WOTTONCOOL


Note it Down
Thursday 8 October 2009, 12:25 pm
Filed under: - Sarah, Art, DIY, Design, Feature, OMGWTFBBQ, Our Style, Random | Tags: , , , , , ,

Briefly mentioned in my previous post here,

Let me formally introduce you to my notebook-cum-planner-cum-diary-cum-life!

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Here are the pages with the New Balance Feral Collection adverts… cut and modified to fit the pages. Doesn’t exactly leave a lot of space for notes but I don’t care. It looks pretty (:

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So here is how it starts off…

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The notebook has completely blank pages then I measure and mark the corners of the boxes for each day. The boxes are then free-handed… cos rulers are so le-chey (cumbersome).

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Days and dates are added accordingly. And depending on what ‘speaks to me‘ from various magazines, I cut them out and add them to the book for variety and colour! (:

Everyone needs a bit of colour in their life.

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Every two pages/weeks or so, I insert a “break” and dedicate a bit more space to things that deserve the space. hahas.

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And the rest of the space is kept for meetings, assignment due dates, to-do lists, appointments, etc.

You like?

Little, somewhat time-consuming (these things don’t magically cut themselves and become self-adhesive on its own y’knw!) things make me happy. (:



New Balance Feral Collection

I came across the New Balance Feral Collection adverts in September’s issue of Juice magazine.

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(Source)

Sorry I couldn’t find clearer pictures…

But may I declare that I am in awe of the Crow and Peacock watercolours!?!  (:

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Not the the Lion and Mouse images aren’t cool too. The whole black and red and purple colour combo doesn’t call my name like the other two do. hahas…

So much so that

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Its now a part of my daily planner because it looks too good to throw away! But more on that later (:

Peacock

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I love how bright the colours are and how its not a solid block of colour but a cool gradient. interesting yet subtle detail. (:

Crow

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Yesterday while out shopping at Raffles City, I walked by the New Balance store and got to see the Feral Collection shoes up close.

And I must say that the photos don’t do these shoes justice.

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Its not till up close that you see the pony hair (at least I think and hope that it pony hair! :/) that has been incorporated into the Crow design.

Seriously, kudos to the artists involved in this collection. They make me wanna own a pair!

(Source)



Hit or Miss Singapore Universe

A year ago, the 2008 Miss Singapore Universe contingent received flak for Merlion-inspired costume.

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(Source)

You can read more about this story here and here.

Fast forward to 2009…

(I suspect) In attempts to counter the less-than-friendly responses, the organizers gave the public control over the selection of 2009’s costume.

The result was an online voting competition open to National Service (NS) men, which was recently mentioned in the papers.

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Students from Raffles Design Institute submitted their sketches and concept writeup for voting.

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The intentions were good.

In fact, rather brilliant, if the objective was the get a greater buy-in from the population and fuller support for the final costume chosen.

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Some designs are quite impressive.

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And for the students participating, its good exposure for them.

(Who wouldn’t want to say that they’ve designed the costume worn by Miss Singapore at an International competition, viewed by millions?!)

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The presentation of idea, sketch and concept had a significant impact on my opinion.

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Take for example, winning design by Chiang XiaoJun. The sketch, I like… the colours and visual concept looks pleasant. But with spelling mistakes like ‘Singaporian’ and grammar mistakes… ‘that is what most proud about of my country’?!

Not a very proud “Singaporian” moment.



Not a Car(e)d in the world
Tuesday 28 July 2009, 3:24 am
Filed under: - Jo, - Sarah, Art, DIY, Design, Feature, Random | Tags: , , ,

Even though Jo has already shared her design of our new (and finally existent!) namecard, I just wanted to share it again with everyone! :D

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taken from an actual card…

*Thank you Jo for the taking the time to get this done! (:



Fancy Schmancy

Jo: OMG I love this dress! It’s so cute. It has a full skirt, it’s so brightly coloured… and I love it. It reminds me of Alice in Wonderland!

Sarah: Buy it!

Jo: Bbbbut it’s not me! I don’t wear stuff like that… and how and where on earth am I going to wear this to?

Sarah: We’ll have a party in celebration of the dress!

This is how we sound when we’re mid-decision.

