savage beauty

The most anticipated exhibition of the year for me is surely this one opening on May 2nd held at the Metropolitan Museum of New York - Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty. The annual fashion exhibit at the Met is something every fashion junkie looks forward to, as it is always so well-curated and full of stunning costumes thoughtfully displayed within breath-taking set designs for us mere mortals to appreciate first hand. Not to mention that the Met Gala at the opening night is like the fashion industry's Oscars red carpet - except that it's even more chic and glamorous and even has a iPad app dedicated solely to this occasion. But this year - the anticipation is higher than ever, as the exhibit is dedicated to the work of the great Alexander McQueen, who had left such a great legacy and influence in the fashion world for the past two decades. Coincidentally Kate Middleton wore a McQueen dress designed by Sarah Burton for the Royal Wedding and there's no better way to pre-celebrate this epic fashion event than this.
Sooooo wish I could be in New York to see all of this in person. If these images already show the level of creativity and craftsmanship that the designer embraced, I can't imagine how the actual clothes look like in real life - probably utterly surreal and out of this world.

Long live McQueen.

images courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of New York via luxuryculture.com

funny face

Spring should be a time to look ahead, to welcome bright new things... but the transition between winter to spring could be sluggish. Lately I have been feeling like that in-between period... perhaps due to anxiety from my new job, or to suffocation from air pollution, or to fatigue from daily routine. Just totally uninspired. But come April, I hope everything will start off fresh! First and foremost, there's my own birthday party to plan. This year I'm planning a big themed party, since it's been over a decade when I last celebrated my birthday at home. After some thoughtful considerations - I settled with vintage 60's glamour as the dress code of the night. Think Nine, or Mad Men (party scene, as opposed to the office wear), or any of the 1960's oldies in glamorous settings. So this editorial in Numero came just in time for my outfit inspirations - Funny Face or Breakfast at Tiffany's?

images via Fashion Copious

happy crouching tiger

"Family" box full of candies and sweets

I can't even remember the last time I celebrated Chinese New Year at home, so since this year my family's here for the big festival we decided to spend more time and effort to decorate our house and to do all the traditional New Year's activities to welcome the Year of Tiger.

So here's the usual run down:
- decorate your house/ office with red "posters" that read different Chinese proverbs with auspicious meanings. The more you put up the better.
- buy some orchids or water lilies or plum blossoms and a tangerine tree from the seasonal flower market
- wear red, lots of red. Red symbolizes good fortune and prosperity in Chinese culture, so it's customary to wear red for the new year
- on the first day, visit relatives' homes and say words of blessings to each other and receive red pockets (which are red envelopes filled with money) from elders who are married
- eat candies and sweets placed in a "family" box (which is usually a lacquered lazy susan box) and other traditional foods



Chinese proverb posters

There are actually a lot more celebratory activities, but above is the least people usually do in order to welcome a year filled with good fortune, good health, and good wealth. Who doesn't want a prosperous year ahead? It's the reason why red is such an omnipresent element in this occasion. Though we are often surrounded by pretty red things in our daily lives, the rouge level is nothing compared to all the red seen during Chinese New Year.

"Rouge" as interpreted by Imke Klee (image via Little Thing Magazine)

So, wear some crimson up your sleeve to welcome a prosperous year of Tiger.


*wearing red checkered blouse by Hound & Friends, furry vest, shorts bought in Japan, reworked vintage headband

crystallized

Celebrations and merry drinking continued on after New Year's as I had farewell dinners, birthday dinners, family gatherings so on and so forth this week, so I'm still recovering from all this frenzy. Hence experiencing a bit of a "blogger's block" and don't have much exciting to write about today.
Last Sunday though, I had a wonderful and relaxing brunch at The Steak House in the Intercon Hotel. There were still some festive decorations in the hotel lobby, including these crystal Christmas trees with dangling crystal ornaments which actually kinda matched the chandelier necklace I happened to be wearing that day. The tiered trees were really pretty and quite a unique take on the traditional pine trees.
Let's hope I'm gonna get my groove back soon (since one of my new year's resolutions is to blog more regularly), but until then I'm gonna get some beauty sleep and recharge......

