bdqj FALL 2009 FASHION WEEK – Fans Rock Out For Ta

admin — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 14:18:00 +0000

FALL 2009 FASHION WEEK - Fans Rock Out For Target's New McQ Line


By Sarah Moroz, Photos by Callie Klebanoff for Refinery 29

Ah, Liela Moss. Wearing a sculptural patent vest with big shoulders, short gloves (the miniskirt of gloves-they didn't extend past her knuckles), and long blonde bangs to the bridge of her nose, she sang with her band the Duke Spirit and fist-pumped to a crowd of champagne sippers and McQ for Target perusers last night. Held in a hangar on the cusp of the West Side Highway, the space was industrial and made even more so with pseudo graffiti, fences, and Target ads postered all around. Racks of McQ's line of magenta zig-zag leggings, and black jumpsuits bordered the space and every gal was smitten, as evidenced by the queue for try-on, which was jaw-droppingly long. Spotted in the crowd were the adorable Rose Byrne and the pseudo DvF employee Whitney Port with her entourage.

See more photos from the show at Refinery 29

prxr Fall 2009 Fashion Week – Cho Cheng_2207

admin — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 14:17:00 +0000

Fall 2009 Fashion Week - Cho Cheng

Fashion Week Fall Trends

One way to show off an "it" bag at Isaac Mizrahi. Is this look heady or too ahead of its time? Let us know in the poll.

Blue chasing away the gray at Donna Karan.Like it? Vote in the poll.

Blimey, that's pretty limey at Michael Kors. Sublime or subpar? Let us know in the poll.

Karl Prouse, Catwalking / Getty Images

Randy Brooke, WireImage

Not major shoulder pads, but major shoulder at Marc Jacobs.Wild or wacky? Vote.

Thomas Concordia, WireImage.com

A hot – hot pink, that is – librarian look at Malandrino. How does it rate in your book? Vote.

Thomas Concordia, WireImage

Pink and green, but not particularly preppy at Marc Jacobs. Is it wonderful or weird? Vote.

Thomas Concordia, WireImage

Randy Brooke, WireImage

Not so mellow yellow at Marc Jacobs. Sunny or funny? Vote.

Hot, hot pink at Michael Kors. Is this topper the tops? Let us know in the poll!

Randy Brooke,WireImage

For the birds at Anna Sui. Does this look fly? Let us know in the poll.

Randy Brooke, WireImage

All tangled up in blue at Christian Siriano. Do you dig the drape? Let us know in the poll.

Thomas Concordia, WireImage

lkvb Chloe Sevigny in Marios Schwab – I Want That!

admin — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 13:48:00 +0000

Chloe Sevigny in Marios Schwab - I Want That!

Alright, we admit – Chloe Sevigny's style used to freak us out. She was too risky for our faint heart and sometimes we couldn't tell whether she was the hot one on Big Love or the fugly one. Well, news flash – she is the hot one and lately, her style couldn't be any better! Plus she's got legs and she knows how to use 'em. (PS - ZZ Top rules.)

This is absolutely the best little white dress we've seen to date this season. Love the off the shoulder look. Love the slit. Love the bold orange lip. And love the bohemian bag. 

• Marios Schwab, Priced up request
• Jimmy Choo Aqua Buckle sandals, $630; Net A Porter 
• Dior Fine Jewelry, Priced upon request

wqqh Beyoncé’s House of Deréon Sued by Manufactu

admin — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 19:50:00 +0000

Sasha Fierce better trade in her cut-out latex bodysuits and mile high stilettos for a killer business suit.

Beyoncé Knowles’ clothing line House of Deréon is being sued by Hong Kong manufacturer Vier International Ltd. for breach of contract, reports WWD.

According to the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the apparel maker claims it lost more than $500,000 because clothing company Donna Loren LLC and shipping outfit HJM International were “conspirators who induced the shipment of goods to the United States with the intent to convert them or pay less than the agreed upon contract price,” says the source.

The alleged low-balling scheme reaches far and wide. Vier also names Beyond Productions LLC and House of Deréon — both companies owned by Knowles and partners — for taking part through purchase orders and requesting manufacturer specifications.

Along with looking for its $500k back, Vier is not playing around: The company included claims under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), the same law used in most Mafia prosecutions!

Grammy winner or not, looks like Beyoncé might need to put her “Ego” aside and bring her legal A-game.

Meanwhile, success still smells sweet for the 28-year old singer. Beyoncé recently threw a launch party for her new fragrance.

Beyoncé's House of Deréon Sued by Manufacturer for Breach of Contract

Beyoncé looking fierce onstage. Photo: Getty Images

Miyu Burberry – The Final Countdown_1844

admin — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 19:49:00 +0000

Burberry - The Final Countdown

Get your calendars ready, tomorrow (Thursday, May 28 ) has been declared "Burberry Day" by New York City's Mayor Michael Bloomberg. (Yes, you still have to work and no, you don't have to wear plaid!) The New York skyline is about to be changed forever -- check out the time lapse video of the Burberry sign above to get your own countdown started!

