7 Must-Have Items To Shop From Nordstrom Anniversary Sale

If you want to stock up on new items for summer to fall transitional months and feel happy about your fresh purchase then Nordstrom has a lot of things to offer than any retailer at this time of the year!!! I do not know whether I should be happy about the fact that there would be a huge sale that's coming or the fact that there is also an early access to the Nordstrom Anniversary sale. One thing is for sure that they have a lot of trendy items than expected! Browsing the nordrtrom website I have found a couple of things which I absolutely believe that me, you and every fashionholics out there would love to have!!!

The Nordstrom Anniversary Sale starts from Friday July 22 and ends on Monday August 7th. The best part is the early access which starts on Thursday July 14th. So, how to get an early access and shop the sale a whole extra eight days before everyone else??? It is simple apply for Nordstrom card. Nordtrom lets you apply and access instantly after you are approved! Click here if you want to apply and get the best deals.

 If you are a regular reader of A Fashionholic's Life you very well know that the idea of and inspiration behind this blog is solely you!!! So, just like every time I am here to give more fashion forward tips. But this time I am going to tell you what items you should buy at this time of the year!!! Surprisingly Nordstrom has it all!!!

Yay!!!

These are the 7 items to shop from Nordtrom!

Shirt Dress: Wear it with wedges, hoop earrings and tote bag during summer and in colder months wear it over your button down shirt. Finish the look with thin scarves and ankle boots when temperature drops.
Shop The Shirt Dress Below

Embroidered Pieces: Embroidery is an art ad embrace it with open arms by mixing and matching it with other embroidered pieces. Open up yourselves with variety of embroidered style! I am sure you would love mixing and matching.
Shop The Embroidered Pieces Below

Straw Bag: You should replace your go to structured bag with this straw bag instead because life is supposed to be fun and fashion is part of our life!!!! Wear it with monochromatic outfit.... I would love to know how you would style it.
Shop The Straw Bags Below

Waist Coat: During colder times of summer and during the transitional period of summer and fall wear this fashion forward piece over your favorite staple. For fall I would suggest you guys to wear it over your slouchy sweater. Let me know and give me some options to wear this enviable piece.
Shop Waistcoats Below

Statement Earrings: No more statement necklace! It is time for statement earrings!
Shop Statement Earrings Below

Denim Pieces: Blue denims are always in style but have you thought of playing up and looking with white denims.... Checkout different options like white denim flare pants, white denim sundress and white denim jacket.
Shop White Denim Staples Below

Flat Mules: Mules are the trendy item of the year but most people are opting for high heel mules. The first half of this year were the times of high heels and second half is for these beautiful and fashion forward flat mules. Wear this with slip dress and mini structured bag during summer and opt for slouchy sweater underneath the slip dress when the temperature drops.
Shop Flat Mules Below

Let me know what are you excited to buy and how will you style those staples in an unique way?

Happy Shopping!

How To Avoid The Sale Rack!

So you love buying on impulse every time you hit the mall and browse through the sale rack? You just cannot help it! You feel everything is just solely for you and you must have it all to give your already bursting wardrobe more oxygen. Shopping on sale makes you happy or should I say elevated and overexcited!  It's the release of endorphin which triggers the positive feeling in your body making you feel exhilarated! I know shopping on sale feels great but that happiness lasts temporarily until you find out that you are no longer interested in the thing which you have bought recently!

But what you should do? Looking at the sale rack and not buying anything is like going to a restaurant and not eating anything!  The sale rack is a very good way to lure you to buy more than your budget and it's the best way to wear the trends which you wanted so badly to try on but couldn't due to your tight budget and overpriced item. 

So here is why you should avoid sale rack:

1. The word "sale" gives you an excuse to buy things that you don't need I your wardrobe!

2. You concentrate more on trends than your personal style while shopping from the sale rack

3. If a shop is giving you bigger sale, it will more likely to make you shop more and hurt your budget.

4. You are going to buy items that you have spotted on your favourite celebrity and do not tend to care whether it suits you or not.

5. You are more likely to buy clothing items that are one size bigger or smaller than you if the sale is for, say 20 minutes or something.

6. You do not tend to read what it says on the label and you find out it says " dry clean only " once you reach home!

7. You mistakenly buy defective items from the sale rack and you realize this once you reach home and find a hole on your latest purchase.

