Ladybrille® Blogazine

FOR PRESS RELEASES

Friday, May 23, 2008

Ladybrille Web Snob, Week 5/18 to 5/23/08

It's time for our Ladybrille Weekly Web Snob. Why? Because we aim to be your one stop shop and save you so much time as you stay abreast of all things brilliant in the non-African fashion world! Here are the brilliant posts, for this week, from some of the top online fashion publishers/bloggers.

  1. A Few Goody GumDrops tells us what choos to wear to a graduation.
  2. Stiletto Jungle shows you how to get sexy, sun protected summer hair.
  3. All About the Pretty is excited about her new travel skin care line M Lab Travel Collection.
  4. BagBliss loves technology. Meet the new Christian Dior Cannage Cell Phone.
  5. Bag Snob finds Ten Bags under $1,000!
  6. Beauty Snob gets a Boob Job--- NOT!
  7. Calculatus Eliminatus lays out the knowledge how to button your goddamn polo shirt once and for all!
  8. Cheap JAP reviews Rogan Gregory for Target...and it's not pretty.
  9. Fashion, Evolved talks to the creative force behind MINK Shoes
  10. Take Louis Vuitton along as a tour guide on your next trip, suggests Fashiontribes.
  11. I'm Not Obsessed shows you how to steal two of Gwyneth Paltrow's red carpet looks from Cannes.
  12. KRiSTOPHER finds the best - and worst - of Net-a-Porter's sale.
  13. Papierblog wonders whether Vera Wang is right on the recession
  14. Quinta Trends shows NSBP Diseño de Autor: new collection.
  15. Second City Style spots a hot trend on the red carpet in Cannes...metallics.
  16. Shrimpton Couture Spots Dita Von Teesein vintage!
  17. StyleBakery tells you how to get the Gossip Girl look
  18. Sex and the City Style: Stylehive Takes A Look Back at Carrie Bradshaw's Defining Looks.
  19. Stylenotes states seven wardrobe must-haves for this summer.
  20. SugarShock Beauty is singing the praises of Stila's classic Kitten and the new summer eyeshadow palette.
  21. Sxy Fashion Queen shows how much Hollywood loves Lanvin.
  22. The Coveted's tips on 5 Ways to Take Sun Protection to the Next Level
  23. The Fashionable Housewife found the cure for your flat booty!
  24. Indie perfumers are rocking the sexy summer scents and it's brought to you naturally by The Organic Beauty Expert.
  25. The Shoe Goddess has found the perfect pair of Mary Jane pumps for the fall!
  26. V-Style: Angelina Jolie breaks away from her "black" uniform to wear a Max Azria Atelier emerald green gown at Cannes Film Festival!
  27. WE LOVE BEAUTY.com learns about the amazing adventure our Magnet stylemakers participated in at SUPERLOVE in the Superdome in New Orleans.
  28. eBeautyDaily ventures to the Warren-Tricomi salon in West Hollywood for a haircut.
  29. nitro:licious gives you the first look at Old Navy's "The Spotlight" Collection!
  30. Are Serena, Blair and Jenny the newest style icons? StyleBakery tells you how to get the Gossip Girl look

Read More

Rebranding Lagos, "Made in Lagos"

Our friends at Storm Records do an excellent job of rebranding Lagos with their recently released video,"Made in Lagos." A new generation of young entrepreneurs across Africa are telling Africa's story, choosing to show the beautiful side of Africa. Enjoy the "Made in Lagos" video from Storm Records showcasing the beauty of Lagos, Nigeria.












Read More

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Hotel Review: Hilton Riverside, New Orleans

There are so many great places to stay in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. From the Central Business District to the French Quarter, you are sure to find hotels that range from your five star to very unique boutique ones. Hotels in New Orleans aka the “Big Easy,” however, are not typical of the many across the country or globe. Instead, they seem to make it their business to make sure you feel right at home. One such hotel I stayed during my visit for the New Orleans Jazz Festival is the Hilton Riverside Hotel.

With their recently completed $40 million upgrade, their ideal location [easy walk to the French Quarter, the Arts District and Convention Center], health club, sexy remodeled rooms, brilliant restaurant and café, and their 29th floor Executive Lounge, among many amenities, the Hilton Riverside will most likely be your hotel of choice, if you decide to visit soon.

Ideal Location: Located on Poydras street in the Central Business District, with the Mississipi River serving as its backdrop, the Hilton Riverside is an ideal place whether you travel solo, with family [it is a very safe location, especially when traveling with children] or for a romantic getaway. Less than a block, to the right of the hotel, once you exit its main entrance, are street cars. You can catch a street car for only $1.25 for a brilliant tour of the city.

Shopping: For the fashion-forward/fashionistas, this is a perfect, perfect location! The Riverwalk Marketplace is known for its shopping, dining and entertainment is less than a minute away. In fact, the Riverwalk Marketplace is an annexation to the hotel. For an even more uplifting shopping experience, exit the main entrance of the hotel veer right and walk straight to the foot of the famous Canal Street. There, you will find “The Shops at Canal Place,” a premier shopping destination that is home to many exclusive and famous designer boutiques and stores like Kenneth Cole and Saks Fifth Avenue.

