Whitney Kenson, Lauren Chiappetti & SSD Teammate Kelsey Kenson.

There is no better place in Los Angeles to rock out than the Hollywood Bowl and last night it was on. Thousands rocked out screaming, drinking and having the time of their lives listening to the outstanding performance by Kings of Leon.

As a Style Seen Daily Contributor I got to soak up the tunes that played throughout the night.

The band, who happens to be three brothers, Caleb, Jared and Nathan Followill, and their cousin, Matthew Followill, create modern rock music. Lets just say their famous song, “Your Sex is on Fire”, was a fan favorite last night, as the crowd held their glasses up and sang along (yes me included).

Kings of Leon

Kings of Leon style has an indie/rocker feel, they have been spotted wearing lines such as CK Jeans and Dior Homme by Heidi Slimane. These guys are not only create hot rocker songs, but the Nashville native boys have ventured into the fashion world. The band works with Paris-based creative collective Surface to Air to create a limited-edition collection that will retail exclusively at uber-chic Copenhagen boutique Paris Texas. The line offers flannel button up shirts, leather zip up jackets and denim patched worked jeans — creating a look they love to rock on stage  and then for their fans to wear in the streets.

Hollywood Bowl was lit up for Kings of Leon.

Not only music filled the air but the stars were out too, literally —  Hillary Duff with her fiance Mike Comrie, actress Jessica Biel, and The Hills stars Audrina Patridge and Lauren Conrad were just some of the stars spotted at the Hollywood Bowl. We also spotted Kevin and Joe Jonas, younger brother Nick Jonas had to take a rain check as he is currently starring in “Les Miserables” in London. The Kings hosted their private after party at the Sunset Marquis where some of their VIP friends came out, including Kate Bosworth and Alexander Skarsgard.

Celebs spotted leaving Hollywood Bowl include Hillary Duff & Jessica Biel.

Lauren Conrad was one of many stars that attended the concert.

The Kings of Leon summer tour is in full swing and they will be traveling to areas such as Irvine, Ca, George, Wa, Salt Lake City, UT and Denver, CO.

Rock out and sing to your  favorite Kings of Leon songs like I did and checkout their website here to see if they play near you.  And if they do, get a ticket now before it’s too  late, and let us know what you thought of their performance by commenting below.

Metropark staff members gear up for their first in-store Fashion's Night Out event.

As the runways heated up in NYC for fashion week, one of the most anticipated nights in Fashion kicked off on Friday September 10, 2010. From NYC to Paris to Los Angeles, retailers from across the world came together for this one night only global celebration of fashion. Fashion’s Night Out, originally started as a way to boost the economy, has become one of the most coveted events held during fashion week and this year was no exception. The 2^nd Annual Fashion’s Night Out event was bigger than ever and on the West Coast the streets were flooded with shoppers eager to take part in fashion frenzy. The Westfield Century City Mall was just one of the hot spots on LA fashion insiders’ to do list. Among the retailers involved was multi-branded retailer Metropark, which was booming with shoppers who enjoyed snacks by Pop Chips, Kenwood wines, tunes by DJ Mr. West and a 15% off discount storewide.   Guests were lined up past close to take advantage of deals on the latest trends from the store’s private labels such as MP Black and WYL as well as designer labels like Betsey Johnson, Kill City and Tarina Tarantino.

Military inspired pieces were a focal point for the Fall collections.

Military trend pieces were in full force, with key pieces such as slim cargo pocket pants, structured jackets in faux suede, ultra soft fleece, faux leather and French terry.  Brought to attention with fine details like braided epaulets, gunmetal detailing and high quality materials and stitching, these key pieces are standouts for any fashionista’s fall wardrobe.

Metropark's take on reinventing the little black dress this Fall.

Metropark employee dresses head-to-toe in Metropark for the big night. Welcome to the VIP Fashion’s Night Out event at Metropark. Special thanks to Popchips for donating.

Live music provided by DJ Mr. West.

Bold accessories are a must to mix and match with your look this Fall.

Mary J. Blige and Catherine Malandrino walk the runway in June 2010 in the designers pieces.