*wearing a vintage hat from Amarcord vintage, printed blouse by Staerk, cardigan by Club Monaco, boy shorts bought in Japan, vintage Oxfords from Amarcord Vintage, and vintage chandelier necklace from Treasures + Pleasures

2010 (with an exclamation point)

Happy New Year! We have officially stepped into the next decade! Before I start from the zero in 2010, I celebrated the last night of 2009 with my loved ones - had a sinfully scrumptious dinner at home with my lovely family, exchanged x'mas presents (finally!), clinked champagne glasses countless number of times, and then danced the night away in the accompaniment of my friends. My Boxing Day might have come later this year, but considering all the wonderful gifts I received, it was worth the wait.

Here I'm wearing a gold mesh and crystal bib necklace by Colette Malouf from my sister which I absolutely loveeeeeeee (thanks sis! you know me best really). I am a little embarrassed that I hadn't known about this accessory designer prior to this, but now that I do there goes another window shopping website for me. I love the organic aesthetic of her pieces, kinda like an edgy elegance style. The "styles" section of her website provides some useful how-to tips with illustrations for wearing different hair accessories, so definitely worth checking out.

I was pretty satisfied with my own gift-giving this year as well: I got my dad some Happy Socks, my stylish mom a pair of AE gloves and Shu Uemura x Tsumori Chisato fake eyelashes, my brother a coffee cup-shaped car inverter, my sister a make up pouch and lipstick also from the Shu Uemura x Tsumori Chisato limited edition, and for my brother-in-law I gave him a Paul Smith pocketsquare. I think all of us stepped into the new year feeling merry, typsy, and full of love. And to put a sweet end to the crazy year of 2009, we enjoyed some Marni pour Laduree macaroons (beautifully packaged in this gold box) that my friend bought for me in Tokyo.

snatched my brother's party mask for a Mask of Zorro look
*wearing a jumpsuit by Amarcord, vintage velour jacket by Amarcord Vintage, belt by Patrizia Pepe, necklace by Style Hurricane, and butterfly mask bought in Vietnam

Here's to a new year of happiness, good health, love, and style!
(and to my superb parents who are in the background here)

Collete Malouf images via colletemalouf.com

dream on...

Come celebrate Daydream Nation's 3rd birthday at their new HK studio, complete with festive discounts on AW09 items and beer refreshments! Since I'm missing out on all the sample sales going on in New York right now, I am psyched to attend this shopping event (and my office being a 3-min walk away from their studio is a major plus). And for those of you can't make it this weekend, you can still take advantage of Daydream Nation's 30%-off sale on their new e-commerce site. Happy (pre-)holiday shopping!

learn chinese

This past weekend, I finally convinced myself to explore some cultural events in Hong Kong. Don't get me wrong, I'm a super fan when it comes to supporting design and cultural activities in my bustling hometown. It's just that I've been a bit of a hermit lately and a little crowd-phobic, especially since everyone, and I mean everyone is out Christmas shopping these days, so it gets quite suffocating and overwhelming to wander around on the streets.... Anyhow, this Saturday I spent an afternoon at Detour HK, a design event that acts as a platform for a variety of creative units and local talents to showcase their works and exhibits together at a unique location. This year's host site is the former Police quarters/ dormitory, which has been an abandoned ground until this. It sort of reminded me of Warm Up at New York's P.S. 1, where the outdoor courtyard served as the "play" area and each room of the heritage building hosting a different exhibit.
I learned a lot - there were showcases from visual artists, furniture designers, creative agencies, graphic artists, fashion designers, local talents, artists-in-residence.... One of them was the handbag brand, hoiming, which is, I suppose, in the avant-garde category of accessories as their designs are not your ordinary Speedy bag look-alike. Each one of the bags is cleverly handcrafted and has an unconventional shape. The exhibit itself didn't appeal to me so much, but its look book was what sparked my interest. Designers Hoiming Fung and Baldwin Pui shot their collection of handbags on a set of cards, each resembling children's learning cards -- with a word on one side, and its meaning on the other.
I really love this concept - the words match perfectly with the quirky shapes of the bags, and the old-school local playground provides the kind of nostalgic feel that these learning cards usually evoke.

