Mr. T on 80's Fashion

Five Must Have Fashion Books

Almost all the artistic sections of human society have got a number of books written on them, be it film, painting or other crafts. Those books are read profoundly by the book lovers. Even the heaps of books written on fashion clearly indicate that it is not enough to wear fashion only, but its literature too needs some space in your wardrobe.

1.A to Zoe. Writer: Rachael Zoe
Grand Central Publishing, 192 pp.
Price: $25;

Though being a photo-collection of famous individuals and her friends, its eight chapters are full of numerous practical fashion tips for fashion lovers. The book deals with many how-to's. The reader learns to select the right footwear for a particular dress. Further, the book very clearly describes the art of applying makeup, choosing the suitable jewelry and many other things. The presentation of fashion terms and tips using a glossary makes it too exciting.

2.That Extra Half Inch: Hair, Heels and Everything in Between. Writer: Victoria Beckham
Harper Paperbacks, 384 pp.
Price: $20

Victoria's writing debut, assisted by Hadley Freeman, is many inches( read miles) ahead of contemporary books on fashion. Her personal descriptions and her stylistic fashion tips make this book unmatched. This is not a collection of rules and advices. Rather, it gives a wide array of inspirational fashion guidelines to almost all age-groups.

3.Glamour Girls. Writer: Patrick McMullan
PMC Publishing, 316 pp.
Price: $75

It is basically a photo album of famous and beautiful ladies rather than being a book. This celebrity photographer has photographed more than 1000 sexy ladies in the world who have given a new dimension to the world of fashion. Uma Thurman and Angelina Jolie are only two of them. These photographs, added with texts, arrange for us a fairytale journey in the world of celebrity fashion.

4.The Black Dress. Writer: Valerie Steele
Collins Design, 112 pp.
Price: $20

The fact that how black has survived through the course of history, and has remained always the most practical choice of fashion lovers, seems to be a definite inspiration for the writer. This is a visual translation of this "black" trend. He has worked a lot to present a vibrating collection of classic stills from movies, designer sketches and photographs of celebrities describing the charm and greatness of black. The collection of quotes on black is an added feature.

5.Forever Cool: How to Achieve Ageless, Youthful and Modern Personal Style for Men and Women. Writer: Sherrie Mathieson
Clarkson Potter, 256 pp.
Price: $23

Probably the most real, it comes with a truckload of tips and advices for all who have crossed their 40's. The book contains no photo of famous personalities but shows the people of locality in an elegant manner. The book compares a pre-grooming photo of a real life model to his/her post-grooming one illustrating the difference. The writer gives simple but exciting tips which are more than enough to any middle-aged person to come back on the right track of fashion.

Fashion Movie Review - Fashion Does Not Live Up to the Hype!

In Fashion, Priyanka Chopra plays Meghna Mathur who dreams of becoming a super model. Though her conscience does not allow, she beats her small town sensibilities in her urge to become the show stopper. She meets up with a gay friend who connects her to a fashion designer. In the process of her struggle, she meets her model friend played by Arjan Bawa. Priyanka moves in to his place, they end up making love and finally moving out of each other, because Priyanka spends more time with Arbaaz Khan, owner of the brand Panache, for which she is given a lucrative assignment. The Panache assignment which Priyanka gets is the one which was represented by Kangana Ranaut. She is terminated by Arbaaz Khan who puts his favorite Priyanka Chopra instead. He impregnates her and when Priyanka embarrasses Arbaaz in front of his wife, he pulls her down the modeling career. Meanwhile a drug addict Kangana Ranaut being thrown out of the modeling world, dives herself full into cocaine and drug abuse, and becomes mad(similar to the real life story of Geetanjali). Priyanka too cannot handle her success and her termination from Panache, and takes refuge to drugs and spends night with a stranger. She is about to lose her sanity when she sees Kangana Ranaut, in the news and takes the responsibility of taking care of her. Meanwhile there is also a side plot of a gay designer(Sameer Soni) who is married to model Mughda Godse out of societal pressures

Plus points and best scenes of Fashion: Couples of scenes including the wardrobe malfunction and Priyanka Chopra's addiction to booze, drugs and her one night stand was well shown. Only that stretch of scenes carried some impact. The performances of Kangana Ranaut, Mughda Godse and most essentially Priyanka Chopra were the icing on the tasteless cake.

