Specialist shops are in abundance nowadays with prices ranging from sensible to the ridiculous. A small child has no concept of wearing designer clothes only the parent. Whether the clothes be cheap and cheerful or expensive and chic, babies and toddlers will still make a mess while eating, crawling and generally doing things small children do!

No matter how much or how little you spend, clothes still need to be practical. For anyone who has had the pleasure of dressing a wriggling baby or toddler, the buttons and zips definitely need to be in the right places. Time is limited when dressing or undressing your child so fiddly buttons and badly positioned zips and ties are a definite no no! Easy access via poppers especially in baby’s trousers is an excellent invention. Just think how much time it takes to put kicking legs into a pair of trousers!

Babies grow at an incredible rate so one doesn’t have to worry much about clothes being worn out, they tend to be outgrown and still in beautiful condition. This is great if you are possibly going to have more children or have someone with a smaller baby to pass clothes on to. Definitely a money saver if you are on the receiving end of another parents generosity.

Toddlers are wonderful little people who you can still dress to look cute – until they suddenly start to become independent and pick their own clothes. When they are at this stage you can forget looking stylish and fashionable, toddlers tend not to have any colour co-ordination or dress sense – be warned!

Early school years can be really simple, as most of the time the child will spend wearing a school uniform. Clothing your child is easier though it can be expensive depending on where you buy the uniform. Most of us buy at least a size bigger blazer or trousers so that the child ‘can grow into them’, this can cause embarrassment to our children. Be diplomatic and not too enthusiastic about your child’s growing abilities.

The wonderful teenage years! – A clothing nightmare. Just when you thought that purchasing a school uniform was simple you find out to the contrary. Your teenager suddenly must have designer named shoes, trainers, trousers – whatever they wear has to have the latest logo emblazoned on the front or back. Buying labels and sewing them on won’t work, teenagers may be difficult but they are not easily fooled.

At the end of the day, buy what you can afford, make sure the clothes are reasonable hard wearing and put together properly.

Dressing smaller children should be practical, it seems silly putting a pretty dress on a crawling baby as they will probably come to a stand still if they keep putting their knees onto the dress! As to dressing teenagers, well that is another matter, birthdays and Christmas come in handy for purchasing expensive clothes or trainers as presents, this can often be a good compromise.

Trends chop and change like the wind for teenagers so while your child is small enjoy dressing them up in colourful tasteful clothes that you have chosen, they at least won’t worry about losing their street cred!

Merchandisers and retailers know that wholesale products are the only way to go.  Wholesale products are products available at the price that big retailers pay.  Big retail outfits do not pay the same price for their products that they sell those products for.  How would they make money if they sold their merchandise for the price they paid for it?  Usually by buying in bulk, big retailers get their products at wholesale.  What does wholesale mean, really?  It means buying products cheaply, much more cheaply than at retail prices.

Can Anyone Buy Wholesale?

The best part about wholesale products is that just about anybody can buy them.  Usually, you don’t even have to be a big retailer to buy wholesale merchandise.  With summer fast approaching, sunglasses are becoming a hot commodity.  The sun may be out all the time, but only when summer rolls around do people consider buying new sunglasses.  Smart retailers are cashing in and stocking up huge displays of sunglasses, offering a siren song to those who don’t want the sun in their eyes.  And, best of all, these smart retailers are making money by purchasing sunglasses at wholesale prices.

You don’t have to be a known and established retailer to buy products like sunglasses at wholesale prices.  Anyone can buy wholesale if they can find what they’re looking for at wholesale prices, and if they buy in bulk.  Buying in bulk helps you to buy at those wholesale prices.  And you can mark the price up to whatever price you think people will pay, returning a profit on every pair of sunglasses sold.

Where Can You Find Wholesale Sunglasses?

The great thing about wholesale products is that a lot of companies offer them.  Do a little shopping around on the Internet, or even look up wholesale suppliers in the phone book.  With a little wheeling and dealing, you can get the best price on wholesale sunglasses.  Wholesale products are very affordable and bring you a nice profit.  There are tons of wholesale sunglasses suppliers on the Internet.  Just make sure you buy your sunglasses at wholesale, not retail.

How Do Wholesalers Make Their Money?