8. Sale rack is going to lead you to a serious shopaholic!

9. Sale rack will make you forget about buying items that are necessary like your basic items, casual clothes and office wear and would make you dependent on latest trends. Say bye bye to capsule wardrobe! :(

10. You are more likely to buy items that you do not like but buy them just because they are cheap!

So, after reading till now do you still want to buy from sale rack? If No.....great...read on to know how you should avoid the sale rack....and if you say yes, you are more than welcome to read the rest of my blogpost.....and thank me later.

So, here is how you should avoid sale rack:

1. Go to your wardrobe and write down things that you "don't need" rather than things that you "need" and read the whole thing once you are done writing. That way you capture the note in your head and while shopping you won't slip into the habit of buying from sale rack.

2. Now you know what you need to buy, write those down and take the note along with you while shopping.

3. Love the latest trends? Or are you excited to buy a particular trend that you spotted on the magazine? Make a list of your favourite trends of the season! But don't go shopping yet....Swear by the "rule of 1/4"while shopping trends! Okay, I know you are confused. What I mean is you should only buy 1/4 of what you have written. Say you wrote 20 favourite trends of the season. But you are going to pick your most favourite and buy only 1/4 of what you wrote, in this case only 5! See that's the idea! This would make your shopping easier and you are more likely to avoid sale rack because the best items are least likely to go on sale.

4. Before entering your favourite store, say J. Crew, repeat couple of times that you would only buy things that you "need"!

5. Mostly the sale rack are placed at the far corner of the shop! Make it a priority that you would only check out the racks that are placed near the entrance and that you would not travel far corner of the shop to checkout the sale rack to find out what hidden treasures are there.

6. What if the sale rack is placed on the entrance of your favourite store? Avoid going to your favourite store if possible! Even if you enter the store make it a priority to buy what you need, not buy what you want.

7. What if you can't let go of what you have just spotted on the sale rack? Swear by to buy only one item from sale rack.

However sometimes it is okay to buy and get what your heart desires from the sale rack! Just do not make it a habit every time you go shopping for yourself!

So, How do you avoid sell rack?

How To Wear Plunging Top Without Looking Inappropriate!

Plunging tops are way too hard to pull off. It requires a lot of courage and confidence to wear plunging top. There were lots of plunging necklines spotted on the runway and I know that many of us are looking forward to accepting and embracing this trend. I know many of you are thinking that this particular trend is solely for the models and bloggers with great body and confidence. But trust me, It's just requires a lit bit of sartorial knowledge and good dose of confidence to master this plunging neckline trend! Trust me on this....So here is what I have chosen to make this particular plunging top look spectacular.

Who says you cannot wear sequence during day time? So if you were to put on this particular plunging top how would you style it during day time ? How would you wear it if you were to hangout with your female friends? It's easy you have to look for sober yet stylish options like this beige maxi skirt! Earlier I have mentioned that you need sartorial knowledge to look great in plunging neckline top. So look appropriate in this trend go for layering piece! Don't go for something that would totally cover your plunging top. You might go for something that would give a peek into that beautiful sequence top. A sleeveless waistcoat could do that for you. So what colours should you look for when your plunging top has lots of colours and has sequence? Go for light colours and make sure that your waist coat has clean and straight shape. You don't want lots of frills and ruffles when you have so much drama going on underneath your waistcoat! Wear this with beautiful dangling pearl earrings. As for shoes animal print would look great since your skirt and waistcoat are sober and simple. Finish the look with a statement bag! I choose this brown clutch in clean stripes which is the hottest trend for SS16. 

Shop The Look Below:

Fashion Lessons From: Adele

"Hello" there! Today I would dedicate this post to all those women who stood up against body shaming and would make their voice heard to stop this crucial issue that is still present in our society. In the world of celebrity there are lots of people who spoke up  about body shaming issues. But there is one person who has never talked about it until very recently and opened up about how she has been dealing with it over the years. She is Adele! She has been struggling with body image all her life and she opens  up about it when she released her album "when We Were Young". She says she won't let the body image problem rule her life. She says,"There is only one of you, why would you want to look like everyone else?" And she is absolutely right! We should celebrate and be happy with how we look and therefore should stop stereotyping!

I must say Adele is different and she has unique and classic sense of style. Today is Adele's birthday and here are some of her best outfit pairing from which we should learn some fashion lesson and take some ideas...Happy Birthday Adele! 

