Three Topmost: Casual Edition (Re-post from TMS)

Whether it’s a simple day out, a nice little date or just a laid back afternoon with friends, picking out the perfect outfit doesn't have to be so stressful. The best tip is to wear something comfy to make the day easy-breezy. But of course, "fashionable" doesn't have to be sacrificed for the sake of "comfy."

Here are six takes on CASUAL WEAR by our three favorite bloggers.

This would perhaps be Ms. Camille Co's simplest casual look. A nautical striped top paired with peach shorts and matching striped flats - an outfit accessorized with soft gold and white pieces and gave the whole "laid back" appeal.

This next look is a more edgy version of casual wear. The basic pieces are a deep blue top, jeans and leather shorts, some striking wedges, a nude hat and some gold and dark-colored accessories to bring the whole look together. 

Floral prints will always say casual like in Ms. Laureen Uy's crisp top. The plain shorts and belt go perfectly together with this. What makes this look even more special are the accessories - the unique jewelry pieces and the adorable floral wedges.

Laureen goes for the more trendy pieces for this look. A nude-based palette of colors makes the whole outfit look simple yet eye-catching and appealing.

When it comes to the genre of casual wear, the winner would definitely be Ms. Kryz Uy. In this look, she pulled together a floral corset-type top with simple shorts and striped sneakers. To make the look stand out, she added two pieces that surely made it pop - a necklace and a knitted almost floor-length cardigan. 

Here's my favorite. Paring a striped top and a red flowy skirt with teal and gold-themed accessories, Kryz wears a simple pony tail to top the whole outfit off which made the look very feminine, flirty and "easy-breezy."

LookBook.NU Dolls: Mayo Wo, Tricia Gosingtian and Anastasia Siantar (Re-post from TMS)

This time, Fad Salad presents some of its much-“hyped” dolls Mayo Wo, Tricia Gosingtian and Anastasia Siantar. Indeed, they’re the “dolls” of LookBook.NU with their very feminine and cotton candy-like takes on fashion.

Scanning the LookBook pages, Mayo's posts has always been of those that catch the little-girl-at-heart's eyes.

We just love her quirky accessories. They're such precious collections, don't you think? 

Soft and nude tones will always bring out your feminine side.

We just love her purses! They're as candy-sweet as her!

Mayo’s trademark would definitely have to be how she wears her heels.

Although it may have seemed odd for "real, live people" to wear socks under heels a few trends back, she surely shows that it’s a trend worth staying for a long time. It gives her looks their dolly appeal that makes her oh-so-unique. Check out more of her looks here or in her blog, Mellow Mayoness.

Although Tricia is more versatile than the former muse, she has still been always regarded for her doll-like appearance and looks.

In recreating Tricia's looks, mixing light and dark colored feminine pieces are your best bet. And don't forget that adorable accessory!

We love this photo of her in Versailles - like "Tricia and her doll house" Teehee!

What we love about some of her outfits is they're VERY school-friendly. Who says you can't go all preppy in style?

Here, Tricia also looks even fairy-like! Those highlights!

Hype more of this slumberdoll's looks here or browse her blog, Tricia Will Go Places.

Tricia's Japan-inspired dresses and top-and-skirt or short outfits with shoes that always tug every girl’s heartstrings make her one of Manila fashion scene’s most sought-after icons. And we know - we LOOOVE her hair!

Among the three, Jakarta’s Anastasia would have to be Fad Salad's "blogger pick of the week."

From sweet Barbie outfits like this one

To hot trendy looks like this, Anastasia shows her strength as a style icon.

Oh, those shoes.

And oh, that adorable dress and headpiece. Click here or visit her blog, Brown Platform to find out more about Anastasia.

Not only is she highly versatile in terms of style, but she also brings refreshingly adorable, interesting and sometimes even mysterious and intriguing photos look-after-look.

Watch out for more offerings by Fad Salad on these lovely ladies soon.

Co, Uy and Uy: Manila’s Three Topmost* Fashion Bloggers (Re-post from TMS)

Style is their main weapon. Inspirational confidence, they exude. Fad Salad brings you the three Pinay prides in the realm of fashion: Laureen Uy, Camille Co and Kryz Uy.

