RED Valentino Opening Party

Playing: Rich Girls-The Virgins
Reading: Vogue March 2013

Yesterday, RED Valentino hosted a grand opening party at their location at South Coast Plaza. Luckily, I got an invitation thanks to the lovely salesperson, Kaylin, and I brought along my friends Tina, Jessy, and Michael, who just created a new blog that you should definitely check out. It was so nice to just get a chance to check out all of the new collection and to catch up with my Fashion Friends.

Afterwards, we got drinks and pastries at Champagne and waited for Michael to come join us, since he had to come late due to driving lessons. Be warned, the Fashion Friends are on the road. I don't know if you can tell, but I got my makeup done by Chanel earlier on in the morning at a Neiman Marcus event. It's only my second time having my makeup done by someone who's not my mum, so I was amazed at how smooth they made my skin look. I ended up buying some products from them, which I will share later on.

Since the party was for RED Valentino, my friends and I did the cheesy approach by all wearing red. Sometimes we match a little too well hence the blazers, polka dots, and Converse. Jessy says it's like we came out of an editorial. I'm wearing a Vince Camuto blazer, an Ann Taylor LOFT camisole, Bullhead jeans, a Burberry purse, and Play Comme des Garcons Converse.

Michael had to leave early to go to Disneyland with some friends, so Jessy, Tina, and I wondered around the mall, looking at different stores. Tina, being the hardcore shopaholic of the group, had to stop off at Forever 21 to unload all her money on accessories, while I had to look at Barney's Co-Op. That place is just like heaven.

At RED Valentino, they gave out the cutest snacks, little candied apples wrapped up with a sweet bow. I really like how girly and cute they made the snacks to match the brand's image. Marni was also giving out samples of their new perfume. They had the coolest perfume display with four seemingly empty cups. Three of the cups had the different notes of the perfume-the spices, floral, and fruity-and the last one had all three mixed together to create the perfume. Also, I just got 250 followers, so I'm going shopping today for a giveaway. Please stay tuned for that!

Year of the Snake

Playing: Nothing Left-One Night Only
Reading: Kappa by Ryunosuke Akutagawa

Left to Right: Michael, me, Jessy, and Tina

Last Thursday, South Coast Plaza hosted a private party for Chinese New Years, so my fashionable group of friends and I took my parents' place at the party. Michael, Jessy, Tina, and I were trying to coordinate our outfits, but we kind of gave up on it. Somehow without talking to each other, we all showed up in jewel tones though! The party was held in Jewel Court right outside of Macy's. It was surprisingly large and they had some stereotypical Chinese New Years entertainment like lions and musical performances.

Appetizers and dim sum were catered by Capital Seafood, I think. Even though there were servers passing out shumai and sushi, it was easier just to wait in the long lines for food. Most of the food was actually pretty good and from my surprisingly long history of pretending to be more in touch with my Chinese ancestry than I am, I thought it tasted pretty legit. The cha sio bao was a bit sweeter than normal and the dan ta (not pictured) had a cookie shell instead of a pastry shell, but it still tasted good.

After the party, they even handed out red envelopes with dollar bills and valet parking vouchers. Amazingly enough, this is the most generous offering I've gotten so far for Chinese New Years. Even though I'm primarily Chinese, I really have never collected huge amounts of cash for Chinese New Years unlike my friends. One of them got a new laptop and another one got over a thousand dollars. How did they do that?

Once we were completely done with exploring the mall, we walked around the parking structure, taking photos and joking around. I really like how these parking lot photos turned out, even though this photo is so obviously posed. It was such a joy to be able to hang out with the three of them again, since we hadn't seen each other since Michael's birthday. Hopefully, we'll see each other soon for another party.

One more thing, here's my outfit from the day. I wore an Ann Taylor LOFT sweater, Zara shorts, Gap tights, Marc by Marc Jacobs earrings, a Bally purse, and a pair of Barney's Co-Op heels. How was your Chinese New Years? How did you celebrate?

