The tips and techniques of fashion and style ideas will greatly assist you to be a good looking celebrity without making your wallet absolutely devoid. You can live within the limits of your budget. This is not the premier time that you may come across any issue and you would be terribly perplexed and wouldn’t find the things you greatly cherish.

In case you need any consultation for following the best style and fashion, you don’t need to go to the office of any newspaper, or any website portal to give the ad for many professional fashion experts, to get their consultation.  

You should take the steps, like, go ahead and try to research in any commercial store, and look people are donning what type of style and fashion, that could also give a new idea.  If you intend to do more research then go to the commercial centres, see diversified styles and fashion dresses, which are available there.

Apart from that research, you can also opt for the consultation of a professional designer, so that he or she could provide you very fruitful and productive fashion and style ideas, as they come to the commercial stores with far more new and assorted fashion models.

Follow the styles and mania of celebrities minutely that will give you the hint of the best styled dress or the perfect fashion dress, which can be helpful to wear such dress, that me assisting to outclass your peers and chums.

If you are interested to do some more research then get a lot of fashion magazines, go minutely in those magazines where you will come across multitudes of ideas, to swagger an elegant dressing and give a best pose to others.

If you think, still your research is incomplete, then go ahead and browse the internet and look on few sites that would be helpful to follow the best style and fashion paradigms.

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Colors can be act as an important factor in getting charming Personality. Personalities can be becomes innovative & creative in any sense. There are so many quantity of colors available for effective colors. Every season require different colors in different combination. If we specifically talk about Color Trends For Fall/ Winter existing in 2011/2012.

Ideas sharing can be helpful in providing and giving us a new ideas about applying colors in adequate quantity of colors. There are some trends regarding Winter season given below. Designers are much consciousnesses about trends also given here. They always prefer to get these colors in any cost before it is available in market and becomes common.

Soft colors. It is essential to remember that in winter colors shouldn’t be as bright as they are in spring and summer. But it in no way means you have to go black, grey and brown. You can choose any color you like but make sure it is more subdued rather than flashy. Or you can opt for soft hues including lavender, cantaloupe, spindrift, or honeydew.

Mood-improving bright details. If you think soft hues are dull there is another great color trend for you to choose – bright details. Add bright accessories to you look, like scarves, bags or hats, find a great-looking pair of boots, or go for one vibrant item that will become the focus of your attire. Be smart to keep the balance. Too many vivid colors in one look in summer is playful and interesting, but in winter it looks vulgar

Shiny colors. For special event you might want something shining. Go for it! Special events need special dressing. But keep a few rules of wearing sparkling clothing in mind to stay in style.

Midnight blue. Midnight blue is always safe no matter where you go: office, party, shopping, etc. Play with it, experiment and surprise your friends!

Neutral colors. These colors are always fashionable and designers seem to never get tired of creating pieces in neutral hues. It’s simple: neutrals can stay with you forever, they are versatile and can be easily combined with other pieces, both neutral or bright. Black is the best neutral.

Prints. In Fall/ Winter 2011/ 2012 season prints play a significant role. They dilute the monotone scheme and leave a great field for experiment. The safest option is to combine printed items with monotone ones. However, if you are confident about your styling skills you might want to try to coordinate various patterns in one look.

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With a lifetime of red carpet misses ranging from uncomfortably busty Guinevere gowns to something reminiscent of Grandma's doily tablecloth, Disney princess Miley Cyrus hasn't exactly been fashion It Girl material. Until now.

The sleek and chic futuristic white dress Cyrus wore to the People's Choice Awards on Jan. 11 was so well-received that it could single-handedly turn the star's fashion fortunes around. The dress was by David Koma, a designer who hails from Georgia, shows in London and is so new to the fashion scene that his website is still under construction.

When it comes to the red carpet, it's easy to think that a beautiful dress is just that: a beautiful dress. But the right dress can be a game changer when it comes to how a celebrity is perceived and the career opportunities that follow. And the wrong dress can mean this year's fresh young thing is forgotten by the time the Oscars red carpet is rolled up.

