Debuting my short bob, finally! I can’t explain the reverse Alfalfa my fringe is doing but it’s crazy, as is the faint left overs of a tan from a summer of fun-day rays, living daily in short shorts and much needed exercise.
Following from Sora’s great write up on Alice McCall’s Cruise 14 S/S collection, I couldn’t stop dreaming of owning a piece from this oh-so-fine range and settled on the super pwerdy “Over the Rainbow” playsuit. The details really speak for itself – quirky, flirty with a bold graphic liner that feathers into the cut out detailing mixed with pastel shades. Wear alone or stack some accessories, it really is a simple outfit to pull off since Pastels + Playsuit = New BFFs – the combination is just too cute!
Currently Alice McCall is having a sale so be quick if you found anything that catches your eye!
Hi everyone! Talyssa here for a slightly different FML. This clothing in this FML was provided by Sammydress and will also feature a review on the product and service. So let’s get into it!
Jacket: Dongdaemun Markets Korea | Dress: Sammydress | Shoes and Socks: Topshop
First, let’s start with the positive…
Clothing Range and Shopping Experience:
When I saw this dress on Sammydress, I immediately fell in love. It’s gorgeous, elegant and ever so Audrey Hepburn! I must admit that the range of clothing on Sammydress is really nice, it’s unique and feminine and there’s a lot of variety. You also get a kind of a thrill looking at such beautiful products selling for so cheap! Less than $10? Heck yes! I’ll take five!
Using the site is simple and each product has a wide variety of images, including images posted by customers wearing the items they have bought.
Unfortunately….that’s where the positives end for me. When I opened my package from Sammydress, I was incredibly disappointed. I don’t want to sound ungrateful or mean, but what I received in the mail was not, in my personal opinion, worth paying for.
No. 01: The dress was nothing like the picture
This was the most disappointing aspect of the whole thing. I was expecting an elegant and sophisticated looking dress as in the picture above, but instead I received a cheap looking copy. I just felt lied to and cheated. It’s one thing to say you’re copying the style of X celebrity and you’re posting images of how they wore it along with images of your actual imitation product – as I have seen many sites do – but it’s another thing completely to imply and ONLY provide images of a product your product is similar to, but isn’t actually what you are giving to your customers in return for their money. Your customer is buying the product they are seeing on your website. That’s what they expect to receive. Nothing less.
I found the whole thing completely unfair and I’m pretty sure it violates some sort of consumer laws, at least it would in Australia anyway. If Sammydress doesn’t consider their actual product good enough to post pictures of on their website then that just shows that they are aware that their products wouldn’t sell if they put up actual pictures.
The back of the dress was the part I was looking forward to the most and was what originally made me choose this dress. As you can see, what I received was significantly different to the image presented on the website (refer to 2nd image of post). There is no low V-cut back and the bow is located significantly higher than the small of my back. Not only that, the bow looks cheap and tacky – with the ribbon parts not even cut to the same length and it being sewn very cheaply and hastily onto the back of the dress.
No. 02: Quality
The quality of the dress was (unfortunately) cheap. The material is see through, with no kind of material inlay provided to prevent this. The hems all around the dress are hastily sewn, extremely messy and not hemmed straight. Long pieces of thread are frequently left uncut and knotted on the dress.
No. 03: Fit and Cut
The cut on my dress was so so so bad! It had absolutely no shape and made me look flat, straight,frumpy and pre-pubescent. The lack of darts used on the back of the dress meant that it didn’t come in on the waist, making it extremely unflattering on my stomach and waist. You can see all the extra material there in the photo above!
Another extremely annoying part of this dress were the sleeves. Whilst they look okay in the photos, they didn’t stay that way for very long and would often popup and sit vertically to my shoulder. Quite frankly it looked ridiculous and I was extremely embarrassed walking around in this dress because of that reason.
In order for these sleeves to sit as desired on a persons shoulders, the back of the dress needed to have an open cut V (as with the original design). This would have helped to open up the dress, allowing the sleeves to lay almost off the shoulder. Having a rounded mid-length back did not give the sleeves enough leeway to sit off the shoulder, causing them to pop up very frequently with any small movement.
