Hi y’all! It’s Monday all over again *fake yayyys and faker hi-5s to you* and before you get into the daily grind here’s a post to cheer you up!
TAN! There is something about this color…I share a connect of sorts with it! Whenever I go shopping I am drawn magically to anything Tan/brown and that’s why, when I was vigorously stalking Instagram one day night midnight and came across this Tan Bag, I knew I wanted it. Buy it, I did, and hence what better way to flaunt it than starting right here!
I kept this look really light and casual!! Pinterest is crazy about the denim and tan-bag look and I loved that idea!! So in comes the over-used over-sized denim shirt! 😋
I was looking at the security who realised we were clicking pictures and was yelling at us for it! 😀
I decided to pair my light blue denim shirt with dark blue denim jeans (what a creative genius! 😂) and decided to wear gold and brown accessories like my Peter pan collar necklace under my regular collar, my gold watch, and these brown gold sandals I flicked just for that day from the sister!
👜Coming to bag!!👜 Ba-Dum-Tssss 🎼! I loved loved simply loved the lace detailing in the bag on the sides. It’s very structured but made of very soft leather and hence I was able to stuff all the random things I carry in my handbag to work (how do men walk into work carrying absolutely nothing? How!??) It has an adjustable and removable sling and golden buckles! A close up if you wish!
Tan and lace - two things I love, in one bag!
Outfit details – Denim shirt : Thrifted, Jeans : Levi’s, Tan Bag : Bags by Anqi (Instagram – @bagsbyanqi), Sandals : Bata, Watch : Tommy Hilfiger, Peter pan collar chain : Globus, Sunglasses : Claire’s
That would be all from me folks! Hoping to add a couple of more looks styled around the versatile Tan Bag. Tell me if you enjoy the concept and tell me the colors and outfits you would pair it with. Have a great week. 💟💞💟
Upping their saree game – a feat every Indian girl wants to nail-is pretty simple to achieve. Tie your saree as frequently as possible and not be sorry about it. 😛 (See what I did there) Buhaha!
I for one love my sarees and love to explore the different ways I can tie it and the different ways I get to stitch my blouse! Thats precisely why, when Sareez – The online store approached me to do a post featuring them, I was more than willing! Upping my saree game and strutting around and getting clicked in a fabulous saree? Count me in!! 😀 For this post I chose from the WIDE collection of sareez.com a half-and-half or whats called a partly saree, where the pallu or the part of the saree I drape over my shoulder is of one color and the pleats or the fan like shape the saree takes below the waist is of a totally different color, giving it two-piece feel!
I loved Sareez.com for more than just a few reasons. Their range is just ginormous (is that a word?) and their filters are amazing – price filters, occasion filters, saree color filters and even saree material filters! Woohoo! Their quality is a next plus – right from their packing (if you are sending it as a gift to someone, you should probably remove the first “few” layers of packaging.. lol.. its so well packed! :P) and the quality of their product. I have been very skeptical about buying sarees online, but what you see is truly what you get here. Also, for a small fee they even stitch your blouse and give you the skirt required for the saree. Yayy!
This is a designer synthetic saree with golden and broze embroidery and detailing. It has a beatiful three-fourths sleeve black blouse and its a perfect party wear kinda saree. I decided to go simple on the accessories and chose this beautiful pearl earrings (twas a gift! gift! gift! 😀 ) and chose my tommy hilfiger watch and my glitter clutch!
Also, (dont laugh at me now!) in an attempt to improve my blogging I shot a video for this saree!! Sharing the link here!
These beautiful video and the amazing photos were captured by Ranjini Ramesh. Thank you so much Ranjini! This post wouldnt have been half as beautiful or colorful if it wasnt for you. :* Follow her on Insta here Here and her youtube channel here! If you want such beautiful videos done, dont hesitate to ping her at ranjini.ramesh14@gmail.com!
Outfit Details : Saree – c/o sareez, earrings – gift (I think it was thrifted in Mumbai! Correct me if Iam wrong gifter :P), Watch – Tommy Hilfiger, Clutch – PolkaDot and You (Instagram)
Thatt would be it from me folks! Have a fabulous monday (er..ok) and an amazing week too! Oh and its my Birthday! WISH ME!