Some people get it. Rooney Mara, for instance, has been appearing on red carpets in tough-and-sexy black gowns by Nina Ricci and Roksanda Ilincic that have more than a hint of her Lisbeth Salander character in "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo." Bérénice Bejo, on the other hand, has been blending into the background, wearing a series of blue gowns by Gucci and Elie Saab, each one indistinguishable from the last, and missing an opportunity to stand out, either on her own behalf or on behalf of her hit film "The Artist."

"Some actresses don't understand that a great dress on the red carpet does have an impact," says Hal Rubenstein, In Style fashion director and author of the new book "100 Unforgettable Dresses.""They are just looking for the pretty dress, not the right dress."

Compare Bejo to Marion Cotillard, another French ingénue who was a relative unknown when she burst on the awards show scene in 2007. Nominated for several film awards for playing Edith Piaf in the film "La Vie En Rose," Cotillard was on a red carpet merry-go-round similar to Bejo, who has been nominated for several awards for "The Artist."

"When Cotillard was nominated, she wore one distinctive dress after another," Rubenstein says. "'La Vie En Rose' wasn't a film that was going to be a big hit, yet she looked so distinctive, even the public who didn't see the film was asking who is this woman. Bérénice Bejo is a lovely actress and a lovely woman, but her clothing is generic. So consequently, we're not noticing her."

Emma Stone pulled off a red carpet coup at last year's Golden Globe Awards when she showed up in a simple coral Calvin Klein gown and white-blond hair and upstaged everyone.

"She was a brand new girl who had an unexpected hit in the kids' film 'Easy A,'" Rubenstein says. "And when she showed up, it was like someone opened a window. She was so striking, it introduced her to an adult audience." In the year since, Stone has become a Hollywood and fashion world darling. In 2011, she racked up Glamour, Elle, Teen Vogue and Vanity Fair magazine covers.

The dress Cyrus chose for the People's Choice Awards speaks volumes about where she would like her career to go. For the first time, she came across less as a hard-partying, trash-talking, peace sign-flashing teen and more as a sophisticated, well-dressed, refined young woman. And as it turns out, that's what her stylist intended.

"She's gotten a bad rap in the press," says Simone Harouche, who has worked with Cyrus for three years. "And I was sick of it. So I decided I was going to show people she is capable of being fashionable and grown up, not just this cutesy person."

Convincing designers to lend clothing to Cyrus hasn't always been easy, Harouche says. So for this event, instead of pulling clothes from the usual Los Angeles showrooms, Harouche turned to London, known for its edgy fashion scene. After seeing runway photographs online, she pulled several pieces from Koma's spring 2012 collection, which was inspired by tribal body art, underwater scenes and the work of contemporary artist Kim Joon.

"Koma's designs are very interesting, modern and sexy at the same time. This dress has deep, plunging neck and side panels, but they have mesh insets. So it isn't in-your-face sexy. And the iridescent beading looked very cool under the lights. There was a lot going on but it was sleek," Harouche says.

When Harouche took the dress to Cyrus for a fitting, they both knew the style was "risky," but that it was a "step forward" for the star.

The gamble paid off. The Huffington Post praised Cyrus for "turning over a new couture leaf," and the London Sun newspaper said she "topped the stakes." Meanwhile, E! Online said the dress was "surprisingly chic and fashion forward."

Cyrus could well be on her way to creating a new style identity for herself. But the perfect match of celebrity personality and dress is the exception, not the norm, as one could see from the sea of unremarkable dresses at the Golden Globe Awards last Sunday. The reason? Not enough choices in some cases, and too many in others.

"At this point, there are so many celebrities wanting dresses that it's becoming more and more difficult," says Harouche, who pulls an average of 30 potential gowns per client per event. "You see so much of the same thing because there are so many people and so many red carpet events. And sometimes designers hold dresses back and say they are saving them for this event or this person."

Barbara Tfank, the Los Angeles-based fashion designer who has dressed Adele, Michelle Obama and others, knows first-hand the importance of matching the right personality to the right dress. In 1995, she worked with Prada to design the beaded lavender gown Uma Thurman wore to the Oscars when she was nominated for supporting actress for "Pulp Fiction."

