Raya Remixed

Raya is getting into its second week of celebration and this time around it's slightly tweaked for me and family. We opted to celebrate Eid Mubarak near our home and performed the prayers at Masjid Wilayah KL (a definite first for us). There were so many people including foreign workers. But the view inside was amazing! Had only managed to snap using my trusty, fell-for-the-nth-time iPhone 5.

That's the Spirit!

Sleepy fisherman town of Kuala Kurau, Perak

I just got back home yesterday from Perak and my travel was filled with photos of Syawal celebration. The obligatory food porn, familiar faces and typical typography abound in this post naturally. What ever it is, I came back with a full stomach and a pleasant memory. Until next Aidilfitri!  

Syawal in Melaka

Eid Mubarak is now in its full-blown open-house visiting, face-stuffing, and sometimes smile-faking mode as I'm writing this quick post. It's already third of Syawal and I just got back from my dad's hometown in the sleepy and clean town of Alor Gajah in Malacca. Raya this year is slightly different as my uncle decided to organise a small 'kenduri' to pay homage to the family members who passed on, combined with a mini open house, naturally.

Hi. I'm back! (And I just came back from Bangkok)

The sunny Thailand (photo taken at IMPACT Exhibition Centre)

Four months since I've penned down something in Dunia Fashyon. FOUR MONTHS! What was I thinking? The truth is, it takes much more than stringing sentences together to produce an appealing blog. And I feel that the energy required for maintaining DF has taken its toll on me.
Or maybe I'm just the biggest procrastinator in the world - whenever there's an urge to post something for the blog, that will be exactly the time where an evil voice speaks to me, pulling me away from my keyboard.

In a paltry attempt to revive Dunia Fashyon (and hopefully my online presence), I present to you my recent travel to Bangkok, Thailand. And for the time being, I'll keep it short and simple for anyone who are still following DF (thanks so much for the supportive comments from my previous post - never did I know that I have 'real' readers all this while).

Leftblock Junk Sale

I am definitely a hoarder when it comes to articles of clothing, which is evident by my endless and rather self-centered outfits posts. Those were the days when I love picking up little things here and there, and  while studying in Russia I actually lined up for the weekly sales at the over-stock shops just to get a taste of beauuutiful but cheaaaaap clothes. And of course there were traveling to Europe moments with the ulterior motive of shop and shop and shop. And haven't I told you that I used to be (or maybe still am?) an online-shopping junkie as well? This ultimately results in a heap of unused / only once used / several times used junks that I tend to accumulate as days go by...

Hence, in the spirit of clearing my wardrobe and giving a lease of new life to the clothes, I present...

*** As it seems that I will be the ONLY male fashion blogger selling his wares, and not being sure of what the shopper's demographic would be (will the event be attended mostly by ladies, or accompanied by their boyfriends?), I would try to cater to both boys and girls (well, I do have a lot of clothes of the opposite gender but still man-able no less, or that's what I think at least, ehemm). But I must warn you though that most of the stuff will be of the extra-small size for the guys and maybe medium/large for the girls. I can't promise you to sell off things at rock bottom price (well affordability is a rather an individual subject don't you think?) , but I will TRY to put prices as reasonable as possible.

And to make things more exciting I will include a mishmash of designer (both well-known and cult), vintage and high street stuff just for you sea of shoppers of different taste out there - it will comprise of t-shirts, shirts, jeans, shoes and accessories.

But shopping will not be complete without the food to munch on and the place to gossip at! The venue (Fat Spoon cafe) will serve you hungry shoppers out there authentic local/ fusion food.

Here's to my virgin attempt of selling my things in public, and Happy shopping!

P/S: Thanking Joyce Wong from Kinky Blue Fairy for the generous invite!

Lanvin loves H&M: action to be missed

As we all know today is the day Lanvin x H&M collaboration unveiling to the masses, with USA had the headstart on 21st November. I already had a couple of items in mind (I'm veering towards a few accessories as the old sizing woe does not allow me to even think about buying this collection's suits/ track bottoms / shirts). 

I'm lucky that my little sister is currently in Seoul, Korea, and as they DO have a brand spanking new H&M branch there recently launched on last February,it's time to play the big brother card and to ask her favor to get me the stuff I want.

In my more financial side of mind I did a quick calculation; the price is still relatively affordable for my middle-class salary budget. In my mental note I was fantasizing about the shiny bronze lace-ups, over-sized dotted bow tie (which is very Alber Elbaz, the creative director of Lanvin's womenswear division) and the square-framed sunglasses void of crass logos:

* The pricing stated is in British pound

 But this morning I got a call from my sister only to be informed that all the shoes and sunglasses are gone. The only accessories left are the bow-ties in brown and purple....

