Women fashion

LOS ANGELES C Police and coroner’s officials sought to determine a cause of death for singer Whitney Houston as her teenage daughter was hospitalized Sunday in a distraught reaction to the loss of her mother.
The event Houston was planning to attend, the Grammys, went on without her.
An autopsy was begun Sunday, but results would be withheld at the request of Beverly Hills police, said Capt. John Kades of the Los Angeles County coroner’s office. Toxicology tests were likely to take some time.
Coroner Ed Winter said Houston was found in the bathtub of her Beverly Hilton Hotel room. He declined to say whether she drowned.
Bobbi Kristina Brown, Houston’s daughter with her former husband, singer Bobby Brown, was transported from the hotel to Cedars-Sinai hospital at 10:30 a.m. Sunday “for medical purposes,” the Beverly Hills Fire Department said.
The 18-year-old was treated for a stress-related condition and released, according to sources close to the family who declined to be identified by name.
Houston, who became a pop sensation in the 1980s with a debut album that became a global hit, had battled personal demons including alcohol, pills and cocaine.
Beverly Hills police Lt. Mark Rosen said, “There were no obvious signs of criminal intent” at the scene of Houston’s death. Her body was discovered by a member of her entourage, Rosen said.
Houston attended a rehearsal for a pre-Grammy party hosted by music mogul Clive Davis, an annual ritual for some of the biggest stars in the pop music and entertainment worlds. That party proceeded as Houston’s body remained in her room upstairs at the hotel and investigators gathered evidence.
Outside the hotel, at a busy intersection in the heart of Beverly Hills, fans created a makeshift shrine with flowers, candles and notes of appreciation to the singer.
Bobby Brown, whose tumultuous 15-year marriage to Houston ended in 2007, was performing in Mississippi hours after Houston died.
He told his audience, “I would like to say, ‘I love you, Whitney.’ The hardest thing for me to do is come on this stage.”

WASHINGTON C This week’s visit to the USA by the man in line to be China’s next president is unlikely to provide any headline-grabbing deals or diplomatic breakthroughs, but Obama administration officials say Xi Jinping’s American tour marks a crucial moment in the U.S.-China relationship.
The visit by Xi who will succeed Hu Jintao as leader of the Communist Party this fall and is set to take over as president in March 2013 is being billed as a getting-to-know-you opportunity for administration officials.
“Given the expectation that Vice President Xi will succeed President Hu, this visit is really an investment in the future of the U.S.-China relationship,” said Anthony Blinken, national security adviser to Vice President Biden.
Xi’s arrival comes during a complicated period between the two nations. Among the challenges on the table: Iran’s and North Korea’s nuclear aspirations, China’s currency policy and China’s policing of intellectual property. President Obama has laid out a plan to reorient U.S. defense strategy toward the Pacific an issue Xi will certainly bring up in his meetings in Washington on Tuesday with Obama and Biden, as well as Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The visit also is framed by the American political season. Republican leaders have been deeply critical of China’s human rights record, and GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney has charged that Obama has treated China with kid gloves on human rights issues and has refused to cite China as a currency manipulator.
In a speech before the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington on Friday, Romney escalated the rhetoric, vowing if elected to “cut off funding for the United Nations Population Fund, which supports China’s barbaric one-child policy.”
Xi (pronounced SHEE) is scheduled to meet Wednesday with House Speaker John Boehner, who pressed Hu during the Chinese president’s visit in January on China’s one-child policy, which restricts couples to having a single child.
The White House contends it has consistently pushed China on human rights. Obama publicly called for Hu to allow more freedoms during his state visit in January and pressed the matter in their private meetings. White House officials also say they remain concerned about China’s currency policy but note that the renminbi has appreciated steadily. Both issues will be on the table during this week’s talks with Xi.
“We don’t sacrifice the important issues for the sake of having a comfortable visit, nor do we shy away from candid private conversations with the Chinese on human rights,” said Danny Russel, White House senior director for Asian affairs.
In Beijing, the visit is being watched closely. Hu made a similar trip to the USA in 2002 before he took the reins of the Communist Party and was elevated to China’s presidency. President Deng Xiaoping made a lasting impression during his visit to the United States in 1979 donning a cowboy hat at a Texas rodeo and charming an American audience.
“We would be happy if Xi can have a good image for him and China. Something like the cowboy hat would be great,” said Shen Dingli, an international relations expert at Shanghai’s Fudan University. Since Deng’s death in 1997, some Chinese leaders have been “boring and not good at communicating and socializing. I hope Xi would behave as a very human and touchable person,” he said.
Xi, 58, appears much more personable than the reserved Hu. Xi’s official biography suggests a more than competent leader, trusted with the top party jobs in the southern coastal province of Fujian, opposite Taiwan, then with the economic powerhouse of Zhejiang and later its neighbor Shanghai, China’s financial capital.
Former U.S. Treasury secretary Henry Paulson called Xi a “guy who really knows how to get over the goal line.”
“He certainly comes across as someone who is extremely well-prepared and thoughtful and very engaged,” said Blinken, who accompanied Biden on his visit to China in August.
China’s government left out of his bio certain bits likely to be of interest to the people he will soon rule. Xi is a “princeling,” the child of a senior communist leader who was persecuted under Chairman Mao. Until five years ago, when Xi was promoted to Beijing, more Chinese were familiar with his second wife, popular singer Peng Liyuan. He has a daughter who is a student at Harvard College.
White House officials are intent on reciprocating the hospitality Xi showed Biden when he visited China in August. The Chinese vice president spent approximately 10 hours with Biden during the visit, according to Blinken. Biden will similarly invest long hours in the Chinese leader this week in the hopes of getting better insight into Xi.
Xi is scheduled to spend much of Tuesday in meetings with top administration officials, and he’ll end his day at the vice president’s residence for a dinner with top staffers from both countries. Biden also will meet with Xi in Los Angeles on Friday, where they are scheduled to visit a school where students study Chinese, then the vice presidents will have a more intimate dinner.
Before Xi goes to California, he will stop in Iowa a state he visited in 1985. Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, a Republican, will host a dinner for him Wednesday night in Des Moines, and he’ll attend the first U.S.-China Agriculture Symposium on Thursday.

