Soaring global demand for natural beauty products could be fuelling modern-day slavery, as ingredients such as cocoa, vanilla and mica are linked to child labour, analysts said on Friday. Many key components — from shea nuts to wax used as a base for mascara — are produced by smallholder farmers where the risk of labour abuse is high, as governments and businesses struggle to monitor conditions, said risk analysts Verisk Maplecroft.

Cosmetic companies are benefiting from a strong appetite for skincare products, after riding a make-up boom in recent years spurred by young consumers seeking to look good on social media. While buyers clamour for make-up made with various fruit, nuts, grains and minerals, companies that increase the amount of natural ingredients in their cosmetics could be opening a “Pandora’s box of risk”, according to Britain-based Maplecroft.

“The cosmetic supply chain is extremely complex and loosely regulated,” said Donna Westerman, head of consumer goods at Maplecroft. “A cosmetic or lotion may have anywhere from 50 to 100 ingredients sourced from multiple countries all over the world and tracing materials to their origin is a daunting task.”

Many of the raw materials used in cosmetics are sourced from very poor and conflict affected countries. (Shutterstock)

Mica, a prized mineral that puts the sparkle in make-up, has been tarnished by its connection with child and forced labour in India, yet it is still widely used by cosmetic manufacturers, Maplecroft said in a risk analysis report focusing on cosmetics. In August 2016, a Thomson Reuters Foundation investigation found several children in India had died in illegal mica mines, but that their deaths were covered up.

The discovery that seven children had died in two months alone prompted pledges by multinationals sourcing mica from India to clean up their supply chains, and state authorities vowed to accelerate plans to legalise and regulate the sector. Maplecroft said governments rarely have the resources to monitor or regulate working conditions on small-scale farms while firms struggle to keep track of their large supply chains.

“The cosmetics industry carries high risks of modern slavery and child labour,” said Cindy Berman, head of modern slavery strategy at the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), an alliance of trade unions, companies and charities promoting workers’ rights. “Many raw materials are sourced from very poor and conflict affected countries, where labour laws are not enforced, and access to decent jobs, schools and public services are extremely limited for the majority of people struggling to survive.”

From everyday groceries such as tea and rice to clothes and make-up produced for high-street shops, major brands face rising consumer pressure to improve safety and conditions along their supply chains, render them slavery-free, and ensure fair wages.

[“source=hindustantimes”]

The post Is your natural make-up free of forced labour? appeared first on Grobista.

Guest column by The Diamond Store chief executive officer, Gary Ingram

The job of online jewellery retailers has never been so tough. The cost of acquiring customers and in particular Google clicks have soared. Brexit looms. Modern customer expectations and the social media landscape are forcing us to do more with less.

To combat the pressure, here are seven critical habits that I feel will help British jewellery e-tailers build stronger brands and bottom lines heading towards 2019, which we apply to TheDiamondStore.co.uk.

1. Be adaptable

Digital trends, Google algorithms, smartphone touch payment technology; the tools that drive online sales are in a constant state of flux. As frustrating as it is sometimes, we must constantly be prepared to trash yesterday’s plans and start again. Embracing change is the only way forward in the fast-moving world of ecommerce.

2. React to trends as they happen

Celebrities dictate trends – as we’ve seen with Meghan Markle. But if we want to sell products off the back of trends, we need to react to them in real time. Tomorrow is too late. During the week of the Royal wedding, traffic to our online magazine’s Royal Family articles spiked from 12,000 weekly organic visits to 35,000. This provided an incredible vehicle for sales, but we were only able to benefit from it because we had exciting, interactive web and social content poised to go live as the event unfolded.

3. Get granular

Granular… this marketing buzzword has been thrown around so much, some have come to loathe it. Yet it is exactly what brings an online environment closer to a “real store experience”. Granularity refers to crunching marketing data down to the finest level of detail. For instance, we know that our biggest social media sales converters are females, 25-35 of age. We also know fairly accurately who, and for what occasions, they buy jewellery gifts for. This amount of detail allows us to create targeted campaigns that offer genuine value to our customer niches.

4. Overlap customer services and social media

Today’s online shoppers expect to communicate with retailers instantly, via multiple channels. We offer Live Chat, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, social media feeds, and of course, email and telephone. This means our Customer Service and Social Media teams need to work closely together to catch every customer comment and question. The focus is on gaining trust; when our teams align their efforts it makes our customers feel reassured.

5. Find practical ways to refresh product lines

Baby boomers and generation X are still shopping for classic heirloom jewellery, while millennials look for pieces with a shorter trend-based lifespan. This makes curation of product lines incredibly tricky. But often simply updating best-performing collections by introducing variations in precious metal type, gems or design details, keeps things exciting for loyal customers, while attracting potential new shoppers.

