New In III

Hey Guys and Dolls,

Welcome back to my blog. A lot of people were asking me, on snapchat and in person, if I went crazy on the shopping front whilst I was on vacation.

To answer the question, I think I shopped within reason. Honestly, I spent a lot of my money on experiences and FOOD cause you know, a girl gotta eat. LOL!

I have given away all the presents I brought back so I am only gonna be showing y’all what I bought for myself and to avoid a picture heavy post, I have decided to do this in two parts. I am going to show you only the clothing pieces in this post and the beauty haul in another post. Make sure you look out for it.

The first thing I picked up was a bodysuit from Forever 21. This particular piece was part of a collection that was curated by Forever 21 in collaboration with the NBA. I initially saw it online but it was unavailable on the British F21 site so I made a mental note to pick it up whilst I was on vacation.

I also picked up my current favourite jewelry pieces from F21 which you would have seen if you follow me on snapchat but if you don’t, don’t worry, I will be doing a post on my favourite summer pieces so have a look out for that too.

Following that, I went to Steve Madden and they were having a SALE, which of course, made me extremely happy. I bought the WAARNER shoes pictured below because they reminded me of my snakeskin GILLIAN ghillie court shoes from Topshop which you can view here.

Clearly, I have a thing for lace up. I just find them extremely flattering.

After I left SM, I popped into footlocker to pick up something for my brother as well as the Jordan Eclipse in white but unfortunately, they didn’t have any. The more I looked at this multi-coloured spring inspired pair, the more it grew on me so I ended up buying them along with a present for my baby brother.

Further exploration of Fifth Avenue saw me in the Mets store. I was spoilt for choice. I wanted a souvenir that wasn’t from one of those tourist gift shops and so I decided I was going to get myself a jersey. Alongside the jersey is a baseball cap, I picked up from a store called Century 21. I know there is the chance that I may end up looking like a billboard AD but I don’t care. I am absolutely in love with my jersey and I cannot wait to style it for y’all in a post.

Finally, I picked up some Tommy Hilfiger underwear and socks at Century 21 because it is never a haul if I don’t buy some underwear. Y’all know how obsessed I am with my underwear. I was like a kid in a candy store at Century 21 because I wanted to buy everything but my luggage was already packed and I knew I was already over the weight limit so I kept my shopping here minimal. Tommy Hilfiger is another designer that dominated the 90s, alongside Calvin Klein, which probably explains my newfound obsession with the brand. Lately, it seems all I ever wanna buy is clothing with the CK and TH logo on it. As aforementioned, I may look like a billboard AD but I actually wouldn’t mind it. Go big or Go home right.

Anyway, I want to hear from all of you. Which pieces were you loving? Leave me a comment below. I am Destini Monet and you have been reading ‘The Black Mannequin’.

Empire State of Mind

Hey Guys & Dolls,

Welcome back to my blog. As many of you know, I recently went to NYC but what many of you wont know is that I have always wanted to go to NYC since I was 15. In fact, I was convinced I was going to move and live there until I didn’t. LOL

Fast forward a few years, I wanted to visit Paris for my 23^rd birthday but my colleagues had decided that it wasn’t a very safe idea to go alone. I was met with phrases like “didn’t you see taken?” and finally, they had even promised to go along with me. We were going to make a girls’ holiday out of it.

Well, Paris never happened and I was still waiting for my solo trip.

Now I know you’re all wondering why I would ever want to go away alone but I have always been fascinated by the idea of oneness with self. It started off with going cinema alone, then it was having dinner alone then it was going clubbing alone.

I try to take a vacation annually and when it was time to book my vacation for 2016, I was meant to visit LA with friends. However, as they were all unavailable, what better time than to finally take my solo trip and what better place than the one I had always dreamt about.

And for the first time, I didn’t have to wonder what it felt like to walk the streets of Manhattan, Shop on Fifth Avenue or have breakfast on Park Lane.

Because when I woke up, I woke up in New York City fuelled with an awakening, an energy that inspired me to Live everyday, Laugh every moment and Love beyond words. In these moments, I existed outside of myself. I was Boundless.