RIP Alexander McQueen
Posted by ilyana | Filed under Fashion, Shoe Porn
Watch the video of one of fashion’s most memorable moments here. I remember showing this video to a group of friends and sadly, they weren’t impressed by your ideas which is why I’m proud to say I’ve dumped all of them in the fashion gutter and have never looked back since.
Alexander McQueen
16 March 1969 – 11 February 2010
You were pure genius, RIP.
img credit: synaes @ flickr, onsugar.
Tags: fashion: Alexander McQueen
Chocolate works in mysterious ways.
Posted by ilyana | Filed under Fashion, Food & Nosh, Make-Up & Beauty
So on Monday, I finally met Yumi for a pancakes and pasta brunch date - we were both from the same design school but never really knew of each other’s existence till she found me via tea noir and twitter. Coincidentally, we’re both going to be stuck in Melbourne for the next couple of years so I thought- ah what the heck, let’s quit being the cool, mysterious arty design bitchez we already are for a day and get to know each other lol!
Yumi’s half Japanese and prior to our date, she was trudging in the snowy mountains of Fukuoka, bravely battling the high winds to shop for the kitschy cute and weird Japan is known for. She told me she got me a couple of stuff which is incredibly sweet considering we’ve never officially met lol. I mean I could have easily been an unmarried 40 year-old man with a make-up fetish posing as a girl who writes beauty entries to lure other girls in but Yumi fearlessly decided that she was going to meet me despite the odds - you’re fierce, girl, just fierce.
LOL OK JUST SO WE’RE CLEAR: I am NOT a 40 year-old man posing as a girl mmkay. Anyway look at what Yumi got me:
HOLY. MOTHER. OF. OSAKA. When she handed me the bag (isn’t it the cutest plastic bag EVER?) I was like O__O dayumm, that’s like the whole of Japan in there rofl. She got me so many things from food to chocolate lip balm omg, thank you so much sweets!
She got me a bottle of her favourite leave-in hair treatment. I have no idea what brand this is but let me tell you girls, this is the SHIT right here. The treatment has a watery gel-like consistency and has the most amazing scent similar to that of sun-ripened fleshy peaches growing in the valleys of Persia. My life feels a little more complete now that my hair smells like peaches rofl XD Btw I am loving the engrish on the bottle - “Even turns high damaged hair from coloring and perm into moist, manageable, and shiny beautiful hair just by ‘Sa~tto’ applying it” HAHA WHUTTTT.
Yes, yes getting to the food bit now. ROYCE Fruit Bar Chocolate is a Hokkaido-exclusive, you can’t get it anywhere else except Hokkaido. Yumi’s mom received a box of ten from a friend and she gave me a piece to try. I don’t know about you guys but this feels as epic as someone giving birth to 10 beautiful babies and giving one of them away for the greater good. LOL WHERE AM I GETTING ALL THESE RIDICULOUS ANALOGIES FROM?
I have to be honest here: I’ve never been fond of mixing fruit with chocolate so being the skeptic I am, I was really expecting the usual: pieces of fruit stuck in a bar of milk chocolate (mehhh) but what lies beneath the deceiving milky pink packaging is perhaps THE best fruit-based chocolate I have ever tasted.
It’s mainly made of puffy cereal with pieces of mango, banana and assorted berries lodged in between the minute gaps and covered with a light berry-flavoured WHITE CHOCOLATE. You guys have no idea how obsessed I am with white chocolate - I know it’s not really chocolate but who cares.
ROYCE, please accept my sincere apologies, I will never doubt your supreme chocolatey powers for as long as I live. I will tell the stories of your chocolates to my children and they will then pass on these stories to their own children, thereby continuing your chocolate legacy forever. God, I’m so high on sugar right now (I just ate 2 donuts), someone save me before I start rambling incoherently >_>
Milk-flavoured candy + keepsake tin can = happiness. It’s a magic formula!~
WHOO HOO JAPANESE CURRY! And at only 178kcal per serving, how can something so good be….diet-friendly?!! BRB MOVING TO JAPAN NOWS TTYL.
OMG another pack of royal milk tea kit kat!! T__T I’m hiding this one in my room to prevent chocolate thieves, I am not going to let this out of my sight.
Kellogg’s Cocoa Rice Krispies lip balm…I have no words - I’m completely out of adjectives to describe how awesome this is. It smells and tastes like chocolate, I’m awfully tempted to just eat the damn thing.
