Angie Harmon Talks Fashion, Family, and David Hasselhoff - Parade

Angie Harmon is in full confession mode when it comes to her online obsession. “I have an unnatural addiction to Pinterest,” she reveals. “I love recipes and home design, and the creativity out there is so inspirational. All of a sudden an hour has gone by!” When she’s not pinning up new ideas, Harmon, 41, puts on her detective badge for Rizzoli & Isles, returning for its fifth season on TNT June 17. She films in L.A. but makes her home in Charlotte, N.C., with her husband, former NFL cornerback Jason Sehorn, and their daughters, ages 10, 8, and 5. “One of my happiest moments is seeing my girls play dress up in Mommy’s closet,” she tells Erin Hill.

PARADE What do you love most about playing Jane Rizzoli?

It’s fun to play a tomboy with no reference for fashion. She’s the opposite of me; I’m a fairly girly girl.

So you enjoy getting glammed up for the red carpet?

Absolutely! It’s one of my favorite parts of the job. I also have three little girls, so I can justify any expense because it’s an investment! I look at fashion the way an art collector considers art, and I have quite an impressive collection. We basically gutted the master bedroom and turned it into my closet.

What are your memories of your modeling ­career in the early 1990s?

I had a fabulous time. Well, I wasn’t loving it when I was in a bikini and heels on an iceberg, but I look back with a big smile. The fashion world seems like such a business now, and you hope [the models] are having as much fun as we did. Back then, there weren’t paparazzi who would get you falling out of a car if you had too much to drink. The consequences weren’t as steep.

Join us for a Twitter chat with Angie on Monday, June 16th, at 2 pm ET. Use #ParadeChats to join in!

Is it true that David Hasselhoff helped you transition from model to actress?

It is! He discovered me on a plane and offered me a role on ­Baywatch Nights, but I said, “No, thank you,” because I’d never had an acting lesson. Oddly enough, my friend who was with me went on an audition for him two weeks later and he said, “You were with that girl!” That’s where it all ­started; the opportunity came back, and I will always be thankful to David for believing in me.

What’s your perfect Sunday?

In North Carolina we go to church, but I don’t really have a church in L.A. so these days we get up, put on our swimsuits, and hang out by the pool. It’s very restful. We have Sunday night dinner with friends and their kids and some of the cast. I just got this fabulous outdoor dining table that lights on fire down the middle. I just love that I’ve got people around that table every Sunday.

Your husband played for the New York Giants and now does commentary for college games. Is football big around the house?

It’s on all the time. I love it ­because I’m from Texas and just the sound of it in the background is fantastic. It triggers memories of home and great smells. ­Football season is a family- and friend-centered time for me. My middle daughter loves to go out and throw the football around with her dad.

Jason proposed to you on The Tonight Show in 2000. Have you shown that clip to your daughters?

I don’t think they have seen it, but they’re just now getting to the age where they would get it. For a long time I didn’t tell the girls what I did for a living; they found out through school. I’m very self-conscious about the whole “Hi, look at me, I’m on TV!” thing, but it was an incredible moment. I should show it to them—that’s a good idea!

Watch Jason’s romantic proposal here. Angie’s reaction is priceless!

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Rihanna: The New Fashion Source - Guardian Liberty Voice

Models may be doing an eloquent job on runways in New York and Paris, but according to established designer Tom Ford, Rihanna’s sense of style has embarked a new wave in today’s fashion world. Models are not enough to get the job done anymore, so it seems. Fashion icon and multi-Grammy winning artist Rihanna is on the path of conquering fashion and how it influences the world. With over 13 million followers on one of the most followed social media platforms Instagram, the vibrant pop singer has more of an impact on the fashion community than anticipated. Could Rihanna be the new fashion source? During an interview with Style.com, Ford expressed his passion for fashion and how Rihanna, a new fashion source, seems to convey his ideal of what fashion consumers are in hunt for now. Social media has created a gateway to the fashion world, Ford relays inadvertently. “Customers don’t care about hard–copy publications or reviews anymore.” Customers are raving over what new pair of shoes Rihanna is going to post or what she is wearing these days. The pop singer always parades new gifts from high fashion designers such as Tom Ford, Stella McCartney, Prada, etc. via instagram. She is the most spoiled celebrity and everyone knows! According to MTV news, Rihanna has taken a hiatus from her instagram account. Followers have noticed an absence of the rebel bombshell’s racy photos and incredible fashion sense including designer Tom Ford. After posting very intimate photos from her Lui cover spread earlier this month, Rihanna has been MIA for the month of May. The site was “accidently” deleted, resulting in Rihanna vanishing completely from the network disengaging the world of its most influential fashion source and what is new. Although the Ford is recognized for banning social media from his events, he recognizes and acknowledges the impact that social media has had in reference to fashion. It is something new and evolving for the world of fashion and without Rihanna, it is not possible. He needs her back Tom Ford names Rihanna the new influential fashion source says Eonline.com. Although the artist is on strike, she may be contemplating a return. In response to Ford’s interview, Rihanna replies to the interview on twitter, “he gets it!” Her absence definitely elucidates frustration. The artist seems to be more than aware of her impact on fashion and society and wants to be appreciated for it. Rihanna has acquired millions of fans over the past 10 years of her music career. Fans from all over the world visit her on tours as well as follow her daily routines on instagram and twitter. The tenacious singer has been known for sharing uploads of herself and crew on boat trips, exhibiting a Hollywood college lifestyle kind of behavior, captivating fans and keeping them engaged. To be noticed by such a superior influence in fashion is beyond honorable, and she has earned every right to be proud of it. Ford has stated his claim, hopefully Rihanna, the new fashion source, will be willing to oblige and return to instagram. The fashion world is on a road to something quite different and Rihanna is responsible for that. By Erica Sandifer fashionista GRAZIA mtvNEWS the source eonline Entertainment WEEKLY

