Shanghai Jasmine in Plum!

I could not resist to take a snap of Christina who looks so glorious in our Shanghai Jasmine lace dress in plum colour. She is really a sweetie pie and looks so "yummylicious" in all our creations. She has a loving bf too who bought this dress for her. :)



$389. Comes in other laces too like black over nude, romantic pink, purple and divine red and black. Check them out at our fashion suite and brand corner at Parco, Millenia Walk P2-30D

Laughing Buddha Tote!

Our customer Andre who is a French artist. She loves the Laughing Buddha Tote bag so much that she came back a week later to get another tote in Flying Fairies as a gift for her sis-in law. Our tote bags are fully lined with black durable duchess satin fabric and comes with an internal pocket. She is carrying a laptop inside. Usual $65. Now $59 only.

We are only left with 1 more Buddha tote and Ancient Dragon tote.

Aug Happenings! -Visit our brand corner @ Parco!

SCAMMER! Beware

Today i received phonecalls from my bf's friends who called me to ask if my bf was in London and got mugged. Turn out his facebook, hotmail and gmail was hacked by malicious scammer and this villian has been sending out mass email to his friends to say G was mugged and needed money! We share some documents online. So I am not sure how malicious the spread will be. Oh my gosh.. so beware everyone.

And DONT EVEN reply if Gmail asked you to verify your password suddenly that's how he hit the jackpot.

Jakarta

I went to Jakarta with my master tailor Dajie to look for craftsmen. Jakarta is the land where you can find the super rich and super poor. The difference is vast. The roads are always jammed with cars so traffic jam cultivates people patience. You can see their "three wheel" vehicle riding along luxurious cars and one whole family of 3 riding precariously on a small motor bike. And along the roads WHILE you are stuck in the serious traffic, you can see people trying to make a living by selling you things outside your windscreens from magazines to inflatable toys!

I like the food but a pity almost everything is in Malay and so I do not know what to order except based on 6th sense or food sense. It seems rice is really a staple because even KFC serves rice with their fried chicky. Interesting! Our hosts were friendly and showed us craftsmen who have started beading and embroidering since they were young. In fact, they have schools for that and their whole nation embodies craftsmanship. They can spend 1 whole month just beading for a gown.
Their glitzy and towering shopping malls are filled with world class brands that did not even open in Singapore and make ION Orchard look small in comparison. So you can imagine how important the Indonesia market is to these superbrands. And the best part I like is going to HARVEY NICHOLS which is a famous retailer from UK and stocks the best designer brands. Eye opener for my master tailor -and I bought an Armani pants at her persuasion. I be back again.

Concentrating on sewing the laces and beads. The beader is only 22 yrs old and he can be sewing this for 1 month.

The streets are filled with 3 wheeled vehicles that drives notoriously



Man pushing cart and selling food along the road

artist sculpture inside mall.

food street inside shopping mall-Grand Indonesia



KFC chicky is served with rice wrapped in paper.

KFC rice!Actually is not bad



This is yummy although we didnt know what we ordered till it arrives.


One of my favourite drinks- Bottled teh only in Jakarta.

Happy Birthday!

G's birthday was on National Day! Actually holidays are my peak sales period, but for this special day, I make sure I take a day off to accompany him. And I decided to cook him a decent dinner. Lotus roots pork ribs soup, steam chicken in sesame oil and his favourite fried dou miao.

At around 6pm, we went to Giant supermarket to buy the ingredients. Despite him saying we can eat outside, I persevered to say I wanted to cook. I took the lotus root from my home fridge and we had a "fight" over how many chickens and ribs to buy in the super market.

Actually I cook a lot when I was studying in Milan and I always cook Chinese food. But ever since I tasted his wonderful cooking, I decided to retire by "culinary skills" so has been long time since I peeled the garlic, chopped the roots and fry the dishes. And when we reached him house, to my horror, there is no oyster sauce and the steam chicken became marinated with tom yum sauce in the end. But all's well end's well and we did have a decent meal after all (with abit of his intervention)

first step chopping and peeling garlic till my fingers smell.

we cant find the oyster sauce in the house. In the end, G suggested marinating the chicken with tom yum paste instead.

just finished washing the fresh dou miao!!

