SHOP LANRE DASILVA AJAYI ON ITALIAN FASHION RETAIL STORE YOOX.COM

Lanre DaSilva Ajayi (LDA) founder of eponymous self-named design label in seven years has grown tremendously passionate for fashion. This has made the LDA brand stronger and the label a fashion favourite among the media, celebrities and fashion lovers.

On the 4th of may 2012, Vogue Italia and yoox.com‘s project (Discovered in Africa by Vogue Italia exclusively on yoox.com) came live and opened for everyone to shop from the beautiful collections by going online directly to yoox.com.

Franca Sozzani, Editor-in-Chief of Vogue Italia and the Fashion for Development Goodwill Ambassador has the task to promote the development in emerging countries through fashion. The Fashion for Development initiative started in 1996 thanks to the work of Bibi Russel, the former Bangladeshi model who launched a development campaign in the textile sector ? with the help of Unesco ? specifically to help female workers free themselves from poverty.

In January this year, Sozzani visited Nigeria to create a network of small and medium-size businesses which would have not been feasible without the input and assistance of Mr Kola Karim, CEO of Shoreline Energy International a well meaning business man who facilitated for LDA be part of the Discovered in Africa by Vogue Italia project.

Italian online fashion retail store yoox.com and Vogue Italia have managed to raise awareness of young talents such as LDA, who might otherwise have remained unknown to the international retail market by providing this unique business opportunity.

Thanks to Fashion for Development, LDA?s designs has a real opportunity to be seen and appreciated globally.

LDA as you already know creates pieces that are unique in style and combines pattern, print, exquisite and even traditional fabrics to produce day wear, evening wear, gowns and cocktail dresses that bridge time and make the label successful. The brand has been featured in various African and international media including Vogue Black, ARISE Magazine, Daily Mail, Essence.com, WWD.com, ITN News, NTN24.com, ABCNews.com, Reuters UK and Centric/BET.

Every year, LDA produces six major collections and has showcased locally in Nigeria and internationally including the Thisday Africa Rising Festival, London (October 2008), ARISE Africa Fashion Festival, South Africa (June 2009) and the New York Couture Fashion Week (September 2009), Arise Magazine Fashion Week, Lagos (March 2011) and the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Spring 2012 Made in Africa by Arise magazine, (September 2011) and Arise magazine Fashion Week, Lagos March 2012.

The Vogue Italia and yoox.com project will be featured in the May edition of Vogue. According to Federico Marchetti ? Founder, CEO of Yoox Group: “It’s a great project, because we have a great person supervising it (Franca Sozzani, Ed.). Our costumers will be very much in love with some of the designers’ creations, because they are fantastic, simply fantastic.”

For more information on LDA, visit: www.lanredasilvaajayi.com

John Legend Defends Girlfriend Against Chris Brown Fans

It seems as though it probably takes a lot for John Legend to buck up, especially on twitter…
Over the weekend, his girl Chrissy had to fight her own battle after she pissed off Chris Brown’s fans by tweeting about him lip syncing during the 2012 Billboard Music Awards. Around the same time he was on stage, she tweeted, ‘Lip syncing is a helluva drug’, which set Breezy’s fans in full attack mode throughout the night and for the days to follow. Chrissy spent most of the night entertaining his fans by retweeting their death threats and malicious tweets before she finally decided that she had had enough:

‘I’ve had comments ranging from “kill yourself you stupid HO” to “gold digging cunt” “get a f-cking job”, etc. because I don’t like him?…seriously. this isn’t your f-cking job. You guys are too young for this sh-t. too f-cking young. stop being psychotic. be strong women. listen to opinions without spewing pure maliciousness…John [Legend] has gotten numerous comments about him needed to “leash” me or “control” me. FROM WOMEN. please stop this. What are you even doing this for? some good music and dancing? good god. DO BETTER.

