Archive for the ‘Fashion’ Category

Bridesmaids’ dresses

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

When the days get closer, the more final products I see, which is awesome. I mean I can talk about them until the cows come home but nothing is for certain till the fat lady sings, or so the saying goes.

Last week, lovely Lucy went to get her final fitting and took photos of her sporting the bridesmaid gown. I must say, I quite like it! It turns out the purple is much lighter than the royal purple we originally envisioned, but I must say I didn’t mind the lighter shade as I think it will do well to match the Spring weather. But like I said, seeing photos is one thing, and seeing it in real life is another so I was really excited to pop over to Lucy’s folks’ place on Monday night to grab the dress made for Emily.

When I showed Ben the dress, he was like “that’s a lot of purple”.. Hahah.. Err derrrr. Anyways, I eagerly tried it on with the matching shoes I bought for the girls and I must say, I really like the combination. I mean, they are not your typical bridesmaid dresses, I’d say they are more like sophisticated ladies’ dresses, which I think are quite fitting for my sophisticated bridal party! Heck, for $650HK a pop, I think the dresses are awesome.

I need to now make sure the sweet peas we’ve got for the groomsmen’s button holes are in the same shade as the bridesmaid dresses.

The perfect colour! I need to find these sweet peas!

The perfect colour! I need to find these sweet peas!

x

Tiffany & Co

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

Hands up if you don’t like the Tiffany green box with the gorgeous white bow. One…, two……, thre ee eee. Yes, that’s what I thought: no hands!

And that is why, despite Tiffany not known for their pearls, that I ended up with a string of Tiffany pearls. While the necklace is not in my hot little hands right now, I’ve got them, thanks to Joyce and Sera in Hong Kong. Sera, when exactly in end August are you back in Sydney? ^^

Tiffany pearls with toggles

Tiffany pearls with toggles

So half of my blings have been sorted, and now we await the ‘inspired’ pearl earrings from Mr Hui. What is Jane talking about? I hear you mutter to yourself. Well, you may recall from my Blings post that I fell in love with a pair of Tiffany pearl earrings. The earrings are very petite, simple and I adore them! But I couldn’t justify the $1400 they quoted in the store for a 6.5-7mm pearl with a total of 0.1 carat diamonds. So Joyce went to Mr Hui for an “inspired” pair.

The typical Hong Kong businessmen, Mr Hui made three pairs with different size pearls and different size diamonds but none matched my original spec! We ended up being presented with a pair of 9.6mm South Sea pearls with a total of 0.17 carat diamonds (WAYYY TOO BIG!) I think the pearls would cover my entire earlobes! The other two were more acceptable, a 9mm and a 8mm pearl, but with the smallest of diamonds, a total of 0.05 carats. Joyce and Sera’s advice: may as well do without the diamonds if they are merely 0.025 carats per side. And yes, it was a struggle to see them from the photos sent real time via Sera’s iPhone.

On this note, I need to sidetrack a bit and say how much I love modern-day technology. On Saturday, while Sera and Joyce were at Mr Hui’s, they took photos of the pearls when worn, when improvised with a bigger diamond, when worn with the Tiffany necklace and sent them all via email for me to look. I almost felt like I was there!

Anyways, we decided to go with the 8mm pearls with bigger diamonds and Mr Hui promised to search for pearls that match the colour of the Tiffany necklace. Nice.

x

Blings

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

Diamonds and pearls, most girls’ best friends, have become my current nightmare! Ok, maybe a slight exaggeration referring to them as nightmares but accessories have surely become a headache I can do without.

I saw these when I was waiting for my bus a few months ago. I’ve eyed them in the window since then wondering how much they cost (not the necklace, just the earrings) and a few weeks ago, I went in and asked. I ended up liking a pair with much shorter strings of diamonds but the price was too astounding for words. So I moved on.

