I’m starting to run out of synonyms for “wishlist” in my titles, this is clearly becoming a problem.

1. Cathedral Stained-Glass Print Dress w/ Peter Pan CollarAliExpress, $23 (I snagged this for $11.50 in a crazy sale just today!! Available in a black background or a red background)

2. Bubble Sleeve Chiffon Blouse w/ Turn-Down CollarAliExpress, $13.30 (Goes on sale often–Available in white, blush and black)

3. Flying Bird Cocktail RingAliExpress, $2.30 (Plan on breaking off the ring back and turning it into a brooch instead)

4. Across Body Bag With Scotty Dog FittingASOS, $17.50 (It could almost be Hugo.. almost. Waiting for the next sale coupon code!)

5. Oil Painting Skater SkirtAliExpress, $14.70 (Also comes in a tight miniskirt version but I’m not really a fan..)

6. Strawberry Stud EarringAliExpress, 56c (Min. order $10, also comes in white, pink and red)

7. Fleece-Padded JacketAliExpress, $31 (Available in bright yellow or bright red..doesn’t it look warm?)

8. UK British Flag Satchel Messenger Bag – AliExpress, $17 (Haggled down $1.. Total skinflint, I am)

As you’ll notice, I haven’t quite recovered from last month’s yellow fever, so there are still a few golden-hued items left for me to purchase! The current dream is for my cupboard to explode with overwhelming, yellow-y brightness when I open it.

I’m also still in love with animal motifs and unique prints.

I’ve been looking at that UK satchel for a while, hoping there’d be another one coming out at around the $15 but no luck. I saw an Asian-run photobooth shop in the Myer Centre selling the same one for $35 and I fell in love with it, but I didn’t want to spend more than $25 on a synthetic bag. I’ve also been looking far and wide for a nice little white bag, and I quite love the one that ASOS is selling right now. It’s even cheaper than the knock-offs you can find on AliExpress (which is pretty awesome). If you squint at the dog, it almost looks like Hugo.. almost..

The cathedral-print dress is something that has been on my wishlist for months and months but I’ve never really bothered to buy. When it went on sale for 50% off, though, I couldn’t resist! The pattern looks kind of busy, but I’m optimistic it’ll still suit me. If not, gonna chuck it in my shop (when I finally set it up, that is).

As for that plain shirt, I’ve been looking for a bubble-sleeved shirt with a collar that buttons up to the neck for the longest time. Target has similar shirts but they only button up to the bust and no further up, while I saw a similar shirt in Ally that would have been perfect if not for the stupid peplum bottom, which means I can’t tuck it into anthing. GRRRR. Still deciding on a few styles on AliExpress before I buy.. pretty undecided at the moment.

Sorry for the pretty heavily AliExpress-focused wishlist, though! Do you guys mind? I’m finding the huge range of stuff on that site too hard to resist lusting over..

16 Comments

  1. I love your aliexpress finds, so do continue! I’ve just plunged in with my first purchase there and I’m very happy with it.

    Having come from Asia, I don’t see the problem with buying cheap items from China. The ideal would be that both cheap and premium sellers pay their workers better but as it is, the workers aren’t paid more when you pay premium prices for the items in department stores.

    Not to mention that we often forget currency difference. $18 bag, $13 dress, $10 belt or even 50 cent earrings, all these are retail prices locally.

    • Demi

      I figured as much, Steffi! I find it quite outrageous that stores like Kitten D’Amour, Dangerfield, etc etc in Australia have been able to mark up their clothes as much as they do–even pretending that they’re some sort of exclusive label for selling a $100 Chinese-made skirt! May as well cut out the middleman, right?

    • Don’t get me started on that lol. While I do like clothes from Dangerfield, Princess Highway, etc I could never justify their price point. I’d love to find cheaper copies of their coats though!

    • Demi

      Their coats are pretty aren’t they! I’ve had luck finding their stuff on Alibaba but it’s a wholesaler website so usually the minimum order is at least 100 pieces.. Eek.

  2. Hi there! I found your blog after googling ‘Aliexpress’ which my boyfriend recently got me hooked on. I also live in Brisbane and used to work at your local Westfield :P (which means I know all about all that overpriced rubbish). I think I also graduated from QUT the same year as you (and got the fab pink gown haha)…

    I have a question just in relation to purchasing clothes from AliExpress… do you find often that you get things that don’t fit (as in too small). My boyfriends mate says he ALWAYS goes two sizes up… So for me as an Australian 10 or Medium, he says I should go to an Extra Large. Can you advise if this is the same for women as it is for me? I realise it’ll be different from each shop but if you could say as a ‘general rule’ how you find the sizing, it would help my addiction. I’ve been sticking to mainly jewellery and bags as I’m a little bit wary of what size clothes I should buy. Sorry if you find it bothersome to answer a million questions about AliExpress all the time but I’m very excited about this new find! Thanks x

    • Demi

      Hello Denica and welcome to my blog! Hope you’ll stick around :D

      Nice to meet a fellow QUT graduate of the same year! I wonder if I’ve ever seen you around..

