VIP ACCESS: Thursday June 12 - Friday June 13th from 11:00 am until 7:00 pm (by invitation only, members who hold VIP or Executive Cards also qualify)
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC: Saturday June 14 - Sunday June 15th from 10:00 am until 6:00 pm and Monday June 16th from 1:00 pm until 8:00 pm
Location: 1100 Birchmount Road, Toronto m1k 5h9 (northwest corner of Birchmount Road and Bertrand Avenue, 2 streets north of Eglinton Avenue - enter through main doors on Bertrand Avenue)
I attended my first ever Sugarlime shopping martini party today at Hotel Le Germain (30 Mercer Street, Toronto). This was an exclusive shopping event put on by Sugarlime for their customers.
Sugarlime is a wonderfully crafted, trend setting, and high end jewelry line designed by Karen Buder. Based out of British Columbia, all of their pieces are made from the finest "hand-selected semi-precious and precious stones, Swarovski crystals, glass beads and fashioned from sterling silver and 14 kt. gold fill". Her pieces can be seen on celebrities like Tori Spelling, Susan Sarandon, and Steven Spielberg to name a few.
Karen treated all shoppers to cosmos and chocolate covered strawberries making it a fun and enjoyable shopping experience.
Sugarlime Jewelry is only available in BC. Check out their website for available pieces, specific locations, and sign up to be notified when the next shopping party is in Toronto.
Shop from over 350 booths of new label, designer, vintage and brand nameclothing and accessories for men & women! This Spring, experience RUNWAY Fashion Shows Friday night & Saturday, the LOULOU Magazine FashionPhotography Competition, a Century of Fashion display, and Art exhibits fromlocal artists!
Be there for the Opening Night Party and Fashion Shows starting at 6:30pm on Friday May 2nd at the Better Living Center. Get there early and shop from 3pm!
May 2, 3, & 4, 2008 @ the Better Living Center, Exhibition Place.
Fri 3pm-9pm / Sat 11am-9pm / Sun 11am-7pm
I've read about the opening of a VERO MODA store in Toronto about 2 months ago. But never had the chance to head down to it to check it out! This past weekend, while taking a stroll down Queen west, I came across a store called MODA (632 Queen St. West). Tucked away amidst other fashionable stores on Queen west I finally stumbled upon the store dedicated to one of my favourite designer labels. VERO MODA is one of Europe's biggest fashion brands, meshing the styles and trends of the runway with urban and fresh looks. I suppose I was especially attracted to this brand because of their unbelievable prices, chic and versatile pieces. For the style and quality of their garments the prices start from around $29.99, depending on what merchandise you are looking at, it can go up to around $200 or more. Up until now, I had been buying VERO MODA pieces from the Bay Fairview, which of course has a limited selection. But with the new MODA store downtown... this is so exciting and means more frequent visits to shopping central, Queen west.
So I recently joined this online exclusive shopping club (it's member invite only... let me know if your interested I will refer you), Glamlist, that makes shopping for designer goods that much easier and that much more affordable . You can think of Glamlist like that must go to designer sale that you just can't make it to because of prior obligations, and how for us die hard shopaholics, it's just not the same to go the next day because your size is more than likely sold out. With this new exclusive online shopping club, I might never have to miss another good sale again. They have established connections with over 180 big brands and designers such as Diesel, Cerruti, Valerie Dumaine, etc. The Glamlist concept is to host private online sales with ready to wear luxury goods for 40-70% less. Since they are just officially launching today, I have not experienced this convinient and hype way to shop yet, but I look forward to checking out there first big sale event!!!
OK - so i'm really hooked on this Roberto Cavalli collection being in H&M thing. For those of us who are curious and just dying to find out what the Roberto Cavalli for H&M collection might look like, Lislotte Watkins released some fashion illustrations she had done for the Cavalli collection in Paris, last week at the "first ever media event for Roberta Cavalli at H&M". Cavalli's star favourites and red carpet looks are just 12 days away from being in the H&M stores near us!!!! However, my friend who works for H&M informs me that they are only available in the H&M locations at the Eaton Centre, Bloor Street, and Queen Street, and YES her and I are going to be one of those anxious shoppers lining up outside the store before it opens.
*pictures are courtesy of http://blog.hm.com/.
Extremely pumped about this sample sale. I missed out last year, but a couple of my friends went and got amazing stuff for decent prices. We can expect to see up to 80% off handbags, accessories, and shoes. The sale lasts for 2 days Oct 27 (10am-4pm) & Oct 28th (10am-3pm), and is located @ the Courtyard By Marriott Hotel (65 Monthorn Blvd, Markham) on the main floor.
Bored and surfing the net earlier and while reading through some fashion related websites, I discovered this really cool search engine; http://www.like.com/ . What's special about this search engine is it is geared specifically towards handbags, jewelry, shoes, watches, and clothing for men and women. It uses contents of photos to find similar items like it, so when you see something you like this can make it so much easier to find that something that is similar to or more current but in the same style telling you where to buy it from or even for a cheaper price. Crazy eh? But convenient. Some specific features of like.com are - likeness search: ability to search by images as opposed to text, like detail: finds items that have specific features you like (eg. buckle straps, etc), like colour: find color variants and the in the item you desire, like celebrity: find clothing, shoes, and accessories similar to those worn by your favourite celeb, and like upload: the ability to upload your own photo of your favorite item and find the same or similar products. Although not Canadian geared (with the retailers all being American) this is great for the budget fashionista!
