Project Olivier Green

First week of school and I am ready to kill someone. Uh, more than one actually… but that’s another story. I just want to make a confession here: I spent my entire precious holiday by watching Project Runway. Online. On my bed. My laziness level just went up a million percents. The drama, the designs, the challenges, the adrenaline rushes (adrenaline?) really kicked out my ‘more diligent’ side to the end of the earth.

I couldn’t help, but frowned a bit though when my favorite designer got kicked out of the runway. Such a shame. And I had a lot of favorites. Like Olivier Green from Season 9. His simplicity, structural, neat, near-architectural designs really interest me. Maybe he wasn’t as good as Anya, who could make magic in the last minutes, but he has something… intriguing about him.

With the help of internet, I managed to sneak some of his Autumn 2013 collection pictures (not really out-of-trend!) The collection is definitely well-made. I can see the proportions of the clothes fit the models well and look almost sporty-classic-rebel-chic (back to my intense adjective use).

The coats and black dress, those two have potentials to be ‘investment’ pieces. I am just not sure about the major use of space-print (kinda remind me of Christopher Kane space prints) (with grimmer color) crossed with black colors from different materials (the leather looks promising though). His designs are not in the same level with other Vogue-designers, but he has the high fashion quality. I am sure of it. It’s a shame he is nowhere to be found after Project Runway.

Huff, keep fighting Olivier!

Mullet?

2014! New Year! Woo-hoo! What did you do for New Year? Partied all night in Times Square? Threw your old stuffs and bought new ones? Or searched the internet for new fashion trends, which is quite a hot topic since fashion week is just 2 months from now?

I spent my New Year’s Eve by watching Project Runway (lame alert here). Okay, season 9 (so…dated!) The designers amazed me in both good and bad ways. I love to see them fight to the last drop of their bloods (or fabric) (just watched The Hobbit. Again. So dramatic, no?) But I just couldn’t hold my barf when I saw their designs. Some are indeed great… others are ‘off’. Have to quote Michael Kors here.

The judges go on and off about ‘creativity’ every single season, you know what? Screw creativity. This is a show. A TV show. You have to steal people’s attentions. America’s attention to be precise. And there is nothing westerners love more than… sexiness. Admit it! We let Jersey Shore and SATC aired for decade and skip CNN for those two (economy? politics? laws? crimes? terrorists? Who gives a shit about them?) And don’t let me talk about The Kardashians! So lame yet we keep on talking about those hotties in leotards.

That’s the  right direction!

Of course sexy can’t come as easy as snapping your fingers (I can’t snap my fingers! Don’t know why!) It needs attention and carefulness…. maybe a little bit complicated techniques, like what Alexander Vauthier does. Yeah, I know Project Runway designers don’t have the luxury of time (shame!) What comes in my mind is something simpler though. Just one item. For bottom part. Not sexy-amazing, but versatile enough to manipulate…. 

A mullet skirt. 

A mullet has short length on the front to show your legs yet keep the balance with its long flapping tail. Sexy and edgy in one shot. I don’t know why mullet is a rare scenery in Project Runway… maybe because it takes a lot of time (really? One of the designers has sewed thousands of handmade flowers in one day!) Or it hasn’t come in their minds yet. Well, if the latter is the right answer… those guys better think of this quick and make it works! 

Image taken from Carolines Mode

Savage Beauty

Savage means wild, untamed, something unexpected in many ways. Savage is used to describe Alexander McQueen’s behavior in fashion world. I cannot find a better word to describe McQueen, but I always imagine him more than savage. His design is otherworldly, it touches our hearts in many ways that are indescribable. McQueen reminded us that there are beauties in every single thing. In a dance, in a butterfly, in snakes, in holograms, in asylums, in bird’s movements. People call McQueen’s shows theatrical, I call it life.

An honest, savage life.

Images taken from Garance Dore. Edited by Gimme Good Style.  

Sorcha O’Raghallaigh

Christmas! As a smart fashion blogger, I would like to make you think before giving you guys ideas. It’s how I roll you know. Oh okay, I want you to think because I need to fill this big empty void between ‘post’ and ‘publish’ button.

