Of simplicity and no-nonsense dressing

I've always had a thing for minimalism and everything laid back. While I also love frivolity in fashion and overwhelming dozes of intricate designs piled on top of one another, I can't deny my love for effortless cool, dead colors, the lack of color, combined with a keen focus on silhouettes, angles, and shapes that do not speak in terms of patterns and prints. I like it muted and big on the bigger picture then empty on the inside.

Recently, I came across an article on the newspaper I work for. It talked of #normcore and its apparent popularity. Being in the third world, social trends tend to arrive late. And in my lack of drive to be constantly in the know, I missed the memo. I brushed up on a couple of write-ups that seek to explain and make sense of the growing trend. In a sea of fashion-obsessed and trend-hungry zombies, some cite that normcore is a mere facet of a growing anti-fashion sentiment, though I really would like to beg to differ because I have seen fashion people eating normcore up, myself included.

Some also say that normcore is a theory rather than a look. The idealistic side of me would like to believe that this movement is beyond aesthetics. A revolution rolled out by a few intellectual aesthetes who have just grown tired of always always chasing trends and that it is much more practical and safe and powerful to keep things simple, comfy, and basic. However however, as much as I would like to believe that, that isn't the case where I am from because I am witness to the fact that people enjoy dressing effortlessly cool in my side of the world first and foremost because it is the quintessential cool kid look. Call me shallow but it really is the case, well at least for me because I know most of these people.

Hmm... What makes me attracted to this aesthetic is precisely the aesthetics. I find it hard to maintain this look because I am a fan of a lot of looks. But I'd love to keep it for as long as possible because it is so practical and cool all at the same time. It is simple yet powerful but I am torn as to how I'll execute it in such a way that it will still have ME written all over it.

Oh well, I really was surprised that there's a growing trend so much so that they now have a name for it. Weird. Although I aint shocked because I felt it coming, 90s resurgence as seen on runways.

Press start for summer

A compilation of photographs, of moments and memories I've been soaking in since the sunny season began in my little ole third world archipelago.

A hodgepodge of shots I took when I went to Cebu for Sinulog, 7107 imf to see Red Hot Chili Peppers, Mt. Arayat to try out a spot, and then bits and pieces of images from my recent trip to Baler to bond with my dear overseas worker friend Cresta, a selfie I took when we stayed at Sofitel for my sister's born day, and a picture of myself taken earlier today in the sleepy city of Malabon which got its name from an abundance of bamboo shoots harvested from that area during the days of yore. The Filipino word, "Ma-labong" which literally translates to "a lot of bamboo shoots."

It's been a while since I last wrote an entry. As I've mentioned way back when I started this blog, I have a hard time maintaining diaries and blogs. I used to write a lot in my diaries only because I had no one to talk to about my feelingzzz, but I guess things change and I am mostly too tired to make one. But I'm trying to get back to it, so this is my feeble attempt at doing so, yet again.