I wasn’t there but I heard from sources that his collection received rave reviews and I’m definitely not surprised. He did say that during the actual show, the wrong music was played and the hairstyles that were given for the models did not go with the looks at all but I guess that still didn’t stop the audience from loving it. You can view the video coverage of his runway collection here.

Obviously I can’t wait till he gets here next year because we will be housemates!!

Hair and makeup: Chris Arai & Chichi Saito
Model: Hanne-Loore Pajusoo @ StudioKLRP

This is not boring eco-friendly clothing. This is style and luxury with an awareness.

We act as a Serotonin, a hormone which is a chemical messenger between nerve cells and also a well-known contributor to the feelings of well being. With a goal that aims
to celebrate the virtues of personal style and individuality.

Every piece made, the way it falls, the way it holds, the way it folds and the texture that caresses your skin unknown to the wearer that the substances used are sustainable. Boasting of organic materials, soy and bamboo fibres, recycled PET, TPU, salmon skin and biodegradable tencel which embodies our design features and assimilates with other fabrics used in the collection.

It is luxury yet with a conscience for the earth in mind. It is the heightened ability to wear and manifest the garment on one’s own. It is the feeling of well-being, the gratitude and appreciation for art, style and sustainability. It is Ultra.

We did a campaign shoot recently for their first ever collection and this is the result of it. The design aesthetic of the brand is minimalist with attention to detail so we tried to capture that idea in the photographs as well. Photos are taken from their website.

I guess you can say it’s almost like the Malaysian equivalent to Net-A-Porter meets Style.com!

SERENI & SHENTEL WAS FOUNDED BY SERENI LINGGI AND SHENTEL LEE. THE DUO HAVE A DECORATION WITHOUT EXPLANATION APPROACH TO LIFE AND THEIR HAIR ACCESSORIES LINE STEMMED FROM A PASSION FOR DRESSING UP FOR PARTIES, SOIREES, CHAMPAGNE BRUNCHES, SOCIETY BALLS AND TÊTE-À-TÊTE LUNCHES. EACH PIECE IS EXQUISITELY HAND MADE IN BORNEO.

Their work has been feature in numerous magazines in Australia and Malaysia, they’ve been invited on to TV shows, the media just can’t get enough of these darlings who have suddenly burst onto the scene. It was wonderful working for them as they are the sweetest, most creative and super stylish people around. I can’t say enough to describe what they are like.

Makeup was done by the fabulous Alex Eu, a superstar makeup artist himself and hair was done by the fantastic Sun Khiew.

The goal was to capture the personalities of both girls in the photographs, which is the essence and foundation of the brand itself. It was so fun translating their ideas into photographs, it felt more like a party than work–They are just so full of energy! To get a piece of Sereni and Shentel, head on to their website and make your purchases now!

Here are some of the photos from their lookbook. I hope you like them as much as we enjoyed creating them.

As Jonathan calls it…

“La poussière a arrosé des corps.”

Photography: Michele Yong
Art Direction: Jonathan Liang
Make-up: Wong Ping
Hair: Christine May
Wardrobe & Styling: Tengku Syahmi, Debbie Chung, Pei Yee Chew, Jin Tham & Silas Liew
Models: Sasha Smirnova & Mila Melissina

Photographer – Michele Yong
Art Direction – Jonathan Liang
Make-up – Wong Ping
Hair – Christine May
Styling and wardrobe – Tengku Syahmi, Debbie Chung, Chew Pei Yee, Silas Liew & Jonathan Liang
Models – Shuai Yu, Mariya Markova

This shoot was also featured the new Faint Magazine and one of our photos was selected for the cover of their first issue! Awesomeness x 1000!

Photography: Michele Yong
Art Direction: Jonathan Liang
Make-up: Wong Ping
Hair: Christine May
Styling and Outfits: Silas Liew, Tengku Syahmi, Eugene Tham & Jonathan Liang
Models: Mariya Markova, Coen Koch & Karel Struhacek

Anyway, I was back in Malaysia for a few days in August for some shoots. It was quite ironic that while I was still living there, I could barely find enough jobs to survive from month to month but after moving to Paris, clients were willing to fly me back to shoot there. Just a fluke chance I guess?

Oh hello, that’s me! Why do I look like I have really fat legs??

Syahmi and Jonathan hard at work as usual…

One of the shoots were for a new brand ULTRA which promotes eco-friendly clothes but with very edgy designs, not your run-of-the-mill hippy-hemp-tie-dye kind of fashion. It was fun because I got to work with Jonathan and Syahmi again, as they are currently the main designers for the label headed by Tengku Chanela Jamidah. I’ll post the campaign pictures with more information here once it’s released.

