5 Affordable Online Stores You Probably Had No Idea Existed

5 Affordable Online Stores You Probably Had No Idea Existed

The only thing that makes me happier than a Friday is a good retail therapy! And as much as I love strolling around the first floor at Maison Ogilvy or browsing the carefully curated new arrivals at HoltRenfrew.com, my monthly budget simply doesn't allow me to indulge in high-fashion and luxury items every time. But as a fashion girl, I made it my mission to remain on top of my style-game at all costs… Or in this case, at practically no cost ;) 

Piqued your curiosity just yet ? Check out the five online boutiques I simply could have never done it without…

1) TOBI

featuring the I'm Yours Sweater Crop Top, $33 and East Side Printed Neck Scarf, $30

TOBI always carries the most exciting things online and I find their style to be very reminiscent of Nasty Gal's for often, a quarter of the price. Whether it's basics, intimates, swimwear, evening-wear, ROMPERS!.. TOBI has it all and even more. The 'Sale' feature is probably my favourite as it allows me to get all the pieces I missed out on at a fraction of the price. And every career girl knows that a good sale always makes the bank account happy. Sorta… ;)

tobi.com

2) MISSGUIDED

featuring the Velvet Choker Shift Dress, $49

Missguided is such a good party brand for twenty-something ladies like myself! Their overall aesthetic channels the perfect combination of femininity, sensuality and effortless style, offering a great variety of pieces fit for a queen. Warning! If, like myself, you have a soft spot for the cool fabrics and textures of the 90's (velvet, satin, crochet and mesh that is) you might end up spending most of your days scrolling down the new arrivals and back in stock options of the moment. Most. Of. Your. Days.

Psssst! There's also a 20% discount for students in the US… #unidays

missguidedus.com

3) GO JANE

featuring the Day Date Ruffled Chambray Romper, $29

With currently up to 70% sale off sitewide, Go Jane is one of my most affordable online fashion discovery of 2016. Every since my very first order with them (a gorgeous pair of denim chunky heels) I have been completely obsessed with their weekly arrivals and their footwear shop, curating over 900 pair of pumps, boots, sandals, sneakers, flats, catering to everybody's taste and budget.

gojane.com

4) LULU'S

featuring the Ring the Bell Dark Green Crop Top, $42

I like to think that I was quite early on discovering and integrating Lulu's best sellers into my wardrobe mostly because it caters so well to my ultra feminine style and aesthetic. For almost 10 years now, Lulu's has been my go-to web destination for all-things dresses and cute accessories. As for my favourite feature from their website: the 'Back in Stock' section where they bring back all of the styles that sold out too quickly, so you can never miss out on a great #outfitgoals ;)

lulus.com

5) PIXIE MARKET

featuring the Ribbon Open Back White Tee, $78

Pixie Market is my favourite online destination for statement tops and other original pieces. I've always loved a good stand-out outfit and Pixie's allows me to innovate and get extra creative with my fashion sense. They've got a wonderful collection of fun, fearless work-appropriate shirts and blouses that make it super easy to transition from the office to happy hour in a knack. Don't go unnoticed!

pixiemarket.com

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HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE SERIES: WINTER EDIT

HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE SERIES: WINTER EDIT

Click the icons to shop, or here: White MINKPINK cropped sweater / ASOS Prism pumps / Sheinside coat / Fashion Bunker check clutch / Fiorelli Willow bag / Urban Outfitters Moto Jacket / Phase 3 hat / Sam Edelman Reese booties / Marc Jacobs Daisy perfume

The holiday season has crept up so quickly that it's got everyone stressing over two things:

1. What to buy
2. How to save

I’m mainly going to let the gift guides speak for themselves because I’ve got you covered for the first point - between a Winter edit for those in the Northern Hemisphere, a Summer edit for the Southerners (coming this week), Home/Interior, Boyfriend and Stocking Stuffers (all next week). 

