Sunday night review...Instyle Feb '10

I know, I know, it’s not Sunday night but we had such a busy weekend filled with friends and family that by the time we got the kids to bed all I could do was sit and stare at the flat screen! Back to work this morning, and I have to say I am seriously excited about the Feb edition of Instyle. Call me biased, I am an Instyle die-hard from way back (except when Lindsay Lohan was on the cover, eep!) but the last three editions have been super sensational. If anything the latest has raised the uber-edgy-slash-glamour bench-mark to an all-time high, placing it firmly above – in my opinion, the mecca of all fashion mags, Vogue! I will admit it’s a little OTT with high-end fashion but the contents still seem accessible, if only as a guide to those us on a post Chrissie sale budget.

Regular features including Your Look (p47 – 47), Shop It (p69-80), celebrities Instyle (p88-111) and What’s now (113-123) fairly pop from the pages in a montage of colour, allure and to-die-for accessories. Instant Style, the first of the Your Look feature has gone tribal in an appealing to the masses kind of way. Australian designer Thurley features heavily - check out the silk on p51...gorgeous, and then again on p77... (you may have seen her on the local red carpet as a fav of Geelong superstar, Gary Ablett’s gorgeous partner, Lauren Phillips. It's way out of my price range at the minute, but it’s fun to look! Meanwhile, Instyle’s love-love relationship with dynamic duo Sass & Bide continues. The You Can Do section is kind of cool for fab ideas on what to mix and match, but if you are like me and have to adopt a k-mart kind of ideology, then stick to what you can afford. It is highly unlikely, for example, that I am ever going to buy a leopard cardigan from Camilla and Marc at $380 (p60-61), but I have a ripping muted zebra cardi from Sussans ($49.95) that will do the trick nicely. Call me crazy, but I do like the Camilla silk ‘day-to-night’ jumpsuit (p66). At $451 however, I wouldn’t actually buy it, but I did see something similar on ebay just the other day at a fraction of the price.

The workplace is definitely a style magnet for fashion mags at the mo. My favourite spread features the relaxed muted tones on pg 72-73. I love the Sambag sequinned cashmere cardi on p72. Back to the coffee money for a cashmere investment me thinks, and you can’t go wrong with any dress from Jigsaw. I have to admit, I’m usually not a fan of the celebrity in-style feature as I have never subscribed to idea of a celebrity as my fashion icon. Let’s face it, they are surrounded by dozens of stylists, make-up artists and hair-dressers and are usually photographed wearing outrageously expensive items that most of us can only scoff at, but I do like the Danielle Spencer spread on pg104-111. There is something earthy about this high-profile wife and mother-of-two, to which a mere mortal such as myself can relate. Oh, and I love the look on p89. To top it off, the beauty (p126), well-being (p150) and life-style sections (P163) offer fabulous tricks of the trade ideas on how to glam up your day to day life.

The Feb edition launches Instyle’s second annual Women of Style Awards, so if you know someone worthy of a mention, get on line www.instylemag.com.au. The Feb edition of Instyle features Jennifer Garner on the cover...love the colour of that frock, and reader discounts at Sportscraft and Priori facials.

CHECK IT OUT: Sambag on line at www.sambag.com.au. The on-line shop is nothing to write home about, but you may be able to find a store near you, which could be worth a look. If you are cashed up and don't mind a spot of on-line shopping then also scope zimmermannstore.com. They are having a fab sale with most items at 50% off or more! My fav, the Lolo applique dress reduced from $375 to $190. Gorgeous!

Finally, those heels are all mine

I love my friend Mel, really I do. She is kind, caring, and incredibly stylish and selfishly shares all her Wittner secrets with her friends. In fact, if it wasn’t for Mel then I might have missed out on buying these gorgeous Pansy-miami-glitter heels reduced from $169.95 to $34 during Wittner’s 4-day, 80 per cent off sale! I have been eying them off for months, so imagine my excitement when I walked into my local store and there they were, 80 per cent off! And just when I was thinking, I need another pair shoes. Clearly the stuff dreams are made of. I just adore them, don’t you? In fact, I adore them so much; I have created an entire outfit around them just to wear on casual Friday tomorrow. I can’t wait.

HOT TIP: Wittner’s most fantastic sale of the century ends on Sunday, so make sure you get yourself into a store post haste. Most of the shoes on sale do have a heel and quite a dangerous heel at that (or as BB1 puts it “a sharp heel”), but if you don’t like heights, don’t be dissuaded because there is a small selection of cute flats and sandals bound to peak your interest. For my beautiful friends in Western Australia, I am as horrified as you that my all-time favourite place to shop shoes has not it made it across the Nullarbor. You can still check it out and buy on-line at www.wittner.com.au.

Going going gone...the mischief of on-line shopping

It’s gone! That cute little white dress with the blue geometric print on p42 of the latest "Shop Til You Drop" mag has gone. Never to be repeated. None, zilch, zero. I am gutted, how did this happen? I had already resolved in the early hours of this morning that the very minute I settled BB2 down for a nap and put BB1 in front of the big screen, I would log onto shoptilyoudrop.com.au and buy it. I was brimming with excitement about my impending purchase. I had already decided where I would wear it first – lunch with the girls, how I would dress it up - my favourite elastic cinch belt with the faux black patent leather trim ($39.95 from Sussans) and new t-bar platties from Wittner, and how I would dress it down – cream ballet flats and turquoise gypsy pendent I purchased at a steal ($5) from Ritual at Harbour Town, WA. But, not only could I not find the dress, I could not find Alibi, the on-line boutique from which I was to buy. It wasn’t where it usually is... under the eboutique section of the STYD website – although I did find a couple of other cute little eboutiques you all might like, but that’s for another day, and I was fast becoming frustrated. I was about to reach for the phone and give my favourite new publication a piece of my thwarted mind. Fancy teasing us with such a stylish wonder at an affordable price only to deny its very on-line existence. Thankfully in a excellent show of self-control, I dialled the number printed on the promo instead and was delivered the bad news. Nooooo....

