you know, when h&m and comme des garcons announced their collaboration quite a little while ago, i think i did a war victory dance. not because i’m a huge fan of h&m – i do buy some cheap basics from h&m from time to time – but because i am a die-hard comme des garcons fanatic and just the thought of being able to buy more cdg at a cheaper price was… how i imagine being on drugs must be like.

i was high.

when the day of the sale came around, i had a class at 9am. so i gave a whole bunch of money to my friend and just told him, “get what you can!! grab me that coat first! then that ruffled sleeve shirt!”

he called me shortly after 9:30, telling me the coat wasn’t even on sale at the store, and he bought me a cardigan, a scarf and the white ruffled sleeve shirt.

so i looked online on ebay. i must have saved that search and gotten the search results emailed to me for months. months! i tried bidding on it a few times, but the prices always went sky-high and i wasn’t that stupid enough to pay $600 for a coat that sold at about $350.

i had given up hope.

until several weeks ago, when a little email creeped into my inbox telling me that one of the jackets were on sale. this coat, by the way, is a toned-down version of a coat from the original comme des garcons line from several years ago. it was brilliant. and unaffordable.

perhaps because it has been some time since it was sold in the stores, and perhaps because the hype has died down, the coat was… cheap. i mean, i got it for a mighty good price! i was ecstatic!! no one else even bid on it! i almost kissed it when i took it out of the box after the postman brought it along.

swirling around and channeling my inner loie fuller

+ vintage felted hat
+ black teeshirt
+ charm necklace by sunao kuwahara
+ washed silk harem pants by RÊVASSEUR
+ coat by comme des garcons for h&m
+ studded boots by junya watanabe

yeah… i’m super happy! haha! cheap thrills hey hey hey!

on monday night, i attended the independent fashion bloggers’ dress up soirée held downtown, in conjunction with mercedes-benz fashion week. i had gone to the first dress-up soirée that was held earlier this year and had tons of fun, so i knew that even though i could not attend many shows because of my school schedule, i was happy that i could make it to the ifb meet since i have no classes on monday night.

during the last meet, i was on some blog hiatus because my work and life at parsons got too crazy, but i did upload a couple of pictures of my outfit, which some of you might remember.

my theme that night, was, for no particular reason, “turquoise”. why? well it’s one of my favourite colours. (and i’m aware that that isn’t much of a reason but there was nothing profoundly deep to it! ha!) i just picked out some turquoise things i had in my closet and put them on in about 10 minutes without much planning. i wore my favourite kimono, one i wish i could wear more often, and a completely crazy constable hat. (i loved the constable hat so much, i bought another one, painted it gold and used it in my ziggy collection!)

since i never really blogged about the last ifb meet, i thought it might be a good idea to upload some photos that i took back then.

damn, i really miss my ash-blonde hair. but my hair needs some resting and less bleaching.

i also had some cute lollipop nails that night, with nail decals from my sister's company

vintage girl’s kimono (check it out – we all had to stick name-tags on ourselves!)
striped tshirt from tokyo
plastic laser-cut “gilda” nameplate necklace
$20 corset belt from some store on broadway
crinoline from screaming mimi’s
tights from tokyo
canvas wooden clogs by mercibeaucoup;
pink leather bag with constable hat stuffed in it by tricot for comme des garcons

so you see, i have a problem with the word “dress-up”. i have a very very big problem with that word, which you will realize when you see the pictures of what i wore to the 2nd ifb meet. when people tell me to dress up for something, in my head, it means i get to wear what i won’t usually wear on a regular day.

the problem with that, is that what i wear on a regular day, is what people won’t even want to wear when they have a chance to dress-up.

am i confusing you?

if you are wondering why i love susie bubble, queen michelle, tavi and belle so much, it’s because although they each have very different and distinctive personal styles, there’s something there that i can connect with. we tend to dress in a way people would call “over-the-top”; some will love it, some will glare and give us the up-down disapproving look and say to their friends, “check out that retard.”

when i got to the first ifb meet, i remember thinking, “oh fuck. i am the only one in this room who looks like a rainbow vomited on her. everyone else is looking so new york… so chic and grown up. fuck fuck fuck. why did i wear this!?”

apparently, while i thought that “dress-up” meant i could go crazy, to most people, it meant putting on their prettiest dress. and mind you, some of those dresses were really pretty. i would have loved to have worn a pretty dress, but i only have 2 nice ones that could be worn to expensive dinners in my closet. see? i am really from some other planet.

so the timid part of me kept my constable hat in my bag for most of the night, because adding that hat to my already over-the-top outfit would just be, i don’t know, calling more attention than need be to my already introvert self.

when last monday rolled around and i left school and went home to get ready for the second ifb meet, i was not in a great mood. it’s been only about 3 weeks since parsons has started, and already i am stressed and have a ton of work to do, and it was showing up all over my skin. i eat when i’m stressed, by the way. food makes me happy. this is how i’ve put my weight on, especially after i moved to new york. i can look at old pictures of myself back when i was a medal-winning field hockey player and captain of my school and club team, and feel like crying. or rather, ask myself why the hell i let myself go.

