That Blog

That Blog fans, I am sorry…I have been neglecting you and I am a BAD blogger!

I am still in London town and life is very social and busy…what with trawling the High Street for fashion finds and visits to Buckingham Palace, I have been a busy little Gal. Anyway, I am back and will do my best to keep you up to date as often as possible.

So…this morning, I was paging through the Metro (classic tabloid journalism) and happened upon this clanger of an article.

It would appear that Manhatten’s wealthy cat owners decided to have a fancy dress birthday party for Matilda, the puss-in-residence at Algonquin Hotel. Please peruse some of the Kitteh’s that strutted their stuff…

Matilda - The Birthday Gal

Halebop, a sphinx cat, models an appropriate costume

Wizard, who came dressed as the popular American doll Raggedy Ann and looks pretty pleased about it too...

Halebop, dressed as a Japanese geisha (nice to have more than 1 costume at a fancy dress party)

Carmel sports some delightfully fruty headgear

Elvis has NOT left the building

Words cannot begin to describe this...a Cat Wig??

Don’t think there is much more to say really. 

[Source: Metro and Guardian]

So, I have come to realise that there are actually those that are not quite as fortunate as I am…i.e. they will not be doing their shopping on Regent’s Street this weekend and instead will be trawling the malls of Sunny South Africa for their retail therapy. If you are one of those less fortunate peeps and happen to be living in Jozi…there is a little treat install for you that should make your feel a little better about your lot in life. The International Fashion Sale is on again at the Coca Cola Dome from the 29th of July to the 1st of August. Admittedly, the Northgate is not as well known as the fashion and shopping meccas of London, New York, Rome and Paris…but it doesn’t mean that there aren’t a whole heap of new brands and exciting purchases to be made. So…if you are looking for somewhere to spend your hard earned loot this weekend, why not make your way to the Dome.

I did spot this picture advertising the sale and have only one thing to say…even if you are young, gorgeous, have a good bod and are wearing precious little…you still cannot get away with wearing black shoes and white socks EVER!!!

Fashion Help Needed too...

Anyway, hopefully, if you spot this young man, please will take him under your wing at the Fashion Sale and help him out a bit…

To read up for on the sale check out their website www.internationalfashionsale.co.za

I have often seen the ad on the home shopping network for The Bedazzler and wondered whether anyone had ever bought one and if so, whether they used it…now I see that they do.

Betty Windsor is currently on tour of Canada and the US of A and decided that why go buy a new frock when you can just bedazzle up and old one. 

She first wore this frock to a State dinner in Trinidad and Tobago…and to give it a bit of an island feel, she got her peeps to pretty it up by embroidering it  with appliqué birds and flowers…nice touch don’t you think? 

Betty goes with a subtle island vibe

Then, when wondering what to wear to a banquet during her trip to Canada…Betty did what all street-wise girls would do…save money for shopping and sight-seeing on the trip by breathing new life into an old frock. Yip, Betty got her peeps busy again and this time they were to unpick the island feel (not really appropriate for Toronto) and get busy with the Bedazzler. What a stroke of genius…a fortune freed up for shopping and perhaps some pressies for friends and family back home and maybe even be able to catch a show on Broadway! Nice one Betty!! 

Betty bedazzled to the Max

 So, for a little close up view of what she did there… 

The Island Vibe

Unpick that embroidery, bring on the Bedazzler and look what you get… 

Swap Island-vibe for a bit of Bling...

Good work Betty!!

[Source: The Daily Mail]

So, first there was designer glasses frames and now we have gone one step past that, to designer eyes. Now, you can get contact lenses with the ‘CD’ logo etched in alongside gold flakes…because everyone knows nothing brings out your inner vampire like unnatural eye colors!!

The contacts have a ‘CD’ logo etched on the left side and a gold strip covering the entire right side. There’s also what appears to be a black rim surrounding the circumference of the contact. Am hoping that the wearing of designer contact lenses doesn’t limit you to mascara that makes your eyelashes go all clumpy like that though…not a GREAT look!!

That Blogger is not completely sold on this new fashion item to be honest…We are all for non-permanent ways of playing around with your look, but branding your eye ball? Is that not taking things just a smidgen too far. Can’t wait to see what the designers at Louis Vuitton and Gucci can do to improve on this…LV is not known for making things subtle and understated, so the Battle of the Eyeball is bound to be an interesting one!!

Have you noticed that at the end of some matches, the teams swap shirts? Well, if you haven’t, it is definitely something worth hanging around for. Perhaps, try not let The Bloke flick over to the other sports channel to see what is happening in the golf/rugby/cricket as the final whistle goes and see what wonderful things transpire on the field.

Anyway, ahead of the Portugal vs Ivory Coast game this afternoon, I thought you might be interested in a little glimpse of what the shirt-swapping exercise could hold for you. Do you remember I showed you those delightful pictures of Cristiano Ronaldo? Well, our favourite Portuguese soccer player is getting his kit off again…this time he is doing it for Armani. The new Armani advertising campaign is about to be launched and guess who their poster boy is?? Yip, Cristiano himself.

A thing of beauty isn’t he??

"I can't believe she has put THOSE clothes out for me to wear"

"You're great! My last girlfriend hated me lying on the couch when I got back from a training session"

Alas, with the nasty cold spell that seems to have gripped the country, I am not sure anyone is going to be too keen to whip their shirt off, but well worth hanging around for after the final whistle…just in case.

Kick off is at 4:00pm today. Enjoy!

