Hong Kong Refocuses on Design

Hong Kong aims to be Asia's fashion center, but the Chinese territory has seen a big drop in clothing exports as the global economic crisis drags on. Now, the government is stepping in to stimulate the local fashion industry.

Models wear fashions designed and made in Hong Kong
Models wear fashions designed and made in Hong Kong
Hong Kong's Fashion Week features the usual parade of models on catwalks showing the latest designs, many of which end up in stores worldwide a year later. But as the global economic crisis lingers, exports of Hong Kong fashions are down more than 75 percent for January through April, from a year ago.

Felix Chung is chairman of the Hong Kong Apparel Society. He says that in the past, Hong Kong was a manufacturing center, but factories moved north to mainland China where costs are lower.

"All the manufacturers are changing their business model, from traditional manufacturing to design and manufacturing," said Chung. "They decided Hong Kong is the only city that has the ability to be the Asia Fashion capital."

Hong Kong's twice-a-year fashion weeks are mostly trade shows - bringing buyers and sellers together. In cities such as Paris and New York, fashion weeks are crammed with runway shows - where high-priced designers show off their work to celebrities and fashion journalists as well as to buyers.

Hong Kong mixes runways shows with trade shows

Chung says Hong Kong needs more runways shows to put the focus on designers.

But runway shows, with their models, music and lights, cost thousands of dollars. Designers sometimes seek sponsors to offset the price.

Hair, makeup, shoe and accessory companies sponsored some designers at Hong Kong's recent spring/summer 2010 event. On the catwalks, designers showed slim-cut pants and bold-shouldered jackets and tops mostly in red, blue, purple, gold, white or black. Some garments had elements of traditional Asian clothing, while others were more like fanciful costumes.

Some designers at the Hong Kong Fashion Week say they are cutting their clothes more for Asian customers, who tend to be shorter and slimmer than Westerners.

Grace Lam, senior fashion style editor of Vogue magazine in China, says domestic demand for locally designed garments is slowly rebounding. And she says designs from China and Hong Kong are starting to get known around the world.

"It has got its own statement with its own history, obviously a very long history, but I think street-wise they're still influenced by Europeans or by Americans' labels," said Lam. "And they like to wear the labels a lot."

Government put $1.3 million to promote fashion business

Even so, the global economic slowdown has undermined sales of Hong Kong and Chinese fashions.

To reinvigorate the fashion industry, the Hong Kong government says it will spend $1.3 million on promoting city's creativity.

This includes putting on a reality TV show centered on a design competition, similar to the popular U.S. show, Project Runway.

Hong Kong's newest crop of designers is at the forefront as fashion becomes more driven by entertainment.

Hong Kong's Fashion Week is more of a trade show, but some want it to add more runway shows
Hong Kong's Fashion Week is more of a trade show, but some want it to add more runway shows
Among them is Max Lam, who studies at the Hong Kong Design Institute. He won the Creativity Award at a recent student fashion show. He also published a glossy magazine, featuring his makeup, styling and design work.

During the recent student show, Mr. Lam strutted the catwalk with his model, taking bows and reveling in the limelight.

His model was painted black and wore a tiny black bikini top, a red wire skirt and platform shoes. Black banners embroidered in red silk draped over each of her arms. Mr. Lam says he styled his model's hair and makeup like a character in a Chinese opera.

"Because my design, this has come from China. You can see it is China style," he said. "The Chinese cage is a bird cage. My theme is constraint."

Even though Hong Kong's fashion industry is in a slump, Felix Chung, the Apparel Society chairman, says all of the city's graduating fashion students this year are finding jobs because of the new emphasis on design.

Beautiful Supermodel Diana Villas Boas

Find beautiful pics of green eye girl Diana Villas Boas

Different Types of Fashion Modeling

These days, modeling has paved the way for large job prospects to teenagers. Various beauty and garment industries hire models to promote their products. Through these models they show the world how their products look like on somebody. A model should have a well maintained and attractive appearance so as to have that look to go with the products. You need to be very photogenic while working in front of camera. While working as a model you will have lots of job prospect under various sections of modeling. Modeling can be of various types and you may opt for the one which you feel comfortable with.

Editorial modeling is on high demand these days. Large number of fashion magazines need to fill up their pages with models wearing latest garments. Although such glamour models won’t fetch you much but that can boost up your popularity to much extent. You may become a popular face of the world through these magazines.

