Feels Like White Lightning

I always love a strong statement lip for 365(or 366) days of the year whether it's a beauty trend or not. I'm not a huge beauty person because I'm lazier than hell, and the only colours I wear are red(see: Sephora lip stain in Always Red. If I'm a classier person I would use lipstick, but I hate reapplying) and black(cheap drugstore lipsticks are the best because they are cheap. Oh wait this sounds hypocritical but what I mean is that while I love wearing black makeup, none of it are really long-lasting. When you see a nice little cheap black lip stain let me know). Into The Gloss just did a post/feature on the beauty scene of Rochas fall 2012, and while it was more a focus on this Cle de Peau eyeshadow I was more entranced Meghan's lips. The red purple-ish shade is not as dark as it seems in my collage(it's weird. It's not as dark in the photographs but on the Berdorf Goodman page it looks dark), and it looks really fabulous. So, yeah. I'm all for a purple lip for fall. And completely obsessed with Meghan Collison.

I Went Outside My House!

The long-wait is over. I finally finished eiting all the pictures I took (and stole from mi madre's iPhone) from the trip! You know, because you care (this is the part where you come in and say you don't) I rarely take photos during trips because I'm more a "screw-everything-and-live-the-moment," #YOLO sort of person. Plus, I usually forget that my camera exists until the end of the day and realize I should be documenting moments so I can share them with my grandchildren or something. But — big butt — being the dedicated fashion blogger I am not, I decided to take "snapshots" of my trip so you can see "glimpses" of my "exciting" "life." (Ha no I'm a terrible blogger) Please note the punctuation marks because they are very important.

On the day after we landed in Sydney(after 25-hour worth of flights, if you're interested. It could be a lot shorter if we transferred at Los Angeles instead of Hong Kong, but we initially didn't plan to go to Australia), we went to this place in Kiama called Blow Hole. This Blow Hole thing is kind of nature's answer to water fountains, but more spontaneous. It was really low-tide that day, so we basically spend 20 minutes standing there, trying to take pictures of non-existent squirts of water that we can't see. My uncle made up for it by buying us Aussie-flavor pizza, which tasted really good considering I hate pizza(trust me, if you have a choice of pizza or PB&J sandwich every single Friday, you will get sick of it) Note: the Japanese dumplings seen in the above collage was for breakfast. We should move on now before I make stupid comments about my ethnicity.

We went on this road trip on the third day. The road trip lasted for a week or so, but it's actually 60% of being in a bus with 30 other people I don't really know. I just spend most of the time napping and listening to Marina and the Diamonds' The Family Jewels, which I really just need to make a post dedicated to it already. We stopped at a lot of random places that I don't really remember(but mostly places I didn't take photos of), but the most interesting part of this whole damn road trip is the day we went to Lady Musgrave Island and the Great Barrier Reef.

We went to Lady Musgrave Island, which is near/over Great Barrier Reef, during the middle of the road trip that I did not volunteer for. It's basically an island made out of dead coral, which is really beautiful in this creepy, natural sort of way. There are also a lot of old trees that had been there since the middle of 20th Century, just to prove my point of the whole natural creepy beatific weird thing. I also went diving/swimming over the Great Barrier Reef. I got to swim with fishies! So, um, yeah. (I instantly developed an allergic reaction to the salt water, though. Not really all fun and games) No, the photos are not taken with a underwater camera, etc. It was taken during this 5-minute half-submarine ship ride I went on while patiently waiting to dive/swim. I actually didn't take a lot of photos, considering that my nutcase of a brother took over 200 photos with my mum's camera. I know because I had to delete them, one by one.

I met up with a certain Nusardel Oshana on the last few days before we left. We(including my mum, because she thought Nusardel's a pedophile or something. No, he's not a pedophile) went to Museum of Contemporary Art because we are artsy-fartsy, "cultural and shit." (His words, not mine) To be honest, I love it because it was so different from all the museums I ever went to. I still haven't went to the Yayoi Kusama exhibit at Whitney back then, so it probably had something to do with that. I still haven't go there, so whatever. We really spend quality time together, considering how we stand about 3 feet away from each. I also secretly laughed at his inability to use chopsticks, so that's that.

