Paul Smith honored. Each year the Royal institute of British architects (RIBA) awards Honorary fellowships to those people who they feel have made particular contributions to architecture in its broadest sense, its promotion, administration and outreach, its role in building more sustainable communities; and its role in the education of future generations. This year the committee have awarded Paul Smith an Honorary fellowship for the contribution he has made towards architecture and design over the years. The Fellowship is a lifetime honour conferred on annually.

Edwin Jeans Advertisers and proud parents Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt welcome new baby girl, Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, who was born the night of May 27, 2006 in Namibia, Africa. The new parents, along with kids Maddox, 4, and Zahara, 1, have been staying at a luxury resort in Namibia since April, where their personal security team and Namibian police have shielded them from paparazzi. This all seems a touch sensationalistic but it goes with the Jolie and Pitt territory. No doubt Billy-Bob and Jennifer are chuffed!

Has A Bathing Ape created a monster by controlling their brand distribution to the point of inertia? Bape clothing and Bapesta Sneakers are controlled and channeled to such an extend that demand far outstrips supply and it now appears the natural conclusion of this strategy is to spawn a lucrative underground industry of genuinely desired fakes. In fact, this parasitic “sub-brand”, has its own name “FAPE” instead of BAPE and “Fapesta” instead of Bapesta! What’s even more incredible is the FAPE parasitic sub-brand is undoubtedly a more lucrative business than the authentic BAPE host-brand.

Makers of FAPE Clothing and Fapestas have refined their art so perfectly that even the most dedicated Bape aficionado would be hard pressed to discern the difference between FAPE and BAPE! There’s a real lesson here for the rest of the fashion industry; you can’t hype and burn and expect no consequences!

If FAPE is fake BAPE is Furberry fake Burberry! Just a thought.

Last year Levi Jeans proudly announced their intention to release what on the face of it was an awe-inspiring collection of premium denim displaying images from the iconic Andy Warhol collection including his depictions of Marilyn Monroe. The Silver Luck collection, inspired by Andy Warhol’s studio in the 60’s, named the Silver Factory after Warhol covered it in tin foil, is complimented with details such as silver threads in the denim, and buttons that display crosses and knives from Warhol’s paintings.

Despite the initial excitement surrounding this incredible venture, the collection appears not to have lived up to it’s expectation. Perhaps the collection was thwarted by unrealistic expectations or perhaps the premium prices discouraged loyal Levista’s from partaking; the official price range for Jeans is from $190 to $300 and tops $80 to $300.

Currently Warhol Factory X Levi’s® 501 LUX Jeans are reduced from $265.00 to $229.98 and Warhol Factory X Levi’s® Strummer Tapered Lux Jeans are reduced from $260.00 to $229.98. These discount prices represent comparatively good buys particularly when we consider these jeans are true premium denim and Americana in its purest possible form.

“What is nuala? nuala is an acronym representing: Natural - Universal - Altruistic - Limitless - Authentic. Often defined as “meditation in motion”, nuala is the product of an organic partnership that reflects Christy Turlington’s passion for the ancient discipline of Yoga and PUMA’s commitment to create a superior mix of sport and lifestyle products.
 
Having studied comparative religion and philosophy at New York University, model turned entrepreneur Christy Turlington sought to merge her interest in eastern practices with her real-life experience in the fashion industry and create an elegant, concise, fashion collection to complement her busy work, travel, and exercise schedule.
 
The goal of nuala is to create a symbiosis between the outer and inner being, the individual and collective experience, using yoga as a metaphor to make this balance possible. At nuala, we believe that everything in life should serve more than one purpose. nuala is more than a line of yoga-inspired activewear; it is a building block for limitless living aimed at providing fashion-conscious, independant women comfort for everyday life. The line allows flexibility and transition, from technical yoga pieces to fashionable apparel one can live in. Celebrating women for their intuition, intelligence, and individuality, nuala bridges the spacious gap between one’s public and private life.”

As the World Cup approaches football frenzy is starting to boil and fans from around the world are starting to sizzle with excitement. To cater for the growing demand for a slice of the beautiful game companies around the world are offering World Cup merchandise including the extremely rare Paul Smith World Cup football, wallet and Cufflinks.

Nike are also offering a wide selection of World Cup merchandise from Nike Trainers to Nike Clothes. Nike have also joined forces with Google to encourage World Cup camaraderie amongst nations in the form of, Joga Bonito:

“Joga is an online community created by Google and Nike for anyone anywhere in the world who shares a love for soccer, the world’s most popular sport. Joga is about getting to know your fellow fans; creating games and clubs; accessing athletes from Nike; and enjoying video clips and photos (you can even upload your own). You can strengthen existing friendships and begin new ones, join a wide variety of professional athletes and soccer communities, and even create your own to discuss soccer, exchange tips on the coolest moves, browse through various pitches worldwide, and plan your next game.

