queengilda.com

i woke up today with massive stomach aches and could not make it to class. that made me very upset. especially since i stayed up 2 hours later than usual, doing some work for that class today. grrr.

after popping some pills and resting, i felt like my usual self again. so i decided to go cut my hair, since i had the afternoon free.

i felt really shitty about missing class. and i think because i felt shitty, i dressed all in black today. it’s been a while since i’ve been in all black. yes girl, i look like i’m in mourning. you guys do know the mourning dress in fashion history right?

it goes from this…

to this…

to this!

hahahhahaa!

oh, did i mention? i got my hair colored when i went to cut my hair. woohoo! i was intending to colour my hair a turquoise blue… or at least that was the colour that my eyes kept focusing on, when i was looking at the color charts. but after i got my hair bleached out, i kinda liked how it looked. i don’t think i have been this light-coloured for a long time!! the pink streaks on my hair are basically remnants of the purplish-red that i had in my hair for a while, and no bleach was going to remove that. but it bleached and faded to a nice light pink, so ayumi and i decided to just keep it that way, and all we did was to add a toner to bring down the yellow colour! so now i have a sort of green-blue ashy colour with pink ends! wheeee!!

scarf from h&m
cheapo black tshirt
harness jumper skirt from comme des garcons
cheapo black tights
red hearts shoes from comme des garcons
neon pink watch by toywatch usa
queen alice ring by tarina tarintino

i’m so addicted to these suspender things + the heart shoes

and there you have it! the close up of my hair. remember when i last coloured my hair? it ended up having quite a cool tie-dyed effect, once some of the pink faded. in fact, i liked it so much i refrained from updating my colour for 6 weeks. that sounds like an average length of time to re-colour hair, right? but for someone who is using crazy colours, i think it’s actually equivalent to the lifespan of a parrot.

wait, that was quite a bad metaphor.

so i waited and waited and forced myself to wait some more, until my roots grew longer than an inch and i really couldn’t take it any longer.

many people asked me how my tie-dye hair was achieved, and a few of you emailed to ask me too! so here’s the little secret:

it wasn’t planned, it just happened! ahaha! as i mentioned when i first coloured my monkey hair, we simply bleached out my roots and blended the bleach into my existing purple colour, which gave me yellow roots with reddish ends. on top of the yellow, we added pink, blending that into the red too. so when the colour faded a little, i was left with pink, orange, then red hair.

cool eh? i know! but i give ayumi all the credit. she’s the colour mix master.

09aug08

on tuesday, i met danielle from final fashion at the parsons’ school “yard”. i say “yard” because it’s really just a small concrete patch that students go to to smoke. i’d found danielle’s blog a while ago, and she’s an amazing fashion illustrator! we’ve been following each other on twitter, and when she told me she was coming to new york for the fashion shows, we agreed to meet! i gave her and her designer friend, philip sparks, a very quick tour of the parsons building. it was almost a little embarrassing that there was NOTHING to show them!

the tour ended in 4 minutes, and we walked down to FIT to see the current goth exhibition. i’m confused about the goth theme, because there wasn’t anything goth-y about anything! the pieces on show were mostly from like, 3 years ago. so it was weird how they put it together, but nevertheless, they were all some amazing pieces of art and i certainly enjoyed looking at them from up close. who cares about the “goth” theme when you have comme des garcons, undercover, and alexander mcqueen staring in your face!

that night, i scrambled to finish my homework and went to the hudson to met up with gala after erm, quite a while of not seeing her! she looked as pink as ever! she asked me along to betsey johnson’s after party. i highly doubted that betsey herself would be there, but wanted to meet gala so i slapped on some lipstick and hopped onto a cab!

the party was weeeeeiiiiiirddddddd. the girls were all pretty and dolled up, which is nothing new. (i was the only one in a long skirt and flat shoes, as usual!) but there were some older people there, and the boys were all either gay or in baseball caps. what’s up with that! as gala said, it’s just plain rude that all those girls spent hours getting ready, and they appear in a cap and jeans.

