OOTD: Before November Ends

Sometimes when I look back of my outfit styles in these years, it is clear that I paid more attention on details and my style transits from teen to more mature/simple feelings. “You are what you wear”, probably my the change of my outfits also reflects the transition of my mindset as well: When I was at my teen-age, I was so amazed by the female figures appeared on American Apparel’s posters (LOL), but soon then I realized how tired it could be to wear a crop top and tight pencil skirt all the time. After turning to 21, my preference changed to more comfortable textures and simple designs, I think it might be a sign of getting old? I started to pay more attention on those not-that-famous designer brands providing unique philosophy and design, I also love to find out those unique “hidden treasure” in vintage shops. It is fun to see the transition along these years and my blog also witnesses the changes 🙂

Vintage Parisian fashion, greatly inspired by @janebirkindaily @dennielias and of course @rouje simple but comfortable 🙂 (@Fashionmimo)

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Simple laid-back outfits are also my favourite 🙂

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OOTD: Springtime minimalism

The weather is getting much warmer these days in Melbourne, so I was planning to shoot an OOTD series about my springtime fashion.

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Top from Zara, bottom from an online shop in China and chain bag from Gucci (@Fashionmimo)

 

Forget about post cards: embrace the crazy yet “grounded” gallery souvenirs era

It is not surprising to see galleries and museums today start putting more effort in the promotion/marketing of their gift shops. Forget about those souvenir shops where you bought a boring post card or a notebook after visiting a museum during the school field trip, souvenirs today have already become an important source of income to most of the public-running galleries. Museums/galleries nowadays are also trying to build up their own brands with iconic products from their gift shops: even sometimes those designs would be bold or hilarious. The one impressed me the most recent years is  the “Emperor memes” stickers launched by the Forbidden City Museum at the gift shop and it became so popular on China’s Internet. You may argue that it’s a sign of our society’s fall into the trap of consumerism,  but those intriguing gift shops did bring old museums tremendous media exposure because of the more “grounded” products, and their design teams also offered young people opportunities to be creative on those historical art pieces.

Since I’m living in Melbourne, it’s quite common for me to visit the gift shop of NGV (National Gallery of Victoria)  frequently. As one of the most influencing galleries in Australia, NGV has a design team specialised in gift shop product design based on the exhibition and art pieces they are showcasing. For this winter, the biggest show is the MoMA X NGV exhibition which has brought the work of Vincent van Gough, Andy Warhol, Henri Matisse and other great artists to Melbourne. There is a pop-up gift shop at the end of the exhibition hall and I strongly recommend you to check out those crazy designs. I personally LOVE the emoji tote bags a lot and I will definitely shoot an OOTD with it! You can also check them out online: https://store.ngv.vic.gov.au/

NGV launched a series of events along with the MoMA exhibition, from the exhibition to the creative gift shop, and after the visit you can still enjoy the Friday Night event with wine and Jazz. (@Fashionmimo)

Embedding the content of exhibition into the design of the products. (@Fashionmimo)

Memories on Film: Japan X Hong Kong

Film photography is a field that I always want to try but find it too hard technically. Losing focus is one of my biggest issues when shooting with film camera. Inspired by a friend occasionally, I tried to use disposable camera to do my film photography: yes, I am talking about those cameras with plastic shell and you can get them from convenient store. As the shutter speed, aperture and lens focus are normally fixed, all you need to do when playing with disposable camera is: 1. decide to turn on the flash or not 2. remember to roll the film until it is fixed before you press the shutter button.

Surprisingly, the photos present very sharp colors and film-like texture (well, they ARE film actually) after they are developed. I noticed that the camera heavily depends on the daylight when you turn the flash off, if there is sufficient daylight, the outcome can be really amazing. (@Fashionmimo)

 

Vintage Shops Hunt -Melbourne Pt.2

Sorry for procrastinating again, I am supposed to post this a month ago but I was so occupied and kept working on my papers for the whole March… However, I still did some interesting research on local vintage vendors during this month and now I have plenty shops to add on for this article 😉 that is definitely the good part for procrastinating hahah.

Yesteryear

Now I can proudly tell you that I have been to all of their shops in Melbourne: which are in Northcote, Carlton and Fitzroy respectively. My opinion is these three shops have slightly different positioning: the one is Northcote is more like a warehouse store and you can see it always having sale; while the Fitzroy one and Carlton one is more like a boutique with selected brands and the pricing would also be higher.

Source: Internet

At the Fitzroy shop. (@Fashionmimo)

Carlton: 237a Faraday Street Carlton 3053

Fitzroy: 331 Brunswick Street Fitzroy 3065

Northcote: 200 High Street Northcote 3070

 

Lost & Found

Unlike those vintage boutiques I introduced above, Lost & Found is more like a vintage flea market. It reminds me of those old markets in Europe, where you can find literally ANYTHING in the market: clothes, bags, furniture, CDs, accessories and handicrafts … it is such an ideal place to explore and to kill an afternoon 🙂

Address: 499-511 Lygon St, East Brunswick VIC 3057

American Vintage Clothing Co

Another vintage shop located at Fitzroy. I strongly recommend you to visit Fitzroy if you are a vintage/art/cafe/food/bar/music lover, this place is magical and literally have everything you want. 90s bomber jackets and American jeans are just everywhere in the shop, go check it out and there are also several interesting fashion boutiques near the shop. Overall, I LOVE FITZROY!! (@Fashionmimo)

Source:  Instagram @americanvintageclothing

Address: 133 Brunswick St, Fitzroy VIC 3065

Officially Moved to MELB!

