Chameleon Fridays

There are plenty of women that would love to have their own clothing line. Launching your brand, on your 50th birthday, may well be all of these dreams comes to fruition. For most of us, this will never be a reality, but If there is anyone who can have what she wants, it’s Barbie.

To celebrate this momentous occasion, Vera Wang and Jeremy Scott no less, are helping Barbie (that’s Mattel then) to design the collection. What is different about this launch however, is that the clothing line is for actual people.

The February 2009 Fashion week in new York will unveil the collection, which will also include a wedding dress and a cosmetics line.

Is this a good thing? Turning up to an event with the same outfit as someone else, bad enough. But what if the ’someone else’ is a plastic doll? Worse still, her version of the outfit was made to measure! Social suicide indeed.

Here is Barbie, in her version of the Go Red for women charity event.

Not even the Ugg team could have predicted the launch of their first European store being so huge. Westfield shopping centre have faced massive crowds and have had to employ a constant rotation of doormen to manage the chaos at the store front.

There have been a credit crunch busting 30,000 shoppers to the store (not the shopping centre, just the Ugg Australia store), making a total mockery of the financial crisis.

Lets not forget, the current bestselling boot ‘knightsbridge’ retails at £225. The company are opening a second store in Covent Garden at the end of the month, no doubt with the prediction of additional security requirements.

Not bad, for a boot that was worn by Australia’s version of ‘Chavs’. This was until 2003 when Kate Moss, fashion catapult (she launched Stella McCartney at her catwalk debut too), that wore them and brought them screaming into the UKs conciousness.

£250 million a year turn over later, the Ugg brand is so last season, this season and probably the next few too. For those of you that can’t quite afford them, TK Maxx have been seen selling the Ugg classic tall boots at £135 (pictured).

A new concept in shopping has been launched today, My Mall is the worlds first virtual shopping centre. The 3D graphics replicate a real mall with shoppers able to ‘walk’ around all 36 (yes 36) floors and go through virtual store fronts. The shop levels are even in categories to ensure that your money is much easier to spend on the 25 million products available.

The CEO of MyMall Ishmael Bahadur stated “We’ve created an actual shopping mall inside customers’ computers. Even those without broadband can access the site quickly, thanks to recent advances in 3D graphics. Anyone who can go shopping in real life can use MyMall.”

Adding “Besides being faster and more convenient, MyMall is also more environmentally sound. Based on average journey times, we found that 100,000 shoppers using MyMall instead of driving to their local shopping centre could save up to 65,400 tonnes of CO₂ every year. “

Over 500 brands, both international and from the UK are contracted, with more waiting in the wings, to sell their addition to the huge range of goods. Currently you can buy anything from clothing and the usual shopping centre fayre, to fast food deliveries and insurance.

“MyMall isn’t like any other online shopping portal. Instead, it replicates a real-world mall in a virtual world. That allows us to promote and brand ourselves just as we would in any of our actual high street stores. This is undoubtedly the next generation of online shopping.” Nicki Proctor from Gorgeous Couture

The press release goes directly into competition with Westfield, using a table to differentiate between the two;

Let the Christmas battle commence!

Confidence is something that makes everyone appear more attractive, and if you’ve got it, life is just that little bit easier. However, even the most confident of us are susceptible to knocks, particularly verbal ones, since the physical ones are actually less enduring (scientifically proven).

So effective is the power of confidence that some people go to great lengths to mask their insecurities, using exaggeration and blatant lying. Confidence tricksters are not stupid and appreciate the power of ‘acting’. Certainly the word itself has been tainted slightly, as arrogance and being obnoxious can often be described as confidence to soften a blow, but these are all very different characteristics.

By no means are we suggesting that everyone joins an acting class immediately, but learning the tips and tricks to make you feel more confident is the key. ‘Faking it till you make it’ is an actually an effective technique, put simply, you can’t fail if you don’t stop trying.

Here are some additional tips courtesy of IVillage, to get you started on way to build up your esteem;

Learn to be confident

What one single personality trait most makes you popular, attractive and sexy? It’s nothing to do with being tall, slim and beautiful; it’s everything to do with being confident. Countless studies show that people are attracted to people with high self-esteem. If a woman genuinely believes in herself - not with the arrogance of uncertainty, but with a calm inner security - people are drawn to her like a magnet!