feeling particularly bloated and with a new crop of zits creeping all over my face, i basically, to put it simply, felt like shit. there’s just no other way to describe it. i don’t get blackheads and stuff, no. i get the good ol’ huge bumps under the skin, the ones i used to get when i had full-blown acne at the age of 19, the ones that destroyed my self-confidence.

i was so mad, i probably overturned my entire closet and tried on just about everything. if i were an anime character, i might have had a really red face and steam coming out of my ears because i was so mad. how can i be a fashion designer and have nothing to wear? why didn’t i like how all my clothes looked on me that day? how the fuck did i put on so much weight? why the hell do i have to deal with all these bumps and redness on my face?!

i got home from school at about 6:30. the meet started at 7:30, with an amazing panel line-up that i really wanted to listen to. unfortunately, i was so upset with myself that i just lay in bed, on top and in between a huge mountain of clothes, and just stared at the lace on my ceiling for what seemed like eons. or about an hour.

i contemplated just closing my eyes and going to bed, so that i could forget about going out and not having to deal with looking at myself in the mirror, so that i could just wake up the next day and go to school and be in the comfort of my friends, having a laugh with them and just concentrating on my senior thesis.

but i decided i was better than that. there was a time when my acne was really bad, i couldn’t get over my dog’s death and i was going through a rough time at home with constant quarrels over the family business, and i was probably the most depressed that i’d ever been in my life. i haven’t forgotten about it, or how it used to feel. when i think back to that time, it still makes me cry. they say time will heal all wounds, but they obviously haven’t had hard enough times. all time did, was to draw me further into my shell. over time, i’ve gotten more numb to the pain, but it doesn’t mean it isn’t there, and worse, it has made me forget how to socialize because i’ve built such a wall around myself.

i didn’t want to lie in bed and wallow in more self-pity, and let my heart beat faster than it already was with how angry i was feeling. so i forced myself to get up, and i instinctively reached out and grabbed my sequined leggings. hey. a girl needs sequins in her life to make her feel better. i also knew i wanted to wear my ginormous voodoo necklace, and the foil bunny ears that i had made to wear to the latex ball with my friends at the house of field.

i mean, to put it simply, if i wore something really loud and huge, i was hoping people would notice it instead of the grossness that is my face! so i wore something on my head to take the attention upwards… and something huge around my neck to draw the eye down. either way, you’d look at that instead of my face. (take note of this style trick, ladies. you don’t have to go as over-the-top as i did, but you’d never know if you might need this tip one day.)

i didn’t know what to wear with it, so i just grabbed this polka-dot dress that was sitting on top of the mountain of clothes on my bed, and fished around the pile for a matching tshirt to go put over it.

courtesy of yoshi@fatlace

studded foil killer bunny ears
“who killed anna wintour?” tee. bought from a store in the lower east side, then ripped apart, dyed and sewn all over by me.
polka-dot tsumori chisato dress worn underneath
ginormous voodoo necklace from RÊVASSEUR by gilda
sequined leggings from RÊVASSEUR by gilda
cheap belt from… the cheap marc jacobs line
tabi boots by maison martin margiela
smorkin’ labbit, unstuffed and used as a clutch and so i had something to hug
armour ring by vivienne westwood, a gift from moto at patricia field’s

i didn’t really realize this until i’d left my apartment, but i was wearing killer bunny ears with a labbit that i had killed and a tshirt that asked “who killed anna wintour?”. haha! i thought it was a little funny.

jennine of thecoveted and independent fashion bloggers, and wendy brandes aka fran drescher! *scream* love so much!

the ifb meet was amazingly packed when i got there at 9pm. i was a little shocked. there were so many people, and at least 3 or 4 times the number that was at the first ifb meet just a few months ago, definitely a sign that jennine was doing an amazing job and ifb was such a success!! i was really happy for her!

but i’d gone to the meet alone, and when i saw the number of people, i was honestly very overwhelmed. i tried to look for familiar faces but it was dark and i could hardly recognize anyone. the panel was still going on and it was so crowded, i could hardly hear what was happening. also, i was sweating like a pig because of the lack of available air. eeks.

this girl came up to me and pointing to my tshirt, asked if i had watched the september issue, a documentary-type movie about the making of the most important september issue of american vogue. i replied that i did want to see it, but i had not. she proceeded to tell me how amazing anna wintour is and basically that my teeshirt was quite blasphemous and that anna wintour is like a god to fashion. i raised my eyebrows because every single one of my fashion friends who had watched the movie, told me that grace coddington, creative director of vogue, is the one who really does all the hard work and basically creates the whole magazine, and anna wintour just approves or disapproves of it.

but that girl was like, “no, anna is simply amazing and you really need to watch that movie.”