Wholesalers buy their products at cost.  This means that if a pair of sunglasses costs five pennies to make, wholesalers buy those sunglasses for five pennies apeice.  Wholesalers then turn around and offer the same sunglasses to you for a dime.  They make a huge profit and you’re still saving money.  It is almost impossible, unless you are a wholesaler, to find sunglasses or any other products at cost.  This is why retailers and others must go through wholesalers, who have access to at-cost products.  But even if wholesalers are making money off of you, you’re making money off of your customers.  This is the way that product-selling works.

Wholesale Sunglasses

By buying wholesale sunglasses and then selling them at retail prices, you directly profit from every single sale.  If you buy each pair for one dollar and then sell them each for ten, that’s a huge return!  That may sound impossible, but wholesale sunglasses can be purchased very cheaply and sold for much higher prices.  Why is this possible?  Because most people don’t know how to buy wholesale or even that it can be done.
Summer’s on its way, and everyone is worrying about how best to shade their eyes.  Hot, new styles of sunglasses are selling out almost as soon as they come into stores.  Buying wholesale sunglasses is your way to cash in on the action, and make profit for yourself.  Why buy retail when you can buy wholesale?

To wear a cocktail dress to a more formal event, all you need to do is to accessorize accordingly, perhaps wear more flashy pieces of jewelry and heavier makeup.  If you need to wear something dressy to the office for any reason other than the usual skirt or pantsuit, you can wear a cocktail dress that is not too flashy and just throw on a blazer and slip into sensible office shoes.  Many current styles of cocktail dresses are no longer limited to being party wear anymore.

Choosing what style of cocktail dress to wear, however, can be very tricky for most women.  After all, only a few women could claim to have truly perfect bodies, and most women who do not fall into the supermodel category prefer to hide the flaws of their figures.  Wearing a one-piece dress such as a cocktail dress can easily reveal those flaws if the dress does not fit the wearer’s body type.

In picking out the right cocktail dress to wear, a woman should always consider her body type – whether she is top-heavy or bottom-heavy – and find something that will balance out her figure.  If she is bottom-heavy, her aim should be to draw attention to the upper part of her body and to her face.  If she is top-heavy, she has the option either to emphasize her cleavage or to wear something that will pull the eyes to her legs.

What kind of cocktail dress would suit a woman with a bottom-heavy figure?   As said above, a woman with a bottom-heavy figure would want to hide the thickness around her hips and thighs.  A good cocktail dress for her to wear would be a dress that fits closely around the waist but without the seams pushed out by extra padding around the abdomen and has a skirt that flares out around the hips and thighs.  A cocktail dress with a full skirt would be perfect for a woman with a bottom-heavy figure because it will definitely hide whatever flabbiness and bulges that she wishes not to be seen around her lower body.

Another option available for a woman with a bottom-heavy figure is a cocktail dress that sports an empire-style waistline.  A cocktail dress with an empire-style waistline has the waist placed higher, thereby pulling the eyes towards the shoulders, the neck and the face.  It also drapes and skims over the lower body.  The only risk with wearing an empire-style cocktail dress, however, is that the empire-style cut is often used on maternity dresses, and so a woman wearing such a dress may be mistaken to be pregnant.

And yet another choice open for a woman with a bottom-heavy figure is a cocktail dress that is either sleeveless or strapless, also with a flaring skirt.  Again, baring the arms and the shoulders is effective in drawing attention away from the hips.

As for women with top-heavy figures, she could either emphasize her cleavage or her legs, as mentioned above.  If she wants to put focus on her legs rather than her cleavage, she can wear a cocktail dress with a solid-colored top paired with a patterned skirt.  She can hike the hem of her skirt up to make it shorter and really draw the eyes to her legs.

If she wants to attract attention to her ample cleavage rather than her legs, she can cover up her legs in a long-skirted cocktail dress but reveal a little skin on her upper body with a low V-neck or plunging neckline.  In fact, she can draw the eyes to both her top and her legs by wearing a short cocktail dress with a low neckline if she wants to.  What she should not do is to wear a cocktail dress with an overly busy top because it will make her upper body appear larger and skew the balance of her figure.

Accessories also help to keep the illusion of balance on a woman’s figure aside from wearing the right kind of cocktail dress.  Bottom-heavy women can wear flashy earrings, necklaces or chokers, while top-heavy women can forego the necklace and opt for a bracelet instead.  However, she should buy her cocktail dress first before figuring out what accessories, bag and shoes to wear.

