Art Deli

This is how it looked when it was still being fixed. Our first glimpse of Art Deli, our newest fave hang-out place here in SR.

Empty walls of the 1920's French Colonial house.

My friend Loven is a good garbage collector, este, vintage hunter and he brought all these junk to fill up the space. Our favorite is this sign El Camino, a now defunct Mexican resto that was opened for less than 5 months. I haven't even tried their food but a lot of people said it was vile. Now I know why they're closed. ;)

Drop by at Art Deli for drinks and food and art and good conversations. Say hi to me if you see me there ;)

Best Fish

Butterfly cut, deep fried to crispy-licious goodness and then drenched with sweet&sour sauce that's just right. What more could you ask for? Can be had at Four Seasons Restaurant here in SR ;)

Final Home

The piece that dictated the whole ensembles was the Final Home zipped vest.

I was thinking skewed Cali slash skater slash seen-by-a-Japanese kind of way. If you don't understand how I mixed all those references then don't try to ever decipher it because it's all in my head. That dusty purple shirt is DKNY tucked into a Levi's jeans with an American Eagle braided belt. Peeking out is the tie of a CYAN shorts in wrinkled, 'Eairth-ish' cotton.

There's always something quite 'future' about Final Home. The fabric of this piece is sort of rubbery, paper-y and perforated but with a little stretch. It's very light weight.

I'm loving the mix of purplish, brownish gray, mahogany, denim blue colors you see here.

The Poetry of Junya

Lovely, isn't it?

It's wonderful to have it printed on your shirt.

And not just any other shirt but THAT shirt.

Just lovely.

Teacher Look

I think educators should look good all the time. If I'm a teacher this would be my look and variations of it.

It's sensible to invest in a smart looking button down shirt. With ukay nowadays, all you need is patience to trawl a mountain of dusty clothing in the thrift stores to find that perfect fit for you. The shirt I'm wearing is a Y's Yohji Yamamoto and it cost me a dollar for it. Ditto with the waistcoat. Oh, and the Calvin Klein jeans, too. That's $3 for 3 pieces. The Topman belt was more expensive to buy. Hahaha!

My trusty old Muji sneakers looks proper for the pinstripe jeans. Even the bottom two pieces are casual staples I still look respectable when paired with a proper top.

And for a little quirky inspiration, the Tokyo map hanky given by Kiks.

Samsarra

We love good Indian food.

The Basmati rice really makes me giddy! Love, love, love! This is their vegetarian tali set. YUMMY!

Had dinner with my best friends.

Food

AHA in Khmer is food. But you'll definitely say, 'AHA!', when you've tasted the food at AHA, the restaurant, down at the Alley North, here in SR.

The pomelo salad above was a twist to the classic that it has smoked salmon instead of shrimp or chicken. Plus the vinegar dressing was replaced with a cream cheese version so it's more creamy and yummy. I really don't know how to explain it but the flavor is so addicting.

Just to continue with the theme I tried this toasted rice crusted salmon with a very interesting tamarind and coconut sauce. It's salty, sweet, tangy, creamy and light.

Yum!

Issey Miyake, Too

Thrift shopping in Japan Thrift Shop with Franco last time (Bettyinme ITSELF) yielded this brown wool felt shrug jacket. I know, i know, it's JPS again! What to do, aber?

Moving on, it's actually the kind of brown I don't like wearing but then it's Issey Miyake so I had to get it, non? (I'm label conscious, what can I say? LOL!)

I'm still convinced I don't look good in brown but the cool pattern and style of the jacket made me reconsider to wear it at least once. Then it will be dumped into my archive of stuff for references. The material of this piece is quite similar to a previous Issey Miyake find.

I think it's such an amazing shape and probably fashion forward during its release. I'm quite certain this piece was from the 80's and when it was still Issey Miyake designing for the brand. Quite interestingly, I met here in SR the former head PR for the US of Issey Miyake. He charmed us with stories about his time in Issey Miyake and the many Issey Miyake pieces he's got. He even promised to give moi some stuff which I won't refuse, of course. Hehehe!

The essential label to separate the pretenders to the throne. Issey Miyake was one of the 3 Japanese figurehead that rocked fashion in the 80's. The other two were Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garcons and Yohji Yamamoto.

The tank I'm wearing underneath the shrug was a DP prototype for the collection I'm doing for Poetry. I hate wasting materials especially if it's a fabric I love so I gathered all the scraps from our cuttings and made it into this tank. The pants is DP, also.

Margiela Book

One designer whose style greatly influences my thought process when designing is Martin Margiela. Ever since I discovered his work, starting from the Street x Margiela book that chronicled his more than 10 years of output; and then from my first piece, a navy blue cotton canvas shrunken jacket with snap closure, I have never looked back and obsessively collected all the pieces I can afford from both retail and thrift shops. Oh, there's also friends who spoil me and once in a while throw stuff on my way. Of course, when Rizolli announced that they will be releasing a tome about Margiela and his maison last year, I pestered not a few friends in the right continents to buy me the book when it's released. My ever loyal BFF from Bangkok; the 9th wonder of the world and Bangkok's Tourism Authority muse, Kawadjan, ITSELF, rose to the occasion, came to my rescue and trawled the dangerous streets of his city (rallies and civil unrest be damned) to get me the treasure I so long to have in my hands (I hope dear this isn't a desperate attempt to win back your title as BFF no.1 from Betty?). K reported that he had to call ALL the bookstores in Bangkok and finally discover that there were just 2 left, one of which was discovered stolen when he asked to see it. Thus in my hands was the last copy he got in another bookstore. Thanks K for the A-ffort ;)

(Gollum voice) Now it's miiiiine! My presciousssssss...iissssss minnnnne!

