My shiny rafe bag

When my dress is not standing out, I carry this rafe bag with me. It's called the Morgan Frame Clutch, and it is made of hand-woven mini sequins.

In Jakarta, I used to have lots of occasions to flash this. But now in HK, I have very little chance... so I'm flaunting it here. I brought it to Tokyo the other weekend for a wedding. I hope this bag sees more daylight/night out soon... where are the socialites to take me out?

Hiroko Ohyama, as a model

At an event for Uniqlo last year.

This is my friend Hiroko. She looks like a model here, but she is more of a creator/designer. I posted her work once before, which was a very cool collage. If you're interested in using her photos, images or any of her past work, please contact me or her (her or me). She currently lives in NYC and is preparing her book, which should soon be coming out and which I look forward to posting here!

Alice in Wonderland, Vogue 2003

Where was I when this came out? I stumbled across the Alice in Wonderland series of Vogue 2003, just as I was looking at Christian Larcroix's past and present work. I thought of Lacroix's furniture as Alice in Wonderland meets a Spanish queen, so it was such a happy surprise that he had really contributed to such a great series, and more fortunately that it was a whole series with a mapping of all the beautiful designs and iconic designers of today.

Which one is your favorite?


Tom Ford

Nicolas Ghesquere

John Galliano

Olivier Theyskens

Marc Jacob

Karl Lagerfeld

Jean Paul Gaultier

Viktor & Rolf

Christian Lacroix

Donatella Versace


Photo credit: Vogue, Trendland

Christian Lacroix

I had no idea that Christian Lacroix was going through the same path as Jimmy Choo whereby you are not part of your own label anymore. The latest Elle Decor features him to be leading a second life after this happened in December 2009, and that he is now valiently designing furniture and interior designs for various high-end houses (Sofitel Hotel et al), in addition to costumes for the opera and ballet theatres (amazing).

Him being an haute couture designer, I am happy to hear that he is moving onto very classical and new terrioty that should greatly benefit his beauty. Even in the new territory of designing chairs, Christian Lacroix's original mix and match style seems essential to interior design thus makes the look very classical.

Looking at his beautiful work, I believe as long as he keeps on working on his style even if in another field, someday he will be able to revive haute couture again... perhaps sometime after this global crisis.

Photo credit: Elle Decor

Personal restaurant week in HK

My goodness, this week was tough! I went out almost EVERYDAY with my favorite friends and clients from outside of HK, because there was a big conference in HK and they were all here. It was like my very own restaurnat week. The 7-8 drinks on Monday night was probably unnecessary (although it was such a fun night!)...

Monday, I went to Lily & Bloom at the Lan Kwai Fong Hotel (photo below), followed by Dragon Eye. Bloom was really comfortable and the crowd was very nice. They have a nice terrace too. I really liked the pork dish I had.

Tuesday, I went to Chuk Yuen Seafood Restaurant (竹園海鮮飯店) in Happy Valley, super popular among the Japanese. It was a night of crustacian.

Wednesday was Chinese class and a quick dining at Din Tai Fung, followed by my lovely friend Jane visiting my apartmnet later on.

Thursday was a day off from restaurants (pfew).

Friday, I went to Peking Garden (北京楼) in Alexandra House, followed by Seva. Peking Garden had very good food, and I especially liked the appetizers.

Saturday (today), I went to La Parole, a French restaurant in Sheung Wan. The chef is from a Michelin Star restaurant in France. My favorite was scrambled eggs with truffles, which I stole from my friend's plate.

Lily & Bloom
5-6/F LKF Hotel, 33 Wyndham Street, Central
+852-2810-6166

La Parole
3/F, The Pembertion, 22-26 Bonham Strand, Sheung Wan
+852-2436-4099

Chuk Yuen Seafood Restaurant (竹園海鮮飯店)
G/F., Nos.7-9 Wong Nai Chung Road, Happy Valley
+852-2893-1197

Peking Garden (北京楼)
16-20 Chater Road, B1/F & B2/F Alexandra House, Central
+852-2526-6456

Turkish turban flower

I bought Turkish Kikyo last weekend, and it's still in full bloom.

