Design Scene, The Blog (LOL)

Browsing thru this over coffee and cigs before leaving for work this morning. Decided to put my phone camera to good use for a bit. ;)





P.S. About my previous post on Singapore shop BlackMarket, BlackMark is not just 1 person, I got corrected. It's a collab of 5 people and 1 of them is Filipino. Sounds awesome to me, still. :)

Gian Romano for BlackMark's BlackMarket

Sometimes I think, there must be something wrong with my upbringing when it comes to local fashion design awareness.

I didn’t grow up reading much of our style magazines. Not a good thing but I cannot change me. I think it's just lately thru other Manila bloggers and their mention of local designers that I get familiar with some of our very own. Add to that some instances when my fashion-loving pals go into casual discussions about this and that -- and that about sums up what I know.

For the most part, though, I'm fated to dance and drink and eat and sleep with one of them (especially on nights when I’m too passed out from alcohol to drive my ghost blogger self home). And by gawd, he is apparently brilliant and I need not know how our other designers go about their work to figure out that this one is the only one. He is Gian Romano and these are some of his works for F/W 08. (The part I don't understand is that we only have the rainy and sunny seasons to live with in the Philippines, so should it have been called the Rainy Season '08 Collection?)











He’s recently sent out some of his stuff to a newly-opened shop along Jalan Pisang in Singapore. Said shop is called “BlackMarket”. (Can’t wait to drop by and see their stuff in person after I pick up my Gun Heels.) Anyhoo, to spare me the trouble of having to enumerate what other brands they carry – a lot of Asian and international thingies-- here's its miniature copied and pasted, blurry version:
The store has nice interiors, too. Maybe I'll dwell on that another time.

These here in the below are Gian’s merch in BlackMarket. I guess it’s also coming out in Singapore’s Juice Mag this month or next month. I'm not sure when.





No shame, just too proud of his radiant talent to not admit that I am a sucker for his designs. I can’t help but think that my gun heels are made for his clothes.

Side Note 1: Should I have typed LOL around this post 100x ‘cos I’m really laughing at my laughable self? I mean a bit of self-deprication would be keut, wouldn’t it?

Side Note 2: BlackMark is PINOY ;)
Keep me proud.

- BONUS PICS: XTINA SUPERSTAR IN GIAN ROMANO -

Image sources: gianromano.com, theblackmarket.sg, theblackmark.sg, xtinasuperstar.blogspot.com (i'm not kidding!)

Manila's Party (Sub)Culture

If you’re in Manila and you’re looking for the sub-scene or the indie scene or what you may call it (‘cos I don’t know how else to sugarcoat that which mixes the artsy-fashionista crowd with ALTmusic aficionados without sounding like I’m putting too much effort), you only have a couple of major places to go to.


MAJOR SUB-SCENE PARTY PLACE 1: "FLUXXE! Whatever Thursdays" @ 32nd Street, The Fort

Guest DJ KidKilly

FLUXXE Kids

FLUXXE Bitches

MAJOR SUB-SCENE PARTY PLACE 2: "Friday I'm In Love/Future X Presents (Saturdays)" @ Future-ILoveYou House, CubaoX

Guest DJ Gigee

CubaoX Kids

CubaoX Bitches

I did say “major places to go to” for argument’s sake and I made specific the mixture of music+fashion+artiness.

Yes, there are gigs that have a singular focus on just music (where 99% percent of the crowd is uninteresting) or art only affairs (ho-hum) or purely fashion thingies (where music is so bad you can only hang around for a bit to rush back home and recharge your iPod) but this isn’t about them. This is about living your life with half the amount of pretension you'd use up if you only go to where bands play or to glossy clubs where House DJs get too technical with their stuff it already gets too boring to party.

Trust me.





Image sources: jujiin.com, myspace.com/manilanimal, fashionwillsavetheworld.blogspot.com

The Verdict: Vertigo

Nope, not the Alfred Hitchcock directed psycho thriller flick "Vertigo".

It's vertigo for unbearable headache and dizziness that the doctors diagnosed me with. Not that bad, considering the fact that at least I already have a name for it... And since we've mentioned that Hitchcock movie, we might as well get on with some stills from it. Do try to take notice of the hue. Grant some credit to them good old handsome 50s movies. Nice, yes?







Image source: wikipedia

Holeds-pital Bound :(

Alright. So I'm about to pack for a possible hospital stay, since I want to get some tests out of the way to find out why, lately, I've been getting ill a lot. Boo-hoo. As I was saying, I'm about to pack, which sounds worse than actually going thru lab tests and stuff, and I can't help but, to first and foremost, lurk around my favorite blog sites before that. Do I sound like I'm procrastinating, eh?

Anyhoo, I found this Leibovitz classic of Kate and Johnny. Yeah! (So I'm thinking, would my hospital bed look close to this? Would a gorgeous, long-haired doc finally come to terms with his dark side and wear black, instead of white, for a change? And would ghost blogger me turn blonde and waifish once I get my butt on a hospital bed? Well, these thoughts kinda make a medical check-in/check-up sound a bit inviting, I guess.)



Secondly, I've just discovered another cool blogger (The Glossy) and her site has filled me with enough eye candy, I got kinda happy. This one here came from an old post of hers, and aside from the all-white ensemble (doctors? nurses?), I'm just totally digging all the details about this photo. Tattered jeans are like an obsession that doesn't drive me to conquer nor pursue. It's quite unlike how the Chanel Gun Heels or the Allegra shirt had caught me. But, yes, in a big way, I'm very attracted to the look of ripped jeans and to see them in white is refreshing. Include the holed up shoulder top, those glasses, those coffee with cream-colored shoes, that backdrop and well, I have to post this one:



I love blogging. I really love others' blogs as well. There are so many good ones out there and I will keep on going over everyone's posts. One of these days, I'll make an ode to blogs and their bloggers. Can't help it, I'm too fascinated by everyone's wit, humor and eye for style. Thanks to the Blogosphere. What a fab world to be in.

(Okay, okay. I'm about to pack. Gah!)





Image sources: starbucksandjane.blogspot.com, theglossy.com

Beautiful Minds

It's so smooth when they look as cool as their masterpieces.

Christopher Kane

Gareth Pugh

Stella McCartney

Image source: style.com

Margiela Whips, Breathe Easy

No, this isn't possible. Maison Martin Margiela's 20th Anniversary Showcase is too sick for words. I can't believe how maximal and minimal it can go at the same time.

Too great, it blew me away. I almost ended up not being able to filter what to post and just put all of it here. I said, almost.











Image source: style.com