No. 05: Value For Money
Clothing on Sammydress is extremely cheap. Almost everything is less than $10, making the quality of the product understandable.
Shipping on the other had is pricey – almost costing $20!! It’s such a purchase turn off when your shipping is more than the actual product!
Service:
Service is very fast. My package was promptly sent and staff were very friendly and quick to answer any questions.
Would I shop here again?
Truthfully, probably not. It’s unfortunate because I think the range is quite good, if only the products I received looked like the ones they promoted on the site! In saying that, if you’re looking for something cheap to only wear once or as a costume etc, you might want to give Sammydress a try. I would actually prefer if Sammydress increased the cost of their products, if it meant getting a product as in the pictures on their site. I would definitely shop there countless times if that were the case.
#selfie. What post wouldn’t be complete without a selfie? I called this post Wednesday, since I couldn’t help but notice the Wednesday Adam’s vibe of this look! Enjoy!
This little house was so beautiful!!This blouse is so beautiful, I absolutely love the details. It is definitely one of my most favorite pieces in my wardrobe.
I made a friend :D
This is definitely one of my favorite looks at the moment, it’s a little bit feminine and school – like, mixed with a gothic creepy doll vibe. Yup I love it.
I got this blouse from a blog competition I won at Bright Green Laces. Check them out! This blouse is really beautiful with all its subtle details. I absolutely love the cut-out features, mesh textures, floral patterns and the sequinned embellishments. It’s delicate and feminine which adds to this look perfectly.
I have been wanting to find the perfect pleated leather skater skirt for quite a while now…and I still haven’t found it. Although I do like this one, it’s not exactly what I want. The skirt is still slightly bell-shaped instead falling in that true skater skirt style. I wonder, will I ever be able to find the leather skater skirt of my dreams?
For the good and for the bad there are many words to describe the kind of person we are. It’s reflected in the way we carry ourselves, by the way we match our interior selves with the exterior.
When we dress, we want to impress and, unfortunately, doing our hair doesn’t always get the same attention as what we wear here at The Hidden Thimble. Hair arrangements always takes a loooong time and many attempts to perfect. So the next best thing? Colour it!
We were invited to Dove’s Colour Live event in Darlinghurst, hosted by Nuffnang, for an evening dedicated to knowing more about colour appreciation. George O’Neil, the Marketing Director of Dove Hair Care, introduced to use the new Dove Colour Radiance Range.
We had a warm welcome with either a choice of Moët & Chandon champagne or a super cute hair vitality juice before entering the “Dove Sensory Studio.” Siree headed straight for the Moët and Talyssa took the juice because she was driving. Never tasted $80 worth of bubbles for free. It’s bliss on the palette! The secret to “hair vitality” juice peoples is cucumber. Just juiced cucumber. lol.
The whole idea behind the room was to sit in the darkness with dimmly lit coloured lights as you heard what each colour meant, what it reflects as a emotion and finally as a person. It was a unique experience of colour perception though Siree must admit she might have ruined it by the sound of her noisy camera -.-; #thuglyfe
So what does the Dove Colour Radiance Range do? Well it’s formulated to retain the vibrance that dyed hair looses with washing as well as nourishing hair from the damaged caused by the dying process. When you think about it, the process of getting your hair coloured is pretty laborious. You spend all that time figuring out what colour would suit you best, fighting the fear in that “What if…” scenario of maybe regretting the decision later and then dying your hair (which takes ages!) only to finally see it fade. It’s a little heart breaking to see it run down the drain and not stay on your head, no?
From my (Siree) blonde hair experience I noticed that over the weeks, my normal shampoo and conditioner combo would gradually dull my bright blonde shair to a blonde copper that seemed to go into the “greenish” blonde tone spectrum. I realised I had to change my hair products to suit dyed hair. I always thought “Aren’t they just all the same?” How wrong I was! I could definately see a change in the blondess of my hair strands over 3 weeks.
After speeches we broke off into groups with a colour therapist to get a colour analysis and determine what colours suited our complexion and what our colour category says about us. Colour categories were divided based on the seasons.
