The Fashionable Pet

No fashionista is complete without a dog that is dolled up as much as she is. There is no sense wearing Chanel and then walking a dog that looks like a dirty bath mat around. Thank goodness there are ways of pampering your fur kid nowadays so that he or she looks as good as you.

There are all sorts of products and businesses nowadays that cater to making pets look as fashionable as their owners. You can also get your pet’s nails painted or have the sprayed down with their own special eau de toilette parfum.

All kinds of different pet pampering products have been launched this year to allow the little critters to imitate the beauty routines of their owners. There are bubble baths and pet friendly scents. You can also buy creams to polish and condition your pet’s fur so it is as sleek, shiny and as well behaved as yours.

One of the hottest trends is to paint your pet’s nails. Nail polish for pet is available in a range of colors from crimson to pale pink. Perhaps Miss Mew would look good with green, gold or purple nails as well. I guess the color of polish should suit their fur color. For instance a black cat might look best with really gold or red claws and a white one might look good with blue or pink claws.

You can also now dye your pet’s hair. Of course your pet should have white hair in the fur in the first place. It is a very BAD and dangerous idea to try and bleach a dog or cat’s hair. Specialty dog groomers can dye the fur of a light colored animal either pink, orange or gold.

If your pet is not slim or rich enough or even calm enough you can always get a slimming pill supplement from your vet. Also available are relaxation sprays which are the equivalent of aromatherapy for pets. However here is another important thing to note. Essential oils are actually toxic to most pets. Never spray a pet with any type of oil or you could burn their skin. Cats in particular tend to absorb the oils through their skin and get very sick.

For the longest time now pets have actually been toted around as a fashion accessory. Lots of actors and actresses have little pets. Geri Halliwell, Uma Thurman, Nicole Richie and of course Paris Hilton are rarely seen without a little dog in their bag.

Of course there are also lots of pet fashions out there. There are theme outfits such as Fire Fighter’s uniforms, ballerina skirts and even dominatrix outfits. Most of them are designed to fit the smaller dogs. You can even get things like raincoats and little boots for your pet’s feets. Of course there is no end to the selection of hats and even little wigs that you can strap on your pet’s head to enhance their appearance.

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Does Fashion Ignore Body Shapes

According to a study done at the University of North Carolina the fashion industry is doing a good job of ignoring women’s body shapes. The conclusion is that the industry is still making clothes that only fit the traditional hourglass figure when nowadays women are much fatter and ten to be pear shaped, rectangular or heavy.

The study found that only eight percent of women had the sort of figure that Sophia Loren has and yet fashion designers and cloths maker still insist on making clothes that fit that body shape. Nowadays the shape of women tends to be more rectangular. In general the waist is less than nine inches smaller than the hips or bust. Many women are the pear shape, which means that they have hips two inches larger then their busts. Alost fourteen percent of women has body shapes like upside down triangles. This means that their busts are three or four more inches bigger than their hips.

The study was commissioned by North Carolina State University who did a two year study of American body types. Alva products commissioned it. This is a manufacturer of designer’s mannequins who were determined to force the industry to design clothes for the general populace and to stay away from designing clothing for an hourglass shaped minority. It was time to finally get down to the truth about how people are really shaped.

Basically the main conclusion of this study is that the way clothes are designed is right out date. The study also interested some fashion houses like Liz Clairborne. A vice president named David Baron at Liz Claiborne stated that the company would use this information to try and create better fitting garments. Yet another designer that showed interest in the study was Katherine Hamnett who agreed that the size ten hour glass fantasy was now out. She also stated that she thought they were sticking doggedly to a tradition.

The idea that larger women are great to design for is a myth that the study was also tryihng to abolished. It is not exactly true that you have to be slim hikpped to be beautiful. People who have 42 inch hips are now celebrities. A really good example is Jennifer Lopez. It is also not how fat you are but also how physically fit you are. Fashion should be enhancing the beauty of women of any shape or size.

