THE JAPANESE GEISHA CULTURE

The geisha is an assistant to the Oirans, the geisha were forbidden of having former personal relation with the customers.
They usually use white power to cover their face and the front & back of their neck. This white powder contained lead which would cause serious health problems, they finished the look by wearing black eyeliner and red lipstick.

To see a Geisha in Okiya, you have to know someone who has connections to the Okiya. You cannot see a Geisha face to face. To call a Geisha to your banquet you have to tell the Ryotei where you are having it. The Ryotei is a high class Japanese restaurant furnished with a large private rooms.

The Ryotei will then arrange the number of geisha according to the budget of the guest wishes. A geisha has a patron, who is called Danna, a Danna is a powerful wealthy man that pays for all the expenses of a geisha, to be become a geisha requires a lot of time and money. The donna would pay and take care of the geisha throughout her life. It was high society to become a Donna, it showed that you had enough money to be Patron of a geisha, their relationship was not inherently sexual.

Many people confused geisha with oiran, oiran  were high class sex workers while geisha were not sex worker they were technically entertainers, they were trained hostess in the art of entertaining, they were skilled in music, dance and conversations. Geisha were known for their refined and artistic style of hospitality.

Oirans were extremely ornate sometimes wearing as many 5-7 kimonos and wigs that would weigh op to 10 kg bare foot or in scandal that were as high as 20 cm. One night with an oiran could cost someone as much as a year income during the Edo period.

BILLIONAIRES FORTUNE HAS SKYROCKET DUE TO THE PANDEMIC

America’s billionaire’s fortune has skyrocket over the past six months during the coronavirus pandemic.

The pandemic got us to the worst unemployment crisis since the great depression, but the billionaires net worth has increased with 29%. They were not affected by the pandemic.

Amazon stocks went up more than 60% this year.

CEO Jeff Bezos personal wealth increased by 55.2 billion dollar with a total net worth of 200 billion dollars, he is the World wealthiest person.

Alice, Jim, and Rob Walton the founder family of Walmart also grew by more than 60 billion dollars.
Google founder Larry Page asset grew by more than 18 billion dollars.
Telsa CEO Elon Musk fortune increased by 70 billion dollars during this pandemic making him the third richest person on the planet. Six months into the pandemic we see how uneven the economic burden has been on the poor and the middle class while the Mega rich are thriving.
The way is going now a few people are going to have extreme amount of power to shape the economy, politics, and media.
The question is do we want to have a society where the main street no longer has shops, Cos if something is not done there is going to be only Amazon loading depot.

Welcome to our world where some getting richer from the pandemic while some getting poorer.

WE MUST REVIEW OUR SOCIETY STRUCTURE.

STAYCATION

The Coronavirus that started early this year, lead to a total lockdown. This has turned the world upside down. Suddenly all the things we normally do for fun is no longer allowed we all had to stay at home, work from home only the essential shops were allowed to open like the grocery and pharmacy.

Now that the lockdown is over life is still not back to how we use to know it . The question is how do we make staying at home more fun. Everybody started getting creative a lot of people who had gardens made it look more beautiful, cos they would be spending more time in their garden. Buying a house with a garden became essential criteria.
To make the garden more fun, a lot of families bought the inflatable swimming pool so that friends and families would swim at home cos the public swimming pool are close, installing a real swimming pool in the cold region is not necessary for some people cos of limitation of usage during the winter. That is why a lot of people opted for the inflatable swimming pool so that in the winter they would just deflate it and put it inside. I also decided to join the bandwagon of buying the inflatable swimming pool. I would say it was fun to have it and use it, as I really cannot swim just sitting in the water in the open air was fun and refreshing during the extra hot days. At the end I find it an interesting choice.

2) I also worked in my garden to make it look beautiful and I incorporated a resort vibe to it, so that I would not miss going out or traveling haha staycation idea was put to use.

