Through the eyes - The Second Sanctuary

We all know that place where creative juices seem to flow without end. So you just sit there at that one super inspiring spot, and every great ideas in the world seem to come to your head. Let me tell you that this place is NOT one of those spots.

This is the place where procrastination happens, where tears hid and waited to flow, where smoke used to fill the air, and you could hear the sound of doodling on a paper. 

I'm being too poetic here.

I simply want to share my view of the world, from my own room. I know I can tell about a person a lot just by looking at their room. So I'm showing you mine ;) (rented room anyway)

The second part of The Wall

Also the place where stuff like this happen

And this...

It's thrilling to be able to share my view of the world, and as crazy as it sounds, my room is a big, BIG part of the world for me. This is my world. Thanks IFB for partnering up with Lookmatic to hold this project for us bloggers. Super excited to enter it! Crossing my fingers and hope that I'll win! ;)

In case you wanna take a sneak peek at Lookmatic's products, here are some that caught my eye

Apprentice

Jesse

Tippi

Have a great day everyone!

-The Dilly Chic-

Fashion - Price or Art ?

This is the topic I've been wanting to bring up for a long time now. As a normal, ordinary person who still buys regular food with regular money, I sometimes feel offended by the perspective thrown by people up in the chain of fashion industry, or even people with higher digit earnings in general. I read in Garance Dore's post a few days ago that her friend's boss' jaw "dropped to the floor" because she (the friend) mentioned to a client that she bought her jacket at Zara. 

COOOOOOLLLLLL.

I know it's an unspoken, unwritten rule that money wins. IT ALWAYS DOES, don't argue with me on this one. LOVE? Pfffttttttttt. ART you said? Bzzzzzzztttttt. At least for those people. I usually do not give one f*** about other people's opinion regarding this matter. But then I realize that they start monetizing my passion, they start monetizing what we wear and eventually, ourselves.

I recently read a blog post about how "Fashion is Art" (from the blog Elegant Idiosyncrasy), and I was blown by the imagery. Also blown by how stupid people could be when they say "this is too editorial, this is not art". Well shit. -I'm sorry for a lot of bad words in this post, pardon me please?-  Anyway, this just proves it even more that fashion IS art, it's a form of creativity, it's your capability of showing who you are through what you wear. Fashion is NOT money.

I don't know about you guys or those fashion experts out there, but when I see someone with a great style, the last thing that comes to mind is "Oh boy, how much did she spend on that?". I simply think how cool that person is, I imagine the rest of his/her wardrobe, and oh, how fun would it be if that wardrobe is mine. I think about the aesthetics, the art of wearing fabric that complements your style.

Maybe that's why I'm a little offended by people who simply judge a person's capabilities by where they spent their money. Okay maybe sometimes it's applicable. Surely you would trust someone with a Rolex more than a homeless hippie, right? But what if, say, there are two ladies, both have equally great sense of style, one would only wear high end brands and the other one is a bargain hunter, BUT the bargain hunter was so picky at everything she bought, you couldn't even tell she bought everything of hers at Zara and Forever 21. Which one would you trust more? Which one has a better standing in your eyes?

I personally think it's crazy that you should monetize fashion. Fashion is one of the purest, most honest form of art. It's an art you do -consciously or unconsciously- every day. Every single day. So when you start monetizing fashion, you also start monetizing yourself in a way.

The post that I linked to have some mind blowing images you should check out from artists in the fashion industry. More proof that fashion is more art than price tag. Here are some more mind shattering images: (every single thing is courtesy to the respective artists, all I'm doing here is paying respect to the artists by showing you some of their work).


Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin

Garance Dore

Patrick Demarchelier

Filep Motwary

Maria Mastori

Paulina Otylie Surys

Cheers!
-The Dilly Chic-

You simply must check this out...

While I was doing my daily dose of snooping and browsing the internet, I found a sweet jelly website called Blogger's Wardrobe. After some active curiosity, I found out that this site focuses on brand-blogger collaboration, which is just SWEET. Maybe you guys (fellow bloggers) are already some 5 or 10 steps ahead of me in this one. But I'm an Indonesian blogger who would love to be able to collaborate with international brands, and for all of you international bloggers this could be that special moment, you know? 