But most of all, Joga is about “Joga Bonito” — Portuguese for “play beautiful.” Are you ready to start down the path of soccer bliss? Join us, and show the world what playing beautiful means to you.”

éS Shoes, the x-treme sports uber brand, tells us World War III is just around the corner and it’s time to get our “Camo on”! To help us deal with the horror of World War III, eS have thoughtfully created an impressive range of camouflage clothing, including: the éS Guerilla and Lawton 2 caps, the Avalon crew shirt, the Slauson knit polo shirt, the Mainblock Fill and Deception t-shirts, the Sakai 2 shorts. Well, that surely makes us all feel a lot more positive about the prospect of World War III and nuclear annihilation! Thanks for this encouraging contribution to world peace éS.

Has Le Tigre’s latest marketing clash with the mighty croc gone too far? The image of a tiger mauling a croc has caused a significant amount of indignation and is perhaps a prime example of reverse marketing; scoring points through controversy rather than through quality and diligence.

Whatever your take on the image, the fact is Le Tigre needn’t resort to reverse marketing to make its point. Le Tigre is an exceptional brand in its own right and it’s perhaps time the brand stepped out of the crocs shadow and started to let its qualities shine of its own accord.

Le Tigre Shirts, Polos and Knits are up there with the best of them and providing they’re not bloodstained their destined to become a fashion classic.

Elvis Jesus the glammed-up T-shirt line by Ringspun is causing something of a stir. You might mistakenly believe the stir is in the fashion-world for the bejeweled Tees studded with sparkles are certainly eye-catching. However, the real stir is in the religious-world; many Christians consider the irreverent designs no less than blaspheme and the depiction of Jesus Christ in Elvis garb and poses sacrilegious.

No doubt Elvis Jesus is simply jumping on the same bandwagon as Gsus, True Religion, Buddhist Punk and many more brands in the hope that courting controversy will glean both recognition and sales. This is clearly a risky venture which is probably more hopeful than calculated. Whatever the outcome Elvis Jesus won’t be the last brand to profane the name of God in the hope of scoring a buck.

Pop Queen Shakira, the woman who wants to redeem us with her mesmeric hips, has received an award from the United Nations for her humanitarian work to help women trying to escape poverty in developing countries.

Shaking Shakira has been supporting the microcredit loans scheme, which has assisted millions of women start their own businesses and, hence, break the chains of poverty and hunger so tightly restricting so many women in the third-world.

To directly quote the pop princess: “Hips Don’t Lie”… unlike certain officials at the UN! Shakira, Humanitarian Heroine or Humanitarian opportunist? Let’s be charitable too and say the former.

Like all great concepts it’s simple! Fly is a contemporary forward-think Fashion and Lifestyle magazine which is neatly packaged on DVD. This fresh, environmentally-responsible, method of disseminating news, gossip, articles and reviews plainly represents the dawn of a new era in publication. Save a tree get the DVD!

FLY’s Zero Issue includes 140 mins of film content - including 14 short fashion films by established and emerging photographers / filmmakers featuring designers such as Yves Saint Laurent, Boudicca, Zac Posen, Calvin Klein, Cloak, Y3 etc.  In addition there are also 6 interviews and documentaries, 9 music videos and The Loop (30 mins of cool film clips from FLY playing to mixed music from Output Recordings).

FLY sells at places like Colette (Paris), Moss (New York), Seven New York, 10 Corso Como (Milan), Dover Street Market (London), Surface2Air (Paris), Conran Shop (USA and Japan), The Mercer hotel, Soho House etc.

The intelligent DVD format fully engages the consumer; it takes you from a two dimensional to a fully interactive three dimensional world — a crude but fair analogy!

It looks like Diesel have orchestrated a controversial advertising campaign to convolutedly gain brand exposure. The controversial advertisement, which has already been banned, depicts the rear of a naked man with three pairs of female legs hitched suggestively around his body.

 

The controversial advertisement appeared in The Sunday Times Style Magazine and reputedly ignited outrage, not dissimilar to the Yves Saint Laurent Opium perfume advertisement featuring a naked Sophie Dahl.

Diesel reputedly countered the outrage by insisting their advertisement was appropriate for the Style Magazine readership.

Someone should remind the marketing team at Diesel that Subtle is invariable more Sexy!

Another Lenten season is almost upon us and Christians around the world, mainly from the Orthodox denomination/s, are packing their coffee, mars bars and other minor indulgences away for another 40 plus days. The sacrifice, if you can call it a sacrifice, does rather pale into insignificance compared with Christ’s 40 days in the desert — that’s desert and not dessert.