A party in celebration of the dress! That’s such an awesome idea isn’t it? But we haven’t go around to buying the dress… or planning the party. But maybe that was how racing fashion came about.

Carmelita: (animatedly) Oh Margie dear, I procured this lovely, lovely dress about a week ago, and I do not have the slightest idea about where to wear it to! It is a darling confection of fluff and puff, layers of can-can and lace and ooohhhh, it came with a matching hat that the kind dressmaker picked out!

Margaret: Oh Carmie, I do wish that I could help you with that… (pause) It is such a pain to have beautiful dresses lying around, unworn and unloved! I think they would feel a tad bit like me… (whimpering) untouched and unloved by my husband… (sobs)

Carmelita: (taken aback) Don’t say that! Oh my heart bleeds (!) to see you like this… We need something of a perk-me-up.

(paces around to think)

Carmelita: A party! A race! All built into one! Them men are crazy about horses and all that equestrian sport they haven’t even cast a glance at poor ol’ wifey us! This will give us a chance to better those horses and steal a glance from our husbands… and others!

Margaret: Oh Carmie you could not have come up with a better idea! (gradually more voluble) Once that old hubby sees someone else set eyes on me he will be enraged and all fired up! And you… oh you in that beauuuuuuuutiful dress. Yes! Let us!

Okay but alas, that is not how racing fashion came about, and we have yet to find out.

Meanwhile, the Singapore Derby will be held on 12 July 2009, and it is the 14th year that the Singapore Turf Club and Emirates have collaborated for this event.

They got the dressmakers from Heng Nam Nam boutique and milliner, Shai Tabassi to design dresses and head dresses for the event.

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Cream and gold were put to use in more casual outfits, which were kinda like just wife-beaters with upholstery fabric. Nice but… not enough.

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The outfits towards the end were much more decadent… in terms of material and drapery and details.

But what we felt was more amazing were the head dresses that Shai Tabassi made. She conceptualised and lovingly created each of them within a month, without even seeing the pieces in person.

With all that love put into each hat, its no wonder that they are all one-off pieces.

Some hats are made with pretty exotic material… like horse tail hair and stuff that I cannot pronounce or attempt to spell, haha.

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Emirates also unveiled their new uniform. The red accents and pinstripes added a sophisticated touch.

The event was held at the Shangri-La Hotel over lunch (which was delish!) and provided the lovely backdrops for our Twigs and Trunks entry.

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After the show though, I’ve got an itch to throw a Hat Party. And Xiao Wen from Fash-E did mention something about a bloggers’ picnic… Maybe we could combine the two?

Stay tuned!



Passing through Petra
Saturday 16 May 2009, 1:53 am
Filed under: - Sarah, Art, Design, Inspirables, OMGWTFBBQ, Random, Travel | Tags: , , ,

We landed in Jordan in the late afternoon and travelled to our hotel in Amman.

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By the time we arrived, it was dark. After dinner, a group of us walked around the small, quiet town. Two (very random) locals offered to drive us to a party in their lorry. We declined.

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The landscape was mountainous and houses are built staggered. The place looked amazing! Plus the food was quite yummy too.

In the morning, we went to Petra!

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The store owner squat just as my friend snapped this shot. Felt a bit awkward trying to take photos with random hats.

Anyway, for those who don’t know about Petra, a short introduction.

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You walk by caves carved out eyons upon eyons ago. (That lady had the most comfy-looking drop-crotch pants by the way!)

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And admire remnants of a civilisation past.

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You walk and walk and walk and walk, get a lot of sand in your shoes along the way and then…

The towering cliffs, created by an ancient earthquake, part…

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And you finally understand why you walked all this way in.

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Petra, “stone” in Greek, is famously described as ‘a rose-red city half as old as time’. Declared a World Heritage Site, you’d be daft to give this a miss.

My jaw dropped as my brain slowly tried to process the sheer magnificence of the ruins of ‘The Treasury’. Having studied art history, I was so awed to be in the presence of ACTUAL CORINTHIAN PILLARS!!! O.O!!! (the fashion equivalent would be like seeing, touching, feeling, stroking, grovelling over a vintage couture piece made by Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel herself!)

In my heart and mind, I was doing tribal-esque worship dances round the pillars. (:

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I just had to caress it. (:

And basically, there is an entire ancient town to explore.