"The difference in that dress and a lot of the dresses you see [on the red carpet] today, is that it was designed for her," Tfank says. "I was a costume designer at the time. And that dress was an amalgam of fashion and film in the way we approached designing it."

Tfank asked Thurman whom she wanted to be that day, "which is what costume designers do when they work on films. We decided on Grace Kelly meets Glinda the Good Witch from 'Wizard of Oz.' She felt at the moment those were the right icons for her."

The lavender fabric was tested on camera to make sure the color value worked, and that the sequins showed up, Tfank remembers. "Everything is under klieg lights [on the red carpet], so the color value is diminished." If you wear a buff nude, it looks white.

"Everything fell together," Tfank says. "It was young, fresh and comfortable-looking. It was about Uma, and her likes and dislikes and preferences. That dress didn't exist before. It came from my imagination. It was about building a character."

The personal approach Tfank took to designing Thurman's gown was more reminiscent of celebrity dressing in the Golden Age of Hollywood, when the job fell to studio costume designers such as Edith Head and Helen Rose. Actors were under contract, and it was in the studios' interest to create consistency in their images on-screen and off. "As an actress, you fit a slot, you fit a type," Rubenstein says. "Norma Shearer was the spotless heroine, Ava Gardner the temptress. And you dressed accordingly."

But the studio system is long gone, and now the red carpet is big business for the stars themselves and for the designers who want to dress them. Part of an actor's career plan involves landing lucrative endorsement deals and advertising campaigns, and maybe even having a clothing collection of one's own. Which is why, more than ever, the objective on the red carpet should be to say, "Look at me! I can make a fashion statement!"

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An event in Roanoke County on Sunday reminded teens and their parents what's in - and out - at high school proms. What's in: Looking great, having fun. What's out: Alcohol, drugs and other risky behavior.

More than 100 people paid $10 a ticket to attend the Itsmyprom.org fashion show, an event that kicks off the prom-preparation season with a look at dozens of glitzy gowns. But rather than focusing solely on the clothes, organizers added intermission-time messages imploring teens to enjoy the big night safely.

Master of ceremonies Chris Wilmer, a fashion show and pageant producer from Charlottesville, told the crowd at the Holiday Inn Tanglewood that he rejects the stereotype that prom is a time to have sex and "party it up, booze it up."Wilmer and other speakers, including several high-profile teens, invited young people to see prom as a night to dress up and feel special without substances and sex.

That message "is definitely one that teens in the Roanoke Valley need to hear," said Liza Rosa, a senior at Hidden Valley High School. A teen who is chairwoman of the student advisory council to the county school board, Rosa modeled a couple of the gowns. Joining her were about 100 other young women, some with modeling or pageant experience and some who stepped onto the fashion runway for the first time. They wore gowns carried by four area dress shops, creating a scene reminiscent of Milan in a southwest Roanoke County hotel ballroom.

Judging from the display, this year's "in" colors include purple and blue; trendy looks include strapless or single strap; and the material ought to sparkle. Each year about now, high school-age men and women begin lining up expectations about their spring social. The jam-packed night can include limousine rides, fancy attire, dinner on the town, the prom dance and an afterparty lasting hours more.

In the United States, prom costs an average of $807 a person, according to a 2011 survey by the credit card company Visa. Among the bigger-ticket items, prom gowns range from $300 to $500 new, according to Becky Fairchild, owner of the Buena Vista dress shop Becky's Bridal & Formal. But you might find a gently used one at a resale shop for $100.

Here is arguably the biggest social event of the school year. Expectations run high.  In its fifth year, Itsmyprom.org wants to ensure the blowout doesn't end in tragedy. "You don't have to go crazy, drink alcohol and do drugs to have a good time," Ashley Greenfield, 18, Miss Teen United States, told the audience. Greenfield, of Blacksburg, attends Longwood University.

The efforts of Itsmyprom.org, which stages a similar event once a year in Charlottesville, are aligned with those of several nonprofit groups in the Roanoke region that fight destructive decisionmaking by teenagers. It also has alliances with dedicated parents and school personnel who stage and supervise substance-free, after-prom socials.