5. Expose your brand to unbiased feedback

The Competition and Market Authority (CAM) estimates that around £23 billion per year spent by UK consumers is potentially influenced by online reviews. We have been subscribing to the Feefo.com independent review platform since 2011 because it not only allows us to get honest feedback, but also respond to it. Again, in an online environment where we don’t meet our customers face to face, this is another route to personal interaction and trust building (as well as overall improvement).

7. Provide value

Sales are what keep businesses going. But modern consumers don’t like to feel that they’re being sold to. Tweaking your message from “selling” to “being of service” adds value and creates a shopping experience so good your customer want to repeat it. To add value, do your research and give customers what they want; speak their language, provide attractive packaging, offer trustworthy advice, useful content and fast free shipping. Arguably, the overall message of value that brands provide can sometimes be even more important that the products they sell.

[“Source-professionaljeweller”]

The post OPINION: Seven habits of a successful online jewellery retailer appeared first on Grobista.

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India’s relationship with jewellery goes back to time immemorial and is entrenched in tradition, relationships, the rites of passage — from birth to marriage to even death. The traditional thing to do in India has been to go to the neighbourhood or fancy branded jewellery store to buy gold, silver, and stone-set jewellery. According to an IBEF report, the gems and jewellery sector plays a significant role in the Indian economy, contributing around 7% of the country’s GDP and 15.71% to India’s total merchandise exports.

Jewellery buying is a lot about trust, which was hitherto defined by personal interaction and offline stores, but the trust is now shifting online. With the rise of ecommerce and consumer needs shifting from purely traditional, heavy designs to lighter daily and workwear essentials, the way Indians buy jewellery and the kind of designs they look for have also changed.

Online jewellery sales is gaining ground and, according to the IBEF report, is estimated to account for 1-2% of the fine jewellery segment by 2021-22. It may seem like a small percentage, but it amounts to a substantial figure given that the size of Indian jewellery market is huge — it is currently valued at close to $60 Bn and is expected to touch $100 Bn – $110 Bn in next four to five years.

Within this segment, a newly sought-after category is platinum jewellery, the market for which is currently estimated at INR 3,000 Cr and is growing at a rapid 25% CAGR.

With a view to cash in on this burgeoning opportunity — both in online sales and the demand for platinum — Jaipur based Sambhav Karnawat, Khushboo Patwa, andRuchika Beri launched an online platform for authentic platinum jewellery, Jewelove, in January 2016.

A bootstrapped startup, Jewelove was incubated at incubation centre Startup Oasis, Jaipur, and has been recognised as one of the authorised retailers of the Platinum Guild International (PGI), a marketing organisation working to develop the global platinum jewellery market.

[“source=femina”]

The post Jewelove Wants To Build A Platinum Bond Of Trust In Online Jewellery Buying appeared first on Grobista.

The festive season is finally here! For most people, this is the favourite time of the year and for good reasons. The festivities don’t just include indulging in festive treats but also dressing up and making chic style statements through the celebrations. So have you given a style update to your ethnic wear wardrobe? Did you remember to stock up on gorgeous jewellery to notch up your festive looks? If the answer is a big ‘no’, don’t panic. You still have good enough time to fill up your closet.

When it comes to glamming up, statement jewellery can prove to be a saviour, such as trendy matha pattis. Available in myriad designs and embellishments, they work like a dream to instantly spark up simple looks. Even something like a basic salwar kurta can be given a chic makeover with exquisite matha pattis to accessorise with. And no, they are not just meant for brides. You too can make showstopping appearances to get festive style on point.

So think no further, and pick from these gorgeous matha pattis that we have put together for you:

1. Zaveri Pearls Matha Patti

This gorgeous matha patti from Zaveri Pearls will instantly transform your ethnic looks. The exclusive design, with a side passa and a maang tikka that are connected through multiple pearl strands, is available for Rs 444. Shop here.

(Also read: 4 Kinds Of Jewellery You Need To Stock Up For This Festive Season)

^{Matha patti from Zaveri Pearls}

2. Voylla Gold Plated Matha Patti

This floral themed matha patti, embellished with pearls and kundan, is stunning but without being over the top. The contemporary design will team well with trendy ethnic wear. It is available for Rs 1,174. Shop here.

^{Matha patti from Voylla}

3. Trushi Gold Matha Patti

This multi-layered head jewellery from Trushi features a classic design that will go well with various festive looks. It is available for Rs 1, 225. Shop here.

