Studios decided to reboot classic fairy tales

We've had sparkly vampires, half-naked werewolves and increasingly weary teen wizards. Now, film and television executives are hoping that they can spin box office gold from the good, old-fashioned fairy story. With three versions of Snow White in pre-production, teen re-imaginings of Beauty and the Beast and Little Red Riding Hood due in cinemas soon, and all-action spins on Jack and the Beanstalk, Pinocchio and Hansel and Gretel coming next year, Hollywood is clearly betting that a revitalised "Once Upon a Time" format will turn beans into big bucks.

And they're not the only ones. This year's television pilots also have a fairy-tale theme, with shows such as NBC'S Grimm, described as a dark cop drama in which "characters inspired by Grimm's Fairy Tales exist", and ABC's Once Upon a Time, billed as a modern day take on the fairy-tale genre.

So why all the sudden interest in evil queens and wicked witches? In part, it's because these stories are in the public domain and, thus, the rights are free. As Catherine Hardwicke, the director of Red Riding Hood, told Entertainment Weekly: "They are known all over the world. Studios are enamoured with making something that already has built-in name recognition or a fan base."

Not, however, that these are the sort of films that you might take your children to see. We're not talking about Disney's animated princesses or a Shrek-style reworking of old stories for a young audience but rather about dark and distinctly gothic tales told with an older audience in mind.

Take Red Riding Hood, which opens in the UK on 15 April. Featuring Amanda Seyfried in wide-eyed ingénue mode, and a pair of just-the-right-side-of-hammy turns from Gary Oldman and Julie Christie, Hardwicke's atmospheric film nods more to Neil Jordan's The Company of Wolves, a darkly enjoyable adaptation of short stories by Angela Carter, than it does to the original source material.

Spun off from an idea by Leonardo DiCaprio, who suggested that the Little Red Riding Hood story could work as a romantic thriller, and written by by David Leslie Johnson, who also wrote the superbly creepy Orphan, this Red Riding Hood is as concerned with the beast within as it is with the dangers of straying off the right path.

Eminem soared from drug-filled poverty to adulation and notoriety

When I began writing the first serious biography of Eminem 10 years ago, he was at the height of his powers and notoriety. "Stan", his astonishing shaggy-dog tale of letters between himself and an unhinged fan – somehow made more funny and menacing by the sampled Dido's wan desire for a cup of tea on a drizzly English day – had just been released. Everybody I knew wanted to talk about it, and its singer, and once they started they couldn't stop. This was a rapper who in other songs had decided to kill his estranged Mum, absent Dad and long-suffering wife Kim, claimed to have murdered OJ Simpson and armed the Columbine killers, and, who when attacked for homophobia, rapped: "Hate fags? – yes." He was picketed by feminist and gay groups, baited by homophobic tabloids and liberal broadsheets. Eminem for one moment gave pop back its centrifugal force at culture's core. For the first and, to date, last time, I was offered sex for my ticket when he flew into Manchester to find he'd become a folk devil.

I was soon walking Detroit in his footsteps. The city looked as if it had been dredged from underwater. You could hear the wind whistling through huge roofless factories, and walk for 15 minutes in the city's gutted, once grand, heart without seeing a soul. Pacing down 8 Mile Road, the borderland between black urban Detroit and its white suburbs which he made notorious in songs and an Oscar-winning film, I saw the broken landscape that helped make him great. As Elvis did in Memphis, Eminem – then Marshall Mathers, of course – had experienced life as a minority on the black side of town. And he knew from black friends the bigger American picture. His shattered city made him understand class too; he knew which he was, and rapped for the underdog. The misogyny, beginning with his awful relationship with mother Debbie Mathers-Briggs, and continuing with childhood sweetheart and lyrical punchbag Kim, was more troubling; the homophobia too. But female and gay friends found his articulate rage universal. Sometimes they felt just like him.

He tended to attack rather than retreat when criticised, anyway, as Presidents from Clinton to George W Bush (who called him "the worst thing to happen to American youth since polio") both found. Retaliating to such slurs made him the most brave, articulate anti-government pop star during the paranoid, post-September-11 clampdown. In the year of Bush's 2004 re-election, "Mosh" lyrically decimated the new McCarthyism. In the ultimate battle rap, he called out the President: "Maybe we can reach al-Qa'ida with my speech/ Let the President answer our high anarchy/ Strap him with an AK-47/ Let him fight his own war/ Let him impress Daddy that way... no more blood for oil". Anyone who was in America at that time knows the risks he was taking, which no other pop star did with such directness. Those who've rhetorically wondered where the 1960s- and 1980s-style songs of protest and resistance are now: they were here.

Eminem at 38 has changed, as the isolation of his American fame has deepened. He writes about himself much more than his country now. Maybe he isn't like Ginsberg. But his commitment to renewing his astonishing talent, and the intense dramas of his life, are as bottomless as I first hoped. I'll be going back to my book.

For tradition refreshed and reworked

Of all the great traditions of spiritual music, Sufi music is the least known and yet, in many ways, the most approachable. Open, cultured and non-violent, Sufism is the mystical arm of Islam, for whose adherents music, dance, chant and song become the means of achieving the abandonment of the self in the ecstasy of being part of creation. All across North Africa, right through the Middle East and into Central Asia, traditions have developed around the shrines of saints and the homes of sheikhs, which have profoundly influenced the music of the countries around them.

If the idea of making a complex of secular pleasure palaces built by a Hindu raja the backdrop for Muslim religious chant seems a little perverse, then it has to be said that it works wonderfully well. The palaces have been restored with great restraint and effectiveness. They and their courts form the stages for small concerts and lectures during the day and larger concerts by night, all lit by thousands of tiny oil lamps, as of old.

Place and performance are not at odds. Sometimes called "light classical" – particularly in India which has always been rather snobby about the pedigree of artistic tradition – Sufi music was never meant to be elitist or exclusive. It was intended to help the listener, and lift him or her, into a spiritual state of ecstasy. Hence it was always open to other influences – most especially in northern India and Pakistan, where a Hindu tradition of spiritual music was already strong.

After a mixed start, musically, the festival has now appointed Alain Weber, director of the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music, to give it better shape and more muscle. He certainly broadened the Sufi scope in his first effort in February, with performances from the Damascus Dervishes, the Gnawa Brotherhood from Morocco (the Gnawa are reputed to be the first Africans to be converted to Islam), as well as musicians and a quite fabulous dancer from the Nile, and finished with a fiercely assertive concert by a group from Kashmir.

In the end, the most impressive of the performances were not the most flamboyant or most energetic but the most classical and refined. From Bhopal, the two Gundecha Brothers gave a superb performance of Dhrupad singing, one of the most ancient of all Indian musical styles, in which drawn-out notes and repetitive phrases build up to a mesmeric quality of devotion that only the most perfect of plainchant reaches in Western music.

That is tradition continued. For tradition refreshed and reworked, you had to listen to the opening-evening concert sung by a young and rising star of the Iranian scene, Mohammad Motamedi, backed by a couple of classical Persian musicians, None of them are Sufis as such. The players are from a musical academy while Motamedi has studied under singing masters.

"In Persian music," said one, "there is no distinction between classical and Sufi." What they produced was music-making of the highest order, as Hamed Fakouri's lute (the tar) interplayed with the voice urged on by the beat of Ali Rahimi's drum (the zarb), and Motamedi, one hand cupped over his ear to concentrate on the words and the other flung out to stress the repeated lines, sang out the words of some of the greatest poetry ever written. "Nearly all Hafez, with some Omar Khayyam inserted in the middle," he explained.

Of the arts which have flourished since the Iranian revolution, it has been music (along, more perilously, with film) which has been the most revivified. And now comes a new generation, hardly known outside Iran, re-interpreting tradition yet again. Motamedi has yet to perform in Britain. It is a fault which must be rectified, and soon. His is a real and evolving talent.

For a Sufi festival held in India, this year's programme could have done with an evening of Qawwali singing, of the school encouraged by the Chishti order, one of whose saints is buried in Nagaur. For real tradition it could also have done with groups from Sindh and Pakistan, despite the Indo-Pakistan political delicacies. It is there that the Sufis are most under threat from fundamentalists. But if it can produce a festival of this quality and make better-known Islam's most creative practice, never mind trumpet the virtues of a beautifully restored palace, it has earned its place amongst the crowded ranks of world music festivals.

The designer's most enduring style

Vivienne Westwood’s signature pretty-rebel aesthetic blossomed in the 1980s — rooted in London’s influential music scene — and it has been consistent in her collections ever since. A small exhibit at the Museum at FIT, the Fashion Institute of Technology, shows her early pieces and how they are the foundation of things to come.

Westwood, a fashion fixture for more than 30 years, is experiencing a surge of interest right now, with both Anne Hathaway and Helen Mirren wearing her designs at the Oscars.

The exhibit, curated by graduate students, highlights looks from the Pirate collection (1981), the Time Machine (1988), and her 1985 “mini-crini” mash-ups, which mixed the hoop skirt in crinoline with modern minis.

Her famous Rocking Horse platform-heel shoes are there, too.

The designer’s most enduring style, though, is crafting lingerie touches, especially corsetry, into ready-to-wear pieces.

Westwood also is a master at bringing key silhouettes of the past into the present, says Audrey Chaney, one of the curators. She also pays homage to her native Britain in each collection, she notes, especially in her use of tartan plaid and tweed.

But fellow curator Emma Kadar-Penner says she’d like to find a reason to wear the 1988 Statue of Liberty-inspired party dress, made of a lame corset and tulle skirt. “It’s modern, and you could wear it to any party now.”

To examine the future of England's forests

Sales of 15% of England's public forests will go ahead within the next four years, Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said today.

The sales, expected to raise £100 million for the Environment Department (Defra), were suspended amid a row over plans to dispose of the rest of the forest estate.

Mrs Spelman said she was concerned the terms of selling the 15% - the maximum allowed to be sold under current rules - did not provide adequate protection for access and other public benefits.

