July's Recollection

It was yet night, but July nights are short.
Soon after midnight, dawn comes.
I had waked from the trance like dream;
called to resume the previous eventide musing:
A recollection of July's passing days...

My Dream seemed to have vanished,
as I stepped onto the brink of the month,
Some obstacles had intervened between me and it.
All was obscurity...
I put out my hand to feel: There was only darkness mass before me.

Clinging desperately to the fading Hope,
I felt sorely the urge to weep, yet restrained it to the top of my lungs.
My nature contravened, my faculties paralysed.
I'm contradicting myself, almost rave in my restlessness:
The guiding light must shine somewhere.
Eventually a silhoutte of hope must rise to view.

It is indeed hard work to control the workings of inclination
and turn the bent of nature;
But I was resolved it could be done.
I have the power to make my own fate,

When energies seem to demand a sustanance they cannot get,
When our will strains after a path we may not follow,
I need neither starve for inanition, nor stand in despair:
I have but to seek another nourishment for the mind,
And to hew out for the adventurous foot:
A road as direct and droad as the one Fortune has blocked up against me.
A road I had never traveled, but often noticed, and wonder where it led.

Mutinying against Fate, claiming my rights.
What was awaiting at the end of the road?

No reflections was to be allowed now:
Not one glance was to be cast back;
Not even one forward.

Not one thought was to be given either to the past or the future.
The first was a page so heavenly sweet -so deadly sad at the same time,
that to read one line of it would dissolve one courage
and break down my energy.
The last was an awful blank:
Something like the world when the deluge was gone by.
Tither I bent my steps.

I still felt as a wanderer on the face of the earth.
But I experienced firmer trust in myself and my own powers.
And less withering dread of opressions.

The End, my recollection of July's passing days.

Picture via {this is glamorous}

Hugo Boss, Orange

Sienna Miller has been signed by Hugo Boss fragrances as the face of its latest release, Boss Orange, due to launch in July. Both TV and print advertising will feature Miller to promote the Boss Orange brand's first ever signature fragrance, which Miller describes as, "musky, sweet and sexy."

The new scent has been described as a perfect match with the casual, bohemian chic style shared by Sienna Miller and the Boss Orange line. "Sienna...truly embodies the spirit of the brand," said Thomas Burkhardt, GMD for Hugo fragrances, "She is a liberated soul - light-hearted, spontaneous and passionate - and she quite simply wears her heart on her sleeve."

The scent has notes of apple, orange blossom, jasmine, plum, white peach, vanilla, sandalwood and olive tree wood. Boss Orange is set to hit retailers this month.

# Faces of the Moment

Japan's no.1. beauty magazine Request QJ magazine, featured a special tribute to photographer Richard Avedon who passed away on 1st October 2004, in form of editorial and cover shot by photographer Leslie Kee.

In this 44 pages feature, 22 supermodels took part, Anja Rubik, Fabiana Semprebom, Lisa Cant, Anna Barsukova, Anne V, Jeisa Chiminazzo, Lydia Hearst, Mariya Markina, Solange Wilvert, Lilianne Ferrarez, Polina Kouklina, Stella Tennant, Elise Crombez, Daiane Conterato, Marla Boehr, Julia Stegner, Cindy Crawford, Ilona Koudiene, Caroline Demarqui, Lily Cole, Aoki Devon and Heather Marks gracing the cover.

Ooops, plus, two lovely doggies Danny & Teddy, completing the edit artwork were photographed by artwork designer Ryan Chan.

Magazine: Request - QJ magazine
Issue: October 2008
Photography and art direction: Leslie Kee
Website: www.lesliekeesuper.com

Pictures via Design Scene

Daddy's Lil Girl

I was never alive, till the day I was blessed with you

When I hold you late at night, I know what I was put here to do

I turn off the world and listen to you sigh, and I will sing my angels lullaby

Know I'm forever near, the one you can always call

Right now all you know to fear are the shadows on your wall

And I'm here close enough to kiss the tears you cry

And I will sing my angels lullaby

So tell me how to stop the years from racing

Is there a secret someone knows?