Actually G is frying this dou miao as I m scared of spattering oil.

Improved version with pacific clams. This is quite yummy even tho I dislike veges.

Boiling the lotus root soup with pork ribs for more than 45 mins.

our humble spread full of love plus 2 takeaway dish.. Hee

Happy Birthday!!

Upsetting

Yesterday was an upsetting day. I always serve my customers with all my heart. Many times out of goodwill, I even go out of the way to ensure they are happy. But yesterday one customer yesterday actually smsed me very nasty remarks which is so hurting. I realised no matter how hard you try, you will not be able to please everyone.

Many months back, she approached me to do a dress for her. She showed me a design and told me she wanted me to do something like that. I advised her against it as I dont think it will look nice. But at her insistence, I agreed much to the disappointment of my tailor. Big mistake. And when the dress was ready, I think the dress did look nice and was done to what she wanted. Her partner came with her and they were not satisfied as it did not "look like the original" and they wanted to change the design. Actually for custom make, once you agree on the design, it is impossible to change once done. No designer will accept that. But I saw her disappointed face and told my tailor to change if they really wanted to. And my tailor sat down with them again and explain to them patiently what can be done and told them to come within 2 weeks if they really wanted to change. Big mistake. They did not come back.

But few months later, yesterday, she called and said she want to come down and do a fitting to change her dress. Have you ever step into a boutique to buy a dress and come back few months later and said you want to change it? I told her is not possible as it is way past the deadline. And she started smsing nasty remarks at me and then her partner called me as well to scold me. Finally i thought out of goodwill, I will change for her. I asked her partner what she wanted to change. And he replied she is not sure but for her ROM dress the maker altered few times for them. Well in the first place, if a dress needs various alterations means it was not done well in the first place. If she wears my design and it looked nice and fitted her, I am not sure why we need to alter it?? Alterations will tear the delicate French lace. And it seems she didnt know what she wants to alter as well.

It is really puzzling. Besides, different designers have different strengths, it is really unreasonable to go to one designer and ask her why she cant do the same design as another designer. If you ask 2 chefs to cook the same thing, it will not taste the same. It is a constant "bullying" local designers like us have to swallow. Will you go to Valentino and ask them to do Armani design?

Old school mate

I was pleasantly surprised by an old school mate who came to my fashion suite on Sunday. I haven seen her for 10 yrs! I remembered many happy memories from my TJC days. Our school was divided into 3 science departments and 1 comm-Arts department. I was actually the secretary of the Sci C department committee. Our Sci C dept commitee always stayed back for school activities like Chinese New Year float making, sports day, rock climbing competitions and many of my best friends are from this committee. Although my friend was not in the committee, she belonged to the Sci C cohort and seeing her brought back memories. She is already a school teacher now.

She confessed she was happy to see my achievements and came wanting to buy a gift for her friend which is going to get married in HK. And coincidentally her friend was also another fellow TJCian whom I was vaguely acquainted with. She stayed for 2 hours in my shop. We catched up. In the end, she not only bought my Peranakan black scarf as the gift, she also bought 3 tops for herself and my black Antoinette cardi. :)

Black Peranakan Embroidered Scarf $130. Each piece takes 1 day.

Flora Belle Halter Top $218

Phoenix Boudoir Top. Showcase piece for my first solo fashion art exhibition @ Arts House. Also appeared in cover of The Star Malaysia. $258.



Ruby Blossoms. $218.

National Day Weekend Specials! 6-8 Aug

I am away from 2-5 Aug to Jakarta. Will be back in my red dot suite this friday 6Aug. Our fashion suite will be open this National Day weekend 6-8 Aug. Dont miss our irresistible National Day Weekend Specials (only for 6-8 Aug). Buy 2nd item at $45 off. Exclude jewellery and only applies to items above $120.