Sunday, August 30, 2009

Don't believe the hype

Il y a 20 ans déjà, Public Enemy nous avait prévenus… « Don’t believe the hype ». Le mot « hype » a pourtant fait son entrée dans le Petit Robert l’année dernière. Mais pas seulement. Signifiant battage/rumeur publicitaire, ce terme galvaudé chouchou des médias, est désormais partout. Pour parler d’une marque, d’une musique, d’un peintre, d’un auteur, d’un lieu…En nom, adjectif ou verbe (indiquant également l’action de susciter une réputation, de prétendre une chose de manière excessive), il en dit très long sur son contenu…

La hype ou branchitude est hyper prescriptrice, imposant à la société son baromètre de in et de out en matière de consommation et de pensée. Et si malheureusement l’underground, courant pionnier de la création, reste, comme son nom l’implique, plus confidentiel, la hype, elle, s’affiche sans rétention.

Elle englobe pourtant des noms qui ne parlent pas nécessairement à un large public, mais qui sont les sésames d’une caste puissante. Un microcosme dont le signe de reconnaissance est le namedropping, cette pratique qui consiste à asséner des noms « connus » à tout va, comme cautions de son propos.

Pour comprendre la hype, il faut donc souscrire à son protocole. Panorama arbitraire de ceux qui la constituent :

Stylistes : Jeremy Scott, trublion anti-conformiste qui dévergonde la mode à coups de créations pop délurées. Plébiscité par Colette en toutes circonstances pour ces collaborations. Jean Charles de Castelbajac, son avatar français qui multiplie les interventions en tout genre, prônant une approche ludique du vêtement.

Marques : American Apparel ou le comble de la hype, des basiques sportswear mixés avec un esprit 80’s coloré qui habille filles et garçons de Paris à L.A. Et une communication parfaitement équilibrée entre image casual low profile et porno soft. Kitsuné et son univers électro chic, Lomography et ses appareils photos toy expérimentaux…

Mannequin : Irina Lazareanu, petite amie de l’indomptable Pete Doherty, icône mutine et androgyne de la mode dandy rock.

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THE KOOPLES EN FORCE

C'est le buzz mode qui fait parler les quelques parisiens qui ne sont pas encore partis en vacances... Un bruit de couloir qui a emprunté celui d'internet surtout et qui annonce l'arrivée à grand fracas d'une nouvelle marque.

Joie, bonheur dans le coeur de toutes les modeuses, et modeux , puisque la bien nommée The Kooples, dédicace extrêmement connotée aux groupes de rocks émergents, habillera hommes et femmes.
Vous connaissez nécessairement une certaine marque qui met en scène sur ses campagnes des couples mères filles depuis quelques années... Dans la lignée de ce succès, deux anciens de la famille qui créa Comptoir des Cotonniers, relancent les hostilités. Les ténébreux et très branchés frères Elisha seraient derrière ce qui s'annonce comme un lancement en fanfare dès le 1 er septembre, d'une vingtaine d'enseignes de la marque en France sur les plus grandes artères.

Un coup marketing retentissant accompagné d'une campagne de pub qui s'affiche déjà sur facebook ou myspace avec peu de membres encore, en attendant que vous succombiez aussi au charme so so so néo dandy de The Kooples et rejoigniez les happy few.
J'aimerais vous en dire plus mais l'esprit même de la philosphie de la marque me l'interdit autant que les indices très lacunaires dont on dispose de toute façon...
Voici donc les photos pour vous donner un avant goût, préparez votre homme pour la rentrée, la CB risque de fumer car il paraîtrait que les prix aussi seront claironnants...

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Orgeuil et préjugés

Encore l'esprit et l'imagination quelque peu pollué par la diffusion récente de l'adaptation cinématographique, j'ai eu un peu de mal à entrer d'entrée de jeu dans l'histoire.

Mea culpa, je suis assez faible en classiques anglais. Il m'aura fallu atteindre un âge quasi pharaonique pour lire mon premier Jane Austen.

En général, je ne suis pas fan de bluettes et il faut le dire, nous avons souvent tendance nous autres français à assimiler cette auteure britannique à ce genre littéraire.

