If The Shoe Fits...

Then buy a pair in each different color!

I think many women have similar sentiment as the above. Quality, durability, function, design, color, purpose, season, brand name, prestige, status, fashion, fad, or for whatever reason, buying shoes is usually considered as a small investment, just a bit more than for any other fashion items. As for myself, though I'm more of a bag/purse person (meaning I choose my outfit according to the color of the bag I want to use that day), I do confess that I own more than 10 pairs of shoes. A lot? Well, not as many as the girls in Sex and The City would have had, and I bet much fewer than Imelda Marcos' heritage.

Christian Louboutin's Marie Antoinette's shoes (SMRP $6,300)

Talking about SaTC, I've heard that the four leading girls in the story were very much responsible for reviving the consumerism in high end brands of footwear. Exclusive brand names like Manolo Blahnik, Jimmy Choo, Stuart Weitzman and Christian Louboutin enjoyed much more profit than ever, thanks to mid to high class ladies around the world who couldn't keep themselves out of the lure of NYC glamorous life. Owning a pair of brand-named high-heeled stiletto snake skin ankle strap sandal with SMRP of $5,000 has become a fad in female fashion world, just like owning a Jaguar car would be to a male with middle age crisis.

Such ridiculously priced footwear may have the best quality and the most fashionable style, but there are plenty of other less expensive brands out there that can give them a run for their money. I've been meaning to talk about some good British shoes brands, that are getting popular by the day. Why British? UK has a long history of footwear making, supported by the strong industrial and military background from mid 19th century. From then, the country is the home to many fashion icons in the shoe design world. Here are the highlights of some of the Brit brand names worth to check.

Contrary to the popular belief, the iconic Dr. Martens was not originally British (clue: the Germanic name), but from Germany. However, ever since a Brit company bought the patent rights, the name has been associated with Brit designed boots. A more UK brand for boots, Fly London is one of the hottest brands out there. Their creations mostly have the chunky soles, solid stitchings and military look associated with the Brit punk fashion. The women collections own more quirky design, bolder colors and touches of feminine twists to soften the rough edges. In addition to their superb design, customers can enjoy good quality leather and finishing since most of the shoes are made in Portugal, the country besides Italy and Spain that boasts excellent craftsmanship in leather goods. In fact, I made the discovery of this brand when I was in Lisbon last year, only to sadly realize that the brand is hard to find in Japan.

Fly London's latest stuff  (pics arranged by me)

Shoes by T.U.K., or Trade United Kingdom, came to be popular among youth thanks to the patronage of famous punk bands like Green Day. Targeted mostly at teenagers and young consumers, TUK is a much more affordable alternative of Dr. Martens. Their designs are the basic staples for punk-gothic-lolita-emo fashionistas, with chunky-heeled leather mary-janes, platform pumps in rockabilly reminiscence styles, colorful patented oxford creeper sneakers and combat boots. Another perk of this brand is that they provide assorted choices of artfully painted vintage tattoo-inspired burlesque pumps, something edgy yet sexy, tempting items for shoe collectors. You can get TUK's footwear almost in any punk-gothic-lolita-emo fashion outlets in Tokyo (naming Harajuku).

TUK's collections  (pics arranged by me)

Saving the best for last, Irregular Choice is a brand that is not targeted at everyone. You either love 'em, or don't want to be caught dead wearing 'em. The much sought-after brand is dubbed as the "Viagra of the shoe industry", thus calling their designs irregular is a wee it of an understatement. When it comes to design, this brand has no holds barred. Theirs are mixes of plush furry stuffed animals, swathes of boldly printed fabrics and heels with lots of attitude. The combination of good quality leather with shaggy faux fur in any colors imaginable, IC's shoes are a sure bet for every attention-grabber out there.
The designer went further in his attempt to shake free our inhibition by calling the collections with names like "Hot Mama", "Driving Bananas", and "In For The Thrill". Apart from shoes, IC also manufactured hats, accessories, apparels, and much adored funky bags. Amazon Japan's Javari stocks some of their shoes and bags collections, although in a much steeper price than the originals.
I personally think IC design is so kitchy they are brilliant, akin to wearing an object straight out of Salvador Dali's paintings, or sharing a banana and a cup of Campbell's soup with Marilyn Monroe (remember Warhol, anyone?).

Irregular Choice's newest choices  (pics arranged by me)

Next time any of you happen to visit the UK, please watch your steps! (And others too!)

Beauty Is Only Package Deep?

For some women (and men?) cosmetics are necessary evils. Some would prefer to regard them as guilty pleasures, as daily staples, or as an uncharted territory. For whatever reasons, make ups have carved a niche in our everyday life. Ranging from the traditionally brewed concoction to color the hair, to the high-end super formula cream that can smoothen even a rhino's thick end, we usually put quite a lot of faith in the product we are using. And when it comes to the packaging, it may be the last part we use to judge the effectiveness of the product.

As for me, I noticed that apart for Anna Sui's stuff, my choice of beauty products tend to have more clinical generic packages. Since they don't come that cheap, it's an enigma why big brands such as Clinique, MAC, Kiehl's and L'Occitane don't present their products with more blings and bangs. Even bigger brands such as Lancome, Kanebo, Shiseido, SK II, Bobbi Brown, Chanel, Dior and Sisley sort of uniformly sell their products in rather dullish looking boxes and drab packages.

