I am Fashion Girls interviewed by NY Times!

Today, New York Times published an article about fashion blogs: Online, Feisty Critics. And inside it, you can see plenty of I am Fashion inside: moi was interviewed and Barneys Girl was photographed!

However, the article didn't exactly give off the right impression of what I said, (actually my words were quite twisted.) Here are a few clarifications:

1. The article made it sound like we only ever critisize fashion, which is totally not true. We gush over fashion more than anyone we know, and sure we comment negatively about things every now and then, but anyone who reads our blog regualrly, or just a few posts will see that we mostly ooh & aah over the clothes, beauty, ads...!

2. The only 'commercial' thing we've done is give our darling readers a discount code to shop online. We most definitely knew that Jockey could have profited from it, (gees, we have studied Economics you know,) but we thought hey, maybe our readers would like special discount without waiting for sales. And it's not like we featured the right photo in the blog anyways!

3. Anyone who knows anything about business, or even simply from common sense will know that studying Accounting & Finance does not produce only "an accounting student." And thanks so much for making me sound so dumb -I feel like I'm in Legally Blonde!

4. In the interview, I distinctly remember saying that I am Fashion is NOT planning to go commercial or accept ads because it will affect our editorial direction, (and because the html involved will be too complicated for us!) So no, there are no "no obvious ads" in our blog -unless you think "my trusty eyeliner is MAC" is a "no obvious ad."

5. ALL the beauty products reviewed in this blog have definitely been used by us, (we probably also own the products.) And when we recommend beauty products to use to create a certain 'look' (see yesterday's post's on eyeliner and mascaras,) we have actually tried, own and love those products. If we're not happy about any of the products, then trust me, you'll hear from us!

Regardless, we're still MEGA-excited and happy to be mentioned in the Style section of a big, real newspaper. Barneys Girl and I celebrated this with one other friend by enjoying a tea buffet at Conrad Hotel -absolutely delicious!

Oh yes, and on a final note, today is the first day of New York fashion week (-can't wait to see the clothes for next season!) We'll be commenting on what we love and hate about the shows so come back soon! *Muah*

Beauty Trend FW05 I: The essentials

The Sept issues of various magazines are all seemingly telling you similar yet different trends. The most popular "eyes" that we should be donning this season are the 60s' mod eyes, glacial/ shimmering shadows, fake lashes and either a dark hue of bronze, plum or green shadow. Before you panic about which makeup you should buy, just narrow the trends down to your favourite and suitably practical one.

This is definately one of my favourtie ads this season. When I first saw this Moschino ad in the Aug magazine issues, I just paused and gaped at it for so many minutes. I spent quite awhile studying the eye makeup- the thick black eyeliner, the mega dramatic lashes and beautiful, volunimous one-sided pony tail. So striking, so grand.

For this season, I'm all for the 60s black eyeliner and big lashes look, (not mod.) Here are some inspiration from the catwalk:

Eyes above from the FW05 fashion shows by Alessandro Dell'Acqua (2), Christian Dior (1) and Dolce & Gabbana (1).

This season, all you really need is a reliable eyeliner, a thickening and lengthening mascara, and maybe fake lashes. Do NOT use strong lip colors with this look unless you use light color eye shadow to balance the colors out. Simply use pale pink lip colors. Here's my pick of essentials this season:

1. Use a smudge-proof, water-proof, everything-proof eyeliner to line your eyes. My trusty eyeliner is MAC powerpoint eyepencil. If you have circle-shaped eyes, then you should wing out at the outeredges slightly. If it's for daywear, then don't draw the eyeliner too thick.

2. Use an eye-curler (like this Shu Uemura one) to curl the lashes, and swipe on a layer of mascara primer. (I like the Lancome Cils Booster.) Using a mascara primer really helps put in more volume to the lashes.

3. The lastly of course the most important of all- mascara! Swipe and squiggle on the mascara immediately after the primer. I'm using the Diorshow one at the moment and think it really makes your eyes look more dramatic. (I've recieved loads of compliments becaues of it!) I've also tried the Estee Lauder Magnascopic mascara -it's another good pick to add volume into those lashes.

And the only last piece of advice is: put all this black makeup on elegantly! Too much of the eyeliner or if the makeup is not put on carefully, you'll end up looking cheap and vulgar, and err, you probably don't want that!

Fred Segal on Melrose

Hey darlings, I'm baaaack! And yes, as if I don't already go on enough long haul flights, I went on another 12 hour flight. Anywho, I went to SF and LA (again) and this time, I finally managed to make my way to Fred Segal on Melrose-where all the stars shop. And according to the driver, every time he has driven someone there, a star is spotted. So of course, I was completely excited and had very high expectations of this Fred Segal.

