Category: Spring 2017

Accessories /

EXPERT TIPS FOR SHOPPING THIS SEASON’S LOOKS | Jamie Krell

From off-the-shoulder tops to distressed denim and caged sandals to mini backpacks, the fashion trends for Spring 2017 are inspiring women across the country to try a bolder look.

On Wednesday, April 19,  style expert Jamie Krell shared the latest Spring fashion trends, and secrets to seamlessly shopping the hottest brands at the best price, and dressing to express your personal style.

Looking for this season’s in-demand styles?

  • Trending tops include statement sleeves, sheer blouses and one-shoulder silhouettes
  • Experiment with a pink color palette – you can wear the hue boldly with a dress, or use it as an accent accessory
  • Denim never goes out of style, this season try raw-edge hems or personalized patches
  • Caged and flatform sandals means comfortable chic will rule
Short on time for browsing? eBay Fashion empowers shoppers to embrace their own definition of style – from J. Crew to Madewell, Tory Burch to Dolce Vita, viewers can find all of the brands they love in one place, with fast and free shipping. 81% of items on eBay are brand new, and 87% are available to buy now (which means fixed price – no bidding required).

 

A recognized on-air contributor, Jamie Krell began her career in the fashion world working with the costume designer of the TV show Friends. She often shares her style expertise on the Today Show, EXTRA, Access Hollywood, E! News.

Beauty /

Give Mom the Star Treatment | Mother’s Day

This Mother’s Day, give mom the star-treatment she deserves with the beauty essentials from the best in the industry. Rita Hazan, Mally Beauty and WelleCo have the offerings to make your mom feel like a celebrity on her special day.

v  Rita Hazan Root Concealer Touch Up Stick: This product masks fast-growing grays around the hairline and defines the eyebrows. The unique cream formula grips hair easily, while depositing buildable color instantly. It glides onto the skin and hair smoothly, creating clean, defined brows. A brush is also provided to help comb through any excess product to prevent smudging.

Available Shades: Dark Brown/Black, Light Brown and Dark Blonde

Price: $25

Where to buy: ritahazan.com

v  Mally Beauty Glowing Goddess Luminizer:  Give mom the tools to make her glow like the goddess she is with this featherweight luminizer. This sheer, silky formula delivers instant radiance to the skin wherever it’s applied. It’s also enriched with vitamins and antioxidants to help protect the skin.

Price: $29

Where to buy: Ulta Beauty stores and ulta.com

v  WelleCo Sleep Welle Fortified Calming Tea: This natural and effective blend of herbs is great to drink before bed if you have difficulty sleeping. It harnesses three powerful ingredients, skullcap, valerian root and hops, combined with lemon balm, passionflower and natural lemon and mango flower to create a mild fruity and soothing drink.
Price: $69
Available: welleco.com

Beauty /

Last Minute Packing Essentials For Coachella

Coachella starts this weekend, so as you finish packing be sure to have these beauty necessities in your bag before you head to the desert to keep your festival style perfect all weekend long!
Featured Photo from H&M.com
Keep your skin clean and fresh with KORRES Pomegranate Cleansing & Make-up Removing Wipes after a day in the desert sun. Perfect for on-the-go cleansing, these oil-free face wipes remove eye and face make-up, dirt and oil while also providing skin with mattifying, toning, pore-minimizing and moisturizing benefits. Infused with Pomegranate extract and the softening, moisturizing properties of vitamin E, these facial cleansing wipes will remove even the most stubborn face and eye make-up, including waterproof mascara. ($15; Sephora.com)
Take your Cuvée Essentials wherever you go for festival ready hair. A three-piece travel set to help prolong any style, the Shampoo, Conditioner and Styling Balm are the basics for the girl on the move. Shampoo and Conditioner to gently cleanse, add shine and hydration. Styling balm will help protect, tame frizz, without weighing hair down. Now that’s glamour on the go! ($30; CuveeBeauty.com)
Store the Lavanila Laboratories Mini Sport Luxe Deodorant in your bag to stay fresh all day long while dancing in the sun. This deodorant was created for life in motion. Lavanila’s proprietary, award-winning beta glucan technology is infused with SmartSport™ for high-performance defense and nourishment, and bursts with long-lasting vanilla breeze freshness to break down sweat molecules and deliver superior, invisible, all-natural odor protection. ($9; Lavanila.com)
Keep your hair out of your face while looking chic and glamourous, with the Hairdo French Braid Band! Simply slide on the braid band as you would with any elasticized headband. It’s the perfect and easy way to add an extra wow-factor to a simple hairstyle! ($10; Ulta and Ulta.com)
Accessories /

Effortlessly Chic White Pieces to Wear This Summer

A brand for women who want to wear who they are, Jessture mixes high quality, luxury fashion with edgy, affordable pieces. With a muted palette dominated by grays, whites, and blacks, show off your unique style with sophisticated statement pieces from Jessture’s Spring/Summer collection.

Wrap yourself in the white hot looks from Jessture – a New York-based brand that celebrates true beauty and provides clothing for the independent, modern woman.

