From top: Sophie Gittins shoes, Dresses by Elise Berger, Rings by Jacey Withers, Lilifi bag, Paul & Joe floral sandals, Sophie Gittins footwear, DLUX leather jackets, TBA silk shorts, Bralet by Amber Sakai

Some favourites from h.pr‘s latest: Borne by Elise Berger’s jersey millefoile dresses, pastel-coloured buttersoft leather jackets from DLUX, ‘gator backpack by Lilifi, footwear basics by Sophie Gittins, and last but not least, Maggie the cuddleface French bulldog that stole the show.

Thank you lovely Harriet for having me over, but dangling Maggie in front of a dogless doglover (ME) was so so cruel… …but thank you Leonie for coming along and helping me smuggle her out.

I WISH.

Jacket – Courtesy of H! by Henry Holland for Debenhams, Black shirt with back-hole – ASOS, Orange top – La Moxie, Scarf – FCUK, Jeans – Uniqlo, Boots – Zara

Leave it to my brother to book things way early in advance – he’s got paranoia-duty in my family and is infamous for backup plans ranging from B-Z and travelling with one too many papers to prove that he is indeed who he is. Alright, I guess he’s not that bad since we both found ourselves severely broke this month, but he’d bought a pair of tickets to the Tennis ATP Finals live at the O2 area a few months ago, along with his weekend ticket to London (erasmus in Spain at the moment). I’ve never experienced anything like that, to tell the truth, it was exhilarating walking into the arena – full to the brim with thousands and thousands. Thankfully, the gentlemanly nature of tennis seems to plant a somewhat civilized behaviour in the said army of onlookers and apart from the occasional GO ANDY (Roddick) I LOVE YOU it was such a pleasant crowd experience. Who knew a tennis match would rekindle my (lost?) hope for civil manners? A roar of clapping never sounded so gentle and encouraging.

Shot with the Sony Nex-5; Note, photos were (colour, light, crop) treated in post-production.

I guess it’s about high time I did this review post on the Sony Nex-5 I promised about a month ago. Naturally, if I was at the reading-end of this promise I would’ve enquired whether the review was being delivered by a three legged donkey and could I please get my act straight. In fact it was. Delivered by a donkey. Don’t insult the disabled donkey.

I won’t go into the coming-of story of the model; that, including technical specs, you can read here. My experience with the camera, albeit short, did put me in a rather shaky relationship with my current point-and-shoot, the Nikon P5000. Note, I didn’t compare it to my Canon DSLR – it’s a little hard to compare the two; after a few days with the Sony I realised this wasn’t meant to be a replacement for a DSLR, it was meant to be the perfect sidekick. As demeaning as that might sound, a sidekick camera still requires quality colour and light interpretation capabilities, as well as tight control over aperture and shutterspeed. The sidekick can travel with or without the main deal, but most importantly it’s that camera you can ‘whip out’. Of course with DSLRs the ‘whip out‘ is more of a ‘unstrap gingerly and ease out‘…. My favourite bit of the Sony Nex-5 was definitely the detatchable lens. The one I had was a bundle lens with a mediocre max aperture of F3.5, but as you can see it works like a charm, and more lenses that provide more bokeh (blurred background) are available. With the 16mm f2.8 it might even be a decent camera for a set of outfit photos on a style blog.

So say, if I was someone starting a blog, wanted good photos, but did not want to commit to learning photography (because what good is it if it’s not hot or cold… learn the whole deal or don’t, there are no ‘photographers’ in the middle) this would be the camera to go to.

*This is not a paid promotion. (Unfortunately)

Coat – ASOS White, Scarf – Gifted, Top – Courtesy of AA, Jeans – Courtesy of Levi’s, Shoes – Zara, Bag – Jin Yoo 103684

Thanks Leonie for the photos!

One

problem with posting often is that, sure, at times there’s just naturally something to share – usually a somewhat cavalier commentary on other people’s jobs and practices, but there are times where you can’t even remember what you did that day or why the particular outfit. I personally call it the post-grub epoch, where everything is in slow motion and there is a gleaming bed in the horizon with… …wow I just fell asleep, sorry. OK let me cheat and describe something practical from the outfit: The Zara shoes are surprisingly comfortable, they’re good for about the first five hours, and after that it feels like you’re walking on dominos pieces. The coat is LETHAL when going down the stairs at the tube station, the wrinkles in the fifth pic is evidence to how much I scrunch it up to save my dear life. Last but not least, a silk scarf in 3° Celsius is the stupidest idea.

Mutated pants with ingrown waistband

‘Draping that mimics twisted muscle tissue, viscose jersey with texture to imitate ultrasound scans, jackets with in-grown waistcoat details with vests…’

Do you have a 9-to-5? because I don’t. I wouldn’t know what it’s like getting up every morning and picking a different outfit everyday. I wouldn’t know because I happen to be the maestro of bumhood and freelance webdesign means I can meet my clients in my underwear. Wait, that didn’t come out right. The first time I encountered Eugene Lin‘s work was on my first ever trip to Fashion Week, and even then he had violated classics into a twisted yet subdued collection. The Vanishing Twin, the inspiration and title of his SS11 collection is a medical syndrome otherwise known as ‘fetus-in-fetu’, where a malformed parasitic twin is found within the body of a newborn. Don’t google it if you’re squeamish. (Which means everyone will have opened a new tab now…) The clothes might have a disturbing essence to it, but to go back to my opening question, aren’t they perfect for the 9-to-5 office? And when that well-informed male co-worker goes Hey that’s the Vanishing Twin! you could always murmur that your grandpa had that condition* and bag that free guilt lunch. So.Evil.

*The Vanishing Twin is apparently a common case in pregnancies. (grandpa did not have baby, or did he?)

Answer to pop quiz from nail post: Tripod. Just wanted to see what you might come up with. You guys are hilarious.