Chairs from Fashion for Home

Wearing: Cashmere sweater – Iris & Ink (exclusive to The OUTNET.COM). Check trousers – J Crew (via The OUTNET). Shoes – Tory Burch (via The Outnet). Necklace – Mikimoto. Rose-gold watch – Guess. Wrap-around bracelet – H&M. Boyfriend Jeans – ASOS. Booties – Alexander Wang (via The Outnet). Shirt – Uniqlo.

Welcome to my casa! my office! my casa! Oh, I don’t even know anymore. I’ve been freelancing ever since I was about 17, I have a feeling the Home/Office boundary never existed in the first place. I built websites in bed and they still ran fine, bed-bug free. In fact if I remember correctly, a part of this blog was built tangled in sheets – tell me, does it smell of Doritos/down feather when you access this site? It’s only quite recently that I felt the need to allocate a certain corner for ‘work’ purposes… I suspect it’s something to do with the rise of pinterest, or maybe the fact that I am always home working making sandwiches, not necessarily of the good-wife sort either. I’ve been renting this flat since my third year of uni, and throughout the years it has gone through many identity shifts. The trouble mainly being the fact that, while divided into two floors, the flat is technically a studio, so the foyer is our dining room, shoe-storage, and our living area. Upstairs, the desk is in the bedroom, which is also technically the closet as well. And regardless of how many corners I fill with IKEA Linnmons to ‘work on’, I’ve always managed to end up in bed. Or by the fridge, eating out raw dinner ingredients.

What I’m currently finding particularly useful, is to get up in the morning and slapping on a bit of BB-cream, and getting dressed as if going out, heels and all. Figures I’ll be sitting the whole day anyway. That way, when I pop out for snacks the local Turkish don’t remember me as that bum that has a serious TWIX addiction. These days I’ve been drawn to wearing more cashmere, perfectly delicate enough to avoid aggravating eczema, my current favourite being the Iris & Ink cashmere sweater (exclusive to THE OUTNET.COM). I’ve worn it to countless fantasy board meetings, and lunch dates with Mr fridge & Mrs oven.

One piece, three looks – Iris & Ink duchesse-satin top

Look 1: Satin Top – Iris & Ink. Black jeans – James Jeans. Boots – Kurt Geiger (black). Bag – Marc Jacobs (via THE OUTNET.COM). Sunglasses – Carrera by Jimmy Choo.

Look 2:   Satin Top – Iris & Ink. Skirt – Calvin Klein (via THE OUTNET.COM. Shoes – Valentino. Bracelets – ASOS. Bird bangle – Saught. Clutch – Kurt Geiger.

Look 3:   Satin Top – Iris & Ink. Coat – Mango. Shoes – Mango. Skirt – Next. Bag – JinYoo103684. Rings – ASOS.

I think it’s high time I revive this series because honestly it’s quite fun putting together fantasy outfits, like I have somewhere to wear these to. Oh the joy of working from home. Take Look #2 for example – first date? any date? Dates with the hubby usually involves him telling me to go and change into trainers so we can walk his daddy-long-legs pace, and being asked if I ate a hamster because my lips are very very red. Or Look #3 – yeah pffsh, my business meetings usually happen over Skype, me in pyjamas munching on M&M’s, lying that my webcam isn’t functioning. I mean. I just don’t think they’ll trust working with a girl with no eyebrows. I’m kidding. I have eyebrows, please believe me. The colour of the Iris & Ink duchesse-satin top, exclusive to THE OUTNET.COM – hero piece of this month’s three-ways-to-wear – does put me in a rather romantic mood though. Plus, it’s the best kind of silk – those of the super-thick buttery sort that keeps its cocoon-y shape regardless of what’s happening underneath. I guess I can go eat a hamster afterall.

Park & Cube x THE OUTNET.COM

And chipmunk alert

 (Would you just look at that holding frame, DERP written all over) Wearing: Top – Marc Jacobs. Trousers – Iris & Ink at The Outnet. Shoes – Christian Louboutin

One other thing I generally suck at: speaking. Case in point, see above. And you’d think since it’s one thing you do everyday you get better at it, like walking – in fact, one sucks at walking too. IT’S JUST DIFFICULT OKAY. Scarily, my skills in public speech (or lack thereof) has always been a deal-breaker/maker of almost every junction in life, starting with my English IB orals in high school that single-handedly reduced mighty dreams of Modern History at Oxbridge to colouring at artschool (fun fact: CSM’s IB requirement is 26, which is basically the lowest ‘pass’ point in IB) (of course, one requires a killer portfolio and generally must appear mad-for-art to qualify). If I remember correctly there was a bit of Eminem’s Stan (ft. Dido) lyrics snuck into a Macbeth passage interpretation. Examiner clearly had no sense of humour, or swag, yo. Fast forward to late 2012, I take the exact same bag of skills to the Outnet shoot, fully expecting my character to be killed off in the pilot. What you’re seeing here is hours of painstaking editing, separating of the sane and insane moments, and sewing them seamlessly all together, all courtesy of the video wizards; and let’s not forget Ciara the lovely makeup artist, who eventually had to muster up a pot of peach-coloured acrylic paint to cover up a very scarlet face. So I do realize this is like admitting hey I’m kinda hot after someone’s photoshopped my head onto Jessica Alba’s body, but I quite like how it turned out! Plus, the shop edit they put together for me has rather awesome pieces that makes me look like I belong in Tommy Ton/Nam’s streetstyle snaps. It’s all good fantasizing fun.