Fashion Spotlight: Temperley London Spring RTW 2013

What I like about RTW is how a designer can translate his or her inspiration into everyday clothing.  We all know they can go gaga with couture, can even defend themselves as just being creative, but designing for RTW is a big task at hand.  One has to make clothes that appeal to the masses without sacrificing their own brand.  I think that was what made me gravitate toward this collection.

The collection is full of simple clothes that I can take inspiration from.  Simple, yes, but not ordinary.  Dominant colors were red and blue.  Different cuts and prints playing to make a statement.  See pictures below to understand what I mean.  Pictures taken from Style.com.

Fashion Spotlight: Rachel Zoe Spring RTW 2013

I was able to watch one season of the Rachel Zoe Project and it was the one where she launched her own clothing line.  I gotta say, I admire her passion for fashion.  What a great turnaround from being a stylist to a designer.  This gives her work something more tangible and something that can last a long time.

With all the episodes I watched, one can grasp the sense of style that Rachel has.  Even though she was pregnant during the show, she did not lose her fashion identity and this is clearly reflected with the collection she presented for Fashion Week.  From the very first item that came out of the runway, I can definitely see Rachel's work in it.  The color choices, mostly black and white, the hats, statement sunglasses, and bags, are her design aesthetics.

Sharing with you now my favorites from the collection.  Pictures taken from Style.com app.

Fashion Spotlight: Marchesa Spring RTW 2013

My fashion spotlight posts have been quiet for sometime now and what better timing to revive it than designers from the New York Fashion Week.  Oh gosh, what I would give up to be able to experience two weeks of models in fab clothes walking down the runway.  I can only dream!

To kick things off, I started looking at Marchesa's line.  This is one designer commonly seen on the red carpet.  Looking at the spring RTW collection, one would definitely get a sense of glam Bollywood.  The choice of prints, beads, and fabric layering balances out the traditional sari or ghagra choli with modern elements.

Here are my favorite items from the show.  Pictures taken from Style.com app.

Cool leggings!

Love this color.

Hot, hot, hot pink :)

Pretty draping on this dress

Peek-a-boo

This dress is so elegant!  Gives a sense of royalty.

What great silhouette 

More designer features soon.  Stay tuned! 

Nail Art: Floral

Over the past days I noticed that my nails turned yellowish.  I think my base coat was to blame for this.  Ack!  It does not look good but I'm suppressing all urges to paint my nails again, just to grow out the yellowish color and until I get a new base coat (any suggestions?).

Then came the answer to my prayers: decals!  I bought this from Clickers Online Shop for only 60 pesos.  It's the perfect solution to have pretty nails without having to apply any nail polish.  In just a few easy steps, you get to have some cool designs on your nails that you can show off.

Applying the decal is easy to do.  Here are the tools that you will need.

First thing to do is to cut up the decals and choose the ones that will fit your nails.  You can cut it into rectangles, it does not matter.  Sobrang sipag lang mag gupit kaya sinundan ko yung shape.  Hahaha!

Dip your cut out in water for about 20 seconds.  The film with the design should come off easily the paper backing.  Press the design down on your nail and find the perfect fit.  I highly recommend that you have a paper towel at hand to pat off the excess water.  You can also use the smooth side of the nail art stick to help press down the design even more.  Sample is shown on the picture below.

My yellow nails I mentioned earlier :(

Wait for it to completely dry to make sure that the design sticks to your nails.  After that, you have to two options.  You can either file the excess design or after applying top coat, roll the excess on a stick.  The design not stuck to the nail will melt after applying top coat (You'll see in the video later).  For this one, I opted to use the nail file.

Tada!  Here is the finished product!  So cool right?  What I liked most about the design I choose was that it looked like a water color painting.  It also looked like real art made with nail polishes.

See the video below to watch a step by step guide on how to place the decal.  Enjoy!

Dress Up 41 -- Kid in Me

Last weekend was my Lola's birthday celebration.  The family decided to throw her a kiddie party instead of the usual lunch or dinner that we have.  We invited all her siblings as well so you can say that the kiddie party turned out to be an adult party (with the exception of my little cousins).  We had a blast playing all the games and getting prizes for winning (stickers, gameboard, huge ballpens, to name a few), all Disney Princess-themed.  Grimace even surprised us with a Gangnam style performance.