Runway modeling: As a tradition, various fashion designers show their latest collection to the buyers by organizing fashion weeks. Just as Lakme fashion week or Ponds fasion week in which famous dress designers present their collection to the consumers so as to boost up their sell in the market. Designers hire fresh and talented fashion models and send them to walk on runway wearing their latest collection. People watch the beauty and elegance of these garments and jewelries through these models. Such modeling fetches a very high payout to the models.

By : Bobby Laney

Tips on Choosing Your Own Plus Size Lingerie

Lingerie is designed to be worn by every type of woman. It does not matter what height, weight, skin tone, hair color, or size you have. Different types of lingerie have been designed to suit whatever number or color you represent. In fact, several special lines of lingerie have opened in the past to cater to specific types of women who may not be satisfied by the typical lingerie sold in the market.

One example of such special lines of lingerie is the plus size lingerie. Plus size lingerie is a type of lingerie which accommodate women who may not find their sizes in the typical sections of lingerie. Some women may feel embarrassed to be seen buying plus size models lingerie. This may hinder them from getting lingerie which they've always wanted. However, this should not be the case.

Plus size lingerie exists to make you feel more comfortable and confident about your body. Several of their designs in different lingerie boutiques work by accentuating good parts of your body. They are even more creative in understating other areas of your body which you don't want to be easily noticed.

When shopping for your own plus size lingerie, make sure to wear an outfit which you usually wear. This is so you can see better how well the lingerie blends with your figure. Since you're already used to your typical attire, any changes like flattering effects or masking effects of the plus size lingerie is easily visible.

Shop not just for comfort, but also for durability. In general, it's best to go for plus size fashion lingerie with cotton, spandex or lycra as materials. This is for the reason that they last longer than other types of material. More on, remember to take note if the material is breathable or not. Breathable materials help absorb moisture better.

Source : lingeriearticles.com

Roger Avary, movie man and embodiment of creativity

Roger Avary. The inspired and inspiring embodiment of creativity... Some people say that he was even more attractive shaved, as it was at the 2007 Scream Awards. When Avary was arrested, he wasn't shaved either...

By far, Roger Avary (d'Avary in the past) is not a professional model. He is a director, writer producer, even an actor and cinematographer of a great many of films, from The Worm Turns (1983) through Killing Zoe (1994), Mr. Stitch (1996), The Rules of Attraction (2002) to Driver (2008) and Return to Castle Wolfenstein (In Production).

But he is the inspiring model symbolizing the sharm of multi-talent and deep creativity.

Early in his career, Avary made a number of contributions to some of Quentin Tarantino's movies, starting from working as a crew member on Tarantino's unfinished first film, My Best Friend's Birthday. Most notably, Avary contributed material which, combined with Tarantino's, formed the basis of Pulp Fiction (1994) for which he and Tarantino won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

Avary also wrote and directed the neo-noir cult thriller Killing Zoe (1994) which Tarantino executive produced.

Avary briefly moved into work for television and made two pilots, neither of which was picked up.

In 2002 Avary returned to cinema as a director with his adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis novel The Rules of Attraction, which he also executive produced. As of 2008, ranked as one of the top twenty-sixth highest grossing college comedy of all time. [3] The Rules of Attraction was the first studio movie to prove reliable use of Apple's Final Cut Pro editing system for editing motion picture film.[4] Roger Avary became a spokesperson for Apple's Final Cut Pro product, appearing in Apple print and web ads worldwide. His film from within the film, Glitterati (2004), used elements of Victor's European trip and was shot on digital video. In 2005, he purchased the rights to another Bret Easton Ellis novel Glamorama, and is currently developing it for himself to direct.

On January 13 (what a date!), 2008, Avary was arrested under suspicion of manslaughter and drunk driving, following a car crash in California where a passenger, Andreas Zini, was killed. The Ventura County Sheriff's department responded to the single-vehicle crash after midnight, Sunday morning on the 19-hundred block of East Ojai Avenue. Sheriff's deputies allege Avary's wife was ejected from the car, but is reportedly in stable condition. Avary was released from jail on $50,000 bail.

Millions of people feel really, really badly for him and about this whole situation and do feel the sympathy for a person whose life changed forever in a car accident.

Source: http://www.fashiongates.com/magazine/Roger-Avary-model.html

More fashion models and modeling agency news refer to modelcruz.

Danish Model - Barbara Zatler (Photos)

Image Sorces : Barbara Zatler

Upcoming Model - Anahi Gonzales (Pics)

Born in Peru, Gonzales was first discovered by a talent agent in Mexico. A few test shoots and auditions later, and Gonzales was on her way to become the new face of Peru with her lightly-toasted skin and eyes that stab a dagger in your heart.












Image Sorces : Anahi Gonzales Biography