("I love mixing florals and stripes, they give a try edgy fresh spring look".
Top: Abdali men's section 2 JDs. Pants: 2 JDs. Bag: My sister got the bag for
2 JDs. Scarf used as headband: Vintage grandmother's scarf. Boots: model's own.
Bangles: some thrifted some collected)
• The most important tip of all is Bargain, bargain, and bargain your lungs our! If you found that perfect coat you’ve been looking for, for 10 JDS, know that you’ve been taken for a cash machine! It’s too expensive for a second-hand item that’s been lying around for a decade. This is the perfect time to bargain. Don’t ask for the permission to bring the price down, force the vendor in a friendly manner, – I can’t even begin to say how important it is to be nice to the vendors. It helps with the bargaining process, and you’ll have people remember you the next time you decide to shop -, state that the item is worn out or not really worth that amount, reinforce the point by stating that the “other guy over there” has much newer and very cheap stock and offered to give you a newer coat for a whole lot less but you refused because it was expensive. If the guy got stubborn on the price, add 1 or 2 pieces you like to the item and tell him you’ll take them all for the same price. And most importantly be firm in your argument but don’t insist too much, after all if you show interest in only the item you’re bargaining for you may not get the price deducted. Of course it doesn’t apply to items worth less than 3 JDS, they’re already cheap enough. My friend once found a late 80s Hugo Boss Army trench coat, with the tag still on! He bargained for it and bagged it for 3 JDs! (just a side note: I love the military trend, it’s everywhere now on all blogs and every magazine, and Abdali is packed with Army-military items).
• When it comes to sizes. It’s a very tricky part. I’ve made uncountable mistakes on this field. Since there’s no way to try the clothes on – for both hygienic and location reasons – you need to check the size tags twice on every item, and for the ones that have no tag you’ll have to guess. I wish there was a fixed rule about getting the sizes right the first time, but all there is to it is some experimenting. Tops and dresses are easy to guess, when it comes to pants it can be a little tricky to figure out your size, and may take a few wrong buys to discover how your size “looks” like. It’s ok since you’re not spending hundreds of JDs, besides, you can always give the pair that doesn’t fit to that skinnier friend, grrrrrrr, they’re only 2 JDs anyway. On the day of the shoot, my friend found me this amazing purple stripped skinny jeans that I loved, but I could tell by the look of it that they wouldn’t fit me, so gave them to Nadine (the model who you see in these pages) instead, they fitted her perfectly, and now she owes me a pair of pants, of her choice!