British designer Christopher Bailey, was honoured with the prestigious International Award, at the CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America) gala, in New York.The Council of Fashion Designers of America recognizes top creative talent who have made a profound impact on the fashion industry.?

Christopher collected the award from American designer Donna Karan, at the awards ceremony. As Chief Creative Officer of Burberry, Christopher Bailey, 38, is responsible for the design of all Burberry collections and products, as well as all advertising, corporate art direction, architectural design, multi-media content and overall brand image for the heritage brand. Bailey, from Yorkshire, is a two-times winner of the British Fashion Designer of the Year title, having most recently won fashion’s equivalent of an ‘Oscar’ in 2009.

The presentation of Burberry’s “flagship” ‘Prorsum’ collection, designed by Bailey, has been the star attraction of London Fashion Week for the past two seasons, drawing a fashion and Hollywood ‘A’ list of front row celebrities including Anna Wintour, Samantha Cameron, Kate Hudson, Mary-Kate Olsen, Claire Danes and Kristen Stewart.

Designer Eliza Starbuck of Bright Young Things, a new fashion label pared down to a single piece – a Little Black Dress –announced the Premier Edition of its black dress, sparking a fresh dialogue in fashion by encouraging individuality and personal style.

Made locally from high quality cotton at an affordable price, the Bright Young Things Little Black Dress is intended to be thoughtful, timeless, functional, versatile, and affordable. It is the only black dress that you will ever need as it can be worn in any setting – at work or at a cocktail party, at a conference or a concert, on the street or on the beach.

Through her line, Starbuck engages fresh dialogue bred from the idea that fashion should not be obsolete each season. She aligns with the philosophies of the Slow Movement – not only about using alternative materials and local production practices, but as a new relationship and experience with fashion. Discouraging mediocrity by promoting the aesthetic value of an everyday go-to dress, Bright Young Things encourages individuality by giving freedom back to the consumer with a dress that is universal yet one-of-a-kind.

To celebrate the launch of the label, Starbuck is making the dress available for the public to buy, style, and reinvent, with the hopes that women will be inspired to shop their closets at home. She has also launched the Bright Young Things website to celebrate women who have embraced their individuality and are chronicling their daily outfits with their personal style.

63rd Cannes film festival’s walkway with French designer Christophe Guillarmé’s red carpet fashion was really about friendship.

Celebrities from the TF1 TV show, where Christophe was fighting for Sidaction, passed by the Villa d’Estelle to wear Christophe’s gowns. This included Olympic figure skater Surya Bonaly and Cannes nominated Avida lead Velvet d’Amour, actresses Celyne Durand and Karine Dupray. All in a touch of glamour and humor!

Christophe took to the red carpet for the opening ceremony with spokes model Hofit Golan wearing a long gown in red printed mesh, fully embroidered with ribbons. Additionally he accompanied US actress Phoebe Price, who wore the most extravagant outfit, with a stunning dress in ombré silk embroidered with peacock feathers.

Last but not least, the personal guest of President Gilles Jacob, French actress Salomé Stevenin chooses a fully beaded, sequined mini dress in white viscose jersey for her red carpet debut.

Manav Gangwani stole all the applause at the Red Carpet, IIFA Awards, Colombo. His stunning creations  were worn by the beautiful gorgeous stars, from Kangana Ranaut to Riya Sen, Raima Sen, Neha Dhupia, Zeenat Aman and Sophie Choudhury in his signature style of beautifully blending head turning style with the most gorgeous fabrics, cuts and embellishments.

Kangana Ranaut wore a breathtaking structured royal blue satin dress embellished with Swarovski stones for one of the evening dos while for the main awards ceremony she wore a spectacular evening gown in flowing georgette with an exquisitely embellished bodice with beautiful cutwork Crystal flowers.

Sophie Chaudry wore a flattering empire cut dress in gold lame and lace with a crystal band at the waist for the fashion evening. The IIFA awards evening saw Sophie in a sheer black lace gown, with a flouncy net skirt, heavily crystallized all over.

Jacqueline Fernandes graced the IIFA red carpet in an ivory translucent georgette sari, delicately embellished with Swarovski, pearl and bead work, unusual beaded crystals and pearls tassled palla and a spectacular blouse.

Raima Sen wore a black crystal one sleeved elegant evening gown in black chiffon, with a gloriously flowing drape on the upper bodice and artfully embellished with Swarovski crystals.

Riya Sen shone black net sari by Manav Gangwani with a subtly glimmering border, accompanied by a heavily encrusted blouse in silver Swarovski crystals.

Kim Sharma floated in a silver jersey gown sensuously draped to hug the curves of the body.