I'll never catch all the memories I'm chasing

I'll never be ready to let go

And when the world seems cold, you feel that all of your strength is gone

There may be one tiny voice, your reason to carry on

And when I'm not close enough to kiss the tears you cry

You will sing your angels lullaby

Let this be our angels lullaby...

Song Title Angel's Lullaby

Singer Richard Marx

Songwriter Richard Marx

Album Richard Marx -Greatest Hits

Pictures via People Magazine

My Simple Wish....

Aku ingin mencintaimu dengan sederhana:

Dengan kata yang tak sempat diucapkan

Kayu kepada api yang menjadikannya abu

Aku ingin mencintaimu dengan sederhana:

Dengan isyarat yang tak sempat disampaikan

Awan kepada hujan yang menjadikannya tiada

An old poem by Sapardi Djoko Damono, (1989)

Picture via Captivate Me

*Marie Antoinette

The 2006 Marie Antoinette is quite an old movie, but the stylish composition is too beautiful to overlook. A biographical film, written and directed by our dearest genius, Sofia Coppola. It is loosely based on the life of the titular French queen in the years leading up to the French Revolution; taking the sympathetic view of her life as was presented in her biography.

The Casts
The talented miss Kirsten Dunst is granted the cast of the lead role, Princess-then-Queen Antoinette. Her lover, Count Versen, played by Jamie Dornan; whose look was influenced by 1980's rock star Adam Ant.

Filming Cites
Amazingly, the production was given unprecedented access to the Palace of Versailles (including the Queen's Petit Trianon and the Hameau de la reine, also the Paris Opera).


Movie Stills - Fabulous Costumes
Think pink! Inspired by the girly decadence of tragic fashion queen Marie Antoinette, and the prevalence of girly-pink and sugary sweet beauty; Milena Canonero and six assistant designers created the gowns, hats, suit and prop costume pieves. Ten rental houses were also employed, and the wardrobe unit had seven transport drivers! Shoes were made by Manolo Blahnik!!! Hundreds of wigs and hair pieces were supplied by Rochetti & Rochetti. The movie eventually won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design. Hard work pays off!

Pictures via BANDELLE BLOG

Burberry Store, Singapore

I'm thrilled to hear that Burberry announced the opening of their largest store in the South East Asia. The 815 square metre store located in ION Orchard, Singapore’s shopping centre for art, architecture, and luxury, opened on Wednesday, July 22, 2009.

The store carries a full range of ready-to-wear for both menswear and womenswear from the Burberry Prorsum, Burberry London, Burberry Lifestyle, Burberry Sports and Burberry Childrenswear collections. The Burberry accessories collection including bags, jewellery, shoes as well as fragrance, timepieces and sunglasses lines is also available in the store.

The brand-new interior reflects the new Burberry design concept, developed by Burberry Creative Director, Christopher Bailey. Intrinsically British materials and themes are used throughout in a contemporary way. The store also features state of the art technology including cutting edge sound system, a WIFI connection throughout, VIP room with in built iPod docking stations and a giant 103” high definition LED video wall.

To mark the ION Orchard store opening, Burberry has designed a range of exotic leather accessories including handbags, clutches and small leather goods available exclusively in the store.

Hmmm.... Shop 'till you drop!

Pictures via Design Scene

Perfect Harmony:

People come and pass by in our lives.

Some linger a while and then leave, some others stay forever:
as friends, acquaintances, colleagues, hang-out buddies.
But at one fortunate juncture of time, you meet someone
who presses the play button in your paused-mode life...
Him...

The more I know him, the better I like him.

The intimacy has arisen so naturally and rapidly, there is a reviving pleasure in our intercourse -the pleasure arising from perfect congeniality of tastes, sentiments and principles.

Most people would have thought him ordinary,

yet there is so much unconscious pride in his port,

so much ease in his demeanor,

such a look of complete indifference to his own external experience,

so haughty a reliance on the power of other qualities,

intrinsic or adventituous,

to tone for the lack of mere personal attractiveness;

that in looking at him, one inevitably shares the indifference,

and even in a blind, imperfect sense put faith in the confidence.

He loves his sequestered vicinity.

He clings to this sphere with perfect enthusiasm of attachment.

