'Effortlessly chic' Meghan Markle named People's best dressed woman

LOS ANGELES -- Meghan Markle was named the best dressed woman of 2018 by People magazine on Wednesday in a rare accolade for royalty by the celebrity publication.

Markle, 37, who became the Duchess of Sussex when she married Britain's Prince Harry in May, topped People's annual list ahead of Hollywood actresses including Cate Blanchett and Sandra Bullock, human rights lawyer Amal Clooney and reality star Kim Kardashian.

Giving top honors to a royal family member marked a departure for the magazine.

"We have never had the list with royals or anyone outside of Hollywood. But when you talk about style and 2018 you cannot have that conversation without mentioning Meghan Markle," People's style and beauty director Andrea Lavinthal told Reuters.

"Her style was the one that really had the spotlight this year so we felt we had to not only put her on the list but make her the best dressed," Lavinthal said.

California-born Markle, the former star of the TV show "Suits," has featured prominently in magazines and newspapers since her engagement to Harry in November 2017. Their wedding was watched by millions around the world.

Markle has won plaudits for mixing outfits from retail fashion stores with designer couture, while flouting traditional British royal style by showing her bare legs, wearing off the shoulder outfits and arranging her hair in a messy bun for her wedding.

"Whether she is wearing a classic button down shirt and ripped jeans, like any other girl, or a couture wedding gown and a tiara, unlike most of us, she always looks effortlessly chic. There is something about her that looks polished without being too perfect," Lavinthal said.

People also praised Blanchett for consistently pulling off daring but flawless fashion designs, Clooney for a "bold and glamorous style that's all her own," and "Ocean's 8" star Bullock who the magazine said "has never looked more stunning."

Kardashian, who mixes casual looks inspired by husband Kanye West's Yeezy fashion line with figure hugging glamour, was given a social influencer award by the Council of Fashion Designers of America in June.

"She looked great this year. She really sticks to her own aesthetic. She certainly does what she wants," Lavinthal said.

People's 23-page style feature in this week's magazine arrives on U.S. newsstands on Friday.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Why Crocs is successful in Philippines, Asia

MANILA, Philippines - Whenever someone mentions Crocs, a image of brightly colored rubber clogs comes to mind.

But not many may be aware that the Crocs brand doesn't just have clogs, but a surprisingly wide array of styles. There are stylish wedge sandals and boots to suede loafers and sneakers, which are stylish and as comfortable as the clogs everyone loves.

Asians, especially Filipinos, have embraced Crocs with open arms. Asia now accounts for 41% of the company's total sales.

"Crocs opened their first store in Singapore in October 2005 and we have never looked back. In 2012, Asia accounted for 41% of Crocs’ $1.1 billion total sales," Tom Ramar, vice president for wholesale sales at Crocs Singapore, said in an interview with ABS-CBNnews.com.




Why are Crocs so popular in Asia?

"I think primarily it’s because we have developed new styles that are distinct to Crocs and yet very fitting for the Asian lifestyle. Asians live for comfort, and they can embrace that through Crocs without giving up their love for fashion. In Asia, Crocs is a lifestyle brand. It’s more than just a shoe; it’s something that can actually be a part of their daily lives," Ramar said

A perfect example is the Crocs Leigh wedge, which is stylish enough for a fashion-conscious woman to wear but extremely comfortable to wear all day long. The Leigh wedge was launched in 2009 and still remains one of its best-selling style.

"Women want to look good which is the reason why they choose the highest heels but often sacrifice their comfort. We at Crocs wish to provide them with both: style and comfort... More and more consumers look at us and can’t believe that the lines we’ve been launching are actually Crocs. Our Leigh Wedge Collection and our Beach Line Collection are examples of how much we have evolved in becoming a more fashionable brand that you can take to both work and play," Ramar said.

Another factor for Crocs' success in Asia is the weather. "Most of the Asian countries that we are in have warm, tropical weather that is perfect for Crocs. It’s not unusual for people to be in something casual at any given time of the year," Ramar said.

Crocs has been in the Philippines for 8 years. Asked how many Crocs has been sold here so far, Ramar said, "All I can say is that we have made a lot of feet happy since we arrived in the Philippines eight years ago. We have definitely brought comfort to a large number of people. Globally, we have sold over 200 million pairs in over 90 countries."

Ramar noted Filipino consumers are very enthusiastic about the brand, and are always active on Crocs' accounts on social networking sites.

"They are very responsive when new products come out, and are very vocal about how they feel. This has helped us usher in a new era of Crocs style and design. The Philippine market is discerning, and we appreciate that they are willing to spend for the quality of Crocs," he said.

Aside from the clogs, consumers also love the Crocs Beach Line and the recently launched Fall Holiday Collection.

