Reportage

SAN FRANCISCO, CA–(Marketwire -07/31/12)-
Joyent, the high-performance cloud infrastructure performance company, today announced that ModCloth, an online retailer specializing in vintage-inspired women’s fashion and décor, has chosen Joyent Cloud to ensure ModCloth customers benefit from a consistently great online shopping experience.

“Our customers have learned to expect an instant shopping experience that’s fun, engaging and constantly updated with new merchandise every time they visit our site,” said Blake Irvin, systems engineering manager at ModCloth. “In our competitive market, every additional second of latency translates into a 10 or 20 percent hit to your sales conversion rate … milliseconds really, really matter. Joyent is faster, more resilient and more efficient than AWS, which is truly crucial for our business to stay competitive.”

As ModCloth’s sales and revenues grew and traffic dramatically increased, the online retailer needed a stronger real-time infrastructure that provided the performance, reliability and flexibility needed to make changes quickly to take advantage of new opportunities and to respond to customers’ changing behaviors. ModCloth chose to move from a traditional Linux platform running Ruby on Rails to Joyent Cloud with Ruby on Rails running on Joyent’s SmartOS operating system.

“One of the advantages of going with Joyent is that Joyent is totally transparent with us as an engineering group. It’s easy to talk directly to engineers if that’s necessary,” said Irvin. “Joyent’s support team is very good about letting us know what is the root cause of an issue, so we can ensure the customer experience remains seamless.”

Joyent’s more efficient architecture and fast provisioning process has also enabled ModCloth to save money on Joyent Cloud by running resources at high utilization rates — up to 80 percent — without resource contention or performance slowdowns.

“At Joyent, we understand the tight link between public cloud performance and business performance,” said Steve Tuck, senior vice president and general manager of Joyent Cloud, Joyent’s public cloud line of business. “Joyent Cloud was designed to deliver consistently reliable high-performance computing that will support e-commerce businesses during peak shopping periods. ModCloth is a great example of how to leverage superior cloud performance to deliver a consistently great customer experience.”

About ModCloth.com:
ModCloth is an innovative online retailer of independent designer fashion and décor. They’re building a platform that will further empower their global community to directly collaborate on the production of unique and inspiring merchandise, with the mission to change the way fashion is discovered, developed and delivered around the world. ModCloth has gained media attention for cultivating one of the most active communities in fashion through groundbreaking engagement strategies that extend from their site to social networks like Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter. The company is founded by husband-and-wife team Eric Koger and Susan Gregg Koger, who now have a team of nearly 300 helping them make their vision a reality. They’re backed by Accel Partners, FirstRound Capital, Floodgate, Harrison Metal, StubHub founder Jeff Fluhr and Norwest Venture Partners.

About Joyent
Joyent is the high-performance cloud infrastructure company, offering enterprises and developers the best public, private and hybrid cloud infrastructure for today’s demanding applications. JoyentCloud.com delivers public cloud services to some of the most innovative companies in the world, including LinkedIn, Voxer and ModCloth. Node.js, the open source server-side JavaScript project owned and stewarded by Joyent, provides developers and enterprises such as Microsoft with the most powerful runtime for developing data-intensive, real-time apps. Joyent is also the key contributor to and sponsor of Joyent SmartOS, an open source project dedicated to the complete, modern operating system. SmartDataCenter orchestrates Joyent’s technologies into a cohesive, reliable and distributed system that can stand up to the compute demands of the modern world. A global ecosystem of leading technology partners assists Joyent in enabling customers to leverage the performance, scalability, reliability and security inherent in the company’s cloud solutions. For more information, visit http://www.joyent.com.

Joyent Media Contact
Scott VanSickle
The Hoffman Agency
Phone: 408-975-3084
Email: Email Contact

NEW YORK, July 31, 2012 /PRNewswire/ – Curveturiere, a New York-based intimates company, announces the August 2012 launch of Curveturiere, bringing fashion, trend and glamour to classic full-cup silhouettes. Each style is constructed with the utmost attention to fit, comfort, and support. Bras are available in sizes 32 to 48/50 D through K and bottoms in XS to 3XL. 

