hello hello hello and a happy new year!

i am not actually dead. i have been working my ass off, designing, styling, and working as the editor of RightyRightyRight magazine.

but, the magazine and styling work will be taking a back seat – i am working hard to get my collection off my studio floors, and into the sweatshops, in preparation for something huge that is going to be happening in 5 months.

i’m going to attempt to take part in singapore’s fashion week, the audi fashion festival. who knows what’s going to happen?

i’m back to blogging, and i promise i’ll keep you posted.

with love,
gilda and the dead labbit.

it was gay pride day a few weeks ago on june 27th. totally forgetting that it was gonna clog up the entire west village, i invited some friends over for a housewarming party/dinner/drink.

there were 8 of us and i had no idea what to cook. there was plenty of thinking to do and plenty of going up to those friends and asking, “wait, so do you eat a lot?” it also didn’t help that i have the tiniest kitchen ever!

i ended up making shepard's pie since it could be made in advance.

i also made some tiramisu for dessert.

in addition, i had some pork, peppers and pineapple on skewers that were marinated in a honey glaze. unfortunately, my oven is stupid (or i’m stupid and don’t know how to use my oven and broiler) but while baking the shepard’s pie and trying to broil the skewers, my smoke alarm went off and that was when one of the taller guys had to climb up on a stool to pull it off the ceiling! oh, yeah we did try to turn it off but it wasn’t working so we pulled out the batteries and took it down. didn’t wanna scare the neighbours!

outside, it was really hot and i had been running around in the morning getting ingredients for the party. of course, it was gay pride day and i had to make so many detours because of the roads that were closed up. it wasn’t fun trying to get through a sweating glitter-covered crowd!!

bleecker street was already filling up at 11am.

soon after my friends came at 8pm, we heard fireworks and realized i had a pretty good view of them from my window!

funny thing was, the boys were more interested in the fireworks than the girls. hahaha!

setting up the champagne flutes.

wonder what we were talking about here... looks like ryosuke's giving some class talk and we're all paying attention, right?

close-up of ryosuke's necklace. i want.

the guys got a kick out of all my hats, especially my sailor cap.

so of course they passed it around and tried it on.

i think it looks pretty good on all of them...

but it was koki who suited it best. i mean, seriously. there are definitely navy boys out there who look like this. we couldn't stop laughing.

as you can see, ryuji's the joker of the group.

ryosuke with my not-very-pretty tiramisu that i randomly dusted cocoa powder over. note to self: need to buy one of those strainer things to dust the cocoa next time!

i had such a great night. it was terribly fun. you know i’ve really hated new york quite a bit. i think new york = parsons to me, so for the last 3 years, every holiday break i’ve had, i’ve tried to escape from the city.

this is probably the first time in the almost 3 years that i’ve spent in new york, that i’ve been really enjoying myself and realizing that when you’re doing what you love and you have friends surrounding you, anywhere on earth could be heaven. yep, even new york.

i thought i’d share with you my view of the sky.

i love clouds. and i love sunsets. i guess, i’m a little romantic at heart? HAHAHA. i uploaded some random pictures of the view from my room a little while ago, but heck, i can’t help but want to take more photos. i take one almost every other day when i realize how colourful it looks outside. granted, it’s not the best view there is, but i’m thankful enough!! thank goodness there aren’t any tall buildings blocking the sunlight!

i find a lot of peace just looking at the skies. very typical and cliché, i know i know. but all the cliché things about loving cloud formations and sunsets are true. i mean, it takes my mind off the lousy parts of life. you get put in your place and you remember that you’re part of this amazing universe, and there’s so much more out there, so much that you can reach for.

here are some grainy pictures that i took with my iphone. some are with the regular camera, some with photo applications. i love the grainy-ness of these photos and the high contrast of the apps. which is no surprise, since i’m a lomo addict with at least 10 different lomo cameras!

and the crazy part? these pictures were all taken in ONE day. i swear. over the span of an evening, till the sun finally went down at about 9pm.

this is how lovely the world is. beautiful.

gorgeous, right? i know. get jealous.

i’ve never been to one of those huge public events to watch the fireworks. i can only imagine myself sweating like a pig and getting itchy and painful skin allergies because of the heat, and not to mention probably peeing on myself because i can’t get to a toilet. or worse, finding one and then vomiting from the smells.

hahaha.

the 4th of july is such a huge american holiday. and of course, i’m not american. instead of partying like a wild animal, i really do enjoy loafing around in house parties, with friends, drinks and random food. i spent both 2008 and 2009 at patricia field‘s home for her yearly barbecues.

it was always fun, and i love the people there, but this year i crashed my friend’s loft for their wine party. it was relaxing, hilarious, and just an all around warming-the-heart type of day.

heading to get more beers from the deli

ryo was already high when he poured the 1st bottle of champagne

we bought like 3 dozen cans of beers. i’d brought along 4 bottles of white wine, and they’d already gotten 2 bottles of champagne. so yes, we were ready to have some drinks! a pizza, mashed potatoes, chicken wings and barbecued ribs later, i think we were all nicely high!

my pajama-ish clothes

in summer, you’ll see me in either sleeveless dresses or some seriously baggy and shapeless clothes that do not cling to me and piss me off. i don’t care that people think i’m in pajamas. comfort is key and i will not be in anything that makes me annoyed!!

