Even on Saturday Night Live, AMC’s Mad Men is heralded as the show everyone is talking about but no one is watching. Still, the drama about New York’s advertising industry in the 1960s has been scooping up the awards, as well as accolades for its detailed presentation of retro fashion.

In many ways an ad agency is the perfect setting to showcase the styles of the early sixties. An industry of image, fashion has always been important to the ad world. Also particularly fun is that the standard of beauty for women in the early 60s involved lots of curves, which is quite different than a lot of what we see today. Mad Men, even with its retro style, gives us fashion to look at that is more reflective of the majority of women’s bodies.

The show’s clothes are largely driven by pattern and texture. Plaids and hounds-tooth are common, as are tweeds and knits. And while workplace colors are often muted shades of browns and blues, color splashes across the screen in everything from girlish sundresses to the sexiest red-dress wearing secretary you’ve ever seen.

While showing off the early 60s style, Mad Men is also influencing today’s fashion with the increased popularity of both the secretary blouse (fitted waist, bow at the neck, cap sleeves) and the pencil skirt. Swing coats and retro, rounded-toe high heels are also making the cut. For men, the slim cut of the suits of the era remains in, although fabrics remain more somber. Mad Men’s real influence on fashion today comes in the form of hats. What used to be a necessary clothing item for men is starting to return as a fashion statement.

Gentlemen inspired to don a fedora or other retro hat take note: it’s not just enough to follow the fashion cues of Mad Men when it comes to the hat. You need to follow the etiquette too. You may look hot in your fabulous new brim, but show a bit of class and don’t wear it inside.

Ankle boots are still all the rage this year with celebrities. They are being worn with dresses, skirts, jeans and trousers. You can find ankle boots all over the red carpet, and then go down to the hottest club in Hollywood and find them there too. The latest celebrities to follow the ankle boot craze are: Mischa Barton, Michelle Williams, Lindsay Lohan, Kate Moss, Rachel Bilson and Jessica Simpson. If you aren’t that sure about wearing ankle boots like celebrities do, then opt for a black pair, like the ones from Calvin Klein , because wearing black will not call that much attention to them. You can still be in style with the celebrity fashion trend but just downplayed a little.

It appears that leopard print has not gone out of style with celebrities. It can be quite tricky wearing leopard print and getting it right, which may be why celebrities have stylists to help them. If you are shy about wearing leopard print, try just wearing a small piece of leopard print. Do what Keira Knightley did and wear a leopard print scarf with an outfit. Or try what Rachel Bilson wore and match a leopard print cardigan with jeans. For the daring person, you can try to pull a Claudia Schiffer and wear a dress that has leopard print all over it. Whatever style you choose, just remember to rock it out like a celebrity would.

If you decide that you want to wear ankle boots with your leopard print clothing, why not throw in another celebrity trend of statement watches? Try sporting an oversized watch on your wrist to fit in with this celebrity trend. Pictures have shown such celebrities as Jennifer Aniston, Kate Moss, Nicky Hilton and Sienna Miller sporting large, statement watches on their wrist. Choose one that is gold or silver and really add some jazz to your outfit.

So, now you have your next outfit planned out for your big event. Leopard print with ankle boots and an oversized watch. You will look just like a celebrity!

What did you dress up as for Halloween this year? Well, if you were Jennifer Love Hewitt and her fiancé, you would have paraded around as Brangelina for Halloween. Yep, one celebrity dressed up as another celebrity for Halloween. Hewitt told Entertainment Tonight that her and her fiancé, Ross McCall, were going as Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt for Halloween this year. The key to their costume? We’re just gonna have lots of babies!” Hewitt said. She also added, “And I’m going to look really sultry and really drop-dead gorgeous.” So, I just find this rather odd that one celebrity would want to dress up as another one for Halloween. Does anyone else think it’s a little strange?

Singer Amy Winehouse was hospitalized once again this past weekend to perform more tests on her lungs and chests. Winehouse was last hospitalized back in June of this year with lung problems, but as pictures show, she has not stopped smoking. These tests were done just as a precaution to check how her lungs and chests were. Winehouse’s father has admitted that her lungs are diseased due to smoking cigarettes and cocaine. So, if these were just precautionary tests, why was she admitted into the hospital for an overnight stay? Usually, you have tests done and can go home the same day. I think that there is definitely something seriously wrong with Amy Winehouse’s health.

