BOOK: LIFESTYLE ASIA HOME & AWAY

(Lifestyle Asia's Home & Away, a special limited edition coffee table book now available in bookstores and newsstands)

A big congratulations to Anna Sobrepena, Cheryl Tiu, Cristina Gomez and the whole team on a very successful launch of Lifestyle Asia’s Home & Away, a special limited edition coffee table book featuring the gorgeous homes of Manila society in the Philippines & overseas.

(Top: Amparito Lhuillier and Cheryl Tiu. Bottom: Myself with Alfonso Tagliaferri)

Of course, Cebu Doyenne Amparito Lhuillier, mother of international fashion designer Monique Lhuillier flew in from the queen city just for the event – high five to that! 

READ: WALTER PFEIFFER

The first major LN-CC book feature of 2013 is built around a rare selection of Walter Pfeiffer books, each signed by the seminal photographer himself. To launch the limited selection an exclusive interview with Pfeiffer, conducted by world-renowned book collector Conor Donlon, features today at LN-CC.com. The interview begins with Pfeiffer discussing his early work and the resistance to his starkly homoerotic visions of beauty. After taking a fifteen year hiatus from photography, Pfeiffer ultimately finds himself gaining global recognition from both the art and fashion world.

"Beauty is very temporary, flitting in fact. I want to photograph it before it's gone."

Conor Donlon has been curating the LN-CC selection of rare books since inception. Originally a student of fashion design, after completing his MA Donlon began working with the artist Wolfgang Tillmans. Beneath Tillman's studio was a gallery space in which Donlon opened his first intimate bookshop. His uncompromising selections were seized upon by both the fashion and art crowds that visited the gallery, and proved the beginning of a life spent travelling the world in search of the finest underground printed matter. 

His ever-changing and unparalleled offering of counterculture and youth culture publications are an integral part of both the instore and online world of LN-CC.

GINGHAM, BETSY AND SOME ART SPACE

Style is personal.  I cringe when people say I am trendy because I am not.

I remember Barron, founder and editor of Effortless Gent saying that “A truly stylish man knows, understands, and respect the rules, yet knowingly defies and breaks them, bends them and interprets them as he pleases.”

(Blue Gingham, silk cufflinks, denim trousers, lace-ups and a pair of bright red tube socks)

No one can stop me from wearing gingham all week and plaid the week after. I have created a uniform of white dress shirts and a plethora of denim and wool trousers in navy and black - It is really not about the labels you wear.  Mom once said,  “Appearance is not the most important thing but it matters” - I agree!

(Enjoying Betsy Westendorp's collection at Manila Contemporary, hours before the interview and shoot)

I have always admired people with a visceral sense of style that is very much their own – think Nick Sullivan of Esquire and Derek Blasberg of Harpers Bazaar and V Man.

Don’t blame me for having a good time.

KNOT HAPPY

It may have been big at the recent Pitti Uomo  and the guys at Sag Harbor and totally over for some but there’s no way I’m losing them anytime soon.

It's driving me nuts - in a good way!

PRINTS CHARMING

I can’t get enough of paisley from pocket squares, beach scarves to beach shorts.

Paisley may be all the rage last year with Emilio Pucci updating its famous swirls of patterns to psychedelic paisley in turquoise, lime, pink and scarlet but that doesn’t stop me from drooling over Etro’s paisley printed beach shorts and some.

(Steven Huynh of Men's Merchant in Club Paisley Shorts and the End on End shirt at Coachella - sweet!)

Two months till’ my 3^rd Malasimbo and everything’s a click away. Should I?

NO RESOLUTIONS, JUST A COUPLE OF NOTES FOR 2013

I spent most of 2012 just wishing I could do a Rip Van Winkle, sleep under a willow tree and wake up a year after.

I just wanted a new start, a clean slate.

I know there are still going to be times when the world feels crushing, pop a pill, with non-stop intrigues, pop another pill and endless gossip (still want a pop?) but the success of envisioning and  achieving a new perspective gives me hope and determination that I can give myself a clean slate if and when I ever need one in the future.

I have welcomed this year with open arms, bitch slapping 2012 on how awful it was for me and know that there's nowhere to go from here but up.

Gone are the Debbie Downers, and honestly, my slate really does feel clean. A new year, a new set of memories and so far, the whole 7 days of 2013 have been far better.

I feel more at peace, more ready to take on what this new view of life will bring. It honestly feels as though, for the first time, I could set my mind to how I could be, and it’s working.

A couple of notes to myself:

• Recycle! I haven’t shopped for anything new to update my closet (I’m still amazed with how I have not gotten anything for myself during the holidays)
• Stock my shelf and bedside table with more books
• Surround myself with people who I truly love and miss, vice-versa
• Honeymoon with God more
• Communicate with family more

There you go! No resolutions, just a couple of notes to keep in mind!

Is it too early to celebrate? I think so!

LOST AND FOUND: FRATELLI ROSSETTI SEMI BROGUE LACE-UPS

Moving to a bigger apartment forced me to revamp my closet – I gave away boxes worth of clothes that no longer fit and a couple of lace-ups and loafers that finally gave in after months and years of too much walking. It wasn't until about two weeks ago that I really realized I still kept the pair of black cap-toe semi brogue lace-up Fratelli Rossetti’s bought two years ago, still in pristine condition.  

No molds, sole still intact – unbelievable! I’m definitely giving it another chance. In fact, I’m actually wearing it now.

BOOK: THE SARTORIALIST CLOSER

(the Sartorialist: Closer by Scott Schuman)

Finally got myself a copy of the Sartorialist street style photographer Scott Schuman’s second book, CLOSER.

And yes, the best dressed and the randomly stylish are as versatile as the wardrobe they contain.