Something to think about

Lately I've been thinking about something: what if I don't get to wear everything that I love before this is all over? I told myself that I would donate what I don't wear, but technically, if I still have loads of things to wear, shouldn't I just go on with it?

My fears started creeping up when I realized that Summer is basically over and I have not worn at least 15 of my favourite dresses, because I've been a few pounds overweight. So, the question is, am I going to let those go, or will I force myself to continue with this challenge until I've worn every outfit that I want to keep? (keeping in mind that I will still have to wear a new outfit every day if I am to continue with this challenge).

Well, at least I have something to think about...

Day 235 - Outfit 235

Matty M top, silver chain, skinny's and red Tod's sandals 

NY fashion week - Spring 2012

So, NY fashion week came and went and I was too busy partying it up in South Africa to notice, so I'm forcing myself to go on a catch-up crash-course this week. Normally, I have time, to take in everything during fashion week, because I view the shows/show's photos online just after they are finished, but it isn't easy trying to view as many as you can in one day. Who ever knew that there could be such a thing as fashion show overload???? Certainly not me.

From my crash course, I've noticed that a few things are making a come-back this coming Spring: metallics, orange hues, tribal, colour-blocking, bold prints and cutesy skirts, but I've seen some very cool things that I'm kindof liking.

It looks like tropical prints are going to be in in Spring, and when I say tropical, I mean big over-the-top floral fabrics. Not exactly Magnum PI-Hawaiian-shirt-style off course, rather think funky and fashionable.

Something else that I really liked was the nod to the twenties, especially seen on the runways of Ralph Lauren, Derek Lam and Oscar de la Renta.

The past few seasons, we've really been rocking some fabulously bold colours like cobalt blue, oranges, reds, bright pinks etc, but a new trend seen on the runways, is pastels. Well, if Marc Jacobs, Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger (to name but a few) are in agreeance, then we will have to rock some serious ice cream colours next Spring.

The sporty look was seen everywhere, from Marc Jacobs and Alexander Wang to Victoria Beckham and Vera Wang. I find it funky, but will have to see it on myself first before I pledge that I will be sporting the sporty the look.

 I'm sure that I will be viewing and re-viewing the photos from all the fashion weeks over the next few weeks, but I must say, I'm liking what I'm seeing and I'm looking forward to wearing most of these looks. Now if we can just get Winter over and done with.

Day 234 - Outfit 234

Cropped grey jacket, grey striped top, skinny's and silver flat sandals

Back in Denver - Days 230, 231, 232 & 233

I am back in Denver, and to be honest, I've been really bad about taking pics of my outfits for the last few days of my holiday, so I've had to resort to a big no-no...recreate outfits. Well, it's either that, or adding a few more days at the end of the 365 days, and since I can still remember what I wore, I thought it best to just recreate the looks. Afterall, who can really blame me. Imagine you are on a 3 week break with your friends and family (whom you haven't seen in 8+ months) and you are quite sad about the 2 or 3 more days that you have left, will you remember to take some pics? 

Anyway, here goes:

Day 230 - Outfit 230

Floral dress, golden headband and gold-bronze mini wedges - perfect for lunch at a seafood restaurant overlooking the ocean.

Day 231 - Outfit 231

Bronze headband, colourful stripey cardi, white dress, bronze Burberry wedges and bronze bangle. I usually pair silver with white, but decided to switch it up this time with some bronze - oooohhh - I'm such a dare-devil...

Day 232 - Outfit 232

Travel day: Aqua DKNY sweater, black top, black leggings and Uggs.

Day 233 - Outfit 233

Cancun t-shirt, jeans and brown leather flip-flops - perfect for a post-travel, jet-lag-recovering day.

Shopping in SA - Days 228 & 229

I spent a bit of time in the shops in South Africa and even though I didn't really buy much, I must admit that it is not because I didn't find things that wanted, but rather because the prices were so high. I had to use my old rule of "is this worth the price?" on each item and this time, I added "would I pay this price for something similar in America?" and nine out of ten times, the answer was no.

The Rand Dollar exchange rate definitely had something to do with the fact that things were expensive, but the fact that import duties on clothing are so high (around 35-40%), which off course push up the prices. Lately, the local shops are also pushing their prices up because labour is not as cheap as it used to be and most fabrics get imported too (with a heavy import tax naturally).

In my opinion, SA is missing a nice middle of the range, affordable shop that has fashionable quality items. Maybe one day...a girl can dream.