After lunch, our personal tour guide of the day took us wandering about in the city. You know, just going about and window-shopping and touching stuff we couldn't afford. We somehow managed to end up at Darling Harbor, so we went to this place called the Chinese Garden of Friendship. *insert a funny punchline* Let's laugh at the irony of all of this. And that's basically all we did. I'm just so talented at maintaining friendships with people, am I not?

I definitely did a lot of exciting thing in Hong Kong, like meeting up with the billion friends/family/ex-colleagues/ex-neighbors my family had. But that's just the cherry-on-top, y'all. The only reason that all these photos I've taken in Hong Kong are food photos is because it's the most memorable thing of this whole trip, ever. We didn't really do anything touristy, because I lived there for the whole first 10 years of my life and it's not really necessary. We did went to Disneyland with this childhood friend of mine, as you can clearly see as the background of the top collage. We really shared some quality time together, not maintaining eye contact with each other and while waiting on the line for the new rollercoaster ride(at least, it's new for me. It wasn't there the last time I went there). Definitely the highlight of my trip, really.

Miscellaneous photos I have no clue how to catagorize: a collage. Clockwise from top left corner: 1) A little gem I found at a rest stop convenient store while going back into Sydney, at the end of my road trip. Ah, you Australians and your funny cards. 2) 6/7 hours into my 26-hour delay at the airport, so I spend my time chewing Japanese dried shredded squid into shaping like trees(I personally think this looks like a Whomping Willow). Thanks, Typhoon Vincente. 3) Some kawaii-Japanese figure I found while patiently waiting for my mum to finish buying stuff 4) Bitch sipping my tea 5) At the Hong Kong's-version of Barnes & Nobles, browsing psychology books about fictional characters. I'm an exciting person!

Accessorize, Accessorize

Accessories are always the side dish, the salad(to those who take salad as the side dish, at least. Namely, me) to main plate of fashion. The majority of us use accessories as almost a seasoning to add to our outfits, with a scarf here, a wrapped bracelet there, etc, whatever. You can walk out the house with no accessories. But walking out with nothing on but accessories, on the other hand, is a completely different story, ma brothahs and sistahs. Fashion without accessories? I can live with that. Accessories without fashion? What even. But it's slowly happening.

Thanks to deader-than-dead economy, shop-til-you-drop is really no longer an option. Like it's ever really an option for the majority of us, pssh. No matter how rich or how poor you are, you have to be careful in how much you're spending. Though the fashion industry might not be happy and cheery and all happy-dancing, they're having the time of their lives in terms of accessories. In fact, 75% of the revenue at Michael Kors came from accessories. At least, according to this New York Times article(yes I read the New York Times). If that's just for Michael Kors, the king of lifestyle branding, can you just imagine how bad this is for other smaller labels that don't specialize(or at least, put time into) accessories? And why is this happening?

Okay, imagine this. You're some rich socialite with a chihuahua and you're doing your monthly shopping spree at Saks Fifth Avenue. Or Barneys. Take your pick. It used to be weekly, but you had to cut back because you could no longer afford that luxury. Just that thought brought a tear to your eye, which you wiped away with a slightly-chipped Essie-painted nail. Your personal shopper Paola(or Eva, whatevah) holds up a Balenciaga bag in her left hand and a Christopher Kane dress in the other, telling you that they are both "must-haves" this fall. You put your finger onto your lip, thinking. Wear that dress once and it goes to the back of your closet. That bag? At least you can carry it a couple of times before retiring it. Bingo.

The logic of the moment is simple: it's much more worth it to invest into accessories, something that you can wear several times, than a piece of designer clothing that you probably won't wear more than once. At least, that's the logic for people who's regularly buying designer clothing/accessories/etc. To be honest, I'm not all too worry unless "accessories week" or something starts popping up. Fashion is not just going to die. Sales might drop for a bit, or a lot, and some brands might go out of business, but that's as worse as it gets. Designers are not simply going to wake up one morning and stop designing clothes. You see, the thing is that accessories can't exist without clothes. They are inspired by it. Just let the accessories department have their fun until the recession is over.

