Shop Garb Boutique Online

 Reality tv star, Toya Carter Wright, recently launched a new website for her clothing store called Garb Boutique.  Toya co-starred with "Tiny" (former member of Xscape and wife of Atlanta rapper, T.I.) on BET's "Tiny and Toya" and now has her own reality show "Toya A Family Affair" on the same network.

 In October of 2010, Toya opened Garb Boutique in her hometown of New Orleans, LA.  From the reality tv show fame, Toya has built quite a large fan base from all over the United States.  Many of her fans who do not reside in New Orleans have been asking her for months (via her twitter account) when Garb Boutique would be available for online shopping.  Well today, Toya announced on twitter that the website for Garb Boutique has finally launched and is up and running at shopgarbboutique.com . 

Most of the cute clothes seen worn by the reality star (and recent newlywed) on her tv show and at various red carpet events can be found at Garb Boutique.  Ever since her store opened last October, she has been retweeting pictures of her fans in their cute "Garb" outfits bought right out of the boutique.  Toya has given a unique nickname to customers of her store.  She refers to anyone that has ever shopped in her store as "Garbies".  She even sells cute t-shirts that read, "I'm A Garbie" on the front.

Here's a recent picture that Toya twitpic'd of herself getting prepped for the Hoodie Awards in an "I'm A Garbie" t-shirt.

Now everybody can become "Garbies" by shopping at  Garb Boutique  online. Due to high anticipation of the website's launch, the "Shop" feature is down right now as it has crashed due to high traffic. Toya announced on twitter that it is being upgraded now.  In the meantime, if you are in New Orleans you can visit Garb Boutique at 2108 Magazine St. New Orleans, LA 70130. Check back on the site later or follow Toya's twitter for an update on when it is back up and running.

UPDATE: shopgarboutique.com is now back up and running.

Large Retailers Trash Unsold Clothes

This week the New York Times reported a disheartening story about H & M and Walmart, two of the largest retail chains.  They are throwing out and destroying unsold goods instead of taking them to sample sales or donating to charity.  They are destroying garments by slashing and putting holes in them to the point that they are unwearable.

The shocking discovery was made by graduate student Cynthia Magnus outside the back entrance of H&M on 35th street in New York City. Just a few doors down, she also found hundreds of Wal-Mart tagged items with holes made in them that were dumped by a contractor. On December 7, she spotted 20 bags of clothing outside of H&M including, "gloves with the fingers cut off, warm socks, cute patent leather Mary Jane school shoes, maybe for fourth graders, with the instep cut up with a scissor, men’s jackets, slashed across the body and the arms. The puffy fiber fill was coming out in big white cotton balls.”

*Cynthia Magnus holds up a destroyed garment that she found in the garbage.

This discovery is very unsettling, especially in these recessive times.  For the full story click here

Ruffled Booties

Ankle Booties are in this fall.  They come in every color imaginable and you can find them in both leather or suede.  Whether you like a pointy-toe, peep-toe, round-toe, skinny heel, chunky heel, or short heel you are guaranteed to find a Bootie to fit your personal style.

The following booties each have a ruffled embellishment in common:

These are Marc by Marc Jacobs.  These babies are $485 and can be found at Piperlime.com

These are from Juicy Couture. Priced at $395 and can be found at juicycouture.com

These are made by Rosegold and can be found on Shopbop

                                                                      

These orange suede peep-toe booties are by Lovely People for $166 and can be found on Piperlime.com

I love these Fuchsia booties by Steve Madden. $149.95 at Nordstrom.com

These blue suede shoes are by Lovely People ($122.25) and are featured on QVC.com

These purple suede peep-toes with side ruffle embellishment are from Bakers for $49.99 www.bakersshoes.com

Would you believe these lavender suede beauties are from Payless? $34.99 is the price. Visit payless.com

*For more ruffled booties go to luckymag.com

Victoria's Secret Makes a "Miraculous" Discovery

If you could go up two full cup sizes (on your bra) without surgery, would you do it?

For those of you that answered "Yes" Victoria's Secret is making that possible.  They have created the "Miraculous Push-Up Bra" which instantly adds 2 full cup sizes.  The bra retails from $48 to $52 and comes in all colors.

