Sweet December

Happy weekend peeps!

We know, we know ... we've been M.I.A from the blog world for quite a bit. Fret not, we're still very much around. Just finished sitting in the National Youth Transformation Lab. How did we get there? Apparently, we said something like "the youth doesn't like the government" sometime back left a mark, since they've actually been following Bijou Bazaar. Well, hopefully the implementation would bring real, beneficial change for the youth. Next week it'll be presenting our proposals to the authority.

We're also lining up projects for 2011.

Fingers crossed!

This week has been an exciting week for fellow fashionistas. We started the week off with an intimate Live Fashion/Love Music showcase by Yuna x Maysaa London in the Black Box, MAP of Dutamas, which saw a gathering of beautiful people. :o)

Visit countthethread + sptnkswthrt for images.

If you missed out last Monday, here's a mini documentary collaboration by IkanPaosCollective with Zul Luey of LueyMotionLab and Shah Azman of Motiofixo for Maysaa London, which was shown in the Black Box:

Oh and Facehunter is in town, today between 4 pm - 6 pm, he'll be in Palate Palette for TiC x Facehunter book signing!

Make your way there peeps!

xoxo

Up Next Weekend!

LomoKids x YUNA

LomoKids designed the Lomowall for Yuna's Gadis Semasa video clip.

Great collabo, peeps! :o)

xoxo

CSM-ACE 2010 Satellite Event

In collabo with e-Women Directory team, we are organising a satellite event for CyberSecurity Malaysia's inaugural Cyber Security Malaysia Awards, Conference and Exhibition 2010 as per detailed below:

Cyber Entrepreneurship: Threats & Trends

Date: 25 October 2010 (Monday)
Time: 8:30 am - 5:30 pm

Plenary Theatre, Level 3
KL Convention Centre

TOPIC & SYNOPSIS

New information technologies have become the source of a new form of entrepreneurship known as cyber entrepreneurship. The cyber entrepreneur creates a firm that is essentially founded upon electronic commerce (e-business start-up), and whose main activities are based on exploiting networks using Internet technologies. In Malaysia, cyber entrepreneurship is still in its emergent phase.

This public workshop is catered for women and young cyber entrepreneurs, especially from the creative industry, to discuss on potentials and perils of Internet and technologies for their brands as well as successful solutions to address related issues on data protection and privacy, as well as social networking and security.

Panel Discussion 1 (Threats)

Time: 11:00 - 12:30
Topic: How Cyber Safe Are You and Your Business?

Synopsis:
The panel discussion will focus on creating awareness amongst cyber entrepreneurs on cyber crime and security issues; social media and cyber crime, brand hijack or identity theft, online banking/transaction precautions, cyber bullying.

Panel Discussion 2 (Trends)

Time: 14:00 - 15:30
Topic: Digital Brands: Unlocking the Secrets of Successful Brand Building on the Internet
Synopsis:

This panel brings together successful entrepreneurs focus on cyber enterprise. The panel discussion will focus on cyber entrepreneurship trends; how established cyber entrepreneurs exploit the Internet to grow their endeavor; branding, social media marketing, e-commerce. Panelists are at a various stages of their business growth, some more advance than others. Of particular interest to the audience will be discussions of the challenges faced through the various stages developing a cyber enterprise, and most importantly how one can overcome such challenges. The panelists will also share insight into the next growth frontiers in cyber enterprise are; shopping 2.0 and how interested parties should position themselves to participate in these opportunities.

Interactive Workshop
Time: 16:00 - 17:30
Topic: Taking on Cyber Threats

Synopsis:
The interactive workshop will focus on empowering entrepreneurs with tips and tools to protect their businesses and themselves from cyber crimes and security issues; social media and cyber crime, brand hijack or identity theft, online banking/transaction precautions, cyber bullying.

To register please call 03.5630.0061 or 03.5630.0062 or email your full name, business name (if available) and mobile number to info@e-women.com.my.

Time to knit, grandma

Stashed away grandma's presents of knitted sweaters? It's time to rummage your closet for them and get cozy in this classic piece. Pair it with jeggings, military boots and satchel and you are perfect to walk out this fall!

Credits: Justjared, Topshop

Have a great one stylistas!

xoxo,

milliedevotee

The Japanese Popstars Feat. Green Velvet - Let Go

Love the video + somehow the song is relevant. :op

Have a great weekend, peeps!

xoxo

MalaysiaKU: Celebrating Malaysia Day

Thank you everyone who made it to Bangkung Row of Jalan Bangkung, Bangsar on 16 September 2010.

