How-To: Dress up the White Tshirt

I think the plain white teeshirt must be the most underrated item ever. I guess most of us are just too caught up with the newest clothes out each season - now 4 seasons to be exact, including pre-fall and cruise collections - to sometimes go back the the very basics.

So here I've pieced together 4 looks on Polyvore to honour this hardworking little number in our wardrobes. All the outfits uses T by Alexander Wang's white teeshirt. 

The first look isn't intended for your typical cookie cutter girl, but rather the "I cut cookies" girl, which is why I incorporated elements of that gorgeous spiked Lita skyscraper heels, YSL leopard print pony fur purse and that red Iman lippie. I also especially love the trend of patterend skinnies, which is why I chose this snakeskin glossy number here to be the feature of this outfit. 

I've been watching a lot of GossipGirl recently after a few years of drought from it. It wasn't that I was abstaining from that backstabbing bitching goodness, but rather I just kind of forgot about it for a while so I've skipped Season 3 and 4 to go straight to Season 5. You don't really need history to watch GG. 
Of course my sartorial role model is always Serena VDW, because her wardrobe is really amazing and pretty much what I'd wear to anywhere. And her hair is always gorgeous. 


For this look, tuck your white tee into a neon bright maxi skirt. I would advise you against cotton/jersey material to polish the look up, so go for chiffon or silk woven fabrics instead. Complete with equally loud sandals and satchel and add an embellished vest or denim vest.

For this look, I kept the palette rather muted along the lines of deep blue, black and grey but the centre of attention here is really that sequin skirt. If you don't have a sequin skirt, just opt for a slightly more dressed up skirt like leather one, or an embellished or rosette one. Basically just any skirt to pull this whole outfit together.
PS Doesn't Sun Feifei look gorgeous in the editorial for Vogue China here?

Finally, a preppy girl look. Tuck your white shirt into any preppy schoolgirl skirt - here I used a navy polka dot skirt but you can substitute it with a houndstooth, striped or checkered skirt. Pair it off with a red blazer for some colour and a ladylike satchel. 


Some general rules of the thumb to dress up your white shirt:
1. Pair it with an interesting bottom that will pull together your whole look or bring the attention just to that piece alone. It can be anything from a maxi skirt (solid color, no prints) to just skinny pants or jeans (ripped jeans are fine too!) to a cocktail-ish skirt. 
2. Top it off with a blazer! A blazer and shirt never goes wrong - they're like jam and butter.
3. Keep the rest of your outfit simple - eg just the white shirt and black skinny jeans - but add some really kickass shoes!


Don't forget your makeup and hair counts towards your overall look as well! 
Let me know what you think of this new how-to series and if you would like to see any more of this in the future! :)

Lips as red as wine

Wearing thrifted cropped black tee and maroon billowy chiffon pants, Rubi wedges, H&M bracelet

The year of the Dragon is finally here! This year's Chinese New Year does indeed feel too soon because it's just a few weeks after the new year on the calendar...
Wore this pretty pair of wine red chiffon pants in the days leading up to chinese new year to get myself into the festive mood. In case you haven't noticed already, I'm a sucker for all things slightly sheer and billowy, which gives great movement when you walk, so this pair of pants was something that I've been lusting after for quite some time.

This chinese new year, both my mom and my childhood friend with whom I've spent practically every new year's with are overseas, so it feels really boring at home with just me and my dad. Usually my chinese new year would be spent collecting red packets (for my international readers those are packets filled with money given from elders), eating a giant sumptous feast prepared for CNY eve, sleeping over at my friend's house, and playing with mini sparklers. But this year it was just really me.and.my.dad. That did stop us from making dumplings on the eve though - dumplings are always a traditional must on the eve. It's pretty hard work - from preparing the ingredients for the filling, making the dough, rolling the dough out into small pieces to finally sealing it. But it's a laborious process that usually brings the whole family together into its making.

Here's how they look like before they were dropped into the pot!

Have a great chinese new year - there are a total of 15 days to it!

Your Ex-lover is Dead

Wearing Topshop lace blouse, The Scarlet Room black leather shorts, heart print tights, New Look wedges, rings from all over

This is my favourite go-to look on days when I am feeling a little bad-ass. Usually I tend to go for looks that incorporate both leather and lace for a little bit of balance. I especially like this Topshop lace blouse that I got during their annual sale last year because it is so versatile (nevermind the fact that it's tagged a UK16). It is slightly asymmetrical, which makes it great to be worn as a layering piece or as outerwear - I always wear it over a shift dress or floral print dress to make my outfit more interesting. I also wear it as a shirt on its own or wear a knit cropped sweater over it for some nice layering effect.

