Met Ball Spoiler Alert! Kristen Stewart, Scarlet Johansson Fashions Revealed Ahead of Gala
If you’re wondering what the fashion famous will be wearing to the May 7 Met Ball, wonder no more. 3:09 PM PDT 5/7/2012 by Merle Ginsberg
Booming bamboo The next super-material
It is an innovative combination of capitalism and conservation that has got the project under way at the Rio Kama plantation - the world's first Bamboo Bond, devised by British company EcoPlanet Bamboo.
For those who have purchased the biggest $50,000 (£31,000) bonds it promises a return of 500% on their investment, stretched over 15 years.
Today you can buy a pair of bamboo socks or use it as a fully load-bearing structural beam in your house - and it is said that there are some 1,500 uses for it in between.
"But the egotism of man and short-sightedness made people believe that by depleting all this it would mean a quick income and they did not need to worry about tomorrow."
But lower priced bonds were offered as well, to bring smaller investors into this kind of project.
In Nicaragua's case, the government says its aim for its economy is very much in the opposite direction - diversification.
"In the last decade, bamboo has become a major economic crop," Abadie continues.
But from this part of Nicaragua it is a short passage across the Caribbean for processed bamboo to the potentially huge market in the United States.
Continue reading the main story Fast-growing grass Bamboo is a perennial evergreen from the Poaceae grass family - it can grow up to 1m per day and reach its full height in a single season China produces about 80% of the world's bamboo - it is estimated that up to 1.5bn people globally rely on bamboo-like plants for their livelihoods Bamboo's rugged fibres can be cooked and made into a viscose solution before being turned into a weaving material It can also provide energy - a bamboo-chip biomass power plant is working in the Philippines There are as yet no international laws governing sustainability of bamboo plantations
Continue reading the main story Find out more Mike Wooldridge reports on Green Gold: the Bamboo Boom on Tuesday 3 April at 20:00 BST on Radio 4 Listen again on iPlayer (UK only) via the link
By no means all green hopes have been fulfilled.
There is a rapidly growing recognition of the ways in which bamboo can serve us as consumers and also help to save the planet from the effects of climate change because of its unrivalled capacity to capture carbon.
New technologies and ways of industrially processing bamboo have made a big difference, enabling it to begin to compete effectively with wood products for Western markets.
Should the potential earnings from bamboo become sufficiently alluring, there is the obvious risk for any smaller nation of a pendulum swing to over-dependence on it. A monoculture could develop.
Some of it is seasonal work and there is clearly a risk of over-high expectations.
Vogel is passionate about bamboo and the opportunities he believes it offers his country, as it tries to put behind it a past of civil war and political turbulence and a present of widespread poverty.
There are practical risks for the bamboo plants, too - such as flooding and pest damage.
"From the field and the forest to the factory and the merchant, from the design studio to the laboratory, from the universities to those in political power, people are more and more aware of this potentially renewable resource," says Michael Abadie, who took up the presidency of the World Bamboo Organisation last year.
It is estimated that the world bamboo market stands at around $10bn (£6.24bn) today, and the World Bamboo Organisation says it could double in five years.
Bamboo's image is undergoing a transformation. Some now call it "the timber of the 21st Century".
Bamboo is being hailed as a new super material, with uses ranging from textiles to construction. It also has the potential to absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide, the biggest greenhouse gas, and provide some of the world's poorest people with cash.
But on land that was once under dense forest cover, then turned over to slash-and-burn agriculture and ranching, new bamboo plantations are rising.
"This was once a tropical jungle full of trees through which you could not see the sunlight," Vogel says.
But, for now at least, bamboo is definitely booming.
The developing world is now embracing this potential growth.
"You can see the little holes where the bamboo has been planted. At this moment the bamboo is like the young girl with the pimples that has not overcome puberty," says Nicaraguan John Vogel, who runs the local operations of a British-based enterprise investing in bamboo.
In eastern Nicaragua, bamboo was until recently regarded by most of the local population as valueless - more as a nuisance to be cleared than a boon to them and their region.
The investment in bamboo is having a positive effect on local plantation workers, providing paid employment for people, including women, many of whom were previously jobless, or for men who once had to travel to Costa Rica to find work.
And for investors there are, of course, political risks associated with the producer countries.
