"Vintage" Gucci

Sigh...this blue velvet Gucci blazer! It's from the Fall 2004 collection (picture on the far left is from style.com), the last one designed by Tom Ford. I've had it for nearly 8 years, waiting for its debut. I just couldn't bring myself to put it on and risk getting my sweat or food on it. But I don't have it in my heart to sell it or give it away. I had anticipated its arrival for weeks and even placed an order with my Saks sales associate at that time. When I finally learned of its arrival, I hurried to the store to breathe it in. I bought it on the spot. The price tag was $1990, a bargain compared to a comparable designer runway piece being sold at Saks today. It was a lot of money to me at the time (it still is today). I had no business spending that much money on a month's worth of clothes, let alone on one single piece...but I'm glad I did then (although I wouldn't do it today, even with a salary that's double the size of the the one I had in 2004).

Honestly, Gucci just hasn't been the same since Tom Ford left. I do love their classic handbags, but as far as clothing goes, I just don't think they measure up to the glory days of Tom Ford. Love him or hate him, he created a buzz for the fashion house that will never be matched. I thought of this today, as I was thumbing through my copy of the May 2012 issue of Vanity Fair. In their photo spread of their 2012 Oscar party, I came across the photo on the right. Tom Ford himself is wearing a blue velvet blazer, not too different from the one I own.

What do you think? Is this blazer too precious to wear? Or does it deserve a night out on the town?

Lesson Learned from This Easter Season

I realize that my posts that have nothing to do with fasion don't get much attention, but as this is my blog, I'm gonna go ahead and post my thoughts, anyway.

Today was Easter Sunday, marking the end of a period we Christians call Lent. Lent is known as a time of sacrifice. Many people vow to give up a certain habit or indulgence during that time of year. For me, last year, it was shopping, as it usually is (I nearly went without shopping during the entire Lenten season, but weakness took over me, when I bought the Christian Louboutin jade Jenny shoes). At the beginning of this Lenten season, though, I learned through a wise person that the reason for sacrifice is to make room for something new, something better. That was a new way for me to look at it.

What'd I learn? It's summed up by that slogan from the Chrysler commercial: the things that you do when no one is looking are the things that define you. I hope I got that right. Anyway, I don't like to give away a lot of details about this, but I'll just say someone I'm close to is no longer the person I thought they were when we met. It's not that that person changed. It's that I've recently seen a different side of her. I learned that people can pretend for short amounts of time. Eventually, though, they show who they are. You learn that some people, when they know no one (or no one else) is looking, they're different. It's those people who run when they finally get called out for their behavior. They're too chicken to come face-to-face with who they really are. But if you're true to yourself, you've no need to run. You've no reason to be afraid.

Where Have I Been?

So my last entry was on 3/2. Where have I been since that day? Well, the week after that, I was in the Big Apple...again. Second time in a year. I'm on a roll!

I was there for business and pleasure. I went to a very informative work-related seminar, then I just spent the rest of the week relaxing. I know people don't generally think of New York City as a place to relax, but for me, it is. Work has been so stressful that I wanted to take a week to do something that's different from my daily grind. Every time I visit NYC, I feel more and more like I belong there. It must've shown in my face cuz 3 people asked me for directions! Last time, just one did (and I gave them to her in Spanish). I also learned to take the subway-I couldn't believe how easy it was!

One way in which I was taken out of my daily grind is the volume of food I ate. I'm normally a light eater, but with almost every meal in NYC, I was able to scarf down an entree, appetizer, dessert, and wine. The best part? I didn't gain any weight! It must've been all that walking. Speaking of food, I couldn't leave NYC without checking out the first American outpost of Laduree, the infamous macaron bakery from Paris. It may be a very long time before I get to see the original one in Paris, so I figured I should pay a visit to the NYC one. I got there at about 4:30 pm on a weekday, and there were about 20 people in line ahead of me. It took more than a half hour for me to get in and out of there. In the end, it was worth it. The treats were scrumptious! I've cut out a lot of dessert from my diet lately, so it shocked me that such a little piece of food can cost $2.70. If you're like me and like to save a little here and there, don't get the gift boxes. They're in all the displays, so it may look like you have to buy them, but you don't. Besides, the regular boxes are not-too-shabby-looking (as you'll be able to see in the pic on the left). Of course, I had to do the New Yorker thing and eat hot dogs and pretzels from the street and pizza. Yum...but I was sure to balance them with salads and fish, too ;)

