Shopping Post : RAOUL

 By: Unknown    23:25  No comments

Who is RAOUL?

RAOUL, from the house of F J Benjamin is one of those brands that is currently enjoying a wave of popularity. Douglas and Odile Benjamin are the husband and wife power couple behind this Singapore - based brand. The new collection. Has just arrived to Malta, at Rebelli so I thought I'd stop by and have a look. I love the feminine, powerful cuts, the graphical prints and the combination of different fabrics. There's a lot of versatility in the range even as to which occasion to wear the pieces too - there are long, beautiful dresses, midi skirts, tailored shorts and kimonos.

See what caught my eye

And for the slideshow

Read More

Family Corner : Maternity Wear at KIABI

 By: Unknown    00:20  No comments

From what I've heard, being heavily pregnant in summer isn't all that great what with the summer heat, summer weddings, parties, BBQs and events - apparently, generally, many pregnant women end up hot and bothered. Whilst clothes can't solve the heat problem, new clothes can hopefully generate a few smiles at the very least especially easy-to-wear summer dresses.

Here are some of the new stock options from KIABI that caught my eye - there are some bright colours, a bit of white and a few greys. My take is to wear bright clothes to uplift a bad mood, grey when you're feeling passive and white when you're happy.

Read More

Family Corner : Father's Day Present Ideas

 By: Unknown    00:03  No comments

For today's family corner post, I'm focusing on Daddy - it's Father's Day on the 21st June - pencil that in everyone. Now I don't know what the case may be when it comes to your dads, but I find mine really difficult to buy presents for. I already think male-oriented gifts are much more limited than female-oriented ones, but then with dads, I mean, after a few years, you've pretty much used all the original ideas you could possibly ever have.

However, I spent some time scouting around a few sites and I did find a couple of things I thought were quite cool so here are a couple of ideas

1. Steam Cleaning Brush by Grill Daddy

Grill BBQs are usually the man's domain and that includes both cooking the meat and cleaning the bbq after - according to the specs, this brush makes it much easier and fun to do.

2. Baseball Caps

Most men love their baseball caps and generally since they don't subscribe to the rule 'buy 20 different things of everything' that women tend to, they shouldn't have too many. I love this Barbour cap and this Hugo Boss one.

3. Build Your Own Burger Book

A book that's all about mixing and matching different ingredients to create fantastic and original burgers. Many men I know would love this.

4. An Oversized Beer Mug

If the dad in question loves his beer, then this mug is a brilliant idea.

5. And for something extra special...

There are always some truly lovely items over at Mr Porter and I'm particularly fond of this Mulberry ipad sleeve , this Paul Smith pocket square and this J Crew messenger bag.

Read More

Shopping : Party-tastic at LULU

 By: Unknown    04:30  No comments

Some time ago I wrote a post about a shop I'd visited that's a little bit out of the normal shopping route - Lulu Boutique. I know that quite a few of you popped by and visited the shop and loved how quaint it is. A lot of you also sent me messages inquiring about 'formal or special' dresses for weddings and parties. 

It's not really a shop I'd send people to that are looking for a special dress to wear to a wedding but there are some lovely dresses that are great for parties and can easily be dressed up with some accessories and made to look a bit more fabulous. I know a lot of you would prefer seeing some more photos before making the trip so I stopped by the store again and took a few more stock photos, focusing mainly on those dresses that are a bit more 'party-tastic'.

P.S - the all-cream/ white ones are NOT good for weddings :)

And here's a slideshow with many more party dress options

A couple of photos of the lovely place - because it needs to be snapped on each visit

And for those not interested in party dresses - I spotted some other items around the shop that are very interesting

Read More

Shopping Post : NO.ME Studio

 By: Unknown    00:00  No comments

Some weeks ago, in Valletta, I stumbled upon a shop that transported me immediately to Rome or Barcelona. The layout of the merchandise is spectacular, the entire shop reminded me of a visual exhibition. The shop stocks a mixture of clothes and artistic ornamental pieces, all handmade and designed exclusively by the owners. When I visited, one of the designers was present and he explained that this was actually a 3-person collaboration NO.ME Studio is a team of three individuals: Matthew Attard, Michele Cadelano & Deborah Rossetto.

