Archive for the ‘Fashion’ Category
Hijabs – The Modern Faces Behind the Muslim Head Scarf
February 7th, 2010 | 
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Muslim women started wearing hijabs or other head coverings centuries ago in order to keep in step with the modesty taught by their religion. However, with the passage of time, people started embracing the westernized way and covering the head no longer remained the center of focus for a number of Muslim women. Some named it liberation, others named it modernization. However, when a few years ago the Non Muslim world created a misconception about hijabs symbolizing radicalism. At that point, a vast majority of Muslimahs become more conscious of restoring their religious as well as ethnic identities and reverted back to the use of head coverings for themselves. Today regardless of what country they are in, Muslim women globally have embraced more modest ways of dressing including the use of jilbabs, abayas and most of all hijabs.
There are a number of famous Muslim women that also endorse the fact that covering the head is not a sign of oppression or fundamentalism. In reality, these women cover their heads to please Allah swt, who is the creator of the entire mankind. From news anchors to political activist, scholars to scientists, a large number of famous Muslim women proudly wear their hijabs in public and feel more confident while covering their heads. Read the rest of this entry »
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Maintaining and Caring For Your Leather Clothing
Leather is a very controversial material, some admonish the material, and some demand its removal from the marketplace completely and some simply love the material. Whatever your personal views are about leather, it has been a clothing material for thousands of years and most likely will continue to be an available material for many years to come.
If you’re in the group that enjoys this material then I have several tips and tricks in keeping your leather items cared for. These suggestions will extend the viable life of your leather apparel and allow you to enjoy the items for many years to come.
Caring for leather items is as simple as this.
1. Clean the Leather
2. Condition the leather
3. Polish the leather
4. Protect the leather
And the most important aspect of protecting and extending the life of your leather garments is proper storage.
Cleaning
1. DUST is the number one enemy against leather longevity. Remove it regularly; every time you put on or take off a leather item you should dust it with a clean soft cloth. Dust accumulation will begin to act like sandpaper, especially in the places where two surfaces of the leather come in contact. This will begin to dry out the leather, and then form micro-cracks which will in turn develop into real cracks, exposing the internal grain to natural processes that will accelerate the deterioration of the leather. Read the rest of this entry »
Finding Your Best Colours
Some people always look gorgeous and radiant without looking like they have made an effort. What is their secret? Perhaps they have got a stylist like the celebrities who picks out just the right outfit to wear, but it is more likely that they either have the natural ability to pick out their best colours or they know the tricks of the styling trade and how to find their own best colours.
These are the colours that you wear that instantly make you feel stylish; the colors that make your skin really glow and get you countless compliments. Once you know what these colors are, it is easy to base your wardrobe around them guaranteeing you will always look gorgeous. So how do the stylist’s pick out someone’s best colours?
Well there are a couple of different methods. The first is by looking at your hair, skin and eyes and the contrast between the three. As a general rule, if there is a lot of contrast e.g. very dark hair and pale skin, then you can wear bolder and brighter colors. Those with medium brown hair and medium skin will probably look better in paler more muted colours.
You can also look at the undertones of your skin to see whether you have a warm or cool skin tone. Warmer skin tones will have brown, beige, yellow and olive undertones and will tend to look amazing in clothes in browns, reds and yellows. Cooler skin tones have blue, rose, pink, purple undertones. They tend to look stunning in clothes in blue, green and purples.
Another great way of assessing your best colours is to look at your eyes in natural light. The colours that you can see will be some of your best colours.
Finally, a great way to find your best colours is to use the knowledge and experience of the celebrity stylist. This is really fun and a very good way of getting the benefit of a top stylist’s judgement with out the very expensive fee. All you have to do is find a celebrity that has similar coloring to you, and then look at the outfits she has worn to important events. You can bet that she has had a stylist carefully select the outfit in one of her best colors and you can then try this colour yourself. A good hair colourist will also be skilled at picking out peoples best colours and will be able to give you some ideas.
Picking out colours is not an exact science and may require you try out a few different options. You will have a whole range of colours that look great on you and to be absolutely sure that they are your best colour, try holding them against your face.
