Skinthetics

It feels like I'm in labour with my feet in stirrups while the nurse yells in my ear "push! push! just one more big push!". I am of course referring to my imminent approach to the May 4th deadline which I'm both dreading and looking forward to. Just yesterday, our class handed in a mini-project (that my group actually managed to complete in three days!) in which we were randomly assigned to research on a particular fiber group, ours were man-made fibers/synthetics, which we then needed to design a capsule collection. In case the photos down there aren't clear enough (which would be kinda sad if they weren't...), we had a fabric board of synthetic fibers, we covered the history and contemporary uses of man-made materials from sportswear to luxury brands, then finally chose basketball and synchronized swimming as the two main inspirations for our mini-collection. Then wa-la! I present to you our collection entitled "skinthetics". Fascinating how six different people can create a capsule that looked so cohesive and collective huh! 

Afterschool, I promptly attended Selfridges first magazine launch party which had great martinis but lacked in canapes. The adrenaline-filled rush from uni to home to Selfridges should explain the clumsiness of forgetting to lug my trusty DSLR with me, hence the lack of photos of the launch party which anyway wasn't much of a loss, trust me. On my way home, I wondered that with all the rain and moisture consuming this city, Londoners are probably going to be the first batch of humans to develop some form of gills, fins or webbed feet when the ocean one day decides to consumer us all. Either that or we start building those submarines, does this explain why all those designers keep getting aquatic inspirations? From coral reef dresses to shark teeth necklaces, next stop The Little Mermaid in 3D!

Leslie and I in matching looks
LEFT (me): cropped jumper & shark tooth necklace GIVENCHY, vest JUNN.J, trousers RAD HOURANI

"SKINTHETICS"
illustrations NATHAN MOY

design collaborations NATHAN, ELEANOR, GRACE, LEONARDO, QIYING, JULIE

Headlines to Deadlines

There is undeniable symmetry between the current weather situation and my life. While London's unsettling wet, windy, wintry weather washout continues to lash out on the city (which manifested itself into yesterday's headlines), my work schedule's deadlines also manage to clutter up and interrupt my life causing me much panic and restless nights. True, tomorrow's deadline on a mini-project does allow me to cross off ONE stress-inducing feature, but then three more new ones pop up. They're like roaches, you kill one, a few more come out. But I do have to admit that once I completed yesterday's much anticipated photoshoot for my soon-to-due portfolio crit (I'm cringing hard...), a sizable chunk of pressure was successfully surgically removed. I will reveal the final chosen photos of this shoot AFTER my crit (it's only professional that I keep things under-wraps first), but I like to tease with these sneak previews of prepping my model. Special thanks to my dear friends who helped me during the shoot with hair and makeup. Credits will be revealed again at the actual post dedicated to this fashion shoot. Until then, enjoy these teasers.

on me: shirt & shoe BALENCIAGA, trousers MARGIELA

Shoot Me Now

It's sometimes quite fun to live in stressville, you know, it's the area near Anxiety Street and Pressure Lane. Stress can lead to some form of self satisfaction as it may or may not validate our existence and more importantly, how valuable it is which then leads to a sense of self-worth. Saying "I'm so stressed" can sometimes translate to "I'm so important and busy", yet whether or not this little game of semantics is at all just another form of self-deception, the phrase becomes as mundane and ubiquitous and a cup of Starbucks Grande Latte. But in this case, saying that I'm stressed... wait, no... I mean I'm fxxking stressed (yes, I'm not THAT stressed to have my swears uncensored) and need things to work out asap. Work load has been piling up for everyone, and new unforeseen deadlines sprout up all over my life. Those deadlines are like landmines, cleverly camouflaged waiting your oblivious feet to graze them just so they can blow up in your face, literally. And to make matters worse, my model backed out on me last minute which provided me with a Type A panic attack as I have booked weeks ahead for a make-up artist, hair stylist and photographer and a location to have everything work perfectly, but the catalyst was missing to ignite the entire system. Oh! Did I forget to mention that tomorrow was the photoshoot? Hmm... I got a team of experts but no model, let's see how that turns out... Someone p̶h̶o̶t̶o̶shoot me now...

While I continue panicking, I find my high top trainers to be ever so comforting and comfortable as they are unapologetically city and errand-running friendly. With rainy and depressing weather like this, it's essential to have decent looking footware that wouldn't gnaw on your toes and ankles.

trousers MAISON MARTIN MARGIELA, shoes BALENCIAGA

Brickaway

With London's weather being seriously indecisive and dramatically unpredictable, I can never figure out how much weather-appropriate gear to lug with me every time I venture out (even if it is just back-n-forth from uni). It really feels like the London sky has got a bad case of food poisoning where there are momentary glimpse of summer sun then pouring rain that drags out for an hour or two in the matter of seconds... I guess the silver lining (pun intended) is that this results in random rainbows sprouting up all over town, but the worst part remains when the temperature still manages to drop to a freezing 3 degrees at night... someone hand me the vodka.

