Still mulling things over with the zine so I won't bring it up now, instead I think I'll dedicate a full fledged post to it.

Here are some pictures from several weeks ago I had just chillin' in my camera. This is what my room looks like at night.

Just really quickly what I wore last night, plus black lipstick I was just trying out from a halloween costume makeup kit I bought for a school project. I think I was going for a Courtney Love/Lydia Deetz integration with a bit of a Miu Miu twist (the bejeweled collar combo). It's a bit too simplistic considering what I normally tend to wear, but regardless I like it a lot.

I have some pictures of my room I took several weeks ago that I'm going to post soon, as well as my idea regarding a zine still in it's rudimentary stages of brainstorming. It's going to be about Dreamers - I don't mean all about the subconscious, I mean about people who approach art and language with a mentality that contradicts reality; they remove themselves from it to create something illusory and pensive that material reality constantly seems to lack. They thrive off the notion of a utopian world yet simultaneously acknowledge that this world we inhabit will always be tainted with imperfections. What immediately comes to mind that falls under this category is everything about Speed Levitch, Alison Scarpulla's photography, Richard Linklater films such as Before Sunset and Waking Life, and Tim Walker's editorials.

I will discuss this more in depth next post when I have my ideas regarding 'Dreamers' have become less hazy.





Sequin collared shirt is vintage. Dress from Forever 21.

Just a really quick write about this particular piece from designer Dion Lee's S/S10-11 collection at RAFW.


This blue pleated dress was probably my favourite (aside from the crystal heels). The architectural symmetry composed by the intricacies of the knotted pleats made my eyes literally widen (to be quite frank I almost audibly gasped). I’m constantly reminded of the almost rudimentary stages of a Roman soldier’s uniform when I see this dress, the shape the fabric over her shoulders and the taut wrap of the pleats a presumable catalyst of this reminder. Though the harshness is negated by the visual fragility of the dress. It’s almost as if the only thing left to make these uniforms out of was brilliant powder blue organza, so the Romans had nothing more to do but work with the resources they had.

(Photo via Jak&Jil)

Sorry for being such a bad blogger guys; my Macbook broke several weeks ago and I've been busy weeping/petting it/moaning for it to revive itself. Since then I've been using my old pre-modern chunky desktop Windows which whurrs like a dying beehive whenever I turn it on. I sound ungrateful even though this is technology! and I should be grateful! (quote unquoting all of my foreign relatives) , it's just that once you've gone Mac it's hard to go back. I'm also hesitant to send it in for repair; the guy behind the counter at Future Shop said my entire hard drive has the possibility of being completely erased and when he showed me the price of a temporary hard drive I probably had all eyes in the store curiously glaring in my direction (wouldn't you glare too if you heard a little girl's voice frantically screaming FUUUUUUUU- in a basically silent electronics store?). POINT IS, I need to get it fixed so I can up some clothes photos STAT.

While I'm here for appearing to be the opposite of negligent's sake, I want to show you a few of my favourite stylists' works. I mainly post this on my Tumblr since I practically reside there whenever I find I am on the internet browser (which isn't Safari thus it angers me, but holy shit am I digressing), but I felt it was necessary to acknowledge them here as well since the tumblr is merely an inspiration board and not a very credible manner to cite my endearing sentiments towards the editorials they style. I'm going to narrow it down to three today even though I could definitely mention more (sorry Camille-Bidault Waddington :c).

NOTE: Clicking each picture for #1 and #2 will link you to a post on TFS which has the source + complete editorial.

1) Panos Yiapanis
I don't even know where to begin regarding my love for Panos' work. This dude's layering skills are absolutely incredible, and he does it without making it appear ostentatious. I first stumbled upon the editorials he styled via Tumblr (I'd probably discover more stylists/photographers/the like if some people credited what they were posting, in the cases where they consciously are aware of the source). I was in such adoration with the variety of textures, prints and vibrant colours so evident in the outfits he put together that I had to see more. His work integrates this sense of destruction and neurotic tendency within the aesthetics, and these contradictions work together to create this imperfect perfection which should overwhelm the viewer if successful. And his outfits without a doubt do (I can't stress enough how much they do). I'm really at a lack for articulating myself properly when it comes to his stuff. All I know is it makes my heart swell and my knees buckle. So fucking good.









