Anton Miranda

Michelle’s Debut Shoot

Two months of no posts have probably turned this blog barren but just before it hits its third month, here goes one of eight very delayed posts. Laziness aside, I’ve actually been pretty busy the last two months—juggling finals, the usual schoolwork and planning my legalization bash which was held last October 6(to be blogged soon, I hope) but with my second semester just starting, here’s hoping I actually get to blogging on a more regular basis. I really did miss you, Tumblr.

Last July(I get it, it’s a late post, quit judging), my cousin Michelle asked me to style her Parisian-themed debut photo shoot over at Cafe 1771. Being one of my closest cousins, I already had a clear idea of Michelle’s personal style and how to incorporate the Parisian feel into it.

That day, I decided to experiment a bit and inject some downtown street style with a bit of hip hop into what I wore, quite a difference in terms of comparing it with my usual looks. One more good thing about this look is that it’s perfect for styling because of its comfort and low maintenance. Canvas sneakers for easy movement, light, removable layers if it gets too hot and a cap just in case the rain decides to make an entrance—which it did. This also counts as one of those lazy day looks as proven by my scruffy neck in the sixth photo because c’mon, we all have those “too-lazy-to-shave” days and this was one of them. Again, do not judge, here’s what I wore:

• Khaki baseball cap-Dockers
• Black t-shirt-Lacoste
• Gray cardigan-Massimo Dutti
• Camouflage print chinos-Dockers
• Brown braided leather wristband-Divisoria
• Brown wooden beads-Baguio
• Black leather wristband w/ skulls-Baguio
• White canvas sneakers-Converse

Introducing my new school/gym bag and styling kit. Delicious, cherry red leather, slightly beat up(after purchase, obviously) to perfection and lots of room to fill. My satchel says thanks since I won’t be overstuffing it anymore.

Michelle and I decided to prepare her(and her mom’s) things for the shoot layouts the day before.

For the shoot, I decided to do three daytime-themed layouts focusing on a lot of feminine details(Michelle’s trademark) like lace, pastels, florals etc. and two evening-themed layouts with a more cosmopolitan and urban vibe, while trying to keep the Parisian feel intact all through out. Unfortunately, I arrived a bit late, just when they finished the first layout so I couldn’t take any BTS shots of the first one.

For the second look, the focus was mainly on a nude palette with gold details via the shoes and accessories. I wanted it to look mature with the blazer and pencil skirt pairing but still youthful with the crochet top.

The third look was very Lolita-inspired, especially with the socks and heels combination. Since the whole look basically focused on a black and white palette, I let her wear lace-on-lace to make it more interesting and add texture as well and topped the whole thing off with her mom’s diamond brooch which I had pinned on her collar and a gold wristwatch to give it that vintage feel.

Bulldog clips, a stylist’s best friend.

For the fourth look, which was the first evening look and also the most French, I got inspiration from classic garconne/”French boy” style using an oversized tuxedo blazer, a buttondown shirt and pencil skirt, added in pointed Mary Jane boots and a beaded beret to make it a little more feminine.

Brought in Abby to help out last minute, the girl can do wonders with hair.

For the last look, I wanted it to be a lot more mature compared to the previous ones with an edgy, cosmopolitan Euro vibe. The dress, originally with mid-length sleeves, was already great on its own but I decided to do some adjustments using masking tape to turn it into an asymmetrical dress just to show a little more skin, topped it off with a leather trench and a chunky necklace to give it a polished edge.

The shoot lasted around four hours and turned out successful! Thanks to Michelle for getting me to style and Abby for helping me out, credits go to Robert Lester for the great photos which I’ll be posting here soon.

Anonymous asked: hey man! im a freshman from enderun and heard you're transferring schools? sucks cause my friends and i would always see you in school always dressed up and preppy(casual days obviously) with mika wakamatsu and the rest of your group. well we kinda look up to you guys plus we need more well dressed guys in school! anyhow, good luck w/ your new school man. enderun'll miss you.

First off, sorry for not replying early haha! This question was actually sent three months ago while I was still enrolling for SoFA but just decided to post it now so as not to spoil the announcement in my last post.

So yeah, thanks a lot! Really appreciate the kind words, man. First week in SoFA and I already started missing the old campus and I still do up to now but, I gotta get used to the new environment. It’s good to know that you guys actually care about dressing up, one of my plans after design school is to actually help make menswear boom here in the Philippines so it’s great knowing that a lot of guys are opening up to it little by little. Anyway, I still make a point to visit Enderun(and its events!) every so often so next time you see me, show yourself! Thanks again!