Cocktail dresses are versatile dresses that can be worn on any occasion that requires some degree of formality without being a full black-tie event.  A woman should be able to choose the right cocktail dress that can really flatter her body type.

Coming back to the present, bikinis have become modest in character. Bikini bottoms are offering more coverage than in the past without giving up on their sex appeal. Last season witnessed straight, top-line bikini bottoms. Surprisingly, there were hardly any deep-V bikini bottoms, thongs or G-strings in sight. With more coverage in style, fashion houses are predicting that the ‘skirtini’ is going to be the next big thing in the swimsuit industry.

Bikinis come in a variety of styles, the most popular being ‘Tankini’ (a longer top that leaves only a small portion of the stomach exposed), ‘Bandini’ (a bikini with a bandeau top), ‘Camikini’ (similar to the tankini except the top looks like a camisole), and ‘Boy Legs’ (the bottom is longer and resembles short shorts). The classic halter-top, however, is still in vogue although the ‘Bandini’ was the hippest bikini style last season, with almost every swimwear label producing its own take on it. For the ties that bind, sashes, rather than spaghetti strings, were in demand.

For those on the heavier side, sarongs continue to be a flattering way to cover up the extra pounds, although board shorts are a sporty alternative.

The Process

Regardless of its name, dry cleaning uses perchloroethylene to remove soil and stains from fabric.  It is able to dissolve greases and oils and prevents shrinkage, loss of color, and fabric distortion. The process begins with the pretreatment of spots and stains using special cleaning agents. The garments are then loaded into a machine and washed with perchloroethylene, then pressed and packaged.

Two types of home dry cleaning products exist:  with a dryer bag (i.e. Dryel) and without a dryer bag (i.e. Dry Cleaner’s Secret).  Both processes begin with removing spots with the provided spot remover before either placing the garments into either the dryer bag or directly into the dryer along with the cleaning cloth, depending on the product. When the garments come out of the dryer they are wrinkle-free and typically require no other treatment.

Benefits and Drawbacks

Professional dry cleaning has obvious benefits, obvious drawbacks, and less obvious drawbacks that need to be brought to light.

When you bring your clothes to a professional dry cleaner, you can typically expect nothing less than perfect.  Your clothes will most likely be clean and stain-free, and all the wrinkles pressed out.  The entire process is more precise and thorough than the alternative at-home dry cleaning methods.  You get what you pay for.  Speaking of which, the cost of professional dry cleaning is a major drawback.  It’s expensive, with prices ranging from nearly four dollars to over twenty dollars, depending on the size of the garment, the fabric and the amount of treatment needed.

A little known fact about the process of professional dry cleaning is that the chemical perchloroethylene poses health risks to both the people handling the garments while they are being cleaned, and the customers who wear the clothes afterward.

Home dry-cleaning is a cheaper alternative.  It costs less than fifty cents per garment to dry clean at home if everything is done correctly. It also freshens and removes wrinkles in one simple process without the use of harmful chemicals.  The biggest drawback is that home dry cleaning kits cannot remove stains that are larger than a dime and sometimes need to be touched-up after the first cycle.

The Verdict

The truth of the matter is that deciding between professional dry cleaning and home dry cleaning is a matter preference, budget, and necessity.  If you have heavy or large stains, professionals can do the best job, but if you know that your local dry cleaner uses chemicals that may be harmful to your health then you might want to avoid using their service. If you have smaller stains or simply need to refresh a piece of clothing, then home dry cleaning is your best bet.

~Ben Anton

Fitted hats come in various sizes but will still fit snug when you choose the appropriate size for you.  The most popular hats are those displaying the logo of a favorite baseball team.  Many times the team represents more of the location rather than the team itself.  For example, the Boston Red Sox and NY Yankees are popular among those living in those cities.  For those who do not live in the same city, the selected team hat is more a representation of a favorite team or favorite colors.  Fitted hats are made by various manufacturers and one of the top ones is New Era.

You can find fitted hats in almost every shopping mall in America as well as specialized online shops.  While many sporting fans still purchase these hats, they are still most popular for fashion more than anything else.  The hats range in price, however, you have to beware of hats that are too low in price as there is a high chance of it being a knock-off.  Knock-off hats are also made of poor quality and are likely to fade easily or fall apart.

