Nothing Like You and I

I dedicate this song to my boyfriend who is too preoccupied to realize how much he means to me. I am lost without you, I am worth nothing.


Nothing Like You and I - The Perishers -

We spent some time
together walking
Spent some time just talking
about who we were
You held my hand so
very tightly
And told me what we
could be dreaming of

There’s nothing like you and I

We spent some time
together drinking
Spent some time just thinking
about days of joy
As our hearts started
beating faster
I recalled your laughter
from long ago

There’s nothing like you and I

We spent some time
together crying
Spent some time just trying
to let each other go
I held your hand so
very tightly
And told you what I would be
dreaming of

There’s nothing like you and I
So why do I even try?
There’s nothing like you and I

Bombay Bicycle Club: You Already Know

I've been a little bit on a writing hiatus lately but I haven't forgotten...
There are important matters in my life that need to be resolved before I can fully engage in honest and engaging writing. There is this piece I am brainstorming that I want to only share once completely polished. I'm a bit of a perfectionist like that. I think it'll make us think twice about the lives we want to live.

While we're waiting...

Claire....

Anu Raina: inspired by her grandfather's garden

I have been searching for inspiration.
Enters Anu Raina's spring/summer 2013 collection lookbook which was inspired entirely from memories of her grandfather's garden. What a great tribute.
Beautiful concept rendered into a beautiful bouquet of flirty and dreamy summer dresses.

Dreaming is so beautiful and even more beautiful when we are transforming these dreams into reality.
As you can tell, I have been soul-searching lately. This time to write and sit down in front of a writing device whether it'd be my newly acquired 1950s typewriter or my now deteriorating six-year-old Macbook has been truly refreshing.
It has been giving me hope about the lifestyle I'd like to live. I like writing and I want to write for a living.

Raina writes:

"Tathya's garden: My SS13 collection of prints is inspired by my memories of witnessing the majestic Echinaceas, the dew drop laden Daisys on the lazy Sunday mornings, the beautiful Pomegranate trees that humbly bore the weight of the biggest and reddest ever Pomegranates, the riot of colour and fragrance that invaded the senses as you walked into Tathya's Garden through heavy and massive wood/metal doors. Tathya was my maternal grandfather who lived in a large house by a beautiful stream in Kashmir. He was a quiet Mathematics teacher who loved his garden the most. While the little kingdom of flowers faded away with time, this collection is a tribute to the happy and carefree childhood spent playing in Tathya's garden."

It is Raina's simple yet beautiful creations that touched my soul today.  I hope it touches yours too.

This week, I will be applying to a magazine internship in Calgary. Wish me luck.

Claire

The diary of a minimum wage retail salesperson: beating traffic. Let it snow!

I had been on break for two days and so when Tuesday morning came along, it hit me like a rock. I hadn't showered the night before, my hair looked greasy, and I'm sure I did not smell fantastic. I hopped in the shower, made myself look presentable, but by the time I was done, it was already 8:40 (I work at 9:00). It usually takes me only 10 to 15 minutes to get to work, but for some reason, the construction on Elbow Drive was still backing up traffic.
I absolutely hate being late and since for once I did not have my uniform on, I decided to change in the car. I was shirt-less when we passed the road workers and pant-less a little further: I was determined to beat as much time as possible to avoid being even five minutes late. I got to my work's parking lot at 8:54, ran in the mall and ran to the locker rooms in the basement of the store I work at. I stuffed my bags and ran back upstairs: it was nine o'clock on the dot and the first salesperson with a start time of 9 to be there, on time.

I wrote the above paragraph more than a couple weeks ago and it made me think of this morning.
Today was the first heavy snowfall in Calgary (and it's not even Hallowe'en yet...) and believe it or not, traffic was backed up all the way to my apartment...I thought I was leaving earlier than usual but that extra 10 minutes was definitely not going to get me to work on time.

I mean, there's never going to be a good excuse for being late to work. Even snow shouldn't be a good excuse but we often blame weather for our tardiness. It's true: if I really wanted to be on time today, I should of left an hour earlier. But who knows, traffic could have been backed up even then.

Calgarians are ill-prepared when it comes to snowfalls. I bet you that more than half of the driving community did not have their winter tires on yet. I also bet you that nobody really believed it would snow that bad. Every year, it's the same story. Maybe Calgarians are just too optimistic in terms of the weather, thinking "oh, that Chinook will blow it all away sometime soon". Well, guess what, snow's here.