Today through August 29,2010

We are pleased to be able to extend this special opportunity to you —  to get designer pieces by the most talented, Catherine Malandrino, at a small fraction of the normal retail cost, we’re talking up to 80 percent off.  Catherine Malandrino is a favorite of celebrities such as; Madonna, Mary J Blige, Jessica Biel, & Beyonce. “I design clothes for the ultra-feminine, audacious, curious, and adventurous woman”, proclaims Catherine.

Catherine Malandrino weaves together the energy of Manhattan with the romance of Paris. Her collection goes beyond fashion, marrying two cultures, the reflecting a revolutionary spirit and chic nomadic lifestyle.  So take the opportunity to get up to 75% off her spring/summer 2010 collections, there is something for everyone, in all price ranges.

Madonna in a Fall 2010 Catherine Malandrino motorcycle jacket.

Malandrino is known as a chic and daring fearless designer who also mixes music with fashion.

If located in Los Angeles, you can shop these deals at the Melrose Place Maison and Sunset Plaza Boutique.  No RSVP is necessary, just mention you were invited by Jenn/STYLE SEEN DAILY.

Designer Catherine Maladrino walking the runway after a fashion show.

Catherine Malandrino is a French woman living in America, and her Spring collection is all about travel. The collection features pieces inspired by four parts of the world, Sudan, North Africa, Peru, and Polynesia. Tribal prints, intricate beading, and bright, island colors are all seen on harem pants, cropped jackets, and jersey jumpsuits throughout the collection.

Actress Drew Barrymore at her "Going The Distance" movie premiere in Los Angeles.j[ar

Lily Donalson

V Magazine Spain edition gave a sneak peak of the 2010 Fall  sexy body issue, UNCENSORED.  There are 5 different covers for this ground breaking issue featuring 5 supermodels using new scratch off technology.

You see, the “V” on the cover is actually a scratch off and reveals the original shot, sans clothing.

Style Seen Daily previews these 5 covers that are a little too hot to hit America’s newsstands.

London born model Lily Donaldson, pictured above, named one of the top 30 models of the 2000s by Vogue Paris.

Eniko Mihalik

Hungry model Eniko Mihalik used to be teased as a young girl for her slender physique. Jealous now? The sexy model strips down for this cover, and you also  may have seen her on the NYC runway for the 2009 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.

Adriana Lima

Adriana Lima may look the most familiar — the Brazilian model is best known for being a Victoria’s Secret model. The 28 year old model gave birth to her first child, Valentina Lima Jaric, in Fall 2009 with NBA star Marco Jarik. This Brazilian bombshell quickly shed the baby pounds and is looking sexier than ever.

Natasha Poly

Natasha Poly is a Russian born model and has appeared in many advertisement campaigns such as Gucci, Nine West, H&M and Jimmy Choo. Russian Vogue dedicated its July 2008 to to her.

Isabeli Fontana

Brazilian beauty Isabeli Fontana is not shy to the fashion industry.  She is regularly featured in ELLE, Marie Claire, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, Harper’s Bazaar and Victoria’s Secret. She is making quiet the statement with this cover, looking like a super sultry version of wonder women.

Now that you’ve seen the covers yourself, tell us what you think, is this scratch off cover first sexy or scandalous?

Source:  The Independent

July 2010

They’re calling it the world’s biggest dressing-up box. Never before has such a vast collection of vintage clothing – in excess of 7,000 dresses, 6,000 pairs of shoes and 20,000 items of jewellery – been assembled in one place in Britain.

Yet this precious attire, from 70-year-old Dior couture to Biba dresses from the Sixties, will be sold in a field at a music festival. Instead of Wellingtons and striped ponchos, the dress code at West Sussex’s Vintage Festival will be seamed stockings and twinsets, kipper ties and winkle-pickers.

Festival veterans might point to the Lost Vagueness corner of Glastonbury where it became customary to cut a late-night sartorial dash in ballgowns and second-hand suits – but that was a style statement that came caked in mud. Vintage Festival will not do dirt. “It’s rare that a cool person wants to be grubby – there wouldn’t be a fashion and beauty industry if people enjoyed being filthy,” says the founder, Wayne Hemingway. “Wouldn’t it be great if you could just go to a festival and be how you’d be if you were going to a nightclub and didn’t have to feel dirty?”

