Bollywood Anarkali Churidar Suits

2014 BET Awards

2014 BET Awards: Top 5 Fashion Trends

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The 2014 BET Awards offered pretty fashion-wise. Pharrell Williams wasn’t the only man rocking a noteworthy hat. Both white and black made for strong looks. And floral bloomed as well. Check out who was doing what and most importantly, what trends highlighted the evening.

Classic White

The crisp non-color is always a winner (especially with summer's sun-kissed skin), and has been gaining red-carpet momentum. The best way to wear it: keep it classy, and well tailored; try a long sleeve dress (like Amber Rose) or a sharp single-button suit (like Regina Hall).

Sporty Black

The dark side of fashion's current graphic theme: dressing in all black, is another go-to red carpet move. Keeping it sporty, with a sleek bomber jacket (like John Legend) or leather mini-dress (like Jennifer Hudson) makes the look more fun and sexy, less somber.

Hats

Hats took the spotlight with the male performers of the evening—from a red velvet fedora to a coonskin cap. Call it the Pharrell-effect. The artist also debuted a new brown felt chapeau at the awards, this time of a moderate size.

Futurism

The intergalactic fashion trend—complete with severe tailoring, body shaping details, sheer cutouts, and fierce metallics—continues to captivate the entertainment industry, for musicians in particular. The look is decidedly daring, but (be warned) difficult to execute. Fit is paramount, without that, it takes on a costume-y vulgarity.

Flower Power

Floral prints bloomed in menswear this season, and they’ve been favored on the red carpet for women as well. Pairing a colorful print with a clean white pump (like Kerry Washington) or white slacks (like B.J. Britt) perfectly balances the look.

Football-inspired fashion at the 2014 FIFA World Cup

Fashion and football have intermingled in this World Cup season as the contending teams on the field are providing a carnival of colours with their smart colourful jerseys, while the retailers, on the other hand, are cashing in on the fever with their soccer-themed clothing collections.   French apparel brand Lacoste has released a vibrant polo shirt peppered with graphic patchwork blocks in blue, green and yellow, whereas the Italian fashion house Versace launched a football-inspired T-shirt, reflecting the vivid iconography of the Brazilian carnival, prior to the event.   Not to stay behind, the popular Italian internet mail order retailer Yoox has joined in the fever by unveiling a collaborative T-shirt collection, created by designers belonging to the 10 most soccer crazy nations across the globe, including Agatha Ruiz de la Prada (Spain), Juun J (Korea) Ksubi (Australia), Barbara Casasola (Brazil), Damir Doma (Germany) or Masha Ma (China), Ami (France), Duro Olowu (Nigeria) and MSGM (Italy).   In addition to the well-known international designer brands, local clothiers from the 2014 FIFA World Cup host nation Brazil have also come up with their own versions of football-influenced styles. The Rio de Janeiro markets are flooded with garments representing the colours of the national flag, such as spandex minidresses in emerald green or halter tops in canary yellow.    Brazilian high-end label Farm has soaked itself in the ongoing frenzy with its unique, delicately crafted national team crochet jerseys. Some pet clothing manufacturers have joined in the soccer celebration with their doggie sweaters, capes and jerseys in green, yellow and blue colours.

Milan Fashion Week Crowd Honors Dorchester Boycot

MILAN — It was nearing midnight. On television screens in the bar of the Principe, on the last day of the men’s wear shows here, a World Cup match 

was playing. Unusually for this venue, every kick and call could be heard. Roughly half the tables were filled with couples or groups drinking quietly, and at the overstaffed bar, at least five servers waited to fill orders.

How times have changed. Not long ago, the bar at the Hotel Principe di Savoia was the watering hole de rigueur for much of the fashion industry, at least during the city’s fashion weeks. On any given evening during fashion week, while the D.J. played a thumping set, the room would be packed and spilling out into the hotel lobby. Getting a drink at the bar was a famously protracted undertaking, and it wasn’t uncommon to see brands, companies and cliques set up at rival tables like a high school cafeteria. Here, the John Varvatos crew. There, the London P.R. set.

“For 20 years it’s been just about the only place I can think of,” Nick Sullivan, the fashion director of Esquire, said in May, reflecting on his frequent trips to Milan.

Then, abruptly, that all changed. The Principe is one of the properties of the Dorchester Group, a hotel group owned by an investment fund led by Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei. The sultan’s institution of a new penal code in line with Shariah law, which is to mete out harsh punishments for gay sex and adultery, has caused many in the fashion industry to renounce their longtime hotel of choice and urge others to do the same.

Key editors including Anna Wintour of Vogue and Cindi Leive of Glamour have announced that their staff members will not patronize the property; François-Henri Pinault of the luxury group Kering has said that he will join the boycott, and his companies are likely to do the same. On June 13, just before the beginning of the men’s fashion season, the Human Rights Campaign, a nonprofit based in Washington D.C., sent out a press release urging the industry to avoid the Dorchester Group’s hotels, which include — in addition to the Principe — 45 Park Lane and the Dorchester in London, and Hôtel Plaza Athénée and Le Meurice in Paris.

Among Americans, rumors even circulated that cameramen were stationed outside the hotel, ready to snap photos of those who dared to defy the boycott. They proved to be unfounded, but few seemed eager to venture into the hotel, and those that did would speak only if granted anonymity because their employers had forbidden them to speak publicly.