Iconic

If I had to label one of my posts “special”, this post would be it. I usually try to veer away from any emotional posts, this being a style blog and not one of those many nooks in cyberspace filled up by endless ranting and typewritten angst, but the content in this post just feels too important not to blog about—similar to how our moms keep photos of our naked, one-year old selves, they store it, wait a couple years, look back and the embarrassment, er, memories are still kept safe and sound in a hard-bound album, except this time, it’s in a Tumblr archive . Call me sentimental.

It started out two years ago when I met one of my best friends slash food trip buddies, Mikha. We’d eat out literally every week and when we got really close, I decided to invite her for afternoon tea at Manila Pen—a personal tradition I’ve been doing, either by myself or with family and/or very close friends, every month for as long as I can remember(if you follow me on Twitter, you’d know). Our plans always failed, mainly because she was always too lazy to head to Makati from the Fort. One day, I texted her a week in advance inviting her again except this time, I was dead serious cause I had something very important to tell her and I wanted everything to be special.

Keeping things special, I made it a point to dress up that day in something very close to my personal style. In my opinion, nothing speaks Ivy League more than a classic navy blazer with brass buttons, pretty much the most iconic piece of all-American prep style, pair that with a crisp buttondown, chinos and a great pair of shoes and, man, I guarantee you’ll be looking great! Luckily, my mom’s an avid men’s watch collector so after the right amount of begging, she finally lent me her black Panerai Luminor Marina, damn handsome watch if you ask me. Here’s what I wore:

• Navy blazer w/ brass buttons-Ralph Lauren
• Green plaid buttondown shirt-Brooks Brothers
• Khaki chinos-Ralph Lauren
• Watch w/ black alligator leather strap-Panerai
• Brown leather satchel-The Cambridge Satchel Company
• Chestnut brown brogues-Massimo Dutti

Thankfully, the plan pushed through and after two hours of waiting, Mikha arrived fresh from a TVC casting looking not the least bit tired. Apparently, after the casting, she ditched all her plans that night to make time so I guess the wait was worth it.

Panerai for the gent, Cartier for the lady. Wrist drool.

As expected, everything went perfect.

So what was so important that I couldn’t discuss with Mikha online or through the phone? Well, to those who still don’t know, I’ve left my former school, Enderun Colleges, to take up fashion design and merchandising over at School of Fashion and the Arts(SoFA). After a truckload of heavy thinking and weighing things out, SoFA seemed like the better way to keep my future plans on track. Enderun was amazing and I’m never forgetting all the great memories I had there but, thinking about the future, SoFA just seemed more practical and feasible to work with. Nonetheless, it’s good to know that even after leaving, I still have the same set of great friends from Enderun who I still hang with up to now, almost like I never transferred.

So now that I’m a legitimate fashion student, that means no more uniforms and dress codes, thus more look posts! That is, if I can actually get to writing them.

Philippine Fashion Week Holiday Collection 2012-Day 2

For the second day of Philippine Fashion Week, we attended the 7:30 p.m. show featuring SM Department Store and SM Ladies’ Fashion.

I decided to go for something dressier during the second day so I opted to wear a bowtie in a classic repp stripe. That, paired with a white buttondown and a pair of khaki chinos equates to classic Ivy League style and don’t get me wrong, there’s definitely no mistake in that, but since I was in the mood to break the look a bit that day, I added in a fatigue jacket to give this rather refined look a rugged, military edge. One thing I also wanna show here is the versatility of the bowtie. Most people usually associate it with formalwear but the bowtie isn’t limited to just that. With the right clothes to pair it with(and let’s not forget the formality of the bowtie itself), it’s quite easy to dress it down and treat it as something casual. Here’s what I wore:

• Camouflage print fatigue jacket-Army surplus
• White buttondown shirt-JC Buendia
• Red/navy repp stripe bowtie-Brooks Brothers
• Tortoise shell wayfarer glasses-Ray-Ban
• Brown leather belt-Jack Nicklaus
• Brown braided leather wristband-Divisoria
• Brown leather wristband-Divisoria
• Brown wooden beads-Baguio
• Dark brown wooden beads-Baguio
• Khaki chinos-Ralph Lauren
• Brown leather satchel-The Cambridge Satchel Company
• Chestnut brown brogues-Massimo Dutti

The first segment of the show featured SM Ladies’ shoe line, Parisian, with models in clear, plastic clothing, probably to give more emphasis on the footwear. Again, excuse the crappy photos.

Some of our local bloggers representing SM Ladies’ came out and walked the ramp.

Camille Co

Patricia Prieto

Alyssa Lapid

Lissa Kahayon

Laureen Uy

Starting off with printed swimwear to monochromatic and color block power dressing to loose, sequined, 70’s-inspired pieces, you can really see how SM tries to widen their choices to cater to a variety of women’s styles. Trend-wise, just like The Ramp, they also seem to be very informed and as for pricing? It’s common knowledge that with SM, you can’t go wrong with affordability.

