Travelogue: Geneva 13'

Spent a week of my easter break visiting my little sister in Geneva. Thought I could finally get away from London's annoying weather (snowing in march and fake sunny days were pure depression) but no, my sister decided that studying high up in the alps was more fun. So. Much. Fun. Anyway, definitely going back to Switzerland to visit again ( I do not understand people who assume Singapore or Switzerland are boring because they look tiny on the map). Preferably summer, spring is deceiving.

By the way, if you're someone who longs for attention, like A LOT OF ATTENTION, try dressing the way I did in Geneve. Personally I don't think how I dressed was ott but somehow I was constantly getting what-is-wrong-with-her-stares from the swiss. 

ps. I don't speak French. Google translate does.


Py

Antonio Berardi F/W 2013

Signed up as a dresser for Antonio Berardi F/W 2013 which took place earlier today. It felt almost surreal to actually witness and participate in the backstage of a fashion show where familiar scenes from "The Day Before: Fendi by Karl Lagerfeld" were replaying before my eyes, though not as intense. My task was basically to dress the model in her first outfit, and then undress and dress her again in her second outfit in literally 10 seconds. I'm not going to lie and pretend that my palms didn't turn cold and my stomach didn't go crazy while anticipating her to walk back in her first outfit in fear of screwing up during the show. I swear it was the most adrenaline pumping moment of my life (well, second to the reverse bungee I did at clarke quay at 12a.m. straight after downing a long island, barf) when the model's lipstick stained the thousand pounds dress in the process of changing. Thankfully I was rescued by some of the nicest people on earth who were so professional and friendly to an amateur aka me. Apparently shits does happen at the backstage all the time and what matters is the way you deal with it. Freaking out is certainly not an option.

This definitely was one of the most amazing and rewarding experience I've ever had and I'm grateful to have been given such a great opportunity. 

Behind the scene at Antonio Berardi FW 2013.

Anyway, back to Antonio Berardi F/W 2013 collection.
I love how Berardi incorporates the masculinity of architectural cuts with sexy hour glass silhouettes, while he underlines modern femininity with sheers, pleats and embellishment. Everything simply looks sleek and chic. The key palettes of the coming fall (I do reckon that the year has just started but I just have to) are rich reds, monochromes, and shades of blue/green (i.e. forest green, peacock and cobalt). 

I would totally buy everything from this collection, if only I have 10 grand to spare. Oh life.

These are some of my favorites. Last two being the outfits I was responsible of, btw.

'She's sexy, yes, but also a little bit monastic' - Antonio Beraradi

Py


Photo credits: Hasita. R, Style.com

Ballsohard Food Weekend

Had some major feast three days in a row last weekend and these are not everything I had, mind you.

Food over body image. Anytime.

Correction: good food only.

1, 3-5. Dinner at Duck & Waffle, one of the very few places where you can get what you'd expect before going in, literally. Great venue, interesting food (never knew syrup could go with duck and it wasn't even awkward) and the prices are decent enough for an amazing London city view from the 40th floor. I'm sticking to the duck and waffle, and brownies (preferably without the ice cream. I'll explain why) on my next visit, though.
2. Sunday brunch at Yauatcha with M and S. Best dim sum place ever. Fyi, I actually dislike/sometimes hate ice cream (I am perfectly normal, stop giving me the judging face) but Yauatcha's ice cream got me. It's soooooooo good. M said I eat only the hi-so (high society/high class in thai) ice cream. Not true. If Haagen Dazs' or Ben and Jerry's ice cream tasted like this one, I would be more than happy to eat it and it'd be cheaper! (I'm on a student budget you see.) Unfortunately it's not happening.
6. Sushi buffet at Covent Garden, forgot the name but it was good. Were being over ambitious again with the ordering and ended up not finishing them, again. Lesson learnt: Forget about the appetizer/side dishes, order only the sushi and sashimi to make your money worth (M's inner Singaporean spirit lol).
7, 9. Dinner at Belgo. Do not miss the mussels and their signature belgian waffle when you go there. Yums.
8, 10. Tea/lunch at Sketch. Perfect place to spend the afternoon with the best girlfriends. Definitely a well deserved michelin starred restaurant in London.


