Fashion Inspiration: MEN's kurtas

...not quite sure about a couple of images, but most of the models here are from Gul Ahmed Gents previous collections. Just love the looks! Newest designs are declared to be on sale shortly, so we'll see then!

Many beautiful men's clothing made in Pakistan on sale at dressrepublic 

SILK ROAD TRACES and A NEW "BAKU INTERNATIONAL"

I have an exciting news for my Europe and US based readers - a new, glossy English edition of Baku International has been launched this October by Condé Nast! 

It will be published quarterly and cover contemporary art, culture, fashion and lifestyle subjects of the beautiful and rich Azerbaijani culture, historical insights provided, as well as featuring other interesting events worldwide. 

The magazine will be distributed in the UK, France, the US, Italy and some other lucky points.

Some notes about the Baku UK staff:

Darius Sanai, editorial director of the Contract Publishing Division, is appointed as a launch editor. Mary Fellowes, fashion director of VOGUE Turkey, stylist, fashion consultant, as a fashion director. Prominent contemporary art and luxury travel journalist and regular contributor to both Condé Nast Traveller and the Financial Times, Claire Wrathall will be a contributing editor. 

Leyla Aliyeva (above) is a daughter of the Azerbaijan's president, Ilham Aliyev, and the magazine’s editor-in-chief.

Images from Baku mag, Nov/Dec, 2011 (slightly edited from my part:) 

Read more in details here

Buy the first digital issue on zinio at £15.00

Fashion Inspiration: LADY IRIS APFEL

Recently, I was leafing through (can you imagine?) my first and only one I've ever bought owned, a year old Harper's Bazaar (sincerely, even this single issue was gifted to me;), grieving for so many pages (416! if to be precise) of fine glossy paper wasted on nothing, when suddenly, I came across an article about this great woman, Iris Apfel - a Rare Bird of Fashion, as she's commonly referred to, an interior designer and decorator, and a startling American fashion icon!
It was a couple more times that I had stumbled upon her photographs, but this time I knew, a post is going to happen..!

"Style is integral. It's something that's you."

Huge round glasses are regarded as her distinctive trendmark! Lady Iris has been gathering her richest wardrobe all her life and some time ago, a part of it was exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum under the name of Selection from the Iris Barrel Apfel Collection.

  Scanned from Harper's Bazaar

 Scanned from Harper's Bazaar  Below is the New York, Manhattan apartment of Iris Apfel and her lifetime husband Carl Apfel. {via Architectural Digest}










“I don’t care what people think…I learned a long time ago…I was 19 and had a very traumatic experience….and I learned that I have to go to bed with myself at night and that I have to please myself…and as long as I don’t go out of my way to offend anybody that I love, upset my mother or my husband…I’ll do my own thing. And if the public doesn’t like it, it’s their problem, not mine.” 
 via here  MAC has created a series of cosmetics inspired by Iris Apfel's style. Read more about the collection here

Iris Apfel's Plastic 80s Charm Necklace, Vogue Nippon
via here

“I think dressing up or down should be a creative experience. Exciting. Fun. Whenever possible, it’s really great to start with a marvelously cut designer piece and build on it. For me the key to personal style lies in accessories. My friends tell me that my oversized glasses and my pairs of bracelets have become my unwritten signature. I have amassed an enormous “collection” of bags, belts, bangles and beads without which I would be lost. One can change the entire look of an outfit by substituting one accessory for another. I love objects from different worlds, different eras, combined my way. Never uptight, achieving – hopefully – a kind of throwaway chic.”

"I love accessories. For me, they are the most important part of my wardrobe."image via here And, finally, a Vogue Italia (Sep, 2010) photoshoot inspired by Iris Apfel!


“(My look is) either very baroque or very Zen - everything in between makes me itch.”


 “I’m a hopeless romantic. I buy things because I fall in love with them. I never buy anything just because it’s valuable. My husband used to say I look at a piece of fabric and listen to the threads. It tells me a story. It sings me a song. I have to get a physical reaction when I buy something. A coup de foudre – a bolt of lightning. It’s fun to get knocked out that way!”

