and there’s no wifi down in this shithole so i haven’t been able to blog.

being silly as usual

well at least i’m trying to come up with an original (albeit lame) excuse! quite a number of you have emailed me and i’m so thankful that you still remember who i am in this whirlwind of 72937904 new fashion blogs that come up everyday. thank you so much. and i know, i know, i’m the snobby devil who didn’t reply and you all have the right to bitch-slap me. actually i have hundreds of emails in my inbox and i just don’t know where to start.

you know what i think? i think i’m letting school get to me. i really am. this stupid piece of $#!*@)#$&! (grrrrr) school is just getting to me. new york is jading me and parsons is the jader.

or maybe i’m having some sort of quarter-life crisis. you know, from this year onwards i’m going to be in my late-twenties. last year, i could still say i’m in my early or mid-twenties… but at 26, i feel like i’m getting old and i’m really not ready for this. there’s so much i want to do and with school, i just don’t have time to do anything i want. so it makes me very frustrated and being frustrated makes me tired and hence i feel like i’m getting old. on the other hand i think i’m still a kid at heart. i’m still young like that. or ok, i just dress young. then again, i seem to “dress young” because i think people in america dress old.

sorry, didn’t mean to insult. but i like colour and i like to have fun and everyone here is just black and grey and meh.

erm, am i confusing you? it must be because i haven’t had proper sleep in a while so i’m gibberish.

so. what have you guys been up to? i’ve been trying to catch up with all my favourite blogs through my reader. everyone seems to be moving at some speed of light and i feel a little left behind with my boring old life.

the reason why i decided to drop all my work for a little while and blog tonight, (ps: it’s about 2am) is because i just attended the independent fashion bloggers event organised by the lovely jennine of the coveted, and talking to all these bloggers made me realise how much i actually miss blogging.

i'm da fashion un-police

but the fact of the matter is, i’ve really been so busy with school that i just, simply don’t have anything to blog about unless you want to hear me bitch about school nonstop. (which by the way, for that, you can check out newschoolinexile.com where we are trying to get rid of/impeach the university’s stupid president. yes, for real.) last year was awful and i fell sick so many times. the moment school ended, i also finished my internship with patricia field and left new york on christmas eve.

i flew to tokyo where i met up with my family. they had flewn up from singapore, and it was the first time in like, 7 or 8 years that all 5 of us had gone for a holiday together. we spent most of the 2 weeks in hokkaido (northern super-cold japan – think snow storms), and the remainder in tokyo.

at shikotsu lake in hokkaido

then we flew back home to singapore where i spent the remainder of my winter holidays, before coming back to new york and starting school immediately. and then you know, it all went downhill again from there. until valentine’s day when i went to the party at the patricia field boutique, i hadn’t gone out since returning to new york. i had only been going to school or to the supermarket. which is basically what my life is about, ever since i came to new york about a year and a half ago.

pathetic, don’t you think? i really don’t have a life at all. someone asked me yesterday if i went out on a date for valentine’s day.

oh wait, i think it was my dad when he called me. haha. yeah, he asked if i went on a date, and i said, “date? what date. oh please. i’d rather date my bed.”

school simply takes up every minute of my time, which means really little sleep, if any at all. every minute of free time i have, i’d rather be sleeping or lying horizontally on my couch. (i guess that’s the same thing in two different venues.)

so anyway, the patricia field boutique had a valentine’s day party where the turn-out was super crazy. i have never seen it so packed, there was a line outside!

claustrophobia at pat field's

then on sunday the 15th, i went to amalia in midtown to celebrate pat’s birthday. it was so fun and my friend dai (who works at pat field too), performed her new single “i’m a killa”. she was so amazing!!! i thought it was such a waste that i was at such an amazing party like that because i didn’t know all the celebrities who were there. there were quite a bunch of photogs and every once in a while when certain somebodies walk in, the flashes go off and it’s crazy. i think the cast of ugly betty was there, some actresses and actors… the only one i really recognized was lucy liu. ohhh and fern mallis was there too! i wanted to ambush her but of course i didn’t.

with pat and ayumi (why am i smiling weird??)