why on earth would a guy go to a betsey johnson party except to pick up chicks anyway?

gala and i, catching up on a comfy rooftop couch!

courtesy of gala’s mega nikon

as we were talking, i noticed this girl standing in front of us and i was like, “wait! her dress has the exact same print as my shoes!!!!” what a major coincidence! i had no idea who she was but i had to go over and ask her to take a photo with me! turns out that she came all the way from tokyo for betsey’s show! she and her friends work for betsey’s event planning company in japan. wow!

matching dress and shoes! i regret not asking her where she got her dress from. i want!

breakfast at tiffany’s snooze mask from patricia field
limited tinkerbell rhinestone tshirt from shinjuku, tokyo isetan
harness pleated skirt from comme des garcons
pom-pom socks from amerian apparel (my first ever purchase from them!)
red hearts shoes from comme des garcons

this is the first time i wore a snooze mask out. i have quite a few at home, and i’m not sure why i thought it might be cool, but i thought it would be, so i wore it. ahah! what do you think? yay or nay?

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11aug08

today, i wore my comme des garcons shoes to school. i’m so in love with them. i realize i’ve never really worn red, although i often wear my evil hearts garcons teeshirt, which is the only red-ish item i wear often. so in a complete tribute to the fabulous nubby twiglet, who always rocks black, white and red, i decided to wear only black and red today. i felt so different from my usual self!! have any of you tried something like this recently? dressing in a way you usually don’t? you should do it sometime. i think i like it! it’s a new look that i’ll do again.

jersey knit jacket by undercover
red vest with velvet boobies by comme des garcons ($19 on ebay! wowwie!)
cheapo black tshirt
cuckoo clock lucite pendant from miss minnie!
black skirt by undercover
cheapo red tights
red hearts shoes from comme des garcons

how could you not love a pair of shoes like this!

the picture isn’t very clear, but the cuckoo clock is such a darling! thank you miss minnie!

i don’t know why i haven’t put up a picture of myself with this necklace much earlier. i’ve worn it multiple times, but somehow never took outfit photos with it! oops!! it went perfectly with my outfit today. and one of my classmates, who takes style photos for a german fashion magazine, took my photo too!

“what inspires you when you get dressed each day?” she asked me.

“i don’t know, nothing in particular. oh, but i have no mirror in my room.”

on sunday night, i had the luxury of attending the destination style show, by patricia field and designer david dalrymple. i just want to say, amazing amazing amazing, and i don’t know who came up with the initial idea of the set, but it was fantabulous and that person is a genius!

(i wonder if it’s my manager at work. he’s fierce!)

it’s been a while since i’ve been to the fashion shows. i attended quite a few when i was in tokyo, (mind you, tokyo fashion week is so damn exciting because the clothing is all art!) but since i moved to new york a year ago, i haven’t had the chance to see how it’s like here. i was supposed to attend a couple more shows this year, but alas, those that i was interested in all clashed with my classes at school.

this is the sad fact of life of a “responsible” (yeah right) full-time student. bah. two absences and we fail the bloody course! damn you, parsons!

so anyway!!! it was a disgusting day in manhattan! it rained all day because of the hurricanes, it was hot and humid, and utterly vile. i wanted to carry a cute little bag from femme sud but settled for a much bigger one so i could put my brolly in it.

i actually recorded the entire show on my camera… although i don’t think i’m allowed to do that. i just really want that soundtrack! i need to get a copy from someone. the staff from the store all got there pretty early. there weren’t a lot of seats and of course only the very important people sat down, so we had standing tickets. we were there way before the show started, and before the bulk of the crowd started trickling in, so we went up to the 2nd floor to hang around and realized we could see everything much better from there, so we stayed put!

there was supposed to be a huge turnout. apparently about 900 people rsvped for a space for 400 people, but i’m sure the rain stopped a lot of people from coming. it still was packed though, and so many personalities were in the house! club kids, queens and hot trannies. oh, and some celebs too. the only ones i recognized immediate were vanessa williams and jack from project runway, but there were a few more that the press went crazy over, and none of us knew who they were! hahahahah!

