Indigenous fashion makes a comeback with a contemporary twist on Mexican runways

Source From: http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/indigenous-fashion-makes-a-comeback-with-a-contemporary-twist-on-mexican-runways/2011/11/14/gIQAUJa9KN_story.html

MEXICO CITY — The models who strode the runway at a recent fashion show here were not only showing off the latest in Mexican designs for hundreds of spectators. Wearing midriff-baring tunics and silk tops emblazoned with bright patterns resembling hieroglyphs, they were also harkening way back to their country’s sartorial past.

Growing numbers of Mexican designers are drawing inspiration from the pre-Columbian clothing widely worn during the country’s bicentennial celebrations last year, and they’re coming up with fashions that give tradition a contemporary twist.

Known as huipiles, the long and loose tunics designed with vivid patterns of birds, flowers and geometrical shapes had for centuries identified the origin and marital status of indigenous women in Mexico and Central America.

The huipiles (pronounced wee-PEE-lays) are now being produced with manufactured and non-native fabrics such as silk rather than the cotton and wool that generations of women had worn along with finely woven lace. The clothing has also picked up sex appeal with the cleavage-baring dresses and belly shirts seen in Mexico’s trendiest fashion houses.

If anything, the new designs represent a revival for a clothing tradition that has recently fallen out of favor in poverty-stricken Mexican villages where generations of young people have both left behind their homes and their customs.

Designer Lydia Lavin said the resurgence began last year with the indigenous-inspired garments worn by politicians, artists and other public figures during Mexico’s $40 million festivities.

“We began to see how people were reassessing Indian art,” said another designer, Paulina Fosado. “Before, if you were to put something indigenous on, they would ask you ‘Why would you wear that?’ Now it’s in style.”

In their most recent show, Fosado and her twin sister Malinali Fosado unveiled a peach-colored cocktail dress with pink and orange floral embroidery, sleeves made of silk chiffon and a neckline plunging to just above the navel. Another model wore a puffy violet dress and a shawl with beaded fringe that had been sewn into the piece.

Some dresses dipped down to the small of the back, while other pieces were hand-woven with cotton and wool thread to form geometrical patterns of birds, leaves and flowers. Paulina Fosado said she and her sister balanced the use of heavy textiles with lighter, softer fabrics to create “dresses with a lot of movement.”

The Fosados’ goal is to turn the clothing into an internationally recognized symbol of Mexican identity, like what the kimono is to Japan or the sari is to India.

Ana Paula Fuentes, director of the Oaxaca Textile Museum, says many aspiring designers have stopped by her institution offering to work as volunteers to learn how to make the traditional clothing.

She said for centuries, the technique was passed down among indigenous women in southern Mexico and Central America, where since childhood they learned skills such as using the backstrap loom, in which weavers fasten panels to their waists and hand-spin naturally colored cotton threads between fibers.

New Zealand Fashion Week: Flirty, Angular, a Bit Wintery

Source From: http://blogs.wsj.com/scene/2011/09/05/new-zealand-fashion-week-flirty-angular-a-bit-wintery/?mod=google_news_blog

The girliness of 1950s dressing squared up against the big, the bold and the angular of ’80s couture, as New Zealand designers sent a flirty but well-cut look down the catwalk.

Local designers launched their 2012 winter collections at the country’s Fashion Week in Auckland, New Zealand because, although the country is heading into the summer season, the show is just as much about impressing Northern Hemisphere buyers as the local industry.

New Zealand’s fashion industry remains in its adolescence but has growth considerably since the inception of Fashion Week in 2001. More than 50 New Zealand designers have showcased collections this year.

While designers like World, Karen Walker, Zambesi and Untouched World are now available internationally, the event also gives lesser-known designers a chance to broaden their buyer base.

New Zealand’s fashion industry is estimated to contribute around 240 million New Zealand dollars (US$204.2 million) annually in exports — a figure that does not take into account New Zealand designers who manufacture offshore and export to those markets — and has grown about 20% since the country began holding Fashion Week.

Fashion News: Helen Mirren, David Beckham are 'Bodies of the Year'

Source From: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/alltherage/2011/08/fashion-news-helen-mirren-david-beckham.html

In a poll conducted by gym chain L.A. Fitness, 2,000 respondents said that Dame Helen Mirren is the "Body of the Year." At 66, Mirren beat out Jennifer Lopez, Pippa Middleton and Elle MacPherson, among others. Winning on the male side: soccer star (and model and budding clothing designer) David Beckham.

There was another royal-ish wedding over the weekend. Zara Phillips -- cousin to Britain's Prince William, daughter of Princess Royal Anne and granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II -- married rugby player Mike Tindall. The bride wore a full-skirted gown in silk faille and duchess satin with a chevron pleated corseted bodice, by couturier Stewart Parvin, and a fine tulle veil.

Prince William's wife, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, kept things low-key at the wedding, careful not to upstage the bride. The Duchess wore a cream coat that she's been seen in before. As far back as Laura Parker Bowles' wedding in 2006, in fact.

The price of gold reached an all-time high of $1,637.50 an ounce on Friday. This is a big reason we're seeing less gold, and more gemstones, in jewelry.

Biographer Lisa Chaney has a new book on Coco Chanel scheduled for release in November, and in it she claims to have evidence that the designer used drugs, embraced bisexuality and had an affair with a married Salvador Dalí. Oh, and that one of her lovers spied for the Nazis. I'm not sure how much of this is supposed to be surprising.

Gucci has launched a fashion app for the iPhone and iPad. It's available in eight languages at the Apple App Store.