+ ne-net straw hat
+ cabane de zucca tshirt
+ rêvasseur betty boop sarrouel pants
+ undercover open-toe canvas boots
+ mercibeaucoup; necklace
+ rêvasseur woven cuffs
+ rings from maison martin margiela, h&m, vivienne westwood, number (n)ine

taking a break from the "madness"

gotta love the holiday feeling!

WHY did i not bring a proper camera?? my iphone photos all suck!

at about 9:30pm, we all ran up to the rooftop where we had unobstructed 360 degree views of all the new york fireworks!! i’d never really seen anything like that! we could see them coming from queens, the hudson river, and all sort of random spots whose areas we couldn’t figure out. it was amazing and felt really good!!

they've got a dj booth in their loft! this is dj shoryuken! hahaha!

when we got back to the loft, ryuji climbed up to their dj booth and spun us some tunes. it was hilarious. i mean, he put on some japanese pop songs and added all sorts of ridiculous shout-outs and random noises. we were doubling over laughing. ryosuke took some fucking amazing photos of ryuji in his booth. i need to get those from him to show you. he made ryuji look like a class A dj. super good times.

yume and i

playing the yamanote line game, a really popular japanese drinking game. wine's in the middle for the loser! poor ryosuke lost 3 times. hahaha!

have you heard of this yamanote-line game before? it’s named after the yamanote line, which is the main train line in tokyo. it goes in a circle, and there are people in japan who can memorize each train stop. and so that’s how the game goes. you sit in a circle, and answer according to the some topic, with some clapping. you can’t hesitate, you can’t break the rhythm, and you’re also out if you repeat an answer.

we were so pathetically funny, i wish i took a video of this!! we came up with really easy subjects like “name the capitols of the world”, “colours”, “american states”, and “countries who took part in the world cup”, etc. considering the fact that we were already a little high, everyone sucked. HAHAHAHA! i had to take a drink when my mind went blank and couldn’t think of a colour (so pathetic!). but poor ryosuke had to down the wine about 3 times. hohoho.

and then they somehow started playing soccer in their "indoor garden"

the night winded down at about 2am when they wanted to watch some horror movie but couldn’t find the dvds. haha! i guess that’s what happens when you get 4 boys moving in together and putting up walls by themselves – sometimes you just don’t know where things disappear to!

you know it’s hard to put this into words but i’m really glad to have gotten to know these guys. i really respect them for what they do. tossy’s working as a buyer for some stores in japan and starting a streetwear brand called slon, ryo and ryuji are working in bars, kyoko’s in a ramen shop, koki’s a photographer’s assistant for a japanese bike magazine, martin aka dj martin deejays at a bunch of clubs here in downtown manhattan, and ryosuke is a photographer for his own website, fadsnap.com which has amazing photos of tokyo and new york streetstyle and parties. they love new york. that’s why they are here. and they are doing what they love.

every time i meet them and listen to them talk about what they do, i get inspired to work harder and do better. and it doesn’t hurt that they really remind me of the amazing times that i used to spend with my friends in japan when i went to school in bunka. i miss it. a lot.

on a completely unrelated matter, i painted my nails and made it all nautical. my favourite concept = sailors. i have a fetish. not for sailors like the people, but for their uniforms. i’ve got a sailors hat, a captain’s cap, a nautical swimming suit, and so on, and the obsession won’t stop. the plus point of this nautical themed nail art session? it was in red, white and blue. perfect for the 4th of july! yay!!

captain nails

i actually take pictures all the time. after all i have a dslr, a regular point-&-shoot, at least 10 lomo cameras, and of course, about 5 different photo apps on my iphone. so i don’t know why i never thought of uploading them just randomly.

how silly.

so here’s a whole bunch of them from the last couple of months!!

i've moved!! it was mad!! but i get a pretty good view with amazing sunsets each night. which inspires me to eat good food

i love instax. these are from 1 outing with my old class from parsons, and from the last time i went back to singapore

i went with some japanese friends to ikea, and for the first time saw someone doing some serious bed-testing

brunch at pastis with my visiting cousin, then walking around the west village and washington square park

while bleaching my eyebrows, i decided to practice the kabuki (japanese theatre) stare: one eye looking forward and one crossed-eye. oh, and my birthday treat to myself, a whole platter of uni.

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