I am Filipina American, and I have typical Asian hair: jet black, silky, straight. Don’t even try to put a fingerwave up in there because I’ll just wind up with a forehead dripping with Dippity-Do. When my mother was younger, she would get closely cropped hairdos and get a perm in it and honestly, it looks hot. It looks like a loose-curl afro.

Recently I got my hair cut, and I asked one of the women working on my hair whether or not perms were making a comeback. She told me that not many women get perms, and it’s mostly because of all the studies that show what kind of damage a perm can do to hair.

The other woman who worked on my hair however, told me that she specializes in perms and a perm would look amazing on me. Since my hair is so healthy already, it wouldn’t damage my hair that much.

Take note that Cookie, the second stylist, is amazing at what she does and specializes in chemical treatments: color, color correction, perms, straightening.

I’ve been making fun of perms for awhile, but after seeing those vintage shots of my mom in her lil afro, I can’t hate on them too hard.

Photo courtesy bombhead.com

Boys who wear leggings. Got a problem with that? Keep it to yourself. One thing I love about fashion is how fun it can be, and also how witty you can be if you dress with a sense of humor.

I found it unfortunate when two of my male friends were scared to dress the way they wanted to dress because of being ridiculed by the run-of-the-mills (as I like to call them). While there’s absolutely nothing wrong with wearing Tommy Hilfiger khaki cargo pants with your flip flops (except, of course, the blatant use of horrible sweatshop labor), and there’s definitely nothing wrong with being uninterested in fashion, there is something wrong when you bully someone because of how they dress. I swear this is something we all learned in middle school.

I think it’s awesome when guys want to have fun with their clothes, create a style, and go with it — run with it! One of the guy friends I’m talking about definitely gets laid by more hot girls than any other guy I know, so more power to you.

By the way, what I said about sweatshops? It’s true. A Made in the USA tag? Be careful! “Because they were produced in a territory of the United States, garments traveled tariff-free and quota-free to the profitable U.S. market and were entitled to display the coveted Made in the USA label.” — CNN.com

Netflix is a wonderful thing that recently brought the Don Cheadle movie Talk to Me to my doorstep. As much as I love and always will love the independent movie store — there just aren’t anymore around where I live. It’s either Blockbuster of Netflix, and for the sake of being a mom who loves being at home with her babe (or at a non-smoking bar watching a Pistons game!), I’m going to choose Netflix. Hey, I love the internet, what can I say.

Talk to Me was a very interesting movie if you know nothing about the radio personality, Petey Greene. I’ve talked about historical accuracy before when I was reviewing the fashion in the Kirsten Dunst film Marie Antoinette. Talk to Me focused on the historical importance of Petey Greene and his role in restoring peace in DC after the riots when Dr. Matin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. Although he is also known for sharing the mic with Howard Stern, I’m glad they made no mention of that in this film. Also interesting was that it made no mention that he was a father!

You know me and fashion — though 60’s and 70’s retro made a brief recurrence in the fashion world in early spring, the look is getting tired. I’m always a fan of the fro, but the threads can go out the door for me now. I was reading an article in Vogue about Forest Whittaker’s wife, Keisha, and they described her style as beatnik Audrey Hepburn. I think my eye is veering towards that look now — but minus the cropped pants please! There aren’t any floods around here!

The days of vintage ripped 80’s band shirts, Cons, and expensive jeans are over. The days of bunchy clothes and silly eye wear are has-been. Fashion is now headed to a more sophisticated approach, and quite honestly, I’m ready for it!

Sure, it was fun for a few years to work the tough bad girl look — leather boots, lots of black, some dirt on your American Apparel poly blend shirt… even leggings made a comeback for a few years. But now things are changing, yet again, and it’s towards a more classy look than we’ve been seeing from my favorites these past years.

A recent issue of Vogue stated it best: It’s more sophisticated, more chic… but the proportions are off. I’m excited to start wearing more tailored items. I really love some of Jamison’s pieces! I wish more was available on the web!

I am looking more and more forward to wearing more tailored fashion with interesting shapes, especially now that I have lost all my baby weight. As much as I love fashion, it can be hard for my wardrobe to keep up with it.

I believe that it’s brief, but black and gold are making a comeback — together. And I’m not talking about coffee (my best friend Sarah told me that apparently certain people whose classification shall remain nameless like to use the term “black gold” in reference to coffee, but I will tell you that she read it on stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com ).

