Happy New Year from Asian Fashion Blog!

This is my last post of 2007...but don't worry there's plenty to look forward to from Asian Fashion Blog in 2008! Here's a taster of what you can expect to see here next year:

- more shop reviews, online and offline
- reports from the numerous asian wedding exhibitions which are taking place in 2008
- my experiences of attending the Ash Kumar mehndi course (I've enrolled for the foundation course in feb)
- debates and discussions
- and of course all the latest trends, ideas and magazine reviews


See you next year!

Asiana Magazine Winter 2007

It's always exciting to see the latest cover of Asiana Magazine, splashed across the Asiana website, but getting my hands on an actual copy is a different story altogether!!
No local newsagents near me stock it, so I usually pick up my copy after work, and then have to lug it around with me on my journey home.

Well, I've put an end to all of that, and taken the plunge - I've got myself a subscription!
I shopped around a bit on the net, the official Asiana Magazine online shop is currently charging £9.50 for a single issue, which is almost double the price of buying it from a shop. They also do subscriptions, 4 issues for £18, that's £4.50 per issue - which is what I usually pay buying each issue separately.

Look out for my review of the latest Asiana Mag, as soon as my copy arrives in the post!!!

Shop Review - Anand Fashions

Located on Wilmslow Road, in Manchester, Anand Fashions looks like most of the other asian clothes shops on this street: you walk in there to be greeted with what looks like a jumble sale! Rails and rails of clothes tightly packed, there's hardly enough space to walk, and the search for an outfit seems almost impossible...

However, if you can manage to get through the the tight little walkways in between the clothes, and make it to the staircase in the corner, then you're in luck!

Downstairs is a nice spacious little area full of menswear, and upstairs is a big open area with some lovely ladies suits! They stock the same items as the website instore, and have a few extra items too.

I ended up buying this outfit for £70:

In my opinion, the prices are really reasonable, I didn't check out their bridal outfits whilst I was in there, but from looking at the website - you can get a bridal outfit for just £142! (see for yourself!)

Chances are, I wouldn't buy my wedding outfit from there, but if you're a bride on a budget, or need a party outfit at short notice, I'd definitely pay this shop a visit.

Here are some other outfits which I rather like from their site:

accessorize my hair!

How do you accessorise your party outfits? There's the usual suspects - earrings, necklace, bracelets, matching shoes, handbag. You have those things ready and waiting, but what if you want something special to REALLY make you stand out? Get yourself a funky hair accessory!!

Depending on the occassion, you can have something big and bold (and expensive!), like the ones displayed above, from Cherry Chau, Kyles and Basia Zarzycka.

Alternatively, most high street stores have more simple and affordable hair accessories. Check out these red hot numbers from Accessorize and John Lewis.




If you've got a creative streak in you, you can even make your own to perfectly match your outfit, get yourself a plain hair slide, or clip, and attach some ribbons, feathers, pearls, wire, beads...anything you want!

Viya Magazine

Viya Magazine is the baby of the asian bridal mags in the uk, with the latest issue being only the 4th. Its headline is "the asian style bible for brides", does it fulfil that statement? Here's my review!

Front Cover 5/10
That's a very pretty picture, but it doesn't automatically make me think "bride" or even "wedding". Aside from the bouquet the model is holding, this could be a photo for any type of asian fashion magazine.

Articles/Advice 6/10
I've noticed a big focus on beauty within this magazine, there are more ads for make-up artists than any other bridal or wedding magazine I've ever seen, and in terms of articles, there's a 4-page spread on the make-up artist Joshiv, tips from Safina@ Beaute Academy and Neelam of Neelam Beauty. However despite all this, there's still no way you'd be able to re-create any of these beauty looks yourself, cause they just don't tell you how!
The stand-out article for me was the, rather short, article on mixed marriages including a few tips to ensure all guests are happy. This is something which I don't recall seeing addressed in any other asian wedding mags, and quite frankly I think they should write about mixed weddings more!!
As with all wedding mags, there's the usual Q+A's, and real-life weddings - the ones featured in this latest issue are all from 2006 :( VERY out of date, I wanna know what people did in their weddings this summer, not over a year ago!!

Pictures and Ideas 7/10
This mag is just full of beautiful pictures and ideas, so I can't fault them on that, but some of the ideas are just a bit too contemporary. I know not everyone wants to be a traditional bride, but I don't think a lot of the ideas in here are practical, no matter how pretty they look in the pictures. Also, depsite having pages and pages of beauty shots, I don't think there is enough focus on hairstyles - take the bridal make-up portfolios for example, in all other magazines, they showcase hairstyling along with make-up, but this mag is all about faces. In a world where you're likely to have your hair and make-up done by the same artist, don't you think it's important to showcase hair-styling skills too??

Overall:
I bought this magazine out of curiosity. The editor's note talked about Viya Magazine being "individual" and "inspirational", but in my opinion it's just the same as all the other asian mags, just it's packaged a bit differently! One thing that bothered me about this mag was that nearly ALL of the clothes featured in this mag were from London or in the south of England :( there wasn't even an international shopping section! It's almost arrogant of them to assume that all brides go to London for their wedding shopping...or maybe it's just that the magazine is so new and they haven't yet branched out to the boutiques and asian wedding stores in the rest of the country, and in the rest of the world!!
So I'd say this mag is worth a browse, but if you want the full package and you don't intend on buying everything from London, then there are much better bridal and weddings magazines out there!

Click here to read my review of this season's Asiana Wedding magazine, and Asian Bride magazine.