You folks made the evening awesome! :o)

We saw Azmyl filming at the Subang Jaya SS 18 Pasar Ramadhan a week before raya + we love the song, so we leave you with "That Okay Song"



True.

A lot has been going on around every corner and sometimes it gets to be too much to deal with. What keeps you going when you feel like throwing in the towel and give up?

We were reminded to think about how beautiful the world can be, the sacrifices that people make so that others can feel wanted and loved. Life is worth going on for if we only had a little more happiness and love thrown into the mix. Maybe when we're down, all we need to do is just one thing for someone else, one beautiful, simple thing that might make someone else's day.

That Effing Show boys somehow echoed the same notion, that ...

Hey, it's okay.
We gotta live for a better day. (Hey!)
Now we give a little a love and we're on our way
Kita kaotim everything, parava-illay

Have a great weekend y'all!

xoxo

Rumah Degil

Happy Sunday! :o)

xoxo

Bangkung Row

Turning into Jalan Bangkung, off Jalan Maarof at the Jeumpa D'ramo traffic light junction (a landmark for those familiar with the early days of Bijou Bazaar), just up the road you'll see a row of shophouses perched on your left called Bangkung Row. A hidden jewel, Bangkung Row feels rather secluded, it's like a tucked away sanctuary, albeit just off the busy main road.

Bangkung Row houses a group of restaurants, namely Cava, Opus Bistro, Leonardo's Dining Room & Wine Loft (serves non-halal meat), and their latest addition Four Seas Seafood Grill. During my short interaction with the restaurants, they even lived up to their reputation as having the most obliging and enthusiastic service crew in KL. Well it was only my third visit, yet they surprised me by serving me warm water, when everyone else were served iced water. They remembered that I don't take iced water!

Trivial, but it was just the thing that will seperate them from the rest. Patrons will be impressed with the level of attention that they receive.

A rare gem in Kuala Lumpur, I must say.

Why were we at Bangkung Row?

Yes, yes, getting there. :op

It was actually the Bangkung Row, which mooted the idea for a Malaysia Day Street Festival this Thursday, 16 September 2010. We were only happy to be part of the event, a collaboration with 18 NGOs. There will be Bijou Bazaar vendors on the street with art installations and stage performances. The restaurants will also host mini events by the participating NGOs.

Make a date with us?

Have a great Aidilfitri everyone. :o)

xoxo

Ghost by Ana Raffali

Felt like listening to it today.

Great weekend, everyone. :o)

xoxo

Hujan Panas by Nadiah Hamzah

We so love this project by Nadiah Hamzah!

Nadiah is a Masters of Fine Arts (Film & TV) candidate at the prestigious Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. She has written and directed more than four short films; and worked as a cinematographer on 10 others.

In 2010, she was awarded a competitive department fellowship, and interned on the upcoming HBO documentary If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise directed by Oscar-nominated director Spike Lee. Her last short film, Sub Rosa (HD/Color/2009) is also currently traveling the festival circuit.

Hujan Panas (Afternoon Rain), her MFA thesis film, is a 20 minute short film that revolves around Zaki, a Malaysian man, whom for the longest time has dreamed about coming to America. He enrolls himself in a business course and finds himself in New York City – and moving into an apartment with two illegal Indonesian immigrants; Ferdy and Mira, in Flushing, Queens.

As he grapples with the harsh reality of living in the city, he finds himself slowly attracted to Mira. She helps him realize the possibilities of starting life anew – possibilities that are threatened by an impending marriage and his awaited return to Malaysia.

Nadiah Hamzah has been living in New York for three years but have never made a Malaysian film set in this city that she's grown to both love and hate. HUJAN PANAS is definitely her passion project before she leaves New York for good at the end of this year! Currently, her producer and she are putting together an amazing cast and crew for a nice, breezy fall shoot come late this September.

This will also be the first immigrant film to feature a Malaysian as the main character, and the whole film will be shot in Bahasa Melayu/Indonesia.

She's currently raising fund for the filming and she's got 12 days to go to meet the US$ 3,500 target. She's collected a pledge of US$2,605 as of today, which will only be cashed if she meets the target within the given deadline.

If you would like to see the film being made, do help spread the word or be a backer through KickStarter.