The other day, my boyfriend’s friend gave him his band’s latest tee. It says “One for the Team” in metallic gold iron-on letters smack dab in the middle of a black canvas of T-shirt. (Not made by American Apparel, unfortunately.) I made fun of him for a moment, until I saw a very similar shirt in Vice Magazine today.

Not that Vice is the fashion Bible for fashion heads. But they do have similar readers as the Nylon crowd, which I sort of am, and I am suspecting that we will see some black and gold blinging out by the sun in the summertime.

American Apparel makes a rare nylon tricot swim suit with gold lame (rhyme that with sashay, not shame!). I’m usually a fan of the bling on white, but maybe I will try the bling on black to match my man. Just put some (fake) bling on the baby and we’ll can go for a walk looking like fancy bumblebees!

I’ve noticed Chanel Iman’s beautiful face in recent issues of Vogue. When reading an article about the Met’s Costume Gala in NY Mag, her eyecatching golden yellow gown caught my eye as a favorite.

I don’t know much about this lady, but I have good vibes about her career. She is biracial and bicultural. Her father is African American and her mother is Korean. She is currently homeschooled. She is a Ford model — just like my good friend. With a name like Chanel Iman, how can you go wrong? It sort of reminds me of Dionne and Cher from Clueless, but her name resounds with classic fashion icons rather than diva has-beens.

While I love some quirk in my fashion, Chanel Iman definitely inspires and reminds me that Vogue is the fashion Bible for a reason.

So, remember a few posts ago I was pining over my identity being a mother who loves fashon and the whole blogsphere involving mom blogs and where do I belong etc etc?  Well, I landed a job writing as a fashion expert.  Meaning, that’s where I will write about that.

 Here, I can write about being a mother who is going to a party for the first time in eight months without having her child in the next room or strapped to her bosom.  That’s right, folks, I helped plan a party at a I-wish-I-was-in-Brooklyn venue with a few fashionable and partially pretentious people (the exceptions being, of course, my friends — because who needs pretenses when we buck to keep it real).

 The big question is WTF do I wear?  I am no longer bound down to shirts that are condusive to breastfeeding and shoes that will not throw my balance off kilter when I throw my babe over my shoulder.  My entire wardrobe is up for the running!  I’m leaning towards a black bra, see through white tank top, a black lame miniskirt, and some bling around my neck that will blind people this way to Sunday.

Since I tend to want to add some quirky with sexy when it comes to my own fashion sense, it can be hard to choose something more “sophisticated” without being a traitor to my particular style. However, I came across Jamison — which is a collective of young NYC based designers. I love their classy and interesting use of lines, how their pieces are edgy and still interview appropriate. Even though I love vintage looks, they are definitely fashion forward.

The new issue(s) of Nylon feature(s) a first: multiple covers with Leighton Meesters and Blake Lively. One of their fashion stories is an homage to John Hughes divas and their suspected regime. It got me thinking about my own experiences working as a video store clerk at an indie place.

One of my favorite leading ladies? Parker Posey. Namely in Party Girl. Her style was scenester turned library nerd. How to achieve this look without breaking too many corporate rules? Well, you might not be able to bust on your checkered Vans, but definitely you can gain some chic in a colorful Louboutin heel, dark hose, and a slightly dissheveled suit consisting of a short dark skirt with a colorful sweater. The uglier the print you think might be, the better. Rock it with your favorite pair of spectacles, and you’ve got my favorite 90’s girl.

We think of the classic Jackie-Os when we think of oversized glasses. Black and uber-chic. For the past few years we’ve seen oversized sunglasses be the “it” hot accessory for the summer — it started off with J-Lo and big aviators.

Well, big frame eyeglasses are finally not for nerds anymore — because let’s face it. Nerds have become hot. Skinny jeans, oversized cardigans, where’s Waldo T-shirts, pocket protectors, mullety hair… and frames that we swear should stay in our grandpa’s ugly bin? They’re actually soon to be a hot commodity.

I got my pair from American Apparel. The great thing about them is that they offer oodles of UV protection and cover half your face. But they’re not sunglasses so you can wear them indoors. Best of all you can get your prescriptions put in them because they are high quality plastic that won’t melt on the Bunsen burner. Aesthetically, they are hot and endearing at the same time, they slim the face. Thank goodness for them, because the little bitty black rectangular frames that have been around have been around for about six years.