Sketches & Stuff - updated!

This is the most recent sketch I did. I've witnessed a lot of magazines and websites and blogs and whatever along those lines associated with fashion with heaps of sportswear and I'm starting to get really into it. Not just any kinds of sportswear, but the more creatively developed / constructed sportswear which turns them into something a little bit (okay, maybe a lot) more interesting instead of the in-your-face "I'm going to the gym" or "I'm out for a jog" type of sportswear, know what I'm saying? So yeah, loads of designer brands nowadays create ranges of sportswear, and sports brand themselves have taken the art of sportswear to a whole new level. And so I've taken a lot of inspirations from a lot of sports brands and also Stella McCartney created a sports collection for Adidas which I'd taken many inspirations from. Also, not only the designs that matter, the selections of the fabrics are what makes sportswear so damn expensive though. They have to put much more consideration as opposed to making any other types of clothes. 

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A few years ago my brother bought this book with eye illusion pictures, basically pictures that mess with your mind, makes your head turn upside down in complete awe. At least that's how I felt about that book. One day I was looking through some inspirations to create another fashion sketch and this bright idea came across my mind and I suddenly recalled of that particular book my brother owned. I searched everywhere but I couldn't find it, so I browsed through the internet to find picture examples which you can see on the right side of the paper. I drew all three of them myself, then applying the patters on each outfits on different parts of the outfits. I knew I was going to make this mini collection black & white, but I figured they definitely needed a pop of color, and I thought orange would be the perfect choice, since I wanted these outfits to stand out, and they individually have unique patterns on their own, so yeah, orange enhances the monochromatic emptiness of black & white, I wanna say.

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I decided to take it to the next level with this one. This is a little complicated than my previous sketches, but just a little bit. Patience is required. So I wanted to make something that's a little different to what I usually have in my mind, and so the idea of sketching outfits inspired by various animal skeletons and a little bit of human too. And I also wanted human veins to take part on this mini collection to add a little bit of color. In terms of the skeleton-drawing, I even searched through the encyclopedia to see the actual pictures of human and animal skeletons so that I would be able to draw the exact same form of skeletons. As usual things don't always go according to plan, so the skeletons don't look exactly like the real ones. But I honestly don't mind cause I tried my best. And there's no really need an explaining to do, the picture above is pretty self-explanatory to what each part of skeletons corresponds to which pictures of skeletons that I printed out and put beside each "outfits". 

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This was actually a project I did for school. I was supposed to find four customers and let them demand whatever kind of outfits they'd like me to make and I'd get profits for it. This was my first piece and it belongs my friend Alya. I actually just finished my 2nd which I began making since I would say a little bit over a month ago when I'm supposed to finish all four by the end of November. Oh and look at the month, it's December! 
Side note; I really enjoyed making this one because I personally like the style of it and the fabric is uber friendly to be sewn, and yes the quality of fabrics can greatly affect my mood of sewing and also the final results. Believe me.

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This is my second piece that I was talking about. This is basically just a simple tenun dress for a friend of mine at my french course. And yes it's looking a little big on me because her size is bigger than me but still I had to wear this dress for the sake of taking a picture. Ha.

I got the fabric from her so I can't tell you where to get them. Also I didn't even make the pattern for the skirt. I literally just straight up cut the fabric on a rectangular shape (after measuring the waist) and sew it so that it forms into a dress and boom; you don't even know it's that simple. Aaaaand I turned out to really like this dress because of the color and also because it's big on me since I love wearing clothes that are more on the loose side? Baggy? However you wanna call it. Too bad I can't keep this dress for myself. Sigh.

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This last one is my final project of the semester. We were asked to design and make a night gown/dress. The design is entirely up to us, so I decided to make a simple black dress with a little twist to it ya know? I designed this dress a few months ago, I actually have a sketch of this on my "sketches" post a few months back. 
The see-through lace vertical line is inspired by Elie Saab. I never witnessed a dress with a cut like that in the front so I decided to make it myself. The stretched lace I used for the front and the back is the same, however I used a different kind of lace for the skirt with bigger motives. I'm satisfied with this dress because it turned out to be exactly like how I had imagined it.