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120731/FL48877)

Curveturiere co-creators/founders, Kelly Moore and Mary Pifko, not only combine 25+ years experience in the intimates industry, they identify with women’s quest to find fashionable intimates through their own personal struggles to find full-busted foundations. 

“Living and working in the fashion industry, I wanted the same trend options in my intimates as I had with clothing and accessories,” said co-founder Mary Pifko. “As a natural 32F intimates buyer with brands across the industry I still could not find my size. Intimates brands offering trend and color stopped at DD or DDD. Brands that offered broader sizes were offered in nude and black with prices upwards of $100.” 

The line consists of a full collection of bras, panties, and sleepwear. Purposely curated to allow customers to mix and match foundations, the collection is a reflection of their tagline. After too many years of staring at a black and white lingerie drawer, we ask, “Who wants to live life in neutral?” The collection focuses on color and trend while staying true to full-busted customer demands.

“The average bra size in America is a 36DD. Five years ago the average size was 36C, 10 years ago the average size was 34B. Our customer is clearly underserved in her lack of options in the market,” said co-founder Kelly Moore. “Because Mary and I identify closely with our customer we want to create a community giving women an outlet to share trend and fashion information, figure-related tips, healthy living advice, recipes, exercises, beauty advice, and other full-bust finds through blogs and social media.” 

Curveturiere will launch in New York City on August 6^th in their 7^th Avenue showroom with a private cocktail preview reception of the Spring 2013 Collection for buyers, bloggers, and press. The full Spring 2013 line will debut in Las Vegas, August 21^st, at the Curve Intimates Trade Show. For further information visit www.curveturiere.com.                  

PRESS CONTACTS @ CURVETURIERE:
Mary Pifko, Co-Creator/Founder
727-512-3885
press@curveturiere.com

Kelly Moore, Co-Creator/Founder  
813-748-6729
press@curveturiere.com

_{Posted in Fashion / Fashion blog / Fashion trends / Women’s fashion trends}

With autumn 2012′s fashions starting to fill stores there comes the need to not just understand what styles are in fashion for the new season, but also what makes the list of autumn 2012 colours.

This season many rich colours, such as imperial purples, Windsor wines and black irises, have cropped up on the catwalks altering this autumn’s trends quite drastically from the vibrant bold prints that were shown early this summer.

Article continues. To read it in full visit ‘How to wear autumn’s key colours‘ at Fashionising.com »

Photos: Bikini-Saris: Body-Conscious Indian Women’s Latest Fashion Must-Have

By Toyin Owoseje | Jul 30, 2012 05:31 PM EDT

Indian women not keen on skimpy bikinis finally have a stylish alternative following the launch of the modest bikini-sari.

Delhi’s first luxurious swimwear designers Shivan Bhatiya and Narresh Kukreja have created the new garment which incorporates the traditional, flowing robes of the sari while also showing off a hint of flesh.

The designs, which cater to woman of all shapes and sizes and are available in a range of colours, have since become a hit.

Kukreja told the Sunday Times: “Indian women have the best bodies in the world and are also the most shy about them.

“Our swimsuits aim at bringing them out of their shell.”

According to the designers, the suits, which cost up to £450, are made from fabric that is technologically advanced to be resistant to UV rays, sunscreen and body oils as well as any sand piling or curling.

Swimsuits are still considered provocative despite women often wearing skimpy outfits in the nightclubs of Delhi and Mumbai.

“It got a good response from women who are going to nice fancy cocktails, on their honeymoon or to beach weddings which are the new rage in India,” Kakreja added.

IBTimes UK has a look a few of the designs available from the collection…

The collection uses a fabrics such as silk chiffon, crepes and silk lycra in hues like bright orange, apple green and candyfloss pink.

Source: Parikhit Pal

The new twist to the traditional flowing robes was recently worn by Bollywood’s actress Bipasha Basu to a film award.

Source: Parikhit Pal

The designers say the bikini sari can be worn by women of all sizes for all types of occasions.

Source: Parikhit Pal

Top Lessons from Exceptional Women Entrepreneurs

Alan Hall
Contributor

10 Lessons I Learned from Sara Blakely That You Won’t Hear in Business School

Kathy Caprino
Contributor

Startup Investor Whitney Johnson Helps You Answer The Question “Are You A True Entrepreneur?”

