Okaeri
Listening to: The Calling Wherever You Will Go
So here's my collection for this week.
My teacher saw my first week collection 'Let Boys be Boys' and told me that all my models look like they could come out of Miyazaki's 'Howl's Moving Castle'. She highly recommended the movie so I went home and watched it... AND FELL IN LOVE WITH IT.
So this week I decided to do a collection based off of 'Howl's Moving Castle' infused with Japanese urban style to mix things up a bit. Deviating away from the predominantly black and white palette to pop colours and subtle prints.
I wanted something that reflected both Howl as a character as well as the surrounding themes of Howls Moving Castle. So I did this mini diagram of all the word associations and themes found in the movie that resonated within me:
Howl is a clotheshorse, he's decadent, flamboyant, appearance driven, foppish, has the heart of a boy but more than anything wants to be free despite his ability to fly.Howl himself is 'chained' to his house where the demon lives but he is also able to morph into a bird.
Ironically his house is run by his heart, the demon 'Calcifer' who is imprisoned within this moving house until Sophie sets him free. The physical house itself is always on the move and adopts multiple homes within one home. Unlike Howl himself, the house is filthy and unkempt.
Quotes I used for inspiration and thought:
"Friends are the family you choose."
"Home is where the heart is."
Silhouette wise I decided to mix Howl's top-heavy-skinny-lower-body physique with the looser style of urban Japan. A lot of the jackets flair or are really loose on the body while there are others that have scarves threaded through or sleeves that unzip and become free flowing to achieve Howl's 'coat on shoulders' look. To address the urban look I turned to making cool hoodies that covered half the face or with a collar and a hood or a double hood or a cobra hood or a hood sewn on lower than the usual neckline.. this came out of the urban japanese culture style as well as the idea of 'cocooning' one's self: making a home within the folds of fabric worn. And if you look closely a lot of the cutting on the dress shirts have a shape of a house embedded on either the breast pocket or the center front (see pg 2, second last model with purple dress shirt.. it's really dark). I really wanted to play up this idea of home in transition... a theme that always plays within my own life.
Fabric wise I used plaids and pop colours balanced out with neutral and dark heavier fabrics... plaid being a preference within a lot of the japanese dress shirts I see within the magazines.
Accessories were really important: from backpacks to headphones to caps and sneakers.
Anyway without further ado, here it is:
Howl Meets Hip Hop. Okaeri: Home is where the Heart Is
Inspiration: Fabric swatches and image inspirations. I like to get inspiration from words so I did a mini diagram on the movie, its themes and did a mini character expose on Howl complete with sketches I did of him frozen in motion in the film when he's cooking and warming himself by the fire. XD
Image inspirations.
Okaeri: Home is Where the Heart Is. Howl Meets Hip Hop.
HAHA I drew HEEN the spy dog!!! Plus I really liked that scene where Howl makes breakfast for them hence the whole line up of guys for eggs.
Inspiration from Japanese urban magazine 'Cool' with last five croquis.
-----------------------------------------
Friday: Went to Balthazar french restaurant with my AAS friend who is now leaving Ny back for Atlanta and then went shopping around Soho during the afternoon.
At night three Waterloo archi students, one Julliard violinist and I went to eat NY pizza before meeting up with our vancouver acting friend to watch 'The Duchess' starring Keira Knightley about the 18th century duchess called Georgiana. It was good I guess. There's only so much you can do with a biographical film.
Afterwards we just loitered outside (asians love to loiter for some reason) and the waterloo kids bumped into some of their other friends from their waterloo program who were also in NY.. what the heck. So we stood there for a good 20 mins just talking before splitting to either go home or Pinkberry.
I was making tiramisu at 2am before doing my collection until 4am. -_-
Saturday: Our initial plans to do potluck at this guy's house flopped so we all met up in Ktown for galbi tang and soon du bu... and then had my tiramisu there pretending it was someone's birthday in order to get some fridge space. Afterwards we went to pinkberry for MORE frozen yogurt and then went to karaoke the most unchristian songs ever (Moulin Rouge, SexyBack, Maroon 5...) and loitered some more outside.