uhm, ok, whatever. i do want to watch the september issue, but i am not an anna wintour fan. i saw her at the tents and didn’t even raise my camera that was in my hands to take a photo although i should have. yeah, so she’s the fashion editor at vogue and one day i might have to kiss her feet and even suck her toes just to try and get onto the pages of her magazine. but seriously, no one i know even bothers with american vogue. the only reason i buy it is because i get it for literally about 1 or 2 bucks per issue through my subscription, and i usually glance at it for a full 5 minutes, tear out the 1 or 2 pages of editorials that seem interesting, and then dump it in my recycling bin. compare this to me spending up to $15 for a foreign magazine that takes me 2 to 3 hours to go through and absorb all its details on each and every page.

if i’d seen the other anna, anna piaggi from italian vogue, i might die of excitement and vomit in my mouth. but anna wintour? whatevs, yo, whatevs. american vogue is a boring old cow.

and so i did not appreciate this girl telling me that i should not have worn that teeshirt.

ok, even if i was a wintour fan, i would have worn it anyway. hello?? what happened to having a sense of humour?! anyone else that night who had realized what was written on my teeshirt, had said, “oh my god that’s hilarious!” which was the same reaction i had when i first bought it. geez.

anyway, by the grace of god, i managed to find some people i recognized! woohooooo! in a room full of strangers, i know the adult side of me should have been mixing around, socializing and making friends. but in reality, i wasn’t feeling great, and really wanted to hide in a corner. so i walked around and pretended i belonged (which might have looked like i was really stuck-up, oh well.) until i found people i knew.

with zephyr from collegefashion and her bf (who is nice enough to go with her to fashion week and its events!? what a gem.)

with wendy and jennine again, and marie of agent lover!! my favourite ladies! (note to self: continue on that search for the perfect red lipstick!)

courtesy of heights of fashion

courtesy of deanne@dreamsequins

courtesy of jordanna@touchofpinkpr

i came home to realize that i’d only taken a miserable 5 photographs, which is some real evidence of how much i really didn’t feel great about myself that night. most of what i uploaded here were pictures taken by other bloggers!

i just want to say a big thank you to jennine for organizing this great event, and a bigger thank you to all the lovely bloggers who came up to talk to me and complimented me on my hat and necklace, especially since i was feeling quite small and had no guts that night to start any conversations.

it’s times like this when i’m thankful that i’m a fashion designer/stylist. i was glad that i knew some basic makeup skills to cover up the spots, and that i also knew how to draw the attention away from this bloody face i have.

seriously. i’ve been talking about skin transplants for the longest time now. when is the advancement of sciences and technology going to allow me to do that, so i can once and for all, look at the mirror without sighing?

although new york is in a frenzy with fashion week and the recent vma, some people (=me), are full-time students with homework and a senior design thesis to work on. so while the invites kept coming into my mailbox, i kept sighing and filtered them away because the more i looked at them, the more i lacked willpower to get my work done.

i spent saturday at home doing work, and left at just past 6:30 to try and head to the tents. the very lovely sarah of styleitonline had been very kind to me and worked some magic to get me a surprise invite to the vivienne tam show. (which doesn’t mean that you are allowed to pester her to invite you. she only loves me, ok? …. something like that! hoho.)

anyway, when i got there, for some reason, security didn’t check me and just let me through. do i look special? hahaha! inside, the crowd was seriously intense. there were so many people in line! i’d left my apartment early and thought i’d get there in time, but seriously, traffic was awful with a capitol AW, and i got there at about 7:15.

as i stood in line, zephyr from collegefashion came up to say hi! how exciting to meet someone with such an exotic name! haha. we stood in line together as people shoved at us from all angles. then alex whatshernameandwhocaresshesannoying from the real housewives of america, you know, the one with the gross husband, popped out of nowhere and pushed pass us to get through the line.

erm, eww.

i’ve only watched a few episodes of that show and couldn’t stand her in all of them. to make matters worse, from that second she squeezed past me, she changed my feng shui and my week seriously went downhill from there.

i got my name checked off the list and got in line again to try and get some standing space. i must have waited 2 hours or so, and they were slowly letting us “standing” people in.

but since i received some housewives’ bad luck, the organisers actually let people in until they reached me. then they said, “sorry we’re full, and the doors are closed.”

i was seriously 2 people away from getting into the vivienne tam show.

so sad!!

later i met two of my classmates from parsons, hee and pumi, and we went to tribeca grand to the dazed party, with seven new york and nicholas kirkwood. for some reason, we had somehow gotten it into our heads that it would be some trunk show with nicholas kirkwood’s shoes on display.

how stupid. his shoes were certainly on display, on some flat-screen tv.

we hung around for a little while and were people-watching. it started this whole conversation about how we hardly go out and sort of hate clubs, and we don’t mix around very much, and we’re all sort of introverts, and all the people there were so… fashion-y.

