The Mexican Sun

Today is working day, and I rrreeeally-rrreally want to wear this fun, bold, colorful dress.
So wear it for the day...

Just throw a wrap skirt and black jacket over it, belt it with a piece of green fabric tied together with some hooks at the back...

... off to work this gal go!

When there's a will, there's a way.

Dress: from a thrift store at Florida (if I'm not mistaken). Black jacket n skirt: tailored. Shoes: Voire (Malaysia). Turquoise earrings: art market at Sydney. Turquoise bracelet: Shanghai.

Good thing I did! In the evening, some friends had some impromptu dinner at The Arcadia, and I had to do was discard the jacket, the skirt, the stockings, and the green belt. Ready for a night on the town! Away with not-supposed-to. Have fun and live a little. ^__^

Girlfriends N All That Glitters

"Girlfriends are the spices and sweets of a woman's life.
Never take them for granted. Never abandon them for any man."

LeeAnne, Style N Season

Yep, I do believe that. Most of my girlfriends don't believe me when I said that whenever I have a boyfriend in my life, it doesn't mean I can no longer hangout with them from time to time, even on a Saturday night. But I do really mean it! Having a boyfriend, a fiance, a husband and children doesn't mean that a girl must abandon other people in her life! And yes, no matter how difficult it is or busy you are, you can arrange your time for your spouse, work, family and girlfriends, if you really think it's important enough to be in your priority list. You can have the cake and eat it, too! In moderation, of course.

Anyway, today I'm having lunch with two of my friends, Inne and Inti, before heading to Church for evening mass. We used to hangout a lot when all of us were in Jakarta. Then Inti moved back to Toronto for a while, and Inne moved back to Surabaya (well, at least she didn't move back to London, that's sooo far away!), so I'm pretty excited to see them again today.

Today I'm building the whole outfit based on the purple espadrilles (from a small boutique at Plaza Semanggi) and purple sequin bag (Hana, 50% off at Sogo Emporium Pluit). Jeans skirt: made=over from old jeans. Chiffon top: unbranded (from a small shop in Guangzhou, China). Bead necklaces: Lotus Department Store. Angel wings necklace: Naughty, Emporium Pluit. Bracelets & earrings: my old collection.



This is the first time I wear anything sequin. I thought sequin looks too flashy and cheap. (I like cheap finds, but I don't like them to look like they're cheap though they really are!) But I make exception for this bag since the deep purple color makes the sequin just in the right amount of 'sparks'. A bit flashy but not over the top. Also, I usually avoid wearing wedges because in the past they were bulky and heavy. This pair is made of very light material, so I don't mind wearing them for hours. So comfortable!

See the lavender and green ribbons? They didn't come with the wedges. I just grabbed some ribbons from scented sachet packages and tied them up on a whimsical mood. If I get bored with the look I'll just untie them.

This is a funny cartoon snap taken at EX. Read the wording, so true, ain't it!

Left to right: Inti, me, Inne. When I asked permission to publish this picture, Inne just shrugged and said: "As long as I look good in it!" You do, girl. You do. :)

The odd thing is, the last time we had lunch together was December 2010. And we had lunch at the exact same place (Pancious, EX), sat at the exact same spot at the restaurant, and posed in the exact same position! Luckily we didn't wear the exact same clothes! Pancious should have given us free lunch for being such loyal customers!

Linking up to:

Love Letter: Finally, Follow With Bloglovin!

Aaaaah... finally! Finally I push myself to sign up to Bloglovin and put the button on my blog. Should have done it right from the start, but I was so lazy, I postponed and postponed and postponed.

As mentioned here, I'm basically technology challenged. I don't really care how things work on the internet, and I have no time (a.k.a too lazy) to learn how to blog properly. I've seen "Follow me with Bloglovin" buttons in so many other blogs, but I didn't know what it was and too lazy (again) to find out what it is. Until today.

Now I can follow all my favorite blogs in one page using my Bloglovin account. New posts from favorite bloggers will be shown on that page, marked as 'read' when I already opened it. No more checking gazzilion blogs one by one to see if Blog A or B or C has some new updates or not, because the page will only show a particular blog when it has unread new post. How convenient is that!

To cut the story short, now you, my dear Readers, can follow Style N Season in a much easier (and oh-so-stylish) way via Bloglovin!

So glad I did it... ^_^

"No accomplishment is too small to make an ordinary day extraordinary."

LeeAnne, Style N Season

All Girls Mix N Match

No outfit post today, dear Readers! At least, not MY outfit. Of course, my Mom will never get bored to see my picture day after day after day. Well, at least I think so... But before you get bored to see my face, I'll post some other Living Catwalk Ladies here for all the world to see!

These are four amazing ladies who work in the same office like I do, and lucky for me, on this particular day I can capture all of them with my camera!

First, meet Dina. And yes, if she looks familiar, perhaps because you have seen her before in this post. Love her grey sheath-like dress!

Check out the details here. Actually it's not just grey, it has some checked patterns going on the fabric. Ow, and that's not a necklace, that's a blackberry holder. And don't you just love those nude color sandals? Well, I do!

Now meet lovely Helen with her bright, cheerful, colorful ensemble. Have you ever felt that your office and work life so drab sometime? Wear something bold, like this shocking pink that Helen wears. It might lift up your spirit, as well as for others who see you.