The three are actually friends even! (photo from KryzUy.com)

These women have certainly made names for themselves in the Philippine (and even the international) fashion scene. With humble beginnings, they arose and bloomed into the powerhouse fashion icons that they truly are.

Laureen Uy

Camille Co

Kryz Uy

Their common denominators:

1. Lookbook.NU, where you can find and hype the photos of all of their outfits

2. Incredibly large and unwavering groups of audiences always holding their breaths to view, praise (or envy), critique and pine for these icons’ next hot post

3. Their very own brands - Laureen's Break My Style, Camille's Coexist and Kryz's WAGW (featured more later on)

4. Of course, their undeniably striking senses of style that keeps them trendy and hot in the fashion blogosphere

Fad Salad shall feature them one-by-one (and together, too) later on, along with other stylish and even the up and coming icons and bloggers. Posts showcasing their takes on different genres shall be labeled Three Topmost.

*Break My Style, Camille Tries to Blog, and KryzUy.com are the top 3 fashion blogs listed by topblogs.ph 

Retro-esque Chic

Another quite simple solution to a dull or simple dress is adding a unique accent to it, like a belt, and maybe pulling a cardigan or blazer over it – voila! There’s chic for you.

I was trying to find a great belt that would make the dress more flattering and I ended up experimenting with this long (as in fits-my-waistline long) studded bowtie necklace. It was quite a lucky, stylish discovery!

Going for a whole conservative (‘cause the dress without any cover is quite revealing in the upper torso area and I had to meet my college professor in the university then) yet cool and still casual look (‘cause I was going out with friends after), I slipped on this vintage Benetton denim jacket.

Hunny “dressed up” that day, too, ‘cause we don’t see each other regularly like before and he wanted to be “gwapo” in one of our little day dates. That was the day I “pegged” that we were Lovechic-like. Hehe!

Hunny stylishly rides his purple Mio in this vintage helmet his dad (whom we concluded has the best tastes in accessories from shoes to sunnies) got from Amazon.

The geeky glasses are all his idea. He says he’s Effren – Clark “Effren” (his funny mocking joke for “a friend,” as Superman claims who he is when Lois asks) Kent.

Quick Outfit Post: Clean and Laidback

Nothing beats a classic white shirt in simply creating a clean and laidback aura for a look on a warm, sunny day. It even goes with anything and everything so you have lots of choices! Pair it with jeans and canvas shoes like I did (what I wore here when I came across Lovechic’s Seph and Shai), or with dip dye shorts or printed skirts and some colorful layered necklaces, and you’re instantly stylish. It’s so simple, right?

This Bayo top had sleeves that were too long and even matronly, so I folded them up to right above the elbows just to have a fresher appeal.

Got this pair of vintage sunnies from the night bazaar in Greenhills for only 120 bucks! The bangle, on the other hand, was part of a set from the Tomato holiday collection. Accented beautifully with carved details, it was still quite plain in color so I wrapped that ribbon just to give it a gold accent.

Blogger Feature: Starstruck with LoveChic's Seph and Shai

Just yesterday, I bought Thomasian shirts with my Hunny in our dear alma mater's org fair. Little did I know that I was in for a great surprise as I stumbled into the blogosphere's cutest couple ever, LoveChic's Seph Cham and Shai Lagarde. Friday the 13th turned out to be lucky for me!

Mmmkayy. I admit. I was rilly, rilly starstruck. They're the first great bloggers that I follow regularly whom I've met (cause I haven't really had any chances of going to any of their events), and they were so, so nice and accommodating! Hunny was like, "Huuuh? Sino sila?" but he still lovingly took our photo. (Thanks, babe! Sorry I went a little crazy. Haha!) Of course, I didn’t bother to ask anymore (or it may have been the adrenaline high and incredible shyness after the surprise of seeing them), but my sister saw them doing a shoot in the University’s Benavides Park or more commonly known as the “lover’s lane.” Definitely watching out for that in their blog!

So cute, aren't they? Cookies and Cream couple shirts from Me&u

True to their namesake, their style is chic as can be! Pastels, pretty stripes and other plains and printsa and cool pieces especially when it comes to accessories are all the reasons for their trendiness.

Here's one of my favorite outfits of theirs. Their choice of bright playful colors and trendy pieces surely made them stand out in the last Bloggers United bazaar.

