halfwhiteboy

Kwittie Boy (our white fluffy ball of fur) looking at my shoes, wondering why such footwear on a Monday. Is Monday your most dreaded day of the week? Yeah, and why do Mondays tend to be so stiff? Would it help if we dress a little more casually so we could feel just a wee bit better about the start of another week? Let's have casual Mondays then! Another unplanned trip to the mall yesterday netted me two new pairs of shoes from Collezione C2 . The brand calls them Wataru shoes and they couldn't be more perfect for summer. They're essentially espadrilles , having that same rope sole that characterize such footwear, but with a modified design. They're quite comfy, too, and I just couldn't resist wearing them to work today.

Feeling like a Don. It's been almost three years already since I wore something and felt like a haciendero . It was during our trip to The Ruins and Balay Negrense in Negros Occidental back in 2012. I guess it was being among such Colonial-era structures that brought about that obviously unfounded feeling even when I was just clad in shorts and a polo shirt. Yup, that was my haciendero look . Well, the feeling was back when we checked in at The Henry Hotel Manila over the weekend.

After "dropping by" Enchanted Kingdom last Saturday, we drove to Tagaytay to experience some much cooler air and spent the night there. After some bulalo at Antonio's, we checked in at Hotel Kimberly (again!) and no longer bothered to go some place anymore that night. We were dead tired. The cool breeze felt really good but reluctantly, we had to go back to the torturous heat of Metro Manila the next day. I originally intended on doing a few laps in the hotel pool the following morning but  My Bibe and I decided on catching a few more hours of sleep instead. Hungry, we had galette and crepes at Cafe Breton first before speeding off to Manila.

Oh yeah, I feel like I'm thrown back in time to a bygone era when sugar barons lorded over vast haciendas, puffing through their cigars in the comforts of their Hispanic-inspired mansions. Well, at least that's how it felt like as I was looking at photographs from our visit to  The Ruins  in Talisay and  Balay Negrense  in Silay with Kwittiegirl. I guess it was my outfit that day coupled with the Colonial architecture of those structures that gave me that feel, which was totally unintentional ( on the contrary, my Señor Santibañez feels at Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar was very contrived ). Who would have thought that mere bermuda shorts, a polo shirt, espadrilles, aviator-like shades, and a straw hat would fit so well in those places?

Today I claimed the tickets that I won from Ayala Cinemas's Stomp promo. So My Bibe and I are watching tomorrow's performance at the CCP, and I'm quite excited. I went casual today. Too casual, in fact. I just decided on wearing my pants with the pocket flaps on a whim. It's been a while, I thought. I also pulled out from my closet this short-sleeved number from Blue Soda (now Soda Man, I think) to brighten things up. It's also been a while. But this is where I really got casual: espadrilles. And because of this sartorial state I've gotten myself into, the bracelets and necklace I wore naturally followed suit in terms of casualness. It's just great to loosen up once in a while.

These are but two of the many orphaned kids we visited today at White Cross in San Juan, Metro Manila. Like I wrote  yesterday , our department held an outreach activity, just a small gesture of paying it forward as a group. White Cross houses children only, ranging from a newborn baby to kids maybe ten or twelve. It is their hope, of course, that these children find a better home in an adoptive family. But then not everyone gets adopted, so I guess they're transferred to other orphanages once they've exceeded White Cross's age limit. Yes, it is sad. Anyway, we were told by our committee-in-charge to wear either red or green. I chose red and I was exploding with color today. The red is a vest from Attitudes at SM Department Store worn over a pink polo from G2000. Then I slipped into these orange-colored jeans from Zara, put on a pair of espadrilles, and wore a red-and-black belt from Mossimo.