and today, the 16th, i headed downtown, very downtown, to meet fashion bloggers where i was reminded again that my parents never taught me social skills and i blame them entirely for it. haha! i mean, i just don’t know how to go up to people and butt in and say hi! the best i did was to smile around and if anyone smiled back then i was like, “ooh make friends make friends!”

so that, ladies and genteelmen, is the story of my sad life.

and i know you didn’t want to read all that. you just want pictures! right?? i’m gonna upload them, yes i am. cross my heart and hope to die.

so here’s a list of notable events that i’d been up to in the past few months (and the only reason why i remember them is because they were the only ones worth taking pictures of!):

20081127 thanksgiving & black friday with my pat field family (sniff)
20081208 last projects at school
20081221 christmas party with trannyclaus and the house of field
20081224-20090121 winter break to japan and singapore
20090214 valentine’s day at patricia field
20090215 pat field’s birthday
20090216 ifb event

wow. as you can see, the only times i get to have fun is when i run away from new york or when i hang out at pat field (which was partly work-related too)!

i really really need to put work aside sometimes and go out and find myself a social life.

i’m not sure how to do this – what’s the best way for me to upload all these photos? do i start from the beginning? or do i go backwards!?

i guess i’ll do a “series” of photos and start from that thanksgiving date eh?

ps: i was just trying to think of a funny name for this series of photos, and all i could think of was “gilda day-dreamer and the prisoner of parsons”. you know, like harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban.

pps: i try to be funny sometimes but i really am not.

a quick outfit post before i go to bed. it’s 5:55am and i’m wide awake. am i crazy?? i need to sleep! i have to get up and go to work by 11! ugh! but before my head hits my pillow and i knock out, i wanted to post this up before it becomes yesterday’s news. what am i talking about… this was an outfit from the 27th, so it’s already a day old! old = stale = no good. haha!

anyway. oops, i did it again. i went overboard with dressing myself in the morning. i think i have a defective gene in my system that screams at me whenever i look in my closet each morning after my shower. it says, “gilda!!! go on! do it! you know you want to! you know you want to overdress!”

dammit. but well, this is what i wore for the 2nd time i worked on the floor at pat field‘s. i’m not exactly sure how much i sold, because my name isn’t in the system (since i’m not technically an actual salesperson there). but i’m pretty sure i sold quite a bit and i was so happy. wheee!!

soft like silk tshirt by undercover
crazy denim skirt with tulle by apollo braun
glitter stockings by betsey johnson
chain necklace by mercibeaucoup;
cute flats by mercibeaucoup;
ugly hair by two months of no hair-cuts

i love my new stockings

aren’t they darling? i got them at century 21 (discount store yeah yeah yeah!) for like, 10 bucks. it’s a gorgeous turquoise colour and has these bright blue glittery lines running down the length of it. you probably don’t see that much of the turquoise color in the photos because it’s all stretched out by my fat legs hahahaha. but who cares i love ‘em! if it wasn’t disgusting to re-wear stockings, i’d wear them for the entire week, but alas, i have some sense of hygiene and have put it in my laundry basket with a sigh.

and yes yes you don’t have to tell me that my hair is disgustingly overgrown. i really hate it. it’s reddish-purple now with purple ends, but my roots are horrific and i obviously need a haircut. i’ve preached before about cutting one’s hair when it’s about time to get a haircut, but this is the first time i think i’ll admit that i have to eat my own words. my own post. literally. swallow it down.

the simple fact that i’m fucking broke overrides any other material or vain needs. i typically get a haircut every month because my hair strands are really thin (the only skinny thing about me and i hate it! HAHAHAHAAH!) and they are flatter than i ever want them to be, so i usually try to get a cut every month or at least 6 weeks, to bring some life to them. my hair does grow really fast, so not cutting it often means it gets really heavy and weighed down. it’s been more than 8 weeks since my last hair cut. oh my god i think i last cut my hair when school ended in mid may! that’s 10-11 weeks. it’s terrible and i hate that it looks so untidy! it’s a mess when i get up each morning and a pain to try and style.

