Old coffeeshop chic

That hair, COACD

Samurai jack was my ultimate hero; I didn't like the cramp twins

I'm coveting a pair of Karen Walkers for summer. I love the square-ish kind she makes--I think it's cuz they remind me of Dexter's Lab and those burnt out, post-clubbing, cartoon network infested sunday afternoons my best friend and I used to spend, glued to the couch, eating uncooked noodles out of the bag.

Marble marvel

My Jil Sander post reminded me that Christian Wijnants also used a similar marble print for his last collection. Wijnants made the prints appear soft and wearable by pairing them with drapey knits and silky leggings. I loved all of it; it was a shame I never had a chance to purchase a few pieces for myself.

Statues and manbags

Jil Sander's men's fall collection was kind of awesome. I don't wear prints too often but I wouldn't mind owning a dress or jacket or two in this disgustingly cool marble pattern.


And this is the kind of outfit I would love to see my boyfriend wear on a semi-formal occasion. Except, minus the bag. I admit the manbag is becoming increasingly common these days (ubiquitous even, in Tokyo at least) and the fact that it's Jil Sander almost makes it okay. Almost. They're still a little féminin though, no?

I would actually carry any one of the bags in this collection. Since I dislike hardware and any excessive embelishments on my bags, manbags are perfect for me.


But hang on, am I being ridiclously sexist in saying that it's okay for me to be carrying the bags, but not okay for men to be carrying them? Or maybe my point is that I wouldn't be dating the kind of guy who'd carry them? I mean, the average sweaty guy doesn't walk into Jil Sander and just pick out a hand-held marble print tote right? Sigh. I don't know what I'm trying to say.

What do you guys think about hand-held bags for men?

[By the way, sorry if you tried to access this blog in the last few days and couldn't--I changed my template and lost a lot of stuff in the process so I've been messing around with the html codes and trying to get all my links back up.]

Ghosts in the closet

A while back, Danyelle wrote a lovely post about how we often subconsciously attach our memories and feelings to random items of clothing we were wearing at the time. The story reminded me of all the old rags stuffed in the back of my own closet that stink of memories I can't possibly bear to part with--in particular, a brown hooded sweatshirt that I wore over my school uniform almost religiously back in junior high. Those were the days when we bought candy and cigarettes afterschool and lay around by the river until late at night, listening to bad music and talking into the sky. Heh, to be fifteen.

Do you have any ghosts in your closet?

Missing the old school

I've posted my favorite Helmut Lang SS05 ensemble before, but lately I've fallen in love with old school Lang all over again. The new Helmut Lang isn't too bad (albeit slightly boring) and I can't complain really because Lang before it was sold off to Link-Theory wasn't something I could afford too easily. But still. Scrolling through these pictures makes me droooool.
SS04 Layered jersey paired with beetle-esque metallics








FW04 Fitted tailoring and horse hair. I mean really. Horse hair! It blows my mind.

Integrity in fashion

Over the years as a fashion obsessive I've come to realize that it's ridiculously easy to look well-dressed and, for lack of a better word, fashionable. You have tons of highstreet chain stores churning out trendy and cute stuff every two to three weeks, and shoving it up your face on a silver platter. All you have to do is buy what they tell you to buy: say, a little minidress, a small motorcycle jacket, some opaque tights and ankle boots and bibbidi-bobbidi-boo, you look good. Trendy. Fashionable. Maybe even stylish. Easy and simple.

What is not so easy is to have a bit of integrity. To figure out what is essentially you. What what makes you look good, what makes you feel good, what makes you feel like you--and the truly hard part? Sticking to it.

Relax, this isn't one of those stay-away-from-highstreet-chains, quality-over-quantity rants. In fact this post has nothing to do with the high-street. Let me tell you this fucked up story and you can see for yourself what it's about: Last week I found this Alice+Olivia dress while shopping and fell in love with it--the racerback, the sequins, the ultra mini length, the sporty-luxe vibe... It was adorable, I had the cash, all I had to do was take it to the counter. The only problem was, the voice inside my head said “no”.
And then this strange idea hit me. People who aren't particularly into fashion refuse to buy something because they’re afraid it won’t look good. People who do love fashion, love it in a really, really big, pretend to like its taste in music, let it eat the last piece of cheesecake, hold a radio over your head outside its window, unfortunate way that makes you hate it...resist precisely because they know it will look good. And looking good just isn’t enough.

It’s almost a game, really. For me the idea is to make it as difficult as possible. To limit myself as much as possible so that what I do allow into my wardrobe, I only completely and utterly love. It’s not about wanting to look different or edgy or “risqué”. If you've spent enough time thinking about your style, you'll know when you pick something up whether or not it's you, regardless of it looking good or bad, cute or sexy, edgy or quirky or somewhere in between. Whether it’s a crazy pleated Bernhard Willhelm dress, or a simple black A.P.C sweater, I’d like to believe that I’m wearing it not just because it’s 2008 or because Willhelm is cool, but because it reflects who I am and who I want to be, and that it’s something I’ll pick up 20 years from now and still consider wearing.

Obnoxious? I suppose so. Laughable? Definitely.
Because who knows, I could wake up tomorrow and suddenly want to throw out everything in this carefully selected wardrobe of mine. Let's face it, our tastes aren't as predictable as we'd like to think they are.

But living in a world where, for the most part, fashion is equated to shopping, and those self-confessed "fashion-loving" school mates of mine post facebook bumper stickers saying "Shop ‘til you drop" and "I got an A in shopping class!", and worst of all, the general mentality concerning clothes is, the larger the wardrobe the better,
I think integrity and resistance is really something to think about.

It's the little things that count

I have been getting way too excited everytime I open my closet and see this ensemble (from Helmut Lang's resort collection) hanging there just waiting to be worn. Winter seriously needs to fuck off now.