Chinese New Year SALES in Taipei – Get Shopping!

If you haven’t noticed, Taipei, there are sales EVERYWHERE. If you didn’t know – that’s for a few reasons: end of winter sales because Chinese New Year marks the start of spring, and the custom to only wear new clothes on Chinese New Year, especially red for good luck.

One quick bicycle ride through 東區 (aka the area around ZhongXiao DunHua), and nearly every store had signs reading 20-70% off, with lots of red in the windows.

Year of the Tiger!

What are you waiting for? There are 3 days left (Wed, Thu, Fri) and Sat is Chinese New Year’s Eve, which means Saturday is your absolute last chance for romance for the SALES of the season.

Buy up the winter stock, support the economy, get a great deal — all to make way for new stock being brought in after Chinese New Year is over. (Ooh new spring stock!!)

Some stores, like NEU, already have some new stock in (OMFG SUNGLASSES i die, go there you must!) so don’t wait until it’s sold out. Borrow money and pay it back with your red envelopes! Or, if you love me and don’t know what you wanna do with all your money, buy me these sunglasses:)

KTZ by Linda Farrow:

Or, like many of my friends, have a nice vacation in a country that doesn’t have Chinese New Year and shop there. Maybe buy something before you leave? It’s great deals everywhere yo. Now is the time to go and shop cuz you can get CRAZY deals.

But srsly – walk around behind Luxy there – there’s SO SO SO many rad shops and everything is on SALE. make time busy people, you’ll thank me when you find something cool!

RADAR – Nude Obsession for Spring 2010

I must tell you that nude is one of the MAJOR colors for Spring 2010. I love nude + feminine draping and ruffles. Nude goes with everything, and I can’t wait to make some new clothes of my own with it. Make-up is also on the nude trend, especially the nude nails (get yours at Chanel for $700NT).

Here’s my Polyvore set, all for Spring 2010:

Nude Obsession by ricesociety featuring Miu Miu bags

Dress on the left is Rick Owens, Valentino runway shots, Chloe dress on right.

Miu Miu bag, and shoes from left are Valentino, Rosegold, Christian Louboutin, ASOS and Aldo. Oooh I’m so totally obssessed with nude. It’s a nice change after all that color last summer (and neon the winter before that) and all the black black black this winter.

Nude Make-up Spring 2010 by ricesociety on Polyvore.com

The first row all M.A.C. Spring 2010, Nars Spring 2010 ad, Chanel nude nails, and Dior duo eyeshadow.

Now, this doesn’t mean I’m gonna start liking brown. Nude, ok. Just don’t call it beige. Brown, bleh, not for me. It’s taken a while to come back to earth colors after being on the so-bright-it-hurts-my-eyes phase. You just watch this summer. Nude will be everywhere.

(New pool party trend this summer? hehehe…)

3 days til NYFW begins!! Ooh the anticipation!

Designers You Should Know – Lie Sang Bong

Lie Sang Bong = Korean designer who shows his collections in Paris. He was designer of the year in Seoul in 1999.

What you really need to know about him is that he’s creative. He has workmanship to admire and beautiful execution. An archive of 634 magazine pages? Ya, I’d say he’s been around and paid his dues. Lie Sang Bong. You gotta learn who this guy is.

This is from RTW Fall 2009. OOH THE LEATHER CUT WORK!!!

Below is his latest shoot taken from Vogue Korea Jan 2010. Wish I could read Korean to tell you more about it. But, after my close eye and careful scrutiny, I discovered all the clothes are from Lie Sang Bong’s Spring 2010 collection. Some of them are FIERCE. Others. not for me, but maybe for YOU.

Indulge.

I wanna know how long it took to make that fabric do that. Philip Tracey inspired hats for the entire shoot?

This is my absolute favorite outfit from the collection and I want it. The white/silver/grey thing is really working right now. I wonder if all those strings are leather? It would feel good if they were all elastic, but by the looks of it perhaps it is just cord?

This picture below is how I realized whose clothes these were. I noticed that this print was the same as the print on the leggings of Lie Sang Bong’s in the Fixed Gear shoot I just showed you. Quick jump to his website says it’s his first look from Spring 2010. See his other wickedness here.

Ooh it’s magic in metallic… (but maybe sans leggings?)

This is so the hat from the Grinch Who Stole Christmas, right, right?? Either they are in an art gallery and someone has convinced the curator no harm will be done to the art during the photo shoot, or they’re in someone’s apartment building foyer. The clothes totally match – good job location discoverer! Feeling this outfit. (Can you remember his name yet??)

You have no idea how hard is is to do all that detailing on the leggings/jumpsuit. WAY.TO.GO!

It looks like the cat is dragging the curtains off her, hehe. THE BOOTS are nothing short of amazing-ness.

I dig it. All these shots and more. Lie Sang Bong Spring 2010. Gimme Gimme!

Rice Society

Testing my Shiiiiit

I love this font.

