Light and lovely: Pastels for spring

SINGAPORE- Spring 2013 has brought a palette of blossoming pastel colors to all fashion enthusiasts.

Matching the sweetness of cotton candy and ice cream, the colors of baby pinks, dusk blues, and grayed greens have been spotted across several catwalks and sidewalks alike.

Other light colors according to Pantone.com’s Spring fashion forecast include: linen (a light, “nude-like” color), African violet, and a burst of lemon zest. A touch of these colors easily adds grace and lightness to your look.

On outfits

Dainty dresses are a classic way to wear this trend

Another option is to match ethereal tops with light bottoms (pants, short, and skirts)

On accessories

If you feel that a head to toe look is too much for your personality, you can opt to add small accent pieces to your look

Wrist bangles or necklaces can soften your outfit, along with bags

On makeup and nails

Who said pastel is limited to your wardrobe? This trend is also spotted in beauty/makeup looks and nail colors

Doll-up with a fresh face of pastel eye shadow and pink/clear lip-gloss

Candy-colored nails also makes a delicious appearance this Spring 2013

Spotted in Singapore were a few of these colors. Here are Rappler's sartorial picks:

Soft and casual

Light pink dress from SportMax.
Shoes from Converse.
Sunglasses from River Island.
Bangles from Forever 21

Read More: Rappler.com

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VICTORIA HERRERA | March 2, 2013 | Article Link

Filipina is Asia's Next Top Model 1st-runner up

FIRST RUNNER-UP. Model and mom
Stephanie Retuya is the  first-runner up of
'Asia's Next Top Model' cycle one.
All photos by Erickson dela Cruz

MANILA, Philippines - Despite being the rumored underdog, Filipina Stephanie Retuya placed first runner up in the first cycle of "Asia's Next Top Model."

Long-time top performer Jessica Amornkuldilok, who is of Thai and German descent, ended the season on top.

The class-clown of the batch — Taiwan's Kate Ma — ended the season in 3rd place despite winning several previous challenges.

Twenty-three-year-old Retuya is not only a model but the mother of a baby girl. The Laguna native began modelling nearly a year ago but was forced to take a leave when she found out that she was pregnant.

Getting back into modeling and through the fiercely competitive show has been a challenge for Retuya, who had never travelled outside the Philippines. But through it all she was recognized for her friendly attitude and shy demeanor.

"Top Model" franchise creator Tyra Banks herself came to judge the finale. This is the first season of "Asia's Next Top Model" and the winner will go home with a modelling contract covering the UK and Europe with London-based Storm Models, which represented supermodels Kate Moss and Cindy Crawford.

The deal also includes a 3-month all-expense paid working trip to London.

Jessica also snapped up a contract to become the face of Canon Ixus 2013 campaign, a cash prize of S$100,000 and a new Subaru XV. - Rappler.com

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PURPLE ROMERO | February 17, 2013 | Article Link

South Korean Designer Wins H&M Award

Minju Kim

Photo By Courtesy

PARIS — Hennes & Mauritz AB has named South Korean designer Minju Kim the winner of its international H&M Design Award.

The 26-year-old, who is in her final master’s year of fashion studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Belgium, unveiled her collection Tuesday at Stockholm’s Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week.

She is to receive a cash prize of 50,000 euros, or $67,250 at current exchange, and H&M will develop pieces from the collection to be sold at select H&M stores in early fall. The Swedish high-street retailer invited students from 19 fashion colleges in eight European countries to take part.

Kim said Japanese horror manga artist Junji Ito inspired her collection, titled “Dear My Friend.”

“Drawing is the most important process of my designing,” she told WWD. “When I research, I visualize how I would transform it into images and as a next step I turn the images into my own drawings, and that becomes the basis for the collection.”

Despite its dark subject matter, the collection is upbeat, with outsize proportions and pastel colors lending it a cartoonlike quality. Kim, who is studying under Belgian designer Walter Van Beirendonck, said she looked forward to working with the H&M design team on developing pieces for a larger audience.

“This is something really, really new for me because ordinarily, I always work by myself,” she said. “It’s a really big opportunity and I feel really grateful right now.”