So which bow-tie did you think I pick, just to console myself?

Blowing candles in that leather patch!

  

The celebration of turning a quarter century last week was filled with after-hour dinners with friends and families (yes I had to go out to dinner on multiple separate occasions with different sets of social groups divided into BFFs / colleagues from the hospital / family to celebrate my birthday). It was multiple nights of fun filled chit chat and eating until my stomach became so bloated!

I'm so pleased to take the time to dress-up (in a rather casual way) during one of the night-outs.  Did I tell you that my brother and little sister are November babies as well? So that night was basically an occasion for family members only. But my family did not tell me we were going to a humble traditional Malay cuisine restaurant in Bangi. I felt so overdressed among the sea of t-shirts and track bottoms and rubber slippers!

I was wearing one of my most treasured  ZARA lady's blazer which is super snug on the armhole (well should I blame my almost non-existent biceps or is it just because all ladies have tiny arms?), luckily the humidity that night was not that severe otherwise my armpit would have just have waterfalls of sweat already! The blazer was teamed up with the  bad ass Cheap Monday SS2010 leather patch skinny jean - the only place in Kuala Lumpur that I know which sells current CM collections is MUSA (any other places that you might suggest having current season's CM?) At a glance it reminded me of past season's Balmain which is known of its punk aesthetics (and truth be told it's a let down that Balmain still recycles the stale idea this season). Oh and the weaved bracelet I actually got the day before at a small section at Parkson in Sunway Pyramid from a label called Park Avenue- it was like finding a needle in a haystack as I discovered that interestingly -designed jewellery among mundane accessories on display...

I'm wearing ZARA blazer, ZARA basic t-shirt, Cheap Monday SS10 leather patch jean, socks from Happy Socks, Jil Sander lace-ups

Cheap Monday SS 2010

*** surprisingly the jeans that I'm wearing in the pics are not included in the runway looks.. but I'm 99.9% sure that it was there in the catalogue... Must I hire a fashion P.I to investigate this matter?

Reaching the big TWENTY FIVE this year did not actually give me the feeling of being 'older yet wiser'. Instead I still feel like I'm fresh out of high-school - wanting to explore everything yet not ready to uphold responsibilities, even though it's basically compulsory at this time of my age. It's already one year since I started working and it is full of fond and not so fond memories (I swear the latter comprises the majority of all the shitty experiences I had had in my ENTIRE life). 

And I always thought working world will teach me how to be an adult and thus will make me intellectually / mentally befitting according to my current age. But I am utterly wrong! Many a time I saw people who actually behave like a 5th grader ( well, a little worse than a 5th grader at times). The easiest encounter I can recall is when one of the superiors who actually uttered the 'F' word just because he has some anger management issue and could not tolerate the so-called incompetency of one of the interns. That's a lame excuse to curse and act so unprofessional in front of staffs and colleagues who are actually adults. You can be smart / brilliant / talented or whatever in what you're doing but you will never earn my respect!

Please forgive me as I never wanted to turn this blog into a personal one but to me Dunia Fashyon is one of the medium through which I can emotionally express myself and I am never verbally eloquent at all...

P/s: And not to forget thank you so much to all who wished me on Facebook and Twitter!

Thinking too hard...

As I went through my dusty old hard drive I noticed there were so many pictures that I took in the spirit of publishing them on Dunia Fashyon. But somehow the idea of posting them online was not materialised because I contemplated so much. I always ponder at the back of my mind would this be appropriate for the blog or the outfits are ''fashion'' enough?

Back along the way it reminded me of why I started Dunia Fashyon in the first place - to have fun with clothes and experimenting different styles /looks. If you looked back at one of my previous entries I'd pretty much harped that style is an evolving entity and I for one am a believer of that notion. Thus I scratched the procrastinator's thoughts off my mind and started on an uploading spree on Photobucket...

Look One

Could you actually believe me when I say this collared tee was bought when I was 12 years old? I found it in my closet and I am quite fond of the Navajo- inspired print, which saw a rise in popularity at high street shops like ZARA and Topman currently evident by the abundance of the above-said print on sale...

I was wearing shirt by Snails Original, H&M pants, SEED sandals and eBay glasses

Look Two

Another experimentation with silhouettes/ proportions. The theme was revolved around the Gustav Klimt print tote ( this is an artsy farsty look of you ask me). Please excuse my chubby angry tired face - blame the chubbiness on the delish Russian breads and sour cream and the tiredness is because of, well, I'm not so sure because it was a Sunday I think :)

I was wearing Levi's denim jacket (superrr girl's small), Marimekko T-shirt, thrifted pants, VSV socks and vintage shoes with Gustav Klimt print tote from Innsbruck, Austria.

