Fashion Thoughts

Playing: Boytoy-Starfucker
Reading: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

After the runway shows for Spring/Summer 2012 and Fall/Winter 2012 left me feeling like fashion was boring without Alexander McQueen and John Galliano, Burberry has given me hope that S/S 2013 is going to be fantastic! Their menswear show left me feeling pleasantly surprised and like Christopher Bailey has really stepped up his game. His choice of metallic and silk printed clothing and accessories is taking menswear in a more bold and exotic direction for me. I loved the classic suits punched up with metallic lining plus the casual wear's sheer British-ness. Even the male models were better this season than last. They looked more youthful, boyish, handsome, and upbeat than the last two seasons, where the boys looked all a bit sad eyed. I love how Bailey always thinks through every aspect of his show, especially the music. So many of my favorite musicians, I've discovered thanks to him. Also, I was so glad to see George Craig returned to his rightful seat in the front row because I was a bit disappointed to see One Night Only in the second row of the Womenswear F/W 2012 show, especially when I saw SNSD in the front row. Come on, One Night Onyl models for Burberry, so they derserve to be in the front row more than SNSD, in my opinion. One day, I hope to make it to a Burberry show. That's my life dream and Mr. Bailey, if you're reading this, please invite me and I'll do whatever I can to show my gratitude to you.

Ok, I've been thinking about this one, since I watched Project Runway:All Stars. AUSTIN SCARLETT FOR DIOR. Yes? No? Maybe so? His design aesthetic is so classic with a nod to the past plus so, so glamorous. He once described his clothes as belonging to a dream, which is what I always associated with Dior. All the adjectives I associate with Dior are words I think of, when I think Austin Scarlett. Ethereal, fun, whimsical, classic, expensive, ladylike, and the list goes on. A lot of his clothing I can see walking down Dior's Haute Couture runway as they are and some of them just need a bigger budget, so that he can buy better fabric and then they would be perfect for Dior.  Plus, Austin Scarlett is able to create amazing pieces in short amounts of time, so imagine what he can do when he's given months to work on one collection plus tremendous freedom to do whatever he wants. Plus, he's so lovable with his quirky expressions and over the top diva personality. I really think he's the perfect choice for Dior. As much as I would love to see Galliano back at Dior, I know it's not going to happen, so why not give Dior to a totally new designer and see what happens?

Left to Right: Central Park, Mike Gonzalez, and T by Alexander Wang

I've also been playing around with the idea of a luxurious sweatshirt for casual days. I've found that I can get away with wearing a solid colored tank top in a contrasting color with one of my sweatshirts plus interesting shoes and skinny jeans. Plus, it's a nice look for walking your dog perhaps and for doing quick errands. My suggestions for finding a good sweatshirt that can pass as chic is to find one in a solid color, no tacky details like rhinestones or sequins,  and one with interesting details like a curved hem, ruffly trim, or an overlapping fold in the back. Check out American Apparel, Uphustle, and Urban Outfitters for some nice choices. I especially like these ones from Urban Outfitters: USA, Skull(Very Mondo Guerra!) , and Zombie.

I've also been searching for a way to make summer clothing more fashionable without sweating to death and I think I discovered one. An easy way to make shorts look dressed up is by choosing tailored shorts over denim cutoffs. Although I do like the shredded shorts look, sometimes I just need that extra polish that only pleated shorts can do during the summer. This Chloe pair I got are great because the navy color makes them look like regular shorts from far away, but when you get close, you notice that they're not your typical, run-of-the-mill denim shorts! Goodness, I write way too much. How can I expect you to read all of this? I'll be letting you go now, but I would love to hear your opinions on all of this because I've been thinking about them a lot lately.

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.

Customized Shoes and Food Galore

Playing: This is Your Life-The Killers
Reading: Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire

Over the weekend, I was going through my attic, searching for some decorations, when I found these. My grandmother, who passed away from breast cancer before my parents ever even met, loved to get dressed up and while she lived in Taiwan, she got her clothes custom made for herself. She would buy the fabric, draw a picture, and take those two things to a tailor to get her clothing made. I found her calf skin set of shoes, a coin purse, and a purse up there. Even though the shoes were custom made for her feet, they surprisingly fit me perfectly. I want to wear these out, but I'm worried I'll ruin them somehow.

After I was done digging around the closet, my family and I went to some food trucks to pick up some lunch. I ordered the Caprese Crepe from Crepes Bonaparte, which was on Food Network's Great Food Truck Race. I would like to say the crepe was amazing because I liked Crepes Bonaparte a lot on the show, but it was only alright. It tasted just fine, but it wasn't enough food for me.

