Portal4Fashion.com

April 3, 2009 - Ontario, Canada - Fashion website has just turned 3!

If there is one thing this world has more than enough of it is - gossip. But in my eyes, fashion gossip and news does not fall into that category. You can never have enough fashion news, fashion tips or anything else to do with fashion.

That is why we are happy to celebrate the 3 year anniversary of www.DeeFashion.com.  From there first Hello World post on March 8, 2006 to their newest post on Chinese Fashion on April 1, 2009 we have been huge fans and love their style of writing.

Here are the top posts that are a must read:

August 26, 2007 - A simple yet effective post which shows us that even minimalistic fashion can be very sexy.

July 7, 2008 - Most of the hot models in this blog and others are female, but this post gives a little something back to the female readers in the audience. Hot, male underwear models taking a break on set.

Feb. 10, 2009 - A great picture of an amazing attractive fashion model with a prosthetic arm. Kudos for giving this mainstream exposure.

Anyways, we wish DeeFashion.com a very happy birthday and hope to see lots more hot models and hot fashion in the future.

Norma Kamali, a fashion designer known for innovative designs like her sleeping bag coat, her use of silk parachutes as fabric and fashion-sensibility take on jersey sportswear, will design a collection for Wal-Mart, in the latest mass merchant-meets-fashion designer collaboration.
 
The collection, to be produced via a licensing agreement with Cherokee Inc., Norma Kamali and Wal-Mart, will be offered in select Wal-Mart stores beginning in fall 2008.

Kamali is no stranger to partnerships with mass retailers, however ? in 2006 she joined forces with sportswear brand Everlast and Spiegel to bring her brand of multifunctional, mix-and-match style to a wider audience of women.

As with the collections she’s created for Everlast and Spiegel ? offered at lower price points than her namesake Norma Kamali Collection ? Kamali said in a phone interview on Wednesday, Feb. 27, that she will carry the Wal-Mart collection in her store on 56th Street in New York. (Currently, there are no Wal-Mart stores in Manhattan).

“It’s a great opportunity to do what I love to do,” said Kamali, which ultimately for her is to help women look and feel great through well-designed clothes.

“It’s solving the problem that women all have with self-esteem ? there are always a couple of days a month where we don’t feel so great,” she said.

In the case of her partnership with Wal-Mart, she’ll be able to offer a self-esteem boost for her biggest audience yet, specifically targeting style-conscious people on a budget ? students, for example, or women who have a family to take care of, she said.  Another nice move by the giant, Walmart.

The financial meltdown pains hitting the United States has also hit home on the fashion runway, when New York Fashion Week takes off, but its impact may be surprising.  Certainly, less business will be done than usual, and some designs will be muted, industry experts say. But at the same time, some designers will interpret the financial downturn as an excuse to turn up the fashion excess.

“The wonderful thing about fashion is it will always do the opposite of what you think,” said James Aguiar, co-host of the “Full Frontal Fashion,” a television program that covers fashion shows.

Just when you would think things would be more conservative, there are likely to be more lavish, extreme displays on the catwalk, Aguiar said.

“If anything, people will be more desperate to get attention that they think is going to generate business,” said David Wolfe, creative director of the Doneger Group, a New York trend forecasting company, who also expects more theatre.

But while they may turn up the drama on the runway, there’ll be a big gap between what designers show and what they actually end up selling during the week.

U.S. consumers have curbed their spending in recent months as a decline in the housing market takes hold. Shopping over the Christmas retail season was the worst in five years, even hitting luxury names like Saks Inc, Tiffany & Co, Coach Inc and Richemont.

Designer Rebecca Taylor, whose women’s fashions are sold at high-end U.S. stores such as Bergdorf Goodman, Saks and Bloomingdale’s, said she expects fall 2008 to be more commercial as some retailers, still reeling from last year’s dramatic slowdown, take fewer risks.

“As traffic slows in the department stores, buyers are really looking for bankability,” Taylor said. However, her own orders have tripled over the last year and she expects to drive $5 million in sales between her runway show on Thursday and a trade show the following weekend. She declined to give a figure for last February’s show for comparison.

Retail consultant Sanjay Srikanth of management consultancy A.T. Kearney warned that Taylor’s expectation would be atypical, as buyers trim the size of their orders to keep inventories tight.