Miley Cyrus vs. Alessandra Ambrosio — Fashion Faceoff - Fourth of July is the time for fireworks, barbecues with the family, and — my favorite — patriotic ensembles. So this week, we're featuring the first star-spangled edition of our Fashion Faceoff, with newly-engaged actress/singer Miley Cyrus and model Alessandra Ambrosio in the same red-and-white, starry sweater. That's right, both ladies donned Wildfox Couture's Seeing Stars Lennon piece, which is sold online for $220 or less, just one day apart. (The oversized garment is clearly a celeb favorite: Jessica Simpson tweeted an adorable photo of herself with baby Maxwell and fiance Eric Johnson, in which she was also wearing the sweater!) Time for you to climb out of the pool long enough to decide ... who wore it best?!
Cyrus, 19, wore the sweater as a dress over shorts we couldn't see with her fave Converse sneakers. The future Mrs. Liam Hemsworth rocked the same laid-back look she usually does as she strolled around L.A. on Thursday with her hair pulled back into a bun.
Ambrosio, 31, who's from Brazil, showed love for her adopted country with the sweater while shopping in Malibu, California, on Wednesday. The new mom, who only gave birth two months ago (!), accessorized with a Panama hat, shades, studded cutoff shorts, sandals, and her baby boy Noah.
Remember when patriotic gear was cheesy, with lots of Bald Eagles and flags? Kudos to both women for finding something stylish and holiday-appropriate. True, Cyrus' ensemble is one of her better looks as of late, but it's Ambrosio who manages to look effortlessly chic. I say she's the hands-down winner. Do you agree?
Blog : Popular Entertainment
Post : Miley Cyrus vs. Alessandra Ambrosio — Fashion Faceoff
Bountiful bikinis at Rio fashion week — Just how many variations can you spin off the marvel of simplicity that is the bikini?
Judging by the options on spectacular display at FashionRio, the Marvelous City's five-day-long summer 2013 fashion extravaganza, the options are endless.
Fancy pairing your string bikini top with spandex pants hung with rows of seductively dangling fringe, which provide so much more coverage than the country's traditional "fio dental" or "dental floss" bottoms? Rio's got just the thing for you.
Toying with the idea of kitting out your two-piece with a chain mail sheath emblazoned with a palm tree? Look no further.
A hair stylist arranges a model's hair as other stylists watch during the preparation backstage for the catwalk presentation of summer collection designs by Lenny at Fashion Rio in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, May 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)
Bikinis are Brazilian designers' bread and butter, so while their winter collections tend to fall flat, with half-hearted attempts at outerwear, summer reliably sizzles. And the southern hemisphere summer collections that will hit the beach this coming January were no exception.
Sao Paulo-based label Triya served up the season's most eye-popping options, a psychedelic rainbow that broke the beachwear mold. Beyond the fringed pant bikini, the brand's brainchild, were tiny bottoms paired with long sleeve spandex tops cropped short to show off the models' abs and a zebra-printed bandeau top that sprouted an ankle length skirt in aubergine silk with a bold slit up one side.
Swimsuits more in name than in function, many of Triya's offerings looked like what you might wear to an ultra-chic beachside rave thrown by a billionaire. Putting aside the inevitable inconveniences of wearing a flowing silk ball gown to the beach, the only drawback to the wildly creative offerings were the bizarre tan lines they'd be sure to leave.
Cia. Maritima brought out the big guns - Victoria's Secret angel Izabel Goulart among other Brazilian-born supermodels - to show off its teeny-weeny bikinis. Goulart rocked the catwalk in a leopard print string bikini fitted with a sexy spider's web of thin yellow straps. Aline Weber, a regular on top runways in New York and Paris, worked a one-piece with cute cap sleeves and bold cutouts at the midriff. The pineapple prints gave a mouthwateringly tropical touch to the toothsome collection.
Va-va-voom one-pieces emerged as major winners here, with just about everyone who is anyone in Brazilian swimwear sending out variations on the vampish maillot. Top high-street beachwear label Blue Man sent out white swimsuits decidedly not made for anyone's grandma, with how-low-can-you-go V necks. And a strapless one-piece had hiplines that started at just under the bust, the whole seemingly precarious contraption held, one can only hope, in place by a low-slung belt.
Lenny, Brazil's reigning queen of patrician swimwear, served up racerback tanks that looked like they'd been tagged by a Rio graffiti artist and bikinis whose fuller coverage was undermined by a cat claw of strategically placed slashes. Paired with the bikini tops, the short, flippy skirts would make for the perfect transition from the sands of Ipanema to cocktail hour at the beachfront Hotel Fasano, among Rio's chicest and most expensive.
A raucous, theatrical show by streetwear label Reserva wrapped up FashionRio in style late Saturday.
