A woman's right to shoes

I was watching that Sex and the City episode where Carrie has her Manolos stolen last week with my best friend. We love that one! It came to mind yesterday when I bought a pair of Louboutins in the boxing day sales. They were 60% off the original price, which means that they were probably slightly cheaper than they'd initially have been in the US (designer prices here are crazy, for some reason), so they were a good deal.

Anyway, when I was buying them at David Jones there were 2 ladies behind me in the line commenting that they could've bought 5 pairs of shoes for the price of my Louboutins (my first thought was that I don't need 5 more pairs - I already have about 150!). I'd heard them talking about their children before that, so obviously they were in a different stage of their lives to me. I wasn't sure whether I should've felt embarrassed, offended or guilty about buying the shoes after that, but I decided that I wasn't going to feel any of those things.

I can afford shoes like this at the moment. I may not be able to at any other stage of my life. But as I have no mortgage and no children, and a professional job, I'm going to enjoy the opportunity to buy beautiful, expensive things while it lasts, and no one is going to make me feel bad about it!

Confessions of a Shopaholic: Christmas!

I love shopping. That probably doesn't come as a surprise to anyone, but I love every aspect of shopping. I know people who like owning things and purchasing things, but they're not fans of actually going to shops and browsing around. I think that's the best part!

I have to admit that I go to the mall pretty much every day. It's not really my fault - I work close to the mall, and I have to go there to buy lunch if nothing else. I like to go to different stores every day, because I just love looking around and seeing what's new, even if I don't buy anything.

Christmas is one of the best times to shop, because the malls all look so beautiful with their decorations.

I was considering not going to the boxing day sales this year. (When I told my best friend yesterday, she thought I must've been unwell). Sometimes I look at all the great stuff I already own, and I don't think I need any more. I've now decided that I probably should go to the sales as there are a few things I've been eyeing off (and/or put on hold!) which will probably be cheaper. But I have to keep in mind my 3 rules of boxing day sale shopping:

1. Get there early (find out when the stores open and be there as early as possible. If you're going to multiple stores, work out what you want most and plan when to go where).

2. Check out the stores beforehand (go a couple of days earlier if possible and work out what you want to buy, and even try it on if it's clothes, as the changing room lines are usually awful).

3. Don't buy things you don't need just because they're on sale (I definitely think it's important to go with a plan and not to go overboard with the unnecessary shopping).

I've already had my big family Christmas dinner earlier this evening, and tomorrow will hopefully be a more relaxed day with my immediate family. I love this time of year for so many reasons, and I'm really looking forward to Christmas day :) Merry Christmas!

Dressember & Christmas party dresses

It's almost December, which is a scary thought as I still have so much to do in terms of preparing for Christmas. I tend to be a last-minute present buyer, but I do intend to start buying presents this week. I'm really excited about some beautiful shoes I'm planning to get for my sister, but I won't say too much yet in case she happens to see this!

I am looking forward to starting Dressember next month, though - I think I've decided to do it, although I'm confused about how it all works as I'm a bit facebook-illiterate! Hopefully I'll work it out. In preparation for Dressember, I did a quick dress count today, and the results were surprising. I have about 128 dresses, but I really expected that I'd have less than 100! (That's not including the ones which need altering or repairing, and a few that I'm planning to sell). I'm pretty sure that one of the reasons I didn't participate in Dressember last year was because I didn't think I'd have enough dresses, so I really don't want to think about how many of those I've bought this year!

As well as being a last-minute buyer of presents, I also tend to leave my Christmas party dress shopping until the last minute. This year I got in early and bought a dress (the one of the far left in the picture below) which is black - not too festive, but I think it'll be cute with coloured shoes. I was planning to wear this to my work Christmas party, and I thought I had my outfit all sorted. Then I realised last week that I'll actually have about 6 Christmas functions to attend. So now I'm on a mission to plan all of my party outfits, hopefully without having to buy all new dresses!

#119, 120 & 121 - Week 36

I'm thinking of participating in Dressember this year. I wear dresses every day anyway, so I don't think it'd be too much of a challenge for me!

I have to thank a fellow shoe challenge participant, Courtney, for introducing me to White House Black Market. I had never heard of the store before, but I fell in love with their dresses after seeing Courtney wearing one in her blog. I went to the site and ordered a couple of dresses, but unfortunately I got the sizing totally wrong and ended up having to take them to my tailor and get them altered. Anyway, the tailor actually loved this dress, and I told her about the website, so she might actually end up getting one herself :)

These shoes are from Moschino Cheap & Chic, and I must say that upon putting them on this time, I realised that I don't like them as much as I thought I did. The crossover strap makes them a bit uncomfortable, and the heel stops are quite soft and are likely to need replacing soon.