Pair your printed scarf with your printed jumpsuit! Make sure that your scarf and jumpsuit have prints that are of almost similar colours and patterns. Add a belt to define your waist. 

Head to toe black is not boring when your outfit is structured, polished and has a sophisticated style. Make sure the fabric is rich and the silhouette is feminine and clean line. A duster coat with gold buttons look fantastic on Adele which she wore with fedora hat, shades and boots.

A statement jacket is all you need to brighter your day. Go for head to toe black and add a printed statement jacket!

Everyone must have a coat that is other than the colour, black. Go for red, yellow, blue or even pastel. Or take fashion cue from Adele and go for a fringe coat.

When you are in a hurry it's hard to accessorize and look great but with simple steps casual look can be fun too. Make your casual look cooler with three simple items: shades, sneakers and colour block bag.

Wear black and add red lipstick when you are unsure about what to wear to a formal event.

Forget the fashion rules and try something daring. Go for printed dress and printed shoe. Make your outfit look monochromatically printed by opting for print shoes in similar colour of the dress.

Steal her look by shopping Alele inspired items below.

Parsons Teen Vogue: My Audience

This is a blog post done for Parsons Teen Vogue to complete the certificate program called "Fashion Industry Essentials". As fun as this program is for learning about fashion industry essentials, this program also gives various challenges and helps to teach about social media management. I am given the task to set up an account at Hootesuite where I can link 3 of my social media links for free. Hootesuite keeps track of my audience, shares, likes etc. It also helps me to manage my posts and even helps me to schedule them on particular date and time. Moreover through Hootesuite all the things happening in 3 of my social media channel is tracked and therefore it is easy for me to know the latest happenings in my social media channels. 

So, in Hootesuite I have included my Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. It is found that highest number of social media visitors are from USA followed by Canada and Germany. Moreover most of them are female. Moreover I have visitors coming from France, Bangladesh, Singapore. The peek time for social media visitors are Pacific Time, 7 pm.

This site Hootesuite has helped to not only to keep track of who is visiting from where or at what time but also it helped me to schedule post and see the latest post (popular posts) of those I follow, especially in Instagram. For more information and to get more knowledge about social media marketing check out Parsons Teen Vogue http://enroll-teenvogue.parsons.edu/online-fashion-courses/ now!

Swap The Old Pieces In Your Closet With Unexpected And Cute Pieces This Spring!

HEY THERE! It's time to detox your wardrobe and add new items for spring which are trendy and timeless at the same time. Give yourself a new look this spring by swapping your basic and adding something remarkable and unexpected to make your look feel fresh again. We, the fashion conscious people ostensibly put on a statement making pieces to be more appreciated and liked by the public. So, I believe these simple yet statement making pieces are enough to grab attention and you could turn out to be an inspiration for other people.

So, Ann Taylor has lots to offer this spring for all those fashionistas who loves to be timeless yet on trend every season. Check out all my favourite pieces and read on to know why I preferred these over basic pieces!

READ ON till the end to SHOP each and every pieces of ANN TAYLOR shown in the post.


Swap your culottes with high waisted short culottes!

Swap your floral printed scarf with fun prints like this pineapple scarf for spring!

Vow not to wear  moto jacket for this spring and instead go for sophisticated cargo jacket.

Sure, stacked bracelets makes your wrist look beautiful and attractive but go for stacked rings instead and make your hand look prettier than it is.

A ballet is always perfect choice for spring but go for flats that are almost ballet-like. How about this flats in the picture below? These are the cute floral flats which you can wear with your sundress and jeans.

A tee in different neckline and fun colour is required for SS2016 to give your basic white tee a break. Don't you agree?

Less chunky statement necklace is much needed for spring. Coz a simple yet statement making necklace could make your face look beautiful and make your spring cardigan to stand out. What do you think of this statement making fringe necklace below? They are not chunky necklace yet they are big enough to be statement making!

A colour block sweater has been in trend but find something that has unique colours. How about this picture below? A blend of navy blue, coral and strawberry is perfect and makes the sweater an eye catching piece for the night out.

Tired of ear studd or dangling earrings? Look for something in between instead. Look for chandelier earrings like this one that is not big enough to call a dangling earrings.

If you have experimented with romper last spring. Go for playsuit or shell! Don't you love this belted gingham shell in the picture below?

Let me know which trend from above pictures you are looking forward to try and why?

