Escape to Manila - The Outfits

There was no fun dressing during this trip.  My clothes were all about comfort and convenience and of course considering that it should cover-up more skin to beat the possible extreme heat.  

Anyway, I took advantage of a mini fun shoot courtesy of my cutie photographer (remember my niece? the little three-year old?) every morning, during our 2-day vacation.  

First morning, 

here's what I wore  indoor ( inside the room of the condotel where we stayed)

 about the outfit:

abstract tiered dress top - G. Fiesta / blazer - NCCC Mall, Davao / black twill short (underneath the top) - random / yellow patent leather hybrid flats - Hammerhead / necklace - Aizilym / sunglasses - SM Naga City / watch - Fossil

Then transformed my outdoor outfit into this (see below) while strolling around Luneta Park and posing in front of Dr. J. Rizal's monument

 I just added my spandex floral print top over my abstract tiered dress top, then threw in my trusted black leggings.

Second morning: 

my indoor outfit

 about the outfit:

spandex graffiti dress top - bazaar find / black chiffon top - I Dress Up / yellow patent leather hybrid flats - Hammerhead / sunglasses - Fossil

 I only brought one pair of shoes to save weight and space in my baggage.  My sister booked us with light fare tickets. :-(

Here's my outdoor outfit on the second day.  

Just put on my plaid leggings then off we went to hear mass at San Agustin Church in Intramuros.

The Color Black

Here's another vintage top from I Dress Up's Vintage Light Collection.

It's an oversized ( because it best fits large frames) sheer button-down long-sleeve blouse with bold black stripes that appear as thick pin stripes. 

The color black is often seen as a color of sophistication, as in 'the little black dress', or 'the black tie event'. Affluent and success orientated women often choose black as it can give an impression of elegance, sophistication and confidence. 
Black is often associated with sexiness and seduction, as in the temptress in sexy black lingerie creating an air of mystery and intrigue.

In color psychology, black means power and control, hanging on to information and things rather than giving out to others. 

Positive and Negative Traits of the Color Black

Positive keywords include protection and comfort, strong, contained, formal, sophisticated, seductive, mysterious, endings & beginnings.

Negative keywords include aloof, depressing and pessimistic, secretive and withholding, conservative and serious, power & control, sadness and negativity. 

The Color Black Represents

Mystery: Black is the unknown. It is secretive, keeping a lot buried inside, unwilling to show its real feelings.

Power and Control: Black is power and control of the self and others. It creates fear and intimidation.

Effects of the Color Black

Formal, dignified and sophisticated: As in the little black dress and the formal dinner suit.

Aloof: Black sets itself aside from others with its heavy and intense energy. It keeps others at arm's length.

Depressing: Black can close us to the positive aspects of life, forcing us to look at our disappointments and the black or negative aspects of our life. It can create a fear of the future.

Pessimistic: Too much black encourages us to look at the negative side of life.

I can never get enough of my "headache pose". :-)

 There are so many fashionable ways to wear this top. My styling is the most simple among the long list of "how-to-style-the-black-sheer-top".

This top is for sale! Buy Now here!

It's Still Vintage Light

Highlighting here another vintage top from I DRESS UP's Vintage Light collection.

Worn with belt since this top best fits large sizes, however, can be fashionably worn by petite to medium frames if worn with the right accessories (such as belt) and the right "fashion attitude".


and... Look at my toenails, I had it painted in alternate red and black.

This vintage top is FOR SALE at I DRESS UP!

Shop now!

The Color Pink

Let's talk 'bout color psychology, beginning with THE COLOR PINK. 

In color psychology, pink is a sign of hope. It is a positive color inspiring warm and comforting feelings, a sense that everything will be okay.

 The Color Pink Represents:

Unconditional love: Pink relates to both unconditional love and romantic love.

Compassion: Empathy and understanding are the fuel for pink's nurturing.

Nurturing: Pink is both the giving and the receiving of love, understanding and respect.

Hope: Pink inspires the possibility of a positive outcome.

 Effects of the Color Pink:

Calming: Pink calms our emotional energies.

Non-threatening: Pink lacks any aggression or anger, although the deeper pinks can be more assertive and confident.

Affectionate: Pink offers warmth and tenderness to friends and family.

Caring: Sensitivity and tender loving care relate to pink's feminine and intuitive energies.

Immature: Pink is the color of the sweet young girl, before life's experiences take over.

Variations of the Color Pink

Blush: Similar to skin color, this very pale pink has sensual and sexual connotations. It is non-threatening but lacks passion and energy.

Rose Pink: This is the pink of universal love and unity. It is mature, feminine and intuitive.

Salmon Pink: There is a touch of orange in salmon pink. It encourages the flirt, and can be a sign of the timid lover, all talk and no play.

Orchid: This is an unusual lavender-pink and relates to the unconventional and the individual doing his or her own thing. It is the non conformist.

Fuchsia: A blend of deep pink and blue, fuchsia inspires confidence, assurance and maturity, a more responsible and controlled nurturing and love.