We wish Nadiah the very best of luck!

xoxo

Bijou peeps' Artwork

It's 31 August 2010, Merdeka Day and we received pleasant surprises on our Facebook wall, which had made us go all warm inside. Two Bijou peeps submitted their rad artwork for Bijou Bazaar. We felt like Nylon magazine for a bit there. :op

Owh ... thanks very much, guys!

The first submission was from Iylia Fahmi. If you remember him, he sang at our acoustic sessions several times last year. Our favourite song of his is "Til the End", the one about Facebook love.

Cute song.

Better YouTube it up people. ;o)

The second submission was from Azeem of Juxta Art.

His story was interesting. He first visited Bijou Bazaar in January '09, when we had our Youth '09 installment. Then an architect, he was so inspired by them peeps in the hall, he quit his job to focus on his art + music.

Yup! A musician too, his band is called JuxtaposeD.

Thanks again, guys. :o)

A quick announcement, folks!

We'll be holding a Bijou Bazaar installment in Jalan Bangkung, which is off Jalan Maarof, Bangsar on 16 September 2010 in conjunction with Malaysia Day Street Festival. A project championed by Bangkung Row restaurants in collaboration with 18 NGOs and Bijou Bazaar.

Make a date with us?

xoxo

Zillmann

Berlin Fashion Week 2010, which was reported as a cracked-out, no-holds-barred fashion spectacle ended last month. Once again, Berlin’s projektGALERIE whips up a batch of stellar fashion-infused events.

projektGALERIE is a showroom, temporary shop, press/PR agency and gallery. It exemplifies tightly concentrated cool that is Berlin. It was through projektGALERIE images that we stumbled upon the rather quirky designs by a young, up and coming fashion designer, Alisa Zillmann. Not surprising given the writer's obsession with hair accessories. Curious about the designer behind the designs, we got in touch with Alisa.

Despite the language barrier, Alisa who just celebrated her birthday last week was easy to get along with. We love her fun, bubbly and childlike cheerfulness. She managed to squeeze in some time to answer our questions, eventhough she's currently tied down with the preparations for her online store to be launched by the end of the month.

1. Tell us a bit about yourself.

I'm Alisa, a fashion designer based in Berlin. I graduated from Berlin ESMOD School of Fashion in 2005 followed by an internship with Kaviar Gauche. Since, I've worked with Mabelline Jade and projektGALERIE. I'm a fashion stylist for a rather diverse portfolio of fashion labels and actors/actresses. I own a t-shirt label called ZILLE.

I'm currently retailing my designs under the fashion label ZILLMANN in projektGALERIE showroom.

2. Who is your style icon + what do you like about their style?

My personal style icons would definitely be Bridgitte Bardot, Twiggy, Coco Chanel, Gwen Stefani, and some friends. I think that they are just real and brave!

I love women who put an effort to dress up, but with a flair. I just can take the woman seriously, especially those who are authentic.

3. Tell us more about your brand Zillmann + your creation.

ZILLMANN is a fashion label based in Berlin, which is at the moment focused on accessories. The accessories such as exeptional hats and hairbands are primarily made for women, but also intended for extrovert men and boys.

I'm using feathers, rivets and other unusual materials for my fascinators (leather based) and hairbands. Every piece is unique in its own way, because they are handmade. The style is progressive and avant-garde but wearable as well.

Keywords associated with the designs are Native Americans + Pocahontas + Twenties + Thirties + Tomorrow + Birds.

4. What has been the most exciting part/thing to happen since setting up Zillmann?

At the onset, it was a mere experiment of bringing many different materials together to see how they developed into an end product. Since, the requests and interests have been overwhelming.

5. Apart from creating those dramatic hair pieces, what do you do?

I'm also an illustrator and a bartender. You will see them in my fotoshoot. It will also contain personal elements like my first one.

Perhaps I'll be in a band soon too.

6. Who do you want to see wearing your hair pieces?

Cool people with taste.

7. What first made you want to become a designer? What prompted you to set up Zillmann?

I knew, I have to go into arts. I need dramatic and joyful moments in my life but I also need boredom by doing nothing.

I had a lot of jobs in the scene ... I knew its a good time to start ...

8. We understand that your elder brother, Daniel, is the vocalist of the band Straight to the Rabbits. Tell us a bit about him + if his involvement in music has any influence in your design.

And he is also a very good actor and a very good artist.

