Monday, August 22, 2011

Fashionable Kate Middleton? Here’s Princess Charlene of Monaco

Though Kate Middleton, now the Duchess of Cambridge, would oftentimes opt for traditional (which is now looking boring on her, quite frankly) British clothing in the form of structured jackets, wrap dresses and tweeds Charlene, now the Princess Consort of Monaco, makes her presence more noticeable with fashion punches and sense of fashion forwardness in the form of her choices of classic yet modern creations by Ralph Lauren, Armani and Michael Kors opting for these desingers’ dresses, tailored separates and suits in simple color schemes which she tastefully sets off with glitzy accessories.

A certain Charlene Wittstock became a princess during the time that the frenzy of Kate Middleton’s wedding is still fresh and the young British royal couple (William and Kate) are still touring the world thanking and making up for the uninvited VIPs on the other sides of the Atlantic in what Buckingham Palace and othergovernments term as official visits.
  
Though the House of Windsor now boasts a new princess, by marriage, in the form of statesque unemployed brunette, Kate, the House of Grimaldi, of the small but rich principality of Monaco, now also boasts of another statesque blond princess in the person of former South African Olympic swimmer Charlene Wittstock.
 
Royal watchers would be keen to note that though Charlene Wittstock met her future husband , Prince Albert of Monaco (only son of Hollywood great the late Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier), while touring for a swimming competition in 2000 they officially went out as a couple six years later and a fortnight moved in together and got engaged four years after. 
 



In the end the 53-year-old “playboy prince” who already fathered a number of illegitmate children finally chose to make an honest woman of the 33-year-old and make her the mother of those who would inherit his throne.  Prince Albert and Charlene just gotten married this year.

As natural as it would be both commoners-to-princesses beauties, who were both thrust in the world spotlight at the same time and are now members of some of the most famous monarchies in the world Kate and Charlene had been heralded and compared for their styles and fashion choices.
Though Kate Middleton, now the Duchess of Cambridge, would oftentimes opt for traditional (which is now looking boring on her, quite frankly) British clothing in the form of structured jackets, wrap dresses and tweeds Charlene, now the Princess Consort of Monaco, makes her presence more noticeable with fashion punches and sense of fashion forwardness in the form of her choices of classic yet modern creations by Ralph Lauren, Armani and Michael Kors opting for these desingers’ dresses, tailored separates and suits in simple color schemes which she tastefully sets off with glitzy accessories.
  





From the beginning the former fashion “clueless” Charlene Wittstock had been the ugly duckling of the fashion, royal and celebrity world making fashion faux pas every now and then.  Kate, on the other hand, was heralded as tailor-made for the princess job never having put a foot wrong in dressing herself.  Gradually with all the money that the rich principality of Monaco can offer plus the fact that the existence of the royal family of this principality rests easy on the hands of its people (in contrast  to Britain royal family’s precarious position in the hands of its countrymen who oftentimes view their existence as a terrible expense on the taxpayers) coupled with the connections that Prince Albert  has (due to having a fashionable sister in Princess Caroline and gorgeous niece Charlotte Casiraghi)  Charlene Wittstock had had no difficulty at all engaging the help and advice of some of the world’s best, most expensive and most famous fashion designers.
   


     
Here’s a look at what am talking about.
 
           



Saturday, August 6, 2011

Zara Phillips, Kate Middleton’s Cousin-in-Law, Marries


A few days ago the 13th in line to the English throne, named Zara Phillips, vowed to be the wife of Mike Tindall, 32, captain of England’s rugby team and son of an ordinary contractual / blue collar worker and thus eventually happily married her way out of the royal family.


 
 
Image via Wikipedia
 

 Zara Phillips is Prince William’s cousin, only daughter of Princess Anne of Britain, the eldest granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth, a world class equestrian who stands a chance to represent her country in the 2012 Olympics and isn’t protected by a ton of bodyguards.  Still she somehow managed to steal the world spotlight this week when she married longtime live in partner and fellow professional rugby athlete Mike Tindall.
     

