Incredibly beautiful Pierre Hardy shoes at Lane Crawford

Painted leather and suede - Pierre Hardy is having a stellar season. Shoes at Lane Crawford, IFC.

People Watching at Chanel on Chater Road

As usual there was a line in front of Chanel today (Sunday) and this girl has been waiting for a while. She is wearing her Sunday best and is undeterred by the sales woman who has come outside to explain to her why she can not yet enter the store.

Gladiator flats at Isabel Marant

I love the look of the camel colored gladiator flats at Isabel Marant, not so much the quality which is flimsy for lack of a better word. But how much does that matter to you?

J.Crew Elsie pump

Apparently J.Crew has not had a great year. I can assure you I did my best all year to keep the profits up, so I was surprised to read about J.Crew's lackluster results HERE. In a show of support for what has to be my favorite brand ever I'd like to sing the praises of the J.Crew Elsie pump here.

For months I have been thinking I should buy some plain black pumps in leather or suede with an 8 cm heel rather than the 10 cm of my go-to Jimmy Choo pumps - easier to walk on and not quite as unflattering on the tortured toes. But the fact is, once you have very comfortable plain black shoes, those will be the ones you always grab first... I was worried buying them would stop me wearing my many other more challenging shoes (which would be bad as I have done extensive price-per-wear calculations on those to convince my husband they would be very smart purchases).

I doubted for months about these Gianvito Rossi shoes in my basket, because spending HKD 4,800 is hard for a plain black shoe. And then yesterday I went to J.Crew to buy a birthday present and I saw these Elsie pumps. It took me only a second to decide I was going to buy them. They are very low in the front so there is no gap between the toes and the shoes, the heel is super comfortable and the suede is intensely black and very smooth. And they are half the price of the Gianvito Rossi version. I am so pleased with these. Very very highly recommended. And if you don't want boring black, they also come in lots of colorful options (HERE).

Savonnerie Xaphong

Hoi An

French and Vietnamese mix beautifully in Hoi An's old signs

A Chinese temple in Hoi An

The Nam Hai

What I wore for cooler evenings (but without the shoes)

Keeping it classic for sightseeing in a navy poplin shirt dress and gold flats

The Nam Hai

A few days in Hoi An, Vietnam

Lunch at the Nam Hai resort near Hoi An

This young girl sat down on the sidewalk next to me with a portable kitchen/restaurant.  Within moments of her arrival people came and sat on one of the tiny stools she had brought with her as well to enjoy fried fish in a curry-like sauce.

Hoi An is an incredibly touristy town chock full of shops with cheap T-shirts and sun hats. We were close to giving up on it after about 15 minutes, but persevered and found some beautiful quiet spots. The beaches are stunning, however, and so is the Nam Hai resort.

A Saturday night at Topiary and Bibo

On the left: gold tone cuff by J.Crew in stores now. On the right Prada bracelet, similar in store now.

The view from the pretty terrace of Topiary, a great cocktail bar with really lovely service.

At Bibo we were served our champagne in coupe glasses. But I bet you are looking at my friend's bracelet instead. Absolutely stunning (the friend and the Hermès cuff).

Kate Moss adorns the wall at Bibo.

Best Rockstuds ever? (aided of course by the lovely pins of Miss Fi)

Bookcases with fake books sprayed with faces at Bibo - the word contrived comes to mind but then again we need more pretty restaurants with good lighting in Hong Kong.

The bar at Bibo

Joyce at Pacific Place Mall in Admiralty, Hong Kong

Joyce in Pacific Place is always a great place for inspiration - crazy outfits galore this morning.

Click on picture to enlarge.

MAC x Julia Petit

On the left: Julia Petit "Sagu" Eye Shadow compact, and on the right: Bobby Brown Shimmer Blush in Pink Coral number 8.

MAC currently has a make-up range with palettes inspired by Brazilian blogger Julia Petit. There is nothing like a brand new shiny and clean compact to make you feel like spring has arrived. And it has!! Happy Spring everyone.

Spring Cleaning: Current Elliott "The Stiletto" in Camel Leopard

I loved these jeans sooooo much 4 years ago. And look at me now, they are too ridiculous for words. Never think of fashion as an investment... my wise words for the day.