One of the Best

Playing: Wrecking Ball Heart-Jack's Mannequin
Reading: Milan's Standout Models by Brittany Adams

September 18th was a good day, a very good day. Even though I had to go to school, I sent my mum on a mission to go to Target to get the new Killers CD, Battleborn. She got to Target before Target even opened and the sales people hadn't even put it out on the shelves yet, when she got there. That way, when I got home, I had an amazing time doing my pre-calc homework. Why? Because I love pre-calc. Just kidding. Because I had the new CD to listen to and look at. It's amazing and I love the Killers, so it was a win/win for me. With the new Green Day CD quartet coming out and the new Yellowcard CD, this season is going to be a great one for rock.

In order to attend the Runway to Reality show on the same day at the Burberry store at South Coast Plaza, my mum told me I had to get all my homework done first, so I skipped lunch at school to work on my homework. It was worth it! Only 40 people were at the show and only 30 stores world wide were hosting a Runway to Reality showing. I went with my friend, Jessy, so the two of us were the youngest there, while the most famous people there were the housewives from the Real Housewives of Orange County.

At the showing, they had tons of British appetizers to snack on before the show. The show consisted of the actual runway show, a little interview with Christopher Bailey, and a look into how the clothes are made. After the show, you could order pieces from the show and get them delivered to your home eight weeks before any of the stores got the clothing. Plus, some of the pieces won't even go into production, so you could order those too, custom fitted to your measurements!

Here are a few of my favorite looks from the show. I loved the diversity of the fabrics chosen from metallic silk to lace to leather! It surprised me to see corsets and bathing suits go down the runway, since Burberry usually doesn't showcase those pieces during their runway shows, but I was pleased to see corsets done in a classy way. My favorite piece from the whole show has to be the perfect green, lace trench coat. No way could I justify splurging on that since it barely rains where I live and I already have three Burberry rain coats (two trenches and one coat). You already heard me rave about the Menswear Spring/Summer 2013 show, so I'll save you the time by saying this, I LOVED how wonderfully this show complemented the menswear show, but still didn't feel like I was just seeing a repeat of the menswear show. If you want to see more of my time with Jessy, click here.

What do you think of corsets for wear outside of the promiscuous realm?

PS I'm catching up on the English drama, Leaving, since it stars one of my favorite models, Callum Turner! I thought he was handsome as soon as I saw him in the Burberry ads and all my friends disagreed.

Spain: Day 1

Playing: Papercut-Morning Blues
Reading: The Petting Zoo by Jim Carroll

I left for Spain on June 30th at night, so I pretty much just slept on my flight and watched My Week with Marilyn the whole time, so time flew by for me. For my flight to Barcelona, Spain, I left from LAX to go to Heathrow and then to Barcelona. When we were about to land at Heathrow, I tried convincing my parents we should stay in London that way I could track down all my favorite British models and musicians. I'm sorry to all my favorite Brits that I didn't get the chance to kidnap visit you.

After getting to our hotel, the Fira Palace, we went down the street a block or two to the Plaza Espanya, where they were having a huge festival. The taxi driver, who took us to the hotel, laughed and told us about how our hotel was located in a part of town that had a HUGE gay and lesbian population. He said Barcelona has a large Asian population and an even larger gay/lesbian population, so that was a fun coincidence.

Turns out, the festival we stumbled upon was a Gay Pride Festival, since June is Gay Pride month and the week of July 5th is Gay Pride Week in Spain. I didn't realize I was at a Gay Pride Festival with my family until I started looking around and saw all the rainbow flags and the gay dating services there. It was atually a lot of fun.

If that wasn't enough proof, they had a show going on made up of drag queens and cross dressers dancing to pop songs like "Euphoria" and "Call Me Maybe." At first, I didn't know they were guys, so I was wondering why none of the girls had breasts or anything, especially when they were wearing bikinis and corsets on stage. Then it hit me, these were men.

Ok, I was walking past these during the festival and they were right next to the bathrooms. Are these public urinals? I mean, I saw a guy peeing in one and I turned away because it felt very awkward, but are you really supposed to pee in public like this?

After we were done going through the festival, my family and I headed to the center of the plaza and went down a street to look for food. At Restaurante Xop D'Or, my brother and I shared a tapa called Cruixents a la Mel Picant, which was fried spicy shrimp with honey. This was definitely one of the best things I ate, while in Spain. It was crunchy and sweet and overall, very tasty. In fact, this restaurant was one of the best places I ate at that week. Beginners luck, no? If you're there, you must try the asparagus and mushroom risotto, which was exceptional.

