Fashion Becomes Activism for the Women of Kabul

Designers work for months on collections that leggy, Amazon women will showcase on catwalks during international fashion weeks. But while most models have only one mission when walking down a runway (to not fall), women presenting collections in places like Kabul have other concerns, like fearing for their lives.

However, despite the dangers of presenting the latest and greatest, and all without a burqa, one group of Afghan women have looked fear in the face and realized fashion can be part self-expression and part activism.

Young Women for Change, an independent nonprofit organization based in Kabul, Afghanistan, recently put on their own fashion show, not at Lincoln Center or under the lights of Milan, but in a small, candlelit house.

Anita Haidary, cofounder of the group, says even though some attendees could not accept women showcasing the fashions, open events like her runway show are creating new activist platforms and discussions within the community about how women are seen.

“The reason behind this fashion show was to promote women’s business, women’s clothing through women designers and tailors,” says Haidary. “Young Women for Change wanted to support women in business because we believe that grassroots efforts that support women in becoming financially independent can lead to the greater empowerment of Afghan women.”

The group, cofounded by Haidary and Noorjahan Akbar, consists of dozens of volunteer women and male advocates across Afghanistan who are committed to empowering Afghan women through social and economic participation, political empowerment, awareness and advocacy.

For the women involved in the YWC, having a unified voice is also a way for them to contribute to rebuilding a new Afghanistan. Haidary says part of rebuilding is connecting Afghan women to alternative ways they can get their traditional clothing, allowing them to bypass all the clothing imports from Pakistan, China and Iran—because even Afghans believe in shopping locally.

“This is also directly connected to our first campaign against harassment. Women are not only harassed on the street but also in shops, markets, and tailor shops run by men,” says Haidary. “There are countless stories detailing the harassment in tailoring shops while noting measurement. Furthermore, they have to go through this harassment because they have no other options because there are very few women tailors due to lack of skills, education and funds.”

Shannon Galpin, National Geographic Adventurer of the Year and founder of Mountain2Mountain, a nonprofit for women in conflict regions, says Kabul is a unique city for women. Galpin says the women of the YWC are courageous to take up the fight for their rights as publicly as they do, marching in the streets to protest sexual harassment, and creating the first women’s Internet cafe in Kabul.

“You now have women attending Kabul University, working in all levels of government, and seeing women in the streets walking to school or work among men is normal,” Galpin says. “It becomes a great incubator for activists and feminists to take on the fight in the country’s capital and set an example to the rest of their country.”

Galpin adds, “It starts with voice and the willingness to take a stand, to risk your safety, because the alternative is to sit by and watch as your rights are systematically taken away unchallenged.”

Post-fashion show, Haidary and the YWC meet safely behind closed doors at their Internet café which serves as a haven for area women to interact and discuss challenges, projects, and of course, where to get the latest designs. There they plan their next move as young women challenging the norm and a sexism that makes them work even harder.

“It is good to do something rather not doing anything,” Haidary says. “Women cannot achieve what they want if they don’t work for it.”

Westwood mixes politics and fashion

Few designers so consistently mix fashion with politics, or manage to secure her fans' adoration with the same looks almost every season. But Vivienne Westwood is not any designer.

The flame-haired grand dame of British fashion on Sunday sent her models walking down the catwalk in her signature tight-fitting dresses and nipped-in jackets, then in the finale joined them wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with a giant image of her own face and a slogan that read "I am Julian Assange."

As always, Westwood was less interested in talking about her designs than about climate change, a subject she has long campaigned about.

"There's no latest thing, it's all rubbish," she said, brushing off questions about fashion. Instead, she patiently explained to reporters why she feels so passionately about her climate change campaign.

"Every small thing you do can really change your life," she said. "And the first thing they must do is inform themselves, believe the scientists . then they'll stop being consumers and start being more interested in the world."

It's anyone's guess how many people attending the Vivienne Westwood Red Label autumn collection shared her enthusiasm, but the crowds were clearly taken by the designs shown on the catwalk, which was held at the Saatchi Gallery.

Although the makeup was startling — chalky white faces paired with eyes and lips outlined in stark, cartoonish lines — the clothes lived up to her legendary fame.

Jackets and blazers were beautifully tailored to accentuate the waist and hips, and dresses were draped in all the right places to draw the eye to the curves. The palette highlighted a delicious plum, teals, and metallics.

There were dramatic pieces, for sure: a metallic zebra-stripe was printed on coats and a striking prom style dress with stiff underskirts, and an iridescent foil-like tight biker jacket that shimmered purple and green was paired with harem pants dripping in sequins.

Westwood has been selling the Assange T-shirts to raise support for the WikiLeaks founder, who is living in the Ecuador's Embassy in London. He is seeking asylum from the country to avoid extradition to Sweden to face sexual assault questions.

London's glittery fashion week keeps on rolling

London Fashion Week swings into star time with a debut fashion show from pop star Rihanna and other big design names, including Issa and Jasper Conran.