Having a mostly open agenda, I was free to move about the city as I wanted. I spent hours in neighborhoods I had never visited previously, such as the Flatiron District and Little Italy. I also spent quite a few hours in the Financial District, home of the newly-built 9/11 memorial. It was pretty crowded there, so I can see why appointments have to be made. I felt a little humbled, just taking in the sights around the memorial. To think of people who give their lives and have to leave their loved ones, all in the name of service, it makes me think how lucky I should feel to be alive and how grateful I should be to people who sacrifice their lives so people like me can go on.

So my agenda was mostly open, but what was sure to be included was...can you guess? Shopping, of course! Did I get anything special? Yes, I did!

Introducing...my Christian Louboutin Lady Gres 160 pumps, in mandarin red suede! This is a style exclusive to the CL 20th anniversary capsule collection. Even more exclusive to the style is the color, which was sold in very few stores around the world. I lucked out big time that the Horatio boutique had my size! Each pair from this collection comes with a special box, cloth bag, and even special tissue paper!

"Some Notes on LA" (by Talia Ralph)

My sister sent me a link to this article posted today, which I thought was interesting, so I'm reposting it here (the link is http://thoughtcatalog.com/2012/some-notes-on-l-a/):

I never realized before that freeways come to an end; they just flow back into real streets like nothing ever happened, like you were never going 80 at 4 AM next to a 16-wheeler, thinking about your ex. The glow of movies on big screens? This entire city is basking in that glow. That glow can carry you home over and under passes and through seemingly endless ritzy and rickety neighborhoods. The hills — Silver Lake, Hollywood, whatever all those other ones are — they wink at you. They glitter and glint and make you feel like you’re in on the joke; that you’re living in a feature film.

The cafes are always full of people, any time of day. Many of them are working on things: screenplays, events, stories. That, or they are actors doing a very good job pretending to work on things, when really they are just studying you, waiting to see what they can borrow from your character and use. It is okay to spend 5 dollars on tea or coffee, even 10: it is the price you pay for not having an office and wearing sandals to work in February. It is also the price of being the source of audition material.

Everyone here is playing some kind of character; if anything, the city requires that you reinvent yourself upon entry. You may have been a straight-A straight-edge goody-two-shoes in your hometown, but here, history doesn’t hold as much weight. You can be a flaky floozy with blond highlights dressed in filmy white dresses and turquoise stones, looking out at the world hazily from beneath a floppy brimmed hat. You can be a total sh-t-kicker who wears leather jackets with scraped up elbows from motorcycle accidents and runs her mouth at inopportune moments. You can be a screenwriter-photographer-director-writer’s girlfriend, a jaded intellectual who sneaks peeks at Entertainment magazine when no one is looking, a muse. Not only can you; you should.

There are usually lemons or limes or avocados growing somewhere close to your house; you can pick them when you’re leaving parties drunk and let them roll around in your purse, and make lemonade or Key Lime pie or guacamole with them the next day, leaving the bottom of your bag smelling like citrusy leather. You can also tell by squeezing an avocado in between your fingers when it is ripe and when it is rotten. You can taste it if you want to, if you really need proof that even such a perfect fruit can go bad, but you know the second you touch it if it is still edible. The same tends to go for your interactions with people.

You can be all different kinds of beautiful here; beautiful because you stick out, because your skin is light instead of dark, your hair is dark instead of light; or beautiful because you blend in, all sand and sun and sea-colored. You can dip the tips of your hair in sunshine, tattoo your skin, pierce your ears, put your name on lists for exclusive parties and teeter through the doors in heels and sequins and silk. You can give in to the vanity of the place and no one will scoff at you; they’re being their own hot selves. You will never have seen so many beautiful people in a Target before.