Shop all the Ann Taylor pieces below.





 

How To Wear: Long Summer Coats

Being a Bangladeshi Canadian woman I always had to go through hurdles and difficulties for wearing what I like. There has always been negative attitude and remarks towards my clothing from my mom, grandma and some of my relatives. There is no freedom of choice, no freedom to express yourself and no freedom to express yourself through clothing. However I was adamant and always ignored what others thought and felt about what I believe.

One common thing that I had to hear while dressing up is to put on a scarf with whatever you are wearing. This could be Because the South Asian societys have traditional clothing called Salwaar Kameez that they see it as decent, appropriate and not "vulger". Therefore I was always tired of ruining my entire outfit with stupid scarves. 

Thanks to all the SS 2016 runway and season before that for coming up with the long summer coat trend and saving me from all the tantrums that I had go through from my mom. She thinks the long coats are decent enough and can do the work of the traditional scarf. I have no idea what she means. Great thing is I can dress it up or dress it down but you would still look decent yet stylish.

So, here is how  I wore my long summer coat.

Layering is still fun in summer. It's all about choosing the right length. I went for short printed crop top over a long lace tank in deep mint green to make my look unexpectedly fashion forward. Moreover the dark yet romantic print of crop top looks gorgeous against the soft floral print of long coat.

As the outfit itself look dramatic because of the long coat and looks it's going to be swift off by the wind. So, why not go for accessories that are dramatic as well? Fringe earrings are fun and a earthy tone makes my outfit sober yet dramatic.

Ditch your jeans and black formal pants. And make your outfit standout with a dark and daring colour. How about Oxblood?

An outfit is complete with a statement shoe. Next time go for unexpected colour combos in your outfit.

Hoping to hear from what you have got to say about how you wear your long summer coats.

 Shop similar looks below.

Inspired By: The 80s

 Today I thought I should better change the way I dress and opt for the 80s inspired look. Something that would definitely remind me of Madonna, she introduced the new black which was very much in vogue. She tried different textures and patterns of black clothes and redefined the colour in such a way that now it is said to be the most fashionable colour. The 80s were known for the punks, the grunge look and the gothic look. 

So in remembrance of 80s, I opted for darker hues in my outfit. However I didn't let go of some colours in my attire. Therefore I opted for feminine mini.

Accessories can speak what you are trying to portray and can therefore can make or break an outfit. So, for the 80s grunge look, I made sure my accessories are hardcore and so I opted for fur cross cuff and knuckle ring from Aldo.

Not necessarily all the accessories you wear should look grungy, to add your personal style go for something that speaks you you are. I went for this long blush floral necklace.

Dark resembles 80s pop music and ankle booties. Never let go of your peep toe ankle booties and hold it till the spring ends....

Shop similar looks below!

Update Your Look With Unique Accessories

Hey Fashion Lovers! How do you sizzle up your date night outfit or girls night out outfit ? Is it Your  perfect little black dress? Statement shoe? A date night outfit is incomplete without perfect accessories and lots of confidence. What makes an outfit stand out is the way you accessorize it. Here is what I wore in a semi formal music event. Instead of picking my outfit first for the event I started building my outfit around my knuckle ring.

Check out my latest style tips and tricks to build an outfit around your most unique accessories.

I wanted my accessories to stand out and nothing makes your outfit stand out than pairing it with another unique accessories. So, I paired my H&M knuckle ring with my Guess charm bracelet.

As for the outfit I wore a dress underneath a skirt. So, if your summer short dress is sitting idly in the back of your closet give it a new look by tucking it under a long maxi skirt!

For any event I look for details in an outfit that is surely a conversation starter. Plunging necklines and a knot in the skirt are definitely worth noticing. What kind of detail you guys look for???

 I mixed the print of my dress with this cute, very much attention grabbing polka dots and floral bag from Aldo.

Just like the rest of your outfit your feet also needs some unique touch. I know it's neither an ankle boot nor it's a pump shoe. It's somewhere in between. This particular shoe has unique box heels giving my look more of 80s vibe.

Black and electric pink are always in and makes your outfit both feminine and edgy at the same time. What's your favourite colour combo?

Pony tail is also the best way to keep it simple when it comes to hairstyle. A sleek ponytail is fuss free and classic.

What's your idea on updating your date night or girls night out outfit? Let me know in the comments below.