November - December Entertainment Favorites

Sore - In 1997 The Bullet Was Shy

Blood Orange - Say No

Grizzly Bear - Knife

Alex Turner - Glass In The Park

Washed Out - Don't Give Up

White Shoes & The Couples Company - Kisah Dari Selatan Jakarta

Flume & Chet Faker - This Song Is Not About A Girl

Mac Demarco - My Kind of Woman

Sore - There Goes
Cayman Islands - Kings of Convenience

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Last but not least I have a movie favorite for November and it is probably my favorite out of all my favorites because this movie has seriously gotten me head over heels. It is called God Help The Girl, starring Emily Browning (Eve), Olly Alexander (James), and Hannah Murray (Cassie). Fun fact, Hannah Murray's character on Skins is also named Cassie. I thought you should know?

This is an English musical drama movie that starts off with that main character, Eve, escaping from a psychiatric hospital as she suffers from anorexia nervosa and she begins singing as she's making her way out from the hospital to Glasgow in hopes that she will become a musician. She had to escape because the nurses wouldn't let Eve do music before she can eat properly or do other things that normal people do.

At Glasgow she met James, who is an aspiring songwriter and is also a lifeguard, and became friends since then. Long story short, James introduced Eve to his guitar student, cassie, which then they started becoming friends and slowly turning into a band. This story is basically about their journey creating a band of their own. There are lots of spontaneous singing with quirky dances which I find really cute. Seriously. And my favorite song from the movie is "I'll Have To Dance With Cassie". I find myself always dancing to this song either on my mind or I'm really physically dancing on my own, because it is seriously that good. Please do watch it. Thanks.

"I'll Have To Dance With Cassie"

December Music Crush: Habibi

This month I'm kinda cheating on this theme of Monthly Music Crush because I skipped two months (oops..?) due to crazy schoolworks so I didn't even bother to check my blog once in a while. But now here I am trying to catch up with this thing that I'm supposed to be be doing each month, so here we go.

As you probably know, or you didn't know, well now I'm telling you this, I love anything from psychedelic rock to indie & alternative rock even slacker rock because they just happen to immensely soothe my aching soul (what an exaggeration). Apparently slacker rock is a new genre I just discovered? Calling genre police because that's how musicians Mac Demarco and Kurt Vile describes their music style. And I love both of them.

Moving on, for the month of December I'm bringing to you an indie rock band/girlgroup/however you want to call it, from Brooklyn, New York, Habibi. I actually discovered them last month through Zoe Suen. The name Habibi means "My Love" in arabic. Their music is influenced by Middle Eastern music/melody. Grunge and punk are also their musical influences and boom; an awesome band is created. The band consists of Lenaya "Lenny" Lynch (guitar, vocals), Rahill Jamalifard (lead vocals, tambourine), Erin Campbell (bass, guitar, vocals), and Karen Isabel (drums).

Now I'm going to do a little comparison here. Based on my opinion, their music is somehow similar to Beach Fossils. Similar in the sense of how they both have the same kind of harmony/rhythm of guitar or maybe  it's just me? I don't know. You be the judge. 

If you didn't know already,  Beach Fossils is an American rock band, which is, surprise surprise, also based in Brooklyn, New York. If you like Beach Fossils then you sure as hell will like Habibi as well. Enough babbling, you can listen to two of my favourite tracks from Habibi. Enjoy and you're welcome.

x

September Music Crush: Juce

Since I post a lot of music stuff, I figured I'd do some sort of series where I share my new music finds (usually bands) every month and featuring some of their songs through my blog. The first one in this Monthly Music Crush is Juce, a girlgroup from London.

Also, check out their social medias:

Instagram: jucelove

Facebook : JuceLoveMusic

jucelove.co.uk

A Day In Pictures : Kawah Putih

Pictures I snapped using my good 'ol fisheye camera a few weeks ago.

Ps that's my brother.

May Favorites: Entertainment

Okay this past month I've been obsessing over these things I'm about to tell you and I don't think it's too late to post this kind of post so without babbling let's just jump right into it: 

Music: The Black Keys - Turn blue

Duo Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney emerged with their 8th studio album and I've really been enjoying listening to the songs, I would say this album is quite different from their previous studio album "El Camino". The songs in this album are lacking in their signature rhythm, having some sort of slightly slow beats to them, however I love this album.