Hot Pink: Hot pink inspires a more passionate, playful and sensual love. It exudes warmth and happiness and a love of life.

Fashionable Clue:

Combining pink with other darker colors such as dark blue, dark green, black or gray, adds strength and sophistication to pink.

As I mixed a little fuchsia to my black ensemble...tada! Sophistication achieved  with just this simple color-coordinated look.

about my outfit: 

polka dot + fuchsia blouse - Chic Vintage/ black twill shorts - random / blazer - NCCC Mall, Davao / black + fuchsia shoes - Mags / gold necklaces - Iora, Forever 21 / sunglasses - SM Naga City / fuchsia belt - YRYS

more of color psychology in my upcoming posts...

Lace

Fashion Lesson 103:

LACE

Lace is an openwork fabric, patterned with open holes in the work, made by machine or by hand. The holes can be formed via removal of threads or cloth from a previously woven fabric, but more often open spaces are created as part of the lace fabric. Lace-making is an ancient craft. True lace was not made until the late 15th and early 16th centuries. A true lace is created when a thread is looped, twisted or braided to other threads independently from a backing fabric.

There are many types of lace, classified by how they are made. These include:

• Needle lace; such as Kenmare Lace are made using a needle and thread. This is the most flexible of the lace-making arts. While some types can be made more quickly than the finest of bobbin laces, others are very time-consuming. Some purists regard needle lace as the height of lace-making. The finest antique needle laces were [made] from a very fine thread that is not manufactured today.

• Cutwork, or whitework; lace constructed by removing threads from a woven background, and the remaining threads wrapped or filled with embroidery.

• Bobbin Lace; as the name suggests, made with bobbins and a pillow. The bobbins, turned from wood, bone or plastic, hold threads which are woven together and held in place with pins stuck in the pattern on the pillow. The pillow contains straw, preferably oat straw or other materials such as sawdust, insulation styrofoam or ethafoam. Also known as Bone-lace.Chantilly lace is a type of bobbin lace.

• Tape lace; makes the tape in the lace as it is worked, or uses a machine- or hand-made textile strip formed into a design, then joined and embellished with needle or bobbin lace.

• Knotted lace; including macramé and tatting. Tatted lace is made with a shuttle or a tatting needle.

• Crocheted lace; including Irish crochet, pineapple crochet, and filet crochet.

• Knitted lace; including Shetland lace, such as the "wedding ring shawl", a lace shawl so fine that it can be pulled through a wedding ring.

• Machine-made; any style of lace created or replicated using mechanical means.

• Guipure; The stitching area is stitched with embroidery threads that form a continuous motif. Afterwards, the stitching areas are removed and only the embroidery remains. The stitching ground is made of water-soluble or non heat-resistant material.

via the wikipedia

Here's a sample of a vintage blouse made of LACE.

This lace top is available at I DRESS UP.


This vintage top is already sold!

 I had fun at the start of this shoot for I DRESS UP, then later felt some shiver on my spine since my photographer/assistant/niece kept on telling me that my poses and look reminded her of the movie SEGUNDO MANO.  I got scared!  

 The lace blouse gives you an instant mix of romantic-repugnance look.

wearing: white lace vintage longsleeves - I Dress Up / black twill shorts - my all-time favorite / black patent leather wedge - MKNY / sunglasses - SM Naga City


and sharing here the collection from Mariana Braga: Fashion Quarterly NZ's '11
--- it's all 'bout pretty, intricately made and gorgeously designed lace dresses --

Romantic - Repugnance

Flowers and Stripe

Posting here another HAT from cyEcle and apparel from I DRESS UP.

 This dress is actually a Kiddie Raincoat, it's reversible.  More details here.

 Stripe hat in pastel shades available at cyEcle.

 - shoes and belt not for sale -

Shop now ladies!

More hats available at cyEcle for the upcoming Sinulog!

I Call Her Georgine

GEORGINE is the black semi-floppy straw hat with silver sequins on her crown, and I designed her.

She's one of the Limited Edition Hats that I designed and she's available for sale at cyEcle.

wearing: black dress with gold trimmings - 138 / black turtleneck sweater - thrifted Dior / black mesh boots - Linea Italia / black hat with silver sequins wrapped on crown - cyEcle 

GEORGINE is available at cyecle.blogspot.com

HAPPY NEW YEAR!


I Dress Up has finally unveiled.  
Please do visit here and shop for anything vintage and chic.

I Call Her Rose

Here's one of my favorite hats from my cyEcle's Limited Edition Hat collection.

I call her ROSE.

 Meet ROSE. She's a white hat, with pink rosettes on her crown.

She's available for sale at cyEcle.

I am so into charms (bracelets and rings) right now because the new year is about to come.

wearing: denim dress - July / velvet rose colored tie-front cardigan - I Dress Up /  peach satin shoes - Mags / rose colored bag - Mags / white watch - Fossil / ROSE hat - cyEcle / charm bracelets - bazaar find / buddha ring - gifted by mom / turtle ring

Evolution of The Fashion Advocacy

This blog has been the ultimate outlet to spread the fashion advocacy that I gave birth some 30 months ago.  The advocacy did already exist long before this  blog was created. However, I believe that i dress up and sleep blog may have helped propagate my C.L.E.A.N. Fashion advocacy. 