I see the fascination and feel the consecration of his solitary.

The same attraction as for him -wound round my faculty the same spell that entraced his.

Such pure and sweet sources of pleasure.

I love spending time with him.

I like to read what he doesn't like to read.

He likes to listen to music that I don't like to listen.

Yet, what he enjoys, delights me;

what he approves, I reverences; and the other way around.

He is more accomplished than I am;

but with eagerness, he listens to what I have in heart and mind.

Thought fitted thought, opinion met opinion, emotions collide.

It is full satisfaction to converse with him in the evenings

what we have been through during the day.

We agree and alternately disagree equally well.

We conincide, in short, perfectly.

Though I am a defective being,

with many faults and few redeeming points.

He never tires of me,

nor ever ceases to cherish for me a sentiment of attachment,

as strong, tender and respectful as any that ever animated my heart.

In the same way, I can comprehend his feeling and accept both his strengths and weaknesses.

Our nature dovetailed:
mutual affection, of the strongest kind -was the result.
In our spirits, there is an affluence of life and passion, of us being together, certainty of flow; such as excited our wonders and baffled our comprehension.

Days pass like hours, weeks like days,
It's PERFECT HARMONY.

Pictures via Alomoda

I Love You.

I love you,

Not for the idiotic rivalries of the society.

Not for the pruriance consuming the flesh.

I love you,

Not because of the blindness of youth.

Not because of the rashness of the aging self.

I love you,

For the refined mind.

For the virtue in your nature.

For the deep well of longingness beneath your eyes.

For the beautiful soul lies within.

I love you,

Despite the flaws you've tripped into.

Despite your obnoxious behaviors.

Despite the darkest series of your life.

I love you:
for the man you wanna be, and for the the man you already are.
I LOVE YOU, FOR WHO YOU ARE.

P.S.
To those clear eyes and eloquent tongue,
To the soul made of fire, and the character that bends but does not break.
At once supple and stable, tractable and consistent.
To you, I will surrender my soul.

Pictures via Le Love

[Wedding Bliss]

...is in the air

Teasing me to write about a recently found website about "beautifully handcrafted wedding stationery", MIKA78. Their meaningful designs trully bring story of love to life on paper. I'm in love with the romantic design of the website.

Check it out, girls! I hope it will give some ideas for your perfect day.

Picture via Mika78

Don't sweat the small stuff:

It's amazing how minor frustrations along the day can add up to one big, bad attitude by the time it reaches noon and evening. Frustrations come in three varieties:

1. Interruptions: Unexpected visitors or phone calls when you have a deadline to meet or something important requires your attention. Our best plans are often interrupted.
2. Inconveniences: While interruptions are usually from people, inconveniences are usually situations involving things: applications or appliances break down, traffic jams up, or you can't find what you need when you need it.
3. Irritations: Long delays, unreliable people, playing telephone tag, catching a cold, obnoxious clients, etc.

But the truth is you can't eliminate these. No doubt you'll face all three varieties this week, but you can keep them from stressing you out.

What's the secret to managing frustrations?

Don't resist it, but don't overreact or blow up.

Don't resent it; don't internalize you anger.

Don't resign to it; don't have a pity-party. Instead, reduce it. Treat it as insignificant. Put the frustration into proper perspective. It's just a minor setback, a part of living, no big deal! It's certainly not worth a heart attack.

Follow these rules for stress management:

• RULE #1: Don't sweat the small stuff.
• RULE #2: Realize it's all small stuff!

Just a lil' reminder to having a great day. Simple things, but we tend to forget the basic principles in everyday life. Have a nice day, all!

Pictures via Anja Rubik

{Play with LBD}

Fashion acts in the most subliminal way. You might just start shopping for summer pieces, but the runway has unfolded the new collection for fall. Think the season's floral trend. Before you know it, you've completely sold out your edge for a floral maxi and match those metallic pink sandals to a clutch. Bye-bye floral, welcome shinny silver!

Fashion trend comes and goes, but there would always be a special place in every girl's closet for the beloved LBD. A "little black dress" that always makes you feel pretty when you pose before a mirror. To which your confidence seems to be sticked to, so when you slip into it, you know you're gorgeous.

