Louis Vuitton SS13 at Paris Fashion Week

Stills screen-capped from official LV show stream

It’s 9:45 and I’ve already stumbled on a few stairs as I make my way up to my seat. I keep having to stop and look back to take it all in – the giant yellow checker-board (that particular yellow from the infamous 70’s smiley face) throws off any concept of scale and the backdrop of quivering mirrors makes the room seem twice longer. By the time I get to my seat I’m slightly dizzy, and hey is that cushion a yellow square too? There’s a whiff of espresso coming from down the row, and the second-hand caffeine fume gives the whole room a bit of sharpening effect. The lights dim and a tune – what I can only describe as ‘a swirly one’ (actually very appropriate with the psychedelic yellow) – awakens the escalators as the first twin plants themselves on a step. The effect is very Diane Arbus-y at first, but in time, the silhouettes and bow-finished beehives bring it all together: shagadelic sixties baby! Well, now all I can think about is Austin Powers and the Fook Mi/Fook Yu twins. A whole collection of squares, even down to the sequins, and not a single monogram in sight – I like it a lot. Plus, my OCD is pleased.  The finale is a delight – the entire collection take up the four escalator installation and glide down like show-curtains – then once the girls roll back up, Marc Jacobs sprints down an escalator dangerously quickly and I imagine what  London Underground safety announcement would be appropriate.

Many thanks to the LV team for the warm welcome!

Uniqlooks September: One item, three looks – UU Bulky fleece jacket

Look 1: Bulky fleece Jacket – Uniqlo. Purple shirt – Uniqlo. Pants – ASOS White. Shoes – Alexander Wang via Vestiaire Collective. Bag – JHYoo

Look 2: Bulky fleece Jacket – Uniqlo. Silk top – Partimi. Jeans – James Jeans. Shoes – Isabel Marant. Bag – Kurt Geiger . Watch – Casio

Look 3:  Bulky fleece Jacket – Uniqlo. Fleece shirt – Mens’ Uniqlo. Skull-lace skirt – Gmarket. Boots-sies – old season Patrizia Pepe. Clutch – Chanel. Belt – JHYoo

As I was piecing together this month’s Uniqlooks I couldn’t help but notice – 2012 is one year gone with haste – can you believe October is at the doorstep with Winter padding towards the lawn? And here I am, still waiting for that summer to happen (It RSVPed, what was THAT about). I’m going to do the usual description of this month’s Uniqlooks hero item I chose (I purchase these items monthly, just to be clear), and say it’s been my second skin. And this time, believe it or not, the arrow is fluttering closer to ZERO/SOMEWHAT TRUE on the Blogger-Exaggeratometer because ever since LFW ended I’ve been working non-stop and also managed to catch something so basically I’ve lived in this purple fluffy thing while either sipping criminal dose of coffee or later, popping antibiotics like they were skittles. In fact, Look #2 is what I’d choose to wear if I had one out for the rest of my life; too bad I’ve also been near-stationary in a chair for a month eating junk so I will soon out-fat those skinny James Jeans and grow exactly into the shape of the purple jacket. I’m in shape. Round is a shape.

Thank you to hubby & Kit for helping with the various photos.

DIY Scarf-print kaftan dress, a collaboration project with Styleslicker

Head on here to see the complete tutorial

Kaftan dress – Park & Cube x Styleslicker DIY. Nude shoes – Zara. Bag – Bottega Veneta. Watch – GUESS Rose gold

I realised the only time Kit and I join hands to collaborate is when we’re both hunched over her bowl of phô fishing out red meat so I can gobble it up like a bear. We’re also DIY enthusiasts and happen to share the opinion that if you need glue-gun to attach fabric onto fabric then it’s not DIY – it’s pre-school craft, and don’t get us started with stapling shit to shit. She’s a trained pattern cutter with ninja scissor skills, I’m a webdesigner sensitive to misaligned pixel – in a nutshell we’re both just anal and you wouldn’t want us as mothers or wives (sorry hubz). So we decided to team up to do a few DIY projects that might be educating in terms of garment construction and produce end-results that you might actually wear more than once. Remember this H&M panther scarf? Turns out there’s a lot more ways to transform it with just a few tools at home – for this one you don’t even need a sewing machine – check out the tutorial here to make your own scarf-print kaftan dress!

Check back often or tune in for the next one!

Meadham Kirchhoff SS13

Are you perhaps missing out on my chronic instagramania

Meadham Kirchhoff SS13 at LFW Day 5, ticket courtesy of Luisa via Roma; frontal catwalk shots by vogue.com

It’s clear with each collection that the Meadham Kirchhoff duo knows exactly how to bring eyecandy to the catwalk, but this season they left us all on a sugar-high on day 6 of LFW; heck, I felt like a kid on juice watching this show. I mean, would you just look at the details – flowers stuffed under the peplum, stamped-wafer fabric, ribbons atop ribbons, bead-crusted nails… it’s like they stood a cherubim-haired doll on a rotating stool and constructed each look. Another MK specialty, the walk & performance – the music was a sweet tinkling melody of a merry-go-round, which suited the round Topshop catwalk space rather perfectly, but instead of doing a circle, the girls weaved in and out of the decorated partitions picking up bits of flowers and then dropping them halfway down the catwalk. Infuse a bit of personality to the pieces, neeeat.

Many thanks to Luisa Via Roma for taking me along; see more of my shots in the Luisa via Roma Magazine.

Bestival, Isle of Wight

The glitter bar, where you inhale glitter and sneeze out a tinkerbell

 Wearing: Wax jacket – Barbour. Crop-top – Fairground. DIY Crop-jeans – Zara. Balloon skirt – ASOS. Sneakers – Isabel Marant. Wellies – Barbour. Red cord sweater – Barbour. Bag – Barbour explorer. Water bottle – Sigg. Lace bunny ears – ASOS

When it comes to music I have not put the ‘pop’ into popular for many years now, when my music-to-world synchronization decided to just stop altogether circa 2006 – I think it was exactly when Justin Beaver started talking. Now I put the ‘pop’ in missuz kebab-store hippopotamus and revel at knowing all the words of a TV show theme tune. It seems today that all you see is violence and movies, and sex on TV, but where are those good ol’ fasioned values on which we used to rely? Tha alarm from my Uniqlo ‘Wake Up’ app is my next favourite track. In fact, I should compile some of this into a Spotify playlist – might make you ill, but I promise you’ll feel a whole lot better with your taste in music…and your life, really. So why a music festival? I realised that I must be missing out in something seeing how Bestival is considered one of Britain’s best summer pasttimes, and by going, secretly hoped for a reinfusion of my long lost music appetite. Appetite for burgers and un-Englandy hot weather, I did find, and lots of happy people dressed in giraffes and ant eaters (the theme was Wildlife, alas). If according to a certain mean girl, ‘Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it’, then Bestival is the one time a year when people can dress like 3rd grade Halloween and everyone will compliment your costume. I personally suited up in what I’d always understood as festival uniform: A pair of Barbour wellies, waxed jacket, snuggly cable-knit arriving at the seaside, but by the time we were leaving I really wanted to buy an elephant mask to show I’ve also been there and that it was actually super fun.

Thank you Barbour for taking us to such appropriate grand finale for summer! Also check out – my What to pack for a Festival guest post for the Barbour blog.