we were like, “who’s that girl there? the one the cameras are fussing over? wow she’s really posing and giving it to them. who’s she? you don’t know either? well ok let’s just take a photo of her, in case!”

hee hee hee!

so are you ready? pictures galore!

little gift bags

moto + i

one of the earliest celebs to arrive. but who?

this woman who worked for bloomingdales wanted our photo (this is what she took). then she asked, “patricia field. she’s the one who styled for sex and the city right? she’s really amazing, isn’t she?” i had no answer for her. what was she doing there?

lady bunny, patrick mcmullen and andre j

pat with ? and ?. i don’t watch ugly betty so i have no clue. 2 hours later we learn that she plays america’s sister in ugly betty? she was certainly working those photographers though!

lady bunny getting into all the action with vanessa williams. trick question of the day: how many illegal immigrants, and from which country, is she hiding in her hair? your 5 seconds begins now.

naoko + moto + omar + lyndsay + moi

jack from project runway in first row!!! oh i love him. when he had to leave project runway, he made me cry! and whozzat blond chick next to him? the photogs were after her too. but all of us were clueless! haha!

omar + me

here’s what i was wearing:
hat from patricia field (can you just tell that i am officially obsessed with military stuff?)
tailcoat by me
yellow doll made by my friend (see below!)
white tshirt by undercover
pink tulle cupcake dress by nadine zlotogora
swirly checked tights from patricia field
don’t mess with me boots by junya watanabe

the best part of the show for me, were the mannequins!!! they were fuckin’ wicked!!! i helped to prepare them and get them out of their boxes, and if you saw my video, you’ll know that i was part of the clean-up team who had to put them back in their coffins after the show ended. but i’m not being biased - they were wickedddddddd!

the mannequins were placed in different groups on stage. there were the black widows, who faked tears after the rich husband died and you know they want his money, then there were the racer chicks, and then there were the somewhat erm, lesbian girls who were crawling over the floor, and then there were the ladies who lunch! the mannequins were placed in those situations all over the stage, and basically, after the model comes out and walks down the runway, they would go and stand amongst the mannequins, and further act those scenes out! some models cried fake tears over the dead man, one raced a car with wind blowing in her hair, another went to sit with the ladies for tea… it was just awesome with a capitol AAA!

two of the biker chics. and omar posing with amazing bone structure! haha!

i think these mannequins were lesbian. and the girl on the right was sprawled all over the floor. hot!

one of the ladies who lunch! complete with real mini cakes that were so cute and yummy!

the black widows and the dead husband. going to destination heaven. a bit corny! haha! you can see part of a huge dollar sign (made of roses) in the corner there.

moto + ayumi climbing on stage to steal cake

how cute are they! haha! love them.

after the show, the photogs were surrounding pat. then she escapes… and we find her having some peace and quiet, and a piece of cake, with the ladies at lunch. i thought it was hilarious!

i got photographed by quite a few people, two of whom were bloggers (but of course i was stupid enough not to ask for their namecards and i can’t remember their blog urls!). one was from bloomingdales, and she wanted our photo, god knows why! maybe i’ll appear in a window as a mannequin soon. HAHAHAHA wouldn’t that be hilarious? the funny thing was, as i mentioned above, she hardly knew who pat was! i was flabbergasted. lady, if you work for bloomingdales and you live in new york and watched sex and the city and don’t know who pat field is and you come and watch her show and you don’t know who pat field is and you work for bloomingdales and you don’t know who pat field is (deep breath), then what are you doing at her show!!!!!

anyway, i also got hit by some papparazzi woman who came and shoved her camera in all our faces, very rude of her. then i also got photographed by two girls from the guardian from the uk. i went to visit their website at theguardian.co.uk though? and who cares about me, but i can’t find anything on pat at all. haha!

it was cool that i wore what i wore. because a lot of people asked me where i got my coat from, and what the heck it was that was pinned onto it! hahaha! it’s a good feeling telling people that i made the jacket myself. and then they asked about that yellow doll, and i said it’s a doll my good friend made, and it looks exactly like my old teacher at school!!! seriously! i even blogged about it way back when i first started blogging.

