Keep It Simple

Part of my Holy Week break has been dedicated to brainstorming for the next display design for Fully Booked. One of the most important things to remember when being one person creating displays for 13 branches is that I should KEEP IT SIMPLE. At the same time, as I've been going around design blogs (I finally have some time to really browse through!!), I find that I am most at awe of work that is in fact that: simple.

Stapled Art by Baptiste Debombourg

For more information and pictures, click here.

A Single Sheet of Paper by Peter Callesen

Visit his website for more of his work: http://www.petercallesen.com/.

Okay, back to work now!

A Few Adjustments Here and There

This week, I learned that in life (not just work!), we all have to adjust!

Adjust things even if we thought we were already done with them!

The purple flowers in the Fort faded from being hit by the sun every morning,

so I had to change all of them! I had to use a lighter shade.

I definitely liked the darker ones more, but at least these will stay purple til the end of summer!

Adjust things to make them better!

The faded flowers had to go somewhere,

and that somewhere is my home.

And adjust things even just to make them cuter!

I finally put googley eyes on my bag, Cousin It!

It's so cute! I can't believe I didn't do this sooner.

Advanced Happy Easter everyone! :-)

Every Holy Week, I use the time when world stops working to catch up. Sometimes I learn a new craft, other times I fix my room or organize the props and costumes here. With whatever I decide to do this year, I'm just looking forward to taking a breather now. It's been a busy busy first quarter! Time to re-energize this weekend and build up for more things in the year! Advanced Happy Easter again!! :-)

Life Imitates Art

A fun video referred to me by one of my good friends, Pong. I love how the production used the simplest materials -- paper and cloth -- to recreate different costumes and sets. Videos like these were probably the most fun for people like me! Hahaha! :-)

Fully Booked Summer

It's about time to celebrate the coming of summer (the heat has been unbearable!), and my second window display project focuses on just that! This season, I thought about COLOR and how vibrant and exciting everything feels during the vacation time of year. Here are some pictures of the Fully Booked branches I've decorated to look as festive as we all feel when it's time to take a summer break!

Bonifacio High Street

Shang ri-La

Greenbelt

Trinoma

A close-up picture!

Rockwell

Mall of Asia

The Block

Eastwood, my personal favorite!

Congratulations to my whole team who probably all went as crazy as I did, cutting and glueing and being around so many paper flowers! Thanks to them -- Karen, Anna Lou, Justine, Therese, Bea, Tanya and Nicole! And of course, to my setmen who set up every branch with me and stuck each flowers/butterfly/bug one by one! 3000 flowers, 1200 butterflies, 600 bugs and more than a month of working on this later, only some adjustments need to be done for us to be completely free from working, and off to celebrating the summer like we should!! Don't forget to visit the nearest Fully Booked branch to see the display in person! :-)

I'll leave you with a "behind-the-scenes" picture -- my house as I was distributing the flowers for all 13 branches of Fully Booked!!

Crazy!!!

This Too Shall Pass

It all started with four treadmills and a dance. For the song, "Here It Goes Again," that was the first video from the band Ok Go that caught people's attention and granted them a gazillion hits on Youtube. They then came out with video after video of one-shots that only made them more of a viral sensation. Now, years after they started with the treadmills, they have gone on to more elaborate sequences, and have amazed people, myself included, with the latest that they've come out with. This second video for the song "This Too Shall Pass" (the first will also make you hold your breath!) features a giant Rube Goldberg machine built by the genius minds at Synn Labs. I can't believe it myself! It's amazing!! And I sincerely hope that Ok Go never tires of making videos that will continually amaze us all.

Other Ok Go videos include: Here It Goes Again, Do What You Want, A Million Ways, WTF?, and of course, the first version of This Too Shall Pass. I promise, they're all worth the time to watch. :-)

Yes, I've been working!

And hopefully soon, I'll be able to post that I'm done and proud of it (I'm so so sooo nervous!). But as of now, I just have this picture of an overflowing trash can, and one of the litter on my desk to give you an idea of the colorful mess I'm in at the moment!

