Pursue Trendy Wholesale Designer Purses in 2013 through NP Fashion

As the New Year dawns, trendsetters and figureheads in the fashion world take a retrospective look at the hottest fads of 2012. Similarly, in the final weeks of the year and during January, fashion mavens predict what will hit big or continue to be popular in the New Year. Professional stylists and fashion journalists declare that the trends of 2013 will be in line with the buzz-worthy styles of last year. According to fashion connoisseurs, ladies will continue to cultivate a clean, modern look, with tailored blazers, fitted pants, and skinny jeans, while using colorful purses and accessories as well as leather jackets and handbags to add some zest to their ensemble.  Los Angeles' handbag emporium, NP Fashion, provides fashionistas with plenty of glamorous and edgy wholesale handbags to accentuate a sophisticated, streamlined appearance.

Online retailer NP Fashion sells wholesale designer inspired handbags to buyers throughout the world, with enormous discounts on bulk purchases. "Designer inspired" bags are those which feature elements that are consistently popular with lovers of high-end handbags.  These original handbags at wholesale prices will add energy to any outfit. The bags currently available from NP Fashion are on point with what is hip these days: studded leather bags, ultra-feminine purses, and iridescent and neon fabrics to complete an attractive, up-to-date look.

While flamboyant, over-the-top clothing might not be the 'in' thing this year, the stylish, street-wise lady can add some flair and vivacity to her wardrobe with an NP Fashion purse. The feminine take on grunge remains popular this season, as women combine flower prints and lace embellishments with leather and loose-fitting frocks. NP Fashion carries an assortment of leather handbags, detailed with metal studs and rhinestones.  Many of these bags feature long straps and deep pockets which work nicely with slouchy t-shirts and black skirts, as well as floral, girlish clothing. NP Fashion also offers an array of large and small purses made of shiny fabrics. When the customer is ready to attend a fancy evening event, she may choose an iridescent silver, white, or pink clutch or handbag that shimmers like a brilliant opal. Many of these reflective leather bags also feature studs or tiny jewels for added glam-meets-grunge appeal. Additionally, NP Fashion's wholesale inventory is filled with messenger bags, backpacks, purses with flower appliques, and many other styles.

As NP Fashion is an online outlet for bulk buyers, the customer can pick and choose many diverse purses at excellent rates. If the buyer is not sure what styles or colors to select when first visiting the site, he or she may leisurely peruse the many categories of purses available. The NP Fashion team constantly adds to their online inventory. With NP Fashion, there's no need to play catch-up with the current trends. The consumer can stay ahead of the curve this winter and spring, taking cues from fashion insiders and visiting NP Fashion to acquire bags that keep in step with the trends of 2013.

Fashion Retail Academy boosts Wi-Fi with Networks First

The Fashion Retail Academy (FRA) has worked with Networks First to bring improved Wi-Fi connectivity to its staff and students.

The London-based college provides courses for those wanting to make a name for themselves in high street fashion, so deals with a large number of creative students, looking to be connected all the time.

The FRA has had a Wi-Fi network for a number of years, but it used a pre-shared key. This meant students had to go to IT every time they wanted to connect to the wireless, inconveniencing both groups and using up a huge amount of the IT team’s time.

“It was a huge drain on our resources on the old wireless network to have to provide a single password for students when they brought a device to the helpdesk to be added,” said Brendan Kearney, senior manager of IT systems and e-learning at the FRA.

It approached Networks First with this problem and the company, which provides network infrastructure and services to a number of colleges and public sector organisations, began surveying the college’s property to work out what was need to optimise a Wi-Fi network for the 700 students.

After three months of planning, deciding where was best for the access points to provide strong signal and deal with peak-time traffic across the building’s five floors, Networks First deployed it in just one month using hardware from Aruba Networks. It also signed a deal with the college to manage the network going forward on a 24/7 basis.

“We’re a small, internal team and so the involvement of Networks First as an extra pairs of hands in assessing the network, upgrading the academy and then working alongside us managing this aspect of the network and the security is invaluable to my team,” added Kearney.

Users now have their own individual credentials for their devices that don’t have to be manually signed off by IT, and the network can handle up to 1,000 mobiles and tablets at any one time.

