October 4, 2014

Fashion Girl’s Kryptonite

Today, my boyfriend asked me a question based on something he had read here. The question is: why does it seem like younger fashion conscious males are more concerned with quality products while younger fashion conscious females are alright with fast fashions?

Well, you see, fast fashion can be considered the kyptonite of fashion girls. Is it because we don’t care about quality? No, it’s not that. No one wants a garment that will fall apart in five washes.

The thing about fashion is that because it’s always evolving, the attempt to catch up to pieces that are on-trend can be quite difficult if not for the fast fashion retailers. For those of us not blessed with a stuffed piggy bank and a loaded wallet, fast fashion retailers are the affordable way to go about staying relevant in fashion.

At this point in time, while the male fashion market is expanding and more variety is becoming available, guys do not nearly have as much in the way of selection as girls. When it comes to trends, varieties, options to shop, the female market is completely saturated. This makes it very easy for us to get that fresh off the runway look for a fraction of the cost. In other words, many guys at this point in time are concerned with quality, for the comparative lack in options, while girls indulge in dressing “in the moment”. I think for classic pieces with a long “wardrobe life”, we are willing to spend a more money for the quality.

While many girls love and really, really want to support the industry, the designers and their creations (from where fast fashion retailers draw their *inspirations* from) , it’s just not attainable. That’s why there are so many blogs out there dedicated to inspiring people with outfit ideas using pieces that aren’t at all that expensive. With the technology now-a-days, fashion can be an affordable luxury. Quality is one aspect of fashion, styling and making it speak for you is another. Having both is not really an option for everyone, and I think many fashion girls opt for the freedom to express themselves for less of a cost.

There are many of us who also like to thrift, but the quality of selections available in thrift stores largely depends on where you are.

Just my two cents on fashion girls (and guys who love fast fashion). Here are some ways that I did fast fashion :p

(The more I post, the more I realise I’m not cut out to be a fashion blogger, at least not in the conventional sense of the word, haha!)

Thanks for reading!

Much love,

August 18, 2014

The Story of…Costume Jewellery

Your trusty fashion accessories play no small part in dressing up your outfit. In fact, I think many girls can agree with me when I say that the easiest way to add some pizzazz to your wardrobe is through costume jewellery. Now a days, finding something to complement your outfit is easy and affordable. In New York, I am blessed with street vendors (though, some can be rather …dodge-y), little markets with talented local accessories designers, and fast fashion retailers a-plenty. We may take it for granted, but costume jewellery actually became popularized less than a century ago! Before that? Wearing necklaces, rings, bracelets… anything that cost you less than an arm and a leg was much less common (I am only half joking).

So what exactly is costume jewellery? The term ‘costume’ is really what we refer now to as an outfit! Costume jewellery can be synonymous with junk jewellery, fake jewellery, trinkets, or more pleasantly known as fashion jewellery. Originally made from inexpensive materials like simulated gemstones, semi-precious stones, metals, plastics, woods, costume jewellery has come far in the variety and the quality that is available. ‘Real’ jewellery are ones that are generally more pricey, or made from rarer materials are known as ‘fine jewellery’. Baublebar is a fantastic place to find your latest fashion jewellery, as opposed to a place like Harrods, which would be a lovely place to turn to for a stunning selection of fine jewellery brands.

Those of us familiar with fashion icon Coco Chanel may have heard that she popularized the use of costume jewellery with her adamant love of faux pearl and gold, but did you know that costume jewellery has actually been around for well over 300 years? In its beginning, affordable jewellery was made accessible because it was largely made from inexpensive glass. The demand for it grew over time because common people could afford to indulge in this bit of vanity. The happy days for costume jewellery really came with the industrial revolution in the early 20th century, when production abilities were able to satisfy the demands of the new and arising middle class. Now, owning costume jewellery that looks like fine jewellery is easy fun that even I could partake in. And that’s coming from a poor college student! Hooray!!

Now that I’ve shared a bit of back story for costume jewellery (I’m sure I’m not the only person sick of reading the word jewellery over and over and over again…), let me share with you some of my absolute favourite pieces at the moment (there are actually quite a few , haha).

I completely realise that I look like a silly monkey in most of these, but… eh, it’s a lot less boring that looking at the camera, hoping that it turns out to be a good shot, yenno. Anyway, I will tentatively be back soon!

Thanks for reading.

Much love,
Vi

May 27, 2014

Blushing Lace

This past weekend, I was thrilled to prance around a suburb in the outskirts of Chicago in one of my favourite all lace dress. I see lace as the quintessential touch of femininity that adds to any wardrobe. Lace is something that will enjoy longevity in the market simply because it can be very versatile. Walk into any retail, and I promise that you will find something that has some lace on it. This is old news. What is up and coming is blush.

