10 October 2009 @ 11:56 pm
156 The Alternative Maryjanes  


10 February 2009— Last December saw me rummaging through my childhood collection of hair clips, thinking of how best to recycle and reuse them. Some I turned into brooches. Others, like this classy pair of bow hair ties, inspired me to be creative.



And this is where creativity brought me. I slipped each bow hair tie onto my feet. If you haven't guessed, I am going to fake some Mary Jane straps for my shoes :) The hair ties weren't thick enough, so underneath them, I wrapped some thicker scrap ribbons from Emilio Valentino around my feet.



It was quite a ridiculous sight. With my ribbon hair ties secured around my bare feet, I tiptoed out into the storeroom, crept past my inquisitive mother, fetched my plain, black high heel pumps, and ran back into my bedroom. There, safely out of sight, I put my shoes on and instantly transformed them into Mary Jane heels.



This February, my faux Mary Janes take me to school. The complementary outfit is a repeat ensemble from previously, minus the hosiery plus the DIY Mary Jane straps.



Grand, classy ruffles and ribbons on my Victorian blouse brought out the elegance of my shoe embellishments perfectly. Although undeniably the hair ties left deep impressions on my skin, they were none too painful, and style ruled hand in hand with comfort for all eight hours of walking, sitting, and climbing stairs today.

The following picture has its brightness and contrast adjusted beyond normal to better show the details on my ruffled, tie neck blouse:


Victorian ruffled blouse with puffy sleeves and tie neck - Osmose
grey pinstripe skirt last worn here - made by mum
dark red belt last worn here - OG
Q computer keyboard ring - customised by playground-love
black patent chunky pumps last worn here - Giovanna
ribbons, bow hair ties worn as Mary Jane straps of shoes - Emilio Valentino, made by mum

My temporary Mary Jane straps allow me to easily interchange between two different ways of wearing my shoes. Convertibility and versatility.. this is what budget fashion is all about.
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03 October 2009 @ 10:25 pm
155 The Faux Convertible Garment experiment  

Above: Drop shoulder blouse worn as toga.

19 January 2009— Ah, convertible garments! I love them because they appeal to my experimental nature in fashion. From American Apparel and Victoria's Secret to the higher end Abyzz and Butter by Nadia, the convertible is a multifunctional piece of clothing that can be worn in many ways. But you do not need a garment, specially designed to be convertible, in order to wear a single piece in multiple ways. The key thing here is to take something in your wardrobe with elasticity and straps or sleeves, then let your creativity run wild in experiment. Yes, today I am not going to play with the different ways of wearing a specially designed convertible blouse. Instead, I am taking a humble blouse from my wardrobe, which I feel has the characteristics to be treated like a convertible piece.

Said blouse is a pink drop shoulder number with V-neck, drape front, and cross-back from Roses in the Loft. Pictures of it worn in its original form may be found here. From playing around with the sleeves of my blouse and the elastic back, I have discovered about four different styles of wearing the same piece. Apart from 1. its original drop shoulder form, I can also possibly wear my top as a 2. toga, 3. corset, and 4. pull it down to act as a skirt. In the following pictures, I have chosen to try it out as a toga.



Today's outfit starts with me throwing on a grey sleeveless bubble dress — the 'petticoat'. I then put on my pink blouse, pulling the right sleeve up so that it will be sleeveless rather than drop shoulder, after which I tuck the left sleeve into the smocked back of my bodice to form a toga. Next, I slip on my high waisted pinstripe skirt. This skirt is shorter than my inner dress, so the bubble hem of the latter peaks out under the skirt, like a floaty tutu or can-can.


grey asymmetrical bubble dress (inner layer) - Hong Kong
pink blouse with drape front and cross-back worn as toga (outer layer) - Roses in the Loft
grey pinstripe skirt last worn here - made by mum
asymmetrical ballerina earstuds in the style of Les Néréides - pushcart at VivoCity
white shoes with scallop edges and cutouts last worn here - August Ryan



Accompanying me in my tutu skirt today are two little ballerinas...



..and my scallop trimmed, lacy heels.

I rather enjoyed wearing my blouse as a toga. Perhaps this was because I did not have to worry about it slipping off, since I was wearing a dress inside. My only gripe was that the back of my toga looked rather weird with one strap running across my back, but since my hair covered that most of the time, what you couldn't see didn't really matter.