When I got to work, there were a couple people ready to work but I wasn't surprised to see three other persons after my 9:15 arrival (start time was nine) stroll in.

I'm not too sure where this post is going. Perhaps I'm trying to tell myself that the goal for this week is to arrive 10 to 15 minutes early instead of 5 to 10 minutes early.

Anyway, my winter tires are being put into place next Monday. I'll definitely have no excuse then...

The diary of a minimum wage retail salesperson: the stockroom

Like promised, I said I would start documenting my days at my new retail job in Calgary, AB. So here it is...

I'll be honest: I wasn't necessarily expecting to hate my new job as a salesperson but I was definitely expecting to bitch about it a lot more, what with the low wage and what not. But to my pleasant surprise, I haven't felt a bitch-fit coming on and it's already been two weeks! What can I say, I absolutely love clothes, the ongoing shopping atmosphere, the putting away of clothes and the search for clothes in the overwhelming stockroom. I love helping people out with decisions or pointing them out to clothing items they may enjoy. The people I work with are sweethearts, the managers are nice and professional; I feel like I am part of  a team of dedicated & hard-working people which motivates me to do the best of jobs. I enjoy coming in for my shifts, I like learning more and more everyday about the company and how things are done...I'm just quite content with how everything is going. Sometimes I think: why on earth didn't I turn to retail sooner? I remember girls in high school telling me to never work retail because all the people I'll work with will be snob bitches with no life. I really believed it and was expecting the worst. But, no encounter of such has happened, yet.

Yesterday was one of those days where I was in the stockroom for pretty much the entire day. I've been fighting a cold that's been giving me an irritated throat and a runny nose. Working in the warm stockroom was quite a nice alternative to working the air-conditioned sales floor. Pulling out replenishments for the sales floor is time consuming to say the least. It was my second time taking care of such a thing and I'm hoping I'm getting better at how fast I can find items in the overstuffed stockroom. Sometimes an item will be right in front of me and easy to pull out. At other times, I'll need to pull out a ladder and climb to the top to reach for the item I am looking for... I don't have vertigo but the items can be quite high and hard to reach. My small size of five feet two doesn't help either. There are times where I am sitting on the top rung thinking things like "if this ladder break, this won't be pretty." It's always satisfying to climb down the ladder, palms sweaty, with the article of clothing in hand, the pencil and replenishment sheet in the other. Then, when the clothing search reaches an end, there are two flights of stairs to climb before putting the clothes on a rack and back to where they belong in the store. Although the hours spent in the stockroom can be long ones, there is this serene and peaceful quietness that cannot be found upstairs on the sales floor. Most of the time you are alone or two other girls might be there doing their thing too. The break room is close by, but somehow I feel like the clothes and I are the only ones on the planet at the precise moment in time when I'm searching for clothes and admiring them at the same time.

New blog project + addictions

Me at the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland this summer. Ireland was beautiful. I'd go back again in a heartbeat. 

Fall is finally upon us. But this time around, the excitement of "going-back-to-school" isn't there for me because I have now officially graduated from journalism school. To be honest, I don't know whether I like being out of school just yet. I spent five years at university and before that there were high school, junior high and elementary school. I have spent a grand total of 18 years in school. Is it a bit hard to admit to myself that student life is finally over? Yes, it is. It's extremely hard. I'm feeling a little lost right now.

A couple of posts back, I wrote about how hard it was to get back into the swing of things after my very last finals. Well, I ended up getting back on my feet and getting a small job at a restaurant and when these three months of horrid boredom were done, my boyfriend and I took off to Europe for two months with the money we saved up working.

We got back to the motherland only three weeks ago, and well, it's been hard to figure out my post-grad goals. There are so many things on my mind.  Getting a full-time job at a communication firm would be great. Buying a condo with the boyfriend. Perhaps going back to school to fulfill another dream of mine to become an  interior designer. Keeping up with yoga three times a week while introducing myself to pilates is another goal of mine. Eating at home and learning how to cook to save money is something we've been doing too. What about that Elle Canada editorial internship I've been pining for? Should I still give it a shot? Even while on vacation the idea of heading to Toronto for a four-month internship hasn't left my head. I'm really determined at making it happen. And for that to happen, I have to keep my creative juices flowing. Perhaps some freelancing here and there, some personal blogging, and some product blogging wouldn't be a bad idea. And plus, I'm still absolutely in love with this blog and what it represents for me. There's nothing more exciting than having the freedom to speak my mind and write about what moves and passions me via the blogosphere.