But she told MPs on the Environment Select Committee that the sales would go ahead within the spending review, which runs to 2015, and the delay would not hit Defra's budget.

She said the funding had been "anticipated but not allocated".

And once protection for access and other benefits of woodland had been addressed, "the planned sales will be in a position to resume within the period of the spending review, and won't have an impact on expenditure", she said.

The Environment Secretary also defended the consultation on plans to dispose of the remainder of the public forest estate to businesses, charities and communities which provoked widespread anger.

She said previous governments had already been selling off the public forests.

"I simply thought it was right to give the public the chance to be consulted about the future of the forest estate."

The consultation was abandoned last month in the face of widespread opposition to the plans.

Shortly before the consultation was dropped, the previously announced sales of 15% of public forests were suspended over concerns about protecting the benefits they provide.

An independent panel has now been set up to examine the future of England's forests.

Tilting at windmills: how to turn the UK green

Dale Vince spent 10 years living in a trailer on a hill outside Stroud. Now he runs an energy company worth an estimated £100m and bats away takeover offers at an average rate of one a month.

It is not as much of a leap as it might appear. Mr Vince's "crazy plan" might be to become the seventh utility – an upstart rival to the so-called Big Six such as EDF and E.ON. But he remains a highly unusual energy boss by any measure. At a superficial level, he is the only one with long hair and jewellery, who dresses in torn jeans and a leather jacket. His views on the UK energy market are equally unorthodox.

"I was a hippy dropout, but I had an epiphany when I saw my first windfarm in 1991," Mr Vince says. "I thought, either I can carry on by myself with the windmill on my van, or I can get into the big stuff."

He chose the big stuff and set up Ecotricity, an electricity company which ploughs its profits into building green infrastructure – 540 wind turbines so far – steadily driving up the proportion of green energy in its fuel mix. "We turn brown to green," Mr Vince explains. "We don't mind harnessing conventional energy sources, so long as we are using the revenues to build an alternative."

The approach is working. Sixteen years after the company started, it has 46,000 customers and is adding around 1,500 each month. The electricity started out 10 per cent green, this year it will hit 55 per cent. And the charges are comparable with the Big Six's standard tariffs.

Now Ecotricity is moving into gas. It already has 8,000 customers on its green gas tariff, and the income is building Britain's first anaerobic digestion plant turning food waste into gas for heating and cooking – a scheme that will be up and running in 12 months. "In our first year, green gas from a sugar beet factory in Holland was 1.4 per cent of our supply," Mr Vince says. "It might not be much but it's still the greenest gas supply in Britain, and next year we expect to double it."

Mr Vince has serious ambitions. "The crazy plan to become the Big Seventh is not just a crazy plan – we're really doing it," he says. "Ten years from now I'd like to see one million customers."

Talking acne with your teenager

Dr Hilary Jones answers your questions on acne while Parenting Expert Judy Reith has some tips about talking to your teen.

More than 80 per cent of the UK population suffers from acne at some point in their lives. But for teens the condition can seem so serious that it leads to low confidence, low self esteem, shyness and even depression.

The recently founded Acne Academy has undertaken the largest survey of its kind in the UK to provide a valuable insight into just how teenagers with acne are perceived by adults and their peers.

The results reveal the extent to which teenagers with acne are negatively perceived and aims to highlight the long term psychological impact the skin condition can have if it is not managed properly.

Dr Hilary Jones from The Acne Academy and parenting expert Judy Reith will be on hand today at 4.30pm to answer all your questions.

the understanding of Russian and Eastern European art

For Calvert 22, an institution devoted to enhancing the understanding of Russian and Eastern European art, it might seem that to put on an exhibition of emerging artists from Russia, as this show does, might be a natural thing to do. The idea is that a focus on new and interesting work from a country with a fast-developing young art scene will generate excitement and interest abroad, and perhaps focus discussions and understandings in Russia. In practice, however, to create an exhibition from such a general premise, and to make it communicate anything about Russia, or about the artists included, is, in fact a very difficult ask, and it's one which this exhibition doesn't really answer.

The eight young artists in this exhibition – Tanya Akhmetgalieva, Olga Bozhko, Alexander Ditmarov, Yulia Ivashkina, Sergey Ogurtsov, Taus Makhacheva, Anya Titova, Arseniy Zhilyaev – have been drawn from two developmental programmes in Russia run by the ICA, Moscow, and the Centre for Contemporary Art, Winzavod. Each artist's practice is wildly different, and as such, there's a feeling of disconnect in the exhibition. Though Ivashkina creates paintings of fragmented interior spaces, where dusty clouds and bright blue metropolitan scenes drift in and out of architectural spaces, these works appear to be operating in a completely different sphere to two other artists here who use domestic interiors in their work. Zhilyaev's installation Words (2010-11), featuring a tatty rug and chair in front of a television playing an amateur porn film, is an extended treatise on sex, existentialism and the reception of Jean-Paul Sartre in Russia, a fact made clear from the texts pinned around the space. Titova's House of Culture (2010) features a shelf structure affixed with several different panels of colour and framed images including fragments of graffiti, and refers to minimalism and conceptual art at the same time as social or ethnographic concerns. These last two works do manage to create an atmosphere and one does get some sense of the two artists' work; but it's hard to understand them within the context of the exhibition. Ditmarov's films, of a lonely billiards game and of people ascending on a ski lift in summer really did nothing much for me, whilst Ogurtsov's architectural sculptures made from folding philosophy books seemed rather over-simple as conceptual gestures.

Part of the problem here is that I don't believe that such a small selection of artists can tell us enough about contemporary art in Russia – it can only speak about a thread of work – and the curators haven't really managed to find that thread. Although the Moscow Conceptualists (Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, for example, or the Collective Actions group) are mentioned in the catalogue as reference points for the artists, ultimately, it's extremely difficult to see how this is the case. It feels more like the generalised conceptualism that characterises the international contemporary art world today. Russia's art, this exhibition seems to say, can rush seamlessly into this world. I'd rather we understood more about it first.

The world's top shopping destinations

For decades Hong Kong has considered itself one of the world's top shopping destinations, a place where bargains can be found and the variety of goods available is unequaled anywhere in the world.

But times seem to be changing - and fast. Spiraling rents and the rising influence of mainland Chinese tourists - a group that now accounts for more than 60 percent of annual visitors to town - appear to be narrowing the choices found in Hong Kong and forcing some of the city's more traditional retail outlets out of business.

In the 1970s, the retail landscape in Hong Kong was dominated by massive Chinese emporiums, selling everything from cheap clothes to cheap antiques and souvenirs. But their numbers have plummeted from an estimated 300 to just eight - and even those remaining have had to "re-brand" themselves by packing their shelves with such items as Chinese medicines and herbs.

Of course, Chinese tourists can get these kinds of goods in the cities they live and even if they might cost a little more back home, that's not exactly what they come to Hong Kong for anyway.

Hong Kong welcomed 22.7 million Chinese tourists last year - out of a total of 36 million over 12 months - which was a massive rise from the 7.5 million who came in 2003. And the main focus of their visits is shopping, but of the distinctly luxurious kind.

Chinese visitors to Hong Kong spend more than any other group - on average around HK$12,000 (1,100 euros) each every time they come here.

And so mass retailers are fast disappearing from the city's main shopping districts of Tsim Sha Tsui, Causeway Bay and Central and are being replaced by jewelry and watch shops.

"The change is being driven by the expensive tastes of mainlanders," one property agent told the South China Morning Post newspaper here.

Climb to the heights of fashion in Vawk's Fall and Winter collection

Designer Sunny Fong says the new collection is Saville Row meets Himalayan mountain climber.

"I know there's a whole minimal movement with fashion and that's where I'm taking it with the menswear vibe," Fong said.

"I still want to have my take on fashion where I like to do a lot of texture for Fall, incorporating fur and beading."

Fong said he was inspired by the fabrics and construction of the clothes worn in the Himalayas and leant his handmade touch, working with a knitter to create some of the pieces.

"I'm excited about those pieces, incorporating the wool and knit together," said Fong who added blending high fashion and function was also on his mind.

"That was my focus how do we look cool but stay warm .... I wanted to bring another option doing shearling and sheepskin, that whole end of the world use that type of cloth to stay warm so I mashed it all up."

Fong incorporated punches of colour with yellow, cranberry and turquoise among the neutrals, to bring something unexpected, he says.

Showing at Fashion Week is also something different for the Project Runway Canada winner, who has shown off site for the past few seasons.

"Especially with the bigger venue, we wanted to be accessible to the people who've been following us, but haven't been able to attend our shows in the past," Fong says.

"Overall, we're trying something new and unpredictable."

those flashbulb-fashion moments largely are a tribute to their stylists

Oscars host Anne Hathaway had many winning outfits during the recent telecast. For her and other stars who are famous for looking great wherever they go, those flashbulb-fashion moments largely are a tribute to their stylists.

The Hollywood Reporter magazine compiled its first-ever list of the 25 most-powerful celebrity stylists, and, no surprise, Rachel Zoe -- who dressed Hathaway on Oscar night -- was at the top.

She's grown her bohemian, beach-girl look made famous by Cameron Diaz into a reality TV show, books and her own fashion line.

It's important for a stylist to carve out an aesthetic, much like a designer does, but she needs to give her clients what they want, too, and Zoe is a master at that, said Merle Ginsberg, Hollywood Reporter senior writer.

The next names on the magazine's list were Kate Young, a former Vogue editor behind Natalie Portman's stylish maternity wardrobe; Petra Flannery, who is guiding young stars Emma Stone and Hailee Steinfeld; Jen Rade, who boasts longtime client Angelina Jolie, and Anna Bingemann, whose clients include Claire Danes, Gwyneth Paltrow and Naomi Watts.

