The Models Are Coming! The Models Are Coming!

At long last, we don't have to pay crazy shipping and California Sales Tax to get lovely lacy things from Victoria's Secret. They are opening a flagship store at West Edmonton Mall in August. It might just be a model invasion!


I love so many of the clothes they sell, and even though I've always tried to stay loyal to Canadian lingerie brands, their product is flat-out gorgeous. I also like the La Senza product, but I feel less loyalty to them now that they are no longer Canadian (Limited Brand owns both companies). Victoria's Secret bras just fit me better, and they feel more sensual than Wonderbras, which are my other go-to bra.

When the first buzz hit about VS coming to Canada, I was disappointed because they were only talking about PINK stores. But with a 16,000 sq. ft. full store, maybe we'll see some lovely clothes, coats & boots next to the delicates.

What is your favourite bra maker?

RIP: Alexander McQueen

L'enfant terrible est mort.

Alexander McQueen died Thursday at the age of 40 in his London home, nine days after the death of his mother and shortly before London and Paris Fashion Week began. Fashion's bad boy combined impeccable tailoring with irreverent and fantastic vision.

He has always been one of my top five designers. His collections were controversial, his aesthetic was eclectic and his runway shows were ambitious. Here are a few of his pieces that inspire me.

xoxoxo

Video Luv: Natural Runner

I've been trying to get into running for a while now. I've bought the fancy shoes. I've gotten the snug, shorter pants. I've set my alarm clock an hour earlier than normal. The only thing I'm missing is the "push."

You know the push. It's the final thing that persuades you, "Yes, I know the bed is toasty warm, or that movie and cup of hot chocolate is ready, but instead I'll go out and run until I'm sweaty and sore."

Pain is something I handle pretty well. I believe I have a reasonably high threshold for pain. Still, I don't go out of my way to cause myself pain, so exercise has never appealed to me.

I'm not sure exactly how to get that final drive to get running. The motivation to look better is not enough to make my body ache. I'm vain, but I'm not quite that vain. The goal to feel better is a strong drive, but isn't quite enough for me.

I saw this and thought that it might be enough of a push. Enjoy!

Shopping Luv: Southgate Shopping Centre

When it was announced that Southgate was getting an expansion and a facelift, I was stoked. It could do with a facelift, and LRT extension will help revitalize the area and make it more accessible. But since I now work in Sherwood Park and live in Mill Woods, I only get out to the mall every month or so to play at MAC. I didn't really pay much attention to what new outlets were moving into Southgate.

I've noticed the marketing campaign around the city along with everyone else. I was excited to find out what it was, and when I found out it was the Southgate reopening I was more excited than some people.

I have preferred Southgate ever since I came to Edmonton for university. Even after I chose to stay here, it became my favourite mall. My first three years out of university I worked at West Edmonton Mall, and I enjoyed the atmosphere at the world's largest indoor mall. I think it was how I imagined New York City is: loud, active and busy at all hours of the day.

But I always liked Southgate more. Even though WEM managed to house so many high-end retail stores, I preferred the cool, relaxed atmosphere at Southgate. The mall is so bright and sunny, as though the skylights let in extra light. Southgate also scored the first MAC outlet in Edmonton, and that pretty much solidified its place in my heart.

Earlier this week I booked an appointment at Blu's in Southgate to get some trousers hemmed. I new the mall reopening was today, so I planned to look around and see what was new. I wandered through the newly constructed wing and saw familiar black and white stripes...

Well, bust my buttons - there's a Sephora! No more travelling to the west end of the city for my glam purchases! MAC and Sephora, finally closer to home. What a cost savings in fuel and time! :) Naturally, I had to grab a few items...

By coincidence, I just ran out of moisturizer. I've been using Sweetie's Infinite Aloe, but I've been dying to try Philosophy's Hope In a Jar - 2 oz (CDN$49) after a cousin told me how much she loves it. Gee, what an opportunity!

I finally picked up the Shu Uemura Lash Curler (CDN$19) to see if it's really better than my trusty Life Brand set from Shoppers Drug Mart.

I picked up the Tweezerman Folding Clipper (CDN$10) for Sweetie, who took one look at it and said, "I don't think I'll never use it." Fine by me, that makes me less over budget!

Time for some Too Faced Shadow Insurance (CDN$17) to battle my oily eyelids. I've read so many rave reviews about this eye primer that I just couldn't resist.

I've been wanting a thin eyeliner brush and a pencil brush, so I had to try the Sephora Double-Ended Winged Brush (CDN$18) and hopefully get a two-for one. The bristles are very soft, so we'll see how it applies and holds up.

