The 3 year ago 'me' would have resented even the thought of wearing floral and flowy-feminine silhouettes and here I am clad in exactly that, all smug and happy.

Okay I might be looking like a bit of a brat here, but I personally don't like the ubiquitous 'monogrammed' bags, which more often than not are the preference of the hoity-toity conceited women who carry it with a smug look on their faces. Anything monogrammed just spells to me like - 'look here I am loaded'. Yet I got this one.

Here's the 'why' to put that sentiment and the purchase into perspective...... The hard-core vegetarian that I am, for me the choice of non-leather bags in the luxury segment is very very limited. In fact, in the world of fashion, non-leather and luxury are really oxymorons. So when I was a tad-bit younger, than I am now, I had this really strong desire to acquire a 'designer bag'. To my dismay, after ransacking every designer store, during my travels abroad, I couldn't find anything that was 'not-leather' and could fit 'in my budget'. After thousands of hours of searching (honestly finding a good guy is easier than finding a bag), I found this one bag that fitted my bill and 'monogrammed' or 'not-monogrammed' (as they say love is blind) the quest for the 'it' bag ended with this bag finding its way in my closet. And now that I have it, I carry it with pride (pride of carrying a non-leather bag, duh!!!) and you would never believe just how much stuff this tiny bag can hold in (I could really do a magic trick just by showing how many things can come out from this baby).




This picture makes me wonder - is it summer, autumn or winter?


For a long long time, prints (especially florals) and flowy fabrics and I had a sketchy relationship. Solid blacks always dominated my wardrobe; and for dresses while I embraced structured and tailored silhouettes, I strictly steered away from anything flowy (and floral).

But changing up things is fun. I wouldn't want to be stuck-up like one of those men, you often see, who never change and look exactly the same how they were 20 years ago (same hairstyle, same trousers tied exactly at the same place [whoosh they never realised what low waist means, or simply that the high waist is also a tad bit lower], same styled shirts) with the exception of their hair turning grey and face wrinkled.

Embracing the change, trying new and pushing your boundaries is what makes you successful and keeps your life interesting and fun.

This dress was a perfect transition piece, that made my eye pop out when I spotted it during my small shopping trip last week in Hong Kong, without stinking too hard of transition. Frilly and floral, but without being too frilly and floral, if you know what I mean? (you could say no). The fit is just perfect on me, which is rare.

So for meeting up a friend after years, I decided to take the tags off and donned this new acquisition. To keep things interesting, I added a twist to this dress by belting it with not one but two belts (same belts just different colours). The idea was the same - simple and comfortable, but the addition of another belt looked trendy and stylish. I'm very much attracted to the juxtaposition of a simple-regular look with something tricky.

The beautiful brown slingbacks provided the much needed chemistry to the outfit (flowers and trees; and trees are green and brown. Oh sod it, I suck at explaining the chemistr-ies). Paired with an interesting rose gold and diamond ring and the brown bag, I think I was just ready to start a beautiful day.