I passed by the Nine West store on Michigan Ave (and the Magnificent Mile is indeed SO magnificent! I know I know I need to blog about the fantastic Banana Republic heels which I snagged on SALE) and the Vivienne Westwood stuff in the windows was honestly kind of ugly. Bright blue plaid with leather has the ultra-trendy edgy Anglomania thing going for it, but it looks just... weird. However Vivienne Westwood's an amazing designer and she happens to share my birthday and it's possible that some of the other designs for Nine West - I haven't surveyed the collection in its entirety - are actually magnificent, so here's a video of her interview at Macy's in New York City. Thanks to Fleishman-Hillard for emailing us about this. It's kind of cool to know that big companies like them are reading this little blog that I need to get around to updating!

Okay for some reason I'm unable to post the Youtube video directly on the blog, so here's a link. It's quite an interesting interview.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwmNNian_Ws

So watch the video, and check out her collection at www.ninewest.com :)

By the way I'm eternally sorry that I was busy during the entire NY Fashion Week period and didn't post any of the fantastic material that the wonderful folks at Coutorture procured. I hope that all our readers managed to get their NYFW fix from other blogs. I'm finally getting settled down with classes etc so I promise that a proper update is forthcoming. Cross my heart and hope to die!

Hi everyone! Just posting to inform all that I have arrived at university and am alive and well and all that - though last night when I got stuck in the restroom at a Chinese restaurant in dodgy ol' Hyde Park and was banging on the door hoping someone would hear, I did have a brief moment of panic about whether I'd ever make it out of there.

Julie at Coutorture's been sending loads of fantastic stuff over which I wish I had the time to post but unfortunately life has been pretty damn hectic lately and it's going to keep up this way for a while. I will update properly as soon as I can, promise!

Currently I'm unpacking in my new room which I moved into today, worrying about my math placement test tomorrow and wondering how long it'll take before my room begins to look like home (I should probably put some sheets on the bed first.)

Anyway, now that you're reassured about my continuing existence, back I go to stacking piles and piles of clothes on my bed and trying to decide how to fit them into the closet!

Labels: blog

Alright, I know this blog has been a little bit lacking in excitement since all of its contributors are super-busy with this college transition. The one thing I never predicted would happen in college is how cut off I feel from the rest of the world. College, especially in such a huge Big 10 school in a tiny college town, is a very isolated world. You feel cut off from the news, the world, the city (oh how I miss city life..), and sadly, you even feel cut off from the fashion world. The only thing to remind me about fashion everyday is the emails piling up in my inbox from Style.com and She She Me.

Anyways, the point that I keep trying to make here and getting distracted from is that it's almost like college is this completely separate world from the real world and fashion is quickly forgotten about here. Most girls typically dress down for class in sweats and tshirts, but compensate by going all out and dressing up at night to go out. This is not New York City, and most girls don't subscribe to my belief that everyday is a fashion show. However, the key to standing out and looking cute is just a few simple touches...and you can still be comfy. My favorite part? Flats, of course!

Flats are the one thing that have been so useful to me since coming to college. I walk a LOT since I don't have a car--to parties, friends' dorms, the gym, the stores, the dining hall, to classes--I have to walk everywhere. I've seen many a girl toughing it out in stilettos trying to look cute, but is the pain really worth it? There's no reason you can't be cute and comfortable in flats. Some of my favorites:

The pointy toe. I love this shoe from Bronx, available on Zappos.com. It's sleek, chic, comfortable, and has an eye-catching blast of color. Perfect for dressing up your favorite jeans or denim mini.







The Ballet Flat. I am absolutely in love with this red Millie ballet flat from Payless. It's extremely cute (I've gotten tons of compliments on mine) and at just $15, it's extremely cheap. You really can't go wrong with this one!

The Moccasin. These are probably the toughest to pull off, possibly because they can easily go wrong and make one look like a frumpy old lady. But with the right pair, they can look tres chic and smart--a perfect look for class. These Ugg moccasins are a little pricey but certainly cute and comfy!



What to Pair your Flats with...
Flats are extremely versatile and can go with almost anything, but here's some suggestions:

-Skinny jeans, for a look that emanates cool without saying a word
-A denim mini, to offset the shortness of the skirt
-Black pants, to add a fun pop of color to a serious dressy outfit

Coming soon: cute and comfy shoes posts on boots and heels!

Labels: college fashion, college life, shoes

Less than 24 hours hours to go before I board my flight to New York! Still not done packing or anything, and am frantically trying to figure out what I can and can't take on board, how many pairs of shoes I can fit into one suitcase, whether all 7 bottles of shampoos deserve to be taken with me, and other life-and-death issues.

Thanks to the New York Times, I'm inspired to try a non-liquid-and-gel inflight beauty routine. It is fortunate that Singapore Airlines has a great inflight shop, where I hope to pick up some Shu Uemura goodies!

I will miss Singapore for the people I leave behind, the food and the little stores where it is possible to find bottles of Kerastase shampoo for the equivalent of about 15USD. And the sunshine, I think I will miss the sunshine. Also the rain, because Singapore being tropically situated gets a special kind of highly dramatic rain that is not found in temperate climates. I won't miss the year-round summer heat.

I'm looking forward to a place where my jar of Clinique moisturiser won't be generating an oil slick on my face within the hour. Where layering clothes is not a method of slowly roasting oneself. Where construction workers and weirdos aren't the only people walking around in boots. The land where Sephora is more than just a website, the land of J Crew and Gap and Nordstrom, my friends, I come to that land tomorrow.

Cue dramatic exit.

Labels: college fashion, college life

I must say, college life has been amazing for the two weeks I have been here so far.

I apologize for disappearing from the blogosphere for so long. It's taken some time to adjust to the college setting and balance both my old life and my new life, but I'm finally getting the hang of it and am going to be blogging much more often :-) Look for a post on cute and comfy flats coming soon!

Labels: college life

EDIT:

I got the MacBook Pro! It is gorgeous. Right now I'm trying to acquaint myself with it and get used to the total un-Windowsness of it.


I know this isn't really fashion per se, but it is an important college-related choice and of course as with fashion, there is an aesthetic element to this decision.

So anyway, the dilemma is:

MacBook Pro or HP Pavilion DV2000 series?

The MacBook of course is all sexy sleekness and everyone's loving it; the HP is black and also sleek, the reviews are great and being a PC (HP, to be specific) user thus far there's a little unadventurous part of me that's telling me to stick to the tried-and-tested despite the legions of raving Mac Maniacs around the world. CONFUSION ensues.
Please offer advice, dear readers!

Labels: college fashion, college life

I'm surprised I haven't mentioned this before, but I'm a huge fan of Threadless tees. They have such witty, unusual designs, and at such great prices (especially when they have their fantastic $10 sales) and they ship all over the world!

For college girls, quirky tees are one of the best quick fixes for a lazy fashion day. Threadless designs range from the whimsical to the downright morbid and the tees come in a great girly fit so you're not going to look like you were too lazy to put something proper on :) Just make sure you get colours that look good on you, and make sure you don't wear them with an old pair of sweats. They're great with jeans, you can use them to dress down a skirt, you could even wear them out with a long boho skirt (if you're comfortable with recyling the boho trend of summers past.)

They also take requests for reprinting, so if your favourite tshirt is out of stock, let them know and they'll in turn inform you as soon as that design's up for reprinting.