Sukhinder Singh Cassidy  is the former president of Google’s Asia-Pacific and Latin American operations. She has just taken up the role of CEO of Polyvore.

The fashion website allows fashionistas to “mix & match products from your favorite stores” into fashion “sets” on any topic, from Hershey’s Kisses inspired collections to the late Alexander McQueen.

Everyone can be a fashion stylist now, creating the latest collections from Holly to Bollywood. Want to create a collection that is seen by all the stars, here is your chance.

Singh Cassidy said in an interview that she was attracted to the viral, technological and global nature of the site, whose six million unique visitors last month created 30,000 fashion sets a day.

“Polyvore is an incredibly differentiated asset in the social shopping space,” she said, noting that the innovative site could move into adjacent arenas such as interior design. “I felt like the possibilities were endless of what the platform could do.”

Founded in just 2007, Polyvore has generated $8.1 million in funding Series A funding from Benchmark Capital, Harrison Metal and Matrix Partners. The dozen employees are welcoming their new high powered CEO.

Co-founder Pasha Sadri, the creator of the very much successful Yahoo (YHOO) Pipes, said Polyvore was founded to allow people to link self-expression with real-world brands and products. The odd name is a combination that roughly seems to mean the devouring of many or much. I think they need to work on the name before this hits it big time.

“We wanted to create a place where people can express their creativity,” said Sadri, who noted that money-making on Polyvore would center around transactions related to the merchandise and advertising in the online community.

In a related move, Singh Cassidy also became a board member of specialty apparel retailer J. Crew Group (JCG) last summer. Her inside to fashion and insider perspective should allow her to feature Polyvore among the big players in the apparel industry.

Thanks to AllthingsD for the heads up.

This post is for a friend of ours. Karate-mart has recently relaunched the  site and dropped the dash in the name. From everything I can see (and remember from the karate classes of my youth) it looks like they have pretty good prices on the karate gear and the new site is pretty slick. If you have any issues make sure to leave a comment and ill make sure I get in touch with their developer and get things hammered out quickly.

BIG is beautiful – that was the message from a history-making plus-size parade at Rosemount Sydney Fashion Festival yesterday.

Organisers said it was the first time such an event had been part of a major Australian fashion week.

To cheers from the crowd, models in sizes 14 to 18 – including New York-based beauty Elizabeth Green and former Biggest Loser winner Fiona Faulkiner – took part in the high-energy parade for plus-size retailer City Chic.

• Pics: Plus-size stunners on parade
• Pics: Jen Hawkins on the catwalk

On show were plenty of races-worthy strapless cocktail dresses and an edgier rock chick look that included studded tank tops and stretch mini-skirts.

City Chic general manager Phil Ryan said: “We try to showcase that size 14-plus girls in Australia can have the latest fashion in the world, to wear anywhere.”

City Chic made a point of not dictating what it thought was suitable for its 18 to 28-year-old target market, who he said tended to go for mini-skirts.

“We put it in our stores and let the girl make that decision,” he said, adding: “It’s funny, if we do a skirt to the knee it doesn’t sell.”

He said the hardest part of the parade had been finding models, with plus-size agency BGM even holding a special open casting.

Streetwear label Ed Hardy showed off its new plus sizes for women.

The tattoo-inspired favourite worn by the likes of Madonna and Mick Gatto will put the range into City Chic stores next month.

Meanwhile, cricket WAG and model Lara Bingle helped launch swimwear giant Speedo’s first range of underwear in Sydney .

Those of us on the Internet don’t think about clothing catalogues too often. They are generally associated with a time gone by and something that is more for nostalgia than anything else. Well I can say this is not the case. I was visiting a friend and was checking out a clothing catalogue for ladies, of course! To my surprise it was nice to kick back on the couch under a nice lamp and sit and skim through a catalogue. I was able to check out all the styles without worrying about pop ups or emails distracting me, it was a very fulfilling experience. 

