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The Perfect Royal Wedding Dress

七月 21st, 2011 ok

The wedding dress worn by Princess of Wales (for which a billion people breathe a collective sigh of relief), beyond a shadow of a doubt, is all kinds of influential. Designed by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen the dress manages to strike that fine and perfect balance between intricate detail and understated refinement, being neither too plain nor too plush. The full sleeves have a certain austerity that the times call for – yet are perfectly feminine in their delicate lace needlework; even the accompanying jewellery maintains a carefully-selected level of ostentatiousness.

So what elements can we expect to see rippled through time and fashion post-Royal Wedding? As well as the wedding dress market being awash with copies, the shape of the train will inspire wedding dress designs, likely for some years to come. Structured and with petal-like pleats that suggest an opening flower, the train differs somewhat to the less structured trains that have dominated recent memory.

The continuation and evolution of lace as a fashion trend will also be ushered along by Kate’s impeccably hand-engineered lace bodice and skirt.

And what about the cut? The dress may be perfectly feminine, but it’s not flouncy or frivolous or likely to be mistaken for a giant meringue-based dessert. The fitted bodice, particularly on Kate’s slight figure, gives it an air of strength. It nods gently to figures like Queen Victoria, capable of ruling a nation through the good times and the bad. That sense of independence is surely a quality future brides will be keen to replicate.

In all, the broader influence of Kate Middleton’s, now the Duchess of Cambridge’s, wedding gown will be that certain romance with history; Victorian-esque corsetry brought into the modern day; classic elegance and timelessness made to feel fresh. And it’s that elegance, that timelessness, that this dress now stands as a beacon of.

Keeping Cool Fashionably

七月 21st, 2011 ok

TRENDS come and go, but the dress persists, secure in its status as a metaphor. Irwin Shaw captured its wispy allure in his classic short story, “The Girls in Their Summer Dresses,” using the dress to conjure a mood of diffuse urban longing.

The list goes on. But to get to the heart of dresses’ appeal, talk to the women who wear them: those scores of fans, young or not so young, who have made them the backbone of their summer wardrobes.

In the punishing heat of a July afternoon, dresses are “the ultimate in comfort,” said Whitney May, who is an assistant in the architecture and design department at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. On a recent Sunday, she breezed among the stalls at a flea market in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in a roomy pale green tunic-length style. “Dresses are almost always looser and less constricting than pants or a skirt,” said Ms. May, 27. “When it’s this hot, I don’t wear anything else.”

But to dwell on pure function is to miss what, to some minds, makes the dress particularly current. The designer Nicole Miller said that as little as four or five years ago, “dresses were kind of unhip,” which of course, thanks to the inevitable swing of the fashion pendulum, “is what makes them cool now.” Ms. Miller suggested that the return of the dress coincided roughly with the rising popularity of vintage looks: the buoyant dirndls, halter styles, prairie dresses and trapeze shapes that, she said, “are still influencing girls on the street, especially the younger ones.” Young women’s enthusiasm has helped boost sales of scoop-back sundresses, shifts and shirtwaists as well as pavement-grazing maxi dresses, looks that touch down with the arrival of Memorial Day.

Something, perhaps, like the polka-dot navy frock worn by Emily Schwartz, a graphic designer in Brooklyn, scooped out at the back, but primly reminiscent of a pinafore. Or Ms. May’s own dress, embellished with innocent-looking scallop embroidery.

“In an outfit like this, I never feel too fashionably aggressive, like I’m dressing up or trying to hard,” Ms. May said. “When I wear it, I feel youthful, ready to move, ready to laugh, ready to be spontaneous.”

Yao Ming Bows Out

七月 21st, 2011 ok

Chinese basketball star Yao Ming has officially retired from NBA in his hometown of Shanghai Wednesday, due to a succession of foot and leg injuries.

Yao, 30, publicly announced his retirement at a press conference in Shanghai on Wednesday after previously telling the Houston Rockets he would not be continuing with the franchise next season.

An eight-time NBA All-Star who averaged 19 points and 9.2 rebounds per game, Yao greatly increased Chinese interest in basketball after being drafted from the Shanghai Sharks to the Rockets.Selected by the Rockets as the first overall pick in the 2002 NBA draft, he averaged 19 points, 9.2 rebounds and 1.9 blocks in his ensuing nine-year career.

“Today, I announce a personal decision. I end my career as a basketball player and officially retire,” Yao said at a press conference, accompanied by his parents, wife and daughter.

“I had to leave the court when I suffered a stress fracture in my left foot for the third time at the end of last year. The past six months have been an agonizing wait. I have been thinking about it over and over,” the 2.26-meter center said.

“Basketball has given me so much and I want to thank the game.”

