Brunch at Coq & Balls, It's been a while.

I've got tonnes of work, and I am not sure why I am here blogging. Haha. Whatever. So, it's been a while since I had a brunch date, an event which I now regard as a sinful indulgence, both on the tummy and the pocket.  

It was brunch at Coq & Ball. Better known as a bar and a place to chill, I didn't came in with high expectations of the food but I was wrong. We ordered the big breakfast set, The Big Coq (sounds a little vular, I know -_-) and their Eggs Royale, and wow, it was actually quite good. The interior features a raw, industrial, minimalistic feel with exposed walls, wired hanging lights. A cool place to chill. 

 

 

 

A pretty short post, but you get the point. Till the next time! Ta!

Thank you for reading!
♥ Skye Tham & Kim

Let's toast to a new beginning!

So, I have been in a rather pensive mood the past few days. Top most worry is how to transit into a successful career switch now that I've decided to plunge into a fashion online business - an industry that's competitive, cruel and most fails within the first few years. 

Thinking back, I've part-timed/interned/worked in a number of organisations, spanning across industries such as F&B, FMCG, photography events company, government agency, fashion, market research. Plenty of choices and exposure, but somehow none seems to retain my fleeting interest. I question myself, how gritty a person I am. Or that I am living in my own lala land, thinking that, one day, I will eventually find a path that's easy and makes a lot of money. I've thought about it. But no. Walking around observing, I'm afraid, afraid of being that insignificant person living in this world. Afraid of living the whole of my life, working for something that I do not personally feel invested in. So, entrepreneurship is a choice I've made and lucky, I've got fashion at my back.

3 months down the road, it isn't easy. Staring at the lack of traffic, and therefore the lack of sales, I constantly plant my minds with negative thoughts. After speaking to many, it became clear that either I was being too impatient, or that I might soon find myself among the many startups corpses. These thoughts are self-destructive and keeps replaying in my mind that I cannot fully focus on improving myself and the company. Lucky I still have A and my friends to keep myself sane all these while. Google has became my best friend, things like "how to start a successful blogshop", "why blogshop fails", "emotions that an entrepreneur has to go through", "traits of a successful entrepreneur" suddenly become common search phrases. 

Today is another, I-feel-so-lousy-day. These days, instead of forcing myself to work, which result in terribly low level of productivity, I've decided to give myself some breaks. I know that if I can pull myself together, there's a lot more things that I could do that I have not done.

As a way to start afresh and eliminate all these negative feelings, I've decided to give myself an English name - Skye. It started with letter S as I wanted it to intertwine with the letter S in DeStylez. 

Now, let's toast to a new beginning :) 

Thank you for reading!
♥ Skye Tham & Kim

First attempt.

I am still not used to writing a blog. In fact, I've started and ended numerous numbers of blogs in the past decades. This time round, I shall make this work albeit very well spaced apart updates. haha.

I wanted to post some photos on my recent bowling trip, but realised that the careless me didn't check whether the photos were saved in my laptop and later (to my horror!) formatted the SD card :(( Rummaging through my unedited sets of photos, I decided to do a bit of work and have this series processed. This set of photos is especially meaningful because it was our very first attempt at creating a lookbook series using my Kimberly (i.e. nikon D7000). Thinking of which, this set has been taken quite some time back.

Anyways, it's time for this set of photos to see daylight. Presenting to you... our very first attempt. Enjoy!

I'm still finding difficulty in editing the photos so that the photos are consistent (in terms of colours, mood, sharpness) and that they flow together. Not sure if this blog ever gets read by anyone, but any photography and post-processing tips are definitely welcomed :)

Thank you for reading!
♥ ZM & Kim

Hi. Let's go back in time.

"Hi. Let's go back in time" is DeStylez's very first outdoor lookbook. This set of photos happened by pure coincidence.

A while ago, I had the honour of meeting this lady, Cheryl, who applied to be DeStylez's model. At that point, we knew that DeStylez was going to go for a geek chic look. It would be a look that is most appropriate in showcasing style and confidence. Geek chic is not an easy look to pull off and can look real nerdy if not done correctly. While we did not choose Cheryl in the end, we did end up with another form of collaboration. 

