Trelise Cooper, pictured here at her home in Auckland, is an internationally acclaimed fashion designer. Having established herself with a range of popular boutique stores in the 1980s, the New Zealander went on to design clothes for the likes of Liv Tyler, Julia Roberts and even the cast of U.S. sitcom Sex and the City. 
A model exhibits clothes from Cooper’s recent Spring range. Noted for her bold use of pattern, attention to detail and intricate stitching, Cooper has ascended the fashion world despite never having trained as either a designer or seamstress.
The view from Cooper’s beach-side home along the Auckland coast. Of her home country, Cooper says it’s a source of great creativity and freshness. “Being the first people to see the sun rise each morning, gives us a sort of freshness, an edginess,” she said. 
The dusty heat of New Delhi proved a sharp contrast to the breezy Auckland air. For Cooper, the city’s “Red Fort” (pictured) epitomizes the flamboyant yet earthy Indian style. 
During her journey, Cooper strolled the streets of New Delhi, taking inspiration from the exotic, bright colors and the traditional stitch-work of the local garments. 
Cooper described the crowded shopping district as “exciting and chaotic and noisy and dusty and smoky and hot.” This, however, was small price to pay for the astonishing array of fabrics and accessories pouring from every street-side stall and shop. 
The New Zealander was thrilled to find this particular outlet, calling it “a treasure trove of fabrics and other goodies,” including textiles, ribbons, bows, buttons and beads. She took samples back with her to her fashion studio in Auckland. 
After months of preparation, Cooper’s “Fusion Journey” creations were ready for public view. This dress, with its gem-like embellishments, was hand-beaded in Delhi. 
As this striking rainbow print illustrates, Cooper drew heavily from the Indian palette of vibrant colours to create her new line.
Here, the detailed embroidery of the fabric mirrors the intricate henna patterns adorning many Indian women’s hands
This fully sequinned dress, meanwhile, is inspired by the azure blue color of the Indian Ocean.
Most of all, Cooper returned to New Zealand inspired by the expert craftsmanship she encountered. This dress, with its ruffles and appliqué, was created using the delicate hand-stitching techniques still practiced across India. 
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- New Zealand fashion designer Trelise Cooper flew to New Delhi seeking new styles
- Cooper was drawn to the city’s tradition of flamboyantly colored clothes
- She says that the journey helped her create a line of clothing fused with opulence and romance
Editor’s note: Part culture show, part travel show, over six weeks Fusion Journeys takes six stars of the creative world to a location of their choice. There, they will create something new inspired by their experience.
(CNN) — With a star-studded client list that includes Catherine Zeta-Jones, Lindsay Lohan, Julia Roberts and Michelle Pfeiffer, Trelise Cooper is an internationally known fashion designer.
Starting out with a boutique store in Auckland, New Zealand, during the mid-1980s, Cooper’s ascent onto the fashion stage — and the front covers of Vogue and Marie Claire — is made more remarkable by the fact that she never received any formal training as either a designer or seamstress.
Instead, Cooper relied on her self-confessed “obsession” for detail, as well as a natural eye for fashion. “I was born a fashion designer” she says, and soon after she set up shop, her clothes acquired a reputation for their bold use of pattern and intricate stitching.
Cooper took up the “Fusion Journey” challenge to travel from New Zealand to New Delhi, India’s capital. Although it’s a city she had been to on business many times before, she says that she’d never allowed herself the time to study its traditional dress in earnest.
There she was tasked with creating a new fashion line that would combine her own sophisticated modern style with the vibrant, brightly colored traditions of Indian dress-making.
In her own words, Cooper retraces the footsteps of her Fusion Journey.
Trelise Cooper: I absolutely adore the historical aspect of clothing. My ranges are full of influences from 19th-century French, English, even American vintage styles. So it’s no surprise I have always enjoyed combing through flea markets in small towns and finding rare antique gems to steal some inspiration.
I’m also obsessed with detail, so when I find a Victorian gown or a 50s bridal slip that I like, then it’s important for me to be able to emulate the exact stitching, embroidery or beading used at the time. In the West, unfortunately, most of our expert hand-stitching traditions have been lost — the skills have not been passed on and the seamstress geniuses from the couture houses of Europe have not been replaced.
That is why I’m often traveling to India. It’s one of the very best places in the world to find that expertise still thriving. From one village to the next you find whole families, generations, that have their own specialties of stitch work.