Models of all ages, from toddlers to septuagenarians, and several ethnicities frolicked, skipped and breakdanced on a catwalk strewn, like a sprawling bourgeois home, with couches and armchairs and an oversized dining room table. The soundtrack pumped as the models sat down for a family lunch and then boogied over the photographers' pit to pull off their best dance moves in front of the snapping flashbulbs.
With its preppy multi-ethnic family vibe, the show had a sort of Abercrombie & Fitch thing going, but at the same time felt more authentically Brazilian than many of the week's other shows, most of which featured just a sprinkling of nonwhite models. ( Associated Press ) Blog :
Popular EntertainmentPost :
Bountiful bikinis at Rio fashion week
'Holland's Next Top Model' wins agency lawsuit — A former winner of the television show "Holland's Next Top Model" has won a lawsuit against Elite Model Management after she was dropped for having hips the agency considered too large.
Ananda Marchildon, now 25, is entitled to the prize she won in the 2008 production of the show, a three-year contract worth euro75,000 ($98,500), the Amsterdam District Court ruled Wednesday.
Ananda Marchildon, left, speaks with her lawyer Dieuwke Levinson-Arps, right, during a meeting with the press at her lawyers office in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Wednesday, March 7, 2012. Marchildon, a former winner of the television show "Holland's Next Top Model" has won a lawsuit against Elite Model Management after she was dropped for having hips the agency considered too large. (AP Photo/Evert Elzinga)
"I'm proud to be able to show that just because a modeling agency wants that, it doesn't mean that if you have a bigger size you're done for," she told the Associated Press in an interview. "You're still a person and you can be as beautiful as you want and it doesn't come down to centimeters, it's how you are and how you portray yourself."
Marchildon argued she was dismissed after only euro10,000 ($13,000) worth of work, because she didn't lose enough weight to please the agency.
According to the written ruling, though she gained weight after winning, she had a hip measurement of 92 centimeters (about 36.2 inches) when she won, and Elite could not demand that she go down to 90 centimeters — about 35.4 inches. That is far smaller than the average woman's hips, but not unusual in the modeling world.
The fashion industry has often faced criticism for creating unrealistic expectations about women's bodies and forcing models to undergo harmful diets.
"I'm proud to be a good role model, that's how I see it, for young girls. If you can't be a model for high fashion, you're still beautiful," Marchildon said.
Modeling agencies say that they respond to the demands of advertisers, and ultimately, clothing customers: a model that doesn't have the right look won't get work.
Marchildon said she understood Elite's wishes, though she didn't necessarily agree with them, and the television program should rethink its format.
"They shouldn't have let me win, if they can't be true to their word, it's as simple as that," she said.
Elite spokeswoman Rita Camelli in Milan, Italy, said the agency was "disappointed" with the ruling and is now considering its options.
"We felt we were in the right," she said.
Marchildon, who has dual Dutch and Canadian citizenship, has since left modeling and is working as a craftswoman, hand-making wooden cabinets.
The court's ruling included an email exchange between the 180-centimeter-tall (5-foot, 11-inch) model and a representative of Elite in the Netherlands whose name was redacted.
"We agreed that you would come by us every two weeks for an evaluation, how it's going with your diet and exercise and losing weight. We're going to keep measuring you," the Elite representative wrote.
"Today, March 23 2010, we measured your hips at 98 centimeters. This is a reminder! The goal is that you have a hip circumference of no more than 90 centimeters at the end of June."
Marchildon responded that she intended to regain her former shape, and not more.
The ruling said that Marchildon had indeed returned to a 92-centimeter measure by June 2010, but the model and agency parted ways in September.
Later Wednesday, Elite released a statement noting that it had taken over Marchildon's contract from her former agency and that Elite itself never had a written agreement with her. It did not say whether it plans to appeal.
The court awarded Marchildon around euro65,000 ($85,000) in damages, plus interest and legal fees.
In the Netherlands, underwear company Sloggi hired Marchildon for a one-time shoot Monday to show that she is still fit for modeling work.
"It's too crazy for words that a model who's her size would be written off as too fat," said spokeswoman Monica van Alewijn, saying that Marchildon is thinner today than most models the company uses.
"She's just a beautiful woman, and for heaven's sake she shouldn't starve herself," she said. ( Associated Press )
Equestrian styles on show in Paris fashion week — Equestrian styles dominated two major collections on day six of Paris fashion week, with horse-riding vestments — some comfortably elegant, some constrictingly racy — the motif explored by Hermes and Givenchy.