 

 Zara Phillips, 30, had been always something of a bright light of the dawn of a beautiful morning in Britain’s royal family as she had been named so by her uncle Prince Charles.  She grew up in the world spotlight and gained attention for the most common of things royals don’t usually do:  pierce her tongue, bungee jump, appear in print and TV ads to support her horse riding and designed her own sports clothing range.  She is one of the bluest of Britain’s bluebloods who doesn’t cost the taxpayers anything.

Born as the second child of the strong-willed, unpretentious and former Olympian Princess Anne and former army captain Mark Phillips Zara and her brother Peter were shielded from the trappings and pitfalls of being a member of the royal family when Princess Anne declined a royal title from the queen right from the moment they were born.  Thus they became known as the non-royals who just happens to have a mother who is.
It had been a measly three months since the last wedding of the decade took place.  The first in line to the English throne and beloved firstborn of the well-remembered Princess Diana took an upper middle class commoner and daughter of self-made millionaires, Kate Middleton, to the altar and made her a part of Britain’s royal family. 
A few days ago the 13th in line to this same throne, named Zara Phillips, vowed to be the wife of Mike Tindall, 32, captain of England’s rugby team and son of an ordinary contractual / blue collar worker and thus eventually happily married her way out of the royal family.
 Emanating a bridal gown trend that Kate Middleton started, the numerous visible buttons on the back, Zara Phillips sported a wedding dress made by the Queen’s favorite designer Stewart Parvin.  It was an ivory silk gown with a full length flowing veil topped off with a Greek key tiara obviously borrowed from her mother the Princess Royal.
 



Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, in keeping up with her vow not to be a clotheshorse recycled an embroidered, champagne-colored coat that she wore 5 years ago during the wedding of William’s step sister Laura Parker Bowles.  In the end she naturally stole the show.  Obviously royal fashion watchers took note that Kate accessorized this recycled look with an angled hat instead of the original fascinator.  Catherine arrived with William and Harry, William’s younger brother who also introduced Zara and Mike seven years ago. 
Whilst Scottish police reminded the camping onlookers that they’d have little to see the mere prospect of catching a glimpse of members of one of the oldest, most popular and richest monarchy in the world is enough for them to brave the cold and stand in wait for the comings and goings of the royals for the 45-minute ceremony.
 True to her down-to-earth and unassuming nature the horse-mucking-Zara gave the onlookers a brief glance topped off with a smile and a little wave the moment she alighted from her car.
Walking alongside her to enter the church is Princess Anne’s first husband, former equestrian athlete army captain Mark Phillips.
Much as this wedding had been played greater than the low profile Miss Phillips, now Mrs. Tindall, would’ve liked it it would be quite unsurprising if the latest news with much ado, impact and achievement we would hear about Zara would be her representing Britain in the 2012 Olympics.
Always that same bright light for Britain and its royal family.


Read more: http://socyberty.com/people/zara-phillips-kate-middletons-cousin-in-law-marries/#ixzz1UKO3dUAk


Saturday, May 28, 2011

Ebay Sues Google


 This court battle is going to be one of the most watched out for court battles in Internet history as online shopping and auction website giant eBay sues web search engine giant Google.
Image via CrunchBase
Image via CrunchBase


eBay sued Google when Google hired or “poached” two of eBay’s employees, under its wholly owned subsidiary company online payment system PayPal, in a desperate effort of Google to understand better PayPal’s trade secrets. 
eBay, who filed the lawsuit on Thursday, May 26, painted a colourful, 28-page picture of betrayal and corporate espionage just hours after Google launched “Google Wallet” payment service in New York.
In a formal response released on Friday Google defended itself by stating that they hired two former PayPal employees based on their talent to run Google’s mobile payments service.  “Silicon Valley was built on the ability of individuals to use their knowledge and expertise to seek better employment opportunities, a principle recognized by both California law and public policy.  We respect trade secrets and will defend ourselves against these claims.”
The lawsuit specifically mentioned Google’s more than two years discussion with eBay that would have the search engine rely on PayPal to process payments for an application market set up for Google’s mobile phone software, Android.  The lawsuit also states that Google was said to have cut off this “Android” talks with eBay earlier this year after poaching enough PayPal people to set up its own mobile payments service.