Kathy Caprino
Contributor

Busting the Myth That Women Aren’t As Ambitious as Men

Kathy Caprino
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Part of the new series “Entrepreneurial Women Rocking the World.”

Claudia Chan

Last month, I had the pleasure of attending Claudia Chan’s S.H.E Summit week-long event in New York City.  According to Claudia, this is a new kind of event for women, featuring more than 40 grassroots, pop-up events designed to inspire women of all ages in work, life and everything in between.  From entrepreneurship, networking, professional development to beauty, wellness, causes, art and film – the week gave women access to inspiring events and activities organized by women-led brands featured on ClaudiaChan.com and beyond.

Claudia later shared with me that in her quest in recent years to find out as much as she could about what inspiring women are doing today to hold up “half the sky” (referencing the powerful book and movement Half the Sky:  Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Sheryl WuDunn and Nicholas Kristof), she observed that only  a small percentage of young women (as opposed to women in midlife) are gaining access to the inspiring content, wisdom and important information that’s out there in the world about successful women leaders, businesswomen, politicians, and influencers.  Claudia plans to address that gap.

Claudia shares:

“Young women today are checking out trendy cool websites, reading US Weekly and fashion magazines, but what are they getting most exposed to?  They know names like Kim Kardashian, but do they know Sheryl WuDunn or the names of the women on the Forbes most influential women list? I understand that women love fashion, the hottest restaurants, the newest trends, but so few women under 35 have ongoing access to powerful content about women who are making a difference in the world and shaping its growth and progress. My goal is create a trendy, hot and beautiful brand that offers inspirational content and information around, about and for women – solid advice, exciting interviews with highly successful women, inspirational content that is accessible, hot, and cool as well as life-, business- and career-changing material and programs.

As Charlie Rose interviews the world’s most amazing writers, artists, influencers and visionaries in the world, I’m hoping to build a brand that is dedicated to discovering and promoting women who are making a difference in ways that positively impact the world and other women.  I’m the ultimate aggregator – spotlighting women who are changing the lives of women and men globally.

Like TED’s model – ‘ideas worth spreading’ – my dream is to spread the wisdom of remarkable women and serve as a one-stop hub, through annual, global events, an online community, stimulating women-run events, all for women who are starting to build businesses, buying companies, forging new careers, taking on new leadership roles.  These events and programs demonstrate that women matter, and celebrate the lifestyle of women.

That’s how we’ll change the numbers.  I believe that the way to empower women in the developing world is to understand what is happening to and with women the world over.  As Hilary Clinton said, ‘Women’s rights are human rights.’  What’s going to change the paradigm is to better educate women in the developed world and help ignite a movement that supports women globally.  If all women graduating from college today had a better idea of the state of women in the world and felt a real part of that — if we could raise the level of consciousness among women and create a greater sense of connected purpose and help women say, ‘I am a woman and make up 50% of the world,’ — then true and lasting change could occur.  Together we can change the problems of the world.  It’s a big dream.”

What are the top five lessons Claudia has learned in launching ClaudiaChan.com and her S.H.E. Summit?

In launching her new brand ClaudiaChan.com and her S.H.E. Summit, Claudia shared her deepest challenges, and lessons she’s learned that will help all millennial women who have big dreams of making their mark.

Claudia’s top five lessons:

