Wednesday, 24 April 2013

Mens Access To Accessories

Accessories are very important part of your look, it turn a simple ordinary outfit to extraordinary one and as we proceed towards fashion future, accessories will be a main categories to look for. While picking up an accessory always go for art, details & handcrafted products which make them timeless and can be used over the time.
Here we can have a look on important mens accessories & whats in trend for current season.

Scarf 
It’s a color full pattern printed fabric worn around neck or near the head. Terms like muffler or neck-wrap generally used interchangeably. Foulard is another term used for scarf & in French is the usual word for a scarf or neckerchief. It’s a lightweight fabric made of silk, cotton silk or viscose (rayon) usually constructed in plain & twill weave.
Geometrical tiles, paisley, abstract or scenery prints are in this summer.



 
Gucci midnight blue and sky blue spring print cotton scarf with fringing.    
Bottega veneta black white leaf print Silk Scarf.

Burberry geometric print silk scarf, fringing at both ends.

Zara paisley print scarf.

Cufflinks
A cufflink is a decorative fastener to fasten the two sides of the cuff on a shirt. These can wear only with double cuffs, also known as French cuffs. A shirt should either be double cuff with button holes but no buttons or single cuff with buttons. They give a very elegant & elite look, but wear it only with suit.
These are available in different material like metallic plating, gemstones, crystal or pearl.
Silver metallic frame with Swarovski crystal a best simple piece that you can have.

Burberry check engraved cufflinks with polished metal frame and links.
Bottega Veneta interlaced antique pattern silver cufflinks with a unique, bold concave silver surface.

Louis Vuitton silverly flower pattern cufflink.
Salvatore Ferragamo gancio cufflink in palladium and crystals.

Tie
Tie is a long narrow piece of cloth worn around the neck. For a classic look pick a tie whose width corresponds to width of your suit lapel. Prints on tie are very dramatic, lustrous, unusual, unconventional mostly on silk or wool but always pick a silk tie with suit.
Knitted stripe, geometrical, diamonds pattern, abstract & animal inspired prints are here to stay this season.

Burberry abstract graphic silk tie.
Armani geometric pattern, lined interior silk satin tie.
Zara knitted striped tie.
Salvatore Ferragamo zebra and tree printed silk twill tie.

Tie Clip
Tie clip also knows as tie slide, tie bar or tie clasp is a clothing accessory that is used to clip a tie with shirt so that a desired neatness, straightness will achieve & prevent it from swinging. It always goes between third & fourth button of your shirt including top collar button and never wear a clip which is wider than tie.
They have very decorative patterns & embellishments.

Burberry check frame enamel tie bar with polished metal trim.
Bottega Veneta interlaced antique pattern silver tie clip secure.

Jewellery 

Bracelet
It is jewellery that worn around the wrist. It should not restrict your wrist & don’t worn with watch. Key is to make sure that materials with their embellishment should have their own unique identity, each & everything should be in balance state and comes out.
 
Bottega veneta interlaced oxidized silver, hand-woven bracelet.
Gucci bracelet with various logos embossed disks, sterling silver with palladium aging finish and hand knotted blue cord.

 
Louis Vuitton lace bracelets in white gold.
Burberry leather wrap bracelet with vintage-finish plaque detail Press through stud closure.

Bandrings
It’s a circular band worn around finger. For men it’s about elegance, sophistication & soberness, so go for rare platinum & oxidised silver rings.

Gucci icon thin band in white gold & black corundum.
Louis Vuitton band in platinum with diamond studs.

Pendant
It’s a loose- hanging piece of jewellery, attached by a small loop to a necklace. A polished silver pendant is a great choice for men in formal or semi formal occasion.

Bottega Veneta agate stone pendant with nappa leather and silver necklace with an interlaced pattern clasp.
Gucci necklace with cut out G motif pendant.

Generally, a good piece of jewellery made from precious metals, leather, gemstones, wood, cloth, crystals etc.


Wallets
It’s case that is used to carry a cash, credit cards etc & generally made of leather. It’s a most important fashion accessory for men in their wardrobe, so go for luxurious, elite & well crafted wallets & don’t ever fill your wallet too much its look ugly & bulgy at same time it affects a shape of garment.
Embossed, crocodile texture & interlaced surfaces are in this season.

Burberry checks pattern zip around wallet.
Bottega Veneta interlaced hand woven, vintage washed nappa leather Wallet.

 
Giorgio Armani embossed leather wallet.
Salvatore Ferragamo bifold wallet in embossed calfskin leather.

Pocket square
It’s nothing but a handkerchief used as an accessory to suit. Its gives you a complete formal look & looks even elegant if it match with your tie. Key is how you fold a pocket square generally simple fold works well with cotton & linen while with silk you can push the boat out.

