Dress up for your graduation ball

Graduation day is coming and graduates are busy preparing for the last formal get-together before they go their separate ways so everybody wants to look and feel their best for their graduation ball.

Ladies are busy looking for the perfect gown that will fit their personality and flatter their bodies, while the men will be busy looking for the perfect suave outfit to compliment their partners.

But buying the perfect outfit for the graduation ball that fits your budget is easier said than done. With tons of available gowns and suits in the market and their outrageously high prices, graduates are lost in a limbo.

But hope is not completely lost because there is still Tutuban Center’s Oh My Gown! section, a unique cluster at the ever-expanding emporium.

The one-stop shopping mecca carries the latest local and international prom, bridal and party fashions suitable for the fairy-tale princesses and Prince Charming around. Romantic clothes range from ball gowns and cocktail outfits for the girls and barong Tagalogs and snappy tuxedoes for the guys.

Dresses come in swirling swathes of tulle and lace, satin and chiffon, organza and silk. There are demure designs for the conservative, while the adventurous can choose the more daring ones. Boys can’t be left behind, of course. They can be patriotic and don the barongs, or go dapper in three-piece suits.

Girls who love the limelight can select the dresses with a sprinkling of crystals, while the modest damsels can opt for the delicately simple creations. No matter what they ultimately want, they can be dazzling on their last get-together as students.

The latest trends indicate a strong preference for solid colors. Tangerine tango is the color of the year, but this might not be flattering for the kayumanggi skin, so better try on as many hues as you want.

Embellishments, heavy patterns and busy details are out for this season. Keeping it simple won’t make you and your partner any less stunning.

Don’t hesitate to ask for assistance from any Oh My Gown! sales attendants. They’d be too glad to help with their expertise. Try the outfits sitting down, raising your arms and dancing a bit. You’d be doing this on your Graduation Ball, Prom Night, Wedding Day and Evening Date, and these exercises would ensure that the outfit you’ve chosen will be comfortable on all levels.

Keep an open mind and try on a wide variety of gown and suit styles. Be ready with the accessories such as clutch bags, studs or pearl earrings and discreet necklaces. Footwear is also important. Comfort should be utmost as dancing will be one of the highlights of the night, whether the prom, the wedding or even a simple date.

You don’t have to worry that the outfits you love are beyond your budget. At Tutuban Center’s Oh My Gown!, the choices are not only varied and stylishly modern and chic, but they are definitely affordable.

Tutuban Center is located along C. M. Recto Avenue in the historic district of Tutuban in Manila.

Greatness Starts @Home

My son Charles is officially 3 years old today!

It’s just amazing how this little boy who once I can cuddle and carry with one arm is now a dynamo who can be a handful nowadays.  He still manages to elude me even with all my arms and feet on full throttle to chase him.

At his young age he's already shown that he’s a up to the challenges that life’s gonna offer.  He survived pneumonia when he was just 9-month old.  He convinced his doctor on Christmas eve that he is A-Okay that we were allowed to go out of the hospital after more than a week of confinement thus avoiding his first-ever Christmas to be celebrated in a hospital.

He has asthma but is always brave to battle it.  He drinks his medicines with just little arguments with us, asked for “good smoke” from the nebulizer and pray “Help me, Papa Jesus” when coughing becomes a bit intense for him.  We told him that swimming will help him conquer asthma.  Thus, he loves the water.

For a mom like me, I can consider these things as great accomplishments for such a young fellow.  I also made a list of his other top accomplishments to date:

1.    Pretend to read in his sixth month.

2.    He scored 90 while singing “Somewhere Out There” in his first try in Videoke.

3.    Finished Level 1 of  Call of Mini Zombies in iPad all by himself.

4.    Can do the Rockstar look and angst.

5.    Could be the youngest gold digger ever.

Those maybe just "cute" achievements to some but for me, they are priceless moments I am realy proud of.  I believe and hope that someday my son will be someone who can do good things that will benefit many people.  I don’t care what he'll decide to become when he grows up as long as he will be happy, productive and can bring out all the best in him.  I will support him all the way and I believe that greatness starts at home.

Tattoo@Home believes that nurturing a child’s potential can lead to achieving greater things. And what better place to start the road to greatness than at home!

UNIQLO is coming to the Philippines

Finally, the wait is over!

One of the most well-known international brand of apparel will come to the Philippines 

UNIQLO is a brand of Fast Retailing Co. (FR), a leading global Japanese retail holding company that designs, manufactures and sells clothing under five brands: Comptoir des Contonniers, g.u., Princesse Tam Tam, Theory, and UNIQLO.  With global sales of 820 billion yen for the 2011 fiscal year ending August 31, 2011, FR is the world’s fourth largest apparel retail company and UNIQLO is Japan’s leading specialty retailer.

Today UNIQLO has more than 1,000 stores worldwide, namely in the U.S., U.K France, Russia, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand Korea, as well as Japan.  UNIQLO continues to open large-scale stories in some of the world’s most important cities and locations, as part of its ongoing efforts to solidify its status as a truly global brand.  UNIQLO operates an integrated business model under which it designs, manufactures, markets and sells high-quality, casual apparel in line with its ‘Made for All’ philosophy.

With a corporate statement commited to changing clothes, changing conventional wisdom and change world, FR is dedicated to creating great clothing with new and unique value to enrich the lives of people everywhere.

On February 9, 2012 at Tokyo, Japan, UNIQLO announces that it will open its first retail location in the Philippines, the UNIQLO Mall of Asia Store, in June 2012 in Metro Manila. The launch will reinforce UNIQLO’s rapidly growing retail presence in Southeast Asia, following the recent introduction of UNIQLO locations in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. The store will feature approximately 1,550 square meters of floor space within one of the region’s largest shopping centers, SM Mall of Asia, to offer Filipino shoppers all of UNIQLO’s latest fashions for men, women and kids.

UNIQLO is opening its first store in the Philippines in SM Mall of Asia, one of the largest shopping malls in the world, occupying a waterfront site on Manila Bay spanning 407,000 square meters. This massive shopping complex hosts a wide range of retail tenants, including a number of major fashion brands, and is a major draw for both tourists and local residents. The new UNIQLO Mall of Asia Store will be one of SM Mall of Asia’s largest tenants.

Asia offers enormous growth potential for UNIQLO and is a key regional focus of the brand’s global expansion strategy. By January 2012, UNIQLO’s network of stores included 851 locations in Japan and 234 in other global markets, of which 214 are throughout the rest of Asia. UNIQLO started opening its first stores in Thailand in September 2011, following its successful expansion into Singapore and Malaysia, increasing its lineup in Southeast Asia to 11 retail locations. Now, as the brand continues to accelerate its regional expansion efforts, the UNIQLO Mall of Asia is set to offer the joy of truly great clothing to shoppers in the Philippines.

To know about the latest information and regular updates about UNIQLO, tune in to UNIQLO’s official Facebook page at www.facebook.com/uniqlo.ph and its website www.uniqlo.com/ph.