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My two cents on The Fashion Show (Bravo TV)

nobody@vox.com(musank) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 11:52:55 -0700

Oh Bravo TV, I think they’re really bitter about losing Project Runway to Lifetime, but seriously, they could’ve granted more efforts to its step-sibling substitute, The Fashion Show (hosted by Isaac Mizrahi and Kelly Rowland).

I just finished watching its final fashion show episode on YouTube, and I have to say….. I love most of the collections. James Paul's and Anna's collections are my favorite, but Reco's and Daniella's collections are strong as well. I absolutely LOVE Anna's elephant print dress. I think it's pretty, effortlessly chic, and rather whimsical. However, I really want to have ALL of James Paul's pieces. Edgy, cool, strong, definitely something you see everyday in your favorite retail clothing store. It's guaranteed to turn heads for those brave enough to wear them.

That being said, I think the designers for The Fashion Show deserved more than this poor produced TV show. Honestly, compared to last televised Project Runway on Bravo, I'd say these final four are stronger. I agree with some viewers' comments on YouTube that the whole production was so poorly lit, it's like they're being locked in dark warehouse and forced to work in dark room all the time. The challenges, while (probably) useful for glimpses of knowledge for fashion design, they are mostly boring and lack the tension and excitement usually present for Project Runway. These designers are, no doubt about it, very passionate about what they're doing. But maybe the challenges are mostly useless for them; I can't help thinking the challenges are more like poorly-designed games.

Even when I went to Bravo TV and browsed through "Buy The Winning Look" section, the Week 9 and Week 10's designer names are swapped (Week 9's look is actually Anna's and week 10's is Daniella's). So it's hard for me to root for this TV show while the producers themselves don't appear to give real effort towards it. If this is the pace they're going for, they're not going to give Project Runway a run for its money. For crying out loud, these final four are fabulous, but I feel sad for them since it seems like the producers view them like 2nd, 3rd grade designers. Where's the love? What a shame....

And although I'm not really buying Daniella's final collection, I think she deserve much more than all the crap people keep talking about her in message board. The girl has attitude and talent, I hope she'll make it big as a designer, no matter what the result of this so-called voting is next week.

That's it. Now I'm off to watch Project Runway Australia.

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Fashion Metamorphosis: Designers

nobody@vox.com(musank) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:32:09 -0700

Now that you've seen the collections (see Fashion Metamorphosis part 1 and 2 below), it's time to meet the designers. I know you can see them here, but I think it's lovely to see them standing on the runway with their models. That's exactly I asked Christian Hadidjaja to capture their moment. Here they are, all 25 designers of Art Institute of California - San Francisco's Fashion Metamorphosis! I wish you all great success in the future; keep chasing your dreams, you all certainly have the talents to make it in fashion industry.

Extra congratulations for the winners of the night:

Best Overall : Coral Castillo

Best Construction : Autie (Autumn) Carlisle

Best Surface Design : Erik Stultz

Most Creative : Maria Garcia - Pancheco

Go San Francisco Bay Area! And of course, enjoy your 4th of July weekend, everyone :)

Vanessa Brown

Coral Castillo

Maria Garcia - Pancheco

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Fashion Metamorphosis (part 2/2)

nobody@vox.com(musank) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:18:44 -0700

Here we go, the second and final part of the Fashion Metamorphosis, the annual student fashion show of Art Institute of California - San Francisco. It was held at San Francisco Design Center on Saturday, June 20, 2009
Part one is right here, and this post focused on the last 5 themes presented (there were a total of 11 fashion themes on Fashion Metamorphosis).

Theme 7: Rendevous: Potrero Hills

Designs by Autie Carlisle:
One of my favorites, I LOVE the color combination, very nautical and had that "cool pirate" feel to it. Great outfits for summer!