Que nenni. L'écriture est certes très datée mais pas ennuyante. Plutôt délicieusement désuète. On se laisse agréablement embarquer dans cette romance. C'est agréable comme un jardin anglais, un thé à la main. L'histoire est finement relatée, la syntaxe est parfaite. Un peu de douceur dans ce monde de vulgarité, que cela peut faire du bien!

On se prend tour à tour pour la jolie Jane ou l'intrépide Elizabeth. On tombe amoureuse avec cette dernière du fameux Monsieur Darcy, l'arrogant et pourtant si séduisant homme.

Si comme moi, vous n'avez jamais lu cette indispensable oeuvre, jetez vous y à corps et âme perdus. Vous verrez, c'est délicieux!

Orgueil et préjugés est le plus connu des six romans achevés de Jane Austen. Son histoire, sa question, est en apparence celle d'un mariage: l'héroïne, la vive et ironique Elizabeth Bennett qui n'est pas riche, aimera-t-elle le héros, le riche et orgueilleux Darcy ? Si oui, en sera-t-elle aimée ? Si oui encore, l'épousera-t-elle ? Mais il apparaît clairement qu'il n'y a en fait qu'un héros qui est l'héroïne, et que c'est par elle, en elle et pour elle que tout se passe

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Bridal Hair Styles: Classic Updo

Sophisticated updos are always a popular choice, with curls and twists providing a desired bridal look, especially for more formal weddings.

This style is best for hair that is medium in length (chin length or longer) and is straight and medium to thick. If you have fine hair you might be able to create the updo by using a pin-on ponytail or add-on extension.

Bridal Hair Styles: Modern Updo

The modern updo takes the very formal classic updo and adds a softer, more romantic look.

This tousled style can be achieved with hair of all lengths and textures using tiaras, combs, or hairpins. A good hairdresser always helps too!

Bridal Hair Styles: Leaving it Long

Another popular trend is to wear your hair down in a sleek shiny look - straight or with romantic curls. Pull your hair half back in a "half-updo" for a more formal look.

A classic headband style tiara may be chosen for simple elegance, while many brides choose just a veil. A traditional bridal look can be achieved by combining a graceful tiara or headband with an elegant shimmering veil. The veil can be easily removed after the ceremony for a less

Bridal Hair Styles: Short Styles

Brides with short hair used to struggle with elegant and creative wedding day hairstyles, but no longer! Fun, sophisticated and unique looks can be achieved with the help of some simple accessories.

Short hair looks stunning in a soft bob that is highlighted with a tiara, headband, or jeweled barrette. A beautiful and timeless look for short bridal hair is hair that is accentuated with well placed finger or Marcel type of waves.

Bridal Hair Styles: Curly and Wavy Hair

Brides and attendants with naturally curly or wavy hair can adopt any style. In some cases, they will need to temporarily straighten their curls first in order to re-create the look.

The Double Asian Knot and Simply Elegant Updo could also be created, in a modified form without any special straightening for naturally curly hair

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Thursday, August 20, 2009

Mother of the Bride Dress Sizes

A daughter’s wedding is a wonderful event in the life of a mother. And it is quite normal that the mother of the bride will want to look the best on the wedding day. However some mothers find it difficult to find the right dress for the occasion as the dress not only has to fit them, it also has to fit with the other outfits that are worn at the wedding. Moreover no mother will want to wear something that is too over the top as this will only take the limelight from their daughter, the bride.

It is always better for the mother of the bride to choose a dress that is more stylish than flamboyant as this makes her look good, but at the same time does not take away the big day. It is always better for the mother to choose the dress with the daughter so that there is no disagreement after buying it. The mother can always choose some other dress if the bride is not happy with the dress as the daughter’s choice takes maximum priority as it is her day.

Mothers who find it hard to fit in can look for plus size mother of the bride dresses in the specialist stores that stock these size dresses. Choose something that goes well with the theme of the wedding, while fitting their full figure. Then if the bridesmaid’s dresses are being made to order, it is always better for the mother to get something ordered too. This makes sure that her dress fits with the theme of the wedding, while being different from other dresses.