Sunday: Robyn came to see me for the day since RISD was offering a $20 round trip bus ride... so the previous bunch from Saturday and Robyn AND parsons small group went to eat thai food after church... and then we spent another good half hour hunting down a Red Mango for frozen yogurt. -_- Some of us decided to split to go to Union Square to pick stuff up and buy clothes for one of the guys. XD I am so pleased with that grey one button blazer with visible stitching and bias seam binding on the interiors I found at H&M. Sooooo beautiful. Paired with a red scarf chosen by Robyn= hot. HAHAA
"Joon, you can either look 100% sexy in one day.. or you could wear the blazer one day, the scarf the next and the dress shirt the following day... and look a third sexy spread out within a week."
LOL After shopping, it was off to Momofuku for shredded pork ramen and then a teary farewell for Robyn (not!) who did not call me to tell me she got on the bus safe. -_-
Went home, showered, chilled until 9pm and met up with my friend, betty to have dessert at Max Brenner's and then proceeded to walk to her apartment to take a look and then walked back home at 11:30.
Yep.. it's been an eventful weekend. I woke up at 9:35am... and had class at 10am and almost missed the class.. It's times like these where I'm so glad I live so close by!
Betty and I just found out we studied under the same violin teacher back in Toronto... SMALL WORLD. Not only that, but the violinist from the thirteen people boy band, Super Junior, ALSO studied under the same teacher! LOL. SMALL WORLD.
I think I found family.
If friends are the family you choose, well this week I've identified them.
The one thing I really wanted in New York was a group of friends with different backgrounds to 'go home to'. In Toronto that group of people was defined by people like Rin, Jerry, Robyn, Alex etc. New York was a different story: people hardly know each other so we all hang out one on one. I wanted that group I could just hang out with, have fun and be genuine with.
Betty and I want to make this a regular thing: every Saturday we want to do some kind of fellowship thing with the bunch of people we found: Nicole, Clara, Betty, me, Joon, Tommy and David perhaps with other people who want to join here or there.
So next Saturday we're planning a real potluck at Betty's place with a time for worship and rounds of Taboo. XD
At church there's a worship through the arts night called 'Epiphany' and since three of us play violin, one sings brilliantly.. we want to do something together with a medley of worship songs.. we'll see how that flies. =P
The sad thing is is that one is only staying for two months; he may be back for another year but that's all up in the air while another is only here for a semester.
I don't want to sound selfish but I want to start narrowing down my friends. I already have started this process of singling out some people and 'ignoring' others. 'Ignoring' I mean that I'm not initiating anything with them unless they ask me themselves. I'm tired of floating around person to person, group to group. I want a sense of belonging in a community of people I know well: not just their name, their major/area of work and their age. I want those deeper relationships that are rooted within our Creator while still having a lot of fun doing things in New york.
Yeah, I haven't felt so deliriously happy in a long time nor experienced this kind of relationship with a group of people in New york. I know it's only been a week. I know this may only be something I feel exclusively: perhaps they don't really care at all, they just want something to do. But in the meanwhile, I'm satisfied with what we have now.
Betty and I decided to be accountability partners; we had a good time sharing with one another. For the first time I opened up to someone other than my Toronto friends; I hardly talk about myself if you don't ask. So the past year I've been feeling at loss because I've been so grounded in the lives of others, no one seemed to care to reach out to me.
She said to me that it was a good thing I always act like myself unlike others who assume the role of the 'ideal girl' according to the tastes of each guy. The thing is is that I only know how to be me because... I don't know how to pretend to be anything else.
She told me, "God will bring you someone according to His will.. but in the meantime you can eat all the eye candy around you." XD
And this is the reason why I love 'Howl's Moving Castle' so much; the central themes of the story are the home, transition from place to place, friends chosen and family made are exactly the things I want so much in my own life (plus Howl's easy on the eyes XD).
I want to be able to talk to people like I talk in my blog. I want to be able to express all that I wish, want and hope for without having someone shaking their head at me. I just want to be able to place my heart into someone's hands and find home there even if these moments are fleeting.