Depending on the celebrity, the duty of the stylist changes, Ginsberg explains. Cate Blanchett, who works with Elizabeth Stewart, has a strong fashion sense and is looking for someone to scout out outfits that suit her style. Other celebrities turn to their stylists to help them carve a fashion personality.

one of the most successful celebrity fashion labels

With her platinum blonde locks and pillarbox-red lips, singer-songwriter Gwen Stefani is one of Hollywood's most influential style icons.

As a solo artist and as lead singer of band "No Doubt," Stefani has sold over 30 million albums worldwide. But her influence stretches far beyond music.

Her innate sense of style and unbelievable power to start trends has created one of the most successful celebrity fashion labels -- LAMB.

"For me it's not that deep," says Stefani. "For me the line is genuinely for myself. I want to make a line of clothes that I want to wear -- it's kind of selfish."

Selfish or not, it's the key to her brand's success.

I'm not going to ever be a Vivienne Westwood or a John Galliano.I'm trying to make clothes to wear everyday.

Since 2004, LAMB (Love Angel Music Baby) has created a line of clothing Stefani has not only had a hand in designing, but has been regularly seen wearing -- the range epitomizing her "look" and her "personality."

"I think fashion is more of a fun sort of thing," Stefani says. "It's an expression of yourself and your personality and your mood, it's not something we take super deep."

"I'm not going to ever be a Vivienne Westwood ... " she adds. "I'm trying to make clothes to wear everyday, that's what LAMB is. It's not a couture line."

"What qualifies me? I don't have qualifications really. I don't have technical qualifications. I just have a vibe of what I like and I have strong opinions about what I like and what is me."

Despite this lack of "technical qualifications," Stefani has had a long love affair with fashion -- designing many of her early stage outfits for performances with No Doubt.

"I just always liked getting dressed up and playing with make-up and hair," says Stefani. "My mum and her mum and her mum, they all made clothes ... every holiday we would go to TJY, a little fabric store, and look at patterns and pick out our outfits."

"When I started with the band, when I was 17, I would waste all my time at school thinking about it (fashion) and drive to the fabric store and just find stuff.

"I didn't know how to sew very well, it really was like using glue guns and velcro and just trying to make it work. I think it all came from the music really -- just trying to find fun outfits for the stage."

For Stefani, music and fashion have always been intertwined.

"Music is the fire, so I have to start there ... always pull from the same inspiration every season, always from music," she says.

"But singer or fashion designer, that's tough because they go hand in hand."

Ironically it was the thought of a declining music career which prompted Stefani to set up the fashion label.

"I started the line honestly because nine or 10 years ago I didn't know how long I would be doing music.

"They ask you 'What are you going to do in 10 years,' and I didn't know, I just though by then I want to have a family and I'm not going to be doing music but I wanted to do something creative."

Seven years on and Stefani is still creating chart topping music and still has her finger on the creative pulse -- creating her own style, be it in music or fashion.

"I think everyone has a style, style is just your personality. I don't know if it's better or worse, I think fashion is not that deep. It's clothes, it's just fun."

The Designer is celebrating a decade of his second line

Ten years is a long time in fashion's goldfish bowl of communal memory. The past decade takes in the birth of e-commerce, two major wars, a technology boom, the rise and rise of the stock market, followed by its subsequent crash. It's difficult terrain to negotiate, especially when the aim is to remain not just upright but positively ebullient.

But designer Marc Jacobs, who launched second line Marc by Marc Jacobs in 2001, has managed it – this season he celebrates the tenth birthday of the range, with a capsule of re-issued favourites from the past decade.

"I was in New York when he opened his first Marc by Marc store," recalls editor of Glamour magazine Jo Elvin. "We just about busted down the doors to get in there."

"When Marc Jacobs introduced his new line, it really felt like a breath of fresh air," remembers Holli Rogers, buying director at Net-a-Porter. "Iconic pieces such as military-inspired jackets, printed scarves and multi-striped knits sit alongside pretty and feminine dresses, forming the backbone of the collection. A fashion innovator with an off-beat sensibility, Marc Jacobs always expresses fun and individuality, whether mainline or diffusion."

It's gauging the subtle difference between the two that really makes or breaks a brand, and Jacobs traverses the line perfectly. His main collection is always more luxurious, classic and grown-up – though no less desirable – providing a magnifying glass through which to view its more affordable cousin. Jacobs mixes influences and inspirations between the two each season, offering a "way in" to high fashion for his younger and thriftier fans.

"It speaks to a different woman with a different lifestyle," says Calgary Avansino, Vogue's executive fashion editor. "It was the first time two brands within the same company embraced two very separate demographics successfully. You never feel that one is more important than the other."

Indeed, Jacobs does his very best to ensure that, between mainline and Marc by Marc, he caters to almost every budget imaginable – handbags for £300 may not seem a snip, but designer goods made from quality leather are difficult to find elsewhere for this price. Likewise, witty and irreverent logo T-shirts – often featuring a design for each city that is home to a Marc Jacobs store – sell for £25, while lipstick-shaped pens, heart-shaped compacts and branded keyrings are the kooky stuff of pound shops, presented in rummage bins dotted around the impeccably cool stores.

In New York's West Village, Bleecker Street seems practically devoted to the designer, with a mainline boutique, a Marc by Marc store and an accessories shop all in close proximity. The cool crowd and cognoscenti mill on both sides, sampling cupcakes from the world famous Hummingbird Bakery, for which there is often a queue around the block. The scene is not dissimilar at each of the Marc Jacobs doorways, with tourists, bargain hunters, fashion editors and teenagers all keen to get a piece of the action.

That said, there are ladylike elements to the range, always mischeviously subverted by unexpected colours or outré detailing. The look overall is whimsical and eclectic – never too sullen but neither is it saccharine.

"I saved up for a drummer boy jacket from one of his very first collections," adds Stacey Duguid. "I wore it with Converse and ripped jeans. At the time, it felt like I was spending a fortune but I still wear it today – minus the ripped jeans."

Indeed, every aficionado has a story about a much-loved piece. For Glamour's Jo Elvin, it was a red coat. "I wore it for a few seasons, and it really looked like a child's coat with big buttons and a very rounded collar, but people regularly stopped me on the street to ask me where I bought it."

when is it OK to take off your shoes?

Informality in the courts of power, as everywhere else in British society, has undergone a gradual evolution that seems to have speeded up in the past few years. Until the end of the millennium, no gentleman in power, in business or in public-sector management would have dreamed of wearing anything but a suit, a tie, and some sturdy black brogues over sensible dark socks.

The idea was to join in with the English-gentleman look in order to gain the trust of your peers, rather than to draw attention to oneself as an outsider. But elsewhere in society, things were loosening. Academics took their cue from FR Leavis and wore open-necked shirts. Newsreaders ceased to wear evening dress. Businessmen such as Sir Richard Branson, inventors such as Sir James Dyson, and dotcom millionaires such as Brent Hoberman were all visionaries in blue jeans.

The rise of designer clothes meant that the oik trying to reserve a table in San Lorenzo could be a denim-wearing millionaire, so the owners let him in. From restaurants to municipal halls, the old dress codes were abandoned. When John Bercow, the Commons Speaker, declined to wear a wig, it was the culmination of a brisk evolutionary process.

The shoe-less Joe look is a regrettable lapse of taste for such style icons as Mr Hilton and Mr Mitchell. It suggests not that one is a relaxed, amiable, laid-back and chilled-out kinda guy, but that one has recently risen from an elderly snooze on the sofa. Its main cultural exemplar is Bertram Cooper, senior co-founder of Sterling Cooper, the advertising agency at the heart of Mad Men: he insists all visitors remove their shoes before entering his domain, a piece of faux-Oriental politesse about whose origins even Bert himself seems hazy.

A new book celebrates some of the biggest names in modern shoe design

Pierre Hardy

Pierre Hardy is one of luxury footwear's luminaries, having spent over 20 years at the helm of some of France's most famous fashion houses before launching his self-titled label in 1998 to critical acclaim. The basis of Hardy's style could perhaps be described as modern simplicity. "I try to simplify the design to an essence," he explains. "I love clean lines and sculptural shapes and I try to make shoes as powerful, clear and sensual as possible."

Hardy says that he "strives to express femininity, but in an ambiguous way, mixing it with strength or masculinity, or sometimes with a more provocative mood."

Maintaining his position at the pinnacle of modernity is something he is extremely passionate about.

When creating a concept, Hardy does not work by any predefined methods, rather more by chance, his influences often far ranging and unrelated to fashion. Regardless of the source of inspiration, however, the concept always starts with a sketch: "The initial step is always a drawing, first because most of my ideas come from drawing. Second, if I have an idea in mind, I try to give it shape in the drawing."

While studying fine arts and painting, Hardy would frequently sketch shoe ideas in his spare time, and then a chance career opportunity arose at Dior in 1988. After five years at Dior, he went on to become the head of design at Hermès and then head designer for Balenciaga shoes in 2000.

Finsk

"My shoes are more like design objects rather than footwear," says Finnish designer Julia Lundsten, whose shoes meld strong architectural shapes and butter-soft leathers with striking wooden heels. All too often wooden heels are incredibly conventional, ignoring the beauty of the material itself, but Lundsten's unique style has drawn critical acclaim from all over the world and has even succeeded in captivating legendary footwear designer Manolo Blahník. "Her work is like nothing anybody is doing at the moment... exquisite, divine and perfect," he says.

In fact, Blahník was so taken with Lundsten's architectural forms that, while she was studying for her Masters degree in Footwear at London's Royal College of Art, he presented her with the prestigious Manolo Blahník Award two years in a row.

Lundsten's interest in design was sparked at an early age when she spent her summers touring Scandinavia, visiting buildings with her architect father and interior designer mother. This experience has clearly had a lasting effect on her as she likens her shoe designs to buildings and chairs: "A shoe is like a chair, the heel and sole being the chair legs and the upper the seat."

