12.7.2009 Bricky Dandy

Dress, cardigan and tights: Shida night market (師大夜市), tatted choker: Totus Mel, necklace: Eric at Booday (蘑菇), headband: Accessorize, shoes: Aldo

Happy New Year everyone! I wonder if I should stop putting dates on my outfit posts -- these photos were taken almost a month ago! I try to take outfit photos whenever it is not raining and there is a reasonable amount of sun outside. Those days have been rare lately, so I've been spreading these posts out week by week. At this rate, I'll still be posting winter outfits by summer. Ha!

The brick wall I am standing in front of used to be the supporting wall for a two-story house (as you can see by the remains of the roof in the top photo). In Taipei, a lot of property owners have torn down old houses and used the land for paid parking lots instead (I guess it's cheaper than building a new apartment building).

My cardigan is from Shida night market. I usually just buy accessories because a lot of the clothing sold in the night market is geared towards the junior's market: trendy, cheap and not particularly well made. Cleaning out my closet before I moved to Taiwan was a complete nightmare (so much of my stuff from "fast fashion" stores like Forever 21 and H&M were so worn out I didn't even want to donate them). As a result, I became a big fan of buying less but buying quality, even if it means spending more on a single item. I loved the lace trim on this cardigan so much, however, that I decided to go for it and just keep my fingers crossed that it doesn't fall apart at the seams or dissolve in the washing machine. My dress is also from the night market, and remixed from this outfit.

It's probably the combination of black and lace, but this outfit reminds me of late 18th and early 19th century English dandies. Isn't that random? I should read up more on the great dandies, like Beau Brummell. I love how they used fashion and outrageous conspicuous consumption as a way of giving a well-manicured finger to social convention.

12.2.2009 The Dyes of Our Lives

Dress: Oasis, cardigan: Thakoon for Target, tights: H&M, necklace: H&M, scarf: Muji, shoes: Sogo Zhongxiao

Fashion for me is all about safety nets: my trusty black cardigan, my go-with-everything cream pumps, my beloved wood grain headbands. I haven't tried out a lot of trends, including mixed prints, because they stray too far from my beaten path. Part of it is insecurity; part of it is sheer confusion. How the heck do you mix prints???

For my first attempt, I made sure my two main pieces were in a similar color family, and that one print was larger than the other so the two fabrics didn't blend together. I then "weighed" everything down with a gray scarf, black leggings and basic black pumps. I think this outfit was successful because I felt comfortable in it and not at all self-conscious.

My necklace and leggings are both by H&M. One of the interesting things about living in Taiwan is seeing H&M items marketed as luxuries. There are H&M's in Hong Kong and China, but none in this country. Importers bring items over and sell them in boutiques or pop-up stores for hugely inflated prices (I saw a flimsy cotton madras blouse selling for the equivalent of US$75).

I'm trying to figure out what dyeing techniques the prints on my dress and cardigan are trying to mimic. My best guess is that the dress is supposed to look like ikkat, or some other form of resist dyeing. I love my Thakoon for Target cardigan -- I thought it was hideous when I first saw it, but the funny sand dollar-ish pattern grew on me and I knew I couldn't return to Taipei from California without it. Have you ever had that experience with clothing -- something looks so unattractive at first sight that you end up becoming totally obsessed with it?

By the way, please remember to vote for my blog about life in Taiwan, Shu Flies (舒飛), once every 24 hours in the Taiwan Best Blog Awards if you are so inclined. Thank you!

11.27.2009 Dot Matrix

Dress: Dearilou Vintage on Etsy, cardigan: Banana Republic outlet, celluloid brooch: vintage jewelry stand in Shida Night Market (師大夜市), hairband: Korean accessories seller, also in Shida Night Market, shoes: Aldo

Remember those dot matrix printers offices had back in the 1980s and early 1990s? My parents owned a small business and they would often take my brother and me to work instead of finding a babysitter. We would make the most idiotic banners using Print Shop (a software that had a really huge selection of clip art and fonts by the standards of that time) and hang them all over the place. I'm pretty amazed my Mom never chewed us out for wasting ink and paper (then again, she probably figured it kept us from running all over the place and laying waste to the supply cabinet).

