Japan’s ‘Lolita’ style: cutesy and disturbing

TOKYO (AFP) ― Outlandish pannier skirts with layers of frilly lace; teenage girls with larger-than-life make-up; a dash of sexuality and lashings of Victoriana are the order of the day for Japan’s Lolita girls.What began as a street fashion two decades ago as youngsters aped the doll-like European styles of baroque and rococo has morphed into a near mainstream movement, with dozens of offshoots.Popular Lolita models such as Misako Aoki were big hits at this autumn’s Japan Fashion Week, showing o

Dec. 21, 2011

CoverGirl pulls ‘enhanced’ Taylor Swift mascara ad

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― A mascara ad featuring Taylor Swift has been pulled from U.S. magazines following a complaint that it had been digitally altered to enhance the looks of the chart-topping country music star.The National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus Claims said Proctor and Gamble, maker of CoverGirl cosmetics,“discontinued the advertisement in question” after it challenged its claims.“The advertising at issue featured a celebrity looking up to highlight her lon

Dec. 21, 2011

Giambattista Valli joins haute couture club

PARIS (AFP) ― Italian designer Giambattista Valli is to join the exclusive club of haute couture fashion, showing a spring-summer collection in Paris next month, organisers said Monday.A Paris commission including existing haute couture labels has awarded the 45-year-old designer the coveted appellation, France’s fashion federation said in a statement ahead of the Jan. 23-26 shows.Haute couture exists only in Paris, where it is a legally protected appellation subject to strict criteria such as t

Dec. 21, 2011

Chinese wines beat Bordeaux in blind tasting

BEIJING (AFP) ― A remote region of northern China that began growing grapes for fine wine just a decade ago has beaten the centuries-old French wine-producing region of Bordeaux in a blind tasting held in Beijing.A group of wine experts ― five French and five Chinese ― ranked the bottles from the remote and sparsely populated Ningxia region above those from Bordeaux at the tasting, held on Wednesday in Beijing.The jury sampled five wines from each region, selecting a cabernet sauvignon from the

Dec. 16, 2011

Job-hunting students primp for success

Male university students apply skin lotion at a job-hunting support fair at Nihonbashi Takashimaya department store in Tokyo.Many of today’s university students ― male and female ― are making greater efforts than previous cohorts to improve their looks to boost their chances of landing a job.Male and female students are taking classes on how to dress appropriately, and having professional photos taken with makeup so their resumes will pass the first stage of applicant screening. Experts recommen

Dec. 5, 2011

Francois Lesage, master embroiderer, dies aged 82

PARIS (AFP) - Francois Lesage, a master embroiderer who for decades crafted exquisite pieces for haute couture giants from Chanel to Yves Saint Laurent, has died aged 82, his workshop said on Thursday.The doyen of French embroidery, a central figure in the fashion world, died in a hospital near his home in Versailles outside Paris on Wednesday night following a long illness, the Lesage workshop told AFP.Lesage took over his father‘s firm aged just 20. In an interview last year, he told AFP how h

Dec. 5, 2011

Francois Lesage, master embroiderer, dies at age of 82

PARIS (AFP) ― Francois Lesage, a master embroiderer who for decades crafted exquisite pieces for haute couture giants from Chanel to Yves Saint Laurent, has died aged 82, his workshop said on Thursday.The doyen of French embroidery, a central figure in the fashion world, died in a hospital near his home in Versailles outside Paris on Wednesday night following a long illness, the Lesage workshop told AFP.Lesage took over his father’s firm aged just 20. In an interview last year, he told AFP how h

Dec. 5, 2011

From toques to tattoos, a kitchen culture change

Stephanie Izard looks like the girl next door, all T-shirt and curly pony tail. Until she wipes the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand. And then you see it.The fish tattoo.“Cooking is an art and tattoos are another form of art,’’ says the chef-owner of Chicago’s acclaimed Girl and the Goat restaurant, showing off the delicate drawing on the inside of her wrist. Roll up her pants and a pea tendril struggles up her calf, a tiny plant becoming strong. A bright green gecko sits on one

Dec. 5, 2011

Is tech friend or foe to Santa Claus?

NEW YORK (AP) ― Kids can video chat with Santa, follow him on Twitter or enlist NORAD to track his every move online. And yet in many ways, technology may be making it harder for parents to keep their children believing in the jolly old elf.At nearly every turn, the Internet threatens to blow the fat man’s cover.Practically any schoolchild can type “Is Santa real?’’ into Google. And just a few clicks can bring youngsters to websites that sell customized letters from the North Pole or offer advic

Nov. 30, 2011

Victoria’s Secret stacks its stage with model moms

NEW YORK (AP) ― It Is not just the push-up bras or feathered wings that give some top Victoria’s Secret models their sexy swagger: It Is their off-the-catwalk lives as mothers that give them their confidence and signature curves, they say.Miranda Kerr, Doutzen Kroes and Alessandra Ambrosio have been crowned VS Angels, so they are among the half-dozen models to get the best outfits and most face time during the lingerie giant’s televised annual fashion show, which was scheduled to air Tuesday nig

Nov. 30, 2011

Lyon’s silk survivors ply noble trade

LYON, France (AFP) ― Heavy rolls of silk printed with a tiny stirrup motif line up on a factory floor near Lyon, waiting to be rolled, beaten and brushed to perfection, before they are cut into Hermes neckties.Based outside the eastern French city, silk “finisher” Proverbio is one of a handful of survivors of a once-flourishing industry, which from farm to weaver to trader employed many thousands at its height in the 19th century.Today the thread comes from China or Brazil, but Lyon still counts

Nov. 28, 2011

Fashion comes of age for boomers

MIAMI ― Baby boomer women might not want to wear their daughters’ jeans and men may refuse to don muscle shirts, but the generation that brought us tie-dye still wants to remain fashionable and hip well into middle age.How to monetize that desire is both a marketer’s conundrum and dream.“Even with mature figures, boomers want to have fashionable options,” says Roseanne Morrison, fashion director for The Doneger Group, an industry consultant. “That doesn’t stop just because you hit a certain age.

Nov. 23, 2011