^{Matha patti from Trushi}

Take your ethnic style game to a whole new level with these chic head jewellery.

[“source=cnbc”]

The post 3 Gorgeous Pieces Of Jewellery For Your Head For The Festive Season appeared first on Grobista.

Virgil Abloh’s debut catwalk show for Louis Vuitton was wonderfully diverse. Its first third was walked by black models, and featured a plethora of the artistic director’s musician industry friends. Abloh was keen to emphasise this eclecticism, and on guest’s seats a document holder – branded with ‘1’ in neon orange laminate – came complete with a world map highlighting the location of every model’s origin. Photography: Aylin Bayhan

[“source=TimeOFIndia”]

The post Signed, sealed, delivered: the greatest fashion week invitations of the S/S 2019 season appeared first on Grobista.

The day of the official release of Fear of God’s sixth collection, label founder Jerry Lorenzo stood thoughtfully in his downtown Los Angeles showroom gazing at the pieces he made, quickly pointing to boots and pants that he wanted his team to take to New York Fashion Week. The new collection, which will drop at retailers worldwide and online in December and early 2019, features 100 looks for men and women made up of denim pieces, oversize coats and the plaid Henley Lorenzo was wearing partnered with sweatpants from his more accessible Essentials line. Lorenzo has always viewed himself as the core customer for Fear of God, which he started in 2013 with a handful of hoodies and uniquely tailored T-shirts to fill what he saw were holes in the market.

“I kind of wanted to tell this story of, I guess, where I’ve been and kind of where I’m at now,” Lorenzo said of the sixth collection. “My personal style is kind of maturing a little bit, and there’s some pieces that I wanted to wear, so in order to do that, you’ve got to make them.”

Lorenzo’s inspirations from sports are evident in Fear of God’s new collection, which includes a pair of work pants ($1,295) with buttons on the side that look like tear-away pants used as basketball warm-ups. Each collection Lorenzo does has a story, and this one is the creator’s influences from living in the Midwest, working blue-collar jobs and believing in an eternal God.

Buyer Sara Merabet was shopping the showroom for RSVP Gallery that day and thought the message was clear. “You can definitely see the Americana and workwear inspiration and Jerry’s personal storytelling in this collection,” she said.

Lorenzo, 41, previously shied away from the title “designer” because his creative process focuses on an overall narrative and he was hesitant to put his name in the same arena as traditional designers. He is self-taught and derives his knowledge of fashion from years working in retail, not from internships at major fashion houses. He doesn’t sketch his looks, but conceptually modernizes vintage pieces.

In the sixth collection, among his favorite pieces are blue shorts ($495) inspired by a pair worn for physical training in the Army. The shorts were given the Fear of God treatment by being remastered in a Japanese nylon fabric. Another gem is the revival of prairie ghost camouflage. Lorenzo’s team stumbled upon the print while vintage shopping and thought it was perfect for the more rustic collection. The camouflage had been discontinued for about 10 years, and it took the team three to four months to track down the owner. Fear of God was granted the rights to the print and re-purposed it to fit the collection.

Turns out Lorenzo took the skill for re-purposing beyond clothing. He doesn’t do traditional runway shows and instead reveals his latest designs in a short-film format. For the soundtrack of the latest campaign visual, he got R&B duo Dvsn to perform a celestial rendition of Hillsong Worship’s “So Will I (100 Billion X).”

“The song is exactly what Fear of God is,” Lorenzo said. “We’re not a Christian brand, but if the wind is going where God says it’s going to go, then that’s what I’m going to do with my brand. If the rocks are going to praise him, then I’m going to praise him through what he’s given me.”

The visual features model Maggie Maurer and Academy Award-winning actor and rock star Jared Leto wandering an eerie gray desert while Lorenzo’s 8-year-old son, Jerry III, sits in a green treehouse and flips through the pages of a storybook, reacting to the scenes occurring in the other world. The main inspiration here is one of Lorenzo’s favorite movies, “The NeverEnding Story,” where a scene in the Swamp of Sadness draws the audience outside of time and space.

“I wanted that feeling around the collection,” Lorenzo said.

As a result, he aimed to create wardrobe staples that acknowledge the past but remain timeless.

Lorenzo has worked with filmmaker Lane Stewart on the campaign visuals since his third collection after they met through mutual friends.

“From the first project that we did together, I just remember him being kinda blown away that we were able to create such a clear representation of what he had envisioned,” Stewart recalled.

