tight tweeds and secret needs

The better part of Monday afternoon and the late morning was spent at the reserve and reservoir area doing some monkey research. The walking and trekking is insane, when I first began I decreed it’d replace all my feeble attempts at weekly exercise. Although running might be more high-intensity for the abdominals. Long gone are my Gym Rat days; I’ve upgraded towards being a Lazy Cat. It’s Wednesday, my lower body is still aching immensely.

So lazy to dress up for the evening, I made myself sing a clashing song of pink and blues, wearing clothes I don’t wear anymore. Most of the time I dress whilst grabbing random stuff here and there. And therein suffer from Christmas Tree Syndrome.

take a bow tie, safety-pin the elastic connectors and thread your chain into the same safety pin to create a one-minute necklace.

oh God, my hair’s so messy. if there’s any consolation, I finally conditioned it yesterday.

top: Calvin Klein

skirt: Osmose

Mary Janes: Charles & Keith

bangles: Aldo

chain: Aldo

pearl necklace: Forever 21

belt: vintage

eagle necklace: Sportsgirl (@ Perth)

bow-tie: Akon

I was scouring through my mother’s wardrobe again, and I was stunned to find this top. Speechless, I tried it on. Oh God, she has so many lovely pieces but this one. . . This one seems to have stepped out of my dreams. It’s exactly the way I would design and tailor an exquisite piece, together with the chiffon fabric and the color choices. From the details of the scarf-like finish around the neck to the beautiful buttons to the lightly-puffed sleeves. Decided to dress it with a different twist, with my white denim skirt, and my strappy heels this evening.

Previously, I’d worn my mom’s 36 year-old top. This one’s slightly younger– but still older than me– at 27 years-old.

I like how it resembles a jacket. For some convenient faking-it.

Large, large, large earrings are my favorite, I have tons of them. All I hafta do is get myself down to wearing them, sometimes I do a mismatched thang. The strappy heels are pretty old, I think I got them when I was in junior college, a good four to five years ago. It channels that Gladiator-ish feel with the sadistic feeling of having to slowly wriggle your feet into them before tying them up. Plus side about lace-ups (God, how many do I have?) is that you can tie them in any way you want to.

I just love this MAC lipstick. It smells like baked butter puffs, glides on like a dream, and the color’s pretty yet bold. The lipstick cover’s bullet-shaped, and the interior is a bold tiger-print. As for the ring, it was somebody’s family heirloom. She gave it to my mom, along with a bunch of really gorgeous old ornate jewelry. Here’s a closer look.

You know how annoying it is when some tops are too short for your bottoms, sometimes flesh spilleth over? Not good when you’re sitting down. Especially not good for a meal. So I had a brainwave. I slipped a tube to make a fake waistband. Figured that the higher the pseudo-waistband is, the less it’d be mistaken for underwear.

Note to self: Better start combing hair. It’s been at least three months since I last touched a comb or a hairbrush.

blouse: my mom’s

skirt: Mango

tube-worn-as-waistband: This Fashion

earrings: Forever 21

ring: gift

shoes: VNC

On the subject of re-wearing my hardly-worn stuff, and on the quest for wearing my entire collection of short skirts, I woke up deciding to wear this.

My mother’s knitted top that my uncle got for her at 16 from Hong Kong. It’s still going strong, and worn by me. What then, does one wear to dress up a miniskirt? My 4.5-inch high kimono-printed heels, of course.

Twisted my hair up nonsensically yet again. And found a flower corsage with feathers. Strapped a strand of satin ribbon twice around my neck and clipped it on.

top: my Mother’s

skirt: Valley Girl

shoes: Mollini (@ Perth, WA)

ring: Forever 21

clutch: Perllini’s

ribbon: from Spotlight

corsage: Sportsgirl (@ Perth, WA)

The daytime part of yesterday was so sweltering 15 minutes on the piano yielded as much perspiration as body conditioning with weights. That bad. The deal with lazy days like that where I have to pop out for a few hours makes me think I don’t want to dress up nor wear much makeup nor bother to match the proper laundre etcetera. The mish-mash concept, therefore, becomes my best friend.

The modus operandi:

1. throw on a t-shirt and some skirt.

2. throw on some random accessories

3. a pair of shoes

4. any clutch

5. randomly twist up the hair

I reverted back to my old habit of taking photos in black-and-white.

and the good ol’ 11-year old Mickey Mouse t-shirt that I wear from time to time. .

absolutely adore the layered chain with two boots. one is gold; the other studded with rhinestones.

t-shirt: Disney

faded dark grey denim skirt: Mango

long pearls: Forever 21

layered gold necklace: This Fashion

clutch: Guess?

shoes: Charles & Keith

earrings: vintage

Can you not love animal print? I love it to bits, to tears and to death, because it appeals to the inner animal in me. Especially big cat prints. I was born in the Chinese Zodiac year of the Tiger and I have five cats. I love animals, especially cats. And hence, my inclination towards big cat prints. Tops, dresses, hair bands, bags, laundre, everything! I don’t think I’m the tamest person to begin with. . .

