Checks and plaid and more checks

photos via www.vogue.com

OMG OMG OMG I am lacking proper vocabulary to express how much I love Dries van Noten's spring 2013 collection. All kinds of commentators are calling it 90s grunge but I think it's in a category all of its own. Dries combines colors so differently from anyone else. I never buy it because I cannot afford it although if I saved up instead of snacking on high street fashions all the time, I probably could manage a piece here or there. 

BTW the flower print top in the last picture is exactly like our Fiona tops. Totally love how it's styled here with a collared shirt underneath. Great way to winterize my existing Fiona tops...

Girlish shoes with a boyish outfit

photo from www.ofthemoment.com.au

I live in a house with a seven-year old girl. Some things are boyish and some things are girlish. The two don't mix if you are seven. But Emmanuelle Alt (editor-in-chief of Paris Vogue) brilliantly combines pretty patent Valentino shoes with utility cool.

Update on the red studded Valentino shoes

They are now available right HERE!!! on the Valentino website. I have ordered thru them before, they are super efficient and run by Yoox. Be fast if you want them! Man, I sound like Valentino pays me... they don't! I just get easily excited. Ignore me and get onto the website already!!!

photo from www.grazia.it

California inspiration

The Getty Center is gorgeous even on a Blackberry camera - blues reds greens

We are working really hard on new tops and dresses for our next sale which will be on Tuesday, October 9 in Shouson Hill. Invitations to follow. In the meantime find a large selection of new JDCamicetta stock at Sidewalk on Gough Street.

Mirror Mirror

photo from www.nymag.com - check it out, they do great fashion coverage

Simple never looked so good

photo from www.vogue.fr

Dorothy with studs

photo via www.nymag.com

Valentino designers Pier Paolo Piccioli and Maria Grazia Chiuri are raking in the bucks for Valentino with their never ending variations of the Rockstud collections. And Valentino's red is always just right. I haven't seen these in stores yet.... something to look forward to on this grey rainy day in Hong Kong.

Favorite from London Fashion Week

Christopher Kane lacy bejeweled top with white electrical tape. Gorgeous!

Why do we wear what we wear???

The Manrepeller wrote an interesting post about street style a few days ago. Read it HERE. It was a surprise to me that even the indie blogger crowd now often get dressed by sponsors. So when you see street style pictures popping up in magazines, the not-so-indie young things are often wearing these outfits because they were paid to do so.

US Harper's Bazaar magazine has a new feature where you can buy items they highlight on their "must-have" editorial pages straight off the Harper's Bazaar website. If you think they are doing this out of the goodness of their heart, think again. It's always been the case that magazines feature their advertisers heavily in their editorial pages, after all, you cannot run a magazine without happy advertisers.

So with all your fashion cues delivered by people who are trying to sell you stuff, how can you ever be an original?

Does anyone remember the scene in The Devil Wears Prada where the young Anne Hathaway gets put in her place by her scary boss Meryl Streep? Rewatch it below. It seemed overly dramatic at the time, but I think it is one hundred percent true.

The Devil is in the Details?

I am inevitably attracted to clothes, shoes, and bags that have an interesting detail. And inevitably those become the hardest things to wear. I bought these trousers at Whistles when I first moved to Wimbledon in 2005. I had them shortened right away for once so they were ready to go. They also happen to be insanely flattering on the legs. Don't really know why, but I suspect it's because they are slightly fitted in the leg with a modest bell bottom starting at the knee. And yet I have never worn them. The turquoise stitching is what I loved about them most, but it's also been the thing that makes them look bad with other things I already have.
Then I bought this JCrew mint and grey jumper and at once I knew it would be perfect with the old Whistles trousers. I don't exactly know where I am going with this.... Never throw anything away??? Cos one day you may make it work for you?  Or don't be so damn anal and just wear the trousers regardless of the teensy turquoise stitches....
I must admit they were also quite tight when I bought them. On sale, and my proper size not available, you know how it goes. Never makes sense to hold on to anything because you think you may lose weight.
This reminds me of something a very wise friend said to me a while ago and it has really resonated with me. Because we live in Hong Kong and have lots of help and free time many of us new expats jump with great gusto into a life of exercise. We then spend summers back in the old country, no help, not so much free time and we have to start all over again when we get back in September. Well, my friend's very good strategy is to get into the habit of only doing the amount and type of exercise you can reasonably sustain for the rest of your life, wherever you may live.
That way you may also end up with a wardrobe full of the clothes the same size rather than extra small jeans after some additional personal training sessions, and bigger jeans during the school holidays because you can't sustain the amount of exercise consistently during the year.
Speaking of jeans, I bought some great very dark JBrands in Barneys and on the advice of Melbourne Fashion Girl some distressed Mother jeans with ankle zips. They are totally brilliant and maybe the most comfortable jeans I have ever owned.

from left to right: Mother distressed jeans, JBrand dark jeans, Current Elliot khakis with roses... uh oh what am I going to do with that rose detail???

I love LA

In anticipation of a re-fit this Bulgari store has great character - unlike any of its finished stores

30 minutes of sheer bliss on a comfortable couch in DVF watching the world go by (or should I say drive by) while girlfriends are trying on and modeling clothes

brand new JDCamicetta top and Duchessa sparkly necklaces for a night on the town

What is annoying about shopping in LA is the vast distances between shopping areas. And yet it's that same vast emptiness that appeals to my philosophical side. The lack of chatter on the street - after all, no one is walking -  adds to the blue-sky-stillness of the unadorned modern buildings on Melrose. It takes me mere minutes after arrival to become speechless.

About Mexican food and boobs

Mexican food is hard to find in Hong Kong. I went somewhere once with a girlfriend - can't even remember the name now, but what I do remember is there was no one else in the whole place. And that's not a common occurrence in a good Mexican restaurant. Every person and their uncle love Mexican food so if it's even remotely edible, there's going to be a crowd.

And if the chef looks like Kurt Cobain, well then there's definitely going to be a crowd of girls. Oh my goodness that chef is soooo good looking AND he cooks some really delicious short ribs. Brickhouse is the place, find it on Facebook HERE and then just go there really really soon. 

I have been really hating my clothes lately and feel i have got nothing to wear for going out. Then a month or so ago, I unearthed a top from the deepest part of my wardrobe with the tags still on.... tags from 1999. It's a DKNY top with a very deep V-neck, and I never felt I had the boobs to carry it off.  But after a few glasses of rosé I had the admittedly brilliant idea to turn the top around, and wear the V in the back. I have a brand new favorite top, and it was sort of free. BTW the rosé that induced this sudden brilliance in me is Scarlet Skirts from Australia. Order this and some lovely moscato as well thru Alistair at 6170 6649 or check out their website at www.garagewine.hk - it's totally delicious, I have been drinking it all summer.