Kathleen Hou @kathleenhou - Tumblr Blog

Spring 2014 Fashion Show Reviews

My most recent batch of fashion show reviews for Fashionista.com, including the Mark McNairy one, of which I'm particularly proud:

- Jenny Packham

- Mathieu Mirano

- Libertine

- Pamella Roland

- Mark McNairy

- Carlos Campos

- Chadwick Bell

- Adeam

- Sally LaPointe

#Fashionista.com #fashion

Decades’s Cameron Silver on Which Designers to Invest in Now, and How Chinese Shoppers are Changing Vintage

Is there a better chronicler of fashion history and all-around-beloved fashion personality than Cameron Silver? As the new star of Bravo’s Dukes of Melrose, Silver, the man most credited with making it cool to wear old clothes and co-owner of Los Angeles vintage emporium Decades, now has the adulation of a nationwide and global audience.

At a Vidal Sassoon Pro Series event last week, Silver exhibited his usual charm as we talked about vintage history, how more informed consumers have affected his business, and which modern designers he sees as having vintage appeal.

Fashionista: How does the supply and demand for vintage change in relation to the economy? [full story at Fashionista.com]

#Interviews #fashion

Inside the Beauty Sample Trading Black Market

Never going to use that umpteenth BB cream sample you have cluttering up your medicine cabinet? Well, you can now get rid of it, because a unique trading market has developed thanks to the ubiquity ofbeauty sample box programs.

Makeup forums like MakeUpTalk have pages-long discussions (we’re talking multiple, continuing threads with over 430 posts), where users document their “trade” lists, divided up into “Have” and “Want” items. Many individual users’ trade listings receive upwards of 1,000 views. One of the largest Facebook groups dedicated to swapping, Beauty Box Swaps, has over 2,000 worldwide members and counting.

The reasons people engage in beauty sampling trading extend beyond, “Well, I got a sample I didn’t like and don’t know what to do with it.” Sometimes, as Lucy Brown, the Administrator of Beauty Box Swaps details, it’s a matter of preference and wanting a different shade/variation from what you received.

For some users, trading’s become a necessary complement to enjoying the beauty discovery experience. “Trading has COMPLETELY transformed how I’ve thought about these monthly boxes,” Meagan Senesac, a Fashionista reader, told us. “I have hated certain items in boxes and had no idea what to do with them. Now, I really don’t care what I get in a box because I know I can probably trade it with someone.”

[full story at Fashionista.com]

#beauty #technology #features

Q&A: Behind the Seams: Inside China’s Declining Apparel Production

With news of quiet factory closures in former manufacturing hotspots like Guangzhou, retailers and economists are concerned that China’s former production prowess is over. Which countries are reaping the benefit of China’s production decline?

Mitchell Weber is the Vice President of Sales at Herman Kay, since August 2011. Previously, Mr. Weber was Executive Vice President of Sales and Sourcing at Rewire Clothing Company, from August 2010-August 2011. Weber has 13 years of experience with sourcing, design, pricing, and product development for major specialty retailers, department stores, discounters and wholesalers. His extensive customer base of over 100 retailers and 20 importers in the US, Europe and Asia includes companies such as Wal-Mart, Abercrombie & Fitch, H&M, JC Penney, Target, and the Gap.

How did China go from becoming a manufacturing powerhouse to where it is now?

China [was] the perfect storm. They had the best technology, the best infrastructure [and] a supposedly vast, skilled workforce that could never be tapped [out]. Freight on board (FOB) prices, because of the monthly wage and cost base, were quite low. All the fabrics and trims were there, so everything was local. The shipping and the transport, as far as timeframe and cost factor, were also great.

In 2008 and 2009, [in] the deep throes of the recession, a ton of factories closed--in apparel, probably about a third. They just couldn't survive.

Then the demand started to increase again. Raw material cost started to go up, cotton being the basic one. The workers started to protest and wages went up considerably. [in 2009] a monthly worker's wage was maybe around $89 a month. It's now at about $279 to $289. It's projected to go up another 68% this year, and it's projected to double over the next five years.