Perhaps Lent has some meaningful lessons for the fashion world too? What if some of the major Fashion Brands gave up exploiting third world labour for 40 days and insisted on fair wages for works during this 6 week amnesty? What if the guilty Fashion Houses (we all know who they are) reflected on the barbarity of the fur trade for 40 days - perhaps their suppressed spirit of compassion would see the light of day? What if the fashion trade gave up production methods that harm the environment and during the 40 days held collective workshops seeking environmentally-friendly alternatives? …And us, the consumer, what if we gave up a piece of designer clothing in our wardrobe and donated it to charity and agreed to buy only ethically and environmentally conducive clothing during Lent. What if? What if? What if?

It’s not all doom, gloom and cynicism — the fashion world can take heart from a growing number of ethically and environmentally responsible brands: KOhZO, Loomstate, Edun, Coexist and Stella McCartney amongst others.

Even icons of consumerism and their devotees should turn to the sacred for at least 40 days each year.

In a world full of sectarianism and religious belligerence is Fashion the unlikely saviour? Most people would agree Fashion is colour blind; when a customer buys an item of fashion do they ever question the colour, ethnicity, social background or religion of the designer — of course they don’t!

It appears Fashion unites where religion and politics divide. What does that say about the world in which we live? It would appear Fashion consumers are true Global Citizens; cosmopolitan, discerning and truly intelligent. Unless sometime in the future our world is destined to be divided into Continents of Versace, Armani, Evisu, Ralph Lauren, Alexander McQueen and Jean-Paul Gaultier, it would appear that Fashion is set to be a beckon of unified hope and harmony and an example to our religious and political leaders; small minds need simple examples.

The Global Citizen makes her/his grand entry on a catwalk!!

OK, my tongue’s firmly in my cheek but I wish our leaders would get their fingers out of their proverbials and start thinking this issue through with some alacrity!

So Mad Madge of the Madonna kind has set up a new Limited company in the UK called, of all things: Semtex Girls. Let’s face it, only a non-Brit without an understanding of recent British history would introduce the word “Semtex” into a company name, and if anyone was likely to put their dainty “plate of meat” into it — mad Madge was a prime candidate. Although you would have thought Guy could have had a word in her “shell” like!

Semtex, as any Brit over the age of 11 probably knows was the preferred “butchering device” of the infamous IRA. Semtex plastic explosive is manufactured in the Czech Republic and is safe to handle but difficult to trace, since it has no smell — unlike the controversial marketing stench wafting from Semtex Girls!

In fact, a quantity of 0.5 kg/1.1 lb of Semtex is thought to have been the cause of an explosion that destroyed a Pan-American Boeing 747 in flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, December 1988, killing 270 people.

Of course, everyone now wants to know the nature of Mad Madge’s new business. Apparently, she won’t reveal the exact purpose of her new venture but apparently issued the following incomprehensible marketing dribble to Contactmusic:

“The Semtex Girl is a girl who is dynamic, a girl who explodes, who doesn’t know the meaning of nine to five, a girl who is unstoppable and who doesn’t take no for an answer. And has excellent taste”.

Apparently Mad Madge also reassured her male fans (does she have any?) that they’re not exempt and can be Semtex Girls too! Presumably after surgery!

It’s been suggested that Madonna’s new Semtex Girls company could be a fashion brand. A number of commentators have suggested we could soon be seeing Semtex Girls Clothing, T-Shirts, Jackets and Jeans. Sounds a bit cheap and tacky.

So has Mad Madge finally lost her marbles and overstepped the accepted bounds of marketing BS. Most people could probably overlook her exploitation of Qabala to glean attention but to glamorise a substance which has been used to murder innocent civilians and could feasibly be used in the future by pseudo-Muslim terrorists to inflict mass murder is nothing less than spiritually retarded!

A great many paranoid conspiracy theorists (PCTs) and average Joes and Joettes are conscious of the esoteric order named the Illuminati. The Illuminati is commonly believed to have its roots in the European Enlightenment and it’s believed the order was founded in May 1776 by Adam Weishaupt a Jesuit instructed Professor of canon law. Today there’s a growing belief that the Illuminate is not simply a benign group of intellectuals and wealthy adherents seeking camaraderie in kind but is in fact a malignant entity dedicated to the creation of a one world order in which the masses are enslaved and controlled by “the few”.

David Icke is perhaps the most well-known and vociferous campaigner against the Illuminati and he reputedly believes the Illuminati controls humanity via machinations, subterfuge, secrecy, and conspiracy. Indeed, David Icke cites the Holocaust, Oklahoma City bombing, the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, the war in Bosnia, and the September 11, 2001 attacks as examples of events orchestrated by the Illuminati; Icke believes these orchestrated catastrophes are designed to coerce, control and led the masses into submissive subjugation — to a world in which the Illuminati have complete, unequivocal and unanswerable control over the ignorant masses.