2) Marie-Amelie Sauve
I came upon Marie-Amelie after I began getting really interested in who was behind all the outfits in my most cherished editorials. After extensively searching the "Behind the Lens" sub forum on TFS I came upon her thread, and after dissecting each post within I realized that she was the stylist for nearly every. single. editorial. I've swooned over in the past. I find she has similar stylistic tendencies as Yiapanis, particularly in the layering, which is probably why they are the stylists I am fond of the most. There are several blatant differences between their individual styles however; for example, I find Sauve approaches her work by manipulating the way she styles to coincide with the mood of the editorial, whereas Panos' manner of layering is so determined that I find it's actually his outfits which affect the mood, rather than the other way around. Also, Sauve evokes a femininity that Yiapanis' editorials lack - not to imply that this missing effeminity negatively impacts his work, there is just a notable difference which creates this distinct individuality in the manner that they style. Finally, I find Marie-Amelie focuses on appropriate colour schemes more than Panos does, but not as drastic as to go into detail about the fact of the matter. Regardless of these comparisons and contradictions, both of these stylists rock every fucking editorial they style. 10/10. They are literally untouchable.



3) Catherine Baba
With Catherine I find her personal style bleeds into her editorial work much more than the previous two. I know this is probably breaking some sort of artistic code, one which states that the artist is not a representation of their work; that although their creation, the work they produce is channeled through a different perception of understanding, extinguishing the artist's personal characteristics and acknowledging this mirrored version of their being; the removed version that creates the art objectively as much as the viewers see it objectively. What I'm trying to essentially state is that there is this inevitable rule, in music, in art, in literature, where the outer party see the work of the artist as an autobiography of their psychological state. And although I typically prefer art that contradicts this notion (where the artist removes themselves from their art), I find Catherine Baba is the ultimate exception. This editorial from 10 Magazine Summer 2009 highly exemplifies that.






Here are some street style photographs further exemplifying this integration. (Both photographs via Jak&Jil.)

So several weeks or so ago, Melissa Luk emailed me asking if she could take some better quality photos of previous outfits captured with a bad quality cam (aka Photobooth on my mac), and I accepted. This project was extremely convenient for we both attend the same university, so we decided to meet up one day during finals week (procrastinating the efficient way) and just roam around and photograph and whatnot. It was a new experience for me seeing as I'm typically the one behind the camera and not in front, so it was a bit awkward at first. Eventually I got the hang of it though (I think I don't even know dudes). But the pictures turned out great and I'm happy lappy (thanks again Melissa!).

Outfit numba two!

Ghost World! Fun fact: I'm staring at ("reading") my favourite part from the entire comic.

You can see the entire set here (I'm technologically deficient and can't figure out how to blog all of these flickr photos at once using the Blog This button, so this'll have to do).

This is what I wore to study today.

This is me showcasing my hair, and oh shit! It's pink again!

This is the song I've been listening to on repeat for the past several days.

This is me saying bye because I have an exam in seven hours. Bye!

Top and blazer are thrifted. Tights are from a halloween costume shop called Malabar located in Toronto.

Today I've felt a sense of clarity for several reasons:

i) I have realized my Macbook has in fact not shattered internally, the battery just won't charge. I have in fact wasted several (many) hours mourning what I thought was gone forever but as I type this I emit a sigh of relief. Forget my lecture notes and research essays - do you know how many photos of neon hair I have on this thing? Enough to make people with naturally coloured locks genuinely frightened. But no, I'm actually very grateful it isn't trivial, or else I would be stuck on a wonky 1997 Windows PC (can you say D:) for the remainder of the summer. Let's just say things would not be a slice of cherry fucking cheese cake.

