Burberry S/S10: Emma & Alex Watson

What do you think of the Spring/Summer 2010 campaign of Burberry?

I don’t like it at all! She just looks uncomfortable, which I think is extremely weird. Onscreen, her elegance strikes me immediately but on print I feel awkward just looking at her. Perhaps she just doesn’t have an angry face that’s pretty enough. We all know how much practice we need to get there, don’t we?

I think you’ll have to watch the video to understand what the Burberry team was trying to get at. I wish this step can be skipped because that’s just missing the point if a message from a luxury house doesn’t  jump straight out and get the consumer. I wish it was more youthful and convincing, since the brand is trying to get younger.

But still, for your viewing pleasure, here’s Christopher Bailey explaining more.

Her message to the public for the Burberry S/S2010 campaign

Her stunning dress which she wore to the last Burberry show & a short interview

I’m still a huge Hermione fan though. Go Hermione go!

Marc Johns Makes Your Friday Happy.

I love the work of Marc Johns and his recent antics such as drawing on paper towels in Starbucks made me very happy just staring at the results. Can you imagine if you’ve had a shitty day and in the loo you found toilet paper that has water droplets on it?

FTW.

I told him exactly what I thought about him on Twitter:

To his credit he replied promptly and made me feel all better about a long working Friday.

He also drew bad ass funny stuff like:

And lastly, on his website it says there is a girl who is walking around with a tattoo of his work on her ankle.

If you see this ankle on the trains, maybe you can say hi to the chewing gum bubble with a face for me. (:

Emilie Simon: Desert

Working from home means you have to deal with the silence of an empty house from the time you wake to the time your family members come home from work.

It’s mostly enjoyable but I often need to play some music when I embark on time-consuming work assignments. Enter Youtube, my saviour.

I found Emilie Simon while chain-playing Faye Wong on my Youtube playlist. Her MTVs are always ethereal and beautiful: You know how you get a sense of how a person is from their work? I just can see that she has a deep love for beautiful things (and beautiful sounds).

This MTV, which I’ve embedded above, is a song of hers called Desert. She dolls up and most of the MTV just shows her tearing hay out of her body. It’s very beautiful so please take some time to listen (:

Happy Thursday! Stephie

Hosiery & Stack-y Shoes

Wrote a day away & continued my work on Stephie’s Shop on Monday & Tuesday…

Today, I just want to wear chiffon and stretchy cotton

flop and lie around

in my house.

stephie.

YES. Culottes!

I’ve been crazily thinking about culottes since December and I’m glad to see that Teen Vogue is of the same opinion! In their February 2010 issue, they’ve dressed Jessica Szohr in some beautiful outfits, the spread is shot by Patrick Demarchelier.

I’ve procured several pairs of culottes in December but here’s a pair for you which I’ve hunted down. Enjoy!

Stephie.

The Clash of the Florals

All I want to collect now are floral pieces and all I want to do with them is to layer small-sized and large-sized flower prints into one outfit.

I kept thinking about florals for the entire month of December. I’ve even seen tonnes of floral stuff going for cheap in Cotton On just a couple of hours ago.

Here’s a perfect example.

Stephie, x.

Behold the Non-humans!

I came across this feature about supermodels: Then & Now.

I’m strangely fascinated by celebrities who disguise their age so well, with or without surgical help,  so I loved how this feature was done.

Apart from admiring the glowing beauty of some, I appreciate the good work some of the models have done after the peak of their careers. I have more respect for those whose work show that they give a damn.

Christy Turlington: Now, activist and married with two children. Admirable.

Linda Evangelista

Then: ‘We don’t wake up for less than $10,000 a day.’

Now: Spokesperson for L’Oreal. Should have worked harder in the past when you had work, Linda.

Helena Christensen

Now: Co-founder of NYLON magazine & celebrated photographer.

Claudia Schiffer: Then, a supermodel. Now, still a supermodel.

Stephanie Seymour: Then & Now. (exactly the same.)

Cheryl Tiegs: Supermodel in the late 70s. Now: Past sixty and still so beautiful.

Stephie.

New Year’s Day

Happy 2010 to you (:

I heard that how you spent your New Year’s Day is a representation of your entire year.

(d a c e Spring/Summer 2010)

My new year’s day felt like the above.

Stephie, x.

Forever21 at 313 Somerset!

What to expect at the 313 Somerset Forever21 store:

To be honest, four levels of a high street store is extremely huge for Singapore standards. You end up getting beautiful interiors and dressing rooms with different themes on each level.

There’s a section just for florals (go to Level 3!), accessories and shoes sections on Level 1 that are impressive, even for Forever21, a lingerie corner on top of the vast array of clothes.