1. Inner, indefatigable confidence is key – When you have a new, big idea from your heart that you’re passionate about launching or pursuing, you’ll find that many people will doubt, challenge and question it.  It doesn’t have a chance of becoming a reality if you don’t believe in yourself and your idea with the deepest conviction. You have to have the inner confidence to overcome the doubts and fears, and move forward despite the naysayers and skeptics.
2. Big dreams take relentless hard work to manifest.   For Claudia, launching ClaudiaChan.com and her first annual event required arduous discipline and training, as if she were training to compete in a triathlon.  To prepare herself for it, she hired a life coach for biweekly help, and created powerful rituals to support her.  She practiced yoga religiously, read voraciously to feed her mind – in short, she embarked on a number of critical activities and endeavors that bolstered her throughout the rigorous year of building and launching a new brand and annual event.
3. Let go of what no longer serves you. Claudia found that there were two areas/issues that continually plagued her with worry and insecurity throughout her nine months of developing ClaudiaChan.com.  She finally addressed these areas and insecurities with her coach.  They discussed together what was concerning Claudia, and came up with powerful tactics to help Claudia release what was no longer working in her life.
4. Fear of failure is intense, but surmountable. As she moved forward with her big dream for her new brand, the fears of failure were very stressful.  “What if people don’t show up?” she worried.  Claudia understood that everyone has a great fear of failure when launching something big in the world, and she had to push through despite the fears.  She asked herself, “What is the worst thing that can happen here?”and developed a well-laid backup plan that helped her feel she could handle all possibilities.  Claudia learned, “Prepare, prepare, prepare – the more we plan out the options and scenarios, the more confidence we have that this is right direction.”
5. Stop the trend of “I’m not enough.”Claudia explained, “Women are all doing so much today, but we chronically doubt ourselves and put ourselves down for what we didn’t accomplish.  We’re so tough on ourselves.  We have to learn to be kinder and more supportive of ourselves.” Claudia adopted a habit of taking a few minutes each night to celebrate the three top successes she had that day.  She found it not only felt good to celebrate her progress, but helped her appreciate all she was accomplishing, and not spotlight what she didn’t achieve. “ These little things are what help preserve you and your momentum on this roller coaster of huge growth and development.”

In the end, Claudia Chan has an important dream – to support young women to make their marks and change the world in remarkable, unique ways that are most compelling and exciting to them.  It’s a great dream that inspires many of us who care about the lives of women today — to do more, to care more, to change more, and to do our part to hold up half the sky.

What’s your big dream for how you’d like to make your mark on the world?  What information and support do you need to get moving on your dream?

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Jacquie “Tajah” Murdock, an 82-year-old former Apollo dancer, is one of the real women featured in Lanvin’s fall 2012 ad campaign.

Tziporah Salamon, 62, is another citizen-turned-model in Lanvin’s fall 2012 ad campaign.

Lanvin used nonprofessional models for its newest ad campaign.

Casting agents for Lanvin found this model when he exited a New York bar.

Lanvin creative director Alber Elbaz says nonprofessional models add realism to ad campaigns.

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For many, the life of a model is the stuff of dreams, an aspiration so far out of reach that we would never dare utter it to friends. But some fashion labels are putting the focus on women (and men) who aren’t typical calendar girls. Salamon is one of 11 “real people” selected to appear in French designer Lanvin’s winter ad campaign, which is generating buzz for using people of all sizes, colors and ages to create intimate images that resemble portraits.

It’s about bringing a sense of reality to fashion to show that the lofty world of high style is not as unattainable as it seems, said Alber Elbaz, creative director of Lanvin.

“Fashion doesn’t look good only on models, it can look good on different people of different ages and different body shapes,” he said. “We didn’t think there would be such a big talk because we just did it and we thought let’s try to work with real people. Let’s do street casting, let’s work with different men and women of different ages and see what comes out of it.”

Aging Stylishly, online and in the streets

None of them fit the typical model mold because they aren’t professional models. Casting agent Zan Ludlum found Salamon and 82-year-old Jacquie “Tajah” Murdock through the popular street style blog Advanced Style, which documents men and women of a certain age. Others came from street scouting, including one of the older male models, who was spotted walking out of a basement bar in New York’s East Village, said Ludlum, whose agency scouted the models.

While the Lanvin models are not professionals, they possess a certain mystique.

“It’s beyond visual. Sure, they might have great eyes or features but it’s more about their presence, their ownership of their own individuality,” Ludlum said. “You might see someone who has style, but if you strip away everything, are they still powerful? Because we are taking them out of who they are and putting them in new clothes. Are they interesting beyond what they’re wearing?”

Of course, pounding the pavement in search of raw talent is nothing new. But it’s becoming increasingly common as fashion and style slowly embrace different ideals of beauty. Earlier this month, American Apparel revealed that the new face of its ad campaign would be 60-year-old Jacky O’Shaughnessy, who was spotted in a New York restaurant. In swimwear, Spanish designer Dolores Cortés chose an infant with Down syndrome to be the face of the brand’s 2013 DC Kids ads.

It would have been easy to create a beautiful photo with a beautiful model, said Elbaz, especially working with photographer Steven Meisel and some of the top names in hair and makeup. But, at this level, it’s important to think outside the box and move forward with each campaign, he said.