Minus points of Fashion: Fashion does not quite live upto the hype. There was so much Madhur Bhandarkar could have done to the film. The shock value which he usually puts in his movies like Chandni Bar, Corporate and Page 3 is not there. Instead, the first half looks like a mundane, boring rehash of Page 3. In the end, we have Kangana Ranaut's character dying due to drug abuse and Priyanka Chopra facing an unfortunate dilemma between walking the ramp and crying for Kangana. However the remorse cannot be felt, due to lack of any 'chemistry' or 'moments' between Kangana Ranaut or Priyanka Chopra. There should have been more scenes or moments of gratitude between Kangana and Priyanka to have made the impact felt. Secondly, a movie like Fashion could have touched a lot of topics like hidden cameras, the behind the scenes frustration and gimmick, MMS controversies, the sleaze etc. You feel there is much more in the fashion world which has been kept under wraps and not explored fully, at least to the caliber of what a Madhur Bhandarkar movie gives. Lastly, those gay scenes and gay sequences do not really impress.

Best performances of Fashion: Mughda Godse got bad dialogues but she showed that she is no novice when it comes to a good performance. Kangana Ranaut, shows that she is one person who can get into the skin of the character and raised the bar with a superb performance. But the movie Fashion belongs to Priyanka Chopra; she is in the screen 90 percent of the time, and almost everytime she has impressed. Priyanka Chopra has given her career best performance in Fashion and I daresay, an award winning performance. Priyanka Chopra has conveyed the right expressions of reluctance, regret, vanity, confusion, sorrow, happiness, ecstasy and arrogance with remarkable ease in Fashion. This conveys the fact that Priyanka Chopra is a director's actress. If she can give a bad performance like she did in Love Story 2050 and Krissh, Priyanka Chopra can also perform like a veteran as she did in Aitraaz and Fashion.

Mr. T Fashion Show

Some Tips for a School Fashion Show

School fashion shows can be quite fun if done properly. If done the wrong way, however, it could end up being one boring affair which is only occasionally enlivened by the people laughing at a humiliated model. What you need are some tips to help you.

1) Think of a theme – When putting up a school fashion show, it is always helpful if you use a theme. A theme gives a fashion show a sense of organization and people would be able to relate the fashion to the theme. There are various types of themes to choose from:

a) Season – Basing your school fashion show on the season is always popular. You could design and model various outfits that correspond with the time of year. This would also give you an idea of how to decorate the venue. Basing your school fashion show on a season can help you unleash your creativity and make your brain cells work. How can you balance the freedom of creativity with the confinement of the theme? This will definitely help you improve your skills.

b) Literature – Another great idea for a theme is literature. You should think about basing your school fashion show on a great piece of literature. How about basing it on the book The Great Gatsby? Ever tried creating fashion pieces for Frodo? This can be fun as you will be bringing the visions of authors to life. Basing your school fashion show on a piece of literature can also be a bit easier than other themes since most authors actually have pretty detailed descriptions of the clothes their character wear. This is especially true for fantasy novels. Cloaks, anyone?

2) Music – The music sets the mood for the whole fashion show. It strikes the subconscious of the watchers and thus, determines how much attention they will be paying your school fashion show. This means, of course, that you need to choose the correct sounds to accompany your school fashion show.

You need to choose music that grabs the attention of the spectators enough to mesmerize them. However, you do not want the music to distract the spectators from the school fashion show. The best type of music to use would be instrumental. This is because instrumental music can set the mood for the show without distracting the viewers with familiar lyrics.

3) Lighting – Proper lighting effects are always essential if you want to have a great school fashion show. Together with the background music, the lighting effects give the audience a general emotion to feel. How do you want them to react when they see a certain ensemble? You can make them react as you want them by simply combining light and sound.

4) Spontaneity – Students hate predictability. Because of this, the best thing that your school fashion show could have is a surprise. You need to show your students something unexpected and completely new. In doing so, you will be able to grab their attentions and keep it. By being spontaneous, you will keep spectators guessing as to what will come next. This will keep their eyes on the school fashion show and off their watches and mobile phones. If you can make the audience forget about the gadgets on their pockets, then you would know that your school fashion show rocks!