It’s pretty clear how a lack of confidence can drag you down, look at these five dead giveaways:

1. The most obvious sign is that you don’t feel good - you sometimes doubt yourself, maybe criticise yourself, feel pessimistic, fight shy of challenges.
2. At work, you may down-rate your own abilities, feel you let others out-perform you, or hold back from taking responsibility.
3. In love you can hesitate before committing yourself - or fall headlong for unsuitable partners because you don’t feel you deserve suitable ones.
4. You don’t feel able to take from others because you don’t feel you deserve it. You may also give too much to others because you feel you have to ‘earn your keep’.
5. You may end up dulling the pain of low self-esteem by unhealthy eating, drinking, drug use or sexual relationships.

What stops you being confident?

1. Negative early messages that you weren’t loved, particularly from parents or guardians, can leave you with a deep-rooted and unshakeable belief that you’re worthless.
2. Childhood trauma, especially if you were abused, very ill or separated from your parents for a while, can cut across the natural development of your self-esteem and leave you ’stuck’ at that unconfident stage.
3. Bad treatment from childhood friends - maybe being bullied - can mean you’re nervous of other people and end up not trusting anyone - even yourself.
4. A major shake-up in adult life - a relationship break-up, career setback, even becoming a Mum or turning 30 - can dent your normal confidence and spiral you into self doubt.
5. Depression, which can be caused by imbalanced brain chemicals, can also result in low self-esteem. This is a vicious circle - because lowered self-esteem can then be caused by depression.

To start to turn this round and become self secure, you first need to alter the basics, the way you approach life in general.

1. Learn to think differently. When you fall into self-criticism and unconfident thoughts, note them - and change them to positive thoughts. Tracking down the original life event that made you think negatively - for example, you believe you’re ugly because the bullies told you so - will make it
2. Learn to speak differently. If you pepper your talk with self put-downs, you’ll not only convince yourself you’re not capable - you’ll convince others as well. Use ‘I can’ instead of ‘I can’t', ‘Next time I will’ instead of ‘If only I had’.
3. Try to stop judging yourself by what happens to you in life, so you’re not basing your confidence on outside events. It’s tempting to feel confident only when you do well or feel popular. Confident people take the rough with the smooth, so that when things go wrong in their lives they can rise above and deal with the situation.
4. Be aware of when you are succeeding. Naturally confident people take credit for things that go well… and put the problems down to circumstance. So when you do something well, be friendly to yourself and give yourself a pat on the back!
5. If you suspect that your lack of confidence is down to some trauma or disaster in your life, get support from a counsellor to work through the problem.

The adage ’sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me’ has been proven untrue by Australian and US researchers in the publication ‘Psychological Science‘

Words effect us much more than we realise and cause more pain than physical injuries, the scientisits have found.

Volunteers experienced less anguish, when recalling ‘physically traumatic experiences’ in comparison with the more upsetting ’socially painful situations’, during tests.

Defence against social suicide? Build your confidence but making the best of yourself, both physically and mentally. Take time for hobbies and activities you enjoy. You’ll soon realise most comments say more about the speakers insecurities than yours.

If that doesn’t help, take up self defence. At least you wont feel as physically threatened when bullies strike. For tips on building your self confidence click here.

St Pancras station commuters got more than they bargained for, when over 100 people arrived in just their underwear, in an attempt to break a World Record today.

The attempt was for the biggest public gathering of people in their underwear, drawing 116 confident/publicity keen ‘breakers’.

The new record was set on behalf of the Fair Trade organisation, ‘Pants to Poverty’.

Not exactly an Agent Provocateur advert.

Recognised as THE fashion magazine, if it’s in ‘Vogue’ it’s IN. Vogue is the fashionistas bible, as it shows the upcoming fashions a season in advance. Although the high street now has an incredibly fast turnaround from catwalk and fashion weeks to it appearing in store, Vogue is still at least three months ahead.

Vogue was started in 1892 by Arthur Baldwin Turnure, being published every two months. When he died in 1909, it was bought by the publishing giant Conde Nast. The magazines was slowly grown by the publishers and saw and unexpected increase for subscriptions during both the depression and World War ll.

In the 1960s, Diana Vreeland took over as editor-in-chief but more importantly was a well known ‘personality’. She changed the focus of the magazine to feature contemporary fashion and embraced the ‘free love’ spirit of the time by controversially featuring articles on sex.  

Vogue changed to a monthly magazine in 1973, when Grace Mirabella took charge, giving the magazine a fresh style and direction to reflect the changes in society.

