Ten stores/outlets for budget fashionistas

1. Forever 21
An American store but worth mentioning as they now have online shopping for the UK. This store is my idea of absolute fabulosity! its a one stop shop for young and chic without breaking the bank.

2. H&M
There is no other store to keep you forever young like H&M. Their prices are as fantastic as they are!

3. Topshop
The fashionista's hunt! they will keep you in style and in trend!

4. Ebay
For those things you are wondering where to get them from. I wouldnt advice getting your shoes here though! but other accessories? and everything else? absolutely!

5. Amazon
All the brands meet here! clothes, shoes, bags everything... and their price range is as wide as it comes so no matter your budget, this site has got something for you and I have found such gorgeous bags on Amazon!

6. Asos
For your pretty party dresses, sexy tops, jeans, shoes... name it! if you havent been shopping in Asos, where have you been shopping?

7. Primark
Good old primark.... I always like to trawl Primark cos you never know what you might find in there.....and its cheap and cheerful! be careful though cos you might end up buying a lot of things you dont need!

The next two sites are American and for shoes

8. DSW - shoes, gloves.... This store rocks...

9. Bakers - class on heels... I love baker shoes.... I always will!

10. Charity stores - yes I said charity stores.... and if you want to stumble on the nicest things, go to the charity stores in really nice neighbourhoods... they are full of treasures!

And finally, I'm not numbering this cos its not a store - get swapping! Seriously... you can totally revamp your wardrobe by going for cloth swapping events like those organised by FabXchange dont forget to declutter your wardrobe too by taking along those clothes that you dont want anymore

What eco-fabulous fashionistas did on Saturday Oct...

Saturday, the 23rd of Oct 2010 was a fantastic day for fashionistas who attended the Swappers Anonymous event held at the Rock Tower, Tufnell Park London by the Waspartiers.

Check out this link to relive the experience (if you were there) or for all the awesome pictures of what you missed!
The Wardrobe Swap Party: What eco-fabulous fashionistas did in October

The Fashion Party to be at this Month - "Don't go shopping, Get swapping"

The Wardrobe Swap Party holding this October





Having trouble with your wardrobe? Then you need to be at the next WASParty! The eco-friendly fashion event where women get to swap clothes they no longer need or wear with other women".

Date: 23rd October,
Time: 3p.m,
Venue: The Rock Tower, 49 Tufnell Park Road, N7 0PS London
Other attractions include a raffle draw with lots of gifts to be won.

Advanced Gate fee £7.50, Advanced VIP gate fee £20, At the door- £10"

"For more info and tickets visit www.wasparty.blogspot.com or call 07908511904 or 07590380992"

"Get Swapping!"

Fabulous EcoFriendly Fashion Party coming up

A fabulous fashion party is coming up on the 23rd of October in London and I'm in a tizz about it already. Why? Cos its a swap party.... the new rage in London now. Swap parties have been sweeping the US and Canada for a while now and have now landed bang in London, UK.

The Wardrobe Swap Party (Wasparty), started by a swanky pair of fashionistas are throwing another one of their swap parties in North London on the 23rd of October.

Just in case you are wondering what a swap party is about?

A swap party is an eco-friendly inexpensive way to update your wardrobe. Its a party where you get to swap the clothes you havent worn in forever and dont think you will wear for new stylish clothes you adore!

What makes the swap party thrown by the Wasparty so much more fun is that they always have a theme (the theme for the one in October is "Swappers Anonymous" like in "Alcoholics Anonymous" yeah... you get the drift) and they always have all sorts of fun side attractions.

Let me give you the details of the next party so you can be a part of it.
WASParty: Theme - Swappers Anonymous Edition!

Date &Time : Saturday, 23rd October 2010 (3p.m-7p.m)

Venue: Emerald Suite, the Rock Tower, 49 Tufnell Park Road, N7 0PS London

Get rewarded with new stylish  clothes for cleaning  out your wardrobes
in an afternoon of excitement,  music and fashion. Drinks on the house.

All you have to do is come with at least three swap-worthy clothes
you don’t  need/wear anymore and SWAP for new items.
Remember items with dirt,  rips, stains and broken zips would not be accepted.

