Asiana Magazine Week mini catwalk show

I managed to find some snaps of the Asiana "magazine week" catwalk show that was held in Borders bookstore last month, and the photographer Nardip Singh has very kindly let me post some of them here (you can see some more on the Nardip Singh photography facebook group).

This free fashion show featured designs by Rina Dhaka and Vinita Pittie (both of which are available in the UK from the stockist Maaha) with hair, make-up and henna being provided by Joshiv Beauty.

Here are 3 of my favourite outfits from the show:

I really like the richness in the colours of these outfits. Sometimes with such bold colours it's difficult to add details without making it look too over the top, but I think the designer has reached the right balance to make these outfits stand out for the right reasons.


I thought I'd include a shot of Joshiv, from Joshiv Beauty doing a mehndi design. Joshiv advertises her services very heavily in Asiana magazine so I suppose it made for a perfect collaboration on this show. Did you notice the first two models were wearing necklaces in their hair? :)

Fusian Magazine

FUSIAN magazine launched this month, promising to be "the magazine made for the British Asian woman of today". I got my copy the day after it launched and here's my review!

Front Cover
There's just 4 colours used on the front cover, and the combination of red, white, black and grey makes for a very bold looking image.

Articles/Features
This mag isn't all about the pictures, it's full of articles. These aren't the usual articles you'd find in the other Asian magazines on the market, in fact they're the type of thing you're more accustomed to seeing in a mainstream/English magazine (but with a twist for the British Asian woman obviously!)
A lot of the articles have a focus on relationships, such as:

- how to make him run a mile
- the guys you have to date before you meet Mr. Right
- how to tell he's cheating on you
- datng deal breakers
- is he the one?
- signs he's really into you

As a settled married woman, these articles were a bit lost on me, but I know for a fact there are plenty of single/dating asian girls out there who will probably get a good read out of these.

In addition to those, there's bits and pieces on Bollywood, entertainment, careers...and of course fashion and beauty!

Fashion and Beauty
Fusian's ethos is to have less of a "catalogue" feel and not be full of ads, but there's no way it was going to be completely ad-free! However I think they managed to get the right balance, so that fashion lovers will still get their kicks from this mag too.
Aside from the ads, the fashion section mainly features 3 designers/boutiques - Mimi, Coconut and Sharon's Couture. What I like about their fashion editorials is that they mix up their designers' outfits with high street pieces so you can recreate the looks yourself. They also have 4 pages of "best buys" from £50-£200 which I think is a fab feature, one of my criticisms of the other Asian mags is that they don't feature enough affordable clothes, that's not the case with Fusian.

The Final Verdict
Are there too many Asian magazines out there now? Do we really need another one? Well I think it's great that there's more of a choice for Asian women when it comes to magazines. Fusian really does offer something different, it's not just the way it looks but it's the way it's written. Unlike all the other London-based Asian mags, Fusian is based in Birmingham and that makes them more accessible to designers outside of London, and all the beautiful aspiring models who aren't in London too! It's also worth mentioning that with a cover price of £2.50 Fusian is slightly cheaper than the quarterly mags.


For more info on Fusian, check out the Fusian Facebook Group

Manish Arora teams up with MAC

I'm signed up to the MAC mailing list and when this email landed in my inbox I just knew I had to post it on here!

Indian designer Manish Arora has a limited edition of MAC cosmetics now available in the UK from the MAC website and Harrods in London. I'm not sure about availability worldwide, but all products are sold out on the US MAC site.

The collection consists of 4 items - an eyeshadow compact, lipstick (2 colours available), lipgloss (2 colours available) and powder blush (again 2 available in 2 colours).

I've not seen these in person, and I'm not taking the colours of the make-up itself into consideration when I say this, but from the pictures/packaging this limited edition set just doesn't appeal to me. When you buy premium make-up, most of your cash goes on the packaging and I don't like this packaging - I know it's supposed to have an "indian" look cause the collection is in collaboration with an Indian designer but I think this looks a bit cheap! Maybe it's different in person??

Check out the MAC website for more info.

What do you think? Would you be proud to pull one of these out of your handbag?