Every woman needs at least one little black dress (and possibly more), so if you need to stock up, check out this sale at My Clothes Horse.

Yes, it’s a sale entirely devoted to little black dresses from the likes of Wayne Cooper, Marnie Skillings, Collette Dinnigan and other top Australian designers.

I love this Wayne Cooper jersey wrap dress - it’s reduced to $77 from its original $395, and wrap-style dresses are pretty much universally flattering.

Unfortunately, it’s only left in a size 6, which I most definitely am not.

By Caroline Warnes

Australian designer fashion fans, rejoice - clothing hire site Dressed Up is selling off some of its old stock.

The Dressed Up sale has some pretty frocks from the likes of Nicola Finetti and Wayne Cooper on sale for a fraction of their RRP (plus free shipping).

My favourite is this White Suede dress, which is marked down to $100 from $320 (I am currently trying to talk myself out of buying it).

The sale ends at 5pm tomorrow.

By Caroline Warnes

This one is coming a little bit late for New Year’s Eve parties, but you should keep it in mind if you have any events coming up in the new year.

A few of us here in the Lasoo office recently discovered online designer dress hire site Dressed Up, which lets you hire party dresses from some of Australia’s top designers for a fraction of their retail price.

I know I said in the past that hiring designer bags and shoes has a little bit of the bogans about it, I think hiring designer dresses for an event makes perfect economic sense. When I buy a special dress for an event, I always tend to wear it only a few times before it outlives its usefulness - whether I’ve paid $500 or $50 for it. Bags and shoes on the other hand are meant to be used on a weekly if not daily basis, so hiring them does NOT make sense. It’s the old cost-per-wear ratio.

Anyhow, Dressed Up has dresses from the likes of Wayne Cooper, Nicola Finetti, Camilla, Illionaire, Manning Cartell, Natasha Gan and more. The frock is delivered to you in a cute little package, you get to keep it for a week then you send it back in the supplied satchel.

Plus you can buy some of the “gently worn” hire dresses once they’re retired from the site’s rotation. If you’re lucky you’ll find something that’s never been worn at all, but is still reduced to clear. I’ve been eyeing off this Camilla Riviera dress and plan to buy it if it drops in price any further.

By Caroline Warnes

The new Myer spring fashion catalogue is out now and my pick of the bunch so far is this Wayne Cooper snakeskin bag.

As mentioned before, snakeskin can be a tricky thing to pull off (overdone it looks incredibly tacky), but I think this handbag just manages to get away with it.

I’m also having a little difficulty with Wayne Cooper as a label of late, as many of the designs have been striking me as a bit OTT, but the snakeskin bag is a winner.

It’s priced at $199 and is available exclusively in Myer and Wayne Cooper stores.

Don’t forget to check out the rest of the Myer spring fashion catalogue for your area.

By Caroline Warnes

I finally got myself into RAFW yesterday around lunch time and yes - the event has definitely been scaled down.

There is one fewer stage this year and I have to say I wasn’t overly wowed by any of the runway shows I went to - Women’s Ready to Wear #1, Wayne Cooper and Arnsdorf.

The one collection that stood out for me was NZ designer Annah Stretton, whose summer dresses look to be a winner.

Unfortunately when I got to the event I discovered the battery in my camera was flat (yes, I am highly organised), so I couldn’t take any snaps. I will this afternoon.

I did check out some of the designer stands and there were some highlights there, too. A lot of people have been talking about Lucette recently, and now I can see why. Pictured here is the floral folk embroidered dress and I also saw on display a gorgeous kaftan that will be a must-have for the summer months.

Speaking of kaftans… I also stumbled across the stand of a small Malaysian label called Innai Batik, which has no Australian distributors currently, but hopefully that will change after RAFW. This label makes some gorgeous kaftans and floaty dresses that are quite affordable compared to others on the market (they will retail for around $200 for a short kaftan when they arrive in Australia).

By Caroline Warnes

Australia’s premiere fashion event, Rosemount Australian Fashion Week, begins today at Sydney’s Overseas Passenger Terminal.

Yes, this is the week when Australia’s fashion designers, models, buyers, media and other assorted pretentious fashion types with weird geometrical haircuts come together to watch the upcoming spring/summer 09/10 collections, air kiss and drink lots of wine. Fun!