Now, I am going to ask you a very general question. What makes Christmas? No, not Santa Claus. Not reindeer. Not mistletoes. They’re just decorations. The tradition starts right after Jesus Christ was born into the world (I’ll leave the rest of the story to Mr. Dan Brown) (love his new Inferno book, by the way). Christ was born, but who gave birth to the Lord of All Things? It’s the Virgin Mary. 

I strongly believe that Virgin Mary is the most underrated woman in fashion world. Think about it, Mrs. Obama gets a lot of attention even though she just the First Lady of United States (no offense). Come on guys, Virgin Mary is the First Lady of Heaven. People should give her more attentions in modern pop culture. Maybe I am talking a bit too Christianity here. Anyway, what I am trying to do is giving praise to Sorcha O’Raghallaigh. A very talented designer that takes inspirations from religious aspects, which is very rare because religion is a very sensitive inspiration, second only to Indian culture. 

Her new collection is unsurprisingly inspired by Virgin Mary, resulting in whimsical dresses with long complicated veils, glittery crowns (so big that it looks like an actual crown) and halo-like head accessories. I don’t think normal people would like to wear these kind of dresses to casual Christmas Party (shame on you!) But I believe fashion lovers would die for one of these pieces of art (Trivia: I always mention clothes/dresses that I respect or adore as ‘pieces of art’. They deserve those titles) (And I don’t know why I am telling you this). 

If you are still questioning what kind of occasions except Christmas to wear these ‘pieces of art’, I am going to give you one more clue: It has something to do with Jack O’Lantern, pumpkin cookies, candies, and Horror Movie Marathon (my favorite: The Shining followed by Friday the 13th or Supernatural Season 1). 

Images taken from Style Bubble.

Disco Ball

Jakarta has been invaded by thousands of international artists from Alicia Keys (The Girl on Fire? Remember her?) to Djakarta Warehouse Project that brought tons of international DJs (including… drum roll please…. Mr. David Guetta, Alesso, Zedd and… okay, that’s all). Man, this year’s trend wasn’t clothes or new games to play (except stupid whatever Pong Pong Pong), it was concert. Sadly, I purposely missed all of them. It’s not like I hate watching concert. I love the idea of sweating with thousand other people while trying to get a small view of what’s happening on the stage… thousands meters away from where I stand. Concert is indeed very exciting.

Anyway, because we are currently connecting in the world of fashion blogs (aw… no!) I should tell you something more ‘fashion’ before the fashion police come and shoot me in the head for making a new fashion blog that doesn’t talk about fashion at all. So… what’s the silver lining between concert and fashion? Easy. Concert outfits aka costumes aka props aka whatever-they-wear/not wear-during-performances. 

When it comes to concert costume, my favorite is Kanye West. Okay, maybe his actions aren’t cool enough lately (I am not a big fan of Kardashians or North West) AND maybe Anna Wintour did say that she doesn’t really care about Kanye’s high-fashion breakthrough (she didn’t say that, but we all know what she was thinking with those cold stares) (poor Kanye) (honestly, his collection was indeed a bit… over-the-top), still his fashion sense has outgrown other male artists. 

I mean, who want to sing/rap inside Maison Martin Margiela’s face masks. Is it possible? Where did they put the mics? Shouldn’t his voice become a bit muffled? Is it hot? Is he able to breath? How does it feel? So many questions pop into my head. 

One thing for sure though: it looks awesomely strangely terrifyingly good. Way to go West! 

Image taken from Jak and Jil

Moto Classic

Have I told you this thing before?

Sorry guys, I am currently in this dreamy-exhausted state of mind because of my final exams week. If you are wondering why I am still blogging in this kind of weeks, well I have to stay in shape for the fashion week, no? Or else my brain would freeze and I will only write ‘beautiful’ in my yearly fashion week reviews.

Anyway, have I told you before that motorcycle jacket is the new classic item? Well, if I haven’t, there you have it. Motorcycle jacket aka biker jacket is not just a cool jacket for bad girls/boys anymore, it has joined the long list of classic items. And I believe it is in the same line with little black dress.

