Zit Seng's Superwall » fashion

Jacket For $20

Zit Seng — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 15:16:00 +0000

Fancy a jacket for $20? It’s a casual jacket I got from a Samuel & Kevin sale during my Lunar New Year shopping spree. Nothing terribly spectacular about it, but for $20, it’s still a bargain. In fact, I found myself jostling with so many other people at the wagon that day. Everyone was rummaging through the clothes to find the right size. Yes, as you can imagine, at these sort of sales, it’s usually mostly the extreme sizes (i.e. XL or XS) that are left.

I dress quite casually to work. My work environment permits it. Casual for me means T-shirt and jeans. But occasionally it would be appropriate to dress not so casually for a particular meeting or something. In those instances, donning a casual jacket like this seems to work quite nicely. It goes well with jeans or khaki pants, so it’s easy for me to mix-and-match items to go from casual look to “smart” look.

The other item for my new year’s wardrobe is this destroyed jeans from Fox Men. It has a nice soft denim material that’s very comfortable. The “tears” in the denim look quite real and natural, and overall an excellent seasoned look. It’s my first jeans from Fox, and I think I can consider more of it for my wardrobe in future. Yes, I bought it during a sale again of course. Yeah, you might have noticed I usually don’t buy anything unless there is some sale or promotion. Many “nice” clothing are too expensive when you’ve got to pay the full retail price.

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Shoes For The New Year

Zit Seng — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:44:23 +0000

I did quite a bit of last minute shopping in preparing for this Lunar New Year. For example, I only got my shoes one or two days before. It was a pair of Converse shoes. I also got Converse the last year. I thought the shoes look good, reasonably comfortable, and with all the promotional sales discount, where quite fairly priced too. Not sure how long I’d stick with Converse though, because all their shoes seem to be similarly styled. Oh well, pick any brand, the same is probably true too. So now and then we’ve got to brand-hop.

I went shopping with baby Vanessa. We went to Bugis Junction. I was thinking nowadays Bugis is probably the not-so-happening shopping place anymore. I was quite wrong. It was still overflowing with crowds. I peeked in Top Shop for a few moments before heading out again, because I saw that the queue to pay was too long. No point to start browsing, want to buy something, and then get stuck in line for eons.

The signs for recession and economic gloom is definitely not evident in the pre-Lunar New Year shopping. Or perhaps that is the sign: everyone’s shopping for the bargains during this festive sales promotions. At Samuel and Kevin, everyone (including me) was crowding around jackets that were going for just $20. They were just casual jackets, not an expensive suit of blazer, but certainly worth well more than $20.

I think, after the Lunar New Year, there’s going to be even more bargains with shops trying to clear their unsold stock. No need to buy everything before the new year. Do some of the shopping after the new year!

A funny thing about Vanessa. She doesn’t like Samuel and Kevin. She cried in the shop. She’s okay elsewhere… even in IPZone (which is the same chain eh). The first time round, she was comforted when I picked her up and headed out. I came back later, and she cried again.

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STM Phantom Laptop Bag

Zit Seng — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 03:10:43 +0000

Like many other things, laptop bags have gone from purely functional to become fashion accessories. One of the nicer brands, though not terribly common in Singapore, is STM. This is an Australian brand sporting laptop bags in various styles including messenger bags and backpacks. I recently got my hands on the small STM Phantom bag, which is designed to fit laptops with 13″ screens.

I like laptop bags that don’t look like laptop bags. (Yes, it’s an irony that while the STM Phantom bag was not meant to look like a typical laptop bag, the brand label carries the tagline “Protecting your digital cargo”.) It’s not just the issue of security (the logic is that laptop bags invite theft), but that I just don’t want to be seen lugging a notebook around.

In the past, I sometimes make do with bags that were truly not designed to be laptop bags at all. For example, at one time I was carrying around my IBM Thinkpad X21 in a green sling bag used by army people. (I still use that bag to tactically bring things like books, newspapers, and other paraphernalia into the field.)

The STM Phantom is designed to be a laptop bag and, at least in my opinion, it is comfortable, stylish and functional. You can read about the “specifications” from STM’s webpage, but just to share the main attractions to me are:

Lightweight
Sleek exterior
360 degrees swivel shoulder strap
Nice colour

I would have preferred a fabric exterior, though that would be a problem with waterproofing. Also, while the bag fits the 13″ MacBook perfectly, it is a little too perfect fitting. It might have been better slightly larger so that putting in and taking out the MacBook would be easier.

Here are some photos to share, in case you want to see some close-ups of the bag.

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Levi’s Jeans At Under $40

Zit Seng — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 05:38:05 +0000

This pair of Levi’s 514 jeans costs $219 in Singapore. Perhaps a little less with the GSS on, but probably it’s still going to be over $150. I find this horribly expensive to pay for a pair of jeans. I bought this very same pair of Levi’s Jeans at $39.76. This is just a fraction of what you’d have to pay in Singapore stores. Can you guess where did I get the jeans?

Not in Singapore of course. Levi’s jeans are just too overpriced in SIngapore. It is so much cheaper in the US. I don’t know about other countries. In the US, it is not even like you have to travel hour to go to some factory outlet in the middle of nowhere. Yes, while I was in Orlando last week, I headed down to Florida Mall, and at Macy’s, I found this 514 jeans selling for US$28.96 after tax, which comes up to about S$39.76.

An awful discount, so much that I bought two pairs. (I would have wanted to buy more, but I already had too many things to cart back to Singapore.)

Some of the retail clothing in Singapore are just way too overpriced. It’s not just Levi’s, but many other brands as well. I bought a GAP jeans for under US$30 in a previous trip. It was something I bought from a downtown SF store.

Many many years ago, I had the idea that the good discounts were only at the factory outlets located in the middle of nowhere. They are no doubt cheaper, but I had found out that it only costs like a few dollars more in a downtown shop. There was really no point to go through the inconvenience of having to get out of town.

There are other things apart from clothing that are also overpriced in Singapore. For example, a battery for my MacBook 13.3″ costs S$232 in Singapore, but the equivalent of S$188 when purchased in the US. Exactly the same product.

With a globalized economy, online shopping, and declining international shipping rates… I certainly hope prices in Singapore start to make sense.

With a Levi’s jeans costing under $40, who wants to buy Giordano anymore?

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