Quality time

In more ways than one, women can be the most deceiving creatures on Earth. There are around a million women out there who look like a million bucks and act as classy and as refined as say, Queen Elizabeth or the Princess of Monaco. And they can dress to kill, too – with Greenhills tiangge clothes that come priced at three for a hundred that they mix with a couple of Ayala Center’s Midnight Madness goodies. Not that it’s bad to dress cheap – God knows that with our not-so-fabulous economy and oh-so-low day job wages, every peso saved counts for a lot. And the better women look in their cheap finds, the more plus points they earn in the creativity department.

But there’s one thing that’s an absolute no-no in the fashion department – go for the budget-friendly clothing but NEVER EVER go for the fakes. You see, women are not only the most deceiving creatures on Earth but they are also the most watchful of other women and the most vicious fashion critics. And it’s all the small things that women (and most in-the-know men) really look at such as shoes, watches, belts, bags, bag charms, phone charms... you name it. They’ll spot your Louis Vuitton with cheap synthetic lining or Chloé Paddington from Greenhills a mile away – and knowing Philippine society, you’ll get a lot of balk-talk for that. And yes, although it is best to not overindulge in excesses, we do need a dash of luxury in our lives and if you want to wear a great watch – just work hard and invest in the real thing.

Purchasing fashion fakes is just as bad as music and film piracy.

Watches and bags for example are great fashion investments that you can even pass down to your future grandchildren (and technically, after 27 years, you can even already consider them vintage.) The trick is, knowing which labels or brands to invest in. Hello, if you’re ready to spend on anything you intend to pass down as an heirloom, you might as well make it worth it – meaning the cost of your investment will actually not depreciate over time and actually increase in worth over the years (like those rare comic books that used to cost like a few hundred pesos and now cost more than a couple of thousand dollars each.) And the foolproof labels to invest on – Salvatorre Ferragamo, Louis Vuitton and Hermes for bags and it’s gotta be Chopard for watches. With designs that are so elegant and classic you could practically use them for almost every occasion for the next couple of decades. After all, every woman’s got a right to indulge once in a while.