Tv Series: Bates Motel

   Okay so I just finished season 2 and I was watching this nonstop and let me tell you this: This is the kind of series that will undoubtedly get you sucked in, I'll tell you why. But let me just say that the script is very predictable, like I always know what they're going to say afterwards.

   If you recall there was the exact same titled movie in 1987. However in this newly made series, they added a lot of stories that were never happened in the original movie.

   I'll just give you a quick description of this series. This series centres on two characters, a mother, , played by Vera Farmiga, and her 17 year old son, Norman Bates, played by Freddie Highmore. Episode 1 begins with a death of Norman's father. After his death, Norma decided to move out of town to "start over" with her son from Arizona to a fictional town of White Pine Bay, Oregon, where Norma bought a motel. Long story short, Norma was involved in a murder action and made Norman got involved too. Norma and Norman Bates had to keep up with the police as they were constantly trying to interrogate this family for the murder action. As time passes by, this family is somehow constantly experiencing unusual situations and meet people that basically ruin their lives. As you get closer to the end of season 2, you'll find out the dark backstory about Norman Bates that caused all sorts of trouble ever since they moved to White Pine Bay.

  Oh, and can we just have a moment of silence to appreciate how fine Dylan Massett (Norman Bates' brother, played by Max Thieriot) is?? I wasn't initially obsessed with him, but towards the end of season one, that's when I thought, "wow I just found the most perfect human being ever existed", because with that bad boy look and attitude, yet he's a helper at heart and has saved many people's lives, I mean, wowwwww I don't even know what to say.

   I can't really say much about this series (or else I'll spoil the story) nor give a glimpse of the series, because that is the worst thing to know when you haven't watched it yet. Season 3 is not available yet but defffff can't wait.

  

Movie: They Live

This movie is basically an 80's science-fiction movie with a powerful message that follows with a drifter referred as "Nada" who finds a box hidden in a wall in a building nearby a church in which he runs into a pair of sunglasses. When he puts them on, his vision turns black and white, and every advertisement he sees hides subliminal messages to obey and turns the human race to be passive.

Simple and Sure

Sleepless night and it's nearly dawn I thought I'd share The Pains of Being Pure at Heart's new single "Simple and Sure". This could just be your instant mood-lifter when you're having a bad day. 

Enjoy x

May Most Wanted

1. Origins Clear Improvement Active Charcoal Mask
   

Surprise surprise, another mask I've been dying to get my hands on. The charcoal in this mask is an active ingredient that's supposedly act as a "magnet" for all the dirt and oils that's clogging the pores and having that squeaky clean face is has been and always will be a dream of mine. Also, this product comes in a 50ml and a 100ml tube which is a pretty good size for a face mask.

2. Shoe Cult Alkali Flatform

I've been digging flatform sandals like this. Literally in every store I go to there are always ones that are similar to this. Plus the white color looks ultra chic no?

3. Forever 21 Faux Leather Barrel Bag

I'm currently in a hunt for a barrel bag because I'm all about big bags instead of mini purses because I love bringing tons of my essentials everywhere I go and this bag goes along with basically any outfit and any color and look just how cuuuute it looks.

4. Korres Wild Rose Instant Brightening Eye Treatment

I always have problems with dark circles and puffiness under my eyes, mainly because I stay up late at night everyday which is really bad for the skin so I found this eye treatment, and it seems to have great reviews. Also, I'm super super excited for the new Sephora store here in Jakarta and hopefully I will be able to purchase this baby pretty soon!

5. Kate Spade Medium Bella Pouch

Mini black pouches are sleek as hell tho. Nuff said.

6. Tarte Cheek Stain in Fearless

I haven't owned a single blush in my life, and this one in particular by Tarte is really unique and I'm really interested to try this out. Also, Tarte always comes up with killer packaging.

7. Clarisonic Aria - white

I'm always such a skincare freak. It says that clarisonic cleans six times better compared to just washing your face with your hands and I could picture myself washing my face with this and it would feel so good after because I'm obsessed with being squeaky clean so this clarisonic totally attracts me, plus it's white which makes it even more sleeeek.

