Very tempted to hit delete on this post… but feeling generous today so listen up ladies. Haute Look is the new Gilt Group… only much much improved. Haute Look offers limited batch sales of designer goods (typically at 1/3 or 1/2 off!). Today they have BE & D handbags on mad sale. I’m fighting every nerve in my body from clicking and buying 5 of them!! Besides BE & D, Haute Look offers practically every hot label out there… Alice + Olivia, Jimmy Choo, Splendid, Thakoon.. and everything else your fabulous self could desire. And trust me, this is no Ross Dress for Less shit. They got the new stuff… the real deal.

What I think makes sites like Haute Look work so well (not to mention incredibly addictive) is the fact that it preys on your fears of losing the object of your desires so perfectly. All sales are on a limited time basis. Make a decision quick or cry later when someone else snatches your size right in front of your eyes (supply is limited), and no dilly dallying because each batch of clothes only stays up there for about 24 hours. They know the chances of you coming back later are slim (like the goddamn timeshare sales tactics!).

Shop Now.

BTW, you’ll have to sign up for a membership but it’s free and anyone qualifies.

Made popular amongst my friends by “No Bones” Julie.. liquid leggings are still hot these days and seemingly impossible to find. I first saw them on Lindsay Lohan prob. in US Weekly (where else?) and knew they’d be big for night life wear. What could be next for leggings? So far we’ve seen zippers, bows, ruching, exotic materials/textures, lace, buttons, reflective…  I can’t wait to see what’s next!

Here’s the few pairs of liquid leggings could find. Ladies, cast your votes on which pair is a must-get. Also, if any of you dare to wear these out, I’m curious to see how you’ve worn them so send me a picture if you have one!

American Apparel RSAC306 Shiny Leggings

Members Only Liquid Leggings at Kitson

Slick Leggings at Nordstrom

Celebrities in their Liquid Leggings

I meant to post this sooner but if you live in the San Francisco area, I wanted to let you know about an event going on this Wed and Thur (June 4th and 5th) called Shecky’s Girls Night Out. I’ve never been so I can’t promise it’s going to be all that but I’ll be there this year so maybe I’ll bump into you while clawing for the goodies. I’ll apologize now in advance if I get out of control.

From what the website says, they’ll be serving cocktails while you shop till you drop, sample products, and get to go home with a Shecky’s Goodie Bag. The admission is $25 for two which is a bargain for an entire night of guilty pleasure.

Hope to see you there!

It was not long after graduating college and becoming a working professional that I lost the drive and motivation to shop sales. I know you know just as well as I do that rummaging through sales racks, no matter what store, is so bleh. Even though you know there’s likely to be some hidden gems among the wreckage… the energy required to dig through the cluttered racks is more than enough to make you lose the appetite to shop. And the sad truth is (at least for myself) is it’s hard to get turned on to stuff on the racks… it just seems unwanted.. so unfabulous. If you pulled something off a sales rack and then placed it straight center of the store where all the new stuff is displayed I’d be all over it! Perception.. context… I’m such a sucker.

Maybe this explains why I never got totally sucked into the site I’m featuring today — Shop It To Me. So why feature it at all? I guess I just have this feeling (if you aren’t already using it today) that you’ll find it to be a helpful service, especially if you enjoy the thrills of a good bargain every now and then. And while I may not have gotten sucked into using it, I am a sucker for high-tech solutions for shopping and fashion!!! I have to disclaim that the site has been around for well over a year or two so sorry if this is old news

What is Shop It To Me? It’s like having a personal shopping service that notifies you as items from your favorite brands go on sale at major online retail sites (e.g. Shopbop, Nordstrom, Zappos, etc). There’s a list of a bajillion gazillion brands to choose from. I actually found the list tedious to go through so I can imagine it freaking out some of you. I think they ought to provide a better way for users to select the types of items to get "sale" alerts on.. maybe create some fashion profile types or something.

Here’s an example email that will get dropped to your inbox…

I signed up the service over a year ago and to be honest I started becoming blind to these "Salemail" alerts that accumulate into my gmail account. Because of this post though I’ve started to open the mail up again and have been pleasantly entertained with the stuff I’m seeing on sale. It seems like there’s actually good stuff going on sale! Is there hope for me again?

So I’m wondering what you guys think of this so send me some thoughts! Also if you know of any other sites or services in this realm of shopping sales or discounts.. hook us up!

Happy Sale Shopping!!

www.shopittome.com

About a year ago I blogged about a handbag hook I’d had my eye on. At $35 a pop the Luxe Link Purse Holder seemed like a fair enough deal… or at least I was so enticed by the novelty of the design of this compact style handbag hook that I bought one for my sister in law and one of my best friends (wasn’t ready to spend the $35 on this indulgence just yet).

