Reem Kanj 2013-05-22T02:48:08-04:00 Reem Kanj http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/author/index.php?author=reem-kanj Copyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Reem Kanj Good old fashioned elbow grease. A Masterclass in Diamonds With Diamond Manufacturers tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1975450 2012-10-22T08:50:19-04:00 2012-12-22T05:12:01-05:00 Reem Kanj http://www.huffingtonpost.com/reem-kanj/ Diamond Manufacturers, Vashi Dominguez. Clad with my Fujifilm X10, I was ready to learn about all things diamond.

As well as finally understanding the importance of the 'Four C's, cut, clarity, carat and colour, I was also taught how to properly inspect a diamond, noticing flaws, blemishes and imperfections. I surprised myself at how accessible the skill can be but I think the hardest part of the process was getting over my fear of not being overly delicate with the diamonds when picking them up with the prongs.



However, I didn't stop there. I suddenly became very interested in the trade's history and much-debated ethics.

Every year the diamond supply chain produces nearly 30 million carats (that's 6,000 kgs!) of gem diamonds and another 100 million carats (20,000 kg!) of diamonds for industrial use.

I was surprised to find out that the price of diamonds goes through many different stages. The initial value of rough diamonds at the mines is relatively low. Diamonds are then cut and polished, up goes the price. Then they are bought to be made into jewellery and by the time diamonds are available to us in retail, the prices have skyrocketed.

Of course the roughest link of the trade can not be ignored. So much has been said about the ways diamonds are collected. Kanye West has rapped about the greed and violence of it all, Leonardo DiCaprio has been in a movie about it and the debate goes on about 'blood' or 'conflict' diamonds as they are largely known.

Some of the world's poorest countries like Sierra Leone, the DR Congo and Angola, have paid the price of their diamond supplies. Especially in West Africa, about 3.7 million people have died in the diamond conflicts and millions of others have been left without homes. Working in mines is difficult and dangerous and bogus diamond deals have often resulted in relentless crossfire that have cost people their lives.



But that's where I was pleasantly surprised. Diamond Manufacturers have completely won me over with their ethical policy of assuring conflict free diamonds. Not just that, but they cut out the middle man, leaving their customers with the best value for money possible. After all, it cannot be denied that holding a piece of diamond jewellery is like holding eternal beauty in your hands.

All in all it was such a wonderfully insightful morning which turned into delightful conversation about how Vashi got into the diamond trade. We talked about how investment worthy these beautiful rocks are and the scary notion that diamonds will probably only be mined for another 11 years before running out. If there was ever a reason to invest in one, I think it would be that, no? For more information about Diamond Manufacturers visit their website here, http://www.diamondmanufacturers.co.uk.

]]> Stella McCartney Launches First Adidas Standalone Store tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1680322 2012-07-17T14:15:54-04:00 2012-10-18T13:18:51-04:00 Reem Kanj http://www.huffingtonpost.com/reem-kanj/

There's nothing better than having the pleasure of meeting one of your personal favourite fashion designers, let alone one of the most hard working and inspirational women in the industry. Yesterday, I had that very pleasure when I was invited on an intimate tour of Stella McCartney's first standalone Adidas store hosted by the women herself.

I will be getting around to the store and its array of fashion forward sports gear, but first I have to mention just how friendly, approachable and utterly genuine Stella McCartney is. I remember hearing her speak at the British Vogue Festival earlier this year and loved her charisma on stage then, so you can imagine my excitement when I had the opportunity to actually engage with her as she talked us through her key looks of the season, why she loves infusing her extensive knowledge of fashion with technology led sportswear and of course her brand new environmentally friendly store.

Stella McCartney for Adidas has been going for over eight years and started off through a friendship with someone at Adidas. She had just left Chloé and was about to embark on her first collection. She contacted Adidas to collaborate on a sneaker for her runway show and since then, season after season she has been creating performance collections that, as she puts it, "inspires you to work out, fashion is there to inspire people and if you combine that with sport it takes it to a whole new level".

The AW12 collection at Stella McCartney for Adidas is all about creating a look that you feel comfortable in when working out, not just comfortably physically but, if you were to bump into someone you know on your way back from a jog or being at the gym, comfortable enough to know you look good that you don't dip your head down and disappear. "You should be able to wear your favourite t-shirt for working out, but why can't that favourite t-shirt be the one with the climate cool technology?" explains Stella.

Stella McCartney is one of the only fashion houses in the world to have a successful sports performance range, so it only seemed natural that Stella McCartney Adidas was to be responsible for creating the Team GB kits for the Olympics 2012.



After learning that on so many occasions athletes from different categories were all dealt with by separate creatives, it began to make a lot of sense why it was so important to have a creative director over all; someone who could take each athlete from each category and uniform their kits. "It's the first year a fashion designer has ever worked on an Olympic kit as well as the first time a team's kit has been worked on so comprehensively and so detailed. A lot of the time the women just wore what the men wore and I was outraged by that, I made a point to change it." - Stella McCartney.

Stella McCartney's Adidas store is adjacent to the Stella McCartney store on Fulham Road in South Kensington.]]> I Also Eat: Food Safari With Taste of London tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1543969 2012-05-24T17:14:34-04:00 2012-07-24T05:12:07-04:00 Reem Kanj http://www.huffingtonpost.com/reem-kanj/
A couple of weeks ago, I went on a 'food safari' with the Taste of London team. This basically entailed trying three different dishes from three different restaurants including, Spice Market, Aurelia and Pollen Street Social. Luckily for me I had never been to any of the above so it was a great way of trying some places on my 'go to' list, with the added bonus of having the opportunity to meet the executive chefs at each location.