This flower has such a funny name in Japanese... Turkish because (most likely) it looks like a Turkish turban, and Kikyo because it looks like a completely different flower named kikyo which is bellflowers in English.

So the name is completely wrong.

Turkish Kikyo comes from the U.S. and in the U.S., it is called Texas Bluebell or Tulip Gentian, and has Eustoma as its scientific name. But to the Japanese, this will eternally be Turkish Kikyo.

Fur ball #2

Sorry that I don't know to whom I owe the photo credit, but it is very similar to my sheep fur ball thus I wanted to introduce here. Somehow my sheep fur ball without eyes look more mobile. I received this photo as a gift to make peace with me. Peace was reinstated.

Julean's espresso machine

My friend Julean was having a mid-life crisis at the tender age of 30, so he decided to splurge on an espresso machine. He is so happy with it, he takes a photo of his coffee every morning (he can become bento box boy!). I really look forward to tasting it.

Morning walk to the Peak HK

This morning I mustered all my strength to wake up early... at 10am, and took a walk all the way up to the Peak. I had visited the tourist dense Peak a few times before, but this time I walked from my apartment all the way up the route that I had only gone up on the Tram before, past the touristy Peak where all the restaurants are, then climbed further up for another 20 minutes to the "real" Peak.

The last 20 minutes of the climb was like an intense gym class with steps exercise. By the time I got to the top, I felt like I climbed up a real mountain (HK weekend version), and my brain started to release a lot of happy endorphin.

The sense of achievement was so great that I felt like a joyful pilgrim who has reached a mountain top temple.

It was a very nice start to my weekend. Next time I shall bring with me picnic goods!

Revive the artisans with 2k540

There's a very new shopping place in Tokyo called 2k540 AKI-OKA ARTISAN near Akihabara, where they only sell regional Japanese artisan goods. It's a complex of 40-50 stores. The products are all manufactured by traditional artisan families (shokunin) that have been making the same product for 100 years or maybe more.

I picked up a few textiles, kitchenware, and small plates that were genuine and beautiful.

My favorite shops were:

- Nippon Hyakkaten (closest to Akihabara) where they sell small items like plates, textiles, and sake;
- Hacoa where they sell keyboards and ipod covers made of very light wood, and leather looking bags that are made of incredibly strong paper;
- Takumi no Hako where I picked up some kitchenware made of bamboo.

Don't forget to pick up a very nice cup of coffee that will be roasted just for you, at Yanaka Coffee Shop after walking around...

I really like that these craftsman families are aware that they cannot just sell the same traditional product, and that they have to constantly create something new to the likings of the modern consumers. I really hope this place (it seems, developed by Japan Railway itself) can revive these extremely disciplined and innovative artisan families.



Photo credit: 2k540 AKI-OKA ARTISAN

Eating tempura at a counter

For the Japanese, eating food at a counter is pure luxury. You have to commit yourself to pay a lot if you dare sit in front of the chef himself. This is particularly so at a sushi place or tempura place. You choose to sit there when you don't want the food to be 1 minute old but about 5 seconds old when served. And the chef would carefully examine whether you are liking his food or not, and can improvise.

On Saturday, my father took us to a lunch tempura course in this style at Tenkuni in Ginza. The restaurant has been around for 120 years and I always remembered this place since childhoold (it's in front of Hakuhinkan, the best toy store in the world). We ordered the course kiku, which was super luxe but very generously priced because it's lunch time (I highly recommend this!).

It was so nice to taste the freshest ingredients, presented to you in the most simple way, prepared right in front of you.