“The new service means that students are able to access the network using their individual login [and] it also means that students will have one login for all systems at FRA, such as the Wi-Fi network and Moodle – the virtual learning environment.”

The college has future plans to make a guest Wi-Fi network available so visitors to the site can take advantage of their connectivity, as well as their sponsors and partners, which include Arcadia, Marks & Spencer and even business application specialists Oracle.

“Access is so much easier for all parties and is less of a burden for IT,” concluded Kearney.

Starting the Year With a Bon Mot

THE social calendar roared back to life on Tuesday night, when the YMA FSF Geoffrey Beene National Scholarship Awards held its annual dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria.

Among those who ducked in during the deafening cocktail hour was Jason Kidd of the New York Knicks, who wore a dark suit and tie. He didn’t linger — he had a Knicks event downtown — but his wife, Porschla, a former model, stayed on. “I don’t really have much to do with Jason’s clothes,” she said. “He’s a classics kind of guy. He sticks to his shirts, jackets, jeans.”

Adding to the festive din were the young scholar awardees, about 125 of them, crowding under picket-style signs that displayed their academic stripes, including Harvard, Pratt, Marist and even Wharton. With many sporting name tags, it felt like freshman orientation. That would make Alber Elbaz, one of the night’s honorees, the dean emeritus.

“It’s more than surreal; I just hope I keep it together on stage,” said Mr. Elbaz, who spent seven years working under Mr. Beene, who died in 2004. He wore a tuxedo (by Lanvin naturally) with an oversize velvet bow-tie and red suede sneakers by Golden Goose.

He was posed with admirers, including Alina Cho of CNN, the evening’s M.C. “It’s so comfortable,” she said of the one-shoulder, midnight blue Lanvin dress she wore. She brought her mother, Youngja, as her date.

In the dining room, cabbage slaw salads and bottles of white wine were already on the table. Seated at Table 33 were the designer Bibhu Mohapatra with Ms. Cho and Stefano Tonchi of W magazine. “My New Year’s resolution is to be a nice guy — no more fashion cat-fighting,” Mr. Mohapatra joked. “No, really, if I was to give advice to these young fashion students, it’s to always be nice. It really comes around in the industry.”

Over at Table 18, Mr. Elbaz made a connection with the writer Rula Jebreal. “How wonderful that we’re from the same country and he invited me and we’re sitting at the same table,” said Ms. Jebreal, who is Palestinian. (Mr. Elbaz is Israeli.)

Winners of the Geoffrey Beene national scholarships accepted their $30,000 awards. But no one could top Mr. Elbaz’s speech for the Fashion Impact Award, peppered with charming bon mots. He fondly recalled his many attempts to land an interview at Geoffrey Beene, and his eventually befriending the receptionist. “Her name is Joyce and she’s sitting with me tonight,” he said to warm laughter.

And of his first “office” there: “It was a coffee table in a dressing room, and I was sketching, sketching, sketching. No one even came to say, ‘Hi, my name is John.’ ”

His kicker, though, had people pulling out their smartphones and echoing it on Twitter. “Success is like a perfume,” he said. “You should always smell it but don’t you ever drink it.”

Fashion goes square: 2013's cool straight lines

Remember that bit at the end of the Da Vinci Code movie, after Tom Hanks has been looking everywhere for the chalice or inverted pyramid or whatever it is that will lead him to the Holy Grail? After all the deciphering cryptograms and fighting people in churches, he finally realises that what he's looking for must be right back where he started his search, because what matters is the shape, and next to the big glass pyramid at the Louvre there's that little inverted glass pyramid, the one that makes a skylight over the underground gift shops, and so the answer was in plain sight in front of him all along.

Well, fashion for the new season is a bit Da Vinci, except the maths isn't so tricky and hoods are totes over. Just like Tom Hanks, I was trying to figure out What It All Means – is the key to a successful new season wardrobe to channel one's inner 1970s groupie (YSL) or planning a look around a surreal fluffy shoe (Céline) or wearing fuschia top-to-toe (Gucci)? And all along, the answer was right there in front of me. I was going around in circles, and the answer was a square.