Colour categories:
Spring: Easily distracted, keen for change, fun loving, excitable
Suits very contrasting bright colours – greens, blues, oranges (pretty much what our colour theory lady was wearing)
Better in colorful shades however not orange – vibrant and bold
Talyssa here now, I know I always appear to be the cynical one in the posts…I seem to be the devil whilst Siree is the angel haha. But! My only purpose is to present a non-biased opinion. I swear it!
For those who didn’t know, colour theory has been around for quite a while, having an extremely popular movement during the 80s. Nowadays, colour theory has evolved presenting 8 different personality types as opposed to four. I think for the purpose of the event, Dove thought it best to keep their colour theory to the simpler 4 season method. You can read more about it here: http://www.prettyyourworld.com/colortheory.html
If I’m 100% completely honest, I thought a lot of the colour theory was a bunch of bull. It is completely impossible to categorise something as complex as human beings into four categories – “Seasons” – and then from that, deduce personality types and colour combinations that suit them. From memory, one of the first “stereotypes” I heard was that people of the colour group “Autumn” typically have red/auburn hair and that people who have black hair are clean cut, sophisticated, well behaved and elegant. A few problems I had with this statement…first of all you can’t control what hair colour you were born with. Secondly…what about asians!??! THEY ALL HAVE BLACK HAIR?!?!?! ARE THEY ALL SOPHISTICATED AND WELL BEHAVED BY DEFAULT?!?!
In saying this though, I was completely enthralled and keen to find out what colour group, season and personality type I was -#OMGLIKEYAY! Seriously, I have some kind of weakness for all these kinds of things (horoscopes, personality quizzes etc)…regardless of the fact I don’t believe in them.
So what colour type was I?
SUMMER.
To be honest summer does describe one part of me quite well, but again, it depends on the situation I’m in and who I’m with. Sometimes I think I act slightly different with every single person I’m friends with. I don’t think I could ever pinpoint one definitive me. I don’t know what my “true” personality is… does anyone?
Ahh I remember this moment clearly. You see, I have never in my life radically tried to change my hair colour. In my J-rock days (ohohoh yes there was a time I wanted to be all gothic-like) I always wanted to get a big, electric blue chunk in my hair because I really liked Meguru’s hair from Panic Channel. But, I was always too scared of a possible negative outcome.
You see the man who is touching my hair right there?? He is one of Australia’s best hair colour-ists and has worked on the hair of numerous celebrities. When I heard this, I took my chance and leapt up onto that chair. I would definitely lap every moment of this up!
You see, I thought this was it, my chance to finally get a professional opinion on what colour I should dye my hair!!! My chance to ask what colour would suit me!! My chance to get that extra confidence to take that very important first step when it comes to dying your hair!!! I was so happy!!
Eagerly I asked him his professional recommendations for my hair. And do you know what he said!?
“You’re hair is already a nice colour. I personally wouldn’t dye it or wouldn’t stray too far from it. Maybe add some chestnut highlights, for some extra definition and glossiness, but that’s about it.”
WHAT FUN IS THAT!!?!?! I’m so tragically upset.
I’ve always wanted to try something crazy like a blonde or some crazy colour, I just needed this one push!!! But no..it’s just not meant to be…
Moving on, we tried to decipher my colour type. We had speculated that I was a summer, and I had it confirmed after holding a fair few colour combo’s against my skin.
Working out what colour palette suits me :)Does it suit me?And…I greatly dislike this photo, but from memory it’s the only one of Siree and I together on the night.
Overall, the night was fun, the goodie bags were awesome and I actually ended up liking Dove’s colour theory because it was girly and fun! It kinda reminded me of something I would do at a sleepover with a bunch of my favourite females :) Most of all, it was great to meet other Nuffnang bloggers. We even made some cool closer blogger friends, Jaybear and Soborii
We’ll share our hair stories using Dove Colour Radiance Range soon! Maybe when we decide to dye our hair crazy to defy the odds. Who knows!
Shinee is back with their new debut song “Why So Serious?”
I don’t really understand the KPOP trend in Korea at the moment with the saying “Why so serious?” I guess GDragon made it popular in Crayon…then Epik High had that performance at the MAMA awards which featured every member dressed as a Batman character…and now this..
but what exactly sparked the trend…? Batman was never overly big in Korea?
