CFDA announces 26 new fashion designers

At a meeting last week, the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA)’s Board of Directors ratified the addition of 26 new designers to its membership, bringing the group’s total to 427.

The new Members are:   Joseph Altuzarra, Coomi Bhasin, Vince Camuto, Jean-Michel Cazabat, Emily Current, Carly Cushnie, Rachel Dooley, Meritt Elliot, Judy Geib, Nili Lotan, Pamela Love, Paul Marlow, Jana Matheson, Yvan Mispelaere, Lauren Moffatt, Jeffrey Monteiro, LeAnn Nealz, Kerry O’Brien, Michelle Ochs, Shimon Ovadia, Ariel Ovadia, Gabriela Perezutti, Lisa Perry, Tadashi Shoji, Tabitha Simmons, Rachel Zoe.

“CFDA membership is a prestigious honor but it also comes with real benefits in helping designers grow their businesses,” said Steven Kolb, CEO of the CFDA. “We look forward to being of service to the class of 2012 and celebrating their unique talents.”

CFDA admissions occur each spring. Prospective CFDA Members must contact the CFDA to request admissions materials. Eligible candidates may be American citizens designing in the United States or abroad or foreign nationals with businesses based in the United States.

The application for membership includes a resume, a portfolio, and other materials that represent the candidate’s work to date, and two letters of recommendation from active CFDA Members in the same area of design.

The Admissions Committee who then recommends selected candidates for membership to the Board of Directors, which must ratify each candidate, reviews all submissions.

Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA)

Moschino Cheap and Chic Resort 2013 Collection

It's a vintage nautical party at Moschino Cheap and Chic as the brand put on display various vintage inspired items infused with nautical details for the resort 2013 season. Check out the oh-so-wearable chic designes featured in the newest collection signed by the label and draw inspiration stylish summer outfits!

Fashion designers cause a stir every season at the unveiling of their newest creations and since the pre-spring 2013 season has just debuted with some of the most impressive designs, we have to draw an alarm signal and have you take a peek at one of the season's oh-so-fabulous fashion collection that exudes that relaxed chicness resort-wear is supposed to be all about. Moschino Cheap and Chic resort 2013 collection is overlapping various styles that create a one of a kind, eye catching look, worthy for a true fashionista, making the collection a definite must-see.

Fashion is fabulous as it provides the opportunity to make a statement through the way you dress, underlining at the same time your personality, mood and uniqueness, so let your imagination run wild and mix and match items that are all about you. This resort 2013 season Moschino Cheap and Chic is bringing into attention vintage details and nautical themes that match perfectly the requirements of the new fashion season.

Most fashion designers chose to go all elegant with their creations but it seems that Rossella Jardini, Mochino's creative director, opted to maintain the airy, vacation-feel vibe resort-wear is all about, and chose to draw inspiration from the English countryside as well as the navy scene as numerous details instantly underline the muse for the collection.

The Kardashian Kollection Goes Nautical for Spring Summer 2012

The new season has inspired the Kardashian sisters to create an entirely new collection. Nautical seems to be the theme behind the new Kardashian Kollection for spring summer 2012, so check out the new designs and pick your new season favorites!  

The Kardashian sisters are making sure the new season is packed with stylish elements as they have just revealed their new Kardashian Kollection for the spring summer 2012 season, a collection which features a playful, nautical theme. The new nautical style Kardashian Kollection brings fun colors center stage this upcoming season as the beauty of stylish colors and pretty stripe prints can never be overlooked.

With an empire on the rise, the Kardashian sisters have transposed their penchant for fashion into the design field for Sears, and it seems that the trio's ideas are thriving. Bringing stylish and wearable designs at an affordable price, the Kardashian Kollection available for sale at Sears seems to be making its way to success.

Fashion is constantly bringing new elements to the surface, as constant changes help maintain a fresh vibe that will never cease to make heads turn. For the spring summer 2012 season, the Kardashian Kollection spring summer 2012 collection brings both casual and vintage details to the fashion scene, so you can mix and match various items to create a chic up-to-date look.

Featuring amazing bright colored details, the Kardashian Nautical Kollection comes with lovely maxi dresses, feminine blouses, stylish boyfriend T-shirts, cute stripe tanks as well as vintage style wide leg-high waist pants. The designs have been created to allow versatility to dominate, meaning the pieces can be mixed and patched and paired with heels or flats depending on the look you're going for. Keep things casual or add a bit more elegance to your look by accessorizing the items as desired and you're surely going to make heads turn this spring summer 2012 season.

The colors used in the creation process are in perfect sync with the nautical theme of the collection, so prepare to be dominated by red, navy, black and white colors, monochrome or mixed to create an eye catching, color clashing effect. Sailor-up with the new Kardashian Nautical Kollection already available for purchase and get a bit of that Kardashian chicness that seems to hypnotize from first glimpse.