I'm a sucker for anything that is slightly sheer, billowy and has movement when I walk in it - so I guess this is kind of like the perfect piece for me.

What are some of the pieces in your wardrobe that work the extra mile for you?

Little Miss White

I wore this beautiful maxi dress on a sunny day out to Marina Bay Sands and thoroughly enjoyed the sun and the view. There's now a beautiful manmade pond just outside the shopping arcade for shoppers to rest their tired feet and look at the small goldfish and lilypads floating atop the water. And the view across Singapore River to tall skyscrapers was just beautiful as usual.

That day was complete with fluffy white clouds decorating the sky and perfect for an all white outfit. I love this maxi dress from The Scarlet Room cos it's kind of sexy with lace inserts, but yet not vulgar. And it has just the right asymmetry that is in this season - short in front and slightly longer at the back hems.

Wearing The Scarlet Room maxi dress, Rubi Wedges, random brown satchel, rings from everywhere



I also brought my Diana mini in WHITE - a Christmas gift from a friend - out with me for her walk. This is my first roll of film and my first time using LOMO cameras so fingers crossed that the photos will turn out alright after developing! I'm trying out a few multiple exposures, and I'm really excited to see how they will turn out! I'll be scanning in the photos and posting them up once I finish this roll.
A small tip: when doing multiple exposures, use the Sunny mode if you want the background image to be strong and switch to Cloudy mode when you want the overlaying image to be faint.

You might want to take up film photography because it requires both technique and creativity to capture a perfect shot with great composition. The reason why I like it so much is because you get that dreamy lo-fi effect that you get on film which you just can't replicate digitally. You can switch up the types of films you use - like using redscale films, expired films, trying out films with various ISOs, and then cross processing them and playing with multiple exposures and flash etc... the possibilities are endless. Some examples to get you motivated here, here and here.

Anyway, the Diana mini is really petite - it just fits onto your palm and it is really lightweight as well so making it easy to drop into your bag and carry around everyday to capture whatever you see on the streets. Oh - not to mention it's a perfect attention attracter :D

Come as you are

Photographed by Greg Kadel, styled by Naomi Smith for Vogue Australia 50th Anniversary Sept 2009
Models: Abbey Lee Keshaw and Catherine McNeil

I rarely share editorials on my blog because I think it's a lazy blogger's way to blogging. I mean sharing editorials photos is just like plucking the photos off from another online source and then reblogging it onto your own site - same with sharing streetstyle photos.
But this one was just too good to pass up - the styling felt effortless although there were so many difficult pieces to style such as the couture-like dresses...but it all came together very well and natural. The colors blended into the outdoors background extremely well, sometimes complementing it and sometimes contrasting with it. Even in shots of semi-nudity, it felt natural and unlike some other editorials whereby it looked like the stylist just had to expose a boob or two.

I especially love the photography as well - the lighting is simply amazing as observed from the shadows they throw out and how it hits the models. I love how the photographer captures the portrait shots of the models, making them seem exposed to heighten the intimacy of it. Overall a beautiful series of editorials with a good mix of color, sepia and B&W shots.

Hussein Chalayan: Les Arts Decoratifs Retrospective

I'm sorry I've been keeping all these photos of the Hussein Chalayan retrospective that I went to see in Paris earlier last year in July to myself! I was so excited to share them with all of you originally but I never got around to doing it. And now I've decided that I shouldn't hide them anymore but attempt to give this amazing retrospective a well deserved review.

Hussein Chalayan's work is characterized by an intellectual rigor and a quest for technical perfection (not just in clothes making techniques, he literally pushes technological boundaries), which often defies fashion conventions. He often uses his clothes as a medium to express his views on politics, social problems (such as war) and economic realities of the era. Hussein Chalayan was born in Nicosia in 1970, and graduated from Central St Martin's in 1993 and created his own fashion house just one year later. I really respect his designs because I feel that he overcomes fashion stereotypes (eg. that fashion is superficial) by incorporating research in anthropology, body anatomy, philosophy, architecture and science into his creative process.

The exhibition not only showcases his clothes, but a few short films which he produced on various subjects such as terrorism, DNA genome technology, subtle forms of violence in our daily lives and technology overtaking many aspects on man's life today.