What’s sorely lacking is obviously a corner for men to shop or hang out as male companions are just seen milling around in disinterest while the ladies get caught up in a shopping frenzy.

I’m pretty sure half of Singapore’s female population would’ve visited the store before 2009 ends, judging from the crowds I’ve been seeing ever since the opening of this store.

all the above are custom-handmade iPhone covers.

Feathered headbands have been restocked!

Chain Necklace restocked as well, by popular demand.

For those of you who needs a retractable measuring tape on the go.

Studded headband with gems. Definite headturner.

I’m 25 and I Need Anti-Aging?!

I’m a little of a skeptic when it comes to what I perceive to be ultra-premature beauty regimes like whitening and anti-aging. It may be denial, but I feel that at 25, it is still much too early for me to dabble in these – in fact, we mid-twenties are at our prime, no?

Early last month, I was invited to the Elizabeth Arden Prevage Day Bloggers and Forumers Workshop by the lovely Pearlin

The Elizabeth Arden ladies gave us a very convincing presentation about Prevage Day. So convincing that half way through the talk, I suddenly thought that this may just be the miracle cream. However, the logical me took over and I started to question if an anti-aging product is going to work on relatively young skin as mine, which usually suffers from a completely different set of woes.

[I finally met Miss Glitzy properly at the workshop! *wave*]

At the end of the workshop, we went home with a sample of both Prevage Day and Prevage Night.

I put off trying out the samples for a couple of weeks as I have an important event coming up and could not afford to be responding badly to a new skincare. My skin is sensitive and tend to break out if I use unsuitable products, which explain why I am extremely apprehensive about putting on a new cream.

When I finally got around to trying out the Prevage range (both day and night), I sort of metaphorically held my breathe and waited. Imagine how relieved I was when my skin did not revolt!

As my skin is prone to slow reactions, I decided to hold on a little and test out the products for a longer period of time. I have been using them for about a month now and I am sufficiently convinced to give my verdict.

This is my feedback on Prevage Day (with SPF 30) and Night:

1) For anti-aging products, they are surprising non-greasy and light. They are absorbed easily by my skin and does not leave a sheen even in the day.

2) I enjoyed the convenience of using just one product for both moisturizer and sunscreen – previously I used separate products.

3) I know some of you may like your products to be fragrance free, but I love how the creams smell!

3) For the 20 something skin, these products are brilliant for erasing signs of fatigue (i.e. dull skin, blemishes) caused by our hectic lifestyle. I often go to bed past 2 am and the night cream actually managed to revitalise my skin within the few short hours of sleep I get. I have also tried it after a wild night of partying and it still does its job – my skin remained healthy looking (although I am not advocating treating your skin badly). Those tell-tale late-night blemishes are also kept at bay. Naturally, I am very impressed.

Of course, skincare is very personal so I will urge you to try it out for yourself Do check out the Elizabeth Arden Singapore Facebook Page for lucky draws, samples give-aways, promotions and skincare tips.

xoxo,

Dottie

Let’s Talk About Eyes

Backstage Dior

I feel like this today!

And I feel like telling you the story about my eyesight:

I went to the optician to get my eyes checked in July, before departing for Tokyo.

I go to Pearl Optician at Chinatown and they are pretty interesting: they have machines that are similar to what you get at the National Eye Centre, so it’s a level up from normal neighbourhood opticians.

They did this test where they photographed my eyeballs and found that I had scratches due to many years of wearing contact lenses. Then, they flipped my eyelids up and checked it, I had some germs living there too!

So I ditched my contacts for a few months, sticking to my glasses & a special pair made in Tokyo at Hakusan… I hope my eyes are healthier now.

But I decided to switch back to contacts because I got bored of glasses!

YAY!

Remember to clean your contacts religiously, my friends, and if you haven’t been doing so, go get your eyes checked with the flipping eyelids machine and the photographing eyeballs machine to ensure that your eyeballs are still healthy.

We won’t want them to fall out, would we?

Stephie, x.

New In This Week

Fergie wears alldressedup!

Fergie wears an alldressedup necklace, the outfit post made it to Fabsugar: Props to the alldressedup team, happy for you guys! Great news to hear this Tuesday morning (:

Stephie, x.

To Chase the Monday Blues Away

I’ve been very obsessed about building the perfect wardrobe lately. Instead of 80 pieces of ‘unwearables’ and 20 regularly worn items, I decided to archive clothes which I’ve hardly worn i.e. physically removing them from the closet, putting them into boxes for storage in the store room.

Throwing them out is too much of a waste and I’ve learnt from experience that I’ll yearn for them soon enough.