Model falls in hole on runway at Shadang Fashion Show

Fashion in Ancient Greece

Fashion of today has its roots in the Ancient Greek Costumes. The Ancient Greeks have inspired the facet of clothing. They were painstakingly fussy about their turn out. There are innumerable statues, carvings and pottery depicting their fashion statements. Such great Greek historians as Herodotus have given us very detailed written descriptions of developments in fashion and the societal significance of Ancient Greek Costume and their accessories. The period post 1200 BC started with a civilization of people who wore bell-shaped skirts and tightly fitted bodices and ended with a race dressed in draped clothes that we associate with the Greeks.

In comparison, the Ancient Greek Costumes were more voluminous then that of the Egyptian counterparts. More often than not these were made of fine wool or linen in spite of the fact that Greeks also had access to linen, hemp cloth and silk. Although there were a variety of styles, the dresses were basically the same - rectangular pieces of cloth draped in different ways. The outfits were unisex and hardly varied down the ages.

The Greeks were very conscious of the human body and displayed it to the best advantage. Rather than conceal, these Ancient Greek Costumes, artistically showed-off the human form. These may seem rather vulgar in the present day and rather impractical too but they were in vogue at that time. Some of the outfits are the chiton (unisex), exomis (males), tunic (males), himation (males), Doric (females) and ionic (females). Though most of the dresses were drapes cloths, it is known that the Greeks definitely knew how to make sleeves. However, since normal straight sleeves were considered less aesthetic, bare arms were preferred.

Doric was a popular style for women and the most fashionable garment. It was a rectangular piece of cloth approx. 2 meters in length and least 3 meters in width. It was draped folded over at the top and dropping full length to the ankle. The material was mostly linen and fine wool. The silk that came from China and the Muslin and cotton from Egypt was restricted to the higher gentry. The well-off women wore circlets of gold and valuable stones. Amethyst was a fashionable stone. It even had a mythological story to its origin!

Initially, during the archaic period, the Ancient Greek Costumes were usually white or off-white - especially for the common man. They were further forbidden to wear red chitons and himations in theaters or public places. However, colors had been adopted and were widespread by the 5th Century. Homer has recorded the fashion of extravagant costumes woven with threads of silver and gold.

These Ancient Greek Costumes were adorned with borders and motifs. More multifaceted borders portrayed themes ranging from animals, birds, and fish to intricate battle scenes. The colors of the threads were infinite. According to Herodotus, there was yellow, violet, indigo, red and purple in a single garment.

Most of the population believed in being barefoot. However, footwear was still prevalent in the ancient times. The Ancient Greek Costume was usually depicted in the statues and other scriptures with varied footwear ranging from thongs, full and toeless sandals, to ankle & calf boots. The headgear - straw hats, felt and leather hats were quite like the broad brimmed modern sun hats. So now we know where those originated!

Victoria's Secret Fashion Show Casting Call 2007

Hindi Film Fashion Movie Review

With Fashion the director Madhur Bhandarkar churns up yet another close to reality film covering the intrinsic and the extrisic facades that rule the fashion industry. Madhur has handled the subject with subtle elegance and there is no doubt why he spins hard hitting films which leave you in a state of awe and hit you below the belt.

Fashion starts of with a small town girl Meghna Mathur (Priyanka Chopra) who aspires to be a supermodel much against the wishes of her parents (Raj Babbar & Kiran Juneja). She has her cup of struggle before walking the ramp and manages to reach the pinnacle of succcess. Success begets arrogance and inturn leads to her downfall. But she is not ready to accept such fate. The structuring of the screenplay and writing by Madhur Bhandarkar, Anuradha Tiwari and Ajay Monga simultaneosly runs the story of three models Meghna (Priyanka Chopra), Shonali (Kangana Ranaut) and Janet ( Mughda Godse). Depicting Meghna's rise, Shonali's downfall and Janet's compromise. At the same moment its throws light on the stark realities which prevail the fashion industry - casting couch, gay designers, wild lifestyles of models, wardrobe malfunctions, the manipulations of head honchos and the attitude issues.

Niranjan Iyengars dialogues are great. Mahesh Limayes cinematography captures the essence of fashion world.The screenplay is near to perfect, except for getting a bit drab at the ending.

Priyanka exudes a terrific performance and could well be one of her best. Kangana Ranaut is a surprise package, except for her short role. Mughda Godse has been greatly confident. Arbaaz Khan is a cool restrained act.Samir Soni has been good.Suchitra Pillai and Kitu Gidwani add the sprinklers with thier presence. Ashwin Mushran and Arjan Bajwa have done pretty well.

Fashion is definitely worth its salt, with Madhur Bhandarkars styling you are sure what you are getting into.