But local producers say there are too many misconceptions about Nicaragua - and they insist that they have taken adequate measures to protect investors' interests.
Bamboo can also be woven, and young shoots can be eaten
China has long been the big bamboo producer and has capitalised successfully on the growing demand for bamboo products.
This is the world's fastest growing plant, ready to be harvested annually and sustainably after four to five years in contrast to the typical tropical hardwood that takes many years longer to mature and can be harvested only once.
There is long way to go before the grasses now being nurtured in Nicaragua - for technically bamboo is a member of the grass family - can safely be described as the timber of the 21st Century - and the key plank in a more sustainable future for forestry and therefore for the world.
Goodyear posts 4Q profit, but misses Street view
AKRON, Ohio Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. returned to profitability in its fourth quarter partly as it sold more higher-priced tires after reporting a loss a year ago that included hefty costs tied to a plant closing.
But its results fell short of Wall Street expectations, and its shares fell more than 5 percent Tuesday.
The biggest U.S. tire maker also cautioned that global tire industry growth will be at a slower pace near term than previously predicted due to economic difficulties in several markets.
For the period ended Dec. 31, Goodyear reported net income of $18 million, or 7 cents per share. That compares with a net loss of $177 million, or 73 cents per share, a year ago.
Excluding one-time items in the latest period, Goodyear said that its earnings were 3 cents per share. Analysts expected earnings of 20 cents per share, according to a FactSet survey.
The prior-year period included a $160 million charge tied to its plans to close a plant in Union City, Tenn.
Quarterly revenue increased 12 percent to $5.68 billion from $5.07 billion partly on higher tire prices, but tire unit volumes dropped 5 percent on difficulties in Latin America,Discount Adidas shoes, flooding in Thailand and declining replacement industry volumes in mature markets.
The revenue performance missed Wall Street’s estimate of $5.86 billion.
Goodyear said that revenue per tire rose 19 percent for the quarter, taking out the effects of foreign currency translation.
A focus on high-end tires helped Goodyear increase revenue per tire by 17 percent for 2011.
“Our price-mix strategy was critical to our ability to offset record high raw material costs and the success of that strategy continued through the end of the year,” chairman and CEO Richard Kramer told analysts in a conference call.
Its shares fell 72 cents, or 5.2 percent, to close at $13.25 Tuesday. Its shares are still up 55 percent from their 52-week low of $8.53 in early October. They peaked for the year at $18.83 in early May.
For the year, Goodyear reported net income of $321 million, or $1.26 per share. In the previous year it lost $216 million, or 89 cents per share.
The Akron, Ohio company’s annual revenue rose 21 percent to $22.77 billion from $18.83 billion.
Call His Name Alejandro
“It’s my first real presentation, outside of my showroom, so I wanted to keep it really simple and precise,” shoe designer and fourth-generation cobbler Alejandro Ingelmo said at his Milk Studios presentation. “For me, less is more.” Not necessarily what you’d expect to hear from someone whose client roster includes Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj,wholesale Louis Vuitton, and Britney Spears. (For those maximalists, at least, he obliged with the occasional Swarovski Elements-crystal embellishment.)
Nor was Ingelmo’s simple really all that simple. He showed towering leather platform sandals and sharply angled ankle boots in black, nude, silver, and gold—not exactly hop-on-the-subway fare. But he’s conscious of comfort; he’s a runner himself and often spotted in New Balances when he’s not wearing his own leather high-tops—so he’s done thick-strap flat sandals, too.
You’ll have to wait for spring to snatch up the new version of his best-selling Thriller, a gravity-defying platform that’s a blend of sexy straps and futuristic metallic leather. If you need to get your Ingelmo fix now, you can check out the Helmut Lang and Chris Benz Spring shows, both of which feature AI collabs. Or you can just head down to his recently opened boutique on Wooster in Soho.
