Making my own Havaianas

You know I have a thing against slippers, or flip flops, whatever you call it. To me, they're just lazy footwear that hardly has any design element in it and seeing so many people wear slippers on the streets, or even in town, repulses me. Because slipping on these rubber shoes just makes your whole outfit look sloppy, no matter how well you're dressed. But when Havaianas invited me to make my own Havaianas slippers, my opinion on these footwear changed. Ok, just slightly, but it made me realize that Havaianas is a lifestyle company, instead of being completely a fashion one. And they encapsulate fun and beach - their designs are usually always fresh and loud. 

I had fun picking out the soles, matching it with the wide array of colorful straps, and finally adding pins and embellishments to my slippers. I really wanted the turquoise sole with gold straps, but unfortunately they only have size 40 - 41 in black, gray and sand colors. *Curses my huge feet* So in the end I ended up getting black soles with metallic blue straps, paired with seahorse and dolphin pins. I've worn my own Havaianas out a couple of times and have even received compliments from other people about it! The best thing about these is that the bottom sole is NON-SLIP. I cannot emphasize enough how important this is, having experienced so many pairs of other slippers that has made me slip and fall. 

Me penning down birthday wishes for Havaianas 

Me and my boyfriend, Jason

Coincidentally, me and my boyfriend picked out the exact same color scheme for our slippers. Yes, we got teased for it. But this isn't the first time that we've had this kind of coincidences, because we sometimes fill in each other's words and have had much freakier coincidences happened before.

Thank you Havaianas for this wonderful experience. I will be relying on this pair for years to come.

Naked Glory x The Editor's Market

Wearing The Editor's Market floral graphic chiffon shirt, pleated leather skirt from The Scarlet Room, Rubi ankle boots

Here's the first of the series that I will be posting of my collaboration with local multi-label boutique store, The Editor's Market. They were kind enough to lend me a set of clothes, which I then proceeded to shoot with my friend Kristie on a weekend afternoon.

Sometimes I get a kind of frustration that I can't explain. It's like a pent-up kind of soft anger, bubbling underneath. The feeling that all my life, I've been toiling away not quite knowing what I want. But yet now when I know that I want to pursue fashion, I can't assure myself that I would definitely be able to get into the industry. I guess this series of photos is an expression of that.
I'm no longer going with the "we're still young, there's still plenty of time" argument. I'm not that young anymore, and time is like quick sand. You can't grasp it and if you allow yourself to get lost in it, you'd sink. 

Naked Glory x Lomography - Audi Fashion Festival Analogue Adventures!

Linda Hao, my favourite Singapore fashion icon :)

The adorable & famous street photographer, Rei Shito

Sufian, jewelry designer

Nat, one of the designers from MASH UP

Emiko Sato, one of the designer of Dressed Undressed

Takeshi Kinagawa, Dressed Undressed

Inside The Tent @ AFF, waiting for a show to start

A big thank you to Lomography Singapore for collaborating with my blog to allow me to shoot the chic and stylish people at Audi Fashion Festival and Blueprint! Here are some of my results. I have to confess that I am still an amateur at shooting film, so pardon the photos! There were supposed to be even more photos but I'm afraid that I've wasted a roll of film because the film got stuck, and I had opened up the back of my camera and exposed it. 

I was very happy to be able to capture Linda and Rei on film - they are two of my favourite people to go to for style.  How I see style may be different from how other people see it - I think of style as someone that is able to mix up clothes, colors and prints, wear them in an unconventional manner, and still look good aesthetically. For example, a baseball varsity jacket with a fitted shift dress and court heels. There must be an overall mood or look about the clothes that is worn on the person, and of course the attitude emanating from that person matters a lot as well. 

La Sardina is originally made from real sardina cans by fishermen, hence its name! However, the more modern versions such as mine now comes in plastic, but still in the shape of a sardin can. The La Sardina comes with a very powerful flash that has knobs to allow you to adjust the intensity of the light based on the distance of your subject. There are three different flash modes - you can shoot macro, portrait and group. What I love about this one is that it's real conversation starter! A lot of people were like "Ooh! Your camera is so cute! Can I take a photo of you with the camera?" and I was very happy to introduce Lomography to some of the foreign designers during Blueprint tradeshow. I really hope Lomography will lead the way to help analogue film make its comeback! Despite the emergence of so many film filters on iPhone and its integration into digital cameras, shooting with film is just a wonderful and magical experience. 

