Happy Birthday Miss Mulligan

Images Found off Google Images

I have to thank the bloggers at Nylon for reminding me of this momentous day in which I can wish the lovely actress all the best wishes as well as do some sort of film inspiration fashion post. I don't know anyone who hasn't watched An Education yet so if you are in the small minority who hasn't, please do yourself a favour and watch the damn thing. It's very nicely paced with gorgeous cinematography and wonderful clothing and acting to boot.

My memory of the film is foggy at best since I watched it when it first came out (around 2009) but I don't remember anything negative of the film. I guess if I had to pick apart and choose an area of the film that I didn't like it would have to be the very predictable conflict (hereby written in white as to not spoil it for people who haven't watched it yet though because it's super predictable I'm pretty sure one can guess accurately on their own accord - the man is discovered to have a family and wife as the conflict of the film.) I can even overlook that however because the film is so beautifully executed that you don't notice the minor glitches and I have to admit that is the only plausible plot point to make Jenny (Carey Mulligan's character) fully realize her true potential and direction in life. If I was Jenny in the film, I would be greatly perturbed at being seduced by a much older man,  no matter how suave and charming, man from the curbside. That's why I loved that Peter Sarsgaard's character, David Goldman who would become her lover, does not feel overtly creepy (pedo anyone?) and their exchanges throughout were realistic and rather quite sweet until her discovery of his domestic status. Sarsgaard plays David quite well to that affect and becomes almost, the perfect lover and the answer to her general ennui. What garnered Carey Mulligan's Oscar nomination was her perfect portrayal of teenage angst, coupled with the palpable ennui, boredom and the intense need to show off and "be different" from her peers. It is seriously pitch perfect because I truly identified with her when I watched it (I was also sixteen at the time too to boot).

The cherry on top of it all has to be of course the impeccable attention to the detail of the time period (à la Mad Men) and the wonderful clothes. Carey Mulligan looks like the perfect Audrey Hepburn incarnation in her cute hairdo and simple chic dresses with adorable little accessories. Her relatively shabbier outfits such her school uniform looks equally pitch perfect as well. All the resulting ensembles give off an air of timeless classical elegance that is sure to endure time and inspire all future audiences. I have to say what is equally compelling as her clothes is her well coiffed hair - I loved her bangs so much once I went to the hair salon with photos of her hair in multiple angles however they have since grown out. I don't know exactly why I love them so much, perhaps it is the springy youthfulness that it exudes which accentuates her romantic sweet appearance.




I can go on and on gushing over how amazing everything looks, however that would take forever, so I would be focusing on only Jenny and one of David's friends, Helen, who is played by the radiant Rosamund Pike. Helen is a lot more mature than the young Jenny and her luxurious style reflects that. She appears rather superficial and shallow which is shown through the excess overload of accessories. She is the one that teaches Jenny about the ways of men, kind of her mentor as the  unsophisticated teen meanders her way into an alien worldly society. Though her style can appear to be almost too much at times, in stark comparison to the simple Jenny, shes serves as a foil to the innocent and naïve teen and Pike seems to carry off the look with aplomb.




Unfortunately I just double checked Carey Mulligan's birthday and it appears to be May 28th instead of May 27th - Nylon seems to have jumped the gun a little early! Nevertheless it never hurts to be a few hours early as I have other things planned for tomorrow's post so it's safe to say to Miss Mulligan: Happy 26th Birthday! You're one super pretty, talented actress and I look forward to all your future films because in my books, you can't do any wrong.

P.S. Clothes on Film did what I failed to do and better many times over in their fashion in film review of Norwegian Wood.

Meditative

 Lynn Canyon Park

Sometimes I can't help but wonder what if I had a better camera instead of a crappy point and shooter (like I probably won't be saying this if I had a Canon G12 or something) but I am hopeful because the father is feeling surprisingly generous this year :) I really would like to explore all the wonderful natural parks Vancouver has to offer and this is definitely feasible once my sisters are here to be my reluctant chaperones.

Too Much of Good Thing

It's been a while since I have eaten any Chinese food, let alone good and appetizing ones so I surprise even myself to say that I had way too much. The past two days were spent entertaining the numerous relatives that came from all around the world to attend the cousin's wedding and eating out every single day, non-stop from breakfast to midnight snacks. The accumulation of greasy stir fried food proved to be too much for me as I woke up feeling nauseated with a nasty headache. Therefore I was rather unpatriotic and devoted the day to detox and even drink wheat grass shots in the process than partake in Victoria Day festivities. Sorry for the lack of full body shots but I have to say the wedding was exquisite and I enjoyed myself greatly. Happy Victoria Day and here's to the end of the long weekend...

