While most students are struggling to get by on a budget, there's one fashion scholar in London who is living it up at the Ivy Restaurant and shopping on the exclusive Kings Road in Chelsea.

Antonio Banderas - who has enrolled at the world-renowned design school Central Saint Martins - enjoyed a leisurely lunch at the exclusive eaterie and an afternoon shopping with his girlfriend in London on Saturday.  

The Spanish actor, 50, was spotted holding hands with his girlfriend Nicole Kimpel, 34, as they took a stroll through the upscale neighbourhood of Chelsea. 

 

 

+4

Couple: Antonio Banderas 50, was spotted holding hands with his girlfriend Nicole Kimpel, 34, as they took a stroll through the upscale neighbourhood of Chelsea in London on Saturday

The star was hard to miss in a bright blue denim shirt which he teamed with a casually cool spring-like beige jacket and trousers. 

His girlfriend showed off her trim figure in black skinny leg leather trousers. 

Advertisment Cheap Jordans from China Replica Basketball Shoes Best Replica Shoes Fake Branded Shoes Cheap Air Max Shoes

She added a splash of colour in a jazzy multi-coloured jacket, and carried a stylish black snakeskin handbag with chunky clasp.  

 

 

+4

Keep it light: The star was hard to miss in a bright blue denim shirt which he teamed with a casually cool spring-like beige jacket and trousers

The actor has set up home in the English capital to study fashion where Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney and John Galliano learned their craft.

The Mask Of Zorro star split with his ex-wife Melanie Griffiths in June last year due to 'irreconcilable differences' after 18 years of marriage.

The former couple are parents to 18-year-old daughter Stella, who's enrolled at the prestigious New York University.

He recently said in an interview that he's relishing going back to studying.  

 

 

+4

Split: The Mask Of Zorro star split with his ex-wife Melanie Griffiths in June last year due to 'irreconcilable differences' after 18 years of marriage - pictured in New York in 2013

'It’s something that has been on my mind for a long time and probably one of the best schools in the world is here... and so I am going to start studying with them,' Antonio said on ITV's Loose Women.

'It makes me feel actually very young to put the elbows on the table again and try to understand another reality.'

He added: 'Of course I won’t stop my professional life, I’ll continue acting, directing, but this is a new thing.' 

The fifth year of Birmingham Fashion Week kicked off Thursday night with a few new faces at Pepper Place.

"Project Runway" alum Gunnar Deatherage hit the runway first with a streamlined collection reminiscent of steampunk that featured earth tones, plaids, and leather details such as piping.

Deatherage is one of seven designers featured this year from the TV design competition.

Rising Design Star finalists followed, showing off garments made from non-traditional objects such as keyboard keys and highlighting themes such as Alabama's role in the Industrial Revolution, the Birmingham skyline and state agriculture.

Over 100 local middle and high school students applied for Rising Design Stars contest. Each contestant's garments were displayed at the Birmingham Museum of Art and judged by both the museum curator and the public.

The young designers were also tasked with making an additional garment made with Buffalo Rock products.

Birmingham Fashion Week's Emerging Design Stars, a contest featuring mini-collections from 16 college students and post-grad designers, followed.

Advertisment Cheap Jordans from China Replica Basketball Shoes Best Replica Shoes Fake Branded Shoes Cheap Air Max Shoes

Collections featuring everything from glamorous bronze designs to gothic gowns in deep, rich colors hit the runway. Each finalist is competing for prizes such as an $1000 scholarship, a spot in next year's show and a professional photo shoot.

Retail designers Monkee's of Mountain Brook and the Pepper Place Pop Up shop followed on the runway.

North Carolina women's brand Marie Oliver showed off breezy pieces in fun, summer colors.

Headlining designer and "Project Runway" winner Michelle Lesniak closed out the show with her fanciful Spring/Summer 2016 collection called "Falling Upward," featuring hot air balloon print garments as well as unique color combinations such as peach paired with mustard.

If you weren't lucky enough to join Joanna Lumley, David Gandy and Malaika Firth on the guest list for the fifth Women: Inspiration and Enterprise (WIE) Awards, you can still enjoy watching the action unfold on the live stream above.