Currently my shopping carts are slowly stacking up on multiple websites and I can't stop, so it's safe to say I'm struggling with how to save. Having student discounts are great for the websites that offer them, but I've been searching everywhere for that little bit extra off the stores I actually shop at (and encountered too many dodgy websites to count), but I think I've finally found a website that has an abundance of offers for us fashion enthusiasts and wanted to put together this quick post to help you and share the love! 

You can suss it out for yourselves and see if it's right for you, but I've already signed up for their Black Friday discount alerts for when they come out - just because Australia doesn’t celebrate it doesn’t mean I can’t score some steals with the rest of the world, right?

If you need more Holiday gift ideas click here, or shop my favourite online stores for more:

ASOS | GLASSONS | ANTHROPOLOGIE | FASHION BNKR
NASTY GAL | SHOPBOP | URBAN OUTFITTERS | NORDSTROM
 SAMANTHA WILLS | RIVER ISLAND | THE MODE COLLECTIVE | THE ICONIC

(P.S Don't forget about my giveaway for a Mimco clutch here)

Victoria's Secret Fashion Show | Everything You Need to Know

Victoria's Secret Fashion Show | Everything You Need to Know

After taking over London last year, Victoria's Secret has announced a little while ago that they will return to New York this year for the annual lingerie extravaganza ! Let's all remember that New York City was home of the first ever Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, back in 1995, featuring the gorgeous Stephanie Seymour, Frederique van der Wal and Ingrid Seynhaeve. There seriously could not have been a better location to host the 20th anniversary of the world-renown brand than the City that never sleeps and I just can't wait to see what surprises they'll have in store for us this year ;) A sexy throwback of our all-times favourite Angels perharps (Oh hi, Naomi Campbell, Heidi Klum, Gisele Bundchen and Tyra Banks!) ? In the meantime, here's a recap of everything you should know prior to tonight show…

Date: November 10th, 2015

Venue: Lexington Armory

Location: New York City

Will air on: December 8th, 2015, on CBS

Performers

Sad new for the Bag Gal's fans, Rihanna announced on Nov. 3rd that she will no longer perform at this year's Victoria's Secret Fashion Show... The singer has cancelled her performance in order to focus on finishing her upcoming studio album, Anti. Replacing Bad Gal Riri on the VS runway will now be Ellie Goulding, who will joins first-timers Selena Gomez and The Weeknd. Yup, although Rihanna is pretty much a staple of any high-profile New York City event, this lineup looks like its still going to be pretty solid !

Victoria's Secret Models

The infamous VS Fashion Show casting is officially closed and in advance of the show, the company has released its list of 44 top models who made the cut. That's right, 29 lucky girls will be walking down the stage at Lexington Armory tonight, alongside the 2015 Angels, the ambassadors of the brand who travel the world promoting Victoria's Secret all year-round.

Among them, a model who seemed destined for her very own set of feathery wings recently saw her VS dreams come true. Instagram sensation Gigi Hadid will indeed walk in the upcoming show along with BFF and celebrity model, Kendall Jenner ! To break the news, Victoria's Secret shared the walk that landed her the job via Instagram...

Editor's note: Every single model this year actually (and unsurprinsingly!) have active Instagram accounts, so make sure to follow your fav's for exclusive behind-the-scenes shots of the show before it officially premieres on December 8th.

We love surprises…and we just gave a BIG one to @GigiHadid at today’s #VSFashionShow castings 👏🏼 🍾 See you on the runway, Gigi 😉

Une vidéo publiée par Victoria's Secret (@victoriassecret) le 29 Oct. 2015 à 16h23 PDT

Victoria's Secret Angels

Earlier this year, Victoria's Secret announced the promotion of 10 of its existing models to Angel status; Stella Maxwell, Kate Grigorieva, Taylor Hill, Elsa Hosk, Martha Hunt, Jac Jagaciak, Lais Ribeiro, Sara Sampaio, Romee Strijd and Jasmine Tookes have all been given their set of wings and will be joining Candice Swanepoel, Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio, Behati Prinsloo and Lily Aldridge in the coveted line-up of tonight show !