In a desperate attempt to suppress my disappointment, I spent the next half an hour scoping all my favourite e-boutiques’ in the hope I would find something that would come close to bringing such joy that I know this frock would have brought. Until my three year old screamed at me that she wanted a tissue that is and wanted it now! It wasn’t until I tore my frantic fingers away from my keyboard that I realised no matter how many flashy fashion sites I visited that all boasted cut-price options with one click, none would extinguish the grief I felt at losing my new best friend, and that perhaps BB1s tantrum was a blessing in disguise, lest I found myself checking out with something that was only ever going to be second best.

So, my advice to you is if you see something you really like, don’t delay. Don’t stop to ponder how fabulous you are sure to look and then wait for an opinion from your loyal readers. Log-on immediately and buy it. It is far better than losing it and spending your hard earned coffee money on a poor replica that you are sure to dislike the moment it arrives.

HOT TIP: There is nothing quite so exciting than buying on-line and receiving your package wrapped up with a smile from the postie. But beware...you are clearly buying what you see in one-dimension only, and usually hanging off a super slim glamorous supermodel. In order to shop successfully on-line particularly if you are going in for high-end bargains, then you MUST MUST MUST know your body shape, so you can take one look at the happy snap of your next big purchase and be confident that it is the right look for you.

Shop til you drop review (Feb '10)

The latest edition of the ‘Shop til you drop’ is a ripping publication. It’s been some months since I last invested...I was somewhat delusional in thinking that if I avoided it, I would not succumb to temptation as I was clearly on maternity leave and at the mercy of the joint bank account. Those of you who know me however, realise how ridiculous that is, because despite two babies, mortgage, maternity leave and ridiculously high child-care fees, I still went shopping as clearly evidenced by this blog. Anyway, if you haven’t yet checked out quite frankly the most fabulous shopping resource ever to behold those of us on a budget, then you simply must. It is full of fabulous fashion ideas and how to get them at any price. In particular, at a price affordable to vast majority of us, child-care or not. Usually a skimmer – you know, look at the pictures, glance at the price and then spend the next 12 hours wondering how to get one, I took my glossy little 190+ page plus friend to bed and read it cover to cover.

I love love love the monthly Reporter – six pages of the latest fashion news, know-hows and style trends. Some of which I do admit I scoffed at ‘cloud print jeans anyone!’ while others completely intrigued the more ambitious stylette in me. Nicole Richie’s House of Harlow, gotta look that up. I am also completely enamoured with “get the look for under $50!” Where? How?. Check out p42 and in particular, the white and blue geometric print dress from Alibi ($49.95). I’m thinking of buying it, what do you think? The Marcs shoes on p124 have also got my name on them, don’t you agree?

Shopping Spree: Working girl (p64) was clearly up my alley, although the sister section – 7 surprisingly office-appropriate way to wear shorts (p44), scared the hell out of me. This month also features a fab selection of on-line sites that will delight all your fashion desires, Click, Click, Shop(p106): I’m about to check out Claire Incorruptible, Jak and Jil Blog, rachelzoe.com and cocolee.com.au. You must must must also take a look at offtherunway.com.au. I found them when I was searching for a bargain basement pair of Christian Louboutin heels. A little out of my price range, but we can dream can’t we.

CHECK IT OUT ON-LINE: shoptilyoudrop.com.au

Colour me charcoal? Oh God no, not with my skin tone!

So we’ve just come out of yet another winter wonderland of greys, charcoals and blacks. As “black appears to be the new black“ on the London Fashion Festival catwalk, the same frosty hues are likely be back on deck in 2010. Whilst certainly dramatic (albeit way over-used people) these colours usually leave most of us with sallow complexions in a state of envy, contempt and morbid frustration. Just as knowing your body shape is an essential skill for any aspiring stylette, so too is knowing your skin tone. This will enable you to identify what colours work best for you, and what will only make you look like big sick dark void in the middle of a rainstorm.

According to my fabulous friend, Sarah who recently participated in a colour course, most skin tones take on a seasonal hue. Seasonal as in temperature not as in exposure to sunlight. With the exception of a few lucky little stylettes aka fabulous Sarah, your skin tone will either be warm or cold and as such certain colours will either complement or kill. To ensure you are in the colour know, there are courses available to identify which colours best suit your skin tone. For those of you lucky to be living in Melbourne, the one offered at CAE is by far the most cost-effective at a bargain $99, but be quick as it is currently only offered a few times a year. As for the others I Googled, they are bit pricey. If you are like me and plus two and paying threw the nose for child-care, the chances of you forking over $300 for four hours of colour, are as likely as you nipping into the Louis Vuitton store on Collins Street and buying a day bag or two.

So, invest in a copy of Trinny & Susannah’s “What not to wear will change your life” for a bit of colour guidance, or do it the old fashion way…trial and error…preferably before you buy.

CHECK IT OUT: As always, there are exceptions to every rule, so don’t be scared to compromise when you find a knock-out number that looks so hot, no-one will notice your pallid complexion. Just don’t make it a habit.


HOT TIP: The next time your are in your favourite store and are unsure what colours best suit your complexion, hold the fabric up against your skin and have a good look. Your facial skin tone will give you the best indication of what works and what looks downright scary. But, make sure the fitting rooms are well lit and against a neutral background because a coloured wall or curtain and bad lighting can distort the results. Most stores discreetly position mirrors throughout the shop front, which are usually under better light. So set up camp and away you go. Be prepared to make a few mistakes along the way but don’t worry, that’s why they invented eBay.