ZARA | Frivolous Universe

#hashtagstateofmind

By: Kim Philley

27-03-2012

Kim

#CauseYouBeStaringAtTheScreenSoLongYourEyesBeBleeding

#AndYou’reOneThosePeople

#ListensToTheSameSong

#overandover

#I’mLikeThat

#withclotheson

#highwaistedjeans

#ItalianScubaTops

#cheapshirts

#cheapthrills

#Topshop

#Leggings

#Splendid

#TransformingWayfarers

#irepeatmythemes

#damnimissthosesraybans

#ShadySteppedOnThem

#noworries

#ZARAskirt

#shortread

#iheartwesternshirts

#BCBGonsale

@Dillard’s

#PeopleWhoDon’tNeedGlassesButWearThemAnyway

#WesternShirtsMadeInBangkok

#FlyNow

#chaps

#allkinds

#andofcourse

#tealgreen

#Parasols

#RihannaHasANewSong

#mostofall

#GiveItToMe

#whiskersonkittens

#WhiteLevi’s

#AnthropologieVest

#FauxConverse

#cherryshirt

@LincolnNebraskaThriftStore

@AngryBirdsAreUnstoppable

@tight,

tightjeans

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ONE NIGHT IN BANGOK: Michelle Obama, Ladyboys, Thai fashion, Thakoon, & a rendezvous with the Moon

By: Kim Philley

17-01-2012

Kim

Cocktails al fresco & the best view in Bangkok: The rooftop Moon Bar at the Banyan Tree hotel

There’s nothing quite like a few days spent riding Bangkok’s Sky Train to make one feel fatally frumpy. Along Sukhumvit Road, women wear scarlett-soled Christian Louboutins to commute to work, only to stuff them into their Bottega Veneta bags when they arrive at the office, swapping heels out for bunny slippers. Even Bangkok men are so well turned out—bespoke jackets, saddle oxfords, sometimes a Rockabilly pompadour shellacked to the top of their foreheads—that I’ve begun stroking my chin for signs of insidious stubble. Adding insult to injury are Thailand’s glamazon ladyboys, many of whom do a far better job of impersonating a woman than I do:

Verklempt ladyboys at the world’s premiere transgender beauty pageant,
Miss Tiffany’s Universe in Pattaya, Thailand

With such, err, stiff competition and so little time (I started a new job yesterday and thus far am exhausted and morbidly lonely), I’ve decided nothing–and I do mean nothing–I brought to wear in Bangkok is worthy of a photo-op. Until I can a) Make an auteur friend who will take hammy fashion shots of me once a week (and that is a friend indeed) + b) Hit the weekend markets and Chiclet-sized Thai boutiques at places like Terminal 21 and Siam Discovery Center, I’ll be pilfering my Bangkok archives for today’s blog:

Top: ZARA

Sunglasses: Christian Dior

Gold Ganesh necklace: Bangkok’s Chinatown

Thailand has one of the most innovative, up-and-coming fashion scenes in all of Asia. I’ll be exploring young Thai designers in upcoming posts, but for now let me lead with a (fashion savvy) household name: Thakoon Panichgul (ฐากูร พานิชกุล). A Thai-American, Thakoon was raised in Thailand and Omaha, Nebraska, and is a favorite of our fashion-forward First Lady’s.

Thakoon has a genius for acid-flashback patterns, but there are some patterns that just shouldn’t be mixed (Michelle Obama should ask herself every morning, Does this go with American Flag?)

Thakoon Pre-Spring 2012

Another rule of Southeast Asian fashion: you can never be too rich or too girly-girl. (Although you can be too thin. But thanks to the night food vendors on Soi 38 that offer spicy papaya salad, pad thai, tom yum, et al, I may soon have my ass back.) Here I am at Bangkok’s Dusit Palace Park looking gag-me-with-a-spoon girly. I hope this outfit inoculated me and I’ll never have to sport a boob-bow again.

Minnie Mouse called: she wants her look back

Leotard top (yes, crotch-snaps and all): ZARA

Umbrella: 7-Eleven

Thakoon Pre-Spring 2012

Sabai Sabai! I love the man with the sausage pancakes

T-shirt: James Perse

Skirt: ZARA

Jeweled sandals: Phnom Penh

Thakoon Pre-Spring 2012

My favorite man in Bangkok: ‘Marco Polo’ at Wat Pho

Stay tuned next Tuesday for photos of me in a ladyboy-slaying new Thai getup, which I will challenge myself to find for under 1,000 Thai Baht ($30 US)!

Photos by Marcus Aurelius

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SATURNALIA: Dressing for the dance floor

By: Kim Philley

21-11-2011

Kim

Drink and dance and laugh and lie,

Love the reeling midnight through,

For tomorrow we shall die!

(But, alas, we never do.)

—Dorothy Parker, from Death and Taxes

We all have a place that holds us to the fire, whether we call it our hometown, holidays at our in-laws’ house, or a workplace where we are in over our heads. Whatever the GPS coordinates of our Waterloos may be, our battlefields have this in common: a constricting, strict Saturnian energy. These are places where we rarely get what we want. Instead, each time we visit them, we’re hammered by defeat.

Boise has been this place for me. After a break-up, a job loss, or the kamikaze free-fall of a functional degree of health, this is where I end up. But in not giving it up so easily, this town has taught me a necessary lesson: to stop asking what I want out of life and to start figuring out what life wants from me.

Sometimes the cues are subtle. Other times, getting what I need feels a lot like being dragged behind a bulldozer. It takes time, discernment, and synchronicity to find one’s stream in life. It takes faith to jump back in. When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I’m feeling sad—I get my ass to dance class.

Today I stumbled through a ludicrously up-tempo Zumba class at the downtown Y. Because life’s hard and I believe a well-cut profile on the dance floor can warm even the bleakest heart, here’s my ode to dance halls, dance class, and the spirit that revels despite it all.

Happy Holidays. Xo K