We're Back!

Bijou Bazaar's back after it's long haitus from the 'pop up/guerilla/indie bazaar' scene y'all!

Let's start 2010 with a bang, shall we?

xoxo

Mama Do by Pixie Lott (Acoustic)

Have a good weekend! :o)

xoxo

VOTE FOR US, y'all!

Psst! It's almost the end of the year now + it's time to V.O.T.E!!!

We are a little bit shy to announce this but we are nominated on 3 itsy cutesy tiny awards. Nonetheless, 'twas rather humbling to see the list of nominees for those awards.

If you feel a little generous towards us (+ would like to push us to organise another installment soon) + would like to vote for us ... by all means, PLEASE DO SO ... VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

Vote for us under the Lifestyle category for 'Bazaar You Don't Wanna Miss' - http://sites.tonguechic.com/ticawards/05-lifestyle.php#disqus_thread

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! ... thanks very much! :o)

Next, vote for us, again, under the Life&Atyle category for 'Favourite Bazaar/Flea Market' - http://sites.klue.com.my/bestof2009/category-life-and-style.php

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! ... thanks very much! :o)

This, you can't vote because the closing date was 30 November 2009, that's like yesterday. The work horse behind Bijou Bazaar was nominated for Cosmopolitan magazine Fun Fearless Fabulous 2009.

The awesome Nik Erwan Roseli is designing for her at the awards luncheon this weekend. Will share the images from the luncheon. ;o)

Thank you, Cosmopolitan!

Thank you, KLue!

Thank you, Tongue in Chic!

You guys have been real supportive throughout our existence, We heart YOU long time! :o)

*bear hug*

Free Me - Joss Stone

Happy Monday, peeps! :o)

xoxo

Swine Flu Style

Credits to Trendhunter

These photos speak for themselves. Simple. D.I.Y that prevents you from swine flu.

Let your mind, imagination and creativity flow. Stay healthy and fabulous!

xoxo

milliedevotee

McQueen Reptiled

This has to be my favourite fashion show yet since Chanel Spring Summer 2009. It's so stunningly beautiful. Started off with great visual effects, Raquel Zimmerman, lying on the sand with snakes! Who wouldn't be excited looking at that? Naked, I might add.
Then, the models walked out. What I first noticed were those killer shoes!!! I don't even know how they managed to walk in that, but it's gorgeous, I would totally wear those if there weren't so high. 
A lot of the collection were short dresses, reptile-patterned with so many different textures. It was beautifully structured with a belled-like silhouette. Not forgetting those hair, giant creature constructed hair. It goes perfectly well with the rest. Seems like they're mysterious creatures in a serene world, with the song, the background and the way they walked.
I really hope High Street stores will offer us something wearable from this collection. I guess will just have to wait until next year! Hurts, I know.
In the meantime, enjoy the video guys! Breathtaking. 
xoxomillie devotee

Credits to www.coutorture.com

Love, Peace and LOL ...

Pop up Fashion Show

London Fashion Week will remain the preserve of A-listers and journalists. But at the pop-up style event - 'The People's Catwalk', which is part of London High Street Fashion week, commuters had front row seats as models paraded down Oxford Street before heading to Tottenham Court Road and travelling in style to Marble Arch Tube for the world's first fashion show on a moving underground train.

The show, which started at 10am on 7th September, was part of a sequence of surprise 'pop up' fashion shows to promote new autumn clothing ranges by Selfridges, House of Fraser, Debenhams, Next, River Island, Marks & Spencer and Uniqlo and John Lewis. The show started at 10am, missing rush hour, and lasted 20 minutes, much longer than regular shows, which often last for under 10 minutes despite hours of waiting.

How rad is that?

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri

Hey peeps!

We would like to take this opportunity to wish all of our Muslim friends a Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Eid Mubarak. Maaf zahir dan batin.

We hope you'll have a good time with your loved ones.

And we'd like to leave you with this video clip ... make your influence positive.

May our Aidilfitri be blessed with love, joy and forgiving. :o)

Happy holidays!

xoxo

Final Wednesday

Finally, this Wednesday will be our last berbuka rendezvous @ CapSquare. I'm with a mixed feeling of happiness + sadness + nervousness, etc. Happy because it is going to be raya soon ... w00t! w00t! ... sad because Ramadhan is a wonderful month, and we're leaving it soon and nervous because I don't know what to wear for Raya!!!! It would be easier if I were one of them models in looklet.com.

