Shopper's Stop Sale August 2011: Overview

This was one sale I was waiting for.. I love the fact that they accept gift vouchers even during sale and this time I had a lot of them in stock! Though I ended up picking some items on which there was no sale, I did spend quite some time there hunting. Here is a brief overview.

Offers on Make Up Items
I don't the brands can't keep a discount on any purchase. I was disappointed about the fact that most of the brands had gifts on making a purchase of a certain value. Here are a few offers.

Revlon
Buy any three items and get a gift. This is still better than having a value associated with the purchase for a free gift. I mean if nothing then buy 3 nailpolish bottles may be ;). Well not sure if that would qualify.

The gifts however were not that attractive. There were 3 choices.
1. A bath set (comprising of a loofah, pumice stone, back scrubber, a massage aiding thing (I don't know if I am missing anything here). This was the best of the gifts, but not something I would die for :)
2. A make up pouch, empty of course
3. Another make up/ toilettories pouch

Maybelline
Shop for 1500, get a lip balm free. Really sad..Recently in the Pantaloons sale they had a 10% off, which was far far better than this! Probably they oversold and ran into losses ;)

Chambor
Again, there was some gift on a purchase of 1500, but I didn't feel like asking what :(

Other brands like Lakme etc also had similar (and not so useful) offers. I did not explore the higher end brands though. I will keep updating this section.

Offers on Women's Clothing

• There was 10%-40% off on mix and match salwar kameez as well as pre-assesmbled sets.
• Van Heusen, Allen Solley, Arrow, Wills Lifestyle also had upto 40% off, in facts quite a lot of items in the 40% range. Unfortunately I did not like anything!
• Remanika, Noi had upto 51% off and I think most of the items were flat 51%.

Offers on Lingerie

• Most of you would be aware that this is one section in which there are hardly any offers during sale. Most items were still on the MRP. 
• B'witched was one brand that had 40% off on a few items. They also were giving away a voucher of Rs 250 on purchasing things from the nightwear section.
• The other offers were mostly on unsold and unusual sizes. There was no offer on Lovable or Triumph (except some items for 299) or Jockey.

Most of these had an additional 5% off for Golden Glow members.


Offers on Bags
There were the usual 10%-40% off on bags too. Rocky S had some interesting stuff. In fact planning to pick something up from there.

Conclusion
Overall the sale isn't bad at all....They have enough discounts of enough items. It was unfortunately not my day :(. I was a little disappointed with the make up section offers though.

So what are you waiting for, the sales on for everyone from tomorrow, August 6, 2011... and so is the weekend.. It definitely worth a visit.

New Summer 2011 Collection from Van Heusen

My favorite brand is here with a brand new collection!! It's pretty, it's refreshing, it's colorful and dresses galore! This is what I picked up from the catalogue, and I can't wait to visit the store this weekend! I won't waste too much time talking, take a look.

I just love the red dress! It's chic and sexy!

Fashionable at Work: Office Wear for Women

appWe all know any work gets monotonous and boring  after some time. What can we do to motivate ourselves to wake up and go to office every morning? May be telling yourself that you have yet another chance to earn some compliments and wows. So, here are some things you can do to spice up your work wardrobe a bit. But do remember, the way you dress up says a lot about you. So look smart at work and not suggestive.

Add Some Color

Of course we can't do without the whites, blacks and greys, but might be a good idea to promise yourself to not buy those colors for the next 2 months. Blue, purple and plum are the colors of the season. Maroon is also a nice color for office wear. And last but not the least, perky pink!

Skirt it Up

Skirts are my favorite when it comes to office wear. I love pencil skirts!

• A high waist pencil skirt helps you look slim. Ideally the top/ shirt should be tucked in.
• Also, wearing flats with a pencil skirt totally kills the look. A high heel on the other hand accentuates the right curves. 
• The fit on the hip must be perfect and the length should be just till the knee if its high waist.
• You can also go for a flared skirt.

 Try a New Style in Trousers

Men do not have much of a choice in terms of office wear, but we do :) So why not try something new, may be a pair of wide legged trousers. They look cool and chic. I think you should be able to find something in Zara and Mango amongst other stores.

Flaunt some Dresses

Dresses at Indian work places were not very popular till about a couple of years back. But now it's a must have in the wardrobe. What's good for office?

• Straight or A line dresses, not too tight, preferably with a belt.
• I prefer a fabric with some elastane since its falls nicely on the body. 

I have some dresses from Van Heusen. You will find good stuff in St. Oliver and Mango as well.

Frilly Shirts

Shirts are the most traditional formal wear. Better the fit, smarter the look. The stretchable ones can hug the curves. If you want a 'different' shirt, may be you can for a frilly one.