 “My so-called “collection” is my wardrobe. It’s a series of pieces I’ve accumulated over these many years. I love a timeless look, and I think if you develop your own style it’s not a problem – at least it hasn’t been for me. I can mix something I bought last week with something I’ve hoarded for 30 years. I don’t follow trends or the hottest fashion. I buy what I like and my tastes are quite catholic – haute couture to street fashion. Pieces that are Zen-simple or madly baroque. I love ethnic as well as contemporary. I’m fond of serious and adore amusing. I try to make all these things work together.”





Magazine: Vogue Italia
Issue: September 2010
Editorial: Be Inspired by Iris Apfel
Model: Tanya Dziahileva
Photographer: Greg Lotus
 “Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.” Cecil Beaton

ORIGINS: Ready To Wear Fairytale - 2 -- EXCLUSIVE EID COLLECTION, 2011

ORIGINS: Ready To Wear Fairytale -1

My latest fashion crush is on clothing by ORIGINS -- a Ready to Wear Lifestyle Fashion House in Pakistan launched in 2010 by a TV star Nadia Jamil and her husband Mr. Ali Pervaiz. They are offering a great variety of FABULOUS ready-to-wear dresses for women.

Here is their S/S 2011 collection: intricate embroideries, colourful, complicated patterns, fine cut outs and rich combination of textures!! Want them all..! ;)

"...The best thing about ORIGINS is that they are especially made keeping in mind the middle class, which makes them affordable and fashionable both.  A heritage defined by centuries of impeccable threadmanship in sub-continental fashion, and as a salutation to everything beautiful in life, yesterday, today & tomorrow!" 

Architectural Wonders: Condominium at Bishan Central, Singapore

I always like to consider myself a village girl, but if it were about living in a luxurious building, such as this one, I could take my words back and happily turn into a city lady... with an additional village residence still!;)

Safdie Architects unveiled recently their giant project - ‘Condominium at Bishan Central’, -- a 38-story residential complex in the Bishan district of Singapore, comprising approximately 500 apartments. A special appeal includes individual penthouse-like roof terraces and public gardens for more than one-third of the individual residences - a dream option for city villagers!

The structure specially provides air movement to individual units while the upper balconies provide ventilation. The cluttered blocks of vertical space helps blend in the connections with nature with personal access to outdoor gardens.

{...Instead of independent towers, the condominium's two towers are linked by three bridging "sky gardens"...} Mr Safdie says: “While providing an unprecedented quality of life, mitigating a sense of density and concentration and maximising contact with nature, the complex also results in a village-like clustering of residential units, echoing hillside developments and the integration of architecture and plant life into a singular experience.”

Design and development works are in progress and the condominium is targeted to be launched for sale in the first half of 2012. 

Would you like to reside there? And how do you like a breathtaking ability of swimming in a pool located high in the sky?

Based on materials at propgoluxury and e-architect

Fashion Inspiration: GLACIAL GLAMOUR

Since I am somewhat puzzled as to what style to refer the looks below to, I think, it wouldn't be wrong to call it eclectic :). Here you'll find just a bit of everything - Gothic, flamenco, ethnic, cowboy and even some evening luxury... Enjoy!

Hyoni Kang for Flare magazine, December, 2011

RUSTIC MEXICO

Some colourful  homes in Mexico photographed by Seth Thompson.

 

Pink Kitchen, Pedro Pablo Corpus Home, Alamitos

Resting Man, Dominga Reyna Home, Alamitos

Gorditas, Vicente Navarro Puente Kitchen, Alamitos

Ernestina Martinez Romo Kitchen, Alamitos

Cave Kitchen, La Leona


Pedro Pablo Corpus Guesthouse, Alamitos

Vicente Navarro Puente Home, Alamitos

Pedro Pablo Corpus Guesthouse

Magenta Room, Tomasa Navarro Puente Home

You might like to see my post of Greece's Inner World - the similar kind of interiors, photographed by Stratis Vogiatzis.