Inspired By Sing Street
Posted: April 19, 2019 Filed under: Clothes | Tags: blue, brown, brown loafers, navy skinny jeans, oatmeal cardigan, socks, white, white button-up Leave a comment
I was watching Sing Street again a few weeks ago (such an underrated movie) and was suddenly inspired by the outfit of one of the characters. It wasn’t the first time I was inspired by Sing Street, but it was the first time I recreated an actual outfit from the movie.
Now, most of the clothes in the movie are in gloriously over-the-top 80s style, but the main character’s sister, Anne, has a utilitarian style that I really like – lots of cable-knit sweaters and grandpa cardigans in neutral shades. When I first watched the movie, I thought Anne was a pointless character, but after watching it again and looking at her style, I realized that she serves as a kind of foil for Raphina, the love interest – Anne is all serious and straitlaced while Raphina is colorful and quirky (though Raphina is not quirky in an obvious “manic pixie dream girl” kind of way; she is more nuanced than that.) Just another proof of how good the movie is, that this one minor character is also well thought-out and developed.
Summery Vibe
Posted: July 30, 2018 Filed under: Clothes, Style Imitating Art | Tags: brown, brown loafers, gray, gray pants, green, green floral scarf, white, white sleeveless blouse 3 Comments
For this week’s SIA, inspired by J.C. Leyendecker‘s ad for Arrow shirt collar, I went the simple route by pairing my white blouse with my gray pants. A collared, button-up shirt would be a naturally choice, but as I’m on summer break and want to keep the outfit casual, I went with this blouse. At first, I planned to pair it with my white pants, but they don’t match – and you know how twitchy I get about mismatched whites and blacks – so in the end, I chose these pants, which are an entirely different shade but still light enough to mimic the light tones of the ad. For a touch of color, I used my green scarf as a belt, and because the two people in the ad look like they’re on a boat, I wore my brown loafers, which kinda look like boat shoes. So yeah, it’s simple, but I think it’s a pretty close interpretation.
Don’t forget to send me your outfit if you haven’t already, and come back on Wednesday to see other looks inspired by this ad!
Monkey Business
Posted: May 21, 2018 Filed under: Clothes, Style Imitating Art | Tags: blue, blue bird-print button-up, brooch, brown, brown loafers, green, green linen pants, style imitating art 4 Comments
OK, so there is no monkey in my outfit, but there are birds! This is the only animal-themed shirt I own (beside my cat T-shirt), so it would have to do for this outfit inspired by a monkey trading card of the Allen & Ginter tobacco company. For the rest of the outfit, I stuck to the green-and-brown color scheme of the card and also added a pin – it could be a feather or a palm frond, depending on how you look at it – to mimic the details of the card.
This has been a really fun SIA challenge. If you haven’t sent your outfit to Daenel (livingoutsidethestacks@gmail.com), do so by Tuesday, and don’t forget to drop by her blog to see other interpretations of this card!
Teddy Girl 2.0
Posted: December 8, 2017 Filed under: Clothes | Tags: blue, brown, brown loafers, navy pants, plaid jacket, white, white button-up 1 Comment
Whenever I wear this jacket, I can’t help but style the rest of the outfit like one of the Teddy Girls. I’m missing a scarf/ascot/cameo brooch, and my hair is nowhere near as cool as theirs, but the silhouette is pretty close, right? I would happily dress like that every day. It’s probably one of the coolest style subcultures – rebellious for their time, but so dapper and chic. Maybe I just love it so much because they took their inspirations from Edwardian style (hence the name “Teddy”), which is one of my favorite style eras. Why can’t we look to those more elegant times for fashion inspirations? Why are we going back to the nineties fof for God’s sake?!
The Search For The Perfect Striped Tee
Posted: June 2, 2017 Filed under: Clothes | Tags: black, black pants, black-and-white striped top, brown cape, brown loafers, necklace 3 Comments
I know I wear stripes a lot – I’ve lost count of how many striped tops I have – but I think I keep buying them because I’ve never found the right one. There’s always something wrong with it, either in the stripes, the neckline, or the fit. My black-and-white striped sweatshirt is the closest to the perfect striped top that I have, but even that one is a bit too short, plus it’s a sweatshirt so I can’t wear it year-round. This one is pretty close too, but it is also too short, and I prefer a wider neckline. All I want is a simple striped top, boat-necked, not too fitted, preferrably with black-and-white stripes, but I’ll also take blue-and-white, even red-and-white, or red-blue-and-white (like this one.) Is that too much to ask?
What’s A Weekend?
Posted: April 6, 2017 Filed under: Clothes | Tags: black, black blazer, black striped top, blue, brooch, brown, brown loafers, navy skinny jeans 2 Comments
I haven’t had a weekend break for 3 weeks now. Two weeks ago I was accompanying the Singaporean student to Mai Chau, and after that, we had to prepare for a group of officials coming to examine our school. Sort of like audits, but they were examining every aspect of the school. The good thing is that we’re a liberal arts school, so a lot of questions could be answered with “That’s how we do things around here”, but still, it was understandably stressful and my co-workers and I had to come in over the past weekends to make sure our paperwork was in order. Thank the gods that it was over by Wednesday, so I can finally catch up on my errands and freelance work.
Anyway, given the crazy schedule, this is what I managed to put together – I’m sorry that I’ve been using the “busy” excuse so much, but that’s because it’s true.
Top: Forever21, Blazer: Warehouse, Jeans: H&M, Loafers: Footglove, Brooch: vintage
Braving The Rain
Posted: January 13, 2017 Filed under: Clothes | Tags: blue, blue button-up, book, brooch, brown, brown loafers, gray, gray cableknit sweater, navy boyfriend jeans 3 Comments
We’ve been having pretty heavy rain these past few days. I’m not complaining – it’s a relief not having to water the garden every day – but it does make getting outfit photos a little bit of a hassle. I managed, though, even if I had to wrap a plastic bag around the camera to take these.
Shirt: local shop, Sweater: H&M, Jeans: Charlotte Russe, Loafers: Footglove, Brooch: Singapore boutique
I actually wore this to a book sale with some co-workers. Every year before the Lunar New Year, this publishing house (the same one I work for) would have a huge clearance sale to clear out their stocks, and every year I would come home laden with books. Come to think of it, book sales are the only kind of sale I enjoy. This time I ended up getting a big haul, as usual, and managed to recommend some of my own translations to my co-workers as well.
These are all in Vietnamese, of course, but from the top – City of Thieves by David Benioff (yes, the co-creator of Game of Thrones. I’m not a big fan of his screenwriting but this sounds interesting), A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness (I’ve been wanting to read it), History of the Vietnamese Civil War from 1771 – 1802 (more non-fiction), Rainbow Troops by Andrea Hirata (recommended to me by someone who works at the publishing house, it’s not my kind of book but I’m willing to give it a try), Black Water-Lilies by Michel Bussi (I literally picked it up because of the pretty cover), and Red Rising by Pierce Brown (also something I’ve been wanting to read.) Not bad for a rainy day. I can’t wait to start on these!