A Teaser

D-1 till my cousin's wedding and finally with something to show! I am fooling around with my aunt's ginormous, wacky earrings from the 80s just for fun here but you do see the print of the dress I am wearing. I think if I wear something boring like a plain tee with jeans I can definitely wear these earrings for a full fun vintage look.

Happy Belated, Dad

Happy weekend everyone! The post on fashion vloggers is from late Wednesday before Blogger ate up the post. I am so glad Blogger's up and running again after being down for two days in a row. A record! It did disrupt the schedule of blogging once a day which is rather disappointing because Thursday's post would have been exactly on my father's birthday. On the other hand, no worries, I am not going to force anyone to read on endless drivel on my dad, The Boar Father. Haha, I kid, I kid. But no in belated celebration, I much rather talk about what I associate with my father the most fashion/design-wise, which is 無印良品 or Muji.

For those who don't know much about their history, they conveniently have a wikipedia page. My dad loves the brand's merchandise so much that he even has the membership visa card. Truth to be told, I am not sure how well the North American crowd is familiar with the label because there are some Michigan friends who instantly recognize their well designed pens (even with their famous lack of conspicuous labels), yet many others draw a blank even when I mention it explicitly. The label only has that one store in New York City in North America so I don't blame them at all while it is  everywhere in Asia (at least in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei, Tokyo and Seoul - cities that I have been to recently that I can personally vouch for). They have a wide variety of high quality items ranging from the edible to furniture. Everything is just supremely well designed and it stands out from other "life style" stores just because everything is well done and impeccable. You can be assured to expect the best from the brand and its offerings. I use to fantasize that if I did become an industrial designer I would either work at Apple or Muji for life, quite happily. The brand is synonymous with efficient, sleek, timeless, minimal design in Asia just as Apple is in the U.S.

In my books, Muji can pretty much never do any wrong. This is why one of my favourite things to do in Hong Kong is to go shopping around Muji with my father (and with the Muji card we get great discounts and air mileage points, natch). This is also one of the moments why I love and am endlessly grateful of the fact that my father is a man of the arts, a professional architect, who appreciates the beauty behind a well designed good and the tremendous efforts behind the design process to make it look, work and feel just perfect. It is also a major plus that since the clothes are designed by the Japanese, their clothes fits my father's über slender frame perfect to a T (he claims to be the same exact weight since his college days, pfffffft). Alas I don't have much Muji products with me at the moment to have personal items to show everybody but my favourites are their yuzu & apple gummy candy, their clothes and their amazing collection of stationery. Words cannot fully describe their awesomeness and I am thankful for the very first time that pictures are worth a thousand words - a thousand of my unwritten words that I don't have to force you to read...until tomorrow, muahahahaha.

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Fashion Vloggers

I admit, quite reluctantly, that I spend way more time on Youtube than I ever should. But I guess it's okay to do so since it is summer and hey, I've got the time! Anyway moving on, I couldn't go out much because it has been pouring quite a bit recently. I spent the last few days unfortunately cooped up inside, which is why I am blogging about Youtube. I noticed that there are an increasing number of "fashion vloggers" on the video sharing site than ever before. It has already been quite established that Youtubers will make haul videos and "beauty vlogs" while bloggers will write "fashion blogs" and neither crossing the line quite so much for vlogging, so it's incredibly interesting to see people move away from the 2D format to something more interactive. Here's two of my most favourite "fashion vloggers" of Youtube and their latest videos (click on the label for the link to their Youtube channels):

The the two girls Melissa and Stephanie have great taste and loves to thrift like many fashion bloggers do. I just love how well edited the videos are and how amazing is their intro? (I suspect it is La Roux).

I have to admit I think I like Jenn and Sarah just the teeniest bit more simply because I have subscribed to them longer. Again fabulously edited videos (great soundtrack anyone?) with the same penchant for thrifting.

