond drop earrings, these designed by diamond-fancier Van Cleef & Arpels. Set in shining, yellow gold, her earrings formed the perfect complement to her Noeud diamond ring, in which sits 117 diamonds.

Scarlett Johansson also borrowed from the Van Cleef & Arpels library to complete her Golden Globes outfit. She wore a bracelet from their Private Collection – a platinum construction housing almost 23 karats of diamonds and a Flames brooch hair-clip from 1934.

All in all, the ceremony was stunning, partly because of the celebrities and mostly because of the diamonds.

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Take a Sexy, Beachy Holiday

All work and no play?  Decide to relax and work on your tan. Lose those dreary winter clothes and don bright colors as you walk the beach. Visit these beaches any time, but there’s no time like today.
1.  For some of the sexiest sunbathing in the world, the half-French, half-Dutch island of Saint Martin/Sint Maarten is a must. Surrounded by aquamarine-blue waters, choose either, or both, sides of the island, preferably in a convertible.  French is an aphrodisiac, so (if this idea speaks to you) check out Orient Bay, five beaches on the French side.  Headquarters of “Club O,” pick Kontiki, Kakao, Bikini, Waikiki and Coco Beaches.  No, you’re not dreaming, they are named after beach bars!  Buy a silken “half” bathing suit, or try new styles of swimming au naturel.  Secluded spots are plentiful!  Cupecoy Beach on the Dutch side is also great fun.

2.  Puerto Rico is a sunbather’s paradise, where you will find a perfect spot at the Anasco Beach Resort. The resort is easily accessed from San Juan to Mayaguez airport. Shop for new fashion before your trip: you won’t want to miss a moment of this paradise-like place.

3. Florida Keys, on U.S. terra firma, affords opportunities to enjoy the sun while sampling Florida’s keys (more than 1700 islands form a chain off Florida’s coast). Take a sail or rent a houseboat and swim with dolphins.  If you’re hankering to experience Cuba, Cayo Largo is out-of-the-way and lightly trafficked, like a trip back in time.

4.  South County, Rhode Island, Enjoy delicious sunbathing for three seasons of the year.  Matunuck, named by the Narragansetts as “look out” point to the Atlantic, is gorgeous area that is (still) unknown by most beach lovers. Boutiques present new styles, colors and patterns of local designers for your pleasure.

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