In typical Margielic fashion, the cover is in white cotton canvas with embroidered signature numbers and the name of the maison. This book is the 4th of the pieces I've collected, the first issued by Street Magazine, another by Silly Things and of course, the catalog/book of the 20th anniversary exhibit at the Mode Museum in Antwerp. This does include special articles and sections from fashion magazines dedicated to certain developments of the label.

Here's some pages I photographed from the book which I find inspiring:

A spread of their iconic AIDS tee. My dream is to collect all the pieces released. My friend Kiks was lucky to view the AIDS tee exhibit in Hong Kong last year. Luckily, I benefitted from that exhibit because he got me 3 vintage colorways that I missed previously. I'm desiring the black on black version, the Vogue Nippon collab with black print on white tee and of course, the very first version in military green with black print. Cecile has the first one and if ever she tires of it I hope she pass it down to me. Hahaha!

I missed getting my hands big time with the 20th anniversary version: an oversized tee with fuchsia pink print. Someone bought it before I finally decided to buy. Soon it will be mine, hehehe!

A page with lots of tabi shoes. Just so inspiring. Luckily, I found 3 pieces from the thrift market in Phnom Penh. All were the sneaker version but the one I'm truly set to own is the black leather flat version, the one in the upper left side.

This image was the press and buyers room of the maison when it was still starting. It must have been surreal to be there surrounded with all those sunflowers. Their current press room is more sedate, the result of the maison's dumbing down after it's founder has left and relegated its operations to the Diesel group.

From the 'Doll's Wardrobe' collection, an oversized name tag like the ones used by Actionman and G.I. Joe figures. I could dream of having one, right?

The wig jacket from the 20th anniversary collection. It's super crazy that's why I like it. Actually, the one they made for Sonia Rykiel's 40th anniversary is the most covetable, non?

If you're a Margiela fan it's a must to acquire this book about one of the design world's most enigmatic, innovative and truly unique mind.

Vestigial Top

I've never really archived some of my best selling (naks!) pieces in the course of this designing 'career' I've embarked. Greatly inspired by Oki-ni's own archiving of some of their fave brands ( see Damir Doma and Raf Simons, sooooo inspiring!) I thought it would be nice to do it too.

The top that I'm wearing which we called Vestigial was part of the capsule collection I did when I opened a shop here in Siem Reap in 2007. I showed it on the runway for my fall/winter 2009 collection in Philippine Fashion Week. The Vestigial top comes in a t-shirt, dress and tank version in matte and cotton jersey. The sleeve detail which serves no functional purpose (although terribly cool and interesting) inspired the name of the piece.

What do you think of it?

Takeo Kikuchi

I'm slowly getting on wearing one by one the stuff I got from Japan Thrift Shop from my last visit there. I seriously edited one rack of finds because it would have been too much already to buy all the pieces I liked. Most of the stuff I eventually bought were for wearing and some for selling. The ones I first let go were the winter grade jackets from Karl Lagerfeld, Dior and Givenchy although I was really, really, really regretting I let go of the Lagerfeld one. This Takeo Kikuchi got included in my loot because it fits me like a glove. It's just a classic 3-buttoned jacket.

I've been seriously avoiding brown as a color but this paler brown seems close to flesh that it's more neutral in my eyes. I think dark brown makes me sickly pale. The fabric of the jacket feels like paper which is something you would expect from a Japanese designer. It's unlined so that makes it possible for me to wear here in Siem Reap.

I wore it with the Martin Margiela AIDS tee edition for spring/summer 2006.

Mike S. found it in the thrift store and bought it for me. I'm just obsessed with these tees. I think I've got 13 pieces already.

Takeo Kikuchi is now helmed by designer Taishi Nobukuni, a graduate of Central St. Martin's College in London, after it's eponymous designer bowed out in 2004. Aside from clothing Kikuchi also designed spectacle frames and chronographs. The label site here.

Dark Olive

I fell in love with this olive green jacket when I saw it at Japan Thrift Shop.

Besides being bang on trend with the military feel of the season I'm quite blown away by the pattern and cut of the piece. It's pure tailoring genuis.

It could be some sick Junya Watanabe, Comme des Garcons or Balenciaga, non?

It's by Twill, Pure Style & Clothes. And I agree 100%.

Underneath a wore a shirt designed by Loven for Poetry.

It's not really obvious but the hanger is sequinned. I think it's an apt imagery for clothing maker and seller like moi.

My pants is DP pinstripe from years ago which I still base most of my pant pattern. My shoes is Giordano Concepts.