Chic White: The essence of comfort and style, this beautiful button down dress will be a breeze to wear for all your spring and summer looks. Perfect for a business meeting or a brunch date.

Cold Shoulder Style: Make a statement with Jessture’s perfectly pleated pants, or pair this chic, cold shoulder style top with white jeans for a classic look.

Down To The Details: A comfortable, cute sweatshirt can be hard to find. Keep warm in this number that spells instant chic. With intricate zipper detail and an edgy, offbeat vibe, you’ll be bundled up in true beauty.

Designer Jessica Hu crafted Jessture on the idea that people should not let their clothes define who they are. With inspiring pieces molded to celebrate the uniqueness of the modern woman, this minimalistic brand helps every gal be ready for show off her style every day.

We won’t be stylin’ in Spring for long – transition into the trends of fall with a sneak peek of Jessture’s Fall/Winter Collection. These distinctive, daring designs reveal your personal style in a flawlessly fresh way. Feel empowered by the bold blacks and greys of this contemporary casual collection.

Jessture is now available for pre-order at www.jesstureny.com. For a sample for a feature, contact me at maggie@chicexecs.com.

ABOUT JESSTURE

With a passion for art, life, beauty and fashion, designer and founder Jessica Hu entered the fashion industry to create a brand that allowed people to define and express their true selves with their own, unique styles. Your gesture – Jessture – is your own style. A contemporary, casual womenswear brand, Jessture was born from minimalist motivation and a desire to provide simple, comfortable and chic clothing to the modern day woman.

 

 

Fashion /

Maria Borges – May 2017 Cover Star for Elle USA

Maria Borges will be the first African woman to appear on the cover of Elle Magazine.

She stated “The fashion industry is here for everyone, [regardless] of color or race. When I was growing up, I never saw someone like me, and now the other girls can see someone like them. It’s all about inspiration.”

Maria started her career as a Givenchy exclusive and walked the runway for fashion houses such as Anna Sui, Jason Wu, Tom Ford, Balmain, and Oscar De La Renta.

The magazine issue will be available (everywhere) on April 18, 2017.

Accessories /

MICA Fiber Students Explore Limits of Fashion

The Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) presents For a Limited Time Only, an experimental fashion event produced by MICA Fiber students in the program’s yearlong Multi Media Event course. The annual event will take place Saturday, April 22, 5 and 8:30 p.m., at the Baltimore War Memorial Building, 101 N. Gay Street.

Featuring 15 individual collections that mix fashion, performance, dance, puppetry and other media and disciplines, For a Limited Time Only highlights the range of designs, materials and conceptual ideas Fiber students employ in their ready-to-wear and high-concept fashion collections.

Developed out of MICA Fiber faculty Laure Drogoul’s Multi Media Event course, students spend two semesters working together to conceptualize and plan all aspects of producing a full-scale fashion event, including runway construction, custom lighting design and managing over 200 models, volunteers and staff who make the show happen.

The course emphasizes a collaborative and shared vision, which is embodied by the joint statement issued by the students on this year’s theme:

“For a Limited Time Only is an experimental fashion event that explores the novelty of impermanence. It aims to subvert the commercial aspect of the phrase and focus on the ephemeral nature of performative art.”

Select collections include:

Syncopation, by Erica Oh, uses the musical concepts of remixing and sampling to reference the shared cultural history of hip hop, dance and fashion.

Flora, by Cindy Perdomo, is inspired by textures from nature, such as a leaves and condensation droplets, to represent the mundane beauty of life that surrounds us.

Alisha Glenn’s Swampies mixes elements of puppetry and costume to create playful fictional creatures inspired by nature.

An image gallery of student designs can be viewed here.

Participating designers include Alison Baskerville, Carol Chu, Amanda Elie, Alisa Glenn, Suwan Kim, Brit Kolich, Ashley Lian, Demetra Maheras, Alie Medina-Fetterman, Erica Oh, Cindy Perdomo, Arooj Qamar, Caroline Smouse, Alessandra Vasi and Babs Weiss.

Click here for more information about For a Limited Time Only, with individual student profiles and more information about their fashion lines.

Tickets can be purchased in person at the MICA store or online at store.mica.edu. General admission is $14 and $7 for students with a valid ID. Doors open approximately 30 minutes prior to showtime.

Fashion /

13th Annual Toilet Paper Wedding Dress Contest

Everyone likes to save money here and there. And for some, saving money on weddings is more than a hobby, and a little less than an obsession. Laura Gawne and Susan Bain operate the popular websites www.Cheap-Chic-Weddings.com and TPDressContest.com.

Cheap Chic Weddings is thrilled to welcome their NEW Presenting Sponsor Quilted Northern Toilet Paper! Since 2004, the Cheap Chic Weddings Toilet Paper Wedding Dress Contest has challenged creative minds from across the country to create a wearable, on-trend wedding dress and headpiece from only toilet paper, glue, tape and needle and thread. Quilted Northern® is excited to supply toilet paper that has been crafted with the highest attention-to-detail for over 100 years – making it luxurious enough for a wedding dress.

