working girl

this is another one of my projects from the previous semester. it was for a bridge collection. for those of you who don't understand what a bridge line is, well it's a little hard to explain because it means a lot of things. we have the high-end designer lines, like donna karen, and then her bridge line would be considered dkny, where it is more affordable for the masses, and consists more of separate ready-to-wear outfits (although there are, of course, dresses). bridge collections are usually for everyday use, especially for the working career woman, sometimes to take her from the office to dinner. there are also some well-established bridge lines like dana buchman, tory burch and so on (although some people consider them more contemporary).

we were supposed to design a working woman's wardrobe, inject our own design aesthetic into it, and yet keep it wearable for the masses and to be able to carry someone to the office and then to a dinner.

BOY it was hard. i decided i wanted to do a masculine collection with a male touch, because although i do love crazy stuff, i also love the suit and i love jackets and i also love menswear, so i wanted something menswear inspired that a strong woman could wear.

besides my favorite white, black and navy colors, i also wanted to inject some brights in there with my two beloved neons, pink and turquoise. yes, ladies and gentlemen, you will see these colors in a lot of my clothes!!

ps: although i do wanna show you guys more of my croquis and the planning stage, i've decided that that might not be a good idea after all. i guess i have a need to keep some of my ideas to myself! heh heh!

jara jara japan

how excited was i when i found out that we all had to submit an entry to a japanese contest? pretty excited.

how excited was i when i found out i had no time to really put a lot of effort into it? not that excited.

it was a contest to design clothing for teenagers aged 13-19, and there were so many restrictions, it was a little difficult to keep myself in check. for starters, we could only use 3 different kinds of fabrics, and we had to create swatches of those fabrics on the computer too. for a photoshop virgin like me, not good news. and we could only design 3 outfits!!! too little. i also drew something that my teacher thought was "too costume-y" (seriously i hate that bloody word now. it's poison.), so i trashed that and redrew the whole thing.

i wanted something fun and casual, but still a little quirky like how i like it. unfortunately, we were all so busy with regular schoolwork, some of my friends drew normal tshirts and jeans and that was it. i looked back at my old sketchbooks and wanted to revive one of my favorite girls and outfit, so i drew her here in the middle and changed it a little.

my 3 fabrics were a washed denim in white, a silk jersey also in white, and a knit, one in pink with polkadots and one in blue with cloud embroidery.

so here are my girls in my jara jara japan (jingle jangle japan!!) collection!

seriously, i've drawn these stockings with black hearts in so many of my designs. i love it and keep going back to it. i wonder if there are already a pair of stockings out there that look like it. if not, no one better steal this idea (i'll come after ya)!! if i ever get my own line out there i'll definitely produce these. love it!

deniminim

i live in denims. jeans, skirts, dresses, whatever. so doing a denim project was just super!!! i had a lot of ideas and it was sooooo hard to decide on what i wanted to do! in the end, i picked a theme that i loved.... birthdays!!!!!!

who doesn't love a birthday party??

i know i do.

i scoured the internet for gorgeous, colorful pictures of birthdays and birthday parties for my inspiration board. thank you thank you to gala darling, for your rainbow bursts of pictures too!

these are the sketches i came up with. ok i swear, i can't wait to start sewing in class cos there are just SO many things in this page that i want for myself!!! ugh!!!

and here is my mood board for my project, as well as my completed finished edits.

i'm actually quite proud of this collection. i think i managed to pull of some crazy pieces, but still keep myself in check and restrain a bit of my craziness!!! i made sure that i added in some simple, plain pieces. a friend questioned during our critique session as to why i had such simple tshirts and why they were just white. well, i felt that because i had some pretty mad stuff, i needed something simple that could be paired with any of the crazy pieces. and i love white tshirts - i own a ton of them myself - and i feel everyone should own a couple of good, white tshirts!!

i cheated a little in the sense that the outfit on the left (with the white shirt and penguin pants) is something that i have already designed and sewn previously. hee hee. but hey, at least i made them! what i really want a black leather biker jacket, that pink balloon skirt, the skirt with the swirls and hearts, and those pink jeans and shredded white skirt!!! ahhh!!!