Design by Ting Pondpun:

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Design by Ivy Elwyn:

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Designs by Apeksha Ambaram:

Theme 8: Coral Circus

Designs by Erik Stultz:

Theme 9: Alchemy

Designs by Christina Newcom:

Design by Lianzi Liu:

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Designs by Erik Stulz:
Love the dramatic flair! All three creations were gorgeous; I especially love the tiered dress, reminded me of Carmen.

Theme 10: Siouxsie's Garden

Designs by Sheri Myers:

Designs by Maureen Clemente:

Designs by Rachel Richardson:
Oh my God, I can't stress how much I love her pieces.....four lovely dresses just coming out one after another. They're gorgeous (I know I use the word too much), but...COME ON!!! They are GORGEOUS!! And that wedding dress!

Theme 11: Wonderland

Design by Coral Castillo:
She's the big winner of the night for Best Design Award for making this mermaid dress....and it really was a show-stopper! And those blue details were actually recycled shampoo bottles? Fabulous!

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Designs by Stephanie Stayer:
I can't help but admired Stephanie's evening dress. I wonder how many hours she spent on making this piece!

Designs by Danielle Tilford:

Design by Chadae Frank:

Design by Andrew Landrith:

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Design by Dylan Perrigo:

And that's a wrap! The next post will feature all the 25 student designers of this fabulous Fashion Metamorphosis fashion show. Love the looks, love the designers.

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Fashion Metamorphosis (part 1/2)

nobody@vox.com(musank) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:43:10 -0700

I now believe that annual students' fashion show from art institutes of San Francisco is anything but a student's fashion show. They have modern flair, attitude, glamor, and most important of all, a point of view. The Fashion Metamorphosis from The Art Institute of California - San Francisco was no exception. On Saturday, June 20 at San Francisco Design Center, the students proudly presented their pieces for friends, family, Bay Area designers, and fashion professionals.

The looks consisted of women's wear, men's wear, bridal wear, and even junior wear. And I have to say, looking at each pieces from street wear to high fashion, I was impressed. Each look is worth looking, and that alone affirmed great talents the Bay Area fashion students are. The pieces were testaments that the students worked hard; even if the final products had some minor flaws, they should be proud of what they presented on the runway. With talents this great, I can see San Francisco as an emerging fashion capital in the world!

To prepare for the annual fashion show, all students had freedom to design whatever they are passionate about. They could enter one to five pieces per collection, and could enter as many as three collections. Later on, the pieces were judged by preliminary judging panel (a group of industry professionals). From there, Clarissa Nicosia, the instructor of the Fashion Show Production class devised themes that would best represents the shown collections. On June 20, the 100 looks from 25 student designers were judged by Nerissa Pacio, Hiroko Kurihara, Stephanie Verriere, and Melissa Leventon to decide four winners (Best Design, Most Creative, Best Construction, and Best Overall).

Alright, I think I talked too much. On to the themes and the designs, and see if you share my opinion that our Bay Area students are amazing. This part one presents the first 6 themes that focused more on casual wear and cocktail attires. Later on, part two focuses more on evening wear, show girl costumes, and bridal attire encapsulated in 5 themes.

To show you the pictures of the largest student fashion show in the Bay Area, I will keep my comments (shown in italics) at minimum. On a separate post, I will also post pictures of the talented 25 designers whose collection(s) are seen here. Once again, all pictures are copyrighted by Christian Hadidjaja.

1st Theme: Sutra

Designs by Vanessa Brown:

Designs by Apeksha Ambaram:

Designs by Leslie Fong:

Designs by Andrew Landrith:

2nd Theme: Amsterdam

Designs by Coral Castillo:

Designs by Apeksha Ambaram:

3rd Theme: Guernica

Designs by Maria Garcia Pacheco:

Designs by Dora Un:

Designs by Jerika Contreras:
Bonus point: now we can see Maria Garcia's models finally got rid of their ski masks :)

Designs by Tashica Moore:
One of my favorites of the night - feminine but not too girly (OK, maybe the first look was too girly for me), soft earthy tones, and great consistent color pallette. Lovely lovely!!!