Your Own Style
The key to your own individual style is that it is unique to you and it makes you look and feel great. It should suit you in terms of your body shape, colouring, life style and personality. If you are a bold and outgoing person, this can be reflected in your style by wear bold prints, bright colors and eye catching statement prints. If you are quiet and introvert but love quality and luxury, this can be reflected in your style by wearing clothes made from luxurious fabrics in muted colors. If you are very feminine your signature style may include bows, frills and floral.
Take some time to think about the shapes of clothes that really suit your body type. There are plenty of books and magazines on the subject and it shouldn’t take you too long to discover a few basic shapes of clothes that will look great on you. You should base your wardrobe around these shapes.
Then you should take some time to think about practicalities. If you spend most of your time and need to wear formal or very smart work wear, your zany, eclectic streak may have to wait until the weekend, but you could perhaps try adding a few interesting accents to your outfit perhaps with a few colourful accessories. If you walk every where or have a practical job, your signature style will need to reflect this, but it doesn’t mean that you have to wear jeans all of the time. Why not try dresses or tunics with a pair of trousers or leggings or even shorts with tights?
Once you have established key shapes and practicalities of your wardrobe, now comes the fun bit. You can add patterned, colored and textures pieces plus accessories to really show off your personality. Accessories can either be the finishing touches to your outfit or a statement in their own right. Some people will want lots of colours, patterns and accessories whilst other will prefer minimalist clean lines with perhaps one or two simple accessories. The best thing about developing your own personal style is it is up to you, you can choose. Try out different looks and see what works best. You can get inspiration from so many different places from the designer runways and celebrity styles to historical costumes and street style. The important thing is that you add your own personal twist and make it your own.
High Heel Use
But really, is wearing heels as easy as what we see on film? Of course not. We know that these girls also pause for between-scenes rest. Besides, if you really get to wear high heels in real life, you know that you can’t just run around in them haplessly! They really hurt, you know!
We love wearing heels because they make our legs look longer and they make our butts look more plump, over all, improving the way our body looks. Also, it forces us to stand straight, so we don’t feel awkward. Heels command respect and smarts, and that makes a woman in high heel difficult to disregard. However, if we wear them most of the time or all the time, we can be subject to a lot of pain and other foot problems, because our heels are “aggravated” by the constant inconvenience.
The problems of high heel usage can range from simple muscle pain to corns, bunions, calluses and misshapen hammertoes! Now just imagine those! There are also kinds of pains which can worsen as time goes by and one day you’ll just woke up with abnormal muscle contractions!
The thing is, it’s nice to see high heels but let’s not always exchange comfort for style. According to a survey by the American Podiatric Medical Association, there’s a whopping 42% of women who wore shoes and heels even if it doesn’t make them comfortable and there are 74% of them who admitted that they have foot problems due to shoe discomfort already.
So if you’re one of those women who patronize heels (or any kind of not-so-comfy shoes), better wake up and stop hurting yourself. If you must wear heels, do so in the most comfortable manner, and if you must wear stilettos, give your feet a rest from time to time.
Animal Rubber Band
Animal rubber bands are extremely popular these days. Kids are wearing these colorful shaped bands from Algonquin to Maine, but are they completely safe? The brief answer is no, but what is completely safe these days? Like any another behave on the ridge there module always be country concerns when you let small kids play with small objects. The purpose of this article is to give anyone purchase birdlike bracelets a heads up concerning safety. I am no country expert, but I was raised with common sense from two beatific parents and I am trying to do the same for my two boys. My opinion haw be worth what it costs, but I want to share my thoughts on this subject. My oldest son and I hit been collecting birdlike bands for several months now. I hit watched him and his friends play with them with no major country concerns so far, but the another day I thought of a couple of issues that could pose a problem. He has not done any of the things I module discuss and I hope he never does.