“I had to leave the court since I suffered a stress fracture in my left foot for the third time at the end of last year. My past six months were an agonising wait.”

“I had been thinking over and over. Today I am announcing a personal decision, ending my career as a basketball player and officially retire.”

Yao intends to take up an administrative role with former team Shanghai.

NBA commissioner David Stern has said he will offer the former number one draft pick a role within the league.

South Korea’s Answer To Susan Boyle

七月 21st, 2011 ok

Sung-bong Choi, a 22-year-old man has become the next global talent show sensation move over Susan Boyle after his appearance on “Korea’s Got Talent” with well over 10 million people so far watching him on YouTube..

His powerful baritone voice sounds as if it belongs to a man twice his age and build, but it is not just his singing that reduced the presenters and much of the audience to tears.

“I was left in the orphanage when I was 3,” he told the judges at this first appearance, “and when I was 5, I ran away after being beaten by people there. I sold gum or energy drinks on the street. I had that life for about 10 years.”

He told the judges he used to sleep in stairwells or public toilets and decided he wanted to sing after seeing a performer in a nightclub where he was selling gum. “I was fascinated by the singer who sang on the stage so sincerely,” Choi said.

Choi admits he is both scared and excited by the sudden global attention he has received. A Facebook fan page has been set up in his name, and the praise-filled comments are from people from all corners of the world.

The onetime construction worker said before his first performance that he does not sing very well. The audience and panel disagreed. “It was the first thing that I liked after I ran away and was living on the streets, the first thing I was ever able to dream about. It was a small little wish I had.”

His wish of being able to sing has come true. He’s odds-on favorite to win “Korea’s Got Talent,” and even if he doesn’t, one of the judges has already promised to help him with voice training.

Choi did attend an arts high school around the age of 16, graduating in 2009 — it was the first time he went to school.

He said he finds it unbelievable that someone like him was able to be on a show like “Korea’s Got Talent,” and he says he is thankful “because now, I have a reason to live.”

The finals take place on August 20, let’s see what will happen next in his life.

EBay Results Beat Expectations as PayPal Expands

七月 21st, 2011 ok

Online auction giant eBay has reported better-than-expected profits, its PayPal online payment service and marketplaces business grew swiftly during the second quarter, helping its results beat analyst expectations, although charges from its recent purchase of retail website operator GSI Commerce cut its profit.

Second-quarter net income was $283.4m (£176m), down from $412m for the same period a year ago.

EBay has been working to improve the buying and selling experience on eBay.com by doing things such as removing duplicate item listings and adding products that users can buy locally to search results. The company is also slowly rolling out a feature called eBay Shopping Cart that works like the digital shopping carts at many online retailers, allowing consumers to put several items in an online “cart” and pay for them all at once.

The value of all goods sold during the quarter on eBay, excluding vehicles, climbed 17 percent to $14.68 billion. Though eBay’s roots are in the online auction business, more than half of the transactions on the site these days are fixed-price sales.

Revenue from eBay’s second-largest business, PayPal, shot up 31 percent to $1.07 billion — the first time the business has reported over $1 billion in revenue. This business, which includes the PayPal instant payment service and a short-term credit service called Bill Me Later, has grown rapidly over the past several years as merchants and consumers use it both on eBay and elsewhere.

The company expects revenue from the PayPal unit to surpass that from the marketplaces unit within several years. The amount of money processed through PayPal climbed 34 percent to $28.74 billion. PayPal also passed a milestone during the quarter, with more than 100 million active accounts.

But the fall in earnings was largely due to eBay’s takeover of GSI Commerce, a digital marketing and e-commerce firm, earlier this year.

Ebay’s main online Marketplace business showed signs of a turnaround and its PayPal division grew well.

PayPal gained members and the value of merchandise sold through its eBay.com website rose.

Taking out one-off cost – including those of acquiring GSI – income was 19% higher than last year’s $530m.

Wedding Jokes

七月 20th, 2011 ok

Those Wanting to be Married

Father Henry was planning a wedding at the close of the morning service. After the benediction Father Henry had planned to call the couple down to be married for a brief ceremony before the congregation.  For the life of him, he couldn’t think of the names of those who were to be married.

‘Will those wanting to get married please come to the front?’  Father Henry requested.

Immediately, nine single ladies, three widows, four widowers, and six single men stepped to the front.

Best Man

A groom chose his pet dog as the best man for his wedding reports the Metro.  Paul Nock told his new wife Kelly years ago that he wanted Scooby by his side on their big day.  The health and safety training organiser, from Hull, said, ‘I was away working in Dubai when the wedding arrangements were made and didn’t think she would let it happen.  But when we got into the register office I turned round and there he was walking up the aisle, with the rings tied around his neck.’ The 27-year-old bride added: ‘It was a wonderful surprise.’