Rihanna for River Island is set for Saturday night, followed by an elaborate party in central London.
The five-day fashion spectacle will also include upcoming shows from Vivienne Westwood, Burberry, Temperley and — for the first time offering a full catwalk show in London — Tom Ford.

There also are dozens of smaller shows and presentation by a wide variety of up and coming fashion names as well as established draws such as Christopher Kane, Roksanda Ilincic and Erdem.

The London shows mark phase two of the "Big Four" fashion weeks, with Milan and Paris to follow.

When It Comes To Fashion, Shouldn't There Be An App For That?

Thursday is the last day of New York Fashion Week, and some cutting-edge design will be presented in the tents at Lincoln Center — literally. Standing on the runway will be computer programmer types rather than models. This follows an event that kicked off Fashion Week — something called a "hackathon."

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More than 550 people churned out 78 apps in one day as part of Fashion Week's "hackathon."

Steven Lau/Decoded Fashion
A hackathon, explains Liz Bacelar, is a "fast-paced competition in which graphic designers, software developers and people with ideas, they come together to build an app in 24 hours. "

Bacelar is the founder of Decoded Fashion, a company that brings together people working in the tech industry with people working in the fashion industry.

"We brought together 550 registered people, and 78 apps were created in the matter of a day," Bacelar tells NPR's Renee Montagne.

Winners and runners-up win prize money. But what does this have to do with big companies strutting their stuff at Fashion Week? According to Bacelar, the industry is less tech-savvy than it could be.

"The interesting thing about fashion is they [the companies] are trendsetters, right?" says Bacelar. "But right now the industry could really use some innovation. They have kind of lagged behind in technology and how to run a business in a lean way using the power of tech. So we came up with the idea of leveraging technology in a very quick way, to pitch them ideas for them to consider trying."

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Fashion from designers like Oscar de la Renta were on display at Fashion Week in New York.

Kathy Willens/AP
And, Bacelar says, the biggest and oldest companies have a lot to learn from new fashion startups.

"What happens with the fashion industry is you have the designers showing their collections, you have the buyers placing their orders, and you'd be surprised that a lot of top, top brands, they use very little to no technology. And you have startups, like small companies, they are launching brands online and reaching revenue much faster."

Bacelar says that she sees two trends emerging from the tech industry that could prove very useful in the world of fashion: 3-D printing and visual search.

"We know that in the past 10 years, [3-D printing] has been used for machine parts, for airplanes, and now in the past couple years ... jewelry and metal. We see keys, we see rings being printed."

And something else is being printed, now, too: fabric. Bacelar has seen designers begin to incorporate 3-D printing into their designs — something that she says bodes well for U.S. manufacturing.

"I think [designers] are going to go to hardware — the buttons, the zippers, and consequently, more and more of this manufacturing comes back to the U.S., because it's very complex manufacturing."

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Participants in The Fashion Hackathon sketch out plans for an app. Fashion industry giants are beginning to look to tech-savvy new startups for inspiration.

Steven Lau/Decoded Fashion
With 3-D printing, printers will essentially become tiny factories. "You can have a dress with no seams," says Bacelar. "You design the dress in your computer, you hook it up to the printer, you put [material] that you want the dress to be made of, if it's silk or whatever it is. It's so crazy to talk about it this way, but when you see it, the visuals are just incredible."

Another trend that Bacelar is excited about is visual search.

"Right now, the search is word-based, and more and more, search is becoming image-based," she says. "So, we're going to see browsers, we're going to see websites that we can go to and add an image, and be presented all the images that look just like it."

Bacelar says this year's Fashion Week, and the hackathon, finally bring fashion and technology together. "There's a lot of misunderstanding on both sides," she says. "On the tech side, we keep building solutions that we think the industry needs, but we don't quite know exactly how the fashion industry works. So from the fashion side, they have these problems, and they just don't know how to solve them, and the conversation never happens. So it's happening for the first time, and it's quite exciting."

Fashion Force Richard Lowe III Appointed International Creative Director of Spiegel

Fashion Force Richard Lowe III Appointed International Creative Director of Spiegel

Lynn Tilton, Founder and CEO of Patriarch Partners LLC, a New York based investment firm and holding company, announced today that Richard Lowe III has been named International Creative Director for the Spiegel® family of women's apparel brands.  In this capacity, Mr. Lowe will be responsible for the design and creative direction of all in-house brands (Spiegel Collection, Newport News and Shape FX) in the U.S. and abroad.  He will also oversee all online development, merchandising and R&D.

Lynn Tilton said, "I truly believe Richard to be both a prolific artist and design prodigy. Rarely do I rebuild a company centered on the talents of one individual and never have I hired someone within minutes of meeting them. With Richard, I have done both.  I believe that Richard will truly bring the Spiegel family of apparel back to the forefront in the hearts and minds of American women."