dress me up

when i was younger i never used to wear dresses. and i mean never. i was the biggest tomboy and i had short hair for the longest time. frankly i really did look like a boy and there were many times when i went to the restrooms and would get told by some old lady, "boys go that side!"

i think i only started wearing skirts and dresses when i was like...maybe 17 or 18. and even then i probably only owned like 3 skirts. it wasn't until i was 19 or 20, and after i went to japan that i started really loving dresses and found how well i love expressing my individuality through them. i think it must have been that singapore only had really boring dresses, nothing that i wanted to wear. when i went to japan and found this whole array of different styles, it was like a whole new world had been opened up in front of me.

designing dresses for class was something that was really exciting to me, but i tried to rein myself in because my teachers have said that i can get too costume-y.

our inspiration had to come from architects, and after some research, i decided i found many inspiring ideas from herzog and de meuron. the duo from switzerland used to design really simple buildings, but their recent projects show a different side of them that i found really exciting. they were using a lot of lines and almost grafitti-like swirls, and combined with sharp lines that they still use now, i just imagined so many different clothes in my head. they are also the pair behind the fabulous prada building in tokyo, as well as the beijing olympic stadium - which looks like a bird's nest. i love it!

here are the rough sketches that i drew. they are so ugly i can't stand it. i really wish i could draw better. initially i wanted them to be brown in color... then as i painted a few in brown, it just bored the hell out of me and i changed my color scheme to red, blue and plaid!! thank god!!

below are the 6 dresses that i picked from the lot as my finished edits...

then i redrew and painted them, and voila!

i know, i still have that costume-y thing. my teachers tell me that people won't wear things like that, but i don't understand yet. because i would! i would totally wear them. i don't design things that i wouldn't wear myself, and i wish people here understood me more.

the swmsuit edition

so i walk out of my apartment on sunday and get a shock - the streets are closed and there are a million people out on the road.

it's a street fair/flea market!! i had no idea that was happening!! i was wondering why there were some shouting and all going on downstairs, but didn't know it was because there were SO many people out there. i love fairs like that and spent two hours looking at everything, only to regret later cos i had so much to do and should not have been at any fairs!!

it's been a crazy two weeks and i haven't been having much sleep. i woke up late yesterday and had a major panic attack. i mean, it's ok if i was late for class - that's just a "late" on my record - but i think because all this stress has been building up, i really had a weird panic thing going on and my heart was POUNDING.

god i'm stressed and i really need a massage and some time to go out and have fun.

so anyway, i thought i'd share with you guys what i've been up to the last couple of weeks. as part of my never-ending pile of homework, we've been doing swimsuit designs.

(did the title make you feel a bit playboy-ish?)

we started off with creating a mood board. a mood board is basically a concept board with pictures or words or sketches, that help convey the overall feel of the project. doing one helps to keep one's focus, by keeping all the images of inspiration together. our objective was to choose two icons, and bring them to two different places, and get our inspiration from there.

my inspirations were "napoleon goes to tokyo"

and "betty boop and the harajuku girls drink vodka in moscow".

then we did sketches and drew many different swimsuits, then picked five that we liked the best as our collection. while i was doing it, there were times where i just felt stumped and felt like i had zero creativity juices, but after everything was painted and i looked through it, i felt this odd surge of inspiration, like light bulbs were going off everywhere (you know how they do it in cartoons) and came out with so many more ideas.

i haven't finished it yet, but here's roughly how it is going. from next week on we'll be moving into designing dresses, which i am REALLY excited about cos i love dresses. i mean, the last time i wore a swimsuit was perhaps 10 years ago so i was really dying the last few days. it was also hard for me because i like over-the-top things and wanted to add on a million complicated details, but my teacher kept telling us not to make it too costume-y. this project killed me.

i find that because i'm not that fluid and confident with my sketching and drawing, it is really hard for me to convey all my ideas that are in my head and transfer them to paper. for those of you who love art and design as well, do you have similar problems? how do you work your way around it? i'm really lost and it's so frustrating.

anyway, here is my little incomplete collection.

well, i thought i wanted to share with you guys what i've been doing. it also seems that all my creative energy is being channeled into schoolwork right now and although i wanna blog more and i have some articles that i have lined up to write, it would be great if you could let me know if there's anything you want me to write about too.


i need to design more cover-ups for the skimpy swimsuits, and perhaps i'll post them when they are more presentable. what do you guys think? all constructive criticism and comments are welcomed. :)

today's get-up 31july2007

i've been rose-pinked!!

i went to get my hair colored..... then the stylist somehow convinced me to get my hair cut. i like it!!! but i do miss my hair!! suddenly i feel really bald.

i chose a rose-pink color. kinda reddish, kinda pink. it looks different under diferent kids of lighting. oh yeah.