We're connected by living out our creativity. We've even worked together (I designed their band logo, the embryo bunny) he also wears my hairbands at his concerts.

Luckily, we share a similar style and enjoy our work. Our parents are happy about it.

9. Name your top 5 books, movies, musics + website.

Books:

Haruki Murakami books (I love how he mixes reality and surrealism)

Artists:

Frida Kahlo

Otto Dix

Tamara de Lempicka

and many more

Oh love movies, especially inspiring movies from the 80ies:

Never Ending Story

Back to The Future

Star Wars

Roger Rabbit (I love Jessica Rabbit, I find her inspirational for my art)

and a lot of more

Music:

Florence and The Machine

Gwen Stefani

Kings of Leon

Kate Bush

Janis Joplin

Etta James

music to dance

many more

Of late, I spend a lot of time on my own website and blog:

http://www.alisazillmann.de/

http://eklektikenterprise.blogspot.com/

10. Share with us Berlin's best kept secret(s)?

You'll find the world in Berlin, it's quite a cosmopolitan.

11. Where would we find you on a typical Saturday afternoon?

Typical situation:

My friend Nora and myself, were work in the bar/club called Enklave (cellar room; you actually have to climb through a hole to come in) on Friday nights.

On Saturdays, I'll have a long brunch with my friends, Nora, Nicole and Amelle. While we're sitting in a cafè in Neukölln, we'd accidently bump into my brother and Dennis, Heide and Nico would later appear with their son Toni. The group at brunch would get bigger and we'll need more chairs. Though we are there with hangovers, we'll tell stories (very loud) till we hear more "hello guys" from the other side of the street.

Friends. Chairs. Friends. Chairs.

We'll be making plans for the evening. A lot of possibilities in Berlin. Eating ice cream at "Fräulein Frost" at 11 pm, chilling in one of our parks, dancing in clubs. Just moving between two districts.

But normally, we'd ended up staying in that first cafè, till it's time to go to bed.

12. In 10 years time, where would you want to be?

Still in fashion and arts.

To Bijou peeps, Alisa is currently running a competition on her Facebook group, which ends 31 August 2010.

Just print Zillmann logo, wear it creatively, take a picture to be posted in the Facebook group and collect the most "like" to win. Easy peasy!

Alisa is going to launch her online store at the end of this month, international customers are welcome. Fanpics wearing Zillmann pieces will be published on her website, with their approval (category: walk of family).

Note: the feathers used by Zillmann are from German (not protected) poultries including Turkey, Cock, Hen, Pheasant and Guinea Fowl.

Brett Domino - Justin Timberlake Songs Medley

Nerdgasm!!! OK, is that allowed? :op

Happy weekend, y'all!

xoxo

Malaysia's Unsung Poet Laureate

Do you know that Malaysia has got her very own Nobel Prize nominee, for Literature, in 2005?

You would expect such monumental achievement from our Bolehland to create tremendous bruhaha and would landed him a Datukship. The fact that there is little local media interest on him is curious, even the Mat Rempit North Pole Free Fall Expedition was better celebrated for the achievement, apparently, would inspire the masses. The Nobel Prize nomination came from the Philippines and the USA. Back then, only The Sun carried the story on our first ever Nobel Prize nomination.

Who is the unsung poet laureate?

Once upon a time, not so long ago, well, long before blogs, Raja Petra and Malaysiakini, there was Cecil Rajendra, a passionate activist who firmly believes in the pen being mightier than the sword.

He is much respected for his pioneering work as a human rights lawyer and environmental activist as well as his poetry. He named his fight for Orang Asli's right to own their land as his biggest legal rights achievement. His first collection of poems was published in England in 1965 when he was still a law student in Lincoln’s Inn, London. Using his talent to full measure, he tackles society's ills such as environmental destruction, poverty, oppression, corruption, racism and injustice with persistence and dedication. Not as widely read in Malaysia, Cecil Rajendra’s poetry has travelled far and wide, cited by WWF, UNICEF, UNESCO, National Geographic and Amnesty International.

Asked if he finds himself toning down as he ages in an interview, he replied that he sincerely hopes not. Many years ago, he answered the question in a poem:

As I grow older
I grow wilder
not wiser
I respect nothing
do not talk to me
of the temperance
of middle-aged men
I have consigned
Caution to the wind.

