New Finds At A Fashion Emporium

I popped into this year’s Blueprint, an emporium for new local and foreign designers, at the F1 Pit Building in Singapore.

Had gone to the emporium last year and find myself a lot of new bands and designs. Also bought a lot last year.

This time, I decided to set myself a strict budget. If there’s anything that I’m undecided about, I shall leave it for the next day. I figured that if I really like something, I’ll be thinking about all day and night… and then I shld get it.

So, with a tight budget of S$200, I took my time to slowly browsed through the emporium and chatted with people about their designs – from shoes to bags to jewelry to clothes.

After 3 hours, I came away with 2 items from OwnMuse Singapore. I had bought from the brand before and really liked their simple designs. Simple yet unique. (Ahead of the trip, I had emailed the dynamic duo behind OwnMuse, Shu Juang and Johanna, and they gave me their booth location.)

I bought a silk short sleeve blouse (looks like a tee shirt that I can wear dress up our down) and a uber cool drape dress in black and orange.

Here’s what the drape dress look like on a tall lanky model:

(Picture taken off OwnMuse’s fb page)

These were past season’s clothes but I figured I could still get a lot of mileage from these. At a hefty discount for this event, I certainly didn’t go above my budget. Yay!

Blue Blue Blue

Of course, after I discovered the cuffed jeans look yesterday evening, I decided to replicate it again today! Too easy for the lazy…

Blue striped camisole: Forever21
Blue cardigan: Gap Outlet
Blue jeans: Levi’s
Wedges: Calvin Klein

Rice powder?

I had a Neutrogena coupon recently and decided to try this “shine control” powder, especially now that summer-like weather is upon us in Los Angeles.

Unfortunately, despite the lovely sleek matte packaging and silky soft applicator puff, the product didn’t seem to make any difference at all besides add a whitish pall to my skin.

It’s the first day I tried it so I certainly will give it another chance, but so far, I am not impressed

New look: cuffed jeans

I saw something on Pinterest about cuffing one’s jeans for a new look, so I decided to try it today. Not too bad!

Striped tee: H&M
Cardigan: Mossino (Target)
Black wedges: Calvin Klein
Watch: Kenneth Cole

Zumba Ninja

I took my first Zumba class today, egged on by a friend keen to try it out.

The Husband said I looked like a “Zumba ninja” in my all-black ensemble. I guess he’s right that it’s a tad severe for something so fun and high energy…

Top: Champion (Target) – $16
Bottoms: Old Navy – $12
Running shoes: $30-ish by Adidas

Zumba Class – $11

Me pracing around like a fool…. priceless.

Learning from the boys

My trusty pair of black ballet flats were getting very scruffed up after two years of wear. The front and back of the shoes were showing some greys as a result of me pounding the pavement with them ever so often.

Instead of dumping them (they are incredibly comfy), I decided to treat them to a Kiwi black polish the boys use for their shoes.

After patching all the greys and giving the shoes a good buff, they look good as new!

Yay!

Cole Haan comfort

I had previously blogged about wearing Cole Haan Nike Air wedges for work, and today at Nordstrom Rack, I chanced upon this other pair of Cole Haan wedges that are slightly different than those I own, but for HALF THE PRICE!

Boring as they are, I simply had to buy them, since my shoes (and feet) are subject to so much abuse, I know I’ll be needing a new pair by early next year, and I couldn’t pass these up at half price.

Hey, at least it’s a tax write-off!

Daring Shoes

Tried on 2 pairs of random shoes on clearance today:

The husband called these “Elvis Impersonation shoes” for some reason

And… these “durian shoes“.

Guess which pair I bought?

That’s right….. NEITHER!

Keep walking

Two weeks of pounding the streets of New York, Toronto and Mississauga seemed to have made my snug pants less snug.

So I’ve pulled out my collection of walking shoes for more urban treks.

From left to right:

A pair of classic Weejuns from G.H.Bass in burgundy bought in USA

A pair of navy deck shoes on sale at Marks & Spencer purchased today (I had seen then 2 weeks ago)

Spongy walking shoes with the band  Instincts

My trusty pair of light coloured Timberlands which have served me well for a few years now.

I should start walking soon!

Silky Smooth Sale

I recently started thinking about silk shirts after I discovered Everlane, a clothing manufacturer that claims to sell high quality products direct to the consumer, with no middleman.

I’ve never tried on a silk shirt, much less owned one, so today when I passed a JCrew store and spotted silk shirts on their clearance rack, I was quick to try one on, “just to see how it feels” before I consider ordering online from Everlane.

Well, it feels pretty damn nice!!!

Super light & airy yet opaque enough to not need a camisole under. Seems like it will be perfect for SoCal summers!

I was hesitant to purchase because the white versions were marked at $79.99. But… when looking for the care label on this shirt, I realized that the navy blue version is $59.99!

Usual price $118!

And here’s the clincher: As I made my way to the cash register, I saw a very familiar face. Turns out, one of my clients is the manager of this JCrew store – say whaaaaaaat?!

Guess who scored a further employee discount?

$41.99 for an originally-$118 silk shirt: That’s what I call a DEAL!

(I also learned about JCrew’s “Very Personal Stylist” program, and am certainly considering a style consultation sometime!)

Dressing for the Big Apple

According to Wikipedia, New York city receives about 47 million tourists every year. Last week, at the end of Spring, I joined the millions of tourists in the Big Apple pounding the streets and soaking up the sights and sounds. The weather was chilly for me even though the sun beat down relentlessly almost daily.

Complementing my existing inventory of cold weather clothes such as gloves, pullovers, thick jeans and snug-fitting pants and tops were new additions from Uniqlo. These were the heat-tech inner wear, tights and a light down jacket that can be easily rolled into its own bag. I also decided to invest in their over-the-knee socks.

Together with my only pair of trekking shoes from New Balance, I fitted right in with fellow tourists at the High Line, Top of the Rocks and Brooklyn Bridge.

Country club chic, perhaps?

Overheard at lunch between two ladies at an upmarket bistro today about country club chic. Yes, that’s right. Good eats welcome people who dress right. On cruises and various holiday spots, we will need the right clothes and accessories.

In fact, the lady said to have the right accessories to look rich.

Here we have the very picture of country club chic from One Who Lunches:

The look:
Chic side braid
Eye-catching chunky bead necklace
Carrie K silver earrings

Dress for my fugly shoes

Very oddly, while out on an expedition for a pair of comfy black heels, I was.charmed by a pair of plain black fugly shoes.

Above: left – a pair of Geox ballet flats, right – a pair of the Muji shoes.

These shoes from Muji would complement the iliane Loeb dress at Uniqlo.

Above: Dress taken off Uniqlo’s website.

The white strips brought down any reservations about the combination of black and blue.

Ugly plastic shoe wraps

I was looking for galoshes (for an upcoming river clean-up) when I chanced upon these in my Amazon search results, which certainly made me cringe:

Why are these “drizzle boots” anyway?!

funky gelish nails

This is a super delayed post

But here’s a look at the funky nails which I’ve been wearing for the last 2 months..

This was done for Chinese New Year in February

This was done for a friend’s wedding in March

Now what should I do for April?