The Government Wants Your Gift cards

In an effort to find more sources of revenue, the government is now looking to collect on unused gift cards.

Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal reported that more and more cash strapped state governments are considering legislation to collect on unused gift cards.  With an increase in job losses and bankrupt businesses—states are facing further reductions of tax revenues; sending them on the prowl for new sources of cash flow.

The government’s rational is that the gift cards are considered “abandoned property”.  And there is a lot of money to be collected.  According to the financial consulting firm TowerGroup, $6.8 billion goes unused each year from gift cards.

What do you think?  Should the government take your unused gift cards?

To read more about the story and to see if your state is considering legislation, go to WSJ.com.

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Full-Figured Fashion Week Welcomes Fat-shionistas

Velvet D’Amour  Photo Credit: Jacques Brinon / AP Photo

This weekend kicks off a Fashion Week event that was five years in the making—Full-Figured Fashion Week.  Starting today and continuing through the weekend, NYC will be hosting the self described “Fat-shionistas”, showing off the latest in full-figured fashion and discussing “The State of the Curvy Community”.

I ran across an interesting article on TheDailyBeast.com, which features a full length story about the event and discusses plus size fashion frustrations with fatshionista bloggers:

Despite the growing headway fatshionistas are making into the consciousness of clothing manufacturers and designers, well-designed and high-quality choices for plus-sizes are still miniscule. “I’ll say there are more options now than there used to be, but that’s sort of like saying ‘he doesn’t hit me nearly as often as he used to.’” says Gammill [of Manolo for the Big Girl]. “I’m fat, I have money. I’m more than willing to give it in quantity to the store who will supply me with beautifully made clothes that don’t make me look like a hooker, a tranny, or someone’s bingo-playing grandma from Duluth. I would love to see Kate Mulleavy of Rodarte, a big girl herself, do a ready-to-wear line that extends to the plus-sizes.” (Rodarte just won the CFDA Womenswear Designers of the year award, with clothing lines for svelte women.)

Those of us who have been on the “wrong” side of fashion are well aware of the shortcomings and poor availability of style conscious clothes in the plus size category.  Wouldn’t it be nice if plus size clothing weren’t sequestered to it’s own shameful department—usually located in the far reaches of the department store—and instead mixed in with “regular” sized clothing?

I believe the biggest issue comes down to fit.  Designers, need to start making clothes that actually fit women and flatter our bodies, not their designer’s distorted views of beauty.

To read more about Full-Figured Fashion Week, go to fffweek.com.

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Reader Feedback

Hi guys, I am looking for some reader feedback regarding Fashion Sensei and would love to hear from you.

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Best Wishes,

Tanya

Clever Idea—Rollasole

So you’re out boogieing the night away in your killer heels, you look hot, but you’re not sure after abusing your feet all day—and now night—how your are going to make it home, unless it’s barefoot. 

Enter, Rollasole.

It’s one of those, “Why didn’t I think of that?” sort of inventions.  A UK businessman came up with the idea to stock nightclubs with vending machines that offer rolled ballet slipper-style shoes to get you home in comfort and rest your weary soles.

They are around $11 US dollars and according to NBC Nightly News, are popping up in many UK nightclubs.  Rollasole’s come in a range of colors from gold, silver, black—and their seemingly most popular, because they are sold out—pink.

During my swinging single days, there were many a night where I walked home barefoot, dangling my heels from my fingertips.  I can imagine women buying shoes like these following an evening full of libation and hours of being propped up in their heels.  Can’t you?

No word as to when they are coming to the US, but you can click here to find out more information. 

P.S. They do ship to the US.

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Fashionista’s in Training: Sara Jessica Parker Welcomes Twin Daughters

Photo: Us Magazine

According to People.com, the Ohio surrogate for Sara Jessica Parker and  her husband Matthew Broderick delivered twins today.  Word is big brother James Willkie is all prepped and ready to start shopping for princess gear.