Someone once told me that your ability to survive in Los Angeles is based on a very simple formula. You need to get into bed at night and be able to hold what you’ve done that day up against your dreams and feel like they match up, and you need to be getting laid. If you lack one, or worse, both of those things, you have every right to get back on the freeway and leave.

I highlighted my favorite sentences of this article. How would you describe how an "LA woman" looks? Would you say she's tall and thin, with blonde hair and blue eyes, like Cameron Diaz? Or a dark-haired petite woman with curves, like Kim Kardashian? You'd be right to say either cuz they're both from LA. One thing I say that I love about this city is the diversity. The ethnic diversity here is unbeatable. You can find women here in all heights, body shapes, hair color, skin color, etc....and we're all beautiful. Having gone to a lot of Targets here within the past couple of weeks (to stalk the Jason Wu collection), I can attest to seeing all the beauty in the store considered the ultimate equalizer, since we all have to go there sometime in our lives.

I've traveled to many different places around the world and am even open to the possibility of moving to another city. I always say, though, that wherever I end up, I'll always be a proud Angeleno.

The Collection is Now Complete

My Jason Wu for Target frenzy was going strong, 18 days after launch date. 2 nights ago, I was on target.com, searching for the cat tote. I got excited cuz after I activated the "find in store" feature, I saw that one of my local stores had it in "limited stock". I called the store, and the operator said it was an error. I looked at the clock. 8:25 pm. 35 minutes until one of my favorite shows, "Person of Interest", would start. I was in my pajamas. It was possible for me to change into jeans and a T-shirt, drive over there (it was only 10 minutes away), check the store, and drive back in time without missing a minute of my show. My frenzy died right then and there. I knew it did cuz I decided against going. If it was the previous week, I totally would've done it. I decided I wasn't going to buy any more from this collection, and I resolved to a life of going without the cat tote.

I went to 4 Target stores today. I was searching for a strapless bra. This weight loss has been great for me for the most part. Clothes have been pretty easy to find, but bras are another story. I'd given up on the tote, and the 3rd store didn't even carry the JWfT collection (they got the occasional return, though). This was the same store that had the tote in "limited stock" 2 nights ago. The lingerie department was right next to jewelry, so I decided to peek anyway. I saw a couple of canvas items in a random place. One was the JWfT striped tote, and the other...no! It couldn't be! I picked it up. It was!

There was a surge of adrenaline going through my body. It was the same rush I felt on Feb. 5, launch date of the collection, when I ran past stink-eye chick up the stairs. I made a beeline for the register. There was a mother/son duo buying a bunch of stuff in front of me, and they bought their items in 3 separate transactions. They seemed to take forever, and the cashier was super-slow. I didn't want any customers to see me with the tote, so I kept it in my hands until it was my turn to be rung up. My turn came, and I handed the cashier the tote. He scanned the tag. My total came up, and I immediately swiped my debit card. Yay! It's really mine! (Silent) Valley girl scream as I floated back to my car! I was so excited I forgot to look for the bra. I went back, but no such luck. I went to another Target on the way home. No luck. I even went to Wal-Mart. No luck. Who knew a 32C would be so hard to find?!

So now my collection's complete. I am done. I ended my hunting-and-gathering frenzy on a high note. I now have all 3 cat items from JWfT: the tote, scarf, and bag. I also have 2 cute dresses, the poofy black prom dress with the nude belt and the navy floral dress worn by First Lady Michelle Obama (I guess to prove that she's just like us, shopping at Target lol).

My Visit to the Whitney Houston Shrine

Hello, everyone. How was your Presidents' Day weekend? For my international readers, I'll explain a little about this. 2 of our most well-known American Presidents, George Washington (born on Feb. 22) and Abraham Lincoln (born on Feb. 12), are considered so special that their birthdays must be acknowledged as national holidays (paid time off for many of us). There was a time when these 2 days were acknowledged as 2 separate holidays, but that is no more. Instead, we celebrate both birthdays on the 3rd Monday of each February. Many people choose to go out of town (Vegas is a popular destination for many Angelenos), but I usually stay in town to get stuff done.