Dun dun DUNNNNNN
We don’t know.
But what we do know is that Shinee’s hero outfit for this music video is perfectly suited to the lyrics and zombie dance moves of the song.
ZOMBIE GRUNGE
Zombie Dance moves with matching zombie grunge attire.
Shinee’s outfit seamlessly ties the MV together by further communicating the vibe and character of the song – a man whose heart has been in a zombie-like state for some time (or maybe the song is actually a supernatural tale about a zombie who has been buried for way too long). Regardless of your reading, his love has finally been awakened by a beautiful lady, who he tries to convince to be his, but she is a bit apprehensive as he is not the typical guy she would go for. The character likens his feelings of love to that of awakening from a zombie-like state “A heart where only dust used to be,”“my pale lips are again crimson-colored lipstick,” “my blood is heating up again, all that is because of you.”
Shinee’s grungy punk rocker style in this look, acheives a zombie-like aesthetic by coordinating together colours of red, black, grey and white with ripped cage tops, patchwork pants, casual T-shirts and ripped jeans.
Does anyone also get an MJ Thriller vibe from these outfits?? lol. Here you can also see Minho and Key with their blazers and Taemin with his Fedora X Top Hat.
What I find interesting is the addition of gentlemanly attire in the outfits – e.g. blazers and Taemin’s Fedora x Top Hat. The juxtaposition this creates with the grungy messy clothing, compliments the lyrics of the song as if to say, “hey I know I may look like a dangerous and unusual guy (zombie grunge clothes), but If you gave me a chance you’d see my feelings are true and despite my look, I’m a gentleman (blazers!! yay). Trust me, this won’t be a sad love story, everything will be great!!”
Shinee enhance the supernatural element of their look through accessorising. All members have dyed hair, painted nails and coloured contact lenses.
Now, Taemin’s stare has always creeped me out…I don’t know exactly how comfortable I feel having THAT STARE enhanced with contact lenses….To the right Onew flaunts his beautifully painted nails. In the clip the polish appears to have a gold-ish metallic shine to it when in the light.
Key’s sailor hat also adds a nice supernatural touch. At first I was like “what the…?” But it actually helps to give that supernatural vibe in two ways. First of all, it has magical powers or something because Key manages to dance, jump, lay down, and all the while it does not move an inch on his head!!! Secondly it gives off a supernatural vibe of “a time much before now.” Like maybe Key is a sailor zombie~~ who died out at sea oooooooooooooh.
Close up of Key’s outfit and his sailor hat. I think Key’s look has the strongest zombie vibe out of the members because it is the most unusual and quirky – I mean look at those mixed-matched shoes! The photo to the right I had to put in because he just looks hella creepy in a cringe-worthy way!!
For me Taemin and Onew rock this look flawlessly…well almost. Taemin’s Fedora X Top Hat is slightly confusing just as his “A” side pouch/bag thing is..
What does the “A” mean Taemin??! What does the “A” mean?!?
Then it hit me. Aria, Hannah, Spencer and Emily!!!! I have found who “A” is!!!!! He has had a gigantic label on him this entire time!!! Sheesh! Who knew Taemin had a double identity as the villain of Pretty Little Liars?!!?!?
Dayum girl boy! Your legs are fine~ And I really love the cage top.Absolutely love the casual vibe of Onew’s outfit. I love the layering effect of the tshirt, shirt and jacket. The shoes are awesome as well!! Great look!
The biggest disappointment is my favourite member…Minho!!! First of all, his gorgeous hair has been ruined!! His red blazer, over his grandpa buttoned up cardigan and 1960s old man checked pants just make me so sad. His cute boy vibe has changed to one of a middle aged (or older) Korean man. I want Minho’s pinchable cheeks back!! I want his PINCHABLE CHEEKS BACK !!!!
What has happened Minho!? You use to be so CUTE!!!!
