Fash Mob »

• Got something to say? Here’s why – and how – our commenting platform has changed

  May 15, 2012 @ 2:37 pm | by Rosemary Mac Cabe

  Directly stolen from Hugh’s blog, a post he wrote on May 2nd

  Today we  switched over to a new, unified comment platform to replace the two separate systems which existed up until now. Existing users will need to re-register for the new system, but we hope the benefits will outweigh the inconvenience.

  You’ll see that users now need a social media account – Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn – to authenticate their login to comment. This reflects The Irish Times’s view that social media now forms a central part of our engagement with our audience. In effect, we’re aiming to move on from the rather antiquated concept of linear comments on articles towards facilitating a more dynamic set of real-time conversations around the many subjects covered every day on our website.

  As part of this, the other big change you’ll notice is that, when you post a comment on the site now, it will appear immediately. Previously, we pre-moderated comments, which often led to frustrating delays. It also made it impossible for people to engage in the real-time online conversations they’re used to having these days. Now, with immediate posting and with comment threading, we hope you’ll find these discussions much easier.

  As part of our move away from pre-moderation, we’ve drawn up new Community Standards for users posting on the site. These standards are intended to make irishtimes.com a safe and welcoming place for people with a wide range of opinions and perspectives to share their views in a mutually respectful manner. In order for the new service to work as well as we hope it will, users should carefully read the Community Standards and check that their comments don’t breach them.

  Registered users can use the system to flag posts which they believe breach the standards. These will then be considered by Irish Times moderators.. Any reader can also submit a more detailed complaint about inappropriate material by clicking on the link provided.

  I hope you find this system an improvement on the previous one. We plan to roll it out over a larger number of articles in the days and weeks ahead. As we do so, feedback from you, our readers, will be invaluable and you can be guaranteed it will be taken on board.

• Aoife Valentine’s what’s hot, what’s not

  May 11, 2012 @ 10:27 am | by Rosemary Mac Cabe

  Hot

  Julia Restoin Roitfield

  With every celebrity and their mother having done the Demi Moore naked-and-heavily-pregnant magazine cover shoot, Julia Restoin Roitfield’s efforts are somewhat refreshing, and incredibly beautiful.

  Luxury Telephone Boxes

  BT Artbox, an art project marking the 25^th anniversary of Childline, has enlisted the likes of Giles Deacon, Zandra Rhodes, Lily Cole, Philip Treacy and Julien MacDonald to give the classic red telephone box a makeover. So cute.

  

  Leather Forever

  Hermes has just opened its ‘Leather Forever’ exhibition in London celebrating the brand’s history, with enough variations of the infamous Birkin bag on show to keep even the largest of crowds happy. There’s also a giant neon Kelly bag full of bags – what more do you want?

  Not

  Mary Kate Olsen’s Face

  The Olsen twins haven’t been baby-faced and innocent for a while now, but Mary-Kate’s old-lady face at the MET Gala was terrifying. She’s 25 and she looks like death. What has she been doing to her face?

  

  Rihanna’s Armani Collection

  There’s been some excitement about Rihanna creating another collection for Armani Jeans and Emporio Armani Underwear, but from the sketches, unless you’re very into how she dresses herself, it’s quite disappointing.

  

  Vidal Sassoon’s death

  Beginning a career that lasted more than 50 years by giving Mia Farrow a pixie crop, Vidal Sassoon’s hairdressing was defined by his innovation and desire to liberate women. The news this week of his death, at the age of 84, was exceptionally sad.

• So what was hot this week? And what was not? A guest post by Aoife Valentine

  April 13, 2012 @ 10:00 am | by Rosemary Mac Cabe

  Hot

  

  Raf Simons for Dior

  The rumourmill has been running for a long time on this one, but Raf Simons, now former creative director of Jil Sander, has been appointed artistic director of Dior. Known for his minimalist designs, the company’s chief executive has enlisted Simons to modernise the label and his first collection will be the A/W couture collection this year. Several designers have turned down the post already, fearing that taking the reigns after Galliano’s dramatic departure would be taking a poisoned chalice, but Simons is feeling “fantastic”.

