Archive for the ‘Dresses’ Category
June 18th, 2011 | 
Author: Through the years, people have become more daring in the way they dress?so have sports outfits such as tennis clothing items. It’s interesting to trace the roots of tennis clothes and how they evolved over the past years.
Men’s Apparel
The earliest tennis clothes for men were made up of cardigans or sweater vests, shirts, and long flannel pants. In the 1930s, male tennis players changed their tennis outfits by tossing out flannel pants in favor of shorts. British tennis player Henry “Bunny” Austin holds the distinction of being the first top tennis player to wear white shorts in a tennis match. Since then, the standard fashion in terms of men’s apparel included white shorts and pants. However, they were replaced by brightly colored lycra shorts. Some tennis players opted for blue denim shorts or loose shorts instead of the longer lycra shorts.
Fast forward to 2005?the time when men’s tennis clothes started to keep pace with the boldness of modern tennis attire for women. In several tennis competitions, one can see male players sport Capri pants and tight-fitting lycra tops that reveal their muscular chests and abs. Modern tennis clothes for men also saw changes in terms of color. Quite a good number of men’s apparel come in feminine colors such as hot pink.
Women’s Apparel
The history of tennis clothes for women is quite similar to that of men. Women started to join tennis games in the 1860s. During that time, female tennis players wore modest clothing made of heavy materials such as serge or flannel. Tennis attire for women in the early days of tennis include corsets with high-collared blouses and neckties, long bustle skirts (sometimes with fur), and skimmer hats.
However, the fashion trend changed when Maud Watson won the Wimbledon Ladies’ Lawn Tennis Championship in 1884. Watson, the first woman Wimbledon champion, wore a white, long, bustled two-piece dress at that competition, popularizing the white tennis attire. Women realized that white was the best color for tennis clothes because it didn’t reveal as much sweat stains as other colors. This started the so-called tennis whites that have dominated the tennis scene for many years.
Bustles, corsets, and hats ceased to be common fashion items in tennis between 1903 and 1914. After the First World War, it was French tennis star Suzanne Lenglen who set the tennis fashion trend. Lenglen wore a daring calf-length, short-sleeved cotton attire with white stockings under her skirt. The French tennis icon experimented with her sports apparel by wearing colorful silk chiffon, a headband, and shiny white stockings. Her ‘revolutionary’ tennis attire caused a stir on the tennis court as spectators were used to the modest, and toned down attire of female tennis players.
In the 1920s, renowned American tennis player Helen Wills Moody become a trendsetter in female tennis attire because of her school-type sleeveless white blouse and pleated skirt with a fashionable eyeshades. She also added a lambswool cardigan on her apparel on cold days.
The post-World War II period saw women tennis players wearing apparel that made playing tennis easier and more comfortable. The apparel consisted of short-sleeved shirts, shorts or skirts, and caps.
In 1949, Gertrude Moran shocked tennis enthusiasts when she wore lace-trimmed panties beneath her white tennis dress. This started the bold fashion trend of tennis apparel that continues up to this day.
Angela Natcus is a prolific blogger running over 15 blogs and posting many blog posts every day. This article was posted on her Tennis Related WordPress Blog
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Of far greater concern to the global fashion sector is the issue of worker welfare. The issue was highlighted by pressure groups such as Global Exchange in the US targeting Levis and Nike and others.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s anecdotal evidence began emerging from labor activists in the US and Europe concerning the supply chains and overseas factories of leading US and European multinationals. A key target was the world’s leading maker of denim jeans Levi Strauss, but more significantly Nike, the world’s largest sports shoe marketing firm. Global Exchange launched its Nike Anti Sweatshop campaign, focusing on the firms sourcing in China and Indonesia.
Issues included child labor, minimum wages, working hours and employee benefits. Activists argued that such issues should not differ too widely from standards mandatory in the West, while Nike argued at the time that differing national economic and social conditions dictated different standards globally. A good deal of negotiations and stakeholder meetings led to a generally accepted code of practice for labor management in developing countries acceptable to most parties involved. The SA 8000 emerged as the leading industry driven voluntary standard on worker welfare issues. SA 8000 supporters now include the GAP, TNT and others and SAI reports that as of 2008, almost 1 million workers in 1700 facilities have achieved SA 8000 certification. Such a certification requires investment in the process but also more significantly in changing labor practices such as wage structures. It is clearly being driven by large US and European multinationals that may require certain suppliers to gain certification.