Vintage will be a festival where the toilets are plumbed and have basins and mirrors “so that you can do your lippy”. Camping will come with ready-made beds and the option of breakfast brought to your tent. And the clothes stalls will have stylists on hand, alterations experts equipped with sewing machines and a home delivery service for any purchases.

“I’m already picking out my outfit, we are all so excited,” says Judy Berger, who is curating the Vintage Market Place, which will feature clothes from the Forties through to the Eighties. “I’m going to go to the on-site hairdresser every day and do a different decade, but starting on the Fifties because that’s my favourite.”

Berger has brought together specialist vintage vendors from around Britain, avoiding those who source stock from wholesalers. “The biggest challenge has been ensuring that all the traders are selling something different,” she said. “We’ve brought in people who scour flea markets and car-boot sales and who go to Paris, Italy and LA to find amazing vintage.”

Arrive in combat trousers and a T-shirt paying tribute to your drinking capacity and Hemingway will not be impressed. “I would be disappointed if people turned up in that at ours, I really would. I’m not interested in just creating another festival.”

Vintage is not a nostalgia fest and is targeted at under-25s as much as at those who actually remember wearing the styles of the Seventies and Eighties. The music and dress of Eighties artists, including Heaven 17 and Human League, will be celebrated by contemporary performers such as La Roux. “I like the idea that you can take from the past, enjoy the present and look to the future,” said Hemingway, who has planned the festival with his three older children, all in their early twenties.

Berger hopes the vintage clothing will appeal to younger buyers who want to incorporate the style of a previous era into their look. “There will be seasoned collectors but we want to attract young people as well,” she said. “You can get an amazing Seventies dress for £15 or a piece of fashion history from Dior for £300. You’re not walking into a high-street chain and buying something that everybody else has.”

Alongside clothes, there will be stalls selling vintage furnishings. “We have proper chandeliers coming,” said Berger. “Just yesterday I booked in a ‘kitchenalia’ store selling glassware and pottery and stuff for the home. They will be next to a stall that sells Sixties and Seventies movie posters.”

Berger has already bought a pair of Seventies roller-skates to wear at the festival’s Roller Disco, one of several music arenas dedicated to specific decades. Music will range from Sixties icons Sandie Shaw and Martha and the Vandellas to contemporary party hosts Horse Meat Disco.

According to Hemingway, the music industry’s problems began when it lost sight of its relationship with stylish dress. “When I was growing up, music and fashion went totally together,” he said, recalling his childhood love for the style of David Bowie and the close relationship between Acid House and the Red or Dead clothing label that he founded with his wife and business partner Gerardine.

He said the media has prevented British style movements emerging in the past 20 years by saturating new trends before they had a chance to develop. Britpop, he argued, did not have its own look. “Damon Albarn in a Harrington jacket and jeans is not a seminal moment in youth culture and you can’t picture how Brett Anderson in Suede dressed.”

The loss of album artwork to the culture of downloading has also cut the ties between music and style, he said, claiming that the Vintage Festival could play a role in reversing that trend. “The reason that music was of more value was because it was wrapped up in graphics, design and fashion,” he said. “I think there’s a business case for bringing that back together, where you go to an event and music and fashion are totally intertwined.”

Vintage Festival is at Goodwood, West Sussex, 13-15 August

Source: The Independent

July 2010

Boom time for haute couture as overseas demand soars.

Couture is back: Rumours of its death had been exaggerated. Designers including Chanel, Jean Paul Gaultier and Givenchy reporting a rise in sales of their custom-made creations ahead of this week’s Paris shows.

The increase in sales of exclusive fashions – often costing upwards of £30,000 a dress – is being credited to new clients in Russia, the Middle East and China, as well as the return of US customers who had reined in their spending during the recession.

