GLAMOROUS ACCESSORIES: Birthday Presents for my Mum

It was my mum's birthday recently, so I took the chance to buy these lovelies which I'd been eyeing up for a while, and buy them for her (which also made up for me forgetting to give them to her on the day, I'm a bad daughter, me). I'm pretty sure that I've inherited my love of sparkly, girly things from my mother, so I was pretty sure that she'd loved these, and thankfully, she did - I bought her a stone-embedded, gold-plated bangle and a gold-plated ring with a semi-precious ring. They weren't horrendously expensive (around £15 for the ring and £25 for the bangle), and I think that they were pretty good value for money - certainly I can imagine my mum being able to wear this a lot, and they're certainly beautiful items which get oohed-and-ahhed over.

The shop I bought these from have beautiful pieces, each which are as as unique as the next, and there's always a new piece of carefully-sourced jewellery in there everytime I go in. If you're anywhere near this shop, be sure to go in and have a look!  In the mean-time, do let me know what you think or these, good bargain or no?

Princess Hafizah of Brunei's Sparkly Wedding Extravaganza

Now here's a Royal Wedding to , Princess Hafizah Sururul Bolkiah of Brunieh married last weekend in a lavish wedding, with beautiful outfits to suit the occasion - I really do think she makes such a sweet looking bride, and I love how modest she seems, and the fact that she really wears her hijab with style, right down to the tiaras and crowns!

The Princess began her wedding by wearing a pretty, feminine lilac dress to her pre-wedding ceremony called the Powdering Ceremony, which seems like the equivalent of our mehndi nights, where the her parents the King, Queen and her other family applied ceremonial paste to her hands. I love how feminine and pretty this look seemed, I'm not a fan of lilac (or pastel colours!) but here it looked really elegant and suited the bride's colouring really well.

After this came the actual wedding day itself, where the couple, dressed in golds and creams attended a ceremony ahead of their wedding. I thought this dress was really flattering on the bride, and the bouquet was simple yet accompanied the outfit beautifully. The style of the dress seemed to be a maxi skirt with a fitted jacket and a beautifully long veil, which still covered her hair but allowed for her to wear some beautiful jewellery. I also really liked the fact that she also had pinky-red lips to glam up for the occasion, and the fact that her outfit looked like a South Asian wedding lengha. Her bouquet was a pretty, sparkly gold one which looked a bit like a brooch bouquet and again, her long veil acted as her hijab which was accessorised with a crown.

I also loved what the newly-weds wore to a banquet held in their honour just two days ago - the bride wore a beautiful grey dress with diamond and emerald jewellery, making a beautiful colour combination. Again, the dress looked very similar to a lengha, accessorised with pretty make-up and an elegant looking clutch bag.

Images taken from here and here

I think this Royal Wedding was a really sweet one, the couple looked really modest and happy, and I love the fact that the Princess was a hijabi bride, complete with tiara and all! My favourite outfit is probably the grey one with the emerald jewellery, simply because I love the colour combination and it looks so sparkly, but the bride looked beautiful throughout!

COPYCAT DESIGNS & DRESSES - A Culture of Copying

We live in a culture where everything is copied and copied again, and designer clothes and accessories are certainly no exception to this rule. This can be due to various factors: the high costs of getting designer items, not knowing who the original designers are of a certain garment, the location and accessibility of getting clothes that are especially based in India or Pakistan, and also the fact that there is a large market available for copied stuff.
Admittedly, I myself too have over the last few years ordered a few outfits from various places which were based on a design or magazine picture which I have liked and wanted a version of, and this has had both successful and unsuccessful results (which I will be posting in later posts!)
I would warn you to be wary of some designers who sell you a cheaper version, as sometimes the cost you paid for a copy will show. It is understandable that some people may not wish to or may not be able to afford to get the original designer items they want, so have to find a way around this or compromise, so I am not in any way trying to discourage or disparage anyone who chooses to do this. I am sure that you yourselves have seen a designer's item altered and copied and modelled on various people throughout the internet, be it a wedding dress with small alterations, to a whole suit which has been redesigned into something else. You will find home-based designers as well as professional shops and boutiques who make a business out of this, especially as fashion evolves continuously and tools such as the internet, magazines and televisions project this all the time. My own personal opinion would be to stay within your means; as much as you may fall in love with a certain item that you *must* have or need for a certain occasion, you would still manage to find something suitable to wear even if you didn't end up buying that new outfit. I am not saying that you should stop buying clothes or even be more frugal, we should all enjoy the luxury of beautiful things. My point is just to be careful not to become too caught up in the addiction of too many clothes, as you may find that you have more clothes to wear than occasions and places to wear them to!

I will be posting my Copycat Designs soon, please do tell me your opinions!