Tabitha Simmons anti-minimalist shoes

Taking a break from another-spring-another-spring-clean to look at a www.mytheresa.com catalogue (found underneath some forgotten shoe boxes and wire hangers) and I was instantly seduced by this outfit of Alexander McQueen dress and Tabitha Simmons shoes. I had just decided I was going to live like a French woman with 2 white shirts, a black blazer and a navy jumper, or something along those lines. You know what I mean, a pared down wardrobe - the best quality ever basics, wear them over and over again, blah, blah, blah. And yet it takes one five minute break to get me right back where I started. Craving the new, the excitement, the drama, the prints, and the exotic shoes that a new fashion season brings.

Four of my favorite Fall fashion shows - watch them on youtube

reposting a fave lunch outfit - JCrew cashmere jumper and necklace, Valentino shoes, Zara skirt and Serapian Milano bag.

The four Fall fashion weeks are behind us, and now we can decide what to buy for Spring by disregarding the Spring shows altogether and by looking at the Fall shows instead. Before you throw money away on a one-hit Spring wonder (suede tassel vest, anyone?), you can easily check whether Fall has already dismissed such items as passé for the winter months. Or you can disregard trends entirely and buy what you like and what suits you. That's what I am doing, and the lovely thing about fashion in 2015 is that pretty much anything you may wish to buy is available somewhere in some store.

I do love watching the shows, though, and these four were my favorites of the season: Dsquared, Chanel, Prada, and last but certainly not least the absolutely wonderful Michael Kors.

These four shows had so much personality - The Caten brothers' runway was over-the-top fabulous full of old-fashionedly beautiful girls with long luxurious locks, bronzed cheeks and sparkly jewels, bad-ass 1990s attitudes and the best jodhpurs I have ever seen. Their girl looks like a fashion-loving daughter of a newly rich mining tycoon in Ulaanbaatar, wearing a perfectly exotic mix of traditional fur coats, Army Navy consignments clothes, and the sparkliest rhinestone junk jewelry she can find. And Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel, well he is still simply the most prolific designer in the world, fashion would be boring and unbalanced without his vision. Miuccia Prada is in great form this season - I love it when she does Milanese dysfunctional bourgeois girls, and the color mixes in this show are breathtakingly beautiful. Finally, Michael Kors' clothes are the ultimate New York cool girl clothes, and his shows make me want to be his girl - they make me want to run to his store and buy his clothes. And that is of course why Michael is a well deserved billionaire.

Art Central and Art Basel Hong Kong 2015

There are few things more inspiring, invigorating, or restorative than looking at art. Hong Kong has had two art fairs in town this week: Art Central, a new fair on reclaimed land near the Central Piers, and Art Basel, the international art franchise, next door at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Here are some of the things I liked. Click on photos to enlarge.

New city shorts with old Giambattista Valli jacket

Giambattista Valli jacket

Alexander McQueen shoes

Prada bag with leather decorative gadgets from an old Reed Krakoff bag

Zara shorts - in stores now

I fell so in love with the giant gingham print of my top (see HERE) that I went for the shorts as well. City shorts are so fun to wear with a jacket and pretty shoes but sometimes when I sit down I feel a bit exposed as suddenly they go quite short. That's when a restaurant with long flowy table cloths works well... I am planning to take these to China Tang in the Landmark (see HERE) for dim sum lunch where my hairy dimply legs will be discretely tucked under the table.

A stroll around Sheung Wan, Hong Kong

www.anythingbutsalads.com - lovely shop full of healthy organic and raw food treats - the owners are super welcoming and passionate about their products, very much worth a trip to Sheung Wan.

Upper Station Street

Tiny temple at 34 Tai Ping Shan Street

Upper Station Street

For dinner I am channeling the great Oscar de la Renta

Zara top, a De la Renta rip-off homage 

Tabitha Simmons shoes

Miu Miu bag

Cesare Fabbri skirt

Oscar de la Renta did some great oversized ginghams and checks for his Spring 2015 collection, the last one he worked on before he died in October of last year. I am wearing my De la Renta inspired top with a full skirt in navy and black. Happy weekend everyone.

This is what the 70s looked like in the actual 70s

a casual bob and an ultrasuede jacket

on the left pleated knitwear, on the right a white polyester maxi shirtdress - too fabulous for words

The August 27, 1972 editorial of The New York Times Magazine fashion section.

Thanks to my beautiful late mother-in-law Patricia I have stacks of fashion cut outs from The New York Times Magazine and other American publications. She loved to sew and saved the pictures for inspiration until she gave them all to me about 15 years ago. By then she had suffered from progressive multiple sclerosis for many years, and sewing was no longer a possibility. I suppress every cynical bone in my body when I say I really hope there is a heaven - and I hope Patricia and Richard you are reading this up there - we miss you xxx