Part of the vision for the sixth campaign visual was the duality between Fear of God’s etherealness and its competitive nature. In the film, the screen mysteriously goes black and fades to show Lorenzo peering out of a truck on a dark swampy night. The beat drops to Drake’s hard-hitting “Nonstop,” a boastful track about playing to be the best, something Lorenzo fiercely relates to. He played sports through college, is a big fan of basketball legend Allen Iverson, and his father, Jerry Manuel, was a manager for Major League Baseball from the late 1990s through the early 2000s. Beyond that, Lorenzo’s faith motivates him.

“We’re trying to win and we’re trying to make the best product that we can with our resources, and we’re trying to put out the best ideas with what we can,” Lorenzo said.

Coordinated perfectly with a lyric about getting a sneaker deal without breaking a sweat, the camera then zooms to show Lorenzo’s foot stepping out of the truck and onto the dusty ground in a Fear of God high-top basketball sneaker, the first glimpse of a much-anticipated collaboration that has been nearly three years in the works. Lorenzo is hopeful he can help more Nike athletes win in a fresh shoe that challenged his brand to think about performance.

Fear of God’s sixth collection rollout came the same week that Nike revealed its ad applauding former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick for speaking up about social justice issues even when doing so cost him his job.

“I love it. I love it,” Lorenzo beamed at the thought of sharing the release week for his collection with Nike’s bold statement.

Lorenzo made a few pieces for Kaepernick to wear for his GQ “Citizen of the Year” feature last year. Fear of God has also worked with Justin Bieber, Kanye West and Jay-Z to make their tour merchandise and crafted Kendrick Lamar’s Bruce Lee-inspired tracksuit for the Damn. Tour. The list of the label’s celebrity clientele is lengthy and includes Janet Jackson, Michael B. Jordan, Big Sean, Ellen DeGeneres, Dave East and Lorenzo’s personal highlight, Beyoncé. Instead of chasing around influencers to work with, Lorenzo sees more value in letting the brand grow organically. And it’s hard to beat knowing Beyoncé wore your first collection thermals. Everything else, he said, is “the gas that you put back in the tank on some of these long days during the process.”

Part of the process that needs endurance is the ongoing battle for diversity in the fashion world. For Fear of God’s fifth collection, Lorenzo, a black designer and businessman, was conscious of the need for representation, understanding that his son should see people who look like him. Lorenzo admits he compromised part of the storyline then to make his son the priority but says there was no undermining the vision for the sixth collection. However, upon the campaign’s release, there were a few questions on social media about the lack of diversity with Leto and Maurer, who are white, as the face of the collection. Lorenzo had a simple reply, “I’m the representation.”

Stewart has been with Lorenzo as he has embraced his role as a black man in the fashion industry. “I’m really proud to have seen and witness his growth over the years,” he said. “I think from the beginning, he hesitated to call himself a designer, but I think it’s clear now that his ideas are so boundless that it makes sense that they’re coming together now so clearly.”

Lorenzo is continuing to break new ground by diverging from his early role as a leader in streetwear to establish Fear of God as a luxury brand. He prides himself on paying attention to details and explains that the hefty price tags of items come as a result of extensive research and perfecting every element.

“This is American luxury,” he said. “At the end of the day, that’s just what it is. We get beat up for it, but at the end of the day, you’ve got to pay for the perspective at some point. You have to pay for the idea, and we are comfortable with where our prices are.”

Fear of God is a completely independent brand. Lorenzo does not have investors. He operates outside of the traditional fashion calendar, releasing collections when they are finished. It was a year and a half between the fifth and sixth collections, and Lorenzo knows the influence Fear of God’s renegade spirit can have on consumers.

“I feel like if we wouldn’t have put this collection out, we could have easily just faded into the sunset, and kids would be over us,” he said. “They were already kinda not looking for us after a year and a half of us not putting a collection out; they were kinda onto the next. So you can either fight to stay on top of their radar, or you can fall back and trust and believe in your abilities and your craft and then come back with something worthy of being celebrated outside of the hype.”

After New York, Lorenzo went to Paris Fashion Week, headed to Italy to work on Fear of God footwear and then flew to Portland, Ore., to continue working with Nike. It’s a whirlwind ride, but in the midst of it all, Lorenzo carries himself with a quiet confidence that approval from people pales in comparison to the fear of God

[“source=metro.co.]

The post Fear of God designer Jerry Lorenzo’s new collection taps blue-collar jobs, God and his former Midwest life for inspiration appeared first on Grobista.

“They [Cambridge Analytica] looked at actual people. How they engaged with certain brands was put into a funnel and helped build the algorithms,” Wylie explained. “When you look at personality traits, music and fashion are the most informative [tools] for predicting someone’s personality.” A user’s predilection for a particular label gives, he said, a very clear indication of what reports often call “populist political signalling”.

