Olivia Rahman Blog

Khloe Kardashian feels "beyond blessed" to work with her sisters on their own fashion line.

The reality TV star - who recently unveiled a third Kardashian Kollection for high-street label Lipsy along with her famous siblings Kourtney and Kim - confessed working alongside the pair is the "best part" of designing the line, as well as seeing their clothing on fans.

She said during a Facebook Q&A yesterday: "I am beyond blessed to be able to work with my sisters on our collection. That's the best part. And then seeing our clothes on our fans is always amazing. We love to see how you guys respond to the line! XO"

The 30-year-old brunette beauty also revealed that she and her sisters often fight throughout the design process but insists the squabbles are "what makes it fun".

She added that their difference in opinion has lead to more variety in the collection, with pieces reflecting their own personal style.

She explained: "We definitely don't agree on everything but that's what makes it fun!! Sometimes Kourtney will love something that Kim doesn't or vice versa, and that's why you'll see a lot of pieces in the collection that suit each of us! XO"

Khloe - who models the line along with Kim, 34, and Kourtney, 35 - also offered her top tips to help girls get into shape and look their best in the party pieces.

The 'Keeping Up With The Kardashians' star emphasised the importance of staying motivated for work outs and encouraged fans to use picture-sharing site Instagram for fitness inspiration.

When asked how she keeps trim, Khloe shared: " Let me tell you it's not easy, but you HAVE to stay motivated. I look a lot at inspirational fitness Instagrams. It also helps to have a friend to work out with."

In the world of women’s clothing, a 4 is a 2 is a 6. Everything is relative — unless, of course, you’re shopping in Brandy Melville’s teen-“friendly” SoHo store, where the only size is small. (“One-size” reads labels that don’t even bother with the usual “fits all” addendum.)

One of the most infuriating American pastimes occurs within the confines of a dressing room. But where do these seemingly arbitrary sizes come from? Sit down, unbutton your pants and enjoy a condensed briefing on women’s clothing measurements:

“True sizing standards didn’t develop until the 1940’s,” says Lynn Boorady, fashion and textile technology chair and associate professor at Buffalo State University. “Before then sizes for young ladies and children were all based on age — so a size 16 would be for a 16-year-old — and for women it was about bust measurement.”

Suffice it to say, assuming all 13-year-old girls and 36-in.-bust women were created equal proved problematic. “Mostly it was assumed that the women in the house would know how to sew,” Boorady says.

But consumers — and the booming catalog industry, which proliferated as Americans moved to more rural areas — were ready for change. In a 1939 article titled “No Boondoggling,” TIME explored the Department of Agriculture’s effort to standardize women’s clothes, an effort that had been inspired by the fact that U.S. manufacturers guessed it was costing them $10 million a year not to have set sizes. “Each subject — matron, maid, scrubwoman, show girl — will be [measured] in 59 different places,” the article read.

The data of 15,000 women was collected by Ruth O’Brien and William Shelton, and while the project was impressive — “especially considering they didn’t have computers to analyze the data,” Boorady says — it didn’t exactly solve the problem.

“It was flawed for many reasons,” agrees Parsons School of Fashion professor Beth Dincuff Charleston. “They didn’t really get a cross-section of American women… It was smaller than what the national average should be.”

Since the survey was done on a volunteer basis, it was largely made up of women of a lower socioeconomic status who needed the participation fee. It was also primarily white women. And the measurements still primarily relied on bust size, assuming women had an hourglass figure.

Then in the late 1940s, the Mail-Order Association of America, representing catalog businesses including Sears Roebuck, enlisted the help of the National Bureau of Standards (now the National Institute of Standards and Technology) to reanalyze the sizing — often using the measurements of women who had served in the air force, some of the most fit people in the country — creating a 1958 standard that was largely arbitrary. Sizes ranged from 8 to 38 with height indications of tall (T), regular (R), and short (S), and a plus or minus sign when referring to girth.

There was no size zero, let alone the triple zeroes that sometimes are displayed in stores today.

As American girth increased, so did egos. And thus began the practice of vanity sizing. Over the decades, govement size guidelines were heeded less and less, items of clothing began getting marked with lower numbers and eventually, in 1983, the Department of Commerce withdrew its commercial women’s clothing size standard altogether. A private organization called ASTM Inteational began publishing its own sizing tables in 1995.

According to Slate:

In 1958, for example, a size 8 corresponded with a bust of 31 inches, a waist of 23.5 inches and a hip girth of 32.5 inches. In ASTM’s 2008 standards, a size 8 had increased by five to six inches in each of those three measurements, becoming the rough equivalent of a size 14 or 16 in 1958. We can see size inflation happening over shorter time spans as well; a size 2 in the 2011 ASTM standard falls between a 1995 standard size 4 and 6.

That means that ideals are changing too, Boorady adds: “We went from size 16 being a model in the ’40s to 12 in the ’60s. Marilyn Monroe was a 12 in the ’60s, which would now be a size 6.”

Now, stores often size based on their own preferences, which can make for frustrating online shopping experiences — mode-day catalog browsing — unless you already know your exact size.

But are we doomed to a future of sizing confusion? Maybe not. Parsons’ Dincuff Charleston notes that new technologies might be welcoming a new era of customized clothing. “Body measurements are so advanced now — with 3-D scanning, digital changing rooms — I think that people will have options for better fitting clothing,” she says. “And with 3-D printers, maybe you’ll be printing your own clothing.”

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Actress Dia Mirza looked a million bucks as she tied the knot with long-time beau Sahil Sangha in Delhi on October 18, 2015.

