Style March 21, 2014

New York Winter StreetWear – Estelle Kiora & I

During my time in New York for Social Media Week (SMW); SMW Reporter/Top 10 blogger in Singapore – Estelle Kiora and I bundled up to fight the cold in our winter streetwear. Estelle who came from Singapore, where the sun is mostly shining, was in for a surprise! I was impressed with how well she managed to wear her style in below zero weather. All thanks to strategic layering. Those timberlands, love’em!

Some of my favourite winter layering essentials that are the key building blocks of a fashionable, yet warm outfit, would be an infinity scarf, leg warmers and layering tops.

Ever since infinity scarves hit stores, I’ve been a huge fan of the warmth and protection it provides. What’s an infinity scarf? A neck warmer resembling a scarf, but forming a loop with no ends.

An infinity scarf is a perfect addition for Winter StreetWear.

If you’ve been following my Instagram posts this winter, you’ll notice I have a comforting need to always rock my leg warmers. They’re perfect if you’re wearing leggings with boots that are looser at the top. Trapping the cold so it doesn’t get to your feet. The plus, it can look fashionable if it’s your style to start with. You can also make your own leg warmers at home with some old sweaters. Just cut the sleeves at your desired length and bunch them up!

I love layering my tops! Some people like to say there’s a right and a wrong way to doing this. I’ll save that for another post, but I say have fun with it! Let your imagination go wild and style your outfits the way you want to. Wear a dress, put a cardigan on top and for extra warmth top it off with a bright hood.

Events February 28, 2014

Wearable Tech in Fashion

Wearable technology has come a long way. There was that brief time in history when some people either didn’t understand bluetooth ear pieces or just simply hated them. I reckon mostly because they thought they were being talked too, but in reality the person was talking into their ear piece. Now technology has evolved into being a part of us.

Now we’ve been seeing technology hit the runways! DVF (Diane von Furstenberg) used the Google glasses to capture the DVF creative process from a different perspective, which was accomplished by having the people involved with the entire process of making the show happen, by wearing Google glasses.

DVF created a short film to show her Fashion Show through the model, stylist and designers eyes via Google glass:

Then there’s the new dress that changes colour depending on a woman’s mood. The Bubelle Dress is made up of two layers, the inner layer contains biometric sensors that pick up a person’s emotions and projects them in colours onto the second layer, the outer textile.

Following the trend that only continues to grow, Social Media Week in New York had Tech In Motion host a Wearable Tech Fashion Show.

To mention a few of the contributors of the show:

Atlas Wearables (Austin): Presenting fitness tracker
Augmate (NYC): Presenting Google Glass and Vuzix m100
BrickSimple (Philly): Presenting Google Glass
Continuum Fashion (NYC): Presenting 3D printed shoes
Everpurse (Chicago): Presenting chargeable clutches
Sensoree (San Fran): Presenting mood clothing

If you missed the Fashion Show you can watch it below via livestream:

The health and fitness market brought out many products that look great when worn. Bands that measure how much you’ve run, check your heart beat or measure your health in various categories.

What will be the next best thing when Fashion and Technology collide? 3D printed clothes, clothes that change based on weather automatically? With imagination and determination, anything is possible.

Check out this infographic for more info about current day wearable tech:

Events February 20, 2014

SMW NYC Official VIP Opening Party – Hosted by Nokia

To kick off Social Media Week (SMW) in NYC all insiders were invited to attend the opening party. The SMW reporters and I picked up our insider passes ahead of time and had the privilege of getting a glimpse of the venue, Highline Stages. The venue is so fitting for SMW NYC. It has this loft like layout, with exposed brick and wood features. (The interior designer in me wants to elaborate but I’ll stay on topic.)

7pm and the line-up of people to get into the opening party were already getting antsy. So glad the weather wasn’t too bad. I can’t say the same for the reporters who came all the way from Singapore, India and even New Mexico which at this time is 16°! I have way too many -30° wind chill warnings to compare too.

The SMW NYC Reporters & I:

As soon as you enter Highline Stages you’re welcomed by SMW representatives to sign in and then have your picture taken, emailed, shared to social platforms via 3 available tablets and printed! Picture taking couldn’t have been any more interactive.

Okay, where should I start?! There was an abundance of food everywhere. Vendors like Chipotle had tortilla chips with guacamole, other stations had pretzels, Whole Foods had bread with different spreads, candy and Kyotofu Bakery had lots of gluten free desserts. My favourite was the rich and smooth Miso Brownie. It was an open bar for those who wanted to drink. As some of you know I do own a turn table and enjoy mixing beats here and there. Not to brag or anything, but I can definitely recognize a great DJ. We had DJ Mick turning beats for us.

Poppin’ stationary had set up booth there and were giving away bright colored notebooks a long with pens. They set up a colorful photo booth area with some pretty awesome props! Additionally they had a twitter contest for those who tweeted an image of the freebies a long with their hashtag #Workhappypink (depending on which color of stationary you wanted you’d change pink for blue in the hashtag etc) The winner received a full desktop set from poppin’. Then there was Yelp giving out red sunglasses and sweat bands to spread the social cheer along with other brands that gave out freebies as well.

One of my favourites were the #NokiaPods! Brilliant idea of creating these hideaways from noise to charge your phone or take notes from the events. They worked great as working stations during the week.

If you haven’t checked out SMW NYC, you should make your way there tomorrow and catch the last day!

new york

An infinity scarf is a perfect addition for Winter StreetWear.

If you missed the Fashion Show you can watch it below via livestream:

The SMW NYC Reporters & I: