Fashion show aims to lift stigma on the disabled

At a glitzy Kiev night club brimming with neon lights and energetic pop music, the models showed off sleek evening gowns and glamorous hats as Ukraine's celebrities cheered on. But this was no ordinary fashion show — some models rolled on wheelchairs, others were blind.

At the Wednesday night event dubbed Fashion Chance a dozen designers, mostly from Ukraine, presented outfits for physically handicapped women, in a bid to bring attention and dignity to some of Ukraine's most marginalized citizens. In a country where most buildings lack wheelchair ramps and only a few public schools accept disabled children, the show was a small but vivid step toward removing the stigma that cloaks Ukraine's disabled.

"People on wheelchairs, the blind, the handicapped should all feel accepted," said 26-year-old Ilona Slugovina, an avid wheelchair ballroom dancer, who modeled a lilac-colored glittery evening dress.
Some models moved confidently down the runway — on wheel chairs, or accompanied by handsome young men in elegant suits — flashing smiles and some attempting to mimic the traditional model gait. One blind model coquettishly held her hand on her hip and played with a lock of hair. Others appeared nervous.

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"I felt beautiful, I felt confident," said Antonina Krivobok, who masterfully rolled and turned around in a wheelchair and posed in front of TV cameras as she presented a purple evening dress.

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Beginning and already established designers presented elegant dresses and suits for women on wheelchairs or with other handicaps. Some of the outfits differed little from what ambulatory women would wear, others were cut in a more voluminous fashion to accommodate the needs of those in wheelchairs.

"God made the woman beautiful and the designer's goal is to stress that beauty," said Natalia Anri, a top Ukrainian designer.

But it wasn't just about clothes.
Yulia Kozluk, 28, who runs a fund that trains and then finds computer jobs for those on wheelchairs like herself, said she hoped such projects would help Ukrainian society grow up and accept those who are different.

"When I roll in my wheelchair, people stare at me like I am an alien and it wounds," said Kozluk, who became paralyzed at age 23 after a car accident. "But I am not an alien, I am a regular person."
Ukraine's physically handicapped people are barely visible to the country at large, confined to their homes in the absence of ramps, elevators and specially equipped buses and mostly shunned by society in a grim legacy of the Soviet era.

The Soviet authorities aimed to maintain the image of a happy and healthy society devoid of any problems, locking many disabled, including maimed World War II soldiers, into specialized institutions and even remote islands, where they could not be seen to the general public, while discussing the plight of the handicapped was virtually a taboo in Soviet media.

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Today, children with disabilities are usually hidden away in specialized schools or orphanages, where they are deprived of a chance to interact with other children and society as a whole does not learn to co-exist, accept and help those with disabilities. Only a handful of public schools accept disabled children, because building entrances, canteens and toilets are not equipped with ramps, teachers lack the necessary training and other students and often their parents object to having such classmates.

In Kiev, home to tens of thousands of disabled children of school age, only about 10 schools provide inclusive education, according to Larisa Baida, an education activist with Ukraine's National Assembly for Disabled.

"It's sad," said Baida. "It's a constant struggle, every day they fight for their life."
The Education Ministry declined a comment for this story.

Two blind models present outfits during the show, which left some in the audience moved to tears.
Universities also offer very few chances for the handicapped, lacking audio books for hearing-impaired and computers for the blind. Since gaining independence from the Soviet Union over 20 years ago, not a single book in the tactile writing system called Braille has been published for the visually impaired, according to the Assembly.

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Only a handful of news programs on television are translated into sign language, while none of entertainment shows for adolescents or children are accessible for hearing impaired. Most Ukrainian websites, including those of the president and the government, lack the special software that allows the blind to convert them into audio.

Finding a job is also a major problem, with about only 25 percent of the country's disabled employed, mostly at low-skilled and low-paid jobs, according to the United Nations Development program.
"When we look at a disabled person, we are not ready to see a person in them" who wants to study, work and eat at restaurants, said Natalia Skripka, Assembly's director. "While we should first be seeing a person and only then notice their peculiarities — are they tall or short, do they have blond or dark hair, do they have disabilities or not."

