My eighth grade science fair project was about REM sleep and dreaming. I don’t remember what I proved exactly, but as you can see, ever since I was a kid I have been fascinated by what the mind sees even in a restive state. For all of my life, my dreams have generally been quite animated, full of colors that don’t even exist except on a color wheel.
My recurring dream is one in which I save the world like a superhero (Dark Lark after all is my alter ego–more on this in days to come), jumping over walls and brandishing swords. In the most recent one from a couple of weeks ago I was defending a family wearing modern attire with the three musketeers backing me up. So you see, it’s not always about clothes and bags and shoes in my subconscious. But then again, the outfits the musketeers were wearing were quite brilliant, from their foldover boots to plumed hats. And I was in a purple cheongsam…er, I wonder what Freud, or for that matter Anna Wintour, would say about that.
I relate this because I have been fighting insomnia. Surely I’m not the only person sleepless in LA but it’s turning into all sorts of opportunity costs for me. Who knows what adventures I’m missing out when I’m not sleeping and dreaming. On the other hand, insomnia provides a sort of down time where I visually rearrange my closet and plan some outfits. It was during one of these last bouts of sleeplessness that I thought about how many different pairs of shoes I could wear with a classic black tweed top that I invested in from the 09A season. Who counts sheep when they can count Manolos!
Anyway, all this yapping is the back story to the series I hinted about yesterday. Since my goal is to stop buying, I’m going to have to get creative about how many different looks I can pull together from a single, chosen basic (as in classic) item.
I’ll call this my fashion science project. It can only be fun if you participate as both my jury and judge. I welcome your comments, suggestions, and questions. Today I submit to you my project, FIMTSO, for your review, and tomorrow we begin with our first test item.
FROM IMELDA MARCOS TO SUZE ORMAN (FIMTSO)
Purpose: How to help a shopaholic go on a shopping ban cold turkey.
Hypothesis: It is completely acceptable to wear an item more than once in a calendar year and not have to hand over one’s fashionista card. Just have to shake it up a little. Or a lot.
Materials: All items already in said shopaholic’s closet. No yanking off price tags and faking to sneak in “old” stuff allowed. No cheating of any kind allowed. I mean it.
Procedure: Lobotomy perhaps. No wait, choose one test item per blog entry and show as many different looks as possible.
Result: We’ll see if it hurts more to stay on or fall off the fashion wagon as it were. There’s always vodka if the result isn’t pretty.
Conclusion: Shopping ban sucks. So can I have a Birkin if I survive my experiment?
Tags: Anna Wintour, Dark Lark, Manolo
After five weeks of observing friends and strangers in Europe two things (resolutions) occurred to me when I got home and unpacked. One, I must stop shopping. It’s now more politically/economically correct to be a recessionista than fashionista, and there’s no reason why I have to shop like Imelda Marcos. Case in point, I should not have this many pairs of jeans unless my last name is Levi or my job is buyer for a denim museum that only displays jeans in my size. The old excuse of hoarding in case they stop making jeans in the perfect cut and rinse is, well, old. Low-rise jeans are not going away any time soon, and it appears I have enough inventory to last me till I’m 80. Chances are I will need another size by then anyway. And low-rise jeans on my 80-year-old body? Need I say more?
Two, I must learn to accessorize better, with my existing collection of accessories that is. That’s right, you’ll not hear any shopping technicality loophole here. More specifically, I need to wear scarves better. There’s nothing more alluring than the insouciant way in which European women seem to toss scarves about their necks and shoulders. In their hair. It’s that whole I-just-woke-up-looking-like-a-goddess-n’est-ce-pas?-nonchalance that they have perfected. It’s maddening, because when I put a scarf on, after ten minutes of fussing with it, it does look like I just woke up. But not in a good way. There’s no goddess here, mon ami.
My conclusion is that if I could succeed at accessorizing, I could magically double my wardrobe without having to buy anything new. So if I achieve the second resolution I can also achieve the first. In fact, I could reinvent my wardrobe by changing up basics with a belt here and a scarf there. And this trick is truly what I have learned from my friends from abroad (both Europe and Asia). Given the limited square footage in most of their homes, it isn’t feasible to own so much stuff. On top of that, it’s not in their mentality to acquire so excessively. I don’t think it has anything to do with socioeconomic status. Excess simply isn’t in their vernacular as it is here. Perhaps it’s cultural, too. God bless American capitalism but materialism is a naughty side effect.
Sure, there are exceptions as I do know people outside of the US who collect haute couture, and that’s a whole other planet all together. But just speaking broadly, I’d like to try my friends’ fashion philosophy in 2010. It’s a challenge to myself. Instead of the popular resolution to lose weight, I’m shedding my wicked shopping ways this year. I know, it’s already February and a bit late to set new year’s resolutions, but there are a couple of reason for that. The Vietnamese/lunar new year doesn’t start till a week from now. Plus I got some shoes in January that I don’t want to give up. OK, so sue me. The lawyer in me always finds loopholes.