Cambridge Analytica, which was shut down earlier this year following an investigation by the Observer, was the political marketing firm headed by Trump’s former key adviser, Steve Bannon, and owned by hedge-fund billionaire Robert Mercer. It also used user information obtained without authorisation in early 2014 – including cultural preferences such as fashion and music – to create a system that could single out voters in order to expose them to specific political advertising.

Prior to the company’s role on Trump’s election campaign, Wylie had been its director of research. Recalling his first meeting with Bannon, he explained how fashion was one of the many things they examined, along with “Judith Butler, Foucault and nature of our fractured self”. He said the pair discussed the difference between Crocs and Chanel’s little black dress as analogous for the fashion spectrum – which would become a blueprint for how the firm used fashion preferences later on.

[“source=forbes]

The post Christopher Wylie: ‘The fashion industry was crucial to the election of Donald Trump’ appeared first on Grobista.

JANUARY 7, 2019

The post All the Best Makeup of the 2019 Golden Globe Awards appeared first on Grobista.

Colourpop is already having a major 2019. The beloved affordable cosmetics brand just announced the launch of its first-ever mascara, BFF Mascara, and in addition to the gift of affordabley long, voluminous lashes, Colourpop is also keeping the magic alive with new She’s a Mystery Mystery Bags. Similar to Sephora and Tatcha’s mystery bags, Colourpop is getting in on the secretive action, packaging its version in a cute animal-print pouch.

Like any juicy secret, we aren’t able to reveal exactly what’s in each bag. What we do know is that Colourpop is selling $55 worth of product for $25. Since most of the brand’s products are in the single or low double digits, $55 worth of product is nothing to sneeze at.

Beauty Instagrammer Trendmood1 shared the news on her feed and commenters are already weighing in with guesses about what’s in each bag. “Let me guess, purple lipstick, a glittery highlighter, and those loose pigments no one talks about?” one wrote. Another threw in a teaser: “I got one you’ll have to come over and see what’s in it.”

As of now, the goodie bags are already sold out on colourpop.com, which just adds one more mystery to the mix: When will we see a restock?

[“source=allure”]

The post Colourpop Is Selling Mystery Bags Full of Makeup Right Now appeared first on Grobista.

On Wednesday 12 February 1947 at around 09:45, a queue of insanely glamorous people stood outside 30 Avenue Montaigne, Paris, shivering in temperatures below -5C.

Among them was the artist Jean Cocteau, the socialite Lady Diana Cooper and the editors of American Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar.

It was the coldest winter in a generation. They were freezing.

Meanwhile, inside the recently derequisitioned house, people were scurrying around adding the finishing touches to a radical new womenswear fashion collection.

Tensions were running high.

It was the launch of an haute couture label thought to have cost millions of francs.

At 09:59, a portly, middle aged man with a passing resemblance to Alfred Hitchcock walked between the countless flower arrangements installed throughout the house, calmly spraying the scent that Paul Vacher had created for him to set the tone of his eponymous business.

At 10:00 precisely, he instructed a member of his staff to open the front door.

The 42-year old host, whom the photographer Cecil Beaton described as “a bland country curate made out of pink marzipan”, welcomed each guest individually and invited them to relax before the presentation of his highly anticipated first collection.

Everything was arranged perfectly.

It had to be.

That was this particular man’s way: it was the mark of Christian Dior.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

You can find out what happened next at the V&A in London, which is presenting a retrospective of the Dior label’s subsequent 72 years among the international fashion elite.

It starts where the story stops at 30 Avenue Montaigne.

• Why Christian Dior loved Britain

Image copyrightDIOR HÉRITAGE COLLECTION

As you walk up to the imposing front door, your way is blocked by a black mannequin wearing the two-tone two-piece that defined both that inaugural 1947 show and Christian Dior.

The Bar Suit caused a sensation.

It was an extravagant, rebellious response to the grim austerity of post-war Europe. Instead of a dull boxy jacket and no-nonsense skirt that required minimal fabric or imagination to make, Dior presented a soft-shouldered, wasp-waisted silk jacket fanning out over the hips to reveal a long, dark blue pleated skirt, which took many metres of fabric to produce.

Image copyrightV&A

It was outrageously decadent in an era of rationing, but also fabulously exciting: a vision for the future that was colourful, opulent and beautiful.

The politicians hated it, as did some members of the public who notoriously spat at and attacked models wearing Dior. There was even an incident, famously captured by the photographer Walter Carone, where a young woman was set upon and stripped by two older ladies of the “make-do-and-mend” school who were appalled by what they perceived as her wanton wastefulness.

