11 December 2009 @ 07:52 pm
159  

Above, today's accessory: This picture is inspired by the classic proposal stance.
I was looking for an interesting way to shoot my Diamond ring by AMT, when I came across this beautifully illustrated edition of The Nutcracker Ballet in my closet. After photographing the ring against this particular scene and uploading the photograph onto my computer, I edited away Marie's left arm, then added in the words you see on top to fake my own storyline :)


10 March 2009— Oh hello, Red Riding Hood Bottoms is my nickname today.
The defining piece of today's ensemble is below-the-knee and immensely red. It looks like a skirt but is actually a pair of pants — the clever trick that is the culottes. Wearing them distinguishes me from the crowd. It gives me the benefit of style without having to compromise on comfort. And, it gives me the benefits of a flare silhouette without having to worry about the harassment of the wind.



(The culottes were rather crumpled when I photographed my outfit, so pardon the eyesore!)


faces print T-shirt, printed inside-out, last worn here - Hong Kong
black opaque stockings worn as scarf (see it worn on the legs here) - South Korea
red culottes last worn here - made by mum for herself years ago, altered to fit me
black bow hairclip last worn here - gift from Fourth Aunt
dark red mini sling bag - vintage, mum's
black acrylic diamond silhouette ring last worn here - byAMT, formerly known as Alissia MT
black wrinkle patent oxfords last worn here - Gojane



As you have probably guessed by now, I am not much of a T-shirt person. There are only three T-shirts in my wardrobe and this is one of them. What drew me to this particular piece was how the design of the T-shirt had been printed on the inside; so basically, you wear the shirt inside out. See that prominent line running down the side of my shirt? That's the stitches at the seam. I got this shirt at a bargain price of HK$10 (SGD equivalent of $2). Methinks it was probably a factory reject — the T-shirt had been mistakenly printed on the wrong side. What constitutes one man's trash is another man's treasure, though.



If you think something looks odd about my scarf in the previous picture, you are probably right. It's not a scarf at all but a pair of opaque stockings wrapped around my neck for a scarf! I strongly felt that my outfit needed a scarf to complete the look, and since I didn't have a black scarf with me, I improvised.



This bag is my mother's. I used to think it was an ugly bag and had no qualms about telling my mother that. Years later, I am swallowing my own words as I find myself instinctively reaching for this beautifully dark red mini sling to spice up today's ensemble...



Today my head ditched Good, Old Common Sense and made friends with the ever insensible Frivolity. And Frivolity sent me off to school in my 4 inches high oxfords, with the promise of dashing style and enviable long pins. It took me just ten minutes of strenuous marching to realise I had wronged Good, Old Common Sense, and Frivolity should never be trusted. A humbled girl retired her oxford booties later that evening.
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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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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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11 August 2009 @ 10:18 pm
151 Jiro Kamata clothes hanger earring diy  

          You may recall how the commonplace hanger was last adapted into a earring to good effect by the wonderful Jiro Kamata (article here). Days after making the discovery, I was to find a similar conception hanging in the closet of the little Miss Bibi. While his was decidedly angular, hers had odd little curves that I had never before seen on any of my clothes hangers.. but then again, neither do my hangers have such orderly severe lines as Jiro Kamata's do.


          My hangers are, in fact, a combination of very simple lines — not always straight, and badly symmetrical. In creating my own version of the hanger earring, I decided that I would base mine on the hanger as I knew it, in my wardrobe, rather than on the designer pieces as made by Kamata or Miss Bibi. Yes, this is going to be my hanger earring, not a carbon copy! Grabbing some spare ear hooks, artistic wire, and my trusty pliers, I began by wrapping one end of the wire around my ear hook, then moulding it into the shape of a hanger. When I was done I finished off by wrapping the other end around the ear hook to secure my wire in place. The eye of the ear hook (this is the circle you see at the bottom of ear hooks) was snipped off upon completion.


          The end result, displacing my little angel on her perch. While it certainly sounds easy to make yourself a hanger earring, shaping the wire can get very tiring, especially if you intend to make both arms of the hanger as symmetrical as possible. For this reason I chose to save myself some trouble by using a ear hook for the hook of my miniature hanger, even though I could very well have fashioned it out of artistic wire myself.


          When there are too many clothes to hang, my mother sometimes asks me for my adjustable hangers to save some space on the drying poles. I have incorporated this feature into my hanger earring. This I did by securing the wire just tight enough to ensure it will not fall apart, yet at the same time loose enough such that the wire and ear hook will not be fixed into a deadlock.


          Not content with my hanger earring, I decided to make a second attempt (see picture above). This was slightly longer, and boasting more symmetrical arms. In my pursuit of perfection, I wasted a lot of time and effort on the second hanger, only to realise at the end of it all that I still liked the first more. Being perfectionist isn't always a virtue, and sometimes a task done with a rough, free hand may turn out even better than one for which the technicalities have been strictly adhered to.


          I leave you with a picture of my first hanger earring when worn. And no, I won't be hanging any dolls' clothes on it, but you may, if you like ;)
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