• pink and red jersey gown (i caught a cold)
• green and white striped shirt by topshop
• dark blue sarrouel pants by sunao kuwahara
• navy tights
• brown leather boots by topshop
• toy necklace by mercibeaucoup

oh bloody hell. try as i might, i can't get it to look pink in the photos!!! #&$*#*!($#&**!!

my friends and ex-bosses, roger and yvonne, have all been pretty obsessed with this thing called phiten. it's been pretty big in japan all the while, but i never paid attention to it cos i thought it was all nonsense. it comes in all sorts of bracelets or necklaces (mostly really ugly) but the expensive stuff actually look like nice silver jewellery. it actually has some micro titan balls embedded within, and when you wear it, it apparently helps circulate your blood, which in turn gives you better energy, helps you sleep better, and overall improves your health. well the two of them and our mutal and family friend, edmund, swear by it. in fact, they talked so much about it, my sis and i decided to get some for ourselves and our family. we thought of buying it here in singapore but it's like major expensive so where else to buy it from but where it originated from... japan. much thanks to von and rog who just went there with our huge shopping list. i got myself a turquoise hello kitty phiten. i love it! it's so cute and doesn't look anything like a health product!

and beatrice made me the bracelet with that girl in a crown. isn't it so freaking cute? plus, i love crowns!

yesterday i went for dinner and drinks (i ate a cow and ended up with a tummy ache) with some old friends and ex-teacher, 6 of us in all, from secondary (middle) school. i've known them since i was 13 and we used to play hockey together. i haven't seen some of them in years, but i think because we used to share this huge bond (4 years of extra-tough training together AND winning the gold medal. of course we have a bond!!) together, all those years apart didn't matter when we started talking. it was like time had stood still all along and we're all still the same silly 16 year olds!! i had a lot of fun...... i've got just 2 to 3 weeks before i pack up my bags and leave for new york. i've gotta make sure they take leave off work to meet me again before i go!!

it's disgusting how we look the same after all these years!

today's get-up 21july2007

• light grey dress by me
• black necklaces
• black leggings
• black pointy shoes

i love black.

+gasp+
am i finally succumbing to the heat and dressing down!?!??!
noooooooooooooooo!!!!


wake up gilda! *shakes me hard*
don't walk down the path of evil!

i'm gonna go get my hair colored tomorrow. i mean, today. (it's already past 8, stewpid! go sleep!)

whee!!

today's get-up 17june2007

i went to watch harry potter. i've watch all the movies so far and i love them. i really would read the book, but no one's lending them to me and i spend too much on clothes and smap to be able to afford books. (ok i can, but i'm just plain lazy. do you know how thick those books are?!! if you whacked someone on the head with those, they'd konk out!)

i hate being a muggle. i wish i was part witch so that at a flick of my wand, something fantastic could happen. like fulfilling a louboutin fantasy. and wouldn't it be super fun if by just a flick and an "expecto patronum", to have a guardian unicorn come protect you? i sure would love that. i would also love a super flying broomstick. much better than any lamborghini! although i really wouldn't mind either one of them.

• black cheapo cotton tshirt (cheap and functional and comfy! that's all you need!)
• many black necklaces
• olive green deconstructed wrap skirt with the coolest buttons by undercover
• patent pointy flats
  

to the people who have called me, smsed me, told me in my face, and emailed me, about my very obviously fading hair color:

YES I KNOW. i know it's fading. ugh.

i've been talking about getting it fixed for a long time but although i am quite vain, i also have a million things to do at the moment. i also am quite broke.

this weekend i will, shall, must.

actually, i watched the 3 hour harry potter movie with my homie, homer, and miss beehive herself. but their couch wasn't the most comfortable of chairs and i left with an aching ass.