Shopping – Mob.F @Siam Center Bangkok

‘The Multibrand Fashion Store” Mob.F — 42 Thai designers all in one place.

The Fashion Rebels – In Mob We Trust

I wish we had this store in Taipei. It’s on the 4th floor of the Siam Center in downtown Bangkok (attached to the Siam BTS skytrain stop).

There is SO much cool shit in this mall, I just wish I had more time to peruse the goods. I did end up with this, Magnett by Wonder Playground:

It’s made from felt that is burned around the edges, which leads me to believe they have a metal stencil that they stamp on the felt to get that shape. I bought the one with a chain so it’s like a necklace, but the majority of them had magnetic closure, so you could wear it like a necklace – or attach it to a shirt where there were magnets on the shoulders. I really wanted to get a shirt, but none of them seemed to be the right style or fit, so I went with the necklace.

I also picked up a sweet dress from Common-T. (No pic yet.)

Justin got the amazing coat he wore to the Tweet-Up here too.

If you’re going there for Chinese New Year or vacation, or you live there, go shopping!

Sites that make you go WHOA – TUDOU

This site, if you can handle a little Chinese, streams a lot of shows (with Chinese and English subtitles) super fast. Not only is the stream super fast, but they have complete episodes all in one file, with some are arranged so they play back to back.

Dangerous time waster warning.

check it out: TUDOU

*Tip- you can search the English name of the series you want, but often the Season and Episode are in Chinese, so just put a number with a space between.

Copy 季 for Season

集 for episode. Season Finale of Heroes Feb 8th!! (sssh dont judge) What a drug. Endless hours of shows you want on demand. Except now I need more sleep.

Wearing Stilettos on Fixed Gear Bikes

Go WAD, this was in the Vogue section of the #43 issue.

K – lemme be honest – part of me is like, whoa, nice styling, I dig the black & white, I like the clothes and how the models look. Interesting brand choices. The other part is going damn – those San Fran fixie kids must be pissed that their thing has just blown up everywhere and now it’s not cool anymore cuz it’s mainstream. I mean, no one would ride a fixie in stilettos (esp. with no toe clips) cuz it has NO BRAKES without writing a suicide note first.

That said, you should check out the bikes (that means you, Justin) cuz they are so sleek and purdy! oh yes, and shoes…..

Love love love those shoes in the last pic – “Tsuru” By Alessandra Stella. Good taste in shoes all throughout the shoot – Roger Vivier in #1, Louboutins in #2 & 6, Hermes in #3, Miss Sixty in #4, and Pierre Hardy (swoon) in #6.

As for the clothes I’m a fan of the leggings by Lie Sang Bong in #5, as well as the white dress from #1 and the shoulder pad bolero in #7 by Alexandre Vauthier– a haute couture designer well known for that crazy pointy shoulder.

Both links are worth clicking and exploring their different fashion worlds. Which leads me to also wanna link you to the stylist on this shoot- how did she get her hands on all this wonderful product? What a great match they are together, bravo. Her name is Justine Allain and you should check out her other work by clicking here.

WAD is it?

Buy this magazine. It’s so fucking cool. Dare I say my favorite? I DO!

WAD = We’Ar Different, a bilingual English/French magazine from Paris.

WAD is for the girls AND the boys. Urban fashion at it’s freshest. It’s not just the clothes, it’s everything!

This issue, #43, the Dec/Jan/Feb Issue, is extra special.

The 2009 issues were all about the number 10, 10 for the tenth year anniversary of WAD, 10 for the arrival of 2010….  so this time they chose 10 of their favorite magazines and split the mag into 10 parts and “borrowed each one’s particular visual universe, immediately recognizable graphic design, photographic style, and journalistic tone.” I picked out i-D’s style before I even knew what this issue was all about. They still write their own content, and have their style, but they clone the look and do a very convincing job.

The purpose? To reinterpret and pay homage to the magazines that influenced and inspired, and perhaps to revive the dying glossy paper loving industry.

The execution was genius. WAD also made mock covers in each style so you know when each section starts, although I wish they would’ve put a footer on the bottom, so if you randomly open it up it’s easier to tell what part you’re in.

Check the covers:

The magazines they clone in order are:

1.  Voici – the cheeky French tabloid

2.  Photo – photography mag 40 years running

3.  Vogue – you should fucking know dude

4.  Wallpaper – fashion + design = Love

5.  Liberation – French daily newspaper

6.  i-D – you should know the models always hide one eye

7.  Lodown – Berlin street culture/skateboarding mag

8.  Colors – you’ve seen it in a cool dude’s flat, the “magazine about the rest of the world”

9.  Tetu – France’s leading gay mag

10.  Popeye – Japanese fashion  (which even reads from right to left)

They also include their regular A-MAZ-ING graphic design pages, which is always showcased on the cover. One of their many strengths. (Many other pages inside as well. You just think, wow, you are the Photoshop masters- it looks so real, yet it’s impossible!)