3) Renovating and redecoration my house became one of my top priorities, Sitting in my terrace at home became something I do regularly I have breakfast, lunch and dinner outside on the terrace.

I am also paying more attention to eating healthy during this coronavirus period.
I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables cos this help to improve the immune system.

2020 has not turned out the way we expected but we are happy to be alive.

Model: Rita Roland & Katrien De Keukelaere
Location: Rita Rolands garden
Photography: Ludwig Raes

Thanks for stopping by

WHAT NEXT

It is Five years I have been blogging during this period I have written a lot about fashion, done more than 120 post.
I have also written my blog books style and concept by Rita Roland volume one, two and three.

Now the question is what Next?

That is why I and Mr Kristof Van Den Bossche decided to do an exhibition of our work, date and time will be announced.

This project is very dear to our heart.

Together with Mr Kristof Van Den Bossche I have shot more than 100 Outfit and concept where by we use visual images to tell stories.

We also want to use this opportunity to thank all our sponsors.

http://www.salonsmantovani.be
http://www.optiekjacques.be
http://www.fotografik.be
http://www.thebluebirdie.be
http://www.devatwork.be

Mr Paul Bellemans my manager and friend.

Kathleen from Kathwalk Zottegem.

Huizen Floere Musselystraat Zottegem.

Together we keep the dream alive.

Thanks for stopping by.

You can purchase this fine art print images@

http://www.fotografik.be

PORTRAIT OF A LADY

Who are you? And what you do is important to be represented and share with the World properly. The portrait picture help to achieve this, taking a portrait picture of yourself is good, but should be done by a professional portrait photographer, http://www.fotograk.be
I would like to throw some light on how you have to pose for your portrait shoot, this type of shoot is different from the regular fashion shoot were the main focus is on the cloth/ outfit. The portrait shoot is all about the face.
When you are having your portrait shoot taking you can either look directly into the camera or you can look off the camera either way the goal is to intrigue feeling and bring out different types of emotions in you.
A good portrait should show some elements of your personality. Somebody should be able to look at your portrait and say something about you.

Styling and choosing the correct outfit for your portrait shoot and doing the right make up will help you achieve a better result. It is a most to dress correctly for your portrait shoot. This is because the right outfit, expression, and pose is very necessary for your profile picture.

These type of portrait are not just headshot but it goes further to tell a story, so the right location, right attitude, and a professional photographer makes all the differences.

Model: Rita Roland
Makeup & Styling : Rita Roland
Photography: http://www.fotografik.be

THE CORONAVIRUS

The 2019-2020 Coronavirus is an ongoing pandemic. The outbreak was first identified in the city of Wuhan, Hubei in China. It was recognized as a pandemic by W.H.O. On march 11, 2020, more than 246,000 cases of COVID-19 has been reported in at least 180 countries, resulting in 10,000 death and 88,000 recorded on March 19.
Belgium declared a lockdown on  March 18 ,whereby only the essential shop like supermarket and pharmacy were allowed to open all other shops were asked to close.
Worker where ask to work from home and the ones who would not work from home where giving technical unemployment. Business owner where giving 4,000 euro as compensation in the first month after that they got 160,00 euros per day.
The citizen where ask to stay one meter from each other when doing grocery shopping. Everybody where ask to stay home no visitor where allowed all events were cancelled.
Symtom of COVID-19
Fever
Tiredness
Short breath
Throat pain
Headache
Running stomach
Muscle pain.

There is not yet a vaccine against the Covid 19, as a vaccine takes more than one year to be ready.
Chloroquine was used to treat the Covid 19, but it is not a real medication for it but it does help as Chloroquine is a drug for malaria.
The Covid 19 is going to have a huge economic crisis on different countries.

We are definitely going to survive these pandemic but how do we plan to solve the damage it will cause on our economy.

LETS GO TO THE VENICE BALL

The Irony of life is that those who wear mask often tells us more truth than those with open faces.

The Venice masquerade ball has been around since the 11th century and has played a major role in Venetian history.