Meanwhile, the apparel industry is something [China] doesn't want to be involved in. It's labor-intensive [with] very low profit margins. They'd rather be making flip switches. China basically decided, "That's it. We're not giving anybody better pricing. That's it. These are the prices." It was as if every maker in China held hands and said, "Do not budge. Do not change." This started in first quarter of 2010 when, all of a sudden, we started to see these increases in prices, delivery slides, lack of capacity, and all the makers not budging.

Did skyrocketing commodity prices give the manufacturers new leverage?

A lot of it was due to the increase in cotton, but it wasn't just cotton. [If] you wanted to make a synthetic garment, [the cost to produce went] up massively. And you'd say, "Well, why?" There's not much of a cost increase on the raw materials in synthetic.

The only differential was that the workers' cost base went up. But the increase percentage-wise [on synthetics] was a lot greater than the increase in wages. I had orders [in for] 2010 and even 2011, and the makers came back and asked me for price increases after the prices had been agreed upon. Never happened in my 14 years of doing business.

To add insult to injury, the fabric mills [started] asking for another 45 days [to deliver]. They can't get the fabric, it's being delayed, so we need to ask for another month-and-half extension. When this started to happen, people had to sit back and say, "Wow, is this a short-term situation, or is this something that's going to be long term?" People then started to look at all aspects of the supply chain and say, "Well, what can we do to either fix it temporarily or for the long term? What do we have to do?"

The main factors that caused all the increases were raw materials, workers' wages and transportation. Transportation costs represent anywhere from 7% to 12% of a garment, depending on the nature of the garment and the region of the world that it's shipped from. Back in 2006 [in China], a 20-foot container roughly was around $3,000 [to ship]. A 20-foot container today is $9,500, a huge increase.

Are you advising companies to get out of China?

People are looking for alternatives. Is China going to go away? No. They're too big. But people there are also looking at other apparel- producing infrastructures. Everybody is subject to the rise in raw materials. Everybody's subject to the transportation rise. But in places like Bangladesh or Vietnam or Pakistan, you're looking at a lot lower cost base because of the workers' wages there. In Bangladesh, the [wages] could be $89 to $99 a month, a large differential versus China.

Which countries are benefiting most from the production shift out of China?

For me, a large shift has been to a couple of places. Vietnam has a good infrastructure. It's not China's infrastructure, but it's a lot better than a lot of other countries. Bangladesh is critical right now because Bangladesh is probably the lowest-cost base wage in the world. Their garment center is quite large considering the [size of the] whole country, and it's a growing part of their industry.

Other countries are Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India, and some African nations due to their duty-free status. Some people have also migrated a lot into Mexico. Mexico is known for their denim and T-shirts. What's good about Mexico is its proximity to the United States, but the worker cost-based wage there is twice as much as China and the workforce there is 44 million people. China's is 20 times that.

If producers switch to lower-cost nations, what new production considerations do they have to take into account?

Each country cannot make every type of product, where China can make everything. You can't go to Bangladesh and make a seam- sealed, breathable, waterproof technical jacket; they don't have the capacity to do that. China does. Also, other countries will not take orders of 800 pieces and 1,000 pieces. China does. Still, to this day, most footwear and sneakers are still produced in China.

Even when you move production to other regions, you still have to get your fabric. The majority of the fabric is in China. So you now have another factor when you have to ship in the fabric. Makers [are] going to charge more, because [they] have to pay for the freight. Then there is also a time differential.

What will remain in China?

Luxury items will stay in China for a couple of reasons. A lot of these other countries can't make them. And luxury items have price insulation if costs increase. If somebody's going to be spending $900 for a jacket, if the jacket goes up to $959, they're not going to balk. The person who is paying $5 for a pair of boxer shorts and the boxer shorts are $7.99, they're going to balk.

[China is] too big to fail, but things will change over time. As people start leaving China, capacities will open up a little bit. Once capacities open up, prices from the makers will come down on the [cut, make and trim prices], and will make it a little bit more competitive.

How is China playing defense?

China is funding and opening factories in other parts of the world, [such as] South Africa. Somebody like myself is very happy about that because, if the Chinese are opening up a factory there, I know that their workers know how to do the product. They don't have to be trained.

