Rebecca Taylor rosette-strapped bubble dress, Celine metallic woven belt, vintage over-oversize bag, 35-peso sandals

After an undeniably long time, I now have the promised summer outfit post. We’re actually bidding summer goodbye here in 90° as the rainy season makes it’s way, accompanied by it’s inevitable downsides (flood, wet pant hems) and quirks (think boots, jackets, great excuse to go shopping for the rainy season). But before I totally kick summer until next year, I have to remember that this is a tropical country and most of the time, the weather is generally hot so clothes have to transition from warm-warm to warm-wet all in the span of 24 hours. Something to that effect. This now translates to summer outfits under trenches, rain coats, boots, and hoodies or the other way around. So for now, I have to focus on the outside, but try to remind myself every once in a while that it’s the inside that counts, in case I get overwhelmed with excitement and bring home a dozen of outerwear (read: faux fur jackets, double-breasted trench coats, short trench coats, military jackets, victorian jackets, windbreakers, full-length coats, a-line coats, cropped sweaters, oversize sweaters, and more!). In this light, I’m glad that even when it comes to dressing up here in 90°, it’s the inside that counts, well most days of the year at the very least and that I still have decades to jazz up on my summer-stylin’ skills because my twenty-something experience isn’t all that well, weather-proof.

Photo credit from http://www.flickr.com/photos/disneymike

This is beyond fashion, but I just wanted to note that with my upcoming anniversary I’ve been thinking of cooking for that special someone. And when I say cooking, it makes me think of myself in all sorts of metal armor, and not the apron or even gladiator platforms. Cooking to me is something waaay beyond glamorous. In my two decades of existence, I have never once decided to cook or become a cook or a chef or even a domestic goddess in the kitchen. I always believed that I should leave cooking to the house cook or whoever wants to cook (moms, for instance). Also, I’ve left the cooking, baking, food experimenting to my brother who in fact, wants to take cooking to the next level by taking classes after he’s done with uni. On the other hand, I’ve just been always left with the eating.

Last week, my mom fooled me into the kitchen and decided that I should cook lunch. It made me all queasy, angry, and to a certain point betrayed. I then cooked, chopped potatoes, threw in veggies in the pan, mixed them - all without the slightest sight of passion or even interest. My eyes were glued on the telly, I was pretending that I hated what I was doing, when in fact I wasn’t. The act of cooking was, in fact, (to me) a bearable experience. I guess that’s a step up from my usual cooking attempts that involve heating pre-cooked meals and frying what-ends-up to be burnt hot dogs. This time, I read one of my favorite sites which actually happens to be a food website and it detailedly narrated a steak experience which left me all drooling and carnivorous after reading the last sentence. This post then led me to Elbert’s Steakroom. I’ve known about this resto for quite some time, but have never had the chance to actually look for it, as it is hidden in a building somewhere in Makati. The “How We Do It” section of their site actually conjured me to daydream of cooking steak (or could I have confused it with thoughts of eating the steak?). At least finally, I have thoughts of cooking. Reading through it though, I realized it’s too unrealistic for me to re-create everything (or a single part, yeah). I mean, I don’t even have a single clue about food and cooking, let alone look for USDA Prime meat, grape seed oil, and Sicilian sea salt. And from the sound of it, I doubt that I’ll find all these items here in 90 degrees (this country) or even have them shipped here just in time for the anniversary, all while learning how to cook the perfect steak. So I guess I’ll settle for something more realistic, say cooking decently fried hot dog or something. Or I can suggest Elbert’s Steakroom just because someone said Outback can’t even compare to Elbert’s and to think I’m crazy about Outback. Oh well, I’m going to the kitchen now in an attempt to cook, and hopefully not accidentally burn myself in the process, all in the name of love.

Other notable sites:

The Next Nigella - been defunct since 2006, but I still like to browse through it

Trainee Domestic Goddess

Cook Almost Anything

Pinoy Cook

Cooking With Amy

Cook Sister

Our Awesome Planet

Eat and Run

Photos source, source, source, source

Photos source, source, source, source

shoes: ysl tributes, christian loubs, givenchy booties, fringe shoes (i forgot)

clutches: celestinas, roberto cavallis, and check out the celestina pacquiao, first bag on the upper left, probably named after Manny Pacquiao

Photos source and source

I’ve searched everywhere - high-end boutiques, department stores, men’s section, kid’s section, bazaars, under a rock, beside the easter egg bunny… But the well-made (straw, white) fedora that my heart is longing for hasn’t been found. Why is that? You guys don’t know me, but I’m extremely extremely resourceful meaning, it may be true that I may even have searched under a rock… But I haven’t seen the likes of this one (from urban outfitters) anywhere here in 90°. Multiply stores, anyone?

Has anyone noticed the women in what seems like men’s footwear these days? Well, I have and I’m beginning to think that this may be my style (maybe forever) and that I’ve rekindled with my old self (I like to believe I was a woman in the ranks of Mulan and Joan of Arc in a previous life) - woman in boots, something to that effect. These days a lot of women are just hoarding on gladiator flats, but I didn’t succumb, you wanna know why? Because I already bought my gladiator flats 5 years ago way way before the trend even surfaced. Whenever I wore that, back then, I got the strangest and most critical looks from strangers. Well, what do you know, it’s back and I’m done with the flats. I’m going for the higher ones this time and I’m calling it the rise of the gladiator woman.

On another note, I’m not at all jumping up and down the mattress right now because I wasn’t able to attend even at least a night of local fashion week due to a bad case of cramps. I’m also having a bad case of an Ali-Michael right now; In other words, my legs are too fat. My apologies for the numerous rants for today’s post!

Photo Source

There’s been a sort of manhunt for Agathe amongst fashion bloggers lately and I guess it has ended when upon typing stylebytes.net you’ll find out that the site has probably now shut down. I’ve been checking stylebytes religiously and have made it my morning paper equivalent. Now that it’s gone, it’s difficult to replace it, but not impossible. Still, nobody can replicate Agathe’s unique sense of style and having no access (maybe, forever) to her site and style leads me to one great regret - I didn’t save much of her outfits. It’s oh-so-selfish but that’s what I should have done. This is the part where I say, you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone. Agathe, you will be sorely missed.