well, i say it like i’ve been blogging for super long. nope, i wrote about the doll just last year in may actually! here’s an excerpt of what i wrote back then:

my friend, pero, made me a doll thingy… of our ex-teacher!!!

pero with kano with said doll!

all of us kept screaming and laughing when he pulled it out of his bag, because i can’t explain to you HOW much the doll’s face looked like my teacher!

it was sooooo weird!

seriously! this is creepy stuff!

i’d feel bad if i put up a whole picture of her in high-res and without blocking her eyes, so i had to block it out. but come on, you know it still looks exactly like her. i love it and brought it here in new york with me. i have never had any use for it, i mean, it’s not like i loved her and she wasn’t even my favorite teacher or anything, but we had the best of laughs imitating her back in school. so when i saw that doll just before the party, (it usually sits on top of my dresser, along with photos of my friends in japan), it make me laugh and i thought i just HAD to add it to my outfit!!

so now i’m gonna send those pictures from the show, back to my friends in tokyo. i’m sure they will have a fit! haha!!!

i have a lot of favorite designers from tokyo fashion week and their pictures just rocked my world. i’ll have to post some of my favorites for you guys to see. also can’t wait to see what my idols like rei kawakubo, tao, junya watanabe (all of comme des garcons), jun takahashi of undercover, john galliano, alexander mcqueen, bernhard willhelm, maison martin margiela and rick owens come up with!

what about you guys? have you been keeping up with the shows? is new york week exciting? or is it blah? i’m usually more excited about paris, london, and tokyo fashion week. and couture week obviously. what are your favorite shows so far and what are you looking forward to?

lemme know! hopefully one of you will like some amazing designer i haven’t heard of before and i can learn more about him/her through you! haha! (yes, i AM just making use of you.)

it’s a bird!!

it’s a monkey!!

nope, it’s gilda with some psycho hair!!

alright, alright. those of you who twitter know that i’ve colored my hair again! i whined about my lack of funds last month, which was the reason behind my very lackluster hair. i’m still really broke, but after over 2 months of not cutting it, i really just couldn’t take it anymore.

i called ayumi, my stylist, up last thursday morning (on the 7th), and she told me she would cut and color my hair after she finished coloring pat’s. so i made my way down to the salon that afternoon and sat in that chair for 3 hours getting cut, bleached and colored.

i had torn out a page from a magazine of a hairstyle that i really liked. it was kind of mushroom-shaped, asymmetric, and erm, you know, pretty cool. i really liked it.

i showed the page to ayumi and we decided to bleach my roots out. however, because i had colored my hair a wine-purple color twice before this, i would probably wreck my hair trying to bleach out all that color in the attempt to get it ash-blond. so ayumi convinced me that it would be pretty cool to just bleach my roots out, blend it into my current hair color, and then to just color the roots. i had never heard of nor seen such a hair style before. roots are usually darker and the rest of the hair is usually lighter, and what she was suggesting was the opposite of that! light roots and darker hair.

but hey, i’m up for anything new. and unlike some girls who panic and go berserk when hair mishaps happen, to me, hair is hair, is hair is hair! it’ll grow back and a color job gone wrong can be corrected in two weeks. so i went for it!

i sat through a bleach job that burned a hole in my scalp, and we also added some very bold bleached streaks underneath the top layer of hair. ayumi called me a colored monkey because with the bleached hair and my reddish ends, i really looked like those monkeys from the 2nd picture.

then mid-way through my hair-bleaching process, with my roots turning orange and yellow, and major foil pieces in between, a minor problem happened with some chinese construction workers at pat’s house nearby and i was called to go over and talk to them! (they couldn’t speak a work of english and i was the only one who could communicate in mandarin.) so i walked over wearing nothing but grey polka-dot tights, a black plastic salon robe, and foil in my hair. yep, out of the patricia field shop (the salon is in the basement of the shop) and onto the streets of bowery, trying to look cool.