The change of climate is such a looked forward to event in the west…closets, schedules, timings and emotions all change with changes in the seasons. My country in general and my city in specific however (here we go!) has just one two climates – summer without rains and summer with rains. Yes. YES. So basically we are wet for 8 months of the year because of sweat and wet for the remaining 4 months of the year because of…wait for it…sweat + water (rains!) We have no anticipation or nervousness while pulling back our curtains every morning or while checking the daily weather forecast. We are the land of the risen sun. We do sunny. forever. period.
All that being said, we have some major advantages. We can use every piece of clothing through the year without thinking about things like transitions or changing wardrobes like three-four times a year. We get to plan for that road trip we have been meaning to take in December or May or August without giving a thought to any factor other than our mood (really!) We enjoy parks and flowers and lawns and hills and sands and beaches through the year. We do sunny forever and you’ll find us really happy about that!
As an ode to this Indian Summer, here’s a really summery and bright and vibrant outfit I put together. Its the perfect sunny-sunny and the sunny-but-rainy outfit you can probably lay hands on!!
This is a beautiful dress which is a mix of chanderi silk and a Kantha work fabric designed completely by the fabulous Just My Luck by A&M ! Had you told me lime yellow with lime green butta work on it would go so well with blue block prints I would have scoffed at you. But loook!!👇👇👇
While trying out the look I was trying out a couple of different accessories to sort of figure out which went best with the dress, but ended up loving each piece completely so decided to include every picture of the shoot in the post (except one where I looked positively hideous because I was sneezing and simultaneously asking my sister to stop clicking. Yes.)
This dress to me defines summer. An Indian Summer! It’s bright, its light and comfortable which makes it my go-to piece when its bright warm and sunny and its a one piece, well above the ankle, just wear it and you’re good to go sort of, elegant outfit just right for the sunny yet rainy sort of day where jeans is just not an option. Aaand needless to say, I felt fabulous in it. I was very particular about getting the brightness of the lime green against the morning sun and my sister, my photographer, so sweetly and readily agreed to get up for this photoshoot 😍😘
Just my luck is a boutique store dealing with every Indian fabric, designing them with a modern, retro kind of twist and yet giving them a very desi vibe. They deal with fabrics ranging from ikat (as seen in this post) to chanderi silk and outfits ranging from booty shorts to maxi dresses. I got to interact with Aruna, and she is the perfect example of “do what you love and you’ll outdo yourself every single day!”
Outfit details : Kantha Dress – Just my Luck by A&M (catch them on Facebook by clicking here or Instagram by clicking here!), mini gladiator sandals and nude pumps – Westside, Long bubbles chain – Westside , Necklace used as headgear – thrift shopped off the streets of Mumbai.
Hope you enjoyed this post readers. I sure enjoyed putting it up. I’m off to bask in the summery morning of Monday (too positive?) You enjoy your Monday too and if you are from a tropical country, I would sign off by telling you to keep calm, because winter is never coming. Haaa!
Capes are one of those pieces I’d completely written off my wish list because they are always so thin and sheer and are basically attires which accentuate your curves when the silhouette alone shows off. That, or they make less fit and fab people like me look splotchier than usual because they accentuate the bumps as much as they do the curves. 😝 and then there are winter coats and capes which not me, but my city helped me eliminate as a clothing option because hey hey hey, winter is nonexistent in Chennai remember? 😂😐
That’s when this double Ikat cape came along and completely changed my opinion about capes and I’ve known no comfort ever since. 😊 It’s just amazing! What’s also amazing is the brand Just My Luck by A and M and its enthusiastic and charming owner Aruna with whom I got a chance to collaborate to present this post 😊
I’ve put together two looks with one cape. – a beach party look and an office party look, and let’s see how you like them!
Look 1 : Beach Party
This look was all about playing it cool and casual like how we would at a beach party. This cape has some beautiful pink blue and green floral patchwork along the border and that inspired me to go blue-green to match the cape. This is also the first time I’m actually posed for pictures. So tell me what you think 😀
Before we move to the next look, here’s one last picture, which obviously didn’t make the cut, but I loved too much to not include. 😝
Outfit details : Cape / long coat – Just my Luck by A & M | Blue shirt and green shorts – Vero Moda | Sandals – Bata | Necklace used as head gear (howaboudthat? 😉) – Thrift shopped off the roads of Besant Nagar, Chennai.