I will buy this magazine every chance I get. Definitely beats half the blogs I read for free. (FOR REAL)

Do it, go to ESLITE before they sell out! 363 pages of inspiration!

ok ok, they also have a blog for you lazy broke ass MoFos…..but it’s nowhere near as good as the paper version…….WAD MAG

Fashion – What’s next in pants? Balenciaga knows!

I have to admit, for the last 2 and a half years, I have gone crazy for leggings. I first seen them on JO (of Pet Shops Girl) and was so totally hooked that I had to start making my own.

This is a pair I got from her, photo taken by Gretchen Robinette, here with my hot pink hair 2 years ago:

But… that was a LOOOOOOONG time ago. I’m getting sick of the brightness. This winter it has been a lot of BLACK leggings (and black clothing), different textured ones being my favorite. (More on the color predictions in another post.)

Pants in the near future?

I’m totally not ready for flared/wide leg/bell bottoms yet, and most people I know are also not into this so early in the fashion game. I know some big companies that tried to make it happen last year (especially in the designer jeans category), but no one wanted to buy it.

Ew, True Religion:

Makes me feel like I’m in high school and I’m dying to get my hands on a pair or 42″ Jnco jeans so we can get to the latest rave and dance to drum and bass.

THIS IS 2010! Retro 90s/early naughties is just not doing it for me. Let’s talk about the future.

So – everyone’s attached to skinny jeans…. and leggings…. but we need something new.

Balenciaga Spring 2010 gave me an idea, with this quote from Nicolas Ghesquière: “I wanted to do something urban. No more history at the moment.”

Check out the pants. Although they are made from leather, which is super impractical in Asia and many regular people’s lives, how they are constructed is what got my attention. (And how easy they can copy that look in textured spandex!)

They mesh the ease and simplicity of leggings (elasticized waist) with the skinny silhouette, while adding something new to the table, vertical patchwork. Usually, patchwork to me means an ugly quilt. But when you make the colors monochromatic and change the texture, that makes it interesting and FRESH.

Variations in shade also look innovative:

After making my share of spandex and cotton leggings, the waistband on these Balenciaga pants was kind of an eye opener for me. They have 3 tiers of elastic at the top, and an inseam panel in a different shade that gives a slimming effect. I also like how Ghesquiere incorporated those exterior front pockets into the patchwork.

The whole collection follows this play of texture, fabric and color blocking.

So, what does this mean to us mere mortals who don’t have an extra $1400US to shell out for an original pair?

It’s a good thing Balenciaga is popular – expect to see a “trickle down” effect in the industry – either by using different kinds of textured spandex and cotton, or by using ribbing with fake leather or mash up of all. I wanna come up with an inspired pair of my own!

Look for textured leggings to become a major part of spring fashion, as psychodelic/80s patterns are coming to a close (at least in my closet.) You know if the 50 year old lady who sells you danbing in the morning is wearing them, it’s over.

One note on leggings though – I know people are not gonna stop wearing them anytime soon,  especially the classic black in comfy cotton…. but something new has to happen.

You don’t have to agree with me, and maybe I’m wrong. We won’t know til the future comes!

(*Leggings with holes or diamonds cut out, with strings going over open parts or just manufactured rips have been a major night market fashion over the past couple months, if you haven’t noticed. Lace was before that. Keyword is night market.)

First Taipei TweetUp

A TweetUp – An event to meet other people as addicted to the Internet as you are — those who Tweet in Taipei. What’s your @?

Some of us were already friends, the rest of us connected the old fashioned way on Friday night – over dinner and some drinks.

We met up at Jogoya, and for $800NT we got all you can eat AND all you can drink.

Who came?

@followpeggylee (Of Peggy Teaches Chinese YouTube Channel!)

Peggy also made a video about the tweeple, and did a short interview with David Feng.

Go check it here.

@Kyle_Chu and his wife, @JesicaLin

@DavidFeng visiting from Beijing on the left, Tweeting at the dinner table

Our host @globetrotteri (Of My Several Worlds & Taiwan Photographers) with @sascha_p (Of NetBook News)

Spencer Pangborn (Of Taipei Tech Club) and @shanzai (Of Shanzai.com on the right)

The best part about this place was they let us sit in this “hallway” for five hours continuously filling up those jugs of draft whenever they were empty. I’d say I got my 800 worth!

@DJMarcusA (Of Waakao and famous good times)

@jhbiddle @followpeggylee and @alitaworld

@mrtucky (Of My Darling Delicious) with @altonthompson in the background (Of Alton Thompson.com) after we moved to Barcode.

Just in case you’re new to my blog – I don’t usually take forever and a day to upload shit but I’ve been trying to take some reality time off the internet time and pay attention to the oxygen life. (Spend some more time with Mr. Delicious up there, knowwhatI’msaying?)