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We spent about three hours there and barely scratched the surface of this amazing place.

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Note the size of the people in comparison with these ancient buildings. Can you imagine building that without modern machinery?!?

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Here are more photos of our time in Petra.

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Amongst the ancient ruins.

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And being my usual goofy self. :D !

More silly photos to come!!!

Stay tuned (:



Dancing Shoes
Sunday 19 April 2009, 1:21 pm
Filed under: - Jo, Art, Feature, Inspirables, Music, Photography, Shoes | Tags: , , , , , ,

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The eyes may be the window to the soul for most of us, but for photographer Geritt Starczewski, he takes the bottom-up approach and turns to shoes to tell tales.

“The most important in a look are for me the shoes. Shoes betray something about the personality, about the character. “

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He takes photos of mostly pop musicians during live performances, but always no higher than the knee.

They’re in mid-step, they’re worn, sometimes tattered, they stand out, they overtake the picture.

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Sometimes you can sense that the musician is dancing, slightly nervous, with feet turned inwards, or trying to pump the crowd, with a foot on the monitor.

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She’s wearing happy tights and ballet flats – could you tell the genre? He’s wearing shiny red leather shoes – quite the showman eh?

“Many musicians are styled perfectly and everything is produced when they come on the stage. However, I have discovered a weakness in them; their shoes. With the help of the shoe you can draw conclusions about the music and the personality without knowing who is in these shoes.”

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What does this say?

Do you recognize your musicians from their feet? Or can you tell what music they make?

Granted, I don’t know some of them but it was fun to imagine!

From top to bottom: The Kills, The Hives, Grand Island, Mia, Zoot Woman, Roisin Murphy, Low-fi Fnk



Green Dada Jewelery
Wednesday 8 April 2009, 1:34 am
Filed under: - Sarah, Art, DIY, Inspirables, Jewellry, OMGWTFBBQ, Our Style, Random | Tags: , , , ,

Perhaps its a culmination of volunteering for Earth Hour, Dadaism (art history influences), boredom and the ‘i’ll do anything but study’ mood.

I’ve accumulated a new necklace/bracelet plus several rings in the past week. And all this without forking a cent!!

Introducing ready-made jewelery using found objects!

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Fish paperclip necklace and milk carton freshness-sealer tab ring (:

These precious pieces were part of my Uniqlo Store Preview outfit ensemble.

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The fish paperclips were a gift from my younger sister. (You can get them at Popular Bookstore and I hear that there are many other paperclip designs too!! I am soooo going to check them out :D :D:D). While studying, I got bored and thought it’d look cute. They can also be a bracelet or two. Perhaps I should get more to make a longer necklace too! Loving the options!! (:

And depending on the size of the carton you purchase, you can end up with ‘rings’ of different sizes and colours

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I can’t wait to collect more and even cut patterns or add bling to my rings!! hehes.

Make a statement and save our planet too!



Colourful, I love you

I’m not sure about you, but when my age just tipped two digits (ie, 10), my classmates and I were obsessed with mouthing the word “colourful”, because it looked like you were saying “I love you”, and that was oh-so-taboo.

Over the weekend, colourful and I love you have become essentially one and the same to me. It seemed like colours that day were so tremendously yummy and vivid in what I ate and where I went. It was like the surroundings made up for my lack of colourful clothes, haha.

My boyfriend and I took a break from the usual shopping and eating around the places that we had to run errands at. Instead, we made an effort to trek to places we’ve been wanting to go. We felt so much like tourists :D

First we went to First Thai Food at 23 Purvis Street. It is run by real Thais, (don’t I make them sound like some rare commodity? Fact is, there are very few native Thais who run Thai restaurants in Singapore) and they make AWESOME and AUTHENTIC Thai food.

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We ordered a green chicken curry and seafood tom yam soup. The tom yam soup was certainly altered to suit Singaporeans’ (and the many tourists in the area) tastebuds better. It wasn’t half as spicy as all the ones I tried in Bangkok. But it was good, sour, appetizing, with ultra fresh ingredients. Prawns! I lurve.