Yumi hooked me up with a copy of egg magazine which focuses on the gyaru fashion culture in Japan.
Japanese make-up tutorials are epic, they’re really detailed and give you step-by-step instructions on how to recreate a certain look. I think this page shows you how to apply different falsies, so fascinating lol.
Oh and Yumi, here’s proof that I have a cat LOL. He sleeps in the weirdest positions ever. Thank you so much for the Japan-in-a-bag treat lol, I LOVE EVERYTHING and er thanks to your filtering/packing horror stories lol, I’ve started to pack and I totally agree with you when you said..
PACKING IS A BEECH. OMFG YOU GUYS. My pretty glitter-flecked knits…my gold brocade skirt..my houndstooth sweater..my warm cosy layering basics…my sexy forest green dress my mother must never see T__T I think I’m going to have a serious clothing meltdown soon urghhh.
I’m going to take photos of my make-up collection before I start wrapping them up in bubble-wrap, that should be interesting lol. The MAC All Ages, All Races, All Sexes Collection is finally out in Singapore, I bought a couple of things from the collection yesterday so you girls can expect that in my next entry ;D
Tags: food: chocolate, japan, life, nosh: japanese food
Making a mockery of Chanel and other things.
Posted by ilyana | Filed under Fashion
YAY it’s couture season! I can once again bitch talk about fashion! Christian Dior haute couture was such a mess, I think Galliano has been in a design rut the past couple of seasons so I didn’t really have high hopes for Dior. The set was god-awful and the first few looks were something Vivienne Westwood would have designed so I’m not going to bother going into details because there are other more disastrous things to talk about..like Chanel haute couture.
Ok I know everyone thinks I’m a hardcore Chanel fan, there’s some truth in that but WHAT. THE. FLYING. IS. THIS?!?!?!?! Already I’m getting visions of the matrons in Enid Blyton books wearing this pastel nightmare; even Mary Poppins won’t be caught dead in this crap.
The shapes are completely unflattering (The second last pink long dress/skirt combo looks like a baju kurung gone bad wth), the hair is a shotgun marriage between Minnie Mouse and the girls of Harajuku and omg wtf don’t get me started on the shoes. Karl has clearly made aluminium foil cool again, just look at that suit in the last photo. It’s either made of foil or someone dropped a vat of mercury onto a Dolce & Gabbana suit and tried to pass it off as a Chanel. Stefano, we have a problem.
I’m almost sorry you guys had to take a look at the absurdity Chanel presented us with so I’m going to cleanse your eyes with some of my favourite shots from the Hermès S/S 2010 campaign photos featuring model du jour, Karlie Kloss. She’s Aaron’s fave so I know he’s going to appreciate this lol.
OMG STUNNING, KARLIE FOREVER!! I love love love the art direction, there’s nothing cliche about it- it’s just a nice minimalist and modern Hermès approach to fairy tales! The campaign’s shot by Paolo Roversi who happens to be my fave so perhaps I’m being a little biased here lol but I’m sure you guys trust my judgement no? Noone should think they can design a tacky collection using the good name of Coco Chanel and think I’m going to let it slide just because it’s ~CHANEL~ you know? (OK OK I WILL STOP BITCHING ABOUT CHANEL ALREADY..but omg did you NOT see those hideous shoes lol?)
Short life update: Tomorrow’s my last day of work, holy brie! Everything is moving so fast this week, I’ve been rushing out this last project which has been on my end for months now so I can’t wait to finish it and hand it over to my boss. Every minute of my time at work has been spent slaving over that particular project, it’s been really strenuous staring at the same thing for hours, days at a time so when I come home all I want to do is just catch up with some friends and faint on my bed! So I’m going to apologise again if I haven’t been commenting as much as I should - I honestly don’t have the time this week!
img credit: style.com & TFS
Tags: fashion: CHANEL, fashion: Hermès, models: karlie kloss
The small little things.
Posted by ilyana | Filed under Fashion, Food & Nosh, Misc
I had quite the busy weekend! My cousin got married on Sunday so the whole extended family was camped out at my house scrambling to put together a dinner meal for the guests; the women were chopping up what seemed to be like an endless bag of onions while the men were just sitting down and sipping their coffee. Urgh, men. The only thing they’re good for is the occasional phonecall and when we need them to pay for our shopping >D I got your back, single ladies.