THE WHITE TUX
I like the concept of this look. The clean palette, minimalistic graphic shirts and fitted blazers make it pretty hard to fault this modern take on a combo staple. I love how the look takes the concept of the ‘classic tuxedo’ but transforms it to a wearable everyday look with street fashion pieces like creepers, fedora hats, zipper details etc. This captures the essence of a tuxedo without the formality.
If you look closely you can see that there’s two versions of suits: symmetrical and asymmetrical.
Zipper detailing on blazer.
Symmetrical
Minho and Key.
Winner: Minho
Ultimate favourite is Minho’s style. It’s just classy period. The black trimming on the blazer’s lapel collar against the white of the blazer and the simple graphic button down shirt with rare comprehensible English sentences, check!
The white skinnies are what pull the look together. Choosing a pair of black skinnies would be playing it safe but white just took it to the next stage of class.
Key’s look is a bit hit-and-miss on the blazer detail. The pockets in the design are great to show contrast and to balance the kneepads (I’m guessing) however the subtleness in the border trimming gets overtaken by the presence of such a bold patch of colour. His blouse detail is AMAZING I must say, but not enough for me to forgive that blazer!! haha His “beat” earring was a bit out there when I first saw it. It matches his personality though; I dunno what I feel about it with this outfit yet.
Asymmetrical
Onew and Taemin
Winner: Taemin
Can’t go wrong with a top hat to bring some extra swag to your threads. Seriously, top hat, WTF? How do you keep that thing on your head while jumping around on beds Taemin? HOW?!
Anyways, there’s something very TOPSHOP design about the simplicity of the text on the tee with the zebra print. The fact that the pants are a dark green colour wins props in my stylebook. It’s a nice alternative to black. But, is the alternating zebra stripes from right to left too costume stage wear or can it be wearable for the everyday?
Hmmm, if you look from afar it may be subtle but I think it’s pretty unnoticeable in the video. Should guys wear zebra print (would a guy even wear zebra print)? That’s a look not for every guy out there. Taemin’s manliness got knocked back 1000 points in Sherlock so yes – Taemin can wear zebra print. LOL :)
Onew’s outfit is quite stage wear I feel. It reminds me of back in my Visual Kei stage where all the guys in the boy bands wore something similar to be visually pleasing on stage and compliment the other band members. And there was always that ONE guy stuck wearing the long coat/suit who had to suffer on stage LOL. There wasn’t anything striking about Onew’s outfit that I liked (except for the nice crisp tie). It was quite average. Except he can play great hide and seek in it…
MILITARY UNIFORM PREP STYLE
This outfit is just love, love, love! Maybe it’s the nostalgic feeling I’m getting of The Beatles fashion in the 1960s, but the idea of mixing classic powder grey suits and the preppy office wear of the past, with the outer exterior of a bulky trench, anoraks and overcoats in that khaki shade look so handsome on them ohohoho
The addition of zips and buckles seem to be a must for the Shinee-fashion way and works well to bring a fresh interest to the pieces but… the Union Jack?
Sorry to the Brits who might be reading this (please don’t kill me cos we’re Aussie as well ahh ><) but damn, did the stylist/designer just paint that on or what? It’s just so…obvious it’s not meant to be there. If it was faded into the fabric a bit like the other designs, then sure! It works! But that paint job…eww and it’s so obnoxiously big!! It literally screams: LOOK AT MOI!!
The Union Jack is tooooo in your face…
AWESOME JACKETS BUT NOT SO AWESOME PANTS!
This outfit is very cool, unique and alternative – very different to the other outfits in this clip. It is very much to show off Shinee’s style rather than to suit the MV or the song in any way. I’m totally digging all the members super quirky and cool jackets!! The trend of excessive zippers is continued in this look, and I’m trying desperately to figure out the function of the zippers on bottom of the sleeves of almost ever jacket and blazer featured in this clip…Perhaps all Shinee members have extraordinarily fat wrists that they need the aid of zippers to fit their arms into their jackets?
Key’s jacket and arm zips! I don’t understand why his face in this entire clip looks so creepy. It has crossed the line of creepiness to the point where I found it hard to differentiate him from Taemin. Yes, his face got THAT creepy.
The jackets are just so unique, I am especially loving Taemin’s baby blue jacket with clouds and the yellow lapel collar!
