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!
Weekend Wrap-up
Posted: September 23, 2016 Filed under: Clothes | Tags: beige, beige sandals, blue, brown loafers, cream khaki pants, gray pants, hot-air balloon shirt, necklace, orange, peach tee, white 2 Comments
Just some leftover outfits that don’t warrant their own posts because they’re kinda similar to outfits I’ve worn before. But I’ve already taken the photos so I hate for them to go to waste. Enjoy your weekend!
Outfit 1 – Shirt: Zara, Pants: Topshop, Loafers: Footglove
Outfit 2 – T-shirt: Esprit, Pants: Mango, Sandals: Aldo, Necklace: local shop
Young Girl Reading
Posted: May 16, 2016 Filed under: Clothes, Style Imitating Art | Tags: brown loafers, navy cropped jeans, pink, pink floral scarf, style imitating art, yellow, yellow eyelet top 4 Comments
As soon as I saw this week’s SIA inspiration, Jean-HonorĂ© Fragonard’s “A Young Girl Reading“, I knew that I would wear this top, since it’s one of the few yellow pieces that I have in my closet, and the lace trims and large collars can mimic the ruff and the bell sleeves of the girl’s dress. The dusky pink/lavender tone of her ribbons and of the cushion behind her is another matter though – I didn’t want to wear my pink skirt, since it’s too girly and I didn’t want to pair a girly skirt with a girly top.
In the end, I decided to wear my pink scarf as a kind of headband, and keep the rest of the outfit simple. I don’t usually wear headband or headscarf, but this adds a “1940’s/1950’s casual wear” to the outfit, which I like. Plus it’s super convenient in covering up second-day hair đŸ˜›
And of course, I had to recreate the pose:
Remember to check out Jen’s blog for the full SIA round-up tomorrow!