ii) I was in New York City for the first 6 days of April and I've decided I'm going to try and move there after I finish school if everything falls into place. I know the typical claim with New York is that it's pleasant to visit and lingering for too long will result in this perpetual overwhelmingly claustrophobia and intense craving to distance yourself away from it's habitual hectic activity. Yet I feel nostalgic whenever anyone mentions it, like I'm missing a limb and they only place I can get it back and use it is when I'm in the city. I mean, when our bus drove over the bridge and that panoramic landscape came into view, the plethora of lights consuming every inch of my vision, I felt my heart float and my eyes water. And I don't care how cheesy I sound! I remember watching a documentary on the philosopher/poet/NYC tourist guide Speed Levitch a year or so ago and being mesmerized by his relationship with the city. After it concluded I recall thinking "my hopes for the extravagance this city has to offer will always be unsurpassable". This is why as I sat in my bus seat on the way down I anticipated disappointment by the inevitable mediocrity of what I was about to experience. I mean, what we're fond of differs with each individual. It's all subjective. So naturally I thought Speed's adoration with this cornucopia of edifices and busy bee individuals on an island was based on his own subjective ideals, completely contradicting my own. Yet over the near week I spent there I discovered the city was all it was built up to be (a result of my own subjective ideals or general objective claims I've still yet to determine). Thus I find myself missing the island more each day. Guys, I would sit on a crammed bus with stale air for 11 hours one way like I did a few weeks ago just so I can see it again for a mere 24 hours. The anticipation for a next visit is killing me. Like it's literally gnawing at me.

....did I rant there? I think I ranted there. I almost forgot about this clip from the Speed Levitch documentary (entitled "The Cruise") I was gonna post back there before I ran off on a WTFHOLYSHIT tangent. Here he talks about his relationship with the city.

Ugh, embedding is disabled. Whatever guys CLICK HERE it's worth it, trust. Here's a quick quote from the beginning though if you suck and don't want to watch:

"New York City is a living organism; It evolves, it devolves, it fluctuates as a living organism. So my relationship with New York City is as vitriolic as the relationship with myself and with any other human being which means that it changes every millisecond, that it's in constant fluctuation."

Moreover, since my mac is back, here's an outfit I wore today. It was so hot out though :c. I need to realize spring is here and I can no longer layer so much D: Whatever I'll pretend like pit stains and profusely sweating is IN.

I started working around the bottom because it made me feel like a mermaid. Thought it would work best if I left out prints and just worked with pastels. And pink. Also I'm not going to lie I've been inclined to never take off this skirt because of the influence the cute little asian girl from two posts ago has had on me (the skirts are slightly similar. You know what that means? never taking it off, ever)

Everything is thrifted except for the pink skirt over top of the blue dress and under the apron, which is from H&M. Oh wait, the white lace blazer is from Courage My Love vintage in Kensington Market. :3

I seriously meant for this post to take only ten minutes, and alas it's taken me FORTY. Now I must get back to watching Annie Hall and drinking hot chocolate and pretending to sort through photographs for a project.

Comme des Garcons Fall/Winter 2008 (this is the Comme Comme line, right? correct me if I'm wrong). Fast forward to 3:53 until 4:15.

So I felt like literally translating this outfit because I realized I had just about all the piece she was wearing. Well, cheaper versions of the pieces anyway. I better run though I have a lot of errands to run before hopping on a bus to New York tomorrow morning. I'll try and blog those days, but nevertheless I'll have pictures for when I arrive home. Later days!

Blue button up from mom's closet. Skirt and shoes are thrifted. Pants and socks from H&M. The white thing on my skirt is a piece of string.

I never know how to start with blog posts when ever I want to write something of consistency and/or with a valid point. Typically I write a post while I'm eating or half asleep or watching 30 Rock or doing all three simultaneously ("if you want a shot, you're going to have to dance for it...") so I don't get my mental gears going like I should. But then when I sit in silence in front of a computer screen with a black text bracket flicking on and off and on and off, I remain stuck in my thoughts and eventually I just write a couple of sentences, upload some pictures and then go off and do something else. And here I am again doing the exact same thing, but now instead of the mundane repetition, I finally admit I want to talk about something legitimate. Or at least something that's been lingering in my mind for the past weeks, months, years. I think I'm just going to go with the flow and see where my mind takes me (you'll probably be in that twisted dark cave from the 1970s Willy Wonka movie by the end of it, just a word of warning).

