Sun Toucher

Yellow Wool Coat: Chicnova.com | Black Cutout Leather Bustier: Glitterati | Cutout Assymmetrical Side Slit Skirt: Glitterati | Black Suede Gladiator Pumps: DAS | Leather Bangle with Gold Gardware: Anthology 

With the changing seasons, comes in a change of outfit and nothing is a much more exciting time than that for people who love to dress up, like me. Along with designing a new collection (aside from our Made-to-Order and Customized pieces) here is preview of our up and coming RTW pieces which we are so excited to reveal. (Granted we are now on Summer mode and are designing bikinis which excite me and Dominique more than ever!!!) Since I love yellow, I decided to brighten things up with a Black and Yellow... Black and Yellow...Black and Yellow (pardon the hip hop referece...I could not resist! I mean I had to say it) outfit which involved a Yellow Wool Coat (which I totally adore) which is perfect for the chilly January weather and then went full on and not at all the easy on the cutouts and showing skin which consisted of my leather cutout bustier and Yellow Cotton cutout skirt, again from Glitterati which was absolutely a blessing to watch. This outfit, I must say is quite bipolar...with the coat on (which by the way can be an outfit in itself), nobody would ever guess what lies beneath. The main focus of my outfit, as always was my incredible shoes, a pair of strappy gladiator pumps from where else but DAS. And it was all yellow... and well maybe a touch of black.

I must say I am always one person who never regrets anything (well, I try). I take everything as a lesson and grow from it. In the totality of it, I also know for a fact that certain actions, no matter how much lessons I gain from them, can cause certain repercussions and there is always a price to pay. I live by the saying, What you have become is the price you paid to get what you used to want. I've no regrets but I do understand that something's gotta give. This is why whenever I do reflect on what is the past, I ask myself - was it worth it? Is it worth it? Can I look in the mirror and say to the person I see, 'You are someone I trust and really admire.' So far, I've been looking in the mirrors and well, all reflective objects really (it's like a reflex, I have to check myself out) and I like what I see. The challenges and hurdles I have overcome, the bad decisions and how I handled being abused and misused by certain people has made me stronger (definitely) and while I do know I continuously make mistakes and will continue to in the future, I try to do my best to be a decent human being. Once I look in the mirror and do not like what I see, I will begin to consider having failed at my life. The thing I think most people forget is that we must remember that each step along the road along the life is like taking a walk. It always gets you somewhere and steps often leave footprints. 

 

After all, "Life is a succession of moments and to live each one is to succeed." Perhaps it is not the concept of success that is the problem. Maybe it is the way we define success. People always tell me how successful I am for having put up my own brand and business or how I have made a name for myself in the fashion industry as a designer/blogger and while I do bask in the prestige of such, these always only feed my ego. It doesn't define how I've succeeded in life. If we define success as lots of money, getting on top of the organizational ladder, having two BMWs in our house and a designer house, a lot of designer bags and everything designer, success may become dangerous to our health and our well-being. If we define success as moving abroad, gaining independence or having books published and awards or recognition, then we need to straighten our heads and fix our way of thinking. I've experienced being and having some of these things but having been so or attained such never merited success as I have defined it for myself. Knowing that success is living each successive moment to its fullest...and this success is what we need to say we have lived a successful, decent and fulfilling life for  we may have money, prestige and possessions and we can enjoy these but not define success with these. The difference is in the attitude and the beliefs behind that attitude. 

In fact, it is often easier to gather the acoutrements of success than to live a successful life. We cannot say to ourselves. 'Well, what I am doing is expedient now so I will go ahead and do it this way then deal with the consequences later." and the expect not to have consequences later. I always say I lack a filter and speak my mind, this is very true, yet I am fully aware of the consequences I may suffer from having that quality and trait and I always accept those whole-heartedly The denials of our lives are interrelated. We have to realize that what we do becomes who we are. And given that fact, realize that we working with precious elements here. Success gets confusing. Is it what I have or what has me? Probably neither. Living a successful life demands our presence... our presence in each moment.

xx, JL