Win front row tickets to the 2011 Asiana Bridal Show in London

*** a big thanks to everyone who entered, the competition has now closed and the winner is Noreen from Worcestershire ***

The Asiana Bridal Show is back in London for 2011 with their asian bridal exhibition and fabulous fashion show taking place on Sunday 30th January at the Park Plaza Riverbank Hotel in London.

I'm a big fan of the Asiana Bridal show, and I'd go as far as saying out of all the wedding shows I've attended in the UK this one puts all the others to shame!

I didn't attend the London show last year, but I'm booked in this year and thanks to the team at Asiana Magazine, one lucky Asianfashionblog.co.uk reader and their guest have the opportunity to join me, including much-coveted front row tickets for the fashion show!

The prize includes:
2 tickets to the Exhibition
2 Front Row seats at the Fashion Show
5-Star Dinner for 2 at the show, courtesy of Madhu’s

To enter, all you have to do is answer the following question:

Which world-famous fashion designer's clothes are featured on page 138 of the latest Asiana Wedding Magazine.
Don’t worry if you haven’t bought the magazine – the full edition is available to view for free online at Asiana.tv (click "magazine" on the top right hand corner)

Send your answer in via email, stating "Asiana Competition" in the subject line along with your full name, address and phone number.
The competition will be closing at midnight on Friday 14th January, when a winner will be picked at random and contacted the next day.

With more than 90 exclusive exhibitors at one of central London’s swankiest hotels, you’ll be sure to find your dream wedding dress, a matching outfit for your groom, along with all the other essential service providers to complete your big day.

The 2011 asian bridal catwalk, features Bridalwear Collections by Mongas, Ekta Solanki, Kiran Khan, RDC, Gul’s Styles, Roshans, Khushboos and Sonas, Menswear by Ziggi Studio and Jewellery by Kyles Collection.

Tickets for the Asiana Bridal Show 2011 are also available to buy online from AsianaTickets.com, at £11 for entry to the exhibition and £21 for exhibition and fashion show. Visit the Asiana Bridal 2011 microsite for more information and don't forget to enter the competition to win tickets!

The asian designer wear copycats

If you're on facebook and have an interest in asian fashion, the chances are you have come across what I would call an asian designerwear copycat group/fanpage.

There are hundreds of them out there, all promising to make you a designer dress for a fraction of the cost being charged for the real thing. Imitation is the highest form of flattery, and any designer knows their outfits are winners when people make copies of them.

Whether you agree or disagee with tailors and seamstresses copying asian outfits to order from magazines and catwalk shows, I have to have a rant about these facebook groups and why I can't stand the way they operate!

Copyright Infringement
My main gripe with these copycat dressmakers, is copyright infringement. In their photos albums you will find a whole host of beautiful images, from catwalks and magazines, and slap bang in the middle of these photos you will find their big fat logo - to the point where it obscures the outfit itself! No acknowledgement is given to the original designer, the photographer, or the source of the images - essentially the owners of these groups are passing off the designs as their own creations!

Using people's personal photos
Ok so stealing (or borrowing/whatever you want to call it) images from fashion shows and from magazines to sell your knock-off product is one thing, but using people's personal photos takes things to a whole new level!

The two photos above are examples of images I've seen posted in some of these asian designerwear facebook groups. I think you'll agree with me these are definitely personal photos and were not intended to be used for the purposes of selling some outfits. Does it make it ok because they covered up the faces? I don't think so! Imagine if you found a photo of you and your friends being used in this way, or worse still your wedding photos being used like this!

Can you really copy an asian outfit with all its detail from a single photo?
I can't say I've ever commissioned a "copy" of an outfit, or ordered from any of the copycat groups on facebook, but we've all seen how different an outfit can look in person compared to in a photo. How on earth can these copycats deliver? And if they do have an album showing the original dress and the copy they've made, how can you trust that it's even their own work?

Leave your comment!
These groups are obviously very popular with some boasting thousands of facebook "fans", perhaps more in other countries than in the UK. I'm definitely a fan of asian fashion shopping making the move to online and I wish some of the established UK asianwear retailers sold their stock online, however in my opinion these facebook groups are NOT the way to do it.

I'd love to know your views if you've ever ordered anything from one of these groups or if you've ever been tempted to. Leave a comment and share your thoughts :)

Asian Bridal & Lifestyle Exhibition Birmingham more photos from the catwalk

Here are some more photos from the Asian Bridal & Lifestyle Exhibition which took place last month at Aston Villa Football club.

I didn't attend the show, but Rafyl Photography was on hand to take these fab photos and let me post them here :) I'm not 100% sure who all the designers were at this event, despite asking the organisers for a list I'm still none the wiser as to who designed each collection, so if you recognise any of the outfits please leave a comment below!

