Fashion Recap: London Olympics Opening Ceremony

After watching the long-awaited London Olympics 2012 Opening Ceremony and one cup of instant coffee, I was bouncing around until 7 AM this morning and woke up after snoozing a mere 4 hours. My fault, my fault yes. But the good thing is FASHION RECAP is here! Four years ago the Beijing Olympics were about the ooh-ahh-fireworks and waiting forever for the USA and Chinese teams to pop up in Parade of Nations but this year my eyes were glued to the tube for what the athletes donned as they strutted the stadium.

The verdict? Mostly disappointing, with the same combination of blazers and pants/knee-length skirts with optional fedora. You would think that these buff and super fit athletes would all look good in anything but that's the common misnomer about fit. The Queen looked super fly in her Union Jack parachute as she played skydiving Bond Girl (okay not really but at first everyone bought it, right?) but her pink sequined getup complete with feathery headband and surly countenance weren't my cup of tea. [Disclaimer: these are my personal opinions on the fashion choices, not on any individual athletes or their countries. Go World!]

These are not the best images since NBC was the only channel allowed to cover in the US, so we make do with blurry snaps from my phone or scrounged from online sources with credits listed. If you missed out, the Opening Ceremony is very British (as an American I simply can't understand some nuances, so basically movies like Trainspotting involve my mouth hanging open in front of the screen for several hours and still not getting it) and quite fun. I'm sure all sorts of clips are available on Youtube and NBC.com. Favourite moments? Mary Poppins army with their light up umbrellas, swing dancing docs and nurses, Olympic Cauldron coming together, and of course, Her Royal Highness.

THE GOOD:

Ralph Lauren for Team USA

(photo credit: entertainista.com)

So what if Ralph Lauren makes his stuff in China? Looks like the USA team of 500-plus-strong walked straight out of a prepster catalog, but lookin' good. I especially enjoy the double breasted blazers that the guys had, which looked good with their little berets and white pants. The womens' white skirts were floppy and unshapely, why not give them trousers too or at least put some pleats in it, RL. And give them fitted double breasted blazers too next time.

Click to see more pictures → → →

I Met Bill Nye the Science Guy

Photography: me 

INERTIA IS A PROPERTY OF MATTER. You know your life is complete when Bill Nye the Science Guy approves your research thesis. Swank! Today Bill Nye came to speak at the renaming of our Geology building after some rich family who donated. It was in the midst of finals but tons of people still came, and there was standing room only for the screen broadcasting his speech from the auditorium. He is super adorable and such an entertainer. Sporting his iconic red tie but not his powder blue lab coat (he's grown out of that), Bill looked a bit older and more refined. "Change the WORLD!" I remember watching him as a kid and starting my roots in science. I owe a lot of what I've accomplished so far to him! He used to work at Boeing and studied as an engineer but what brought him to fame was his passion and quirky TV personality. That was a moment of affirmation for me - over the next few years in med school I need something fun to hold onto, so I'm packing this blog to bring with me :)

They had this thing catered to the teeth. Candy painted to look like space rocks, star and moon-shaped croissant sandwiches, chocolate martinis, a pink chocolate fondue fountain, what what our graduation better be half this good! Whoever organized this did such a creative job, the waiters were all very friendly, and the "adults" didn't chew us out for stalking him all over the building. There were food and drinks on every floor and at the top a live jazz band swooned the crowd. The earth and planetary sciences are so underrated at WashU. As a kid I also really liked learning about rocks and minerals and grew a bunch of crystals at home and for science fairs. Scoping out the building led me to pastel fluorite, fossils, and even glow in the dark stones that looked like they were splattered with neon graffiti. Awesome.

I felt bad that we all stalked him everywhere as he was trying to tour the place. Basically he just got his soda and we started tightening the circle like little zombies. But no shame! YOLO and Bill Nye has been our generation of science geeks' idol forever.

Click to see more pictures → → →

I Met WongFu!

Photography and gif animation by me, thanks to Kristy Okada for above photo

I MET THREE NICE GUYS. Phil Wang, Ted Fu, Wesley Chan of WongFu Productions came to WashU Saturday night to chat about their journey to YouTube-dom (11/12/11). Last time we met was in Ann Arbor for MAASU three years ago, but our group didn't stand a chance getting into the workshop room. The talk was casual and down-to-earth, and after all this internet fame, none of this went to their heads. In fact, their success came from a long series of ups and downs, always having a backup plan in case things didn't pan out. As a blogger, I can relate to a lot of what they described, and I'm sure many of you can too. 

I knew they attended UCSD, but was surprised to discover these three were visual arts majors. However, their short films are always low-budget, creative ways of utilizing their resources and good "eye." Treat: they showed a few exclusive not-yet-released clips that I thought were clever and fantastic. In the end, they stayed to take photos with about 200 people and sign 200 autographs. With my SLR in tow (always), Phil took notice and asked if I take a lot of photography. I responded that I'm a fashion blogger on the side and a Neuroscience major by day, but I like living out my artsy dreams too. He told me to keep pursuing this and it made me happy to see true evidence of how a whole lot of hard work and luck can make any dream legit.