hahahah it was a little funny!! at least i felt quite ridiculous, but i tried to hurry over looking like i do this ever other day. hee hee hee!

ayumi cut my hair later, and she did it a little differently from the picture. which i really liked when i sat there in the salon chair, but when i went back home later that night i decided i really liked the cut in the picture more. after all, i had actually kept that torn magazine page on my inspiration wall for about a month now!

so i took my hair scissors and snipped the right side of my hair, making my fringe and right side sloped. granted, i’m no hairdresser and i was nervous about cutting off my eyeballs and earlobes, so everything was pretty evenly cut except right at those two areas! (please do not attempt this at home, kids. especially not if you’re the type who bawls with something goes wrong with your hair. and if you do attempt to cut your own hair, make sure you do not sneeze. haha!)

my hair isn’t long enough to look like the picture, but i’m still really pleased with the results. in fact, it’s really the craziest haircut and color job i’ve ever had!!! i really need to take some better photos out under the sun, so that you can see how many colors i have in my hair. it’s quite crazy. i’ve got pink at the roots, then it blends to orange before turning red from my previous dye job, and at some parts it’s purple at the tips.

when i went to work the next day and showed ayumi my self-cut hair, she laughed and said i did a pretty good job considering i didn’t know what i was doing. haha! i’ll probably get her to trim it neat once i get the chance.

black washed-silk vest by me
white shirt with scallop hem by me
studded plaid belt
gingham bow by louloulovesyou
cargo pants by rna
black tote by h&m
neon pink watch by toywatch
ballet flats
sailor’s cap

remember that sailor’s cap? it was a really cheapo $13 cap that i bought from a halloween store last month for sushi’s birthday party, that was nautical themed. i fell in love with it but it was really badly made. i mean, what can you expect for something that costs less than a meal in new york city? it even had one of those super ugly plastic things at the back, that you find at the back of caps. i don’t know what they’re called, but they’re like the cap version of velcro, meant to adjust the size of caps. it made the whole thing look so darn cheap.

so i took some milliner’s tape and covered that ugly thing up, then sewed some sequin fabric (left over from my sequined hammer pants) onto the brim of the hat, that was originally just black plastic.

in an instant, that cap just looked a ton better! magic! i love it so much i’ve been bringing the cap everywhere with me.

note to self: stop making stupid faces!

it’s not a great picture, and i wish there was more light so you can see how the sequins reflect, but it’s pretty amazing. the next time i feel a little crafty, i’ll go over the crest patch and sew black and gold beads over it.

anyway, sorry for the lack of updates. i’m actually in boston right now, visiting my darling friend alex whom i’ve known since i was like, 8 or something. actually we’re so comfortable with each other sometimes it’s like we’re just brother and sister. nah, more like some really jaded couple that’s been married for 50 years. haha! this is my last chance to really relax. once i get back to new york, it’s more work at patricia field’s, then a few days of trade shows with femme sud, then a frantic rush to finish my summer homework which i haven’t touched at all, and on september 2nd, school starts!

i can’t believe it! my whole summer, gone! over! i’m so dreading going back to the robotic life of a fashion student at parsons. i love designing and get inspired all the time, but parsons seriously sucks and i hate that the school often makes me hate fashion!!

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update @ 02:58am:

AHA!! i found a picture taken earlier today (paparazzi shot by alex) that shows my hair from the top! you’ll get the idea that it’s actually pretty bright in the sunlight. i’ve gotten slightly too many stares here in boston. eeps!

more for nosey parkers:
8 good reasons to get yourself a new ‘do

on thursday july 31st, my roommate and i went to see my friend, yoko’s solo exhibition at destination nyc, a shop in the meatpacking district. yoko is a fabulous illustrator so i was very excited to get to see her work. i’m writing a post and doing an interview with her, so more on that very soon!!

this was what i wore to the exhibition. please excuse my inexistent facial expression and erm, just overall dead looks!!! what happened was, mark, my roommate, wanted a picture of himself and he stood in the same spot while i tried to take his photo with his camera. but being the goon that i am, i couldn’t take a good shot and it was all blurry!! so we exchanged places and i stood in the same spot, while he took my place behind the camera to figure out his camera settings, before handing the camera over to me, for me to take a picture of him! haha! get it?? so i was really just standing there, not to pose. my purpose was as a camera test. hence… i had no expression on my face at all. i look dead! hahahaha.