The best/worst thing about having your entire family over at your house (including the ones from overseas) is that they tend to bring over a LOT of food, not that I don’t appreciate food but one aunt bought 5 large boxes of donuts from KL so you can imagine how much of a feast we had in my kitchen! diet confession: I ate 4 donuts HAHAHA…shit.
Aah don’t you remember the days when we were kids and didn’t give a hoot about our weight? Everytime we had access to sweets or cake, we had no qualms about table manners and greedily stuffed our faces with as much junk food as possible, pausing only to savour the taste momentarily.
Hid got me some really cool chocolates and a bag of mints from South Africa! Cadbury South Africa, I LOVE YOU! You make Cadbury Asia look so boring! The Dairy Milk Question chocolate had a question printed on the wrapper, “Are you keen?” and the chocolate had the answers YES or NO imprinted on it so I can imagine this particular chocolate gets sold out very fast during Valentine’s Day lol. I think it’s really cute and tastes even better, it’s dairy milk chocolate with white chocolate creme in it! Hid told me I should give it to a special someone when he comes along but sorry I wait for no man when it comes to chocolate so I shared it with my brother haha!
I love looking at my mother’s vanity table not because of what she has on it but rather what my dad has. He’s got an extensive collection of watches he keeps in a glass coffret, most of them are wind-up watches instead of battery-powered which just makes his collection even more special to me! The man knows his watches as well as I know Prada lol.
One of my fave watches is the kooky colorful watch you see on the left. It’s called Crazy Hours by Franck Muller, a Swiss watchmaker known as the “Master of Complication” because of his knack for creating complex time pieces. Observe the haphazard numbers on the watch? Normally you would think it’s 5:10 but it’s actually 9:10! The hour hand actually jumps from number to number every hour, AMAZING.
My super early new year’s resolution for 2010: GET ORGANIZED AND PLAN AHEAD. The best friend and I got a moleskine daily planner each during the Kinokuniya 20% sale; we’re keeping it sealed in its original plastic wrap until 2010 hits! I think moleskines are the best notebooks/planners around, they cost a little more than what you would expect to pay for a notebook but they are the BEST. I used to be someone who refused to pay more than 10 bucks for a notebook but I got my first moleskine at a heavily discounted price and there was no looking back - after I finished using it, I bought another at full price. They last forever, inspires you to write more and looking at it makes me happy.
What are some of the little things that make you happy? Tell me in the comments!
Tags: fashion: accessories, food: chocolate, food: snacks, life, shopping
LA VIE EN ROSE
Posted by ilyana | Filed under Fashion
Daul Kim
1989 - 2009
RIP
She was found dead in her apartment in Paris this morning, I just can’t wrap my mind around it. I always thought she was really cool and one of the best asian models around. Girl could werk anything she wore. RIP Daul Kim.
Tags: model: daul kim
Golden Pink FOTD and my almost CHANEL.
Posted by ilyana | Filed under Fashion, Make-Up & Beauty
Golden pink FOTD:
Face:
MAC Studio Fix foundation in NC25
Bobbi Brown Corrector in Peach
Cheeks:
MAC mineralize skinfinish in Shooting Star (Limited Edition) - my fave bronzer!
Eyes:
MAC paintpot in Rubenesque as a base
Jesse’s Girl eyedust in Salmon Pink
Benefit lust dusters in Gogo Girl
MAC eyeshadow in Shroom as highlight
MUFE Aqua Eyes in 22L as my eyeliner
MAC Browset in Girl Boy
Majolica Majorca Lash Expander NEO
Lips:
NYX lipstick in Indian Pink
MAC x Hello Kitty lipglass in She Loves Candy
Lil note: I think Indian Pink + She Loves Candy is the ultimate shimmery peachy pink lip combo!
I like how if you take photos in the mid-afternoon, the sunrays aren’t particularly strong and the light seems to bounce off your skin creating the illusion of near perfect skin hahaha ;D I did this FOTD on Sunday when we went out to celebrate my mom’s birthday! We had lunch at the Straits Kitchen, Hyatt Hotel and er I think I murdered my diet many times over because I ate so much! It was really good food though so it was worth the extra pound I gained (omg I knowwwwwww)
I got my mom some beauty stuff - it’s a tradition for me to get her lipsticks/lipgloss every year so this year I got her a lippie from Estee Lauder (her fave brand), a dazzleglass from MAC Christmas collection (her fave lipgloss range) and a MAC eyeliner in Engrave.