“I’m always looking for a story,” said Elbaz, whose career includes stints with Geoffrey Beene, Guy Laroche and Yves Saint Laurent. “In high fashion we’re always accused of doing things that are not very relevant, not the real world. I know that it’s important sometimes to do fantasy but I felt like touching people and going back to different women and men, especially the idea of different ages and body shapes.”

It’s a timely message, he said, in an era of cultural bias toward youth-oriented ideals of beauty.

“The phenomenon I see today of women erasing their age — nobody is allowed to have an age anymore, nobody is allowed to have wrinkles or imperfections,” he said. “I thought, let’s change that, let’s show that fashion can be amazing on 81-year-olds and 17-year-olds, on Tziporah, who is not [European] size 36, and she looks gorgeous.”

While apparel and lifestyle brands have long been using “real people” to draw new audiences and generate buzz, it’s rare for a high-fashion house such as Lanvin to take this approach, said Sarah Collins, associate chair of fashion at the Savannah College of Art and Design. But it’s happening more often, in ads and on the covers of fashion magazines, she said, as part of the effort to democratize fashion.

Has image overtaken music?

“The effect on viewers is that it’s easier for them to pictures themselves in the clothes and identify with the clothing line,” she said. “Not only is it about democracy of fashion but it creates a buzz. How do you stand out as a fashion ad campaign? By using people off the street it does generate buzz.”

It also reflects the growing influence of street style blogs in touting alternative beauty ideals, said Ari Cohen, the writer behind the Advanced Style blog, which led the casting agency to Salamon and Murdock.

“I think the message is to embrace individuality and personal style, and alternative notions of beauty,” Cohen said. “It’s hugely important to show more diversity in advertising. By focusing on superyoung models and too much Photoshopping, advertisers set up unreal expectations for consumers.”

Even if consumers like what they see in the Lanvin campaign, that doesn’t mean they’ll be able to afford it. For Salamon, the vintage Lanvin jacket that she owned before the shoot will have to suffice, along with memories of being a queen for a day.

“What are the odds that my first time out as a model I’m with the top people in the field?” she said. “It totally came to me, I didn’t do anything to make this happen except be myself. It was all orchestrated by God, a gift from the universe.”

How do you feel about fashion and reality colliding? Would you like to see more ‘realistic’ fashion ads? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Today, OASAP Ltd releases a new version of Oasap.com. This update introduces some great new features as well as a few of bug fixes and smaller improvements. Browse the site for a quick tour of the updates, and read on for more information.

New York (PRWEB) July 30, 2012

Although it is hot summer now, the operation team of OASAP.COM, the well-known women high-street fashion store, keeps itself busy all the time. After more than a month of elaborative preparation, a brand new OASAP.COM will be presented in front of the users from now. The team hopes to bring the users the most avant-garde shopping experience with a new style.

OASAP CTO, Mr. Wildman, introduced that it is grand for the style of the new version and will bring the users everything fresh and new, and the style is also forward to the standards of current popular fashion brands. “It’s so cool, I like the presentation of our home page especially, I believe that the users will be pleasantly surprised.”

“One of the important goals of this upgrade is to optimize the user’s experience,” Mr. Wildman said. “OASAP.COM has been released more than a year; we have accumulated a large amount of user data and customer feedbacks. Yes, it is time to make some changes, to make our website even better, safer and smarter, WHY NOT? “

“We’re making the users easier to find their favorite products from twenty thousand of SKUs, and ensure that they can share them with friends. We also encourage users to display the pictures and share them to all of our users; by doing this, the users can even receive free cash credits as rewards. Yes, I believe this is a trend. OASAP will insist on keeping win-win relationships with the fashionistas.”

OASAP.COM will finish its upgrade in two phases; some part of the pages will be released in two weeks. “We must leave enough time to conduct various tests to ensure that the site runs well and the user data is safe,” a guy from the Tech team explained.

“We always Deliver Fashion Love. You will love it.” In addition to crack a joke, Mr. Wildman and his team, apparently confident about the results of this revision.

About us:

OASAP is a global online store dedicated to high-street fashion by offering various kinds of women’s apparel, bags, shoes, jewellery, accessories, beauty products, etc.

