Style Diary: Sweet Studs


If you’ve been reading my blog, you’ll know that I’m a fan of fashion juxtapositions.  I love mixing vintage with modern, girly with masculine and sweet with tough.  Here’s yet another example and it has to do with studs.  Back in the ’80s when studs were hugely popular (remember Madonna and her studded black leather jackets?), I never ventured into that rock ‘n roll territory.  I was too much of a goody two shoes to adorn myself in such tough leather and studs.  It would have felt too costume-y for me.

But I’ve since learned that I can incorporate the rocker look in small doses and in doing so can up the “cool” quotient of any of my more feminine pieces (and Lord knows I have a ton of them!)

This entry is about mixing studs, and spikes with sweet pieces like lace, skirts and dresses.  The first outfit is something I wore to work today.  It all started with my new H&M find, this navy lace top which I found for about $30.  I brought it home thinking, I could easily wear it now this summer, and transition it into fall because of the darker color.

I paired it with this red skirt which is actually half of a Calvin Klein suit (always think about your suits as being separates for increased wearability!)  and being that I was wearing red, it seemed perfect to pull out these studded red ballerina flats to match.

The Zara flats have this cute Chanel-like chained ankle strap that makes everyone take a second look.  I had 2 co-workers today try to figure out whether I was wearing ankle bracelets or whether the strap was part of my shoe.

Do you see what I mean though about balancing out the girly lace with the edgier studs?  It gives the outfit a little more interest than say, if I were to wear a pair of red pumps; don’t you think?

That necklace is my mom’s btw.  I make a point to steal something from her closet every time I visit 🙂

Okay and now to the 2nd sweet studded outfit.  This one was also something that I wore to work (last week).  And this time I mixed a vintage lace sheath with a more modern Patrizia Pepe black blazer while again contrasting the girly lace with spiked belt and shoes.

Sorry the photo is a bit grainy due to the bad lighting but you get the picture (pun intended).  Below, you’ll see a close-up of my spiked accessories. Hopefully, if you didn’t think you could do the punk look, you’ll agree that it is highly do-able in small doses.

You wouldn’t normally think to wear spikes with lace but I think these pictures prove that the contrast works!

By the way, I’ve been thinking about selling this Chanel leather purse.  So if you want it, make me an offer I can’t refuse!  It’s in great shape!

By the way, if you’re noticing what looks like Scotch tape on one of my eyebrows, that is surgical tape.  Instead of getting stitches, you can sometimes use this new surgical, breathable, waterproof tape to adhere two parts of cut-open skin.  Thank God for it because I’m a huge crybaby when it comes to pain and needles!  Okay, so you’re wondering what happened to me… I’m sorely embarrassed to say that I was retarded enough to walk straight into a street sign.   Yea, and as if that wasn’t embarrassing enough, I now have to repeatedly re-tell the stupid story of how I was so fixated on the going out of business -last day sale that I walked myself straight into a pole.  (blush)

I truly am a fashion victim.

Chinese knock-off wedding dresses

Within minutes of Kate Middleton’s wedding dress being revealed, designers worldwide were scrambling to make copies and/or dresses “inspired” by the Alexander McQueen gown.  I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw this article showcasing a Chinese bride who wore a knockoff dress just 36hours after the royal wedding.

“The Muyi Wedding Dress Company, located in Suzhou, China, made this dress, which sells for about $320. Suzhou is known as “Wedding Dress City” because it boasts more than 1,200 wedding gown factories”.

I warn you that I personally got burned from one of these Chinese knockoff e-tailers.  I found chinese-shop2009 on ebay and trusted them to deliver on my one-shoulder, Maggie Sottero knock-off dress.  They were responsive with my q&a, had a wide variety of fabrics/colors to choose from (more than Maggie offered), and had almost perfect feedback scores. For only $158 I decided why not take the risk.  After all, I needed a 2nd wedding gown for my 2nd reception (1week prior to the “real” wedding) and loved the idea of wearing a different gown with simpler train instead of having to reveal the gorgeous Kenneth Pool gown that I bought at Saks for the main reception.

Time flew by before I noticed 3months had passed since the original order which is when I checked in and the seller promised it would ship soon.  When it finally arrived, it came to me the wrong color (I ordered ivory and received gold), the dress had prominent pin holes throughout the entire dress, and stunningly the cut and drape were even all wrong!  And to top it off, the zipper broke on the first try!

This is what I expected (shown here is the authentic Maggie Sottero Fiorella dress on a model and then on me to show the back). Beautiful, right?

But instead, I got a poorly made replica in the wrong color with the wrong back  with holes all over and a broken zipper.  As soon as I have a full-length photo of me in it, I’ll have to post.  But for now, here are the close-up shots (which do not accurately reflect the gold color due to the camera flash).

Even from these pictures you can see all the large holes on EACH pleat.

The draping was the most modern, and unique element of the original gown’s design but unfortunately, chinese-shop2009 got it all wrong.

To top it off the bra cups had been sewn in too close together making what looked like a monoboob.  Ugh.

After a few emails back and forth where Chinese-shop2009 asked for the photos and then completely ignored me, I searched ebay for buyer protection help.  When reading the fine print though, I learned that their offer expires after 90 days and then you’re basically on your own!  So beware to all wedding dress buyers on ebay because most if not all wedding dress makers will require 90days to produce and ship to you. A special warning goes out to anyone considering shopping with chinese-shop2009.  Do not on any circumstance trust or buy from them.  They did not respond to my numerous emails with listed complaints and photo evidence and have not offered to resolve the issue in any way.  It’s unfortunate, because, they are tarnishing the reputation of foreign ebay sellers and adding to buyers’ hesitation in shopping with ebay. Hopefully, none of you will have to learn the hard way as I did with ebay buyer protection rules.

In case chinese-shop2009 ever changes their ebay seller name, their associated email was [email protected] and the shipment came in from

Jiang Rong from Hangzhou whole sale city trading co.

B Room, 21 floor no 428

arch of triumph building

Shanghai China 200070

Buyers beware!

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