passion is in fashion

Totally say India is IN!  Michelle Obama wearing India-born US-based designer Naeem Khan to the first state dinner.  Gorgeous!

Image by Nicolas Kamm / Getty Images via Mrs-O.org

Eeeek!  Here I am preparing to venture to New York for the week.  Please see above, the weather forecast for New York, in contrast with the much more reasonable weather in Hong Kong.  Mon dieu!  For surviving in such treacherous conditions, I have prepared a multi-pronged approach involving sartorial armor, hot beverage consumption, and heartwarming reunions.

1) Sartorial armor

I believe in packing light for *any* occasion.  Not only is over-packing a useless exercise, it is also bad for the environment!  Air travel produces the biggest carbon footprint of any kind of widely-available transportation, and I don’t blame the airlines at all for charging for excess baggage.  Economic incentives should certainly be aligned!  Packing efficiently, much like Homeric Greek, should be taught in schools.

So, for my week-long venture, I have decided on the following essential items.

Black coat - Just got a new one from Ted Baker.  Have never shopped there before but accidentally chilled at the store one day when Korean Honey was shopping.  The store concept is pretty cute.  Think a bridge market version of Paul Smith.  The fitting rooms are very plushy, so much so that I wouldn’t mind hanging out there with a loved one.  ^^  I find them a bit overpriced, however, probably because one is partially paying for the deep purple velvet quilted ottomans in the fitting rooms!

Anyway, onto my new coat!  I love the belt at the natural waist and the skirted bottom.  Instant hourglass figure, which is how girls *should* look!  Was considering this in red (Ted Baker has a very nice shade of red this season… true primary red), but decided against it in case I want to wear the coat with crazy printed dresses.  (Known to happen!)

Over the knee boots - I have gone on and on about how much I adore tall boots so will not bore you again.  Particularly loving the thigh-high versions, which look really great avec une…

Black miniskirt! – Turns out I was just kidding when I said au revoir to them.  This is a wardrobe must-have for any girl!  A life without a black miniskirt, much like a life unexamined, is not worth living.  Really loving the ones with exposed zippers in the back.

These three items, with the appropriate changes in tops, sweaters, tights, and scarves, will easily take one from lundi to vendredi in style!

To maximize the value added to my trip and minimize time spent in transit, there is one simple trick to take any work-appropriate outfit to evening-appropriate: with a quick change of accessories!  Boots, however fashionable, I will always find odd for evening.  A simple pair of black pumps will do.  Big bags remind me of client meetings, or worse, bag ladies, so I will be having a black framed clutch at hand.

And voila!  I am done packing!  For all other occasions, I already had a variety of dresses and items from my favorite stores sent to my hotel.  Oh, the joy of having concierge who will sign for packages for you!  ^^

2) Hot beverage consumption

One of my favorite things about being in NY is breakfast.  Coffee always comes in big mugs (none of those wimpy teacup things), and the New York Times is always readily available.  Coming from Asia, I will be dealing with jet lag and waking up in the wee hours.  Not that I mind.  I really enjoy reading the paper while nursing (one too many) cups of coffee.

3) Heartwarming reunions

What’s the point of keeping physically warm, if my little (black) heart is cold?  My little heart is all aflutter at the thought of whom I will be seeing in NY.  Mom is coming to stay with me for most of the week and I am *so* excited!  We haven’t traveled together in what seems like forever and this will be our chance to explore and have lots of fun!  ^^  I will also be having heart-to-hearts via the phone with my dear friend H, since she cannot make it to NY this time.  Last but not least, cannot express how much I am looking forward to seeing f.  ^^

The perfect activity is watching Mad Men while having a beer (or two):

By this standard, though, Weiner’s exercise is unavoidably sterile. The pattern of a necktie, the club frequented, the restaurant patronized, the shopping bag carried, the prep school attended, together with a thousand other details, signify minute social distinctions, and reveal and even define character. But crucially, the telling details from a lost world can’t tell today (even if the club, restaurant, store, and school still exist, they can’t connote now what they did then), which perforce means that Mad Men is something of a costume drama.

This striving for verisimilitude serves another purpose: Weiner seems to hope that getting the vintage mitten clasps and IBM Selectrics right will help viewers believe that outrageously un-PC attitudes and behavior were as common as the series shows them to be. Mad Men is hailed for what The Times calls its “unflinching portrayal of Eisenhower/Kennedy–era sexism, racism, anti-Semitism,” and this unrelenting focus on the unenlightened aspects of the past is clearly central for Weiner and his writers. Most of the supplemental historical material in the DVD sets focuses on racial and gender issues and progressive politics, including a lengthy paean to the SDS’s gaseous Port Huron Statement. The takeaway is clear, as The Times approvingly quotes an academic who indulges in a rather Whiggish interpretation of history: “The show explains why the ’60s had to happen.”