At the several occupied tables, only one guest was recognizable from the insular fashion sphere: Antonio De Matteis, the chief executive of the Neapolitan suiting label Kiton, who for years has stayed in the Principe when in Milan. “I think he made a mistake, the owner,” Mr. De Matteis said. “Before it was full. Now it’s empty.”

“A fashion island hit by a nuclear bomb” was the description of a London-based, fashion-show regular who booked a weekend stay at the hotel before hearing of the proposed boycott and would speak only on condition of not being named. “The staff were obviously more attentive to customers as there aren’t many left,” she added.Weren’t there? Therein lies the rub. Certainly the numbers seemed smaller than in any visiting Americans’ recent memories. One publicist said she had only sent one invitation to the hotel for a boarding guest, a United States-based editor who had also been unaware of the boycott.

“I was personally embarrassed to be staying there,” the editor said. “I didn’t want to tell people I was there.”

But the bar scene at the Principe has long been primarily an Anglo-American one, said Mr. Sullivan, Esquire’s fashion director, a New York-based Englishman. Apart from fashion weeks, one Milan-based correspondent said, the Principe is no longer a spot of choice for drinks; many prefer one of the competing hotels, such as the Bulgari.

While no one spot emerged as a replacement for the Principe bar as fashion week’s party destination of choice, two front-runners were bars at the Westin and the Park Hyatt, both of which screened World Cup games. (Mr. Sullivan watched at the latter.) And one raucous scene could be found late Monday night, at the Loolapaloosa bar on Corso Como, where a huge contingent of Brazilian models (and a few of their non-Brazilian admirers), gathered to watch the Brazil-Cameroon match, and then partied well past 3 a.m. after Brazil’s win guaranteed the team a place in the knockout round.

Meanwhile, at the Principe, the U.S.-based editor staying there cautioned against conflating a fashion-world avoidance with an avoidance of the property by all guests.

“At breakfast this morning, at a normal time, it was bustling,” he said. “It seems like the hotel is as full as always — just not with any fashion people at all.”

26 Bridal Week Gowns So Ethereal, They'll Make You Weep

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  Feel that excitement in the air? It's the rousing spirit of autumn wedding season getting amped by last week's Bridal Fall 2014 shows. After scouring the laced, appliqued, draped, and folded fare, we picked out two handfuls of the most weep-worthy gowns, with preference given to fluffly, gauzy and ethereal styles (because let's face it, that's what wedding glory is made of). It's enough to make a girl miss Racked Weddings Week. Below find the most gorgeous shades of white (and pink) from this season's round.

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Fashion Trends 2014

A Yummy treat in the fashion world

If you’ve heard of normcore, chances are you’ve heard of the yummies too. But, if you’re one, you certainly aren’t the other. While normcore is all about disregarding — with vehemence — anything and everything that is luxury and looking regularly unkempt, yummies are a social subset of young men who like to indulge themselves.

Yummies, standing for young urban males, are men in their 20s with six-figure salaries or more, living in cities with a penchant for luxury goods, a well-groomed personal appearance and a habit of spending on themselves. Giving luxury living a much-needed boost, these men are the newest, biggest consumer group for premium brands.

Coming as a surprise to many, HSBC bank first coined the term in its research report, ‘Rise of the Yummy’, earlier this year. While the acronym YUM would have simply sufficed, the report chose to call the consumer group Yummy, making the term metro-sexual seem rather manly in comparison. According to the report, “Metro-sexual was a term coined exactly 20 years ago to describe men who are interested in their appearance, and spend much time, effort and money on shopping. In the beginning, though, this did not translate into strong growth in purchases of luxury goods by men as ‘metro-sexuals’ were not mainstream.”

So, are the Yummies then set to be mainstream? The report says, “Although it may sound quite counter-intuitive, luxury goods consumers are in fact relatively young. This is driven by psychological and social trends whereby consumers prefer to display social status earlier on. .In addition, with increasing wealth creation and affordability of travel, as well as online blogs and forums, information on brands is more readily accessible to target audiences than ever before.”

Yummies not only have an obsession with personal grooming and health, but also marry late. Not laden with responsibilities these men have a large amount of disposable income that they can readily spend on themselves. “There is new wealth creation in this group, even in India, and there is a great difference in the consumer choices of this group between then and now,” says Sumit Dhingra, director of business for brands Gant and Nautica. Dhingra says that most premium and luxury brands in the country are beginning to target the male consumer group between 25 and 35. “Their consumerism is associated more with reward and not guilt. There is an optimism that this lifestyle can be sustained.”

A heightened brand awareness, an appreciation for the arts and a love for holidaying, Yummies are breaking the male rulebook. “We understand that Yummies like to experiment with their clothes and looks. Our latest Spring/Summer collection focuses on an interplay of vibrant colours and we also introduced hats and caps as there has been a renewed interest in this segment,” says Joseph Muthaiyan, CEO, Blumerq, a premium men’s clothing brand.

Yummies also like to accessorise. So, a Burberry trench, a Fendi hat, an LV Belt, and a Hugo Boss briefcase are common occurrences on a Yummy.

Accessories are often a starting point or a great initiation to a brand. Many luxury brands are expanding their menswear sections to lure male shoppers. Perfumes, cosmetics, shoes, outdoor sports wear and fashion accessories for men have received a significant boost since the arrival of the Yummy.

Fashion Photography