Anyway, since it was a kiddie party, I want to dress up the part.  I decided to wear this dress which was very light and a bit big so I shaped it up with a belt.  I think the red belt just pops with the blue.  I just wished I had red flats to go with it.  Not afraid of looking like the Union Jack.  Hahaha!  

Dress: Witchery
Ballet flats: Solemate

Goofing around with the camera :) I was a kid for a day afterall.

Cool red leather bracelet!  Post on my floral nails soon.

I had so much fun being a kid for one day; eating spaghetti, chicken, and ice cream, and playing parlor games.  I think Lola had fun too.  It was certainly a day to remember.

Nail Art: Effie

I'm rediscovering this world of nail art and enjoying the creativeness of people around the world.  From one of the videos that I follow comes this pretty nail art inspired by Effie Trinket from the movie Hunger Games.  I super loved both the movie and book (see my posts here and here) so no thinking twice, I tried this one as well.

This is fairly easy to do.  All you need are two nail polishes, one gold and one solid, and a make up sponge.  Yes, you read it right.  See how creative people are?  Never thought that a make up sponge can help you create awesome designs.

Anyway, enough blabbing.  Here is the video that I followed to create this beautiful design.

Here are my finished nails.  I used OPI in Koala Bear-y for the base and Etude House's nail polish for the gold one.  To add a bit of glitter, I used Face Shop.

Super loved this nail art design.  Will definitely do this again :)  Keep posted for more nail art designs soon! 

The Phantom of the Opera

Considered to be the most successful and longest running musical in the world, this masterpiece from Andrew Lloyd Webber celebrated its 25th anniversary last year.  Starting last month, this amazing show about a Phantom obsessed with a young opera singer can be seen at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.  I was very privileged to be able to watch the show.  We bought our tickets as early as July as we were overly excited to see this live.  It was also the first musical that I watched, and I must say the show really set the bar high.

We got the matinee show, and arrived there about an hour early.  We used this time to look around and of course, take a lot of pictures.  Cameras are not allowed inside the theatre but thank goodness for camera phones!

Sister and Jocar

Beautiful cousins Romina and Bernadette

Bf and me

Our bodyguards.

I also took advantage of this time to buy some souvenir items being sold at the lobby.  These are a bit pricey, but hey, we'll never know if I'll have this opportunity again.

The program sold for 500 pesos.

Charm bracelet sold for 1000 pesos.

There were also a lot of displays about the play.  At the second floor, there  were posters containing information about the history of the play as well as some trivia.  On one corner, there was also a display of the costumes of both Phantom and Christine.  This got us even more excited!

Christine and Phantom's costumes.  My favorite one is the white robe.

Seated at the Balcony, we saw on the stage something big, covered with what looked like rags.  I knew for sure that was the famous chandelier that fell in the movie.  Ack!  So exciting!  But before that, we purchased this paper binoculars so we can see the characters on the stage better.

Finally, it was time for the show!  Goosebumps all over as the Overture played, the stage backdrop was revealed, and the chandelier raised to the roof.  Definitely, definitely a sight to behold!  I'm still having the chills as I am typing right now.  You have to see how they transformed the stage to make-shift opera house.

The show was full of effects that tickled our imagination.  I'm really glad we already have advanced technology that helped bring out the best in the production.  From the voice of Phantom roaming around the theater, to the illusion of the underground lake lit by candles, everything was just perfect!  And the ending scene will blow your mind! We were also lucky enough that we the actors that performed were the main cast.  I just wished I had the money to watch again (somebody treat me with Orchestra tickets please).

We had a funny and kilig experience after that.  While we were having dinner at Teriyaki Boy in Harbour Square, we can't help but notice that a lot of foreigners were there as well.  Dear me, it was the cast!  There was Carlotta, Meg, and Raoul!  He even opened the door for me and I didn't notice (gutom mode kasi eh)!  Least to say, we were not able to eat properly.  Hahaha!  But because we were so star struck and super shy, we were not able to take a picture or autograph.  Oh well, I was glad we had that experience.  It was certainly a day to remember.

If you have some money to spend, I really recommend to go and watch the show.  It was really worth it!!!  And due to the overwhelming response from the Manila crowd, they added 16 more shows extended until October 14. Time to surrender yourself to the music of the night.