Whatever mother of the bride dress is chosen, it is important that it is a good dress that looks great on the mother. Make sure there is lots of time before the wedding so that the mother is sure that the dress is perfect, with no last minute hitches. It is not necessary to spend too much of money to look elegant in the mother of the bride dress. All you, the mother has to do is to shop with an eye on cut, line and style wherein you will look elegant without spending too much

It is always better for you to choose your dress from classic styled elegant mother of the bride dresses. These dresses are timeless in their appeal and makes you look rather elegant and attractive as the proud mother of the bride. Most of the classic, elegant mother of the bride dresses have changed little over the years but still have the power of making you, the mother look stunning and fashionable on your daughter’s special day.

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Care For Your Dress

Plus size dresses are today available aplenty in stores catering for plus size dresses. Understanding the need for plus size women needing new designs and dresses has led to a plethora of plus size dresses in the market of different materials, sizes and designs. It is up to you to choose the right plus size dress for yourself, and then care for it to get the most of it.

Today plus size dresses are available in numerous styles and fabrics that make plus size women feel really attractive. However it is necessary to know how to hand wash and care for the dresses to have a beautiful wardrobe. The washing machine is a great means of getting plus size dresses into pieces while some plus sizes have to be hand washed to remain in shape. So to make your wardrobe last and look longer, wash all fragile items gently, by hand.

The plus sized clothing that has to be hand washed includes lingerie like silk, satin and lace bras and undergarments. Silk clothes are usually thin, and are not usually colorfast. This is why its color may run when washed with other clothes. Though satin clothes may retain its color, it tends to get pilly when washed in a washing machine. In the case of lace clothing, there is a tendency of lace clothing getting caught on other clothing and tearing. This is why handmade lace has to be hand washed for added protection so that you can take great care of expensive handmade lace.

It is always better to read the clothing care labels of the plus size dresses you buy. Read the labels carefully and follow whatever instructions found here. So if you find a label that states ‘hand wash in cool water’ all you have to do is to gather the hand washable plus size dresses and sort them by color.

Then the bright and strong colored plus size dresses have to be washed separately. It is better to start with the whites or the light colored dresses by placing them in a sink that is full of cool water. Squeeze about a teaspoon of gentle detergent in the water and then sud the clothes using hands. It is okay to add a drop of detergent to the strongly stained areas by rubbing the spot gently with fingers. However, remember to never twist of wring delicate clothing as the material only gets spoiled in the process.

After washing the clothes, rinse them in cool water and then squeeze gently to get rid of water. The bras and other lightweight garments have to be hung to dry while the heavier clothing like cashmere sweaters have to be shaped by your hands and laid flat on thick towels to dry. However it may be needed to change the towels used for drying, once or twice. And then once the garments are nearly dry, you just have to hang them out in the air, to get rid of all remaining dampness in the dress.

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Smart Health Choices

Before you read this book

This section gives an overview of the book and how it is structured. You may wish to read the book from start to finish, or you may choose to read the sections most relevant to your needs and interests.

The book is broken into six parts, as follows.

Part 1: Health advice can be harmful gives an introduction to the reasons why health advice may be misleading. It discusses some of the common pitfalls for consumers and health professionals, how to identify meaningful health claims and research, and why it can be unwise to rely on the opinions of the experts.

Part 2: Your body, your choice is for you if you feel you have an understanding of the pitfalls in health advice, but need to know how to make better decisions by asking the right questions. It discusses the five key questions (see next page) to help make the best possible health decisions and what to look for when choosing a practitioner.

Parts 3–6 are for you if you’re satisfied with your decisionmaking skills but need help in assessing whether your sources of information are reliable.

Part3: Stories and studies introduces the concepts of what features combine to make a good study.

Part 4: Evaluating the evidence deals with which study designs best answer questions such as whether a treatment works or what causes a disease.

Part 5: Improving your healthcare explains where and how to find reliable evidence and how to use it, and suggests ways in which consumers can get involved in improving their health and healthcare services.

Part 6: Testing your skill starts with an opportunity to practise your skills on a range of articles from the media, internet and papers

The five key questions at the heart of this book are:

What will happen if I wait and watch?
What are my test or treatment options?
What are the benefits and harms of these options?
How do the benefits and harms weigh up for me?
Do I have enough information to make a choice?

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Part 6: Testing your skill

Chapter 15: Making sense of health advice

This chapter gives several practical examples to allow you to put into practise what you have learnt from the book. Working through these examples will help to reinforce some of the important lessons of the book.

Chapter 16: Is this a useful diagnostic test?

