DRESSING ROOM : Kicks, cartoons and curls for a cure
Posted on Thursday, October 9, 2008
It’s October, and we all know what that is... Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Here are just a few of the fashion-and-beauty-related promotions taking place in an effort to raise money for research on the disease and, if all goes well, its eradication.
SHOES ON SALE QVC, the Fashion Footwear Charitable Foundation (FFCF ), and the Fashion Footwear Association of New York (FFANY ) have once again joined forces to present the 15 th annual FFANY Shoes on Sale event in New York. During a live broadcast 6-9 p.m. Wednesday, more than 100, 000 pairs of designer shoes will be offered at half the suggested retail price. In addition, QVC will present a Shoe of the Day each weekday in October. Net proceeds benefit breast cancer research and education at various national cancer centers, including the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. DRAWING FOR A CURE “Cartoonist Marisa Acocella Marchetto had everything going for her — a dream wedding in the works, cartoons in The New Yorker — when breast cancer decided to crash the party,” goes the news release. Marchetto hit back with a graphic novel, Cancer Vixen: A True Story. And she has teamed up with C. O. Bigelow to create a special-edition Cancer Vixen collection featuring her illustrations. The company in turn will donate $ 250, 000 from sales to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. The collection includes a limited-edition Cancer Vixen Kit ($ 29. 50 and consisting of body wash, body cream, foot cream and hand lotion ), Mentha Lip Tint in Pink Mint (included in the kit and sold a la carte for $ 7. 50 ), and select Village Perfumer products, also sold separately. Visit Bath & Body Works or bbw. com. CURLS FOR A CURE Diagnosed with breast cancer at the same age at which her mother had received an identical diagnosis, Ouidad — the “Queen of Curls” and creator of the Ouidad haircare line — vowed to make a difference. She created Curls for a Cure, a year-round donation program devoted to breast cancer research and promoted on her Web site. Ouidad will personally match any amount donated, dollar for dollar. Go donate at Ouidad. com.
THINKING PINK Here are a couple of fashion / beauty products of which 50 percent or more of sale proceeds will go to breast-cancer research.
Jerrod Blandino, founder of Too Faced Cosmetics, and Betsy Olum, senior vice president of Sephora and breast cancer survivor, have collaborated to create a limited edition eye shadow duo — Betsy Baby. Blandino, Olum and Sephora are donating $ 3 each per sale of this $ 17 shadow to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Find the shadow at Sephora stores and Sephora. com.
White + Warren is making Women at Risk the beneficiary of half the sale proceeds from the Pink First Class travel wrap ($ 275 ), Pink Wrap Up scarf ($ 175 ), Wristlet Bow Glove in black / carnation and carnation / black ($ 65 ) and Cashmere Slipper in Pouch ($ 120 ). Go to whiteandwarren. com.
‘BOND’ -ING WITH ANDY Bond No. 9, the fragrance, “celebrates the mutual sensuality of shoes and eau de parfum” by way of Bond No. 9 Andy Warhol Lexington Avenue. Its release was timed with Andy Warhol’s 80 th birthday Aug. 6. The fragrance gets its name from Warhol’s roots as an award-winning commercial illustrator in the 1950 s. He was especially known for his illustrations of shoes. The floral woody fragrance comes in a 1. 7-ounce bottle, $ 135, and a 3. 4-ounce bottle, $ 195. These can be found at Little Rock’s Powder & Smoke, 11525 Cantrell Road, Suite 205.
PARTNER UP AGAIN More than 200 central and Northwest Arkansas stores will offer discounts on fashion and other merchandise Oct. 25 through Nov. 2 as part of Partners Card, the yearly fundraiser of the volunteer auxiliary of the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute at UAMS. Proceeds benefit cancer patients in Arkansas. Shoppers who buy the $ 50 cards will receive a 20 percent discount at participating stores. All card-sale proceeds will go to pay for projects that directly benefit cancer patients. Call (501 ) 686-8286 or visit uams. edu / partnerscard. Cards also may be bought in Room 150 at the institute, and from many participating retailers.
SOAPY SALES The Purple Sage, the Little Rock-based soap / body-products company, is offering its online customers a heck of a deal through Wednesday: Buy six bars of soap and take $ 6 off your total. Buyers can get a discount of up to $ 24. Orders of six, 12, 18 or 24 bars are allowed, and the offer applies only to regularpriced bars. Go to thepurple sage. com and enter the discount code exactly as follows: For six bars, use the code Oct 6; 12 bars, code Oct 12; 18 bars, code Oct 18; 24 bars, code Oct 24.
DRESSING ROOM PICKS Ashro. com, revisited: Acting on a longtime hankering, I finally sought the company’s purple Queens Quad Skirt Set ($ 79 ), a rayon set that also comes in teal and red. The tunic top is divided into a “quad” of two solid and two printed fabrics — plain, smooth fabric; puckered fabric with tiny multicolored stripes; a gold-swirl pattern; and a pattern of the west African symbol “Gye nyame” (“ Except for God” ). The top also sports belled sleeves, asymmetrical hem, back zipper and ties in the back. The solid elastic-waist skirt is about 36 inches long. Sized S to 3 X, the set comes with a head wrap. Beautiful, but I’d love to see it redone in fancier fabric.
Perusing Ashro’s big clearance sale, I barely managed to obtain the original white Goddess Dress, the free-flowing, double-layered tank dress with side slits that enable the top layer to be lifted and worn on the shoulders as sleeves. Ashro still offers two mudcloth-print versions of the Goddess Dress. One is in red and black; the other, black and white. They’re $ 124 each.
I snagged a second pair of Not Your Daughter’s Tummy Tuck Jeans — this time the boot-cut light wash versions, $ 89 at Dillards. com. These are the same size as the roomy-fit, wide-leg NYDJ jeans I recently reviewed. But I struggled to don the new pair, inventing several new dances along the way. By the time the jeans were on, hips, abdominals and everything else that needed whittling and smoothing had been, for the most part, tamed... and I could still move around and bend over. The downsides are a front waistband that digs in some when I sit — understandable — and the fact that this pair, like the last, comes in an unadvertised tall length. (Several online NYDJ reviewers have also complained about unexpected inseam lengths and of having to order different styles in different sizes. ) Dressing Room is published biweekly. Send news releases to Helaine R. Williams, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, P. O. Box 2221, Little Rock, Ark. 72203, or e-mail hwilliams@arkansasonline. com
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