Py


Photo credit: Monica T.

Not Your Average Girl - MingXi

If you don't already know her, you should. 

Having a strong jawline and single edged eyelids, Ming Xi (奚梦瑶 ) is not an Asian stereotypical beauty, particularly in the sense of modern Chinese aesthetic. I'm both Asian and Chinese but I simply do not understand the Lin Chi-Ling phenomenon. I'd prefer to have Ming's features that are full of characters than a face/body that is very likely to show up on a plastic surgery catalogue. Seriously if we were living in the Ming Dynasty (I did not randomly make this up) or just any time during ancient China, the king would (i'm pretty positive about this) definitely choose Ming over Lin Chi-Ling. Big time. Dramas and movies today are all lies, the ancient Chinese appreciated the Asian eyes more than anything else. Ok i'm done ranting, moving on.

Yeah that's her making out with Mariacarla Boscono in Givenchy FW11 Campaign.

 Ming is my favorite Asian model and she's my style inspiration at the moment. 

Yes, black, black, black and black.
All right to be fair she doesn't only dress in blacks, I picked these partly for the sake of my blog title.

Ming always has this quirky punk vibe which I like. She's able to give an all black outfit a little twist, be it a wild leopard printed shorts or a cute oversized navajo jumper which makes it fun and edgy with a touch of girly-ness. Ever so effortless. I especially admire her adventurous choices for shoes: masculine roman sandals and open toes lace ups above ankles - pretty damn hard to pull off. Well unless you're someone who walks for Givenchy and Thierry Mugler.

Black is the color of my hair, my eyes, and my spirit - Ming Xi

Proud to be Asian,

Py


Photo credits: Google image, Tumblr

Late Night Chameleon Cafe

No, they do not serve sandwich or coffee here, but they do feed you with the most amazing collections of menswear and womenswear by my favorite designers: Rick Owens, Ann Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten and Haider Ackermann, as well as emerging talents like Yang Li, Ava Catherside and Independent Sentiment (LN-CC introduced J.W Anderson way before people knew him through the Topshop collaboration, btw) and several underground Japanese street wear that are worth looking at, namely Sasquatchfabrix and Sunsea.

LN-CC AW12 002

LN-CC AW12 002

LN-CC AW12 002

LN-CC AW12 002

Wait no, I'm getting the focus wrong. I intend to share their music in this post (will blog about my awkward visit there later, maybe). So, LN-CC is not another ordinary luxury fashion boutique. It is a concept store that brings design, fashion and music together and merges them into what we see now as the core identity of LN-CC: progressive, creative, grunge and edgy. It carries some really interesting records (they call it organic music) of various genre, all by Japanese artists whose names I don't recognise (all of them exist before me). I did give it a try on the website and found some good ones.

But what i'm really into is their own in-house recording label which produces pretty sick remixes from the collaborations with great underground music. The tracks sound weird, but in a mind blowing way. I'm always in confusion if it's acoustic, techno, avant garde, psychedelic rock, prog, jazz or just a fusion of everything. The music gives a sense of disorientation yet there is an interestingly uniform vibe coming out from the tunes. Esotericism? A little. Do check out their latest work here.

These are on the top of my playlist at the moment.

I'm adding a vinyl player on my to-get-list.

Rollin' out,
Py


Photo credit: LN-CC

Un.

Hi.

First of all, the re-existence of this blog is a challenge I secretly accepted as a result of something someone has said that motivates me to blog again and make it a successful (term yet to be defined) one. Yes it's that easy to 'force' me into doing something, just demoralise or hurt my ego and i'll rebuild it and hit the person back ten times harder.

No. I'm not that easily influenced.

The main reason behind this is basically I want to have something of my own. While people of my dad's age are having their mid life crisis, I'm having my i'm-turning-twenty-and-im-feeling-useless crisis. I want to do something that will at least make my existence worth a lil more.

Back to the blog. I'll be blogging a lot about fashion and my personal styles/inspirations, as well as bits of my life in London.

Anyway, welcome to my blog, hope you'll enjoy reading it.


I am rollin' back in black,
Py