Rebekah Wing
Flávia Linden
Lola Mansil
Theo Ortengren
Weronika Kumanek
Bolingo Bags released its holiday collection of luxury handbags in ostrich, Napa and crocodile, offering early holiday shoppers the opportunity to make their selections now. New handbag colors this season include Bronze, Cypress, Platino and Iris, a palette of bright and rich colors offered in the classic and familiar Bolingo Bags style.
The Outback bag is a signature design for Bolingo Bags, but this season the Outback “goes green” in a rich shade of Cypress. It’s ideal for a holiday trip or ski vacation. The Outback is a spacious bag, crafted of fine ostrich skin with crocodile trim. It features an adjustable strap, multiple interior pockets and luscious styling and is the most popular style in the Bolingo Bags line.
The small clamshell clutch is offered this season in Platino; the perfect addition to a sparkling holiday outfit. This clutch is crafted of ostrich and lined with suede. Interior pockets and snap-secure handles keep the party-goer organized.
Why not give almonds this holiday season? An almond Hobo from Bolingo Bags adds a warm touch to winter outfits. This genuine ostrich bag with crocodile trim is a must-have shoulder bag this holiday season.
"We’ve added three beautiful colors to our collection this season,” said Susan Todd, designer of Bolingo Bags. “There’s no better way for the discriminating woman to enhance her holiday look than with an ostrich and crocodile handbag in a rich shade of Bronze or Cypress green, an elegant metallic Platino or stunning Iris blue.”
Bolingo Bags are made from ostrich, crocodile and Napa leathers which are sustainably harvested. They are handcrafted by fair trade craftspeople in South Africa to the specifications of San Antonio designer Susan Todd, who creates two collections annually. Bolingo Bags are available for purchase online. The name “bolingo” comes from Lingala, a Bantu language spoken in several African countries, and means “love.” Todd interprets the name to evoke the devotion and care that goes in to the creation of each Bolingo Bag.
This season Emporio Armani introduces a range of sophisticated slim watches to its Fall/Winter 2010 watch collection focused on two main design elements: a super slim case shape and metal mesh bracelets.
Characterized by precision, imagination and originality, the extensive range of new styles presents a unique fusion of innovative design, new technology, and 3-dimensional textures while maintaining Emporio Armani’s signature aesthetic of elegant sophistication. A colour palette focused on silver-grey tones combined with neutrals and metal finishes sets the mood for the collection.
Leading the design trend for slim watches, Emporio Armani borrows from one of its best-selling classic case bodies and applies a contemporary makeover. The result is ergonomically delightful with modern curved case contouring that is slim, sleek and streamlined. Sharp 2-hand dials with stylised Roman-numeral hour markers add modern appeal while beautifully detailed cabochon crowns lend classic elegance.
Men’s model AR2012 and women’s model AR2015 are featured in our FW10 advertising campaign and epitomise the strength of the super slim/mesh collection.
Produced entirely in stainless steel, Giorgio Armani draws inspiration from his use of 3-dimensional textures and textiles to make a bold statement with meshed metal bracelets.
Luxurious and innovative, new technology allows intricately woven mesh to be exquisitely applied to an integrated-bracelet construction that is not only visually captivating, but also comfortably hugs the wrist.
Steel mesh bracelet styles also include versions developed in yellow gold ion-plated stainless steel as well as black ion-plated stainless steel while more traditional interpretations include models with 3-link stainless steel bracelets, featuring polished outer links and brushed center links.
In place of metal bracelets, the range also includes styles that use buttery smooth calfskin leather to produce strap models with butterfly deployant buckles. Material combinations include stainless steel cases with black or cognac coloured straps as well as black ion-plated stainless steel cases with smooth black leather straps.
Gucci will partner with JAY-Z on the release of his first book, Decoded - the music icon’s story of the hidden meanings behind his songs and his journey through the hip hop experience. The partnership is part of a collaboration between JAY-Z and Bing to expose every page of the book in a unique way before its official release on November 16, 2010.
The Bing interactive experience enables people to decode the 36 songs in the book with clues leading to locations, like Gucci, that have inspired JAY-Z’s lyrics in Miami, New York, London, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Clues will be distributed on JAY-Z’s Facebook and Twitter pages, JAY-Z.com and Bing.
On November 11th Gucci will reveal one of three hundred Decoded pages in its 5th Avenue flagship store. The page is printed on the lining of a Gucci one-of-a-kind leather bomber jacket designed by Gucci Creative Director Frida Giannini in collaboration with JAY-Z.