From Benefit Cosmetics

I did some wondering, if whether or not girls buy some cosmetics solely just because they dig the packages and the images they are projecting. I don't exactly know the statistics for such research, but I know for sure that there are plenty of pretty stuff out in the market that are adorably packaged and wittily marketed, just waiting for unsuspecting customer to get their hands on them.

Benefit Cosmetics from San Francisco is one of the companies that pays some good designers good money to deck out their products quite artfully. When I first laid my eyes on them, I noticed how clever and witty they represent their stuff. Their packages look like something straight out of Marilyn Monroe's boudoir, or a vintage magazine. I guess their aim is exactly that, to appeal to some of those out there who are soft hearted when it comes to "retro", "classic" or "vintage" stuff (I'm guilty as charged). Here are some of their collections.

Got to love that "Beauty Patrol"

Somehow quite similarly designed yet differently targeted, born in the UK, Soap and Glory products have also captured my attentions from some years ago. They stated quite explicitly that their products are targeted for higher age brackets than Benefit, around "moms'" ages. Nevertheless, I enjoy their repertoire of packages adorned with retro pics of ladies straight out of the 50's magazines. And if you notice, they also tend to use lots of powdery pink color. An attempt to appeal maybe to deeply buried females' mother instincts? (you know, ie.: babies are pinkish)

LOL to "Sexy Mother Pucker" lipgloss!

Last but not the least, representing the avant guard country of France, Paul & Joe Beaute is getting hotter by the day. Despite the naming, unlike Dolce and Gabbana, there is neither Paul nor Joe directly involved in this brand (the brand is named after the designer's sons). So this brand has plenty of excuses to be out there looking so adorably cute and softly feminine. Their pouches and novelties are very much sought after in Japan, and with products such as lipsticks carved in the shape of kitties, no such wonder. The designer, whose fashion lines (Paul and Joe Sister, etc) are enjoying a big success, also uses salmon pinkish color quite liberally in her beauty products.

Still no conclusion on whether or not customers are very much tempted to buy beauty products based on their packaging, but I can say such products are very very appealing to the feminine hearts especially when they are aggressively marketed. I guess when it comes to flicking the magic wands, dabbing the colors and applying pouty smackers, prettier wands, bubblier colors, and juicier smackers will lift up our feminine spirits and make us feel a tiny wee bit more special than the rest of the species.
PS: other noteworthy brands include Anna Sui, Too Faced, Urban Decay and Bourjouis.

Cottons To Be Reckoned

Ever since I've had the genial idea to buy myself a sewing machine, I've been quite obsessed with learning not only about fashion and dress making, but also about fabrics. One one the oldest creations of mankind, fabrics have a long and quite violent history (remember the silk road?), and I found it as fascinating as the history of fashion itself.

Many nations boast their own traditional fabric making and patterns, as Indonesia (batiks and ikats, etc.) and Japan (chirimen and chiyogami pattern). Although we tend to take them from granted nowadays, the complicated and intricate designs, functions and meanings related to such traditional cloths are solid evidences on how we, human kind, value our own creations as more than just something to cover up ourselves.

Juicy Couture's "Juicy Crittoure"

The fact that their ubiquitous presences in our everyday life also prove that they are more man's best friend that a dog would ever be (even dogs are fashion victims these days!).
The recent super advanced researches like nanotechnology is taking fabrics to a higher platform, not just as cover ups, but as functional devices on their own.  The highly absorbent microfibers and heat-tech fabrics are now used in sophisticated fields, such as in the fire brigades, the space exploration and.. Uniqlo's recent market gain :-).

Today I'm not going to talk about any complicated or sophisticated thing. I'm going to introduce some of my favorite textile designers, whose creations I think are sorely underexposed and should deserve more credit than fashion designers.

Representing Japan, Etsuko Furuya is my foremost favorite textile designer. Her whimsical and colorful designs in her "Echino" (http://www.f-echino.com/) collections are an experience on itself, much like going to a amusement park with a cotton candy in hand, or visiting the zoo with a bag of jelly beans. Here are some of her loveliest creations, mostly printed in cotton-linen blend or double gauze cotton.

Some of Echino's collections

Piglet, my all time favorite from Echino

Made an iPad cover with it

Bold colors combined with hippy wildlife creatures or everyday objects are her signature designs. She also creates her own fashion line and ceramics collection.

The next one is Michael Miller (http://www.michaelmillerfabrics.com/), from the US of A. The quite long tradition of patchwork quilting in US is the main drive behind the rich culture of textile design there. In terms of cotton print patterns, I think the US has the most creatively funky and lovely creations of all time. Michael Miller in particular has some of the coolest cotton stuff, ranging from absurd comic prints, to adorable flowery pieces. Some of his prints I love so much, I don't dare touch them with my scissors!