Style And Fashion Expert Gives Away Free "Passport To French Chic" Stylist Advice iBook

Style and fashion expert Sharon Haver, the founder of FocusOnStyle.com, believes fashion stylist advice should be accessible to everyone. With that, the fashion blog website is giving away, for a limited time, the best of  timeless FocusOnStyle style tips to master simple stylish Parisian style, in the free ibook download, Passport to French Chic:  The best of timeless FocusOnStyle tips to Parisian style… even if you come from Brooklyn as a gift for joining the fashion newsletter.

To celebrate the 14th anniversary online, Haver has culled the most popular French Chic stylist tips from the FocusOnStyle.com fashion archives and presents them in a petite easy-to-follow illustrated guide brimming with simple takeaway Parisian style strategies to amp up your personal style.

Anybody interested in claiming their free French Chic style guide, can access it from FocusOnStyle.com here, and also be kept up-to-date with regular expert can-do chic tips to hone the skills to become their own stylist. "I believe in sharing my over two decades of professional fashion expert skills for the everyday woman to master her own personal style without having to depend on a stylist to do it for her," says Sharon Haver. "My FocusOnStyle.com readers gravitate to the élan of easy French Chic. I have curated the most popular ageless style tips and put them in one very easy-follow-guide in "Passport to French Chic" as a gift for joining my fashion newsletter email updates," adds Haver.

Haver may not be from Paris but the New York native does know style. "From my over two decades in the fashion industry from stylist to founder of FocusOnStyle.com, and as a style mentor to help YOU make the most of what you've got, there are certain principals of effortless chic and everyday elegance that the French have down pat. But just like a superb croissant or a crispy French fry, the delicious appeal is universal and with fewer calories," says Haver.

Addressing the concerns of helping the everyday woman master timeless and ageless personal style, FocusOnStyle.com launched in 1999 as an extension of Haver's syndicated fashion advice column on the Scripps Howard News Service that was distributed weekly to 400 newspapers. The column and the web site are a way for the fashion stylist to share insider tips and tricks that she honed on photo shoots during her vast 15 year career as a go-to New York fashion stylist.

As a fashion guru, Haver starred in her own national Macy's TV commercial, been a spokesperson, authored a contribution as a style achiever in the book, "65 Things to Do When You Retire, 65 Notable Achievers on How to Make the Most of the Rest of Your Life," along with President Jimmy Carter and Gloria Steinem. She is a media personality and frequently quoted fashion expert.

The style mentor feels most fulfilled enlightening others to feel self-confident by reaching their highest potential of timeless and age-appropriate personal style without having to rely on a stylist to dress them. Haver is currently writing a style book, creating a series of personal development style resources, and launching a limited availability of VIP one-on-one style mentoring sessions, along with acting as editor in chief at FocusOnStyle.com.

Fiery Fashion at The Crucible

Fashion shows are by definition spectacles, but who said all spectacles are created equal? From Alexander McQueen's nail-lined "spike" runway in 2000 (models had to be suspended above it) to Karl Lagerfeld's $10 million Great Wall of China catwalk in 2007 to the mile-long runway at the 2010 Copenhagen Fashion Week, an emphasis on the spectacular is woven into the fabric of the runway psyche.

Fire, for seemingly obvious reasons, hasn't really ever been part of the equation. But at The Crucible (1260 7th St., Oakland), it happens to be the spectacle of choice. The 56,000-square-foot industrial-arts education facility is dedicated to crafts like glass-blowing, bronze-casting, and arc-welding, so it's apt that it would celebrate its fourteenth anniversary by bringing together the Bay Area's plethora of arts skill sets and its favored element. On Friday and Saturday, January 11-12, when The Crucible hosts "Hot Couture: A Fusion of Fashion and Fire," that means fashion designers playing with flame are welcomed into the fold.

The Crucible opened in Berkeley in 1999 before moving to West Oakland. Over the years it has hosted its famed fire-arts festival, several fire operas, fire ballets (including a fiery rendition of Romeo and Juliet), and one prior iteration of the fire fashion show. Fire is not only the tool used to create much of the venue's art, but also idolized in its own right.

