Coming To A Westfield Near You

My favourite Westfield shopping centre in Sydney is soon to become even better with Louis Vuitton and Chanel set to open shop there within the next few months. Yay, I'm so excited!
I'd been informed a while ago that Chanel would be opening a store at WBJ dedicated solely to ready-to-wear (sources say it won't include accessories such as bags which is a pity but I'll keep you posted) although I have to admit when I first found out about this, I was more than a little skeptical. Late last year rumours were going around that Zara would be opening a flagship store at WBJ sometime this year but I've seen and heard nothing since.
So as I was shopping for a present for my nephew yesterday I was ecstatic to see the huge black walls with simply 'Chanel, opening in June 2009' situated where Escada used to be. But I truly stopped dead in my tracks when I looked across to see the latest LV campaign featuring Madonna staring back at me. It seems that the shop formerly known as Versace was doing as well as Escada so Syndey's third Lous Vuitton store (and the first in the country to open in an Australian shopping centre outside a CBD location) will be located there.
It seems that shopping in Sydney is finally being revolutionised and I for one cannot WAIT!!!

While We're On The Topic..

I went to see Confessions Of A Shopaholic yesterday and having been such a huge fan of the series by Sophie Kinsella (the movie is adapted from the first of the three books, 'The Secret Dreamworld Of A Shopaholic'), I had high expectations.
To say I was disappointed would be an understatement.
First up the fashion. I guess from the trailer and the posters I was expecting the movie to have a more Sex And The City type kinda obsession with fashion but boy, were the ads misleading. I mean come on, an entire scene took place in a Prada store and the most we see are mens' shirts, a couple of suits and some boring manbags in the background. The most extravagant bag in the movie was a Gucci one and even though I have nothing against Gucci, it just cannot compare to Carrie's lizard Birkin in the SATC movie.
One of the reasons why I go to the movies is to escape from the real world but this movie just left me depressed. Yes, we all know that excessive amounts of shopping can lead to serious trouble but if felt like the moral of the movie was that buying things you love will NEVER lead to anything good (the book wasn't like that!).
I can never envision my life without involving some form of shopping. And if that makes me doomed, so be it!

Confessions of a periodic shopaholic

People post sex diaries anonymously on www.nymag.com and in that same vein, this is a shopping diary for Thursday 5 March, 2009.

Chloe sample sale.
10:00am: Wildly tempted to get red xmas jeans [it's the cheapest thing there], but am standing in crack-city even before taking a seat! Bags are also available, however the average price is £500. Take 20mins to decide between a beige or navy blue princess skirt. Make one last effort in the plastic bins before leaving.

Brick Lane.
11:30am: Looking for a "secret sample sale" starting at 2pm. Never consider this sale if you ever visit London, it's dodgy as! Location is near-impossible to find, and mugging induced fear takes over whilst walking under an overcast sky with the map guiding past streets similar to Newtown or Eveleigh. Rest of the street consists of vintage stores and they definitely smell of vintage.

Finally enter the "secret sample sale".
2:15pm: Feeling doubtful about sale since it's run by asians and the warehouse is freezing inside. Designer bags are on display but am avoiding due to fear of being sold fakes or second hand as new. The big giveaway? The meh-looking Vivienne Westwood cashmere scarves which are tres cheap.

The Old Mans Brewery.
4:00pm: A Newtown-like street complete with bars, an independent music store and a store which makes recycled clothing - corsets, vests, dreses, halters made from [possibly donated] mens' suits. Designs range from £200 for a re-engineered women's jacket and others are somewhat revealing.

Matches (online store) sale.
5:30pm: OMGOMGOMG!!! Much better than outlets because it's all located in one big hall. So many old and new friends; Chloe, Prada, Marc Jacobs, DvF, D&G, Alexander McQueen, Freda, Miu Miu, Phillip Lim, Derek Lam and more! Arrived late, so poor selection of bags, but seriously plenty of clothing racks to trawl through!

TOTALS: 2 acts committed at Chloe; 0 at "secret sample sale"; 0 from matches; 0 elsewhere.
Chloe items: 1 pale pink cashmere tshirt with pink organza folded on left hand side and continues round the back [very recreate-able via DIY] and 1 beige princess skirt with poofy-ish effect (think bottom half of that fuschia Oscar de la Renta dress Carrie gets from The Russian when he springs the opera on her - s06e1: The Ick Factor)

Fake...Shoes?

I was browsing through Couture Snob (sister site of the wildly popular Bag Snob) recently when I stumbled across "Shameless Knock Offs: The City Girl" posted by Couture Snob Tina. And after reading through reader's comments to the post (most of them not too kind mind you), I thought I would blog my own opinion on the matter from the perspective of someone living in Australia.
I have a very small (but hopefully growing) number of original designer shoes that I love to death but of these I have only probably bought around three pairs here, the rest I purchased overseas or online. Now I have to say I have seen almost exact replicas of many of my shoes selling at a fraction of the price I paid but I rarely see the original designs anywhere here at all. So are we really to blame when we purchase so called 'knock offs' without actually knowing they have been knocked off? Given the small range of luxury goods that reaches our shores compared to many other places in the world, it's no wonder that people have a hard time figuring out if the latest shoes they are coveting are an original design or simply a copy.
I've noticed that brands such as Witchery really enjoy 'drawing inspiration from' Jimmy Choo, Miu Miu and Marni (just to name a few) as you can see from the above pair of Miu Miu flats and this strikingly similar pair of Witchery ones on the right. And the thing is if you were to shell out for the Miu Miu's people would probably simply come to the conclusion that your shoes were from Witchery (this has happened to me before!) simply because Witchery shoes are more widely available and therefore more well-known than Miu Miu's.
I don't know, is it wrong for brands to blatantly rip off the designs of high-end shoe designers? Is it ok because there are no actual logos being reproduced? Because the way I see it, wearing a copied shoe is the equivalent of carrying a fake Louis Vuitton bag. I for one would sacrifice 5 pairs of fake shoes for 1 pair of the real thing.
What about you?

Hong Kong I Love You!

I am still recovering from post-holiday blues so thought I would write to console myself. Ahh Hong Kong - I can't get enough of this fabulous city. And the shopping, oh the shopping! Makes me want to cry thinking about it (and makes me actually cry thinking of the lack of shopping that awaits me in Australia). A shopaholic's true dream come true.
But onto the more important things: bags. Last year Miu Miu and Prada handbags were very obviously what the fashionable people of Hong Kong coveted. They were everywhere! But I was surprised to find that this year, the French have taken over the scene and I can officially say it is now Chanel bags galore. So this got me to thinking, if the whole world is apparently in a recession why are people spending more on their bags? (the current price of a large 2.55 is more than double that of your average Miu Miu)
Well it's not hard to see that people are choosing investment items these days. And what better to invest in than a timeless Chanel that will carry you through the years! Because wouldn't you rather spend $4000 on a bag you would use for the next 50 years (and yes, the classic flap was invented more than 50 years ago in 1955) than $2000 on one you would only use for the season? Now which one to choose as my investment...