It is a shop house at the corner of the block and it is decorated with lots of artificial flowers, paintings and photographs of random people, famous people, Thais and their King. The walls are tiled with pale blue and pink squares. There must be a good hundred eye catching things in the shop, but somehow they didn’t come across as offbeat or anything.

The walls outside are a bright orange and yellow, and I couldn’t resist taking a picture! So here’s what I wore anyway. Stripes |||||||||||||||||||||||||||.

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Yeap those neon flowers are part of the decor in the shop as well.

We ventured into Actually… a nice white-washed shop with very exciting wares to liven up its arty pallid interiors. I want a Freitag bag!

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Next we went to the National Musuem of Singapore to view Christian Lacroix the Costumier.

Musuems always remind me of art student days. Sarah and I were just plain secondary school students taking art… but I always liked saying art student hahahah.

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Looking at all these drawings made me feel like I should not exist, as with many other exhibitions have.

Now for the real thing. Since pictures paint a thousand words, allow me to inject a 6000 word essay about the exhibition.

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You have to go for the one of the guided tours with the curator. She speaks beautifully and she gives the costumes life!

All the costumes were made for the stage – operas, plays and all kinds of lavish productions. It is amazing to hear how dedicated and meticulous Lacroix was about these costumes, from fringes to polka dotted lining, how the depth of colour deepens as the story progresses, how he fused modern day influences with that of Baroque…

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Long draped dresses that resembled Greek columns splashed with neon paint.

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I felt so wholesomely decadent walking around, listening, reading and observing. Ah.

“Couture dresses should be perfect at close range. Ready-to-wear should be concrete and practical. Fashion should be a matter of look, everyday life and current atmosphere.

On stage, there are only symbols, effects and illusions. Costumes must speak outright when actors, dancers or singers enter the stage.” – Christian Lacroix

We went for a neighbouring exhibition, Come-in: Interior Design as a Contemporary Art Medium in Germany. Pretty mind-boggling stuff!

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Interior design to me is something that ought to be pretty idosyncratic and individualistic. It should recognize, or at least anticipate the presence of discrete, individual people.

For the interiors and furnishings of homes or maybe offices, there are many elements of discrete items – like chairs (as opposed to benches – collective), cutlery of different shapes, sizes and designs (YOUR favourite cup to drink from, for example), cubicles or rooms (not a vast space – though this can be easily challenged)..

But what happens when you take these seemingly discrete items, then join and disjoin them at the oddest of places? Kinda unwelcoming eh.

Random thoughts.

But what’s interior design to you?

Anyway. Interesting textures ahead!

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We ended the day with home-made dinner! Spaghetti with pesto sauce and a homemade ginger-spring onion with olive oil sauce that is typically eaten with bak zham gai (literally translated as white chopped chicken? Actually, just boiled chicken).

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It was t3h sm3x.

Happy weekend!



Let us broach Coach
Thursday 5 March 2009, 2:57 am
Filed under: - Sarah, 2009 Spring/Summer, Art, Design | Tags: , , , ,

I’ve never been one to religiously follow bag trends. And especially not of any specific brand in particular.

But during a morning commute to school earlier this week, I was quite surprised to see

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Coach bags with a different monogram fabric!

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Perhaps they aren’t as new as I think they are, it’s just that my most direct mental association of the Coach monogram has always been

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This alternating symmetrically stretched “C”s.

However, during a browse of their Ngee Ann City store last May, I did note that they also did sell plain, un-monogrammed bags and purses.

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So I did a bit of reading up, I found out that the company was born from the inspiration of a baseball glove! (who knew?!)

The founding family was inspired by the unique markings, distinctive burnish and durability of the leather of baseball gloves and in 1941, in a Manhattan apartment, started producing small leather goods such as wallets.

The monogram was a much later addition to the company, whose unique selling point is its high quality leather.

Looking through their online catalog, its interesting to see how far they have come in terms of product diversity.

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I LOVE how they have included motifs.

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Played up its Name and Logo, incorporating saddle-esque details like ornamental buckles.

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Used different fabrics.(If I had to hand-sew fabric like that, I’d cry.)

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Changed things up with the monogram

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Included bright, bordering tackily, shiny embossed fabrics :D

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And, in general, gotten more courageous with the colours and designs.

Which reminds me of the competition they held. Check out the winning designs here!