What then, is the difference between the fur markings of the cheetah, the leopard and the jaguar.

Well, here goes.

The cheetah, oft touted as the fastest animal in the world, has black spots of different sizes on its body. Although it has to be noted that they are known as the fastest animal based on sprints of short distances. These beautiful animals differ slightly from other large cats in that they hunt during the day.

The leopard has spots that kinda resembles that of a giraffe’s. These orange-ocher spots are outlined by thick broken lines that are black and/or dark-brown in color. Leopards are also known as panthers. Besides the orange ones, there are the black ones as well.

The jaguars, though, have black spots on their orange-ocher markings.

So I decided to re-wear my large satin cheetah-printed top, this time as a dress. Also, I wore them with their black elasticated sleeves out, to match the black accessories. Some quick snaps. .

top from BySi; belt from Mango; studded bangle from Dorothy Perkins; hairband from Forever 21; shoes from VNC

Prior to that, as usual, I was prancing around in my pinstripped shorts, and I decided that heck, for a hot weather look I might just tuck that top into a pair of shorts out.

shorts from Niichi; bangles from Forever 21; shoes from Bata

And so in the name of memories, I dug up some photos of old Cat Looks. .

left– earrings from Six; leopard print top from Mango; leopard print hairband from Aldo; jacket from Mango; pants from Zara

right– top from Mango; jeans from Mango; belt from Dorothy Perkins

The cheetah-print top earlier on. .

belt vintage; denim skirt gift; bangles vintage and gifts; earrings from Six

dressed down because I had school prior to that. .

belt is my mom’s; bag from Charles & Keith; capris from Osmose; earrings from Accessorize; bangles from Dorothy Perkins and vintage

And well, sometimes I cannot help but wear a thin belt around my neck.

And this lovely clutch that combines an assortment of different cat prints. Wheewy.

“Aren’t these the kinds of shirts that construction workers from Bangladesh like to wear here!?”

“My point exactly”.

Well, I like this plaid flannel shirt because it’s so preppy and so. . strange. I like strange things, because I’m known as The Strange Girl by some. Therefore, I decided to clash it with army green– okay, I clash everything with army-green. Those are clash-and-burn days, in my defense. Savage Garden had Crash And Burn, the hunter-gatherers practised their swidden cultivation known as slash-and-burn and I’ve stopped making sense. . again.

This time, Mary Janes with a skirt

shirt: Ralph Lauren

skirt: Mango

handbag: Roccobaracco

bangles: vintage; Forever 21

mary janes: Charles & Keith

necklace: Sportsgirl (@ Perth)

shades: Mango

belt: Aldo

Hot day today. Again.

top: Red

skirt: Mango

belt: from my Mom’s old M&S dress

shoes: Delicious

clutch: Aldo

beret: from my brief forrays into police cadetry

bangles: Forever 21

necklace: Aldo

The.weather.is.killing.me. I’m wearing what I don’t normally wear, i.e. this skirt which was long relegated into a box, but the weather has forced its resurrection. I have suddenly found tons of Hot Weather Clothes.

top: Mango

skirt:Osmose

flats: Prima Vera

necklace: Mango

shades: Mango

bangle: Accessorize

As usual, the weather is scorching, I’m dying. The hair begins to live contorted within a rubber band or some device of sorts designed to keep it away from the face. Skirt lengths begin to shorten as materials begin to grow thinner and thinner. The only thing not turning micro-mini or anorexic would be the heel height. Today I opted for this threadbare-thin peasant-girl top which has matador sleves

details on the skirt include sequins and fabric appliqués; whilst I love the eyehole-like details on the top

top it off with colorful earrings

top: Sense

skirt: Seven For All Mankind

shoes: VNC

rings: Mango; vintage

earrings: Accessorize

Au contraire to the day before, I decided to give The Outfit a colorful devil-may-care spin with a Geek-meets-cartoon style. .

The tee’s actually something I wear at home quite often, to laze around in. And then to complete the geeky look, I threw in an old digital watch with rubber straps that has since stopped. My grandmother bought it for my cousins and myself a good many years ago.

The scarf is actually remnant material from the dress I slashed the other day in order to shorten it.

In the name of a clashing geeky look, I wore my pumps with candy-colored striped socks.

tee: from some night bazaar (from Gran)

skirt: Arithalia

pumps: Heatwave

socks: some small neighborhood shop

bangles: Aldo; Ms Selfridge

digital watch: (from Gran)

shades: Mango

belt: vintage

scarf: remnant cloth from an M&S dress

Today I speculated that it might be hot. But it rained. I froze when I awoke from my forty-minute slumber on the train. Then the sun shined mercilessly hours later.

I found this pale yellow dress with pretty embroidery on the front, thinking it’d be perfect for my dress-down days. Except that it was so sheer, I had to team it with a skirt. Ahh well, till I get some soft netting as lining. I swear it is the hardest thing in the world to actually dress casual. On most days, I take 5 minutes to choose and get dressed. On casual days, I take about 3 minutes more. Because they’re just plain color blocks, something is missing. Therefore I threw on a skinny scarf and a pair of clogs that are probably about 25 years old.