I’ve been slowly amassing an arsenal of dresses I love and this is my latest indulgence: a cement-looking dress with gradient & tie-dye effects. It comes with pockets and the more crumpled it is, the more character it has.

Just great for days you really do not wish to handle the iron.

I’ve been walking past the Clarks Ion Orchard store and I kept staring at their display of the Clarks Desert Boots in Liberty Fabric. This paisley print is from Liberty and is made for women’s: it is a special release for the 60th anniversary of the Desert Boot.

The display has since been removed and the limited pairs which’ve reached our shores sold out before I could get my hands on them, but kind soul stepped in to help: Thanks T.!

I’m very much sold on the women’s collections from Clark’s but it’s disheartening that the collection in Singapore has serious focus on comfort and less on style, leading my eyes to roam overseas for prettier design.

Put them together and this is what you get, an easy outfit for a dinner in town on Monday. Nothing fancy but I just wanted some details to shine through, so I added a hair clip as a brooch.

The clip has been a favourite of mine: the double bow and checkered details had me at hello, reminding me of schoolgirl days and Paddle Pop in the dusty netball courts.

• Cement Dress: Stephie’s Shop, $32.90
• Shoes: Clarks Desert Boots in Liberty fabric, sold out in Singapore (try haunting Ion Orchard)
• Double bow checkered hairclip: Stephie’s Shop, $8.90

Stephie, x.

A Day In Twit Pics

Note: I wrote this last Sunday, but didn’t get a chance to publish it until now.

Half of my weekend was burnt with work and sleep.

I got back from a work trip to Kuala Lumpur (where I had a pleasant chance encounter) late last evening. Despite a mad rush, I still managed to miss the World AIDS Day party at the Supper Club. Naturally I was very upset.

I spent half of today sleeping (waking up at 3 pm). Then I decided I need to get out before the day is completely wasted. I dragged my mother out for some shopping.

I’d been twitpic-ing quite a bit recently as they are great for illustrating a tweet

Here’s my day in twit pics!

My beloved Zumreed headphones

Tweet: Out with mum. Made her take pics of me with my new headphones!

Uniqlo +J Coat

Tweet(s):

• I’m waking around the new Uniqlo at Somerset wearing a +J coat. I want it!
• My mum made me put the coat back! -wail-

BodyCon Little Black Dress

Tweet: Last buy of the night! super short bodycon LBD, perfect for year end parties!

***

A couple of days ago, I went out hunting for products to feature in an upcoming article.

And I went very snap-happy again

Being Blair Waldorf Wannabe

Tweet(s):

• Just bought 3 really cute bow hair bands. 5 bucks only! Omg. How many hair bands do I need? Apparently, infinity.
• I’m wearing this red striped one right away!
• Ok, I suddenly realise that I may be a closet Blair Waldorf *gasps* wannabe. But you know, whatever! Lol

Wooden Toys at MUJI

Tweets:

• MUJI brought in a range of wooden toys & puzzles. This collapsable flamingo had me at hello! I’ve a irrational love for collapsable toys.
• And this red double decker bus is the cutest thing. It’s in the clear glass mug I just bought

That’s about all for now

xoxo,
Dottie

P.S. I bumped into two of our readers yesterday *wave* Sorry that I look a little shell-shocked (as usual). Thank you for the kind words

Fixated on Gaga

ra ra ah ah ah / ra ma ra ma ma / ga ga oh la la

I love that she shares the same bow fetish as I do… I’m pretty sure people with a bow fetish spent half of their lives worshipping Hello Kitty.

But then again, what do I know, anyway? (:

Say hello on Twitter, okay?

Stephie, x.

AL & ALICIA

Last week, we were invited to the launch party for AL & ALICIA, a spanking new local label featuring high-end street wear. Unfortunately, we were not able to make it but the organizers promptly sent us a very comprehensive press kit

Considering how I am currently undergoing a boyish phase (in which I feel a compulsive urge to shop for boys’ clothes), Alicia Ong of AL & ALICIA makes the kind of androgynous chic clothes that I want to live in.

[Especially love this grey heather double layered tank and ruche zipp vest.]

Alicia’s resume reads like a success story of someone who dared to veer off the path too-well-trodden: BA degree at NUS, pursued fashion dream at Parsons in New York, worked with Marc Jacobs, DKNY, J Crew etc., freelanced for Wykidd Song, started own label.

[I want a romper + The Boyfriend's Slacks look delightfully skinny and trim.]

The first collection is inspired by the sidewalks of New York City and cleverly named Street (n), path upon which travel occurs.

There is no flagstore as yet, but you can find the pieces through exhibitions, private viewings at the design studio and via their online store.

I think I will like to make a trip down to their studio soon to check out the collection up close and personal.

We always need more local designers!
Dottie