Even so, I see a huge shift with people taking a certain percentage of their production and moving it out of China. [They're] doing it slowly with certain type of items, but moving out of China because it's getting cost-prohibitive to make certain types of goods there. For Spring of 2011, my costs were up in my [sourcing] business anywhere from 7% to 15%; for Fall of 2011, my costs were up anywhere from 14% or 15% to 28%.

#Interviews #Business #features

Jane Pratt on Her New Beauty-Only Site and Cat Marnell’s Imminent Return to xoJane

Jane Pratt, xoJane‘s Editor-in-Chief (and of course the founding editor of Sassy andJane) has launched xoVain, a new site devoted exclusively to beauty. Tagline: “No beauty secrets.”

Unlike most existing beauty content which is contextualized around products or events–Fashion Week! Summertime! First Dates!–Pratt’s site ties beauty to the personalities of its seven contributors.

As Pratt introduced the contributors or “characters” (as she slipped up and called them) to press this morning, you get the sense that her contributors are as well cast as a boy band. There’s someone here for everyone. There’s Allegra, the glamorous one, who is dating a member of the cast of Mad Men. Marci is the xoVain Beauty Director and “nerd.” There’s Annie K, who Pratt described as the “wild child.” Hannah, who was introduced to Pratt by Tavi Gevinson, serves up retro-glam and Clara Bow makeup tutorials. There’s even a set of twins! It’s a full beauty funhouse, but instead of a bearded lady, there is a shoppable post about how to date a foot fetishist despite having gross, cruddy toenails, and a MakeUnder featuring Snooki. [full story at Fashionista.com]

#beauty #Interviews #janepratt #features

From It Girl to Tech Entrepreneur: Get the Scoop on Hannah Bronfman’s New Beauty App

DJ, model, actress, music label owner, restaurateur, and It girl Hannah Bronfman has a new slash. And it’s not the slash of midriff she exhibited in a very cute twin set crop top at Organic by John Patrick’s show two weeks ago, where she also served as the designer’s unofficial muse.

Acting on the entrepreneurial ambition she first displayed in a 2011 profile for WWD’s The Eye, Bronfman, along with two other partners, has launched an app called Beautified, which allows users to easily search spas and salons for last minute appointments in their area. We interviewed her after the show to find out about how her new app is helping runway beauty legends like Oscar Blandi and Serge Normant. [full story at Fashionista.com[

#beauty #technology #interviews

Six Weird Asian Beauty Products That Just Might Change Your Life

All cultures have them: strange beauty products that make you go huh and hmm? Let’s admit that Snooki’s “candy and driftwood” scent (is driftwood an attempt to infuse the Jersey Shore?) and Paris Hilton’s 16 (yea, 16, check it) fragrance launchescause some befuddlement abroad. And accept that all of us (the American us), have enabled a trio of humble, non-publicity seeking reality show starring sisters whose last name rhymes with ‘Schmardashian,’ to build a $65 million lifestyle brand.

Thinking about that might make some of the strange (and effective) Asian beauty productsI’ve encountered on my travels, appear downright normal by comparison. Click through to judge for yourself: [full story at Fashionista.com]

#beauty

Q&A: Eugene Fama on Taking "Too Big to Fail" Off the Table

The University of Chicago Economics professor and "Father of Modern Finance," Eugene Fama, on his solution for taking on the threat of megabanks. Plus: The problems with complicated regulation.

"Regulation always fails. It isn't because it isn't well thought out, but because the implementation always falls short of the promise."

The University of Chicago Economics professor and "Father of Modern Finance," Eugene Fama is strongly identified with research on markets, particularly with regard to the efficient market hypothesis. Fama was the first recipient of three major prizes for research in Finance; the Deutsche Bank Prize in Financial Economics, in 2005, the Morgan Stanley American Finance Association Award for Excellence in France, 2007, and the Onassis Prize in Finance, 2009.

What is the primary concern with "too big to fail"?