OASAP was founded in late 2011, however, has already grown to the leader of high fashion online store. We keep updating products at a high rate every day. Now we update more than 600 new products each week. Those products mentioned definitely belong to the latest fashion trend.

Maria
OASAP LTD.
302-504-4299
Email Information

When Diane von Furstenberg was 22 years old and just starting out in the fashion business, she dreamed that one day she would sell a dress to every woman in China. As a child, she had read about the country in Tin Tin’s Blue Lotus adventure book. She imagined it to be luxurious and enigmatic. In 1990, she became one of the first American fashion designers to visit, at a time when bicycles filled dirt roads.

Today, with five stores doing brisk business (and plans for four more this year) and more than 300,000 followers on China’s Sina Weibo, she is becoming a household name here, a realization of her 2010 resolution to be widely known in a country that has become more than a business destination.

“For me, it’s not just ‘Go there and sell’,” she says. “I have really good friends there, artists and writers and journalists. I’ve absorbed myself into the culture and have given it a lot of my time. I have real connections there.”

Over the past four years, she has visited up to three times a year, she says. In 2011, she hosted the Red Ball, a glamorous black-tie party at a converted studio factory outside Shanghai owned by artist Zhang Huan. The fete was in celebration of the opening of Diane Von Furstenberg: Journey of a Dress, an exhibition spotlighting her career as both icon and fashion designer. The show featured newly commissioned works by Chinese artists Li Songsong, Zhang Huan, Hai Bo and Yi Zhou.

Then, in late 2011, Citic Press of China released Von Furstenberg’s autobiography A Signature Life, translated into Chinese by TV personality and author Huang Hung.

“I am inspired by the whole country,” Von Furstenberg says. “I identify very much with Chinese people. And if you are into textiles and silk well – people say the Chinese steal everything, but originally we stole it from them, didn’t we? It’s the crib of civilization.”

She chose Zhang’s factory as the location of her party because of its blend of gritty and modern aesthetics, she says.

“Instead of doing it in a ballroom or a hotel, I wanted to do it in the factory, because that represents China – and it represents me too,” she says.

The fashion icon’s interest in China stems from an innate curiosity, Huang Hung says. Since the two worked together on the translation of Von Furstenberg’s autobiography, they have become close friends.

“She was so curious about China, about Chinese women, about us,” Huang says. “Most of the time people ask questions about their business or things relevant to their business, but Diane was very different. Her interest in China was broader; it was a genuine intellectual interest in the place, its people and its culture.”

She recalls their first meeting, during which several Chinese colleagues pronounced Diane’s name wrong (the correct pronunciation is “Dee-an”). Her husband, the media mogul Barry Diller, whispered to her, asking whether she would like to correct them.

“Diane simply said, ‘It’s OK.’ This made a great impression on me,” Huang says. “It showed that she is very kind and sensitive to other people’s feelings. It spoke volumes about who she is.”

Over the course of her career, Von Furstenberg has made women’s issues a priority; her DVF Awards disperse money each year to various women’s causes. In China, she has gravitated toward strong women, she says. “But over time I realized that even though they seem like they can conquer the world, they are also vulnerable.”

Huang recalls Von Furstenberg’s advice to a successful young designer in China. “She was pining for a boyfriend, and Diane told her ‘Never tell people you cannot find a man’. She stopped, and transformed herself from dressing for men to dressing for herself.”

Von Furstenberg’s story is inspiring to many young Chinese women, Huang says. “I personally think Chinese women are not so keen to take successful business women as role models. They have a suspicion that such women have sacrificed too much of their family life for a career. Of course, having both is the true dream. That’s why Diane is so admired by Chinese women. She has both a beautiful family and an amazing career.”

ON THE MONEY

The annual magazine ad-page race just got a little bit tighter last week among the fiercely competitive women’s fashion titles, with Vogue trumpeting a 658 ad-page tally for its September issue (its most watched), up a robust 14 percent from a year ago.

It marks the magazine’s biggest ad-page tally since the telephone book-sized September 2007, which tallied 725 ad pages and was the subject of an award-winning documentary.

Ad pages that year at Condé Nast were juiced because of a multipage Fashion Rocks advertising insert that ran in all the publisher’s magazines that year.

