As all good singing competitions should be, the best voice won X factor this year. Alexandra Burke now steps up to take the crown from last years winner, Leona Lewis.

We take a look at some of her best outfits this season………………..

She looked effortlessly stylish in this, one shouldered and sequinned, on trend but not too ‘fashion‘. Good tone for her skin, young but still elegant, great.

PVC leggings from the Cheryl Cole school of  X factor fashion, but wow, she looked great. Again good colour, and still age appropriate without looking trashy. Alexandra manages to look sexy but not cheap, even though everything is tight.

Here’s not forgetting just what a brilliant stylist and personal shopper can achieve.

Faye Sawyer, we salute you, there have been some tricky moments (mainly with Laura White), but a personal IMDB reference is pretty impressive!

Christian Louboutin is a French shoe designer, made famous by the signature red leather soles. His shoes are loved by fashionistas and celebrities world wide and worn loyally by superstars such as Madonna, Oprah Winfrey, Christina Aguilera, Kylie, Angelina Jolie. Not to mention the large percentage of movie stars as part of their red carpet outfits.

Born in 1963, Christian started his career trying to sell his shoes to women in dance halls. With limited success he had a single shop in Paris, until he secured a contract with the American department store Neiman Marks. Initially his shoes carried a black sole, but frustrated at the ’something missing’ from his shoes, he noticed an employees red Chanel nail varnish on her desk and promptly painted the soles with the vibrant red shade.

Some stores were slower on the uptake, pronouncing the new red sole “garish” and only ordering the the black soled versions. However,  the change was an instant success, with women clamoring to buy the “red soled shoes”. Those shops stocking the black only version quickly had to return the stock for red, missing out on valuable sales whilst waiting for their delivery. Lesson learned.

Louboutin now has 20 boutiques worldwide, including a flagship store in London,  and despite this success, has achieved it without giving away ‘freebies’ to celebrities. His shoes famously sell from £800 a pair regardless of who you are. Even more business savvy is the fact that the red soles wear out much faster than black ones. This means that women have to either have them re-soled in black or purchase a new pair for the prestige.

He also carries what he calls a ‘bed shoe’ which has a heel of 6″ in his own words “They’re only made for lying on your back.” Despite the recent celebrity fashion for wearing such heels, Gweneth Paltrow being the belle de jour of this particular style at the moment. Even Gwenyth was famously photographed taking her shoes off the second she hit the taxi at the “Iron Man” premiere as the shoes were so uncomfortably high. She should have listened to the man himself.

Models with own lighting for Autumn 2007

Victor and Rolf are best known for being a an incredibly close dutch design duo. They describe themselves as twins and both dress the same and finish each others sentences.

Viktor & Rolf met while studying fashion at the Arnhem art academy. After graduating they moved to Paris, interning for brands such as Maison Martin Margiela, designing their own clothes in the evenings and presenting them in the art circuit.^[1] In 1993, Viktor & Rolf won the Festival d’Hyeres prize.

In 1998, Viktor & Rolf put on an unauthorized, underground fashion show during Paris Fashion Week designed to attract members of the press. Ready-to-wear and their menswear label “Monsieur” were to follow over the next five years. Viktor & Rolf also produces women’s shoes and hand bags (designed by Dutch designer Fredie Stevens), glasses (Asia only), neckties, scarves and lingerie. Viktor & Rolf have also worked as curators for several exhibitions, and have designed stage-outfits for several theatre productions. According to the designers, “For us, fashion is an antidote to reality.”

In 2003, the Fashion Museum in Paris presented a 10-year retrospective of the designers’ work. In 2005 they opened their first, flagship shop in the Golden Quadrilateral (Quadrilatero d’Oro) in Milan, and were contracted by L’Oreal to develop their first perfume, called Flowerbomb. In 2006, their first men’s perfume, Antidote, was introduced in the US. Viktor told Harper’s BAZAAR the fragrance was “all about the power of transformation. The power of every individual to turn anything into something positive.”

In November of 2006, Viktor & Rolf followed Karl Lagerfeld and Stella McCartney in designing a line for the Swedish-based retailer H&M.

Characteristics of their clothes include layering, distorting, exaggerating and repeating of classical design elements (blouses with 10 nested collars, upside-down and lop-sided dresses). Full article.

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Alexander McQueen was born in East London, in 1969 to a taxi driver father. Despite having the most unlikely start to life for a fashion designer (they successful ones are commonly privately educated/family funded), he has become world renowned designer.

He won British Designer of the year, three times between 1996 and 2003 and has since been named International Designer of the year, and been awarded the CBE

He often uses “shock” tactics in his fashion ranges, including the infamous “bumsters” (in his spring 1995 collection) and the tartan range “Highland Rape”

Links:

Alexander McQueen

2008 Collection

New York Fashion Magazine

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Stella is the famous daughter of Paul McCartney.