THE Miller sisters may have split as business partners, having both left Twenty8Twelve, but the move may not spell the end of their working relationship forever.
“[Working together] seems to be a natural thing for us and because we live together I am always asking Sienna’s opinion as a second pair of eyes and someone who has phenomenal style and fashion foresight,” Savannah Miller told us. “I’m sure even if we aren’t working together officially, we will be in some way or other.”
And the best part of working with her little sister?
“We could second guess each other and she is my best friend in the world, so it was heaven to have a great excuse to spend even more time together,” she said.
Despite claims that the pair left the label due to commitments to their children (Sienna’s family confirmed her pregnancy last week), the VOGUE.COM blogger and designer asserts that the decision came after the license has expired – sparking a desire for them both to “move on”.
“A few people have said that we left to concentrate on our babies, which isn’t true at all,” she said. “I have three babies and have always continued working alongside being a mum, which is hard but so rewarding. My work is such a big part of who I am and I think having something that is just mine makes me a better mother and wife.”
Although she doesn’t want to give too much away just yet, Miller has big fashion plans for the future.
“All will be revealed in the not too distant future, but I am super excited about it,” she told us. “I’ve got some amazing new business partners and I think the future is going to be a lot of fun.”

Richard Chai Love and BCBG Max Azria are set to take to the catwalk this morning, while Costello Tagliapietra and Duckie Brown will follow this afternoon. Yesterday Rachel Comeygot the schedule started, with a largely monochrome collection – peppered with the odd burst of orange. Leather played a key role in the collection – with Comey’s skirts, coats and dresses made using the material. Click back later on today to read the first New York show reports, as soon as the shows have taken place.
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Updated Wednesday February 8, 8.31am: It may seem as though we only just turned our eyes from the couture catwalks, but Fashion Month is here again, with the first New York shows kicking off later today. As always, the week begins gently – with shows and presentations from Organic John Patrick and Jil Sander’s Navy line, amongst others – before the big names take to the tent.
Thursday’s varied highlights include Costello Tagliapietra, Duckie Brown, Cynthia Rowley and BCBG Max Azria, whilst Friday brings Jason Wu, Rebecca Taylor, Rag & Bone, Charlotte Ronson and Helmut Lang out to play.
Saturday sees two of NY’s freshest talents – Alexander Wang and Prabal Gurung – line up, and Sunday’s biggest names are the now-unmissable Victoria Beckham, Thakoon, DKNY, Zac Posen, Tommy Hilfiger and Diane von Furstenberg.
Monday brings some of the city’s biggest names: with Carolina Herrera, Donna Karan and Marc Jacobs sharing billing. Theyskens Theory, Preen, 3.1 Phillip Lim, Rachel Roy and Betsey Johnson are other Monday shows fashion watchers may like to note.
Jacobs is gearing up for back-to-back shows this season; showing his Marc By label the day after his mainline, Monday – whilst his friend Victoria Beckham is no less busy; showing her Victoria, Victoria Beckham line on Wednesday.
Other Monday and Tuesday highlights, bringing up the rear of the week, include the always-starry J Crew presentation (will Beyonce debut baby Blue? The mum-to-be was there last season with sister Solange); Vera Wang; Rodarte; Oscar de la Renta; Narciso Rodriguez; Michael Kors; Marchesa and Anna Sui.