   

  Justin Bieber’s shoot for Complex

  We may be used to seeing Justin Bieber through the squeaky clean rose-tinted glasses his PR people would like us to, but the popstar who has just turned 18 has gotten bloodied up in a shoot for Complex and is “through being your punching bag,” according to a promo video for the shoot. Though pretty graphic, Bieber is somehow less annoying when he’s being beaten up and not pretending to be holier than thou.

   

  Image courtesy of Beaut.ie

  Gradient Nails

  Of late, a simple French manicure simply won’t do. Even experimenting with bolder shades doesn’t quite cut it. If you don’t have extravagant artwork done on your nails, you may as well not bother doing anything with them. Simpler than transferring the works of Picasso onto your nails, however, is the gradient trend. Using any combination of colours you want and a cosmetic sponge, it’s simple, if a little messy to achieve, but looks a lot more effort than it is.

   

  Not

  

  Geri Halliwell re-inventing that Union Jack Dress

  This has been in the works for a while now, but it’s now more than just an idea the internet laughs at. Rather than just accept her fate as a former Spice Girl who wore a terrible outfit at least one time, Ginger Spice has reinvented her infamous British flag dress, though granted it is now actually a dress. Featured as part of her most recent collection for Next, it is not the only piece in the line to embrace ‘cool Britannica’ wholeheartedly. The fact that it costs £199 is almost as bad as the fact it exists.

  

  Bralets

  Occasionally they look like a bra that has been extended to offer a little support to your back after some kind of minor accident but at the moment the high street is dominated by much prettier, cuter versions than anything you get for a broken bone. That’s all well and good when they’re worn well with something nice and high-wasted, but too much of that same high street is being trodden down by those who think baring your stomach like you’re Britney Spears (pre-babies and breakdowns) is perfectly okay.  Just look briefly in the mirror and you’ll realise it’s really not.

  

  Tommy Bowe’s shoe collection

  Who knew the Irish international rugby star had his finger in so many pies? Just releasing his third collection of footwear, with each style named after a player, for upmarket brand Lloyd & Price, it’s very easy to question how one became three. If ever there were a reason  fashion and sports should remain quite a large distance from one another, these shoes are evidence of this. Stick to the rugby, Tommy.

• Guest post by Aoife Valentine: what’s hot this week – and what’s not

  April 6, 2012 @ 10:59 am | by Rosemary Mac Cabe

  Hot
  

  Toms Eyewear

  Toms, the company who established the ‘One for One’ movement where you buy a pair of shoes and the company donates a pair of shoes to a child in a developing country, are now branching out into eyewear. The same business model applies to the sunglasses, except rather than receiving sunglasses; a child in the developing world will receive eye-saving surgery, medical treatment or prescription glasses. The glasses are gorgeous, too. Saving people’s sight in exchange for pretty things? Yes, please.

  Sienna Miller for Vogue

  Sienna Miller is not the most inspiring of people. No one really knows why she’s famous as she’s never been overly successful in any of her many ventures, and she had all but disappeared for a long time. She features on the cover of this month’s Vogue, and while the interview itself is nothing to write home about, the photographs by Ryan McGinley are stunning.

  Marc Jacobs’ cosmetic range

  Marc Jacobs is a busy man. Not only does he design for three different fashion labels, as well as constantly developing his accessories and fragrance lines, with a new fragrance due out this July, he’s now venturing into the world of cosmetics. With the line development with Sephora, now we just have to hope that there’s some way for us to get our hands on it.

   

  Not

  The Snaicial

  It would seem the world has decided that it’s perfectly cool not to be entirely grossed out by the idea of snails crawling across their face, in a bid for amazing, youthful looking skin. We may have accepted fish pedicures as not being as mental an idea as it first seemed, but snails can keep their wrinkle and scar healing slimy qualities; it’s still disgusting.

  Beach Body Diets

  It’s that time of year again when diets and detoxes are being pushed left, right and centre in order to get you in the best shape of your life before you hit the beach. For the most part the detoxes aren’t overly helpful, they are just unpleasant and the constant barrage of diet-talk is not helping anyone’s body confidence. Spend more time discussing your summer wardrobe, not how you’ll fit into it.