Which one of the new hallowed ones are you mostly looking forward to see strutting her stuff down the runway in all her elevated glory ? Click on each Angel to find out more...

VS Fantasy Bra

When it comes to the Victoria’s Secret Fantasy Bra, nothing exceeds like excess ;) Crafted by Mouawad, this year's Fireworks Fantasy Bra (and matching, detachable belt!) will feature over 6,500 precious gems, including diamonds, blue topaz, yellow sapphires and pink quartz, set in 18-karat gold. I think we can pretty much agree on this one; Rocking the Fantasy Bra is a major honour and there really is no surprise why Victoria's Secret chose VS Angel veteran Lily Aldridge to don this year's $2 million Fantasy Bra, previously modeled by supermodels including Candice Swanepoel, Adriana Lima and Heidi Klum.

Tonight, the American beauty will get to strut down the runway in the highly anticipated and very! pricey lingerie for the first time and while we won't get to actually see her (and it!) in action until December 8th, our lovely pals at Vogue gave us a shimmering preview in a short clip in which, Aldridge unveils the masterpiece. And if you want to rock a sexy piece of lingerie that’s just as magical,  but aren't ready yet to drop a small fortune, well... You’re in luck ! Check out the Very Sexy Flirt Bra, the inspiration for the one-of-a-kind Fantasy Bra of the 2015 show, which will be available in-stores and online, on Nov. 11. Price is still TBD, but I bet it'll be a lot less than $2 million ;)

Hair & Makeup

On Sunday night, Victoria's Secret held the final hair and makeup test for their 2015 show and it looked (very!) promising ! The team of Allure was backstage for the occasion and got to report live from Snapchat (indeed!) with an exclusive, up-close look at what is to be expected this year. And while you can probably guess what the hair is going to look like (they're called bombshell waves for a reason!), we were still able to pick-up a few surprises VS had in store for us. If you didn't catch the backstage action on time via Allure's Snapchat story, don't worry, I did and I even took a few notes…

1. When it comes to eyelashes, the Angels go big ! This year, makeup artist Dick Page will be using Ardell mini and small-size individual eyelash clusters on each model. This will add visible heft to the lash line in front of the lights and cameras, but not length, and that's the key. "You shouldn't be able to see them from space" he says.

2. Not all models walking the runway will have bombshell hair. This year, hairstylist Akki Shirakawa won't be adding extensions to girls with lobs, bobs, or medium-length hair. "We wanted it to be a bombshell look but more independent. Some girls will have a side part, some will have a middle part, some girls are a little bob-ish. It's more about individual sexiness of the girls," he says.

3. The models won't wear that much makeup. At the hair and makeup test, Page used a bright-red cream pigment on the cheeks and down the bridge of nose, and then covered it with the lightest touch of foundation. "Victoria's Secret has been very bronzy for ages and I went in and made it more red," says Page. "It looks healthier and fresher than the bronzy thing." On the eyes, Page used a bit of black cream shadow for definition in the lash lines and a golden taupe-brown all over the lid and through the crease and lower lashes, before adding mascara. Brows were brushed up but otherwise left alone.

FYI, The shadow is Shiseido Shimmering Cream Eye Color in Sable, which Page says will be discontinued imminently. Stock up now !

4. To get Victoria's Secret signature hair, you need mousse. Tons and tons of mousse. Shirakawa and his team were pumping palmful after palmful of Victoria's Secret Hair Mega-Lift Mousse into the models' dry hair at the test. Once the hair was saturated, the team would then blow-dry the mousse into the hair to add tons of body and texture before hitting it with a curling iron.

5. Speaking of which... There are some cool new hair tools coming soon ! All the hairstylists at the test were using the Beachwaver, an automatic curling wand from hairstylist Sarah Potempa. In a few months she'll launch the Beachwaver S1.25, the same curling wand but with a thicker barrel for looser, bouncier waves.

Good luck for tonight, Angels ! 