The Image Of Deception

Alright, I'm finally back! Actually, I was back on July 26th at 1:03am but who's looking for details? This post is long-overdue and should have been posted more than a week ago, but for some reason I just can't bring myself to make a collage and write a simply, cheesy description about my trip while I had already posted 2 time after I was back. I blame it on.. err, I don't really have anything to blame it on, it's just that I'm still really not used to the fact that my trip was over already and now I have to face the music. Like the new Fiona Apple album and my AP Global homework. (Anyone volunteering as tribute? No? Damn..) Okay, lesson's over kiddos. The collage is made from photos from mostly my Miscellaneous board from Pinterest. Shameless inviting you to follow me on Pinterest, whatever. The quote is from The Bell Jar, which the imaginary and ideal me is reading in the collage. I'm currently re-reading it and trying to figure how I finished it at all without my eyes falling off. Might post later, but right now I'm off watching Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Any excuse to stare at Benedict's flawless cheekbones...

Not Bored, Just Idled

This post is long over-due — hey, don't look at me like that! It's not my fault! — but do you really expect me to drag my laptop around during my vacation? If so, you seriously overestimated my determination and dedication. I don't even have a laptop! More on that later. Besides, I still haven't dedicate a post on here about how I'm officially back and everything, so I'm not really back. Yet. Shhhh. Anyway, my collaging skills are still a little rusty after not touching Photoshop CS3 for weeks(yes I'm still using CS3 because I'm too lazy to upgrade and install stuff) and I know no one wants to see half-ass collages, it's not like my collages are anything but half-ass. I should shut up and move on already.

Vogue Italia July 2012 — Before you think, "oh great. Now Marcia's gonna ramble on about magazines she can't get anymore because she was away on vacation," I'm not trying to show it up in your faces I'm just creating a scenario I've actually seen this issue in real-life! Touched and read it too, if anyone's interested. Spoiler alert: no one is. I was getting my chopped off into a Victoria Beckham-esque bob and I was bored, and I usually don't like talking while getting my hair cut because: a) I don't like the taste of hair in my mouth and b) it's hard to find topics to talk about when your hairstylist is also your godfather. Got the picture in your head? Good. I started reading on their archive of fashion magazines, and I already finished i-D and most British Vogues. Hands down, this issue of Vogue Italia has the best editorial/season round-up ever. "Collections" by Steven Meisel is everything I ever wanted in an editorial. Other photos in the above collage are only there to make it more diverse.

V Magazine #78 — Titled The Youthquake Issue, this issue of V is all about — surprise, surprise! — youth and stuff. I know! What am I even doing here, writing a fashion blog and making half-ass collages? Noble prize award for best thinker right there(don't google it, they made up this category for me). Back on the topic, this issue really is about youth. Full of fun stuff like an editorial appropriately named "School Daze" and another inspired by Instagram, you really should buy this issue. Or read it on the floor of your local Barnes & Nobles/wherever sells magazines in your side of the town. I mean, c'mon! Cults of girls dressed up in weird alien bobs and  Comme des Garçons and Balenciaga! Look at your life, look at your choices.

Oyster #99 — Last but not least(because you should always end the end of a list with "last but not least") we have Oyster. The cover is meh(as usual), but the editorials are kick-ass worthy(as usual). How could you not love something when it has Aurel Schmidt(one of my favourite artists, if you still can't tell), Tavi Gevinson, Shalom Harlow and Bambi Northwood-Blyth? All in one neat little package?!(post referenced) Besides, this issue is, and I quoted, "all about women power, from cover to cover the issue focuses on strong, dynamic women – models, artists, authors and actresses who bring something fresh to the table." Feminism and quality editorial? Fuck yeah. Please excuse me while I drop dead and cry on the floor and watch some Sherlock and cry even more. God, my life is sad.

see complete editorials: Vogue Italia, V Magazine and Oyster