Tests are not 100 per cent accurate. Sometimes they give false-positive results and sometimes they give false-negative results. This chapter gives some of the background for understanding the reliability and limitations of tests.

Chapter 17: Decision thresholds

This is a concept for helping you to decide when it is worth testing for a disease, or deciding whether to treat or not treat without further tests.

Chapter 18: Relative risk, relative and absolute risk reduction, number needed to treat and confidence intervals

These concepts are not as complicated as they might sound, and are explained in a way that is easy to grasp. Understanding the difference between relative and absolute risk is helpful for assessing many health issues. It can also be useful to know the number of people who need to be treated for one person to benefit or to be harmed. Confidence intervals are a statistical term which give an idea of how confident you can be about a study’s results.

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Part 5: Improving your health care

Chapter 12: Finding the best evidence

Knowledge is not power. Getting the right information and learning how to apply it to your life is power. (Susan Powter, Stop the Insanity)

Now that you have a better understanding of the value and limitations of different types of evidence, this chapter gives some practical tips for how to find and access the best evidence, whether from your practitioner, the Cochrane Library, the internet, organisations, universities, libraries or companies.

Chapter 13: Doing your bit

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has. (Margaret Mead)

Many people expect, quite rightly, to be involved in making decisions about their health care. Sharing the power also means sharing the responsibility. Consumers also have an important role to play in improving the quality of health care and information. You can lobby for more responsible information, take part in trials and help to create positive changes by becoming better informed.

Chapter 14: How to apply the evidence to you and your situation

This chapter summarises our advice for improving the quality of your health decisions and health care. Remember:

Think probabilistically
Beware anecdotes
Ask for evidence about outcomes that matter
It is your right to be informed
Be sceptical
Newer is not necessarily better
Many health problems get better on their own
The power of the placebo

And don’t forget the five critical questions

What will happen if I wait and watch?
What are my test or treatment options?
What are the benefits and harms of these options?
How do the benefits and harms weigh up for me?
Do I have enough information to make a choice?

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Part 4: Evaluating the evidence

Chapter 10: Judging which tests and treatments really work

We are constantly bombarded with health information, and this can make health decisions seem overwhelming. But if you develop a basic understanding of the different types of evidence available to help guide your decisions, the task can seem less daunting. Evidence-based guidelines can provide a useful overview. Systematic reviews of all the randomised controlled trials are the most reliable sources of information, followed by single randomised controlled trials. Other types of studies, such as non-randomised trials and case control studies, are not as reliable. The least reliable forms of evidence are opinions, case reports and anecdotes.

Chapter 11: What makes you sick?

Living near power lines causes cancer. So does eating burnt steak. These are just some of the many claims made about the causes of disease. While randomised controlled trials are the ‘gold standard’ for evaluating the effect of interventions, they cannot be used in all cases. Obviously it would be unethical to randomly allocate people to set up house close to power lines to test the causes of cancer. Observational studies, which follow groups of people rather than testing the effects of an intervention, can provide useful information about causes of disease and risk factors for illnesses. But they also have some limitations.

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Part 3: Stories and studies

Chapter 7: An education in shopping

Jenny has been sucked in by the marketing claims for a herbal and vitamin product. She is sure that it’s been a big help for her tennis elbow. But the more she investigates, the more she realises that all might not be as it seems. This case study illustrates many of the common mistakes made by those who rely upon product marketing claims.

Chapter 8: The weakness of one

Anecdotes involving a single person’s experience of an illness or a treatment can be extremely powerful. When you hear one person’s story, it can be more compelling than hearing the results of a randomised controlled trial involving thousands of anonymous people. However, anecdotal evidence is unreliable for many reasons. It is usually unwise to rely on generalisations based on the experiences of only a few people. Randomised controlled trials provide more reliable evidence about the probability that any intervention will cause benefit or harm.

Chapter 9: The power of many

To estimate your chance of recovering from a disease, or of being helped or harmed by an intervention, you need information about the probability of various outcomes. And you need it expressed in a way that you can understand and that is relevant to your needs. If a practitioner tells you that the “risks of this procedure are small”, it is difficult to know what “small” means. It is more helpful, for example, to know that “on average, one in 100 people, or one per cent of people, will experience severe pain after this procedure”. You will be able to make wiser health decisions if you understand the probabilities of benefits and harms occurring with your various options.

