www.kentuckynewera.com | LIVING | Saturday-Sunday, April 28-29, 2012 C5

3119-B Canton Pike, Hopkinsville, KY

270.881.1942“FREE Delivery and Carry Out”

Tuesday-Thursday 10:30 a.m.-9:00 pm.Friday-Saturday 10:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m.

Sunday 10:30 a.m.-9:00 p.m.

AuthenticMexican Restaurant

AuthenticMexican RestaurantLas Fuentes

(AP) — Next time you’rehaving a backyard barbe-cue or going mod withsome new furniture,thank science.

Your salad spinner’smade of the same sort ofsilicone rubber developedto make Neil Armstrong’smoon boot. And thoseacrylic salad bowls andpatio chairs? World War IIfighter pilots needed safercanopies, and Plexiglaswas the answer.

Manufacturers of homegoods are quick to adoptinnovative materials andtechnology, and syntheticshave long been a favorite.The newest ones are a de-signer’s delight: They’remalleable, strong, light-weight and take color eas-ily.

The product range incolorful plastics is ex-panding, with greatshapes and fun hues.

From a crafting stand-point, acrylics are easy towork with. Using heat,they can be stretched andmolded without losingclarity, and joints are heatfused rather than glued orscrewed, which makes afinished piece virtuallyseamless.

Two Palm Springs,Calif., designers — LarryAbel and Raymond McCal-lister — run Art Style In-novation, a fun factory ofwhimsical takes on vin-tage and modern décor.The duo’s curvy acrylicvases and rippled bowls,done in neon hues, aredécor dancing. Their play-ful acrylic bookends comein a variety of silhouettesincluding cats, roosters,dogs, flowers, even a pairof shapely female legs.You’ll find clear acryliccube tables, too, in mod-ern takes on classic archi-tectural design.

Plexi-craft in New Yorkstocks a wide array of fur-niture in crystal-clearacrylic. The materialworks well in small spaces— entryways, boudoirs,small living rooms — be-cause it’s nearly invisible.The company will customtint, however; designer

Benjamin Noriega-Ortizlikes to use a milky whiteacrylic for an etherealquality.

Italian design power-house Kartell has fre-quently dominated thesynthetic materials mar-ketplace, with “wow” fac-tor pieces such asPhilippe Starck’s LouisGhost chair and FerruccioLaviani’s Bourgie lamp.There’s a wide range ofcolorful transparentpieces in the company’scollection.

Kartell also has manu-factured Starck’s Bubblechair, a cartoonishlyscaled piece that lookslike an oversize uphol-stered chair but is madeentirely out of polyethyl-ene. It’ll survive indoorsor out, and comes in sev-eral shades including paleyellow, black and zincwhite.

There was a time whenkitchen cupboards anddrawers were full of bor-ing basics. But today’scook has a paintbox ofhues available when buy-ing mixing bowls, cookingtools and utensils.Whether it’s a Kitchenaidblender in hot pink or aset of Rachael Ray’ssunny orange cookware,there’s more color ingood-quality, functional,synthetic-material gadg-ets than ever before.

Flexible silicone hasfans in fashion, where ac-cessories designers loveits pliability, color friend-liness and soft feel. Thesame characteristicsmake it big with kitchenand home designers, whoalso appreciate that it’sdishwasher-friendly. Sky-blue spatulas, tangerinewhisks — just about anykitchen tool can be foundin a fun, friendly hue.

San Francisco-basedBkr makes a glass waterbottle with a siliconesleeve, in hip shades likeJet black, Rocket red,Julep teal and Space in-digo. Bkr donates to can-cer research as well asclean water projects inAfrica.

Plastics get playful

CHICAGO (AP) — First therewere feathers, then the “HungerGames” braid took over. Nowthere’s a new hair trend just as easyto embrace — coloring strands withcraft-store chalk. No stylist, no com-plicated instructions, no great ex-pense.

Everyone from hipsters to chil-dren to Hollywood celebrities is em-bracing the runway fad for brightlycolored hair, using soft pastel chalk.

“Hair stylists and colorists,they’re artists at their core, sothey’re always fooling around withthings from the arts-and-craftsstore,” said Kristin Perrotta, Alluremagazine’s executive editor. “Some-where along the line a few of themrealized there were soft pastels youcould use to leave color on yourhair.”