Honestly, I can give them any old historical piece that I’ve found and they will either take it away and recreate it almost perfectly, or they’ll say “hmmm … I don’t know this stitching, but I know a place nearby that does.” It’s a fashion designer’s dream!
So in one sense, I’ve been fusing my clothes with Indian influences for a while. However, I think this was the first time I’ve traveled to India with a conscious intention to create a fusion of styles: their own traditional dress with my more modern, western creations.
Trelise Cooper, fashion designer
I just love the color and the vibrancy that is India. New Delhi is exciting and chaotic and noisy and dusty and smoky and hot. Everything is so full of intense color and I realized that, on a subconscious level at least, I’ve been influenced by Indian style … In fact, when it comes to bold use of colors and the use of these rich, deep dyes, how can anyone deny the huge influence of India on fashion around the world?
Read related: Dancing to the music of love in Buenos Aires
Walking through the streets, you see color combinations that you’d never imagine would work. I recall a beautiful woman wearing a sari in bright, radiant pink mixed with a lime green print. I mean, lime and pink! It sounds garish, but on her, with the quality of the dye and the way the colors had been combined it looked absolutely stunning.
We made our way to a shop that I can only describe as a treasure trove of fabrics and other goodies. This was the place to find all the accessories, textiles, ribbons, bows, buttons, and beads that I could take back to my studio in Auckland to use as inspiration for the final creations.
There were ideas there, old and new, that I’d never thought about. Already I could envisage opportunities to use all sorts of different laces and braids, detailed examples of hand stitching, with some other antique dresses we’d picked up from a local supplier.
Much as I love them personally, I don’t sell things like saris — and I never would — it’s not a style that would appeal to the tastes of my particular customers. However, what I took back to New Zealand, was their techniques, their intense celebratory colors, their detailed embellishments, their expert use of beads and sequins.
I worked on the new line for many months, and these are the elements I hope I managed to incorporate into them. I think they’ve added an opulence, a romance. But I’ll only know I have finished the creative process when someone comes in and says that, no matter what, they have to have it.
The garment takes them on a journey, and so my journey with the garment has finished.
HRH Princess Elizabeth (center) undergoing instruction at the Auxiliary Territorial Service training centre in April 1945. Courtesy 
Auxiliary Territorial Service: Princess Elizabeth, a 2nd Subaltern in the ATS, wearing overalls and standing in front of an L-plated truck. In the background is a medical lorry. Courtesy Imperial War Museum 
1992 was a bad year for the royal family. In addition to the three royal marriage breakdowns, a fire wreaks havoc in Windsor Castle causing major structural damage. The Queen would later describe this year as “annus horribilis.” 
Criticism of the monarchy peaked in 1997 following the death of Princess Diana in Paris. The royal family was accused of being remote and out of touch with the grief-stricken public. However, after several days of silence, the Queen returned to London, speaking to mourners and admitted there were lessons to be learnt from Diana’s life. 
Since the death of Diana, the queen’s popularity has enjoyed a revival as she continues to preside over what appears to be a softer, more accessible modern royal family. Here, she attends her grandson, Harry’s graduation from the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, southern England in 2006. 
Sarah Chang is cited among the best violinists performing in the world today. Since her debut with the New York Philharmonic at the age of eight, she has appeared across the music capitals of Asia, Europe and America. 
A life dedicated to the formality of classical music is very different from a life led in the frenetic city of Buenos Aires — where racy murals decorate the streets and the sound of tango music echoes in the air. But this is where Chang had chosen to fly for her Fusion Journey. 
There she met with local ensemble “Orquesta Tipica Andariega” (pictured), a band steeped in the traditions of tango. Together they would create a new piece of music inspired by this meeting of cultures. 
But first Chang, who confesses to be the owner of “two left feet,” would take a lesson in the other side of tango — dance. Over the course of her practice, she discovered that the dance moves have an “intimate relationship with the music,” which she would later draw on to enhance her musical performance. 
Out of her customary ball gown, Chang donned an outfit more befitting of a small local tango club, hidden along a narrow backstreet in Buenos Aires. 
Here, accompanied by “Orquesta Tipica Andariega,” she performed a tango standard, incorporating a solo violinist twist adapted especially for the fusion. Looking back, she says she was touched by the intimacy between the performers and the audience — an experience she is unfamiliar with in the world’s giant concert halls. 
Now, she says she tries to retain that Buenos Aires-style intimacy wherever she plays. “I try to connect with every single last person in the balcony on an emotional and personal level.” 