"We have seen a rise in the sales of loafers for men, such as the l Boat Shoes and the Walu Lounger. For women, our Huarache collection and our stylish wedges have proved to be very popular," Ramar said.

The Fall Holiday collection features the Duet Sports Clog, Crocs Retro Sneaker, A-Leigh Closed Toe Wedge, Crocband Airy Sling Back, Gianna Glitter Flat and Thermalucent Snake Print Flat.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Bayo, Unica Hija merge

MANILA – Local fashion companies Bayo and Unica Hija announced Thursday that they will merge their businesses in a bid to expand their product and customer base and make their prices more competitive to the Philippine market.

The brands Bayo and Unica Hija, however, will stay as they cater to different market segments.

“Bayo caters to the multi-faceted Filipina who is constantly on the go but still wants to be effortlessly stylish. It is a multi-awarded brand offering fashionable yet timeless apparel, footwear, accessories such as bag and jewelry, as well as other merchandise for women. We also have recently expanded into children’s wear, enabling our customers to pass on their love for Bayo to a new generation,” Bayo general manager Pinky Estrebillo said in a statement.

Unica Hija general manager Cristy Basa, for her part, said: “Unica Hija caters to young Filipinas who are looking for outfits with contemporary silhouettes, vibrant colors and trendy designs at accessible price points.”

Aside from the merger, the two fashion companies announced that they have entered into a partnership with the Filipino clothing merchandise provider Power Fashion Inc. to support their demand for ready-to-wear fashion for women.

Power Fashion Inc. will be tasked to accredit local subcontractors for the two brands. The partnership with Bayo and Unica Hija will allow the company to invest in more factory space and create more jobs.

“The expansion of the manufacturing plants and the improvement of the quality of work by the subcontractors would surely benefit the labor sector. This will show the partners’ confidence in the local economy, going against current industry trends to source merchandise made from other companies,” said Leo Lagon, chief executive officer of Power Fashion Inc.

Both Bayo and Unica Hija have been in the retail business for about 20 years. Bayo has 50 standalone stores nationwide, while Unica Hija has more than 70 branches.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

5 tips on how to find your style

Finding your personal style is as easy as shopping for a new pair of shoes if you know your right size.

Follow Metro’s guide to a brand new you and discover your hidden style star.

1. Form your narrative

The key is founded knowledge. Who you are depends on a lot of things, like your educational background, the environment you grew up in, your work, your status, and your dreams and aspirations. Therefore, who you want to communicate yourself to be would depend on how you want to shape the conversation.

2. Know the difference between fashion and style

Style is how you put yourself together, something very personal. Fashion is just an interpretation of the culture around us.

3. Find your tribe

Tribes are subcultures where you might feel an affinity with. The way to go about it is to look through our workshop in Metrowear, “Style DNA,” where different personal style archetypes are dissected, with examples for each one.

4. Ask advice from your muse

Find your star style and figure out how much of what they’ve been wearing is something you might want to wear for yourself, given your body type.

5. Edit, then shop

The last thing you’ll have to do is to find the clothes that you’ll need for your look, and to start shopping for it. To do this, you’ll need a shopping list and a mood board similar to what we did earlier. That way, you’ll see which of your items can still be used, and which ones you can throw away.

For more on the article, check out Metro magazine's August 2013 issue out in newsstands nationwide. Digital edition available on the iTunes App Store.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

How to get the Lady Gaga look

Turn to the music greats for a little edgy inspiration to give your day-to-day look a little more punch!

With so many talented women in the music industry, it’s no wonder they’ve become trendsetters for this generation. With their free-spirited individuality, their style serves as a constant source of inspiration.

A perfect icon to take inspiration from is the ever-evolving “Mother Monster” herself, Lady Gaga. Always original, this fiercely creative artist has taken fashion and beauty to new heights with her over-the-top style. One of her signature looks graced the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, showcasing bright red lips, smoldering smoky eyes, winged lids, and a quirky hair bow to top it all off.

Read on for tips on how to translate Gaga’s wildness to realness!





Hair

1. Put two or three layers of extensions together, one on top of another, aligning the clips together at the top and hiding it inwards.
2. Carefully brush all the tangles out of the extensions.
3. Once the sides are folded together, spritz some hairspray on them to keep strays in place, Cautiously fold the two ends inwards, tying elastics around the middle once you’re done.
4. Put out the hair on the sides to give it shape and volume. Use hairspray to tame stray hairs. Repeat until you get the desired shape.
5. Then, take another layer (in the same color) and wrap it around the middle of you hair bow. Tuck in the stray hairs as you go. Secure with hairpins.
6. Finish off buy using hairspray to stiffen the bow and keep it in place.
7.  