Look 2 : The office party
This look is a dressier version of the cape. It can be interpreted as “how you would go to an office party” or as “how you would go to a party from office” 😊 I have, here, paired the cape with a formal high waist trousers, a high-low blouse which when tucked in passes as a formal shirt and some heels. I added the head gear for some attitude… Honestly how cool is adding such head gear? (So proud of the self. 😇😂)
Outfit Details : Same cape by Just my Luck | Shirt with mild hakoba work – Nuon from Westside | High waist trousers – Marks and Spencers | Earrings and Necklace on the head – Pantaloons | Bandage Heels – Bata once again!
I had so much fun working with Aruna on this post. Its so easy and motivating when people you get to collaborate with are so full of zest and creativity. Just my Luck by A & M uses contemporary and traditional Indian fabrics like ikat, kalamkari, silks and cottons in western outfits like capes, shorts, palazzo pants, jackets, and kaftans. The founders have a love affair with their prints and colors and that’s visible on every piece of clothing they put together. Check out their collection on Facebook by clicking here or on Instagram by clicking here !!
That would be all from me folks. Watch this space for one more amazing outfit post from Just my Luck. Have a great week. Pull out those stappy heels, feel uncomfortable as hell, but walk tall anyway and take Monday headlong. 😂😉
Hi you guys! I am back (about time!) with yet another post about Prints!! Back when I did my first post – I dint think this theme through and chose florals as an individual post and went ahead with it. But then the very obvious struck me! Taking prints as a theme just brings in almost an entire genre of fashion into its purview and here I am trying to talk about prints in like four to five posts. Which is impossible. Which is not doing justice to the theme. Which is why I decided on this elaborate plan of choosing groups of prints per post and what better way to start than closest to home. So presenting to you – (cue music 😂) my take on INDIAN PRINTS! 😀
The fashion scene in India is pretty competitive (Indians – ‘nuf said) and growing. While designers love experimenting with colors and cuts there is something common across the country’s fashion industry- Embroidery!! Embroidery is so South Asian and specific to us that I bet its not even a considered as an option for the designers of the West. While prints have been prevelant from before embroidery came into the picture, the sheer workmanship and creativity one can display (and hence charge a bomb for,) through embroidery makes it a luxury and preferred favourite of the runway. So while embroidered-wear can sit snootily in the throne I am today going to embrace its less glamourous cousin Indian Prints because hey prints are here to stay!! 😀 They have been around for ages, they are at times handmade, they fit our purse strings and they are fun to work with and sport. For this post I have chosen four basic prints every Indian girl knows or should know!
Kalamkari
While I have yapped enough and more about Kalamkari on this blog to you before, heres what you need to know of what Kalamkari is all about !!
“Kalamkari is a type of hand-painted or block-printed cotton textile, produced in parts of India and in Iran. The word is derived from the Persian words ghalam (Pen) and kari (craftsmanship), meaning drawing with a pen (Ghalamkar). The “kalam” or pen is used for free hand drawing of the subject and filling in the colours, is entirely hand worked. Only natural dyes are used in Kalamkari and it involves seventeen painstaking steps.”
While in modern times, on the kalamkari dresses we wear, the parts about natural dyes and the “pain staking process” part might not be true, it is said that artisans still use their pens to touch up the lines and pictures created mechanically! So you say its handmade or nothing? Haha good for you bro, I am happy with a “fully machine made but thoda handmade bhi” tag too!
Chennaites looking for Kalamkari, the place you gotta be is Shilpi! (Nungambakkam or CP Ramasamy Road)
I have had a love affair with this Print and material right here on this blog several times before! See for yourself! 😀
Meanwhile, here’s how my favorite cousin styles kalamkari palazzo pants while vacationing in Thailand
Gosh! This chic knows to holiday in style!
Block Prints
Another traditional form of prints are block prints. This is another form of Kalamkari but its quicker and easier to make because they are block printed!
Anyone can try block printing because it works on a simple concept! You’ll know what I mean when you see this!!
Yes! We all, each one of us, could have become artisans had we had the vision mission and purpose when we were taught the highly messy, satisfying art of vegetable printing. Lel.
So blocks which basically look like this are available on etsy and amazon! Wet paint on them and plop them really hard on a fabric of your choice and you get your block print!
Block printing is widely used in India. It works really well on cotton and hence we Indians embrace it with two hands and two feet because a thing called winter is nonexistent here.
This Kurta – my all time favorite, is a really old block printed piece I have!
