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Oh Joy: 3.1 Philip Lim At Target In Canada Right Now!

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For the first time, Canadian fashionistas can indulge in Target’s fabulous designer diffusion collections right on their home turf—and oh joy: 3.1 Philip Lim is the introductory line.

3.1+PhillipLim forTarget

CHEAP & CHIC | Love the bags; love the scarves; love the lingerie, coats and dresses. I love almost everything about Philip Lim’s highly wearable diffusion collection for Target, which Racked.com so perfectly pointed out in pictures is pulled straight from the fashion designer’s award-winning 3.1 line. Most of all, though, I love the fact that I don’t need to drive over the border if I want first crack at the best of it. Read more

Five Tips For Returning Store Purchases

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What you need to know about taking purchases that don’t work out back to the store where you got them.

Woman shopping

 

SHOPPING SMART | It takes me a long time to make up my mind about buying something so I have always tended to take things home, think about them and then return them once I’m sure they’re not right for me. I do this even more since I started shopping at stores such as T.J. Maxx  and Winners where there may be only one of something so it’s best to grab it while you can.

Here’s what I’ve learned about returning merchandise back to the store where you bought it. Read more

Balmain Runway FW 2011 Metallic Leather Pants

Metallic Trousers By Balmain Or Joe Fresh?

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Let’s see, glitterific skinny jeans by Balmain or Joe Fresh? You pick.

Joe Fresh Gold Jeans FW 2011

 

CHEAP & CHIC | If you leafed through the shiny part of the Globe and Mail last Saturday (a.k.a. the style section), you would have noticed an arresting full-page ad for The Room at The Bay. It featured a long-limbed model wearing spray-on metallic leather trousers by the Parisian luxury fashion house Balmain. What stopped me dead—besides the exquisiteness of the pants—was the thought that just last month I’d purchased a pair of metallic skinny jeans that I love and wear a lot, only mine (pictured here) are from the house of Joe Fresh. Read more

Beyond The Rack

5 Top Flash Sale Sites In Canada: Shop Now

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Flash shopping offers great deals, but you have to move fast—much easier with these sites now in Canada.

Beyond The Rack

 

SHOPPING AROUND | Fashion-savvy Canadians have long known about flash sales sites like Gilt, Ideeli and Fab, but the hassle of getting their wares home (many do not ship to Canada) has crimped many a deal-hunter’s style. Lucky for us, flash shopping has finally arrived in Canada. Read more

Bosa Food Products - C. Phaisalakani

Could Bosa Foods Be Our Italian Costco?

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Could Bosa Foods be the “Italian Costco?” In some ways it certainly is.

Bosa Food Products - C. PhaisalakaniSHOPPING AROUND | In 1960, when my grandmother lived two blocks up from the original Bosa Foods on Victoria Drive, I remember being a curious five-year-old suburban kid standing in the store, totally in awe, wishing I had easy access to so many noodles back in Burnaby.

Bosa has been selling an unrivalled selection of imported Italian specialties since 1957, and in 2006 finally opened a spacious second store off Boundary Road near 1st Avenue. Called the “Italian Costco” by some, the new store has a very un-Costco-like Tuscan bell tower, but the description does fit the generous supply and variety of free samples—cheeses, biscotti, mini cannolis, pizza and breads—offered. Read more

HomeSense Lampshades - Casey Phaisalakani

Where To Find Well Made Lampshades

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Where does a shopper have to go to find a decent lampshade in this town? Felicity Stone has the answer.

HomeSense Lampshades - Casey PhaisalakaniSHOPPING AROUND | Lamp shades are not something I shop for often, but when I do, I find myself frustrated by the poor selection and quality out there. My particular peeve is shades with plastic backing, which not only becomes brittle and cracks over time but also looks so, well, plastic. Read more

FRYE Boots

Zappos Versus The Mall Buying Boots Online

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Of course it’s best to buy local, but sometimes it makes sense to shop on the Internet.

FRYE BootsSHOPPING AROUND | A lot of people I know really do try to shop close to home because they believe in supporting local businesses. But sometimes the price difference between products sold here and elsewhere is too shockingly different to ignore—and you know that as much as you might prefer to, shopping local just doesn’t make sense. Read more

Alda Pereira

Shop With Alda Pereira, Designer Of The Year

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Frugalbits goes shopping with Alda Pereira, western Canada’s 2010 interior designer of the year.

Alda PereiraAlready considered one of Canada’s top interior designers with many awards and plenty of ink in glossy publications to her credit, Alda Pereira added another feather to her cap last month when a jury of her peers recognized her as Western Living magazine’s 2010 interior designer of the year.

While her private residential projects and multi-unit development interiors are always a delight to the eye, Pereira is no “shrinking wallflower looking to please multitudes,” commented Western Living editor Anicka Quin, who appreciates Pereira’s “knack for pairing the unusual with the well tailored.”

We love Pereira’s talent too—and her personality, which despite her early and prolonged success, is refreshingly unaffected. Pereira admits she loves to shop “Unabashedly. Period,” she says, “especially window-shopping. Did I mention that it’s free?” Here she shares a few of her favourite haunts. Read more

Brooks Brothers White Shirt

The Perfect White Shirt? We’ve Found It!

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Both on trend and timeless, a classic top-quality white shirt belongs in every woman’s wardrobe. Here’s the best one we’ve found.

Brooks Brothers White ShirtBUY RIGHT | The fashion media everywhere is reporting that “a great white shirt” is a must-have item this fall. This fall? A great white shirt is a fashion basic that always belongs in every woman’s wardrobe. It’s a constant (like a perfect pair of black pumps), a fashion equalizer that does not reflect a particular age or generation. And while it may be “in fashion” right now, it’s definitely not a trend item but a staple.

Which explains why beautiful menswear-inspired white shirts are a perennial with Ralph Lauren, a designer who does not follow trends. In his current collection, Lauren’s elegant black label white shirt Antonia is priced at around $400 (U.S.); his Curt boyfriend shirt, part of the Lauren line, is around $70 (U.S.).

“I have a Ralph Lauren black label white shirt in my closet,” says my fashionable friend Amelia, “but I won’t buy another one. These shirts are fabulous, but they’re an unnecessary extravagance when you can have a of shirt of black label quality—at least I think so—for a quarter of the price.” Read more

Specialty Leggings - iStock

Skinny Legs And All

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Fashionista Laurel Zapke picks her top 10 leggings to take you through fall—both plain and sexy kinds.

Specialty Leggings - iStockBUY RIGHT | Blame it on Betsey. American fashion designer Betsey Johnson, known for her princess-meets-punk designs, has long loved leggings. Betsey knew what she was doing in the 1980s when she paired a cropped black cotton legging with a sheer black full chiffon knee-length skirt attached to a black cotton top with a sweetheart neckline and capped sleeves. I borrowed that dress from a friend in 1988 and wore it with all the glory and pride of a blushing bride. I still wear Betsey today—only now the Betsey pieces are not borrowed, they are mine. And anytime I want a little edge in my look, I just “Betsey” things up with a legging. Read more