LDN: J'adore Dior!

Deanne writes...

I am in the middle of finishing my first project for the college. Somehow I can't believe it has materialized! I spent the past two weeks researching and writing about Dior, from its beginnings in 1947 to the present. I have analyzed three of their designers and their key collections, looked at their history and development as a brand. I can't wait to share it!

While Google searching for images I could include, I came across this one...

It's Marion Cotillard on the cover of Dior magazine's very first issue and she's wearing the ORIGINAL Bar jacket and skirt designed by Dior in 1947.  She's so lucky! And by the way, it's a beautiful cover. It's so simple but it speaks volumes about what the House of Dior stands for. Which, in my opinion, got a bit blurred during Galliano's tenure. I'm so glad Simons is at the helm now. More of that in my website... coming soon.

Xx

Image from Fashion Copius

LDN: Vogue Festival: A Celebration of Sorts

Deanne writes...

Here’s something to think about: Vogue Festival is quite the oxymoron. Festivals normally hold that casual characteristic where every sense of pretension is left at home and celebratory gimmicks play out under the sky. But as I look across the hall of Southbank Centre filled with girls of every fashion and form, of cameras, makeup, and merchandise, I hoped that it could have been called a party instead.

That’s not to say I’m complaining. I joined in on the party! I had my hair done with a wraparound braid, taking inspiration from the runway girls at Valentino’s spring/summer 2011 show. And then my lips finally had a taste of designer lipstick as YSL’s slid across mine. Ah, the luxury! The fashion! In a matter of minutes, I felt like a different woman… Once again, fashion demonstrates its superpower to transform. 

But the spotlight shined ever so brightly on the speakers, the cognoscenti of the billion-dollar industry. They weren’t there to talk about money though – oh god, no – because if you are truly, madly in love with this art form, it’s the last thing on your mind. The roster of speakers over the weekend was a lineup that could have not been any better. And I must say, the fashion gods must really like me as I was blessed with a free ticket to Alber Elbaz’s session.

I think what Elbaz managed to do in that one hour was bring fashion back to our feet. Where it so rightly belongs. I hate to admit it but fashion has that stereotype of being so irrelevant, so exclusive, and so easy. But Elbaz is the antithesis to that, which says so much as he is the creative director of Lanvin, one of Paris’ most treasured houses.

Right from the beginning, he strips away all forms of superiority. “I come from a humble background. And I’m glad I did because you can fantasize when you come from a small place,” he says. Having been born in Morocco and growing up in Israel, countries thousands of miles away from the fashion capitals of the world, it’s quite obvious that hard work was his path to the destination. “You know, you can have connections or money but that only brings you to the door… Never to the ceiling,” he says so poignantly.

And in a world where everything has become a routine, he still wants to remain with the premise that “fashion is all about fantasy… about taking a piece of fabric and turning it into 3D.” Season after season, Elbaz never fails to deliver clothes – beautiful clothes that spring from a dream to right in front of our eyes! – that respect women. And when we women find a designer who does that, we save a soft spot in our hearts for them. 

Fall 2011 RTW

Elbaz keeps me in awe with his designs but makes me laugh with his humanness, his authenticity and warmth. “I am a walking contradiction! I fly first class but I like the people in coach because they’re my kind of people; I eat in classy restaurants when I just really want to go to McDonald’s,” he admits. I sit thoroughly amazed of how someone who holds so much power can also hold so much modesty. I wonder how he does that and then it’s as if he heard my question as he says, “I like to create relationships. We often forget that we are an industry of people, not machines.” There you have it: his driving force is connection. And if you think about it, that’s what fashion has always been about: a connection between the clothes and the wearer, the wearer and the designer, the designer and world.

And then that’s when I realized the purpose of the Vogue Festival: it was really a celebration of the significant value of fashion in our world. For two days, under one roof, thousands of fashion aficionados gathered together to deeply recognize this industry for its innate ability to translate an emotion, a movement, a consciousness into something that we can take with us everywhere.

Elbaz ties the whole festival together with the idea for his autumn/winter 2013 collection: "I accessorized the lines with necklaces. I opened the show with a necklace that said ‘Help’, because I like asking for help, and ended it with one that said ‘Love’, because you know, it’s always nice to have some of that." Touché, Alber, touché. 

              

  

And thank you to the Vogue Festival for reminding me once again why I want to be part of this industry. Job well done. 

