Weekend Want: Tezzo’s colourful and exotic iPad cases and envelope clutches

If you ask me about the big designer whose work I dislike the most, it has to be Roberto Cavalli (Sorry Donatella!)

Apart from the fact that the OTT $1million crystal chandaliers in his Cavalli Club in Dubai almost blinded me, I find most his designs to be more over the top than a drag queen beauty contest.

I especially dislike the excessive use of animal print and exotic skin in his designs, urrrrrghhhhh.  

But while I’m no fan of exotic skin in dresses a la Cavalli, I still love the feel of it in small doses such as shoes and bags.

And to this end, I have recently stumbled over some cool purses from a new Singapore-based label Tezzo.

These pretty evelope clutches are a far cry from the OTT exotic skin designs of Cavalli!

Mileti Swimwear: Fashionable and Chic at the beach!

As bright as I am in my dress sense,I have to admit that there is one part of my wardrobe where I usually stick to black and simple; i.e. my swimwear. Yup if you see me at the beach, I’ll be the one with plain black bikini and an over-the-top floppy hat to make up for that lack of my colour and character in my swimwear!

Somehow and somewhere in the past few years, I concluded that when it comes to swimwear, less is more. Not in terms of fabric of course (I’m no fan of Brazilian bikinis!!!) but more to do with style and embellishment. Although rightfully suitable for summer, I feel that too much patterns and ornaments tend to make swimwear less flattering, unpractical and uncomfortable especially when I’m using the swimming pool in my residence. It just feels awkward.

But black is not ideal too so it was time to find an alternative especially that I’m planning on visiting the nearby islands for a relaxing holiday sometime soon! And it was home-grown label Mileti which finally got it right in terms of chic and functional swimwear.

Love this Mileti statement one-piece which brings the colour blocking trend
to the beach!

Best of British trunk show: the London Fashion Week experience in Singapore

If I were to choose one of the main fashion weeks to attend, it would be London Fashion Week for sure. Reason is, I find it more exciting and unpredictable, and every season you’re guaranteed to be wowed by one of the lesser known designers (remember Mary Katrantzou in 2008?)

So when I was told that some selected samples from these designers who showed at LFW just two weeks ago (AW2012/2013) have landed here in Singapore and will be previewed at the BOB (Best of British) trunk show in Tiong Bahru I couldn’t wait to see it for myself; and it’s safe to say that the experience was not far behind being in the front row at the LFW show itself- only more exclusive and sans the celebrities.

With models parading and changing from one stunning piece to another, the showroom was stocked with some great fashion that is luxurious and stylish and doesn’t involve a single logo to show its value.

BOB showcased some stunning couture creations from British label
BOUDICCA. The orange dress is on my wishlist already!

HERMIONE DE PAULA's designs are delicate yet bold... love all the
colourful and distinctive floral prints of her pieces.

Playing Dress Up at Nostalgia Queen Vintage

I’m always happy to hear feedback on my blog and people seem to notice that I do put a lot of work into it i.e. it is not one of those lazy press release publishing blogs, and I do chase content instead of waiting for it to drop in my lately overflowing inbox.

But looking for interesting and fun content is not always easy especially that I’ve been working non-stop these days! So I decided to use my very little free time this week to… just have fun and get inspired!

And what a better place to do that than booking an appointment at my next-door neighbor vintage shop Nostalgia Queen Vintage to try on her newest attainable from Paris and treat myself impulsively to something unique :-)  It’s very cozy  and charming and its owner Michelle is very friendly and welcoming! Plus the price range makes it excellent value for money.

I never know what to expect while vintage shopping... this outfit looks more
avant-garde than vintage! Just love some healthy impulse buys from time to time... 

Weekend Want: TENTWENTYSHOP.com affordable but stylish looks

When updating my closet or shopping in general, I’m almost always guilty of ignoring my casual everyday wardrobe and buying items which catch my attention even if I end up wearing them very little.

But after moving to Singapore, and no more having an office job where a dress code is needed, I realized that I’m missing some key pieces to make my everyday runs as fashionable as my work wardrobe and special occasions’ one.

Change is good sometimes and although not my usual colour, I love this black
dress which would get me through from day to night...

However this doesn’t mean I am convinced yet that the Alexander Wang plain tee is worth the few hundred dollars investment! To me it’s simple. As long as the quality and design is good, casual wear doesn’t need to cost a fortune. Most trends change is a season or two so why invest in a non-classic fast fashion piece as much as you’d do in a timeless handbag for example?

On the other hand, although a good alternative to the overpriced international highstreet chains, blogshops fail to offer a good quality pieces for picky people like me. So is there an in between?

Recently I did find an alternative in form of local e-tailer tentwentyshop.com which stocks casual and fun pieces from young Korean designers, and for great value.

Girls Generation of style: Armoire, Jooix.com and Bonjour Singapore collaborate

Normally when 3 girls meet on a Sunday morning, they talk about fashion. But when Evon (the designer of Malaysian label Armoire), Angelina (the lady behind the Singapore-based super stylish jooix.com) and me (a fashion loving stylist/blogger and a major shoe-holic) met this Sunday, we DID fashion!