The primary concern is the distortion of the whole financial system. If some firms are too big to fail and the market perceives that their debt is riskless, then they are going to issue a lot of debt and end up being very risky. It is distortion of markets and incentives for the banks.

Is the size of the banks the problem?

Size is probably the first thing, and the most relevant, but how big is too big to fail depends a lot on the current perceptions of the regulators and the government.

You've been quoted suggested a raising of bank capital measures to fix the "too big to fail" problem. What effect would that have?

If you raise the equity capital requirements of banks high enough, they won't fail. You take "too big to fail" off the table. Other forms of regulation are not likely to do that, because regulation always fails. It isn't necessarily because it isn't well thought out, but because the implementation always falls short of the promise.

Why is that?

My longtime colleague, George Stigler, made his fame by pointing out that eventually regulation gets captured by the regulated and it's turned into their interests rather than the interests of the public. The government entities that do the regulating can only hire people that are willing to take government wages. They are in a disadvantaged position relative to the much better-paid people they are supposedly regulation.

Regulators eventually act on behalf of those they're regulating. One example is the now defunct regulation if airlines, where the regulators ended up fixing prices at very high levels. The end result was that the airlines and their employees were much better off and the public was worse off.

More complicated regulation requires more skills on the part of the regulators. If you push them too hard, they may not have sufficient skill. The problem may be asking too much o them, relative to the resources you can devote to it. If you simply raise capital requirements for the banks, you don't need much additional regulation. Who cares what they're doing if they're not going to fail? The big problem comes if they fail and we must bail them out to avoid a collapse of the financial system.

Do you think there would be any benefit to revising the Dodd-Frank legislation, as some economists have proposed?

From what I hear, it's a daunting task because the bill is complicated. But most importantly, it doesn't take "too big to fail" off the table. If capital requirements were raised, you wouldn't need such a complicated piece of regulation.

How high should capital requirements be?

A simple way to approach it would be to say, 'How much would they need to have survived the recent crisis without a government bailout?'That level would be a good requirement in my eyes, plus 5% for a cushion. Basically, any regulation has to be as simple as possible.

What are your thoughts on changing the incentive system for banks?

Their incentive is to maximize value. I don't have any problem with that. But if you do something that makes it cheap for them to raise capital, then you are messing up the incentives of the whole financial sector, because now they have advantage relative to other banks not judged to be too big to fail.

The incentives of management are really something for the stockholders and bondholders to worry about. If you took "too big to fail" off the table, incentives are not something the government should be worried about. Does the government worry about the incentives of Microsoft or any other company? It becomes of concern to the government when they have to pick up the pieces that are caused by poor incentive schemes and subsequent failures.

Some economists, such as Joseph Stiglitz, suggest that the current bank system causes flawed incentives and encourages excessive risk taking and short-sighted behavior.

I think a lot of the companies have addressed incentive problems by making compensation more deferred with things like restricted stock that must be held for five years or spreading out bonuses over several year. In an effective system, companies themselves respond to incentive problems, because if there are problems, the ultimate effect is to lower the value of the company.

How significant a deterrent is bank lobbying power in getting "too big to fail" legislation passed?

It's a significant factor in everything that happens to bank, because they lobby hard for what they perceive to be in their interests. It's not in their interests to give up too big to fail, because it's lowering their cost of capital.

Raising capital requirements won't be so easy to implement. But at least it's much simpler than the alternatives.

#Business

Atmosphere: Backstage, amid the madness at Anna Sui. Cara DeLevigne and Karlie Kloss goofing off and bonding in mutual adoration. Aaron Henrikson, a makeup artist on Pat McGrath's team, working carefully on the graphic cateye inspired by New Wave French cinema, on one of my favorites, Fei Fei Sun.

Pictures taken by me.

#fashion

Critics Take Note: Michelle Rhee Can Admit Her Mistakes

A year removed from her former role as D.C's Chancellor of Public Schools, Michelle Rhee looks back on what she would have done differently and looks forward on how to create sustainable change in education reform.

"I thought, 'Oh I'll just put my nose to the grindstone, produce results, and people will be happy.' That was definitely not the case."

Some believe trying to tackle education with a business mindset can't work. Do you believe that a corporate model can be used to reform the public sector?