4th Theme: Philomene Dahlia

Designs by Rachel Richardson:

Design by Vanessa Brown:
Love the coat!

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Designs by Dylan Perrigo:

Theme 5: Prodigal

Designs by Jordan Saenz:

Theme 6: Monte Carlo

Designs by Justyna Fiuk:

Designs by Christina Newcom:

Designs by Erik Stultz:

Design by Megan Kondrasky:
I have to admit, when I saw her walking down the runway and back up, I was so scared! Her skirt's riding up dangerously close to exposing her butt! The sleeves were fun, though.

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Alright, that's it for part one! Stay tune for part two!!

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Back to back

nobody@vox.com(musank) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:04:26 -0700

I've been thinking to start anew and switch blogging service. But after looking around in the internet, I decided to stick with Vox. OK, some people are just lukewarm towards the whole Vox idea, but for me right now, it's the best platform to what I'll do from now on.

I'll continue doing fashion review piece like what I did with AAU in 2007. In fact, I will post a recent student fashion show called "Fashion Metamorphosis" from The Art Institute of California - San Francisco. You'll see very soon that these students are blessed with incredible talents and I wish them great luck in the future. San Francisco should pose to become one of the fashion capitals in the world! I also hope I'll do a piece for San Francisco Fashion Week later on this year, I'll keep my fingers crossed for that one.

I also plan on doing my own bits, like assembling day-to-day outfits. Mainly it's for an outlet of my outfit ideas, but I hope somebody else can see them as inspirations as well. I don't dwell on trends too much; I usually stick with what I have in my wardrobe and try to come up with new outfits without purchasing many new pieces. I gotta be realistic with my wallet, alright?

So for now I hope I won't get tardy with my promises as I was. So please wish me luck for this new beginning. Cheers!

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Discarded to Divine 2008

nobody@vox.com(musank) — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 15:41:23 -0700

Does any of you remember my coverage of Academy of Art University (AAU) Fashion Show on April 2007? Well, I'm so proud to say that the post is not going to be my last coverage of an AAU-related event. I was very thrilled to see the oustanding talent of AAU fashion students and I am very curious to see more of their outstanding work this year. This April, I'm genuinely excited to cover the third annual Discarded to Divine 2008, a "charity auction and fashion show of recycled fashions to benefit St. Vincent de Paul Society of San Francisco" (AAU, 2008).

Discarded_to_Divine_2008_image

So, why am I so excited about Discarded to Divine 2008?
First of all, we now know that "being green" is not just a passing fad, IT IS a long term trend (at least a GOOD one, if I may add). Secondly, this is the event where Bay area fashion designers and students create one-of-a-kind gowns, evening wear, accessories, and other garments using donated materials from St. Vincent de Paul Society. Left alone, these otherwise unusable materials are discarded. The hardwork of these passionate designers and students transform them to reach divinity (if that's cheesy enough). There is also a restriction that the finished items "must be created from at least 50% recycled materials" (AAU, 2008). Therefore, what's not to love about great fashion for greater cause?

Moreover, according to AAU's Public Relations - School of Fashion:

"Many of the Bay Area’s prominent players are involved such as Diane Wilsey, Wilkes Bashford, Bill Bigler, and Willie Brown as well as local fashion designers creating looks for the fashion show and auction, such as Jessica McClintock, Colleen Quen, Cari Borja, Verrieres & Sako, Sara Shepherd, Nice Collective, Michael Boris and students from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM), City College of San Francisco and Academy of Art University."

