Natalie Morales in Far East Living

Fresh off of my emotional high from dressing Julie Haener for the 3^rd year in a row, I was lucky enough to be invited to by Natalie Morales, TODAY Show Co-Host and National Correspondent for NBC, to come show her some samples! I got in touch with Natalie last May when I was trying to pitch the TODAY Show to have their anchors wear Far East Living items during the Olympics in China. Unfortunately, I was not able to get a single reply from their producers but I did manage build a nice relationship with Natalie Morales, who was pregnant at the time. I had sent her some pictures. She expressed that she loves the Asian/fusion look. And now I get to go meet her in person while visiting my girlfriend who is now pregnant with her second child!

Too bad my girlfriend Chris was not able to come too as I wasn’t able to get any shots of my fitting with Natalie. I did however manage to get a short, behind-the-scenes video of me waiting in the green room at the TODAY Show alongside Suze Orman and Michelle Borba!

Suze Orman, whom I’m a great admirer of to begin with, was very complimentary of my collection and said that she will plan on stopping by next time she’s on the West Coast. Natalie did end up picking up a few items including our classic Cashmere Mandarin Coat with handmade spiral accent Chinese frog closures, our Tweed Coat embellished with an ornate, oversized frog closure that was first braided using matching yarn and then applied by hand, and our very popular Silk Mandarin Jacket in a plum cherry blossom brocade featuring an exaggerated Mandarin collar and shoulderless sleeve styling dating back to the Ming Dynasty.

Natalie is seriously even more gorgeous in person than on TV and so incredibly nice! I’m just beside myself with excitement in knowing that she’ll be walking around Manhattan in Far East Living!

Behind-the-Scenes with KTVU FOX 2's Julie Haener

Today I was lucky enough to have my girlfriend Chris Sommers, who just so happens to be a super talented photographer, accompany me to my fitting with Julie Haener, the primetime news anchor on KTVU FOX 2. Julie is also the co-host for the annual Chinese New Year Parade Broadcast in San Francisco along with Ben Fong-Torres. This is our 3^rd year dressing Julie for the parade broadcast. Last year, she wore Far East Living’s Cashmere Belted Kimono Cape. The year before, she wore our Dragonfly Embroidered Trench. This year, we incorporated some of her suggestions and custom tailored a jacket which we’re now calling the “Julie” jacket, naming it after her. Check out the behind-the-scenes shots from the fitting in the green room at the Fox Studios in Oakland in our photo gallery at www.fareastliving.com/gallery.

What Is This Crap?

Today a very honest Chinese woman who was discovering Far East Living for the first time walked in and asked if we carried items from a particular Asian designer who, although I’ve never personally heard of, apparently is quite popular throughout Taiwan and China. She grew up in China, absolutely loves this designer, and expressed how much she wishes she can purchase this designer’s items here in the U.S. without having to take a long flight back home. She then proceeded to share how she would NEVER wear any of the types of items that we currently carry and how she wishes we would carry lines that are less traditional and more fusion in inspiration.

That comment baffled me as everything I do is a fusion of my eastern heritage and my western upbringing. Nevertheless, her comments intrigued me. I appreciated her candor and it was clear that she was not at all trying to be rude or offensive, she simply wanted to share her opinion and give us guidance on what she felt we should do if we wanted to win her business. She continued to express her displeasure in what she saw and stated that everything appears so ordinary, too traditionally Chinese, and completely lacks distinction. I didn’t bat an eyelash at any of her comments and remained very interested in hearing what she had to say (again, because it was clear that her intentions were not to be offensive, she was simply being candid) so she continued to, well…... basically rip me to shreds!

It wasn’t until she expressed that she wishes we would carry items made out of silk instead of polyester that I felt compelled to correct her. We in fact only use the finest silks. Our woolens are mostly cashmere and our embroidery is all done by hand with very fine silk thread. We do not currently have the ability to create and offer original prints but we do have some wonderful hand painted Qi Paos/Cheongsams (traditional Chinese dresses) and in addition to our custom tailoring service, we also offer a high level of customization especially with our hand embroidered and hand painted offerings. I certainly didn’t hold that comment against her either. After all, who among us can say that they’re a textile expert? I’m always appreciative of everyone’s unique, individual perspective and sense of style but I did feel the need to correct factual inaccuracies.

Surprised by my correction of her inaccurate assumption of the quality of the materials that were used, she asked, “How long have you been around?” “Almost four years,” I said. “That’s surprising!” she replied. To which I couldn’t help but to ask her if she plans on watching the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco next month as we’ll be dressing Julie Haener, the host and Emmy-Award-Winning news anchor, again for the 3^rd year in a row. She was again surprised by this fact so I couldn’t resist pointing out a few of our other notable clients. Finally, she asked, “Which lines DO you carry?” “We currently only carry our own original collection,” I replied. “Well who designs it?” she asked. When I confessed that I am the designer, she became both visibly and verbally apologetic and then proceeded to attempt to find items that she could pay a compliment to. Funny enough, I found the first half of our conversation, the part where she ripped me to shreds, much more enjoyable. Could it be that I’m just a very self-deprecating type of person that actually enjoys verbal punishment? Or, maybe it was because the compliments that she struggled to fish out were very disingenuous, although an earnest attempt to apologize for her candid comments earlier in our conversation. I however, very much appreciated her honesty and in the end, couldn’t stop laughing about it with my sales associate Patty.

