Top with print: Lanvin by H&M. Side satchel: Marc Jacobs
This is Priscilla. She's an awesome friend of ours from Holland, and was visiting Hong Kong for a few days en route to Australia. I had literally just got back from Beijing and our routes overlapped for a day and a half, and so I rose to the challenge of trying to show her as much of the greatness of the 852 as possible. It definitely was a sprint, not a marathon , in this case. Knowing she was a bit of a fashionista, I gave her more of an aesthetically biased tour of Hong Kong. And she certainly dressed the part, in a mixture of high fashion and high street.
She being a Hong Kong market neophyte, my sightseeing tour basically went like this: Granville road in TST, amazing bargain quirky finds without the overcrowded mosh pit air of the more famous bargain-filled Ladies Market in Mong Kok. Harbour City mall, then Star Ferry (I love having friends in town so that I have an excuse to ride it). In central, we perused IFC mall and street shops like Maple (which I LOVE LOVE LOVE). The Landmark, where we spent a hefty amount of time in Marc Jacobs. Then, of course, the Peak, where one can get a stunning 360 degree view of the urban jungle I call home. For a well-deserved meal that is literally my favorite dish in Hong Kong: proscuitto and truffle pizza at Cafe Deco. Yum. The Peak is very touristy so I often struggle to convince my friends to make it up there. (Did I mention why I love having friends in town?! Chortle.) So, yeah OK I basically took them on my dream day in my home city, but c'mon ladies, you can't deny it was flawless! :)
I'm still on the hunt for that dream leather side bag in a shade of camel/mauve/coffee/ chocolate/[insert other pretentious version of the color brown here. Damn hair colorist marketing teams, making every hair color sound delicious. Hmmm, honey caramel! Suddenly I have the urge to eat this ammonia and I don't like it! Once again, I digress...]
Here are a couple of snapshots of side bags that I saw out and about and adored.
This one below I actually got in Beijing, at Ya Show market, famous for bargains (and fakes). It's not a famous label (unless you have heard of Dukamou, which apparently is "Spanish" the lady told me but sounds very Asian...? Correct me if I am wrong..). In Beijing, it's a common rule that whatever price you are offered initially is pretty much 3/4 times any reasonable amount, and that one must start haggling at 15% of what they offer. This is sometimes met with a cry of "Kai shenme wanxiao!" Which translates to "You're kidding!".Anyhoo, I managed to bargain down from 900RMB to a more reasonable 120RMB within about 10 minutes, my somewhat dubious Chinese not adept enough to convey much except "I'm a poor student please make it cheaper". It's pretty much my favorite bag at the moment.
But as always, I'm still on the lookout.