Xx

Runway photos from Style.com 

LDN: Roomies

Deanne writes...

There it is in all its pristine, shining glory. Not exactly what I thought when I first entered the base room of our school. I honestly thought they weren't through with it yet. But they told us they were.

Coming from an interior decoration magazine, I had this intense itch to decorate every inch of the place.  A painting here, color there (please!). Just anything to inspire me more!

And then Kate, our wonderfully "jazz hands" teacher and insanely avid fan of technology, conveyed the reason for the purity. It went something like this:

"The school is just a canvas. You are the painting."

I silently applauded her for the totally appropriate metaphor (after all, we are fashion students)! Everything we step into is just a frame for our creations. 

And that's what everyone in the fashion industry does. Anna Dello Russo fills the pages of Vogue Japan with her magic. Annie Leibovitz captures the raw essence of her subjects with her camera. Christopher Kane translates the intangible energy of London's youth into fabric. I can go on and on...

As the first cohort of the school, we are expected to do the same. Never have I been so moved to rise to a challenge. At this point in time, the fashion industry seems to be saturated with aspirants but I believe that there's a place for each one of us. We just have to find it. And as the days go by (oh so quickly!), I feel like I'm getting closer and closer to the point I've been tending to all along. 

It's gonna be a good one.

Xx

LDN: Square One

Deanne writes...

There are many things I have to ask forgiveness for but nothing on the moral level (at least not on this blog). When I started this with my friend, I knew commitment would be required of me. And then life sort of happened and this got pushed to the side... like many other projects of mine. This time though, that can't happen.

First of all, I am in London (do you see what happened to the blog? It's not MNL and NYC anymore. It's LDN and NYC.)

Second, I love to write.

So I have no more excuses. 

I took the above photo last April 8 on my flight from HK to LDN. It's been 3 weeks. I am halfway around the world, far away from the shores of my country in pursuit of the dream that has been potent for quite some time now: fashion. You can laugh, wonder what the hell I want to do in this seemingly fluffy, airy industry. But I've been in the Condé Nast College of Fashion and Design for 2 weeks and it can take me all day (or two... or three...) to challenge you on that notion. 

I have a lot of catching up to do (if there's such thing as a New York minute, there's also a London minute) but for now I'll leave you with where I want to end up:

Above my head, there it is: VOGUE HOUSE. I understand how big that dream is but you know... Don't tell me I can reach for the sky when there are footprints on the moon. Yes, it's that sort of thing. 

Back to square one. A clean slate. A new beginning. 

Thank God I can do it in style.

Xx

Move Dust Through The Light

Ever since I got back from London, all I’ve really been doing is working and studying for the LSATs. I haven’t been staying out really late and whenever I do go out, it is just for dinner and that’s it. All I’ve been doing is saying no to my friends whenever something comes up but I decided I needed a break. And hey! It’s my birthday weekend so I’m going to do something different and just have fun. The chance came when my friend asked me if I wanted to go to the Bon Iver concert with her to Radio City. It took me a couple of days to finally say yes and was I glad I did. It was one of the best concerts of my life and it was in Radio City Music Hall no less! 

I’m gonna admit, I only knew a couple of their songs so I didn’t know what to expect plus I was still a bit down from not being able to watch Ed Sheeran live the night before. However when the show started, that all changed. My mood was instantly lifted and I literally got chills. When I heard the first strings of the guitar, I couldn’t help but close my eyes and just feel the music. They opened the show with Perth; and, from there on out, I became an avid fan. I could imagine myself with my friends driving down at night with the windows down and just blasting this song. It was incredible and that’s what I felt song after song. 

I apologize for the crappy quality. I had to zoom in using my phone.

They played a total of 14 songs plus an encore composed of 2 other songs. The show was very mellow and you could tell that everyone was there to simply just enjoy the music (expect of the 4 people behind us who were clearly high on something and were yelling the entire time). I would definitely recommend everyone to watch them live. Hearing their songs on your iPods or whatever is nothing compared to seeing and hearing them live. You get to feel and appreciate the songs more and isn’t that what music is about? Now I understand the expression, “Music is Life.” 

 K

P.S. Here's a little peak from their performance of Skinny Love and Perth.

