fashion in film – BRYOLOGUE

Clutch and cats: they have all arrived!

February 13, 2013bryologue 3 Comments

Last Friday, I have paid for a vintage Christian Dior clutch bag via deposit to the bank account of the Ebay seller. I was hoping to get the item as early as possible, so I was relieved when she said that she’d be shipping it the following day. Normally, when a seller sends an item on a Saturday, I receive it the following Monday — I should know that because I’m also a seller and I know very well the shipping period of both JRS and Air21.

When Sunday came and I asked the seller for the tracking number, she said that she was not able to ship the item the day before as she ‘accidentally’ left it at home. I was slightly furious. The clutch was not meant for me, rather for Mon’s sister who will be using it for her prom. Besides, I can’t imagine myself using it at all. I was, then, still able to hold on to my promise not to buy a bag this year. ^_^

Anyway, I originally thought that Lot’s prom will take place last Tuesday but it was on Valentine’s Day, so the seller still has more time to send it. It was eventually sent on Monday so I thought it would arrive yesterday (a Tuesday). But it did not arrive until a few hours back and we can now breathe a sigh of relief.

When I first saw it for sale on Ebay, I was really enticed by it. Unlike Louis Vuitton and Gucci monograms, the Christian Dior one is less ubiquitous and not a lot of people associate such pattern to Dior items. Dior also did similar collections a decade ago, such as the Girly collection (often in pink, accompanied by white patent leather flower appliqués
) or the Rastafari line (with leather details in the Rastafarian colors of green, yellow and red). If I’m not mistaken, the one we got from Ebay was made way earlier, probably from the 90s. I have been eyeing this item for months already but I had no justification to get it. It was indeed a pretty, typical vintage Dior but the design is a bit too feminine for my taste. And then Mon mentioned that Lot will be attending her prom, her last prom before graduating high school, so I thought it will be a nice present to her, considering she passed the UPCAT. It was the perfect reason I was hoping for.

Most notably, the clutch instantly reminded me of that SATC episode (i.e. ‘To Market, To Market”) where Carrie was running late to go to the New York Stock Exchange and ring the bell as their newspaper had gone public. Rushing from the door, to the cab, and entering the building, I instantly recognized that she was carrying a vintage Dior bag. However, the one that she had was a convertible bag — it folds in half as a clutch, then unfold to show a handle for an open tote bag. It was very nifty and versatile.

On a different note, Mon’s adoptive kitty we named Bommie (guess the provenance of such name? LOL) gave birth to three beautiful kittens this afternoon! Since last night when Mon got home from work, he noticed that Bommie had been very agitated and constantly moving from one place to another. Then this morning, she was really having a hard time, constantly lying down and raising her leg. Mon even momentarily got a glimpse of her tummy ‘rippling’. They realized she was on labor and most probably be giving birth a few hours later.

We had bought our dinner at around 7:00 PM and Mon got a message after from his mom, telling him that Bommie already gave birth. All three of them were fortunately
alive and in good condition, as most cats giving birth for the first time usually have some difficulty in delivery. One of the kittens totally took after Bommie’s fur, while the other two ‘sampled’ a particular shade. They were so tiny and fragile, but still amazing looking. Just imagine, a few hours ago, they were rippling inside their mother’s tummy and now they are finally out! I told Mon that I can finally recite my favorite ‘Three Little Kittens’ lines and can actually put on miniature mittens on these three. That will be extremely cute to look at! Well done, Bommie! 😀

Time warp: Happy Halloween!

October 31, 2012bryologue 3 Comments

I had little recollection of anything fashion-related in the 90s, except for distinct shoulderpads and distinct baroque prints done by Gianni Versace when he was still alive (R.I.P.). But apparently, while I was busy oggling over my Disney and Japanese-imported (and Tagalized) cartoons, there was a huge craze over the the little black backpacks done by Prada. I had no memory of such but whenever I Google “Prada nylon backpacks”, there was always a 90s reference to it. Just before the turn of the decade (and the millenium) in 1999, the movie ‘10 Things I Hate About You‘ had an oft-quoted Prada backpack reference on it:

When I first watched the movie (I was already in high school), I had no idea what the analogy was about, but I definitely knew what Skechers was. I literally begged for a suede pair as a Christmas gift from my mother and that was the most expensive thing I’ve owned at that time.

Years later when I began being interested with bags, I never considered owning a nylon Prada backpack because: 1) the size of the bags I always see is tiny and some even have this leather-and-chain straps on them, 2) they seemed very dated to me as something that should be left in the 90s, and 3) a backpack was no longer an option, given my unfortunate experience of having my cellphone stolen when I had last owned one. But as they always say, “Never say never”. Yesterday, something arrived for me and I finally have my own big Prada backpack. The 90s is now officially alive in my books. =)

I wish I could find a nice Prada Trick Robot to attach on that D-ring (Photo from Polyvore)

Wearing all-black today does not only signify the Halloween-ness of the atmosphere as it is October 31; but also exactly a year ago (and approximately within the hour), my grandmother peacefully passed away. I can’t believe that it has been already a year when I was surprised by a phone call from my brother telling me that Nanay has already died. It was one big blur and I remember immediately rushing home from work (because it was a holiday), while we waited in our house for the coffin to arrive.