Zeenat Aman made heads turn in a timeless evening gown of heavy black satin with crystal encrusted lace sleeves while Natasha Khan wore an Ivory Turq Ombre Sari in georgette with a unique halter blouse accented by Swarovski crystals. Sonakshi Sinha, Fardeen Khan, Neha Dhupia and Neil Nitin Mukesh too glammed up the IIFA Awards red carpet dressed in Manav Gangwani’s signature creations.

An intriguing fashion label from Netherlands expresses great potential of skilled creativity. The label originates from the sensual, visual and luxurious tyranny of Sascha Warmenhoven of Germany and Babette Venderbos from Geertruidenberg, The Netherlands, both studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Rotterdam in The Netherlands. This was also the place where they first met and discovered their alike minds in regards to arts and fashion design.  

Sascha Warmenhoven graduated in 1995 and worked among others for Walter Van Beirendonck and Dirk Van Saene as a designer and creative director for various major international sportswear brands. Babette Venderbos graduated in 1997 and worked among other for So by Alexander van Slobbe and for Maison Martin Margiela, and has experience as a designer and concept developer for various major brands.
 

Over the years both designers strongly developed their conceptual way of thinking and working resulting in a unique, feminine design and distinct point of view.   Their cooperation and vision on various disciplines as art, design, tradition, movement and the human body form the foundation for the work of the Warmenhoven & Venderbos fashion house.

Besides their in-depth design approach both have also developed a focussed and confident management style which is based on their large experience and knowledge of the various aspects from the fashion industry and global fashion.

The combination has proven to be powerful, as witnessed by their consistent ability to design Warmenhoven & Venderbos collections that are also directional at retail, as well as their autonomous work, commissioned work and design projects

Just like any Indian wedding that is resplendent with heritage yet with a twist of modernity, glamour, exquisiteness and magnificence, the Tarun Tahiliani Bridal Couture Exposition is a pioneering concept to bring together couture and Indian weddings to create an opulent and luxurious experience. A larger-than-life experiential extravaganza, it promises a new benchmark in luxury. Tarun Tahiliani, fashion veteran known for his great intellectual curiosity, thirst for innovation and demonstrated support for emerging creative talent in fashion and art, the impact of his work has been drawing tremendous accolades across the fashion world for years.

Starting from July 22-25, 2010, the Tarun Tahiliani Bridal Couture Exposition is the first-of-its-kind bridal couture event in India and is set to take place at India’s premiere luxury destination – The DLF Emporio.

This year, the theme for the Bridal Couture Exposition is ‘The Procession’, wherein a staggering procession, clothes, jewels, and accessories will be arranged with live performers on interactive models, fibre glass animals in traditional livery and luxury cars. The Indian zest for colour, drape and luxury manifests itself beautifully in fine couture collection. This exposition will epitomize a unique heritage, styled in a modern way. The highlight and mainstay of the exposition is the showcase of intricate Indian bridal couture in the setting it was designed to be worn in. A unique theatrical setting will be produced and around the celebration of the ‘Procession’ a ‘Son et Lumiere’ will be created. The Exposition proposes to combine matchless traditional Indian and colonial furniture, antiques and objects d’ art in a lavish and palatial set-up.

The exposition will have a grand opening night with a lavish six-course sit-down dinner served in gold thalis for the affluent and cultural scions of the city. The opulent set-up and luxurious ambience of the Bridal Couture Exposition exudes a sense of a typical Indian wedding bursting with grandeur and magnificence. Crystal chandeliers, traditional and exotic flower arrangements, dramatic lighting and effects, theatrical sound and musical performances – all add splendor to the wedding and bring to life the procession.

The finest luxury brands – DLF Emporio, Swarovski and Forevermark, have come together to support Tarun in his spectacular celebration of bridal couture.

Salma Hayek donated her Gucci gown to the Penelope Cruz/Chopard Auction in support of J/P Haitian Relief Organization which took place in Cannes.

She made a symbolic gesture to the importance of this fundraising event by donating the very first Gucci Première dress ever worn.  Gucci Première, the very first couture collection designed by Creative Director Frida Giannini, launched this season at the 63rd Annual Cannes Film Festival.   Though many actresses chose to wear Première this season, including Naomi Watts, Kate Beckinsale, Lea Seydoux and Camilla Belle, Ms. Hayek was the first to debut the collection at the Robin Hood premiere on May 12th.  She wore a floor length Bordeaux silk georgette one shoulder gown with hip, back and shoulder drape detail. The one of a kind gown also featured deep red crystal embroidery at the shoulder and waist.