Recently it was proposed that Fashion has its own form of the Illuminati. This elite order of “fashion” Illuminati apparently coerce, control and led the masses into submissive style — dictating what is fashionable and thereby excluding free and true style which they consider a threat to their positions of power. Most historic Fashion Houses have been identified as members of this esoteric order and a number of media channels have been accused of being complicit in the conspiracy to control the fashion buying masses. It has been suggested that if we look around us today we will see clear evidence to support this conspiracy theory as the verve of youth and innovation is suppressed in favor of drab, lifeless mediocrity.

On the other hand, perhaps we should not look to blame secret orders for the serious, and not so serious, issues of our time. Perhaps we, you and I, the masses, need to step forward and through our own spirit, determination and desire for change claim a new future built on egalitarianism, inclusive respect and opportunity for all.

There’s a growing trend amongst fashion companies to attempt to apply depth and mystique to their brand by introducing religious or philosophical elements. There’s Edun, Theory, Coexist, Mecca, Gsus, Buddhist Punk and True Religion to name but a few.

Do these companies opt for the psuedo religious or philosophical connotations because there’s a growing spiritual awakening amongst their target audience and they want their product to make a direct and lasting impact, or is it simply an offering of what’s holy and Universally ingrained as an offering at the altar on mammon? Most likely it’s a combination of the two as the ultimate aim appears to be brand recognition and exposure — and if profaning what’s holy along the way increases the odds of success then you would be failing in your Capitalist duty not to do it!

Another line of thought regarding True Religion is relationship between their brand name and brand logo which appears to subtly suggest that Buddhism is the true religion: the True Religion logo appears to depict a Buddha type character — which in combination with their brand name appears to suggest Buddhism is the True Religion which axiomatically insinuates that other religions are false. Perhaps this is reading too much into the new trend and we’re inadvertently entering the “David Ike” realm. Whatever your view we all surely have a responsibility to respect the sacred, if not the Sacred Blue.

Brand name connotations aside, True Religion produce some of the best premium denim jeans on the market with remarkable embroidery and innovative hand-sanded vintage washes. True Religion jeans are worn by an impressive list of celebrities including: Kate Beckinsale, David Beckham, Sarah Chalke, Courteney Cox, Gary Dourdon, Faith Evans, Tom Ford, Jennifer Garner, Heather Graham, Kate Hudson, Angelina Jolie, Donna Karan, Heidi Klum, Nick Lachey, Jennifer Lopez, Freddie Ljungberg, Madonna, Chad Michael Murray, Gwyneth Paltrow, Brooke Shields, Jessica Simpson, Jada Pinkett Smith, Gwen Stefani, Justin Timberlake, Usher, Bruce Willis, the Wayans Bros. — Wow!! Maybe this is a New Religion if not altogether true!

Footballer Thomas Gravesen is new face of Kudo - Young Danish fashion design company Kudo is continuing its use of famous and extraordinary people as models for its clothing range; its English branding agency Large Design has just returned from a photo shoot in Spain with Real Madrid footballer Thomas Gravesen.

“As an advancing Danish retailer, using famous Danes as part of our marketing campaign helps us grow internationally while signalling our Danish roots,” explains Kudo’s managing director Troels Simonsen. “Our key market segment is males between 20-35 years of age, and it is important that we do our own thing and use unconventional models to show our positioning in Urban Tailoring, which is somewhere in between street wear and smart casual wear.  “Kudo is a young and dynamic brand, which must continue to surprise and create attention in a world of large multinational brands and our work with Thomas Gravesen does just that,” he says.

Kudo was established in 2000 and is retailed in more than 100 individual clothes shops in Denmark and another 150 shops internationally, in 15 different countries. Danish boxer Mads Larsen, footballer Mads Larsen and celebrity chef Nikolaj Kirk also feature in Kudo’s campaign. International customers count musician Jamie Cullum, Nicky Byrne of Westlife and Hollywood star, actress Scarlett Johansson.

KITMEOUT - a network of professional fashion journalists dedicated to providing up to date fashion news and reviews from around the world, announces the launch of the Kitmeout Fashion Auction.

KITMEOUT is a FREE online fashion auction. Kitmeout is free to both individuals and companies. Kitmeout enables Registered Users to buy, sell and swap clothes, shoe, accessories and gifts.

Both individuals and companies are able to set up their own FREE Kitmeout store. It’s easy and only takes minutes. You will receive FREE website hosting, a FREE url and a powerful admin tool to manage your FREE online store. Creating your own store with Kitmeout is fast and easy, and most importantly - it’s FREE.

QUICK Q&A
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Kitmeout is both a 100% FREE online Fashion Auction and a FREE online store builder. When you register with Kitmeout you receive a FREE online auction account and online store.

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You can point your existing domain name to your Kitmeout Online Store through a forwarding option (offered by your domain provider).

Kitmeout is intended to be an enjoyable and friendly environment for everyone interested in style and fashion.