This is an unplanned post. My Bibe and I simply went to Greenbelt earlier this afternoon and I decided on a whim to just post something. This was me before we left, wearing a deep V-neck tee (that I can't wear to the office) from Topman, jeans from Penshoppe, and my rainbow espadrilles I got from OTOP along SLEX. And then this was me after our little trip to the mall:

Accio, Zara mint green jeans!  I still have a Harry Potter hangover from last night. I loved the series so much that I went into reminiscing mode yesterday. And that state carried over into choosing today's outfit somehow because I looked into items in my closet that I haven't worn in a while. So the mint green jeans from Zara. These jeans were last seen on me in January, I believe, which I paired with a pink polo. I thought about gray, white, blue, and a different shade of pink to use this time around but I ended up with brown. I realized it's also something I haven't worn for some time now. I know it's from People R People, a gift perhaps back in '07. Anyway, my choice was further cemented when I saw it had stitching that were the same color as my jeans's. Purely coincidental but very much welcome. Good thing it was sunny the whole day because I wore espadrilles from a stall called OTOP in one of them gasoline stations along SLEX. I had my photos ta...

I went all out with color for my outfit today. I actually chose the Zara rust-colored jeans first then searched through my closet for something to pair it with. I went through a button-down and various shirts with safe colors before I settled for this lovely green polo from G2000. I though it was a perfect match. For footwear, I had to tone it down a notch with these light brown and white espadrilles. I thought it would be too much if something else tried to challenge the loud colors of the polo and jeans. While choosing which photos to post, I suddenly realized something amusing. My outfit perfectly resembled the colors of:

Was on sick leave yesterday. So that's one less Look Book post. On the bright side, though, it's like I skipped a day and now it's Friday! And it's revelation day for my self-imposed theme this week. But before that, today I'm wearing a thrifted chambray shirt that was supposedly for yesterday's look. Paired it with these brown pants with flaps from U at Rustan's and one of three pairs of espadrilles I bought over the weekend. Finally some native/tribal-inspired bracelets to go with the outfit. So what was this week's theme?

So I bought some espadrilles yesterday. Okay, two pairs . Okay, and another pair today while stopping at Caltex along SLEX. Yes, three pairs and that's about it. I wasn't initially into these rope-soled footwear basically because I find Php 2,500 to north of Php 3,000 quite expensive for a pair. But I did and do acknowledge the fact that they're THE footwear of summer. So yesterday was a blessing. At a mere Php 695 a pair (more than Php 700 for garterized designs), I wasn't about to pass up on the chance to finally get me some espadrilles. Haha! This was the first one I got. I actually wanted the black stripes but they weren't available in my size. So I settled for light brown. They're still nice anyway. Wore them last night. This was the second one. And I wore them today. Don't you just love the screaming colors? You don't? Well I do. That's why I got them. And the newest addition - got them on the way home from Tagaytay just this ...

In yesterday's special Look Book post , I mentioned about buying espadrilles along SLEX of all places. After wearing the first of two pairs last night, I slipped on the second pair today. I'm so in love with them, I couldn't help it. There's nothing really special about my look today as I was just driving home from Tagaytay. I basically just put on some jeans and a shirt (that's actually a freebie from the 10th Philippine Web Awards). Well, except for these multi-colored espadrilles. These once-peasant footwear sure made my weekend, no doubt about it. I'm writing an entire post about them.

Now this is a little unusual - a Look Book post on a weekend. My Bibe and I are in Tagaytay for the weekend as I write. We also dropped by Enchanted Kingdom earlier for our company's "Fun Familia," sort of like an annual timeout or outing for employees and their families. Well, we basically went there just to spend our Wizard Money. And this was what I wore: Yes, I'm wearing these weird-looking trousers I got from Kho Phi-Phi in Thailand last year. I asked the locals what they're called and they said putong (or was it pudong ?). Although I'm not solved on the information given, I have absolutely no idea what they really should be called. If you do know, please tell me.  Anyway, I also got this distressed shirt from the same lovely island. I love the Thai Buddhist print but I failed to show the back where the print is much more dominant. Maybe some other time. Slipped on some Sanuks, put on a straw hat from Zara and shades from Aldo, and I was good...