The advantage? The chalks washout in the shower, allowing for tem-porary rocker style.

“There’s no commitment,” Per-rotta said. “This is your opportu-nity to go crazy for whatever timeyou want. Even if you’re a super-preppy woman who works in a li-brary, on the weekend you can havepurple stripes in your hair.”

Color-streaked hair first poppedup on the catwalks two to threeyears ago, featured by designerssuch as Prabal Gurung, Prada andJean Paul Gaultier, Perrotta said.But the look really took off when re-ality TV star Lauren Conrad fea-tured hair chalking on her blog,The Beauty Department.

“There’s really one person tocredit for the chalking trend: It’sLauren Conrad,” Perrotta said.

Conrad’s hairstylist, Kristin Ess,said beauty professionals have usedthe chalks to color hair for a while.She credits the proliferation of on-line beauty blogs for turning thetool into a trend.

“Usually it was secret, so top se-cret,” said Ess, who cofounded TheBeauty Department with Conrad.“But now the way that things are,it’s so easy to get it out there.”

The steps aren’t complicated:Take a piece of chalk, run it alongthe strand of hair until it’s coloredand if necessary pull the hair

through a curling iron. If you havedarker hair the chalk may stick eas-ier if you dampen the strand first.It’s important to use soft pastelchalks — the kind artists use, notoil-based chalks or sidewalk chalks.

To remove, shake or brush yourhair to dust out the chalk before get-ting into the shower. Then washyour hair. The chalk can get messy,so wear plastic gloves.

Kandee Johnson, a celebritymakeup artist and beauty and styleblogger, posted a hair chalking how-to video on YouTube in February. Sofar it’s gotten more than 630,000hits.

“People were sending me picturesfrom websites,” she said. “I didn’tthink people were going to be thatexcited over it. I did not think it wasgoing to be that popular at all.”

Johnson thinks the attractioncomes because chalking is tempo-rary and affordable — a whole setof chalks can cost between $6 and$8.

“It’s a fun idea if you have kids oryou have a corporate job,” she said.“It will be really fun for summer be-

cause you can have fun ponytails.”

Hair chalking tips:n Use art soft pastel chalk. Oil-

based chalk will stain your hair.Sidewalk chalk or chalkboard chalkwon’t stick to your hair.n No matter what color your hair,

apply the chalk to dry hair first. Ifyou have darker hair and the chalkisn’t showing up then dampen thehair before applying.nUsing a curling or flat iron after

chalking can help seal your hair ifneeded.nBlondes may have to shampoo a

few times before the color fullyrinses out.n Shake or brush the chalk out of

your hair before you wash it. Get-ting chalked hair wet could stainyour hair.n Protect your clothes and hands.

Wear gloves and smock or towel tokeep chalk from getting on youwhile you’re applying it. Chalk canflake off while it’s in your hair, soit’s a good idea not to wear lightclothes.

Coloring hair with pastels new trend

ASSOCIATED PRESS

In this photo taken April 2, 8-year-old Gabriella Lujan, has her hair colored with soft pastelchalk applied by neighborhood mom Orly Telisman in Chicago. Everyone from hipsters to chil-dren to Hollywood celebrities is embracing the runway fad for brightly colored hair, using softpastel chalk.

NEW YORK (AP) —Don’t be fooled by the old“my girlfriend boughtme this” line.

Fashion insiders saymen are taking a keen in-terest in how they dress— and that means devel-oping their own shop-ping habits. The biggestdifference in how theyshop for clothes? Proba-bly research — and pur-pose.

A Saturday at the shop-ping mall is not a high-light on most men’scalendars, says TylerThoreson, head of GiltGroupe’s menswear edi-torial and creative divi-sions. Even when they’reshopping online, they’renot surfing many web-sites or coming back tothem day after day, hesays, but when they findsomething they like, theyare passionate and po-tentially more loyal thanwomen.

Call shopping “enter-tainment” and they’renot buying it, but de-scribing it as a “hobby”is something else, hesays.