This dress was presented for the first time in July 1993 at his graduation collection. He based the thesis of this collection, Buried Dresses, on the duality of spirit and matter by researching the works of Isaac Newton and Carl Gustav Jung. This dress was created with having iron filings thrown at magnetized clothing and then buried, his first combination of using unconventional means and technology to communicate ideas through fashion.

This collection was my first exposure to Hussein Chalayan's work as I was enchanted by how the model simply stepped into the circular table (photo above) and hooked the entire tabel onto her waist belt and converted it into a skirt in an instant. At that point in time I didn't understand what Chalayan was trying to say through this collection, I just thought it was an amazing mechanical trick - but this AW 2000 collection makes reference how Turkish Cypriots were subject to ethnic cleansing in Cyprus prior to the division of the island in 1974.

Staged in a minimalistic white room, the models appeared in seemingly simple clothes and proceeded to seize the objects in the room and fitting them into special pockets in their garments designed to hide them. In the final act, the models converted the chair covers into various shift dresses and packed up the chairs into wooden suitcases and then the final model converted the wooden table into a skirt and exited the set, leaving the white room completely empty and lifeless. Hussein Chalayan was trying to explore how the people affected by the war was hiding their possessions and carrying them while on exodus.

Blindscape, SS 2005

For this groundbreaking SS 2007 collection, Hussein Chalayan created a series of mechanical dresses which were able to morph from one era's style to another as a retrospective of fashion hisotry. I believe that in this circumstance, it really takes a genius to be able to sketch out all the silhouettes from the early Victorian ages to present to determine which are the elements that one era can borrow from another to physically morph the dresses. 

Genometrics, AW 2005

Airborne, AW 2007

This collection was presented in four parts representing the four seasons to comment on how cycles of the weather had parallels with life and death of Man. The highlight was the video animation dress that was lit up by 15600 LED lights to represent summer. Again, Chalayan integrates technology in his designs by designing hats that glow red in the dark winter. It was a lovely transition between seasons and ultimately, he showed that clothes were still at the center of work in a series of parachute dresses that seemed to blow themselves up in the presence of wind. I stood in front of the display window for a good 20 minutes trying to observe the cut used and I still don't understand how he did it.

Whatever it is, I believe Hussein Chalayan will continue to be a force to be reckoned with in the fashion world - respected by people not only within the fashion industry for his talent and creativity, but also by non-fashion people to be someone who expresses his viewpoints on serious world/social issues through fashion. Named previously by Kar Lagerfeld to be THE designer he would like to see take over at Chanel, I believe he still possesses immense potential as both a designer and a vocal propagator of social issues (:

To new beginnnings!

Hello everyone!

Yes, this is Kristie here. I have been told to self-intro for quite a few weeks already, but I never really got down to doing it. Well, guess I am finally getting down to it!

I used to have a personal blog, Ifshefloats, but closed it due to personal issues and major exams. Now that all the drama is over, why not start blogging again? I am pretty new to fashion blogging and have absolutely no inkling on how all this works, but I am willing to learn and I hope the readers of Naked Glory will help me along the way :)

A little bit about me... I like to draw and I hope to study Art/Illustration soon. I'm not exactly sure how I'll get there, but I'm working on it. I started doodling people from lookbook in my journal daily in around the end of 2008. My dream is to someday illustrate childrens' books. I honestly don't know if I will branch out into fashion illustration or painting, or maybe even just end up being an engineer in the future. But whatever it is, I'm just doing what I enjoy now and see where it takes me!

I have a tumblr at http://ifshesketches.tumblr.com where I upload most of my doodles and scans from my journal, updating from time to time with a few feature posts.

Just so you know, there is a particular illustrator that I'm insanely in awe of: Danny Roberts. He is phenomenal! I love how he creates a character in each of his subjects (usually models) and expresses their features so well! Please check him out at http://igorandandre.blogspot.com.

Oh, I'm also in the midst of revamping my room at the moment! I hope the results will be blog-worthy to share, hehe. Here are just some of the Work In Progress snaps from my instagram. I painted my door turquoise and my ceiling is stuck in between this pale blue now. I also revamped by drawer by painting the front edges dark grey to make them look more presentable.

My first 3 days of 2012 have been great so far! I hope Naked Glory readers are having an awesome start too. Even if you feel that it started out badly... Hey. Let's not allow the start define our ending! Cheers! ^^

xx

Kristie S.