The big news is that women’s waistlines have expanded by six inches since the fifties. This means that the design of garments should also be in line with that new figure shape. The problem is that many of clothes designed today are actually based on very antiquated ideas about fashion. The study encourages us to see bigger body shapes as beautiful and to discard the thin bulimic body shapes once and for all. Also out the window is the typical hourglass, as women just do not have waists that are ten inches smaller than the breasts any more

Hannah Montana for Teens

Designer Judy Swartz knows hers stuff when it comes to designing for teen girls. Back in the 90s she was the designer that was responsible for the highly successful Kate and Ashley line. This trendy merchandise was very popular in Wal Mart. It is also popular with the Tween set – so much so that as a designer she is known as the Queen of Tweens.

Now this designer has created a new collection for Tweens, which is being sold in Wal-mart called the Hanna Montana collection. These clothes were meant to help her launch her own upscale brand.

The name of this collection is Judy B and it already is a big hit with kid’s everyway. The reason that her clothes are so popular is because they make kids look sophisticated. This goes over well with kids nowadays who would rather look like they were dressing for the Paris runway than like they were going to MacDonald’s. This is because tweens nowadays are into reading fashion magazines and are up on the latest celebrity styles. These tween designs really do satisfy their desire to look stylish. Looking stylish is also good for a tween’s self-esteem.

The Hannah Montana collection is really cute and consists of cardigans with bows, velvet jeans, polka dot printed skirts, sequined tops and skirts. Many of the skirts have a bit of tulle peeking out from under the hem for that extra glamorous look. The designer also does some of her clothing in black which is also very appealing. She describes the look as being very “bling-bling.”

There are also sweater dusters with flower corsages, chiffon dresses with sequins and ruffles and T-shirts with elegant yet cool designs done in rhinestones. The more embellishments the clothing has the more the kids like it.

Before taking on the Olsen twins Swartz was a rock n roll stylist who dressed many different types of artists including the band REO Speedwagon, Eddie Money and Laura Branigan. She has also done tons of designs for made for many movies and mini series. In fact that is how she met theOlsen twins. She needed to design clothes for them both on and off screen. It was the outfits that she designed for their short-lived series “Two of a Kind” that made the most impact. It then became Swartz’s passion to try and design clothes that would become popular with the millions of girls that were enamored of the identical twins.

Girls began showing up to the show tapings dressed like the twins and before Swartz knew it she had a deal with Disney and Walmart to produce her clothing designs on a mass scale. In fact if you have a fashion conscious teen this is one of the most affordable brands and also one of the most stylish.

Is Fur Still Fashionable?

This is the season when you start seeing fur on the catwalk again. The question is – is it still fashionable? Not if you are an animal activist.

Well it seems quite a few animal right protestors would say that fur is definitely the least ecologically correct thing that you could ever wear. One of the most famous incidents was the Julian Macdonald fashion show last year when his fur-laden fashions on the runway were pelted with flour by protestors following his Convent Garden show on opening night. MacDonald was coated from head to toe with flours as well as he posed with Paris Hilton at an after show party.

There was a similar incident in February 2003 when demonstrators stormed the catwalk holding “Fur is dead” placards. The designer’s defense was that his fashions are made from rabbits that are killed from food and are therefore by products of the food industry.

Yet another big enemy of PETA is American Vogue’s editor Anna Wintour. She isnotorious for wearing a big black fur coat and dark glasses to fashion shows. Furthermore she is repeatedly targeted in the United States by PETA protestors for refusing to ban models and furs from the pages of Vogue. She has had protestors jump naked into a bath of fake blood outside her offices, been sent packages of maggot ridden animal guts and had cream pies thrown in her face. PETA also refers to her as the “Fur Witch.”

In an other really famous incident an activist approached her in a New York restaurant nod heaved a dead raccoon in her soup while calling her a “fur hag.” Wintour’s fashionably cool response was to order the wiater to remove the dead raccoon and simply continue eating.

In essence PETA’s position is that there is nothing fashionable about torturing and killing an animal for their pelts. In fact it is distinctly ugly and the practice of fashion victims of the worst kind.

Although MacDonald and Wintour are common targets they are not alone. In 2001 he was hit with a tofu cream pie when he arrived at the Council of Fashion Designers of America Awards celebration in New York.

Prada shows have also been targeted. With splatters of red paint to represent blood.Sometimes PETA gets it back. At a Paul Gautier show that was protested by PETA the designer’s assistant began to throw fur at the protesters!

It is also not unusual to see PETA protestors in malls. Usually they are naked and lying on the floor. They carry signs that say, “We would rather be naked than wear fur “ or “We would rather be dead than wear fur.”

