Sunday, November 11, 2007

My Rainy Day Shoes

It's been raining quite often in London in the past two weeks and I just realised that I have no shoes to wear for those rainy days. The only normal shoes that completely cover up my feet I own are my Puma sneakers, which are all white. You can imagine that by the time I got to my class, the front of my sneakers had terrible dark smudges. So I realised I really need a pair of rainy-day shoes. Thankfully, while I was blogging about ankle boots a few days ago, I realised that patent leather ankle boots were my perfect solution!

Since I'm planning to use this new pair of patent leather shoes for rainy, everyday use, here were my criterias: (love lists!)
  • Easy to put on -because I'm always leaving my flat less than 10 mins before lectures start and rushing out of the door.
  • 1-2.5inch-high heels -because flats are too low and 4-inch high heels are too high for me to walk quickly and comfortably around in. Unfortunately, most of the shoes out there these days are 4 inches high.
  • From the high-street -because my budget can only afford high-street shoes, and my conscience wouldn't feel as bad when they get dirty and ruined by the black, watery London streets.
  • Style-wise, they don't have to be super trendy but they have to be modern and somewhat stylish. I do go to school in the city afterall.

With ankle boots being all the rage this season, you would think it would be easy to find a pair, but it certainly wasn't. For example, Top Shop sells a pair for around 75 pounds (which is a bit too expensive,) and Office has a not-very-pretty pair for 60 pounds. Fortunately, my absolutely favourite high-street store, Zara had a pair that fit my criterias, together with the curved, Prada-inspired heels. (You can't really see the heels in this picture but they're there.)

Excuse my numerous posts about ankle boots if you're sick of them. I'm just excited I finally got a pair of rainy day shoes!

Thursday, November 8, 2007

EBay Store: Trendy Outfitter

I'd like to begin by saying that I have no experience with EBay at all and that I have no idea how this EBay store works, so I make no quality guarantees about what I am about to expound on. But from all accounts and the many reviews this seller has had, it does look pretty reliable and should I ever decide to start using EBay, I think I'd start with this store. So, what made me suddenly so interested in Ebay? The Trendy Outfitter store! They sell trendy Japanese and Korean inspired apparel worldwide (they apparently ship from Taiwan, so I'm not too sure where the products originate).
But anyway, onto the fashion. This was the coat that caught my attention. When my friend first showed me, I was like, OMG I want that coat! And when I saw the price- I wanted it even more! Who can resist a gorgeous wool blend coat for $25? That, you see is the beauty of this site. I don't know why it is so cheap, but nothing you see on list is more than $30. The catch, we soon discovered, was that the delivery is the same price as the coat. But still, that makes it $50... still not too bad. As to the quality... well, you can't expect too much at that price. So I guess expect H&M quality? From the reviews, most customers seemed happy with their purchases....
More pretty coats. I'll take these two as well please.
And I absolutely LOVE this cardigan. Its so chic and girly. The perfect fashion item.
This will look soo cute on me! And you really can't go wrong with the fit of such a simple dress.
A perfectly simple sweater dress.
And I LOVE this sweater (though I'd like one in black/white). Its so simple yet trendy with the genie sleeves and the fancy turtleneck. Did I mentioned everything is priced below $30?

Personally, I am still a bit iffy about buying anything on Shopbop, let alone EBay. Especially here, there are the questions of: Why is it so cheap? Where do these clothes come from? Are they a copy of these pictures we see or the actual thing? How is the quality and fit? Is this store reliable? What do you think readers? Anyone have experience with Ebay stores?

Nevertheless, don't all these images just make you want to go to Korea or wherever these clothes originate from and have a super shopping spree? I know I do!

Image Source: Trendy Outfitter

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Roberto Cavalli at H&M

Whenever I think of Roberto Cavalli, I think of animal prints, lacy tops, corsets, tight and glittery clothes and Victoria Beckham -all glamorously tasteless. Obviously I am not a fan of Roberto Cavalli. I don't care that his recent collection has improved a bit. The Cavalli style imprinted in my brain is still negative.
First off, you will notice that practically the whole collection is made of animal prints. There are leopard prints (in 2 different shades) and zebra prints. Talk about animal-prints overload! I can't believe he even put the prints on trousers!
Black and white animal-printed mini-dresses. I can't decide if these dresses are fun and crazy-looking, or just tacky.
The only thing I remotely consider decent is this sweater dress.
The things that I am interested in are the accessories, especially now that it's party season.
This braclet looks really pretty in the photo. I wonder if it will look that pretty in real life.
Another thing I'm interested in (as inspired by Mary Kate Olsen) is this cocktail ring.
So that's it. Anyways, just because Roberto Cavalli isn't my style, it doesn't mean that other people won't be anticipating the H&M collection. Look out for any craziness. The collection hits stores Nov 8th -that's tomorrow!

Image credit: http://www.hm.com/