Shopping, and what you will never understand until you live overseas

When I first moved to New Zealand in 2007 I still remember how shocked I was at the price of consumer goods.  I was used to buying $2 contact lens solution and $5 bottles of vitamins at Target.  Well here in NZ, the cheapest contact lens solution is ~$12NZD, and I stopped taking vitamins because a small bottle of 30 was about $25NZD+.

Stuff here is really expensive.  So when I started visiting home (once a year or every couple of years) I would load up.  On everything.  Underwear.  Q-tips.  Contact lens solution.  Vitamins.  Clothes.  Every trip home became a shopping trip.  Parcels would start arriving and piling up at my parents house weeks before I would arrive.  My family thought I was crazy.

That was because a trip home to the USA was my once-a-year shopping trip.  And honestly, until you live overseas, you honestly don’t have a clue how cheap consumer goods are.  Especially clothes.

We don’t have target, gap, old navy, or h & m, or forever 21 or loft or madewell or amazon.com or DSW or anything here in New Zealand.  I can’t just pop down to the mall and score some great top for $4 on clearance.  Glassons is as good as it gets.  And let’s be honest, forever 21 probably has better quality.

So yes, it is harder and a lot more expensive to look good when you don’t live in the USA.  Shopping is harder work here.  Have some idea of what you want?  Good luck finding it.  I tried to find a white button down blouse in town (a town of 100,000+ people) 6 months ago.  I couldn’t find one for less than $100.

Thus I implore you not to judge your ex-pat and foreign friends when they binge shop on their visits to the USA, because this is their annual or semi-annual shopping trip, and everything they buy will need to last until their next trip.  Because to be honest, if you’re reading this from the USA right now, you probably take the options and prices available to you for granted.

Dunedin Street Style: O week

Hello readers! It’s that time of year again. Not only is it O week (or Orientation week, here in Dunedin) but it’s time for another dose of Dunedin student inspired street style (or as I am now calling it: Scott and I go out and take photos of people who are much better dressed than I am!).  Our survey question for the day was from Scott: Man buns, hot or not?

In order to prove to you how much better dressed everyone else was than me, I give you exhibit A:

top: trademe, skirt: trademe, shoes: witchery

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The very first person we stopped actually agreed to be photographed which is a bit of a change (we are almost always turned down by the first person we approach).  Jess’s dress is from dotti and her earrings are from a market.  This fantastic outfit was something she just threw on as she was woken up super early at her hall.

Jess doesn’t really follow trends, she is influenced more by punk music and also she likes animals (which was a bit of a theme for the day).

And finally Jess’s thoughts on man buns were that some look good and some don’t – it depends on what they’re wearing.

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I loved the simplicity of Danielle’s outfit, and of course her great accessories.  Her romper is from Glassons, but her top is from an op shop (somewhere on the west coast!), her sunnies are le spec and and her shoes are from trademe (which of course she gets big points from me as we know how much I love trademe).

Danielle said she’s a big fan of accessories, especially those that are a bit ethnic with a bit of bling!

As to Danielle’s thoughts on man buns: No.  Let them go free!  (She admitted to preferring free flowing locks).

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We have an anonymous street styler today!  Scott loved her K-pop inspired style, which she said she just put on.  She uses primarily magazines and of course Seoul Street Fashion for inspiration, and likes to mix and match texture.  Her thoughts on man buns?  No.

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We also stopped Shiva (who Scott has previously stopped before in his quest for Dunedin street style last year – note she’s the first person to be photographed twice!). We loved her hat of course (I had left my in my office!), which is from Dotti and she is trying to wear as much as possible.

She said her style is usually very feminine or androgynous – she tends to go between the two (which is so cool, by the way.  I love people who are able to have very diverse styles, it’s totally awesome to feel equally comfortable in both!).

I loved her accessories – her awesome satchel was a parting gift from her work.

And Shiva admitted that she was in the minority, but thinks man buns are hot!

So that concludes our O-week fashion update.  Overall, the trend was definitely casual, as it’s been a pretty sweltering week by Dunedin standards.  Huge props to our featured street stylers today for not just throwing on cut-offs and a white tee.  And if you’re wondering why we didn’t feature any guys this time (which I swear, we really would have liked to)?  A word to all the males out there: dress better.

A huge thanks as usual to Scott of Scott Macshane Photography for taking all the amazing photos!

The offcial pics of our very kiwi wedding! (10.12.2015)

Ok, last wedding post (I promise!).  Our photographer, Jim Pollard of Jim Pollard goes click is an absolute wizard and not only was amazing to work with on our wedding day, but is a genius photographer, captured everything perfectly and got our photos back to us ridiculously fast – I can’t believe I’m only getting around to posting them now!  I simply cannot say enough good things about him or thank him enough!  So without further ado, here are some of my fave pics.  You can check out Jim’s full gallery about our day here.