During the weekdays, my life in Korea is pretty routine. I’m at the office, clerking away Monday-Friday, from 9-6. These are the days of pencil skirts, silk blouses, blazers, and heels. Days of hour-long subway commutes from the apartment to the firm. On the whole, they are days of redundancy. So as you can imagine, I try to keep my weekends as random and free-spirited as possible. This post is a glimpse of last Saturday night, which was pretty much the opposite of how I described my week. I guess you could say that my weekends are in their own shade altogether.
Chunky crystal ring
Something Blue and Bright Balloons
I’m falling a bit behind again with my daily posts so today’s look-of-the-day is going to be another throw back to this summer. I celebrated my 26th birthday in Moscow last August and I chose this dress by Oktober for my special day. The detail of the pleated silk, the elaborate bodice, and the built in metal brooch make it one of my favorite couture dresses to wear. Considering how interesting and unique their designs are, I’m surprised that the Oktober as a brand is not more known and written about. Googling for Oktober doesn’t take you much farther than their own website, which is pretty uninformative and doesn’t do their clothes much justice. The name of their designer is Uros Belantic and from what I’ve seen he must be quite talented.
Carmen in Black
I just came back from seeing Carmen – an opera at the Canadian Opera Company (COC). I have seen Carmen about 5 times in the past: a few times in St. Petersburg, a few times in Moldova, and once before in Toronto. Because of my previous experience and considering that Carmen is one of the most popular and recognizable operas of all time I sort of assumed that the COC was going to make it “the show” of this season…boy was I wrong! It not only failed to live up to my expectations but the first three acts were just painful to watch. Aside from the mediocre singing, the lead and the costume designer managed to completely shatter my perception of Carmen as a character. I always thought of her as this exotic, gypsy seductress who exudes both confidence and charm; whose beauty and strength makes her irresistible. But their Carmen was non of those things. For the first half of the performance she looked more like a bum than a coquettish temptress that she was intended to be. I’m not sure if it’s a budget issue but the COC needs to reconsider their costume approaches. Their modern takes on the period pieces is getting stale. Don’t we go to the opera partially because we want to be taken into the wonders of some other world? Quit trying to rejuvenate this art form by modernizing the costumes. Or is it realism that the COC is striving for? I hope not because the constant singing kinds of breaks the illusion anyway. Seeing Escamillo (a toreador) in a blazer and Gap pants is not going to magically make the story more relevant to today’s society. Let us have the enjoyment of the escape and please stop butchering the classics.
Black Velvet
I wore my little knitted dress to a party last night with black opaque tights – an item in a girl’s closet that is as simple as it is essential. The great thing about opaque tights in general is that, even when you wear them with a mini-dress or skirt, the tights complete the outfit in a way that visually neutralizes the impression produced by the “oh-so-short” mini. By covering the flesh of the legs, they produce the aesthetic effect of reducing vulnerability created by their exposure. The skin-tight fit complements the shape of the legs without giving everything away. However, when buying tights, it is very important that they fit you properly because the feeling of them constantly sliding down is not just annoying but incredibly unsexy. It makes you feel like a seven-year-old girl with a puffy jacket hanging over on one side, backpack on the other, and chocolate ice-cream on your face.