GOOD NEWS for us shopaholics!!! There is a H&M warehouse sale this October 13th (9am-8pm) and 14th (9am-5pm) in Brampton Ontario, at 1 Wilkinson Rd. There will be 70% off all clothing crazy prices ranging from $2-$24. ***In other news ROBERTO CAVALLI for H&M will be in stores November 8th, can't wait!!!!
While out for a girls night on Friday (Oct 4th) Michelle, Tara, and I decided to stop by a highly advertised trunk show for a mini shopping excursion which was held at the Heliconian Hall in Yorkville, Toronto. Art of Fashion showcased some of the top emerging Canadian designers for both clothing and jewelry. Not really in the mood to shop (for once) we did a quick in and out where everyone managed not to buy anything except for myself. A very cute little hand made beer bottle cap pin designed by Adrienne Butikofer, caught my eye for $3 (she is the one in the first picture sitting by her table). Aside from designing fashionable clothing and accessories Adrienne also designs never seen before, unique, and practical winter mini slip on hoods (Michelle is posing with the grey mini hood) and scarves with little permanent bow ties on them. As i'm sure the girls would agree, this was a fun mini shopping experience!
On September 27th, 2007 Costa Blanca launched a new concept to there chain of Costa Blanca stores. They added Costa Blanca X to a handful of malls in the GTA, CBX is an accessory store carrying trendy purses, shoes, boots, jewelry, and other accessories. I actually noticed it the other day because I was making a pit stop at Markville Mall to visit the bank. Knowing that I had not seen it there before I stopped by to take a quick peak. The interior design of the store is a completely different set up than Costa, it seems as though they are trying to re-position themselves as higher end with this new Costa Blanca X concept. If you are familiar with Costa, you'll know that the prices for their clothing is fairly affordable compared to many other retailers out there. So expecting the same, I was very excited to see such stylish and trendy shoes, boots, purses, etc. that are now available for an affordable price. But to my surprise I was WRONG. A pair of black flats with a little bow on the top were $50 where a pair of plain patent leather boots with no embellishments were $130, and necklaces and rings ranged from $10-20. Although they sell more dressy specific shoes and accessories looks like Aldo, ICON, R2W and other shoe and accessory stores alike have a new competitor. To my disappointment with Costa Blanca X, there is no cheap chic here.
Well its that time of the year again... BOOT season!!! What better way to welcome it than adding some NEW and AFFORDABLE boots to your I'm sure, already large boot collection. My sister was telling me about how she discovered really cheap UGG look-a-likes at SEARS for only $40. I know what your thinking, they probably look really cheap and the quality is going to be completely off. But I went with her today to check them out and let me tell you IT IS SUCH A DEAL! They honestly look and feel like the real thing without the brand name and instead of sheepskin wool lining they are fleece lined, the short ankle ones come in 4 colours, but the mid length one only in the brownish beige. While there I also found two other stylish and affordable dress boots that I liked, one of them was also a suede like material and the other leather like... all which are SUPER AFFORDABLE. Who would have guessed you could find such great shoes and great deals at SEARS!
So this is not your yoga inspired Lululemon tracksuit nor is it your TNA - Aritzia tracksuit. Lets face it, when we think girlie, athletic or sporty wear, everyone has the tendency to think Lululemon or TNA. But living the student lifestyle spending $200 on the "sporty" look is just TOTALLY out of the question. In my desperate attempt to find a new essential all black athletic ensemble, I found the winning and affordable tracksuit at Garage Clothing. Although the fabric for the zip up and the yoga pants (lacking the spandex and lycra) were unlike those of Lululemon and TNA, the fit was comparable. The pants were snug enough but not too high waisted and surprisingly the zip up had the same looseness like the Lululemon sweatshirts (sometimes the Garage zip ups can look stretched out and baggy). Yes the material does differ but at the end of the day this 3 piece girlie athletic look came to a total of $72 and was still flattering in all the right places.
With the whole new buzz created around Joe Fresh, I recently decided to check the line out for myself. So today I finally wandered into the retailer carrying this styling yet affordable collection. Okay so the retailer is more like a grocery store, Loblaws. Weird eh? Yeah... I felt kind of awkward browsing through shirts, shoes, jackets, etc. with tomatoes and lettuce in the next aisle. But to my surprise, I was actually pretty impressed with the quality and the styles of the product. This jacket here (the belted wing sleeve jacket $59) and boots (Manhattan suede boot $39) totally caught my eye. So there I was standing in the middle of the grocery store trying on the jacket, which looked soooooo good on and those boots which you can't go wrong for $39. However, since I had surpassed my shopping budget for the month and did not NEED another fall jacket or pair of boots... I had to exercise some self control and tell myself that I'd be back for them ASAP.
You can see the rest of Joe's collection at: http://www.joe.ca/
Hey shopaholics! The Clothing Show is back... it will be a weekend shopping extravaganza. Located at the Automotive Building, at the Exhibition Place, tickets are $8 online (http://www.theclothingshow.com/tickets.html) or $10 at the door. There will be over 300 booths showcasing boutique style, streetwear, accessories, sample sales, and vintage - all which are independent designers, up and coming designers, and retailers across Ontario.
For more information check out there website: http://www.theclothingshow.com/