Lowe, 28 years old, comes to Spiegel with an impressive ten-year track record in the fashion industry.  Just one year after graduating from the Fashion Institute of Technology in 2007, he became the Creative Director of Bagir in the U.S. where, in addition to designing for brands Balmain and Nicole Miller, he created private label designs for Brooks Brothers and Macy's. Moreover, Lowe was instrumental in developing a revolutionary eco-fabric made entirely from recycled plastic bottles. This global initiative led to the creation of Eco-Gir, a high-tech brand that specialized in producing apparel made from recycled waste materials. Lowe also established partnerships with Dockers and Cintas. Under his creative direction, Bagir's profits increased significantly.

Lowe has also designed fashion collections for Rebecca Minkoff and Juicy Couture; managed fashion shows for Oscar de la Renta, Donna Karan, Calvin Klein and Rosa Cha, and provided personal wardrobe services for Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Michael Jackson. He has also appeared as a fashion expert on The View, Good Morning America, The Early Show, The Doctors and The Learning Channel's (TLC) sensation, Breaking Amish.

For his first collection, Richard has taken many cues from Spiegel's rich and illustrious fashion heritage.  He has designed the Spring 2013 collection with an even more vibrant color palette, high-fashion fit, and youthful appeal. Says Lowe, "For spring 2013, I am infusing shades of teal, fuchsia and reds paired with whites, silvers and navies creating an exotic, adventurous and endlessly chic collection." And he adds with a provocative grin, "a tantalizing undercurrent of flirty fun."

Former Cover Model Now Does His Work Behind The Lens

The former cover model spent time in front of the camera striking a pose, but now, he's behind the lens as one of the world's most sought after fine art photographers.

“I love movement. I love colors as well," Gomez says. "It depends. You never know where you will get inspired. New York has a different vibe, a different energy."

The New York-based photographer has published two books featuring his best works. One is called "Visual Vibrations". The other is called "Dimensions".

He's a darling of the fashion industry. Fashion insiders keep an eye on his work when they look for inspiration.

"I've been approached by designers that want to use my patterns on their fabrics, which is interesting," Gomez says.

He's most proud of a piece of work that President Bill Clinton now owns.

You can see Javier's work just about anywhere, even in high-end interior design offices.

"We love having Javier’s art in our space because it really punctuates our furnishings, and it just seems like a natural fit," says Robert Passal, an interior designer.

With an eye for design, color and style, Javier Gomez is trendsetting both on and off the runway.

A Style Blog for Tots: Has Fashion Gone Too Far?

Fashion blogging has gone from the streets to the cribs, thanks to fashion designer Jenni Kayne and celeb-stylist Estee Stanley.

Best friends and mothers, Kayne and Stanley created the Ladys & Gents kids' fashion blog in December as a way to display fun looks their children and other children wore.

"Estee and I love shopping for our little ones and dressing them in cute outfits. We found ourselves sending one another pictures of the kids and what they were wearing," Kayne said in a statement.
The purpose of the blog is to bring joy to moms everywhere.

"We decided it would be really fun to create a blog - something for us moms to appreciate now and hopefully inspire other moms when it comes to kids' fashion," said Kayne.

Ladys and Gents isn't the first kid's fashion blog, other blogs like The Tiny Times and Petit Vogue are increasing in popularity.

The clothing on Ladys & Gents isn't particularly over-the-top expensive, unlike those seen on mini-celebs like Suri Cruise, who's been spotted wearing $300 shoes and carrying an $800 Salvatore Ferragamo bag.

Anyone can submit photos of her child along with a list of brands they're wearing. The clothing showcased includes mass brands like Target all the way up to high-end looks from Stella McCartney.

Who Will Be the Next Suri Cruise?
Dr. Alan Kazdin, professor of psychology at Yale University, brings up the point that women are featured predominantly in fashion blogs over men, and the same is true for Ladys & Gents.

"Yes, there's a deep concern here. Any woman should be concerned about this because it's not another job passed for woman, it's not a way to get to the top, this is all about you and your body," said Kazdin. "I would rather see the same thing, those same pictures with those girls standing by calculators."

Not surprisingly, those in the fashion world are less critical, contending that fashion and fashion blogging are a form of creativity and self-expression. Designers look to street style, now captured by bloggers like the Sartorlialist's Scott Schuman, for inspiration for a new line.

Kayne's other blog, Rip + Tan, also includes kid fashion. Rip + Tan chronicles the designer's musings, including her love of Stella McCartney rain gear, Hunter boots and cute winter weather looks for a family ski trip.

This isn't the first time stylish tots have taken the internet by storm. Celeb stylist June Ambrose also brought her daughter, Summer Chamblin, to the fashion week tents. Chamblin has an Instagram account and chronicles her favorite outfits and inspiration.

Designer Alexander Wang's niece, Aila Wang, stole the show at New York Fashion Week in September, when she showed up at his show in a custom-made dress, Nike shoes and a Chanel bag.

Do you think kids fashion blogs are fun - or have they gone too far? Weigh your thoughts in the comments section.