Tennis’ ultimate poster couple are still going strong after 10 years of marriage since reportedly getting together at the champions’ ball after both won the French Open in 1999. They have two children and still play the odd charity match, but rarely battle each other. As their website reveals: “Andre says his problem playing Steffi is not watching the ball.” 
Roger Federer met Mirka Vavrinec at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 when they both represented Switzerland. Mirka says her husband’s glittering career has eased her pain after injury forced her retirement in 2002. Of his wife, Roger told the Telegraph newspaper: “I developed faster, grew faster with her. I owe her a lot.” 
She is the former world No. 1 waiting to land her first major title — he’s the baby-faced golfer whose capitulation at the 2011 Masters, and subsequent victory at the U.S. Open, entranced the sport. Together since September last year, Denmark’s Wozniacki and McIlroy, from Northern Ireland, go by the moniker of “Wozilroy” and say they lean on each other’s experiences to help their sporting performance. 
World No. 8 Adam Scott’s appearance at last month’s Australian Open confirmed that another powerful golf and tennis combo are back on the scene. They split in 2010, but 2008 French Open champion Ivanovic told Australian newspaper the Herald Sun: “Sometimes you need time apart to figure things out.” 
Hewitt and Clijsters, both former world No. 1s, met at the Australian Open in 2000, reportedly after Kim’s sister Elkie asked her to get Lleyton’s autograph. They announced their engagement in 2003 but split in October 2004. Both decried the “malicious gossip” that followed their separation. 
The courtship of former world No. 8 Kournikova and pop star Iglesias was the very definition of a high-profile romance when they started dating in 2001. The Russian appeared in the video for Iglesias’ song “Escape,” causing a media frenzy. They are still together, 10 years on. 
Former women’s No. 1 Hingis became engaged to Stepanek in 2006 but a year later the couple announced through the ATP Tour they had split. Hingis, who won five grand slam titles, retired in 2007 after testing positive for cocaine during Wimbledon. Stepanek married fellow Czech Nicole Vaidisova in July 2010. 
A third entry to the list for Evert, whose romance and susbsequent marriage to Australian golfer Greg Norman — known as the “The Great White Shark” — captured headlines in 1998. Evert even caddied for the two-time British Open winner at the Masters during a par-three tournament. The couple split 15 months after their wedding. 
Before Agassi teamed up with Graf, he married actress Brooke Shields in 1997 after a four-year courtship. Agassi, winner of three grand slam titles by then, and Shields, star of TV sitcom “Suddenly Susan,” were a box office hit but split after less than two years of marriage in 1999. 
German photographer Claudius Schulze traveled to the mysterious archipelago of Socotra. Pictured, distinctive Dragon Blood Trees, native only to Socotra. 
A traveler is greeted by a boy in a secluded bay that can only be reached by boat or on foot. Socotra is a group of four isolated islands off the coast of Yemen. 
Tribal leader Sheikh al-Ghaddafi in front of his house in Socotra. The tribal Bedouin people of Socotra live mostly from goat herding, date plantations and fishing. 
A local fisherman arrives home with a baby shark. Schulze said: “With the formerly rich fish grounds around Socotra depleted by pirating Western factory trawlers, this fisherman caught nothing but a barely edible baby shark.” 
Schulze said of Socotra: “It blew my mind,” he said. “It’s incredibly amazing and other-wordly. The landscape is bizarre, with mountains, valleys that cut 600 meters into the landscape, moon-like desert plains and huge sand dunes and endemic plants that are completely different from anything I’ve seen.” 
Visitors will climb 455 steps — or ride one of two elevators — to two observation platforms. 
Some of London’s most famous landmarks, including the Shard, the Gherkin and St Paul’s Cathedral, can be spotted from the top. 
The sculpture was the brainchild of artist Anish Kapoor and designer Cecil Balmond. 
Anish Kapoor said he chose red — a color that features in much of his work — to make sure the sculpture stood out among the grey and white Olympic venues. 
The swirling, swooping design has been compared to everything from a hubble-bubble pipe to a rollercoaster. 
It also features a large trumpet-like structure at the base. 
Anish Kapoor says the bell-shaped canopy is “slightly frightening, a little ominous”. 
Visitors will be charged £15 (£7 for children) to ascend the tower — a figure Kapoor admits is expensive. 
But its creators and backers hope the latest landmark on London’s skyline will soon become as popular as the London Eye. 
iReporter Udayan Mishra captures trekkers as they walk their final steps to reach Annapurna base camp in Nepal. 
