The atmosphere in Hong Kong at night is so wild! Full of energy, it is definitely a hustling-bustling environment similar to New York City. The sky scrapers here advertise on the side of their buildings- the letters and/or symbols run up all sides of the towers. This makes the city brilliantly lit up at night! Across the street from my hotel, the Four Seasons Hong Kong, is the Ritz Carlton hotel (most of the floors are occupied by various businesses and companies though) which is over a hundred stories high! Every night they run words and usually cartoons advertising something or other, all over the front and sides of the building, how awesome! Each night the images change, so it’s always such a cool surprise to see what is being showed. Apart from the extremely gigantic buildings, another attribute to Hong Kong’s vibrant personality is the traffic. Although you imagine a city this big having nightmarish traffic, it is surprisingly very efficient. Now that doesn’t mean that it is a safe, regulated process. No, my cab rides consist of covering my eyes and bracing myself. I do not know how the locals are so calm when four cars try to jam into one lane, at the same time, with two double decker buses coming on either side. Crazy! Speaking of the crazy cabs, to get these pictures, I saw my life flash before my eyes as I was standing in the middle of the street;) But seriously you can even see a cab coming straight for me!

I love this little two piece set from the new Kendall and Kylie collection. The shorts are a little oversized, which I prefer since the top doesn’t cover that much up there, lol. The frayed edges just give it a summery, chic vibe. I matched this casual set with some of my favorite platform sneakers, my Louis Vuitton crossbody bag, and my new Dior ‘So Real’ sunglasses. (It was light out when I left the hotel, but you can totally wear your sunnies at night, right?)

Sunnies: Dior $600 via- here

Top: Kendall + Kylie $98 via- here

Shorts: Kendall + Kylie $98 via- here

Sneakers: Flamingo $320 via- here

Bag: Louis Vuitton $775 via- here

Love,

Your Secret Admirer

Dear Fashionistas,

Traveling around Asia has been such an amazing, out of the box experience. Our trip has been filled with many new sights, sounds, and definitely new food! After spending a week in Shanghai, we hopped over to Hong Kong. Hong Kong is cosmopolitan like New York City but also has the beautiful topography of San Fransico. This sky-scraper studded city winds through mountains and faces the South China Sea. So not only do I get to see the lit up, sky grazing architecture of the city, I also get great views of all the mountains and the third largest harbour in the world (Victoria Harbour), from my hotel room window!! I love leaving my blinds open all night and waking up to the already busy harbour and the mountains blanketed by the morning fog. It’s become my ritual to end my nights looking out at the same breathtaking view before getting in some coveted beauty sleep. 

Here’s my morning toast with an overcast and “toasty” Hong Kong in the background! 😉 

Perfect end to my evening from the other day. I might be sleepy but I’ll never get tired of this view! 

We spent our first full day taking in this vibrant city, with lots of sight-seeing and shopping. Our first stop was Stanley Plaza. It is a huge market filled with local vendors but also has a modern, international mall right next door. The side streets are lined with little cafes and restuarants that neighbor the sea. 

We speant the majority of our time navigating through the local stalls, browsing the hand-made jewelry, paintings, and clothing. Then we went to the other side of the Plaza, by the little cafes and eateries, to the shopping area. 

We shopped around for a bit, of course, I had to make a quick stop in H&M! After shopping at Stanley, we went to the prime district for people who are looking to go bankrupt in Hong Kong- Landmark luxury shopping mall. Huge Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Saint Laurent, Armani, Versace, Hermes, Gucci, and Dolce and Gabana boilstered their colorful, grand store entrances over the stretch of Landmarks various towers. Each window blew me away, every store had their own look. Chanel launched their “hotel” themed campaign, which used a lot of black and white shades. Louis Vuitton launched their Series #5 campaign which features a dark take on jet-set travel. So tons of new luggage, small crossbody bags, and backpacks were taking over the displays. The Louis Vuitton Hong Kong was perhaps the coolest one I’ve ever been in, it had a three story set up with these awesome stairs leading from platform to platform. 

I almost got dizzy every time I climbed up and down these crazy things! 

Since I knew I would be walking around the streets of this busy, fast paced city, I made sure to wear sneakers to not slow me down. I went with polished, black and white tones (I didn’t even plan matching with Chanel;)); with black denim shorts, white tee, and a dark, fitted blazer. My Dior ‘So Real’ mirrored sunnies and Prada  crossbody were the perfect finishing touches. 