She loved it but what’s not to like right? Picking presents for your own mother isn’t hard but picking presents for your own wife…not so much because my dad didn’t get anything for her LOL so he said “You can have anything you want this year.” WHAT AN EASY WAY OUT RIGHT? Except my mom told him she wanted a new bag, like a real proper designer bag omg I almost fell out of my seat. My mother isn’t one to go for branded items but I think I may have brainwashed her a little >D
We went to every boutique in Ion from Yves Saint Laurent to Dior to Marc Jacobs where she fell in love with the Stam Bag which I immediately wrestled out of her hands “Sorry Mom this bag is for a different target audience i.e ME.” and then to Bally where she was completely smitten with a bag that reminded me of the Gucci Hysteria. She told me she was looking for a roomy elegant bag with a chain she can bring out for work or dinner so I was like “OMG WE SHOULD CHECK OUT CHANEL, IT’S LIKE THE MOTHER LORD OF ALL CHAIN BAGS!!!!” so I dragged my mom out of Bally and started my little conniving plan to somehow talk my mom into getting a Chanel bag we could share.
Omg you guys should have seen me in Chanel. I was completely oblivious to the world, asking the SA to bring out every bag I wanted: The 2.55 lambskin in black, 2.55 in Beige Caviar with gold hardware (LOVE LOVE LOVE), the Grand Shopping Tote (aka GST) in Black caviar (LOVE LOVE LOVE), everything! I even had two bags strapped on me at one point lol; it was crazyyy! My mom liked the GST a lot so I started my brainwashing session “Omg mom you have to get it - it is SUCH a classic, it’s going to last forever, it’s CHANEL you can’t go wrong with Chanel! It looks so good on you bla bla bla” but in the end my plan backfired because my mom told me the GST suited me more than it suited her baaahhhh.
As we walked out of Chanel and went to look at books in Kinokuniya, I hatched another conniving plan™ I talked to my dad and told him how perfect the GST was and that if he paid half and I paid half, he didn’t have to get me anything for my birthday for the rest of my life! He kinda agreed to it and we headed back to Chanel - at this point in time I was completely bursting with excitement BUT as with all fairy tales, they don’t really happen in real life because when we got back to the boutique there was this loooong queue at the entrance (URGH WHY?!?! CAN’T THEY JUST GO TO LV INSTEAD?!), my parents were too tired to queue by then so goodbye my pretty bag ;__;
I was telling my BFF, Dejiki, that I wanted to stay in bed for the rest of my life and whine about my almost Chanel lol (yeah like that even happened.) Anyway mom got the Bally bag in the end, it’s kinda cool so I’m going to try to steal it from time to time. I hope everyone’s had a good week so far, just a few more days and it’ll be the weekend again!
Til next time~
Tags: fashion: CHANEL, fotd: neutral, life, shopping
PRADA + MIU MIU FALL/WINTER 2009 Lookbook
Posted by ilyana | Filed under Fashion
Took some quick shots of the PRADA and miu miu lookbooks I got from my recent visit to the local boutiques with the BFF. These shots were originally for my homeboi, Aaron, whom sadly doesn’t have miu miu in his country. It’s alright bb, you can sleep blissfully at night knowing that I’ll send you the lookbooks via airmail for every season for as long as I remain in Singapore lol.
I love Miuccia Prada so much I’m just willing to call her my second mother, how fabulous would it be to have a closet full of PRADA and miu miu? Make no mistake though, I’m usually much tougher on my fave high fashion labels and PRADA F/W 2009 was a complete disaster omg. I remember wincing at almost every look presented, those chunky and very loose thigh-high boots which were completely unflattering and suitable only for the fish market. Well whatever, that was so last season - Miuccia has since reclaimed herself with the new S/S 2010 collection so I shall be nice and purge the F/W 2009 collection out of my memory.
Surprisingly the lookbook was very well done lol, they actually made a shit collection seem presentable? That is a mark of some extraordinary art direction! It’s contemporary with influences from graphic design, mmm design eye candy makes me happy any day.
miumiu’s lookbook is more traditional with the usual runway shots. The collection was so much better than PRADA’s so it was apt that they showed more runway shots, they had backstage shots as well which is always cool in my books; the whole notion of “behind-the-scenes” is more fascinating anyway, just look at the last photo with the pretty shoe porn! Stunning.
