By Michelle Nichols

NEW YORK |
Thu Feb 9, 2012 7:17am EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The policies of U.S. President Barack Obama and his potential Republican rivals differ, but when it comes to campaign trail fashion they could not be more alike with their style at the frontline of winning votes.

Whether it’s rolled-up sleeves, or a checked shirt with no tie, candidates vying for the White House in November balance their fashion to appeal to average Americans and yet still look like a world leader, said experts at New York Fashion Week.

With the U.S. economy slow to recover from recession and the rise of the Occupy Wall Street movement putting economic inequality on the national agenda, experts said the Republican candidates were focusing more on casual styles.

But don’t expect to see them in shorts and t-shirts, they still need to retain the look of a leader, experts say, with some criticizing former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum’s staple sweater vests as maybe a little too informal.

“The Republican candidates have dressed down more,” said Tracy Taylor, U.S. editor of luxury online retailer Net-A-Porter. “It could be that they are trying to counterbalance Obama and how buttoned up and chic and refined he always looks.”

“It’s also a response to Occupy Wall Street,” she said.

Obama has won more than just praise for his fashion from designers and editors. U.S. Vogue editor Anna Wintour hosted a reception on Tuesday to launch “Runway to Win,” a collection from designers including Marc Jacobs, Tory Burch and Diane von Furstenberg, being sold online to raise money for his campaign.

But Obama didn’t always have such a polished look, said Robert Burke of luxury consultants Robert Burke Associates. “President Obama used to get razzed about having oversized suits that were two sizes too big,” Burke said.

GAP JEANS, SWEATER VESTS

Republican frontrunner former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney may be worth up to $250 million after a career on Wall Street, but jeans — reportedly bought by his wife in Gap — and checked shirts with no tie have been a mainstay in his wardrobe.

“Romney has actually had to really tone it down because he’s known as this really swanky, sleek businessman. So he had to go further by wearing ill-fitting jeans and looking more roughed up so he could communicate more with the people,” Taylor said.

Santorum drew attention not only for his surprise victory in the Iowa caucuses in January and sweep of nominating contests in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri

Article source: PRNewswire

By Deborah Charles

WASHINGTON |
Thu Feb 9, 2012 6:10am EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Obese Americans in the military are a national security hazard and first lady Michelle Obama wants to see that change.

Obama, who has spearheaded a healthy eating and fitness program for children for two years, will lend her voice on Thursday to the military’s efforts to overhaul the food it serves.

In an event in Little Rock, Arkansas, Obama will join top Pentagon officials to announce a new obesity and nutritional awareness campaign that will change nutrition standards across the services for the first time in 20 years.

The changes will bring more fruits, vegetables, whole grains and food choices that are lower in fat to 1,100 service member dining facilities in the coming months.

According to the White House, more than one quarter of 17- to 24-year-olds are too overweight to serve in the military. Active members of the military are also becoming more overweight, a Pentagon official said, and that causes a “readiness problem.”

“The Department of Defense considers obesity not only a national problem but a national security issue,” Assistant U.S. Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Jonathan Woodson told reporters in a call to discuss the first lady’s visit to Arkansas and other states to promote healthy eating.

“Our primary focus is on the health and well-being of service members, their families, and our retirees,” Woodson said in remarks to be delivered in Little Rock. “Obesity is a preventable problem which, if combated, can help prevent disease and ease the burden on our overall Military Health System.”

There is a lot of money involved. Woodson says the U.S. military spends about $4.65 billion in food services each year. It also spends an estimated $1.1 billion a year on medical care associated with excess weight and obesity.

In an effort to promote good choices, the military will redesign menus and try to supply healthier foods in mess halls and on bases and in vending machines and snack bars on military bases.

The first lady, who has been doing the rounds of television talk shows and late-night comedy shows to promote her “Let’s Move” campaign to improve the nation’s eating and exercise habits, said changes by the Pentagon would send an important message.

“Whenever our men and women in uniform step forward, Americans take notice. When our service members make healthy eating a priority in their lives, the rest of us are more likely to make it a priority in our lives,” she

Article source: PRNewswire

By Alexei Oreskovic

SAN FRANCISCO |
Thu Feb 9, 2012 11:10am EST

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – There are magazines, television shows and books about food. So why not a social network?

That’s the thinking behind online lifestyle publisher Glam Media’s newest offering. On Thursday, the company launched Foodie.com, a social network devoted entirely to the gastronomic crowd.

The move represents an important expansion for Glam into the ever-popular, advertising-friendly world of food-related media, from restaurant reviews to recipes. In a change from its traditional practice of creating websites that showcase articles about fashion and health, Glam is betting that food lovers want a specialized social network to indulge their palates.

Users of Foodie.com can create profiles for the service with their existing Facebook or Twitter credentials. Once signed-on to the social network, they can follow chefs and food writers, share their own musings and dig through a recipe finder, among other activities.

Glam has enlisted more than 100 food writers and bloggers, as well as an advisory board of culinary experts including food critic Patricia Wells and Iron Chef winner Geoffrey Zakarian, to produce content for the service.

The launch of Foodie.com comes as Glam moves closer to an initial public offering. The seven-year-old company met with bankers late last year and is expected to file a prospectus for an offering in the second quarter, sources have previously told Reuters.