Hi, long time no see! Just wanna tell you guys that I’ve moved to Melbourne last week and can’t wait to share my story to you once I’m settled! Gonna introduce some nice vintage shops here in my forthcoming post since I’m preparing my vintage fashion business as well. No matter what, I’ll keep you updated!! 😉 xx

 

90s School Look

I’m wondering how many of you are still returning to school in September,  for me, my last summer vacation has just gone away 😦 Feeling a bit sad but it’s fine because I’m still very young inside haha. This time my friend Alison (alisonderland.com) and I are trying some 90s retro school looks with a piece of orange gradient color filter, it was my first time applying a real filter on lens and the outcome is surprisingly awesome: the orange filter can somehow soften the daylight and makes the whole digital photo look more film-like. (@Fashionmimo)

 

 

OOTD: Tropical Paradise

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Going back to Singapore has been always on my bucket list since I left there, like, 1 year ago. To most people, Hong Kong and Singapore don’t have much differences: same concrete jungles, same colonial backgrounds, both influenced by Chinese and western cultures… However, if we look it in a micro way, the differences between these two cities are still obvious: from office culture to people’s favourite pastime, from languages to people’s attitude towards work-life balance… things are getting different in many ways. But for me, those differences in a nutshell could be sensed in a very direct way: outfit.

I dress up differently in these two places. When I lived in Singapore, I would prefer to wear more skirts/dress and outfits with floral patterns, and I also pay more attentions on some specific textures such as chiffon and cotton. I think it’s because the weather is always hot and full of sunshine in Singapore, so I would focus more on the “breathable” texture and more bright/sharp colors to fit the blue sky and green trees. In contrast, when I am in Hong Kong, linen, silk and nylon materials are my favourites: unlike Singapore, the summer weather in Hong Kong is quite unstable and the indoor/outdoor temperature could be very different: the indoor area is freezing cold all the time while the outdoor area is sticky and hot as hell. So I would prefer some comfortable and neat materials that could help me to keep warm in the office/lecture hall while could also absorb my sweat when I’m out. So in a nutshell, what I wear in Singapore is casual and tropical, while in Hong Kong my preference would shift to minimalist and easy-to-wear commuter style.

So this time, when I travelled back to SG, I tried out more tropical-style outfits with multiple concepts: beach, all-black and 70’s retro style… check them out 🙂 (@Fashionmimo)

Oh, and last but not least, Happy 2nd Bloggaversary to Fashionmimo.com!!

Spring Retro Lookbook

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Haven’t seen you all for a while and haven’t updated my lookbook for a long while as well. Even though the weather is still quite unsettled (raining all the time), but it finally gets warmer after the long period of raining. And I think spring is an ideal time for me to show you some retro outfit ideas because as the weather is not too hot or too cold, I can play more with different layers and don’t need to worry about sweating too much during the shooting. (@Fashionmimo)

With the ruffle sleeve blouse from Topshop, the flare jeans from Forever 21 and the vintage Chanel bag I found in Japan. (@Fashionmimo)

70’s picnic look: Check blazer from H&M, shirt from M&S, still with the Forever 21jeans and flats from Salvatore Ferragamo. The highlight of this look is the Japanese print scarf which I found it in a shop next to my yoga studio. (@Fashionmimo)

90’s school look, all about denim denim denim (@Fashionmimo)

Kyoto in Red

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My last trip to Japan was a perfect wrap-up of my 2016, especially the 4-day staycation in Kyoto, a city which keeps bringing me inspirations and enlightenment. And fortunately  this time I’ve caught the last chance to appreciate the autumn view in this city, with those “red” elements:

Autumn Foliage

The peak of autumn foliage in Kyoto is breathtaking and spectacular, but I missed it 😦  Late-December is  not the best time to appreciate the leaves, however, who says the  combination of withered trees and rocks can’t be a great as well?

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Temples

As I said in my last post about Kyoto a year ago, it is impossible to visit all the sights in the ‘City of Ten Thousand Shrines’. Last time I visited Fushimi Inari Taisha (伏見稲荷大社) and Kinkaku-Ji (金閣寺), and this time, the less-popular Kennin-Ji (建仁寺) and the Imperial Palace are the highlights.

At the Imperial Palace (@Fashionmimo)

The view of the inner-garden, Kennin-Ji. ( @Fashionmimo)

Vintage Stores

Japan is the heaven of vintage boutiques, antiques and second-hand goods, and in Kyoto, you can find lots of dope vintage boutique stores in the heart of the city, such as Flamingo, Small Change and Three Stars. The most impressive thing I’ve found in these stores is an embroidered nightgown from the 80’s China! All those old goods are in a very good condition and I can tell, as a Chinese, it would be really really difficult to find the same fancy nightgown even in China nowadays!

Kimono

After several times of experiencing the traditional kimono, this time I finally chose the red one. Isn’t the red color fitting the old streets so well? ;p

In China, red color represents fortune, so I hope that this “red” post would bring luck to whoever read it 😉 This post is also a wrap-up of my 2016 blogging journey, thank you all for supporting Fashionmimo.com this year and I’m glad that this site has been growing better and better with those kind supports. Hope you have a great year ahead and seeya in 2017!! (@Fashionmimo)