This is going to be harder than I thought.
Tomorrow I’ll introduce a series that hopefully you recessionistas out there will play along with me.
The Vietnamese new year (Tết) falls on February 14 this year. And as a lead into the new year, I’ll be blogging about cooking and fashion, two fun topics that I hope to cover more this year.
Today I’m actually just talking about the two different sauces that are used for spring rolls (the ones that are not fried like your basic egg rolls). There’s always the tried and true nước chấm that’s fish sauce based:
Alternatively, there’s the nước tương, which is a hoisin sauce based dipping sauce that’s a bit sweeter, thicker, and richer to the taste:
And this is the recipe for it:
Nước tương
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon corn starch
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon crushed roasted peanuts (optional)
Blend all ingredients except for the crushed peanuts well over very low heat for a few minutes until the corn starch is fully dissolved. Add a touch of water if it is too thick. Remove from pan and let it cool.
Add red chili sauce (Sriracha or any other brand) to taste.
Sprinkle crushed roasted peanuts on top if desired. Serves 2-3 people or 6 large rolls.
In the above photos I am serving the sauce with (click on this link for the recipe) nem nướng as previously shown here:
And in this more recent video, I’m showing my trick of rolling the perfect spring roll. There’s nothing to it–just roll with it!
Tags: hoisin sauce, nước chấm, nước tương, spring roll
Coming home after 5 weeks abroad is a bit unsettling. I wouldn’t call it jet lag but rather brain lag, as in trouble remembering passwords. And how to drive. But give me 24 hours to sort through a box full of mail, lots of packages (!), and some of that famous LA sunshine and I’ll snap back to my life away from the road. But as it turns out, there’s been nothing but serious rain here–though the sun is peeking out today–and I’ve come home to one surly furkid on strike…
jury duty (which happens to be an attempted murder case and I’m both fortunately and unfortunately dismissed from the panel), and the stray who’s NOT on strike:
Does he look like he hasn’t grown all that much since I last blogged about him? I was going to take him to the animal shelter with the heavy rains and all, but then one day he showed up with 3 more cats in tow, all different breeds of various ages. I don’t think they were his posse or entourage since he was growling at them to defend his food. That same night an overfed raccoon made an appearance on my patio so now I can’t leave food outside for him anymore.
But where was I? So yes, back in LA, this weekend has been all about sports. We have two NBA teams here, the beloved Lakers and the stepchildren Clippers. It doesn’t really matter to me who’s playing for LA, though, because I’m all about the San Antonio Spurs. See number 20 on my back in today’s first pic? This is the real number 20:
And this is the court inside the Staples Center where the Clippers and the Lakers play:
But up there in the rafters, it’s all purple and gold, hence the stepchildren reference to the Clippers:
But I have to say, if the Clippers were another winning team it’d be much harder to score good seats at the very last minute to see my Spurs. And in these seats at the premier level–where you can opt to dine in the San Manuel Club (food is actually pretty good) or be served in-seat–
it’s the best way to get over that brain lag. The Lakers are hosting the Spurs tonight–will see if my Ginobilli jersey gets to go out again today.
On a last sports note, did anyone notice that the New Orleans Saints’ owner’s wife was wearing a CHANEL jacket from the 09P season? I know they were hoisting the Vince Lombardi trophy and all but I just wanted to see her jacket in high-def. Now that’s a Super Bowl moment for me!
Tags: Clippers, LA, Lakers, San Antonio Spurs, San Manuel Club, Staples Center, Super Bowl
What does a gal do with her last 3 hours on a sunny morning in Madrid?
Well, she grabs a quick bite to go with her espresso (in her Rodarte for Target tshirt and Banana Republic cashmere cardigan)…
at a hip, light-filled restaurant…
that looks out at the Puerta de Alcalá :
Then on a caffeine high she speedwalks to the Plaza de Cibeles (goddess of fertility), where the grand, white post office–that’s now the mayor’s office–can be found:
With two hours left, it’s a brisk stroll through the Parque del Buen Retiro which I’d mentioned to you on my first entry about Madrid. This park takes center stage, literally, in the heart of a bustling Madrid. You could easily spend an entire day in this large park. A lovely spot to visit is the Rosaleda del Retiro (rose garden):
And there are stretches of paths for running or strolling:
In another part of the park you can find an art gallery inside the Palacio de Cristal:
It is still rather cold this morning, and there is ice instead of water in most spouts:
The park is so enormous that it can accommodate an artificial pond, Estanque del Retiro…
that surrounds the Monument to Alfonso XII:
So that’s how this gal spent her last 3 hours in Madrid. I can’t wait to come back!
Tags: Banana Republic, Estanque del Retiro, Madrid, Monument to Alfonso XII, Palacio de Cristal, Parque del buen retiro, Rodarte for Target, Rosaleda del Retiro