In addition to opening its new Madison Avenue headquarters, the brand intends to use its new Burberry Foundation to contribute half a million dollars to local youth projects that help kids realize their potential through creative outlets.

Additionally, according to WWD, our favorite British purveyor of plaid will announce plans to double its NYC retail presence. If all of that isn't reason to break out the good champers, we don't know what is.

Of course, we're not the only ones who think a party is in order. Tomorrow evening, a 50-foot-long Burberry logo at the top of the brand's building will light up, while the 54th floor of the Palace Hotel will serve as the location of a super stylish soiree for 300 fashionable guests.

Celebrities from both the States and across the pond will be in attendance, including the Olsen twins, Blake Lively, Peaches Geldof, Sean Lennon, Helena Christensen, Nicky Hilton and more.

So what does the American Burberry HQ look like? According to WWD, it takes up 68,000 square feet, four floors and, like the London headquarters, was designed by creative director Christopher Bailey, who chose a neutral palette of gray, black, and chocolate brown. Common areas feature LED screens to, most importantly, watch runway shows.

Two 1500-square-foot concept stores will be at the Madison Avenue address -- currently, both spaces are empty, but not for long. One will house Burberry London and the other, the brand's recently updated Burberry Brit, which will arrive in November.

Ready to start shopping? Thursday is the day to do it -- 20 percent of all proceeds made at the 57th Street and Spring Street (SoHo) locations will be donated to the Burberry Foundation, so you can buy your designer goods guilt-free! (Or, if you can't wait, start clicking away below!)

fafr Bulgari’s New Serpenti Jewelry Collection_179

admin — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 19:49:00 +0000

If you missed the celebrity-studded castle party that Bulgari threw in Rome last month to mark the brand’s 125th anniversary, you can still get in on the action.

The iconic jewelry company — favored by legendary actresses such as Ingrid Bergman and Elizabeth Taylor, among others — presented its new Serpenti collection Thursday at its Fifth Avenue flagship in New York City.

The new sparkling assortment of accessories includes watches, bracelets and rings that slither (rather sensuously) around wrists and fingers in links of gold, pavé diamonds, onyx and mother of pearl.

The entry price for one of these precious creatures is a cool $4,000 (for a ring) and goes up to $85K for a pavé diamond and platinum watch.

The snake motif has adorned the limbs of beautiful women since the ancient Greeks (hello, Cleopatra!) and is traditionally believed to offer talisman-like powers to its wearer. Bulgari’s initial foray into retail reptilia began in the 1940s when it designed snake’s-head watches.

Bulgari’s new Serpenti collection debuts in October, but by then will we all be ready for a shedding of skin?

Bulgari's New Serpenti Jewelry Collection

A watch and ring from Bulgari's new Serpenti Collection. Photo courtesy of Bulgari

txiv Gewerbliche Mieten rechtzeitig zahlen_628

admin — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 00:23:15 +0000

Gewerbliche Mieten rechtzeitig zahlen

Mieter von gewerblichen R?umen k?nnen meistens auf die Sicherheit eines langfristigen Mietvertrages von üblicherweise fünf bis zehn Jahren bauen. Doch Vorsicht: Wer mit seiner Mietzahlung in Verzug ger?t, der kann vom Vermieter vorzeitig gekündigt werden – dies ist gesetzlich geregelt. Der Bundesgerichtshof in Karlsruhe hat diese Regelung zur fristlosen Kündigung eines Gewerbemietvertrages genauer erl?utert (Az. XII ZR 134/06): So muss der Mieter an zwei aufeinander folgenden Monaten mit mindestens einer Zahlung m Verzug oder in mehr als zwei Monaten mit mindestens zwei Mietzahlungen im Rückstand sein, um eine fristlose Kündigung zu erm?glichen.

Konkret bedeutet dies: Ein Mieter der seine Miete in H?he von beispielsweise 4.000 Euro (inklusive Nebenkosten) im April und Mai nicht zahlen kann und beim Vermieter mit 4.000 Euro in Verzug ist, kann vom Vermieter fristlos gekündigt werden. Zahlt der Mieter seine Miete nur unregelm??ig, also zum Beispiel im August, September und Oktober nicht, darf der Vermieter kündigen, wenn der Rückstand 8.000 Euro betr?gt.