I am such a fangirl. My heart was pounding when they pointed at me to ask a question. How do they combat negativity from faceless internet users? Their reply? "Haters gonna hate." They said focus on the support from your fans and ignore those ignorant people who write things that don't make sense, are misspelled, and just look at the username. It should be enough to give you an idea of their maturity level and your supporters step up and downvote awful comments even when you don't ask. Other people (including me) thought that WongFu was Phil and Ted's last name, and they just cut Wes out hahaha. The real reason is that in 7th grade, Phil thought "Wong-Fu" was like Kung-Fu.

A certain letter from med school made my day when I got home that night ; ) WOOHOO!

Ted is trying really hard to get signal back to the UFO ship

Readers - who are your Youtube idols?

Zooey Deschanel is a Panda Lover too

This can't be a coincidence, right? Zooey Deschanel's black and white showstopper for the Our Idiot Brother premiere looks like a PANDA DRESS. My life is complete. Moschino dress, as seen in InStyle November 2011.

Photo credit: zimbio.com

I Met Mike Chang from Glee!

Photography credit: Lucy Huo, Vincent Wu, Matt Mitgang

Last last weekend I attended the annual CSA Speaker Event (made possible by many other student groups on campus of course), featuring Harry Shum Jr, who plays Mike Chang on Glee. I KNOW. It was such an experience not just from the fan-crazed side of things but I learned something from a humble normal guy who just happens to dance very well and be on one of the most popular shows to ever have grazed primetime. 

For those who don't know, Harry Shum Jr was born in Costa Rica and grew up in various places in California. His first language was actually Spanish. He inspires me because he fights the stereotype of nerdy, victory-sign posing Asian American (I wish the screenwriters actually did so more with his role in the show). He describes that when he dances, he "becomes a slave to the music" and my favourite line of the afternoon, "Dance is what music looks like." I faced a lot of the same prejudices as he did growing up in places devoid of mass Asian populations, being called names like "bonsai" and "flat-face," being bullied and ostracized because I stood out in the crowd, in the sea of same. And I learned how to break that barrier and speak through my leadership, through my writing, through my fighter spirit. Many times I did break down on this this journey of developing a positive sense of identity, but I came out the other end proud of my heritage, not only being Chinese, but being Chinese American. "Work ethic, work ethnic."

I relearned that day that you have to fight for what you love. Harry Shum Jr lets his feet do the talking, his mouth do the walking. It will be a long time before the American media accepts the Asian American face and voice as a strong vital character, not just for supporting roles or stereotypical "Asian" characters.  I'm glad I got to shook his hand and have my Gleek moment, but mostly I'm glad that I could renew my passion for hard work. I realize that I have not been blogging as much as I like but this is still something I  love to do. When things calm down in this final stretch month, summer will be here! Since my last update, I have met with my four advisors, been accepted to the Neuroscience summer research program, settled off-campus living for summer/next year, figured out how I want to approach medical school and the application process, and had quality time with friends in the STL spring summer. 

I thank you, all my wonderful readers, for commenting and supporting me and letting my voice be heard. To come this summer: 

• Work-friendly outfit posts
• Summer wardrobe
• Busy busy premed
• SLR camera! (Scholarship cha-ching)
• Blog shop

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MTV Movie Awards: Popularity Contest Gone Terribly Wrong

Aaaaa so full of Costco pizza :D It was the first time I ever went to Costco so I was pretty excited. I think my favourite purchase was a huge packet of multi-flavoured Hi-Chew candies. If you haven't tried them, you need to get your hands on some!

So last night was the MTV Movie Awards. I normally don't watch these kind of award ceremonies, but my brother wouldn't change the channel so I decided to see what it was all about. I think it was the worst way I could have spent 2 hours of my life. The whole evening was full of staged, random/inappropriate nonsense ... I can't believe people are actually entertained by this.

Without further ado, the list of things that we could have done without:

1) Excessive profanity
Sure, everyone curses - I'm certainly no exception (you should have heard me this morning when my brother sprayed Axe again all over my bedroom), but seriously? The guy who played Carlisle just littered his acceptance speeches with the f word. Was that necessary? Well, that was the entire show. I heard more bleeping than actual words spoken in that 2-hour span.

2) Twilight won everything
Big surprise. Talentless popularity contest, right? I admit, I loved Twilight when it came out as books but by the third novel, it just turned into a spawning ground for squeezing money out of overly-hopeful females. For what it's worth, vampires and werewolves aren't real. As much as I like folklore, in this messed up world of messed up relationships, no girl should ever turn down a real guy for dreams of falling in love with teenage version of Dracula. For what it's worth, my boyfriend treats me much better than Edward or Jacob treats Bella. HAH in your face! See full list of winners here.

3) Asian guy from The Hangover's interpretive dance
Ken Jeong was prancing about in a skin-tight tiger leotard. What an embarrassment.

