Wednesday, October 31, 2012

HAPPPYY HALLOWEEN!


top: Brandy Melville; Skirt: Forever21; Shoes: Forever21


Booo! Were you scared?

I originally wasn't planning on dressing up on the day of Halloween because I wasn't doing anything special (Halloween related). Then again, I couldn't resist another opportunity to play dress up!

Another...you ask? "Another" meaning, there was a whole weekend full of events that I had to dress up for. I was Waldo, as in "Where's Waldo" on Thursday, and then a biker chic on Friday (I just wore all black and a leather jacket :p), and then a fortune-teller on Monday. #collegeproblems With all the different costumes already, actual Halloween day felt redundant... But, I still made the last minute decision to dress up anyways.

So I'm thankful that my pbro Charles was able to do this super last minute shoot for me. Like/See his Facebook page here!

And there's my "short" 3-paragraph explanation of my decision to dress up...onto the costume!








My room mate and I was discussing what we wanted to be for Halloween, and she wanted to be a gypsy. When she told me, I thought of the Maxi skirt I ordered from forever a while ago, and I suggested that she should borrow it. But, I ended up using her idea. So, props to Alicia for giving me the idea :p

I also wanted to try Esmeralda from The Hunchback of Notre Dame--she was one of my disney favs from when I was a little girl. She has a purple skirt, too! I mainly worked from what I have from my closet, and just ended up being a gypsy for today. And I'm very satisfied with how it turned out.

One more thing...did you notice the necklace!? It was the one I've been searching for. The one I mentioned in this previous post. It's the exact same one, and I found it at a flea market in DTLA. More on that later :)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! What did you dress up as? Comment below :)

XOXO,

Joanne




Monday, October 22, 2012

Interview with Ms. Nami!


photo taken from Daily Bruin

Finally, my hell week is over! Luckily, I was able to recharge by going home and sleeping A LOT! So back to business. Hopefully, I'll be posting more frequently :)

Anyways, as promised, I was really enjoyed attending the Nami show that I went to last week, and I mentioned in my last post that I wanted to interview the designer herself. Lucky for me, she even found the time to reply to my emails and giving me in depth details of what inspires her--even when she's on her "baby moon" in Hawaii!  

Sarah holds a BS, MS AND a PhD in Neuroscience. So, I was really surprised she switched from Neuroscience to the oh-so-challenging world of fashion. Turned out, there's a heartfelt backstory.

Her brother was involved in a tragic accident, and he had to be induced into a coma to reduce the swelling in his brain. For part of her research and fellowship, she had to do surgery. There's a degree of relativity between her subjects and her brother's condition. She mentioned, "research subject's struggle for life to be too close to my brother's." With the accident combined with her "2,000 pounds of clothes" (which she weighed through her move from LA to Chicago), along with her love for arts, she pushed into the direction of fashion.   

I've been interested in fashion since I was a little girl--pretty much like every other girl. I once made a dress out of a Saks Fifths garment bag just because I saw a beautiful gown while I was out shopping with my aunt. However, designing isn't something I see myself doing as a future career. There was a special ability that I had as a child to develop a wild imagination--who would have thought...Plastic Garment Bags?! Now, I still love to drown in my own imagination, but that have taken a completely different toll, and I think I've lost my artistic abilities. 

However, to be able to be apart of the fashion world is still a dream, and I asked what advice she would give to a girl like me---someone who have a love for fashion but desperately lack an artistic ability. 
" Learn as many parts of the fashion industry as possible, go to networking events. If you don't have the "talent for designing" then at least try learning what the skills are all about so you understand what it takes to do it all. You'll gain valuable vocabulary about the industry and will make you an intelligent/relevant contributor to the field. Finally, work ethics. Work hard. Many in this industry underestimate how much you need to hustle to make opportunities for yourself and to take advantage of those opportunities. They just don't fall into your lap. Be grateful for those who offer you these opportunities to collaborate as well. On a daily basis, I'm constantly researching, reading, and learning about new bloggers, new fashion websites, new fashion e-commerce sites, emailing editors, etc. Finally, be persistent. Anything worthwhile is not going to be easy, you'll have good days and really bad days where you hate everything about the fashion industry... stay persistent. It's an endurance race. "
Truly understanding the fashion industry is absolutely important, but I never thought of it that through the learning process, I will be able to learn the skills and the right vocabulary, which is very important--especially for this blog! I love waking up to emails of the various sites that I subscribe to, just to see what's going on in the fashion world that day!

