Defining Fierce; My Interview with Young Modeling Sensation… Diva Davanna

They call her “Fashion’s Youngest Superstar”.  And at eleven years… young, she is!

But in my opinion, Diva Davanna is Fashion’s Superstar… period.

Diva Davanna has been modeling since she was just four years old, winning many awards along the way, and has appeared on The Tyra Banks Show as well as America’s Next Top Model.

Diva Davanna

Davanna is a regular sensation on runways across the nation–with over two million hits on YouTube–and I’m so excited to have her in The LOVE Spot today…

Watch this clip for a glimpse of Diva Davanna…

“Davanna is way fiercer than any supermodel we have ever seen.”

Tyra Banks

~Tyra Banks

I agree with Tyra.

You may think you know what fierce means, but if you haven’t seen Diva Davanna you really don’t know the definition. Trust me. She owns the word.

Read on to check out my interview with this young modeling sensation:

Beauty Budget. What’s yours? (a review of Jessica Simpson’s show on Vh1)

Have you seen VH1’s new show, “Jessica Simpson’s The Price of Beauty”? She’s come a long way since, “Is this chicken or tuna?”

If not, I implore you to make a date with VH1 every Monday night at 10 PM. It’s worth it.

If you haven’t seen it, this thought-provoking docudrama follows Jessica Simpson as she–and Cacee Cobb–travel through seven countries to examine global definitions of “beauty” and discover what lengths women will go to in order to feel beautiful.

I really respect Jessica Simpson for using her platform to provoke young girls (and grown ones, too) into thinking about our own definitions of beauty when surely, she could have instead made a reality show about finding love again.

And honestly–those of us who loved “Newlyweds” [raising my hand] and felt bad when she and Nick divorced, and then subsequently even worse for Jessica when she and Tony Romo didn’t make it–we would have probably supported, “For the Flavor of Jessica as the New Bacholorette Survives” had VH1 presented it to us.

Instead, Jessica Simpson’s return to reality television is full with welcomed substance.

While I’m not obsessed at all about beauty, I do love a spa date and therefore admit to contributing to the beauty industry’s multi-billion dollar a year profits.

How about you…? Here are the poll results…

Rhymes with Ice (but she’s getting hot)…

Her jewelry has been worn by many of our beloved pop culture icons, wonderful divas and style icons such as: Rashida Jones, Beyonce (seen below in her jewelry), Cameron Diaz, Miley Cyrus, Kelly Ripa, Drew Barrymore, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen and Academy Award Winning actress Kate Winslet.

 

Katharine Sise (her last name rhymes with ice) and/or her fabulous jewelry have been prominently featured in such magazines as Glamour, Marie Claire, W. Bazaar, Lucky (who launched her career by anointing her a “designer to watch) and Elle.

 

 

Many of us aspire to own a career using our God given talents and Katharine, too, strived for nothing less in her own life.

 

 

A graduate of the University of Notre Dame, she came to New York City equipped with big dreams and a degree in film, television and theater. She originally hoped to thrive as an actress.

 

 

And what do most of us hopeless thespians end up doing to make a living starting off, even with a college degree? You guessed it. But when Katie nearly spilled an expensive bottle of champagne on Robert Deniro while waitressing one evening, she knew it wasn’t the job for her. There had to be a better way. Turned out there was.

 

 

She put her instinctive talent to work and started designing and selling jewelry and her innovative creations were soon in demand.

 

Katharine Sise and/or her jewelry have appeared on “Good Morning America,” The Oxygen Network”, “The View”, “Live With Regis and Kelly”, “Good Day New York” and one of my personal favorites… “Gossip Girl”. We are so honored and delighted to have her here with us in “The Love Spot” today.

 

 

Read on for a Q&A with Katharine Sise where you’ll learn more about why “The Love Spot” has so much love for her and her jewelry. You’ll also discover some exciting news about what’s coming up in her life…

All love for hats (and a man who makes them). An interview with Albertus Q. Swanepoel…

Recently, the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) and Vogue announced the recipients of their fifth annual awards from the CFDA/VOGUE Fashion Fund. Congratulations are in order for the winner—Alexander Wang— and also for the runners up Lisa Mayock, Sophie Buhai, and Albertus Q. Swanepoel.

The CFDA/VOGUE Fashion Fund (CVFF) was established in 2003 to help emerging talent find continued success in the business of fashion. The winner and runners-up are given the opportunity to meet regularly with a team of business mentors and also receive $200,000 ( the runners-up each get $50,000).

In the CFDA’s official press release, VOGUE Editor in Chief Anna Wintour was quoted as saying, “In only the fifth year of the Fashion Fund competition, we know that to win a first or runner-up prize is to receive a very substantial professional boost. The proof lies in the remarkable success of the Fund’s previous winners.” It was Anna Wintour who also gave the foreword to Vera Wang’s gorgeous pictorial Vera Wang On Weddings (Collins Living), in which Swanepoel crafted all of the hats.

Albertus Q. Swanepoel (elegantly pronounced Swan+pool) is a milliner, the only hat-maker ever to be nominated for this most prestigious award, and is primed to evolve from crafter of hats to celebrated fashion icon, not unlike CoCo Chanel—whose first American job was also as a milliner.

Originally from Pretoria, South Africa, where he was an award-winning fashion designer, Swanepoel is currently one of NYC’s most noted. Featured in a two-page spread in November’s issue of Vogue, he was—earlier this year—asked to design a hat for President Elect Barack Obama’s “Runway to Change” fundraising drive (along with A-listers like Juicy Couture, Isaac Mizrahi and Beyonce).

 

Recently, Albertus welcomed me into his studio for an interview. Here is an excerpt of some of some of our most memorable discussion: