Power up ladies!

Recently I am very attracted to the power suit design concept. Leather details, broad shoulders, clean lines and fitted suits all with a hint of feminine trait through the cut and accessories as an embellishment. So far out of the Milan Fashion Week designers, I am particularly enjoying Jil Sander and Bottega Veneta shows. Both of them created quality pieces that can be broken down for mix matching, yet still plays a perfect ensemble as an outfit. I loved all the pieces in the collection and this is when I wish I had a huge wardrobe allowance or else I will have to wait for translations from high street brands, which almost always are not executed to perfection. In the mean time, I will have the below videos to drool over...ENJOY!

"Girls should be kicking ass!"

Bottega Veneta AW2010 video


Jil Sander AW2010 video

London Fashion Week AW2010

London Fashion Week officially closed today. It ran from 2/19-2/24 at the Somerset House and this year I was lucky enough to obtain a pass from my internship to take the peek at what the hype was all about. Traditionally, buyers and editors do not pay as much attention to London Fashion Week as New York, Paris or Milan, but this year, we saw some big players in the industry such as Anna Wintour and Carina Roitfeld in the front row of several shows.

London has always been the hub of emerging fashion designers and the British Fashion Council is nothing but supportive of new designers who have the talent to break ground in the industry. Companies like TopShop also have programs like NewGen, which provides mentorship and funding to emerging designers. Perhaps that is why London is less known from a commercial perspective since there is still much emphasis on conceptual, original yet wearable designs. I have to say however, NYFW is still by far my favorite!

I took a stroll through the exhibition stalls and wished for a moment I was a real press agent or buyer instead of a fashion student just exploring. It would have been fun to engage with some designers and understand their concepts a little better. But obviously I did not want to waste their precious time on a non-buyer/press person.

Another interesting phenomenon is, anyone can be famous at fashion events. I have never seen so many cameras in my life! Everywhere I went, photographers (whether amateur or professional) where taking pictures of stylish attendants! This was when I had an urge to get a dlsr camera already, so I can start asking people for pictures instead of taking candid ones!! I will definitely be ready for this fall! okay so enough talking, let's enjoy some pictures below :)

Naomi Campbell Charity Fashion Show

Since Alexander McQueen’s tragic suicide last week, the fashion world has pulled together to honor him in a variety of ways during the semiannual New York Fashion Week festivities. Perhaps most pointed was the display of his clothes on a variety of the world’s most famous supermodels (and one very fashionable heiress) at Naomi Campbell’s Fashion For Relief charity show, benefitting Haitian earthquake victims.

Campbell, Helena Christensen, Heidi Mount, Natasha Poly, Karen Elson, Angela Lindvall and Sasha Pivovarova wore looks from McQueen’s Spring/Summer 2010 collection, entitled Plato’s Atlantis. McQueen’s close friend and sometime muse Daphne Guinness also wore one of his looks, but hers was a bespoke bodysuit he had given her for her birthday only two weeks ago. She also wore a veil over her face as a symbol of mourning for her friend. source: bagthatstyle.com

Rodarte AW2010

Love what the Rodarte sisters have done for this season and amazing show too! Watch the complete live stream at Showstudio.(http://www.showstudio.com/collections/seasons/newyorkwomenswearaw10/42494)

At first I thought their work was very complex and looked a lot like patchwork. But the more I look at it, the more the collection grew on me. I guess that is the magic of Kate and Laura Mulleavy, who both graduated from Berkeley and often express fashion as art. All I can say is brava!
The whole catwalk show is amazing too! Imagine how popular Rodarte must be in order to have such a complex stage! I must admit besides paying attention to the clothes, half of the time I was try to work out how the models rotated around the space!

Tribute to Lee Alexander McQueen

This post may be a little late, but words cannot describe how much shock I was in when I first heard the news. He was so talented with his daring, dramatic and memorable designs. This is truly an atomic bomb dropped in the fashion industry and the scene will no longer be the same without the man.

I wish there were more coverage about him and people will continue talking about his designs and concepts for many years to come. But it seems at the moment, the fashion world is still recovering from devastation. As with all the celebrities who have taken their lives in the past year, my heart goes out to all their families and friends who cared deeply for them. Some may say that there is a fine line between genius and insanity, but at least we will be able to tell stories and designs from McQueen for the many years to come. To quote sex and the city, "this is certainly the end of an era"

Sneak peek of my photo shoot

Last week was the most magical week of my life because I got to be a model for a day! The campaign is for our new event Emerge Fashion Awards, which will be launched in June. That's right folks! We are using real life size models!
It was a really exciting experience and I was amazed to see the amount of production goes into the shoot behind the scenes! Modeling certainly isn't an easy job, to be constantly asked to pose in awkward and inhumane positions and wait for the photographer to finally snap the shot. Our photographer that day was Helena Tepli and she has great energy and really talented. She speaks Japanese and studied linguistics!

In the end, we had a successful day and I cannot wait to see the final pictures!

Yesterday I went to the Angels Retro Sale. Doors opened at 8:30am so as much as I hated to wake up early on a Saturday morning, I managed to peel myself off bed at 6:30am to get ready for the big day. We arrived the location at approximately 9am (yes! it is FAR) and, the line was so long it has already wrapped around the whole block! Surely is an obscured scene in the area of North Wembley with the presence of uber trendy and fashion forward crowd!
So the sale was very straight forward, the entrance fee was 5 pounds and we can choose between a medium bag for 20 pounds or a large bag for 50 pounds all you can fill!
We waited for an hour in zero degrees wind before we were finally let inside the warehouse. It was such a mad house!! Everyone was grabbing items and stuffing it in their bags, and in this case, it does feel like it was almost for free! So I started randomly grabbing everything that has potential from rows of paper boxes that were divided into genres and categories. But basically it was all about digging..so DIG DIG DIG!! Then we found ourselves a little corner to try on everything for size. This is tricky since fit is quite important if I wanted to modernize the look. At that point it was more quality over quantity, although my economist side told me a sunk cost of 25 pounds is spent already...haha.
So we were in and out of that place within one hour. I am sure I could yield more findings if I dug around for longer, as I completely skipped the accessories section (my bag still had room for more!). But the madness was draining my spirit already and I was quite happy with all my findings.

So here they are...(everything for 20 pounds!!)
Item 1.
Long black and white full skirt, worn as a dress. (Can't wait to wear this one out during Spring!) Worn with: vintage red snake skin belt, pearl necklace, Topshop leggings, and Prada open toe ankle boots.



Item 2: Vintage Miss Selfridge navy blue jacket. Worn with: H&M tshirt, H&M boyfriend shorts, Topshop leggings, Prada open toe ankle boots.
Doesn't this jacket look like a flight attendant's uniform? haha


Item 3: Rollerblade waitress short dress. Worn with Topshop leggings and Clarks Marg Kate Brown boots.


Item 4: Sleeveless button down dress. Worn with neon green vintage belt, topshop leggings and Clarks Marg Kate Brown boots.


Item 5: Pink stripped basic shirt with white collar. Worn with H&M boyfriend jeans and zara strappy sandals.



Item 6: Beige trench coat (yay one of my fav pieces) Worn with vintage red snake skin belt, topshop leggings and Prada open toe ankle boots.

Item 7: Black Madeline long pleated dress. (another one of my favoriates!!) Worn with vintage scarf, pearl necklace, vintage loafers.