She initially studied fashion design but rejected the discipline because she did not like the way that the body plays such a fundamental part in how a finished garment looks. "The shape and look of clothing changes completely with each body and I was always intrigued by shoes as they are related to a woman and her body, but the shape is a shape in itself and it doesn't really change with different 'foot shapes.'" As soon as she started concentrating fully on shoes, Lundsten knew that she had finally found the right combination of form and fashion.

Nicholas Kirkwood

From sculptural, crescent uppers and rhombus-shaped heels, to chevron-patterned, stacked-leather heels and aluminium-plate fastenings, Nicholas Kirkwood's shoes have one common theme: they are evidence of a master craftsman at work.

Despite the hints of modernist architecture and sculpture in his footwear, Kirkwood denies taking inspiration from anything so specific. "I doodle a lot and let my designs evolve quite freely," he admits. "I rarely set out thinking, 'this is what I am going to do,' and, in fact, the only thing I ever try and do is test out new ideas."

He does, however, consider good design to be work that is modern and pushes the boundaries.

Strict linear composition devoid of clutter is clearly central to his aesthetic. He rejects fussy trims, bows and diamantés, describing them as "the gargoyles of the footwear world," and dismisses stilettos for being "too old-fashioned". Instead, Kirkwood chooses to rely on colour and materials to emphasise the graphic constructions of his work.

"I don't use anything that's stuck on to the shoe. In certain ways it's architectural. Old-fashioned buildings like to be very decorative on the outside, but the basic shape is still a block, whereas modern buildings are more concerned about the actual shape of the building itself. That's the way I try to think of my shoes, especially when it comes to the heels."

Kirkwood launched his own line in 2005, aged just 24, following an apprenticeship with Philip Treacy.

Desjardins has designed two collections and shown twice in Edmonton Fashion Week

When most children her age were playing dress-up, Janine Desjardins was playing a different game, putting on fashion shows in her Spirit River home.

The 25-year-old fashion designer was always drawn to clothing and grew up modifying her own outfits and sketching ideas.

After graduating from high school, Desjardins lived in Grande Prairie and then made the move to Edmonton to study fashion design at Marvel College. She describes the process of designing fashion, from the brainstorming stage to completing a collection, as a mode of artistic expression.

"Like a painter paints, as an artist, this is just my outlet," Desjardins said. "It just makes me really happy, especially when you go from sketch, to drafting, to finished garment and it looks how I wanted it to in my head."

Since finishing her program, Desjardins has designed two collections and shown twice in Edmonton Fashion Week, which is now called Western Canada Fashion Week. She has also participated in an independent show with five other Edmonton designers, as well as artists and musicians.

Desjardins said that she draws a lot of her inspiration from European styles and uses rich, textured fabric and pops of colour to contrast simpler silhouettes.

"People are really scared of colour, especially in Canada, because our winters are so long and it just grows into your wardrobe. Half of my wardrobe is black but if you pump it up with some bright colours it's always really easy and fun."

Desjardins said that she keeps her looks varied and likes to pair wool, silks and leather together. For inspiration, she doesn't rely on mainstream trends.

"Fashion is a big part of my life but at the same time I don't follow the magazines," she said, "I try to stick to what comes up in my own head. What I would wear and what I know is comfortable but can still be fun."

After Vancouver fashion week, the next step for Desjardins will be to expand her brand into stores and design a menswear line.

The creative and pragmatic powers in fashion

It's only in recent years that people have begun to understand what it is that a stylist does – previously they were workers behind the scenes; now they're lauded as the creative and pragmatic powers in fashion, often becoming brands in themselves.

"I didn't really know what 'this' was for a long time," says Agata Belcen, stylist and fashion editor at AnOther Magazine. "At university, I went down the student newspaper route and it made me think I'd found something close to the thing I wanted to do when I grew up."

A philosophy graduate from Cambridge, 27-year-old Belcen studied a Masters in the history of dress in art at the Courtauld Institute, before assisting some of the biggest names in the industry – Cathy Edwards, Camilla Nickerson and Nicola Formichetti to name but a few.

She is a quiet and pragmatic stylist, with work ranging from the ultra avant garde to the more commercial, but always reflecting a subtle and considered take on contemporary femininity. "I couldn't describe my work without feeling ridiculous," she says, with characteristic modesty.

Inspiration comes in the form of archive images and ad campaigns. "I love every single Comme des Garçons advert ever made," Belcen says. "I don't often understand them, and like to imagine how the conversation between the creatives behind them went."

In a fashion climate ruled by luxury-goods

In a fashion climate ruled by luxury-goods conglomerates and an excess of merchandise that is both overwhelming and, increasingly, banal, Owens' less-than-conventional career trajectory – his business turned over more than $50m last year – is an inspiration. He doesn't advertise and his twice-yearly men's and women's collections, both shown in the French capital, are more of a development of his chosen aesthetic than a radical about-turn. While his price-tags rival that of any other designer name, Owens is less than reverent in his treatment of haute materials, actively encouraging the finest cashmere to ladder or silk chiffon to fray. His colour palette is monochrome and all the shades of "shadow" and "dust" in between.

"I try to make clothes the way Lou Reed does music, with minimal chord changes," he has said. "It's about giving everything I make a worn, softened feel. It's about an elegance being tinged with the barbaric, the luxury of not caring."

"I like classicism," he continues today. "I like historic reference. I like something new with something almost ancient. I like [legendary costume designer] Adrian; Hollywood in the Twenties and Thirties. I like discipline and the idea of restraint. I was always anti the whole moving-and-manipulating-the-body-around. It's like telling someone that their body isn't right and needs to be redone. When I make clothes it's about using bias cut, jersey and drape around the body. It has always been important to me that the clothes are somehow affectionate."

What it takes to turn a clothing item into an icon

From the workshops of Rome to the catwalks of Paris, this month icon delves into the world of fashion. From the capital of couture, Myleene Klass goes back stage at Paris Fashion Week to find out what it takes to turn a clothing item into an icon.

Valentino
For almost half a century at the head of his eponymous label, Valentino dressed the most glamorous women in the world, from Jackie Kennedy to Julia Roberts. His name has become synonymous with elegance and his fashion house remains just one of just fifteen that are officially allowed to call themselves "haute couture." Valentino invited icon to his home, a 17th century French chateau outside Paris, to take a look at some of his greatest designs.

Anna Dello Russo
Paris Fashion Week -- a mecca for style watchers, trend surfers and the high priests of design. Between fashion shows, Myleene Klass goes to meet the fashion director of Japanese Vogue, Anna Dello Russo -- a self-confessed fashion addict who has 4,000 pairs of shoes to prove it. Her blog is visited by 25,000 users daily, who log on to see the latest outfits she is wearing. Myleene gets an exclusive look inside the closet of this modern-day style icon at her room in the Ritz.

Louboutin
Fish scales, spider webs and the columns of buildings -- for Christian Louboutin, inspiration comes from the most unlikely of sources. The high priest of the high heel has transformed footwear into fantasy and the wearers into wonder women who walk tall. Louboutin prefers not to divulge his client list but his shoes aren't so discreet. They speak volumes as they flash their iconic red soles on the feet of pop stars and princesses -- from the First Lady of France, Carla Bruni, to Lady Gaga and Madonna. The styles of his shoes have changed over his 20-year career but one thing has remained the same -- the heels are always high. Icon went to the master cobbler's atelier in Paris to discover the sources of his inspiration and to see how a pair of stilettos are made.

A fashion forward line of tween clothes for Wal-Mart

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's fashion company, Dualstar, has been acclaimed for the fall 2011 sportswear collection of high end separates and textured pieces. The luxury fashion line, "The Row," has reached over a billion dollars in total sales and the twins have no intention of slowing down. Their first time as fashion designers came early in childhood when they created a fashion forward line of tween clothes for Wal-Mart.

Although "The Row" started off slow, it is not stigmatized like many other celebrity clothing lines. The twins have been surrounded by fashion from their early television years, and were constantly in fittings, around tailors, and inspired by extremely fashionable women. They packed their bags moving from L.A. to NYC at age 18, as they have taken a hiatus from acting to focus on their fashion careers.

“Each of the looks we’ve shown for fall was designed top to toe, but then we thought about how everything should dismantle as separates,” Ashley told Vogue. The young designers have a bright future in American fashion.

Any shape as long as it's short

That's in Essex, where last night in a marquee at Fairlop Waters Country Park a new pin was placed on the fashion map. At least, that's what the one million viewers of ITV's hit series The Only Way is Essex seem to think.

The county known more for its white shoes and WAGs is also in the throes of its own Fashion Week – as well as enjoying something of a cultural renaissance. Essex hotspots Chelmsford and Clacton-on-Sea have seen visitor numbers shoot up, with Travelodge reporting booming demand for rooms.

"I think Essex comes out of it quite well," says Grazia columnist Paul Flynn of the show. "It looks a whole lot less neurotic, competitive and elitist than neighbouring London."

The Only Way is Essex is a "modified reality" programme, which uses non-actors in improvised, semi-scripted scenarios, and has won not only notoriety but also genuine affection from viewers for its brash, overblown and rather stilted dramatis personae.

The show's stars have become tabloid darlings and it is they who are populating the prestigious front row seats at this week's event. Glamour model Amy Childs, self-proclaimed "Mr Essex" Mark Wright and his long-suffering on/off girlfriend Lauren Goodger have been thrust into the limelight. The earthy Nanny Pat, Wright's grandmother, has taken the role of fashion doyenne, forsaking her sausage plaits and spray tan for something more stylish.

"It's particular, tribal, funny, and comes with its own recognisable sense of style, language and an instant hit cast-list," says Flynn. "That's the holy grail of TV. There's a mix of empathy, shame and simple heart-throb telegenics involved in reality TV, for which Essex scrubs up perfectly."

The format is loosely based around the US-derived formula for shows such as The Hills and Jersey Shore, both of which purport to follow the antics of "real" people, but which are heavily directed according to what is most entertaining. While the first season of TOWIE – as it is known to its fans on Twitter – was based around a group of glitzy Essex natives, the second has so far seen some more heavy-handed manipulation, including the introduction of a former girlfriend of Hugh Hefner.