The polka dots on this vintage dress randomly reminded me of the fun times we had abusing our parents' office equipment.

I'm also wearing a lovely celluloid pin I purchased from my vintage jewelry pusher, er, dealer in Shida night market (師大夜市), as well as an equally cool headband from a Korean vendor who brings back accessories from his home country.

He told me that these leafy bands are all the rage among Korean pop stars and actresses! Speaking of which, do any of you watch Korean or Taiwanese soap operas? I used to turn my nose up at them for being too campy whenever my parents rented videos... until I realized that was the whole point! I'd like to start watching them again, so any suggestions would be appreciated.

11.21.2009 Wedding banquet on it

Ha, sorry, that's the lamest post title ever. But dumb puns crack me up! Ron and I held our Taipei wedding banquet one week ago. We were married in May, but this banquet was for our relatives and friends who couldn't make it overseas to San Francisco. It was held at the Grand Hotel, a Taipei landmark.

Image source

Traditional Taiwanese wedding banquets often include 5 or more dress changes for the bride, but since our banquet was smaller and more informal (and I'm lazy), I only wore two dresses: my traditional red qipao and a vintage blue silk satin cocktail dress.

With my Dad and Mom

I had my qipao custom-made at a store in Taipei (there is an English Web site, but if you need something translated, please leave a comment). It is gorgeous and fit wonderfully, but I made the mistake of choosing a brocade that was very stiff. I only saw it on the shelf and didn't think about how it would drape on my body. On the other hand, a qipao's job is to "hold" you in and "mold" your figure. Sounds creepily like a full body cast, right? But that is supposed to accentuate your curves.

Here are some photos of my qipao in action at our May 16 wedding. I was sorta able to do the can-can with my cousins and aunts in it!

I ordered my second dress from CalendarGirlVintage on Etsy because I really wanted a vintage dress as my second outfit. Their customer service was wonderful. I didn't want to distract from its unique shelf neckline, so I wore my dress with a simple crystal necklace and earrings that I purchased from a Korean vendor in Shida night market who imports accessories from his home country.

Our banquet coordinator tried to kick us out early by making Ron and me stand by the door with a tray of candy as a cue for guests to leave, but none of them even noticed us standing there because they were still eating and talking. So Ron and I took advantage of our impromptu alone time to take dorky photos of me with my candy stash.

At this point, one of my cousins walked over and said, "What are you doing!?! We're taking family photos! Hurry up!"

Our photos don't do justice to the dress at all, so here is a picture from CalendarGirlVintage's listing.


The neckline is amazing -- almost like origami -- and there are multiple darts on the bodice and all around the waist to make sure it fit like a glove. Satin is an extremely hard fabric to work with, so I really commend the person who made this dress so many years ago.

It's been a crazy week for me. I went from the high of the banquet and my parents being in Taipei to the deep sadness of having our family's beautiful cat, MeiMei, pass away so unexpectedly. But the banquet was a truly great experience and a wonderful memory, just like our wedding last spring. One of the reasons I wanted to move to Taiwan and learn Mandarin was because I wished to have a closer relationship with my relatives. I don't get to see them often and it was a treat to have so many of them under one roof. Our San Francisco wedding and our Taiwan banquet were different in many ways, of course, but both of them felt authentic to our relationship, and the mixture of cultures that we both carry into it (and the fact that I got to wear a vintage dress was awesome, too).

