Rubber Sandals

This season there seems to be a revival of the rubber sandals (actually, were they ever alive?).

Mostly thanks to Marc by Marc Jacobs and these rubber flats and gladiator sandals. Flats and gladiator sandals are fine, but plastic?? Please! They look like toy shoes (although I think even barbie has nicer shoes than these). Granted at $95 they are the cheapest Marc by MJ shoes one can find at full price, its so not worth it.

To make it worst, the high street stores, like Urban Outfitters above, have started making them at even lower prices. What a coup this "trend" must be for the fashion industry, to be able to sell rubber shoes that probably costs less than 50C to make at $95 (for m by mj) and $16 (for UO).

Please. Keep the rubber sandals to the beach!

Happy Mother's Day!

Its Mother's Day! While I love my mom and thinks she deserves the world for being such a great mom, I always slightly dread getting presents for my mom. Mostly because its super hard to find her something she'd like with my limited budget. And really, (at least for me anyway) any money I spend on Mother's Day is just her money anyway. Nevertheless, here are some ideas of what to get your mom.

If price was not an issue, then the Birkin bag will be the first on my list. For those who have been with us since last year, I know, the Herme's Birkin bag was first on the list last year as well. But, while all other "it" bags come and go, the Birkin will stay with us forever. It will always be on the top of the most wanted/coveted list for women.

If you are still on the waiting list for the Birkin, good temporary substitutes would be the timeless Chanel handbags. Or maybe even the Fendi Spy bag, I can totally see my mom using it.

Then of course, diamonds are a girl's best friend. And that includes girl's of all ages. Better yet, throw in a mother-of-pearl (both from Tiffany's).

Taking it a notch down a little, you could also get your mom a designer coin purse. They're like the cheapest of designer accessories AND they're still very very useful!

Personally this year I got my mom a neck scarf this year from Fendi. And its not necessarily as expensive as the two shown above from Pucci and Burberry. If you go bargain hunting, you can find some pretty good deals. Along with the Fendi scarf, I also spotted some very pretty silk Bottega Venneta scarf for only $69.99!

Another good idea is photoframes. My mom loves them. We have photoframes on every inch of surface in our house (just ask Harrods Girl!). And the great thing is, photoframes comes in a wide range of prices! From this Pave Stape frame $595 (left) and this jeweled braided frame $250, to your own lovingly handmade one, which costs $0 but is worth so much more.

Another very useful thing my mom loves are travelling cosmetic bags. I know, you can get them for free as gifts from cosmetic counters, but really, these ones from Kate Spade and Lulu Guiness are so much cuter!

Another item from last year's list that will never change is Lamer skincare. They're just the best. A more within budget skincare item that your mom may be interested in is this L'Occitane handcream trio. They are one of the best handcreams around AND it'll fit perfectly into their purse!

Last but not least is kitchenware! Thats what they use to cook all your favourite food afterall. More extravagantly, you can get them this stainless steel set. Or you can get them this super cute dress up cookie cutter set. I personally LOVE the cookie cutter set. Its just too bad my mom doesn't bake cookies. Both of these items are from William Sonoma. They also had many already gift-wrapped for mother's day items around the store when I was there this weekend. Definitely something to check out if you still haven't gotten anything for Mother's day.

So Happy Mother's Day too mother's everywhere. And to our mom's, we love you!

Fornarina SS06

Fornarina is a brand that I have always associated with brands like Miss Sixty and Killah -cool, ok-priced but sometimes slutty-looking. Since the trend is all about minimalism nowadays, I haven't really bothered withever since my Miss Sixty high school days. Recently, I went to check out a newly renevated Fornarina store, and was surprised that I actually liked their SS06 collection.

I love this top -it's simple but it's so well-designed, esp the flaps around the waist area. You can totally wear this for any casual day out or even night out.

This is very Ella Moss-like, and perfect for one of those 'I just want to hide in bed' days.

A casual, cool take on the frilly top trend. This makes it easy (esp for young people like us) to wear.

This top is one of those tops that look like you found in a small boutique, (meaning that it looks unique.) I really like it, but I would wear it with a simple cami underneath.

One of the reasons I bothered to check out the Fornarina shop is because I need some party/ clubbing tops. These four tops are fantastic because you could just slip it on with jeans, and you wouldn't look like you put much effort into dressing.

I checked out online, and found these jackets. Blazers are my favourite type of jackets, and since this season is all about white (not to mention white matches everything,) this blazer looks like a potential good-buy.

Another jacket I found is this baby pink one. It's very casual and terrific for those summer days when you need a thin jacket for air-conditioned indoor places.

Check out more at the Fornarina site.

Decision Decisions: Marc by MJ Top

Its officially presale season! Well Sak's on presale anyway, so I'm sure the rest can't be far behind.