Inspirational women who have used their influence as entrepreneurs to make a positive difference to the lives of others will be honoured at the WIE award ceremony on Monday 27 April.

Tune into the live stream from 7pm to see powerful speeches from Arianna Huffington, international lawyer Miriam González Durántez, Caroline Rush, CEO of the British Fashion Council, Aldijana Sisic, chief of the UN Trust Fund to end violence against women and Professor Frances Corner, head of the London College of Fashion, UAL.

There will follow an innovative fashion show debuting the 'Legacy Collection' from the LDNY Foundation - a charity that helps young people from lower income families gain entry into the creative industries.

T​he show will highlight the next generation of design talent from the London College of Fashion, UAL and Parsons New School in New York, as well as the work of female artisans from Mongolia, Peru, India, Ethiopia and Papua New Guinea.

Advertisment Cheap Designer Bags Cheap Michael Kors Bags China Wholesale En Bag Air Max Shoes Wholesale Cheap Jordans On sale EnBag1.com http://enbagcheapbagsreview.tripod.com/

Models at the very first WIE in New York, 2010

Following the event, the designs will be showcased at Liberty. Ed Burstell, the Managing Director of Liberty said:

"Liberty is delighted to be supporting Women: Inspiration and Enterprise and the LDNY Foundation initiative which firmly puts sustainable fashion on the world stage.

"In our continual bid to support new and emerging design we look forward to raising funds through the sale of this collection in-store for educational grants and scholarships to London College of Fashion, UAL and Parsons."

During the dot-com boom, Julie Wainwright found herself at the helm of two different e-commerce firms. The first, Reel.com, sold movies online and preceded the likes of Netflix and other services before being sold to a Hollywood entertainment company. The second, Pets.com, went public before crashing and burning as the defining symbol of the Internet bubble.

Now, 15 years later, the former Reel.com and Pets.com CEO is at it again, this time with a startup whose high-end fashion consignment model did more than $100 million in sales last year. After first shipping product in June 2011, The RealReal, the first entrepreneurial endeavor that Wainwright has founded, announced a $40 million round of funding on Thursday led by Industry Ventures.

The investment–which was joined by the likes of  e.ventures Growth, Greycroft Growth, DBL Partners, Canaan Partners and InterWest Partners–takes the company’s total funding to $83 million. Based in San Francisco, The RealReal is on track to double sales from last year, said Wainwright, who’s created a viable competitor to the likes of eBay EBAY +0.55% for users looking to hawk second-hand Chanel bags or Rolex watches.

“When I started in e-commerce, there was not a lot of clutter because there were not a lot of companies,” said Wainwright, 57. “Nowadays, you have to have a pretty serious moat around your business to compete with Amazon, Wal-Mart and even Alibaba online. You really need a unique selling proposition and people need to care about that unique selling proposition.”

Advertisment

Cheap Air Max 2015 Wholesale Free Run Air Jordan Retro Shoe Cheapest Roshe Run Replica Shoes Outlet

The RealReal’s unique proposition is that it will take goods from users before they’re even sold, storing them in its warehouses until they are purchased online. All items, whether it’s a Burberry coat or pair of Tom Ford shoes are one-of-a-kind on the site and usually do not come in different sizes or colors. Sellers keep 60% to 70% of the online sale price.

The high-end fashion has been one of the last retail spaces to move online, though signs are pointing to a gradual shift in the luxury market. Last month, two of the leading online retailers in the space, Net-A-Porter and Yoox, announced an agreement to merge. Wainwright estimated that the luxury market does about $70 billion in sales a year in the U.S., of which less than 10% happens online.

The RealReal’s CEO sees the move toward online as being a large advantage to her company. Fashion has “a forced obsolescence” a few times a year as styles change with the seasons, forcing many to try and sell older clothes and accessories, possibly via the web.

The funding will allow the company to keep expanding operations and inventory, and Wainwright said that company will hit profitability for the first time this year. And while its expanded into selling art, the company still derives the majority of its revenue from fashion, which its CEO doesn’t expect to change.

“It’s really hard to create a fashion brand online,” she said, “and there’s certainly a lot of opportunity right now for anyone selling fashion online.”

As the first of several final episodes signaled, "Mad Men," the most fashion-influential TV show since "Sex and the City," is coming to an end.