Once the specially created bomber is discovered at Gucci, fans are instructed to text in a code found at the location and are encouraged to upload an image of the decoded page. Any player who locates a page online or in-person is entered into a draw to win the page they have located, signed by JAY-Z.
adidas exclusively unveiled the new spring/summer 2011 Women's TechFit collection at the spectacular Stadtbad Oderberger in Berlin. This very feminine TechFit apparel was developed in collaboration with the Staatsballett Berlin, which features the most recent adidas ambassador Alessandra Pasquali, together with some of the many ballerinas from this international ballet company.
This innovative Women's TechFit collection, developed to fulfil the special athletic needs of women, features great comfort and specific female body support thanks to the Lift and Hug concept, alongside TechFit technology compression benefits such as maximizing body energy during workouts to make the sessions last longer. Available material includes stills.
The adidas Group is one of the global leaders within the sporting goods industry, offering a broad range of products around the core brands: adidas, Reebok, TaylorMade, Rockport and Reebok-CCM Hockey. Headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Germany, the Group has more than 42,000 employees and generated sales of € 10.4 billion in 2009.
Models present creations by Russian designer Irina Dubrovina during a fashion show at the ski resort Bobrovy Log outside the Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, November 12, 2010. The collection made from genuine fur and leather was presented during a show on the eve the beginning of a new winter season.
This is the latest in a series of strategic alliances signed during the course of this year aimed at securing the Group’s expansion in key markets such as the UK, Russia and Ukraine and Italy, and coincides with the opening of flagship Springfield and women’secret stores in central London.
Following the signing of this new agreement for South Korea, Cortefiel has taken a step further in its globalisation policy with the backing of major international partners operating on strategic markets.
The agreement includes an undertaking to open more than 80 stores in this Asian country, one of the most highly developed and dynamic markets in the region and a major exporter of technology, electronics and cars to Spain.
Thanks to this alliance JK Partners, the Korean industrial conglomerate in relation with Sharp Inc, will be responsible for running some 90 Springfield and women'secret stores around the country. This agreement also entails a purchase option for Grupo Cortefiel within a 7 year period.
The signing of this agreement coincided with the opening this week of flagship Springfield and women’secret stores in the heart of the City of London, in the ‘One New Exchange’ mall, one of the UK capital's iconic buildings designed by French architect Jean Nouvel. The mall is just a short distance from St Paul’s Cathedral, a prime location that draws crowds of tourists and business men and women from all over the world.
The London openings are part of the agreement signed this year between Grupo Cortefiel and Brand Empire, a commercial subsidiary of the powerful British property firm Land Securities.
Representatives from 20 Taiwanese apparel firms who visited Jordan, as part of their provincial tour, held one-to-one meetings with entrepreneurs in Jordan, wherein they explained them regarding their products.
The entrepreneurs, participating in the tour arranged by the Taiwan commercial office in Amman, seek to explore new markets for Taiwanese apparels and strengthen Taiwan’s business ties with Arab nations.
A representative while stressing on the competitive quality of the apparel products manufactured in Taiwan, stated that, as these products are getting expensive in China, it has become easy for the Taiwanese apparels to contest them, particularly as they have superior quality to offer than China.
Both the countries jointly traded apparel products worth $220 million during 2009. Of this, Jordan exported products worth $40 million to Taiwan, while Taiwan exported goods worth $180 million to Jordan.
Presently, there are six Taiwanese firms which are functional in Jordan’s garment industry, of which two are located in the Qualifying Industrial Zones of Irbid, one in Karak and rest of the three in Sahab.
The combined exports of these firms constituted 40 percent of the overall garment exports of the country. But all these firms have been facing a common problem of labour scarcity, and hence are required to shift a portion of their business elsewhere in order to expand.
adidas exclusively unveiled the new spring/summer 2011 Women's TechFit collection at the spectacular Stadtbad Oderberger in Berlin. This very feminine TechFit apparel was developed in collaboration with the Staatsballett Berlin, which features the most recent adidas ambassador Alessandra Pasquali, together with some of the many ballerinas from this international ballet company.
This innovative Women's TechFit collection, developed to fulfil the special athletic needs of women, features great comfort and specific female body support thanks to the Lift and Hug concept, alongside TechFit technology compression benefits such as maximizing body energy during workouts to make the sessions last longer. Available material includes stills.
The adidas Group is one of the global leaders within the sporting goods industry, offering a broad range of products around the core brands: adidas, Reebok, TaylorMade, Rockport and Reebok-CCM Hockey. Headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Germany, the Group has more than 42,000 employees and generated sales of € 10.4 billion in 2009.
Are affluent Chinese consumers willing to travel just to shop?
