2015

Having worked with literally hundreds of men and women over the past fourteen years, there's a few sartorial errors that I see again and again. Although seemingly small things, these mistakes can mean that even with the best of intentions, you will sadly fall short on the style front. I've narrowed it down to five key fashion fails and how to avoid them here:

Wearing a look that's over.

Fashion is a fickle beast, and to be honest much of what we're about at Signature Style transcends it. But it is a very real fact that trends only last a period of time before moving on. Sometimes we see men and women who are a bit stuck with a trend that's now finished. A current example? Tunics and leggings for women and striped shirts or double breasted jackets for men. How do you know if your look is done? Check out a few trendier stores and see what the staff are wearing. Flick through a fashion mag or do a quick google. Even better, get in touch with a stylist and have them help.

Indian industry may have been slow to respond to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's slogan, Make in India, Make for the World, but there's one company registered in Silicon Valley, California that has been following the maxim to the T. EastEssence has been making Islamic clothing in India and selling to the world for the last seven years.

Ironically, EastEssence, which is a manufacturer and online retailer of Islamic clothing - abayas, jilbabs, burqas, thobes, dishdashas, hijabs etc - was founded by a Hindu from Kashmir. With customers in 68 countries across the globe and sales of $40 million (nearly Rs.255 crore) last year, EastEssence claims to be the 'Largest Islamic Clothing Company Online'. All its merchandise is made in India, in a factory in Noida bordering New Delhi, and another Meerut, where all the hand-embroidery is done.

For Sunil Kilam, the company's 38-year-old founder, the decision to "make in India" made hard commercial sense - the low wages of labour in India, compared to the US, allows him to offer his buyers great value for money. Prices on EastEssence are all in the range of $20-50, and do not exceed $110 even for the fancy designs. In India, where EastEssence launched this Ramzaan season its own store on Snapdeal, prices are capped at Rs.5,000.

One emotion that I don’t get to experience as much as I’d like to is smugness. This is especially true when it comes to clothes. Feeling smug about your outfit can only be achieved by very particular means. You have to wear something devastatingly perfect at the right time and the right place, find a bargain of staggering proportion or buy something ethical that makes more people feel good about life than just you.

This third option is easier now that green fashion brands have realised that people will buy ethical clothes as long as they don’t look like ethical clothes. Lots of labels have sprung up that consider ethics and aesthetics together. For some, the ethical element is in itself organic. British designer Christopher Raeburn, for example, uses recycled military fabrics and decommissioned parachutes to make clothes because he wants to rather than because he feels morally obliged to. This change and lightening in attitude is really apparent in the new eco clothes.

And it’s easier to go ethical shopping, too. Some great boutiques have appeared which do all the sorting of nice from naff and the worrying about bona fides for you. All you have to do is loll on the sofa browsing their websites and buy.

THE quintessential Aussie ritual of a relaxed Sunday flop-and-drop is echoed in the shake-off-the-sand world of the Tuckeys and the unvarnished feel of the Mark Tuckey furniture line.

Based in Sydney’s northern beaches, the idyll of sparkling emerald coves and beaches where even the billionaires wear shorts and thongs, design duo Louella and Mark share their curvilinear coastal pad with daughters Chilli, seven, and Indigo, nine.

The spatial dynamic of their light, airy home is in tune with the organic rawness of cotton, leather, timber and linen.

“It’s funny how everything has gone back to the ’70s here, with cut-off, ripped jeans and long hair,” laughs Mark, whose larrikin twinkle and shaggy blond locks are poster-boy perfect for the sun’n’surf lifestyle his brand incarnates.

“I spend a lot of the time at the hairdresser to look like this – not.”


After growing up on ‘the beaches’, living in Europe, then spending 20 years in Melbourne (10 of them with Louella), he felt the urge to return.

Former Geordie shore star Vicky Pattison has roped in her celebrity besties to model clothes ‘perfect for the beer garden’ or a big night out. It’s been a busy week for the Wallsend-born Judge Geordie fashionista, who not content with releasing a book also launched her own fashion range for online retailer Honeyz. Speaking to the Sunday Sun at the launch in Newcastle of her chick-lit first novel ‘All That Glitters’, the 27-year-old said she was brimming with excitement for her foray into the fashion world. And she shot down rumours of rivalries between herself and other famous faces - saying the reason she’d enrolled TOWIE and reality TV stars as models was to show a little solidarity her fellow female celebs. Her Vicky’s VIP Collection, designed to suit women from sizes 6 -16, is modelled by TOWIE’s Danielle Armstrong, Talitha Minnis, with whom Vicky appeared in the first series of Ex on the Beach and tattoo superstar Jem Lucy, who is set to star in the show’s third series.

Donna Karan is leaving women on their own — to fend for themselves in a fashion industry that all too often does not have their best interest at heart.

Seventh Avenue’s greatest advocate for professional women announced Tuesday that she is leaving her signature collection to focus on philanthropy, health care and cultural awareness through her Urban Zen Company and Foundation. The fall 2015 and resort 2016 collections will be the company’s last under Karan’s creative direction. It is, by at least one measure, bittersweet timing. Fall is her best collection in recent years, in which she celebrates a sophisticated and confident woman in an urban landscape dominated by black and gold.

Karan will have no successor. The Collection will be suspended while the company reorganizes.

“I have made this decision after much soul-searching,” said Karan, 66, in a statement. “I have arrived at a point in my life where I need to spend more time to pursue my Urban Zen commitment to its fullest potential.” Urban Zen has Karan frequently traveling abroad, particularly to Haiti where she has worked to help artisans there build self-sustaining businesses beyond their borders.

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