Fashion is frivolous. I hear and see that in so many different ways, contexts, confused proclamations, concerned glances, condescending laughs - the list goes on. It took me a long time to understand it and even longer to accept it. These days I tend to ignore cynical things that are said and I won't let it get the best of me (I'm talking about things said about fashion, not personal style, because I'm at a point now where I don't really mind what is said about the latter). I've grown to learn that frivolity comes from a hazy subjective lens of a certain individual, ones who can't go "I don't get it but do whatever floats your boat" but instead declare the opposite.

I thought about this a lot after a quick but discerning conversation with a 76 year old architect that constantly comes into the restaurant I work at for coffee. When he asked me about my career path and I told him what my plans were, he congratulated me and wished me luck in whatever I decided to do with my future. 

"Well I'm actually considering something in fashion" I told him after his "good for you!"s and "stay in school!"s. I remember he just raised his eyebrows and asked, "what, like a designer? are you going to design ball gowns like Valentino?"

"Haha, no, I'm interested more in concept." 

"LOL. Fashion isn't concept at all, it's just for girls to look good."

At this point I started asking him if he knew any Japanese designers and he responded that no he didn't because they only became notable in the past few years to which I started mentioning early 80s Paris Yohji and Rei (I thought the architect cred maybe he would know some of them because of their store's minimalist designs? or it's most likely because I'm stubborn and don't let anything go) and it completely escalated to the point where we raised our voices a touch. Even though it was maybe a minute long conversation tops, the fact that this man denied that fashion had any concept at all got me so angry I could have burst right then.

This was last summer. Since then I've come to terms with the fact that someone could have such an opposing mentality, mainly because they don't see the thing you find as meaningful or legitimate to you the same way. I think why I got so offended by his "fashion isn't concept" was because the only reason I liked (and like) fashion is because of concept. It's naive to think that fashion is only just Cosmopolitan and TLC style shows because that is media fashion, not actual fashion. True fashion is it's own breed of art, complete with tinges of what society labels as general art within it - for example, some runway shows can be seen as a performance art (early 2000s McQueen and A/W 98 Chalayan come to mind almost immediately). Fashion is also one of the only arts that adds physical real human form and concept to create an overwhelming feeling in the back of your heart like you know you're staring at something miraculous. Look at the ballet dancers wearing CdG S/S 97 pieces, how they gracefully move their body and the juxtaposing tumour-like shapes the dresses create against the viewer's predetermined notion of form. "Dress meets body, body meets dress". Everything about this is in the concept. It takes a toll on us through visual means but that overwhelming feeling of uncomfortable, radical beauty is in the end a conceptual means.

This entire video is about the Lumps and Bumps collection (it's from a documentary on Rei in Japanese on Youtube, but skip to 4:05 if you want to see them dancing while wearing pieces from it).

A lot of opposition is a repercussion of personal subjective ideologies. But sometimes I just want to show a person a video such as the one I just posted or of other runway shows for them to realize that fashion isn't only that one street style blog they read and that one US Vogue magazine they bought eight months ago. But I don't want to seem uptight and pretentious when it comes to fashion. Maybe I am a bit protective of it like a mother to it's cub, but admiring something so much has also taught me to respect what others admire to (as long as it's not like beating someone up with spatulas or throwing dogs from the Empire State Building). 

I am getting tired (aka I'm not reading this back so if I come off as unintelligible I apologize) but here are some poorly lit pictures of what I wore a few days ago.

Harry Potter shaped-Willy Wonka TV room glasses. Also my hair is fading so fast, but on the bright side it's getting whiter fast which means I can dye it again but this time ANOTHER NEON COLOUR :D

Pinned my cardigan up because it's boring without being pinned.

Hiding behind lights and my fading hair :'c

Everything is thrifted except for the sunglasses and the maxi dress which are from H&M.

P.S. This is the most perfect thing I have ever seen ever EVER. It is my actual aim to look like this in negative 1 month. (Does anyone have a source to this? It would be much appreciated bbs)