Powerhouse fashion forecasters like Trend Council and Fashion Snoops are already on it, naming variations of blush to be something to look out for on the runways this fall.

http://trendcouncil.wordpress.com/

http://www.fashionsnoops.com/

Why not indulge in these lovely tones today? The beginning of summer is the perfect time to add vibrant colours to your pastel pieces! Here’s how I wore it down below.

My colour palette was very neutral for the day to keep the look clean, but I would love to see how you would wear your blush!

Thanks for reading!

Much love,

March 5, 2014

What Not To Wear Wednesday – Camo

The title says it all, WNTWW or What To Wear Wednesday (trust me, this is going to be hashtag worthy one day) is going to be my new feature, based on my opinion of certain fads/trends/clothes/pieces. Sometimes, some of them just need to go

Currently, I am working with an online retailer by the name of neonsis.com . I am their North American consultant and buyer, so it’s pretty vital for me to keep up with what the new trends are, and how people will receive it. Now, I am not going to be ripping you off with a simple, “I HATE THIS”, I will try to justify my humble opinion.

So for my first WNTWW, I have chosen the fad camo print. For those of you unfamiliar with the camo print, here it is:
I have seen some seriously fashionable people taking on this print. I recoiled at the sight, because that made me re-live the year when I was 8 years old, and camo came in all colours and forms. I think something that prevents this print from enjoying the same longevity that various animal prints have is the fact that it borders boisterous. Perhaps it’s the hint of “anti-fashion” laced in it that rubs me the wrong way. I’m glad to see that it is coming off from its popularity that it had late last summer.

No.

No!

Honestly, I think that this is fantastic as a uniform , but when you’re in a big city, you don’t need to be running around like the poster child for an army advert. Unless you’re hunting for squirrels in Central Park, this fad is a pass.

Thanks for reading!

Much love,

February 27, 2014

Throwback the outfits, because more content is coming!

I haven’t really taken too many outfit photo’s since being in the city, but I will definitely work on that! I will be updating new blog content soon, so this update is to get some of the old stuff out of the way. I have actually been using both Blogspot AND wordpress, and it’s been tough choosing which platform I like better. I think I will just keep up with updating both blogs for now. If you want to read a bit more about what I was wearing on those days, please just go to -> Styleenvi.blogspot.com

Thanks for reading!
All my love,
Vi

November 16, 2013

A Diamond in the Rough

Hello!

It has been a very, very long time since I’ve posted…I went on a hiatus before even making much progress, haha. Let’s hope that I have more discipline this time ;p! Anyway, I have decided that rather than posting pictures of myself and my own outfits (because my dear photographer/camera is very far from me at the moment 😦 ), I would post inspirations instead.

I think that getting excited, looking forward to something always makes life a bit brighter. Especially at this time of the year, when the sun sets early, and that gloomy cloud is getting a bit too comfortable here, we have to try extra hard to look for that silver lining. My primary passion at the moment is expressing myself and my style through fashion. I had a lot of fun putting this look together!

River Island Sequined Dress, ASOS Gold Leaf Ear Cuffs, Gold/Turquoise Cuffs, Sephora Nail Polish, Jeffrey Campbell Heels , ISSUE clutch

I have always thought of Fashion as art. What you do with art – that is style. People sometimes have difficulty defining what refinement is.To me, refinement is not found in the brilliance of jewels, nor is it found in the volume of one’s wardrobe. Refinement is found in being able to truly express yourself, raw and whole. It doesn’t matter what your style is, if you can own it with confidence, I can respect that as refinement at its finest.

All my love,

May 24, 2013

Throwback Thursday : Wrapped in Illusion

I’ve been feeling particularly reminiscent as of late, so I thought a throwback Thursday post would be the most appropriate outlet.

In a recent interview, I was asked what my biggest challenge back in my styling days was. It wasn’t hard to tell the interviewers that it was making an impromptu dress on set… In my previous blog, I titled the post “Recipe for a dress”. 2 hours, 1 pair of chopsticks, 1 meter of fabric and 456323 (not literally) safety pins later, I completed the dress. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to prepare for it but I couldn’t really.

The shoot was actually for a photographer who wanted pay homage to a W magazine editorial featuring Anne Hathaway. I was given very specific idea as to what the photographer had wanted to see on the model. She wanted to see this dress.

She had given me one image to work from, and admittedly, it was a bit difficult to derive something from a dress that looks like a white bed sheet tied miraculously into a standing, graceful bow. I knew that this wasn’t going to be a dress that I could find in a store or pull from a rack – this was going to be my time to shine! As my knowledge of sewing is non-existent (save for sewing like a pro in straight lines), I thought that I was going to take a stab at draping and safety pinning the dress – which I did end up doing.

This piece of fabric was what I had chosen in the end…My apologies for the wrinkles , but this was taken after the shoot, after I had painstakingly retrieved all the safety pins from it. I knew the shoot was going to be monochrome, and so grey was the colour to go ; the more important factor was the sheen of the fabric and how well it reflected light. I spent a good hour in the fabric store comparing and touching fabric rolls before I found this.