Eyes

1. Start with a clean, smooth foundation.
2. Then, begin by layering your eye liner on—one layer at a time. Don’t color it in thickly on the first attempt or you’ll end up with clumpy lines. Instead, apply slowly using a cream-based liner with an eye liner brush. Add the lines in one after the other, going thicker and thicker and thicker as you go.
3. As you reach the desired level of thickness, begin lining from the middle then flick the brush upward as you reach the outer comer of your eye. Only do this with the final lines, since this type of wing-tip liner doesn’t really begin at the actual outer eye corner, but slightly above it.
4. Once you’re done, finish off with two layers of mascara to complete the look.
5. Pair with dark lipstick to amp it up or opt for nude lipstick to tone it down.
6.  

Tip: Feeling really brave? Use a concealer to erase your eyebrows the way Mother Monster did.

To know more about this style, checkout CHALK Magazine’s May 2013 issue, now available in newsstands and bookstores nationwide. Digital edition available on the App Store.


Credits
Photography by Dookie Ducay
Styling by RJ Roque
Makeup by Maui Manalo
Hair by Mark Familara
Model: Hye Won Jang of PMAP

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Katy Perry Launches Colorful Faux Eyelash Line

Envious of Katy Perry's bright-eyed look? Now you, too can cop her sassy style.

The pop singer unveiled a brand-new line of faux eyelashes just in time to dazzle your friends at parties this holiday season. But before you run out to snag some strip lashes of your own, eye the packaging carefully. Not only does it showcase some whimsical pop art with Perry's likeness on it, but the lashes themselves are pretty extraordinary too.


Aptly named Katy Perry Color POP Lashes by Eylure, the products come in bold shades like blue, purple and peacock green with cheeky names like Ka-Pow! and Ka-Boom!, just to name a few.

Color us surprised.

Retailing at $7.99 at Claire's, the strip lashes and one set of individual lashes were personally designed by the star to give fans a jolt of unexpected electric color.

Would you wear colorful faux lashes designed by Katy Perry?

source: eonline.com

Skincare On A Cellular Level

MANILA, Philippines — There is truth in advertising. At least as far as the existence of Ponds Institute is concerned, that’s one truth. This and more were revealed during the recent brand launch held at the Midas Hotel where select media guests were billeted for two days, VIP-style.

“I promise you the Ponds Institute is real,” assures Pond’s senior brand manager Jacqe Yuengtian who has been to two of the four locations of the institute namely New York and Shanghai. The other two are located in Madrid and Tokyo. “The institute is created to study the ever changing needs of women today. It is the scientific hub of all the beauty breakthroughs and advancement that we have as a company.”

According to Yuengtian, the institute has “over 700 scientists committed to doing research with over $250 million worth of funds committed to giving women what they want.” “Even if they’re all over the continent and given a specific innovation to develop, each of them can get in touch with the rest of the three… it is upon this exchange of ideas that the Ponds products are really founded,” she says.

To further prove the existence of the institute and reveal more truths about the brand’s latest innovations in skin-whitening and anti-aging, Ponds flew in from New York one of its brilliant scientists, Dr. Helen Meldrum, to explain the science behind Ponds New Age Miracle and Ponds New Flawless White.


Turn back the time

“Your real age does not define how you really look. We all know that and there’s really no big surprise, it kind of makes sense. We would talk to dermatologists and doctors in the medical profession and they’ve said some insightful things to us. They said they don’t need to look at how healthy or unhealthy an individual is. They only need to look at their skin and that immediately gives them a read on how old that person is and how good or bad they look for their age,” says Dr. Meldrum.

Aging is as much more environmentally driven as it is genetic according to Dr. Meldrum. Wrinkles and age spots are caused by the underlying changes taking place in a person’s skin as they age. The good news is, there’s an opportunity to look younger than your actual age. At the Ponds Institute, they developed a technology that reverses the aging process giving consumers the end benefits of younger looking skin.

Dr. Meldrum continues: “We really built on the technology of our existing mixes to build even more ‘actives’ that are going to go in and renew your cellular pathways of aging. And in this range we have six bio-actives that all work in the cellular level.”

The New Ponds Age Miracle has CLA, the miraculous ingredient that stimulates skin cells, thus promoting faster cellular turnover; Retinol, the best-proven ingredient that works to produce and repair collagen; two retinol boosters that accelerate epidermal rejuvenation; Alpha Hydroxy Acid (AHA) which exfoliates skin by removing skin-dulling dead cells; Glycerine which moisturizes the skin; and 12HSA which works deep within skin to renew skin cells and adapts to the unique genetic framework of skin.

“Aging is multifactorial and you’ve seen all the different end points of the skin, changes in the dermis, changes in the epidermis so we know that we’re not going to stop the aging problem by just adding one magic ‘active’; that’s not going to work. What we recognized is that we need different actives for the different layers of the skin to have maximum benefit,” explains Dr. Meldrum.