seriously. my whole body aches and i'm not quite sure why. i think i might be sleeping too much. either that or i'm just aging.

today's get-up 03july2007

• tinkerbell t-shirt by vintage disney
• washed demin vest by dotti
• navy sarouel pants by comme des garcons
• white birkies by birkenstock
  
• leather wrist cuff by me
• dog accessory by shadow
  

in japan, dogs have been one of the favorite fashion accessories for years. louis vuitton collar? leash? dog carrier? dior maybe? the biggest fashion houses all have accessories for dogs, so that you can dress your pup, chanel, in doggie clothes by l.v., or maybe that famous trench by burberry's for those dreadful rainy days when puppy can't get her million dollar fur wet.

oh and don't forget to dangle puppy's glittery diamond-encrusted initial bracelet from tiffany's around her neck.

dogs in japan have their own special boutiques. they have their own shops, hundreds of them, in THE shopping mecca aka tokyo. you can bring puppy for a manicure (or is it a pedicure) in her favorite vamp nail polish by who else but chanel. you can bring puppy for a haircut while you get yours, of course, by the top doggie stylist, and pay as much as you do for yours. oh and how about bringing puppy to the hot springs? or a mud bath? or yoga? or an aromatherapy massage?

after all, if your dog is your best friend, why shouldn't she enjoy life as much as you do?
.
.
.
.
.
i kid you not.

as for me, i can't even get shadow to wear a bandanna, let alone mufflers, kick-ass pilot goggles or fur vests. the only thing she'll ever tolerate is a collar or harness, and a leash. and it'd better be because i was bringing her out.

while i wish i could dress up my dog a little, and i do want shadow to have some massages or something, i look at some dogs (and their retarded owners) in japan and roll my eyes. poor pups. they look like idiots with a capital I, in their red nail polishes and pink tutu skirts.

do you know a pet owner who is a little psycho like that? (or are you one of them... *evil snigger*)


ps: if i had just described your entire situation, please stop torturing your poor dog/chinchilla/tortoise/etc. it's almost abuse.

okonomiyaki love

we had an okonomiyaki party on friday. written お好み焼き in japanese, "okonomi" means "favorite" or "what you like", and "yaki" is "cooked" or "grilled". basically you mix whatever you want into the batter. usual ingredients are stuff like shredded cabbage, prawns, pork, eggs, cheese, whatever.

it's a pretty cheap but really yummy meal. there are expensive restaurants for okonomiyaki in japan, but that's when they use premium ingredients like kobe beef. my friends and i used to go for okonomiyaki pretty often because it's fast and fun. you just mix everything you want in a bowl, then pour the whole batter over the hot plate, turn each side to cook, and you're just about done!! then you've got to add the japanese sauce, mayonnaise, bonito flakes, and aonori.

it does get kinda heavy (can't eat too much of it) but it's yummmmm.

we had the party at yvonne and roger's house (my ex-bosses), and stayed there laughing and talking nonsense till 2am.

it was so good and i wanted to eat more but my stomach would not allow me to stuff anything else in it. dammit.


also, i've started on another still-life painting. this time, my angle was really difficult. we had to draw a pot and some watering can, and all the damned spouts and handles were pointing their asses at me!! i'm not very good at that and took some time to get things right, but i was quite proud of myself.

my teacher, raphael, says he's now teaching us the proper methods of under-painting (?), or was it monochromatic under-painting. as we start to use more oil pigments we would realise why he's making us go through his steps. well, according to him anyway. but i'm getting the hang of it (i think) and i'm having a lot of fun.

except my clothes get dirty and i get black fingernails that won't get cleaned, even if i use the olive oil brush cleaner to wash my hands. they finally come away clean after i take a bath. in the meantime i keep feeling really gross and dirty and i hope i get used to that soon! haha!


in the meantime, my bright pink highlights on my dark red hair, is slowly fading. now it's kinda-pink highlights on a WHAT-IN-THE-WORLD-COLOR-IS-THIS hair.

i found a dreadful picture of myself, back when i first got my highlights done. excuse the mess, i was sweaty after hockey training. but ugh i want that pink color back!! well truth be told, on most people, pink wouldn't last very long. most of my friends would get crazy colors like that and it wouldn't even last a week. mine has lasted a month. i think i'll hold out for a little while more and get a touch-up done. i wonder if there's anywhere that i can buy the color to diy though. does anyone know where i can buy l'oreal nuancelle?