Wedding Anniversary Story

John wants to get his beautiful wife, Emma, something nice for their first wedding anniversary.  So he decides to buy her a mobile telephone.  Emma is excited, she loves her phone.  John shows her and explains to her all the different and varied features on the phone.

On Monday Emma goes shopping in the local supermarket. Her phone rings and it’s her husband, ‘Hi ya, Emma, ‘he says, ‘how do you like your new phone?’ Emma replies, ‘I just love it, it’s so small and light and your voice is clear as a bell, but there’s one feature that I really don’t understand though.’

‘What’s that, Emma?’ asks the husband.

‘How did you know that I was at Wal-Mart?’

2011 China Wedding Expo to Open in July

七月 20th, 2011 ok

For the ten-year-old China Wedding Expo 2011(Autumn), the ten years represent a process full of difficulty, tortuousness and joy rather than a simple time frame.

Thanks to the strong support from people from all walks of life, the biannual event organized by Shanghai International Exhibition Co., Ltd has grown rapidly, with the number of exhibitors increasing to more than 600 from previous 100 and the exhibition space expanding to 75,000 square meters from previous less than 10,000 square meters. In addition, the number of visitors hits a new record of 150,000 this year.

China Wedding Expo 2011(Autumn) will be staged from July 7-10, 2011 at three venues simultaneously: INTEX Shanghai, ShanghaiMart and Shanghai Everbright Convention & Exhibition Centre. More than 600 exhibitors will display a variety of products during the event, including wedding dresses, themed clothes, children’s photography, make-up and accessories, wedding props, backgrounds for photography studios, photo albums and frames, theme photography samples and consulting training.

The Wedding Dress, Evening Dress and Groom’s Wear exhibition zone on the 1st floor at INTEX Shanghai shows the development direction of internationalization and branding. This year’s exhibition specially invites two heavy-weight international brands–French brand Ponuptia and Malaysian brand Adore Bridal Couture. With an extremely rich team consisting of professional wedding gown and evening dress designers, Adore Bridal Couture focuses on designing, producing and selling wedding gowns and evening dresses. It will exhibit high-end wedding gowns integrating Malaysian feelings with Asian identities to peers in China.

The Children’s Photography exhibition zone on the 2nd floor at INTEX Shanghai is expected to experience an extremely hot scene this year. Both the scale and the area of this year’s Children’s Photography exhibition zone expand over 15 percent from last year’s. The exhibition zone attracts nearly 10 South Korean children’s clothing brands with unique styles this year, in addition to the original high-quality children’s brands, including SNOOPY and YOYO.

The theme photography exhibition area will continue its focus on traditional wedding photography while striving to ensure the diversity of exhibits. In order to promote the development of portrait photography and be aligned with the industry’s growth trend, the exhibition area will bring together numerous high-cost, blockbuster real-life scenery themes and low-cost, high-return outdoor photography works to meet the diverse needs of the market. The event has attracted many foreign wedding photography brands and Chinese well-known photography studios, taking the quality of exhibits to a higher level, and will attach more importance to the quality of services by aggressively advancing the operation model which combines theme marketing and technical assistance, so as to boost the solid development of the industry.

With the rapid growth of the wedding photography industry, many photography studios are at a critical turning point, where they must not forget internal management and training while pursuing excellent performance. On the 7th floor of ShanghaiMart, exhibitors including Victor, Han Bang, Wise and Yan Hui will demonstrate how to effectively combine online marketing with traditional showroom planning, as well as how to manage retail sales and talent by using appropriate software, to ensure the smooth transformation of photography studios.

More particularly, to eliminate the trouble and inconvenience caused by the event that has been concurrently held at three venues for a long time, China Wedding Expo 2011(Autumn) will be relocated to Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai World Expo Theme Pavilion) starting February 2012. Then all exhibitors will gather at the same pavilion which covers an area totaling 80,000 square meters. The new modern venue is believed to offer unique exhibition effects to exhibitors, while providing more convenient, one-stop purchase and professional buyer negotiation services to visitors.

New Trends for Mother of the Bride Dresses

七月 20th, 2011 ok

The bride is naturally the center of attention on the wedding day, but the mother of the bride often finds herself in the spotlight during the ceremony. That’s why it’s so important to take the time to find truly graceful mother of the bride dresses. Watch the newest trends for you mom and find her the most suitable dress.

Current Mother of the Bride Trends

Today, many families don’t follow formal wedding traditions. It is quite common for both mothers to choose their outfits together. While mother of the bride dresses should be age appropriate, they shouldn’t downplay her natural beauty. If her dress is dowdy and matronly, it won’t reflect well on her daughter. The mother of the bride can dress stylishly and tastefully without compromising her personality.

