Life and Style wRap: Paris fashion week, Juan Carlos up for surgery

MANILA, Philippines – Rappler brings you stories from the runway down to the Royals. Here are lifestyle stories that you should know about in a nutshell.

Balenciaga’s Alexander Wang makes his own mark

New York golden boy Alexander Wang on Thursday, September 26, stamped his own “footprint” on the fabled Balenciaga label in one of the most keenly anticipated shows of Paris fashion week.

Already among the hottest names in fashion at 29, Wang presented his ready-to-wear spring/summer 2014 collection, which followed a well-received February debut for which he delved into the archives to pay tribute to founder Cristobal Balenciaga.

Speaking backstage after the show, he said that, having started with “the homage,” he was keen to use his second show to express his personality.

“I wanted to… take this season to really start putting some footprint into it, making it relatable to what I thought was important and bringing some of my vocabulary of sportswear into it,” he said.

The collection in a largely blue and white dominated palette featured thigh-skimming hemlines along with tiny, high-waisted shorts teamed with midriff-baring cropped tops.

Wang highlighted the “crushed embroidery” on many pieces.

“We loved this idea of something quite organic and uncontrollable so every piece is different from the next,” he said.

Fashion goes high-tech at futuristic Guy Laroche show

Timeless classics on Wednesday, September 25, got a makeover for the spring/summer 2014 at Paris fashion week in a futuristic science fiction-inspired collection from Guy Laroche, marrying versatile high-tech fabrics with traditional silks.

White shirts and black trousers were “turned on their heads” with off-centred collars and extra-high waists and double layers, while “surreal” cocktail dresses came with voluminous front box pleats.

On the second day of Paris fashion week, Marcel Marongiu’s collection aimed to explore “the tension between natural and artificial, man-made and high-tech”, the label said.

Marongiu’s sleek and streamlined collection drew on a passion for science fiction from – Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis” to Andrew Niccol’s “Gattaca.

Looks that stood out included “curvy” trenchcoats in a “cutting-edge fusion of silk and [the high-tech fabric] polyamide” and skirts and shift dresses covered in fringes made from optic fibre.

Croatian designer Damir Doma, meanwhile, went for a less stark mood with the accent on the “lightness” of laser-cut, embroidered and sheer fabrics such as silk and linen.

“It started with the show that we did in Florence that was very feminine and light and easy and I wanted to push it a bit more [to be] more elegant, effortless,” he told AFP backstage.

“The most important thing was the lightness that comes definitely from the materials,” he said.

Doma’s collection was also notable for its asymmetrical looks from pretty summer dresses in white and taupe to more experimental combinations of shorts and dresses.

Speculation over Spanish King’s surgery raises leadership doubts

Spain’s 75-year-old King Juan Carlos recovered Wednesday, September 25, after a hip-replacement surgery, but now faces yet another operation, prompting anew concerns over his future as head of state.

Doctors said he was in “highly satisfactory” condition after a surgeon fitted a temporary replacement for an implant that had got infected – his 8th operation in just over 3 years.

But news that a further operation would be needed after two months to insert a permanent implant kept alive speculation of a possible abdication, despite the palace’s denials.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said the government had no plans to try to regulate the role of the king’s son and heir, Felipe, 45, in case Juan Carlos is incapable of ruling.

“Absolutely not, we have no intention of doing that,” Rajoy told reporters late Tuesday in New York where he was attending the United Nations general assembly. “There is no reason to do so.”

US-based hip specialist Miguel Cabanela gave the monarch a new artificial left hip coated in antibiotics to fight the infection, said a statement from the palace on Wednesday.

The king has appeared on crutches looking frail while keeping up his schedule of public appearances over recent weeks, after the previous implant fitted last November became painful.

But he has kept up a jovial front.

“He is very lively and keen to get back on his feet as soon as the doctors let him,” Felipe said after visiting his father on Wednesday with his wife, Princess Letizia.

Japanese poll: one in 3 desperate to be housewives

One in 3 young Japanese women wants to get married and be a full-time housewife, a government survey has shown, despite growing calls for increased female participation in the workforce.

The poll, which quizzed more than 3,000 people aged 15-39, found 34 percent of unmarried women did not want to work when they settled down.

The survey by the Health, Labour, and Welfare Ministry found that only a slightly higher proportion of women actively did not want to become dedicated homemakers (38 percent), while the rest had no firm opinion either way.

However, potential husbands were on the whole less keen on the idea, with only one in 5 saying they wanted a future wife to stay home all day.

Despite high levels of education, many women in Japan drop out of the work force when they have children, and social pressures to play the homemaker remain strong.

Experts at home and abroad, notably IMF director Christine Lagarde, have argued that women could rescue Japan’s chronically underperforming economy if more of them went to work.

The nation’s male-dominated, shrinking labor market is being hit by retiring babyboomers and a falling birthrate, which is putting extra pressure on the nation’s finances as it tries to fund a growing pension pot from a shrinking pool of workers.

As part of an overhaul aimed at getting the economy moving again, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has pledged to expand business opportunities for women.

Brazil beauty industry sets sights on men

In the wealthy Jardins neighborhood of Sao Paulo, one street boasts 5 beauty salons, but the Mr Jardins shop stands out from the pack – catering to a male clientele.

Men stop in for traditional haircuts and shaves, but also come for other treatments – waxing, waist-slimming massages, youth-boosting facials, skin cleanses, and even manicures and pedicures.

In Brazil, men are the new target of a booming beauty industry, where services and products are no longer reserved for the fairer sex.

Gregorio Mendes, the owner of Mr Jardins, said his salon welcomes new clients “every day” who come in for a haircut, and end up daring to take advantage of other services.

“It’s a growing market. The misconception that a man who waxes is maybe not a real man is beginning to disappear,” Mendes said, referring to the concept of machismo still prevalent in Latin America.

“Men of all ages come here, either because they want to or because their wives, girlfriends, or daughters bring them. It’s not a gay or straight thing. The important thing is that they want to look good.”

Marcos Costa, a tall, slim 44-year-old entrepreneur at Mr Jardins, explained that he does “everything possible” to make himself more attractive, but still sees a bit of a stigma attached to male primping.

“Women love for us to be well-groomed and smell good, but if they see us at the hair salon getting a manicure, that bugs them,” Costa said at the salon, which opened 5 years ago. – With reports from Agence France-Presse/Rappler.com