i’ve been trying to keep it long and resisted cutting it for as long as i could. then just when i couldn’t take it any longer and badly wanted ayumi (my stylist) to work her magic on my hair, i went broke. then my cousin came to new york last week and going out to dinner everyday made me officially bankrupt.

did you hear me? i’m broke. broke broke broke!!! even my hello kitty piggy bank, i mean kitty bank, is shaking its head at me. it’s terrible. please send me a kfc coupon. or better yet, a peter luger‘s gift certificate. pfft just kidding.

i’m sorry if you’re vegetarian and i hope i don’t piss you off, but in all honesty, every time i go broke, the only thing on my mind is a nice juicy steak. i think it’s because i try to cut down on all indulgences, my mind goes a little crazy and i just want fatty meat.

i’ve been receiving quite a lot of emails recently, asking me about japan and especially tokyo. so i’ve decided to start replying them on my blog instead! if you have any questions, send them my way! or you can also leave it as a comment here. also don’t forget to check out my insider’s guide to the best of tokyo (in my opinion!!) and my other japan related posts!

here’s an email from one of my readers, bryan!

i just stayed up all night (it’s 8am now) just reading your blog. i made myself a (very unshapely) tamagoyaki 2 hours ago and ever since then i’ve been reading more random posts, particularly those on fashion and japan. just read your gilda’s guide to tokyo and i had to stop myself from reading further to avoid getting too excited and losing more sleep.

i came back from my trip to japan last month with a lotta questions (and new clothes). i will now ask you some of them that have been bugging me if you don’t mind.

with his email, bryan attached a picture of the tamagoyaki he had made. i think it looks pretty darn good, don’t you?

why do some people wear face masks? the masks like, totally ruins the look of their outfits! lol

haha! doesn’t it look like everyone has sars? there are a lot of reasons why people wear those. first of all, there are two kinds of masks sold widely in japan. one is the regular surgical mask that is sometimes used when preparing food in the kitchen of a restaurant etc. the other, is a special mask (seriously, so much research goes into this!) that one uses when one catches a flu, or does not want to catch a flu.

japan as a whole, is quite a polite society. whenever any of my friends get sick, they put on a mask. they aren’t the type of annoying people who would cough and sneeze in your face to spread their germs. or, if there is a flu bug going around, you’ll see a lot of japanese wearing these masks too, so that they won’t catch the germs. these masks also retain some moisture within themselves, which is good for when one has a cough. some are also designed to block out dirt, allergens, cigarette smoke, and pollen. so you will see plenty of people wearing the masks during seasons like spring and autumn when the pollen levels are especially crazy in japan. many japanese have hay fever!

a friend of mine adds a drop of mint or eucalyptus oil to her mask when she catches a flu. she swears it helps clear her nose and ease the tightness in her chest!

personally, i’ve tried the masks before and i can’t handle them. i have breathing problems (asthma and history of bronchitis!) and wearing masks, whether i’m sick or not, makes me feel like i don’t have enough oxygen to breathe. the only time i force myself to wear one is when i’m cleaning my room! this keeps the dust away! but every few minutes i have to stop what i’m doing, lift my mask away and take in some air. hahahaha!

photo by LeeLeFever

besides the sickness issue, sometimes, crimes in japan are committed with these masks. a lot of goth types also use it as part of their fashion dress ups. the masks are such a big part of japan’s culture, there are tons of different colors and prints now, not just white. so if you were dressing up as some goth doctor with a white coat and bloody stains, for example, the mask would complete your outfit. i had a goth lolita friend who wore a mask all the time around her neck. it was like an accessory! another former classmate of mine permanently wore a mask and for half a year, i never knew how his mouth looked like. seriously!

when i’m making a purchase at a store by credit card, why does the cashier sometimes ask “one time or two times?” (‘ikkai’ or ‘nikkai’, i believe). i just say once, presuming it’s about installments. but i actually have no idea how to answer.

the japanese cashiers always have a whole string of things that they would say to you at the cashier. first of all they will thank you for shopping. then they’ll key your item in and sometimes verbally confirm how much each of your items cost. after which, they’ll say the total.

