If All Else Fails, Make The Heels Higher

"If all else fails, make the heels higher."

We’ve all heard it before right? The benefits of wearing high heels. They add height, make legs longer and butt look great. I’m not really sure about that last part though but they miss ‘out one thing – they enhance your calves too. It’s just funny how some men are into calf muscles. Obviously, it was through comments in my social media account that I found out about this. But I digress.

I know that those who don’t’ have a high threshold for pain are already taking about their disadvantages - sore ankles, pinched toes, swollen feet and the list goes on. But if there’s another thing to motivate you in slipping into those killer pairs, it’s this. According to a study  in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, you’re hotter when you wear high heels. It was published in Time – high heels increase a woman’s attractiveness! And it was confirmed through a social behavior study in France as mentioned in the same article.

But if you’re still not satisfied with that, then I’m gonna add another motivation here. This article from Business Insider says that being tall could make you richer and more successful which is also based on a scientific study. Well, that article says nothing about “genetically taller” so I guess the “fake it ‘til you make it” strategy can work here. Haha. Fake being tall in high heels, why not? =))

And for those of you who got inspired to wear heels from this silly post (lol!), then I’ve got this trick for you to make that teetering in sticks a bit bearable. Meanwhile, enjoy the gallery below showcasing some of my highest pairs. :)

Dress/ Shoes: Dorothy Perkins; Skirt: Asos; Sunnies: Unbranded

Blazer: Mango; Top: Unbranded; Skirt: Warehouse

Sunnies: Aldo; Shoes: Zalora PH

Dress: H&M; Skirt: Forever21; Shoes: CMG

Fashion Meets Tinder

Since last time we touched on fashion apps, today let's talk about dating apps - Tinder to be specific. What has that got to do with fashion? Nothing. Haha. But what happens when a fashion girl uses that crowdsourcing tool to pick the brains of guys on a certain trend? Hilarity ensues. Haha!

Before anything else, let me clear that I did not carry this social experiment myself. An editor of whowhatwear.com posted the article here using a simple poll on his matches - "What are your thoughts on culottes?" I painstakingly typed some of the guy's responses here since I want the photos in this blog to be purely about looks (I hope you understand). You can always click on the link to check the screenshots. :)

Jimmy here quoted a Britney Spears song in his response, haha!

Jimmy: It’s just, they’re not a girl – not yet a woman type of pants. Not shorts, nor pants. They’re stuck in the twilight zone of pants, waiting for the breakthrough that never comes…

I am loving Jahnu’s cheerleader moves here. Oooh, I think that I’ve found myself a cheerleader. Haha!

Jahnu: I like the look. Though I wouldn’t say I’m a head cheer leader for culottes. Maybe a back-up cheer, if that exists. A half a handstand, a quick pompom shaking and one ‘Rah’ and cheer.

James, in the meantime, is freaking out on this fashion opinion and wants to be in the safe side. =))

James: First of all, I think it’s a big ask to ask any guy for an opinion on fashion. We probably have a view on what clothes look like on girls but not standalone items. Secondly, I had to Google it – certainly don’t want to jump to a conclusion, especially if you’re going to be quoting me in a fashion mag…

Next to the most hilarious answers are the sans-culottes answers.  Like Alex’s below, hahaha!! You gotta give him props though for the links and all. HAHAHAHA!!!

Alex: Aesthetically I don’t have much of an opinion, but politically I would say I align strongly with the sans-culottes folk. http:// en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sans-culottes.

But the best part would be the flirty answers like Dennis':

Dennis: Hm. I think they are cute on the right person. Anyone that can pull them off. I feel like you could. ;)

HAHAHAHAHA!!! Okay, the sans-culottes answers were good trivia for history (lol!) but if you are a guy reading this and wants to know what a culotte really is, let the gallery below educate you. I have already posted similar articles (here and here) too if you're interested. :)

Top: Zara; Pants: Topshop; Shoes: Unbranded

Necklace: Accessorize

Vest: Forever21; Pants: Topshop; Shoes: Rubi

Belt: Mango; 

WearToday, a Fashion App

Tech is in vogue really. You’ll know it when reality stars attend technical conference (seriously, Kim K at a Tech Disrupt?) or fashion influencers like Alexa Chung launch their very own fashion app. There’s also some of your designers throwing their hats in the tech ring – I’m talking wearables. So for someone like me who works in the tech world and is fashion-obsessed, it is a good thing. For today’s post, allow me to talk about my favorite fashion app in the store – WearToday.

