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FASHION - I saw the knitted sleeves below on a website and my immediate response was I WANT THEM! I don't care if they make it look like I have Popeye arms. I also don't even know what they're called. I just know I must have them!

FASHION - Its not often I discuss boycotts, but in this case I am making an exception. Peter Nygard is a 67-year-old Canadian fashion designer known for marketing to women in the 25 - 35 range, supporting breast cancer research and his playboy lifestyle. But what you might not know is he routinely treats his workers like slaves, abuses labour laws, skips out on paying for work permits, uses sweatshop labour in his factories... and his sex life involves 16 year old girls. Sometimes younger. According to former staff Peter Nygard routinely has wild sex parties, has a staff member who is charge of luring young women with promises of being on the lookout for supermodels but in reality he's just looking for a roster of young girls to have sex with. Some of them allege he's raped or sexually abused them. In one case Peter Nygard admitted the one girl had been living on his wallled estate in the Bahamas and that she had been there since she was a teenager. She had basically been hel...

FASHION - Its confirmed, the thong is dead as a fashion item. Oh sure, some people (who don't have a clue) will continue to wear the thong, especially if they're hicks or just mucking around with their boyfriend... but as a serious fashion item (ie. supermodels wear it on fashion catwalks) the thong is dead. Some say Monica Lewinsky kick-started her affair with Bill Clinton by showing him hers. Some say the thong is uncomfortable, impractical and leaves nothing to the imagination. All we know is its dead, maybe not as dead as powdered wigs, but certainly dead as far as the lingerie industry is concerned. In the glory days of the thong it never once outsold women's panties, briefs or even jockeys. What it had instead was media attention. During the 1990s the thong was on the catwalks, it was promoted by Cosmopolitan, it broke rules for what was considered sexy... and the next thing you know people were wearing them in public, accompanied by low-rise jeans and Sisqo wrote ...

FASHION - Brazil is known for women wearing skimpy clothing, but in university students usually wears jeans and a t-shirt. However when Geisy Arruda wore a tight pink dress to class however she was accused of "immorality" by the university who says she behaving in a slutty fashion and disrespected "ethical principles, academic dignity and morality." The incident happened on October 22nd when she had to be escorted off the campus by police. The dress shows off quite a bit of leg, but that is about it. I've seen way worse at universities in Canada . The private Bandeirante University backed down today on its decision to expel 20-year-old Geisy Arruda following a flood of negative reaction. The Brazilian government also came down hard on the university, giving them 10 days to clarify its reasoning for kicking out Arruda. I smell lawsuit.

FASHION / RELIGION - Have you seen any women recently wearing a Niqab or Hijab? No, I am not talking about Conservative Muslim women. I am talking about women (of any ethnic background) wearing it as some kind of fashion statement. And an important point is you can now buy them in brand names like Calvin Klein and GAP. Like WTF? How did that happen? Well, its not so much that these brand name companies are getting into the business, its the fact they're making scarves/etc that can be used as such. First lets affiliate you with some of the fashion terms: A Hijab is basically a hood that is worn over your hair. A Niqab (or Niqaab) is a scarf you wear over your face. A full niqab covers everything but a slit for the eyes. There's also: Abaya - Covers you from head to toe except for the eyes, one large piece that looks very baggy. Usually found in Pakistan. Burqa - Like the Abaya, but it covers the eyes with semi-transparent fabric or a grille. More common in Afghanistan . Dupatta...

FASHION - I really like David Dixon's fashion designs. They're simple, stylish and I can see wearing them on a day to day basis. They're sexy too. What I also like is his choice of models. He picks his models carefully, choosing not just ethnically diverse models, but also being careful to pick models who have more meat on their bones as opposed to the disgustingly thin. "I don't even think about it," admits Dixon. "It's not a conscious decision to cast women from various ethnicities. I pick the girls I like. I pick girls I think women can relate to." Its also smart business sense. "I get feedback from women who have a critical opinion. They want to see themselves in these clothes," says Dixon. They're more likely to buy the clothes they can see themselves wearing. Designer Mark Fast does the same thing. A couple weeks ago he insisted on having plus-size models for his 2010 spring fashion show... which drew a lot of media attention...

FASHION - You know what a gaff is right? Its a mistake. Its a blooper. Its the outtake that usually doesn't make it into TV or magazine spreads. But unfortunately in the fashion world these gaffs do make the news, and in a silly way some people actually take them seriously. Like the two images to the right. You see, as an artistic / creative person myself, I would be totally embarrassed to make things that look so ridiculous. They can't be worn, they can't be taken seriously, they're barely even 'art' because they're not making a statement about anything. And the holes? What is the point of that? There's no statement there. Ripped blue jeans makes a fashion statement, but only if the rips are real. Fake rips are for poseurs. And then there's the 1/2 dress / 1/2 business suit... WTF is that? What a complete waste of fabric. Sometimes I swear Paris fashion designers are sniffing glue or something. They could be making fashion which actually helps peop...