Hot Fashions Gallery

While we are still way into the middle of winter, bundled up in the thickest and warmest of coats, we may be thinking about the warmth and colorful promise of spring. As we are ushered into the new year, so are the upcoming fashion trends. Here are some of the hot fashion trends for spring of 2012.

Color blocking has been really famous in 2011, and it's still going strong in 2012. However, we see a new twist into this trend by using different geometric patterns that make your outfits look more playful.

Prints will definitely make your outfit more interesting. Try mixing your solid colored clothes with printed pieces in order to give a more youthful and girly appearance. Remember that bigger prints make you look bigger. If you are a bit shorter in the height department (like me!), or a bit on the heavier side, going for more subtle prints is a safer alternative. If you are a bit adventurous with your style, then you can still experiment with different prints and textures.

Soft, pastel colors bring out the girly side in you. Soft pinks, sweet peach colors and even baby blue, these colors will definitely take its lead this spring. Choose romantic frills and ruffles if you want to go for a sweet and girly look.

Orange is the reigning color this year. From soft orange shades to fiery neon ones, this color will set you on fire and warm you up when spring comes. Invest in a pretty little orange dress, and you are good to go.

Spring takes on a much more playful look this year as many looks on the runway prefer the sporty silhouette. From bodycon dresses, luxurious hooded sweatshirts to track-style looking bottoms, this trend will definitely make you want to go and hit the gym.

This year's twist on the peplum is a bit sleeker and smaller. Although this trend is a bit of a hit or miss, this style takes a girly spin on the usual structured and macho like elements.

Fashion Models part 2

It must look easy to be a fashion model. All they have to do is stand there and look pretty and smile, and everyone adores them for it, and they get adorned with all the hottest fashions. Not to mention they get paid millions of dollars in endorsement deals and they get to travel all over the world for both work and leisure. The glamorous aspects of the job are undoubtedly thrilling, however being a fashion model is not as easy or care-free of a lifestyle as it seems.

First of all, before any model becomes well-known, they must be signed by a modeling agency. Modeling agencies are larger companies that represent fashion models to work in the industry. They often handle the business side of fashion design, like contracts, billing and booking jobs. An agency can bring a model to fame with their vast connections in the industry. One of the hardest parts is getting signed by the agency in the first place. In order to even hope to qualify, women models must be between 5'6" and 6'0" with a body weight "proportionate to their height". In other words, perspective models must be extremely thin. Since hundreds and thousands of girls audition for modeling jobs, a successful model must have something-some special quality that makes her stand out from the hoards of wannabe models.

Once a signed, working model, you must constantly search for ways to get yourself out there. One of the biggest events in both the modeling and fashion design world is fashion week. A fashion week is a week-long series of runway shows that feature several different designers' new collections. New York City's Mercedes Benz fashion week is one of the most famous fashion weeks, along with Paris and Milan, the fashion capitals of the world. Exposure on a runway during fashion week can lead to high-class, lucrative contracts for models. Each fashion week often shows collections of over one hundred designers, and each designer showcases a spring and a fall collection, but compared to how many models vie for spots on these runways, the competition is still fierce!

The next step towards supermodel stardom is landing a spot as the face of a prestigious fashion campaign. Fashion campaigns for particular designers can earn models quite a substantial amount of money, as well as enough exposure to have them steadily working for a long time. One of the most popular examples of this is the fragrance campaign, and fashion design houses such as Gucci, Valentino and Chanel run extremely high-class advertisements for their fragrance products, that only the most elite of models participate in.