It was more work and less play at the second edition of the Van Heusen India Men's Week that showcased a concentrated umbrella of pret lines under as many as 16 labels and, barring some exceptions, kept the usual Bollywood octane off the premises and the ramp. While some missed the film fraternity's extended presence, the organisers and exhibitors had their chins up for the peg on the work than the glitz - which saw only a handful of the B-Town overdose. “The main focus this time was more on the designer's creations than anything else," Sunil Sethi, president of event organiser Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI), told IANS.Where day one kicked off with a technical snag that delayed Narendra 'Nari' Kumar Ahmed's Samurai inspired collection waiting backstage for one-and-half hours, the event picked up momentum over the weekend until Rohit 'Gudda' Bal closed the week in grandeur with his “Sharaarat” line.  

“It is time to change direction and propose a new kind of style for the Indian male,” said Nari.

The high points of the men's week included designer brothers Shantanu and Nikhil's deforestation-inspired collection - experimental enough to bring the Indian male in an exaggeration of a floral drape sherwanis and skirts. Then, there were low crotch hot pants by Vijay Arora, the Robert Vadra inspired 1970s English line by Ashish N. Soni, cargo jodhpurs by Rajesh Pratap Singh - and not to forget Anarkalis for men by Gudda.

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Fashion Gala: From Mithuns, Helens to Hrithiks, Katrinas - one could find the entire first year of  The Amity School of Communication, Noida, dressed as filmstars in tune with the theme of their Freshers’ Party, which was “Bollywood Bizarre”. The event kick-started with a performance by the western music club and was followed by an In-house Jazz performance. The chief attraction of the day was a spoof on former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and a play by the Dramatics Club called Punjabi Julius Caesar.

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Usually the idea of traipsing round a field on the weekend routing through sale items would conjure images of  flat shoes and casual clothing, but not for the Kardashians. Sisters Kim, 29, Kourtney, 31, and Khloe, 25, and their mom Kris all got dolled up to the nines to attend the Super Saturday 13 in the Hamptons, New York yesterday.

Super Saturday is a giant annual sale of designer and brand name products at huge discounts with all the proceeds going to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. The glamorous looking Kardashian family came out to support the event.

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They say spending time with young people keeps you young yourself. Rubbish. I've just spent a day with four teenagers, and I feel about 95. There is nothing like discovering exactly how ancient you appear to the youth of today to put paid to fanciful notions that one is still – as we said in my day – down with the kids.

Example. I asked Will Spratley, 15-year-old music and drama enthusiast, whose style he admired. He pulled out his copy of NME, and flicked to an article about Gorillaz. "I think Damon Albarn looks good," he said. And then he added, helpfully, "He's the lead singer of Blur." Thanks for the tip, son. Ouch.

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Thirty five designers, five shows a day, six emerging names from Chennai, four labels from abroad, a sprinkling of stars and non-stop excitement... The Gitanjali Lifestyle Chennai International Fashion Week that concluded recently saw a host of big names showcase their clothes as a run-up to the grand finale on July 11.

Top designers Neeta Lulla, Krishna Mehta and finally, Satya Paul (the label celebrates its 25th year) were the highlights of the shows on the concluding day. Saturday night fashion fever saw Kollywood stars Radhika and Sharath Kumar, Simbu, Sada, Sneha, ‘Jeyam' Ravi, Padmapriya et al walk the ramp for designer Archana Kochhar for Videocon Galatta All Stars Show.

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The Fashion East show is one of the highlights of the London Fashion Week schedule. Showcasing some of the newest, most exciting designers around, it has already propelled the likes of Jonathan Saunders, Richard Nicoll, Meadham Kirchhoff, Gareth Pugh, Holly Fulton and Michael van der Ham on to stardom.

This morning the Fashion East team has revealed which three designers will be showing with them come September. So who's made the cut? ELLE favourite Heiki Salonen will be returning to the catwalk with a Native American-meets-skater collection. And joining him will be newcomers Simone Rocha, who has just graduated from Central Saint Martins, and Felicity Brown who has worked for Alberta Ferretti, Mulberry, Lanvin and Loewe. Our fashion week excitement starts here.

WITH bespoke gowns costing up to $30,000 and suits a mere $15,000, it is hardly surprising that the Paris haute couture week has felt the chill wind of the financial recession. The annual display of fashion's finest has been reduced to a three-day event. But John Galliano's magical, floral-inspired collection for Christian Dior suggested there was still plenty of life in the art of Paris couture.

The Rodin Museum in Paris was transformed into a garden of earthly delights with the scent of hundreds of pink roses. Actresses Blake Lively, Jessica Alba and Lou Doillon added colour as they watched a collection the Gibraltarian-British designer says was inspired by such fashion and flower photographers as Irving Penn and Nick Knight.Models hit the runway with heads wrapped in coloured cellophane headgear created by London milliner Stephen Jones.

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Hot NZ designer Sera Lilly isn't booking models for this year's New Zealand Fashion Week show. Instead, she's to street cast up to 35 models for her solo fashion show at NZFW in September 2010.

Out of the dozens of models Sera will choose from the public, one model will also be selected as the face of Sera Lilly for the autumn/winter 2011 season, and be the lookbook model for Sera Lilly.

The girl chosen as the face of Sera Lilly will also appear in an exclusive ad campaign shot with Sera’s brand partner, Number One Shoes.

The ad will run in a magazine during New Zealand Fashion Week 2010 and the visual will be displayed in Number One Shoes’ 48 windows nationwide.

To learn how to walk the catwalk, Amanda Bransgrove of Catwalk Studios will train the new faces professional catwalk skills.

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If the seat does have to come out of the car, said co-author Lindsay Wilson, parents should make sure their babies are always strapped in. Wilson and Dr. Shital Parikh, both from the orthopedics division of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, reviewed five years worth of data from a national U.S. surveillance system to find records of babies less than one year old that were taken to the ER for car seat injuries.

From 2003-2007, almost 2,000 babies in the sample - so about 43,500 in the entire U.S., the authors estimated - were brought to the ER for a car seat injury. Most of those injuries happened when babies fell out of their car seat or were in the seat when it fell off a table, counter or shopping cart.

Head or neck injuries were most common, especially in the youngest babies, who were also more likely to go to the ER. About half of the injuries happened at home. There were only a few car seat-related deaths recorded in the authors' sample, so they weren't able to calculate a national estimate.

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So far, we’ve seen a lot of great collections and I am definitely spotting the trends. Continuing the fabulous line-up of talented designers at Africa Fashion Week, was  Gloria Wavammunno as she showcased her  collection on Day 3 of the event. In this collection, she uses a lot of African print  in comparison to  most designers we’ve seen so far.

Gloria brings the statement 80’s shoulder pads, exaggerated pockets, harem pants and vibrant prints. And to maintain that feminine glamour embodied in her collections,  we see full skirts, sexy asymmetric sleeves and knee-length dresses accented with  sweet-heart necklines. In addition, we see  lots of deep plunging necklines; a major trend so far with collections showcased at Africa Fashion Week.