C&N ♥ Toms

We know what you’re thinking. It’s been FOREVER since we last did a blog post. Between traveling and moving house, well let’s just say we’ve been busy bees!

Anyway, it matters not… because we’re back! YAY! And on this blog post, we’d like to openly declare our love for……. TOMS! Not only are they cute, they’re also super comfy and trust us they’ve been tried and tested.

We both like floral pattern as you can see from the picture below.

We went exploring behind Hong Kong Street  and found awesome backdrop for our blog shoot. Here’s Carmen taking a break in her Alice and Olivia leather mini skirt, which is super adorable and comfy. We’re also loving her laser-cut grey leather bag by a Taiwanese designer Jamei Chen. Oh and also Carmen’s versatile necklace by Ivanka Trump jewelry.

The picture below is one of our favorite shots of all, because not only did we spot the blue building that perfectly matched Natasha’s top, but a blue car just happened to be driving by at that exact moment. Sigh. Serendipitous indeed. We vaguely remember the driver giving us  thumbs up as he drove away. We’re glad he gave us his seal of approval. 🙂

Natasha is wearing a skirt from H&M, Chanel tote bag which can pretty much fit her whole life in because of its size and a silk top by Bysi (which has been in her wardrobe forever!).

There you have it. We hope this post shows how versatile TOMS shoes are and the fact that the shoes can survive Singapore’s heat and humidity? That totally scored brownie points from us.

C&N ♥ The colour RED

Carmen & Natasha are seeing red everywhere… and no, that’s not because people are being exceptionally annoying during *the most frustrating time to shop for anything thanks to the frenetic crowds consumed by retail madness and taking pictures with Santa* period.

It’s just that the colour red really IS everywhere – in store displays, shopping centers, the street, including our respective homes , so we decided that red is our fashion pick of the week. Yay! This is our take on wearing red during the holidays season.

Carmen’s outfit: Asos top, skirt from Chatuchak market in Bangkok, Isabel Marant shoes, Zara jacket and Chanel handbag. As for accessories, well Carmen painted her nails in a funky Christmas pattern (see picture further drown below).

Oh and red lips is also considered fashion accessory by the way.

Here’s Natasha’s outfit details: Mango brocade top, Zara faux leather black pants (which every girl should have in their closet by the way! It’s surprisingly versatile and add a lot of pizzaz to your outfit), Ferragamo laser-cut ballerina flats, Chanel black clutch, Viktor & Rolf glasses, and Carolina Herrera bracelet.

The fact that red and black is a winning combo is no surprise. It’s as classic as black and white, only with a bit more oomph and sass put into it. Don’t be scared to mix leather with feminine texture or shape such as the A-line skirt that Carmen wore or the brocade top that Natasha threw on.

There you have it. Happy Christmas shopping, darling readers!

xoxo

Carmen and Natasha

In love with Henri Charpentier’s shade of pink

First of all, can we start this blog post by declaring our love for this shade of pink, which is why we decided to do a ‘shoefie’ (read: shoe selfie) on the pink carpet. Red carpet is too ordinary for Carmen and Natasha pink is more unique 🙂 Natasha is loving her new shoes that she found at Marks and Spencer for… wait for it…. SGD50 (the original price was SGD110). Carmen is equally in love with her smoking hot red patent studded Prada sandals from the recent La Prendo sale. When we heard that the French-inspired Japanese Patisserie is opening its doors at Dempsey, we just had to check it out. After all, who wouldn’t be excited by the words ‘Japanese’ ‘French’ and ‘Patisserie’ all in the same sentence?!!? Henri Charpentier is very fancy shmancy with all the frills, but unfortunately not even the Japanese staff and our own Crepe Suzette station can impress us (did we mention the crepe suzette costs SGD22?). The service was very average (to put things mildly) and there was also no music when we went there, so the room was filled with this canteen-like noise of people chit chatting. The decor was beautiful though, and the fact that the cafe overlooks the lush greenery helps create the tranquil feel to the place. Here’s a picture of our $22 Crepe Suzette! We must admit that Henri Charpentier’s financiers and madeleines are too die for! They literally melt in your mouth. God bless those happy Hokkaido cows! They sure produce the yummiest butter and milk.Enough about the restaurant review – which this post was not intended to be. Let’s focus on Carmen and Natasha’s outfit. Let’s face it, black and white and red is definitely a winning combo. It’s classic, but far from boring. And of course the red Prada sandals polish off the look beautifully.How cool does the messy bun look on Carmen? A bit of attitude and personality is always a good addition to your swag. We swear we did not intentionally color coordinate our outfits! Great minds think alike, we’d say. 🙂 Natasha wore her red dress and completed the look with her beloved fuchsia Saint Laurent mini duffel bag and her Marks and Spencer shoes. Oh and Kate Spade bracelet plus Zara sunnies. The green wall provides a good backdrop for our selfies. Yes, once in a while we can’t help but do fun selflies. And we’re always super grateful when we find a total stranger to take a decent pic of us. 