      Anyways, onto your questions! To be honest, I don’t get any more discrepancies between sizes than I would when buying stuff online from Australian stores. Sometimes stuff is too big, sometimes it’s too small, but most of the time, it’s just right. There is NO rule of thumb for this–don’t listen to your boyfriend, haha!

      Always look at the SIZE CHART of that particular product–As you’ll see, all of the items I’ve linked to in this post have a size chart attached in the listing and those are made to help you pick the right size. So if your bust is 88cm, for the love of God, don’t get the size that says the bust will be 96cm or something! I generally size up one for blouses because the sizing doesn’t matter as much and I don’t like my blouses fitted with buttons stretching open at the bust, but asides from that, it’s not a good idea to get a size bigger than what the size chart advises. If you’re STILL uncertain or if the seller doesn’t have a size chart that corresponds with the item, contact them and ask them to measure for you. They’ll have a direct link to the factory that makes the garment and there’s always either measurements up somewhere or a worker will measure for you and give you the details.

      And no worries about the questions at all, though that was far from a million, I think you only really had one question for me there :P

    • Thanks for the reply, Demi. To be honest, I miiiiight have been being lazy, where the heck is my damn tape measure! I will have to buy one and keep it by my laptop. I decided I would buy a test shirt and take note of the measurements, so I found a shirt that I liked but was less than five dollars. I’ll know when I receive it how well it fits. And if it’s too small, then that’s a bonus for my sister. Looking forward to your next blog post!

    • Demi

      Haha, don’t be lazy! It’ll be worth it in the end. You don’t want to upsize twice and get oversized clothing, do you? Everytime I upsize dresses or shoes, I always seem to regret it when they arrive..

      Honestly, I just borrowed a tape measure out of my mother’s sewing box and wrote down my measurements on a little sticky note and stuck it right above my computer on the desk where I can always see it. It has all my measurements–bust, waist, hips, shoe size (CMs and inches, left and right foot), shoulders and arm length (in case of buying sweaters or something).

      Also I’ve measured the shortest length of dresses and skirts I will tolerate (just grabbed dresses and skirts and measured from top to hem to find this number) and don’t buy dresses and skirts that fall below that number, because I know they’ll be too short. Those are just some handy little tips that will be really useful for when you’re buying from AliExpress!

  3. I like that you are a bargain hunter – I am too. A bargain hunter who also refuses to wear an outfit that cost me over 100, all of my shoes are leather (i have about 50 pairs) and my leona edmiston dress collection is at about 55. But as a young graduate are you not a little concerned about the ethics of your habits? This blog has really moved more and more towards mass produced items from the third world. Cheap yes. Better quality than they used to be? Yes. But how much of this crap do we really need. I encourage you to watch or read Annie leonards the story of stuff and have a think about the recent factory collapses and fires that have happened overseas at factories making these items. When is enough enough? After reviewing my own habits I’ve continued to shop and love fashion but 100% second hand. Simply saving others waste rather than creating more – more carbon efficient! Rant over!

    • Demi

      (I’m interested to know how you manage to make an outfit under $100 when you have so many Leona Edmiston dresses, which are up to five times higher than that amount in themselves :P)

      The answer to your question though–No, I’m not concerned. I’ve fielded this question before with similarly outraged “readers” (I use this term loosely because they seem more like people who have found my blog through a Google search and felt the need to berate me before leaving again) and my stance hasn’t changed. I know what’s going on in China. I also know that it’s almost impossible to shop for cheap, new, clothes in this day and age without buying something that’s made in China. Even when you spend lots of money on clothing, companies like Prada, Burberry, Coach, and D&G still outsource their work to Chinese factories. What is the percentage of retail shops in your local Westfield that sell clothing produced in China? I have no idea, to be honest, but my money is on an amount greater than 90%. So what’s a girl to do? As I’ve found by looking up Leona Edmiston (whom I’ve actually never heard of before), buying locally certainly isn’t looking too affordable.