Are you ready to flip ("fan"), jump ("tiao"), and turn ("zhuan")?

flapper frenzy

As mentioned in my last entry, I had a double Halloween celebration this year... the night before my Carmen Miranda transformation, my friends and I attended the Dreamland Orchestra's Masquerade ball at the enchanting Green Building. Flappers and Gastby-esque ladies flooded the dance floor as expected, but there were a couple of Halloween surprises like Dorothy and Scarecrow. I, too, went with the traditional flapper outfit and Charleston-ed through the night. Here's me and my buddy Jessica dancing to Michael Arenella's music. He never fails to entertain!

*Wearing a vintage fringe dress from eBay, vintage bag from my mother, lace-up booties by Dolce Vita, reconstructed feather handband

shake them fruits

Halloween this year couldn't have been more fun -- technically I had 2 Halloween celebrations (we partied on the Eve as well, post to come next). Of course I had to put on my best costume for my last Halloween in New York. I never believed in store-bought costumes, so in true DIY spirit, I made my very own fruit headpiece a-la-Carmen Miranda and put together a tropical Samba outfit for the big night out. I have to say I was very proud of my chiquita banana headpiece; it took tons of crazy glue and stitching and ribbon attaching and countless bobby pins and scarf wrapping to put together the entire look, but it was all worth it in the end. And now I have these plastic fruits from Michael's that I could use to decorate my dining table. Oh I miss Halloween already!

*Wearing a DIY fruit headpiece, vintage nightgown (worn as top with DIY sequined necklace) from Beacon's Closet, vintage skirt from Beyond Retro, belt by 3.1 Philip Lim.

say whaaaaaaaaaAAAtttt?

Swagger - delivering the swankest street style from Paris to New York. Last night Swagger: New York hit up CMJ with their own event held at Public Assembly featuring 5 indie bands, along with a Polaroid "photo booth" (which actually was a wall projection of Polaroids taken during the night by their photographers). Long live Polaroids - for they are still the funnest way to capture a party's best moments. Plus we got our pictures taken twice, hence twice the awesomeness!




Images via Swagger

sea you later!

Long time no blog! My personal life has been kinda crazy this past week and hence the lack of posting... In less than a month I will be biding farewell to nyc and begin the next chapter of my story elsewhere, so packing up my life here seems to be my priority right now. My dear friends threw me a "Sea you later" party on Saturday, and you guessed it right - it was an aquatic themed party, or at least we intended it to be. At my best effort to look like an under-the-sea creature (and yet not too costumey) , I looked to Dory, the regal tang from Finding Nemo, for inspiration. I love the contrast between the electric blue and the neon yellow, and as if this combination is not flashy enough, I even added extra sparkles to the outfit with my sequined-sleeved top. But it's only fitting to have speckles of light under the sea, right? The party was a blast, but unfortunately my camera went m.i.a. at some point.... so I guess this will be the last of my outfit posts for a while until I get a new one.

love wearing colored tights with these caged platforms!

*Wearing sequined-sleeved Tee by Elizabeth & James, necklace by Warehouse, skirt made by myself, yellow tights by Topshop, and caged platform heels by Topshop.

let those fringes flap

Swing dancing in action! Video taken at today's Jazz Age Lawn Party with the Dreamland Orchestra on Governor's Island (in case you haven't noticed yet from my previous entries, I'm quite a fan of the Orchestra). Flappers, sailors, kids and senior citizens, Daisy Buchanan dressed-a-likes and zombies (extras for the upcoming film Isle of the Dead who were trespassing the Lawn) all danced to the swinging twenties music. With the landmark buildings in the background, for a second, the lawn party almost looked like one from The Great Gatsby.

And this little girl here scored the best-dressed out of all today. Love the long fringes on her petite body.

get crafty!

It's here! The annual Renegade Craft Fair at the McCarren Park in Williamsburg is happening this weekend. This year is its biggest ever featuring over 250 artists and craftsters. Familiar faces returned, new vendors promoted, and crafters from around the nation gathered at this DIY-driven event. Here are some of the cool stuff I saw today (clockwise from top left):
Plush rabbit head wall mount (wearing heart necklace!); graphic posters by Nate Duval; L-train necklace by jewelry designer Max Steiner (comes with really cool laser-cut wooden box); embroidered cushion pillows by Alison Tauber; adorable tea cannisters (holding delicious teas) by herb + ginger (they drove all the way from Indiana!... or was it Indianapolis...); honey comb full of cute plush animals!

Take advantage of the lovely warm weather and stop by the Fair! It's going on tomorrow (June 7th) from 11 - 7.