Metamorphosis / Xu Bing at Asia Society

Before I left for my holiday in England I was lucky enough to be invited to preview 'It Begins with Metamorphosis' by the acclaimed Chinese artist Xu Bing at Asia Society. Acclaimed usually sounds like some frou-frou word which you use to describe someone who you know nothing about except that they're really famous. But in his case, Xu was rewarded the MacArthur Fellowship in 1999 (yes, the 'Genius Grant'!), so you know he's legit (bow down).

As you walk into the exhibition you are greeted by a large vase of mulberry cuttings, upon closer inspection you see that the stems are covered in small white silkworms feeding on the green leaves. As the show continues, the worms continue to devour the leaves leaving behind nothing but brown stems and the cocoons of the themselves entwined in silk.

I had never been to Asia Society until I went to see the Caravaggio exhibition a few months before, I had only seen pictures and it seemed like a magical secret place hidden amongst the trees high up in Admiralty with an illuminated walkway and peaceful Buddha sculptures. It didn't seem like a real place you could go to in Hong Kong, but alas love is a place and spring was in the air.

CLICK THROUGH to see more photos, sketches and what I wore from my luscious day at Xu Bing's 'It Begins with Metamorphosis' at Asia Society.

Where to find Cool Vintage Glasses in Hong Kong? Mei Yick Spectacles

Having nice glasses are my favourite thing, they tell people you are really artsy and smart and that you aren't like everyone else and they also help you see things. Also, contacts terrify me. I was about to blow my life saving's on these pair of Andy Wolf's but my goal before 2013 ends is to start a retirement fund so I had to reconsider my priorities.

So it was off to the Shum Shui Po and Mong Kong, Hong Kong's older districts to search for some affordable and unique frames, where I discovered Mei Yick Spectacles which specialize in deadstock frames.

 Photo: Think-silly.com

They have tons of interesting styles lining the tiny shop and the helpful owner brought down all the styles which might suit me. I ended up choosing a pair of clear cat eye frames with a bit of turquoise detailing which are also a bit bedazzled! I got Transition™ lenses put in, so I can always feel pretty and prepared whenever I go outside, but kind of douchey when I come to meet important people indoors and my glasses haven't Transition™ed back into normal from the sunlight.

The whole thing came out to under $1000 HKD, that's like $150 CAD for frames and lenses which is basically unheard of in Canada.

Mei Yick Spectacles
28 Tung Choi Street, Mongkok, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
It's on the "Ladies Market" street, behind the streetstalls.

Another place I love for eyeglass shopping in Hong Kong, not vintage and if you want to spend the big bucks and you already have a retirement fund is Pui Yi Optical.

Taking a Detour This 2012

Photos:
1. Wearing a vintage dress, a belt I got at a clothing swap, H&M ring and MAC lady danger lipstick.
2. A reaaally cool crocodile design by London/HK illustrator Kristopher Ho.
3. Taking a photo with celebrity guest Joe Ma at the Crocodile x Detour event.
4. Here I am with my nominated design 'A Celebration' on display!

I'm back with a new blogpost and this one concludes my Growing Up in Hong Kong project! Thursday before last, my parents and I headed over to the Oasis Gallery (that should really be in quotation marks because we all know that 'gallery' is really the hallway in front of the Central escalators) to attend the Crocodile x Ambassadors of Design x DETOUR opening ceremony. There were lots of celebs, models and designers in attendance, including Lisa S., Amanda S. and Joe Ma.

An aside: as a thank you gift for the nominated designs Crocodile gave us all gift certificates and I took my dad shopping for new shirts and then I felt really validated as an artist or whatever (I'm being silly and that sounds pretentious but I was just really happy and excited that some art/craft/thing I've made could be turned into something tangible I could give to a loved one, so thank you Crocodile!)

After the ceremony my parents and I had a delicious lunch at Green Waffle on Graham Street. And then I headed over to Wanchai to meet my friend Phoebe for the Detour opening night party happening at the former Police Station.

1st row: Checking out the Instax Love display by photographer Rraay Lai. / Inside the prison of the former Wanchai Police Station, although now a heritage building we heard there were still cops working upstairs.
2nd row: Relaxing on the grass balcony art installation looking out onto Gloucester Rd.
3rd row: A selfie from the Crocodile opening. / Beautiful illustrations of really good looking Hong Kongnese hipsters by the illustrator Little Thunder seen at DETOUR. She also painted the beautiful Virgin Suicide leather jacket I've been lusting after ever since I saw it at Rat's Cave.

Speaking of shoppables, I also recommend you check out Mutt Museum's little stall of vintage fabric cheongsams at the DETOUR Maker's Fair.

Polaroid taken at the Hawkerama stalls at the DETOUR exhibition opening.

To see some cool art and to visit my little crocodile make sure you go check out DETOUR on until Sunday December 16th, at the former Police Station in Wanchai and the Oasis Gallery in Central, the latter being where my crocodile will be displayed.

And, if you've missed any of my previous posts about creating my installation for the Crocodile x DETOUR event you can catch them in the A Celebration in Process blogposts.

Some Lace and Fabric Flowers

Alright, alright, so it's still a while until Mid-Autumn Festival, but I've already eaten a million mooncakes and I've been dying to try out this little circle layout so it might as well be now.

I have some exciting news! A few months ago I was invited to join Zao Zao (早找) which is a new Asian online pre-retailer, it's kind of like Kickstarter for fashion designers, there's a curated selection of designers and they each upload their own designs and customers can pre-order on the site. It's a cool new platform where fashion and tech meet and hopefully it'll also be a great way for emerging designers to connect with customers and for customers to discover and support new talent. I'm so excited now that I can finally say I have a stockist!

So last week my friend Helene and I went on a little photoshoot to take photos to put up on the site and here are some shots and outtakes from the day, stayed tune to see the final photos and to shop on Zao Zao!

The design I'll be uploading is the black Dolce lace top, created originally for the Redress Ecochic Design Competition which happened earlier this year. If you followed my old blog you'll probably have seen these before but I was inspired by the idea of 'Memory & Forgetting' and below are the inspiration board and sketches from the competition.

The opening party is this Wednesday and it's happening at Kapok in Wanchai, please stop by and if you see me come say hi! That same night is also the Social Media Week Blogger talk "What makes a Great Brand/Blogger Partnership" which I'll also be attending! I'm excited to go, they've got some really great speakers and I'm also excited to meet some other bloggers as well! Anyone else heading to the Social Media Week events this coming week?

Photos by the wonderful Helene Kwong! Thanks so much for helping me!
   

Wearing | Hawaiian Skirt and Cropped Tee

 I bought a whole bunch of these $10 skirts while I was thrifting with my friend Hester last week, so now I be wearing skirts errday. The weirder of our finds was this knit Hawaiian photo-print skirt and today I wore it with a Silence + Noise cropped tee and a whole bunch of accessories that I bought on a sugar-high spree after a Mad Hatter Tea Party. Then I was off to meet up with an old university friend. Though I must confess, I didn't actually wear those heels out, it was wet and gross so I wore my lesbian Birkenstocks.

Getting our dumplings on. | Denim on denim: Michelle finds the perfect umbrella for her ensemble.

 Desserts at 五代同糖. | Sara's Henna from the Mad Hatter Tea Party.

Michelle is here with her boyfriend Tim, and like modern day better dressed versions of Jake and Lady Brett Ashley, the couple are on a whirlwind tour around the world South East Asia. They are the coolest, after lunch at Din Tai Fung we went trolling at the I.T Outlet, where we tried on the largest and most ridiculous parkas we could find. We refueled with some dessert and then finished the afternoon with some thrifting. Perfect day.