beauty standard

The other day I saw on instagram a photo of Pamela Anderson on red carpet with her bare face without make up. She has been doing this for a while now and in my opinion she looks great. But I saw then on the comments people were being very negative and vile criticising her saying she should wear make up. And most of them were women. I wasn't surprise because just as we say homo homini lupus, women oftentimes are women's wolf. I can recount many instances where my female friends criticised my appearance. 

One said during a dinner at an udon place that my eyebrows shape was weird. They looked like rainbow. (What?) I've always think that my eyebrows are fine, they're not perfect but they suit my face.

One said during a group dinner at a pancake place that the way I use eyeliner was weird. I rarely use eyeliner but when I do I have to use it in a way that accommodate the shape of my eyelids because it smudges very easily. 

One said when we're walking in a mall that my feet looked weird. For the love of god. My whole life I always see my feet as completely normal. It is normal and I like them. 

All of them are women. Who for some reason projected what they think is the norm to me and felt the need to say to me that I didn't fit in those norms. I'm not saying we can't comment on each other especially when it's an objective constructive criticism or comments that are sometimes necessary. But I think what older generations, my generation included, fail to realise is that there's no one formula fits all. 

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In recent years there are a lot of emerging "trends" on the internet about colour analysis, Kibbe body types, Kitchener style essence, Zyla archetypes, etc. Those who don't really (try to) understand would usually be the cynics who say oh look another beauty standard bullshit for women. But it really is quite the contrary. They are there as tools to help women realise that every woman is different. And we can find what works for us according to our own complexities. What works on others wouldn't necessarily means it would work on us. 

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on keeping it simple

growing up in a quite struggling childhood, i never put "fashion" as something that was essential. to be able to afford school and finished university were already good enough during my younger years. everything else was hard pressed with the lowest money to spent on. and by the way i lived my day to day life, i don't have much option on how to dress considering how perilous was the city i lived in. and then somehow i preferred to spent the little that i had on books and things related to photography.

but although i'm always the least fashionable person in the room, i always pay attention to the world of "fashion". like i always entertain myself with fashion weeks, fashion blogs, fashion tv shows, and such. i think there is the bit of art and creativity that i always enjoy out of fashion.

so, speaking of which, for this past year i've been trying to simplify my clothing into monochromatic scheme of black, white, and grey, with of course the inevitable denim. i know it has been quite a happening tendency these days, tho i'm mostly triggered by this lady here. i've been getting much comments like, "aren't you bored?", so i felt like i need to explain a little. the main reason why i do such thing is to simplify my life. you've probably heard of mark zuckerberg's grey shirt or steve job's black turtle neck philosophy. it's similar to that although i'm not taking it to that extreme. it helps to reduce the decision making process: when i'm buying things (i like acquiring new things but i swear i hate the exhausting activity of shopping), when i'm deciding what to wear, when i'm packing for travels. it saves me much energy knowing that i only have little colors to choose from. secondly, for me monochromatic looks more timeless and elegant. now this one is tricky because i think sometimes it's way harder to pull off something simple. you need to be more meticulous and selective. it's easy to pull off the look when you have all the resources to afford expensive things of good quality. i know they all say, it's better to invest on something that's a lil more expensive but looks classic and timeless, but i'm still struggling on the word "expensive". hah.

nevertheless, i need to say that my favorite color is red. however surprising it is to some of my friends, but it is. i always wear red as an accent. i always wear red bracelets. i try to wear red "extras" like gloves or scarves or beanie, or like my camera strap is red, my wallet is red. well, although indeed it has been making my life easier, but to be able to pull off the simplicity, i know there's still lots more of "practice" to be done.

anna and grace

"I think what i often see is that people are frightened about fashion. Because it scares them or make them feel insecure they just put it down. On the whole people that may say, the mean things about our world I think that's usually because they feel, in some ways, excluded or, you know, not a part of 'the cool group' so as a result they just mock it. Just because you like to put on a beautiful Carolina Herrera dress or a pair of J Brand blue jeans instead of something basic from K-Mart it doesn't mean that you're a dumb person. There is something about fashion that can make people really nervous." - Anna Wintour


I've always been a person standing on the other side of the bridge but I found myself somehow buying those lines Anna said on the beginning of this documentary. Fashion is maybe the one thing I've been trying to "digest" these past few months but I'm not going to rant it all out. One thing that caught my attention most beside all the fashion thing is how Anna Wintour, the famous Vogue editor, and Grace Coddington, the creative director, have aged so gracefully and still being such a powerful working women. Both possessed great beauty in their youth and still do in their 60s and 70s. It's just yesterday when I had conversation with my colleagues talking about how sad it could be being elders and how we wished not to live a long life, but watching these two women kind of restore the faith that one shouldn't be that afraid of time and of age.

bill cunningham new york

"I like very simple, down-to-earth, basic things." - Bill Cunningham

At first when a friend recommended this documentary, I don't really put interest on it. I thought, "Oh okay, a documentary about a photographer who does street style photography. So it'll mainly be about fashion. Probably someone like Scott Schuman from earlier era." Until she said something about this Bill who is so modest and contradictory with the objects he photographs. She mentioned that he wears same cheap blue jacket everyday, rides a bike, and lives in a tiny apartment that is not fancy at all. Then I knew I had to watch it.

Bill Cunningham, in his old age is a laid back person who smiles a lot, and this makes the whole movie joyous to watch. Beside photographing fashion on the streets, he photographs socialite events and there he refused to drink and eat, he said "I'm not there to be wined and dined. I have something to eat before I go to work, and that's it". He lives in a tiny apartment which was filled with file cabinets of his decades of negatives that there was literally nothing else there but a mattress on top of some files. No kitchen. Bathroom down the hall.

What appeals to me most is the last scene when Bill was interviewed. It almost made me cry.

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breathe simplicity

These are the Fall Winter 2010 campaign of Filippa K, a Swedish fashion designer, perhaps the only fashion designer that I've been paying attention at. I've been adoring her (at least philosophically) since years ago when I saw her in a book about designer's inspirations. Always adore her simplicity. Photography and film by Camilla Åkrans, Lund Lund.

i think i hate coldplay

Hipster is a slang term that first appeared in the 1940s, and was revived in the 1990s and 2000s often to describe types of young, recently-settled urban middle class adults and older teenagers with interests in non-mainstream fashion and culture, particularly alternative music, indie rock, independent film, magazines, and websites.

"Everything about them is exactingly constructed to give off the vibe that they just don't care."