This on the news that my very own sister is about to deliver her third child, a son named Aiden.  Gotta go ladies, I’m on baby watch!!

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Fashion Sensei Says…

 

Choo’s 4 All!

 

H&M

Great news for shoe lovers!  H&M is collaborating with Jimmy Choo to design an exclusive collection for the discount retailer.  The luxe shoes which normally sell for $500 or more, will be up for grabs (and I’m sure there will be a few catfights to get your hands on these babies) for only $60-$200. 

What’s more, included in the Jimmy Choo collection are men’s shoes, accessories, bags and even clothes.  So mark your calendars for November 14th and get your running shoes ready.  The mad dash for Jimmy Choo will be a great warm up for the after Thanksgiving sales the following week. [People.com]

 

“The Letter” Rages On, Spawning “Cosmosexuals”…

Earlier this week, I wrote about the now infamous letter penned by Vogue UK editor Alexandra Shulman and her criticism to the fashion industry for supplying the fashion tome with clothing so tiny that the magazine is forced into using tiny models and later photo shopping their pictures to look heavier.

This has caused quite a buzz on the internet. 

Now, columnist Kevin Meyers of Independent Ireland, is coining a new phrase to describe the designers who are promoting the emaciated “New Woman”, he’s calling them “Cosmosexuals”.

Almost no designers of women’s clothes are women. Most are male Cosmosexuals — who are either homosexuals, such as Yves St Laurent, Christian Dior or Gianni Versace, or more ambiguous denizens of the Cosmosphere, such as Gaultier, Lagerfeld and Valentino. Hardly any designers for women are simply straightforward heterosexual men. Tommy Hilfiger and Paul Costelloe clearly love women as they are. Which is why their clothes celebrate women’s carnality, their sexuality and the sheer exuberant bodiness of the female form.

This cannot be said of gay designerdom: Versace, St Laurent, Dior, or of their Cosmosexual peers. Together, they have redesigned the female body to suit their own demented needs. This ambition is very 20th century, and echoes the earlier schemes of Marxists and National Socialists, to create The New Man. Except, the Cosmosexual project is to create The New Woman — and what do you know: she looks just like a teenage boy (emphasis mine). [Independent.ie]

Meyers believes that when we look back to this time in history,  Shulman’s letter will be regarded as “that point where history turned”.  I certainly hope so. 

A Fit Revolution

With the revolution brewing in the fashion industry, I believe we will have another woman to thank; her name is Cricket Lee.  She has taken on the industry to standardize fit through her Fitlogic technology. 

Imagine being able to walk into a store and buying a pair of pants that fit your exact body shape and size without having to try on dozens of styles.  Click here for a post I wrote about her crusade on our behalf.   This is a cause that we can all rally behind!

What do you have to say?  Leave me a comment!!

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Vogue UK Says Enough is Enough, Start Designing Clothes for REAL Women

In an article published on Independent.co.uk yesterday, it was reported that Vogue UK editor Alexandra Shulman is boldly taking a stand for British women.  Shulman reportedly sent a letter to some of fashion’s most prominent design houses including: Prada, Chanel, Stella McCartney and John Galliano to admonish them for sending samples that are so small that fashion magazines are forced to hire impossibly thin models to fit them.  In turn, she urged designers to “recast the beauty ideal” by designing clothes that fit real women.

Haven’t women been asking for this for ages?  We want clothing that fits our bodies instead of forcing our bodies to fit an impossible ideal. 

Who are the designers creating clothes for? Men? Because the models that they commonly dress for their shows have very flat chests and incredibly skinny limbs.  You can dress a skeleton up in pretty clothes and makeup, but it doesn’t make them beautiful.

Please, designers I implore you stop hating women’s bodies.  Instead, embrace our curves, our heath and in so doing, respect our gender.

One can only hope that American fashion magazine editors follow suit; demanding that designers supply them with samples that will fit healthy women.  In the meantime, we as women need to band together to PROVE to designers that this is what we really want.

Can I get an Amen?