“This photo was taken on a dawn hike up to Kala Patthar, towards the end of a two-week trek from Lukla to Everest Base Camp. It is about minus 30 degrees Celsius without taking into consideration the wind chill. A truly spectacular region – I can’t wait to go back,” says iReporter Ruth Stewart. 
“Beholding the sunrise taking its time was an amazing experience and was worth all the walk uphill. The Fishtail Mountain, 6,997 meters (22,950 feet) on left, seemed to have been waiting for the first rays of sunshine to fall on it for quite some time,” says iReporter Udayan Mishra. 
iReporter Ruth Stewart says her two-week trek to Everest Base Camp was one of the most challenging treks she has ever done. 
iReporter Joseph Orona took this photograph of Mount Everest from a commercial aircraft flying from Lhasa, Tibet, to Kathmandu, Nepal. 
“I first trekked in Nepal in the early 1980s. Without doubt, Himalayan glaciers in Nepal have shrunk dramatically during this period,” says iReporter Barry Wenlock. 
“When the first sunlight hit the Himalayas, I was captured by the soft golden color of the first sunrise,” says iReporter Duangmon Chaturapitaporn. 
“Don’t be discouraged, the Annapurna Circuit is a trail for almost everyone. There are tea houses along the way which offer a clean and simple place to stay and eat. There are even options to hire porters and guides, though for an experienced hiker, we didn’t feel it was necessary. This is one of the most amazing treks in the world and we can’t wait to go back to do it again!” says iReporter Dean Gakos. 
“Home to the highest monastery in Nepal, the Tengboche Monastery is situated in the Khumjung Valley, Solukhumbu, within the Sagarmatha (Everest) National Park, Nepal. A peaceful, quiet, chilled and serene place, it is also home for Buddhist monks,” says iReporter Kuna Rajandran. 
Everest may be taller, but real mountaineers know no peak on the planet beats K2 for sheer intensity. 
You can hire a four-wheel drive to take you within five meters of the summit of the steaming Bromo National Park volcanoes. 
If you want to go back to the birthplace of mountaineering the Matterhorn is the place to be. 
Kilimanjaro is a top pick for sightseeing. You’ll travel through five different climactic zones en route to the “roof of Africa” and many guides offer safaris as an end-of-climb addition that will appeal to all ages. 
If you’re short on time and trekking experience, it only takes two days to climb Grand Tetons’ peaks, making it a quick and easy way to get classic scenery and name appeal. 
Le Corbusier called the Dolomites, “the most beautiful architectures in the world.” 
More than 250 Guardsmen mark 100 days until the London 2012 Olympics starts on on July 27. They are at Horse Guards Parade in central London, which will host beach volleyball. 
China, which hosted the previous Olympics in 2008, also marked the milestone as athletes performed outside the Bird’s Nest stadium in Beijing. 
Melissa Wu, a diving silver medallist four years ago, poses with Australia’s Boxing Kangaroo Olympic mascot as the 100-day landmark is celebrated in Sydney. 
The future of London’s new Olympic stadium is one of the unresolved issues surrounding the Games’ legacy. 
Olympic mascots Wenlock and Mandeville strike a pose outside the London 2012 store at Heathrow Airport. 
Giant Olympic rings are towed on the River Thames in front of the city’s iconic Tower of London on February 28, 2012. 
The Arcelor Mittal Orbit viewing platform seen next to the Olympic stadium. World-renowned sculptor Anish Kapoor designed the skyscraping sculpture that stands at 115 meters high. 
London 2012 Olympic Torchbearers Dinah Gould and Dominic John MacGowan pose with Mayor of London Boris Johnson on March 19, 2012. 
The Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, meets Great Britain’s Hockey Team at London’s Olympic Park on March 15, 2012. 
Members of the emergency services take part in a London Olympics security drill entitled Exercise Forward Defensive on February 22, 2012. The exercise was to test responses to a possible terrorist incident during the Games. 
British rowing legend Matthew Pinsent helps lift in the first of 16,000 beds to be installed in London’s Olympic Village on January 26, 2012. 
Analyst Jignasha Patel prepares a sample for testing in the anti-doping laboratory which will test athletes’ samples from the London 2012 Games on January 19, 2012. 
Workers carry out the installation of artist Monica Bonvicini’s “RUN’”sculpture in the plaza of the London 2012 Handball Arena at the Olympic Park on January 12, 2012. 
