Happy Holidays!

I just wanted to wish my readers and passerbys a Happy Holiday!

I am currently in Houston with my family for the next couple of weeks. Reporting on fashion here will be a little difficult considering that this city is the Disney World of chain stores.

Here’s one peculiar thing I noticed here: there is only ONE American Apparel store in Houston. In Montreal there is at least 4 American Apparel stores in the near downtown vicinity. But I can understand why this chain may not be very successful…Houston is considered one of the fattest cities in America. From my understanding, AA is a chain that caters to a certain demographic, and that seems to exclude the overweight.

My recent experience at Banana Republic had the store assistant literally dismantle a mannequin sporting this really nice slate gray cardigan because it was an XS - the only one left in the store.

BCBG is also carrying slightly tamer versions of their Hervé Léger bandage dresses oddly enough. Making real Hervé Léger dresses less special. Why would you want to pay $1000 on an Herve Leger dress when you can get something similar, owned by the SAME company, for a fraction of the price?  A look at the online website doesn’t reveal this, you would have to shop at Dillard’s to see the knock off collection. Max Azria is shooting himself in the foot with this move.

Bakers, a Montreal equivalent to Aldo shoe stores, carried a trendy line of shoes, but made of the worst quality. The leather looked cheap and tattered on the edges and the soles stiffer than cardboard.

Speaking of Aldo, they’re also turning more and more like Nine West and Steve Madden by copying a pair of Michael Kors’ Berkley T-strap sandals, with their Tavira shoes. What’s funny is that the MK version is only $129, and the Aldo shoes are $90.00. Knock offs are getting more and more expensive!

More updates to come soon hopefully.

Enjoy your holidays!

Label Report: Michael Kors and Teen Flo

I have to give thanks to my boyfriend for tagging along with me on my shopping trips, but mostly for his handy insights on what to look for in the finishing of garments. Having worked in the garment industry for a couple of years, Tintin (that’s his nickname) was in charge of la finition on clothes and could spot some minor flaws. He now works as a sushi chef, totally unrelated, but his perfectionism stays intact.

Teenflo - Made in Canada

 

My first stop was at Teenflo, a business oriented brand, all made in Canada. What struck me the most was the quality of the fabric, they felt luxurious for business wear and had a price tag to match $200-$450 a pop. I didn’t have any issues with any of the garments until Tintin pointed out some minor flaws. Some had a couple of end threads sticking out, some were an inch long, and then he checked the stitch lines from the sleeves to the body of a blazer.

“These sleeve lines should be in aligned with the side jacket lines,” he said. I asked him what difference did it make if they were aligned or not? “Not much, but you want a garment that looks symmetrical on all facets. It looks to me they were kind of lazy in putting these together. Of course, it depends on the style of the garment too, but in this case the lines should be as one continuous line.” Mind you, aside from the misalignment the clothes looked solid and wouldn’t look like they’d fall apart. But I guess if you were nitpicky about your clothes being symmetrical, this would be an issue coupled with the extra threads. If I were Japanese, I wouldn’t buy it.

Other brands that are carried by Teenflo are made in Vietnam and China, so be aware.

Michael Kors - Made in China

 

I wasn’t expecting much of quality at Michael Kors to be honest, it’s an international brand that’s distributed in many countries, so I wasn’t surprised that all of it was made in China. What was the most appalling though was one thin, black, double breasted jacket hanging next to the suede jackets. The black jacket was covered in white suede fuzz, giving away two things:

1) The black coat will pick up any kind of white dirt and stay on…not very cool.
2) The suede jacket is cheap enough to shed its own skin…not so cool either.

Considering that this brand charges quite a hefty price tag of $150 and up, you’d expect more from them or at least the sales ladies to clean up the jacket or place them elsewhere. This isn’t a boutique that holds the entire Michael Kors line though, it’s more of an accessory store than anything else.

According to their website some items are made in Italy, but take those labels with a grain of salt.

Charles Le Tailleur

I was kindly referred to a tailor right within the mall by the Josef sales lady, having purchased a grey sleeveless office dress from them for $150. Charles Le Tailleur is a straight forward, no fuss business of getting your clothes tailored. My Josef dress is slightly too wide and too long, so I had him take in the waist and hike up the bottom hemline to the top of my knees. He charged me $40 for it. I will see the result of it this weekend.

I haven’t had a chance to go down to the Gay Village to get my coat tailored due to the abominable snow storms we’ve been having, but I’m in no rush in getting it done.

Image credits: Teenflo and Michael Kors

Fashion Events and Reports Galore

Don’t worry folks, I haven’t forgotten about you. Several posts are in the works for the blog, I just haven’t had time to edit and add pictures yet, so sit tight.

I have a bunch of updates for you coming up, and in a couple of weeks I’ll be attending fashion week. 3 whole days being holed up in a building for 4-6 hours at a time on top of going to work from 9am. There will be much to talk about, that is if I don’t drop dead from exhaustion first.

Coming Up:

• Magazine review for one of my favorites: Clear Magazine.
• Label Report: Michael Kors, Teenflo, and a tailoring spot called Charles Le Tailleur.
• Show review for the annual Casa Cares fashion show featuring a slew of designers including Dinh Ba, Rush Couture and Aqua Di Lara.
• Montreal Fashion Week press releases concerning several magazine launch parties.
• Most likely exhausted from Fashion Week, I’ll be giving the “spa” a first try, see how those Swedish massages fare.
• March 25th is Gloss’ latest issue! Hopefully it’ll feature my interview with jewelry designer Allison Sklar.
• Onsite reports being at Fashion Week, observing the crowds, and wondering how I’ll keep my sanity throughout these long hours. No show reviews, that’s reserved for Gloss.

In essence, I have a lot to say but not enough time to write them down!