All throughout the summer, I blogged about fashion designers whose runway shows I saw for myself last fall at Toronto Fashion Week.

Today, I came up with a new exciting blogging project: The diary of  a minimal wage retail salesperson. 

The idea came up because that person working retail making minimum wage is me.

Why on earth is a communication degree graduate like me working retail? Well, to be perfectly honest, it isn't my ideal job but it is a job and that's better than sitting on my ass all day. The manager of the  retail store I work for (I will not reveal the company name for obvious privacy reasons) left me a message on my cellphone the first week I was back in Canada. I had already started applying for comm. jobs but thought it wouldn't hurt going in for an interview anyway. I didn't put much thought in the interview but came fairly prepared and put together.  After a five to ten minute chat with the manager, I was hired on the spot. It came almost as a shock/surprise to me because I had kept my expectations fairly low (note to self: keep expectations low from now on) and wasn't expecting scoring a full-time job anytime soon.

I have worked at every possible job since the age of 13, from working at the farmers' market, to working at a movie theatre, to working at a restaurant, to working for a local blog to having my own dog-walking business. But what I hadn't been able to score yet was a job in retail, and that has always been something I've wanted to do. I love the idea of helping customers making style decisions or picking the proper size. I love sorting out through the clothes and putting them back neatly where they belong (although that can be extremely frustrating too when it gets messy) and I love the overwhelming stockroom filled with garments from ceiling to ceiling.

I knew I was in for a minimum wage salary like most retail stores but I was still stoke for finally getting that retail experience I've always wanted. And plus, I'm always curious to see how things really are behind scenes. What's work going to be like? Is the minimum wage fair for the type of duties assigned to us? What's management going to be like? Am I going to like it? Am I going to hate it? Am I going to get along with the other girls I work with? What will be my thoughts on the experience?

A week into my new job as a salesperson, The diary of a minimum wage retail salesperson came into fruition. I mean, what isn't there to like about getting to know what the retail world is really all about?

Look out for a new blog post in the following week... I'll keep it as honest as possible without going to that bitchy/ranting mode (no promises on being completely rant-free) while keeping it entertaining and upbeat. :)

For now... my fall addictions:

Elle Canada : this Canadian women's fashion magazine is the greatest. The topics talked about are extremely relevant, well thought-out and written honestly. The magazine brings forth the best in style and fashion news, but keeps it real with everyday subjects and topics that's on everyone's mind nowadays.  

Style at Home Canada : this interior design/decorating magazine is soothing to read because of its great visuals. The cottage issue from this summer was greatly inspiring and I love the inspiring quick fix decorating tips they offer.

Pinterest: I can "pin" things in my own virtual inspirational boards? Done deal. I'm an extremely visual person to begin with. 

True Blood: the boyfriend introduced me to the series. I'm not a big fan of excessive blood in any scenario possible, but for some reason, we're already on season 3 and I can't stop watching. The character developments and plots are great in this show! 

Yoga: yes, yoga is still in my life. I still love it. I go to the neighborhood gym that's only five minutes away from my house. I'm liking how it fits my schedule well as they offer morning and evening classes every day of the week and on weekends.  

Drinking water: yep, drinking water has made me feel extremely healthier for these past couple of months. I used to never drink enough of it but never thought it was my lack of intake that caused me from having serious headaches all the time. Now, I constantly remind myself  that water is my best friend. Six to eight classes a day. 

Vitamin D: every morning I take two pills of Vitamin D (2000). My daily intake makes me less cranky in the winter when the sun no longer shines as much. 

Designer Dimanche: David Dixon

The best is often saved for last. For most fashion experts, David Dixon’s s/s 2012 collection – the second last show before Denis Gagnon – was a pure delight. He delivered beautiful cocktail dresses, feminine gowns and blouses/pencil skirts combos while staying true to his colour palette of choice : pastel yellows, whites and blacks. The restricted use of these colours made for a harmonious collection.

Larger-than-life butterfly prints were spotted on a few blouses and floor-length gowns. Personally, I found the collection to be too typical. The designs were elegant but lacked that avant-garde or adventurous feel I like to see in designs. The lines were classic and lacked sculptural properties. Most gowns and cocktail dresses looked straight out of a regular prom dress shop where I could actually see David Dixon’s collection make profit. Moreover, I thought the butterflies were, in my eyes,  not such a good addition to the collection. Don’t get me wrong, butterflies are pretty but, in this case, they came across as a childish and poor design choice. There were a couple pieces I could see friends wearing, but never did I come across a design I would want for myself. Dixon is nonetheless a talented designer, but in upcoming years, I’d love to see a creative shift in his designs. Perhaps David Dixon, similarly to Judith & Charles like to stay true to the norms and designs that will remain classics until the end of time. Everyone has their own design style after all and everyone will have diverse opinions on such matter.

