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

Charing Cross Hotel for the first show ‘A La Mode’.

Party time with Salva and his friends. That was a crazy night, that’s all I will say.

There was also a ‘gay pope’ dressed in the theme’s colours gold and white!

The ‘fabulous life’ of fashion designers. Slaving in a tiny room on bed spaces.

You can’t really see it here but Jade Jagger was the special guest for Dolce & Gabbana’s party. I swear.

Typical English pub. What did I have there? Fish and Chips of course!

Coming back to Paris with Jonathan was quite funny because we had so many bags of our shopping, his humongous suitcases of clothes and shoes from his collection and all this while running to the Eurostar terminal trying to NOT miss the train back to Paris. Once we got to Paris, we could finally relax and enjoy ourselves and of course joined by Angie Ng! These two were my fantastic housemates for the next 2 weeks, Malaysian pride.

We wanted to see the Techno Parade but all we got was the tail end of it, a giant group of monster trucks cleaning up after the crowd. It was quite impressive how efficient they were!

A week later, I took a weekend vacation to the south west of France and it was certainly very different from Paris but in a good way.

Catching the 7:30 am train with 4.5 hours to go.

This is Orthez, hometown to Romain.

And Biarritz, the chic casino city of the south west of France.

And then we drove down to Spain! I love how we can cross borders so easily here in Europe. The moment we entered spain, all the roadsigns were different and the buildings a bit more strange too. We only did a day trip to San Sebastian but I didn’t care because all I wanted to do was attack Zara.

I know I should not be playing with my food, but still…

With my very strange tasting violet-flavoured ice cream (it was like eating sweet soap). The cold did not stop me.

And then it was time to head back to Paris…

I love my life here!

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!

Living with the family again is an interesting experience. You miss them so much when you’re away, but once you live with them you can’t seem to get away fast enough! It’s a good thing I still have to travel in and out of the city this month to make it a little more bearable. Ah, how I miss my spacious, gorgeous, minimalist studio apartment. We seem to have a LOT of things at my parents’ place that I half-joked to my mother saying that my old room feels like a storage area now.

It’s quite funny how my last two months in Malaysia seems to be the busiest for my work and social calendar. Why is everybody asking for me only when I’m about to leave the country? I had months of moping around the house watching TV for countless days and constantly just feeding myself, attributing to some very obvious weight gain. Gloom.

Anyway, I shouldn’t complain too much. I’m sure this weight will start shedding off once I’m on the starving artist’s diet when I’m in Paris very soon.

I’m very excited and a little nervous about the big move. On one hand, I’d be living in the city that I feel so at home in even with all the annoying and frustrating quirks about it. On another hand, I’d have to start all over again.

It hasn’t been that long since I moved to Kuala Lumpur exactly one year ago, with just the hope of making a name for myself in the fashion industry and getting out of my small hometown. I did not have anybody worth knowing and had to support myself by waiting on tables for a few months (which some people might find as a surprise).

Eventually I got pretty lucky and landed myself a pretty big job for the Malaysia International Fashion Week. Because of that, I was able to meet a lot of people who I ended up working with even months after.

I’m nervous because I don’t think I will get lucky so quickly in Paris. I don’t have the contacts, familiarity, understanding and very little friends. Many people have shown their support saying that they know I will do well in Paris which is great, but the question is how much time should I anticipate it for? I don’t want to put my hopes of making something out of nothing in an unrealistic amount of time and feel like such a failure if I don’t succeed.

I didn’t expect this post to go on for so long but what I mean to say is I wish for a miracle and hope that I don’t fall flat on my face in Paris. I need to make something out of nothing in a foreign country, foreign language and foreign culture. It’s a huge risk to take but what is life without risk, right?

If any of you have words of advice, do share them with me!

Anyway this was a test shoot that I did rather on a whim with two very gorgeous guys, Coen Koch and Karel Struhacek, styled by Henry Gan who helped me as a very last minute favour. Since the shoot was not really planned, naturally it was shot in my apartment. Talk about convenience! These are some of my favourite shots.

Stay tuned for another very revealing shoot featuring them both! xx