A Saturday with my travel buddy and childhood friend, Agnes. We went shopping on Fa Yuen street (a foreigner taking a local HKer on a shopping tour!). Nothing solves tropical dehydration better than taro bubble tea (small pearls!).
Summer is a time where all the stores go into purgatory, regurgitating not only spring collections but also the last few season’s worth of clothes, marked with red stickers and a large banner splashed with the letters ‘SALE’.
I’ve been looking for leather shorts for a while now. I figured that if girls in Hong Kong can suffoca- I mean ‘thrive’- in latex leggings, I can live in a pair of leather shorts. Anyhow I finally found a pair at the Zara sale! No matter what the big men in business suits say at Inditex or Fast Company (owners of fast fashion conglomerates Uniqlo and Zara), not all clothing sizes are standardized to the tee. I actually went to three Zara stores to find my size- I tried on large at the first store and it felt snug. The second store didn’t have them in large at all so I finally found two pairs in large at another branch. When I saw them hanging on the rack I immediately detected there was something different about Shorts 1 and Shorts 2. I tried Shorts 1 on realizing that the zipper was messed up and felt snug around the hips. Shorts 2, although they look the same as Shorts 1, felt a lot roomier although it was the exact same size. I think, particularly when it comes to leather which can stretch a little, search and try on every item in your size and you may be surprised to find one that oddly fits despite the clothing label.
Anyway throwing in another tip I like to live by when picking pieces is this:
Choose basic items that come in an unexpected material. Leather shorts is one, but my favourite one is my chiffon boyfriend blazer. It never fails to make any outfit pulled together and streamlined when the florals get out of control or the hemlines are too high. And the best thing is that it comes in this translucent chiffon that when used as a layer, adds just a little shading to the composition rather than heavy color-blocking cotton or wool.
The exciting thing about staples in unexpected materials is that the silhouette remains classic while the texture changes to liven up any basic look. It just makes a tee look edgier when paired with leather shorts, or more romantic when a chiffon jacket is thrown in with a pair of jeans.
I styled this look with the dress I wore when I went to the temple except this time without the obi, I tucked the front portion into the shorts as a top and accenting it with a studded belt. I swapped my Wang for my old HK bag because I found the entire surface was covered with green mold after being stuffed in the back of my closet for half a year. I had to get it dry cleaned for $188 HKD.. which is more than what I paid for it originally! I should put it to some good use before it dies.. stupid humidity.. but I like the dangling drawstring chains that match my dangling cross necklace.
Ok so I just found out there was a big fire in my kitchen in Toronto… luckily no one got hurt!
More photos at:
http://style-nomad.tumblr.com/post/811228804/summer-sales-and-tapioca