Yet, sometimes you might feel bored looking at the same style at the nook of the closet... Why don't you try mix and match it up for a new look?

Have fun!

you and me:

It always fascinates me how people go from loving someone madly to nothing at all, nothing.

It all happens in a blink of an eye. There's the chemistry, the burst of fireworks, the butterflies inside your belly. There follows the wonderful moments spent together, memories weaved by a series of hang-outs, laughs, movies, kisses. Then there come the problems; some solved, some unsolved. Those unsolved create more unsolved problems. And by the end of the day there is "us" no more, what's left is "you" and "me". Separated, detached.

When you think that it's over, that you'll never see him again like this... Well yes, you'll bump into him. Meet the new boyfriend and girlfriend, act as if we had never been together, then we'll slowly think of each other less and less until we forget each other completely. Almost.

Always the same cycle. Make Up, break up, break down. Meet one guy, then another, fool around. Forget the one and only. Then after a few months of total emptiness start again to look for true love, desperately look everywhere and after two years of loneliness meet a new love and swear it is the one, until that one is gone as well.

Eventually though, there's a moment in life where you can't recover any more from another break-up. And even if this person bugs you sixty percent of the time, well you still can’t live without him. And even if he wakes you up every day by sneezing right in your face, well you love his sneezes more than anyone else's kisses.

Picture via a glamorous little side project

*Memoirs of a Geisha

A 2005 film adaptation of the novel of the same title. The film was nominated and won numerous awards, including nominations for six Academy Awards, and eventually won three: Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design. So I suppose it's worth the recollection after 4 years...



Behind The Scene
Produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment and Spyglass Entertainment; the film is beautifully directed by Rob Marshall. Main roles go to prominent fixtures of Chinese Cinema, instead of Japanese actresses -which became critics highlights. The cast comprises of familiarly distinguished names: Zhang Zi Yi, Gong Li and Michelle Yeoh as leading women; aside Ken Watanabe.

Storyline
Set in a mysterious exotic world, which still casts a potent spell today, Nitta Sayuri reveals how she transcended her fishing-village roots and became one of Japan's most celebrated geisha. It begins in a poor fishing village in 1929, when, as a nine-year-old girl with unusual blue-gray eyes, she is taken from her home and sold into slavery to a renowned geisha house.

We witness her transformation as she learns the rigorous arts of the geisha: dance and music; wearing kimono, elaborate makeup, and hair; pouring sake to reveal just a touch of inner wrist; competing with a jealous rival for men's solicitude and the money that goes with it.

Despite heart-breaking treacheries, the girl blossoms into a legendary geisha under the guidance of her mentor. Beautiful and accomplished, Sayuri captivates the most powerful men of her day, but is haunted by her secret love for the one man who is out of her reach, the mysterious Chairman.

I was infatuated with the journey: an evolution from a girl, tossed by fate into a tragic life; to a fully realized woman who chooses and makes her own way in the course of life.

Life:

Feels like having fun and enjoying life lately.
Running away from all frets. Fleeing insomnia-nights.

There's always gonna be another problem to cope with,

another obstacle to face, another trial to undergo,

another boredom to bear, another heart-break to survive,

another mundane task to finish, another deadline to meet,

another...

So, I'm saying:

"Don't get too serious with life.

You can never get out of it alive anyway."

Pictures via Design Scene

Tea Time.....

Introducing you my guilty pleasure, Vicenzi Mini Snack...

Take a break, dearies, and indulge yourself in a quiet tea time with yourself or a pal. The rejuvenating effect is unbelievable.

Give it a try, you won't regret it!

Big Girls Don't Cry

When the going gets tough, and the tough gets going...
Whine no more, nag no more...
Say one word only: RESILIENCE.

{Men's Guide to Style}

Voila! As promised, men's style-file section.

I'm actually a bit nervous about this post. Sort of uncharted territory for me to write about men's style. I'm not an experienced style-editor or what, so I'll just share my personal view when spotting guys and their outfits...

Free-spirited guys always gets me carried away. One who is a bit eccentric but very much confident of himself, who would dress for comfy, doesn't really give a shit of how he looks like.

