Last week when Barneys Girl came to London, we decided we wanted to have tea before shopping around Knightsbridge. We really wanted to have tea at Ritz, but alas, we booked too late. So we settled for having tea at Laduree at Harrods. According to my yahooing, Laduree is a famous Pairsian tearoom which only opened in Harrods last year.
We've had our tea English style and Chinese style before, but never French style, so we were pretty excited to see what the differences were.The differences apparently were that the waiter was forgetful and not the most polite man I have met. The layout of the tearoom wasn't that great either -our table was situated under a staircase! I felt sort of cramped up there.
The food was good though. Barneys Girl ordered this caramel cream cake-like thing and a hot chocolate. Her chocolate drink was actually pretty interesting -it came in a tiny jug of rich chocolate liquid and a little bowl of cream. She was supposed to pour the choc liquid into the cup and mix in some cream. It looked delicious, but understandably, BG thought it was too rich for her taste. So it's def not for people who can't stand serious sweet stuff!
I decided to try the famous French tea food, macaroons with my tea. From what I can tell (and taste), macaroons are basically an outer layer of dry sugar with a thick layer of sticky, semi-liquid sweetness inside. The ones I had were of flavours vanilla, caramel, rose-petal and berry fruit. I know some people think it's too sweet, but I personally really liked them.
Having tea the French way was fun, but perhaps we will stick to English tea next time, (and it will also mean less of a headache to read menus that contain only one language!)
A few days ago when I was shopping in Marc by Marc Jacobs, I noticed at the outfit on one of the Marc salesgirls: she was wearing a shirt dress (as shown in picture above) and had two shirts layered underneath. Also, she had on black glittery eye shadow and mascara, which made her look more 'cool' than 'girly'. I LOVED this look, which I like to call the Haute Ballerina look.
Taking inspiration from the Marc SS06 runway, the first thing you must have are the layering shirts. Buy these cheap from high street stores and make sure you buy both long-sleeves and mid-sleeves ones. 
The ones shown in the picture above is from Urban Outfitters. I have also seen a lot at H&M, (even the colors looked suspiciously like the pastel yellow, blue and pink that Gemma is wearing in the picture.)
Next buy some tights -available in footless and down-to-the-feet versions. Unless you have extra skinny legs, don't buy horizontally-striped tights. The ones shown in the pictures are from Urban Outfitters, just so you don't have to splurge on Marc tights.
These two Marc runway looks are a bit more girly and summery than the first two, (maybe it's just the color.) Anyways, tying a sash around the waist is a great way to accessorise and makes the two layers seem more cohesive.
And if all the dresses and ruffles are too girly for you, recreate this haute ballerina look with the oh-so-trendy skinny jeans -that's probably where this whole tights trend spinned out anyways! Don't just wear a camisole with jeans though, you must wear layering Tees with them.
At the beginning of this season, I was 80% sure I wanted a pair of brown leather platforms. Kind of like this pair of Chloes, except not as high for practicality's sake.
But then I realised that these brown leather platforms only look good only if they were 4 inches high, so then I fancied some colorful sandals to go with this season's neautral color clothes, like this pair of green sandals by Marc by Marc Jacobs.
Next, I was swayed by the cutest Marc by Marc Jacobs ballet shoes. I've been waiting for such ballet flats which have elastic straps for a few seasons already, and finally designers are making them! But at US$295, are they really worth it?
No they weren't, maybe I'll wait for them to go on sale. Next I tried on this pair of sandals by Top Shop. Totally fashionable, affordable, and after trying them on, they actually look good on one's feet! Sounds good right? The problem was that the straps sort of scrape against the back of my ankles when I walk, and so I sadly left them.
I am totally in LOVE with this pair of platforms (as seen in the top picture in gold) except I want them in white (the color shown in the bottom half of the picture.) These platforms are about 3 inches high but they are AMAZINGLY comfortable -I would say even more comfortable than my 1 inch Marc shoes. Not to mention they look BEAUTIFUL when I wore them, (you know how some shoes just don't really seem right on your feet? Well these totally felt right!)
I also love this pair of seriously glittery platforms. My only concern is that I would NOT feel as comfortable wearing such shiny shoes during daytime. BUT the glitter, patent leather and color combination DOES make them more fabulous than the patent leather ones on top.
Its hard to believe that I've never seen this classic before, being the chick flick junky that I am. I'd go to the cinema to watch any old chick flick from Mean Girls to obscure ones like the Wedding Date. Its so obscure that I had to go search for it before I remembered the title of it at all. 
This season, bags from Louis Vuitton not only had chains as the bags' handles, but chains were printed all over them.
Marc Jacobs' own line has the largest selection of such bags -and most of them are gorgeous. They really give a fabulous twist to Jacobs' typical bags. I esp love the Quilted East/West Frame Bag (the second picture.) It's sooo chic and classy.
The abridged version is that retailers now put flat panel displays which show a constantly rotating series of advertisements, mixed with news and entertainment in "high traffic" parts of the shops. Marketers are loving this way of advertising because according to the Point of Purchase Advertising International, an independent trade association, more than 70% of purchasing decisions are made in shops. Most people, after all, write "beer" or "shampoo" on their shopping lists, rather than specifying particular brands.