Ginza Tenkuni
8-9-11 Ginza, Chuo, Tokyo Prefecture 104-0061, Japan
+81 3-3571-1092 | www.tenkuni.com/

My ritual in Tokyo

Last Friday evening, I realized that I was the only one without a plan for this long weekend in HK (moon cake eating holiday in HK or mid-autumn festival), so I decided to fly to Tokyo. This time, I was very fortunate to attend a friend's wedding, so I added this to my usual priorities in Tokyo, which are:

1. Family time
2. Eat mom's food
3. Meet friends
4. Hair salon
5. Eyelash perm
6. Shopping

... but of course, the real and underlying purpose that girls living outside of Tokyo fly back home, is to get a haircut (it's not just me).

The hair salon New Classic was just founded by my old stylist (Akasaka-san) together with 7 other stylists/spa experts. My stylist is extremely scientific and would explain to me in detail what's happening inside the hair cuticle when he's applying three different kinds of perm on me.

I asked that he make me bangs, but he denied in a very scientific manner (direction of my hair, in 3 months, when some part of the striaght perm grow out, against my etc etc -- won't work), so I got half a bang instead. This is how it looks now! I love it.

Beautiful white lions

Can you tell what's striking in the photo? The lion is white, which some biologists call it an accidental breed.

White lions have difficulty surviving with no camoflage pigment in the savanna. Easily spotted thus mostly unable to hunt for themselves, there are only 500 in the world, and 7 in true wilderness (many are in a zoo).

The first white lion was discovered in 1975 and until now only seen wild in the Timbavati region of Africa. Since then, conservatists have tried to reintroduce them to wild harems by bringing them up in semi-wilderness and trying to push them back into complete wilderness.

In a way some say, this is an act of reintroducing a gene that was not supposed to survive. However, others think that there must be a reason that nature made the white lion gene survive thus far, perhaps surviving through the ice age.

In anycase, they are extremely beautiful and look so sacred. But is that the wrong reason to work towards conserving? But maybe it's ok according to mother nature (for the beautiful and weak to survive as well) as we may enter another ice age and the weak may flip?

Photo credit: White Lions

Chinese lessons

I went to my first ever Mandarin class today. It was at the Japan Club of Hong Kong, with a Hongkie teacher, who specializes in teaching Cantonese. The setting sounds a little ironic but it was so much fun!

Ma ma ma ma

Today was all about the pronunciation. This apparently is super critical when speaking Chinese!

There are so many sounds that we don't use in Japanese or English. You really have to move your mouth like a crazy person, and I couldn't stop laughing at myself (and honestly, my classmates!).

While being worked up, I was thinking my brain must already be completely compartamentalized with what I already know, into mini bento boxes.

Every new word or sound that I learned today must have gone into the box that seem most related... and will come out sounding like Japanese and English when I open my mouth...

The class will be for 3 months, so let's see how far I get!



Photo context: Hong Hao, Morono Kiang Gallery

ACNE jeans

As a novice to Scandinavian fashion, I immediately and obediently bought two ACNE jeans once I had landed in Stockholm.

This gray one is a leggins type with the zipper on the back and a high waist. It's super comfy and it was a challenge not to wear it everyday. Apologies for the wrinkles, as I wore it too much already.



The blue one below is lower waist and also very nice. The shop person had advised me to buy one size below me (it was a mere coincidence they did not have my size), so it may take sometime to completely "break in" as I transition out of my post-Swedish-food-fat mode.

Beloved DAGMAR sweater

Meet my lately favorite sweater. It's from DAGMAR who just won the Damernas Värld Guldknappen 2011 which is supposed to be Scandinavia's most prestigious fashion award.

I wore this sweater almost everyday during my trip. It's such a perfect summer sweater. I like the odd sleeve shape and length that will make you worry that it may shrink (but this is good, because I will take better care)...

Lovely sheep fur ball

It's difficult to appreciate this fur ball in a picture, but this really feels like a live animal when you pet it. It's slightly bigger than a grapefruit. I bought this in Gotland in Sweden, at a small shop with products made by local artists because I thought it looked really funny. I don't know the intention of the artist but I love having this fur ball lying around on my bed in HK.

By the way, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to my friend sheep who didn't move an inch in this position for the longest awkward time. Somehow this sheep looked the most fashionable out of the bunch, so I felt slightly honored.