Hope. episode I & II

Hope, Episode I

Hopes were all dead -struck with a subtle doom.
I looked at my cherished wishes;
Yesterday so blooming and glowing,
Now they lay stark, chill, livid corpses that would never revive.

I was experiencing an ordeal: A hand of fiery iron grasped my vitals.
Terrible moment: full of struggle, blackness, burning.
My eyes were covered and closed:

Eddying darkness seemed to swim round me.
Reflection came in as black and confused a flow.

Self-abandoned and effortless,
I seemed to have laid me down in the dried-up bed of a great river.
I heard a flood loosened in remote mountains, and felt the torrent come:
To rise I had to will, to flee I had no strength. I lay faint.

It came: in full heavy swing, the torrent poured over me.
The whole consciousness of my life lorn,
my hope quenched, my faith death-struck.
Swayed full and mighty above me in one sullen mass.

That bitter hour cannot be described:
in truth, the waters came into my soul,
I sank in deep mire: I felt no standing,
I came into deep waters.

The floods overflowed me.

Hope, Episode II

I was suffocated, I shook, I feared,
but I resolved: I was born to strife and endure.
The burden must be carried, the want provided for,
the suffering endured, the responsibilities fulfilled.

My heart: dried up and schorched for a long time,
swelled and filled with living blood.
My being longed for renewal, my soul thirsted for rejuvenation.
I saw Hope revived and felt regeneration possible.
"Go," said Hope, "and Live Again."
One word comprise my duty, "Depart!"

Picture via {This is Glamorous}

Scent-Sation.

Coco Chanel

once said,
"A woman who doesn't wear perfume has no future."

Even a Chanel-adoring devotee like me cannot help grinning at the hilarious quote.

Yet, elevation of mood and solid boost of confidence resulting from a fragrance is a nice solace for every girl's hectic day, wouldn't you agree?

But you promised,

I had an appointment with a friend this morning. She showed up late and I got very pissed off, having to re-schedule the rest of the day's time table. How annoying! But then again I realized how as often I've done the same thing to other people. Honestly, let's take a minute to think: Have you ever...

• Promised to deliver something by a set date and later regretted it?
• Volunteered for a job you had no idea would take so long?
• Agreed to a deal that looked great but wasn't?
• Accepted an invitation you wish you hadn't?

Eventually, we all learn by experience a basic law of life: It's always easier to get in than get out!

There are three common commitment traps:
1. The Money Trap:
It's always easier to get into debt than out of debt!
It's always easier to borrow than to pay it back.
2. The Partnership Trap:
It's always easier to get into a relationship, than to get out of one!
3. The Time Trap:
It's always easier to fill your schedule than to fulfill it!
You can get so many irons in the fire that you put out the fire!

The solution: Remember -don't make rash vows.
In other words, choose your commitments carefully; think before you speak; under-promise and over-deliver. With this, you'll build a reputation as a person of your word.

Gisele

Name Gisele Bundchen
Nationality Brazilian
Heigt/Measurements 5'10"/34-24-34
Hair/Eyes Brown/Blue
DOB 1980, Horizontina, Brazil.
Agency New York-Elite

Discovered
At age 14 while eating a Big Mac with fellow classmates on a school trip. She later entered the Elite model competition and came fourth.

Income
Gisele has a contract with Victoria's Secret that will make her $30 million between 2004 and 2008. Her current runway rate is $50,000-a-time - putting her at No.76 in the list of the world's biggest earners.

Resume
Has appeared on most of the major magazines covers in the past year. Models in ads for Ralph Lauren, Celine, Christian Dior, Michael Kors, Zara, Dolce & Gabbana, Bulgari, etc.

Fun Facts
A star on the inside of her left wrist. She got it after her first night in New York, when she couldn't find a star in the sky to help her pray. She has a belly-button ring and breast implants.

Family
Five sisters: Raquel, Graziela, Gabriela, Patricia (twin) and Rafaela.

Gisele was awarded 'Model of the Year' by VHI and Vogue.
She is quoted as saying "You know, I'm a normal person who has a business that's not so normal."