Jujiin X # 1

Jujiin Samonte is one of Manila’s most celebrated fashion figures. His individual style never fails to leave an impression to whoever sees him. In fact, he is kind of my idol. Last January 29 he held his first ever exhibit entitled Exhibit Number One showcasing his photographs and presents it in form of collages and mixed media art. I went to see the exhibit together with Karl. I met a lot of cool people and had a fun time. Anton and Fabgelous were also there. I was with them most of the time since nahihiya ako. Lots of fashion people. Be sure to visit the exhibit at Trilogy Boutique in Makati. It runs till Feb. 11.

The scene
Jujiin Samonte and Paulo

The fash pack
Anton! ^^ and his bonggang neck piece
Serena Van der Woodsen and Fabgelous
Chika chika langMe and Jujiin. When he told me "You're ToxisDiscoBoy, I know you" I DIED.
I look haggard.
Mark Arvin! ^^
Lotho and RCXY... fierce fierce fierce!
Hyphenate Tim Yap and my favorite designer Puey Quinones
Inggit ako Karl! With Victor Basa and Michael Cruz
Xtina
Say hi to Jeremy Scott



Karl Who?

After the exhibit, we went to I Love You in Cubao X. Took me forever to upload the video.

photos were all stolen from Karl since my camera was acting up.

Draw

I drew this today. It’s far better than the one I did last time. Of course, this took time after I watched videos upon videos of manga tutorials on Youtube. I used to be very artistic when I was a kid. I remember that almost every day I would try to draw X-Men. Yeah, I was a comic geek back then. Of course, high school came and I totally stopped. That was one of my biggest regrets ever. Now I want to draw again. I don’t think I’m good but with practice I could get better right? I drew this at the back of my thesis paper. Haha. Then I colored it using Photoshop. I did the pompadour hair since I also styled my hair that way today. The clothes of course are my design. LOL

Here’s the obligatory outfit shot. Check the hair. I had so much fun with hairspray. Haha. The white shirt is Giordano Concepts, shoes are Gucci and the pants (which I’m so in love with) I dunno the brand of (since I can’t read Japanese).

Tongue in Chic

Today I’m more subdued. The sleeveless shirt is Calvin Klein, shorts are Y’, and the leather tie from Merger. How do you like the hair? I spent a huge amount of time to achieve that. Haha. And endless spritzing of hairspray.

I got featured in Tongue in Chic! OMG. I feel so honored. If I wasn’t tan I would be blushing furiously esp. when they dubbed me as a rising star. Haha. Naloka ako. Thank you so much Tin Iglesias (be sure to check her blog, she has major talent) and TIC for featuring me. I ♥ you! Tongue in Chic is a South East Asian online fashion community. Be sure to visit their site. It’s full of interesting beauty and fasheen stuff. Also check my feature here.

Hides

So I would look totally ridiculous if I wear this outside. Manila heat is kind of unforgiving. But I got this at a bargain. So whatever. The dark navy color and it's reversibility are what made me take this home. I have to tell you fur is addicting. This here is prolly the most comfortable piece of clothing I own. The soft and silky feeling of the hairs touching my skin is sooo good. The hide part is lightly dyed giving it a denim like effect which I think is genius. I think its rabbit. Hmmm… a mental image of dead bunnies in my head right now.

On to more animal skin. I love leather. These two I got in Cotabato.

Today I got really inspired by these two books. They’re pattern books and omg the designs are just wow. These made me wish I had a sewing machine and could read Japanese. The patterns shown here kind of reminded me of Issey Miyake. According to the book’s description, clothes here are derived from free idea, decorated with innovative and beautiful shape and design are illustrated as if a puzzle is solved in the process of making them into patterns.

Here’s a sample of what’s inside. If you want to see the whole thing let me know and I’ll upload it.

Tartan

Tartan is a difficult thing to wear if you’re not a lumber jack. All of my favorite designers from Rei Kawakubo to Miharayasuhiro and even Paul Smith are doing plaids for fall 2010. There sure are some beautiful plaid blazers at Comme des Garcons and I want one. So here’s my take on the trend. In true Rei fashion of course.

I found the shorts at the thrift store for 30 pesos. I so love the quirkiness of the cut and the shirt like detail on the left leg. Rei’s pattern manipulation came to mind and I’m in awe with it. The PLAY shirt was given by Don. It’s a size small and in Japan a size small is very very small. I had to squeeze myself to it. Don said this shirt would inspire me to lose weight. Haha.

Plaids always remind me of Arashi Nagase. He’s a fictional character from the anime Paradise Kiss. He’s a straight boy who plays in a grunge band, studies fashion design and is in love with a pink haired eccentric. I urge all you guys to watch this anime. It’s about a group of fashion kids who sets out to create their own line called Parakiss and find love in the process. So cute. And the lead guy is a handsome omnisexual with amazing clothes. This is my second time watching. The best anime series EVER.

