passion is in fashion

Slideshow from Newsweek

Visiting Barack's family in Kenya

Image from Newsweek.com

I just want to point out, that I am rocking the hot looks of Fall ’03 all the way – when fishnets ruled the runway.

I have always loved Carolina Herrera’s F03 collection, and to a lesser extent YSL’s. Fishnets are beautifully ladylike, and undoubtedly useless and impractical. For the first time in my life, I put on a pair of fishnet stockings in the morning morning. I shall conclude my experience here.

I am wearing them with a pencil skirt with a high back slit, a long cashmere cardigan with a skinny belt, and black peep-toe pumps. Love how the fishnets cover my well-pedicured red toes and pokes out of my peep-toes. Love how my fishnet-covered back thigh pokes out of the skirt’s back slit. With the right perfume and gentle touches, I am ready to seduce. Watch out.

At the same time, they have their shortcomings. Today is rather cold, and I must say fishnets are like wearing nothing over your legs at all. As I was clumsily running around, I managed to rip one side of my thigh already. It gives it an interestingly punk/trashy look, though not one I enjoy.

Lace tights are ruling this season, and of course I was all ahead of the curve and wore it on Wednesday already. It’s kind of like wearing lingerie all over your legs. A bit too much, I think, still prefer the retro simplicity of fishnets.

How will I ever incorporate such an item into my wardrobe? I must be more mysterious, seductive, and most of all, careful.

Carolina Herrera Fall 2003 RTW

Carolina Herrera Fall 2003 RTW

Yves Saint Laurent Fall 2003 RTW

Images from Style.com

From Vogue.co.uk

How cute are these? See if you can guess how they match up to the designers? I picked out YSL, Burberry, Paul Smith, Roberto Cavalli, and Prada right away. Love that they are so iconic.

See the entire collection here.

Oh dear.  I love the website Mrs. O – tracks Michelle’s fashion choices from mass market to couture.

Particularly adore this image.  What a beautiful and simple outfit for a cold winter night.  And best of all, Michelle looks incredibly happy, and Barack absolutely dashing.

President-elect Barack Obama and Michelle Obama leave Spiaggia restaurant in Chicago after dinner on Saturday night.

Image via Mrs. O and the Chicago Tribue (Zbigniew Bzdak, Chicago Tribune / November 8, 2008).

I remember reading an article about how the McCain ticket was the anti-change, and one of the supporting piece of evidence was: “Look!  Both Laura and Cindy are wearing Oscar de la Renta!”.  Here is a summary of their convention outfits: Vanity Fair from September.  Expensive, conservative, and undoubtedly in good taste, I am not surprised that it is the choice of wear for pill-popping Republican wives.

Oscar de la Renta is as deeply entrenched in high fashion as one can be.  Anna Wintour once orated: “a tee shirt can be just as fashionable as an Oscar de la Renta ballgown.”  She implicitly posited that “an Oscar de la Renta ballgown” is the traditional pinnacle of fashion.  Since Anna is the arbiter of fashion, it follows that she must be right, and therefore Oscar = fashion.  (Whereas the tee shirt, as fashion, is the mildly shocking idea.)

But I am not a fan.  His designs are beautiful, but also serious, mature, and uptight.  He uses luxurious materials and unapologetically grand silhouettes, but they seem unspontaneous, untouchable, and overly-crafted.  Yet, these are the precise qualities that make his dresses the perfect getup for Republican Conventions.

Which is why I lean to the left.

Cindy and Laura at the Republican Convention

Oscar de la Renta Tulle & Organza Cocktail Dress

Oscar de la Renta Embroidered Bouclé Dress

Images from Vanity Fair and Saks.com

And then my gerbil died, so I prayed for him. – Interview with a little girl

I feel a special connection to all those who are alone on Sunday mornings. For those moments, I’m their friend. – Weekend Edition

Incisive article in New York magazine.  The “Bitch” and the “Ditz” – How the Year of the Woman reinforced the two most pernicious sexist stereotypes and actually set women back.