Also here’s how my school mate and friend Anusha loves her block prints
Anusha is giving western outfits and retail brands a run for their money by rocking New York in this block printed beautiful salwar kameez.
Nailing looks since 1990 can be a tagline for this cute fashionista friend of mine 💝😊 thanks Anusha for the contribution
Bhandhani
Bandhani is a type of tie and dye practiced mainly in the states of Rajasthan and Gujarat, India. The term bandhani is derived from the Sanskrit word banda (“to tie”). Bhandhini is tough process whereby a piece of cloth is tied up and covered in small loops at various places and then dyed. On drying these tied up portions are opened up and since they weren’t exposed to the dye they remain in the original shade.
Bhandhini is again a work of art special to Gujarat and Rajasthan (honestly how skilled and creative are these people?)
My friend Nandhini readily agreed to help me out with showing my readers how she styled her beautiful bhandhini saree. I love the way she has accessoried so perfectly for this saree!
How Nandhini? How do you manage to find the perfect accessories every single time 😍!
Bhandhini apart from being styled as sarees is really popular as dhupattas and skirts
Ikat
I must say I knew nothing about ikat until very recently. I call it the aztec of Asia. I saw this video about how ikat is done and it is such hard work!! Check out the video here :
Giving you the link because a) seeing it is so much better than reading about it and b) even describing the process seems like hard work for me 😐
I recently bought an AMAZING ikat short skirt and I’m surely posting about it soon. But for now lemme show you how some of the lovely girls I know styled and nailed this pattern!
Niveditha does Ikat in style with this boho type blouse. She has pulled it off with such grace and elan and she gets brownie points for such a fabulous backdrop 😍
My style crazy shopping crazy bestie preeti does Ikat in this party wear shirt and she sure has moved out of comfort zone and is rocking the look!!
While these are not all the prints that there are in India I have tried covering the main ones. Hope you enjoyed this long and long due post. Have a happy rest of the weekend peeps. Love y’all 😘
I have had a week full of travel so while I have one last exciting post lined up to bring the WorkWear theme to an end, I was unable to plan for it and so I wanted to do a quick review as part of my website review series. (there’s exactly one other post in this “series”..so err yeah moving on!😜)
Vesa online is a small website in terms of number of products they deal with but every outfit is so well thought of and well made. I recently bought a dress and a blazer from them and I’m totally thrilled. 🙂
Vesa products come in three easy sizes S, M and L. Its best to stick to the sizes you usually go for when buying a normal T-shirt because their outfits fit comfortably.
Vesa is has its Online store, and an instagram account. Check out their entire collection there. I bought two outfits from Vesa and here’s what I thought about them 🙂 Red Marble Dye Dress :
This marble dye dress is a fit and flair kind of dress. What is stunning and so lovable about it is the neckline!
The cut work of the neck was what I fell for when I decided to buy this dress.
The fit is classic and perfect. While I was over cautious and like my clothes to not be very tight and hence went for an L.
Marble dying has something so Indian and elegant about it. I love it when western trends are incorporated in Indian textiles 😍
Vesa deals with a lot of Indian fabrics like silk pashmina tie and dye cotton, etc so they have perfect clothes for any tropical country.
Wow! Coming to my favorite piece which drove me to buy anything from this site. This blazer. Tada!!
This blazer. Is so. Fabulous. And so. Chic. I can. Honestly. Wear it. All day. 😂
The blue green and gold did give me a tough time when it came to deciding what to pair the blazer with, but honestly, do you even want to see what I’m wearing apart from the blazer itself?
I thought the sand colored kurta which I wore like a blouse and the black fitted jeans did justice to being the subtle subordinates of this magnificent blazer 😜
Outfit details : Blazer : Vesa Online, Kurta (turned blouse) : FabIndia, Jeans : Waves (Chennai), Platforms : Westside, Shades : Polkadot and You (Instagram)
Vesa online has definitely found a repeat customer in me especially due to their prompt replies to mail queries, request response time, and general importance associated to customer satisfaction. 👍
That brings me to the end of this post. Have a fabulous rest of the weekend you guys! Oh and happy siblings day 💝😘
WhileIpaid for the blazer, the dress was sent by the brand for styling and review. All opinions however are purely mine. I genuinely loved the brand and the outfits.
P.S. Oh how could I forget! Thank you so much Rasika for being my lovely photographer 🙂 its so heartwarming to note that one when door closes approximately seven doors open 💝
shilpaviswesh.com 