Hat der Mieter einen Liquidit?tsengpass in seinem Unternehmen, so sollte er sich unverzüglich mit seinem Vermieter an einen Tisch setzen und um eine Stundung der Miete verhandeln. Diese Vereinbarung sollte er sich unbedingt schriftlich geben lassen, um einer fristlosen Kündigung zu entgehen.

ucny CommuTweet uses Twitter to fend off traffic j

admin — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 13:50:00 +0000

Using CommuTweet I was able to set up my commute parameters in about a minute. The problem, at least for California, is that it’s a big state with many different transportation mediums. In most cases I’m better served simply subscribing to the news feeds of the public transit services I use, or logging into their sites to see if there are any alerts. That’s where this tool really impressed me though–it’s already subscribed to these feeds. As long as the transportation service has a Twitter feed it’ll show up on CommuTweet. This solves one of the biggest problems with these crowd-sourced solutions, which is seeding any lapse of user-created data with a constant stream of information from the source.

(Credit:CNET)

The service revolves around the use of a specially formatted tweet that can be localized to whatever state you’re in, and what kind of transportation you plan on riding. To get things narrowed down to this level, users have to construct their outgoing messages in a special format. This starts with a #CommuTweet hash tag, followed by the abbreviated name of the state, followed by a one letter short code that tells other users what part of the transit system is down or backed up, be it bus, subway, ferry and rail. When completed, this leaves users with around 125 letters to type any additional information about what’s gone wrong.

Related: Who owns transit data?

See also TrafficTweet, which lets users tweet traffic alerts for specific cities. It also has a mobile app which can add exact location and show you where jams are happening, which CommuTweet cannot currently do.

Josh Lowensohn writes for Webware.com, CNET’s blog about Web applications and services. E-mail Josh, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/Josh.

(via KillerStartups)

To access all of this information, users can either view and sort it from CommuTweet’s site, or through Twitter’s search tool. However, the benefit of using CommuTweet is that you can log-in using your Twitter credentials and get it to automatically add the hash tag and location to your outgoing messages–that is as long as they’re done from its composition tool. It can also post the message just to CommuTweet and not your public timeline, as well as filter the tweets you see from others to just your state and your preferred form of transportation.

CommuTweet uses Twitter to fend off traffic jams

Twitter’s usefulness can most often be measured during times of disaster, when the quick spread of important information can really make a difference. And guess what–that works for traffic jams too. CommuTweet is proof of that, with a new service that lets those who are unfortunate enough to get stuck in traffic, or a long-delayed bus or train line to share that information with others.

wlck Wohnen in der Stadt ist “in”, Bau

admin — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 19:23:00 +0000

H?user-Award 2009 ◄ ZurückVor ►Bild 1 von 3

Den Bronzeplatz ergatterte ein Stadthaus mit vier Loftwohnungen auf sechs Etagen im Hamburger Stadtteil Ottensen. Bebaut wurde hier eine schmale Baulücke zwischen zwei bestehenden Geb?uden. Durch den treppenartig abgestuften südlichen Hinterhofbereich besitzen alle vier Wohneinheiten eine eigene Terasse.

Sieger des Wettbewerbs wurde denn auch ein Haus, das den vorhandenen Raum noch besser nutzt als die knapp 7 m2 gro?en Münchner Wohnwürfel. Auf gerade mal 96 m2 eines Restgrundstückes entstand ein mit ?schlank“ doch recht treffend beschriebenes Wohn- und Bürogeb?ude. Ganze 4,60 Meter ist das Geb?ude breit und schafft es doch, 161 m2 für Arbeitsbereiche und 141 m2 für Wohnbereiche bereitzustellen. Erreicht wurde dies mit 12 halbgeschossig versetzten Ebenen, die mit einer durchg?ngig angeordneten Fensterfront ein ?lichtdurchflutetes Raumkontinuum vom Keller bis unter das Dach“ erschaffen.

Nach Jahren der Stadtflucht liegt urbanes Wohnen wieder im Trend. Ob das mit dem jahrelangen Streit um die Pendlerpauschale zusammenh?ngt oder die l?ndliche Idylle den sonst so stressgeplagten St?dtern dann doch zu langweilig war, ist nicht abschlie?end gekl?rt. Die kurzen Wege zu Konsum und Entertainment in der Stadt fordern allerdings ihren Tribut: Hohe Grundstückspreise und wenig freier Platz lassen den Neubau von Wohnraum in den Metropolen zunehmend kompliziert werden. Kreative Ideen im Umgang mit wenig Bauraum sind deshalb gefragt.

Auch der zweite Platz ging an ein Geb?ude in K?ln. In einem Hinterhof im Belgischen Viertel entstand ein dreiteiliges Geb?udeensemble bestehend aus zweigeschossigen H?usern und einem Wohnturm mit vier Geschossen. Besonders die einem Einfamilienhaus ?hnliche Wohnqualit?t sowie die privaten Gartenh?fe zeichnen das Projekt aus. Genau richtig also für ehemalige Landbewohner.