The Fair Trade movement has also had a significant impact on the fashion business. The standard combines a number of ethical issues of potential concern to consumers – environmental factors, fair treatment of developing country suppliers and worker welfare. The Fair Trade label has show explosive growth.
Albeit on a very small scale and not always at the top end of the fashion industry, many niche brands have emerged which promote themselves primarily on sustainability grounds People Tree in the UK states that it “creates Fair Trade and organic clothing and accessories by forming lasting partnerships with Fair Trade, organic producers in developing countries. Leading fashion journal Marie Claire ranked its “top 10” eco brands in a recent issue. The key issues remain chemicals in clothing (certified by organic and Fair Trade labels), worker treatment (certified by SA 8000 and Fair Trade) and increasingly mainstream environmental issues such as climate change. The Carbon Reduction Label verifies a product’s cradle-to-grave carbon footprint, although is not specific to clothing. Mainstream brands such as Louis Vuitton, Gucci, H&M and Zara have been slower to make firm commitments on the full rage of ethical issues due to the difficulties of switching their supply chains and products lines completely in favor of organic or Fair Trade certified or other standards and norms. They are however, moving slowing to ensure they capture the market if it becomes significant – the world’s largest fashion brand Louis Vuitton recently acquired a small eco fashion label. It is clear, however from the example of Nike and Levis, however that certain issues are here to stay, such as a demand by Western consumers that leading brands manage the issue of worker welfare in their supply chain properly.
Dylan Tanner is an eco-entrepreneur and writer who founded the newsletters Asia and China Environmental Reviews and has been writing about environmental and social trends within a business context for fifteen years. His latest venture is a www.ekobai.com“>B2B directory of SA 8000 certified companies and other certified suppliers.
Whether it’s saving money next spring by recognising carryover trends or avoiding the horrible sense of walking into a mass seller not knowing what to look for, AskMen’s complete the training for you. Here’s what you want to find out from New York Fashion Week Spring 2011.
The days next New York Fashion Week are each time somewhat strange. The dirt is barely settling from every part of the shows, the taxis, plus the late nights, and that we’re previously thinking what’s to approach to come out of London and the rest of the shows about the perspective. But what NYFW does that none of the some others prepare, is lead the style for every one of those great thoughts that anchor the season. The New York collections come first, so we obviously support all our preferred designers, from Phillip Lim and Jason Wu to Rag & Bone in addition to Marc Jacobs, for making all of these bold declarations first…and so beautifully. So, here comes our list of the three spring 2011 styles that made the spring/summer shows so exclusive and iconic. And if you’re like us, you’ll would like to start giving selected of these trends a turn right now…those high-waisted wide-leg trousers and the dolman sleeve? We’re on it.
Fashion trends
1.Women trousers – return of the Wide Leg Trouser For a number of of us, the high-waisted wide-leg trouser will in no way in fact go out of way. As a result, when we saw it popping up on practically everyone runways the sidewalks beyond the shows, included. We understood these ’70s inspired bottoms were back with a revenge. Tory, Marc and Tommy make them to perfection.
2. Orange-happy colors Rich mango, persimmon, ripe pumpkin however you slice it, bold orange was single of spring/summer’s sweetest color styles. Whether opposite with white at Marc or with girl black shoes at Chris Benz, this intense shade feels fresh once once more.
3. The last tip in new period is Pajama Party every day ! We’re not sure how useful its, but we loved all the lots of plays on pajama dressing, from Karen Walker’s sleepy slouchy dotted silk trousers.