Of course I wouldn't just randomly recommend a site I don't personally love. Here are some of my favorite brands I think you would fall in love with as well:

Sofifi
I especially loooove the army pants and braided leather jacket.

Triwa

This one must be one of the most breath taking ivory watch ever. This color compliments almost all skin tone in my opinion. 

Minimarket

When I saw the trench coat I knew I fell in love. I'm all about the simple classics, and I have always been. Can you imagine how chic you would be when you wear this? And the hat is just... sweet is to say the least.

Let's just say that I love what they're doing, and so should you! Hope I'm being helpful here ;)

-The Dilly Chic-

Matahari Fashion Award

Since this one concerns a local competition I'm entering, I'll post in Bahasa... for the first time! (I'll translate as well!)

Jadi kisahnya kali ini saya mengikuti kompetisi fashion blogger dari Jakarta Fashion Week yang disponsori oleh Matahari Deptartment Store, dan tentunya saya berminat (saaaangat) untuk mengikuti dan memenangkannya.

So this time I'm entering a fashion blogger competition from Jakarta Fashion Week sponsored by Matahari Department Store, and of course I'm anxious (veeeery) to take part and win.

Tidak ada tema khusus untuk loma ini, jadi saya memutuskan untuk mengambil tema yang paling saya cintai, yaitu unique fun dan cool casual. Kami diperbolehkan untuk membuat 3 kreasi style maksimal, dan saya memutuskan untuk membuat 2 kreasi, karena toh memang ada dua tema yang ingin saya kreasikan.

There's no particular theme for this competition, so I decided to take on the theme dearest to me... which is unique fun and cool casual. We're allowed to post 3 styles maximum, so I decide to create 2... well since there are two themes I want to do anyway...

Style #1 - Unique fun! Yay!

Top- inner : Nevada

Top - outer : Seventeen

Shorts: Connexion

Shoes: Nevada

Bag : warisan ibunda tercinta (my mom's legacy)

Socks unbranded

Bagi mereka yang mungkin mempertanyakan betapa canggungnya sesi foto ini... jawabannya... ya, sangat canggung, SANGAT. Saya yakin level apresiasi saya kepada para blogger, model, dan fotografer telah meningkat drastis, mungkin yang sebelumnya hanya level 6, sekarang mungkin naik menjadi 9,5; level 10 tetap hanya diperuntukkan bagi pemerintah yang tidak korupsi (yang saya yakin hanya mitos).

For those who wonder how awkward the photoshoot was... the answer is... yes, it was awkward, VERY. I'm pretty sure my level of appreciation for bloggers, models, and photographers has increased dramatically, perhaps from level 6 to 9.5 ; level 10 is solely for clean, uncorrupted goverment (which I know is a myth).

Style #2 - Cool Casual

Top - inner : Nevada 

Top - outer : Details

Jeans : Nevada Stylee

Shoes : Nevada

Bag : warisan kakak tercinta (my sister's legacy)

Foto close-up sepatu Nevada. Flats ungu dengan leopard print, solid tapi tetap dengan sentuhan feminine. So chic...

Close up shoot of the Nevada shoes. Purple flats with leopard print, solid but still hold the feminine touch. So chic...

Yah begitulah, saya sudah bicara tentang bagaimana canggungnya sesi ini bukan? Ucapan terima kasih terbesar bagi Agnes Tangka, teman yang setia membantu walaupun mood saya lebih labil daripada gadis yang baru pubertas, Dian Situmorang selaku fotografer baik hati, dan Juli Purwantoro yang membantu dengan ide kreatif dan lokasi. 

Well that's about it, I've mentioned how awkward the session was, right? My biggest gratitude goes for Agnes Tangka, a really great friend who helps in all situation, even though my mood swing is worse than a girl entering puberty, Dian Situmorang for being a very kind photographer, and Juli Purwantoro, for providing help with creative ideas and location.

