World Without Strangers + PhFW Giveaway

Giordano did a little street style challenge with some of the local bloggers to style a Giordano look from our favorite pieces. As a scrawny, tiny girl I decided to play around with menswear and the notion of  borrowing from the boys – a notion a petite person is supposedly off-limits to. I literally borrowed this top from the men’s section of Giordano, got jeans two sizes too big and threw on an oversized varsity jacket to complete the whole boyfriend look. Injected demure details with this sparkly headband, a snakeskin clutch and studded blush pink pumps to keep from looking too undone.

Really glad I was given creative freedom in dressing like a boy. I guess the whole notion of blurring the lines between genders, shapes and sizes is something I find interesting – like categories are slowly being lifted and we end up being removed from boxes we were previously segregated into. I feel like Giordano’s tagline, “World Without Strangers,” is connected to this notion of removing delineations somehow – that the tagline promotes a world where no one is ostracized, left behind and deemed different. And that’s a world I want to live in. Being able to show this by way of one’s outfit is not just easy but something I feel blessed for being able to do. So keep borrowing from the boys, or the girls, or the petites and the bigs, the young and the old and other groupings you want to start breaking.

On a much lighter note, Giordano is joining Philippine Fashion Week and I’m giving away 10 free fashion week passes! I’m choosing 5 winners by Wednesday midnight to win 2 passes each! All you have to do is:

1. Follow @alyssalapid and @giordanoph on Twitter

2. Like AlyssaLapid and Giordano on Facebook

3. Tweet “Win tickets to @giordanoph Fashion Week at alyssalapid.com! #alyssalapidgiveaways #GiordanoPhFW”

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Top, Jeans and Varsity jacket all from GIORDANO

Photos by Gerry Robinson

Make up by Diane Lorenzana

What Lies Beneath

Let’s talk underwear.

It may sound weird but I’m a big underwear fan. I like the occasional paisley but my go-to pieces are definitely comfortable silk or lace ones. Comfort and lace are not mutually exclusive, contrary to popular belief. (Comfort and thongs though definitely are.)

A kick-ass set of underwear boosts confidence. Watching sexy girls ramping in a kick-ass set of underwear (Alessandra Ambrosio? Miranda Kerr?), not as much. As my outfits are usually simple and/or sheer, having nice underwear makes me feel both 1) confident even if the outside look is pretty dull, and 2) confident even when the outside look gives a sneak peek of what’s inside. While I gravitate towards black, I do like the occasional pop of color like so I got myself a hot pink lace set from Wacoal and took on a personal underwear “styling challenge.”

I figured since it’s hot pink it would be a little more difficult for me to wear on a regular basis. You may say, “but underwear is supposed to be kept under and therefore unseen, how difficult is that?” And to that I reply, “One, sheer. Two, big armholes. And three, innerwear is the new outerwear.” (Cue Karen from Mean Girls’ “Duh.”) So I came up with three looks from day (to mid-day) to night and took my hot pink baby along with me. But instead of going along the lines of my rebuttal (see points one through three that would require high underwear visibility), I toned it down (maybe a little too much) and I got three outfits that were both simple and young and to prove to myself that how you look on the outside does not always translate to how you feel on the inside.

9:00 AM, errand running – A graphic I Love Coke tee paired with high waist jeans and sneakers may mean you want to dress (and look) comfortable, but knowing you got a hot pink lace concoction underneath makes you want to dab a bit of red lipstick, some fun sunglasses and pick up your mood from errand-stressed to independent cool. (Til you have to park, then the stress comes right back.)

2:00 PM, Creative brainstorming meeting – Nothing brings me back to high school more than this skirt that so closely resembles Cady Heron’s in Mean Girls. The sweater with the psycho eyes takes another few years off maybe taking me all the way back to grade school. But again, the hot pink secret underneath lets me forget all awkward puberty associations.

8:00 PM, Event – With my lace two piece, there’s no need to don a body-hugging thigh-high slit dress to prove how grown up I really am. (And proving it may be necessary after that 2:00 PM school girl reference). I could wear a prom-looking cocktail dress and still feel confident that the balloon silhouette isn’t inferior to its curve-showcashing opposite.

Of course there are many other ways to wear this Wacoal underwear set whether you choose to show it off or not. I chose to hide it and was still able to prove what I set out to prove and maybe even come up with a new hypothesis: what lies underneath may be even greater than what goes above it.

Underwear set, WACOAL 

Cherry Bomb

Here’s part two of my denim find showcase. I’ve been resisting the urge to keep wearing this top (as I just blogged about it last week) but I figured there’s no point counting down the days ’til it’s socially acceptable to repeat. Honestly, even with the blog I forget which outfits I already wore and since I gravitate towards the same things/looks, I end up wearing pieces more often than what Rachel Zoe would advice.

I easily tire of things too so using them while I still like them is to me called value for money. Cost per wear feels like financial prison when one keeps wearing something one has fallen out of love with for the sake of justifying a purchase. (Is it just me? Or does fashion really sound like a relationship? See love letter to shoes here).

It’s been raining a lot lately so I took sunlight as a big blinding (not to mention, yellow) go signal to bring out these new cherry platforms. Haven’t worn anything this high in a while and I felt a little wobbly in them. I still don’t get why people find platforms more comfortable than single soles when platforms trigger a keener (but tiring) sense of disaster avoidance (i.e., being acutely aware of pebbles, stones, road bumps – basically anything that isn’t flat) for fear of falling. Again, maybe it’s just me.

Anyway, if there’s anything I want this blog post to impart it’s this: who cares if you blog about the same piece twice (or more) in a row? I don’t. You love, you blog. It really is that simple.

At least I think. Anyone wanna validate it? (And by it I mean me.)

p.s. Tell me, which repeat denim look did you like better?