What are some of your favorite catalogues? I am sure there are some nifty catalogues floating around out there.

Tis the season! Have you noticed all the holiday belt buckles that are popping up in the papers? I just glanced through a few of the popular rags and found quite a few stars wearing some nightmare before christmas belt buckles. I was curious how much they run and where you could purchase them and ran across these:

I think these buckles are adorable! While you wouldnt be able to pimp these out all year round you would stand out at your holiday christmas party sporting one of these. 

Apparently they are officially licensed so the Jack fans out there can rest assured that these are legit. 

Any one else have any favorite holiday belt buckles they would want to share?

Visit www.hotbuckles.com to see more.

Here is an optical illusion that can test your nerves.

Which way is the lady spinning? Does the fact that she isnt wearing any clothes have anything to do with it? 

This image has been floating around the net for some time so I am not sure who to attribute it to so if you know who to give credit to please let us know. 

A tip is to focus on the shadow and see if you can get her to start spinning the other direction. 

Some people say that the way in which you originally view her as spinning correlates to whether you are right or left brained.

While this typically wouldnt be something that we would cover I thought that it was interesting and the few subscribers would get a kick out of it.  I think we may do a series on optical illusions in fashion and see what we can come up with and I can already think of a few. While this isnt fashion per se it will be the influence for some future posts so stay on the lookout unless your eyes are decieving you!

By the way I generally see her as going clockwise if that means anything.

John Galliano said “My role is to seduce”, which he seems to be successfully accomplishing by producing six collections for a number of haute couture brands under the  LVMH umbrella. He probably decided to just to create some press this time with his Gazette line of lingerie. The headline of this story should be the price,  $200-$250 per item. Maybe that Sunday paper is worth more than I thought.

Gazette bra

All of these items are pretty amusing but this isnt really a story we could see ourselves getting wrapped up in.

Thanks to I lovemybra.com for the story.

I heard from a little bird that a new fragrance and perfume store will be opening soon and wanted to give people a heads up to look for it over the next few months. The store is Scent and will feature a lot of different perfumes and good smelling things.

They didn’t ask me to write this but I thought I would help out as its always fun to route for the new guy. Hopefully they will send some samples my way (and yours too if you leave a comment)!

What are your favorite perfumes? Lotions?

I have been seeing gladiator sandals pop up in a lot of shoe stores. They go from the basic leather to the ornate with gold. Celebs have definitely been seen with them. I haven’t really seen them on the average Jane. Is this a fad or a trend with some staying power? They look a little too strapy to be comfortable.

What are your thoughts? I say let’s leave them for the Romans.

The next time you are people watching, try playing a new game. See if you can figure out who is carrying the real deal and who is saving their pennies on their purses. It seems almost half of the women walking down the street have a coach bag, but where did they get it? Did they drop $400 in a Coach retail store to get that trendy bag or did they spend $80 at one of the Coach factory outlet stores? Better yet, have you seen all of the Coach bags they have on ebay?

I recently got a great deal on a NWT (ebay lingo meaning “new with tags”) leather Coach purse and matching wallet. I noticed on the tags it said Coach factory and I was a little perplexed. It seemed that the listing failed to mention that they were from the outlet store. I still loved the purse and wallet, but wondered if I really got the steal of deal that I thought I had. Then on my last vacation, I entered a Coach outlet for the first time. The salesperson assured me that they bags they carried were genuine. It seems that Coach has two lines, their retail line and their outlet line. The salesperson described the outlet as being “the same high quality, but with less bells and whistles than the retail store.” So if you want the trendiest bag, then retail may be for you. However, if you are just looking for than iconic C pattern then you can save 50% or more at the outlet. If you are shopping on ebay be sure to look at the seller’s feedback and ask if it from retail or outlet. So what are your thoughts on outlet shopping? Anyone ever been to a Coach outlet?

Anyone ever been to a Coach outlet?