Knowing the results of my examinations yesterday made me extra emotional because I remember that when I graduated from grade school in the 90s and high school in early 2000, my grandmother was the one always present in every ceremony. And when I finished college in 2007, and she was already very sick that time, she even managed to congratulate me from her wheelchair. Come 2013 when I attend the rites for finishing graduate school, my grandmother won’t be there. But I know she’s in a much better place now, and my parents will finally be personally attending mine. =)

Well on a different note, I noticed that our Christmas tree has been already taken out of the storage room and just waiting for ornaments to be put on it. ^_^ I expect that the Holiday season will go on full throttle once the All Saints Day and All Souls Day are finally over. I’m actually looking forward to decorating the tree this weekend.

My first backpack in years

October 14, 2012bryologue 4 Comments

If you take a look at the things I own, you can immediately identify the absence of a backpack. But why on earth I didn’t have one? It was a very interesting story because I used to be backpack-only type of guy — well that was when I was in grade school until college.

The last backpack I owned was this red Nike backpack (which I dug out of the bowels of my closet for picture’s sake. It literally has cobwebs on the bottom):

It was what I used to carry because I also had everyday training and it was very easy on the shoulders for the weight was pretty much distributed evenly. Unfortunately, when I was on my way back to UP for training with the squad and as I passed by Philcoa, a little, dirty girl stood in front of me and grab my legs. I was of course taken aback and was trying to get out of her embrace. A few seconds after when I was about to pay the jeepney back to Aldaba Hall, I’ve noticed that the front pocket was open. It felt like being doused with cold water because upon first sight, I knew right away that my cellphone (a Nokia 3230) was stolen. That was my bat signal to curse the backpack for eternity and I have gotten a big, slouchy messenger bag from American Boulevard in SM North a day after.

(Screencap from the movie ‘Hairspray’)

Years went by and I still wasn’t convinced that I needed a backpack. I forever associated it to being prone to stealing because a person is definitely blind when you have the bag at your back. However, when I first saw Tracy (Nikki Blonsky) carrying the leather satchel backpack in the opening sequence of Hairspray, I realized that it might have been time to reconsider having one. I think the one in the movie is similar to the type of bags that Cambridge Satchel does, and I highly doubt if they did not issue a backpack-type. But as I was already disenchanted by the price of a Cambridge Satchel, I was just confronted with the idea of having even just one backpack.

As the old adage goes: NEVER SAY NEVER. First of all, I’ve said before that I’m already growing out of my monogram phase. But can you resist something that suddenly comes up without a warning (i.e. a good deal) for an insanely significant fraction of the retail price? When the Louis Vuitton Montsouris GM backpack was initially released, it was sold at US$ 1,300. I see that a lot of online sellers selling it at an average of US$ 500 (and Luxury Exchange even sold one for US$ 910!) Can you fault me for getting it in a snap because the seller offered it to me for an extremely reasonable price? 😉 I bet you would even beat me to it if you can!

(Photo from Fashionphile)

My knowledge of Louis Vuitton, albeit limited, is sufficient, especially when it comes to monogram canvas and epi leather. However, I will not assume that I know a lot so even when I was inspecting the bag, I was secretly Google-ing “Montsouris GM” because I was not really sure if the style in that size was made. The initial search results was of Kanye West carrying the same bag from Fashionphile. Okay so the style do exist, but I needed to inspect every hardware, date code and heatstamp to make sure that everything was okay.

I still cannot believe that I got a good deal for this bag! Of course, it was not perfect, with minor issues such as that ‘stain’ near the heatstamp by the back, and I had to clean some parts of the canvas with a damp cloth, but nevertheless it was in excellent condition. What bothers me the most, however, was the amount of vachetta the bag has, especially at the bottom. I never owned anything that has this much vachetta, and I’m afraid that it might get ruined under my clumsy hands.

I’m only 5’6″ and the bag doesn’t look small, so that’s a good thing. But Mon and I agree that he’s going to use it for our trip back to Seoul. (Yes, I can’t stop talking about our Seoul trip because I’m extremely excited!) As much as I want to use it there, I’d just stick with a messenger because I’ll be most comfortable with it than this bag that I’m still not used to. =)

Kimmy Dora and the Temple of Kiyeme: the upside and the downside

June 17, 2012bryologue 2 Comments

When we heard that a sequel of Kimmy Dora: Kambal sa Kiyeme was on the works, we were extremely excited because it was big hit for us. I even remember watching this on iPod when we were in Seoul last year.

And to finally hear by the end of 2011 that they were shooting in South Korea, it was definitely a must see movie.

The movie picked up from where the last one had finished. Kimmy and Dora’s relationship improved, even though Kimmy still has this abrasive behavior towards everybody.

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Snow White and her expressionless mug

June 4, 2012bryologue Leave a Comment

Egg, hotdogs and rice on a sizzling plate

Dairy Queen sundaeI’m fine with cheat days. Saturdays and Sundays are admittedly the scariest days of the week because I know that I can’t escape eating with my SO, Mon. He’s extremely eagle-eyed of what I take in and we even had a heated argument last Saturday because of this. I was finally able to voice out my feelings about him watching over what I eat and the reasons why I have an ideal body image. We were finally able to find a middle ground, but just an extra measure, I reiterated that I did not want him mentioning anything about whatever it is that I’m doing and we should just carry on with our normal lives. Case closed. Hopefully.

But yesterday, without three days of exercise, I felt quite guilty of eating this grease fest on a sizzling plate. The caramel sundae from Dairy Queen was okay, though. However, what followed inside the cinema was different — it was junk food galore. I opted not to drink any iced tea and brought water instead.

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