I am so glad I got this post out just before the day is over - I didn't know Blogger would be down for maintenance ahead of time! I will let all know if summer school really happens or not (apparently I am enrolled for some classes) but for now, enjoy these videos :)

Hide/Seek

Finally, another art post! I have been hankering around to post one ever since the post on Whitfield Lovell. I have again been very fortunate to be able to attend David C. Ward of the National Portrait Gallery's lecture when he came to visit the school. His lecture was generally on the Hide/Seek exhibit that was on at the end of last year. However the real reason I went was because of the "A Fire of My Belly" controversy of David Wojnarowicz's video. It is slightly disturbing so for the faint of heart, please watch at your own discretion. Also this full length video is different from the one displayed as part of the show, which had been edited down to four minutes.

I was sad when I learnt that the Smithsonian secretary pulled it from the exhibit. Curator David Ward had anticipated that there would be some sort of uproar over the showcase of prominent American homosexuals, but he said that he did not fully realize the magnitude of how the original message of the show would be misconstrued by Tea Partiers. They made it seems as if Wojnarowicz was trying to make some sort of statement on Christ when in fact, the artist was commenting on AIDS and the suffering of the infected in the late 1980s. The video illustrated the dire situations of those with AIDS as well as the tragic stigma surrounding the disease back in the day.

The gallery received tremendous backlash when it did pull the plug on the video - most notably the Andy Warhol Foundation ceased funding for future Smithsonian exhibits. The matter was further complicated by the fact that the National Portrait Gallery is a public museum funded by tax dollar and not a private institution and therefore had to bow down to public and Federal pressure. I was however, relieved to hear that Ward was fully against the removal of the video even though in the end he could not stop it from happening. Luckily the video can be viewed online despite what had happened. Fortuitously, I also came upon these set of photographs of Jean-Baptiste Mondino (no less!) as the legendary Robert Mapplethorpe for an editorial of Numéro Homme. Mapplethorpe's work was part of the exhibition, making this sort of relevant, in a way.

Images courtesy of MODELS.com Feed

To Live For a Day Like This

Groundbreaking news of the day: I am not doing summer school after all. The university I was going to attend was too frustrating to deal with, where its annoying bureaucratic procedures got too often in the way. In the end, I decidedly to make do without it, because there is so much I wanted to do outside the classroom anyway. I think I am way too burnt out to be attending class again just two days after busting a gut and two kidneys studying for end of the year exams. Moreover for the first time in my life I have white hair growing amidst the folds of my jet black hair which I would like to attribute to stress more than anything.

So I have decided to be selfish and take a mental-health holiday by saying "to hell with summer school" to do things my way. Which of course includes eating pizza with prosciutto and arugula and drinking tea. I am also half way through The Pale King and things are looking pretty good so far. It was just a great wonderful languid day to rest and not worry about deadlines or things that need my immediate attention. I won't be too much of a sloth and I will get a some kind of summer job soon...next week. Fashion posting will resume shortly, ciao.

Summer Here We Go

Hello from Vancouver! I arrived luckily with nary a mishap, save for one lost carry on which they soon found and and delivered it to me this afternoon so problem solved. My summer break is indeed quite long - four months to be precise. Thankfully there is plenty of things to do around here to keep me busy, from taking three summer classes in the sexy fun subjects such as Physics, Chemistry and Calculus to finish reading all the books on the Harvard Classics series or to just simply enjoy the beautiful city and bask in the sun's glow.

Things I would like to accomplish this summer:

• - paint
• - practice photography
• - go to the beach
• - finish Harvard Classics/Great Books
• - master "Claire de Lune"
• - learn basic German
  

Despite of having a long laundry list of a combination of things that I want to do and need to do, I would like to take on a new blogging challenge: to post one post everyday for a month. Ideally I would have already started on the first of May and work my way through the following thirty one days, however due to exams I can only start now. The final date of the challenge will be June 8th but I would be happy to post at that rate if I don't run of steam! So here is goes, and let me start with some great editorials to inspire everybody for the summer. And what would you guys want do this summer?

Done

Someone's all done with school and exams(at least for the next four months off)! Hip hip hooray. I don't mean to look quite so tired - indeed I am also just happy to be finally finished with everything and don't have to stress out so much anymore for the time being. I am sitting on my room mate's empty bed as her side of the room is completely clear already. I think she's already on her flight back to her hometown of San Francisco. I, on the other hand, am woefully behind in terms of packing which could also explain the sulking. I am really excited as well because I have a few things planned for the blog. By the way it rained for the first time in a week and a half yesterday so I got the chance to wear my Hunter boots that arrived promptly from Zappos. I will be in Vancouver for the summer and I should arrive soon tonight. I will be blogging from there by tomorrow's post. :)