WearToday – the daily diary of the creatively dressed. You can already deduce what this app is all about from the blurb. It’s a photo-sharing app and its advantage over Instagram is that it is plainly focused on the outfit and not what else is inside the square. ;-) What I appreciate the most about this is the tagging of the items in your outfit and see the very many ways you styled a certain piece. Well atleast, that won me over since I’m totally living this “be ruthlessly eclectic”  quote. Lol. So far I think I've succeeded for a year without repeating the same combination for a certain clothing. I'd like to think that it's because of uhmm my creativity and not something else aka excessive things. Yaaay!

I am going to feature this lime umbrella skirt of mine and highlight as always, three ways to wear it below. To say that this is a versatile piece is an understatement. If you download the app and click on this piece, of course you'll find more than the three ways I wore it. It's already featured here, here and here. It's such a surprise considering its not so common color. :) It's like a new neutral. :P So I hope you enjoy the gallery below and see you in WearToday. ;-) 

Top: Mango; Skirt: The Ramp; Shoes: Marks & Spencer

Sunnies/Bangles: Unbranded; Choker: Zara

Dress/ Shoes: Dorothy Perkins; Skirt: The Ramp; Clutch: Mango

Dress: Mango; Skirt: The Ramp; Shoes: Miss Selfridge

Sunnies: Unbranded; Necklace: 

Red Trouser Suit

Since I just turned a year older last week (yikes!), I thought of doing a post about “work-appropriate” investment pieces for this age, nay decade. I’m not revealing the exact number though, haha! I’m talking about that “discerning stage” in life where the job is expected to be going full steam ahead and so the clothes should get an upgrade too. Target mission: sophisticated working woman. So ladies, may I introduce to you the trouser suit? ;-)

Trouser suits are a great classic. I remember wishlist-ing for a printed pair in my other blog. Back then, the matching coordinates trend was too strong and surprisingly the game is still on 'til now. :) But just like my coordinating set post here, the pair of blazer and pants shown below is another by-product of, again there's that word, magically coordinating themselves. What's the diff from the previous post? Well, here I'm using pieces from the same brand so maybe the designers thought of creating the latter with the previous one in mind? Like meant to be pieces? Haha! Who knows? :P

A trouser suit is composed of as the name suggests, a trouser and a matching coat or jacket. The joy in experimenting with these pieces is the diversity of prints you can include for the inner top. You can go for prints, colorblocking or play with textures. I'm talking about a basic colored set that is, like red. So why red? Well it's not just for the birth month, but it is such a standout color. It just really commands attention while still being considered a neutral in the corporate world. :) P.S. For additional styling tip, you can also go for no top at all as seen in Rachel McAdams here. But of course, it is applicable only for post-work parties. Haha! :P

Blazer/ Trouser: Mango; Top: Zara; Shoes: Marks & Spencer

Bag: Charles 'n Keith

Blazer/ Trouser/ Necklace: Mango; Top: Kashieca; Shoes: Marks & Spencer

Blazer/ Trouser: Mango; Top: Cotton On; Shoes: Zalora PH

P.S. Last look is actually, Kendall Jenner-inspired here. :P

Harem

The very first thing that I googled while working on this post is the difference of harem and jogging pants. Perhaps I made a limited research but there wasn’t anything I saw on the net. One article mentioned that harem trousers are the dressier version of jogging pants and I found myself agreeing to this.

Well, my research revealed that these clothing are believed to have originated in Persia around 16^th century and were popularized by exotic belly dancers. It became a craze as well around the 1980s because of MC Hammer. STOP! Hammertime, haha! Harem and Hammer, what a coincidence. ;-)

Perhaps it’s the athleisure trend or its earlier associations with dancing but I am finding myself rediscovering ways to wear these pants that I have since forever. I swear, I wore them less in the past almost making it to the regretted purchase list. But what’s not to love about them? They’re billowy and I particularly love how it tapers down to a narrow, tight fitting ankle cuff making them perfect for different shoe types.