Boy. by Band of Outsiders

On this day of love, I will blog about something I absolutely adore: MENSWEAR. More specifically, I love menswear made in versions for women. My favorite label, Band of Outsiders, has come out with only a couple of seasons worth of a feminine counterpart (ironically or not?! named Boy.), though still maintains their preppy aesthetic. Band of Outsiders is practically the reason I love menswear as a whole!! Their repp ties and vintage polo shirts are a reflection of their founder, Scott Sternberg's, own personal look, and also the main reasons I fell in love with the brand. At the same time, I will always want to own the women's suits and blazers they come out with. Though the line is not available in this country (and though I can only dream of affording their clothes!!), I continually watch out for pieces from other stores that imitate their look.

This Spring Summer, they got Leslie Mann, Dave Franco, and Donald Glover, to front their promotion, and have adapted a nautical theme for their campaign. I love every picture and only dream of that wardrobe in mine!! :-)

This is my favorite look from Boy!!

The double-breasted white blazer and that cute skirt!

I will definitely be looking for a blazer like that in local stores...

And another thing to love about Boy! Binki Shapiro in their clothes.

By Lauren Dukoff for L'Uomo Vogue

Pictures from the Band of Outsiders and Boy. campaigns from their websites: http://band.bandofoutsiders.com/ and http://boy.bandofoutsiders.com/. Featuring Leslie Mann, Dave Franco and Donald Glover. Shot in and around Marina Del Rey, California. For more of the campaign, visit the websites! And for their season lookbook, visit Style.com. They're worth a click. :-)

Flower Wall

The past two years in this job have resulted in a major accumulation in props and costumes. Sometimes, I don't have to return what I bought or made for a project, so I end up keeping them in my brother's old room here at home. Though I try to keep them as neat as possible, my mom still, inevitably, gets frustrated at the sheer volume of things I have stocked, and continually threatens to throw them out! :O

However, for the props from last month's Metro Society shoot, she gave me another suggestion on how to keep them: use them to decorate one of the rooms!

And so I did! A flower wall!

Now, my working space!

It's a lot more fun to work when I like my surroundings,

when my props are not just dumped in plastic containers or old boxes. :-)

So excited for the summer!!!

I was NEVER a spring-summer kind of person. I have always loved dressing in dark colors and shimmery fabrics and layering tights over shorts over jackets over tops. But taking a look at all these Spring Summer 2010 collections (most found from my one-stop site for fashion, Notcouture!) has made me so excited to dress in pastels and wear sundresses!! I can't wait for all the khakis and florals to come out and for all the light weight materials to wear! :-)

Spring Summer 2010 Collections from (top to bottom): Calla, d a c e, Esther Perbandt, H&M The Garden Collection, and Chris Benz. Images from the websites linked. Enjoy!

Living in the Sky with Diamonds

Last year, my friend Camille from Metro Society magazine asked me to do some set pieces for a fashion shoot. The editorial was to feature dresses by Cary Santiago, a Filipino designer based in Cebu and Dubai.

Cam wanted a cold, almost winter wonderland-like set, but composed with simple pieces, so as not to take attention away from the dresses. It was our first time working together in our two years of working in our respective fields! I have to say, it was a lot of fun working with someone who was not only one of my closest friends, but also someone who was on the same creative wavelength as I am. We thought of almost the same set pieces, and I was definitely happy with what I made for the editorial.

This picture has to be my favorite of the bunch.

The flowers look like water-lilies, and the model, a floating goddess!

The dresses were amazing! Cary Santiago's couture goes for such high prices in the Middle East, and taking a look at his collection, you'll understand why. Through his pieces, he's shown his mastery of skills and design, and ultimately, pushes Philippine talent to the next level. Just the night before the shoot, Metro Society held its anniversary party, with his work as the main spectacle. Here are some pictures of the backstage madness, enough for you to see how much detail went in to every dress!

"Living in the Sky with Diamonds" can be found in the Metry Society Dec 2009 - Jan 2010 issue. Styled by Camille Aguilar. Photos by Jason Penaloza, shot at Kwannon Studios, Eastwood City, Libis. Set Design by Victoria Velasco. Make Up by Jomar Nebriaga. Hair by Raymond Ko of L'Oreal Professionnel. Modeled by Jasmine and Ria of Mercator.

Backstage photos of the Cary Santiago fashion show at the Metro Society anniversary party from Style Samurai. For more from the show and from Philippine fashion in general, visit http://stylesamurai.blogspot.com/.