Sticking true to her personality the former beauty queen, chose grand yet classy outfits. While she went completely traditional for the wedding with Ritu Kumar ensemble, she chose a mode Shantanu and Nikhil lehenga for reception.

Dia's wedding outfit was a traditional joda designed by Ritu Kumar. Kumar contemporized the Mughal era joda in style but kept the essence intact with old zardozi craftsmanship.

The ensemble, made up of a kurta, farshi paijama and a dupatta has upper half or paat of the pajama made of gold net and is lined with tanchoi silk brocade and the lower half or gote is made of green and turq stripes of patched silk sewn together diagonally.

Each stripe is designed with stylized floral designs. The elaborate borders placed on both the paat and the gote seams are finished in a style typical of the Hyderabadi court.

The dupatta has been embroidered by master craftsmen with a lineage from the Avadh court. The kurta is decorated with zardozi around the neckline. A similar design is embroidered on the ground of the second emerald green dupatta in alteate rows of curling vines and stylized floral motifs. The main dupatta has a special motif embroidered on the part that covers the hair.

For the grand reception, Dia wore a delicate looking peachy-pink and gold lehenga by designers Shantanu and Nikhil. She accessorised the beautiful lehenga with gorgeous diamond-emrald jewellery.

The designers tweeted: "Couldn't believe how a princess from a fairy take could be brought to life.

For her Sangeet ceremony, the former Miss Asia-Pacific wore a blue and gold traditional lehenga by Anita Dongre on her sangeet ceremony. She accessorised her look with traditional kundan jewellery.

Dia donned a yellow ethnic design for her mehndi function. Describing the intricacies of the regal looking outfit, Ritu Kumar said, "The kurta has a vintage cut used in the courts of Agra around the 15th century. The neck is deep and worked in embroidered gota patti on net like the technique used at the time. "The gold metallic taar used is of silver worked in gold thread and dori to give it a stylised plant inlay look. Each panel is highlighted with a flowering buta. The odhni is fuschia worked with small butis of the same beaten gold gota patti, a fuschia brocade deep sinjaf finishes the edges of the outfit."

http://www.graziaprom.co.uk/vintage-prom-dresses

If the thought of wearing plaid brings back dark memories of school uniforms, let it go.

One of the season's biggest trends is plaid, in various combinations and colors, and it looks nothing like the school-uniform variety.

Fall runways were on fire with plaid from designers such as Thakoon, Victoria Beckham, Vera Wang and Timo Weiland.

Deneice Phan Leigh says she ironically developed a fondness for plaid while attending an all-girls Catholic high school in Califoia and reveled in its versatility.

For fall, Leigh will wear plaid looks by designers such as Nicole Miller and Givenchy, and she's planning an all-plaid look for her Anime Matsuri tea party next month.

Leigh and her husband, John Leigh, are the founders of Anime Matsuri, an annual anime and Japanese-culture convention that attracted 20,000 people to the George R. Brown Convention Center earlier this year. The next convention is set for April 3-5.

"Plaid is actually a big trend in Japan, too," said Leigh, who owns at least 50 pieces of plaid clothing. "I wear plaid everywhere. I've done brown, green, purple, yellow, black and gray; all ranges of colors. It's just a unique pop of color and print."

Krista Burks, co-owner of KB Kasuals women's boutique in the River Oaks Shopping Center, has been selling out of the popular Rails hunter plaid shirt, $136. It's a favorite of "The Bachelor" reality star AshLee Frazier, who lives in Houston.

"I've ordered the shirt three times in white with red and blue plaid, and it keeps selling out," Burks said. "I think since a lot of celebrities and bloggers are wearing them, more people are wanting the look. Any age can wear it. It's so easy. Everyone is wearing it, even the Kardashians."

Burks, who owns the boutique with her mother, Sherlynn Burks, plans to open another store in The Woodlands next year.

The rise of plaid in the United States came in the 1920s and '40s and was revived in the 1960s, in types from argyle and gingham to glen and Madras. Argyle traces back to the Duke of Argyle in Scotland.

Refinery29, a lifestyle and fashion site, also is touting all things plaid this season, style director Connie Wang said.

"We're seeing a lot of big, graphic checks for fall - think, '70s professional instead of '90s grunge. It's oversized and color saturated, but since it appears on a lot of soft, fuzzy items like sweaters, cocoon coats and wool skirts, it doesn't feel too harsh."

Plaid also is a versatile neutral, she said. "It's one of the few prints that's easily dressed up or down, to wear to work or for going out at night. Also, since most plaids are woven together using lots of colors of thread, it's very easy to match the rest of your clothes with it."

On Saturday, Refinery29 teams up with Simon malls to host a free Shopping Block event from noon to 5 p.m. at Houston Premium Outlets, 29300 Hempstead in Cypress. The event offers trend presentations, beauty bars, a do-it-yourself station to make personalized totes inspired by fall trends and chances to win Simon gift cards.

Local boutiques, including Height of Vintage and Settlement Goods, will be on hand along with the mall's national retailers.

Unlike a lot of fashion prints, Wang said, plaid appeals to both men and women.

"How it appears and in what form it comes changes, but every fall, plaid is always part of our wardrobe formula," she said. "The patte is tied to so many subcultures and fashion movements throughout history, and full of meaning: What other print can feel East Coast-preppy, Scot-traditional, Bowery-punk, 'Clueless'-sweet and Rockies-outdoorsy, depending on the item?"

Leigh even dresses her son, Jetson, 5, in plaid bow ties and daughter, Josslyn, 2, in sweet plaid dresses.

"Plaid is to fall what florals are to spring and summer," she said.

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