Sketches

These first three sets of designs happened when I came to a realisation that I was the laziest person on earth so I decided to get a little more productive, you know??

Also, sorry for the bad quality pictures, took these from my instagram.

This first one was a very spontaneous sketch. Like literally, I drew some figures with my pencil and just by using a black permanent marker, I drew whatever I wanted without any inspiration. Whatever was in my mind I made it come to life, basically? After seeing the results, I'd say this has no particular theme but a design expansion of classic black dresses. And also, did some terrible shading there as you can see. For the skin I always use copic markers.

I wanted to be able to design many types of clothes based on different themes, and this futuristic theme I'm only using black, grey, and gold just for little bit pop of color to make them look somewhat "futuristic-y". As you can see I drew the most fabulous shoes in this particular theme (not). And also, these outfits are not 100% my vision, I had to look up for inspirations on the internet. I did the colors of these outfits using pencil color, drawing pen, and a black permanent marker. Also outlined them using a drawing pen.

There is no particular inspiration for these sketches, I wanted to make a set of sketches that's delicate in style and rigid in form, you know? Kinda hard to explain, but probably something like origami. I made these sketches also very spontaneously, I just drew what I had in mind at that time, because I wanted to see how far I could sort of dig my capability to sketch without a particular inspiration. I've done monochromatic designs before, so I was thinking that I should make this one colorful this time. And instead of boring colors on each outfits, I decided to make my own patterns inspired by nature, since origamis are most likely in a form of animals or plants, I felt like they sort of compliment each other? 

Oh and just a little secret which you can probably already tell, I was too lazy to draw outfit no.4's shoes, which explains why I tried to somewhat cover the feet using the pattern design samples. 

Colored all of the outfits using water color aside from the skin which is always colored with my copic marker and the sketch outlines using a drawing pen.

PS more to be updated soooon!

Spring Fever

   The title makes you think of blooming cherry blossoms in every corner in South Korea, but I would say about 60% were green and the remaining 40% were the colourful leaves, (not too many) cherry blossom trees, and all sorts of colorful flowers. It was spring season slowly switching over to summer, although summer doesn't start till June, I guess? 

   Yes, I finally got a chance to visit the beautiful South Korea on the 23rd of April with my family. Actually had been incredibly impatient waiting for that day, but it finally came anyway. We stayed in South Korea for such a brief time, that is, four days and three nights, and it felt just like a finger snap and boom I'm back in my hometown again. 

Day 1

The boarding time from Jakarta was 11.45pm on Wednesday. then we arrived at Incheon International Airport on Thursday morning, picked up our luggages and went straight by a bus to an area near Nami Island to eat lunch. The trip from the airport to that restaurant took about three hours so by the time we arrived, it was already lunch time. 

This was out first lunch in South Korea. Chicken barbecue with some other stuff that I didn't know. I should probably mention that in every set of meal they serve in Korea, there is always Kimchi, which, I'm not really fond of. But that's alright, the chicken barbecue tasted really good. Definitely my favorite meal of the trip. I even ate two portions of rice, don't know whether I was starving, or it just tasted really good. Probably both.

After we finished eating, we went to buy a ticket to go to Nami Island, and so we arrived.

Halfway walking on Nami Island, we found a praying room in a cool little cafe so we had to stop by

After a few hours, we got back to our bus and went to a restaurant to have dinner. 

...and then we got to the hotel in an area near Mt. Sorak where we stayed for a night. The hotel was located in a small town, so there wasn't really anything, but at that night, we went for a walk outside the hotel. Oh and the most awesome thing about South Korea? Free wi-fi. They're everywhere. Literally everywhere. On the streets, hotels, even Nami Island. 

Day 2

The next morning we went to Mt. Sorak National Park and got to the mountain by a cable car. We hiked up but not all the way to the top, because it was hella creepy and I was waring flat shoes so I could easily trip so no thanks.

Pictures that I snapped with my phone from the beautiful view of Mt. Sorak with my brother!

Next up was lunch

We had this sort of mixed vegetables with squid in the middle, with more vegetables around it, and also on the top right corner I'm guessing it was a fishcake? See, I'm not good at describing food, but it was good.

