A Particularly Manic Monday

Well, hey!

It was a jam-packed weekend in these here parts, but we'll get to that in a minute. First can I just say how much I love the pinafore-style dresses from New York label Mooka Kinney (above)? (Found via Shiny Squirrel, who found it via Clothes-Pin.) I'd been eyeing a similar style at the thrift store lately -- which I think is actually an old Japanese school uniform -- and I'm really tempted to go buy it now.

Now, some of you have found your way here because you saw us on Singapore's street fashion blog, The Clothes Project. We were thrilled to meet its proprietor, the very sweet K., not once but twice while we were out this weekend. First, she recognized us at the Shopaholic Aristocrats sale at Graze on Saturday afternoon (which seemed to be a huge success – there were lots of fantastic retailers, including great local vintage store Granny's Day Out). And then, we bumped into K. again later that night at Pluck during FL.ag magazine's Haji Lane street party.

In any case, I was more than happy to get snapped for K.'s blog., even if I do look a little goofy. (It's a well-proven fact that very high humidity + my hair = extreme disaster.) I was wearing my favorite new dress and got quite a few compliments on it (why, thank you). But imagine my surprise today when I was walking by the Bugis outlet of cheap, trendy retailer This Fashion and they had a skirt version in the exact same fabric for… S$20. (That's US$12, and that is waaaaaay less than I paid for the dress.) Still, I never was one to turn down a good bargain, and so once I got over my disbelief, I bought the skirt version in red:


K. also tipped us off to the fact that Saturday night was the once-a-month flea market at Timbre and we were able to stop by to check that out as well. Most of the vendors were packing up when we got there around 11pm, but we did discover cute local jewelry designer Playground Love and bought a couple of her handmade pieces, including "Little Miss Brooch":

Their website says they will also do customized pieces, which has me plotting all kinds of fun possibilities.

And also on Saturday, I accosted a very nice salesgirl at Scarlet Living in Holland Village and demanded to know where she got her extremely cute, Orla Kiely-ish tote bag:


Turns out it's made by U.K. stationery company Paperchase, which is now selling at my local Borders Books on Orchard Road. So of course I had to go there *immediately*. They've got tons of fantastic, fairly inexpensive patterned products – wrapping paper, notebooks, cards and more – but, sadly, they are sold out of the bag. (To add insult to injury, the bag is a pretty great deal at S$36 – about US$20.) No matter how much I begged and pleaded and (lightly) threatened, it does not appear that they will be getting any more in stock over here. However those of you in the States might have better luck, as Paperchase is sold at quite a few select Borders stores across the U.S. If you are able to find us this tote, we will gladly pay you back and also be your best friend forever.

And finally! I also got my much-discussed coat back with its newly cropped and very cute sleeves. (I'm still thinking of shortening it a bit as well, per Urbanista's suggestion, but I'm very happy with the alteration.)

Now all I need is a freak snowstorm.