I did look up the phenomenally talented designer that she was referring to at the beginning of our conversation which helped me to understand why, contrary to the reaction of most who see my collection, she felt that my work was too “traditionally Chinese”. Although the designer that she likes is Chinese, her work includes almost no Chinese or Asian influences at all. Though I too am now a huge fan of this designer, I don’t plan on changing my design direction anytime soon. After all, my business is based here in the U.S., not in China, and including hints of my Asian heritage in my work is what sets me apart from the thousands of talented designers here. Just because one person who grew up in China is tired of seeing Asian cultural influences, doesn't mean that the rest of the world doesn't desire to see and to learn more about the Asian culture that this one person is trying to get away from.

A Woman's Place Is At Home With Her Children?

On this blessed day during which we commemorate the birth of Christ, my mother decided to tell me that she feels my place is at home with my children and that I should close up my boutique, quit working and stay home caring for my kids. This is very significant as my mother has worked very hard her entire life and is the very last person that I would ever expect to dispense advice encouraging me not to earn money! She went into great detail on what a critical age my son is at and how important it is to have his mother right now and how I’ve been burdening the entire family with my absence. All of which I whole-heartedly agree with but there’s just one small piece of the puzzle that she seems to have forgotten, how are we going to pay all the bills? She responded that I should just ask their dad for greater financial contributions towards our living expenses. Funny………..! Apparently it never occurred to her that if the option was actually available to me, I would not be working at all during this period in my children’s lives.

Yes, Merry Christmas to you too Mom! ;-)

Far East Living's Fashion Show at Cal Asia's 14th Annual Asia Night 2008

My web developer’s girlfriend passed along this opportunity to produce a fashion show for Cal Asia’s 14^th Annual Asia Night at the Ritz Carlton in San Francisco. I got the call while attending fashion week in Los Angeles and was already feeling incredibly inspired by the awesome shows that I had been attending. It sounded like so much fun! However, by the time she contacted me about it, I only had 3 weeks left to prepare. ZOINKS! Fortunately, Cal Asia was able to help me recruit quite a few models and I was able to rework one of my previous shows. In the end, despite the complete lack of cooperation from the AV folks at the Ritz Carlton, the show turned out wonderfully! The volunteer models recruited by Cal Asia were all AMAZING, so incredibly nice, and the perfect compliment to the volunteer models that I had the privilege of being able to include in this show as well. The hairstylists and make-up artists from Seven Salon in Oakland were so much fun and incredibly talented. I hope to be able to work with all of these folks again very soon!

Far East Style on ABC's The View From the Bay

Today my View From the Bay segment aired on KGO ABC 7 at 3pm! This is my first opportunity to see how the segment turned out as I was not able to see even any of the raw footage in advance. It’s also my very first television feature. I couldn’t help but find myself dissecting my posture, tone, the way I looked, the manner in which I answered the questions from the interviewer… I couldn’t bring myself to enjoy the moment until my 15-month-old daughter walked into the room, saw me on television and started jumping up and down in excitement exclaiming, “That’s my mommy! That’s my mommy! On the TV, that’s my mommy!” (Clearly we don’t watch our own home videos very often and even when we do, I’m rarely on screen as I’m usually the one behind the camera.) It wasn’t until I was able to see the pride and sheer joy in her eyes that I finally stopped to relish the moment and realized that this is why I do what I do, so that my kids can be proud of their mother! ;-)

A Little More Makeup

Today, my dear mother, in all of her great wisdom suggested that I should consider wearing more make-up. She explained that I’m not getting any younger after all, and could use a little more color on my face like I had yesterday during the fashion show (as it was applied by professionals).

Until now, my daily make-up routine included face powder (Shiseido’s Aupress line – possibly only available in China - with SPF 20 in shade OC20) and lip gloss (by Neutrogena in either Dreamy or Glimmer depending on the outfit I had on for the day). That’s it. No foundation (Shiseido’s powder I felt did a decent enough job of covering all of the unevenness in my skin and scarring from my very acne prone teenage years without being too heavy), no eye make-up, just some lip liner every now and then to enhance to color of the lip gloss, again depending on what I was wearing that day.

Thanks to my mother’s “gentle” encouragement, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt for me to pay a little more attention to what the “professionals” are doing for me (I do get to work with quite a few incredibly talented make-up artists these days) and maybe learn a trick or two. I also pulled out an old Estee Lauder blush that came as a part of a “free gift with purchase” package a while back and started playing with that. I guess I will now be adding a little blush to my daily make-up routine. ;-p