Out and about on Keong Saik

One fine (and also very hot!) day, we decided to stroll along one of Singapore’s current hottest spots, Keong Saik Road, which is lined up with the city’s coolest bars and restaurants nestled in Chinatown’s beautifully conserved and colorful shophouses.

Carmen was wearing  a gorgeous baby blue dress by ZARA, with cute knot detailing on the sleeve. The dress is so light and breezy, perfect for Singapore’s increasingly hot temperature. Seriously, the humidity has been so high and our trusted indicator for humidity is …. our hair! And no, that’s NOT a good thing. Carmen wore her super duper comfy Tod’s (trust us, these Tod’s have been tried and tested, and surprisingly durable) and black Kate Spade tote bag.

Carmen decided to go for a simple, yet stylish and classic accessories. Check out her beautiful cream-colored earrings and necklace, which go together with just about every outfit. Oh, the necklace can easily be converted into a bracelet, too. We love versatile jewelry!

Natasha, on the other hand, opted for a much brighter ensemble as you can see from the picture below! 🙂

The Chanel bag below is one of her favorite bags, she loves its colors and fabric. The silk dress is from Kookai – unfortunately they don’t have a shop here in Singapore, she bought it on a trip to Melbourne last year. The Valentino rock stud bracelets match her dress perfectly. Yay! Oh, the strappy sandals are Oroton, an Aussie brand.

After walking around for about 10 seconds – okay make it 5 minutes – we decided that the heat was just too unbearable so we decided to cool down by going to Potatohead Folk, one of the newcomers on Keong Saik. We actually did a review on it for the newly launched Sassy Singapore, an awesome website for everything a girl needs to know about  Singapore and more.We love the interior of this place! It’s very different to all the Potatoheads we’ve been to in Jakarta and Bali.We found super cute spot by the window, which looked out onto the street. Perfect spot to enjoy our midday (alcoholic) drinks.. *clear throat*.. !

Feeling girly in our pastel combo

We love it when our outfits coincidentally go together and today happens to be one of those days! Carmen and Natasha caught up for a much needed blah blah blah session at the Providore this afternoon and, much to our delight, we were both wearing pastels!

Carmen looked gorge in her new Club Monaco flawy and breezy green silk top, paired with white denim (both Carmen and Natasha’s wardrobe staple) and her favorite Jimmy Choo jelly uber comfy sandals. Oh and of course her Chanel aviators always polishes her look perfectly.

Natasha is totally obsessed with lilac at the moment and found a pretty top in ZARA that was on sale. Yay! The best part about her ensemble is her multicolor vintage skirt by Emanuel Ungaro that used to be her mother’s! In fact, she’s convinced she has a picture of her mom wearing the skirt in the late 80s. See? Not all fashion items in the 80s were bad. Most, but not all (silently hoping scrunchies will never be back in style). Natasha chose her Chanel ballerinas to go with this feminine look and her Gucci super shades.

We totally LOVE the color combo of our pastel ensemble today. So pretty and feminine and very summery as well.

We couldn’t resist asking someone to take a picture of us. 🙂

 

 

3 designer shoes and 1 travel bag for $800!

On a hot sunny Singapore morning, Natasha casually checked her Facebook and to her surprise, there was an invitation from Laprendo announcing their end-of-season sale. Up to 80% off all items, the invitation said. Yea right, she thought, lowering her expectation! She did, however, accept the invitation. For those of you who don’t know, Laprendo has two stores in Singapore – one in Dempsey, another at Fullerton Hotel, and it sells designer fashion items from shoes, bags, accessories and clothing, at awesome prices!

She went to the sale the next day, trying to contain her excitement despite her effort to not get too excited. After what felt like a mini treasure hunt, all the discreet sale sign pointed her to the venue where the sale was located. As she opened the door, immediately a whiff of genuine and designer leather scent welcomed her.

Now lets take a step back a bit. Carmen and Natasha have been invited to these so-called designer warehouse sale events, but to be honest most of them have been a huge disappointment. Not only were the items over ten seasons old (well, so it seemed), but the discount has been so minuscule that it became a waste of time.

The Laprendo sale, however, was the complete opposite.

Lets begin with Natasha’s first purchase: the coveted green leather Prada pumps. The original price at Prada shops in Singapore was SGD1200, sold at Laprendo for SGD700. How much did she pay for it? SGD 260! It also came in pink and a gorgeous shade of light blue. It if wasn’t for her newfound self-control, she would have bought all three colors!!!