It's interesting because people accuse me of trying to bring a corporate model to the public sector. I always pushed back on that. What I feel like we are trying to do is to push a results-oriented culture shift.

The best organizations, regardless of being for-profit organizations or non-profit government entities, operate according to the same principles. One of the things equated to the corporate mentality is knowing what your bottom line is. In education, our bottom line has to be about student achievement and everything needs to be driven off of that. It's less about corporate culture, but about bringing an effective organizational culture into the pubic school district realm which notoriously has not been as effective.

One of the criticism of applying the business mindset to education reform is that it makes teacher feel like commodities, where education is really about dealing with people. How do you respond to your critics about that?

I don't think the problem so much is that teachers feel like commodities. The mindset that has permeated public education for a long time is that all teachers are equal. We can't treat teachers like widgets. The thought was, "We can take one out of the classroom and put another one in and it [won't] matter." That's actually not the case. If you look at the research and ask any parent out there, there's a lot of difference between teachers. [Having a] really effective great teacher versus ineffective makes every bit of difference in our children.

The idea that we would differentiate among teacher is very different from anything public education has done before. Because [it's] such a drastic change, people feel scared and sometimes sensitive about it. [But], there is no one more intolerant of an ineffective teacher than an effective one. Some of our biggest supporters are effective teachers who are saying, "I"ve been in the system for 20 years. It does not behoove the profession, student, or schools. It's not doing good things for kids to allow colleagues who are not doing good things for kids to remain in the classroom." There's a growing kind of understanding and sentiment around that and a willingness to want to tackle the challenge.

Your critics often focused on your style, calling it antagonistic or aggressive. Is either approach conducive to long-term change?

The bottom line is, I don't know. The mindset [Mayor Adrian] Fenty and I took when we started this job is that we've seen smart, hardworking people that tried to take the slower, collaborative approach to things, [but[ the botton line is that it hadn't produced the results we wanted. We thought, "We are going to take a different path. We're going to go much more aggressively, we're going to be quicker, faster and see how that goes. If we're not successful, then at least people can learn lessons from what we did."

What we were able to show in D.C is very dramatic results in a short period of time. From 2007-2009, D.C went from being the lowest in the New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP) to leading the nation in gains in both reading and math. It was the only jurisdiction in every single subgroup that improved their academic standing.

Lots of people have said, "If you had gone a little slower, you would have been able to sustain the change." I'm not sure that's accurate. We've seen people go slower and they haven't seen the dramatic impact. We certainly didn't get it exactly right, but now people have a benchmark that if you go really aggressively, here's the payoff.

StudentsFirst claims 15% of its supporters are teachers Why do you think there aren't more? Why do you think teacher are hesitant to get on board with your reform?

We recently brought on board George Parker, who was the former Washington Teachers' Union President. [He told us], "Teachers are people who are very concerned about fairness and transparency " Take, for example, seniority based layoffs The majority [of teachers] think that seniority is not the right way to do layoffs. What people take comfort in is that it's very cut and dried. it doesn't matter if your principal likes you or not, it doesn't matter if you've had a disagreement with your assistant principal or not. Whether you think it's a good idea or not, you know the way it's going to be conducted. Our biggest challenge in moving to a different system is, if you're not going to do seniority-based layoffs and don't articulate what you are going to do, then the uncertainty is worse. The kind of people who are fighting for the status quo, they'll use that uncertainty. Those kinds of insecurities can creep in unless we say, "No, this is how we're going to do it."

What George agrees with, is that [there are] 20% of the teachers who are very wed to the old ways of doing things. We're not going to bring them along. There are 20% [who are] very reform-minded and gung-ho. [Then] there's this large swing group of 60% in the middle, they're good people, and they're working hard. But they're going to be anxious about the change until you convince them and show them it's going to be a fair process.

Why do you think so many teachers are against abolishing tenure? Logic would dicate that, if teachers are doing their jobs well, they wouldn't be concerned about needing tenure protection.