Play with the Neck

If shirts make you feel claustrophobic, lets try some open necklines.

• The scoop and the deep V are my favorites. 
• I thought of including a neckline guide from the net if you can't think of what kind of neck your next top should have. 
• By the way though closed, high necks are great for office wear, especially in winters under the blazer.

Top from Zara

Neckline Guide

 Power Dressing

A business suit is a must for the work wardrobe.

•  You can go for a suit with trousers or skirt. Both are equally formal.
• I personally feel the closed button look is smarter.
• Get a suit with a good fit and the right length of the blazer.
• I like Benetton's business suits a lot. They fit me well. You can normally get the set for around Rs 8k. The best time to buy those is during sale when they are at a 50% off. Van Heusen also has a decent collection of suits.  
• You can also get them tailor made from shops like Raymond etc.

Suits from Van Heusen

Accessorize

Your office attire is incomplete without a nice shoe, a smart belt and some sleek jewelery. In fact they are quite essential and I want to write a separate post on them with some pictures from my closet.

Not So Fashionable

Read here about things which are unfashionable at work ad should be avoided!

*Pictures from Google Images, Van Heusen Catalogue and my closet

Van Heusen Woman Summer Collection 2011, Sneak Peek

 My mall visit is generally incomplete without a quick round of the Van Heusen Woman store. Most of the times I walk into this store with the intention to just 'check out' some new stuff but end up owning a few of them!! Having seen me walk into the store pretty often, the staff is kind of familiar with me and I must confess they are to be 'blamed' to some extent for changing my 'just check out' intention to 'I think I will buy this' decision.

So this is what is new. The sale is over and Van Heusen Woman is here with their new collection for this season.This is not a full fledged review with rating but these are the notable trends.

• They have come out a new range in both casual as well as formal wear including dresses.
• Lots of Blue: Blue seems to be their favorite color. But I certainly won't complain since it's one of my favorites too and it is the color of the season starting from Bollywood to Hollywood. Be it the casual tops or the formal dresses, you will find a lot of stuff in various shades of blue.
• New Satin Stuff: They did have some satin stuff earlier but this time I saw quite a few new ones in both dresses as well as formal tops. What I really liked was the nice and bright patterns. They are good for office or even for an evening wear. My only concern is, being made of polyester, would they be comfortable for the uncomfortable scorching summer!
• Coming Soon: The 'Sport' Range: I saw that they have 'Sport' written on their packing bags. So, they would soon be coming out with a brand new 'Sport' range! That's cool although I have a feeling their formal wear would still remain the USP. We'll have to wait and watch!
• Some Old Things Retained: Besides the new ones, they still have some of their old popular items like some dresses and skirts.

Here are some pictures.

I have also put in more pictures of stuff that I had bought earlier from Van Heusen Woman here.

The Van Heusen Woman Store at Select City, Saket, Delhi

New Dresses

Casual Wear

New Satin Collection

New Packing Bag

Marks & Spencers: New Collection 2011 Review

For once I saw that Marks & Spencers was without a 70% sale notice! I don't know what's wrong with this brand but in the last couple of years I have always seen the stores empty even during heavy sale. Since I was always told that this was a super premium I avoided entering the store during my college days. But when I finally entered one, I wasn't too impressed I must say. Everything was expensive but very ordinary.

But the Summer Collection for 2011 seems to be different and worth a mention! Here's my review.

Casual Tops: 

They have some summer prints and some plane ones, but the style remains old - round neck, fluffy sleeves. No novelty factor.

Casual Bottoms:

They have a pretty good variety here! You will find shorts, linen capris, denim capris, cotton trousers and capris; many shades and styles, perfect for summer.

Price Range: Rs 895-Rs 1495. Pretty reasonable.

Formal Tops:

Usual stuff, nothing out of this world.

Formal Bottoms:

Don't know if M&S focusses more the lowers, because they have some nice stuff here as well. 

Different fits for trousers, some skirts too.

Price Range: Rs 995-Rs 1895. Not bad.

Overall rating: 3/5: Nothing out of the world, but no harm checking out once!
1: Don't waste your time 
2: Okay! Could find something if you're lucky
3: Certainly worth taking a look
4: Pretty good, must check out
5: Fabulous, Don't wait!

Also, they had some clutches (shown here) for Rs 500. That I think is pretty cool.

Here are some pictures from their new collection.

Casual Tops

Casual Bottoms

Formal Bottoms

Where to Shop in New York!