21 August 2009— Now the blouse is a bandage skirt, and my V-neck becomes a Basque drop waist. To secure the sleeves of my skirt in place, I tuck them in at the sides.


white ruffle neck blouse with pearl buttons - Sixties Inspired Design Studio
pink blouse with drape front and cross-back worn as skirt - Roses in the Loft
bird nest earrings - Hong Kong
nude pointy ballet flats - prettyFIT



This is how the back of my makeshift skirt looks like (I am wearing a different top here). You can see how essentially to create this style, the cross-back straps have simply been pulled down to cover the bodice. Compare with the original look of the back here.



Together with my 'new' skirt, I put on a pair of newly acquired ballet flats. They elongate my legs with their nude colour and pointy toe.

(For anyone who is interested in learning how to care for your nude shoes, the sales assistant taught me how to remove marks on faux leather shoes. Pour a small amount of medicated oil onto a cotton pad and wipe gently.)



My final touch to today's experimental outfit is this pair of silver and pearl earrings. I am sorry to say Mother Bird has been careless with her pearl eggs. She has dropped half a dozen of them down the front of my shirt (see above pearl shirt buttons).



Bird nest earrings when worn.

How did my day wearing my blouse as a skirt go? Although I clearly loved the look of my bandage skirt, I was afraid of ruining the elasticity of the garment. I also had to be extra particular about my movements, so that the tucked-in sleeves will not accidentally fall out to my utter humiliation. As a result, I did not wear my blouse as a skirt comfortably.
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26 September 2009 @ 08:58 pm
154 The Curious Adventures of a Wandering Mind  


"Becky's ponytail" - portrait of Becky from the back, 2006
Becky's thick, luscious ponytail is styled high with her signature scrunchy and thin metal headband.



"Mr Hello-What's-Your-Name" - sketch of Winnie-the-Pooh as seen on group mate's pencil box, 2008
Mr Hello-What's-Your-Name attends all his owner's classes religiously. His main preoccupation in these lessons is to hold onto one end of a tree trunk (the main compartment of the pencil box) while smiling foolishly at the bee on the other end. Methinks he is hinting at a pot of honey.



"May I have a pair of wellies?" - sketch of my lamb and lamb-sized wellies, 2009
While waiting for Edmund to complete his work, I rub the point of my pencil against my worksheet, whereupon Frodo materialises with a request for Edmund...
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19 September 2009 @ 07:19 pm
153  


15 January 2009— "On the twenty-eighth of April two years ago, a girl with long hair, five feet five inches tall, made a birthday wish saying, 'I want to be a designer.' This girl is now standing right in front of you. A good day to Dr Lxx and fellow schoolmates, my name is Xiaoqi, and today I am going to share with you my passion for design and dressing up."

This was the beginning of my introductory presentation today and true to my content, I dressed up to project a strong identity of who I am. Perhaps it was the nature of my interests that led to the easy substantiation — by real, physical evidence — of the claims about who I was: the ring I was wearing that day was self designed, and I took it off to show my audience. The skirt was also self made, and no I did not take that off.




purple, pink, and brown scarf of swirls - Mum's
faces print T-shirt, printed inside-out - Hong Kong
black high waisted skirt with middle notch, front pleat, side pockets - self made
black bow hairclip last worn here - gift from Fourth Aunt
lego house ring - self made
patent red pointy heels last worn here - Tinkerbelle Exclusive

A House for Lilliput Lane: Construction for the lego house ring was completed last May (read post here). Since then, it has undergone several renovations, namely a repositioning of the little house diagonally on a darker, burnished ring base. The new position allows passersby a better view of the different planes of the house. In today's outfit, the red roof of the cubic house coordinates perfectly well with the chili red of my high heel shoes.
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05 September 2009 @ 03:23 pm
152 'La Grande Vie' chandelier wall decal diy  

          For G's 21st birthday party in June this year, I was assistant decorator. With such a theme as 'La Grande Vie' — the high life, chief of her party decorations was of course, a chandelier. In the modern form of a wall decal, this was specially handmade for the occasion.


Materials used:
1. Two black A2 sized mounting boards with white underside to sketch on
2. A pencil & an eraser
3. A tailor's curved ruler
4. A drawing compass
5. Steel measuring tape for carpenters
6. A big pair of scissors
7. Satay sticks, white glue
8. A packet of blue tack

          Since G and I were both working at that time, the design for the chandelier had to be simple and nothing too ambitious. As a huge centerpiece fronting the stage, symmetry was also very important, so for an entire afternoon I measured and drew, with the precision of an architect, the proportions and curves of our chandelier using a tailor's curved ruler, a drawing compass, and a steel measuring tape.

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