Ok I’m tired of all the fashion drama, a beauty entry is coming up next on tea noir! ;D
Til next time~
Tags: fashion: miu miu, fashion: PRADA
LANVIN SPRING/SUMMER 2010
Posted by ilyana | Filed under Fashion
If my wardrobe was based solely on one high-fashion label, I would pick LANVIN anyday. This is the best S/S 2010 collection EVERRRR. Let’s talk some fast fashion: My top 3 fave. collections: 1) LANVIN 2) PRADA 3) CHANEL. The WTF-IS-GOING-ON collection goes to Louis Vuitton. Marc Jacobs, please WAKE UP and understand that you’re designing for a luxury brand not a bunch of HARAJUKU GERLZ.
Til next time~
img credit: style.com
Tags: fashion: CHANEL, fashion: LANVIN, fashion: PRADA
I SAVED THE BEST FOR LAST.
Posted by ilyana | Filed under Fashion
If you’re following me on twitter, you would probably know that about 2 weeks ago, I was tweeting about going dirt broke because I bought something ridiculously expensive and that I prolly had to eat soba for the rest of my life.
I didn’t tell anyone what I bought (save for my BFFs) and purposely kept it a secret because I didn’t exactly “purchase” it myself and I didn’t want to jinx anything because I didn’t receive it until yesterday.
OH YES I DID!
Tags: fashion: accessories, fashion: PRADA, shopping
The tailored blazer and a rant about money
Posted by ilyana | Filed under Fashion
Wow have I been MIA or what *nervous laughter* I have a really bad problem - I am just terrible with money. I think it would be an amusing hobby for you guys to just sit back and watch how I spend my okane (tis the japanese word for money) Let’s break down my shopping addiction in simple point form so you can fully understand how much of a savvy obsessed shopper I can be am.
♥ Every morning when I reach work, I check my emails like a good, responsible employee…but as Gmail loads, I’m busy looking at another tab which has Forever21.com loaded (MY GOD AREN’T TABS THE GREATEST INVENTION AFTER MOZILLA FIREFOX?!) F21 updates their website daily every morning (about 8:20am Singapore time) and as much as I feel that pretty much 60% of their stuff are trashy, the rest are good if you want to get some basics for layering or one-off pieces.
♥ SHOES, duh. I have no qualms spending a maximum of $150 on a pair of shoes I really really like. Whenever I see a pair I die over and while most girls would just take a step back and take some time to think “Hrm, would I wear this?” “Is the heel too high?” “Is it practical?” “Do I have clothes in my closet I can actually pair the shoes with?” “Do I have something similar already?” - well you can shove it, honey because I’m already at the counter paying for the shoes.
♥ Zara and Mango sales are bad for the wallet. Srsly. Most months I can *somewhat* manage my finances and some months I’m just dead broke. Those months I’m short of cash? You can trust that a Mango or Zara sale happened sometime in those months. Anyway, side tracking here - HOW CRAPPY WAS THE MANGO SALE LAST SEASON OMG?! The clothes were uninspired, dull and just gross (well, luckily for my wallet there was nothing much to buy lol).
♥ Ion Orchard. This shopping mall opened less than a month ago and already I am proclaiming it my favourite mall in Singapore. It’s just…beautiful. I love the architecture, the range of shops (from Louis Vuitton, miu miu to high street brands like New Look, Topshop etc) Obviously Topshop isn’t something new here but the clothes in their store in Ion seem to look better and their racks are more organised somehow? It could be just a placebo effect but whatever, I love it.
I actually bought a blazer from Topshop a week ago because one day I woke up and randomly decided to buy one more blazer to add to my teeny tiny collection. Ok no, I lied. I was just walking into Topshop at Ion Orchard and omg they had so many pretty blazers on display! I eventually fell in love with this peachy nude blazer, such an unconventional color I know raitttt - which was tailored pretty well for Topshop standards and it was slightly nipped at the waist so OK MUST HAVE, PEOPLE, MUST HAVE.
Blazers are actually versatile pieces any girl (or guy) should have. Wear the slouchiest outfit you can manage, throw in a beautifully tailored blazer (if you have the money, I would suggest getting one from Yves Saint Laurent but if you’re poor like me - Topshop & Zara aren’t bad) and you have casual chic going on bb.
Nippon Vogue actually had a feature on the tailored blazer in the issue last month which I thought was nicely done, so here they are!
And since the images are huge ass, I’ve magicked up a read more link out of some wool and yarn so your bandwidth won’t die on me ^_^
Tags: Fashion, fashion: topshop, life, nippon vogue