Those involved in teen-assistance efforts say they cannot recall any alcohol-related deaths or traffic wrecks involving prom participants during prom weekend in the Roanoke area in years. They say they want to keep it that way.

One of the biggest continuing challenges advocates say they face is adults who host alcohol-fueled parties in their homes while looking the other way. Tabitha Cain, a co-organizer of the event, warned the parents in the audience against that. "You can actually go to jail," she said.

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Elle Fanning’s Rodarte gown at the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards fit her personality perfectly — playful and light, yet totally glam. I chatted with the Super 8 actress about her love of fashion and her growing reputation as a style icon. “I’ve always loved clothes ever since I was little,” she told me, adding that she’s “really close” with Rodarte designers Laura and Kate Mulleavey. Elle, who was nominated for Best Young Actor/Actress, was giddy when discussing her status. “I look up to so many people in fashion,” she said, “so it’s funny for people to say that I’m a fashion icon.”

Elle’s big sister, Dakota, has outed her as a serious Robert Pattinson fan, so I had to ask her about maybe one day working with the Twilight star. “I would love that!” said Elle. “My sister said he was so nice, and I got to meet him at the premiere. That would be fun!” she said with a smile. Let’s make it happen, Hollywood!

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It's time to put your ratty old Michigan State hoodie on the shelf. Sweatshirts may have once been associated with lazy-day ensembles or athletic apparel, but contemporary loungewear has come a long way. From snazzy sequin-studded crop tops to flirty mini frocks to slim-fitted pants, sweatshirts are your new stylish clothing staple for winter. And forget the sweater dress -- sweatshirt minidresses with tights and booties are our new winter style staple. So get the best of both worlds with these 10 fashion-forward looks that are comfy, cozy, chic, and affordable!

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Fashion, it’s a term that encompasses so much of a multi-billion dollar industry but until recently was still shrouded in mystery for mainstream TV viewers. However, the veil surrounding the fashion industry came down when Project Runway made its debut in 2004. For many, fashion was only visible via retail outlets through clothes on a rack, elite and exclusive circles, at world class shows, swanky TV specials, and high end magazines.

So little was known about designers, marketing teams, and creative houses filled with interns, seamstresses, buyers, manufacturers, sales teams, etc. Much of what goes into making a single garment was never so publicly available to those interested in fashion or someone looking at a career in in the industry.

Building Brand Reality
When reality television exploded in early 2001, a new form of brand awareness became mainstream. The age of individual branding was born. Reality shows like Survivor, American Idol, and The Amazing Race were huge hits that made stars out of ordinary people like you and me. And there’s no doubt that American Idol turned some of its stars into name brands with huge value and marketability. Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson, Daughtry, and the list continues with new Idols like Scotty McCreery.

Sure you could argue that the fashion industry was well into reality before the genre really took off with shows like Top Model and America’s Next Top Model. But it was the debut of Project Runway in 2004 that started to breathe momentum into fashion reality television and give it the boost it really needed, not to mention both established and amateur designers and all involved who toiled behind the scenes.

Risky Growing Pains
The first season of Project Runway pitted aspiring designers against each other in competition to win a coveted slot for New York Fashion Week. The concept behind Project Runway was instrumental in raising awareness on the back-of-house inner workings of creating a fashion line. More importantly, the concept of pushing young designers out of their comfort zones was incredibly risky. It was like taking a jazz singer and asking them to rap with style. Throw in huge fashion names with a pool of amateurs and it was even more risky for those who already had name brands.

Hosted by the enigmatic Heidi Klum, a world class supermodel and veteran of the fashion industry, with fashion consultant Timm Gunn on board and judged by such credible names as Marie Claire fashion director Nina Garcia and designer Michael Kors, Project Runway struggled in its first season. And rightfully so since the concept was foreign to mainstream reality viewers and the winners were actually chosen on merit and creativity. And you can thank Tim Gunn and Project Runway for normalizing the phrase, “Make it work.”

