Chicago Photo Diary

Thanksgiving in Chicago was amazing!

Won't bore you will all the details, the pictures hopefully explains everything :)

Love,

Kiko

Akufuncture

A few weeks back me and Seamas modeled for a fashion show on campus. The t-shirts we modeled are from a great label called Akufuncture with designs inspired by Chinese culture.

These are taken backstage before we walked. The outfits are styled by Joannie! Check out her personal blog here

POSE magazine fall preview + street snap feature

Shirt: Pacsun; Necklace: Jewelmint; Shorts: Lush; Boots: Jeffrey Campbell

Lace shirt: Charlotte Russe; Jeans: Guess; Wedges: BCBGeneratoin

Dress: Madewell

Hello!

Recently I took the position as a stylist for the only student-run fashion magazine at USC: POSE magazine. I love having the opportunity to make more use of my wardrobe! Because I've been really busy, I was only able to style one of their shoots for the Fall issue. I styled their "recycling" shoot, which is basically using one item for different looks. Here you see the three looks I styled for "the denim shirt", for three more looks for "the black leather jacket", stay in tuned for the release of their Fall issue!

Also, I was featured on this blog post in their street snaps :)

Love,

Kiko

Promanade

Hello!

I received feedback from some of my readers! So stoked that you guys are reading this :). Please comment or email me if there is a particular style you would like to see or want to know where exactly I purchased an item from! I know I still have a lot to improve on so feel free to give me any suggestions.

One of the suggestions I got was that I should be writing less and posting more photos. I will definitely post more photos, but sometimes I may feel like writing a couple more paragraphs. Although this blog is primarily about what I wear, it's also a lifestyle journal, so I will be putting up food posts, music posts and maybe a random rant from time to time. I hope you can understand, or just skip those posts :P

First weekend out with the boyfriend since I got back to LA. He took me to the 3rd street Promanade for the first time! All my friends are surprised that I haven't been to the Promanade and now I wish I had been here sooner! Just a few blocks from Venice (which I love), Santa Monica is a completely different city. A perfect place for a lazy weekend. Great shops, great restaurants and interesting street performers at night.

It was a cloudy day and the seabreeze can get a bit chilly, so before going to the cinema to watch "Contagion", I threw on a blazer. Nothing is more versatile than a good blazer. I have a couple black and grey blazers yet I always end up wearing this navy Zara blazer. It's polyester so it's soft, warm and doesn't wrinkle, even when I roll it up to fit it in my bags.

Both the top and the shorts are results of one retail therapy trip on Larchmont Blvd. Shorts are from LF Larchmont and top from a small boutique right across the street. LF has some great boho-inspired pieces as well as great prices when they hold their end of season sales. They also carry Jeffrey Campbells, which I love to look at, but never dared to purchase a pair of my own.

I love the dolman sleeves of the top and the cropped-front draped-back cut, it's a really popular cut these days and they would also go great with skinny jeans. With the cropped front, I find that adding a belt gives the outfit more weight, other wise the top seems too light and up-in-the-air to me.

Photo credits to the lovely boyfriend, who may appear on the blog sometime in the near future :).

I'm supposed to be studying for my midterm, but instead I'm here....back to studying!

Love,

Kiko

Hi-Low

Hello!

So when the Hi-low skirts first came out, I was a bit skeptical. As a lover of micro-minis, I understood the front half, but definitely not the back half. It was more like.....a tail, then a skirt. Now I see the appeal. The cut really lengthens your legs and covers just the right amount of thighs and mid section to compliment any body type.

I got the skirt from a store in Americana, after searching for the perfect transparency in a Hi-low for weeks. The tank top is from ModCloth and so it the bag. With the cut of the skirt, it's really easy for the outfit to look too bloated. Which is why I chose a loose-fitting tank top with a lower neckline and then clinched it with a belt at the waist so the look has a clear-defined waistline/focus point.

The bag can be carried a couple of ways. I've been really into large satchels lately, am I being nostalgic? Feels like the large satchel trend has been around many times before. The sandals are truly awesome! The details and colors are amazing and you could pair it with anything! I will definitely put out more outfits with these sandals in the future!

The pictures were shot by the pool in my apartment. Playing around with self timer. The sun was on my side, it helped the pictures a great deal in my opinion.

Love,

Kiko

New Zealand Photo Diary (Timaru, Christchurch, Wellington)

------------------Timaru---------------------

{Caroline Bay}

{Breakfast at Pukeko}

{At my old high school}

{In front of my old dorm, "The House"}

{Eggs Benedict at Purple Lizard, with Drian!}

------------------Christchurch-----------------

{Ruined City Center after three major earthquakes....}

{Book swap in the residential area of City Centre}

{The apartment next to Tim's}

{Tim and Chris!}

-----------------------Wellington----------------------

{Cheesecake at Enigma Cafe}

{Graffiti'd parking building}

{Ceci and art in the parking lot}

{My 24-hour Wellington Crew}

{On our way to brunch after an all-nighter}

{Brunch, Enigma again}

{Art at work}

{Chilling on the stairs}

Hello!

Before coming back to Los Angeles, I spent one week back home in New Zealand. Home is where the heart is, and although I do not have any relatives in New Zealand, I grew up there and that's where home is for me. Last time I was in New Zealand was before I left for college, two years ago. A lot of my friends had moved away for University or other reasons, I was fortunate enough to visit some of my best friends who now resides in Australia while I was interning in Sydney. This one-week trip allowed me to visit the rest of my good friends, I had such a great week walking down memory lane!

I spent four years in Timaru going to boarding school. Having left my home country when I was 12, Timaru is full of memories of me growing up. I visited some of my oldest friends here, Drian, one of my dearest friends, was featured in my breakfast photo. I went back to my old school, where I struggled a lot at the start with the new language and just general high school scandals, it's where I've fell the most, but I always got back on my feet. Having to deal with everything without the support of parents has definitely made me stronger and mature faster.

For my last year of high school, I transferred to Christchurch to pursue a better music program. I then went on to study for a bachelor of Performing Arts at CPIT Jazz School for six months before leaving for college in Los Angeles. Going back to Christchurch was a devastating experience for me. Seeing the post-earthquake city for the first time made my heart sunk: the shops I used to visit, the streets I used to walk on with my friends, the cafes I used to go to every morning.....all demolished after three major earthquakes hitting the city in the past 12 months. It was great to see my friends being so optimistic, but without a music scene, or any scene at all, I can only hope for the best for my friends.

I went to Wellington for one girl and one girl only, Ceci. Ceci is one of my oldest friends in New Zealand and one of my best friends. We had so many great memories growing help and we were always there for each other. My three day visit to Wellington was the highlight of my trip because it was so much fun! Wellington is a great city with a more grown-up art and music scene, I can see myself living there and raising a family when I'm eventually ready to settle down. Having my best friend there with me would just be icing on the cake :)

I'm trying to make it a routine, going back to visit every two years. It's such a beautiful country with such beautiful people, I can never see myself not being a part of something so amazing.

E noho ra, Aotearoa

Aroha,

Kiko