Vanilla Means White

vanillameanswhite — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 02:32:54 +0000

Bustiers. I don’t get them. Aren’t they like, very Madonna circa 1990?

(style bubble, and may I say, I think this is a particularly ugly one)

This time of year…

vanillameanswhite — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 23:13:22 +0000

There’s something I don’t get about the Brits, and only Brits do it as far as I know. They make a big fuss out of “what to wear at Glastonbury”. Aren’t music festivals (especially in Britain) a torrent of rain, mud and long queues for disgusting portable toilets (can’t call them bathrooms), the last time I checked?

vanillameanswhite — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 02:26:49 +0000

Am I crazy for liking this trend? But more like those on Miley Cyrus (or Smiley Virus, as I like to call her) than those on Reese Witherspoon, (less pronounced,) however.

vanillameanswhite — Sun, 24 May 2009 20:04:30 +0000

I’m not really into Robert Cavalli to be honest with you, but watching some old Style podcasts I had to point out his fall/winter ’08 stuff. First off, it looks like SUMMER. Knee-length sleeveless dresses with spaghetti straps. Also one of the main reasons I was a bit put off by Cavalli in the past is he has so many animal prints, but this collection is not only summery, but FLORAL! Weird. There was one dress I thought that looked quite Chanel, probably because it had the lacy white shirt-part with black trim (on my favourite model Lily Donaldson… cuz she’s just cool):

Christian Siriano

vanillameanswhite — Thu, 14 May 2009 02:57:35 +0000

OK I am slow regarding this because I don’t watch much Project Runway outside England (and I only started watching last year), so forgive my ignorance in all things PR. First off I haven’t finished the series (watching on cable)… I’m about 4 challenges into the season but I’m already pretty sure who I like most–not character-wise, but as a designer. So I went online to verify Christian Siriano was indeed who won the season. He was! So I went to his website and browsed his collections (he’s shown in NY Fashion Week since winning PR). OMG. AMAZING, AMAZING AMAZING, and I wouldn’t say this if weren’t for the fact that he’s 21, a kid really. He’s like… an infant McQueen! That’s my opinion anyway.

I still can’t believe he pulled this off at one of the challenges.

Incidentally (and I swear I saw the first before the latter), I saw this H&M bubble skirt in a magazine today and quite like. I know most ppl find bubble skirts yawn-worthy and boring, but I don’t own even one so I thought one might be quite fun to wear!

H&M

Mr Siriano

vanillameanswhite — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 14:27:20 +0000

OK I don’t know how many of my zero readers go to Topshop (which is only available in New York and the UK, I think), but I have many interesting stories regarding this store which taken together can only point to one irrefutable fact which is that Topshop, in all senses of the word, sucks. I first went to Topshop in ’97, when I was 15 and in that awkward transitioning stage when I was still trying to figure out who I was “style-wise” (pah, whatever the heck that means, like I don’t even dress well now.) Anyway I had just moved to London and a bunch of friends from my old school decided to spend a weekend with me, shopping. Being stupid naive 15 year old girls we inevitably went to: Oxford Street!

If you’ve ever been to the Topshop flagship store on Oxford Street it is, erm, a mini-hell. Spice Girls music blasting through the sound system (the day we went), sections of clothes NOT categorised very well (formal/casual, evening/day all jumbled up), bad accessories. And everything’s not as cheap as it seems, considering the quality. The next time I had the privilege of patroning this particular factory of Sir Philip Green’s wealth was 1999, when I started university and needed some much-lacking knitwear from my wardrobe, since where i was living was cold and I had no heater (really), and I had to walk 3 miles daily to the place I was hearing lectures. So, off to Topshop.

Serendipitously, because the knits at Topshop were so terrible (unraveling hems, low-quality wool, tendency to shrink in the wash (yes despite handwashing)), and at Oxford Circus Topshop is RIGHT OPPOSITE H&M, I thought why not? and tried my luck there. Though I’m not a fan of H&M–I immediately found 3 or 4 knitted jumpers (that’s pullovers for you yanks) that sustained me for the next 5 years or so even after I quit school and still own. They were under (I don’t know if H&M still has this “brand”?) a label called “L.O.G.G.” (“label of graded goods”). This experience didn’t convert me to H&M, but it definitely put me off one-tacky-name-for-a-store Topshop for life.

P.S. It is my personal belief (and I honestly think this is) that people, especially Americans, have grown to love Topshop over the past two years because of Kate Moss’s association with it. (Her Kate Moss for Topshop line.) (No offense to Americans, we’ve just known Topshop much longer than you folks.) I’m sorry. I hate “A Supermodel for a High St store” lines. They have little involvement in the line, don’t design the clothes, and probably wouldn’t wear them if their life depended on it. Much like celebrity perfumes.

vanillameanswhite — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 13:35:03 +0000

Okeee! I am excited. I was just sitting here looking at dresses online at Uniqlo (not very remarkable, I must say) when the latest GOOP post arrived in my email. I have a love-hate relationship with GOOP (and Gwyneth Paltrow actually) because I like some of the things she says (like eating healthy and book recommendations) and other times I think she’s full of sh*t (her WASPy-princess stuff). Anyway, her latest post contains “advice” for what to wear for spring, and the first picture got me worked up right away: Yeah, trenchcoats. Don’t you just love them? But I think my relationship with trenchcoats is the same as that with GOOP and Gwyneth Paltrow: i.e. love/hate. Trenchcoats look great yet at the same time, they’re so friggin’ useless. At least in some climates. They’re too thin to really shield yourself from anything, and they’re too “wintry” to be worn in summer. Maybe I’m just biased because I used to live in England, so the only viable season in which to wear trenches (autumn) only lasts a month and a half.

Conversely, now that I live in Hong Kong, trenchcoats are a useful option because spring is fairly warm and it’s clear when to ditch them (during the summer). Otherwise the winters are mild and it’s not ridiculous to walk down the street in a trench + turtleneck + skirt combo. Well that’s my unprofessional non-Upper East Side opinion anyway.

**P.S. I have a grudge against Topshop. I genuinely do. [The trench in the picture above is from Topshop] I see that Americans are all enamoured by this badly-made rip-off of a chain now but i do have clear eyesight. Topshop-bashing post soon to follow.

vanillameanswhite — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 11:23:01 +0000

I’m starting to really like Kirsten Dunst off-duty.

LOVE the first outfit. Love it.

This looks quite fun actually

vanillameanswhite — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 05:03:22 +0000

vanillameanswhite — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:06:59 +0000

I sort of have a girl crush on Du Juan. Sure there aren’t many Chinese models on the runways these days, what with the crop of Canadian and East European dominating the scene the past 3 years (not to mention Asian models are hard to come by anyway), but she’s just so sweet and humble in interviews that it’s hard not to like her. So I was happy when my daily dose of Who What Wear featured her as a “fashionable backstage dresser”.

Non-Chinese people might not know this, but the name Du Juan also means honeysuckle. So cute. Watch this girl.