I will be sharing with you more lomo photos and my experience shooting with film, so stay tuned!

   

Up!

Found these old photos on my disk drive and just thought I'd share. These were taken by my friend/lovely photographer Daniela Zanardi for her submission for Harper's Bazaar x Ion annual's fashion photography competition. I think these were taken in March 2011, when I was still growing my bangs out. (Yes I had blunt cut bangs in Jan 2011!)

I used to model on the side, like whenever my friends needed to find a model for his photography projects, or when there were commercial modeling assignments. I especially loved photoshoots because they allow me to step into another character's shoes for a change, imagine the girl who live in those clothes and project her attitude.

I imagine this girl in these photos to be fashion model turned poker barbie, Lacey Jones, dressed up for a game of poker at the casinos. With her all American good looks, Lacey has managed to excel at professional poker games, in a predominantly male environment laden with stereotypes. In short, an irreverent type of girl who knows how to play her cards right, knows what she wants and she gets it.

Sunglasses make thy Man

Anna Wintour by nakedgloryvera featuring Prada sunglasses

We dress ourselves up with designer clothes and gorgeous precious stones, leather handbags and sculptural shoes, but we often forget that sunglasses is one of our most important accessories. You can just take a look at the maestros or grande dames in the industry to know that sunglasses is important to them not just as accessories but as their image. And image is a very powerful and sacred thing in the fashion industry.

Anna Wintour is never seen without her shades during fashion weeks and she has been keeping her trademark bob hairstyle for perhaps, since she was a teenager. (Google "anna wintour teenager photos" and it'll come out.) The venerable Anna Wintour wears vintage Chanel sunglasses that covers almost half of her face and swears by it as her armour of sorts, especially during fashion week, if she's feeling bored looking at numerous collections non-stop. Her style consists of Chanel sunglasses, antique Georgian gemstone necklaces (that cost at least 10,000 pounds for just one), a colorful, tailored print dress, a suit jacket (often seen wearing Chanel tweed jackets) and nude Manolo Blahnik satin pumps. After some research, I found that her preferred designers include YSL, Prada, Chanel, Carolina Herera and Marni. She usually never carries a bag - she has someone else to do that for her.

You can copy Anna Wintour's style for much lesser, with these Prada sunglasses. You can click the specifications below the product image to find out the exact dimensions of the shades to determine if they fit your face shape.

Karl Lagerfeld by nakedgloryvera featuring Cerruti sunglasses

Karl Lagerfeld is even more attached to his shades, for his is almost never seen without them, even at night. Kaiser Karl wears Dior Homme suits, and relies on Hilditch & Key, a shop in rue de Rivoli in Paris for his high collared white shirts. He has a preference for fingerless studded leather gloves and usually pairs them with jewels such as those from Shamballa Jewels featuring white gold pearls.

You can copy his style with these thick framed Cerruti aviators from Smarbuyglasses.com and you can even get them with prescription lenses for those with myopia.

Olsen Twins style by nakedgloryvera featuring Ray Ban Aviators and Prada Sunglasses

Finally, the Olsen twins. This pair of actresses turned fashion designers for their line The Row are often seen wearing shades too. They used to lean towards the grungy, disheveled boho looks but since they have launched The Row, their styles have been much more sleek and polished.

Pair a military power shoulder blazer with loose fitting tank tops and black silk slips, together with black boots from Alexander Wang and you should be good to go. Shown here are those Jeffrey Campbell Soiree shoes with clear perplex heels that I really love. You can dress up your looks with chic gold or silver framed aviators from Ray Ban or this chic round frame style from Prada.

All the sunglasses I've listed here are clipped from Smartbuyglasses.com.sg. I've recently discovered their site and they carry countless styles from more than 150 designer brands and the best thing is that they offer a 24 month warranty, free lens cleaning kit and here's the best part... 100% returns guarantee! So you can be sure of finding a pair of sunglasses or prescription glass frames that you like. They also offer almost all the contact lenses there are on the market and prescription lenses together with your glasses frames or built into your shades.

But the best thing I like about them is still their BUY ONE, GIVE ONE scheme. For every pair of glasses that you buy, Smartbuyglasses will give one pair to someone in need through their non-profit charity partners located in Ghana, China and Indonesia. You can learn more about it here. I always appreciate a company with a strong social entrepreneurship element - it makes me feel good shopping with them!