And so for its anniversary, The Crucible has created a fiery runway of epic proportions. Constructed at the West Oakland space out of twenty tons (yes, tons) of compacted aluminum, the stage will also feature a giant central flaming sculptural piece that will be incorporated into the runway walks. "It's a fashion runway, but it's atypical in that it's 3-D," said Steven Young, executive director of The Crucible. "The models will interact with the fire, adding to the fantasy."

In preparation for the "Hot Couture" show, The Crucible issued a call for designs, asking that fashion designers collaborate with industrial artists: the welders, glassworkers, and technology artists abundant in the maker-obsessed, Burning-Man-infused Bay Area art scene. The final result is twelve teams presenting 48 couture pieces — all varying widely in materials and concepts — in the fantastical runway show.


"We're an art school that's really focused on design — fashion is just an extension of those things," said Young. "It's about handmade design work, craft, inspiration, and quality."

The evening will consist of a cocktail hour with faculty demonstrations of The Crucible's industrial arts specialties, followed by three fashion shows, each separated by equally spectacular intermission entertainment. Guests will be invited to celebrate the art of the spectacular, including a "fire-breathing violin" (which spits fire as it's being played), an aerial acrobatics performance, a "presentation of fantastic latex fashionwear," and a surprise grand finale. "It's a nightlong fashion event," said Young. "It's not just a runway show and then we're done. Our goal really is to create a fashion spectacle."

Style Hunter Meets... Russian Fashion Designer Olga Vilshenko

With five seasons under her belt, Russian fashion designer Olga Vilshenko can already count some of the globe's coolest fashon stores as her home and a number one fan in the very stylish songstress, Florence Welch. Our Flo has worn the brand’s signature folksy paisley prints three times now, so when we heard Olga was visiting her London studio we wanted to know more about the women bringing Babushka into style…

Grazia Daily: What do you always rely on in your wardrobe?
Olga Vilshenko: I always wear dresses and blouses as I find them easy to throw on yet they always look feminine and stylish.

Grazia Daily: Is there one thing you have a soft spot for? What do you always turn to if you aren’t sure what to wear?

Olga Vilshenko: I love loose fitting clothing and always turn to them if in doubt.  They are comfortable and if I am in a rush but want to look chic I always wear a lurex Vilshenko blouse.

Grazia Daily: Who or what influences your style? And what’s inspiring you right now?
Olga Vilshenko:I am always inspired by things around me and all things Russian, especially old Russian books, other designers and designs from the 70s, and fabrics from the 70’s also.

Grazia Daily: What’s been your biggest fashion mistake?
Olga Vilshenko: To be honest, it happens a lot but then fashion is cyclical so things always come back into fashion a few years later so it will never be that much of a faux pas/fashion disaster.  You need to be creative and have fun with fashion so there is always going to be a certain risk element involved.   When you look back at old photos it can be funny as outfits that were fashionable then aren’t anymore – generally everyone looks funny in old photos even if they played it safe!

Grazia Daily: How has your home country influenced your design?
Olga Vilshenko: It always influences my designs and collections, 100%.   Everything from Russian books, Russian heritage, museums, old vintage folk dresses, buildings, architecture to Russian history – everything around me has an impact in my collections creatively.

Grazia Daily: What will you be investing in for SS13?
Olga Vilshenko: I loved Saint Laurent’s show and thought the collection was very feminine and chic.  The full length dresses look very elegant and stylish yet easy to wear – a bit like Vilshenko.  I can see myself wearing lots of dresses from the collection and particularly have my eye one the floral maxi dress.

Missoni Scion on Small Plane Missing in Venezuela

Rescue crews used boats and aircraft on Saturday to search for a small plane that disappeared in Venezuela carrying the CEO of Italy's iconic Missoni fashion house and five other people.

But 24 hours after the BN-2 Islander aircraft disappeared from radar screens on its short flight from Venzuela's coastal resort island of Los Roques, no sign of the plane had been found, officials said.

"We have no other news" about the plane carrying Vittorio Missoni, the head of the company; his wife, Maurizia Castiglioni; two of their Italian friends; and two Venezuelan crew members, said Paolo Marchetti, a Missoni SpA official. He spoke briefly to reporters as he left company headquarters in the northern Italian town of Sumirago Saturday afternoon.