These three outfits I'm pretty certain are by Kiran's Creations in Birmingham, I can't say the nicest outfits I've seen by this store, but I like the princess/ballgown feel to these outfits:

There were a few more ballgown princess style asian dresses like this one below, which I think it just a little bit too pink!

Now don't quote me on this, but I *think* these next four outfits are by Mimis Boutique (in Birmingham) there's something in the styling which I recognise from the last time I saw a Mimi Boutique collection on the catwalk.

Love the simplicity of these first two outfits, they're not your usual embroidery-everywhere type of suits, but they still look pretty and chic. The two lehngas/skirt suits below however are a little bit too over the top for my tastes, if you want to look like a piece of art on your wedding day then these were designed for you!

Now onto some of your more traditional bridal outfits:

I really like the this last outfit, I think it's the colour combination that does it for me, the different shades of blue in the top and on the skirt...the skimpy top would probably show a little too much stomach for my liking but no doubt you can get this outfit with a full-length top if you preferred!

Asiana.tv fashion finder - "the biggest asian fashion portal in the world"

Asiana magazine's new website Asiana.tv is still in "beta" but their website content is growing day by day (most notably their video section!). For fashion fans out there the first thing you need to check out is the all new "fashion finder" which claims to be "the biggest asian fashion portal in the world". I'm not sure how they're backing up this claim, but as I love looking at pretty pictures of asian clothes I decided to test out the fashion finder and see if I could find my dream outfit!

Split into six categories you can search for your dream outfit by Bridalwear, Saris, Evening Wear, Menswear, Jewellery and Shoes, or you can search by brand which includes all the regular Asiana Magazine advertisors such as Badial, Jaan, Kyles, Mona Vora, Mongas, Variety Silk House and many more!

To put the fashion finder to the test I sent through some enquiries for some of the outfits that caught my eye and here's what I found!

I started with the bridals and there's lots to look through - currently 14 pages worth of asian bridal wear, don't be surprised if some of the outfits look familiar to you - they've all featured in Asiana Wedding or Asiana Magazine. I put myself into the mindset of a bride and picked 3 outfits, I then filled in the "contact designer" box to make my enquiries about prices!
1) White regsitry style outfit from Gul's Style
2) Fully embroidered more traditional bridal outfit from Badial
3) Green asian fusion gown from Bombay Connection

I sent my enquiries through on the 8th December and have yet to hear back from any of these designers with further info on these outfits :(

Next I hit the eveningwear section, which is even bigger than the bridal selection with 17 pages worth of outfits. I picked out 5 outfits - 3 maxi dress-style outfits and two churidar suits:

1) Blue and green maxi dress from Sai Fashions
2) Yellow/Gold maxi dress from Jaan
3) Patterned maxi dress from Mongas
4) Green churidar suit from Century Emporium
5) One shoulder churidar suit from Traditions

I had a bit more luck with getting some feedback from these designers, just one day after submitting my enquiry I got a reply back from Century Emporium on the Green Churidar suit below saying
"Regarding your enquiry ce-41, this is not a stitched outfit but embroidered raw silk fabric which has been draped around the model to give ideas of of what one could make with this fabric.
You could use this fabric to make a dress. shalwar kameez or even a lengha.
The retail price of the fabric is £25 per metre for the maroon embroidered fabric and £12 per metre for the plain raw silk.
We stock a wide variety of these silks in differing colours and designs so please feel free to pop in to our store.
If there is anything else we can help you with do not hesitate to contact us"

This was followed by a reply from Jaan about their yellow/gold maxi dress:
"This email is regarding your enquiry, the price for this dress is £395 as it is. we also have a made to measure service available if you did want to go for that. with made to measure you have a choice of 500 colours and also it is made to your size, any changes that you did want to make are also possible."

I also got a reply from Mongas on their patterned maxi:
"Thanks for your Query and sorry for a late reply. The dress that you have viewed is for £250. Unfortunately the dress is out of stock, but we also provide made to measure services, wherein you have the option of ordering the same dress as per your own style and measurement. Hope this helped. For any further query please feel free to contact us."

I have to say to say I'm a little disappointed that some of the other designers I contacted haven't got back to me yet - as I understand the system is still quite new but surely to be a successful online "fashion finder" you need to be able to find out more info on the outfit before you decide to travel to the store. Also one downfall is including outfits that aren't in stock on the fashion finder, I know that stock levels change very quickly and that it would probably be impossible to have "live" info on stock levels, but some of the outfits on the fashion finder are from VERY old issues of Asiana Magazine and I very much doubt they are still in stock.

Aside from the above I'd say Asiana.tv's fashion finder is still a must-visit for asian fashion fans and anyone who's looking for some outfit inspiration. I think you have to sign up to the asiana.tv site to actually access the fashion finder which will put some people off, but it's definitely worth it! Visit the asiana.tv fashion finder now to have a browse for yourself and leave a comment to let me know if you found your dream outfit!