Upon hearing of this wonderful news, I headed straight for the Marc by Marc Jacob's section in search for this blue shirt which I've had my eye on since Spring Break when I tried it on with Harrod's Girl. Indeed it was on 40% off sale, so including tax its $117 (it used to be $178). Its also on sale on shopbop for $124. It looks lovely on my complexion, the color is just sooo vibrant. However, I'm having my doubts about spending $117 on a silk spaghetti strap shirt. The pattern is soo distinctive too, I'm concerned whether it'll stand the test of fashion.

Although Rory did wear the dress version of it on the finale show this week, and she looked fabulous.And isn't it interesting that the coloring of the model looks so much like Rory's? Maybe this dress just works best on brunettes with long curly hair!

So here's my dilema. What do you, dear readers, think?

My Favourite SS06 Campaigns

Now that we're edging to the end of the SS06 advertising months, you should have seen most of the campaign images in magazines. This of course depends which magazine you read, because one particular brand is likely to have different advertising images in different mags.

I love these two:

Prada: Featuring Sasha Pivavorova

I love how everything is so... white. But notice that it's not just plain white. It's a sort of washed out white with so many shades of white and grey -so artistic! I LOVE the idea of lying down on a bed surrounded by so many Prada bags and luggages -it's like my fantasy!

I know some people may think that so much white is boring, but these campaign images really brings out the Prada SS06 message: wear white (possibly with embellishments,) bright pink lips, grey stockings, big bags and big platform shoes.

This last image is my favourite. I like it so much that I even made it into my desktop wallpaper!

Dolce & Gabanna: Featuring Jeisa Chiminazzo, Snejana, Onopka, Caroline Trentini, Gemma Ward, Raquel Zimmerman, Emina C, Lily Donaldson, Marina Perez, Marta Berzkalna, Tatiana Oussova

OK obviously this campaign is slightly more confusing because of the huge number of models and outfits. But the idea of laying around on hay wearing such gorgeous (and expensive) dresses is so irresistable. I mean, who ever thought of wearing such dresses in a barn? Funny enough, the barn and hay provide a really good neautral-colored background for the clothes. And each campaign photo had a good color theme. The great thing about Dolce & Gabanna is that its got a fantastic website (as opposed to the pathetic Prada site,) so you can go to its website to download these photos as desktop wallpaper!

OK enough about my favourites, which are your favourite SS06 campagins?

Bubble Skirt

The bubble hemmed skirt has been all over the high street stores recently.

While they may look super cute on the Derek Lam and Chanel runway (above), that does not however translate very well onto the sidewalk.

I especially don't like the short bubble skirts, like these two above from Urban Outfitters and Top Shop. Its so unflattering. It looks like one is wearing diapers underneath or something.

While the brown one on the left from Theory is still ok acceptable, the cargo black one from Urban Outfitters on the right is truly hideous. Cargo and bubble are not meant to be.

These two just look like really badly made dresses. The model in the blue C&C dress looks like she's wearing her pajamas. And as much as I love Velvet, this plum dress is just not very flattering. Esp in the back.

Even as evening dresses, this bubble hemline thing just makes the two dresses look unfinished- even if they are from Carmen Marc Valvo and Vera Wang Lavendar respectively.

Somewhat better would be this shiny Norma Kamali skirt because it just looks heavily pleated albeit a bit awkwardly and this shiny one from Anthropologie (although I daresay it won't look as good on a person as it does on the mannequin).

Both dresses above are from BCBG. Again, the bronze dress on the left doesn't look too bad because it looks super pleated, but the black one on the right just looks really really weird.

YSL Muse Bag

I've been meaning to write about the YSL Muse bag for ages, but keep forgetting. Yes, the YSL Muse bag has almost reached IT bag status. Basically this means that many celebs have been sporting it and most, if not all stores are already sold out.

The Muse catalogue:

Muse in chocolate

Muse in white

Muse in metallic

You can also personalise your Muse with two initials for free at Neiman Marcus, although personally I would prefer the bag initial-free.

OK, so which celeb has been toting the Muse? Kate Moss was the first to be seen carrying it way back last year (near the time of her drug scandal.) Then the others followed...
La Lohan who seems to own every bag around, of course has a Muse
.
Naomi Watts somehow manages to make the Muse look less 'structured'. Hers also looks smaller.

Jennifer Lopez uses the white Muse to match her black & white outfit. It looks great with her black boots!

I think out of all the celebs I've seen, Jessica Alba seems to carry the Muse the best. Because like I said, the Muse is a structured bag (unlike the Chloe Paddington,) and Alba's whole outfit here -the coat and button-up shirt/dress underneath -looks very professional and 'structured' also.

Anyways, so if you're interested in getting aYSL Muse, you can buy one (or get yourself on the waiting list) for US$1295.