Outfit of the Day: Formally Casual

I know formally casual sounds absolutely contradictory!! It's just my term for semi-formal. The blue floral dress that I am wearing here is perfect for a Thursday/ Friday wear at work and also for a casual Saturday evening! Here's what I am wearing.

Dress: Van Heusen Women

Price: Rs 1800 Approx

I love blue and love flowery prints in blue even more! And this sleeveless dress in floral prints in blue is one of my favorites! It's vibrant yet semi-formal and super comfortable! Very nice for summers!

Accessories: Trendy Baubles

Price: Hoops - Rs 100 approx, Neckpiece - Rs 299

 I paired this already vibrant dress with some light accessories, a long neck piece in blue and silver and my all time favorites, the giant hoops, both from Trendy Baubles. It's actually becoming one of my favorite accessories hub! They have accessories which are trendy as well as affordable!

Footwear: Flats from Mumbai Street Shopping

Price: Rs 150 :)

As you may already know, I am a bit of color coordinator freak, I completed my look with blue sandals and blue eye-make up. Had picked up these sandals from Fashion street, Mumbai in February this year. Surprisingly, they're still in good shape :). Only problem, they skid a lot on plain surfaces. But I can live with that..

That's it for today, hope you're having a great weekend.. I am having a relaxed one after a while!!

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!

As I Turn Another Year Older...I do my First OOTD :)

Yes, it's that day of the year when I don't mind the tons of messages and phone calls waking me up early in the morning before my usual schedule.. In fact that is the best thing about birthdays, we get to catch up with friends and relatives who we usually forget to even say a 'hi' to because of our busy and complex life!

Sometimes I find it funny that even our special days are so predictable and routine. Like I came back from office last night and  quickly checked inside the fridge to make sure that he had not forgotten the cake :). Of course he hadn't. And he actually surprised me with a special gift :).

These were my first thoughts on turning 29, first I must change the 'About Me' section in my blog where I said I was a 28 year old risk professional..and second, it's definitely time to start using some anti-ageing products :).

An ideal birthday would have been spending the day in a spa, pampering myself and then going out for dinner in a sexy outfit to some place really nice. But alas, ideal things rarely happen and so here I am, going to my usual workplace but in a new outfit, and the dinner plan is still on! And here's the new outfit..

I thought I must do something different since it's my special day, so I decided to come up my first OOTD.

The picture's quite hazy and posy, but next time will be better :). Waiting to get a tripod.

This is a dress that I had bought from Van Heusen Women. But winter was on then and it got lost in my cupboard. I finally took it out! I have written about it in my earlier post here.

Tell me what you think.

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

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!