For starters we began at Spice Market where we dined on black pepper shrimp with sun dried pineapple prepared by executive chef, Peter Lloyd. He recommended we eat the shrimp with the pineapple at the same time to counter balance the spices and sweetness of both ingredients. It was a brilliant recommendation and the dish was packed full of exotic flavour, perfect for any lover of spice.

[At Taste of London Spice Market will be serving: Black Pepper Shrimp, Jicama, Pea Shoots, Sun Dried Pineapple. Spiced chicken samosas, coriander yoghurt. Roast Cod with Malaysian Chilli Sauce Thai Basil. Chilli & Raspberry Sorbet].

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For mains we popped over to Aurelia (a new favourite restaurant of mine), where we enjoyed the lentil salad which was seasoned to perfection with orange and mint. It was a very refreshing dish, totally moreish and actually quite filling.

[At Taste of London Aurelia will be serving: Aurelia porchetta with homemade pickles. Lentils salad with orange and mint. Tortilla- truffle, chorizo and vegetarian (three different tortilla every day).]



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Dessert is always a special part of any meal and when we headed over to Pollen Street Social (which is the first restaurant in London to have a standalone dessert bar), I knew we were in for a treat. For our final dish of the food safari I had to leave my comfort zone and try something a little different. We were served compressed English strawberries, frozen wild strawberries with strawberry and beetroot sorbet, burnt basil meringue and a lemon balm and basil purée.

Normally I would never consider most of those ingredients to be in a dessert dish, but this is the amazing thing about food tastings, you're open to so many new flavours and combinations and this one worked perfectly. I especially loved the meringue, it literally melts in your mouth.

[At Taste of London Pollen Street Social will be serving: Crab salad, avocado puree and sweetcorn mousse. Slow-cooked ox cheek, apple pomme purée and braised turnip. White chocolate and coconut Panna cotta, mango, kaffir lime, pineapple, pistachio oil.]

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Taste of London will begin on June 21st until June 24th at London's Regent's Park. For more info visit the site. 

]]> Anna Dello Russo is Next in Line for H&M Collaboration tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1473909 2012-05-03T09:32:40-04:00 2012-07-03T05:12:03-04:00 Reem Kanj http://www.huffingtonpost.com/reem-kanj/


My initial reaction to this news was, but she's not a designer? It's a step away from their usual household named brands such as Jimmy Choo, Roberto Cavalli and more recently Versace and Marni. Then comes the essential news, it's an accessories line. Ok that makes sense now. H&M describes the up coming line as an 'over the top accessories collection'. So we should expect what we initially expected after having heard Dello Russo would be involved in a design process, flamboyance.

Of course this news is big for the blogosphere, there are mixed reviews popping up all over the place and at the moment I'm still trying to decide on whether this can be called a 'designer collaboration'. I do have to keep in mind however that Dello Russo knows her stuff, she knows accessories and she knows how to wear them. However since the Versace collaboration with H&M in 2011 so quickly turning into a Marni collaboration just months after, it kind of felt as though H&M were saturating the concept, which I think showed in the weaker sales results of the Marni release. (Personally I think Marni was the best collaboration to date but was probably a bit too niche for the average H&M shopper).

I think for fans of Anna Dello Russo, as well as for most fashion students, jewellery and accessory up and comers and pretty much any style blogger from here to Milan, this collection will be a total anticipation of excitement. I just can't imagine how well it's going to go down with a H&M regular who looks forward to the one off super high end designer collaborations, that for a limited time only they can actually afford.]]> Highlights From the British Vogue Festival 2012 tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1456522 2012-04-30T15:00:00-04:00 2012-06-30T05:12:02-04:00 Reem Kanj http://www.huffingtonpost.com/reem-kanj/

At first when I heard how much the tickets were I was a bit thrown off, £75 a session for two sessions each day. However by the end of the second day, I realised the value of being able to hear such inspiring and influential people in the world of fashion be themselves, and talk freely without an eagle-eared PR hanging over their shoulder waiting to correct every last sentence.

There were many highlights of the two day extravaganza, some of which I captured on my Twitter page. Quoting the designers, models and opinion makers of the industry. One quote that was tweeted all over the blogosphere was when supermodel Natalia Vodianova stated, "it's better to be skinny then to be fat, no one likes obesity, read the Daily Mail." We all know this kind of sentence taken out of context can be completely blown up and used as amo against a person, especially a model, but as someone in the audience at the time, I'd just like to let everyone know that she was speaking 'as' the population, reiterating what we are constantly fed in celebrity magazines, fashion magazines and evidently, The Daily Mail. She was being sarcastic and humorous with it, in a 'come on have you not heard?' kind of way.

Tom Ford and Alexandra Shulman in conversation



It was situations like the above and when Tom Ford asked a blushing Alexandra Shulman if she had ever slept with a woman that made this Festival a 'you had to be there' kind of situation, and that we all should be next year in 2013 when the British Vogue Festival returns. The Vogue editors were extremely approachable, you could literally bump into them in the hallways, at the cafeteria or even find some of them holding the fort at the pop-up Vogue shop where hard backs and magazines were available for purchase. It took away the unruly stigma that everyone in the fashion industry is pretentious or a bitch, because standing there for fifteen minutes taking to a Prada donned Lucinda Chambers about my next moves in my career or how a scared graduate can apply for an internship at Hanover House really made you think you had it all wrong.

See more images and quotes from the British Vogue Festival on FiveFiveFabulous.com ]]>