GISELE BUNDCHEN

Gisele Caroline Bündchen born 20 July 1980 is a Brazilian model, occasional film actress and goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Environment Programme. In the late 1990s, Bündchen became one of the first in a wave of Brazilian models to find success. In 1999, Vogue magazine dubbed her "The Return of the Sexy Model" and she was credited with ending the "heroin chic" era of modeling.Bündchen was one of Victoria's Secret Angels from 2000 until 2006. Since 2004, she has been the highest-paid model in the world and the sixteenth richest woman in the entertainment industry with an estimated $150 million fortune.[1] Models Claudia Schiffer and Naomi Campbell have argued that Bündchen is the only true remaining "supermodel."


As an occasional actress, she had supporting roles in Taxi (2004) and The Devil Wears Prada (2006).

From 2000 to 2005, Bündchen was in a much-publicized relationship with American actor Leonardo DiCaprio. She married New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady in 2009.

Bündchen was born in the Brazilian town of Três de Maio and grew up in Horizontina, Rio Grande do Sul. She is of German-Brazilian heritage from both her parents, Vânia Nonnenmacher, a bank clerk pensioner, and Valdir Bündchen, a university teacher and writer. She has five sisters — Raquel, Graziela, Gabriela, Rafaela and her fraternal twin Patrícia, Gisele's junior by five minutes. Bündchen is Roman Catholic and speaks Portuguese as her native language. She also speaks Spanish and English.

SOURCE:  Wikipedia

This is in honor of our Facebook friendship...

TORNADO RELIEF

EL RENO, Okla. — Violent storms with winds of more than 150 mph slammed into a chunk of the central U.S. overnight, killing at least 13 people in three states, flattening homes, crushing cars and ripping apart a rural Arkansas fire station.

The high-powered storms arrived Tuesday night and early Wednesday, just days after a massive tornado tore up the southwest Missouri city of Joplin and killed 122 people.



The tornado in Joplin was so powerful as you might have heard, it ripped bark off the trees! To donate for the survivors of these terrible storm do so here

Redcross.org

Salvationarmy.org

And the United Way, where 100% of donations will go to relief aide.

If you do not have the means to donate...offer up your prayers.

AFRICAN AMERICAN SUPER MODELS

 Beverly Johnson (born October 13, 1952) is an American model, actress, and businesswoman. She made history when she rose to fame as the first black model to appear on the cover of American Vogue in 1974 (August issue) A year later, she became the first black woman to appear on the cover of the French edition of Elle magazine.


Following Dorothea Towles Church, Donyale Luna, and Naomi Sims, Johnson paved the way for black women in fashion, and future models like Naomi Campbell and Tyra Banks. She was honored in 2006 at Oprah Winfrey's Legends Ball along with Coretta Scott King, Rosa Parks, Tina Turner and other female African Americans in entertainment, civil rights, and the arts. The New York Times named Johnson one of the 20th century's most influential people in fashion.

Naomi Campbell (born 22 May 1970) is a British model. Scouted at the age of 15, she established herself among the top three most recognizable and in-demand models of the late 1980s and early 1990s, and she was one of six models of her generation declared "supermodels" by the fashion world^. As the most famous black model of her time, Campbell has been outspoken throughout her career against the racial bias that exists in the fashion industry.

Chanel Iman Robinson (born December 1, 1990), known professionally as Chanel Iman, is an American fashion model perhaps best known for her work for Victoria's Secret. Iman started modeling with Ford Models at the age of 13 as a child model in Los Angeles, California. She flew to New York in 2006 and won third place in Ford's Supermodel of the World contest. Shortly after, she signed on with the agency.  Chanel Iman is noted for never wearing makeup outside of Fashion shows.


There it is, though Beverly Johnson was not the first black model, she is the first to have paved the way for future black girls to find that they too can make it in this catty industry. 

Dorothea Church - African American pioneering model. Was the first successful black fashion model in Paris.

NOTE:  I have absolutely no idea why there are three different fonts...hmmm.

ANNA SUI'S BOHEMIAN CHIC

Sui had the runway backdrop created to look like a wheat field with a little house in the background. It was all light and sweet and there was a feeling of fun in the air.


Some dresses looked like aprons, while other looks included cardigans, fringed ponchos, paisley print leggings, long skirts, bell bottoms, and handkerchief hemlines.

Boho-chic is a style of female fashion drawing on various bohemian and hippie influences, that, at its height in 2004-5, was associated particularly with actress Sienna Miller and model Kate Moss in the United Kingdom and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen and Nicole Richie in the United States. It has been in evidence since the early nineties and, although appearing to wane from time to time, has repeatedly re-surfaced in varying guises.

Anna Sui in my opinion, is the princess of Boho Chic here in New York City, I have not crowned the Queen or King yet, but a walk through her Soho boutique is just absolutely fascinating.

SAVAGE BEAUTY

This photo is from McQueen’s final collection before his most untimely death.


In honor of Alexander McQueen being honored at The Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute’s Gala for the opening of Savage Beauty which opens to the public on May 4, 2011

Lee Alexander McQueen,  (17 March 1969 – 11 February 2010) was a British fashion designer and couturier best known for his in-depth knowledge of bespoke British tailoring, his tendency to juxtapose female strength and sensuality with fragility in his collections, as well as the emotional power and raw energy of his provocative fashion shows. He is also known for having worked as chief designer at Givenchy from 1996 to 2001 and for founding his own label under the name Alexander McQueen. His achievements in fashion earned him four British Designer of the Year awards (1996, 1997, 2001 and 2003), as well as the CFDA's International Designer of the Year award in 2003.


McQueen's death was announced on the afternoon of 11 February 2010. He was found hanged that morning in his wardrobe by his housekeeper at his home on Green Street, London W1. Paramedics were called and they pronounced him dead at the scene.


Source:  Wikipedia

I have the immense pleasure of meeting McQueen's new designer who succeeded him Sarah Burton, Tuesday May 3, 2011

POVERTY AND ME

I hate having to do this but it is a concern I must look at, and that is my relation to high end Fashion and the plight of the poor homeless. I have worked with the homeless mentally ill for over a decade and have been their strongest advocate and yet I LOVE high end fashion, where is my balance if any, in this.


God has blessed me tremendously and has allowed me to not only be part of the fashion industry in my youth but allows me to still enjoy the industry as a blogger, now that the good looks have gone away, in my eyes.

I am extravagant and a bit ostentatious, but I am also a man with a very deep heart who genuinely cares about the poor…this is the part I hate…I am now in the process of opening St. Elizabeth Ann Seton soup kitchen where I will personally myself feed the poor and homeless, and no I will not be wearing my high end fashion while doing this LOL, but seriously this is a concern that tugs at my heart every time I pass a homeless person on the street or see poor kids in my own neighborhood panhandling for money. As I said God he/she has blessed me and if I do not give back it will all be of naught and I could not sleep at night knowing I have done nothing to help the poor. Am I doing this to quell my shamefulness at loving high end fashion? It certainly is not. I feel I am adorning this temple God has given me, not all of us can do this, true, but for those who can and do I think it gives God glory to shine bright and if he/she has blessed us thus it would be sin not to…this is purely my outlook on the matter…I also make sure I am not CONSUMED by high end fashion…picture it, me in raggedy cheap jeans and a flannel shirt, yes I get down like that too.