Still, the show appears to have lost none of its allure. Dismissed as tasteless, naff and trashy, the show rather brings out the more humane side of a culture usually scorned. The usual amount of liberal Lutherans have come out to condemn the cash-splashing, heavy-drinking protagonists, but the programme speaks of a righteously light-hearted working-class sensibility.

Land Rover & Range Rover Make the Scene at NY Fashion Week

Land Rover and Range Rover added an extra dose of style to two of Fashion Week's hottest shows with a fleet of vehicles for VIPs. The new Land Rover LR4 was the starring attraction at the Rag & Bone show in Soho, sponsored by the famed UK SUV marque, where beauties like model Jessica Stam (above) and Mad Men's Jon Hamm made the scene. And at the presentation by Marchesa, designed by Georgina Chapman, Range Rovers and Range Rover Sports provided luxe transportation for the likes of actresses Vanessa Hudgens and Michele Trachtenberg, musician Eve, socialite and TV personality Olivia Palermo, and model Irina Lazareanu. At both venues the vehicles sported the designer's logos, and when lined up impressively outside got nearly as much attention as the scenesters themselves.

"Land Rover is expanding its marketing profile with, for the first time, supporting a fashion house, Rag & Bone, during New York Fashion Week," noted Stuart Schorr, vice president of communications and public affairs, Jaguar Land Rover North America. "The Rag & Bone brand, led by Marcus Wainwright and David Neville, is admired for its refined and versatile aesthetic. Both Land Rover and Rag & Bone were born in England and enjoy massive global appeal. The Land Rover LR4 has evolved a distinct design heritage that is rooted in both authentic luxury and rugged capability.

New apps this week for the style

New apps this week for the style-conscious include urban bliss by Dickies, the ultimate royal wedding guide, and subversive flash mob behavior.

Urban wear brand Dickies has released its Love your Work iPad app that showcases some of the best in street fashion, photography, music and sport, while also presenting its products. Special gimmicks include imagery by Paul Mittleman, interviews with UK street fashion legends Michael Kopelman and Andrew Bunney, a map pointing you to the best hip hop spots in New York, and a Fixed Gear London video.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/love-your-work/id423320883?mt=8#

Finally, here is an app that not only looks sleek but also makes your life "more thrilling and unpredictable:" artist duo benrik's Situationist alerts members to one another's proximity and gets them to interact in suggested situations, ranging from "Compliment me on my haircut" to the more subversive "Help me rouse everyone around us into revolutionary fervour and storm the nearest TV station." Situations and pictures are moderated to avoid the Chatroulette effect.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/situationist/id410034914?mt=8#

Watchmakers see strong 2011

Watchmakers gave upbeat forecasts for 2011 at the industry's largest fair on Wednesday, although the deadly earthquake which hit key luxury consuming country Japan and Arab uprisings cast shadows over the expectations.

Industry giants including Swatch and LVMH have all posted strong recoveries over 2010, as consumers started spending again following the previous year's financial crisis, and they are expecting the recovery to continue in 2011.

Swiss exhibitors underlined that January sales were up 16.9 percent over a year ago and predicted that 2011 would be a new record year for the industry.

"This return to full health has been confirmed through the whole of the year just gone by, so let us assume that 2011 is going to turn out to be just as positive and that the entire industry will thus be able to continue to progress," said Sylvie Ritter, who manages the Baselworld fair.

However, the earthquake in Japan and an ensuing nuclear crisis as well as popular uprisings in the Arab world have cast shadows over those forecasts.

"Although the movement appears to be heading in the right direction, our uncertain geopolitical situation still makes it imperative for us to be cautious in our analyses," acknowledged Jacques Duchene, who heads the committee of exhibitors.

The organisers of Baselworld did not expect any cancellations from Japanese exhibitors, but Ritter believed that the disaster was expected to have some impact on the industry.

"From the point of view of luxury consumption, Japan is a very important market," she said.

"We expect some modifications but we hope that they will be just temporary," she added, in response to a question about the possible impact on the industry.

Luxury brands from Chopard to Rolex to Patek Philippe trotted out their latest timepieces at the fair, which is expected to attract some 100,000 visitors.

Organisers said 1,892 exhibitors form 45 countries are showcasing their latest creations over eight days over 160,000 square metres in the northern Swiss city of Basel.

Francois Thiebaud, who represents exhibitors from Switzerland, said that trends this year include a "return to classic models, inspired by the 1950s and 60s."

The designs are "less exuberant" with steel and gold as favoured materials this year.

Watchmakers have experienced a dramatic recovery in 2010 after the financial crisis.

“Infinity” was the theme of Lavuk designer latest collection

“Infinity” was the theme of Lavuk designer Natasha Gindin’s latest collection, which bowed on March 11 at Concept Los Angeles Fashion Week at Ace Gallery in Los Angeles.

Gindin used eco-friendly fabrics including organic cotton and hemp with hand-dyed silk and other fabrics to create her collection, which was embellished with custom hardware made from recycled pewter. The designer also sourced end-run, high-end fabrics to create limited-edition pieces. “I like to use something already produced,” she said.

Highlights included coats in bright shades of red and purple. A color-blocked coat in black and gray was another standout. When Gindin showed neutral pieces, she included a pop of color.

Lady Gaga is certainly known for her eye-popping

Lady Gaga is certainly identified for her eye-popping, always-evolving name, and she has shown her suffering for practice at numerous high-profile events. This hasn't destroyed forgotten by the Council of Style Designers of Ground, as the dealing structure announced on Weekday dark that the pop performer give be among its 2011 CFDA Forge Awards winners, The Related Weightlifting reports.

Gaga faculty be presented with the Vogue Painting Laurels at this gathering's function, which faculty need site on June 6 in New Royalty Port. CFDA chair Diane von Furstenberg and chief filmmaker Steven Kolb prefabricated the declaration at the DVF Flat in the Big Apple, where all the nominations were made open7 for the circumstance.

Also set to be constituted at the CFDA Awards is specializer Marc Dr., present who testament undergo the lifetime action grant. According to von Furstenberg, Doc e-mailed her noting that he didn't think he was old sufficiency for the honour and that he hot it renamed the "half-lifetime apportion." She explained to the fashionistas in the domicile, "I told him that I'm often senior than him and I'm console move." In constituent, Medico garnered a nomination for the Womenswear Specialiser of the Year see, as did Vanquisher Wang and the designing duo Lazaro Hernandez and Shit McCollough of Proenza Schouler.

The Olsen twins are also up for an grant. They module be competing in the womenswear collection for aborning talent for their aggregation The Row, effort up against Prabal Gurung and Joseph Altuzarra. The World Award leave go to Phoebe Philo, who designs for Celine and who gets a shout-out from Kanye Westernmost on "Unilluminated Vision," the move cut from his My Picturesque Gloomy Twisted Vision medium.

Opposite 2011 CFDA nominees allow Wang, Phillip Lim and Robert Geller in the up-and-coming menswear designer aggregation, and Alejandro Ingelmo, Eddie Borgo, Pamela Bang and Jason Wu for accessories.

Looking more like handbags that ladies would tote along

Most camera bags these days can hardly be said to be a fashion statement. Most look drab, though Crumpler has a couple that sport psychedelic colors. Still, at the end of the day, all these bags shout "I'm a camera bag!"

A photographer/blogger on Daily Relish saw the need for a more fashionable alternative, and worked on a line of bags for female photographers who want both style and function. According to her, it took two years of research including trials before she came up with the final design.

Looking more like handbags that ladies would tote along when they head out for shopping, these bags have Velcro-removable compartments so our female shutterbugs can arrange the compartments to fit their equipment.

The Hermes Station case for the iPad 2

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Now the tattoo artists to the stars are stepping into the limelight

Vidal Sassoon. Nicky Clarke. John Frieda. Hairdressers to the stars have become as recognisable as their big-name clients. And the cult of the super-stylist – Rachel Zoe and her TV show, Sex and the City’s Patricia Field – has seen onceunknown wardrobe mistresses become household names.

Now, though, a new breed of A-list primpers have joined their ranks – step forward the celebrity tattooist. You may not have heard of Louis Molloy, but you will have seen his work. The tattoo artist is responsible for the majority of David Beckham’s body art. Molloy began his tattooing career in the Seventies, when it was a very different business than it is today.

Once the preserve of sailors, criminals and outsiders, tattoos are now so common one even adorns the ankle of the Prime Minister’s wife. And just as getting a tattoo no longer raises eyebrows, neither does choosing a career as a tattoo artist. Molloy has been one of the biggest names in British tattooing for some time. When Beckham unveiled the whopping guardian angel tattoo on his back just over a decade ago, Molloy found his artwork on the front page of almost every national newspaper.

“It was a bit scary to be honest,” recalls Molloy. “The problem with a lot of press, especially the tabloids, is that they write what they want to write. The word that kept cropping up was ‘outraged’; that people were outraged at this tattoo, as if they were rioting in the street. It’s absolutely rubbish but they were just trying to stir people up. You could argue that any PR is good PR, which to an extent it is, but sometimes there’s a negative side to it aswell.” Having such a famous ambassador for his work has meant that Molloy is so popular that he now boasts a sixmonth waiting list. In fact, I can hear the needle whirring in the background while I’m onthe phone to him. Yes, he’s so busy that he’s forced to brand someone as we chat. Molloy is under no illusions as to why he is so in demand, and realises that people want a tattoo by the guy who did the Beckhams. “It’s like an endorsement, isn’t it?” offers Molloy.

It seems we are so influenced by celebrity these days that we not only want the same haircut or handbag as someone we admire, we also want their tattoo artist. When casting London Ink, a reality television show set in a London tattoo studio, the producers knew they had to have Molloy on board. “He’s very passionate about the artwork and clear about why he loves doing it,” explains Victoria Noble, the executive producer. “And if you’re putting a studio together, you want people to be recognisable as well as having recognisable work and he’s worked with so many footballers and rock stars.”