*wink, wink*

For this final installment of Wednesday Berbuka Rendezvous, joining us will be Cosmic, a brand from Bandung which honestly is new to me, but I always like the independent labels from Bandung. The peeps over there just have good eyes for design. I might end up shopping again this Wednesday!

This will be the last installment before our secret project which is planned on 31 October, did I say that out load and overly clear? Hmm ...

Come on people, before we go off for raya, let's all have our berbuka or rather, iftar, together! ... and of course shop together gether too!

*Iwan-G*

Pretend Play

Folks!

We found this cool application online where we get to pretend play a fashion stylist + we're hooked since day one! This was our first wardrobe styling project. ;op

Happy Friday + another loOOOoooOooong weekend y'all!

xoxo

Wednesdays Berbuka Rendezvous

Sup y'all!

:op

How's Ramadhan been treating you so far?

We're repeating last Ramadhan's crazy move @ Menara Hap Seng but this year it's in CapSquare. We figured the traffic would be horrendous this Ramadhan after work so we considered a tie up with a berbuka puasa buffet in the heart of KL (so that you have an excuse not to battle in the traffic jam) for this year's Ramadhan Souq ... echeh! So if you don‘t want to be seen in the same clothes as everyone else, ditch the high street and head to you know where. ;o)

You can berbuka puasa @ Bunga Serai Cafe, CapSquare KL, with over 20 lauk kampung, accompanied by 'alunan muzik traditional'. Ramadhan Buffet RM 29 pax. A party of 5 or more gets 10% when reservation is made a day before. For reservation, call 014.669.3073 016.246.8242.

If they are fully book, there are other restaurants and cafes as well. You can ring CapSquare's concierge desk at 03.2697.9718.

Join us on Wednesdays?

How to get there? Just go to this Google Map's link - Map to CapSquare

xoxo

Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine

An interesting fan made video.

Happy Monday peeps!

xoxo

We'll be digging it all @ CapSquare

Do a little shopping or get a tarot card reading, we hope to see you there! :o)

It's tomorrow y'all!

xoxo

May the two souls rest in peace; Farrah Fawcett + Micheal Jackson

Never Can Say Goodbye - The Jacksons 5

McTega Jewelry: When Science Meets Fashion

You folks know how much we love the unconventional. Imagine our excitement when we stumbled upon work by two Los Angeles based friends, who met during their internship with Rodarte, under the brand McTega Jewelry.

Sarah McLellan and Kristina Ortega have jewelry design down to a science, literally. The former pre-med and microbiology students, respectively, discovered they were more interested in fashion than fermentation. Inspired by organic chemistry, the duo use materials like polyester resin and polypropylene (excuse the nerd talk), and inject molding to handcraft creative and surreal necklaces no fashion grad could cook up! From animals gilded in gold, to chunks of crystal and amorphous glass-like plates with colourful hexagons.

Geniuses ey?

Says Kristina: "Science is our point of departure, not our destination".

Check them out at McTega folks!

See you there this weekend!

Acoustic session on Sunday, 3 - 6 pm by

+ Tashya Basir

+ Iylia Fahmi

+ Ain Zulkifly

Iwan-G

"Bitter Heart" - Zee Avi

Happy Monday! :o)

This Weekend!

Lazy Oaf

I would think it is safe to presume that most of you reading would rather be dead than to be seen in the same clothes as another person, hence us ditching the malls + high street labels + frequenting the independent boutiques + independent bazaars.

OK, I think you'd be able to guess where I'm heading now ... :op ... albeit am not featuring a local talent this time around but am sharing a British independent label, which I've been stalking for ages now - Lazy Oaf.

An innocent and cheery illustration style mixed with a palate of pastel and primary colours, Lazy Oaf is real bad-hair-day clothing; you won’t have to worry about your hair as everyone will be too busy fawning over your t-shirt and demanding to know where you got it from. The bright cutesy designs will melt the cold robot hearts of even the grumpiest among us. OK, if you ever stumble upon Simon Cowell, even if it's in your dreams, make sure you're wearing one of Lazy Oaf's. :op

The London based Lazy Oaf was born in 2001 and raised by the idle doodler Her Royal Oafness Gemma Shiel, who started out on a market stall in Spitalfields, the East End of London. The company is made up of a team of lovely ladies, half working in their studio in Shoreditch + the other half who work in their shop just off Carnaby Street. :o)

Oogle their online shop now: http://www.lazyoaf.co.uk/!

