We have changed our look and hope you look it. If this blog does not redirect you, please click on the link below.
www.vivremagazineonline.com
Thanks

The Economic drama continues to unfold in non banking fields as well. Forever 21 Inc., the Los Angeles retailer known for its trendy yet affordable fashions, said Friday that it had submitted a bid to acquire about 150 Mervyns stores.

The offer, for an undisclosed amount, comes after Mervyns, based in Hayward, Calif., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July. The mid-priced department store chain said soon after that it would shutter 26 of its 175 stores; Forever 21’s bid is for the remaining locations.

The move would help Forever 21, one of the fastest-growing privately held companies in the area, extend its brand to significantly larger stand-alone retail spaces. Currently, most of its roughly 430 locations are in shopping malls.

“Our vision has always been to get a bigger box,” said Christopher Lee, senior vice president of Forever 21. “We’ve been looking at these assets for many years.”

A deal would also bolster Forever 21’s presence in California, where most Mervyns stores are located, and help prevent an influx of large, empty commercial spaces around the state. The average Mervyns store occupies 80,000 square feet, said Mervyns spokesman Roy Berces, who declined to comment on the offer.

Forever 21 had previously tried to buy Mervyns when it was unloaded by Target Corp. in 2004, Lee said, but lost out to a group of investors that acquired Mervyns for $1.2 billion.

Founded in 1984, Forever 21 has expanded from its first store in Highland Park to locations around the world. The clothing chain plans to open its first store in South Korea this month.

“Women will buy something they can’t resist – you have to give them the dream,” said the Lanvin designer Alber Elbaz, joking that, with banks crumbling, a dress looked like a good investment.

Lanvin Spring RTW 2009

Sarah Mower calls it a “  a supreme economy of cut and design. Airy shapes in poufy gazar, duchesse satin, georgette, and cloque were crafted from single shots of color in one-shouldered tops, balloon-sleeved blouses, and shifts in which the only feature is an internal drape that adds a miraculously chic fillip to the hip line. To begin with, this calm focus on the intrinsic value of structure was shown with nude shoes, so the eye had nothing to distract it from noticing, say, the way external darts ran up the hip and into the waist of a cool pair of black pants. It was intellectual and reserved, a quintessence of Lanvin that only Elbaz can achieve.

This is the kind of fashion that just makes you want to run out and shop. What recession? When clothes make you feel this good and we all need that kind of excitement right now, it’s a good thing.

As Sarah Mower of Style.com puts it ” And then there was the mesmerizing sight of a zillion accessories. A slew of tribal-art references came in necklaces, earrings, and stacks of bangles, and amazing shoes loaded with sproutings of feathers and plastic collages of abstract African faces. The bags were back in sumptuous array: tactile, poufy shapes glowing with mixed-material suedes and multicolored metallics, python, and leopard spots. Quite brilliant.

Sexy, saucy and elegant all at the time. You have to hand it to Marc Jacobs – He the Man!

View the entire collection

Dolce & Gabanna Fall 2008 RTW

Making your coat your calling card, especially when and if one may have to reign in spending is the one investment you are not likely to regret.

With your coat, first impressions count and the right coat will make the right impression whether you throw it over a dress, jeans and a tee or anything you happen to be wearing underneath.

This season, coats come in a variety of styles. Fur, Military, Leather coats, Peacoats, Trenchcoats, Puffer coats, Sweater coats. If a full length coat is not your thing, then perhaps a vest, fur vest, puffer vest will do the trick. All you have to do is pick a style which appeals to you the most.

Remember if your coat is meant to be an investment that will last forever, keep unnecessary details to a minimum. Like fringes, as popular as they might be this season will simply look dated or trap you in a certain image after a while.

Necklines range from  bateau, to shawl collared, collarless, The details to watch for on Military coats include frogging, Epaulettes, buttons etc. Keep the tones neutral so that these details can stand out and not look cluttered.

Nanette Lepore

Plaids work big time this season as well and so do Winter whites, if drycleaning your coats is so not an issue.