The gown was auctioned off together with a box containing the original dress sketch made for Ms. Hayek and signed by Gucci Creative Director Frida Giannini.  It was auctioned for 17.000 euros.

Fashion, designs, designers, garments, all following a linear way and here’s someone en route to trace the untraversed parabolic path. Lecoanet Hemant, the design label of designer duo Hemant Sagar and his French partner Didier Lecoanet came to India in 2001 and set up their headquarters in Delhi. They had formed their label in late seventies and for over two decades were a part of the haute couture establishment in Paris. The well panned out journey of their brand transits into a new realm as they have recently decided to draw a full stop to their showcasing at the fashion weeks in India.

Little curios, a little apprehensive we headed to their firm to meet Hemant Sagar and to find out the real story behind this stride. And what we discover is a much more intense thought provoking visionary and a full proof working model of an alternate reality. As we entered the premises of his eco friendly huge firm we had already realized that there is lot more than just garments to this design label.

A warm host brimming with enthusiasm Hemant Sagar discussed with us his future plans of building his label into a brand, to sketch a much larger than life image and there is no physical person attached to the attributes and enormity of his label. It’s an entity in itself and not a mere piece of cloth but a high fashion luxurious culture. He not only believes fashion is about individuality; it’s about being you and is of course luxury.

The modus operandi at ‘Lecoanet Hemant’ ( I should specify clearly here I am talking about the brand and not the individual designers) works in LH corporate which takes care of uniforms of around 35 hotels all across India and LH factory which caters to international high fashion brands like Balmain, Cerruti and more besides their own  fashion label. They have also launched their first product Ayurgyanic, a clothes line developed from natural herbal oils for the well being and immunity boosting, a hundred percent ethical product.

The patterns have been set right, Lecoanet Hemant proposes to barrage with a total of 10 retail stores in a year’s time and has already geared for the same. His product line is on an expansion spree and the Lecoanet Hemant label is already designed and geared into a self sufficient module with in-house innovation, design and production of bags, garments, leather products, metal hardware and still more to come over. He is also actively looking up for tie-ups with manufactures to launch his brand’s jewellery line.

Celebrating the start of its second glorious decade, the International Indian Film Academy is set to write its grandest chapter yet. The IIFA Weekend to be held in Colombo, Sri Lanka from June 3rd – 5th, 2010 is slated to be a spectacular show with India’s biggest cinema stars in action.

June 3rd will see the trend-setting IIFA Foundation Fashion Extravaganza which will be a trail blazer event in Colombo, with Indian and Sri Lankan fashion designers showcasing their collections. The Fashion Extravaganza will be spread over two days and is of special significance as it supports the IIFA Foundation. The Foundation is a charity organization that was set up by the IIFA Academy to support families of the film industry workers who have been adversely affected during the production of films.

This year, ‘IIFA Fashion Rocks’ will feature Indian designers Manish Malhotra and Vikram Phadnis and leading Sri Lankan designers Yoland and Kanchana (KT Brown). The Manish Malhotra collection is inspired from textures of the Mughal period influenced by the British Raj, albeit they will retain a contemporary perspective. While the collection by Vikram Phadnis, specially created for the IIFA Fashion Extravaganza, will have an influence of costumes and styles inspired by Indian films through the years. Sri Lankan designer Yoland’s collection will feature pieces depicting the Sri Lankan traditional mask and floral designs inspired from the country.

The second night of the IIFA Foundation Fashion Extravaganza – IIFA Bling will feature celebrity showcases by designers, Rocky S and Nandita Mahtani. The collection by Rocky S includes classy suits with a twist, creating an old English school feel. Nandita Mahtani’s line will consist of evening wear, appealing to women of all ages.

“We have come a long way, since we started eleven years ago and we still have way to go”, says Sunil Sethi, President FDCI, the eponymous body of Indian fashion. It would not be wrong to call him the face of Indian fashion as he is someone absolutely impossible to be missed at any fashion events. A buyer himself for his own Alliance Merchandising Company he took the initiative to strike the right cords at the right time of the developing fashion fraternity. His magnetic personality, charming aura and ever so energetic persona definitely helped him break the image of the president from being only a nominal head to the most active participant as well as host for the most massive fashion week in India. Not only has he been credited to hold the reins of the fashion industry and taken it to new directions and new heights he has a new approach to even miner integrities of life, so as you see the uptight crème de la crème fashion fraternity with chin ups and a glass of wine, Sunil Sethi can be spotted in the group of media professionals and photographers addressing them with their names and chatting over a hearty laugh. Fashionfad.in chats over with Sunil Sethi on his fashion views and tries to dig out first hand information on the latest buzz in fashion.