A model wears a creation by Italian fashion designer Riccardo Tisci for Givenchy's fashion house as part of the presentation for Women's Fall-Winter, ready-to-wear 2013 fashion collection, during Paris Fashion week, Sunday, March 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Jacques Brinon)
The gaucho or Argentine cowboy inspired a cool and confident mix of clothes at the Hermes show, set in the Ecole des Beaux Arts in the heart of Paris' Saint Germain area. The location seemed to have rubbed off on the collection, with a graceful Left Bank chic softening the edge of ponchos, chaps and coats held like matador's capes.
Givenchy's Riccardo Tisci, meanwhile, turned on the horsepower for a pulse-quickening show complete with retro variations on jodphurs, riding jackets and racing boots.
In other collections, French designer Alexis Mabille revamped the school-girl bow ribbon, and Akris channelled the square silhouette — one of the defining looks this season.
Monday's ready-to-wear shows include Chloe and Yves Saint Laurent.
HERMES
In his third collection for Hermes, the house of the jet-setting fashion buyer, Christophe Lemaire flew business-class to Argentina. His first piece introduced gentle, hanging silhouettes: a long fringed cape in dark blue was worn like a South American poncho.
Wide, low-slung pleated gaucho pants mixed with sumptuous nude leathers — the house's signature material — that were so soft, they moved as if they were living and breathing.
True enough: as the models walked past there was a distinct aroma of polished hide.
There were nods to the season's must-have, the boxy-jacket, with one charcoal number reworked on a high white collar, in the style of Spanish equestrian garb.
But Hermes, in typical style, was all about comfort.
The relaxed look was perfected with subtle contrasting pieces: a coat was so cool it hung from one shoulder, yet also had the fierceness of a matador's cape.
Sunday saw Lemaire's interest in the East restyled in a series of pajama-inspired dresses with intricate Persian prints that could be worn by women of all ages. And indeed the show saw models in their 40s walk down the runway.
Speaking backstage, Lemaire laughed: "We are timeless. Hermes is for individual women, whatever their age." At which point, he was cut off by 65-year-old fashion icon Jane Birkin, who came to give him a kiss.
GIVENCHY
A year ago it was panthers. Now horses have captured the imagination of Givenchy designer Riccardo Tisci, whose show Sunday presented a highly charged and at times fetish-ized take on equestrian riding gear.
Jodphurs in black and sable brown shaped the silhouette of the collection's first half, with oversized earrings like horse-blinders complementing high riding boots.
As ever with Tisci, there was a sense of danger at all times with chokingly tight neck scarves, loud, troubling music, and even one skintight leather piece — based on a sporting polo — that looked like bondage gear.
Intentionally crude stitching in one leather dress was followed by a series of intense-color slip dresses with clashing belts — harking back to the palette of British glam rock.
Indeed, associations with rock music have been a key factor in keeping Givenchy on the public radar in the past year.
Madonna's widely viewed performance at the American Super Bowl football championship last month was a marketing coup for the house, the singer dressed head to toe in Tisci's couture.
With P.Diddy and Alicia Keys on Sunday's front row, it's clear that Givenchy's a ticket the music stars can't resist.
ALEXIS MABILLE
The young girl next door with a pretty red bow: that was the inspiration for Alexis Mabille's fall-winter collection Sunday, which reworked the youthful bow in every imaginable way.
Girly tied-lace belting shaved years off the look of a flounce dress with chestnut bow embroidering, while diamante bow earrings put the icing on the cake of the carefree, chic gamine look.
This insouciance translated to a short skirt wardrobe. It was a blatant "sticking your tongue out" at the normal autumn covered-up look, with pleated miniskirts and short dresses in plum and black exposing yards of leg.
Just in case spectators still didn't get his point, the funky soundtrack blasted out a chorus of "mini mini mini mini," to chuckles on the front row.
In the more wintery part of the collection, he showcased a series of plumed pieces. But at times the texture-mixing looked like he was trying too hard.
One jacket embroidered entirely with messy, wild feathers and fox fur looked almost like a vixen had raided a chicken pen.
AKRIS
Proving that you don't need curves to be chic, the square look gracing runways all season hit its pinnacle in the fall-winter collection by Akris on Sunday.
Creative director Albert Kriemler's designs channeled the work of 1950s Expressionist painter Franz Kline to give an architectural, angular show of fabrics that hid womanly shapes.
A rust and nude cashmere silk floor-length dress hung like a column, focusing the eye on never-ending legs.
Vertical lined shirt dresses that blurred vision "magic eye"-style, and trapezoid jackets, lapels and prints boldly asserted the boxy style that's the big story for this fall.
The colors were taken straight from Kline canvases with a charcoal color block cape, based on "Painting No.7," reprinted in the program notes, and a pantsuit offering a dash of warmth.
"Kline's work was an exciting discovery for me," said the Swiss designer, "a 1950s artist that captures in painting, the architecture and the dynamics of fashion today."
With collections like this, Akris' already sizable fan base will no doubt continue to grow. ( Associated Press )