It appears the biggest spenders, generally from tier 1 cities like Shanghai and Beijing, will go directly to Paris, NYC or Geneva to buy luxury goods. Many luxury buyers also flock to Hong Kong, the shopping mecca that's much closer to home. Going abroad (including H.K.) makes sense because of high Chinese import taxes on luxury goods, better selections, authentic goods, and better customer service. Of course, there is the prestige factor or the bragging right that you purchased your LV handbag from Paris.
In France, Chinese tourists surpassed all other nationalities as the biggest shoppers according to a recent French government survey. As a result, French travel companies are developing more shopping programs for the Chinese.
More Chinese are traveling abroad for business and for leisure, a result of the economic boom, growth in personal wealth and ease of travel restrictions. Even with the recent global recession, the Chinese tourists traveling abroad rose 5% in 2009 to 42.2 million from 7 million in 2001. Their total spending jumped 16% to $42 billion in 2009 from 2008. While the majority travel to Hong Kong and Macao, their growing presence is seen around the world. Analysts considered the rapid emergence of Chinese tourists as the most significant thing occurring in global tourism for a generation.
"Before 2003, the only destinations outside the Asia-Pacific area to which the Chinese government allowed its citizens to travel for leisure were Turkey and Egypt. Since then, Beijing has approved almost 100 countries as tourism destinations. The US was approved in June 2008 but only for citizens in a handful of China's largest and most prosperous areas."
According to surveys, the favorite activity of Chinese tourists is shopping and they like traveling in tour groups. Most are not concerned where they stay and prefer to save on accommodation so they can spend more on goods. "This is partly a cultural thing - I'm absolutely expected to bring back gifts for family and friends when I go abroad - but it is also because things like Hermes bags are just not available or are much more expensive in China," says Yvonne Du, a young professional who regularly goes on shopping trips to the US and Europe.
Reinforcing this shopping mentality is the fact that tour operators make more if tourists shop and therefore, they structure their tours packages based on economics. "For now the system is based on commissions earned on the amount of shopping tourists do," says Guy Rubin, managing partner at Imperial Tours in Beijing. "You have an odd situation where a great many outbound tour operators are breaking even or losing money until you factor in commissions for shopping. That means tours usually have to fit in sightseeing between visits to five shops a day.
Finally, Chinese tourists are relatively newbies to traveling abroad. Newbie travelers tend to concentrate on the tangibles or stuff (remember the Japanese and Koreans) to commemorate their trips while more mature or seasoned travelers focus on the experiential aspects of the destination.
Kareen Borgella will be turning heads left and right on December 2, 2010 with the debut of her Spring 2011 “K.Borgella Collection” presented at the New Art Gallery in Midtown Manhattan. The collection will consist of edgy but contemporary pieces for the modern day fashionista.
The “K.Borgella Collection” represents women who want to make a statement; “I appreciate color, I love great fabrics and texture, but ultimately I just want to look and feel comfortable in what I’m wearing”.
Kareen describes her line as “feminine pieces coated with charm and character. Just an instinctive aspiration to create beautiful things for the fashionista”. Styles comprised of everything from evening and cocktail dresses to flowy tops and relaxed pants. There is no doubt that intricate draping was incorporated in the many of the styles. The selection of fabrics, as well as color and texture were given the utmost consideration.
December 2, 2010 marks the debut of Kareen Borgella’s first collection, a destination well deserved and long overdue. Her well traveled road to success has known many successes and accomplishments. Over the past 8 years Kareen Borgella has been technical designer for fashion brands Armani Exchange, J. Crew, Joyce Leslie, and Marc Ecko's Ecko Red, just to name a few.
Kareen's goal was always to design, but learning the technical aspects has contributed to her knowledge of constructing clothes to perfectly fit the body, properly selecting fabrics and implementing different finishes to create beautiful clothing. Her skill set includes everything from designing/development, to dip dye approval, which is effortlessly incorporated within her collection. Dip-dye is a unique and intricate way to design which involves literally dipping and dying the clothing. It results in gradient colors and even patterned effects on fabrics to give them a more elaborate and personalized touch.
The “K.Borgella Collection” debut’s guest list will include New York's top stylist, editors, celebrities, and fashion industry affiliates. Guests will enjoy red carpet access, a runway show, cocktails, V.I.P area. Special gift bags will be available from sponsors Cityslips, We Love Colors, Spa H, and Darcy's Botanicals. “Expect an intimate setting that showcases vibrant colors, rich fabrics and innovated creations. The collection embodies my mind and soul,” says Kareen Borgella.
The K. Borgella brand is a luxury contemporary line for women. The K.Borgella collection represents women who look to make a statement, who love color, great fabrics, and texture, but ultimately women who just want to look and feel good in what they are wearing. The K. Borgella collection consists of edgy but contemporary pieces that will turn heads left and right. Styles comprise of everything from evening to cocktail dresses to flowy tops and relaxed pants.
