Cross Body Bags

Gone are the days of small purses, wallets or backpacks. Gone also are the days of the messenger bag - meet their in demand new avatar, the cross body bag.

The only differences that I see between the messenger bags and the cross body bags are that the cross body bag are larger and roomier and are not as casual as their older counterparts. Now even Hermes and Chanel have their versions.

The young un's in Bollywood have caught on to the trend - of course they would, the cross body bags are practical, fun, look dressy and now also come in designer brands (I lust after Kareena's Hermes one!!!)

Kareena's Diet

Kareena Kapoor probably has the most enviable figure in B'Town (baring a certain Ms. Shetty, who has been "helped" to achieve hers).

You wonder how she maintains this, considering the irregular hours and the amount of travel involved in her line of work. Does she not get tempted to indulge and party? I am sure she does, but she also gets paid big bucks to look the way she does.

Apparently, she has a different diet for when she is in India, for when she is flying to a shooting location and then one for the new locale. As she is a self-confessed foodie - she likes to try the local cuisine - her dietician Rujuta Divekar, plans her menu to incorporate the local cuisine but still maintain the required caloric count.(The pic of Kareena above was taken at the launch of Rujuta' s new fitness book)

Recently, Kareena was in Las Vegas to shoot her new movie "Short Term Shaadi" - there she indulged in everything pasta, pizza, risotto etc (FYI - she is now a vegetarian) but in moderation and sticking to her portion sizes. Her yoga instructor who travels with her too ascertains that she sticks to her exercise routine at all the various locales. Kareena's eats 5-7 small meals per day and snacks on chana, sing and makhane (roasted chickpeas, peanuts and lotus seeds) through out the day. She also drinks a lot of water. It was reported that when she went clubbing with her friends in Vegas, she carried a bottle of milk with her - so that she could drink and be full at the same time and would not need to indulge in any more food after her cut off time.

Keep these tips in mind - to help get her enviable bod.

Hair - Apparent

Why is that most of us limit are hair styling to just leaving our hair down? The most I see, is the younger women using an iron, maybe, to tame their frizzy coarse hair.

You mention styling and they immediately think of updos, which is good, but what is bad is our idea of updos has stopped at the over curled, over sprayed bouffants of the 70's. Why can't we get past this???

The younger lot of actresess have actually gotten past this hurdle and have modernized/simplified hair styling. Take a look at the pictures above, Sonam Kapoor has fun styling her hair, she has been spotted sporting a low side ponytail, a high slicked back ponytail etc. Kareena and Malaika too have been spotted sporting messy buns and high ponytails with dressy outfits.

If you have to wear your hair down, at least trying some braiding to add some edge to the same plain old. If your hair is too short to sport any of these styles, it would be fun to layer your hair like Bipasha's and style them to look trendy.

This is the beginning of the new year - break away from the rut and try something new!!!

Bag Snob

I love bags - both day and evening and I worship the classics and follow the trends. Having a fair amount of exposure to the Page 3 crowd in India - here is what I have gathered are the top 3 day bags and top 3 evening clutches:

Day Bags:

The most coveted bag in India (and world wide) has got to be the Hermes Birkin. These bags start at approximately $10,000 a pop. The exotic versions costing almost twice as much. I would love to get my hands on this bag in it's classic orange Hermes color. Apparently in the US, there is a wait time of approx. 1 year to get this bag (from the time you order it)

The most classic bag of all times has to be Chanel. The Chanel bag is iconic and ageless!!! It never goes out of style and looks good no matter what the age of the person carrying it is. This is one bag that is worth spending the big bucks on cause it will last for generations to come.

And the "IT" bag currently is the Balenciaga. Since last year, the demand for this bag has escalated and it seems to be the flavor of the season. Also the most reasonable bag of the group - it starts at around $1200.

Evening:

The top evening clutch from time in memorial is the Judith Leiber. Most of the Maharani's of the era's gone by boasted of their large Leiber collections. Of the current lot, Shilpa Shetty can claim to have the same.

The other very popular clutch is the BV Knot. It comes in a delish array of colors and many of our divas boast huge collection.

A recent entrant on the scene has been the Alexander McQueen clutch. This clutch and it's sister, the Knuckle Box Clutch, are seen carried by the younger edgier crowd.

So now you have it - your cheat sheet on the bags of the moment!!!!

M.A.C + Mickey Contractor

I had been reading, since November of last year, that Mickey Contractor was going to launch his own makeup collection for MAC. It was going to be a limited edition collection to be launched on January 6, 2011 and to be sold only in the US.

I read all the previews, saw all the colors and decided on the shades and products I wanted to buy. On the morning of Jan 6, logged on to the computer, saw that the collection had been launched and decided to go to the local MAC store, check out the colors for myself and buy them. I got to the store around 11am and spoke to the store manager - she said SORRY - the collection is being sold only at the top 20 MAC stores in the country and unfortunately our store is not one of them. WHAT???????? She further informed me that my only option was to buy them online. And she added - going by the phone calls I have been receiving since the last several weeks I would not wait too long to do so.

Ok, so how many people would actually be aware of the launch, let only be set to buy the products on the first day, let alone first couple of hours????? Or so I mistakenly thought. I was back at my computer at around 2pm and decided to buy the make up - GUESS WHAT??? THEY WERE SOLD OUT OF BOTH THE LIPSTICKS AND BLUSHES I WANTED - ON THE FIRST DAY!!!!!IN THE FIRST COUPLE OF HOURS!!!!!!!!!! SOB SOB SOB :(

This could not be happening - I had been obsessing about this collection for months. I should have bought them when I logged on in the morning.............

If any of you have been lucky enough to get your hands on the lipsticks and blushes please let me know what you think of the colors ( more salt on my wounds). I would love to hear from you.

Darling - 7 Khoon Maaf

Hi in 2011.

My first posting of the year. Yea.....I wanted to make it a fun musical one. So, here it is:

You have to hear the song - "Darlinggggggggggg - Ankhon se Ankhen Char Kar Le" -it is from the upcoming Priyanka Chopra movie - 7 Khoon Maaf.

It is a Vishal Bharadwaj movie and is based on Ruskin Bond's short story "Sussana's Seven Husbands". It is a movie about this girl who woos, marries and kills seven men.

I don't think the music has been released officially but the promo is out on TV and on You Tube. You should really check it out.