John Legend, for the sake of keeping up with his wholesome image, didn’t dare step in the twitter drama but yesterday he decided that he too had had enough after Chris Brown tweeted to his fans, ‘Team Breezy! Lets stop sending death threats! I know y’all bout that life but it’s the wrong message! Ur turning haters into victims! And that only furthers their pointless existence‘.

John Legend responded:

Personally, I don’t think @chrissyteigen’s existence is pointless. Nor anyone else who dares criticize a performance
Every artist has to be ok with the fact that some people won’t like their work. All critics aren’t “haters”
And don’t ever tell me to put my “b-tch on a leash”. She’s a grown woman with her own mind and her own opinions and this is not 1950.

Chrissy definitely seemed please that her man stepped up:

now that’s a man you want to marry.

Meanwhile Team Breezy is still coming for Chrissy’s neck. This isn’t the first time that Chrissy has voiced her opinion about Chris either. Earlier this year, during an appearance on Bravo with John, the two were asked how they felt about Rihanna and Chris teaming up for two songs and she responded:

“I absolutely think it’s terrible.That’s just me speaking. John cannot because he’s in the music realm, but I am not, so I am more than happy to say that I think it’s terrible.”

Falling In Love Is ‘More Scientific Than You Think,’ Study Reveals

A new meta-analysis study conducted by Syracuse University Professor Stephanie Ortigue is getting attention around the world. The groundbreaking study, “The Neuroimaging of Love,” reveals falling in love can elicit not only the same euphoric feeling as using cocaine, but also affects intellectual areas of the brain. Researchers also found falling in love only takes about a fifth of a second.

Ortigue is an assistant professor of psychology and an adjunct assistant professor of neurology, both in The College of Arts and Sciences at Syracuse University.

Results from Ortigue’s team revealed when a person falls in love, 12 areas of the brain work in tandem to release euphoria-inducing chemicals such as dopamine, oxytocin, adrenaline and vasopression. The love feeling also affects sophisticated cognitive functions, such as mental representation, metaphors and body image.

The findings beg the question,  “Does the heart fall in love, or the brain?”

“That’s a tricky question always,” says Ortigue. “I would say the brain, but the heart is also related because the complex concept of love is formed by both bottom-up and top-down processes from the brain to the heart and vice versa. For instance, activation in some parts of the brain can generate stimulations to the heart, butterflies in the stomach. Some symptoms we sometimes feel as a manifestation of the heart may sometimes be coming from the brain.”

Other researchers also found blood levels of nerve growth factor, or NGF, also increased. Those levels were significantly higher in couples who had just fallen in love. This molecule involved plays an important role in the social chemistry of humans, or the phenomenon ‘love at first sight.’ “These results confirm love has a scientific basis,” says Ortigue.

The findings have major implications for neuroscience and mental health research because when love doesn’t work out, it can be a significant cause of emotional stress and depression. “It’s another probe into the brain and into the mind of a patient,” says Ortigue. “By understanding why they fall in love and why they are so heartbroken, they can use new therapies.”

 By identifying the parts of the brain stimulated by love, doctors and therapists can better understand the pains of love-sick patients.

The study also shows different parts of the brain fall for love. For example, unconditional love, such as that between a mother and a child, is sparked by the common and different brain areas, including the middle of the brain. Passionate love is sparked by the reward part of the brain, and also associative cognitive brain areas that have higher-order cognitive functions, such as body image.

Ortigue and her team worked with a team from West Virginia University and a university hospital in Switzerland. The results of the study are published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine. Ortigue’s research is also featured in the current issue of Discover, and media outlets in the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Mexico and Belgium.

Ortigue worked on the love study with colleagues Francesco Bianchi-Demicheli (Geneva University Psychiatric Center, Switzerland), James Lewis (West Virginia University), Nisa Patel (graduate student in SU’s College of Arts and Sciences) and Chris Frum (West Virginia University). Ortigue’s follow-up study about the speed of love in the human brain is expected to be released soon.