Ukay Manila

I never travel to see landmarks or buy tacky souvenirs; I go because I want to visit people I love. Last Sunday I landed in New York City to see my long lost friend Kurt, and yesterday I finally got around to doing a few inexpensive touristy things, like Central Park, Times Square, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Statue of Liberty was on my list as well, but I changed my mind when I learned that it costs around $25 to get there. There is no way I’m paying that much money to see a fucking statue up close.

Of all the outfits and ukay clothes I wore in New York City, I think this was the only one really worth posting here because I love how I put it together.

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I can’t exactly explain what it is about cherry prints I like so much, but suffice to say that I like them enough to change my mind about putting this white cherry-adorned dress on sale at the store. My boyfriend spotted it when he was helping me out at an ukay run and I was immediately attracted to the Stepford Wife-ish quality of the of the style. And yes, the cherry prints!

You can’t really make out the cherries from afar but you can see them better if you look up close. It’s also got an adorable oversized bow and little clear buttons, which are there for decoration purposes only. There’s actually no need to fiddle with buttons or zippers because the dress has a smocked back that lets the wearer slip it on and off like a t-shirt. I really do think this dress was made for bored housewives, if you know what I mean.

I’ve also got a black strapless cherry dress for evening wear! I bought it at a San Francisco thrift store last year for around $4 or $5 (very cheap for US thrift stores) and it’s been sitting in my closet ever since I got back, waiting for the right occasion to make its debut. The occasion turned out to be my cousin’s debut two weekends ago, but I ended up looking pretty out of place because the party was disco-themed. Oops. That’s what I get for not reading the invitation! Incidentally, a few weeks ago I spotted a college friend wearing a dress with the exact same print, except hers had a sweetheart neckline and a halter top. Turns out her dress was from a thrift store too, but a thrift store in Manila! I wish I had taken a photo of her dress to post here, but I didn’t have a camera on me that night.

As for my white cherry dress, it made its debut last Monday, when a camera crew from QTV came over to the house and interviewed me about my ukay-ukay blog. Apparently, someone nominated my blog for Janette Toral’s 10 Influential Emerging Blogs contest, and I didn’t even know until the interviewer informed me about it! Though I’m hardly influential or emerging, I was nonetheless flattered by the nomination and happy that someone actually thinks this blog deserves to be there. I don’t think I’ll win, but that’s all right - it’s enough for me to know that people actually read this blog, even if it’s a little self-absorbed. So thank you everyone for reading or linking to this blog, it means a lot to me.

For those of you who’d like to see my segment, it’ll be on the show QTube this Thursday, 10:15 PM on Q Channel 11. If I can find a way to record the segment, I’ll probably post it on this blog the day after.

One other thing I love about ukay-ukay shopping: the incredibly low prices makes experimenting with different shoe choices affordable and relatively guilt-free. I used to buy shoes to match my outfits, never the other way around, until much recently. Take these Italian leather shoes, for instance. A friend pointed them out to me while we were poking around ukay-ukays at Cubao and I was immediately attracted to their design. I’ve always loved the look of multiple buckles, but I was on the fence with this one because of the color. Dark green isn’t as easy to wear as brown, and I was hard-pressed to find something in my closet that would look good with these shoes.

I ended up buying them anyway. What the hell - they fit me well, and P450 isn’t such a huge loss. I figured I can put them up for sale at the store if I really can’t find anything to wear with them.

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Over the past couple of weeks, I decided to follow more of my own advice on ukay-ukay shopping so as to avoid cheapskates’ remorse: if you like it when you first see it, buy it or somebody else will. Even though I felt a little ridiculous buying jackets in the summer, I knew I’d thank myself for the purchase once the weather starts getting cooler and more jacket-friendly. And I was right!

I used to be far more conservative with my jacket purchases, sticking only to basic colors like black and brown. This all changed in San Francisco when I realized how incredibly boring I looked in a black coat, especially since it hid the rest of my outfit every time I had to go outdoors. When I came back to Manila, I resolved to be more adventurous with my jackets. Never mind that I won’t be taking them out of the closet as often; I’m bound to travel to colder climes sometime in the future and when I do, at least I’ll look interesting!

The mustard yellow corduroy jacket above was a real steal from Cubao - I think I paid no more than P250 for it. Perks of buying jackets in the summer! Despite its sunny, springtime appearance, this jacket is definitely not something I can throw on for Philippine cold weather. It’s lined with something thick, and unless I’m going to a place with the thermostat turned way up, I’ll be sweating the entire time.

For that reason, I threw off the yellow jacket and put on my teal military jacket instead (bought it at Katipunan last month for P350). I know the military jacket trend has been around for a while but I never really took note of it until I became of a huge fan of the Sci-Fi show Battlestar Galactica and started lusting after the officers’ uniform. I’ve yet to find me a black military jacket, colonial officer-style. But for now, this will do.

By the way, the Ukay Manila Store has a bunch of new dresses and an End of Summer Sale!

One of the perks of having your own online store is that any unsold inventory goes straight to your closet. Some of the clothes I wore yesterday were items that used to be at the Ukay Manila Store, which I eventually appropriated for myself - because I can, mahahaha. The pink espadrilles were part of the first collection I released but save for the green lacy flats, the shoes weren’t selling. I’m guessing it’s either people are more iffy about buying thrifted shoes, or maybe they just didn’t like what I had. I figured it’d be more of a waste if the unsold items just sat there gathering dust in my closet, so I took the pink espadrilles for a walk one day and decided to take them off my virtual store shelves when they fit me perfectly.

Somebody bought the rose babydoll top a couple of weeks ago, but it was too faded for her liking so I offered to have it refunded. I personally thought the worn look added charm to the top, but I guess not everyone agrees with my tastes. In any case, I actually got compliments from friends when I wore it out last night! (Or maybe they were just being nice?)

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