Julius

I got bored so I drew these. I copied it from the Julius Fall 2010 show. I’m so in love with that collection. I’m not really a good drawer since I did not study. I have no idea about shading and all those things. But I do like the outcome. Haha. I wanna study fashion illustration now na! Click image to see the real thing. ^^

Vivienne and Miyake

This is me going to the grocery. Yeah, even the most mundane of tasks need some serious fashionizing don’t you agree? I’m wearing a Vivienne Westwood Life for Fashion souvenir t-shirt and over that a cropped jacket from Plantation (brand under Issey Miyake Inc.). All of them thrifted of course. To my dismay the Plantation jacket wasn’t designed by Mr. Miyake himself since it looked new and his name wasn’t on the tag. This was probably designed by Naoki Takizawa who succeeded him last 1999. Too bad. Vintage Plantation costs more than US$300 on various sites.

The tee displayed at the Life for Fashion exhibit in Hong Kong. This shirt was available in ArtisTree for HK$480. But I got this for only 400 pesos. Winner non?

Oh my, all these thrift talk is making me feel cheap. Haha. Like I said the last time, I’m a poor boy with expensive taste. And all the fashion kids in Tokyo buy second hand so keri lang. I think I am an ukay snob. Don taught me well. My tip: when you go to an ukay store you must have a clear mind and be prepared because mostly 99 percent of the ukays are crap. So I ditch everything else and only buy designers or brands I like or if it’s something truly outrageous. I mean, kung uukay naman lang itodo mo na. Diba? Yes.

***

Right now I’m on a Project Runway marathon. I have to finish season 6 (I did not bother about the show last year) since in season 7 there’s a young Filipino joining and as I heard he already won one challenge. Wow. I want him to win. Go Pinoy! I’m halfway through with season 6. Fun fun fun!

Comme Comme

Last week was one of my craziest thrift adventures yet. I found this long dress with wrinkled fabric and a transparent net over it. I was like: this is cute, I can cut it to make a shirt. The color was a pale mint green which I loved. Only in the fitting room I discovered that the dress was freaking Comme des Garcons Comme des Garcons (or ‘Comme Comme’ as they call it). I felt like fainting then and there. If you follow this blog you must probably already know that I worship Rei Kawakubo. I mean, why do you think I wear drop crotch all the time? Finding this wasn’t the best part. It was the price that got me floored. Only ten pesos. That’s like practically free!

I wore the dress as a shirt since I would look ridiculous if I wore it as an actual dress. Though cross dressing may be appealing, I will leave that to Cole Mohr thank you very much. I paired it with the Pas De Calais skirt that I made into a drop crotch. And of course with my favorite Mihara Yasuhiro sneaks. I’m wearing everything Japanese! Haha.

Chinatown

Went to Ongpin today. It’s the little Chinatown in Manila. I’ve never been so I was so excited this morning. My dad asked me to buy some stuff for him and of all places it has to be in Ongpin. Haha. The place was amazing, a total assault to the senses. You can smell the incense, the food and the foul stench of the streets all at once. Add to that the traffic noise and the intense heat. Sounds like hell but it has its charms. Like that cute boy selling plastic crystals on the street. Haha. I went back and forth for a few hours looking for things. It was hard navigating the place and when I ask for directions everybody just assumes you know all the street names. *sigh* So frustrating. I also found out that it was just a few blocks from Quiapo. I hated myself for taking the long cut when I could’ve just ridden a jeepney from my house. Oh well. It was a fun experience though. The food there was really good and really cheap too.

Initial

One of the brands I love and collect is Initial. Whenever I scour through thrift stores I always look for this brand. Right now I have three pieces. What I like about the brand is that the designs are avant-garde but totally wearable.

About Initial:

Ever since its conception in 2000, Initial has been unwaveringly dedicated to exploring unique, cutting-edge designs, advocating creative and quality collection, attaining themselves the reputation of possessing the most distinctive visions on the fashion scenes around the world. *

Philosophy:

Initial believes fashion is a lifestyle, a way of life that not only goes beyond mere consumption and the outward show but truly epitomizes the latest cultural scenes at large, namely arts and designs, etc. Indeed, Initial is the one to undertake and realize such conviction in Hong Kong. For Initial, fashion is never skin deep but a reflection of a person's outer and inner qualities where personality and lifestyle make much difference, hence its continual ardent support to the art and cultural scenes and the related events and happenings. *

*taken from their website

Velvet

For the past days I’ve been engrossed by the classic novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. I still couldn’t get it out of my mind and for some reason I’ve been googling a lot about the aesthetic movement during the Victorian era. People who followed that philosophy were quite the fashion rebels of that time. They would wear unstructured dresses, over embellish everything, dye their hair red (red hair was social suicide then) and wear velvet. So that explains my jacket today. Haha. Parang Oscar Wilde lang.

Camwhoring:

I ate pork today. I broke my no red meat resolution. And there was a McBurger incident yesterday. I feel bad.

Bag full of thrifts! I can’t wait to show off my recent finds. Let’s just say I felt like apparated to Japan and back. I found Plantation by Issey Miyake Inc., Tsumori Chisato, Zucca, Initial and many more. Okay, so Initial is an HK brand not Japanese. Haha.

Here’s Karl looking mighty fine and totally rocking the black cover up I gave him. He’s so creative. I never thought of wearing it that way.

And OMG. I already reserved tickets! I can’t wait to watch them perform!