Other attractions include:

1. A raffle draw to win gifts including:
• body butters courtesy Emi & Ben
• free copies of the exciting novel- In My Dreams, It Was Simpler
2. A style desk - where you can get suggestions and ideas on your new swaps
3. An Ardyss body magic stand with products that can help you drop 2 dress sizes in 10 minutes!
4. A Mary Kay stand - with loads of exciting Mary Kay products for sale, including new products, gift sharing ideas and FREE MAKEOVERS
5. A beads & costume jewellery stand by Loya Tobs

Entrance fee:

• Advance fee:
• £7.50 if you pre-register by midnight October 20. Entitled to 1 raffle ticket on the day
• £20 for VIP tickets includes 2 raffle tickets on the day and a good 5 minutes access to swapping area before general swapping begins. (Must pre-register by midnight October 20).

• £10 (cash only) at the door

For more details and to pay in advance visit the Wasparty blog

Sarah Murdoch of Australia's Next Top Model Announces the Wrong Winner on Live TV.

This must have been a curl-your-toes-in-your-shoes, wish-you-were-somewhere-else moment for Sarah Murdoch, the host of "Australia's Next Top Model" when she mistakenly announced the runner up as the winner of the show on live television.

Let me set the stage - there is Kelsey Martinovich in a black and cream shimmering lace gown and Amanda Ware in a power red floor length asymmetric monostrap gown holding hands, waiting for Sarah Murdoch in her black mono-shouder gown to annouce who had won Australia's Next Top Model.

Then Sarah made the ghastly mistake and announced the runner up Kelsey Martinovich as the audience-voted top Model. Kelsey in her one minute of fame, gave her victory speech in an excited joy filled voice and then Sarah went pale. She pressed her finger to her right ear and muttered "Oh my God, I dont know what to say right now, I'm feeling a bit sick about this. No. I'm so sorry about this. Oh my God. I don't know what to say. This was a complete accident. It's Amanda, I'm so sorry. It was fed to me wrong."



In reality, Amanda Ware was... is the winner of Australia's Next Top Model!

It appears Kelsey was initially ahead of Amanda in the votes and this was the information fed to Sarah's earpiece; so when Amanda caught up and won in the votes, the information was not forwarded to Sarah. The organisers of the show have since compensated Kelsey with a $25,000 cash reward and a trip to New York.

My heart goes out to Kelsey who's victory was only a moment long and to Sarah Murdoch who although handled the situation with poise and professionalism must still have been so embarrassed.

I bet my last penny, someone or a group of people somewhere got fired for this gauffe... sorry muchos.... you should have known better

This time last year

Woke up this morning and was reminded of the Esteri collection last year and how much fun I had producing it, creating the lookbook and selling it. So I'm giving you guys a glimpse of the collection again.... on youtube!

Here goes - Esteri 2009 collection


Have a fun filled Tuesday!

10 Affordable Going out gowns for You!

Heello fashionistas,

Perhaps you have an event during this week or weekend and you are wondering what to wear! Your purse is lean but a girl gotta do what she gotta do, and that is look good, so yours truly has gone looking for lovely gowns for you!
All these gowns are from Boohoo, Asos and Wallis! Have a great time this week girls!

Evening Dresses by Boohoo
Cocktail Dresses by Asos

Now Autumn has come!

Black Dresses by Alexander McQueen
Boots by Alexander McQueen

All the pieces in the look above are by the late Alexander McQueen.

Skinny Trousers by Topshop
Boots by Kurt Geiger

High street pieces from stores like Topshop, Next, H&M, New look etc

Cocktail Dresses by Roberto Cavalli
Boots by Miu Miu

A dash of animal print to liven things up.... animal prints are back this season again... did they ever leave? I dont think so!

Courtesy: Shopstyle.com

Lady Gaga's Meat Dress

Lady Gaga, the cult culture, singing diva who is well known for her extreme dress sense and stage performances went one step further... or perhaps i should say leftside, even downhill, at the MTV Awards.
Lady Gaga came to the MTV awards in a meat dress! Yes in a dress made out of chunks of meat, with a steak balanced on her head.

Although she went home with eight awards for her brain twigging, youth tripping songs, I personally think she looked and must have smelled disgusting.





Lady Gaga's attempt at hogging the spotlight and making style history might have been successful because she ensured she was the most talked about "thing" at the MTV awards, nevertheless, I find her style at this particular event quite sick and silly at once.

She has not only gone the extra mile to alienate her vegan and vegetarian fans, she has also done a good job of nailing it in the coffin for those like me who never had much use for her.

My particular beef is that she stole the spotlight from every fashion designer who worked long hours and laboured to produce gowns for various celebrities to wear at the event... I bet none of them got half ... sorry a tenth of the mention she got.

And Frances Fernandez who designed the gown? he needs someone to tell him to stop right now! its bad enough you were willing to do such a disgusting smelly project, you don't have to go on about it like its a maverick work of genius! calling it a gown that will take its place among many of Lady Gaga's other dresses! in the closet darling or where? Common! Your creation is already growing maggots and stinking up the bin where ever it is now!