For my entree, I ordered the Confit d'Anee amb salsa d'Oporto, which was a duck confit served with grilled pineapple and fried potatoes. I noticed that the potatoes in Spain are especially buttery and delicious. Highly recommend trying the fried potatoes, while you're there. For me, the sauce on the duck was too salty after awhile and it was nice to have a break from it with the pineapples and potatoes. Since we arrived in Barcelona around 8:00, we didn't really have enough time to do a lot that day. That's why this post is so short.

Confirmation

Playing: For Reasons Unknown-The Killers
Reading: Vogue June 2012 (Yay for the Olympics!)

On May 19, I was confirmed in the Catholic faith. After two years of attending late, Confirmation classes on week nights, I finally was confirmed along with so many of my amazing friends. It's truly a great feeling to finally go through this sacrament after so much preparation. Before our actual mass, where we got confirmed, we had to listen to instructions on how to line up, which we understood as, "Please take as many photos now as you want!" So here I am, from left to right, with Clare, Daniela, Krishan, Nissa, me, and Chelcee.

Left to Right: Me, Chelcee, Krishan, and Sara

During the actual lecture on how to behave during mass, Chelcee pulled out her iphone to take more photos.
We had a hard time squeezing all four of us in the photo, so I had to sit on Chelcee's lap and then Sara could finally pop herself into the photo. I'm not really sure what they talked to us about because well, I wasn't really listening, but I didn't mess up during mass, so I'm assuming I followed the instructions.

After mass, I took more photos with everyone and my dad greeted me with a huge bouquet of roses, lilies, and astromeria lilies. Unfortunately, all the incense and the chrism from mass gave me a bad headache, so I had to go back home quickly to wash off the chrism and take some Motrin. The chrism's smell really knows how to stick to you. I was rubbing my forehead so hard to clean it off, I actually cut myself...

Once I was done changing into normal clothes and washing the chrism off my forehead, I went off to Todai with some family friends to celebrate my Confirmation. My dad always tells me not to get the udon at buffets because noodles are cheap and "we need to get our money's worth." I still get the udon though and I like it every time. However, I hope we did get our money's worth because I ate quite a bit of seafood that day!

The desserts are only alright at Todai, but they're so nicely presented! The Japanese always make all their food look beautiful. If you want further proof, check out FuckYeahBentoBox, which is full of amazing bento boxes and bento box ideas! However, I've noticed that sometimes Asian pastries aren't as delicious as their European counterparts. So do you choose beauty or taste? I almost always choose taste over beauty. If you ever go to Todai, I do not recommend the matcha green tea cake with red bean filling. It's really odd tasting and Jaren, who was there with us that night, said, "It looks like Yoda's dandruff." So there you go, Asian desserts are beautiful yet bland in most of my experiences...

A photo I stole from Sophie's blog of me studying for the AP tests with my new, black hair!

By the way, did I mention my hair is "Back in Black" now? I asked my hair stylist to dye my brown hair back to my natural color, but she made it a really fake, inky black like a raven. I like it though. It reminds me of my "punk" days and I like looking hardcore. The inky black emphasizes how pale my skin is, which apparently Asian guys dig (according to my guy friends). However, my friends, Shayan and Sagiv, have been arguing over which hair color they prefer on me. I walked in with black hair and Shayan screamed at me, "No, your hair is black! Dye it back now!" And then Sagiv yelled back, "No, I've been telling her to dye it black now for over a year!"

Have you been Confirmed? Also, what hair color do you like the best?

My Little Pony Project: Part 2

Playing: Past Regrets, Future Threats-Call Atlantis
Reading: Vogue May 2012

As you probably already know, I went to the My Little Pony Project opening two weekends ago. The My Little Pony Project wasn't just made up of sculptures, although that was a large part of it. It also included super cute, technicolor paintings that looked like they popped out of one of my eight year old fantasies. I mean seriously, neons mixed with pastels and used to draw adorable ponies? Perfect childhood dream, right?

All of the pony statues were amazing and I loved the range of artists plus designers. It was great to see how each artist transformed their pony into something completely different from the next and how some were dark and others were bright and happy!

My absolute favorite from the collection is Junie Moon's Pony Couture. I loved the creative use of different fabrics and of course, rhinestones, to create this fabulous outfit for the latte colored pony. I especially love the trail on this pony's outfit.

