#WetSeal Flower Power Bomber

Three things about me:

  1. I love flowers
  2. My favorite color of all time is pink.
  3. Bomber Jackets are always a closet staple of mine every single year

So this Blush Floral Bomber checks out for me in so many ways! When my favorite store Wet Seal reached out to me about collaborating, I immediately looked through their online store and this bomber jacket screamed my name. When they actually sent it to me, I immediately knew it’d be something I’d be wearing over and over again when the cold weather hits (because heaven forbid we wear jackets in this relentless Arizona heat). Bomber jackets are generally edgier pieces of clothing, so wearing this one definitely made me feel like one of the cool girls. But the blush satin material and floral embroidery toned down the ‘bad girl’ vibes enough for me to pull it off comfortably. So if you’re one of them girly girls who love to spice up their outfits a little, this bomber is a must have in your wardrobe. They also have it in black and military green for those who aren’t too keen about the pink!

I had loads of fun working with the talented Bree Cota (check her our on insta!) to take some cute pictures of this bomber. I even got out one of my old rainbow/floral Wet Seal reflectors to complete the look. Also, isn’t it magical how the sky is blushing pink as well? AZ sunsets never fail to impress me.

View More: http://breemariephotography.pass.us/wetseal

View More: http://breemariephotography.pass.us/wetseal
White tank from Pacsun
View More: http://breemariephotography.pass.us/wetseal
Wet Seal Mirrored Sunglasses, sorta similar here.

View More: http://breemariephotography.pass.us/wetsealView More: http://breemariephotography.pass.us/wetsealView More: http://breemariephotography.pass.us/wetseal

Photo credits: Bree Cota @BreeMariePhotography

Enjoy the rest of your summer loves! See you soon!

Adventures in the 602

I was extremely fortunate to go on my very first shoot with two lovely AZ photographers this summer.

So just a little background on how I found out about the AZ photography and creative community…

When I moved here two years ago, I found myself obsessed with the photography and content featured on instagram feeds such as the Brandy Melville, Free People and Urban Outfitter feeds. And I realized that some of the photographers and models are from Arizona and literally go to the exact same university as me. And so I followed, and followed and followed the many many accounts that I stumbled upon. And I realized that all these talented people were part of a community- everyone I followed knew each other, shot with one another, created art together. And oh my gosh, I wanted to be part of that community so bad. But I was so afraid to reach out to anyone to ask if I could work with them. I am obviously no professional model, and after a failed attempt at asking a photographer who told me I didn’t have a big enough following to benefit him, and simply not having the money to book a professional shoot with him at that time, I stopped trying and just…stayed in the sidelines and admired everyones work.

But fast forward two years later, this summer, a lovely soul and photographer, Bree (@Breemariephotography),  reached out to me and connected me with another talented photographer, Dillon (@Dillon_ivory), and just like that, I was able to model in my first shoot in Central Phoenix. And the best part about the shoot was that Bree and Dillon were one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met. Which really showed me how nice the creative community in Arizona is. Here are some of the pretty pictures that they took on the first part of the shoot in which I put together a somewhat vintage, 70s-inspired outfit:

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(PC: @Dillon_Ivory)

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(PC: @Dillon_Ivory)

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(PC: @Dillon_Ivory)

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(PC: @Breemariephotography)

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(PC: @Breemariephotography)

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(PC: @Breemariephotography)

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(PC: @Breemariephotography)

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(PC: @Dillon_Ivory)

Outfit details:

-Stripped Cropped T-shirt from Pacsun (Similar here)

-Brown Suede Western Corduroy Skirt from the Kendall+Kylie line at Pacsun (Shop this skirt in Blue)

-Chokers from Forever 21

-Green Suede Hat from Forever 21 

-White Tennis shoes from Forever 21

-Sunglasses from Q Fashion

I loved shooting with Bree and Dillon and you should definitely head over to their Instagrams and check their work out! I’ll be uploading more pictures from the other parts of the shoot but you can view some of the pictures on all of our instagrams as well!

Well that concludes my first fashion/modelling/photography post. I hope you enjoyed my little back story as well:) Till next time!!

Love,

Valerie

Out and About on a Monday.

Hello lovely people of the internet!

Today was one of the more eventful summer days, not because I did anything extremely exciting or meaningful, but rather just because of the fact that I actually went out to do stuff and not stay home to mug and/or procrastinate and waste my life away. There really isn’t much to do neither are there many places to meander around  in Arizona, especially with the desert heat being nearly unbearable. But we do have only three weeks of summer break left so it is adamant that we make the most of it before school starts towards the end of the month and all hell breaks loose once again haha.

Anyways, I started off my day with an attempt to be healthy. Note the word ‘attempt’:

Breakfast

It’s basically corn flakes with cut cantaloupe, blueberries and soy milk. I usually don’t have time to have breakfast when I have classes going on (a nasty habit of mine) so it was pretty good to just be able to enjoy a simple home-prepared breakfast in the morning.

After breakfast I headed out with my Mom and brothers. A couple of people asked me on Instagram and ask.fm about the dress I wore out. I used this dress in a layout before for Wet Seal and its one of my favorite dresses this summer because of the light-weight material and daisy design. Daisies are my absolute fave. Also, I’ve been loving the open back concept this summer, coupled with a caged bralette and some nice sandals or flip flops. Here’s a closer look at the dress:

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As I’ve mentioned, this dress is from Wet Seal and the caged bralette is from Charlotte Russe. I originally saw this backless dress like that and a similar bralette at Brandy Melville, however this dress is a much more affordable version of Brandy’s Jada Dress, and the Charlotte Russe bralette has a slot for paddings, as compared to the Brandy one- the Chiyo Top, which I’ve heard does not. Personally, I do prefer having my female parts (hahah) properly supported, so the Charlotte Russe bralette does the job better for me. There’s also no Brandy outlet anywhere in Arizona so Wet Seal and Charlotte Russe are definitely my ‘go-to’ shops for comfortable and affordable clothes. I will check out the Brandy Melville stores if I ever take another trip down to Cali though!

We head out and had lunch at a Vietnamese Restaurant called King Egg Roll today. It is one of the best Asian eateries I’ve been to in AZ. Point blank. I do enjoy eating there; asian food of any kind always reminds me of home (Singapore). Here are some peekchas:

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My mom and Jordan had the famous Pho with meatballs and beef. I did try a tiny bit of my mom’s soup; it was really really good.

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Vincent and I opted for friend rice instead as the heat killed my appetite for a full bowl of hot soup and noodles. I had the Salted Fish Fried Rice, something that I used to have at the coffee shop near my flat back in SG. Although this was the Vietnamese version of the dish, it still was pretty awesome and definitely did satisfy my cravings for salted fish and rice. Oh and, I got some thai tea with boba (pearl) to compliment the rice!

We then went to the mall and several other locations before heading home for dinner. As mentioned on Instagram, my Dad, Vincent and I cooked some SG-style prawn noodles for dinner. Ok well, it was my Dad who did most of the cooking, but we helped here and there with the little things, so props to us hahah. My dad’s been craving this dish for the longest time, so I’m glad it turned out pretty well. Check it out:

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So that’s basically my day. I know this is pretty wordy and boring but I’m still trying to play around with my blogging style and all, hopefully I will get better and less naggy in time haha. Thanks for reading this and do leave a comment here or on any of my social media accounts if you have any questions or suggestions or if you just want to have a tiny chat about food, fashion or anything and everything in the world!

So there, with lots of love,

Valerie L.