My Fashion Life

TopButton.com and Clear Channel Radio’s Z100, WKTU and Power 105.1 are teaming up for “Style Stage NYC,” the largest shopping party in the US. The two day fashion, shopping and music event will take place Friday, May 5 and Saturday, May 6 at the Metropolitan Pavilion and Altman Building, located at 125 and 135 West 18th Street in New York City.

This fashion and music experience will feature performances from some of today’s hottest recording artists including Nick Lachey, Sean Paul, Jagged Edge and many more. With over 60 designer sample sales under one roof, shoppers can also enjoy up to 60 percent off of the hottest designer handbags, denim, shoes, apparel, accessories and many more!

May 5th VIP Experience (Friday, 6–10pm), with live performance by Sean Paul: $79

* VIP gift bags worth over $75
* Wine and hors d’oeuvres
* Celebrity meet and greets
* Over 60 designer booths
* Special guest Christina Milian
* Other surprise guests

May 6th Experience #1 (Saturday, 10am–2pm), with live performances by Jagged Edge & Lucas Prata: $49

May 6th Experience #2 (Saturday, 3–7 pm), with live performance by Nick Lachey: $49

For more info and to purchase tickets check out topbutton

[Text:morpheusmedia.com]

Supermodel and notorious bad girl Naomi Campbell will be adorning Austrian postage stamps as part of a fundraiser to help Sir Elton John’s AIDS Charities. The Austrian public will be able to buy stamps of the doe-eyed beauty for 75 cents due to be released to coincide with the annual Sir Elton John life ball. Naomi’s scheduled to host the ball alongside Sir Elton, which will be held on the 20th of May in the Austrian capital, Vienna.

According to contactmusic.com a spokesperson said of Naomi’s participation,

“Naomi is a keen supporter of AIDS causes and saw Nelson Mandela in Africa earlier this month. She’ll be hosting the Life Ball, which is a gorgeous event at Vienna’s city hall and has featured designs by Vivienne Westwood and John Galliano.”

“I want to make shoes that are beautifully designed and finely made, but without an over the top price tag”

If your feet are on the larger side, then you’ll know a thing or two about the difficulty in not only finding your shoe size (especially in the sales) let alone actually finding cute shoes which don’t look gigantic. Well lawyer turned footwear designer Angeline Tournier can relate and as a result of her frustrations set up Angeline Tournier London, specialising in designing and manufacturing footwear ranging from sizes EU36 right up to EU44 and which look great on big feet as well as small. Paris department store, Le Bon Marché exclusively bought Angeline’s debut collection and she’s just recently released her spring/summer 2006 collection….

What do you enjoy the most about your job?

Four things 1) Working for myself, 2) fulfilling a lifelong dream to create shoes available in larger sizes, 3) being creative, 4) no longer being stuck in an over-air-conditioned office, wearing “formal” clothes and spending my time analysing and sorting out other people’s legal problems, and doing a job with little creative outlet.

And like the least?

Working for myself means I never get “time off”, I tend to work longer hours than before and I can not “get away” from work, even on week-ends and holidays.

Can you tell us a bit about the design process involved in shoe design?

The design process takes place over a number of months. I kind of visualise shoes or boots I’d like to wear myself, I sketch my initial ideas, sometimes I get inspiration from a trim off an item of clothing, a type of leather I see at a leather trade show or other totally unrelated topic. A few weeks before I need to submit my drawings to the factory, I make more formal technical drawings, normally quite a few, then I select my favourite ones and send them to the factory so that they can make samples.

What was the inspiration behind the cartoon wedges?

I loved reading Betty & Veronica cartoons with my sisters when I grew up in the US. Sometimes we identified with nice Betty, sometimes with selfish Veronica. It’s a very American cartoon with slightly cheesy retro dialogue. I started off gluing the actual cartoon pages onto wedges with floor varnish. Then I tried different styles of designs for the upper part of the shoe. I wanted to create a summer sandal which was fun and which made me smile, and which stood out.

It’s been 10 years since charity Fashion Targets Breast Cancer was launched and to celebrate they’ve enlisted top photographer David Bailey, to take pics of top models Helena Christensen, Lily Cole, Claudia Schiffer, Yasmin Le Bon and more.

Founded by designer Ralph Lauren after his friend, Nina Hyde, fashion editor of the Washington post died of breast cancer. Fashion Targets Breast Cancer is now the UK’s leading fashion charity and has raised £6.5 million in fundraising activities and t-shirt sales. The bullseye target made famous from its conception in 1996 through the Breakthrough Breast Cancer campaign has been turned to gold and t-shirts are now on sale.

“It has been great to work with these 10 strong-willed women to mark the 10th anniversary of Fashion Targets Breast Cancer - make sure you go and buy your T-shirt today and show your support of Breakthrough’s important breast cancer research and education work.” - David Bailey

Nothing to do with fashion but its fun, and with the World Cup on its way, we thought we’d get into the football spirit….

Just rating.com - “pit player against player. You pick who you would prefer in your squad.”

Name: Nicole K. Garner

Occupation: PR practitioner, fashion/ beauty writer, instructor

What does your typical day consist of?

With a cell phone constantly glued to my ear and my laptop attached to my hip, I am usually running a mile a minute and mastering new ways to multi-task. Everyday provides a new opportunity to make connections and brainstorm new ways to generate buzz for my clientele and gain them viable exposure. Constantly on the phone with editors, writing press releases, consulting on fashion shows, and setting up interviews, my day is a constant world wind of movement, and I love every moment of it.

PR has become extremely competitive, how did you go about getting your foot in the door?

I went to school for PR (Georgia State University and the Fashion Institute of NY), following that I accrued a diverse range of publicity experience with nationally ranked PR firms by interning, volunteering, and entry level positions.

Which elements of your job do you enjoy the most and which do you prefer to delegate?

I absolutely love writing, it will always be a true passion of mine. On the other hand, I do not mind delegating research and database management duties.

What’s been the most rewarding/challenging campaign you’ve worked on?

Taking the German brand Leporello Handbags, and introducing it to the North American/ Canadian market.

It must be essential for you to always have your finger on the pulse, how do you ensure you stay up to date with current news and trends?

The internet is my best friend. For the fashion world I subscribe to everything from Style.com, WWD, infomat, myfashionlife.com, local boutique and department store mailing list and for trends I subscribe to springwise.com, trendwatch.com, publications from all over the world, and I always look at the ever-changing youth culture to be inspired.

Best piece of advice you’ve been given?

Do what you are good out and outsource the rest!

Visit www.thegarnercircle.com & www.NicoleGarner.com

“If you polled them the year I graduated, they would have said that I was a slut,” she says. “And the most I had ever done is French kiss. It was because of the way I looked. I was always the girl who hung out with the boys. What I didn’t realize was that after I hit puberty I was something different to the guys. They all wanted to get in my pants. They couldn’t, so they just said they did.”

Evangeline Lilly talks to Elle……