The Waist. Remember? That sumptuous little S-curve once to be found at the side of our tummies in the pre-flesh days. The place where we used to button our jeans before "low rise" became all the rage. The place we used to know and love. Well, it's back. It only took the return of Carrie Bradshaw and her oddball posse of bubblegum girls in swing skirts, a handful of rather overbearing polka dot-loving pop starlets - Katy Perry, Pixie Lott etc - and, of course, the whole Mad Men phenomenon for designers to jump on the wagon.
First, as always, was Marc Jacobs, who has taken the trend from autumn/winter 2010 to his Resort 2011 collection for Louis Vuitton with flirty Fifties-inspired attire. Think Marilyn with her vitally statistical 22-inch waist (19 inches when corseted), think Dior's New Look - all culminating in curve-hugging, below-the-knee full skirts cinched tightly at the waist and offset with chunky pearls and clunky heels.
Kerching! Sounds wonderful, doesn't it? The problem is we are not keeping up. You see, in 1951, the average woman had a 27.5-inch waist. Currently we are clocking in at a hearty 34. More frankfurter, less pear. More Bob the Builder, less Barbie. The good news is that fashion is gloriously good at disguise. Try a good-quality crisp white blouse neatly tucked into a full skirt. A high street patterned version in cotton or silk is a great starting point. Simply add a few petticoats to give them some bulk.
Pencil skirts are not as stress-inducing as you may imagine and are a great staple on which to build. A note of caution, though: invest in quality because a cheap version will not hold its shape for long. However, if you still have a lump in your throat - or find the whole pointy-bra, Stepford-wife connotations as palatable as expired milk - it is possible to dip in and out of the look without going the whole hog.
And remember, all this is designed for real women who look like women, not a synthetic yoga-stretched version. So, have fun with the whole thing, revel in all your bottom-heavy glory. It's not often that fashion allows us to do so.
Ticket prices
General admission Dh295 (under-three free)
Buy a four-person Family & Friends ticket and pay for only three tickets, so the fourth family member is free
Buy tickets at: wbworldabudhabi.com/en/tickets
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Singham Again
Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
Rating: 3/5
Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
Other promotions
- Deliveroo will team up with Pineapple Express to offer customers near JLT a special treat: free banana caramel dessert with all orders on January 26
- Jones the Grocer will have their limited edition Australia Day menu available until the end of the month (January 31)
- Australian Vet in Abu Dhabi (with locations in Khalifa City A and Reem Island) will have a 15 per cent off all store items (excluding medications)
TRAP
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donaghue
Director: M Night Shyamalan
Rating: 3/5
Joker: Folie a Deux
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson
Director: Todd Phillips
Rating: 2/5
Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
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