Day 228 - Outfit 228

Black sweater, maxi dress and wedges (and my fabulous accessory, Steffi the miniature Schnauzer)

Day 229 - Outfit 229

Posing with a friend at an 80's party. Not exactly a fashionable outfit, but definitely fun - gotta love the side ponytail and I'm channeling Linda Evans with my shoulder-pad-esque BCBG top.

Shop from the left - Days 226 & 227

I read an interesting article recently about how shops get you to buy more. Most of their methods such as bogus sales, BOGO (buy one, get one), lighting and flattering mirrors are all well known, but now they are using the public's habit of shopping anti-clockwise to attracted attention to higher priced items. Apparently, most of us walk into a shop and start looking at clothes on the right hand side and according to a study, you will spend a lot less money if you start from the left and go clock-wise.

I find this very odd, but it's worth a try...

Day 226 - Outfit 226

Brown jacket, DKNY sweater, grey skinny's and black boots

Day 227 - Outfit 227

Vera Wang sweater and dress, black boots

Stock Exchange Days 223, 224 & 225

This week I visited one of my favourite shops in Cape Town, Stock Exchange. It is a place where gently/never used second hand designer items are sold and I saw something that I just had to have: a Gucci scarf.

Now, you might wonder what I am planning on doing with a square Gucci scarf... Well, I am going to get it framed and hang it up on the wall as the piece of art that it is. Yay! I'm looking forward to seeing this on the wall every day.

I highly recommend this shop for any brand-loving fashionista.

Day 223 - Outfit 223

Grey sweater, pink top, grey skinny's and black boots

Day 224 - Outfit 224

Taupe sweater, skinny's, black boots

Day 225 - Outfit 225

Black sweater, blue top, grey skinny's and black boots

Another pre-vacay purchase - Days 221 & 222

I made another, very well-priced pre-vacay purchase a few days before I left. I bought the little Matthew Williamson top below for about $20-$25. Not bad, I thought.

I first saw the top at Macys when they were advertising the collaboration and I just loved the cool cuts, bold prints and flirty fabric. Unfortunately for me, I felt most items were out of my budget, so I didn't buy anything. Also, to be honest, I tried a few things on and very few things from the collection fit me well. I just wrote it off to my shape and left it at that.

Just before we left I went to Macy's in Boulder and saw a number of items from the collection on sale and I must admit I was quite surprised. I'm thinking this could mean one of two things:

1. The Boulderites were not brave enough to rock the fab prints, or

2. The fit was just bad on most body types

Oh well, I'll never know, but I'm not complaining, because I got a great top at an even better price. The bargainista strikes again!!

Day 221 - Outfit 221

Blue linen jacket, blinky t-shirt, boyfriend jeans and Jimmy Choos

Day 222 - Outfit 222

Fabulous fan top, black tank, boyfriend jeans and Chanel sandals

Packing for South Africa in September

I never knew it could be so difficult to pack for a holiday - of course the fact that I'm trying to wear a new outfit every day doesn't help...  This past week in Cape Town we have had the strangest weather. I've gone from sweaters, scarves, stockings and boots the one day to a t-shirt and sandals the next. My mother-in-law told me it was freezing, my brother-in-law said it wasn't cold and usually such conflicting info would confuse me, but luckily, I listened to both of them and the bizarre mix of textures, sleeve-lengths and contradicting shoe choices in my luggage are reflecting that, so I'm doing well.

Just fyi - I'm so very grateful to be here, so the crazy weather is just fine by me.  

Day 220 - Outfit 220

Black tuxedo jacket, BCBG lace top, jeans and Franco Sarto heels

New booties - Days 217, 218 & 219

I bought these booties at DSW a few weeks ago and completely forgot to blog about them.

At the moment it is very in to wear these little ankle high booties with a dress, leggings or skinny's and I decided to buy a pair in dark brown so that I can wear it with black, brown and grey - I'm kinda liking them.


Day 217 - Outfit 217

Pink floral print top, grey skinny's and black boots

Day 218 - Outfit 218

Black Vera Wang sweater, floral print dress and new ankle booties

Day 219 - Outfit 219

White cardi, Matthew Williamson top boyfriend jeans and bronze Jimmy Choos

New things - yay!

The day that I started my trip to South Africa, I quickly went to Kohls and ended up buying 2 new things. I kinda hit the jackpot thanks to the sale, the clearance, a coupon and a $10 discount coupon.

The dresses below, an Elle Maxi dress (which I wore already) and a Simply Vera Wang dress (which I'm wearing today), cost a whopping $30!!! Seriously? How is that possible? I'm not sure, but I'm not complaining since I'm now the proud owner of both of these dresses:

Day 216 - Outfit 216

Black sweater, Vera Wang dress and blinky black ballet flats. Great outfit for the Christening of my friend Madelein's adorable little boy, Cooper-Christiaan.