H&M’s head of design Ann-Sofie Johansson, who headed the competition jury, said Kim stood out in a tough field thanks to highly imaginative pieces that were beautifully executed. “For me, it was a ‘wow’ feeling to see the collection. It’s so creative and it’s very playful, and there are millions of ideas in each piece,” she said.

A look from Minju Kim’s winning collection

Photo By Courtesy

The choice of the young, avant-garde designer reflects H&M’s recent efforts to up its fashion quotient amid a tough economic environment for fast-fashion players. The retailer will stage its first fashion show in eight years on Feb. 27 on the sidelines of Paris Fashion Week, and is developing a new brand called & Other Stories.

“I think we want to show another side of H&M,” said Johansson. “We have our basics and we have the fashion collections, but at the same time also we have so many talented designers and buyers and patternmakers within the company, so it’s really fun to be able to make these collections also and to show their skills and their creativity as well.”

Visitors to the competition’s Web site, designaward2013.hm.com, voted to award the People’s Prize to Alba Prat, who has studied at Universität der Künste in Berlin. She wins a one-month internship at Jonathan Saunders in London.

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 Joelle Diderich | January 29, 2013 | Article Link

Koreans bring Asian influence to Fashion Week

Designer Lie Sang Bong works at the Concept Korea studio before the Autumn-Winter 2013 collection show during New York Fashion Week, February 6, 2013. - Source: Reuters

Whether it is sexy and sophisticated, colourful and playful or bold and edgy, Korean fashion designers showing their autumn-winter 2013 collections at New York Fashion Week brought an Asian flair to the runway.

Five designers selected to be part of the Concept Korea project to showcase Korean talent proved the nation's fashion industry is thriving with tailored, razor-sharp cuts, creative use of colour and fabrics, whimsical patterns and architectural shapes.

"I want to tell the story of our culture," said Lie Sang Bong, who has been a designing for 32 years and is showing for the fifth time at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week at Lincoln Center, which runs through to February 14.

The antique window panes of Korean houses are an interweaving motif in his collection -- in patterns on dresses and blouses and cutouts in tailored coats and jackets.

His designs, mainly in blacks, greens and greys with accenting colours, are architectural. Many pieces have overlapping panels, accent sleeves and fine tailoring and are reversible.

"In the end I believe the story I am trying to tell is in the fashion," he said through an interpreter ahead of the show.

Contrasts, nature, graffiti

All the designers who were chosen by a panel of experts to be part of the government-sponsored program are well established in Korea and elsewhere, but showing in New York enables them to expand their brands.

"It's an opportunity for me to market myself to an international audience," said Son Jung Wan, a former artist who describes her clothes as "sexy, fierce and luxurious".

Her designs are feminine in shades of gray, beige and eggplant with fitted jackets accenting the waist, trousers with slim, sheer panels running down the leg, coats and dresses with soft fur sleeves and lots of knits.

Choiboko, a designer for 40 years, looked to nature for his latest collection. His bold print appliques in red, greens and blues are reminiscent of primitive Korean cave art. The appliques are a sharp contrast on the structured coats, jackets, dresses and trousers in shades of black and white.

"The human body is my canvas and I create art on the canvas," he explained.

Hongbum Kim, who designs under his label Cres.E Dim, used soft, detailed leather for his military style jackets and coats, and lots of layering. A sleeveless coat was transformed when it was layered with an overlaying top with sleeves.

He combined leather, silk and sheer fabric in a slinky black evening gown with a pleated back. The designs were rigid yet soft with leather topped skirts flowing into fluid pleats that reached the floor.

Each look in the collection had three different textures.

Kathleen Kye, a 26-year-old American-born designer who studied at Central Saint Martins in London and now lives in Seoul, is the youngest of the Concept Korea designers. Her Kye label is already a favourite with retailers such as Harvey Nichols in London and K-pop stars in Korea.

Kye used plenty of neoprene with designs inspired by boxes and graffiti for her unisex boxy tops, leggings and even shoes for a total head-to-toe look.

Although the inspiration for the show came from unemployed, homeless youth in Korea, Kye's collection was youthful and fun with bright pale blue coats and jackets and casual leggings and tops.

"We always chose a theme that is slightly unconventional," she said.

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Reuters | February 08, 2013 | Article Link