Look Three 

Remember when everybody was in the DIY acid wash jeans bandwagon? I was trying to catch up a bit and started blindly bleaching my ZARA jean, yielding an amateurish result my I say... Now the jean sadly lies in the bottom of my wardrobe waiting for another surge of trend-led inspirations in order to get it worn again HAHAHA!

I was wearing Benetton wool jumper (my favorite of all warm clothings I had), ZARA jeans, H&M socks and vintage shoes.

Look Four

Easy breezy summer wear is one of my favorite go-to outfits, and may I say neutral tones have a special place in my heart. Now the cords from Benetton in this image sadly became the victim of my rampant DIY bleach (in the spirit of trend, alas) - the result of which was disastrous!

I was wearing thrifted shirt, Benetton corduroy pants, random PLASTIC fedora hat, SEED sandals, thrifted tote.

HAVE A GOOD DAY DEAR READERS!

Paint it on a shirt!

I'm not a big fan of attending weddings, the childhood memory of my mother dragging me to almost each of my relatives' weddings is still freshly embedded in my mind. Nowadays I'm rather grateful for having a job (well despite not loving it whole-heartedly), because it serves as one of the effective excuses for NOT attending wedding receptions. I'll just say I'm to exhausted and have to lie down to relax a bit for tomorrow, in which I'll be excused with no questions raised.

However a few weeks ago I was not hesitating to attend the holy matrimony when my family and I attended a rather grand wedding of my cousin in one of the popular 5-star hotels in Sunway. I have to admit, I rather enjoyed the event after all these years of sweat and discomfort for attending receptions outside a house in a 37 degrees heat!

Being in a fully air-conditioned ballroom allowed me to dress up a bit - after all, thinking about the grandeur of the reception definitely pushed me to wear something other than a mediocre collared T-shirt with dark jeans and sandals combo (the favorite go-to outfit if weddings are outside, in the sweltering afternoon heat)

So I picked up this paint effect shirt from Hugo Boss which I bought at a bargain in their MASSIVE outlet in Stuttgart, Germany. I always have this gushy feeling about wearing this piece of 'art' on my body, and I definitely felt that that night, and my aunt who hosted the wedding was quite taken aback when she saw me in that night's outfit ( I always 'tone' my outfit down whenever I'm around my relatives, especially when we're all together at our hometown).

 

I am wearing Hugo Boss shirt, Topman pants, eBay clutch and belt, Jil Sander shoes. Collar bib bought from Beyond Retro in Stockholm

Have a nice Monday!

Hometown glory

And I thought I could not survive the Obstetrics and Gynecology rotation! The final few days were rather a toughie when one of the specialists was contemplating to extend my training period at that department,  saying that I was inadequate (huwattt?), but gratefully I passed. (well I'd say she was the ONLY one who was unsatisfied with my performance during the four-month duration I was there. Ironically everybody else thought the other way round though).

Being in that department was definitely an experience! No other departments has this much drama/chaotic moments compared to OBGYN. Still remember my hair stunt that rattled everyone's feathers? Thankfully I still have another image to keep the memorable experience alive.

And this photo was taken a day before my specialist found out that I had such 'stupid' haircut and subsequently ordered me to 'repair' it immediately....

I am wearing New Yorker hombre-effect cardigan, Giordano striped tee, H&M acid wash jeans, Jil Sander shoes and Topshop pleated leather clutch

 P.S: The purpose of choosing Adele's Hometown Glory as a title for this post is partly because I feel at home in the slouchy cardigan and of course the 'glory' part is the fauxhawk...

First impression and its deceit

First impression is almost always a deception. More often than not one would judge a book by its cover and would be surprised to read the beautiful/ugly story beneath the cover. Have you ever came across or saw a person with a mohawk hair style and what would you be thinking?

A) this guy must be up to no good

B) he must have a 'trashy' lifestyle

C) he is not trustworthy

D) he is plain weird and has no future

But what about option E - it's just a hairstyle and perhaps it was a medium of self-expression, and maybe, maybe it does not directly reflect the true person that he is inside?

Such is the dilemma that I faced this week when I was asked by one of the specialists to immediately cut my so-called mohawk (more like a fauxhawk if you ask me) hair short just one day after I decided to have that bit of a 'daring' haircut. I admit being under the limelight this whole week is quite fun and it fed my narcissistic pet for being noticed but honestly it was not exactly THE limelight that I wanted to be under.

Mourning the loss of Paul Smith

It's rather distasteful to put such a dreary post for a comeback entry (I apologize but OBGYN department is draining me physically and mentally I don't even have enough time for Facebook let alone blogging)...

But I could not help it but to mourn the loss of my Paul Smith leather loafers.