   Next was a ginseng shop. When we arrived, there was a lady welcoming us and she was explaining about ginseng in general and how korean ginseng is different from other ginseng around the world, and the purpose was basically they were trying to sell us ginseng. And god, never have I had any idea they were ridiculously expensive, wow.

    Kimchi school was up next. Basically we learned a little bit to make kimchi, and tasted different kinds of kimchi. I didn't take any picture because unfortunately taking a picture was not allowed. It was allowed after te process of making kimchi, but you know when you're having fun you don't think about taking any picture, right?

    At the same place, after we were all done making kimchi, we went downstairs to wear korean traditional dress, Hanbok. And we got a chance to take pictures in them, so it was quite an experience.

The next destination was Trick Eye Museum and Ice Museum. Both museums were located at the same place, but we visited Trick Eye Museum first. I didn't take many pictures while I was there.

     We were looking around at Hongdae Street were the two museums were located. They were selling clothes, food, korean cosmetics, and so many more. We bought dinner for ourselves this time instead of going to a restaurant with our group like we usually would. We bought taco bell and barbecue chicken on a stick (if that makes sense?) but we didn't consider it dinner, really. 

     Next was Dongdaemun Market. The first store we entered in Boota (Boota is sort of like a department store but much bigger, I suppose?) was a souvenir shop. Again, I didn't take any pictures. See, every time I go shopping, or least just looking around in a shop, I can't really take time to grab my camera and take a picture.

     After we were done shopping in the souvenirs shop, we went to look around other stores. There was a LOT of really cute korean designers clothes in Boota (praise korean designers your style is outta this world), but they were crazy expensive. Or, clothes in general were expensive too, so I only bought a pair of jeans. 

      We bought ourselves some burritos after because we were still hungry from eating only taco bell. But after that, time passed so quickly and all of the sudden we had to get back on the bus and return to our new hotel in Seoul, where we would be staying there for two nights.

Day 3

    Namsangol Hanok village was our first destination. This place is basically a village of traditional houses of Namsan Valley. While I was there, a traditional wedding was held inside one of the houses and everyone was watching the wedding outside the windows. The bride was wearing Korea's traditional dress, hanbok with their usual quirky traditional makeup kinda look? 

    This next one is pretty exciting. We went to a korean cosmetic shop. As usual, there were typical korean brands. We didn't really spend a lot of time there, so we ended up going to a convenient store across the street to buy some snacks while waiting for the others. 

    After that, we went to an amethyst shop. They were selling different kinds of jewellery made from amethyst. There were also huge amethyst stones that were chopped in half where you can see, well, the gorgeous purple crystals thingy, you know what I'm talking about. I wish I could take pictures there, but unfortunately it was not allowed.

   Next was Gwanjang market. This market is literally a market. Mostly they're selling food, but we were honestly kind of grossed out of how the food was cooked, and koreans eat a lot of pork too, so we didn't buy anything there.

    We went to The Shilla duty free shop after. It was crazy though. I could barely walk because this place was packed with over-excited people. There were literally all kinds of makeup, skincare, clothing brands from A-Z. There was also a cafe on the rooftop, the view was nice though, but we didn't get anything.

    Going to this next place was probably my highlight of the day, or even my highlight of the whole trip. Yup, Myeongdong Street. I don't know where to begin because I basically just went insane.

    As soon as we got there, we immediately ate dinner because we were starving, and went shopping after. There were endless Korean cosmetics brands and let's just say I picked up a lot of stuff. That's all I can say.

Day 4

This was the last day of our trip to South Korea. The first place we went to was NSeoul Tower. Me and my brother went all the way up to the tower and saw the view of Seoul from above.  

There was also this place where they attach padlocks with a name of the people they love? It's the exact same thing as the padlock bridge in Paris, that's what I'm trying to say.

We ate lunch and bought some korean snacks after.

This was our last lunch here :(

Bulgogi with noodles and the usual vegetables on the side. Oh and the dried seaweed was gooood. 

    After lunch we went straight to the airport and basically waited for the boarding time. I ate again because I'm always hungry like that. 

    We arrived at Jakarta at about 11PM and got home at 1.30AM ish?I slept at 4.15AM and only got two hours of sleep because I had to go to work at the same day. Ha. Such an amazing day.