Paco Rabanne's Metal Dresses

Below are some examples of Paco Rabanne's Metal Dresses.

Yes, they are made from thin strips of metal. Overall they are quite heavy - like wearing armour - but they are also amazing dresses and very rare.

Celebrities wearing new Chanel style dress that accentuates waist

Below is a simple but brilliant dress design from Chanel that makes a woman's breasts and hips look bigger, while simultaneously making their waist looking smaller.

No doubt designed to attract men.

But you have to admit it is pretty smart fashion design. Just wait and there will be prom dresses and wedding dresses designed using the same concept.

Below are two celebrities wearing two different versions of the new dress style, which I have decided to call "the Hourglass Dress".

Hemp Fiber Hats!!!

By Tamyka Bullen

Hats come in different shapes and come in different fibers. I only have one hat that is made of hemp and the design of it is so beautiful. It is hard to find more hemp hats at mainstreamed stores as you only find them at a few fair trade stores. When I bought the hemp hat, the texture was rough but wasn't itchy. It was flexible like the coil string that you can bent. Hemp hats are perfect to wear during the spring, summer and fall times.

What I do not know that there are some benefit to wear hemp hats...
1. They are lightweight, absorbant and longlasting.
2. They are UV and mold-resistant.
3. Hemp can blend with other fibers
4. They are organic since a little water is only required and is renewable resource.

Men's Steampunk Clothing!

By Tamyka Bullen.

A few years ago, I learned about the Steampunk culture and it fascinated me immediately. I want to go into a brief history behind of this culture. Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction that invented non-existing steam-powered machinery, especially in a setting inspired by industrialized Western civilization during the 19th century's British Victorian era or American "Wild West" in a post-apocalyptic future. These steam-powered machinery may be considered as anachronistic technologies or retro-futuristic. Never know if they will be happening in the distant future time when the number of human population decrease to brink of an extinction.

Currently, steampunk is treated as fashionable, cultured, an art and perhaps an architectural style. Traditionally, the steampunk incorporates fantasy, horror, historical fiction, alternate history or other branches of speculative fiction to make it a hybrid genre but not always necessary. Interesting about the term steampunk was brought in the literature in 1987 to describe all those fictious steam-powered machinery mentioned in classical novels written by well-known figures such as H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Philip Pullman, Scott Westerfeld, Stephen Hunt, China Mieville and more.

I wished we were in the Victorian period so I could wear steampunk clothes but realistically, they were too heavy to wear with those tools. I envisaged myself to wear this outfit you see in the picture below..


I imagined what men's clothes looked like...and I bet that their clothes had stories about themselves.

1. This man puffed his fancy pipe while carried his weapon behind his back. He wore common Victorian clothes. I wondered what was the story behind this picture. I guessed he was in a war-torn country where the government was deeply corrupted. If I was in the war-torn country, I wouldn't wear it because it required hours to dress it up, then put this heavy machine on my back. I would pant heavily while carry it when travel long. He didn't look so peaceful. Not a happy guy!


2. I wondered what happened to those three men who all of a sudden wore steampunk clothes in the 21st century? Perhaps, they were tired of seeing advertisements printed on clothes to coerce people to consume more until they became penniless. You never see advertisements on steampunk clothes and they always look polish while modern clothes come in from bum to polish.


3. Look at this tattooed and pierced man! He looked like he was just coming on the stage behind the curtain. I assumed that he was a famous illusionist who needed googles when performed magics. I envisaged his name should be Zachary Kilmt.


4. I believed that this red-haired man was highly skilled in trades! Anything needed to be fixed, take them to his place that is hidden in dense forest. You will notice his lovely treehouse. Sigh...what a magic!


5. This dignified-looking man steered his small passenger pick-up aircraft for a long time. He inherited this business from his one time thief mom. YES, I am serious and that was how they had this aircraft by stole it from other thief named Kevin Goodie. Kevin from the other picture, he always hid his face because he didn't want to be recognized by polices.


See below the real Kevin Goodie...


6. This man in the picture was a police. Hunting after Kevin Goodie was his long life-dedication! Look at his gun! We should be afraid of him. FYI...this police was not so sweet.


7. This lady craze dude never stopped fooling around with ladies! He loved to wear black steampunk clothes but didn't like to wear devices. When his eyes caught a pretty lady, he took off his clothes in a few seconds and said GRRR... True story, all his potential ladies ran away from him!