Noble also hopes that the programme made the world of tattooing more accessible to those who may have previously been intimidated by it. “I hope it showed tattoo parlours in a different light. I like to think of the London Ink tattoo studio as a very friendly place to be.” Molloy’s appearance on the show has led to numerous business offers from some unlikely sources, including Marks and Spencer, that staple of British middle class life. This May he will also launch Lou Molloy menswear, a range of streetwear which feature his original designs.

One T-shirt inevitably sports a familiar winged angel figure on the front. London Inkwas a spin-off of the hugely popular Miami Ink and LA Ink, which have been responsible for unleashing some of the biggest names in tattooing on the world. Having appeared in the original Miami version of the show, Kat Von D was offered LA Ink as her own vehicle and is now one of the most successful tattooists to cross over into the mainstream. Spurred on, no doubt, by being engaged to Sandra Bullock’s exhusband Jesse James, Von D has appeared in music videos, launched a make-up line and released a selection of fragrances. Her book High Voltage Tattoo even made it on to the New York Times bestseller list. It’s also not uncommon for a wellknown tattooist’s designs to be in demand for other products.

Having stamped much of the so-called Primrose Hill set, including Kate Moss and Jude Law, and gaining a two-year waiting list as a result, Saira Hunjan found that doors opened for her. “Because it’s such a small circle of people they just told each other about me,” says Hunjan. “A lot of people look up to them so I guess they like to go by their recommendation.” Hunjan was asked to design a range of T-shirts for the now defunct Luella label and she is currently branching out into silk scarves and home accessories. “I’m inspired by art from Mexico and India, religious art, goddesses and gypsy art. The stuff I’m designing is based on the imagery I like.”

As tattoos become more ubiquitous, we’re set to see even more of the tattooistas- celebrity. In the future, some tattoo artists will be revered in the same way as big name hairdressers are. And one thing’s for sure, tattoos have been embraced by the mainstream – although not every tattooist is convinced that’s a good thing. “It’s a bit of a two-edged sword,” Molloy points out. “Because if something is made extremely popular then there could come a time when it becomes very unpopular. With every up, there’s always the risk of a down.”

Women would increase their spend on plus-size clothing by 6 per cent

One-quarter with the women's outfits marketed from the united kingdom this 12 months shall be sizing 18 or above, as suppliers focus on a "huge" chance to develop income from your actuality that females on this nation are obtaining fatter. Verdict, the full consultancy, stated the females would improve their devote on plus-size clothes by six percent to £4.9bn this year.

Carly Syme, an analyst at Verdict, said: "Retailers are searching to expand their area of interest collections just like petites, maternity and as well as sizing to make certain progress and improve revenue. Our investigation has revealed that it may be the plus-size industry that provides the greatest chances for growth." in accordance with Verdict, plus-size clothes will account for 23.2 percent of complete womenswear revenue in 2011, in comparison with 18.7 percent in 2006.

The plus-size industry is populated by specialists just like Evans, however the substantial road stalwarts Debenhams and represents & Spencer are progressively targeting bigger women. M&S provides women's attire as a lot as sizing 26 on chosen lines and bras as a lot as 42J.

Ms Syme said: "While there may be a big proportion with the plus-size industry that is created up of more mature buyers demanding additional traditional designs, there can also be an growing require for additional stylish plus-size goods for more youthful shoppers, who are at present underserved." however the greatest chance continues to be with more mature shoppers. "If you in comparison a 50-year-old lady these days with twenty many years ago, they want additional design within their clothing," Ms Syme said.

While the progress from the plus-size industry will start to slow – as increasing obesity amounts fall back again with higher wellbeing consciousness – the industry will nevertheless develop by 28.6 percent in between 2010 and 2015.

While the weaker united kingdom financial system will strike the investing of bigger females – who have a tendency to become much less affluent – this shall be additional than offset by obesity amongst a growing, ageing female population, as females usually get larger as they get older.

The typical united kingdom lady can assume to reside to 82.6 many years old.

World-famous designer Jimmy Choo

World-famous designer Jimmy Choo may have come a long way since working in his family's humble shoemaking business in Malaysia, but he never forgot his dad's dedication to perfect footwear.

In fact, the Penang-born Choo, whose Haute Couture shoes are coveted by royalty and the likes of Madonna and US First Lady Michelle Obama, says that shoemaking is in his blood.

"I felt destined to be in the shoemaking business," he told AFP during a recent interview in Hong Kong, where some of his shoe sketches were auctioned off to raise money for poor students in China.

"If it weren't for him, there would be no Jimmy Choo today."

After selling his share of an eponymous ready-to-wear line in 2001, the London-based designer now markets a couture line to deep-pocketed clients, particularly the growing number of newly rich mainland Chinese customers riding high on the country's booming economy.

"We are seeing a lot of wealthy Chinese interested in our designs," he said.

"Business has been affected somewhat by the recession - people are postponing weddings for example, spending less. But a lot of our clients have huge spending powers, so it hasn't really impacted business too significantly."

Choo is convinced that tailor-made fashion is the only way to go, despite the success of his ready-to-wear label.

"Clients come to me because we cater to their needs... Once you go couture, you never go back," said Choo, clad in a fitted Armani suit.

"A person should never have to fit a pair of shoes, the shoe should be able to fit the person."

True to his artistic roots, Choo has a bolt of inspiration midway through the interview, sketching a pair of women's heels inspired by a floral centerpiece on the nearby coffee table.

The versatile fashion uses of Liberty's scarves

Walk through the main entrance of Liberty and the first sight to greet you is yards of fashionable silk. Waves of scarves, pashminas and pochettes drape from the walls, lounge on tables and affix themselves, just so, around the neck and shoulders of style conscious customers with a few hundred quid to spare on a billowy accessory.

On the trading floor of the 136-year-old central London department store, scarves occupy the number-one piece of retail real estate. They're fundamental to Liberty's Arts & Craft-flavoured ethos. At the till you can buy a reproduction of She Bought a Liberty Scarf, an illustrated 1930s "social skit" booklet by Joyce Dennys portraying "the versatile fashion uses of Liberty's scarves".

"They are a big piece of our profit," says the company's managing director, Ed Burstell. "And it's a category that in London, if not the world, we own." Accordingly, for a designer, "It's probably the most difficult area to get into."

Not surprisingly, Alexander McQueen and Christopher Kane are prominently displayed. But equally prominent are scarves by a hot new British designer: Richard Weston. Or, to give him his full title: Richard Weston, professor of architecture at Cardiff University and respected author of Alvar Aalto a monograph on the leading Finnish modernist, which won 1995's Sir Banister Fletcher Prize as the architecture book of the year. Professor Weston may be new, but he's not young he's 57.

His scarves' aesthetic DNA is entirely, literally natural: the designs are based on the high-resolution scans of minerals, fossils and stones that he makes in the converted garage of his home in the village of Dinas Powys near Cardiff. The resulting images are colourful, vibrant and entirely unique. "You can't beat nature at doing certain kinds of things," he explains with an enthusiasm that, it soon becomes apparent, is his default setting. "If you want subtlety of colour and intricacy of pattern and variation, nature is it."

Somehow it's fine to target women such as Kate Moss

Ageing faster than a blue cheese in a damp cave!" opined the Daily Mail's Jan Moir, following Kate Moss's recent appearance at the Louis Vuitton show in Paris.

The model was smoking, remember, which apparently is enough to open the floodgates to the moral outrage not to mention unabashed misogyny that is not only the preserve of this title but proliferates like the aforementioned mould elsewhere too. "What a shower of wretched cretins, praising this playground act of filter-tipped anarchy," Moir continued, neatly annihilating some of the main protagonists of an industry that, for all its shortcomings, employs more women in significant positions of power than many others put together. As far as I am aware and I was one of the cretins in attendance the applause was typical of the end of any fashion show and not aimed specifically at Moss at all.

Whatever, the way it's somehow fine to target women such as Moss  to accuse them of everything from being ugly to smelling bad, if you please – and to masquerade as an upstanding member of the sisterhood in so doing, is nothing short of mystifying.

Perhaps the reason why any vitriol passes as somehow acceptable is that it springs from our perception of what is and isn't deemed "real" as in, wouldn't it be good to see more "real" women in fashion shoots? So what is a model, exactly? A hologram?

Any holiday wardrobe worthy of its fashion credentials

Après Chanel, le déluge. Since that time, nautical references have become the staples of any holiday wardrobe worthy of its fashion credentials and they look good in a metropolitan environment too. This season alone, at Jil Sander, Raf Simons has come up with striped designs reminiscent of hyper-real, oversized deckchairs. There's a sunny maritime feel to Miuccia Prada's less conventionally coloured stripes, gracing tiered sun dresses and wide-brimmed hats  perfect for the most fashionable beaches and equally upbeat fun-fur stoles what with the sand, perhaps best left at home. More stripes at Jean-Paul Gaultier, where slouchy knitted trousers and jumpsuits are the designer's most recent take on the Breton knit a French fisherman's sweater in its original incarnation and as much a signature here as the conical bra and dressing men in skirts.

"The Breton stripe T-shirt is a childhood memory for me," Gaultier told the Financial Times recently. "My grandmother used to dress me in Breton tops, so when I think of navy stripes I feel a nostalgia for that era when I was growing up. And then, of course, there is Jean Genet and Querelle de Brest and Rainer Werner Fassbinder's film of that novel. At the beginning of the 1980s, I started wearing the Breton stripe top again. I wore them everywhere, even with a tuxedo for gala evenings. I paired them with everything jeans, even a kilt."

In rather less cartoonish vein, the editor of Vogue Paris, Emmanuelle Alt, has also adopted this quintessentially Gallic look, wearing it mainly with skinny denim, and only adding to its appeal.