It is not uncommon for someone who is into urban fashion to own several fitteds.  They are also collectors items as some fitteds are produced in limited quantities or for special events.  Some people own as many fitted hats as they do shoes.  They are one of the top accessories for street wear and make as much of an impact to one’s outfit as the right shoes do.

If you come across a limited edition fitted hat, it is wise to purchase two.  One to wear and one to keep in your collection.  Many times, rare and hard to find fitted hats can go for quite a bit of money on popular auction sites such as eBay.  Fitted hats are also not limited to men and boys.  Women and girls are also getting into the fashion trend by wearing fitted hats with their casual outfits.

You can visit many urban fashion forums and see exactly which fitted hats make the cut.  These forums often have users post their photos wearing fitted with their favorite outfits.  Other forum members rate the overall outfit and usually comment on the fitted hat as well.  Fitted hats work for any age.  You don’t have to be a teenager to wear one and be in style.  If you want to save money on a fitted hat, you can find very good deals on the internet.  There is so much competition online that many online shops will lower their prices or have closeout sales.

I was leafing through some catalogs over the weekend, and I was amazed at how incredibly expensive some of the high-end designer handbags really are.  I knew they were expensive, but I had no clue how very expensive.  Oh…the innocence of youth!  I decided that it would be useful for our legion of faithful readers to have a handy reference of the most expensive designer handbags on the planet.  So here goes…

It has been written about countless times in the press and in the blogosphere, but I simply cannot resist this little gem!  If I had to name an all-time favorite design house, Fendi would be the one.  I don’t know how they manage to do it, but they are consistently able to strike an incredible balance between innovation and classic design in all of their creations.  Fendi designs some of the most exciting handbags in the fashion industry, and the “B.Bag” is one of the most sought-after handbags in the world.  One might think that the $30,000 price tag might be a deterrent, but not for those with the means to support their addiction!

Another bag that has given me far too many sleepless nights is the Hermes “Birkin” bag!  These bags were named after Jane Birkin, the oh-so-fabulous British actress and fashion icon.  These bags are often duplicated, but never truly replicated.  With a price tag of over $20,000, it is easy to understand why they are a favorite of vendors of cheap, imitation handbags.  As you are likely aware, these bags are available by special order only.  Furthermore, the final costs will very much be dependent on the materials and hardware used in their construction.  Wow!  Do I need a Sugar Daddy, or what?

If there was one other bag that creeps into my dreams with any regularity, it would be the “Muse” from Yves Saint Laurent.  It is very much like a traditional bowling bag in shape and design.  The first time I saw her was at Saks on Fifth Ave in NYC, and from that moment I knew one day she would be mine.  If I had my way, I would choose the oh-so-supple white crocodile version.  I cannot think of anything I would rather spend $20,000 on…aside from the “Birkin” bag mentioned above.  Wouldn’t I make the perfect girlfriend?  Wanna go shopping sometime?

Some tips to choosing quality sunglasses are provided below. Being educated by what makes a quality pair of sunglasses is very important when you are searching for your next pair of sunglasses. Keep these tips in mind when you are browsing.

Protection from UV

One major contributor to eye disease is ultraviolet radiation. This is why it is important to choose a pair of sunglasses that protect you from the harmful effect of UV. Just because your glasses have a dark tint doesn’t mean that you are protect from UV. Make sure you check the sunglasses UV rating.

What the Sunglasses Are Made From

Generally speaking the heavier the sunglasses the higher quality they will be. You want to ensure that the material that they are made from will last a long time and be able to resist the constant knocks that sunglasses typically take.

Different Tints

Tints are the colors that are applied to sunglasses lenses to help reduce the light that makes contact with the eyes. The particular tint you choose is up to your personal taste. However, different tints will have a different effect on the perceived brightness and glare, and will distort color differently.

As an example, gray tints reduce glare and don’t distort the color. On the other hand, yellows lens will distort color but sharpen your perceived view.

To Polarize or Not to Polarize?

Sunglasses that are polarized will reduce the glare of the light which bounces off roads and water. They are typically preferred by people who drive a lot during the day or boat on the water. If you work or play near a lot of flat surfaces you may wish to investigate using polarized sunglasses.