We were just informed yesterday that Cecil Rajendra will be reading parallel to our next installment, a massive collaboration to commemorate the birth of the independent and sovereign state of Malaysia in 1963.

*nerd mode switched ON*

w00t! w00t!

:op

What better excuse to join us this 16 September 2010 to celebrate the little, little things about Malaysia that fires hope.

Yes, we're secretly patriotic. ;op

We'll be seeing you soon? Post-It the date, y'all!

Have a blessed Ramadhan, everyone. :o)

xoxo

Corinne Bailey Rae - Closer (HD)

Anyone off to Singapore this July 28?

We are. :o)

Have a good day ahead!

xoxo

Peter Says Denim

The Bandung based denim line, established in 2005, has been invading the world by collaborating with rock bands.

This weekend, they'll be joining us at MAP Solaris Dutamas.

Check them out at http://petersaysdenim.com/, y'all!

xoxo

Back Again! :o)

Yes, you heard right! :o)

Bijou Bazaar @ MAP Solaris Dutamas
12 + 13 June 2010
Operating Hours: 10 am - 8 pm (or later)

Post-It y'all!

xoxo

Look of the Day May 21

A friend from secondary school, Hefle, got her styling picked by Looklet editor as Look of the Day!

Yeyness to her!

She's now Looklet famous y'all! ;op

Check her Looklet out.

Looklet Monday

The writer's been real busy today; playing pretend fashion stylist at Looklet. ;op

How was your Monday? :o)

MAP Solaris Dutamas

We were curious when we received an invitation to attend MAP Arts Festival not too long ago. As we've been hibernating a tad bit too long, totally isolated from the outside word, we were hungry for something fresh + inspiring. So off we went to check the art festival out.

We weren't disappointed!

MAP opened its doors on the 27 March 2010 with a 2-day arts festival. Activities include music, art, sculpture, performances, installations, talks, workshops + an art market alongside social + individual empowerment activities.

The arts festival was curated by ARTERI in collaboration with MAP.

The festival introduced MAP’s two spaces: a 6,000 sq ft gallery + a 200-seater experimental theatre named the White Box + Black Box respectively.

During the visit, we secretly harboured our wish of coming back to life, having our first installment after going into hibernation for so long at MAP.

Thought bubbles went hovering us as we walked through the spaces in MAP. In our heads, we had pictures of the rotunda at the entrance of Black Box wrapped with lomo prints with our disco ball lamp rotating at a corner on the floor. We imagined plastic bag light garden at random corners of the Black Box. The White Box sent our minds running riot, we dreamt having our little fashion + craft bazaar surrounded by different themed art installations...

*sigh*

Watch this space!

MAP on Google Map.

Fever Fairytale by Tika

We've always been a fan of Tika, an Indonesian independent singer-songwriter, now, with an ensemble called Tika and The Dissidents. We saw her sing live for the first time at JEUNE Magazine Animal Issue Release Party in Bandung, circa 2008. Totally brilliant.

Why the independent path? Tika’s reason is solely because Indonesia’s thriving indie scene is the only place she can keep being a musician that is true to herself.

TIME magazine dubbed Tika as “Indonesia’s Hottest Diva”, while Rolling Stone Indonesia mentioned her as “The best Indonesian independent soloist that the country has”. Recently, TEMPO Magazine awarded her band's release 'The Headless Songstress' as “Album of the Year 2009” and Tika and The Dissidents as “2009’s Chosen Music Figure”. Not surprised.

Happy Sunday peeps!

xoxo

Marcela Gutierrez for PULL THE METAL

We are captivated by Marcela Gutierrez's recent work for the online lifestyle magazine, Pull the Metal - a collaboration between Pull and Bear + Metal Magazine, a publication based in Barcelona.

Do check them out! :o)

xoxo

groovylicious Grove

Earlier this month, Grove launched their first batch of grove bamboo iPhone cases + we fell in love with them. Curious, we went snooping to find out more about the outfit.

Grove is a partnership between Engrave + TomitaDesigns specialising in customisable products made of green materials, with sustainable practices. The team of 5 is led by Joe Mansfield + Ken Tomita.

Joe operates Engrave, a custom laser engraving company specialising in artists. He also has a line of customisable laser engraved leather moleskin covers. He is also an avid photographer who took the majority of the shots on their site.

In his spare time he enjoys running, nerding out on design, working on his bike, + driving old Saabs without brakes.