I sent them an email asking for more info about their project and this is what they told me:

"Taking advantage of discarded resources, and therefore recyclable material - from simple thrown away and unused objects to elements found in nature - we produce unique design objects.......

Interior design, objects/gadgets of any type can all be reutilised, customised, deconstructed and reassembled in order to be reinvented. Always in the same concept, all our clothing items are designed and hand-produced from industrial textile leftovers."

Check out some pics of this lovely, inspiration shop

The shop is just down the road from Casa Rocca Piccola - 91B, Republic Street, Valletta

Read More

Outfit : FitFlopping Away

 By: Unknown    01:00  No comments

The first day of Malta Fashion Week was a loooong one. I was working from early morning, helping to plan and sort out all the clothes, with Marisa Grima for the Point Fashion Show. The smart person that I am decided that that day would be a perfect day to try out a new pair of FitFlops I had just got. 

Fit flops are marketed as caffeine for your feet - they are extremely comfortable once broken in, but they come with a warning to wear progressively to avoid muscle soreness. Their micro wobble technology basically promotes the right leg and bum muscles into working more which in turn leads to better posture and toned muscles. I don't really know if they're actually toning my bum or not, a bit hard to tell since I also work out - who knows which is doing what. On that day though, what with all the walking up and down stairs and endless walking around whilst wearing these fit flops - my quads and calves were on fire. By the evening, it felt like I had just done two gym workouts back-to-back.

Onto the rest of the outfit and my dress is from that shop I told you about some time ago Lulu Boutique, a few people have come to tell me that they visited the store after reading my post and loved it so if you missed that one - read about LULU here.

And now for the hair - I had those braids done the previous day for the fashion week launch party. I love braids, they're so much fun and they were absolutely perfect for ensuring my hair stayed in place for the entire day throughout all the hectic activity. If you're curious as to what I wore that evening - you can check it out right here.

All Photos by KURT PARIS

Outfit Details

Dress: LULU Boutique

Shoes: Fit Flops at Stivaletti

Bangle : Miss Sixty

Hair: Toni&Guy Hilton

Nails: Femme Beauty Attard

Some Shopping Picks to Inspire You

Read More

Family Corner : Swimwear at KIABI

 By: Unknown    00:37  No comments

Many adults hate swimwear due to the obvious fact that all body since are laid out in full view. Kids thankfully don't have our body issues so they're free to wear whatever cutest pieces are on the market. Although I don't have kids myself, from what I've been told,  it's best to have many different options, kids tend to *ahem* manage to find different and interesting ways to ensure they get as filthy as possible  - nd then they want to change.

For this reason, KIABI's budget range is absolutely excellent and they've got some really nice ones too, I'm quite taken with all the accessories too - hats and jelly shoes!

Frills, frills, frills - shall I say it again?

 Flick through the slideshow below




Don't forget about those cute little bucket hats - both for boys and girls :)

 Look at those little shoes back there in the back ...

Read More

Family Corner : River Island goes MINI

 By: Unknown    22:29  No comments

River Island is a store we associate mainly with trendy, edgy, looks not really cute looks, but that's changing - because slap, bang in the middle of the shop is the cutest section you'll ever see - RIVER ISLAND MINI. 

The clothes are this darling mixture of grown-up patterns and cuts, mixed with cute little touches that make you want to snap up everything.

The sizes run from 0-3 years and there are both boys and girls clothes including accessories (baby sun visor anyone ?). I dare anyone to step into the store and not melt.