Affordable Accessibility
As the seasons progressed, Project Runway lured fans from other genres and mediums into the fashion world through such stars and guest judges as Sarah Jessica Parker, Victoria Beckham, Christina Aguilera, Tiki Barber, Sasha Cohen, Debra Messing, Nicole Richie, Lauren Hutton, Molly Sims, Natalie Portman, Sandra Bernhard, Apolo Anton Ohno, Brooke Shields, RuPaul, and LL Cool J. And like Klum’s catch phrase, “In fashion, one day you’re in, and the next you’re out”, the stars, guests judges, designers and brands were in and out of Project Runway each season.

Competition aside, Project Runway was the wake-up call that the fashion world needed. Although the majority of contestants entered the show with proven design experience, the talent pool was diverse, as it should be when trying to win a full collection at New York Fashion Week.

Entertainment vs. Advertainment
Where Project Runway truly reshaped reality and made a huge impact was in the show’s built-in marketing of already established brands through such corporate names as Deborah Lloyd, Head Designer at Banana Republic, Anne Slowey, Fashion News Director at ELLE, and Joanna Coles, Editor in Chief of Marie Claire (currently on Project Runway All Stars) to only name a very few. I mean, Project Runway even gave the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus brand a boost in Season 7 and later huge companies like The Wall Street Journal through guest judge and fashion writer Teri Agins. When you have an episode titled “What Is ELLE?” and challenges based around garments for Macy’s, Inc., you certainly don’t need commercials. You could even say that Project Runway was a driving force in ushering in the age of “advertainment.”

Of course, that’s not to mention all of the world’s top designers as name brands who appeared on the show to give Project Runway even more credibility, including Vera Wang, Bob Mackie, Diane von Furstenberg, Tommy Hilfiger, Vivienne Tam, Zac Posen to name only a few.

A Reality All Star
Now in Season 9 with an All Stars edition on Lifetime, having already spawned a slew of copycats, Project Runway is still leading the charge with its design talent. Christian Siriano, the most successful designer to date, currently has a collaboration with Payless Shoesource along with an entire internationally launched collection that is still buzzing in the fashion world.

Although Project Runway had its fair share of ups and downs throughout the seasons, the show still has staying power in the world of fashion reality and the fashion world itself.

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While the January US edition of Glamour features reality stars the Kardashians on the front cover, insiders claim readers can expect a "more trendy and pop-culture-driven magazine" when the new-look magazine, which also has editions across Europe and Latin America and is published by Condé Nast, hits newsstands.

Harper's Bazaar, which is celebrated for its high-end aesthetic, will reportedly be "unrecognisable from what it looks like today", after an image rehaul, with former British Vogue creative director Robin Derrick being hired to collaborate on the restyle. The magazine, which is published by international media conglomerate Hearst in over 20 countries worldwide, is set to increase in size -- a contrast to the increasing popularity of smaller formats.

2012 also looks set to be an important year for e-commerce fashion initiatives. Members-only web boutique Gilt Groupe's men's spin-off shop Park & Bond's hosted a GQ online store last year, while fitness publication Women's Health is launching its first Gilt Groupe sale on January 6 as well as providing exclusive editorial content to accompany the sale. Meanwhile, Hearst is said to be planning an e-commerce site linked to women's fashion for launch in 2012.

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Rebecca Black walks down the hallway of a Los Angeles TV studio, a small entourage trailing her leopard-print stiletto heels, when suddenly the sound of Friday — the song that turned this Orange County, Calif., teen into the Internet sensation of 2011 — drifts through the open door of the studio control room.

Black seems not to notice, her mind on the interview ahead with the KTLA Morning News team on Thursday. And on some level, why would she? She’s certainly heard her song and seen her video countless times in the year since she recorded it as something of an expensive lark, a project she figured only her family and friends would likely ever see.

But beyond that, it also must feel like Friday happened in some other lifetime, given the whirlwind that swept her out of middle-school obscurity to worldwide fame — or infamy, depending on your point of view — since the video went viral in March and exploded into the love-it-or-hate-it song of the year.

