Remember when you were in highschool and you had no idea what to wear for Prom? Well back then, we…read moreonly had beepers and tamagochis and the internet had almost nothing in it. There were no smart phones, no Instagram, Facebook or Pinterest to help us figure out what kind of dress was best. Even more, most of our stores back then were local. No Zara or Mango stores at the time and if we needed something formal, a trip to the local mananahi with our mothers who usually decide on everything was our only option. Nowadays, kids have it easy. They can easily just go to Se La Vi Clothing and walk away worry-free, clutching a new gown that fits like a glove. It's no wonder so many ladies trust this shop- they can create a custom dress from scratch, working with little as a sketch and create something beautiful in a short amount of time. For students in need of a prom dress, I suggest you get in touch with Angelie Sevilla, the owner at least 2 months before your prom. Best to get ahead of everyone.

Pop Culture isn't so much as a store so much as it is a part of Alabang Town Center. This place is…read moreto Alabang Town Center as a district is to a city. I hope that analogy helps clear things up for you guys out there. Anyway, Pop Culture has a lot of small stores, one of them sells video game hardware and games. Most of them sell clothes for girls at a really low price point. Then there's a store that specializes in selling ipies, bongs, and rolling paper and other Rastafarian paraphernalia. It's interesting to walk down this part of Alabang Town Center because of just how cool some of the stores are. Most of them have forgettable names, but it doesn't make the place any less interesting. When I just window shop for the heck of it, I find myself strolling around this place even if it's just for a few minutes.

Do you sometimes feel like your limited budget is keeping you from enjoying a mall? That's how I…read morefeel often whenever I'm at Alabang Town Center and mostly everything I see in shops are out of my budget. Though with Pop Culture around, I finally have a place where things are of "within reach" on those days where I'm in a pinch. Pop Culture is that section of Town, beside the food court that's basically a small group of boutiques that sell a lot of good clothing, accessories, shoes, bags and whatnot. There's a Girl Shoppe by the entrance, which sells a variety of women's accessories, while the other stores inside have a lot of imported clothes from Bangkok and sometimes locally manufactured like Get Laud. Lots of Korean accessories too. What I love about Korean accessories are how dainty and quirky the designs can be. Most of the prices here are relatively cheap to averagely priced (around Php 100-450 for, let's say, a top) so there's surely something that fits every budget.

Just the place to get some bargain knock offs! Yep, I'm cheap. Everyone's respectful and no one…read morepushes their stuff on to you. Just check them out and get only what you want.

Over the years, Tumblr users have skyrocketed. It's so popular that a lot of kids, teens and hip…read moreyuppies get inspiration from Tumblr blogs. May it be photography, quotes, memes, gifs, art, pop culture, style and most especially fashion. My friend actually introduced my sister and I to Fashion Market. After learning about it, we go there every time were at this mall. Fashion Market is split into 2 sides on the mall - the left and the right. I suggest going through all stores. It can take hours though, haha, but you won't regret it. They have every style and trend you'd typically see on Tumblr, fashion blogs, Youtube beauty channels and fashion week! Inside, you'll also find spas, salons, money changers and ATM's. The prices range from super inexpensive to normal clothing price rates. A lot of stores sell super hip shoes, clothes, hats, shades and even prom dresses and traditional Filipino costumes. Definitely check out these stores I frequent when you're there - (right side) Push Thru, Mastermind Chase and Muradito, (left side) Nava, Berca and Ballow. Happy shopping! :)

I was walking around Westgate with much time to spare when I saw Magarbo from the outside. It stood…read moreout quite well from all the surrounding restaurants. Curious, I stepped inside, expecting to just browse through nice clothes with high price tags (this was Alabang and near Alabang Town Center, after all). Sure enough, the clothes were arranged by color, as the usual in branded clothing stores in malls, but the thing was, no two clothes seemed to look identical, even at first glance. The lady in the shop, who turned out to be the owner, greeted me warmly, as I looked around. She explained to me that while the clothes were secondhand, they were very high-quality, many coming from celebrity wardrobes. No wonder they all looked quite good - definitely not your usual ukay-ukay despite being secondhand. The owner happily helped me choose clothes that would suit me, and I was surprised that most of her choices really looked good on me. She even had fashion advice on what to pair them with. Best of all, each item was just P100-P200. I ended up buying three clothes totaling P500.

After living in Thailand for a month years ago, I've always been on the lookout for stuff from that…read morecountry. I was so happy when I found out that A'postrophe had some stuff, specifically bags, from Thailand. They don't just have stuff from Thailand, they also have items from other countries sold at a relatively cheap price. Exactly what do they have at the shop? Oh my. It's pretty hard to explain what they have because it's an eclectic kind of place. They have clothes you can wear every day, costumes for parties or just because you wanna dress up, jewelry to make you stand out, shoes that are so pretty, items for your house that can be considered art and on and on and on. Just know that whatever you're style or taste is, you'll fall in love with this shop.