Her blithe ignorance extended from foreign policy to the symbolic value of her candidacy. By stepping into the spotlight unprepared, Palin reinforced some of the most damaging and sexist ideas of all: that women are undisciplined in their thinking; that we are distracted by domestic concerns or frivolous pursuits like shopping; that we are not smart enough, or not serious enough, for the important jobs.

…

But among the darker revelations of this election is the fact that the vice-grip of female stereotypes remains suffocatingly tight. On the national political stage and in office buildings across the country, women regularly find themselves divided into dualities that are the modern equivalent of the Madonna-whore complex: the hard-ass or the lightweight, the battle-ax or the bubblehead, the serious, pursed-lipped shrew or the silly, ineffectual girl.

And this one deserves a reprise.

My fascination with women in fashion continues. I admire them more for their business-savviness than for their designs. Overwhelmingly, we choose labels and designers not so much for their sensible price-to-quality ratio, but rather the irresistible brand image that we aspire to. Lifestyle brands are *much* more interesting than value brands. They are able to command higher premiums, and we are willing to pay for them because either a) we are sheep, or b) it *actually* does make us xxx dollars happier. A true believer will tell you the latter.

Can this xxx dollars of happiness be measured? Let me borrow an example from Dan Ariely’s Predictably Irrational. Psychologists conducted taste tests between Coke and Pepsi using high-tech brain scan machines. Test subjects received either Coke or Pepsi, saw what they were drinking beforehand on a screen that showed either Coke or Pepsi’s iconic symbols, and the machines revealed what happened in their brains. Results showed that while both drinks activated the subjects’ basic hedonistic functions (sugary drink), more so than with Pepsi, Coke further activated the brain’s higher cognition functions, such as memories and associations, which made them prefer Coke over Pepsi. This is the success of Coke’s brand-building.

As I have previously expressed my love for Tory Burch flats (no matter what Blair Waldorf postulates), I must continue to tell you that I seriously admire the label. Now, I don’t think I will ever wear her apparel, because it’s kind of like Lily Pulitzer with a Moroccan flair (and we all know what we think of Lily Pulitzer), but what Tory has done with the brand is simply amazing. Among my friends, JAPs and ABCs alike, all adore her line. It is reasonably priced fashionable yet practical contemporary wear, and strikes the perfect balance between cult-chic and mass market. The logo is normally huge, but only girls in the know recognize it as Tory Burch.

So at one very hip coffee shop in Beijing, I came across a back issue of Vanity Fair. In this issue was a brilliant article about the rise of Tory Burch, and also a hilarious interview with Imelda Marcos. Do hijack this issue from coffee shops if you happen to run across it.

Along with clothes, Burch shows me weekend bags, handbags and clutches, beach towels and sandals and ballerina flats, most of them branded with her distinctive, Asian-looking double-T logo. She had accessories right from the start- a huge risk, each item a production challenge of its own- because she wanted to be, in the Ralph Lauren tradition, not just a clothing designer but a “lifestyle” designer. Though she claims not to have realized it at first, the lifestyle she was selling was her own. “Her clothes fit her lifestyle,” says David Chu, another lifestyle pioneer, who founded the brand Nautica, “and a lot of other women feel the same way.”

“Tory has been very smart about branding herself,” agrees Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour. “I think she completely understands the power of image and marketing and branding…. Women find her clothes accessible and now they’re buying into Tory herself.” What they sense, adds Wintour, is that Burch is a real person: “A lovely girl, hardworking… not a socialite who puts her name on something and goes to lunch.”

…

What this means for the company’s future is still unclear. “Everyone assumes they’ll do 15 stores and sell to Liz Claiborne the way everyone else does,” says one fashion-company chairman. Another industry observer notes that in general clothes don’t make the profession, fragrances do. Unless Tory Burch comes out with a best-seller fragrance, she says, selling out is almost inevitable. “With fragrance, so much is timing,” Tory says. “You need to know when your brand is ready, when it’s big enough. We’re starting to talk to different people. It’s in the future, for sure.” Tory says she has no intention of selling- the company is her life. “She has to avoid going too fast,” cautions Diane von Furstenberg, whose own first business soared, only to plummet to the verge of bankruptcy. “To lose control is not good, to do too much licensing is a danger. But she’s a good woman, and she’ll be all right.” Anna Wintour agrees: “I would be amazed if she failed.”