PETA also has its celebrity members. The Pretender’s lead singer Chrissie Hynde was arrested in March 2000 for protesting the use of leather by the GAP. If you are a fan of a PETA personality like Hynde maybe you wouldn’t think it so fashionable.

Trends in Bracelets

Bracelets are a good contemporary choice in jewelry. They are incredibly versatile. Celebrities everywhere are wearing bracelets. They actually went out of style in the nineties in favor of corded styles but now the more elaborate or thicker bracelet is in style.

One popular style is one that Cleopatra wore millions of years ago. The snake arm cuff or wrist cuff is making a come back. The last time it was really big was in the Art Nouveau period of history. These bracelets feature a snakehead with rhinestones. The tail of the snake usually wraps around arm. Some of these bracelet styles have hinges and some are elasticized so they can fit any arum or wrist. Another type is elasticized like a watchband.

Another big trend is pearls. Pearls never actually go out of style but they are cheap. The darker colored pearls in chocolate, dark red, mustards or black are very much in style. Many celebrities have been seen on the red carpet wearing black pearl earrings and bracelets.

Pearls make a great fashion statement whether you are wearing them in multiple strands or as a single strand. A huge trend right now is pearls with chain link or pearls and diamonds together.

Be sure to b careful with them and store them separately from other jewelry in a soft bag or they could get badly scratched. Pearls should always be wiped with a clean, soft clothe but never washed with soap. There is nothing like real pearls but if you can’t splurge you can always by wearing imitation pink pearls. However you do get what you pay for and these types of pearls tend to chip and peel.

Cuffs are back in bracelet styling and you can get them in wood, snakeskin, sliver, gold and Lucite. Metal cuffs are even seen being worn high up on arm near the elbow. Some are quite long and thick. Many are still worn loose on the wrist. One popular look boasted by many celebrities features three or four cuffs tacked on top of one another.

Although the look of a solid silver cuff is appealing you can make your own fashionable cuff simply by stacking ten to twenty Hollywood bangles on your arm. You can usually get these in your local little India. They are sold in groups of ten to twenty.

Another look is the leather bracelet such as the ones designed by Chan Lou. These are beaded wrap bracelets that can be worn on the wrist or wrapped around the upper arm. These are sometimes called Leather Wrap bracelet.

Thick bracelets scattered with diamonds or rhinestones area also in vogue. Sarah Jessica Parker even boasts one of these in the new Sex and the City movie.

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Free Flowing Summer Fashion

When thinking summer fashion start thinking about flowing water and you get the idea about how you should look walking down the street. The easy breezy hippie look is always suitable once the weather get really hot. Think “The Mommas and The Pappas” and California dreaming. Wear lots of bangles and leather cord jewellery. Don’t be afraid to coil a metal snake on your upper arm. A flower in your hair, especially a real one, also completes the look.

These are a few of the summer trends that will work the best for you this fall.

Big Hats – To truly look like you are California dreaming you need a big fedora hat. Whether it is in velvet or straw it looks best accompined by a big bright flowing scarf. Other carefree summer nights include a newsboy cap, a beanie or a printed head scarf. These types of accessories add an edge to any outfit and give it that free flowing factor that is so confident yet so casual at the same time.

To complete the look get a pair of gladiator sandals. Think Spartacus or the movie Gladiator. The hottest sandals wrap all the way up the leg and almost to the knees. They look quite great paired with cut off jean shorts and a white tea shirt or with a short summer dress.

Blouses look great over skin tight cut off and tight tops. You can also peair them with a blouse skirt or something else that is very easy to just throw on. You can get big billowy pirate styles or cotton styles at Indian stores. Shiny satin shirts are also in vogue. The idea is to wear them long, open, unbuttoned, loose and flowing.

You can also get one-piece bathing suits that are very reminiscent of summertime in the seventies. There are many fifties retro bathing suits on the market that are ruched, thus adding shaping and coverage where it is most needed. They cover figure flaws and you can also look very hip in these suits as well. You can buy them with skirts. A popular look is the overskirt, in a big crazy print, tied over the bathing suit like skirt. These are sometimes called modesty skirts but all they really are is huge scarves.