Cheers!

-The Dilly Chic-

Introducing the Eyeshadow Illustration Posts

I've recently (not that recent actually) picked up a new love, illustrating with eyeshadow coloring. I notice that there are a LOT of beautiful looking fashion-based illustration and art out there. I decide to join the crowd for this one, but as they all say, you have to be able to stand your own ground.

I've always loooooved makeups and colors, and I'm a broke college student who couldn't afford mega stuff coloring. But I've been collecting makeups since junior high, some of them are going (and already) bad and inappropriate for face-use, and you can guess where the colors go now.

Anyway, I'll be posting eyeshadow illustrations from now on. Any critics and suggestions are always open, as long as you don't lash me out and tell me to get the fuck off my own blog. Joking, not.

Please note that the illustrations I post are pre-edited with Photoshop, because both my scanner and camera are too crappy to pull off a decent color, so I have to readjust the color to my real drawing color first. I'll never use photo editors to alter the illustrations in any other way, promise.




-The Dilly Chic-

The Theory of Hard Work

Do you know about it? Really? How much do you know about it? Nah, I'm not trying to sound so righteous or superior, in fact I know that I'm neither. Why the sudden post and interest in hard work? Here's why.

Let's just say that I'm currently a college student majoring in engineering. And if you've read my previous posts, you will understand that I don't really belong there. I'm not stating that I don't enjoy it. I do enjoy learning, I do sometimes enjoy the complexity of trying to solve something, the rush of adrenaline when I figured out a mathematical problem, the excitement of knowing something new, and... well let's stop here before I went overboard, you get the idea.

I worked hard to put it together you know... with help from a friend

Let me share a little something. Back when I was younger, as in middle school and high school, I was in a good (one of the best in my city, perhaps?) private school. That being said, everyone was pretty much an overachiever. They've all done stuff and accomplished things that will make you jealous. Me? Nah, I was counted as quite mundane back then. I really admired my friends, their views of life, and the things that they've done.  I've always felt that I could never be like that, that's not the way I was raised by my parents, I didn't have a passion that I loved so much that I would like to pursue, and more excuses alike. 

Only lately that I've realized that those excuses took me nowhere. And those friends didn't get what they have just by flipping the back of their hands. They worked, and I know that they worked hard to achieve it. So is every successful person/businessman/fashiongurus/streetstylebloggers out there. If only someone taught me the Theory of Hard Work earlier... My life would be harder, but it would be better.

Anyway, back to the title, the Theory of Hard Work. You do know that you have to work hard to get what you want, right? Yeah I've heard it too. I was just not ready to execute it, instead I chose to "just live the moment" and lived my ordinary mundane life. This is shit I tell you. That's a reason for people to not think about their future, their dreams, and what they truly want in life. I know I'm nobody, and I'm not trying to preach you about how you should live your life, I'm simply sharing the cold hard truth that struck me, and hope that you will not feel the same way as I did before.

I read in a book called "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell about the Rule of 10,000 Hours. It's stated that in order to achieve world class expertise, you have to practice your skills for 10,000 hours in your area of interest. That's why people say that success takes patience and consistency, you HAVE to consistently sharpen your blades, no matter what kind of shit happens in your life. No matter what.

So here I am, taking engineering because I was too afraid to go after my real dream, while my best friend right now is in France taking fashion design only armed with her guts (and skills of course). I've always thought that "Nah, I'm not good enough to take it", or "That path will lead me nowhere in real life", or "There are soooo many people who are waaaay better than me, I'll definitely lose". Again, I was kind of a shit back then, and now I regret it. Yay!

Have faith in yourself, do what truly interests you, there's a quote in my language that roughly translates to "We create happiness, not them". You know what I mean.

-The Dilly Chic-

The Dilly Chic is finally on...

Twitter!! Great news, huh? I'm sure it's not that great for most of you, but you have to understand that I'm not a tech savvy person and keeping up with technology is a HUGE task for me.

