Villa Moda started their sale today. Everything is 50% off including Prada, Gucci and D&G. Even Tom Ford is on sale.

A reader emailed me an interesting question. Where can one get original local football team jerseys like Qadsia Club or Salmiya Club jerseys here in Kuwait?

I’m a big fan of WaterField products. I got my first Apple iBook sleeve and bag back in 2001 from them and it still looks brand new today, the product quality is outstanding. That’s why when I got my iPad first thing I did was check out WaterField to see what they had to offer. Turns out they had a few different sleeves on offer but I decided to go with the iPad Ultimate SleeveCase which I am reviewing here. The reason I went for the ultimate case is because I could use it in two ways.

The first is like a messenger bag. I ordered the sleeve with d-rings on the side which would allow me to attach a shoulder strap and carry the ipad sleeve over my shoulder. I also got it with a small pouch that also attaches to the d-rings which I could use to carry more stuff like my phone and camera and when traveling I could put my passport and other items in the pouch. That way I travel very light, just the iPad in the sleeve and a few important items in the pouch.

Now the second way I can use this is just like a regular sleeve. I disconnect the strap and pouch from the d-rings and I end up with an iPad sleeve which I could insert into a larger bag.

The build quality as usual is incredible. The bag is made in San Fransisco and the material they use is very durable. The sleeve is padded very well and the inside is covered with screen cleaning Ultrasuede® lining so you basically clean your iPad every time you take it in and out of the case. The cost of my sleeve was $89 without shipping. Depending on your configuration it can either increase or decrease. The sleeve alone without the d-rings, pouch and shoulder strap is $55 for example. Here is a link to their website [Link]

High Street Q8 is an interesting local fashion blog I found out about recently. It’s basically meant to be a kind of show and tell website were if you like what you’re wearing or maybe want feedback on what you’ve got on at the moment you just snap a quick picture and email it to highstreetq8@gmail.com with some details on the items you have on and people will leave a comment. Check it out [Here]

Posted by Nat

A couple of days ago I went to the Brands Bazaar that’s taking place at the Salwa Al Sabah hall near Marina Mall from the 1st till the 4th of April. When I first got there, i was quite disappointed, the space where the bazaar was taking place wasn’t that big and it felt quite cluttered with lots of shop names exhibiting their products that I’ve never heard of. As I decided to give it a shot and started looking around I came across a place that was selling Jimmy Choo and Christian Louboutin shoes for KD19 and KD29 which was quite a steal! I was really shocked. Some lucky ladies also scored a couple of really nice Jimmy Choo bags. I managed to get away with a gorgeous pair of high-heeled knee high brown suede Louboutin boots priced originally at KD320 for just KD29 and a really nice black Jimmy Choo wallet for KD29 as well! The rest of the shoes were sadly either not available in my size or not to my liking.

Even though sale merchandise is not usually from the latest season I do still love events like this as you can really find some great pieces, and we’ve been having quite a few of those lately in Kuwait. Today (Sunday 4th) is the last day of the Bazaar, so if you’ve got some free time check it out.

Posted by Nat

I got an interesting email from Mohammed Boland the creative behind local fashion label Capital District last night. It seems a Saudi based fashion label called Kalimah Jeans has copied one of his popular designs. He was walking at the Avenues when he spotted the familiar design in a shop display. Understandably he’s upset and he knows that very little can be done about it which must be really frustrating. I’m not sure which store in Avenues was selling the shirts but maybe if the owners found out they would be willing to withdraw the item from the store and return it to Kalimah as a way of supporting local talent.

American Eagle will be officially opening tonight at 5PM at The Avenues. Mohammed Alshaya will be there for the ribbon cutting ceremony so maybe we can all go there and yell out “We want In-N-Out… we want In-N-Out… we want In-N-Out…”

What do you wear with this? [Link]

Update: I am NOT interested in these sneakers!

Update2: Thanks to a reader I now remember where I had seen these sneakers before… Sport Billy had them!

Over the weekend I picked up an iJacket while I was shopping in Bahrain. I originally posted about it back in 2007 and then totally forgot about it until I saw it at the store.

Firstly just to be clear, I got the jacket because the jacket looks good. I was not interested in the iPod connectivity, thats just an extra benefit for me but not the reason I bought the jacket. I am not the type of person that walks around listening to music and so I won’t be using the controls on the jacket a lot. Now since I did get the jacket and I do own a number of iPods I figured I might as well give my feedback.

The iPod has a special transparent and water proof pocket on the inside of the jacket. There is a regular iPod connector in that pocket and you connect your ipod to it. The pocket also has a small opening for your headphone cable to pass through. The controls on the jacket sleeve are fairly basic, volume up and down, pause/play forward and reverse. The idea is that when its cold outside you don’t want to unzip your jacket and pull out your iPod every time you want to perform a simple command and that’s where the controls on your sleeve come to play. Without unzipping your jacket or removing your gloves you can control your iPod by just touching the buttons on the sleeve. Although I call them buttons they’re not really buttons. The part of the sleeve where the buttons are located feels exactly the same as any other part of the sleeve. No bulge or anything of that sort just the shapes of the buttons imprinted on the sleeve.

When I first tried using the controls I thought I had a malfunctioning jacket since the buttons didn’t work. Then I found out that the jacket auto-locks the controls after 8 seconds of no use and to unlock the controls you have to hold down on the unlock button for 5 seconds. That’s the biggest issue I have with the jacket… the auto-lock feature. It makes the jacket unpractical. Imagine you’re listening to music and then a friend wants to tell you something. To pause the iPod you need to hold down on the unlock button for 5 seconds and then hit the pause button. So it takes at least 6 seconds to pause the iPod which is silly. You know how sometimes one track plays a lot louder than others? Well you need to wait 5 seconds for the buttons to unlock before you could quickly lower the volume to a decent listening level.

That’s why I’m giving the jacket a 2 out of 5. The auto-lock feature is the dumbest idea ever. There is no reason to have it since I can’t imagine the buttons being pressed accidentally unless someone grabs you from your arm and how often does that happen? I’ve already emailed Zegna asking if there is a way to disable the auto-lock but I doubt there is. As a jacket the iJacket is very comfortable and great looking. As an iPod controller it sucks big time because the auto-lock makes it impossible to use. Now a cool feature I would use a lot if it was included would be iPod/iPhone charging. I know there are a few jackets out there that do that but currently the iJacket doesn’t which sucks. I’m hoping if there will ever be an iJacket 2.0 it will.

My friend is in Dubai now and sent me this picture of a poster up at Mall of Emirates. Glad we don’t have a similar one up at the Avenues.

Here is the link to the full uncropped image [Link]

*second point is from when Dubai blocked Flickr

I vote hot. [Link]

These Adidas are encrusted with Swarovski crystals and cost over KD1,000. Luckily for all of us, they’re all sold out which means the guys with the Swarovski covered cars cruising on the Gulf Road will have to find matching sneakers elsewhere. [Link]