NYFW SS 2014: Wine Red Tulle + Leather Accents

Eshakti (borrowed from Elle) burgundy tulle midi skirt // Urban Outfitters faux leather panel top //

Kristin Perry gold rose cat eye sunglasses // Express T-strap nude captoe stilettos //

Melie Bianco camel satchel bag // Wet n Wild lipstick in Wine Room

Photography: Mangue Banzima (1), Pierre Doumenjou (2,3)

DAY 2 MBFW. Still coming off my New York high - daydreaming about textures, colours, fit. These two handsome gents are my friends Rashad (@thestyleguyy) and Amechi (@bowtiemeach), stylist and tie-craftsman, respectively. Aren't they dapper in their fit-like-a-glove suits? We hung out together on our first experience inside NYFW, checking out shows that came our way, exploring the sponsor booths, and meeting fellow fashion influencers. Even a couple of weeks after, we're still keeping in touch and looking forward to bumping into each other at future events. It felt flattering and unreal to be snapped by streetstyle photographers and I tried chatting with each person afterwards to get a glimpse of his/her life story. For example, Pierre moved from France to NYC recently and used the festivities outside Lincoln Center as a springboard to launch his blog.

Princess Peach

Thrifted at Scholarshop mint green sheer blouse // Forever 21 peach hi lo skirt //

Thrifted J. Crew light blue strappy sandal heels (size 6, for sale) // Thrifted at Goodwill vintage style nude belt //

Photography: JJ (it's so nice to have your help again ♥)

IF ONLY LUIGI WORE MINT GREEN. Wearin' my "Drama Skirt" as I call it. Can you believe that most of this outfit was thrifted? In fact, everything except the hi lo skirt is. When I stumbled upon this mint green sheer blouse at Scholarshop in St. Louis, the fit looked floppy but when I tried it on we were MFEO (made for each other). The fit is perfectly loose and the right length. Yay for smaller small sizes back then. These J.Crew light blue strappy sandals looked like they were barely worn and I deliberated over this and a pair of strappy Ann Taylor wedges and came home with both, in addition to two vintage-y belts, one of which is in this outfit. Yay for Goodwill! I will be selling these J. Crew heels so email me if interested!

This was for my last day in Norcal (6/11) - it was sizzling hot in the 90s so I wanted to look good at the airport for once but not dehydrate myself from washing my clothes with eau de sweat. This was maybe a little too dramatic of a getup for lunch at a Korean Tofu house (YES doboki!) and testing out Philz Coffee downtown (get the Mint Mojito and stir - it is SOOO good) and waiting for my delayed plane but YOLO, right?

Easy, breezy, beautiful ... HI LO SKIRTS. Watch out, Covergirl.

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Zen Garden

Pitaya/Lush abstract cocoon cardigan/wrap (S) // Old Navy taupe v-neck cable knit sweater (S) // 

H&M forest green skinny jeans (6) // Predictions for Payless black pumps (5) //

H&M gold segmented choker necklace // Silver inspirational words cuff bracelet (gift from Alice) //

Lipstick: Revlon Colorburst Soft Nude (base), Wet n Wild Wine Room (top) //

Photography: Alice Gu (& JJ for face shots)

SPRING TRANSITIONING. Happy St. Patrick's Day! Was planning on going all-mint green this year but that's a surprise for tomorrow :) Either way, safe from pinching with the forest green, eh? Remember my all-green shabang a few months ago? Ha, grubby finger-proof. This is the outfit I wore for thrifting at Scholarshop (3/9). I wore this ensemble for school before but didn't take outfit photos, but thanks to Alice as my photog, we perfectly caught the Golden Hour and the lighting was beautiful as it lit up the parking lot. Layering this flowy cocoon wrap over my lightweight cable knit sweater provides extra warmth and an interesting mixture of layers and textures. NEUTRAL + ABSTRACT PRINT + BOLD PANTS. Had the hardest time coming up with a title too, almost went with "Abstraction" before I thought of the lines on the cardigan like rocks and the pants like evergreen. This silver cuff bracelet also means a lot to me because it's a heartfelt gift from Alice, giving me strength to take each day hour-by-hour, and to remember that I always have loving people around to pick me up when the pain is too hard.