The September 2012 Vogue issue is being billed as the 120th anniversary of the magazine, and Condé Nast publisher Susan Plagemann kept the closing date for advertisers open an extra week, making it one of the latest closings ever for the fashion bible.

As a result, the Condé Nast flagship has pulled into the year-to-date lead in the closely watched titles in the women’s fashion world, with 1,949 ad pages, according to Media Industry Newsletter (MIN).

InStyle, which reported the biggest September in its 18-year history, with 440 ad pages, was up 2.3 percent. Its year-to-date tally is 1,904.6 — about 45 pages behind rival Vogue, with three issues to go.

It should make for a tight race down the homestretch; InStyle Publisher Connie Anne Phillips has won three years in a row by overtaking Vogue at the wire.

The two top magazines are outpacing the two Hearst stablemates, which also performed nicely in September. Elle racked up its second-strongest September ever with a 400-page month — 2007’s 413-page issue was its all-time leader — while in-house rival Harper’s Bazaar also bounced back, with a 16.6 percent ad-page rise to 360.

Elle has 1,749.8 ad pages year to date, according to MIN, good for third. Harper’s Bazaar was hurt because it dropped down to 10 issues this year and has 853.5 ad pages so far, but it is still rebounding.

W, which is a larger-size glossy, was off 3.5 percent for the upcoming September issue, with 246 ad pages and 825.5 year to date, but publisher Nina Lawrence may be forgiven. The magazine is pushing its October issue as its 40th anniversary, and some advertisers may be moving into that issue instead of the traditional big month of September.—Keith J. Kelly

Yahoo!-ligans

The status of Yahoo!’s Ross Levinsohn is still in question.

Levinsohn — the former acting CEO — has said barely a word about his future at the portal, since his short run at the top was blown up by the surprise hire of 37-year-old Marissa Mayer as the Yahoo! in Chief.

Mayer was brought in for her expertise in products and has so far been welcomed by the Street. The stock closed at $16.11 on Friday, above the $16 mark for the first time in months.

Friends of Levinsohn say he should be considered for a president’s title at the very least if he agrees to stay, and it appears that he hasn’t totally closed his mind to the idea.

One source, however, said the chances of him staying are “very low.”

Another person, who believes Levinsohn should have landed the gig, snarked, “How many products has Google been successful at?”

Levinsohn was responsible for bringing in a host of newcomers, like Michael Barrett from Google as its chief revenue officer.—Claire Atkinson

Master of disaster

Bonnie Schneider, a veteran TV meteorologist, has become a popular TV guest whenever bizarre or disastrous weather hits, thanks to her book “Extreme Weather,” published this year.

Frequently when she appeared, the host would ask her to bring along her emergency-supply kit so viewers could see what they needed to have on hand to prepare for the next tornado, hurricane, flood or other act of God.

“Despite hours of shopping, I was unable to locate all the items that I thought it was necessary to have,” she admits.

So now she is hoping she can find a backer or manufacturer that will help her put together a survival kit, one aimed specifically at women.—Keith J. Kelly

Hoodie no goodie

The hoodie has no place in the office, says a survey by job-placement agency Robert Half.

Despite the dress of tech titans like Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Zynga’s chief gamer, Mark Pincus, the heads of IT departments said casual dress is no way to get ahead.

The survey found that two-thirds of the chief tech officers have a dress code that requires employees wear somewhat traditional office attire, such as dress pants or skirts.—Post staff

HATTIESBURG, MS (WDAM) -

Hundreds of people visted the Lake Terrace Convention Center Saturday to learn more about women’s health, fashion, home décor and cooking. It was all part of the 2nd annual Pine Belt Women’s Expo.

More than 50 vendors were on hand to share information on various health issues, local charities, restaurants and travel.

Several seminiars were also offered.

“I think it’s wonderful,” said Leoma Wuollet of Hattiesburg. ”I think that the ideas and the things that they have to offer are one of the things that I think women need to be informed about,” she said.

“It’s great,” said Wendy Radtke, a vendor from Hattiesburg. “I didn’t think there would be so many vendors here. Everybody is having a good time and winning lots of prizes,” she said.

This was the first year for the event at the Lake Terrace Convention Center.

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