[Images courtesy of Armani]

The World has definitely changed a LOT in the last year. It certainly has become a far more practical place…have a look at the latest offering from the fashionistas Prada. Which, according to the Gospel aka Wikipedia is “an Italian fashion label specializing in luxury goods for men and women…The label is a status symbol”.

Yip, Gals, I kid you not…what you see before you is the latest range from Prada for 2010. Destructured shopping bags. Practical, yes, by all means…status symbol, not so sure!!?? Maybe if someone catches a glimpse of that little Prada symbol…

The thing I really like about this trend/range is that my Mum bought be something very similar when she went to Japan on holiday last year. I love the little shopping bag and find it VERY handy when browsing the Neighbourgood’s Market on a Saturday morning…but never did I imagine that my Mum was just one step ahead of Prada! Now the big dilemma is do I a) peel the Prada label off that bag I bought at that shop in Dubai a while back and stick it on to the bag and tell every one that this one is a gift from a “special friend” in Milan or b) use an old name tag from school and suggest that my family set the trend and Prada followed. Not sure which will be more believable??

A friend of mine introduced me to this beautiful sterling silver jewellery range the other day. My first thoughts were that it really is so pretty and different.

There are so many beautiful designs to choose from that I really struggled to choose a few that really showed you what I meant, but these were some of my favourite designs.

A Few Examples of Blackbird Jewellery

Aren’t they just lovely? Just makes me want to go out and treat myself to something new and pretty…

They are created by designer Chloe Essery, right here in a studio in Cape Town.

If you would like to see some more of the designs, you can have a look at their website www.blackbirdsa.com or if you want to have a closer look, they are sold at various spots around Cape Town and for you Jozi readers, good news…you can find them in Jozi too.

Or contact:

Kath who looks after Blackbird sales on 082 7023257 or mail her at info

Not to be outdone by the month of great sport ahead of us, luxury French fashion house Louis Vuitton has put their stamp on the World Cup…specifically on the World Cup trophy carrying case.

Louis Vuitton Case (source: LA Times)

The custom designed leather-bound case was produced to carry the trophy to our sunny shores and was presented to FIFA by Louis Vuitton and Naomi Campbell on yesterday.

The nice thing about the case is that in true LV style, it is subtle and understated and unlikely to catch the eye of any baggage handlers looking to profit from the suitcases of the SWC supporters! Good thinking!!

There are so many deserving causes in South Africa that it really is difficult to decide which one you should support if you do actually want to support a charitable cause. I happened upon a great initiative, that donates money to a really wonderful cause and the more you shop, the more that goes to this great cause…can you ask for a better reason to shop?

Habits boutique in Claremont has been working with Noah for two years now. Noah‘s vision is to ensure that orphans and vulnerable children in South Africa have an opportunity to grow up into emotionally, psychologically and physically healthy adults. Their mission is to empower communities with knowledge, skills, strategies and self-confidence to care for their orphans and vulnerable children.

The team at Habits were inspired by this vision and mission and so started a campaign to raise money for Noah. The Noah campaign run through Habits has been so successful, that the Habits team have decided to extend the campaign to this year. This time, they will be donating 10% of the price of all the lace trim stretch cami’s sold up until the end of the year. The cami’s are extra long (which is something I love…I can’t stand it when they creep up over your tummy or above your jeans) and come in a whole heap of stunning colours (including black and white). Lovely cami’s really are a wardrobe essential, so why not buy them from Habits and do something great for the community at the same time? If you don’t live in Cape Town, you can order one of these lovely little essentials on-line from the Habits website.

If you would like to read more about Noah and the wonderful work they do, click on http://www.noahorphans.org.za/

Lace Trim Cami

A recently released on-line poll conducted in the UK by the online fashion retailer offerssupermarket.co.uk, has revealed the top 10 iconic dresses of our time. I have a sneaky suspicion that No 1 might not fall into a global opinion of Most Iconic Dress of our times, but interesting to see what was voted for in the UK.

The poll does not give any detail on the sample of people questioned or whether they were actually qualified to give a view on this…while I do agree that everybody is entitled to their own opinion, I cannot believe a representative sample of the UK population came up with this selection!!

No 1. Geri Halliwell – Union Jack dress at the Brit Awards in 1997

No 2. Liz Hurley – Gianni Versace safety pin dress worn in 1994 at the London premiere of Four Weddings and a Funeral

No 3. Marilyn Monroe – White dress in Seven Year Itch

No 4. Audrey Hepburn – Black dress and pearls in Breakfast at Tiffany’s

No 5. Lady Gaga – White outfit and wig worn to the Brit Awards

No 6. Diana, Princess of Wales – Wedding dress designed by The Emanuel’s

No 7. Kylie Minogue – Gold hot pants worn in the Spinning Around video, 2000 (Do hotpants count as a dress??)

No 8. Jennifer Lopez – Sheer green Versace dress worn to the Grammys

No 9. Björk – Swan dress worn to the Oscars designed by Marjan Pejoski, worn to the 2001 Oscars

No 10. Cindy Crawford: Red Versace dress worn to the Oscars

I read about this a little while ago and was impressed with the whole initiative that I thought I should share it with you.

Just over a year ago, Sheena Matheiken pledged to wear the same style dress every day for a year. The little black dress (LBD) was designed for her by a friend and she got seven exact copies of the dress made. With that began The Uniform Project. The project aimed to raise money for charity and make a point about sustainable fashion and all the while blogging about the year long adventure. It was almost like an advent calendar for fashion followers as Sheena set about transforming the LBD every day of the year using inventive accessorizing.

So, really, it looks like a cleverly designed, well cut LBD is all a Girl needs and a WHOLE heap of imagination!

Read more about The Uniform Project on her website www.theuniformproject.com