Men can “geek out”when it comes to con-struction and even minu-tia of a garment. “I’mnot just talking about a‘fashion guy.’ For manymen, your wardrobe ispart of your program ofdiscernment. They’lllearn about it like a car

or a wine or a watch,”Thoreson says. “Guyscan be busting eachother’s chops in onebreath and talking aboutsoft construction on theshoulder of a suit in thenext. They love construc-tion, specs. It’s aboutwhat’s under the hood.”

You now see men dress-ing for the life they wantto lead and image theywant to project, agreesEric Jennings, vice pres-ident and fashion direc-tor of menswear for SaksFifth Avenue. Shoppingand, even worse, tryingthings on are necessaryevils to get there.

They go to stores on amission and like to get itaccomplished, he says.They’ll come in knowingexactly what they wantand will buy in multi-ples. But, he adds, themodern customer is buy-ing a broader range ofproducts and sees avalue in having knowl-edge about them.

Paul Grangaard, CEOof shoe brand Allen Ed-monds, says when itcomes to fashion, menare hunters and womenare gatherers. Differentmethods, different men-talities, but both can endup with full closets, hesays.

“Shopping is not aman’s favorite when it’sabout waiting forwomen. It’s not a leisure

activity. Shopping fortheir own clothing isn’ttheir favorite place, ei-ther, but there is a ren-aissance — it’s small butsteady — as men are in-terested in an upgrade,”Jennings says. “Comingout of the recession, theyknow they have to takeappearance more seri-ously. It can be that thingfor a new job or a promo-tion.”

And, he adds, if they’redressing well during theweek, it’s likely to be-come a habit on week-ends.

“Men travel in herds,and when it’s OK in yourfriendship group to careabout how you look onthe weekends, it spreadspretty quickly,” observesGrangaard. “Since therecession of 2008, you’realways networking. Mendress better for midweekcoffees and lunches andon weekends becauseyou never know whoyou’ll run into where.You always want to looksecure, stable and reli-able.”

It’s hard to do that inbeat-up jeans and run-ning shoes.

Thoreson says he looksaround midtown Man-hattan and quite literallysees the change. You seemen — creative typesand hipsters, not justbankers, he stresses —voluntarily wearing ties.

On Gilt’s upscale Park &Bond website, for exam-ple, neckwear sales in-creased 33 percent in2011 over the previousyear. “They’re wearingties because they wantto, not because they haveto.”

Other booming itemsare pocket squares, Con-verse sneakers, tie barsand rope bracelets.

Suiting was the overallbest-seller on Gilt formen in the second quar-ter of the current fiscalyear, Thoreson says, and85 percent of its cus-tomers were doing theirown shopping. (They’llstill leave cuff links andsweaters to the women intheir lives to buy.They’re just not as excit-ing, he says.)

Suits are selling betterwith unexpected cus-tomers, from DJs to hote-liers, notes Saks’Jennings, but they’re notnecessarily wearingthem every day. It mightbe a suit one or two daysa week, a sportcoat an-other and dressed-updenim the other days atthe office, he describes.“Men just have more op-tions. It used to be thatyou were a suit guy or abusiness casual guy inkhakis and a polo, orjeans and a T-shirt.Those days are over.”

In pursuit of finer things, men finding fashion

ASSOCIATED PRESS

In this undated handout photo released by Art Innovation Style, wavyacrylic bowls in an array of neon hues are seen.

Balloons take to the skies,kick-off the Kentucky Derby

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) —Hot-air balloons will fill theskies over Louisville for thenext few days as KentuckyDerby Festival events con-tinue in the run-up to thefamous horse race for 3-year-olds on May 5 atChurchill Downs.

The Great BalloonFestfeatures five events that getunder way on Thursdayand run through Saturday,

when the Great BalloonRace is scheduled to takeplace at 7 a.m.

It all starts when the bal-loons fly into E.P. "Tom"Sawyer State Park at 5:30p.m. for the Great BalloonTour before heading to theGreat Balloon Glimmer atFest-a-Ville on the Water-front that night. On Friday,the Great Balloon Rush-Hour Race goes off at 7 a.m.at Bowman Field. Then theGreat Balloon Glow returnsto the Kentucky ExpositionCenter at 9 p.m.

LIVING BRIEF n