One more day until I head back to STL to finish off my college career and graduate (time flies so fast wth). That means primary objective has been shifted to stuffing my face full of the city's treats and reveling in the warm Spring. Meanwhile, almost done with the Hunger Games trilogy and can't wait to see the movie!

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Southern Girl, from Southern California

H&M yellow sheer racerback tank dress (XS) // H&M white tank top (worn underneath) (Euro 4) // 
Rue 21 white lace skirt (worn underneath) (M) // H&M purple floppy sunhat // 

Alonai blue slingback heels c/o Alonai.com (34) // Rue 21 woven belt (M) // 

Photography: JJ

After successfully wearing a sheer dress to work (with the aid of layering a-plenty), I quickly changed out some pieces for a "how to wear sheer for a walk in the park" look (6/15). Minus cardigan, flats and jeans, plus floppy hat and skirt underneath and my new teeny tiny Alonai slingback heels. They look so summery with this dress and I just want to pop my leg up. Pop pop! Alonai is so kind to giveaway pairs of shoes for my readers soon. Meanwhile, join my Pandaphilia x Weldon Owen stylebook giveaway that ends this Wednesday!

Remember this floppy sunhat from H&M? I tried on a kelly green on in this fitting room review. Instead of squashing my white one from last summer to death in my suitcase, I just decided to go with a more colourful one. Can't wait to wear this in the Ozarks and this sheer dress over my bikini : ) This vacation is going to be amazing and of course there's shopping too. 

Meanwhile I've been going at the MCAT pretty hardcore this weekend. My housemates and I watched Predators on Netflix at home and I have to say, the old technology from the 80s with a beastly version of our former Cali governor beats supreme bokeh and Adrien Brody. Life is catalyzed by cups of coffee sitting at hand's reach but steadily equilibrating with room temperature. What is an enzyme that can speed up the week and fast forward until Friday? rebeccablackase? Oops, my nerd is showing. 

Don't forget to join my Style Yourself fashion handbook giveaway! (c/o Weldon Owen)

Alonai Petite Shoes Review

As you may all well know, my blog may as well be called "Petite Feet" for all my frustrations finding small shoes for my less than size 5 feet. Alonai is a Florida-based shoe company specializes in petite and big shoes (Women's size 2-14 Men's 14-17), a much wider range than the typical retail store. Alonai was kind enough to sponsor me these two pairs of size 4 shoes to review and try. [And yes, these photos were taken by my new Canon Rebel T2i + 50 mm f/1.8 lens. Treating myself with my summer scholarship money feels oh-so-good]

Firstly, my foot length is about 215 mm, so a US size 4-4.5. I realized that I am on the larger end of that range, so a size 34.5 would have been perfect. Unfortunately Alonai and many other shoe stores don't make half sizes, so I went with the 34 and took a risk, because the size 5's I've been living off of definitely leave a gap and the consequent discomfort after walking around all day. Can you imagine my surprise when I tried these on and realized that my feet were too big? That never, never, ever happens. Add water into zip-loc bags for awkard freezer stretching a la Michelle Phan and ... they didn't stretch much on the first go. I'll keep trying - this is not Alonai's fault and I just need to break them in.

If you have small feet like me and struggle with finding cute shoes that aren't covered with Barbie faces and ungodly amounts of glitter, check out Alonai's wide selection of stylish petite shoes. Finally, high heels that fit without gapping and let me strut with a woman's dignity! The prices are also usually less than other small shoe boutiques and a lot of styles are on sale right now.

10% off next purchase with coupon code: alonai4me

Pretty red boxes for the brand Andres Machado. Bigger: black wedges. Smaller: blue slingbacks

Blue slingbacks in size 34 with elastic back strap (purchase here)

Slingback review (size 34): 3.5 inch heel. Very true to size. Overall, I'm impressed with the quality of the shoe. The heel is sturdy and securely attached, no defects. I like the fact that the heel is also this unique blue colour. The material is a cross between leather and suede. These shoes are comfortable to stand in and match well with pants, skirts, shorts, dresses - very versatile. I reiterate that my feet are size 34.5, so the fact that these are very, very tight on me and painful to walk in is my fault. If I could find a way to stretch the back strap more than the elastic gives, that would solve most of the problem. By design, if the back strap had an adjustable buckle, it would help those who wear half sizes too.

