www.easterneye.eu 29EASTERN EYE July 10, 2009

WomenZone

I absolutely love smoky eyes. How do I go about achieving this glamourous look?The Too Faced Smoky Eye Kit (£19.58,

available from Boots) contains all the colours you need for beautiful smoky eyes. Also included in the pack are step-by-step instructions

on how to create three different smoky eye looks. The green and sparkly black are absolutely stunning in this set.

My lips are very thin. Which lip gloss can you recommend to

plump them up? A tried and tested one is Bourjois Effet 3D Max lipgloss (£7.30, available from Boots) It has a range of six radiant colours with varied effects and it is not too sticky or gloopy. It makes your lips look plump, with a smooth and laccquer-like finish.

Halimah A does hair, henna and make- up for special occasions. Contact her on www. henna-h.com

Beauty Shop

With Halimah A

the faShion deSigner to the StarS talkS aBout hiS StyliSh collectionS

don’t want to push India as just being about Indian clothes. We have a lot of culture, fab-rics, colours: I think I should explore that and that’s what I’m doing.

Is it a challenge to make your collections dif-ferent from each other?Yes, it gets more difficult season by season, because I have to better what I did last season. That is getting harder but definitely, as a crea-tive person, my inspiration has no limit.

Where do you get your style inspiration from?People, places, parties, plays, nature. Some-thing has to move me from my heart and that becomes my inspiration.

Which of your collections will be available to buy in the UK?Well, I want to promote it as a universal line which doesn’t have to be just for the UK. It can be for New York, Singapore, Mumbai, literally anywhere. It’s going to promote a lot of tradi-tional embroidery but not keeping India as a pushing point, making it more cutting-edge for London. I’m just promoting it right now and am trying to create a brand awareness. By next season, I should be selling here. I want to start with celebrity-based stores and then go into the mainstream.

Are there going to be affordable prices or will they be very high-end?I want to start with celebrity dressing, which will have special pieces for special people to start with. Obviously, everybody is special but to get into the mainstream, I will take another

year and the prices will reflect the designs. At the end, sales are very important for me and I have to keep affordability in mind.

Do you notice a difference in style between the women here and in Mumbai?Yes, I have seen girls wearing the right col-oured clothes with the right coloured acces-sories. They just love dressing up here and I love the fact that they are passionate about dressing up in the city.

What are some of the common fashion mis-takes you have seen people make?People wear clothes that are too fitted, which don’t do anything for them, and then some-times they wear clothes that are tent-shaped and it doesn’t work for their height and shape. You have to be slightly safe with what you’re wearing and always understand your body. There are certain things that will just not look right on you and you can’t wear them, no mat-ter how fashionable they are.

Do you take inspiration from British fashion?Sometimes. I love the fashion here and the way they put things together to create their own personality and style.

What fashion advice can you give women for the every day look?Wear what is comfortable and don’t follow fashion blindly. Pick up something and alter it to your personality. Fashion magazines give you different options – all you have to do is pick up something that looks good on you. But for that, you need to understand your body.

You have designed for models and celebri-ties, but what advice can you give to larger and older women?Anybody who feels young at heart and young at mind is good enough for my clothes. It doesn’t have to be about age and they don’t have to be celebrities. My clothes are selling in Dubai, Singapore, Mumbai and Delhi for nor-mal people who want to feel special.

I would give the same advice as I did about wearing what’s comfortable – if that style is going to look wrong on you, then my clothes are going to look wrong. I can’t advise women to wear those outfits just for the sake of it.

What’s more important, fashion or style?I think style is more important than fashion. If you’re stylish, everything else looks good – you can wear a pair of jeans and a white shirt and look perfect. You just have to build your personality to make yourself stylish!

What is the biggest mistake you have made and learned from?(Laughs) I’m not going to tell you that. But look, the biggest mistake I have made is to trust everybody and that is one thing I am not go-ing to do any more. I have to understand the person first and then start trusting. I just give the benefit of the doubt to every person I meet, and that’s one of the biggest mistakes I keep making every day.

The outfits from the Rocky S show are available to buy from Baljas & Arana,

Salon 5, 7 Balfour Place, Mayfair, in London. Call 020-7493 0417 for more information.

NOW IN BRITAIN: Fashion designer Rocky S; (and left and right) models showcase his collection during the fashion show in London

My friend keeps going back to her boy-friend but then regretting it. It is a cycle she can’t seem to break. I have told her what her options are and she seems to understand. Every time she goes back to him she ends up getting hurt all over again. I don’t know what to do any more.It is understandable that you are concerned about your friend’s well-being and want to help her. Clearly, she is looking for a loving, stable relationship, which her boy-friend cannot provide.

But you need to understand what is go-ing on with your friend emotionally before you can help her effectively. By encourag-ing her to be more open about her feel-ings, you can help build up her self-es-teem. One of the reasons she is stuck in this cycle is because primarily our memo-ry of emotions is highly selective. Your friend tends to remember how good the “good times” were, whereas memories of her sadness and hurt fade more quickly. Perhaps you should help her to under-stand that at an emotional level, her per-ception of her boyfriend is how she wish-es him to be; and not how he really is.

Emphasise to her that it is not her fault and she not responsible for his behaviour. Suggest that rather than hoping and dreaming, she should be open to meeting new people, making new friends and changing her social scene. Hopefully, as she becomes more self-confident and open to change, her desire to go back to this relationship will slowly disappear.

aSk puShpinder

I have come back from the salon with a dis-

astrous haircut. How can I undo the damage?

A lot of people have had a similar bad experi-

ence, either as a result of poor communication

or the stylist not being up to the job. Most

top hairdressers will be happy to undo the

damage, so don’t be afraid to go back and ask.

But before you do, check that you are using

the right products and are styling your hair

properly. Don’t ask them to cut any more off

– get your hair reshaped or add some layers.

If that doesn’t work, get extensions, tie your

hair or use hairbands until it grows back. Take

care of your hair and stay confident, because

that is the key in looking and feeling great.

Hair careCelebrity stylist Asgar is at Daniel Galvin Hair Salon, 58-

60 George Street, London W1U 7ET

with asgar