The fact that A'postrophe caters to my not-so-hidden hippie chick aesthetic is not lost on me. The…read moremoment I stumbled upon this kitschy, colorful beauty of a store in Glorietta, I was hooked. So many things I wanted to buy! The Hmong floral bags from Thailand! The brass skull paper weights! The seed bead earrings! The Nepalese brightly colored keychains! Whoever is in charge of A'postrophe is doing a damn good job at curating the products, because I love everything they sell here. Of course, not everything they sell is aimed towards pleasing the granola girls out there. There are products that are more trendy, but still really gorgeous. Their selection of costume jewelry is also really well-curated. I remember purchasing a gaudy gold plated ring in the shape of a jaguar's head, with green gemstones for eyes, and a large red gemstone in its mouth. You'll have to see this store to believe it, but I love going in here even just to window shop and to take my mind off the ugliness of the city.

My daughter requested for a Princess Elsa inspired dress for a costume party that she was invited…read moreto, so we went to the mall to get the perfect Elsa dress but she has high standards and doesn't like the usual costume princess dress available in the mall and showed me a picture of a tulle dress that I downloaded a few months back. So after several hours of walking in the mall, we decided that we're going to make a dress!The first step is to buy the materials so went immediately to Fabric Warehouse, a special store full of all kinds of linens, silk, cashmere, velvet, lace, and of course tulle! It's hard to navigate through the store because of the rolls of fabric are everywhere, but my kids love the idea of running around and bumping soft textile, and I can hear them giggling and hiding behind 14 foot tall linens and are having so much fun in the store.Fabric Warehouse has so many materials to choose from and at affordable prices. The tulle that I got was only P70 per yard and we got all the colors we need. The only suggestion about this store is maybe they could add sewing materials also like needle, threads, garters, beads, ribbons and more for the convenience of the customer, so that they could be a one-stop-shop for your sewing needs too.

It's undeniable that as you grow older, taste really changes. When it comes to clothing and the…read morestyles that I prefer, what I liked before is light years away from what I like now. Before, when I was much younger, I used to be quite a trendwhore, blindly loving and wearing any new trend in sight. Now that I'm much older (and wiser), I've come to appreciate simplicity and comfort. But of course simple doesn't need to be boring, and comfort doesn't necessarily mean unstylish. One local brand that's got the whole easy, breezy stylish look down pat is Facile, a newcomer in the local fashion scene. Only two collections young, Facile is all about comfort and ease of wear, without sacrificing style. The brand usually comes out with a small capsule collection of tops and dresses that capitalize on the slouchy, effortless way of dressing. I'm such a big fan and if you see their clothes, you will be too. The brand doesn't have a physical store yet but they do have an online shop and pop-up in bazaars from time to time.

Manila has seen a steady stream of cool and stylish international fashion brands coming into the…read morelocal market and I am very happy about that! (Although my wallet may not be as ecstatic.) One of those brands in Stradivarius, which hails all the way from Barcelona, Spain. Whenever I enter Stradivarius in Glorietta, I always get a little bit confused - confused because I don't know which top, blouse, skirt or pant to grab first. I always find a whole lot to love amongst the different laid-black styles that the brand is well known for. Easy-breezy, unfussy clothing that's great for everyday is what Stradivarius is all about. Nowadays, since I'm much older and less susceptible to following every trend in the fashion book, I'm more inclined to choose the understated but still quite fashionable option. And I love how Stradivarius has got a ton of those kinds of options. Sure, they still have the more trendy stuff but it's balanced well with the unfussy, minimalist stuff that I love.

Holy hell, I can't believe I only discovered this store a few weeks ago. Like, where has this gem…read morebeen all my life? Stradivarius has a TON of great clothes that feel very bohemian and classy. Basically, if you want to emulate Vanessa Hudgens' Coachella style, go here. Something really important I noticed is that all the fabrics are very comfortable and soft. Other trendy stores *cough* F21 *cough* tend to have beautiful designs in itchy material, which is terrible for my super sensitive skin. No problems for my skin demands here! My major and only problem with this store is that some of the items are super overpriced. Would you spend over a thousand pesos on a tiny pair of floral shorts or a super thin, plain maxi dress? My sis and I decided no way. It's important to shop with a critical eye here and look for pieces that really give bang for your buck and would be hard to find. The bags and hats scattered around this big store are super cute. If I had the money, I'd snatch up more than a few of them. Also, there's this gorgeous leather jacket I was eyeing and will hopefully get on sale soon for a trip abroad. Need to get it on sale otherwise my wallet would cry.

My husband was going to attend a black tie event for work and we were looking for a black suit for…read morehim to wear. We made our usual rounds to department stores and popular suits and Barong shops, but even the most common looking coat cost over two thousand pesos. There's this sleek-looking store in Alabang Town Center that sells men's wear called Merger, but we didn't think of looking there because the suits looked so dapper and expensive. But we were running out of time then so we decided to give it a try. We stepped in and the sales lady welcomed us with a smile. We got lucky that day because some of their items were on sale. Hubby found a sleek black coat that was so him; it had some fancy details that made the coat stand out, but not in a tacky way. Best of all, it costs less than 2,000! The coat fitted hubby perfectly, but he needed pants too. The attendant helped us search for matching pants, but we couldn't find one that fit my husband. We wanted to buy a set of coat and pants so we asked the lady if she can put the coat on hold for us until the next day, she agreed. We didn't find another pair of suit so I went to Merger the next day and the coat was there, waiting for me with my name on the tag. It's a good thing we didn't let the snobbish appearance of the store scare us. Hubby got a dapper-looking coat at a minimal cost. We're definitely going to buy there again.