Dysfunctional Family, Michael Miller fabrics

Paris, Michael Miller fabrics

The 50's Kitchen, Michael Miller fabrics

Jim Thompson (http://www.jimthompsonfabrics.com/) is someone I just have to mention. A designer who was also a US military officer, he was the guy who introduce the beauty of Thai silk to the Occidental world. His collections of silk scarfs are equal to even Hermes's (and quite as expensive). Apart from that, his fabrics are more oriented to elegant household decor, though they provide some stuff for apparel and trinkets as well. Here are some of the stuff from the designer house:

Lastly, the emporium of Liberty (http://www.liberty.co.uk/) from the UK is getting more and more of my attention lately. Although it's not exactly one designer per se, this house of design is currently so hot, that even Manolo Blahnik and Miu Miu of Prada decided to get a piece of their cake.

Manolo Blahnik for Liberty

I love their statement about vintage: "There's Vintage and there's Designer Vintage at Liberty. Vintage is not a fad it's a lifestyle".

W. Bourton's Paisley for Liberty

Their cotton is of high quality,  so fine and silky, and their designs are wide range, starting from classical flower and paisley prints, to bold colorful abstracts. They are also quite pricey (1.2m X 1m of fabrics cost the cheapest around $25). In short, they're the Coco Chanel of fabrics.

Satsuki A. for Liberty

One more thing I might add, in my humble opinion I think fashion is: 1% brand name, 1% attitude, and the rest is all about the fabrics (the cut, the texture, the color, the weight, the combination, the pattern, everything!).

Moose Me?

Ah! Gotta love those Scandinavian designs. No, I'm not going to talk about IKEA or Marimekko, but some other brands that are equally funky, colorful, playful and cute.

Recently I've been loving these two brands: "Urban Elk" and "Färg & Form". They have absolutely the most adorable goofy-looking Elk prints, something oh-so Scandinavian (quite exotic for a tropic like me).

Urban Elk (http://shop.urbanelk.dk/), a Danish brand, is more concentrated in their quest to warm up those freezing little toes and tummy in the winter.

Their sweaters and warm underwear are yummy enough to melt the coldest hart.

My personal collection includes this uber soft and warm red blanket with elk print all over it. Can't wait to snuggle inside of it with my iPad (no more books!) and a cup of Lady Grey tea.

The next pretty things are from the Swedish brand Färg & Form (http://www.fargform.com/start_e.php).

Their cute collection includes household and interior goods, such as mug cups, mittens, tray, coaster, paper napkins and rug mat.

They also provides purdy trinkets like magnets and moosey-looking reflector key chains (which was my souvenir from Stockholm).

I fell in love at the first sight with their slippers, and just had to have them. Not only that they are lovably cute, they are also very cozy and warm. Perfect for my weakling frozen toes!

Apart from their goofy moose, they also complete their characters with a hedgehog, a cat and a dog. What moose can you ask?

Pucker Up!

What's the similarity between Lulu Guinness, Betsey Johnson and Marc Jacobs? Yes, they are great designers, who are recently enjoying the limelight everywhere, but no, that's not the answer.

The answer is, the three of them seem to validate my prediction that "lip-print" is the new leopard print. So for those of you whose wardrobe are filled with the wild creatures, hurry up and hire a lion tamer and get ready for these hippy lippy stuff!

Lulu Guinness has already been famous for her to die for lip clutches (me want one!!). Her other creations are also adorned liberally with the cute pucker up galore.

I absolutely adore her fold-up umbrella... something sexy for the rainy day.

As for Betsey Johnson, her signature XOXO brand tags are usually crowned with her smacker print. She also has a collection of jewelries with sexy rhinestone studded lips that are uber gorgeous.

Apparently, not wanting to miss the momentum, the chic designer Marc Jacobs decided to join the hot-wheeled band wagon. His latest collection is splattered with lots of lots of cute pucker prints. Love the tote bags and the bangle!

So, whose lips do you think are the hottest?

That Odd Molly

I've been lusting for some of "Odd Molly" stuffs recently.

Their creations are whimsically bohemian, with a twist of charming retro look. Very feminine yet playfully cute.

They emphasize the details in the beautifully designed hand-made embroidery applique and daring choice of color. Purple and lime green seem like two clashing colors, but in their cardigan they look pretty hot to me.

This Scandinavian brand is pretty elusive to find, even in the consumers' paradise like Tokyo.

You can check them out at: www.oddmolly.com. I love their summer 2010 collection motto: "up-to-me-ism".

After scouting and scourging the www, I've finally been able to quench my desire in this website: www.deepfling.com
Their collection is far from complete, but the prices are comparably cheaper than other places. I received my purchases today, and absolutely in lust with my georgeous buys! The lovely red cardigan is marvelously chic and retro, something to brighten my gloomy winter.

However, I know for sure that even perfection still have more room for a bit more perfection, so I whipped out my scissors and turned the cardigan into something more fitting for a big bobbed girl like me.

The cute off-white buttons are from Le Droguerie (www.ladroguerie.jp), a bit pricey but worth every cents!

As for my other purchase, this terry cloth hoodie will also get a bit of makeover.

I'll shorthen a bit of the hem length. This original lenght makes me look kind of frumpy and chubby.
I'll post the finish look later!