A brief history of nautical dress: there is some dissent over who, precisely, gave the world the sailor suit. The British claim that it was their navy that first wore trousers made from ticking used to cover mattresses around 200 years ago. They were smeared with tar to make them waterproof. The Americans insist that sailor trousers with wide legs that were easy to roll up to the knee to keep dry on deck were their invention, however. Whatever, these were soon everywhere, matched with jackets dyed with indigo from India. A hat, also tar-covered, was worn at sea, then adorned with ribbons and flowers when ships sailed into port.

By the mid-19th century, a standard maritime uniform had been established. It was a symbol not only of a seafaring existence but also of the hedonism associated with those who wore it, given the folkloric girl in every port. Queen Victoria restored the sailor suit to more prim and proper prominence when, as a birthday gift for her husband, she had a children's version made for their oldest son, Bertie, the future Edward VII. The heir to the throne then, all of four years old was photographed in said garb, thereby setting the standard for wealthy families to dress their children in nautical outfits, including Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, who was photographed in this manner not long before his death.

Christina Aguilera and Selena Gomez have in common

What do Christina Aguilera and Selena Gomez have in common?

Until this week we'd have said, "Not much." Sure, they've both worked for Disney, but one's in a midcareer meltdown while the other's a controversy-free starlet whose worst offense is dating Justin Bieber.

But both ladies apparently have a fondness for Dolce & Gabbana—wearing virtually the same red brocade dress only a day apart!

So which do you like best? Xtina's strapless version, which gets a little edge from her studded belt and spiked Louboutin stilettos? Or the Wizards of Waverly Place star, who keeps things PG by wearing her cocktail frock loosely knotted at the waist with little bows on her Brian Atwood heels?

Yup, that's the whopping amount one collector paid for a sheer frock Kate Middleton wore during a 2002 charity fashion show at St. Andrew's University in Scotland. In the audience was her soon-to-be boyfriend and future fiancé, Prince William.

The dress, which was actually designed as a skirt by a fellow student, went up for auction yesterday in London and had at least four bidders.

"He thinks it's an iconic piece," a representative for the buyer was quoted saying. "He's very happy."

McQueen diaper bag

Alexander McQueen diaper bag? Check. Brian Atwood stiletto booties? Check. Now where's that baby?!

Rachel Zoe, who by our estimates is hovering around 39 weeks pregnant, has been tweeting her maternity style pics. And, as one might expect from Hollywood's most famous stylist, there isn't a Peter Pan bow, pastel or quilted baby print among the mix.

"OMG!!! McQueen diaper bag? It leaves me speechless!! XoRZ," the effusive fashion lover told tweeps Wednesday.

So in honor of Zoe and her relentless pursuit of style even as she approaches her due date, we're spotlighting 15 celebrity moms who threw caution and convention to the wind, towering their baby bumps around Tinseltown in sky-high heels.

They were everywhere on the spring-summer 2011 runways

Spring merchandise has officially strike the stores, and 1 craze ought to be quickly noticeable: vivid colors. They had been everywhere for the spring-summer 2011 runways, which includes on the Jil Sander show, exactly where candy colours managed to appear minimal when proven with crisp light shirts or layered with sleek dark coats, and at Rachel Roy and Burberry, exactly where diverse tones of shocking aqua and cobalt had been paired for any awesome look. coloring blocking, as witnessed for the Marni runway, is one more big trend.

Other custom and modern manufacturers explored the coloring wheel as well. "For spring we purchased plenty of color, from acid pinks to orange-red to cobalt blue to tangerine," says Jeannie Lee, operator of 3rd Street's Satine Boutique, which stocks and shares lines from designers which includes Isabel Marant, Dries Van Noten, Balmain and Balenciaga.

Retailer Hillary Rush, who owns her eponymous boutique, also on 3rd Street, has currently beginning seeing the coloring craze carry impact with customers. " The oversized raglan shirt from Monrow has completely marketed out from the hibiscus color," a coral-orange Rush says. "When a vivid coloring like that sells out prior to the dark or white, it's usually a assertion that folks are putting on coloring that season."

TEN THINGS WE LEARNED AT PARIS FASHION WEEK

. Kate Moss can still light up a catwalk.
Oooo she was smoking. Oooo she's such a bad girl. Oooo isn't she naughty? We imagine a gaggle of fashion press, whispering to each other, hands over their mouths in self-righteous horror at Moss casually puffing away at a ciggie on National No Smoking Day. She gets the last laugh though as she racks up column inches (probably better measured in metres these days).

2. Fetish-wear is fine.
Maid's uniforms, bags handcuffed to models' wrists, PVC corsets and slicked back hair; the only thing missing from Marc Jacobs' runway of iniquity was actual sex. Meanwhile over at Ungaro, Giles Deacon had models wearing neck-corsets, with the explanation, "The history of pleasure is part of a night time world ... underneath a corseted and waist-cinched exterior, a primeval sexual interior is waiting to get out".
Sadly, our primeval sexual interior just wants a cup of tea and a good night's sleep.

3. Bomber jackets are back.
We've already seen a preponderance of varsity jackets as part of the collegiate trend that's been around a while. Now it seems it is time to look back to the 90s when East 17 were in the charts and Brian Harvey's black shiny jacket was the height of sophisticated schoolyard style. You know the ones we mean. They had tight, ribbed wrists, and waists, and often came with a lining in a shade of vomit-inducing orange. Adorning them were various non-PC cartoon characters such as 'Dreddy' or 'Spliffy'. This time round they come with a better quality of embroidery. Givenchy's for instance, were covered with irises or panthers.

4. There's still magic in fashion.
Manish Arora brought out a Russian illusionist who performed astonishing feats on his catwalk.

5. Lady Gaga makes a good model.
Walking for the Mugler show, Gaga was a roaring success, with creative director Nicola Formicetti announcing to the Times that, "She was better than all the other girls." A nice outcome for Gaga who, the night before the show, tweeted, "so excited I might give birth to a machine gun". Ouch.

Fashion Statement's tingling spidey sense detects

It's been a while since FS cast its beady eyes around to see what its favourite easy target has been up to. This week, though, we heard that Ms Banks has big plans afoot. And lo, FS reached for its special ballpoint pen, a little shiver of joy travelling down its spine ...

"There are little facial expressions ... The chin goes back, like, 'Really?'", says Tyra to an interviewer. But no, rest easy, she's not teaching the world to smize - she is, instead, talking about the reaction she gets when people find out she's off to study at Harvard.

Yes, Harvard. The oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Harvard runs a three-year course entitled the Harvard Owner/President Management Program and the host of American's Next Top Model has enrolled. For those who are worried that this will eat into ANTM or talkshow time, fear not! Tyra will spend a mere three weeks on campus every year and will spend only $31,000 a year in tuition fees.

So what's her motivation? Maybe it's money. The college is, after all, the alma mater of 62 living billionaires. Perhaps Tyra is feeling a bit impoverished - after all, in 2009 she was listed by Forbes as having an annual income of just $30m.

Fashion Statement's tingling spidey sense detects, however, that the key to this mystery does not lie in Tyra's bank statements. It's all about things that money can't buy. A reputation, for instance, or a feeling of smug superiority. Yes! Tyra no longer wants to be regarded as a brainless model. She's adding a beauty and fashion advice website to her business empire this week (TypeF.com) and has already gained a whole new vocabulary for talking to her team. "I now can say 'what's the net present value on that?', 'What's the discounted cash flows of that?', and that's because of Harvard." Worth every penny, Tyra.

Anna Dello Russo continues her world domination

In today’s John Galliano chronicles? Isaac Mizrahi becomes one of the few designers to outright condemn him, meanwhile Holts and The Bay aren’t the only major retailers who have  stopped promoting or even pulled Galliano Saks Fifth Avenue has as well.

Could Anna Della Russo really be launching a music career?

Not everyone has royal wedding fever Matthew Williamson disses Kate Middleton‘s style… while doing press for his bridal line.

Head over heels for Pamela Love‘s tough yet feminine baubles? Get ready for her collaboration with Topshop.

A life of international glamour as a model for Italian fashion house Prada

A teenager from Essex has swapped the drudgery of manning the deep-fat fryer at his local fish-and-chip shop for a life of international glamour as a model for Italian fashion house Prada.

When Alexander Beck, 17, of Thaxted, went on a shopping trip to Cambridge he had no idea that events that day would change his life in such a dramatic fashion. He was about to walk out of a bookshop with friends when a stranger shouted out to him: "Stop, I love your face."

The rather forward stranger was a modelling scout, Cesar Perin, who saw something in Beck that he knew would be perfect for the world of high fashion.

A month later, the AS-level student had thrown in the towel at his £6-an-hour job at the Ocean Delight fish-and-chip shop, and put on hold his studies in English, physics and critical thinking at Newport Free Grammar School in Saffron Walden. He posed for a series of portfolio photos, which were sent to international fashion houses. Mr Perin knew his instinct had paid off as labels clamoured to book the new face.

"For a first job, being booked exclusively is like a golden ticket. All the labels, including, Gucci, wanted to book Alex but Prada booked him exclusively," Mr Perin said.

From Milan, the Brazilian-born scout took his protégé to Paris, where he was picked up from the airport in a car sent by Dior. The teenager appeared on the French fashion house's catwalk as well as those of Yves St Laurent, Louis Vuitton, Lanvin, Raf Simons and Acne. Beck is a rugby player whose exotic-looking face, 6ft 2in frame and trim physique have earned him lucrative editorial work, too; he already has two photoshoots with Vogue Hommes Japan under his belt.

A model's life is something of a change for the low-maintenance teenager. He confessed: "I used to get up 15 minutes before my school bus would leave and didn't take time over my appearance. I never thought I was good enough to be a model."

'Arthur' star Helen Mirren exudes confident style

At age 65, Academy Award-winning actress Dame Helen Mirren continues to take sex appeal to an entirely new level. Ever wondered whether you should you wear a bikini in your 50s and 60s? If you're Mirren, it's a definite fashion do. Uh huh, "Calendar Girls" anyone?