I ended up splitting The Rhino from Rancho A Go Go in order to fill myself up. It's a super filling pulled pork sandwich served on buttery bread with macaroni and cheese stuffed inside. It sounds completely gluttonous, but it's really an amazing sandwich. Having barbeque sauce on your macaroni and cheese makes for a nice touch. I'll definitely get this next time, even though it probably is quite deleterious.

After lunch, we took a quick trip to Marukai to buy a rice cooker for my brother's new apartment. It's funny how fobby Marukai truly is. They have a Shiseido makeup counter in there, toys, clothing, fountains, and even light up plants in there. A boy looked at me oddly, when I was taking a photo of the fobby light up plants. He was cute too, but now he'll never look my way. The things I do for this blog.

These little, pastel jellies are so cute. I like the clear, ice cube look to them and the simple packaging. I was tempted to buy them, but they looked awfully artificial, so I wasn't too sure if they'd be any good. I ended up skipping on these and I think I'll make my own version of these over summer, when friends come over or something.

For my Chemistry class (because I love them all so much), I bought some hard candy to share in interesting flavors like honey dew, pomegranate, and blueberry. And just for the cuteness factor, I bought a small packet of Hello Kitty pasta, which is almost too cute to eat. My parents used to make me Hello Kitty pasta in order to get me to eat because I was an extremely picky eater, when I was little. Just in case I have friends over or I'm in the mood to play chef, I bought some easy to make cream flan and I want to try the black sesame version. Are black sesame products any good? They look kind of sketchy to me.

PS I'm back from Spain!

I've Got Hips But I'm Not a Hipster

Playing: F.A.L.L.I.N.G.-Teen Hearts
Reading: BioChip May Make Diagnosis of Leukimia and HIV Faster, Cheaper

Over the weekend, I went to go try a restaurant that I've been hearing about. Apparently hip, "right type" of white people like to eat here, since it serves fancy versions of food we love or foods we love done in unexpected ways. It's called Eat Chow and as you can see, it likes to make everything look different and clean cut. They had a mini cactus on each table and serves the sugar in clear glass jars plus had a variety of Mexican hot sauces.

Eat Chow had amazing interior decorations though. In order to keep the restaurant both open and cozy, they used slated walls to separate each room. It was connected to a high end baby store, so it had a cutesy mural painted on the floor and avant garde book shelves with fairy tales on the wall. I love the glass lamps they had hanging down. They looked like a globe of ice that had frozen, while being stuck in a whirlpool.

I ordered the Truffle Mac N'Cheese, which was macoroni and cheese served with what seemed like three types of cheese, oyster mushrooms, bacon, and truffle oil. You actually couldn't taste any truffle in the dish, which was what made the dish extra pricey, but I have to admit the mushrooms were a wonderful touch and bacon is always a plus. What was really a surprise was the use of goat cheese, which offered a tangy relief from the creamy cheese overload. For $13, I would say this is a pricey lunch, but compared to places like Panera Bread, it's truly not that bad and the food is so much better. I mean I definitely want to go back to try more dishes.

Outside, there's a funny painting of the Beatles on the curb. It's interesting how the Beatles keep on finding a way to pop into my life after I did a History Day project on them. I MEAN THEY'RE EVERYWHERE! Anyways, I like finding quirky things like this everywhere.

Oh, and you know what true hipsters do? We love to make puns relating to bands we like together on Youtube. I have no idea who these people are, so if they're you, high five for liking the Killers. If you're a fan of the Killers, it's pretty easy to tell what is going on here. I suppose if I was a true hipster rather than a sarcastic girl acting like a hipster in order to parody them, I would say the Killers were too mainstream to ever be on my playlist. But whatever, I like them. A lot. Tons and tons. I'm sorry if this post was boring for you because it was just a food review with me rambling, but at least I shared a photo of a pretty lamp, right?

PS I'm sorry that I enjoy teasing hipsters so much and that I like making hipster satires. I'm friends with a few self-proclaimed hipsters, so I just enjoy making fun of them so much. I always have to be a tad sarcastic towards them just to annoy my friends a tad. Click these links to see Hipsterville and A Very Hipster Easter! Oh, and the title is a play on a line from a Killers' song that says, "I've got soul, but I'm not a soldier."

PPS I'm leaving for Spain tomorrow, so I won't be updating for over a week unless I can get internet access at one of my hotels. I hope it isn't too hot and I'm still trying to decide what I'll be doing on the 14 hour plain ride.