Thursday, June 29, 2006

Catwalk camp Menswear range steps back to kitsch


Catwalk camp Menswear range steps back to kitsch
Hadley Freeman Milan
The Guardian
29 Jun 2006


Designers, advertisers and many men’s magazine editors have spent countless hours and even more money trying to convince the public that fashion is not all camp and that Real Men Like Fashion, Too.



Sadly, many of their efforts will have been undermined by Milan menswear fashion week.



In the past few days there have been Spandex leggings with blazers, mini satin shorts and male models showering on stage. But yesterday’s D & G show managed to out-camp them all.



On a stage replete with teepees and smouldering campfires, male models marched up and down in impressively tight shorts with “I love a Cherokee” scrawled on the backside, drooping suede chaps affixed to denim shorts and suede moccasin boots.



Almost all were wearing mirrored aviator sunglasses, the crucial accessory for any self-respecting 70s porn star. And just when you thought the cliched homoeroticism had reached its zenith, a model came out wearing only a suede rag wrapped around his hips.


D & G is Dolce & Gabbana’s diffusion label and so always aims for the mass market as opposed to ... read more...

Monday, June 26, 2006

The budget fashionista tells all (Houston Chronicle Sunday, 25 Jun 2006, Page G3)


The budget fashionista tells all
By KARA G. MORRISON
Houston Chronicle Sunday
25 Jun 2006


It took a mountain of creditcard debt and college loans to make Kathryn Finney rethink her spending on clothes.



Well that, and falling in love.



“It took marrying someone cheap to understand how really in debt I was,” says Finney. “I had a love of fashion, but a real lack of cash, and my husband said, ‘You’ve got to curtail your spending.’ ”



Today, the creator of the shopping blog TheBudgetFashionista.com, Finney is on a multicity tour with her new book,



(Ballentine Books, $12.95). It’s filled with tips on staying stylish without breaking the bank.



In an industry as high-brow as fashion, she says, the bestdressed always know how to snag a deal.



“I know editors in New York at major magazines who shop at Target. Do not let them fool you,” says Finney, who lives in New Jersey. “Celebrities are beyond bargain shoppers. They want everything given to them.”



This is not the career the Minnesota native envisioned while getting her graduate degree in epidemiology from Yale. But when her husband created a blog site for her three years ago as an outlet for her shopping obsession, bargain fashionistas from... read more...