tried to take a picture of the scene, but these two pot-heads were posing for my camera. wtf?

i can’t explain it. but let me describe: everyone was in black. most girls were in clothes that looked the same, most boys were in clothes that looked the same, most boys had on really tight pants, almost everyone was in black (had to say it twice for the effect), most people had jet-black hair, many people had bowl-cuts, and the rest who didn’t, had asymmetrical hair cuts with one side of their heads shaven.

granted, some of them were probably wearing some really expensive clothing; i’m assuming that most were also customers from seven new york, so they really are part of a crowd that is more edgy and fashion-forward.

but still, i couldn’t tell one person from the next. it was a place to see and be seen. everyone was judging (including us), and everyone was being judged (including us). i didn’t like it.

i’m not trying to be stuck-up. i’m not a know-it-all, and heck, i have the weirdest sense of style amongst anyone i personally know. but wow, the incredible atmospheric cloud sent a shockwave that said, “i am better than you so go away.”

we hung around for a while, then decided to leave. on our way out, we spotted susie of stylebubble, a girl after my own heart. i really respect her as someone with a real sense of personal style, someone who might follow trends, but takes it and makes it her own. the same couldn’t be said for the rest of the room.

we introduced ourselves and i was a little happy that susie said she knew who i was and read my blog sometimes. me? lil ol’ me??

pumi looking into outerspace, susie of stylebubble and myself

she was adorable and my friends loved her. she was so nice! it’s great to know that her fame online hasn’t put her nose in the air, and she was really friendly and genuinely seemed interested in knowing what we did at school and how our senior thesis was going. midway through our chat, she grabbed my necklace and said, “i just noticed this! what the heck is it? stay here i need to find tommy (of jak&jil) to take a photo!”

off she went on her hunt, and probably got swarmed by her legion of fans.

we talked and waited for a while then decided we should go off and not be retarded and act like obsessed worshippers. (though i’d have loved to meet tommy. haha!)

anyway. the next day was like déjà vu and not in a great way. i worked at home for most of the day, then left to go watch the custo barcelona show. i’d received a “seat assignment” that i thought was an actual seat.

wrong. so wrong.

it was PR mayhem. i can’t put the blame on the designing house; i was really looking forward to the custo barcelona show because damn, i love the colours and the prints that they use.

but shit, they have one heck of a shitty PR team.

when i got there, i realized that they’d probably invited the whole of new york and its grandmother. there were so many people in line and i was about in the middle with like 300 people behind me. we waited for what seemed like eons, then these 4 stupid girls came pushing past the whole line to try to get to the front. the one american girl said “excuse me” from behind, so naturally i turned my body sideways and moved a little. then i realised that she was leading 3 foreign girls and the 4 of them twits were cutting everyone’s line!

they got stopped right ahead of me where it was really packed. then i realized one of the girls had her fucking skirt caught in her undies! you stupid shithead!

i took a picture on my iphone and tweeted about it. which was really funny because i think about 10 people retweeted it. haha!

don’t fucking push past me when u have your skirt caught up in your cotton undies, bitch! #nyfw

they then decided to sit on the steps next to our line, blocking the way to everyone who wanted to enter the lounge. and then proceeded to complain nonstop about how tired they were, how they’d better get into the show, how cold it was, how their feet hurt, how their heels were killing them, blah blah blah. shut the fuck up!

2 hours go by and i was still waiting in line, and then the word came out that they had closed the show. wow. seriously? why did they invite so many people? why didn’t they have a person counting the number of people in line, and telling us 2 hours ago that there were enough people in line for the standing spaces, so that we didn’t have to suffocate ourselves and wait in line to get in? it was poor organization, stupidity, an embarrassment not only to the designing house of custo barcelona, but also shows the lack of management of their pr firm, asi marketing.

i especially love how they “confirmed” my rsvp and seating assignment a few times on email. brilliant job, you guys, i hope you get awesome reviews. bleah.

with no other choice, i stood around the fountain to watch the show, feeling quite pissed. you can’t blame me for that!

this stupid screen became my "seat assignment". damn you asi, for wasting all our time.

just some of the other cheated people.

from what i saw on the screen, the show looked really colorful and i did love so many pieces. too bad i wasn’t inside to view it in person. as i looked around the tents, i spotted the cute japanese photographer, mari, who had taken my picture from the day before.

my lovely camera skills really show off her fabulous outfit so well! boo.

i found zephyr from collegefashion again, and we chatted briefly before the show ended and sarah from styleitonline called me and we decided to hop into a cab to go to milk studios together for the gareth pugh film installation.

outside the tents, i spotted these two super fab boys!

they are so fab! so fierce! check out those heels! weeeeerk!!

sarah and i hopped into a taxi and sped off to milk. sarah had a press pass so she went on it. i had to wait till it was open to public at 10pm. she came out saying it was scary. hahahaahah! whaddya think?! it’s gareth! he wasn’t going to be showing my little ponies. it was quite funny. apparently, gareth was also walking around inside at the private space. i wanted to run in and hug him.