And you would have guessed right, Ken runs TomitaDesigns - a custom furniture design/build company focusing on contemporary Japanese design. He also participates in BambooDNA, led by Gerard Minakawa building large scale bamboo sculptures around the world. His passion for community building led to Project Chaboo, a collaboration project based on his chaboo design.

His favorite animal is the once thought to be mythical Okapi.

Do visit their site, Grove, folks!

xoxo

Toast It!

Toast It is a cork bread-shaped trivet/coaster from Brazilian design studio Oiti, which is run by Patricia Naves. Cleverly packaged and beautifully photographed, they made us want to run out + quickly add this "toast" to our arsenal of food props. OK, OK ... we admit. From the choice of words, it's obvious that we are no domestic goddess. ;op


Yup! That's Patricia Naves, the founder of Oiti, a furniture and object design studio established in 2004 + based in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. She graduated in Architecture in 2002, from Federal University of Minas Gerais, UFMG.

Patricia attributed her childhood to her leaning towards architecture. She grew up in a small apartment + had a tiny bedroom. When she was 18, she lived in Australia for a year, where she was awestriken by the width of the sidewalks! After which she returned for her degree. During the second year of university, she spent a few months in Finland + got carried away with Scandinavian architecture + design. She realises then that she would never be able to separate these things: design from architecture + Scandinavia from Brazil. Since then, she had tried to administrate these four passions in life.

We are sure glad that she followed her heart + found her passions, we just love Toast It. Not a good choice for a household that has hangovers - imagine the error of buttering one of these and trying to eat it! :op

Check her other work out at OITI.

xoxo

Holes by Melpo Mene

Hey peeps! Things have been crazy on the work front, it's all exciting + daunting at the same time. We hope all goes well.

And we can smell the rain outside. There's this saying which goes, “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass ... it’s learning to dance in the rain.” We feel like we should dance in the rain, like literally. If it's raining at your end, care to join?

o_0

Have a good day y'all!

xoxo

Sign Language: A Short Film

Meet Ben, he holds a sign for a living, and he loves his job more than almost anything. But today is his last day.

Sign Language was well written, well shot. Such a wonderful little piece of art, rather heartwarming too.

Hope you'll enjoy it as much as we did.

Happy Monday peeps!

xoxo

Aloe Blacc

What better way to spend Sunday morning than to hide under the duvet, listening to the kittens purring. :o)

If you've not heard of him, meet Aloe Blacc. His story rang a familiar bell, hope you enjoy his music.

xoxo

Kimia by Melda Ahmad

Melda Ahmad is a familiar face at Bijou Bazaar. We often see her sitting quietly helping her sister with sales, but we never knew she write songs + sings beautifully.

We were pleasantly surprised to listen to her song recently. 'Kimia' or chemistry is a love song about two people sharing a chemistry + ended up together in the end. We just love the innocence in her voice. Listening to the tune made us somewhat nostalgic about our youthful years.

Oh well, hope it's all sunshine + rainbows where you're at this weekend. If everything's well, we're off to Seremban, a town south of Kuala Lumpur, this weekend for our alumna school visit. A walk down memory lane with the girlfriends, looking forward to that.

Oh ... oh ... to Baby + Mr A who first met at Bijou Bazaar, sitting by the pool, Happy 2nd Anniversary you two! :o)

xoxo

Poketo 100% Upcycled Bags

Poketo has just launched a new collaboration with environmentally-awesome Korean nonprofit design brand Eco Party Mearry, and we're loving the result.

Meet 'Joe' the recycled suit tote, named after Joe Poketo's dad. It is a 100% recycled tote with neatly stitched leather handles, also created from recycled leather couches. There's only one piece of Joe in the world + it is sold.

We're not surprised + super excited to see this latest offering by Poketo. Borrowing one of your dad’s suits might make you look like a square, but turning it into a tote bag is just ironic enough to be incredibly cool.

Who wouldn't want to own one of Poketo's one of a kind, limited edition uber crazy rad recycled suit tote, carefully hand-tailored to give men’s suits their second chance at life + are sure to make statement right? This one of a kind tote will definitely get some attention, especially from cute hipster chicks who are into saving the planet and stuff. ;o)

It was only last week, Poketo launched the collaboration + most of recycled suit tote retailed online were sold.