Brooksbrothers micro flower hand-rolled shoestring border silk pocket square.
Topshop blue paisley pocket square.

Zara patterned pocket handkerchief.
Gucci  blue & white polka dot print cotton pocket square with handmade hem.

Hats
Although hats are very difficult to hold & handle but if one carries with perfection, it’s add dimensions to outfit.
Panama hats are hot in this season.
Burberry hat with soft leather band.

Gucci trademark canvas hat with ribbon detail.


Topman panama hat.

Zara vegetable fibre hat with paisley band.


Wednesday, 17 April 2013

Ethical Fashion

As with increasing demand of fast fashionable clothing, it’s a huge pressure on retailers to deliver a right product in right quantity & quality in a right price at right place to have a competitive advantage, which highly impact their brand image.

Now, to act accordingly they will go to suppliers & manufactures, those who are dealing with smaller quantity, low change-over time (in terms of style), lesser lead time and ready to works with fewer cost, but actually if you saw their whole supply chain right from raw material to finished product, it involves a lot of unethical practises and when you ones placed an order with them, they pass it on to other sub-suppliers with some margin, now a whole scenario starts taking dramatic effect, manufactures wants to caters as many retailers to get a maximum profit but at a same time they can’t produce all order in-house because they had taken much larger orders then their capacity, and when they outsource order with margin, cost plays a significant role as retailers already picked a cost effective manufacturer & now manufacturer picked a cost effective sub-suppliers, with this margin of profit it’s difficult for a sub-supplier to sustain ethically and which results in extreme exploitation, chid labour, poor working environments (health & safety issues), fear and intimidation when they speak out or attempt to form a union, verbal and physical abuse. 

Sweatshops

 Students up against, when Nike’s sweatshops case arises and horrible child labour cases.



Poor working environment.

But slowly and steadily, a fresh air of ethical fashion is in retail atmosphere across globe. Force retailers to re-think, re-make & re-evaluate their business strategy from ground level. Retailers no longer had to turn a blind eye on manufacturer & their supply chains.

For fashion industry to be ethically sustainable they have to be sustain socially & environmentally and media plays a significant role to aware consumer towards ethical fashion.

Socially Ethical Fashion
Socially ethical fashion involves practices which impact peoples, groups or society on social front and had a huge impact on their living standards. They trained house wife’s & male workers, tell them know how of particular artistic work and at the same time they educates them & their children, periodically holds fun workshops, planned holidays, builds good working environment with all necessary requirements which helps them to grow economically & socially & gives them much needed exposure. 

Mata traders is US (Chicago) based group, which partners with women’s cooperatives in India to produces women’s apparels with fair trade.

Girl is a student in an after-school program, augments the education receives in government school.

        Happy stress free environments.

Eternal creation is yet another group which works towards fair trade fashion their main aim is to improve lives of Tibetan refugees and local Indians by providing stable employment.

Working of pattern master.

Marriages sponsor by eternal creation.

Fun workshops.

Environmentally Ethical Fashion
Environmentally ethical fashion involves use of organic fibres, hand spun & woven textiles, harmless chemicals, finishes without use of chemical & abrasives and ad campaign strategies which aware consumers towards particular cause.



Ethical fashion shows at Berlin, designer showcasing their collection.

Ethical fashion shows at Paris, Installation made form swatches.

Use of Organic fibres in clothing.

Handmade miniatures of models.

Dress made from organic fibres & materials.

Hemitextil is group in germany which holds, international trade fair for home textiles.
Sustainable cotton, produced in an environment friendly and socially responsible manner.


Window display inspired from nature.

Edun is a global fashion brand, brings positive change through its trading relationship with Africa.
This “Elephant & Rain” Edun ad campaign 2013 in collaboration with WILDAID is about African elephants, due to ivory trade around 35,000 elephants killed per year. Campaign is to educate consumers and reduce the demand for ivory products worldwide.

                                 “live, eat, do, think, feel fashion but with some ethics”


Wednesday, 10 April 2013

Mens Femininity

Mens femininity on high, as we are moving towards future fashion mens style becoming more & more oriented towards femininity, on the other hand women style shows masculinity.

Mens borrowing silhouette & print from women, becoming fluid flowy in style, dramatic in sense & bright shine in color. It’s always good to be dressed, to overcome stress, add fun & surprise element but has to be done in a precise & constructive way, do which you can absorb & hold.

I personally feel gay culture & much hiked facebook confessions in some way or the other had a huge impact on mens, in terms of social behaviour, thinking & physical activities which together as a whole helps in embedding a seed of femininity in men and it’s shows in their style, so called a lifestyle.

   Obsessed with femininity

  Floral prints

 Wrapped & Draped

 Embellished

 Bohemian style

  Dramatic graphics

   Skirt inspiration

 Slouchy

Dress inspiration 

  Bright & shine