In other news, tomorrow River Island Malta turns 1 and they've got a brilliant promotion going on in store. Until today, in store, they're giving out these discount cards with a picture symbol on them. 

The symbol means a percentage discount (up to 100%) but you need to go to the store tomorrow to find out what your symbol means and use it. 

That's not all, any purchase will also be given a 5 euros voucher to use on RIVER ISLAND MINI so it's an all round win.

If you don't have a card and can't drop by the store today - tomorrow at 3 pm I will be giving out 11 cards to the first 11 people who come up to ask me for one so see you there .

Happy Birthday River Island !!

Read More

SUMMER = BIRKENSTOCKS

 By: Unknown    00:42  No comments

Birkenstocks, Birkenstocks, Birkenstocks - never has a shoe elicited so much hate and love simultaneously. Once regarded as the ugly shoe tasteless tourists wore with socks, over the last decade it's been worn by everyone from those mentioned tasteless tourists, to celebrities, to fashion bloggers.

Last summer saw the rise of the trend - UGLY sandal, this summer is not really any different - chunky, platform-style, masculine-influenced sandals occupy many places in homes sitting proudly alongside the latest Louboutins.

As of a few weeks ago, I'm now a proud owner of 4 pairs :D ..ok maybe one of them has seen better days ..but I like even numbers.

Those babies in the top pic are my current favourites, mainly because they're chunkier than others - look at the pic below - they've got a flatform !!

For those who aren't aware, there are actually two types of Birkenstock sandals - Papillon range and Traditional range. They both have the same footbed, but the papillon range tends to be a bit more adventurous - patterned options (and my chunky white ones). The pic above is from the Papillon whilst the one below is from the Traditional range.

The photos below are all from the Papillon range



The photos below are all from the Traditional range



BTW for those who want to get in on the trend, in Malta Birkenstocks are sold at Stivaletti.

Read More

Shopping : Lulu` Boutique

 By: Unknown    00:28  No comments

There's something about good, quaint, interior styling that immediately grabs my attention. I especially enjoy it when I encounter it in clothing and accessory boutiques. Don't get me wrong, I love shopping at minimalist-designed, clean, white shopping spaces but I also do love me a bit of cute and quaint.

Some time ago, I wrote about a quaint shop located off the normal shopping route - Lulu` Boutique in Ta' Xbiex, Malta. This shop uplifts my mood right from the front door - a little blackboard announces the opening hours and a sea of bright colours calls for my attention.

I popped by the store yesterday, the new stock has just arrived and there is A LOT of stock. There's a huge variety of different items. There are bikinis, a large range of costume jewelry, some snazzy fedora hats, I also spotted some coloured, smart blazers, long flowing maxi dresses, crochet blazers..you get the gist. To give an example of the variety of items, whilst in there, I saw both an older woman buying an interesting, patterned knee-length dress and a teenager buying a tulle polka dot skirt.

Some of the main trends for this season are 70's influence (think patterns, bright colours and all round hippy effect), yellow yellow yellow, white white white, lace and delicate fabrics, polka dot patterns, jumpsuits and ofc denim. 

There are a lot of 70's style patterns in the store and check out those fedoras

What interested me most however, was the large selection of summer dresses. Summer dresses are the main thing my clients and readers ask me to source. Our hot climate makes dresses the most ideal item of clothing you can wear - first of all, they're easy - let's face it, there isn't really much outfit planning involved. Obviously, less clothing leads to less items that can get creased, or make you feel hot and uncomfortable. The only downside to a dress is, that well, there's only one way to wear it, you can change around accessories but with a bright, patterned dress, there's a limit to what you can add on. One  way to solve this issue is of course to have many that can be rotated far apart from each other :)  

The slideshow below has just my favourite dresses that I spotted in the shop, there are actually many more


Any favourites ?

To add more dresses to your wardrobe, Lulu` Boutique is open from Monday to Saturday from 9.30a.m to 19.30p.m.  Happy Shopping !!

Read More