dances of vice 1920s flapper

oh gosh. what a crazy weekend! where do i even start?!?!?! i have all these pictures i want to upload, it’s gonna be a mighty long-ass post if i squeeze it all together!! like a MAJOR photo fest. so i’m gonna try and do separate the posts out. hope you’re ready for it!!

july 5th, 2008

gala told me about this amazing costume event held by dances of vice in brooklyn. i wasn’t that keen on traveling so far and spending money but i heard the word “costume” and perked up. any chance to dress up, i’m there! although i’m really broke and should actually be confined to my room. thank god i already had the outfit i needed, beckoning at me in my closet. so the only thing i spent on was taxi fares and entrance fees!

i knew immediately what i wanted to wear (although of course i did fret over two dresses), but i was more concerned about hair and make up. hair and make up!!! that was so important for the 1920s era!!! after some research on the internet that only showed me some boring pictures, i remembered that the fashion god, mr galliano himself, had done a flapper inspired collection for his fall 2007 collection, and after looking at style.com, i got my perfect inspiration images.

oh yeah, baby. i’m not a make-up pro, nor will i ever achieve anything as amazing as that, but boy was i going to try. and i had about 20 minutes to do it. my eyes took about 10 and all i did was smudge a heck lot of black liner and shadow on it, put in some major white highlight under my brow bone, then i tried to conceal up my brow hairs and drew a really thin, and super long line in its place.

i looked like a drag queen but oh my god i loved it!!! and of course, i don’t own no lip pencil and the last time i ever lined my lips was about 3 years ago. so i tried to get my lips done just by drawing it on with the pointy edge of my lipstick. not very easy, but whatever! i looked like i was ready for halloween and that made me happy! i know so many people were staring at me on the street like i was some insane psycho, but i couldn’t care less. i was so excited! if i had more make-up brushes and color options than my ridiculously pitiful pile, i honestly would have loaded it on more, like how galliano did it.

i met gala at her apartment, fucking late because i lost my id and was turning my entire apartment upsde-down looking for it. with her was nubby twiglet, a designer whose work i have admired since i first forayed into this blogging world!

i was just amazed when we got to the montauk club. literally, my eyes opened so wide and i was stunned. the place was amazing, everyone was so dressed up (except for a few people who were in singlets and bermudas and should have been kicked out). i’ve never seen anything quite like it. i wanted to talk to everyone but i was just so shocked, i forgot my english. so i basically just stood around and people-watched. it was amazing. so darn amazing!!!

the moment we go there, gala spotted molly crabapple, who looked fantastic in her corset. i got to know of molly and her work soon after i first came to new york in late august 2007. she is the founder of dr. sketchy’s anti-art school. since i first heard about it, i’ve been always dying, dying to go, but no one would go with me and i’m too chicken to turn up myself. she offered to sketch us. ok i know she is a pro and all that, and i’m just a miserable fashion student, but wow, that girl was working it in her corset. she was fast!!! i think she got us down in like, 5, 10 minutes. gala and nubby were chatting with her. i was too busy looking at her markers flying all over the page! new found respect, and now i really need to drag someone with me to dr. sketchy’s!

i think gala and nubby didn’t really enjoy themselves, because the event wasn’t really what they had expected. they sat on a couch for a while, chatting. nubby’s friend, voltaire, came over to sit and talk too. i loved what he was wearing but the music was loud and there was no space on the couch for me to sit and join in. besides, i was having way too much fun looking at everyone!! unlike gala and nubby, i went there with absolutely no expectations. in fact, it exceeded my “expectations”, because almost everyone was dressed to the nines!!

the band was playing, people were dancing, and i was looking at clothes. oh my god i tell you, i was having the time of my life.

don’t they look absolutely amazing?

i’m so glad i went. i mean, i really love dressing up but it has been a while since i actually wore THIS much make up.

click*click to view close-up!

ruffled cape by betsey johnson
dress by chloe
queen alice ring by tarina tarantino
lace-up shoes by irregular choice

do i look flapperish enough? i wish i knew how to do my hair, but i didn’t, so i just left it as it was. isn’t it crazy that i got this look from my regular closet? i’m a little proud of myself. haha!! the only thing i added were the fake pearls that gala generously bought for me from some costume store, because i only owned two little strands of pearls. ooh!!! and i also brought along my femme sud clutch!!! i loved it!

i had an amazing night. the worst thing that happened? i had never worn those shoes before this night and although i have like 5 pairs of irregular choice shoes and love them and they have never given me problems, for some stupid reason this pair was a little too large! so my feet kept slipping out and it was so hard to walk. so my toes were kinda all curled up inside trying to keep my shoes in. i’m sure you girls have had such experiences before!! you’d know what i mean. it was terrible and i tried not to complain about it, but after a while it got way too much for me to handle and i started keeping really quiet because i was biting down on my lip and wincing a little. i mean, i kept my cool on the outside, but on the inside i was like… messed up.

so you know how i talked about nubby’s friend, voltaire? i didn’t have the chance to talk much to him because i had no seat to sit, and the music was a little too loud for me to hear anything anyway. i mean, i did try! honest to god. i sort of (very unladylike, but then i’m no lady) squatted down to get to eye-level with all 3 of them, but although i squatted down 3 times (i wish someone got a picture of me doing this) to try to talk, it was just impossible and i couldn’t hear anything so i just gave up each time. but as the event was ending and we were leaving, voltaire asked where i was from and i said “singapore.” and he was like, “i knew it! i know that accent from anywhere!”

and of course, i was rolling my eyes and going, “yeah right!!!” i mean, a few weeks ago i posted up my ethnic collection called singapura, and i mentioned that some people had never heard of singapore before. and here was this guy telling me he knew exactly where i was from! from my accent! i was like, “ok you’re just bullshitting me, because NO ONE would think of singapore! it’s so random right?” i mean most people would say hong kong or taiwan or something!

and then you know what he did? he started singing one of singapore’s old songs!!! i mean, this is a song that every singaporean will know. and it’s something a little embarrassing that other people shouldn’t hear of. it’s called “one people, one nation, one singapore.” we’ve all learnt it in school, we sing it every national day… i mean we don’t all sing it but you know what i mean. it’s something that is sung every national day, and i don’t know how voltaire knew that song but he did and i was stunned! flabbergasted! speechless! my mouth dropped open and i was going “ohmygodohmygod!!!” seriously, click on that link and watch the “music video” on youtube, and then press play below to hear him sing the rock version.

i am so in awe of voltaire now, you have no idea. i showed my roommate the video of him and my roommate, who is from malaysia (which is RIGHT next to singapore), hadn’t even heard of the song before! i had to search youtube to let him hear the original song! he made my night. and then gala and nubby told me who he was, like what he did, and that kinda stunned me even more.

Tagged as: gilda, new york, singapore, style, today's get-up