I must say, I was rather disappointed with Melrose and the store itself. It just looked like any old LA street and not the incredibly trendy and hippy street I'd imagined. But I reserve judgment of the street because I have not personally walked the whole way (it was waay too hot and smoky) and I DID spot Miu Miu there. I'm sure there are hidden treasures to be found. The Fred Segal store looked marginally more interesting. . .

Anywho knowing absolutely nothing about Fred Segal (besides that stars liked to shop here), I stepped inside determined to be positive. The first sentence anyone said after going in was, ". . Is this second hand stuff?" from mom. And I don't really blame her, because the first section, the shoe section, was full to the brim with designer shoes and bags all carelessly thrown together like what one would expect to find at a vintage store. I myself had doubts at first until I went further in and found clothes that are 2 of a kind.

Going through the hapzardly arranged clothes, I found that they were actually very trendy, gorgeous and expensive clothes from Chloe, Dior etc disguised as $100-$200 clothes. Determined to buy something, the cheapest thing I found were $60 flimsy tanks by Jet, which hardly seems a very uniquely Fred Segal buy. In fact, most of the brands I saw could've been bought elsewhere (like more conveniently located department stores). Its just another shop where many brands are accumulated, kind of like this shop called Theodore I saw on Rodeo. Maybe the styles are more unique and trendy, but I'm not sure since I didn't stay for long. And darn, I wish I'd paid more attention while I was browsing there-because afterwards in the car my cousin informed me that he thought he saw Mischa Barton shopping next to me there!!!!! I can't BELIEVE he didn't tell me when I was there. That is just an outrageous sin.

Personally I don't particularly find Fred Segal a great place to shop (unless you are mega rich), but as a fashionable tourist, it is a must stop experience to be inside a store with clothes worth millions of dollars draped in such an understated way.

Denim Trends FW05 I: Embroidered Jeans

Fabulous denim, ie. jeans that cost $150+, are always on our "Want/ Must have" lists, so the smart people behind the jeans bring us something slightly new every season. Maybe it's the Miu Miu effect, it seems like many denim brands are putting out embroidered jeans this season. For jeans, they are unusually colorful and very upbeat. Some of them are fantastic, and the others are just... sort of tacky.

Antik Denim Flared Saddle-Blanket Jean: This one is shockingly colorful not only of the backpockets, but also the whole jean. It's great if you're going for the lux hippie look, but not so great for this season's feminine, dark trends.

Antik Denim Floral Jeans: These backpockets are special in that they are different -in a stylish way. I like the simple colors of the embroideries and the patterns. This will look great with some of those fifties-inspired flowy tops which are being sold in many stores' fall collections.

Chip & Pepper Sorority Girl Nirvana Jeans, Rainy River: This pair is even more hippie-styled than the first Antik denim one shown, except this one is more laid-back and effortless.

Chip & Pepper Sorority Girl Nirvana, Sweetheart: Sceams 'I'm Miss spoilt & popular'.

True Religion Bobby Flared Jeans: This pair is soo pretty! This pair would actaully look amazing with an oh-so-fashionable simple white/ ivory Victorian shirt or a black voluminous top. So sweet and darling!

Embroidered jeans are obviously much harder to match outfits with than simple jeans. If the embroideries are colorful, the key is to wear plain-colored tops. Limit your accessories and do remember to match your shoes as well!

So are embroidered jeans worth buying? My verdict is that if you're looking to buy a pair of staple jeans to last more than a season, then no. I'm sticking to plain jeans for the sake of my budget. But if you really like them (and you're rich,) then go ahead and indulge!

The Interpreter

When I heard about this movie, I was really excited! I mean, it DOES have Nicole Kidman in it and the suspense story of eavesdropping on an assasination plan and then finding herself the target of assasination as well doesn't sounds too bad either. I know it came out in April, but I hadn't gotten around to watching it properly until recently-and boy was I disappointed. I didn't manage to finish the movie and finally stopped after 1 hour. And apparently I wasn't the only one who couldn't finish the movie-Harrods Girl couldn't accomplish the feat either and stopped after 5 minutes!! It was confusing and hard to follow, and after a while we just didn't know what was happening anymore. No wonder the DVD is already out!

The only saving grace was that Nicole Kidman is a fabulous actress and I just absolutely LOVE her dress sense. She just looks so chic whatever she wears. I can't wait to see Bewitched!