With the beautiful chic dresses of Armoire (who is participating in this year's Blueprint) and the unique statement accessories from jooix.com, I couldn’t help but see how each brand complemented the other to perfection and brought it to life – and we looked in each other’s eyes and cried COLLABORATION.

Evon from Armoire on my left and Angelina from jooix.com on my right.

Ok, what I brought to the party was the vision to see how these two brands could look together, with some help of my styling skills, my shoes collection and of course my now well-known modeling for your amusement :-)

So here’s how our Sunday morning went, read on to see the magic brought to life and learn a few tips on how to wear these gorgeous pieces and transform them from day to night:

P.S. I will be co-hosting and sharing some styling tips at the official launch of Jooix.com this Wednesday (March 14) from 1:30pm till 9pm. The first 30 guests will get vouchers worth S$200 of styling services with me :-) Make sure you RSVP for the event here  and see you there!

H&M lauches Marni collection in Singapore - in an orderly manner!

UPDATE: I collaborated with a few bloggers around the world to document how H&M x Marni went down around the world? Click on the following link to see what happened in Los Angeles and New York.

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So finally the day came! And as excited as I was, I still couldn’t justify starting to queue from the night before or even anytime before 8am! And it turns out I didn’t need to. As the insanity that surrounded Versace was nowhere to be seen.
On the way there I met Zid, who had 2 bags of Marni x H&M and of course I wanted to know what he got! Turns out, like me, he didn’t go crazy and bought what he really liked – the yellow shorts and the white daisy necklace which I sadly missed :-(

While Twitter was full with rumours about the entire collection being sold out in just 20 minutes, I had my doubts. In fact, reaching H&M at 9:30am (yes I need my morning sleep!) the queue had only about 30 people. It seemed too good to be true, and it turned out that this was secondary queue. 

The queue for Marni x H&M at 11:00 am in Singapore

Q&A with.... Me! From Fashion Studio Magazine

Forgive my self indulgence - but I'm quite excited about this.

I've just had an interview published with international website Fashion Studio Magazine. This online fashion site was launched in NYC just over a year ago and now operates in London, Toronto and Singapore.

So obviously I'm excited because it will introduce Singapore fashion and designers to a more global audience.

The focus of my post today is...erm...me :)

Trend spotting: 3 of the best Little white Dresses from Singapore labels

Forget about colours, this summer’s hottest trend is all white!

From the Oscars where stars like Gwenyth Paltrow, Rooney Mara, Octavia Spencer and Mila Jovovic wowed in their all-white looks, to the SS2012 runways of designer labels like Louis Vuitton, Moschino, Nina Ricci, L’Wren Scott; white dresses have been on the rise this year and luckily for us replacing the LBD as the classic dress to go to for every occasion.

What I love about the LWD is that it is very versatile, breezy for the summer and works well with almost all skin tones as long as you follow few tips which I’ll be dishing out later in this post. The trend this summer has spanned from very minimal and practical forms of the LWD (Jason Wu and L’Wren Scott) to a more ornamental ones like the detailed and romantic lace and organza creations at Louis Vuitton especially.

But first, as usual I’ve done the work for you and picked 3 of the best on trend LWDs, all from local labels of course! These dresses are not on the cheap side but they’re definitely worth the investment as judging by the AW2012 shows in NY, the LWD is here to stay  for at least a couple more seasons to come.

This Spring/Summer's LWD as shown on the runways of Alberta
Ferretti (left),Louis Vuitton (centre) and L'Wren Scott (right)

Stars who wore white at the Oscars including Gwenyth Paltrow in
Tom Ford, Octavia Spencer in Tadashi Shoji and Rooney Mara in Givenchy.

Five of the Best: My picks from Marni for H&M collection

When H&M did the collaboration with Lanvin, I thought that was the pinnacle. I mean where do you go from there? With all due respect, Versace was a step down; more popular but definitely a step down in terms of style and quality.

Then came Marni… and now I’m kinda torn! But while Lanvin’s collection consisted mainly of party dresses, Marni has stuck steadfastly to what the brand does best: sophisticated yet wearable everyday clothes. And another plus point of this collection is the price range which is considerably lower than the previous H&M designer collaborations (the most expensive piece is S$199).

One of the reasons I love Marni for is the label’s practical approach to design; Making the everyday wardrobe interesting while also being comfortable and appropriate. But the trick to rocking Marni pieces (and especially those for H&M) is good styling! Without it, you can risk those lovely pieces looking just blah and uninspiring due to their understated cuts.

Keeping that in mind, I made my 5 picks from the Marni for H&M collection based on how well I think the pieces would look on a real person, not styled up to perfection like the model in the lookbook.

So, here’s my list for next Thursday:

This outfit is styled so well but I doubt the shiny look would be possible to pull off...
unless you are the model of course :-)