Orient express

Take one look at the foreign magazines this season and you’ll notice the pages practically filled with alabaster-skinned, slanted- or doe-eyed models. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that fashion’s emerging power players are shifting towards the East. Oriental model Hye Parks is a visible presence on the major catwalks and landed the Cavalli campaign back in ’05; now it’s Dong Dji and Zhou Xun for Miu Miu and Du Juan for Louis Vuitton and YSL – the crème de la crème of advertising campaigns, and the hardest to book. On the other side of the coin, young designers such as Doo-ri Chung, Derek Lam, Alexander Wang, Wenlan Chai and Andrew Gn are just some of the Asians hitting it big on the international fashion scene. Not only have they become the darlings of editors and stylistas, Doo-ri Chung even won the prestigious CFDA’s Perry Ellis award for emerging talent this year. It’s not surprising that this fascination with the orient is trickling down to our part of the world. So this week we demystify Euro-Jap street style, tell you where to get the J-pop hairstyle you secretly wished you had and show how to achieve oriental glamour.

Behind The Lens

Chuck Reyes, photographer’s assistant

YSTYLE: What are you wearing?

CHUCK: I am wearing a striped long-sleeved polo shirt that my girlfriend got me at the ukay ukay in Baguio, a great pair of Viktor jeans, a vintage vest I got in Long Beach, Onitsuka Tiger hightops, and a belt I got in a thrift store in L.A.

Describe your personal style.

Refined decadence; a little left of center, but nothing totally outrageous.

What/who are your influences?

It was really my girlfriend Samantha that got me into men’s fashion. She’s really into fashion and has amazing style. I guess rock n’ roll is a big influence too – the Beatles, Paul Weller, the Stones, Bowie, the Sex Pistols, and a lot of bands today like the Strokes, Interpol, Kings of Leon, Franz Ferdinand, and whatever band Pete Doherty’s in now. I am also influenced by The Swedes who are a stylish lot, as well as H&M, Filippa K, ACNE and Cheap Monday. Oh, and Ikea, too.

Where do you shop?

I don’t do a lot of shopping over here, but I try to look for more out-of-the-way places. When I find something really unique I get it. In L.A. I really got into vintage and thrift stores especially the ones along Melrose Avenue. But there was this one place way out in Long Beach, a vintage store that would empty out their stockrooms once a month into this big room where there would literally be mounds of clothes piled up. This kind of thing might turn a lot of people off, but it was fun: like Easter Egg hunting but dustier.

Name one thing in your closet that’s irreplaceable.

A pair of brown cap-toe brogues that my lolo gave me. He had it custom-made when he was in England years and years ago, you can still even read the cobbler’s measurements under the insole.

Sweet! Style seems to run in the family. Speaking of which, your look complete with skinny jeans and a combination of stripes really rocks. This is not an easy feat. How did you pull it off? Any tips for guys who’d like to do the same but are too clueless to try?

If you think it’s cool, do it. I think guys should try out the skinny jeans thing. Get it cut low, wear the inseam a little longer than you normally would so it bunches up around the ankles, and get it in a raw denim so it fades naturally. I’m tired of seeing all these faded, baggy boot-cut jeans everywhere. Guys shouldn’t be afraid of wearing more fitted clothes. And maybe try wearing something aside from just sneakers. The sneaker culture is cool and everything, but a good boot or wingtip makes things more interesting, even with just jeans and a T-shirt. It keeps things from looking too predictable. For the stripes, I didn’t really notice that I wore them together but they’re all of different gradations so I guess it works.

Working as a photographer’s assistant, does doing all these shoots affect your style?

You always hear that behind the camera things aren’t too glamorous, that it’s all hectic. But I’ve found that when the camera starts clicking, there’s a quiet elegance in the whole process, where so many creative minds, from the makeup artists to the stylists to the models and finally the photographer, come together to create a single image. It’s really quite inspirational.

Hair Apparent

Ark Salon at 2/f-E Lydia Bldg, 39 Polaris St. Bel-Air, Makati (tel. 898-2500) is the new place to be.

Did you notice that most Japanese and Koreans always have ultra-hip and perfect coifs? Well, you too can have this for yourself. Tucked in a small salon in front of Alba’s restaurant in Makati is this cool hairstylist-cum-surfer that loyal clients swear by. Shin Gi Jin, or Mr. Shin, trained in Toni and Guy Japan and has been cutting hair for almost eight years. He specializes in layered and lightweight-looking cuts that still looks great even after you go home and wash you hair. Moreover, he gets a lot of clientele because, if requested, he can make the face appear smaller through his techniques. I heard about him from a friend who got this fantastic haircut, so naturally, I hunted him down and it was pretty cool. Through his translator, Deborah, he first offers your suggestions based on your face and body structure, then he snips away for around 20 minutes for women and 10 minutes for men – if you’re a guy and you’re looking for a place to get that hip tousled look, then this is the place for you.

Apart from the fantastic cut, this is one of the few if not the only salon that carries and uses Korean products for their treatments, formulated specifically for Asian hair, which has a different texture and is thicker than Caucasian’s. They’re also the only ones that have volume rebonding where hair is guaranteed not to look limp even after rebonding. Another bonus is the stacks of Japanese and Korean fashion magazines for you to peruse at your pleasure. A cut retails for P400 (men) and P500 (women).

Shu Uemura Filigree Collection

In the book turned movie Memoirs of a Geisha, Mameha tells Sayuri that a true geisha can stop a man in his tracks with a single look. For those who want to achieve this feat, fortunately for us we have Shu Uemura’s Filigree collection sans the white oshiroi. The Filigree collection possesses a seductive, old-world Tokyo elegance inspired by intricate craftsmanship and sensitivity to nature and beauty. There are two sets of color crayons that come in limited sets of three autumnal shades – you can use these for eyes, cheeks, face and body just in case you get inspired to go all-out on the oriental theme. The less adventurous can try the pressed eyeshadow that gives just the right amount of color without being too loud. For the cheeks, the two shades available are perfect for Asian skin tones giving you a warm healthy radiant glow. Finish it off with a glossy color for the lips that’s available in two of this season’s hottest color trends.