The Bachelorette couple Trista and Ryan may be returning to reality television. The couple, which just announced they will be having another child next year, is considering doing another reality television series. This series would focus on their children and their family life. According to Trista, “It’s just a matter of whether it fits.” So, they had their wedding taped and shown live on TV, do you think she will have her delivery taped live and shown on TV? I sure hope not!

Sources:
www.people.com
www.usmagazine.com

Remember Twiggy? In the 60’s, she made having a stick-thin figure popular. As a result, women everywhere learned how to eat celery, fit into sweat pants and strap in all of their natural curves. It explains the painful look on some of those old pictures of your grandma. Thankfully, this trend faded away, and now you rarely hear about Twiggy except in old movies or on America’s Top Model. Yet this icon must be given credit for leaving behind a legacy that can still help women today. What is it? Twiggy taught us all how women with boyish figures should dress.

Let’s face it. Our DNA has more to do with our hip size than we’d like to think. For this reason, if you have a boyish figure – one that is slight and lacks curves – you can’t do much about it. I don’t care how many hotdogs and fattening shakes you consume. So, it’s best just to wear clothes that accentuate your form and help you look good. Here are a few tips.

Add curves by . . .

• wearing patterns like plaids, tweeds and polka dots.

• dressing in ruffles that add curves and shape to your body.

• adding voluminous trapeze dresses and baby doll dresses.

Flaunt your own natural curves by . . .

• rocking pencil skirts that give you hips.

• flaunting straight-legged jeans that thicken your thighs.

• falling in love with spaghetti straps that show off your neckline and shoulders.

These clothing items are just a few that can help add curves and dimension to a boyish figure. They are an instant fix for a gal who would look like a teenage boy if she threw on a pair of overalls and a baseball cap. Since you don’t want to be her, wear these suggested clothing items. They will make you look great and more feminine.

American Idol’s Simon Cowell has ended his six-year relationship with his girlfriend, Terri Seymour. A rep for Cowell confirmed that the couple broke up, and that it was actually Terri’s idea and not Simon’s. His rep also added, “It was something that was coming, so it wasn’t a shock or a surprise.” Cowell has mentioned in the past that he will never settle down and have a family. In my opinion, this is why the couple broke up. Seymour is only 34 and most likely wants to get married and maybe even have children. My question is though, why would she waste six years with Cowell? Did she think that she could change him? Maybe.

It appears that Hugh Hefner’s exes are finally moving out of the Playboy mansion. Bridget Marquardt stated to US Magazine that Holly Madison and Kendra Wilkinson are indeed moving out of the Playboy Mansion for good. Bridget also mentioned that she doesn’t know how long she will be there. It also appears that ex-girlfriend Holly Madison did not take long to move on from Hefner. She was spotted getting pretty cozy with magician Criss Angel at a club in Las Vegas. I guess Criss Angel is at least one step up from Hefner.

In pretty shocking celebrity news, actor Joaquin Phoenix has announced that he is retiring from movie acting. He is going to pursue his music instead. He has been working on a record with British band The Charlatans. Phoenix has been nominated for two Oscars in his career and has starred in several top box office hits, such as Walk the Line and Gladiator. Walk the Line was actually the movie in which Phoenix learned how to play the guitar to impersonate Johnny Cash and first got interested in playing music. I personally loved Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash, but I’m not so sure that I would like him as a musician. I guess we will have to wait and see what his music is like. Of course, look at how many other professional athletes and actors have come out of retirement when a second career hasn’t worked out for them. Somehow, I don’t think this will be the last that we see of Phoenix as an actor.

Sources:
www.usmagazine.com
www.people.com

Biker chic is always more or less in fashion, but a fashion show devoted entirely to it is kind of fresh. The traffic division of the Cork City Council in Cork, Ireland is putting on a fashion show called Cycle Chic. It will take place on November 1st from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Millennium Hall, and features trendy bikes, smart clothes and funky accessories. This event, which is free and open to the public, is part of a larger national promotion called Design Week, which celebrates design, creativity, intelligent energy and travel.