“who killed anna wintour?” tshirt
avant garde skirt by junya watanabe for comme des garcons (who else)
tabi canvas boots by maison martin margiela
neon pink watch by toywatch

just a short post today because i’ve been busy trying to fix problems on this blog!! i just checked how this looks on internet explorer with my windows program, and it looks terrrrrrible!!!! i’m usually use firefox on my mac and so i never realised how bad it was on ie. if anything looks funny to you guys, please let me know so i can try to fix it!! thank you so much.

ps: it’s 7 am on sunday morning and i just made myself an uber-sinful thick chocolate milkshake with haagen-dazs choc choc chip ice-cream and full fresh milk from the farmers’ market. oh my god it is so good!!!

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.

today was a special day. if you’ve been following freebird, you’ll know that i am currently working part-time in the back office at patricia field’s shop. my work is basically to help out with the web orders, and also i work closely with the buyers (erm, to get merchandise to stock the shop!). that is what i’ve been doing the past couple of months. however, today, my manager asked me to help out in the store for a few hours in the evening.

help out. in the store. like the store-store. on the floor.

don’t get me wrong, i didn’t dread any of that. my dream in life isn’t to be a salesgirl, but my little secret is that i really do love it. the thing is, i grew up helping out in my parents’ shop. even when i was still quite a kid, i would go down and help sell stuff. when i was a teenager, i worked there during the school holidays to get some extra pocket money. i tend to get a little shy when meeting people for the first time, and i’m really bad at small talk and sometimes don’t know what to say. (so awkward. i am. very.)

but because i’ve worked in retail basically since i was a kid, i really love it. and because i sort of grew up doing that in my parent’s shop, to me, retail = my own business. when i later worked in a nail salon (please. nothing like the god-awful nail salons that are everywhere in new york.) for a short 3-month stint, i really learnt the importance of customer service. i was friends with all my clients, and got to know some of them really very well. i knew everything about their family, their job, their relationships, etc. i got to know them, and they, me. and they would come back again and again.

i believe it is because i make it a point to make their experience at my shop (even if it wasn’t mine) an enjoyable, memorable one.

one of my clients became such a good friend, i got to know her entire family and she later offered me a job as her p.a.! i went to work for her for 9 months before i left for tokyo, and it was one of my best work experiences. we’re still great friends to this day and my sister is now also friends with her whole family!

so. back to the story. even though i only worked on the floor for 5 hours today, i was excited about it. i mean, it’s been a while since i’ve done some sales job, but to me, it was like getting back to basics. i believe every customer is important, even if the sale is small. a happy customer will keep coming back, and that “small” will grow pretty big. trust me on that one. my parents also taught me to be my own boss. and if i’m not yet at that kind of level, then treat the place i’m working at, as my own. personally, it is this way of thinking i have that has helped me in all my work experiences, because my bosses trust me enough to know i will do a good job.

besides, patricia field has the best kind of clothes in new york. new york fashion is not what i thought it would be. people here really don’t dress up that much. yes, you do get the classy chic people. but the majority of the population is just a big blah. if you’re like me, you probably thought that new york was a pretty darn stylish place.

eh— wrong. sex and the city gave you the wrong impression. it sure gave me one. when i first came here, i was shocked. i thought, “where were all the beautiful people!?” the reason why new york looked as good as it did in sex and the city, is because of patricia field. you can’t argue against that. it’s a fact.

so it was great just working on the floor and helping out whichever customer i could. the kind of shopping experience you get in the store, the kind of stuff we actually have, is like no other in new york city. one lady picked up the leather finger tip gloves we have, and asked, “why do you guys make these gloves? why just 4 fingers? does it serve a purpose?”

