TAIWAN... Tea,Temples and Twining Cherry Blossoms
Intertwining cherry blossoms…fragrant, fragile and soul inspiring…guided me along the path at The Lingxiao Chapel of Chi Nan Temple and The Jiu Tian Temple in Miao Li County where I ascended all 606 arduous steps with a wooden statue of Taoist saint San Nai Fu Ren cradled in my arms.
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oj hofer
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Thursday, September 8, 2011
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cherry blossoms,
Feng Shui,
Ji Gong Hofu,
Li Shan Tea,
Mulien Lohan,
Taiwan
Margette’s Indian Summer
Margette’s table setting of blue and white Limoge china, centerpiece foliage with peacock feathers on top of mandala design table cloth
Cebu’s most evolved host and my favorite yoga
teacher Margette Sarmiento recently came back from a month-long training at an
ashram in Kerala, Southern India. She invited her closest friends and this
jotter to an Ayurvedic dinner at her Maria Luisa home. The indian summer soiree
was to celebrate her return and, at the same time, as “despedida” for Jiji Gulllas and my publisher Eva who
are going on a European hiatus.
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oj hofer
on
Saturday, June 18, 2011
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ayurcedic,
Jing Ramos,
kerala ashram,
margette sarmiento,
rajasic,
sattvic,
tamasic
The Magical Glow of ANGKORIAN AETHER
In 2004, my good friend Jing Ramos and I flew to Siem Reap,
Cambodia to see the temples. We stayed at a private home owned by a couple of
educators and moved to Grand Hotel d’Angkor on our last day.
There, we saw
portraits of the hotel’s
famous guests: Somerset Maugham, Charlie Chaplin, so on and so forth… Transfixing us however, were
images of Lee Radziwill and Jackie O. Thus on our last day, we traveled to
BANTEAY SREI, the Temple for Women, and took on the roles of the two sisters.
My recent holiday collection for FashionWatch called ANGKORIAN AETHER is colored by our adventures, and
misadventures in that holy land of Devatas and Apsaras…
Devatas @ Angkor Wat
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oj hofer
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Tuesday, June 7, 2011
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angkor wat,
banteay srei,
FashionWatch Holiday 2011/2012,
Grand Hotel d'Angkor,
Jing Ramos,
siem reap
STYLISHLY SIMIAN VIBRAMS
A stickler for economy of lines I
found myself engrossed with the minimal and somehow simian design of Vibram
Five Fingers, named one of the best inventions by TIME Magazine in 2007. I own
a number of huge, bulky high-tops that I mainly use with shorts, skinny or
drop-crotch jeans but admittedly, they’re more for looks than function. For comfort, I use minimalist Nike Free and
Lunarlite @ the gym and yet these two pairs look nothing like Vibram’s FiveFive Fingers Classic (seemingly morphed
ballet slippers) and the KSO (Keep Stuff Out) with their five-toe pouches.
I’ve read so much about the trend
and benefits of bare-foot training for runners, and outdoors bare-footing from
athletes, enthusiasts and physiologists on the net. It all sounded like sales
talk to me, anyhow, after a call to Carlos Alvarez for directions to their
outlet at Rockwell, I sought out to experience the truth about this barefoot
phenomenon myself.
Posted by
oj hofer
on
Sunday, May 22, 2011
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1 comments
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LUNARLITE,
NIKE FREE,
VIBRAM FIVEFINGERS,
VIBRAM KSO,
VIBRAM SPEED
if i ...
...... were an elderly impolite white man who has burned too many bridges
in Hongkong and in Cebu, would I elicit disfavor from this city’s respected grand
dames by maligning them? Recently, the above mentioned aging social
mountaineer (let’s call him Ripley) had
a heated exchange of words with another guest at a wedding reception after he
disapproved of what the guest wore at a previous party. When the guest told
Ripley that he was in no position to publicly and rudely ridicule what he
chose to wear, and that he should be more careful with his words especially
when he is around Cebu’s genteel ladies, Ripley retorted: “oh, those old women
don’t know fashion anyway. They haven’t traveled enough, so why should I even
care?”
Inno @ 30
In 1995, my closest designer friends in Cebu Jun Escario and Jojo Romoff insisted that we travel together to Manila to watch the fashion gala “Inno Sotto: Anno XV.” Top model Suyen Chi had gotten us three tickets, and the prospect of seeing Inno’s 15th year collection mesmerized us, thus we packed our suits and headed for the capital.
Posted by
oj hofer
on
Thursday, February 17, 2011
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302010,
inno sotto,
inno sotto 2010,
thirtytwentyten
Art
of Kaiseki Cuisine @ Nadaman
Kaiseki or Kaiseki-ryori, is a traditional multi-course Japanese meal, which
puts emphasis on artistry, graciousness and the changing of the seasons. It
also refers to the collection of skills and techniques that allow the
preparation of such sumptuous exclusive meals analogous to Western haute
cuisine.
The Valera Redux
Design genius Ramon Valera, the first
National Artist for Fashion, is celebrated in a 24-piece ready to wear
collection by Freeway, a local brand that offers clothing and
accessories that follow current international trends at reasonable price
points. Valera’s
signature creative cut, grand silhouette, unusual colorization, and opulent but
tasteful embellishment are reinterpreted and given renewed relevance in the
company’s Valera, National Artist Collection-- the fourth installment of Freeway’s
successful National Artist Collectors Series.
Style-Spotting @ Japan Fashion Week 2010
(Part IV)
(Part IV)
I saved the best for last---this is the ultimate installment
of your jotter’s style – spottings @ Japan Fashion Week.
MIHARAYASUHIRO
Meeting this unassuming designer was worth the unmanageably
hectic schedule and the flight anxiety one had to go through.
I wore my favorite gold trainers that he designed for Puma
and congratulated him after the show for designing the best Fall-Winter 2010,
collection on the Tokyo runway.
Every piece that came out was polished and esthetically
appealing.
The soft, suede boots that the girls wore
draped around the shin and ankles looked beautiful with their short sack
skirts.
The extra long cable knit for men elongated the look of lean wool pants
and washed chambray shirts.
A wool jacket with large shawl collar worn over a
beaded vest, grey chiffon shirt, ikat-print shorts and deep brown combat boots
makes for a youthful winter.
The open knit-work on dresses, tunics, and pants gave garments a poetic, disheveled appeal that complimented the girls’ hair
and makeup.
Yasuhiro is indeed an artist;
his chosen medium is fashion.
Posted by
oj hofer
on
Friday, November 26, 2010
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Labels:
Japan Fashion Week 2010,
MIHARAYASUHIRO