Sage Slip-ons

I'm in Milan Linate airport right now, in transit to London. I left a little morsel of my heart in Barcelona. Whenever this happens, I like to take mementos: of the wearable kind, that is.

Victoria Kung-Fu shoes

I fell so in love with these shoes in Spain that I had to buy two pairs. Part espadrille, part plimsoll, 100% Espanol.

The terracotta-red soles give them that touch of Iberian charm.

"Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is enlightenment." - Lao Tzu

Roaming the Riviera

Little boys dream of visiting Disneyland or going on a safari in Africa or flying to the moon; I have always dreamt about vacationing in the south of France and pretending to be a celebrity in the ranks of Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot taking a breather from 1960s Hollywood.

We spent a day driving around the French Riviera: Nice, Monaco, Eze, St. Paul de Vence, Antibes, and Cannes. Though it was not as glitzy as I had expected it to be, it was filled with so much local art and culture enough to keep me inspired for years to come.

boater hat from The Garment District, tailor-made jacket, vintage shirt, H&M jeans, Club Monaco ring, Zara shoes

Lunch in Le Tilleul in St. Paul de Vence was the perfect accompaniment to the dreamy surroundings: light, well-executed, tasty.

an updated Nicoise salad with red snapper and poached egg

home made foie gras

magret du canard with apples and pistachios

Despite the gastro-rgasmic cuisine, the highlight of my meal would have had to be this nutty fellow strumming the guitar while doing a little bit of stand-up comedy just across the balcony where our table was. Everything in his outfit was perfection: the brown wool bucket hat that looks like it's been trampled upon, the rumpled tuxedo jacket in the daytime,

(note the toothbrush in his jacket pocket)

and to up the lunacy to asylum levels, Aladdin shoes!

This is what I want to look like when I hit 60.

hAmsterdam

Amster-damn, Ams-turd-damn, Amsterdumb (I kid, the city is fabulous!). I'm out of puns for Amsterdam. Here's a photo diary of my four days there:

things illegal elsewhere legal here

double-fried fries with spicy mayonnaise

with my sister and her overpriced leather paper bag

The garbage collectors' strike left heaps and heaps of garbage all around the city. This particular mound was made pretty by graffiti cardboard posters.

at the flower market: black tulip bulbs for the goth green thumb

old records and books at the book market in Dam Square

sea bream with risotto

horsies at the Heineken Brewery

Amsterdam was much chillier than I expected, so my outfits consisted mainly of black sweater upon black jacket upon black coat. Pleasantly minimalist or pretty unremarkable, I still can't decide.

at Cafe Schiller in the Rembrandtplein, as recommended by Susie G (Ray-Ban aviators, Rag & Bone car coat, Club Monaco cashmere, Cheap Monday jeans, Tod's driving shoes)

Eurotrip 2010

Blogging right now from Amster-damn! the city is teeming with garbage piles. Seeing the wealth of canals and cannabis cafes juxtaposed with all the trash hills (accumulated due to the garbage collectors' strike) made for a culturally rich experience.

the Cote D'Azur

Off to the South of France, then Barcelona, then London after. Shopping, nightlife, and dining tips and recommendations (yes, in that order) would be highly, highly appreciated.

See you later,

Izzy

Slashed and Frayed

Ever the repository for easy-as-peas DIY projects, The Dandy Project presents you with another wardrobe-updating technique so easy, I won't even put up step-by-step photos lest I insult your intelligence. There's really just two steps to slash-hemming a pair of trousers: 1) Cut pants to desired length, 2) Throw it in the washer a couple of times to make the frayed ends soften. I also like to manually stretch out the hems to make the frayed edges curl up a bit and even slightly rip the side seams.

shredded white Levi's jeans cut into shorts

I've been wearing these next two pairs of pants nonstop for the past few days. They were too long and the fabric was too heavy for them to look good rolled-up, yet they weren't slim enough to look good stacked. So I took to them with scissors, and cut them just above the ankles.

American Apparel corduroys

American Apparel acid wash jeans

I like to think of them as not-quite Thom Browne-eque flood-length pants infused with the casual nonchalance of cutoff shorts.

slash-hemmed American Apparel acid wash jeans, Bottega Veneta mocassins

The Dandy Project Style Staples: The Power Ring

A power suit says that the wearer is confident, strong-willed, and ready to take on business challenges. A power ring, on the other hand, says that the person wearing it is bold and kooky enough to wear a ring so ridiculously large that it appears as if it might hold magical powers within.

These two have become night-out staples for the fingers on my left hand: rhinestone studded two-finger ring bought online, faux emerald pinky ring from Dorothy's Costume Boutique.

My love affair with enormous finger adornments all started with this mother-of-pearl and plastic ring I got a while back:

ring from Anthology in Manila

When you start to accumulate three, four, five, of the same item and constantly find yourself slipping one on before heading out the door, then you know it's your new style staple. Here's one in faux smoky quartz that I have yet to purchase:

ring from Club Monaco

Though terribly uncomfortable, I wear this colorful vintage "plate" ring when I want to evoke the blindingly yellow South American summer day feel of a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel:

vintage ring from Tokyo

There's three things I like: 1) picking my nose, 2) large rings made out of un-precious stones, 3) doing #1 while wearing #2.