How much has happened in the nine months since then? A few highlights: Black co-starred in Katy Perry’s video for Last Friday Night and later popped up on stage with Perry to sing Friday with her at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles. She appeared as a presenter at the Teen Choice Awards — and won the Choice Award as Web Star of the year — and also popped up at the MTV Video Music Awards. She released two more singles and videos, “My Moment” and “Person Of Interest.” Lady Gaga tweeted words of support. She posed for a photograph in the No H8 campaign.

Then Black won the online equivalent of a pair of Oscars, when “Rebecca Black” placed No. 1 on the Google Zeitgeist, the list of the fastest rising searches of the year, and Friday being named the most-watched YouTube video of the 2011.

“They’re definitely great lists to be on,” Black says. “I don’t think it’s really sunk in yet that this little kid from Orange County is on the top of Google Zeitgeist and YouTube.”

Those year-end honours brought a new rush of requests for interviews, so last Thursday we caught up with Black in Los Angeles, as she set out for interviews with KTLA, E! and Hollywoodlife.com, to watch how she handles the media spotlight and catch up with her about all that she experienced in the nine months after she burst onto the pop culture landscape,

“It doesn’t feel real at all,” she says as she starts to talk about how life has changed. “I try to think, ‘Why haven’t I freaked out over some of the things that have happened?’ “

On the set at KTLA, Black looks comfortable. She’s done interviews with reporter Sam Rubin before, but she says she seldom gets nervous anymore in the public eye. “I assume you got paid?” Rubin asks her at one point. “Yeah, yeah, I got paid,” Black tells him, smiling. “But a lot of the money goes to pay for things.”

When we met Black in March, it was just days after Friday had gone viral and she had just gotten home from school when we arrived at her house for the first interview she’d ever done with anyone. At the time, she and family seemed almost in shock over all the YouTube views for Friday, which at the time had only — “only” — 13 million of the nearly 200 million it would eventually reach.

She talked about sticking to her normal routines, school and friends and trips to the mall, while also seeing where all this attention might lead, but in the weeks that followed, the bright glare of her new-found fame overran any semblance of normalcy. Soon, demands for her time outside of school — interviews with everyone from Ryan Seacrest to Jay Leno and that offer to work in Katy Perry’s video — as well as continued verbal abuse from other kids prompted her to leave her school for studies at home.

“There was one morning when I woke up and said, ‘Mom, we have to try it, because it’s really hard,’” says Black of home schooling, which she’s continued for her ninth-grade studies this year. “You can try to make up tests but you can only miss so many lessons.”

As for bullying by other kids, which was reported earlier this year as the cause for her leaving school, that was more of a secondary reason, she says. “I’d not ever really been picked on until the Friday thing started,” Black says. “They would chat me on Facebook and say, ‘Your song sucks,’ or ‘People only buy your song because it sucks.’

“Being a teenage girl, words hurt.”It was weird, she says, not going to school every day and not being around her friends and other kids at first. And she says she lost her best friend during that time, too. “When she told me that I don’t care about our friendship, I got mad,” Black says.

At the same time, she and her parents, Dr. Georgina Marquez and Dr. John Black, were trying to figure out how to take her fame and see what kind of career it might led to. “I don’t have parents who are specialists in the (entertainment) industry,” Black says. “They are veterinarians who are used to set salaries and set hours. “So it was kind of overwhelming.”

Across town at the offices of the E! network, Black tapes a comic bit to air during red carpet coverage of the Golden Globes next month, and then sits for an interview with E! News reporter Kristina Guerrero, who asks her why she thinks Friday took off the way it did. “I think (because) it’s an anthem,” Black says. “And it’s one of those things where you either loved it or hated it. So you would tell your friends to watch the video to see what they think.”

It’s a lot to take in, Black says, as she ticks off the many wonderful experiences she’s had over the last nine months. “The best fun time I had was the (Katy Perry) Last Friday Night video,” she says. “The best things I could check off my bucket list were going to the VMAs and the TCAs, and winning a Teen Choice Award.”