Lastly, I've always wondered what a designer's daily life is like. Are they always designing? Do they keep up with the business end of their company? Turned out, Sarah does ALL these things (I couldn't help but resist the meme allusion). Because Nami is an emerging business, Sarah has a lot of responsibilities, from designing, to delegating, to speaking to the manufacturers, etc. However, she start out the day by checking emails, because reading about trends and new blogs are some of her sources of inspiration. A typical work day will "start at 8am and work doesnt cease til about 10pm-1am (depending on the day)." As for her schedule to release her lines, she "designs 3-4 times a year to produce 2 collections."

Sarah "loves feeling busy and productive and watching the overall trajectory of the company on the rise. And, of course, most importantly I spend time with my family to unwind and take my mind off of work."

Now that you know a bit about Sarah and Nami, isn't everything so much more interesting? Sarah gave me very elaborate answers for my questions. For that, I am so grateful, especially because she's on vacation! 

  

Monday, October 15, 2012

All things Nami!

First off, I would like to apologize for my recent inactivity. Midterm season really takes it out of you, plus everything has just been piling up, and I've been very overwhelmed. I literally feel like I barely have time to breathe. Luckily, I have very special people in my life that keeps me together ♥ But, this week, I am going to have four midterms, please bear with me for one more week! I have so much fun and exciting things in my life that I can't wait to share. I'll be back next week!

Picture taken by Ivana Tay

This Saturday, I was lucky enough to be able to attend The Fall | Winter 2012 fashion show of LA's very own Nami. And I got meet some fellow bloggers! You know May from Summer in may (second from the right), we're both Trojans, and I've mentioned her a couple of times in my past posts. But I also got to meet some fresh new faces! (From left to right) Sarah from Lame Chic, Jen from Channel Jen, another fellow Trojan, Kayla from blush-and-bangs, and Ivanna from Cut and Taylored. Everyone was gorgeous, I follow their blogs, and it's so weird meeting everyone in person after you've known them so well through their blogs, haha!

First, read more about the designer of Nami, Sarah Nami Anh, here. She's very talented, and to think she has a BS, MS, AND a PhD in Neuroscience as well! I actually plan on interviewing her! So, stay tuned for that as well :)

Onto the show! I'll just share with you some of my favorites. I just used the same Sony point-and-shoot that I used for the Beverly Center FNO post, so the quality is definitely not the best.


Pre-runway showroom








For better quality photos, the SS13 runway looks are online, see it all here.

What attracted me to some of these pieces were that I really liked the colors. Also, the cutting were really nice and are great representations of Nami's talents. Sometimes, designers use runways as an opportunity to be unique and let their imaginations run wild, and the pieces turn out to be more art pieces that wearable clothing. However, most of the pieces in this show would definitely be clothes I wouldn't mind wearing on a regular basis! 

Overall, I liked the experience of being live at an actual runway show! A lot of the models were wearing heelless wedges, so they kept tripping, and still walked the walk. Props to them for pulling those off! 

Wish I could have gotten a goodie bag!

See you next week,

Joanne

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

A Heartfelt Weekend

That's mai Pbros, yo!

First off, I would like to apologize for the lack of posts recently. I've been caught up with school work (midterm season) and APO stuff. Plus, the move from wordpress to Blogger still needs a bit time to get used to in terms of the technicality. But, I'm hanging on. I've had a super amazing weekend and I'm just dying to share with you all.

So most of you have known from my previous posts that I've become a pledge for APO. This weekend we just had our first ever retreat! In a nutshell, it was an amazing experience! For starters, I got to know a lot of people so much better through the whole thing-- staying up all night, scooping up cow poop, the two hours plus car ride to somewhere in Palm Springs, enjoying FOOD, playing games, etc. There were just a lot of laughing, and me randomly nodding off and hitting others while I was unconscious.

everyone being crammed in the living room!
There were some minor setbacks in our plans, but our goal to bond as a chapter never changed. We still played games--some crazy--and laughed. This just makes me realize how much stronger we are as we were able to look pass the adversity and focus on what we had.

Swimming time!
So you may wonder about the change in the theme of this post in comparison with all my other posts. This weekend was nothing like anything I've ever experienced. Just wanted to put it into words so I can one day look back and reminisce thought it won't be something i'll ever forget!

Photocreds: Charles Mai, Nikon D7000 w/ Fisheye Lens

My normal posts will resume Friday :)

Au Revoir! 

XOXO, 

Joanne