6% dokidoki's was also a favorite of mine with the furry leg warmers and overdoes of accessories. I also liked the use of real 6% dokidoki products to decorate this pony and the shooting stars in the eyes. It's an over the top way of doing neon cute.

Despite going for the My Little Pony art, I happened to really like Frank Kozik's The Bird is the Word, which was just sitting right by the cashier register. Something about seeing the serious Mao Zedong, I'm guessing, with silly Mickey Mouse ears really made me laugh.

I also really liked the art there that wasn't a part of the My Little Pony project. The slightly creepy, cutesy, toy-ish look to all the creatures in the paintings were fun to look at and it made me feel like I should get back to painting and being creative. Since I just finished my last AP test today, I'll have to get back to work. To see more photos from that night and of the art, check out:

• The Progress Photos on Facebook
• Onch's Facebook
• Geeky Glamorous
• Tomopop
• LA Weekly

My Little Pony Project: Part 1

Playing: Man I Think I Love Her-Stereo Skyline
Reading: Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

For the My Little Pony Project at the Toy Art Gallery, I went on the opening day and dragged my friends, Terry and Sophie, along with me. Terry actually started a Friendship is Magic Club at my school that I'm a part of, so I decided it was a must to bring him with me. I must say, it was a lot of fun to have those two keeping me entertained in line.

We probably waited in line for two hours before we got in, so we amused ourselves by taking photos with some new friends and please excuse my awkward arm positioning. But look here, just because our new friend is a mannequin doesn't mean he was forced to pose with us.  He totally wanted to hang out with us because we're the coolest thing suburbia has to offer Los Angeles. Just kidding, we're not that narcissistic to believe that.

Waiting in line for two hours does cause hunger, so my parents were kind enough to grab us some French fries from the Johnny Rocket's down the corner.  I like how the light reflecting on my hair makes it look like I've got red ombre going on in my hair. I only wish I could do that!

 

It was fun to stand in line, while singing songs to each other, eating deep fried, salty potatoes, and teasing each other mercilessly, but we still got tired with waiting for so long. When we were finally close enough to see the Toy Art Gallery, we freaked out and then realized they were only letting two people in at a time, so we still had a while to go.

When we got in, we snacked on Lil' Rae Cake Balls, which were decorated cutely with different My Little Pony motives. Terry and my dad do not understand the importance of taking photos for a blog, so both of theirs have bite marks in them. It was nice that they were all different flavors-red velvet, chocolate, vanilla, etc. I wish I had tried more of them, when I had the chance!

It was great to see Onch again and Terry loved the My Little Pony necklaces that Onch had designed, which were a mixture of metal ware and hair. I was surprised to see that Onch reminded me, since the last time we had seen each other was December, I believe. Like I've said before, Onch is so colorful and fun!

And one touristy photo for all of you from the magical fields of Equestria. Of course Sophie looks adorable as a present and I'm obviously a fairy princess, while Terry wouldn't dress up with us. I'm still sorting through all my photos of the sculptures and paintings, so I'll save that for the next post. Would it be annoying if I just put all the sculpture photos together as a GIF? If not, I have to cut down on which ones I'll choose and I don't know which photos shouldn't make the cut.

Sophie is returning to blogging and I would love it, if you could visit her blog here!

Reunion of the Inception Group

Playing: We Are Young-Fun. Feat. Janelle Monáe
Reading: The Sandman: The Doll's House by Neil Gaiman 

Left to Right: Josh, Me, Chelcee, and Sophie

Two years ago, I went to go see Inception with my really awesome friends, Chelcee, Josh, Sophie, and Aadil. When we got there, we asked Josh to get us drinks and he came back with an extra large drink for all five of us to share, as pictured above, and when Inception finished, we all argued over whether it was a dream or not. We all ended up splitting up and going to different schools a year ago and if we are at the same school, we no longer hang out with each other every single second of the day. Well, we decided it was time for a reunion this year.

Left to Right: Chelcee's Mint Milk, Aadil's Taro Milk, My Barley Milk Tea, and Sophie's Honey Green Tea

It started off with a text from Aadil asking me to bring him somewhere to get taro milk and before I knew it, I had planned out a meetup for all of us. Unfortunately, Josh couldn't make it last minute, so it ended up being just Chelcee, Aadil, Sophie, and me. We all got drinks and chatted with each other about life, school, college, the future, One Direction, and people that used to go to school with us before we ordered our lunches.

