Typically, the mainstream media portrays thin as the only beautiful body type. Yet, here is an example of the mainstream media, promoting a beautiful, curvy woman. About: Lizzi Miller, A Poster Girl for Positive Body Image
Here’s a reason to get excited about Toronto Fashion Week: Soia & Kyo is scheduled to show its collection. I’m the proud owner of three of the outerwear label’s coats: one for fall, one for winter and a trench for Spring! My favourite details about the Soia & Kyo coats is the fitted tailoring (very feminine and you don’t get lost in the coat when you’re thin like me), and large, whimsical collars that combine beauty with practicality (they keep you very warm).
Brand designer, Ilan Elfassy, claims to be inspired by “the ‘hipster urban traveler’, someone who is effortlessly fashionable and stands out in the crowd. I also believe in practicality, and that’s why I create styles that can be worn across the globe anywhere and anytime.” Everytime I wear my Soia & Kyo coats I get compliments and I loved telling the New Yorkers who coveted my trench that it was a Canadian label. One of them went online to buy it making me feel like quite the national ambassador.
Edina and Patsy from Ab Fab are the new faces of Alexis Bittar! I used to love watching Absolutely Fabulous starring Joanna Lumley and Jennifer Saunders, which poked fun at the fashion conscious. My favourite line was when fashion editor Patsy was to interview a sports personalty. “Sports personality?” she said, “isn’t that an oxymoron?”
I’ve been reading about Glossybox on other blogs, and now the unique subscription service has arrived in Canada. I was thrilled to receive my first pink Glossybox in the mail which includes five sample beauty products: my favourite nail polish brand, Essie (because it doesn’t chip) in my coveted nail colour, pale pink; a tube of Oscar de la Renta body lotion; Prevage anti-aging night cream; Elizabeth Grant moisturizing stick for lips; and Ahava mineral hand cream.
For the accessible rate of $15, Glossybox will surprise you each month with a new selection of beauty and skin care products. You can go online and create a personal beauty profile to get items tailored to meet your individual needs. Besides providing a practical way to test drive new products without plunging too deeply into you wallet, Glossybox gives us the opportunity to marvel each month and wonder what’s in store while we open our decorative pink box, a precious thing in our sometimes overly ordered lives.
Source: Cashmerejeans.blogspot.com
When we think about ethical fashion, we’re usually referring to clothes, but jewellery is another way we can make a statement about our values. Pippa Small, a Canadian born, London-based artist, anthropologist, and designer, just launched her Spring 2012 collection of ethical jewellery. Already embraced by fans like Rachel McAdams and Julia Roberts, Pippa’s pieces incorporate stones, shells, minerals, beads and other found objects for truly organic treasures.
Pippa furthers her interest in human rights advocacy while practising her art by reviving old traditional jewelry methods and working in Bolivia with the world’s first registered fair-trade gold mine. In 2008, Pippa Small became an ambassador for Survival, the movement for tribal people and the only organization working for tribal peoples’ rights worldwide.
I’ve come to believe in Tim Tebow for what he does off a football field, which is represent the best parts of us, the parts I want to be and so rarely am. Daily Good: I Believe in Tim Tebow
What if there were a way to change bad habits without willpower, and with almost no effort at all? No Meat Athlete: The Simplest, Most Important Key to Changing Anything
Changing your life might appear to be a heavy task…But really it all starts with a small step in the right direction. It’s All About Women: Top Ten Life-Changing Tips
The problem is, we go too fast to hear its cues and/or we’ve been brainwashed not to trust our bodies. Weightless: Finding Peace With Food and Our Bodies
Fashionista: Diane von Furstenberg Sides With Christian Louboutin at Louboutin vs. YSL Court Hearing
Right now, 88% of women in India resort to using dirty rags, newspapers, dried leaves, and even ashes during their periods, because they just can’t afford sanitary napkins. Daily Good: The Inventor Who Disrupted the Period Industry
A fashion story, kind of a love letter if you will, inspired by Dolly Parton’s early days when style was big and hair was even bigger! Piewacket: Unlikely Angel (via IFB)
One professor is exploring how Beyoncé has altered America’s views on race, sex and gender. S2S Magazine: Rutgers Offers Course on Beyonce
As you can see, they’re all pretending to be different sizes. Fussy: This is Why I Cannot Shop Online (via Already Pretty)
When I heard about Fit-to-Flick I was intrigued – not because I’d never heard of a hat you can push your ponytail through…(I have one of those). What’s interesting about Fit-to-Flick is that if you choose to wear it when you aren’t sporting a ponytail you don’t see a huge gaping hole at the back of your head. My ponytail hat was terrfic when I wore a ponytail but when my hair was down it was useless. Also the hole insisted that I wear my ponytail at only one height, not low or high but somewhere in the middle. Very limiting.