8. Oh my gosh...This guy was a long descendent of the famous playwright and poet named William Shakespeare!!! He is Henry Shakespeare. He writes a series of Zombie Romance books.

Archery Fashion Chic

Archery has been a big thing ever since all the archery movies that came out in 2012.

But frankly it only seems to be getting started. The sport of archery has seen a renaissance since the mid-2000s and all the recent archery movies and TV shows are just jumping on the bandwagon and pushing the sport into hyperdrive.

Actors like Jennifer Lawrence (photo on the right) are doing a lot to promote the sport of archery, and especially for women this means an activity women can excel at without having to worry about what the rest of society thinks of them.

eg. Like the stigma around female weightlifters and bodybuilders. So unlike bodybuilding women archers can exercise and have their cake too. (Although try to keep the cake to small portions, we are watching our waistline.)

But what about fashion and archery?

ARCHERY FASHION TIPS

#1. Tight Fitting Clothing.

Why? So the bow string doesn't rub against your clothing while you are taking a shot. Don't think of this as a limitation either. Think of it as a way to liberate yourself and explore your options.

#2. Dress for the Weather.

My advice? Wear tight fitting layers so that you can shed those layers whenever you want, depending on whether it is too hot or too cold.

#3. Wear a Sports Bra.

If you are a very busty gal this is going to be a must. The sports bra will flatten your breasts out more and the bowstring won't be rubbing against them in an awkward fashion.

#4. Arm Guard.

Leave space on your bow arm for an arm guard to protect your arm. You can even make your own arm guards (also known as bracers) using rawhide leather. Just cut out the shape of the armguard, poke holes in it with a knife, and then use a shoestring to stitch the sides of the armguard together like you would ice skates.

#5. Gloves.

You will need archery finger gloves or a release tab for your arrow hand, but for your bow hand some people like to wear a glove. My recommendation is to buy either weightlifting gloves or cycling gloves - because they will give you more grip and be fairly comfortable. Try them on in the store to make sure they fit and only buy gloves that feel comfortable to you.

#6. Hat.

Keeping the sun off while doing archery is a big deal. Baseball caps work, but they are a pain because you have to take them off every time you shoot. Feel free to experiment with floppy hats that fold back while you are drawing it back.

#7. Shorts or Skirts?

If it is very hot outside you are going to be tempted to wear shorts. But skirts work equally well, depends whether you want a tan or not. I don't recommend wearing pants or jeans if it is super hot outside however. The good news is that none of these below the waist fashion choices really matter for archery. You can wear a ballerina tutu if it makes you feel good.

#8. Shoes / Boots.

Wear footwear that gives you lots of stability. Archery is a sport about form and you want to be perfectly still and balanced while you make your shot. Wear shoes that give you the ability to balance easily - which means anything with heels is automatically not an option. (The photo below of the Asian girl wearing high heels is ridiculous!)

#9. Get a jacket that is tight fitting.

This goes back to #1 at the top, but basically many jackets are rather bulky and not suitable for archery. Try on a number of jackets in stores and try to find one that is comfortable, fashionable and form fitting.

#10. Costumes!

For fun you can also try medieval costumes - but try to follow the tips above so that the clothing is still suitable for archery and the weather / etc.

If you are looking for archery lessons in Toronto I recommend hiring a personal trainer from CardioTrek.ca.

Also check out the following pages:

Archery Equipment

Archery Lessons

Archery Rules

Toronto Archery Range

Toronto Archery Clubs

Toronto Archery Blogs

Fashionable Hearing Aids

Call it one of the great strides of the 21st century - the people who make and design hearing aids have been making great strides to make hearing aids more fashionable. Check out the photographs below of a selection of fashionable hearing aids that are now on the market.

Hearing aids are not just for old people either. Many people are born with hearing difficulties and need a little extra boost to hear clearly.

The problem is that most hearing aids during the 1980s and 1990s were down right ugly. But the market was there - chidren, teens, young people with hearing difficulties - who care about how they look and wanted something which catered to their needs.

And even elderly people felt hearing aids looked pretty ugly. Thus it was only a matter of time that companies realized the potential to make hearing aids beautiful and even artistic, that people could appreciate them more as a fashion accessory instead of just a hearing device.