We know there are some ineffective principals. No one wants to be subject to the decisions of people who don't do their jobs well. [But], people are overstating how teachers feel about this. In D.C, the contract we passed when I was the Chancellor got rid of tenure, seniority and lockstep pay. when they finally allowed us to take it to a vote among the rank and file, it passed 80% to 20%. Eighty percent of the teachers were willing to give up the seniority protections in exchange for a system that recognized the best and would allow them to be supported in more robust ways. I think that would surprise people to know that it's such a large percentage of teachers who are actually in board with these ideas.

It's been noted that you are not a supporter of the school board system. Why do you believe school boards are an impediment to reform?

I don't think decisions about policies that impact children can be determined through a political board. I use to tak to my colleagues who reported to board as sopposed to the mayoral control structure we had. They would tell me [they could] spend 60-70% of their time trying to manage their board. I thought, "When I want to implement a policy, I would just go to Fenty." It was as efficient as you [could be.] Even with that level of efficiency and alignment, it was still incredibly hard work. If you added that into spending 70% of your time to jockey five votes? It would slow the level of progress immensely.

School boards are also not people, quite frankly, who knows about education policy. They are often using the school board as a stepping stone to get tot he next office. It's sometimes a problematic dynamic when it's not educators driving the education reform agenda. School board structure can work in some environments. In the D.C area, we've got Fairfax and Montgomery Countries [working well.] [But], when you're talking about being in a district that needs a massive overhaul, in short order/ That's a very difficult proposition for a school board.

Looking back now, is there anything you would have done differently during your tenure in D.C?

I was far from perfect but all the mistakes that I and we as an organization and management team made, we learned from. I feel like, if we had to do it all over again, we would have a different kind of strategy in communication. I think I was very naive when I took the job on. I thought, "Oh I'll just put my nose to the grindstone, produce results, and people will be happy." That was definitely not the case. People cared about how it was getting done and how it was getting communicated. I sort of said, "Well, we're a school district. We don't need a public relations machine and operation." We really did. We underestimated the level fo scrutiny we would have. We underestimated the power of media and pres in that. We didn't do our part to bend the messages and shape the story we should have. We really fell down on that.

#interviews #Business #features

Backstage Beauty Briefs from NYFW Fall 2013

I battled the blow dryers, blizzards, and being elbow-checked by security and photographers to bring you these backstage beauty briefs for Fashionista.com:

- Alexander Wang, Prabal Gurung, and More

- Jason Wu, Rag and Bone, and More

- Proenza Schouler, Marchesa, and More

- Rodarte, Oscar de la Renta and More

- Victoria Beckham, Zac Posen, and More

#beauty #fashion

Gabby Douglas on Nail Art, Her Olympic Hair Controversy, and That Time She Met Ben Affleck

Her four inch Louboutins prevented her from doing any tumbling passes down the runway, but Gabby Douglas still drew the biggest cheers at last night’s Heart Truth Red Dress runway show.

I spied Douglas’s megawatt smile in the backstage pre-show chaos and grabbed a few minutes with her while she getting her nails painted. Punctuating her speech with “Oh my gosh”-es and excited giggles, she told me her thoughts on nail art, Ben Affleck, and dismissing that whole Olympics hair controversy once and for all.

Fashionista: So we hear you are starring in a new ad for OPI. Tell us about that, are you excited? [full story at Fashionista.com]

#Interviews #beauty

The Best Ways to Treat Yo’self This Valentine’s Day

You’ve successfully dodged the throngs of street style baiters and paparazzi, have eaten nothing but Fiber One bars and American Express trail mix for the past seven days, haveVine-induced vertigo, made it to the 9am Saturday Lacoste show, and have this weird buzzing in your ears from fatigue that just won’t go away. C’mon. It’s time—to celebrate the official end of New York fashion week and treat yourself.