We are aware that fashion is creative, eccentric, wild, rebellious.... all those things...and this is why we all worship at the feet of this tin god, but dont tell us wearing raw meat is fashion! do not even dare!

Fashion Bargains for You!

Hello Fashionistas,

While looking out for those worth-dying-for items, I found some bargains for my darling fashionistas... and now you have a perfect excuse to go shopping - hurry while these offers are on!

20% off Selected tops at Tesco and valid from 14 September to 28 September 2010.

25% off at Dorothy Perkins on everything online and in store before midnight 19th September 2010 - starting 13th September (Yesterday). To redeem the discount code online, enter code DPVIPD.

30% discount Vouchers at GAP from 20th -28th September. Go instore to get yours.

20% off at Debenhams in the Daily Mail promotion, Click here to know more

20% off tops at ASOS and also off mens wear - shirts and knits.

Get shopping fashionistas!

Shoes worth having

Here is a list of shoes I think are drool-quality, every girl should have one of these, they are hot, they are sexy.... demure.... classy.... elegant... a lot of things... and I definitely love all of them.

1. This black zipper satin shoes by Report Signature, they are $159.99 on heels.com



2. This blue heels with a nautical feel to them, that tan bow is totally cute... aye aye skipper! you gotta have these ones. They are by Harajuku lovers and you can also get them on heels.com


3.I love love this ballerinas, they are so pretty...and the magenta colour is so right!
They are available at John Lewis for £120 and worth every penny! me thinks!


4. I love the detailing on this open toe court shoes.. they are so well done, and the colour makes it a very versatile pair of shoes to own.
They are by Nine West and also available at John Lewis for a bargain £59!

2011 Spring Summer colours

Very soon, Spring Summer fashion will be on the catwalks and we can all run over to the fashion shows and ogle them.

There are some colours I expect to see, hope to see... hints of them have come around last summer but I think they are on their way in full blast so I'm taking a big bold step and coming out with my "hope to see" colours for Spring Summer 2011.

Its Alice in Wonderland and the Enchanted garden back at ya!

With bright fuschia pink


lush greys



whitened sea green



Pretty river bank brown (even the brown is pretty)


shades of lilac - light and dark




lime green


I'm also into tropical colours!

yellow



orange



deep sea green



that dark maroonish red!



I'll stop for now...

ESTERI so far

At Esteri we have been really busy..... so I'm going to give you a quick update of what we have been doing.

We have a new production manager and sampler! yipeeee and its being a great experience so far working with this new team. We are working on the Esteri Spring Summer 2011 collection which I have decided to call "The First Lady" no it has nothing on Michelle Obama.... but a lot on Grace Kelly of Monaco and Jackie Onassiss... might seem cheesy to you but this is my most exciting collection so far - its Grace Kelly in 2050! all dressed up and ready to go!

Also Esteri has been involved in organising a fashion show event billed for October - 4 months away. The show called FOBOShow is being organised in collaboration with a superb event management company in London - IVATION Concepts and we feel super special to be working with them - very vibrant artsy company!

so yes together we are gonna make FOBOSHOW happen! what's foboshow about? I'll tell you in our next post and that will be soon!

I really wish I could show you what the SS2011 Collection looks like but right now its still cooking and we dont want to spoil the jaw dropping surprise effect! okay

thats all for now! we'll be back....

dont forget to join our facebook group and also follow Esteri on Twitter. We are on both networks as Esteri

Catch ya!

Fashion Fabric Show and Sample Collections

Today, The London Textile Forum started its exclusive fashion fabric show. Now this show has been described as one of London's most exclusive fashion fabric show, and is aimed at designers, small to medium sized manufacturers, dressmakers and retail fabric specialists looking for high quality fashion fabrics from UK and European mills.

Yours truly was there to gain inspiration for my Spring/Summer 2011 designs and probably find a fabric to blow me out of the waters....

There were about 20 exhibitors from the UK and Europe, there were a number of Swizz companies. The Exhibitors all offered small minimums (10 metres and 15 metres.... Basinghall UK offered its habutae fabric "good for linings and dresses" at 25 metres minimum but as far as I could see, most of the others did a 10metre and 15 metre minimum.

There were an assortment of knitted jerseys, wools and silks, embroidered and print satins, leathers and cotton, bridal accessories, linings and trims.....

i fell in love over and over again with two silk fabrics from Henry Bertrand and a gorgeous ivory polyester tafetta from Forster Rohner.... all in all ... it was a fruitful experience!