Art & Culture: Right next to The Shops at Canal Place is the Aquarium of the Americas [think the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California if you’ve ever visited]. Across the hotel and in very close proximity is the IMAX theater, ideal for a romantic movie with your sweetheart or watching the movie “Hurricane on the Bayou.” If you'd rather just hang out Las Vegas style, head on to the well known gigantic Harrah’s Casino, also located across the hotel and less than a minute from the theater.
Mardi Gras World: Exit the hotel’s main entrance, veer right and walk towards the rear of the hotel.

In less than two minutes, you will be at the Riverwalk. At the Riverwalk catch the FREE ferry to Algiers Point, a village within the city with buildings and homes that date back to the 19th century. Algiers Point is also home to the famous Mardi Gras World-where all the gigantic floaters you see during Mardi Gras are made.

Restaurants & Cafe: The second floor houses the hotel's River Blends Café so you can get all your coffee and mocha latte fixes. On the first floor, you will find two restaurants. One is the Le Croissant Restaurant. The other is its well known Drago’s Seafood Family Restaurant. The story goes like this: Papa Drago and Mama Klara Cvitanovich opened their restaurant, Drago’s, in 1969. It quickly became known for excellent cuisine and hospitality.

In fact, Mama Klara would stand and continues to stand at the door to greet customers. After the recent Hurricane Katrina and as part of its rebuilding efforts, the Hilton Riverside which housed students from Dillard University, during the Hurricane, for seven months, thought they’d like to bring Drago’s ambience and great food to the hotel. The hotel solicited the Cvitanovichs who said, “no problem, so long as we are allowed to continue serving our amazing foods and delivering our famous hospitality.” Today Drago’s has expanded to a 360 seat restaurant located at the Hilton; and they continue to be true to their philosophies of great food and hospitality. I brought my legal colleague and native of Louisiana with me to sample some of the food. His highly discriminating taste bud was impressed with their Charbroiled Oysters and very delicious Red Beans and Rice. Good stuff!

Business Traveler: “Time is money and money is time,” especially for the entrepreneurs among us. Avoid the lines at the ariport and save time with the hotels express check-in kiosks located on the second floor. Also, a very cool feature I observed was the OBGYN conference TV channel negotiated and dedicated to the OBGYN group, members could easily know about their coneference's day activities. That's a cool feature you can negotiate with the hotel if you are planning a big conference.


Fitness: For outdoors fitness i.e. running or walking, take a long stroll or walk alongside the Riverwalk. If you choose to work out in the gym, then you must try what I consider, by far, my favorite amenity at the Hilton Riverside, their health club. It is just brilliant! New Orleans while super cool for great cuisine, cocktails and culture gets a zero rating when it comes to facilities for staying fit. It’s hard to find quality gyms around the city. But wait! The health club at the Hilton Riverside offers 106,000 square foot of space housing state of the art and unmatched fitness equipments! There are two tennis courts, two volleyball courts, one basketball court, several racquetball courts, a virtual and very cool golf course room, saunas and jacuzzis in the men and women’s locker rooms, aerobic rooms, jazzercise rooms and tons of cardiovascular and weight training equipment.

They even have a juice bar!
How cool is that? The cost to use all of these is only $12.00 per day! Their health club surpassed that of even the famous 24hour fitness Super Centers that charge $20.00 a day to use. The hotel independent of the fitness club has two large clean pools for the hot summers.
Negatives:The Hilton Riverside is not for you if you want something small. Its very large size can be intimidating. However, the hotel compensates for its large size with excellent room service. House keeping services were just superb and offered at least twice a day. If you need something from concierge, room service or anything of that sort, before you can even hang up your phone call, they are right there. The beds are amazing and great to sleep in. Another real cool thing is the 29th Executive Floor services the hotel offers. If you stay in the executive rooms which I believe is the 20th floor and above, you get access to the Executive Lounge on the 29th floor with a panoramic view of the city and the Mississipi river. You can, while taking, in all the beauty and watching the cruise ships, freighters and riverboats pass by, enjoy continental breakfast in the morning or in the evenings sample some appetizers, fruits, baked goodies and drinks.

Overall, I found the hotel to be a safe location for the family, a great place for a romantic getaway and perfect for those traveling solo. By the way, the hotel continues its renovation throughout the year so if you decide to stay there, be sure they have booked you in one of their remodeled rooms. The Essence Jazz Festival is coming up very soon! It might be a good time to visit New Orleans and also check out the Hilton Riverside Hotel. Bon Voyage, safe travels and have a happy stay at the Hilton Riverside, should you make it your hotel of choice.