—Laurie Trott
Photo: Courtesy of Alejandro Ingelmo
Juicy, Re-Juiced
Photo: Courtesy of Juicy Couture
Though it’s gone through several phases since its initial velour tracksuit heyday, Juicy Couture has never fully shaken its reputation for loungewear. But with a newly appointed chief creative officer, LeAnn Nealz, the brand is looking to up its fashion cred—and its first seasonal presentation, held at an NYC mansion last night, suggested that it’s on the right track. “The collection feels fresh, young, updated, and most of all, modern,” Nealz said. The core tracksuit pieces were still on offer, but they were interspersed among casual sporty pieces that were easy but more stylish than before. Mini tennis skirts paired with sweatshirt tops looked like what young girls want to wear now. Nealz also made a play for the unstoppable striped-tee trend, with brightly colored versions ready to go head to head with any on the market.
—Marina Larroude
Recessionista Got Change - UsMagazine.com
Every once in a while, I like things that are cute and whimsical. This Old Navy Women’s Humor Coin Purse is one of those items. At just $5, and adorned with phrases like ‘girls night,’ these purses are just darling! This fits the bill and for Fall you can get black or teal and laugh all the way to the bank!
Purchase info: Buy it here.
Recessionista Pretty Tough - UsMagazine.com
Check out other must-have celebrity bags!
The bag is synthetic leather and the dimensions are 13×1x13. Purchase Info: Buy it here.
Want to get a hold of this year’s hottest embellishment? Olalaonline.com is the place to snag the Gucci-inspired studded satchel that I am slightly nuts for this season! It has a look very similar to the Gucci and the Sonia Rykiel bags out there that celebrities like Charlize Theron, Beyonce and Rihanna have been strolling around with. But it’s not a knockoff, so there’s something very alluring about the fact that it stands on its own. The budget-friendly version is feminine and mixed with rock ‘n’ roll fierceness. Available in three colors (black, navy, brown, grey), I was able to order two because the price was so reasonable: only $22.39 each!
Jo-Ann Furniss On London’s Man Day
Photos: Getty Images
“Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn.” So said Gore Vidal, yet this statement could easily be applied to the best of the designers at London fashion week’s Man Day.
There was something peculiarly British and personal about much that was on offer this season. Our particular genre of sportswear was mined mercilessly. It is something that many of the young designers showing here were weaned on from school age, and it was always much more about style in its appropriation rather than fashion. Christopher Shannon, Martine Rose, Matthew Miller, and New Power Studio were all treading on this territory. Yet at its best, this initial inspiration took flight into something much less nostalgic and into something much more personal and fashion focused—these are fashion shows and collections, after all—spliced together in a hybridized way to become much more theatrical.
This was true of the best elements in Christopher Shannon’s collection (above), which lifted them away from just going through the sportswear motions of “scally drag.” His tasseled pieces had that decorative and tribal element that was also emerging in many of the shows (he explained he had been looking at the African photography of Pieter Hugo), and his “comb crowns” reinforced this peculiar point.
But it is Thom Murphy’s New Power Studio that really excels at combining fashion fantasy with British street-style reality. His loopy set-piece presentation about birth, marriage, and death was both hilarious and quite serious in its advanced fashion intent. His cast of close-cropped boy models crawled out of a large paper vagina to play a game of Connect Four in garments such as a pleated onesie made from overdyed sweat-shirting. His two grooms and a pregnant bride (with a bag on her head, no less) were joined by roller-skating child-bridesmaids, and had something of the tribal-ceremonial about them. The grooms wore clothes featuring a dusty toy print and necklaces of knickknacks that again had the element of tribal fetish about them. Finally, in a double coffin-cum-hospital bed on wheels, were two boys in what can perhaps be termed “casual eveningwear” for Murphy. It was the ease of British streetwear mixed with more formal pleat-front shirting. “I wanted to do something theatrical,” said Murphy. ‘I think this has been missing from a lot of fashion here lately. I wanted to do something about ceremony, and when I found out that this part of Somerset House had been the registry of births, marriages, and deaths, it seemed the, er, site-specific thing to do!” He laughed, knowing full well the contrast between the presentation and this grand London edifice.
That contrast between this London edifice and the outside world was also evident in Shaun Samson’s collection in the Man showcase presentation. The Man show this season was revitalized and all of the designers raised their game—Martine Rose and Matthew Miller included—but it was Shaun Samson who really felt like the star. Maybe it was this Southern Californian’s contrasting perspective from the rest of the London crowd that raised him above many of them on Man Day. But this recent M.A. graduate from Central Saint Martins really felt like he had something new to say with his American streetwear-inflected collection mixed predominantly with Mexican blankets. “It really stems from all the influences I had around me when I was growing up,” said Samson. His clothes also betrayed a bewildering technique of his own invention that sees one fabric bonded into another, making them look like they are hallucinogenically melting into the next and becoming print.
