New Shopping Complex Opens Door!

Yay!! The new shopping complex "Garden Square" has officially opened its door last weekend. Being the super shopaholic and now the investigative shopping reporter of Ganguro Fashion Blog :-), I took two visits to "Garden Square" on its opening weekend!



Rather than being built as a mega shopping mall, Garden Square is a smaller 2-story courtyard-style shopping complex that houses mini boutiques of all kinds and also a nice food court. Each mini boutique specializes in everthing from shoes, apparel, to intimate wear. The best part is that the average prices of the trendy apparels sold here are all under $35 US. So you now all know what's keeping me busy if I've not been blogging :-)

Ganguro Spotlight: Chocolate Brownie Sporty Tube Dress & Shrug Set

Fall's arrival means a cardigan or a hoodie is essential if you're out partying or catching a movie. With this "Chocolate Brownie Sporty Tube Dress & Shrug 2-piece Set", there's no more fumbling through the closet looking to find a matchy cardi/jacket for your mini dress. Just put the tube mini dress on, throw on the matching cropped shrug, and a pair of knee-high boots, and you'd look fabulous to go!





The rich fudge/brownie color is perfect for the Indian Summer. Fabric is soft corduroy-like, and super stretchy. The fitted shrunken shrug keeps its sporty theme to it, as is the tube mini with "BOSTON" embroidered across the bust. A gorgeous set of 2-piece, and very flattering fit!



Click on photo above for more view.


Available now at Desperate for Fashion.

Serious Rainboots

In the pass I've blogged about pretty, rainbow colored rainboots that you can play matchy, matchy with and have a lot of fun. But after a particularly bad day yesterday, braving the pouring rain for half a hour (even though it is usually only a 15 minute walk!), squeezing onto the bus and getting my jeans soaked even though I have an umbrella, I am thinking that I should really invest in a serious pair of rainboots. Something that will just keep my feet (and hopefully half my jeans) nice, dry and CLEAN. Something I can wear so then I would NOT have to avoid puddles or worry about slipping. Something that is simple, versatile but of good quality.
Something like the classic Hunter rainboots. I'm not sure how it warrants the $115 price tag, but I guess it is an assurance of quality? They are the rainboots of rainboots after all. If you want to buy a trench coat, you got to go to Burberry. If you must buy trunk-like sheepskin snow boots, you have to buy Uggs. And if you want to buy rainboots, then you should get Hunter rainboots.

The style itself is simple and as sleek as rainboots can get. It is sturdy and definitely slip-proof. While the buckle makes the boots not so plain looking, it is also functional. These are serious no nonsense rainboots. Just what I need. They also come in many different colors, to add a bit of color to a dreary day. I'm considering this iris color. Black is just a bit too dark and yellow reminds me too much of those yellow wellington boots that cartoon bear wore. Now the only thing is convincing myself to make the splurge. Just that it's hard when it is all I want on a rainy day, but the furthest thing in my mind on a sunny (good for shopping) day!

Image Source: Saks

Ganguro Spotlight: Black Lux Double Breasted Vest Dress

I wasn't particularly excited about "his vest" when over the Spring and Summer everyone else was taking from their men. But that could be because all I'd seen were the cropped versions worn over babydoll dresses, Ts & skinny jeans.







This "Black Lux Double Breasted Vest Dress" is a fabulous "stand-alone" piece! It's not at all too musculine, rather it's sexy and modern. It's a versatile piece for the weather now as you can either layer a tank/short sleeve underneath it, or with a long sleeve dress shirt/henley when it gets cool! A pair of black pump would up its gorgeous level even more!



Click on photo above for more view.


Available now at Desperate for Fashion.

90210 Is Strangely High School

Tuesday night's premiere of CW's 90210 was... okay. It wasn't particularly boring but we didn't exactly love it. Throughout the show, something felt off to us, something we couldn't really name until it suddenly occured to us that the show felt SO high school!

The show is about high school, you say, so obviously it's supposed to feel high school. But the characters in the past few 'high school' dramas that I've watched have been so un-high-school, 90210's characters and enviornment seemed relatively young and teensy. Think back: While The OC was also about spoilt kids who go to a rich, Californian school, Marissa (Mischa Barton) and Summer (Rachel Bilson) seemed to deal with more non-school-related issues and the only time we see them at school was to see them talk by their lockers. Veronica Mars was so mature and smart that I never really thought of her as a dumb teenager. As for Gossip Girl, Blair, Serena and sometimes even Jenny seem so worldly and glamorous that it just doesn't seem like normal high school to us.

So watching the kids on 90210 actually doing high school things like playing lacrose, messing up the rival school, copying a friend's homework, being grounded, participating in school plays and boys beating each other up. Obviously high school's not supposed to be sophisticated but we're just not used to it! And yes, of course we noticed the clothes!