Then, Anne from Stylagio, sent me this really cute plum colored handbag hook to review on The Luxe Mix. Yes I was excited and extremely flattered someone actually thought I could help promote/review their product but I was even more excited I wasn’t going to have to shell out the $35 for the Luxe Link Holder. I could get used to this

After having used the Stylagio ChicClip (shown on the right) for a month now I will say that it does come in handy when you’re dining out and the seating arrangement does not accommodate our oversized handbags. Actually, any size bag will eventually find itself sitting on the dingy ground every once in awhile. The places I hate most are the ones with the chairs with the round curved backs. When will restaurants realize they need to start treating our bags like the paying customers they are? No bag, no wallet, no cash!

Does anyone out there have any good ideas of what to do with your hand bag when it can’t be hung on the back of your chair? If so please share! Usually I end up stuffing it behind my back where it gets squashed or I place it on my lab like a baby (dropping crumbs all over it).

I found the ChicClip quite handy — when I remembered to bring it with me. I switch purses nearly every day so some days I’d forget I’d stashed it in a pocket of a bag. If I could find a way to attach the clip to some other item I always carry that would be perfect! Hmmm I’ll have to think about that..

Here’s a few pics I took of my ChicClip in action.

Overall I’m very happy with my ChicClip. At $19.95 it’s a great Luxe for Less option and not quite as an investment as other purse hooks.

The Highs

• $19.95. It costs less than a pedicure!
• Seems pretty durable. I’ve dropped it several times and it’s stayed in tact.
• Comes in a wide assortment of colors (10 to be exact). The next color on my list is the black one!
• The material of the Clip grabs well on most surfaces. I’ve even hung it on the back of chairs! This comes in handy when the table or desk surface is too thick to fit the hook on.
• Super compact. About the size of a 1/2 dollar.
• Comes with a little velvet pouch to keep it safe from scratches.
• MOST IMPORTANTLY my handbags are so much happier, healthier, and well cared for. If I’m gonna spend insane amounts of money on these babies I might as pamper them too! What’s next?… Organic handbag cleanser?

The Lows

• I’d like it if these purse hooks could be a little lighter. With all the crap you gotta tote around any extra weight sucks. Do you agree??

Anne’s kindly given my readers a 20% discount so if you’ve been thinking about getting a handbag hook  you might as well take this opportunity to get one, or a few for you and your fabulous friends!

Promo Code: LUXEMIX20
http://www.stylagio.com

For those US mag readers (is there anyone not included in this population?) who enjoy the guilty pleasure of dissecting and occasionally trashing celebrities and their outfits.. here’s a blog must-read: Couture Candy’s Celebrity Blog.  I have no idea how long it’s been around actually but I found it recently and was immediately hooked.

The format is simple and the posts are dependably consistent…

The Scoop + Celebrity Fashion Photo + Links on Where to Buy

It’s so obvious that celebrities sell clothes better than any multi million dollar advertising campaign could ever live up to. Why don’t more online fashion retailers pick up on this?

Personally, I find sites like this and Frugal-Fashionista so addicting because I love to see how other girls put their outfits together. Getting dressed for events — even if it’s something as mundane as a work day can be something I look forward to and I can really get into about picking out an outfit. At other times though it can be a very grueling and painful task when feeling uninspired. Fashion magazines can provide a little boost at times but celeb photos are a far better source of inspiration. It’s real people putting real pieces together to make a look that is worn out on the real streets. The glossy fashion spreads of Vogue and Bazaar are fun to flip through but who leaves the house looking like that? A yellow feather skirt and patent leather bustier don’t make a complete look for me!

As I’ve told you before I get the warm fuzzies whenever I see fashion retail sites that put some thought into the User Experience/User Interface. I mean if we’re going to be spending hours on these sites shopping for clothes the least they could do is make it a little easier for us to make our choices, make it a little easier to compare items and view stuff in different angles and distances. 

So anyway when I went to Ron Herman’s Denim Bar I got really giddy to see the very simple but helpful view of the jeans they’ve provided. As you roll over each jean an alternate view of the same jean is shown. This reduces the amount of clickclickclicks you gotta do to decide whether you’re interested in a pair of jeans or not. Also the pictures on the listings are large enough you really don’t even need to click on each pair for a closeup. Sites like shopbop and neimans have such tiny thumbnails you have to roll over or click on every single item to get a close enough look at them. To be honest fashion retail sites have SUCH a long way to go before they maximize wen technology to make our lives easier!