Another hallucinatory splicing together of influences came, surprisingly, from Lou Dalton this season. While this was not always true in the surface pattern, it was certainly in the intent. The 1984 miner’s strike was melded with Matthew Bourne’s famous all-male production of Swan Lake to produce glittering crystals contrasted against utilitarian garb. This was one of the best collections for the designer, and perhaps she should mine the exotic and improbable far more often.
Far more in love with the surface pattern of it all was Topman Design this season (middle). There was paisley, paisley, and more paisley as well as other pajamarama elements worn as conventional clothing—appropriately, the soundtrack was largely Roxy Music. The silk slink of such garments was contrasted with conventional linen tailoring and other outerwear at times. And yet Topman seems to have lost some of its punch in the silhouettes of the garments themselves. But for a high street line it still steals a march on any of the others.
Perhaps we should end then on the third of the British streets—that of Savile Row—and the second collection to come from Claire Malcolm at Hardy Amies (bottom). This was again a collection based on the figure of Amies himself and again proved what Malcolm did as a standout first offering for the line was no fluke. Taking the idea of the stylish man who really knows what he wants to say and doesn’t give a damn was Hardy Amies all over and Malcolm runs with it in this collection. The predominant silhouette of the tailored shorts suit, crossed with the delicate, almost psychedelic “mosaic” patterning of shirting and silk pieces, and the use of a summer color palette could have appeared vulgar in anybody else’s hands but appeared effortless here. “It is partly based on photographs of Hardy in Venice and my own time there,” said Malcolm. “It’s that style, those quirks, the chicness of bringing decorative elements of interiors into the clothing that I was interested in. I also love the fact that Hardy Amies was a bit of a bitch! Just like the tailors on Savile Row are now. It was inspired by men like them.”
—Jo-Ann Furniss
Stay Warm and Cozy Like the Stars — for $34 - UsMagazine.com
You can wear this type of scarf more ways than one. Try around the neck or across the shoulders like a shrug.
On a hunt, I found something that I bought from Urban Outfitters, a store that I think has such a handle on knits, for $34. The Deena & Ozzy Ribbed Eternity Scarf is big and comfy and almost like wearing a sweater in itself. The acrylic scarf measures 80 inches in length and 20 inches in width. It comes in grey, lavender and rose.
This is what I love about accessories — you can do many things and change your outfit constantly. And also not have to fret about what to wear and not wear.
I love this eternity scarf as a new twist on a classic look. Stars like Kourtney Kardashian, her sister Kim and Hilary Duff are all wrapped up in this Paula Bianco style at singer22.com.
As the temperatures begin behaving like a rollercoaster (humid, hot, cool, windy, balmy — oy!), what are you supposed to wear?
I have found that a scarf is not only a neccessity but a celebrity favorite. In fact, scarves may be the MVP of every wardrobe. You can drape, wrap, add pins or even cover yourself, sari style.
Made of acrylic and nylon, the scarf comes in black, charcoal, olive, taupe, eggplant, wine and light grey. But for $83, it’s a lot of money.
By Sasha Charnin Morrison for UsMagazine.com. To read more of the Recessionista blog, click here.
Recessionista Shady Characters - UsMagazine.com
But woe is me with the cost of some of these designer frames that have a tendency to get lost, sat on or accidentally broken in two by my twin 6-year-olds. This is a great find: Curations sunglasses curated for HSN by Scoop NYC mastermind and co-founder Stefani Greenfield.
Find out which sunglasses are best for your face shape!
I love wearing sunglasses that are as large as dinner plates. They cover the big trunks I have under my eyes… plus they make me look so V.I.P.
They’re large, angular, with nice gold detail around the frame, plus they come in a lovely case. But the biggest news? They retail for just $49.90. We love the black and nude, but you can also collect those crazy fashion colors like hot pink and tortoise, which are already both wait listed! There’s also nautical navy, opaque white, taxi cab yellow and palm b—-h orange for those of you who like to take a walk on the wild side… Purchase Info: Buy it here.