Today’s fashion caters to individual body shape, taste and style. The trends today lean toward custom sleeves, hemlines and other small details. A dress that’s personalized to fit her individual shape will be most flattering on a mother of the bride. Of course, the dress needs to be age appropriate. Necklines that plunge too deeply, for example, should be avoided.

Fresh Ideas for Mother of the Bride Dresses

Not that long ago, dresses suited for mothers of the bride were not nearly as stylish and flattering as they are today. Mothers are no longer expected to be in the background on the wedding day. Today’s styles are chic and cater to a vast cross section of mothers. For this, we can thank designers who understand that the bride’s mother needs to look as or more stunning than the bridesmaids do, yet in a stylish and age appropriate way.

For example, conventional mother of the bride dresses were not strapless or off the shoulder. But depending on body shape and comfort levels, this is perfectly acceptable today. The mother of the bride can always use a shawl or wrap for a bit more coverage and formality during the ceremony.

Stunning Mother of the Bride Dresses

七月 20th, 2011 ok

For many individuals, your mother is one of the most important people in your life. As you take strides towards a life of adventure and true happiness with your new spouse, your mother will always be there to love, support, and protect you. For your wedding, show your mother how thankful you are for all that she has done, and dress her accordingly for one of the most memorable days of your lives. Finding an elegantly beautiful mother of the bride dress is a great way to show her how much you care.

Mother of the Bride Dress Colors and Styles

The bride’s mother should be careful to keep the balance between fashion trends, glamour and color. Wearing a color that will draw too much attention is not suitable, however wearing a color that complements the mother of the bride’s skin tone while blending in with the wedding theme is perfect.

Unless otherwise specified by the bride, there are certain colors that should be avoided, like cream, white and black for instance. If these colors are incorporated, it’s best for them to take the form of a tasteful floral print or classic stripe.

Also the bride’s mother should be focused on elegance and style. So she needs to carefully evaluate her body shape and personal preferences before deciding which cut is best for her. There are cuts and styles that can enhance her best features while drawing attention away from other areas to make her feel confident and comfortable.

Remember that the bride’s mother is very busy on the wedding day. With this in mind, her outfit should be easy to move around in and be able to withstand the wear and tear of the day. Maintaining balance between fashion, comfort and style is crucial is she wants to look stunning from start to finish.

Mother of the Bride Dress Should Match the Theme of the Wedding

The theme of your wedding is another factor that will affect the style of dress you choose for the mother of the bride. Typically for extremely formal weddings that are held at night or fancy weddings held in the late afternoon, dresses will be free flowing, elegant, long and loose fitting. While it is important for the mother of the bride to look exceptionally elegant in her chosen dress, it is also imperative to remember that the dress should not be longer or lower cut than the dress of the bride.

Many brides also choose to have the mother of the bride gown match similarly to the mother of the groom dress in attempts to tie in the entire theme of your wedding. No matter what dress you choose, your mother will be gleaming with joy on the day of your wedding as she watches her child embrace true love.

Looking for Plus Size Wedding Dresses

七月 20th, 2011 ok

Are you still worry about your wedding day dresses for most of the wedding dresses is slim skinny ? However, this is not always the case. What if you are not that gifted in terms of body size? What if you are not slim? Don’t you have the chance to look fabulous on your wedding day anymore? Here comes the solution: plus size wedding dresses.

Plus size wedding dresses are not standard wedding gowns. They are not always found at the most popular shops. You should be able to have many fun and extremely little dissatisfaction when you are purchasing for stylish plus size wedding dresses.

It’s hard to find the top plus size wedding dresses, and a small number of years ago plus size wedding dresses were most likely found in chiffon or satin with heavy chatters. This means that shortly to be brides could not discover a trendy plus size wedding dress. Designers were not creating dresses for plus sizes as a large amount and with the high price of materials they were not willing to create top dresses in the plus size.

There is even convention shops that will design a dress particularly for you and that is a grand benefit since no one else will ever wear the similar dress as you. A lot of these convention stores and designers can be found right online or you can visit them individually.

It’s not essential for you to cover your shape and there are even personal consultants that will assist you know what your top features are. Everyone has top skin tone and it would be incorrect for you to cover them. The incorrect dress could make you seem less gorgeous than you are since it will show off the skin tone you don’t want to show off. The right plus size wedding dresses will show off your top features and create everyone stop and say WOW!

Looking for plus size wedding dresses should not be a difficult thing and it should be lots of excitement. If you can give it you should have a dress designed particularly for you therefore that you find precisely what you desire from a professional that recognizes just how to design your wedding dresses to show off your top qualities.

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