 

I must admit, after being an honorary member of the "Itty-Bitty Titty Committee", this bra has definitely piqued my interest.  I just may go try it on this weekend just to see what all the hoopla is about.  If I'm amazed by the results, then this baby just may be coming home with me.

Check out the video:

If you have purchased this bra, knows someone that owns it, or are planning on purchasing it let me know.  I'd love to hear your reviews and whether or not I am the only crazy one falling for this marketing scheme.

2 Weeks Until Jimmy Choo

Remember the post I did about Jimmy Choo and H&M collaborating on a new collection? Well the time is near.  In just two weeks (November 14th to be exact), Jimmy Choo for H&M will debut in stores nationwide.  Here is an exclusive video featuring Tamara Mellon, President and founder of Jimmy Choo, debuting a lot of the pieces from the long anticipated collection.  Most of the pieces I presented in my previous post are shown in the video.

What do you think?

H&M Welcomes Jimmy Choo

Jimmy Choo and H&M have joined forces and are designing an accessory collection which includes shoes, bags, and accessories for both women and men.  Jimmy Choo has also extended its design vision for this collection to women's clothing to complement the accessories.  The designer promises that it will be the same quality, but at affordable prices. The release date is November 14th and will be sold in 200 H&M stores nationwide.  The buzz has been going around for some time about this much anticipated collabo and the preview photos were released online a few days ago.

 

Here are some of my favorite pieces from the collection:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check out the rest of the collection over at nitrolicious.com

Happy Happy, Joy Joy!

It has just been brought to my attention that one of my favorite stores, Zara, will be allowing online shopping on their website this Fall.  You just don't know how "HAPPY" that makes me.  Those of you unfamiliar with Zara, it's a store very much like H&M with both men and women fashions at very reasonable prices.  I am very thrilled about this news because I have to drive a bit of a distance to get to the Zara locations here in Atlanta. I can't wait to become a "fa'shun groupie" on their website when they open it up for online shopping. Yay!

Stand Out in Studs

Fashion designers will be incorporating studded hardware into their Fall '09 Collections. Fall's studded accesories will include shoes, handbags, jewelry, and belts.  This edgy trend will definitely get you noticed.

This Christian Louboutin "Very Prive" studded peeptoe heel is very "rocker chic"

We will be seeing a lot of studded heels this Fall

Check out these studded Jimmy Choo heels

This studded bootie is from N.Y.L.A. called "Isabel"

Studded clutch from Top Shop

Studded Valentino handbag

WCM studded stretch belt

 

Studded jeans from Top Shop

 

Left to right: Alexander McQueen, Marc Jacobs, and Prada Fall 2009 RTW

This look is not exclusive to top designers.  They can be found in lower-priced stores like Forever 21, H&M, Wet Seal, and Express just to name a few.

Top row from left to right: Topshop Chunky Studded Bracelet Pack, $30; Shih by Stephanie Lin "Diego Toto" Studded Wallet, $99 at Bluefly; Wet Seal Back Stud Booties, $36.50.

Center row: Steven by Steve Madden "Stardom" Studded Skimmers, $77-129 at Bloomingdale's; Guess Skinny Leather Belt with Metal Studs, $42.

Bottom row: Express Studded Wristlet, $22.50; Urban Outfitters Studded Leather Bracelet, $28; Linea Pelle Stackable Skinny Cuff with Gold Domed Studs, $25 at Singer22.

Embellished Headbands

*the headbands in the above set can be found at various retailers such as anthropologie.com, net-a-porter.com, jcrew.com, and topshop.com

These fashionable head pieces are perfect for glamming up your look. They can help turn "bad hair days" into good hair days by adding a stylish touch. No one will even notice that you are having one of "those days".

As you can see, these headbands come embellished with feathers, rhinestones, flowers, bows, etc. thus providing fashionable versatilitiy.

They look good with short hair






...and even with long hair:





I love the fact that these head pieces come in different shapes, sizes, colors, patterns, and material. They definitely give you many fun options to jazz up your do. They can give a boring hairstyle an exciting new look, and with little effort. So run out today and pick yourself up a few of these headbands so that you don't have to wait until your next hair appointment to get a fresh, new look.