Although fewer kids are being exposed to smoking while riding in cars, more than 20 percent of nonsmoking teens still are, U.S. health officials report.Secondhand smoke can be particularly intense in a closed space, such as inside a car, and poses a significant health risk, the researchers noted.”There have been marked decreases in exposure to smoking in cars,” said report author Brian King, an epidemic intelligence service officer in the Office on Smoking and Health at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “That decrease occurred whether they were nonsmokers or smokers,” he noted.

“But what is alarming is that, despite that decrease, we are still seeing large levels of exposure, particularly among nonsmokers,” King said. “One in five nonsmokers is still exposed to secondhand smoke in that environment.”The drop in smoking in cars is probably a mix of several factors, including fewer people smoking and smoke-free laws that also have a spillover effect on limiting smoking in homes and cars, King noted. In addition, there have been changes in the attitudes about social acceptability of smoking, especially when nonsmokers are present.”We know that there is no safe level of secondhand smoke,” King said.

The best way to eliminate secondhand smoke exposure is to implement 100-percent smoke-free environments, he added.”Implementing voluntary smoke-free policies in your vehicle or expanding existing smoke-free policies that also include motor vehicles could help reduce that secondhand smoke exposure,” King said.Four states already have laws that prohibit smoking in cars when there are children aged 16 or younger inside. These states are Arkansas, California, Louisiana and Maine, along with Puerto Rico.The report was published in the Feb. 6 online edition of Pediatrics.

Using data from the National Youth Tobacco Survey, which looks at smoking among U.S. students in grades 6 through 12, the researchers found that from 2000 to 2009, the number of children exposed to smoke in cars had declined.Among nonsmoking students, the exposure to smoke in cars went from 39 percent in 2000 to 22.8 percent in 2009, and among smoking students it went from 82.3 percent in 2000 to 75.3 percent in 2009, King’s team found.But, that means that in 2009, over 22 percent of nonsmoking students and 75 percent of smoking students were still being exposed to secondhand smoke in cars, the researchers added.Secondhand smoke can lead to acute respiratory infections, middle ear disease, delayed lung growth and more severe asthma, the authors noted.

Commenting on the study, Danny McGoldrick, research director at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said that “it’s great news that youth exposure to secondhand smoke in cars has declined significantly, but there is still much work to do to protect the many students who are still exposed. We support the call for the adoption of voluntary and legislative policies prohibiting smoking in cars with kids,” he added.It is especially critical that states and communities adopt comprehensive smoke-free laws that include all workplaces and public places, McGoldrick said.”These laws heighten awareness about the dangers of secondhand smoke, and prompt the adoption of voluntary smoke-free policies in nonpublic places, like homes and cars,” he added.

Natalia Vodianova was born in Russia,her face was very attractive at first sight, she has the deep blue eyes, and slightly upturned nose, but also with the delicate sweet face.Her emperament is very charming,we can say it is between the girls and women, Nova is a beautiful girl and also with the magical experience in her Youthful Times.In the beginning,She and her mother live on the fruit shop, and also she has two sisters. But in 1997 she opened a fruit shop with her friends together .while,we should say she is lucky and generaly enter into the art circles,and then in just four years , Natalia is the most memorable actress in the world.Maybe because she was poor when she was a child,so Natalia Vodianova is always approachable for most of the designers. What’s more, she has a kind of unprecedented clean and refined to the audience.