Adventure in tailoring: Uniqlo and Burberry Prosum blazers

You probably have known that I always lament the fact that living in a tropical country limits the possibility for layering clothes (unless one continuously stay in air-conditioned buildings), and to make things worse my profession is a unapologetically cruel one when it comes to dressing up. Wait, there's no such thing as dressing up being in healthcare. I'm forever in my white coat and sometimes I do wear some fashion-y things as a little pick-me-up and I'd Instagram the images (finally, I have Instagram as I bought an Iphone recently!).

Adventure in tailoring: the Barong Tagalog

Some moment ago my mother discovered an old fabric whilst organising her wardrobe. She immediately thought of me and consequently handed over the precious vintage gem. Mother claims that it was a fabric from the Philippines, acquired by one of her sisters during travelling back in the 80's. Much to my amazement I was instantaneously reminded of the barong Tagalog as soon as I studied the delicate fabric! If you could recall I had posted about the Philippines national costume a few years back and my intention to get hold of it, with an almost identical substitute following the entry.

Made With Love: 10A Suspender Trouser Company

My favorite pastime, if you haven't figured out already, is to trawl through online boutiques for the latest discounts. In that way I can even consider to buy the cheapest things there. For example, a pair of Ayame socks and a Balenciaga t-shirt from LN-CC exactly last year. Oh how time flies! (On an unrelated note, seriously disappointed with Nicolas Ghesquière's unprecedented leave from the Spanish design powerhouse, and even more shocked with the news of Alexander Wang taking over...)

Stalking LN-CC sales section sometimes yields unexpected things, like this colour-blocked shirt from Italian label 10A Suspender Trousers Company. The shirt is beautifully made with surprising details - the contrast placket at chest, the pleated collar with different lining.

Adventure in tailoring: paisley print fabrics

I've been involving myself with an experimentation on various kinds of prints lately, thanks to the Ben Thanh market fabric haul a couple of months ago.

Soft cotton black-and-white pattern shirt worn with Mexx cardigan, Zara velvet pants, H&M faux suede creepers, eBay sunglasses, Mom's doctor bag  

Adventure in tailoring - Burberry Prorsum jacket

 Personally I do not put outerwear first in my wardrobe list. However, it seems that lately I find myself searching for a good jacket - sometimes a man needs an outer shell to provide his body a structure. And more increasingly so I find myself in a position which requires me to wear such apparel from time to time again.

I am quite lucky to have found a reasonably good jacket from Burberry Prorsum from AW 2009/2010, a purchase acquired at the Johor Premium outlet (read the post about JPO here). The charcoal wool jacket is love at a first sight, and teamed with an affordable price, it was almost an impulse purchase. But I sat down for a while and figured that it was time step up to another level in my style searching endeavor - a tailored piece is deemed worthwhile.

   

The runway image (courtesy of vogue.co.uk)

The original jacket boasted fairly narrow lapels, working button sleeves, and lovely vents. But alas, my petit size could only mean that a bit of customising was in order. As a result of tailoring, the sleeves are chopped off (well, not literally, but you know what I mean) and sadly the buttons on the cuffs are now sitting there deceivingly for display only.

Adventure in tailoring

My personal pioneer adventure in tailoring begins with the construction of a sadly looking oriental costume (or so I deem, as I'm lacking an appropriate name for this suit), which was a fruit of labor of a single simplistic trip to a nearby tailor.

It all began with an invitation from an ex-classmate who was getting married in a five-star hotel, and from the looks of it, the reception would going to be a rather glamourous event - stated in the invitation was the dress code revolving around something I recall as "Red Carpet Glam" and "Oriental Chic".