Today I received my Fit-to-Flick hat via post and the intelligent design allows for a ponytail by way of a slit which virtually disappears when not in use. Also, the size of the slit allows you to wear your ponytail at pretty much any height you desire. Freedom! Besides its practicality, the hat is fashioned from all natural fibres which are soft, breathable, warm and silky-feeling.
I love the girl power behind this brand and the way its genesis arose from a personal need. Says founder Hannah Bomze:
While traveling through Italy on a wintry visit with my boyfriend, I got sick of taking off my beanie for every photo in an attempt to look decent in photographs. With a ponytail in my hair and the beanie on, the hat didn’t cover my ears properly, my silhouette looked like an alien’s, and my hair was a disaster when I took the hat off for photos. Needless to say it was a rather cold and unphotogenic trip.
Enter Fit-to-Flick. The company began as a school project for a class I was taking at NYU’s Stern School of Business in the spring of 2011. After a semester of many design ideas and conversations with people in the industry, I created a line of headwear that looks chic with or without a ponytail.
Here’s a front and back view of the ‘Charlotte’ style and color I received:
Up-and-coming designer Abi Ferrin built her fashion label around a good cause, instead of adding it on later like many designers. The Freedom Project works to eradicate poverty by rescuing and rehabilitating women from the sex trade. By building her business around The Freedom Project, Abi commissions toggles, buttons, and other pieces from disenfranchised women, providing them with job training and restored dignity and self-worth.
Abi Ferrin’s designs are a symbol of the wearer’s commitment to the global community and helping those less fortunate. The Freedom Project is Ferrin’s charitable foundation that aims to eradicate poverty and rescue women out of human trafficking by providing alternatives to abusive employment. The idea was born through the vision of Abi’s sister, Kelly, who has dedicated her life to humanitarian efforts worldwide, focusing primarily on impoverished and at-risk women and children. Inspired by her sister’s work, Abi began commissioning disenfranchised women from around the world to contribute to every piece sold from the Abi Ferrin collection.
Abi Ferrin’s design collaboration began with the Guardian Village, a non-profit organization in an impoverished region of Nepal and has since expanded to working with Sak Saum in Cambodia. Both organizations counsel, train, and shelter women rescued from the sex trade and other abusive employment situations.
Through rehabilitation, fair pay, and training in their craft, a safe environment is created where they can live and build a sustainable life through their own efforts and accomplishments. Each Abi Ferrin design is enhanced with a special handcrafted button, toggle or other embellishment, hand-made by the women of the Freedom Project which serves as a symbol of freedom and empowerment.
“Not only will you look great, but you’ll feel great too, knowing that your purchase is helping to support women around the world through gainful employment that can help them escape oppression and poverty,” says Ferrin.
Fotoshop by Adobé from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.
Fashionista: Are Today’s Lesser-Known Campaign Stars Alienating Brands’ Target Customers?
Golden Globes red carpet walkers took on a challenge: wearing dresses and designs made using green processes. Refinery 29: Chanel, Valentino, YSL, Tom Ford & More Go Green at the Golden Globes
The relationship between strength and vulnerability is counter-intuitive. Daily Good: How Vulnerability Can Be A Strength
Via Already Pretty: Smaggle: How to Walk in High Heels…And When Not to
Youtube: Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus
I have let go of my inner critic. I don’t need her anymore. By Anika: I don’t need her anymore.
It’s not where we stand but in what direction we are moving. Marc and Angel: 101 Simple Truths We Often Forget
I’ve learned from Fashionista that Mia Wasikowska is the new face of Miu Miu for its Spring/Summer 2012 campaign. If you’re unsure, she’s the actress who portrayed the lead in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. Wasikowska replaces 14-year-old Hailee Steinfeld as Miu’s Miu’s muse, and the first look at Bruce Weber’s shots reveal a series of photos rich in sophistication and dripping with Old World glamour.
I love the textures and pattern mixing. What do you think?
Who wouldn’t want to wear something inspired by candy and Andy Warhol? Adhesif Clothing’s SS12 collection uses reclaimed cottons, silks, and nylons to create pencil skirts, patterned dresses, and feminine blouses in candy colours and a style that derives from Warhol’s 60s pop art. With names like the Sugarmod Dress, the Penny Pencil Skirt, and the Twizzler Dress (whch folds to the size of a handkerchief for you frequent flyers), the collections calls to our innocent, playful, girlish…and eco-friendly sides.
Canadian label Adhesif can be found throughout the country and in Toronto’s Distillery District at the Distill Gallery, 55 Mill Street, as well as online at Etsy.