Homegrown Kapampangans, Shai and Seph even had a stint in a local Santacruzan where Shai played Veronica. Here's one of their most adorable shots spoofing Disney's Ariel and Prince Eric.

Lovechic in Francis Libiran designing for Myth

Lovechic is not limited to style and fashion blogging. They write personal and lifestyle posts as well.

They were also the only Filipino bloggers invited to the Hong Kong Fashion Week, as Seph said in his Etcetera feature.

What makes Seph and Shai unique is natural skills in complementing each other, like any other couple can, but instead of those usual things, they complement each other in fashion as well. They both have such "chic" styles individually (as also seen in http://lookbook.nu/sephcham and http://lookbook.nu/shailagarde), but it's when they're together that they look best.

What Seph wears on a typical date

What Shai wears on a typical date

The couple also gives advices (Dear Lovechic) and hosts lots of giveaways for their tons of loving readers who they treasure so much. That's why their fan base keeps on growing and growing!

It will be impossible for me convince Hunny to do fashion shoots with me on purpose, so I was glad to find one of our random self-timer portraits taken from the back of his parked motorcycle. I call it: Dream On, Ginyn: Pegging Lovechic with Hunny. Hehehe! Toodles!

More about this day in a later post. (:

Incorporating Vintage in Casual

I’m so in love with style with contemporary takes on vintage. Incorporating vintage pieces like adorable “old school” shoes and classic tops into outfits and yielding great looks just prove the timeless appeal of some elements in fashion.

That crisp top is fairly dull and simple despite the pleats and soft plaid pattern, so I wore a chain necklace* with a hanging bead detail for an extra flair.

*A simple DIY necklace I made from the chain of a headband and the excess length of a bead necklace

I adorned those thrifted high-waist Gap shorts with a lovely brown tool belt to mix an earthy blend of colors.

I found this pair of shoes in our old closet and it completes the whole “modernly vintage” look.

Sesame Barbecue Cruncher

Usually, I stay at home alone during this limbo land-esque destiny for non-post grad students during the wait for the board exam results. Usually, too, I just buy my lunch from the local canteens. But yesterday, I decided to cook, for a change. I rilly missed the kitchen craft, and I rilly missed eating healthy as well, so I thought I’d experiment with some local ingredients. I came up with a really easy and quite affordable yet exquisitely palatable recipe using leftover barbecue from dinner the night before.

Ingredients (for 2-3 servings):

• A tablespoon of vegetable oil
• A tablespoon of butter
• A bulb of white onion, sliced
• A dash of salt and pepper
• A tablespoon of sesame oil
• 2 pork barbecues, cooked (grilled) and separated into pieces
• 3 bouquets of pechay, chopped as desired
• A handful of green beans (Baguio beans or bitsuwelas chopped as preferred)
• 2 red and 1 green bell peppers (or as many or little as desired), squared
• 2-3 pieces of tofu, quartered, seasoned (try Aji Ginisa Flavor Mix!) and fried in vegetable oil
• Optional: Red or green chili peppers, finely chopped for a spicier dish

Steps:

1. Caramelize the onion in the vegetable oil and butter with a dash of salt.
2. Add the sesame oil and sautee the barbecue pieces. Add the optional red or green chili peppers here.
3. One at a time, toss in the pechay then the beans then the bell peppers. Season with salt and pepper and/or a mix (I used the family’s favorite Aji Ginisa). You can add the bell peppers earlier, say after the sesame oil, but I added it second to last for an extra crunchy mix. Adding some water, about half a cup, can make the dish richer in sauce. Just flavor it as necessary.
4. Lastly, add the tofu. Toss a little, and serve warm paired with white rice.

And the verdict? It yields smoky, crunchy and flavor-packed bites – just a great feast for the mouth. I know it says that the recipe serves two to three people, but I was able to consume it all for myself during my lunch and my afternoon merienda. Now I know it may seem quite unhealthy, what with all the oils, but the right, healthy choices and the little portions do the trick. The dish is also highly rich in the “dark green leafy,” the variety of protein sources (meat, tofu and beans) and antioxidants from the peppers. Try it for yourselves! And don’t be afraid to experiment with other ingredients!