Building a work wardrobe: A simple, elegant purse

One of the things that I've had on my to-buy list for a while was a simple elegant purse for interviews. I don't want something that screams a particular brand name all over it in such situations, but looks classy yet not too distracting from the rest of me.

While in NYC, I came across this Kate Spade bag in Century 21, and fell in love. From afar it seems like just any ordinary plain black leather purse, but I liked the simple design with the black bow in front.

The handles are also just right for carrying on my shoulder or arm, and the size is perfect for putting a portfolio or notepad in. There is also enough space to contain a water bottle, and a spare pair of flats if you have a long commute to the interview location.

I liked that rather than the typical purse where there are only 2-3 pockets on the side, while the rest of the contents of your purse are tossed around in the main cavity, there is an extra zippered pocket in the centre that divides up the main body into two sections. This allows me to store more valuable documents in the zippered areas while leaving the more accessed items in the open parts. And of course, the signature Kate Spade polka dot lining also adds a fun touch.

Here it is packed and I also included a folder for taking notes as well:

If there was anything I didn't like about this bag, its that the handles do not fold down but are fixed and stiff. This makes it harder to store the bag or pack it for a trip.

I also added a keychain - a mini schnauzer charm from Coach to 'guard' my bag :) Reminds me of Snowy from Tintin...was anyone a fan?

Unfortunately I didn't get take any pictures of how the bag looks in proportion to me but will do in a future post...possibly an outfit post.

Building a work wardrobe: Loft & Ann Taylor

Over the past year, I've been building up the professional side of my wardrobe, as some presentations and events require business formal / business casual clothing. Full time recruitment also starts this month until the end of my program next May, so having outfits on hand is quite important. Usually, for business clothing I hit up Banana Republic when they have their 40% off sales online/in-store. However BR stocks a pretty mediocre selection of summer tops, so what I get from them are mostly the button down shirts and tailored pants.

Due to my petite stature (I'm almost but not quite 5 ft), I've been frequenting petite fashion blogs, and as a lot of them frequently mentioned Ann Taylor and Loft clothing in their posts my interest was piqued. These brands unfortunately do not have stores in Canada, but I visited their stores 2 weeks ago during my trip to NYC. At full price, the clothes are pretty expensive, so its too bad my trip wasn't long enough (or timed adequately) to make use of online coupon codes. However I was able to visit the Niagara Falls outlets in Buffalo when driving back to Toronto, and discovered some great finds at the Loft Factory Store and Ann Taylor Factory Store.

Loft had a wide selection of things that were 25% to 40% off. At this time my selection of professional looking tops consists of mostly boring button down shirts so I wanted to get some nice tanks for a change. I ended up picking up two tanks, both 25% off, with some interesting crease detailing around the neckline.

Grey and red floral tank in their petites sizing.





Purple tank, regular sizing. You can see above that it is slightly wider and about 1-1.5 inches longer than the petite version, but since I plan to tuck these blouses in anyway the longer length is almost a bonus, as it will stay tucked in better. Some XS tops tend to have armholes that are too big but these were still almost like the XSP so no issues there.





At Ann Taylor they had 40% off on many items, which was great since their prices were a bit higher than Loft's. This time I picked a burgundy tank with chiffon flower details, and navy blue butterfly sleeve top. Both are darker colours but they seemed fitting for fall.









As Loft is also made by Ann Taylor, there is minimal differences in sizing. When comparing the same size tanks (regular, not petites) both are almost the same, with maybe <1cm longer length on the Ann Taylor top.



Hopefully Loft and Ann Taylor will eventually make their way to Canada, or at least their factory stores, because I really like the style and quality of these tops!

Shoe shopping: Luxury Rebel gladiator style heels

I've never been one to always wear heels daily. Other than occasional events such as wedding dinners I'm more of a runners and flip flops girls in a regular basis. However, the past few months I've been wanting to inject more grown up elements into my style, ie swapping hoodies and sneakers for blazers/cardigans instead.

So last month I was wandering the shoe racks at Winners while waiting for a table to free up at Cora's for brunch. The bf picked these out and they looked pretty good when I tried them on, so home they went with me! I've always been wary of shoes that cut off at the ankles as I don't want my already short legs to look shorter but these don't really have that problem.







You might notice I've already added insoles to cushion them. I have pretty lousy feet in that they are wide, and somewhat flat so they hurt in heels after several hours, but these heels have felt comfortable so far. I still wouldn't wear them for more than several hours at a time, and most likely only on weekends when the activities involve less walking.

Also, I found these shoes to be slippery as there was no real traction on the sole, so I added adhesive sole grips (Sole Stopperz) which did the trick.



Before I read about stick-on sole grips I always thought my only option for slippery shoes was to get a resole, but that can add to the cost of the shoe. I still don't understand why shoe designers make shoes without proper treads on the sole though - are they being cheap, or simply sadistic?

summer nails

I did my nails yesterday and decided to use Zoya Lily, a pale metallic pink I picked up 2 years ago but have not touched since. Since the colour was quite sheer, after 2 coats of Zoya Lily I added 1 coat of Maybelline Colourama, a pink flakie polish suspended in sheer jelly red.

If you look closely you can still see the white tips of my nails. Am deliberating adding some glitter to the tips to disguise 'em.

Also, while digging through my iphone pictures I found one from July of Milani 3D Cyberspace that I had been meaning to post. The perfect blue for cooling down on those hot summer days! 

What have you been wearing on your nails lately?

Getting my feet wet again

Okay...so this post is long overdue. As some blogger friends will remind me, I was supposed to update this blog in June, but summer internships and other family events took over and I never really got around to sitting down and typing out a post. Also my motivation to blog had decreased after school, as I felt really out of touch with the blogging world especially with the latest beauty trends and collections.

However I am back now, and hoping to blog more regularly this time. I am grateful for anyone who still checks up on this blog, and hope to entertain you once again with updates. Thanks for reading! :)

I will now leave you with an uber cute panda chewing on bamboo from my recent trip to Zoo Atlanta, because...well, pandas are cute, and I have a boatload of things to photograph and edit first before being able to write a proper post :P