i said, “its purpose is to be fabulous!! it doesn’t need any other reason! i bought one before i started working here and trust me it was worth every penny.”

i know i sound lame, but personally, i hope that customers, especially the ones i served, leave the shop feeling happy and satisfied!

did that last sentence sound like i was prostituting? hahaha.

my dream is to one day have my own little store, stocked with things that i love and things that i’ve designed myself. and i want to be there and sell my own things to my customers! personal service! that’s my ideal future.

anyway, some of you might know that i recently had the chance to meet loulou, the girl behind loulou loves you! she makes the cutest satin knickers and all kinds of bows. i make bows myself too, but loulou’s are big and too cute.

i know i have been posting too many outfit photos recently. i know that because i have received a couple of hate mail. haha! (they were too funny and some people have nothing better to do. i put myself out there and i’ve been honest about everything, so if you don’t like my blog, you can leave. but more on that another day!)

however, this bow was so cute and i got so many compliments on it, i couldn’t not put up a picture. thank you loulou! i wish i wasn’t so broke when i met you, or i would have bought more!

gingham bow by louloulovesyou
zamiang! tshirt by jun takahashi (undercover) for hysteric mini
the aristocats‘ marie purse from tokyo disney
turquoise crinoline
navy tights
studded boots by junya watanabe
neon pink watch by toy watch

the first thing my roommate said when i came home today was, “*gasp*! you walked around town like that?”

hahahahahahaha. i know. i’m an asian circus.

ps: oh man, i never realized my window was so disgustingly dirty! how did all those fingerprints get there? eek!!

i know a lot of you think i have such a fun and fabulous life filled with dress up parties. well, it’s true! haha no i’m just kidding. the truth is that i am sitting in my oversized tshirt and shorts as i’m typing this in my living room, because i don’t have an air conditioner besides the one in my own bedroom. yes, you heard me. i’m living in an oven.

the other truth is, that my last week was really filled with fun events. it was the independence day weekend here in america, and i also attended sushi’s birthday party (he’s one of my bosses). so of course it was an opportunity for me to dress up and be a little more costume-y than i normally am (as if i don’t already overdress all the time, right? heh heh.)

so i received the above invitation in my inbox. i was so excited. i mean, i haven’t been on any boat or ferry since i got here in new york. and here we were, going to take one to some place called william wall. i had no idea where that was, but i didn’t care. all i could think about was: sailor, nautical, sailor, nautical, i have no costume!!!

i popped down to the shop the day before the party, to pass something to one of my bosses, and they reminded me of the party. i told them i’ll be looking for something to wear, and that i’ll meet them at the shop to go together. because obviously i didn’t want to get lost.

i looked at our own shop first, of course. i mean, it is after all, patricia field! and i know they used to stock sailor-ish items, and my manager wears the sailor cap all the time. but i guess, i was fresh out of luck and they were fresh out of stock. so i walked over to screaming mimi’s at lafayette street and told them i had a costume party to attend. they were sooo nice and gave me 3 options to pick from!

with my costume all set, i had nothing else to worry about. i didn’t know if anyone else was buying sushi a present. i’ve only been working there about 2 months and his party was the first one i attended, so i had no idea what the “office policy” was, and i decided buying one was better than not!! so i got him a bottle of veuve clicquot from the union square wine and spirits shop.

the day of the party, i went and got my make up done by regan at mac in the flatiron building. he’s so cute and such a whiz. obviously. i mean, my make up was perfect. PERFECT.

40’s make up by regan! well, excuse the shitty hair.

on the way to the shop

(pssst!! i’ve just been told that the photo above was featured on bits and bobbins!! i’m so excited!! thank you so much, tricia!)

my roommate, mark, came with me and we arrived at the shop at about 7pm. to my horror, NO ONE was in costume. i was like, “HEY!!! why’s everyone not dressed up!!!” apparently, they all got lazy. what?!! &(*#!@^!(@*#&!(@*$^@$#^!!!!!