An easy hairstyle also helps you look summery. A natural sweeping hairstyle is very in. Keep it breezy whether or not your hair is long or short. Keep it long enough to sweep it up in a ponytail. This summer promises to turn out some scorching August days. You can do this style with bangs or not. The idea is to have feathery hair. For a change of style you can also try tying a scarf around your head so you look very seventies as well.

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The Silver and Diamond Trend

If you are planning to buy new jewelry you have probably been a little bit concerened with some of the trends out there. If you are fashionable you are going to want more contemporary stylings.

Right now one of the most fashionable materials for jewelry is silver. Silver a material that tells others that you are contemporary in choices. Silver is popular because it goes with just about everything. It also helps to make you look a little more bohemian which is also very hip. The most fashionable combinations in jewelery are the silver and gold ones.

However this does not mean that you can’t still wear gold. Right now it is very trendy to wear white gold. White gold is more valuable but if you are looking for a hip design you may not want to wear anything silver. Silver is definitely cheaper and more versatile and it does go with absolutely everything. Also it if the style of your bling goes out of style you don’t lose as much on cost per wear if you actually stop wearing it.

Silver and gemstone jewelery can be matched to any type of clothing. It goes from classic to very casual very quickly as well. Gemstones come in all colors so it is easy to match them to your clothes. Of course silver set with diamonds goes with everything. You can also buy very elegant earrings, necklaces and bracelets as a set that go together perfectly.

The trendiest look is the pave diamond or the white gol and platinum piece incrassated with rows of diamonds. This is the ultimate bling. Sometimes it is easier to buy diamonds like this as well.

The look right now is for smaller more elegant designs but you can still get the big jewelery. What’s also good is that these are now made so that they are also light looking.

If you don’t like the look of metal you can also get titanium and diamond rings now. Titanium is quite cool looking as it imulticolored and a bit rustic. Titanium diamond rings are an excellent choice for men. You can also get art pieces made out stone, pearls, gemstones, wood and bone as well. Many diamond pieces are quite arty these days as well and you can get them in all kinds of different colors and styles. The big canary diamonds are popular and so are huge pink gems – especially if they are set in a big ring.

No matter what material or color you choose, the most important thing is that jewelry must serve as a fulfillment of your style. While choosing your accessory, the first thing you should consider is whether the jewelry will serve its function and match perfectly with your clothing and its coloring. However, don’t ever purchase the thing you don’t like.

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Men’s Twister Jeans

The hot jeans for summer for men are the new Levi’s Twister jeans. This is a new cut of jeans made by the famous denim company that are available in a range of colors and cuts including the boot cut and skinny fit. The jeans are unusual because they are designed to fit comfortably around the body’s natural form. The distinctive seam runs from the outside of the ankle and in towards the knee. They look good with a baseball neck T-Shirt or a plain sweater. You can also team it up with a sweatshirt to just look cool and casual. A more formal look can be achieved wearing them with a button down shirt. You can look like a rock star if you wear it with a very formal shirt with a ruffled neck.

These Twister jeans make a man look quite youthful. The line of the jeans is clean, straight and well fitting to show off a man’s assets. They look really good with a Western style checked shirt and a pair of cowboy boots as well. They make a casual but very stylish first impression and are good to wear to sem0casual occasions where you don’t want to look like you tried too hard to dress up but still want to look drop dead sexy.

The Levi company really tried to be innovative with these jeans and their cleverness shows in the jean’s cut. Apparently they are very popular with the younger set and there is a lot of seaming in the jeans that makes you extra sexy in all the right places. Even slightly heavier men look good in these jeans. They are the equivalent of sexy women’s jeans that have butt lifting and other enhancing seams where needed.

Like most of the Levi jeans on the market these new twister ones are available in a variety of fabrics and colors. The darker blues are more dressy and in most cases can be worn to the office. The stone washed, acid washed and sky blue jeans look better on a beach or touch football field. The black jeans are good for those who want to adopt that sexy “vampire cowboy” look. Blazers and a pair of canvas shoes look great with this type of jean because they are so well fitting. Like women’s jeans they compliment you in all the right places.

Twister jeans look like they might become the new staple in many male wardrobes. They are destined to be the new classic when it comes to the new male skinny fit style of jeans. They are very casual but attention getting. You can wear them in the summer and the winter as well.