It's not like I don't enjoy shopping here in India, but shopping in New York City is a different experience altogether. Be it electronics or clothing or make up, they are all much cheaper there, not to forget the variety that you get. This is where a shopaholic can attain nirvana! In fact when I went there for the first time, I had shopped so much that I had to slide in some stuff in my colleague's luggage :) They still laugh at me for this!!

The city has so much in it that you cannot get bored even if you're all by yourself. And when it comes to my shopping, it usually has a lot of shop hopping :) So I prefer going alone and indulge myself in the world of fashion, makeup and trends!

So what are my favorite shopping hangouts there? This is going to be a slightly long post. So I will break it into may be 2-3 posts. My favorites are:

***Forever 21 and H&M***

Forever 21: I have already talked about my love for this store in my earlier blog: Forever 21 is a Favourite Forever. I had also promised some more snaps. Here they are.

• The style is dominated by teenage and casual, but there is something for everyone. You cannot come out empty handed.
• Reasonably priced. You will get lots of cool, trendy, sexy stuff in even $15-$20.
• Fabric Quality: Not all of them are amazing. In fact some of them even remind you of Sarojini Nagar and Janpath of Delhi or Gariahat of Kolkata! But lasts long. I still have stuff purchased in 2007 in good shape. Of course, it tells a lot about how well I take care of my clothes :)
• It feels as if everything they have, has been tailor-made for you! The clothes fit perfectly.
• It's a complete store for women. They have everything - apparel, accessories, shoes, lingerie and even cosmetics!!

H&M: I have been familiar with this brand for a long time. Back in my hostel days, I stayed in a PG and my roommate worked with H&M. Lucky she was, used to come home everyday with a 'damaged' piece. But I always thought they were all perfect. Infact she got a couple of them for me as well!!

H&M makes a lot of their stuff in India, but unfortunately they do not sell here! In fact sometimes it really pains to pay for 'Made in India' goods in dollars :(

Like Forever 21, H&M also have HUGE multistoreyed stores.

• They have a good mix of trendy as well as classy staff.
• Fabric wise, they are slightly better than Forever 21 I would say. But they are a bit more expensive too, still very affordable.
• I loved the collection of jackets and coats they have.
• You can find both office as well as casual wear. I loved some formal skirts that they had!
• Like Forever 21, they also have their own range of cosmetics. And they are pretty nice!

Well, this has been a long post I must say! In my next article I would talk about my favorite department stores in NYC. Any guesses??

*All Pictures from Google Images

Wills Lifestyle Sale!

Wills lifestyle was one of my favourite brands when they were new. But over the years I felt their collection was getting weird. Even 'Small' size was too big. There were hardly any designs. Gradually I stopped going to their stores completely. But after a long time I thought of looking at their collection with a fresh mind. And I picked up the year end sale.

I must say I was pleasantly surprised with the stock they had at the Select City Mall store. They had 30-50% sale on everything - shirts, trousers, jackets, tops, capris. Size 26 is generally hard to find, but they had enough! I was specifically looking for lowers, and this is what I have to say.

• Trousers: They had 3-4 designs. But the fit was not good. Tight from the waist and loose otherwise. Did not like anything.
• Capris: They had some cool linen capris, ideal for summer which is almost here. If I remember correctly, they had it both in white and black and in the range of Rs 1200-1300.
• Cotton Pants: I was lucky to be able to find a pair of beige ankle length cotton pants. I didnt't see too many of them. This was for Rs 1400 with a 50% discount.

They had a pretty huge collection of tops and winterwear as well, but I did not check them out well enough (cos I did not know that I would actually blog about them in the next weekend :)). One of my friends at office visited the Gurgaon store and this is what she picked up!

Grey Business Blazer. Price: Rs 4000. Discount: 30%

What I hated at the Store!!
The wait for the trial room!! Yes, it is understandable that sale season sees a lot of rush. But the stores must restrict the number of items to be tried to say 3. Infact that's what most stores do. Not Wills though.

Overall Rating
This review was not as thorough as that of Van Heusen Woman Sale posted in my earlier blogs. But based on the items I checked out I would rate Willl Lifestyle Yearend Sale a 3/5.

1: Don't waste your time 
2: Okay! Could find something if you're lucky
3: Certainly worth taking a look
4: Pretty good, must check out
5: Fabulous, Don't wait!

Where to Find that Right Fit for Trousers?

This is a question that I have often struggled with myself! I want something that is very normal and yet is is hard to find. This is how I like my trousers to be:

• Low Waist
• Narrow Legs
• Comfort Fit: The boss already gives us enough stress for the mind, at least the body should feel comfortable.  
• With Pockets: I need this since I prefer keeping my cellphone in the pocket.

