giancinephile's blog

When the Sunday bug hits me, I often end up not so motivated. I used to have this kind of weekend routine before- strolling around the mall in trashy clothes with a bottle of Coke light and water in tow. This is symptomatic when I have to run errands after I’ve had a night out the previous night and haven’t gotten enough sleep the previous night. It’s less commonplace these days but when it’s not lived, you kind of long for it. D’ailleurs, to make this image a bit more appealing, I’ve thought of adding a bit of doodles to make it less banal and bear less emphasis that this was another of those lazy Sundays. There would be no need to cue in my Sunday playlist: Romy Schneider’s La Chanson d’Hélène, Last Shadow Puppets’ My Mistakes Were Made for You, Jacques Brel’s Ne Me Quitte Pas, Marianne Faithfull’s As Tears Go By, a bit of Bryan Ferry and a ton of other songs characterising la tristesse.

I must admit I was a little inspired by Kaiser Karl for my anniversaire and this happens to be the 2nd outfit for that so-called day. I had two celebrations and so it was crucial to have two outfits or perhaps my lame excuse to do some sort of change costumes. Perhaps you could sway the situation being a self-serving motive. I celebrated twice because a single outfit wasn’t enough. Alors I’m rather very slow on posting the stuff that I wore as this one was waaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in Juin. It’s horribly late but as they say- it’s better late than never. I’ll try my best to keep up though but lately I don’t have much free time to dwell on my narcissism like before. D’ailleurs, this would be one of the several instances where I have extremely enjoyed the idea of confining myself to a black and white colour palette. Don’t you sometimes like a certain rigour or structure or limitations in these chaotic times? It also helps if you live in a country pretending to be a democracy but in reality it feels more like kakistocracy.

The dark side has taken over the better half of me. Or was there ever really a good side of me to begin with?

I suddenly had the German romantic Novalis in mind with this excerpt from Hymns to the Night:
Must the morning always come again?
Does the power of earthly things never end?
Unholy industry consumes
The heavenly mantle of night

To some extent, I am rather convinced that my point of view and my take in the consumption of culture, fashion and the arts resist a hegemonic power. In a time wherein everyone could like the same two things and listen to the same music whether he is from Manille and she is from Helsinki. The mechanisation of life has indeed come and the medium that I use is the internet. One could say how ironic would it be to use the internet and carry out a romantic tune. Somehow, I’m thinking that the way I consume the things around me need not always pursue that faceless consumer ideal. In an earthly terrain of capitalism, consumerism, and globalisation, one can always attempt to articulate otherwise. I think with such convictions inspires me to be more prolific in the blogosphere. I mean we can’t always be saying I like this and I like that and position ourselves where the fashion industry or a certain authority directs us and live in a world controlled by what Baudrillard calls as the Virtual Reality. We can always choose to live in our own world and time frame. And living in a country like mine makes me juggle a certain degree of exoticism and melancholy. Perhaps that’s one thing I can offer the world when I have my chance of articulating myself as a menswear designer or an artist or maybe even a filmmaker. For now, it’s clearly just this blog as a means of communicating the things playing around my mind.

On a daily basis, I get inspired by a lot of things even the kitschy ones. Take for example a certain love for a label like Dolce and Gabbana. With my fondness of Belgian designers, Dolce & Gabbana just doesn’t fit in the mix but I’ve grown to love the fact how in every show of theirs, there is just so much to choose from catering to the different fancies of a man who wants to look smart but clearly nothing of the radical sort. Dolce & Gabbana could sometimes deliver the utmost in sophistication while also giving us the dreaded sartorial nightmare of logo, logo, logo. Well, I was rather fond of their ode to their Sicilian roots that they did for automne-hiver 2009. It was one of their best. Here’s my hat which somehow resembles the flat caps of shown in that particular collection while working with the embodiment of an Italian Neo-Realist film. I have to admit this was quite an effort as this photo was taken at the height of summer in poor Manille. That scarf was particularly warm and to make things warmer doesn’t mean a good thing in the tropics but anything for the camera is the thought that I consoled myself with on this occasion.

The unknown blogger (who happens to be moi) managed to get his way to an invite-only fashion event but I’m not considering it as some kind of achievement. In terms of achievement, it would be a dream- come-true if I could publish a book INTERNATIONALLY on Contemporary Filipino Art and position myself as an art scholar but that’d be too ambitious for now as I am not so clear what direction I shall be embarking on with regards this one. Moving back to this event, it’s the Preview Ball which is an annual party hosted by the Philippines’ best selling fash mag, Preview, celebrating its pick of the 10 Best Dressed Women des Philippines. Other than that, it also comes out as an occasion for the highly varied mélange of fashion personalities here to gather under one roof for one night.

D’ailleurs, the theme was Barbie and the text on the invite was even in hot pink and an excerpt of what was written would be All Dolled Up in big bold letters. Being the anti-fashion sort (or at least that’s how I like to perceive myself), pink would be unlikely to emerge in my usual monochrome palette these past few weeks. I guess I’m trying on this sort of self-imposed discipline of sticking to black and white and a bit of gray which is basically requiring a bit of a skill called toning down or simply a regulating matter on my behalf. The issue is: volumes and silhouettes are easier to contain in a monochrome palette versus an explosion of colours but I always will make way for an explosion of colour and prints if it is for the love of Dries Van Noten. On this note, I was glad that I was in the company of friends who have identical fashion tastes with me and as much as I wouldn’t want to say it: strength in numbers (hell yeah!). We came out like a Cult fit for Halloween (well, almost) in a sea of tarts, frou frou, ruffles, and explosive colours. To put it into a simpler way of stating it: imagine someone in Rick Owens in a crowd of Versace- Gucci- Louis Vuitton- Diane Von Furstenberg- Vera Wang fanatics. At the end of it all, I enjoyed the night with sensible chit chat with my friends and getting drunk without imposing a limit to myself (as I’m not driving my way hoooome haha). Free booze is a good relief from being a wallflower that night. I hardly have connections here nor do I know individuals working in the fashion industry. At the end of the day, I’m this art student who pursues his online existence as a cinephile and a blogger on men’s fashion in his free time while also pursuing it his slacking in between school work time. Ha-ha

Here’s something I wore to the Eastpak launch that was way over a month ago or make that 2 months ago!!! I’m kind of having a hard time keeping things up to date on this account since school just came, I can’t keep on making a hobby out of wasting time like what a friend said. I’m rather very prone to that but for the mean time I guess I should just plan my posts ahead of time to avoid delaying posts any further. As for dressing up, I’m finding myself relying a lot on blacks or black and white. And that is the kind of palette you will be seeing more or less in the coming outfit posts. On the other hand, I can assure a little change of silhouette for some like wearing something that resembles a skirt but I shall be doing my best to post my outfits more frequently for the sake of this blog.