Image copyrightWALTER CARONE

The fashionistas saw things differently. They absolutely loved what was immediately known as the New Look.

Christian Dior had arrived.

Why his work had such an immediate impact is obvious when you step over the threshold and into the first gallery. The designs he produced and the fabrics he used were the epitome of old-school glamour, with elegant lines – or silhouettes – cut from luxurious materials. They are a wonder to behold, at least on the outside.

I imagine the whalebone corsets and under-wired structures needed to retain the shape felt neither elegant nor luxurious. Still, Il faut souffrir pour être belle, as they say.

Image copyrightCHRISTIAN DIOR VIA V&A

Princess Margaret commissioned the Frenchman to make her 21st birthday dress; here – at last – was a designer producing clothes for modern young women, not rich old ladies.

The gown he produced for Margaret is displayed beside Beaton’s famous photograph of the princess modelling it, behind which is a double-decker display case of the dresses Dior made for other members of Britain’s next-gen high society.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

When you enter the third gallery, everything changes… for a reason. Christian Dior is dead.

A decade after that cold February morning in 1947, the designer, who had by now become a household name, suffered a fatal heart attack in Italy.

There was talk of closing the business, but Dior had a 21-year-old assistant who was showing some promise, so the board decided to give him a go.

Yves Saint Laurent didn’t let them down.

You can see his Dior design classics mixed with those produced by the five creative directors who followed him, including pieces of Baroque ebullience by John Galliano. They all have their own idiosyncratic style, but there is a “Diorness” that unites them, which is most apparent in the display of their re-imagined Bar Suits.

Image copyrightV&A

Image copyrightV&A

Themes rather than chronology take you through the rest of the exhibition.

There are galleries dedicated to historicism, the garden, the ateliers and, finally, a glitzy ballroom featuring animated glitter erupting across the ceiling and down the walls. The effect is only marginally compromised by non-slip rubber matting underfoot rather than a sprung wooden floor polished for dancing.

Christian Dior wasn’t known for skimping on costs, and nor has the V&A.

The museum created a rod for its own back with its blockbuster Alexander McQueen show in 2012. It changed visitor expectations forever. A couple of display cases of some nice dresses won’t cut the mustard nowadays – punters want a theatrical experience to remember and post on Instagram.

And curator Oriole Cullen has delivered just that. This is a fantastic show that builds from a modest scrapbook of family photos at the beginning to a climatic end with over 70-years of creative excellence displayed in the round.

It is an unashamed celebration of Christian Dior’s joie de vivre.

Image copyrightADRIEN DIRAND

This is by far the most successful exhibition to be held in the museum’s recently-opened subterranean gallery. It is a space that would make a decent parking lot, but is a fiendishly difficult place to programme. To give visitors any sense of a narrative flow requires the construction of an inner world that costs, I am told, an eye-watering amount of money.

Still, the Kensington institution is expecting a lot of people to come and see the show over the next six months, and so – in the spirit of Christian Dior – it has chosen to invest heavily in Nathalie Crinière’s exhibition design.

Notwithstanding a hairpin bend in the third gallery, she and her team have pulled it off with aplomb and presented an environment that I suspect Christian Dior would not only recognise, but would wander through merrily spraying his Miss Dior perfume.

[“source=bbc”]

The post Will Gompertz reviews Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams at the V&A appeared first on Grobista.

Representative image

The post Burglars drill hole in wall of jewellery shop, decamp with ornaments appeared first on Grobista.

A gang of at least 10 thieves, armed with rods and other equipment, broke into two jewellery shops in central Delhi’s Anand Parbat early Tuesday, around 4am, and made away with jewellery estimated to be worth around Rs 16 lakh.

While the owner of one of the shops claimed that it was a gang of 13, Hindustan Times reporter was able to make out at least 10 purported suspects in the multiple CCTV footages shared by the jewellers with the media.

The suspects were seen walking away in small groups, carrying large sacks on their shoulders.

The police remained mum on the count of suspects, the crime and the probe underway, but an investigator said the suspects are yet to be identified.

“A case under sections 457 (house trespassing) and 380 (theft in dwellings) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered at Anand Parbat police station,” the officer said.

Ashok Kumar Soni, owner of one of the targeted shops, said that he learnt of the crime on Tuesday morning after a local security guard told him that the shutters of the two jewellery shops in the Baba Faridpuri neighbourhood were damaged.

“Our shops are located next to each other. Both shutters were found broken and the showcases and cupboards ransacked,” Soni said.