With no signs of slowing down anytime soon, Mirren is slated to receive a career achievement award on March 31 at CinemaCon, the annual convention and trade show for movie theater owners (formerly called ShoWest) in Las Vegas. She's also starring in  the much-anticipated remake of "Arthur," with Russell Brand and Jennifer Garner, due out in April.

Not only does Mirren prove that talented actresses of any age can compete with Hollywood starlets on the big screen, but the Brit can show them up on the red carpet as well. It's a fact that she still looks good in a bikini, but her real talent is masterfully exuding elegance, fully clothed.

Never one to shy away from an opportunity to look devilishly sublime on the red carpet, Mirren took the Sunday church suit and gave it a much needed makeover when she attended a special screening of her film "The Tempest," when it opened recently in London. She  added some peek-a-boo cleavage and a flirty bubble skirt. To transform her skirt suit from business attire to red carpet ready, she chose an uber chunky statement necklace, sleek silver envelope clutch and nude heels.

This year's American fashion awards

There were a couple of surprises among the honorees and nominees for this year’s American fashion awards, announced Wednesday evening by the Council of Fashion Designers of America. For one, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, who have proven their design chops (despite the naysayers) with their popular collection called the Row, were nominated for an award for new talent. For another, most of the biggest American designers, including Ralph Lauren, Donna Karan, Michael Kors and Calvin Klein’s Francisco Costa, were shut out.

Diane von Furstenberg, the president of the fashion council, announced the winners of several awards at her studio on West 14th Street. The recipients, who will be honored at a gala on June 6, include Phoebe Philo of Céline, Hilary Alexander of The Daily Telegraph, Hal Rubenstein of In Style, the photographer Arthur Elgort and, as a “fashion icon,” Lady Gaga. Marc Jacobs will receive this year’s lifetime achievement award, though Mr. Jacobs, in an e-mail to Ms.  von Furstenberg, noted that it should only be considered a “half-lifetime achievement award.”

Nominees for best designer in several categories were also announced. For women’s wear, they were Mr. Jacobs, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez of Proenza Schouler, and Alexander Wang. For men’s wear, they were Michael Bastian, Patrik Ervell and Simon Spurr. For accessories, they were Mr. Wang, Proenza Schouler and Reed Krakoff.

Rihanna continued on about how fashion is one of her biggest thrills

Rihanna is Vogue's cover girl for their “shape issue,” and she discusses separating herself from everyone else as well as her always-evolving style.

MTV News reports that the singer explained, “When I was fourteen and first started going out, I always wanted to be the opposite of everyone else.”

Rihanna added, “So I would go to the club in a polo t-shirt and pants and sneakers and a hat on backward, just so I would not be dressed like other girls. And I got desperate for things that weren't available in Barbados. I would cut things out of magazines. I was obsessed with creating a visual with clothing, and the way things are combined."

She continued on about how fashion is one of her biggest thrills, telling Vogue, “It's become more about taking a risk. When I am putting looks together, I dare myself to make something work. I always look for the most interesting silhouette or something that's a little off, but I have to figure it out. I have to make it me. I think that's the thrill in fashion."

Rihanna even credited her hair for inspiring a change in her music. "When I cut my hair, the whole sound changed, my style changed,” she said.

Her body is another part of her image that she embraces. "Over the holidays, and even during filming, I realized that I actually like my body, even if it's not perfect according to the book. I just feel sexy. For the first time, I don't want to get rid of the curves. I just want to tone it up," she said. "My body is comfortable, and it's not unhealthy, so I'm going to rock with it."

The Next Talent contest for emerging hair stylists

The most established fair for beauty professionals is opening up to the public with a live video channel and hair styling talent search.

All major events during the fair, which runs in Bologna, Italy March 18-21, will be broadcast live for the first time on Cosmoprof's website, with the videos to be available for later viewing on its new YouTube channel.

It is an important move for the notoriously industry-focused fair, which will enable every beauty fan around the world to take part in its Love Nail and Nature Green-volution events as well as live showcases of the latest styles by the world's most renowned hairdressers on the On Hair stage.

It also means that Cosmoprof's The Next Talent contest for emerging hair stylists will be opened up to a much broader audience this year.

Organizers told Relaxnews that they had decided to shift the event from April to March this year to cater to exhibitors wanting to precede the launch of their yearly innovations. They also united Cosmoprof's dates with those of Cosmopack, the equivalent for the packaging industry, in order to "involve all of the main players" of the beauty sphere.

Katharine Hamnett is a London fashion icon

Katharine Hamnett is a London fashion icon, a trail blazer when it comes to style and a religiously dedicated champion of all things ethical, fair trade and environmentally friendly.

She first hit the scene back in the 1979 when she launched her debut slogan T-shirts, emblazoned with things like ‘Choose Life’ and ‘Ban Pollution’. Yes, she got there first, inspiring countless copies by everyone from Paul Morley, who designed the Frankie Says Relax tees based on Hamnett’s offerings, to the more recent riffs that propelled Henry Holland to stardom.

Not that she simply focused on the political statements. For years Hamnett had a fully fledged line, with boutiques across the globe and a hardcore cult following among the most stylish men and women the eighties had to offer. In fact, you can thank her for developing the stonewashed denim that's so associated with the era, not to mention being the force behind the harem pant. She's also responsible for discovering a clutch of now-familiar names in the fashion industry: Ellen von Unwerth and Terry Richardson both kick-started their careers by shooting campaigns for her.

Her creations earned her the accolade of Designer of the Year in 1984, awarded to her by the British Fashion Council. And they also bagged her a now legendary trip to 10 Downing Street, where she met the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher wearing a '58% Don't Want Pershing' T-shirt.

This season she’s launching her first full collection for years, made from ethically sourced fabrics of course, and she’s offering up everything from beautifully cut jeans to slouchy jumpsuits. The pieces are set to hit Net-A-Porter this month.

And that’s not all. In support of Fairtrade Fortnight and to celebrate 20 years of fair trade cotton, she’s also designed a couple of T-shirts for the Environmental Justice Foundation. As modelled by Pixie Geldof, the tees are emblazoned with ‘No More Fahsion Victims’, and profits from their sale will be used to help the charity.

Designing is about being creative and having fun too

Vanessa Hudgens graces the cover of Shape’s April issue and flaunts her sexy bikini body in a steamy photo shoot for the fitness publication.

The Sucker Punch star also took part in an interview to open up about her breakup with former High School Musical co-star Zac Efron, her intense training for Zack Snyder’s upcoming action-fantasy film, and her aspirations in the glamorous world of fashion.

Hudgens and Efron broke up last December after dating for four years, but she looks back on their romantic relationship with fond memories.

“We grew up together,” she tells Shape. “It was nice to have someone to share all of those experiences with. The relationship kept me grounded, and because I was with someone who knew me so well, I didn’t need to try to be someone I’m not.”

Their hectic work schedules played a major factor in their highly-publicized split, as they were located at opposite ends of the Earth at times during their relationship, according to People.

“Long-distance relationships are hard no matter what,” Hudgens says. “When you don’t have face-to-face time, it’s just different. Having an iPhone helped, but it just wasn’t the same.”

While she is currently generating publicity for partying more than ever before, she is already looking forward to marriage and parenthood.

"I hope by the time I'm 30 to have a husband and maybe a baby," the 22-year-old star admits. "I love children. They're so much fun, and I would have a blast spoiling them!"

Hudgens took part in intense physical training to prepare for her demanding role in Sucker Punch, and she credits her co-stars for helping her get into the best shape of her life.

“I wouldn’t have been able to do it if it weren’t for the other girls [Emily Browning, Jamie Chung, Abbie Cornish, and Jena Malone],” she says. “It’s because of them that I got so strong. By the end, I was a monster!”

The multi-talented actress and singer, who captured headlines Monday for locking lips with Zoey 101 star Alexa Nikolas, plans to turn her attention to the world of fashion in the near future.

“I’m really, really into fashion,” Hudgens reveals. “Right now, I’m pulling pictures from the ‘60s and ‘70s and studying women like Cher and Bianca Jagger for inspiration. It would take a while to get something going, but I want to do it. Designing is about being creative and having fun too.”

which moved with ease along the catwalk

While the designer was backstage putting the finishing touches to her autumn/winter 2011 collection, with her three eldest children, sons, Miller and Beckett, and daughter Bailey, with the latest addition to the family, 3-month old Riley in her arms, the Russian supermodel, Natalia Vodianova, arrived front of house with her three children, Lucas, Neva, and Viktor. Wearing a Stella McCartney top, with a brief Balenciaga puffball mini, she posed happily for photographers, before joining Sir Paul McCartney, his girlfriend, Nancy Shevell, Liv Tyler, Zoe Felix, and Lucie de la Falaise, in the front row.

McCartney continued her experiments with cleanly-cut, oversized coats and jackets, devoid of ornamentation, in the masculine-inspired, minimalist manner. She introduced finely-pleated Little Black Dresses, which moved with ease along the catwalk - and which suggested 'Pleats Please' - but which echoed the volume motif in dropped-shoulder balloon sleeves, and were finished with a large zip at the back. And she added high, stretch, corset-waists to skinny skirts and trousers.

A classic, shawl-collared coat, in cream, soft brushed wool; a boiled wool, fitted ivory dress, which tapped into the collage trend, with stitched panels; and and a cream sweater dress with a collage of stitches, offered a lighter colour palette.

Then came Stella's gold moment: boiled wool was felted and laminated with gold foil collarless coat, and a scrunched-up gold foil pattern was printed on cowl-back and side-draped dresses, and a loose, pyjama-style trouser suit. Volume was forgotten, as the collection moved into evening wear.

Form-fitting dresses sculpted the body in black, bisected with panels of see-through point d'esprit, and blue velvet was bonded with a "scuba" street for tight jumpsuits and skinks, with a peplum effect.