So what did I get done? Since launch date (Feb. 5), I attempted to build a bigger collection of Jason Wu for Target items by scouring various Target stores in the LA area. I was pretty successful last weekend, when I found 3 of the infamous cat-print scarves in a Target store 35 miles from my house. I did think of leaving 1 on the rack for a poor soul who'd been hunting it down, but I ended up snatching all 3. I didn't want to take any chances that I wouldn't ever find them again. I turned out to be right. I haven't seen them in any store since that day. Don't fret, though. All of them went to dear friends/family who were absolutely grateful and will keep in order to treasure. I was unsuccessful this Presidents' Day weekend with that, but it still turned out to be a good weekend nonetheless.

So while on the hunt for more JW for T items, I drove by Beverly Hills and decided to stop for a few minutes to visit the shrine of the dearly departed Whitney Houston, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, where she passed away. There were others there, reading the cards/notes filled with sincere words. The candles were burning, the flowers still strewn, even 8 days after her death. I took a close-up pic of 2 of the many handwritten notes. I chose these 2 in particular because they came from people from countries far away. It just goes to show how far-reaching Whitney's fan base was. She's a true inspiration to singers and people in general. There will never be another singer like her. It's sad to think about how her career declined toward the end of her very short life, but I choose

to remember her in her prime. "Where Do Broken Hearts Go?", "One Moment in Time", and "When You Believe" (her duet with Mariah Carey, from the soundtrack of Prince of Egypt) were my favorites songs of hers.

Time permitting, I think I'll revisit the shrine and leave my own little token of affection for her. I'll let you know how that goes.

Jason Wu for Target

In all the years that high-end designers have been doing collaborations with mass-market chains, I had never lined up for opening day of any of them. I never felt it was justified to miss work just to buy clothes. But when the Jason Wu for Target collaboration came, and I found out the launch date was on a Sunday, I decided this would be my first time. I got up even earlier than I do for work, went on an early coffee run, and got to Target by 7:15 am. There were about 6 women already waiting outside. I sat in between and struck up a conversation with a mom-daughter combo who were super-sweet. The mom even held some of my clothes while I was in the fitting room. There were a couple of hard-core followers, one wearing a zigzag Missoni for Target beanie. One red-haired girl rambled about the items she wanted and her efforts to buy them (without any success) on target.com. At about 7:30, a large middle-aged Black man pulled up and got out of his car, holding papers. He immediately, in his loud and deep voice, stated that he was embarrassed to be there, but did so on behalf of his wife, whom he loved enough to do this, and on Super Bowl Sunday, too (I later helped him pick up the cat scarf, which he dropped on the floor and physically couldn't pick up).

7:45 am, and the ladies (and man) crowded around the front entrance. We joked and talked, and though everyone had been nice while we were seated minutes earlier, there were a few people who turned. 3 people stepped in front of me (there was no formal line), and the red-haired girl made comments best kept to herself. She seemed polite before this time, but when I tried to make polite conversation about certain pieces, she snarled and refused to tell me which ones she wanted (although she was happy to talk about it minutes earlier). The doors opened, and we all made a run for it. I decided to go against the grain by opting for the stairs instead of the escalator. My legs may be short, but I earned a bronze medal for the hurdle/sprint event while I was on the track team in high school, so I was able to go up them 2 at a time. It worked cuz I and the only other person who opted for the stairs were the first 2 to the racks. I even got there ahead of red-haired girl and the cutters! Anyway...

I ended up getting what I wanted from there, but there were a couple of items not even in the store, for which I will look in the coming weeks (at least Target is close enough to my work that I go there for lunch often anyway). I'm bummed I missed out on most of the accessories, but managed to snag a bag and a cat scarf. I'm so glad I opted for the stairs cuz within 5 minutes, all the dresses in size 2/XS were gone, and many ladies complained that this was the size they needed, but could find only L/12 and up. My final haul is pictured on the right.

What we do for fashion and exclusivity! And when it's exclusive fashion, it's total madness!