Alexa Fatigue?

I find it interesting that even Alexa Chung doesn't swing about her eponymous Mulberry bag at London Fashion Week. Instead, she's opted for the superior (at least in my humble opinion) Proenza Schouler PS1 in Smoke when attending the Charles Anastase show. Granted, she's also been seen with a Chanel quilted purse but that's CHANEL so it's a free pass on any product endorsement obligations. {pc: tfs}

Wish Fulfillment: Like the SC, but Not

Galpal M has been fretting over whether to cave on Louis Vuitton's SC bag in time for her own European trip. I can't deny the allure of the SC, but perhaps this Zara tote is a sign that the same look can be obtained at a fraction of the price?

At 18 x 32 x 16cm, its dimensions are too slight to achieve true SC bag functionality (Garance could never fit her camera... erm... lens in here), but it is only S$199. Now they just have to manufacture a larger version and I'd be sold!

Attack of The Blondes

Random Gossip Girl eyecandy is all I can manage this Monday morning... that and, possibly, an up-size to a vente skinny latte. Also, I realise that both the new GG "blondes" Clemence Poesy (my favourite French ingenue at the moment) and Katie Cassidy (a less trashy Serena) are glorified plot movers but I wish they'd join the cast permanently. I love my frenemies catfights but Serena and Blair have changed "relationship status" more often than they've changed outfits! And that is, by GG standards, quite unacceptable...

{pc:tfs}

Still Life

Is it pathetic that I want to catch Lullaby for Pi on the strength of these scene stills with Clemence Poesy (and the rather delish Rupert Friend)? She makes me want to be blond, bohemian, French and a sometimes wizarding champion.

Cape Envy

{Net-A-Porter on FB: Streetstyle}

I'm mighty pleased with the ASOS black toggle coat... and can't wait to debut it in November! It fits perfectly, which, given the amount of internet shopping I do really shouldn't surprise me anymore but I continue to feel relieved when I needn't do returns.

But (and it's a small one...) I can't help but feel a tinge of retail regret when I see others with THE cape. Compounding my temporal misery is the fact that ASOS has been cleaned out of the khaki. No turning back now...

Keri Me Home

I think some serious fashion credit is due to Keri Russell for having the enviable ability to tote a tan Filson cotton oil finish bag around New York City, but work it like the Proenza Schouler "paper" bag! At USD109, that's a quarter of the cost for the same nonchalant versatility. Don't take my word alone on how great a bargain it is - the Filson is already backordered in true veritable IT-bag-ness. Anyone care to join the queue?

{tfs}

Cheap Thrills: Dreaming of Europe

Observe the blatent grey London morning desktop - snapped at Rose Bakery at Dover Street Market - my paltry consolation to not being in London right now.

After a busy week and the increasingly bleak prospect of squirreling off to London unnoticed by the office for the Rupert Sanderson sample sale (cue: wild fantasies of racing to Changi Airport, empty suitcase on tow), I am fodder for small retail spoils. So it was better than a skinny latte on a Monday that this free sample of Chanel's new Vitalumiere Aqua arrived in the mail. I can't wait to try it out - I am already won over by their Teint Innocence.

Also rather modestly priced are these adorable GapKids tops (each S$29; US$12.99 online on sale). The embriodered detailing on the polo tee in the main pic is certainly a score, as are these breton jumpers, this slate sneakers, and these polka dot knee-high socks. In short, the whole of their 'American In Paris' range should be redone for adults, really...

For Your Consideration

Whatever you may feel about Mulberry's Spring/Summer 2011 line... you have to admit this looked a right rollicking launch (yay, Grace Coddington & Hilary Alexander). Check out all the snaps at their new blog - which format confuses me, but that might just be my pre morning coffee somnambulism.

{pc: mulberry}

Prepare

Crack your knuckles and flex your fingers. From September 15th (GMT), The Outnet will list a fresh delivery of Christian Louboutin styles every Wednesday (about 40+ styles at up to 60% off) for the next THREE weeks... by which time I might be bankrupt. Whilst I'm still in the black though, you can bet I'll be stalking their website.

