Inspiration Of Style: Maternity Clothes Are Actually Some Of The Most Stylish Clothes

The Huffington Post  |  By Michelle Persad

It is a common misconception that maternity clothes used to be… well, awful. People think that once upon a time pregnant women only wore oversized shirts, shapeless dresses and not much else. And while those items were constantly in the maternity repertoire, pregnancy clothes have actually always been stylish.

Looking back at maternity style over the years, it’s clear that no matter the decade, moms-to-be always took fashion into account. In the ’60s, it was all about Peter Pan collars and short hemlines. In the ’70s, floral prints and shift dresses were major. While in the ’80s, shoulder pads and neck ties were the must-haves.

We dare you to scroll through these photos of expectant mothers dating all the way back to the 1950s and tell us they weren’t some of the trendiest ladies around.

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Read More:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/28/maternity-clothes_n_4675980.html?utm_hp_ref=style&ir=Style?utm_hp_ref=style&ir=Style

Inspiration Of Style:Model Fall At Elie Saab Show Has Us Cringing (PHOTOS)

The Huffington Post  |  By Ellie Krupnick

Want to see 200 fashion editors and bloggers wince in unison? Take a model, put her in sky-high heels and a long gown and set her off on the runway. Unfortunately, that deadly set-up met its logical conclusion on Wednesday, when a model in the Elie Saab couture show took a spill. Captured on camera (see it at 6:35 here), the spill was unfortunately like so many we’ve seen before. Perhaps next Fashion Week, the models can take the advice Jennifer Lawrence so famously misinterpreted at the Oscars and “kick, walk, kick, walk.” (On that fateful Oscars night in 2013, Miss Lawrence thought the directions were “cakewalk, cakewalk, cakewalk” — now we get why she fell.) See what went down (pun… not intended?) in Paris today. Why does this keep happening? Read More:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/22/model-fall-elie-saab-show_n_4646920.html?utm_hp_ref=style&ir=Style

Inspiration Of Style: Laura Olteanu Collection on Catwalk at Bucharest Fashion Week Show

Inspiration Of Style

Must-Have Layering Piece: A Sleeveless Shift Dress

Naya Rivera’s flawlessly tailored version of this closet workhorse fits in at both the office and a cocktail party after work. Pair a shift dress with a bright bag and look-at-me pumps to complete the sophisticated outfit.

Read More:  http://www.glamour.com/fashion/2013/01/10-winter-layering-fashion-essentials-every-woman-should-own#slide=9

Inspiration Of Style: Ella Bache Ad Banned In Australia Because Naked Models Didn’t Smile (PHOTOS)

The Huffington Post  |  By Ron Dicker

A regulator in Australia banned an Ella Bache skincare ad because it believes the naked models’ unsmiling faces were too arousing. That forced the Parisian company to produce a version with smiles.

In the rejected version, the women snuggle together with their hands strategically placed on their breasts, accompanied by the slogan “Skin Solutions As Individual As You Are.”

The Outdoor Media Association, an agency that monitors billboard advertising in the country, wasn’t about to let the straight-faced approach dot the landscape, saying, “serious facial expressions increased the sexual overtones of the image,” according to Campaign Brief.

One of Ella Bache’s reps wasn’t smiling at Outdoor Media’s verdict to reject the original.

“This bizarre decision is the epitome of political correctness, indicating that as a society we are becoming very fearful of putting a foot wrong, with the result that stymies creative thinking,” said Faie Davis, Ella Bache’s creative director, according to several outlets.

Charmaine Moldrich, chief executive of Outdoor Media Australia, defended barring the straight-faced ad, telling The Australian that the serious looks reflected less female empowerment than happy faces. The unsmiling Ella Bache image “could be interpreted as being sexualized and saying ‘look at me in my nudity,'” said Moldrich.

The re-done campaign for the French firm will run across Australia. With smiles all around, of course.

Read More:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/09/ella-bache-ad-banned-beca_n_3894233.html?utm_hp_ref=women&ir=Women

Happy Birthday King Of PoP!!!

Inspiration Of Style: Would you wear Wrangler’s moisturizing jeans?

The Huffington Post  |  By Sara Gates

We’re all for hydrating our skin during the dry winter season, but are moisturizing jeans like Wrangler’s new spa denim really the best way to go?

The “Denim Spa” line of skinny jeans, which holds popular skincare ingredients like apricot kernel oil and shea butter within the fabric, apparently hydrates your skin while you wear them. And if that isn’t enough of a draw, the Smooth Legs moisturizing jeans — one of three finishes — supposedly help reduce cellulite as well.

Sounds too good to be true, right?

It’s actually not the first time jeans have been purported to treat cellulite, which affects an estimated 95 percent of women. As discussed during a segment on “The Doctors” last year, a French manufacturer claimed to have developed denim infused with active ingredients, such as green tea, that helps fight cellulite.

However, as co-host Dr. Andrew Ordon pointed out, the anti-cellulite jeans would only help if you wore them for an extended period of time — 28 days, for example — without washing them. Ew?

Wrangler tapped Lizzie Jagger — daughter of Jerry Hall and the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger — as the face of the its spa jeans brand, set to sell on asos.com for $136 a pair starting Jan. 28.

According to the Telegraph, the Smooth Legs style was clinically tested by France’s Institut Adriant, where 69 percent of denim testers said the appearance of their thighs had improved. Yet, the testing took place over four weeks, in which respondents had to wear the jeans for eight hours a day, five days a week.

Though the denim’s ingredients supposedly lasts for 15 days, with refills available, we can’t really see ourselves wearing the same jeans for days on end, à la “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.”