Although the event has been scaled back somewhat this year, thanks to some some sort of financial crisis we’re apparently having, it’s still expected to be a full week with the likes of Ginger & Smart, Nicola Finetti (pictured), Wayne Cooper, Manning Cartell, Zimmerman and Aurelio Costarella all showing. The week opens this morning with Camilla and Marc and one highlight is expected to be the Kirrily Johnston show on Wednesday evening - internationally acclaimed Australian model Alyssa Sutherland is walking exclusively for the designer.

I’m also looking forward to checking out some of the smaller, up-and-coming designers throughout the week.

I’ll be dragging my lazy bones into RAFW as soon as I can get my act together.

By Caroline Warnes

I discovered a new website called My Clothes Horse this morning and I am blown away.

It sells end-of-line clothing and accessories from some of Australia’s top designers, including Wayne Cooper, Natasha Gan, Ginger & Smart, Fleur Wood, Charlie Brown… the list goes on. It’s basically like one big factory sale, but with all designers included at once and without having to trek out to some industrial area to visit it.

Honestly, there are some amazing bargains here. Pictured here is the Ginger & Smart long cardi in grey, down to $129 from $310 (great for the cool autumn weather).

But, if you can possibly think ahead to warmer weather way down the track and want to snap up a real bargain for then, some of the summer tops are right down to around the $50 mark, like this cami from Fleur Wood which is down to $54 from $159.

Plus, I read on Missy Confidential that if you email the site, you will receive a $20 store credit.

By Caroline Warnes

Myer’s mid-season sale started just before the long weekend and it looks like it’s another doozy.

There are some decent discount on homewares, ladies’ fashion and accessories, electronics and more.

I like the Tokito wrap cardigan pictured on the left in the photo above, which is down to $45 from $69.95.

Am also keen on this versatile little black dress from Wayne by Wayne Cooper, marked down to $120 from $179.

Plus, selected lingerie is 25% off, including Pleasure State so it’s a good time to check out the Biofit bra if you’re keen (it should be down to under $40 with the discount).

Full catalogue for the Myer sale

By Caroline Warnes

My love of maxi dresses is no secret, and I know I’ve written about them before, but by request it’s time to revisit the issue.

Maxi dresses are the one item of clothing that you can wear whether you’re feeling fat or slim, they hide a multitude of sins and still manage to look elegant, a la Michelle Pfeiffer in Scarface. In fact, aside from the printing press and champagne, the maxi dress is pretty much the greatest invention in the history of mankind.

And don’t let the prospect of cooler weather put you off buying a new maxi dress. Although the best maxi dresses are generally short-sleeved, strappy or strapless, they lend themselves well to layering so you can pretty much get away with wearing most of them all year around. For example, the George dress pictured here from Viva La Frock would look great with a light cardigan and a pair of flat boots. Plus it’s on sale for $299.

Other options include:

* Otto Mode Yellow Floral Maxi - $50
* Bardot Bohemian Floorsweeper - $69.95
* Sunnygirl Plain Maxi Dress - $59
* Bracewell Full Mast Maxi - $172.50
* Wayne Cooper Oceania Maxi - $347
* Sass & Bide All Over Again - $690 (yeah I know, overpriced).

By Caroline Warnes

Okay first of all I just want to say, what the hell has happened to the Wayne Cooper official site?

The last time I was on there was just over a month ago and everything was working fine then - and now it seems to have mysteriously disappeared.

Attention Wayne: probably not such a good time to forget to pay your web hosting fees, considering you are currently advertising a storewide sale!

Anyway, as mentioned above, the Wayne Cooper sale is starting tomorrow, with up to 50% off storewide.

Seeing as the site has disappeared you can’t preview what’s on sale or even find store locations, so for the latter I’ve done the work for you:

NSW

* Strand Arcade, Sydney
* 16 Oxford Street, Paddington

VIC

* GPO, Melbourne
* 22 Albert Coates Lane, Melbourne
* 450 Chapel Street, South Yarra

QLD

* Wintergarden on the Mall, Brisbane

WA

* 337 Stirling Highway, Claremont

By Caroline Warnes