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Pregnant? Here’s Some Maternity Wear For an Excellent Cause

“Days of our Lives” Donates Maternity Clothes to InStyleBelly to benefit Autism Speaks.

Are you a “Days” fan?  Can’t get enough of Sami and her antics?  Here’s your chance to wear some of the same pregnancy clothes that she and other cast members have donned in the popular daytime show.

Not only that, but the proceeds from your purchase will go to Autism Speaks, an incredibly worthy cause. 

InStyleBelly.com, consignment purveyor of stylish  maternity clothes, is offering maternity wear from: Diane von Furstenberg , 7 For All Mankind, Pea in the Pod and bebe. 

So go get yourself or your pregnant friend something cool that she can feel confident in while she’s lugging around all that extra weight.  More importantly, donate to a very important charity.

1 in 150 individuals is diagnosed with autism, making it more common than pediatric cancer, diabetes, and AIDS combined.  If you suspect something is unusual, act on your instincts immediately.  Don’t wait, you’re child’s wellbeing depends on your prompt action.  For more information about symptoms of autism or where to get help, go to AutisimSpeaks.org.

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Karl Lagerfeld Takes Pot Shots At Heidi Klum

Can someone please tell me what Karl Lagerfeld’s problem is?  In February, Karl Lagerfeld told media sources that he thought that Heidi Klum was “too heavy” to be a catwalk model and proclaimed, "I don’t know Heidi Klum. She was never known in France. Claudia Schiffer also doesn’t know who she is."  

Apparently he wasn’t satisfied with simply insulting just Klum, there is a report in today’s online issue of  The Sun that he is embarrassing himself further by insulting her husband, acclaimed singer Seal by saying "I am no dermatologist but I wouldn’t want his skin. "Mine looks better than his. He is covered in craters."  

What’s wrong with you Karl?  You may want to watch out, Karma is a bitch.

By the way, if you call this fat, sign me up!!

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“Picture Me”

 Photo Source

In a startling new documentary called Picture Me, model Sara Ziff and her former boyfriend co-director Ole Schell, expose the seedy recesses in the world of high fashion modeling; including those who turn a blind eye to it.

In an interview published on Guardian.co.uk; Ziff, who began her career in modeling at the age of 14, recounts an early experience with a photographer who purported to be having trouble “picturing” what she would look like for the story he was shooting.  Perversely, he coaxes the 14 year old girl out of first her shirt, and then her pants, leaving Ziff only in her “Mickey Mouse knickers and a sports bra”.  She continues the story by adding; “ ‘We might need to see you without your bra,’ he told me. It was like he was a shark circling me, walking around and around, looking me up and down without saying anything. I did what he told me to.  I was just eager to be liked and get the job.  I didn’t know any better."

Sara’s first intentions in starting her video diary was not to expose the industry that was paying her hundreds of thousands of dollars.  Early scenes from hundreds of hours of footage over five years, depict the lighter side of the business; but steadily, those images changed.  Ziff began passing out cameras to other model friends and encouraged them to tell their stories as well.

What emerged, were tales of the exploitation of young girls, sexual assault and a clear disregard for the well being of these objectified young women.  “What’s shocking, listening to Ziff, is how prevalent, and how far up the fashion food chain, sexual exploitation goes. ‘Vulnerable girls are being put into a potentially predatory environment,’ says Ziff.  What’s in the agency’s interest is not always best for the girl, and if she’s in a compromising situation, she doesn’t necessarily have anyone to turn to."

To protect themselves and other models, Ziff and a small contingent of her modeling peers are working together to speak out.  Some of the models are working toward forming a union; campaigning for “better working conditions, holiday and sickness pay, protection in case of injury”.

What I have included in this post is only the tip of the iceberg with this story.  I highly recommend that you read the article from the guardian.  There are many stories that I did not include in this review that I think you will find arresting; especially if you have either considered becoming a model or allowing your daughter to join the profession.

I’m anxious to hear your thoughts, so please leave a comment.

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