In 1988 The current editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, is a huge celebrity in the fashion circuits, often labelled the most ‘influential woman in fashion’. In Anna Wintour turns up to one of your fashion shows, overnight the brand is a success. The film ‘The Devil wears Prada’ is allegedly based on her.

Other Vogue ‘brands’ include Mens Vogue (launched in 2005) and teen Vogue, not to mention the various country specific magazines, such as the UK (Alexandra Shulman is the current editor-in-chief since 1992), Italy and more recently India (2007).

If you want to know what to wear to look ‘on trend’ Vogue is your new best friend. However, if your circle of friends is more high street, pulling off PVC three months before it hits the shops may make you uncomfortable, go for ‘Glamour’, ‘Red’ and ‘In-Style’.

Traditionally society wore their clothes and then either threw them away or sold their ‘designer’ and ‘vintage’ threads to specialist stores.

However with a recession looming, everyone has had to become a little bit more fashion savvy. Quality rather that fast/cheap/third world fashion and selling the good stuff on. Most of us have jobs/lives and although there is a pretty penny to be had on eBay, who has the time to get to the post office? Step in these stores, as featured in The London Paper, undercutting the 60% commission charges for selling your clothes and making your purchasing feel a little bit more refined than eBay. You’ll also make some cash, thus giving more money to spend, boosting the economy. Win, win!

They accept high street, designer and even unwanted vintage, and thanks to the stores’ central location, you can expect your stuff to get snapped up fast.

Best of all, Bang Bang buys your stuff up front – so you get the cash immediately rather than waiting for them to shift your style mistakes.

You get only 30 per cent of what they hope to sell it for, but it’s the only place we know that will sell on your cheapie high-street clothes.
21 Goodge St, W1, 020 7631 4191, 9 Berwick St, W1
Commission taken 70%

The Closet Bureau

How come nobody thought of this before? The Closet Bureau is a chi-chi new website that takes designer fashion and sells it for you on eBay.

Founder Sophia Greene (a fashion PR, naturellement) was inspired by her own mama. “Because they didn’t know how to use eBay, my mother and her friends would take their clothes to dress agencies, on a monthly basis, where they were charged up to 60 per cent commission for selling the clothes and got little  back,” says Greene. “We charge 35 per cent and take care of everything from cleaning to photography and shipping.”

Besides shouldering the admin, Greene knows all the ­insider eBay tricks. In fact, this canny clothes horse once sold a pair of Louboutins she bought for £200 at a sample sale for £1,200 . We’ll have a bit of that.
www.theclosetbureau.com, FREE collection from Zones 1-2
Commission taken 35%

Writen about in Vogue here

Seconda Mano
Don’t be confused when you arrive at ­Seconda Mano on Upper Street. The ground floor is a hairdresser, but below stairs you’ll find a cache of second-hand designer ­treasures (well, we say second-hand, but most of it is unworn).

Seconda Mano will sell your unwanted clobber at 50 per cent commission. It sounds like a lot, but their prices are quite high so if they sell your stuff you can still make a tidy profit.

They take clothes, jeans, shoes and accessories, but everything must be in mint condition, preferably with a designer label attached. In other words, that ill-advised Topshop playsuit need not apply.
53 Upper Street, 020 7359 5284
Commission taken 50%

Ms Cole has seen her star rise to dizzying heights since she took on he role of X-Factor judge. Now the fashionistas have taken note and invited her to grace the cover of Vogue (the Herve Leger dress featured certainly went down well). We already checked her fashion credentials months ago here.

Generally this ‘honor’ is reserved for the most famous UK and international celebrities, there was very public disagreement when Coleen McLoughlin (wife of footballer Wayne Rooney) was featured in the magazine. Fans of the magazine felt it ‘lowered the tone’ and Coleen didn’t even make the cover.

This will be a huge step of fashion recognition for Cheryl (her stylist has done an amazing job) as only a few years ago she was heavily criticised for her ‘tacky’ advertising campaign with husband Ashley Cole for the national lottery (featured right).

Brazilian Keratin Treatment (BKT) can last for anything from three to four months, but during this time hair can not be expected to be perfectly straight every morning, and straighteners will still be required.

The quality of the hair straighteners will not directly effect how long the BKT treatment will last, but it will effect how easy it is to keep your hair smooth and sleek.

Over the coming weeks Chameleon Fridays will be reviewing some of the top brands, including GHD, Babyliss, and Remington.