Last night saw the unveiling of The Fashion Network’s Fashion for a Cause photo project – a series of photos featuring the region’s top bloggers and online fashion editors (that’s us!) in exquisite vintage clothing from the soon-to-officially-open Bambah Boutique on Jumeirah Beach Road – at a cocktail event flocked by the cream of Dubai’s fashion crop.

The UAE-based high-end boutique has announced a weekend getaway promotion in cooperation with the Pullman Hotel in Dubai to celebrate the 2011 Dubai Shopping Festival. A lucky couple will win an overnight stay for two with breakfast at the Pullman, a 30 minute foot massage courtesy of Sanctuary Spa, and a $50 gift card to spend at Boutique 1 with the help of a professional stylist.

Get ready for the first fashion show live stream of 2011, people. Italian fashion designer Alberta Ferretti is set to officially open the 79th edition of Pitti Uomo with a special showcase of 30 dresses created exclusively for this event, and we’re bringing the show all the way from Firenze (Florence) straight to your computer screens, in real time.

“That bag looks like the stylish sibling of a wooden chopping board, in a very good way” was our first reaction when we saw one of Ghita Abi-Hanna’s creations. Not very often do you see a random kitchen item as deceptively simple as a chopping board cross over to the dark side of fashion. And we love it.

The images of Tom Ford’s controversial, probably-had-something-to-do-with-Carine-Roitfeld’s-resignation fashion editorial in the December-January edition of Vogue Paris, featuring tiny children in heavy makeup and a truckload of couture, are out. Some have expressed outrage, while some have expressed delight over the creativity and styling of the spreads.

Hush, hush, no more. The wait is over as we embark with excitement to reveal to you the secret project that we’ve been tweeting and sharing on Facebook just before the New Year. If you’re following us, you know exactly what we’re talking about. But, if you’re not then we think that you’ve been missing so much.

You’ve seen it all over the past week – virtually all publications writing about the same thing over and over again, reviewing what has happened in the worlds of fashion and beauty during 2010, to make a lazy transition into the new year. Lady Gaga’s meat dress here, Carine Roitfeld’s canning from Vogue Paris there, it’s all been said. And we’re going to say it again, this time in quotes. Because who doesn’t love the Kaiser droning on innocently (and might we say cluelessly) about the flawlessness of Facebook, right?

After figuring out the perfect frock comes the need for the perfect handbag, and the past year has been a beacon of beautiful purses that make heavy contenders for that particular category. In this roundup in honour of the year gone by, we pick out the top of the heap and pay tribute to the designs that keep fashion evolving.

In the spirit of honouring the departure of 2010, which has been a glorious one (save for McQueen’s suicide and Roitfeld’s alleged termination from French Vogue) for the fashion industry, we’ve planned a series of features celebrating the best of the best in fashion that were released during the last 365 and a quarter days.

The high-principled folks at Oslo Fashion Week have just banned fur from appearing at the upcoming Fall/Winter 2011-2012 shows in February next year, making Norway the first country to ban the controversial material from appearing on the runways at the biannual fashion event.