ON RADAR | Tie-Dye

I have backed off quite a bit from the fashion week hype, and suddenly stumble upon a fact: the hype is actually in me.

My knowledge of designers is qualified “better than average” as proven with my attempt to write fashion rather intellectually, but I have little to no knowledge whatsoever about Anthony Vacarello. Nor that I spark certain interest for the designer – that is, until Susie Bubble’s Instagram shows a photo of his show. A look in tie-dyed denim. I have to go little bit over the top here, but I experienced some kind of deja vu looking at that sleek denim jacket. Why? BECAUSE I HAVE IT.

More precisely, I made it. Although I cannot really boast that tie-dye DIY is mine, I have made that jacket in early 2012, thus getting ahead of Anthony Vacarello in the tie-dye game. And so are plenty other DIY enthusiasts and bloggers. We walk around in our creation, and now that it has made to the runway, several wealthy customers will have similar tie-dye version by paying much much more money for it. The argument is however clear: our fabric has low quality, Vacarello’s doesn’t.

In terms of originality, though, such designer’s creation cannot be really said original. But what is originality in today’s fashion anyway? I can only pique your attention, that, incidentally, Vacarello’s denim shade resembles closely to mine. Perhaps, we are using similar technique and bump into similar material. Well, of course I’m joking. But if you want to make one, here is a fairly simple DIY I posted in 2012. Until then, I can only say that the democratisation of fashion will slowly see its light.   

runway photo is from style.com

DIY: Acid

Hi all, I'm back! I have some slight changes to this blog, sort of cleaning it up a little and I change its name! :) I have been in names-quest for both this blog and my upcoming project, and I finally decided to name it curled--big thanks to my boyfriend who has inspired me :p CURLED, because, well, my hair is curly :p but then, curled is also how your books look like when you read it too often. This blog will be my journal, where I will write many things, mainly about fashion and style, but later some contemplation, artsy stuffs, and moody poets might appear.

Anyway... last year I did a little DIY, not necessarily a new one since I guess many of us who are bored with how our jeans look may have done this. I got the tutorial here. I bleached my denim jacket with the initial plan to leave the sleeves dark, however it turned out that some parts of the sleeves were splashed by the bleach, leaving some spots on them. Here is how my denim jacket looked like (before):

Later, I dropped some bleach-drops on the jacket before thoroughly put it in a small container and let it sink by putting a stone on top of it :p

And lastly, the finished product.. :D I really really love how my jacket looks like from the back, the splashes have apparently made it lighter than other parts of the fabric that were sunk. Been thinking about the pairs to match this denim...

I Wore: Circular Leopard

When it comes to dressing myself, I am that one person who plans everything ahead--it can be an hour earlier or even a day earlier. Today I have actually pictured myself wearing something else, but I changed my mind and sort of throwing these pieces instead. Animal print is one trend you can spot almost at every highstreet brand store, ranging from dresses, shoes, bags, to accessories--the prints emerge as one of the "must-haves" after having previous predicate as the "tacky" ones, funny how everything seems to take turn in fashion, huh?

My leopard print scarf is one lucky finding, some years ago (yes, years) I browsed some online shops and found this at discounted price, it was only Rp 10,000 (equivalent to around $1). The purchase was completely impulsive (along with some other bargain items) yet I do not regret it :D The scarf is proven to come in handy when it comes to accentuating simple outfit, wrapping my neck and the whole outfit altogether to look "more interesting."

Should you question yourself, how does that scarf wrap my neck in such nice circular motion, I should credit WhoWhatWear for delivering a practical, brilliantly simple styling post about fall scarfs. It is really easy, I started with a rectangular thin scarf...

Then I tied both ends together twice, just to make sure it is strong enough when I pull it but I arranged it in a way that the scarf is long enough to be wrapped twice later...

There you go, your round scarf ready to be styled :D

DIY: Cutting the Flowers

Talking about old clothes that you might never want to wear anymore, I do have tons of them--including this shirt. I clearly remembered it was my mom who persuaded me to purchase this one despite of the size that is too big for me. The shirt looks ridiculous on me (don't get me wrong, there were times when I wore it very proudly and delightfully) but I somehow like the motifs. The colour combination is the one I like as the flowers are pictured orange-y with some hints of blue, violet, and brown--instead of the "normal" flower prints which are dominated by pink, red, and green.

The shirt before... (I'm currently obsessed with image reproduction :p)

With the scissors help, then cut cut! Albeit my minimal skill in sewing, I ensured myself to cut the sleeves after just several minutes looking at this shirt... (yes, the scissors have my name on it, I have had it since junior highschool *now it's gabby with double b because I like it that way)

The final product...

It's before and after picture. Left: taken by my dad before I went to work so that will explain the awkward smile and pose (I'm daddy's little girl apparently). Right: taken by my sister when I got back home after being 3 hours in Jakarta's traffic (sore!).

Further details of the clothes... (notice the dolphin necklace near the collar?)