Eyeing the red jacket a la James Dean and the navy/white tribal knit that would look amazing if something like it were made for men.

Philippine Fashion Week Holiday Collection 2012-Day 1

We attended the first day of Philippine Fashion Week featuring The Ramp Crossings, the only show that day actually.

For the first day of Fashion Week, I went for something very nautical making use of a classic navy-white-yellow color palette together with Breton stripes. Instead of wearing expected white/khaki chinos, I went with jeans since it gave the look some ruggedness and a little more character. I normally avoid wearing the same colors together in my shirt and pants/shorts because the colors usually blend and you end up looking like you’re wearing a jumpsuit but since they were shades apart and of different fabrics, it didn’t give off that effect, and to keep the overall color palette in place, I kept it neutral in the shoe and accessory department. Here’s what I wore:

• Navy buttondown shirt-Gucci
• Navy/white Breton striped t-shirt-MUJI
• Yellow v-neck sweater-Zara
• Brown braided leather belt-Ralph Lauren
• Brown leather wristband-Divisoria
• Brown braided leather wristband-Divisoria
• Brown leather wristband w/ ship helm-Baguio
• Brown wooden beads-Baguio
• Blue jeans-Marks and Spencer
• Brown penny loafers-Cole Haan

Roy Macam, Alyanna Martinez, Vicky Magno and Randz Manucom

Oh, and excuse the bad photos. I don’t know a thing about my camera’s settings, maybe except how to turn on the flash.

The show mainly focused on sheer skirts and blouses, sky high wedges and a lot of peplum for the ladies while loud prints and bright colors were the focus on their men’s collection. For a local brand like The Ramp, it was impressive seeing them so well-informed on global trends and incorporating them to their line, one more bonus is that their clothes are set at quite reasonable prices making them very affordable for our local market.

Bumped into my cousin Michelle, with her friends, Katrina and Annika.

Alyanna Martinez Interns, Summer 2012 Edition.

Lumianation

Okay, first things first.

It’s been more than a month since my last legit blog post but with so much things going on(no joke, will be blogging about that soon as well), finding the time to write an entry and even more gruesome than that, finding someone to take my outfit shots, wasn’t exactly number one on my to-do list but finally, after finding some time on a rainy afternoon at Edsa Shangri-la’s lobby, here I am about to type away the first of many very delayed blog entries. So basically, to those who’ve actually been waiting, my apologies. The informal blogging hiatus ends here with this blog entry which was supposed to be due last June.

After a quick shoot for a magazine, us interns headed home to prepare for that night’s event, Lumianation, the launch of Nokia’s new Lumia phone over at Bonifacio High Street Central.

Unfortunately, that night’s dress code was my weakness—all black with a hint of color. Being a slave to dress codes(and my friends can attest to that), I immediately grabbed the dressiest piece of black clothing I had which was my peak lapel tuxedo and violated all terms of its formality to dress it down for the not-so-formal event. I ditched the white buttondown for a striped t-shirt, traded black lace-up oxfords and black socks for suede boat shoes and to add on to the style deconstruction, topped it off with some very casual wristwear. Rules usually say don’t do brown and black together but considering all the violations I’ve made, this look is a criminal in its own right. Here’s what I wore:

• Black peak lapel tuxedo-JC Buendia
• Navy/white Breton t-shirt-MUJI
• Brown braided leather wristband-Divisoria
• Brown leather wristband-Divisoria
• Brown wooden beads-Baguio
• Hunter green suede boat shoes-Zara

My co-interns, Ria Cajanding, Randz Manucom, Alex Natividad and Vicky Magno

The Traveling Closet x Love Schues Giveaway

Here’s something for all the ladies out there.

The Traveling Closet, one of the brands I’ve featured here a couple of times, is celebrating their anniversary this June and as part of their celebration, they’ve teamed up with Love Schues, a Singaporean-based women’s shoe brand and are giving away a pair to one of you lucky readers.

As you can see, their designs are pretty basic making them really versatile and easy to wear, not to mention they look great!

Back to the contest, if you wanna win a pair, all you have to do is follow these simple mechanics:

1. Like The Traveling Closet on Facebook

2. Like Love Schues on Facebook; you can also check out more of their collections there as well.

3. Follow The Traveling Closet on Twitter

4. Tweet this: “I want free shoes from @antonmiranda x @travelingcloset ‘s Love Schues giveaway!”

Easy. To keep things fair, I’ll be choosing the winner via RandomGenerator. This giveaway will only last till Friday, June 29, 2012, 10pm so go follow and tweet ASAP! Good luck!

Anonymous asked: how can i put a title on photos??

Is this question legit?