Actually, I was kinda confused why it is so hard to accept moto jacket (such a cool idiom, isn’t it?) as one of the classic items. We all confess that we have one in our cupboards and if we don’t, we do want to have one. It’s like having a piece of both luxury (of the leather) and chicness at the same time. Plus, you can always wear your moto jacket basically anywhere you want, making it even more versatile than little black/white dress.

Oh, don’t get me started on how-to-not-look-boring-inside-your-old-moto-jacket. Please, you can make a really heavy dictionary on how to wear moto jacket.

Well, I vote for my Moto. How about you guys?

Image taken from Garance Dore

P.S: The image above is how to wear your moto femininely. See? There are a lot of styles to explore out there, even if you have just one classic item: your moto!

Four Eyes

Back when I was in Junior High, I was not really popular. Sure, I did have some friends, but people would have told you to repeat several times and trance for a long long time, if you ask them my name. Then I received my first glasses. Oh man, what a cruel world it was. My first glasses wasn’t really cool. It is made of plastics (euh!), in perfect square shape (Harry Potter used to have a better glasses than me), and have this disgusting giant cheap symbols on both sides of the frame. I went from nobody to ‘the boy with ugly glasses’ faster than Emma Stone turns to (fake) school slut in Easy A. And I am not even proud of it.

Fast forward to a few days ago, when Warby Parker asked me for my online help in launching their newest Leith Clark collection (designed/in collaboration with Lula Magazine founder, Leith Clark!) Honestly, I wanted to run back and hid in the corner of my brain’s personal trauma center while convincing myself that not all glasses are bad. See? This is the fashion bullying effect, people! But I called my braveness and suddenly said ‘sure, I would love to take a look….’

I waited in silent…

And those digital packages finally came. I opened them silently (fingers were crossed at that time)(a bit dramatic, I have to admit) then voila! Beautiful girl, sweet colors, beautiful near-transparent frames. Everything looks quite delightful, like seeing a cone filled with green tea, avocado, neon-colored ice creams (strange description, but I have been thinking about ice cream since two days ago, the same time I received the email). In short, they are far from ‘four eyes’ or ‘geeks’, more like ‘that sweet country girl who like to wear those cute glasses everywhere she goes. And people like her soo much!’ 

Plus, I had this instant urge to watch New Girl aka Zoey Deschanel right after seeing the collection. Did you get the urge too? Not really important, just questioning my own insanity…

Truth to be told, some of the glasses are indeed ‘too dark or old or not right’ for my taste (and cat eye glasses sometimes just don’t work), but the ones above? They’re sweet.

Sweetttttt…. I just can’t stop using that word. At least, it’s better than ‘ugly’ and I have stopped those eerie voices inside my head telling me ‘glasses are bad guys.’ Maybe it’s time to go back to my glasses. You know, for old time’s sake….

Anyway, I have put some of the previews in this post and you can find more in here. Or here for sunglasses section. Or you can also go to their official website for more shopping!

P.S: If you want or interested to send something for me to publish in this blog, please email me. I am more than willing to see your arts, photos, designs, writings, thoughts, etc etc (but I am not asking for advertisements!) As long as you mean no harm to other people or like to use… rough words. Come come!

Your Festive Season

Thanksgiving is quite a strange concept for Indonesians. We question everything about that holiday. What does the turkey look like? Is it good? Why do you guys hold each other’s hand before eating? Why do you serve pumpkin pies? How to make one? What is Black Friday?

Those are questions that we really want to know, and also show how annoyingly curious we are and the fact that we know close to nothing at all about Thanksgiving. I do know one thing about Thanksgiving season though: it’s the beginning of festive season in Western cultures (please correct me, if I am wrong). And, yes, we don’t really have the same holiday manners, but when it comes to festive, all I (and everyone) can think of is food. Please, don’t get mad to me for using the ‘festive season’ reason to drive all the way down to Nanny’s Pavillon and ate this superb Uncle Harold’s steak fettuccine.

It’s not turkey, but quite a close one.

