The reality star has inked a deal with global brand licensing agency Beanstalk to offer “fashion-forward, affordable apparel and accessories”.

Her goal is to be the “Queen of TV,” and now NeNe Leakes also wants to be a princess of fashion. She will reportedly be the highest-paid performer on the upcoming fifth season of Bravo’s Real Housewives of Atlanta; she has a recurring role on Fox’s Glee as Coach Roz Washington and a role in Ryan Murphy’s upcoming NBC sitcom The New Normal; she is an author and TV magazine correspondent; and she was a contestant on NBC’s The Celebrity Apprentice.

On Tuesday, the 44-year-old mother of two announced that she has signed with global brand licensing agency Beanstalk to make her move into fashion. Beanstalk says in an announcement tied to Licensing Expo 2012, now going on in Las Vegas, that it intends to “leverage NeNe’s position in pop culture to offer consumers fashion-forward, affordable apparel and accessories, designed to empower women to walk into a room and ‘own it’ — like NeNe herself.”

No deals are signed yet, but Beanstalk will look to license a range of consumer products built around fashion that will appeal to the women who have watched her evolve on the show.

— The Hollywood Reporter

The dress that takes a lot of bottles to wear

Scientists have unveiled a collection of skin-tight garments fashioned from red wine. A team from the University of Western Australia added a bacteria to the alcoholic beverage to create a cotton-like substance. To date they have made dresses, Tshirts and swimwear and are now looking at ways to improve the fabric’s tear strength. Lead researcher Gary Cass collaborated with contemporary artist Donna Franklin to design the womenswear range and believes fermented fashion could one day become mainstream. Discussing the project he states: “This project redefines the production of woven materials. By combining art and science knowledge and with a little inventiveness, the ultimate goal will be to produce a bacterial fermented seamless garment that forms without a single stitch.” To create the fabric, a bacteria called acetobacter is added to vats of wine to convert it into vinegar and a scum-like surface gradually forms. This layer is then harvested and dried on an inflatable mannequin to get the desired shape. When the dummy is deflated the clothing remains, but when the ensemble dries the fibres become like tissue paper, tearing easily, so the garment needs to be kept damp when worn. The Bioalloy team are now hoping to partner up with other experts to find a way to strengthen the material, which they have named ‘Micro be’. This is not textile artist Franklin’s first foray into the world of fermenting fashion. In 2007 she presented a living fungus dress, feeding it special nutrients to promote its colourchanging properties. “We hope that it will inspire others to come up with more creative pieces that will direct and/or redirect our future society,” Cass told Wired.co.uk.

— Daily Mail

Football goes high fashion with new NFL ‘It’s My Team’ campaign

Forget blood and guts. Professional football is bringing style to the back field. The National Football League has partnered with one of the big names in fashion to bring the joy of the gridiron to the fairer sex. In September, the NFL will launch the “It’s My Team” campaign, which will feature a diverse cast of notable women like Melania Trump, Peta Murgatroyd from Dancing with the Stars, and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in football gear with a feminine twist. Styled by Tiina Laakkonen and shot by Daniel Jackson, both fashion industry veterans, the campaign will appear in lifestyle and fashion magazines later that month. “This campaign, ‘It’s My Team,’ celebrates our female fans by featuring a diverse group of women displaying their team pride in ways that fit into their individual lifestyles,” Rhiannon Madden, the director of apparel for the NFL, told the News. Also in the works: A limited-edition T-shirt created in collaboration with Marchesa designer Georgina Chapman, according to Women’s Wear Daily. Chapman, who is known for her elegant and feminine aesthetic, was recruited to design the NFL shirt by her husband, producer and movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, who is friends with New York Jets owner Woody Johnson. The league will debut the limitededition shirt in the first week of September, around the time of the New York Giants – Dallas Cowboys opener. Johnson’s wife, Suzanne, will appear in the “It’s My Team” campaign as well. She will be sporting what she normally wears to the stadium: a fitted New York Jets top, Jimmy Choo shoes and her favourite handbag. “I am a Hermès girl so my bag will be in the shot,” Johnson told WWD. “(My husband) leaves the fashion to me and I definitely leave the football to him.”

— NY Daily News