Of knowing and not knowing things. Of letting it be.

January 31, 2006

(Written for someone I hold dear in my heart)

Love,

It is quite chaotic today here in iloilo given that it's just after dinagyang and there is the Jaro fiesta and the Chinese Lunar New Year coming up next. the streets are literally strewn with banderitas the color yellow and red. i passed by a big dog colored red at socorro. it's the fire dog. it had huge wheel on its legs to help it move around. there is some sort of coronation tonight.

I'm sort of in a roll these days. last saturday, dinagyang night, angel aquino of F came to the shop to interview us all at DGI. do you have tfc from where you are? it will be shown next week. i'm also doing this interview with bea camacho who is one of the hottest young artist right now. imagine her work: she knitted herself from 9am to 7pm inside a yarn cocoon. totally genius! i had to walk from robinsons to museo iloilo (actually running) just to catch her inspired talk about her art. her first pieces were alien-like plush knitted pillows with sound bits inside. when you press it, it gives off alien sounds. she also did works on bioluminecent wires and wool. when you touch it, it lights up and fades gradually when you remove your hands. i also did a commercial for abs-cbn highlighting talented ilonggos. they choose me, tita jaki and bo from among the whole list of ilonggo designers. so in a way my professional life is great. i might do fashion week this year also plus an upcoming show with manila designers.

I guess i just drown myself with work. it gets lonely sometimes when i'm alone. but i'm glad i'm lonely during the nights coz i can just sleep it off. when i wake up the next day i don't remember it anymore.

Im reading a book called bohemian manifesto right now. i wish i could share with you what's in it but i don't know how to say it. i guess it describes the way tortured souls like artists, designers, actors etc. conduct their lives. it's not a definitive but somewhat a cute manifesto of sorts.

I miss my papa. last night i watched family stone and it was great. it made me cry. family, with its quirks, madness and all, in the end is all you've got (and family here can be biological or otherwise).

Sarah Jessica Parker was revealing. Even Claire Danes is great. And I don't even like her. It also stars Delmont Mulroney, Rachel McAdams, Diane Keaton, Owen Wilson, etc.

"One needs to swim with the fishes to know the ocean. One needs to fly with the birds to look down below. One needs to experience sadness to be truly happy. One needs to value what you want."

Miss you.

Beware of Evil

Kakaloka!

1. Since Friday until yesterday, I felt like I was zooming from one place to another.

2. Don't you just love to hate user-friendly people?

3. I'm alarmed that I loath shopping since Friday!

4. I'm stressed a bit since my seamstress is not finishing our clothes on time. Thank God walang sabit! What if traffic or umulan sa delivery and the owner needs to go to some far flung location pa? Horrors!

5. Have you watched the latest Bb. Joyce Bernal movie "Don't Give Up On Us". What a cheesy title! It stars Judy Ann Santos and Piolo Pascual. It's fun, go watch it. Except for the kissing parts where it badly needs a dose of sugar (heck my Super Donuts was way more sweeter than Piolo and Juday's liplock action), the crying and the scenes of Sagada are good.

6. I'm dying to get another Issey Miyake pleated number.

7. Should I buy the latest Madonna cd?

8. Mwah! Will update with some latest pictionary very soon.

January 20, 2006

Press Conference of "A Trip to Planet Biyo" Book

It's pictionary time, dahling:

Best Group Picture


Best in Tailored Attire


Best in Bangs


Best in White


The Power of Three


Male Model Award


Official Tabulator


Female Model Award


Best in Black and White


Best in Projection


Grand Prize Winner!!!!!! (This is my blog so I'm always the winner!)



...And the winner for "Fashionably Late"



The pips at Panorama
Here's the pix you requested guys. Wala na ko utang sa imo Rex pero ikaw may ara pa sa akon utang! Bwahahaha!

Planet Biyo and other stuff

Orbiting Around

1. I'm up to my neck with work. I've got 3 dresses to finish for clients and my deadline is tomorrow. Despite that you can still see me orbiting around to several places because...well, just because.

2. My Dries Van Noten look is a smash with the press (local) because...well, just because. Told them about the little story behind the look and they love it. Ms. Marichel M. of TNT has a Fino bag that i simply love. I love well-made leather bags.

Eavesdrop on some of the looks I have done this week:

Wearing an Issey Miyake top at the Convention

My gold Globe bag at the Abanilla Mansion

In Issey Miyake at the apartment

In Izzue shirt and Jacob pants at Dr. Biyo's book launch. I'm doing the Dries Van Noten theme.

