Category: Fashion

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.

Christian Louboutin will be in Salhiya on Sunday at 3PM for the Christian Louboutin exhibition as well as a shoe-signing. Not sure if the shoe-signing is open to the public but it’s worth taking your shoes and trying.

Kuwaiti graphic designer Fahad AlHunaif who’s based in New York struck gold a few days ago when one of his cap designs was worn by the British fashion model Cara Delevingne. She was backstage at the Jeremy Scott Runway Show when fashion photographer Terry Richardson snapped some pictures of her wearing the cap. Sadly I have no idea where you can get one from. You can check out the pictures taken by Terry Richardson [Here]

If you want to check out some of Fahad’s work you can do so on his tumblr [Here] or you can follow him on [Instagram]

There is this little Korean store located in my building that I am in love with. They sadly don’t sell anything I could buy but I love visiting it every now and then just because it’s such a weird experience being inside. The store mostly sells headbands and hair bows and god damn they have so many packed into such a tiny store. All the items are imported directly from Korea and there is a very quiet Korean lady who runs the store and is usually sitting hidden behind the counter. I think all these hanging headbands sound proof the store because once you walk inside it becomes eerily quiet.

I’ve never seen any customer in the store so I have no idea if business is good or not but they’ve been open for a long time now so they must be doing ok I guess. If you’re interested in checking it out, the store is located on the Mezzanine floor of Anjari Complex in the old Salmiya. Once you go up the escalator the shop is located on the right hand side.

Tonight was such a crazy evening. Me and a friend headed to Avenues at 2:30PM so we could get into Millions of Milkshakes before the mall got crowded. Kim was supposed to arrive at 4PM but she ended up coming around 2 hours late. I wasn’t too surprised really since this was Kim Kardashian and I was expecting her to be fashionably late although I figured she might be around an hour late and not two. I was planning to stream Kim’s arrival live from location but for some reason the alleyway where Millions of Milkshake was located didn’t have a strong 3G connection so the video that I was streaming online turned out to be very choppy and low res. That’s why I decided to stop the live stream and shoot a regular video and upload it to YouTube instead. As soon as Kim arrived everyone went crazy as you can see in the video below. I have no idea why people over react like that.

[YouTube]

Once Kim got into Millions of Milkshake things didn’t get any better there either. Although there wasn’t a large crowd inside people were still pushing and shoving trying to get to Kim. We stayed out of the way as much as possible and tried to take our shots from a distance. I then got some really great and close up shots of Kim when she was making milkshakes. Because the crowd was so chaotic they ended up changing her schedule a bit and I didn’t manage to get my video interview done tonight. I am disappointed but it’s fine since I know how unexpected events can screw up schedules. Hopefully I’ll be able to get it done tomorrow night at the gala dinner. On the bright side I did get my picture taken with Kim and I think she looked really hot. I took a bunch of shots tonight but my favorites are the ones below. Overall I had a good time tonight and I got to make some new friends. Tomorrow tonight things should be less dramatic.

[Stream Removed]

I will hopefully be streaming Kim Kardashian launching Millions of Milkshake live on this blog at around 4PM. The reason I am saying hopefully is because the 3G connection in this part of The Avenues is very dodgy and keeps going and coming. No 3G means no stream. Anyway check back at 4 for the stream. If she’s going to be late I’ll update you guys with the timing.

Update: connection here is horrible so am killing the stream and instead will record a video and upload it right after the event.

Update2: it’s 5pm and Kim still hasn’t arrived

I was wandering around Avenues Phase III today and noticed The North Face had opened up their first store in Kuwait (they’re on the second floor). It’s a good brand for anyone looking for outdoor and camping gear. Their tents aren’t very portable but their sleeping bags can be very compact and they’ve got a nice collection of soft and hard shell jackets as well as camping backpacks.

Last night Harvey Nichols had a very lavish private launch event which I was lucky enough to attend. I don’t go to many events but I had a feeling this was going to be different and it was. The night was filled with a lot of really stylish and well dressed people socializing and being seen. We were allowed to walk around and shop in the store if we wanted to while they had the most incredible seafood buffet outside the store inside Avenues Phase III. The mall looks really fantastic inside and they had small standing tables all around outside the store for us to gather around and mingle with friends. I even managed to see a friend of mine who I hadn’t seen for over 10 years! It was a really great and tasteful evening and I’ll probably be attending more events because of it.

According to the Prada Kuwait store manager, Prada will be opening at 360 Mall on November 15th.

Early on in the year I posted the picture above of a tshirt I bought from my friend TataBotata. Back then they weren’t on sale yet since his website wasn’t up and running but yesterday I found out the site is now ready. The Luke Ana Abouk tshirt along with some of his other creative creations are now being sold [Here]

The location of the new Prada store at 360 Mall has now been revealed since they’ve put up a Prada hoarding outside it. The location is opposite Gucci between the Ladurée cafe and the Ladurée shop. The opening of the store is currently set for October 15th.

I’ve gotten confirmation from two different sources that Prada will be opening at 360 Mall this October. I was also told a second branch would be opening at a later stage in Avenues Phase II. The launch date for the 360 Mall Prada store is currently set for October 15th.

Update: My guess is that the Miu Miu space in 360 Mall is actually for Prada as well.

Local tshirt brand Capital District have a new line of tshirts which were done in collaboration with Slider Station. From the 3 different colored shirts I ordered the burger one pictured above since I thought it was black but disappointingly turned out to be brown. You can check out the tshirts on the Capital District website, the Slider Station ones start with “SS”. [Link]

Earlier today I was told that Habchi and Chalhoub are currently in negotiations with Abercrombie & Fitch to bring them to the region. The Chalhoub Group already have a bunch of popular brands in their roster including Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Saks Fifth Avenue, Lacoste, Celine and Marc Jacobs so it would be realistic for them to get the brand although I always imagined Alshaya bringing them. I’m actually interested to see how the brand will adapt to the region but my guess is there won’t be much of an issue. For now I’ll leave you with the video above of the A&F guys lipdubbing “Call Me Maybe” while I go do a thousand sit-ups and starve myself. [YouTube]