Stella studied fashion design at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design (CSM) in London in the early 1990s. While her education previously had been relatively normal, attending a state school, her graduation was anything but. Her graduation collection in 1995 was modeled, for free, by friends and supermodels including: Naomi Campbell, Yasmin Le Bon and Kate Moss. During the show the song “Stella May Day” was played, which written by Paul McCartney especially for the occasion. As a result the show made front page news and her entire collection was bought by a london boutique. Two years later, in March 1997, Stella McCartney was appointed chief designer of Chloé, a fashion house based in Paris.

Karl Lagerfeld, the who previously held the position stated: “Chloé should have taken a big name. They did, but in music, not fashion. Let’s hope she’s as gifted as her father.”

However McCartney’s designs have done well, both commercial and critical success.

In 2001, McCartney left from Chloé and started her own brand, as part of a joint venture with Gucci.

In 2007, Stella won designer of the year at the british fashion awards.

In January 2008, McCartney’s collaboration with lingerie label Bendon was released in department stores, speciality stores and Stella McCartney stores. The lingerie is in the colours of her signature palette: antique pink, blue, grey, and cream.

Links:

Stella Mcartney

Vogue

BBC

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Gucci was founded by Guccio Gucci in 1921 and is one of the most famous family run business in the world. Over time numerous brothers, sisters, fathers and sons have been involved in running it.

From this time on, The House of Giccui (its full name) worked to develop an exclusive brand and by the 1960s Gucci had developed its “GG” logo. The brand was perfectly advertised by the uber-famous Jackie Kennedy and Grace Kelly; who wore the “Jackie O” shoulder bag and Flora silk scarf, respectively.

However in the late 1970’s the family in-fighting and bad business decisions brought the company to its knees, almost causing the company to go bankrupt. During this period, the company moved into retail fashion producing accessories, perfume and even trimmings for some of the General Motors cars (?!). This sequence of events caused further splits within the Gucci family and ended with most of the family leaving the company.

In the 1980’s the company came under control of just one of the Gucci family: Maurizio Gucci. This stopped the infighting and resulted a huge turn around.

Gucci has since grown into the giant fashion house it is now famed for, and controls many other lines, including:

Yves Saint Laurent (100% share)
Sergio Rossi (100% share)
Bottega Veneta (100% share)
Balenciaga (91%)
Alexander McQueen (51% share)
Stella McCartney (50% share)

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Giorgio Armani was in Northern Italy, in a small town called, Piacenza, on 11 July 1934.

Giorgio started his fashion career working for Nino Cerruti (not to be confused with Nina Cerruti the popular perfume line) in 1961, another Italian fashion house, before he left to set up on his own in 1970.

On to 1974 and aged 40 Georgio, and his partner Sergio Galeotti, founded the powerhouse label Armarni. The house of Armani is best known for their clean, tailored lines and effortlessly stylish clothes.

The Company itself now has several different lines to furthur cement the brand in our conciousness, ranging from the accessible mobile phones and jeans through to the more luxurious hotels and cafes.

The company currently turn over $1.5 billion and Giorgio Armarni is reported to have a personal fortune of over $5 billion.

Armani Privè

This is Armani’s haute couture line. These clothes are all tailor made, and are not available in store.

Giorgio Armani

This is Armani’s signature label, is only available from 75 stores wordwide, and is the most expensive Armani label (with the exception of the Prive clothing line above).

Armani Collezioni

This is a high-end fashion line, it is only available in Armarni shops. It is sometimes referred to as a Armani’s “balck label”.

Emporio Armani

This clothing range is aimed at a younger market, and is also cheaper than the previous lines.

Armani Exchange

This line is for younger customer, like Emporio Armani, but features an urban style with T-Shirts, Jeans, and sports coats. This line is sometimes referred to as A|X

Armani Jeans

This line of clothes is the cheapest and most accesible line that Armani produce, again aimed at the youthful urban market. This range is mainly made up of denim products and is available in department stores across the world.

Armani Junior

This is a relatively exclusive line aimed at children. It can only be purchased in 15 worldwide boutiques.

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Innosense Designs is a small design company formed in 2003, whos influences range from street to pop art.

The company prides itself on producing unique products and they state that their products are “….all hand-painted originals… not one shirt you buy from us will be the same as someone else’s!”

Links to Innosense Designs: MySpace, Youtube

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Heba Elawadi (pictured) is a British born Egytptian. Born in 1986, in London and growing up in both Egypt and England, Heba has a multicultural background that is heavy influenced by her Arabic heritage.

Her current work is on shown her website and purchases can be made online.

From 30th June to 5th July 2008 Heba was showing her summer collection at Wimbledon Fashion Week 08.

It is widely known that Heba is dating Quincy Jones, and has been with him for over a year. He also came to see her latest show at Wimbledon Fashion Week 08.

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