Fashion store Fashion blog
Whether we like it or not current trends in engagement jewelry rings say bigger is so much better. Just have a look at what style engagement rings celebrities are choosing. And if they can do it, I can do it. J Lo’s engagement to Ben Flick also started an interesting trend of consumers seeking out pink diamonds. In no other time in history have pink diamonds been as popular as right after J Lo placed that pink diamond engagement ring on her finger. Any body remember Marilyn Monroe sexily purring that “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend?” Do you have any idea what that did the engagement ring market. Guys are still paying for that statement. Sure back in the 50s women knew it wouldn’t be sensible to wear such a large engagement ring but that didn’t mean a gal couldn’t yearn for it. Today a women wouldn’t feel in the least bit guilty about wearing such a diamond, in fact there are many a women that judge how well they are loved by the size of the rock they are wearing because they “know” what Marilyn knew, that “diamonds are in fact a girls best friend.” When we see the engagement rings worn by stars like Madonna or Catherine Zeta-Jones we take notice and their choices influence the trends that follow. Celebrities are the leaders in setting fashion and jewelry trends. Madonna with her Edwardian engagement ring and Catherine Zeta-Jones’s antique styled 10 carat diamond ring has revived the desire to own a beautiful antique engagement ring. In fact it’s one of the hottest engagement ring styles in 20 years. The size of the diamonds in current styles has also grown from the average one carat to over three carats. That’s a pretty big rock that’s going to set you back a bit. But most women believe they deserve it If you aren’t sure whether bigger is better than have a look at the jewels at the Academy Awards which each year break records and are said to total over $51 million dollars in value. Wonder how many vaults it took to keep those locked up for the night? With jewels being the in thing one has to stop and wonder how the heck normal average working guys plan to pay for these rings. When their fiancés are asked the standard answer is “doesn’t matter I’m worth it. That’s great if your guy is earning a 6 figure salary but wait what if he’s not. What if he’s joe average living from pay day to pay day. What should he do move into the bush and give up his home, perhaps take up walking and sell his car? Wait guys maybe you can get away with a really good quality cubic zirconia. No promise but you don’t loose a thing by trying it. Most of the high end ones can only be identified by a quality jeweler. But, you could be lucky and she won’t mind as long as it’s impressive. Ok girls lets be real here. Dreaming and lusting for that big piece of jewelry with a 5 carat rock is just fine. No problem with dreaming, but when it comes time for your man to buy that ring remember that the ring is not what you are marrying so perhaps it’s time to consider the quality and quantity of the husband to be rather than the ring. Big diamond or little diamond it doesn’t matter as long as the two of you are blissfully happy. Let the celebrities wear their big diamonds and let them sparkle and shine in the lime light. It doesn’t matter because you got your man! That’s what counts!
Raquel’s
Handbags have become an essential commodity for women. It becomes difficult for a buyer to select a handbag since the market if flooded with different types. While selecting a handbag, it is essential to match it with your body type.
Oversized and large handbags are best for those who are tall and slim. A small handbag can make the person look even taller. Thus it is best to select a small one. The handbags that suits best for tall and thin women are clutches, oversized handbags, and shoulder bags. For the shorter girls, small handbags suit best. The larger handbags can overpower you, and in the process can make you look even shorter. A tight fitting short handbag against your body can make you look taller than you are.
If you are blessed with a gorgeous, curvy body, select a medium sized handbag that hangs just above your waist. It accentuates your waistline and makes your body look all the more flattering. Women of plus size should avoid handbags with short straps and the short handbags. A larger and wider handbag best suits their style since it makes them look smaller.
The handbag itself is classified into various types like the shoulder bag, the handheld bag, back pack, tote bag, and the clutch. The shoulder bags, worn over the shoulder, are usually larger in size. These handbags are available in various shapes and sizes. The shoulder bags provide greater space and at the same time are stylish.
The handheld handbags, with straps or handles, are held only in the hand. Used for fashion purposes and for strolling, these handheld handbags are smaller compared to the other handbags. The tote bags are mainly used for casual purposes. With a simple color and one or two compartments, these tote handbags provide a lot of space. They are big bags and fall around the elbow, in the middle of the body.
The back packs with the two straps, are mainly used by students. They help to carry books with ease since the two straps on the shoulders help to balance the weight of the bag equally on both sides. A clutch, unlike the handheld handbag, does not have handles. Usually used in parties and nightclubs, these handbags are small and needs to be clutched by the hand.
Selecting a handbag depends completely on your style and personal taste. It depends on the occasion when you will be using it, and on the place where you will be carrying it. Select handbags according to your mood, personality, and on what you think best suits you.
Raquel’s
Handbags