Chanel estimates sales of the label’s summer collection were up 20 to 30 per cent on 2009, while Givenchy said its January couture sales were up 10 per cent on last year. Jean Paul Gaultier’s president, Veronique Gautier, described the situation as a “spectacular recovery”. The company reported that its Russian client base began growing after it held its first haute couture show in Moscow in May. Dior, meanwhile, showed couture at the opening of its enlarged boutique in Shanghai in May.

“It is difficult to pinpoint where couture customers come from,” said Harriet Quick of Vogue. “The people you see in the front rows at Paris aren’t the same people who are going to the salon to buy them. They are discreet.”

Sidney Toledano, president of Christian Dior, told the US fashion blog Women’s Wear Daily that Dior’s couture arm is booming globally. He said: “We have received so many orders, we are not sure we can deliver them.”

Designers, buyers and fashion editors flocked to Paris this weekend for the city’s couture shows, which open tomorrow. Labels such as Dior, Valentino and Giorgio Armani Privé will stage catwalk shows, while Givenchy has decided to show its designs by appointment only this season.

“It has gone from a beleaguered couture week to a buoyant commercial proposition,” Ms Quick said.

Stringent rules, policed by the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, that governed the exclusive world of Paris fashion for 150 years are being relaxed. Once, to use the term “haute couture” fashion houses had to have a workshop in Paris, present a certain number of outfits twice a year and design made-to-measure clothes for individual clients. While purchasing a couture gown from a traditional house such as Chanel requires plenty of both time and money – involving at least three trips to the workshop for fittings – some new designers are happy to work remotely, having the dress sent to and from clients by courier.

“Alexis Mabille does a mix of ready to wear and couture, and the prices are much lower. There is also a new designer, Lee Klabin, who is in Paris showing,” Ms Quick said.

Mabille and Klabin are not the only newcomers to Paris fashion week. Jewellery brands such as Van Cleef & Arpels and Chanel Joaillerie showcased their expensive wares as part of the official haute couture calendar for the first time in February. And the last day of the couture shows is now entirely devoted to jewellery. Since allowing jewellers entrance into the couture week, the Chambre Syndicale is said to have been inundated with requests to open up the shows to other brands.

Source: New York Times: Fashion

Published: June 6, 2010

PARIS — A second high-style/low-price hook-up took place last week from the same source: Tokyo Fast Retailing, which is the umbrella company of the American brand Theory.

Olivier Theyskens, the Belgian designer known for a couture sensibility, has been tapped by Andrew Rosen, chief executive officer of Theory. In the spirit of the Jil Sander/Uniqlo collaboration — but at a middle-market price point — Mr. Theyskens is taking to Main Street an aesthetic that has formerly been seen at the Paris houses Nina Ricci and Rochas.

“I think it is a breakthrough for the next generation — it has to do with clothes that are not so preciously made, but made with great integrity,” said Mr. Rosen, who founded Theory in 1997 in partnership with Elie Tahari. “Today, you can’t just be good — you have to be great. I want to be proud of the clothes I make.”

Mr. Theyskens, 33, admits that he has had problems reconciling his haute design with the frustration that it was unapproachable to his own generation.

“For a long time I have been thinking about affordable fashion — you can be disappointed when not so many people can wear your stuff,” Mr. Theyskens said. It was a learning curve to work with Theory to make “a perfect modern look” and take responsibility for its development, he said.

The Theyskens capsule collection, which will be shown in New York in September for the Spring 2011 season, by appointment, will fill the barren middle ground between high street and high end. This is the territory that Mr. Rosen has explored with Theory, aiming for a no-fuss emphasis on wearable, well-made clothes.

“I think the space is very crowded and the idea is to find new ways to stimulate the customer,” said the executive, who met Mr. Theyskens by chance when he was launching a book in New York.

Eager shoppers have been teased with short-lived collections from major designers ever since Karl Lagerfeld partnered with H&M in 2004, setting off a slew of further collaborations from Comme des Garçons at H&M to the current Stella McCartney line for GapKids.

But if Theory succeeds in bringing designer clothing down to a reasonable price on a more permanent basis, it will help usher in what already seems like the dawn of a new 21st-century fashion era.