FANCY LIVING MAGAZINE. OCTOBER 2005. Page 68

 

More original vintage designer gowns must be found to feed increasing numbers of vintage fans (lovers of uniqueness or rarity) but there is, of course, only a finite supply. Little wonder that vintage designs have now evolved into an enduring mainstream fashion trend that shows no sign of waning. The supply is now infinite. The look once sought for being unique, offbeat, exotic and one of a kind, is now replicated in the millions for a complex tapestry of new reasons. One popular theory plots fashion designers' repeated returns to vintage and retro style as proof that they've run out of ideas. Another justifies the proliferation of 1920s, '30s, '40s and '50s styling in mainstream trends as our innate need for "comfort fashion" in a frightening, post-September 11 world. The truth could exist in a combination of both theories, or perhaps fashion has simply paused on the intrinsic beauty of a silk-satin gown that drapes like water, or the classic glamour of a fur stole, or the delicate glint of beads and sequins meticulously hand-stitched on to sheer veil fabrics, into flimsy lace trims and silk-speckled embroidery. Perhaps we just like fashion like that: classic, feminine and heart-stoppingly lovely.  F2NetworkNews.

Woman gave birth to a child using 21-year-old frozen sperm

A British woman gave birth to a baby boy using sperm from her husband that was frozen 21 years earlier, their doctor said Tuesday. Dr. Elizabeth Pease, a consultant in reproductive medicine at St. Mary's Hospital in Manchester where the baby was born two years ago, said she believed the age of the sperm made the case a world record. Pease said the father had five vials of his sperm "cryopreserved" at the age of 17, before treatment for testicular cancer that left him sterile. Some of the sperm was defrosted to inseminate his partner's eggs when the unidentified couple decided to try to have children in 1995. The first attempt was unsuccessful and the couple began fertility treatment, again using more of the stored sperm. In 2001, the woman successfully conceived during the couple's fourth attempt at in vitro fertilization. She gave birth in 2002. Greg Horne, the senior embryologist at St. Mary's Hospital, said the case proved that long-term freezing can successfully preserve sperm quality and fertility. "This is important to know because semen stored by young cancer patients is undertaken at a time of great emotional stress when future fertility is unlikely to be an immediate priority," he said. "It also suggests that we need to extend follow-up studies of cryobanked sperm up to 25 years at least," he added. Dr. Virginia Bolton, a consultant embryologist at King's College Hospital in London, said the case was welcome news but "not hugely surprising." "From animal studies, the only damage it seems that could occur to frozen sperm is through background radiation," she said.

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