There are two possibilities of how they could get lost:

A) Somebody snatched them while I was busy entertaining guests at home during my brother's wedding. Did I mention 2 cell phones and a brand new digital camera were lost during that event? Must be careful next time if my family ever organised another big event...

B) Somebody snatched them when I forgot to keep the shoes inside the house. Yes, my neighbourhood is that typical dodgy place in Malaysia where people can enter the one's porch/ parking space to grab shoes and sell them to 'bundle' shops. The footwear that are highly susceptible to be stolen are men's leather loafers, but we had some funny incidences in the past back in the height of roller blading craze where even our roller blades and roller skates were gone!

I purchased them at a bargain at the London Heathrow Airport. I used these loafers almost on a daily basis at work. They were so comfortable I could walk in those shoes all day long from eight to five...

I still remember the images of the beautiful dragon-flies and dandelion etchings on the soles.

 And the snakeskin-like texture of the leather,  which was only beginning to mould according to the shape of my feet.

 May you rest in peace on somebody else's feet.

Al- fatihah....

It's that time again...

... for a new rotation. This time it is my turn to intern at the Obstetrics and Gynecology (O&G) department. It is so nerve-wrecking and exhilarating at the same time. I've heard so many dreadful stories about how the stressful working in the department is (for example the specialists and medical officers are so paranoid with the medico-legal issues so prevalent amongst pregnant/ post natal ladies). I believe that O&G poses different challenges and obstacles compared to medical department.

I will be entering a gruelling 2-week period acquiring obstetrics skills such as conducting deliveries, doing episiotomy and its repair. So I'll be working my a$$ off from 7am to 11pm for fourteen days.

Whatever it is I hope my stint there as as smooth as my previous internships (although I particularly dread how easy an intern could get extended there just because some seemingly minor mistakes).

Wish me a goooood luck as I probably need it most!

Goodbye orthopedics, hello medical department!

Yesterday I officially completed my orthopedics posting. Am really glad to finish but totally sad leaving this seemingly not hectic department. More importantly I'll be having one of the toughest moments in internship in medical department - where patients actually are in need of speedy intervention... people actually die on a daily basis here!

So unnerving, I know. I'm not sure how I will cope with the stress but let's pray hard I'll be able to sail through it smoothly.

Until next week (because I'd probably be to beat up to post anything as I'll be in the gruelling 'tagging' period this week).

Stylistically I'm very happy to pull out this baggy pair of Levi's from my closet. I still remember why I bought it in the first place almost 8 years ago - because of the back pocket outline which is transferred at the front pockets. And wearing baggy jeans is soo much more comfortable than those figure-hugging skinny pants may I add!

January borns and pastel

I should have up loaded these images last week but due to the ever-shitty internet connection that is haunting I could not do so.

Anyway last week was Helmi's birthday and we went to celebrate by dining out. We ate at this small Indonesian joint called Waroeng Penyet. Their menu revolves around 'flattened' (literally flat I tells ya) fried chicken and meatballs. It was good to just go crazy with greasy food once in a while. And as usual we exchanged work-related stories - whose specialist is the hottest/strictest/weirdest and which posting is the toughest, and more importantly we managed to at least alleviate each others' stress lingering on our shoulders for the past few weeks by sharing stories and funny experiences being new doctors.

I overdressed, as always. Had a Lanvin spring 09 vibe with the hat and guess what, I tried to wear the weird customised H&M pastel blazer again. Yes, the blazer initially had longs sleeves but I thought it will be better off with shorter sleeves. The result was a reminiscent of a ladies' office wear. (and the feminine silhouette does not help much either haha)

So I guess this is my another feeble attempt to wear pastels. It's certainly an art to master and if you looked around there are some people who can wears pastels amazingly like Susie Bubble or Francesco in Garance Dore's website (the short -sleeved blazer idea was inspired from his wonderful dusty marble one!)

The latest addition to my shoe collection is this pair of Jil Sander two-tone lace-ups, heavily discounted at Oki-ni and they were the last pair mind you! I was eyeing these shoes from the moment they were up on that site, thankfully they're mine now HAHA. The shoes are lovely, but it somehow irritates me to see the tar/rubber marks on the pure pastel grey of the right shoe.Oh well!

I think I've found my latest outlest for my online shopping addiction...Oki-ni's selections are fantastic despite being quite on the exorbitant side for me but I'll be waiting for the sales of course. And the shipping cost is pretty reasonable so the more the reason I should visit this site often...

I'm wearing customised straw hat, customised H&M ladies' blazer, deep V-neck tee by H&M, Forever 21 flower brooch Sisley pants, Topman canvas briefcase and Jil Sander lace-ups

 P/S: Another January born will celebrate his birthday tomorrow. Bonne anniversaire in advance!