There are many hearing aid clinics out there that you can go to and browse their selection of fashionable hearing aids. eg. The Omni Hearing Clinic in Vaughan offers a wide selection of hearing aids and also offers free hearing tests for people who think they might benefit from a hearing aid.

Some of the hearing aids even come with diamonds in them, or look more like ear rings. So they can get quite expensive (like buying jewelry) if you go for the hearing aids with diamonds, rubies, emeralds, pearls and sapphires in them.

Many of them are just stylishly made pieces of stainless steel, but you can also find gold, silver and other types of hearing aids. There is a wide variety of designs now available - and if you are anything like me, you would have different things for different fashion outfits.

Especially for kids - who are often the target of bullying by classmates, having a hearing aid that is beautiful instead of ugly makes a huge difference to stop bullying.

I think that is the beauty of fashion. Fashion isn't about who is dressed right and who is dressed wrong, it is about expressing your individuality. Which means spicing up your hearing aid by picking something you really like can make a huge difference in how people perceive you. They stop seeing the hearing aid and they see the person who chose to express themselves.

Awesome Crystal Jewelry from Canada

Check out the site "Beautiful Vegan Crystal Jewelry" which showcases some really awesome examples of crystal jewelry.

Good things to know about this jewelry... They are ALL NATURAL, made of crystals, wood, clay, silver and linen.

And they are TOTALLY FREAKING AWESOME!!!

Some of them are also made with resin, but the artist is this really kewl vegan woman from Toronto named "Lyn Rose", and her jewelry is just plain MIND BLOWING!

Corsetiere Melanie Talkington

Corsetiere Melanie Talkington got the call of her life in 2012... It was from the Musée de la Mode et du Textile in Paris, located in the Louvre, because they wanted to showcase some of her private corset collection, some 230 pieces that date back as far as 1820.

Corsetiere and fashion designer Melanie Talkington owns Lace Embrace Atelier, a shop and studio just off Main St. in Vancouver, Canada. She sells spectacular handmade corsets, as well as boudoir paraphernalia, including Patricia Fieldwalker silk nightgowns, modern bra/panty/girdle combos by French ’50s reproduction line Scandale, garters and elaborate stockings.

Her corsets are often replicas of vintage styles from her Paris-worthy collection. The grand creations, which can be remade in exotic fabrics, take six to eight weeks to finish making, and start at $600 and can sometimes cost thousands for a custom job. Ready to wear models begin at $250.

Buyers from around the world flock to her shop in Vancouver, sending Talkington their measurements via email. Some are so hard-core they leave their personal fit mannequins with her, including loyalists such as Burlesque superstar Dita von Teese or Cathie Jung (record holder for the world’s smallest waist - 15 inches).

Talkington graduated from Kwantlen University in Surrey, B.C., where she had to teach herself the lost art of corsetry as a hobby in-between classes; today, thanks to a resurgence of interest in the subject (and its liberal use by modern designers, including Dolce & Gabbana), modern corsetry is taught in many international fashion schools... But knowledge of traditional / vintage corsetry is limited. Talkington's obsession led her to study and collect many antique corsets, helping her to replicate the vintage styles.

“I am obsessed,” Talkington says. “But with the internet, I now know how many other people out there are as well!”

In her collection there is a rare red-wool 1860s corset. Vintage pieces can be dated by the length of their components, and by how they manipulate the bosom, waist or hip to match the fashions of the day.

There is a small international community of artisans, collectors and scholars with whom Talkington shares sources, such as the revived steel producer in France who provides her with steel for the stays. (These stopped being made of whalebone in the 1880s.)

The continued and growing popularity of burlesque shows in Canada means Talkington has a steady supply of fresh clients, as well as those who buy for special occasions (think weddings) as well as others who wear corsets daily (often to train their waists, or make them smaller).

She also has a number of male clients. “You put a corset on a man to flatten his stomach, and it makes his chest fuller, and gives him a military bearing,” says Talkington.

The Paris show, Behind the Seams: An indiscreet look at the mechanics of Fashion, includes 38 items from Talkington’s collection and starts in July at Musée de la Mode et du Textile, located in the decorative arts wing of the Louvre.

Talkington hopes to bring the exhibit home afterwards: She’s planning to display her collection at her shop or a local art gallery.