And here comes Anissa, who, with Dina, also appeared in this previous post, and she loves it so much she gets more dressep up to work now so I can snap her pic and post it here, she was like: "When am I going to be featured again?" ^__^

I don't know what kind of agreement she has with Dina, it seems that both girls often wear similar outfits to the office. Well, I did say that they are twins. From different parents. :)

She even bought a new pair of silver slingbacks to wear with this dress. Ck ck ck Anissa...

Aaaand, last but not least, meet sweet Nana, who lets me take her picture, but refuse to have her face shown. >_< Too bad, since Nana is a very cute gal, in a Korean doll-like way. Hey, can anyone tell that she is four months pregnant? Can't tell from the dress she's wearing, and she's so petite everybody's attention is on the huge colorful butterfly at the front!

Seafoam Green, Ocean Blue N Matahari Mal Artha Gading Grand Opening

I was going to title this post "Seafoam Green, Ocean Blue N Sunshine" at first, because Matahari is an Indonesian word for "The Sun". But anyway, Matahari is a famous Indonesian department store. I used to shop there a lot when I was in high school because they have one near school and the prices are quite affordable. Like Kohls or Target in the US, I guess. This thrifty gal loves bargain shopping so I'm so excited that now they're opened in Artha Gading Mal, close to where I work and live! Talk about convenience!
On the day of grand opening, which was June 24, I went there straight after work for a 4-hour shopping excursion, with satisfactory results, I might add, and this seafoam green top (or you can call it pistachio ice cream green) is one of them.

Blue wedges: Voir (Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur). Pistachio green bag: Les Catino (50% off at Sogo Emporium Pluit). Scarf: thrifted from Miami. Peacock blue pants: Elle (from high school years, cropped and rolled up). Seafoam green top: Details (20% at Matahari MAG). Blue bead necklace: DIY. Bracelet: Naughty MKG. Turquoise earrings: (art market at Sydney, Australia).

Here are some closer snaps of the little details.

Les Catino has been one of my favorite bag brands for like, years now. They're colorful, fun, affordable, and when I get bored of one or cannot carry it anymore from wear and tear, I don't feel guilty to either toss it away, make it over into a DIY project (like in this post), or give it to someone else because I know it didn't cost an arm and leg! Cannot do that to my branded stuffs! Once I carried a leather Aigner bag my Mom got me in Paris to an outdoor project site, and when it rained, I chose to cover the bag instead of my own head. Silly me. Luckily I didn't end up with a cold!
With Les Catino, I feel free to carry it, have fun with it, abuse it (kidding) and do whatever I like with it. If the bags gets dirty or soiled, so what? It creates the perfect excuse to get a new one, haha!

These Elle pants were cropped on purpose because I thought they're too... well, blue. But I only roll them up for this look only. They are a bit flared at the bottom, which make my legs look like tree trunks with this top.

I bought six pairs of shoes from Matahari. Duh! I try to assuage my guilt that I only do my major shopping trips twice a year anyway, and the last time I bought shoes before Jakarta Great Sale 2011 was July 2010, AND they are 50% off, but still, I'm scared to think what my next month's credit card billing statement would look like!

Here are some snaps from the Matahari shopping excursion.

Being a fashion merchandiser must be fun! Look at the creative ways they arrange and dress these manequin dolls! Absolutely love it!

Colorful shorts are all the rage now for the summer.

And of course, the summer staple: navy striped style!

Big sale for the 3-day grand opening only. Lucky me!

Linking up to

How To Go About 'Em

Missions for today:

• Wearing the traditional Indonesian batik print for work.

Batik is all the rage in my country, eversince UNESCO officially recognized it as belong to Indonesian culture. In the past, batik is considered old and formal. Something your auntie would wear to a formal government official wedding. Pasca UNESCO's recognition, Indonesians young and old embrace batik into our daily wardrobe, as blouse, skirt, scarf, handbag, hat, tie, etc. There are many kinds of batik, but since I have Chinese heritage, I wear mostly Pekalongan, Lasem or Pesisiran batik (see the pics here), which is a blend of local Javanese and Chinese motives. Plus, they come in a variety of bright and cheerful colors like you can see in this post.

• Finding ways to incorporate this black-eyed necklace I received as a gift. (See the close-up picture below)

I'm not into black accessories, more gravitating towards pastels (like pink, baby-blue and lavender), and bright cheerful colors (like aqua blue, shocking pink or seafoam green). When I accesorize, I like pieces that either cute n sweet, or bold n 'make a statement'. Including in color. Black doesn't do the cut because I consider it as a staple, primary color. However, sometimes I do want to add something edgy, and this bracelet is just perfect.

I'm wearing a hand-painted Banjarnegara cream and blue batik as a skirt here, with tiny lace trim detail on the border.

And this is the necklace I'm talking about. My boss' secretary gave it to me as a birthday present, which is very sweet of her. Thank you, Oina! I love!

And as usual I'm wearing my trusty grey stockings with open-toe sandals! Yes, I always do that, deliberately. I might give some fashion experts some heart attack, but in the world of Style N Season, some rules are meant to be obeyed, and some others, to be broken. :)

Overall, today's mission's accomplished! Don't you think?

What do you think of wearing something heritage and traditional for work?