Models wear the Volunteers Uniform for London 2012 at a photocall at the Olympic Park on November 22, 2011. 
Organizers expect 80% of the eight million ticket-holders to use the various rail systems, including the tube, during the Games. There will also be an Olympic Route Network where road traffic will be shut off to allow 55,000 athletes, officials and media to get to venues each day. 
Lebanese photographer Roger Moukarzel swapped his warm studio in Beirut for the frozen mountains of Lulea in northern Sweden. He was here to create a series of striking images that would highlight the cause and effect of climate change. 
Lulea is part of the area commonly known as Lapland, a reindeer heartland and home, of course, to Santa Clause’s legendary workshop. 
The reindeer share the region with the Sami, Europe’s northernmost officially indigenous people, whose ancestral lands spread across Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia. 
Lulea’s subarctic climate, with mild summers and long, cold and snowy winters, make it an ideal habitat for reindeer. However, in recent years, locals have said that temperatures have been rising appreciably and, in 2010, a herd of more than 300 reindeer was reportedly lost when the ice cover of a frozen lake broke beneath their hoofs. 
Moukarzel takes a picture of a local Sami girl, against the dark, ethereal backdrop of the Lulea forest. 
Dressed in their rich and colourful traditional clothing, Moukarzel positioned his subjects against the intentionally incongruous image of a large, smoke-chugging factory. 
According to Moukarzel, this series of images will be the beginning of many. The 45-year-old photographer plans to travel across all five continents, exploring this theme among different climates and cultures. 
It will certainly not his first big adventure. At just 15, Moukarzel started his career with moving, sometimes haunting pictures of the Lebanese civil war. 
He says he has always been primarily interested in taking pictures of people and “capturing moments of humanity” — such as this striking exchange from 1978 between a Lebanese soldier and a woman in war-torn Beirut. 
After 15 years as a front-line photojournalist for news agencies Sygma and Reuters, Moukarzel hung up his hard hat in favor of high fashion, as he embarked on a new career in the world of fashion photography. 
A group of 37 writers and artists spent five days in Gaza holding free public events, a concert and workshops for university students. Here some of the group visit the Beit Hanoun Crossing with Israel. 
PalFest collected more than 1,500 books — including copies of an anthology of extracts from works by festival participants — which were distributed to cultural centers and university libraries. 
None of the 37 writers and artists had previously been to Gaza. They traveled all around the territory, including to Old Gaza. 
Recording travel expenses, in the shape of bills and receipts, can be one of the most frustrating aspects of doing business on the road. A number of gadgets aim to simplify this chore. The Planon Slimscan (pictured) is a credit card-sized scanner. 
The Epson WorkForce DS-30 is a lightweight portable scanner that can digitize and capture the contents of large pieces of paper. 
The NeatReceipts scanner aims to go one further by digitally recording vouchers and receipts on a computer database. 
Mark de Rond, from the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School, spent six weeks studying military surgeons at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan. 
When they are busy, the surgeons are “brutally effective,” says de Rond. But he adds: “The problem is when people don’t have anything to do.” 
British soldiers play rugby at Camp Bastion in Helmand province. De Rond says boredom had a destabilizing effect and that when bored, surgeons can become “like big bears — you just don’t want to be around them.” 
Ivan Ljubicic bows out of the Monte Carlo Masters and leaves the stage of men’s professional tennis for the last time at the age of 33. 
ATP chief Brad Drewett (L) and director Zeljiko Franulovic present the Croatian with a special trophy and gift to mark his retirement from tennis. Drewett described Ljubicic as “a true gentleman and ever popular amongst his peers.” 
Ljubicic and wife Aida (holding their son Leonardo) with Slavica Radic, a fellow Croatian who is the former spouse of Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone. 
Ljubicic reached a career-high ranking of No. 3 in the world in 2006 — a year in which he won three ATP titles, including this one in Vienna. “I felt like I was No. 1 because at the time it was impossible to get to (Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal). It is something I am really proud of. I felt like the No. 1 of normal people,” he said. 
Croatia’s team of (L-R) Mario Ancic, Goran Ivanisevic, Ljubicic, Ivo Karlovic hold the Davis Cup trophy aloft for the first and only time so far after defeating Slovakia 3-2 in Bratislava in 2005. 
The victorious team parade a replica Davis Cup trophy in the main square in Zagreb. 
One of Ljubicic’s finest moments on a tennis court came when he and Ancic secured a bronze medal for Croatia at the 2004 Athens Olympics in the men’s doubles. 