“All the jewellery items were stolen. I lost jewellery items worth Rs 12 lakh. The other jeweller lost around Rs 4 lakh worth of jewellery,” he added.

When they checked the CCTV footage from inside the shop as well as the outside cameras, they were shocked by the “audacity” of the thieves.

“They had come prepared. They knew exactly which shops to target. My shop has very strong shutters, but the thieves were able to break it open in about seven minutes,” Soni said.

Most of the suspects appeared to have masked themselves with a cloth or anti-pollution masks. However, there were at least two suspects who were unmasked. They seemed aware of the presence of CCTV cameras.

“One of the thieves had also brought along a catapult that he used, without much success, to break a CCTV camera,” Soni said.

Inside the shops, the suspects were seen hurriedly dumping jewellery into sacks.

In one footage, some of the suspects can be seen carrying these sacks over the shoulders while were leaving the neighbourhood.

[“source=hindustantimes”]

The post Gang of thieves strikes two jewellery shops in central Delhi, walk away with items worth Rs 16 lakh appeared first on Grobista.

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The Salon Marketplace team writes about stuff we think you’ll like. Salon has affiliate partnerships, so we may get a share of the revenue from your purchase.

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Confession: I’m horrible when it comes to time management. If you tell me to be somewhere by 7 P.M., I’ll likely show up around 7:20 P.M. instead. Blame it on laziness or blatant disregard for the construct of time (or both), but I’ve mastered the art of doing my makeup in five minutes (or less!). My five-minute face consists of just a few essentials that help me look natural yet polished—which is secretly my favorite makeup look, anyway. Keep reading for my routine for a quick five-minute face:

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Ulta

1

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Nordstrom

2

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Target

3

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Ulta

4

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The final season of Game of Thrones is coming, leaving many fans in mourning. But with the last episodes airing in April, beauty brands are keeping the seven kingdoms alive by launching GoT-inspired products. For makeup lovers who want to rule like Khaleesi, Urban Decay launched a Game of Thrones-inspired makeup line, and the entire collection brings fans the fire and the ice.

The creators behind the popular HBO show and the makers of the original Naked Palette announced they were collaborating in a new collection in February 2019. Makeup lovers will find shades in this collection where they can go stark mad with reds like a Targaryen king or embrace their inner icy white walker with cool tones.

According to a press release, the entire collection is inspired by the seven kingdoms and the women of Westeros. Fans can buy a 3D pop-up eyeshadow palette with 20 slay-worthy shades, a highlight palette, 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencils, Vice Lipsticks, a lip and cheek tint, and brushes to battle a sickening face beat.

The collection is officially available to snag on April 19 on Urban Decay’s websiteand will roll out to all other retailers by May 2 on sephora.com, ulta.com, and macys.com. Plus, the line will be available to try and buy at Sephora, Ulta Beauty, and select Macy’s stores.

There’s a kingdom for everyone in this launch, so here’s what’s in the collection for the beauty lovers of Westeros.

Game of Thrones Eyeshadow Palette

Fans can follow the House of Stark, Targaryen, Lannister, or even the night king himself in this palette. Each set of shades represents each house and reflects different tones with each color. Allies of House of Stark will find smoky mattes and neutral shimmers, House Targaryen-inspired shades feature jewel-tone shimmers, the House of Lannister show regal metallic mattes and sinister shimmers, and the white walker shades include cool, icy shimmers, of course.

Game of Thrones Mother of Dragons Highlight Palette

The dragon egg-imprint in these killer highlighters represent Khaleesi’s babies. These new glow-induced shades of Urban Decay’s Afterglow Highlighter honor the Mother of Dragons and her children in the shades Drogon, a frosted pink, Viserion, a metallic golden nude, and Rhaegal, a metallic bronze.

Game of Thrones Dracarys Lip & Cheek Stain

The only universal color in this collection is the Dracarys Lip & Cheek stain that’s inspired by the High Valyrian command for “dragonfire”. For a light color to bring your face to life, it’s recommended to apply one to two drops onto the fingertips and blend away.

Game of Thrones 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil

There are four shades in the 24/7 eye Pencils in Dragon Smoke, a smoky gray metallic shade, Lannister Gold, an icy gold, Winterfell Snow, an iridescent blue shade, and The Night King, a shimmery dark turquoise.

Game of Thrones Vice Lipsticks

The bullet lipsticks designed for makeup fans of the seven kingdoms can set off a killer look. The four shades — Cersei Lannister, a bright metallic bronze, Daenerys Targaryen, a fiery metallic red, Sansa Stark, a warm peach nude, and White Walker, a deep berry-wine — are made of a creamy soft formula that gives every shade a high color payoff.