unfortunately i had to wait till 10. my friend, elahe, met me there shortly after and then more friends arrived. we had to go through the unglamourous public entrance. no gareth. we were not cool enough to see him dammit.

the film installation, however, was quite interesting. i couldn’t quite understand it 100%… i never really understand all these new age and arty-farty short films. there were 4 short films shown on 4 different screens that formed a cube. two of the films i really liked, one showed this guy hanging in the air and he just seemed like he was basking in the light, with the winds blowing at him, and it was all mysterious and kind of dreamy. there was another film next to it that was really of a dark nature and had some climatic scary music. it was like the evil witch in snow white but only non-disney and a little nightmare-ish, surrounded by fire and green light.

i wish i could have taken a picture to show you guys, but the security boys looked big and mean.

ooh.

one of our friends made an observation that everyone seemed to really pretend to be so into the films and really understanding it, but no one probably did. hahha! i love you gareth, but i love your designs more.

here i am waiting for the bus. it was a disappointing day. didn’t get to watch custo barcelona, didn’t get to meet gareth. oh, did i mention i was feeling all sad because my skin has once again flared up? i wear black when i’m feeling shitty. it’s been a while since i’ve worn so much black. and it’s been a while since i’ve gone out without wearing something i’d made myself.

felt hat by ne-net
fesse moi (spank me) teeshirt by kiki de montparnasse
pleated skirt with collar harness by comme des garcons
silver bag (for free!) by cabane de zucca
metallic eggplant leather tabi boots by maison martin margiela

it was an awful friday. first of all it was september 11th. then there was the torrential rain. add seriously strong blasts of wind to the equation and you’re left with one disgusting island called manhattan, where the streets are packed, sirens are going off, the cars aren’t moving an inch and every bad-tempered driver is honking nonstop.

it was one big fucking headache.

so in the same fashion, i was looking like a mess.

black wool cap by y3
navy tshirt from shibuya, tokyo
double-layered jacket by comme des garcons
silver sling bag by zucca
washed silk harem pants by RÊVASSEUR
spiked boots by junya watanabe
armour ring by vivienne westwood
ginormous voodoo necklace by RÊVASSEUR

i’d decided to milk the heck out of my voodoo necklace this fashion week. i’ve been wearing it nonstop the last week or so, and i’m gonna wear it everyday till i get sick of it. so many people came up to tell me, “i love that necklace but i can’t pull it off because i have nothing to wear with it.”

rubbish. by putting it around your neck, you’re pulling it off already. so this is my own experiment to prove to myself that it can surely go with anything i want it to!

in all my fluster and mess, a few people took my picture but i unfortunately have no idea where they were from. perhaps i was too tired to think. the only one i’m sure of is nvmagazine, where nao-ko, jared and i got interviewed and i stuttered. but god knows where the other photographers were from. there were 2 japanese photogs, 1 british, and 1 brazilian.

well, so i know their country of origin, but that sure ain’t gonna help me locate my pictures since i don’t know their affiliation.

fail!

but one thing happened that made me really happy – someone left a comment on one of the flickr videos that i uploaded for the shows i’d watched, saying this:

i’m so glad. at least i know one person appreciated it. i do strive to give a different perception or point of view than the average fashion blogger, who might view a show and go “oooh ahhh” and remark about how everything is pretty. i’m a fashion student, and i am also a designer-in-training. this is my job, to appreciate the wonderful things that other, more experienced designers have done, and to take note of things that i personally am not a fan of. through my learning experience, i hope that my readers can learn a little more about the processes of designing and putting a collection on the runway!

in a big effort to blog more and succumb to the wishes of my readers (heh heh. go vote if you haven’t already!), i thought i’d share how i spent my saturday.

3 of my friends and i took a walking/shopping tour of downtown new york. it was really quite amazing and we promised to do it once a month. (although once we start getting busy, that probably ain’t gonna happen!)

i woke up late and threw on the first thing i saw in my closet!

zamiang! tshirt by undercover for hysteric mini
skirt by comme des garcons (bought on ebay for $50! can you believe it?!)
pink polka dot socks
green beary flats by mercibeaucoup;
ginormous voodoo necklace by RÊVASSEUR (now available for sale!)

as fashion designers, a shopping report is always important. any designer always needs to be aware of their market, their competitors, and their target customer. who is your customer? who is going to be buying your clothes? what does that person do? where does he or she shop/live/hang out? without this knowledge, one cannot be completely successful.

we do this often, especially with large projects. yesterday, we decided to do a little walking tour and cover some of our favourite stores that would be in our competitive price range and target audience. it was an amazing day. hot! (we kept talking about armpit sweat stains hahaha) but amazing nonetheless.

we started with art supply shopping in chinatown, then walked over to the rick owens store. i love rick, i do. but i need to lose about 20 kilos and gain a feet in height to look good in those clothes. still, i want some in my wardrobe!! from there we went to number (n)ine.

