BOLLYWOOD ISHTYLE: Kangana's Simple 'Rekha' Look in 'Shootout at Wadala'

I'm a fan of Kangana Ranaut, and I love how she puts together looks which are both stylish and unique. Her latest upcoming film 'Shootout at Wadala' seems the same, in that Kangana has taken a style and made it look great. In this film, she has gone for a slightly different style and opted for, er, an Indian housewife look.  

This is also a look that reminds me a lot of Rekha in the 70s and 80s, with her long hair and red lips. I also noticed that rather than go for a overly-glamorous look, Kangana wears simple cotton-printed saris and her make-up is generally quite simple and light, something which is quite credible as a housewife, and which also makes a nice change from the highly-polished look we always see in Bollywood films! What do you think of this look? Do you think Kangana looks similar to Rekha in these shots?

All images from Shootout at Wadala trailer and do not belong to  me

OUTFIT OF THE DAY: A Gold and Pink Bridesmaid Outfit

I've mentioned before that I was looking for a gold outfit for a close friend's wedding, and now that the wedding's good and over, I thought I'll post what I wore! I wore this Sobia Nazir replica which I purchased online. Because the outfit has a lot of gold in it, I decided to accessorise with nude pinks and peaches, and also used peaches and bronzes for my make-up, which I was quite happy with. This is how I accessorised the outfit:

Outfit - Catwalk Collection

Clutch bag - Unze

Gold heels - Dune

Ring - New Look

Bangles - Green Street

And this is me wearing the outfit (and also some very high heels which I spent most of the day running around in!), which I styled with a plain silk nude coloured hijab which I thought went well with the peachy pink accents I threw in for my outfit.

 

I was quite happy with the overall look of the outfit, it was comfy and it looked quite sparkly on, without looking too blingy. I did worry a little that there was too much gold in the whole look, but I think that the peach and nude accessories toned it down and balanced it out, although perhaps a future look may be to have hot pink accessories and hijab for a different colour combination. I haven't worn gold before so it was nice to wear something different, and I also liked the fact that although this is a long kameez, it has a 'hanky' dress shape to it where the sides were longer and hung like a maxi dress. Overall, quite an easy look to pull together, which made the disco-ball in me happy!

Curly Fry's Shopping Therapy! A New Highlighter

I'm not someone who has used highlighters and bronzers a lot in the past, mostly because I didn't know the best way to use them effectively (thank you Youtube videos!) and also because I like keeping my make-up relatively conservative and simple. I've become more of a user of highlighters and bronzers in the past couple of years though, particularly because I've been interested in contouring and applying highlighters properly, so I'm always on the look-out for different shades of bronze and gold.

I bought this pretty highlighter-slash-bronzer recently from high store brand H&M, which does a small range of make-up, and I was surprised by how much I liked this because of how shimmery this is. I don't usually shop at high street shops for make-up, but I liked the shade of this bronzer because it was a nice mix of peach and gold, which was very flattering on the cheekbones, and didn't need a lot to be applied.

I've seen something very similar to this by Guerlain, which I would love to buy, although it is quite pricey - but it has quite a similar goldy-peachy look which is very pretty. For now, I'll settle for this dupe version, though!

LOVELY HIJAB: Hijab Jewels by Akhawat

I saw these a while back and thought I'd post about them, some of these embellished hijabs and abayas by Akhawat are beautifully extravagant, and would make great inspiration for hijabi brides, or even for those looking for hijabs and abayahs which are dressier than the average.

While I'm not sure I'd wear something a heavy as these, I do think they are lovely, and I can definitely see the appeal in them - the colours and jewels are flattering, they're eye catching and they're quite unique. I also like the fact that most embellished abayahs from this company have matching scarves (although they're not cheap!), and the fact that the colours used, like deep purple, peaches, white etc are very flattering colours which suit a lot of skin tones. I can imagine something like this even being worn by a bride for her nikah ceremony, or a registry, if she wanted to go for something more Islamic yet dressy.

I don't think I'll be buying from this company anytime soon (not because I don't want to, but because they're slightly too pricey for me!), but it's a great place to look for inspiration, particularly for women like me who are always looking for different ways to jazz up my hijab with hijab pins.

Images from Akhawat FB group and website

Pantene Bridal Couture Week 2013 - A Mix of Pakistan's designers

Pantene Bridal Couture Week 2013 took place in the last few days, showcasing some of Pakistan's top fashion designers. I loved a lot of the rich, colourful outfits which were modelled, there was a good range of colours and styles which would appeal to everyone. I don't want to post too many pictures, so will just post a few of my favourites from a few of the designers (sorry if the post is too long, but I did love all of these outfits!) - you can see the rest of the pictures here and here.