 

Barefoot In The Kitchen

First of all, I would like to say I sincerely apologize for the lack of new blog post. Things just went into serious overdrive but I promise to be more consistent when it comes to blogging from now on. As for my first post in what seems like forever, I decided to share one of my hobbies, which is cooking.

When I was younger, I would always watch my uncle and grandmother cook. I would observe and even help them out if they would let me. I even took cooking lessons when I was 10 years old until I was 12 and I would go grocery shopping with my mother to buy the ingredients I needed. However, as I got older, I lost the motivation to cook. I didn’t exactly completely stop. I just cooked less often. It wasn’t until I got to the States wherein I started really cooking again.

For tonight’s dinner, I decided to cook chicken breast that I marinated using the recipe my dad thought me with a little help from this recipe I found as well. Basically, I just mixed olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic powder, salt, pepper and brown sugar and let the chicken marinate in it overnight. When you are ready to cook, you can either pan fry or grill them. Obviously, I don't have a grill inside my apartment so I pan fried them using a large skillet. 

We sliced the chicken so it would cook faster.

As for sides, I roasted some asparagus and made pasta using this really simple recipe I found online as well. When I say easy, I really mean suuuuper easy because I only had to use 6 ingredients! I could have used less but I wanted to add extra flavor to the pasta so I added some sun-dried tomatoes in it. If you don’t want to add sun-dried tomatoes, that’s ok. All you really need is some thinly sliced garlic cloves, olive oil, dried parsley, crushed red pepper flakes and of course, some salt and pepper to taste. Heat them all in the pan with the pasta and viola! You are done. Like I said, it could not be any simpler. 

Ingredients

At first, I decided to include mushrooms but I ended up against it because it might be too much.

Before I forget, to roast the asparagus, you just preheat your oven to 400 degrees. In a baking sheet, toss your asparagus with some olive oil, garlic and season it with salt and pepper. Once the oven is ready, put it inside and wait for 15-18 minutes or until tender. Take it out and let it cool for a bit.

before

after

The end result is an amazing dinner to be enjoyed with a friend. Just look at Laura's happy face! LOL

Restaurant Week

It’s weird to think how my last post was when I just arrived to the homeland and how this post is with me being back to the city. It’s so surreal how fast time flies but I have never been more glad to be back. As much as I loved being back with my friends and family, there is nothing quite like New York City and she has been spoiling me since.

It was Restaurant Week here when I got back and so my friends and I have been taking advantage of eating in restaurants we normally would not be able to afford. For $35, that will get you a 3 course dinner at any of the participating restaurants which is not bad considering $35 is how much a single meal would cost you at these restaurants. It’s even cheaper if you eat out for lunch for it will only cost you $25 for almost the same meal as dinner. How crazy is that? So far, I’ve tried out 3 restaurants and my favorite out of the bunch is Bobby Van’s.

Bobby Van’s has five restaurants in the city but only three of them were participating in Restaurant Week. My friend and I decided to eat at their branch in Park Avenue because they call it “the original” so why not eat at the original for the first time, right? When we got there, we felt so out of place. It’s exactly the type of restaurant that your business partners there for a meeting or after work. I would definitely take my dad here but I probably won’t go back with a friend. My friend and I felt like we were the youngest in the room, which was extremely awkward but oh well. The food was amaaaaazing! I could still taste it in my mouth!

For starters, we got the Baked Clams Oreganata and it was hard not to eat everything at once. I’m very picky when it comes to clams because I don’t like it when I taste the “sea” when I eat it. I know it sounds weird but you know when you eat something and you taste so many different things that you forget what it is you’re eating in the first place? Yeah. That. When I eat a clam, I want to taste the clam and not the “sea” and this one definitely did not disappoint. Next up was my Pork Chop with Apple and Mango Chutney while my friend got the Petit Filet Mignon. The main course came with creamed spinach and mashed potatoes that go well with the meats. Everything was just so delicious that I barely had room for dessert! The Chocolate Mousse Cake was so rich and creamy that if you are a fan of things like that, you will enjoy it for sure. I, on the other hand, am not really a fan of anything too creamy so I passed halfway.

Bobby Van’s is definitely a treat for all you steak lovers out there like me so do try to check it out! Restaurant Week is still on going so go eat out at these restaurants as much as you can! Who doesn’t want a good meal at a low price anyway?

P.S. This is me and my friend at the bathroom. Lol their bathroom is so nice!