Read More:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/16/wrangler-spa-jeans-moisturizing-denim-cellulite_n_2489245.html?utm_hp_ref=women&ir=Women

Inspiration Of Style: French Elle Magazine Releases ‘Marriage For All’ Issue

The French edition of Elle magazine is proudly declaring its support for same-sex marriage with a stunning “Marriage for all!” issue.

New York Magazine’s The Cut blog quotes Elle’s editorial director Valérie Toranian as saying:

“This debate is not primarily between old and modern, right and left, homophobes and progressives: there are gay, pro-marriage Catholics, left- and right-leaning psychologists fiercely attached to the symbolism of gender difference as a necessity for any potential child. There are feminists who advocate for IVF for lesbians, but who oppose surrogate mothers for gays because they denounce the commodification of women’s bodies.”

Check out the cover below, then scroll down to keep reading:

In recent months, marriage equality has been a particularly hot button topicthroughout France. Though the nation is generally tolerant towards its lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) residents, thousands of protesters took to the streets of Paris decrying French President Francois Hollande’s promised same-sex marriage bill, CNN reports.

Meanwhile, former first lady Carla Bruni told French Vogue in December that she disagrees with her conservative husband Nicolas Sarkozy on the issue, and is in favor of both same-sex marriage and adoption, according to the Associated Press.

“I’m rather in favor because I have a lot of friends –- men and women –- who are in this situation and I see nothing unstable or perverse in families with gay parents,” Bruni is quoted as telling the magazine.

Hollande’s legislation is expected to be voted on either in February or March and, if passed, would mark the biggest step forward for French LGBT rights advocates in more than a decade.

Read More:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/17/french-elle-magazine-gay-marriage-cover-issue-_n_2498342.html?utm_hp_ref=women&ir=Women

 

Inspiration Of Style: Beauty Street Style: Magdalena Milek, Architectural Assistant, Masters The ‘No-Makeup Makeup’ Look

Less is more‘ is sort of our unofficial policy. So when we met Magdalena Milek, an architectural assistant, in Union Square, we appreciated her approach to makeup. Though she’s wearing foundation, mascara and tinted balm, the whole effect feels subtle and not too overdone. Her stance on hair is similar: “I try not to use a hair dryer or straightener in the winter to avoid static and dryness. I keep it as natural as possible.” See the rest of her beauty staples below.

 

Inspiration Of Style: Plus-Size Model Images May Reduce Obsession With Thinness

The Huffington Post  |  By Nina Bahadur

Why are we obsessed with female bodies that are thin? A new study from England’s Durham University offers two theories — and one possible solution.

Researchers Lynda Boothroyd, Martin Tovée and Thomas Pollet asked why women in many Western cultures prefer a thin body. They looked at two psychological phenomena that might explain this: the “visual diet” of Western women and the process of associative learning.

The visual-diet theory suggests that preferences can be shaped by the level of visual exposure. In other words, the more images a woman sees of thin women, the more she will internalize the idea that their bodies are the normal ones and larger bodies are abnormal.

Associative learning occurs when individuals perceive a connection between a certain body size and positive traits. Thus, the more thinness is linked to health, wealth and prestige, the more women will feel that thin equals good.

“If thin is constantly equated with success and popularity on TV and in magazines, it is not surprising that there is a strong pressure to shift the ideal body towards alower weight,” Tovée told The Huffington Post in an email.

The researchers conducted two separate studies with heterosexual British women to test the two ideas.

For the visual-diet theory, they asked 57 women with a mean age of 26.4 years old to look at opposing pairs of large and small women in bikinis (the pictures were computer-generated) and indicate which of the two body sizes they preferred, and how strongly. Next, participants were shown a series of images of all large or all small women, some of whom were beauty queens and some of whom were being treated for eating disorders. (The mix of “aspirational” and “non-aspirational” photographs was designed to make sure that participants’ responses were not linked to how happy or healthy the women in the photos looked.) After the so-called manipulation phase, participants repeated the comparison test.

Results indicate that women who were shown images of thin models in the manipulation phase had a stronger preference for thinness in the comparison test afterward, whereas women who were shown images of large models had a decreased preference for thinness.

In the associative learning study, researchers showed a different group of 69 women sets of images sorted into aspirational and non-aspirational categories. Participants who looked at pictures of smiling, well-dressed plus-size beauty queens and models intermixed with underweight eating-disorder patients wearing gray leotards showed significantly less preference for thin bodies, whereas those shown images of thin beauty queens and overweight eating-disorder patients showed a stronger preference for thin bodies.

“This is an important finding when considering our media environment and the development of eating disordered behaviour in young women,” Tovée told HuffPost via email.

The new study, published in the November 2012 issue of the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE, supports the idea that beauty is a cultural construct and contradicts a recent study from Michigan State University suggesting that the desire for thinness is genetic. Other research has shown that factors includingethnicity, historical context and advertising methods can influence a woman’s body-size preferences.

“Although we don’t yet know whether brief exposure to pictures of larger women will change women’s attitudes in the long term, our findings certainly indicate that showing more ‘normal’ models could potentially reduce women’s obsession for thinness,” researcher Boothroyd told Science Daily.

If that’s true, it backs up the efforts of 14-year-old activist Julia Bluhm, who this past summer petitioned magazines like Seventeen and Teen Vogue to use a variety of “real girls,” not just ultra-thin models, and cease manipulating photos in their editorial spreads.

“Cultural ideals can end up in this feedback loop, so that if you’re in a culture which favors one particular thing in bodies, that if you have a visual media that then reflects that back, that results in a stronger preference,” Boothroyd told HuffPost in a phone interview. “And if the media then responds by reflecting that back strongly, then you get an even stronger preference … You’ve just got this feedback loop where everyone gets thinner and thinner and thinks it’s normal.”

Read More:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/16/plus-size-models-thinness-study_n_2093909.html?utm_hp_ref=women&ir=Women