I couldn't pick my favourite style or designers because there were so many, but if I had to pick, I loved Zaheer Abbas' maxi dress styles, as well as Asifa and Nabeel's beautifully embellished dresses. Which do you like best?

Asifa & Nabeel

Deepak Perwani

HSY

Lajwanti

Maliha Sheikh

Nadia Mistry

Yasmin Zaman

Madiha Noman

Teena by Hina Butt

Sana Abbas

Zainab Chottani

Amna Ajmal

Mona Imran

Zaheer Abbas

 

 

All images taken from ebuzztoday.com

COPYCAT DESIGNS & DRESSES #11: The Long Gold Dress by Sobia Nazir

Here's another replica outfit I bought recently for a close friend's wedding, which I found very last minute and which I was lucky enough to get hold of. I originally wanted to get this Asifa and Nabeel outfit made for my friend's wedding (the bride wanted all her friends to wear gold) but I didn't like the replicas I saw of the outfits. I looked in several places, both online and in the high street to find something in gold that I would like, since it's a colour I've never worn before so I wanted to make sure it would suit me.

I finally ended up with this outfit, which I didn't actually get made to my measurements, as it was already made by a Facebook seller (the group is called Catwalk Collection) who was selling the outfit as it had been ordered by another customer originally but then the customer backed out last minute. After making some enquiries about the outfits, I bought the outfit and it was shipped over in about five days, which I was very pleased with.

This is replica which I received, which has added sleeves and came with a plain dupatta and plain gold churidar. Although the colour is more creamy than gold, it looks like a light gold colour overall, which was quite subtle and shimmery rather than overly blingy or shiny. The front of the kameez was fully embellished with metal-work and beads, as well as silver motifts on the neckline, hem and smaller motifs on the sides of the kameez. The sleeves were plain but had jamawar fabric as piping, which also matched the piping of the dupatta. There was also a hot pink piping along the neckline, which although was a copy of the original, I felt that it was a bit random because there wasn't any another pink in the rest of the outfit.

This is the close-up of the outfit (I really liked the buttons!) and the intricate work of the outfit. I was quite happy with the quality of the work, as there was a lot of metal-work and beads and it didn't look cheap. There was also sequins used to edge the hem and the neckline, but this was quite minimal and I quite like the effect they had to make the dress look shimmery.

THE GOOD: I've never worn gold as an outfit before, and I was quite happy with the shade I ended up with, since it was a warm, soft colour which was very flattering, and it was very easy to match my make-up and jewellery to. Although the work is very full-on on the kameez, it didn't feel too much to me because of how intricate and detail it looked, and it worked well with the long length of the kameez. I think my favourite part of the dress was probably the smaller motifs scattered on the sides of the kameez (see the last image) which made it look pretty, I've seen this design on other outfits and I think it looks quite nice.

THE BAD: Because the front of the kameez was more embellished than the back, it made the front quite heavy and it leaned forward slightly, which is something I've found with previous outfits which have more work at the front. The best way to balance out the shape of a dress like this is to make the back longer, which thankfully my gold outfit did have, since the sides and back were slightly longer than the front.
I also wasn't too keen on the pink piping on the neckline, although the colour was pretty, it was too random and it made it slightly more difficult for me to match my hijab and shoes to. While the two colours do go together in some ways, in this outfit I think it should either have been left out, or more pink should have been added.

THE UGLY: Like many of my other outfits, this one was made of chiffon, which meant that my sleeves had a lot of pulls at the end of the day from catching onto the work! I think this is just a typical hazard of using chiffon, and the only way I've learned to avoid pulls of fabric so far is to put my dupatta on my should between the work and the sleeves, but this doesn't always work.

OVERALL: I can't give a full review of the time/process it took to make this outfit, since this was technically a ready-made outfit and it was also a very last-minute purchase. I think I did get good value for money, and I was certainly very happy with the level of work and the shade of gold the outfit was in. While in hindsight I would probably have less work on the outfit to make it easier to wear and move around in, I didn't really have any problems with it, and when I wore it, it looked more like a maxi dress than a kameez. I'm glad I got to wear a light colour like this (since I usually go for darker, richer colours) and it's also given me a chance to buy from a Facebook seller who I haven't bought from before.