Christian Lacroix does Rio

I’d been wondering if the holiday mood of Milanwould head underground for Paris fashion week(PFW), but Lacroix’s spring 2013 opening of a sunshine yellow jacket kept the sun shining for day 1. T-shirt prints names after Rio, Venice Beach, Coney Island had a peppy 80s postcard vibe, on occasion paired with graphic print pants. But this mood of printed tees with rolled up sleeves was more often matched by tailoring that had a Parisian formality.

Still there was a sense that Lacroix wanted to strip things back to a simple, often quite sporty, level. Surf jackts, windbreakers, and parkas were a replacement for more structured forms of outerwear; but that in no way preculded a set of tailored looks that were holidaying with elegance.

You can see all of the Christian Lacroix spring / summer 2013 runway collection by clicking on a thumbnail on the left. From there you can browse through each of the pictures from the fashion show.

Versace Couture Catwalk

VERSACE is returning to the couture catwalk in July with two shows at Paris' iconic Ritz Hotel. The label returned to the schedule last season to show its spring/summer 2012 collection via a presentation - and the venue choice marks another return to familiar ground for Donatella Versace.

The Ritz was the site of her brother Gianni's last runway show in 1997 before his death, as well as many other Atelier Versace shows until the line was suspended in 2004. The hotel will close on July 31 for extensive renovation following the show on July 1.

"It is with tremendous emotion that I return to the Ritz where I shared so many special moments with my brother," Donatella Versace said. "The closing of the Ritz Paris for two years represents the end of an era but also the beginning of a new one, so to be able to show Atelier Versace there one last time will be a memorable milestone."

Women in Music 2012

Kelly Clarkson

“Thanks to you I’m finally thinking ’bout me/ You know in the end the day you left was just my beginning.”—“What Doesn’t Kill You (Stronger)”

When Kelly Clarkson first started churning out fist-pumping breakup anthems a decade ago, we couldn’t help but wonder: What kind of jerk would wrong her? “What’s funny is that most times I don’t even write about a boyfriend,” she says. “A lot of it is about work relationships.” After winning American Idol’s first season in 2002, the steel-lunged Dallas native signed to RCA—a label she admits “didn’t pick me, I just won”—then publicly argued with chairman Clive Davis over creative control on her five albums, which have sold 20 million copies worldwide. Her latest, Stronger, is the most rock-tinged—she lets out guitar-backed rebel yells with an unmanufactured honesty that carries over into her personal life. “There’s not a lot to say about me because I’m not dramatic, or in rehab, or doing something stupid,” she says, though speculation around the 30-year-old’s perpetual single status persists. “If people think I’m a lesbian, that’s fine, but it’s not helping me in my cause to find a man!

Glam Slam: Kirsten Dunst's Girly Glam

Kirsten Dunst was the epitome of summer chic in her white embroidered Dolce & Gabbana dress at a photo call for her film "On The Road" at the Cannes Film Festival. Her hair and makeup perfectly accentuated her easy, breezy style and here's how you can achieve the same look, courtesy of her beauty squad.

WHO: Hairstylist Marcus Francis BEAUTY INSPIRATION: "The feeling Kirsten and I were going for was flirty, undone, with a bit of whimsical to play off the very girly Dolce & Gabbana headband."

PLAY IT NOW: Glamour Magazine’s ‘Reel’ Moments

GET THE LOOK: "I prepped the hair with Phyto Volume Actif on damp hair and blew the hair dry with a boar's hair round brush. Keeping the hairlines smooth while allowing for flyaways elsewhere, I sectioned the hair on the side from the front with a middle part down the back. I applied Oribe Dry Texturizing Spray throughout for added texture. Placing the headband back from the hairline leaving a bit of swoop of the bangs, I took three sections on each side and randomly twisted and pinned upward close to the headband. Subtle flyways add to this style making more wearable and modern and less feeling like a wedding."

WHO: MAKEUP ARTIST ADAM BREUCHAUD BEAUTY INSPIRATION: "We went with a soft sculpted eye and brow for this demure daytime look."

VIEW THE PHOTOS: Cannes Film Festival 2012

GET THE LOOK: "Silky luminous beige and rusty rose reflect the light and help open up the eye. Diorshow Blackout Mascara lifts and defines her lash. We groomed her brows with MAC Eye Brows Crayon in Fling and brushed through them with Dior Brow Gel for shape to finish this fresh yet done up look. We then paired her eye with a great saturated flesh tone lip and cheek -- YSL Rouge Volupte Lipstick in Ultimate Beige and Stila Convertible Color in Lilium.

