spotted: the harry jerome awards

Angelina, the chair of the BBPA Harry Jerome Awards was on a mission to find a dress for the Awards ceremony that took place a couple weekends ago here in Toronto. The  Awards reception is a national event that honors the excellence of African Canadian achievement. Read more about the amazing organization and event here.

Luckily, Angelina found us and came in for a styling session at Henkaa. She was such a professional and had such a positive and glowing personality– it was a pleasure having her! We suggested the rich Royal Blue for her & gave her some tips on how to wrap the dress herself. Her favorite style was the Cleopatra and we love how well she pulled it off on the “red” carpet!

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Angelina shines on stage with the President of the BBPA as they hand out an award.

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We are so excited that Angelina chose to wear Henkaa for her big night and can’t wait to see how else she styles it in the future! Thanks again Angelina!

fashion lesson: what’s your cost per wear?

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There are a lot of fancy terms thrown around in fashion these days, and often concepts like “Cost per Wear” are talked about when splurging on an item. Now that we’re in a post-consumerism age where people are more conscious of their purchases, it’s important for people to know where they are spending and saving. So what does cost per wear really mean?

Here’s the math:
Cost per wear = total $ cost of an item / estimated number of times you will wear it

For example, if you spend $50 on a trendy new dress that you only wear once your cost per wear would be $50. But if you spend $200 on a dress that is great quality and lasts for years, you may wear it over 20 times and it will cost you $10 each time you wear it. That means the bargain dress would have cost you 5 times more per wear! Try out this handy calculator below to figure out the true cost of  your purchase:

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$ Cost of Item =

Estimated Wears =

Now this is a bit of an embarrassing confession, but I wear my night black convertible dress a LOT. While the initial investment was $128, I’ve worn it over a dozen times in the last couple of years– and I think I’ve managed to style it differently each time. For a dress that was a bridesmaids dress to start with, I’ve managed to make the cost per wear nice and low, making this piece a great fashion investment for me.

Check out how I’ve styled it my dress & let me know what your favorite fashion investments are!

 

 

wedding wednesday: royal blue

Today’s wedding is a gorgeous summer soiree featuring lovely primary colours bright yellow and royal blue. Berlyn & Nick’s wedding was also featured on Style Me Pretty and or good reason– they really played with beautiful bright colors to pull together their big day!

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The ladies are wearing the Short Sakura Convertible Dress in Royal Blue in the following styles…
L-R: Karen Style, the Tina Style, the Tiffany with a Diem Style Skirt, the Lola Style, and the Liza Style.

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What do you think of the bright combo of Royal Blue with yellow highlights?

three ways to wear a convertible dress with separates

A few weeks ago, Henkaa donated over 20 dresses to the Toronto Chapter of Dress for Success! Read about the non-profit organization and our trip to the donation center here.

We were so excited to help some women with jump-starting their careers, that we decided to challenge ourselves to dress our best with our Henkaa dresses! We have plenty of photos of these dresses on bridesmaids and we thought that we should share how easy it is to dress these up for work too. Last week we shared three ways to wear the dress as a skirt and the week before we had four ways to wear the dress with a blazer. Read on to find out how we styled our dresses with separates this week:


I styled my Night Black Short Convertible Dress with a classic white dress shirt by putting it on as a skirt & then roping the straps up the back to make a cute pussy bow detail at the collar. Nude pumps and a classic structured bag pulled the rest together for an office ready look!


Jia created a brand new fit and flare bandage skirt style and wrapped it with a cute striped tank. Her Charcoal Grey Short Convertible Dress looks great wrapped up her look with cute flower flats and her matching laptop bag.


Bethany is wearing her Sakura Mini Dress/Top in Pure Ivory in the Lily Style but with the straps pulled down to create a more conservative look with sleeves. The great thing about the mini is that the top has a trendy peplum look to it at this length! Beth keeps it casual with fitted khakis and go-to brown loafers.

What do you think of our office-ready Henkaa looks?
In case you missed it, check out the rest of the series here:
Four ways to wear a convertible dress with a blazer
Three ways to wear a convertible dress as a skirt