-Claire Miglionico


Photo source: Real Style Network

Designer Dimanche: Judith & Charles

On the fifth and final day, guests got a peep at Judith and Charles’ spring/summer 2012’s collection. Instead of showing off the new collection in the usual runway format, Judith and Charles opted for an installation in the studio space where guests were able to admire the clothes up front and personal. The outfits were set up on simple mannequins which were lined-up on a raised platform in the middle of the studio space. Among guests were Fashion TV’s Jeanne Beker and Canadian fashion model Stacey Mckenzie. All guests were treated to gift bags which were piled up near the entrance. Most did not hesitate on grabbing one (or two) on their way in. Judith and Charles stayed true to their style: classic cuts with pastel colours mixed with pops of bright hues like oranges and yellows which are very typical colours for spring and summer. The collection was made up of long-fitted blazers, pleated skirts of cream-coloured hues and sleeveless tops paired with cropped shorts. I dearly admired the bright yellow blazer paired with a black jumper although it reminded me a little too much of something my mother would of worn in the 80s.

The studio space made for the perfect place to mingle, grab a glass of champagne and look at the choice of outfits with other guests. Judith and Charles has a flair for simple, elegant and timeless pieces and although I wasn’t expecting much from the installation, I greatly enjoyed the feeling of not having to rush into my seat. Instead, I was able to soak Judith and Charles’ collection piece by piece and think more highly of their modern and fitted designs.

- Claire Miglionico


Photo credit: Jenna Marie Wakani for Fashion Magazine

Designer Dimanche: Anu Raina

Designer Anu Raina is the perfect example of the kind of diversity we have here in Canada. Raina’s Indian roots are fully present in her s/s 2012 collection “Murano” as beautiful splashes of colour were omni-present in her designs. “Murano” was inspired by glass chandeliers made in Murano, Italy and their play on light and colour.

I love colour therefore this particular collection was a favourite of mine at fashion week. Raina is not only a textile designer but also an artist and therefore her designs were like pure work of arts.

“My work is my art and the fabric is my canvas,” she says.

She has a rare artistic sensibility that was wonderfully rendered in her bright blue palazzo pants, dainty peter-pan collars, swirls, vibrant florals, 60s-inspired T-shirt dresses and a floor-length dress with a watercolour-like chandelier design. For fabrics, she uses silk, viscose and linens. I like the simplicity of Raina’s designs, the free-flowing movement of her garments, and her styling the best. No jewelry was sighted on models and her outfits were coordinated with great minimalist taste. The yellow-green tye-dye tee-shirt dress was paired with the perfect suede booties of deep blue shade and was a great style inspiration. Anu Raina is undeniably a Canadian designer to watch out for.

– Claire Miglionico


Photo source: http://suhaag.com

Designer Dimanche: Lovas

Wesley Badanjak is the creative director behind his fashion label Lovas. He says one of the greatest fashion advice he has ever received was to follow his instincts, not trends. This advice was certainly followed for his s/s 2012 collection which was apparently inspired by his travels through the Caribbean sea. The collection stood out with an all-ethnic cast of tropical models, breezy blouses, hues and grandiose feathered head pieces. Badanjak stuck to oranges, corals, white, black and sand colours. He created a chic island girl look completely unique and distinct from other fashion week designers. Sometimes the supposedly tropical look took on another appearance: the coral shift dress paired with a beaded belt in combination with the model’s long messy braids made me think of romanticized Pocahantas fashion more than that of an island girl.

Anita Clarke from Toronto-based fashion blog I Want I Got was quite impressed by Badanjak’s island-inspired collection. In a one-on-one interview conducted by Calgary Fashion’s Daniela Codreanu, she said:

“Wesley and I have an understanding. He knows that usually his stuff is not my style. I appreciate that it’s always well made. He is very excellent at making clothes and putting [them] together. Construction is always fantastic, but THIS time it was like [a] perfect storm. The style was on to what I personally would like. Everything on that runway I would wear!"

It’s true. Every runway outfit was not only beautifully crafted but extremely wearable. The feathered head pieces were a highlight: they were the perfect addition to a long ruffled black dress and a 60s mod shift dress in black and white stripes on sand .

– Claire Miglionico

Photo source: fashion windows.net