Osama Bedier, one of PayPal’s former executives, was involved in these “Android” talks when he was still with PayPal.  He left the company to become Google’s vice president of payments merely four months ago.  It was said that Bedier transferred some of PayPal’s secrets to his computer and even uploaded sensitive information to Internet storage locker DropBox before leaving PayPal. 
One of eBay’s former executives, Stephanie Tilenus, got also involved in wooing her former colleague to go over to Google.  As part of Tilenus’ agreement with eBay in October 2009 when she left she agreed not to hire eBay employees until March of this year.  Bedier had been with Google for four months already.

Internet history would show that this isn’t Google’s first time to go to court when it comes to hiring a rival company’s employee/s.  It was sued six years ago when they hired a top Microsoft Corp. executive to oversee Google’s China operations. 

Read more: http://webupon.com/search-engines/ebay-sues-google/#ixzz1NmTqFGzw

Kate Middleton, Michelle Obama and Samantha Cameron Fashion Face-off

With America’s First Lady Michelle Obama politically visiting U.K. for three days this week much anticipation by fashionistas were set into high gear as three of the world’s fashion icons, with husbands as world leaders and a future king, are bound to meet face to face. 
 Imagine Michelle Obama meeting with the British prime minister’s wife, Samantha Cameron, known for being a fashionista.  Also how is Mrs. Obama going to dress herself in meeting the newly married Duchess Kate Middleton and jive with her accessible style?
It was definitely a classic fashion picture history pages for the books.
    

 Michelle Obama, Mobama as she is popularly and fondly called in the U.S., is known for her love of baring her arms, donning high street J. Crew, wearing oversized pearl necklaces, brooches, costume jewelry and belts.  She can mix American designers’ works (which includes that of up and coming designers), like Thaakon, Isaac Mizrahi, Michael Kors and even the Olsen twins’ The Row with affordables from Talbots, H&M and Banana Republic.  This earned America’s first lady the reputation of being the queen of high-low dressing.  She wears designer looks with off-the-rack pieces that made Vogue Editor Anna Wintour comment that every look Michelle Obama comes up with is her very own.  The former lawyer is known to generate $2.7 billion in fashion sales and naturally inspires an army of knockoffs and copycats. 
 Meeting with the newly titled Duchess of Cambridge for a mere 15 to 20 minutes in the 1844 room in Buckingham Palace Michelle Obama wore a shiny, icy-blue Barbara Tfank dress and a swingy pink bolero jacket with a gun-metal slingback stilettos.  Kate, whose first official duty since marrying into the British royal family, is this meeting with the Obamas chose to wear a sand-colored fitted bandage-style dress priced at $340 made by Reiss Schola.  This dress which sold out in minutes is with a box neckline, asymmetric overlays and a panelled band across the waist.  More encounters between these two beautiful and stylish ladies are set to transpire in July when Prince William and Kate visit California.
   

 As with Kate’s fashion biography she already captured the world’s attention with her fashion choices way before she wed Prince William (though her name being with associated with the prince definitely paved the way for this).  This fascination on her fashion choices is proven by her being on the Best Dressed List of every imaginable magazine since 2006.  The future queen of England had famously favoured designer brands like Issa and Mulberry and is also known for wearing high-street fashion brands like Topshop giving off a simple, stylish look that many designers famously frown at for being not fashion forward. 
 For a BBQ in the British Prime Minister’s garden Michelle Obama wore a black-and-white belted dress from Tracy Reece’s pre-fall collection which she finished off with matching bracelets.  The sparkling detail at the waist provided a nice touch.  Samantha Cameron wore a pastel frock by Jonathan Saunders nipped by a bright green belt.
  Samantha Cameron is Britain Prime Minister’s 39-year-old wife known for her love of bright sheaths, cinched waist and platform pumps.
 For the usual, mandatory English tea with Samantha Cameron at the Cameron’s private apartment at Downing Street Michelle Obama wore New Yorker’s Narciso Rodriguez cobalt-blue coat was she momentarily had taken off to show her vibrant purple wool-crepe by London-based Roksanda Ilincic dress.  Michelle Obama accessorized this ensemble with a black belt and black kitten heels.  Samantha Cameron had British Peter Pilotto embroidered floral silk dress.  Grey pumps completed her look.


Read more: http://beyondjane.com/fashion/kate-middleton-michelle-obama-and-samantha-cameron-fashion-face-off/#ixzz1NmOIwIoT