Lightning Strikes Twice: Valextra on Sale

I'm haven't quite made up my mind about orange bags. Though if you are in the market for a Valextra at a less than prohibitive 60% discount, Barneys NYC has a Medium Boston on sale (again) at USD 949. Far be it for me to look the discount in the mouth, but if their Aragusta Orange was just a tad more burnished (or the Navy was still available - SIGH), I'd be far more tormented. I feel like my inability to bring myself to slap down the cash required for the LV SC bag is making me work that much harder to find a more moderate, but no less lush, alternative.

Important Update: My googling skills have turned up a divine dove grey Medium Boston over at Yoox for Euro705! That's an astonishingly good price for a timeless shape in a versatile colour, and which shape is completely on-trend (lady-like). Somewhere on the island, I can almost hear galpal M's restraint weaken...

New Week, New Obsessions

Clemence Poesy, who is my new Alexa, now carries the Louis Vuitton SC, which is my new Balenciaga Work. And in Navy, which is my new Black. Which means I'm already wishing I'll have more time in Paris, which is going to be my new London...

(tfs)

Chanel-lo

Such bliss it is when your biggest decision of the weekend is the choice between Chanel's Khaki Rose or Khaki Brun for the afternoon's mani/pedi. All thanks to galpal J's dogged discipline to trek down to Marina Bay Sands on a Sunday morning. No complaints here :)

Vote Non Blonde

Did you just do a double-take? So did I when I saw Carey Mulligan's VOGUE October cover. She's already been sartorially compared to Michelle Williams... so having her shot blonde, with brunette eyebrows, in print AND with pink lettering is just so disappointingly lazy. She deserves so much more love than Anna's current favourite buxomy blonde.

Happiness Is A Warm Card

Is it wrong how much I feel like cashing in my holiday chips now for Katie Holmes' exact quilted Lanvin Happy bag which I posted about a while back? That is, I *think* it's the same shade... Net-A-Porter describes it as a 'dark brown' but it seems more fawn to me. But who am I to question NAP (read: Retail Heaven)

Either way, I'm wracked with holiday guilt - if I get the bag now, rather than waiting until November and PARIS, will it still be as special?

On some levels, it does take the shine off a holiday purchase even if the money had been slowly saved up for November's trip. Likewise, if I couldn't get this Happy, there'd surely be another. On the other hand, if I wait two more months only to have this and any other Happy which appealed to me sell out all over Europe (as such beautiful things are prone to do), I fear the consolatory retail blitz to follow...

Spotted: Fashion Worlds Collide

And you thought Gossip Girl's latest season couldn't get more promising with Clemence Poesy and Paris (the city, please) guesting? VOGUE's Hamish Bowles and Kelly Rutherford were filming in NYC outside of Diane Von Furstenburg’s studio for the show's Fashion Night Out episode. Someone start the season already please!!

An Exercise In Restraint

I literally lost sleep over this bag last night (Galpal M, you are entirely to blame). Moments after she'd sent me those evil EVIL links at the office, I was squealing in equal parts of disbelief and glee. Valextra, the Italy's answer to Hermes, at 55% OFF?! The proof-reader in me immediately suspected a typographical error. I twittered with anticipation...

One stumbling block (ok, two...)? Barneys ' online store neither accepts non-USA credit cards, nor do they ship internationally. 'Bah humbug', I thought, as I shot off a quick email to Customer Service to ask them if there were solutions to my bag lust.

Turns out, they more than accommodated and explained almost apologetically that international customers could place an order through any one of their brick & mortar stores by phone as long as we had the style number and item description:

Barneys Madison Avenue

212-826-8900

Barneys Beverly Hills

310-276-4400

Barneys San Francisco

415-268-3500

Barneys Las Vegas

702-629-4200

I can't lie that one of the appeals of the Large Boston Bag in Havana is that I've yet to spot Valextra on the arms of Singaporean women at large. My Balenciaga gripes aside, even the Mulberry Bayswater in their Oak brown can't match the exclusivity of this label, or the boardroom appriopriateness of the bag's shape (my one concern with the Mulberry)... AND it has a shoulder strap (which really is the bag-equivalent of discovering a dress has pockets - I am further sold!).

Which leaves me with the most important question... to cave or not to cave?