Fashion's holy grail right now is to be square. (Literally. We're talking right angles, not geek chic.) The square is the visual link that connects the season's key fashion shows with the advertising campaigns now launching in the glossies and the It bags now flying out of Selfridges. Because it's a shape, rather than a colour, or a decade, or a classic film, it's easy to miss – but once you spot it, the square is everywhere.

Squares and lines from Sportmax, Marc Jacobs and Unique from Topshop. Photograph: Composite
Paris fashion week was bookended by catwalk shows designed around squares. It began with Raf Simons' first ready-to-wear show for Dior, which was staged in a giant white cube built for the occasion beside the gold dome of Les Invalides. Inside, the space was divided into a series of interconnecting white rooms, linked by square windows hung with sheer curtains in sugar almond shades. A week later, it ended with Louis Vuitton and a stage set created by French installation artist Daniel Buren, which featured a giant checkerboard catwalk in white and buttercup yellow on which models, in neat pairs, carried handbags in the Vuitton Damier check. And both Dior and Vuitton have reprised the squares from their catwalk shows to star in their multimillion-pound advertising campaigns, dispelling any notion that the geometry was just a piece of set-dressing whimsy. The Vuitton adverts star models in checks, set against checks; for Dior, the square windows of the catwalk tent become an elegant backdrop for the Dior woman to strike her New Look poses.

Here in London, the humble square began to show its style credentials before Christmas, when jumpers with squares on emerged as a surprise competitor to the traditional popularity of the festive jumper. In early December – peak season for a jolly snowflake/reindeer knit – the fashionables were quietly placing orders for Richard Nicoll's latest men's sweaters, which feature a simple square of blue or white on a grey background. (The new Whistles collection features a similar womenswear sweater.)

The Grace Box by Mark Cross, £1,280 from Selfridges.
Windowpane checks are next up for a revival. They were widely admired on the catwalk for Sportmax in Milan, and feature strongly in the latest Topshop Unique collection. (I've got my eye on an extremely nice navy-and-white windowpane skirt-and-tunic co-ord – that's a matching set, do keep up – that should hit the Whistles shopfloor sometime soon.) In my dreams, I'd be accessorising it with this season's best-pedigreed It bag: the Grace Box by Mark Cross, a glorious and defiantly angular mini-trunk currently on sale in Selfridges, which is a direct descendent of the Mark Cross bag carried by Grace Kelly in Rear Window. (Sadly for me, the new bag carries a very 21st-century price tag of £1,280.)

Like the weather, fashion can only be reliably forecast in fortnightly chunks. But sniff the wind, and you will find that the signs point to squares, straight lines and geometric shapes dominating fashion next season as well as this. Sarah Burton's triumphant SS13 McQueen collection was themed on womanhood and female power but eschewed curves for the hexagons of the beehive. Alexander Wang, a designer whose aesthetic is defiantly cleanlined and graphic (check out this season's kneeboots) is about to take over at the storied and influential house of Balenciaga. For now, the learning curve ends here, in straight lines.

The fashion assassins

We shouldn't be so quick to dismiss fashion as shallow, writes Damon Young. We're more influenced than most of us care to believe.

For some, fashion has a whiff of shallowness to it. Thought is profound, says the received wisdom, but clothes are superficial.

For example, I was once invited onto a television program about fashion. As the token philosopher, I suspect my job was not to share my sartorial tips (‘geek chic’), but to give my eyes-over-bifocals professorial contempt for beauty and clothes.

Friends and colleagues will agree that I’m no ambassador for fashion or style. Torn cheap jeans shorts and a Marvel Hulk t-shirt usually win over a Rhodes and Beckett shirt and fitted Levis.

But it is absurd to pretend my clothes are alien to me. They convey a casualness that softens my professional profile; they speak to pop culture tastes, and wariness of academy formality. To deny this is what the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre called ‘bad faith’: refusing responsibility for my own existence.

And every item in my wardrobe was designed, produced, distributed, purchased, and is now worn by a paying consumer. This is the point of Meryl Streep’s sharp monologue from The Devil Wears Prada, as she chastises her blithe assistant. “It’s sort of comical how you think you’ve made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry,” she deadpans to a doe-eyed Anne Hathaway in a cerulean jumper, “when, in fact, you’re wearing a sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room.” Those who are wary of fashion’s influence are still touched by its industry.