3. Mwah!

Rainy Tuesday

Printed matter and other stuff
1. Woke up disoriented this morning. I don't exactly remember my dream but it was something to do with some expected changes in my life. A friend told me that being in a comfortable and safe position in a person life can also mean mediocrity. And i don't want that. If there are envelopes to push, i'm pretty sure that i'll be part of that pushing (coz i'm pakialamero like that! hehehe). Have you ever felt bursting once in a while because you sense, even if you really don't know what it is, that there is something great and exciting that will happen to your life? Like going through a bunch of ukay-ukay because you know somewhere in the pile is a perfectly tailored Yohji Yamamoto jacket. Yes! A Yohji Yamamoto in the ukay-ukay.

2. A lady from Canada called me to inquire about wedding dresses.

3. I'm so into printed button down shirts now. They all have this vintage wallpaper prints or in a subdued paisley. It reminds me of the prints being done by Etro. I haven't found the perfect Etro, yet, but so far i got printed shirts from Paul Smith (English print juxtaposed with cooking utensils! Very Sir Paul Smith), Zara (antique brown with flowers), Izzue (pale blue), non-designer shirt (off-white with greenish print).

I'm evoking the look of Dries Van Noten. I want to look like i just stumbled out of my bed and went strolling down the beach. See below:




I really love this jacket! Will you be a dear and give it to me?

Reminds me of Libertines but Dries has been doing this for so long that he practically owns this look, so, no, he didn't copy the look. With all the printed shirt i got this season, I can really pull this look easily. According to Tim Blanks, Dries based his look on Dali at the beach. See the first model, he does look like a very young Dali, don't you think?

Helmut Lang

LONG LIVE HELMUT LANG!

One designer i terribly miss this Spring/Summer 06 season is Helmut Lang. He is one designer who influenced me to make clothes. When I was starting out, i already knew that i have a different predilection when it comes to style and how fashion should be viewed. I was never into glamour and all those girly shitty stuff that my peers have been doing. I never liked cute or super feminine stuff. I like a little bit of aggression, grit and degradation in the clothing i make. When i saw Helmut's design in one magazine that i picked for 50 pesos (That store was closed eons ago. It was the only store that sells decent fashion magazines that time. They had Mega. There was still no Preview that time.Imagine?!) Lacroix's look was waning that time and new movements were on the rise. I never heard of them but it was Muiccia Prada, Ann Demeulemeester, Martin Margiela, Marc Jacobs and Helmut Lang who were deemed as the independents who will change the face of the 90's fashion. And change they did. Could you imagine the 90's without minimalism and deconstruction? It was the time of reverse status where it's better that only you and your friends know that it was some obscure Belgian designer you all are wearing. Dries van Noten comes to mind with his folkloric/ethnic confections mixed with really modern stuff. It was the time when you carry the clothes and not the clothes (and label) carrying you.

Helmut Lang's design, somber, dark, strict and modern, were supringsingly edgy yet wearable for me. I love how he would redesign classic stuff like the suit, peacoat, parka, jeans and military wear loaded with the minutest details without compromising its wearability. He introduced techno fabrics that time when everybody was into couture stuff. Years later when the market was deluged with techno stuff, he switched to fine, traditional fabrics like cashmere and wool. He even tipped the calendar for showing fashion by deciding to present his line ahead of Paris. That's the reason why fashion watchers now go first to New York before heading to Paris. He also jumped in the internet wave by showing his first New York collection in the web. I guess, it was his renegade spirit and uncompromising attitude that has drawn me. I'm a fan. I collect his stuff. I go on diets just to afford him. I hound my friends just to give me his stuff for gifts.

With the new season's direction for white, minimalism and subtle codes of embellishment, i tend to be nostalgic about the time when you open all the major magazines and see Helmut's white, minimal and subtly embellished clothes. He was the champion of it all and it wouldn't be wrong to presume he is the inspiration now.

UNNA's violin recital
this kid amazes me. aside from doing hula, ballet, jazz, acting, modeling, she recently had her 2nd violin recital. and she's only 7 or 8! i was never like that when i was that age. the only thing i can remember doing was cut paper dolls from the magazines. not rocket science at all! kids are like cellphones these days with multi functions. my chums, sol and bella, sure guided this kid well. im pretty sure when she gets really tall sooner, she'll be a shoo-in for the hypenate tribe - multi-talented people with lots of cash!hehehe


BLUR project

a friend, up-and-coming theater director j.victor villareal, asked me to collaborate with him in this art project called BLUR. he wanted to "blur" and mix poetry, music, performance, photography, video, fashion and installation art in one salad bowl. he also got several people to collaborate with him like mask artist punky v. for some installations and masks; theater actor rofel parreño; theater director and choreographer jp liboon; actor dora jane balleras; chicago theater thespian sherwin"seven" malaga; actor wowie de guzman for music and other pips i forgot. sorry, hehehe. i got to collaborate by doing the costumes.