During the masquerade ball the participant attend in costume wearing mask. The Venetian carnival tradition is most famous for its distinctive masks. It is very common that people attend the Venice ball wearing elaborate costume and masks.
The Venice ball is an annual festival held in Venice, Italy. The Venice ball is not for everybody because it can be intensely crowded, hotel and restaurant can become very expensive, never the less it is a unique occasion and a time to see the city in a new exciting light.

In this modern time the intrigue of wearing mask has been enhanced by the movie Casanova and Eyes Wild Shut.
There are different types of masks ranging from exclusive mask, traditional Venetian mask or Bauta mask. The Bauta mask is the most popular one because is used for disguise. The whole spectacular happening during the Venice carnival draw visitors from all over the world to Venice.

Thanks Thanks for stopping by

Photography: http://www.fotografik.be
Location: @ Hotel LE Berger Brussel
For similar outfit: www.okycoky.com
Wardrobe: Rita Roland

 

WELCOME TO THE NEW WORLD OF INFLUENCER MARKETING

As a fashion influencer I taught it will be nice to write about influencer marketing since time has changed and it is no longer the big brands that are completely in control.
Consumer has evolved and competition has become stronger and the rise of micro influencer is replacing celebrity and brands promotion.
This is because the micro influencer are relatable to their peers, consumer are no longer in utter awe of superstar because celebrity are not really in touch with reality and the micro influencers deals with life needs, products and services.
The micro influencers are just girls or boys who are turning their passion into influencer jobs. They are the new face that consumer fall in love with.

They usually have between 1000, to 10,000 followers and their fee goes from 100 to 2000 euros for a post. A lot of companies goes for micro influcers because it is budget friendly.
Influencers are walking their ways into the business landscape and are making transformation.

Mega Influencer are the cream de la cream to a company they usually have more than 100,000 to 5,000,000 million followers.
Their fees goes from 2,000 euros to 200,000 euros for a sponsored post.

Brand Ambassador is an influencer who is hired by a company to represent their brand. They have to only promote the product of only that particular company. Ambassador for a brand has usually between 80,000 to 200,000 followers. They are specialised on particular niche. Their fees goes from 2,000 to 100,000 euros

Thanks for stopping by
location – Castel of Poeke

 

ENCHANTRESS

 

Halloween is an old Celtic tradition, which got forgotten in Europe and was exported to the USA by the immigrants later it was reintroduced in Europe.

This is an ideal period of the year to dress in different characters.

The easy way out is to buy a costume or make an unusual combination of what you already have in your wardrobe.

DO YOU FEEL LIKE

Walking through walls.

Practice teleportation?

Been a powerful sorceress with the ability to  manipulate magical energy?

Controlling minds and possessing unlimited mystical senses?

OR TO

Enhance your natural beauty & allure & to be able to seduce any man as long as u want.

WHY NOT ADAPT THE ENCHANTRESS LOOK.

Photography:  www.fotografik.be
Wardrobe: Rita Roland.

ROYAL OUD ONE OF MY BEST PERFUME

Royal Oud is my go to perfume, it has sandalwood, leather, marble and gold notes. The inspiration behind the Royal Oud is the element of a Persian Palace.
The Creed perfume house is a Paris based exclusive fragrance company. This perfume is a unisex perfume.
Creed perfume is made in the old school way a lot of creeds customer are loyal to the brand cos they get what they pay for. It is a very expensive perfume but it is worth the price tag. They are one of the World private held luxury fragrance company. It was founded in 1760 and has been passed on from father to son.
Creed has been serving royals for more than 251 years.
Olivier Creed is the sixth in the family line to head the company.
The most popular Creed fragrance is Aventus and Love in White.
Creed is one of the perfume brand that still make perfume by hand.
They release a new fragrance in every five years. It is popular among royals and celebrities. It is not sold in standard perfume shops. This fragrance is different and unique so it intoxicates the wearer and those who encounter her.