So what if Valentine’s Day is traditionally a couples’ holiday? Everyone knows that the most important relationship is the one that you have with yourself. So with that in mind, we’ve put together the best, most decadent ways to celebrate you (and, ok, maybe your cat, too.) Click through for our picks. [full story at Fashionista.com]

#fashion #beauty

Jenny Packham Fall 2013: Perfect for a Princess

Jenny Packham was mum (a laugh, followed by a “No comment”) on her most famous client, Kate Middleton, but she created a beautifully luxurious formalwear collection that was yes, perfect for a princess who cares about propriety. [full story at Fashionista.com]

#fashion #Interviews

The Return of the Perm: A Primer for Getting Curls Without the Crunch

We’re all about that natural, artfully mussed, beach wave hair that you see on every red carpet and that hair stylists re-create every season backstage. And what if you could get that undone, I-just-woke-up-with-wavy-hair-this-perfect ‘do, with minimal effort?

We have the answer. Get ready for it: It’s the perm.

I already know the adjectives and images popping into your head: crunchy, Justin Timberlake-circa-1999, ramen-like, poufy, fried, ’80s, chia pet, production of Annie (I took those last two from this week’s episode of Modern Family) Texas State Fair, crispy. Those descriptors belong to the perms of yesteryear. It’s better this time. (It’s so different this time around that salons were advocating a name change–”body wave”–when the New York Times wrote about the return of the perm two years ago–but it’s still just called a perm.)

The perms of today are smooth, effortless, volumizing, require almost no blow drying and can give you beautiful, wavy hair for up to a year. [full storyat Fashionista.com]

#beauty

The Unblemished Truth About Skin Whiteners and Dark Spot Correctors

When Lady Macbeth famously exclaimed, “Out, dam’d spot!,” she wasn’t referring to skin issues like freckles, sunspots, moles, and residual acne scars. While the Lady’s concern was more of the figurative sort, the beauty industry has been tasked with outing those of the literal kind, resulting in a slew of dark spot correctors hitting the U.S. market over the past couple of years. On the Sephora site alone, there are 42 dark spot correctors available for purchase.

In Asia, lightening and brightening products like dark spot correctors have been a beauty staple for years. Shiseido’s White Lucent, which became more widely available in the United States this year, was just launching when I visited Japan in 2005 for a study abroad trip.

My childhood summers were spent in Asia, where people often seek refuge from the sticky, humid heat by visiting generously air conditioned, multi-floor department stores, where idle browsing is encouraged. The premiere floor of these stores is always devoted to prestige beauty brands, which tailor their traditional offerings to suit the local market. This means that every Asian beauty brand, regardless of origin, has a separate “whitening” product line. Dior has Dior Snow, Chanel has White Essentiel, and Estee Lauder has Cyberwhite. When you visit makeup counters in Asia to be matched for a foundation shade, Asian counter makeup artists ask, “Would you prefer a natural or lighter look?” as it isn’t uncommon for people to choose to use a foundation number that is one or two lighter than their “actual” shade.

As we all know, the cultural debate of what qualifies as “desirable” skin color, in beauty terms, is fraught with racial implications. [full story at Fashionista.com]

#beauty

To Celebrate the Euro 2012 Final, Here’s a Guide to Soccer WAGs and their Favorite Beauty Products

Before there were Basketball Wives, there were the footballer WAGs (aka wives and girlfriends), as the British tabloids fondly christened them. In the UK and all over Europe, being a footballer (what we Americans call a soccer player) is like beingTom Brady and Derek Jeter all rolled into one. Men want to be you and women want to be with you. Not just any women, though–women whose spending habits and glamour are so mesmerizing that rag mags devote multiple columns and online articles to reporting on them.

Public appetite for WAGs and what is dubbed the “WAG factor” is so overwhelming that some blamed them and their hard-partying antics for England’s 2006 Baden-Baden World Cup defeat. Adding some fuel to the speculation, the English coach even banned (or rather, limited) WAG presence at the 2010 World Cup games, permitting them to only visit once a week.

The Euro Cup final will be played on Sunday (Italy vs. Spain), so we thought these soccer sirens deserved some of the spotlight. From Victoria Beckham to Spanish hottie Sara Carbonero, we’ve whipped up a guide for recognizing the world’s most notorious WAGs, as well as some of their reputed favorite British and European beauty brands. Click through to see these five ladies and what’s in their beauty arsenal (not to be confused with Arsenal, a UK football club). [full story at Fashionista.com]

#beauty

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