Just a quick thought I had to share! Happy hunting…

http://www.ronherman.com/

This is the day I’ve waited for!! BCBG has finally re-opened the doors of their online shop. It’s about time.. those biznatches. I hate BCBG the business. And really.. who doesn’t? But we all can’t help but love their clothes. Retarded return policy. That’s all I have to say. But enuff of the ranting.. they have finally opened their online shop up and I’m pretty happy about that. Since I don’t have time to shop as much anymore at least I can take a peek online once in awhile.

And get this.. they actually let you RETURN stuff.

BCBG Online Store Return Policy
We want you to be fully satisfied with every item that you purchase
from bcbg.com. If you are not satisfied with an item that you have
purchased, you may return the item within 30 days of delivery for a
full refund of the purchase price, minus the shipping, handling, gift
wrap, and other charges.

Hallelujah! Even better reason to shop online. Does this mean they’ll update their in-store policy too???

Before I go, had to leave you with my top picks from the site.

Top Picks

BCBG Christian Jacket

BCBG Hammered Slip Dress

BCBG Silk Charmeuse Top

BCBG LeatherSilver Flat

BCBG Metal Mesh Clutch

Across the Social Network-Network (Social Network Services) I guess you’d call it, there is a growing trend of sites trying to offer people within the social community the ability to filter users out depending on their own tastes. So instead of walking into a room of strangers with no idea of who you might have more in common with, these social networks want to give you the tools to weed out those who are less like you and identify those who share the same taste as you. This is an important feature in my mind and once social network sites start to do a better job of it, could possibly take social networking to the next level. YEAH!

Last.FM was the first one I noticed to do it. I’m sure there’s others out there I didn’t know about but they were the first one I tried a compatibility test out to find other people with similar music taste as mine. I mean how cool would that be if I could just download a playlist every week with all new songs that other people with the same music taste as me had sought out? The hardest thing is finding people who’s music taste you can trust. Last.FM has a fair amount of work left to do I can say but they are damn cool for trying to take this on.

So now Kaboodle.com — my favorite Social Shopping site has launched their Style Compatibility Test. I took this a few weeks back and have since been checking out who’s got awesome style like me. So far it looks like Krist7 (top photo) and Mmumu (bottom photo) are the style winners across my Kaboodle Friend List. Nice job ladies — you must have impeccable taste.

How it works

You take a quick quiz where you rate a bunch of items 1-5 stars depending on how much you like the item, so depending on how closely you rated the items with the other users will determine what percentage style compatibility you are. Based on the test I’m 78% compatible with both Kristi7 and Mmumu…

What I just noticed is that I’m actually very low in compatibility on "Style and Fashion" with Kristi but really high on the other categories. It’s good that they break this down I suppose but it seems they should bring the overall score a bit to compensate for that. I barely noticed this.

I wish there was a way I could auto-search across the entire Kaboodle network and find other users who had the highest levels of Style and Fashion compatibility with me. Where are you friends? Come out and play with me…

Last week PinkMirage (who btw was the very very first fashion blogger I ever followed) blogged about Miss Universe and Makeup Talk. I agree wholeheartedly with her that it’s so nice to see more Asian females in the media. It sucked growing up and never seeing Asian females on TV, or in the movies and magazine who I could relate to. I mean other than Claudia or whatever her name was in Sweet Valley High… who else did we have to look to as examples or representations of Asian Americans? haha Sweet Valley..

I had heard about the newly crowned Japanese Miss Universe on the radio but after reading Pink Mirage’s post was compelled to do a little more reading up on the topic. I found out Miss Korea came in as 3rd runner-up!

Apparently there’s some controversy over who really deserved to win. I guess the translator did a poor job of translating Miss Korea, Honey Lee’s,  response to the interview question (see below for the clip), and some think that ruined Miss Korea’s chances of winning.

W/o having watched the show, it’s hard to tell who’s the better package overall but from the photos and video clips I’ve seen I must say Honey is Honey. I can’t imagine what guy would not give their right ball for one date with her. She has that sultry but adorably innocent look to her. Guys were made to go ga-ga for that combination. Riyo looks a little Amazon.. esp in this photo below.

Miss Japan– Riyo Mori

Miss Korea — Honey Lee

I love the celebration of culture and fashion through these cultural costumes — amazing.

Pictures taken from Miss Universe.com

A Video Clip of Miss Korea

Warning Advisory: Cheezy korean pop music, skimpily clad girls, and a healthy dosage of gratuitous pageant poses.