I was always afraid (or paranoid, not sure) of the idea that we talk to other people or mentions someone and the whole world can see. In my old fashioned, semi-paranoia head that sounds a little like self inflicted privacy disturbance or something, and that's why I've stayed away for soooooo long. Yeah, soooo long.

But not anymore! I stand tall and unafraid in this wave of new technology, so if you don't mind, go ahead and click that little bird on the right and follow @nadyahw. I'll try to keep my personal interest and convos short, honest!



Cheers!
-The Dilly Chic-

Mon Sanctuaire

"My Sanctuary". Title is in French, no, I'm not French, and I live billion miles away from France, but my best friend moved there recently, so I got a little help from her (and Google).

sanctuary : a shelter from danger or hardship ;

It's an excerpt of the meaning of sanctuary in my dictionary. It is a shelter, a place where you will find no harm. For me, my sanctuary is a place where I can be free to be me, where I can exile myself from the whole world and let out my deepest inspiration in my writings. My sanctuary is my room, specifically the desk in my bedroom. It's my whole world to me. There are times where I'd rather lock myself in my room, browsing (webs and blogs), writing, innovating new ideas for my blog and my websites, rather than going out with my friends. Such days exist, and not just exist, there are A LOT of those days, and I love them. Days like today, and to think it's Sunday...

This little thing is my card reader, isn't he adorable?

Messy, I know, don't say your desk never looked this way before.

I notice the my pictures are quite bad, with the light from my desk lamp ruining the photo, but I want to make it look as real as possible, my sanctuary, that is. This is basically the space I live in during the summer, and thank God there's no TV and bathroom in here, or else my parents would take me to the psychiatrist for real.

Cheers!

-The Dilly Chic-

Hair Makeover!

Virtual, that is. So the other day I spent about 4 hours (4 HOURS! OH WHY...) "trying on" different hairstyles sported by A-Listers. At first I was feeling like a retard, because to be honest, I'm seriously not the kind of person who would do, um, virtual makeovers. If we want to change something, I think we should just do it!

BUT! I actually found this thing to be quite interesting -hence the 4 hours, duh- and actually gives me a rough idea of what I want my hair to be. Right now I have a sidecut, with the rest of the hair being somewhere around chin's length. After the long hours of trying on different styles, feeling stupid, thinking "oh god, I have something better to do than this", and serious considering some of the styles, I actually come up with a decision for future hairstyle.

Still a sidecut, but with longer hair, perhaps a little below the chest. Hmm the examples I can think of are Avril Lavigne and Cher Lloyd. According to my "makeover", I look quite good with such hair. I don't trust my own decision, though, but well, at least I have a plan.

If you're one of the skeptics (like myself), you SHOULD try one of these silly makeovers. You will feel super awkward at first, but you will find it will actually help you get a cut you want! I did mine at InStyle.com, here's the link if you're interested: http://www.instyle.com/instyle/makeover .

So, big thank you to InStyle for wasting 4 great hours of my life! I hate you not, InStyle...




Cheers!
-The Dilly Chic-

How About Your Personal Style?

Maybe we should take a look at this

http://leathertee.com/the-epidemic-of-fantasy-personal-style

The thing about humans, is that we get too caught up in our minds sometimes, and actually forgetting the real life in front of us, we forget to do stuff, we forget to act on what actually matters.

We are too afraid to change, too afraid to make a difference. We keep trying to blend in, to be as good as the person next to us, to keep up with other people. The problem with keeping up, is that you will never outpace anyone. You will always get left behind if you only try to "keep up"

This is turning into a personal rant, so I'll stop right here, and suggest that we START ACTING. Good day everyone.



Cheers!
-The Dilly Chic-

The Wall

My posts are getting off topic, but I have to write about this one. This is important not only to women, but to everyone in general.

My wall in my old room

That was a part of my wall in my old rented room.

The rest of the walls were covered with my treasures, a badly hand drawn world map, a big piece of doodling paper for anger purposes, a picture of my favorite car....

They are my treasures, and when I had to move, these are the first things that I thought of.