Here’s what to look for when buying a coat.

 As an investment, you no longer have to sacrifice style for practicality. Pick a coat that gives you a balance of both and will last for ages. If printed coats are too much for you, keep the print on the inside (the lining) and still maintain the wow effect of the coat.

For those of us lucky enough to live on the West Coast, a sweater coat or a lightweight wool almost always suffices for winter.

This may be the season for the shoe or the shoe boot etc but one fail safe fashion item has always been the coat. Never have the options seemd so endless and just fantastic. If there is one item I will invest in this season, in a  neutral color this year as I am that woman you see on the road in a red, orange, purple or green coat, it will be a very fitted coat and I am actually going to try belting it for once and hope I dont resemble a potato sack.  

Ralph Lauren Fall 2008 RTW

Tyler Perry became the first African-American ever to launch his own major TV and film studio, according to People Magazine. Mr. Perry launched his multimillion-dollar TV and film studio Saturday on 30 acres in southwest Atlanta on Saturday night. The event was attended by a guest list that included Oprah Winfrey, Will and Jada Sith, Sidney Poitier, Whitney Houston and Mary J. Blige just to name a few. Makes you want to break into song.

Cause we’re moving on up to the top….took a whole lotta trying, just to get up the hill….now we are in the big leagues and there ain’t no turning back……we finally got a piece of the pie!

His new Tyler Perry Studios contains more than 200,000 square feet of studio and office space in an area that once housed Delta Air Lines’ finance, reservation and computer center.

“I spent 56 years making movies and this is the reward that I have that means the most to me,” said Poitier, 81, the first African-American to win a Best Actor Oscar, for 1963’s Lilies of the Field.

A New Orleans native with a troubled childhood, Perry, 39, credited all of his guests with inspiring his life. Of Winfrey, who attended the celebration with longtime beau Stedman Graham and best friend Gayle King, Perry said, “She owns her life. I am learning that. I never would have shown this to people a few years ago. I was embarrassed by the success.”

At one point, Perry unveiled a special surprise for veteran trailblazers Poitier, Dee and Tyson: each now has a soundstage named after him and her.

“Is this my wall?” joked Poitier – as Winfrey dissolved into tears.  Oprah seems to be a whole lotta crying these days.

“You can never be upset with the people who forced you into your dream or up higher,” said Mr. Perry. “They forced me out into a higher situation. It’s worked out much better for me.”
Fantastic! and we wish him continued success.

Not for a while, have the worlds of fashion and Politics collided so vigorously. Of course, politics has always influenced fashion and vice versa but never so deliciously shamelessly. Barack Obama has received yet more fashion support, this time from Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, whose sporty sequin dress, splashed with a print showing the presidential candidate, roused cheers, in amongst plastic-coated houndstooth pants, Lego-print sundresses and Mickey Mouse stilettos.

Now we look forward to seeing John McCains sequined face on designer clothing too. As refreshing as these may be, would you actually wear them?

Alexander McQueen - Paris Fashion Week. Photo: Reuters

First Karl Lagerfeld poses with his Teddy Bear – Chanel, no less. (Though we don’t quite think Mr.Lagerfeld was going for a “Save the Earth” concept.) Then Alexander McQueen displayed a parade of stuffed wild animals, hired from a Parisian taxidermist, were there to bring to life McQueen’s latest obsession: Charles Darwin, the survival of the fittest and how the evolution of the species has become warped and twisted through man’s power and greed. “Every species is fragile but animals are the underdogs while we are actually bringing about our own extinction – and theirs.”

Okay, just so we are not confused, this designer uses leather, crocodile skin and fur, Right?  Yeah, sure, McQueen, an environmentalist? Who woulda thunk it?  No matter what new passion or hobby he decides to adopt, his clothes as usual were breathtaking.

Alexander McQueen - Paris Fashion Week /Spring 09

Remember, last spring when we the designers were all doing their Eco stuff, when “Eco” was the new black and everyone jumped on the bandwagon? You just knew it would not last. We have not heard too much of a peep from them about saving the environment since then. The planet must have fixed itself.