Mary Jane Espadrilles Wedges review (size 34): 4 inch heel. This is my first pair of mary janes and my first pair of espadrilles. Woot two birds with one stone. This black wedge is super versatile too, I like the visual effect of an ankle strap dividing the endless length of leg. I really like that the mary jane strap comes with adjustable buckles - I keep mine on the middle hole and there's still some wiggle room, whereas the tightest one is constricting. The material is like a suede and toes are quite round. With this small size and the roundedness, this shoe is more youthful and little-girl-like. The 34 isn't as small on me as the slingbacks, so I'm guessing it's more like a 4.25 if there could be such a size. A session of ice stretching should fix the squashing my toes.

Thanks to Alonai for sponsoring this wonderful pair of tiny shoes. I already wore them in two outfits that I'm excited to show you in the next few days. I'll post photos here to supplement once those outfits are up.

I was also eyeing these wedges and cool t-strap booties:

P.S. Figured out how to post to Flickr directly from Lightroom. My new camera doesn't need much editing even after shooting indoors in dim lighting but Flickr is definitely better than Blogger/Picasa for keeping colour integrity. Most photos were shot with lowest aperture: f/1.8. I'm learning, so forgive me :D

Don't forget to join my Style Yourself fashion handbook giveaway! (c/o Weldon Owen)

Although the shoes were sponsored, these opinions are completely honest and my own.

Black and White Summer Work Outfit

Forever 21 sheer chiffon embroidered top (S) // Forever 21 white scoopneck tee worn underneath (S) //

Forever 21 black roses grey pencil skirt (S) // Wild Diva peep toe ankle bow tie booties (5.5) // H&M ultra skinny leopard belt (XS) // Forever 21 turquoise pendant gold long chain necklace //

Photography: Self-timer and tripod, JJ

Tuesday, a.k.a. Internet Day, has finally arrived! Whew, now that I have zippy fast internet at home, ironically I no longer have any desire to use it. This was my outfit for Tuesday (6/7), a black and white and unexpectedly floral-ish ensemble. As an orchestra dork, I used to avoid wearing black and white as much as possible on my own volition, but now a pop or two of colour brightens up a ho-hum work outfit. Hope for some sudden inspiration as I stare into the orderly and chaotic lineup of clothing in my closet - those are my first thoughts in the morning, besides, "WHERE'S MY (BEAVER) DAM COFFEE?" Yeah, I swear like a sailor in real life, thought I'd cover the children's ears on here :) 

This hodgepodge of photos in all sorts of different backgrounds means that at 6:30 PM, the sun is shifting fast and I must flee from the encroaching shadows. The more photos I took (66 today), the more time spent nitpicking and deciding on whether I like my face turned 45 or 43 degrees to the left. I was sweating more than just small stuff, the nice 83 degree respite St. Louis gave me was well over today. This light material plus a skirt seems to be the answer to keeping cool and baring some leg while I ... do literature search.

If you notice my intentional lack of creativity in the title, it's because I'm trying out this whole SEO business and seeing if page views skyrocket. It'd be nice if more people stumbled across this thing through the almighty Google. I care, but don't really care. A two-day experiment. Meanwhile, can someone tell me what the heck is wrong with my Feedburner? My pictures weren't showing up with new posts in Blogger Dashboard, so I deleted the feed redirect url and that solved the first problem. Then my Feedburner subscribers magically dropped from 398 to 204 overnight, then to 33. I went ahead and scrapped that old feed and made a new one. Now I stand at a big fat "0." Confusing, frustrating, no troubleshootizing.

Monday I felt generally insipid, so it was a royal blue tee and skinny jeans, simple to the bone. I remind myself that if I want to blog tomorrow, I'm going to have to finish my primaries for medical school. The pressure cooker is ON. There's nothing scary about the next 4 years of my life riding on a limited amount of characters and words to describe all that's happened in the past 3 years ... or is there? Yeah I admit, I'm pretty dern scared. Wish me good luck! (if you just write GL and nothing else in a comment, happy Angie I be). 

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