Beyond the awards shows and video shoots and movie premieres, on a more personal level she says she feels like a different person in some ways. “I’ve become a lot more mature,” Black says. “A lot of people will tell me about little things that I used to think were big problems, and now I think it will all be OK, it’s not a big deal.

“My mom says I’ve become nicer,” she adds, laughing. “And I think I agree with her. When you’re in middle school you have all the girl drama. I would have my teenage days, when I would get a little bit mean, just from hanging around with other kids all day.”Her parents say they’ve been impressed with the maturity and hard work she’s shown this year, too.

“Overall it’s been a wonderful, positive experience,” Marquez says. “It has definitely exposed her to so many different situations that she wouldn’t be exposed to until she was a lot older or maybe even never.”

“I hope she doesn’t lose out on her childhood, so to speak,” Black says. “You’ve seen the maturity, but she’s still a 14-year-old. It’s great knowing that she’s enjoyed it,” he says. “She’s had to deal with all the negativity that’s come with it, and I’m amazed that she’s been able to handle it with such class.”

In a conference room at her business manager’s office in West Hollywood, Black sits down for an interview with Kirstin Benson of Hollywoodlife.com, who asks at one point whether she’d go back and change anything about the Friday video if she could. “I did the video thinking no one but my family and friends would see it,” Black says. “One part of me says maybe I’d make some changes, but another part of me says, Friday is what got me here, so no, I wouldn’t change a thing.’”

At the start of each month, Black sits down with her manager, Debra Baum of DB Entertainment, and her parents to talk over what they’ll be working on for the month to come, a conversation which she — as the 14-year-old CEO and president of RB Friday Inc. — has a considerable amount of input in.

In 2012, the focus is going to be on live performances to some degree, she and Baum say, though there are other projects coming or in talks as well. In the spring, she’ll star as one of the lead voice actors in the English-language version of Bunny Fu, which reportedly is the most successful Chinese animated movie ever. Baum says there are also talks about doing a feature film based on Black’s unlikely Cinderella story of success.

A few months from now, a fourth single and video will be released. Given that she’s a YouTube-born star, the plan is to continue with the single-and-video model and hold off on releasing an album for now.

She’s recorded a new version of Friday, too, one she says is truer to the artist she hopes to one day be, and that will eventually be released too. “Friday is a big part of me now,” Black says. “I think that’s what 99.9 per cent of the people who know me know me from. When we re-recorded it, I didn’t want it to sound like it sounds, like it’s bubble gum pop.

“I wanted it to sound like we’re on the beach, someone has a guitar, someone has a drum, and so we did. And I love it — it’s so good!”

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Sydney - The fashion industry is famous for its lack of taste and obsequious pandering to the rich and mindless. It’s also famous for its ability to look sincere every time it does something disgusting. A new pattern of child labour abuse is now emerging.

My family has a long history in the industry. My uncle designed clothes for the original flappers in London in the 1930s. I have a cousin who’s a been major achiever in the Australian rag trade for decades. What you learn when you’ve got fashion in the family is you don’t follow fashion- You make it.

The other thing you learn is that this is without a doubt the most facile, vicious industry in the world in many ways. I’m always surprised PETA doesn’t come up with a campaign to deal with the apparently obsessive, endless sleaze of some of the industry’s human abuses. OK, the industry is ultra-competitive, and OK, all product runs do mean financial risks, but you really have to question the theory that there are any possible justifications, however grotesque, for some of the current abuses. Apparently not content with sweatshops around the world, now both the sources of materials and the marketing are part of the act.

Let’s start with child labour, Fair Trade, and Victoria’s Secret. Bloomberg, to its eternal credit, recently ran an expose on “Fair Trade” abuses using child labour in Burkina Faso to supply Victoria’s Secret. Poverty barely begins to describe the working conditions of kids supplying the world’s best known secret. If the Bloomberg article is a representation of basic fair trade conditions, it’s a very dirty, inexcusable secret indeed.

This is a basic excerpt- Please read the Bloomberg article on the link in full, because it’s a truly efficient, excellent in depth study of both the sacred “Fair Trade helps the poor” motif (the same way a butcher helps a sheep, apparently) and the realities of the industry’s nasty little habits:

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