High Street Shops (US) Pick of the FW05 I: Bebe

Every time we flick through magazines like VOGUE, we think "wow this looks so gorgeous -oh my gosh, that costs $6900!" Then some of us will fall into the "there's-no-point-in-reading-such-fashion-magazines-because-I-can't-afford-it" phase. Admit it, there must have been some point in your magazine-reading time that you think what is the point of reading it. The point people, is to get inspiration and ideas.

This season is all about dark, elegant, new minimalism and good tailoring-you could see that from fashion magazines. But where could you find such clothing? After spending a LOT of time shopping in San Fransisco, I have selected a few high street shop 'picks' from the States, and the first one is Bebe.

A few years ago, I thought Bebe clothes looked slutty and cheap, so I usually don't bother going in. But I saw the Bebe ads in VOGUE and was utterly amazed by their FW collection this year. So I went and was completely bedazzled. The clothes are all very fashionable: from Balenciaga-style military outerwear to the elegant Victorian skirts and dresses -Bebe's got them all.

Here are some of my favourites:

Inspired by this season's Balenciaga iconic military jacket, this Bebe military wool coat is a great choice for those who are dying for a lookalike *coughmecough*.

And of course, velvet jackets and blazers are big this year, and so are Edwardian-style military jackets -mix the two trends up and you get this casual yet elegant velvet military jacket.

Another one of this season's iconic pieces, the Rochas' dress, is well transformed into this cool-looking skirt (the Bebe denim mazi skirt) -with the Edwardian twist.

Another great pick this season. The volume skirts are so this year, and the lace material of this bubble skirt adds a touch of Victorian ladylike feel to the normally slutty-looking mini.

I really LOVED this dress. If you have any functions to go to this coming fall, this is THE dress to get. This lux layer dress has got this year's very trending empire waist cutting and a few elegant, dark layers of light lacy fabric. At $198, although not considered a bargain, it's still pretty reasonable.

This rhinestone embellished lace boho bag goes well with this season's Russian trend. It's a beautiful yet not cheesy looking bag, and works great for both day and night use.

And finally, this gorgeous, divine mesh metallic pearl necklace completely stole my heart and I just had to buy it. It's got a combination of this season's jewelry trends -dark, opulent and chains. Irresistably elegant.

Finally...

Hurrah people! The editors of I am Fashion are proud to present you our brand new layout to celebrate the season of Fall/ Winter 2005. Taking inspiration from this season's trends (black, very dark, opulent and elegant,) we decided to only select such appropriate jewelry and change the background color to one of this season's main colors, grey.

On a very early Friday morning, Barneys Girl and a friend of ours -let's call her T for now -arrived at my room for the second editorial meeting I am Fashion has ever had. Minutes of the meeting:

• Concluded the fashion features of British Vogue are better than US Vogue.
• Cameras with only 3.2 mega-pixels are so not good enough, thus Barneys Girl will be buying a new camera with at least 5.0 mega-px v soon. (We used my handy 4.0 mega-px Canan iXus in the end.)
• T: OK, what purple do you want.
  HG: How about this one? *moves the mouse to a v dark purple*
  BG: That is not purple.
  HG: Yes it is but fine, let's find a more purply purple.
  T: How about this one?
  BG & HG: Not dark enough.
  And the selection of purple continued...
• T: You want the title in the center?
  BG & HG: Yes!
  HG: And shrink the title.
  BG: Shrink the quote. Oh, and the title is still one or two spaces off from the center.
  HG: Do the lines look too squished up?
  BG: Hmm...
  T sits and photoshops in pain.
• HG decides that happy, Japanese pop music makes the atmosphere more creative and art studio-like, and decides to play even more J-pop.
• T shifted the layout like, 5px many times upwards and downwards, until perfect.
• T saved html of test templates and republished on Blogger more than 27 times. (And let me tell you, it was a BIG pain.)
• At 1:15pm, BG, HG and T cannot believe the new background was finally done. T secretly sighed in relief while BG and HG did a happy wiggle. BG and T celebrated with lunch in a mall while HG went to do community service.

So here it is darling readers, the long-awaited and promised revamped site. (Err ya, sorry it took longer than expected.) Don't you all love it? Compliments are warmly welcomed and appreciated. (J/k) Barneys Girl and I thank our photoshop and html-knowledged friend, T for her help. And of course, we thank you all for continuing to read our blog! Love you all!

Ah, a few last words: jewelry in the background bought from Anna Sui, Bebe, Claire's, random Japanese accessories shops and Tiffany's.