Dolce & Gabbana releases its video campaign with Bianca Balti

After releasing some teaser photos in February, Dolce & Gabbana has now unveiled the advertising film for its new line of eyewear -- frames and sunglasses. Directed by Luca Finotti and photographed by Giampaolo Sgura, this new campaign features Italian modelBianca Balti, who appears in a retro look with strong 1950s influences.

The Matt-Silk collection by Dolce & Gabbana uses classic shapes and colors like cherry red, taupe, cerluean blue as well as lipstick pink, earth brown and jet black.

In the words of the brand, the collection is "cool, pretty and perfectly in tune with this season's main trend: Fifties."

The spokesmodel for this new line, Bianca Balti,  was also featured in the design duo's 2012 spring/summer jewelry collection

Bountiful bikinis at Rio fashion week

Rio de Janeiro (AP) — Just how many variations can you spin off the marvel of simplicity that is the bikini?

Judging by the options on spectacular display at FashionRio, the Marvelous City's five-day-long summer 2013 fashion extravaganza, the options are endless.

Fancy pairing your string bikini top with spandex pants hung with rows of seductively dangling fringe, which provide so much more coverage than the country's traditional "fio dental" or "dental floss" bottoms? Rio's got just the thing for you.

Toying with the idea of kitting out your two-piece with a chain mail sheath emblazoned with a palm tree? Look no further.

Bikinis are Brazilian designers' bread and butter, so while their winter collections tend to fall flat, with half-hearted attempts at outerwear, summer reliably sizzles. And the southern hemisphere summer collections that will hit the beach this coming January were no exception.

Sao Paulo-based label Triya served up the season's most eye-popping options, a psychedelic rainbow that broke the beachwear mold. Beyond the fringed pant bikini, the brand's brainchild, were tiny bottoms paired with long sleeve spandex tops cropped short to show off the models' abs and a zebra-printed bandeau top that sprouted an ankle length skirt in aubergine silk with a bold slit up one side.

Swimsuits more in name than in function, many of Triya's offerings looked like what you might wear to an ultra-chic beachside rave thrown by a billionaire. Putting aside the inevitable inconveniences of wearing a flowing silk ball gown to the beach, the only drawback to the wildly creative offerings were the bizarre tan lines they'd be sure to leave.

Cia. Maritima brought out the big guns - Victoria's Secret angel Izabel Goulart among other Brazilian-born supermodels - to show off its teeny-weeny bikinis. Goulart rocked the catwalk in a leopard print string bikini fitted with a sexy spider's web of thin yellow straps. Aline Weber, a regular on top runways in New York and Paris, worked a one-piece with cute cap sleeves and bold cutouts at the midriff. The pineapple prints gave a mouthwateringly tropical touch to the toothsome collection.

Va-va-voom one-pieces emerged as major winners here, with just about everyone who is anyone in Brazilian swimwear sending out variations on the vampish maillot. Top high-street beachwear label Blue Man sent out white swimsuits decidedly not made for anyone's grandma, with how-low-can-you-go V necks. And a strapless one-piece had hiplines that started at just under the bust, the whole seemingly precarious contraption held, one can only hope, in place by a low-slung belt.

Lenny, Brazil's reigning queen of patrician swimwear, served up racerback tanks that looked like they'd been tagged by a Rio graffiti artist and bikinis whose fuller coverage was undermined by a cat claw of strategically placed slashes. Paired with the bikini tops, the short, flippy skirts would make for the perfect transition from the sands of Ipanema to cocktail hour at the beachfront Hotel Fasano, among Rio's chicest and most expensive.

A raucous, theatrical show by streetwear label Reserva wrapped up FashionRio in style late Saturday.

Models of all ages, from toddlers to septuagenarians, and several ethnicities frolicked, skipped and breakdanced on a catwalk strewn, like a sprawling bourgeois home, with couches and armchairs and an oversized dining room table. The soundtrack pumped as the models sat down for a family lunch and then boogied over the photographers' pit to pull off their best dance moves in front of the snapping flashbulbs.

With its preppy multi-ethnic family vibe, the show had a sort of Abercrombie & Fitch thing going, but at the same time felt more authentically Brazilian than many of the week's other shows, most of which featured just a sprinkling of nonwhite models.

Euro 2012 style watch: Beanie man

 

Yes the Croatians crushed the Irish, whatever. In sartorial news, which is, naturally, this parish's prime interest in all matters Euro 2012, Croatiachief Salven Bilic went to the top of group C in the style stakes. His Nike beanie was an interesting contrast to his dark suit and added a touch of menace to the sideline chic. We're juding it on aesthetic terms because the weather in Poznan isn't especially cold, which means the hat wasn't necessarily a practical call. Unless, of course, it was simply a bar hair day. Only Bilic knows. It'll be interesting to see what headgear he chooses against those chic Italians come Thursday.