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Then I decided that it may be best that I get a pair of diamond studs to suit a pair of hook-on pearls my lovely matron of honour, Lucy, has said she would lend me. Lucy’s pearls are HUGE so to suit them, I need to get a pair of sizeable studs to match and after a lot of hardwork and bargaining by Joyce and Sera in HK (THANK YOU GIRLS), I still couldn’t quite justify the price (though I’m still in the ‘thinking’ phase)…. time is running out tho…. arrrrrrgh…

OR… what do you think of the following pair of Tiffany earrings? Please ignore the size as shown because they are not half that big; the pearls are roughly 6.5-7mm and the diamonds approx 0.1ct (total). You see, my original idea was to wear only earrings with no  necklace but if I pursue this option, I will buy the matching necklace, which is equally petite and equally yummy.

picture3

What should I do?
Suggestions welcome! ^^

x

Bridesmaid dresses

Thursday, May 21st, 2009

I’ve been thinking about how I should go about describing the bridesmaid dresses without giving it all away and ruin the surprise. Not that it’s a surprise per se, arrrgh..  you know what I mean…

I am very fortunate because my three matrons/maid are so easygoing. I remember sending pictures (three?) of what I would like them to wear, and not only did they all agree on the one Ben and I preferred, they were comfortable with the colour too (well at least there weren’t too much kicking and screaming!!). I think I’ve told quite a number of friends already that the dresses will be purple so I’m not really revealing something I shouldn’t by stating it in writing. Don’t ask me why I wanted purple, as it was never a colour of choice for me nor is it the colour of Roksanda Ilincic dress we’ve based our dresses off, but mm, can’t explain it, I just think purple will work well.

Emily, one of my matrons, also suggested that because it’s a relatively simple dress that we make some minor twist to it. So we’ve decided that all the girls will sport different necklines; a U, a V and the original.

Dress by Roksanda Ilincic

Dress by Roksanda Ilincic

Lucy very kindly did all the walking for me in Hong Kong and along with Jeanette (a friend who knows all about HK shopping), found a tailor who will make all three pieces from scratch - yippee! Unfortunately, we weren’t given too many purple hues to choose from,  but I think we decided on a purple that would rock it.

The girls will also be wearing the same shoes! I was a bit late in the ordering process so ended up with three different sizes, one of which may be a little bit contentious haha, but I am sure everything will work out on the day (oh, I am sooo, wayyyy too optimistic ha!). And thanks to Josephine for offering her American credit card for the purchase!

Only if…

Thursday, March 12th, 2009

I just want to know why this doesn’t come in ivory?!??! Because if it does, it would be the perfect match for my wedding gown. Do you think I can spray paint it? Ha!

Prada leather rose peep toe pumps

Prada leather rose peep toe pumps

What recession?

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

A friend who recently got engaged (congrats Sam!) echoed my thoughts last night when she said she had thought the current economic crisis would mean wedding venues, gown salons, cakes and what not would be discounting to attract customers….. but alas.. how wrong we are (cringes***).

I have recently started to scout for evening gowns for the Taipei reception (apparently wearing the wedding gown twice is bad luck so I need some evening gowns!) and the waiting lists on some $1,500-2,000 gowns are incredibly long!

The below gown by Collette Dinnigan is one I’ve been eyeing and upon calling the store, I found out that first, it’s not even in yet and second,  it costs $1,750. Plus, there are only a handful of them in the CD and DJs stores combined - talk about small production runs and finally, I am the 80th person on the waiting list (Yes, eight-zero, 80!) Anyway, I’ve since given up on the dress, though I think it’s absolutely stunning!

Collette Dinnigan gown

Collette Dinnigan gown

Fortunately or unfortunately, this phenomenon is not limited to Australia as one of my favourite online shopping sites, netaporter.com, which boasts some of the most expensive but beautiful apparels online, has some of the most beautiful and pricey dresses already SOLD OUT (like the Eun Jeong gown below)! Hmmm… is there really a recession?

Eun Jeong silk full-length gown

Eun Jeong silk full-length gown

Then, it occurred to me that US retailers would be trying the hardest to attract customers given their dismal retail sales figures in recent months, so I started browsing some US-based online retailers and (giggles…) no surprise, even the new season dresses are discounted and in bluefly.com’s  case, by a whopping 40%! (Be warned that postage charges ain’t cheap! Also, be careful not to go over AU$1,000 or be prepared to pay an extra 17.5% in custom duty and 10% GST).

With wider choices and ‘cheaper’ options online, I think I will be spending many more nights online searching for the perfect evening gown.

bluefly.com (of the Project Runway fame)
netaporter.com (simply the best-est online store - apart from via alley of course ;p)
collettedinnigan.com.au (beautiful Australian/NZ designer)