(did i forget to warn you guys that this is going to be such a photo fest?)

dai was playing a little game, with folded paper. i have no idea what the game is called but i used to play it when i was younger too. i didn’t know it was such a…. such an international game. hee hee!

photos by julie

so ANYWAY, we finally made our way to get to the boat. holy moly, i never knew such things were possible in new york! or that i could ever afford it! i mean, we only had to pay $10 bucks for a return trip! everyone else there at the piers were all these dressed up investment banker types who turned their noses up at us. i hoped some worm would crawl up their nostrils. we saw all these exciting huge-ass yachts and of course got ourselves all excited! i wanted to get onto the moet boat

then of course, reality bit us in our butts and reminded us that we weren’t so fabulous, when we were ushered by this lady onto a small speed boat. haha. she was from the yacht club and already a little drunk. and wouldn’t stop talking. tony wasn’t very pleased with her because she wouldn’t stop talking. just kidding. i mean he wasn’t annoyed. but she really didn’t stop talking.

floats - my best accessory

the view from the barge

we arrived at william wall, which was actually a barge in the middle of the hudson. it was so beautiful. then the most terrible thing happened. it started to rain the moment we got to the barge. it wasn’t just rain. i mean, it was fucking pouring! like a huge thunderstorm! the sky was black and the wind was howling. people started screaming and the barge was shaking. honestly, i was quite scared. it was like the titanic!! there was hardly any shelter on the deck, and the plastic chairs started flying. it got really crazy when people were actually starting to push each other to get to safety! good grief!

we got drenched and everyone was running to the lower deck. it was terrible! you know those dance steps from madonna’s vogue? yeah i was kinda doing that. to protect my make up from the thunderstorm!!

we were stuck in the lower deck for at least half an hour. then tobell comes up from nowhere, wearing a life vest! AHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAH i tell you, i honestly lost it. and she very nonchalantly said, “i can’t swim.” oh my god pffffft!!!

tobell is accessorising

anyway. the storm cleared up after a long while and we finally got to go back up on the deck. it was really pretty and we could see manhattan’s skyline. we could even see the statue of liberty from where we were. miss liberty was kinda far away and even though we wanted to take her picture, she refused to turn her head towards us. so obnoxious. the sky was still a little foggy, but just being there was fabulous. the sound of the waters, the fresh air… life is beautiful when you take some time to appreciate everything around you. and friends! nothing’s better than that!

the gorgeous people i work with

the birthday boy and me

the city as my backdrop

isn’t tony such a gem?

only half of sushi’s party was there because of the storm. they didn’t let anymore people take the boat over to meet us, so a lot of the people from the shop couldn’t come over to the barge. i think pat was supposed to come too but ahh well, nature wouldn’t have it. a boat came to ferry some of the other people away (there were other strangers on the barge) and told us they’ll be back to pick the rest of us soon.

so we sat around and took pictures and got drinks and had a laugh. it was hilarious. we waited for the boat for another like, hour or two!! wtf! it was getting a little cold and i had only had one drink although i’m pretty sure some of us got quite drunk!

they turned off the lights on us when we got onto the boat, so it was hard to film, but we all started singing sushi a birthday song and it was so darn funny. you can hear me giggling a few times in that video. i think people were too high to realise that they sung sushi a birthday song, twice! hahaha!

two different sailor hats from the costume store
sailor dress (there’s actually the teeniest skirt attached to it!) by screaming mimi’s
white crinoline skirt
black tights
pink watch by toy watch
studded boots by junya watanabe

i love this sailor look. i’ve never tried it before, but now that i have, i can’t stop thinking about it. i love the sailor hat, and the captain’s cap. and my new “want” is a real captain’s cap. not the cheapo one that i bought from the costume shop for $13. but a real one. anyone knows where i can buy one? heh heh. i’ll live with the cheapo one till i find a nicer one. ahh! it’s great. i love it!!

so that tops off my amazing week! i had so much fun but it’s now back to reality. boo.

more reading for the nosey parkers:
how to be a little social butterfly

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 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.