  Pyjama trend as evening wear

  The pyjama trend has been so far received with some amount of hesitance from all but the bravest of us, but transferring it to evening-wear is proving more hit and miss than its daytime counterpart. Looking like you have rolled out of bed with your hair and make-up done up suitable for the red carpet doesn’t make the most sense, even if you are Rihanna.

• Toms branches out into eyewear

  April 4, 2012 @ 10:30 am | by Rosemary Mac Cabe

  

  If you have been paying attention to fashion, media, popular culture and philanthropy (or any of the four) over the past five years or so, you will have heard of Toms, the charitable company set up by (major lasher) Blake Mycoskie with the motto of “one for one” – for every pair of simple shoes sold, a pair of shoes would be donated to a child in the developing world.

  Now the company is branching out into eyewear and extending the one-for-one promise – for every pair of sunglasses sold, one person in the developing world will regain their sight, either by means of eye-saving surgery, prescription glasses or medical treatment. I think what you mean to say is: amazing. I know that I won’t be buying my sunglasses from anyone else from now on – it helps, obviously, that Toms’ range includes a variety of really cool styles, but the knowledge that my purchase is helping make a difference … well.

  Prices start at £110 and glasses are available online.

  Blake has also written a book, Start Something that Matters, which is on my list – once I get through the seriously brilliant The Sisters Brothers. (And I also wrote about Toms here.)

• Madonna – Girl Gone Wild mixes sexuality, S&M and plain ol’ homoeroticism

  March 26, 2012 @ 12:00 pm | by Rosemary Mac Cabe

  

  Honestly, what’s not to love? Especially the delicious latex moment at 0:09 … that said, I prefer Madonna when she looks like, oh, Madonna, such as in the smoking segments, rather than in the dancing segments when she looks a bit like Britney (original Britney, not modern, shadow-of-her-former-self Britney). Which reminds me …

  

• Revealed – Stella McCartney’s designs for Team Great Britain

  March 22, 2012 @ 2:30 pm | by Rosemary Mac Cabe

  

  What do you think of the kit the Great Britain Olympic team will be sporting this summer, courtesy of the one and only Stella McCartney? I can’t help but wonder if her collaboration with Adidas, which launched in 2004, was just an effort to build up to this moment.

  Do you remember 2008′s Olympic kit, also by Adidas? (Probably not … as you can see, it had nothing on this year’s efforts!)

• Pepe launches Tru Blu eco collection

  March 6, 2012 @ 1:30 pm | by Rosemary Mac Cabe

  

  Have you heard the news that Target is banning sandblasting from its denim ranges, because it’s associated with lung cancer in factory workers? (About time, for stonewashing truly is a crime against fashion …) The US megastore has decided that people’s health is slightly more important than our questionable taste in denim finishes.

  Pepe Jeans, meanwhile, has developed its most sustainable jeans washing process – subtracting the use of chemicals and reducing the number of wash cycles it takes to achieve a certain “wash” on the jeans themselves, in an effort to reduce water consumption across the brand’s manufacturing process. Pepe has invested in various modern technologies, including the use of ozone gas treatments and three-dimensional lasers which can create a great depth of indigo contrast on jeans.

  

  The Tru-Blu range will be available from May 2012, with six styles in six different washes, from a dark finish to a bleached look, all achieved without the use of chemicals.

  It’s a great step forward for denim technologies and for fashion in general – it’s worth applauding when a fashion brand decides to look at its manufacturing process holistically; though I’d be the first to say that fashion matters, I’d also be the first to admit that, anything we do, it’s worth minimising our footprint – like our carpets, the earth will be here after us. But unlike our carpets, it matters what state we leave it in.

• KARL launches at BT2 tomorrow!

  February 29, 2012 @ 5:00 pm | by Rosemary Mac Cabe

  At 9.30am. The first 10 customers in BT2 on Grafton St tomorrow morning will receive a KARL collar worth €69 with every purchase – while there will be KARL-themed cocktails on hand to ease the shopping fury.

  

• Whitney Houston dies at age 48

  February 12, 2012 @ 1:46 am | by Rosemary Mac Cabe

  

  Whitney Houston, multi million selling recording artist and movie star, has died at the age of 48. Early reports suggest that she was found by rap singer Ray J (Ray Norwood) at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

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