      As for thrift shops? I can’t really get over the “ick” factor with that, not to mention that most of the stuff I’ve found in them would actually cost more than buying Chinese-made products (at least, from the way I shop). At the end of the day, it’s wearing someone else’s clothing and I like wearing new stuff that someone hasn’t owned before. Not to mention that every time I go to my local thrift shop (of which there is only really one in a manageable radius of where I live), everything there is quite boring.. I like kitschy, gimmicky types of clothing and thrift shops don’t really sell what I like. I don’t need a bright green women’s suit with excessive shoulder padding, or a pair of old-fashioned shoes with the beginning signs of rot on the soles, or a battered handbag that my grandmother would wear.

      As for creating waste–I don’t throw out my clothes. Sometimes I feel like people think I buy these new things and throw out my old stuff in weekly cycles or something–I don’t. My wardrobe is packed at the moment, and I’ve given a lot of my clothing either to charity (who according to news sources are apparently throwing out more than they keep anyways) or friends who really want them (I just lightened my wardrobe by about 6 items after a recent sleepover, phew). I’m even about to open a shop for my blog to sell on those items that I’ve only worn once or twice but feel it a shame to throw away such nice stuff (yes.. sometimes guilty of buying clothes that don’t suit me or fit me properly, but I’m hoping they’ll fit someone else better). My garbage is full of vegetable clippings and various food packaging, mostly–but you won’t find any clothing in my trash.

    • Kathleen

      Thanks for answering my questions, I like following your blog and have been for a very long time to help me keep up with what is tendy in real non second hand life but it was bothering me ethically as I wasn’t sure if you were thinking about this stuff of if you were like a younger me and mindlesslyust-support-new-trend-must-have-new-blouse-landfill-be-damned. I see that isn’t the case. Thank you though for taking the time to answer my question. To answer yours, since I read te book I mentioned and reviewed my habits a few years back (which were a little insane) I made a switch and decides to never buy anything new again. So about 2/3 of my leona frocks are from ebay. I probably have a pretty high ick threshold though. I also buy second hand shoes and unwanted new with tags swimmers (you wonder though right) and have given up wearing undies to avoid having to buy those second hand. My bras are another question, might have to make an exception! And I do buy new pantyhose. Should you start a second hand store ill support it. Thanks again. Kathleen from toowoomba

      P.S. Oops I replied to your response wrong see below Karen’s post for more thanks again and agree with your sentiments about more expensive brands like coach too!!! Excess new stuff made in third world

    • Demi

      Well to be honest, I do mindlessly buy some stuff to some degree, but I’m trying to change that because I just find myself filling my closet and only wearing a few things reliably. I swear I must have about 50 dresses too now, with at least 10 that never see the light of day. Pretty bad, as I’m wasting money and buying things I don’t need. Hence the shop, hoping to get rid of them without throwing such lovely things away!

      It must be hard not to buy new underwear–do you worry you’re ever being too obsessive about it to an unhealthy degree? I’m sure the recycling gods won’t get angry if you buy a pack of undies–I mean, undies are like a basic human right! D:

      Thanks for not being one of *those* comments, by the way, the last time I had a conversation that started out with whether I was thinking about the ethics of my consumption, it ended with her saying along the lines of “Hmph! Well you buy cheap and you look cheap, so there!”–not a pleasant way to end a discussion.

      (Also I edited your comment to sit under the current comment tree for you btw :D)

    • Demi

      Yeah there are just so many Chinese wholesale sites out there, from Wholesale7 to DHGate to Alibaba and so on, it’s just about what you’re most familiar with at the time and what you feel most comfortable using. My favorite is (obviously, haha) AliExpress, I just prefer the format and it seems to protect buyers quite well should things go wrong. Remember, there’s no PayPal on these sites so you have to ensure that you’re protected should the seller change their mind or sell you products that don’t fit the description!

      As a side note, do remember that the shoes you buy from Chinese Wholesalers will be around the sale quality as Famous Footwear and Payless Shoes (so not very high)–it can be hit-and-miss just as much as the clothing can be! Worse if the sizes are inaccurate; the last time I got shoes from AliExpress, they turned out to be practically a whole size smaller than I wanted so of course I had to sell them on. I always size up with shoes now just in case.

    • Karen

      Thanks Demi! I dont really expect too much from these guys, just more of a way of experimenting with trends on the cheap. I think I saw a Paypal option on DH Gate, will have to look into that further.

    • Demi

      You’re welcome! Definitely good for some cheap experimentation. If there’s a PayPal on DHGate, I may have to take a closer look at them the next time I feel a shopping urge coming on!

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