AMC's 1960s period drama about slick ad men and curvy women has been an aesthetic gold mine, influencing the slim silhouette of men's suits, the beauty ideal for women's bodies and more, particularly during the first five years of the show's 2007 to 2015 run.

It brought the worlds of fashion and costume design ever closer in the process.

From the very first season, I — like most viewers — was seduced by the show's post-1950s innocence. I dreamed about living in an era before surgeon general warnings, when cigarettes and booze were a given at lunchtime, and the polished glamour and propriety of opera gloves and pillbox hats were the norm.

"I don't think you would have liked it," said my baby boomer mother, shattering the spell. "It wasn't much of a place for women."

Of course she was right, as we've seen in episodes since, but they did dress fine.

The look of the show was envisioned by costume designer Janie Bryant, who was inspired by old catalogues, her Southern grandparents and the wares at L.A. area vintage stores — which she helped to make fashion destinations — including Playclothes in Burbank, the Way We Wore on La Brea Avenue and Shareen.

Advertisment

Cheap Air Max 2015 Wholesale Free Run Air Jordan Retro Shoe Cheapest Roshe Run Replica Shoes Outlet

A womanizing, hard-drinking man's man who could almost be forgiven his sins because he looked so darn dashing in a suit, Don Draper (Jon Hamm) became an instant style icon. His character resonated because it was the antithesis of the business casual, cargo-panted, metrosexual ideal that existed in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

The strength of Don's uniform for success — the slim grey Brooks Brothers suit, crisp white shirt, neatly folded pocket square, occasional tie bar and fedora —inspired men of the 21{+s}t century to dress up in a new, trim-tailored silhouette.

Surely it's no coincidence that men's retail sales began an upward climb in 2008, shortly after the series started to run on AMC. Although the lumbersexual's beard oil, pocket whittling kit and made-in-the-U.S.A. work boots may be the accessories of choice now, the "Mad Men" martini shaker, cuff links and pocket squares kicked off the men's shopping boom.

The women of "Mad Men" were equally influential, with fans of the series dissecting every look online, from pen necklaces down to power girdles.

Together with Michelle Obama's similarly retro style, the series helped kick off five years of ladylike cardigans standing in for jackets over pencil skirts and bodycon dresses, worn with kitten heels and pearls.

It also helped rekindle interest in matte red lipstick, cat eye makeup (thanks to Don's second wife, Megan Draper) and more stylized hair.

Fans wrote impassioned columns in magazines, newspapers and online about how Joan's (Christina Hendricks') figure helped them learn to love their curves.

Fashion took notice. In 2010, several designers showed runway collections inspired by a more retro vision of the female form. They included Miuccia Prada, who used fuller-figured models on her runway, and Marc Jacobs at Louis Vuitton, who staged a Parisian love story around a shooting fountain, with clothes designed with voluptuousness in mind.

AMC capitalized on the throwback style of the show, too, entering a marketing partnership with Banana Republic in 2009 that put "Mad Men" posters in the windows of stores and a "Mad About Style" guide in the hands of shoppers.

Bryant became a household name, creating a new model for the costume-fashion designer with a steady stream of outside design gigs.

Over the years, Bryant collaborated with Brooks Brothers, Maidenform, QVC and Shoes of Prey. She wrote a book, "The Fashion File: Advice, Tips, and Inspiration From the Costume Designer of Mad Men." By 2011, she was designing an entire, 1960s-inspired "Mad Men" collection for Banana Republic.

On-screen, as the '60s raged on, the show's costumes reflected cultural shifts and the emergence of personal style — Peggy's plaid pantsuit a symbol of women's newfound power in the workplace, Stan Rizzo's beard the mark of a generation determined to break with the conservative past, Sally Draper's white go-go boots a sign of the rise of youth culture and Megan Draper's tie-dye mini dress a hint at the sexual revolution.

Only Don has stayed the same.

For the final run, "Mad Men" enters the 1970s, after leaving off in the summer of '69 with the Apollo moon landing.

Certainly the new season promo, set to Diana Ross's 1976 tune "Love Hangover," features enough sideburns, loud plaid, belly chains and bell-bottoms to suggest the jump into the 1970s.

Looking at today's '70s-influenced fashion, that would be right on trend.