Dexter, the loveable and fashionable nerd is sold too. Check the rest of their mates out at Poketo.

x

Stalked: Evangelione's Handmade

Peeps who's been following Bijou Bazaar blog from earlier on would have noticed our infatuation with homegrown + handmade. We have been stalking quite a number of Malaysian crafters on the Blogger network + we feel like sharing one with you. It's always a pleasure to watch the stride they make in growing their crafts + how their work mature.

Yup! Just the one we're sharing this week, a crafter who's work we really, really love. But we might change our mind + share more stalked talents here. We'll see... ;o)

Evangelione's Handmade first caught our attention at 'Arts for Grab' circa 2008. If you frequent the Annexe's arts + craft market or 'Pipit Wonderful Market', you would be familiar with Evangelione's rather exquisite + poetic work.

Wait!

Before you blokes go rolling your eyes + conclude that the only reason we were attracted to Evangelione's Handmade was because the work are girly + cute, let us tell you, it's more than that. Mind you, the writer has never owned a doll in her life, though that might change shortly. ;op

Evangelione's Handmade dabbles with crafts like card making ...

... dollhouse miniatures ...

... and a few other crafts but it was her handmade dolls which spoke to us. Like Mr Bunny below, there's this lingering tired sadness about him, while his other friends carry different emotions.

Curious, we spoke to Tako, the Johor Bahru based lass behind the brand to know Evangelione's Handmade better.

1. Tell us a bit about yourself.

Hello^^ I'm Yeo Mei Ying but my friends call me Tako. I am currently a full time crafter and I work from home. I love all things beautiful, I love colours, I love so many things but I love crafting the most. I am quite a shy person and I am not very good at communicating, I have a weird habit of not picking up phone calls, I know it is bad but I just can't help it. I can't hold a good conversation with people whom I just met. Oh, I am bad tempered too. =.=

BB: all that that you've described says you are a creative + passionate person but we found you rather pleasant over the email, just aced a form of communication there. ;o)

2. Tell us more about Evangelione + your creation.

I started to use Evangelione as my email since almost ten years ago, it was just a name I use on forums and so on, and then I started to blog, so I used it as my blog name as well til now and it became my brand name. My work are mostly dolls, accessories and dollhouse miniature, I have a doll name Audrey, who is the little girl who lives inside me, she tells my secret, she speaks for me. I believe every girl does too, have a little girl living inside you, the real you, or the girl you wanted to be.

3. What has been the most exciting part/thing to happen since setting Evangelione?

I have to say it's the people I met. I met so many wonderful people who have been supporting me all the way, friends or crafts friends who are with me whenever, in whatever situation, I am very grateful for having them around.

4. Apart from creating those lovely dolls, what do you do?

Actually I love everything about crafts, I like to try everything. Apart from making dolls, I am also fond of dollhouse miniatures, as a matter of fact, I started Evangelione with dollhouse miniatures, then I went into doll making. Besides crafting, I love collecting beautiful things too.

5. What first made you want to become a crafter? What prompted you to start?

Crafts has always been a important thing in my life, I love create things, and I think it is in my blood, I just have to do it! No matter what! >_<

6. Name your top 5 books, movies, musics + website.

books: The little star dweller by Yoshitomo Nara, "Kawaii Tezukuri Zakka 1000 No Shugei", Design of Designe by Kenya Hara, Paumes.

movies: I seldom watch movie, but anything with lots of beautiful details and great scene inspire me.

musics: Angus and Julia Stone, Chen Qi Zhen, Kimya Dawson, Solanin soundtrack, Band of Horses

website: Paumes . Nunu's House . Hello Sandwich . Handmade Craft . Etsy

7. How do you promote your work?

I try to get my work to be seen and not over do it at the same time, I believe work that is made with the heart and love will promote itself, so you don't really have to do much if you put effort on the work. But I do show my work on Flickr, Facebook and my own blog, I'm also lucky enough get feature on several beautiful blogs (like Bijou!), these really helped.

BB: awh ... that's nice of you :o) but like you pointed out, work which speaks with an authentic voice draws people, we were drawn to feature you in our blog.

8. In 10 years time, where would you want to be?

Perhaps I can still do what I love to do and keep crafting, I am not a person with a big ego, I just want to live a simple life and keep on crafting!

BB: thanks very much Tako for making time answering our questions. Keep on crafting ya? :o)

Folks, do support Tako at Evangelione's Handmade (and if you want to see Evangelione's Handmade at our installments, shout so!)

xoxo