Sunnies: Dior $600 via- here

Blazer: Rebecca Minkoff $348 via- here

Tee: Merona $9 via- here

Shorts: Joes Jeans $148 (sold out, not available anymore) 

Sneakers: Louis Vuitton $740 similar ones found via- here

Bag: Prada $895
Love,

Your Secret Admirer

Dear Fashionistas,

I have never been to Asia before this past week (except for Maldives, if that’s in Asia?). Shanghai was my first Chinese city experience and it was nothing like I expected. Back in the US, we are so used to space, our own language, and especially our own food. There is a reason we love our country and that’s because we can stay inside our little boxes and never really have to branch out. Shanghai was definitely stepping out of the box for me, but not in a negative way at all. I got to see and talk to so many different people. Sometimes it was hard to communicate, (I did have to play charades a few times), but other than a few times, everyone was welcoming and spoke English to me as best they could. Even if their English was barely passable or not even understandable, I still appreciated the effort; I mean if they came to the States would I be trying out my Chinese on them? That’s one thing that I believe us Americans are so deprived of is learning how to communicate with other cultures and people, since everyone caters to us (me included in my 3rd grade level Spanish). Shanghai’s downtown area was way different from any city I had ever been too. If you multiply New York City by three and make every building over 40 stories high, that’s Shanghai. I’ve never been to a city this gigantic before, 30 million people!!!! That was such a cool experience. I used to think LA of New York real estate was expensive, but 2-3,00 $$$ a square meter? That’s about 1-2 million every thousand square feet. There are just so many people, that the cost of living is so much greater. 

I took this picture from my hotel window, below you see some of the nicest town houses and apartments. No big backyards there! As high as the cost of living is though, the communities do as best they can to keep everyone afloat. Like the restuarants- we went our to one of the nicest in the city and ordered for eight really hungry people, 10 not-so hungry. We ended up buying dinner for 20% of what it would have been back home. Now the food was a struggle at first. I was a little terrorized with knowing the stereotypical Chinese meal of fried dog and cat for dinner, but this was never the case. Luckily I never saw a dog or cat on a menu or that manager would have had a big problem;) The hardest part was just learning what everything was, but once I found the things I liked, I thought the food was great. My favorites were frittatas for breakfast and some devilish   little donuts that were way to enticing. For lunch was normally some type of dim sum- a Shanghainese specialty. Little steamed buns with filling inside. Spinach, mixed vegetable, chicken, and spicy crab were my favorites. 

Dinner was always pretty American since we stayed at such a Western hotel. Whenever there is a Four Seasons establishment I always stay there, ever since I was a little girl. The thing that probably shocked me the most about Shnaghai was the cleanliness. I was expecting with 30+ million that the streets would be lined with trash. But every public place, restuarant, hotel, and even most of the streets were close to spotless. A lot of things really took me by surprise, especially the parks. The public parks are beautiful, about every sport field or court is in peak condition. My favorite part about Shanghai had to be that breathtaking skyline. I could stare at the urban area for hours, night or day! One of the most beautiful views we had was when we went to Lost Heaven for dinner. The vibe was like vinatge Chinese meets the glitz and glam of the 20s, with its velvet couches and four story, temple like structure. 

The rooftop bar was amazing and was in the center of the city!! It couldn’t have gotten any better. For such an awesome day and night out, full of shopping the Chinese markets- 

to an extravagant Chinese dinner, my first experiences in Shanghai were unbelievable inspiring. I became so into the culture and the language- I now can say thank you, hello, and how are you all in Mandarin! I would definitely go back to Shanghai in a heartbeat. 

Now down to business (is fashion even budiness, it’s too fun to be). I have been a fan of the brand Style Stalker for a few years now! It’s one of the only brands that fit my petite physique perfectly, everytime. Colorful prints and vibrant colors are always in for the warmer weathered months, so a Style Stalker romper is one of my go-to’s. For a sweltering, sightseeing filled day in Shanghai, I wore this tropical, royal blue and white floral onsie. With its mostly open back and sleeveless arms, it made walking around the huge, 80% humidity city such a breeze. I added some Ray-Ban sunnies, that coincidencently had these awesome polarized blue lenses! I knew I was going to be walking a ton, welcome to a city with 30 million people- you would think traffic couldn’t get any more nightmarish then LA or New York right? WRONG!!!! So I copped out of wearing the cute stilettos I had originally planned on, and threw on my steady white and cork wedges. Of course I had to have a pop of pink, so I carried around my chevron Yves Saint Laurent crossbody. 


I hope you all get the chance to visit Shanghia! More to come of my Asia adventure. Zàijiàn! 

Love,

Your Secret Admirer