- Benjamin Schwarz in The Atlantic

Mandarin's curious penchant for bladder-shaped pools

Despite heralded as a tropical environment, here I am freeezing in the airport lounge.  What is the deal?

Manila, if I can sum it up in one constant theme, is *high security*.  Don’t know if I should be flattered or offended to have been given so much attention by security guards!  Every single office building checks all my bags and then detains my ID before I can proceed.  And let me tell you about the airport, there are two separate lines for men and women at the luggage check.  Taking a cue from my ultra-leftist single-sex education, I was instantly offended.  I am lucky to live in a world where I don’t experience such odd displays of sexism in the name of security.  Oh well!  I shall recover my dignity elsewhere!

Even my hotel, the Mandarin, is not spared from such mildly dehumanizing searches!  Before entering the hotel my Dior Cannage bag is poked around by a guard with a wooden stick.  In my room instead of the usual “welcome fruits”, I find a welcome letter warning against the apparent perils of Manila.  The letter begins: “Manila, like any other big city, is not spared from chaos.”  Well-put, general manager, well-put.  “Like any other big city” — certainly!  My caring colleague further warns me against taking anything other than hotel-chartered taxis.

So, scared about the world outside which my GM and colleagues alike have warned me about, I spent most of my time exploring within the hotel, and *way* too much time at the Captain’s Bar (same as the old Mandarin in HK!)  By the end of my two-night stay, the waiter instantly recognizes me and shows me to my favorite table.  Hehe.  The upside to secluding oneself to bastion of safety in a hotel?  Achieving instant regular status!!

Thus securely, and freezingly, I conclude my first trip to the Philippines.  Not the most enjoyable ever, I concede.  Between solving work crises from the distance here and worrying about safety, I had few moments of joy reading Sylvester at the Captain’s Bar!

Here I am off to board.  Hoping I will be upgraded again to enjoy lay-flat beds on a two-hour flight.  Hahaha.  Silly, but enjoyable.

In case you didn’t hear, India is totally in fashion right now.

Lakshmi Mittal just bought Escada for his daughter-in-law Megha, outbidding even the the son of the founder Wolfgang Ley. Talk about an early Christmas present.  Credit to her that she *is* a Wharton grad and is looking to revamp Escada, veering away from its couture roots (who buys that stuff anymore?) and adding a more affordable and casual line.

I still remember this very lovely black and white Escada portrait collar jacket I tried on once from the FW06 collection.  It was intricately knitted, perfectly fitted, and badly coveted (by me!).  Escada is German to the core.  All about quality and sometimes a little passé.  But that is also what I love about the line.  A quick look at any of its pieces reveals that yes – it is high fashion!

Coincidentally I have also just finished the White Tiger.  It won Booker Prize in 2008 so I’m a little late to the game.  Gosh, the book lives up to the hype!  Extremely insightful about a changing India.  Funny, too!

Image from Escada.com

The issue with prevalence of Facebook pictures these days is that even normal girls like myself have the same problem that plagues people far more visible — the fashion faux pas of wearing a dress twice!  As much as I advocate creative styling and recycling pieces, I do not believe in repeating dresses for occasions.

And by occasions I do not mean Republican fundraisers, they are as simple as birthday dinners.  Girls should always look their prettiest on their birthdays!  Such occasions call for satin, strapless, fuschia, and with well-placed ruffle embellishment.  And oh, look at that, I wore precisely such a number for my birthday this year.  LOVE.  ^^

But wearing such a dress to your own birthday party is pretty much signing its own death warrant.  Everyone and their moms are at the party, and pictures are bound to show up on multiple Facebook albums.  It is pretty much bad form to wear the dress again.

There is, however, one occasion which is perfect to revisit your birthday dress, and that is to dinner with your new flame.  As I did, last night.  ^^

A Karen Millen Number

I took off the straps, of course.  I hate spaghetti straps with a passion and am on a rampage to cut all of them off.

Has always been a favorite item of mine, but this season they have really exploded.  If you are wondering about how to wear them, here is a perfect way to style them.

Julia Stegner in Vogue Spain

It has been a while indeed.  Where was I all this time, you might have wondered.  Ah, I was frolicking in the far far away land of China.  Shuttling between Shanghai, Beijing, Shanghai, then Beijing (again!), and not between the industrial cities, for once.  Phew! Had the most fun with my travel partner (in crime) H, where I discovered spontaneity + party dresses + lazy brunches = good good fun.

Not so fast however, working in the garment-ish industry that I do, could not go on for a month without being summoned to at least one town where trucks outnumber people.  Got this trip over with on Tuesday, and boy it was not easy!  Came home and swiftly downed two Carlsbergs.  Beer, god’s remedy to daytrips to Guangzhou on the KTT train.

Since I made it back alive, and have had quite a good run at work lately (^____^), am thinking of a little reward for myself.  Something red?  Something in leather?  Something in red leather, perhaps!?

Image from Barneys.com

via Tommy Ton for Style.com