Now time has come, and fashion evolution had taken place.  I admit I am more open now to fashion astuteness.  I can embrace the diversities and idiosyncrasies.  

Bit by bit, these have paved the re-definition of my fashion advocacy.  This evolution is never a separation from what have been a deeply embedded fashion sense,  but basically an up-scaling of something good to better, minute to large.

So here's what has become to the newly-delineated fashion advocacy.

What is it to be C.L.E.A.N?

Color coordination

Less and More

Experimentation

Art in fashion

Nonchalance

Color coordination is not a monotonous display of colors.  It is the harmonious appropriation of   similar hues and shades from the color palette in one fashionable look. 

I used to appreciate "the lesser, the better" maxim, which is a minimalist outlook.  But as more and more fashion savvy individuals are creatively expressing themselves, I find myself more driven to them.  I tend to appreciate gradually the concept of over-accessorizing and endless layer on layer.  The more the merrier; the bolder, the better.

I believe there is some sort of science in fashion.  Everyday, as we get dressed, the choice of clothes and accessories, the mixing and matching per se is an activity which what we call in science as an experiment. 
One great example of experimentation, which is in contrast to color coordination, is the donning of incongruous colors plus an abundant mix of prints.  It may appear like a mess to those who adhere to color coordination but it is indeed a fashion statement to many.  
2011 is the year that I have been quite audacious enough to take a leap out from my "norms" and step into new and exciting fashion challenges.

Though I am trivialy detouring once in a while from my own fashion tendencies,  but still, I do somehow end up getting back to what has been deeply-rooted into my senses.  See my look above.  My top still has the color on one of the neon hues on my leggings and wearing black wedges that coordinates with the black color of the top (print) and blazer.

If fashion is one form of science, it is more extremely a colossal outlet for the arts.
I live for art and I live with art.  I love colors, hence there is this love for painting - as manifested in my hobby of playing with crayons, paint tubes, etc.  I may not be gifted with the hands of an artist but I can scribble and make simple sketches of clothes.   So there's the line connecting arts to fashion.  
One can actually correlate fashion to both art and science.  If mixing and matching clothes is experimentation, more so it is indeed art.  The ability to effectively able to put up a look - the collective donning of clothes of variable prints and colors and textures - is seriously an expression of the arts.  Our body is a canvass, and ourselves are live mannequins. 

One cool thing to those people who are effortlessly able to impress me and can explicitly be listed to my list of fashionable human beings, is that aside from possessing laudable confidence and daringly able to strut and shout to the world his / her individualism through fashion, these individuals are otherwise nonchalant.  

wearing: 

animal print semi-spandex blazer - I Dress Up / neon long top - thrifted / neon tribal print leggings - Knits and Stripes / peach pink bag - Mags / black patent leather wedges - MKNY / sunglasses - Forever 21 / watch - Fossil (gifted by my sis ) / jade ring and diamond ring - gifted by mom / rocking-horse ring - Aizilym

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

On the Morning of December 24

Christmas MUST be CHRIST-centered, not self-centered, org-centered nor family-centered.  I retained this statement from the early morning mass today.  Yes, Christmas is all about Christ.  It's the time of the year to celebrate Jesus Christ's birthday.

I woke up early and went to hear the last Misa de Gallo mass for 2011 with my family.

Anyway, I was quite hyperactive this morning.  My mind was filled with thoughts on how I can increase my sale for the last 3 days at the bazaar. I still have lots of items available for sale at the booth.  :-(

 On the brighter side, I can always sell them online, that's the reason for the early morning photo shoot.

 ooops, grainy pic.

This hat is one of the LIMITED EDITION hats for sale at cyEcle.

Ltd. Ed. since I personally designed the hat and only a maximum of two individuals can own this specially designed hat.  I personally selected the type and print of cloth to wrap into the crown of the hat.

wearing: black and white fitted dress top - bazaar find / cropped fuchsia over-sized knit sweater - I Dress Up / pink belt - Genevieve Gozum / purple embellished flats - Figliarina / sunglasses - SM Naga City / heart long chain necklace - Forever 21 / hat - Limited Edition Hat @ cyEcle
I'm actually wearing my favorite black twill shorts underneath. :-)

Merry Christmas to all!

Please do check out cyecle.blogspot.com for your fashion needs.

I So Love Animal Prints

An outfit post, strutting my love for animal prints.

Worn this outfit to a dinner date with my family.

 Bag and Shoes (sole) in animal print.  Love it!

wearing: white pin stripe polo - I Dress Up / my favorite black twill shorts -random / animal print bag - Bangkok, Thailand find / black platforms in animal print sole - Korean Shoe Shop / necklace with 'D' pendant - Shanghai, China find /gold watch - Guess

Have a good night everyone!