My Experience with Ready-made Trousers:

I have visited all the popular brands like Wills Lifestyle, Park Avenue, Van Heusen and I have not been able to get that right fit. Most of them are high waisted. You can't fit into your right size, but the next size is too loose! Most of them do not have pockets either.

My Solution:

I realized that tailor made trousers was the only solution. And so I thought of trying out Raymond. I know that very very few girls think of getting those trousers tailor made, but I was very happy. These are customized in terms of design, fit, colour and fabric.

The Price:
Stitching charges vary by showroom which is a bit strange. I have tried the South Extension store. They charge Rs 600.
Fabric is available in a wide range of colour, texture and price starting from Rs 400 per metre.

So basically a tailor made trouser from Raymond can cost anything from Rs 1200 onwards. This is in fact cheaper than the ready-made ones and you can pick your color, design and fit.

You can find the list of Raymond stores on their website.
http://www.raymondindia.com/states.asp?st=Delhi

I am happy with my experience at the South Extension showroom. I will be trying out the one in the Select City, Saket mall soon.

Van Heusen Sale, Some Stuff that I Bought..

I bought around 9-10 items from this sale over 2-3 visits. The best part was that they were adding stock regularly. This is quite a rare trend for most of the popular brands during sale. I am going to talk about 4 of my favourite items from the newly acquired collection.

I also reviewed this sale in my previous article here and rated it 4 on 5.

            Flared Low-waist Skirt

* Image from Van Heusen Catalogue

No, this is not me. I have taken this picture from the Van Heusen Catalogue. This is an evergreen black flared kneelength formal skirt. In fact this actually has been in their collection since 2007 (or may be even before). But I guess they are still selling it well to last even after almost 4 seasons. The fit is perfect, you don't have to worry about it being too tight for office. The skirt in a snapshot:

• Perfect flaired fit for office; not too tight, not too loose
• Soft fabric with a satin lining inside
• Available in 3 colors: Black, Light Brown and Grey
• You can also team it up with blazers of the same fabric and color (available in Van Heusen stores) to get a perfect business suit
• Reasonably priced at Rs 1195

Patterned Dress

 I had promised myself: No grey/ black/ white in my wardrobe any longer. But I guess these are the colors you simply cannot do without, especially when they are combined in a vibrant pattern with a couple of bright colors like this dress that I am talking about. Besides the pattern the other thing I really like is the bold black belt that the dress comes with. You can use this belt for any other pretty dress or top that you already have to give it the chic look. The dress in a snapshot:

• Bright patterns with a bold black belt
• A nice cowl neck, not too deep
• Soft fabric with a good fit
• Priced at Rs 1995. Sale price Rs 1077!!! (I think its a bargain for this price!)

Here are a few other items that I purchased.

Straight Mid-waist Skirt

* Image from Van Heusen Catalogue

Striped Cardigan

Van Heusen Woman Sale!

This is the sale season and we all want to make the best of it. But this is not an easy thing to do and can actually get a little frustrating. The good items are discounted by just 10%, and the 40% stuff is not even worth looking at! This is the most common experience that we all have.

But Van Heusen Woman is not exactly the same story. Being a Risk Management Proffessional with a leading MNC, I have to have a resonably good collection of office wear. (What is reasonable is always debatable in case of girls). Unfortunately there are very few brands in India for good office wear for women. Van Heusen is my favorite amongst them. They have a good collection of skirts, dresses besides the usual trouser and shirt, Not to forget, they have some nice casual wear as well.

Specifically talking about the sale, they have a decent stock on discount: 25% and 40% off. The best part is that for the Diva members, they are offering an additional discount of 10%. So the 25% becomes 33% and the 40% becomes 46% sale. Here is a brief description of the items on sale.

I have also uploaded the pictures some stuff that I bought from the sale in another post here.

25% Discount:
Dresses: 4-5 designs. Price range: Rs 1795-2195. Easy to like atleast 1 of them.
Blazers: 2-3 designs. Price range: Rs 4995
Trousers 2-3 designs. Price range: Rs 1395 approx
Skirts: 2-3 designs (Mostly straight): Price range: Rs 1195-1395. Some of them pretty nice.

40% Discount:
Casual Tops: Many designs, wide price range
Shirts: Many designs Price range: Rs 1295 approx. Stock clearing, could find some good stuff.
Blazers: 2-3 designs. Price range: Rs 4000 approx. Good bargain.


Overall rating: 4/5
1: Don't waste your time 
2: Okay! Could find something if you're lucky
3: Certainly worth taking a look
4: Pretty good, must check out
5: Fabulous, Don't wait!