What’s In the Best Perfumes?

The best perfumes tend to share some very standard ingredients and you should keep this in mind if you want to buy a quality product. The best perfumes are made from plants and not synthetic. The less synthetic a perfume is the more expensive it is as it can be pricey to make perfumes derived from aromatic compounds and oils. The sources and prices fro the raw ingredients can really vary, even seasonally, depending on its availability. Synthetic scents are usually made from pine resins and petroleum distillates.

The most common barks used in making perfume are cinnamon and cascarilla. Flowers are also common in perfume with rose, jasmine, mimosa, osamanthus, tuberose and fruit blossoms being the most common source of scent in contemporary perfumes.

The highest end perfumes will have flower derivatives in them from juniper berry and vanilla, which are both hip scents for 2008. Lavender, violets, rosemary and patchouli have also been popular in scents for the past few years. Honey, ambergris and musk also add a retro touch to this year’s scents.

If you have oily skin you will retain a perfume scent better. Perfume vapors rise upwards so it is a good idea to put it lower down on your body if you want someone to really enjoy the scent wafting off of you.

When trying on new perfumes don’t try out more than three scents at a time as it is too much for the nose. You are also supposed to wait ten minutes before trying a new scent. This helps your nose to adjust from trying one scent to another. At a real perfume store there will be coffee grounds on hand to sniff to clear your nasal palate between sniffs.

Good perfumes can be pricey so you want to store them properly. You need to keep them away from heat and light. An opened bottle of perfume keeps for a bout a year but only if the bottle is nearly full as the more air that is in the bottle the more the scent will degrade.

Really great perfumes don’t have a high alcohol content but that can also mean they don’t last as long. No perfume lasts a whole day. Most people have to reapply perfume every three or four hours.

There is no real rule to what kind of scent to wear but in general most people use a light floral smell for the day and a more dramatic smell for evenings. Perfumes can also be chosen depending on what your mood is.

So what is fashionable for this summer? It seems that pomegranate is making it’s smell known in a lot of designer and also regular perfumes. It is what you would call a “hot” scent and it is cool and fresh to wear for summer as well.

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Wearing Healing Gemstones

Nowadays it is not enough just to buy a gem and wear it. It must mean something. Gemstones have long been believed to possess magical or sacred powers. They are use do to attract luck, money, love and to improve health. They are also used to ward off evil energies. This is a very old idea but we are seeing fantastic examples of it mounted in expensive jewelry nowadays. You can find amber stones meant for protection mounted in beautiful silver settings, healing turquoise in beautiful rings and necklaces and prosperity attracting citrines in giant cocktail rings.

Wearing a gemstone has always thought to be beneficial on both the metaphysical and physical planes. Some cultures even use them for healing specific areas of the body. For instance a garnet was worn to improve disorders of the heart and circulatory system. An amethyst was worn to prevent drunkenness or dementia. An obsidian was worn to calm down a scattered and nervous mind.

Mostly gemstones are worn as part of an occult belief and also a belief in astrology. This is because each gem is assigned to a planet and each planet belongs to an astrological sign. Wearing a gemstone that fits your planets or your zodiac sign is thought to be beneficial because the gemstones act as a filter that only brings good influences to you on an astral plane. Black and indigo such as hematite or gate are stones are associated with the planet Saturn. Yellow, gold and orange stones such as amber or orange sapphires area associated with the sun. Yellow and purple such as citrine or amethyst stones are associated with Jupiter. Red stones like garnet sand rubies are associated with Mars. Green stones like green garnets and emeralds are associated Mercury. White or rainbow colored stones like pearl or mother of pearl is associated with the moon.

Another school of thought talks of gemstones as containing electromagnetic energy that influences the electrochemical nature of the human organism. This type of meaning is ascribed to gemstones such as rose quartz. Wearing the rose quartz as a bling is thought to attract love, a soul mate and the healing energies of the Archangel Samuel.

Gemstones are also worn in jewelry as a type of color therapy. For instance it is believed that an orange gemstone would attract joyous experiences, a green one – situations that breed growth and a blue one would attract calm. The fascination with colored gems has led to a lot of lab created imitation gems. Nowadays it is very easy to get a lab created pink sapphire which is thought to attract joy, love and enduring prosperity for a lot less then you would pay for a natural gem.

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