Summery fun

Walking around in the shops here in Sandton, the green eyed monster is creeping around inside me. Instead of Autumn/Fall clothes, the shops here are filled with fun and flirty summery things...I wish we could still have summer, but when I go back to Colorado, the weather is going to start changing dramatically and I will have to swap my summer and winter piles of clothes around so that the summery things are on the top rack and the winter items are within easy reach.

I'm wondering...does it make sense to buy myself a few Summer items when Summer is still about 9 months away? Methinks...YES! All I'll be doing is inspiring myself to persevere through the cold because summer is-a-comin'! (I hope)

For now, I'm pretending as if my Summer is only 2 or 3 months away - its better than reality.

Day 215 - Outfit 215

I just had the realization that this outfit might have been a double (worn twice this year). If that is the case, I'm going to have to change my blog from 365 to 366 days...oh well, what's another day. Outfit: Yumi Kim top, boyfriend jeans and Chanel sandals

Missed calling?

Yesterday I had an amazing shopping trip with my sister-in-law, Denise. We spent hours in the shops and found her a number of beautiful dresses for work and casual, a cool cropped tweed jacket, jeans and a cardi - everything fitted her beautifully and we were on shopping-cloud-nine!

During our trip, Denise said that I had missed my calling and should have been a style consultant...which got me thinking it might not be such a bad idea. I have good sense of style and fit, I love shopping and looking for cool stuff and I love spending other people's money.

This might be something that I should consider...

Day 214 - Outfit 214

Posing in front of the Louis Vuitton SA headquarters in Sandton where my very glamorous cousin works. (pity you can't see the LV sign). Wearing a black cardi, BCBG top, boyfriend jeans and Chanel sandals

Days 211, 212 and 213 - The big trip

I have not been able to blog for the past few days because I have been travelling. Usually, I inform everyone about my trips, my packing and what's going into my suitcase, but this trip was booked very last minute (a week and a half ago) and it was also top-secret, because I travelled all the way to South Africa to surprise my mom. And boy, was she surprised :)

So, due to the crazy amount of time that I have spent travelling/in planes for the past 2 days and jet lag, I'll just post the pics for the past few days:

Day 211 - Outfit 211

Cream cowl neck sweater, leggings, Uggs

Day 212 - Outfit 212

Peach sweater, grey skinnys, Uggs

Day 213 - Outfit 213

Floral dress, cardi and Burberry wedges

100 years of fashion in East London

Check out this really cool video on Youtube.com. It is a 100 years of fashion in East London video and I thought it was really cool - in fact, cool enough to share with you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JxfgId3XTs&feature=youtu.be

The video was created to celebrate the opening of the Westfield Stratford shopping center in East London. Brace yourselves Londoners, there will be a Forever 21 store! Enjoy!

Day 210 - Outfit 210

Black cardi, pink maxi dress and black wedges

Confession

I have a confession to make: I'm a Polyvore virgin.  My friend Marli (and every fashionista, celebrity and stylist on the planet) has been using it for years and I think it is amazing, but I have never used it and I think it is about time that I join in.

It is my September resolution - I will be using the Polyvore create tool to create some fabulous dream outfits. It just makes sense for someone who loves fashion/clothing as much as me to create some outfits that I know I currently can only dream about.

Let the Polyvore-ing begin!

Challenge: anyone interested in joining me to create your own dream outfit on http://www.polyvore.com/? Go ahead, create it and email it to me at shopmycloset365@gmail.com.

Day 209 - Outfit 209

Fun navy dress and silver sandals.

Sick in bed on day Day 207 & 208

I'm taking an informational blog break for 2 days because I've been sick in bed and not feeling well at all, so I'm just posting pics of the last 2 days.

(a girl deserves a day or 2 off every now and then)

Day 207 - Outfit 207

Looking at this outfit now, I'm pretty sure that it was not very succesful - firstly, I'm much too white for this top, plus, the necklace was a bit too much - oh well, you win some, you lose some

Day 208 - Outfit 208

Chillin' in my gym t-shirt and shorts - perfect outfit for spending the day sick in bed.

Marc Jacobs @ Christian Dior?

Ooooooh - the web is abuzz with talk of Marc Jacobs possibly becoming the replacement for John Galliano at Christian Dior. Apparently he is currently in talks with LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennesy) which owns Dior.

Methinks this is going to be a match made in heaven! I seriously love me some Marc Jacobs. He is forward thinking, extremely talented and I just love his stuff.

Fingers crossed!

Day 206 - Outfit 206

Not exactly Dior...black top, capri pants and Tod's sandals