Yazbukey's Acrylic Icons

I absolutely adore Yazbukey - the sister pair designers turned fashion/music/art icons into acrylic brooches! Their design collection can be found at http://www.yazbukey.com/.

Check out Andy Warhol, Karl Lagerfeld, and Lady Gaga in acrylic form below.

The brooches are available on Yazbukey online boutique, however I'm not sure if they are worth it exactly - they are 88 euros each - but I'm saying this because I can technically design, laser cut, and assemble those myself. However the Yazbukey sisters are amazing enough to come up with the idea of using contemporary icons and turn them into accessory pieces.

Also I should mentioned that the Lady Gaga one was spotted on Key when he went to Thailand Fan Party in November last year. He's a fashionistic diva!

Miinah BONAMANA by Super Junior

This is one of Super Junior's performance of their new song Miinah BONAMANA on MBC on June 19th, 2010.

I just have to say I love Heechul - only he can pull off a dress (or should I say long top?) with patterned leggings as a guy in a boy band. And really, he is just so trendy and lovable! Close up shot right below...

Bags as eye-candies Part II

To continue the lovely bag list from the previous post (see it here), I've found more potential bags for myself. They are all from Matt and Nat. Beautiful colours and nice materials (you see I like purple and yellow and black and grey, and shiny surfaces). I think I've a special bond with them - they even named one of their designs as Warhol! How can one resist that?

juno from the Pool collection

brmc from the Japanese Paper collection

warhol from the Pool collection

junk from the Streamline collection

Bags as eye-candies Part I

I've been getting really tired of my brown Zara leather bag with the gold hooks, so I decided to look for new bags. I found these attractive, yet most of them are way beyond my budget (and not to mention non-availability in Shanghai or Hong Kong too).

Which one is you favourite?

Alexander McQueen's flapper messenger

Marc Jacob's mercer flat messenger

Matt and Nat's Takumi from the Japanese Paper collection

Amercian Apparel's vinyl laptop bag in caramel

Shoes for spring and summer

They are awesome!

Converse Pink Floyd Chuck Taylor

Nine West Ulfred

Marc by Marc Jacobs

(sorry don't know the name of specific design)

Yellow, Black, and Purple

Over the past week I've made a few fashion splurges (not exactly a huge amount, but considering I haven't spend any money on clothing since I arrived Shanghai, this past week was pretty crazy), but I don't regret at all. They made my day and night and week and month. Also please ignore the wrinkly black/grey gridish background behind the items - it's just my quilt cover in case you are wondering.

First is a H&M yellow/beige/black spring scarf. It's 130RMB (CDN$24, which I think it's a bit pricey), but I've been thinking about it for a few days and then decided I should get it. The design is like yellow, beige and black threads woven together making squarish shapes (this is a bad description). And of course, my darling scarfy did not disappoint me. I know this sounds like bullshit, but I do feel much happier while wearing it and it gave me strength to get through my boring work days. Yellow is a great colour to get yourself cheer up and it does spread hidden power within your entire body. Should of discover the greatness of yellow earlier... maybe I would be a more cheery person. Nevertheless, I love my scarfy and she loves me too!


Second is a black chest-binding vest by Esha (check out their Taiwan/International website in Chinese by clicking here), 148RMB (CDN$27, which I think it's not expensive because the bras that I usually get in Hong Kong are like CDN$45 each) I know most of you are wondering why the hack would I buy a chest-binding top. Well if others feel like wearing push-up bras to feel better about themselves, why can't I wear push-down ones? In fact this top works like a regular tank top too - I don't even need another layer on top of the undergarment. It's like 2-in-1! Also, flattening my bust area I do feel more safe and I don't have to worry people staring at (and possible sexualizing) my chest and me as an object. The vest is also very comfortable and easy to wear with the velcro strip. (I haven't tried ACE bandages but I can say for sure this is million times better.) I feel like my back is being straighten (I have very bad postures) and I actually feel less hurting and tiring on my shoulders and back while wearing this versus my regular bras. However, the material consists of 92% polyester and 8% spandex, I'm not sure if it will make me stink in the summer. And I do have lots of lovely clothes that won't look great with a flatter chest... so I think I'll only wear this vest occasionally depending on my mood.


Third and the last item is a grey/navy blue/purple summer skirt from FCUK. I wasn't planning on getting it initally, but since they had my size (it's rare during sales time) and it's only 180RMB (CDN$33) deducted from the original price of 599RMB (CDN$109)... It doesn't hurt that much if I buy it, right? (Oh what an excuse.) Actually this is available in another colour with golden yellow/brown/light beige, but I fell for the purple and its combination with the grey and navy blue in this one. Very pretty pattern with organic plants and stripes in hexagons, kinda like seeing through a kaleidoscope. The skirt fitted me quite nicely as well (since it was on sale so I couldn't try it in the store). I can't wait until it's warmer so I can wear it out.

So my week was all about buying stuff (and contributing to the consumer culture... sigh). How was yours? Any splurges recently, so I can feel less guilty?

Am I contradicting myself?

Recently while I was waiting for the bus, or in fact traveling on the bus, I’ve been thinking if fashion is really something that others use to define, interpret, and understand an individual. Is fashion a way for us to represent, express our inner desires? Or is it solely existed for the function of protection?

A few days ago, I was complaining on the phone with my mom that I really really want to cut my hair because of the super hot temperature in Shanghai (and Hong Kong). Her reply was, “aren’t you afraid others would call you a tomboy or mistaken you as a man?” Cough cough mother. If we are going with the stereotype images, there’s no way ever I’ll be more butch looking than you do. (refer to this for more description of my mom) Anyhow, I responded her it doesn’t matter how others take you, as long as you are comfortable with it. Then she changed the conversation topic to having short hair needs continuous maintenance and stuff. But after that phone call I’m wondering - so how you look is equal to what you are? In many ways this is true. One of my gay guy friends dressed himself in extremely flamboyant colours after he came out to others. There is also me, who substantially decided to cut my long hair (which I had over 8+ years) short and dyke up my wardrobe after I’ve confirmed my feelings for girls and want to attract other lesbians. And for non-LGBT related examples, there’s my good friend who is a bit sloppy and very casual – she really goes with wrinkled (in a bad way) clothes and hence non-polished looks even at job interviews (which doesn’t do her any good). I guess maybe after all, it is human nature to judge people by the way they look (and how they carry themselves). Fashion just happens to be one of the means.

And the big question of the day - if I cut my medium-length hair shorter, will you think that I’m a lesbian-loving lezzie?