Hot Air Balloon Sunday

As you all are aware of, we're taking a break in April from any weekend organising. It's all paperwork for us for the past month but on the 2 + 3 May weekend, we'll be back.

Since we're too used to working during weekends, we're restless + had decided to have a go at a hot air balloon experience on Sunday morning, albeit thetered air balloon 'flying'. :op

w00t! w00t! anyway. ;o)

A little Wikipedia-ed history: The hot air balloon is the oldest successful human-carrying flight technology. On November 21, 1783, in Paris, France, the first manned flight was made by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d'Arlandes in a hot air balloon created by the Montgolfier brothers.

A hot air balloon has three essential parts: the burner, which heats the air; the balloon envelope, which holds the air; and the basket, which carries the passengers.


Hot air ballooning is a participatory sport; you just can’t do it alone. That's the participants helped in setting up the balloon envelope.

The participants went propping up the basket next. The basket holds the passengers, propane tanks and navigation equipment. Most hot air balloons use a wicker basket for the passenger compartment. Wicker works very well because it is sturdy, flexible and relatively lightweight. The flexibility helps with balloon landings. Wicker material flexes a little, absorbing some of the energy. Even so, during landing you're supposed to bend your legs to absorb the shock.

A hot air balloon is partially inflated with cold air from a gas-powered fan, before the propane burners are used for final inflation.

It was a team effort; both the instructors + students, old + young chipped in to inflate the hot air balloon.

Apparently, to fly a hot air balloon, you'll need a Pilot License + during flying you'll have to be regularly in touch with the local Air Traffic Control + the ground crew. This is because even the most experienced pilot doesn't have complete control over the balloon's flight path. Usually, wind conditions give the pilot very few options. Consequently, you can't really pilot a hot air balloon along an exact course. Unlike flying an airplane, hot air balloon piloting is largely improvised, moment to moment. For this reason, some members of a hot air balloon crew have to stay on the ground, following the balloon by car to see where it lands. Then, they can be there to collect the passengers and equipment. So there will be a lot of communications going on and the pilot regularly used his walkie talkie and handphone to coordinate with his ground crew.

Would love to fly on a hot air balloon one day, but will skip piloting it though. ;o)

Errr ... too much writing serious paper is making me write a report-esque account of the experience. D'oh! :op

We'll be seeing you on 2 + 3 May 2009 @ Jeumpa D'ramo, between 10 am - 6 pm ya?

xoxo

"Nerds in Love" by Fergus Brown

www.myspace.com/fergusbrown

Love is All Around

We had the pleasure of hanging out with Chin Yew, the bloke behind 'The Boy Who Loved Clouds', last Saturday at KLDW Secret Tents area in CapSquare. He introduced us to the folks under 30dayartist, we spotted some work, which got us real excited. We were throwing banters + exchanging pleasantries when Chin Yew shoved his latest work into my hand.

'A Love Letter' the title read.

Intrigued, I retired to a quiet corner to read.

It was the sweetest comic I've ever read! Mid reading the comic, I had Talentime OST - 'Angel' by Atilia playing in my head. 'A Love Letter' is about the intense fireworks of falling in love + the pain it entails. No spoiler intended, go get hold a copy if you're curious.

'A Love Letter', which is printed on recycled paper, is a self-published comic to mark the recent Earth Day. It is limited to 100 copies only + is selling at RM 10. Oh! and I own one.

w00t! w00t!

I'd say it's the perfect gift to tell that someone who sends you to utopia, where you feel everything is perfect, that they just did. Maybe we can invite Chin Yew to the upcoming Bijou Bazaar @ Jeumpa D'ramo in May 2009. ;o)

My favourite from the strip:


We leave you with Talentime OST - 'Angel' by Atilia



xoxo

On Your Tootsies

Whilst busy google-ing, we stumbled upon work by Nina Hjorth, a 29 year old Danish designer.

Statement shoes are all that are needed to make an outfit pop, a Royal College of Art graduate and former McQueen intern, her collection will delight footwear fetishists + spark a flame in those who love Lego construction toys. Her collection was inspired by Tim Walker exhibition at the Design Museum London combined with the romanticism from the film Marie Antoinette + the paintings of New York artist Ray Caesar. Apparently, her all time fashion idol is Richardo Tussci (Givenchy designer).

*drooling*

Watch out Manolo Blahnik, Nina Hjorth's shoes rock!!! OK, just because Iwan-G was going through Manolo Blahnik's collection this afternoon:op

More at Nina Hjorth

PechaKucha-ing Tonight?

