Holiday Grabs (at home!)

Post holiday shopping guide

I am a cheap college student, enough said. If you ask me what my hobby is, I’ll probably pretend to say something artsy like photography, but it’s actually online shopping. Tomorrow is Christmas, which means after Christmas sale is on its way. So here a list of online stores that I would really recommend if you are shopping on a budget, as they have a full plethora sale items.

1. ASOS. It’s Boxing Day after Xmas in UK, so gear up those down jacket and cashmere gloves of yours and go online shopping! Seriously, plenty of sale items and good same items, ranging from Allsaints, Cheap Monday to their very own ASOS Black brand. Free shipping!

2. Allsaints. They are usually expensive for my price range, but they have 30 to 50% sale at this time of year. I actually just bought a pair of shoes there, so just take an innocent peak. Free US shipping!

3. UrbanOutfitters. For all your hipsters and wannabes, urban really got lots of amazing sale items in the bag. Ranging from cheap shirts to beautiful Bed Stu shoes. The free shipping dates are over, but they do offer $10 flat rate shipping now. My friend bought something from the site before and usually ship in lightning speed.

4. Topman. Get the British style on the cheap with many wonderful sales. All the jewelries are definitely a worth browse. Free shipping ended yesterday, so sorry.

La Dolce Finale

No matter what fashion show you are looking at, the finale is always something to look forward to, especially when the designer decided to let all the models loose at the end. The group-walks at the end are always memorable and indeed grand. The Sonia Riekyl Spring 2008 show finale was something reminiscent of a block party, filled with beautiful and sexy girls wearing neutral sheer gowns and innocent sunglasses; it was overall extremely ingenious.

Some of my most memorable group finales came from Dolce & Gabbana shows. Last season at the end of the show, I call it the theatrical megabits, all the models were sent down the runway wearing your typical well-tailored blazers and one-piece bodysuits. And off course, Karlie Kloss strutted down runway with her mile-long legs. This season, DG again had a dramatic finale, but this time in white. All the models combined emitted this high Italian glamour that cannot be found anywhere else.

Sonia Rykiel Fall 2010 (left most), Spring 2008 (middle and right)

Dolce & Gabbana Spring 2011

Photos via nytimes.com/fashion & elle.com

Color Me RED!

I was so inspired by the spring 2011 Jil Sander show, I decided to recreate my version of the Jil girl, except I'm not a girl or do I not have a structural skirt. So I took this idea a ran with it.

I found this hot red pants in the back of my closet. I have to admit I was a little reluctant with how this pants gonna fit me, well, it really doesn't (I can't close the last button at the waist). The goal was neutralizing the brightness with something settle and I just happen to have a plethora of greys. The shirt is actually light grey, but the color didn't project well onto the picture, but I love how well the neckline turned out.

So here are the end results, it's either really great work or I just looked like a hot mess. The whole outfit cost less than 60 dollars and the funny thing is that they are all from the holly-jolly H&M.

The Marc Jacobs Revolution

I’ve been a little reluctant to post Marc Jacobs as my first post, because we all know “everybody loves Marc Jacobs”. But after all, Marc is an icon and the clothes that he makes are extremely iconic. This season, Marc gave us something that we don’t see a lot in the New York fashion week, COLORS! Amazing, vibrant colors. When everyone seems to play soft and living in this minimalism thing, Marc just jazzed us up back to the wonderful hippie era.

Marc bleached all the models’ eyebrows for the show, I thought that was a little overkill, but hey if I get paid that much to walk for ten minutes, you can dye my brow green and I won’t say a word.

Oh just to note, at the end of the show, Marc wore a trouser with wide opening (70s!!!). I thought that was interesting, certainly a deviation from the kilt look he has been sporting.

Photos via fashionologie.com

Pepper much?

Like all the style savvy glamor seeking girl and guys out there, I too have a fetish for anything Marc Jacobs. When the Marc Jacobs men's perfume Bang came out couple months ago with the shinny metallic dent bottle, my olfactory gland was ready to feel some amazingness. I don't know why I waited for so long to try the perfume, I blame it on Michigan. Apparently, it has the scent of three different kind of peppercorns. I remember I was reading the review of Bang on Sephora's web page, people held a fifty-fifty kind of feeling toward it. Someone said it take a right kind of guy to wear the perfume and that just hyped up my interest.

But today, I accidentally found a Bang ad from a magazine. I took a good smell of it, then I just starting to rubbing the poor page all over me. There was a strong scent of pepper and clove, but the interesting thing is that it reminded me of sexy Frenchmen. The perfume is also the reminiscent of the vintage good boy but with a certain edge (I'm picturing James Dean).

I think Marc just kicked my little broke ass one more time (in a good way). Let's just say it will definitely be on my urgent shopping list.

Oh on the train ride from the O'Hare airport to Chicago downtown, I saw this gigantic ad for Bang with the fabulous Marc naked with nothing but the lovely perfume bottle, then I had a new respect for the brand.

"The best show of the season"

It's a little strange to start writing a blog at this time. It's in a middle of the fashion weeks or almost the end of it comes to think of it, all the good shows have already been out for weeks, and IT'S FUCKING COLD HERE IN MICHIGAN (that's right, I live in the middle of nowhere).

But I decided to start writing for this blog after I saw the pictures from the Jil Sander show, which gave me a whole body goosebumps (I get that when I see something amazing, don't judge). I was reading Sartorialist.com, Scott Schuman mentioned that "Several of the editors felt that, so far, this was the best show of the entire season". It is indeed a amazing show! Mind-blowing if you will. The simplicity just goes so well with the overall themes of spring/summer. And the colors, it's really something that deviates from the "monotone minimalistic" trend we've been seeing in a lot of New York shows (i.e. Alexander Wang). My favorites are the beginning ones, where the a simple t-shirt is paired with a long structured skirt; the whole thing looks like a human-size architecture with great femininity and softness. Some of the models were carrying shopping bags down the runway, again, that simplicity thing is just so refreshing!

I would like to take this opportunity to hail to the amazing Jil Sanders.

Here are some of my favorite looks. I took these picture from Sartorialist.com, I don't know if I'm suppose to, but for the sake of fashion, I'll pretend I don't know the rules.

*Just to add something really quick, this show is somewhat reminiscent of the Louis Vuitton Fall/Winter 2010 show in terms of the skirt length. I remember reading something about the concept of the the "new skirt length" and I just love this trend of not having to wear super short skirt to be extremely beautiful and sexy.