Posts with tag spain

Thanks to boring styles, plummeting consumer spending, and a tendency to leave their employees with Post Retail Folding Disorder, the Gap has finally been overtaken by as the world's largest clothing retailer. All hail the new #1: Spain's mega fashion retailer Zara, who we've really never even heard of. The chain, based in A Coruña, Spain, has apparently been a dominating force in Europe and Latin America -- but has only a handful of stores in the US.

Zara's parent company Inditex has managed to spread its successful chain of stores far and wide by some kind of weird business model that involves keeping up with the latest trends in fashion -- something that the Gap probably should have been focusing on. Zara's unique model includes in-house design teams and encourages staff members to point out any new trends to keep the designers up to date. Not only that, but Zara apparently spends very little on advertising. Instead, they use their stores as a means of drawing attention to their brands.

Fashion shows are always interesting and cultural experiences -- especially when they're put on by prostitutes. In Spain, where prostitution is not legal, but largely tolerated, the ladies of the night put on a little runway show in order to draw attention to their quest for rights.

Move over fragrance experts with your fancy Italian names, it seems that people can't get enough of fragrances by Queen Latifah, Avril Lavigne, Derek Jeter, and eve Tim McGraw. Antonio Banderas has apparently been such a successful name in the fragrance business, that he's teamed up with Puig Beauty USA to debut his first fragrance for women called Blue Seduction. We were pretty surprised to find that this will be the 5th fragrance to bear the Banderas name.

According to market analysts, celebrity fragrances are the hottest way to merge mass with class -- and Antonio Banderas' image is a near perfect sales rep. Antonio's Latin lover persona is apparently something that dudes want to emulate and women want to get with. If his success with men's cologne is any indicator, Blue Seduction should be a top 10 seller and the big chain stores. We remember when Michael Jordan's fragrance debuted in the 90's, it seemed really confusing and not so classy. We thought: who wants to smell like sweat and Gatorade? We were wrong.

[via Jezebel]

Do you see better fashion on the ride to work than you do in Vogue magazine -- or are you stuck with JC Penny's, and dreaming about H&M? While it's certainly possible to be stylish anywhere, the fashion-forward tend to flock to a few choice locations around the globe. But where?

Forbes magazine has recently ranked the "World's Most Stylish Cities," and while some of them -- like New York, London and Paris -- are obvious, there's a few on the list that might surprise you. Here's the top 10 -- did you city make the cut?

[via Haute Concept]

One of my biggest pet peeves is the variation in women's sizing from store to store. It's hard to just walk right in and buy a pair of jeans if I have to try on every pair in the size 4 to 10 range to see whether that particular brand runs a. tiny b. a little small c. just right d. too big e. holy crap, tone down the vanity sizing!

But, the entire country of Spain is working to change all that, so I suppose I'll just have to move there if I want to make my shopping experiences easier. Health authorities there did a laser mapping of 10,000 different women's bodies from the ages of 12-70. They found that most women fit into 1 of 3 categories: "cylinder (similar measurements for bust, waist and hips), diábolo (or hourglass), and bell (pear-shaped)."

The new method for sizing will also include bust, waist and hip measurements and possibly height as well.

Hallelujah! I can't wait for the Spaniards to develop and perfect this new system and then send it on over to the United States! I've got nothing but love for the country of Spain, seeing as how it's already given us paella and Enrique Iglesias. If they give us standard sizing for women, well, then you can look for me parading up and down the streets with a red and yellow flag screaming, "Viva Espana!"

Via Diet Blog.

We've a confession to make. We haven't been totally honest. We've been hiding something and we feel a little guilty about it.

H&M, we've been cheating on you.

We've been falling for Mango, the latest "high-end low-end" clothing store. We're particularly fond of the Pinaford Dress, which happens to come from the collection designed by Penelope and Monica Cruz. The short sleeve dress made of a broad plaid fabric is so short that it could technically be called a "top," but with a pair of opaque tights and the right pair of shoes, works for the mid-Autumn. We're thinking dark tights a pair of navy blue patent leather Mary Janes. If you can find them, that is.

The dress is available from Mango, both online and in the store for $89.

Two weeks ago, the CFDA announced a new set of guidelines to discourage eating disorders in the fashion industry. Wimpy at best, grossly inadequate at worst, CFDA's regulations seemed to tread almost too lightly on the controversial relationship between fashion and public health.

Across the pond in Spain, the game plan for curbing the tide of eating disorders is much more aggressive. On Tuesday, the government, the textile industry and a group of prominent fashion designers released a comprehensive agreement to promote healthy bodies and body images. According to the new agreement, size 46 (U.S. equivalent size 14) clothes will no longer be considered plus-sized. Models in Spain will also be required to wear at least a size 36 (US size 4) in order to participate in runway shows.

The only thing that seems a little unclear about these regulations is how the rules will be practically enforced. Will there be officials from a governing body? Is it self-regulation?

Other than that, however, I think this is a step in the right direction. You'd be hard pressed to find a model on the runway that is any bigger than a size 34, so if the sample sizes grow to size 36, presumably the models will eventually follow suit. If the designers are on board with the agreement, I don't think there is any reason to suspect that this won't be a successful measure.

When Jean-Paul Gaultier put a size 20 model on the catwalk, we gasped. And when Ashley Paige put a young girl in bathing suit on the runway, we balked. But big-boned models and tween catwalkers pale in comparison to the controversial men Antonio Miro sent down the runway during Barcelona's Fashion Week. For his fall/winter 2008 collection, Miro used eight illegal immigrants as models.

In exchange for their participation in the show, Miro arranged for the models to be photographed with Samuel Eto'o, a Cameroonian soccer player who attended the event. This is not Miro's first use of unusual models. Last year, he famously paraded eight inmates from a Barcelona jail down the catwalk.

In the wake of BMI-based bans on dangerously thin models first in Spain, then in Milan, a British television station has plans to show Super-Skinny Me: The Race to Size Zero, a documentary that will follow the efforts of a group of female journalists to drop down to a British size 2 (US size 00). The documentary will be aired some time early next year.
Recent studies in the UK have found that the average dress size of a woman is 14, equivalent to a US size 10. However, according to a spokesperson for the television station, "the super-skinny American fad is spreading to the U.K. and question whether it is spawning an extreme, collective eating disorder." The goal of the documentary is to "highlight the dangers of aiming for a super-skinny look, and expose the serious health risks of extreme weight-loss methods."

Though there are plans to have medical support and expert guidance through every stage of filming the documentary, Britain's Eating Disorder Association is worried about the potential health effects on the journalists who will be participating.

Yep, I am pretty certain that there will be negative effects on the women who drop to a size 00.