Kuala Lumpur Volume #6
at Urbanattic ,G-46 CapSquare, No.7 Persiaran Capsquare, Off Jalan Ampang, 50100 KL
Presentations start at 20:20







Presenters are 4 international finalists from British Council’s Design Entrepreneurs Award (IYDE):

+ Nathalie Fallaha (Lebanon), graphic designer, vit-e
+ Nancy Chen (Taiwan), web-based graphic designer, CEO of Makeit.com and Managing Director of ESPstyle.com
+ Heath Nash (South Africa), designer and founder of Heath Nash cc
+ Makorn Chaovanich (Thailand) managing director/design director of Cerebrum Design

Joining them are:

+ Benson Saw, product designer and co-founder of Voonwong&Bensonsaw
+ Design Studio BLAM
+ Fauzi Yusoff, creative director of Efozy Design Studio
+ Metalsmithing studio Itchy Hands Works
+ Fahmi Reza, documentary filmmaker, man behind 10 Tahun Sebelum Merdeka and Revolusi'48
+ Locksin & Birdie, art directors at interactive design studio, IF Interactive

We might see you there! ;o)

Now listening to 'Ambulance LTD'

In New York's most populous borough, Brooklyn, you can't toss a coin without hitting a good musician. "Ambulance LTD" is one of the few bands who are making Brooklyn one of the best music scene in the US, we reckon. Rising out of the New York City indie underground 5 years ago, Ambulance LTD have received international acclaim for their music + live shows.

Line up changes + bankrupt record labels have not hampered this five-piece, who make Bealtes-esque pop.

"Stay Where You Are" by Ambulance LTD


More at http://www.myspace.com/ambulanceltd

Happy Monday!

xoxo

Earth Hour 2009

How are we supporting Earth Hour 2009?

Nope. We're not holding any event to commemorate Earth Hour 2009, not that we don't believe in its plight, we do.

We advocate shoppers to recycle plastic/paper carrier bags + bring their own canvas tote bags. We advocate supporting handmade + locally made products because of the lower carbon footprint of getting the products to you. We believe buying pre loved + vintage reduces the number of fashion items going to the dumpsite. Internet shopping helps too, we believe. We carpool + use the public transport. We refuse plastic bags when we shop + carry the shopping receipts with us, just in case the shop security guard stops us for finding merchandise in our tote bags. :op

We do believe every single one of us need to take action on Global Warming.



This Saturday, 28 March at 8:30 pm, we'll be staying at home with our family + loved ones, switch off the lights for one hour - earth hour, to watch the night sky + spend time with each other. It's more eco friendly that way. :o)

Have a brilliant weekend + take care of yourself + each other.

xoxo

Rainy Day Gibber

Can you guys believe it?

It's coming to one year since we first took the plunge + held the inaugural Bijou Bazaar @ Jeumpa D'ramo. Many called us crazy for having the bazaar in a bungalow instead of at a commercial area. There will be no crowd, people will never come, so they warned. Remember the 4Ps, place is very, very important, so they reminded us.

Zee Avi, or Koko Kaina as she was known then, was one of the few who took the risk with us. We thank her for the trust. Since, she's signed with Brushfire Records, with her debut album out on 19 May 2009 + a US Tour in tow.

You go girl!!!

Recently, someone said to us, Malaysian artistes can never make it abroad, let alone an indie artiste. But totally not her fault, "brand Malaysia" is not that strong yet; it's still associated with inferior quality. And I guess she's not heard of Zee Avi too. Malaysia Boleh! ;o)

Zee Avi by Brushfire Records


Oh, we'll be doing a Bijou Bazaar @ Jeumpa D'ramo soon, to reminisce the good old days. Watch this space!

xoxo

Off the Top of My Head

Of late, I have a serious thing for vintage inspired head bands.

At Bijou Bazaar, Patty Belle is my supplier of pheasant feathers head bands, adorned with crystal embellishments. I've got two sets from her! And I'm still hitting myself for not being fast enough to get the vintage inspired head bands by Indonesian designer, Cindy Valery under her brand EGOIST HARLEQUIN when she was over for Creative Mafia @ YOUTH '09.

Elsewhere, these are my favourites:

ban.do

Tree + Kimball

Handle + Spout

But I bet I wouldn't dare wear the head bands by Handle + Spout in KL. :op

xoxo