sentiments on foreign brands and winter shopping for a bargain

i noticed that there's an emergence of foreign fashion brands in the local malls these days. years ago it was just esprit, benetton, giordano and guess. now there's mango, topshop, terranova, dorothy perkins, etc.

i often browse these new boutiques before. but even then when i have a lot of cash to spend, i find that those items are not worth the very big amounts in their price tags. the fabrics are usually too thin up to the point of almost being transparent. not to mention that there's always too much stock of a certain item. mass production, hmpf! even some of their stuff can also be found in bazaars (but with slight modifications) which you can purchase at 30% of the boutique's price. imagine that. but i must admit that there are quite a number of pretty stuff out there which is buy-worthy but not really for regular wear basis.

since the latter weeks of january, everytime i go to mall of asia i often see people carrying one or more shopping bags with the name of terranova and calliope. now i don't wanna sound like a snob but i'm quite surprised that those people don't look like they would buy in those shops. when B and i planned our trip to clark for the hot air balloon fest, i wanted to buy a new jacket. i saw the magic letters S-A-L-E for the winter collection so i entered calliope and found this cute striped cashmere pullover on display. i went through their other stuff and fell in love with a black draped neck cashmere sweater. i was torn between those 2 coz i know i only need one. but when i saw that the label for the striped one says 499, i immediately went to the counter with those 2 items on my hand. the black sweater was tagged at 799 so imagine my surprise when the cashier told me my bill was only 998 pesos. turns out that both were priced at 499. whoa, i'm so happy! 2 cashmere sweaters from calliope for less than a thousand bucks. what a bargain! now i know why a lot people have those calliope-terranova shopping bags.

a little anecdote to share: when i was trying the sweaters on, i overheard a guy asking his girlfriend what to wear those sweaters for. the girl said "para sa winter nga!". the guy replied "eh wala namang winter dito!". hahahah. i couldn't help giggling from the fitting room i was in. wrong answer, girl. wroooong answer. of course there's no winter here in the philippines! but the weather's noticeably cooler during that time. i don't know about her, but i've already worn my sweaters last week.