Okaeri. Welcome home.
So here's my collection for this week.
My teacher saw my first week collection 'Let Boys be Boys' and told me that all my models look like they could come out of Miyazaki's 'Howl's Moving Castle'. She highly recommended the movie so I went home and watched it... AND FELL IN LOVE WITH IT.
So this week I decided to do a collection based off of 'Howl's Moving Castle' infused with Japanese urban style to mix things up a bit. Deviating away from the predominantly black and white palette to pop colours and subtle prints.
I wanted something that reflected both Howl as a character as well as the surrounding themes of Howls Moving Castle. So I did this mini diagram of all the word associations and themes found in the movie that resonated within me:
Howl is a clotheshorse, he's decadent, flamboyant, appearance driven, foppish, has the heart of a boy but more than anything wants to be free despite his ability to fly.Howl himself is 'chained' to his house where the demon lives but he is also able to morph into a bird.
Ironically his house is run by his heart, the demon 'Calcifer' who is imprisoned within this moving house until Sophie sets him free. The physical house itself is always on the move and adopts multiple homes within one home. Unlike Howl himself, the house is filthy and unkempt.
Quotes I used for inspiration and thought:
"Friends are the family you choose."
"Home is where the heart is."
Silhouette wise I decided to mix Howl's top-heavy-skinny-lower-body physique with the looser style of urban Japan. A lot of the jackets flair or are really loose on the body while there are others that have scarves threaded through or sleeves that unzip and become free flowing to achieve Howl's 'coat on shoulders' look. To address the urban look I turned to making cool hoodies that covered half the face or with a collar and a hood or a double hood or a cobra hood or a hood sewn on lower than the usual neckline.. this came out of the urban japanese culture style as well as the idea of 'cocooning' one's self: making a home within the folds of fabric worn. And if you look closely a lot of the cutting on the dress shirts have a shape of a house embedded on either the breast pocket or the center front (see pg 2, second last model with purple dress shirt.. it's really dark). I really wanted to play up this idea of home in transition... a theme that always plays within my own life.
Fabric wise I used plaids and pop colours balanced out with neutral and dark heavier fabrics... plaid being a preference within a lot of the japanese dress shirts I see within the magazines.
Accessories were really important: from backpacks to headphones to caps and sneakers.
Anyway without further ado, here it is:
Howl Meets Hip Hop. Okaeri: Home is where the Heart Is
Inspiration: Fabric swatches and image inspirations. I like to get inspiration from words so I did a mini diagram on the movie, its themes and did a mini character expose on Howl complete with sketches I did of him frozen in motion in the film when he's cooking and warming himself by the fire. XD
Image inspirations.
Okaeri: Home is Where the Heart Is. Howl Meets Hip Hop.
HAHA I drew HEEN the spy dog!!! Plus I really liked that scene where Howl makes breakfast for them hence the whole line up of guys for eggs.
Inspiration from Japanese urban magazine 'Cool' with last five croquis.
-----------------------------------------
Friday: Went to Balthazar french restaurant with my AAS friend who is now leaving Ny back for Atlanta and then went shopping around Soho during the afternoon.
At night three Waterloo archi students, one Julliard violinist and I went to eat NY pizza before meeting up with our vancouver acting friend to watch 'The Duchess' starring Keira Knightley about the 18th century duchess called Georgiana. It was good I guess. There's only so much you can do with a biographical film.
Afterwards we just loitered outside (asians love to loiter for some reason) and the waterloo kids bumped into some of their other friends from their waterloo program who were also in NY.. what the heck. So we stood there for a good 20 mins just talking before splitting to either go home or Pinkberry.
I was making tiramisu at 2am before doing my collection until 4am. -_-
Saturday: Our initial plans to do potluck at this guy's house flopped so we all met up in Ktown for galbi tang and soon du bu... and then had my tiramisu there pretending it was someone's birthday in order to get some fridge space. Afterwards we went to pinkberry for MORE frozen yogurt and then went to karaoke the most unchristian songs ever (Moulin Rouge, SexyBack, Maroon 5...) and loitered some more outside.