oh number (n)ine, number (n)ine… how i love you so. designer takahiro miyashita must be infatuated with kurt cobain because kurt has been his inspiration for his collections since forever. and hello, i bet johnny depp’s closet is filled with number (n)ine items. or at least i imagine it to be.

the thing i love about number (n)ine is this; not only are the clothes just beautifully made, they have this sort of “rich” feel with a touch of bad-boy punk. i can’t explain it well, but it is gorgeous. what puts it above the rest, for me, is how miyashita has created an entire shopping experience for his customers.

i’m sick of all these stores that do nothing to their interiors. why aren’t they creating an entire shopping experience for the consumers to bask in? i’m sick of the white walls, the stark and bare look. don’t give me this minimalistic bullshit. there are brands that suit the minimalistic look, and brands who pretend they do. take a look at the number (n)ine store… this is how it should be done!

can i hear a hell-yeah?

this was the first time i had visited the new york store. although i’d been to the tokyo store several times, it is so hidden and secretive, i would get a little lost finding it each time. but each time i did, it was like an entrance into a beautiful wonderland. this is what having a store means to me. the clothing was beautiful, no doubt. my friends who had never heard of number (n)ine were in awe. i, for one, was running like a headless chicken all over the place, ooh-ing and ahh-ing at everything. i touched everything. i looked at all the clothing inside out. they were a work of art.

go asap to the number (n)ine store located at 431 washington street. for some reason, the brand has decided to close its doors at the end of the year. it is a sad time in fashion, and unfortunately, bad things happen to some of the best people.

from number (n)ine, we walked along the west side toward the meatpacking district.

a bookstore selling only cookbooks? i need to go back.

apparently, i am currently quite obsessed with these gold plates. i want them all over my house, over every door.

from tribeca, we walked all the way toward the meatpacking district where we popped into all sorts of stores. we spent some time at the maison martin margiela store, where we admired the mastery behind the ideas and garment construction. one of the guys working at the femme store said he wanted my voodoo necklace. then we went next door to margiela homme, where the cute sales assistant there walked by me, walked back, and said, “you have amazing style by the way.”

THANK YOU, CUTE BOY! BY THE WAY WHAT’S YOUR NUMBER AND ARE YOU STRAIGHT? haha.

at alexander mcqueen, i saw the most gorgeous coat of the season. and then i did the most terrible thing. i tried it on.

then i refused to take it off. it was beautiful. practically everyone in the store turned around and stared at the coat. it was beautiful. did i say that already? it was a mossy green coat with huge sleeves and a trapeze shaped bodice. the front did a sort of drape, and it was cut with some chiffon panels in the middle that fluttered really pretty. i wanted to bolt with it. my friend, hee, was like, “gilda, it was made for you.”

i know already! it was made for me and it was made to be sold at $5000 bucks! i need to sell a liver for that!

we went next door to jeffrey after that. they were celebrating their 10th year anniversary, and designers had designed clothing for dolls that were on display in the store. can you guess which designer did what? some are pretty obvious! some… i had no idea who they were. haha!

a sales woman at jeffrey asked if i was a designer, while i was ogling over some undercover dresses. then as we were leaving the store, this guy ran over and said, “excuse me miss! i just had to come over. can i touch your necklace? it’s amazing. where did you get it?”

i don’t know if any of you are designers, but you must have created something with your own hands before. it is the most satisfying experience to hear people compliment something that you have made. it really is! it’s way more satisfying than the smoothest dark chocolate on earth.

i can’t lie – i was really quite happy.

from jeffrey, we walked to see the comme des garcons black store, where our friend who’s working there, emi, said we had to go over to the main comme des garcons store, which was obviously on our menu of must-visit stores.

i nearly died; the junya collection was breathtaking, and i was completely smitten with this amazing avant garde comme des garcons vest and jacket. it was $370 and $455 respectively. again, i wish i could put them on and bolt from the store at lightning speed. i tried them on and felt them up. i was like a horny teenage boy looking at the cutest little girl. then i had to put them away. dammit. damn you, rei. why are you so clever?

we went to the balenciaga store nearby then, and elahe tried on a skirt in a nude-peachy pink colour. it had a few zips around the skirt that would open and cause the skirt to drape in certain ways. wow. love.

while she tried that on, i looked at the balenciaga bags and wondered when i can finally buy one. i’m not a bag person. i don’t spend much money on my bags, and i never really do have nice bags to carry to evening events. my most expensive bag is about $200. i’d rather be spending my money on food and clothes, than bags. is that weird?

at balenciaga, a customer there stopped me while i was looking through the racks, and told me he loved my necklace too. never mind the dude at jeffrey’s, this was a guy who shops at balenciaga, repeat, balenciaga, telling me he loved my necklace? wow. i was ready to lift my hands to the sky (or at that moment, at the balenciaga ceiling), and shout “hallelujah!”