- from Vanity Fair Feb. 07

See the entire article from Tory’s website

See Tory in action in her video introducing the holiday collection for Saks

Tory Burch

Tory Burch Wool Dress from the Holiday Collection

Tory Burch Patent Leather Clutch

*Images from the LA Times and Saks.com

Remember this post?  Currently Hankering, posted Sept. 1 2008.

Love *so much*.  Thanks honey!  <3 you.

Smells yummy.

Self advancement in Germanic languages.  9 week course, 3rd Jan – 16th Mar 2009.

Another week away from Hong Kong.  This time summoned by a big new client of ours.  I happily abided, seeing it is a great opportunity to see my family in Beijing.  Everytime I go back, seems like a lot has changed.  Due to Olympics, the air has become surprisingly breathable, the sky almost resembling blue, and roads strangely uncongested due to tight (and confusing) license plate regulation.  Ah, when one arrives expecting the worst, one can always count on being pleasantly surprised.

But Beijing is still the city I grew up in and love, no matter how many shortcomings it has.  One learns to love hours spent sitting in Third Ring road traffic… “finally some time to meditate and reflect on one’s life!”  Air pollution can be mitigated by having potted plants at home.  So what if the water is so harsh that it turns all your white laundry yellow?  It’s a beautiful shade a J.Crew catalog might call ivory, sea salt, or winter white.

This was the first time I traveled to Beijing for work.  Meetings with various clients and prospects took me to Ringed roads I did not know even existed. 

1) Yabao Market

The Beijing garment industry is famous for catering to the Russian and Eastern European markets, and this was the capital of it all.  Yaobao is a little piece of Russia smack in the middle of Beijing.  In navigating this area, I faced a series of challenges.

To begin with, all the building were labeled in Cyrillic instead of Chinese.  This left me in a state of confusion and mild depression.   Soon after I came face to face with two dudes selling… what looks to be whole sheets of cougar fur on the side of the road.  Scary, not to mention illegal.  To continue on the theme of tasteful fur outerwear for the day, just down the street was a rack full of shaggy purple fur coats, on sale for 1000 RMB each!  And that completes my general impression of the Yabao market: full of Cyrillic and fashion faux pas.

2) 798 Art District

In a drastically more pleasant adventure, I landed in the 798 art district.  This is a contemporary art gallery campus that is only possible in a city like Beijing.  I say this because Beijing is so culturally-rich and progressive that it is the gathering ground of all the top artists in China.  Next, it is also because Beijing is a hugely sprawling city, poorly planned enough to leave vast spaces to house artists and their apparent need for creative space.

The district was wonderful, full of unique galleries and interesting visual experiences.  I wandered around on a sunny day and could not be happier.  To top it all off, the prospect I was visiting had a sort of “company dog” which was a full-sized brown poodle running around in the front yard.  Awwww.

3) Thoughts on Family

Everytime I go back there is a mandatory huge family gathering, whereby my grandpa, my aunt/uncle/cousin, and my dad/new wife/little sister book a room at our local duck restaurant.  This is one of my favorite events because it makes me feel like part of a huge family – I could go back to Beijing at any time and instantly know where I belonged.  All a distant feeling for me, after having spent years alone abroad in various education-related pursuits.

These gatherings make me happy and sad.  Happy because it is great to see everyone: they are all doing well, with new accomplishments and pursuits.  Sad because it amazes me that just my mere showing up can make them so happy, and yet why do I not do it more often.  My grandpa and aunt did a huge part in raising me while my parents were away.  I always feel like I want to do more for them, although not sure of how.  Once, in my well-intentioned but insufficient effort, I brought my grandpa a fleece jacket from LLBean, and my aunt a Lancome lipstick.  So silly and trivial.  Maybe next time I’ll try Orvis and Dior?