if you do hand them a credit card, what they will usually ask is something like, “お支払いは一括でよろしいですか？” (oshiharai wa ikkatsu de yoroshii desu ka?) which basically translates to, “is it alright to process your payment just once?“

if you are a japanese, or if you hold a credit card issued by a japanese bank, you have the option to pay in installments. (that’s how the regular japanese would pay for their louis vuittons, yo!)

however, as an alien in that country, you would most likely be holding a card from a foreign bank, and hence you do not have an installment option. so your answer should be “ikkatsu de onegaishimasu”. yes yes, i know that’s freaking long. so say “ikkatsu de”, and if you still can’t handle that, just point your index finger towards the sky.

do you REALLY have to leave your top on when trying on clothes in fitting rooms? i can’t tell if it fits properly like that. how do people try on stuff like tanktops?

erm… huh??? i don’t know. i’ve never heard of this. hahahah! when i try tops or dresses on, i usually take off whatever i’m already wearing on top. if i’m wearing make up, i will ask for one of those paper or cloth hoody things to wear over my head (and kinda makes you look like the kkk…oops.), before i try it on. however, some places will not allow you to try on white tops, and in those cases i ask if they have the same item in another color, try that, then decide if i want the one in white!

hope that helps! more questions to follow soon!

after 3 slightly crazy days over the july 4th weekend, i really wanted to go out to brooklyn to meet loulou, who was in town all the way from faraway lands! she had been in town all week and the bows and knickers she makes are so cute, i wanted to meet the woman who makes them! then, when i went with gala and nubby to the dances of vice event, i learned that nubby wanted to go meet her too, so we decided to meet up the next day (sunday) and hop over to brooklyn together.

photo by nubby

so we ventured out on the L train and found loulou at the artists and fleas market. loulou was so cute with her red hair! and there were some crazy similarities between nubby and loulou. for one thing, no one looks better in red lipstick than those two cuties. and, they both had the same nameplate necklaces from helpless romantic. the necklaces were so cute, i went back home and promptly ordered my own. can’t wait for it to arrive!!

photo by loulou

we also purchased pretty bows from loulou in loving support. nubby got one in red that is so perfect for her, and i bought a black gingham one! woohoo! i’ve actually made bows before but never one this big!

after meeting loulou, nubby and i headed to lunch and we found this really amazing surf bar. it had sand all over the floor! where did they get it from! the food was excellent too. i had a lobster bisque that was just delish.

dress by tsumori chisato
heart lego brooch by dee and ricky (big love!)
h&m bag
shoes by undercover
umbrella from beacon’s closet

and the funniest part of the day, was meeting these 2 guys who were dancing around this cross-street in brooklyn. i mean, they were kinda whack!! it was really funny and they were dancing to cher, who was singing so loudly from her cassette tape! hahahahaha! they noticed us filming them and came over to talk to us but it started getting slightly harassing and scary! ah!

nubby and i had a really nice and relaxing, kinda low-key day together. we had a great talk over lunch, sharing our dreams and goals. i loved it! it was so great talking to an artist and designer whose work i’ve always loved (awesome mixed media and collages!). it was such an inspiring day. i felt so empowered!!

the day ended with us laughing just ever-so-slightly hysterically, over disgusting toilet mishaps. ahahaah! can’t wait to see you on your birthday, dear nubby!

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 4th, 2008

it was my first time experiencing independence day ever!! i mean, that was pretty exciting, considering that the only “independence day” that i have experienced so far, was will smith’s amazing movie. (can that guy do no wrong?)

and of course, i spent it working! haha. well, honestly, what was i supposed to do anyway. i’m not american and i have no reason to celebrate! as the intern at pat field’s, my job is to also help out with party preparations. although i don’t think that’s the official job description. but who cares?? and when you love your job, it never feels like work. i love preparing for a party. actually, i didn’t have to do much because julie and tobell had already gotten almost everything ready. all i had to do was to help cut vegetables, wrap them up in foil, and then i was in charge of the skewers!! tobell and julie were amazing. oh my god tobell was amazing. that girl can cook! she was fierce! she made this hickory bbq sauce that smelled so divine and when i ate those chicken wings and pork chops…. really it was so good.

aren’t they all so gorgeous?