The prototypal country concern I hit is kids putting birdlike bracelets in their mouth. I don’t know about you, but I can advert when I was a little kid I chewed on rubber bands a time or two. I don’t know why I did this. Maybe I was bored, maybe I was pretending they were bubble gum, but for whatever think I did it. As with any small object there is a real choking risk if kids put these things in their mouth. Some of the packages I hit purchased hit the choking hazard warning for children under three listed on the label, but most don’t. So watch your kids while they are wearing them and remind them ofttimes to never put anything another than food in their mouths. Also, watch their little brothers and sisters. My youngest is two, so I am constantly on the lookout for wander birdlike bands on the floor or within reach of little fingers.
The second country concern I want to talk about is the way silicone bands are able to shoot across the room just like regular rubber bands. Growing up my friends and I had some pretty wicked rubber band wars. We would shoot rubber bands at each another in class. It was fun until someone took digit to the face. The wars usually ended pretty quickly after that. The silicon rubber used to attain birdlike bands is just as elastic as regular rubber bands, so don’t let your kids shoot them. We hit a hard rule in our house. If you shoot em you lose em. It only takes digit shot to ruin everyone’s fun.
About Costume Jewelry
One of the best ways to lift any outfit is through the addition of jewelry, but of course, many pieces seen on the catwalks and red carpets across the celebrity world are expensive. And it is here, above anything else, that costume adornment comes to the fore. With many wonderful items to choose from, there is a wealth of looks that can be achieved.
Once thought of as being ‘cheap’, costume adornment is far from this. It is affordable, but certainly not a cheap alternative. This is increasingly the case as more and more of us buy into the product; with the man-made materials now close to a par with the beauty, sparkle and radiance to be institute in uncolored gems.
Such has been the advance in man-made gems over recent years, it would be hard to tell digit apart from the other the days; certainly with the naked eye from a non professional. The costs are not just kept down from man-made gems though; with metal construction being key too.
Though gold, silver and other wanted metals are used; the quality is not always the best. Often too, costume adornment tends to have metal plating. These can tarnish and wear quite quickly, though with a little care and attention, they can last several years.
For a more durable product, an item constructed with layered metals, or overlaid onto a cheaper base metal can last a lot more effectively. That the idea of costume adornment is likewise glam up outfits and be for irregular wear; it is not hard to see why these can, often, last a lifetime and beyond.
Though the price continues to be an obvious attraction; so likewise is the sheer variety that is available. Though course created gems vary wonderfully across a kaleidoscope of colors; man-made crystals do not disappoint here. Indeed, there is even argument to suggest that more colors can be created; certainly colors that can close match a particular outfit.
There are wide array of materials used. Metals are used as discussed above; but more than this they can be institute made from stone, plastics, shell, wood and softer materials. Again, this variety simply allows items to be ideally matched with clothing; texture, color and any other factor.
The versatility of the pieces is also huge; with an item being suited to a host of events; be it a regular day in the cubicle or a night out at a top restaurant. You haw substantially have a change of clothes for a quick dash out; but some of us carry additional jewelry.
With such affordability, variety of design, and versatility of function, it is easy to see why popularity of these items continues to advance. Indeed, there is no think why digit or two pieces cannot be purchased for each outfit in the wardrobe.
It is also great fun to change the way you countenance now and then likewise of course; and it is here that perhaps costume adornment is so substantially loved. It is not necessarily an deciding to real jewelry, and certainly not an deciding to investment; but they’re certainly recognize partners to have on the dressing table.
Select the Perfect Pink Pearls
Renown as a symbol of purity and eternal beauty, pearls are an ideal gift for Valentine’s Day, wedding, birthday or anniversary. Pearls are available in a variety of colors in addition to the traditional white color. Pink pearls are coming into their own as a fashion statement due to their rarity and striking beauty. Pink pearls are in fact some of the rarest of pearls in the world ranging in color from light pink to deeper brighter corals. The orange-pink shade is highly desirable.
Almost all pearls today are cultured, or farmed. Pink pearls can come from saltwater or freshwater mollusks. The Akoya and South Sea oysters, saltwater varieties, can develop pink hues on rare occasions. Freshwater pearls are typically dyed pink after harvesting. Read the rest of this entry »