Missoni's younger brother, Luca, who is active in the family-run business, was reportedly traveling to Venezuela on Saturday to monitor search efforts.

The La Repubbica.it, website of the Rome newspaper said Venezuelan aircraft, motorboats and helicopters took off at dawn Saturday to resume the search for the missing plane, which had been suspended on Friday night. The Italian news agency ANSA, reporting from Rome, said a specialized ocean-searching naval vessel also was being deployed.

Vittorio Missoni is the eldest son of the company's founder, Ottavio, who at 91 still follows the business.

In this photo taken on March 30, 2005... View Full Caption
The Corriere della Sera newspaper reported that Ottavio and his wife Rosita were at their home in Italy, along with their daughter Angela, a chief fashion designer with the company, waiting for information about the search. Rosita Missoni designs housewears, and Angela's daughter, Margherita, has been infusing the classic designs with fresh appeal.

The Missoni house, with its trademark zigzag and other geometric patterns in sweaters, scarves and other knitwear, is one of Italy's most famous fashion brands abroad.

Vittorio Missoni has played a key role in marketing the Missoni family creations in Asia, especially in Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea as general director of marketing for Missoni SpA. He also spearheaded a push for the company's products in the United States and France. His efforts to expand the brand abroad led Missoni to be dubbed the company's "ambassador."

On Friday, Venezuela's Interior Minister Nestor Reverol said the plane was declared missing hours after taking off from Los Roques, a string of islands popular for scuba diving, white beaches and coral reefs, and where the Missonis and their friends were on vacation.

Vittorio Missoni has been described as an active sportsman and lover of the outdoors. He and his wife and their friends from northern Italy were scheduled to fly back to Italy on Friday, but their internal flight never made it to Caracas.

La Repubblica said the plane disappeared off radar screens shortly after takeoff from Los Roques on what was to been a 90-mile (140-kilometer) flight to the mainland. The Missoni brand is scheduled to display its latest menswear creations on the Milan runways in a fashion show later this month.

On Jan. 4, 2008, another plane returning to the Venezuelan mainland from Los Roques disappeared with 14 people aboard, including eight Italians. The body of the plane's Venezuelan co-pilot later washed ashore, but despite a search lasting weeks no other victims or the wreckage were found.

In 2009, a small plane returning from Los Roques with nine people aboard plunged into the Caribbean Sea, but all survived.

Prostitutes in Israel Are Finding New Lives in Training for the Fashion World

For 20 years Aviva, 48, flamboyant and transgendered, worked the streets of the business district of this Mediterranean city, as well as the seedy square mile around the central bus station and the Tel Baruch beach, once a notorious hub of Israeli prostitution that has become a spruced up stretch of sandy coast.

Alona, 40, immigrated to Israel with her parents from Ukraine in the early 1990s. Her circumstances quickly degenerated from working in a casino to a life derailed by debts, drugs and prostitution. When she was not in prison, the squalid streets around the bus station became her home.

“In the streets there was no toilet, no toilet paper,” Alona said. “I forgot a lot of things, like how to look after myself, to love myself. I learned to survive.”

Now, in an endeavor as far removed from their former lives as the gleaming banks and trendy boutiques of Tel Aviv are from the city’s sleazy subculture, the two, who asked to be identified only by their first names, recently completed a free course in styling and the retail clothing business. Along with other former prostitutes who have received similar training in dress design and sewing, they are now aiming to find a place in the world of fashion. There is always demand for sales staff in Tel Aviv’s bustling stores, and one talented graduate even went on to a professional design school on a scholarship.

“The course gave me a lot of self-confidence and knowledge,” Aviva said. “Maybe one day I’ll be able to start something of my own. When they gave me the certificate — the first in my life — I was proud of myself. I’d done something positive.”

The idea for the program grew up from the underside of Tel Aviv.

