Booked for the year with light and colour!

Posted by: ashchowdary on: February 23, 2016

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Girls, fashion-lovers and fashionistas have you been reading all the new fashion related books out there, or did you stop some years ago with The Devil Wears Prada?

After a long hiatus, during which time, I have been working for a fashion website, travelling and reading voraciously, I have come back to my blog with all kinds of interesting things to report.

Let me begin with the fashion-themed books I have read recently. I truly loved ‘The Knockoff’ by Jo Piazza and Lucy Sykes, which was a wickedly funny book in more ways than one.  However, I found that it was also a sad testament of the times. In this book we are told that beautiful print magazines are going out of style and excellent senior editors are replaced by twenty-something, tech savvy, bottom line driven marketing geniuses who are driving profits instead of content.  Sound familiar? Well, it must be the story of most of the print magazines out there today!

The story revolves around Imogen Tate, editor in chief of a well known fashion magazine who finds herself at the threshold of being replaced by her young assistant Eve Morton and horror of horrors, finds that her magazine has now become an app. How do you navigate a high tech world when you are technologically challenged and older than your colleagues by a decade like Imogen Tate? How do you take up the challenges thrown up by a world where revenue is the name of the game and true talent and years of experience has become old hat?

The life of Imogen also reminds us of the state of many employees in other professions today. Even if you are only 24 years old there are 100 or more 20-year olds at the door, waiting in the wings armed with cutting edge technology and bursting with brilliant creative ideas. No-one can afford to relax or sit back at any time of their lives.

The writers of ‘The Knockoff’ also drive home a number of other pertinent points in the course of the book. They want to know if social media is now dictating the lives of people across the world. They ask… “Did people choose to go to one party over another because it would look better on Instagram? Did they decide to read a story just so they could tweet about it? Have we all become so desperate to share everything that we’ve stopped enjoying our lives?”

‘The Knockoff’ is an utterly delightful book, so if you can find it, do it read it!

Another fashion related book that I enjoyed in recent times was ‘Fashionably Yours’ by Swati Sharma. A light and refreshing read, this book is about a young girl caled Maya Kapoor who lives in Mumbai and works for a fashion magazine. There’s a lot of fun and fashion in this book, so if that’s the combination of themes you are looking for, don’t miss this one.

Yet another exciting book I read recently was called ‘Tongue in Chic’ by Kristie Clements. This crisp and contemporary novel takes you through the salacious world of glossy fashion magazines, giving you a lot of fascinating insights about the world of fashion along the way.

I have also just acquired a novel called ‘The Stylist’ by Rosie Nixon which is about a stylist to the stars. Watch this space to know more updates about this book.

As for more news on the fashion front – girls – did you know that for the first time there are two colors released by Pantone as the colors of the year in 2016? They are Rose Quartz and Serenity. Don’t miss the soft beauty of rose quartz, that includes all shades of pale pink or the sweetness of Serenity, that incorporates all shades of baby blue. These are the Pantone Colors of the Year and if you loved this color as seen in the new I-phone, you will love this shade that is also showing up in watch straps, handbags, furnishings,shoes and clothes. The other color of the year,‘Serenity’ is also here to stay and the color is showing up as denim, teal and aqua, both in clothes and accessories. Love these pastels? I think they are truly perfect and you should stock up on them because frankly, they never go out of style.

Beauty-wise, I am loving and truly loving the new ‘lighting’ up of the face that is the hottest trend in makeup now.  To understand how this works, think of the last time you stood under the glare of warm overhead lights. Your face glowed with the radiance of all the light on your face and the soft light brought all your features to clear focus and diminished all imperfections. That’s how this new makeup works. It comes as a highlighter and you use it discreetly over your face to make you look like you are ‘lit from within’. I recommend the highlighter from Laura Mercier as it offers true value for money, besides being gorgeous too.

So, yes, this is the year to turn over a new leaf, either in the books you read or the clothes you wear. Here’s to a great year of great fashion!

Till next time then!