This dress is from Jigsaw, another local brand I love. It's a simple shirt dress, but I love it because it's so comfortable, and it's a great retro style - it reminds me of the dresses Emma Stone wore in 'The Help' :) My cat seems to have appeared in this photo somehow...

These shoes from Poetic Licence are the kind of shoes that get comments from strangers because they're just so bright and noticeable :)

This is another dress from Jigsaw that I wore for a weekend in the country. How cute is this little pony? I think he wanted some food though, and unfortunately for him I didn't have any!

Simple ballet flats from Asos, but I liked the mint green colour.

#116, 117 & 118 - Week 35, part 2

I am a horrible blogger. But rather than focusing on that, I'll just post some pictures :) I'm still going with the shoe challenge (probably because I keep buying new shoes). It's been a lot of fun, and it's actually caused me to think a bit more about what I want my shoe collection to look like - I've sold a few pairs of shoes on ebay lately, and have a few more I'm thinking of selling - but in some ways I'm looking forward to finishing it so that I can have a bit more freedom with my dressing again instead of trying to find outfits to match shoes that I still need to wear!

This is an example of a dress I love that needs to be at least 2 inches longer. I'm about average height, but lately I just can't buy a dress that's an appropriate length for me! This one is from one of my favourite stores, Review. As much as I love the store, I kind of wish their designers would realise that at their price point (usually $279 for dresses), most of their customers are working women in their mid 20s to early 30s who don't have many opportunities to wear tiny little dresses!

I just bought these shoes from China on ebay, but how cute are the little hearts? :)

I bought this dress in a random boutique a few years ago, and I really like how it looks, although the quality isn't great - I'm constantly having to repair the buttons. The tulle underskirt cost about 10 times as much as the dress, and is from Wheels & Dollbaby. I wish I got to wear it more often, as it's kind of amazing.

Cute pink ballet flats from Wittner...

Pussybow blouse from Alannah Hill and lace skirt from Review.

These shoes don't look nearly as cute here as they are in reality! They're from Poetic Licence. I have so many great Poetic Licence shoes, and I generally find them a lot more wearable than Irregular Choice.

#114 & 115 - My favourite things

These are two of my shoe saves from Week 35 of the Shoe Challenge.

I have so many clothes in beautiful colours and fabrics and prints, because I have a lot of clothes in general, and also because I tend to dress up more than most people. I don't usually have favourites, as I have so many things I like. But these are a couple of items of clothing I've bought lately that I really love.

1. Kate Spade cityscape/skyline skirt.

How great is this? When you look at it up close, it's just a simple white print on black, but it's so effective. It's a really interesting, unique design.

My shoes are from Kate Spade too. As nice as they are, I was kind of expecting them to be a bright pink when I ordered them, rather than the fuchsia they actually are. Strangely enough, this has happened to me twice with shoes in the past month!

2. Ojay rainforest print dress

This is probably my favourite dress to wear at the moment, as the print is so amazing. I was told that it's based on photos taken by the designer, and it reminds me of places I like to go hiking. When I wear it, I feel like I'm taking a little bit of the rainforest with me everywhere I go :)

These are very simple ballet flats from Diana Ferrari, but sometimes with a great dress you don't need fancy shoes :)

#110, 111, 112 & 113 - Week 34

Week 34 of the shoe challenge! The number of participants submitting photos seems to have decreased a bit lately, maybe because most people have saved all of their shoes already? I still have a fair few pairs to go, but I am getting fairly close to the end! I'm sure a few more pairs will arrive before the end of the shoe year, though :)

Someone made the comment to me recently that I don't seem to have any colours I prefer, and I wear a wide variety of colours. That's true, and it's easy to find colourful clothes these days with the trends for colour blocking and bright colours. I have traditionally worn more pink and blue than anything else, but I'm really starting to gravitate towards colours like green and yellow lately.

Anyway, here's a lovely silk skirt I bought from one of my favourite stores at the moment, Jigsaw. Top from Forever New.

I actually don't know what brand these shoes are. I bought them from a Chinese store in town the other day. I went there with a couple of friends as they wanted to look for shoes, but somehow I was the only one who actually ended up buying anything!

This was a particularly pink outfit, even for me. The cardigan and skirt are both from Alannah Hill. I wore this because Alannah herself was going to be at my local store, but in the end I didn't end up going to see her...

These are some of my beautiful Miu Miu shoes. Such a perfect colour and style :)

I felt like I stood out a bit too much in this yellow-themed outfit, but I find that yellow is such a cheerful colour and I really like to wear it. I think I'm technically only supposed to wear pale yellow (according to my colour season), but I think that this bright yellow doesn't look too bad on me either! Cardigan from Karen Millen, top from Kookai and skirt from Cue.

These shoes are from Anne Klein, and I love how bright and colourful they are, even though they are slightly too big for me.

I wore quite a bit of yellow this week! I went to the beach again on the weekend, and I wore this dress from Anthropologie and cardigan from Portmans.