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Part 2: Your body, your choice

Chapter 5: Smart health choice essentials

This chapter explores the five key questions at the heart of this book:

What will happen if I wait and watch?
This explores the expected natural history of the suspected disease or condition. You can expect to recover from many conditions; treatment may speed this process only slightly or not at all.
What are my test or treatment options?
This explores some of the issues to consider when exploring what diagnostic tests and treatments are available.
What are the benefits and harms of these options?
Make sure these are expressed in a way that is relevant to you and your situation.
How do the benefits and harms weigh up for me?
Understanding how your priorities and preferences relate to potential benefits and harms.
Do I have enough information to make a choice?
If not, you may need to hunt out more information.

Chapter 6: Choosing a practitioner or a hospital

Everyone who offers you health advice should not only respect your right to be involved but encourage your participation. In most situations, your practitioner should explain what your problem is thought to be; what you can reasonably expect if your illness or condition is not treated; and the benefits and harms of the various treatment and test options. When choosing a practitioner, consider whether they are abreast of the latest evidence, share information with you, and respect your involvement in decision-making. If you are considering having a procedure, you should also assess the practitioner’s technical competence by asking about their qualifications, how often they perform the procedure and whether they are part of a quality assurance program.

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Part 1: Health advice can be harmful

Chapter 1: This book could save your life

Health information can be misleading for many reasons. You cannot always rely on the popular sources of health advice, such as the media, family and friends. Even health professionals are not always well informed about the benefits and harms of tests and treatments. Sometimes new health interventions are introduced before their benefits and harms have been properly established. Conversely, years may pass before tests and treatments of proven benefit become widely used.

This book aims to help you become more informed about your health care and health decisions. It will equip you with some simple tools for distinguishing between reliable and unreliable health advice.

It is not intended to be used as a do-it-yourself guide to becoming your own doctor. We hope instead that it will encourage you to work in partnership with health professionals, whether you are seeing a doctor, psychologist or naturopath.

Chapter 2: Be Sceptical

What has not been examined impartially has not been well examined. Scepticism is therefore the first step towards truth.
(Denis Diderot, Pensee Philosophique)

Many people are more gullible than they realise. Becoming a critical thinker and more aware of your own biases and decision-making processes may help you to make better health decisions. This chapter reveals some of the tricks that marketers and advertisers use to promote products. Just because something works on rats or on cells in a laboratory test tube or for a celebrity does not mean it will improve your health. Nor should you believe everything that is reported in the media about health. What you need is reliable evidence proving that a product works in humans. The evidence should also be relevant to your needs and situation.

Chapter 3: Bad evidence

I'm always certain about things that are a matter of opinion.
(Charlie Brown, Modern Philosopher)

There are many factors to consider when assessing research findings. When a study shows that two health events or characteristics occur together, this does not necessarily mean that one causes the other. Nor can you assume that one person’s experience with a treatment or illness will have any relevance for other people. Even if someone makes a miraculous recovery after a certain treatment, you cannot assume that the treatment deserves the credit. Many problems get better on their own and it is impossible to know whether a treatment ‘worked’ unless you know what would have happenedwithout that treatment. The placebo effect is powerful, and people often report an improvement on almost any therapy, even a placebo (a biologically inactive intervention). Screening tests that detect diseases early are not always beneficial as they can lead to people living more years with disease rather than leading longer lives. Randomised controlled trials - where subjects are randomly allocated to various interventions or a placebo - help address many of these problematic issues.

Chapter 4: Do not always rely on the experts

Medicine is indeed in the middle of an intellectual revolution. Methods of reasoning and problem solving that might have worked well in the past are not sufficient to handle today’s problems. (David Eddy, Medicine, Money and Mathematics)

Many people make the mistake of assuming that experts always get it right. But health care is so complex, with an ever-expanding array of treatments and research findings, that it is impossible for any one expert to stay abreast of all the latest developments. Even those who specialise in a particular field can find this difficult. Traditionally, many experts have based their opinions on unreliable sources - such as advertisements and the opinions of other experts - rather than the results of good-quality studies. To obtain the best possible health care for your needs requires a mix of things, including your practitioner’s clinical skills, the best evidence from the research literature, and a sound understanding of your own preferences based on the chance of benefits and harms from any intervention.

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