From Dragos Restaurant





~Hotel review by Uduak Oduok

~Photocredit: Courtesy photos from Hilton Riverside, Drago Photos/Jason Perlow off the Broiler.
Read More

Ladybrille African Fashion News #37

Hope you are having a brilliant week so far. Before we go to our weekly collection or thereabouts of fashion news related to or about Africa, we had to bring your attention to the crisis going on in South Africa. There is apparently serious hate and hate crimes being committed by black South Africans against other Africans who migrate to South Africa for better lives. These articles 13000 flee xenophobic mobs in S Africa, Why this horror makes me fear for the future of South Africa and this youtube breaks it down. We seriously need the South African government to step on this and stop the innocent killings!
On a lighter note and relating to our fashion news, about March of last year, we asked you how much would you pay for a fashion designer label? This year, Vanguard Newspaper, in Nigeria, poses a similar question to leading African designers across the continent, Are African designers overpricing themselves? Finally, be sure to stop by one of our favorite African Entertainment and lifestyle blogs It Feels Good to Be Home. They have a nice post on the fashion styles of Iman, Alek and Estelle-African power women and fashionistas doing BIG "thangs!"
On to the rest of our fashion news for this week:
  1. SD Fashion Week to match SA's standard
  2. Durban’s catwalk comes alive with MTN Fashion Week
  3. East Africa's Chapati connection
  4. Africa Day celebrates all of Africa
  5. Converse fires up young designers
  6. FESTIVAL FOR AFRICAN FASHION AND ARTS - FASHION FOR PEACE
  7. Introducing Pearl Amoah
  8. Africa: Alphadi, JD7 Couture, Kwesi NTI, Others Shine At Tendances ...
  9. Asia’s trade outwits West’s aid in Africa
  10. Kenya: KTB to Host Leading Models At Fashion Show
Read More

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Celebrate Africa's Future with African Leadership Academy


To say we are most proud of the folks at the African Leadership Academy [ALA], as they prepare to open doors to welcome their inaugural class of 2008, is an understatement!

Founded by four dynamic individuals: Fred Swaniker, Chris Bradford, Peter Mombaur and Acha Leke, the ALA is an organization committed to developing the next generation of African leaders. The Academy, located in the outskirts of Johannesburg in South Africa, boast a world class co-educational secondary [high school] boarding school. The school selects outstanding students based soley on merit, aged 16-19years, from across Africa and the world and trains them in a two year intense academic program. Upon graduation, students have access to the world's top universities.

For students who are unable to afford ALA, scholarships are available so gifted young boys and girls do not miss out on ALA's internationally recognized A-level curriculum. With a world renowned international faculty, students are trained to think like leaders, understand and develop entrepreneur skills as well as understand socio-economic and political issues, among others, unique to Africa.

Again we are truly proud of the founding members of ALA and all who have helped them execute their vision. Ladybrille salutes you all for understanding and demonstrating the old adage that "to whom much is given, much is expected."

To partake in the celebration, join the folks at ALA, on May 30th, 2008 including two future leaders of Africa—a future Nelson Mandela and a future Wangari Maathai—at their first ever San Francisco fundraising event as they prepare to open doors to welcome the ALA Class of 2008!
Read More

Sunday, May 18, 2008

"Welcome to Naija," the Start of the Next Phase of my Life

By Chiedu Ifeozo, Ladybrille Columnist. To read more of Chiedu's work, click here.

I
woke up the morning after my arrival in Lagos, and I remember not being too excited. I think back then I focused more on what I considered to be the issues with life in Nigeria. Back then, I was afraid it might be hard to live here again. I remember having discussions with my parents as they tried to encourage me to give the move a chance.
Generally, there was a climate of change in Nigeria. The elections were coming up and many Nigerians were looking forward to a new president, hoping that it would bring a fresh approach to the reforms that the ruling administration had started.
There were two big revolutions while I was away, and the changes that these two sectors have undergone has been the catalyst for the growth of the Nigerian Economy, of course the foreign reserves were helped by the increasing price of oil, but I was positive about the increasing investment in the telecommunications and information technology sectors as well as the clean up of the banking and insurance sectors.

I spent a lot of my days discussing these changes with mates from secondary [high] school and mates back in England. There were varying reactions. Mates who remained in Nigeria seemed more optimistic. As the sectors improved there would be more jobs, they hoped. Some were less optimistic of the effects of these changes, “what good is a phone when you can not afford the airtime to speak” and “how does that put food on my table,” they would ask?

It was easy to observe that the economy seemed to be moving in a positive direction on the macro economic scale, but such developments did not filter down to the grass roots; meanwhile some very important sectors which impact directly on the general public like education, power and health were still largely ignored or seriously hampered by corruption. Personally, I had decided somewhere in between listening to all these folks that my future was in Nigeria and I was going to work hard to make it a success.
I loved England, still do, yeah everyone talks about the weather, but it’s a beautiful island with a very rich history. I enjoyed my time living in Cambridge, Guildford and London, the scenic hills of the Guildford country side, was the view from my third floor university bedroom window. I adapted to life in London, and was actually getting used to it. I wasn’t in the category of those who never visited Nigeria after moving away, I came back four times in seven years, and always enjoyed my holiday.

Now I live in Lagos, yes, it’s been a change, but I’ve tried to focus on work, I spend my time writing poetry and listening to music, and I’ve done my best to make the best of it.

“Welcome to Naija”, the start of the next phase of my life.
Read More
Theme images by Jason Morrow. Powered by Blogger.

© 2007-2017 Ladybrille® Blogazine, All Rights Reserved.

Designed by ScreenWritersArena