Shoes from Asos. I have another pair in a pale green colour, which I wore just recently as part of the shoe challenge :)

#106, 107, 108 & 109 - Week 33

I'm a horrible blogger; I've gotten so far behind with posting my shoe challenge photos, let alone anything else. I'll try to catch up this weekend!

I don't think I'd ever worn this first outfit together until my sister borrowed the top and skirt and wore them together. It made me realise how well they match! (The colours are more similar than they look in the photo). Both are from one of my favourite local brands, Review.

I love wearing white (although it probably doesn't look great on me, considering how pale I am), so I can never have too many pairs of white shoes! When I bought these ones from Enzo Angiolini, I expected them to be as uncomfortable as my pink heels from the same brand, but they're actually not too bad.

This is a dress from Modcloth, which is a little too big for me, as dresses usually are. But I just love the print, so I'll keep wearing it anyway.

I've never been a fan of wedges, but I'm really starting to like them. They're a good alternative to heels on the weekends (because if I wore heels on the weekend, I'm sure that just about everyone I know would think it strange or overly dressy). These ones are from Urban Soul at Myer. I love the pale nude colour.

I went to a flower festival with a friend wearing this dress (also from Modcloth, and also too big for me!). I love gardens, and I go there every year if I can.

I wore some Marc Jacobs flats I bought in Canada last year, and all I'm going to say is that Marc Jacobs ought to pay for my podiatry bills when I'm older!

This is a lovely silk skirt I bought from D&G in their recent Summer sale (cardigan from Review and shirt from Cue). I originally wanted some shoes in this print, but they sold out everywhere in my size so I had to settle for the skirt instead.

Shoes from L&J. I've probably said before that I think slides are generally useless, but they're great to wear the day after you spent a whole day in horribly uncomfortable Marc Jacobs shoes.

#104 & 105 - Flat sandals

I originally planned not to include flat sandals in my shoe count (mainly because I don't like them), but I've realised in the past couple of weeks that I'm going to be wearing them a lot over Summer, so I might as well count them as shoes saved. I am now on the hunt to find some flat sandals that are actually nice. I will let you know how that goes.

Anyway, these are photos from last weekend, which was beautiful and warm and Summery. I went to the beach again, and this time I managed to avoid getting sunburnt!

Here is the view from lying on my beach towel :)

This is a cute flower ring I got at a market a while ago.

And my boring flat sandals.

I've bought a few dresses from Pinup Couture recently, and they are so amazing! The best thing is that they actually fit me, which usually doesn't happen with pin-up style clothing. I get them from Pinup Girl Clothing, which has a great range of dresses and super fast shipping.

And here are some more boring flat sandals! I think I only have one more pair after this, but I'll try to buy some more soon.

#103 - Black dress

I've never been a fan of wearing black. I've probably mentioned this before. I have acquired a few black dresses recently, just because a black dress seems like a staple item to have. I found this dress at Ojay recently, and it was probably the first black dress I've bought that I really like. It fits so well, and it would be suitable for going to work, and going out after work. I had a choice of buying it in blue or black, and I chose the black, which is unusual for me! But I think this will turn out to be a very useful dress to have :)

The shoes are from Alan Pinkus. I love the shiny gold circles!

Prada Spring 2012

I love these shoes from the recent Prada shows. I hope some of them will be available to buy soon. I'd better start saving now!

#102 - How to spot a fake

On this day, I wore a dress from Kate Spade. Or did I? Here are the reasons for and against it being an authentic dress:

For: It has the same type of zip, tag, and lace on the inside hem as my other Kate Spade dresses and skirts, and it seems like a very well-made, good quality dress. It also looks just like the dress on the official web store.

Against: I bought it from an ebay seller in Hong Kong for a price that was almost too good to be true considering that it's only a fairly new item. It's supposed to be silk but doesn't look or feel like it to me. There are lots of them for sale on ebay, which isn't usually the case with Kate Spade dresses.

I don't really mind if it is a fake, as I love it, and it almost fits me properly (which is a nice change for Kate Spade clothes, as they usually run quite large).

I suspect that the reason so many of these dresses are popping up on ebay is that Zooey Deschanel wore this dress to a recent movie premiere.

And I see that Emma from Glee wore this dress in one of the Season 3 promo videos, too. So it seems quite popular, and for good reason, too - it's really pretty :)

I can't say as much about my shoes, though. Even though I'm technically 'saving' them here, I will probably get rid of them, along with every other pair of slides I own, because they are completely useless shoes. They're not comfortable, practical, or particularly attractive, and the only real use they have is saving your feet from further pain if you've hurt them by wearing shoes that rub on your heels.

Through doing the shoe challenge, I've realised that a lot of my shoes have been impulse buys. Hopefully this will make me think more carefully about my shoe purchases in future!