Fashion editors are invincible when it comes to shopping, going by Rushka Bergman's experience. The lanky woman claims she has never had a bad shopping experience nor been cheated before, because she knows her stuff.

Now working full time for Italian magazine Luomo, the Serb is in town as fashion consultant to American designer Vivienne Tam whose show last Friday night kicked off the 10-day Singapore Fashion Festival.

She has been living and working in New York for the last 11 years as a freelance fashion editor for publications, and as fashion consultant to designer brands like Bally and Allegra Hicks. She has styled celebrities like Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Gwyneth Paltrow.

She is divorced with no children and replies to queries about her age with 'forever 28'.

Where and when did you have your best shopping trip?

It has to be in Paris, at the boutique of my favourite designer, Balenciaga. I like its designs and elegance. That city is a fashion town, there are plenty of great designer boutiques, especially in George Five Street and St-Honore.

The boutiques have the best quality stuff, the French really know how to please the customers, and they understand the female body very well. Some of the staff have received an education on fashion clothes.

A few months ago, I was looking for a dress for a friend's wedding and couldn't find a suitable one for months, till I saw one at Balenciaga.

It was a modern-looking elegant black dress that cost 6,800 euros (S$13,725) and I bought it. What can I say, I'm a slave of fashion.

Where in the world do you think offers the best buys, in terms of variety, pricing and quality?

Definitely New York. That place has everything, it's as if it's not America but a small world because there are people from everywhere.

They have very good service there. In the uptown area there's Madison Avenue, where the prestigious, more polished 'old-money' is. Names like Ralph Lauren, Gucci, Gianni Versace and Kenzo have their boutiques there.

Downtown in the Soho area are the cooler, younger and more edgy designers like Marc Jacobs.

Shopping in Singapore is also not bad. I've spent a lot of money here buying make-up, and I found an Hermes perfume that I've been looking for on my travels.

What's the strangest thing you've ever bought?

Last month, when I was moving house, I bought a funny-shaped chandelier for US$300 (S$454). I don't know how to describe it, but it doesn't look like the usual chandelier. I couldn't figure out how to fix it and didn't even know how to plug it in. I managed to put it up by myself in the end.

What's the most expensive thing you have ever bought while out shopping?

An Hermes bag which I bought a year ago in Paris. It's a hand-made leather bag in navy blue and looks like a briefcase. That cost me 10,000 euros.

What's the one item you always look out for when shopping overseas and why?

I always try to buy something unique from the place I'm in. I always try to get the most beautiful thing from the country, something that I can't find back home.

For example, my friends in Singapore told me I should go to an orchid farm to look for a black orchid.

In Morocco, I bought a beautiful kaftan - a man's cloak that is buttoned down in the front with full sleeves and reaches to the ankles - for about US$100. They don't have that in New York.

As for collections, I have more than a hundred pairs of shoes, and also eyewear, and they come from all over the world. I have all the shoes from designer Tom Ford, like a black suede one with very high heels and diamonds on the front. It cost me around 2,800 euros.

I pack about three of them along on my travels.