no matter how pretty the packaging.
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i have a thing for classic shoe designs. brogues. d’orsays. loafers. my favorite are mary janes (write up here).
therefore, it should go without saying that my favorite pieces in this season’s new york fashion week (so far) are the mary jane heels at marc jacobs. if i had those in my cabinet, i would stare lecherously at them until they sue me for harassment.
but wait. does this not look familiar to you?
last year, for some reason, i figured that marc jacobs would choose dakota fanning to be the face of a lola flanker if and when he ever came up with one. well, he did on both counts. choose dakota and create a flanker, that is.
tracy reese
i believe i wrote about resort collections last year (in this entry) when we moved to the resort town of fiji. having realized that most of my outfits are inappropriate for the new environment, i started to look towards these collections for ideas.
this year, i’m at it again. i am normally atwitter over the maxi dresses, but there was very little in that style that inspired me (except for this one collette dinnigan. i don’t think i could love that enough), but many of the pants are exactly my type. other notables: the cocktail dresses and corporate casuals.
derek lam
first there was daisy…
i have always loved marc jacobs’ daisy. i have very predictable taste in fragrance and daisy is something my friends have figured i would love from the start.
launched in 2007, daisy was the subject of a widespread marketing campaign that drew a wave of mj fans and fragrance junkies to the counters to see what all the fuss was about. the first line of business, as it happened, was to see if the bottle was indeed as pretty in reality as it was on the ads. given how ads typically exaggerate the qualities of a product, the bottle is, surprisingly, just as pretty when you see it with your own eyes. what i do find strange is that it is called “daisy” when daisies don’t smell anything like it. daisies smell like nothing at all, as a matter of fact, fragrance-free like plastic. i guess it’s the thought of daisies they want to evoke. buttery blooms that dot rolling meadows on a bright, sunny day. and that’s just the feeling you get when you wear it.
though i am way past the target market of late teens-early twenties, the bracket doesn’t stop me from appreciating its youthfulness. it’s sweet but not cloying, it has a translucent nature to it that does not overpower your senses. it is fresh and quite bubbly, comfortable enough for all day, everyday wear. it has nothing to thrill anyone about, nothing specifically different, to the point of perhaps being unoriginal, but i guess that’s also why i am drawn to it. i have never been extremely daring with my fragrance choices, sticking mostly to smells that wouldn’t put anyone off even if i know it is unlikely that someone will single me out with a compliment. daisy, to me, simply has stability to it. it’s something that won’t let me down. as it turns out though, people still do tell me i smell nice despite its lack of uniqueness. it is just too pleasant to ignore. i’d say it has the same merits as dolce & gabbana light blue. that is, you’d probably smell similar to many other women but it doesn’t bother you because it’s just too nice. it’s like the perfume equivalent of a very refreshing soda drink: very effervescent and attractive, but not alluringly sexy and serious like champagne. it’s good as a first designer fragrance for young girls as well as a reliable staple for an old-timer like me. i could imagine giving the fragrance to my daughter when she comes of age and i could imagine myself using it during retirement. that’s how universally appealing it is.
i got a bottle of it as a christmas present last month. eau de toilette comes in 50ml and 100ml. there was also a limited edition edp, a variant i would have preferred since edt doesn’t last too long, but we missed the very last stock here by a day or two. i like the edt bottle better though, it’s a throwback into the 70′s flower power which i like. i don’t find black and gold fitting for its sunny vibe. not even the exclusive silver one.
at any rate, daisy edt did rake in most of the fragrance awards in 2008. i guess even the award-giving bodies were smitten by the bottle.
from sephora: Enter the world of Daisy: fresh and feminine with a playful innocence. At the heart of Daisy is a floral with vintage edge: violet. Sophisticated, with a touch of whimsy, violet captures the eclectic, vintage flavor of Marc Jacobs’ feminine, edgy designs.
then came lola…
right, i am a sap for delectable ads. that’s why i trooped to the department store as soon as i saw lola in the papers last year.
why, of course the bottle looks bizarrely over-the-top, that’s the whole point! what is marc jacobs if not a fire-starter? like daisy, lola in person does justice to its photos, from the voluminous vinyl petals to the gold rope detail. the moment i saw it, i wanted to get it for the very superficial reason that it would look fantastic on our antique dresser. since the whole idea isn’t the visual appeal, i tried to maintain a more or less unaffected perspective when i zoned in to smell the perfume.
marketed as daisy’s “slightly vampy older sister”, one doesn’t have to be a fragrance connoisseur to tell that it is indeed what it positions itself to be. i should say that since i am more into the fresh, clean scents, i was a little whacked taking a sniff off the bat. but the initial power doesn’t drench you as it mellows into its sweetness. it is darker and headier than daisy, its musk and vanilla notes more pronounced. the depth makes it perfect for more formal occasions, though i wouldn’t discount it from everyday wear — if you are in a more temperate climate or if you work daily in a centralized environment. where i live, tropical fiji, i couldn’t think of any daytime outdoor occasion i am to attend for which this may be appropriate. maybe the melbourne cup or a garden wedding in a renaissance mansion, but i am only wishing these would happen to me. on the other hand, i would love to wear such a scent to the resorts or the port when we go there for cocktails or dinner. it is sensually whimsical, as exquisite as the drinks they serve with a lot of pomp (like the bottle!). it is definitely a very contemporary fragrance for evening and i could foresee this sell almost as much as its little sister, daisy.
from sephora: The long-lasting, day-and-night scent opens with pink peppercorn, pear, and ruby red grapefruit. Blooming midnotes of rose, fuschia peony, and geranium make a feminine statement. Layers of vanilla, warm tonka bean, and creamy musk create a sensous drydown.
there are these cloying hypothetical statements that go “if i had one million dollars, i would…”, which never fail to turn on the boredom in me. one million dollars is such an unchallenging number to fit your imagination into. first off, it’s a huge amount, so it enables you to rattle off just about everything you reasonably desire (shoes, clothes, jewelry, car, house, anything) and still have spare change left.
so to make us really think, let’s make the amount in consideration only php300,000.00.  that’s right, only three hundred thou of our good ol’ philippine pesos. if you had the chance to just waste all that money on stuff, what would you buy?
i would spend the money on:
this marc jacobs bag
www.marcjacobs.com
 a pair of stella luna pumps
animal print, pointed, gold heels. the bitchiest you can find.
a visa and eventually round trip tickets to japan
japan in spring
and since i’ll be traveling, a set of rimowa topas luggages including the cabin trolley and beauty case in this color
rimowa topas luggages in gold
then i’d still have enough left to buy my husband this collection of james bond dvd’s
james bond limited edition 40-dvd collection in attache case
 this sony ericsson xperia x1
techie dreams are made of
for my little girl, more books for her little touch leap pad
little touch leap pad from leapfrog educational toys
and all the polvoron she can get her hands on.
what would you buy with three hundred thousand pesos?
marc jacobs boutique in greenbelt 4; stella luna shoe stores in power plant, shangri-la and soon in glorietta 4; rimowa store in greenbelt 5;Â Â leapfrog educational toys available in all leading toy stores; if anyone knows where we can find the james bond dvd collection in the limited edition attache case around here, please tell my husband. please.
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