That being said, if you are passionate about fashion and being green, and you're in San Francisco Bay Area, there is no reason not to check out Discarded to Divine Preview Event on April 4:

Discarded to Divine Preview
Friday, April 4, 2008
5:00 PM to 8:45 PM
de Young Museum
50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
(This preview is free of charge)

When you like what you see and want to check out the real thing (fashion show and auction), go to:

Discarded to Divine
Recycled Couture Fashion Show, Auction and Cocktail Party
Saturday, April 26, 2008 - 7:00 PM to 9:30 PM
Hosted by Academy of Art University, 601 Brannan Street, San Francisco

General Tickets: $45 advance/$55 door
VIP Tickets (limited): $75 advance/$90 door
Space is limited.
To order tickets(415) 977-1270 or online at www.discardedtodivine.org

That's it for now, next time I will focus more on the designers, especially the students. When I have time, I will go over the schools briefly. Have a wonderful time, everyone!

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A week in Germany

nobody@vox.com(musank) — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 14:08:00 -0800

Two weeks ago, I visited a long-lost friend in Germany (I hadn't seen her for the past 7 years!) whose companionship I absolutely enjoyed. During her busy schedule of taking care a family, finding an internship, and planning to move, she still managed to give me wonderful precious memories about Germany (well, the cities of Dortmund, Cologne, Bonn, and Dusseldof). Lovely, lovely times with a lot of interesting events, including 1025th anniversary of Dortmund. I definitely want to go back to Germany and spend time with her soon!

Once more, the full album is here:

Germany Trip - Cologne, Bonn, Dortmund, Dusseldorf

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Halloween Celebration at EuroDisney

nobody@vox.com(musank) — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 13:32:51 -0800

On October 24, I went to EuroDisney just outside of Paris with two friends. There were two big occasions at that time; first was the Halloween week (so there was a halloween parade and the park's decorations certainly reflected that Halloween spirit); second was the EuroDisney's 15th birthday celebration (there was a "Candle-o-bration" of lighting the "candles" of the Cinderella castle). The sky was rather cloudy and the overall weather was a bit too cool, but we still had fun. Here are the pictures:

As usual, the whole album is accessible below:

EuroDisney - Halloween & 15th Birthday

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Pictures from my Italy trip (Sept 31 - Oct 6, 2007)

nobody@vox.com(musank) — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 13:01:27 -0800

OK, so my luggage was stolen on the train during my travel from Rome to Florence on October 2, 2007. My laptop and all my pictures were in it, so that was a great blow for me. Not to mention that it was such a hassle to get a new laptop with ENGLISH keyboard....well, finally I got one recently after 1-month suffering of no laptop. I just want to share with you some of the pictures I took after the robbery ocurred.

Of course, the full album is accessible from the link below:

Musank's Italy Trip

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Away from the United States...

nobody@vox.com(musank) — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 11:20:07 -0700

...and I´m feeling down with all the California wild fires (my deepest prayers for the San Diego residents), the prolonged unnecessary war in Iraq, the job fairs that I missed, and the ever-climbing Euro currency over US$. When I first learned about Canadian Dollar beating US$ for the first time in history, that really...hurt. I`m still not giving up my trips around Europe, but I do need to cancel 3-4 trips that I planned earlier on September.

Now, I know I haven`t updated recently (thanks mostly to the thief that stole my laptop in Italy on early October), but hopefully I`ll recover to my usual pace next week now that I have a new laptop. I still keep in touch with my favorite US reality TV shows; Dancing with the Stars and America`s Next Top Model. Of course I was shocked to see Sabrina exited the stage this week, but I was very delighted to see once again how passionate, precise, and powerful Cheryl Burke and Louis van Amstel when they danced together.....especially to Barry Manilow`s songs (laugh).

On this week`s elimination, they danced beautifully to Manilow`s "They Dance". Automatically, I was reminded on their performance to Manilow`s "Copacabana" back in DwtS season 2. Both are pure magic, if you asked me. So, that`s why you find both videos here.

Cheryl and Louis danced to Barry Manilow`s "They Dance"

Cheryl and Louis danced to Barry Manilow`s "Copacabana"

Until next time everyone,
Musank

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