my parents keep telling me that at the rate that i'm dying my hair (and sometimes perming), i'd be bald in no time. the thing is, i have extremely thin (considerably fewer than normal) and thin (each strand is very fine) hair. amazingly, all my coloring hasn't zapped all the life out of my hair yet. but because i have such thin hair, i'm already convinced that i'd probably go bald by the age of 35 anyway. so i might as well make full use of it now. hahaha.

today's get-up 29june2007

"i can't give you anything, but my love..."

this song by the stylistics has been stuck in my head for DAYS. but not really the original version. it's a remake of it, used in a television commercial by gatsby, a really popular range of toiletries and hair products in japan. it has been playing over tv for ages in japan... i come back to singapore to find that they are promoting the product here as well, and surprise surprise, they managed to get the rights to use the same japan commercial here.

it's EVERYWHERE. and yes, i'm proud to also mention that takuya is fronting the commercial. HAHAHA. you can watch the whole thing and the many different versions on the gatsby website.

or you can also watch a version here... of nakai, the leader of smap, dressed up as a tpical japanese salaryman (it's for one of his variety shows). at first, he imitates takuya in the commercial. it's hilarious. then when his co-hosts ask him to do the commercial as if it were his own, he did his own dance.

• t-shirt by undercover
• long vest by comme des garcons
• striped pants by me
• stud boots by junya watanabe

i've been in a really good mood lately and have been singing and dancing around. i must be high on something.

i'm going to watch soccer tomorrow and then stand-up comedy on sunday.
what are you guys doing this weekend?

today's get-up 20june2007

i went for a barbeque on wednesday. my junior from the hockey club invited me over cos the girls from their batch were having a get-together. well they were seriously MUCH younger than me. by like 7, 8 years!! god i felt old.

apparently i was the so-called "special, secret guest" and she didn't tell the others that i was coming, and only 2 of them knew. (2 who had gone on the victoria tour)

i got a little shy and only started "warming up" to them after an hour or so. how juvenile!!! *tsk tsk*

it was a roof-top bbq. roof-top being the 36th floor of her apartments. since there were no other buildings that were as tall in that area, we were towering over everything else and it was really pretty. except that i tried to look down and got a little frightened so i reminded myself not to do that again.

• pink straw hat
• aviator shades
• pink singlet by topshop
• blue dress by kastane
• washed demin vest by dotti
• blue jeans by rna
• chunky necklace by sunao kuwahara

you might realise that i keep wearing the same pair of jeans. yes, i do like it a lot... but it's also because it's my only pair of jeans! and yes, i do wash my jeans. but i really need to buy another pair!! but it's just so hard to find jeans that i really love. okay okay, i actually own at least 5 other pairs but i just don't wear them. when i do wear something else, i always come back to my rnas. it's bad. bad bad bad.

on another note, it was just recently international dress up day!

this month's theme was to dress up as your evil twin or alter-ego.

and here's my alter-ego... who's basically "me" trapped inside:

Meet ギルダ (read: gi-ru-da) who has been living in Tokyo for 4 years, and loves it so much, she doesn't wanna go anywhere else. She passes her days making fantastic new clothes, and her nights drinking sake with friends and getting terribly high. Her weekends are spent prancing around the streets of Harajuku, spending loads of money in the backstreets, laughing madly with friends, and eating terribly sinful chocolate and peanut butter crepe. Ultimately, she's a Harajuku Punk at heart. But shh, don't tell anyone that she's also in love with SMAP and is a secret teenybopper. She takes photos with a peace sign, and never leaves home without her lipgloss or her skeleton ring. There's nothing more she loves than going to karaoke with her friends and singing herself hoarse till morning.

after living in japan for 4 years, i've actually grown to like kneeling down. i kneel everywhere! it's crazy!

a friend saw these pictures and commented on how much make up i had on and i was like, huh? i didn't even have any foundation on or anything. all i had on was black kohl eye-liner, and well my cheeks were super glittery. they have a dot of red eyeshadow on them, as well as a smudge of ultra-fine glitter eyeshadow... yeah, just the way my tokyo friends and i do it.