venice, november 2012

"... so if Kizuki had lived, I'm sure we would have been together, loving each other, and gradually growing unhappy.' 

'Unhappy? Why's that?'

'Because we would have had to pay the world back what we owed it. The pain of growing up. We didn't pay when we should have, so now the bills are due. Which is why Kizuki did what he did, and why I'm here. We were like kids who grew up naked on a deserted island. If we got hungry, we'd just pick a banana; if we got lonely, we'd go to sleep in each other's arms. But that kind of thing doesn't last for ever. We grew up fast and had to enter society. Which is why you were so important to us. You were the link connecting us with the outside. We were struggling through you to fit in with the outside world as best as we could. In the end, it didn't work."

*

"Every now and then, as I walked along I would stop, turn and heave a deep sigh for no particular reason. I felt as though I had arrived on a planet where the gravity was a little different. Yes, of course, I told myself, feeling sad: I was in the outside world now."

- Norwegian Wood, Haruki Murakami 

"Just once, I wanted to know what it was like to get my fill of it - to be fed so much love I couldn't take any more. Just once."

- Norwegian Wood, Haruki Murakami

an amalgam of tawny chartreuse, bordeaux red, faded kiwi green and a beguiling dark emerald tote with gold flecks on the lettering. colour and texture speaks most to me these days.

i'm outside my favourite store in Singapore - SUPERMAMA. everything about SUPERMAMA is so lovingly curated - from its subtle fresh grass scent, to the inconspicuous animal figurines leading the explorer up the stairs to a domain of light, plants and a quiet, joyful beauty, to white-painted doors repositioned as tables; everything within the store sits patiently in their individual corners, awaiting discovery.

i'm very glad SUPERMAMA came about, because prior to their arrival, Singapore was kinda lacking in such a space. there are some other stores i could think of that have similar philosophies, but none that specialises in the gamut of objects SUPERMAMA stocks - stationary made of aged brass, papery bags with the cutest mushroom prints, lamps of stitched golden leather and the most beautifully crafted homeware that makes me insane with the desire to have a space of my own some day just simply so that i can finally take some of these pieces home with me.

*

the floppy bucket hat is from A.P.C. a few seasons ago and i got it at a heavily slashed price. i could never afford it otherwise - or think it to be worth the original, bloated price. but ever since it arrived in the store, i'd eye it up every day and plonk it on, imagining the day i'd liberate it from the cold, insouciant stand it rested on.

it's the closest i could get to one of my favourite collections from Burberry Prorsum - the spring 2009 season.

Burberry Prorsum Spring/Summer 2009

everything is right up my alley. the fabrics that look so delicately diaphanous and crinkled - how utterly inviting for a lover to run his fingers along the garment's imperfect irregularities - which perhaps mirrors that of the individual clothed in it? perhaps only a lover could notice, for he has slowly been granted the desired proximity.

clothing is a form of armour to me. perhaps the reason why i adore hats so much is the slight sense of completion they grant to me. i like the idea of having my eyes partially obscured. for others, like Ms.Wintour, the device they turn to would be sunglasses - "At this point they've become...really, armor." 

it took me a very long time to come from having my shirts all fully buttoned up right up the uppermost button to relaxing and actually leaving one undone - occasionally. i didn't feel complete, nearly vulnerable when a sliver of flesh could peek through. most of the time, being buttoned all the way up is part of a look but it also says stiff, stifling, behind imprisoning glass doors. 

so.. i don't really know where i'm going with this, but what i'm quite clear on is that i'd like to move in the direction of thisisnaive's Tommy. her grasp on the small and beautiful things in life - be it food, architecture, fabrics, furniture, lighting - tells you that beauty doesn't have to be glaringly obvious in order for it to exist. i feel the same, only as time shifts, i find the same philosophy slowly growing on me with regards to my manner and take on dressing. this is something i think that has always eluded fashion - it resides in the nuances and idiosyncrasies of an individual's style. 

ZUKO: This city is a prison. I don't want to make a life here.

IROH: Life happens wherever you are, whether you make it or not.

— Tim Hedrick, Avatar: The Last Airbender

saw this on dear jieqiang's wall. he's a gem <3

"Once, long ago, when I was still young, when the memories were far more vivid than they are now, I often tried to write about her. But I couldn't produce a line. I knew that if that first line would come, the rest would pour itself onto the page, but I could never make it happen.

Everything was too sharp and clear, so that I could never tell where to start - the way a map that shows too much can sometimes be useless. Now, though, I realize that all I can place in the imperfect vessel of writing are imperfect memories and imperfect thoughts. The more the memories of Naoko inside me fade, the more deeply I am able to understand her.

I know, too, why she asked me not to forget her. Naoko herself knew, of course. She knew that my memories of her would fade.

Which is precisely why she begged me never to forget her, to remember that she had existed."

- Norwegian Wood, Haruki Murakami 

"... my memory has grown increasingly dim, and I have already forgotten any number of things. Writing from memory like this, I often feel a pang of dread. What if I've forgotten the most important thing? What if somewhere inside me there is a dark limbo where all the truly important memories are heaped and slowly turning into mud?"

- Norwegian Wood, Haruki Murakami