The focus of the Cycle Chic fashion show is promoting Cork as a travel destination and cycling as a modern, green and stylish form of transportation. In keeping with that mission, exhibitors include Basil BV, Dutch creators of fashionable bicycle baskets and bags; Cahill, local makers of eclectic bikes; Cycle Chic, a web site with a variety of cool cycling accessories; Cyclodelic, which concentrates on accessories that appeal to female cyclers; Johnny Loco, an artisanal bicycle company, which has turned into a lifestyle company with the addition of clothes and accessories to complement their bikes; Riding Pretty out of California, who design stylish bicycle helmet covers (otherwise known as scarves); Viva Bikes of Denmark, a line of classically elegant urban bikes; Retrovelo Design of Germany, who design bikes with a retro spirit; and belleEtik, an ethical trade company from Ireland which showcases super-chic clothes from fairtrade-certified companies.

Sponsors of the event include the local government, the Trendy Travel European Project, Intelligent Energy Europe, Express Security Europe, Baile Bella, Origin Hair Design and L’arte de Beauty. Cycle Chic follows on the heels of similar events in London, Amsterdam, Vancouver, Las Vegas and Copenhagen. I also saw this trend on the New York runways in Fall 2008, when the Academy of Arts University show featured brightly colored and patterned helmets as accessories for knitwear. There’s something appealingly futuristic about the whole thing, and considering that gas prices have become a crisis worldwide, it can only be a good thing if it takes off.

It seems like celebrities like to stand up for each other, which is actually a good thing. When she visited The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Jennifer Love Hewitt stood up for Dancing with the Stars’ Cheryl Burke. Burke has been called out by her co-stars about being too heavy and gaining quite a bit of weight over the summer. Hewitt, who was also criticized by the press about her weight in the past, sympathized with Burke and said, “Cheryl Burke is so beautiful and an amazing dancer and that’s what people should concentrate on.” I like to see this spunk in other celebrities. Even if Cheryl Burke did gain weight, who has the right to say anything about it? Most women would love to still have her body. I commend Jennifer Love Hewitt for publicly sticking up for her.

One celebrity who may not be so proud anymore is Bill Pullman (Independence Day). His son was pulled over by the cops this week and busted for possession of moonshine (alcohol) and assault on a government official. Jack Pullman, 19, was arrested and will face numerous charges. He was released from jail the next day. Pullman has issued a “no comment” statement about his son’s arrest and pending charges.

You can add underwear model to the resume of Victoria Beckham. Beckham will follow in her husband’s footsteps and become a model for Emporio Armani’s women’s underwear. You can expect to see Victoria’s advertisements during the spring and summer of 2009. Giorgio Armani, who is the mastermind behind the Armani empire, called Victoria Beckham a “style icon.” So, not only will she have singer, actress, mom and fashion designer on her resume, she can now add international underwear model. Is there anything that she won’t do?

Source:
www.people.com

While clothes are critical to creating the mood for all movies, films about fashion particularly rely on their costumes to tell the story and impress their audience. This is certainly true of the 2006 flick *The Devil Wears Prada*. Of course, just as the film is largely a caricature of the world of fashion, often the clothes are too.

It’s not that the individual pieces don’t have their great moments. Rather, The Devil Wears Prada combines too many signature elements, making various outfits look too busy, or in some cases, too cliché as logos and signature patterns take over the screen.

That said, The Devil Wears Prada absolutely gets some things right, including showing us, almost by negative example, just how hard it can be to be fashionable. After all, it’s easy to look like you’re trying too hard or your clothes are a costume. To be fashionable, you also have to look comfortable, or at least familiar, with your clothes. If you can’t walk in three-inch heels, don’t wear them.

Some of the cutest looks in The Devil Wears Prada are clearly influenced by menswear. A prep school style blazer paired with fabulous boots and a short, tweed skirt has potential in its mixing of ideas. So does the t weed newsboy cap donned with an otherwise over-accessorized outfit.

But understated and enduring are today’s fashion trends (as is often common in difficult economic times), and the outrageousness of the looks in The Devil Wears Prada are more suited to the crazy consumption of the 1980s.

If you want to take your fashion cues from The Devil Wears Prada don’t try to recreate entire looks or styles from the film. Rather find one item in a costume you enjoyed and use that to build your own look, keeping your ideas focused and understated, so when you catch someone’s eye with your fashion savvy, the image you want them to see is clear.