it was about 4:30pm by then, and we were drained and tired. we’d been walking nonstop since 11am. crazy huh? my feet were killing me and thank god i wasn’t in heels. we started walking over to cafeteria in chelsea to finally have some food, and along the way we saw this funniest dog. he was walking alone, in the middle of the street, with the s-l-o-w-e-s-t strut ever!! his movements were so slow, i had to whip out my camera to take a picture.

of course, elahe decided to pose together.

at 5pm in the late afternoon, we finally got our food. if you’ve never been to cafeteria before, you just need to. i had their mussles and a glass of lychee bellini. oh yeah, this is what new yorkers are supposed to be doing on weekends. having a chill time at a chill place, not cooped up in their apartments or work studios working and sewing some garment, like we usually are. it was a little sad that we hardly get to enjoy ourselves like this.

our server at cafeteria couldn’t get over my necklace either, except she thought it was a bag. the day was just pretty funny. it was the third time i had worn my voodoo necklace out. the first time was to the latex ball with patricia field and the house of field, the 2nd time, i’d worn it with a purple tshirt, with a turquoise tutu skirt and harlequin tights. granted, the 2nd time i was one colourful little walking circus.

was it too much?

it had gotten a few compliments then, but the compliments i received yesterday was out of this world.

both hee and elahe were like, you need to put that necklace up for sale asap. it was mad, the number of compliments that came flying my way. i was quite shocked and was not expecting it. elahe counted 10 people. whoah. but the thing is, will people actually wear it if they could buy it? i don’t know. i guess, we’ll see!! you tell me! would you put it on?

on saturday, i went along with the house of field to the latex ball. i was quite looking forward to this, especially because i’d missed out on “the greatest ball on earth” last year and really wanted to go ever since i saw how much everyone dressed up for it last summer.

and girrrl, you know i NEVER miss out on a chance to dress up!!

do you like my colourful, drag-inspired eye makeup?? my eyelids seriously felt weighed down.

what is a “ball”? it’s hard to explain… the balls that i’m talking about aren’t your regular cinderelli-cinderelli kind of balls where everyone dresses in ballgowns with crinolines and coat tails.

here’s a little expansion to your vocabulary for you… gay-cabulary that i never knew existed until i started interning at patricia field‘s last summer. ps: all you gay-haters, make love not hate.

anyway, a ball is an event where houses compete against each other in many different categories echoing anything from high fashion to a way of being. there is a catwalk with judges, and houses send representatives to walk and compete with other houses for a prize. this year’s ball was themed “vegas”, and there were tons of categories. some were interesting, some were kind of odd. if you are the best dressed with the most amazing attitude (ya gotta be fierrrce!) in your category, you could win money and fame within the ball circuit!

some of the walkers with seriously out-of-this-world costumes!

anyone can take part, you just have to belong to a house, have tons of confidence, the right outfit for your look, and bring it! whoever comes up to walk gets to stay if the judges say so, or they immediately get cut. those who stay, walk and compete with someone else from a different house until the final winner is decided on.

so what are these “houses”? you’ve heard me mentioning “house of field” a gabizillion times on this blog, i’m sure. from what i understand, houses are basically like a second family. or one’s only family, especially if they experience any sort of rejection from their own family and the people around them. it could be because they were rejected for being gay or lesbian. in any case, a house is lead by a “father” and/or “mother”, who either use their real last names or come up with something fancy. their house is then called that name too, and they have “children”.

in my case, i found my way into the house of field (or at least i think i’m in it. haha!) through working at the store. many in the house of field are from the good old studio 54 scene, and the rest are still some of the most colourful downtown characters i’ve ever met. not everyone there is gay, although most are. but we still get along really well with each other and some of them have really been friends for years.

so anyway, although i really wanted to go to the ball, i refuuuuused to walk. because look, i do love to dress up, but my idea of dress up is not exactly considered amazing here. plus,  i feel fat. it really shouldn’t have mattered, but: i have a lot of confidence in my capabilities, but i have the confidence of an over-fried peanut when it comes to how i look. so there was no way i was going to go up to compete against these fabulous queens!

i was pretty broke and couldn’t not spend any money on buying an outfit. and it was a really, REALLY hot and humid day, so i needed to be comfortable or i would slit my wrists. after emptying out my closet and getting really pissed off that i had nothing fancy and really crazy that felt right, i went back to my sequined harem pants to save the day!

spiked bunny hat by RÊVASSEUR
white and gold ziggy neoprene cape by RÊVASSEUR
stuffed animal head necklace by mercibeaucoup;
murakami necklace by RÊVASSEUR
ginormous voodoo 5 lil boys necklace by RÊVASSEUR
cheap old black tshirt
sequined zebra print hammer pants by RÊVASSEUR
super amazing canvas clog shoes by mercibeacoup;

oh-kay, oh-kay, i hear you. i made most of what i wore and could have just written “DIY” instead. but for 5 seconds i want to put my label to everything, aight?? haha!