Alongside the rag trade is clothing’s social currency. As the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu noted in his book Distinction, so many of our tastes and habits speak to economic class and social status. Food, music, accent, gestures, couture or bargain bin jumpers: they arise from social distinctions, and reproduce these within us. While we are not mindless automatons, argued Bourdieu, even spontaneous splurges and improvised outfits usually obey unwritten social laws.

And this is not just a French quirk. In Accounting For Tastes, Tony Bennett and colleagues demonstrated how many of Australia’s everyday choices are marked by socioeconomic standing. “The care of the body,” they write about beauty and fitness, “is both more intensive and more extensive as one’s educational level rises.”
In short: even if I am contemptuous of fashion, the economic and social character of clothing will stick to me like synthetic underwear on a summer jog.

But why be contemptuous of fashion at all? The basic idea is that thought and beauty are somehow at odds; that the industry of style is in conflict with the enterprise of thought.
This is false. Yes, fashion can be ludicrously priced, and sold on hype instead of talent or craft. But this is true of the art market. Much fashion is trivial or pretentious – again, this is true of all arts and crafts. Both art and fashion, as industries, can corrupt or cultivate their chief worth: semblance.

Semblance is an old-fashioned word, but in this case it means a show: display, appearance, performance. It is something knowingly false, which is enjoyed without pretending it is straightforwardly true - the way we ‘suspend disbelief’ at the movies. In many cases, semblance is literally superficial: a surface, whether painted, projected or embroidered.

The philosopher and poet Friedrich Schiller once noted that semblance and reality are bedfellows, not enemies - as long as they are not mistaken for one another. And to avoid this, we have to be familiar with both: to seek truth and savour the show.

If Schiller’s right, the runway’s haute couture weirdness is no threat to genuine thinking. It is a semblance, which is never enjoyed as anything else. It might be a luxury for the ludicrously rich, but this is often a problem with the market, not with the clothes themselves. Likewise for cufflinks or a race day fascinator: they are chiefly enjoyed as a show, or not at all.

In this light, there is no epic war between fashion or style and thought. There are priorities of class and status, time and temperament - I might donate to charity instead of buying a shirt. But I can still admire its precise fit, harmonious lines and crisp Egyptian cotton.

Fashion Faceoff: Anne Hathaway vs. Salma Hayek

Today, actresses Anne Hathaway and Salma Hayek aren’t facing off at the box office, but on the red carpet. "Les Miserables" leading lady Hathaway, 30, and "Savages" star Hayek, 46, recently donned the same LBD, leaving us to decide ... who wore it best?!

What they wore: A knee-length, black Stella McCartney dress with sheer panels and fringe.

When they wore it: Hathaway chose the frock for her July 12 appearance on "Late Show With David Letterman.” Her competition wore it at the British Fashion Awards in London on November 27.

How they styled it: For Hathaway, the look was simple and all about the dress, as she added only black pumps and sunglasses. Hayek glammed it up more with a sparkly necklace and a swipe of bright lipstick, in addition to her black pumps and updo.

Judge's scorecard: The flapper-style design looks fabulous with Hathaway's cropped haircut! It also hangs well on her tiny frame. The always-stunning Hayek, on the other hand, impressed with pretty makeup. Who wins this Fashion Faceoff for you?

Protecting Fashion Designs

On September 20, 2012, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary voted for the Innovative Design Protection Act of 2012 (a.k.a. the “Fashion Bill”) to proceed to the Senate floor without amendment, and on December 20, the bill was placed on the Senate legislative calendar. The Fashion Bill extends copyright protection for three years to fashion designs that “(i) are the result of a designer’s own creative endeavor; and (ii) provide a unique, distinguishable, non-trivial and non-utilitarian variation over prior designs for similar types of articles.”