the crowd started trickling in and at the last minute i called my good friend, tony, to come keep me company. tony was my classmate last semester at parsons and i love him to death. he comes up with the funniest trend word that cracks me up. i knew he would enjoy himself at the party. i mean, there were so many good-looking people, more than enough for him to ogle at. hee hee! i wanted him to come to the last payless party as my date but after a lot of tralala, gala came as my plus one.

tony was the drink mix-master. he got me pretty high

it was a really laid-back, casual little barbeque. tony was a bad boy at the bar. he made all our drinks and if i appeared drunk, it was all his fault. by the end of the night we were both a little smashed like we were pathetic high school kids! how embarrassing! also, i had spent the day skewering prawns and smelled a little shrimpy, so i was glad i brought wipes along and also a change of clothes!! i’d stayed up the night before sewing a pair of sequinned sarouel pants to wear to the party. oh my god i’m so glad i did.

i got SO many compliments that night!! i didn’t know 99% of all the people that were at the party, but so many of them came up to say that they loved my pants! and of course it was the best compliment ever and i was like, “oh thank you!!! i made them last night!!!”

seriously!! it is a wannabe designer’s (me, duh.) equivalent of an orgasm or something!! i have a few orders to make these pants. i’m so excited, i’m sweating just thinking about it.

+ skull tshirt by alexander mcqueen
+ rêvasseur sequinned sarouel pants
+ toy necklace by mercibeaucoup
+ rubber beach flipflops by havaianas

you know, call me what you want, a fashion snob if you will, but as far as i’m concerned, i was taught that these pants were called sarouel pants, not harem pants. well, at least that was what was printed in my textbook when i studied in japan, and that’s what everyone, all the magazines included, called it too. and while the world is catching on with this trend only now, the japanese were wearing these years and years ago. rei kawakubo and junya watanabe of comme des garcons were making sarouel pants from like, god knows when. my first sarouel pants were purchased in tokyo 5 years ago, and they were vintage comme des garcons from the 90s. i think they are widely called harem pants now, but if you know your fashion vocabulary, harem pants are supposed to be loose and baggy all over and then fit with a cuff, just like a puff sleeve would.

anyway!

the party was over at about 11 and after helping to clean up, i was home at midnight. with no sleep from the night before, hardly any food to eat (i was so busy talking i only nibbled a little!), and at least 15 cocktails, the alcohol basically hit exactly where they needed to hit. i wasn’t drunk, but i was certainly quite high, and when i got home i took a shower and hit the sheets. it’s been a long time since i fell asleep so fast

our last assignment of our fall 2007 semester at the parson‘s fashion department, was based on historical icons. some of my classmates chose to base their collections on twiggy, or alfred hitchcock etc. i, on the other hand, had just finished re-watching on dvd, bushi no ichibun, which translates into “one part of the warriors”.

it’s a tale about a lowly-ranked samurai who is employed as a poison taster, and loses his eye-sight after eating poorly prepared raw shellfish. this show was called “love and honor” when released in overseas film festivals, which completely leaves me dumbfolded because of how different the meaning of the title becomes. it was by acclaimed japanese director, yoji yamada, and stars in its lead role, you guessed it, kimura takuya.

inspired, i decided to base my collection on the samurais of japan. they have always intrigued me, and it is such a different and interesting culture of historic japan. even today, their spirit and mentality lives on in modern japan. (by the way, if you are interested in samurai culture, you have to watch shinsengumi. it is amazing.)

this was the final project of our fall semester and one that i am quite proud of. i did not want to take the samurai theme too literally, but rather, explored into aspects of the samurai costume, as well as japanese dress and kimonos.

click*click to zoom in!

my teacher last semester was big on basics, so i thought i’d better add in some basic pants and skirts to go with the collection. i’m pleased with the outcome of it though! i think it helped balance the overall look. my favorite pieces are the coat on the 1st girl, the chunky hand-knit on the 2nd, the skirt on the 3rd, the shirt on the 6th girl and the jacket on the last!

looking back, i think i really stepped it up with this collection. my drawing had definitely improved and it was such a relief and joy to end the semester, a very, very tiring semester, with a piece of work that i was happy with.

what do you think?