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2013

2013

2013 began for me with kind of a plan. Then of course as it always does, life got in the way. After soaking up the sun and spending as much time as I could with Mario and friends in January, I returned to Adelaide for a six month stint. I remember crying for most of February. Despite working in my field on a good gig, even though I had been given more to do for myself this year, my heart was not in it as much as it had once been. The Adelaide Cabaret Festival is truly a stand out Festival, which draws some of the most interesting talents from around the world. With Kate Ceberano and Torben Brookman at the helm the Festival has gone from strength to strength. In working at the Adelaide Festival Centre I was fortunate to work with and befriend some wonderful and colourful characters. Although I do not expect to wish to return to Adelaide to work again, I will hold onto the experiences and think back on them fondly.

As soon as Cabaret was over, I had planned to work a little and save to relocate to London for work.

But the idea of leaving my partner Mario was something I could not bare. So, with my possessions either given away, sold off or boxed into storage, I headed to Perth to spend time with him, and friends. 

As Perth is still riding the mining wave, the fashion scene keeps us busy enough- without becoming over the top. I am very happy to have made a group of friends whom I can turn to at various fashion events and laugh about all of its ridiculousness. Finding grounded people in this 'fashion' world, even from predominantly a consumer base, is not always easy. The number of events I have gone to and wished I had made other plans have lead me to be a little choosier, but I will say that with every invitation I am thankful to be thought of. Designers and retailers in Australia work very hard to generate products, find clients and compete in the retail environment particularly with international online sales. I have been fortunate to meet some encouraging designers, and have the utmost respect for their efforts. I will always love Australian designers, it has been a sad year to see so many finish up with their brands. There have been a number of notable newcomers whom I have coveted and happily road tested, and yes, of course I too shop online.

My own style has changed in the past year to become simpler, as I shed most of my prints and colourful items. (I gave myself a year to wear the neon items I had bought, then happily sold them on eBay) I do have a few key printed / coloured pieces but I try not to over wear these as I inevitably get sick of them. Moving states each time allows me to clear out and get rid of pieces whilst reaffirming what goes into this capsule collection. I will say that when I first got back to Perth I had one suitcase to my name, but imagine it would now be closer to one and a half (despite my recent eBay efforts). I could blame this on packing for winter, and having few summer items, or blame it on working with friend and stylist Mikey Walton who always seems to have cool items left over from shoots (luckily I fit into these!) or it could be that I have accumulated a few more pairs of shoes.
In 2014, I may even buy a new handbag… and hardly any shoes… :)
The rules still apply though- only buy it if it goes with a heap of other things, is of good quality, fits properly, is easily washed, will not 'date' in a year, and I have to LOVE it.

Over the past few months I have been heavily reviewing this blog, its content, my relationship with it and its readers, where I would like to take it and of course the name. The name part is the trickiest. I chose the current one without a plan to do much more than blog once or twice, then never really found the right name to reflect what I was all about. I don't always talk about fashion in my everyday life- I tend to get that out of my system here, so I am keen to reflect on my other interests in future. While all of this is a work in progress, stay tuned, and I will let you know once I am ready to relaunch new name, look, probably domain and format.

A special thank you to everyone who has made this such a fun year. Despite my moving, unconventional nature, I am thankful to live happily, to accept and practice patience at the same time as develop my ambitions and give back the love I get to others. I am also thankful of the patience and understanding demonstrated by my family who live without my presence a lot, and the continuing support of my friends locally, nationally and internationally. I miss time with each and hold them in my thoughts and heart. I am thankful to all of my readers, their comments, return visits and patience while I reboot in a new direction.
Thank you for the time and efforts generously given by the photographers who have kindly shot with me this year, namely, Mario Recchia, Benjamin Galbraith, Heidy Saeran, Donna Dee, Emma Robinson, my Mum (three times! and she did a great job!), James Witty and Laura Liy.
Thank you to all of the PR agents, stores, designers and volunteers who have invited me to attend shows, sent me products to review and shared this blog.
I wish everyone a wonderful New Year and excellent start to 2014.