anyway, when we got the the ball, it was packed with a capital P-A-C-K-E-D. we had a table but it was right next to the stage where everyone else was crowding around, so there was no where to sit and no air to breathe!

it was hot!!! hooot in a non-funny way!!! if i did not have my little foldable fan in my purse ala monsieur lagerfeld, i would have died! what were the organizers thinking?? they sold way too many tickets and did not turn on that damned airconditioner!!

early on in the ball, they called pat onstage and introduced her as the legendary stylist for sex and the city, etc, and she had the mike for a bit and it was all fun and nice. then she went backstage to get changed and walked the “best dressed spectator (at the casino)” category. i think she looked amazing. all white with sunglasses and that headgear and a camera?! i loved it! it was so stereotypically vegas tourist! she got through the initial rounds then lost to this queen called eve, who was dressed in a serious gown and headpiece. she looked good, no doubt, but anyone could have come up with that!

pat patiently waiting her turn in the preliminary rounds.

it was my first ball and for the first couple of hours, it was all really interesting and fun. the “city lights, old way vs new way” category was quite amazing. a couple of fathers from some houses were competing in their neons. and when i say these boys can dance, i mean they can dance!

remember madonna’s song, vogue? remember it’s dance steps and how her hands just danced all over in angular and linear shapes around her face? vogue-ing is a huge dance form in the gay scene, and these people have no bones in their arms and 40 double-joints in their shoulders!! i’ve seen it on tv and seen a couple of my friends do some serious vogue-ing before, but this was a competition and it was fierce! i cringed a couple of times. how can they do that without popping their shoulders?! eeks!

these two dance-offs were probably my favourites, especially because they didn’t just dance alone, but vogued all over their opponents as well. it was pretty darn fantastic to watch.

the always amazing verushka and neon music.

neon is an amazing headdress designer with his own line called triviál, and comes up with the most incredible and original avant garde hat porn. a few months ago beyonce came to the boutique and saw one of his pieces in the glass display and promptly bought it! he took part in this futuristic “vegas 3121″ category.

verushka was all dressed up… or not, for “moulin rouge”, and i’ll have you know that she looked amazing!!! she had on a top hat and this huge feather fan, and walked and danced down the runway! but i swear the judges were being biased and racist on her! she got through the initial cut, then when she walked against this other girl who was in some corset and little top hat and didn’t even do a fierce walk and was a total yawn, the judges all picked the other girl!

it was a 2046% racist situation! they weren’t going to pick her if she wasn’t black!! i swear! watch these 2 videos yourself and tell me you didn’t think it was unfair!

little baby girl, posing on stage with big girls.

the star of the night was this little girl who was probably the only kid who took part. she wasn’t in any particularly stunning costume, but she had some major attitude. it was so great for this particular competition because she made a huge show of looking at the other walkers and yawning at them which was hilarious. but at the same time, i was wondering why this kid was here at this place full of almost naked people at 2am in the morning. she was really fierce on stage and the crowd loved her, but i’m hoping she isn’t like that off the stage as well or she needs a little smack for real. haha!

naoko, moto and ayami all dressed up for “the milionaire’s mistress” and “pussycat dolls” categories, but they completely missed it, which was a shame because they looked amazing!!

i completely blame the forgot-to-turn-on-the-airconditioner organizers. it was such a huge mess and each category took forever to finish and half-way through each one, no one remembered anymore what it was. plus, it was fucking steaming in that ballroom and that was not cute. everyone was fanning themselves with any piece of paper or flyer they could find. it’s like 3000 people were standing for hours in a really overcrowded space!!

pat left at about 1 or 2am, and slowly each of us from the house of field picked up our things and left too. there were still dance competitions going on, and while they were all really talented dancers, after seeing the same thing for 5 hours, the novelty feeling sort of wears itself off. it was fun for a while but geez it was too much of a torture to stand in a sauna with too-loud speakers for all those hours!

the asian group somehow stayed the longest. haha! i was glad to get out of the ball. thank god it was a little breezy outside!! nao-chan’s hubby was hungry and i was equally famished, so we headed to cafeteria in chelsea for some 4am supper. (by the way everyone needs to have the mussels there! oh!em!gee! so damn good!)

i got home at about 5 and took my 3rd icy-cold shower of the day. if i forget to apply moisturizer one more time before sleeping in my dry, airconditioned room, my skin’s gonna crack into 2 big pieces of snake leather.

oh, did i forget to say, that i tried on the wig before i left my house, but the wig and cape came off within minutes of stepping into the ballroom? thank god i didn’t wear any tights or anything figure-hugging, that might have killed me in the stuffy ball, or i would have seriously given up and gone home immediately.

so this was me at the end of the night. seriously tired, no cape, and no damn wig. (how do the queens do it?? how do they wear their wigs in all the heat??)

WILL POWERRRRRRRRRRRR!