Taemin’s fabulous jacket! Look at the excessive detailing with the zippers!!! I never knew one jacket needed so many pockets!! Taemin must need to carry a lot of things.
The unique leather floral print on Minho’s jacket was also pretty cool!
Minho’s edgy jacket with arm zip! He definitely looks a lot more handsome here!
And then the awesomeness ends.. totally not loving ONEW’s Hawaiian print leather jacket…that’s just taking things too far.
Argh! Instead of the classic arm zip, Onew has decided to differentiate himself from his group members and flaunt…THE ARM TIGHTENING CUFF.
This overall look is very special in that we only really ever get to see the top half of the look (except for Onew and Taemin which we get slight glimpses of mid-thigh). This kinda got me thinking…Maybe SM ran out of money to feature pants for this last look so they just used dodgy ones and tried to avoid showing it…? Or maybe the jackets were just so amazing the stylists couldn’t find anything to match?? Or maybe…the zombie stage has just completely taken over that Key and Minho’s legs have completely fallen off, whilst Taemin and Onew have still managed to retain their thighs?!??!
Regardless, I’m sure we can all agree that the fact Key and Minho are never shown below the waist for this look, it is evidence enough to safely assume that they were not wearing any pants during this part of the MV. *drool*
Last Saturday was a pretty special day for us at The Hidden Thimble. We only started blogging last October meeting this awesome community that is the blogging sphere and figuring out what the hell fashion “is,” or for that matter what it “can” be, and now, we had the privilege to be a part of a selected few to attend an event for Sydney fashion blogger organised by the lovely people at WhatIWear!
The meeting place was at the recently new Guylian Dessert Café in Darling Harbour. New friends? New dessert place? TOO FREAKN AWESOME!! Unfortunately, Talyssa couldn’t make it to the event (and she really really wanted to be a part of it!). So that left me by myself…alone…GAHH! I’m a recovering introvert yeah! But whatever YOLO! HAHA
So what was the WhatIWear event all about? The opportunity not only gave us a chance to meet with the names and faces behind the website and other long lost fashion friends, but as a fashion social website it was great to hear, plan and socialize how WhatIWear could become the right fashion community for all fashion lovers – and we are their pioneers!
It was so much fun to meet all these lovely ladies! Shy nerves aside, everyone was not only stylish but we bonded together quite well. It was so hectic as well. I didn’t even get to meet the other half of the table properly! I can’t wait to meet everyone again (with Talyssa this time around) :)
So, what did I wear? The theme was to reflect the WhatIWear colours: white, black and orange.
With Karen from meandsunny. She’s so sweet and friendly! Her bag on the day was super cute as well!
Romper: Nasty Gal | Knee socks: Sportsgirl | Necklace: House Of Harlow | Earrings: Bagazimuri | Shoes: Dotti
Yeah my wardrobe lacks the orange but I improvised with my makeup and accessories accents :P I was so happy to have so many compliments on my drip paint/gloomy bear nail art! It was my first time to do them. Also my Farris wheel ring got its fair share of attention lol
The stylish Cassie from Cee Me More. The story behind the name I thought was sweet and funny since it’s something I can relate too ;)
A big thank you to Valencia, the Community Manager of WhatIWear! She came straight from the airport to do the event! Much love! <3Working like a BOSSActually this is what work looked like most the time lol
Working hard!Follow us! lolFunny as hell Ethel from Fashiondiction. Love her muchos!I love this shot even though it’s blurry :) Sorry Karen!! ><
All our thoughts and ideas for the WhatIWear community to be the ideal fashion social space!
Spoils of the day! All the polaroids I stole got :)
I know things will get better and better as we develop our connection to the WhatIWear community and with all the beautiful faces and personalities that made us all pioneers to begin with! I can’t wait to show everyone what we can do!!
Now, The Hidden Thimble has a WIW account! Follow us here. We’ll be updating our WIW page soon! :D
Run by two travel and lifestyle bloggers, The Hidden Thimble focus’ on creating truthful and in-depth travel guides, food & beauty reviews. Enjoy drool-worthy photography from around the world!