"What am I gonna do with these?" I can't throw them away, so I put it in my friend's room next door until I can settle in my new place later.

Why is this such a big deal to me? The wall, as I like to call it, reminds me of the times when I wrote and created each piece of the puzzle. When I look at a certain piece of post-it, I remember the reason I wrote that certain piece, I flash back to the time I wrote it, and how I felt back then. Each writing means something.  So every time I feel like crap, I look at my wall, read a piece according to my situation at the time, remembered the loop of feeling playing all over again, take a deep breath, and move on.

It goes on like that every time, every single time...

That particular wall helps me so much in life. It cuts down the time I need to sulk and blame the world. 

It helps me.

So why don't you make one and help future you. Future you will be so grateful that you have made that wall. Each time you feel anything, analyze your own emotion, what causes it, and what piece of advice you've once heard from another person that could possibly make you feel better if you hear it again. Or maybe a personal advice from you addressed to the future you, so he/she wouldn't make the same mistakes you just did. Write it on a piece of paper (it does NOT have to be a post-it), and tape it on the wall. 

Done. Doesn't take more than 5 minutes to do, saves you hundreds of minutes of blues later on. If I may suggest, you should do it in colorful, clear, and fun font. I mean, the whole point is to cheer you up, not to confuse yourself with "What the hell did I wrote?" situation.

Cheers!

-The Dilly Chic-

Music and the soul

"Do you like music?"
"I don't know, do you like breathing?"

They're lines from a movie I can't exactly recall, but please tell me if you know them. My point is, everybody love music. When they say they don't or "well, sometimes I listen to them, but not that much", either A) They're lying or B) They haven't found their taste yet.

So those who have found their "music soulmate" should be grateful, very grateful.  I myself noticed that my taste changes variably. I used to listen to angry, lashing out at life music, then to the more mainstream side, and lately some good indie electropop/ indie bands.

My taste of music is pretty much stuck a year or so. I could never be able to keep up with everything all at once. But I enjoy this so called method better, I have more time to absorb the music, get high (non alcoholic and drug free high), listen it a couple hundred times more, and move on.

Still not moving on from these albums, they struck my soul too much, they touch my melancholic, deep silence mode too much.

I'm sure we all have some songs and artists that make us unable to move on from them (for God knows what reasons), but for me, I'm still gonna keep looking.




Cheers!
-The Dilly Chic- 

It's Sunday!

What are you doing on Sundays?

I personally choose this day to quit from the usual activities I do (not really quit, just taking a breather). I don't quit blogging or maintaining my website though, they're my babies.

When I do get bored from doing those things though, I simply move my laptop to the nearest coffee place (why do you have to be the nearest, Starbucks?!), or pick some stuff at the mall, or just catching up with some friends. This particular Sunday I might spend it to hunt a good lip gloss, though. :)


What are you doing on Sundays?



Oh, and happy Sunday, everyone! Have a great one!
-The Dilly Chic-

Problems with Short Hair

Hair issue is the most common one we face every day. Bad curl, hair fall, dandruff, and so on. That's why most women decide to chop off their hair short. Shorter hair means shorter problems right? Not really.

Even though short hair takes care of some problems, like hair fall and split ends, it doesn't solve everything. Mostly when you just have your newly cut hair, you will get rid of old hair problems, but then you realize that you have new issues to deal with.

READ MORE »

A Dash of Excitement

Do you know how it feels like taking risks and jumping and leaping towards your goal?
I felt it a couple of times in my life, and it felt good.
The blend of fear and passion is just addicting.
Most people think the hurdle comes from disapproving people. IT'S NOT. The hurdle come from yourself.
You know you don't need to listen to negative influences, but you still do.

Those who take risks have the power to change and feel change, and those who don't will remain stagnant.




Cheers!
-The Dilly Chic-

Karma is a Bitch...

Only if we are too! Respect other people the way we would demand respect from them.
Happy Sunday everyone!

Break Out From the Box, Find Your Inner Chic!