The best part was that I had enough Sephora points to get a free sample of Benefit BAD Gal Blue mascara, another item on my WANT list.

Quite a haul and a great way to end my day!

Product Peek: Dolly Eyes

I own a lot of glasses.
In my former career I was an optician, so I own a lot of different glasses and contact lenses. Basically, it's kind of ridiculous.

I have a hatbox crammed full of glasses, and I'm still working through the lenses I collected over the years. I even have hard contacts that I never wear - you need to build up wearing time, and I rotate contacts and glasses too much to build it up.

Sometimes I walk into the office in the morning wearing glasses I haven't worn in a year. It's fun to have someone ask if I have new glasses. I can change my eye colour or even make them look like wolf eyes.

I always get excited when I see new types of transformation contacts. The lenses at theDollyEye.com fall somewhere in between excitement and creepy for me. The lenses make your eyes look like the big glass eyes in porcelain dolls.


They are cute, but they also border on creepy. They come in several different colours, and they extend past a natural iris to put nearly 15mm of colour across the eye. Because the colour passes beyond the upper and lower eyelids, the effect is that you have huge eyes like a doll.

I don't know if I'd pick these for myself. Because I have blue eyes, I find that colour change lenses (rather than colour tinting lenses) tend to look unnatural on my eyes. The colours get very pale, so blue lenses look ice-blue like a husky dog, green lenses look like spring leaves, and brown lenses look yellow. There are times when this works to good effect. I'd like it if I was dressing up in costume like a zombie or an elf, but for daily wear this isn't the look I'm going trying to achieve.

Still, the black ones might be good to try. They'd look like intense, dark grey eyes. What colour would look good on you?

Bag Luv: Suede & Co.

Great, I think I'm about to go on a purse binge. Fabulously Broke In the City just pointed out to me that Shopper's Drug Mart is carrying the cutest purses by a Canadian company, Suede & Co.

There are a few that need to come home with me:
As if those weren't pretty enough:


I think I'll be making a trip to Shopper's this week. I have enough Optimum Points on my card to get a couple of them!

Icon Luv: Barbie

I was a tomboy as child. I loved Tonka trucks and camping equipment. But since I'm such a conundrum, I also loved dolls. I played with Barbie until I was much older than was fashionable, under the pretense that I was playing with my sister.

My favourite doll was Beauty Secrets Barbie (1980 model is shown in the photo). I loved that she was so articulated, and that she had so many items. I loved that she could hold her little powder puff and dab it on her face. I loved that she had a stocked beauty kit.

When I grew older, I realized that Barbie didn't look like me. I was a thin girl with a small bust and hips, and Barbie was, well, pneumatic. She was not like me, so I put away childish things, but I couldn't get rid of them completely. I still had a secret love of Barbie.

When I studied Clothing & Textiles in university, we had a lecture in one class by a Barbie doll collector. She explained to us how Barbie had influenced and been influenced by fashion and popular culture. I was amazed because my little Barbie connection from childhood suddenly had a connection to feminism and pop culture in ways I'd never considered. Despite her unnatural dimensions, Barbie had many positive career roles, including:

• Astronaut
• Doctor
• Volunteer candy striper
• UNICEF ambassador

Barbie was a beauty and she and her friends represented many cultures, always with a great sense of style and a killer makeup look.

Others know the fun of Barbie too. MAC released the MAC Loves Barbie cosmetics line in 2007 with beautiful doll-like shades like bright pink. This was one of MACs most successful collections, and Barbie was brought back to the minds of women who grew up playing with their dolls. In turn, Barbie released a MAC Barbie Doll, which was sought after by not just Barbie collectors but MAC collectors as well.

In 2009, Barbie celebrates her 50th anniversary. At New York Fashion Week for Fall 2009, 50 designers contributed to a 50-look Barbie runway show. Stila released the Stila Loves Barbie line, containing more doll-like shades in cute little paint can kits. Lou Lou magazine published an article showing a few examples of Barbie's fashion influences over the years.

I have to admit I still long for some of the Barbies that come out every year. Face it, Barbie is still hot. Hot pink!

Link Luv: Lagerfeld on Twitter!

Okay, I read this today and am giggling my little butt off! Karl Lagerfeld, as in THE Karl Lagerfeld, is blogging on Twitter.

I have no idea if this is really Karl. Would Karl use the word "persnickety"? I would, but would he?
I'm rather persnickety, but I like disorder at work. I'd freeze at a tidy desk.
5:11 PM Feb 28th from web

Then again, some of these are soooo Lagerfeld:

On this day each year, I soak the previous year's calendar in my mother's favorite perfume and then set it ablaze. Here's to a fresh start.
12:13 PM Jan 1st from web.