11.17.2009 Heart to Heart

Wood-grain headband: Accessorize, jumper with heart weave and heart buttons: random store on lower Broadway in Soho, NYC, turtleneck: Gongguan night market （公館夜市), Taipei, boots: Sogo Fuxing

Today I was thinking about how my wardrobe has "cute-i-fied" since moving to Taipei. I'm no afraid of hearts, ruffles, lace and other girly flourishes. When I pulled this jumper out of my closet this morning, I thought, "boy, is my wardrobe Taiwan-ish now!" Then I realized I didn't buy the jumper in Taipei -- I bought it in NYC! I got it after I went to Taipei to visit Ron in December 2007; I guess I missed the style I'd seen in the city's stores and night markets on that trip. My style has definitely become a lot more "feminine" in the last two years. There is definitely a culture of cute in Taiwan (as there is in much of east Asia) and grown women can get away with wearing things like this dress without looking too precious (not that there is anything wrong with looking precious!).

I paired it with an American Apparel unisex cardigan and my red Cambridge Satchel Company bag for the short walk to my cabinet.

My favorite part of the jumper is the black and white heart weave of the fabric and the two shiny red heart-shaped buttons.

I think Taroko George approves, too, because he couldn't stop sniffing around me when I took these photos! Oh, and I got my hair cut after four or five months! Thank goodness, I feel human again! My war with my bangs has come to a temporary ceasefire. Phew!

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

11.9.2009 Back to the Fifties, via the Eighties

Vintage dress: Beacon's Closet, cardigan: Modcloth, shoes: Sogo, necklace: self-made

Judging by the label, fabric and elasticized waist, I think that this dress, which I purchased in Brooklyn five years ago (!!!), was made in the 1980s. But I think its circle skirt, v-neck and print all look a bit mid-century.

Ron and I were walking to lunch on Yongkang St. (a really cool neighborhood in Taipei) a couple weeks ago when we decided to take a detour through some alleys because of construction on the main road. We discovered this little corner and even though the sign just says "garage door, please do not park here," I still think it's one of the prettiest no parking signs I've ever seen. The hand-lettering is especially neat and I like the red paint. Somebody put love in that sign! (Or maybe they really don't want people to park there).

I made my necklace a while ago from goldstone, a very glittery manmade stone. I love it -- the little sparkles remind me of stars floating in the universe... and so each bead is a tiny galaxy, kind of like the end of "Men in Black" (or maybe "Monty Python and the Meaning of Life”).

I just watched the season 3 finale of "Mad Men" STOP READING IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED!!! I don't understand why some critics think Betty won't be able to remain relevant to the plot line if she does indeed divorce Don and marry Henry. I think she is an interesting enough character in her own right, even if she less pleasant and easy to empathize with than the other leading characters. If she marries Henry, she's still marrying into a relationship where she might feel like her potential is being unrealized and she is being infantilized (remember Henry's remark about supporting her and her kids completely?). I doubt the writers would let Betty, whose inner life has been at the forefront of season 3, marry a much older man she barely knows and leave it at that. At the same time, the Francis marriage won't have the same kind of baggage as the Draper marriage, so Betty can start reading "The Feminine Mystique" and participating in the feminist movement (which I think the series is priming her to do) without getting waylaid by finding out her husband is actually some guy who was killed in the Korean War.

I hope everyone is having a stellar Monday!

The Epanouir of my heart

I written on this blog about my love for Taiwanese brand Epanouir ("spring" in French) before. I mean, how could I possibly not love them? Check out this image from their spring-summer 2009 catalog:

That was the outfit I wore on Halloween. Oh, if only I'd known where to get that bonnet.

According to their lookbook, this collection's "inspiration comes from the book '1870-1920 Antique Dolls.' With French elegance and sweet classic influences, our style represents those respectable noble girls that received a broad curriculum of educations, and so are considered well eligible ladies with great fashion senses. This range of collection incorporated lots of layered silk cottons and lace fabric choices, also focused on slightly un-fitted short sleeved one-piece silhouettes."

Apparently, part of the "broad curriculum of educations" included raising poultry and collecting eggs...

... inspecting apples ...

... and reading about (what else?) antique dolls.