The main reason I was back was to shoot for a Levi’s Fit Finder event. According to the event organisers from Tongue In Chic, Levi’s wanted me to be a ‘guest photographer’ to photograph regular off-the-street girls in their new jeans where the event was being held. Sounds pretty simple but it was actually quite a challenge. Everybody was really nice and sweetto accommodate me so I hope to be able to work with them again. I got a really nice surprise when I arrived and saw this:

They make me sound like such a celebrity (super ego alert!).

Once back in Paris, it was just in time for my birthday! I really wanted to spend it here even though it was just with four friends of mine. I came up with the fantastic idea of having a small but intimate picnic celebration at a park with lots of sushi and champagne instead of the usual cheese and wine. I was so sick of that after numerous amounts of picnics (as you can also see in my post before this). The weather was gorgeous although a bit cold but I think everybody can agree that we had a great time that day. I do think that finishing so much champagne in a short period of time had something to do with that. All I remember was ending up drinking some more by The Seine and passing out after I got home but hey, it was my birthday!

In the beginning…

<3 <3 <3

So happy!

Around the same time, I was having problems with my eyes for the past few weeks. I didn’t bother seeing a doctor because I thought it was just conjunctivitis or some minor irritation that would eventually go away. One day it got so bad that I could barely open my eyes and anything with light would completely blind me. My eyes were swollen and completely bloodshot, it was really scary. I looked really scary! It hurt to see anything and I had to stay in a completely dark room just so I wouldn’t be agonising in pain. I gave in and decided to see a doctor about it and found out that I had corneal ulcers!

My eyes are healing now but my vision is still very blurry so I really hope that everything will completely heal soon. If I had let it go untreated, it could have scarred my corneas and there’s a possibility that I could go blind and require and eye transplant. Just the thought of me going blind is nerve-wrecking. Imagine a blind photographer; I don’t think I could do what Beethoven did with his music…

Just recently, I was at Aix-en-Provence in the south of France to photograph Nataliya and Bastien’s wedding. Now I know plenty of you know that I don’t do weddings but Nataliya was a model I photographed before in Singapore last year and it just so happened that I was also in France at the same time. Apparently even before finding out that I live here now, she’s wanted me to photograph her wedding from the very beginning, so talk about chance! I will write more about her wedding a little later though.

The view outside my window in Aix-en-Provence.

A little sneak preview. This shot was taken straight off the camera!

And now it’s already September! OMG where did the time go???? I promise September’s update will be much more interesting. Really!

Obviously I had to ‘pretend’ to do some hard work for the cameras, right?

This was my first job as the official photographer for Fashion Week, first time working with a Malaysian designer, first time working with a studio setup, first time shooting with a TV crew documenting us, first time for a lot of things actually.

With the amazing Katerina. Girl can strike a fierce pose and speak Malay!

The designer was Karina Ng who people in the industry know as the shoemaker for Malaysia’s leading fashion designers including Bernard Chandran. She now has her own shoes and accessories label Ling-N and sets herself apart from others because all her shoes are handmade. These are some of my favourite shots.

Designer: Ling-N by Karina Ng | Styling: Nareez Zabidi | Hair & makeup: Kelly @ XpressionMaster | Photography assistant: Jay Lai | Models: Linda Markova and Katerina Davidova @ Andrew’s Models

A few weeks after the shoot, Karina gave me one of the best gifts ever–a pair of custom-made stiletto ankle boots which I wear very often even at shoots because they are so comfortable. They are so amazingly hot and I’m going to show them to you

5 inches of leathery goodness <3!!!!

My planner at the start of the week. The two pages were completely filled by the end of the week.

Nareez, totally stressed out coordinating all the shoots and meetings.

First stop, Sonny Sun for Eclipse.

Shoes, shoes, shoes!

Pickup from Tangoo to Jovian Mandagie.

Close-up of the shoes. <3<3<3 Only one pair created specially for the runway show.

Gallo.

Teresa, the designer for Gallo had her 18 month old daughter in the studio that day. When I first saw the adorable girl, I thought she looked like she was wearing designer baby clothes. After a while I realized that Teresa actually made her a baby version of the collection for Autumn/Winter 09! How cool is that? I doubt the baby versions are for sale though.

Our third visit to Eric Choong in a week.

The car by the end of the day.

Altogether we collected over twenty outfits but used about fifteen. The back seat was filled with so many clothes to the point of not being able to see the rear window. The total value of everything was probably more than the car itself! And this is only one of the very few things we do with much more to come…