The program’s initiator, Lilach Tzur Ben-Moshe, was working as a fashion writer and editor at a leading Hebrew news Web site and volunteering at the city’s rape crisis center when, four years ago, she moved to the dilapidated Shapira Quarter near the bus station. Her squalid new neighborhood exposed her to the full misery of the sex trade, and she determined to help women to leave it.

“I didn’t want just to answer the phone in the help center,” she said. “I wanted to offer something more optimistic, more beautiful, the opposite of that awful world of prostitution.”

With an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 prostitutes in Israel, a country of about eight million people, antiprostitution campaigners say the industry has an annual turnover of more than half a billion dollars. While it is illegal to pimp or to run a brothel, prostitution is not a criminal offense in Israel. There are efforts to promote new legislation that would impose criminal penalties on people who are clients of prostitutes.

Up until a few years ago Israel was a prime destination for traffickers of women. An estimated 3,000 women per year were smuggled in, mostly from Eastern Europe, to work in the sex industry. That number has declined since Israel passed an antitrafficking law in 2006, according to the United States State Department Trafficking in Persons Report of 2012, and most of the prostitutes here are now said to be Israelis.

At around the same time as Ms. Tzur Ben-Moshe’s move to the Shapira Quarter, Israel’s first hostel for women trying to get out of prostitution and undergoing rehabilitation, Saleet, opened nearby. Ms. Tzur Ben-Moshe built the first course with Ido Recanati, a local fashion designer, offering women from the hostel training in sketching, fabrics and stitching. She then teamed with Iris Stern Levi, who had worked for 20 years at the rape crisis center. They founded an association, called Turning the Tables, and now are directors of the program, whose weekly sessions take place over a period of several months. Some students come from the hostel; some via Elem, an Israeli organization for youths in distress; and some are from a shelter for women straight out of prison.

Financing has come from the National Council of Jewish Women, an American organization of volunteers and advocates of social justice, as well as local companies and private individuals. Many Israelis connected with the fashion industry — designers, fabric suppliers and the Gertrude fashion house among others — have donated time and materials.

The efforts, Ms. Tzur Ben-Moshe said, are “our little bit, to show there’s a way out.”

 At a recent session in a building off Dizengoff Street, in the heart of Tel Aviv’s chic shopping and cafe district, half a dozen women practiced unpacking boxes of stock at a workshop given by Uri Reiss of 911 Fashion Ltd., which imports unique brands to Israel and runs a chain of stores in and around Tel Aviv at which the women will get some work experience.

Pulling a short chiffon dress out of a box, Aviva, amply built with long, dyed-blonde hair and a deep laugh, guffawed, “For me, that’s a shirt.”

Alona, whose thin arms bear the scars of years of drug abuse, offered advice to Mr. Reiss about how stores can fall short — customers buying shoes might have nowhere proper to sit, or mirrors might not go all the way to the floor. Shoplifters, she added, often cover security tags with nylon or aluminum foil to prevent them beeping at the exit. “A saleswoman,” she said, “always needs to keep an eye.”

Many prostitutes here begin as teenagers and have little education and no other work experience.

“Working in stores will help them integrate into the real world,” Mr. Reiss said.

The courses also teach them how to get through a job interview and to cope when prospective employers ask whether they have ever stolen or used drugs.

“The answer,” Ms. Stern Levi said, “is, ‘Yes, I have a past. But I am looking forward now.’ Turning the Tables is turning people with the stigma of being ex-sex workers into women with expertise.”

Aviva came to Israel with her family from India in 1979, and, still male, completed compulsory military service. Afterward, Aviva made the transition to female but felt rejected by society and could not find a regular job. Prostitution was her answer. Change came, she said, when she found love. Now in a steady relationship, she found her way, with the help of Elem volunteers, to the hostel and the course — a whole new world of people.

“At first I wasn’t sure if I would understand them,” she said. Having completed the course, she was waiting to hear from a fashion designer about a job as a seamstress.

Alona first heard of the hostel after visiting an emergency apartment it ran near the bus station where prostitutes could come in from the street to shower and rest. This was her third attempt at a reset. The first time she moved into Saleet she stayed for one day; the second was a short stint directly from prison. Now it had been six months and she said she wanted to become a stylist in a clothing store and had been reading a lot about the building of fashion empires like that of Coco Chanel.