Left to right: Aadil, Sophie, Me, and Chelcee

Of course, we had to get a group photo together because we all love each other so deeply and wholeheartedly that it would be a crime not to get a photo together. It was funny how the waiter looked at Aadil and told him, "Dude, you're so lucky. Three girls with you! You're the man." I always have such a great time with these people. They're really great and I love how carefree we are with one another. I love how comfortable we are with each other and how we can say whatever we want with no fear of being judged or deemed weird.

After lunch, Chelcee left us and I was left with Aadil and Sophie. We headed off to a teacher's supply store, a dried fruits and tea shop, a Sanrio gift store, a Taiwanese book store, and ended up in the candy plus snacks aisle of a Chinese super market. We walked around the super market hoping to find some taro snacks for Aadil, but couldn't seem to find anything worthwhile, so we set off for a thrift book store and then ended the day chatting at the library about whatever went through our heads.

I used my Jason Wu for Target purse for the first time at our reunion and let me tell you something, this bag might have made me a big purse type of person. I've always preferred miniscule purses that can only fit the basics, but I really like having a bag that can carry everything! 

I was able to fit my cellphone, wallet, and camera (not pictured) plus so much more! Normally, I can only fit those three things, but it was nice to be able to purchase a book and a tea square and not have to carry a shopping bag. Plus, the purse's pockets were so useful and made room for a deck of cards plus some candy, some medicine, and a chap stick. Talk about a lot of room, huh? I might need to upgrade to larger purses soon.

Are you a small or large purse person?

Barney's Legendary Warehouse Sale

Playing: How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep-Bombay Bicycle Club
Reading: Harper's Bazaar March 2012

Last weekend, I ran off to the Los Angeles Convention Center for a wonderful day of shopping and hopefully bargains. I love the Los Angeles Convention Center's inside with all the glass walls and I like how the poles interlace to create a web. However, I couldn't get the whole ceiling that I wanted and I was already crouched on the ground almost to the point, where I was lying on it, so I wasn't willing to bend down any closer to the floor.

This was my first year actually finding something that fit and was within my price range. Since, I'm an extra small/size 2, I can usually find great pieces still, but Barney's Wearhouse Sale is an exception to the rule. The clothes are either still very expensive or have damaged parts, so I find it hard to get what I want at a price I want.

I actually found these shoes by accident, since someone else had hid them under my chair, while I was trying to convince my mum that the Barney's Co-Op glitter boots were totally reasonable for school wear. My mum told me that no way was I going to wear glittery boots to school, so I sat around trying on shoes that were all over $700 figuring never again would I have the chance to try on a Prada's two toned boots. Then just by luck a lady asked me if I was planning on trying on "those gorgeous Chloe's beneath [my] seat." I took one look at the size and saw that it was my size and told the lady that, "Yes, I am going to try them on. If they don't work, I'll let you know."

They're a tad clunkier that what I normally wear, but I decided these didn't make my feet look too big. A major winner for this pair was the fact that it was fairly comfortable for heels and that the leather didn't cut into my skin like I was expecting it too. These were actually less expensive than the Barney's Co-Op glitter heels and were my size unlike the boots, which were one size too big. The heels measure at 4.5 inches with a 1.5 inch platform, so they wear like a three inch pair. I really like the chocolate, almost black color of these because I can wear them like black or brown shoes. Overall, they're just different from what I usually wear and I like expanding my look as much as I can.

And here is my shoe collection minus my sandals, sneakers, and the ones that I no longer wear. The only thing is, I wanted my rows to be equal so my mum's pastel pink heeled sandals made it into the photo. The coral heels, cream flats, and black boots in the second row also belong to my mum, but she no longer wears them, so I kindly adopted them for her. How sweet am I? My favorite pair are probably my Alexander Wang's in the middle of the front row or my Marc by Marc Jacobs in the upper left corner, but I love all of my shoes tons and tons. I didn't even know I had collected this many shoes over the past five years. Yes, it's true my feet have not grown much within the last five years, so from now on, I'm just adding to my collection, but this is nothing compared to my purse collection, which I'll hopefully photograph soon.

How many pairs of shoes do you own?