Redefining white

Meanwhile, another breakthrough innovation in the brand’s skin-lightening line is the new GenActiv™ Formula in the new Pond’s Flawless White. It is a result of 10 years of research on more than 20,000 gene codes in the Pond’s Institute. They discovered that a certain set of genes influences skin darkening by triggering melanocytes – the melanin producing cells – to produce more melanin that eventually makes skin darker.

“Cells are important for making the melanin. UV light will stimulate melanin and the contact between the different cells is absolutely critical for giving us our overall skin tone… In the Ponds Institute we understand a lot of the different pathways in the molecular level, in the gene level and we understand what switched on to ultimately make melanin and this is important for us to be able to modulate and reduce it.”

The new Pond’s Flawless White combines Niacinamide with 12 HSA, two potent ingredients, which go deep down the skin’s basal layer - preventing genes from triggering melanin production. This and other vital whitening ingredients such as SPF 18 PA++, Allantoin and Optics System make the new Pond’s Flawless White Pond’s most advanced and effective whitening technology yet.

“Up front, this is not about changing your genetic makeup; it’s evening out the skin pigmentation. Our genes give rise to the protein that induces melanin production so ultimately by understanding the genes, we can understand the pathways and then we can intervene in those pathways,” Dr. Meldrum concludes.

Celebrate romance this February with Pond’s Show off your youthful glow with the Pond’s Age Miracle Valentine’s promo. From February 14 to March 15, post a photo or video of your Greatest Acts of Love on Pond’s Facebook Wall and get the chance to win a romantic getaway for two in one of Asia’s most gorgeous destinations—Bali. The chosen winner must present a valid receipt to show purchase of Pond’s Age Miracle Day Cream (50g) bought in any Watson’s branch during the promo period. Make your Valentine’s more memorable and exciting with beautiful and younger-looking skin only with Pond’s. Visit www.facebook.com./pondsphilippines to know more about this exciting event.

source: mb.com.ph

Sexy Sirens

MANILA, Philippines — There will always be the good and the bad at the Grammys, and we choose to look at the positive fashion highlights. It seems that most of the guests came in nude-colored lips and smoky eyes that speak of subtle sexiness. Their fashion choices complement this understated sensuality with the use of see-through and sheer fabrics with amazing beadwork.

Adele was the queen of the night at the recent Grammys—not only did she bag the most awards, she walked down the red carpet in simple, sophisticated beauty. Dressed in an all-black ensemble (first, in Giorgio Armani, then second, in Burberry), she paired these gowns with sparkles such as a 12.4 carat diamond ring by Harry Winston, and lavender glitter nail polish. Her shoulder-length blonde hair and smoldering eyes (with an overdose of faux lashes) added a sultry air to her classic look.

Fergie showed up in a fiery, red, lace serpentine number by Jean-Paul Gaultier that showed off a simple set of black lingerie that’s reminiscent of a T-shirt bra and high-waist panties. Some say it was a bit racy, but we beg to disagree. It’s a great mix of contrast fabrics and styles. The lace gives off a vintage feel, while the underwear set adds a modern twist to it. When Ryan Seacrest asked her about what she was wearing, she shares “I had two choices. This is the safe one.” Now, this left us wondering what the other one was.

It seems that Katy Perry’s styling team has more blue magic up their sleeves. Elie Saab produced another fully beaded cornflower blue gown. With an A-line cut skirt, quarter sleeves and cinched at the waist with a blue ribbon, Katy Perry looked every inch the princess in this monochromatic look---with her electric blue hair in an up ‘do style.

Paris Hilton picked a Basil Soda gown made of delicate lace and, perhaps, silk chiffon. Strategically-placed lace keeps this sexy as it slightly showed off the heiress’ neck, cleavage and legs. A thin, metallic belt served as the only contrast to this off-white gown. It’s a grown-up version of a playful gown that’s still very “Paris Hilton.”

Rihanna showed up in a black dress with a low-front neckline, and high-slit (front and center)— “a collaboration between Mr. Armani and myself,” Rihanna shares with Ryan Seacrest on E Online! “We have a pretty good relationship now, since we’ve been working together on the campaign and designing a capsule line for his collection…” the singer beamingly adds. We can’t wait to check out this new team-up.

Taylor Swift’s golden choice by Zuhair Murad was the talk of the town. Fully beaded on a sheer fabric that serves as an overlay to a nude lining, Swift has topped the fashion charts again with this number. When asked by Seacrest on what she was wearing: “It’s one of my favorite dresses that I’ve ever gotten to wear, actually. It’s just one of those dresses that when you look at it, I am so impressed that someone made that. The handiwork is so beautiful, the design is just wonderful. So when I saw it months ago, and I kinda said, we gotta save it for the Grammys.” A very good decision, indeed!

source: mb.com.ph