I bought myself a DSLR a couple of months ago, and named it Kimberly. It was a name I always wanted to give myself after watching Power Rangers but decided against. I know this is so besides the point but it's important that everyone knows the name of my DSLR, something which I always wanted but had no money to buy. 

Fast forward today, I have already brought Kimberly out on a number of occasions.

"Hi. Let's go back in time" lookbook is another baby of Kimberly. I have to say I was very happy with the output and can't wait to share it. This lookbook is only going up on DeStylez early March but I can't wait already. So, here I am, sharing some of the photos which are beautiful but may not appear in the lookbook.

And yes, these retro vintage pieces are launching on March 13 and 27 respectively on DeStylez.

Enjoy and thank you for reading!
♥ ZM & Kim

 

 

 

 

 

Singapore Air Show 2014, where we fly on Chinook and planes look like dummies.

It was Singapore airshow last weekend and we were lucky to get our hands on the ticket and even balloted for a ride on Chinook! Till date, I can't believed that there were 80,000 tickets made available for the weekend for Singapore airshow and it was a sold out.

A little profile about the Singapore airshow

Singapore Airshow is Asia's largest and one of the most important aerospace and defence exhibitions in the world. It is where the latest state-of-the-art systems and equipment, together with their related technologies and developments, are displayed by top aerospace companies around the world. 2014 marks the third edition of the biennial event.

With security checks and having to battle through a large crowd, the transfer trip to the show took quite a while. We were lucky enough to still be able to catch the aerobatic show by Singapore's RSAF Black Knights. The show was not bad, but not amazing. While I would like to support our very own local talent, I actually prefer the aerial show by South Korea's ROKAF Black Eagles later in the afternoon. Not a fair comparison, because the Black Eagles probably get more air time practice, but as an audience, you can only compare what you see. 

Performance by RSAF's Black Knights. The sun was super glaring.

You suddenly realised that EVERY Singaporeans seem to own a DSLR.

The event space was HUGE. A quick Google revealed that the site boasted a 40,000 square metres of fully air-conditioned exhibition hall, 2,000 parking lots for trade visitors and motorists as well as 100,000 square metres of outdoor space for exhibitions and functions. Being the usual bad-at-directions person, I didn't realised it was so near to the terminals. 

The new F35. Very sleek.

 

This has got to be Stacey's favourite plane - Osprey! The nacelles can be rotated, 90 degrees for a more fuel efficient, higher speed capability or at 80 degrees to quickly achieve high altitude and speed.

We had to queue for about an hour each to get onto the planes for photography. Given the limited amount of time, we had to be strategic in our decision and decided on the Apache and a cool F16 fighter jet.

It felt like a theme park. We had to queue for the ticket to go board the planes, which took us about an hour each.

The F16 fighter jet. Noticed the lady on the plane? Apparently she's the second female pilot in Singapore! *Salutes*

 

   I wanted to take a photo of this because this is what we are going to ride on later! Chinook! 

 

We had to ballot for tickets to get the tickets for the ride and I have to say that we were really lucky. It was another shuttle ride to the place to the board the Chinook, and we got to ride through the restricted area. No photography was allowed, but just looking at what's inside the restricted area is already an eye-opener by itself. There's street soccer and basketball courts, and plane shelters that you only get to see in movies like Pearl Harbour. 

On board the Chinook, where they lowered the loading ramp to reveal a magnificent landscape view.

The inside of a Chinook.

And then we were back on land after being airborne for 30 minutes. This time, to catch the next round of aerobatics flying show.

Performance by South Korea's ROKAF Black Eagles.

The Black Knights having their eyes on the Black Eagles.

An arrow through the heart? Aww~

Time flies, and it was already late in the afternoon. Seeing the queue heading back to Expo MRT. We decided to spend some time in the exhibition halls in hope that the crowd will lessen by the time we join the queue.

Despite having to suffer from sunburns and having asked a lot of what-appears-to-be-dumb questions to my friends, e.g. why can't an aeroplane land on a helipad, preconception that planes parked underground in a desert so that the planes do not get covered during times of sandstorm, why can't planes be loaded with more fire weapon, etc., it was, all in all, an eventful day.

Thank you for reading.

♥ ZM & Kim