After briefly losing her composure, her eyes drifted to a monochrome black and white pair of Chanel flats. Natasha was determined not to spend over SGD300 on a pair of shoes, so the Chanel flats would definitely cost more than that. Or so she thought. Natasha held her breath as she turned the shoe over to reveal the price  and she could not believe her eyes. The shoes were SGD290! It would have been a big mistake not to buy them, don’t you think our dear readers?? Afterall, black and white will never go out of style!

Next purchase: Christian Dior blush pink wedges. Admittedly, Dior shoes is not something that Natasha would typically purchase. As much as she likes the design, the pricetag is not something that she agrees with. This, however, was different. Again, she flipped this gorgeous pair of shoes to see the price and she couldn’t believe her eyes. SGD252! Now all Natasha has to do is buy a bag to match the shoes! 🙂 These shoes are perfect to wear to a polo match or to a nice brunch at a swanky cafe or hotel. Pair it with a pretty floral flowy dress for the ultimate chic and feminine look! Oh, and don’t forget a matching clutch.

So just when she thought her day couldn’t get any better, she decided to venture out to the bags section and her eyes eventually landed on four Balenciaga metallic bags, two gold and two silver. What was more interesting was a small signage next to it which read : Giveaways SGD100.  A friendly storekeeper must have detected Natasha’s perplexed look, because she approached her and said, “Yes, the bags are SGD100. We have so many of them in stock we decided to sell them for a mere SGD100”. Get this, dear readers, the big bags (40 cm in length) were originally valued at SGD2190 and Natasha got it for SGD100!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *excuse the exclamation marks*

So there you go, there designer shoes and one gigantic designer bag – all for SGD800! This type of thing doesn’t happen very often but when it does, it sure feels pretty damn awesome!!

Shopping in Hong Kong

Carmen recently visited Hong Kong. Dim sum, swanky rooftop bars and WELL GROOMED MEN EVERYWHERE. Even the magazines featured more male models then females. Interesting….

See below for an example – this was at a “raw food” takeaway joint in Soho! The best dressed person at this joint was…. *drumroll*…. a man! Impressed!

Anyway back to the shopping… here is a cute orange dress from Club Monaco (one of Carmen’s favourite brands!)

There was so much colour in the shops – how joyful are the shoes in the middle?!! These were spotted in the Tod’s store.

Wow we wish we could have this shoe rack in our homes! Spotted at Tod’s. Which colour would you wear? Carmen’s favourite were the light green at the bottom!

Wallets and card holders in fun colours at TOD’s! Red wallet or purple wallet? Can’t decide!

And here is a colour that was spotted throughout Hong Kong – turquoise! Loving this colour – at TOD’s. More TOD’s ballet pumps in rainbow colours! 

Well we know black and white stripes are in fashion – they have been spotted all over the place! But how about these shoes?! Admittedly black and white still remind us of convicts however… perhaps its the fact that Carmen is from Australia and all that English convict history saga is just too raw….

Pretty pastel bags spotted at PRADA. Yes we know what you are thinking – did Carmen seriously spend all her time in designer stores? Well no, she ate twice her body weight in food as well. It was quite a feat.

The new turquoise colour from Ferragamo below – how delightful!! Love love LOVE. Reminds us of St Barts (minds are starting to wander just thinking of a tropical oasis right now….)

Anyway back to the amazeballs turquoise blue that Ferragamo has released as its new colour. LOVE these wedges – they would look amazing paired with a pretty white sundress! The only problem? In Singapore it gets crazy hot and your feet swell, so we think these shoes are best suited to overseas trips to colder places OR you must purchase in an extra size up to allow for your feet to breathe! Don’t say we didn’t warn you!

The amazing streetscape whilst walking around Central in Hong Kong. Oh look there’s Chanel and Van Cleef & Arpels sitting nicely together – how convenient….!

Back to the Ferragamo store, here is there latest collection in YELLOW. We’d be happy with any of the products below…. we’re just saying Ferragamo…. if you want to send us any as a way of saying thanks for being amazing bloggers, we wouldn’t say no 😉

What do you guys prefer – the yellow or the blue?? Hmm tough decisions!

Carmen became a bit obsessed with the bag below. Ok we all have heard of the basket bag which was fashionable like seven light years ago, however it was so refreshing to see this proudly displayed in the Hogan store window. Perhaps this bag would be a great solution for anyone that is really messy, as it would force them to ensure the inside of their bag must look neat! Only problem is we can imagine the lipstick falling through – or worse, sanitary products! Ahh that would be Carmen’s luck…

This was the shoe display at Hogan (below)! Loving the neon pink which features in every single shoe on that table – funky!

And lastly, Vivienne Tam! Check out those bright colours – doesn’t it just inspire you to walk through and see what that collection is all about? Fun, we say. And yes, Carmen did a little bit of damage in Hong Kong. We will share that with you another day!