Alexander McQueen - Paris Fashion Week /Spring 09

Alexander McQueen - Paris Fashion Week /Spring 09

Alexander McQueen - Paris Fashion Week /Spring 09

Hermes s/s RTW 2009

Ride ‘em cowboy!

According to Style.com, Only a branded thoroughbred as sure-footed as an Hermès filly could possibly tread this trail with such a sense of fun.

The kitsch risk was high, but Gaultier made it look natural: Hermès = equestrian heritage + sophisticated world traveler, after all.

His quick mind for the crossover pun also found a way to twist the classic house scarf as a bandanna, and even to tame a poncho to supreme elegance, rendering it in square-cut cashmere knits and slinky jersey day dresses.

But we think, Why, oh why did Hermes go for a Western theme or was it Juan Valdez for their Spring09 show?.

We know they are famous for saddles and all that but really how many people want to wear a saddle much less go all out in full Western gear or even borrow from it if your name is not Jessica Simpson.

Well, never mind. It was so refreshing to see Naomi Campbell and Stephanie Seymour open the show. She still has it. Of course, its Hermes, so there were accessories galore on the runway but a fringed Hermes bag? Whooooaaaa! Slow down! Easy Boy!

Mercifully Gaultier returned to a more glamorous Hermes by the end of the show. It would have been just a little too darn much.

Oprah does not seem to be getting too much love out of Africa. Her former headmistress is asking for $250,000 plus damages. Only $250,000? Does she not know half of that money goes to her lawyer and the other half to “other” expenses.

According to People Magazine, Nomvuyo Mzamane, the former headmistress of Oprah Winfrey’s South African Leadership Academy for Girls, filed a defamation lawsuit against the TV star in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Friday in an attempt to salvage her professional reputation.  In Philadelphia, no less!!! Hmm! She’s getting a fast schooling of how things work in North America.

The civil suit, filed by attorney Tim McGowan, says Winfrey “launched what amounted to a defamatory campaign” against Mzamane late last year by implying that Mzamane is “untrustworthy, failed the students of the academy, did not care about the students at the academy, knew of alleged physical and sexual abuse at the academy and participated in a cover-up of the alleged abuse,” according to legal papers.

According to People Magazine, Mzamane, 39, also filed a defamation suit against Huffington Post .   People reported that ” A rep for Winfrey did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and neither did the Huffington Post.  We have since heard from the Huffington Post who tell us they were not involved.  Joan Stewart supposedly  issued the following statement:

“I’ve learned that in my November 7, 2007, blog post, ‘Oprah Scandal: A Lesson in Crisis Management,” and in a column I wrote for Huffington Post on November 19, 2007, I inadvertently erred by saying that the former head mistress of Oprah Winfrey’s Dream Academy was charged with a crime. I deeply regret that error and apologize to former head mistress Nomvuyo Mzamane.

“Journalists, including those on blogs, make mistakes, and if Ms. Mzamane had contacted me about that directly, I would have corrected it online – with an apology – immediately. I have not, in fact, been contacted by her or served with a lawsuit. I’m a firm believer in full compliance with the law, with the Public Relations Society of America’s Code of Ethics and with the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics, and know that I was in compliance with all three in this case.”

Huffington Post insist the issue has nothing to do with the Huffington Post and that the headmistress is suing Harpo Studios. We thank HuffPo for writing to address this issue instead of suing us.

Here is the quote from Joan Stewart “–Winfrey “cleaned house from top to bottom.” She fired the head mistress who was later charged, and she removed all the remaining dorm matrons.”

Mzamane has said there was no cover-up at the school and she knew nothing about the allegations, which she learned about while on a business trip to the U.S

Since her termination, Mzamane has not been able to find comparable work and suffers from “depression, anxiety and insomnia,” the suit states. She is asking for $50,000 for each of five different claims, including defamation by innuendo and intentional infliction of emotional distress, plus unspecified punitive damages.