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How eBay's Research Laboratories Are Tackling the Tricky Task of Fashion ... - MIT Technology Review

If you’ve ever puzzled over what to wear in the morning, you might also have wondered whether you could leave the choice to an algorithm that could recommend a decent combination of clothes.

The short answer is no. Various groups have studied the problem of automated fashion advice without anybody really nailing it.

Today, it is the turn of Anurag Bhardwaj and pals from eBay Research Labs in San Jose. These guys have developed two different fashion recommendation systems and then crowdsourced opinions about whether the recommendations they provide are any good.

The results provide some interesting insight into the way humans evaluate clothing but also suggest that automated fashion recommendations still have some way to go.

These guys begin by creating two different fashion recommendation algorithms, which they train on a data set consisting of more than 13,000 photographs of fashion models taken from the Web. In each photograph, the model is wearing a top and bottom combination allowing the algorithms to look for correlations between the different top and skirt combinations.

The first algorithm, which Bhardwaj and pals call the deterministic fashion recommender, evaluates the colors in the top and compares them to the colors in the skirts. It then gives each combination a rating that can be compared to other top-bottom combinations. (Exactly how this rating is calculated, they don’t say.)

So when this algorithm is queried by showing it a particular top, for example, it searches its database looking for a bottom that when combined, produces a high rating.

The second algorithm uses the predefined rule that patterned clothing coordinates well with clothing that has a solid color. “In other words, having busy patterns in both top and bottom clothing is less popular,” say Bhardwaj and co.

So this algorithm ensures that when it is presented with a patterned top, for example, all of its recommendations will be for a skirt with a solid color.

But are these recommendations are any good? To find out, Bhardwaj and pals asked 150 people on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk service to rate the recommendations on a scale of bad, neutral, good, or excellent.

They generated the recommendations by presenting each algorithm with an image chosen at random from a database of 1,000 pictures of skirts. The algorithm then had to choose a top taken from a separate database of images of tops.

The results show certain patterns of preference among the users. For example, people prefer a solid-colored skirt with a patterned top combination.

More interestingly, users also preferred simple patterns, such as polka dots, solids, stripes or plaid, rather than complex patterns such as animal, floral, geometric, or paisley patterns. And when providing a rating, users perform the task more quickly when presented with simple patterns than with complex patterns.

Bhardwaj and co say this makes sense since neuroscientists have long known that the complexity of an image determines the time it takes to visually process it.

Just how useful this will be in developing fashion recommendation algorithms in future isn’t clear. One potential problem is that Bhardwaj and co provide no information about the users they employed on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. They say nothing about the distribution of men and women, about the age groups involved, their ethnicities, and so on. All these factors could have a significant effect on fashion choices.

What’s more, it’s conceivable that people who choose to work as Turks are a self-selecting group with very specific characteristics when it comes to fashion. But from this paper, it’s impossible to tell.

The stakes are potentially significant. One advantage of recommendation algorithms is that they can significantly increase sales if they work well. That’s something that Amazon, Netflix, Apple, and the like have all discovered to their advantage. The possibility that a fashion recommendation algorithm could help “upsell” customers will provide plenty of motivation for more research in this area.

For the moment, though, one thing is clear. The construction of fashion recommendation systems is a tricky task and one that is likely to remain beyond state-of-the-art for some time to come.

Ref: http://ift.tt/1k42gCx : Enhancing Visual Fashion Recommendations with Users in the Loop

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Alexander Wang Is Bringing Back An 'SNL' Favorite For His Latest Fashion Ad - Huffington Post

As one of "Saturday Night Live's" favorite characters used to say: “You can’t have-a-da-Mango!”

But as it turns out -- now you can. On June 3, Mango, better known as SNL's sketch character brought to life by Chris Kattan, teams up with Alexander Wang for his latest collection, T by Alexander Wang. In the 26-second short below, you can see familiar hints of Mango's signature look (pink top, gold shorts, beret) while taking in all of Mango's sass.

When asked by Style.com about the reasoning behind the partnership with the "SNL" superstar, Wang explained, “Sometimes when fashion becomes too stiff, it’s great to have someone such as Mango come through and inject a new burst of energy. Having fun and a sense of humor is so important to me that when I’m able to incorporate it into my work, I run with it.”

Wang has a history of injecting funny business into fashion, and in 2013, he debuted a short with Bon Qui Qui (a role performed by Anjelah Johnson) from "MadTV" helping customers like Alessandra Ambrosio, A$AP Rocky, Shannan Click, Simon Doonan and Natasha Lyonne in his stores.

Be sure to look for Mango's full-length debut on Wang's website June 3.

(h/t Style.com )

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