Contestants have until June 5, 2017 to submit their paper masterpieces. Top ten entries will be chosen then online voting will be open to the public.

The top ten dresses and their designers will be flown to New York City to participate in a live fashion show finale event at a fabulous Peerspace.com event space in New York City on July 20, 2017 where the top three winners will be chosen.

At the Finale Event, the dress entries will be judged by Cheap Chic Weddings founders, a representative from Quilted Northern®, a representative from Sponsor Ripley’s Believe It or Not! and celebrity guest judges Jenna Ushkowitz, Actor, Singer, Producer and Author as well as Mikie Russo, Celebrity Party Planner and Lifestyle Expert!

“We are always excited to see what our talented contestants dream up.” says Susan Bain, Co-Founder of Cheap Chic Weddings. “We can’t wait to see how our contestants will work with the meticulously designed Quilted Northern® Toilet Paper! We know it’ll be a wonderful match!” added co-founder Laura Gawne.

The Grand Prize winner will receive $10,000, the second place winner will receive $5000 and the third place winner will receive $2500.

 

Here’s How to Enter:

First: Plan your design.

Second: Grab some Quilted Northern Toilet Paper (Quilted Northern Ultra Plush or Quilted Northern Ultra Soft & Strong, or Both), tape, glue and/or needle and thread (that’s all you can use)! To help offset the cost of designing these memorable creations; Quilted Northern is providing coupons by request at TPDresscontest@gmail.com

Third: Make the dress and headpiece on your model or mannequin and take some clear, well-lit, unaltered digital photos (front, back and side). The dress must be able to be worn by a human!

All photos and an Official Entry form are to be submitted to Cheap Chic Weddings at TPDresscontest@gmail.com by June 5, 2017 at 11:00 PM EST. There is no entry fee. The Judging Panel at Cheap Chic Weddings will judge the initial digital photo entries.

View contest info: http://www.cheap-chic-weddings.com/wedding-contest-2017.html

Official contest rules along with lots of other wedding cost saving tips and information can be found at www.Cheap-Chic-Weddings.com.

Accessories /

Ann Taylor Classic Pants – Wardrobe Staple

Like your favorite LBD or go-to pair of jeans, a classic pair of pants is a staple in any wardrobe – although they aren’t the most fun to shop for.  Now, instead of expecting you to fit the pants, Ann Taylor created the pants that fit you.

With 3 silhouettes (ankle, crop, trouser), fits, heights, 11 sizes and endless colors, Ann Taylor designed the pants to fit the full range of women who wear them, offering something for every body.  Please see below selections featuring pant styles ranging from on trend prints and bright hues to classic pin stripes and pant suits. 

Ann Taylor /

TALK OF ALABAMA LIFESTYLE SEGMENT – Spring 2017 Fashion & Beauty Trends

Yesterday, I hosted a Lifestyle Segment on Talk of Alabama; sharing fashion and beauty must-haves to help everyone look their best for the new season.

This segment featured not only beauty products but also touched upon the latest fashion trends from Ann Taylor Spring 2017 Collection.

The products I presented on ABC 33/40 included Over EZ, Paraguard, G. M. Collin Instant Radiance Anti-Aging Eye Patches, DECLEOR Aurabsolu Refreshing Mist, Bioré Skincare Acne Collection, Curél Hydra Therapy Wet Skin Moisturizer, Ban Roll-On Deodorant, Spa @ Home by Masque Bar Sleeping Mask, Rimmel London Magnif’Eyes Eye Contouring Palette, KORRES Body Butter in Basil Lemon, LAVANILA Laboratories The Healthy Fragrance-Free Deodorant, Crest Whitening System, and Vaseline Intensive Care Spray Lotion.

Here’s the breakdown:

Face

DECLEOR Aurabsolu Refreshing Mist

Bioré Skincare Acne Collection

Spa Home Mask

Rimmel London

Crest Whitening System

Body

Over EZ

Paraguard

G. M. Collin Instant Radiance Anti-Aging Eye Patches

Ban Deodarant

Curel

Vaseline Spray Lotion

Korres Lotion

Fashion

Tassel Suede Pumps

Bell-Sleeve Silk Blouse

Ruffle Front Sweater

Click Here To Watch:  TALK OF ALABAMA

Accessories /

Mother’s Day Style and Shopping List from Ann Taylor

It’s time to start thinking about what you’d like to gift your mom – and what she would like to wear – on Mother’s Day (May 14).

Ann Taylor’s Spring 2017 collection features trends such as bow and tassel details, earthy neutrals, gem stones and swinging spring dresses – perfect for any taste or style.  The brand’s International Women’s Day Scarf collection ($128 at AnnTaylor.com) is also a great way to honor the women and mothers in your life – with each scarf hand-dyed by women from a village in the Himalayas, all as unique as the women who made them.

I would also like to highlight the new video, This is Ann, which highlights past, present and futures generations of women and the victories they have achieved, to consider sharing as well.