Facebook, the world’s No.1 online social network, filed a prospectus last week to raise $5 billion in what would be the largest IPO in Silicon Valley history.

Glam Chief Executive Samir Arora said there was room for a specialized social network about food to live alongside Facebook. Most people will be active on three to four online social networks, Arora told Reuters in an interview.

People who are passionate about food will make Foodie.com one of their three or four standard social networks, he predicted. Other people will visit when they need a recipe or they’re looking for a restaurant.

He noted that the demand from advertisers is especially high. In the first quarter of 2011, Arora said that food companies accounted for Glam’s largest chunk of ad revenue — a period of time before Glam Media offered any significant content about food.

“What that told us was that food brand advertisers really wanted Glam to create a food channel. And they did it by voting with their ad dollars,” he said. Among the first advertisers launching campaigns on Foodie.com are General Mills, Betty Crocker and Dannon, Arora said.

The

Article source: PRNewswire

By Caroline Stauffer

INAPARI, Peru |
Wed Feb 8, 2012 12:12pm EST

INAPARI, Peru (Reuters) – Nearly 300 Haitians fleeing the poverty of their earthquake-ravaged homeland have been stuck for a month in the Peruvian Amazon, where a gate to what they saw as a better life in Brazil has abruptly closed.

Mostly educated and in their 20s, they have taken refuge in a stuffy church in the Peruvian border town of Inapari since Brazil stationed federal police along the border in early January to stop a wave of illegal immigration.

The 273 Haitians in Inapari sold all their belongings and paid big fees to unscrupulous travel agents to fly to Peru through Panama or Ecuador. They planned to cross overland into Brazil, where a growing economy has attracted some 4,500 desperate Haitians since the quake two years ago – only to find that the border was closed when they arrived.

“We don’t have money and we are so far from Haiti … we just ask Brazil to let us in,” said Joniel Clervil, 22, speaking in English he learned in university before the January 2010 disaster ended his studies.

Having run out of cash, the group is relying on donations of rice and beans from the Brazilian border town of Assis Brasil. It is not clear if they will eventually be able to stay in Brazil or Peru or be deported.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, in an attempt to manage the influx and discourage “coyotes” who take advantage of the immigrants, said during a visit to Haiti on February 1 that her country would award 100 humanitarian visas per month in Port-au-Prince in the next five years while tightening border security.

Brazil also has said it would give humanitarian visas to all Haitians already in Brazil but that future migrants would be turned back at the border unless they had obtained proper visas before leaving Haiti.

PERU REQUIRES VISA

Peru’s President Ollanta Humala has tried to help shut down what the governments regard as a human trafficking route by signing a decree last month requiring Haitians to obtain a tourist visa before entering Peru.

The Haitians stuck in Peru left home before the changes took effect and now are in a bureaucratic limbo. The governments say they will hold a meeting next week where they could decide the Haitians’ fate.

Brazil has Latin America’s largest economy and, owing to an economic surge in the past five years and a more assertive foreign policy, it now faces a very First

Article source: PRNewswire

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• Haitians bound for Brazil languish in Perus Amazon

By Michelle Nichols

NEW YORK |
Wed Feb 8, 2012 7:05am EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Navy is likely to replace black on the catwalk when New York Fashion Week starts on Thursday, with experts expecting rich fabrics, waist-defining jackets and some 1920s-inspired styles sparked by movies like The Artist.

Dresses will continue to feature strongly among the 90 or so designers showing fall 2012 collections, experts say, because of the wide appeal to consumers who are more thoughtful and focused on value as the United States emerges from recession.

A dress is seen as more tempting because it allows women to skip the extra, and sometimes more costly, step of having to coordinate skirts or pants with a blouse or T-shirt.

“Dresses perform very well. Women love a dress,” said Ken Downing, fashion director of luxury chain Neiman Marcus. “It’s such an easy way to look amazing. It’s effortlessly chic … it goes from coffee to cocktails.”

“Navy will be the neutral of the season,” he said.

Downing said some designers will have drawn inspiration for a “modernized flapper” style from the silent film “The Artist” and Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris” – both nominated for several Academy Awards – and the pending release of director Baz Luhrmann’s remake of “The Great Gatsby.”

But he cautions this does not mean an immediate return to the dropped waist dresses that defined the 1920s era.

“Many designers really understand the importance of celebrating a woman’s shape and clothes that are reflective of her curves are always the most popular,” he said. “Women spend a lot of time at the gym … they want credit for how they look.”

Deep shades of green and rich fabrics such as brocades and jacquards are likely runway trends that could draw in customers, said Colleen Sherin, senior fashion director at Saks Fifth Avenue.

“When customers spend their money, they want to feel and see that they are truly getting something for what they paid,” she said. “Any form of embellishment or decorative fabrication makes the consumer feel they getting something quite special, that’s worth the money they have spent.”

SCULPTED JACKETS, HEMLINES FOR ALL

Designers were expected to show menswear-inspired tailored jackets sculpted to define a woman’s waist and peplum dresses and other styles that show off the waist.

“I’m liking the masculine (inspiration), I like women that have a cool tailored jacket. Definitely I am heading in that direction, but we have a lot of great surprises,” said designer Yigal Azrouel, whose collection will be

Article source: PRNewswire