The main character whose name was so forgetable I had to look up, is Annie. In the first episode, she wore very basic high school clothes, like a camisole with denim skirt.

And look, jeans with basic tops. Nothing fancy!

Silver (yes, that's the character's name,) whose supposed to dress hipster/ hippie/ edgy is my favourite 'fashion character' on the show so far. (She looks way cooler in the show than in this photo. I couldn't find a better one.)

The popular girl, Naomi dresses only ok. As you can see from her ugly outfit here, she's no Marissa Cooper. And she's really into wearing designer-flashing things, like Chanel logo accessories.

As for the party outfit, Annie got to wear an expensive dress (because Naomi bought it for her.) Silver looks so cool with a simple ballerina-looking American Apparel dress with long necklaces. I'm looking foward to more of Silver's outfits!

So you can obviously tell I am not impressed with the girls' outfits -but that is one of the things that is making this show seem so 'high school' to me. Hopefully the drama will get more interesting in the next few episodes. How much did you like the new 90210?

FW08: Leather Jackets

It's finally September! I can't believe the clear blue skies and sunshine is about to come to an end so soon. On the bright side, we can now officially focus on our FW08 wardrobe! And the beauty of fall is that you can experiment with different FW outfits without worrying about the snow and freezing to death- yet. The first thing that caught my eye this season is the leather jacket.
No big surprise since it is one of the heaviest advertised looks by high street stores. Bebe went for the typical dark, cool leather jacket look.
While Express mixed the hardcore leather jacket with feminine flirty dresses and prints, creating a look which I absolutely ADORE! Thus I must now go and look out for the perfect leather jacket and floral dress to recreate this look.
First things first. I got to find that leather jacket. Urban Outfitters has this simple one (left) with ribbed trims and Vanessa Bruno Athe has this classic asymmetrical zippered one (right) which I especially love because it looks cute with this black dress (which I have a very very similar one of!) and it'll look very cool with just jeans. The fact that they're both brown makes them all the more interesting.
More ribbed leather jackets from Ted Baker (left) and Top Shop (right). The ribs make them less rock and more toned down and sporty, which is great if you want a softer look. Although I'm not sure about these two. It's usually hard to tell quality with leather until you feel it, but from the LOOKS of these... they don't look of very good quality. And you definitely don't want to look cheap with leather.
So for styles with higher quality, I think it's safe to say that at the >$600 price range these two from Marc by MJ (left) and Vince (right) is good. One is classic biker chic while the other is more toned down and ladylike.
Of course, not everyone can afford the >$600 price range and even though I believe that jackets are my best friends, even I'm not sure they're worth that much (I'd be REALLY sad if I bought a leather jacket of exquisite soft leather and it got SCRATCHED). Thus I have my eye on this Aqua leather jacket I tried on the other day. The quality is not bad and it fits quite snug and well, with a bit of a crop. For $298, I thought it was priced reasonably, in the mid range of the worst and the best. Leather jackets are expensive things after all. Unfortunately, my bargain hunting instincts wouldn't let me buy it until it is at least on some kind of tiny sale. Fingers cross there will still be one left by then!

Image Source: Bloomingdales, ShopBop, Bebe, UO, Vanessa Bruno, Ted Baker and Express

New F/W08 Layout

Today is the 1st of September, so per tradition of this blog, it's time for the new header image! Since this season is all about the new, more mature silhouette, we decided to just show the shape of the runway model (from Proenza Schouler F/W08 show) instead of showing the original image of the outfit. Plus, we love how you can use your imagination and substitute yourself into the black, empty silhouette of the girl walking along the streets of these very vibrant and sophisticated cities.

The three photos that we chose are indirectly fashion-related (not intentionally.) From left to right: The New York photo was taken by BG randomly and if you look really closely, you'll notice the Tom Ford store on Madison. (She'd also like to thank the cab for randomly passing by at that moment. It adds a very NYC element to the picture.) The L.A. photo was taken two summers ago on Rodeo Drive. (I love how bright the road signs and Chanel store display is. And strange enough, I like the well-focused rubbish bin too!) The London photo was taken this year during Chinese New Year (hence the red lanterns) on Oxford Street. It's sort of a random picture but it's it really representative of London?

I'm not sure whether it was a coincidence or that BG and I were actually inspired by Gossip Girl, but on the night that we finished the design, I had also stared at the opening theme of Gossip Girl (-think city lights and the yellow "Gossip Girl" heading,) and thought, hey, our work-in-progress image looks a bit like this! And if you look at the image from further away, (like 3-5m away,) everything in the image will look almost all black except for the bright blobs of light. It's kind of like when we stare out our windows from our room at night -it feels very cosmopolitan!

Anyway, it's the beginning of a new season, so take some time to relax, read a fashion magazine or two (-there really is no need to read all of them out there!), and have fun shopping with your favourite shopping buddy!

Image Credit: http://www.style.com/ (for the silhouette)