Here we are, the work in progress, before I had finished tweaking the bow. I’ll have you know that the two chopsticks behind the bow were still dignified and not broken into several pieces to make this bow so perky. I’m not ashamed to say that my dear model Hailey went through quite a bit of hurting for this dress (much love to this beautiful girl).

Photographer: Willow Nova @ Willownova.com
Make-up Artist : Joyce Yeh

The finished result…It took two hours of sweat, blood and self pricking, but I was able to wrap our model in the illusion that is this “dress”. Homage paid and creativity birthed, this shot was a witness to one of the greatest challenges that I’ve faced on set.

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed this throwback…It certainly made me miss my photo shooting days!

Much love,

April 30, 2013

Wandering a Sleepless City : Part 2

Hello , Hello!

I’ve been kind of neglecting to update my blog as of late, so I thought that a part 2 of my New York trip would be a nice way to get back in to the groove of things : ).

So here we are, some of the things that I saw while wandering the city. It was really quite stimulating to see the juxtaposition of serene , timeless beauty against the clash of loud bright screens of the now. There is a lot of art to be found here too… Hope you guys appreciate it as much as I did!

(Photo credits to ~~Phil and~~ me)

‘Til next time , New York!

Thanks for reading :).

Much love, Vi

April 14, 2013

Waking in a city that never sleeps : Part 1

Here it is , the first post for my wanderlust. I haven’t been to too too many places as of yet, so this will also be a work in progress (:. I realize that this blog is intended for Fashion, style, art and what not, but because I’ve been largely shaped by my travels and my experience abroad, I really hope to be able to share some of the amazing things that I’ve been blessed to witness.

A week ago, I paid visit to New York for the very first time in my life. I was primarily going there to scout out the place for my tentative move there, and check out the school that I hope to enroll in in the near future. The city truly lives up to the excitement and the adoration given to it ; it’s a place for everyone with a dream.

New York offers plenty to do and much to be in awe of , but the strongest impression made on me was the charm of the unexpected clashes found there. Dazzling advertisements and spectacular lights perched atop antiquated buildings; the most modern structures juxtaposed against architecture of another time; obscenities graffiti-ed on to the sides of sophisticated constructions. Every where I looked, there was some contrast to be found … This , I think, is what keeps the city bubbling with life. There is movement everywhere, at any given time. This bustle of energy is probably what drives the ambitions that make dreams come alive.

I lived in Tokyo for a year prior to moving back to Vancouver (where I live now), and have been to various places in Asia, so , big cities were never really daunting for me. I was not overwhelmed with the imposing advertisements or the persistent flashing lights or even the sheer amount of people always there. This city really allows for self expression, allows the privilege of being who you want to be, thinking what you want to think, and chasing after what your heart desires. There are so many people with different backgrounds from all walks of life… and yet, unity is found amidst it all.

Okay, so , without further ado, here are some first impression pictures of this gorgeous city.

(photos done by ~~Phil and~~ me)

I will be back with part two and more pictures for some of the places that I went to (:. It will be much less wordy, haha, so fret not!

Thanks for reading !

Much love, Vi

April 12, 2013

Art || Motion

Welcome to my humble blog.
I’m not quite sure how to go about this, so bear with me as I fumble along.

I started this blog in hopes of documenting my steps into the fashion industry and all that it entails.

The idea behind my title, and subsequently, the essence of my blog : Art || Motion is to draw a comparison to what I think Fashion is… a parallel between Art and Motion.

When people think of Fashion, they often think of glamour, luxury, creativity … and of course, vanity. Fashion elicits many reactions; gasps of awe or exclamations of shock…That’s a wonderful part of the industry that I appreciate. Yet despite that , there are some people who would berate Fashion – think little to nothing of it, or even slander it and those who indulge in it.

A fine example of such would be when people comment on how a absurd certain things they see on the run way is. They might ask, in shock, “Who would wear that?!”

Christian Dior Fall 2005 Couture (I personally think this is quite pretty…)

Alexander McQueen Spring 2010 Ready to Wear

Christian Dior Spring 2004 Couture

And last but not least, the infamous :

The Lady Gaga Meat dress : )

All of the above may conventionally be considered as weird. And to answer the question of who would actually wear these weird garments? Well , save for a selected few people, no one. Some garments and pieces were made to satisfy a fantasy; often made to satisfy the creative callings and break through the every day mundane. I think it’s been said very well before by Vivienne Westwood :

“It’s just a matter of adjusting the eyes. It’s only perverse because it’s unexpected.”

Fashion is not just found in clothing.
Fashion is the wavelength of the now.

Sometimes , especially on run ways, it may be taken to the extreme – but generally, designers create based on what they feel is prevalent in the world now. Current world events, nature, history, cultures all inspire and influence fashion; it is organic; it is art. Art in motion.

What you do with art – that is style.

Here’s to my exploration of style.

Much love, Vi