4) Awkward kisses
Sandra Bullock with Scarlett Johansson? What? I thought they were both ladies. I still don't understand what that was all about and I respect both women as actresses. Worst kiss for the Best Kiss winners: Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. They ran around in circles on stage and kept putting it off, she slapped him at one point, then they finally smashed faces for a split second and called it a day. Oh yeah, I pity them too, their feet were getting tired of walking on stage every 5 seconds to accept another award *rolls eyes*

5) Kristen Stewart
The more I look at her the more I dislike her. Her terribly awkward and rushed acceptance speech kind of spoke, "Oh whatever, another thing to toss in the dumpster. Thanks everyone. I'm nervous and can't act." Also, that Dolce & Gabanna dress she wore didn't flatter her chest at all. I just highly dislike actors and actresses who are popular by luck and not talent. I'll take Will Smith, Brad Pitt, Sandra Bullock, Meryl Streep any day over Kristen Stewart, Miley Cyrus, Megan Fox, and yes, junior high celebrity crush Orlando Bloom. I'll give it to Taylor Lautner that at least he can do martial arts and act.

6) Katy Perry's outfit
Blue wig, boobs pushed up so sky-high I bet astronauts in orbit could have seen them closely. Yikes. And her song, California Girls, is super catchy but I don't like that the lyrics are insinuating that all California Girls are blonde, slutty, and spend all day humping at the beach. Not classy. Eye makeup isn't bad though.

7) Can you believe that's Tom Cruise?
I don't think it's bad at all, but I'm just impressed actually. Tom Cruise got down in Tropic Thunder garb and danced a number with a sequiny, sparkly JLo.

8) Tom Felton beat out Cristoph Waltz for Best Villain
Booo. Anyone who saw Inglorious Basterds knew how brilliantly Hans Landa conducted villainy. As far as I'm concerned, Draco Malfoy never really did anything right. I didn't like the two people dangling above Tom's head as he tried to give his acceptance speech.

That's it for my rant. If I offended any Twilight fans, know that the power of your love for a fictional vampire (or werewolf) will eventually save the world from nuclear explosions and contain the BP oil leak.

Just so you know, I am planning on watching Twilight: Eclipse in theatres with my boyfriend. Somehow, the awful humour and acting catalyzed the beginning to our "saga." It's an annual tradition : ) I'm just sad it's not released during November, when our anniversary usually is.

Emma Watson: Not Your Average Hermione

At first, when Emma Watson was beginning to get prettier in Harry Potter films, I was really upset that her appearance wasn't true to the original character. Then the films degraded further in sticking to the plot so I gave up trying to make comparisons and started appreciating the movies for what they were: movies.

But omigah Emma Watson is so freaking beautiful. AND she models for Burberry and does it really well. It makes me want to buy the bag when I'm done staring at her subtlety flirtatious raised eyebrows.

I'm really digging the plaid set above. I really like how Emma presents the purse but doesn't throw it in your face. It's very demure and not the focus of the image. Then after you're done looking at her and the coat, you focus on the bag.

I would really love a Burberry trench coat someday. "Would really love" doesn't mean it will happen. Plus, I have a million better uses for $2000. But a girl can always dream : )

These boys don't compare whatsoever to her. I think that was the whole message. She's too good for anyone, even if she's with some weird looking guy wearing a floppy coat. I think this picture's quite weird. The guy on the left is so isolated.

So out of Vogue (someone's been mysteriously sending them to me now!? Or maybe they're free subs from buying makeup somehow ...), the only ads that really made an impression were the Emma Watson Burberry ones. Everything else is too weird. I suppose high fashion is not subject to such standards of normal and practicality. But Burberry is classy - something rare these days.

Forever 21 Trend: Military and Biker Jackets

For Winter 09-10, Forever21 has been offering a wide selection of military-inspired jackets, complete with hook-and-eye designs across the front and gold buttons to give off the 18th century England vibe. While the blazers and vests are not the most feminine items on the market, they are slimming and give off an air of command. From the sheer number of designs and styles in stock, I would say that these jackets are quite popular, but I personally haven't seen anyone wear them. (Left: Metallic Fleck Military Blazer $34.80. Right: Military Jewel Jacket $32.80)


Could they be a tribute to Michael Jackson, somehow? The 50-year-old King of Pop recently passed away but many fans are not ready to let go. They live on in his music, his passion for dance, and his fashion sense. For about $35 a pop, you can get a lovely rendition of his unstoppable style and moonwalk your way out of the mall.

When I search "military" on Forever21's website, I get 48 results - mostly jackets, some tshirts, dresses, even leggings. These dark-wash, slimming jackets will keep you warm, while showing everyone who wears the pants.

On the other side of the scale lies the biker jackets. I have been craving one of these rough-and-ready, rebellious babies for a while now, and there's nothing that says HARDCORE better than faux leather with lots of zippers where they shouldn't be. The angled collars and back-to-black give a little kick to our styles. Load on the black eyeliner, tie a super high ponytail, strap on the boots and you're ready to go. It doesn't matter if you're going to the movies, to Grandma's house, or to the dirt bike trail, everyone will think you just stepped off your still-hot Harley.

Again, these jackets go for about $30 and are incredibly stylish.
(Row 1 from left: Zippered Snap Moto Jacket $32.80; Faux Leather Vest $27.80; Row 2: Biker Style Vest $32.80; Harley Boot $36.80