Label
Once you get past the name of Chris Peters and Shane Gabler’s label, Creatures of the Wind, and embrace their awkward sense of femininity, things start to make sense. They’re great with skirts — boxed-pleated, dirndls — and even their more complicated collage effects, done with high-contrast fabrics and colors, manage to retain a sense of proportion. Their patternmaking is O.K.
But the overall result is murky. One of the nicest things they showed on Thursday was a brushed cotton minidress with a wide belt in the same fabric and elbow-length sleeves. You don’t want to tell the designers to narrow down their fabric choices or be more straightforward in their cutting, because that sounds horribly discouraging to a pair of designers who actually like to experiment.
But they ought to put more thought into what they want to achieve from a fabric or a design. You can’t improve on that little brushed cotton dress, or on a windowpane check dress, or a skirt in filmy red polyester. For now, though, too many of their garments feel like charming strays with no home.
If you see a woman walking around on the Upper East Side in a tent dress with ridiculously cheerful dots, the outfit is sure to be a Lisa Perry. You won’t get an innovative take on the ‘60s from Ms. Perry; she’s more interested in updating a style for her customers, who clearly are not down for dishwater green.
Among her new additions are double-face wool coats and suit separates, with a dot pattern on one side and glen plaid on the reverse. She has also put some waist in her tents, so all that exercising and dieting won’t be in vain. A long-sleeve, funnel-neck dress in red wool was a nice departure from her A-line shapes. Indeed, the more freely she interprets the ‘60s aesthetic, the more interesting her stuff becomes.
Gold
New York Fashion: Prabal Gurung takes cue from military.
Next-big-thing designer Prabal Gurung is in the army — and the navy — now. The Nepalese designer found inspiration in a surprising source this season: servicewomen.
“I just read the Time magazine article that one of the best inventions of 2012 was this invention of body armor for women in the military,” he explained backstage before trotting out his 36 military-inspired creations. “That kind of set me thinking, then I started reading more about it and I found out that all these women have been wearing men’s uniforms for the longest period of time, so now they’re redesigning them for women, and even the small-statured men are wearing that.”
The structured, but feminine looks featured bold peplums, sexy harnesses, asymmetrical evening gowns ans stick thin stilettos that came in black and shiny metallic gold. Some of the heels were even to-the-thigh sexy boot styles with rows of gold buckles.
Gurung said the word that summed up the collection is “empowerment,” which he defined in his own way.”The whole idea means not just being forceful, but embracing your femininity and being a woman in a man’s world and ruling it. You no longer need to look like a man to compete like a man. That’s the power and tool that women have that men don’t have: femininity.”
Saturday’s show is just the beginning of a busy 72 hours for Gurung that will see him launch his capsule collection at Target stores nationwide tomorrow and put on another show Monday for his lower-priced line ICB.
“I’m grateful that I’m busy,” he said humbly pre-show. “I feel good that I have a platform like Target that I can reach out to all these people. Even if they’re not able to buy (the more expensive designer line), they understand the passion and my story, and hopefully they’ll explore that and be inspired themselves.”
Delicate
In a neighboring room, Jennifer Meyer showed her newest creations amongst a setting of lush palm fronds. For Meyer, who’s sold her delicate array of fine jewelry in stores like Barney’s New York since 2004, the fund offered an opportunity to look outside of her already well-established box. “To be honest it gave me the confidence to step outside of my comfort zone and try new things and experiment,” she explained of the experience. Once solely revered for her tiny gold pendants, Meyer’s recent efforts have exhibited an adept hand at colored stones and sophisticated, geometric shapes. As her husband, actor Tobey Maguire circulated the floor with his Great Gatsby co-star Leonardo DiCaprio, she waxed poetic about a different celebrity. “I have the most incredible mentor, Diane Von Furstenberg. I scored so big time I can’t event tell you…within the first week of me becoming runner-up she spent three hours in my office. She filled a book of notes…her advice is incredible.”
The fund’s final 2012 class member, Tabitha Simmons, occupied Milk’s largest block of space in an elegant room overlooking the Hudson, which she filled with industry luminaries like J.Crew’s Jenna Lyons, buyer Ikram Goldman, and designer Tory Burch. “Looking at Tabitha, who I think is one of the most talented footwear designers out there, it’s really exiting to see that she was a finalist and now you can come see her presentation here,” Burch said of Simmons, who created the shoes for her fall 2013 collection. Simmons, who’s long served as a Vogue contributing stylist, leaned towards a bit of the Ziggy Stardust magic for fall by peppering her classic shoes with electric glitter and rhinestones. “I think what we’ve done is expand,” she enthused of her brand in post-fund mode between takes of congratulatory praise from Goldman and beyond.
dating scams
Rise in Net dating scams.
LONELY singles looking for love online could be risking more than just a broken heart as Internet dating scams had tripled last year.
Many involved smooth-talking con men preying on vulnerable middle-aged Singaporean women.
After claiming to be from countries such as Britain and Australia, they often spend months persuading their victims to deposit money in an overseas account. Once they have the funds, they vanish.
The scams first appeared in Singapore about four years ago.
There were 62 last year, a rise from 21 in 2010. Most of the victims were female, with those over 40 the most vulnerable.
They included Susan (not her real name), who lost about S$18,000 (RM43,485) to a man she met on the Date In Asia website.
He claimed to be an Australian, named Sam, working for a bank in Kuala Lumpur.
The pair chatted on the phone and swopped text messages for about three weeks before Susan, 43, decided to meet him last July.
When he arrived at her home in Hillview Avenue, she saw he had brought her a burger – which she now suspects was drugged. After eating it, she passed out for 12 hours.
When she woke up, Sam had stolen her personal documents, including credit cards, and spent about $18,000 on Apple products and jewellery.
“It didn’t hit me, I was not suspicious,” the corporate communications officer said. “I had never met such people in my life. Now I want to forget the whole thing.”
Police said it was hard to retrieve the money once it had been sent abroad.
That is why it is important to report such crimes early.
Internet dating ruses are classified as commercial crimes, a category that also includes kidnap scams.
These often involve foreigners calling families in Singapore, pretending a loved one had been snatched and then demand a ransom.
The “kidnappers” sometimes order the relatives not to hang up until the money has been transferred. Fearing for their loved ones’ safety, the victims usually do as they are told.
There were 44 successful kidnap scams last year, in which the families actually transferred the money. This was a surge from just nine in 2010