Fashion trend: Fewer trends

The biggest trend in fashion for the new year might just be that there isn’t anything especially trendy.

Based on runway and retailer previews, the must-have look in 2013 could be menswear-inspired and tailored, or it could be ladylike chic. Colors are bold and bright, or graphic black and white; fabrics are slinky and silky, or textured and tough.

And pick your silhouette: There are both short sexy minis and long flowing maxis to be had. Check off dressed-up shorts, jumpsuits and slinky mermaid gowns.

It was largely the same story for fall 2012 – and spring before that. 2011, too.

“The problem with trends is that we are trended out. ... We are so exhausted by overload that we just don’t have a way to process anything new,” says trend analyst Marian Salzman, CEO of ad agency Havas PR North America.

Remember the days when a new fashion season meant a new must-have and a corresponding closet purge? Out with boy-cut jeans, in with skinnies. Out with skinnies, in with bell-bottoms.

Years ago, there was often a single muse who dominated the season. If she were a bohemian free spirit in the spring, she might be a tough biker chick in the fall. It seemed as if every designer was courting her at the same time.

Now the models on one catwalk seem like they were dressed personally by the designer from his or her singular point of view.

Looks aren’t stagnant, and you can see tastes evolving – right now there certainly is movement toward sophisticated, grown-up clothes in rich jewel tones and sultry touches – but there isn’t a feeling that it’s being done frenetically. One style might be more “in” than another, but nothing is quite “out.”

“When I started in this industry over 20 years ago, we’d be on the plane after the shows and talking about the trends of next season,” says Elle creative director Joe Zee.

“We really lived in the bubble. You could say, ‘It’s all about the miniskirt,’ and immediately you’d hear, ‘Oh, well, there’s nothing for me.’ Now, I can say it’s all about the ’60s and miniskirts again, but there are still a lot of palazzo pants, and jeans, and everything else, so you’ll find something.”

Do a search for high-waisted bellbottoms on any given day, and you’ll find a million pairs out there – and that’s a season when they weren’t deemed “trendy,” says Zee, who also is curator for the online shopping destination Vente-Privee.

Of course, the Internet has played a huge role in this. Shoppers see new styles more or less at the same time as the retailers and editors sitting in the front row, so fashion has become more democratized.

There’s still a role for insiders, but it’s more as style interpreters instead of final arbiters.

Stores have a much bigger selling space with their websites, so they don’t have to choose between the wide-leg pants or the skinny ones. And consumers don’t have to wait for the big deliveries a few times a year; there’s always a rolling supply of new items – and things headed for clearance racks.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing for fashion. It was a stretch for a designer long respected for career clothes to tout hot pants. The same could be said for the wunderkind doing embellished ballskirts.

Now they don’t have to. This allows for more creativity, not less.

No one has to look alike. No one has to squeeze into an unflattering must-have item just because a few fashion insiders deemed it must-have. After years of the industry preaching personal style, it seems it’s taking its own advice, and designers seem more concerned with carving out their own look – and gaining fans of it – than jumping on an inauthentic trend.

Women can approach fashion as if they have options, Zee says. Take colorblocking, for example.

“I’ve said that’s a ‘trend’ for five seasons. This season I’ll say it’s black and white, and maybe last year I said it was red and pink, but the look hangs out, has a longer life, and that gives you a broader sense of style,” Zee says.

When tastemakers began touting “personal style,” Zee says he’s not fully sure they meant it. But say something often enough, and people start believing it.

“In the moment maybe it was a marketing ploy,” he says, “but then came ‘Sex and the City’– which I think was a tent pole of personal style – and then the Internet and the popularity of ‘street style,’ and now I think women are saying, ‘I’m going to do what I like to do.’ ”

There’s also the importance of value in fashion now, and there’s not just a dollar sign attached to that. Quality, heritage and integrity are factors.

Going into 2013, Salzman says consumers have developed a mindset that will focus on a bigger picture than one snapped at the end of a catwalk.

“We’re going to spend more time thinking about what it means to buy something, and we’re much more engaged about what our clothing says as our signature,” she says.