Meghan's Wonderful Wedding Dress - You Can Get One Like It - But Which Fabrics?

Problem
I received an exciting email from Intu, the shopping mall in Watford , North west London, England.(Intu have more malls all over the country). Meghan's wedding dress inspired dresses with boat necks at unbelievable prices (low! affordable! -  to high) but missing an essential fact - what's the fabric?

I then go onto ASOS, and I see more of the fabulous designs. Again, not enough information. I see one or two captions mention lace, but most give no indication of the material.

Answers
What I like about Amazon and ebay is usually see what you are getting. Ebay even has reference guides to: types of fabric; silver; and so on.

I have worked out the meaning of sand-washed silk and other types of silk. One word, or rather phrase of description which confused me this week was Ice Silk. As far as I can see it's almost a brand name, a synthetic, not silk from a silk worm. I was on the point of sending off a complaint to ebay when I thought about it and had second thoughts.

If they banned thre phrase Ice Silk, maybe they would have to stop advertisers using the term Thai Silk. I love Thai silk. I often search for Thai silk. Thai Silk, which is not silk, is a term I understand.

Thai Silk
After a long time thinking Thai silk was always real silk, then I found out it's usually a patterned synthetic fabric with a lovely gloss or sheen, and looks expensive.  I am happy to buy it again and again.

Ice Silk
However, the term Ice Silk is new to me. I feel it should be Ice Silky or Thai Silky.

Faux Leather
The same caution grips me when I read 'faux leather'. I don't feel outraged. I feel confused, afraid that I am being cheated, foolish, stupid, gullible. If nothing else, it wastes my time giving me pages of synthetics when I am trying to buy the real thing. Therefore, I run out of time and patience and go away buying nothing.

It took me a while, and a couple of wasted purchases, to find out that noil silk is not soft and smooth but bubbly.

Fresh
I am also bothered by a brand of juice called Fresh, because now when I look at menus I can never tell whether the Fresh juice really is the brand or made freshly squeezed on the premises.

I recall the phrase 'buyer beware'. I'm sure the sellers are making a fortune and have many happy customers. I am not yet one of them.  What do you think?

At least, with a name like faux leather, or Thai silk or ice silk, you can google away until you find out what the fabric really is. Because I speak French fluently, I know that faux means false. But when there's no description, how do you know what you are getting?

I can see for myself if it looks boat-neck, or pleated, or lace. But will it turn out to be backless? Is it lined? Elasticated? Could I wear it more than three hours? (Before it fell apart!)

If you are buying goods for a wedding or honeymoon in the summer heat, you may be concerned about the fabric. Is it lightweight, cotton, washable, crease-free, stain repellent, soft, scratchy, machine washable, dry clean only, hand wash only - what?

Replica of Kate's wedding dress, from Chinese source. Wikipedia.

Useful Websites
https://intu.co.uk/inspire-me/meghan-markle-wedding-dress-dupe?utm_medium=Newsletter
http://www.asos.com/search/wedding%20dress?q=wedding+dress

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Travel bags, messenger bags and expanding bags

I have been hunting on the internet to replace the beautiful burgundy wine colour messenger bag I 'lost' in Singapore. Since nobody has tried to return my bag, and the majority of Singaporeans are so honest, and return wallets left behind on public places such as buses, I presume it has been stolen.

What was so special about the bag? The colour co-ordinated with all my burgundy clothes. A warm red, good for daytime instead of funereal black. The fabric was wipe-clean. Being fabric, it was light to carry. It held a lot, well organised in several pockets. And it was expandable. So it could lie flat, hidden under a voluminous swing style coat or jacket, or be expanded to hold a book, camera, whatever.

I originally bought the bag from Scotts of Stow. I searched for them on the internet and the bag is still available, but only coloured stone (off-white) or black. This choice of colours may suit you. One of each should carry you through winter and summer, or day and night, without clashing with any other colours. Black and white is great for bags which co-ordinate with all your winter black or winter white, or daytime white and evening black, or white at night if you want to be visible to motorists when crossing the road. However, if you tire easily and are lifted by red, or already have a bright red bag or two, and want a more refined plummy colour, alas, no burgundy, yet. I'm still hunting rival bags.

What about the maker? The brand is Travelon, T r a v e l o n (I have to spell it out in case a spell checker changes it again) which is American. I had hoped that Scotts of Stow had selected just the best -selling colours and the manufacturer still offered more colours. Unluckily for me, their website does not show my bag in the burgundy colour.

I hunted for the design on Amazon. On Amazon you can find a similar bag in a subtle steel blue.

The Travelog site in America lists their worldwide suppliers. In the UK they listed Scotts  of Stow, and Lakeland - I visited their Watford branch and they had no such bag.

I found lots of magic words which kept me busy searching on. I tried wine and burgundy. Wine brings up too many bottles of wine so I had to drop that word.

I also tried purple bag. I found eggplant. Lots of red bags.

I searched for leather bags, (eliminating faux leather, and those which claim to be leather, but with faux leather trims).

My next search was for fabric, and nylon bags.

Then I tried expandable bags. I found another word, convertible bags. That led me to bags which can expand, with bottle holders, and bag with a torch and many zips, and bags which can be carried like a handbag or made into a shoulder bag with a strap, or turned into a rucksack to wear on your back, and a backpack with wheels.

I also looked for wheel on bags and suitcases with four wheels.

Other interesting brands included: Fantasy; Rick Steve; Rick Steves' Civita Tote; Mother Lode; TLS.
ebay.com
amazon.co.uk
amazon.com
liebeskind real leather bags
R2u anti-theft underarm bag
Ryanair suitcase trolley bags
Suvelle Slouch multi-pocket organisers
travelonbags.com
lakeland

Messenger bags I looked at were in the range of £13-£50. Those from the USA had varying postage to the UK, some as high as £30, plus import duties of as high as £15, and some would not deliver outside the USA, or not to Singapore and other specified countries.

Angela Lansbury, author, travel writer and photographer, speaker.