We're all different, too different, perhaps. But the common practice is that people always put us into "boxes". Popularity box, look box, racial box, financial box, among many other cardboard boxes out there. There are too many boxes and we're used to being placed inside them. It doesn't have to be that way, though. No, it SHOULD NOT be that way. Once we're being categorized to a certain level, we don't know how to break out anymore, and we lost it. BAM! We just lost ourselves, we plunged into the box and stayed there.

Open the box and get out!

When I was in middle school, I remember having fellow female friends who literally didn't care about what they wore. They have this "as long as I'm not wearing holey pants to the mall it's fine" principal. I was a lot like them back then. So I know how that felt, it felt like that was the box intended for me, so I didn't bother looking for something else. I thought that was my fate to be like that. But needless to say, it's nobody's fate to be anything. You can always do something to get away from prejudice.

So if you used to be scared to wear neon shoes with pink top, do it! Seriously! It's not intended to be chic of course, it's to help you feel different, to give you the feel that it's actually okay to be different. All you get is the useless glaring look from people while they were thinking "how could she be so brave?".

READ MORE »

Personal Insight of Online Shopping

Online stores have been around for a long time now. It first began in the 90's. Back then, people were too skeptical about buying something that they couldn't touch. Well, how could they not? After all, we have to touch a wet paint to make sure it's wet.

Or do we? I remember in the early 2000's when my friends and I were in a middle of a conversation, and one mentioned about buying a music CD online and overseas (in her defense, it was a limited edition CD not released in my country). The other chatters were doubtful of her actions, including myself back then. We were concerned over mostly the same stuff, like the condition of the item, the shipping price, the tax, the delivery time, and so on. It turned out that my friend had calculated and confirmed all of that, and that her package came just fine.

Lately, I have been having some ventures with online shopping as well. I've bought a pair of shoes from another country, another pair which was locally handmade, a pair of earphones, and a shirt. Am I satisfied?

Above average, to be honest. The shoes I bought overseas had unexpected tax upon arriving in my country, and had some problems with the soles. So those are the extra costs for not being too careful with my order. The other shoes, which were locally handmade are amazing, but they have super stiff soles that make them very rigid and hard to walk in. The earphones I bought had amazing quality at first, but busted a month later.

Thankfully the shirt is fine and it brought a great amount of satisfaction when it came to my door.

Will I be online shopping again? Yes, absolutely. Why? Even though I have to admit that there's a certain amount of relaxation that comes from window shopping, I can say that online-window shopping provides me with similar experience, sometimes even better. I don't have to spend money on gas, I don't have to dress up, I can just slouch on my desk and buy whichever suits my interest. I also can make better decisions, because I don't have to feel terrible for the salesperson waiting for me to decide which color I want for my shoes.

The drawback? It's just exactly as you think. Item doesn't look the same in real life, sizing problems, defect item, functionality, and delivery time, among many concerns.

But should our unproven (even though sometimes its proven) paranoia get in the way of the benefits we also reap? It is more comfortable to browse for items in our room after all, rather than walking or driving to the store ourselves. So, in my opinion, people who used to be concern should tear down that wall and try it. If you're disappointed, don't do it again, and if you're satisfied, do it again. Simple.

The Dilly Chic's advice: Go for it! Just remember to be smart and a little picky!








Cheers!

-The Dilly Chic-

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/syvanen/7007375511/

What Are You Wearing Right Now?

What's your purpose of your style?

Look in the mirror, that's what. But the what is perhaps much easier than the why. Why are you wearing that? Why do we wear certain outfit to school, to work, to a party, to a friend's wedding? What are we trying to achieve by wearing something?

From the day we were born until now, our fashion decisions create the style that we embrace today. What happened back then? What made you decide to buy that shirt? The first reason must be because your parents chose them for you, and you followed along the line until you're in high school (or even elementary) where you began to differentiate the cool and the fool, and your 'style' shifted.

And it kept shifting, and turning, until now. So how about we all think back to the times before our initial decision shifted, before anything change our decision to wear a certain fashion.

So, what would you wear right now?




Cheers!
-The Dilly Chic-