I also have this feeling that this is absolutely definitely not my last festive meal. More like the appetizer. Oh, come-on! Everyone is waiting for the great Christmas Feast, right?

Images taken from Gimme Good Style

Walter Mitty

Meh, Movies. I am not interested anymore in box office movies, even if it’s Catching Fire. The last blockbuster movie that I saw was… Gravity. And, okay, I kinda liked it, but the after-effect is not really worth to mention. Yeah, sorry Sandra!

It doesn’t mean that I hate watching movies. Please, who hates watching movies?!? I am just waiting for a really good movie. You know, the one with solid plot, talented actors/actresses, amazing settings, and enough special effects. But, seriously, these past few months every single movie seems talking about either a match to death… or vampires. Or both.

Fortunately for me (and everyone who is sick of vampires), there is this one movie that really attracts my attention. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Yes, this one is a remake (I never watch the original though) and I know there are a lot of possibilities that this movie is going to flunk right after the big release. I just can’t help but hanging to this little movie-freak-hope.

I like the simple plot (a really boring man with boring job (photo editor for LIFE magazine) suddenly jumps into a whole new adventure he has been waiting for his whole life, because one missing negative film yada yada yada).

I like Ben Stiller and Kristen Wiig chemistry in the last 3 trailers (well, there is nothing really new from those three trailers, but I can feel it. Kristen and Ben are both great by the way). And the settings! Ah, the views! The places! The nature! Everything is just too good to see (MY EYEEEESSS!!!!)

The last good thing? It is scheduled to release on Christmas, which is my favorite year of the year and the only time when I praise everyone and everything I see/touch/hear.

Ah, take me in the same boat with you Mr. Mitty (the name’s a bit funny, don’t you think?)

DIY?! S#@$$!

I did tell you a few times before that I was going to try DIY project. Okay, so yesterday I remembered this promise and because I felt great and all-creative, I thought; okay, let’s do it.

I had an old pair of sneakers, so slippery and cheap and waiting to be ruined, I bought a full set paint, brushes and new brown notepad (the notepad has nothing to do with this, but it’s so simple and cool, I just need to talk about it. Hehe, new Muji notepad. Hehe…)

When I got home, I prepared everything I need. It was like building my own studio from scratch. Tissue papers, water bottles, paint brushes scattered across my sister’s desk (first mistake! My sister hates everything artsy. She will kill me, if she reads this!)(NOOOOOO….)

I was so ready to begin.

First brush, ah-so cool! So artsy, let me imagine what it will look like. Second brush, uh-oh the paint is too watery, okay, okay here, let’s give more paint…. Third brush: hell on my sneakers.

What the hell is this??!?!!? 

I realized that my sneakers’ materials… are not really great for DIY. It’s made of something close to plastic with small canvas fabrics on each side. Perfect texture disaster means perfect color disaster, which leads into DIY failure. Epic. I was so panic, I didn’t think clear enough and threw the left sneaker into a bucket filled with water.

The result?

Let’s say… I have never seen such muddy water before.

Maybe I should retire from my artistic career. Maybe it’s time to put the paint brushes down…

Suddenly I noticed I hadn’t touched the right sneaker! SO I decided to go all out Carrie-Bradshaw-classic-paint-bag and just splatted it with water, paints, and different dark colors (dark is way cooler than bright neon colors, don’t you think?)

Fingers crossed, hoping for the best…..

Well, the result is not something I imagined before (cool studded denim sneakers with soft shades of black and grey*).. but I kinda like it.

The paint needs longer time to dry and mixed perfectly with the plastic material. I don’t know if it’s going to be okay or not. Fingers crossed again. Ah, I don’t feel really bad now.

At least, the right one looks more like MMG than Carrie.

Images are taken from my Instagram account: alexanderantonius.

UPDATE: The left one has dried off and it looks… quite cool. All soft neon with different colors’ shades. Hehe, I just need to draw some tribal patterns with my permanent markers and everything will be great. Just great! Hey, maybe I am a hidden genius after all.

*Okay, I lied about that. I want to make a graffiti sneakers… and the graffiti should be like this: