Weekly roundup from 248AM Fashion:
Map Tote at Pink Moon
The Importance of a Tshirt
Roberto Coin: From Italy with Love
Bricolage At Pink Moon
Pearly Moschino
4 + Athnain
One of my plans for 2014 is to provide you guys with more content. I already have 248PM where I post random things not related to Kuwait, I also recently launched the Events and the Market section and now I’m introducing another section, one that will focus on fashion and lifestyle.
Last year after not being able to find someone to help me run the fashion section (I obviously can’t run it myself), I gave up on the idea completely until a few months back. Through a series of events I came up with the idea of creating a community driven fashion section in which I would invite various brands and people to participate in it. The brands would get exposure and I would get content, a win win situation.
After spending a few months meeting various people and trying to coordinate a synchronized launched, the fashion section is finally officially up. Currently the following brands have already started participating in the section: Al Ostoura, Al Yasra Fashion, 4, Pink Moon, Violet Concept as well as local fashion photographer Jalil Marvin and fashion blogger Joumana Soufi. There are a few more brands and people who will also be joining soon but I couldn’t wait any longer to launch the section.
So check out the section either by clicking on the “Fashion” button in the top navigation strip or by clicking [Here]
If you’re a fashion brand and you’re interested in being part of that section [Email Me]
On Sixth Street has been extended for one more today, so if you missed it yesterday you can pass by today. I passed by yesterday and thought it was pretty cool and today they’ve supposedly got more vendors taking part as well. For more information, click [Here]
There’s a cool event taking place today in Shuwaikh called ON SIXTH STREET. It’s kinda like Qout Market meets street festival meets fashion week. For more details click [Here]
Saw the tshirts above in my instagram feed and loved them. They’re designed by the doghouse collective and will be available for sale tomorrow evening at Q Cafe in Kuwait City.
via @kookeejeejoh
Lanvin started a 60% sale yesterday on menswear and only on menswear. Turns out they’re closing down the mens section permanently so they’re getting rid of their stock. I picked up a wallet but they also had some good tshirts and you can’t go wrong with their sneakers (although 60% off on KD300+ shoes is still KD100+). Lanvin is located in Prestige section of Avenues between Ralph Lauren and Tod’s.
Friday night I passed by with a friend to the Alshaya Staff Shop in Shuwaikh. The shop is located inside the Alshaya headquarters and its only for Alshaya employees, their family and friends. The store sells heavily discounted leftover stock from previous Alshaya sales, and my friend told me there were a ton of items left over from Harvey Nichols which is why I HAD to pass by.
For those of you who’ve been to the Villa Moda discount store when they were open, you’ll feel right at home at the Alshaya Staff Shop. The place is packed with luxury items but packed on top of each other and you basically need to flip through the items one by one to find anything. The first section I tackled was the shoes and for some reason it felt like Black Friday, so I started flipping through everything as if there was a crowd behind me fighting over the shoes. In reality though, the shop was empty except for me and my friends but I kept getting the feeling that if I didn’t go through the shoes fast enough they would quickly disappear. I panicked, I was all over the place and I was in heaven.
Once I was done with the shoes section I started flipping through the clothes. According to the employee there, the last time the mens section got restocked was three months ago and I was flipping through the leftover of the leftover. That didn’t make sense because I found a bunch of gorgeous Alexander McQueen shirts just sitting there, three of which I had my eyes on when they were still displayed at Harvey Nichols. How those shirts were still available at the Alshaya Staff Shop I have no clue but better for me. Not only were most of these items being sold at 70% at Harvey Nichols when they were on sale, but once they get moved to the Alshaya Staff Shop they get discounted even further and then on top of that discount there is an additional 30% off if you’re an Alshaya employee or you’re with an Alshaya employee.
I ended up leaving with a couple of sneakers and shirts. Just to give you an idea of how ridiculously cheap the prices were, I got the pair of hightop sneakers pictured above for just KD17.5 after discount. KD17.5 for really soft leather sneakers that are more comfortable and look better than my Loubs. Their original price at Harvey Nichols was KD220 and they’re still selling for nearly KD200 online. So if you have a friend that works at Alshaya, force them to take you to their shop. Women are supposedly getting a restock this week.
Kuwaiti designer Tata Botata is back with a new tshirt design, this time it’s the Majed character from our childhood schoolbooks giving the middle finger. It’s priced at $69 but you can get 20% off by using the discount code ‘tatathanks’. [Link]
The ad above appeared in the newspaper a few days ago saying that Abercrombie & Fitch had opened up a store in Olympia Tower so I passed by to check it out. I knew A&F hadn’t opened there and figured it might be just a store selling A&F clothing but I figured I would check it out anyway. To my surprise when I got there I realized the store was actually called Abercrombie & Fitch although they had sneakingly snuck the word “stores” into the name because obviously that makes it ok and somehow magically bypasses any trademark infringement.
The store sells both A&F and Hollister clothing and even though I couldn’t tell if they were authentic or not it really didn’t matter since by checking out the prices of some of the items I realized it would be cheaper to just order directly from A&F online.
On a side note I haven’t heard anything new recently on the rumor that the Chalhoub Group was acquiring A&F.
This is my attempt at a fashion post. I spotted the sneakers above at Harvey Nichols last night and I think they look super cool. I would have gotten them myself if I didn’t already have three pairs of sneakers that look exactly the same. They’re Jimmy Choo and they cost around KD90 after their 50% discount.
Cool post from the blog Stuck on Vintage about how you don’t need an expensive outfit to look good. She purchased the cool dress above from Souk Mubarakiya for just KD1.5. Check out her post [Here]
You can now order Abercrombie & Fitch gear directly from their official website. Previously they wouldn’t accept Kuwaiti credit cards but now they do and they also ship directly to Kuwait. I just got my first box filled with goodies today. I paid using my Kuwait based credit card but had the box shipped to my Aramex mailbox instead of directly to Kuwait just because I actually wanted my stuff to get here sometime before summer was over. Here is a link to their [Website]
Update: Just found out if you actually ship the stuff directly to Kuwait they ship it door to door using FedEx and for only $10. That’s ridiculously cheap and much more efficient than shipping it to Aramex (I paid KD15 for shipping).
Ecru is a local Kuwaiti homeware brand (yay! not cupcakes) that will be launching this week with a pop-up shop at Dar Al-Funoon. What I found interesting about them is that their prints are created manually. Basically the way their prints are created is an old fashioned technique where blocks are carved with the pattern and then the pattern is manually stamped onto the fabric. I did a bit of that as part of an art class back in university and I loved the technique because every time you stamped a pattern it was slightly different from the other.
Date: April 24th to April 30th 2013
Time: 10AM to 8PM
Location: Dar Al-Funoon
For more information you can visit the Ecru website [Here]
Last night after dinner I passed by the Pretty Little Things event thats currently taking place at Salhiya. If you haven’t passed by yet you should since the outdoor setup is very cool and there are a lot of fashion related items being sold there. They’re only going to be there till tomorrow and they’re open from 3PM to 10PM so you don’t have much time left. The outdoor market is taking place in front of Caribou Coffee and Johnny Rockets Salhiya.