Fashion Design (Photo credit: Brendan Lally)

Proponents of the law, including major fashion houses, claim it would provide more protection for fashion designers by closing existing gaps in US copyright law. In particular, it would prohibit copying the appearance of articles of apparel, including ornamentation, original elements and original arrangement or placement of both original and non-original elements. Opponents argue the bill would (i) chill creativity to the extent that new works often borrow and build upon what has come before, (ii) increase independent fashion designers’ legal costs, due to required consultations with lawyers to reduce the likelihood of infringement claims, as well as representation for actual infringement disputes, and (iii) indirectly, increase the cost of apparel and accessories for all consumers. It has also been suggested by some that fashion designs are afforded ample protection under existing US intellectual property laws. The proposed law provides a good opportunity to review the existing US laws relating to the protection of fashion designs.

Copyright

Copyright law protects original prints and patterns, unique color arrangements and novel combinations of elements (protectable or non-protectable) used on apparel and accessories but, in most cases, not fashion designs themselves. The one exception under the US Copyright Act is that a fashion design may be protectable “only if, and only to the extent that, such design incorporates pictorial, graphic, or sculptural features that can be identified separately from, and are capable of existing independently of, the utilitarian aspects of the article.” Courts have established that the test for separability may be met by showing either physical or conceptual separability. A design element is considered physically separable when it can be removed from an article of apparel and sold separately (e.g., a belt buckle), and conceptually separable when it comprises artistic features that do not contribute to the utilitarian aspect of the apparel and such features invoke an idea separate from the functionality of the apparel (e.g., a Halloween costume).


Patent for an evening dress (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Design Patents

A design patent provides 14 years of exclusive industrial design rights for new and nonobvious ornamental designs of functional items. The USPTO examination process for design patents used to take over a year, which would often exceed the life expectancy or actual lifespan of many designs in the rapidly changing world of fashion. However, the USPTO has recently exerted efforts to improve and streamline its review procedure, so a design patent can now be obtained in approximately 10 to 12 months, and with certain expediting methods at additional cost (e.g., filing a petition to expedite with the USPTO or pursuing the USPTO’s extra-expedited “rocket docket” procedure), in as few as six months.

Trademark and Trade Dress

The US Trademark Act does not provide protection for fashion designs per se. Instead, trademark law protects brand names, logos, symbols, designs and other optional elements of apparel and accessories, and trade dress law protects the design, packaging or appearance of apparel and accessories, solely to the extent they identify the source and origin of such products. For example, the brand name and logo hang tag and distinctive pocket stitching on a pair of jeans could be registered as protectable trademarks, and the unique shape of a dress could be registered as protectable trade dress. In that vein, a federal court of appeals recently ruled that Christian Louboutin owns trademark rights in his distinctive red outsoles since they identify him as the sole legitimate source of his shoes, while Yves Saint Laurent and other parties retain the right to produce and sell monochromatic red shoes (where both the outsoles and uppers are entirely red). To be clear, elements that do not identify source and origin of apparel and accessories do not qualify for protection under the US Trademark Act.

Unlike packaging and other elements where trade dress protection may be acquired through “inherent distinctiveness,” trade dress protection of an apparel design requires distinctiveness to be acquired through “secondary meaning,” a process whereby consumers come to recognize the design as a source identifier over a period of time. In this respect, design patents can work well together with trade dress rights. In particular, a designer may first seek and secure a design patent and then secondary meaning for trade dress protection of the design can be developed during the 14 years of design patent protection.

What Should Fashion Designers Do?

Based on existing US laws, fashion designers should seek to maximize their protection by (i) federally registering copyrights for their original prints and patterns, unique color arrangements and novel combinations of elements, as well as their protectable design elements to the extent physically or conceptually separable from the functional aspects of the subject apparel or accessories, (ii) applying for a design patent for new and nonobvious ornamental fashion designs when the useful life of the design is expected to last more than a few seasons, and (iii) federally registering for trademark and/or trade dress protection for brand names, logos, designs, packaging and other elements of apparel and accessories to the extent they identify the source and origin of such products. If the Fashion Bill is enacted into law, designers would be well-advised to continue pursuing the foregoing copyright and trademark registrations, but would have to reconsider pursuing design patents based on cost considerations and whether the useful life of each relevant design is expected to last more than the three years of copyright protection provided by the Fashion Bill.