If you have any requests of what you would like to see me write more about in 2014, please let me know by commenting below or emailing me.

xx Jenelle

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FASHION BY THE RULES: Sale Time !!!

FASHION BY THE RULES: Sale Time !!!

August is upon us and the summer is almost half over but on the bright side, it is sale time, and I do mean SALE !!! With the economy being what it is and the retail business being in a less than stellar moment, it is the time to reap the benefits and shop on sale!!! Do not be taken in by 20% off or even 30% off, the real bargains lay in the 50% off and more category and you will find them everywhere. From Old Navy to Nordstrom, from Bergdorf’s to Bealls and every other specialty store you can imagine. The only non-participants or limited participants are the upper end branded stores like Tiffany and Gucci.

The secret to finding the bargains is to be tuned in online and in your local newspapers and to focus on specific items rather than an open ended shop fest. The sale season is ramping into high gear now, the Fall merchandise is already in the stores and back to school is already closer than we care to think. Obviously, retailers are looking for maximum traffic so they will tend to promote sales on weekends, but there are plenty of sales still going on all week long, even unadvertised sales. Don’t be put off by the lack of signage directing you to a sale as there might very well be signage once you get into the store and to your particular department. Do not be taken by the “Take an Additional 20% Off the Sale Price.” This simply means that if an item is already marked down 50%, you are only getting an additional 10% off the original price, do the math.

It has been a very hard time for those of us who love to shop and buy lots of new things but if you have been frugal all season long, now would be a great time to splurge on a few new pieces for what might be more than just 4 more weeks of summer. The things to consider are this ….color, don’t fall for the fad or “it” item of the season, think about will you start off next spring summer with these items, and above all ..DO NOT BUY JUST BECAUSE IT IS CHEAP OR SO MUCH OF A BARGAIN. Keep your sense and wits about you when you bargain shop and again do not wait for the weekends. There are “Flash Sales” online and coupon discounts and shipping discounts, it requires focus on where you like to shop and a routine check of what’s available and that includes HSN or QVC if you are a TV shopper.

Please let all of us know if you have any hints on SALE SHOPPING, watch for me at http://jeffybruce.blogspot.com/ or on Facebook

Rebecca Taylor's New Line Will Fulfill Your French Girl Style Fantasies

Rebecca Taylor's New Line Will Fulfill Your French Girl Style Fantasies

Say oui oui to La Vie

BY LEAH MELBY CLINTON

Rebecca Taylor fans (and just about any fashionable Francophile!) rejoice: The designer who hangs her hat on feminine, boho styles is launching a new lower-priced collection sure to please a generation of dressers obsessed with easy, off-duty style and the je ne sais quoicool of French women.

Rebecca Taylor Lace Dress, $275

Named La Vie, the range of denim and casual separates is inspired in part by Taylor's early fascination with Parisian cool. "When we were young my parents moved us to London for a couple of years, and on the weekend we would travel to Paris in a caravan," the designer told ELLE.com "On my first trip there, I remember having this feeling of overwhelming excitement—all of the history, art, museums, food, people, fashion, and culture. I fall in love again every time I return. "

Rebecca Taylor La Vie Voile Top, $225, and Anais Denim Pants, $235

 

What does Taylor like the most about French women's style? "I love how [they] dress so simply, yet always look chic. They don't take fashion too seriously, and it's this sort of carefree attitude that adds a bit of mystery and interest to 'French-girl' style."

Hitting shelves today at Rebecca Taylor stores and online, plus Nordstrom and Shopbop; the pieces start at $95 and extend to $395 for outerwear.

Rebecca Taylor La Vie Ruffle Top, $195

Vivre your best life this fall in "a white, crisp cotton, ruffle Victorian blouse and my high-wasted denim in the patched wash," Taylor recommends. "I really love a high-wasted straight cropped fit at the moment." And with that, go forth, and feel French.

Rebecca Taylor Poplin Lace Top, $175