Wohnen in der Stadt ist “in”, Bauraum dagegen knapp

Grund genug für das Magazin ?H?user“, den ?H?user-Award 2009“ unter dem Motto ?Besser Wohnen in der Stadt“ auszuloben. 141 Kandidaten bewarben sich um den Titel.

Platz 1: Wohnen und Arbeiten auf 4,60 m Breite.Foto: Screenshot www.lkarchitekten.de

H?user-Award 2009: Neue Baukonzepte für die Enge der St?dte.

fzbi Cisco- Smart grid will eclipse size of Intern

admin — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 18:46:00 +0000

The company, whose networking gear is installed in all corners of the Internet, on Monday will announce its intention to make communications equipment for the electricity grid–everything from routers in grid substations to home energy controllers. CEO John Chambers is scheduled to discuss Cisco’s smart-grid push Monday morning at a JP Morgan conference in Boston.

Even though many vendors expect a lot of money to be spent on modernizing the grid, smart-grid technology is for the most part still in the testing phase at utility-sponsored trials.

(Credit:Department of Energy)

The idea of the “smart grid” is to modernize the electricity industry by overlaying digital communications onto the grid. Smart meters in a person’s home, for example, can communicate energy usage to utilities in near real time. That allows the utility to more efficiently manage the electricity supply and potentially allow a consumer to take advantage of cheaper rates.

Cisco–along with General Electric and SilverSpring Networks–was picked for a large smart-grid project in Miami from Florida Power & Light, which aims to install 1 million two-way utility meters.

Over time, people’s homes will have more sensors in appliances, which will give consumers more detailed usage information to help cut usage and help utilities avoid stressing the grid during peak times, smart-grid advocates say. More sensors also mean that utilities will need to bulk up their data center communications to handle much more data, Hattar said.

Cisco’s move is a sign that the creaky electricity distribution system is poised for a digital upgrade. Other high-tech companies, including IBM, Intel, and several start-ups, are ramping up smart-grid efforts to capitalize on expected investments from utilities and federal governments. Cisco estimates that the communications portion of that build-out is worth $20 billion a year over the next five years.

Many utilities tend to be conservative about investing in IT. Another factor that makes at least some utilities unenthusiastic about smart-grid technology is that many states have regulations structured around power plant investments rather than efficiency-related IT.

Martin LaMonica is a senior writer for CNET’s Green Tech blog. He started at CNET News in 2002, covering IT and Web development. Before that, he was executive editor at IT publication InfoWorld. E-mail Martin.

“Our expectation is that this network will be 100 or 1,000 times larger than the Internet. If you think about it, some homes have Internet access, but some don’t. Everyone has electricity access–all of those homes could potentially be connected,” she said.

Cisco started devising a strategy to enter the smart-grid arena last fall. Some utilities are already testing how well its routers and switches can help more efficiently manage the flow of electricity and prevent outages in grid distribution equipment. Cisco also released EnergyWise software earlier this year for managing energy use in office buildings

Cisco’s smart-grid program covers goods already part of its product portfolio, such as data center equipment. But in other cases, such as home networks and smart-meter security, Cisco is developing new products, said Marie Hattar, vice president of marketing in Cisco’s Network Systems Solutions group.

A "smart grid" infrastructure adds digital communications to the power grid so it can manage the flow of energy to run more efficiently and to incorporate more wind and solar power. Click to enlarge.

Cisco: Smart grid will eclipse size of Internet

Cisco knows a bit about building networks and it sees a $100 billion market opportunity in the smart grid.

Cisco’s position is that the communications over the grid should be done using IP (Internet Protocol) in conjunction with existing industry protocols and standards. Not all smart-meter companies use IP to communicate information and the utility and IT industries are still defining a number of different standards.

Even though Cisco advocates IP, Hattar said that a modernized electricity grid will be separate from the Internet, which she indicated should lessen security vulnerabilities.

More data

There’s potential for communications gear in “neighborhood-area networks” as well. Using sensors or an embedded router in substation, a local utility could send information on the demand for electricity in real time to power generators. That will allow generators to run more efficiently and incorporate more wind and solar, said Hattar.

For example, Cisco could make a home energy controller device or software for its Linksys routers and set-top boxes to give consumers a read-out of how much energy different appliances use.

My Edhay Blog » bags

bdqj FALL 2009 FASHION WEEK – Fans Rock Out For Ta

prxr Fall 2009 Fashion Week – Cho Cheng_2207

lkvb Chloe Sevigny in Marios Schwab – I Want That!

wqqh Beyoncé’s House of Deréon Sued by Manufactu

Miyu Burberry – The Final Countdown_1844

fafr Bulgari’s New Serpenti Jewelry Collection_179

txiv Gewerbliche Mieten rechtzeitig zahlen_628

ucny CommuTweet uses Twitter to fend off traffic j

wlck Wohnen in der Stadt ist “in”, Bau

fzbi Cisco- Smart grid will eclipse size of Intern