Game of Thrones Large Eyeshadow Brush

Slay a cut crease with Jon Snow’s Longclaw sword, in the shape of a large eyeshadow brush, of course. Perfect for blending out shadows and laying down pigments, this brush works just as hard as Valyrian steel.

Game of Thrones Flat Eyeshadow Brush

Small with a big impact, this flat eyeshadow brush is inspired Arya Stark’s needle sword. Used for more precise eyeshadow artistry, this brush creates all the details for a killer eye look.

Regardless of which house you rep, there’s a battle to be won, so go out winning in style. Besides, it’s all for the throne from here.

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They used to be carried by the slightly awkward-looking kids in the school playground or hikers and were much more likely to be sported by men than women. But now, go to any high street, office or packed rush-hour bus and the humble backpack is everywhere.

Fashion searches for rucksacks are up 37% month-on-month, according to global fashion search platform Lyst. In the UK the annual amount spent on backpacks has risen every year since 2014 when, according to global market research company Euromonitor, the retail spend was £112m – it forecasts the 2019 figure will be £219.5m.

“There has been an enormous change in attitudes towards day packs,” says Ralph White, UK managing director of the Swedish rucksack brand Fjällräven.

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According to Domitille Parent, product director at Eastpak, a brand that has been making rucksacks for over 40 years, an increasing number of backpack buyers are women: nearly 60% of online sales in the UK are made by women, and that number has been rising year-on-year. In the US, according to the market research firm NPD, sales of what they label women’s backpacks are up by 28% in the past year – with New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco the top three growth regions – while sales of men’s backpacks are down.

Of course, it should be no surprise that women are using a style of bag that is practical and – increasingly – stylish, too. But it has taken something of a shift in attitudes for the backpack to find mainstream traction in workplaces – and gender parity. As with many things, Miuccia Prada was a pioneer: when she released a nylon rucksack, made from military parachute fabric, in 1984, it was considered radical. All the other bags around were, she said in a recent interview with Vogue magazine, “so formal, so lady, so traditional”.

In the past, style blogger and backpack-wearer Susie Lau, aka Susie Bubble, has cited the Phoebe Philo effect. As former designer at Celine, Philo led the charge for what many brand “ugly” fashion, from Birkenstocks and clogs to backpacks.

Skipping forward to 2016, Burberry’s monogrammed backpacks were the elevated version that convinced the likes of Cara Delevingne to embrace the look. At the Tribeca film festival last year Sarah Jessica Parker, the woman to thank for sparking many an impractical tiny handbag trend, was spotted wearing a rucksack on the red carpet. On the Prada men’s AW19 catwalk they were worn by Gigi Hadid and Kaia Gerber, and Chanel’s 2020 Cruise show featured a tweed backpack.

With many high-fashion brands, from Gucci to Coach, making rucksacks; the mid range of the market seeing a proliferation of more sophisticated designs – from the likes of Herschel to Dr Martens – and more than 400 styles offered on Asos, backpacks have come a long way from the days of Power Rangers or My Little Pony bags.

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The rucksack’s fashion credentials have been bolstered by the rise of gorpcore – a neologism coined in 2017 from the acronym “gorp”, which stands for “granola, oats, raisins, peanuts”, aka trail mix, and encompasses all manner of camping attire. The ongoing popularity of luxury sportswear has helped make rucksacks less back-of-the-bus and more chia seeds and balasana. With the rise of the urban hiker look last year, the field trip look went high-fashion. “The outdoors as a whole has definitely got more fashionable,” says White. Plus it’s come into cities.

With some of the most popular brands hailing from Sweden, they play into our era’s love of all things Scandi. As White explains: “There has definitely been a rise in the popularity of Scandinavian culture – from hygge to fika. Fjällräven takes a very Scandinavian approach to its product design.” Its now-iconic Kånken, was introduced as a bag for Swedish children in 1978.

The sheer practicality of the rucksack is a plus point, too. Backpacks are “easy to wear, hands-free, fuss-free and comfy,” says Georgie Tym, a lecturer at Cordwainers, the shoes and accessories brand of London College of Fashion. Function appears to be winning over any lingering competition from archaic, gendered double standards. If Danielle Drake, PR manager at Sandqvist, a high-end Swedish bag brand, is to be believed, the backpack is to bags what flats are to high heels. “The past pressure of having to cram all of your gear into a shoulder bag just for the sake of dated perceptions on women’s workplace attire has no place in today’s world.”

[“source=theguardian”]

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