Sunday: Robyn came to see me for the day since RISD was offering a $20 round trip bus ride... so the previous bunch from Saturday and Robyn AND parsons small group went to eat thai food after church... and then we spent another good half hour hunting down a Red Mango for frozen yogurt. -_- Some of us decided to split to go to Union Square to pick stuff up and buy clothes for one of the guys. XD I am so pleased with that grey one button blazer with visible stitching and bias seam binding on the interiors I found at H&M. Sooooo beautiful. Paired with a red scarf chosen by Robyn= hot. HAHAA
"Joon, you can either look 100% sexy in one day.. or you could wear the blazer one day, the scarf the next and the dress shirt the following day... and look a third sexy spread out within a week."
LOL After shopping, it was off to Momofuku for shredded pork ramen and then a teary farewell for Robyn (not!) who did not call me to tell me she got on the bus safe. -_-
Went home, showered, chilled until 9pm and met up with my friend, betty to have dessert at Max Brenner's and then proceeded to walk to her apartment to take a look and then walked back home at 11:30.
Yep.. it's been an eventful weekend. I woke up at 9:35am... and had class at 10am and almost missed the class.. It's times like these where I'm so glad I live so close by!
Betty and I just found out we studied under the same violin teacher back in Toronto... SMALL WORLD. Not only that, but the violinist from the thirteen people boy band, Super Junior, ALSO studied under the same teacher! LOL. SMALL WORLD.
I think I found family.
If friends are the family you choose, well this week I've identified them.
The one thing I really wanted in New York was a group of friends with different backgrounds to 'go home to'. In Toronto that group of people was defined by people like Rin, Jerry, Robyn, Alex etc. New York was a different story: people hardly know each other so we all hang out one on one. I wanted that group I could just hang out with, have fun and be genuine with.
Betty and I want to make this a regular thing: every Saturday we want to do some kind of fellowship thing with the bunch of people we found: Nicole, Clara, Betty, me, Joon, Tommy and David perhaps with other people who want to join here or there.
So next Saturday we're planning a real potluck at Betty's place with a time for worship and rounds of Taboo. XD
At church there's a worship through the arts night called 'Epiphany' and since three of us play violin, one sings brilliantly.. we want to do something together with a medley of worship songs.. we'll see how that flies. =P
The sad thing is is that one is only staying for two months; he may be back for another year but that's all up in the air while another is only here for a semester.
I don't want to sound selfish but I want to start narrowing down my friends. I already have started this process of singling out some people and 'ignoring' others. 'Ignoring' I mean that I'm not initiating anything with them unless they ask me themselves. I'm tired of floating around person to person, group to group. I want a sense of belonging in a community of people I know well: not just their name, their major/area of work and their age. I want those deeper relationships that are rooted within our Creator while still having a lot of fun doing things in New york.
Yeah, I haven't felt so deliriously happy in a long time nor experienced this kind of relationship with a group of people in New york. I know it's only been a week. I know this may only be something I feel exclusively: perhaps they don't really care at all, they just want something to do. But in the meanwhile, I'm satisfied with what we have now.
Betty and I decided to be accountability partners; we had a good time sharing with one another. For the first time I opened up to someone other than my Toronto friends; I hardly talk about myself if you don't ask. So the past year I've been feeling at loss because I've been so grounded in the lives of others, no one seemed to care to reach out to me.
She said to me that it was a good thing I always act like myself unlike others who assume the role of the 'ideal girl' according to the tastes of each guy. The thing is is that I only know how to be me because... I don't know how to pretend to be anything else.
She told me, "God will bring you someone according to His will.. but in the meantime you can eat all the eye candy around you." XD
And this is the reason why I love 'Howl's Moving Castle' so much; the central themes of the story are the home, transition from place to place, friends chosen and family made are exactly the things I want so much in my own life (plus Howl's easy on the eyes XD).
I want to be able to talk to people like I talk in my blog. I want to be able to express all that I wish, want and hope for without having someone shaking their head at me. I just want to be able to place my heart into someone's hands and find home there even if these moments are fleeting.
Okaeri. Welcome home.
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