Here's hoping it's him. I'd love to know that he secretly loves rap.

Thanks to the boys over at The Sword for the tip! Here are some non-Twitter Lagerfeld quotes to brighten your day.

“I’m sorry. What I say is only applicable as I am saying it.” (This should be my disclaimer.)

"Elegance has nothing to do with fashion."

“Coming out after a show is good discipline for me because I have to watch out that I don’t look like an old garden gnome next to all these 20-year-old models.”

Beauty Girl: Dakota Fanning

I have to say (even if it makes me sound, like, so OLD) that it's soooo refreshing to see a teenager dressing like a teenager. Let's all give a big ol' HUZZAH to Dakota Fanning.

How nice is it to see a 15-year-old dressing like a really cute 15-year-old and not a little over-sexed wannabe?

I love this dress, with the architectural details and the asymmetric lines. I even like the colour, because its not beige, but it's demure. And the shoes are wicked too!

Don't get me wrong, I believe that kids are completely overprotected these days and infantalized by their parents (I say confidently with my dried up little vay-gay). Still, just because I think kids should be brought up in an atmosphere of awareness, it doesn't mean they should run around like a modern Miss Kitty.

Dakota's aging well, which is something you always worry about with child actors. The teen years seem to be so cruel to so many. Nobody wants to be the one who used to be so cute.

Kudos, kiddo!

Teal Time

For some reason, I'm crazy for teal this year. I don't know why, but it's my favourite colour right now. I've been obsessed with finding the perfect shade of teal; not too blue and not too green. I found a mohair sweater that came close to perfection. I even found a ginormous leather satchel that was a lovely shade that evokes images of deep Caribbean waters.

Imagine how excited I was when my LouLou Magazine Special Edition arrived yesterday, I was stoked to see that some of the handbags for the fall in glorious shades of teal!

Longchamp has "Légende" ($900), a patent calfskin leather bag in "DuckBlue" with a large interior and two outer pockets. The bag has a patent leather handles and wrapped around the base, and shiny, crinkled leather for the main material. There are metal feet on the bottom, so the bag is more protected from dust and dirt. The main bag of the interior contains two zippered pockets and a leather key holder. The overall size is 18 x 13x 8 inches, so there's lots of room for all your goodies.

Coach has a beautiful handbag called "Amanda Satin Mini Satchel" ($298) in Brass/Teal. This a a smaller bag, only 11 x 5 x 4 inches, it has leather wrapped handles and a removable shouder strap. Inside, there's a zip pocket and an open pocket.

There you have it. Two very different shades of teal in different materials. Simply lovely!

Reversible Halloween Costumes: Wickedly Fun

I'm starting to think about Halloween costumes (late again this year), and I came across a few fun ones online. Because I can design and sew, I feel bad if I buy a costume instead of making something, especially when the quality of the costume is blech. When I was snooping around online though, I found a couple of multi-use costumes that I really like. They are reversible, so you could hit up two parties and have a different look for each!

I really like the Miss Hellenback; when you can't decide if you're going to be good or bad, you can be both! I's made from reversible stretch jersey, one side is white with a ruffle skirt and the other side is black with red flames. The costume includes removable clear shoulder straps, two pairs of gloves, devil horns and a tail, a halo, wings and a wand, and a "Miss Hellenback" name tag.

I like that it's available in sizes 2-20 (S-2XL). and it's sexy with bodice seams to show off your curves. It's short enough to be saucy, but long enough to retain a little modesty while you party your wings or tail off! Sometimes when you get a costume that extends to a plus size range, it's just increased in measurements without thought to how it will appear. The result can be pretty frumpy. The alternative is that the outfit is really sexy and skimpy, and when it is increased in size it accentuates all the wrong things.

Curves on a woman are sexy, but you need things to open in the right places, and make those curves look, well, curvy. These things often are cut in plus sizes so they look dumpy.

The other costume that caught my eye was Buggin Out. It's a reversible dress made from stretch jersey. One side is red with black polka dots and black and yellow stripes. It has clear shoulder straps and a tutu-style hem. With antennae headband and wings, it's an easy costume to put together.

Buggin Out is designed for sizes up to 0-14(XS-L), and it's short enough that you wouldn't want it any larger or it would ride up just walking around. The wings remind me of the kind we made as kids with Mom's old nylons and coat hangers. These ones are nicer though, with sparkly veins across them and a nice harness.

Time is running out, so I have to pick soon if I'm ordering online. Have you picked a costume for Halloween?