I realized that I've been more and more attracted to the life style of East London, I mean I always knew about its allure (great clubs, food, youth culture, trendy stores, hipsters, etc.) but recently I've really taken a special liking to the area, from day travels to night life. It's been forever since I went shopping, and even longer since I've been to a thrift store of any sort. Even though Brick Lane has sort of become more commercial over the years, I still enjoy the occasional visits to those vintage boutiques and vigorously comb through their seemingly endless range of goodies, hoping to find something to add to my collection. It still surprises me that something old and used can look so hip and modern and at a price so worth it that they might as well give you the damn thing for free! Which is where I manged to discover this one (prepare yourselves) MINT colored down jacket marked down from 5 quid to 3! Photos of the piece will be revealed soon enough when I manage to do yet another mini-photoshoot featuring the awesomeness of the jacket. I swear I wasn't looking for more mint garments, but hey, I'll take whatever looks good on me (plus it's mint, it's pretty, and it's warm)! It was still a pity I wasn't able to find what I was really looking for, which was something with a fun print or texture. I'm feeling oddly colorful these days, probably feeding off the energy of those diehard hipster around Old Street with their creeper shoes, hip tattoos, dip dyed hair, and printed nails.

Sealed & Leaked

For professional reasons (and personal ones), I can and will only show a teeny tiny bit of what I'm working on for my final year student, trust me, it's really a collection worth checking out as the amount of energy and time spent on each individual garment and look will surely wow you like never before. It's quite a confounding time for me as I'm juggling four different projects at a time, though I'm not exactly juggling four chainsaws, it does scare me how one slip can be the result of either a severed arm or a 'booo' from the audience. Whilst I ponder which one's worst, here's a leak photo of me and classmate Leo working on sealing off the many many many laser cut edges and finishing by hand since there are always most intricate stuff that machines just can't do.

top DEPRESSION, necklace & shoes MAISON MARTIN MARGIELA, trousers ACNE, watch SEIKO

...more design sketches by me...

Cut It Out

It's nearly impossible to explain in one short convo the structure of my life; heck, it's hard enough describing my unpredictable school schedule let alone my life. But that's all part of the charm. I prefer those "this is what I'm up to at the moment" sort of chats, so let me fill you in on it. Currently, the first year fashion students (yes that's me) are helping the final years with their final collection, so saying that it's a stressful environment is a serious understatement as the deadline looms the horizon. Do you recall the scene from The Devil Wears Prada when the workers at Vogue, opps, I mean... Runway Magazine ran around frantically and panicked like chickens with their heads cut off just before Miranda was about to enter the office? Yep, it's NOT as bad as that but still pretty stressful (haha, made you think otherwise). But I must say, all that pressure and anxiety does and will result in some pretty stellar collections; trust me, I've seen my fair share to say that with certainty! And do I dare say it? Yes, I WILL be modeling some of them here on my blog so stay tuned for some seriously kickass couture/avant garde show pieces!

On a slightly more personal level, I continue to pillage and wreck my sketchbook by all means necessary in an attempt to extract its essence purely for my portfolio, as well as beginning on a new project which remains to be seen. For now, enjoy a sneak preview on my meticulous cut outs of previous works while I go inject my self directly with espresso just to get through the day. Don't worry about me, I got my doctor's emergency contact on speed dial just in case I feel like passing out again. Laters! xx

White Mint

Alright, alright... I know most blog readers are probably sick-to-their-stomach with bloggers uploading outfit posts sporting their newly coveted mint pieces from some pastel-saturated high street store and force-feeding it down your probably pale/pastel pink throat (prepare yourselves for irony), but a while ago in between running random errands and getting my daily dose of caffeine, I slipped into some random clothing stores here and there, not really knowing what I'm looking for... Ok, I was kinda looking for something to wear for Spring, but saying that is like I'm in a clothing store looking for clothes... yep, pointless. But, I did stumble upon a cute pair of shorts, it's NOT mint, it's pale-blue... hahaa, ok fine, it's slightly mint colored, still leaning more towards sky blue? To be honest, the tag around it says it's mint, and it's kinda mint but the lighting during the photoshoot made it look sky blue. Regardless, I caved... So let me "shamelessly" join in on the league of bloggers and sport my new found pastel/mint/sky blue/not mundane pair of shorts in this mini-photoshoot! Let it be known I know no shame in this, haha... *blush*

top ROMAIN KREMER, body chain CORNELIA WEBB, shorts H&M, bracelet and ring MAISON MARTIN MARGIELA, sunglasses LINDA FARROW

Fabulous Fifites

I'm up to my chin (almost literally) in paper cut outs, fabric swatches and photocopies of my previous sketchbook pages in preparation for our portfolio... Think of it as a very well thought-out layout summary of each individual project. Hence I apologize for my rather "post-lite" entries, but while working on collages, they sort of reminded me of how Prada does their adorable seasonal lookbooks using cutouts and collages as well. Which in case you haven't seen yet, I've gingerly laid them out in MY own order for aesthetic reasons. It's apparent that the retro fifties influence in fashion is making its comeback (pun fully intended), and everyone's looking at how Miuccia interprets it. Follow the best to know the rest!