Most of the style websites I found insist that the top should be structured because of the relaxed fit of the bottoms but the gallery below proves otherwise. First is another billowy top and the second one is a shirt from the men’s section. Black and white will always be my favorite go-to combo for business looks but it wouldn’t hurt to inject some color too.  J

Top: F&H (same here); Trousers/Clutch: Mango; Shoes: H&M

Top: Zara (same here); Trousers: Mango; Shoes: H&M

Necklace/ Bag: Unbranded

Baguio 2015

Elusive. That's how this city had been like to me in the past. Always there for a quick stopover - like after a mountain hiking or an adventure further up North but never really got the time to explore it. It was a good decision then for my brother to drive the family there for a weekend getaway :)

Jacket/ Skirt: Topshop; Shirt/ Scarf/ Pouch: Mango; Shoes: Adidas

Top: H&M; Pants: Unbranded; Shoes: Adidas

Fashion Faux Pas

"A fashion faux pas is what happens when you're not confident with yourself." 

Loulou dela Falaise

Faux pas. A social blunder. In fashion, it is usually characterized by a cringing effect upon others when they see you. E-baydeals blog produced a list of the most common fashion blunder that men and women make based on a survey of 1000 people. I found the result rather interesting because I’m guilty in most of them so I thought I’d share it here. Haha!

So, according to the survey for women the top offenders in fashion are the following arranged in order:

1. Too much animal print.

2. Visible bra straps

3. Too tight clothing

4. Evening wear during the day

5. Tracksuits

6. Childish footwear

7. Scrunchies

8. Denim on denim

To be honest, I'm not in total agreement with everything in the list. I've seen most of them work in a lot of situations but not really totally defending myself in the gallery below. I'll just blurb a bit on the gallery below. But if there's anything that's seriously missing in that list? Crocs! Uuugh. I've never felt so strongly against anything like that in my life. 

Animal print. I'd say as I captioned this post last year, "too much leopard won't kill you." Haha, seriously. I think I've blabbed too much about this here. Check out another leopard action in there. ;)

Shirt: Terranova; Scarf and Jeans: Mango; Shoes: Bebe

Sunnies: Ray Ban; Bag: Jose 

Tracksuit. According to the same post, tracksuits become acceptable only when worn in the gym. But I did wear this to go to the gym. Haha. Does that excuse me? :P

Vest/ Top/ Pants/ Bag: Unbranded; Shoes: Melissa

Denim on Denim. I seriously think that this is a cool trend. Crocs should replace it at the bottom of the list. Hahaha!!! And by the way, this is a J-Lo inspired outfit. Haha!

Top: Unbranded; Pants: Forever21; Shoes: Marks & Spencer; Sunnies: Mango

I think I still can produce photos for each category in the list but I don't like long posts so this would do for now. In my opinion though, if you ever you find yourself in a fashion faux pas situation, just hold your head high and smile brightly. After all, to rephrase the quote above, fashion faux pas happens when you don't carry yourself confidently. *wink*

Spoils from the East Coast

Now that parts of the North America trip were covered, let’s talk about the spoils of the trip. To be honest, the plan was not to really spend on too much shopping. But I did have my eyes set on some items – sneakers for gym to be specific but I ended up unsuccessful. Oh well.

Usually when I travel, I’m always in the lookout for H&M-like (cheap and trendy) shops abroad. New Look in Singapore works for me as well as markets like Bugis street or Jatujak of Bangkok. In the US, we went mostly to outlet stores and since H&M is already present in the country, one particular brand that of interest is J.Crew.

J. Crew’s catalog has always been in my inspo board and it’s all because of the amazing woman behind it – Jenna Lyons. According to Wikipedia, Jenna Lyons has been the creative director and president for J.Crew since 2008 and 2010, respectively. Nicknamed the "Woman Who Dresses America," Lyons' creative force and style have been called the reason that J.Crew has turned into a cult brand and has had profits more than triple in a ten-year span (2003–2013). Imagine that!

You don’t actually have to Wiki her to know the “force”. Check out how she steps out in her stylish ensembles and you’ll be a convert. Or leaf through their catalogs and see how she turns basic clothing from blah to BAM! Basically, I wanna be like her. But I don’t know how. Lol. Maybe the first step is to actually get a shirtdress from the store and style it creatively in so many ways. Yes, perfect! That's a good first step. Haha! 

Dress: J Crew Bag: Jatujak Market Shoes: Sirens