Going to Phnom Penh

I went with my friend Loven to Phnom Penh over the weekend. He's got always some novel idea brewing in his mind and this time he wanted to shoot my stuff on some areas going to Phnom Penh during our little pit stops.

Brought a bunch of stuff but we didn't have time to shoot it all.

Our 'model' rode with us under the trunk of the car.

A little fashion diary is in order, non?

Stripe top and black pants by moi, shoes by Converse, DP feather necklace and my fave bracelets from JJ and Marc by Marc Jacobs.

The stripe top is a new prototype I developed for Poetry for s/s 2010.

We had a late lunch at Metro, my go-to place for comfort food.

I had salmon sandwich AND gruyere cheese grilled vegetables sandwich with fries. YUM!

Phnom Penh is chaotic! It's not everyday that I see elephants roaming the streets along with cars, motorbikes and people.

Grocery Kokur Jacket

I was too young to shop at Grocery when it opened. For the clueless of Philippine fashion history, Grocery was the shop that Cecile Zamora van Straten ( Chuvaness to web citizens) opened in 1995. It was the purveyor of many street style look and was quite popular with the rave crowd. Inquirer made a feature of the store in its Sunday magazine, landing the cover, no less. I'm telling you I begged my parents to bring me there but proved unsuccessful. So, I contented myself in looking at newspaper features and magazine write-ups about the store, dreaming of one day owning a piece of clothing from there. I was really interested in CVS's style and her different take on fashion that time.

Well, I'm so lucky to have inherited (naks!) this Grocery Kokur jacket from CVS and it makes me immensely happy. I've actually gotten lots of compliments, as well as, questions why I'm wearing such a dusty, old piece. The jacket was treated with silver paint to look aged and blotchy. It kind of reminds me of little granny jackets, and I know it's really small on me. I love the shrunken look and used to wear lots of two sizes smaller jackets in college. Besides, isn't Thom Browne a huge influence in fashion now? The label is cute and bears the line: Fashioned by Grocery Kokur. Here I paired it with a Yohji Yamamoto tank, my own designed pants and Muji sneakers. I really wish to own more 'vintage' CVS designs. I know some fashion friends who hold on to their own Kokur pieces like oyster.

Eliz

In front of my store, Poetry.

Lightening Up

I haven't been posting a lot of my Fashion Diary lately but one thing I noticed was my flirtation with a lighter, less gothic color palette than what I normally wear. It really started when I was developing my s/s 2010 collection and I fell in love with this cream micromodal fabric I eventually used to make for most the pieces. When I was in Bangkok I was drawn to pastel colors like baby pink and light blue, melon and coral colors mixed with lavender and periwinkle. Very Rachel Ashwell colors and definitely soooooo not moi!

Louis Claparols gifted me with this polka dotted Comme des Garcons button down in what I call 'boring blue' and I paired it with my fave Yves Klein blue DP pants and this chartreuse belt from F&H. I liked it a lot! Kept my shoes (Converse) and bag (AA) in black to balance it off. What do you think? Do you like it for me?

Sorta

Busy days mean less time to think what to wear. Honestly here in Siem Reap no one bothers to dress up or do costumes or outfits for effect. Way damn humid most of the time and people go here to relax from their lives in other countries where dressing up, doing costumes or putting on outfits for effect feels more obligatory. I often look at street style pictures and feel a little disconnect when I see some layered style. I guess I feel envious that it's possible in more temperate places to pile on stuff and not get heat stroke. But I'm also pretty sure I would hate the cold.

Hot day wear: Tee and skull necklace from HK, spike bracelet from JJ, bag by AA, Levi's denim pants I cut to make shorts, shades I picked from the Central Market because I pity the seller and Adidas sneakers.

Inspirations

Come fall/winter 2010, a gloomy mood is what I feel. What do you think will my collection look like?

Cold Snap Sheree

Brit girl, 'Cold Snap' Sheree, back in Cambodge for a much needed R&R and a little work on the side for Wanderlust. That's moi, Sheree and Eliz.

We decided to eat dinner at La Volpaia and I got this delish pasta with fresh mozzarella and herbs. Yum, yum, yum!

Sheree sharing a laugh with Shannon.

Loven and Jason.

Ambreen and moi. She actually stayed in Manila for a time.

The gang's all here!

Moi and lovely Eliz ;)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I know it's late but I still wanna greet everyone a happy new year! And what better way to welcome 2010 than with DOTS, non? It's said to be lucky so let my friend Kawadjan usher the dots for more and I mean MORE blessings for everyone! ;)

dots!

Dots!

DOTTTTSSSSSSS!!!!!!

Elegy Opening and Another Thanksgiving Party

At the Arts Lounge, we hosted the book launch and exhibit of photographer John McDermott's 'Elegy'.

The book compiles choice images of his 15 year documentation of Angkor Wat.

He also picked several images to exhibit.

The bookselling went great. They sold a lot!

This image is my fave among the ones we showed. It's very mood-y and dark.

It's been a while since we exhibited photographs.

Loven, Thai girl (totally forgot her name , soweeeee!), Tam, and Eliz

Moi with friends.

Apres, we went to the thanksgiving party of Shannon and Jason.

Fun party! Jason, Levi, Philippe (Little Drummer Boy! lol!) and Girl (sowee I didn't get your name)

The apple pie was delish. Ala mode with the vanilla ice cream I brought. Yummy!

Oversized

Missing my long hair but I don't regret cutting it. Such a drag in keeping it un-messy.

I super duper love this tee that was given to me by Kuya Blady and Ate Cielo. It feels very Margielic slash Comme-ish with the oversized proportion of the piece. I used the pin Kawadjan gave me which was similar to the ones he used where the Facehunter took a picture of and posted on his blog. I'm too lazy to find the link so I promise I'll take a closer picture of it sometime and show it here. My jeans is Levi's 501's which is another fave brand. The spike cuff from JJ and the snake bracelet by Marc Jacobs seems to be my go-to accessories. I'm wearing it as I'm typing this. ;)

Gray

I love gray. This unbranded button down shirt is one of my fave gray top. I paired it with this fave Levi's I cut to make a shorts and belted it with a silver Folded&Hung belt. So cheap, I think I got it for 200pesos. My bag is the silver AA gym bag and my shoes is DP gladiators. My cuffs from JJ & Marc by Marc Jacobs.