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By les scammell, April 3, 2009 3:41 am

It is fall fashion week in NYC and behind all the glitz, celebrities and drama, there was a lot of work to be done on my end. As you may already know, I own and operate a Fashion Consultant firm called My Image Expert www.MyImageExpert.com. I am also responsible for a custom couture fashion collection that I both design and produce in New York City. That said, sometimes I am called upon by other designers (much bigger then myself – literally) to fulfill last minute designs. Since my clothing collection is made locally, you can imagine all the calls I received for fashion week regarding last minute requests. Now that the week is just about over, I can finally settle in an share my thoughts about an incident that occurred a few days ago.

I was invited to be a guest blogger on a fashion related web site, much like this one. With the exchange of several e-mails, one of the contributors asked me to name my favorite trends for Summer/Spring 09. Anybody that knows me, knows I tend to over analyze things and it usually doesnt take much to get my wheels spinning. After the smoke cleared, I decided to share my thoughts regarding Summer and Spring trends for 2009 with the fashion network.

Spring/Summer 09 will be very a very interesting time for fashion. Fashion designers gather inspiration for their collection up to two years ahead of time. This includes the entire process from inception to completion. Inception includes the original concept for the garment including: color, fabric and style details that are usually represented in sketch form. Completion includes the delivery date that these garments are actually shipped the vendor or store supplier for retail. At this time, the consumer can actually buy and wear the garment.

Spring/Summer 09 trends were forecast several months before Spring/Summer 08! So in theory, the trends were created just before the majority of the credit crunch hit retail stores and consumers. By now, everyone knows that retail sales continue to take a beating due to the current condition of the economy. This beating has directly affected the designers and the companies they work for. Most of these companies manufacturer their own garments once the concepts, details, and samples are designed. The department store buyer will look at these manufactured samples and decide if they want to carry them in their stores. As we speak, buyers are working with designers and manufacturer samples for Spring/Summer 2010.

With that being said, this years Spring/Summer 09 trends, that are already available to consumers in retail stores, do not reflect the current credit crunch that has affected our economy. When the economy is bad, fashion trends tend to reveal the ramifications. Colors start to inherit neutral and basic tones like: brown, grey, cream and navy. This is because fashion colors (the trendy colors of the moment) are more expensive to manufacturer. In a bad economy, fabrics become less feminine and luxurious. Manufacturers use basic blends of cotton, wool and silk while avoiding intricate details like embellishments, sequins, leather, glitter and flaps. This helps to lower the overall price that a consumer will pay for such a garment. Hemlines tend to shrink in a bad economy. The mini skirt was first developed and designed by Mary Quant in the 1960′s while in the midst of an economic recession. Less fabric is cheaper and lets face it, a mini skirt leaves little to the imagination!

This will be the first time in history when being fashionable is out of fashion! The collections that walked down the runway in September’s Spring Fashion week were not designed for the frugal female or an economy on the verge of a recession. They were designed and created for the luxurious lady who loves to splurge on novelty items. When Spring 09 hits the stores many months after fashion week, people will simply pass up the designer brands and head to discount stores to buy what they can afford.

By now, my reply to your requirement is a bit extensive. I have to stop myself as I could go on for hours! I have decided to list my favorite trends in a more effective way that seems reasonable due to the economy and my above acclamations. It is possible to spend less and look the best! Many high-end designers have developed collections for discount stores like Target, H&M, and Payless. The best part about it is that no one ever has to know where you got it from! Here a few of my favorite high-end designers offering exclusive trendy and affordable collections. The trend for Spring/Summer 09 is to have the designers runway look at a fraction of the cost.

Botkier – purses, clutches, and wristlets normally found in high end department stores for $400-$800.00 available at Target for $50.00

Richard Thai ” a regular style innovator at New York Fashion Week best known for his silk dyed garments! His dresses, skirts, and blouses are available for a limited time at Target for $13-$80.00. A Thai dress regular sells for $800.00

Alice + Olivia ” a trendy womens wear brand in high-end department stores has released an exclusive collection for Payless Shoes! It will only be a matter of time before design garments for Target ” Shh! Alice + Olivia shoes and garments usually range from $200-400.00. Payless has the new line for about $40.00

If you would like to include some of your favorite trends, I would love to hear about them – especially if they are outside the box. In the meant time, stay unique!

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By les scammell, April 2, 2009 11:59 am

Astronomy is a serious science and as with many things, even very serious things, people often get in at an early age. This exciting science can provide hours of learning, that’s why astronomy is popular with kids. Kids naturally gravitate to many aspects of astronomy, including the moon, the stars and far distant galaxies.

Our only natural satellite is called the moon. Its path around the Earth takes just over twenty seven days to complete. Man’s knowledge being what it is and because the moon is so close, it is the only space object that mankind has ever set foot on, except for the Earth of course. The effects of gravity between the moon and Earth causes the tides. The moon is one of the first objects that sparks a child’s interest in astronomy because it can be clearly seen with the human eye.

Consider Sol, our own star, the sun. The distance between our home and the sun is very large, although it varies between 91 and 94 million miles. The reason for the variance is the Earth’s elliptical orbit. If there were no sun, we wouldn’t be alive. The sun provides both light and heat to the planet. A little known fact is that the sun contains about 98% of the mass in the solar system. What a hog.

We live in the galaxy called the Milky Way. Like all other galaxies it’s a collection of gas, dust, stars and planets. Most of the area in a galaxy is filled with nothing, just empty space. That means that most of its volume, 3,000 light years high by 100,000 light years wide, the size of our galaxy, is empty. We’re somewhere in the neighborhood of 30,000 light years from the central core of our galaxy. The nothingness is broken up by over 100 billion stars. In fact the galaxy was named for the thick group of stars in the main portion of it. It looks like a pool of liquid, thus the name Milky Way. There are four types of galaxies: elliptical, lenticular, irregular and, like the Milky Way, spiral.

You can find a wealth of resources concerning astronomy for teens on the world wide web. Kids could spend hours wrapped in detailed 3D representations of the universe around us.

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By les scammell, April 2, 2009 8:21 am

Do you want to feel jazzed? Well, this can be achieved by a big part of women by buying some new purses, outfits and most of all, shoes for this spring to come. If you dress well, you’ll feel well. This is already known that nice clothes may influence the mood.

Professionals in fashion know this secret, thus they launch new collections with each season change. Spring and fall are the best times of year to show the new collections. Late summer and late winter are good for buying old collections at heavily discounted prices.

Do you see a pattern emerging here folks? It is obvious that girls find a special pleasure in shopping. I’m not sure why it turned out that way. It’s too bad that some use fashion to be commonplace. However, there are people who really appreciate quality when they see it.

Wanting to be social comes with a need for modernity, for showing off, for having certain differentiators. Trying so hard to be unique, women often end up in wearing some kind of fashion uniforms, as they all look very much alike.

Fashion is not the same for everybody. Hip hop is one kind of fashion, business is another kind of fashion. There are no similarities between the two of them. This is why we need a diversified wardrobe, according to our different activities and leisure.

For a woman, the purse represents her standard of living. It is important that the purse and the shoes look good. If they can be signed by some fashion designer, it’s perfect. If not, it’s still OK, provided that they are made of good quality materials and very well matched together.

Recently, artificial leather came into attention of great bags designers, because we all strive to become more environment friendly in our actions. This means we shouldn’t kill so many animals just for the fur and the leather for purses and clothes.