When Taiwanese clothing brands decide that frilliness and feminity will be their hallmarks, they often go all out. It's not uncommon to see lace, appliques, cut-outs, rhinestones, sequins, ruffles and other embellishments -- all in one outfit. What I like about Epanouir is that they put the emphasis on the silhouette of each dress, instead of the flourishes. Their autumn-winter 2009 catalog (which I'll share soon) emphasizes bright colors instead of prints (though they still have plenty of those), including magenta, royal purple and mustard.

11.4.2009 Why so ombre?

Dress: Vintage clothing stall in Shida night market, fascinator: Giant Dwarf, cardigan: Banana Republic, boots: Sogo department store, long pen necklace: 1928 vintage reproduction, shorter necklace: Eric at Booday (蘑菇)

Today I went to interview the owner of Taipei's largest secondhand and antique store (it bills itself as an indoor flea market), so I figured I'd wear some of my own vintage things to fit in. My dress is from a tiny vintage clothing stall in Shida night market (my favorite night market... it's in an area that caters to university students, so it has a lot of cool things). The stall sells mostly t-shirts, but they also have a few dresses imported from the US. I love how the print on this one looks like an ombre wash from far away.

My lovely necklace is by Eric, the same artist who made my lion necklace a few entries back. I wish I had a better picture of this piece. He made it with a couple different types of gold-tone chain and glass pebbles, in addition to the stork charm. One of the things that I love about Eric's work is that he combines vintage US celluloid charms with a modern Taiwanese aesthetic, so I feel like his necklaces represent two things I love pretty well!

I adore my Giant Dwarf fascinator! I have three others, in green, red and yellow tones.

To reiterate, I adore the print on this dress! I had a picture without the cardigan, but I looked really psychotic in it (seriously), so I think I'll save a full-length shot of the dress for another entry.

Hope everyone is having a great Wednesday!

9.4.2009 Behold! A Brain.

Dress: Vintage via eBay, belt: JCrew outlet, shoes: Sogo Zhongxiao, bag: Earth Tree fair trade store in Taipei, brain necklace: F-ck Barbie

I wore this outfit about one and a half weeks ago when I sent my desktop computer to get fixed (I've been having really bad luck with computers lately). Since I needed all the brains I could get, I wore my special noggin pendant. I bought it from a Taipei-based indie design team called F-ck Barbie (minus the hyphen... I'm not against swearing but I don't want weirdos landing at this blog through search results!).

I love the print on the dress. You can see that there are birds all over the fabric, and a border with teeny little people. I bought this dress off of eBay right before I left the US a couple years ago. I have no idea why, since it doesn't really fit in with the rest of my closet, but I like it. Regardless, I've noticed that my wardrobe tends to fall into two categories: retro girly and boho. It is a bit random. I wonder if my clothing choices represents two sides of my personality -- the one that tries to be ladylike all the time and the one that is a little bit more free-spirited (but not THAT free-spirited, ha!).

我覺得這件洋裝有點嘻皮的風味. 我自己的腦子逃走了。

I left my heart in...

San Francisco, but then I took it back to Taipei with me!

These are the engagement photos that Ron and I took right before our wedding in May. We'd been engaged since December 2006 and took Taiwanese engagement photos (which were quite a cultural experience, by the way, and deserve their own post), but we wanted more "American-style" pics, too. Our wedding photographer, Cooper Carras, offered a complimentary engagement photo session, so of course we jumped at the opportunity.

I wore a vintage 1950s dress and we chose locations around San Francisco that were featured in the film "Vertigo." I love that dress, but it's so fragile I can only take it out for special occasions. One of the things that I like about it is that it has a peony print; peonies are a frequent motif in Chinese and Taiwanese art and fabrics. My pumps are from one of those clearance shoe outlet stores and I've had them since college. I bought them even though they were the worst shoes for running around campus because I like the mid-century retro flair they have to them. My husband doesn't have any vintage on him, but I think he looks very handsome, nonetheless.