I feel newly inspired to produce my Spring/Summer 2011 sample collection....sometimes i think the fabric you use for your collection can really make or break you.... am i alone in this thought?

I loved it! and might go back tomorrow again!

Its a two day show! so if you can still make it run off and give it a go!

The London Fashion Week

The exciting London Fashion Week A/W season has come again bringing with it one whole week (18th february - 24th february) of fabulousness...intense creativity and extravagant fashion...I dont know about you, but the LFW is one week I'm always eager to see come, wish it wont end and when its done... i heave a sigh of relief and then start another wait for the next fashion week in Autumn!

The Jalouse LFW closing show yesterday was as awesome as I imagined it would be with Angy Morton, Anh Tuan and Lida O' Reilly strutting their stuff....it was a case of style hanging out! shades of blue and green, fuschia pink and black were some of the colours that featured strongly in yesterday's show

Angy Morton with his football jersey gowns still managed to pass across that dreamy sense of fantasy.... butterflies and fairies and shakesperean thoughts....

Lida blew my mind.... with those awesome gowns... i could practically feel the intensity of her creativity and hard work in the lines of those gowns.... Anh Tuan leaves you wanting to wear black all the days of your life... i have a few pictures to show you... forgot my camera at home in my excitement and had to make do with my phone!

hope you catch the beauty and the complete enchantment in these pieces

How to be Beautiful - tips

I'm starting off here with a few tips on getting your fashion right...it really is possible to be fashionably gorgeous! i call it being fashigeous which was initially going to be the name of this blog... but now i have decided to just call it what i do best...fashion patrol...

Still i'm bringing you a few tips on being fashionbly gorgeous so here goes


1. When you go shopping for clothes make sure you get something that suits your figure and flatters your shape... get classic pieces and my rule of thumb is that if you have to ask a second opinion about it – it aint hawt! Buy only things you absolutely love and can already imagine atleast 2 things to pair it with in your wardrobe

2. Buy fashion magazines… and check out what the models are wearing…the hair dos, make up… you can keep the hot trends in mind that way… you might not want to follow them every inch of the way but you know what is going on and they will help your creative juices flow…

3. Cute clothes are great… be stylish and adventurous when shopping for your clothes… stop filling your wardrobe with black under the pretext that it’s a safe colour that goes with everything… we have tried to get you to try other colours with all the “purple is the new black” “green is the new black” fads and seriously the idea is that ‘there are other colours out there other than black’

4. Wear bright colors - Like I said before… black is not the only colour out there, now take it further and wear bright colours, it will most likely give you some confidence.. so go after the pinks, yellows, turquoise blues and printed pieces… they will put a spring in your steps…

5. Pay attention to your hair – woven, braided, straighten, curled, coloured…. Anything…. as long as it’s impeccable… and there are all kinds of cute accessories out there like headbands and ribbons to help you! Dirty hair and hair flying around is not cool and even though coloured hair is great, four or five colours is not! The fashion patroller is big on hair… horrible hair will ruin the best of outfits.

6. Beauty exists in all shapes and colors….Exaggerate your best parts….you don’t have to have best everthing to be gorgeous… but if you have gorgeous eyes, show them with eyeshadow and liner… if your hair is gorgeous…. Black… long wavy… show it! If its your nails or legs, teeth or lips the list of best parts is endless… play yours up… and if you are struggling with the fact that nothing about you is beautiful, then you are wrong… ask a girlfriend or male friend what your prettiest feature is… someone trying to get into your pants doesn’t count in this survey

7. Exercise- yes that dreaded word…. Sit ups, legs up, jogging, skipping…. Do something… you could join a gym or buy an exercise video and work out at home. If doing it alone is boring, get your friends together and exercise together…. It will encourage all of you and the idea of an ‘Exercise Thursday’ with the girls is fab… seriously… everybody can’t have a gorgeous face but EVERYBODY can have a gorgeous body!

8. Watch what you eat! … Don’t starve but honestly cakes, chocolates and ice cream do not help your skin, waist or nothing… so don’t indulge so much. Eat a healthy diet with plenty of vegetables, protein, fruit, moderate carbohydrates and drink plenty of water.

9. Smile – perfect and radiate a bright gorgeous smile. Say hello with a bright go lucky smile

10. Finally a gorgeous attitude beats anything else so - Be Gorgeous with Attitude. Be kind, considerate, polite and respectful whenever possible. And if you remember that someone’s got it worse than you ever can, you have every reason to stay positive!